1. As PubliCola first reported on Bluesky yesterday, Mayor Katie Wilson is turning off the police surveillance cameras around the downtown stadiums now that the final World Cup match in Seattle is over. In an official announcement this morning, Wilson said the decision “follows through on the commitment I made last month that these particular cameras would only be turned on for the duration of the FIFA World Cup in Seattle, because of its high global profile and the unique circumstances surrounding the event.”

In March, Wilson approved the installation of the cameras but said she would not have them turned on, and connected to the Seattle Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center, unless there was a “credible threat.” After months of pressure to tur.n the cameras on before the World Cup, Wilson announced that there had been a credible threat and she was ordering SPD to turn the cameras on.

Anti-surveillance activists, who had planned a rally and press conference today demanding Wilson to turn the cameras off today, praised the decision. But they said they were still skeptical that the cameras are fully off, posting video showing a camera unit near the stadium still plugged in. Asked to clarify what Wilson meant by “off,” a spokesperson for her office said, “The cameras were turned off via a PoE (Power over Ethernet) switch. As the cameras are not receiving power, they are not operational, and not capable of recording.”

For some anti-surveillance activists, that isn’t enough; they want visual evidence that the cables have been disconnected, which would require workers to go up to each camera unit and physically disconnect the lines. Noah Williams, a Transit Riders Union member who works in cybersecurity, said one of the challenges with camera systems like SPD’s is that technical specs vary from system to system, and SPD has not shared how its cameras, which are provided by Axon, work. (The TRU, which Wilson co-founded, is part of a coalition called Community Not Cameras, which planned today’s press conference and rally).

“It is really hard to verify that the mayor’s intent is being carried out because of the nature of the way these systems are designed and installed,” Williams said.

Wilson’s spokesperson said there are “other electronics in the camera cabinets (router/modem, Linux box, a cooling fan, etc.)” and that shutting these electronics down would require the city to send out bucket trucks, costing time and money. “Regardless of the power status of any of those devices, the cameras themselves are not operational,” the spokesperson said.

Wilson said she still plans to wait until the NYU Policing Project completes its data and security audit of the surveillance camera system later this year before deciding whether to turn on the stadium cameras and put other neighborhphoods, including parts of Capitol Hill and the Central District, under camera surveillance. Cameras have remained on in other areas, including Aurora Ave. North and downtown.

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2. Late last month, Mayor Wilson and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay announced that the city and county will be taking over almost all of the region’s homeless shelter and service contracts, a change that will result in an initial 20 to 25 layoffs, according to city and county officials who briefed reporters on the “right-sizing” effort late last month.

In an all-staff email about the announcement on Friday, KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison didn’t focus on her employees’ understandable concerns about their jobs. Instead, she suggested that the press were wrong about the number of potential layoffs, noting that she was the only person who had control over how many people would lose their jobs.

“A lot of information is floating around in the media and among various levels of our partner organizations,” Kinnison wrote “In particular, there is much speculation about the number and timing of a KCRHA reduction in force.”

But Kinnison assured staff: They shouldn’t trust the media. “Please remember that the media frequently get facts slightly or very wrong,” she wrote. “Especially outlets with low journalistic standards with a history of one-sided, agenda-driven, or incorrect reporting.” As the outlet that has covered the KCRHA longest and most doggedly (going back to the “One Table” meetings that eventually led to the KCRHA’s formation), PubliCola stands by our years of reporting on the agency.

“As I said yesterday,” Kinnison continued, “my actions to reduce our workforce will come from discussions with Department Chiefs, HR. Protec17, and our partners and funders. I have full authority to manage our workforce to align with our budget and labor agreements short of a new resolution passed by our entire Governing Board that curbs that authority.”

A reduction of 20 to 25 staffers would represent about one third of the agency’s current 73 staff, leaving around 50 people on the agency payroll.

It seems unlikely that the layoffs will stop with the initial round. After the local contracts that made up the vast majority of its work go back to the city and county, KCRHA will be left with just a handful of official duties: Serving as the organization that applies for federal contracts, overseeing the emergency “activation” of overnight winter shelters, and conducting the Point in Time Count of the region’s homeless population next year. All Home, the organization that previously did all this work except the winter shelters, had between 7 and 10 people on staff.