Seattle's socialist councilmember oversees $3M 'research' contract by CHOP-linked group

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Local Seattle media outlets are raising concerns over the city's $3 million contract with King County Equity Now, a pro-defund the police group whose representative visited to this summer's Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP).

Conservative outlet The Post Millennial described the contract as "more of a political payoff than investing in the community."

Independent news blog Seattle City Council Insight is pressing Councilmember Tammy Morales for details since her office is overseeing the contract, which uses a loophole to avoid a rule requiring all consultant contracts over $54,000 to be bid out.

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King County Equity Now calls itself an "ecosystem of over 70 Black-led community orgs driving Black-centered policy," and the contract will fund its Black Brilliance Research Project, which is part of Seattle's transition to a participatory budget process that allows residents to vote on public funding, King County-based PubliCola reported.

A person who said he goes by the name James Madison, second from right, carries a rifle as he walks June 20, 2020, inside what has been named the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

King County Equity Now's project plan says its research will "focus on identifying the needs and priorities of [Black and Indigenous People of Color] communities, particularly Black communities" and "aim to identify what communities want to see in Participatory Budgeting (PB) so that Seattle's PB will be community-led and centered of the experience, wisdom and expertise of Black people in the Seattle-metro area."

King County Equity Now activist Nikkita Oliver visited CHOP over the summer, but the group said she was there in her personal capacity and that neither the group of Oliver was a CHOP organizer.

PubliCola raised issues with the plan.

"The work plan does not include a clear explanation of how the research findings will inform the structure of next year’s participatory budgeting process, but it does include a list of preliminary recommendations for changes to the city’s budget priorities, based on feedback from respondents to the project’s surveys and from interviews with Black residents. These priorities include reducing the size of the Seattle Police Department," PubliCola reported.

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Seattle City Council Insight reported the project has "many yellow and red flags."

Since King County Equity Now is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the contract is awarded through 501(c)(3) group Freedom Project, which acts as "fiscal agent" and treats King County Equity Now as a subcontractor, Seattle City Council Insight reported.

"It’s a very large amount of money, being handed to an organization that lobbied hard for it, and contracted through a dubious loophole that bypasses standard processes guaranteed to ensure that the city is getting a good deal. The contract itself is weak on the details of schedule, deliverables, and tracking the money," according to Seattle City Council Insight.

Morales, who said she was a member of Democratic Socialists of America in 2019, said the contract is "DEMOCRATIZING power and resources" when contacted by Seattle City Council Insight.

 In this Sept. 2, 2020, file photo Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan addresses a news conference about changes being made in the police department in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

"The issue is not whether this is a typical research project but is instead entirely about how to teach community members exactly how to critically analyze the impact of policy on their neighborhood. (It’s access to power that my community has never enjoyed.)," she said in an email according to Seattle City Council Insight. "We could have contracted with a university and had graduate students doing this research, but that would not have produced the outcomes we’re looking for."

Morales also said it is "standard operating procedure to use contracting through fiscal agents for organizations that have not established" 501(c)(3) status.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, drew criticism from President Trump and other prominent Republicans after protestors established the police-free autonomous zone, known as CHOP or Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), which took over several city blocks in June following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Trump threatened to pull federal funding if Seattle did not intervene in the protests.

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In September, the Seattle City Council overturned Durkan’s attempt to veto legislation that cuts funding for police.

Fox News' inquiry to Morales' office was not immediately returned.

FOX Business' Thomas Barrabi contributed to this report.