July 14, 2020
Dear Members of the Seattle City Council,
We write to you today as a group of organizations across the city that represent thousands of
businesses, organizations and residents to express our concern over the haste and speed with
which you are moving to dismantle core functions of city government. We recognize and share
the sense of urgency to respond to impassioned calls for change at the local and national level,
however we worry that you are moving forward before sharing with the community what public
safety outcomes you hope to achieve, or what plans you would put in place to ensure
community safety.
We represent stakeholders from neighborhoods across the city who have spent years trying to
articulate and find solutions for the chronic public safety and social issues that for too long have
been escalating. With the calls to defund the Seattle Police Department, we have heard
important messages from a greater diversity of communities in our city that have also not felt
safe for years. This is unacceptable and can no longer be tolerated. Systemic racism coupled
with a broken criminal justice system and an inadequate social safety net has done decades of
immeasurable harm and has created a city in which too many people don't feel safe. We agree it's time to move forward to plan and implement meaningful and effective change with these
historical and present inequities firmly in mind.
We must fight together now for a truly safe community, in which all people (regardless of race,
gender, sexual orientation or income level) can safely live, work, visit and pursue their lives.
However, any serious process to achieve these goals has to be more than a budgeting
exercise. The calls to reduce the Seattle Police budget by 50% are powerful political
statements, but we expect our local leaders, whose primary duty is to ensure the safety of
citizens, to enter into any planning for the elimination or reduction of public safety programs with
deliberation and inclusion. Failure to do so could easily result in unintended consequences that
could have grave outcomes, and work to undermine the important goals we all say we share.
It was only last month when we saw the danger and tragedy that resulted from the
oversimplification of the public safety policy options on Capitol Hill. Because there was no room
for thoughtful discussion, our city vacillated between responses that ranged from police using
tear gas to the condoning of private militias. Rash decisions were made, people were put in
harm’s way and lives were lost. Even though this was a spontaneous series of events, the
challenges that arose were largely predictable. A city as great as Seattle can’t afford to govern
this way.
A responsible public safety plan includes an honest community engagement process and a
detailed proposal to create or enhance supplemental services that can take the place of critical
duties currently performed by the Seattle Police Department. To date, the majority of you have
only spoken in abstract budget declarations, breeding confusion and leaving room for a wide
range of interpretations. This is a moment in time where we need our leaders to be clear in their
intentions and processes to provide our most basic city services. We want to hear details on
how the Council would design alternatives to the existing system, or how these new systems
would be implemented in our communities.

 In the weeks ahead, we will be holding a series of conversations throughout Seattle’s
neighborhoods to hear from community members about their priorities and concerns regarding
public safety. We invite you to participate in these conversations to hear from our communities
and to share more information on your plans to reform how the city ensures community safety
for all.
We look forward to working with you and others across the city to ensure that this vision
becomes a reality and that the associated city investments are linked to tangible health and
safety outcomes for all, with a robust commitment to tracking and metrics. We must ensure that
our values are represented and reflected in the systems we create, not just the systems we
dismantle.
Sincerely,

Lisa Howard, Executive Director
Alliance for Pioneer Square

Erin Goodman, Executive Director
SODO Business Improvement Area

Mike Stewart, Executive Director
Ballard Alliance

Mark Crawford, Interim Executive Director
U District Partnership

Monisha Singh, Executive Director
Chinatown-International District
Business Improvement Area

Tom Norwalk, President & CEO
Visit Seattle

Mei-Jui Lin, President
Chong Wa Benevolent Association
& Education Society
Howard Anderson, Chair
Denny Triangle Neighborhood Association
Jon Scholes, President & CEO
Downtown Seattle Association
Quynh Pham, Executive Director
Friends of Little Saigon
Dave Gering, Executive Director
Manufacturing Industrial Council
Eugene Wasserman, President
North Seattle Industrial Association
Pete Spalding, President
Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council

Lora Radford, Executive Director
West Seattle Junction Association
Deb Barker, President
Morgan Community Association