-Welcome to "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
This week it's a look at the biggest stories of 2025
and their impact on you now and in years to come.
The votes are in,
and there's a new slate of lawmakers eager for change
in Seattle and King County.
-That is the spirit that I intend to bring
into the mayor's office.
-But how much can new local leadership accomplish in 2026,
with an unsettled economy and a budget deficit
already forecast for 2027?
-We've put money aside. It's not enough.
[ Siren wailing ]
-Plus, how will Seattle's approach
to public safety change
with a new multimillion-dollar contract for Seattle police
and an expanded 911 alternative system?
-That is the game-changer, right,
if we can get treatment to people.
-And what's next for our region's
homelessness response
with King County's Housing First approach
at risk of losing $25 million to $40 million in federal funding?
-This is flat-out hatred, cruelty that's been codified.
-We're previewing what's next in local politics
by looking back at a tumultuous 2025.
-You saw Bruce Harrell,
uh, you know, move kind of progressive
as the election neared.
-Our panel of local journalists weighs in.
-I think Katie Wilson and her team was really savvy.
-She retained Shon Barnes as police chief.
I think that was a huge decision.
-You get the scoop on the year's biggest headlines,
next on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
And here they are, a panel of journalists
to help us talk about the biggest stories of the year.
And that panel would include Erica C. Barnett,
publisher and editor of PubliCola.
Erica, good to see you again.
-Good to be here.
-We also have with us Greg Kim,
a reporter from The Seattle Times
who focuses on homelessness.
Greg, great to have you here, too.
-Thanks for having me.
-And finally, we have Nate Sanford,
a reporter for KNKX and Cascade PBS.
Thank you for joining us, Nate.
-Thanks for having me.
-Alright, Erica, let me start with you.
I want to talk about the biggest story of the year,
I think a lot of people would say,
a sea change in local politics.
We've got two new members of the Seattle City Council.
We've got a new city attorney,
a new mayor and a new King County executive
after 15-plus years of Dow Constantine.
For the most part,
if you were an incumbent, you were voted out.
How did you interpret the story of this year's fall elections?
-Well, I think that the 2023 elections
were sort of a continuation of 2021,
a more conservative turn in local politics.
And I think that this is, you know, one of our --
-The pendulum swinging back. -Exactly.
I was going to say ebbs and flows.
You know, I think it swung pretty hard this time
with Katie Wilson being elected mayor.
Um, I certainly did not expect that
when she announced she was running earlier this year.
And, in fact, I remember asking her,
you know, "Are you running to win?"
Which seems silly now but was a natural question then.
So, yeah, I mean, big sea change towards the left,
both in terms of ousting the city attorney,
Republican Ann Davison, who was elected in 2021,
ousting the mayor,
and then, as you mentioned,
Dow Constantine has been in there for 16 years.
So that is going to be a hugely disruptive change
just because everybody has gotten so used to him.
He seems like a fixture that's never going to go away,
and now Girmay Zahilay is coming in and shaking things up.
-He is still with Sound Transit,
so we're definitely going to be talking with him still.
Thank you for that.
Nate, some thoughts about the election results here.
This was a major sweep for these progressive candidates.
-Yeah, definitely. I mean, like Erica said,
I think Katie Wilson really surprised a lot of people.
I don't think a lot of people really expected
it would go this way at the beginning.
Um, and I think in addition to being kind of a sea change,
it also feels like
kind of a generational change, as well, right?
I think Katie Wilson is possibly our first millennial mayor.
And a lot of these progressive candidates
who defeated their opponents this year
are quite young.
You know, I mean, Alexis Mercedes Rinck
obviously is in her 20s still, but it's a lot of people with,
I think, kind of this newer -- newer approach to politics,
maybe, that's kind of almost --
you know, especially in the wake
of the presidential election in 2024,
which was, I think, unusually geriatric.
There's kind of this sense -- There's sense --
There's a sense of things maybe shifting a little bit,
which is going to be really interesting.
-Said the young man at the end of the table.
I love it, and it really looked, too --
I was talking to you about this earlier.
There were some social media differences, too,
that I think Katie Wilson brought to fore
which might have had an influence in some way
in terms of reaching out to younger voters.
-Yeah, like, I definitely don't think it's, like,
you know, the only reason she did well with young people.
I think a lot of her messaging platform
probably spoke to that as well.
But I think this is a trend we've seen in politics
for a while of candidates really learning
that you have to -- you have to embrace social media.
You have to embrace video and short-form video
and really try to meet people where they're at,
where they're getting their information,
which is on a lot of these platforms.
And I think Katie Wilson and her team
was really savvy about doing that.
They had several videos go viral.
There was the pizza video, right, and some stuff.
-"I shop at Goodwill." Yeah, yeah.
-Yeah, yeah, which I think kind of communicated
a sort of relatability that I think Bruce Harrell maybe,
you know, struggled to get across in his messaging, right,
and kind of -- I think he maybe didn't --
just wasn't as familiar with maybe the vocabulary
of these platforms and the way that sort of candidates have to,
um, increasingly be everywhere, right?
-Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely true. Thank you for that.
Greg, I wanted your take on this,
and I wanted to ask this
because it seemed like housing affordability
and, to an extent, homelessness
really seem to take over as top issues
this fall on the minds of voters.
Katie Wilson launched a campaign for mayor
on the tails of a successful push for social housing funding.
She's calling for 4,000 new units of emergency housing.
I know you talked to both candidates
for King County Executive about their homeless plans, too.
Did you see that issue of housing and homelessness
shape this fall election in some ways?
Talk to me about that.
-Yeah, definitely.
I mean, it's been a top issue for Seattle and King County
for going on a decade at least, right?
And so it's not necessarily new.
I think, you know, one thing to mention
is that Seattle's politics doesn't exist
in isolation, right?
You know, we have to frame it in the national context.
Um, Trump and the reaction to Trump was impacting races
up and down the ballot, right,
so that's something to remember.
One other thing that struck me about the, like, top card
on the ballot with the Seattle mayor's race
was that it was a classic, you know,
progressive versus moderate candidate.
Um, but compared to some previous elections,
they weren't as far apart in those polls
as they might have been maybe four years ago.
Um, you saw Bruce Harrell, uh,
you know, move kind of progressive
as the election neared.
And you also saw Katie Wilson, the progressive candidate,
um, uh, you know,
after she won, she's brought on a lot of people
who have experience in city government.
Um, she would not say that
she wouldn't, uh, sweep or remove encampments, right.
That was a big differentiator between previous moderate --
or progressive candidates in the past.
Um, but, of course,
yeah, homelessness remains a big concern.
And I think, um, you know,
I think Katie Wilson probably read
that the public isn't quite ready
to swing all the way back that way.
People still have the pandemic in mind when,
uh, street disorder, uh,
street-level homelessness increased significantly.
And so she -- that's probably a read
that she was making in her race, as well.
-Yeah, I think so, too.
Let me start with you, Nate, and I'll go down the line here.
I wanted to talk about the city budget process,
which just wrapped up a few weeks ago.
There was plenty of tax talk.
The city will have a new .1% sales tax increase.
The council is redirecting revenue
from the JumpStart payroll expense tax,
and voters chose to restructure our business and occupation
tax system, too, with Seattle Shield.
Those taxes did help balance the budget,
but the city is still looking at this
$140 million-some-odd hole coming ahead in 2027 here.
I just see this as a very big challenge
for the Wilson administration.
Talk to me about that. -Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's a lot that she's going to have to deal with
in her first year, I think.
And, you know, during her --
shortly after she was elected, in her victory speech,
she, um, acknowledged that.
Like, I mean, she's obviously been vocal
about new progressive revenue sources and new taxes,
but, um, the extent to which that can fill the entire hole
is kind of unclear, and I think, um,
you know, she said there might have to be some --
some cuts in some areas, right, and some -- some tough choices.
But, um, yeah, I definitely think we'll see a lot of talk
about both in the coming year.
-Yeah. Fair enough.
Greg, I'll go down the line here.
I wanted to point out that the City Council
set up a proviso in the budget to restrict $30 million
that's actually set aside for the Unified Care Team.
This is the city's homelessness response effort set in motion
by outgoing mayor Bruce Harrell.
Do you see that measure as a roadblock for Mayor Elect Wilson
when it comes to her approach to homelessness?
Some thoughts.
-Uh, that's an interesting question.
You could definitely see that as a defense,
um, by the outgoing Mayor Harrell
and some of the council members, too,
against what they see as a progressive mayor coming in
and potentially maybe not wanting to have such
a heavy hand in enforcement for street-level homelessness.
Um, and it remains to be seen.
You know, she could take that
and remain within the bounds of that proviso
and still change her approach, as she has indicated she will.
Um, you know, you could turn that into, uh,
more outreach rather than completely removing encampments,
but it will be -- I mean,
that is definitely one of the main things
I'm interested in seeing, uh, in, uh, uh,
Mayor Wilson's tenure of, like, whether she does a 180 with, um,
Mayor Harrell's approach to, uh, removing homeless encampments
or if she takes a, you know, less sharp of a turn.
-Do you think she's going to be able to get
these 4,000 emergency housing units
she's been asking for on the campaign trail, at least?
There are so many candidates, as you know, in years past,
who have made big promises when it comes to that type of thing
with shelter space.
How real is that campaign promise?
What do you think?
-Yeah, well, you know, she's outlined, uh,
how she plans to get those 4,000 units.
And it's a really big, kind of crazy idea.
-Okay. -So I'll start with, uh,
she said that she wants, you know,
900 or 1,000 tiny home units.
-Mm-hmm. -That's unrealistic.
That's not going to happen, I would say.
-Why do you say that?
-There's just not the space for that.
Tiny home villages, um, stay on,
um, uh, you know, generally temporary land.
I mean, you need the space for it.
Um, and it's been very, very challenging
for them to even add one or two tiny home villages
of like 100 units. -Yes.
-To say that we're going to find the space for 1,000,
I think she's going to run into some serious challenges
just with finding the space. -Okay. Alright.
The other 3,000 are really, really interesting.
-Yeah. -What she's planning to do
is take, um, unoccupied units in affordable housing
meant for people who are low-income
but not necessarily homeless, right.
So this is just, uh, you know, your normal apartment unit
where the rents are a little bit cheaper than market rate.
They don't have caseworkers in them right now.
They don't have the mental health
or physical health professionals in them
that often, you know,
accompany housing for homeless individuals.
And she's talking about rededicating funds
from the city's housing funding
to add those staff into those buildings
and convert those into emergency housing
or permanent housing for homeless people.
That's a really, really big idea.
It's not impossible,
and I'm really curious to see how it works.
There are people who say, yeah, that's totally doable.
And there's some people who say that's totally impossible,
and I don't really know where that's going to land yet.
-And I'm going to come back to homeless funding
in just a little bit.
But, Erica, I wanted to maybe follow
on what Nate was talking about when it comes to taxes
and what might be coming down the line here.
Councilmember Eddie Lin was talking about
a citywide capital gains tax on the campaign trail.
He's been talking about it as a councilmember now, too.
Councilmember elect Foster, same thing.
There's this growing progressive bloc in the council
we've been talking about.
Do you see them making that push for that kind of tax next year?
If you could talk about that and the overall fiscal health,
I guess, of the city of Seattle, please.
-Yeah, I mean, I think they can certainly come back
with the capital gains tax proposal.
I think what we saw when it was proposed earlier
by Cathy Moore and Alexis Mercedes Rinck
was that it doesn't actually raise that much money.
And so it's not going to solve these fiscal problems
that I would say Bruce Harrell has set up in the budget,
you know, by proposing just tons and tons of new programs.
And, you know, we haven't talked about sort of
why the budget is so large and why we're in such a hole.
-Go right ahead, yeah, if you'd like to.
-But the main problem is that, you know,
the city council and the mayor
have just piled on tens of millions,
hundreds of millions of programs in the last couple years
that are brand-new that have to be funded, you know,
on an ongoing basis.
-Kind of coming out of COVID, right,
I mean, some of these programs?
-Some of them are and some of them aren't.
I mean, surveillance cameras, for example,
is a big one that has nothing to do with COVID.
I mean, unless you, you know, buy into the idea
that the city became, you know, inherently more unsafe
and that cameras inherently work
or are successful at producing public safety,
which I think are big questions.
And in an era of Trump, you know,
to sort of massively expand surveillance
of Seattle residents is, you know,
I would say, a decision that got questioned
and I would say a questionable decision.
But in any case, all this new spending on --
You know, the Unified Care Team expanded last year.
It's 116 people now.
And as you said, I mean, the city council put a proviso on it
so that it has to be spent on those people,
whether or not they're doing the same things.
So, I mean, the city is in a much bigger problem
than a capital gains tax is going to address.
And we've already passed a sales tax increase
kind of getting to the point where it's untenable.
-It's one of the highest sales taxes in the country.
-I think it is the highest.
And a B&O tax increase on businesses.
-Larger businesses, yes. -On larger businesses.
So there's not a lot of, um -- of wiggle room
to pass more and more taxes at the local level.
So I think that, you know,
it is a -- it's going to be a real problem.
And there are going to have to be cuts most likely.
-I want to talk about some possible cuts.
And, Greg, let me bring you back in.
I want to pull apart this issue of federal funding cuts
to local budgets, especially when it comes to homelessness.
The Trump administration is not supportive
of the Housing First approach
that's used by the permanent supportive housing
in Seattle and King County.
This is where services are attached to this housing
and where treatment for medical, addiction issues,
et cetera, comes after a person is stably housed.
I know you've reported on this in The Seattle Times.
What could these cuts mean to local providers?
What are the providers doing about this situation?
The city? The county? Talk to me about this.
-Yeah, it's -- King County receives
about $60 million to $70 million a year in these funds.
And they generally go towards permanent supportive housing
or this housing with services for people
who have been previously homeless.
And that $70 million goes a lot further than it sounds like,
because it's kind of the bedrock
upon which a huge housing system is built upon and layered upon.
There's the $70 million
that the federal government provides
for operating expenses for this permanent supportive housing.
But then city, state, you know, county money
is piled on top of that.
And so it -- it really impacts the health of the entire --
a huge housing system with thousands of units involved
and -- and thousands of people
who have been previously homeless relying on it.
Um, and so right now,
there's just a logistical challenge by local officials
who are not going to accept that system collapsing
of how to fill that money
or fight the federal government to get those dollars back,
um, or, you know, make adaptations
to try to capture that funding.
-You've written about this in PubliCola, Erica.
What are your thoughts? -Yeah.
I mean, I just wanted to add, too,
I mean, one of the problems with the --
with the funding situation is -- you know, is first
that they're cutting all this funding for permanent housing,
but also there's provisions attached to it.
Now, they've pulled this back as we're recording.
The federal government
has pulled back the funding application,
and we don't know why or when it's going to come back.
But, I mean, there's stuff on immigration
that you have to participate, you know, cooperate with ICE.
There's stuff on gender that you can't acknowledge
the existence of transgender,
non-binary people. -It's being legally challenged
by King County, a number of other jurisdictions.
Keep going.
-And then there is -- there's stuff on racial equity.
You can't have or ever have had racial preferences,
and then drug use.
You can't have ever allowed drug use,
which is, you know, kind of, you know,
a bedrock of Housing First, that you have to get housing
before you can get recovery from,
you know, addiction and mental illness.
So it penalizes basically everything
we do here in King County in the most recent form.
So, I mean, it is a matter of like we have to figure out a way
to fill this locally and at the state level,
because most of our programs cannot meet these criteria.
-Yeah. -But as you and Brian
have been talking about, those local governments
are super strange with their budgets.
-They set aside some money,
but it doesn't sound like it's enough, yeah.
-And I also want to add,
like, I think it's important to remember,
like, the broader economic context that's creating these,
you budget strains, too, right?
As -- As you alluded to, like, uh,
there was increased spending during --
over the last few years during the pandemic.
And, um, you know, revenue was increasing during that period.
There was the federal pandemic relief funding, of course.
Um, but there was also a huge amount of construction, right,
which is a lot of where the city brings in its revenue.
Interest rates were so low right.
And so there was a bunch of construction happening.
These tech companies that we have locally
were hiring like crazy during the pandemic.
That added to the,
you know, taxes that they can get from those.
And we see both of those major sources of revenue
declining right now.
Um, construction has dropped off a cliff.
Um, interest rates are way too high.
Building costs are way too high.
And so developers are hardly doing that.
Um, and then, you know, you see the big tech companies
pulling back significantly.
Um, and so there are big economic trends
that explain why we both increased revenue
and increased spending over the last few years.
And, you know, these long-term trends that,
you know, are big, you know, over the next few years,
that's -- that's going to be a significant decrease
from what we've been seeing over the last few years.
-Major impact.
Nate, some thoughts about this, federal funding cuts,
what they could mean to our region.
What do you got? -Yeah.
You know, like Greg was saying, I think it's definitely, um,
you know, not just a Seattle problem.
I think a lot of cities are struggling with this problem
right now with the fact that they received emergency money
during the pandemic and used it to fund new programs.
Um, and then the money's gone now.
And that, I think, has been one contributor to a lot of issues.
But, um, yeah, federal cuts to homeless funding
could be really, really devastating in a lot of areas.
Um, cities really rely on, um,
HUD for a lot of different programs.
And, um, I know Mayor Elect Wilson has talked about,
um, her desire is to backfill that if it does get cut, right?
And there's talk about finding ways
to have money set aside in the event
that it does fully go away
so the city doesn't have to, you know, shut places down, right,
put people out on the street.
But, um, that's still a lot of money.
-It is, yeah, and it's going to be unfolding
over these next couple of months here.
Erica, I want to jump back to you
and talk about the new collective bargaining agreement
the city just struck with SPOG, the police officers union
that covers most of the rank-and-file officers
of the SPD.
The agreement will allow the city, in some cases,
to do a direct dispatch with its non-police crisis responders,
these CARE teams, so not a dual dispatch with police,
again, in some situations.
The city definitely wanted that.
But critics say the city did not get enough in this deal
when it comes to officer accountability requirements.
What's your assessment on this deal with SPOG,
which negotiated a 13% raise, by the way,
on top of already being the highest paid cops in the state?
What did the city get out of this, do you think?
-Well, just to -- to elaborate on that raise,
it's a 42% raise
over the retroactive life of the contract, so through 2027.
It's 2024 through 2027.
So very significant raises.
Police will make $126,000 after six months.
What did the city get out of it?
I mean, you know, they got some --
as you mentioned, some changes to the CARE contract.
Um, but in terms of accountability,
I would say not a lot.
I mean, the major issue, um, about arbitration,
um, for misconduct is still in negotiations.
You know, they basically reached an impasse and said,
"We're going to put this --
We're going to make this separate from the contract."
Um, they changed the way
that minor discipline can be considered now.
It's going to not go to the Office of Professional --
or sorry, of Police Accountability
but rather to sergeants.
So it'll be handled in-house.
That's something that, you know,
a lot of people have actually advocated for,
'cause it lets OPA spend more time
on those more serious cases.
-Office of Police Accountability. Keep going.
But, um -- But, you know, the CARE team concessions, um,
you know, allowing CARE to go out, um, you know,
without police on hand
and allowing them to expand beyond 24 people,
they're pretty modest when you consider
that the contract also contains a bunch of new rules.
So, for example, if there is drug use present,
CARE can't respond.
If it's not literally on the street,
if it's inside a building or in a car, CARE can't respond.
They have to have cops there.
And so there's just a long list of criteria --
if a crime has occurred,
if there's evidence a crime has occurred.
Well, what does that mean? -Yeah.
-So there's just -- there's a lot of new restrictions
that I think CARE was in some ways blindsided by.
-Yeah. Nate, are you tracking this?
This is an interesting development with public safety.
What are your thoughts on what's happening
with this new contract and the expansion of CARE, too?
That's a big deal for this city.
-I think it's significant also that there were -- you know,
we did see three councilmembers
voting against this contract, right,
which, um, that's, you know --
You know, Councilmember Rob Saka, as well, was --
had some concerns about it and, um --
-Specific to accountability, right, yeah.
-Yeah, yeah, and I think that's notable,
especially just given how, over the past few years at least,
kind of in the wake of the protests in 2020,
there has been this push to, um --
this really strong push to hire more cops in Seattle and some,
I think, deference in some ways
to try to create an attractive environment.
Maybe there's a bit more pushback happening now.
And I think, like, the, um --
the fact that the contract doesn't want
accountability measure is the ability to, um --
for civilian investigators to subpoena cops, right.
That's one thing that's missing
that I know is a big deal for a lot of people.
-Yeah. -Um, yeah,
I think it's going to be interesting seeing how --
what the new council's relationship with police
is like going forward over the next few years.
-Yeah, yeah, that was a big vote, kind of a pro forma vote.
But it was very important for the council for sure.
Greg, I was talking to you about this before.
It sounds like CARE, yes, it's expanding,
but maybe we haven't seen the full impact of it
yet on the homelessness crisis.
What do you think about that?
I know there's some interaction there,
but I just wanted your take on this.
-Yeah, I mean, homeless people
have a lot of interactions with police.
Um, and if -- and, uh, I haven't --
I don't know -- I don't know -- I haven't tracked --
-We're not there yet, it sounds like, yeah.
-I don't know whether they've been on the ground
enough to have made, like, a huge impact.
But that'll be an interesting question
to see going forward,
whether they're able to handle more cases.
-Alright, well, speaking of going forward --
thank you for bringing that up, Greg -- it's time to wrap up.
I wanted to talk about a headline
that maybe we should be looking at in 2026,
maybe even something we haven't touched on yet.
What are you keeping track of right now?
-Um, I think obviously there are some big questions
with homelessness in 2026.
One's the World Cup, obviously, um, and --
-Happening in June. We've got a few matches here.
Yeah. -Yeah, and I think
the outgoing mayor Bruce Harrell's approach
of really ramping up encampment removals, um, it, you know --
for -- it had impacts on other neighborhoods.
It's had a lot of negative impacts on people
experiencing homelessness.
But it also was pretty effective at moving people out
of certain areas in the city, like downtown.
-Happened during the All-Star game, too.
Yeah, definitely. -So, yeah.
And with the incoming Mayor Wilson saying
that she's going to take a different approach,
um, it'll be interesting to see how she handles the World Cup.
-Got it.
Nate, some thoughts about something
you're keeping an eye on in the new year.
-Yeah, um, you know,
I don't think it's going to be the biggest story of 2026
or anything, but I'm curious how, um --
how and if Katie Wilson will move forward
with this kind of ambitious, sort of somewhat vague AI plan
that Bruce Harrell announced earlier this year.
Um, it was kind of this long-in-the-works
AI sort of road-map vision for how the city is going to
start using artificial intelligence
for all sorts of things.
And I think Harrell really,
um, seemed to be a big booster of that
and was really excited by that possibility,
kind of implementing it in things like 911
and permitting and things like that, right.
The city just hired a few days ago a new AI director
who's going to kind of oversee Seattle
becoming the AI leader, right, of the country.
And, um, I don't know.
I'm really curious how Katie Wilson --
how and if she's going to want to continue with that vision.
-Yeah. Interesting thought. Thank you, Nate.
Erica, help us close out here.
Some final thoughts about a big story
that's on your radar for the next year.
-Yeah, I think big picture,
I'm going to be interested to see how Katie Wilson,
um, you know, maintains or modulates
her positions on a lot of things.
Um, she retained Shon Barnes as police chief.
I think that was a huge decision for her.
And she was, you know, reportedly vacillating on it.
And so -- And, you know, and I think some
of the progressive left was pretty mad --
I mean, if Bluesky is any indication,
was pretty mad about that.
I think that encampment sweeps are going to be another question
because she said, you know, she will do encampment removals.
So I think on all of these really thorny issues
that have a lot of constituents,
I'm going to be interested to see, um,
where she -- where she falls, particularly on --
on police and on homelessness.
-Okay. Thank you all for this. And we will be right back.
What are people saying online
about the biggest headlines of this year?
One person writes...
Another person says...
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an e-mail at contact@seattlechannel.org
or find us on social media.
Great to have that input, and a big thanks to Nate Sanford,
Greg Kim, and Erica C. Barnett.
Really appreciate you being here.
-Thanks so much. -Thank you.
-Alright, I'm Brian Callanan.
See you next time on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪