Gee & Ursula: Shakeups at Seattle City Hall first step toward ‘exciting’ next chapter

Debora Juarez was named Seattle City Council president this week, kicking off what KIRO Radio’s Gee & Ursula Show hopes will be a vibrant next chapter for city hall.

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First elected to city council in 2015, Juarez has operated more at the moderate end of the political spectrum in relation to her more progressive colleagues on the dais. That includes a vote in 2020 against the Jump Start big business tax, and speaking out against efforts to defund the police in that same year.

For co-host Ursula Reutin, that all made Juarez the obvious choice for council president.

“As someone who lives in the city of Seattle, she represents what I think so many of us want for our city,” Ursula described on Wednesday’s edition of the show. “As president, she wants to make the council more team-driven. She describes herself as a thinker and a collaborator, not interested in the hierarchy. She doesn’t look at city government as a building block for a political career.”

“Here’s someone who wants to say, ‘hey, we need to start working together for the good of all,’ and that is exciting to me,” she added.

Co-host Gee Scott echoed that sentiment, but took it one step further with an apt metaphor.

“I want to say this about Seattle City Council: I look at them like I look at a basketball team,” he opined. “A basketball team that hasn’t done well the last few seasons, they’ve been losing. They haven’t been good.”

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But amid recent shakeups within city hall, “this is a new season for them,” Gee clarified.

“It’s a new team. It’s a new leader. It’s a new mayor. And I would like to see this team, Seattle City Council, play and do things with continuity,” he continued. “I would like to see them pass the ball. I don’t want to see one person shooting all the shots while everybody stands around and watches. I’m looking forward to a new season with Seattle City Council — I got my tickets.”

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.