Transportation Committee recommends confirmation of nine members to levy oversight panel

The Seattle City Council Transportation Committee on May 20 recommended confirmation of nine nominees to the city’s Transportation Levy Oversight Committee, the committee that will monitor spending and project delivery for the 2024 transportation levy.

The committee voted 4-0 to send the recommendation to full council for final confirmation at the May 27, 2025 City Council meeting. Chair Rob Sacca moved the committee recommendation; Council member Lisa Rink seconded the motion. Council members Kettle, Rink, Strauss and Chair Sacca voted in favor; Vice Chair Hollingsworth was excused.

The oversight panel is charged by the levy ordinance with reviewing levy revenues, expenditures and project implementation and advising the council, the mayor and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). The 2024 transportation levy is an eight-year, $1.55 billion measure that voters approved in 2024; SDOT and council members framed the oversight committee as a transparency and accountability mechanism for those investments.

Nominees introduced themselves at the Transportation Committee meeting. Alex Hudson, executive director of Commute Seattle, told the committee he was "grateful for the opportunity to serve" and said the levy must deliver safe, equitable, multimodal transportation. Jack Brand, a Rainier Beach resident and volunteer with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, described his community work on Henderson Street and said he would bring a transit-dependent perspective. Leonard Harrison Jerome submitted a written statement saying, "We need the city to invest in safety infrastructure as well as infrastructure that saves people the need to own a car." Other nominees introduced at the hearing included Chase Kitchen, Stephen Pumphrey, Kaydeny (Ray) Tipton, Nafisa Samatar, Tyler J. Vasquez (via letter) and Jack Whisner; each described civic or professional experience they said would inform oversight work.

Committee members and SDOT staff discussed several features built into the levy and the oversight committee. Rob Sacca and others emphasized that the levy includes an implementation plan SDOT prepared before the vote, staffing targets SDOT expects to meet and an oversight structure that includes, for the first time, express audit authority for the oversight committee. SDOT staff confirmed the committee’s first meeting is scheduled for June 17 at City Hall.

There was regular-council-level discussion about oversight goals and priorities: ensuring projects are delivered on schedule, avoiding the slow start the city experienced with the previous levy, and prioritizing safety and sidewalks in historically underserved areas. Council members asked nominees to bring experience from other cities, to press for good governance, and to focus on on-time delivery and measurable performance.

The committee’s recommendation will be transmitted to the full City Council on May 27, 2025, for final confirmation. If confirmed by the council, the oversight committee is expected to be seated to begin work soon afterward.