Seattle reconfiguring hiring to favor "social justice advocates"

Despite all of the damage and unrest, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is still refusing any federal help in restoring the rule of law to her city. If they’re going to handle the problem themselves, so be it, I suppose. But what does she plan to do? In yet another instance of bowing to mob rule, Durkan and the City Council have decided that the way to calm the masses is to change the way they hire municipal government workers. What that has to do with the death of George Floyd is anyone’s guess, but the new plan certainly sounds woke enough to fit the 2020 narrative. Going forward, if you want a job with the city, you’ll need to prove your social justice credentials before anyone worries about whether or not you’re actually qualified for the job you’re seeking. (Free Beacon)

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The city of Seattle is hiring “social justice” advocates to staff its administrative offices—and unlike private sector jobs, these positions aren’t subject to the city’s new tax on six-figure salaries.

Library administrators, public utilities employees, and city auditors are just some of the positions Seattle is hiring for that have prerequisites of advancing “racial and social justice equality,” according to city job postings.

The job postings illustrate how left-leaning cities like Seattle are adapting to cultural shifts and allegations of systemic racism that have shaken local governments, newsrooms, and businesses across the country in the wake of the George Floyd protests.

The linked report offers a few examples of these posh public sector jobs and the new requirements to obtain one. The first example given is for the position of Director of Administrative Services for the Seattle Public Library system. That’s the person responsible for all of the financial activities of the organization. Keep in mind that the current budget for the Seattle Public Library system is $81 million, and that’s after they recently took a cut of nearly $3 million because of being shut down by the pandemic.

Seems like you’d want someone experienced, capable and trustworthy to handle that amount of taxpayer money, eh? But the first requirement for the job will now be someone who is “knowledgeable in the area of race and social justice, and developing policies with stakeholder involvement for better community and staff equity.” Perhaps math is optional now. (I was told there would be no math.)

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The city’s Public Utilities service is looking for a “Deputy Director of People, Culture and Community” who will pull down a whopping salary of up to $215,000. They don’t have to know much about electricity generation, natural gas or other public utility services. They just need to be qualified to “embed race and social justice and service equity policies and practices across the utility.” They may not be able to keep the lights on but they’ll fail to do it in a racially equitable fashion, by golly.

Oh, one other item of note involves the tax scheme mentioned above. The city recently passed a steep, new payroll tax on “high earners” (read: “people who make too much money”) for those bringing in more than 100K annually. But guess what? These lucrative new social justice jobs offered by the city aren’t affected by the tax. How nice for them.

Seattle is steadily descending into madness and probably isn’t all that far from Mad Max territory at this point. There was a time when I’d have expressed my sympathies for them, but not so much these days. You keep electing the same clown car full of loons over and over again and this is what you get. You asked for this, so nobody should be shedding too many tears for you.

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