This afternoon, the Seattle Ciy Attorney’s office announced that the deadline for appealing a recent ruling on the city-wide MHA legislation has passed, clearing the path for the ordinance moving forward.
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Your weekend reading
There are a number of reports and documents that have been published in the last couple of weeks and are worth paying attention to. So curl up in front of the fire, break out your reading glasses, and dig in.
Continue readingERIC revises its lawsuit challenging part of hotel-worker bill
When Initiative 124 passed, it attracted two lawsuits: one that tried to invalidate the entire bill, and another that attacked only one part: the requirement that hotel employers purchase health insurance for their employees. Last summer, facing an almost certain loss in the courts, Council member Mosqueda led an effort that repealed I-124 and replaced it with four separate, modified bills that she hoped would resolve the legal challenges in the two cases. But as expected today the plaintiff in the second case, ERIC, filed an updated complaint arguing that the rewritten bill requiring employers to provide healthcase, still violates …
Continue readingDueling motions filed in legal challenge to Initiative 976
With a preliminary injunction now in place, the fight over Initiative 976 has moved on to the next step. Yesterday, both the plaintiffs and the defendants filed motions for summary judgment, asking the court to weigh the legal issues and find in their favor.
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Here’s what you missed over the holidays
Welcome back! A few things happened in mid-to-late December that you may have missed, so here’s a post to get you caught up.
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The legal challenges related to Initiative 124 aren’t over
Earlier this year, Initiative 124 was working its way through the court system — and losing badly. But over the summer Council member Teresa Mosqueda rewrote it to address its legal shortcomings, successfully shepherded the reworked version through the Council’s legislative process, and got the Council to repeal the original I-124 ordinance. That solved the problem with the main lawsuit. But there is a second lawsuit that has been in limbo while the first one played out, and the plaintiffs in that case are forging ahead with their narrower legal challenge.
Continue readingCity submits assessment of police accountability system
Friday afternoon, the City of Seattle submitted to the court its consultant assessment of the police department’s accountability system. The consultant found “not the need for wholesale change but for additional fine-tuning and refinement.” The issues it raises echo those voiced by the city’s Community Police Commission, with disagreement on only a few of the major points.
Continue readingSawant introduces bill prohibiting evictions from November through March
This afternoon, Council member Sawant introduced a bill that would prohibit residential landlords from evicting a tenant during the coldest months of the year.
Continue readingSupreme Court denies stay of injunction, Initiative 976 remains on hold
By a 6-3 vote, this evening the Washington State Supreme Court denied the Attorney General’s emergency motion for a stay on the preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of Initiative 976, the “$30 car tab” law.
Continue readingCity, County respond in fight over I-976
If not for the preliminary injunction imposed by King County Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson last week, Initiative 976 would go into effect on Thursday. But as SCC Insight reported last night, the state Attorney General’s office has filed a motion with the state Supreme Court to stay that injunction pending further review. This afternoon, the City of Seattle, King County, and the other plaintiffs filed their response.
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