Lots of local news and commentary to end a momentous week.
Continue readingAuthor: Kevin Schofield
Kevin Schofield is a freelance writer and the founder of Seattle City Council Insight, a web site providing independent news and analysis of the Seattle City Council.
After graduating from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he worked for Microsoft Corporation for 26 years. That culminated in a term as Chief Operations Officer for Microsoft Research, the division of the company focused on advancing the state of the art in computing. Upon leaving Microsoft in 2014 he decided to embrace his love of writing.
Kevin volunteers at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where he also serves on the Board of Directors. He is also Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California.
Beyond writing, his personal passions are his twin daughters, photography, cooking, and playing the guitar. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Mobile vaccination team moves on to next phase
This morning the city’s new Mobile Vaccination Team, which is staffed by Seattle Fire Department paramedics and EMTs, announced that it has finished up its work on vaccinating residents and workers in adult family homes, and as of yesterday has moved on to its next set of people to vaccinate: home healthcare workers, and older residents of permanent support housing and affordable housing buildings in the city.
Continue readingThursday news roundup
Councilmember Sawant receives threatening emails from a city email account, and more.
Continue readingWednesday news roundup
The tyrant Donald Trump has been removed from power. The Republic is preserved. Now we must rededicate ourselves to the hard work before us: to learn from our many mistakes, to fix what is broken, to raise up downtrodden Americans, and to strive to form a more perfect union.
Continue readingNotes from today’s Council meetings
The council took twenty minutes this afternoon to pass a fairly toothless resolution on cooperating with Cuba on COVID response. Also, details of a flurry of committee meetings late this week into next week.
Continue readingState legislature takes a big swing at police reform
There are several bills working their way through the Washington State Senate right now that aim to make some serious reforms to policing in the state. Two of them are drawing much attention, including from Seattle officials who testified at a hearing on the bills last week. While both bills recognize that many of the issues can be traced back to the collective bargaining agreements negotiated with unions of law enforcement officers, one of the bills focuses on a modest reform to the arbitration system for appealing disciplinary measures while the other “swings for the fence” on an ambitious list …
Continue readingTuesday news roundup
There’s a chance of snow later this week… stay tuned. Here’s the news.
Continue readingThis week in Council Chambers
City Hall is closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the regular meeting schedule is shifted around.
Continue readingFriday news roundup
Let’s celebrate getting through the week insurrection-free. Here’s the news.
Continue readingDurkan, Mosqueda urge city employee retirement system to divest from fossil fuels
Yesterday both Mayor Durkan and City Councilmember Mosqueda sent letters to the Seattle City Employees Retirement System (aka SCERS) urging it to divest the pension fund from fossil-fuel investments. Three years ago when then-Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, and former Mayor Mike McGinn tried the same thing, the request was met with sympathy but was still refused. This time it’s likely to get the same reply — but that doesn’t means that SCERS is ignoring climate change.
Continue reading