What's next for Seattle with a new city council?

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Seattle Nice, I'm David Hyde here as always with Erica C Barnett of Publicola Erica. How is your Sunday morning going? Is it raining out there? Yeah, I haven't gone outside in like a day and a half so it's all good.

[00:00:24] Hi on paint fumes here. What's wrong with that? It's soup season. Sandeep Kaushik, how are you doing? I've got a cold but otherwise okay. Everybody's got a cold that's no excuse. Alright today we're sorry that sounded heartless.

[00:00:37] That sounded heartless because I too feel like a little under the weather. Today we are talking about the new city council they're coming in in January. We've got five new members joining Sarah Nelson, a to be announced council member and Mayor Bruce Harrell.

[00:00:53] The question is what changes in 2024? We know the big issues in the race were homelessness, crime, but maybe we can get past some of those in our analysis of what's about to happen and give you a preview, a sneak preview because

[00:01:09] I know that both Erica and Sandeep know who this next fill-in council member is going to be. So Erica do you want to start? Well, I mean I want to refute that notion right off the bat.

[00:01:19] I have no idea but I will talk about the other five council members that are coming in. So it's going to be a majority, a super majority ultimately of newcomers. So I think the first thing to say is that we've got a council that's totally green for

[00:01:33] the most part. I think Kathy Moore worked for a council member a long time ago up in Cheesan District Five. But yeah we're talking about a council that's going to have had no experience in elected office and no experience on the second floor for the most part.

[00:01:49] So I think we're just going to see a couple months of them getting up to speed on stuff that ordinarily you'd have a lot of institutional knowledge and colleagues sort of helping you out.

[00:01:59] But in this case, I mean it's going to be the greenest council I've seen since I've moved here in 2001. Sandeep, two months of floundering what do you think? Well look there are a lot of new faces here I should add that Marissa Rivera while

[00:02:12] she hasn't played a bit in elected office has served in a number of different roles at the city right in various administrations and most recently had Office of Arts and Culture. But yeah but Erica's general point is right you know it is a very new council we haven't

[00:02:26] had this kind of sea change at the council in my 20 years plus that I've lived in Seattle. So I think things are going to be very, very different. I think one of the biggest things is we're going to see a very different culture at the

[00:02:42] city council than we have had over the last few years. Just the departure of Shama Sawant alone I think is probably going to take the temperature down and the kind of the sort of adversarial and I would say sometimes toxic quality of

[00:02:58] the interpersonal relationships at the council that not just Sawant but I think Sawant precipitated though it certainly extended beyond her. And so yeah while these new council members are green I also think they're also going to

[00:03:11] be a lot more collegial right like the last couple of years at the council Erica knows this and David I'm sure you know as well has been marred by a lot of interpersonal conflicts

[00:03:22] as much as ideological conflicts right and some of that may get tamped down now that we have new faces and who are for the most part generally you know more or less aligned politically. Yeah I think that to blame Sawant for the lack of collegiality and toxicity interpersonally

[00:03:38] on the council is pretty inaccurate because you know for one thing I think a lot of people behind the scenes get along with Sawant quite well. You know I think some of the toxicity you know will remain without naming names

[00:03:53] on the council and I think we've got you know some folks potentially coming on who are going to be a little bit of bomb throwers. I do think that you know obviously all of these folks are more ideologically aligned

[00:04:06] than not but you know I don't think it's you know probably accurate to say that like Joy Hollingsworth and Bob Kettle are remotely on the same page right. I mean Joy who won in district three the Capitol Hill Central District is a fairly progressive

[00:04:23] you know left leaning person but in line with Mayor Bruce Harrell and a lot of issues Bob Kettle I mean you know he's a Queen Anne former Navy guy and I would say pretty damn

[00:04:35] conservative so you know I think it's tempting to lump all these people together in the same bucket and say well they're all going to agree on mostly everything so they're going to get along but I think that's you know a matter of personality too and that really remains

[00:04:50] to be seen. Sandeep let me ask you to linger a little bit on this question of your point about Sawaant leaving. Didn't Sawaant fundamentally change Seattle politics in a way that we're not going to

[00:05:00] entirely go back from or do you actually think we're going back to the gentile days of Nick Lakata and Gene Godin when you first started on The Stranger and everything was super mellow especially with the coverage from The Stranger?

[00:05:12] No I don't think it's entirely going away no I don't think it's kind of a complete erasing of the sort of cultural vibe of the council over the last few years but I do think it's going to some of the more aggressive in your face politics will get

[00:05:30] tamped down some look there are still a very active vocal movement left in the city right and on big issues I'm sure they will still flood the council chambers and you know make their voices heard right I don't think that's going away with Sawaant they had somebody

[00:05:47] who helped to sort of amplify and organize that kind of politics right where from the dais she would be denouncing her colleagues as sellouts and what you know with a huge boisterous crowd backing her up and also doing I think some of that stuff is going

[00:06:03] to at least we'll see a little less of it. I also think going back to Erica's point about the fact that there are differences between these council members that's true but it really depends on the issue right

[00:06:14] like I think on public safety I don't think there's a massive difference between Bob Kettle say and Joy Hollingsworth on some of the public safety questions but I do think on things like taxation or other things there may be a lot more division.

[00:06:28] So I think saying that they agree on public safety is that is if you look at the campaign I mean campaigns come down to a couple of slogans people don't really articulate like what their plan is right and so it's easy to say that they totally

[00:06:46] agree on public safety okay so what the council is actually going to have to be dealing with though are really complex issues like the Seattle police officers guild contract like the budget for public safety and I mean I would say you

[00:07:00] know to your point about all these toxic politics are gonna go away now that Sawaant is gone well guess what there's toxic politics on the right as well not just on the left and I think that you know again remains to be seen

[00:07:14] how much all these folks totally are in lockstep with one another you know when it gets me on the campaign slogan of I want more cops they're facing you know 218 million 250 million dollar deficit in the next couple years and so

[00:07:28] it's not gonna be a matter of just like saying I love cops or I don't love cops it's gonna be a matter of do we tax do we cut the budget do you know we rein in some of these demands from Spock not to have any accountability I

[00:07:42] do think that there's just real quickly on public safety I think there's a likelihood that they will get run over by Spock because of their lack of experience but I don't think that's because you know they're all in lock

[00:07:52] stuff about giving the police everything and don't tax anything because that's just not realistic in a situation where you have hundreds of millions of dollars of a budget gap that you get a close well the Spock contract right

[00:08:05] is negotiated on the executive side right this is something that the mayor's office has to come up with a contract agreement that then gets presented to the council for approval and so you know we'll see what that that contract

[00:08:18] looks like I do think they also have members on the Labor Relations Policy Committee I just want to say. Dan Strauss right Dan Strauss is on there? Yeah I don't know. I think there's really broad consensus in Seattle

[00:08:30] politics that cuts across the political divide whether you're more moderate or more kind of left around reform right of SPD where things fell off the cliff was when the conversation turned to things like cutting the number of cops you know

[00:08:46] the kind of abolition defund stuff is where things got super divisive but around reform I think there's pretty broad support and I do think there's widespread feeling that Spock has an impediment to that right and

[00:08:58] that we do need to stand up. We saw in the campaign 9-1-1 alternatives every single candidate talked about the need for a non-arm 9-1-1 you know alternative response right? I mean every candidate talked about the need for the fifth

[00:09:11] alternative in the comprehensive plan I don't know that that means they have a detailed plan that they can articulate about what that means so that's it does a box check. Yeah no I don't think anybody has a detailed plan on

[00:09:22] anything right now so I agree with you on that point I mean but I think there's you know if you think about public safety as as if we want to reduce public safety to the question of policing I think there's some pretty

[00:09:35] significant consensus among most of these new council members right now when you said they're facing a big budget deficit and some of their kind of you know if you want to for lack of a better term for pro-policing you know campaign

[00:09:50] commitments are gonna run up against the reality of lack of resources and what's gonna happen there in terms of taxation I think that is a real issue and there's a real tension there and we don't know what's gonna happen

[00:10:01] obviously Theresa Mosque and the council announced at the end of this budget process that they weren't gonna move forward with you know a big new tax proposal like a Municap gains tax this year and so they're kind of kicking

[00:10:13] the can down the road to this new council along with it with the you know quote-unquote deficit that they're facing which is contested exactly what the size and scope of that deficit is but but nonetheless those are the mayor's budget office and the city's city council's independent budget

[00:10:33] office agree so I'm not sure who's contesting it right if you if you fund all the shiny new toys that the that the city council many of which are fun toys but I would love to know what you think is a toy in their budget Sunday

[00:10:45] I think some of the green you deal shit is our toys I think it's virtue signaling bullshit yeah I would love to hear you point to a program that climate deniers Sunday I'd like to hear you instead of pointing to a blanket

[00:10:59] general concept what programs do you think are toys to get more to get more serious about this $200 million which is like to get more serious about this the era of somebody at the council shouting no austerity budgets and then there

[00:11:11] can never be a thing I really want to know how you think they're not going to be some significant sort of quote-unquote cut I'm not of course I do but you're saying that there's just a ton of junkie little toys that we can

[00:11:26] throw away and I'm asking you to name one of them because you seem to think that it's possible to cut 200 to 250 million dollars from the budget I did say that I did not say okay so some significant portion of that so let's say 50 million

[00:11:44] yeah there are there has been an enormous growth of city government over the last decade plus right far faster than inflation and population growth right so absolutely like are there worthwhile things the city government's doing now

[00:12:00] that maybe they won't be doing a year from now maybe you know probably but in the interest of sort of like you know a more balanced fiscal approach is there likely to be some combination of cuts with probably some revenue

[00:12:12] increases I don't know for sure with this new council I think like that's likely right I just I just think it's funny that you're so fiscally prudent when it comes to programs but when it comes to defund the police IE let's cut some of

[00:12:26] these positions for example your you think that's what a gas make era of no austerity budgets sort of holding the holding sway is over right probably I mean it doesn't seem like you know that sort of mantra or slogan is gonna carry

[00:12:43] a lot of weight with with these new council members given you know the kind of commitments they made on the campaign trail so look I think a municap gainstax is quite potentially in play like even you know it was in this

[00:12:56] current budget session was Alex Peterson who's arguing for it right as a but though he wanted a revenue neutral proposal that cut other taxes but I think that's gonna be on the table obviously jump starts on the table so

[00:13:10] there's revenues gonna be a real question in this next session but so are cuts and I didn't hear any specific programs that you think are toys the first thing I see shit like this all the time like when OLS is putting out

[00:13:24] RF OLS being the office of labor standards right when OLS is putting out RFPs for things like art projects celebrating the you know gig worker legislation they paid and they want artists submitted that's when I think

[00:13:39] there's been they have too much money for their own good I mean that is not it the office of labor standards which is the the only office in the city that enforces labor standards for on companies and we have you know quite a

[00:13:52] few labor law let me finish so anyway OLS which is the only department that enforces labor standards in the city has a budget of about 10 million dollars so again I'm just just wondering I mean you're probably talking about I

[00:14:07] don't know which art project you're mad about specifically but I'm gonna guess that it's not a very big portion of that of that money yeah I mean you kind of remind me of Republicans making fun of the NEA and saying that art is you

[00:14:21] know a frivolous is just frivolity and if we cut it we're gonna fix the budget well guess what I mean we don't spend that much money on art in the city of Seattle and I notice you know you're not looking at for example

[00:14:31] the Office of Economic Development which funds stuff like oh murals promoting major league baseball in all the downtown windows that are now moldering there and look like shit but you know that that wasn't frivolous that wasn't frivolous spending that's good spending because it's business spending I suspect

[00:14:48] it will be good for gig workers then you know that's a waste of money art about gig workers art art about their law right like that's ridiculous that was ridiculous and it is indicative of the fact that like you want to talk about

[00:15:03] OLS and how their empire building and how they've expanded over the last few years right I mean anyway we were getting 20 something employees just to be clear yeah and they're adding them at a rapid rate right they just passed this

[00:15:18] 10 cent fee and I worked on this so I should say I'm not a neutral observer here on this but you know I have clients that opposed it but they built in enormous number of well not a normal but I think given the scale of OLS a

[00:15:34] significant number of new FTEs just in this fee along with like 750,000 dollars a year and kind of walking around money right which is money that they're gonna flow for quote unquote outreach to favored outside groups like and I

[00:15:51] think we all know the much of that the bulk of that money is gonna go to working Washington right I mean this was the way kind of left progressive governance worked in Seattle for the last seven eight nine ten years where it was sort of

[00:16:02] righteous to build into this stuff hey let's let's build into this new law a bunch of money to flow to the you know the Teamsters because we love the Teamsters or to working Washington because we love to working Washington or

[00:16:14] you know and and give them a piece of the pie and I think some of that stuff is gonna get a lot more scrutiny now and should the Sunday what you said was you could also see taxes on the table if they do end up raising taxes

[00:16:27] finding some programs that they want to re-evaluate and actually raise taxes I mean those aren't really cuts at all it's not anti austerity budget are you implying there could be more spending or you're saying we're gonna see

[00:16:39] $50,000 of cuts and no new revenue no I'm saying it's probably I'm guessing here that there's gonna be some balance right I mean I think Erica's right that scope if they did it all with cuts it's gonna be pretty extensive

[00:16:53] right so I would think there's gonna be a lot of pressure on some of the new council members that sort of ran on a kind of tax skepticism to you know once they start grappling with the actual you know numbers and realities of

[00:17:09] the budget to start looking more revenue and that goes for the mayor the mayor as well yeah Erica do you think it's unreasonable that they could find programs to sunset that they just for whatever reason whether it's ideological

[00:17:23] or they actually don't think those programs are working to make cuts to make $50,000 worth of cuts 50,000 do you mean I don't know I mean it's to me these are yeah 50 million yeah these that just shows how abstract these

[00:17:38] numbers are to me and how well I understand the budget but yeah yeah I definitely what I don't think that well I mean this is this is part of I mean my I think my overall frustration with campaign rhetoric that is like has

[00:17:50] grown you know stronger over the years is that yeah I mean what was Sandeep's term tax skepticism okay like yeah it's real easy to stand there on a you know on a dais at a debate and say I'm against taxes and we have a

[00:18:06] spending problem like Sandeep who could only identify an art exhibit at Seattle Center that might not have even been paid through OLS well I saw the press really see it okay okay well anyway it wasn't you mean it didn't go

[00:18:24] through new city council member Maritza Rivera's Seattle office of arts and culture no okay so so my frustration with this rhetoric is that they haven't looked at these budgets I mean there's this idea that like and

[00:18:40] this is not just this crop of newcomers they all say this you know I'm gonna audit the budget and I'm gonna really take a fine tooth cone to this budget which is impossible for one person to do or one council office and I think

[00:18:51] that you know inevitably every single council member who comes in realizes the budget is really complex every dollar has a constituency and no I don't think it's going to be possible to just come in and say you know

[00:19:03] here's 50 million dollars that we can cut out you know no problem and I mean it's not 50 million it's you know I mean even if they had passed the capital gains tax to offset the water tax I mean we're talking like a couple tens of

[00:19:18] millions of dollars in new revenue so it's gonna be a lot more than 50 million that they need to cut if they're gonna be you know tax skeptical Sandeep puts it so so no I mean I know I don't think that it's gonna be

[00:19:30] easier possible for them to just come in and find you know millions and tens of millions of dollars to waste to cut well not necessarily waste but but what about as I said my question was programs that they either don't like for ideological

[00:19:43] reasons or they don't think are working right example we brought up in the past right is is participatory budgeting right which finally finally came to you know what looks to be thank fucking God like a final conclusion

[00:19:57] right and I will give them credit like what started as a straight up massive ethics violation has turned into something where they did this purchase for your budget process it took them years to do it and they've come up with some

[00:20:10] vague spending plan on some areas that they're gonna spend money that they don't really have any details of how that money is actually going to get deployed but but maybe you know some good will come at that but they will

[00:20:20] also abandon it's pretty clear there's no appetite what was your what's your point I do my point is that this was the kind of you know big you know spend till the cows come home kind of kind of thinking that animated the council a

[00:20:34] few years ago that that is now different the vibe is different on that right and I think there is gonna be more skepticism about some of this stuff and I do think they're gonna go through some of these budgets with more of a fine

[00:20:47] truth code I think some stuff's gonna get caught I don't think there's gonna do 200 million dollars a revenue next year so 27 million dollars is what you're talking about as spent till the cows come home so I you know I don't I

[00:20:58] don't think that's I mean over this began in 2020 so the money is has been available and I mean these projects you know you may think they're just crap but you know 24 7 public restrooms is something that I started writing about

[00:21:11] back in 2020 when it became quite obvious that you know homeless people had no access to restrooms that's still a problem it's one of the things that you know your crowd Sunday complains about the most oh my god I

[00:21:22] have to walk over the needles and feces in the street public restrooms actually address that problem so I don't agree that this is just you know a slush fund of stuff that they could have just not spent and could have cut it's

[00:21:34] pretty pretty important vital stuff that Jenny Durkin failed to do anything about you know for years even though people were saying this is a vital need that's just one of the one of the things are spending money on didn't

[00:21:45] the did the money come from Jenny Durkin's some sort of Jenny Durkin fund initially anyway was it actually the council originally back in 2020 Jenny when she was mayor at the height of the sort of George Floyd you know protest stuff announced that she wanted to do a

[00:22:03] kind of hundred million dollar commitment of spending on by BIPOC related issues right and there was a big battle with the council over that and who was going to determine where that money went and I think they carved out to

[00:22:17] the left of the council carved out a chunk of that money for stuff like participatory budgeting right which in its first initial formulation I think Erica you would admit was pretty freaking outrageous well I think that I think

[00:22:31] that the process wasted a ton of money I absolutely agree with you on that I mean but again we're not in 2020 Sunday we're now in 2023 so let's drag you bit into the present New World Order Erica I don't think you're

[00:22:44] grasping the second floor I don't know when you're gonna I don't know when you're gonna leave 2020 or how we're gonna get you into the present Sunday but I'm channeling George HW Bush I think yeah I think Jell-O Biafra had like a

[00:22:58] whole bit about that on one of his albums yeah I prefer the Jerry Brown version right California uber Alice right I thought it was the New World Order before that you didn't like Sunday we've got even bigger problems so we've talked about

[00:23:16] public safety we've talked about taxes and you know this yeah yeah DK is a place where the DK's are a place where we can agree yeah yeah we intersect okay sorry David you mean about which is the best song because it's obviously holiday in

[00:23:32] Cambodia not California uber Alice but whatever so the question no the question is I would argue for I would argue for oh Lord really too drunk to fuck is the best dead kid I think you're not taking it in the ironic spirit

[00:23:47] it was oh all right well I just want to say we've been kind of yeah keep all that we've kind of been talking about this for a while that this new council faces this conundrum of whether or not it can actually fall through on a lot

[00:24:05] of the progressive promises that it seems to have made and at the same time make budget cuts and whether or not you know I think I it to me it seems like a real open question and you hinted at it in your first answer where are the

[00:24:16] cracks on this new city council Erica or son deep but let's go with Erica since Sunday has had a little bit more time today so far I think I've been keeping close keep his course clock like usual yeah I think it's let's see

[00:24:30] 20 anyway Erica where do you see the cracks on this new council if there are any obviously on the left we have Tammy Morales perhaps somewhat lonely over there very lonely I don't know who is who is to the immediate

[00:24:44] right of Tammy Morales I guess that would still be Dan Strauss even though he was endorsed by Bruce Harrell but beyond that where are the cracks among these new council members I will note that on Friday there was a cocktail party celebrating the elections of Hollingsworth Rivera Kettle

[00:25:02] and more soccer wasn't I don't know if he was invited I don't think he was involved in that but anyway really interesting soccer was also I mean you know every single one of Bob's aca's opponents endorsed Mara and Costa the

[00:25:14] woman running against him so I mean his relationship with his colleagues will be interesting to watch how that evolves I mean I think the main cracks you know I are not you know we're not clear yet in terms of

[00:25:27] how these folks are going to work together but I think bigger picture and pulling out to all of City Hall you know I think that Mayor Bruce Harrell and I think I might have said this on the podcast before but you know now

[00:25:38] kind of has a mandate for his agenda all of his people one for the most part and you know he's got a six member council super majority often with Dan Strauss voting along with that super majority so what's he

[00:25:51] going to do you know he's he's been held back by this you know what Sunday calls you know this uber liberal council for so for the first two years so now he has the old new world order yeah so now he has a

[00:26:03] couple of years to perform before you know his next election and get everything done that he wanted to get done and so we'll see I mean I think you know on the council Harrell was not a particularly super active

[00:26:17] member as mayor he's been you know much more energetic and vocal and he's obviously very popular but that can go away if like if you have a mandate for your agenda and you don't get anything done and so I

[00:26:29] think a lot of pressure is on the mayor now to to do some of the stuff that you know he said he's going to do the economic revitalization the downtown plan you know policing hiring police they're they're unleashed now Sunday they don't have so what preventing them from

[00:26:45] hiring cops so so yeah so are we going to get those 1400 cops that all these new council members said they were going to hire I think I mean I'm being a bit sarcastic because I think that is impossible but

[00:26:58] you know what what does the mayor do now that's where I see the cracks coming in I think the fair question to ask 1400 cops is not going to happen overnight obviously but it's a fair question to ask about whether

[00:27:08] they're going to do better on police recruiting now right I mean I think that is something that a bunch of these candidates ran and won on and then the mayor has advocated and I do think particularly again I mean

[00:27:20] we've talked about this in the past but in past sessions right after the election but this was an election fundamentally at the end I think that the pivot and this election was about public safety and so I

[00:27:31] do think the ball is in the mayor and the new council's court and there's some public expectation from their supporters that things are going to get better on some of those fronts better quote unquote better right and maybe not your definition of better Erica but

[00:27:46] their definition of better you seem to be pro pro you know it everywhere same thing to say I'm pro actually addressing I'm going to you a little bit on that I'm being facetious about it but

[00:28:04] you know so yeah I do think that I do think the ball is in their court on on some of this stuff I do think there's some public expectations that they would be well advised to try to meet it's interesting I was

[00:28:17] at that party by the way on Friday it was a packed room and bell town and I think there was a lot of celebration in that room you didn't invite me as your date I'm so hard yeah I know I know I

[00:28:30] should have I should have sent you the invite a lot of excitement about new beginnings and all of that kind of stuff a lot of cheering I mean it was sort of Sarah Nelson's holiday party and I think I mean this raises I think some interesting questions

[00:28:45] about what we're going to see in the immediate future right that the first things that are going to happen is we talked about the appointment a little bit I think right now that appointment to Teresa Mosqueda seat is it's an open question who's going to get

[00:28:58] it I'm hearing a lot of different names floating around I don't think anybody knows who's really got the inside track on that whether it's Tonya Wu who lost to Tammy Morales or I've heard you know Vivian song Maritz potentially I I met recently

[00:29:15] with Angela Po Russell former king person who seems interested in his you know somebody that Sarah Nelson has as mentioned as would be a good candidate so there's any number of names out there so that's going to be one thing that we're gonna gonna see play

[00:29:29] out is that appointment the other thing is the reorg right I mean I'm assuming that Sarah Nelson is going to be the council prez the tentative word I'm hearing is likely that Dan Strauss will get budget I've heard that that four of

[00:29:43] the five newbies all wanted public safety of course they did I again which I actually think I'll shut up in a second here which I actually think probably given what we're just talking about about the challenges around some of these

[00:29:56] issues might be an indication that they are a little bit green and a little wide eyed about sort of running into something that's going to be pretty challenging right to deal with and complicated and so but but a bunch of them

[00:30:07] wanted it and so we'll see how that all plays out and who gets what committees but yeah those are kind of gonna be very interesting to watch how all of those dynamics play out over the next month yeah nobody ever wants a I don't

[00:30:18] know land use or transportation or utilities I mean I don't really have a lot to add except that I do think it is what I was gonna jump in and say and then Sandy said it very

[00:30:30] well is you know I think it is quite naive to think that you know you can just jump in on public safety and start hiring cops so if anybody is suggesting that I think that they will find that it is quite more difficult than

[00:30:42] that I know I'm coming off a little bit condescending and I do want to walk walk that back a little bit I mean you know city council it's a job that you can learn on the job there's been a lot of people over the years with no

[00:30:55] experience I think what's different now is how many people are coming on with no experience or very little in the fact that you know there's not like Alisa Herbold who was you know on and around the council for

[00:31:07] decades to sort of show them the ropes of like just super basic stuff like how to write legislation you know how to run a meeting of the city council so that the laws you know actually pass and hold up you know etc so but I

[00:31:20] but I do think it is of course possible to learn on the job but I don't think five people galloping to run public safety necessarily gives me a lot of excitement for some of those other committees that are also really important like land use you know Erica they

[00:31:35] could appoint an experienced council member to replace Teresa Mosqueda if they wanted to I guess you didn't have any ideas about who but before Sandeep tells us who it's going to be because he obviously is chomping at the

[00:31:47] bit what do you think they ought to be looking for you've you've been covering council for a really long time and experience obviously but but what else experience is obviously as you said I mean that is that is kind of

[00:31:59] the most important thing I mean if this is a placeholder council member I think it'd be great to bring back somebody who has actually been on the council I don't know who that would be um Gene Godin oh lord um you

[00:32:11] know so there's that I mean a lot of the people that you know whose names are floating out there are folks who either are ambitious to be on the council themselves but have not been like Breonna Thomas I would say she

[00:32:23] would be um a good appointment in some ways because she you know has worked on legislation she was uh an aide to Lorena Gonzalez who's on the council so somebody who who knows a little bit about the council's inner

[00:32:35] workings I mean that would that would just be ideal I mean some of these folks that are being floated like you know like Tanya like um like Angela um you know just I mean again you're just reintroducing and sort of um you're

[00:32:49] expanding the problem of people with no experience to seven council members from six and so I mean I would love to see somebody who actually like would be a placeholder you know or be a placeholder and run again I

[00:33:02] mean you know somebody like Breonna but I don't know Sally Clark like you know I'm I mean I'm just throwing names out there but my god I mean they do need some institutional knowledge like you can't just you you can't just devalue that

[00:33:16] completely right well it's true that Dan and Tammy who got elected in 2019 are the longest survey I mean they're one-term council members those longest serving council members and Sarah got elected in 2021 and there's a holdover's up I have no idea who's going to get the

[00:33:31] appointment I don't think anybody knows right now I think there are a lot of names out there and it's still very early and very fluid I am hearing and again all of this is subject to change but I am hearing there's a lot

[00:33:42] of thinking that maybe they don't want to kind of caretaker someone who commits not to run because there's going to be an election right for whoever it is or or or there's going to be election for this seat next year right so whoever's appointed if

[00:33:56] they're not a caretaker they're gonna have to run for it next year and then run for it the year after right for the full term and so the word on the street seems to be that there's more interest in getting somebody who wants to

[00:34:07] continue in the position than appointing someone as a temporary one-year person who commits not to run in the next in the next cycle so but we'll see how that plays out I don't know we're going to leave it there uh unfortunately Sandeep gets the last word

[00:34:20] thanks so much to Erica Sandeep and to all of you for listening and to our amazing editor Quinn Waller please support the show uh help us pay for Quinn and our other expenses by going to patreon.com slash Seattle Nice and thanks everybody so much for listening