Seattle City Council

The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-large positions; all elections are non-partisan. It has the responsibility of approving the city's budget, and passes all legislation related to the city's police, firefighting, parks, libraries, and electricity, water supply, solid waste, and drainage utilities. The mayor of Seattle is not part of the council.

Last election: November 2025^[1]

Notes

Election of city council members occur on odd-numbered years, with at-large seats staggered from district seats. City council members' terms begin January 1 although public ceremonies are held on the following Monday.^[3] The council positions are officially non-partisan and the ballot gives no party designations.^[4] Party identification is based on candidates' voluntary self-identification. Like other elections in Washington, all candidates run together in the primary with the top two progressing to the general election. Beginning in 2027, Seattle will begin to use ranked-choice voting to determine the top two candidates from the primary who will compete in the general election.^[5]

Candidates may participate in Seattle's unique democracy voucher program, which provides residents with vouchers to give candidates for public campaign funding.

Beginning in 2015, the geographic outline of the 7 districts and 2 citywide positions are as follows. Some neighborhoods overlap more than one district, indicated with an asterisk*.^[7] Redistricting occurs every 10 years following the decennial U.S. census, beginning in 2022.^[8]

• District 1
• District 2
• District 3
• District 4
• District 5
• District 6
• District 7

Seattle was first incorporated as a town by an act of the Territorial Legislature on January 14, 1865. The town charter established a five-member board of trustees to govern Seattle, which appointed citizens to other positions.^[9] The act was repealed January 18, 1867, after most of the town's leading citizens petitioned for its dissolution. Seattle was again incorporated, this time as a City, on December 2, 1869. The new unicameral legislature, known as the Common Council, was elected at-large to one year terms.^[10]

In 1882, the council moved into the new Engine House, a building near 2nd Ave and Yesler Way that held the fire department, jail, and City Hall.^[11] At-large election was replaced in 1884 by a system of 14 wards and four members elected at-large, all elected to two-year terms.^[12] During the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, the Engine House burnt down and the city offices were moved into a house temporarily.^[11]

The Home Rule Charter, adopted in 1890, reorganized the city council into a bicameral legislature, with a nine-member Board of Aldermen and a sixteen-member House of Delegates.^[13] The larger council moved into the Butler Block, renting its fifth floor. However, the mayor found the offices inadequate for city business, and recommended the city move its offices into the old County Courthouse. After renovations, the building was nicknamed Katzenjammer Castle; the council moved there in 1891.^[11] In 1896, the city switched back to a single legislative body, retaining all nine of the delegates and the top four aldermen elected that year.^[14]

The city reverted its council back to at-large positions, with non-partisan elections and a nine-member council, in 1910.^[15] Also in 1910, Washington women earned the right to vote, with the U.S. adopting the 19th amendment in 1920. In 1922, the first women were elected to the Seattle City Council: Bertha Knight Landes, who won 80% of the vote, and Kathryn Miracle, who finished fourth.^[16]

During this period, City Hall moved twice, and the council used the County–City Building until the county asked the city government to move. The Municipal Building was constructed to serve as a new city hall in 1962.^[11] Also that year, Wing Luke was elected to the city council. He was Seattle's first non-white city councilmember, as well as the first Chinese American elected to any major office in the continental U.S.^[17]

In 1967, groups like the League of Women Voters and Citizens for a Strengthened Seattle Government convinced the state government to change Seattle's city government. Budget authority moved from the city council to the mayor, changing the city from a "weak mayor" to a "strong mayor" system.^[18] Also that year, a bipartisan group of citizens, including many young lawyers, created Choose an Effective City Council (CHECC). They thought the current council was run by too many incumbent businessmen, with too many scandals, and wanted to help elect younger candidates.^[19]

In the 1967 election, Sam Smith, Phyllis Lamphere, and Tim Hill were elected to the council: the move was regarded as a "revolution" for the council, with the latter two being CHECC candidates and Smith being the first Black council member.^[20] For the next decade, increasing numbers of CHECC-endorsed or supported candidates won positions.^[21] They held a majority on the council until 1978 and changed many of Seattle's civic policies into the forms they would keep for decades.^[20]

The current City Hall was built in 2003. As part of the city's 1 percent for art program, an artistic bridge called Blue Glass Passage was built above the building's lobby, connecting the city council offices to their chambers.^[22]

In 2013, Seattle voters approved Charter Amendment 19 calling for the nine citywide Seattle City Council positions to be divided into seven district-elected seats and two citywide, at-large seats.^[23] The elections for the two at-large seats are held as separate contests, thus results are not proportional. Each seat is filled in two-step process - a primary election is held in August, with the two most popular candidates going on to a general election in November.^[24] The partial transition to districts started with 2013 elections for Positions 2, 4, 6, and 8 being truncated, two-year terms.^[25]

The 2015 election cycle featured all nine seats, except the seven district positions were elected to full, four-year terms, and the two at-large positions would be for truncated, two-year terms.^[25][24] The first primary based on the new combined district/at-large system was held on August 4, 2015, with the general elections held on November 3, 2015.^[26]

The seven district seats were up for election again in 2023; the two at-large seats will be up for election again in 2025. Only two of the seven districts retained their incumbent member in the 2023 election.^[27]

• 1869–1883 – Seven at-large Council members elected for one-year terms.
• 1884 – Nine Council members elected: three from each of the three wards, elected to two-year terms.
• 1886 – One ward added, Council reduced to eight members: two elected from each ward for two-years terms.
• 1890 – The Home Rule Charter established eight wards and bicameral legislature. A Board of Delegates composed of nine at-large members was elected for four-year terms. House of Delegates had 16 members – Two from each ward, elected for two-year terms.
• 1892 – One ward added to make nine. Both houses to have nine members – all elected from wards.
• 1896 – New Home Rule Charter reestablished unicameral legislature with nine wards. One Council member elected from each ward for two years and four elected at large for four-year terms.
• 1905 – Two wards added to make 11. One Council member from each with four at-large – 15 council members total.
• 1907 – The Charter was amended twice during the year, the first time adding two more wards, increasing the size of Council to 17. Later, another ward was added (to make 14), increasing Council to 18 members.
• 1910 – The Charter was amended to abolish wards, reduce Council to nine at-large positions elected to three-year terms. This took effect in 1911 and remained constant until 1946. The 1910 Charter amendments also made the elections non-partisan. Prior to that candidates for Council (and other City offices) ran on party tickets.
• 1922 – First women elected to the Council: Bertha Knight Landes and Kathryn Miracle.^[16]
• 1946 – The new Charter created the four-year term.^[28]
• 1962 – First person of color elected to the Council: Wing Luke.^[17]
• 1967 – Council reforms passed and first Black person elected to the council: Sam Smith.^[18][20]
• 2013 – City voters pass measure changing councilmember elections to a mostly-district-based scheme.
• 2015 – First councilmember elections held under new combined district/at-large scheme.

In 2006, Seattle City Council salaries exceeded $100,000 for the first time. This made Seattle's city council among the highest paid in the United States, behind only Los Angeles and Philadelphia.^[29]

As of 2021, salaries of district councilmembers are authorized to be $65.32 per hour.^[30] Annually, councilmembers make as much as $140,000.^[31]

The Seattle City Council picks among its peers a Council President to serve a two-year term, beginning January 1 of the year following an election. The Council President serves as the official head of the City's legislative department. In addition, they are tasked with:

• Establishing of committees and appointment of committee chairs and members.
• Presiding over meetings of the full council.
• Assuming the duties and responsibilities of Mayor if the Mayor is absent or incapacitated.

• Bailey Gatzert, council member 1872–1873 and 1877–1878, in between was elected the city's first (and, as of, the only) Jewish mayor
• Arthur A. Denny, council member 1877–1879, leader of the Seattle pioneers known as the Denny Party
• A. W. Piper, pioneer, baker, socialist member 1877–1879. Eponym of Pipers Creek and Piper Orchard
• Henry Yesler, council member 1884–1885, Seattle pioneer, sawmill-owner, and twice mayor
• Hiram Gill, council member 1898–1902, 1904–1910, then mayor. Famous as an "Open Town" advocate, he later allied with "Closed Town" reformers.
• Reginald H. Thomson, council member 1916–1922. City Engineer and visionary. Championed the Denny Regrade, 1904 Great Northern Tunnel, development of the Cedar River watershed, railroad, electricity and sewage infrastructure improvements and member of team that designed Lake Washington's first floating bridge.^[32][33]
• Bertha Knight Landes, council member 1922–1926, then elected the city's first female mayor
• David Levine, council member 1931–1962
• Mildred Towne Powell (1886–1977), council member 1935–1955 and council president 1940–1941
• Paul J. Alexander, council member 1956–1969, newspaper publisher
• Wing Luke, council member 1962–1965, first Asian American elected official in Washington State
• Jeanette Williams, council member 1969–1989
• Liem Tuai, council member 1969–1973, later a King County Superior Court judge
• Bruce Chapman, council member 1971–1975, Secretary of State of Washington, Director of the United States Census Bureau, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Organizations in Vienna.
• John Miller, council member 1972–1979, later a Republican congressman
• George Benson, council member 1974 to 1994, promoter of the Waterfront Streetcar
• Norm Rice, council member 1978–1989, then elected the city's first African American mayor
• Sherry Harris, council member 1992–1996, the first out, Black, lesbian elected leader in the United States
• Charlie Chong, council member 1996–1997, West Seattle populist
• Peter Steinbrueck, council member 1997–2007, architect
• Jean Godden, council member 2003–2015, newspaper columnist before her time on the council
• Kshama Sawant, council member 2014–2024, economist and professor. The first council member to face a recall election, she narrowly defeated the recall.

Notes

• Official website
• "Seattle City Council Members, 1869–Present Chronological Listing". Seattle City Archives. Retrieved January 16, 2019.

• Hugh DeLacy Papers. 1938–1985. 4.87 cubic feet (11 boxes, 1 map tube, 1 package). Contains records from DeLacy's service with the Seattle City Council from 1938–1939.
• Frederick G. Hamley Papers. 1933–1963. 6.83 cubic feet. Contains records from Hamley's service with the Seattle City Council from 1935–1936.
• Austin E. Griffiths Papers. 1891–1952. 11.73 cubic feet (25 boxes). Contains records from Griffiths' career as Settle city councilman from 1910–1913.