Seattle City Council

Last election: November 2021[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.[2] The council positions are officially non-partisan and the ballot gives no party designations.[3] 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.

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

Results of the 2015 City Council election. Size of circle shows total votes cast in each District or Position. Names and percentages given for top two candidates, and incumbent, in each race.[4]

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*.[5] Redistricting will occur every 10 years starting in fall 2022.[6]

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  District 1
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  District 2
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  District 3
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  District 4
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  District 5
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  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a five-member board of trustees to govern Seattle, which appointed citizens to other positions.[7] The act was repealed January 18, 1867, after most of the town's leading citizens petitioned for its dissolution.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.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10]

The Council chamber

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.[16]

In 2010, Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Richard Conlin, Nick Licata and Mike O'Brien earn $117,533.52 annually. Councilmembers who were re-elected in 2011, Tim Burgess, Sally J. Clark, Jean Godden, Bruce Harrell, and Tom Rasmussen, will earn an annual salary of $119,976.48, effective January 1, 2012. Their salary will remain at this level through December 31, 2015.

In January 2017, salaries of councilmembers are authorized to be $59.08 per hour (councilmembers are paid monthly salaries, however the published compensation plan are presented as hourly rates). This is equivalent to an annualized pay of $123,359.04[17]

As of April 2018, salaries of councilmembers are authorized to be $62.11 per hour, an increase of 5% from 2017. This is equivalent to an annualized pay of $129,685.68.[18]

As of 2021, salaries of district councilmembers are authorized to be $65.32 per hour.[19] Annually, councilmembers make as much as $140,000.[20]

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.

• Paul J. Alexander, council member 1956–1969, newspaper publisher
• George Benson, promoter of the Waterfront Streetcar
• 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.
• Charlie Chong, council member 1996–1997, West Seattle populist
• Arthur A. Denny, council member 1877–1879, leader of the Seattle pioneers known as the Denny Party
• Bailey Gatzert, council member 1872–1873 and 1877–1878, in between was elected the city's first (and, as of, the only) Jewish mayor
• Hiram Gill, council member 1898–1902, 1904–1910, then mayor. Famous as an "Open Town" advocate, he later allied with "Closed Town" reformers.
• Jean Godden, council member 2003–2015, newspaper columnist before her time on the council
• Bertha Knight Landes, council member 1922–1926, then elected the city's first female mayor
• David Levine, council member 1931–1962
• Wing Luke, council member 1962–1965, first Asian American elected official in Washington State
• John Miller, council member 1972–1979, later a Republican congressman
• A. W. Piper, pioneer, baker, socialist member 1877–1879. Eponym of Pipers Creek and Piper Orchard
• Norm Rice, council member 1978–1989, then elected the city's first African American mayor
• Peter Steinbrueck, council member 1997–2007, architect
• 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.[21][22]
• Jeanette Williams, council member 1969–1989
• Henry Yesler, council member 1884–1885, Seattle pioneer, sawmill-owner, and twice mayor

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