Category: Past Councilmembers

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July 6, 2011January 6, 2023Councilmember Rasmussen, News Releases

City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen selected for Governor’s statewide transportation task force

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Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen will represent Seattle on Gov. Gregiore’s newly formed “Connecting Washington Task Force,” announced yesterday. The 27 member task force includes a broad range of groups and interests from local government, labor and business representatives and transit organizations, who have been designated to develop a 10-year investing and funding plan for the state’s transportation system and are expected to present their recommendations to the 2012 Legislature.

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June 27, 2011January 6, 2023Councilmember Rasmussen

Electric Trolley Buses

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We’ve long known that Metro Transit’s aging fleet of 159 Electric Trolley Buses would have to be replaced, starting in 2014.  However, a 2009 performance audit of Metro operations opened up the question of whether these vehicles should be replaced with new trolleys,  or  some other technology like Diesel-Hybrids.  Audit Recommendation A11 stated that the [...]

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June 23, 2011January 6, 2023Councilmember Licata

UP #309 Paid Sick Leave

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There are approximately 190,000 people working in Seattle without paid sick leave. If you are not one of them, why should you care? Because, if they get sick, they go to work sick handling your food, your groceries, or your personal items in your home while caring for your loved ones. And it does happen. One in four grocery workers report coming to work sick when they don’t have paid sick leave. With 78% of accommodation and food service workers, about half of retail workers, and one fourth of health care workers not earning paid sick days, chances are they are going to work sick. In King County, from 2006 to 2010 approximately 30% of recent food borne illness outbreaks (almost all due to norovirus) was linked to food handlers who worked while sick.

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June 20, 2011January 6, 2023Councilmember Burgess

Lessons on the Fragility of Life

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Three things over the past couple of weeks have reminded me of the fragility of life. Two weeks ago, a friend, neighborhood activist, former youth soccer coach, husband and father took his own life at a seemingly desperate and hopeless...

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June 16, 2011January 6, 2023Councilmember Burgess

Perspective on Multi-Family Tax Exemption Program

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There has been a bit of controversy recently about the City's Multi-Family Tax Exemption (MFTE) program, a fancy name for a stimulus program intended to spur construction of affordable, workforce housing in certain sections of Seattle. This stimulus effort is part of the City's larger efforts around affordable housing.  I summarized those efforts back in 2008 in this post. So, let's...