This morning, the City Council voted out of committee four bills, creating new protections for hotel workers, which have been in the works for several months. Once voted into law, it will replace the embattled Initiative 124.
Continue reading Hotel workers bills advance out of committee
Last Thursday the Council’s Workers’ Rights committee finished amending three of the four hotel workers’ protection bills, co-sponsored by Council members Mosqueda and Gonzalez to replace Initiative 124.
(update 9/9: a couple of corrections below based upon feedback from Council staff. My apologies; several of the amendments weren’t published in advance of the meeting so it was challenging to follow along)
Continue reading Hotel worker bills get fine-tuned, continue to move forward
Over the summer, Council member Sawant has been working on a bill that would expand the city’s ability to establish additional “tiny house” villages and issue permits for more sanctioned homeless encampments. However, her bill has already been tied up in land-use bureaucracy.
Last week I reported that the City of Seattle’s Hearing Examiner had reopened the hearing on the city’s SEPA Determination of Nonsignificance, the first step in establishing Transportation Impact Fees in Seattle. Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil asked the parties to come back in so he could pose some additional questions to them that he felt weren’t thoroughly briefed in their filings to-date.
That meeting was this afternoon; it lasted only twenty minutes, enough time for Vancil to lay out his four questions and for the parties to agree on a schedule for additional briefs.
Continue reading Update on Transportation Impact Fees hearing
Two of the four bills that Council member Teresa Mosqueda is sponsoring to extend additional protections and rights to hotel workers saw lengthy discussions last Friday, as well as significant amendments adopted that address some of the most pointed criticisms of the bills.
Continue reading Hotel worker protection bills take shape, get amended (updated)
Yesterday, Seattle Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil informed the parties in an appeal related to Transportation Impact Fees that he was re-opening the hearing “to address a narrow question of law not fully briefed by the parties in their closing arguments.”
Continue reading Hearing Examiner reopens hearing on Transportation Impact Fees
On the heels of her announcement that she is running for state Attorney General, Council member Lorena Gonzalez auditioned for the role by announcing that is working on campaign-finance reform legislation “to protect the integrity of Seattle’s democracy.” She sent a draft version of the bill to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, which in turn held a discussion on the topic last week.
This morning the Community Police Commission filed its own brief with the U.S. District Court, in response to last Thursday’s submission of the city’s proposal to evaluate its police accountability system and come back into compliance with the Consent Decree.
Continue reading CPC responds to city filing on police accountability
In a case that has taken on broad significance for police accountability in Seattle, this afternoon King County Superior Court John McHale vacated an arbitrator’s decision last year to overturn the termination of SPD Officer Adley Shepherd for punching a handcuffed suspect in the face while she was in the back seat of a patrol car.
Continue reading Judge vacates arbitrator’s ruling in Adley Shepherd case (UPDATED)
This evening the City of Seattle submitted its proposed methodology for evaluating the city’s police accountability system, as required by U.S. District Court Judge James Robart who oversees the SPD consent decree.
Continue reading City submits plan to evaluate police accountability, DOJ on board