Category: Civil Rights

City Council, Civil Rights, homelessness, Mayor Wilson, Police

This Week on PubliCola: March 7, 2026

Expanding tiny house villages, inside-out density, city council staff unionization, and more news you may have missed this week.

By Erica C. Barnett

Tuesday, March 3

As City and County Consider Banning New ICE Facilities, Local Jails Are Exempted from Seattle’s Ban

The city and King County are both passing temporary bans on new ICE detention facilities in areas under their jurisdiction, but only one’s—Seattle’s—does not apply to local jails. As emergency legislation, the Seattle moratorium needs seven of nine votes to pass, and some councilmembers reportedly balked at language temporarily prohibiting new jails, even though no new jail is planned in Seattle.

Wednesday, March 4

An Alternative Approach to Creating Affordable Housing: Inside-Out Urbanism

In his latest Maybe Metropolis column, Josh Feit argues that urbanists should look inward to create new density in neighborhoods, by focusing on changes to buildings themselves (rather than zoning) that could allow more apartments. “Like rearranging how you pack your suitcase rather than buying a bigger suitcase, affordable housing advocates should change the construction equation inside apartment buildings themselves.”

Wilson Announces First Steps Toward 1,000 Shelter Beds: Simpler Leases, Larger Tiny House Villages, More Money for Shelter

Mayor Katie Wilson announced the first part of her big push to add thousands of new shelter beds in her first term. Under the proposal, the city would lease land for new tiny house villages directly, reducing red tape for nonprofit shelter providers, and the city would allow much bigger villages—up to 250 units. The city council still has to approve (and potentially amend) Wilson’s plan, which she rolled out without securing a council sponsor or feedback from council members.

Thursday, March 5

Civil Rights Office Director Put On Leave Over Employee Complaints, Union Alleges Interference in Investigation

The head of the city’s Office for Civil Rights, Derrick Wheeler-Smith, and his deputy are both on paid leave after the city launched an investigation into allegations of discrimination, harassment, and bias by his staff. PubliCola detailed the employees’ claims in a story last week. The union that represents SOCR employees has filed an EEOC complaint challenging the neutrality of the investigation, after Wheeler-Smith notified a city HR investigator about PubliCola’s forthcoming story in February, saying his employees’ claims were specious and part of an effort by the deputy mayor to oust him by planting false stories in the press.

Friday, March 5

City Council’s Legislative Aides Vote to Unionize

Legislative assistants for City Councilmembers have voted to unionize. While previous unionization efforts went nowhere, this one has strong support, thanks to reportedly poor working conditions in some council offices and growing dissatisfaction with the pay disparity between council aides and people doing similar jobs in other departments.

Police Chief Says “We Don’t Take Sides” in Protests

During a presentation on the Seattle Police Department’s plans for responding if federal troops or ICE descend on Seattle, Police Chief Shon Barnes said SPD is neutral during protests, arguing that social media videos and the press use sound bites or misleading photos to misrepresent SPD’s actions.

Civil Rights, Mayor Wilson

Civil Rights Office Director Put On Leave Over Employee Complaints, Union Alleges Interference in Investigation

 

By Erica C. Barnett

Derrick Wheeler-Smith, director of the city’s Office for Civil Rights, has been put on administrative leave along with his deputy director, Fahima Mohamed, while an outside investigator looks into allegations by SOCR staff that include discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Erika Pablo, a former Race and Social Justice Initiative manager at SOCR who now heads up the Human Services Department’s Safe and Thriving Communities division, will replace Wheeler-Smith on an interim basis.

PubliCola reported last week about the allegations after speaking with about a quarter of SOCR’s current staff.

Among other allegations, employees said Wheeler-Smith had ignored or rejected efforts to focus SOCR’s work on emerging issues facing Asian American, Latino, and LGBTQ+ people and imposed his personal religious views on department activities. Staffers also alleged retaliation, discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ and disabled staffers, and inappropriate conduct such as sending misogynistic “jokes” about women to male staff, including a meme suggesting Kamala Harris rose to her position by giving oral sex.

Although the investigation will be conducted by an external investigator, it falls under the purview of the city’s internal Human Resources Investigation Unit (HRIU), leading some staffers to raise concerns about about the independence of the investigation.

Shortly after my story came out, Wheeler-Smith sent an email to city officials and local news outlets claiming that Deputy Mayor Brian Surratt was the secret puppet master behind my story, “direct[ing]… a few disgruntled staff” my way and steering my reporting. (Surratt was not a source.) In the email, Wheeler-Smith revealed that he reached out to HRIU Director Ray Sugarman in February to report Surratt’s “threatening actions” and “inquire about an alleged HR complaint based upon false allegations.” One day after Wheeler-Smith contacted Sugarman, according to PROTEC17, the investigations unit reached out to the union seeking the names of employees who complained so they could conduct intake interviews.

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In response to Wheeler’s allegation and HRIU’s request for employee names, PROTEC17 filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The complaint argues that it’s inappropriate for the city’s internal HR investigations office to oversee complaints against department heads because HRIU is lower on the city’s chain of command, and says the independence of the investigation is “fatally compromised” because it was triggered when the subject of the complaint, Wheeler-Smith, alerted the investigations unit that there might be a “false” HR complaint against him.

The EEOC complaint accuses Wheeler-Smith of retaliating against employees he believed were responsible for the complaints against him, creating a “chilling effect” that has caused at least one SOCR staffer to pull out of an intake interview after Wheeler-Smith learned that they planned to participate in the investigation.

According to the complaint, “The employee subsequently received threats from community members associated with the Director.” Additionally, “Wheeler-Smith’s public letter will predictably deter OCR employees from participating in any investigation. Employees who have not yet been identified now face the prospect that the Director will publicly attack them if they come forward,” the EEOC complaint says.

Mayor Katie Wilson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for more information on Thursday morning.