On January 27, the Seattle City Council appointed Mark Solomon to fill a vacant position and serve as the next City Councilmember to represent District 2, which includes the Chinatown International District (CID) and the Southeast Seattle neighborhoods of Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, Columbia City, Mount Baker, Yesler Terrace, and Rainier Beach.
Solomon succeeds Councilmember Tammy Morales, who resigned effective January 6. Solomon unsuccessfully challenged Morales for the seat in 2019, losing with 39% to Morales’s 60% of the vote.
Solomon has worked as a crime-prevention coordinator with the Seattle Police Department for nearly 35 years, and also worked as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Solomon will serve in the role until November 2025, when the next District 2 representative will be chosen by voters, and serve the rest of the term until 2027. Solomon has said he will not seek re-election.
Early in the appointment process, Councilmembers differed in whether they wanted to appoint someone who would run again, or a temporary “caretaker” for the seat. Councilmembers Rob Saka and Cathy Moore wanted to appoint a caretaker, while Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alexis Mercedes Rinck suggested they wanted someone who would campaign again for the seat, and in the process, engage more with the District 2 community.
During a January 17 Council meeting, when the Council narrowed down a list of 19 finalists to six, Nelson said Little Sài Gòn should be represented on the council, given the public safety issues it faces. She nominated Hong Chhuor, who has worked at Asian Counseling and Referral Service and served on the board of Friends of Little Sài Gòn, but ultimately Chhuor was not selected to fill the vacancy.
Solomon received a five vote majority from the Councilmembers after five rounds of voting. Councilmembers Bob Kettle, Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dan Strauss voted instead for Adonis Ducksworth, transportation policy adviser for Mayor Bruce Harrell.
Solomon will chair the Council’s Land Use Committee during a year when the Council finalizes the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, determining how the city will grow.
In his application for the position, Solomon listed his top priorities as helping complete the Comprehensive Plan, legislation to address violence at after-hours clubs, and “working with stakeholders to address crime, disorder and human suffering” in Little Sài Gòn.
After his appointment, Cascade PBS quoted Solomon’s response when asked about crime in the CID. “What’s going on in Little Saigon, in the CID is [going to take] more than just law enforcement,” Solomon said, quoted by Cascade PBS. “It’s going to have to be a more holistic approach, something that we call place-based crime prevention, which really does focus on community engagement, community activation.”
During a January 21 panel in which the six finalists answered questions, Solomon also said Sound Transit needed to do more to earn the trust of the CID community and engage more around the impacts of light rail. Solomon, however, will not serve on the Sound Transit board, as the City Council is represented there by Councilmember Strauss.
