OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Seattle Public Safety Committee, July 28, 2026: Vote on Drug Diversion Ordinance

City Council — Tuesday, July 28, 2026
BodySeattle, Washington
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, July 28, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:54:29

Transcript — Verbatim
0:23

Good morning.

0:24

Public safety meeting will come to order.

0:27

It's 9 34 a.m.

0:28

July 28th, 2026.

0:30

I'm Robert Kettle, Chair of the Public Safety Committee.

0:32

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

0:35

Councilmember Ruiz.

0:36

Here.

0:37

Councilmember Lin.

0:39

Here.

0:39

Councilmember.

0:41

I mean President.

0:42

Council Member Saka.

0:45

Chair Kettle.

0:46

Here.

0:47

Chair, there are four members, five members present.

0:49

Thank you.

0:56

Good morning.

0:57

Thank you, everyone, for being here today.

1:00

In light of the tragedy that was at Seattle Center on Sunday, I would like to ask for a moment of silence.

1:41

Thank you.

1:51

Not at the at the time of the incident, the shootings, but afterwards I received a call from Deputy Mayor Surratt, and I joined him on location on scene.

2:01

And I just wanted to say a few thank yous.

2:03

I wanted to thank the Seattle Police Department.

2:07

When I arrived on scene, I was able with the help of also Seattle Center Security in order to get from essentially the Sioux Bird Way across campus to the armory and to the command posts.

2:19

During that time, I saw the professionalism of the Seattle Police Department.

2:24

And this is while an operation was ongoing.

2:28

SWAT was coming on board.

2:29

This relates to the IMAX theater and the search.

2:33

So it was an ongoing operation at that time.

2:50

And I speak to them on a regular basis.

2:53

Spoke to them and the work that they did, particularly the work that was done in the immediate in the immediacy of the shooting.

3:12

And then transport of those that were injured to Harborview.

5:00

And I'm reminded then, too, of the 19-year-old Juniper Blessing, and you know, it struck to me as an op-ed that was written by Jessa Davis, who works on uh our commission, uh, who said, I didn't move to Seattle for progressive politics, I moved here to survive.

5:16

You know, we have to take action across the board.

5:20

Public safety is serious business, and we have to be serious as we go about this.

5:25

It's serious, as another um chair comments when I talked about Little Saigon and North Aurora and the chronic public safety challenges that we have there.

5:36

You know, when we're getting we're being asked why it's so chronic, and when we're being asked, did we care enough?

5:46

I think we do, but that's not necessarily enough.

5:51

I noted in another as part of this process related to Little Saigon and North Aurora.

5:56

I noted that uh it's not a tale of two cities here in Seattle, but a tale of a city of two minds, with an apparent inability to move forward to take decisive action.

6:11

Action with a belief that we look out for our neighbors in crisis, but also do the same for our neighborhoods in crisis, to now include uptown, Seattle Center, and the crucial need for sustained leadership with follow-up and follow-through of passing ordinances and then actually implementing them.

6:32

Colleagues, as you know, and people in the audience most likely know, many of you I've seen before.

6:37

We have our strategic framework plan for a safer Seattle, which we updated in January of this year at the start of the new council, incorporating lessons learned of the previous two years.

6:48

In this plan, we're building on the mission and the vision that we have here in council with this committee, understanding the permissiveness is a common thread through the challenges that we see across the board.

7:03

And with that understanding, we updated the six pillars to include having a functional criminal justice system.

7:10

It is so important to have a functional criminal justice system across the board.

7:14

Another pillar was gun violence prevention, reduction, and community safety.

7:20

And because of that, we had meetings, we had briefings here in committee on this very topic, and my colleague, Councilmember Rivera held a symposium with national experts on the very topic that we're dealing with today following Sunday's shooting.

7:38

And another pillar, too, was addressing the seam between public safety, traditional public safety, the police, but also with public health, mental behavioral substance use, housing and human services, and all the issues that reside in that seam that need to be taken care of.

7:59

Where we cannot be of two minds, we have to be decisive.

8:05

So now we have a mass casualty shooting event that killed three and followed two near mass casualty events in the days preceding North Aurora and Capitol Hill.

8:21

And there's common threads through each of these.

8:40

There is a direct through line between Sunday night, what happened earlier this spring in a King County Metro bus station, and two years ago at Garfield, where I'm remember being at the church with the pastor, Mayor Harold, and my colleague, Council President Hollingsworth regarding the loss of Armar Murphy Payne that day.

9:05

There's the through line, and part of the through line is the inability of the city to take action, concrete action.

9:13

There's actions taking, but to have that follow-through, that follow-up, and to see it through and not be of two minds.

9:21

So we have our strategic framework plan.

9:23

We're working a lot of pieces related to the public safety challenges that we're facing to include gun violence and violence intervention.

9:31

So I call on Mayor Wilson to build a fully comprehensive approach.

9:38

We can't have a lock them all up approach, but we also cannot have an abolitionist approach.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Safety█████████████████████████████████████████████47%
Substance Use Disorder████████████████████████25%
Drug Policy████████████13%
Public Comment███████7%
Procedural█████5%
Homelessness██2%
Public Health█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Seattle Public Safety Committee Meeting: July 28, 2026

The Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee convened on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at 9:34 a.m. in Council Chamber, City Hall. Chair Robert Kettle opened with a moment of silence for the Seattle Center mass shooting that occurred on Sunday, July 26, which killed three people. The committee voted unanimously (5-0) to recommend passage of Council Bill 121248, which updates city policy for enforcement of controlled substance possession and use, prioritizing in-field pre-booking diversion via a warm handoff to recovery services. Three amendments were adopted before the final vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Eric Zimmerman (Washington Policy Center, also Mayor of Normandy Park) opposed the bill, citing that the claimed 58% recidivism reduction from LEED is not factual and that Seattle has seen an 850% growth in chronic homelessness (2014–2024), the highest in the nation.
  • Kevin Dares (Belltown resident) expressed frustration with lack of enforcement, describing daily open drug use, overdoses, and people in crisis, and called for more police action.
  • Jessica Norton (Belltown business owner, 54-year resident) described an entrenched open-air drug market harming residents, workers, and social service clients, and urged prioritizing Belltown.
  • Tom Graff (chair, Belltown United) blamed the mayor for lack of police direction on open drug use and dealing.
  • Greta Levinson and David Levinson (Belltown residents) echoed fears of assault and called for more police presence and use of surveillance cameras.
  • Julia Biabout (Third Pike Pine resident, Third and Thrive Coalition chair) supported the bill as evidence-based, but noted that public health services are unavailable at night when drug activity peaks.
  • Justin Perkins (LEED client) shared his positive experience with LEED, saying it helped him get an ID and start recovery after being stabbed.
  • Devin Moore (LEED participant) credited LEED for his sobriety and employment after years of addiction and jail, stating he hasn’t committed a crime in over five years.
  • Angelo De Jesus (North Belltown resident) wanted a pathway to help for those using drugs, but if they refuse, they should be removed; he also criticized the mayor and called for more police staffing.
  • Jake Wallach (North Aurora resident) noted that 60% of shootings on Aurora are related to prostitution, called for a state task force, and criticized SPD having only two vice detectives.
  • Sarah Clark (Seattle Metro Chamber) supported the bill, emphasizing data collection requirements.
  • Andrea Suarez (We Heart Seattle) opposed the bill, alleging LEED’s data is flawed and describing a case where a young woman was diverted but returned to her abuser.
  • Art Dollar (Battlefield Addiction) argued for accountability, stating that jail and mandated treatment saved lives, and that LEED lacks accountability.
  • Noah Lager (Battlefield Addiction participant) said only arrest helped him, and LEED without accountability fails.
  • Peter Orr (North Aurora resident) reported that barriers moved prostitution to other streets, and that 37% of seller contacts were minors; he advocated for a satellite precinct and task force.
  • Hannah Ziff (Pioneer Square resident) linked health and safety, criticized the “Jack on First” building for creating unsafe conditions.
  • Ashley Nebig (LEED advocate) cited improved outcomes with long-term case management and urged support for the bill.
  • Craig Thompson (North Beacon Hill resident) called for a single point of program management and coordination, saying time for studying is over.

Discussion Items

  • Presentations: Greg Doss (Central Staff) summarized the bill; Sam Wolff (Purpose. Dignity. Action.) explained LEED’s long-term case management model, noting that 70% of clients with 24-month exposure had meaningful connections to recovery services.
  • SPD representatives (Chief Operating Officer Sarah Smith, Chief of Patrol Rob Brown, West Precinct Captain Marc Garth Green) discussed the need for more officers (goal of 1,258), consistency in enforcement, and the Little Saigon proactive team (1 sergeant, 4 officers) working with LEED. They emphasized that LEED is not a one-time fix and that officers retain discretion to arrest.
  • Councilmember Rivera pressed for more detailed data on LEED outcomes, noting 990 clients on LEED’s list but lack of information on treatment status, housing, and employment. She expressed concern about repeat clients and the need to coordinate with other programs.
  • Councilmember Juarez expressed skepticism about in-field diversion compared to court-based diversion, but acknowledged LEED’s long-term commitment. She stressed the need for both empathy and accountability.
  • Councilmember Lynn highlighted that jail can worsen outcomes (e.g., overdose upon release) and that the bill’s data collection requirements are critical.
  • Chair Kettle noted that the bill’s data requirements (Section 1, subpart J4) are a direct lesson learned from past gaps. He also raised the problem of active drug markets and the need for more tools, mentioning S.O.D.A. (Stay Out of Drug Areas) as an underused tool.

Key Outcomes

  • Unanimous Vote (5-0): The committee recommended passage of CB 121248 as amended, sending it to the full City Council on August 4, 2026.
  • Amendment 1 (Chair Kettle, with input from Councilmembers Lynn and Saka): Made technical and clarifying changes, including allowing precinct-based handoffs, defining the diversion framework, clarifying data responsibilities, and correcting language on threat-of-harm assessments.
  • Amendment 2 (Councilmember Rivera): Requires SPD and diversion providers to report the number of times a diversion was requested and how often a provider responded timely. SPD will define “timely” in policy, with a typical 30-minute expectation.
  • Amendment 3 (Councilmember Rivera): Recognizes officers’ existing authority under state law (RCW 71.05.153) to take individuals in severe substance abuse crisis to a secure withdrawal facility for evaluation and involuntary treatment when appropriate.
  • Next Steps: The bill will be considered by the full City Council on August 4, 2026.

Meeting Transcript

Good morning. Public safety meeting will come to order. It's 9 34 a.m. July 28th, 2026. I'm Robert Kettle, Chair of the Public Safety Committee. Will the committee clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Ruiz. Here. Councilmember Lin. Here. Councilmember. I mean President. Council Member Saka. Chair Kettle. Here. Chair, there are four members, five members present. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you, everyone, for being here today. In light of the tragedy that was at Seattle Center on Sunday, I would like to ask for a moment of silence. Thank you. Not at the at the time of the incident, the shootings, but afterwards I received a call from Deputy Mayor Surratt, and I joined him on location on scene. And I just wanted to say a few thank yous. I wanted to thank the Seattle Police Department. When I arrived on scene, I was able with the help of also Seattle Center Security in order to get from essentially the Sioux Bird Way across campus to the armory and to the command posts. During that time, I saw the professionalism of the Seattle Police Department. And this is while an operation was ongoing. SWAT was coming on board. This relates to the IMAX theater and the search. So it was an ongoing operation at that time. And I speak to them on a regular basis. Spoke to them and the work that they did, particularly the work that was done in the immediate in the immediacy of the shooting. And then transport of those that were injured to Harborview. And I'm reminded then, too, of the 19-year-old Juniper Blessing, and you know, it struck to me as an op-ed that was written by Jessa Davis, who works on uh our commission, uh, who said, I didn't move to Seattle for progressive politics, I moved here to survive. You know, we have to take action across the board. Public safety is serious business, and we have to be serious as we go about this. It's serious, as another um chair comments when I talked about Little Saigon and North Aurora and the chronic public safety challenges that we have there. You know, when we're getting we're being asked why it's so chronic, and when we're being asked, did we care enough? I think we do, but that's not necessarily enough. I noted in another as part of this process related to Little Saigon and North Aurora. I noted that uh it's not a tale of two cities here in Seattle, but a tale of a city of two minds, with an apparent inability to move forward to take decisive action. Action with a belief that we look out for our neighbors in crisis, but also do the same for our neighborhoods in crisis, to now include uptown, Seattle Center, and the crucial need for sustained leadership with follow-up and follow-through of passing ordinances and then actually implementing them. Colleagues, as you know, and people in the audience most likely know, many of you I've seen before. We have our strategic framework plan for a safer Seattle, which we updated in January of this year at the start of the new council, incorporating lessons learned of the previous two years. In this plan, we're building on the mission and the vision that we have here in council with this committee, understanding the permissiveness is a common thread through the challenges that we see across the board. And with that understanding, we updated the six pillars to include having a functional criminal justice system. It is so important to have a functional criminal justice system across the board. Another pillar was gun violence prevention, reduction, and community safety. And because of that, we had meetings, we had briefings here in committee on this very topic, and my colleague, Councilmember Rivera held a symposium with national experts on the very topic that we're dealing with today following Sunday's shooting. And another pillar, too, was addressing the seam between public safety, traditional public safety, the police, but also with public health, mental behavioral substance use, housing and human services, and all the issues that reside in that seam that need to be taken care of.

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