Durkan, Best say Seattle City Council led to police chief's retirement decision

The news broke over 12 hours before the news conference in City Hall, but Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement with a smile, joking she’d finally get to relax.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan sent Best off with her voice shaking at first, saying “My heart is now heavy to lose her, and I will admit, I wish she was staying.”

She then proceeded to make increasingly pointed remarks toward the Seattle City Council.

The council on Monday voted 7-1 to cut the salaries of Best and other members of the Seattle Police Department command staff. The cuts to SPD’s budget, about $3.5 million, were part of the council’s rebalancing of the city’s 2020 budget.

“It has been so mystifying to watch the City Council plow ahead without ever consulting her, talking to her or listening to her pleas to be thoughtful,” Durkan said. “Not to set artificial targets, but instead to have a plan, a plan that focuses on duties, mission and outcomes.”

Durkan accused council members of targeting Best in what she called an “infuriating and deeply disappointing” move, saying the council didn’t move to cut the salaries of any other department heads or officials.

“But it’s not about the money. That was a final straw,” Durkan said. “It’s about respect, it’s about listening to someone who is there with some answers and with the lived experience to help Seattle move forward.”

Durkan repeated her recent praise over Best, saying she was the right leader for a department to reimagine public safety in the city.

Durkan appointed Best as the department’s first Black woman leader in August 2018. Best had been the interim chief since January of that year after Kathleen O’Toole left the job.

Initially, the mayor left her off the three-person shortlist for the job. Backlash from community leaders and groups led Durkan to eventually give Best the job. The City Council unanimously confirmed her.

Best was asked by reporters Tuesday what the final straw was that led to her decision, and whether the council’s actions felt personal.

“It’s been intimated that it has something to do with the salary, but nobody joins the police department to get rich, I’m just going to say that right now,” Best said. “I would have chosen a different profession if money was a motivator.”

Best’s salary was $294,000 before the recommended budget cuts were approved.

Best said her decision to resign had to do with an “overarching lack of respect for officers.” She pointed to her repeated claim, that if the department had to lay off officers, it would lose some of its newest and most diverse recruits.

“We worked so hard, we had a big campaign, the council gave us $1.6 million to make sure that we hired the best and the brightest and the most diverse, and brought them on and less than a year later, we’re going to just turn them all away,” she said. “It feels very duplicitous and honestly I have my convictions. I cannot do that.”

Durkan and Best’s relationship with the council has become more contentious over the past several weeks, and the two city leaders have repeatedly warned that the council’s push to defund SPD was reckless and irresponsible. Council’s talks came in response to months of protests from thousands of people in Seattle, calling for the city to defund SPD by 50% and reinvest in the community after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked demonst... (Read more)

Tweets mentioned:

https://twitter.com/carmenbest/status/1293251020492099590

https://twitter.com/simsron/status/1293035395207159809

https://twitter.com/NikkitaOliver/status/1293193628152545281

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