Tag Archives: Paul Kiefer

News

Despite National Search, Interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz Is Well-Positioned to Stay

April 1, 2022 Editor

by Paul Kiefer

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced on Thursday that he plans to launch a national search for a permanent police chief in April, and publicly encouraged interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz to apply for the role. While Diaz is Harrell’s most obvious option to lead the Seattle Police Department (SPD) permanently, Seattle’s City Charter requires the mayor to run a competitive search process for a new police chief.

To comply with the charter, Harrell will need to choose the next permanent chief from a field of three finalists, and the City Council will need to confirm Harrell’s pick.

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News

In Reversal, Council Keeps Durkan’s Expanded Police Budget Mostly Intact

November 19, 2021 Editor

by Paul Faruq Kiefer

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

The Seattle City Council voted Thursday, Nov. 19, to leave Mayor Jenny Durkan’s proposal for the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) 2022 budget largely untouched, and, in the process, put an internal messaging battle — whether to attempt to make peace with SPD or repurpose dollars from the department’s budget in the future — in the spotlight.

The council’s decision to leave Durkan’s budget largely untouched was overshadowed by a dramatic last-minute press release from interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz, who inaccurately claimed that Council President Lorena González had proposed eliminating more than 100 officers’ jobs. In reality, González’s amendment would have eliminated 101 positions that SPD doesn’t expect to fill in 2022. While Durkan’s budget has already redistributed the unspent salaries for other purposes in 2022, the amendment would have allowed the council to repurpose more than $17 million in future years.

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News

SPD’s 2022 Budget Proposal Relies on Optimistic Hiring Projections

October 18, 2021 Editor

by Paul Faruq Kiefer

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

The Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) staffing goals for 2022 are extremely ambitious and could leave the department with millions in unspent salaries, according to a staff presentation to the City Council’s Budget Committee on Friday, Oct. 15.

More than 300 sworn officers have left the department since January 2020. In 2022, SPD hopes to begin replenishing its ranks, starting with the restoration of 31 paid positions that the council eliminated last year. That proposal would leave SPD with a total of 1,357 funded officer positions, but the department can’t realistically fill all of those positions in a year; instead, SPD estimates that it would end 2022 with 134 vacancies.

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News

City Reaches Agreement With Unions on Vaccine Mandates; SPOG Agreement Still to Come

September 26, 2021 Editor

by Paul Faruq Kiefer

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 23, a coalition of Seattle City employee unions reached a tentative agreement with the City of Seattle about the enforcement of the City’s new mandatory vaccination policy. The agreement, which outlines rules for vaccination exemptions and offers paid time off for vaccinated employees, now needs the approval of both the unions’ membership and the City Council. Union members will vote on the agreement this weekend.

On Friday, Sept. 24, both Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and City labor leadership heralded the agreement as a key victory in the City’s fight to control the spread of COVID-19. Karen Estevenin, the executive director of PROTEC17, which represents employees across multiple City departments, told PubliCola the union coalition didn’t object to the vaccine mandate itself but wanted to give City employees a hand in shaping how the mandate will play out in their workplace.

“One of the key benefits of having a union is that workers have a voice on policy changes that affect their workplaces and their livelihoods,” she said. “By negotiating the terms of the vaccine mandate, we wanted to ensure that this was a fair, transparent, and equitable policy for all City employees.”

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News

Court Approves City Attorney’s Motion To Clear Outstanding Prostitution Warrants

September 18, 2021 Editor

by Paul Faruq Kiefer

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

On the morning of Thursday, Sept. 18, a Seattle Municipal Court judge approved a motion by Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes to quash all outstanding warrants for misdemeanor prostitution, including some issued well over a decade ago.

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News

Last-Minute Push for SPD Hiring Incentives Fails

September 14, 2021 Editor Leave a comment

by Paul Faruq Kiefer

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted with permission.)

The Seattle City Council voted on Monday, Sept. 13, to shore up several of its own priorities for rethinking public safety using $15 million in savings from salaries left unspent by the Seattle Police Department (SPD) after another year of abnormally high attrition.

The council left almost two-thirds of the $15 million in the department’s budget, allowing SPD to cover the costs of downsizing — updates to timekeeping software to help deploy a smaller number of officers more efficiently, for example. Additionally, the council lifted a trio of provisos on the department’s budget, releasing roughly $8 million for the department to use as it wants.

Of the $5.2 million the council shifted out of SPD’s budget, $3 million will go to the Human Services Department (HSD) to fund grants to nonprofits specializing in alternatives to policing. The council set aside another $700,000 to stand up a new civilian crisis-response unit tentatively called Triage One.

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News

The Morning Update Show — 11/2/20

November 2, 2020 Editor Leave a comment

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We’ll also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Monday, Nov. 2

Today on the Morning Update Show:

Did You Vote?; National Voter Suppression; Car Brigade Arrests — Paul Keifer; Seattle Parks Providing Child Care; T’Challowen in Review; and CHOP Artists — Alaia D’Allesandro.