Barnes’ chief of staff reportedly responded to concerns about a crackdown on the longtime nude beach at Denny Blaine Park by saying, “We’re not here for the gays.”
By Erica C. Barnett
Two former civilian Seattle Police Department employees, former general counsel Rebecca Boatright and former chief operating officer Brian Maxey, have filed tort claims against the city, alleging they were “subjected to a widespread course of retaliation and wrongfully terminated” because they opposed decisions made by Barnes and his predecessor, Sue Rahr.
Boatright is also claiming gender discrimination. Maxey is seeking $4.5 million, while Boatright is seeking $6.5 million.
Barnes abruptly fired Boatright and Maxey early in the morning on November 5, less than 12 hours after the first ballots dropped in the mayoral election.
The two were among the longest-serving civilian members of the department, and “the only City employees to navigate the Consent Decree between the United States and the City from start to finish,” according to their claim.
The tort claim, which will lead to a lawsuit if the city declines to settle within 60 days, claims that the department retaliated against Maxey and Boatright for objecting to a number of decisions, including “personnel moves (promotions, demotions, and assignments) that reasonably appeared to be rooted in retaliation or discrimination based upon sexual orientation or gender.”
This is an apparent reference to two hiring decisions. First, Barnes chose to promote Mike Tietjen, a lieutenant who became infamous for his over-the-top misconduct during the 2020 protests on Capitol Hill, to captain of the East Precinct, passing over a gay lieutenant who had been serving as acting captain and was well-liked within the surrounding Capitol Hill community. (Barnes later rescinded his decision and put a different captain in charge at the East Precinct).
In an email to command staff earlier this year, Barnes blamed PubliCola’s reporting for community backlash against his decision to promote Tietjen, as well “a lack of comprehensive input from those involved in employee assignments and internal leaks within our department.”
Barnes had previously come under fire for overseeing a dramatic crackdown on the historic LGBTQ+ nude beach at Denny Blaine Park, in which officers showed up prepared to arrest or trespass anyone who wasn’t wearing clothes. According to people familiar with the conversation, Barnes’ chief of staff, Alex Ricketts, brushed Boatright off when she told Ricketts he and Barnes needed to take the LGBTQ+ community’s concerns seriously, telling her, “We’re not here for the gays.”
Second, Barnes’ Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood allegedly decided not to promote a gay detective who was serving as acting sergeant over SPD’s policy division, passing her over for the permanent position despite the fact that, like the acting East Precinct Commander who got pushed aside in favor of Tietjen, she was already doing the job. Instead, the woman, a single mom, was assigned to an overnight patrol position, which conflicted with her duties as a parent—a common issue faced by female cops, and one SPD has claimed it wants to solve as part of the “30 by 30” effort to have a recruit class that’s 30 percent women by 2030.
Boatright, Maxey, and executive staff in Harrell’s office also questioned Barnes’ decision to award $50,000 hiring bonuses, created explicitly to recruit trained rank and file officers, to two of his new command staff, and to accept the same bonus himself. Barnes and Deputy chief Yvonne Underwood also took $2,000 recruitment bonuses for hiring the same two executives. PubliCola reported exclusively on the bonuses in a series of stories earlier this year, which led to another search for “leaks” in the department, according to multiple internal sources.
During a conversation about the bonuses that took place in his office, Ricketts reportedly dismissed Boatright’s legal concerns, saying she didn’t know what she was talking about, according to people familiar with the conversation. When Underwood arrived at the office, Ricketts reportedly told the deputy chief, “This girl’s talking foolishness.”
The claim also alleges that in order to justify the highest possible pay classification, Executive 4, for a new position he created for his longtime colleague Lee Hunt, Barnes handed a significant amount of Boatright’s work, along with employees she supervised, to Hunt. “The Chief of Police told Ms. Boatright that the effective demotion was necessary to ‘justify [Hunt’s] Exec 4 classification,'” according to the claim. Boatright had a lower job classification—Executive 3—that tops out in the high $200,000s. Hunt’s salary is $302,000 a year, more than the mayor and most city department heads.
Another issue Boatright and Maxey raise is Barnes’ response to their concerns about an anti-prostitutions initiative in which undercover officers photograph men they believe are paying sex workers on Aurora Ave. N and send the photographs, along with a sternly worded “john letter,” to their homes, with the goal of shaming the men out of paying for sex in the future. (Seattle has had similar programs in the past but found them ineffective). The two expressed concern that the letters could violate people’s state constitutional right to privacy in their own homes and family affairs and lead to potentially violent confrontations with partners.
In the same email that blamed “leaks” and media coverage for the LGBTQ+ backlash against Tietjen’s appointment, Barnes noted “internal resistance” to the new “initiative to combat human trafficking along the Aurora Street [sic] corridor.”
“I want to reiterate that both I and the mayor’s office fully support this program,” Barnes wrote. “Leadership sometimes involves taking risks, and I firmly believe that proactive measures are necessary, even in the face of opposition Those who are not aligned with this mission are encouraged to have an open conversation with me or consider their place within our department.” This email, which quickly circulated outside its intended audience, was widely viewed as a threat: If you disagree with the chief, keep it to yourself or GTFO.
Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, who will take office on Friday, announced earlier this month that she will keep Barnes as police chief.
Maxey and Boatright declined to comment. SPD’s communications office respond to questions by saying, “The department respects the legal process and cannot comment on ongoing legal matters.”
The “historic” LGBTQ+ nude beach at Denny-Blaine Park! Yep, it’s in all the history books pertaining to Seattle and the “Seattle Historical” tours. The “We’re not here for the gays” comment. The phrasing is a lot less offensive than a “a few bad actors that show up to jack off at DB” and a few chronic masturbators. “The OPA investigation into the SPD @ DB has SPD on the record that the plan was to show up and arrest anyone naked who refused to put on clothes”. So, what the LGBTQ+ is asking for special preference? People cannot walk around Alki Beach or Madison Park nude and simply tell cops, “I refuse to put on my clothes” and/or satisfy their sexual needs in a hands-on manner.
Literally everything you wrote is wrong. You literally do not understand the law or Seattle.
1) DB is officially recognized by Washington state has a historic queer site
2) the db vs the city lawsuit has a lot, like 100+, of photo evidence of like 4-5 men that aren’t part of the nude community of DB showing up regularly to jack off at DB
3) the city lawyers have literally said in court anyone can walk around nude in any park of public space
4) the OPA report literally has an SPD on record saying the plan was to show up, tell everyone to get dressed and arrest those who stayed nude
#Facts
5) friends of Denny Blaine – the queer run pro nudity at DB group – has repeatedly asked for the masturbation to stop m.
6) most of the people I talk to are like myself where we WANT the SPD to arrest the assholes who come to jack off at DB
7) the SPD refuses to do so, similarly the SPD has not handled the masturbation that happens at Cal Anderson or volunteer park
Ugh typo – “do” should have been “of”
“ Instead of standing up for the Queer community, CM Hollingsworth literally went and talked to the rich home owners and said the DB Queer community should be moved out of DB (it’s in the legal papers)”
The majority of the lgbtq community don’t find it important to be nude in public parks. They can enjoy parks clothes just like the rest of us. I don’t understand why a small minority of this community should be able to use a taxpayer funded park in a way that keeps others out. If you want a nude beach – raise some funds to buy a private property and keep it maintained on your own dime.
Now, i vote in every election, but i sure as hell don’t recall a vote when we elected you as Speaker for the Queerdos.
Stay in your lane.
Wait a minute. I was told it’s legal for people to be nude in Seattle, full stop. (I was in Fremont, which annually demonstrates that law, just yesterday.) Why should one particular park be exempt from the law?
I normally post comments here in response to things relevant to the homeless, and to my surprise, this turns out to be one. We frequently hear of homeless people, when acting up, getting into interactions with police, and one element of the acting up is often nudity. Also, in what Seattle considers winter, it’s often too cold for nudity to be a sane state to be in (um, modulo Tierra del Fuego), so in those months, interactions are pretty predictable. But I haven’t heard that any homeless actor-up got *arrested* *solely* for nudity. Have you heard otherwise?
Seattle is a very weird American city if it actually treats gays and such *worse* than homeless people.
America is built on individual freedoms. If it’s protected? It’s protected.
Whether it’s a single entity. Or the majority. If it’s protected, it’s protected. That’s America.
Reading the lawsuit files on DB it’s clear there’s a few bad actors that show up to jack off at DB. It’s also clear that these few individuals are well documented with a ton of photo and video evidence.
The OPA investigation into the SPD @ DB has SPD on the record that the plan was to show up and arrest anyone naked who refused to put on clothes.
How hasn’t anyone in SPD lost their job over this!! They had a huge amount of evidence to deal with a few chronic public masterbators and instead went after the Queer Community who was at the beach that day!
Chief Barnes needs to be fired, full stop
Where is CM Hollingsworth voice for the D3 Queer community? She ran as a proud Queer and asked us fellow Queers to support her. She showed up to the meeting where 400 plus of us showed up to express how much DB meant to the Queer community
Instead of standing up for the Queer community, CM Hollingsworth literally went and talked to the rich home owners and said the DB Queer community should be moved out do DB (it’s in the legal papers)
If CM Hollingsworth really cared about us Queers she’d be calling for a change and accountability in the SPD
Maybe Hollowingswoth also “is not here for the gays”
In this situation the gays show they don’t care about anyone but themselves. They want this park to be theirs alone and the nudity keeps others away. It would never be acceptable to do anything that kept a minority community out of any park. Why should it be acceptable if a minority community keeps others out of a park with their nudit
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2023/12/keep-denny-blaine-nude-hundreds-fill-seattle-parks-meeting-to-oppose-play-area-backed-by-anonymous-donor/
Better it belong to a few rich people then the 400+ that showed up to support?
“the gays”? Really?
“The gays”? Girl, bye.
No one is keeping you out of Denny Blaine, hunty, except you. You’re entirely welcome to go to there if you like.
You can even arrive dressed cap-à-pie so that not an inch of your skin is visible if you wish, but the sunbathers who are enjoying the park au naturel are doing nothing wrong.
That you find nudity objectionable says more about you and your hang-ups than anything – or anyone – else.