Altshuler (Image: City of Seattle)

With ripples of political change underway at Seattle City Hall, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth’s team is also making changes headed into 2025. As she works to choose a new policy director, a stabilizing force in the first-year legislator’s office fills a role new to District 3.

Hollingsworth’s District Director for District 3 is Alex Altshuler who says year two in the office will be about continuing to navigate concerns of constituents while building on the team’s legislative victories of 2024 — and smaller, sometimes equally important wins helping constituents and community groups in District 3.

“It’s when I get little wins for the community. I’ve been able to get street lamps that are out of order for a couple of years back on in a few days,” Altshuler tells CHS.

CHS reported just under a year ago on Hollingsworth’s approach to leading District 3 and the formation of a new office as she first assembled her team while still emerging from the long shadows of Kshama Sawant’s highly focused but polarizing political organization.

One key member has left the squad. Policy director and fellow cannabis entrepreneur Logan Bowers is out. Hollingsworth chief of staff Anthony Derrick would only confirm Bowers was no longer part of the councilmember’s office and did not provide additional details on the departure. “We want to thank Logan for his service, and for his contributions to our office over the past year. We are currently hiring for a new Legislative Director and will have more to announce in the following weeks,” Derrick said.

The departure comes as Hollingsworth’s team is marking a strong finish to its first legislative year. CHS reported here on initiatives shepherded by Hollingsworth through the city’s 2025 budget process that will bring new spending on Capitol Hill public safety initiatives including $125,000 for a new Capitol Hill community safety coordinator position with the GSBA beginning in 2025 and $150,000 to support a new street Ambassador Program in conjunction with the chamber group on Capitol Hill in 2026.

Hollingsworth also led a $10 million reallocation from the city’s Participatory Budgeting program to better support the city’s Black and disadvantaged communities and legislation increasing Seattle Parks funding by $775,000 to support capital costs and community staffing costs for the Garfield Super Block Park Project,

Amid the legislative success, the Hollingsworth office has also been more responsive to constituent issues. If Kshama Sawant had a “District Director for District 3,” she never said much about it. Altshuler’s role as D3 director is a core to the Hollingsworth connection effort.

She describes her work as a “hodge podge” of roles that consist of acting as an executive assistant for Hollingsworth and acting as a command center, she said.

“When folks email us, they’re usually trying to connect with a department…I basically try to connect them to the department that they’re trying to reach, or I escalate their concerns myself,” Altshuler said.

Altshuler joined as District 3 director in February. After graduating from USC with a nongovernmental organizations and social change major, Altshuler applied for and was accepted in 2021 to the UW’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance to earn her master’s degree.

“I had visited Seattle when I was looking at undergraduate schools as well, because one of my options…was UW,” Altshuler said, adding how her graduate school acceptance was a great opportunity to finally venture out to the Pacific Northwest. “I thought D3 was the best place in the world—I thought Capitol Hill was the downtown for a while.”

The team’s continued work to address public safety issues in Capitol Hill’s core will be a test for the limits of the D3 Director role as Hollingsworth’s office and city leaders mix legislation with sometimes one-on-one solutions.

With her understanding of policy in academic spheres, Altshuler said she is drawn to connecting with community members to understand their concerns and better address their needs, whether it be via email or phone conversations. Working alongside the councilmember has been a smooth experience, too.

“She’s [Hollingsworth] also very willing to get her hands dirty, so she takes a lot of constituent issues herself,” Altshuler said. “I feel like we have a great partnership in that.”

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