April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month On Monday April 9th the Seattle City Council and Mayor Durkan signed the Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) Proclamation.  SAAM is an annual campaign to raise awareness about sexual assault and to educate communities on how to work towards a world free from sexual violence.  While many regions have […]

International Women’s Day On Monday, the Full Council, in collaboration with the Seattle Women’s Commission, Proclaimed March 8, 2017, International Women’s Day. This is an opportunity to look back on progress made, celebrate Women’s acts of courage, and call for women to continue to do extraordinary acts to improve the lives of women in all […]

Housing Issues Source of Income Discrimination (SOID) Law SOID is important new comprehensive tenants’ rights legislation, enacting one of the Mayor’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) recommendations.  The final bill created a new protected class for people with alternative sources of income, created a new “first in time” requirement to make the housing application […]

Secure Scheduling Update As you may recall, the deliberations about this policy started last March. Professor Susan Lambert of the University of Chicago presented on problematic scheduling practices, including an increase in the use of part-time employees, just-in-time scheduling (real time schedule adjustments), and an increase in pressure to “stay within hours” due to tight labor […]

Mandatory Housing Affordability/Residential (MHA/R) Program The Council’s Planning, Land Use & Zoning (PLUZ) Committee unanimously (5-0) approved framework legislation Tuesday for the Mandatory Housing Affordability/Residential (MHA/R) Program requiring residential developers to provide for affordable housing by including it in their development or paying into an affordable housing fund. The requirement will apply after Council adopts […]

Source of Income Discrimination On July 22, 2016, the CRUEDA committee will vote on the Source of Income Discrimination legislation that proposes to add protected class to existing ordinances that already make it illegal to discriminate against a prospective renter whose primary source of income is a section 8 voucher, to include a pension, Social […]

Illegal Tree Cutting in the Duwamish Head Greenbelt Last Saturday I asked City Attorney Pete Holmes to join me in visiting the Duwamish Head Greenbelt, where I had learned that morning that over 150 trees were illegally removed from Parks and SDOT property. The tree cutting is dramatic; those who call it a clear-cut are […]

In honor of yesterday’s International Women’s Day, Seattlish published a “Love Letter to the Women of the Seattle City Council.” Yesterday’s meeting of my Committee was itself a love letter right back to Seattle’s women to commemorate International Women’s Day. Not only did we kick off the discussion of the need for Secure Scheduling Regulations […]

District 1 Office Hours I am happy to announce that I will soon be starting my District 1 office hours. Every other week I will be holding office hours from 12:00pm – 7:00pm; the in-district office will rotate to help best serve all communities in District 1. I’m still working on finalizing a schedule and […]