Seattle City Council 212021

Good afternoon, everyone.

The February 1st, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's two o'clock p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Six present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk for that.

Presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations.

Approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of January 25th, 2021 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Adoption of the referral calendar.

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

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

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.

Before I go ahead and open up public comment, I do want to note for the record that we've been joined by Councilmember Sawant.

Thank you for joining us, Councilmember Sawant.

I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It remains the strong intent of the City Council to have remote public comment at all of our meetings.

And as a reminder, the City Council does reserve 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.

I'll moderate today's public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period for.

Today will be a, at the top of the agenda, a total of 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

I'll call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to council's website at Seattle.gov forward slash council, that's C-O-U-N-C-I-L.

The public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak.

And then the speaker must press star six in order to be heard by us.

So again, each speaker is going to hear a prompt of you have been unmuted.

And then after that prompt is heard, you will need to press star six in order to begin speaking before beginning to speak to us.

You'll need to start by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or the council's work program.

At about 10 seconds, speakers are going to hear a chime.

That chime means that you have 10 seconds left of your allotted time.

And once you hear the chime, we'd ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, your microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you have completed your public comment, I'd ask that you please disconnect from the line, and if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so via Seattle Channel or any one of the listening options listed on the agenda.

Again, colleagues, before I open up public comment and call on the first name, I do want to have the record reflect that Councilmember Mosqueda was with us during the roll call.

I was having some technical difficulties.

She logged out and logged back in, and I can now see her.

And just before we start public comment, I do want to give you, Councilmember Mosqueda, an opportunity to Just test your microphone and make sure we've got you.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Sorry to be late in this roll call.

No, that's that's OK.

We are living in a technologically challenging world still, so I appreciate that we got you back and that your technology is now cooperating.

So with that being said, we are going to go ahead and now open up the period of public comment.

It is 2.20, excuse me, 2.05, so we will go until 2.25 p.m.

before we consider extending public comment for any additional time.

Again, for those of you on the list, Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt if you have been unmuted.

Otherwise, we will not be able to hear you.

So the first two speakers that are signed up and showing up as present are Charlie Latham, followed by Deepa Sivarajan.

Charlie, welcome.

Hi, good afternoon, City Council.

I'm Charlie LaFamme with the King County Labor Council.

We represent more than 150 of King County's unions, and I'm here to speak about the proposed changes to the energy code.

The Labor Council and the labor community supports the proposed energy code updates because this is a win-win for working people across our city and our region.

These improvements to the building code will do our part to address climate change by moving away from the most inefficient and polluting sources of heat and making the places that we live, work, and enjoy more energy efficient.

Bottom line is climate change is hurting working people right now, and it's our responsibility to do what we can to reduce emissions.

This is also, though, a win-win.

This is a win for good paying family wage jobs right here in our community.

Electrification, insulating, and other work like this increases efficiency, but it requires a lot of labor, and it boosts our economy.

The timing couldn't be better because we need to keep people employed during this economic downturn.

This is good for families, and it's good for our community.

Thank you for your work on this.

Thank you for calling in, Charlie.

Next up is Deepa, followed by Anne Marie Dooley.

Go ahead, Deepa.

Hi, my name is Deepa.

Thank you.

My name is Deepa Sivarajan.

I'm the Washington Policy Manager at Climate Solutions, and I'm calling today to indicate our support as well for the updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code, which, if passed, will eliminate most uses of fossil fuels in new commercial and large multi-family buildings.

We want to thank the members of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, who not only approved the code updates, but also removed unnecessary delays in the implementation of this energy code.

Thank you.

Buildings are the fastest-growing source of carbon pollution in both Seattle and Washington State, and Seattle's most recent greenhouse gas inventory showed that our building emissions have continued to rise, even as the city tries to make investments in mitigating climate change.

By phasing out the use of fossil fuels, especially fossil gas, to heat and power our buildings, we'll be future-proofing our buildings to meet our climate goals.

will also protect Seattle's residents from the health impact of air pollution from gas combustion, impacts which tend to be disproportionately borne by BIPOC and low-income communities.

Since the historical impact of segregation and redlining have led these communities to be pushed to live in places with greater exposure to air pollution.

Using gas in buildings also puts us at risk of gas leaks and explosions.

In Seattle, 911 services receive a call related to a suspected gas leak or odor on average every three days.

We hope the council will unanimously approve the code update today, and we also encourage council members to look past this update to future policies that electrify all new buildings in Seattle.

While this code update is a great first step, all communities in Seattle should benefit from clean, safe, and all-electric buildings.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Anne-Marie Dooley, followed by Howard Gale.

Anne-Marie, welcome.

Thank you.

My name is Anne-Marie Dooley.

I'm a doctor and a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Today the council will look at the Seattle Commercial Energy Codes.

These codes can save lives by reducing greenhouse gases outside and improving the air quality inside.

People think of transportation as the main source of air pollution while buildings get a free pass.

Gas in commercial buildings can produce as much nitrogen oxide as some gas power plants.

And the small particles released inside can increase asthma rates and reduce lung function, especially in children.

Now, I've heard the arguments from business against removing gas from buildings that the upfront costs are too high or they need more time.

I wish I'd had more time last spring to prepare for a pandemic when I saw my colleagues intubated, but I didn't.

Public health can't wait.

Every day we delay means more illness and lives lost from air pollution and climate-related heat stress, and that's 100,000 a year hospitalized or dying from warming alone.

Seattle must electrify its buildings, and we ask you to be bold.

Please adopt the updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Codes.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Howard Gale, followed by Holly Towns.

Howard.

Good afternoon.

Howard Dale District 7 commenting on police abuse and failed accountability.

Eight.

That is the number of people killed by the Seattle Police including Charlena Lyles since Seattle's police accountability legislation was passed in the spring of 2017. Zero.

That is the number of officers held accountable in these killings.

There's also the number of policy changes or management recommendations produced by Seattle's so-called accountability partners in response to those killings.

51. That is the tiny number out of hundreds of post-George Floyd cases of police abuse of demonstrators that have so far been reviewed by the OPA in over eight months.

Six.

That is the total number of disciplinary actions so far taken by the SPD for these abuse cases.

Zero.

that is a number of disciplinary actions taken that go beyond a simple written or oral reprimand in these egregious cases of police abuse.

Over eight months post-George Floyd, it is clear that the vast majority of SBD abuses will avoid any accountability given that we are well past the 180-day time limit for investigation and discipline.

This complete failure of police accountability in any form was further highlighted when last week the Community Police Commission hosted a forum on the SBD use of force policies without public interaction a forum absent any of the victims of the last eight months of police violence yet giving the s p d in a seen amount of time to disassemble and gaslight the smallest very smallest measure of justice you could now provide those who continue to suffer the abuse which you pay for is to finally create a fully civilianized police accountability system under true community control

Thank you.

Next is Holly Towns followed by Rob McVickers.

Holly.

There you go.

We got you now.

Go ahead.

Hi.

My name is Holly Towns.

I'm a mechanical engineer, a city resident, and I'm here on behalf of the 43rd District Democrats Environmental Caucus.

I first want to thank Dan Strauss and the Land Use Committee for passing the Seattle Commercial Energy Code as originally proposed by city staff after long and impressive community involvement.

I and we urge you to pass the code update and to do this without delay.

This update is a powerful, tangible step forward with proven technology to meet our city's greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

The city is far behind in meeting its goals, despite the council and city's written and verbal support for fighting climate change.

And buildings are the fastest growing contributors to greenhouse gases, representing 37% of the emissions.

And buildings that we build now are gonna be around for 50 years.

It is far cheaper to upgrade during construction than as a retrofit.

Here is a chance to start to get back on track for fighting climate change for the benefit of all our citizens.

Energy code changes have been fought by some in the building industry for years, using increased costs as a justification that is not proven out over time.

In my experience, estimates of increased costs vary greatly and are a lot higher when it is new and not business as usual.

After builders learn to incorporate new codes and new equipment, is more in demand, the incremental cost goes way down.

City staff reported this to be true over the years.

In addition, we must always ask, cost compared to what?

In this case, the cost is far greater to not address climate change.

The smoke in the last few years is only one indicator that climate change is already having a big impact on our health community and economy.

Please pass the code right now to reduce climate impact.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Rob McVickers followed by Jim Street.

Hi, my name is Rob McVickers with Build Sound.

I'm a townhouse builder here in Seattle.

I'm calling in to talk about striking the state's exemptions of fire sprinklers being required in townhouses.

I'm calling to testify as a builder and an expert, more importantly, a concerned citizen about middle housing affordability.

I'm here to tell you that every time we add cost to building townhouses, we increase the sales prices.

We can't continue to absorb costs.

Our businesses are built on margins, and if we can't show the margins exist, we can't borrow money, we can't build townhouses, we can't build what's probably the only median price housing left in the city.

Every department in the city seems to be making policy in the silo, and no one is looking at the accumulative effect on the cost of housing.

Not fighting all code changes.

We believe in the energy code because we see the value it has to the citizens of Seattle and society as a whole.

But fire sprinklers in townhouses, there's just no data supporting the life safety issue.

It's a good idea.

I like the idea, but I also would like to have my car surrounded in an airbag, but it's not practical or affordable.

If you're truly concerned about affordable housing, you will have to realize that you can't simply implement every good idea without affecting the affordability of housing.

For every $10,000 price increase, you push another 976 residents out of the ability to purchase a home.

And that's what passing the code or passing the exception to put fire sprinklers in townhouses does.

It simply pushes people out of home ownership.

If there were data to support life safety issues, it would be easier to support striking the exception.

But I do have a lot of data showing that the added cost of construction increased the cost of housing.

If you're truly concerned about affordable housing, you will reject striking this exemption.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Jim Street, followed by Nathaniel Gunderson.

And Jim, if you're with us, you'll need to hit star six so we can hear you.

It looks like we might be having some technical difficulties.

So let's move over to.

I think.

Can you hear me now?

Oh, we got you now.

Go for it.

I'm sorry about that.

I hit pound six.

That's all right.

That's all right.

Go for it.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jim Street.

Along with others, I want to congratulate council member Strauss and the land use committee for their decision to recommend approval of the energy code updates to the full council.

The update to the energy code is a powerful, tangible step forward with proven technology to meet our city's greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

It will be one of the most significant climate actions the council will have taken to date.

The climate actions in all the responsible council committees are significant and urgent.

Today we are at 1.2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

The carbon budget, as you probably know, equals the amount of carbon we can add to the atmosphere if we hope to avoid a temperature increase of more than one and a half degrees.

Climate scientists estimate that at the current level of emissions, the world will exhaust our carbon budget in seven years.

We cannot afford any delay in effective policies that will reduce emissions.

For that reason, we strongly support the committee decision to delete the provision that would have delayed implementing the use of efficient electricity for space heating.

The amendment introducing the delay in implementation of the energy code was added at the last meeting of the advisory committee.

The amendment by Councilmember Mosqueda to eliminate the proposed delay in the code restored the original recommendation from staff.

Please take action now.

One other thing, addressing residential and existing buildings should be our next steps.

Changes in the way the city supports conversion from gas and affordable and low-income housing are needed.

We hope to work with you in addressing those items in the near future.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Nathaniel Gunderson followed by Christina Soman Faulkner.

Nathaniel.

Can you hear me OK?

We can.

All right.

Hey my name is Nathaniel Gunderson.

I live in District 2 and I'm an architectural designer at DLR Group in Seattle.

I'm here on behalf of myself and the American Institute of Architects Seattle chapter supporting the adoption of the updated energy code.

I'll start by saying that architects strongly support these code updates because as you've heard from others on this call, buildings are one of the largest and fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions and climate pollution in Seattle.

We need to address building emissions from new construction now because each generation of new buildings is a long-term investment that will last for decades.

and the cost of future building retrofits is significantly more expensive.

I'd like to emphasize that building to these codes is already achievable.

These codes have been vetted by architects and others in the building and construction industry during more than a year of outreach by the city.

Architects are designing according to these codes today, and these buildings are being built today.

Clear legislative and policy direction on this matter is key to reducing market costs for these necessary changes.

and the improvements themselves are already contributing substantially to reducing building emissions in a cost-effective way.

Our communities need this continued environmental leadership from the city to raise the baseline for building owners who won't voluntarily meet the energy and decarbonization targets that they should.

Raising the floor helps all of us to live healthier lives, so I ask that you please approve these code updates for a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for calling in today.

Next up is Christina Soman Faulkner followed by Sean Armstrong.

Christina.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon Council President Gonzalez and council members.

I am Dr. Christina Soman Faulkner and I'm speaking on the Seattle Commercial Energy Code updates.

I'm speaking on behalf of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility an organization representing about a thousand health care professionals in our state.

We urge you to pass these updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code.

Our recent greenhouse gas inventory update showed us that Seattle's energy combustion I'm sorry consumption is growing as our city's population grows.

Buildings are the most rapidly growing source of carbon pollution in our state and currently account for about a third of our city's emissions.

Most of these emissions come from the gas used to heat cool cook and run appliances.

This leads to significant immediate and long-term health harms to us, to our parents, and our children alike.

These code updates ensure new buildings will be more safe, resilient, and efficient.

While higher upfront construction cost is often cited as the main argument against these code updates, we need to examine long-term benefits.

Effective implementation of these updates can not only increase long-term cost savings and provide more resilient energy that is more reliable even during weather extremes and climate-related disasters like wildfires, but can also lead to air quality improvement, decreased emissions, and protection of the health and safety of our population.

Seattle has always been seen as a climate leader.

We need a safer, healthier, more equitable, and economically viable future.

Passing these code updates is a tangible step forward to set the stage for this future, one that can also power progress in city workforce development programs, future-proof new affordable housing, and help us get closer to ending our reliance on the fossil fuel-dominated infrastructure of the past.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

I'm gonna go ahead and call on Sean Armstrong, who is next.

Sean.

Hello, hi, I'm Sean Armstrong.

I'm the managing principal of Redwood Energy.

We're a national affordable housing consultant.

And I wanted to call in to support the Seattle Commercial Energy Code update.

The reasons why, all electric construction does lower construction costs by a minimum of $2,000 an apartment.

We've seen this over and over and over, a couple hundred projects now, where we can see that it definitely lowers construction costs.

There's also many studies that demonstrated that as well.

It accelerates construction timelines because there's a lot of delays when you have to bring in a gas line.

Buildings are inherently all electric.

Every gas appliance has electricity delivered to it.

So you just add construction time to add gas, and you add costs.

It reduces construction dangers.

Unfortunately, it is a dangerous thing to deal with natural gas piping, and construction workers every year get injured and killed.

And you can see this in your own community there.

In the Greenwood neighborhood, where one of my best friends from college lives, in 2016, there was a gas explosion that injured nine firefighters, damaged three dozen buildings and destroyed three.

There was another explosion recently in North Seattle in 2019 that injured three utility workers.

It's a dangerous product to have, and it's unnecessary.

So I'd like to thank you for passing this important code update to lower construction costs and increase safety for Seattle residents.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Colleagues, that does bring us up to 225 p.m., which is a full 20 minutes of public comment.

We have about 11 more folks who are signed up.

If there's no objection, I'd like to extend the public comment period for 15 minutes, but reduce the amount of time allotted to each individual from two minutes to one minute.

So if there's no objection, the public comment period will be extended until 2.40 PM.

Hearing no objection, the public comment period is extended to 2.40 PM.

and I'll continue to call through public commenters.

Next up is Alicia Ruiz, followed by Brittany Bush-Bolay.

Good afternoon.

My name is Alicia Ruiz.

I'm the Seattle Government Affairs Manager for Master Builders Association.

We represent nearly 3,000 members here in our area.

And I'm testifying today against the adoption of the proposed action for Seattle to no longer exempt townhomes consisting of no more than four units from requiring spire fire sprinklers.

So just to recap Seattle currently has an exemption for smaller townhome developments.

And so this really affects our members and the city's missing middle housing inventory.

because a lot of our infill projects are for townhomes or less, which, as I said, the city now exempts requiring fire sprinklers.

The state is allowing this exemption, but within this legislation that you're considering today, the city is choosing no longer to exempt it, therefore requiring townhomes in all new townhomes

Thank you for calling in, Alicia.

Next up is Brittany Bush-Bolay followed by Matthew Combe.

Brittany.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Brittany Bush-Bolay.

I'm the chair of Sierra Club Seattle Group, and I'm calling to express our strong support for passing the new building energy codes that are before you this afternoon, specifically the areas that ensure that new commercial construction lies in safe, clean electricity.

As you've heard many times by now, one-third of Seattle's climate pollution comes from buildings, And most of that is produced by the use of fracked gas.

So modernizing the commercial building codes is a simple and effective way to quickly reduce our fracked gas consumption, slowing the damage to our climate.

And in fact, every plan that Seattle has for meeting its climate goals requires the prevention of new fossil fuel use in most buildings.

Building a city that runs on clean electricity is also important health work and important equity work.

gas appliances harm both indoor and outdoor air quality and gas extraction and transport are extremely harmful.

And it's significant to note the impact of fracked gas extraction and use are felt most intensely by BIPOC communities.

Cities all across the country are preparing to take up this action and I'm proud that Seattle is on the leading edge.

Thank you for your adoption of these new codes.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Matthew Combe followed by Uchi Okizi.

Matthew.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Matthew Combe, and I'm the executive director of the Seattle 23rd District, a nonprofit organization that breaks down market barriers to building efficiency.

And I'm here today to support the Seattle Energy Code update.

Energy code is a critical mechanism in achieving decarbonization of the built environment at the city scale.

And the IPCC report shows that we need to get to net zero emissions by 2050. And to do that, we must reduce emissions by 50% in the next years and 11 months.

If we are going to achieve these goals, we need to make significant changes now.

And this code update puts us on a path to achieve those changes.

Our members have shown that it is possible and economically beneficial to achieve these targets in our buildings, many of whom have done so without burning fossil fuels.

I would also like to thank SDCI and Dwayne Johnlin for the significant outreach that they have done to stakeholders in the building design industry to vet this update.

Again, we support this update and I look forward to working with the city and council to address existing buildings in Seattle.

Thanks.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Uche followed by Julia Buck.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Uche Okeze.

I'm the Director of Real Estate Development for HomeSite, an affordable housing organization in South Seattle.

And I'm commenting in support of adopting the updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code.

We've developed more than 450 homes for low-income families to achieve their dream of homeownership.

And our focus has been and continues to be developing affordable, environmentally sustainable homes with long-term durability and low operational housing costs We are developing a permanently affordable limited equity residential cooperative and have already invested in the building measures required by this code.

Incorporating these measures will provide long-term electric rate predictability, financial savings, and the resilience of the residents and the resilience the residents will need in the future and believe that all buildings should be built in this manner for efficiency and long-term durability.

These updates make sense for the buildings as we work toward our goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. on these updates at cost, and so I'm glad that HDC's Exemplary Building Program and other organizations are providing guidance and training resources, and I'm also...

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Julia Buck, followed by Amy Wheelis.

Julia.

Good afternoon, council.

My name is Julia Buck.

I'm a resident of District 6. I'd especially like to thank my council member, Dan Strauss, for his leadership on the building energy code updates and to echo his concern from this morning about decommissioning gas lines.

Seattle's greenhouse gas emissions are still growing in spite of our commitments to reduce them.

And it's great that as we're building larger buildings that can accommodate more people, we're also striving to reduce the carbon footprint of our construction.

I thank the council for your work on this and encourage you to pass the updated building energy code with the amendments.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Amy Willis followed by Steven Tate.

Thank you, Council President Gonzales and city council members.

My name is Amy Willis and I am a policy analyst at the Northwest Energy Coalition.

I also co-chair an organization called Shift Zero that is working towards a zero carbon a building teacher for all of Washington all Washingtonians.

I urge your support for the energy code update before you today.

This meeting today is the culmination of more than a year and a half of work and stakeholder outreach to get these amendments right.

We need these changes to ensure their newest buildings are as strong and climate resilient as possible.

Earlier this afternoon I sent all of you a support letter with sign-ons from a number of different climate environmental and labor organizations as well as a number of businesses that work in the building industry so I urge your review of that and I thank you for your time today.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Stephen Tate followed by Elizabeth Stamp.

Good afternoon.

I am Steve Tate.

I live in Seattle.

I work for Fireside Home Solutions and sell and install indoor and outdoor fireplace solutions for residential and commercial spaces in Seattle and the greater Seattle area.

We employ over 100 people and have annual sales of over two million dollars in Seattle.

I've asked to speak against approving the banning of natural gas in new commercial and multifamily buildings in Seattle.

Passing this bill will increase, not decrease, carbon dioxide emission levels from fireplaces.

We use cordwood, wood pellets, propane, and natural gas as fuel choices for our clients.

And natural gas is our cleanest fuel available in terms of carbon emissions to meet that demand.

Restricting or removing the ability for clients to choose natural gas will create more need for propane and wood-burning appliances which have a higher carbon emissions level than natural gas.

We'll be moving backwards and working to provide the cleanest burning solutions for our clients.

Please do not restrict the use of natural gas.

The demand for fire features and the ability to enjoy being around a fire for a variety of reasons isn't going to go away.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Next up is Elizabeth Stamp followed by Zach Amate.

Good afternoon council members.

I'm Elizabeth Stamp with NRDC the Natural Resources Defense Council and I'm here to express NRDC's strong support for the proposed updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code.

Buildings are the source of a third of Seattle's climate pollution.

At NRDC we know that Seattle is often a leader on climate action but the city's recent emissions report shows that more is needed for the city to meet its goals.

And buildings are a particular area where pollution will increase unless you act.

Today, Seattle can join cities across the country leading the way to get dirty fossil gas out of buildings for the climate, for cleaner air, and for residents' health.

I urge you to pass these updates to Seattle's Energy Code today.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Zach Amite followed by BJ Last.

President Gonzalez, Council Members, thank you for the opportunity to provide comment today on the proposed updates to the Seattle Energy Code.

My name is Zach Amitai, Advocate with Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2.

As you may know, E2 is a national advocacy network of over 9,000 business founders, executives, investors, and other private sector professionals who work across all industries and sectors.

And I'm here today to express E2's support for the proposed updates to the Energy Code.

While the climate imperative of these updates is clear, E2 also recognizes the immense economic opportunity presented by strengthening these codes.

The proposed updates will deliver long-term savings to building owners and renters alike, and they will also drive additional clean tech investment and job growth in the city, building on the more than 48,000 clean energy jobs in Seattle at the beginning of 2020. To maximize the climate economic benefits of these updates, E2 also asked the council to pass additional legislation to require that all buildings covered under the code use electricity for water heating.

E2 thanks the council for its work on these code updates.

They are an important step towards achieving a zero emissions future for Seattle, and E2 looks forward to working with you to realize this future.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is BJ Last, and our last speaker is Bonnie Coker.

BJ.

≫ Thank you.

Star six, one more time, B.J.

There you go.

≫ Hi.

My name is B.J.

Last.

I'm a D6 resident and a small business owner.

I want to thank my council member Dan Strauss and the land use and neighborhoods committee for supporting the updates to the Seattle commercial energy code.

I ask that you pass these updates with the amendment.

Climate change is an And buildings are one of the largest and fastest growing sources of climate pollution in Seattle.

And these code updates ensure that we are building new large buildings in a sustainable and responsible manner.

And the code updates will also make our buildings safer by eliminating indoor air pollution from the burning of natural gas and removing the risk of gas leaks and explosions like the explosion that occurred in Greenwood in 2016 and the one that occurred in North Seattle in 2019. Thank you for your work on this and I yield my time.

Thank you so much.

Our last speaker is Johnny.

Good afternoon council members.

My name is Johnny Kocher and I work for Rocky Mountain Institute.

City Council has a key opportunity here today to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector while not increasing construction costs.

Research from RMI has shown that Constructing all electric new construction buildings is cheaper.

In addition to approving these code changes, the City Council should take one further step into ensuring efficient and climate resilient buildings in the future.

The City should pursue a separate piece of legislation that would require all commercial buildings covered under the code also use electricity for water heating.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for calling in today.

Colleagues, that does conclude our public comment period, so I'm going to go ahead and close out the public comment period, and we'll go ahead and dig into items of business on the agenda.

First up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Council Bill 119994, appropriate in mind to pay certain claims to the week of January 18th, 2021 through January 22nd, 2021, and uttering the payment thereof.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 119994. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any additional comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, committee reports.

First up is Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record.

Every part of the public safety and human services committee agenda and one appointment 1757 appointment of curry mayor, director of office of emergency management.

The committee recommends that the appointment be confirmed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council member, you are chair of the committee and are recognized in order to provide the committee's report.

Thank you so much.

As mentioned this morning in council briefings, I, in my committee, the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, had a meet and greet with Interim Director Curry Mayer the first week of January.

Interim Director Mayer then attended the committee and was introduced at that time by Senior Deputy Mayor Mike Fong, and that was on January 12th.

My office then followed up with a list of 34 questions compiled by central staff and Councilmember offices.

Councilmembers, thank you to all who submitted questions.

Interim Director Mayer returned those questions, which were then discussed, the answers, not the questions, were discussed at the Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting on January 26th.

The committee voted unanimously in favor of her appointment.

Just a little bit of background.

Interim Director Mayer has over 20 years of emergency management experience at each, the local, state, and national levels.

Most recently, Interim Director Mayer served as Emergency Manager for the City of Bellevue, overseeing the design and implementation of comprehensive emergency management programs.

Interim Director Mayer also previously worked for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, where she also served in a number of roles over the course of nearly 20 years.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

Are there any additional comments on the appointment?

Okay, colleagues, we are going to hear from Curry mayor, after we take the roll call on the confirmation, I'll make sure that she has an opportunity to address the council with some brief remarks.

But first, we're going to go ahead and take the roll and then we'll invite Curry mayor to provide us with some brief remarks.

So hearing no additional comments on the appointment, I would ask the clerk, please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment.

Burrales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

I want to congratulate Curry Mayor for the opportunity to serve in this capacity and certainly welcome her to the full city council meeting.

And I'm going to go ahead and recognize Curry for a few moments and give her an opportunity to provide brief remarks to the council and the viewing public.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seattle is not only a very exciting place to be and work and live, but it's also known for its commitment to diversity and inclusion and making the lives better for everyone who lives, works and visits Seattle.

So I'm really excited to be part of that.

I also want to thank the mayor and Deputy Mayor Fong and the OEM team for their support of me as well.

I believe that my skills and experience working in the fields will be a benefit to Seattle.

And I look forward to working with all of the council members on, you know, maximizing the federal reimbursements and also making sure that we reach those we haven't yet reached.

especially underserved populations, limited English proficiency people in the Seattle area.

We're going to fortunately, in my view anyway, be able to switch now from not just COVID activities, but looking at those other hazards that community faces, earthquakes, winter storms and the like.

So again, thank you so much.

I look forward to working and speaking with all of you and some I've had the opportunity to do so already.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Curry, for those remarks and thank you for your service already to the city.

I wanted to just express my personal gratitude to you for taking the opportunity to meet with me last Friday to just have a conversation outside of the formal committee setting and really appreciated hearing from you more direct information about how you think OEM can serve non-English proficient and limited English proficient populations throughout our city.

I look forward to continuing to work with you on all of those really important issues.

And thanks to Council Member Herbold for doing an excellent job shepherding your nomination through our process.

Really, really appreciate it.

So colleagues, if there are no additional comments, we can let Curry get back to her important work.

All right, colleagues.

Thank you, Curry, for being with us.

Really appreciate it.

Look forward to it.

Thank you.

I look forward to it as well.

Take care.

Bye.

All right, colleagues, we're going to move into the next committee report, which is the Community Economic Development Committee.

Lots of nominations here.

We're about to embark on a journey of the Councilmember Morales show for a few moments here.

So next up is item two.

I'm going to ask that the clerk please read item two into the record.

The report of the Community Economic Development Committee Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 119982, relating to the Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities, changing the name to the Seattle Disability Commission and requesting that the code reviser revise the Seattle Municipal Code accordingly.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Excellent.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Valdez, you are the chair of this committee, and I'm going to go ahead and hand the virtual mic over to you so you can walk us through this legislation.

Thank you, Council President.

It's pretty simple, really.

Amelia sort of caught it, captured it all.

The members of the Disability Commission have voted unanimously to change the name from the previous people with disabilities.

My understanding is that this really reflects a preference for neither a person first orientation, in other words, people with disabilities, farmer who is blind, nor for an identity first orientation, a disabled person, but rather a preference for the commission identifying as the subject matter experts, hence the disability commission.

As I said, this was voted on unanimously by the members of the commission themselves, and so we are recommending passage of the bill.

Uh, and uh, am I supposed to move something?

Uh, nope.

Nope We're we're doing we're doing just fine.

Sorry.

I was looking for the mute button there.

My apologies for the awkward pause Okay, colleagues.

Are there any additional comments on this bill?

or questions for councilmember morales Hearing none.

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

Morales Yes Mosqueda.

Yes Peterson.

Yes

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Items three and four.

Will the clerk please read items three and four into the record.

Agenda items 3 and 4, appointments 1618 and 1627, appointments of Rebecca Bryant and Abriel Johnny as members, Seattle Women's Commission, for term 2, July 1st, 2022. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you so much.

Madam Clerk, Councilwoman Morales, you are the chair of this committee, and I'm going to go ahead and hand it back over to you to walk us through these appointments.

Thank you, Chair.

As I mentioned, I do have, I think, 15 appointments on here.

So we are going to try to group them together.

These are two strong women who came to us to serve on the Women's Commission.

We heard great things from both Rebecca and Abriel.

Council Member Juarez had lots of high praise for Ms. Johnny.

And so we are recommending that both of these appointments be confirmed.

Excellent.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Are there any additional comments on the appointments?

Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1618 and 1627.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yep.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzales?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Items 5 through 12. Will the clerk please read items 5 through 12 into the record.

Agenda items 5 through 12 appointments 1767 through 1774. Appointments and reappointments of Stephen Prey, Manuel Villegas, Christopher M. Brown, and Latosha Correll as members of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to October 31st, 2021. And appointments and reappointments of Brian Bush, Nathaniel Higby, Jesse Murray, and Brett Kopowski as members of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to October 31st, 2022. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Rales, this is also part of your committee work, so I'm going to hand it back over to you to walk us through these appointments and reappointments.

Thank you.

Yes.

So I think everybody knows that our commissions, most of our commissions now comprise 21 members or can be have up to that many.

Clearly, the LGBTQ Commission needed to have some reappointments made.

These folks volunteer their time and very often have quite a lot of work that they're trying to get through.

recommendations to make to the city.

So I'm excited that so many folks are interested in being reappointed and look forward to having the reappointments and the new commissioners confirmed as well.

Thank you so much for that report.

Colleagues, are there any additional comments on these appointments and reappointments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1767 through 1774.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Moving over to items 13 through 16. Will the clerk please read items 13 through 16 into the record?

Items 13 through 16, appointments 1775 through 1778. Appointment of Hannah Wilson as member of Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities for a term to April 30th, 2021 and reappointments of Ankita Adams, Daniel Kokita, and Kentalyn Skilton as member of Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities for term to April 30th, 2022. The committee recommends that these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Councilor Morales, back to you to walk us through these appointments as well.

Sure, again, volunteers who are very eager to continue their work with what is now the Disability Commission.

I don't know if that needs to be changed, but I'll let the clerks worry about that.

And so, yes, we've got three reappointments and the appointment of a new commissioner, Hannah Wilson, and all these folks are very eager to continue their work and look forward to having them.

Great, thank you so much.

Colleagues, any additional comments or questions on these appointments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1775 through 1778.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzales.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

All righty.

Shifting gears now to the report of the Finance and Housing Committee, chaired by Council Member Mosqueda.

We're going to go ahead and have the clerk read item 17 into the record.

The report of the Finance and Housing Committee, agenda item 17, appointment 1732, reappointment of Paula L. Houston as a member of Seattle Housing Authority Board for term to March 20th, 2024. The committee recommends that the appointment be confirmed.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair Mosqueda.

Please take it away and walk us through this appointment.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Item number 17 here is related to Dr. Paula Houston as a member of Seattle Housing Authority.

I want to first thank Dr. Houston for her continued service to Seattle Housing Authority.

Dr. Houston is the Director of Healthcare Equity at University of Washington Medicine and has been serving as the Vice Chair of the Seattle Housing Authority Board.

Council colleagues, the Seattle Housing Authority Board is one of the city's public development authorities, and with the presentation that they gave during our last Finance and Housing Committee, we saw a presentation that focused not just on the expansion of affordable housing, but also on strategic acquisition of affordable housing to help keep permanently available affordable housing throughout the city.

This is a win-win strategy, and I believe the great work of the Seattle Housing Authority will continue with this I would like to acknowledge exemplary service under the leadership from Dr. Houston as being part of the board.

I recommend her confirmation, and the committee recommends the passage of this appointment unanimously.

Thank you so much for that report.

Colleagues, are there any additional comments on this appointment?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointment 1732.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

Items 18 through 26. Will the clerk please read items 18 through 26 into the record?

Agenda items 18 through 26, appointments 1733 through 1740 and 1752.

Appointments and reappointments of Paul Breckenridge, Julian Crenar, Sarah Gubillos, Bob Fisco, Michelle Merlan, and Michelle Purnell-Hutburn, George M. Staggers, Derek L. LaGrade, and Rachel Van Schmeel as members, Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority Governing Council for term to March 31st, 2023. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

I know that was a mouthful to get through.

So let's hand it over to Council Member Mosqueda, who is the chair of this committee, and will walk us through these various appointments.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

Council colleagues, as you heard, the Finance and Housing Committee has three appointments and six reappointments to the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority Governing Council.

I'll walk through each one of these very briefly and you also have their full bio and background in the materials that you've been presented at council and also the Finance and Housing Committee members reviewed thoroughly during our last committee and strongly recommend unanimous confirmation of these appointees and reappointees.

Appointment number 18, Paul Breckenridge, founder of Breckenridge Consulting Services, who focuses on financing and affordable housing.

We have number 19, which is Jillian Kronauer, Chief Operating Officer and Designated Broker for Hunter Capital, currently serving as the Secretary of the Board.

Appointment number 20 is Sarah Kutbillos, Strategic Advisor for Seattle Public Utilities.

Appointment number 21 is Bob Fixo, Founding Principal of Fixo, Kreshmer, Smith, Dixon, and Ornsmith, lawyers focusing on real estate and real estate finance transactions.

Appointment number 22 is Michelle Moreland, Principal at Lotus Development Partners, LLC.

And appointment number 23, Michelle Purnell Hepburn is the DIA Director of the Seattle Foundation.

Appointment number 24 is George Staggers, retired CEO of the Central Area Development Association.

appointment number 25 is Derek Belgard, deputy director of the Chief Seattle Club and currently serving as the treasurer of the board.

And finally, appointment number 26 is Rachel Ben-Shmuel, retired senior project manager with Vulcan Real Estate, also serves as the co-chair of Seattle, City of Seattle Transportation Levy Oversight Committee.

Again, the committee strongly recommends passage of all of these appointees.

Thank you so much Council Member Mosqueda for that.

Are there any additional comments on these appointments?

Hearing no additional comments on these appointments, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of these appointments?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Moving on now to items 27 through 30. Will the clerk please read items 27 through 30 into the record?

Agenda items 27 through 30, appointments 1760 through 1762, appointments and reappointments of Jeannie Chun, Ilona Loray, Ardi Amnasradi, and Samantha Grad as members, Labor Standards Advisory Commission for term to April 30th, 2022. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Sgato to walk us through these appointments as well.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

Today we have two appointments and two reappointments to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission.

First on the reappointments, appointment number 27 on today's agenda is Janee Chun, is the founder of Seattle Restaurant United and member of the national nonprofit One Fair Wage.

along with appointment number 28, which is Alana Loray is the Vice President of Membership and Programs at GSB, Greater Seattle Business Association.

Both of those are new appointments and excited for their potential service here pending your confirmation today.

Along with the reappointments of Arti Nasradi, the Field Director from Working Washington, along with Samantha Grad, the Legislative and Political Action Director with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, both looking to serve again on the Labor Standards Advisory Committee.

Again, council colleagues, all of these recommendations strongly put forward by the Finance and Housing Committee unanimously.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, are there any additional comments on these appointments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Thank you.

Moving on now to the report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item 31 into the record?

I reported the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee Agenda 31, Council Bill 119992, relating to sales construction codes, adopting the Seattle Boiler Code, Building Code, Electrical Code, Existing Building Code, Fuel Gas Code, Mechanical Code, Plumbing Code, and Residential Code by reference.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'm gonna go ahead and hand this over to Council Member Struss, who is the chair of the committee.

Please, Council Member Struss.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, this legislation adopts construction codes, including a new boiler code, building code, electrical code, fuel gas code, mechanical code, plumbing code, and residential code.

As Amelia just noted, this item in particular does not include the energy we will consider in the next agenda item.

Construction codes are updated every three years, following a process of updating national and state-level codes.

This update comes at the end of the 2018 construction code cycle.

The changes in this legislation adopt and align with the new state codes and adopt some Seattle-specific provisions that go further than the state codes.

These codes were developed by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection, and their technical code development team in consultation with the Construction Code Advisory Board.

They were also informed by extensive stakeholder outreach.

Code updates are largely technical in nature, but a few highlights of these new codes include establishing standards for cross-limited timber structures up to 18 stories in height, creating standards for general neutral toilets, new standards for tsunami loads in areas that are at risk of tsunami inundation, and updating seismic design standards based on modeling.

Thank you, Council President.

That is the report from the committee.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Colleagues, I do want to open it up for any additional comments.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Council Member Salvat, please.

Thank you.

And I know items 31 and 32 are connected on the building energy code update, so I will speak to both.

I'm happy to vote in favor of these two bills to update Seattle's energy codes for new large buildings to prohibit fossil fuel heaters and boilers.

Really appreciate everybody who testified today and before in public comment.

Corporate developers have proven again and again that capitalism's private market has no interest in stopping climate change.

As was mentioned, the latest greenhouse gas emissions report from the Office of Sustainability and the Environment found that rather than reducing emissions, Seattle increased emissions from buildings by 8.1%.

This is alarming.

We know indisputably that we have to end greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid a global climate catastrophe endangering every person on the planet, not just slow down emissions and certainly not accelerate emissions like corporate developers have done.

You would think that since climate change is destroying the planet for everyone, even corporate executives would care about addressing it.

But this is the inexorable logic of capitalism.

Whatever corporation pursues short-term profits most ruthlessly at the cost of ordinary people, humanity, and the planet, and is the most successful in shifting its cost to the workers and the environment, those are the corporations with a Darwinian advantage at the expense of all of society.

So I very much support this legislation prohibiting those developers from building new fossil fuel burning boilers and heaters in the largest new buildings in Seattle.

This is a step forward, and it is a testament to the organizations like 350, the Sierra Club, Climate Solutions, and Puget Sound SAGE, and other organizations which have been campaigning against natural gas hookups for years, including the native activist community.

It is a substantive step forward, although it is obviously limited.

It does not address pre-existing buildings, new construction of smaller buildings.

And since the tax Amazon movement won funding to retrofit older buildings, it would not make sense to, at the same time, continue building new fossil fuel burning infrastructure.

And most importantly, it does not address how electricity generated in Washington state.

Seattle City Light generates emission-free hydropower largely because of the power plants built during the New Deal almost 100 years ago.

So the buildings in Seattle will use lean energy for their electricity.

But that is not the end of the story because City Light trades electricity back and forth with every other utility in the region.

Any watt that is not used in Seattle is sold to other places on the West Coast.

That means that if Seattle uses more electricity, Puget Sound Energy will have more of a market to sell electricity outside Seattle.

And Puget Sound Energy burns fracked natural gas to generate electricity.

So in addition to these important bills, we need a full-fledged Green New Deal with green jobs to build clean power plants across the state and across the country like in the 1930s Green New Deal program.

Just like we cannot rely on for-profit developers to protect the climate when building in Seattle, we cannot trust for-profit energy companies like PSC to generate our electricity.

This is another key reason why I am a socialist.

And as I said, I'm happy to vote yes on these legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Sawant, are there any additional comments on the bill?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you.

I'm not a member of Council Member Strauss' committee, but I want to thank him for doing the work necessary to bring this legislation forward together with the work of his committee members.

I want to also give a shout out to former Council Member Mike O'Brien for spearheading this work at the Council level, consistent with the activism referenced by Council Member Sawant of organizations like 350.org and a Green New Deal for Seattle after we passed a resolution in August 2019 in an executive order working to advance many pieces of regulation that this is, I think, one important part moving forward.

But as has been stated, there's a lot to be done in order to reach the goal of significantly reducing carbon emissions to the existing pool of increasing energy efficiency.

Of course, as has been mentioned, we will need to do more to address the existing buildings, as well as to figure out how to incentivize efficiency of smaller buildings, including single family homes that use natural gas heating.

The Urbanist reports that fossil fuel gas from Puget Sound Energy produces 15% of the city's CO2 emissions in 2018. So I think, again, that really points to the work that we need to do together.

I also want to highlight that the Council did fund positions in the 2021 budget to move forward the work of the Green New Deal Oversight Committee.

I look forward to their recommendations and want to, again, recognize that the advocacy necessary to fund those positions is advocacy that's coming from the community to hold us accountable and make sure that we are charting a path forward.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Colleagues, any additional comments on the bill?

Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, item 32. Will the clerk please read the short title of item 32 into the record?

Agenda item 32, Council Bill 11993, relating to Seattle's construction code, adopting the Seattle Energy Code and chapters of the Washington Administrative Code by reference.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended with Council Member Strauss, Mosqueda, Juarez, and Lewis in favor with an abstention from Council Member Peterson.

Thank you so much.

Madam Clerk, Council Member Strauss, I'm going to hand it back over to you to walk us through this committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, this is the legislation that adopts this new Seattle Energy Code.

Similar to the construction codes we just considered, this new code adopts state-level standards and builds upon them in important ways.

This legislation comes soon after the most recent greenhouse gas inventory shows that our city's emissions have been increasing, including an 8.3 increase in building emissions between 2016 and 2018. The changes in this legislation will eliminate most carbon emissions resulting from new development and will reduce Seattle's total building emissions by at least 12% by 2050. The main highlight of this new energy code is a prohibition on the use of fossil fuels and electric resistance for space and water heating and multifamily and hotel developments, as well as commercial developments for the space heating requirements.

These water heating requirements would take effect in 2022 to allow time for the market to adapt.

The space heating requirements will take effect on June 1st, 2021 after an amendment during our last committee meeting.

Other changes in this legislation include restricting the building envelope heat loss.

setting higher standards to reduce energy loss through windows, requiring more efficient HVAC systems in multifamily and medical office buildings, and requiring electrical receptacles in dwelling units to allow for future electric appliances.

As discussed this morning, there was one amendment that passed Councilmember Gonzalez-Morales.

which also use refrigerants that if not maintained and inspected also have a great impact on our climate.

As we transition our society to address the climate crisis, there are people's lives that also must change and making these changes directly change the work of unionized pipe fitters.

As I discussed this morning, as we transition to address the climate crisis, we must also ensure this transition is not at the expense of union jobs that provide family wages and apprenticeships rather than student debt.

As we've already discussed, working with Councilmember Mosqueda through the Board of Health, to increase and ensure effective inspections of this and other pipes, my work with Councilmember Herbold on the fire code regarding decommissioned fire lines, and my work in the future regarding additional structural safety in the next round of building codes.

With this update, Seattle will now have one of the most forward-thinking energy codes in the country, and we will be setting the example that the rest of the state can follow in the next update.

I especially want to thank Micah Chappell, Dwayne Johnlin, Ardell Jala at Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections for not only helping us understand this complex code, also doing extensive, extensive outreach to stakeholders and making this extremely effective code.

I also want to thank central staff and to all the stakeholders and advocates who participated in this process.

And finally, I want to reiterate that as we transition our economy to confront the climate crisis, we must be aware that the way we transition will impact people's lives And we have to ensure that as we transition to address climate crisis, we are also protecting unionized jobs.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

I urge your support.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss for that summary.

I see that Councilmember Lewis would like to make some comments on here, so I am going to open this up for any additional comments.

So again, colleagues, this is an opportunity to make comments on the bill.

I would encourage you to use the raise your hand feature in Zoom if you are able to.

If not, just give me a wave or send me a quick message.

So first up is Councilmember Lewis, and then we will hear from Councilmember Peterson, and then Councilmember Mosqueda.

Councilmember Lewis, please.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just want to reiterate the remarks that I made this morning, now that we're here considering the underlying bill and Council Member Strauss alluded to them about my amendment that I had been pursuing in consultation with stakeholders around expanding this legislation to include certain commercial considerations as well.

As I said in briefing this morning, for various reasons, that was going to slow down the implementation of this legislation.

As Council Member Strauss indicated, we will be pursuing separate legislation to accomplish that goal in a way that won't slow down the rest of the things that are in this bill.

I think that's a good path forward so we can get this on the books quickly and start implementing it while we take our time.

the other commercial considerations without slowing the overall implementation down.

So I just wanna signal I'm fully committed to that for folks that are wondering why that amendment did not go forward.

Council Member Strauss and I are working together on it and we will be introducing legislation to address that.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

And again, for those of you using the raise the hand feature, if you can lower your hand after you're done, that would be helpful.

Thank you.

Next up is Council Member Peterson and then Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, Council President.

And thank you, Chair Strauss, for shepherding this.

I support these updates to all of our building codes so that our building codes address the climate crisis.

Regarding the energy code bill before us now, I just needed more time to research it because we heard from a diversity of views during public comment at committee.

And so I just needed a few extra days to look into this and reconcile some of the concerns we were hearing from both labor and others who were actually building these buildings.

And I feel it was really about the effective date that had moved around a bit.

There was a previous stakeholder process and then there was additional input on that.

And so I feel more comfortable now having that extra time.

And so we'll be voting to support this bill.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

I appreciate you addressing that because I was going to one of the questions I was going to ask is if there could be some comment about the abstention so I could get a better understanding of what the committee conversation was.

So that is You answered my question before I even asked it, so I appreciate that.

Council Member Mosqueda is next, and then after that will be Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Madam President, Council Colleagues.

First, I want to start by thanking Council Member Strauss, the Chair of the Committee.

You've really led a very transparent process and considering the piece of legislation in front of us, the deliberations that you have engaged in with various stakeholders have been I know it's been a year that you've been on council, and the last year felt like five years, but this is a really historic piece of legislation today, and I want to just thank you for your leadership on this and helping to lead the council in this discussion.

I also want to thank the council members who were part of the committee who supported the amendment that I had the chance to bring forward with support.

in consultation with the good chair, Council Member Strauss, and I had a chance to talk about the timing and the ability to move forward on space heaters, and very thankful for the committee's work on that.

In addition to the environmental justice folks that we heard from today, I talked with members of the building construction trades about the technology and the readiness of that technology to be able to move forward with space heaters.

more expeditiously than January of 2022. And I think that we landed on a good date with June of 2021 to allow for us to have sufficient time for stakeholder feedback as we develop rules and also for us to have a better understanding of any potential legislation that the state lawmakers are considering that could have an impact on rulemaking and implementation going forward.

Obviously, this is really an exciting day as we consider these two pieces of legislation, but I think it's a great example as well of a deliberative process that has included weighing technology that's available with just transition for workers so that there is the ability to recognize that we have to strike a balance between labor partners and the right timing to respond and shift work from natural gas to refrigerant pipes and doing so in a way that ensures a dress transit transition for workers is really critical.

Very happy to be working with all of you as we continue to center that balance in all of the discussions that we have, recognizing that the buildings that we build for today, they're going to last for generations, hopefully.

Hopefully, much longer than that West Seattle Bridge.

But if you look at the Pioneer Square buildings from downtown and across our city, we want the buildings that are going up today to truly help build a better and healthier future for our region and our world.

I think that we're doing an important part of that today.

It's all part of the bigger puzzle that was discussed this morning.

I also want to recognize some of the concerns that we've heard today and also in testimony over the last a few weeks from some who have been calling in about concerns regarding the sprinkler requirements, recognizing that both local housing providers and the Master Builders Association are talking about townhomes and projects with less than four units.

What I hope to do is to continue to build on some of the recommendations that we had seen and are hoping to see come forward in the major comprehensive plan update.

I fully support allowing more duplexes and triplexes, particularly fourplexes and sixplexes on various sites as we think about creating opportunities for folks to have mixed income housing options, multi-generational housing options, denser housing options across our city.

I think that there's a lot of common ground there.

And when we think about costs and trying to weigh the cost of potential changes that we're making today, what's clear, I think, in our conversations with various members of the community is that land is the most expensive thing.

And when it comes to creating more housing in our city, we have to make sure that we're allowing for more homes to be built on the precious land within the city's boundaries.

Let's continue to work together.

Let's reduce the cost of building homes that we so desperately need.

And let's move forward with some of those areas where I think there's a lot of alignment on the major comprehensive plan update that's soon to come.

With that, again, thank you, Mr. Chair, for your leadership on this.

Looking forward to voting yes.

And thanks again for the support on the balanced amendment that we were able to include last week.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Next up is Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Just very, very quickly, I want to mention it since it has been mentioned a couple of times as it relates to the sprinkler regulations for townhomes.

That change is specifically contained in the construction code bill before us.

But because the fire department will be coming to my committee next week to talk about fire code changes, we are also going to have an opportunity to have a conversation about the requirements for sprinklers in townhomes.

So just wanting to let folks know that that topic will be coming for discussion in my committee next week.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Colleagues, any additional comments on the bill?

It looks like there are no additional comments on the bill.

I want to echo my thanks to Councilmember Strauss, the chair of our Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, for doing great work on this legislation and making sure that it advanced as smoothly as it did.

So thanks so much, Councilmember Strauss, for all of the hard work in your committee.

And thanks to all of the committee members for, I'm sure, what was robust engagement on the underlying policy issue.

Councilmember Strauss, I do want to Make sure that you have an opportunity to have the last word as the sponsor and chair of this committee before we call this matter to a roll call.

Thank you.

And thank you colleagues for all your kind words.

This was really a group effort.

And again, the kudos should be directed to Micah Chappelle, Dwayne Johnlin, Ardell Jala, all the folks over at SDCI, central staff, and my committee director, Noah Ahn.

So thank you all for your great work.

This is a group effort and I'm just one person.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Council Member Stress.

All right, with that being said, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay.

We have item 33 next.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item 33 into the record.

Item 33, clerk file 314461 application to Martin Leibovitz and 34th and Spring LLC for an extension of a contract rezone of the property located at 1106 34th Avenue.

The committee recommends that the application be granted.

Thank you so much.

I'm gonna hand it back over to Council Member Strauss to walk us through this application and the related clerk file.

Thank you, Council President and colleagues.

The next two items are going to be taken together.

The first is a clerk file and then the following is a council bill all regarding a contract rezone of 1106 34th Avenue.

This is a bit of a different process than usual because this is an extension of an existing contract rezone.

In 2017, the council approved an application for a contract rezone of 1106 34th Avenue in Madrona from low-rise two to neighborhood commercial one with a 30-foot height limit.

In the intervening time, the rezone application was not paired with any proposal to develop the site and the property owner, has been unable to find a development partner during the pandemic and has applied for a two-year extension of this rezone.

The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee held a public hearing on this application in December.

Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspections has recommended approving the application based on the impact of the pandemic, on the real estate industry, and on changed circumstances resulting from the passage of mandatory housing affordability, which increased density in the surrounding area.

This clerk file contains the application itself.

If the application is approved, then Council Bill 119987 effectuates the extension and adopts the new property use and development agreement.

Thank you, Council President.

That is the report of the committee on this clerk file.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any additional comments on the application?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on granting the application.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The motion carries and the application is granted.

Item 34. Will the clerk please read the short title of item 34 into the record?

Agenda item 34, Council Bill 119987, approving the extension of a contract reason and improvement ordinance 125433 and accepting an amended property use and development agreement.

The committee recommends that the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Strauss, who I understand has a substitute for us to consider.

So I'm going to hand it over to him to make that motion.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, this is the corresponding council bill for the contract rezone as just discussed.

Before we consider the underlying council bill, I will move to substitute a new property use and development agreement as is routine for these contract rezones.

And so, therefore, I move to amend Council Bill 119987, Exhibit A, by substituting the unexecuted amended property use and development agreement with the executed amended property use and development agreement.

Thank you for that motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded.

Are there any additional comments on the substitute?

And Council Member Strauss, I'll hand it back over to you in case you want to add anything else to this report.

No further comments at this time.

Thank you, colleagues.

All right.

Any additional comments, colleagues?

Hearing and seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the substitute to Exhibit A?

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

Oh no.

Council President, you went on mute on accident.

Here I was thinking I was on such an elegant role.

Okay, motion carries.

The substitute is adopted and the amended bill is before the council.

Are there any additional comments on the amended bill?

Hearing no additional comments on the amended bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the amended bill?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Council Member Herbold?

She's working on it.

I see a nod.

I see her searching for that mute button.

All right, here we go.

Herbold?

Yes.

Flores?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes, President Gonzalez.

I nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, folks, we're getting into the home stretch here.

Next up is committee report of the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

Will the clerk please read item 35 into the record?

The committee report on the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments, Agenda Item 35, Resolution 31987, sponsoring the King County Regional Homelessness Authority's application for membership to the Association of Washington City's Risk Management Service Agency.

The committee recommends that the resolution be adopted.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Lewis, I'm going to hand it over to you to walk us through the committee report.

Thank you, Madam President.

As I mentioned during briefing today, King County Regional Homelessness Authority is applying for the Washington Association of Cities Risk Management Pool.

This requires a sponsoring member to bring that forward.

We are doing so here in this very short one-page resolution.

And with those comments, I do move resolution 31987.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, are there any additional comments on this resolution?

Okay, hearing none, I know we did have an opportunity to have a conversation about the resolution during the select committee hearing, which is a committee of the whole, so appreciate an opportunity to take the final vote in today's full council.

Hearing no additional comments on the resolution, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Morales.

I don't know if my motion, was my motion seconded?

I'm just wondering procedurally.

I just want to make sure.

There is no need to make a motion.

We just have to describe what the resolution is and then have debate and then we can go ahead and call the roll.

Perfect.

Well, sorry for interrupting everything then.

That's all right.

Is there anything else you wanted to say about the resolution?

No, God, no.

Let's just go.

All right, folks.

It's a wacky Monday.

I get it.

OK.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

Whoever says we can't have fun while governing is obviously wrong.

All right, we're going to head over now to our last committee report, which is the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

And hold on a minute, I know we have a revised script here in light of some late breaking news.

Let's see.

OK, I'm going to go ahead and have the clerk read items 36 through 38 into the record and then I'll walk folks through some procedural changes that will need to happen in this section.

Report of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, Agenda Items 36 through 38, Appointments 1780 through 1782, Reappointments of Christiana Agnes Sumner and Lori Gulf as a member of Seattle Renters' Commission for term to February 28th, 2021, and reappointment of Mercedes T. Tate Lamar as a member of Seattle Renters' Commission for term to February 28th, 2022. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk, and I misspoke.

We are going to have a little bit of a procedural consideration for item 39, but items 36 through 38 look like they are ready to go.

So I'm going to hand it over to Council Member Swatt, who is the chair of this committee, in order to provide us some more information about these appointments.

Council Member Swatt, please.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

And just to clarify, I was planning to speak to all items 36 through 40, and then I was going to make a motion that was specifically relevant to item number 39. Does that work?

Sure.

If you want to speak to all of them, how about I have the clerk read all of them into the record?

So that way we can easily flow back and forth.

How about that?

That makes sense, thank you.

Okay, Madam Clerk, can you go ahead and read the entire report of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee?

So that would be items 36 through 40.

I'll pick up from item number 39. Agenda item 39, appointment 1783, appointment of Sharon E. Crawley as member of Seattle Renters' Commission for a term to February 28, 2022. And agenda item 40, appointment 1784, appointment of Maya Garfinkel as a member of the Sailor Ventures Commission for a term to February 28th, 2023. The committee recommends that both these appointments as well be confirmed.

Thank you so much.

All right, I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Salant to walk us through these appointments and make some motions, I think, related to item 39.

Thank you, President Dulles.

Items 36 through 38 are the reappointments of Marci Tate Lamar, Christiana Obey Sumner, and Lori Goff to the City of Seattle Renters Commission.

They have all played an extremely valuable and active role on the Renters Commission in the past.

Items 39 and 40 are the new appointments, Maya Garfinkel and Sharon Crowley to the Renters Commission.

Maya Garfinkel is a renter's rights advocate with BC Seattle and many council members will have seen her advocating for renter's rights legislation like extending the eviction moratorium over the past couple of years and also in the past for the winter evictions moratorium.

Sharon Crowley is an activist in her union UAW 4121, the union that represents graduate student workers at the University of Washington, and she organizes with the union's housing justice work group.

She was very active in the tax Amazon movement and has been quite an effective spokesperson for renters rights yourself is a renter in Capitol Hill and district three and council members.

will remember her also as providing public comment in support of many renters' rights.

The Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee unanimously recommends these five appointments, reappointments.

However, my office heard from the Department of Neighborhoods a few minutes ago who staffed the Renters' Commission.

In order to have a quorum to elect new Renters' Commission co-chairs at their monthly meeting that is happening this evening, they request that the city council delay the vote on one of these appointments for one week to allow current co-chair Jessica Westgren to continue in her position for one final meeting.

Jessica has been a phenomenal co-chair of the Renters Commission, has been an outspoken advocate for renters' rights and also other progressive issues, and has kindly continued in her position beyond the end of her final term to give time for these new appointments.

The unfortunate reality is The mayor's office has not appointed a new person.

In fact, never appointed a new person to the Renters Commission.

That's startling, but it's true.

And now has the majority of the seats in her control vacant.

So these are appointments that need to be made from the mayor's office, but they have not been made.

We have reached out repeatedly and I hope that they will The clerk's office in discussion with the department of neighborhood staff are concerned about a quorum for the commission this evening, and I've recommended that we hold the vote on item 39 Sharon Crowley's appointment for.

one week.

In a moment, when Council President lets me know, I will make the motion to hold item 39, but I would like to urge Sharon Crowley to attend and participate in today's Renters Commission meeting.

Nonetheless, I'm sure she will be most welcome in the meantime.

Commissioners have done that in the past while awaiting final confirmation of their appointments, and I hope that she will be able to do that today.

Thank you so much, Council Member Sawant for going through all of those proposed appointments and reappointments and describing what we will be asked to consider for item 39. So for now, let's do this.

Let's approve.

Let's consider items 36 through 38. And then I will call on you, Council Member Sawant, to make your motion related to the appointment of Sharon Crowley.

And then we will take a vote on that, and then we will consider the last item, which is item 40. So a little broken up, but I think that makes the cleanest sense for order today.

Does that sound OK?

That all sounds good.

OK, great.

So let's go ahead and have any additional comments on any of these appointments.

Hearing no additional comments on these appointments, I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1780 through 1782, which are items 36 through 38.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Item 39 has already been read into the record and I'm going to recognize Council Member Sawant to make her motion as she described during her report.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

I move to hold item 39 appointment 1783 until February 8th, 2021. Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales for the second.

It's been moved and seconded to hold item 39 until February 8th.

Are there any additional comments?

Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the motion to hold the appointment, which is appointment 1783 item 39 until February 8th.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointment is held until February 8th, 2021. Last item is item 40, which again has already been read into the record and described by Council Member Sawant.

But do you want to open it up if there are any additional comments on appointment 1784 or agenda item 40?

Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointment 1784.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Oops.

Sorry.

Lewis.

Yes.

Council president Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor.

None opposed.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

Okay, other business.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

All right, hearing no further business to come before the council, this does conclude the items of business on today's full council agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, February 8th, 2021 at two o'clock p.m.

And I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon and evening.

We're adjourned.

you