It was a messy day in Seattle politics, with a heated meeting of the Community Police Commission (CPC), a nearly five-hour City Council meeting, a march to City Hall, and various protest leaders jockeying to speak with the Mayor and police chief. Here are my take-aways.
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Notes from today’s Council meetings
First, let me echo Council member Gonzalez’s comments this morning in congratulating Council member Teresa Mosqueda on the birth of her daughter! This morning the Council members interviewed the two dozen or so youths who were nominated for city commission and board positions through the Get Engaged! program, and this afternoon the Council voted to approve their nominations. On a related note, Council members Herbold and Bagshaw noted that there is no parallel program for seniors, and they hoped that next year a “Stay Engaged!” program might be created by the Council. This Thursday, Council member Sawant will hold a …
Continue readingClosed captioning bill moves out of committee
This morning, a bill requiring places of public accommodation to turn on closed captions on all televisions in public areas was passed out of committee and is now headed for final approval by the full Council next Monday.
Continue readingEthics and Elections Commission debating debates
The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission meets on Wednesday, and will take on a tough question: how to fix the requirement that candidates participating in the Democracy Voucher program participate in at least three public debates.
Continue reading“Save the Showbox” ordinance moves out of committee, despite big questions
This afternoon the City Council gave a master class in what happens when a land-use bill is rushed through the legislative process.
Continue readingChanges coming to Democracy Vouchers program and other local election rules
This morning, the Council’s Governance, Ethics and Technology Committee moved forward an ordinance adopting several updates to the Democracy Vouchers program and to other rules governing local elections.
Continue readingProgressive Revenue Task Force holds second meeting; things were learned
This morning the Progressive Revenue Task Force held its second meeting, the first with substantive discussions of the issues. There were some important insights that help clarify the picture of the need — and the possible ways to address it. (updated 1/19/18 10:00am — the city provided updated slides with corrections for bad data and incorrect math)
Continue readingProgressive revenue task force holds first meeting
This morning the Progressive Revenue Task Force held its first meeting, and mostly just decided what its other meetings will be about.
Continue readingCouncil announces head tax task force members
This afternoon the City Council announced the members of its Progressive Revenue Task Force, i.e. the group tasked with looking at a proposal for instituting a head tax or tapping into other progressive revenue sources.
Continue readingCouncil opens up applications for “head tax” task force
Today the City Council announced that it has started taking applications for its newly-created task force to look at progressive revenue sources to fund new homelessness and affordable housing investments.
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