Seattle City Council 7/8/2025

Good afternoon, everyone.

The July 8th, 2025 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.03 p.m.

I'm Sarah Nelson, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Here.

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Rink?

Present.

Council Member Rivera?

Present.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Solomon?

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you.

All right, there are no presentations today, so colleagues at this time will 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 today?

Five remotes.

Okay, we will start with the two in-person speakers and we'll give everyone two minutes.

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

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

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period is ended.

Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

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 to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

We have Alex Zimmerman.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Open.

Open timer.

Yeah.

Okay.

Zeheil, my dirty damn Nazi Gestapo fascist pig, a bandita, mafia and bandita.

My name, Alex Zimmerman.

I speak in council chamber 5,000 times.

I have 6,000 days of trespass.

Five times you prosecute me.

And 10 days ago, you cut my statement for election.

What has happened right now?

What does I see here?

Because I live for 40 years.

But 30 years, I touch government every day.

I once speak about appointment of Seattle Ethics and Election Commission by government accountability.

Guys, I'll be honest with you.

You know what I mean?

I'm in court 100 times, and I have Touch government for almost 40 years every day.

We have a totally Nazi, Gestapo, fascist government.

All three branches work absolutely identical.

And for 30 years, I'm in court 100 times, and I've spoken in complaint, I cannot find one honest answer.

For 30 years.

System, what we have right now, this is a nightmare.

You know what it means?

This is more dangerous than Gestapo or Comey.

You understand what it means for this?

I have this slogan.

Stop Seattle fascists with idiotic face.

Guys, for 30 years, you make situation absolutely idiotic.

It's a fascism, what has come from Seattle, go to king country, come to Washington, and you control this fascism for 30 years.

I want to explain to you, no one fascism in Europe, in South America include, exists more than 30 years, but you exist more than 30 years.

Why?

Because 750,000 idiots in Seattle, brainwashed cockroaches, you know what it means, scared.

We have Bennett Halston and then Andrew Olson.

Good afternoon, counsel.

So you might have heard the other five protesters besides me that were arrested for the sit-in protest in February 2024 that they dropped all charges again.

So I wanted to revisit some statements that were made by the police at the time and about local conservative media.

About how this was characterized.

So my arrest report, the Captain Steve Strand referred to this violent outburst that including the shouting and pounding on the large glass walls.

That clearly has the effect of making the reader think that there was some danger of people trying to do it in a threatening manner or otherwise intimidate or create a reasonable fear of violence.

So I, as you remember, had a GoPro on that was recording everything.

And this is the only footage of what the person is doing, because the security footage inside the room is just putting inside the room, and it doesn't have audio.

So I'm going to try and make this work again.

So you can see the guy on the outside the window is just pounding his hand like that.

Plenty for housing, not police.

OK, so he's clapping with his open palm on the glass window.

Obviously, he doesn't think it's going to break.

If he had broken it with his open palm, it would have slashed his hand open.

I mean, honestly, if he'd wanted to break the window, it would have been broken.

There are chairs all out there.

I mean, I think everything about the way that this event went down, you're allowed to say it was inconvenient.

It was inconvenient for me, too.

I was in jail until 2 AM.

I mean, that's part of the point.

You make sacrifices to show that you're serious.

But I strongly disagree with any attempt to characterize this as violent or creating what a reasonable person would perceive as a risk of violence.

People stood here chanting money for housing, not police.

The people who didn't want to get arrested filed out peacefully.

The people who stayed behind got handcuffed and were escorted out of here.

I think the truth matters.

Even a year later, I want to go on the record and correct this.

Thank you.

Andrew Olson.

This is a...

Hey guys, just checking, it was go time.

Okay, anyways, I wanted to say, this should be easy, by the way, since we have no tantruming chanters in the room.

Like my friend here would say, the commie fascist weirdos, or whatever.

But I just wanted to say that communism does not work.

And one other thing, very simple, Epstein didn't kill himself.

Thank you.

Can I move on to remote public commenters?

Okay, we'll now move to our remote public comments.

And the first speaker is Rose Legionnaires, to be followed by Courtney Holdhouse.

As a reminder, please press star six when you hear the prompt that you have been unmuted.

Go ahead, Rose.

Hello, my name is Rose.

I think a lot of us know what it's like to feel grief.

I had a friend of mine that I just had passed away from terminal cancer.

This weekend we're also experiencing a lot of grief in a lot of different senses.

People across the nation are taken and ripped from their families every day.

Some people in White City were taken and there seems to be no response from the city council about why or what they plan to do to help these things not happen.

Ironically, The metal is falling behind a lot of other cities in the area.

The Eugene Police Department last week had a protest of an ICE facility in which multiple times ICE called their local police and demanded that they go and take protesters away.

The police showed up, knew that they shouldn't do anything, and left on multiple occasions.

If you remember, as opposed to what SPD has done in the past, SPD has definitely shown up, taken people away, and helped ICE at multiple occasions despite our sanctuary laws.

I think it is very clear that one of two things needs to happen.

Either there needs to be a directive to have SPD follow the laws that are on the books, or rather We need to have a law that makes it very clear of what is and is not allowed.

I appreciate that the city council is addressing things like transportation today, but we have people who are feeling afraid that they can't even leave their homes to get groceries.

We can't do, if we are doing transportation without caring about the people that can't even get there in the first place, then what are we doing?

We are having people begging for $15,000 online so they don't get deported within 15 days, and the city is doing nothing about this.

We need to show up for our neighbors.

We need to be there for them.

We need to show them that they matter.

We need to show that every individual that is taken is someone that we care about because they are part of our community.

I know that most people in the city council don't care, but your overall, individually, you have a lower approval rating than Congress does collectively.

This should matter to each of you, especially as election things go up.

These people should matter to you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Courtney Holthouse to be followed by David Haynes.

Please press stars.

Hello.

My name is Courtney Holtos.

I'm actually from Tumwater, but I'm speaking about an issue that affects the whole state, so I wanted to bring it up to the entire council here.

I'm speaking here today because I've been ignored, retaliated against, and harmed by multiple public systems in this state.

And now I'm escalating.

I came forward about abuse from my former employer, the Washington State Department of Corrections.

I raised concerns about a hospital detaining me without valid consent.

What I now know was medical kidnapping that I can contribute to the retaliation.

I reported police misconduct.

I faced retaliation from Washington's DOC.

I have been denied protection, denied support, Liza Rankin labeled the problem and medically misdiagnosed for speaking up.

I didn't get help when I asked for crime victims assistance or unemployment, even though what I experienced is most certainly a crime.

Just many denials.

Seattle says it cares about systemic abuse.

Well then, please help me access the resources I was denied.

Demand answers from the institutions that failed me.

They are Washington State Department of Corrections, MultiCare Lacey Emergency, Providence St. Peter's Hospital, and Tumwater Police Department.

Thank you.

Next speaker is David Haynes and then Alberto Alvarez.

Hi, David Haynes.

Judging by the council and executive leadership that wants to claim public safety is an environmental issue, where if you can just change the environmental design, People won't be so criminal and backstabbing in their customs-violating behaviors.

If that's true, then you have to tear down all of Pioneer Square and Chinatown with all their cracked walls and unsafe buildings and all of the historically preserved slum, unsafe real estate, and redevelop it 21st century first world quality, where it embraces the resident-friendly pedestrian-centric neighborhood infrastructure with higher levels from the street For views of the mountains in the Puget Sound for better mental health and enjoyable livable amenity.

Yet council landlords have been sabotaging the robust comprehensive plan and keeping it at the state bare minimum to cater favor to their supply and demand squeeze and speculations on the rental abuse of the market.

We need also in a different subject, you know how we need to replace District 5?

We need a council member who's willing to redevelop The Aurora Corridor and tear down and rebuild something more qualitatively positive than all those slump pieces of real estate.

And if y'all could like get past your politics and try to convince the federal government that they have to finance a lot of what we still need for the homeless crisis and the housing crisis, you all could somehow figure out a crime hotspot justification for federal investment where you have the Army Corps of Engineers, the governor, Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Thank you.

Rivera, a millionaire landlord who wanted to roll back ethics.

Nelson, a millionaire business owner hurting port and freight operations, making that tariff pinch hurt even more.

Council is also facing a severe economic downturn and a budget that will not match the needs of the people.

Reduction of services and staffing will destabilize working families And elders on fixed income.

People are making sacrifices just to keep a home and live on a shrinking budget.

Council will have the job of appointing a District 5 member unelected and with the potential to cause immense damage in the year plus they will be in office.

Council Member Hollingsworth, Council Member Rank, Council Member Kettle, and Council Member Strauss The four of you are a fair representation of Seattle's left, right and center.

You must choose people over profit and housing stability over winter evictions.

This appointment is a life and death decision for thousands of people.

You have to get this one right.

Thank you all and have a good day.

There are no additional registered remote public commenters.

Thank you very much.

The public comment period is now closed.

If there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

All right, hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

I move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.

Are there any comments?

Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

I move to amend the agenda by removing item four and item five from the agenda.

Are there any comments?

Second.

Okay.

I second it.

Okay.

Would you like to provide an explanation?

Sure.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

So colleagues, after hearing advice from our central staff and deputy city clerks, we are moving these two related agenda items to next week's full city council meeting.

It is our understanding that there was a Technical error and glitch related to the attachments in the underlying legislation that will still nonetheless need to be amended at full council.

And so I appreciate that SDOT has recognized the technical errors and has been forthcoming in highlighting these.

But given the timing when we were notified of the error and the sensitive, and just being mindful and sensitive of central staff timing and workload constraints, we are moving this item to vote on next week.

And in the meantime, our office will work closely with central staff and also the council president's office to ensure that this legislation is ready with the appropriate technical amendments and tweaks, errata if you will, finalized by next week.

So ask for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Speaking for myself, I find that reasonable.

Are there any comments?

All right.

Seeing no further comments.

Does this require a vote or can we just move on?

A vote or if there's no objection, the amendment can be adopted.

Okay.

Seeing no objection, the agenda is amended.

The amendment is adopted.

We just need to vote on the agenda as amended.

Okay.

The amendment is adopted and we will now vote on the agenda as amended.

Please call the roll.

Councillor Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Sockup.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The agenda is amended.

All right, we'll now consider the proposed consent calendar.

The items on the consent calendar are the minutes of July 1st, 2025, Council Bill 121024, payment of bills, five appointments from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, and two appointments from the Land Use Committee.

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

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

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 Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Sokka.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The consent calendar items are adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf?

All right, moving on to committee reports.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

The report of the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee, agenda item one, appointment 3189, appointment of Dan Eater as Director of City Budget Office for term to July 1st, 2029. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Rivera, as Vice Chair of the Committee, you're recognized in order to present the committee report.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

Colleagues, as Vice Chair of Finance, Native Communities and Tribal Government Committee, And given Chair Strauss' excuse from today's meeting, I will be providing the committee report today for the confirmation of Interim Director Eder's appointment as the Director of the City Budget Office.

The most recent Finance Committee voted to pass the confirmation and confirmed Director Eder as Director of the City Budget Office.

And that is what I have to say in terms of the recommendation.

There were, I will say, Director Eder responded to questions that were passed around to everyone so that everyone should have his responses, even though you may not sit on the Finance Committee.

And we're moving forward this for your consideration to move forward and approve.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you very much for that report.

Are there any questions or comments?

Okay, I'm not, oh, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to say that over the last 18 months, it's been a pleasure to work with Mr. Eder and his roles here and to have frank conversations about the issues, the challenges that we face in city government.

Each time that we've done so, he's done so with complete professionalism and, as we say, brought great credit upon himself and the administration.

And with that, I just wanted to say thank you and express my support for his confirmation.

Thank you, Councilman President.

Thank you, Mr. Ener.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council President.

Just to echo the words that Councilmember Kettle has said, had the honor and privilege of working with Director Eder and always have found him to be very knowledgeable, factual in information and also give a unique perspective about creative ideas to navigate certain challenges that we've had at the city.

So looking forward to his appointment and I will go on the record that you're my favorite, Dan, to work with.

Shots fired.

It's a tall order.

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

I, too, want to lend my voice here.

I want to say to Interim Director Eder that I really appreciate his responsiveness whenever my office has reached out on a question.

It is really critical to the Legislative Department that the City Budget Office is responsive As we are working through the budget and other finance items that are under our purview to deliberate on and move on and move forward with.

I do want to say, Director Eder, that I'm looking forward to working with you, particularly as regards budgeting and this need to ensure that we are being accountable to the dollars that we steward on behalf of Seattle residents and really wanting to make sure that we are doing a budget deep dive and one thing that I have not seen that I think will be critical and I am going to really look forward to working with you on is ensuring that the services and the programs that the city administers are actually having their intended consequences I have not seen yet from the executive the deep dive that I wanted to see in terms of are all the programs that we're administering actually having the intended consequence.

It's really critical.

Colleagues, you all know this, as we are looking at the budget to make sure that the services that we're providing are working for Seattle people.

This is really an important piece.

And one that I think the City of Seattle could do a much better job on in terms of making sure that those programs and services are working.

And there's a myriad and laundry list of things that I think could stand improvement.

And I am, like I said, looking forward to working with you, Director Eder, as we are very in short order going to be looking at next at this following budget.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Thank you for wanting to take this on.

And I look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

Looking for other hands.

Council member Sokka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

And I too wanna just express my gratitude and appreciation for Director Eder for his partnership and collaboration this past year plus now.

As an aside, appreciate Councilmember Kettle's characterization.

Only a military man has that opening.

I wrote a fair amount and received some of those commendations myself, reflecting great credit upon yourself and the executive.

Council member Solomon, you know, you know, you get that opening.

You know exactly where that's from.

But it's good and it's true.

It's true.

He's been a great partner.

Director Eder has been a great partner, very collaborative.

I appreciate your level of responsiveness to me and my office and expect Continued engagement on a going forward basis in these challenging and uncertain budget times for our city.

I think you are the right leader to help us navigate through these challenges.

So honored to be able to support your nomination at full council today and appreciate your continued collaboration.

Thank you.

And I also mentioned at our last Committee meeting where we confirmed Director Eder's appointment at the committee level.

I asked him a line of questioning, among other things, just about the roles and responsibilities and the unenviable position that he is in working directly and reporting directly to the mayor.

But still having to work closely and communicate with and essentially having a dotted line reporting relationship with every individual nine council members.

And I was impressed by his responses there and among other probing questions that I asked him then.

Director Eder, I asked that question not like I'm in a much better position.

We have over 800,000 residents, and my share of that is I have, what, 116,000 bosses, if you will, in District 1 and 680,000 of a dotted line reporting relationship with another 680,000 Seattleites outside of District 1. In any event, appreciate your answers and proud to be able to support your nomination today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, I, speaking for myself, and I'm going to pull a little bit of, not necessarily rank, but I'm going to show my age here.

I can't think of anyone better for the job Then interim director, Dan Eder.

I've known him for about 25 years or so, more or less, when he was a central staff analyst and I was a legislative assistant.

And I can attest that he is not only Super smart and conscientious but he's got a meticulous attention to detail and that's precisely what we need these days and always.

I do want to just explain myself a little bit for the record, continue the conversation that we had a bit in briefing yesterday because we were talking about the carry forward and anybody that was watching the confirmation in the Finance Committee, I think that was last Wednesday, might have noticed a slight hesitation.

And that's before the vote.

And that's because I was thinking about mentioning or bringing up the carry forward legislation, which was transmitted months ago, that requests continuances for appropriations made in, I believe in 2024, that total about $169.2 million.

And with the latest payroll expense tax revenue forecast, that would leave us about $30 million out of balance if we were just to adopt that legislation as is.

And it's my understanding that Central Staff Director Noble has been asking for a revised piece of legislation so that we don't have to deal with any overages or underages going forward.

But that is what the conversation was about yesterday in briefings when the question came up, why hasn't that legislation been transmitted?

I'm taking the opportunity to just basically express my faith that Interim Director Eder wants what is best for the city and what is best for all of the departments that deliver the services to our constituents.

And so I, again, can't think of anybody better for the job I am also recognizing that he's not able to do everything he wants.

He works for an administration.

And so that is the line between the executive and the legislative branches.

And when he sat there at that table and said, I've been where you are.

I understand the legislative process, not where we are in office.

It's precisely because of Mr. Eder's knowledge of and understanding of the choices that we have to make come budget time that I really am welcoming that he's stepping up into this role.

And I just have to say thank you for taking on what is a shared burden.

And I have full confidence that this carry forward thing will get sorted out and that A long-term view of the city's financial stability going forward is at the center of Interim Director Eater's mind right now and will continue to serve the city.

To the greatest benefit of everybody.

So I just appreciate you being willing to carry on the role as, you know, in a permanent position with this vote.

And thank you very much for being a good partner because we're all in this together.

So just wanted to mention that.

Are there any further comments?

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on this bill?

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The ayes have it and the appointment is confirmed.

Congratulations, Director Eder.

You're recognized to provide brief remarks if you would like to.

Thank you very much.

Thank you all very much.

Is this on?

Great.

Thank you for the very nice words and ultimately for the vote of confidence.

I look forward to continuing to work with you and support your decision making in the months and years to come.

Thank you to Mayor Harrell for nominating me to the Budget Director role.

It's been my honor to support the Mayor as he leads Seattle towards a sustainable financial future.

And I'm happy to continue doing so in this role.

Thank you to my incredibly hard-working team at the City Budget Office, some of whom have come today and are sitting in the back row, and I appreciate it so much.

I really appreciate their support, their smarts, and all of their hard work.

And certainly not least, I want to thank my wife and three daughters who are all currently out of state and unable to be here today.

I rely on their love and support every day.

To be able to tackle this challenging professional role.

In brief, I'm thrilled to be helping Seattle serve those who live, work, and visit here.

We all know that the city's been grappling with revenue shortfalls and federal rollbacks that mean business as usual is no longer practical.

So we'll need to find innovative ways to deliver critical municipal services.

It also means we're considering some tax increases to help pay for those services.

There will simply never be enough funding to pay for all the things we want to pay for.

That can't and won't stop us from continuing to be a great city, a vibrant place, one that protects and helps its most vulnerable neighbors, and one that treats its employees fairly.

In the months and years ahead, I look forward to working with you all as the city makes decisions about how to prioritize and align our resources with a common goal of making Seattle an even better place.

Thank you again.

Allow me the privilege of just commenting on your comments.

The way you put, there simply won't be enough money to cover, and I can't remember how you finished that sentence, but I think that you were getting at our shared values for the people of Seattle and what we're really trying to do as a city together, the executive in one Seattle, Seattle.

So thank you very much.

Okay, moving on.

Will the clerk please read Item 2 into the record?

Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 121012, relating to the financing of the Seattle Social Housing Developer, authorizing the Director of Finance to enter into a loan agreement with the Seattle Social Housing Developer, authorizing a loan of funds in an amount of up to $2 million from the general fund as bridge financing to be repaid from future tax proceeds.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you very much.

Council member Rivera, as vice chair of the committee, you're recognized to provide the committee report.

All right.

Thank you, council president.

And thank you to our city clerk for always basically beating us to the punch on what we're about to say.

So thank you, Amelia.

As Amelia said, basically colleagues were voting today to approve the city's director of finance to enter into a loan agreement with the social housing developer to authorize a loan of two million from the general fund as bridge funding to be repaid once the tax proceeds are collected and transferred to the PDA as per voter approval initiative approved initiative last fall.

The bridge funding is critical to the continuation of the social housing PDA and will cover staffing and operational costs until the first proceeds are received in January of 2026. The committee recommends approval and passage of this legislation.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Are there any comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven 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?

Will the clerk please, oh wait, is item three and four are removed, correct?

Just four and five.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

The report of the Transportation Committee, Agenda Item 3, Council Bill 120-989, relating to the Seattle Department of Transportation, authorizing Director of Transportation, to execute and record a leasehold deed of trust reflecting cultural space agencies leasehold estate rights created through the agreement if executed with the City of Seattle as authorized under Ordinance 126916. The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka, as chair of the committee, you are recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Madam Council President, and thank you, colleagues.

This important piece of executive-driven legislation passed unanimously out of committee, and what it would do is it would authorize SDOT to execute a deed of trust that reflects the leasehold rights with respect to the Cultural Space Agency, Has in our historic King Street Station, which is in action at a higher level, non-contractual level, that was previously authorized by council back in 2023. So the Cultural Space Agency has granted a $485,000 grant, was granted that grant by the Department of Commerce, State Department of Commerce, to support its operation in this space, provided the city provides this deed of trust.

So this is enablement legislation to enable that.

And excited to see this, as I know my colleagues are To see that this historic building is better able to thrive and is in use and encouraging a yes vote on this fairly straightforward but important piece of legislation.

Thank you.

Are there any comments about this piece of legislation?

I'm looking.

All right.

Not seeing any hands up.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

All right.

There were no items removed from the consent calendar, and there's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

So, colleagues, are there any further items of business to come before Council?

Council President.

Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

As a follow-up from yesterday's briefing, I have a letter available for signatures today.

May I proceed?

Yes.

Thank you.

Colleagues, the letter, as we discussed during briefing yesterday, was written alongside state legislators Thomas and Scott as well as Port Commissioner Hasegawa in the immediate aftermath of the passage of, as I like to call it, the Big Betrayal Bill, and was published on the 4th of July.

The letter highlights the impact of the bill from stripping away health care from 17 million Americans Washingtonians stand to lose the largest share of their federal Medicaid dollars of any state in the union to the tune of over $35 billion over the course of the next decade.

And this is being done while also providing a dramatic increase to ICE's budget and agency actively disappearing our immigrant neighbors off our streets.

The letter also includes a call to action and a commitment as the following, and I quote, "'The undersigned elected officials represent all levels of government, including state, local, and special district governments. We commit to working together in the immediate term to develop meaningful solutions to protect residents. The time is urgently prudent for local leaders across Washington state to live up to the progressive values which have long made us a target of the Trump regime and their corporate cronies," end quote.

And to date, we have signatures from 80 elected officials across 14 cities, port governments, school boards, county governments, and so on.

And after initially circulating this letter on the holiday, we had to pause collecting signatures from Seattle City Council members to ensure OPMA best practices.

Now that we're all together in a public meeting, I encourage anyone who wishes to add their signature to do so when the clerk calls the roll.

For those of you who have already signed, please just state unaffirmed To confirm you want to remain a signatory.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you.

Are there any questions or comments?

Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

I appreciate this, you know, looking at the breaking news that the Supreme Court has backed the effort to have massive cuts to the federal government.

I did speak to the federal administration this morning and the Public Safety Committee, you know, highlighting emergency preparedness and the issues that come from that, you know, what we've seen in L.A.

wildfires and now the floods in Central Texas.

And I noted that It was right to give the emergency declaration to Governor Abbott in Texas, but that we can't have FEMA, which is so important not just to Central Texas in this case, but to Seattle with respect to earthquakes and tsunamis and the work that comes out of these FEMA grants.

But we can't have declarations and that kind of support become part of a new federal spoils system.

It's a great concern that he can say yes to Governor Abbott in Texas, but he says no to Governor Inslee and Governor Ferguson in Washington State when we had our own storm impact us here in the city, but really in the county.

To a great degree last fall.

And so I've been speaking to these pieces, and I've been highlighting some of the other public safety challenges that we have related to federal law enforcement.

I'm saying all this that I'm not one to join on group letters, so I just wanted to say I appreciate the effort, I appreciate the intent, of this and to highlight my concern with federal administration actions, particularly in the area of public safety, but broadly as well, because I've seen it directly and indirectly in so many ways.

But at the same time, I'm not one to sign on letters like this.

With that, I respectfully decline to do so, but not against the intent, but just, as a matter of fact, how I do business.

So thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Rankin.

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera.

You're on mute.

You're muted, Council Member Rivera.

Sorry, thank you.

I wanted to say I did not actually receive this.

My office did not receive this letter until yesterday afternoon.

And there's some questions I have about it, which I won't get into here.

And I did reach out to our legal counsel about it.

I too, like Councilmember Kettle, however, want to say that I have said multiple times from the dais and will continue to say that the actions of the federal administration are absolutely abhorrent.

They're disgusting.

They're against the values of our country.

And I continue to say dismayed does not accurately portray what I'm feeling.

And so I agree with the spirit of the letter and what I think the letter is trying to accomplish, though I'm not sure.

And this is what I had some types of questions about.

But so I will not be signing, but I did not want it to left.

I don't want it to be portrayed that my not signing somehow does not mean that I, of course, I am not In agreement with this federal administration and I am completely, you know, as you can tell, it's hard for me to formulate the words because I don't think there's strong enough words against what this administration is doing and all the horrible things that they're doing to people across the country, including With this bill, taking health care away from people, it is absolutely unacceptable.

And the damage that this will create now in four years to come is absolutely unacceptable, including just the fact to be withholding services from people that taxpayer money Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

Tanya Woo.

Liza Rankin.

It is just gross and disgusting what's happening.

And so, you know, I want to work with everyone to make sure that we are providing the best that we can to folks in Seattle and trying to do the best that we can as a city to continue to make this city a city where folks are protected and cared for.

At the end of the day.

So thank you.

Thank you, council president.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'm not seeing any, well, other hands.

Nope.

I will simply say I completely understand and share the, the outrage or the spirit that, that That I'm imagining drove the writing of this letter.

We've all stated reasons why we're concerned about the impacts of federal actions on our constituents.

Normally, I would jump on the opportunity to express that.

I am concerned about a couple things, though.

The letter reads, the most recent budget signed into law by Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson reduced childcare access for working families, made college less affordable, Defunded pensions, closed reproductive healthcare clinic, all of that is As I, is abhorrent, but I, I don't, I feel uncomfortable calling out the governor when this, when he signed legislation that came from obviously the legislature.

So I did reach out to Office of Intergovernmental Relations Director Mina Hashemi to ask if she had been, if she was aware of this because it does, this letter does have the city of Seattle seal, not And I don't even know if the Ledge Department has our own seal.

And I haven't heard back from her, but I just feel as though I don't want to single out one person for a budget that was the product of months of negotiations.

And then it also does call on local government leaders to enact progressive revenue like the Seattle Shield Initiative.

I don't know if that is...

It's going to be before us, but we haven't approved it yet, and I'm a little uncomfortable about asking other governments to do something that we haven't done yet.

So for those two reasons, I'm not going to sign the letter, but I do want to express that I share in the spirit and the thoughts that I believe are motivating the expression of this outrage.

So I just wanted to explain my reasoning.

Are there any further comments?

Go ahead.

Just offer some closing remarks and thank you colleagues for your engagement on this.

Again, the spirit of bringing this forward to full council today is to allow for anyone who would like to add their signature on and make sure that we're in compliance with OPMA.

So just wanted to bring it forward for anyone who wants to join in with 80 other elected officials across our state.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We can talk offline about Uh, logos or seals or whatever.

Anyway, will the clerk please, uh, call the roll on, or on the, uh, on the names of people who would like to sign on to the letter.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Point of clarification.

I apologize.

If we've already signed on to it, our response is affirmed.

Okay.

Just say, yeah, this point the yes or no and yes, meaning you've already added it or will be added.

Understood.

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle.

No.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

No.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

No.

Four names will be added to the letter.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Is there any other business to come before council?

All right.

Seeing none, we've reached the end of today's agenda, and our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is on July 15th at 2 p.m., and hearing no further business, it is 2.54, and we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.