‘You think this could be a firing?’: Jake, Spike question latest abrupt exit from Mayor Wilson’s office

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s press secretary, Sage Wilson, is leaving after less than seven months on the job, PubliCola reported Wednesday.

Sage Wilson decided he would rather work as an advocate for progressive causes outside of the mayor’s office, but doesn’t have a position lined up, according to the media outlet.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, questioned how bad the current situation in the mayor’s office is, given that yet another member has resigned, even though nothing is lined up for them after their leave.

“Can we just for a second break that down? Your job was so horrible that you’re leaving your job to go into nothing,” Jake said. “Am I reading that incorrectly? Wouldn’t you wait until you found another job?”

“That could be a fair interpretation,” Spike responded. “I mean, if you’ve got on your resume that you’re the press secretary for the mayor of a major city, I bet you can find advocacy work in progressive causes, especially when you work for Mayor Wilson.”

“She hasn’t like gotten off to a running start,” Jake said.

Spike says Wilson’s administration has struggled to deliver on its ambitions

Spike noted that Mayor Wilson and her administration came into office with a lot of ideas and motivation to enact change, though they haven’t been able to execute many of those policies.

“They came in with this progressive, ‘We’re going to change the world, do everything we want,’ coming into the buzz saw that is bureaucratic local politics,” Spike said. “And they can’t get anything done, especially when you’ve got your foot in your mouth half the time you’re talking. I don’t know, Sage may have done a great job, but it didn’t seem that way from a public perception. And when you’re the press secretary, public perception is kind of your gig.”

Jake viewed Sage’s resignation as he would rather do anything else than work under Mayor Wilson, while Spike believed Sage could forecast that the administration was “going to the bottom.”

“We know public perception is quite a lot, especially in local politics,” Jake said. “If I’m just reading it, it would suggest to me that you’re willing to be unemployed rather than stay working for Katie Wilson until you find more employment.”

“A lot of people after the Titanic sank were just happy to be still swimming,” Spike responded. “There isn’t another boat to go to, but I’m not staying on that thing. I don’t care how cold the water is; that thing’s going to the bottom.”

Hosts dug into why Sage would leave without a job lined up

Jake wondered why Sage — who has previously worked for advocacy group Working Washington and policy group Civic Ventures — would want to leave if he was already in one of the best positions to implement those ideas.

“I would ask Sage, where could you do the most good if not the mayor’s office?” Jake asked. “Like, what is going on in the mayor’s office if you’re the press secretary and you have an opportunity not just to advocate for some of these progressive ideas that you hold very dear, but to actually try to implement them. It’s like one of them is advocating and the other one is actually delivering. You’re saying like, ‘Oh, I can’t deliver anything here. I’m gone.'”

Sage’s departure sparked debate over whether he was forced out

Sage’s abrupt exit opened up a debate about whether he actually did step down, or if it was a firing disguised as a resignation.

“Oftentimes if you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything at all. Maybe the fact that he’s stepping away, it wasn’t his choice. Maybe the mayor didn’t want to say, ‘Look, we have been heading in the wrong direction.'”

“Oh, you think this could be a firing?” Jake asked.

“Could be. It could be. I mean, the mayor’s gotten rid of their communications director, chief of staff, and now the press secretary, seven months in,” Spike responded. “I like the fact that an administration that can’t get their messaging out and doesn’t know how to interact with the press — I like that they’re all getting replaced. Let’s bring in some folks that know what they’re doing, maybe.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3