Tonight, finally, brings us the first meeting of the Seattle City Council's committee on the minimum wage. At Town Hall Seattle starting at 6 p.m., there's a joint meeting of the city council's committee and the mayor's advisory committee on the issue, the latter of which has so far been meeting completely in secret. You should totally come down if you want to see a lot of people yell at politicians. Because city council operates under strict rules about being open to the public—and this committee in particular has committed to holding some evening, offsite meetings more accessible to working people—this is one of the first opportunities for the public to weigh in on the matter. And since they've rolled the mayor's group in, too, it's also the first time the public can speak to them.

Except guess who won't be able to attend? The mayor and fully one-third of city council.

Mayor Ed Murray plus Council Members Tim Burgess, Sally Bagshaw, and Bruce Harrell are all on the East Coast until the end of the week, researching universal pre-K options. Burgess is the council president, and Harrell also serves on the mayor's advisory committee. So some key players are missing tonight.

But just try to call them out on it and see what happens! They have such an adorable defense:


If you'd like to attend a public meeting tonight that won't be a total screaming shitshow, Jen Graves has thoughtfully recommended the awesome-sounding presentation on the future of the waterfront.