Nick Licata

Nick Licata is from a working class family where neither

parent graduated from high school. Licata, who couldn’t read

until the age of nine, was the first of his relatives to attend

college. He led the local chapter of Students for a Democratic

Society (SDS) at Bowling Green State University and subsequently

was elected student body president and admitted into the national honorary

association of Omicron Delta Kappa.

He became a Seattle city councilmember despite being significantly

outspent and the majority of the council, the mayor, and both

daily newspapers supporting his opponent. Elected to five terms,

served as Council President and in 2012 he was named by the Nation as

Progressive Municipal Official of the Year and twice named Best Local

Politician by the Seattle Weekly. His election in 2013 broke all previous

records for the highest votes received citywide for a city council member

in a contested race. He initiated the founding of Local Progress (www.localprogress.org); the national municipal policy network and served as its first chairman until the end of 2015.

While in office he sponsored and had adopted as legislation paid sick leave and a minimum $15 an hour wage for all employees in the city, a city wide registration and inspection program for all rental units, required registration for all those lobbying city council, and created funding for cultural facilities throughout the city and initiated the city’s Civic Poet program.

In 2003, Licata authored the children’s novel Princess Bianca and the Vandals.