-Hello, I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
From national election results to local leaders leaving office,
it's been a tumultuous political year
from the state of Washington all the way to Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump is headed back to the white House
with Republican control of the House and Senate.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you.
But Governor-elect Bob Ferguson,
with a Democrat majority in Olympia,
says he's ready to push back on any federal policies
that might challenge our state's rights.
-There has been a lot of work for many, many months
from my team to prepare for this.
-Seattle's political scene has seen some shakeups, too.
-I'm sorry that this budget will cause more harm,
and that's why I will be voting no today.
-Councilmember Tammy Morales says
her colleagues have created a toxic work environment.
She'll step down in 2025 with three years left in her term.
The city will also need a new
Department of Transportation director next year,
about two years after the last one was sworn in.
-We have challenges, but we also have solutions.
-Plus, longtime county executive Dow Constantine says
he won't run again, with major problems
like homelessness still needing regional help.
-I think the city's approach has definitely changed
from the progressive council of years past.
-What are the top stories of 2024?
Our panel of journalists weighs in.
-Her council colleagues scolding her on the dais, and I...
And she said, enough's enough.
-The big issue in Olympia before the legislature
and the new governor is going to be taxation.
-A year-end news wrap-up on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
Thank you very much for joining us here on "City Inside/Out."
I'm Brian Callanan,
and I have an esteemed group of journalists with me
to break down some of these big stories of the year,
including Hannah Krieg,
the city hall reporter for The Stranger.
Hannah, good to see you again.
-Yeah, thanks for having me.
-And also joining us, Greg Kim,
a reporter for the Seattle Times,
focused on homelessness.
Good to see you again, Greg.
-Thanks for having me, Brian. -And also with us,
Paul Queary, editor and publisher
of the Washington State Observer covering state politics.
Paul, great to have you back as well.
-I'm happy to be with you, Brian.
-Alright. Let's do this thing.
Paul, I want to start with you,
and I want to talk about the impact
President-elect Trump is going to have on our state.
I heard Governor-elect Bob Ferguson talk about this
recently, right after the election.
Ferguson very concerned about possible attacks
on women's health, immigrants and the environment,
just to name a few topics there.
So Ferguson says he feels better prepared than
when Trump first took office in 2017.
But Donald Trump might be better prepared, too,
with more loyalists surrounding him,
maybe a more experienced legal team.
I guess I'm trying to figure out what impacts you're expecting
in our state with Trump 2.0?
-Yeah, I think that's sort of yet to be seen.
I mean,
the early Trump administration the first time around
was so inchoate and, you know, kind of ad hoc.
And he did a lot of stuff spur of the moment that caused,
you know, then Attorney General Bob Ferguson to, you know,
to sue many times to block things
that the Trump administration tried to do.
-The Muslim travel ban. I remember these, yeah.
-Whether we see that again this time
is kind of an interesting question.
I mean, they're -- clearly the Trump folks
are taking a different approach than they did before.
We had Attorney General-elect Nick Brown
at our policy conference a few weeks ago,
and he was taking kind of a measured,
wait-and-see approach to, you know,
to how he's going to respond to that.
So I think that's all, you know, to be seen.
I mean, surely, you know, the re-election of Donald Trump
has folks on the left freaked out and fired up.
And, you know, I think you'll see a lot of that
reflected in Olympia
and in other places in the next year or so.
-Yeah, and possibly Seattle, too.
I wanted to ask you, Hannah, at the city level, what's going on?
Because Mayor Harrell said after the election
he will protect Seattle's vulnerable residents
and the city's values of inclusion.
I do say, though,
it feels like less of a line drawn in the sand
against Donald Trump than what we saw in 2017.
Help me with this.
What effects do you see President Trump
in a second term having on the city of Seattle?
What do you think?
-Yeah, one of the biggest things
that might become an issue for the city
is Trump's mass deportation plan.
We're a sanctuary city, and that's, you know,
only as good as we can enforce it, you know.
-It'll be put to the test. -Yeah, put to the test.
And with the city council recently voting to expand,
or expand surveillance technology,
that can really put immigrant communities in danger,
especially with an administration hell-bent
on sending them out of our country.
-Yeah, I'm interested to see that interaction, too.
Greg, maybe I can go to you next.
I've heard the president-elect say more tent cities are
the answer for people without homes.
If they have mental issues, put them in institutions.
I guess I'm trying to figure out --
you have a good ear to the street here --
what are social service providers preparing for
with Donald Trump's return to the White House?
-Yeah, homelessness is generally a really local issue.
All of the funding for homelessness services,
almost all of the funding for homelessness services,
come from local governments.
So that might not be as particularly impacted,
but obviously,
with President-elect Trump talking about cutting
government spending with his
Department of Government Efficiency,
there will be departments, like HUD or --
-Housing and Urban Development. Yeah. Yeah.
-And then there have been efforts to kind of combine
Medicaid funding for homelessness services
to try to access like federal dollars
for homelessness issues that might kind of, like --
those efforts might slow down. -Okay.
And are social service providers worried out there?
How would you describe it?
-I think they have yet to see what exactly
the effects of Trump will be on homelessness.
Whether he will actually follow through
on those tent city claims.
I don't think that anyone has a real idea of, like,
whether that's actually going to come to fruition
or not and how much they should worry,
because homelessness has for so long been such a local issue.
-Alright, we're going to wait
for the other shoe to drop on January 20th.
We'll see how that goes.
Hannah, I wanted to make sure that I pointed this out, too.
We will have a new president next year,
and as it turns out,
a new councilmember representing District 2,
Tammy Morales, stepping down.
She says she is leaving a toxic workplace
where all of her ideas were blocked.
Her fellow councilmembers say it wasn't personal --
they just disagreed with her on policy.
What happened here, for one?
And who's going to replace Tammy Morales?
What do you think?
-Yeah, I mean, I think that there's been --
it's been in the air for a while that Tammy's been unhappy.
You know, the council moved immediately to appoint
her competition when there was a vacancy on the council
earlier this year.
-Tanya Woo, back in January. -Right.
-And then there was issues with her legislation,
like, not going forward
and her council colleagues scolding her on the dais
and I -- and she said, enough's enough.
And she's gone. Who's going to replace her?
We'll find out who starts applying.
Those applications...
-January 2nd. -Yeah.
-And to the 9th.
And I guess, just to follow on that,
I heard Council President Nelson say
in a few different interviews that
this isn't a toxic workplace,
we want to invite people in.
Who do you think they're going to try to put in that role?
And I've heard this big debate over should it be a caretaker
who's just going to kind of be in that role
and help things move along?
Or should it be someone who does want to run for office later on?
Do you have a sense for that?
-I think if the city council
wants to fill that spot with someone
that they like, they should appoint a caretaker,
because last time they appointed someone
who decided to run as an appointee afterward,
she lost so miserably.
I think it is a turnoff to voters,
maybe, to see someone who is appointed to a position of power
without being elected.
And so I think,
I think it would be smart
for them to do a caretaker for their own interests.
-Okay. We'll see what the council does with that.
But thank you for the insight there, too.
Greg, when it comes to policies dealing with homelessness,
Tammy Morales,
I know, took offense to some recent increased funding
for the Unified Care Team,
that group that works on homeless encampments
and removes them around Seattle.
And she was very much a "stop the sweeps" voice
on the council, I should point out.
Do you think Seattle's new councilmember,
Alexis Mercedes Rinck, is going to take up that torch?
Or where do you see the city's response
to homelessness going without Tammy Morales in the picture?
-Even with Tammy Morales in the picture,
I think the city's approach has definitely changed
from the progressive council of years past.
I think, you know, you saw that
with the update of the mission
of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority
from ending homelessness or from reducing homelessness
to reducing unsheltered homelessness.
That's kind of a different approach
and a different mission statement as well.
So, I'm not sure that
Tammy Morales leaving is going to change that.
I think it's going to continue on the drumbeat.
You've seen a little bit more focus on
keeping areas that are in super high visible
public areas clear,
and less of an -- an increase on emphasis on that,
less so on the housing component of addressing homelessness.
I do think Councilmember Mercedes Rinck is going to,
you know, continue in the Morales progressive camp.
She worked at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority,
which, you know,
has historically been aligned with those values,
those progressive values, but...
-Also worked with the Sound Cities Association.
I think she's built some bridges, too.
I'm interested to see how she handles this issue.
Do you have any feel for that yet?
Have you talked to her yet on that one?
-It's interesting because she is now in such a minority.
I'm not sure if she'll take the, you know,
torch-bearing, yelling approach of, like...
She's obviously not going to be able to achieve
what she kind of stands for in terms of progressive values.
-Not on her own. -On this council, on her own.
So, whether she'll take that approach of,
you know, still yelling loudly
or if she'll kind of bide her time and build relations with
fellow council members
until she potentially has a majority down the line.
I don't know what kind of approach she'll take.
-Okay. Alright.
Paul, get ready for the greatest segue of all time.
Because I know you don't cover Seattle politics directly,
but I do want to talk about an idea
that Councilmember Morales has been pushing for all the years
she's been on the council,
which is finding more progressive revenue sources.
Is this the year
the state legislature picks up on that idea?
I think about the defeat of I-2109,
I think about the governor potentially talking
about a wealth tax here.
What's going on?
-Yeah, the governor rolled out his budget this morning,
and it has a wealth tax in it.
It's a 1% tax on wealth over $100 million.
It's figures to hit about 3,500
extremely wealthy people.
-More than I make in a week, sure.
-And, you know,
that idea has been kicking around Olympia
the last few years and hasn't really gone anywhere.
But, you know,
the legislature has gotten significantly more progressive
in recent years, and there were a few
sort of departures and new members this year,
which kind of makes the path of that kind of thing
a little easier, especially through the senate.
So I wouldn't necessarily be surprised to see that happen.
The governor was really signaling budget austerity
until this morning
and, you know,
really kind of, you know,
sort of came over the top with a budget
that substantially increases spending overall in the future.
So I wouldn't necessarily be surprised to see
that pass at all.
-Yeah, the Democrats increasing their majorities
in the House and the Senate.
So we'll see what they say there.
Hannah, real quick, in looking what the city
might be considering here with progressive revenue,
I know this is something that you follow pretty closely.
In looking at this,
it sounds like there might be an idea
of having a capital gains tax just for Seattle.
It was brought up during the budget process in November.
A few people said, well, maybe not right now,
but we'll consider it in the future.
Do you think that has legs for the city in 2025?
-Maybe for like the 48 hours
where Tammy Moralez and Alexis Mercedes Rinck
were both on the council,
but now we're so far -- the progressives are so far
from having a majority.
We'll have a vote in Cathy Moore for capital gains tax.
-And she's not necessarily the progressive,
you know, standard progressive person out there.
-Sure, sure. And then we'll have Rinck,
And then other than that,
maybe they could pull over Hollingsworth,
maybe Dan Strauss if you catch him on a good day.
But it doesn't really seem like we're...
Yeah, I wouldn't say that
it's a huge chance. -Not fully baked yet.
Yeah. Okay. Alright. Fair, fair.
Greg, I want to switch gears
and talk about the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
Hannah calls it KCRHA. I think it's going to catch on.
We'll see where that goes.
There's some new leadership there.
We've got CEO Kelly Kinnison who's taken over.
There's a new governance structure, too,
and there's going to be a new King County executive
overseeing this soon,
because Dow Constantine says he's not going to go --
not going to run next year.
What's going on with KCRHA right now?
And can it right the ship after a host of problems
since it started in 2019?
-Yeah, obviously, we've heard a lot
from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority
over the years, there's been a number of unforced errors
and issues that you hear about in the news.
I think what I expect is that we'll hear about it
a lot less in the next year and next few years.
What they updated in the governance structure
or in the kind of document chartering the organization is,
they made its scope smaller, right?
They said, don't try to end homelessness.
Like, that's not something that you can feasibly do.
Focus on managing those contracts
with homeless service providers.
Don't be super loud.
Don't, you know, tell elected officials what to do.
They're going to tell you what to do.
And I think with this new CEO coming in,
Kelly Kinnison,
she's, in a Q&A with me, basically said, like,
you know, we are going to be more deferential
to elected officials.
We understand the reality of, you know,
the power structure here.
-Yeah. -So that's what I expect.
I expect it to be kind of a smaller,
quieter organization going forward.
-Got it.
Hannah, some thoughts on this,
because I know a few members of the city council
have voiced their concerns about this agency
and the way it's set up.
The way it's set up now, either the city or county
can actually pull out of their agreement
with KCRHA at any time.
What do you see as the future of this agency, KCRHA?
Unknown. No, no, no. -[ Laughing ] Yeah.
We'll see, I mean,
if it's getting smaller, it's getting smaller.
I think that's what the current administration
has been wanting, and so, I think there was a time
where KCRHA was supposed to be an organization
that was going to fight for this billion-dollar tax
to get all this housing and solve homelessness.
And it seems like now it's just like,
please manage our contracts.
-Right, right. -Which is a different goal,
as Greg said. -It is, it is.
Interesting to think about what it was
and what it's turned into now.
Paul, I'm not sure how much homelessness has been
on the beat here, the year of housing.
I know the legislature has been talking about that
for the past couple years here.
What kind of bills are you tracking
when it comes to housing?
I know there's been some discussion
about rent control in years past.
Anything you see coming out of this legislature
or this legislative year upcoming
that might speak to housing a little bit?
-Yeah. I mean, we've seen rent restriction, or I mean,
they call it rent stabilization.
Think of it as rent control. -Yes.
So they don't have to call it rent control, right.
-In each of the last couple of years.
The electoral prospects for that bill
or the prospects for that bill in the legislature
are a little better than they have been in the past
because some barriers to it in the senate have gone away.
So we'll see how that goes.
Oregon adopted a similar policy a few years ago,
and it hasn't really gone very well for them
in terms of housing construction.
So I don't know, maybe that'll have some effect on it.
Otherwise, you know, there's been a lot of policy
passed to try and drive
both public and private-sector housing development
in the last few years.
And, you know, housing production isn't really up.
So I think that there's a lot of, you know,
questions about, you know, why
this stuff isn't getting built, given all the, you know...
-Interest rates really high. Sure.
-Yeah, and, you know,
the economic climate for a lot of that stuff
is just not that great right now in terms of,
you know, the major investments that drive
that kind of thing. -Got it.
I did want to talk about another question with you,
Paul, and the one state initiative
that did pass this past November was 2066,
which would block several restrictions
on the use of natural gas.
It sounds like this one's going to be challenged in court.
Tell me what's next for 2066.
-Yeah, I think the city of Seattle and, you know,
some environmental groups challenged that on the basis
that it covered more than one subject,
which is if that -- if they are able to prove that in court,
that would be unconstitutional
and the initiative might be thrown out.
For the time being,
I think it's probably going to put a hold on
natural gas related legislation in Olympia.
You know, that takes a legislative supermajority
to overturn an initiative passed by the voters,
so I'm not sure exactly what we're going to see on that.
I think the short-term question around that
revolves around the State Building Codes Council.
-Yes. Right.
-Because they adopted rules that effectively ban gas heat
and gas water heaters in new residential construction.
And that's sort of in limbo right now.
I mean, there's some folks on the building council
who say that the initiative doesn't actually apply
to those rules because they're about efficiency.
-They were saying that before the election too, right.
-And not appliances.
So, I mean, that short term,
that's sort of the issue that we're watching is
how that affects those rules. -Okay.
An interesting legal battle ahead there.
Let me head to you, Greg, if I could.
You wrote in the Times recently about the work
the city has done to clean up street disorder
in downtown Seattle around Third and Pine.
A lot of that disorder seems
like it has moved
into the Chinatown International District area.
Talk to me about this. What's the plan for CID?
What's going on?
-Well, the plan for CID is to do exactly there
what they did in downtown.
-Mm. -And you're right.
The city acknowledges that this isn't
some strategy that results in those people on the streets
no longer being on the streets.
These are targeted for specific areas, and they understand
that there's a good amount of displacement that occurs.
-Yeah. -You know,
but they say that it's just unacceptable
for any one neighborhood to continuously bear the burden
of street disorder,
which is what you've seen happen on Third Avenue
for a very, very, very long time,
and also in Little Saigon
and Chinatown International District.
-Yeah, they just shut down the 12th and Jackson
King County Metro stop.
-Yeah. -Because it's too dangerous,
they're saying, to even stop there.
-Yeah. Yeah. Right.
I mean, another effect that that may have,
and something I'm curious
whether officials were thinking about
when they made that decision was that, you know,
one of the reasons that 12th and Jackson,
Little Saigon, is the hot spot of street disorder
that it is, is because it is a transit hub
in a similar way that Third Avenue is.
-That's an interesting connection, right.
-Whether, you know,
shutting down those bus stops will kind of
choke off that activity there as well,
I'm curious to see, too.
-Yeah. -What happens next?
Well, so they're doing the same thing in Chinatown
as I did in downtown.
After that story,
I got a lot of emails from people in Belltown, First Hill.,
saying that, you know,
disorder in their neighborhoods has increased as, you know,
the city has mobilized these efforts in Little Saigon.
You know, and the city has said that they are aware, you know,
that disorder might move around and they're going to, you know,
as needed,
move to different neighborhoods at different times.
So, yeah, that's what they're doing.
-Greg Kim is coming to your neighborhood, folks.
There's some work to be done in those different areas, too.
Hannah, I wanted to talk about a couple of things with you.
We're going to have a new director
of the Department of Transportation in 2025.
Greg Spotts stepping down just two years after he was sworn in.
And it sounds like we're going to hear a name soon
for the permanent job of Seattle Police Chief.
I know those are two big,
very public-facing positions we're talking about here.
Some big changes in city leadership, I guess,
bottom line for me.
Can you talk about those roles
and where you see Mayor Harrell making a choice there,
what kind of people he's wanting around in those positions?
-Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure what he's...
I think I'm not sure if there's anything
he was disappointed in with Greg Spotts
for the SDOT position.
-He got a levy passed for him,
I guess you could say. -Yeah, you know?
So I think maybe someone like Greg Spotts.
It sounds like Greg -- he says he left on his own.
-Yeah.
-And then, as for the chief of police, um...
I'm not sure what he's looking for in that position either.
You know, I think those processes to find the chief
of police are sort of opaque to the public,
and it's unclear, like, what he's looking for.
-Right. It sounds like we're just days away
from hearing an announcement on that,
that police chief position.
It's that other question of do you get someone
from outside the department?
Do you try to bring someone from inside the department?
I know we've had some bombshell headlines recently about
former Chief Diaz and some of the allegations
that the city has thrown back at him.
I don't know, they're trying to stabilize
this department, for sure, it sounds like.
-It's interesting because there's, like, this talk of,
oh, like, the SPD's culture is so bad.
And then they elevate Adrian Diaz,
who came out of a nationwide search
and just so happened to be in the department already
and be the interim chief. -Sure.
-And so it maybe does make sense to have someone from outside
if they think the problem is the culture within SPD
and not sort of the system of policing
or other, like, larger issues.
-Yeah. Yeah. So much going on there.
They're trying to hire more women.
I know that's been an issue for the SPD.
They're trying to handle new situation with
how do we do crowd control in the proper way.
So there's a lot on the plate of that new chief
coming in for sure.
We need to start wrapping up here.
And I did want to talk about a story
you are looking forward to covering in 2025,
or maybe one that we haven't covered in 2024.
Greg, you have a pensive look on your face.
What do you think?
What's that big story you're thinking about?
-Maybe not a story, but a trend
that I'm kind of thinking about is, on my beat,
I've seen the issue of homelessness
talked about in the public space
go from one of homelessness to one of more action,
less a state of being and more action-based.
And what I mean by that
is like we're talking less about homelessness
and talking more about, like,
street disorder, public drug use,
you know, misdemeanor crime.
You know, these things are really tied together,
but we're talking about them
in a slightly different way, I feel like.
One was a state of being.
One is something you do -- like, people are doing.
-Yeah.
-And I feel like when you talk about it like that,
the approaches you take to the problems
are a little bit different too.
In the case that we're talking about public drug use, disorder,
misdemeanor crime, you can take a more crackdown approach to it.
-A law enforcement-based approach?
-Law and order.
And I'm curious how that will go, move,
and that conversation will move going forward.
Whether, you know,
with Alexis Mercedes Rinck getting elected,
are we going to swing back to more progressive
conversations and ideas, or, you know,
are we going to kind of continue on the way
that we've been going?
-I'm interested to see that,
too, because I know some services have to be part
of the solution, too.
And I've heard that from a lot of councilmembers.
Hannah, maybe a story that I missed talking about with you
from 2024
or something you're looking forward to covering in 2025.
-Yeah, I'm excited to see what the council's
next moves are going to be.
The Housing Development Consortium
and other landlords are looking to roll back
a bunch of renters' rights
and make big changes for tenant law in Seattle.
And so it'll be interesting to see what of those issues
the city council picks up
and what the progressives will have to come to City Hall
to scream about this time.
-Wow. Is it, you know, how much notice
we give people for an eviction, things like that?
-Yeah, that, and then the roommate law is up for repeal,
it sounds like, or the landlords want that.
-Sure.
-The winter eviction moratorium,
the school year eviction moratorium,
the late fee cap, a bunch of stuff is on their wish list.
And we'll see what the mayor
and what the council decides they want to pursue.
-Looking forward to seeing that.
Paul, a 2024 story we didn't talk about
or an issue you're focused on in the new year.
-So, I think that the big issue in Olympia
before the legislature and the new governor
is going to be taxation.
This year, this is really...
I've been watching Olympia for more than 20 years now,
and this is really the first time
that the state has confronted this kind of budget problem,
where there have been big progressive majorities
in the House and the Senate that could theoretically,
you know, pass some kind of sweeping change
in the state's tax structure.
So that's, you know, I think that's going to be
the highest-stakes argument this year.
And it's going to be interesting to watch.
-Income tax doesn't get back on the table, does it?
Well, I guess the Republicans have put a stop to that.
-Well, the court, I mean --
the court turned aside the opportunity
during the capital gains tax argument
to overturn the precedent barring an income tax.
-Right, right.
-So, but you're going to see things
that are sort of income tax adjacent, certainly.
I mean, you know, you could read the wealth tax
as, you know, a form of income tax.
-Yeah. Yeah.
So interested to see what happens next.
Thank you all for your input here.
And we will be right back.
What are people saying online about this year's top stories?
One person writes...
Another person comments, "We need someone
who cares about the Chinatown International District
to replace Tammy Morales."
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an email at contact@seattlechannel.org
or find us on social media.
Great to get those comments, and very much thank you
for your input as well to this great group
of journalists here.
I'm Brian Callanan.
We will see you next time
on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪