1. King County Regional Homelessness Authority CEO Kelly Kinnison likely forestalled her own firing by resigning abruptly on Friday, November 6. In a brief, 153-word resignation letter, Kinnsion wrote that given the KCRHA governing board’s recent decision to “right size” the agency and move the administration of the region’s homelessness contracts back to Seattle and King County, “I believe it is in the best interest of the agency for me to make room for those changes.”
The KCRHA began to unravel earlier this year, when a forensic audit found that sloppy accounting and fiscal practices had resulted in the apparent disappearance of $13 million, which was not fully accounted for until late September. Last month, a followup report found that because of miscalculations that lasted for the duration of the agency, the KCRHA had overspent its budget by almost $17 million, which the city and King County (the KCRHA’s two primary funders) will now have to pay.
Kinnison’s announcement took place at the beginning of a KCHRA governing board meeting that was scheduled to include a closed executive session, called under a subsection of the Open Public Meetings Act that allows closed meetings to review the performance of a public employee, a typical step before a governing body fires an executive. During the meeting itself, that item was apparently removed from the agenda and the board held a brief executive session to discuss litigation, but not the performance evaluation, which would have become unnecessary once Kinnison resigned on her own.
It’s unclear what litigation the board was discussing. Former KCRHA employee Xochitl Maykovitch filed a lawsuit against the agency in June, alleging that Kinnison had illegally withheld records related to an investigation into staff complaints against Kinnison. That investigation, by an outside lawyer, found that Kinnison retaliated against Maykovitch and the KCRHA’s general counsel, Edmund Witter.
In July, PubliCola reported that it appeared Kinnison did attempt to conceal her correspondence from public disclosure law, cutting off the public disclosure officer’s access to her emails and asking an IT staffer to label all her communications “deliberative” to categorically exempt them from records requests.
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The KCRHA’s governing board, made up of elected officials, had seemed stubbornly dedicated to keeping both Kinnison and her recently promoted chief operating officer, William Towey, on board. For more than a year, the board more or less ignored staff complaints about Kinnison (including allegations of racial bias) and demands that the board fire executive staff, including Towey and Kinnison, before getting rid of critical workers.
Board members were tepid about Kinnison’s tenure on Friday; only Mayor Katie Wilson and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay spoke. “We appreciate your work and also acknowledge the tremendously challenging job that you had with the federal landscape, with the structures in this entity, that are very challenging to navigate and the complexity of the homelessness crisis in general,” Zahilay said.
Ironically, it will be Towey, who Kinnison hired over widespread objections, who will now take over as effective leader of the agency until the board can appoint an acting CEO. Since last year, Towey has served as Kinnison’s right-hand man, speaking on the agency’s behalf at meetings from which she has been absent or at which she sat next to him in silence.
Kinnison has not signed a separation agreement, according to a KCRHA spokesperson, suggesting that she will not receive severance.
2. Seattle Budget Director Aly Pennucci, a former longtime City Council staffer, didn’t mince words in her assessment of the council’s plan to pile tens of millions in new spending—including ongoing projects that the council plans to pay for with “one-time” funds—on to Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposed budget. Had the budget “accurately reflected” many of thse “one-time” items “as ongoing investment,” Pennucci wrote in a letter to the council on Friday, the budget deficit in 2029 would be $41 million. Which—go math!—is what we reported as the council’s unsustainable long-term commitment last week.
“I heard clearly from many of you over the last two months that you consider ending one-time funding as a ‘budget cut,’” Penucci wrote. “So, I want to be clear with you, City employees, and community partners, that items labeled as “one-time” in the budget for 2027, 2028, or both, will be removed from the 2028 and/or 2029 baseline budget. That is your direction to CBO when you adopt spending as one-time.”
“In addition, given the continued economic uncertainty, and the use of fund balances and reserves, we will need to proceed very carefully with authorizing some of this new spending in 2027 so councilmembers should expect that some of the proposals may be frozen, at least until we see the April revenue forecast.” (Emphasis in original).
Pennucci also expressed concern about council budget committee chair Dan Strauss’ decision to dip into financial reserves meant to shore up the JumpStart tax in case of an unexpected revenue shortfall, bringing it below the level required by law. The JumpStart payroll expense tax falls most heavily on a small number of huge companies with highly compensated workers, so it’s inherently volatile, which is why the council previously established a reserve amounting to no less than 10 percent of projected tax revenues.
Finally, Pennucci cautioned against all the “earmarks” in the budget—spending that the budget says will go to an organization “such as” a specific, named group—warning that the council may want funds to go to their preferred organization, but the city is still required to follow state and federal contracting law. This is a perennial losing battle—the mayor and council often specify which groups they want to receive city funding in the budget, using weasel words to avoid explicit earmarks. This year, however, Wilson’s budget included almost no earmarks; the exceptions included adds for Throne and Portland Loo-style public restrooms.
The council’s budget amendments would add at least 21 new earmarks to the budget, including seven for neighborhood associations and business groups in West Seattle, Magnolia, the University District, and SoDo as well as the Seattle Sports Commission, Red Barn Ranch, Lakeside Milam treatment center, and many others.
“If a contracting process results in an award to Council’s desired recipient, the ‘such as’ language can call into question the validity of the process,” Pennucci wrote. “If the contract is awarded to an entity other than Council’s preference, the language results in a disgruntled organization that expected to receive the contract
3. District 5 City Council candidate Julie Kang has still not conceded to her winning opponent, Nilu Jenks, who was leading Kang 59 to 41 on Friday. Concessions, while not legally required, are customary once it’s clear who has won an election. On Friday, Kang posted on Facebook and Instagram that she was still waiting for King County Elections “to finalize the results.” By next year’s election (when Jenks will have to run again for a full four-year term) Kang wrote, she hopes “we will see a safer Aurora, better access to essential services in Lake City, and measurable progress on the commitments made to #seattle residents.”
In an interview with PubliCola in October, Kang said that whether she won or lost, she would run for the North Seattle seat again next year.
