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The Seattle City Council has began consideration of legislation that will usher in a new — and long overdue — era for police work in our city.
The council will review and ratify a new labor agreement with the Seattle Police Officers' Guild. This contract will fundamentally alter policing in Seattle by recognizing the training, skills and professional service of our officers; rewarding them fairly; and adjusting their deployment for greater effectiveness.
Once ratified, the new contract will raise compensation levels for Seattle officers to the highest in Washington. These increases will help resolve long-term issues of recruitment and attrition. New officers will see a 36-percent jump in salary (to $64,300 over the four-year term of the contract), plus additional hiring incentives and moving allowances. Twelve-year veterans, as one example, will realize a 25.6-percent increase, to $90,500.
Since announcement of the new contract terms, officer recruitment has soared, and the department is now ahead of pace to achieve its 98-officer hiring target for this year.
The contract will also dramatically change — for the first time in at least 35 years — how officers are deployed. Three patrol shifts will become six, some overlapping at critical, high-demand time periods. Officers will be assigned based on where and when they are most needed, predicated on 911-call patterns, crime statistics and other key factors.
The previous system forced officers into a reactive stance. Under this new system, officers will be able to engage in positive, proactive efforts: getting out of their cars, meeting citizens in their districts, getting acquainted with neighborhood kids and business owners, following crime leads and uncovering evidence.
The City Council will also debate and adopt improvements to police oversight, accountability and transparency policies.
Last year, Mayor Greg Nickels appointed a special civilian panel to examine how the city might upgrade oversight of police conduct. In January, this panel, led by former Superior Court Judge Terry Carroll, issued 29 specific recommendations aimed at increasing public confidence in our police officers and their work.
The new labor contract, along with the additional ordinances the City Council will consider, adopts every one of these 29 recommendations — plus an additional one, which I advocated, that increases the authority of the civilian auditor.
These changes will strengthen Seattle's three-part system of police oversight:
- The civilian-led Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), which receives and investigates complaints of misconduct;
- The independent civilian auditor, who reviews investigations, and;
- The OPA Review Board, which evaluates the complaint-handling process and monitors trends.
The OPA will strengthen communication with complainants, ensuring they are updated on the status of their case. The civilian auditor's ability to review investigations in real time will be formalized, and the position will receive new authority to direct further investigation as appropriate. The OPA Review Board will be expanded to seven members and the scope of its work enlarged to provide leadership on citizen communication.
The Review Board is crucial to this system of police accountability. That's why the City Council will soon appoint seven highly respected individuals to begin new terms of service on the board. Each has the disposition, perspective and life experience to inspire confidence among members of the community and our police officers.
We demand the absolute best from our officers, even under trying circumstances and when no one is watching. They serve as our eyes, our hands. They serve at our behest and are accountable to us. The upcoming changes in our police oversight system will help underscore this reality. The Council's actions in the coming weeks will reflect both the value and honor we give our police officers and our expectations for their good service.
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Two-Way Mercer & Strong Leadership
There has been some controversy since the Council voted 8-1 to continue work on the two-way Mercer Street project. Some see the project as a boondoggle designed only to benefit Paul Allen and his interests in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Others view it as a waste of money because the promise of traffic congestion relief is minimal at best.
Still others argue that competing projects, such as north end neighborhood sidewalks originally promised in the 1950s should have higher priority for the limited public funds available.
I voted with the super majority on this issue and here's why.
First, the two-way Mercer Street project is about a lot more than just traffic congestion relief, although that certainly is a worthy justification. This project is one of several to improve our city's livability and it must be viewed within an overall strategic framework. The big picture goal is to reunite two important neighborhoods, South Lake Union and the Uptown neighborhood (lower Queen Anne, to many) while also creating a link or union between the lake, Seattle Center, and the central waterfront.
Two-way Mercer is also one of several steps aimed at reconnecting the east and west sides of Aurora Avenue North and returning neighborhood cohesion to this important area of our city. The other steps are re-opening another street across Aurora at Thomas, Harrison, or Republican Streets and extending Sixth Avenue North all the way to Roy Street. These moves would significantly improve the street grid throughout Uptown and South Lake Union and, along with two-way Mercer, improve traffic flow and access.
Another part of this overall strategic framework made possible by the changes described in the paragraph above is the addition of bike lanes on both Valley and Roy Streets, and the incorporation of the formerly-named "Potlach Trail" into the new street grid connecting South Lake Union tot he central waterfront through the Uptown neighborhood.
These street changes also need to be considered as part of the city's overall Urban Mobility Plan which is currently being developed in our effort to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a surface street option that will allow us to remove the viaduct and revitalize the central waterfront.
Last, but certainly not least, two-way Mercer, along with the other steps I've described, allows the streets immediately adjacent to Lake Union Park to be transformed into a pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle friendly street serving as a gateway to the park.
So, I voted in favor of continuing planning, financial feasibility studies, property acquisition negotiations, and other necessary work because the two-way Mercer project is just one element of a broader strategic plan to improve two neighborhoods (Uptown and South Lake Union) that will accept more density and jobs in the coming years. The project makes good urban planning sense,good environmental sense, and wise financial sense when viewed in the context of the larger strategic goals for the area.
Second, I reject short-term, status quo thinking which is often a mask for a not in my back yard or anti-growth mentality.
We are well past the growth-no growth debate. Our region, and our city, has adopted a growth management plan that calls for Seattle to accept more residents and to cluster these new residents in our Urban Centers. The Uptown and South Lake Union neighborhoods are both Urban Centers. The Mayor and the City Council have taken a firm stand on this issue and it won't be reconsidered. Seattle is going to see an increase in population over the next 20 years. The issue is how to accommodate this growth wisely and efficiently.
I keenly remember several projects in our city's history that were opposed because they (a) would contribute to growth, (b) cost too much, or (c) seemed to favor developers and property owners.
Remember the late 1960s when we twice rejected a light rail system because it would cause growth and damage Seattle's small-town atmosphere? You can ride our light rail system in Atlanta, Georgia today. City officials who fought hard for passage of the Forward Thrust transportation measure deserve kudos. Too bad we failed to follow their bold leadership!
Remember, too, the opposition to Pacific Place downtown? It was cast as a give-away to a private developer, a waste of city resources. Pacific Place is the single most important anchor development that contributed to the revitalization of our downtown business core.
It's a great example of a public-private partnership that resulted in huge public benefits to our city, primarily strong economic transformation of our downtown. I appreciate the leadership Mayor Norm Rice and others demonstrated to win approval of that project.
Third, I'm grateful when property owners want to maximize their investments and contribute to the welfare of our city. Rather than detest Paul Allen and his colleagues, I appreciate the fact that he is willing to invest in our city and create jobs and wealth. His investments in South Lake Union will result in new residents living close to our downtown core in an environmentally sensitive manner, tens of thousands of new jobs, and a resurgence of an area that urgently needed it. Twenty years from now we will likely praise Paul Allen for his initiative and entrepreneurial spirit. Don't you wish he owned the Sonics instead of the Portland Trailblazers? (In the spirit of full disclosure, employees of Allen's Vulcan Northwest contributed $1,600 to my campaign for City Council last year, but not Mr. Allen himself. The Vulcan employee contributions represent four-tenths of one percent of the total amount contributed to the campaign.)
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Fire Station 20 Updates
 Fire Station 20 Siting Study, Executive Study
See the full study
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