At today’s Seattle City Council meeting, I will be voting against the proposed collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild. I want to be clear about this upfront because accountability comes first, and this agreement does not meet the standard our city deserves.
Before we get to numbers and bargaining tables, I need to begin with what shapes every decision I make. I want to speak as Rob. As a father, a son, and as a Black man in America.
My life experience in this country is not an accessory, but the lens through which I see safety, justice, and the responsibility of public service. I’ve experienced police brutality firsthand. I know what it feels like when an officer crosses a line. Those moments keep me honest about what is truly at stake.
As an attorney and justice reform advocate, I have spent more than a decade pushing for police reform, stronger oversight, and public safety systems that actually protect communities. Before taking office, I served on the King County Charter Review Commission and helped pass voter-approved police reforms that were enshrined into the county charter, including subpoena authority for the county’s civilian Office of Law Enforcement Oversight in 2020. Since then, the county’s police guild has even agreed to that subpoena power in their contract. Though limited, it exists.
The contract gets at least one thing right. Expanding the CARE Department is a community win. We’ll have more trained social workers responding to crises, providing help instead of slapping on cuffs. We’ll have fewer unnecessary encounters between armed officers and residents in emotional distress. I support that reform, but it’s not accountability. Seattle needs both.
More of a good thing does not prevent misconduct or strengthen oversight. It does not bring this agreement into alignment with our Accountability Ordinance.
The most glaring failure of this contract is the refusal to grant subpoena power to the Office of Police Accountability and Office of the Inspector General. That alone justifies a no vote.
Without it, investigators cannot require officers or witnesses to participate, access all key records and evidence they need, or independently verify statements. They cannot gather information that would reveal misconduct patterns or verify claims made by officers. Investigations cannot be complete without those tools because oversight essentially becomes guesswork. And when investigations are incomplete, trust erodes, misconduct festers, and communities suffer. Seattle also retains loopholes that allow delays in investigations and keeps disciplinary rules inconsistent and vulnerable to arbitration rollbacks. Accountability cannot function under those conditions.
Seattle officers are already the highest paid in Washington. This contract adds tens of millions of dollars above baseline over four years. Meanwhile, Seattle’s working families face crushing housing costs, childcare shortages, homelessness, food insecurity worsened by federal SNAP cuts, and rising behavioral health needs. Every dollar matters. I cannot justify spending so much more on officers who already earn the most in the state while essential accountability tools remain missing.
And this moment demands more vigilance. The encroachment of the Trump Administration has triggered widespread fear, especially among immigrant and refugee communities. Reports of ICE sweeps and federal enforcement have people terrified again. Even the FBI is running amok. When federal power feels unpredictable, strong local oversight becomes essential. Seattle cannot claim to resist federal overreach while accepting a contract that weakens oversight here at home.
And Washington’s system is built to produce weak oversight.
State law prevents cities from unilaterally strengthening police discipline rules. Everything tied to misconduct must be hashed out with the police union. This means community protections become bargaining chips, and transparency is exchanged for raises or staffing concessions. Police officers have the authority to use force, including deadly force. That power requires stronger oversight, not oversight designed to collapse during negotiations. The legislature must change the law so discipline and misconduct rules cannot be bargained away. Lives depend on fixing this.
To the advocates, organizers, and neighbors pushing for real accountability: I hear you, and I am with you. Yes, I supported stabilizing officer staffing during a crisis. Yes, I opposed chaotic cuts with no plan and introduced legislation to reverse prior city commitments to “defund the police.” None of that ever meant I would accept weakened oversight.
When a contract asks Seattle to defer acceptance of its standards and pretend it is progress, I will call it what it is. Communities disproportionately harmed by policing deserve better, and I won’t settle.
Council should reject the proposal. To move forward, we need to expand the CARE Department so crisis specialists handle low-risk calls, strengthen diversified response and reinforce civilian oversight, champion a culture change in SPD through recruitment and the retention of more women officers, and fight for statewide reform to remove discipline and misconduct rules from bargaining.
I respect officers who serve with integrity. I have met many who want a department grounded in fairness and transparency. Strong accountability protects them and strengthens the institution they represent. I am committed to working with officers and SPD leaders who want a department grounded in fairness and transparency.
If you want real accountability in Seattle, contact your state legislators and tell them to change the law so police discipline and misconduct rules are no longer locked inside contract negotiations. Tell them Seattle deserves oversight that actually works.
Together, we can make it happen.
Rob Saka was elected to the Seattle City Council representing District 1 (West Seattle, Georgetown, South Park, Sodo, and Pioneer Square) in 2023. He currently serves as vice chair of the Public Safety Committee.
“Really accountability” – my ass. You gave yourself away when you juxtaposed SPD salaries as being high against your enumeration of societies problems. You have the gall to say that after they’ve been underpaid for years and staffing has just finally started to fill up after your council brethren decimated it. You want to bury police in litigation for every perceived rant. You tried to hide your anger, but it’s dripping profusely.
“I respect officers who serve with integrity.” — oh please, so which one’s aren’t? Provide a list. You want to know something with Bobby? I’d like to to have a city council that has enough integrity to be worthy of our respect.
I suggest a better attitude and start listening to your constituents, including those who trying to make a living being police officers.
Curby made him do it.
I’m not one of your constituents, but I do appreciate this stance.
Didn’t see this coming but credit where credit’s due, this is a strong and principled stance.
@1 “You gave yourself away when you juxtaposed SPD salaries as being high against your enumeration of societies problems. You have the gall to say that after they’ve been underpaid for years”
SPD starting salaries have been around the highest in the country, and much higher than in cities like New York, Chicago or Boston. How exactly do you figure they were “underpaid?”
@4: I used the past tense. Under 100K for a starting cop in Seattle is underpaid.
@5 relative to what? NYPD start at $60k
@6: I don’t get your contention. You obviously think all cops are overpaid across the board.
It’d be cool if this was D1’s full-time City Council member, as opposed to the fan of small-time corruption and word salad producer we have most of the time.
‘Yes, I opposed chaotic cuts with no plan and introduced legislation to reverse prior city commitments to “defund the police.” ‘
Well-written and welcome, sir! Hopefully this piles enough dirt on the grave of “Defund” to keep it down permanently. Time to move on accountability and real reform again!
@7 my contention is that your personal opinion that SPD were “underpaid” is untethered from reality, because they are and have been very competitively paid, so your criticism of Saka is unwarranted
@10: It’s more of Saka ACAB attitude: He says:
“Seattle employees are already the highest paid in Washington. This contract adds tens of millions of dollars above baseline over four years. Meanwhile, Seattle’s working families face crushing housing costs, childcare shortages, homelessness, food insecurity worsened by federal SNAP cuts, and rising behavioral health needs.”
Meanwhile, in Seattle, “progressive justice” literally strikes again, way to go, dumbass:
Repeat offender charged in random attack on 75-year-old woman in downtown Seattle
Wed, December 10, 2025
SEATTLE — A Seattle man with a violent criminal history is accused of using a board with a spike nailed through it to attack a 75-year-old woman on a street corner near the King County Courthouse last week.
Witnesses told police they saw Fale Vaigalepa Pea, 42, approach the victim at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and James Street and strike her in the face with the board at random as she was waiting for a crosswalk, according to charges filed Tuesday in King County Superior Court.
The wooden board had a long metal screw in the middle of it that cut into the victim’s face and head,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Turner wrote in the charges. “The victim in this case, a 75-year-old woman, was merely standing on a street corner waiting to cross the street. There were no observed prior interactions between the defendant and victim before he assaulted her; there is no apparent reason why he chose her to attack.
Prosecutors say the woman suffered extensive injuries, and doctors said there is only a 10% chance she will recover vision in her eye. King County Sheriff’s Deputies who were in the area when the attack happened quickly arrested Pea at 3rd Avenue and Cherry Street. Prosecutors note the entire incident was recorded by ‘high-quality surveillance cameras’.
According to Seattle police, analysts at the city’s Real Time Crime Center tracked the suspect’s movements in real time, leading to his arrest. Pea did not make any statements after being arrested, according to the charges. Police advised they recovered Pea’s board, used in the assault. The victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center and has since been released.
This assault occurred on the same block as the King County Courthouse on one of the busiest streets in downtown Seattle, where litigants, jurors, attorneys, other county employees, and members of the public come every day,” Turner wrote. “It occurred in broad daylight against a complete stranger. The defendant’s egregious actions in this case, as well as his prior assaultive criminal history, demonstrate that he is a substantial danger to the community and is likely to commit a violent offense.
A judge granted Turner’s request to hold Pea on bail of $1,000,000. Pea has prior convictions for assault and has had nine prior warrants, according to court records.
Pea is charged with one count of assault in the first degree and is expected to appear in court to enter a plea on Thursday morning.
https://komonews.com/news/local/repeat-offender-charged-random-attack-75-year-old-downtown-seattle-police-department-spd-prosecutors-king-county-superior-court-attorney-ryan-turner-crosswalk
Woman blinded in one eye after attack in downtown Seattle
SEATTLE — A 42-year-old man is accused of attacking an elderly woman unprovoked in downtown Seattle earlier this month, leaving her with broken facial bones and without vision in one eye, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors charged Fale Vaigalepa Pea with one count of first-degree assault on Dec. 9. He remains in jail on $1 million bail.
According to charging documents, Pea was walking on the sidewalk of 3rd Avenue near James Street behind the 75-year-old victim, who was standing on a street corner waiting to cross.
Pea allegedly struck the woman in the face with a large wooden stick he was carrying, then continued walking away, charging documents state. Witnesses told police Pea swung the board “like a baseball bat.”
The wooden stick had a metal screw sticking out of it, which cut the woman’s head and face as she was knocked to the ground. Witnesses rushed to the woman’s aid before first responders arrived, documents state.
Surveillance video from the King County Courthouse captured the attack.
Pea was arrested a short time later by King County Sheriff’s Office deputies. Records show he has prior misdemeanor assault conviction from 2024, four times in 2023 and in 2020.
The woman was left with a broken nose, broken cheek bone and blindness in her right eye, according to her son. Her son told police that there is only a 10% chance she will regain vision in her right eye, and she may have to have her eye removed in the future.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/woman-blinded-one-eye-after-attack-seattle-charges-assault/281-6ced07b2-ecb5-4f0a-a950-422690cf5e4b
@12 “Records show he has prior misdemeanor assault conviction from 2024, four times in 2023”
You’ll be happy to hear we voted out the incompetent clown City Attorney who oversaw those prosecutions
@13: As the City Attorney’s Office can prosecute only misdemeanors, not felonies, what was “incompetent” about those successful prosecutions?
Or do you prefer her predecessor’s policy, of not prosecuting misdemeanors much at all?
The police aren’t the problem…