While Mayor Ed Murray may have started this first term with quick, radical pronouncements about the police department, among others, his administration now looks to continue the status quo.
In his first State of the City address on Feb. 18, Murray delivered a tentative, 19-page report that even underwhelmed his supporters on the Seattle City Council. Councilmember Nick Licata told The Seattle Times, “It wasn’t what I would call an inspirational speech.”
Murray touched on Seattle’s needs for more affordable housing, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, big-infrastructure “safety” projects like the waterfront seawall that would better protect the city from the impacts of climate change and levies for ongoing parks maintenance and residential roadwork.
He tempered his once-fiery speech with repeated mentions of how these would be achieved through the drawn-out Seattle process of meetings, forums and committees. He even announced a citywide Neighborhood Summit — the first of many such conferences on various topics — that would take place on April 4 to get residents’ input on neighborhood character, growth and development.
And he said the $15-per-hour minimum wage would not be realized until the end of his four years because of its potential repercussions on small businesses.
Then, on Friday, Feb. 21, Murray announced that he supported interim Seattle Police Chief Harry Bailey’s controversial reversal of one officer’s one-day suspension for misconduct in favor of additional training and approval of six other recommendations made by Bailey’s predecessor to remove misconduct findings.
City Councilmember Tim Burgess and a police monitor questioned the reasoning behind Bailey’s moves, especially in light of the Department of Justice’s demand for reforms in the police department and community distrust from past police actions. (The officer whose discipline was overturned opted to have the misconduct ruling reinstated on Monday, Feb. 24, because of the public outcry. And Murray later admitted he made a mistake with his initial decision.)
Murray had amassed voter support for his seemingly hard-lined stances on social justice and police reform. But what can we expect from Murray’s tenure now, based on his recent actions? Apparently, more of our tax dollars going to long-overdue repairs to city infrastructure; more of the same “endless conversation,” as the Seattle P-I’s Joel Connelly called it; and more political inaction — all of which Seattleites are used to, and then some.
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