This morning Judge Robart ruled “from the bench” that he has found the City of Seattle to be partially out of compliance with the 2012 Consent Decree between the Department of Justice and the city regarding biased policing.
Continue reading Robart finds city partially out of compliance with the SPD Consent Decree
This afternoon, the Office of the Hearing Examiner released its ruling on an appeal of the adequacy of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the City Council’s proposed legislation relaxing rules on the construction of ADUs (aka “mother in law apartments” and “backyard cottages”) in single-family residential zones in Seattle.
Continue reading Hearing examiner rules for city in ADU EIS appeal
(updated below)
Earlier this week, the City Council sent a letter to City Attorney Pete Holmes indicating its support for his plan to sue fossil fuel companies over the damage that their product has done to the city due to anthropogenic climate change.
Continue reading Council, City Attorney preparing to sue fossil fuel companies (UPDATED)
If there’s one thing that the Seattle Police Department has become quite good at, it’s churning out reports on its reform efforts. In the run-up to a pivotal hearing on May 15th with U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, the city has filed several reports on it recent work to continue and sustain its police reforms under its consent decree with the Department of Justice.
Yesterday the Washington State Supreme Court agreed to hear a review of an appeals court ruling that threw out the voter-approved Initiative 124. I-124 granted protections to hotel workers, and required hotel employers to either provide health insurance coverage to employees or pay them the equivalent cost.
Continue reading State Supreme Court agrees to review I-124 ruling
Fresh off a double-win in the courts, the Seattle City Council is set to extend its ban on rent-bidding platforms such as Rentberry’s while the city finishes a study on the impacts of the technology.
Continue reading City Council moves to extend moratorium on rent-bidding platforms
Last week there was a lot of press coverage, much of it inaccurate, regarding a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals related to whether cities can make it a criminal offense to “camp” or sleep on public property.
Here’s what the ruling actually says, and what it means.
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Continue reading What the 9th Circuit actually said about criminalizing homelessness
As of today, Initiative 124, which was approved by Seattle voters in November 2016, is nearly dead after the State Court of Appeals invalidated it for impermissibly containing multiple, unrelated subjects. But Council members Teresa Mosqueda and Debora Juarez, along with some of their colleagues, are about to take a look at passing at least parts of it into law the old-fashioned way — and fixing some of its most glaring flaws in the process.
Continue reading Council to look at salvaging what it can from I-124
Friday was a bad day for Rentberry in Seattle. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones ruled against it in its lawsuit challenging the City of Seattle’s moratorium on rent-bidding web sites. And in a separate case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to Rentberry’s key argument — and its best hope of winning on appeal.
Continue reading Rentberry takes a double-loss in its case against the city’s moratorium
This morning, Council member Lisa Herbold’s bill requiring developers to replace any affordable housing units demolished by construction projects got its first hearing, in the Planning, Land Use and Zoning Committee. And it didn’t get the warm welcome that one might expect. Rather, there was a complicated and sometimes frustrating conversation.
Continue reading Anti-displacement bill gets first discussion