‘Absolutely lame:’ KIRO hosts discuss, debate the resignation of Tammy Morales

Seattle City Council member Tammy Morales announced in a news release Wednesday she is resigning from her position, effective Jan. 6, 2025. She made this decision despite her term in office not ending until 2027.

“Representing the people of Seattle, especially of south Seattle, has been my greatest honor and I will miss the opportunity to work alongside all of you on behalf of our neighbors,” Morales said as part of her statement.

Morales was re-elected to the Seattle City Council, representing District 2, in 2023, defeating challenger Tanya Woo by just 403 votes. She had been a member of the council since 2019 after running and losing to future Mayor Bruce Harrell in 2015.

Ursula Reutin takes on Tammy Morales for her decision

“I think this is just absolutely lame. I’ve got to tell you,” Ursula Reutin, co-host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” said at the start of Wednesday’s broadcast about Tammy Morales’ resignation.

Ursula then called out several of the issues with the Seattle City Council Morales addressed in a press release sent to members of the media Wednesday morning. Morales explained she was “worried about the future of this institution, and my place in it. For the last 11 months, this Council has eroded our checks and balances as a Legislative department and undermined my work as a policymaker.”

Ursula called out Morales saying the City Council “interfered with the ability of our non-partisan Council Central Staff to provide objective policy analysis.”  

“That’s a very serious charge,” Ursula said.

Ursula also listed off most of Morales’ eight examples of issues she has seen with the council, noting that Morales said the council “suppressed the will of voters by offering an alternative ballot initiative that would effectively gut the Seattle social housing developer next February, stifled first amendment rights during public comment by arresting people and intimidated commenters by having a police presence when any controversial legislation is considered.”

“In other words, she’s finding herself as the single vote ‘no’ on a lot of things that this council, which is a much more moderate council, is approving. And so instead of that, she’s gonna take her ball and go home,” Ursula said.

Gee Scott, the co-host of “Gee and Ursula,” brought a different perspective to the conversation, saying she probably doesn’t feel as connected with this more moderate council.

“I’m sure that she probably feels that she represents the old guard. The last council,” Gee said. “And it’s gonna be a constant like, ‘Oh, of course, Tammy, (you’ve got to) vote that way,” he said.

Later, Gee and Ursula had a back-and-forth exchange about the development, with Gee bringing up the “I’ll take my ball and go home.” analogy in a different way, adding why this is the best option.

“At least she’s taking her ball and going home right. At least she’s doing that,” Gee said. “If she does not wanna be there, then resigning is the best option because I tell you what we don’t want to do … Don’t we have enough politicians that just stay in their roles and do nothing? At least she’s honest enough (say), ‘You know what? I’m going to go ahead and step back.'”

Ursula countered by saying she shouldn’t have run to begin with.

“She shouldn’t have run because I would be hacked of as a voter if I know that I voted for her. I gave her my vote and she doesn’t even stick around,” Ursula said.

Ursula reiterated her stance on the resignation, particularly given the allegations she has directed the council’s way.

“She was on the council. She’s already been on the council again. I think it’s just a a sign of weakness,” Ursula said. “And I think those are big allegations that we need to get the City Council president (on) because …  the things that she is accusing that council of doing, those are egregious.”

Head here or tap the player below to listen to the entire debate between Gee and Ursula.

John Curley on Morales: ‘You can sort of see the writing on the wall’

John Curley, host of KIRO Newsradio’s “The John Curley Show,” didn’t appear to be stunned by Tammy Morales announcing her departure during the opening segment of his show Wednesday, explaining the Seattle City Council looks different now than when she was first elected. Those differences put her in a spot where she was going to get less done.

“You can sort of see the writing on the wall,” John started off by saying. “The City Council, they’re moving slightly to the right … and basically, the rule is you’re on the city council and you try to get four to go with you or five to go with you, depending how many in the council. (Morales) was noticing … with a lot of the stuff she was coming up with. No one was seconding motions. No one was moving any of her big ideas forward. So I guess she just realized … I can’t get any traction.”

John then played a clip from 2020 during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement when Morales said, “But what I don’t want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told that looting doesn’t solve anything.”

“But Tammy Morales, living in her own world and 2020 believing it’s OK to riot, it’s OK to be uncivil, it’s OK to destroy people’s personal property,” John said.

John went on to note there are fewer police officers on the street now because of the support for the defunding of the police at that time in 2020.

“Alright, so you have less police on the street because, well, a bunch of city council members, we’re big supporters of defunding the police. They wanna work there. I’m sure they’re happy to see Morales go away. So congratulations to (District 7 City Council member) Bob Kettle, who’s … slightly more conservative than some of the others.”

Overall, John thinks this will be just fine for the Seattle City Council going forward.

“This is a good sign for everybody. This is a very good sign,” John said to conclude that portion of the segment.

Head here or tap on the player below to listen to all of John Curley’s comments.

Contributing: Frank Sumrall, MyNorthwest

Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m.- noon on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Listen to John Curley on “The John Curley Show” weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.