City Council 10/28/2025

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All right.

Good afternoon, everyone.

The October 28th, 2025 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 203. I'm Sarah Nelson, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Salomon?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Here.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Present.

Councilmember Juarez?

Here.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rink?

Present.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Nine present.

All right.

There are no presentations for today, so at this time we'll open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, and the council work program.

Clerk, how many people are signed up to speak today?

We have eight in person.

Eight?

All right, we'll give everybody two minutes, starting and ending with the in-person speakers.

Speakers will be called the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time.

We'll start with Paul Glumaz, I believe, and then Joan Fauch, and then Crow Delavan.

Paul Gloomass, King County Republican Party state committeeman.

I'm here to notify you about the reckoning that's coming to those involved in the massive grift and corruption that has diverted tax dollars into enabling drug and human trafficking and the unaccountable theft of grant funds as standard practice by the homeless industrial complex at the expense of necessary city services.

This takes us back to 2004 when Frank Chop, the Speaker of the House, changed the housing and homeless legislation written by then Democrat Mark Molosha to exempt grants from third-party oversight, leaving any auditing to the discretion of the party in power.

By 2010, both parties began to gorge themselves with the help of the nonprofits.

This is how it all came about.

In this regard, the radicals, the left, are just a distraction and protection of this corruption.

That's what's going on.

And there will be an accounting.

It's coming.

And all of you who may or may not know about this or know about this, you need to begin to prepare yourself for that.

and minimize your part of it, all right?

So it is coming.

There is a reckoning coming.

And don't think there's not.

People are waking up to the corruption, incredible corruption that has taken over our state and especially King County.

And it's not gonna disappear.

All right, thank you very much.

Hi, I'm Joan, and I came here today at first to speak about affordability.

I was really happy to see Sarah Nelson's proposed bill tackling the affordability crisis of groceries, so thank you for that.

But while I was waiting to give public comment, I received some horrible news.

This weekend, we saw CBP and other federal agencies staging in Soto.

in preparation for a surge, and it seems like that surge is here, and it is currently hitting Issaquah.

We have pictures and reports in Issaquah of people being pulled over in their cars, being told that they must give proof of their citizenship, pulled out of a QFC, pulled out of a McDonald's.

This brutality is coming to our city faster than we expected, and I'm calling on this council to take any action necessary to prepare for this.

We've seen that ICE, DHS, and CBP have illegally accessed ALPRS systems across this state, systems that are still in place in our city right now and that will be used to target our vulnerable immigrant neighbors.

Please, I know it's not on the council agenda today, but in the future, consider disabling the ALPRS system temporarily during this surge so that we can protect our neighbors and ensure that this data does not get misused by the federal government.

Thank you.

We have Crow, and then after Crow will be Nathan Wall, Yvette Zainish.

Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

I am here to urge city council to reconsider the use of automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, in Seattle.

The University of Washington recently released a study on the use of flock cameras for immigration enforcement.

It found several cities in Washington have had ICE access data from flat cameras.

Seattle doesn't use flat cameras.

We use ALPRs from Axon, but these are subject to the same danger.

ICE can use footage and data from these cameras to detain our neighbors and put our community in danger.

City council members will often talk about how they will stand up to trump and protect our community in this really difficult time.

And the time has come.

The time is now for us to protect our city.

I want all of you to consider what you are doing to try and protect our community.

Thank you.

Well, is it going?

OK, sorry.

First, I just want to acknowledge the seven million people across the country that came out to support the No Kings protest, including 90,000 people in Seattle.

I do want to thank Sarah Nelson.

We already did thank you for that.

But it's important to come out and show a united front against what's going on, despite some of the disagreements that we may have.

I do just want to address a recent meeting of the Housing Committee.

I'm a little bit concerned about the fact that Councilmember Saka seems to be bullying my council members into seconding his amendments, basing it in the principles of fairness and comedy, demanding that his amendments be heard.

My council members, I have three council members, and they have the right to second the amendments that they want to.

They were duly elected and appointed to this council.

I don't think that that's really how it works, but I do think that fairness and comedy demand that council members show up to see the Renters Commission move routine legislation out of committee and treat progressive colleagues like their colleagues.

So I just would encourage council members to act professionally and set a good example.

And justice for Kirby.

We have Yvette, and then after Yvette, it'll be Harper and then Alex Zimmerman.

Hello again, council members.

I want to thank, it was a wonderful budget meeting this morning.

It was very informative.

It was nice to see so many community members showing up and testifying because there's organizations out there doing good work I didn't even know existed.

So that was very, very good.

And for those of you who don't know, my organization, the Colored Girls Garden Club, feeds the community twice a week in Main and Beach neighborhood.

It's very gratifying and satisfying work, and I appreciate what funding I have gotten for the city from this.

And also regarding funding, I implore the council when considering funding, granting funding to organizations, that all the organizations that get funding, that there'd be some accountability built in, meaning that quarterly, that they report exactly where the money has been spent.

Cause quite frankly, there's several organizations in the Minneapolis neighborhood are getting substantial amount of funding and not doing nearly enough with the funding they were getting.

And that concerns me.

And I think, Leslie, oh, and Ms. Joy, I did read your newsletter.

that she sent out this week.

It was very interesting.

I liked the idea that for public safety deterrence, that the streets are being cleaned.

And notice that I take the bus here that the Chinatown, the streets are pristine.

Not a bit of litter, and that helps a lot.

Of course, there's still that drama at 12th and Jackson without the fit not going on, but that's a whole nother conversation.

And then so also not only do clean streets help deterrent crime, but you mentioned in your newsletter about ambassadors in our community.

Again, I think that's a very wonderful idea.

So any way my organization can help you in that, just let me know, cause you got my digits and I appreciate that.

And as the budgeting process continues, thank you guys for hanging in and we appreciate it.

Hello, I'm Harper Nally from District 3 and I'm here to speak against the amendment from Councilmember Sacca and the SDOT budget for a transit safety officer and wish instead to propose an alternative that will increase public safety more effectively.

I want to start out by saying that the county already performs the task that this officer would be duplicating.

And by the back of the napkin mat, I really shouldn't have written that, done in class earlier, $275,000 would otherwise be able to go to around 2,000 yearly service hours.

This translates to about five service hours per day, which could be spent on about ten half-hour long trips.

This would translate to a dramatic increase in night owl service in Seattle.

I commend the desire to make transit safer, but I know that from experience, adding 10 overnight trips to existing routes and or giving OWL service to new routes would have a much larger impact on safety than some coordination officer.

It would lead to more people taking transit home rather than driving drunk.

It would reduce the number of time people have to spend waiting out in the dark for a bus.

and it would also have knock-on benefits from boosting the economy and fulfilling equity goals by granting access to more jobs and activities to more people.

Thank you.

We have Alex and then after Alex will be Victoria Palmer and then we'll go to our one remote speaker.

My name Alex Zimmerman.

Yeah.

And please don't interrupt me.

Each time, but as you give me trespass, for many years, many trespasses, you're acting like a Nazi pig, like a bandita, Gestapo, in pure anti-Semite, because you know I'm a Jew.

Ah, one Jew in Seattle, it's no better.

Stop.

Thank you.

No, no name calling.

That is disruptive behavior.

This is your one warning.

Stop that.

That is a violation of Council Rule 11D1, definition of disruption.

There's a whole list of them.

You're engaging in it.

It's okay.

No problem.

Yeah.

Okay.

I can speak.

No big deal.

Yeah.

So thank you very much.

So Trump administration right now have very heavy rules, starting with very heavy rules.

one terminate 55 million citizens who have two citizenship, American and somebody's citizenship.

So this is very important because Seattle has this and King County has this.

It's a huge problem right now what we have.

And exactly when these people work for government because it's a crime, it's a federal crime.

And I give you classic example so you know what I'm talking about.

Two Bellevue Council for many years have two citizenship, one from Iran, another from India.

situation so critical because Bellevue by definition is very dangerous city.

65,000 from India, 45,000 from Chinese, 120,000 jungle slaves, only 30,000 white people for last 10 years.

I live in Bellevue for 40 years, so I know everything about Bellevue.

I want to explain to you guys this very serious problem.

When we have somebody who have two citizenship, four for government, four position like a consul.

It's very important.

I never see this.

Two people who want people here for 40 years or 30 years who have two citizenship.

Bellevue have this.

They not only have this problem, they open Indian consulate in Bellevue.

I never see like this before in my life.

Not only in America, in all this planet.

So we have fundamental problem right now.

Viva Trump, viva New American Revolution.

Stand up, slaving happy cow.

Madam President, I would like to note for the record today, October 28th, that Mr. Zimmerman has now been on notice.

And as you know, per the council rules, you have three before you get banned again.

So let's make sure that's on the record.

Noted.

Thank you.

You are pure criminal.

You don't give such a speech for four years.

Adios.

Lovely.

Good afternoon, counsel.

I'm Victoria with the King County Republican Party.

And I hope you've all heard that Antifa has declared a night of mischief in Seattle this Thursday, October 30th.

It's time that we stop pretending that Antifa doesn't exist and that our soft on crime policies aren't inviting them here.

The Antifa protest at the ICE facility in Portland is dying down in no small measure due to the patriotic counter-protesters that showed up to support ICE and support President Trump's deportation policy.

But will Antifa bring this movement to Seattle next?

Let's hope not.

For decades, Republicans have been marginalized in Seattle politics.

In spite of having no power, Republicans yet get the blame.

We suffer name calling, shunning, and sometimes even violence just for being a Republican.

All we've ever asked for is oversight and accountability when it comes to the spending of our public funds.

A recent report released by the Discovery Institute studied the tremendous funds piped into the homeless industrial complex.

it shows that a huge percentage of funding for homelessness isn't going to care for the homeless at all.

The funds are being used for lobbying and activism to push far-left agendas that use the homeless as its political pawn.

These groups push anti-US agendas.

Some are clearly Antifa sympathizers.

They certainly aren't worthy of our taxpayer funding.

My question for Council Member Rink is exactly where does the money from the progressive B&O shield tax go?

How are we the taxpayers to know if our money is being used to fund for housing and food for activists that are classified as terrorists?

People are free to believe as they will and protest peacefully.

We aren't talking about fighting an ideology.

We want to see police allowed to arrest and enforce penalties.

We'll now move into remote speakers.

A reminder to our remote speaker to please press star six after you've heard the message that you have been unmuted.

Our remote speaker will be David Haynes.

Go ahead, David.

Hi, David Haynes.

We need a franchise of grocery farmers markets co-ops permanently open in normal real estate locations throughout the county and the city.

not one day a week in a dusty street or parking lot.

We could have way more access to the healthy foods that our farmers are growing who can't find a market in the global trade because of the tariffs.

And if you all were willing to be noble in your leadership, you could convince Trump that he could use some of the tariffs to pay the farmers who then could donate to the schools so that the hungry kids don't have to go hungry during the day.

and if you had the farmers market set up in such a manner, when some foods came close but not were totally like rotten like they do now, it could be sent to the food banks and some of that food could go directly to the food banks.

Instead we have all this race-baiting, white man-hating, progressive bottom of the barrel fear-mongering and lies and reasons why it's unsafe.

You all keep blaming Trump for shutting down the government when it was Chuck Schumer.

that evil piece of crap from New York who would rather people go hungry because the Democrats purposely expired the Affordable Care Act subsidies this year.

And they're trying to like misconstrue the two and they're getting away with it from the liberal line media.

It's like even that public safety tax that that woman referenced.

And there's a real concern that council is going to use that stuff for sex change, gender reaffirming care for kids.

You people should be investigated for all of your shady deal-making and evil policies that are perverted and racist.

It's like we can't even solve the homeless crisis because you all are running interference for the evil criminals that are connected to the underworld.

We can't even solve the innocent crisis of unnecessary suffering for the homeless that are law-abiding because you all are prioritizing criminal, gun-toting, evil people.

All right, we've reached the end of our list of registered speakers.

The public comment period is now closed.

Thank everybody for their comments today.

All right, if there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing none, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

And if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

Now we'll consider the proposed consent calendar and the items on the consent calendar are the minutes of October 14th, 2025 and council bills 121095 and 121096, the payment of bills.

Are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

All right, hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?

Council member Solomon?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Aye.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council member Juarez?

Aye.

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council member Rink?

Yes.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council member Saka?

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The consent calendar is adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to all the pieces of legislation on my behalf?

Okay, and then would you please read item one into the record.

The report of the City Council, Gendan 1, Council Bill 121094 relating to land use and zoning prohibiting negative use restrictions that limit a property's use as a grocery store or pharmacy.

Okay, I move to pass Council Bill 121094. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill and as the sponsor, I'll address it first and then open the floor to comments and questions.

Okay, so today Council's considering a bill that would establish interim development regulations that would prohibit the imposition of negative use restrictions on grocery stores and pharmacies.

And negative use restrictions are covenants, deed restrictions, leases, or other private agreements that prohibit the use of a property for a grocery store or pharmacy.

or any other use, but right now we're talking about this.

The bill would allow some reasonable exceptions to the prohibition on negative use restrictions.

Specifically, the prohibition would not apply to negative use restrictions already in place.

When a grocery store or pharmacy is relocating to a site within a half a mile of a current location, and for restrictions imposed within an individual shopping center that limit the location of a competing grocery store or pharmacy just within that center.

I'm telling you what this bill does and then I'm going to tell you the rationale for it.

Violations to the negative use restriction would be enforced as civil proceedings through the land use code with potential lines of fines of up to $1,500 per day and the bill would be effective immediately to prevent near-term actions by national grocery store and pharmacy owners that may harm the public health safety and welfare by creating or worsening food and pharmacy deserts in the city.

Finally, the bill would be enacted on an interim basis, meaning that the regulations are temporary and would expire after a year.

The bill contemplates that OPCD would develop permanent regulations for council to consider before the regulations in the bill expire.

So the reason that we're, I don't know if a lot of people realize this, I certainly didn't before this bill was being discussed, that sometimes when a national chain moves a grocery store, closes a grocery store in a neighborhood, when if they own that property they can they can they can impose a negative use restriction to keep another grocery store from opening there and because they want the people that were going to that store to travel a little bit further to go to the store that's closest to the closed location and so this is what we're trying to do is allow for the greatest flexibility possible for the use of that that site going forward, any site.

So that's what we're doing here.

And now I'll just open the floor for questions or comments.

Councilmember Juarez.

Thank you, Council President.

I kind of have a lot to share because we've been working on this for a while, so I'm just going to try to get through some of my notes here.

As we all know, the closing of the Fred Meyer in Lake City Way has had a tremendous impact in our community, as has the closing of the Bartels, a Walgreens, a Starbucks, and numerous other small businesses in which Lake City is desperately trying to come back and hopefully not find ourselves being a ghost town.

The loss of a full-service grocery store and pharmacy in the neighborhood has been deeply felt by the Lake City neighbors.

Our office has been working with the Mayor's office, Mayor Harrell, the King County Council leadership, and our state representatives, including Council President, Councilmember Hollingsworth, and Councilmember Rink, diligently to find solutions.

And I'm thankful for your help and your participation and grateful for all that partnership.

ensuring that a new grocery store can be sited at the 1300th Lake City Way property by preventing restrictive covenants is an important step and I just want to literally just I cannot stress anymore this is a big deal I know of no other city please check fact check me in the country where a city has been deliberate and intentional in putting forward this type of legislation.

I would also like to thank our Legislative Legal Counsel, Lauren Henry, for working with our office on researching not only the title and the deed of the property to indeed look for those type of covenants and assisting us with solid legal advice and policy advice.

We will continue to explore how to best keep Lake City the strong and vibrant neighborhood that it is.

On a other note that when we did some research there were two other stores that also closed up north.

The one on Greenwood on 86 and in D5 of course the two former grocery stores that indeed had restrictive covenants.

The anti-competitive covenants will no longer be allowed in Seattle.

They are used across the region and the country to prevent anti-competition and what bothers us as I think a city is to weigh anti-competition versus a people's need for food and pharmacy and we believe that that's unacceptable and unconscionable.

I really want to thank the Mayor's Office and Council President for stepping up and assisting us in getting this done and also providing us with the Mayor's Office working with us to get a copy of the deed in the title.

I should also note that we did up zone this property in 2019 up to 55 feet so it could have other uses besides including a grocery store.

We appreciate the efforts of the small business community and build Lake City together to help the neighborhoods thrive.

I asked my colleagues to support this budget amendment and I have brought to support to work on Friday during the Office of the Economic Development Amendments.

Our office is also working closely with North Helpline and the Seattle Indian Health Board to solve the parking issues created by the closure of Fred Meyer.

I should add that the Seattle Indian Health Board we assisted and worked with them very closely to put a clinic and a pharmacy in conjunction with and in the building of North Helpline so they work together and Seattle Indian Health Board operates right now the only pharmacy left in the Lake City core at their clinic on the 33rd Avenue where they provide health care through a variety of culturally attuned services that care for the people in a holistic way, and also we turn nobody away.

I want to thank CEO Estelle Lacerro and the good folks at the Salem Health Board Clinic and the good folks at North Helpline for bringing the two groups together to provide health care, pharmacy, and food.

North Helpline is a food access and community hub seen unprecedented need at this time at their food banks with the recent snap cuts.

These nonprofit organizations provide crucial services to the Lake City neighborhood.

So, indeed, we got a copy of the deed and did a title search, got a copy of the title, and I'm sure that across this city there are other grocery stores that have these restrictive non-competitive covenants and this is forward-looking so hopefully council and colleagues we can start looking at these covenants that restrict that because we can't find ourselves in this city where we have food deserts in a city that has so much abundance of wealth and food.

And I would hope that when I bring my amendments on Friday that I have supported my colleagues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You made me remember that it was the North helpline does benefit from the Fred Meyer right there.

They do do donate a lot of the food to, you know, so that is another loss there.

Council member Rivera.

Well, let me add something.

I'm sorry, council president.

I'm really glad you said that.

And I do want to say this about Fred Meyer.

You know, we were Fred Meyer was a really good partner with the North helpline.

and the pharmacy, and they have been since they bought the property 10, 15 years ago.

And a lot of the stores donated a lot of food to the North Helpline Food Bank, including when our Sam's Club closed on 135th and Aurora, they too were very good partners.

So I don't want to completely discount how Fred Meyer and Kroger contributed to our community, and they did.

and while I may not agree with the reasons why they decided to close, I certainly understand what their business issues are.

I don't agree with them, but I understand them.

So thank you.

I'm sorry, Council Member Rivera, you were gonna speak.

Thank you.

No need to apologize.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President and thank you, Council Member Juarez for your leadership on this in concert with the mayor's office and our other council colleagues.

the store closing, the Fred Meyer closing on Lake City also impacts the D4, the neighboring districts because I have a lot of folks on the border between D4 and D5 that utilize Fred Meyer and now it's gone.

So this is something that happens in one district often impacts a different district.

And there is a food desert on that side of town, on the northeast side of town of the district that I represent.

And so this legislation is really critical.

So as we lose grocery stores, we ensure that there isn't an opportunity to leave out other grocery stores that might wanna come in, including small bodegas, which are also grocery stores and smaller that can go into those spaces.

And I'm thinking that in my district, I know the Rite Aid closed.

I don't know whether there's a non-compete clause there, but we don't always know.

But we know it creates a pharmacy and a food desert in those neighborhoods.

And of course the Safeway right behind U Village also closed.

And so that means the folks that are in the Magnuson Park area that would utilize Fred Meyer or that Safeway now don't have somewhere to go for food.

And also the issue with the SNAP benefits at the federal level.

So all of this It's all part of this food desert and the need to provide food for our constituents, make sure they have food access.

Food insecurity is real and it's hitting a lot of folks in the various districts that we represent.

So I just want to thank you again for your leadership on this.

I'm going to support this.

I'm really glad we brought this forward.

And to underscore a point that you made earlier, we don't always know where these restrictive covenants lie.

And to your point, Council President, we didn't even know that there were some restrictive covenants related to grocery stores and non-compete clauses.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Well, I should add, Council President, that if you want to get the deed in the title, talk to Lauren.

She'll get it.

Thank you.

I do want to note that the city has to own its own responsibility for creating the conditions in which a grocery store of any brand can survive in our neighborhoods.

I don't know the specifics of all the reasons why the Fred Meyer, that Kroger is closing that Fred Meyer right there.

We have heard a lot of talk about retail theft and other conditions that create problems for grocery stores.

So we also have a responsibility to ensure that whoever moves in there, if it is a grocery store, can thrive just like all of our other businesses thrive.

We're not fixing everything through this legislation.

We still have to keep in mind that we have a responsibility too as a city.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council President.

So D3, I know we've had our fair share of closures and I also want to recognize and understand and had the pleasure of working with Councilmember Juarez.

Know that Lake City and District 3 and Capitol Hill are different when a grocery store, we lose a grocery store in Lake City, it impacts people there very differently than it does in Capitol Hill.

It still doesn't mean that it doesn't impact people, but it's just very different because of the options.

and the transit options too that we have.

And so we obviously have had closing of Bartels, Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and I know that these are more than just grocery stores.

I know often people think of these are big corporations and there's different reason why that people close grocery stores.

It still impacts the community regardless of them closing, it still impacts the community.

And I know I've said a lot about this, about margins and operations and all that thing.

But when it comes down to, I do agree, the city, we have to take responsibility of, hey, what can we do in all of our power to make sure that these places can be up and running?

Because that's really all I care about are those outcomes.

and we have been working diligently with some of the property owners to find sustainable solutions on Capitol Hill.

There are different models for grocery stores that we continue to work with.

Some of those smaller footprints that can provide, you know, milk, eggs, meat and bread, the basics.

And when we have grocery stores too, we also extend the life of food for food banks like Council Member Juarez has talked about because that food life gets extended and it goes into our food bank system and then we continue that on because it does not go in the trash.

It literally, you have the most phenomenal foods that are being pushed out of our food sector with the right type of operations and services.

You all heard today from a bunch of those women who go and rescue food from our budget meeting.

So I definitely want to thank the Mayor, Council President Nelson, Council Member Juarez, Council Member Rink, all of you have all worked on, the entire Council, okay?

I don't want to leave anyone out, because everyone has given, I'm not, I don't want to make anyone mad, okay?

Because I need y'all to support my budget stuff.

So I want to give everyone shots out.

Okay?

But I also wanna take this moment real quick.

We're in a government shutdown.

SNAPs are set to expire November 1st.

Mark Solomon, Council Member Solomon, has the number one redemption of SNAP benefits in his district at the Othello Safeway, South Seattle 98118 zip code.

That food bank the Rainier Valley Food Bank accounts for 25% of the overall food that's distributed in our system with food bank sectors.

There's other folks that have pantries like Miss Yvette who have Colored Girl Garden Club who helps make sure it's sustaining folks as well.

And I just wanted to flag that because that is coming on very, very quickly here.

I'm concerned about everyone, but really concerned about that zip code.

But I do appreciate the mayor's funding for this year in our food investments.

They're very substantial, okay?

and I say that because I've been on the ground and I've seen it and that has never happened before, those type of investments for food and for us to be conscious about that.

So just want to say that and I don't know that budget stuff is before us as Council, but just for us to be aware.

So thank you, Council President Nelson.

Thank you.

All right, I'm not seeing any other hands up.

Okay.

Last call for comments.

All right.

Then will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council member Solomon.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Aye.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council member Juarez.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Yay, thank you.

And will the clerk please read item two into the record.

Agenda item two, Council Bill 121088 relating to city employment authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Seattle and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77.

Thank you.

I move to pass Council Bill 121088. Is there a second?

Second.

is moved and seconded to pass the bill and as sponsor, I'll address it first and then open the floor to questions and comments.

All right, the last formal CBA expired at the end of 2022 and the union has been operating under MOU extensions until now.

collective bargaining agreement, CBA.

Council Bill 121088 would authorize a new agreement between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 77 in SDOT only and the city.

The agreement covers SDOT's 27 signal electricians and is retroactive from January 2023 to January 2028. for a total of a five-year period.

The terms would include a slight $12 increase to the boot allowance, bringing it to 325, which is similar to other agreements, changing the vacation accrual so that it's in alignment with other coalition agreements, allowance of cash out of 25% of unused sick leave upon retirement, wage adjustments, 2023, AWI of 5%, 2024, AWI of 4.5%, 2025 conversion to salary steps which include an average increase of 8%.

2026 AWI of 2.7% and 2027 add 1% to the base plus CPI with a minimum increase of 1.5 and a maximum of 3%.

So all of that translates to financial impacts.

Retroactive payments needed for 2023 to 2025 would be absorbed by SDOT's 2025 budget estimated at 1.9 million and the incremental 1.3 million in costs for 2026 may be included in the 2026 mid-year supplemental ordinance.

Let's see, Amanda Allen from the central staff distributed a memo on all of this legislation last week.

So we're just doing this because we have this opportunity to get this off our plates and ratify the new contract.

Are there any questions?

All right, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council member Solomon?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Aye.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council member Juarez?

Aye.

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council member Rink?

Yes.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council member Sacca?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Okay, there were no items removed from the consent calendar, colleagues, and there is not a resolution for introduction and adoption today, so is there any further business to come before Council?

President.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to jump in.

Normally this would happen during committee, but I have to bring an item to full Council Direct.

The notice of appointment for the director of office of police accountability was received last week.

The mayor's office nominated Bonnie Glenn who's been serving as the interim director this year and previously was the deputy director.

The accountability ordinance states that the council must act on the appointment within 30 days or the appointment will be deemed confirmed.

In collaboration with the council president and also the clerks, We will be holding a confirmation hearing for Director Glenn on Wednesday the 12th of November at the Special Counsel meeting that day with the intention of voting on that day.

Ahead of this confirmation and hearing of vote, we would like to solicit written questions for the appointee to respond before the meeting.

Please submit questions to either either to me direct or to my policy director Brent Lowe by noon Friday.

And then we'll work with Director Glenn to get written responses by the 7th of November.

So again, we have Bonnie Glenn who's been nominated by the mayor's office for the Office of Police Accountability.

And according to the accountability ordinance, we have 30 days and obviously we're not gonna have a Public Safety Committee meeting during that time period.

I just wanted to raise that and then the solution working with council president and the city clerks on that.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

I am happy to accommodate and congratulations Bonnie for the nomination.

All right, let's see, Council Member Hollingsworth, is that a new hand?

Yeah, it is, Council President.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you, and colleagues, I did not have a time to say this during the budget meeting, but I just wanted to take the time just really quick here.

Thank you, colleagues, for listening to public comment this morning.

I'd like to take the time to thank all of the community who showed up in person.

and online for the first annual Black Community Budget Day.

It was an honor to help facilitate it, and I'm also grateful to the people who came and showed up.

It's important that we continue to hear from all voices in the community.

We had between 60 to 70 people.

Of those, 75% have never given public comment.

Half of those people have never been to City Hall.

I just...

I just wanted to point that out.

We had...

almost 70 people here.

75% have never given official public comment.

Half of those people have never been to City Hall.

So when I'm talking about public comment and I hear people, it's from not just the...

chambers, it's also in the community, and I think that's really important.

What I learned today is that black community can speak for themselves, black community are not a monolith, and black community are free agents.

Thank you all for allowing, the one thing that Council Member Strauss said, somebody had said, and they were very nice, and they came up here and they said, thank you for allowing us to come and speak today.

and I wanna push back on that because we do not allow anyone to come and speak.

This is the people's house, this is the city's house, and we want more of folks coming down to speak to give us public comment.

We have to continue to make it more accessible for folks and sometimes takes an invite.

Just takes an invite, takes a text message, takes a phone call, takes a church announcement, takes a word of mouth from the womb.

So today we saw that, we saw grace, we saw love, we saw people being very respectful, and we saw community.

We will be hosting this every year in a legislative meeting as we continue to grow in transparent access and community and building our collective voices.

So I just wanna thank everyone for coming down.

We're gonna continue to build this up and make sure that people's voices are heard and that you all know that black community can speak for themselves.

Thank you.

Acts.

Yes, thank you very much.

Can I follow on that, Council President?

Yes.

Colleagues, Very nicely said, Councilmember Hollingsworth colleagues.

I just want to make you all jealous that earlier today I was able to meet Council Hollingsworth's mom and three aunts and got my picture taken with them.

And so I just wanted to thank, publicly thank your mom and your aunts for being here and getting that photo, which I don't have in my possession right now, but I will be searching for it after this meeting.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And for the first time, giving public comment.

Amazing.

I was late to the meeting, didn't announce my presence, but was listening to most of that.

Okay, let's see.

Councilmember Mercedes Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

I first want to thank our public commenters for coming out today to flag the information about the CBP staging in SOTO.

I'll be looking into that.

Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

But I also wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to City Light emergency management team, first responders, and line workers.

actually represented by IVEW 77 for their work over this weekend.

The wind came in and knocked down a lot of trees which took out power for many in our city.

I believe almost every district was impacted in some type of way and at its peak we actually had 34,000 customers out of power and I just have to express my gratitude for the many City Light workers who were working in a dark stormy night to restore power to thousands of folks.

And so thank you to our City Light team, our line workers, emergency management staff, first responders for working through a very dark stormy night so we could have power by daybreak.

You're very appreciated.

Thank you.

All right.

And I don't see anybody else's hands raised.

So, uh, we have reached the end of today's agenda.

The next regularly scheduled meeting, um, of the, of the November 4th will be canceled.

And so city council will meet again on November 12th, 2025 at 2 PM and hearing no further business.

We are adjourned.

It is two 50. Thanks everyone.