Everything Is Political … in South Seattle: Rent-Fixing Bill Delayed, GPS Darts Approved, and Cops in Schools Again?

Council Punts on Algorithmic Rent-Fixing Bill

Instead of voting during their June 17 meeting to pass Councilmember Cathy Moore's slam-dunk bill banning algorithmic rent-fixing software, the council opted to delay the vote by a week. Councilmember Maritza Rivera abstained, while Moore and Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth voted "no" on the motion to delay, with the six remaining councilmembers voting "yes."

Why are they not voting on this extremely obvious piece of legislation? A few reasons. Some of it involves procedural bickering between Moore, Council President Sara Nelson, and Councilmember Bob Kettle, but that's pretty deep in the weeds. A lot more of it is because landlords don't want the council to vote just yet, and have asked them very nicely not to.

Another bit is about holding out for more pro-tenant amendments (which very likely explains Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck's "yes" vote here). Be:Seattle Co-Executive Director Kate Rubin spoke during public comment in support of pushing the bill back, saying, "I appreciate the urgency to move quickly before the wealthy landlord lobby can further mobilize to try to justify this exploitative practice, but I am asking you to delay the final vote by one week. I strongly disagree with the statements made by the commenters before me, but I believe that the legislation needs targeted amendments to ensure that it will meaningfully protect renters."

Indeed, the commenter right before her also asked for a one-week delay, but on behalf of landlords "impacted stakeholders" who needed more, uhh, reaching out to.

"Without engaging the very people that understand these tools and the problems they are designed to help solve, we are likely to see unintended consequences," said Carter Nelson, speaking on behalf of the Washington Multifamily Housing Association, a group of residential property management companies and owners of multifamily properties. 

Hold up, Carter, I'm gonna stop you right there at "the problems they are designed to solve." The only problem landlords are solving with this software is not being able to automate the price-gouging process. RealPage software exists to push rents as high as possible without causing excess vacancy. The problem here — the real problem — is that renters cannot simply choose a cheaper place. There are no cheaper places, especially when software is setting rents for massive swathes of the market. Renters are railroaded into paying artificially increased rents by software like RealPage, and if you think the council is moving too fast to fix that problem, boo-hoo.

Then again, sometimes good things do come to those who wait. We'll be keeping an eye out for Rubin's amendments.

Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise FEPP Levy Moving Forward

While the rent-fixing bill got bumped, the council was happy to move the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) levy along. They voted unanimously to authorize a special election for the levy that would be held concurrently with the Nov. 4 general election.

The FEPP levy replaces our existing education levy, and increases the total amount of property tax collected to $1.3 billion, up from the $619 million we took in between 2018 and now. That sounds like a big jump, but to put it in perspective, it's an average of $656 per year for the owner of a median-priced home, which is around $1.1 million.

Everyone loves education spending around these parts, and we voters are very likely to approve it come November, as we have done with the six previous education levies. The only hiccup here is about the potential for some of the levy money that is earmarked for public safety in schools to be spent on so-called "School Engagement Officers" (i.e., cops in schools).

Two District 2 City Council candidates mentioned it to me separately in recent interviews, raising the alarm that Mayor Bruce Harrell could be angling to add money to the police budget as part of the levy process, and it's been getting a lot of attention in public comment and the press.

It's no secret that Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Police Department are eager to add SEOs to schools, particularly Garfield High School. The SEO program was ended by the Seattle School Board in 2020, in response to calls to reduce police presence in schools following the murder of George Floyd. SEOs in Seattle were stationed in five schools, all in Central or South Seattle, areas that enroll significantly more Black students. 

The contentious part of the FEPP levy process is determining whether the city will be allowed to fund new SEO officers with money from the levy. Nothing in the text of the current levy prevents that from happening. If we've learned one thing about Mayor Bruce Harrell and the current council, it's that whatever they can give to cops, they will.

Allowing Pursuit Mitigation Devices

Speaking of giving cops whatever they want, the council also voted to authorize the use of a new GPS tracking technology designed to reduce the need for police pursuits. The cops are already allowed to use covert GPS tracking devices during the course of investigations, but the new bill, sponsored by Councilmember Bob Kettle, adds to that by allowing the use of StarChase's Vehicle Mounted GPS Launcher on 25 patrol cars as part of a pilot program. The remote-controlled launchers fire a magnetic GPS tracker at a fleeing vehicle, with a successful hit allowing police to follow a suspect's location remotely rather than via pursuit. The launchers would be paid for for two years by a $250,000 grant from the state's Department of Commerce, and would cost the city $37,500 a year to continue thereafter, should we elect to maintain it. 

The city's fiscal analysis of the bill notes that, "Cost savings may be seen in reduced liability from decreased number of vehicle pursuits, which often result in litigation. Additionally, pursuits often result in damage to city-owned equipment, specifically police cars. This technology can reduce those costs as well by negating the need for pursuits."

The main argument in favor of it runs along similar lines, with supporters saying that, besides keeping our cop cars intact, it'll improve public safety by reducing risk to pedestrians and uninvolved drivers from dangerous pursuits. Detractors see it as inching us ever closer to a dystopian surveillance state. All I'll say is that in recent history, infringements of our freedoms have been sold to us either by increased convenience or appeals to public safety. This certainly qualifies as the latter.

The 8-1 vote split along ideologically predictable lines, with Rinck being the only "no" vote.

A Quick Update on the D5 Interim Councilmember Appointment Process

It's not in the South End, but the process of replacing District 5's Moore, whose resignation takes effect July 7, affects the whole city. And the council, at their June 16 briefing, got a quick update on how that works and how long it will take. The key piece is that we will have a replacement by July 28, leaving the council shorthanded for about three weeks. During those three weeks, interested applicants for the open seat will go through a vetting process consisting of submitting their cover letter and resume to the city, attending a public forum organized by a relevant community organization, and appearing before the council for an in-person interview.

Got something *political* I should know? Tell me about it: Tobias.CB@SeattleEmerald.org.

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Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a writer, editor and restaurant worker who lives in South Park. He was formerly the associate editor of Real Change News, and his work has appeared in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Vice, Thrillist, Thrasher Magazine, Curbed, and Crosscut, among other outlets.