Action Summary of the Seattle City Council Full Council Meeting Monday, March 10, 2014 (Councilmember Licata was excused) FULL COUNCIL: 1. Council Bill 118043 (PDF Version) PASSED (7-1; opposed: Sawant) Relating to security from terrorism; authorizing the City to partner with the State of Washington and King County to receive financial assistance from the...
Month: March 2014
Post
Bridging the Economic Divide – High Quality Preschool for All Seattle Children
This past week over forty local leaders interested in education traveled together to Boston, Jersey City, and Washington DC to see what success looks like in public and private preschools. Teachers, principals and administrators from Seattle Public Schools, joined Councilmembers Tim Burgess, Bruce Harrell and Mayor Ed Murray, King County Executive Dow Constantine, proponents from […]
Post
Community Police Commission to brief Council
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/7/2014
Councilmember Bruce A. Harrell
Community Police Commission to brief Council
Seattle - Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chair of the Council's Public Safety, Civil Rights and Technology Committee, will host the Community...
Post
Full Council Vote on Taxi, For-Hire Legislation Postponed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/6/2014
Full Council Vote on Taxi, For-Hire Legislation Postponed
Seattle - Councilmember Sally J. Clark, Chair of the Committee on Taxi, For-Hire and Limousine Regulations announced today that the Full Council vote, ori...
Post
Police Discipline Disappears Into the Twilight Zone
Over the past two weeks there has been much confusion and concern raised about findings of police misconduct made by the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) being overturned by Interim Police Chief Harry Bailey. After I inquired in a letter dated February 20, the Chief initially explained that it was his intention to change only […]
Post
Sawant, Godden Recognize Women’s History Month
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/4/2014
Councilmember Kshama Sawant
Councilmember Jean Godden
Sawant, Godden Recognize Women's History Month
Fight for Economic Opportunities, Reduce the Gender Gap
SEATTLE -- Councilmember Kshama Sawant and Councilmember Jean Godden issued the following statement regarding Women's History Month observed in March and the celebration of International Women's Day on March 8. The Councilmembers salute all the women who struggle and have struggled for women's rights around the globe, and the fight to reduce the gender gap to provide economic opportunities for women:
"Every gain for women's rights was won through struggle. Our fight for a $15/hour minimum wage in Seattle is fundamentally a fight for women's rights," said Sawant. "Two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women and one in five are mothers. Women are nearly two thirds of tipped workers and we must fight for a living wage for all workers, not based on the generosity of others."
Sawant cited the findings of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United: "Lowering the minimum wage for tipped workers is essentially creating legalized gender inequity in the restaurant industry and allowing a tip penalty would exacerbate the gender wage gap. Working women and people of color need $15/hour without tip penalties and we need it now."
The Restaurant Opportunities Center United also points out that female servers are paid 68 percent of the wage received by males, whereas African American women workers are making only 60 percent of what their male counterparts earn."A higher minimum wage is a powerful tool towards reducing income disparity between women and men," says Councilmember Godden (chair of the Council Committee overseeing Gender Equity. "Our city wants to be the best at bridging this gap; right now we have one of the worst gender wage gaps in the country."
Post
Online City Charter updated
The Seattle City Charter has been updated online to reflect the changes made by Charter Amendment 19 (district elections), approved by Seattle voters at the general election of November 5, 2013. http://clerk.seattle.gov/~public/charter/charter.htm
Post
Action Summary, Monday, March 3, 2014
Action Summary of the Seattle City Council Full Council Meeting Monday, March 3, 2014 (Councilmembers Bagshaw, Burgess, and Harrell were excused) FINANCE AND CULTURE COMMITTEE: 1. Council Bill 118027 (PDF Version) PASSED (6-0) Relating to the business license tax, amending the definitions of “agricultural product” and “farmer,” and amending Section 5.30.020 of the Seattle Municipal...
Post
Archives Find of the Month: Repealing the “Cutlet Curfew,” 1965
In 1965, the Seattle Junior Chamber of Commerce led the charge to amend a decades-old law that prohibited the sale of packaged meat after 6:00 pm in Seattle stores. The ordinance stated that a “licensed meat salesman” (i.e., a butcher) must be on hand for customers to make a purchase. Since butchers did not work […]
Post
Returning to Kindergarten
Recently I returned to Stevens Elementary - where I attended kindergarten - to talk with the Seattle Channel's Josephine Cheng about preschool, the search for a new police chief, the minimum wage and more. Here's the latest installment of "Council...