Category: Past Councilmembers

Home » Past Councilmembers
Post

Trumps Dangerous Attacks on Rule of Law

Donald Trump continues to attack the rule of law through his continuing comments degrading the FBI, the Justice Department, and federal judges and by recklessly branding his political opponents as criminals. I wrote about this last August in the Seattle...

Post

On Tyranny

I’m reading Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. It’s an analysis of democratic surges in Europe following World War I, World War II, and the fall of communism in 1989. And then the abject failure of...

Post

Councilmember Burgess, Director Davis Statement On Consideration of Fossil Fuel Divestment

SEATTLE – Councilmember Tim Burgess (Position 8, Citywide) and Chair of the Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System Board, and Jeff Davis, Executive Director of the SCERS Board, issued the following statement at the conclusion of today’s Board meeting, during which time fossil fuel divestment was discussed: “Today’s Board meeting was well attended by community members...

Post

A Better Tax System

Last week, I offered recipients of my E-Newsletter an opportunity to participate in a quick poll regarding a city income tax on high-income residents. The response was very impressive: the survey received about 5,800 responses over four days. Clearly, this...

Post

Council Passes Historic Police Accountability and Reform Legislation

Seattle, WA — By a vote of 8-0, Council unanimously approved Council Bill 118969, a measure related to Police Accountability.  The legislation, primarily sponsored by Councilmember M. Lorena González (Position 9, Citywide), is the first of its kind in the country and creates new, powerful, civilian- and community-led oversight systems that will effectively ensure constitutional...

Post

More Taxes: Fair and Effective?

To do better for the people of Seattle we can raise more revenue, or, alternatively, we could shift funds from underperforming programs to those that in fact do better. Alas, we almost always go for more revenue. Our property tax...

Post

Defending the Rule of Law

Over the past couple of weeks, it has been suggested that Seattle police officers should not be present at “anti-Trump protests” or instances of nonviolent civil disobedience. Further, the idea has been raised that police officers should be deployed to...