♪♪
-I think that our campaign has been out here a lot.
-Dionne Foster,
a policy advisor and community organization leader,
beat out incumbent City Council President Sara Nelson
by more than 23 points in the August primary
with a message of helping working families
and taxing the wealthy.
-Voters here have really been clear that they want somebody
who is going to be -- hold their progressive values.
-Let's get them on board.
-Nelson wants to hold on to her Position 9 citywide seat
and, after some success in restoring police staffing,
now wants to focus on solving street disorder.
-I am putting addiction treatment
at the center of the city's agenda.
-Foster says Nelson's legislation
to build housing in the Stadium District
could hurt port workers and pedestrians.
-And for that reason, I did not support that proposal.
-Nelson disagrees.
-That was a no-brainer for me
because we're in the midst of a housing-affordability crisis.
-And that's not the only issue where they're clashing.
-Now is not the time for a learning curve.
-We're in a really dicey moment as a country right now.
-Dionne Foster, Sara Nelson,
and the fight for citywide Position 9,
next on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
Welcome to "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
One of the most closely watched City Council races
in Seattle this fall
is between Council President Sara Nelson
and her challenger, Dionne Foster.
Foster beat Nelson in the primary
by more than 23 points,
one of many signs this year
that voters may want a change from what's currently
a more moderate-leaning city government.
Foster, a former policy advisor for the city
and progressive advocacy organization leader,
says she's the right fit for citywide Position 9.
But Nelson says she's delivered on promises
like hiring more police
and building more affordable housing,
and she's ready for a fight to the finish.
-There's definitely a present fear of the federal government.
-Trump has fundamentally changed Seattle's political dynamic.
-City Council Position 9 candidates
Dionne Foster and Sara Nelson are both aware
national politics are affecting Seattle politics this November.
-Well, hello!
-Progressive candidates like Foster,
the former C.E.O.
of the Progressive Alliance of Washington,
made a strong showing
with a message of pushing back
against federal cuts to the city's budget
with taxes on the wealthy.
-And I think voters here have really been clear
that they want somebody who is going to be --
hold their progressive values
and is going to work on unifying our city.
-Let's get them on board.
-Nelson, the incumbent, says her years at City Hall
make her the better choice
to handle federal government concerns.
Elected to her citywide seat in 2021,
she became council president
after a majority moderate council came into power.
-Who do you want fighting for you?
Someone with experience.
Someone who's not afraid of taking on tough fights
and winning them.
-One of those fights was with the Port of Seattle this year,
which strongly opposed Nelson's legislation
for housing in the Stadium District.
-That was a no-brainer for me
because we're in the midst of a housing-affordability crisis,
but I took on some entrenched interests
to get that across the finish line.
-Foster disagrees with Nelson's proposal
and wants to focus affordable housing efforts elsewhere.
-There are many, many, many places in this city
where we can build housing,
where people have
where you're not going to necessarily run into issues
with pedestrians and freight.
-Foster won 58.4% of the primary vote
and is endorsed by The Stranger.
Her top priorities include
having a diversity of public safety responses,
strong public services,
and zoning reforms to expand housing options.
-When I'm out talking to people,
it's so clear that my vision for housing abundance,
for investments and affordability --
that those really resonate with people.
-Sara Nelson won 35.3% of the vote
and is endorsed by The Seattle Times.
She supports community programs
like the CD Panthers football and cheer teams,
addiction treatment,
and restoring Seattle police staffing.
-We've reversed the trend of losing more officers
than we can hire, and we're on our way to,
you know, really filling in those important gaps
to keep the city safe.
-It's a progressive political newcomer
up against the city council president
in the race for Position 9.
And we are glad to have both candidates
for the Seattle City Council's
Position 9 citywide seat with us.
We have with us Council President Sara Nelson.
Thank you for being here. -Thank you for having me.
-We also have with us Dionne Foster.
Glad you could make it, as well.
-Oh, it's a pleasure. Thank you.
-Let's get into it.
We had a coin flip before the show.
Dionne, you will be speaking first in an opening statement,
if you could, about why you're running, your qualifications.
Please keep it to a minute.
-Absolutely.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
I'm running for city council
because I love this city
and I want to fight to make sure it is an incredible place.
I'm a mom, and I'm raising my 12-year-old son here,
and I want this to be a place
where he can afford to grow up and stay if he so chooses.
I want this to be a place where he can feel safe
walking across the street to catch the bus.
We live close to Rainier Avenue,
where there's a lot of traffic accidents and traffic violence,
and I want the bus ride to be safe,
and I want him to be able to -- to grow up here and thrive.
I have spent my career working on improving people's lives.
That most recently was as Executive Director
of Washington Progress Alliance, where we invested in everything
from affordable housing and organizing
to passing the statewide capital gains tax.
I've also served locally.
I was a policy advisor for the City of Seattle,
for the Seattle Public Utilities,
and I also worked at Seattle Foundation,
helping to invest in organizations
all around our region,
doing everything from youth services
to homeless and housing.
So I'm excited to run for City Council
to bring that experience and fight for the future
that we all deserve.
-Thank you very much for that.
Council President Nelson, an opening statement.
A minute, please.
-My name is Sara Nelson, and I'm running for re-election
because I, too, love this city.
I've lived here for 35 years.
Lifelong Democrat, wife, mother,
and I care about the -- the future of this city
and also the people that are living right here
and have been really struggling with some serious issues.
And I am running to make progress, uh, that --
on some of the most key issues,
such as increasing affordable housing,
making our cities and -- I mean our streets and our parks
safe for children, for families to walk around and feel safe,
and then, most of all,
recognize that, in four years,
we've made a lot of good progress,
but there is still a long way to go,
and I am not afraid of saying
that we need to push harder for that progress,
and that's what it's going to take going forward,
especially now that we've got an external threat,
Donald Trump, that is threatening some of our, uh --
our most vulnerable communities,
our housing dollars, our healthcare dollars,
and so we have got to be focused
on -- on internal issues
and also what could be down --
coming down from the federal government.
-Thanks, and we will break apart that federal issue
in just a little bit,
but I wanted to talk about a local policy issue with you --
drug and crisis treatment.
You've made this a top priority for your campaign.
Tell us why this is important to you,
some of the work you've been doing already on this score,
and the work you want to continue doing
and build on if you're re-elected.
-Thank you for that question, and -- and sometimes I feel like
people want me to talk about my personal story,
which is, in fact, that I am in recovery.
I checked myself into rehab during COVID for alcohol abuse.
But you don't have to be in recovery
to realize that addiction is fueling our public-safety
and our chronic homelessness problems,
and so, to me, we have to look at the root causes,
and that is why I've been focused on expanding access
to on-demand addiction treatment
in addition to stabilizing the existing services that we have
for medication, for opioid-use disorder.
But the fact is that the city needs a coherent plan
for dealing with this root cause
of so many of the things that are making our people suffer,
and so I'm trying to develop that comprehensive plan
and go forward,
because it's so important for the future of our city
and for the lives of our people.
-Thank you for that. Dionne, I think you might agree
with a lot of these treatment ideas,
but I know there are some methods
the council has been using
to deal with public drug use especially
that are a concern for you.
I wanted to talk about SODA, the Stay Out of Drug Area law
the council passed last fall.
This allows judges to grant orders
preventing people accused of drug crimes
from entering certain parts of the city.
There's a SOAP law, too, of course --
Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution.
You have a different stance than Council President Nelson
when it comes to these Stay Out of Drug areas.
I want to talk about that
and maybe what you would do differently
when it comes to public drug use and street disorder
if you're elected.
-Yeah, absolutely.
And, first, let me speak to the treatment component,
because I want to say it's incredibly important
and it has to be a part of our network of care, right?
I myself, when I was out campaigning,
um, witnessed somebody who was suffering an overdose
and needed to call 911, get a response.
We found Narcan and helped support this person
and keep them alive.
And that is happening all around our city,
and it just shouldn't be the experience
that anyone is having,
um, and so I think it's really important
that we are making significant investments in treatment.
I also want to be clear that I did --
I would not have supported SODA, as you brought up,
and in part of that is because what that's designed to do
is it's essentially a banishment zone, right?
So, it says, "This is a part of our city
where you are no longer allowed to be,"
but what it does not do is create a warm handoff.
What it does not do is create space or capacity in our system.
And so those are the things
that I think we need to be leading with
and working on first,
and, to me, that was an incredibly missed opportunity.
-Okay. You had a rejoinder to that. Please.
-Yeah.
So, um, I did vote for the SODA and SOAP laws
because I think that we do need to interrupt the markets
where opportunists are preying on the people on the streets,
whether that be, um, people downtown buying and using drugs
or the people up on Aurora
that are being exploited,
uh, in sexual-exploitation, uh, practices,
but here's the thing.
Those public-safety tools are needed
because of a failure of the city and the county
to do more on treatment, so I see the two very different.
One is, um, providing more services for people in need
who desperately need help,
and the other is a law-enforcement mechanism
to actually try to interrupt what's happening on our streets,
you know, that are -- that are sustaining that victimization
and that, uh -- that predatory behavior.
-Okay. Maybe a quick response to that, please.
-Yeah. You know, I was out recently.
I was talking to somebody
who lives near the SOAP zone, actually,
and I said, "Has this made a difference
in what you're seeing and what you're experiencing?"
And he looked me directly in the eye and said, "Absolutely not."
And I think before council passed this legislation,
which took a substantial amount of time on the council calendar,
there was a lot of evidence,
because we had this policy in the past
and the city moved away from it,
in part because it was ineffective
and in part because there was data that sort of showed
that it was unfairly implemented,
and so the city moved away from it,
and we knew that it was ineffective.
Folks testified that it was going to be ineffective.
So my belief is that rather than going backwards
and passing a policy that we already knew didn't work,
the council would have been better spent with that time
looking at options that do expand our treatment system.
-Okay. Thank you. I would like to move on.
Briefly, if you could.
-Right, and I would -- I would simply say
that I have not heard any concrete plans from my opponent
for what she will do to improve or increase treatment options.
-All right. I guess I'll send it back to you briefly on that.
-That's a great place to go. So, one of the things
that I think is really important in particular
is adding additional capacity to our LEAD program.
Our LEAD program is our Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion,
which is an incredibly important part of our network,
and that's one of the ways that we can actually make sure
people are getting connected to services.
There's peer-to-peer counseling through CoLEAD
and many other things.
I've sat in on some of the calls where people are --
where you have different agencies between county,
the city, social service providers,
and they're looking at a list of people
who are eligible for LEAD,
and they are having to make incredibly difficult choices
because there is not enough capacity in our system
to serve the people who are being referred to them.
So, for me, a top priority would be moving more resources
into that system.
-Okay. Thank you for that. -Which is exactly
what my treatment-plan investment does.
I have a list of about nine items,
and stabilizing LEAD
and DESC
and Evergreen Treatment Services
is front and center of that
because we cannot jeopardize what is working...
-Okay. -...at the expense
of bringing on new things. We have to do both.
-Great discussion.
I do want to cover some more ground here.
Let me talk to you, Council President Nelson,
with regard to the housing work that you've done
in the Stadium District and SoDo,
bringing in housing there.
I know there is some pushback
from the Port of Seattle about this.
You had some concerns about affordable housing
that really trumped everything there.
Can you talk about this and what you did there in SoDo?
-Sure. We have an affordable-housing crisis,
and so we have to do everything we possibly can
to increase affordable-housing stock.
And in this particular case,
we were talking about workforce housing,
that the land, the underlying land,
was zoned for affordable housing,
and then it was pulled out of a plan at the last minute.
So what I am doing is -- What I did was fought
entrenched business interests,
ruffled some feathers to make sure that we have that --
that we have that resource downtown
in the Stadium District,
which is a downtown neighborhood,
where it makes perfect sense.
That housing will be, by law, um, between --
It will serve people making
between 60% and 90% of AMI.
That is a gap that we have
in all of our affordable-housing resources,
and that housing will be built by 100% union labor,
and so it is absolutely necessary to, uh --
to use everything that we possibly can
to increase housing stock
in a housing-affordability crisis,
and the neighborhoods around the Stadium District
were clamoring for it because it would improve public safety
by having more people on the street
in what is, right now, an underutilized area.
-Got it. You had a different point of view on this, Dionne.
-I do, yeah.
So, that area that my opponent just called "underutilized"
is actually industrial lands,
which is incredibly important for our city,
for our working waterfront, for good union family-wage jobs
that people rely on every day
to -- to feed their families and be able to stay in the city.
I -- Affordable housing is incredibly important to me.
It is the reason that I was able to stay in this city.
I only own my home because I got access
to down-payment assistance.
I am a huge champion and proponent
for investments in affordable housing,
which is one of the reasons
that I supported Prop 1A for social housing,
which would have also --
Excuse me, which will provide
100% union-built jobs on social-housing projects.
My opponent was not supportive of Prop 1A
but instead favored Prop 1B,
which would have undermined the process
of getting that developer online.
I also want to be clear.
When it comes to looking at housing and industrial lands,
the city also received a letter from --
I want to say it was 17 bipartisan state legislators
who talked about how important it is
to preserve those industrial lands.
Also, from -- from farms and producers all around the state
who talked about the fact that the Port of Seattle
is not just the Port of Seattle, right?
It's a port for our region, that our region relies on
to make sure that we have access to the goods that we need
and that, at this moment, particularly when we're looking
at the Trump administration and tariffs that are coming
and that are already hurting businesses,
that this was going to add an additional threat, right?
So, I looked at all of those things
when I was sort of looking at this plan,
and I think that's really important.
The other thing I want to say
is we still have tremendous opportunity
with our comprehensive plan
to add lots more capacity into our housing system,
and that's what we should be doing,
and that's where we should be focused.
-Thank you. I'd like to move on, if I could,
just to cover some more ground here.
-Okay. -There's so much to cover here.
I do want to make sure I talk about endorsements.
You won the primary here, Dionne.
Can you talk about the top three endorsements
that you have with your campaign and what that means to you,
what you think that should mean to voters?
-Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm incredibly proud
to have the sole endorsement of MLK Labor,
which is a labor union that represents hundreds of thousands
of workers in our region.
I'm really proud of that support.
I would also uplift the endorsement
of Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal,
who has been standing up to the Trump administration
at the federal level left and right
and showing the leadership that we all deserve.
And then I would look locally to the endorsement
of King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion,
who I look forward to partnering with
to make sure that we have strong coordination
between the city and the county on public safety.
-Got it. If you wouldn't mind, Council President Nelson,
your top three endorsements
and what you think voters should draw from that.
-Gosh. You know, I am, um --
I'm not going to name particular names
because that will get me in a whole mess of trouble.
-Oh, I see. Okay. -But what I will say
is that the -- the Building Trades Unions
who have built this city --
I am extremely proud of that -- of that endorsement
because it shows an alignment
on the need for both a strong economy
so that those projects can get built
and also the need for public safety,
because a lot of those workers,
when they're on the street,
they are dealing with the same kind of public-safety challenges
that -- that -- that the --
the residents and workers in Seattle are facing,
so that is a --
that's an affirmation
of a lot of the policy things that I'm trying to do.
Also, Seattle firefighters --
they are the ones that are going into, uh,
not just burning buildings
but also responding to medical emergencies
in -- in -- in elderly people's homes
and also in encampments on the streets,
so they see what is happening every day in our city.
And when they endorse me, they see me as a champion for change
on so many of those policy issues
that have led to the situations
that they're running into every day.
-Thank you. I'm going to keep working
on public safety with you, if I could, here.
Your campaign has really touted the work you've done
over the past three-plus years to restore staffing
at the Seattle Police Department.
The council actually just passed a measure
to add more surveillance cameras, as well,
to cut back on gun violence and car thefts.
That's the idea there. A lot's been going on.
I wanted to talk about your approach to public safety
over your term, your plans for the future, please.
-Yes. When -- When, um --
Think back to 2021.
Officers were leaving the city in droves.
911 response times were through the roof.
People were dying of overdose on our streets, and --
and it was clear that it was essential
to build back up SPD staffing levels.
So, I did a couple of things.
I instituted hiring bonuses
so that Seattle would be more competitive
against other jurisdictions right around us
who also were trying to build back their -- their forces.
And I threw another staffer in the -- in the --
in the group that processes SPD applications
to streamline that
so that people felt that they -- that they could be --
that they had support going through that process.
Bottom line is that now we have reversed the trend
of losing more officers than we can hire
and hiring is at an all-time, uh, unprecedented level.
What matters even more
is that, with that influx of applications,
we are in a better position to choose the best candidates,
and so that -- that matters
for ensuring that the people that are hitting our streets
share the values of our -- of -- of the people of Seattle.
-Okay. Thank you.
I wanted to get your take on this, Dionne --
maybe how you might have a different approach
to public safety,
and I would love to try to tack on this idea
of surveillance cameras, too,
because I think that's a point of difference between you two,
wherever you want to start there.
-Yeah, absolutely.
So, I mean, I think it's incredibly important
to make sure that we have a fully staffed SPD.
I've had my personal vehicle stolen and recovered by SPD,
and I was very grateful for the work
and the leadership from that department.
And I think we need to continue to make progress
on public safety through staffing
but also through community safety.
You know, when I'm out talking to folks,
I hear a lot about the need to make sure
that we have more street and space activation,
that we have more work
to make sure that we are filling empty storefronts,
to make sure that we have investments
in community organizations.
And I particularly hear a lot -- a lot --
about the need to make sure we are investing in places
for our young people to go
so that they have engagement, so that they have mentorship.
And I think that has to be a comprehensive approach
to make sure that we are getting not just to, um,
being able to solve crime
but to be able to prevent it from happening
in the first place.
And, you know, to go over to surveillance...
-Please. -...I do want to be clear.
I was clear that, you know,
when I'm looking at the ordinance --
the two ordinances that council took up around surveillance,
expanding access to CCTVs
and also to the, um --
the, uh, traffic cameras... -Yes.
-...you know, we are in a moment --
We're in a really dicey moment as a country right now.
The day after council passed that legislation,
we saw the federal government actually make a request
to the Washington State Department of Licensing
to ask for customer data,
and it's really important that we are taking seriously
the public's concerns around privacy
and -- and being measured in our balance with privacy and safety
and protecting our residents from the Trump administration.
-So, do you support the expansion of those cameras?
-I do not.
-Okay. All right. Thank you for that.
I want to make sure I touch on that surveillance-camera issue,
because this was a big decision for the council.
Some thoughts about that
and maybe about what Dionne's been saying.
-Sure. Let me start with that first,
because I want to make very clear
that I know and believe that public safety
is not just about hiring more cops.
It is about going after the root causes that are driving
our public-safety problems,
and I've already spoken about addiction,
but we also have to --
we have to look at what will make communities safer,
and that is why I have, uh --
I paid for the budgets of the CD Panthers
because that is a --
That's the Central District Youth Football and Cheer Squad,
and that is -- that brings community together.
That is violence prevention in action
because people are together, meeting each other,
and -- and, uh --
and really building community from the ground up.
So, I agree wholeheartedly
that that is part of our public-safety response,
and I've been working with many organizations
to do the same thing.
-The surveillance-camera piece, please.
-The surveillance camera is one more piece in our toolbox
to keep people from, um --
to keep people alive, frankly.
If you listen to that conversation,
uh, I heard councilmember Saka,
Joy Hollingsworth,
um, you know, Mark Solomon,
Debora Juarez, and, um...
-A number of your colleagues, yes. Mm-hmm.
-...and -- Right -- Maritza Rivera,
who share something in common.
They share an experience, a closer experience than I have,
directly with people,
communities that are most impacted
by violence, by safety.
And when they are calling for more, uh --
more tools in the toolbox,
that is something that I think that we need to listen to,
because, um, if we don't do this,
then we're -- then we're just saying,
"Okay. We're going to not avail ourselves of the --
of the technology
that so many cities across the country are using."
Blue cities across the -- the country
are trying to, um, expand their ability
to fight really violent crime,
and these cameras are not continuously monitored.
-Okay. -They are --
They come into the Real Time Crime Center,
and they are triggered when there is an emergency
that is happening. -Okay. Okay. Okay.
There was a piece you wanted to bring up about this.
Briefly, please? -Yeah. I do think it's important
to not flatten the issue,
and -- and there is a number of groups
that also spoke out very loudly
against this surveillance expansion
that included a number of groups
who do work very closely with directly impacted communities
and represent those communities.
So, that was the Community Police Commission,
our own Community Police Commission here in Seattle.
That was OneAmerica Votes,
which is the state's largest immigrant-rights organization.
That was the ACLU.
And there were also two council members who voted no on that
who also have experiences being close to communities
who are impacted by violence.
So, I don't think that we should just gloss over that
in this conversation.
It's an important thing to bring to the forefront.
And, you know, I myself -- I've mentioned my own experiences.
So I think it is possible
for many people to have those experiences
of being directly impacted or being very close to communities
who are directly impacted
and still making a decision to believe
that this expansion of surveillance
is not the right thing for our city at this time.
I also want to just point out that,
you know, the previous program was intended
to be a pilot program, right?
And so part of this is about looking at
how is that pilot program working?
What information did we learn back from it?
And the city did not get that information
before moving forward with this expansion.
-Got it. Let me keep going down this path.
-Just one -- -Okay.
-We also didn't get the evaluation
of how our new CARE department is doing,
but there was widespread support
for expanding that program before --
-That 911 alternative. Yes. Right.
-Right. And so sometimes we have to look at what is working
and then decide to, uh -- to jump-start its, uh --
its -- its permanent, uh, viability.
-Thank you. -But I w--
-Oh, go ahead. -Okay.
-I took an oath
to protect the health, safety, and well-being
of the people of Seattle... -Okay.
-...and that means doing everything possible
to -- to ensure that.
And this technology is not experimental.
It's used across the -- the -- the country,
and it would have been irresponsible
for me to not explore and -- and -- and support
helping people in their communities,
uh, you know, not be afraid that their loved one
could be the next victim of gun violence.
-A brief rejoinder, please. -I'll just say, you know,
mentioning the CARE team expansion
and the support for that,
there were 100 people who showed up
and testified in City Hall
against the surveillance expansion, right?
So when we're balancing expanding a pilot
and taking into consideration public information,
we just have to be clear
that there was a very loud and clear voice
against this expansion
and that, again, taking into consideration
that there are many people
who are going to be fearing for their loved ones' safety
should that data be either accessed unknowingly,
without our permission,
or be later subpoenaed.
There's a real need to balance
providing safety at the local level
and being in context of the moment that we are in
that is truly unprecedented.
-Thank you. We need to wrap up.
Great discussion here. -And Chief Barnes' letter
does outline --
It is really interesting because it does outline ways
in which those safeguards are being implemented.
-Okay. Thank you.
I know there's a lot to research there.
We do need to wrap up.
We're talking about a closing statement, if we could here.
Dionne, if you could keep it to a minute, please.
-Oh, wow. Okay. We've talked about a few things today.
So, I really appreciate this conversation.
As I said earlier, you know, I'm a trained social worker.
That is an experience that I want to bring to City Hall.
We have a lot of challenges facing us,
from housing affordability, where we need to deliver
on not just protecting our neighborhood centers
but expanding them,
from making sure that we support our small businesses
through passing a B&O tax
and providing tax breaks to those businesses.
We have more opportunities
to take programs like Seattle Restored
and continue to reform and iterate them
so they deliver for businesses and working people.
I'm excited to bring that experience to council,
and I look forward to serving the people of Seattle.
-Okay. Thank you. A minute, if you could, to wrap up, please.
-What Seattle needs right now is a proven, experienced fighter
who can continue to build
on the progress that we have made
but also be ready to respond to the threats
that were coming from the federal government,
and -- and I have shown myself willing and able
to take on tough fights of the status quo
to push for workforce housing, expand on-demand treatment,
and that is the kind of -- of --
of fighter we need going forward.
My opponent has, uh, sound-bite promises,
but I still have not heard enough concrete plans
that will be done differently
than what we're already trying to do.
Storefront Repair, Seattle Restored --
those are programs that I support that help start,
and we need to see that going,
but we also have to make sure
that we are not dropping the ball on what we've already done
and that we are prepared to deal with this, uh --
with what Trump may be -- may bring down,
because now is not the time for a learning curve.
-Okay. Thank you both very much for this,
and we will be right back.
What are people saying online about the race
for Seattle City Council Position 9?
One person writes...
Another says...
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Send us an e-mail at contact@seattlechannel.org
or find us on social media.
Good to have that commentary.
Dionne Foster, Council President Nelson,
thank you for being here.
We will see you next time on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪