Moore Says SOAP Zones Won't Apply to Sex Workers; Former Chief Diaz Still Making $28,000 a Month
Today's Morning Fizz.
1. Late last Friday afternoon, City Councilmember Cathy Moore announced in her newsletter that in response to public feedback, she plans to amend her proposal to revive the Aurora Avenue "Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution" zone so that only sex buyers and pimps are subject to the orders.
Anyone arrested for patronizing a sex worker or promoting loitering for the purposes of prostitution could receive a SOAP order that requires them to stay out of an area extending several blocks east and west of Aurora between N 85th St. and N 145th St.; if police caught them inside the area, they could be charged with an additional gross misdemeanor for violating the SOAP order.
The change would remove a part of the proposed new law—which also reinstates a misdemeanor, prostitution loitering—that organizations that work with sex workers regard as highly problematic, from groups that argue for decriminalization to organizations that consider all sex work exploitative.
Audrey Baedke, the co-founder of Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST), said her organization considers anyone who has traded sex for something of value, such as money or drugs, to be a survivor. But on this issue, REST—which Baedke said does not take official policy positions, such as endorsing legislation—agrees with groups that support decriminalizing and destigmatizing sex work: "SOAP does not have benefits to survivors."
SOAP orders (and similar Stay Out of Drug Areas orders, for people accused of drug-related felonies) became common in Seattle in the 1990s, and at one point the two types of zones expanded to cover nearly half the city. Baedke, who started REST 15 years ago, said that in the past, women who got SOAP orders "would get a charge on their record ... and in our experience, their trafficker would not support them to do diversion, so they would move to Pac Highway," south of Seattle, or stay in the area and get arrested over and over.
"Will this move people out of the area? Yes. Will it help victims? Not as it's written," Baedke said. "Sure, you can move this off Aurora, but it doesn’t get rid of the problem. If you're not okay with it happening on you street, I hope you’re not okay with it happening online or somewhere else."
The proposal apparently still includes the prostitution loitering law, which lowers the burden of proof for police to stop women and others they suspect of being sex workers. During public comment last week, sex workers and people who live near Aurora described being stopped by police when simply going about their business because they "looked like" sex workers. According to the 2018 Reentry Work Group report that led to the decision to repeal the loitering law, such laws disproportionately impact “cisgender and transgender women of color."
2. The council is currently on recess, and the loitering, SOAP, and Stay Out of Drug Area laws remain among the items they left unaddressed before leaving; another is Initiative 137, the social housing measure. The council decided not to put the measure, which would raise payroll taxes on employers on salaries above $1 million, on the November ballot, instead bumping it to next February; the council plans to put a competing measure that would take funds from the existing housing levy on that ballot, but did not complete that work either before going on recess.
The council said one reason they had to delay I-137 until a less favorable date for the initiative was that initiative supporters took too long to turn in signatures and get their measure qualified for the ballot, which they did on July 23.
A look at recent history is instructive: In 2021, when supporters of Compassion Seattle—a measure that would have required the city to spend 12 percent of its budget on human services while strengthening the city's authority to sweep encampments—qualified for the ballot on July 28, the council placed it on the November ballot the following Monday, August 1. (Weeks later, a superior court judge struck the measure from the ballot.)
When the council returns from recess, the 2025 budget (and the projected $260 million budget deficit) will consume most of their time; as part of that budget, Moore has said she'll propose unspecified funding for a "receiving center" for sex workers trying to leave the industry.
3. Nearly three months after Mayor Bruce Harrell removed him as chief, former Seattle Police Department chief Adrian Diaz is still classified as Police Chief and being paid more than $28,000 a month despite the fact that he was officially replaced by Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr in May. According to internal SPD records, Diaz' "job code" is "Seattle Police Chief."
UPDATE: According to SPD, Diaz' time cards show that he has been working full-time, but he is still technically on leave; SPD Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey said Diaz "has recorded time other than medical leave for hours spent cooperating in litigation or other investigative matters, at the request of the City, all of which is consistent with his current leave."
By the end of August, Diaz will have made $84,000 during the three months since he was removed as police chief. Rahr makes slightly more than Diaz, so the annual compensation for both of the SPD officials being paid as "chief" is nearly $700,000. Under ordinary procedure, a chief who is removed from that position would have to return to their previous rank, which for Diaz is that of lieutenant. Following this rule would reduce Diaz' salary significantly, but his base salary (not counting any overtime) would still be more than $200,000.