VIDEO: City Council to vote tomorrow on veto overrides

1:51 PM: That’s video of this morning’s City Council briefing meeting. It began with Council President Lorena González announcing that the council will have a special meeting at 3 pm tomorrow (Tuesday, September 22nd) on whether to override Mayor Durkan‘s vetos of three bills, including the “budget rebalancing” bill that cut various departments including SPD. González said overrides would require at least 7 of the 9 councilmembers, and in case that doesn’t happen, backup legislation representing a “compromise” would be standing by for an alternate vote. That legislation apparently isn’t finalized yet, and the agenda for the special meeting has not yet appeared online, but some of the proposals were discussed toward the end of this morning’s meeting. When the agenda and legislation are available, we’ll link here. Meantime, if you have a comment for the council before its vote, you can email council@seattle.gov.

2:51 PM: Here’s the agenda.

Gable September 21, 2020 (2:29 pm)

I received a generic email from Lisa Herbold late last week that was apparently mail to anyone who contacted her about defunding the police. In it she said 6,000 people supported defunding, and 3,500 did not. Now is a good time to let the council know where you stand.

wscommuter September 22, 2020 (11:46 am)

I emailed Ms. Herbold two months ago on this issue … her “response” came last week and was the same “cut and paste” non-response you described. So I politely emailed back advising that I was unimpressed by getting a cut and paste non-response. In less than 24 hours, I received a second email from her office re-sending the same cut and paste email. While I certainly never expected a personal note and have no doubt that Ms. Herbold’s office can’t individually respond to every email, this level of incompetence and insensitivity to a constituent pretty much told me all I needed to know.

T Rex September 21, 2020 (2:48 pm)

Like we don’t already know what is going to happen. It appears to me that this is as much a fight with the mayor as it is for these folks to prove to everyone that they know what is best for the city. It is very obvious to me they do not. In a really good world it would be about compromise between adults and leaders. Sadly, I feel at times I am looking at a grade school recess and someone is pulling Sawant’s hair.

flimflam September 21, 2020 (4:04 pm)

so tired of this council and seattle politics in general. everything is SO polarized, SO “either or”…

Sillygoose September 21, 2020 (5:26 pm)

You rushed ahead to cut funding from SPD and lay off police officers without any idea how it will impact public safety and we lost our police chief as a result. This isn’t the way to go. We need a thoughtful plan to re-imagine policing and keeping our city safe. Please sustain the mayor’s recent budget veto and work together to balance the budget.

CAM September 21, 2020 (10:44 pm)

I asked a commenter this question before and never got an answer. All state and municipal, and likely federal, employees country wide are being asked to accept pay cuts or roll backs in their salary or benefits of one form or another at the present time. These cuts are being implemented more quickly among management because it is not necessary to negotiate with a union to implement the cut. Would all of these employees also be entitled to take the same steps as Carmen Best in response and resign in protest while holding a news conference to discuss their problems with how the government allots their money? Why do we treat police officers like gods in this country and can we stop acting like it’s appropriate to react to a pay cut in the middle of a historic budget shortfall as if it’s a personal affront?
- Chemist September 22, 2020 (9:39 am)
  
  If you were eligible to retire, had reached the top of your chain of command, and had a lot of signals that your next duties would involve large cuts to salaries of all your command staff and massive pressure to cut more, I don’t think retiring now was a reaction to the smaller salary cut that the council did pass (after initially lining up votes to cut much more of Best’s salary). Look at what the council has been doing to pass new business taxes and raid sugar tax fund excess instead of embracing a recession budget (that’s far less than SPD budget cuts of 50% being asked for).
  - CAM September 22, 2020 (2:38 pm)
    
    This isn’t about taxes or revenue. All governments everywhere are cutting salaries or benefits across the board. If they are unable to due to union contracts they are instituting unpaid furloughs to recoup the money. They are renegotiating with the unions to decrease their budget for employee reimbursement. The council wasn’t stopping at cutting the salaries of non union officers, they were going to legislate renegotiations of the SPD contract to reduce employment expenses. This is not solely about “defunding” and is happening across the board. There may not be articles getting written about it but I can assure you other government employees are feeling the sting.

Blbl September 21, 2020 (6:29 pm)

Override!!!

1994 September 21, 2020 (7:39 pm)

Debora Juarez is the smartest one on the council. She should be council president.

TJ September 21, 2020 (7:45 pm)

I’m tired of hearing about this. Just get on with it. Council wants this. They were voted in knowing how off the hinges radical they were. I won’t be here luckily to see the results of this.

GOP in WS September 21, 2020 (8:47 pm)

Mayor Durkan was right in vetoing the council budget. I want to know more about the compromise budget.

anonyme September 22, 2020 (7:30 am)

Herbold making a decision based on how many emails she claims to have received is nonsense – a red herring. The first problem is that the claim is unprovable and depends entirely on her credibility. Second, an email or lack thereof is not proof of community sentiment. Many people just don’t even bother contacting her because she does not respond – especially if you disagree with her.

Chris K September 22, 2020 (12:43 pm)

Override, and charge Durkan with war crimes while you’re at it.

ScubaFrog September 22, 2020 (1:04 pm)

Shouldn’t we be asking why the SPD makes 200k, why they make so much in overtime, and why when call them they don’t show up? Then the council shouldn’t just arrived at some arbitary number, and don’t call it “defunding”, because that’s not accurate and it’s too hostile. Call it reorganizing funds. Send money to mental health officials who can help 1-on-1 with repeat offenders who’re diagnosed with mental health stuff, who never receive mental health help. Let’s get the most dire cases on proper med regimes. And send some of that money to addiction counselors to work 1 on 1 with habitual offenders in that arena. Every time a dirty urine-analysis comes up, put the offender back in county jail (not prison). We’ll see property crimes go down. Mental health and addiction counselors make up such a small part of criminal justice, how are we really paying the SPD 200k per, when they’re not showing up?