Wilson announces transition team leadership including City Hall veterans, Social Housing advocate

The team formed to help Katie Wilson prepare for the start of her administration in the new year should be able to give the mayor-elect any help she needs finding her way around Seattle City Hall.

Wilson has announced a squad of transition team leaders that includes years of experience working in previous administrations and one of the driving forces behind the city’s move into social housing development.

“I ran for mayor on the vision that we can tackle big challenges, address our affordability crisis, and make our city a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Now it’s time to get to work,” Wilson said in the announcement. “I’m so grateful to the Transition Director and Co-Chairs who have stepped up to lend their deep expertise in government, business, labor, housing, and community development, and help me put that vision into action.”

Leading the transition planning effort will be Andrés Mantilla who served as the longtime head of the Department of Neighborhoods under both Ed Murray and Jenny Durkan.

The transition team leadership will also include union leader Karen Estevenin who also served on Bruce Harrell’s massive 2021 transition team, Harrell ally and an important representative for issues in the International District, Quynh Pham of Friends of Little Saigon, former director of the Office of Economic Development and policy lead on the city’s minimum wage Brian Surratt, and Tiffani McCoy who has helped lead the House Our Neighbors effort to create and fund a public Social Housing Developer in the city.

In the announcement, Wilson said the team will “engage community members to identify short, medium, and long-term priorities to advance the Mayor-Elect’s vision.”

Following her victory over the incumbent Harrell, Wilson has said she enters office “with a strong mandate” to pursue policies to attack the affordability crisis, address homelessness, “and build a city for working people” following a sweep of progressive victories in the election.

A strong early focus will be on homelessness.

“I think obviously the homelessness crisis is going to be a very, very top priority for me,” Wilson told CHS following her victory. “We have an aggressive timeline in the first six months of next year, leading up to the FIFA World Cup to really tackle the homelessness crisis as it affects the downtown core and adjacent neighborhoods.”

In the meantime, Wilson is building a transition team around the just announced leadership team. In modern day Seattle, these efforts can get pretty big. Harrell’s 2021 team included around 150 people. His leadership team included a more business-oriented mix including United States Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, Equal Opportunity Schools CEO Eddie Lincoln, Uwajimaya President and CEO Denise Moriguchi, and Sea Mar founder and CEO Rogelio Riojas,

Wilson’s full transition team roster will be announced in coming weeks.

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