The Seattle Metropolis Council solely has two extra conferences to place Initiative 137, which can levy a brand new payroll tax to pay for social housing, on the poll. Supporters of I-137 speculated that the council delayed motion final month to suppress the vote by forcing the problem to a lower-turnout election and to purchase time to suggest an alternate initiative. Throughout a cagey dialogue at full council this week, Council Member Dan Strauss implied an alternative choice to clear up the Metropolis’s authorized considerations could also be within the works.
On the Tuesday assembly, metropolis council devolved right into a combative forwards and backwards: with lone progressive Council Member Tammy Morales attempting to make clear their oddly delayed vote on I-137 and her colleagues attempting to shove the dialog again into the shadows. Morales, who admonished her colleagues for delaying I-137 within the first place, requested a central workers analyst to remind the council and the general public what choices the council has in response to initiatives. The analyst mentioned the council can: cross the initiative outright, bypassing the election; can vote to place it on the poll; or produce a competing measure to placed on the poll subsequent to the residents’ initiative.
Morales clarified—maybe for the sake of confused members of the general public, maybe for the sake of her inexperienced colleagues—that the council can not select to not place I-137 on the poll. The analyst confirmed. Desperate to get the measure on the poll, Morales requested if there have been any alternate options within the works or if they need to simply go forward with the procedural vote. The analyst mentioned she couldn’t reply that. Morales turned her query to her council colleagues.
Nobody outright confirmed. Strauss mentioned he would speak to her privately or in government session, implying he could convey ahead an alternative choice to I-137. Morales pushed again, arguing the general public deserves to know what the council is contemplating.
“Truthful sufficient,” Strauss mentioned.
CM Morales is attempting to extend transparency on this oddly delayed vote on I-137 —- Is there an alternate brewing? Is the council doing the courts job? Strauss cries “legal professional consumer privilege” and Nelson shuts her up. pic.twitter.com/fjjzRA5fsH
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) September 3, 2024
He continued, “There was authorized recommendation shared with us within the government session, which I requested for extra time to talk with our attorneys [about], which I’m doing… If I’m going to take a seat up right here and clarify what authorized opinions have been shared then it will be breaching legal professional consumer privilege.”
Morales reminded her colleagues and the general public that the courts, not the council, are imagined to resolve on authorized points with initiatives. Council President Nelson rapidly minimize her off.
In a observe up telephone name with The Stranger, Strauss clarified that he’s not planning to suggest any of the alternate options that different teams have prompt. An “ad-hoc” group of advocates prompt an alternate that will use the funding generated by I-137’s payroll tax to fund the Workplace of Housing relatively than the social housing developer. Council Member Cathy Moore expressed curiosity in such a plan, however the concept appeared to violate guidelines that stipulate that alternate options have to be on the identical matter as the unique. Seattlites additionally acquired a survey, testing help for an alternate that will fund social housing builders with the housing levy relatively than with a brand new payroll tax on companies that pay anybody greater than $1 million, making for a way more regressive system to appease massive enterprise.
Like Morales, Strauss says he isn’t conscious of any of his council colleagues engaged on an alternate.
As a substitute, Strauss says he could produce an alternate with small tweaks to deal with authorized considerations because the council can not edit initiatives. Once more, Strauss refused to clarify the authorized considerations, citing “attorney-client privilege.”
In keeping with Cornell Regulation Faculty, Lawyer-client privilege “protects confidential communications between a lawyer and their consumer that relate to the consumer’s looking for of authorized recommendation or companies.” It’s designed to maintain attorneys from being compelled to testify in opposition to their shoppers.
When requested if he felt he was utilizing the time period “attorney-client privilege” accurately, Strauss confirmed that on this case the Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace could be the “legal professional” and the Metropolis Council could be the “consumer.” He says, “shoppers have the prerogative of revealing legal professional consumer privilege, however I’m not exercising that prerogative proper now.”
If Strauss finds a technique to make an alternative choice to tackle the authorized considerations, it might result in two very related poll measures subsequent to one another, which may confuse voters. Strauss says that’s a part of his consideration. “If it is too complicated, then simply let the voters resolve and the courts resolve. If there is a easy repair, make the straightforward repair,” Strauss says.
However he’s working out of time. The council has two extra council conferences earlier than their deadline to place it on the poll. Morales mentioned within the Tuesday assembly she want to vote subsequent week on Sept. 10. Nelson agreed, saying the subsequent assembly, Sept. 17, already seems like a full agenda.
When requested if he believes he’ll get his questions answered in time for a vote Sept. 10, Strauss mentioned, “I don’t know.”
Advocates for I-137 don’t lengthen a lot charity to Strauss’s unspecified authorized considerations. Home Our Neighbors, the group that collected signatures for I-137, wrote in a tweet, “Councilmembers proceed hiding behind opaque authorized considerations. Make no mistake, they’re doing the bidding of their rich donors & multinational companies. They are going to proceed to guard the wealth of some whereas the [majority] of Seattlites proceed to be displaced and priced out.”
https://t.co/TkDEppASke pic.twitter.com/4TWIRmK0Tg
— Be:Seattle (@BeSeattleOrg) September 4, 2024
