Talk:Mayor of Seattle

Images

I've been filling in Commons:Category:Mayors of Seattle. The category now has images for more than a third roughly half of the mayors. Would anyone object to rearranging this so that instead of a bunch of big portraits down the right we put a column in the table & add photos or engravings for each mayor for whom we have one? - Jmabel | Talk 08:42, 22 November 2009 (UTC) updated Jmabel | Talk 20:38, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Seeing no objection after leaving this for a few days, I will do this. - Jmabel | Talk 22:56, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

I just found a photo of the last remaining mayor for which no photograph had been included. The caricature of William D Wood was pretty nice though, so I'll link it here in case someone expands the article to add context to the article:

— Steve98052 (talk) 05:27, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

External links modified

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“Acting” mayor used incorrectly

We are incorrectly using the word “acting” on this page. Tim Burgess is not the acting mayor, he is the mayor. We could put a small (appointed) note behind his name in the infobox since he wasn’t elected by the citizens, although it’s unnecessary. To be clear, if a mayor was incapacitated (say they became very ill) for an extended period of time, the city council president may be asked to be “acting” mayor. That person wouldn’t actually hold the office, they would just be filling in to keep the city running. In this case there was a vacancy in the office, so a new mayor was appointed, sworn in, and now has the official title. --RickyCourtney (talk) 13:28, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

It appears that the Council agrees with use of "acting" only for Harrell, not for Burgess. I've made the corrections. Thanks for bringing it up. SounderBruce 13:50, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

There was a lot of discussion between journalists in Seattle around the term "acting" mayor. Harrell wasn't really "acting" mayor either since there wasn't another mayor he was filling in for. According to the city attorney, Harrell was the mayor (not acting mayor) until he declined to keep the office, at which time he became the "mayor pro tem." But since Harrell was almost certain to decline the office, a lot of journalists just defaulted to calling him the acting mayor for lack of a better qualifier. It doesn't help that the titles aren't specifically spelled out in the city charter. But anyway, I digress. --RickyCourtney (talk) 14:15, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

RfC on calling results at WikiProject Elections

Please participate in an RfC at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Elections and Referendums#RfC Should articles say elections are decided based on preliminary returns?. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 05:16, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

political party and office

Office may be declared nonpartisan, but the person elected into office is not. The table in it's current form is misleading. Oniyorg (talk) 12:43, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Why is Harrell the 54th if he was acting?

If Harrell was acting, he shouldn’t have been the 54th mayor… Bbraxtonlee (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 21:25, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

Numbering Inconsistencies

Hi.

I noticed that Bruce Harrell is counted as both 54th and 57th, which I would assume means that mayors are counted separately for non-consecutive terms. However, many of the earlier mayors (e.g. Henry Yesler) are counted only once, even if they served non-consecutive terms. Not only that, but Harrell's first term was only five days long and was an acting position. Rick the Astley (talk) 18:10, 30 March 2025 (UTC)