LSG Sky Chefs – City and Union Take a Stand Today, I wrote letters to each Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines.  Each airline has hubs serviced by a company called LSG Sky Chefs. LSG Sky Chefs provides catering and much of the food on these airlines as well as others, and […]

South Park Public Safety Task Force Update During the 2017 budget process, Councilmember González and I co-sponsored a budget action to create a South Park Public Safety Task Force during 2017. South Park had the 3rd highest number of gunshots reported in Seattle neighborhoods during 2016, and the highest increase over 2015, according to Seattle […]

Sweetened Drink Tax Yesterday, in the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee the public finally saw the newly proposed bill for the sweetened drink tax.  This has been an issue that I’ve been tracking closely for the last couple of months as I’ve had several concerns about not only how to spend projected revenue, but […]

Regarding the Shooting on Alki Councilmember Gonzalez held her Gender Equity, Safe Communities, and New American’s committee this morning.  On the agenda was a presentation about the Seattle Police Department’s response to gun violence.  Although I am not a member of the committee, understanding how deeply our community was impacted by this tragic event, I […]

Highland Park Find It Fix It: May 25 Next week I’ll be participating in a “Find It, Fix It” Community Walk in Highland Park on Thursday, May 25th, along with the Mayor and City department staff. It all starts at the Highland Park Improvement Club (1116 SW Holden) at 5:30 p.m. for refreshments and information […]

Observer Bill of Rights The Observer Bill of Rights, a bill that I authored and sponsored for introduction last year, passed 4-0 out of committee earlier this week, and is scheduled for a Full Council vote on Monday, May 22. Observation of police activity has always been an important element of accountability.  For instance, Mother […]

UDP Medicare Rule Last October a constituent brought to my attention that Medicare Part B premiums were included as a source of income towards qualification to the Utility Discount Program (UDP).  The UDP, if you’re not familiar with it is City program for lower-income customers and offers about 60% on your Seattle City Light bill […]

Resolution on High-Earner Income Tax Seattle is a growing and prosperous city that should offer better schools and healthier communities, yet our City faces many urgent challenges, including a homelessness state of emergency, an affordable housing crisis, overcrowded classrooms, education equity and racial achievement gaps, inadequate provision of mental health services, and severe traffic congestion. […]

Duwamish Greenbelt Tree Settlement If you haven’t heard already, this week City Attorney Pete Holmes announced a settlement of the case against some of the parties involved in the illegal cutting of trees in the Duwamish Head Greenbelt on City property.  I wrote about this late last March and again in June. As a reminder […]

NCIS Update from the City Auditor I wrote a blog post about the New Customer Information System (NCIS) a little over a year ago. NCIS is a joint Seattle City Light (SCL) and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) project to replace the Consolidated Customer Service System (CCSS) – the old SCL and SPU billing system. The old system supported billing […]