The Mayor of Seattle is the head of the executive branch of the

city government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. The mayor is authorized by the

city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document ('' charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally the granting of a charte ...

to enforce laws enacted by the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-l ...

, as well as direct subordinate officers in city departments. (The

, the legislative branch of city government, is led by the council president.) The mayor serves a four-year term, without

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s, and is chosen in citywide, two-round elections between nonpartisan candidates. Since the appointment of Henry A. Atkins in 1869, 56 individuals have held the office of mayor. The city elected Bertha Knight Landes, the first female mayor of a major U.S. city, in 1926. Several mayors have served non-consecutive terms, while others have resigned or faced

recall election A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of of ...

Charles Royer Charles T. Royer (born August 22, 1939) is an American news reporter and politician who served as the 48th mayor of Seattle, Washington (U.S. state), Washington from 1978 to 1990. After serving as mayor of Seattle, Royer became the director of t ...

holds the record for longest mayoral tenure in the city's history, serving three full terms from 1978 to 1990.

Bruce Harrell Bruce Allen Harrell (born October 10, 1958) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 57th and current mayor of Seattle, Washington. He served as a member of the Seattle City Council from District 2 from 2016 to 2020. Elected to the c ...

took office as mayor on January 1st, 2022 becoming the first Asian-American and second African-American Mayor in Seattle's History.

History

Seattle was initially incorporated as a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

on January 14, 1865, by the

Washington Territorial Legislature The Washington State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a bicameral body, composed of the lower Washington House of Representatives, composed of 98 Representatives, and the upper Washington State Senat ...

, governed by a

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. Charles C. Terry served as president of the board of trustees, which remained unchanged until the town's disincorporation on January 28, 1867. The town of Seattle was incorporated a second time on December 2, 1869, with a new

that established the position of mayor. Henry A. Atkins was appointed as the first mayor of Seattle by the Territorial Legislature, and was elected to the office on July 11, 1870. A new city charter, the Freeholders Charter, was adopted in 1890 and extended the mayor's term in office from one year to two years, but barred consecutive terms. The charter also moved elections to the first Monday in March and required the mayor to be at least 30 years of age and live within the city for two years. A new city charter that was approved by the city's voters in 1946 lengthened the term of office for mayors from two years to four years, starting with the 1948 elections. In 1969 the age and residence requirements were removed from the charter.

Duties and powers

The mayor is the head of the executive branch of Seattle's municipal government, charged with the appointment and management of 25 department and commission heads that work directly for the mayor. In the event of an absence of the mayor, the president of the

assumes the duties of the position as mayor pro tem until their return, but a notification is not necessary under the city charter.

Elections and succession

The mayor is elected in a citywide election held every four years, composed of two stages: a primary election in August and a general election between the top two candidates in November. Elections are officially non-partisan. If the office of mayor becomes vacant, the president of the city council becomes mayor for a five-day period to immediately fill the position. If the president of the city council declines to remain mayor, the city council is authorized to vote to appoint a councilmember to the role of mayor. The councilmember appointed to the position under both scenarios will forfeit their position on the city council until the next election. A mayor-elect can also take office earlier than the official inauguration date (January 1), upon certification of the election results and a decision by the city council to replace the appointed mayor. A two-thirds majority vote of the city council can remove the mayor from office for a willful violation of duty or an offense involving moral turpitude.

List of mayors

Other offices held

Several of Seattle's mayors have held other political offices in the state and federal government, both before and after their terms. :

Living former mayors

, eight former mayors are alive, the oldest being Wesley C. Uhlman (born in 1935). The most recent former mayor to die was

Paul Schell Paul E. S. Schell (born Paul Ervin Schlachtenhaufen; October 8, 1937 – July 27, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 50th mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1998 to 2002. Early life and education The oldest of six chi ...

, in 2014.

References

External links

Mayors of the City of Seattle
Seattle City Archives

from ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Mayors Of Seattle

History of Seattle