(Image: City of Seattle)
In her first days at Seattle City Hall, Joy Hollingsworth is meeting with everybody who makes the building tick and assembling a core team who will staff her office and help her lead District 3 with what she says will be a dedication to transparency including office hours, newsletters, and regular community meetings after a decade of leadership under Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative.
It has been a mostly enjoyable start to her political career in Seattle. The newly sworn-in District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council is beginning her four-year term with honest to goodness cheering in City Hall’s chambers from a group of constituents who have felt alienated from the recent years of Seattle process. Her mandate — help save Seattle — might be a long-term political challenge, but she can’t do much wrong in these early days. Her message is the right thing at the right time during the city’s push to clean up its streets and revive its core.
“I’m still the same Joy. I’m just a kid from the Central District. What we ran on was being transparent with folks, having access,” Hollingsworth said.
That transparency and access will be built around her team. Like Mayor Bruce Harrell who endorsed her, Hollingsworth’s career as a high school and collegiate athlete colors her language and outlook. Her anecdotes include stories from the tutelage of legendary hoops coach Lenny Wilkens. She is building her team with a strong D3 bench.
Her chief of staff will be Anthony Derrick an experienced political communications expert who has handled the Seattle City Attorney’s office and worked as the press secretary under Mayor Jenny Durkan.
Another first pick was former District 3 candidate and Hashtag Cannabis owner Logan Bowers as policy director.
A fellow pot entrepreneur, Bowers brings experience in small business and information technology to the Hollingsworth team. His experience unsuccessfully facing off with Sawant in 2019 is also valuable, Hollingsworth said as she tries to move the office into a new era of openness and responsiveness.
Bowers and Derrick will help Hollingsworth as she establishes her positions in what could be the biggest political battle in Seattle in 2024. CHS reported here on newly named city council president Sara Nelson’s two-pronged push to increase spending on public safety and salaries of Seattle Police officers while also stepping away from new taxes and taxes on the city’s business community.
In her interview with CHS, Hollingsworth was non-committal on her support for Nelson’s early push on the police spending and business tax cutback initiatives. “I’m getting briefed on all the stuff the council has voted on, including the budget and the nuts and bolts,” Hollingsworth said. “I can’t really comment on what another council member has addressed.”
Hollingsworth said public safety remains her top priority and that she continues to hear concerns from constituents about gun violence after shootings in the Central District and a deadly 2023 across the East Precinct and Capitol Hill in Seattle’s record year of homicides.
The public safety concerns took real form only hours after Tuesday’s inauguration with a man shot in a street shootout at 23rd and Union Wednesday night and a stabbing on Broadway.
The coming year will also bring major challenges for the freshman member and the council including forging compromises on a new comprehensive plan for the city, shaping a new transportation levy proposal, approving a new contract with the police union, and addressing a looming $218 million 2025 budget deficit.
It hasn’t been announced what committees Hollingsworth will lead or take part in but reports indicate she will oversee legislation related to Seattle Parks and Seattle Public Utilities.
The seven councilmembers sworn-in last Tuesday included Hollingsworth in District 3, Rob Saka (District 1), Tammy Morales (District 2), Maritza Rivera (District 4), Cathy Moore (District 5), Dan Strauss (District 6), and Robert Kettle (District 7).
The biggest early priority for Nelson and Hollingsworth will be to bring on yet another new face to the council as citywide representative Teresa Mosqueda has been elected to the King County Council setting off a process to replace the veteran legislator. The city charter gives the council 20 days from Mosqueda’s resignation last week. The application process is currently open meaning Hollingsworth will soon have another rookie on the council team.
Most Valuable Player
For a grinder like Hollingsworth and her focus on “the fundamentals” of city leadership, the most important pick for her new office team hasn’t been finalized. Hollingsworth said she was hoping to name her lead for constituent services soon when speaking with CHS last week.
That role will lead the way on what Hollingsworth says will be a new start in District 3 around connecting with the residents of the district. This will include open office hours when constituents can drop-in to talk with Hollingsworth or staff, regular newsletters to keep D3 apprised of priorities and new legislation, and rotating meetings around the district for community issues and discussions, Hollingsworth hopes.
As she gets started, Hollingsworth says City Hall has been a swirl of briefings, meetings with the mayor about initiatives and agenda items, talking with leadership from the city’s fire and police department’s including the city’s Health One team, and meeting with the council staff about the processes and systems used to run the city. She’s also been meeting with “a lot of community groups, and nonprofits.”
While public safety issues are the starting point, “the common theme has really been accessibility and being transparent and responding,” Hollingsworth said. “People are hungry.”
Calling the council “the front porch” of talking about what happens in the city, Hollingsworth said she thinks one of the most important things she can first do is roll out a “pretty aggressive communication plan” and make it easy “to reach us.”
One person she has not met with despite her ten years of experience leading the district is outgoing D3 representative Sawant. Sawant held the seat for a decade with a string of political victories that included overcoming an attempted recall in 2021 and successful pushes for a $15 minimum wage in the city and a tax on its largest employers. But Hollingsworth said the two politicians haven’t linked up.
“I don’t know if it’s typical,” Hollingsworth said about the idea of a possible “handoff” meeting with the former seat holder. But she feels like her team knows what it is doing — even without any Sawant guidance.
“We have real deep roots in the district,” Hollingsworth said.
Sawant, meanwhile, says she is now focused on Workers Strike Back, her nascent campaign to form a new leftist national party.
In City Hall’s new D3 office, Hollingsworth is keeping her calendar clear with the only plans making the cut for regular attendance being a monthly community meeting for the 23rd and Jackson neighborhood to continue to address public safety in the area following last year’s gun violence.
“That is the most important,” Hollingsworth said.
But other priorities are coming. Tuesday night, Hollingsworth is expected to attend the January meeting of the district’s influential Central Area Land Use Review Committee. The Central District group says it plans to discuss “land use issues” with the newly installed D3 representative — “especially the future of the Design Review program.” CHS reported here in 2023 on initiatives to pull back on public design and environmental review in Seattle as the city faces ongoing crises around homelessness and affordability. For Hollingsworth, the issue seems likely to come down on the side of representation. During her campaign, the D3 candidate said she supported new, more development-friendly zoning across the city but with requirements around equity and displacement after her years growing up and watching change in the Central District. Hollingsworth will be the first Black councilmember in Seattle since Harrell left office in 2019. For anybody in the LURC group looking for an ally in maintaining some level of public process over development design elements, Hollingsworth just might be the D3 rep they’ve been waiting for.
You can keep track of updates and how to connect with councilmember Hollingsworth at seattle.gov/council/meet-the-council/joy-hollingsworth.
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If Joy wants to address public safety, she should re-introduce Kshama Sawant’s 2021 legislation proposal to bar Seattle Police officers from training with the genocide-committing, apartheid-supporting Israeli Defense Force. Over 10,000 children dead in Gaza over the last 4 months, and we wonder why our city’s law enforcement agency feels unaccountable. Unfathomably disgusting complicity with human rights atrocities displayed by this city’s leadership.
Your comment reminds me of a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s dark comic masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove.
Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky:
“Thank you, no. I do not support the work of imperialist stooges.”
Admiral Randolph:
“Oh, only commie stooges, huh?”
So what you’re saying is, you think a quote from a cold war satire is somehow representative of my suggestion to Joy Hollingsworth for holding police accountable because you can’t reckon with the reality behind the fact that SPD is a corrupt cesspool that gets trained by the explicitly fascist, Apartheid-supporting Israeli Defense Force. A well documented fact. Very heady p-patch. You don’t have to be a tankie to support accountable and trustworthy law enforcement *sigh*
“Fascist,” “apartheid” etc.
If we wanted Sawant-style polemic we would have voted for it. Read the room.
Newsflash: There was no “Sawant-style” option to vote for…not even close.
Did you even vote in D3? Maybe just speak for yourself.
Yup. You nailed it.
You do realize that Israel has a large Palestinian population living in its borders? They also let gay and lesbians into Israel from Gaza and the Westbank.
And? Everyone knows that Palestinians within Israel, by and large, are treated as second-class citizens under Israel’s fascist Apartheid state. Most Palestinians have never seen Jerusalem or the Dome of the Rock. And if they ever were letting in Palestinians (gay and lesbian as you say), they certainly aren’t anymore since they started ramping up their ethnic cleansing. STOP lying for genocidal Israel when innocent Palestinian children and their families are being slaughtered by them mercilessly, everyday, for the last 4 months! Israeli NGO B’Tselem just reported on IDF-documented plans for Palestinian starvation. You know nothing about the Israel-Palestine conflict and it shows.
None of this is a concern of D3. If we wanted pointless grandstanding and endless angry rhetoric we would have voted for another Sawant.
Again, no comparable option to Sawant to vote for. Angry rhetoric comes from the desire for change that goes ignored by people like you.
Pretty sure the majority of voters is wanting a different approach than Sawant’s verbal bomb-throwing. Also, applying more grounded in reality policy than taking sides in the various problems in the Middle East.
The point was addressing SPD training with the Israeli Defense Force. That should be BANNED. And technically every problem in the world is our problem…unless you don’t think Capitalism is the most influential economic system currently in existence?
Interesting that chHill gives no thought to the Jewish children still being held hostage–children!!– by Hamas terrorists, children who’ve had to watch their own parents and other adults be tortured, raped, and murdered. Hamas supporters are utterly shameful bigots aligned with the wrong side of history. Shameful.
Who is defending Hamas or their actions? I support the Palestinian cause for justice and free movement within their homeland. I’ll renounce Hamas’ actions all day baby!
But you can’t explain why you think genocide, ethnic cleansing, and continuing to maintain an apartheid state over Palestine is an acceptable response. No one is trying to win the oppression olympics here aka ‘who’s side has more casualties’, but there have been over 10,000 Palestinian children blown up, burnt, shot, or run over by CAT D9 bulldozers, just in the last 4 months, all because Israel wants to STEAL gaza from the Palestinians and used Hamas’ desperate actions to justify their settler-colonialist goals.
It’s not your fault though, our state department is complicit with more misinformation on this subject than virtually any other issue. Look up Ofer Cassif’s statements on his own governenment’s actions…or B’Tselem…or Haaretz…there’s no excuse to maintain your ignorance in the face of truth.
All child and innocent death is abhorrent, so why don’t you condemn the more responsible party, Israel? Do you think murder is more acceptable when a white-supremacist government conducts it?
Yes! Design Review has been a discouraging waste of time for all. The District #3 councilperson is the natural leader of reform. Design Review should be existing neighbors influencing the floorplans needed by desired incoming populations (3 br/2 ba for family, etc.). Instead, Design Review became an exterior color-choosing architect’s exercise. Design Review needs to be much more efficient and early in the process — an incredibly difficult challenge considering developers purchase decisions are dictated by expected unit count and layout. But if anyone can bring us forward, Councilperson Hollingsworth is the type to create the environment to find workable solutions.
Effective Design Review is essential— and how a building looks is not trivial— see Africa Town and the importance of the exterior design there. Currently there is a wildly inappropriate and out of scale building being proposed for the QFC site on 15th.
15th Ave. is one of the very few remaining streets in Seattle that has a sense of place and small thriving local businesses. City development boosters are now calling that “blight”. The proposed replacement for the QFC and existing small businesses is six stories with no visual integration or understanding of the importance of the historic brick co-op building bordering the east on the alley and the fire station on its southern border.
Developers are completely misusing the rewritten tree ordinance, and claiming two common hornbeams, whose roots will be ruined in the construction anyway (they already abut walls) buy them an extra story.. Some careful nods to brick, color palette, surface, history and significant setbacks would be huge in keeping the livability and sense of place of that street.
In addition, this building which will have 170 units is providing only 100 units of parking and the city just converted 15th Ave. to pay parking. Small local restaurants cannot survive based purely on foot traffic. There will be an extra hundred or more cars per day filling residential streets and a customer will have to walk many blocks at night in a neighborhood that is increasingly unsafe. If they can get the paid parking anywhere near the restaurant, they will have to add that to already high post pandemic restaurant prices – it’s all a recipe for economic decline. And replacement of local by national chains.
I am glad Joy replaced Sawant. All of her proposals were insane and bad for Seattle.
$15 minimum wage was insane and bad? Banning Caste discrimination is insane and bad? The Seattle Head Tax (rip) was insane and bad? Talk about saying you know nothing about her record without saying it…
Yes, they are all bad. And the “tell me you don’t know X without saying X…” is a really tired cliche a this point but at least you are being faithful to your programming.
The minimum wage proposal was not Sawant’s proposal – it was a Union-led initiative she jumped on and took credit for.
Regardless, we’re talking about council members here and Sawant only “took credit for” it in the sense that she supported it heavily in the council. You wanna elect a whole union shop to D3? Me too lol. But until then, a win is a win, and Shaniqua clearly doesn’t agree that it’s sane or good that Sawant’s council tenure helped working people get paid more $. No explanation on why though…
Also, Amazon Tax and banning caste discrimination were also mentioned, and both praised by the public This is just reality.
Sawant is gone. You aren’t winning anyone over parroting her talking points.
Speak for everyone why don’t you! The talking points will continue because there are other people like who me actually care. Step outside your bubble.
Sawant basically said FU to whoever was not on board with her agenda. So very glad she is GONE!!!
That’s the way I see it here on Capitol Hill
Simply put…Business first. Everyone else last.
They ALL want tighter law enforcement. Only one side doesn’t want to pay for it. Cut taxes. Increase cops pay as if it brings positive change? Like a spoiled brat getting a sucker for bad behavior. They are unhappy w/o their sucker.
Yep, that’s right. Because who do you think pays for the streets and freeways that young protestors in hoodies like to take over? Yeah, business taxes. We’re not keeping the lights on with freedom gardens full of weeds. Sure, the police need to be held accountable, but as I told my fourteen year old the other day, after he asked me to be cool about something he was in trouble for, ‘being cool’ is a two way street. You need to meet me in the middle and then I’ll be totally cool about it. So the far left ‘progressives’ of Seattle need to do some growing up. It can be painful, I know, but it’s time.
Lol hilarious. Washington state has the MOST regressive tax policies in the country. If businesses pay the lion’s share, as you say, that’s only because the wealthy individuals running those businesses make out like BANDITS because of low property taxes, not to mention no state income tax. Ridiculous privilege!! Washington’s poorest residents take on a tax burden of 4x what the wealthiest Seattlites pay. The other 50% of the entire budget comes from sales tax…
But yeah, keep believing businesses pay the most because they’re generous or overburdened, and not because they lobbied to have such low taxes across the board in the first place. How about businesses step up and properly fund Seattle Public Schools so we don’t have to have a yearly budget freakout? Talk about compromise. More like compromise(d) education. That would be ‘cool’ as your 14y/o says, but instead we’re all held hostage by greedy business interests looking to save on taxes…
“Low property taxes.” Hilarious.
Yes, incredibly low! Try living in a Northeast city, bub. We don’t even pay state income tax in WA!!!! You have been supremely coddled if you think you pay high property taxes here.
Now sales tax, that’s a different story. And poor people bear the brunt of that.
But aren’t you happy we have low property taxes? Otherwise landlords, who just pass those costs along to tenants, would further burden this underclass. Don’t low property taxes also benefit the non-ownership class?
No I’m not happy that we have low property taxes. I only own one property, so I’m already lucky enough to benefit from being part of the “ownership class” as you put it, and I and many others could afford to pay more. Most of New Jersey sees 20k+ and it shows in their great schools. I mean, it goes towards funding all of our crucial and communally available resources, I can think of nothing less patriotic than paying more taxes (assuming they’re spent responsibly).
The issue I feel like you’re not seeing is, why do you feel that tenants should have to subsidize a landlord for their tax bill? Should they subsidize the landlord’s children’s private school education too, even though they see no benefit? Renting can’t be made an inescapable pit. As part of the non-ownership class, does it makes more sense for a tenant to foot the bill, even though they demonstrably have less fiscal assets (i.e. no ownership)? I personally don’t see that as a fair trade-off, but instead a scam benefiting increasingly wealthy property owners, not the average mom-and-pop with a nest egg property.
Maybe we just see public responsibility for the general well-being from different angles, but in my eyes if you own a property, you pay for the expenses. That’s your responsibility as a person with multiple properties. I think if it’s too expensive to own multiple properties, you should not offload the cost onto your tenants, but instead find a job that offers value to society to stay afloat with your expenses, and either offer a reasonable price for your extra shelter, or just sell the asset to someone who would personally live there and pay their property taxes like everyone else (because they live there).
Of course Joy knows that it would be a waste of time to meet with Sawant for a “handoff” and advice, because she (Sawant) has absolutely nothing to offer but socialist cliches and ways to not cooperate with other Council members.
Joy is truly a breath of fresh air in City governance!