Thank you so much.
Just a quick note.
Everyone please make sure you are muted if not presently speaking.
I think we just got some feedback at the start of the meeting.
Okay, thank you so much.
The May 3rd, 2022 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.
It is 2.02 p.m.
I am Andrew Lewis, President Pro Tem of the Council.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Council Member Peterson.
Present.
Council Member Sawant.
Present.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council Member Herbold.
Here.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Present.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
Present.
Eighth President.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
We will now move on to presentations.
Council Member Sawant will present a proclamation honoring Scott Morrow.
Council Member Sawant will first present the proclamation, and I will then open the floor for comments from Council Members.
After Council Member comments, we will spend the rules to allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide comments.
Council Member Sawant, you are recognized in order to present the proclamation.
Good afternoon, and thank you so much, Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
Before I read the proclamation, I just wanted to inform you and all council members and members of the public that I am extremely unwell today, so I will need to leave after the proclamation is done with your leave.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Sawant.
Thank you.
With sadness, I am presenting this proclamation honoring the life and legacy of Scott Morrow, who tragically passed away on April 19. And before I say any words about Scott himself.
I wanted to convey the deepest condolences from myself, everyone in my office, and everyone in my organization, Socialist Alternative, to Peggy Hodes and everybody who is among their loved ones, and all the activists of Nicholsville and others in Seattle who work with Scott.
This is a tremendous loss.
Scott dedicated most of his adult life to helping homeless people in Seattle organize to fight for shelter, housing, and their community.
He was a courageous and tireless activist who never sold out his community or compromised his principles to curry favor with people in power or to make his own life easier.
And I can just personally on that note, I can attest that it is such an unusual and extraordinary thing to find that kind of unshakably principled activist.
Between 1980 and 1989, Scott organized with the Tenants Union of Washington helping renters fight for building repairs, stop rent increases, preserve buildings, and replace demolished housing units.
In 1988, he put himself on the line and was arrested while participating in nonviolent civil disobedience in the occupation of the Gatewood Hotel, which the property owner had left vacant in violation of city law.
The resulting public pressure compelled the property owner to agree to give Plymouth Housing a 25-year lease to operate the building for low-income housing.
At that time, he also joined renters protesting the Washington State Convention Center's planned demolition of low-income housing at the McKay building.
Protests, a sit-in, and two brief occupations resulted in a settlement amounting to millions of dollars for affordable housing.
Seeing the impact of rising rents on homelessness in 1989, Scott Morrow began handing out coffee to homeless neighbors in Seattle and discussed with them how to fight for shelter and housing.
He continued doing so each morning until his diagnosis with cancer in 2021. In 1990, Seattle hosted the Goodwill Games, and while handing out coffee, Scott started to hear more and more fear from homeless neighbors in Pioneer Square, who were in danger of being swept as the city attempted to hide signs of poverty from tourists attending the games.
Scott helped these people get organized.
They organized a Goodwill gathering in Myrtle Edwards Park as a safe place for people afraid of sweeps.
And this group of homeless neighbors saw the impact of organizing impact that organizing could have and became the founding organizers of SHARE, the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort.
Scott and SHARE set up a tent city outside the Old Kingdom until its residents were allowed to live in the vacant Aloha Inn.
They also started SHARE's first indoor shelter at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.
In 2000, Scott Morrow helped SHARE's Tent City 3 win a 10-year agreement with the City of Seattle to operate one encampment at a time in the city.
Tent City 3 is the oldest permitted homeless encampment in the United States.
SHARE now operates 11 indoor shelters, 3 work for housing locations, 3 storage lockers, and along with WHEEL, 2 tent encampments.
Eight years later, Scott helped to found Nicholsville in 2008, named in protest of the sweeps of homeless encampments ordered by former mayor, or then mayor, Greg Nichols.
Nicholsville set up its first unsanctioned self-governed tent encampment on unused city-owned land on West Marginal Way on September 22, 2008. Five days later, the city swept the Nicholsville encampment, arresting several dozen people.
Nicholsville immediately established their encampment on nearby state-owned land, and Nicholsville has continued to operate tent encampments and tiny house villages ever since.
It has been an honor to work with Scott Morrow and all the activists in Nicholsville and Cherville, including Peggy herself, in basically every progressive struggle in Seattle since I first took office in the end of 2013. We worked together to win permitting procedures and the first ever city funding for tent cities and tiny house villages.
And I should also mention thanks to then council members Nick Licata and Mike O'Brien for helping us.
He was, Scott was, an integral part of the tax Amazon movement from the very beginning, from the time in 2017, when we, during the People's Budget Movement, when we did the overnight occupation, peaceful occupation of City Hall, where activists of Nicholsville and ShareWheel were prominent among those who were fighting for the Amazon tax at that time alongside Socialist Alternative and many union members.
He was there with us when the then majority council members sold us out shamefully and repealed the Amazon tax in 2018. And he was there throughout with us when we rebuilt the tax Amazon movement after my office was able to win re-election in 2019. And then we won the Amazon tax in 2020 during the throes of the Black Lives Matter movement.
So throughout the time that I've been in City Hall, Scott Morrow has been an indefatigable activist to win dollars for affordable housing and continuing to mobilize and organize ordinary people and help them recognize their own strengths in coming together and fighting for something that they deeply believe in and fighting for an affordable city.
Scott believed himself passionately in the rights of homeless neighbors to self-manage their own communities.
He was dedicated to helping his fellow activists gain political confidence, and he helped organize them to speak at public events and testify at council meetings.
He also believed strongly in grassroots democracy.
Nicholsville and Sherrill joined many progressive coalitions and endorsed progressive events, but only after a democratic discussion, debate, and vote of their members.
This is very much a spirit that Socialist Alternative shares with all of those activists.
Four days ago, the Seattle Times ran an article about his legacy, including a quote from Operation Nightwatch Executive Director Rick Reynolds, said he'll never forget the summer night he was handing out ice cream at a protest campout at the King County Administration Building and found Morrow sleeping on the ground.
I realize this guy is going to get up, go down, and serve coffee at 6 o'clock, Reynolds said.
Why?
He believed passionately that every human being is worth the sacrifice.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Scott Morrow's selfless and courageous organizing has touched thousands of lives, perhaps more.
His death is certainly a loss for his loved ones, but it is also a loss for all of us who are genuinely fighting for an affordable Seattle that allows for every human being's dignity.
There will be a celebration of life for Scott Morrow on Saturday, May 14 at 3pm in St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Seattle in District 3. And I am also, I'll end by saying I'm really grateful to Peggy and others being here on this Zoom call.
I wish we were all in person at City Hall in chambers where we could bring hundreds of people who I know are mourning Scott's loss.
But let's make the best of this Zoom meeting and let's make sure that we share the message not only of remembering Scott himself personally, but remembering the legacy that he left behind and not abandoning our fight for an affordable and just Seattle.
Thank you.
Thank you, councilmember Sawant.
I will now open it up for councilmembers to make comments and we will then suspend the rules and present the proclamation.
Councilmember Mosqueda.
Councilmember Herbold?
Thank you so much.
I just want to say a few words.
I met Scott in 1994 when I was an organizer for the Seattle Tenants Union and he at the time was a board member for the Tenants Union.
I learned a whole lot about how to organize with heart and how to put the leadership of others first from Scott.
He, Scott, was talking about the importance of listening to and centering the voices of those with lived experience long before it was fashionable to do so.
And I just want to say I believe in my heart that our city is better for his work and even to the lives of individual people, countless people have had lives that are less brutal and full of more community than they would have been, but for his organizing vision and his tenacious spirit.
And thank you to Council Member Sawant for bringing forward this proclamation so that we can remember and honor that work.
Thank you Council Member Herbold.
Council Member Morales.
Thank you.
Thank you.
several years ago meeting in the Othello tiny house village, as a matter of fact, and learned a lot from him about the value of self-governance for shelter residents, as Council Member Sawant mentioned.
And just want to remind folks that we can really honor Scott by ensuring that we provide the services that our homeless neighbors need, and by building the housing that will provide the stability that our neighbors continue to need as well.
I think it's important for us to be able to do that.
So thank you again, Councilmember Sawant for bringing this forward.
Thank you, Councilmember Morales.
I don't see any additional comments from Councilmembers.
I will just take a moment similarly to join in Scott's recognition and praise as my colleagues have spoken to.
strategy about expanding tiny house villages, expanding places for people experiencing homelessness to live and to be able to live in dignity in the city of Seattle.
And I really appreciated Scott's advocacy, his partnership, and his willingness to continue to work together in a collaborative way to get people more places to go and to stay focused on making sure we have a homelessness strategy centered on getting a roof over people's heads.
and letting people live in the safety and dignity that a lot of us take for granted.
So I really appreciated that partnership from Scott in the last couple of years and his partnership is going to be sorely missed.
With that, I will close comments from council members and I will move to suspend the rules and ask if there is any objection to suspending the council rules to present the proclamation.
Seeing no objection, the rules are suspended.
And I want to welcome our guests to the City Council meeting.
Do we have a, Madam Clerk, do we have a panel present here to accept the proclamation?
I'm just looking at the boxes to see who we need to.
Yes, Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
We have Jarvis and we have Peggy who are present to accept this proclamation and to make comments.
Jarvis and Peggy, feel free to come off of mute and engage in the meeting.
Thank you so much for coming here today.
We are honored to have you join us.
Jarvis, if you perhaps want to start by making a few comments at this time, and then I can hand it over to Peggy.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much Council Member Peterson and thank you first off to Council Member Sawant for introducing this proclamation.
and to all council members.
I've met Scott close to 15 years ago now when I first became homeless and I stayed at 1063. And at that time, that was the only option that I had.
And it was such, an eye-opening event for me when I first became homeless and not knowing what to do and no direction in my life at the time.
But because of the self-managed nature of the tent city, I was able to be empowered and join the advocacy for others as well as myself in having to say and how I live in my life being unsheltered.
So with that, I'm forever grateful for Scott Moore for empowering homeless people like myself and allowing us to speak for ourselves.
And he will be missed.
His unwavering support for and empowering people that are facing adversity and advocating for themselves is really the main impact uh, that I can say that Scott Morrow has on me and, and I'm pretty sure others, um, that have experienced homelessness.
And again, so I would like to thank, uh, council members for this proclamation.
And then, uh, that on, on behalf of Nicholasville, um, where I'm actually in now, uh, as you can see, I'm in a, I'm speaking to you inside my, my tiny house.
Um, so, um, thank you.
Thank you so much and thank you for your service.
Appreciate your presence here today.
Peggy, over to you.
Yes, thank you and thank you council members for bringing this proclamation forward.
Scott believes that homelessness is caused primarily by a lack of affordable and social housing.
He believes that homeless people are capable of not only operating their own shelters and encampments, he believes that they should be included in all discussions about what happens in the homeless community.
He also believed that they're capable of fighting to survive and to solve homelessness.
I'm convinced that without Scott's dedication and his unparalleled organizing skills, there certainly would not be organized, self-managed encampments, tiny house villages and shelters, and probably there would be fewer numbers of those things.
And so I support this proclamation and I thank the council for doing so.
Thank you very much.
Peggy, thank you so much.
And Madam Clerk, do we procedurally need to do anything else to deliver the proclamation?
At this point, we do not.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Jarvis and Peggy, thank you so much for joining us.
And of course, all of our gratitude to Councilmember Sawant for bringing forward this proclamation to recognize Scott.
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now, as was discussed at the beginning of the presentation, Councilmember Sawant would like to be excused from the rest of the meeting.
is not feeling well to be excused from the balance of this meeting today, May 3rd, 2022. Is there any objection to excusing Council Member Sawant for the rest of the meeting?
Hearing none, Council Member Sawant, you are excused.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you so much.
We will now proceed to the approval of the introduction referral calendar.
At the front of this, I want to just make a couple of very brief comments under the President Pro Tem's prerogative.
I know that there will probably be a contested motion procedurally as part of this process.
I would just ask colleagues, given that we did discuss this a fair amount in briefing yesterday, to keep comments for or against the procedural motions brief.
so that we can move forward.
Colleagues will be able to make their decision one way or the other.
And we did have a preview of potential arguments yesterday, and of course it would be appropriate for those arguments to be re-raised, but I would just ask that the comments be brief and that we then be able to move on and vote.
I would also just ask that members make sure that per our council rules, the motives of I move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.
With that, I move to adopt the introduction and are there any motions to amend the introduction and referral calendar?
Council Member Herbold.
Thank you, President Pro Tem Lewis.
I move to amend the introduction and referral calendar to include a bill entitled an ordinance relating to appropriations for the Seattle Police Department amending a proviso imposed by ordinance 126490, which adopted the 2022 budget and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts and by referring it to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.
Thank you for that motion.
Is there a second for Councilmember Herbold's amendment?
Second.
Thank you.
Are there any comments?
I'll allow Councilmember Herbold for you to make comments first, and then I will accept comments from other Councilmembers on the amendment on the floor.
Councilmember Herbold?
Thank you so much.
As mentioned yesterday morning, or yesterday afternoon rather, the Public Safety and Human Services Committee faces an unusual mismatch.
between the timing of full council and the meeting of the committee itself.
The introduction and referral calendar is voted on at the Tuesday afternoon full council meeting, and the committee meeting is in the morning on Tuesday, so there's, in effect, a one-week delay between introduction and referral and committee consideration.
Other committees that meet on, for example, a Wednesday or a Thursday can actually consider legislation.
referred on Tuesday's full council meeting.
Just as background, I wanna just state for the record, I supported when asked by Council President Juarez, I supported referring Council Member Nelson's resolution to my committee, and I supported a vote on it as scheduled for May 10th, just as Council Member Nelson has requested.
I would like to vote on both bills in the same committee meeting since they are related, and from some perspective, they're complementary.
Moving full council meetings on Tuesdays has created a logistical disadvantage for timely consideration of legislation for committees that meet on Tuesday mornings.
Walking on legislation is a very normal feature of council operations.
and has been done numerous times over the years.
This is done by simply amending the IRC as permitted under our council rules, and the rules themselves state under section 3A subsection 1E, when adoption of the introduction referral calendar is being considered during each council meeting, it may be modified by a majority rule, majority vote of council members present and voting.
and want to just underscore that I don't believe that applying our council rules as written is in any way a circumvention of those rules.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Gold.
Are there any additional comments on the amendment before the council?
Council Member Nelson.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad that my resolution has convinced Council Member Herbold of the urgency of this issue, but rushing her proposal onto the introduction and referral calendar today is profoundly disrespectful, not only of our Council President, but also the rules and priorities are agreed upon norms that govern our legislative process.
You all know, but for the benefit of the public, our legislative intake and review calendar is three weeks long.
from the time legislation gets on the pre-introduction calendar to formal introduction and committee referral.
And that's what gets voted on today and every Tuesday.
And this timeframe allows the necessary time for the council president to review legislation, decide which committee to refer it to, and to try to broker compromise and collaboration, which I am totally open to.
And that also provides the time for the public to see legislation on the adopted IRC before it's discussed in committee.
These rules provide for thoughtful deliberation and transparency.
And for some reason, Council Member Herbold asked Council President Juarez to expedite our introduction process.
But she refused, Council President Juarez refused, knowing that my resolution was up for a vote on the 10th and also knowing that I have a competing council bill that Council Member Herbold refused to let me address last committee meeting.
Now, we unanimously elected Council Member Juarez to be our president.
And Council Member Herbold is attempting an end run around her authority by trying to walk this on a week early, only so that we can vote it out of the Public Safety Committee on May 10th.
And that agenda will already be packed with a vote on my resolution and PEA.
And now Council Member Herbold wants to add yet another complex item to the agenda and vote it out on the same day, knowing full well that there will be rigorous debate.
And I do have a solution.
One solution could be that we discuss it on the 10th and then voted out the following committee meeting once it's on the referral calendar.
Now, I've allowed time on two committees, two committee agendas for discussion and vote on these surveillance impact reports, for example.
And that's not even a new issue, but I did that because it's controversial.
And two meetings allows for public engagement, debate and amendments.
We walk on legislation when it's really time-sensitive, like when we're about to be sued or we stand to lose money if we don't take action.
And walking on Council Member Herbold's bill this time does not meet that level of urgency in my opinion.
and really doesn't make any sense to me because jamming legislation through our legislative process degrades our function as a deliberative body and creates bad policy.
And one could argue that some of the things that we're seeing around our city now is the result of unintended consequences from rushing and not taking the time to be really careful.
So Councilmember Herbold spent months delaying action on this issue while waiting for the mayor's memo on citywide hiring incentives.
And now that I've brought forward specifically Seattle Police Department staffing incentives, we need to take the time we need to take the time to ensure that we allow for the development of the most effective incentive program we can get in order to address our public safety crisis.
So colleagues, we have rules for a reason, and let's follow them while maintaining our respect for Council President Juarez, who's not even here to defend her decision.
So thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Nelson.
are there comments from other councilmembers?
Seeing no comments, I will make some brief, Councilmember Peterson, and then I will make some remarks and give Councilmember Herbold the opportunity to close as it is her motion.
But go ahead, Councilmember Peterson.
Thank you, President Pro Tem Lewis.
And I just want to say I appreciate that both Councilmembers Herbold and Nelson are wanting to address the issue of police staffing.
I'd really like for us to have more clarity from the executive on the full array of tools that they think they need to get our hiring plan back on track and to retain the dedicated officers and detectives that Seattle's trying to hang on to.
I know in my district, there is a great concern from many people about the reduction in police staffing that's occurred and want us to do everything we can.
This may include moving expenses as proposed by Councilmember Herbold.
I also very much appreciate the resolution from Councilmember Nelson, which provides maximum flexibility and presumably a larger dollar amount.
And so I'm looking forward to voting for Councilmember Nielsen's resolution on May 12, and then whenever we do take up the, whether there are subsets of that, whether that's moving expenses and other things, I'd really like to hear from the executive.
I don't know if they need more time until May 24th, Public Safety Committee, but I would be interested in giving them that time, the executive, so we can hear from them on exactly what they need.
I think it's important to make sure that we are implementing the strategies in the right way the first time.
Thank you.
the comments were germane to this procedural question in front of the council.
I'll share a couple of my thoughts speaking as a fellow member of the council on how I'm voting and why I'm opting to vote that way.
I agree with a lot of the points Council Member Nelson has made about the structure of our rules and why we do set up the introduction referral calendar to effectively to allow sufficient notice for the public and Councilmembers of issues that are going to come before the Council.
That said, I think that there's some particular facts related to Council Bill 120320, which warrants approving Councilmember Herbold's request for this to be added to the IRC today.
One of those issues as Councilmember Herbold indicated, is the unique timing of when the Public Safety Committee meets, which does tend, and this was something that we discussed as we were reorganizing Council rules last fall.
that this would present a potential problem to moving full council to Tuesday afternoons.
And for many reasons, that has been a worthy trade.
It is great to have council briefing and full council on different days.
But one of those consequences is the awkwardness of having a Tuesday morning committee that is gonna be in the position of potentially needing to get legislation in the pipeline and face undue delay of an additional week for things to be fully considered.
Even with that caveat, rules of notice still are important, which would be more germane if this council bill hadn't already been discussed in the previous meeting that Councilmember Herbold held last week.
This legislation was discussed with the chief of police and other people present.
It was introduced by Councilmember Herbold, at least in concept and with text that we could all read.
The bill has been repeated or rather reported on extensively in the media, indicating that the public is certainly aware of this bill.
Finally, just as a matter of policy that influences putting this on now, given that we have a staffing crisis, given that this is legislation that the department has indicated they want, a delay of another week is something that I personally, if it can be avoided, would not want a condense.
By putting this bill on now, action can be taken earlier, as Council Member Herbold indicated.
These resources can be given to the department to effectuate these changes on a faster timeline.
So just from a practical standpoint, I think it makes sense, given that there has been significant notice, public discussion, public debate, already on this bill and given that in practical terms, we can get these resources to the department more quickly.
For those purposes, I will personally be voting in favor of this request from Councilmember Herbold.
And Councilmember Herbold, as it is your motion and as is our custom, you may make the final remarks on it if you wish, or we can call the question.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'll just make it really quick.
I just want to just underscore that Council President Juarez is aware that I intended to walk this on today.
Her process for when to expedite requests at this time is for a very small subset of circumstances and I'll be discussing that with her moving forward but again she was absolutely aware that my intention was to walk this on today and I just want to say again that to suggest that by following our own rules we're somehow circumventing the president's role is a very unusual precedent to suggest and limits the ability of the council members to support what is a routine parliamentary procedure.
And if council wants to tie our hands in this way to only walk things on when we have the council president's blessing, I think we also have council rules that are before us.
I think they're going to be coming to full council soon, and perhaps that would be a time to take up that matter.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold.
the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment.
Councilmember Nelson?
Nay.
Councilmember Peterson?
No.
Councilmember Strauss?
Yes.
Councilmember Herbold?
Yes.
Councilmember Morales?
Yes.
Councilmember Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Five in favor, two opposed.
The motion carries, and Council Bill 120320 is added to the Introduction and Referral Calendar and referred to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.
Are there further comments on the amended Introduction and Referral Calendar?
Seeing no comments, if there's no objection, the Introduction and Referral Calendar will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the Introduction and Referral Calendar is adopted.
approval of the consent calendar.
We will now consider the proposed consent calendar.
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.
It has 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 Nelson.
I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I.
The consent calendar is adopted.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Public comment.
Colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda introduction and referral calendar and the council's work program.
It remains the strong intent of the city council to have a remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.
However, as a reminder, the city reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.
Our city clerk will moderate this general public comment period, and I will now hand it off to the clerk to read the instructions.
The public comment period for this meeting is up to 20 minutes and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.
Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered to provide public comment on the council website.
Each speaker must call in from the phone number provided when registered and use the ID and passcode that was emailed upon confirmation.
Please note this is different from the general meeting listen line ID listed on the agenda.
If you did not receive an email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.
Once a speaker's name is called, staff will unmute to the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt if you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak.
And then a speaker must press star six to begin speaking.
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 the allotted time.
If you hear the chime, Please, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comments.
If speakers do not end their public comment at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call the next speaker.
Once you have completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.
And if you plan to continue following this meeting, please do so via Seattle Channel or the listening line options listed on the agenda.
The public comment period is now open.
We will begin with the first speakers on the list.
Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.
We have four speakers who have registered.
Only two of the four are present.
And our first speaker present is Harold Adome.
Thank you.
And thank you, Council Member Siwat for bringing up Scott Morrow.
He was an icon in this city and still is.
He's taught me so much in grassroots advocacy.
And in my opinion, my organization, the Lived Experience Coalition would not be where it is today from his grassroots training and his grassroots movement in this city.
I'm here to talk about Vehicle Residency Program throughout this city.
For people who live in a vehicle I'm now a target on their back and vigilantism going against them.
We need a safe parking lot.
I commend Mark and the King County Regional Homeless Authority for its effort in making sure that that RFP is going forward.
I say this because of those ecology blocks.
Not only is it bad for us who live in Seattle reduce the parking, but they're illegal.
And we're allowing people just to put them out there.
Police are not doing anything.
And why?
I asked this question, I posed this question to council.
The only people who make scheduling for the sweeps are the police.
And the people who put ecology blocks out there right after the sweeps know when they're happening.
Not even activists, not even case managers, not even people getting out there to give some kind of relief to people.
know the scheduling of the sweeps.
I put it to council.
Let's find a safe parking lot in Seattle where people can move and be dignity have their dignity restored and not on the street where they have no trash pickup.
They have no bathrooms.
And we know that is bad.
These ecology blocks are going to stay in that place.
We're going to have to force them to be moved and who's going to pay for it.
So I thank you for your time and I thank you for your hopefully support on this.
Our next speaker is David Haynes.
Thank you, David Haynes district seven.
It doesn't matter how many cops you hire when they won't shut down misdemeanor drug pushers.
We only legalized proper grown weed, not crack meth or heroin.
resulting in city council policies of exempting low-level misdemeanor drug pushers from jail is the root cause of society implosion and why so many people are being victimized by criminals committing crimes against humanity as junkie thieves are stealing everything in sight, ruining every block of every neighborhood.
Yet the police chief misleads community, taking credit for felony drug crimes, really the work of federal agencies while Seattle City cops take credit as they prioritize overtime at events and blame the homeless for everything that's wrong.
Yet police chief is undermining efforts because Seattle cops, the majority, are not trained nor willing or even bothered to focus on low-level dollar drug crimes that are destroying lives daily, yet get listed nonviolent misdemeanor solely based on the dollar amount.
thanks to city council and the prosecutor's office still helping evils stay out of jail.
No need for bail.
The city council should realize that wherever the media takes a picture of a crime hotspot after the fact is the only place the chief dispatches a cop car to show force.
Get the cops never jail all those repeat offenders who simply move a block away or around the corner.
Just look out city hall windows toward 3rd Avenue right now between James and Terry.
It's an evil open drug market right now, as I speak, where you cannot use the bus stop or go near it with kids because wicked predators have taken over.
Yet Metro Transit bus drivers never help notify Metro Transit police who use technicality in law, claiming it's not their responsibility to clear the area because it's the Seattle police who claim that they aren't responsible for clearing the area because it's Metro's responsibility.
This is a repeated dilemma that proves we have untrustworthy city leaders and retreaters of their
That is our last speaker present.
Thank you, Madam clerk we will now close the public comment period and we will move on to our committee report.
First, the governance native communities and tribal governments committee will the clerk please read item one into the record.
agenda item one, appointment 2170, appointment of Gail D. Tarleton as Director of Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.
And Director Tarleton, are you presently with us?
I see you on, there you are, great.
I know that Council President Juarez is not present.
Was someone designated to speak to the appointment, or should I hand it over to Director Tarleton?
Council Member Peterson, you are recognized.
Thank you, President Pro Tem Lewis.
Welcome, Director Tarleton.
Yes, as vice chair of the committee, Council President Horan has asked me to speak to this, although I know everybody's excited about this appointment, so there'll be others who will want to speak as well.
So let me know if you want me to do the official introduction, and then would I go first, or Director Tarleton?
Yes, Councilmember Peterson, please, as Vice Chair, speak to the agenda item.
Great, thank you.
Colleagues, Council President Juarez asked me to address this item as Vice Chair of the Governance Committee.
We unanimously recommended Gail Tarleton to become the permanent director of our city's Office of Intergovernmental Relations, known lovingly as OIR.
Rest assured that the mayor and council followed the nomination and confirmation process as outlined in our resolution 31868. Some of you know Gail Tarleton very well and are likely to have comments in support of her confirmation today.
Briefly, I'll say that this nomination of a highly experienced regional and national leader firmly committed to Seattle is not only a positive reflection on the Harrell administration, but also a blessing for our city.
as we compete for funding and policy improvements across all levels of government.
Gail Tarleton has already served our city skillfully as interim director of OIR over the past few months and built a solid team to navigate us through a complicated state legislative session.
As Mayor Harrell said in his letter transmitting her nomination to us, Gail Tarleton brings experience of both breadth and depth, including an elected public service on the Seattle Port Commission and eight years as a state representative of the 36th Legislative District.
Gail brings a thoughtful ear, diplomatic mind, and a commitment to advocating for the best interests of the people of Seattle.
The resounding conclusion from stakeholders was that Gail Tarleton has the resolve, temperament, and diplomatic skills needed to represent our city with distinction.
And I'll add to these accolades that I don't think it would be possible to find a professional with as much skill and experience as Gail Tarleton to represent City Hall as our new and permanent director of intergovernmental relations.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Director Tarleton, why don't you go ahead and give some remarks and then we'll open it up for general comments and questions.
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Lewis and all of the members of our City Council to our great city.
Council Member Herbold, Council Member Nelson, Council Member Morales, and Council Member Mosqueda, Council Member Strauss.
And I also wish to thank Council President Juarez and Council Member Sawant.
Council Member Peterson, thank you very, very much for that introduction.
I am so honored to be here before you all today.
An honor to serve.
I am honored to serve the city council and the mayor and the people of Seattle in doing the work that we all know needs to be done to advance our amazing city.
I want to thank you in particular for your support over these past four months as we kicked off a transition in the administration and I was hiring for staff and promoting staff.
to fill vacancies and to address crucial needs in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations as a short legislative session kicked off on January 10th.
And as I said to the Governance Committee last week, I am thrilled that we have a fully staffed Intergovernmental Relations team who reflect and respect the rich diversity of this city.
I am particularly grateful and all of you know we can't get anything done without the people who work side by side with us, your individual staff members and the central staff of the Council, every city employee and all of the departments.
were on their A-game throughout the legislative session, responding last minute.
You were on call 24-7 to deal with late-breaking testimony needs, letters of support.
Council Member Herbold, you got on the horn with our team in Olympia, virtually, of course, and made sure that when critical gun violence legislation was being passed, You were there speaking on behalf of not just your district and not just the people of Seattle, but our entire state, and that gun legislation, all passed into law.
Councilmember mosquito and Morales you were there with Councilmember so on advocating for.
rental assistance and eviction protections.
And at the last minute, your advocacy and support and data from your staff helped us get Representative Macri the information she needed to tuck a very important budget proviso in at the last minute for $45 million in rental assistance.
That's extraordinary.
Councilmember Peterson testified on transportation and sound transit issues.
Councilmember Strauss was there on behavioral health commitments and budget provisos that have translated into historic levels of funding for behavioral health and substance abuse treatment.
And Councilmember Lewis, your team working with Office of Housing and Human Services have helped us so much on the housing front and so many of you council members have done the same thing to put this city in a position to really transform access to housing for everyone who is unsheltered and for everyone who is at risk of losing housing.
I think you all should really take a moment to acknowledge that the city worked as a team and we got a lot accomplished with that team effort.
Council Member Nelson paid attention to a very interesting bill that navigated the session and wound up passing without almost anyone knowing.
except that she was there making phone calls, writing letters of support, supporting our King County Assessor.
And when it came to housing issues and dealing with ways in which we can avoid displacement, our King County Assessor was there for us and worked with us on budget proviso language.
So that's where partnerships matter.
And I just really want to thank Also Mayor Harrell and Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell and the entire executive team, because not only did they work with OIR and work with the legislators, they worked with all of you to make sure that we were understanding where we had common positions, where we diverged, where the executive and the legislative voices needed to express a different view in front of our legislative teams.
And it's okay to have differences of view, as long as we are conveying the information to our legislators, that is accurate, and that is appropriate.
able to influence their thinking on how to resolve the differences of view in policy as well as in budget debates.
I enjoy that part of this job.
I believe that good policy comes from really healthy deliberation and debate.
And as I told the Governance Committee last week, my husband and I love this city.
We adopted Seattle as our forever home nearly 30 years ago.
And I am so thrilled and honored to work with you and the mayor and the city employees and my OIR team at such a pivotal time in our history.
I am very grateful for your entrusting me to do this job and I look forward to getting the work done.
Thanks so much.
Director Tarleton, thank you so much.
Council Member Strauss, did you have a comment or question?
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.
Director Tarleton, it has been an immense pleasure to work with you over the last decade.
You are the definition of public servant.
It's been an honest honor to have been represented by you and to get this opportunity today to represent you.
You bring such an incredible wealth of experience, expertise, and relationships at the local, state, federal, and international level.
You demonstrated your strength this last and most recent short legislative session.
And frankly, we need you more now than ever before.
In light of the devastating news from the Supreme Court, I'm looking forward to working with you to do all we can at the federal level and understand what additional protections or resources are needed at the city or state level to safeguard abortion access.
You have a track record of being collaborative creating collaborative solutions by working cross jurisdictionally.
I'm going to raise a couple examples right here and now that you helped us start the Ballard interbay regional transportation corridor, you got us our first seed funding from the state, and that.
Translated into $25 million from the state budget this year.
And that's because of your work so I want to thank you there.
And I hope not to embarrass you, but you a Smith Cove Park is another great example of bringing the port, the county and the city together.
I keep this picture with me. in my office to ensure that we get that park finished since we still haven't broken ground.
I just have to thank you for accepting this role.
I'm incredibly grateful for your continued service to our nation and the residents of Seattle, and it's an honor to work with you.
Thank you, Council Member.
And that was one for the archives, that photo.
Yeah.
Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.
Council Member Nelson.
Well, I'm groping for superlatives here, but I just want to note that you are a fierce, fierce, fierce advocate for your district in the past.
I remember meeting you and you You advocated for the burgeoning craft beer industry in Seattle.
But not only are you an advocate, you bring to the city the gravity of your relationships that you've built throughout the course of your career.
And so I just want to say that your relationships already in Olympia and what you displayed right now.
Thanking each council member and recognizing what everybody has done as a team.
That's testament to why you are the right person for this job.
And I'm just really glad you have Seattle's back.
So thank you and congratulations.
Council Member Herbold.
Thank you, just a couple of words.
I just want to say publicly how I how much I feel lucky that the city of Seattle is going to have your real world legislative experience to help us be more successful in advancing.
Seattle's state legislative agenda.
You not only are a passionate and effective advocate, you're also a great leader and the support I've received from your office derives from that leadership.
I want to highlight the answer to one of the questions that I submitted because I think it really, for me, cinches the idea that you're the right person for this job.
I asked how you would resolve a situation when there was a disagreement between the executive and council, because as we all know, our legislative agenda is a consensus document from the city.
And you really embraced the recognition that there are differences of opinion.
But that's not a bad thing.
That's not a thing to run away from.
There's nothing like a legislative session to reveal differences of perspective.
As I've made sure council members and the executive were aware of differences of view emerging with pieces of legislation introduced this recent session, I also work with my OIR team to help them characterize the specific nature of the policy differences.
The legislative process is designed to understand where there's alignment and when there are differences of a view.
We have a responsibility to help legislators know when city policymakers are on the same page and where positions may diverge.
Again, I just want to say that to me, working to make sure everybody understands those differences is really important to the legislative process and I'm really pleased that you embrace that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.
Are there any other comments or questions from Councilmembers for Director Herbold or for Director Tarleton or regarding Director Tarleton's point?
Seeing none, I'll just close out to indicate how thrilled I am that we will get to work with Director Tarleton on an ongoing permanent basis as a permanent cabinet officer of the city to be our voice in a region, a state, and a country where Seattle has a lot that we want to give and a lot that we want to work with all those authorities on to improve the quality of life for all of our people and residents here in the city of Seattle.
Director Tarleton, I think it's amazing that we met 15 years ago at a Young Democrats meeting at the Northgate Library, a city facility, I might add, appropriate here.
And if you had told me 15 years ago that I was going to be presiding over a council meeting as the council president pro tem, appointing you to be the director of intergovernmental relations for the city, I would have said you didn't know what you were talking about.
So I couldn't be more thrilled to be able to be here given our years of friendship, your mentorship, and just your stellar record as an outstanding public servant at every level of government you've served in for us to be able to be here and continue to work together as we have for the past 15 years.
I am absolutely thrilled to vote in favor of this nomination today.
So with that, I will call the question and ask that the clerk please call the roll on confirmation of the appointment.
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council Member Mosqueda?
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Seven in favor, none opposed.
Congratulations, Director Tarleton, looking forward to much more work together.
And I will turn it back over to you for some last remarks before we move on to the next agenda item.
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Lewis and all of you for your vote of confidence.
and your really kind words.
You probably noticed that half the time I'm laughing here, reflecting on the situations where we have all experienced that we start work and we don't know where it's going to go.
But what I do know is that if we don't start, we will never get to where we need to go.
One brief memory that I have always had is when I first became a member of the Port of Seattle Commission.
And in my very first few months, of course, the economy collapsed and markets froze on municipal bonds.
And we were trying to deal with port security issues in 2008, as well as try to deal with lots of problems in our city, in our county governments and at our port.
And I had to go to a port security conference where everyone around the world was complaining about the new law that Senator Murray and then Governor Gregoire had put into effect that all ports had to be able to monitor the security of containers coming into every port in the country.
And at that point in 2008, Nationwide, only 4% of the containers that came into the country from other countries were actually scanned.
And so I was at this security conference and one of the port directors, I think in Amsterdam, one of the biggest ports in the world, said, there is no way we're gonna be able to examine 100% of the containers by 2012. That was the goal, four years later, 2012. And I remember saying to that port director, well, if we don't start doing it right now, you're absolutely right.
We will never have the ability to scan 100% of the containers.
And we'll also never know if we were able to get there.
So let's just start doing it and see where we land.
And by 2012, we were scanning close to 100% of the containers coming into the country.
It's amazing what you can do when you can look at it through a different lens and say, what would happen if we actually achieved it?
And how do we get there?
And working with all of you and with the mayor and with the people in this city and with the people in all of our neighboring communities and our partners at every level, we can get there wherever we want to take this great city.
So thank you so, so much.
I am looking forward to working with you.
Thank you so much director Tarleton and thank you for joining us today.
Moving on to item to neighborhoods education civil rights and culture committee.
Will the clerk please read the short title of item to into the record agenda item to Council one to zero three 10 relating to historic preservation imposing controls upon the Center for wooden boats a landmark designated by the landmarks preservation for the committee recommends the bill passed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Morales, as chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report.
Thank you, Mr. President.
So as the clerk mentioned, this legislation acknowledges the designation of the Center for Wood and Boats as a historic landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Board.
I'm sure we've all been down there.
I was down there just several weeks ago, enjoying the Center for Wood and Boats.
This legislation imposes controls and grants incentives to the center, which began in the early 80s.
The property is located in the South Lake Union neighborhood, and an agreement has been signed by the owner and approved by the Landmarks Preservation Board, indicating the controls and incentives.
So the committee recommends approval of this legislation.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Morales.
Are there any comments on the legislation?
Hearing no comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Councilmember Nelson?
Aye.
Councilmember Peterson?
Aye.
Councilmember Strauss?
Yes.
Councilmember Herbold?
Yes.
Councilmember Morales?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
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Agenda Item three accountable 1203 11 relating to start preservations imposing controls upon the Wagner floating home a landmark designated by the landmarks preservation board the committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you, Madam Clerk counselor Morales as chair of the committee, you are recognized.
Thank you very much.
The Wagner floating home was built in around 1910. It was originally located in Lake Washington near Madison Park, but was moved to Lake Union around 1938 and presently sits around the East Queen Anne neighborhood.
The controls and incentives agreement for this property applies to the exterior of the floating home and the floating foundation and platform.
but not to in-kind maintenance or repairs of the designated features.
We did want to make sure that the owner who actually lives in the home is able to make any repairs that are necessary.
But the idea here is to preserve the foundation because it is historic.
It is logs that are used rather than a more modern technology to keep the house afloat.
And the committee recommends passage.
Thank you, Council Member Morales.
Are there any other comments on the legislation?
Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council Member Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Seven in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Okay, adoption of other resolutions.
There are no resolutions for introduction and adoption on today's council agenda.
Last item, other business.
I did want to take a bit of a digression under other business to give council colleagues space to make public comments and recognition of the unprecedented news that has been shaping, well, it has the potential to dramatically reshape the country in a bad way that broke yesterday evening, well after council briefing.
I want to start a hold on just one moment.
Madam Clerk, did we have on the agenda an appointment for Joel Merkel to the public safety?
We did Council President Pro Tem Lewis, he was considered under the consent calendar.
Oh, yes.
Okay, right.
That's what I thought.
Thanks.
Sorry, I was just someone just reached out asking if that was me.
This does happen occasionally.
I'm sorry.
I wanted to make sure we address that.
Joel Merkel, if you're watching, we didn't forget about you.
You were in the consent agenda.
And we are honored to have you here at the city to be to be part of the work along with everyone else who was on the consent agenda.
So thank you.
See, that's some diligent committee chairing there to make sure all of your stuff got through on the final agenda.
So going back to it, though, I did want to take a moment for good of the order to give an opportunity for public comment given the recentness of the news of the impending decision of the court to overrule the Roe and Casey stare decisis opinions And I just want to take a moment at the top just to recognize the historic tragedy of that impending decision by the United States Supreme Court.
It's having read the draft decision that's been circulated.
It's a decision eroding decades of social progress in this country, has horrifying implications for impacting the privacy, civil rights, and healthcare of millions of Americans.
It's a decision entirely dismissive of the fundamental spirit of constitutional guarantees of privacy and personal autonomy that appear in several parts of our constitution, and indeed has frightening implications beyond this decision for future court actions to further erode personal liberties and rights recognized by the Warren and Berger courts in particular.
It is, in short, an edict that would be expected from a theocratic state and not the judiciary of a free and independent republic.
And I did wanna just express today in open session, my strong feelings and in opposition to that decision, my commitment going forward to support state and federal leaders as Council Member Strauss indicated earlier.
And indeed what we can do as local officials to make sure that rights and guarantees of privacy of reproductive autonomy, of the right to do, to make your own healthcare decisions without the government intervention is something that we strongly support.
I salute the community members, including our own senior deputy mayor, Munisha Harrell, who gathered right as this council meeting was beginning in District 7 in Cary Park to express their strong opposition to this decision.
And I understand some council offices are considering uh, potential resolutions for the council to formally comment on this topic.
And I look forward over the course of the next week, uh, to talk to council colleagues and duly consider those resolutions.
Um, so with that, I'm happy to open it up, uh, and allow opportunity for, um, uh, other good of the order comments from council members.
Seeing no additional, um, good of the order comments, Colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.
Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on May 10 at 2pm.
I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon, and the council is adjourned.