The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle,Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms,seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-large positions;all elections are non-partisan. It has the responsibility of approving the city's budget,and passes all legislation related to the city's police,firefighting,parks,libraries,and electricity,water supply,solid waste,and drainage utilities. (The mayor of Seattle is not considered part of council.)
Jean H. Godden is a former member of the Seattle City Council from 2004 - 2016. Her local fame is due to her award-winning column in The Seattle Times newspaper,which she gave up to run for City Council.
Jim Compton was a member of the Seattle City Council,first elected in 1999. He announced his resignation in December 2005 to teach at American University in Cairo as well as Romania.
Sally J. Clark is a former member of the Seattle City Council for Position 9 from 2006–2015.
Timothy L. Burgess is an American journalist and politician from Seattle,Washington. He was a member of the Seattle City Council from 2007 to 2017,and served as Mayor of Seattle for 71 days in late 2017. Prior to his political career,Burgess was a radio journalist and Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer.
Sally G. Bagshaw is an American politician and former member of the Seattle City Council from 2016–2019. Before being elected to city council,she had been the chief civil deputy prosecutor in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office for eight years under Norm Maleng.
Kshama Sawant is an Indian-American politician and economist who served on the Seattle City Council from 2014 to 2024. She was a member of Socialist Alternative,the first and only member of the party to date to be elected to public office.
Teresa Carmen Mosqueda is an American politician and labor activist from Seattle,Washington. She is a member of the King County Council and has represented District 8 since 2024. Mosqueda was previously a member of the Seattle City Council from 2017 to 2023,in at-large position 8.
Debora Juarez is an American lawyer and politician who served as the president of the Seattle City Council. She was first elected in 2015 to represent the 5th district. A member of the Blackfeet Nation,she was the first Native American person elected to the council.
Maria Lorena González is an American lawyer and former politician who was a member of the Seattle City Council from position 9. She was the first Latino elected to the council. She was a candidate for mayor of Seattle in 2021 but was defeated by Bruce Harrell 59 percent to 41 percent.
Lisa Anne Herbold is an American politician. She served on the Seattle City Council representing the 1st District,which covers part of West Seattle. She was first elected in 2015 after narrowly defeating Shannon Braddock,and was sworn into office on January 4,2016. She was reelected in November 2019.
The 2017 Seattle mayoral election was held on November 7,2017. It was won by former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan,who beat civic activist Cary Moon in the general election by 15 percentage points. The two candidates had advanced from an earlier primary election held in August,which ensured that Seattle would have its first female mayor since Bertha Knight Landes was elected in 1926. Municipal elections are officially nonpartisan though most candidates have declared party affiliations.
The Seattle head tax,officially the employee hours tax (EHT),was a proposed head tax to be levied on large employers in Seattle,Washington,United States. The head tax was proposed in 2017 to fund homeless services and outreach and was set at a rate of $275 annually per employee,with hopes of raising up to $50 million annually.
Erica Christine Barnett is an American journalist and blogger who covers the city of Seattle. She is known locally within Seattle for her crowdsourced journalism in Seattle.
Andrew Joseph Lewis is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the Seattle City Council from District 7. He was an assistant city attorney before his election to city council and worked on political campaigns.
Carl Raymond Haglund is the president of Columbia Modern Living,a property management and real estate development company based in Seattle. Haglund has been criticized for his actions as a landlord and a Seattle law prohibiting landlords from raising rents on properties that do not meet maintenance standards is popularly known as the "Carl Haglund law".
The 2021 Seattle City Council 3rd district recall election was held on December 7,2021. Kshama Sawant,a member of the Seattle City Council from the 3rd district,defeated an attempt to recall her. This was the first recall election held in Seattle since the one held against Mayor Wesley C. Uhlman in 1975,and the first for a city councilor in the city's history.
The 2019 Seattle City Council election was held on November 5,2019. Seven seats of the nine-member Seattle City Council were up for election. Four incumbent members of the city council did not run for reelection,while the remaining three incumbents all won reelection.
Abel Pacheco Jr. is an American politician from Seattle,Washington. He was appointed to the District 4 seat on the Seattle City Council in April 2017.
Heidi Wills is an American former politician who was a member of the Seattle City Council from 2000 to 2004. In 2019,she ran for city council in District 7 but lost in the general election.
