Three Seattle City Council Members Decline To Sign Letter Condemning Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill

Council Members Sara Nelson, Maritza Rivera, and Bob Kettle declined to sign Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s letter condemning the One Big Beautiful Bill, which will kick millions off of Medicaid, slash food assistance, and bolster ICE’s deportation machine. They claimed they supported the spirit of the letter, but had some qualms with specifics, including calling out Gov. Bob Ferguson over the State Budget and the explicit endorsement of progressive revenue streams such as the “Seattle Shield” Initiative. But still, about 80 local and State elected officials, all varying shades of blue on the political spectrum, signed on without reservations about the impassioned language. 

Rinck’s letter, co-authored by State Rep. Shaun Scott (D-Seattle), Brianna Thomas (D-Seattle), and Port of Seattle Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, read: “On this Fourth of July, elected leaders are grieving the passage of the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans’. It is a national disaster and no call for celebration.”

Rinck said in Tuesday’s council meeting that her office stopped circulating the letter to her council colleagues last weekend to make sure she did not violate the Open Public Meetings Act (OMPA) by discussing the letter with too many members outside of the public’s view. While several of her colleagues had already signed, Rinck offered the full council that opportunity by introducing her letter as a resolution. 

Kettle spoke against the resolution first. He condemned Trump for denying Washington’s request for federal disaster relief in April and again in June, but ultimately declined to sign. 

“I’m not one to join on group letters, so I just wanted to say I appreciate the effort, I appreciate the intent of this,” Kettle said. 

Rivera made similar remarks. 

“...the actions of the federal administration are absolutely abhorrent, they’re disgusting, they’re against the values of our country and I continue to be — to say dismayed does not accurately portray what I’m feeling,” Rivera said. 

Again, Rivera said she agreed with what she thinks the letter is “trying to accomplish,” but she had “some types of questions” that kept her from signing on. Still, she expressed concern about how the decision would affect her public perception. 

“I don’t want it to be portrayed that mine not signing somehow does not mean that I — of course, I am not in agreement with this federal administration and I am completely…,” Rivera trailed off. “It’s hard for me to formulate words because I don’t think there’s strong enough words against what this administration is doing.” 

Apparently, there are no words strong enough, but somehow Rinck’s words are a little too strong for Rivera. 

Nelson offered the most detailed explanation for declining to sign.

“I will simply say, I completely understand and share the outrage or the spirit that I’m imagining drove the writing of this letter,” Nelson said. 

Nelson, who famously rejects signing on to non-binding resolutions, claimed she would “normally” “jump on the opportunity" to express her concern. But she didn’t approve of the letter calling out Ferguson for the budget. She didn’t want to “single” him out, arguing the budget was the result of months of negotiations between many legislators. However, that argument ignores clear, public examples of Ferguson bullying state lawmakers out of their ambitions to tax the wealthy and avoid the kinds of devastating cuts they ultimately passed. 

Nelson also took issue with the letter’s endorsement of Rinck’s Seattle Shield law, which will restructure the B&O tax to alleviate the burden on the bottom 90% of businesses in Seattle while raising the tax rate on the top 10%. 

“I’m a little uncomfortable with asking other governments to do something that we haven’t done yet,” she said. 

It’s worth noting that the big business interests that bought Nelson her seat back in 2021 oppose the Seattle Shield law. And with a well positioned challenger in Dionne Foster, Nelson will need to keep those deep-pocketed donors happy to earn outside spending competitive with the money Progressive People Power (P3) will spend to try and defeat her. 

Ultimately, Council Members Rinck, Joy Hollingsworth, Rob Saka, Mark Solomon, and Dan Strauss signed on to the letter.