That was the takeaway of today's short discussion on why the fuck the Seattle Police Chief—among all the other department heads in the city—isn't up for periodic review and reappointment by the city council (the fire chief also gets a pass, but then his employees put out fires, they don't taunt suspects with racially charged language).

Committee members Bruce Harrell and Mike O'Brien were understandably perplexed as to why these vital positions were excluded from the reappointment requirement in the first place, especially given the consistently surfacing trust issues between the police and the public. Vice-Chair of the committee Mike O'Brien said that there is "a lot of merit to a set confirmation period" and if there are strong arguments against it he doesn't know what they are.

The only weak argument offered for excluding police chiefs from the reconfirmation was that finding police chiefs is historically a "chore," according to one council staff member, and politicizing the job may be annoying for the applicants.

Voters would need to empower the city council to reconfirm the police chief (and fire chief) through a ballot measure. It seems highly likely that Harrell will be motivated to submit the appropriate resolution (by the ballot deadline, August 6) to get this thing on the ballot, seeing as how he's gunning for the mayor's job.