Nick Licata, candidate for Seattle Council Position 8: 5 things to know

Former Seattle City Council member Nick Licata is one of 14 people who applied for Council Position 8, which was left vacant when councilmember Burgess was sworn-in as Seattle mayor.

The city council will appoint one of the applicants at a meeting Friday afternoon.

Here's some background on Licata:

1. Licata won his council position in 1998:  Licata is a retired member of the Seattle City Council.  He served 18 years and was elected to five terms until retiring in 2015. During his time on the council, he served as council president and was chair of various committees including human services and culture, budget, land use, housing and others.

2. He's a longtime activist: According to Crosscut, in 1999, Licata welcomed anti-globalization activists into his home after the city's historic World Trade Organization protests. He was the co-chair of Citizens for More Important Things, a group opposed to excessive public funding of professional sports stadiums. The group wrote King County Initiative 16 and collected over 73,000 signatures in order to be placed on the ballot. He was a board member of the Center for Global Security Studies, which focused on Asian/Pacific disarmament issues and supporting indigenous rights in the Pacific. He also served as a board member for the ACLU.

3. He lived in a commune for 25 years: According to an article he wrote in 2008, "Every politician should live in a commune," Licata lived in the PRAG House collective in Seattle while he was an activist and insurance broker. He said the house was started by close friends who had come together as graduate students in sociology at the University of Washington to protest the Vietnam War in the early '70s. Licata earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Bowling Green University 1969 and a master's degree in sociology from the University of Washington in 1973.

4. He's a published author: Licata published a children's book, "Princess Bianca and the Vandals," which takes on environmental issues, and "Becoming a Citizen Activist: Stories, Strategies and Advice on How to Change our World," released in January 2016. He worked as a writer for Crosscut, was the publisher of the "People's Yellow Pages" -- Seattle's first guide to community organizations, social service agencies, and political groups, and was founder of the Seattle Sun, a community newspaper published in the '70s and '80s.

5. He instituted poetry readings in his committee meetings: Upon his election to the Seattle City Council, Licata instituted poetry readings before his committee meetings, believing that the personal insight of poetry has the power to enlighten the routine of government. The program was known as Words' Worth.  A guest poetry curator was chosen every few months. He or she, in turn, then selected a number of poets to read their own works.

Cox Media Group