Sandeep and I sat down with new Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans and Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion founder Lisa Daugaard on this week’s episode to talk about changes Evans is making to the way the city handles low-level drug cases.
Under Evans’ Republican predecessor, Ann Davison, people arrested for simple drug possession or using in public were either jailed and prosecuted or sent to a “drug prosecution alternative” where they have to get an assessment to confirm they have an addiction and stay out of trouble for six month.
Evans directed her prosecutors to go back to the pre-Davison policy of reviewing people’s cases to see if they’re eligible for LEAD, the city’s pre-filing diversion program. In response to this reasonable directive, Police Chief Shon Barnes told his officers that going forward, officers had to refer every drug case to LEAD—an overstatement that led to a right-wing media freakout when police guild director Mike Solan claimed Mayor Katie Wilson had ordered an end to all drug arrests.
Evans and Daugaard set the record straight, explaining what LEAD does, who it’s for, and how they believe this policy shift will actually help people addicted to fentanyl who use in public—which, they both reminded is, is encoded in the 2023 “Blake fix” law that empowered the city attorney to prosecute minor drug cases in the first place.
“What we’re doing is not anything inconsistent with what the law has already recommended for our office to be doing,” Evans told us. “But nothing’s off the table. If someone is not making meaningful progress with LEAD or in diversion, then we do reserve the right to do traditional prosecution.”
We also discussed ICE’s killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis and what the city can do if Trump sends masked shock troops to Seattle. And we asked Daugaard, who co-founded Purpose Dignity Action and started LEAD, why she’s taking a leave of absence to work inside the Wilson administration.
DESC’s Steven’s Place offers permanent supportive housing for single adults in Interbay. The Trump Administration wants to limit funding for this type of housing for chronically homeless people.
By Erica C. Barnett
Seattle’s permanent supportive housing programs got a temporary reprieve from federal funding cuts last week, when the US Department of Housing and Urban Development walked back its new rules limiting the kind of housing programs that are eligible for federal assistance.
HUD abruptly decided to change how it funds local homelessness programs in November, imposing new restrictions on agencies like the King County Regional Homelessness Authority in the middle of a two-year funding cycle. Among other changes, the new rules would have eliminated most federal funding for permanent housing and required nonprofits to make ideological commitments against trans people and racial equity.
In the Seattle area, more than 90 percent of funds currently go to permanent housing, so the abrupt, midstream change threatened to cause chaos in Seattle’s housing system and put thousands of people on the street.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, along with King County and other jurisdictions, sued HUD over the changes, and got a preliminary injunction from US District Judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island in December, which initially prompted HUD to announce it was holding off off on the funding process indefinitely, leaving agencies that rely on federal funding in limbo.
Last week, though, HUD changed course, announcing it will operate under existing rules for this year’s funding applications as long as that injunction remains in place. The announcement doesn’t mean local agencies will get funds, but it does allow them to continue applying for federal dollars under pre-Trump rules.
The reprieve doesn’t exactly have local agencies and housing advocates breathing a sigh of relief. For one thing, even if Judge McElroy issues a permanent injunction (which could happen in early February), HUD could still challenge it, putting the case on a fast track to a Trump-friendly Supreme Court.
Even if federal funding for homelessness comes through as usual this year, experts who spoke to PubliCola said they expect the 2026 federal funding application to have the same restrictions as the one that’s currently being challenged in court, meaning that even in the best-case scenario, housing providers and the local governments that help fund them have just one extra year to figure out how to stay afloat without the kind of federal funding they’ve always relied on.
“For supportive housing of the kind we do, this money is a goner,” said Daniel Malone, head of the Downtown Emergency Service Center—the region’s largest recipient of HUD homelessness dollars. “The question is whether it’s now or later.” Malone is hoping the injunction stands, because at least “that kicks it out to the latter part of 2027 before it becomes a financial crisis.”
Last Thursday, about 40 local leaders, including representatives from advocacy groups, providers, Mayor Katie Wilson’s office, and all nine council offices, met to discuss the federal funding situation, including the current uncertainty about next year.
“We’re trying to pull together a strategy for how we move forward” in the absence of federal funding in 2027 and beyond, said Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who now chairs the council’s human service committee. “Part of the long-term sustainability conversation will be, how do we restructure and prioritize local dollars?” This includes the King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s annual budget, which comes primarily from Seattle and King County, Rinck said. The city and county are both facing tens of millions in projected budget deficits starting in 2027 and 2028, respectively.
As Katie Wilson takes office, we reflected on her inauguration—a hopeful event heavily attended by regular people—and her commitment to try to make Seattle a city where people can live full, creative lives, not just balance their budget ledgers.
Wilson continued to build out her team at city hall this week, hiring high-profile staffers including interim public safety and homelessness advisor Lisa Daugaard, who created the LEAD diversion program; public safety director Alison Holcomb, a longtime civil rights lawyer and advocate; and homelessness director Jon Grant, a staffer at LIHI who ran for city council and once led the Tenants Union.
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes told officers last week to begin referring most people caught using or possessing drugs in public to LEAD—a misstatement of a memo from new City Attorney Erika Evans, who told her own staff to consider all drug-related referrals from SPD for LEAD. Barnes later claimed that his memo about the “change” in policy did not reflect any policy change at all—but police union head Mike Solan had already sounded the alarm with right-wing media, which reported that Wilson had halted all arrests for drug offenses.
With Wilson in office for less than a week, Barnes (a Bruce Harrell appointee Wilson chose to retain) announced he had hired two new staffers to replace two top civilian staff he fired last year. Both of the new staffers came directly from Harrell’s office. The two fired staffers, Rebecca Boatright and Brian Maxey, filed a tort claim against the city, alleging retaliation and discrimination.
City Councilmember Rob Saka, who has had trouble retaining staff, just hired Brendan Kolding—a former city council candidate who endorsed Saka’s opponent in 2023. Kolding, a former SPD lieutenant, resigned after an investigation concluded he had harassed a coworker and lied about it to the police chief.
A week of inaugurations wrapped up in city council chambers on Tuesday with the swearing-in of new Seattle City Councilmember Dionne Foster, along with reelected Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, and the selection (which we previewed in a Fizz item in November) of District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth as the new city council president.
Mayor Wilson replaced two more Harrell-appointed leaders this week, removing the directors of the Office of Economic Development and the head of the city’s finance office. For the latter position, she picked Dwight Dively—a longtime city and county budget staffer who was hired away by former county executive Dow Constantine 15 years ago.
After announcing that he won’t seek reelection, Seattle Police Officers Guild endorsed a candidate who sounds like a man after his own heart—Ken Loux, a 10-year SPD officer who says SPD is under siege by the left.
1. Mayor Katie Wilson announced two new department heads on Friday. She’s replacing her predecessor Bruce Harrell’s finance director, Jamie Carnell, with city and county budget veteran Dwight Dively; and she’s replacing Harrell’s Office of Economic Development director, Markham McIntyre, with his deputy, Alicia Teel, on an “acting” basis.
Dively was budget director at the city until 2010, when then-mayor Mike McGinn replaced him with a former King County deputy budget director, Beth Goldberg. (McGinn said Dively had failed to adequately plan for the budget shortfalls of the Great Recession).
Then-King County Executive Dow Constantine snapped Dively up, and he remained in charge of the county’s budget until the election of Girmay Zahilay, who assigned him to help head up the Department of Community and Human Services after ousting Kelly Rider, who was head of DCHS for a little less than two years. Many inside the city bemoaned Dively’s ouster and considered his move a trade in the county’s favor (although Goldberg had her fans!)
McIntyre spent a decade in various executive jobs at the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce (which recently changed its own leadership, hiring former state legislator and state Department of Commerce director Joe Nguyen to replace Rachel Smith). McIntyre brought Teel over from the Chamber, where she worked for more than 15 years. (Editor’s note: This story originally said McIntyre served under Jenny Durkan, which is not the case. We regret the error.)
McIntyre was a Harrell campaign stalwart. PubliCola reported last year that he used an internal City of Seattle Teams chat to ask for city employees’ personal contact information on behalf of the Harrell campaign; those who provided their info received solicitations to support Harrell “in the home stretch.”
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2. The Tanya Woo rumor mill chugged back into operation this week. Unconfirmed, but we’re hearing that the onetime Seattle councilmember (appointed to a citywide seat after losing to Tammy Morales in District 2, Woo ran a second time, losing to Alexis Mercedes Rinck), has reportedly been testing the waters for another campaign—this time aiming her sights at the state.
We heard this week that Woo may run for the state house seat that will be vacated by 37th District representative Chipalo Street, who recently declared his candidacy for the state senate seat being vacated by Rebecca Saldaña, who’s running for King County Council Position 2, occupied until recently by now-King County Executive Girmay Zahilay. (Zahilay’s longtime chief of staff, Rhonda Lewis, is in the position on a temporary basis). Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa recently announced she is also “considering” a run for Zahilay’s former council seat.
3. After setting right-wing activist hearts aflame by making the baseless claim that Mayor Katie Wilson has ordered cops to stop arresting people for drug crimes, Seattle Police Officers Guild president Mike Solan announced on his “Hold the Line” podcast last month that he won’t seek reelection.
Apparently, Solan has already selected his heir apparent—Ken Loux, a 10-year SPD officer whose talking points suggest SPOG is under siege by powerful enemies, rather than coddled by city officials who just handed the union a 42 percent raise.
“Make no mistake: Seattle’s politics have veered sharply left, unleashing a storm that threatens to dismantle everything we’ve built brick by brick,” Loux says in his campaign video over shaky images of Mayor Wilson and City Councilmembers Dionne Foster and Alexis Mercedes Rinck. “SPOG is staring down its most brutal years yet—a relentless assault on our unity, our resources, and our resolve.”
Solan’s headshot looms above Loux’s image on his website, making the younger man look like the Son of Solan. A Mini-Mike, if you will.
It’s the end of a long day in front of my computer screen. And if I’m honest with myself, even before I sat down to work, I was up reading on my phone for a couple hours before that. My head aches and all I want to do is close my eyes. But it’s bedtime and my kid wants a story. So I pull out my phone again, willing myself through another chapter.
Many of us feel like we spend too much time on screens. But, for me, reading print books isn’t really an option. I was born with nystagmus, a neurological condition that makes my eyes shake and makes it really hard for me to read regular-sized font. By using my phone or a laptop, I can enlarge the font, and that reduces the eye strain. Even with large fonts, by the end of a long day, I feel the tension around my eyes spreading into a headache.
I love reading. Since childhood, books have been a way to picture a world that I couldn’t always see with my own eyes. Which is why, as reading text became painful, I started to dream of reading with my fingertips: I really wanted to learn braille.
Like any language skill, braille is much easier to learn when you’re young. This has become very apparent as I try to learn braille alongside my kid, who has been getting instruction since kindergarten. He particularly enjoys grading the homework he’s assigned me; more often than not, I end up with a negative number of stars.
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Being the only kid at school who’s learning braille is a lonely path, which is why I was so thrilled when I learned about the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library and the services they offer for young readers. Through their youth program, my kid has participated in summer reading challenges, and most recently joined their braille pen pal program.
Last week, we sat together as he used his Perkins brailler (an awesome manual braille typewriter with six large keys, one for each of the dot cells used in braille letters). His excitement around connecting with another young person who is also learning braille was apparent as he peppered me with questions. Where did she live? What grade was she in? Would she know the special braille contractions he was using? Then for my homework assignment, he insisted I type a letter to my friend who is learning braille and proceeded to correct all my typing errors.
But like so many critical services, the Talking Book and Braille Library is facing funding cuts. Declining Washington State revenue from document-recording fees meant that last year, the library had to lay off staff and make cuts to programming—including story times, low-vision workshops, and braille instruction.
The library is seeking $3 million from our state’s general fund this year to prevent further cuts. At risk of elimination is their audio and braille production capabilities. As a local author published by a small press without the ability to produce an audio version of my book, I was frustrated that my work wasn’t going to be available to blind readers. But thanks to the Talking Book and Braille Library, my book is being recorded and will be released soon. This production capacity ensures that books by Northwest authors are accessible to people who can’t read standard print, not just here in Washington state but to people living throughout the US through the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled.
Now is not the time to walk away from funding public services and institutions that bring our communities together. The $3 million funding the Talking Book and Braille Library is seeking from our state’s general fund is a small ask. I urge our legislators to find the money to support this critical resource.
City Attorney Erika Evans at her swearing-in on Tuesday.
By Erica C. Barnett
Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Joy Hollingsworth and Dionne Foster were the first two out gay/queer Black women to serve on the Seattle City Council. I incorrectly omitted Sherry Harris (1991-1995). I regret the error.-ECB)
A week of inaugurations wrapped up in city council chambers on Tuesday with the swearing-in of new Seattle City Councilmember Dionne Foster, along with reelected Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, and the selection (which we previewed in a Fizz item in November) of District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth as the new city council president. (District 2 Councilmember Eddie Lin, elected along with Foster last year, took office in November because he was replacing an appointed councilmember, Mark Solomon).
Only District 5 Councilmember Maritza Rivera (who misspelled both Rinck’s and Foster’s names in a newsletter congratulating them on their wins) was absent from the room; she attended remotely.
Several city hall staffers we’ve spoken to this week described a new feeling of “lightness” at City Hall since the new cohort of elected officials, including Mayor Katie Wilson, took office.
One day earlier, new City Attorney Erika Evans was sworn in at the Bertha Knight Landes Room at City Hall, by US District Court Judge Richard A. Jones. Invoking the example set by her grandfather, Lee Evans—who, as an Olympic gold medalist, made history as one of several Black athletes who raised their fists in a Black Power salute during the 1968 Olympic games—Evans said, “When we were seeing clear rollbacks in civil rights, I knew I needed to make a decision, just like my grandfather did, to stand up and fight back what was happening. That is the vision I’m bringing [to] this office.”
Councilmember Foster—the third openly queer Black woman to serve on the council, after Hollingsworth and Sherry Harris—had a huge cohort of fans in the audience, as did Hollingsworth, who will be the first Black woman to ever serve as council president. The council president is in charge of central staff, committee assignments, and administrative decisions about the council; she also appoints the council’s labor committee. That committee’s members serve on the Labor Relations Policy Committee, which negotiates city contracts, including police contracts.
Historically, it’s been a pretty low-key position; Sara Nelson, the most recent council president, politicized it, firing a widely liked council central staff director and enforcing a strict return-to-office policy for staffers while she herself attended many council meetings remotely.
Hollingsworth. the consensus pick after brief internal campaigns by Councilmembers Dan Strauss and Bob Kettle, seems likely to return the presidency to its less-partisan past. The first indication of this, on Monday, was the fact that the council approved her new role unanimously, with no other nominees. Hollingsworth praised each of her colleagues in turn, including the absent Rivera: “There’s due diligence, and then there’s Councilmember Rivera diligence,” Hollingsworth said. (Rivera is known for asking questions about policies she opposes long after they’ve been thoroughly answered).
The second indication of the council’s more progressive makeup was the new committee assignments that the council also approved on Tuesday. While some committees will remain largely the same (Bob “permissive environment” Kettle will continue to lead the public safety committee, while Rob “Pothole King” Saka will continue to head up transportation), others are led by, and stacked with, the council’s progressives—Foster, Rinck, and Lin.
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Rinck, who previously headed up the Sustainability, City Light, Arts and Culture Committee, will now lead a new Human Services, Labor and Economic Development committee, with Foster as her co-chair. Housing, once lumped in with human services under the Debora Juarez- (and before her, Cathy Moore-) led Housing and Human Services Committee, will be part of a new Housing, Arts and Civil Rights Committee led by Foster, with Lin as her cochair. Lin will head up a reconstituted Land Use and Sustainability committee, with Strauss as vice chair and Foster and Rinck as members.
And the progressive triumvirate of Foster, Lin, and Rinck will all serve on two committees headed up by two of the council’s centrists—Saka’s transportation committee and Rivera’s Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods committee. (See all the new committee assignments here).
On top of those changes—all standard after any election—the council is also going through a total staff reorganization, starting with the creation of a new executive administrator to oversee all council staff and serve as a kind of buffer between the council president and legislative staff, who include not just central staff but the city clerk, public disclosure officers, and IT and communications staff). Ex-council president Nelson announced the changes in late December, including the news that “as recommended by HR,” her own chief of staff, Jeremy Mohn, will fill the role on at least an interim basis.
According to a December 19 email from Nelson, the new administrator will “ensure continuity of departmental operations across CP administrations and allow for the Council President to better focus on governance and policymaking”; she added that council HR recommended appointing Mohn to the position “given his extensive familiarity with departmental processes and issues.”
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