An openly socialist city councilmember in Seattle reportedly let an outside socialist group dictate her staffing decisions, allegedly prompting an ethics complaint.
As The Jason Rantz Show in Seattle reports, deriving its information from an exclusive report by SCC Insight, Kshama Sawant allegedly permitted Socialist Alternative to supervise the staffing of Sawant’s office.
The Jason Rantz Show reported, “Wayne Barnett, executive director of Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, confirmed he has received a complaint about the staffing allegations in SCC Insight, but is yet unable to provide the details, pending a review of the city’s legal office.” Barnett told the show, “I review the complaint and decide whether there is reasonable cause to believe that there has been a violation of the Ethics Code. If I determine that there is reasonable cause, I begin an enforcement proceeding. If I determine there is not, I dismiss the complaint.”
In December 2017, the executive council of the Socialist Agenda fired a member, Whitney James Kahn. Some other members of the group who had been dropped from the organization then released a statement in which they wrote:
In an unprecedented act of political retaliation, the EC fired a full-timer who they perceived to be critical of the leadership and supportive of the Minority, right when the debate was being brought outside of the EC for the first time. Such a bureaucratic approach is deeply damaging to SA’s ability to have free and open internal discussion when its elected leadership bodies are made up roughly half of full-timers. – READ MORE