Mayor Katie Wilson: Learning on the Job?

By Jean Godden


-After six months on the job Mayor Katie Wilson is still learning. Although she campaigned as a democratic socialist, Wilson initially allayed concerns when she appointed Brian Surratt, an experienced moderate, as her deputy mayor. She navigated her first few weeks with unusual transparency, even going public with personal news like her trip to a hair salon for a hair trim.

But along the way, Wilson also has stumbled; she’s made at least three significant blunders. Her first mistake came early. Days after winning election as mayor, she showed up at a Starbucks labor rally and told striking baristas that, out of solidarity with workers, she wasn’t buying Starbucks and “neither should you.” Wilson compounded that early error when attending a forum on the state’s new “millionaire’s tax.” She called potential business departures due to the tax “overblown” and waved an offhand “bye” to anyone planning to exit. The mayor’s business unfriendly remarks have been highlighted in scolding articles carried in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

In a second serious misstep, Mayor Wilson abruptly fired Dawn Roth Lindell as Seattle City Light superintendent, one of the city’s most critical jobs, and then appointed Dennis McLerran, an environmental attorney who lacked direct industry experience, as interim superintendent. In so doing, Wilson not only ignored months of vetting the city had devoted to Lindell’s hiring in 2024 but also neglected to consult leaders at local 77 of the IBEW, City Light’s powerful union.

Wilson’s third slip-up came with her office’s callous disregard for relations with the city council. Tensions erupted over a bill in Councilmember Eddie Lin’s Land Use Committee designed to boost the number hosted in tiny home villages from 100 to 150. The mayor favored the expansion but failed to have the bill properly introduced by any of the councilmembers and then pressured the council to either strip the bill of amendments or delay passage. Councilmembers resented the mayor’s high-handed tactics in disregarding the separation of powers.

https://www.postalley.org/2026/06/01/mayor-katie-wilson-learning-on-the-job/