‘Native Land Pod’ co-host ‘stunned’ to see Wilson admin ‘mired in nonsense’ after civil rights director placed on leave
Mar 10, 2026, 5:03 PM | Updated: 6:07 pm
“Native Land Pod” co-host Angela Rye told “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio she was shocked by the Seattle mayor’s administration acting on what she called PubliCola’s baseless reporting.
The Wilson administration placed the director of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, Derrick Wheeler-Smith, and deputy director Fahima Mohamed on administrative leave last week after allegations of discrimination and harassment.
“I just want to acknowledge that, from my view, to say that the PubliCola story is a report is very loaded. I would say that this runs more like a gossip blog,” Rye said. “From what I reviewed, it was largely unsourced, full of anonymous allegations.”
Given those concerns, Rye questioned why the administration acted on the article.
“It’s a lot of he said, she said, and I’m actually really stunned to see the administration — the new administration, not even 90 days in — so mired in nonsense with people who agree with them more than 90% of the time,” she said.
She added that it was hard to see that the “gossip blog” targeted a number of people who had been terminated.
“When you go down the list of the people whom they have targeted, and again, in the first 90 days, while ICE is disappearing people on the streets of Seattle, you’ve taken it upon yourself to fight people in Black History Month who should be celebrated,” Rye said.
City ‘confused’ about civil rights director’s leave status, podcast host says
PubliCola reported that Wheeler-Smith was placed on administrative leave, but Rye disputed that, stating Wheeler-Smith was put on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) because he’s taking care of his sick mother.
“As far as I know, both of them were on family medical leave, and so if that is the case, I don’t know how you switch someone’s status to administrative leave because of some trumped-up allegations,” she said.
Rye also noted that mistakes are expensive and that the city would have to pay out claims from anyone who has a valid issue.
“The city needs to get it right,” she said. “It sounds like the city is really confused about what type of leave people are taking, what the law says. I don’t know who’s advising the mayor and the deputy mayor, but I would say they’re ill-advised.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.
