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.

By Erica C. Barnett

Monday, September 2

Three Fun Things for September 2, 2024

I don’t ordinarily include my mini-column of (usually) non-work-related recommendations in the weekly roundup, but since it was a holiday Monday, I’m making an exception. In this week’s installment: An (admittedly work-related) book I’ve been citing nonstop; a recipe to deal with a rare problem in Seattle—too many tomatoes; and a history podcast about getting things wrong.

Tuesday, September 3

Updated and Improved: The City of Seattle’s Employee Directory, Only On PubliCola

The city of Seattle is an outlier among local governments in concealing its employee directory from the public, but it wasn’t always this way: As recently as three years ago, information about how to contact city employees was available on the city’s website. Ever since the directory went dark in the Jenny Durkan administration, I’ve been requesting it and publishing it as a searchable database. This week, I posted the latest edition.

Thursday, September 5

Back from Recess, Council Takes Up Design Review Downtown, Continues Delay on Social Housing Measure

The council has a few weeks left before the annual budget process, which lasts through the fall. In their first meeting after a two-week recess, they debated a proposal to end design review for residential, hotel, and life-sciences developments downtown and took comments on a stalled plan from Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth to allow businesses to keep paying tipped workers a sub-minimum wage.

Friday, September 6

Jaahnavi Kandula’s Family Sues City for $110 Million Plus $11,000, In Direct Reference to Officer’s Callous Comments

Andrew Engelson broke the news that the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, the 23-year-old student who was struck and killed by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave last year, is suing the city for $110 million—plus $11,000, a direct reference to police union vice president Daniel Auderer’s callous “joke” about the value of her young life.

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Maritza Rivera Said She Never Intended to Gut the Equitable Development Initiative. Records Tell a Different Story.

City Councilmember Maritza Rivera faced citywide opposition to her proposal, earlier this year, to freeze funding for the city’s largest anti-displacement program unless the city could spend down all the money carried forward from year to year for future spending, largely on long-term capital projects, by September. Emails and text messages show her disparaging the program months before she began asking questions publicly, and reveal that the city’s planning department did not, as she claimed repeatedly, cancel multiple meetings with her over several months

Council Wants To Expand Drug User Banishment Zones, Complaint Against SPD Attorney Dismissed, and Ex-Councilmember Pedersen Denounces Transportation Levy

We ended the week with a three-story Afternoon Fizz: First, council members are already asking to expand proposed zones from which people accused of public drug use or possession could be banished, which was entirely predictable (read Banished to understand why!) Second, the Office of Police Accountability dismissed a complaint against SPD’s general counsel over a Facebook post that seemed to disparage women who complained about the department’s culture without interviewing the attorney, Rebecca Boatright. Finally, one-term former councilmember Alex Pedersen thinks the transportation levy is a “boondoggle” promoted by “bicycling clubs.”

SOAP zones, Renter Protections, Firefighters vs. “Woke” Department, and More

Monday, August 26

Listen: PubliCola on KUOW and Hacks and Wonks

Sandeep and I went on KUOW’s Seattle Now last week to talk about the latest election news, including King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove’s 51-point margin of victory in the race for Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands.

Also, I went on Crystal Fincher’s Hacks and Wonks podcast, where (in addition to the lands commissioner results) we discussed the city of Seattle’s upcoming budget process,; Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore’s proposal to reinstate old-school policies empowering police to crack down on sex work on Aurora; Moore’s plans to repeal protections for renters passed over the past several years; and more.

Focusing on “Johns” Doesn’t Reduce Street Sex Work, Disproportionately Targets Men of Color, PubliCola Analysis Shows

City Councilmember Cathy Moore has said she will amend her legislation bringing back a repealed law against “prostitution loitering” so that the only people who can be banished from “Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution” (SOAP) zones are men buying sex. But a PubliCola analysis of more than 15 years of court data shows that focusing on sex buyers did not result in a decrease in the sex trade on Aurora and in other SOAP zones. It also had a highly disproportionate impact on Black and Latino men, including many immigrants and non-English speakers.

Tuesday, August 27

Seattle Nice: Is Downtown “Revitalized and Transformed” Yet?

On Seattle Nice, we discussed a new report on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s “Downtown Action Plan,” which promised to revitalize downtown Seattle with a combination of civic boosterism, crackdowns on encampments and drug users, and incentives for businesses to locate in the area. Sandeep (a work-from-the-office guy) says more people need to sacrifice for the good of the downtown economy and start commuting again; I (like all right-thinking people who have the luxury, a work-from-home gal) disagree.

Wednesday, August 28

County Council Commits to “Maintain Operations” at Youth Jail Until Someone Comes Up with a Better Solution

In a reversal from commitments made in 2020, the King County Council expressed their support for keeping the youth jail open, at least until there are better alternatives at some point in the future (wait… wasn’t that what a task force spent the last several years working on?) Bottom line: The dream of closing down the youth jail is over.

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CPC Loses Acting Director, SPD Tries Recruiting Via Podcast, MLK Labor Condemns Council Efforts to Punish Sex Workers, Drug Users

Just weeks after her appointment to head up the struggling Community Police Commission, acting CPC director Bessie Scott is leaving for a new position as city manager for Antioch, California. Also: MLK Labor condemns the city council’s proposals to crack down on sex workers and drug users, which include new banishment zones for drug users, and SPD’s $3.4 million marketing contract now includes recruitment ads on podcasts.

Friday, August 30

Top Fire Official Helped Concoct Hoax Against Department, Targeting “Woke” Policies Like Vaccine Mandate

The former deputy fire chief and another white firefighter created a fake “proud Latino” from South Park to complain about the term “brown out,” supposedly to demonstrate department leadership were too focused on being “woke, hundreds of Signal messages obtained through a citizen records request reveal. The messages also show department staff trading vaccine conspiracy theories, using homophobic slurs, and providing packaged, “paint by numbers” stories to right-wing media.

 

SOAP Zones, Drunk Driving, the Community Police Commission, and More

Monday, August 19

Moore Says SOAP Zones Won’t Apply to Sex Workers; Former Chief Diaz Still Making $28,000 a Month

Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore—who has proposed reinstating “prostitution loitering” laws that allow police to search and arrest suspected sex workers, along with Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) trespassing zones—announced that in response to feedback, her legislation will only banish sex buyers, not sellers, from SOAP areas. And: Former police chief Adrian Diaz remains on SPD’s payroll four months after he lost his title, at his current pay rate of more than $28,000 a month.

Tuesday, August 20

Seattle Nice: Will Anti-Sex Work Laws Help Sex Workers?

On this week’s Seattle Nice, we discussed Moore’s legislation, which also includes a new gross misdemeanor for promoting prostitution loitering, aimed at pimps. (Prostitution, and promoting prostitution, are already felonies.) Sandeep thinks this will help crack down on pimps, while I’m skeptical, since the new law also provides a disincentive for women to talk to police.

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Thursday, August 22

Lowering the Amount People Can Drink and Drive Would Save Lives. So Why Has the Legislature Failed to Do It?

For the third year in a row, state Senator—and former state trooper—John Lovick plans to introduce a bill that would lower the maximum blood alcohol content for drivers to 0.05, putting Washington state in line with Utah and most of the world. The restaurant and booze industries argue this will harm their businesses, as people choose to go out less rather than risk getting pulled over, and say it wouldn’t do much to save lives. The state’s traffic safety commission begs to differ, arguing that the current level, 0.08, allows people to drive impaired or drunk.

Friday, August 23

Community Police Commission Hires Acting Director, Burien Plans Closed-Door Police Chief Selection

The embattled Community Police Commission has hired a former interim director, Bessie Scott, as its acting director, and pulled back from holding its usual biweekly meetings until it can sort out its internal issues—among them, a commission with high turnover and many vacancies and a staff shortage. And: After driving out popular police chief Ted Boe, the city of Burien plans to hold a closed-door process for selecting a new chief; the city manager, Adolfo Bailon, justified his decision by saying “politically-extreme activists” would hijack the process.

Tuesday, August 13

Advocates, Scholars, and Legal Experts Say Criminalizing Sex Work Harms Workers, Fails to “Clean Up” Neighborhoods

As the city council prepared to discuss legislation that would authorize police to detain and arrest sex workers “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” and ban those same sex workers from hundreds of blocks around Aurora Ave. N, experts told us that the effect of such laws and orders (which were a routine practice until fairly recently) has been shown to harm sex workers and will not address issues like gun violence and sex trafficking, as the proposal’s proponents claim.

The City Council Says Cracking Down on Sex Workers Will Create Services, Stop Sex Trafficking, and End Gun Violence. Don’t Believe Them.

The council, business owners, and people who live on or near Aurora have made a number claims about what the legislation says and what it would accomplish. In this opinion piece, I explained why most of the claims around the bill’s positive impacts are baseless or false: It does nothing to address gun violence, does not “allow” cops to intervene if they suspect sex trafficking (since they already can), and does not propose or fund any new services for sex workers.

Wednesday, August 14

Council Rejects Full 2024 Funding for Youth Mental Health, Calls Previous Council Lazy and Irresponsible

In what’s starting to feel like one in an endless series of political temper tantrums, members of the newly elected city council blamed the previous council for passing legislation last year to increase the JumpStart payroll tax to raise about $20 million a year for student mental health, saying they basically did nothing for four years. Then they voted not to spend almost half of this year’s $20 million; the unspent money can now be used to help fill the budget deficit.

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City and County Plan to Eliminate Homelessness Authority’s Implementation Board

PubliCola had the scoop on a proposal from the city and county (the agency’s two main funders) to eliminate the King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s implementation board, made up of stakeholders who don’t hold elected office, and consolidate its power into the governing board, made up of elected officials. Officials have called the two-board structure “confusing” and said changing it will make the authority run more efficiently; advocates say the KCRHA won’t be effective without additional funding for programs that help homeless people.

Friday, August 16

Council May Wait Until Next Year to Roll Back Renter Protections; Community Police Commission Dismissed Consultant Who Advised Them to Fix Harms They Caused

Two stories in Friday’s Afternoon Fizz: First, City Councilmember Cathy Moore reportedly plans to hold off on legislation that would roll back renters’ rights passed by the previous council, including a law that requires landlords to rent to the first qualified applicant and one that bans winter evictions.

And: We got a copy of a consultant’s report recommending that the Community Police Commission change the way it interacts with the community it’s supposed to represent. After reviewing the report, the CPC terminated the consultant’s contract.

We were on fire this week. Help us keep it going.

Quick note before we get into this week’s digest: PubliCola was on a roll this week, posting a huge feature on police accountability, six original news stories (including three exclusives), a reported commentary about the Seattle election results, an opinion piece about the current City Council, and a post about our podcast, Seattle Nice, which comes out every week.

That’s a huge amount of quality content for a tiny operation, but it’s hardly atypical—we work extraordinarily hard to bring you exclusive scoops, breaking news, and in-depth features and analysis that helps you understand not only what’s happening in Seattle, but how and why—and how to put that news in historical and political context. And we do it all on a small budget that is entirely funded by readers like you—no ads, no paywalls, no sponsorships.

Support our work by making a one-time donation, or subscribe on Substack, Paypal, or Patreon for just $5, $10, or $20 a month. Help us continue creating this completely independent site and bringing you informed news and analysis in a truly unique way. Support PubliCola now!

Monday, August 5

Seattle’s Community Police Commission, a Key Part of the Police Accountability System, Is In Trouble

The CPC, which is supposed to represent community views and come up with recommendations to improve police accountability, has struggled since its inception, with frequent staff upheavals, political disputes, and a lack of internal accountability. While many, especially current and recent staff, were deeply critical of the commission’s recent leadership, they also described structural issues that go beyond current staff and commissioners—issues that have been present for many years.

Afternoon Fizz: SPD Launches New Recruitment Ads, Mayor Harrell Orders Workers Back to Office

The Seattle Police Department just released the first ads to come out of a $2.6 million marketing contract. The ads feature retro-style animations of male officers saving people from a variety of scenarios—an odd choice for a department ostensibly trying to have a 30-percent female recruit class by 2030. And: Mayor Harrell says he’s tired of waiting for city workers to “One Seattle” their way back to their desks; in the interest of “collaboration” and innovation, he’s making it mandatory three days a week.

Tuesday, August 6

City Delays Pay Increases for 1,200 Workers, Saying New Payroll System Takes Priority

Nearly 1,200 city employees won’t get their approved raises and retroactive pay until November at the earliest, even though the city approved their most recent contract in June. The city is blaming the implementation of Workday, a new payroll and HR management system, for the delay. If this sounds familiar, that’s because the city gave the exact same explanation for delaying wage increases for a different group of 7,000 city employees whose contracts were approved in April.

Wild Day at City Hall as Council Blocks Social Housing from Ballot, Shuts Down Meeting, Retreats to Their Offices to Approve New Jail Contract

After shutting down public comment before giving everyone who had signed up their one minute to speak, the Seattle City Council delayed a vote on an initiative, I-137, to fund social housing, citing unspecified legal concerns—a last-minute maneuver that prevented the measure from going onto the ballot in November, when progressive voter turnout is likely to be high. Then, after people continued to demand to speak, the council shut down council chambers, retreated to their offices, and approved a controversial plan to pay SCORE, a jail in Des Moines, more than $2 million a year to house misdemeanor offenders for short periods; supporters claim the beds are necessary because the King County jail in downtown Seattle doesn’t have capacity to jail people for offenses like drug use and sex work.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck Had a Good Election Night

Seattle City Councilmember Tanya Woo, appointed to the citywide Position 8 seat last year after narrowly losing the race for District 2 to incumbent Tammy Morales, trailed behind progressive challenger Alexis Mercedes Rinck on election night, and the margin has only widened since, giving Rinck an extremely strong tailwind going into the November election.

Wednesday, August 7

Let the People Clap! (And Speak!)

The new city council majority seems to believe their narrow wins in last year’s backlash election constitute a massive mandate for a return to the conservative public policies of the 1990s and early 2000s, but this belief appears misplaced: People keep showing up to decry policies targeting people who commit crimes related to poverty and addiction. Instead of chiding people for clapping and physically locking them out of public meetings, the council should adopt a radical strategy: Listening to what their constituents have to say.

Thursday, August 8

Council Increases Spending on SPD Marketing, Rejects Proposals to Release Youth Mental Health Funding and Block Expansion of Encampment Removal Team

In another contentious meeting (where council members condescendingly told young constituents they were confused or had been misled), the council added another $800,000 to the $2.6 million marketing contract that produced the aforementioned SPD recruitment ads. They also declined to release $10 million collected this year for youth mental health programming (after the mayor’s office said it would be impossible to spend the full $20 million, which is from a brand-new source, this year), and voted to add 19 people, including 14 outreach workers, to the city’s Unified Care Team, which removes encampments and offers shelter referrals. Harrell’s office announced the city would be taking over these outreach contracts from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority earlier this year.

Friday, August 9

Kevin Dave, Officer Who Struck and Killed 23-Year-Old Student, is Challenging His Traffic Ticket

Seattle police officer Kevin Dave, who struck and killed 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in January 2023 while driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone, is challenging the traffic ticket issued to him in March for the fatal collision. Dave was not prosecuted for Kandula’s death, and the civil citation (and $5,000 fine) have been his only penalties. Court records also indicate that when Seattle police wrote the citation for negligent driving this past March, Dave still didn’t have a valid Washington driver’s license.

Seattle Nice: Post-Primary Edition, Featuring KUOW’s Scott Greenstone

On this week’s special post-primary edition of Seattle Nice, we welcomed KUOW politics reporter Scott Greenstone to help us break down the statewide and local election results, including the races for governor, lands commissioner (surprisingly close!), 43rd District state representative (surprisingly decisive!) and, of course, the Woo-Rinck race in Seattle City Council Position 8.