District 7
Meet the Candidates
Bob Kettle
Strongly Aligned
kettleforseattle.com
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
Strongly Aligned
lewisforseattle.com
Question 1
Public Safety: The DSA’s core mission is to create a healthy, vibrant downtown for all. It is no secret that the pandemic took a heavy toll on downtowns across the country and Seattle is no exception. As we work toward recovery on all fronts, issues of public safety downtown continue to be one of the top themes we hear from stakeholders. How will you address public safety in downtown Seattle?
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Bob Kettle
We need to fully staff the Seattle Police Department and follow Mayor Harrell’s proposal to staff the SPD up to 1400 officers. We also need to support our other first responders as much as they require to address public safety needs within the city of Seattle. We need to follow the line that the Washington Legislature has already laid down with prosecuting open-use of illegal drugs and work hard to make our public spaces safe for all our citizens.
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
Almost every new public safety initiative Downtown over the past four years has been funded and implemented due to my leadership. We need to build on this progress to scale the interventions that work to reduce, or remove entirely, disorder from our streets. This means expanding the outreach and sheltering strategies that have led to demonstrable visible results, building back our police service, and supporting civilian public safety services to supplement, NOT supplant, the police.
The JustCARE outreach and shelter program has arguably made the biggest visible difference to public safety and disorder Downtown. Even a modest increase in the shelter capacity for this program of 100-200 units would have a significant visible impact on the street. I pledge to continue to fight to protect and expand JustCARE.
On the police service I have steadfastly supported the recruitment and retention package put forward by the Harrell administration to reach a service total of 1,450 officers. The Council needs to continue to put pressure on executive officials to use these tools, including hiring bonuses, advertising funds, and new full-time recruiter positions to increase staffing. Efforts to abrogate hirable positions need to be opposed and reversed.
Finally, new civilian public safety services like We Deliver Care (WDC) show that supplementing police presence with independent and well-resourced civilian deescalation workers can make a significant difference. WDC should be a service available in the entire Downtown catchment area, not just Third Avenue.
Question 2
Investing in Downtown’s Recovery: Given the importance of downtown to the overall health and vitality of our city and region, what actions will you propose to support downtown’s recovery?
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Bob Kettle
Safety and cleanliness are critical to ensuring our Downtown can thrive. We need a council that is accessible and accountable to all community members, including small business owners that are the backbone of our Downtown. It is unacceptable, as a city, to allow businesses to be forced to close due to a lack of safety or forced to hire their own personal security. We have a responsibility to provide those services and we are failing to do so. We need to incentivize foot traffic to businesses.
We need to work with local employers to incentivize employees to want to return to working Downtown. We will also need to continue to support our tourism industry, including the cruise ships that bring foot traffic Downtown.
One of the most important issues I’m focusing on in particular is starting with lower-level solutions for wide-ranging impacts, and that’s making our public buses safe for all commuters. For the Seattleites who rely on public transit to get to work downtown, keeping drug use out of the buses and off the street will be critical to encouraging them to continue using our King County transit system. That’s only a small piece, but it will have major impacts once we’re able to follow the Washington Legislature law to prosecute open drug use.
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
Third Avenue is the key to Downtown’s recovery. If the disorder, transportation, and land use problems on Third Avenue can be solved, it will make the rest of Downtown recovery an easier task.
The most common reason for reluctance to go Downtown relates to disorder on Third Avenue. Focusing on the public safety strategies above in the catchment area of Third Avenue via the Third Avenue Project needs to remain a top civic priority.
On transportation, we need to fix the public safety and reliability challenges holding people back from using public transit. Using the transportation benefit district we could hire services similar to We Deliver Care to respond to buses to de-escalate patrons in crisis. Fare enforcement alone does not cut it. We need more sophisticated personnel to resolve these situations.
We also need infrastructure improvements on Third Avenue like the Third Avenue Vision (which the City formally endorsed via a resolution I sponsored) to make the commute experience to-and-from Downtown easier and safer. I remain a strong advocate of funding these improvements through a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. Allowing growth to pay for growth and avoiding the need for a new tax.
Finally, the post-covid Downtown is not going to be a pure resumption of the pre-covid status quo. We need to commit to land use changes to allow some degree of office-to-housing conversions to increase the number of residents in the Downtown core. We also need to up zone parcels in areas where the current land use controls essentially render the parcel impossible to redevelop.
Question 3
Fiscal Priorities: Given the fragile state of downtown’s revitalization, do you agree that the City should prioritize existing spending before imposing new taxes or increasing existing ones? In a detailed manner, please describe how you would propose addressing the budget issues the city is facing.
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Bob Kettle
When I’m elected, the first thing on my priority list is to bring transparency and accountability to all key City programs to see if we have a potential deficit issue or a budgetary issue. We need to provide oversight to these key programs to ensure that we are getting the results that we’re paying for. Once that’s accomplished, we can then talk about tax changes. The city tax structure should be well-communicated, consistent, fair, and stable.
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
In the fall of 2024 the Council will approve the 2025-2026 biennial budget. This will be a watershed moment and demands a year-long deep dive into basic assumptions. There are several strategies I will lead on to mitigate the need for new revenue and maintain services.
First, challenge base assumptions. Seattle has 45 departments with overlapping mandates and functions. Why shouldn’t SDCI, OPCD, Office of Housing, Department of Neighborhoods, and the Office of Sustainability be one department? Why shouldn’t Parks and Arts and Culture be consolidated, like they are in Los Angeles? Are there some lines of business no longer relevant to the mission of the City? These fundamental questions have not been asked over the past decade because revenue has grown and has not necessitated a period of retrenchment. We are due for that conversation.
Second, a portion of JumpStart should support the general fund. JumpStart was expected to raise $200 million annually. It has come in higher at $255 million. Every budget some amount of JumpStart has gone toward general fund support. It is defacto [sic] practice if not dejure [sic]. The original JumpStart plan assumed less revenue and contains outdated priorities designed to respond to COVID. The plan still enumerates, for example, a need to support the acquisition of PPE. Time to revise it.
Finally, we need to make investments in assets like the Convention Center, filling storefronts, and attracting new businesses to Downtown to juice the general fund. Downtown recovery is general fund recovery. And I will continue to say that to my colleagues.
Question 4
Top Voter Concerns: What do you believe are the top three issues on voters’ minds right now, and how would you propose addressing them?
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Bob Kettle
Public safety–the recent shootings in particular are showcasing the anger and concern Seattleites have about their own safety and the safety of their neighbors.
Homelessness–City Council has failed to expedite this issue and it’s put us in a difficult position. We need to work on getting our unhoused neighbors off the streets and in shelters / supportive housing for their safety and everyone else’s.
Open drug use–the failure of the Seattle City Council to pass municipal law to prosecute drug dealers and drug use in public spaces, particularly on buses and in other public spaces, has caused a lot of anger. Every single Seattleite deserves to be safe on public transit and in public spaces.
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
(1) Public safety, (2) homelessness, (3) affordability. These are the top three issues that top every poll and in a sense they are interrelated. The public safety strategies listed in my above answer need to be combined with a homelessness strategy designed to get people off the street and a housing policy designed to dramatically expand housing supply.
On homelessness, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) needs to reorient priorities to consolidate outreach and expand enhanced shelter facilities. An emphasis on street-to-housing has been a failure given that the supply of suitable housing placements does not exist, nor are funds sufficient to subsidize the few placement opportunities that do exist. Enhanced shelter [sic] like JustCARE hotels, tiny houses, and the Salvation Army SODO shelter can get people out of encampments now, and can make a bigger impact with existing resources. By far, the biggest thing constituents say would improve their perceptions of public safety is fewer encampments. These enhanced shelter options are the quickest way to realize that goal.
On housing, we need to lean into the 2024 update to the Comprehensive Plan to commit to the growth necessary to support anticipated population. We have the distinction of being America’s fastest growing city. Pressure and competition for scarce housing will continue to exacerbate homelessness and inequality if we don’t make building housing more permissive. Next year will be our only opportunity for a decade to increase allowable density and we need to do it.
Question 5
Return to Office: One of the most impactful things we can do to drive downtown revitalization is to get more people here – visitors, tourists, residents and perhaps most importantly, workers. A steady and consistent flow of employees downtown who are eating, drinking, shopping and engaging in recreation brings much needed support for our small businesses and public spaces. Do you believe that city workers should work in person three or more days per week?
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Bob Kettle
Yes.
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
Absolutely. I have been modeling an expectation of return to work by consistently working in my office nearly daily since the summer of 2021 and encouraging my colleagues to do the same. My staff and I prioritize having a team lunch at least once a week at a Downtown restaurant. We can, we must, and we will have the entire team at the City of Seattle back to full-time in office work. It is a priority for Mayor Harrell and a priority for the Council.
Question 6
If there were any important details about your candidacy that you were unable to provide in response to the previous questions, please take this opportunity to share that information here:
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Bob Kettle
Another important part of my campaign is bringing back good governance to City Council, which requires City Council leadership to bring in all stakeholders and is positive in its engagement on the Council itself, but also with the mayor and his administration.
I believe that I am the best candidate to provide that accountability and unseat incumbent Andrew Lewis. My values closely align with the voters. Seattleites desperately want a pragmatic progressive council member, not one that flip-flops on every vote and not someone whose voting record is cause for concern. I’ve done the work on the Queen Anne Community Council to make our neighborhoods safer and on the City Council I will put that experience to work.
Andrew Lewis (Incumbent)
I love Downtown and I will continue to fight for Downtown. With the combined obligations of daily work at City Hall and afterwork civic events, I spend more time Downtown than I do at home. When my wife and I get an opportunity to spend some time together we do so at the 5th Avenue Theater, the Paramount, and the Symphony Downtown. Our favorite bars and restaurants are Downtown. I spend more time and effort on Downtown than any other neighborhood I represent, and I will continue to do so.
There will be occasions where we do not agree, but those will be significantly outweighed by our joint triumphs. We have a lot in front of us in 2024 and beyond to make-or-break Downtown and avoid the pitfalls and death spirals defining other West Coast cities. I will continue to be an advocate and partner to advance a vibrant, diverse, fun, and safe Downtown that lifts up our entire City.