Uncategorized

This Week on PubliCola
Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins talks about the city’s overdose response at DESC’s announcement last week.

A roundup of this week’s news.

Monday, May 6

The Backlash to Harrell’s Comp Plan Proves We’re All YIMBYs Now

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed One Seattle Comprehensive Plan has been widely panned for not allowing enough housing across the city—and not just by the usual suspects, like PubliCola. State legislators who supported a bill to require all cities to allow housing, including apartments, in more places say Harrell’s plan falls short of their intent. This represents a complete turnaround from just a few years ago, Josh Feit writes—a promising sign that there’s still time to fix the mayor’s plan for housing stagnation.

Tuesday, May 7

Burien Proposes Transitional Housing Ban that May Violate State Law

The Burien City Council is considering legislation that would ban “transitional housing,” including tiny house villages, within 500 feet of parks, schools, libraries, child care centers, and recreational facilities—effectively banning it in most of the city, including the Seattle City Light property where a tiny house village is currently planned. The bill may violate a state law that bars cities from making it impossible to build housing and shelter. The same day the council considered the ban, Burien Police Chief Ted Boe, who’s under fire from city officials, explained w ghy he isn’t arresting people for being homeless.

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

Support PubliCola

Wednesday, May 8

Shakeup on Team Harrell: Budget Director Out, City Attorney’s Former Criminal Chief In

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s budget chair, Julie Dingley, resigned (or was asked to leave) last week just as the mayor and council gear up to address a budget deficit that could climb above $250 million, once unanticipated costs from 24 percent wage increases for police officers go into effect. Dan Eder, Harrell’s policy director, will take over Dingley’s position for now, part of an office overhaul that also includes the appointment of Natalie Walton-Anderson, City Attorney Ann Davison’s former criminal division director, as the mayor’s public safety director.

State Legislator Told Seattle to Get Serious About Density Before Seeking Funds for Fort Lawton Housing Project

In an email sent immediately after Harrell announced his scaled-back comprehensive plan proposal, State Rep. Julia Reed (D-36, Seattle) wrote a letter to Harrell and the Office of Planning and Community Development expressing her disappointment that the plan fails to “maximize housing growth.” Without a bold plan for density, Reed wrote, it will be hard for Seattle legislators to advocate convincingly for funds to build housing at Fort Lawton, a long-delayed project that will require state funding to get underway.

Continue reading “This Week on PubliCola” →

Addiction, Drugs, homelessness, Mayor Harrell

Downtown Recovery Center Will Give Drug Users New Options After an Overdose

By Erica C. Barnett

The Downtown Emergency Service Center will open Seattle’s first post-overdose recovery center at its headquarters at the historica Morrison Hotel building in Pioneer Square next year. The Overdose Response and Care Access (ORCA) Center, part of a larger new behavioral health clinic, will be a dedicated space for drug users to stabilize, rest, and access voluntary treatment, including long-acting medication, after experiencing a nonfatal overdose.

Currently, when emergency workers revive someone experiencing an overdose in downtown Seattle, their options are basically: Transport the person to Harborview Medical Center or let them go. Those who walk away from an overdose typically seek out more drugs to counteract the effect of overdose reversal drugs like Narcan, which can send users into a state of painful, intense withdrawal.

The ORCA Center offers a third option for emergency workers to take people immediately after an overdose—”breaking the cycle of repeated overdoses” as Mayor Bruce Harrell put it Thursday, “by stopping painful withdrawal symptoms [so] people [can] find a pathway to recovery and support.” Admission to the ORCA Center will be voluntary, as going to the hospital after an overdose is today.

Thursday’s announcement took place in the second-floor area that will house the recovery center, which looks out on Third Avenue through large, semicircular windows. For decades, this floor housed a large, crowded shelter, along with day rooms and a clinic (and, at one time, an enclosed indoor smoking area). Today, the space is a hollowed-out construction zone, with two rows of metal lockers the only visual reminder of the building’s former purpose. Rooms that once held dozens of metal bunk beds are stripped to the studs, with cords hanging from the ceiling, and the floors have been stripped to their bare plywood bases.

PubliCola first reported on DESC’s plans last summer, after Harrell announced he would use $7 million in unspent federal funds to “provide care and treatment services for substance use disorders” in Seattle. DESC will receive $5.65 million of that total to help build out the new $12 million facility, which will also be funded through state and county grants and private donations. The remaining $1.35 million will go to Evergreen Treatment Services, which is building out a new campus on Airport Way.

Recent floods forced ETS to reimagine the facility, which will now include a “fire station-style” building to house its mobile units, which provide methadone treatment to hundreds of clients in downtown Seattle. ETS will also receive another $1 million from the city to add another unit to its mobile-clinic fleet, which ETS director Steve Woolworth described as another important part of the continuum of care for people with opioid use disorder.

Methadone is a highly effective treatment, but federal law requires patients to travel to a physical clinic to get doses until they “earn” take-home doses—a hurdle to recovery that’s even more daunting for people who lack a stable place to live. “Expecting folks who are living unsheltered… to come to a fixed location can’t be the only strategy we’re investing in to address community health,” Woolworth said. “And so what you’ll see from us will be a much more adaptive, flexible and mobile approach to taking medication out to where people are.”

The new recovery center won’t be a shelter, although it will have places for people to sleep. Legislation that established new licenses for 23-hour crisis clinics in 2023 stipulated that these clinics are supposed to offer “recliner chairs,” rather than beds, which is one way these clinics are distinct from hospitals or shelters. But, Malone noted, “true stability” will require places for people to live on a more permanent basis. Continue reading “Downtown Recovery Center Will Give Drug Users New Options After an Overdose” →

City Council, Economy, labor

City Council Bill Cutting “Gig” Delivery Workers’ Pay Moves Forward
Micaela Romero from Washington Community Action Network, joined by her son, testifies against legislation that will reduce delivery driver wages.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle City Council’s governance and economic development committee approved a bill sponsored by Council President Sara Nelson that will lower the minimum wage for so-called “gig” delivery workers on Thursday, with Joy Hollingsworth abstaining because, as she put it, “I still want this bill to be baked more.”

The 4-1 vote came after hours of testimony from delivery drivers who were overwhelmingly opposed to the legislation and have shown up at public comment periods for weeks on end to ask the council not to cut their wages. After last year’s city council, including Nelson, voted for the “PayUp” bill that required gig companies to cover more of workers’ costs, wages went up to an average of around $26 an hour. In response, the gig companies—Uber, Doordash, Instacart, and others— imposed a flat $5 fee on every order, causing demand for delivery service to plummet.

A handful of drivers, mostly representing the Uber-funded lobbying group Drive Forward, said the changes would enable the companies to drop the fees.

Several council members patted themselves on the back for listening to “all sides” of the issue before voting to approve a bill that satisfied almost all of the delivery companies’ demands.

Nelson, for example, spent several minutes reading the February testimony of bike delivery worker Heather Nielson, who said the fees had caused customers to “boycott the apps” and stop providing tips, into the record. Nielson, later featured on the conservative website The Center Square, said tips make up 90 percent or more of drivers’ wages—a claim that many other drivers contradicted in their testimony.

Nelson seemed eager to ignore those workers’ comments, referring to them dismissively as “all this noise we’ve been hearing.”

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

Support PubliCola

 

Her legislation, she said, “is an effort to reverse the bad outcomes caused by a flawed law” that resulted in a “drastic reduction in worker wages and lost revenues for restaurants and other retail establishments. That’s what happened. That was the chain of events. And all of this was anticipated but the last council did it anyway. And now we’re faced with the fallout.”

Councilmember Maritza Rivera recalled a time when, “as a young woman, I worked as a server in a fast food restaurant where I made the legal minimum wage and relied on tips to pay rent, utilities and groceries.” In most states, restaurants can pay sub-minimum wages for tipped workers on the justification that workers make plenty of money from customers’ tips, and companies like Doordash and Instacart adopted the practice in states where it’s still legal until a series of lawsuits forced them to alter their policies. Washington state does not allow a “tip credit.”

The legislation notably,, does not require companies to stop paying the $5 fee; nor does it impose any new restrictions on the companies’ power over their workers, such as their ability to “deactivate” (fire) workers for any reason, including wanting to set their own work hours.

Instead, the bill reduces workers’ pay and takes away some of the rights they currently have. First, the bill lowers the amount companies must pay their drivers for expenses, such as self-employment (employer) taxes and workers’ compensation, that the drivers wouldn’t have to pay if they were classified as employees. Continue reading “City Council Bill Cutting “Gig” Delivery Workers’ Pay Moves Forward” →

Media, Police

In Media Blast, SPD Calls PubliCola’s Post On Auderer’s Appearance at Major Police Convention “Inaccurate.” We Stand By Our Story.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle Police Department put up an unusual blog post on Wednesday purportedly correcting “inaccurate media reports” that SPD officer Daniel Auderer would be representing the department at a conference hosted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Washington, D.C., later this year. “Auderer never requested, nor was he approved to do so by the Seattle Police Department,” the blog post says.

The post, which SPD also distributed to local media via email blast, referred to (but did not link or identify) a brief piece that ran in PubliCola last week, when we reported that Auderer will be hosting a panel at the conference along with another SPD officer, Tom Heller, focused on using “human psychology” to get accurate information out of suspects, victims, and bystanders.

Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was caught on body-worn video joking with SPOG president Mike Solan about the death of 23-year-old pedestrian Jaahanvi Kandula, who had been struck and killed by SPD officer Kevin Dave earlier that night.

As we reported last week, SPD initially responded to a list of questions with an email that said, in its entirety, “We don’t have any further updates or information concerning Auderer other than what has previously been provided.”

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

Support PubliCola

 

After our story posted, SPD spokesman Brian Pritchard called us up to say Auderer was not “representing” SPD at the conference and had not requested paid time off or reimbursement for his expenses, and claimed “he’s not representing” the department. We added this information to our story.

Unfortunately, Pritchard did not offer a substantive response to any of the other questions we asked him on the phone, including: Why the IACP, a large and well-established law enforcement group, listed Auderer and Heller as SPD representatives; why SPD has not demanded that the IACP remove the department affiliation from Auderer’s workshop; and whether SPD has asked Auderer not to lead the workshop.

We stand by our story, which follows in full below. Continue reading “In Media Blast, SPD Calls PubliCola’s Post On Auderer’s Appearance at Major Police Convention “Inaccurate.” We Stand By Our Story.” →

Density, Development, housing, land use, legislature, Mayor Harrell

State Legislator Told Seattle to Get Serious About Density Before Seeking Funds for Fort Lawton Housing Project

Not “even worth responding to as it’s so ridiculous,” a deputy mayor wrote.

By Erica C. Barnett

In an email to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office, expressing “serious concerns” about the mayor’s status-quo comprehensive plan update, State Rep. Julia Reed suggested that she might be less than supportive of future city requests to help fund its $285 million Fort Lawton redevelopment project if the city didn’t get more serious about increasing density.

“I know the City is hoping for significant state support to deliver on the Mayor’s vision for Fort Lawton next year,” Reed wrote. “I don’t know if that will be possible if the City’s comprehensive plan isn’t seen to be doing everything possible to maximize housing growth in the state’s largest city. It’s already an uphill climb to do any funding packages for Seattle, and if there’s a strong impression the city isn’t doing all it can on its own, it makes the argument that much harder.”

Documents PubliCola obtained through a records request show that Reed’s email sent mayoral staffers into a tizzy. For two days, emails flew back and forth between at least 17 city staffers (plus Harrell’s in-house political consultant, Christian Sinderman) debating how to respond to Reed.

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

Support PubliCola

Some of the emails were snarky (“I am surprised that these legislators had the time to read and analyze our proposed update with just three days left in legislative session,” mayoral spokesman Jamie Housen wrote) while others urged caution. Gael Tarleton, the former state legislator who led the mayor’s lobbying team in Olympia, noted on May 5 that it was the last day of the legislature and “Emotions are running high[.] .. May I suggest that once this letter is sent, we just let things quiet down, let session end, and re-group[?]”

Staffers debated how strongly to respond to Reed’s suggestion that the Seattle delegation’s advocacy for Fort Lawton funding would depend on Harrell’s larger commitment to density. Harrell’s deputy mayor, Greg Wong, responded to a draft response written by Harrell’s chief operating officer Marco Lowe and edited by Sinderman, saying the city shouldn’t even dignify Reed’s reference to Fort Lawton with a response, writing:

“I like Christian’s edits. I personally don’t think the Ft. Lawton piece is even worth responding to as it’s so ridiculous. It’s not the leverage they think it is and their stance doesn’t even make sense given what we’re proposing. But I don’t feel very strong about whether to delete. If you want to say something about it, I wouldn’t feel the need to explain or be defensive about it. Just point out the baseless bluff it is. You could say something like: ‘As to Ft.  Lawton, it is unfortunate to hear you would not support our plan to increase the amount and likelihood of affordable housing in this area. But that is a separate issue, which we are happy to discuss with you as well.'”

Continue reading “State Legislator Told Seattle to Get Serious About Density Before Seeking Funds for Fort Lawton Housing Project” →

Crime, Drugs, Mayor Harrell

Shakeup on Team Harrell: Budget Director Out, City Attorney’s Former Criminal Chief In

Headshot of Natalie Walton-Anderson

By Erica C. Barnett

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s budget director, Julie Dingley, resigned this week and is out of next Friday, when she’ll be replaced on an interim basis by Harrell’s policy director Dan Eder. PubliCola first reported the news about Dingley and Eder on X this morning, and Harrell announced it as part of a larger staffing update this afternoon.

Dingley’s departure comes as the mayor’s office and city council prepare to contend with a budget deficit of more than $240 million.

This week, the city council’s central staff released a report revealing that the cost of a new 2021-2023 contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which provides retroactive raises totaling 24 percent over the past three years, will cost the city more than $96 million in 2024 alone, and $39 million in 2025 and 2026, not counting additional raises that the Seattle Police Officers Guild will negotiate as part a contract that will eventually apply retroactively to those years.

Overall, central staff estimates, the 2023 contract will cost about $9.2 million more, over the next three years, than the city has set aside to increase officer pay.

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

Support PubliCola

 

Harrell also announced his appointment of Natalie Walton-Anderson, City Attorney Ann Davison’s former criminal division chief, as his public safety director.  When she left Davison’s office earlier this year, Walton-Anderson said she needed to “take a break and reset after 27 years working in the criminal legal system.”

Walton-Anderson was known for aggressively filing charges in drug-related cases that would ordinarily get channeled into the city’s pre-booking diversion program, LEAD, and Davison credited her with instituting the “high-utilizer initiative,” which targets people accused of multiple misdemeanor offenses for more punitive approaches than other defendants.

Walton-Anderson’s appointment also comes at a time when Harrell is preparing to roll out a new “public safety plan” reportedly focused on drug use downtown, and as the city considers inking a new contract for jail beds with the South Correctional Entity (SCORE), which would allow the city to book people on charges King County generally excludes from booking, such as drug possession and other low-level misdemeanors.

King County ended its own brief contract with the regional jail, which is owned by six South King County cities, last year, citing logistical challenges. Four people died at SCORE last year, including a woman who died of malnutrition and dehydration after spending three nights curled on the floor of a temporary holding cell.