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1. Kevin Dave, the officer who beat and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula in January 2023, was former Mayor Jenny Durkan’s first One of the new police recruits who received a $15,000 bonus. The program, passed in February 2019, provides $7,500 to new police recruits and $15,000 to officers who transfer “laterally” from other departments. Dave was previously a police officer in Tucson, Arizona, but was fired in 2013 after failing to meet minimum standards during an 18-month probationary period.
Dave’s personnel file, obtained by PubliCola reporter Andrew Engelson, shows he received a $7,500 bonus in two installments in exchange for agreeing to work for the department for three years after his November 2019 hire date.
Durkan and then-Police Chief Carmen Best advocated for recruiting bonuses in 2019, 2020 and 2021 on the grounds that they would help the SPD recruit a younger, more diverse police force. Dave, who is white, checked “I choose not to disclose this information” next to the demographic questions about his race and gender — an unusual move (all 41 SPD recruits in 2023 provided this information) , if widely adopted, would confuse the SPD’s policies. Demographic data may make the department appear more diverse than it actually is.
The SPD could announce as early as Friday how it will discipline Dave, as well as Daniel Auderer, the Seattle Police Association vice president, in connection with Kandula’s death. laughing out loud. Last week, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison announced that she would issue Dave a traffic ticket for second-degree negligent driving, a violation.
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2. A text-based poll sent to Seattle residents this week asked how the Seattle City Council should close a $230 million budget gap this year, along with a series of quality-of-life questions that reflected funding or targeted projects the city could prioritize. for cuts. Among questions about policing, homelessness and crime, the poll also included some about the state of downtown Seattle and taxes (a top priority for Mayor Bruce Harrell and business groups like the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce).
There is a question asking whether “rais” is followed by[ing] Over the years, the city should “maintain existing spending levels and programs and raise new taxes to cover this $230 million deficit” or “offset the deficit by prioritizing government essentials and supporting our policies.” the city’s most vulnerable residents and reduce non-critical spending before considering tax increases. Other questions addressed whether respondents felt safe visiting downtown Seattle during the day and night; how much impact closing parks, sidewalks, and other public rights-of-way encampments would have on improving the quality of life in Seattle; “Downtown Seattle cannot fully recover until accessibility and public safety issues are addressed.”
It was unclear who was behind the poll, which mentioned the City Council but not the mayor. Harrell said he does not plan to propose any new taxes to close the budget gap, and city departments are already making plans for deep budget cuts amid a hiring freeze.
3. At the same time, Harrell announced that he and the Urban Union Alliance have reached a tentative agreement to retroactively increase wages (ie, wage adjustments) in 2023. This year’s wage adjustment will be 4.5%, with a total increase of 9.7% this year. (Because 4.5% is an increase from the adjusted 2023 amount, the total comes to 9.7%, not 9.5 — math!) As we reported, the final agreement was a victory for the city union, which rejected Harrell’s original deal The 1% proposal was deemed “insulting” and efforts to increase it have been spent much of last year.
The final step is approval from the City Council, which now has several members saying the city “has a spending problem” rather than a structural budget issue. Departments are reportedly making plans for layoffs if the mayor and city council keep their promise to close budget gaps without raising new revenue. The new labor contract is expected to add $13 million to the budget this year and $30 million by 2025.
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