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 sole responsibility of approving the city's budget,and develops laws and policies intended to promote the health and safety of Seattle's residents. The Council 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 was a member of the Seattle City Council,first elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007 and 2011. Council member Godden served three terms and conceded her seat to Rob Johnson in the 2015 election. She chaired the Libraries,Utilities,and Center Committee and the Special Committee on Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project and Central Waterfront Planning. She was also Vice Chair of the Parks and Neighborhood Committee and was a member of the Transportation Committee. Jean also was an alternate on the Parks and Seattle Center Committee.
Lawrence R. Phillips is an American politician who served as a member of the King County Council in Washington state. Phillips served on the Council from 1992 to 2016,representing the fourth district,which includes the Seattle neighborhoods of Queen Anne,Magnolia,Ballard,Fremont,Belltown,South Lake Union,and Downtown. He served as Chair of the Council from 2004 to 2006 and again in 2014. He was unopposed in his 2011 re-election. Phillips also serves on the Board of Directors of Sound Transit,a regional transit organization serving the Puget Sound area. A hallmark of Phillips's tenure has been his work to preserve forests and farmland by buying land,development rights,or conservation easements. Phillips is a self-identified Democrat,although his position on the King County Council was officially nonpartisan. On April 1,2015,Phillips announced he would not seek reelection to the King County Council that November.
Bruce Allen Harrell is an American politician and attorney serving as the 57th and current mayor of Seattle,Washington. He served as a member of the Seattle City Council from District 2 from 2016 to 2020. Elected to the council in 2007 and reelected in 2011 and 2015,he did not run in 2019. In 2016,he was chosen as president of the city council. He also served as acting mayor of Seattle from September 13 to 18,2017. He was elected mayor in his own right in the 2021 Seattle mayoral election,winning with 59 percent of the vote,becoming the second Black mayor since Norm Rice,and the first Asian American mayor of the city.
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.
Michael J. O'Brien is an American politician and former member of the Seattle City Council who represented District 6 in northwest Seattle. He was first elected in 2009 to a different,city-wide council seat. He was the leading proponent of the opt-out list for the Yellow Pages. He was the only opponent of the proposed deep bore tunnel under downtown Seattle on the city council. He was chair of the local chapter of the Sierra Club before running for office. In this capacity,he was one of the leading opponents of the 2007 Roads and Transit ballot measure.
Kshama Sawant is an Indian-American politician and economist who has served on the Seattle City Council since 2014. She is 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 was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2017 to represent the at-large position 8.
Maria Lorena González is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a member of the Seattle City Council from position 9. She was the first Latina elected to the council. She was a candidate for mayor of Seattle in 2021 but was defeated by Bruce Harrell 59 percent to just 41 percent.
Lisa Anne Herbold is an American politician. She serves 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.
Sound Transit 3,abbreviated as ST3,was a ballot measure during the November 2016 elections in Seattle,Washington,proposing an expansion of the regional public transit system. The measure was proposed by Sound Transit,which was established by a similar initiative passed in 1996 and expanded by the Sound Transit 2 vote in 2008,who have operated regional transit systems in the Seattle metropolitan area since 1999. On November 8,2016,Sound Transit 3 was approved by over 54 percent of voters in the Puget Sound region;voters in Pierce County rejected the measure,but the measure passed in King and Snohomish counties,and had an overall majority.
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.
Tammy Janine Morales is an American politician from Seattle,Washington. She was elected to represent District 2 on the Seattle City Council in November 2019.
Daniel Aaron Strauss is an American politician who serves on the Seattle City Council from District 6. A native of Seattle's Ballard neighborhood,he previously worked as an aide to local politicians,including Seattle councilmember Sally Bagshaw.
Andrew Joseph Lewis is an American politician and attorney serving as a member of the Seattle City Council representing District 7. He was an assistant city attorney prior to his election and also worked on political campaigns.
Alex Christopher Pedersen is an American politician serving as a member of the Seattle City Council for District 4. He was previously an aide to city councilmember Tim Burgess and a private sector housing finance analyst.
The 2021 Seattle mayoral election was held on November 2,2021,to elect the Mayor of Seattle. It was won by former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell,who defeated then-current President Lorena González;both candidates had advanced from a nonpartisan primary election on August 3.
The 2021 Seattle City Council election were held on November 2,2021. Two seats of the nine-member Seattle City Council were up for election.
The 2021 Seattle City Attorney election was held on November 2,2021. Incumbent City Attorney Pete Holmes sought reelection to a fourth term in office,but came third place in the officially nonpartisan August 3 primary election and failed to advance to the general election,with both Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and Ann Davison finishing ahead of Holmes in the primary. Davison defeated Thomas-Kennedy in the general election.
