Seattle Mayor-Elect Bruce Harrell talks management style and transition team as he gets ready to take office

SEATTLE, Wash - Come Jan. 1, Seattle will have a new mayor.

"I do not micromanage and I try to hire smartly, I know the skill set I like around," said Bruce Harrell, Seattle's mayor-elect. "What ticks me off is passive-aggressiveness that when I am in a meeting, if you have a difference of opinion, please let me know," Harrell said.

Although we don’t know all the players who will be on his administration team just yet, Harrell has announced a transition team of nearly 150 people.

They are broken up into 12 advisory committees focusing on different key issues.

Harrell's transition team is more than double the size of what current Mayor Jenny Durkan had in 2017.

"I have a unique ability to get best of the best out of people get them to engage," Harrell said.

Harrell says it is also about accountability.

"When we look at our four-year agenda and they describe to me on what they want to see, they will hold me accountable as well," Harrell said.

The transition team will help set the agenda for his first term but as of right now Harrell has a top priority.

"Our highest priority is public safety," Harrell said.

 He admits he does not recognize many parts of Seattle because of the crime.

"It’s gotten awful. I talked to the governor yesterday said even along your freeways, governor, all of the graffiti and even the encampments you see this is not the Seattle I grew up in," Harrell said.

He campaigned on the opposite of defunding police but Harrell is about to inherit a 2022 budget that could see another $10 million in cuts to Seattle Police.

"We are working now with the council that they are listening to the voters, the voters are saying we do not want violence and racism at the police department but we want a funded police department, we want more officers," Harrell said.

Harrell said on Thursday that council members will be judged years from now on the budget right now.

There will also be plenty of opportunities for Harrell to be judged as he takes the reigns to lead one of the largest cities in America during some of the toughest times in modern history.  

Harrell says his other priorities after public safety are housing, affordability and homelessness.  

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