immigration, Mayor Harrell, Police

Harrell Says SPD Will Stand Strong Against Federal Invasion; SPD Promotes Former Deputy Chief Who Said Aurora Sex Workers “Enjoy It”

1. Mayor Bruce Harrell signed two executive orders on Wednesday that he said would “ensure that our city is prepared and resilient” if President Trump sends federal troops to Seattle.

The orders, however, are largely symbolic and include recaps of policies that are already in place—like a ban on police cooperation with immigration enforcement—or under consideration, like an increase to the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs’ budget, announced last month. One of the orders sets up a task force to come up with response plans if Trump does send troops to Seattle. The other highlights future legislation that would prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing masks to hide their identity and ban “staging and operations of federal civil immigration enforcement activities on City property to the extent permissible by law.”

City employees will also be required to go through training on the “protocols and procedures for complying with state and local immigration laws,” including the Keep Washington Working Act, which prohibits city employees from assisting in immigration enforcement.

Hamdi Mohamed, director of the city’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, said the two orders “send a clear message that we will use our full power to stand up and protect our communities—ensuring the Seattle Police Department and the city cannot and will not participate in federal civil immigration enforcement, creating a task force across departments who will meet with and coordinate responses with community organizations like OneAmerica, and writing new laws and directives to meet this moment to ensure that our local law enforcement prioritizes the safety and first amendment rights of our residents and community members.”

But Seattle, like all cities, has little power to actually stop federal troops from wearing masks (as they have in California, which banned masks) or enforcing immigration laws in public spaces—as they have in Chicago, whose mayor declared all public properties “ICE-free zones” earlier this week.

Harrell dismissed various potential scenarios, including a situation in which police cooperate with federal troops or ICE, as “hypotheticals,” saying, “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Six Seattle police officers participated in the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the January 6 insurrection, including two who were fired after video evidence surfaced of them breaching the Capitol—the largest known January 6 contingent from any US police department. A 2021 video that surfaced in 2023 showed a large “Trump 2020” flag displayed at SPD’s East Precinct, along with a mock tombstone bearing the of name a young man, Damarius Butts, who was killed by SPD officers in 2017.

Harrell said there were no specific indications that Trump planned to send federal troops to Seattle, but said he wasn’t “worried” about “poking the bear” with his announcement.

2. New East Precinct SPD commnder Michael Tietjen isn’t the only controversial figure to receive a promotion and accolades from new police chief Shon Barnes. (As we reported yesterday, Tietjen was promoted to oversee policing in the city’s longtime LGBTQ+ neighborhood despite a history of misconduct that included an incident in which four officers allegedly harassed a trans woman.)

Three weeks ago, Barnes also announced the promotion of Marc Garth Green as commander of the West Precinct.

The job is a step back up the ranks for Green, a former deputy chief who was publicly demoted by former police chief Carmen Best after he made offensive comments about sex workers while defending SPD’s decision to focus on arresting sex workers rather than johns. During a heated exchange with then-councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Garth Green said many of the women walking up and down Aurora are there by choice because they “make money and enjoy it.” He also suggested that sex workers themselves were contributing to gun violence in the area.

Garth Green was eventually reassigned to Harbor Patrol—the same division to which Tietjen was reassigned in 2007, after he and a partner were caught on video choking and allegedly planting drugs on a man in a wheelchair.

Later that same year, Garth Green and other SPD officers were accused of giving preferential treatment to an SPD captain who was caught trying to pay a woman for sex on Aurora.

In his announcement of four promotions  (the other two new captains are Kevin Runolfson and Heidi Tuttle), Barnes said, “Their advancement is not only a reflection of personal achievement but also a testament to the values of dedication, integrity, and leadership that we need at every level of this department.”

Guest Contributor, Transit

Three Key Questions to Save Our Light Rail Future
Photo by Sound Transit Special Selection via Wikimedia Commons; CC-by-2.0 license.

By Claudia Balducci

It’s no secret that our region needed high-capacity transit yesterday — or better yet, four decades ago. As a lifelong transit rider and a regional transportation leader, I’ve spent much of my career fighting for East Link, passing ST3, improving transit service, and delivering the kind of system our communities deserve. This work is essential: transit connects people to opportunity, makes our region greener, and—more personally—helps my teenager find their independence.

The West Seattle and Ballard light rail extensions alone are historic in scale—the largest public works undertakings in Seattle’s history. These extensions will connect two culturally and economically prominent Seattle neighborhoods that can be hard to access. That’s why traffic-free rail to these destinations has been part of our civic vision for decades.

But Sound Transit’s recently reported rising costs threaten our ability to deliver on ST3—the bold plan voters approved in 2016 to expand rail and bus rapid transit throughout King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The reasons for these rising costs include increasing construction costs, high interest rates, and an uncertain federal transit funding picture. So, here’s the fundamental question: How do we meet the promise of light rail without breaking the bank?

I’m asking Sound Transit to consider three key questions this fall:

  1. Can we reimagine the second downtown tunnel?

ST3 originally proposed a second tunnel between the Chinatown–International District and Westlake Center to support a growing regional transit network. But before building new infrastructure, let’s explore whether technology and reliability upgrades could allow us to interline—running all three lines through the existing Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.

Consider this: London plans to run more than 30 trains per hour in a tunnel that first opened during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, simply by upgrading to modern signaling systems. Surely, with similar technology, we can optimize Seattle’s existing tunnel—built during Ronald Reagan’s presidency—to meet our service needs. If feasible (and this will require detailed analysis from outside experts), using a single downtown tunnel could save billions—funds we could reinvest to bring light rail to Ballard and West Seattle. A central question is whether this can be achieved while maintaining reliable service. It’s a critical issue that deserves resolution.

  1. What strategies can we find to deliver projects faster and cheaper?

We must build on the work of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), which I proposed during the last Sound Transit realignment process during COVID to identify cost-saving strategies. Can we break up transit megaprojects—an approach used by other mass transit systems across the globe—into smaller contracts to attract more bidders to a heated construction market, lowering costs and improving accountability? Can we streamline permitting at the local and state levels? And can we proactively acquire key parcels of land early to lock in real estate prices before they rise?

  1. Can we adopt service-led planning that puts riders first?

Service-led planning is the standard globally for delivering the best rider experience. Investments are prioritized based on how they support speed, reliability, and service integration. Voters endorsed ST3 for the freedom its services entailed, not the scale of what would be built. Therefore, the service enabled by any piece of infrastructure must be the highest priority.

Using these principles, if the existing Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel can support the operations of three light rail lines by using modern signaling technology and design standards, the second tunnel becomes a nice-to-have, not a must-have. Even better, interlining will improve the rider experience by supporting easier transfers across platforms, rather than forcing long walks to adjacent stations, or cumbersome transfers across whole neighborhoods. It could also solve the longstanding challenge of how to serve the Chinatown-International District without digging up that neighborhood yet again.

It’s easy to list reasons why something won’t work. The real test is imagining how it can. For every “that’s impossible,” we must ask “how can we?” In this moment of scarcity, our creativity is our greatest resource. At Sound Transit, we’ve shown we can innovate before. Now it’s time to do it again.

We owe it to our region to solve the real problem—connecting people region-wide—and leave no good idea unexplored.

Claudia Balducci is a King County Councilmember and Sound Transit Board Vice Chair

LGBTQ+, Police, Uncategorized

SPD Chief Puts Cop Who Called 2020 Protesters “Cockroaches” In Charge of East Precinct
SPD’s East Precinct in 2020

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, located at 12th Ave. and East Pine St. in the heart of Capitol Hill, came under new leadership in September, when SPD Chief Shon Barnes quietly removed the precinct’s gay acting commander, Doug Raguso, and placed a newly promoted captain, Mike Tietjen, in charge.

If Tietjen’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he was at the center of two high-profile incidents during protests against police violence in 2020.  In the first, then-sergeant Tietjen was suspended without pay for shoving a man forcefully into a bus stop, causing him to hit his head. In the second, he was moved to a different precinct after driving an unmarked vehicle onto a sidewalk full of protesters, later comparing them to “cockroaches” because of the way they scattered in the path of his SUV.

In 2007, Tietjen and his partner were accused of choking a man in a wheelchair and planting drugs in his hoodie; although then-SPD chief Gil Kerlikowske exonerated both officers in a press release, they were subsequently reassigned to Harbor Patrol. Two years earlier, according to KUOW, Tietjen was accused of ” punching and choking a man” he was arresting “to the point of unconsciousness.”

In an internal email announcing eight promotions, including Tietjen, Barnes wrote that everyone he was promoting had shown “the ability to rise to challenges, embrace innovation, and guide others with clarity and purpose. … The leaders we celebrate today represent our commitment to building an organization that is resilient, forward-thinking, and deeply connected to the community we serve.”

Raguso, a 22-year SPD veteran, was a fixture at the East Precinct who previously served as SPD’s LGBTQ liaison. SPD declined to say why he did was not promoted to captain. A department spokesperson said, “We promote our captains based on input from Command leadership, their Civil Service test scores, and other feedback.”

In 2021, Tietjen was disciplined for a 2020 incident in which four officers, including him, pulled up on a trans woman who was walking along the sidewalk and allegedly harassed her by asking her if she “had a dick under” her skirt.

Tietjen has an adult child who belongs to the LGBTQ+ community, from whom he is estranged. PubliCola is not providing any further details about Tietjen’s child in order to protect their privacy.

Raguso is now overseeing operations at SPD’s Real Time Crime Center—a recently expanded downtown facility where officers and civilian SPD staff monitor live surveillance footage from around the city. PubliCola was unable to interview him.

The SPD spokesperson acknowledged that Tietjen “had been the subject of complaints five years ago,” but said he had completed “an opportunity for training and growth” and “has successfully delivered results to the community” since then. “In his current role, he is building positive relationships in the community, in line with Chief Barnes’ promise to police forward and continuously improve our organization,” the spokesperson said.

Andrew Ashiofu, a member of the city’s LGBTQ commission who spoke to PubliCola on his own behalf, said Tietjen’s appointment “sends a deeply troubling message” to people living in “one of Seattle’s most LGBTQIA+-dense neighborhoods. His presence in this role is not just inappropriate, it’s dangerous. It sets a precedent that undermines trust and signals to marginalized communities that their safety and dignity are negotiable.”

“As a Black gay man living within this precinct, I do not feel safe,” Ashiofu continued. “How can we trust the police to protect us when those in charge are the very people we need protection from?”

Joel Merkel, the co-chair of the Community Police Commission, said that “promoting someone who’s had these type of disciplinary actions” against them raised concerns about the new police chief’s  “knowledge and insight into SPD’s history history and dynamics … particularly as we’re trying to change the culture of SPD. With the consent decree going away, it sends a concerning message.” SPD had been under a federal consent decree since 2012, and was seeking to have it lifted when President Trump announced he was unilaterally dismissing all Justice Department consent decrees over local police departments, including Seattle’s.

City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, who represents Capitol Hill and the rest of District 3, did not respond to a request for comment.

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The complaints against Tietjen in 2020 were serious and highly publicized. All occurred on Capitol Hill within a short distance of the East Precinct headquarters.

In the first incident, for which he was suspended without pay, Tietjen violently shoved a man who had been trying to help another demonstrator who was blinded by pepper spray, pushing him and slamming his head into a bus stop.

Although Tietjen claimed he had simply tried to get the man to “spin around” and rejoin the crowd of people SPD was pushing out of the area,  video from his body-worn camera later revealed that he had “forcefully pushed” the man “down and towards the bus stop” as he was trying to assist a demonstrator who had taken shelter there, according to the Office of Police Accountability’s investigation into the July 25, 2020 incident.

“Moreover, but for the fact that the Complainant was wearing a helmet, he could have suffered very serious injuries based on the manner in which [Tietjen] pushed him, his momentum in falling to the ground, and his striking the bus stop with his head,” the report said.

In the second incident, on August 12, 2020, Tietjen was driving an unmarked SUV when he  accelerated suddenly and drove onto a crowded sidewalk at 11th and Pine, forcing people to scatter to avoid being hit. When someone confronted him, according to the OPA report, he compared the people he almost hit to scattering “cockroaches.” A widely posted video shows him saying he still works for SPD “because they pay me like 200 grand a year to babysit you people.” Tietjen was suspended without pay and received a “disciplinary transfer” to the North Precinct for that incident.

In the third incident, Tietjen was in an SUV with three other officers that pulled up to talk to a trans woman who was walking on the sidewalk during a protest. According to the OPA investigation, one of the officers took her picture with his phone and asked if she “had a dick under” her skirt. “She said that she told the officer to ‘come take a look’ and he replied that he would ‘need a microscope’ to do so,” the report says..

Later, the woman told OPA investigators, “the unmarked SUV again drove by her and an officer again yelled out to the Complainant to ‘show them what’s under my skirt.’ She started yelling at them, but they drove off while still saying things to her.” The OPA report says Tietjen acknowledged taking the woman’s picture and hearing someone in the car say something about a microscope, but denied most of the other details. The officers said they stopped the woman because they suspected her of “throwing rocks at” the East Precinct building.

Tietjen got a written reprimand for failing to document or report the interaction with the woman, and for failing to “counsel” another officer who shouted transphobic comments about why that was unacceptable behavior.

Five years later, Barnes promoted Tietjen to captain and put him in charge of public safety in city’s historic LGBTQ+ neighborhood.

Elections, homelessness, Mayor Harrell, podcasts

Seattle Nice: Harrell Talks Tough on Food Deserts and Homelessness

By Erica C. Barnett

Mayor Bruce Harrell has issued a fusillade of official announcements in the weeks leading up to the November 4 election, including one, last week, about legislation that would prohibit restrictive covenants that limit the size of grocery stores and pharmacies. On this week’s podcast, we discussed the timing and implications of the proposal, which Harrell pitched as one solution to the problem of “food deserts”—areas with few grocery stores (or pharmacies) where residents have to travel long distances to get basic items.

As I noted in my story about the plan, size restrictions didn’t prevent grocery stores from opening in the two locations the city gave as examples of this phenomenon. In one case, a Sprouts organic food store replaced a long-vacant Albertson’s, joining an Amazon Fresh and several cultural grocery stores to create a diverse mini-food hub in North Seattle. In the second, neighbors successfully lobbied for a Trader Joe’s to anchor a development that brought hundreds of new apartments Greenwood; that project replaced a single-story Safeway and a parking lot, and is just four blocks away from a giant Fred Meyer.

The size of grocery stores in Seattle is limited primarily by zoning, not rarely-used restrictive covenants; in the lowest-density neighborhood commercial zones, for instance, grocery stores can’t be larger than 10,000 square feet. And the problem in food deserts isn’t that grocery stores are too small—it’s that there aren’t enough (or any) grocery stores of any size in those areas, while wealthier, whiter neighborhoods like Ballard are almost overrun with options.

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You could argue (and I have) that Harrell’s anti-covenant proposal is a solution in search of a problem. But what about other ideas for enticing grocery stores to open in Seattle, like a separate Harrell proposal to simply exempt all grocery stores from state business and occupation taxes? We were all pretty skeptical of this idea, since tax breaks aren’t free—when the government cuts taxes for one group, they always pass the losses on to someone else.

We also discussed ongoing turmoil at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, whose CEO, Kelly Kinnison, was recently the target of several toxic-workplace allegations. Kinnison’s only penalty was a round of executive coaching and a written reminder that the KCRHA prohibits retaliation, but the agency itself still faces criticism from all sides—including KCRHA board member Harrell, who has recently been arguing that Seattle spends more than its fair share on the regional authority. Sandeep said it’s time to “write [the KCRHA] off as a failure, because it is a failure.” To which I asked: “But then what?”

City Council, Elections, homelessness, Mayor Harrell

This Week on PubliCola: October 4, 2025
The mayoral candidates participated in a televised debate on Friday night; I covered it live on Bluesky..

A shadow councilmember, more turmoil at the homelessness authority, and so, so much election news

By Erica C. Barnett

Monday, September 29

Black-Led Group Responds to Mayor’s Claim They “Darkened” His Skin; Real Estate-Backed Harrell PAC Tops $1 Million; Police Chief Disparages PubliCola

Packed Morning Fizz to start the week: Common Power, the Black-led group Mayor Bruce Harrell accused of “darkening” his skin in an email invite to a pro-Katie Wilson debate watch party, responded to the incendiary allegation. A pro-Harrell PAC has raised more than $1 million, mostly from tech and real-estate interests. And Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes took some time during a city council meeting to let everyone know he doesn’t read PubliCola and won’t answer councilmembers’ questions if they’re phrased in a way that mentions us.

Tuesday, September 30

Former Councilmember Moore Edited Legislation, Wrote Interview Questions for Her Potential Successors, After Leaving

Former city councilmember Cathy Moore quit the council after just 18 months, but she continued to work as a shadow council member, editing legislation and ghostwriting questions for current council member Maritza Rivera, after her departure in July.

Seattle Nice: Harrell’s Election-Year Budget, King County’s RealPage Ban, and Mayor Pete’s Endorsement

On this week’s podcast, we talked about Mayor Bruce Harrell’s short-term election-year budget, which piles on tens of millions of dollars in new spending for his priorities while funding many important (and politically popular) programs with one-time funding, plunging the budget into deficits just in time for the next mayor to take office. Also, King County bans rent-fixing software and Pete Buttigieg says vote for Harrell.

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Wednesday, October 1

Homelessness Agency Director Gets Sternly Worded Letter and “Executive Coach” After Investigation Into Racial Bias Complaints

After an investigation into several complaints alleging that King County Regional Homelessness Authority CEO Kelly Kinnison fostered a toxic work environment and favored white job applicants, the agency’s board, made up of elected officials from around the region, gave Kinnison a slap on the wrist, with just one board member arguing for a more serious response.

Thursday, October 2

Harrell’s “Emergency” Legislation on Covenants that Limit Grocery Store Sizes Won’t Address Seattle’s Food Deserts

Harrell proposed a new law that would ban grocery stores that are closing down from restricting the size of future grocery stores when they sell their land, saying the proposal would help address “food deserts.” The city offered two examples where this has happened; both are currently grocery stores, and neither is in a food desert.

Friday, October 3

Post Office Delays Could Result in Uncounted Ballots; Harrell’s Budget Increases Graffiti Spending 36 Percent

A new US Post Office policy could delay postmarking on mailed-in ballots, invalidating votes cast just before, or on, election day; although most Washington residents drop their ballots off at ballot boxes, elections officials are advising mail voters to send their ballots well before November 4. Also, the mayor’s proposed budget expands the War on Graffiti.

Elections, Mayor Harrell

Post Office Delays Could Result in Uncounted Ballots; Harrell’s Budget Increases Graffiti Spending 36 Percent
Image via Kingcounty.gov

1. Mail processing delays could result in more invalidated mail-in ballots this year, and elections officials are advising voters to vote as early as possible or drop off their ballots at a ballot box in order to have their ballots counted.

“Given some of the operational and logistical priorities that have ben set by the postal service, we really can’t guarantee that ballots sent by mail” on or immediately before election day “will be postmarked by that November 4 timeline, due to how they are processing their mail,” SOS spokesman Charlie Boisner said. Among other issues, the post office has been relying more heavily on regional processing center, rather than processing mail locally, Boisner said.

Earlier this year, USPS announced a policy update stating that it does not guarantee that mail will be postmarked on the day it’s received, potentially invalidating ballots that are mailed on election day, November 4, but postmarked later.

The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review first reported on the potential impacts to Washington’s vote-by-mail system last week.

A spokeswoman for King County Elections, Halei Watkins, said the elections office has always encouraged people to vote by the Friday before election day, and is “not necessarily planning to do a big push” for the November election “since our long-term messaging should continue to serve our voters well.”

“Many counties have relied on a message of ‘check for the last pickup time on the mailbox if you’re mailing on Election Day’ but we’ve heard from too many voters over the years that mailed on Election Day or even the day before only to get a too-late postmark,” Watkins said.

According to Boisner, only about 33 percent of Washington state voters mail in their ballots; the rest use ballot drop boxes.

“We’re really fortunate in this state, where we get to experience an 18-day voting period and have developed the infrastructure over decades to have several convenient and easy ballot return options for voters to use,” Boisner said. “So while we still are confident in the services that the Post Office provides … we recommend taking full advantage of that full 18-day voting period and voting early

King County has  85 drop boxes around the county, including 30 in Seattle. Another option, Watkins said, is to “physically walk the ballot into the post office and ask for a postmark – don’t just drop it, but talk to someone at the counter and ask them to stamp it.”

2. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed 2026 budget uses a lot of one-time funding, mostly from a business and occupation tax increase that still has  to be approved by voters, to pay for needs that will probably be ongoing, like legal aid for immigrants and food assistance for low-income people who stand to lose federal benefits. According to a Harrell spokesperson, the budget keeps this spending one-time in order “to allow the city to determine where the greatest impacts have been and where other funders may fill gaps in the federal funding” in the future.

Harrell may not be sure whether immigrants will need legal aid (which gets $300,000 in his budget proposal) in the future. But he is certain that the city needs to keep pouring more money into the war on graffiti, which his budget describes as “a priority of the One Seattle initiative” and “a key factor in improving Seattle livability.”

Harrell’s budget increases funding for his “One Seattle Graffiti” plan by $1.6 million this year, for a total of $6.1 million—a 36 percent increase from 2025. Most of that money will be spent hiring six new permanent staffers to address graffiti, including a graffiti prevention specialist in the arts department who works to ” lead and enhance the beautification efforts of graffiti art, connect with the graffiti society, and educate, mentor and guide youth to use their time and energy in constructive ways.”

Harrell’s official accounting of the graffiti budget doesn’t include the “in-house” cost of diverting lawyers in the Law Department from working on other types of misdemeanor cases to focus on pursuing taggers. The budget also propses adding $4.1 million to expand the Downtown Activation Team, whose duties include graffiti abatement, and extending one-time funds for cleanup, including graffiti removal, in the Chinatown-International District.