Seattle Mayor Harrell's friend dismissed from top job after being accused of hate speech, slur

Last June, Darrell Powell — longtime friend and former football teammate of Mayor Bruce Harrell — was dismissed from his role as interim CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

He stepped down, as a new permanent CEO was selected.

But newly obtained records show that in the days leading to his departure, a supervisor at the homelessness authority accused Powell of using bigoted language, and said he made homophobic and anti-trans comments.

The supervisor said they overheard Powell refer to someone as “an affirmative action retard hire.” They said Powell clarified that he believed this person was “retarded,” as in “the pejorative term” for someone with developmental or intellectual disabilities.

“Quite literally, last week it was the ‘alleged’ homophobic and anti-trans comments, and today it is individuals with intellectual disabilities,” the supervisor said, according to records. According to news outlet PubliCola, Powell said during job candidate interviews that he wasn’t a fan of gender neutral bathrooms and didn’t understand the “LGBTQ stuff.”

The supervisor, according to records, asked: “At what point, and which disadvantaged, minority, or vulnerable community being attacked will it take to remove” Powell?

Four days later, on June 3, Powell was out.

Lisa Edge, spokesperson for the homelessness authority, declined to answer questions about the complaints filed against Powell, because they are personnel issues.

Powell told KUOW in a brief phone call interview on Wednesday that he had no comment, on the advice of his attorney.

KUOW asked Powell directly if he used the bigoted language, to which he responded, “No comment.” He said he didn’t want to give “anything legs,” and that it was “just silly.”

He refused to respond to any of KUOW’s subsequent questions, including those about his relationship with Mayor Bruce Harrell and the reason for his departure.

Mayor Bruce Harrell and Powell’s friendship can be traced back to their days at Garfield High School, where they donned the same purple and white football jerseys.

They both served on the board of the Royal Esquire Club, a social club for Black Seattleites, their terms coinciding from 2019 to 2021.

When Harrell launched his campaign for mayor, Powell, as a nonprofit leader at United Way of King County and later at the YMCA of Greater Seattle, publicly endorsed him.

And when Harrell won, Powell served on Harrell’s city revenue task force.

So when someone was needed to step in and take over for then interim CEO Helen Howell, Mayor Harrell vouched for Powell.

Harrell’s spokesperson, Jamie Housen, said by email that their friendship was relevant “only in that the mayor knew him and was aware of his record in the nonprofit space, seeming to make him a fit during what was a turbulent and challenging time for the KCRHA and its employees.”

Powell was also one of three final contenders for the permanent CEO position, but withdrew his name from the pool before stepping down. He blamed structural issues within the organization and the permanent job’s interview process as having been “compromised" and “politicized.”

“The mayor is as disappointed as anyone that Darrell Powell was not the right fit for the role,” Housen said, adding that Harrell is happy with the performance of the new permanent CEO, Kelly Kinnison, and proud to have supported her candidacy.