Councilmember Rob Johnson (Dist. 4 – Northeast Seattle), Chair of the Select Committee on Mandatory Housing Affordability, or MHA, together with his colleagues voted today to approve a trio of bills as amended in Committee earlier this month.  Taken together, the Mandatory Housing Affordability legislation links affordable housing to growth across Seattle by requiring new […]

The Seattle City Council today unanimously voted to confirm Saad Bashir as Director and Chief Technology Officer of the Seattle Information Technology (IT) Department for a term through January 1, 2023. “Mr. Bashir has a strong reputation for his leadership qualities, focused strategies, and cultivating a positive workplace culture that promotes continuous learning,” said Council […]

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On Monday, March 18, the Council will hold its vote and likely approve the MHA legislation, which has been years in the making.  Included in that legislation are a set of amendments that I made to the Mayor’s proposal for the Crown Hill neighborhood.  Before I explain those amendments, let me first explain some of […]

I recently received a report called System Failure from several business organizations that described individuals committing extensive amounts of often problematic activity. The report provided an in-depth look at 100 individuals that have the highest frequency of problematic behavior in Seattle and how the criminal justice system has not remedied any of the issues. I […]

Closed Captioning on Seattle Channel and in Public Accommodations As Chair of the City Council committee overseeing the Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR), I am regularly in contact with the four commissions within SOCR. The Commission for People with Disabilities is one of those commissions. The commission was created in 2010. Under Seattle Municipal […]

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (Position 8, Citywide), who is in Washington DC for meetings with the National League of Cities (NLC) National Housing Taskforce Members, with members of Congress, and with national thought leaders, issued the following statement from the nation’s capital in response to the release of President Trump’s budget earlier today: “The President’s budget […]

Bonuses for Hiring Police Officers The City Council passed legislation to create an incentive program for hiring police officers. I voted in support. This legislation allows the Seattle Police Department to provide bonuses of up to $15,000 for officers who transfer from other departments, and up to $7,500 for new hires. The legislation received from […]

Last week several Seattle community leaders released a report called “System Failure”.   The report focused on 100 individuals, most of whom had been booked into King County jail four or more times in a rolling 12-month period. Scott Lindsay, the writer of the report, acknowledged that our criminal justice system is not working as any […]

Councilmember M. Lorena González, chair of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans & Education Committee, issued the following statement after the Seattle City Council voted in support of Resolution 31867, supporting the passage of Medicare for All Act of 2019. “The resolution makes Seattle the first city in the nation to express support for […]