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 […]

Budget Calendar/Key Deadlines On Monday, September 24th Mayor Jenny Durkan will submit her proposed 2019-2020 City Budget and 2019-2024 Capital Improvement Program. The Council will then begin meeting as the Budget Committee in a two-month process for consideration, amendment, and finally, approval of the City budget. Here’s a brief rundown the of the calendar, process, […]

United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Calls for the Release of Xiyue Wang This week the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Iran’s detention of Xiyue Wang, an United States citizen and University of Washington Alumni imprisoned in Iran since August of 2016, is illegal and arbitrary and that he must […]

Seattle University Public Safety Survey and Micro-Community Policing Plans Seattle University recently released their 2017 Seattle Public Safety Survey. The report includes analysis of community perceptions of public safety citywide, by police precinct, and by Micro-Community Policing Plan (MCPP) area. There are 14 micro-communities for the Southwest Precinct: Alaska Junction, Alki, Commercial Duwamish, Commercial Harbor […]

Prepaid Postage for Returned Ballots As you may have heard, last May the King County Council approved the King County Elections request for prepaid postage for every voter in the County so that they could return their ballot through the mail without a stamp. King County Elections conducted two prepaid postage pilots last year.  By […]

Seattle Small Business Survey In continuing its efforts to support Seattle small businesses the Office of Economic Development has designed a survey to ask small business owners across the city what the City can do to better support the success of Seattle small businesses.  This information will help OED to prioritize their programs and services, […]

Transportation Benefit District Changes Allow for Additional Service for Delridge Last week the City Council passed legislation amending the criteria for Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) spending; under state law, these funds can only be used for transportation purposes. One of the key changes is to amend the spending criteria to allow the STBD to […]

Council adopts vehicle exhaust noise legislation On Monday, the City Council adopted legislation that I sponsored to simplify enforcement of existing law prohibiting excessive vehicle exhaust noise.  Enforcement currently requires use of a sound meter, which police officers usually don’t carry, and meters require calibration. SPD noted in the committee discussion last week that they […]

Community Resident Preference Policies During passage of the Mandatory Housing Affordability program for Chinatown/International District (C/ID) last year the Council passed a companion resolution in order to try to address the concerns that the community had about the impact of the zoning changes, in particular impacts that would accelerate displacement of longtime C/ID residents. One […]

Ship Canal Water Quality Project Update Last Tuesday my Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts (CRUEDA) committee received another update from Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project (SCWQP).  You can watch their presentation here. The SCWQP is a joint project with King County (with a 65% City/35% County cost […]