City Council, homelessness, Mayor Harrell

After Tumultuous Relocation, Tent City 4 Contemplates Its Next Move

Although Councilmember Cathy Moore and Mayor Bruce Harrell expressed surprise that Tent City 4 planned to stay in Lake City, emails show their offices were working to make the move happen as far back as February.

By Erica C. Barnett

Back in May, when the city told SHARE/WHEEL, the group that operates Tent City 4 in Lake City, that it would no longer be able to move to a long-planned new site where the Lake City Community Center was previously located, North Seattle City Councilmember Cathy Moore, who will leave the council on July 7,said she opposed the site because the neighborhood had not been asked to weigh in on having a self-managed encampment at that location, just a few blocks away from its previous site, the Lake City Mennonite Church.

The neighborhood, Moore told PubliCola in a statement, opposed the encampment. “The community directly impacted by the TC4 siting at the Mennonite church and now at the LCCC site is requesting that KCRHA find a different site outside of Lake City,” Moore said.

It’s unclear who, specifically, Moore meant by the “community”; by all accounts, the encampment was welcome at its previous location, and a representative of the Mennonite Church  told PubliCola they would be thrilled to have them back any time. Long before their anticipated move date in mid-May,SHARE Tent City 4 residents did door-to-door outreach and held a well-attended public where only one person raised any objection—a woman who erroneously believed the encampment would block access to the Lake City Farmer’s Market.

But by May, the city had made up its mind: Under no circumstances would the encampment be able to stay at its new site for a year, as previously planned. After a flurry of last-minute negotiations, the city agreed to allow the encampment to relocate to the new site for one to six months, until they can find what Mayor Bruce Harrell called a “more appropriate” location.

Since they moved, SHARE/WHEEL representative Michele Marchand said, the group has not received “a single complaint” about the encampment. “We’ve gotten all kinds of donations.” Tent City residents provide 24/7 security, and do litter pickups in the neighborhoods around their encampment sites.

On a recent weekday, the camp was quiet and largely unoccupied—a collection of closely spaced tents, including many set up directly on the grass, sizzling in the early-summer heat. By early June, the camp still didn’t have electricity or water hookups, and was using a noisy portable generator to supply the power that kept a fan going in the large open tent that served as the camp’s front office. Apart from the generator, which a Tent City representative said they shut off at night at the request of neighbors, the camp was silent.

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Justin Fain, who’s currently living in a large tent covered by a silvery tarp, said uncertainty around the encampment’s future was making it harder than expected to get electricity and water to the site. SHARE/WHEEL representatives told PubliCola the city had just informed the group that they needed to be out within three months. Later, Harrell’s office said they would once again have six months to leave.

Overall, Fain said, the group is getting along well with the neighborhood. “Everybody’s been very welcoming,” Fain said, including staff at the Lake City library branch, who recently ordered pizza for encampment residents.

Moore, who spoke to the Seattle Times about her opposition to the encampment, said her problem wasn’t with “Tent City per se, but the profound lack of investment in Lake City and the (feeling) that Lake City is being asked to shoulder a responsibility that other parts of the city are not being asked to do.”

“To say Lake City doesn’t need shelter is ridiculous,” Fain said, noting that the city does regular encampment sweeps at Albert Davis Park, just outside the Tent City 4, and along 33rd Ave. NE. “There’s tons of homeless around here.” On the streets around Tent City and in the park, several tents were visible on the day I visited. And it isn’t just single people in those tents; it’s also families.

The Mennonite Church is still hosting a small family shelter in a vacant dental building near Tent City 4’s previous location, but it’s perennially full. In the week before I visited, Fain said, six families had arrived at Tent City 4, with a total of 24 children; they’ll stay at the encampment until space opens up at the family shelter.

***

Moore’s comments last month, and the swift action by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office to put the kibosh on a one-year lease between the King County Homelessness Authority and the city, suggested she just heard about plans to move Tent City to a new site shortly before it was supposed to move in May.

Harrell, similarly, suggested that the planned community center location was news to him. In a statement announcing that the city would allow the encampment at the site for up to six months, Harrell said, “Improving coordination among the City, KCRHA, and Share/Wheel will allow for strengthened community engagement and more effective process timelines that lead to better outcomes and remove uncertainty from similar situations going forward.”

Emails obtained through a records request, however, show that Moore, Harrell, and the city’s Human Services Department, which answers to the mayor, were aware that SHARE/WHEEL was planning to move to the community center site as far back as February. Not only that—HSD suggested the location. On February 26, a KCRHA staffer told SHARE/WHEEL that the city’s department had identified the Lake City Community Center site as a possible location for the encampment, and suggested that the organization start talking to Moore’s office about that site as soon as possible.

“The site is the old Lake City Community Center, which was demolished last summer and is currently awaiting redevelopment into a new community center and housing,” the HSD staffer wrote. “HSD has confirmed with leadership of both the Parks Department (who owns the property) and the Office of Housing (who is financing the redevelopment) that the site will be available for this interim use through May of 2026. We have the approval of the Mayor’s Office to proceed.”

In a March 6 email, one KCRHA staffer told another, “Tent City 4 has met with CM Moore already.” On March 14, SHARE/WHEEL met with a group that included Moore’s aide Harry Pollet, and reported to KCRHA that “CM Moore’s Office is starting to consult with District stakeholders about Tent City4’s request for the Lake City Community Center site,” as well as a short-term family shelter at the Mennonite Church, and was working with Seattle Public Utilities to figure out what it would cost to provide utilities at the site for a year.

Emails show that the city continued communicating with SHARE/WHEEL and the KCRHA in April, discussing the need to expedite permits and get a one-year lease signed “ASAP.” During this period, the group held its public meeting and did door-to-door outreach to the surrounding community.

But then, in May, something changed, and city officials, including Moore and Harrell, started saying the site, and the Lake City neighborhood as a whole, was not an appropriate site for the sanctioned encampment.

PubliCola sent Moore a list of questions about what happened between February and May, when she appeared to go from working with SHARE/WHEEL and KCRHA to secure the Lake City Community Center site to opposing any encampment in Lake City.

In a statement, Moore responded, “I think the entire siting process was poorly managed and resulted in needless angst for everyone involved.” Moore added that she heard in May that the site was “unavailable due to lack of utility hookup and need for a quick turnaround for the forthcoming affordable housing project.” According to the Seattle Times, developer Mercy Housing won’t break ground on the project until 2027.

Fain said Tent City residents were gratified that, before and after the move, four Seattle City Council members have visited Tent City 4 and talked to its residents directly. Cathy Moore, who represents the neighborhood, was not among them.

 

City Council, Courts, Mayor Harrell, Police

This Week on PubliCola: June 14, 2025

New police chief answers council questions, county assessor fails to get restraining order against him dismissed, Harrell wants to hold clubs liable for off-premises activities, and more.

Monday, June 9

Cathy Moore: City Isn’t “Listening” to Homeowners Who Want to Keep Their Neighborhood the Same

At a meeting to discuss the city’s comprehensive plan,City Councilmember Cathy Moore complained that—despite her frequent demands and a Change.org petition with more than 1,500 signatures—the Maple Leaf Neighborhood Center will remain in the mayor’s proposed update to the city’s comprehensive plan. The designation would allow moderate density—3-to-6-story apartments— in an eight-and-a-half-block area directly adjacent to an existing commercial center.

Burien Officials Excoriate Councilmembers Who Opposed New Restrictions on Church-Based Encampments

After the Burien City Council rejected a proposal to impose new restrictions on church-based encampments, including a new six-month annual time limit, City Manager Adolfo Bailon lashed out at council members who voted against or abstained on the proposal, accusing them of failing to do their constitutional duty by opposing the legislation.

Tuesday, June 10

In Unanimous Vote, King County Council Calls for Assessor John Arthur Wilson, Accused of Stalking, to Step Down

The King County Council voted to approve a motion stating they have “no confidence” in King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson and calling on him to resign. Wilson’s ex-partner Lee Keller has accused him of stalking and harassing her and recently obtained a restraining order against him for the second time this year.

Wednesday, June 11

Interim Police Chief Answers Council Questions About Protests, Women at SPD, and ICE

The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee held its first official hearing for Interim Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes’ confirmation, setting Barnes up with mostly friendly questions. Barnes’ remarks, along with the written responses he submitted to council questions earlier this month, suggest that his policies—which are similar in name and content to programs he implemented as police chief in Madison, WI—will be less than transformative.

Thursday, June 12

In Motion to Dismiss Restraining Order, County Assessor Calls His Ex-Partner Unstable and Vengeful

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson filed a motion to dismiss his domestic partner Lee Keller’s temporary restraining order against him, arguing that she is emotionally unstable and is trying to harm him politically. Wilson, who is running for King County Executive, has never publicly denied Keller’s allegations.

Friday, June 13

Harrell Bill Would Make Venues Liable for Patrons’ Off-Premises Behavior; Moore Bill to Ban Algorithmic Rent-Fixing on Fast Track

Mayor Bruce Harrell is proposing legislation that would expand the city’s ability to shut down so-called chronic nuisance properties by holding businesses responsible for incidents that occur “in proximity” to their property, and expanding the nuisance law to include liquor-law violations. Also this week, Cathy Moore’s legislation to ban rent-fixing software like RealPage moved forward on a fast track.

Saturday, June 14

Judge Declines to Lift Protection Order Against County Assessor Accused of Stalking

On Friday June 13, a judge denied King County Assessor’s John Arthur Wilson’s motion to terminate his former partner Lee Keller’s protection order against him. In response to Wilson’s attempt to have the order dismissed, Keller filed a declaration calling Wilson’s motion a “frivolous motion based on half-truths and outright lies.”

King County, Women

UPDATED: Judge Declines to Lift Protection Order Against County Assessor Accused of Stalking

By Erica C. Barnett

On Friday June 13, a judge denied King County Assessor’s John Arthur Wilson’s motion to terminate his former partner Lee Keller’s protection order against him.

In response to Wilson’s attempt to have the order dismissed, Keller filed a declaration calling Wilson’s motion a “frivolous motion based on half-truths and outright lies.”

She acknowledged meeting with Wilson twice while the restraining order was in effect, and said she briefly agreed to sign off on a statement his campaign staff wrote that said she would drop the restraining order. Text messages show that Keller did briefly agree to drop the restraining order after Wilson had to leave an event honoring the late state Sen. Bill Ramos because Keller was there.

However, Keller added that she “immediately” regretted agreeing to drop the restraining order after Wilson “came to my house that evening and began berating me about speaking with a male friend of mine who was being contacted by the media. He then proceeded to text me until 2:30 a.m. with abusive statements such as ‘You are a two-bit whore,'” Keller wrote. Wilson doesn’t use that precise phrase in any of the texts in the court record, but Keller and Wilson did argue by text over his use of the phrase during a verbal argument.

The “male friend” was a man Keller was briefly involved with, who contacted KUOW in late May, according to text messages between Keller and Wilson. In the texts, Wilson acknowledged contacting the man’s employer and accusing him falsely of sexual assault in order to get him fired; several Wilson’s texts include graphic, lurid details.

After the court hearing, Wilson posted a photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington, with the text, “Today, thanks to a court ruling, we started to bend the arc towards justice. It moves slow, but it is headed in the right direction. So we will continue fighting for justice for all the residents of King County, and for my own personal journey.”

When the King County Council voted to call on Wilson to resign from his position as county assessor, the only member absent was Republican Councilmember Reagan Dunn. The text messages reveal that Wilson contacted Dunn seeking support in May. “You should hear what Reagan Dunn has to say about you,” Wilson wrote on May 24.

Original story follows:

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, who was the subject of a no-confidence vote by the King County Council earlier this week, has filed a motion to dismiss his domestic partner Lee Keller’s temporary restraining order against him, arguing that she is emotionally unstable and is trying to harm him politically.

PubliCola broke the news about the new stalking and harassment allegations against Wilson in May. The Seattle Times covered earlier allegations against Wilson in January.

Wilson, who is running for King County Executive, has never publicly denied Keller’s allegations, including several dating back to 2024, that he texted and called her incessantly, showed up at her home uninvited, followed her movements using tracking apps, and called the workplace of a man she had been seeing to accuse him of sexual assault in an attempt to get him fired. These actions, among others, were the basis for the county council’s call for Wilson to resign as county assessor, a position that affords him access to personal data about King County taxpayers.

Many of Keller’s allegations, including one in which Wilson said the man he’s alleged to have falsely accused of sexual assault “deserves my wrath,” are documented in text messages and phone records. Keller’s latest filing includes a text exchange in which she told Wilson, “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!” and he responded, “Never,” following up with several more unanswered texts.

Wilson posted a link to his declaration on Facebook, writing:

“As King County Assessor, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the State of Washington – including those cherished principles of the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, and due process.

The King County Council, by voting 8 to 0 to demand my resignation, has shown utter contempt for these principals. They want to deny your choices at the polls and rig the election. Yesterday’s hearing was nothing more than a kangaroo court.

I will NOT resign. I will NOT give up my campaign fighting for the everyday people of King County. But the craven behavior of Councilmembers Balducci and Zahilay show they are unfit to serve the people of King County—let alone as Executive.”

King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay are the frontrunners in the race for county executive; Wilson has consistently trailed both in fundraising and endorsements.

In a statement, Keller’s attorney, Paula Kurtz-Kreshel, said Wilson’s “media campaign against my client continues and is troubling not only for its obvious attempt to disparage, intimidate, and otherwise strong-arm a protected party into dropping a restraining order—but also for the fact that his efforts are taking place during hours of employment when one would think he should be working for the people of King County.”

In his new motion, Wilson claimed that he, rather than Keller, was the victim of abuse, pointing to an incident in April 2024 in which he claims Keller “shoved me and nearly made me fall down a flight of stairs.” He called the police, Wilson wrote, because he “felt I had been threatened and was personally at risk.”

A police report by an officer responding to Wilson’s call in 2024 tells a different story. According to the 2024 report, Wilson told the officer that he and Keller “got into a verbal argument” after Wilson went into Keller’s text messages and discovered she had been communicating with an ex. In his telling, Wilson calmly “talked to Keller about not being transparent” and she became “enraged.” Wilson claimed Keller pushed him “in the chest,” which “caught [him] off guard”; he did not mention anything about stairs.

Keller also called police about the incident, meeting with the same officer who had interviewed Wilson at the hotel she was staying in after she fled the home she and Wilson shared. She told the officer that Wilson “hacked” into her messages without her permission and told her they needed to talk, saying he had “proof” that she had been lying to him.

Keller told the officer she and Wilson got into a shouting match while she was standing in the entry to their home and Wilson was standing on the stairs, and said she “never laid a hand on him.” Keller told officers Wilson had tried to push his way into the laundry room where she was feeding her dog before she left for a hotel, and that she broke a ceramic dog bowl while trying to shut the door.

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While the officer was interviewing Keller, he noted in the report, Wilson “called her approximately 15 times and sent roughly 10 text messages saying that there was an emergency and that she needed to call him.” Wilson continued trying to reach Keller, the officer noted, even after the officer picked up one of Wilson’s calls and asked him to stop calling and texting her. Wilson has not publicly disputed any of this; in fact, he included Keller’s police report in the exhibits attached to his filing.

Kurtz-Kreshel said the police reports filed at the time refuted Wilson’s claim that Keller pushed him. “These reports are filed with Mr. Wilson’s motion and ironically spotlight his stalking and harassment of my client.”

Along with the statement, Kurtz-Kreshel provided a copy of an email Wilson sent to the King County Sheriff’s Office two weeks after the April 2024 altercation, in which Wilson said he had “exaggerated the incident as far more serious than it was. Ms. Keller never hurt or injured me when in the heat of our argument she moved me back from standing in front of her. In addition, I never felt in fear of Ms. Keller, or thought for an instant she might want to hurt or injure me.”

In his new motion to dismiss Keller’s restraining order against him, Wilson claimed that Keller’s “instability” and “volatility,” not Wilson’s documented behavior, is the problem. “Unfortunately, as much as I love Lee, her volatility and instability has become a real issue for me both personally and professionally,” Wilson wrote, adding that “once Lee calms down, she wants to see me.”

There are many different reasons that women return to men who are abusive or drop restraining orders against their partners, and the decision to drop a restraining order is not proof that a woman filed the order frivolously or that the relationship is not abusive.

Wilson said the two met in a public place on May 23, 11 days after Keller for the restraining order, and “Lee seemed genuinely happy to see me,” but said things turned sour after Wilson refused to help pay her rent.

“I firmly believe that victims of domestic violence should be protected. However, restraining orders should be a shield for victims and not a sword because someone is mad at you and is lashing out, especially when that someone has a long history of volatility and instability as it is evidenced by the number of times Lee has filed a Petition and then dismissed it,” Wilson wrote.

On June 3, Keller said in a statement that the “restraining order against John Wilson remains in place. I will not be changing my mind, despite his repeated efforts to coerce me to dismiss it. A hearing on the restraining order will be held on June 30, 2025. I welcome the opportunity to address John’s reference to a signed agreement at that time, and inform the court of John’s continuing violations of the very active restraining order.”

Wilson responded to my request for comment by saying, “Your reporting has been so horrendously biased, inaccurate and loaded that I really have no interest in talking to you” and encouraging me to “start by reporting on” his filing.

Also on Thursday, Jayson Morris, a longtime local Democratic Party activist and Wilson ally, filed a complaint with the King County Democrats, alleging that they had violated their own rules by dual-endorsing Balducci and Zahilay in the county executive race.

Morris’ complaint also claims that the Democrats violated their commitment to Democratic Party values by endorsing candidates whose “conduct”—voting for the resolution calling on Wilson to resign—”has created ethical issues that reflect poorly on the party.”

King County Democrats chair Beth Bazley said that while the Democratic committee itself can’t propose dual endorsements, members themselves can propose multiple endorsements, and added that the vote for each endorsement was “overwhelming.”

Affordability, City Council, Mayor Harrell, Renters

Harrell Bill Would Make Venues Liable for Patrons’ Off-Premises Behavior; Moore Bill to Ban Algorithmic Rent-Fixing on Fast Track

By Erica C. Barnett

Mayor Bruce Harrell is proposing legislation that would expand the city’s ability to shut down so-called chronic nuisance properties by holding businesses responsible for incidents that occur “in proximity” to their property, if the person who violated the law was a patron or customer of the business and “facts and circumstances establish a nexus between the property and the nuisance activity.”

The legislation would also add violations of state liquor laws to the violations that can get a property tagged as a “chronic nuisance,” allowing the city to sanction or shut down bars and nightclubs if they violate liquor laws repeatedly—or if their patrons violate liquor laws after they’ve left the premises. If a business violates the nuisance law more than three times in 60 days, or seven times in a year, the city can take actions ranging from a fine to shutting the business down.

Currently, the city’s chronic nuisance law only applies to incidents that occur on the premises of a business or property. This limited approach, according to Harrell’s proposed legislation, has allowed “Nuisance activities … including homicides and aggravated assaults, to occur near certain properties in Pioneer Square.” In May, for example, four people were shot outside the OHM Nightclub near Occidental Park, three of them fatally.

Seattle has a long history of passing legislation to restrict nightlife or expand business owners’ legal liability for their patrons’ behavior in response to tragic incidents or repeated neighborhood complaints.

In fact, Harrell’s proposal is strikingly similar to the 1999 “added activities ordinance,” which would have made bars and clubs liable for noise, litter, traffic, and crime that happened nearby, in areas they don’t directly control. At the time, proponents said expanding the law was necessary because of issues the city tied to clubs in Pioneer Square and on the downtown waterfront. The proposal, backed by then-city attorney Mark Sidran, floundered after a federal  judge ruled that a similar state law that required venues to get special licenses for dancing, live music, and other “added” activities, was unconstitutional.

On its face, Harrell’s proposal seems less restrictive than the added activities ordinance—it doesn’t apply to urban annoyances like noise and litter. But the list of activities it would hold businesses newly liable for on the sidewalks and streets around them is broad, including not only criminal offenses, ranging from assault to failure to disperse, but drug and liquor violations that might occur down the block from a business, or even further away—the bill doesn’t define what it means for a nuisance to be “in proximity” to a property.

Harrell’s legislation notes that the existing chronic nuisance ordinance has only been used 17 times since it was adopted in 2009—a tacit reassurance that if the city gives the mayor and police chief power to hold clubs liable for off-premises activities, they won’t abuse it. But the letter of the proposed law would allow the city to shut a bar or nightclub down if people are caught smoking weed or drinking alcohol in a public area outside the bar, and nothing in the proposal constrains police from keeping an extra-close eye on properties the city has identified as potential targets for abatement under the expanded nuisance law.

The legislation hasn’t shown up in the council’s legislative tracking system yet. When it does, it will go through Harrell ally Bob Kettle’s public safety committee.

2. On Wednesday, the City Council’s housing and human services committee approved legislation that would prohibit property owners and managers from using algorithmic rent-setting companies like Real Page to determine rent prices. The bill, sponsored by Councilmember Cathy Moore, took the committee just 35 minutes—35 minutes!—to discuss and approve. The fast-tracked bill now heads to the full council, which could vote on the bill before Moore departs the council on July 7.

Moore has come under fire for supporting legislation, which she was set to sponsor, that would roll back a number of anti-eviction laws passed by the previous council, including the winter and school-year eviction moratoriums and a $10 cap on late fees. Moore also proposed legislation that would have rewritten the city’s ethics code so that council members could vote in their own financial interest; that proposal faced stiff  opposition, and Moore withdrew it shortly before announcing she would step down a year and a half into her term.

Advocates who’ve opposed Moore on other policies applauded her for pushing the ban on algorithmic pricing, which uses both public and proprietary data to recommend rent prices. The state and federal governments have sued the largest algorithmic pricing company, RealPage, over the practice, which critics say amounts to illegal collusion among property management companies to keep rents high and hold units vacant until they can charge more, contributing to the housing crisis. At the time then-attorney general Bob Ferguson sued RealPage last year, his office estimated that about 800,000 leases had been priced using RealPage in the state since 2017.

“While it’s hard to measure the impact [in Seattle] precisely, it is likely that this has contributed significantly to the rapidly rising rents that we’ve seen coming out of the pandemic,” Transit Riders Union leader and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson said. “Landlords and property managers, following the instructions that they get from RealPage … end up raising rents more than they otherwise would, forcing tenants out when they can’t afford the increase.”

A ProPublica investigation found that companies using RealPage sometimes leave units vacant on purpose to help drive up the cost of other units.

The state legislature took up statewide legislation to ban algorithmic rent-fixing tools earlier this year, but advocates in Olympia opted instead to focus on passing the landmark rent stabilization bill, a legislator who worked on both bills told PubliCola.

Elections, King County, Women

In Motion to Dismiss Restraining Order, County Assessor Calls His Ex-Partner Unstable and Vengeful

By Erica C. Barnett

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, who was the subject of a no-confidence vote by the King County Council earlier this week, has filed a motion to dismiss his domestic partner Lee Keller’s temporary restraining order against him, arguing that she is emotionally unstable and is trying to harm him politically.

PubliCola broke the news about the new stalking and harassment allegations against Wilson in May. The Seattle Times covered earlier allegations against Wilson in January.

Wilson, who is running for King County Executive, has never publicly denied Keller’s allegations, including several dating back to 2024, that he texted and called her incessantly, showed up at her home uninvited, followed her movements using tracking apps, and called the workplace of a man she had been seeing to accuse him of sexual assault in an attempt to get him fired. These actions, among others, were the basis for the county council’s call for Wilson to resign as county assessor, a position that affords him access to personal data about King County taxpayers.

Many of Keller’s allegations, including one in which Wilson said the man he’s alleged to have falsely accused of sexual assault “deserves my wrath,” are documented in text messages and phone records. Keller’s latest filing includes a text exchange in which she told Wilson, “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!” and he responded, “Never,” following up with several more unanswered texts.

Wilson posted a link to his declaration on Facebook, writing:

“As King County Assessor, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the State of Washington – including those cherished principles of the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, and due process.

The King County Council, by voting 8 to 0 to demand my resignation, has shown utter contempt for these principals. They want to deny your choices at the polls and rig the election. Yesterday’s hearing was nothing more than a kangaroo court.

I will NOT resign. I will NOT give up my campaign fighting for the everyday people of King County. But the craven behavior of Councilmembers Balducci and Zahilay show they are unfit to serve the people of King County—let alone as Executive.”

King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay are the frontrunners in the race for county executive; Wilson has consistently trailed both in fundraising and endorsements.

In a statement, Keller’s attorney, Paula Kurtz-Kreshel, said Wilson’s “media campaign against my client continues and is troubling not only for its obvious attempt to disparage, intimidate, and otherwise strong-arm a protected party into dropping a restraining order—but also for the fact that his efforts are taking place during hours of employment when one would think he should be working for the people of King County.”

In his new motion, Wilson claimed that he, rather than Keller, was the victim of abuse, pointing to an incident in April 2024 in which he claims Keller “shoved me and nearly made me fall down a flight of stairs.” He called the police, Wilson wrote, because he “felt I had been threatened and was personally at risk.”

A police report by an officer responding to Wilson’s call in 2024 tells a different story. According to the 2024 report, Wilson told the officer that he and Keller “got into a verbal argument” after Wilson went into Keller’s text messages and discovered she had been communicating with an ex. In his telling, Wilson calmly “talked to Keller about not being transparent” and she became “enraged.” Wilson claimed Keller pushed him “in the chest,” which “caught [him] off guard”; he did not mention anything about stairs.

Keller also called police about the incident, meeting with the same officer who had interviewed Wilson at the hotel she was staying in after she fled the home she and Wilson shared. She told the officer that Wilson “hacked” into her messages without her permission and told her they needed to talk, saying he had “proof” that she had been lying to him.

Keller told the officer she and Wilson got into a shouting match while she was standing in the entry to their home and Wilson was standing on the stairs, and said she “never laid a hand on him.” Keller told officers Wilson had tried to push his way into the laundry room where she was feeding her dog before she left for a hotel, and that she broke a ceramic dog bowl while trying to shut the door.

PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.

Support PubliCola

While the officer was interviewing Keller, he noted in the report, Wilson “called her approximately 15 times and sent roughly 10 text messages saying that there was an emergency and that she needed to call him.” Wilson continued trying to reach Keller, the officer noted, even after the officer picked up one of Wilson’s calls and asked him to stop calling and texting her. Wilson has not publicly disputed any of this; in fact, he included Keller’s police report in the exhibits attached to his filing.

Kurtz-Kreshel said the police reports filed at the time refuted Wilson’s claim that Keller pushed him. “These reports are filed with Mr. Wilson’s motion and ironically spotlight his stalking and harassment of my client.”

Along with the statement, Kurtz-Kreshel provided a copy of an email Wilson sent to the King County Sheriff’s Office two weeks after the April 2024 altercation, in which Wilson said he had “exaggerated the incident as far more serious than it was. Ms. Keller never hurt or injured me when in the heat of our argument she moved me back from standing in front of her. In addition, I never felt in fear of Ms. Keller, or thought for an instant she might want to hurt or injure me.”

In his new motion to dismiss Keller’s restraining order against him, Wilson claimed that Keller’s “instability” and “volatility,” not Wilson’s documented behavior, is the problem. “Unfortunately, as much as I love Lee, her volatility and instability has become a real issue for me both personally and professionally,” Wilson wrote, adding that “once Lee calms down, she wants to see me.”

There are many different reasons that women return to men who are abusive or drop restraining orders against their partners, and the decision to drop a restraining order is not proof that a woman filed the order frivolously or that the relationship is not abusive.

Wilson said the two met in a public place on May 23, 11 days after Keller for the restraining order, and “Lee seemed genuinely happy to see me,” but said things turned sour after Wilson refused to help pay her rent.

“I firmly believe that victims of domestic violence should be protected. However, restraining orders should be a shield for victims and not a sword because someone is mad at you and is lashing out, especially when that someone has a long history of volatility and instability as it is evidenced by the number of times Lee has filed a Petition and then dismissed it,” Wilson wrote.

On June 3, Keller said in a statement that the “restraining order against John Wilson remains in place. I will not be changing my mind, despite his repeated efforts to coerce me to dismiss it. A hearing on the restraining order will be held on June 30, 2025. I welcome the opportunity to address John’s reference to a signed agreement at that time, and inform the court of John’s continuing violations of the very active restraining order.”

Wilson responded to my request for comment by saying, “Your reporting has been so horrendously biased, inaccurate and loaded that I really have no interest in talking to you” and encouraging me to “start by reporting on” his filing.

Also on Thursday, Jayson Morris, a longtime local Democratic Party activist and Wilson ally, filed a complaint with the King County Democrats, alleging that they had violated their own rules by dual-endorsing Balducci and Zahilay in the county executive race.

Morris’ complaint also claims that the Democrats violated their commitment to Democratic Party values by endorsing candidates whose “conduct”—voting for the resolution calling on Wilson to resign—”has created ethical issues that reflect poorly on the party.”

King County Democrats chair Beth Bazley said that while the Democratic committee itself can’t propose dual endorsements, members themselves can propose multiple endorsements, and added that the vote for each endorsement was “overwhelming.”

City Council, Police, Uncategorized

Interim Police Chief Answers Council Questions About Protests, Women at SPD, and ICE

The “30 by 30” pledge, SPD’s commitment to having a police recruit class that’s 30 percent women by 2030, is “unachievable in current market conditions,” Barnes said.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee held its first official hearing for Interim Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes’ confirmation on Tuesday, setting Barnes up with mostly friendly questions like “Can you talk about what transformational relationships looks like to you?” (Joy Hollingsworth) and expressions of gratitude, like” I just wanted to say thank you so much for everything that you’ve done so far.” (Cathy Moore.)

Barnes nomination is a gimme, so it wasn’t surprising that a council dominated by SPD cheerleaders spent most of their time lavishing fulsome praise on Barnes. (Moore also praised Barnes for his “homespun wisdom,” which she said must be because he’s from North Carolina.)

Not to pick on Barnes, who’s been in the position for just over three months, but the council probably should have had more questions about how he will actually change the culture of the department, which is currently being sued for, among other things, racial and gender discrimination, and which has already faced criticism under Barnes’ leadership, for harassing sunbathers at a longtime LGBTQ-friendly nude beach and arresting dozens of people who protested two anti-trans rallies by a far-right Christian group.

Many of Barnes’ remarks on Tuesday, along with the written responses he submitted to council questions earlier this month, suggest that his  policies, which are similar in name and content to programs he implemented as police chief in Madison, WI, will be less than transformative.

Barnes’ marquee proposal, called “Seattle-Centric policing,” sounds similar to the “Madison-Centric policing” model the Madison Police Department adopted in 2023.

According to Barnes’  lengthy written responses to councilmember questions, “Seattle-Centric Policing is a comprehensive plan focused on reducing harm and crime while enhancing the quality of life for Seattle residents” that involves “fostering integrated partnerships” with existing community and business groups to “create a safer and more vibrant city.”

Many of the specific strategies, like opening up storefront-style police offices in neighborhoods across the city, have been tried before and abandoned for various reasons; many others, like putting police officers in schools, are also controversial and not up to SPD alone. And one policy Barnes proposed, expanding the Find It/Fix it app to include a category for “general open air drug use and general disorder,” is already basically in effect, in that many people already use it for this purpose.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the only slightly spiky questions came from progressive councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who asked how Barnes planned to deal with protesters against federal immigration policy, given “the lengths SPD will go to protect the free speech rights of anti-trans, anti-queer, anti-abortion, Christian nationalists calling for the ousting of Mayor Harrell,” a references to SPD’s actions during two protests against a far-right Christian group last month.

In response, Barnes said SPD is “neutral in all matters of protest” and added that “at some point I will probably go to jail and be in prison, because we have an administration that has threatened to jail politicians.” While this offhand remark garnered significant coverage in the Seattle Times and local TV stations, Barnes’ claim that SPD doesn’t pick sides during protests probably rang hollow to those who protested against the anti-trans events, given that SPD effectively served as security guards for the right-wing group that organized both events.

In his written response to a similar question, Barnes said SPD should work with protest leaders to establish lines of communication, but said that given that SPD was operating with a “paper-thin margin in staffing” during last month’s counterprotests he believes that “by and large, officers appropriately met their responsibility of facilitating the First Amendment rights of all involved.”

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A large chunk of Barnes’ response to questions about how SPD should handle protests in the future was taken directly from a Sentinel Event Review of the 2020 protests in Madison, produced by an outside firm called the Quattrone Center, with the word “departments” substituted for “MPD.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Rinck pressed on, asking Barnes how SPD is verifying the identities of ICE officers in Seattle, given that many people who say they’re ICE officers are wearing masks and obscuring their identities. “Every law enforcement officer should have a badge of some type, and they should have an identification of some type, and it’s not unreasonable to ask, ‘May I see your identification please?'” Barnes said. “If they do not have [ID], then certainly they can call the police and try to verify.”

(Editorial aside: This comment reminded me of Bob Kettle’s admonition, earlier in the same meeting, that protesters for immigrants’ rights should behave “responsibly” to avoid giving the Trump Administration an excuse to send troops to Seattle. It sounds like a transmission from a different reality than the one we’re currently experiencing—one where people can simply reason politely with officers sent in to facilitate deportations, and where being well-behaved will protect Seattle from federal crackdowns on civil rights.) Barnes did not know whether ICE was required to notify SPD if they are doing raids in the city, but said no one from the Department of Homeland Security had called his office.

Barnes defended SPD’s record on police accountability, arguing that the city’s accountability system is one of the best in the nation; even when the US Department of Justice placed SPD under a federal consent decree in 2011, Barnes wrote, they “found that Seattle’s accountability processes were ‘sound and that the investigations of police misconduct complaints are generally thorough, well-organized, well-documented, and thoughtful,’ [and] the work Seattle has done since has only strengthened this system.” 

The interim chief also pushed back on Rinck’s question about the department’s use of monitored CCTV cameras along Aurora Ave. N., in downtown Seattle, and in the Chinatown/International District, disagreeing with her premise that CCTV surveillance is not an effective crime-fighting tool.

As a counterpoint, Barnes pointed to a recent triple homicide in which SPD used private camera footage after the fact to help arrest and identify suspects—and said SPD’s 34 cameras have helped the department “materially assist” in more than 50 incidents since May 20.

Barnes also disputed Rinck’s claim that CCTV doesn’t address violent crimes, writing that “there is evidence that CCTV cameras reduce violent crime, as events that lead to continued violence may be interrupted.” The study he cited, however, is most often used to illustrate the opposite—cameras don’t deter violent crime, but they can be useful in solving car thefts after the fact. The study also found that private cameras are more effective at helping police solve property crimes than those operated by police.

Finally, Barnes acknowledged that many women in the department say SPD is a toxic work environment, and that this perception is one reason the department has historically found it hard to recruit and retain female officers. (As of the end of April, SPD had hired just five women this year.) But, he continued, the problem isn’t unique to SPD. Nationally, women make up just 13 to 15 percent of police recruit classes—in part, Barnes wrote, because younger women are doing better than men academically and have more types of professional opportunities than they once did.

Seattle, like many cities, signed the “30×30” pledge, a commitment to having a police recruit class that’s 30 percent women by 2030. In his written comments, Barnes said this goal was probably “unachievable in current market conditions,” particularly in “large urban markets” like Seattle, “which despite offering unique opportunities also come with unique risks and cost of living challenges that may render them less attractive to younger officers.”

Instead of a specific number, Barnes concluded, the “30×30″ commitment is really about “making law enforcement a profession where qualified women who are drawn to it feel welcomed and supported while ensuring agencies address their unique needs and foster their success.”

Barnes will appear at one more committee meeting before the council votes on his appointment; you can read his to written questions here.