Not a lot of controversy today.
There were no surprises in this afternoon’s full City Council meeting; everything on the agenda passed unanimously. The lowlight, however, was the return of Council gadfly and unrepentant potty-mouth Alex Tsimerman after an extended period of being banned from City Hall for disruptive behavior. After accusing the nine Council members of being anti-Semites, he criticized them for not considering his application to sit on the Community Police Commission since he has so much experience with being arrested.
Council member Mosqueda is still looking to vote her proposed “domestic workers’ bill of right” out of committee on Thursday morning after deliberating on amendments. Her office has released a memo with 11 proposed amendments for consideration.
Council member Juarez announced that at her committee meeting on Wednesday they will take up:
- the update aquarium expansion MOU;
- a concession lease at Magnuson Park;
- the aquatic waters lease for Andrews Bay;
- a briefing on the Parks Department’s parks inspection program.
Juarez also reminded her colleagues that last Friday was the first Hearing Examiner public comments session on the proposed waterfront LID, and now it is officially a quasi-judicial matter about which individual Council members may not have ex-parte communications until the issue is resolved. Additional sessions with the Hearing Examiner are scheduled for July 17th, July 18th, and July 28th.
Council member Johnson announced that the agenda for his committee meeting Wednesday morning includes:
- appointments to the Seattle Design Review Board;
- a capitol hill transit-oriented-design project;
- two contract rezones;
- the first briefing on UW’s proposed update to its Major Institution Master Plan, which is also a quasi-judicial matter for the Council.
This morning, Council member Gonzalez made a a public appeal for people to stop posting fake information about ICE raids in the Seattle area, and in fact asked people not to post their observations of suspected ICE activity directly to social media at all. She said that if people witness activity that they suspect is ICE-related, they should call 844-724-3737 to report it to the Immigrant Solidarity Network “rapid response” team, which will confirm the activity and get the word out in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. Gonzalez pointed out that recently some tweets with incorrect information had been retweeted thousands of times, while official posts were getting “paltry” attention.
Gonzalez also reminded her colleagues about a memo she sent them last week regarding the process she intends to follow for the confirmation of the Mayor’s nominee to be Chief of Police. Gonzalez, as chair of the Council’s public safety committee, will lead the confirmation process. She said that she intends to follow past precedent by requiring the nominee to complete a questionnaire supplied by the Council. She is currently collecting questions to include from her colleagues within five broad categories:
- Budget;
- Management and Operations;
- Police Accountability and Reform;
- Community Policing;
- Criminal Justice Reform and Diversion.
Her memo is light on details of the confirmation process, but she promised more information after Mayor Durkan announces her nomination.
To me, the highlight was Councilmember Gonzalez saying “enough” to that thug Alex Tsimerman. Enough! I fully expect Councilmember Gonzalez to go for another 1 year ban at her next Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans & Education meeting, it’s her biggest claim to glory – not just fame.
That said, moving on, I’m really hoping the Council President is going to realize he’s a fraction of his legendary predecessor Tim Burgess. Tim Burgess didn’t stand for it, and bravely laid the legal groundwork to restore some civility to the Seattle City Council. It’s a sad tragedy his genius isn’t being continued by eight of the nine Councilmembers. Especially as one of the regrets of the former Accidental Mayor was, “I was not able to perhaps constrain or resolve the nature of our public discourse.”
I think we’ve seen all of Burgess’ tools for civility melt down just in the past 90 days. Sawantists stealing taxpayer dollars for their signs & banners to demonize & even block the media from covering the tax on jobs/head tax repeal. Gonzalez superfans getting a bit rowdy. Tsimerman back and on the attack.
Burgess was right to call out the shouting competitions and “who can call people the worst names” on his way to retirement. Maybe time the Council President got replaced by his wise Latina protege… for starters.