SPD defies a legal agreement to produce public records, Tammy Morales says she’ll step down, Alexis Mercedes Rinck steps up, and more

By Erica C. Barnett

Monday, December 2

SPD Is Still Delaying Public Disclosure by “Grouping” Records Requests, In Defiance of 2023 Settlement

The Seattle Police Department told PubliCola last week that they are “grouping” our 12 outstanding records requests and responding to them one at a time, rather than working on multiple requests at once, in defiance of a settlement with the Seattle Times that prohibited exactly this practice. SPD responded to our questions about how this could possibly be legal by reiterating that this is their policy.

Tuesday, December 3

Separated at Birth: “In this House” Seattle Liberals and Project 2025

In the latest edition of his Maybe Metropolis column, Josh Feit finds clear parallels between Project 2025’s plan for housing in the second Trump Administration and the priorities of liberal Seattle NIMBYs in Seattle: Both want to preserve single-family neighborhoods at any cost.

Wednesday, December 4

City Councilmember Tammy Morales Will Leave the Council In January

Seattle’s lone remaining progressive council member, Tammy Morales, told PubliCola this week that she’s leaving the council just one year after winning reelection. In our interview and her public announcement, Morales described a “toxic” workplace in which her six new colleagues oppose her legislation reflexively, shut her out of meetings, insult and berate her on the dais, and make it nearly impossible to do her job.

Thursday, December 5

Newest City Council Member “Deeply Saddened” By Morales’ Decision to Step Down

When Alexis Mercedes Rinck handily defeated appointee Tanya Woo (whom Morales also beat in 2023), Seattle lefties assumed the two women would form a small but mighty progressive bloc on the council. Now, with Morales leaving, Rinck says she’s hoping the council will “take a breath” and work to create a work environment where people with different political views can work together.

Friday, December 6

Seattle Nice: Should Tammy Morales Have Stayed on the Council?

In an especially heated episode of Seattle Nice, Sandeep argued that Morales should have stopped “bitching” and stayed on the council, David said she should have stuck it out unless she had “serious mental health concerns,” and both guys made what I consider a false equivalency between public commenters and protesters who were rude to past council members and the workplace behavior Morales described.

Monday, November 18

Last-Minute Amendments, Lack of Transparency Characterize New Council’s First Budget

The city council, which has six new members, raced through this year’s budget process, wrapping things up about a week earlier than usual. The process was less transparent than any budget in recent memory, with last-minute amendments and few opportunities for the public to get a clear sense of what the council was doing, much less weigh in, before consequential votes.

Tuesday, November 19

Seattle Nice: Dow Constantine’s Legacy as King County Executive

On this week’s episode of the podcast, we talked about the county’s longest-serving executive, Dow Constantine, and his imprint on the county, including the light rail system, public health, ballot measures that have funded human services, shelters, and mental health care, and his big plans to redevelop Pioneer Square.

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Thursday, November 21

With Only Morales Voting “No,” City Council Passes Budget That Repurposes JumpStart, Cuts Jobs

Big-picture, the 2025-2026 city budget prioritizes police, funds unprecedented surveillance to enforce new laws designed to penalize sex work and drug use, and cuts dozens of jobs, including the people who work to reduce workplace discrimination and keep the city’s critical IT systems running.

Despite an ongoing structural deficit, the budget also includes more than $100 million in new spending, funded with the JumpStart spending tax, which the council permanently converted from a dedicated funding source for affordable housing, Green New Deal priorities, student mental health programs, and other spending categories into an all-purpose revenue source for the city’s general fund.

Saturday, November 23

Office of Police Accountability Director Out, Local Capital Gains Tax Loses Momentum, and More

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced the departure of Office of Police Accountability director Gino Betts on Friday afternoon; Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr and OPA employees recently raised concerns that Betts had slow-walked major investigations on serious alleged misconduct while focusing on minor misconduct cases. Also, the council’s vote against Councilmember Cathy Moore’s proposed capital gains tax grew more lopsided at the full council meeting, a bad sign for its future passage. And Joy Hollingsworth dismissed Logan Bowers, her extremely online (and extremely opinionated) staffer, just before the budget vote.

Budget debates, Trump-era worries, speeding cops, and more.

By Erica C. Barnett

I was busy watching (and live-posting about) the City Council’s budget committee meetings this week, so posting on the site was a little light on Thursday and Friday (more on that at the bottom of this post). Beyond the budget, this week’s posts included a piece by Josh about what’s worrying him this week, news about SPD’s internal policy on speeding, a post about (yet another) anti-trans group renting space from the Seattle Public Library, and more.

Monday, November 11

Capital Gains Tax, JumpStart Spending Plan Top Council’s Budget Agenda This Week

Big-picture, the biggest proposed changes in the city’s 2025-2026 budget are an amendment from budget chair Dan Strauss to end the city’s short-lived commitment to spend the proceeds from the JumpStart payroll tax on a list of specific categories, including housing and youth mental health, and an effort by Cathy Moore to pass a 2 percent tax on capital gains that would impact fewer than 1,000 people in the city. The council is currently poised to gut JumpStart and reject capital gains.

Tuesday, November 12

Three Things I’m Worried About: Trickle-Down Bullying; Martial Law; and Acquiescence

Josh Feit writes about what’s worrying him about Trump’s victory, including a resurgence of abusive social behavior, harsh crackdowns in the very cities that progressives wrongly consider “blue islands”; and a widespread posture of resigned acquiescence among liberals and leftists who are exhausted and confounded by Trump’s victory

County Says They Have “No Intention” of Turning Sobering Center into a Secure Facility for Drug Law Violators

A micro-example of the new City Council’s approach to the budget (in general: blustering confidence about policy prescriptions combined with righteous indignation at any suggestion that they don’t know everything already) is Maritza Rivera’s proposal to spend city resources researching whether King County’s sobering center could be a locked facility for people arrested under the city’s new anti-drug laws. As I reported, Rivera never reached out to the county, and they have no interest in changing the purpose of a facility that’s been around for decades.

Seattle Police Department Updates Its Emergency Driving Policy

Almost two years after officer Kevin Dave struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk while driving 74 miles an hour, SPD has updated its policy on speeding to include more detailed, but still imperfect, guidelines about when emergency driving is allowed.

Wednesday, November 13

Afternoon Fizz: Burien City Manager Filed Complaint Against Public Commenter; Seattle Library Hosts Another Anti-Trans Event

Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon filed a formal complaint against a local public commenter for advocating for a higher minimum wage in the city, accusing her of breaking a law that bars public officials from electioneering. And the Seattle Public Library is once again renting its facilities to an anti-trans group, saying it can’t refuse to rent to any person or organization unless they explicitly threaten violence.

Thursday and Friday, November 14 and 15

Budget updates on Bluesky

As I mentioned, I’ve been updating readers about the city’s budget discussions on Bluesky, so if you aren’t following me there, you’re missing out on a lot of fascinating real-time updates and analysis that provide insight into how the council, and especially the five brand-new members, is navigating the complex budget process and each other this year. Follow me, PubliCola, and the podcast I do with Sandeep Kaushik and David Hyde, Seattle Nice.

The city hasn’t fixed its budget problems. Also: Interim police chief Sue Rahr, changes at the homelessness authority, and surveillance cameras coming to a neighborhood near you.

Monday, October 7

Interim SPD Chief Sue Rahr: “I’m Super Optimistic About Where We’re Headed”

In a broad-ranging interview with PubliCola, interim Seattle police chief Sue Rahr discussed the city’s new drug use and prostitution banishment zones, what kind of hiring standards the city should use for new officers, and what’s going on with the search for her replacement.

Wednesday, October 9

Harrell’s Budget Projects $158 Million Deficit, Suggesting the City Isn’t Done Using JumpStart to Fix Shortfalls

Dipping heavily into the JumpStart payroll tax fund, which is supposed to pay for affordable housing, to fund general-fund needs like police and transportation was supposed to fix the city’s massive budget deficit. But in the mayor’s budget, the deficits start growing again in 2027, which will likely mean more raids on JumpStart in the future.

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Thursday, October 10

“Disempowering”: Advocates Decry Decision to Reduce Role of People Who’ve Been Homeless at Homelessness Authority

The mantra of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority has been to center people with lived experience of homelessness and including them in decision-making roles. But a new agreement removes people with lived experience from positions of authority at the agency, which will now be governed by a panel of elected officials, leading many advocates to cry foul.

Friday, October 11

Council Splashes Out on Surveillance Cameras and Cop Hiring Bonuses, Lashes Out at Civil Rights Office for Raising Equity Concerns

Also this week, the city council approved $50,000 police hiring bonuses and a police surveillance camera pilot that will cost more than $6 million over two years, including salaries for 21 new police officers. Responding to a sober report from the city’s Office for Civil Rights that recommended more community engagement, council public safety committee chair Bob Kettle said, “Seriously? ‘Expand outreach to pilot communities’? I say expand your outreach to the Seattle City Council!”

The new city council takes on its first city budget and the council candidates take on our policy questions. 

Monday, September 30

Why Does the Mayor’s Budget Use Outdated, Inaccurate Estimates for JumpStart Spending?

This year, Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed a budget that uses most of the revenues from the JumpStart payroll tax, which is supposed to primarily fund affordable housing to fill a massive general fund deficit. Not only that—the budget ensures that the funding that actually goes to the tax’s original spending priorities will decline in real terms every year, by setting a baseline far below actual tax collections and increasing it every year by less than the rate of inflation—ensuring that as long as revenues from the tax keep increasing, more and more can be siphoned off.

Tuesday, October 1

What Seattle Will Lose If It Loses the Seattle Channel

Harrell’s budget would eliminate all original programming, along with the entire web team, at the Seattle Channel, the city’s award-winning municipal broadcast channel. We talked to current and former Seattle Channel employees and contractors about what the city will lose if Harrell manages to shut down what makes the channel unique among its peers.

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Thursday, October 3

Seattle Nice: Listen to the City Council Debate Before You Vote!

On Tuesday, my Seattle Nice podcast co-hosts and I hosted a City Council debate at Town Hall Seattle, where Tanya Woo and Alexis Mercedes Rinck answered tough policy questions in front of a raucous crowd. If you missed it, you can still listen to our live recording by tuning in to this week’s edition of Seattle Nice.

Friday, October 5

Seattle Budget Update: Rob Saka Has Questions

Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka has been raising a lot of questions during this year’s budget presentations. Questions like: Are school zone speeding cameras bad? Should the city keep its ceremonial horse patrol, which mayors have been trying to get rid of since the McGinn administration? And can we “bodega our way out of” food deserts?

Saturday, October 5

Seattle Nice Minisode! Who Won the Seattle City Council Debate?

We did it! We managed to make a mini-episode that didn’t go as long as a regular episode! In this one, we discuss how the candidates for the citywide Seattle City Council seat, Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Tanya Woo, performed at the Seattle Nice-moderated debate on Tuesday at Town Hall.

A roundup of news from PubliCola this week.

Monday, September 16

Harrell Opposes Funding Social Housing; County Councilmember Zahilay Seeks $1 Billion Housing Investment

One day before the council sent an unfunded “alternative” to social housing to the February ballot, where it will appear alongside the original proposal to fund permanently affordable, mixed-income housing, Mayor Bruce Harrell sent an email to council members saying social housing raised unspecified “legal issues.” And: King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay wants the county to look into issuing debt to pay for low-income housing.

Former Community Police Commission Director’s 2025 Budget Slashed Staff Unnecessarily

Cali Ellis, the director of the Community Police Commission, reportedly decided to cut two positions from the CPC’s small staff after being told the city’s police accountability agencies don’t have to make cuts. Ellis, who is technically on administrative leave, is reportedly planning to sue the CPC for pushing her out.

Council Wants to Increase Lateral Police Hiring Bonuses to $50,000 and Make Bonus Program Permanent

Police hiring is on an upswing now that brand-new officers are guaranteed six-figure salaries, but the city thinks even more money will entice people to become cops here. They’re planning to make police bonuses permanent, modify rules so officers can keep some of the money even if they leave within five years, and increase bonuses for officers who come from other departments to $50,000; the money will come from the millions of extra funds SPD always has sloshing around in its budget thanks to unfilled but funded positions.

Tuesday, September 17

Council “Alternative” to Social Housing Would Raid JumpStart for Small, Short-Term Affordable Housing Pilot

The city council forged ahead with its “alternative” to social housing—a plan to put $10 million a year into traditional affordable housing that would need ongoing operations subsidies because, unlike social housing, low-income housing does not include relatively high-income tenants subsidizing lower-income tenants’ rent. The council’s plan would siphon funding from the JumpStart payroll tax, which pays for other affordable housing programs, in lieu of the excess compensation tax that would provide about $50 million a year for social housing/

Wednesday, September 18

Effort to Repeal Gig Worker Wages Appears Dead; Design Review Chair Says City Should Get Rid of Design Review

Companies like DoorDash spent millions trying to repeal a law that requires them to partly compensate their workers for costs like business insurance, employer-side taxes, and mileage; now, lobbying reports suggest, they’ve conceded defeat. And: As the city council considered a measure that would eliminate design review for housing, hotels, and life sciences buildings downtown, the head of the downtown design review board said he would love to be out of a job.

With Police On Hand, Council Adopts Drug, Sex Work Banishment Zones

Despite plentiful evidence from recent Seattle history that arresting women for “prostitution loitering” on Aurora and banishing people from “drug areas” and “areas of prostitution” are ineffective strategies, the council voted to reinstitute these old, rejected strategies, confidently predicting that the banishment zones and loitering law will “disrupt” drug activity, help people get sober, and teach women they should stop being sex workers. Ten cops were on hand to deal with “disruptions” from the crowd, which occur when the council refuses to let public commenter speak and those people yell in protest.

Department of Public Defense Director Resigns Abruptly

Anita Khandelwal, the longtime director of King County’s public defense department, resigned abruptly (her last day will be October 4), surprising many staff. Her departure comes amid internal debate about the role of DPD and how much funding it needs to keep caseloads sustainable; King County Executive Dow Constantine will release his new budget next week.

Seattle Nice: Will All the New Drug Laws Help Drug Users?

We brought on UW researcher and epidemiologist Caleb Banta-Green to discuss the new Stay Out of Drug Area law, which council members (and Sandeep) claim will reduce addiction by disrupting “open-air drug markets.” Banta-Green explained why strategies that push people around without providing a wide range of treatment and harm reduction options are doomed to fail.

Friday, September 20

Friday Fizz: Council Advances “Alternative” to Social Housing, Design Review to End (Temporarily) Downtown

The council made the I-137 alternative official in a special meeting, pushing the measure through just under the wire before budget deliberations start. And the council’s land use committee agreed to move forward with the three-year pilot that will end design review downtown.

Agreement Between City, King County Would Allow More Jail Bookings from Across the City

Harrell and Constantine have agreed to a deal that will allow police to send people accused of any misdemeanor, including public drug use, to the downtown jail. The jail has restricted bookings because of short-staffing, but will now allow the city to use up to 135 beds at a time (up from a current average of 75). The jail will also take bookings on any misdemeanor from all over the city; previously, police could only bring in people arrested in the greater downtown area.