Mayor Ed Murray, a former state legislator who represented Seattle’s 43rd District since October 1995, has left the slow pace of Olympia’s Capitol far behind and is remaking Seattle to his utopic vision as quickly as he can.
Since his mayoral term started in January 2014, Murray has made long, sweeping, sometimes-overreaching strides to ensure his vision of Seattle is realized before his first term expires.
He created the Department of Education and Early Learning, to implement and manage the city’s new preschool program; the Department of the Waterfront, to help improve the waterfront economy during the Alaskan Way Viaduct construction; and the Office of Labor Standards, to oversee workers’ protections and the new minimum wage law.
Just since April, Murray has appointed a new fire chief, new directors of the Offices of Sustainability & Environment, Economic Development and Labor Standards, and the Departments of Neighborhoods, Early Learning and Parks and Recreation.
With Seattle City Light CEO Jorge Carrasco’s retirement on May 8, Murray has yet another leadership position to fill — nearly a clean sweep of the city’s department heads. It’s rare that the change in a city’s leadership team is as extensive as under Murray’s tenure so far.
He also came up with his regional funding plan to save local bus service after county voters failed to pass Proposition 1, and he quickly gave city employees a $15 minimum wage and four weeks of paid family leave, even when he couldn’t supply that to non-city employees.
His proposed smoking ban in Seattle parks — to “de-normalize” tobacco use, according to a Seattle Parks and Recreation memo — even got the go-ahead last week, albeit without the $27 fine.
Murray’s fiefdom hasn’t been without outspoken critics. He set up advisory committees of stakeholders to put together a $15-minimum-wage proposal and, more recently, to select four candidates for the Labor Standards directorship. But when the committees failed to give Murray what he had hoped for, he went ahead with what and whom he wanted. Restaurant owner David Meinert called his committee’s work on the minimum wage “a charade.”
Democratic legislative-district groups throughout the city haven’t solely endorsed Murray’s picks for City Council district seats, either, and his revised, $930 million Move Seattle transportation levy is on the November ballot, giving voters the final say.
For as dystopic a city as Seattle appears to Murray, his over-aggressive pursuit of his utopic Seattle needs to be kept in check. During his mayoral campaign, he professed his belief that public servants should be responsive to the communities they serve — he needs to prove that it’s not become lip service to him.