Giving My Thanks to You I look forward this time of year to the opportunity to reflect on all that I have for which to be thankful. On this Thanksgiving Day eve, there are individual people to be thankful for their contribution to making Seattle a better city.  If you are working for your community, […]

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 […]

SEATTLE – The Washington State Supreme Court unanimously upheld the City’s “first-in-time” ordinance today. The First-in-Time (“FIT”) Rule requires a landlord to notify prospective tenants of the landlord’s screening criteria and offer tenancy to the first applicant meeting them. The Rule does not dictate the criteria, require quantifiable or objective criteria, prevent a landlord from conducting […]

This Week in the Budget On November 6th, Budget Committee Chair Bagshaw proposed an Initial Budget Proposal, which incorporated some of the Councilmember proposals presented between October 29 and November 1. The three overarching priorities Bagshaw announced are homelessness, housing and hygiene. The proposal includes funding for each, including $3.5 million in additional funding for […]

This Week in Council Budget Deliberations Last week the Council’s Budget Committee considered Council Budget Actions proposed by individual Councilmembers. The next step in the Council’s budget deliberations will be for Budget Committee Chair Sally Bagshaw to propose an initial Council Budget Proposal, adjusted from the Mayor’s proposed budget to include Councilmember priorities, at the […]

This Week in the Budget This week the Council’s Budget Committee met on Monday and Tuesday for Budget Deliberations and Issue Identification. On Tuesday evening, the Council held the second public hearing on the 2020 budget.   We had some great public testimony from residents with the D1 Community Network in support of funding for priority […]

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 […]

This Week in Council Budget Deliberations This week the City Council Budget Committee met on October 2 to discuss: The Citywide Homelessness Response The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, with a community panel (which included King County Prosecutor Satterberg) and a City department panel The Mayor’s proposed tax on Transportation Network Company (TNC) vehicles […]

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 […]

Delridge Light Rail Alternatives: Initial Assessment Results, Public Comment Open through October 4 Sound Transit has taken a critical next step in implementing Sound Transit 3 in releasing its “initial assessment” of potential additional alternatives to study in the Draft Environmental Impact statement for the West Seattle/Ballard light rail project.   If you recall, in May […]