Cathy Moore quits Seattle Council. She wants to dish out the venom, but canāt tolerate scrutiny and oversight from discontented constituents.
#SeattleCouncil #CathyMoore #KOMOnews #corruption
https://open.substack.com/pub/ericacbarnett/p/cathy-moore-will-step-down-after?r=ct3l&utm_medium=ios
Update - The council member, Cathy Moore, who proposed kneecapping our ethics code suddenly withdrew the bill earlier this week.
Avoid a likely raucous showdown in city hall next week.
It seems that the optics of deleting the conflict of interest parts of the ethics code is pretty unpopular.
So unpopular Bruce Harrell even threatened to veto it. It's likely Cathy Moore believed she couldn't get a veto proof majority so gave up.
There is still time to write to the council expressing opposition to this corruption. And definitely time to vote these people out of office.
āā¦the bill would have allowed the council's two landlords, Mark Solomon and Maritza Rivera, to vote on an upcoming Moore bill to roll back eviction protections passed by the previous council.ā
Today (Thursday 5/8) at the end of the 2pm meeting of the Governance etc. committee, they will be discussing Cathy Moore's Financial Ethics Unwinding Bill again (CB 120978) #ethics #cityofseattle #seattlecitycouncil #cathymoore #saranelson #financialethics
seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=...
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pxsx6uebhylyfaxejchrr7ls/post/3lojnslzww22t
MUST READ FOR SEATTLE FOLKS BY @wilsonkatieb.bsky.social
#seattle #cityofseattle #ethics #seattlecitycouncil #cathymoore #saranelson #waynebarnett
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This legislation SOAP/SODA zones, put forth by Cathy Moore (an ex-Native reservation Court judge) was strongly opposed.
None the less the city council rammed this legislature through.
And Mayor Bruce Harrell, whose up for re-election, happily signed off on this cop city bullshit.
They crushed public comment with massive police presences and violent arrests, with several public commentators still facing charges!
As we said months ago when the city council voted for this dragnet spy network, there are now people whose entire day and life will be on these cameras.
Each of these near neighborhood-wide deployments cover critical services and in some cases enough essential services that a person might be on camera everytime they leave home for years on end.
#Seattle #Soap #SODA #CathyMoore #BobKettle #SaraNelson #ACB
Cathy Moore, the person who wrote amendment 3, explains she wants the camera network to cover her entire district.
Sara Nelson thinks that's a wonderful idea and wishes the camera network would go all the way to the Aurora bridge āØ
Kathy mentions the only thing stopping them is the budget and she plans to raid that to expand the spy network asap.
Amendment three passes.
Tammy Morales, the lone holdout voted in line with the voters to just enact I-137.
Meanwhile Cathy Moore and Dan Strauss were not present for the vote!
Notably Cathy Moore has abstained from many I-137 delay votes.
It's giving "friend who says they're totally going to jump off the bridge with you ... but doesn't" energy. āØ
Meanwhile council president Sara Nelson was remote and handed MC-ship over to Joy Hollingsworth.
#TammyMorales #CathyMoore #SaraNelson #JoyHollingsworth #DanStrauss
Then at 2pm the main showdown will begin, knee capping social housing.
One of the interesting marketing/get-out-thr-vote problems with the council's move is it changes how I-137 will appear on ballots. If they had not tried to make a sabotaged alternative it would just say "I-137" instead it will reas "Proposition 2" or something similar which is just enough friction to confuse a lot of voters.
https://seattle.gov/council/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D177623102
#Seattle #SocialHousing #I137 #I135 #SaraNelson #BobKettle #CathyMoore
I dipped out of the city council meeting to watch the I-137 community forum, was pretty obvious how this was gonna play out.
The council has passed the SODA/SOAP bills which makes looking like a homeless person, a sex worker, or drug user in Seattle a reason a cop can stop you.
You can be banned from neighborhoods and fined $5k for existing in the wrong places.
#SODA #SOAP #Seattle #SaraNelson #CathyMoore #BobKettle #Sexworker #Homeless #DrugWar #SeattlePol
Right, so where's that leave us, folks who want tax money to maybe help people?
Come on down to the Seattle City Council meeting, Sept 17th, 2024, 2pm! āØ
We're probably gonna be fining homeless people $5k for existing instead of building housing, city council should probably hear from you. š¢
This one seems important, mark your calendarššæ
https://seattle.gov/council/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D171885610
#Seattle #I137 #Homeless #SocialHousing #SexWork #StopAndFrisk #CathyMoore
The demonstrators at city hall ask you to please take action and sign the Strippers Are Workers (SAW) letter to the city council opposing Seattle's stop and frisk laws.
Seattle previously had laws like this, and big surprise they were used against Black Americans, other people of color and queer+trans people at an alarming rate.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-city-council-dont-bring-back-prejudiced-stop-frisk-law-ban-people-from-7-mile-stretch-of-town
#Seattle #ACAB #CathyMoore #SOAP #SODA #lgbtrights #sexwork #homeless #blackmastodon #SPD
I'm getting word from activists at City Hall this morning reporting an excessive deployment of police by SPD and the city council.
During this morning's city safety council meeting council members held public comment about SOAP/SODA legislation which aims to jail and fine sex workers and homeless people $5k for existing in major parts of town.
CM Cathy Moore's loitering laws have caused significant community resistance so council members cut short public comment.
Seattle City Council, time to wake up: An open letter to our first-year councilmembers
Yesterday needs to be this City Councilās worst day if 8 out of 9 of them want a chance at another term. They pulled one of the most chickenshit moves Iāve ever witnessed from my years covering city politics when they decided to hold an expensive special election for the votersā initiative 137 rather than put it on Novemberās high-turnout general election ballot. They did this for the sole purpose of weakening its chances because they know the more Seattleites who vote on the initiative, the more likely it will be to pass.
The Seattle City Council (minus Tammy Morales) is admitting that their opinion on the initiative is unpopular among the people they are elected to represent, and they are pulling a chickenshit procedural trick in order to circumvent the peopleās will. Not only are they wrong to do this, they should stop and think for a moment about the implications for their political prospects in this city.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-WSKGco9F_/
It didnāt help that they then retreated to their offices to remotely approve a contract for more jail cells to imprison low-level offenders because the outcry of public opposition in the council chambers was too loud. It also didnāt help that they somehow didnāt anticipate last week how unpopular it would be to roll back the minimum wage law. Not sure how many more signs folks will need before realizing they are making deeply unpopular decisions.
Hereās what I think is going to happen. Councilmember Woo will be toast in November, losing her second City Council election in the span of a year. It wonāt be close. One down. At the same time, the voters of Washington House District 43 (entirely within the bounds of Seattle) will elect Shaun Scott despite a majority of the City Council endorsing Republican Andrea Suarez (who pretends sheās a Democrat because she thinks her voters arenāt paying attention). Suarez may not even make it into the general election depending on how late primary ballots turn out, thatās how out of touch this City Council is with the people they represent (Full disclosure: My family recently hosted a fundraiser house party for Scottās campaign because heās great). Seattle will then hold a special election, and we will pass I-137. But even worse for this Council, they decided through their action yesterday to turn the I-137 vote into a referendum of the cityās support for investing in affordable housing (spoiler, we want more) as well as a symbolic referendum on this City Council. Not a smart move, yāall.
Is it too late for them to save themselves? For Tanya Woo, yeah itās too late. I also doubt Sara Nelson can reform her image, either, since sheās the leader of it all and sheās up for election next year (sheās welcome to try). But most of the others are still in the first years of their first terms. They get to use the āI was new and didnāt know betterā card one time, and this is a great time to deploy it because that card expires soon. They are clearly getting advice from the wrong people right now, but there is no law that says they must continue following them into the abyss. They were elected by the people, and the office belongs solely to them and their constituents. It doesnāt matter how much corporate PAC money was spent to get them into office, they donāt owe those funders anything.
Kick your cynical bad faith advisors to the curb and go out into your community in search of real problems to solve to make our city a better place. Untie from the sinking ship that is Council President Nelson and be your own leader. Seattle is still a big small town, and elections are still usually won based on community support.
If councilmembers donāt turn things around fast, they may not even make it to 2027. Coucilmember Tammy Morales suggested during yesterdayās meeting that by not prioritizing their consideration of I-137, they likely ran afoul of the Cityās Charter and could face recall elections. I personally do not like recall elections and hope it doesnāt come to that, but thatās the path this Council is walking (running?) down. Once you start taking actions to defy the will of the people, recall is the peopleās recourse.
I love Seattle, and I believe in our cityās potential to be the city the rest of the nation looks to when trying to solve big problems. Thatās why I love writing Seattle Bike Blog. This is my love letter to our city. We donāt always rise to our potential, but folks here never give up. Then every once in a while, we do something extraordinary. We are due for something extraordinary.
None of what I said above will happen on its own, but I believe the people of our city will put in the organizing and volunteer work to make it happen. Seattleites are desperate to make housing more affordable, and we are beyond sick of being told by elected leaders year after year that for some reason we canāt do it. Thatās the energy behind I-137. If you all wonāt do it, then we will. Weāre not going to continue sitting on our hands pretending like thereās nothing more we can do while more and more people get priced out of our cityās cheapest apartments and forced to sleep in the fucking rain.
As our elected leaders, you can join us in an extraordinary victory as we create social housing that people can afford, or you can fight us. But if you fight us, you will lose. You made a big mistake yesterday, now you gotta figure out how to make it right. Which side of Seattle history do you want to be on?
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#SEAbikes #Seattle
I fell asleep while editing, but here's tonight's meeting.
Protesters were demanding that the council take up the issue of housing support for the migrant families.
Meanwhile the council had them removed from the chambers. After they were kicked out the protest continued.
Council Member Karen, I mean Cathy Moore, stops the debate to complain that she feels unsafe "they could break they glass and we could have violent mob in here!" and demands the protesters be arrested.
It somehow felt like Friday, and I kept refreshing Chrome to find new #BikeNite posts... š
In the meantime, I met our District 5 Councilmember Cathy Moore to discuss some neighbourhood issues. She is a very good listener.
#BikeTooter #CycleParkingAudit #SEABike #CathyMoore
