When the Times editorial board urged Mayor Katie Wilson to release all email and text communications related to the Bite of Seattle shooting, this is not what we had in mind.
Instead, the mayor’s office dumped a trove of data on the Friday afternoon of a three-day weekend. It’s a time-honored tradition of elected officials hoping to avoid public scrutiny by sending out tons of information when it will likely be seen by the fewest number of people.
In this case, it was text messages, drafts of speeches and talking points.
A mayoral spokesperson said the Bite of Seattle communications were being released to reporters Friday “in the interest of transparency.” The Lynnwood Times followed up with the mayor’s office and confirmed that the data drop does not include every text or message from the days around the July 26 shooting. Those will likely be disclosed as a result of the blizzard of public records requests that have been filed in the aftermath of the tragic incident.
While Seattle police and firefighters acted with immense bravery during the July 26 shooting at Seattle Center, questions remain about a five-hour information blackout and the mayor’s office role in determining when and how to engage the media with updates. Three people were killed and four others injured.
Wilson has asked the city’s Office of Inspector General to conduct an after-action review, which is expected in December. She also announced strengthened public safety communication practices. Meanwhile, Council Public Safety Chair Bob Kettle will hold another briefing on the Bite of Seattle later this month.
What to take away from this latest peek into the inner workings of the Wilson administration?
First, it is difficult to ascertain who is in charge.
At one point, Deputy Mayor Brian Surratt writes that the police on scene recommended that Wilson not come to the Seattle Center the night of the shooting. Alison Holcomb, the mayor’s public safety adviser, responds “Good. …” Moments later she texts: “SPD is doing media at 9:45. I’ve let them know Mayor needs to be part of it. They’re working on it.”
Wilson comes across as engaged and ready to follow the sometimes conflicting advice of her advisers. But a lot of attention is spent on how to engage the media instead of how best to inform the public. At one point, Wilson texts: “We should consider whether I should come down to talk to KOMO, if that expectation has been created. I’m sure they would love to spin an ‘absent mayor’ story.”
The mayor’s communication staff noted there was something amiss with the lack of information coming out of SPD: “Also want to flag whether we want to hold for SPD to make an investigative post/statement before we go forth with anything. They haven’t posted anything in two hours …”
It is unclear from the communications threads whether the Seattle Center police briefing, which finally took place around 11 p.m., was delayed to enable Wilson and other elected officials to speak to reporters.
During a July 28 news conference, Wilson was asked whether anyone in her office told SPD to hold off talking to reporters on the night of the shooting until dignitaries arrived. She replied: “That is not my understanding, no.”
The detective in charge of media relations later wrote a letter to his superiors claiming this narrative was “not accurate.”
Speaking to the Times editorial board recently, former chief Shon Barnes, whom Wilson asked to resign on July 30, said he was at an out-of-state conference during the shooting but engaged and following established protocol.
In text messages turned over on Friday, Barnes told Holcomb on the night of the shooting that his team was following ICMS, later explaining that ICMS stands for Incident Command Management System.
Barnes told the Times that, before he was effectively fired, Wilson never raised concerns about his travel schedule (his wife and two school-age children live in Chicago) or any policy differences.
Calamities and crises are always messy affairs, communications-wise. But if Seattleites were hoping to see stability and an efficient chain of command in Friday’s data dump, they will be sorely disappointed.
During last year’s mayoral campaign, Wilson took heat after a debate when she answered a question about how she would handle an earthquake as mayor. “I’d probably make some phone calls,” she said when asked for specific steps.
When it comes to preparing for all kinds of unexpected challenges, it is clear the mayor’s office must do more to understand the various levers at its disposal, including email alerts and how to utilize the Emergency Operations Center.
Meanwhile, expect further questions and revelations as more information comes out in an episode that continues to defy quick resolution.
