City Hall Fizz: Shakeups On the Second Floor
The changes include a new communications director who backed a campaign that ran misleading ads against progressive council candidates.
1. The city council will face a $260 million-plus budget deficit this year without one of its key budget experts, as deputy central staff director Aly Pennucci leaves the city after 11 years—nine of those on central staff, a team of policy experts who work for the entire council—to take a new position as one of two deputy county executives in Whatcom County.
Pennucci is one of two central staffers who've been publicly briefing the council on the upcoming budget crunch. Most recently, in response to skeptical questions from new Councilmember Maritza Rivera, she explained the steps the new council would have to take if it wants to roll back legislation that raised the JumpStart payroll tax to raise an estimated $20 million a year for mental health services in public schools.
On Friday, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced plans to spend up $10 million of those funds on student mental health programming this year, including $2 million for youth gun violence prevention and intervention. The council will have to approve legislation allocating the funds.
Pennucci will leave at the end of this month, and start her new position in August.
Another second-floor staffer, Councilmember Dan Strauss' district director Amy Enbysk, is leaving to take over as press secretary for King County Executive Dow Constantine.
2. Dana Robinson Slote, the longtime head of the council's communications office, left the council after 11 years in late May for a job as media relations director at the University of Washington. This week, Council President Sara Nelson announced her replacement: former city of Bellevue communications director and consultant Brad Harwood.
Harwood, an attorney, has contributed thousands of dollars to state and local campaigns, including $1,000 to the People for Seattle campaign in 2019. Tim Burgess, a former councilmember who is now deputy mayor, established People for Seattle to campaign against progressive candidates and incumbents, including current City Councilmember Tammy Morales; the campaign was known for its inflammatory, highly misleading ads, including mailers that Photoshopped stock photos of tents and graffiti into Seattle locations like playgrounds.
Most of the candidates People for Seattle went after in 2019 have left the council, but two, District 2 representative Tammy Morales and District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss, remain.
Harwood's background prior to becoming Bellevue's communications director is significantly more political than that of a typical city staffer, particularly one hired to represent a range of political views—including Morales' and Strauss’—on a council whose membership changes over time.
Prior to, and after, his time as communications director for Bellevue, Harwood worked as a consultant for a number of political campaigns, including No on I-522, the campaign against a state initiative that would have required labeling of genetically modified foods; a successful 2015 campaign to repeal limits Seattle imposed on the number of cars companies like Uber could operate in the city; and the campaign that legalized charter schools in Washington state.
Update: In 2006, the Northwest Progressive website quoted Harwood as a spokesman for the state Republican Party. As of 2015—the most recent date, before last year, for which his profile is archived—Harwood's LinkedIn page touted his experience as a board member for the Roanoke Conference, an annual Republican event that describes itself as a "retreat-like atmosphere" for "up-and-coming" Republicans. The group's website quotes the Seattle Times, which called the conference "The 'must-attend event for … Republican leaders' in Washington state."
Before becoming a consultant, Harwood worked for former King County Councilmember Jane Hague, a Republican who was defeated by Democrat Claudia Balducci in 2015.
Harwood has contributed to a number of Republicans as well as Democrats (including, most recently, Balducci's 2026 campaign.) In 2022, he gave $2,000 to campaigns associated with Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell, a Republican-turned-Democrat who ran law-and-order campaign for King County prosecutor. He also contributed $1,250 to campaigns affiliated with now-Mayor Bruce Harrell in 2021. He has also given smaller contributions to the Mainstream Republicans of Washington; former Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna; Republican King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn; and Republican secretary of state Kim Wyman.
Of 13 partisan candidates on Harwood's lengthy contribution list, eight are Republicans (and a ninth, Chris Vance, is an independent who used to lead the state Republican Party).
Responding to questions about his political work and contributions, Harwood referred PubliCola to a press release announcing his hiring, and said, “The only thing I’d add is that I’m thrilled to be here. Just like my time leading communications for the City of Bellevue (the second largest city in King County), I look forward to successfully supporting all nine Seattle councilmembers and department staff.”
3. City Councilmember Tanya Woo—the candidate Morales defeated in 2023, only to have the council immediately appoint her to a citywide seat this year—has lost every Democratic legislative district endorsement in Seattle so far (except the 43rd, which will vote next week) to progressive challenger Alexis Mercedes Rinck. Local Democratic endorsements may not mean what they used to, but a sweep of the LDs is a sign of solid support across the left half of the spectrum, from the historically cranky 34th in West Seattle to the idiosyncratic 37th in South Seattle.
Woo's campaign website, revamped to reflect her incumbent status, does not currently include an endorsement page.