1. The Seattle Police Department spent more than $6,300 on a month-long stay at the four-star Arctic Club Hotel in downtown Seattle for Lee Hunt, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes’ Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction, after Barnes appointed him to the newly created position earlier this year. Hunt, who makes more than $300,000 a year, also worked for Barnes in Madison, WI, where Barnes was previously chief.
Expense records PubliCola has reviewed show that Hunt stayed in a room that cost between $221 and $293 a night between May 7 and June 7 of this year. The total cost to the city for the long-term hotel stay, according to an itemized receipt, was $6,330.
It’s unclear if the city paid for other Barnes appointees to stay at hotels as part of their moves to Seattle. As we reported earlier this year, Barnes brought in a number of new hires from outside Seattle, including a second deputy police chief, an assistant chief, a chief of staff, and a chief communications officer, in addition to Hunt, at an annual cost of more than $1 million.
In response to detailed questions, which included an inquiry about whether other Barnes hires also received an extended hotel stay as part of their moving costs, SPD’s communications office said, “All Command leaders who joined Seattle Police Department from locations outside of Seattle to bring their expertise here received a specific relocation package…