Coronavirus Updates Governor Inslee and Secretary of Health Wiseman announced yesterday restrictions on the “Safe Start” phased reopening in Washington. These restrictions come after an increase in the number of covid-19 cases. Across the state we now have over 50,000 cases, 1,500 deaths, and 5,000 hospitalizations due to the virus. In order to try and stymie the increase the Governor has changed […]

Demonstrations in Seattle in Response to Police Brutality and Policing In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and the deaths of countless other black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement before Mr. Floyd, demonstrations continue in Seattle and all over the nation.  The demands for change have spurred a conversation […]

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 […]

This Week in the Budget Last week the Budget Committee did not meet.  Councilmembers had a deadline on Thursday, October 10 to identify issues to be included in staff memos for the Budget Deliberations and Issue Identification. These meetings began on October 16 and they continue through October 22nd. At these meetings Council Central Staff […]

2020 Council Budget Schedule On Monday, September 23rd Mayor Durkan submitted her Proposed 2020 City of Seattle Budget and Proposed 2020-2025 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to the Council. With that, the Council, now meeting as the Budget Committee, begins its work on the 2020 budget.  We will continue through adoption of the budget on November […]

This Week’s Budget Update Last week the City Council Budget Committee held a public hearing on Tuesday evening, and continued into the phase of budget negotiations referred to as, “Issue Identification,” when Council Central Staff presents highlights of department budgets and issues for potential changes that the Council might want to consider, as well as […]

Everyone Doing Their Part to Rescue Bernard the Cat We’ve all heard the story before – a cat gets stuck up a tree and the local fire fighters come to the rescue to bring the cat down. In this case it was a utility pole and an adorable orange and white cat named Bernard, or […]