Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle) today announced that she plans to bring forward legislation on Monday to pass an emergency moratorium on evictions of renters during Seattle’s winter months.  Sawant also highlighted the success of a community campaign, led in part by her office, that led to the halt of plans to close […]

Giving My Thanks to You I look forward this time of year to the opportunity to reflect on all that I have for which to be thankful. On this Thanksgiving Day eve, there are individual people to be thankful for their contribution to making Seattle a better city.  If you are working for your community, […]

We fought hard against the establishment’s business-as-usual budget Dear People’s Budget activists and community members: Congratulations to everyone for a successful People’s Budget struggle on many fronts!  On Monday, Nov. 25, the City Council adopted a 2020 budget. We need to celebrate what has been won, while at the same time refusing to accept a […]

Councilmember Alex Pedersen (District 4, Northeast Seattle), surrounded by his family, friends, supporters and community, was sworn into office on Tuesday evening by City Clerk Monica Martinez Simmons at Magnuson Park Officers Club following the certification of the 2019 election results by King County Elections. Pedersen will serve his first day in office on Wednesday, […]

On November 26th, 2019 my office received a letter from the Seattle Renters Commission (found here), advocating for the rapid passage of a moratorium on wintertime evictions. Below is my response to that letter. Tuesday November 26, 2019 Dear members of the City of Seattle Renters’ Commission,  In the context of a 4-year homelessness state […]

It is my pleasure to share our tremendous success as we worked to secure critical funding for both District 5 and citywide priorities. As your representative for District 5, I sponsored $3.1 million in priorities to be added to the budget. I am excited to share that I secured 89% of what I requested. We […]

This Week in the Budget This week, Seattle City Council Budget Committee Chair Bagshaw proposed a Chair’s Revised 2020 Budget. This revised proposal incorporated additional requests by Councilmembers that were submitted the previous week. The Budget Committee met on Tuesday, November 19th to vote on budget actions proposed by Councilmembers. The baseline for discussion was […]

Investments in Housing, Homelessness and LEAD top the list Councilmember Sally Bagshaw (District 7 – Pioneer Square to Magnolia) and Chair of the Select Budget Committee issued the following statement at the conclusion of the final committee meeting today.  The Council package was approved by members of the Budget Committee, who will vote on the final version […]

SEATTLE – The Washington State Supreme Court unanimously upheld the City’s “first-in-time” ordinance today. The First-in-Time (“FIT”) Rule requires a landlord to notify prospective tenants of the landlord’s screening criteria and offer tenancy to the first applicant meeting them. The Rule does not dictate the criteria, require quantifiable or objective criteria, prevent a landlord from conducting […]

SEATTLE – The Washington State Supreme Court unanimously upheld the City’s “first-in-time” ordinance today. The First-in-Time (“FIT”) Rule requires a landlord to notify prospective tenants of the landlord’s screening criteria and offer tenancy to the first applicant meeting them. The Rule does not dictate the criteria, require quantifiable or objective criteria, prevent a landlord from conducting […]