On Monday, November 25, the Council adopted the 2014 Seattle budget. The budget includes a number of Council initiatives, in public safety, human services, and developing the new universal pre-school program. I was able to secure funding for a number of important projects, and was happy to join in the unanimous vote to approve the […]

The business meeting of the National League of Cities (NLC) was the concluding event at last week’s annual conference, which we hosted in Seattle this year. The business meeting approves policy positions that comprise the legislative platform for NLC, and also elects the new officers for the coming year. A key highlight in the policy […]

On Thursday, November 14, the Sound Transit Capital Committee unanimously approved a revised Lynnwood Link Preferred Alternative that adds provisional stations at North 130th Street in Seattle and at 220th Street in Mountlake Terrace, with the full Board scheduled to ratify this on November 21. I introduced this proposal, which was developed with Everett Councilmember […]

This week the National League of Cities (NLC) is holding its annual conference in Seattle. As a member of the Board, I worked with the NLC to get them to commit to visiting our City. This visit gives us the opportunity to showcase the great things Seattle is doing while engaging Mayors and Councilmembers from […]

The Regional Food Policy Council (RFPC), which is housed at the Puget Sound Regional Council and which I sponsored and Chair, has now completed its third year of work. During this year, the RFPC issued five ‘policy blueprints’ designed to help local governments advance local food work, organized a Food Economy Summit, completed reports on […]

In September the Council approved emergency legislation that requires new development to meet minimum density standards in our Urban Villages. As I wrote in a previous blog post, the legislation was prompted by the proposal by CVS Pharmacies to construct three new suburban-style drugstores in Uptown, Wallingford, and West Seattle that would be freestanding, single […]

The Sound Transit Board has identified the light rail alignment and station alternatives to be studied in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the extension of light rail to Federal Way. The Board advanced two alternatives for the alignment, one following I-5 and one on SR99. A final alignment choice could also be a […]

Starting a restaurant is one of the most frequent ways that people launch a small business career. It’s especially common in immigrant communities, where it is often the first way newcomers can establish themselves, serving their fellow community members and bringing new variety to the City’s food scene. Yet getting permits for a restaurant is […]

Staff from the Office of Emergency Management recently reported back to the Council on their experiences at a multi-day training focused on how the City would respond to an extreme winter storm. The crisis exercise was built around a scenario that combined elements of the Seattle’s worst winter experiences – a 21 inch snowfall that […]

On Monday, October 21, 2013, Councilmember Richard Conlin was honored as one of the four members of the King County Board of Health Subcommittee on Secure Medicine Return receiving the Washington State Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention Award in the Local Government category. The honor was conferred for their bold action in designing the second mandatory collection […]