David Levine

Levine (center) in 1958 in his capacity as president of the Civil Service League, flanked by League treasurer Ben Merrill and Mrs. Merrill. David Levine (March 18, 1883 – May 9, 1972 ) was a Seattle, Washington politician. He served on the Seattle City Council from 1931 to 1962 (with a one-year interruption in the mid-1930s ) including several stints as council president. On retirement, he received the title of Council President Emeritus, unique in the city's history.

Life Born in Kyiv in 1883, Levine came to Seattle in 1900. Prior to his political career, he worked as a jeweler In 1929, he served on a City Planning Commission, a role he would play again from 1964 to 1970 after retiring from the city council. An active trade unionist, as a young man he was a member of the Socialist Labor Party and later was president of the Seattle Central Labor Council, international vice president of the Jewelry Workers' Union, (a role in which he continued while in public office ) and editor of State Labor News. He was also a Freemason, a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and the Elks Club, and of Temple de Hirsch, Despite his membership in a Reform congregation, he often attended an Orthodox synagogue on the High Holy Days.

In the 1920s, Levine had supported reformist mayor Bertha K. Landes and, according to his own account was surprised when he was appointed to the City Planning Commission by Mayor Frank E. Edwards, her successor who defeated her in an election. His sole electoral defeat came in 1935, when a political insurgency by a young men's group called the New Order of Cincinnatus brought three new members to the council, including Arthur B. Langlie, later governor.

Levine played an important role in the management of the city's finances, The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce described him in 1958 as having "specialized in municipal finance" and "credited [him] with saving the taxpayers millions of dollars"; At the time he announced his retirement, the Seattle Times said that "more than any other single individual" Levine had been responsible over the years for Seattle's "operation in the 'black'" and added that "His budget-balancing feats are widely recognized by municipal officials across the nation."

Levine was also known as a supporter of public housing including, in particular, the pioneering Yesler Terrace development.

After retiring from the council, he retained until 1968 a small office at city hall and what Jones characterizes as the "mostly honorary" title of "adviser to the mayor". During this era, by his own account, he never gave unsolicited advice, but "f someone in city government asks my opinion on a question I'll give it..." He served on the boards of the Century 21 Exposition (the 1962 Seattle World's Fair), the Seattle Municipal League (the "Muni League"), and on the Seattle Center Advisory Commission, the Metro Council, the Board of Administration, the City Employees' Retirement System, the Firemen's Pension Board, the Police Pension Board, and the city's Board of Investment.