1. The Seattle Police Department spent more than $6,300 on a month-long stay at the four-star Arctic Club Hotel in downtown Seattle for Lee Hunt, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes’ Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction, after Barnes appointed him to the newly created position earlier this year. Hunt, who makes more than $300,000 a year, also worked for Barnes in Madison, WI, where Barnes was previously chief.
It’s unclear if the city paid for other Barnes appointees to stay at hotels as part of their moves to Seattle. As we reported earlier this year, Barnes brought in a number of new hires from outside Seattle, including a second deputy police chief, an assistant chief, a chief of staff, and a chief communications officer, in addition to Hunt, at an annual cost of more than $1 million.
In response to detailed questions, which included an inquiry about whether other Barnes hires also received an extended hotel stay as part of their moving costs, SPD’s communications office said, “All Command leaders who joined Seattle Police Department from locations outside of Seattle to bring their expertise here received a specific relocation package.
“Under that process, they submit receipts for review – and if approved, they get reimbursed per their agreed-upon package.”
SPD did not respond to questions about whether other out-of-town executive hires, including Barnes, were put up in hotels long-term after they moved to Seattle; nor did they respond to a question about whether SPD is currently subsidizing or paying for Barnes’ apartment. Many of SPD’s new top executives, including Barnes, live in Seattle while their families continue residing in the states where they used to live.
2. Under the Seattle Police Officers Guild’s just-approved contract with the city, police sergeants are authorized to deal internally with any police misconduct that falls below the level of “serious” misconduct, defined in SPD’s policy manual to include violations like insubordination, “serious neglect of duty,” and dishonesty.
Supporters of the change, including Seattle City Council public safety chair Bob Kettle, have said that authorizing sergeants to deal with minor misconduct helps build a more ethical, self-governing police force and frees the Office of Police Accountability to focus on more serious matters.
It’s unclear, however, precisely what kinds of misconduct sergeants will be authorized to dispense with internally. In SPD’s current policy manual, “serious misconduct” does not include behaving unprofessionally—raising the possibility that incidents like the one in which former SPOG vice president Daniel Auderer laughed about the killing of pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula by officer Kevin Dave, would be handled internally and never come to light.
(Auderer’s “joke” that Kandula’s life was only worth $11,000 because she was young was caught on camera and discovered by a civilian SPD staffer reviewing video for records requests filed by PubliCola and other outlets).
A spokesperson for the OPA told PubliCola the new “frontline investigation” process “is not effective until finalization of an updated policy. OPA will take an active role in the creation of the new Frontline Investigations program to develop accountability and consistency.”