Today, several local reporters and editors, including myself, sent a joint letter to the City Auditor requesting an investigation into city officials’ practices of using private email accounts and other private electronic media to conduct city business. Below is the letter we sent, along with the attachments demonstrating the extent of the issue. The City Auditor reports to the City Council, an arrangement that usually is well-suited to the Council’s oversight responsibilities over the executive branch. In this case, however, the issue implicates several (if not all) City Council members and their staff, as well as the Mayor’s office. Since …
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Happy first anniversary, SCC Insight
A year ago today I launched Seattle City Council Insight. What a crazy ride it’s been.
Continue readingWhat you should be reading
Welcome to all the new readers! Yesterday was a crazy day here at SCC Insight, but I’m thrilled and humbled by all the new attention and for all the words of support. I am also humbled to be in the company of a number of very talented writers and journalists who also cover Seattle city government, who have been doing this for years (unlike me, the newcomer) and have developed keen insight and intuition for the topic. I thought it might be helpful to share with you a list of my colleagues so you can follow their writing as well as mine. I …
Continue readingNotes from this afternoon’s Full Council meeting
(Updated 9/28 8:00pm. See below) Whew. Well that happened.
Continue readingNews roundup: TV news, MHA, and secure scheduling
It’s been a very quiet week for news reporting on the City Council this week…
Continue readingCouncil doubles down on local broadcast news resolution
Through the time I’ve been writing about the City Council, I’ve developed enormous respect for our nine City Council members. They are, by all measures, dedicated public servants who work long hours and are sincerely trying to do the right thing for Seattle and its citizens. They wrestle with difficult, often seemingly intractable, problems to try to find compassionate solutions that help people. Like the rest of us, they have flaws, they make mistakes, they’re not perfect — and while we should hold them to a high standard, that standard shouldn’t be perfection. But today I lost some of my …
Continue readingThis week: long-term planning
Several long-term planning efforts get airtime this week in Council Chamber.
Continue readingResolution on broadcast TV news jobs is an embarrassment
On Wednesday the Council’s Gender Equity, Safe Communities and New Americans Committee considered a resolution proposed by Council members Kshama Sawant and Lisa Herbold that throws its support behind unionized broadcast TV news staff in their contract negotiation with Tegna, the parent company of KING 5. It’s a horrible, indefensible piece of legislation.
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