And: Where was the police chief during last weekend’s spate of deadly shootings?
This post has been updated to note that Lisa Daugaard left her position voluntarily, rather than being asked to leave.
1. Last Friday, two teenagers were shot and killed in a double homicide near Rainier Beach High School. The following night, four people were shot during a fight in Pioneer Square; one of them, a 27-year-old, was killed. On Monday, Barnes did a presentation on Seattle’s improving crime stats, which SPD billed as the police chief’s “State of the City” address, and was apparently peppered with questions about the weekend’s violence.
PubliCola couldn’t attend Monday’s event because we’re out of town this week. If we had, we’d have asked Barnes a question SPD’s communications office refused to answer: Where was the police chief last weekend when Seattle residents were being shot? Historically, Seattle’s police chief has gone to the scene of deadly shootings, but Barnes was nowhere to be seen.
Barnes’ family lives in Chicago while he rents an apartment in Seattle and goes home periodically. When we asked why he wasn’t on the scene of the shootings and if he was at his family home in Chicago, an SPD spokesperson replied: “The Chief was out of town meeting with law enforcement officials to discuss federal immigration response policies to ensure the safety of Seattle.”
SPD did not respond when we followed up to ask where Barnes was, specifically, and reminded their communications office that this is public information.
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2. Lisa Daugaard, the co-director of Purpose Dignity Action and founder of the LEAD diversion program, has left Mayor Katie Wilson’s office after just 10 days on the job because of a purported conflict of interest between her work at PDA and her work helping the mayor implement her own homelessness and public safety strategy.
The decision is a blow to the new mayor’s homelessness strategy and another example of Seattle Ethics and Elections Director Wayne Barnett’s unusually strict decisions when it comes to Wilson. Previously, Barnett fined Wilson for accepting financial help with childcare from her parents after Wilson—under fire from right-wing commentators—said it was a temporary arrangement while she was campaigning for office and unable to stay home with her daughter.
After approving Daugaard’s six-month posting in Wilson’s office last month, Barnett apparently changed his mind, deciding that it represented a conflict of interest. Barnett told Daugaard she could work on policies unrelated to the issues she has worked on for years at PDA, such as diversion and temporary housing for people who commit “public order” crimes because of poverty and untreated behavioral health disorders.
Barnett told PubliCola that Daugaard reached out to him on Monday, and that he told her “she would need to formally sever ties with the PDA” to officially work with the mayor’s office.
Barnett saw no issue worth addressing with former mayor Bruce Harrell’s many apparent uses of the mayor’s office to campaign for reelection. For example, Harrell’s communications office dramatically ramped up the pace of press releases praising Harrell’s work in the two months before last year’s election. Harrell also stamped his “One Seattle” campaign brand across many city initiatives and aggressively used his official social media accounts to promote himself during the campaign.
LEAD provides services in lieu of arrest and jail to people who commit crimes of poverty. Another PDA program, CoLEAD, provides intensive case management and temporary lodging to people with unmet behavioral health needs.
Last year, the PDA sought funding for an encampment resolution program in Pioneer Square modeled after a similar statewide program the group ran until it lost funding earlier in the year, but faced opposition from some advocates who argued that the city needed to pay for existing programs that stood to lose federal funds under Trump before starting new pilots.
Daugaard, an influential member of Wilson’s transition team, took a leave of absence from the PDA for the six months she planned to be at the mayor’s office advising Wilson on public safety and homelessness. Some social service providers, as well as the same right-wing commentators who criticized Wilson for accepting help from her daughter’s grandparents, questioned the decision, arguing it gave LEAD an unfair advantage.
I am not sure why Daugaard did not advocate for someone else in her office or in her non-profit sphere to take the job on a ‘permanent’ basis, which would have killed the conflict issue. Alternatively, she could have taken the job on a permanent basis herself. The six-month arrangement really was a peculiar move that did not appear to be necessary. PDA does great work, so I am sure they will continue to be a key city partner whether Daugaard is employed in the Mayor’s office.
I thought the right wanted grandparents to help alleviate the price of day care? That was part of the campaign, right? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/47qGZiee1GI
Having retired from the City after many years, I always found Wayne Barnett to be thoughtful and considered in his formal and informal opinions (e.g. “If you’re calling me to ask, you probably know how it would look, and what I’m going to say…”). That he cautioned Daugaard about conflicting interests due to simultaneous employment with the city and an entity that likely receives city funding in one form (or many), should surprise no one.
However, it is far more difficult to tease apart the political and non-political purpose(s) of public communications that address topics of public interest that are, inherently, political. And then there is that whole first amendment, which most journalists tend to feel strongly about…
For these reason I think your critique of Barnett failing to rain in public communications by the former Mayor, inapposite. Speech (a consitutitional right) vs. simultaneous double employment (not a right and a prima facia conflict of interest) – substantially different issues that logically dictate substantially different outcomes.
Real shame for the city because Daugaard is so pragmatic & knowledgeable. Whatever ethics law should be changed to allow citizens, even with skin in the game, to work in official positions to advance change for the public good. Disclosure is good of course, and accountability will ultimately be served at the ballot box.
So far Mayor Wilson has only taken a handful official acts and this won’t help the admin move faster.
This is a classic example of when you get several liberal whacko progressives together to solve an issue.