Former Seahawk Doug Baldwin, Gee Scott press Mayor Harrell on Seattle’s biggest challenges

Four years after his original endorsement, former Seattle Seahawk Doug Baldwin joined KIRO host Gee Scott for a roundtable with Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Topics ranged from Harrell’s plans for the city and his campaign against Katie Wilson to a more personal look into why he’s running for re-election.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell addresses public safety comment

Gee brought up a comment from Harrell that caught national attention regarding his stance on repeat offenders.

In a previous debate, Harrell was asked whether, if someone offended six, seven, or eight times, at what point should they take accountability. He responded that when someone is committing that many crimes, he wants to find out their story and that he had “no desire to put them in jail.”

To answer Gee, Harrell said he was excluding felony crimes in his response.

“When I’m hearing six or seven offenses, I’m thinking petty offenses, at which point I said that we, as a city, need to understand why this person is committing that offense,” Harrell said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Police officers in schools could be an opportunity

Another controversial topic in Seattle has been the presence of police officers in schools. Harrell sees it as an opportunity for kids to have mentors and, therefore, prevent crime.

“One reason why I’m pushing for that is that a lot of these kids are experiencing trauma, and maybe they’ll bring a gun to school and put it in a locker because they’re walking around with untreated trauma,” he said. “Maybe they could look at an officer, someone that’s in safety, and that officer could have the skill set to come to develop that trusting relationship.”

A faith-based approach to cleaning up the streets

As for cleaning up the streets, the mayor is looking at a faith-based approach.

“We invested in a pilot downtown where a lot of people who are destroying themselves with fentanyl, and I said, ‘Let’s try a faith-based approach,’ because they might be able to get sheltered, they might be able to be kind, but they look in the mirror and they don’t see someone worthy of love. So that’s another strategy that we’ve employed,” he explained.

Harrell noted that he has spoken with mayors in other cities about what they’re doing to address the drug crisis.

“We are leading the way in our approaches, not following other cities,” Harrell shared. “You’ve been to other cities — you see how devastating some of their downtowns are. So we’ll try faith-based mentoring, everything that can help.”

‘A recipe for disaster’: Harrell comments on Wilson’s approach

Looking at challenger Katie Wilson’s approach, Harrell said there is nothing to get excited about.

“When my opponent talked about building 4,000 shelters, through the city, for emergency shelter for people to live in, her proposal is to take the very same money that we achieve through a $970 million levy for people, for teachers, for social workers, for baristas — that affordable housing chunk that we’re spending a billion dollars for — she’s talking about taking that and putting homeless people in those units that are earmarked, in the vacancies for those folks, without wraparound services — that is a recipe for disaster — and that is playing a short game with long term potential to be devastating,” he remarked.

Harrell said he has worked with other cities in King County to address homelessness, but will not shy away from ending the current funding model.

“What I’m doing right now, I have a motion that I’ve submitted to that board to say, ‘You have to become a regional approach. You have to put in resources, and it could be land, not just money, and if you don’t, we could terminate this deal,'” he explained. “So I’m prepared next year to either terminate their relationship or make sure that it’s regionalized, but this prolonged, ineffective model is unsatisfactory.”

Who is Bruce Harrell?

But beyond policy decisions, Baldwin asked who Bruce Harrell is as a person and what drives his decisions.

“Quite candidly, I’ll own it, but I think I’ve been scrutinized probably more than any mayor in recent history,” Harrell responded.

For example, Harrell said, a person on the far right called him lazy.

“He doesn’t have a clue as to how hard I work,” he expressed. “Everyone around me knows that, because I love it, it’s not even work when you love it.”

However, Harrell’s closing message targeted what he sees as Seattle’s missing middle.

“I have learned that there’s that missing swath of people, that middle swath of people, that need to be heard, they needed to be felt like they’re heard, and that, yes, I’ve been in a position of power, but they have to be convinced that not only am I the right person for the job, but I’m the right person for them,” he said.

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.