Well, good afternoon.
Thank you all for joining the Seattle City Council meeting.
Today is Tuesday, November 20. Excuse me, November 1 2022. The full council meeting will come to order.
I'm Teresa Mosqueda.
I'm pro president pro tem of the Seattle City Council.
Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?
Council members so want present.
Council member her bold.
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Council Member Peterson.
Present.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council President Pro Tem Mosqueda.
Present.
Seven present.
Wonderful.
Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.
Colleagues, Councilmember Juarez is excused for today, and we also have Councilmember Herbold on the line.
I know we couldn't hear her audio when she dialed in, but we do have Councilmember Herbold present, so I just wanted to note her presence as well.
Councilmember Herbold, of course, feel free to jump in anytime if you have anything you'd like to add in, but we will note your presence for the record.
If there's no objection, Councilmember Juarez will be excused from today's Seattle City Council meeting.
Hearing no objection, Council President Juarez is excused from today's Seattle City Council meeting.
Presentations, I'm not aware of any presentations at the top of our agenda today, so we are going to move directly on into the public comment.
We have at least three people signed up for public comment that are present on our online remote public comment option.
Thank you all for dialing in.
to provide remote public comment during this time where COVID and the flu remain very present in our community.
We're going to conduct public comment in the following manner.
Each person will have two minutes to speak.
You will hear your name when it is your time to speak.
You'll hear an indication that you have been unmuted.
Make sure to hit star six on your end to fully unmute your line and begin your comments.
At the end of your allotted time, you'll hear a 10-second chime.
That will be your indication to wrap up your remarks before the microphone is muted.
Again, we have, I believe, three people signed up for public comments, so I'm going to turn it over to our clerks to go ahead and read those three people into the record.
Again, please push star six on your line to unmute yourself.
Public comment period is now open.
Oh, you don't have Seattle.
We are the Emerald City, the city of flowers and the city of goodwill built on indigenous land, the traditional territory of the.
It's OK, Madam Clerk, I think I just read most of that.
It's all right if we want to just jump right on into it.
Wonderful.
Our first remote speaker will be Howard Gale.
And again, please remember to press star six and you will have two minutes.
Good afternoon.
Howard Gale with seattlestop.org.
Today, you will reconfirm the new director of the Office of Police Accountability, an entity that lives up to two-thirds of its name.
It is, in fact, an office.
It is located in the police department.
It is an office that has serving police officers investigate their fellow officers, but it is not an entity that provides any meaningful accountability.
Just four months ago, a King County inquest jury spoke unanimously and unambiguously The Seattle police did precisely what they were trained to do under SPD policy when they shot Charlene Lyles, the pregnant mother of four, seven times in front of her children.
Let's be clear, the jury did not find the killing correct, morally justified, or without alternative.
The jury found that the SPD officers acted according to training and policy.
If this council cannot find a way to provide police accountability, at the very least, this council must find a way to ameliorate the harms that its training and policy create.
At least provide the monies to support the victims of police violence and their families in order to address the harms that you have allowed to continue.
Towards this goal, the council must recognize that the mayor's budget provides monies for victims of violence unless that violence is perpetrated by a police officer.
This is a budget that provides monies to stem gun violence unless that violence is perpetrated by a Seattle police officer.
We need to support Castile high towers proposed budget addendum to address the needs of families impacted by police violence.
You plan on spending over $11 million this year, next year to perpetuate a facade of police accountability.
Can you not spend a tiny fraction of that to address the very real harms this system has allowed to continue unabated.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Castille Hightower.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes.
Hi, my name is Castille Hightower.
Victims and families of police violence not only continue to suffer from the harm caused to us initially, but continue to suffer by way of not receiving the resources we need during one of the most difficult times of our lives.
When my brother, Herbert Hightower Jr. was shot and killed by Seattle police while he was experiencing a mental health crisis, resources such as mental health services, assistance with paying for his funeral and burial, as well as assistance navigating a hostile and confusing system and more would have made a huge difference in our lives directly and generationally and so many lives like ours.
We all know the killings and the violence have continued.
and some deemed within city policy while not being morally responsible for what harm and trauma that policy creates.
This can also assist in countering the millions that the city continues to spend and plans on continuing to spend in justifying and defending the harm, the trauma, and the loss created by city employees and exacerbated by city bureaucracy.
Therefore, I am urging that the city extend its more obligation to victims of violence to include victims of police violence and their families and urge you to include resources for us in the 2023-2024 budget.
We are asking for the bare minimum here, the absolute bare minimum of a more obligation to people who have been killed, who have been harmed, irreparable damage, to their lives, to their loved ones' lives, to their children's lives.
We were only just recently able to pay for the headplot for my brother so his son could bring him flowers.
Think about that.
Think about the harm.
And think about the harm that is continuing to happen.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
That concludes our registered and present speakers today.
Thank you, madam clerk.
Thank you both for dialing in as well.
That does conclude everybody who signed up for public comment today.
So we are going to go ahead and move on into item number one on the agenda.
Items number one and two, colleagues are quasi judicial items and the council cannot accept public comment on those two items.
So the other comments that we just heard were not related to those.
I just want to double check.
As we As we head into our items on the agenda, Madam Clerk, do I need to open up another public hearing related to those items?
No, I believe those are carried over from possibly last week.
The only items we have on the agenda today are on the consent agenda.
So I'm sorry that I did not catch that before.
You're okay.
That's okay.
Just wanted to double check.
Wonderful.
Okay, then let's go ahead and move on to the adoption of the Introduction and Referral Calendar.
College's Introduction and Referral Calendar has been posted.
If there's no objection, the Introduction and Referral Calendar will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the Introduction and Referral Calendar is adopted.
We're going to move on to item number F on our agenda.
That's adoption of the agenda.
If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
And as the clerk noted, that moves us right on over to the adoption of the consent calendar.
On the consent calendar includes two items for our consideration.
Madam clerk, do you mind reading the first item on the consent calendar into the record?
Sure, I'll read, there's four, two regular pieces of business and two pieces of legislation.
We have the minutes of October 18th, 2022 for approval.
Payroll bills 120448 and 120449 for passage.
Council bill 120447 and appointment 2395. Thank you very much.
We're now considering the proposed consent calendar.
Are there any items any council member would like to remove from today's consent calendar as just noted from the Madam Clerk, the minutes from October 18th, payroll bills, two of those payroll bills as noted, we have Council Bill 120447 and appointment 2395. Hearing no I move to adopt the consent calendar is there a second.
Thank you very much it's been moved and seconded.
Council Member Sawant.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council Member Morales.
Yes.
Council Member Nelson.
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Aye.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Mosqueda.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you very much.
We have a unanimous passage here.
The consent calendar items are adopted.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf.
I also don't believe that there's any committee reports from today's meeting.
Just pausing to confirm.
There are no committee reports today.
Thank you so much.
And we're already at other items of business.
Are there any other items for the council's consideration today?
I'm not hearing any or seeing any.
Thank you very much.
That does conclude our items of business for today.
We are at item number L, which is adjournment.
Our next regularly scheduled council meeting is Tuesday, November 8, 2022. This may be canceled if there are not immediate items that are necessary for that.
meeting, that's November 8, 2022. We are in the middle of budget.
That's the look here.
As we get into the weeds of the various proposals that council members have put forward, we are expecting to release our proposed Council meeting on November 7th and have a public hearing that morning starting at 930 a.m.
to discuss the proposed balancing package.
Thus we may cancel the regularly scheduled November 8th meeting in the afternoon.
The Council President will make that decision when she is back.
And after that, the next regularly scheduled full Council meeting is November 15th.
2022 at 2pm.
So more information to come about what to expect next Tuesday, November 8. But definitely you will see some action from us as we are all focused on budget right now.
And that's why we have such a short meeting today.
All right.
Thanks, colleagues.
I don't see anything else for the good of the order.
We'll have to let the Council President know we did that under 15 minutes.
Take care, everyone.
This meeting is adjourned.