Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan wants city to pay her $240G legal tab after failed recall effort: reports

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has asked the City Council to pay her legal fees of approximately $240,000 following a failed recall effort against her earlier this year, according to reports.

The recall campaign against the 62-year-old Democrat ended in October when the state Supreme Court unanimously rejected the plan, which was led by six Seattle residents who blamed the mayor for city police using tear gas against protesters during unrest sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.

On Monday, Durkan announced she won’t seek a second term in 2021. The Seattle native – a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington – faced sharp criticism over the summer from President Trump and others over the city’s handling of the so-called “CHOP” autonomous zone in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

That occupation of several city blocks by anti-police activists eventually led to multiple shooting incidents that included at least two deaths.

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In September, Durkan also saw the City Council overturn her attempt to veto funding cuts for city police. At the beginning of that month, police Chief Carmen Best had departed, apparently demoralized by efforts to strip her department of crime-fighting resources.

The mayor in late November agreed to a budget deal calling for an 18% cut in police funding, far less than the 50% cut that anti-police activists were calling for.

Durkan didn’t request funding for her legal fees sooner because she never expected the recall case to reach the state Supreme Court, mayoral spokesperson Kelsey Nyland told the Seattle Times via email.

As the case advanced to higher courts, Durkan’s legal fees mounted.

In September, the City Council voted 7-1 to pay the legal fees of socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who faces a recall campaign as well that it still underway, the Times reported. Sawant abstained from that vote and Councilmember Debora Juarez voted no, the report said.

Paying the legal fees of elected officials is allowed under Washington state law, the newspaper reported.

On Thursday, the state Supreme Court issued its opinion regarding its October ruling in the Durkan recall case.

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In the statement, Justice Mary Yu wrote that critics of Durkan were “manifestly unreasonable” in arguing the mayor should have fired the police chief to prevent police from injuring protesters. Durkan was right to yield to Best’s experience in police matters, Yu argued.

Yu also said Durkan directed police to comply with a federal court order on the use of crowd weapons, contrary to what the mayor’s critics had claimed, the Times reported.

News of Durkan’s request for the city to pay her legal fees was first reported by PubliColaNews, the Times reported.