Yesterday, Ansel and I reported on a text exchange that shows one way Mayor Ed Murray leverages his position over the city council to get his way on homelessness policy. In a text to Council Member Sally Bagshaw, Murray threatened to stop all encampment cleanups across the city and "pull police off enforcement" if Bagshaw moved forward with a council resolution about the Jungle. It wasn’t the first time Murray had made such a threat.

Council Member Lisa Herbold says Murray made a similar threat during an in-person conversation about encampment sweeps in her office in late January or early February. At the time, Herbold was hearing from advocates who believed the city wasn't following its own rules for how to clear encampments. So, she brought up the issue in council meetings and met with Murray.

"I said I want a harm reduction approach," Herbold says, "and what that means to me is focusing on areas that are imminent public safety threats and [having] more transparency into the process. But the reaction I got was... these were not appropriate questions to be asking."

She says "the response was very similar to [the text to Bagshaw]: 'If you continue push this line of questioning, we'll stop doing anything to manage encampments and I'll tell them [the public] why.'”

Herbold says Murray did not threaten to have police stop enforcing the law, as he indicated to Bagshaw. She says "there were raised voices."

Murray spokesperson Jason Kelly has not yet responded to a request for comment sent a vague statement that does not address the mayor's meeting with Herbold. "The city needs less personal back-and-forth and more action," Kelly wrote.

The exchange underscores both Murray's governing tactics and an ongoing critique that his administration has not listened to organizations that work directly with homeless people.

Herbold, who has worked on homelessness through several mayoral administrations, says she understands why mayors want control over how the city deals with people camping on public property. And, unlike some activists, she agrees with Murray that some places are too unsafe to allow people to camp.

But, if the city is going to conduct sweeps, Herbold believes city officials should consult with homeless advocates about how those sweeps are done. She doesn't think Murray has done enough of that. Instead, the city council has been having those types of meetings.

"Work with [advocates]," Herbold says. "We're not the experts. They are."