Category: Elections

City Council, Elections

PubliCola Questions: Seattle City Council District 5 Candidate Julie Kang
Source: Julie Kang campaign

By Erica C. Barnett

This year, voters in North Seattle will be choosing a councilmember to replace former District 5 councilmember Cathy Moore, who quit a year and a half into her four-year term. The district has lacked an elected councilmember for an unusually long time thanks to the timing of Moore’s resignation, which came just a few days too late for the city to schedule a special election for the district. As a result, former councilmember Debora Juarez has served as Moore’s city council-appointed replacement since mid-2024.

North Seattle’s choices in this long-awaited election are FairVote Washington political director Nilu Jenks, a second-time candidate for this position, and longtime university educator Julie Kang. Seattle Nice, the podcast co-hosted by me, political consultant Sandeep Kaushik, and longtime radio journalist David Hyde, will be hosting a live debate between the two candidates at the not-quite-in-D5 National Nordic Museum at 6:00 tomorrow, October 21; if you can’t make it, we’ll be publishing the whole debate on our podcast the following day. Election Day is November 3, but please vote early if you vote by mail, or drop your last-minute ballot in your nearest drop box before 8pm on November 3!

 

Julie Kang is a first-generation immigrant who grew up in Los Angeles, came to Seattle as a PhD student at the University of Washington, and has worked for UW, Seattle University, and Seattle Public Schools as a teacher and administrator overseeing professional development for decades.

Kang also co-founded a bank serving Korean American clients, Pacific International Bank, in 2001, to make it easier for immigrants rejected by traditional banks to access capital. The bank merged with a larger institution in 2013 after a series of headline-grabbing financial controversies.

“A lot of the board members with deep pockets did not want to contribute more, and that was one of the reasons” for the financial crisis at the bank, Kang said. “And so, by default, as the only woman and the only bilingual board member, they said, you figure out a solution.” Kang said her mother used BBCN Bank in California, “and I know they were interested in coming up” to Seattle, so she managed the merger. Kang is no long affiliated with the bank.

Kang has lived in North Seattle for about 30 years; she’s endorsed by the Seattle Times, former councilmember Sara Nelson, and current Councilmembers Bob Kettle and Maritza Rivera and Council President Joy Hollingsworth.

Our interview, conducted last week at Pilgrim Coffee just off Aurora, has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

PubliCola (ECB): The mayor just put out a budget that you have said was pretty fiscally responsible­.

Julie Kang (JK): Yes—the fact that we have not only closed [the deficit] but also anticipating that we’re not going to keep asking for these one-time things.

I believe that we need to have right amount of first responders to respond in a timely manner. So the fact that [Wilson] decided to add 66 [officers through 2027], I was like, okay, that could be the number. But I also want to make sure everybody understands that even though North Seattle’s District Five is made up of about 100,000 people, the reality is we have 250,000 people during the day. So when we have first responder calls, we need to account for that. At our Northwest Hospital, we have beds and facilities for 70 emergency visitors a day, and now they’re getting more than 130—that’s almost double. We need to think about that. When we have so many of the permanent and supportive housing [buildings], that requires 1.4 times more firefighters. This allocation of first responders based on the number of residents may not be the right approach.

ECB: Let’s talk about Aurora. Both you and your opponent, I think, believe that public spaces around Aurora need to be safer, particularly when it comes to sex trafficking and gun violence. Beyond more police or surveillance cameras, what’s your public safety plan for Aurora?

JK: We really can’t afford to have more police for everything, right? The CARE Team, when there’s behavioral wellness checks, I think they should be able to go and do those things. That’s what they’re supposed to do. And I know that there’s all of the contract issues—that sometimes because there is a possibility of a weapon or you know they’re armed, officers have to go first. But I think we need clear rules and responsibility. We got to get them to the table and have that conversation.

But what I have committed to is I want to be physically present. I want to sit at my district office. And when people think about a district office, is it fancy? Is it expensive? No. We have so many storefronts. I’m already [upstairs at] the Lake City Library at least once a week. I just need to be present because District Five hasn’t seen their council members, haven’t had the emails or phone calls returned. And how do I know? Because I’m the one who’s been the squeaky wheel, emailing behalf of my elderly neighbor, or the young, busy people who don’t have the time to always use the [Find It Fix It] app, right? So I think that establishing trust in the government, it’s important. And for me, that’s showing up. That’s the first step. So I want to set up my district office. And people have said [mimicking fear] “Oh, Aurora,” and I remind them, I lived here for 10 years. I have faith, and I know that I’ve come this far. I am gonna be fine. I grew up crossing through MacArthur Park [in LA] every day to get to the library,

ECB: The barricades are still there—

JK: They’ve been there for over 100 days.

ECB: Do you think they’re working to reduce gun violence?

JK: No, they’re not working. Well, it’s quieted down a little bit, but if you walk two blocks over, it has shifted. And if you go in the morning, you can see the foils, the condom wrappers, the needles. Those are not things that our children should be seeing. We’re normalizing this behavior. So I think a lot of my advocacy work comes from the seven-year-old, 10-year-old Julie, who did not have a choice but to go through MacArthur Park to get to the library at the end. You know, as a latchkey kid, there was no other options. But we’re in 2026, and we are still fighting, and our daughter, 22 years old now, born and raised in North Seattle—we had to have those discussions. Why can’t we enforce the laws that we have? As soon as you get over to 145th to Shoreline, why is it that their streets are clean and people understand that there are rules and we’re not going to be permissive about violent crimes?

ECB:. My understanding is that they invested quite a bit of money in improving the street design to make it safer, and Seattle has not done something similar.

JK: Even in speaking with [King County Prosector] Leesa Manion extensively, she always reminds me she’s the same King County prosecuting attorney for other places where things are working. So again, if you were here 24/7, you would understand the urgency. Aurora is in a state of emergency, and we have put a few Band-Aids here and there, but we haven’t gotten to the root of the issue.

We want to protect the victims and we want to be able to provide the mental care or the housing and all of the services that we need, right? But we should go after the johns and the pimps. I know [City Attorney Erica Evans has continued to point out that there’s over 5,000 cases [backlogged]. But I also know that there’s a little bit of disconnect between the King County and the city.

So when I changed my position on [surveillance] cameras, it’s because as a naturalized U.S. citizen, and I am also serving on the King County Immigration Commission, and we didn’t know how that information was used. Of course, surveillance—you know, I don’t want it either. But I talked to a lot of the people, including the 50 blocks of neighbors and Councilmember Kettle, and spoke with the North [SPD] Precinct and did a ridealong. And I know that nothing is 100 percent safe, but at least there are safeguards and some things that we’re doing about retention that are in place. I’m not saying it’s perfect. I thought, well, if the community most impacted wants it, let’s use it, but we can’t just use that. [alone] It’s only a tool, right?

ECB: Have you seen evidence that the cameras are working?

JK: Well, this morning when they talked about the shooting last night, at least there was a little bit of the footage from the shooting, [Editor’s note: The footage was from business surveillance cameras, not city-operated CCTV.] And again, you can have all the footage you want, but it’s what you do with it. But if you don’t have the footage, my understanding is that you can’t even open up a case. So we need evidence. And it’s interesting that we’re relying on neighbors and other people to have evidence. And I recently heard somebody says, “Oh, you can plug in your business camera to the police camera [system]. And I just thought, “Wow, we are now asking our business owners to take on that responsibility.”

ECB: A big concern for surveillance opponents is the possibility that ICE could get access. They just need to file a subpoena. And there’s a lot of faith being put in this into Axon, the company that provides Seattle’s surveillance cameras, to do the right thing and not share this footage with bad actors. I think those are legitimate concerns.

JK: That’s true, and that’s the risk. That’s why when I spoke with people who are against cameras and I proposed, what if we built our own system, they said, actually, they could live with that. So again, let’s not continue to have this fear get in the way of what our neighbors, our constituents are feeling. And if we already have the cameras on, and we’re able to maintain the terms of the contract that say long the footage can be on our servers, by the time you get a subpoena, you know, maybe [the footage will] be gone. And my understanding is we don’t keep anything unless it’s in an active investigation.

How long have we had it since all of the ICE stuff? I’ve been going to Common Power to create whistle kids since last November. It’s been over a year, right? And we also know that that’s not working perfectly because our neighbors continue to get taken at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and in our neighborhoods.

ECB: Going back to Aurora for a sec: The city hasn’t funded a lot of resources for women wanting to leave the sex trade or escape trafficking. Do you have a plan to help the women and girls working in parking lots on Aurora?

JK: We have Aurora Commons, which is one of the few resources up in North Seattle. And Liz [Vivien], the ED, you know, told me yes, they’re able to provide the OB/GYN care with the UW hospital. But if we happen to have somebody who steps up and say, “I want to get out of this business,” she doesn’t have shelters she can refer them to. We should be able to say, Julie came in for service. She needs housing. She needs the mental health [services]. She needs X, Y, and Z. And our case managers should be able to make sure that we are following through and delivering services. And I’m doing to make sure that when we advocate for funding, I want us to be connected to the outcomes and the return on investment. I think we have been compassionate, but if we’re compassionate without accountability, we’re just investing more and more. And I think that’s where the fatigue comes. 

ECB: I hear “we need more accountability for spending” from candidates every year, and I often wonder what that is supposed to look like.  Because we do have audits, we do have staff that review the budget, we have an entire budget office that looks at how money is being spent. What additional accountability are you looking for?

JK: But Erica, you also know that a lot of audits have been incomplete and are still pending. For me, that’s not acceptable. And again, going back to my university budget experience, being a project manager is when we develop a program, we review it on a quarterly basis, and we also measure that against the outcomes, the deliverables. I think on the council we also need somebody with that level of expertise. So, if we have that oversight and accountability, I don’t think we’re going to lose money or have some of the challenges that we’ve had.

ECB: Your opponent has said that District 5 needs to have community violence interrupters like the ones working in South Seattle, and also that the city should invest more in putting CARE Team members up here. How do you think your approach differs from hers when it comes to, not just Aurora, but public safety in North Seattle generally?

JK:  In terms of prevention, there’s so much that could be done, even with our two high schools and two middle schools. And not only as a mother but as a teacher, I’m already working with the principals on safe routes to schools. I’m asking, how did a 15-year-old [at Ingraham] get access to a gun? Where did that come from? And did that student have at least one person that they could confide in? So I want to make sure we focus on a lot of the interventions in schools and in community centers.  I think that’s, again, where me showing up and having the years of experience mentoring students, and mostly students of color, is going to be a benefit.

We’ve also heard from the community meeting that happened on Aurora Commons when the mom said, “My daughters are being approached with lots of cash.” The community leaders are already trying to do so much, but most of these meetings—actually all of the meetings that I’ve gone to, the people who are the decision makers, the elected officials, they are not there. There’s so much that could be accomplished by attending, listening, and activating the leaders who already come with a lot of the lived experience and solutions based on those experiences.

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ECB: Speaking of students, are you supporting or opposing the two statewide initiatives—the one banning trans girls from girls’ sports and the one that allows parents to see their kids’ school counseling notes?

JK: As teachers, we think it’s important for all children to be welcome and included, and any act of harm or hate is unacceptable. That said, I think parents have made some comments, and the students also have voiced their comments. So, for me, again, it’s listening to the constituents and the people,

ECB: But do you support the initiatives or oppose them?

JK: So, at this time, as much as I respect everybody’s identity, I just want kids to play sports. I don’t know if we need to go and do biological testing to see where they stand.

ECB: The other initiative would essentially give parents the right to see any notes that were taken about confidential conversations they had with adults at school.

JK: Right now, there’s already that protection for the kids after 13. [Editor’s note: Kids 13 and over have the right to obtain confidential mental health care in Washington state, but this does not apply to school counseling.] I understand there’s some arguments about if every kid is able to make those decisions. But I’m gonna go with supporting the kids. [Editor’s note: After our conversation, Kang reached out to clarify that she opposes both initiatives].

ECB: Do you support the proposed comprehensive plan rezone around the new Pinehurst light rail station, which has been delayed by appeals, and would you change it in any way?

JK: Right now, neighbors are in limbo about what is happening with their housing. We expect 90 percent of riders to get there using other modes of transportation. But the reality is, they’re saying, “My front yard is becoming a parking lot.” 

I definitely support that we should do density. But before we get there, you also know that we lost power multiple times, right? So we know our electric grids, our sewer systems, all of the infrastructure is also outdated. I want to make sure we take care of those infrastructures before we keep building more units, because losing power is something that the people who are already there and have been neighbors for a long time are negatively impacted by. People are losing their precious groceries. It’s $100, $150 to fill up your grocery cart, if that. So I want to make sure that we grow the community with the infrastructure and make sure that we are taking care of the sidewalks, because walkability is huge if you’re going walk to the station. And right now we have some areas that are very disconnected.

ECB: Do you support Mandatory Housing Affordability, which encourages growth in some former single-family areas?

JK: I’m actually happy with Councilmember Foster’s plan to give some relief, because what I have learned is we are missing so much revenue that was generated through the permits, creating workforce jobs for builders and plumbers. When I think about quick permitting, it’s not that we lessen the requirements, but right now that sequential model, I just don’t understand. So I think we have to look at the whole system and break it into chunks where we can have predictability. Because anytime they’re waiting for a permit, that’s lost opportunities.

ECB: The city plans to revamp the whole MHA system in the next couple of years. What do you think needs to change about the program?

JK: Well, right now I think we have to incentivize builders to build and build the right kind of housing. It doesn’t make sense if you have one lot, and you want to build eight different million-dollar tiny homes, because I think then we are going to compromise some of those mature trees that I also love. So maybe we can be creative about creating a fourplex. Everybody wants to not have their shared walls, but I also think being able to look into your neighbor’s living room with those small spaces—I’m not sure if that’s the right thing. And in LA, we had a lot of fourplexes, triplexes, and that’s how we were able to even afford our first home, because we could live in one and rent out the others and make the mortgage. So I think we have to be more creative in working with you architects who are thinking about protecting the green space and being able to build in a way that meets our neighbors’ needs.

I mean, we are number four in terms of the city rankings, and when I talk to people, it’s because of the beautiful green space, and I think that makes Seattle Seattle. And if we are going to continue to build and get rid of these 100-year-old mature trees that are healthy, I think we are not thinking about our next generation. I mean, we think about climate change. We think about all of the positive things from trees. And yet when we keep saying we’re going to just build, build, build, I don’t think that is the right answer for the next generation.

City Council, Elections, homelessness, King County, Police

This Week on PubliCola: Council Opponents Bash Mayor’s Balanced Budget, Controversial Cop Gets Slap on Wrist, $17 Million Deficit at KCRHA, and More

By Erica C. Barnett

First things first: We’re hosting a City Council debate! Come to the National Nordic Museum (2655 NW Market St.) to hear from the candidates for City Council in North Seattle’s District 5, Julie Kang and Nilu Jenks. (PubliCola will be running interviews with both candidates, conducted last week, before the debate). The outcome of this election will impact the balance of votes on the council, so it matters to the entire city. Hope to see you there!

On to the week’s news:

Monday, October 12

No, King County Didn’t Write a $10 Million “Blank Check” for Youth Homelessness

Danny Westneat’s latest column for the Seattle Times condemned a proposed sales tax increase of of 0.01 percent, claiming the (maximum) $10 million it could bring in annually amounted to a “blank check” for the county to fritter away on… whatever, we guess. In fact, the county will adopt a spending plan for the money as part of its budget process, and has identified half-dozen specific youth and family homelessness programs to receive the money. That’s not the only thing Westneat got wrong in his column, as we learned from doing some basic reporting.

Tuesday, October 13

Greater Seattle: A Supermajority, a Mistake, and a Chance

In this week’s column, Josh Feit considers what it will mean if progressive Nilu Jenks wins the D5 council election, praises SDOT’s decision to (finally) charge for parking in one West Seattle neighborhood, and has praise for Metro’s workhorse Route 7, which King County is planning to eliminate and replace with a RapidRide with far fewer stops.

Wednesday, October 14

Council Critics Accuse Wilson of Creating “the Unfund Budget”

Councilmembers who opposed Katie Wilson’s election as mayor can’t help themselves, it seems: They’re claiming her proposed budget defunds (or as Bob Kettle puts it, “unfunds”) the police department, encampment sweeps team, and graffiti removal efforts. They also seemed caught off guard by budget problems plaguing SDOT, despite their own adoption of a budget last year that included a large and growing deficit at the department.

Thursday, October 15

Regional Homelessness Authority’s Overspending Grows to $17 Million, According to New Report

Turning Point, the consultant hired to reconcile the King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s budget after a forensic audit found widespread irregularities earlier this year, discovered a nearly $17 million net deficit in the agency’s accounts, the result of excessive administrative spending on staff and the implementation of SalesForce to manage homeless services grants. The money (which includes growing interest on the KCRHA’s massive negative bank balance) will have to be paid, somehow, by the city and county, the agency’s primary funders.

Friday, October 16

Council Budget Fizz: Rinck Wants to Fund Survivor Services, Saka Wants to Defund Restrooms, and Strauss Says the Mayor Is Weak on Homelessness

A week of all-day budget meetings included more convoluted Wilson-bashing, as Rob Saka came out against Wilson’s proposal to add more of the same kind of public restrooms Saka added funding for last year, and Dan Strauss accused the mayor of being “uncomfortable” addressing homelessness after she proposed moving the city’s encampment response team back to the Human Services Department, rather than keeping it under her direct control.

And, earlier in the week, Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck proposed adding $8 million to the budget for organizations that help survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking. HR1, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” drastically cuts funding for these services.

Complaints Filed Against Pass-Through Campaign Funding Group Created by Former Councilmember Sara Nelson

Former Councilmember Nelson’s new group, Seafor, promises to keep its donors’ identities “private,” funneling money to elections through political action committees that will only show Seafor as the donor. They’re doing a “test run” with Julie Kang, funding a PAC that is spending $30,000 on her behalf. Except—oops—you aren’t actually allowed to conceal the source of campaign funding in this way. A progressive group has filed two complaints against Seafor and its affiliated “news” website, CivicTide.

Cop Who Encouraged Fellow Officers to “F___ People Up” At Pro-LGBTQ Counterprotest Gets Written Reprimand

Seattle police lieutenant Matthew Didier, who was caught on tape encouraging officers to go hard on people protesting a far-right anti-trans rally at Cal Anderson Park, will get a slap-on-the-wrist written reprimand for his actions. Interim police chief Andre Sayles said a critical review of the incident earlier this year “made clear that our department did not understand the depth of concern within the LGBTQ+ community before this event.”

Also this week: I was a guest on CityCast Seattle, where we discussed Rinck’s “Seattle Stands With Survivors” budget proposal, a recent lawsuit filed by a woman who said the University of Washington failed to protect her from the frat member who raped her, Saka’s bizarre 180 on public restroom funding, and our favorite pizza places in Seattle (shout out to Dantini!)

Elections, public disclosure

Complaints Filed Against Pass-Through Campaign Funding Group Created by Former Councilmember Sara Nelson

 

From Seafor’s website.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Progressive People Power (P3) PAC, a group that supports lefty candidates and causes, has filed dual complaints with the state Public Disclosure Commission and the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission against Seafor, a new organization set up by former city councilmember Sara Nelson to support centrist candidates.

The crux of both complaints is an allegation that Seafor is illegally funding election campaigns without revealing its donors, which is illegal under state law.

Specifically, the complaints charge that Seafor is a political action committee disguised as a C(4) (yes, pronounced “Seafor”) nonprofit advocacy group, and that the purpose of the organization is to serve as a pass-through for anonymous political donations to campaigns. This would be illegal, because state law requires PACs—unlike nonprofit political groups—to disclose their donors, so that the public can see which people and organizations are bankrolling outside campaigns for candidates.

“If you are an organization in Washington state raising money for politics and then spending money on politics, then you are a political committee. You have to report where your money came from,” Dmitri Iglitzin, the attorney who filed both complaints on behalf of P3, said Wednesday. “The source of political expenditures can’t be cloaked through an intermediary entity.”

Iglitzin filed the complaints before Seafor funded a last-minute $30,000 independent expenditure, by a new group calling itself North Seattle Neighbors, on behalf of District 5 City Council candidate Julie Kang, who came in second in the August primary, trailing frontrunner Nilu Jenks, a progressive, by 21 points. North Seattle Neighbors registered as a PAC just days before a state deadline for independent expenditure campaigns to file, meaning that it’s no longer possible for anyone to register a similar campaign on Jenks’ behalf. It has since reported one additional $5,000 donation, from the founder of a private equity firm.

The complaint notes that Seafor’s website explicitly says one purpose of the group is to elect a “pragmatic majority” of “moderate candidates” to the city council, starting with the District 5 race. The site describes Seafor as a “permanent civic organization” that “recruits candidates, funds their campaigns, defends them between elections, and stays in the field after November.”

What’s more, Seafor’s site touts the fact that “Donor identities are not publicly disclosed,” allowing people who spend on local campaigns to keep their donations “private.”

From Seafor’s website.

“Washington’s 501(c)(4) structure protects the privacy of businesses and individuals historically punished for backing fiscally responsible causes,” the website guarantees. “Many of our supporters operate businesses, sit on boards, or hold positions where political activity isn’t tenable.”

Nelson, the founder of Seafor, initially responded to a phone call but did not respond to followups. The other governors of the group are former councilmember Tanya Woo, lobbyist Dan McGrady, and former Nelson policy director Erik Nielsen. Jordan Royer, the VP of external affairs for the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (and a longtime background player in conservative Seattle politics), registered the North Seattle Neighbors PAC.

“Seafor just donated $30,000 to a political campaign. So where did that $30,000 come from? We have no idea,” Iglitzin said. “But we know from Seafor’s website that they’re raising money to make political expenditures in the fifth [council] district, which makes Seafor a political committee. The fact that Seafor then goes and says, by the way, give your money to us and no one will know that you gave it to us, just shows that they know exactly what they’re doing.”

The city’s rules for registering as a political committee go further than the state’s; Seattle requires any PAC that raises or spends more than $5,000 to register as a PAC and disclose its donors. Seafor has spent $30,000 so far—five times the legal limit—and, according to reporting in Geekwire, had a budget of $163,000 through September.

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Both complaints also allege that Seafor’s affiliated website advertising “news about city hall,” CivicTide, is also subject to city and state public disclosure rules, because it’s part of the larger Seafor political action group. Unlike actual journalism and commentary, the complaint says, CivicTide’s opinion pieces and AI-powered meeting summaries are part of a political campaign to support candidates, so their funding, too, is subject to public disclosure.

The SEEC complaint also alleges that Seafor is operating illegally as an unregistered grassroots lobbying group. Under the city’s grassroots lobbying rules, groups that raise and spend money to lobby the city on issues, including advocacy for legislation, have to register as lobbyists, which Seafor hasn’t done.

The Ethics and Elections Commission seems most likely to take up the complaint, since it deals with a local campaign; also, the PDC is facing a significant complaint backlog due to hundreds of complaints filed by a single person. On Thursday, SEEC director Wayne Barnett would only confirm that he had received the complaint.

The strongest case that Seafor violated election laws is almost certainly the fact that it advertises itself as a “private” way to fund “serious candidate support” without disclosing who is behind that funding. It’s “really blatant,” Iglitzin said.

The most recent comparable case he could think of, he told me, was a case involving the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a group of corporations including PepsiCo and Kellogg’s that poured millions into a 2013 campaign against a genetically manufactured organism (GMO) labeling initiative without disclosing the source of the money. A protracted lawsuit eventually resulted in the group (now known as the Consumer Brands Association, paying a $9 million fine, including a $3 million donation to food-security nonprofits, in 2022.

Seafor’s $30,000 spend on Kang’s behalf doesn’t compare to the food brands’ massive donation to the anti-GMO campaign. But it is, as Seafor points out repeatedly on its website, merely a “test run” for the “2027 progressive majority play,” when seven city council seats will on the ballot.

Elections, Mayor Wilson, Police

Former SPD Chief Lands on His Feet, Sound Transit Removes Candidate’s Photo from Station, More Moves at Wilson’s Office

1. As we reported on Bluesky Tuesday afternoon, former police chief Shon Barnes got a soft landing after Mayor Wilson asked him to resign, a belabored process that ended in Barnes getting a going-away gift worth almost $750,000. In his new gig will be heading up “public safety programs and strategy” for Mission Ready Technologies (or Mission RT), a Scottsdale, AZ-based company that appears to sell surveillance technology, computer-aided dispatch systems, AI-based 911 response software, and other tech tools to state and local police agencies.

In a long LinkedIn statement that three different LLM detectors assured me was 100% AI, Barnes said he’ll “focus on helping state and local public-safety agencies connect their operational needs with technology, strategy, and organizational readiness” in his new position. The details of the former chief’s new job—like what he’ll actually be doing on a daily basis—are pretty vague, but it sounds like they could involve a lot of travel to cities whose police departments are implementing new technology. Neither Barnes nor Mission RT’s press release said whether Barnes will be renting in Arizona or working remotely from his home outside Chicago.

2. Julie Kang, a candidate for Seattle City Council Position 5, got prominent placement at the grand opening of Sound Transit’s new Pinehurst station on September 30, courtesy of a large photo featuring Kang, her husband, and their daughter placed prominently at the station, The photo was one of a series featuring community groups that had supported the station just east of I-5 at NE 130th Street, and it identified Kang’s family as representatives of the Haller Lake Community Club. Kang posted it on her Instagram page.

 

Sound Transit did the photo shoot on June 30; Kang entered the race late last year.

According to Sound Transit spokeswoman Rachelle Cunningham, Kang was “nominated, selected and photographed as a representative of the Haller Lake Community Club” and her photo was “randomly selected as one of the photographs to be featured at the station.”

At least one community member had a problem with the transit agency giving a candidate such prominent billing just weeks before the election, and complained to Sound Transit shortly after the station opened. The agency acted fast. By Friday night, two days after it went up, the photo of Kang and her family was gone.

Asked about the swift removal of the image, Cunningham said, “we heard concerns from community members about the photos and the perception of agency funds being used to support a campaign. Sound Transit does not endorse political candidates, and the photos were removed Friday.”

Sound Transit emailed Kang late Friday afternoon to let her know the photo was coming down . In response, Kang wrote, “When our family agreed to participate in the community photo shoot, we did so because representation matters to us. As an Asian American family, we wanted our community to be visible in the public spaces and transportation system that belong to all of us. At the time, I had no expectation that I would someday be a candidate for Seattle City Council.”

“I respect Sound Transit’s responsibility to remain neutral in elections. At the same time, I hope you will reconsider whether removing a longstanding community image simply because one of the people pictured later became a candidate is the appropriate way to maintain that neutrality.”

Kang told PubliCola she was referring to her general support for the light rail station, not the photo shoot in June.

3. Ansel Herz, the former Stranger reporter who’s spent the last decade or so doing comms for progressive candidates and causes, will take over Mayor Katie Wilson’s press office as press secretary and digital strategy director next Wednesday. Wilson has had a string of temporary press secretaries since Sage Wilson left in June, including, most recently, Alex Hudson, the former Transportation Choices Coalition director, who’ll return to her previous role as a transportation policy advisor.

Alex Gallo-Brown, a longtime who was glued to her side on the campaign, will no longer be Wilson’s director of community relations; instead, he’ll step into the newly created position of  “senior advisor on public engagement.” Matt McIntosh, another Wilson campaign staffer who’s currently a community relations manager, will be Wilson’s interim community relations director. The change means that Gallo-Brown will no longer be directly managing staff, but will have more direct control, along with Herz, over Wilson’s online communications.

As we reported, Wilson fired her digital communications manager Amy Piñon earlier this year, hiring a temporary contractor to do social media in her stead.

Wilson’s communications office has had extremely high turnover since she took office, the result of both firings (Wilson axed her original comms director, Seferiana Day, in June) and voluntary departures, like former press secretary Wilson’s. The turmoil reflects, among other issues, an ongoing tension between campaign loyalists who came into office wanting to blow up the old, institutional ways of doing things and government veterans with experience working in those institutions.

Wilson recently hired Tara Lee, a longtime comms professional who’s worked for former Gov. Jay Inslee as well as the Washington Budget and Policy Center, the nerdy left-wing think tank, as communications director.

City Council, Elections, LGBTQ+, Mayor Wilson

Council Learns What “One-Time Funding” Means; Podcaster’s Advocacy for Anti-Trans Campaign Didn’t Violate Election Law

1. City council members who funded an unsustainable budget last year by using one-time dollars to fund tens of millions in new spending are finding out this year what “one-time funding” means.

For years, the council has used a combination of one-time spending and magical thinking to approve new budget adds every year, without creating any kind of plan to pay for them in the future. Last year alone, the council added $78 million in one-time spending to a budget that was already deeply unsustainable. (If you search the budget they approved, you’ll see that the phrase “one-time funding” appears no fewer than 107 times!)

One-time does not mean “actually forever, but we’ll find money for it later (wink).” It means one-time—as city budget director Aly Pennucci repeatedly had to remind outraged councilmembers, who complained that programs they failed to fund for more than one or two years had somehow vanished in Wilson’s budget. These included subsidies for private inpatient rehab, a “district fund” for each councilmember, and a long list of small-business assistance programs. (The budget does include between $10 million and $15 million to make some of the council’s 2026 additions permanent.)

Well into the third day of departmental budget presentations, Rob Saka wanted to know why Wilson was not funding a homeownership program the council funded with one-time dollars last year. Pennucci gave the same explanation she’d been giving for days. Saka, using his oratorical shouting voice (if you watch council meetings, you know the one), responded: “So I hear you saying, it’s not technically a cut, because it was a one-time add!”

To his credit, unlike other councilmembers, Saka did not follow up this comment by continuing to refer to the reduction in one-time funds as a cut.

There was one instance when a council member objected not to the end of one-time funding, but to Wilson’s decision to find money for a priority the council and Harrell previously paid for with one-time funds. Dan Strauss zeroed in on $$4 million for food banks and hot meal programs the council funded on a one-time basis this year. These funds, Strauss said, should be closely scrutinized, because unlike public safety, “providing food is not a charter responsibility.”

Bob Kettle brought up a similar objection when he suggested that the Office of Housing could address some of its own significant budget shortfall by building less affordable housing and counting projects built by the Seattle Social Housing developer, which is separate from city government, toward Seattle’s total number of affordable housing units.

Thinking of affordable housing in the city as one big thing, Kettle said, could help the council “ameliorate” some of Wilson’s “wrong choices”—like setting theoretical caps on police hiring after 2028—by freeing up funding for other council priorities. Counting those units as Seattle affordable housing “could provide some flexibility in the budgeting process because, hey, you know, [the social housing developer has] also got their shoulder in and they’re working hard to contribute to the overall process,” Kettle said. 

Social housing (which the council’s centrists tried to stop) is funded by a dedicated payroll tax, and was designed to create a new kind of mixed-income public housing in which higher-income renters subsidize lower-income renters. It is quite different than the subsidized affordable housing OH funds and builds, and the two aren’t fungible. Getting rid of some low-income subsidized housing would actually eliminate housing for low-income people,

(As an side: Elected officials who support more funding for police often raise this claim about “charter responsibilities,” as in “public safety is our number one charter responsibility.” But actually, the charter lays many other basic responsibilities city government is supposed to address, and “health” actually comes before “safety,” followed by “environment” and “general welfare.”)

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There was also a lot of—what’s the technical term?—nonsense and grandstanding from the council, particular when the Seattle Department of Transportation presented its budget. Struass, in particular, took the opportunity to gripe about hyperlocal issues in his neighborhood, including the fact that King County Metro cut hours on his bus route, which he has consistently characterized as the only bus route from Ballard to downtown Seattle. (It is not). You can read about more of those on my Bluesky.

One other exchange I do want to highlight is Strauss’ suggestion that the city is wasting money by allowing the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to serve as the Continuum of Care for the region. “A bureaucratic system from the county” is “creating inefficiencies for us,” Strauss asserted, adding “I don’t think we have time for that.”

While there have obviously been massive financial problems at the KCRHA—which is why the city is reasserting control over the homelessness contracts it funds—the continuum of care is a federally mandated system that oversees applications for federal funding for programs across King County and its 39 cities. It has never been at the city of Seattle, and a recent forensic audit did not identify it as a source of financial issues.

2. As a few others reported last week (when I was out of town), the state Public Disclosure Commission dismissed a complaint against Let’s Go Washington, the group behind two initiatives targeting children’s rights at school, on September 23. The complaint was filed by Washingtonians for Ethical Government, a nonprofit established in 2015. I reported on the initial complaint back in May

The first initiative would ban trans girls from playing sports in school and require children to prove their sex assigned at birth, through a medically unnecessary physical exam if they don’t have a longtime pediatrician willing to attest that they possess a vagina. The second would give parents access to any notes teachers or counselors make about conversations with students, including conversations about sensitive topics they may feel uncomfortable or unsafe broaching at home, like gender, abortion and birth control, and sexuality.

The complaint alleged that right-wing podcaster Brandi Kruse, who has served as a de facto spokesperson for the campaign, was doing official campaign work when she spoke on the campaign’s behalf. In short, WEG argued that Kruse’s speeches at campaign rallies and fundraisers constituted work on behalf of the campaign, and the campaign should have either compensated her for that work or reported it as an in-kind contribution. The PDC disagreed, agreeing with Kruse and the campaign that the podcaster is just a regular campaign volunteer expressing her personal opinions, and distinguishing her “keynote” speeches to Republican Party groups from her campaign speeches because she does “significant advance planning” for the former.

Kruse argued that the promotion does for the campaign on her own podcast isn’t political advertising either, because the campaign does not directly “control” what she says there. (In theory, she could say something that cast the campaign in a poor light, though she never has). The PDC didn’t address that defense.

Density, Elections, LGBTQ+, Mayor Wilson, Media, Police, Uncategorized

Poll Tests Anti-Density Messages, Mayor Wilson Does Damage Control, and Ron Davis Has Another Anti-Stranger Manifesto
Source: Fulcrum Strategy Group poll

1. A recent messaging poll by a group calling itself the “Green Neighborhoods Coalition” tested talking points against Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposal to finally get moving on the the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, which has been mired in appeals for more than a year. Activists who oppose the plan claim that allowing modest new apartment buildings in and around Seattle’s suburban-style single-family enclaves will “deforest” Seattle, result in the deaths of orcas and salmon, and lead to untold environmental devastation.

The comprehensive plan, which has been pushed back repeatedly since early 2023, epitomizes the concept of “endless delay”—or the “Seattle Process,” if you prefer.

The poll, conducted by Fulcrum Strategy Group (the same pollster behind recent Chamber and Challenge Seattle polls), describes Mayor Katie Wilson’s “taller, denser, faster” approach to the comprehensive plan neutrally, as a series of zoning changes designed “to more quickly address Seattle’s affordable housing crisis by supporting faster development of apartments and condos across Seattle with a particular focus on greater density transit corridors.”

Then, it tests detailed negative messages among people who say they support “a more deliberate approach” to development, including the argument that building more housing will destroy “parks, trees, and greenways”; that the approach “shortchanges climate resiliency” by “ignoring” climate change and “long-term environmental resiliency”; and that (finally) moving forward on the comp plan is a way of “cutting corners, taking shortcuts, excluding community voices, and trying to rush a decision.”

Andrew Thibault, the co-founder of Fulcrum, said the Green Neighborhoods Coalition’s messaging was not “NIMBY/anti-density.”

Editor’s note: This post originally said that the Seattle Parks Foundation was “the group behind” the Green Neighborhoods Coalition. They are the Green Neighborhoods Coalition’s fiscal sponsor, not a direct funder. We regret the error.

2. Less than a day before we published our story about interim Police Chief Andre Sayles’ complaint against a detective who spoke at a pro-LGBTQ event, Mayor Katie Wilson was at a meeting of the city’s LGBTQ Commission, doing a bit of preemptive damage control. At the time of the Thursday night meeting, Wilson’s office still had not responded to our questions for the story we published the following morning.

According to three commission members, and as reported by Seattle Gay News, Wilson and a staffer told the commission our story was basically toothless—specifically, that Sayles had only asserted that the detective, Beth Wareing, represented herself as an SPD detective in violation of orders not to do so. Wilson explained the issue as a “procedural” problem rather than a serious overstep by Sayles, one commissioner said, and let the commission know the case had been dismissed.

Not only did Wareing not mention her affiliation with SPD at the No Hate in WA State press conference, this was not the most incendiary allegation Sayles made against her. He also alleged that she lied about what two anti-LGBTQ initiatives would do, which would be a violation of SPD’s policy against dishonesty and a fireable offense that could have ended Wareing’s career. (She retired rather than continuing at SPD after a sabbatical as the direct result of Sayles’ unfounded complaint). According to OPA, Sayles’ claims against Wareing risked violating her right to free speech.

Jessa Davis, the co-chair of the LGBTQ Commission, said she was most concerned that Sayles seems to have taken right-wing podcaster Brandi Kruse at her word that Wareing lied about what the initiatives would do. Kruse, Davis said, is a “political activist who has publicly advocated in support of these ballot initiatives that the detective was speaking against.” In fact, she’s being investigated by the state Public Disclosure Commission for her advocacy work on behalf of the initiative sponsor Let’s Go Washington, which the PDC calls an in-kind contribution.

“We’ve seen SPD officers engage in political expression before, including statements that many people in Seattle and in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community find deeply troubling,” Davis said, pointing to the double standard that allows SPD officers to express right-wing viewpoints freely. “If we’re going to protect the officers’ rights to political expression, then the rules have to be applied consistently.”

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Wilson’s office said they didn’t have complete information about Sayles’ allegations when they spoke to the LGBTQ+ Commission, and that they were trying to be “transparent and provide them with information” before PubliCola’s story went up. “It was meant to be a high-level heads up, not an attempt to minimize the story or explain it away,” a spokesperson said. “In part, the briefing was for Mayor Wilson to express her expectation that Chief Sayles would be an inclusive leader.”

According to the spokesperson, Wilson had only read the closed case summary about the complaint, which did not include most of the information we reported, when she addressed our story at the meeting.

“The Mayor had only received very high-level information about the case,” and was “actively working with OPA to obtain additional documentation. We believed it was important for us to share with the community the limited information we had received.”

Some commission members, however, left the meeting feeling reassured that Sayles had done nothing serious, and that PubliCola’s story was about a minor incident that fizzled—rather than a serious complaint that led a 30-year detective to leave the department in frustration and disgust.

3. Ron Davis, the former 46th District legislative candidate who ran as an urbanist alternative to state Rep. Gerry Pollet, sent out yet another 3,300-word manifesto to his supporters last week, this one all about the Stranger and its failure to endorse him. In Davis’ mind, this decision was not based on the paper’s actual assessment of him and his candidacy, because that process would have obviously led them to endorse Davis over Will Dreher, the other candidate in the race.

Instead, Davis’ theory is that the “oligarchs” who bought the Stranger (and got rid of three staffers Davis preferred to the current staff) 1) forced the editorial board to endorse Dreher after voting for Davis and 2) maybe (?) told the union that represents Stranger workers to write a statement saying that the board really did prefer Dreher, not Davis, which Davis argues is impossible without interference by publisher Brady Walkinshaw, who knows Dreher. (He also knows Davis, by the way, and endorsed him personally for city council in 2023.)

Assuring readers that he “consulted heavily with two STEM PhDs” in his analysis, Davis spins out a theory in which the Stranger’s endorsement is “always decisive” for lefty candidates, across “hundreds” of past elections, and that there is a knowable, specific “Stranger bump” that applies to all of those candidates, and which Davis should have rightly received.

The whole tendentious essay is almost a textbook definition of correlation-causation confusion, all leading up to Davis’ argument that the new, crowdsourced “Lefty Cheat Sheet” can be a viable alternative to the Stranger’s endorsements, whose “buyout and behavior” have “dismayed and betrayed” its readers.

Candidates are often pissed that they don’t get endorsements. Davis is the first one I can recall who has turnsd a grudge against the Stranger into a proto-crusade against the paper’s endorsements in general. The truth, as Josh argued last week, is almost certainly much more banal—the Stranger met Davis, and they weren’t impressed by him. That should lead to self-reflection, not a multi-volume conspiracy theory.

4. We discussed a counter-complaint against Sayles, KCRHA’s handling of recent layoffs, and Davis’ post-election meltdown on last week’s episode of Seattle Nice—give it a listen if you haven’t already!