Your mayor! Live! This Thursday!
  • Emily Nokes
  • Your mayor! Live! This Thursday!
This afternoon at a 2 p.m. city council meeting, Kathleen O'Toole is scheduled to be confirmed as Seattle's new police chief. (Well, they're scheduled to vote on her confirmation, but spoiler alert: She's gonna make it.) O'Toole seems promising; we've written about her over the course of her nomination and confirmation process—see here, here, and here. But her confirmation is just the next step down a long road toward police reform. And it's not just police reform she's tasked with—there are, of course, a host of public safety issues she'll be immediately addressing, like a spate of recent shootings.

Also guiding the city through all this for at least the next few years is Mayor Ed Murray. Hey, do you want a chance to chat with your mayor about police reform, about public safety, or about the new chief? Do you wanna chat with O'Toole herself a bit? Well, this is your lucky week! The mayor's hosting another episode of "Ask the Mayor," which is pretty much your opportunity to watch a live episode of Parks and Recreation, and this time, he's forced tricked bribed invited the continually charming O'Toole to join him. The party starts this Thursday, June 26, at 7 p.m. at New Holly Gathering Hall (7054 32nd Ave S).

To participate in the live Q&A, you're supposed to RSVP right over here. It's a genuine chance to walk up to a microphone and ask the mayor and/or police chief a direct question—not a small thing. If you can't make it down there, you can always watch the event unfold on the Seattle Channel. More info is over here.

At the announcement of O'Toole's nomination, Mayor Murray talked about one of the ways he bonded with her: "She's a talker, and I'm a talker... Could be an Irish thing, I don't know." She tends to be a refreshingly frank public speaker. So is, on occasion, a comfortable, unscripted Murray—as long as he isn't feeling attacked. This could be a great evening, since there's some serious issues to discuss. (And also because there's a relatively high likelihood at a public-safety event that someone who thinks the police have sent tiny invisible helicopters after them through the phone lines will show up to Ask the Mayor™ something great.)