At least 21 department directors gave OED Director Markham McIntyre their contact information, which he used to solicit support for their boss’s campaign.
By Erica C. Barnett
On August 6, 2025, a few hours after the first batch of primary election results showed Mayor Bruce Harrell trailing challenger Katie Wilson, Seattle Office of Economic Development director Markham McIntyre sent a message out on the internal Teams group chat for department directors: “Hi friends, I’m interested in connecting you y’all outside of work. Can you put your personal cell and email into the chat?” The message, from McIntyre’s official seattle.gov email address, went out a little after 4 am, according to the chat log.
The first department directors to respond were Office of Planning, Construction and Development (OCPD) director Rico Quirondongo, Office of Housing director Maiko Winkler-Chin, followed by Seattle City Light director Dawn Lindell and the directors of the Office of Labor Standards, the Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Center, and the Department of Transportation. ”
“Thanks! I’ll put these into a spreadsheet and share via personal email,” McIntyre responded a little after 5 am. The directors of the City Budget office, Office of Finance, Department of Education and Early Learning, and Human Services Department gave their contact information next. In all, at least 21 department directors added their emails and person cell phone numbers to McIntyre’s list.
Harrell appointed McIntyre as head of OED in 2022. Previously, he was the vice president of the Greater Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce.
PubliCola obtained the Teams chats through a public disclosure request; a recipient of two of the followup emails, one from McIntyre and one from Harrell campaign manager Marta Johnson, read them to us.
McIntyre sent an email from his personal address to everyone who had provided their information in the city Teams chat, saying he was reaching out as part of an effort to support the mayor’s—their boss’s—reelection effort. The email said if recipients didn’t want McIntyre to share their contact information with the campaign, they should let him know by the following day. After that, emails from Johnson began arriving in the department directors’ personal inboxes, starting with one thanking them for agreeing to help the campaign “in the final stretch.”
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Some department directors were reportedly taken aback by the solicitation, coming as it did through an official channel where everyone could see who was agreeing to share their contact information for what some saw as an obvious solicitation for campaign support. City and state law both prohibit the use of government resources for campaign purposes. According to an info page on the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission website, “a city official, candidate or their representative may not ask a city employee to be on a mailing list, if the mailing list will be used to solicit campaign contributions.”
Ethics Commission director Wayne Barnett said he doesn’t see a problem with McIntyre using a group chat on an internal city system to create a list of city department heads’ emails and phone numbers for the purpose of soliciting their support for the mayor’s campaign. McIntyre’s initial request “doesn’t expressly mention it’s for campaign purposes, so I don’t think it’s an improper use of city resources,” Barnett said.
McIntyre did not immediately respond to questions; we’ll update this post if we hear back.
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Erica, shouldn’t you file an anti-Bruce IE and report these constant attacks, since all you do is campaign against him?
The city could save $100+k/year by replacing Wayne with a rubber stamp
I’m so glad to see that Wayne Barnett continues to be an absolute Solon when it comes to ethics and this mayor and city council.
This could be seen as a not-so-subtle reminder to the department directors that their jobs are dependent on their relationship with the Mayor. Since contributions are public, the campaign can see whether or not each director complied with the fundraising ask. “Nice little director role you have there – it would be a shame if something were to happen to it…”
I’m continually astonished by the wide range of scenarios that fail to raise eyebrows over at Ethics.
In a few days, we can but hope that many of Hizzoner’s grisly appointees will decide to pursue employment opportunities elsewhere. If only they’d take Wayne Barnett with them.