Seattle City Council Finance and Housing Committee May 18, 2021

Good morning, everyone.

I want to welcome you to the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

Today is May 18th, 2021. I'm Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Chair Mosqueda?

Present.

Vice Chair Herbold?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Council Member Nunez?

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Madam Chair, that is five present.

Thank you very much colleagues and I want to extend a welcome to our Council President Council President Gonzalez and our deepest condolences again for the loss that your family is experiencing of their mother-in-law and the tragic incidents in your condo.

We all have been thinking about you and appreciate you being here today and look forward to the long conversation that we have in front of us.

Colleagues, we do have a full agenda.

We have 45 people currently signed up for public comment.

So I want to warn folks that there is going to be a one minute limit on public comment.

We also will have consecutive translation during public comment, and then we'll have simultaneous translation during the remainder of the presentations that we're going to have translation for.

We will do, first, a Domestic Worker Standards Board report out, and then a briefing on the American Rescue Plan Act proposal, including the federal guidance that we received last Monday.

And then we'll have a briefing on the Independent Contractor Protections Ordinance.

Thanks again to Vice Chair Herbold for her leadership on that.

Please note that today we will have the opportunity for folks who have a need for consecutive translation to have double the amount of time.

So one minute for everyone, except for those who are requiring translation, we'll have two minutes for those individuals to make sure that we can accommodate translation.

After the public comment period, everyone present in the Zoom will need to select the interpretation tool, which is in the control panel at the bottom of your screen.

And I'll read these instructions in Spanish as well when we get there.

Cuando llegamos en este momento en la agenda, voy a leer las instrucciones también en español.

Entonces, no preocupes porque vamos a usar una de los Everyone in the Zoom is going to need to select the language that they'd like to listen to.

And the two choices today are English and Spanish.

You must choose one of those to listen in.

Otherwise, you will not hear anything on your end.

The attendees who are listening in after public comment will be able to select those languages as well for our guests who are here today.

And we do have a large list of folks who are here to present on the agenda today.

With that, if there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

Again, colleagues, we have about 45 people signed up for public comment.

I'm going to moderate the public comment in the following manner.

I'll call three speakers at a time in the order in which they're registered.

If you are still interested in providing public comment, you can go to seattle.gov backslash council to provide public comment.

Once I call your name, you will hear you have been unmuted, but you need to also push star sick.

When you hear your name you also need to push star sick.

You need to also hit star six so that you can become unmuted.

Begin speaking by saying your name and the issue that you're here to address.

You're going to hear a 10 second time at the end of your allotted time and that's your indication to wrap up.

If you would like to continue listening in, please go to seattlechannel.gov or the other listen in options on your agenda.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you very much for the translation services here.

I'm going to do my best to read this in Spanish, which is probably much better than my off the top of my head translation.

Thanks again to our team for making this possible.

En la siguiente manera, el periodo de comentario público para esta reunión sería por 45 minutos.

Cada persona va a tener un momento.

Voy a llamar a tres personas en la vez en la orden que están inscribieron en mi lista.

Si aún no se ha registrado para hablar, But if you want to speak, you can still go to Seattle.gov backslash council and put your name.

Once you say the name of the person, the person will deactivate the appropriate microphone and an automatic indication.

Si vas a oir, se le ha deactivado el silencio.

Necesitas poner estrellas 6 para empezar a hablar.

Cuando terminas, necesitas colgar en su línea y puedes escuchar en seattlechannel.gov por televisión o las otras opciones en la agenda.

Okay, here we go, folks.

Thank you for dealing with my attempt at reading in Spanish.

I'm sorry that that was very much incorrect in some places.

That is on me.

The first three people are Celina Carcitos, Darcy Harrison, and Samantha Kirschel.

Good morning, Celina.

Hello, my name is Celina Carciotis, and I will be speaking about the ARPA.

Hello?

Yes, we can hear you.

My name is Celina Carciotis, and I will be speaking about the ARPA Direct Aid.

and I am a homeowner at Bitter Lake Village Condominium, a complex of 92 homes on Linden Avenue North that abuts the north boundary of Bitter Lake Park.

We see on a daily basis how COVID has impacted households in North Seattle and request the city direct aid to address the negative economic impact of COVID in our community, which is HUD Census Track 4.01.

I stand with other neighbors in my community and the group Save Bitter Lake who support the idea of the City of Seattle directing ARPA funds to lease the Sam's Club at 135th and Aurora Avenue North, which has been vacant since 2018. This property has the capacity to serve the large number of people who are experiencing homelessness in the North End, both short and long term.

Sam's Club would follow a similar model as the Tesla dealership in Soto, which is leased from the private owner.

People staying at City Hall and Seattle Center were relocated to Tesla in Soto.

and people camping in tents in public spaces of North Seattle would be relocated to Sam's Club on Aurora.

In the short term, over 60 tents at the Bitter Lake Park in Broadview Thompson Elementary, as well as tents set up in the nooks and crannies of the North End, could be relocated to the parking area.

In the long term, the building could become an enhanced shelter.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you flagging that.

The next person is Darcy.

Good morning, Darcy.

And Darcy, if you can.

Yes, I can hear you now.

Yes.

Thank you.

Hello, and thank you, Chair and Seattle City Council members.

I am public commenting on opposition to CB 120069, excuse me.

I own a home in district 3. I've been a business owner in Seattle since 2012. Emerson salon is a booth rental salon where all service providers rent a chair with a rental term contract.

That pay my LLC chair rent each week, hold all required licenses, insurance.

pay their own taxes and determine their own scheduling policies and supplies.

I am also one of the leaders of the historic grassroots effort to battle state legislation in Olympia in 2019 aimed at eliminating booth rental for cosmetologists as well as to redefine independent contracting in Washington state.

We have effectively handled all of these broad bill attempts through our outreach efforts with cosmetologists of Washington United Trade Association.

We have over 11,000 supporters and over 250 enrolled advocates who are predominantly booth renters or booth rental salon owners.

This proposed ordinance will, excuse me?

Oh, thank you.

Sorry, Darcy.

We got to the end of our time here this morning, but I definitely appreciate you calling in.

And if you could send in the rest of your comments, that would be great.

We're going to go next to Samantha.

Good morning, Samantha.

And Samantha, if you can hit star six to unmute yourself.

Good morning, Chair Mosqueda and members of the committee.

My name is Samantha Kirschel and I am the Executive Director for TechNet in Washington in the Northwest.

Respectfully, I am testifying in opposition to the current version of Council Bill 120069 today.

I sent this committee a letter from our association as well as proposed amendment language drafted by some of our member companies.

So I'll just keep my comments brief.

We support disclosure and agree that workers should have access to the information they need to make informed choices about whether to accept or deny work, including the assignment, the location, and how much they will be paid.

Unfortunately, as currently drafted, this bill requires extensive and duplicative disclosures to independent contractors, and this results in cumbersome processes where paragraphs of content are being displayed over and over again as drivers attempt to work on the platform.

So we believe there are ways to concisely disclose critical information without the risk of it getting lost in paragraphs of text.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns and of our amendment language.

Thank you very much, Samantha.

And perfect timing.

Apologies for the shorter time today.

Folks really want to get through everybody here.

And that was it was great modeling.

The next three people are Mia Kelly, Chris Wilfong, and Joe Thompson.

Good morning, Mia.

Star six to unmute yourself.

Good morning council members.

My name is Mia Kelly.

I'm a former gig worker and now an organizer with Worker Washington's Pay Up campaign.

People do gig work because it's the only source of income that works for them and their lives.

Gig workers aren't covered by minimum wage or any other basic protections and thousands are taking home only a few dollars an hour after expenses even though companies have advertised that you can make up to twenty five dollars an hour.

Every day we hear from workers who depend on that flexibility of gig work.

We see apps chip away at that flexibility by penalizing them for rejecting low paying offers.

I hear from workers who have been deactivated for no reason and get no response when they contact support.

I also hear from workers who have also become homeless because of their cart breaking down and they haven't been able to put away money for savings while working up to 60 hours a week.

That's why we're happy to hear that the council is including a commitment in the contractor transparency ordinance to create a pay standard flexibility protections and more robust transparency policy for gig workers this year.

We are here today to ask you to move this legislation forward as first steps toward ending a subminimum wages for gig workers who predominate people of color immigrants single parents LGBT workers and workers with disability.

I also want to underscore the importance of another issue before the committee today.

Portable benefits for domestic workers.

Like us.

Thank you.

Domestic workers.

Thank you very much.

Please do send in the rest of your comments.

The next person is Chris.

Good morning, Chris.

Hi, Chris.

Good morning.

My name's Chris Wolfong.

I'm a gig worker for Uber Eats and Rover.

And I'm here to show support for the transparency bill.

And I also want to talk about creating protections for pay and flexibility for gig workers.

So most gig workers choose to be gig workers because they have other responsibilities in their lives that require it.

For me, I have family responsibilities.

Um, and basically we can't have true flexibility if we're being paid so little that, um, we have to work in insane number of hours to live comfortably.

So I need to be able to take time off of work to visit my mother and be in my nephew's lives.

And, uh, that's all I really have to say.

Thank you very much for calling in today.

The next person is Joe.

Good morning, Joe.

Good morning.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thank you.

Hi.

Thank you.

Council members.

My name is Joe Thompson and I am the president of mercy housing Northwest.

I'm asking you to please consider a $2.5 million allocation of the recovery act funds to support resident services for the city's non permanent supportive housing, affordable housing communities.

I feel funding at this level and not less is critical to ensure that our services are robust enough to meet the challenges brought on by COVID-19 that our residents face and will continue to face for the foreseeable future.

Mercy Housing Northwest has a long-standing commitment to providing on-site services at all of our properties and to all of our residents.

To this point, we've received no funding from the City of Seattle.

We'd very much like to expand the depth of our services, and this funding would allow us to do that.

So thank you very much for considering allocating ARPA funds to support resident services at non-permanent supportive housing communities.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Dr. Alexandra Gervis, Justin Simmons, and Eldika Dominguez.

Good morning, Dr. Gervis.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Dr. Alexandra Gervis, and I'm here speaking in support of a portable benefits mandate for domestic workers.

I wrote my doctoral thesis on portable benefits, and after spending the last three years studying it, I found that there's significant policy interest at the federal, state, and municipal level, but Philadelphia is the only city to successfully pass a mandate.

Seattle could lead the way in demonstrating that a mandate is possible and could serve as inspiration, along with San Francisco, in driving policy across the country.

I also believe the power of a portable benefits mandate goes beyond the benefits themselves.

Benefits, in this case, become legibility tools.

They make domestic work visible and quantifiable.

Providing a benefit structure helps to legitimize domestic work as standard work that is deserving of protections.

And finally, in my research, I have found that access to benefits without a mandate and a way to accrue hours equitably will not result in domestic workers getting protection.

That's why the recommendation of the DWSB is crucial.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Justin.

Good morning, Justin.

My name is Justin Simmons, lifelong District 5 resident.

I live in a 92-unit lakefront condominium community at Bitter Lake.

I am also allied with the groups Save Bitter Lake and Broadview Thompson K-8.

In my email yesterday, I received a message from former Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell, now a leading candidate for mayor.

Harrell wrote, I believe the majority of these ARPA funds need to address the homelessness crisis, especially helping people who are camped on school property, near play fields, and in other sensitive areas.

We know that the whole encampment situation at Bitter Lake is an escalating problem, not just for neighbors, teachers, parents, children, and campers, but for you as council members who are responsible, along with the Seattle School Board, for the land occupied by this encampment.

The city has an opportunity to respond now in a way that would protect the interests of each of these groups.

We are asking you to use some of the ARPA funds to relocate this unpermitted encampment from Bitter Lake to another location where services and facilities would be more readily available, environmental impacts would be mitigated, and resistance from neighbors would be much diminished.

We'll be sharing our suggestions with you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time today.

The next person is Edilca Dominguez.

Buenos dias, Edilca.

Puedes empezar y vas a tener dos minutos si necesitas traducción.

Hola, buenos dias.

Buenos dias.

Mi nombre es Edilca Dominguez y soy miembro del, miembro líder del colectivo de niñeras.

He sido niñera por más de 10 años en esta ciudad.

Y he tenido la oportunidad de apoyar a nuestra industria desde que se creó la ley de las trabajadoras del hogar.

Estoy muy emocionada de que muy pronto voy a formar parte de la mesa de estándares laborales.

Le pido a este consejo que apoye las recomendaciones que la mesa de los estándares laborales presentará hoy.

En Seattle, muchos trabajadores, empleadores, no conocen la ley y sus obligaciones.

It is necessary that the responsibility of enforcing these rights comes from the employers and not from the workers.

In my experience, when the law passed, I told my bosses about the law and specifically about the right to rest.

And they told me that they had not even heard the law and they denied it.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.

Es algo que nos sucede a muchísimas otras trabajadoras como yo.

Aunque la ley tiene dos años de vigencia, yo y muchas trabajadoras no hemos recibido este derecho.

Por eso es que la creación y la propagación de los materiales específicos para empleadores y trabajadores es muy importante.

Los empleadores deben de saber sobre esta ley y necesitamos su apoyo para que esto suceda.

Muchas gracias por apoyar a nuestra industria.

Muchas gracias.

Marisol, are you present to do translation?

Marisol will be providing the translation.

Okay, I'm sorry for the day.

You said money so well.

Oh, no.

Oh, cutting your my apologies money.

So I'm cutting you.

Did you?

Did you want the time to translate that please?

Okay, sure.

The only thing is I did not catch their name.

Oh, okay.

Elvita Dominguez, who's come to testify before on domestic workers folks might recognize her.

Okay, I'm good to go.

Thank you for that.

And Cariño, I'm sorry, in the future, should we do spacing it out a little bit?

I think she was not prepared and I had to quickly jot down what she said, but for others, I do have their statement.

Okay, wonderful.

I appreciate that.

Okay, please continue, Cariño.

Y gracias, Aldika.

Thank you.

My name is Elvika Dominguez.

I'm a member of the NANI Collective, and I have been a NANI for at least 10 years.

And I have been part of this industry for a long time.

I am excited that soon I will be part of the Seattle Domestic Workers Standards Board.

I think the most important piece is the enforcement that comes on the employers.

When the law was passed to provide benefits for domestic workers, I spoke to my employers and I specifically wanted to talk to them about the breaks, but they said that they had not heard about the law and they denied in giving these benefits.

The issue is that domestic workers are isolated.

And even though the law passed two years ago, many domestic workers have not received any of the rights from the law that was passed.

We need to distribute materials to inform the employers and workers about the rights and so that we can enforce this law.

Thank you so much for supporting the recommendations that will be presented to you later today.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much, Aldika.

The next person, the next three people are Marisol Ruiz, Marisa Tanimura, and Marcos Martinez.

Buenos dias, Marisol.

Solamente necesitas imprimir estrellas C si puedes empezar.

Marisol, Si quieres empezar, empuja estrellas 6 una vez más.

Bueno.

Bueno.

Bueno, si me escucha.

Si, gracias.

Puedes empezar.

OK.

Buenos días.

Mi nombre es Marisol Ruiz.

Yo he sido niñera en la ciudad de Seattle por más de 15 años y es un orgullo estar en el colectivo de niñeras.

Me siento muy orgullosa de estar participando en la creación de los derechos de trabajadores del hogar.

Como niñera, yo me he dado cuenta de la participación que tenemos nosotras las trabajadoras del hogar y la importancia que tiene, ya que nosotros somos las que trabajamos y tenemos la experiencia.

Por eso creo que es necesario ser parte fundamental de la conversación y la creación de implementos en el sistema, ya que puede ayudarnos en nuestros derechos.

Mucha gente los conoce, pero no se están ejerciendo.

Por eso es importante la creación de un sistema con beneficios portátiles, pero que también sea para nuestros empleadores, que ellos conozcan estas leyes.

Por ese motivo, yo le pido al consejo que considere y aplique las recomendaciones de la mesa de estándares laborales y que la ciudad invierta en la experiencia que nosotros tenemos.

También quisiera agregar que fuera implementado en nuestro idioma porque muchas veces las trabajadoras a veces no cuentan con una traducción o una persona que les ayude.

Thank you very much.

Gracias por su tiempo and for translation, cariño.

My name is Marisol Ruiz, and I have been a babysitter in the city of Seattle for more than 15 years, and I am part of the NANI collective.

I am proud to have participated in the initial efforts in the creation of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

As a babysitter, I have realized that the participation of us as domestic workers is crucial and important.

We have the experience and it is necessary that we be a fundamental part of the conversation, creation and implementation of systems that help to enforce our rights and in creating a portable benefit system.

I ask this council to consider and apply the recommendations of the last Labor Standards Board, especially that the city invests in the experience of the community, domestic workers.

and connect with us in our language.

They depend on their work and it's pay and we have limited time and resources.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Marisol.

The next three speakers are Marissa Tatterman, Marcos Martinez, and Laura Gonzalez.

Good morning, Marisa.

Good morning.

Can you hear me?

This is Marissa Tanimura, folks call me Reese.

I'm the chair of the Seattle Music Commission and the managing director of Northwest Folklife.

And I'm here to talk about, you know, the American Rescue Plan funds discussion today.

I'm here to advocate for our sector, the arts and cultural sector, to make sure that the council considers direct investment in our sector as a part of that dispersion of funds.

You know, we have many individual artists, cultural workers, production members who have been essentially unable to work for 14 months.

and are still looking at a long term to come back for reopening.

And we also want to make sure that, you know, we consider this an investment as these workers are part of the social cohesion and creativity that our city needs to be coming back from this time of from this pandemic.

So really want to just put my word in there for our sector.

And thank you for letting me speak today.

Thank you for your time today.

Good morning, Marcos.

You are next.

Morning.

Thank you for having us.

Good morning.

I'm the executive director at Casa Latina, and I'm here to urge you to approve the recommendation for portable benefits for domestic workers, not as a pilot, but as a permanent mandated policy.

Our coalition survey showed only 36% of domestic workers are getting paid sick under current ordinance and only 13% of house cleaners.

During COVID, workers have had an increased need for PTO.

The ALEA platform has shown PTO works if enough employers participate, but not enough employers do.

So ALEA shows that we need council to enact affordable PTO as a mandate for employers to participate.

Lastly, we have surveyed employers, and nearly 60% of them say employers should be responsible for paying domestic worker benefits, including PTO.

So, workers need it, it's doable, and employers support it.

We urge you to follow the Standard Board's recommendation and approve portable PTO for domestic workers as a permanent mandated policy.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Marcos.

The next person is Laura González.

Buenos días, Laura.

¿Puedes empezar?

Y vas a tener traducción después.

Buenos días.

Buenos días.

¿Me escuchan?

Buenos días.

Mi nombre es Laura González y he sido niñera en la ciudad de Seattle por 18 años.

Y bueno, de estos 18 años, Sixteen of them did not have any benefits, no benefits for lack of knowledge of the standards that the industry handles.

However, in the time that has passed, that I learned the law and that has happened, that I have been in the collective of nannies of which I am a member, and I have learned a little more to negotiate with my employers, The first thing I notice is that my colleagues are completely unaware of these rights that the law gives us.

I have not been in such critical situations as those that the law protects.

However, please continue to support portable benefits.

Because in my experience, the year of the pandemic was tremendous.

When I asked for time, because there was the governor's mandate that we should not leave the house.

They said that if I did not show up to work, they would not pay me.

And for five months I was without receiving any income.

And it also happened that even before the pandemic, one day I showed up to work completely sick.

And it was them, until they realized that I had a fever, that they told me, go home.

And they paid me only the hours in which I was present when they saw that I was sick.

So that's why I ask you that this importance, the last employees with whom I have worked, I asked them to subscribe to LIA, but they said it was not a requirement of the law and they denied me access to LIA.

What I realize is that in this industry of women, immigrants and people of color are the ones who have no benefit, even those who are not by law, but who can be negotiated because we have no support, apart from ignorance.

That is why I ask you to consider that employers should also know these laws All right.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Laura Gonzalez, and I have been a nanny for over 18 years.

And out of those 18 years, for 16 of those, I have not received any kind of benefits.

In my experience, I have lived a lot of good moments, but I've learned to negotiate, but I have not had as bad situations as some of my colleagues.

My colleagues have had really terrible experiences.

And especially during the pandemic, it has been quite tremendous.

With the governor's mandate to shut down the state, I had to talk to my employers about still continuing to work.

And that if they could help me out, they said that they could not help me out with any kind of support, and I had been without any kind of income for at least five months.

And so when I continued to go back to work, one day I realized that I was really sick, but I still had to continue to go into work.

When my employers noticed that I had a temperature, they sent me home, and then they decided that they would pay for my time off.

I spoke to them about program called Aaliyah to help provide benefits to me.

And they said that since it was not mandatory, they would not participate.

I realized that immigrants, people of color are many of the people, most of the people that don't have any kind of benefits or support at work.

And a lot of it has to do with lack of knowledge.

So I ask that you support domestic workers and their efforts to inform employers more about the law and their rights.

Thank you.

Gracias.

Y gracias, Laura.

Muy bien.

The next person is Michael Geer, followed by Irena Armigos and Ebony Arunga.

Good morning Michael.

Good morning.

Hello council members.

My name is Michael Greer and I'm the president and CEO at Arts Fund and I'm encouraging you to consider American Rescue Plan Act direct aid for the arts and culture sector.

Arts Fund represents over 100 arts and cultural organizations in the city of Seattle.

In 2019 the creative industry provided over 67000 jobs and over 24 billion in goods and services sold.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen our sample of the sector lose over 50% of its workforce and is projected to see a 30% decrease in fiscal year 21 personnel expenses, along with a 65% decrease in earned income over the same period.

It is estimated that our organizations will have suffered over $250 million in losses throughout the pandemic through the past 12 months alone.

This industry was first to close and will be last to fully reopen.

and we are turning to our public institutions in order to support the recovery of the industry, its workers, and all of the economic and social benefits that it brings to the city of Seattle.

Providing American Rescue Plan Act aid to this sector will do just that.

Thank you very much.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And the next person is Iranea Armijos.

Good morning, Iranea.

and you can press star six, please.

de descansar cuando me he sentido enferma.

No me han considerado ningún día como un día de enfermedad.

Para ser más precisa, en base a mi experiencia laboral, cuando tuve la oportunidad de ponerme la vacuna para el COVID, mi cuerpo reaccionó de una forma negativa.

Tenía malestares en general, dolores de cabeza, brazo, fiebre, sin fuerza.

Y a pesar de la reacción que tuvo mi cuerpo y que mis jefes se dieron cuenta de que fue a causa de la vacuna y que ellos tienen conocimiento sobre cuáles podrían ser las posibles reacciones, Mis jefes no se tomaron la molestia de decirme que me tomara el día libre para descansar y continuar con mi trabajo al día siguiente, ya que esto permitiría recuperar mis fuerzas y continuar con mi trabajo al día siguiente.

¿Cree usted que esto es inhumano?

¿Cree que los trabajadores del hogar somos inmunes a las enfermedades por el simple hecho de ser trabajadores del hogar?

Cabe mencionar que soy auger y debería ser considerada como una trabajadora del hogar.

ya que mi oficio como AOPER cumplo con los esberes que corresponden a una niñera.

No me considero una estudiante de intercambio como las agencias de AOPER nos mencionan a nosotras.

Somos niñeras que trabajamos más de 40 horas a la semana y que muchas familias anfitrionas nos consideran de que estamos disponibles 24 horas y 7 días por el simple hecho de vivir con ellos.

Le pido a este consejo que considere las recomendaciones de la mesa de estándares

Good morning.

I am Iranea Armijos and I am here because I want to support the recommendations of the Labor Standards Board.

In all the time that I have been working, I have never had the possibility of rest when I have felt ill.

They have not considered any days for me to take off in case of illness.

To be more precise and base it on my work experience, when I had the opportunity to get the vaccine for COVID, my body reacted in a negative way.

I had general discomfort such as headache, pain on my arms, fever, weakness, et cetera.

And despite that reaction that my body had and that my bosses realized that I was having due to the vaccine, And they knew that these were the possible reactions that our bodies could have because of the vaccine.

They did not bother to tell me to take the day off to rest and to continue with my work the next day so that I could regain my strength.

Do you think this is human?

Do you believe that domestic workers are immune to disease simply because we are domestic workers?

It is worth mentioning that I am an au pair and should be considered as a domestic worker, since my job as an au pair, I fulfill the duties that correspond to a nanny.

I don't consider myself an exchange student as the pairs program calls us.

We are nannies who work more than 40 hours a week.

and that many host families consider us to be available 24-7 by the simple fact of us living with them.

I ask this council to consider the recommendations of the Labor Standards Board so that workers like me can have access to paid sick time.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Gracias, Irenea.

The next person is Ebony.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Ebony Arunga.

I'm an arts advocate and Seattle Arts Commission member, and I'm here to speak to the American Rescue Plan and advocate for the arts and cultural sector.

I request that the city council support the Seattle Arts Commission budget letter to the mayor.

I ask that you directly invest in individual artists by allocating $15 million to serve as stimulus for artists.

and allocate seed funding of $1 million annually for the next three years to Hope Corps, which centers the restoration of wealth for those affected disproportionately during this pandemic.

I ask that you invest in cultural communities by allocating $20 million towards cultural organizations.

and support cultural spaces by forgiving all rent for 2021 to 2022 for arts and cultural organizations and artists who call the city landlord.

I ask that you resource the cultural space agency to its fullest potential and pause financial cuts to the office of arts and culture budget resulting from the diminished admissions tax collection and supplement the budget to match the 2019 budget total.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

And I will look for that letter that you sent to the mayor.

Thank you.

La próxima persona es Alejandra O'Connor.

Alejandra, buenos días.

Y puedes empezar.

Buenos días.

Soy Alejandra O'Connor.

Soy Alejandra O'Connor.

Soy niñera y au pair.

Ahora soy mamá de un hermoso bebé de 10 meses.

Unfortunately, home workers do not receive basic benefits such as a paid disease license and other vacation times paid by their employees.

The pandemic has made it more evident the need to reinforce this implementation of this right.

It is necessary that it be mandatory that employees provide this right to all workers.

It is necessary through a system of benefits or political changes to improve the order of home workers.

Hi, I also don't have their statement prepared so I didn't catch everything because it's going too fast, sorry.

Hi, I am Alejandra O'Connor.

I'm a nanny and an au pair, also now a mom to a 10-month-old.

Domestic workers here do not receive such benefits as paid time off.

It is necessary for all workers to have these types of benefits, and I ask that you work on making changes to the current set of domestic worker bailer rights to improve it and make changes so that all workers are able to have benefits.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Muchos gracias Alejandra por llamar hoy.

Okay, the next three speakers, folks, are listed as not present.

Jane, Salzuki, Maria Flores, Adriana Mendoza are showing up as not present.

Las nombres que llamé, Maria, Adriana, Jane, no están presentes.

Si quieres hablar, necesitas llamar todavía el número que apareció en el email que recibiste cuando empujaste.

So that, I believe, does conclude our translation services that we know of.

But I want to thank Cariño Barragán de Alencon, who is on the line with us in case someone comes up.

I just wanted to let you know, Cariño, that is everyone on my list.

If there are other folks that appear, we really want to thank you for your time.

And I know that you'll be present with us for the next presentation as well.

Thanks so much, Cariniel, for your translation.

Okay, folks, we still have a handful of people who are ready to testify on other items here, and I'm going to continue to call names.

Dr. Quinton Morris, Kim England, and Kim Wolfe, as a reminder, one minute to speak.

You'll have 10 seconds at the end of your time.

And you also need to push star six and unmute yourself.

So good morning, Dr. Morris.

Good morning.

I'm Dr. Quentin Morris.

I am the co-chair of the Seattle Arts Commission, professor at Seattle University, and also executive director and founder of Key to Change.

I'm speaking, of course, to talk about the recovery of arts here in Seattle.

It's going to take a village to bring Seattle out of this crisis.

The arts and cultural sector are uniquely positioned to unite and help bring feelings of safety and solace back to our cities residents during the crucial COVID recovery period.

More than 62% of artistic and creative workers have been unemployed.

95% of them have experienced significant loss of income and 71% of arts organizations indicate that the financial impact has been severe due to the pandemic.

I'm asking you all please consider investing in individual artists by allocating $15 million to serve as a stimulus towards working creatives in Seattle.

Of course, invest seed money of $1 million towards Hope Corps and invest in our cultural communities.

I wrote a letter to the mayor, and of course, I'm going to follow up with the Seattle City Council as well, because I want to join in the recovery of helping our city get back to a sense of normalcy with the arts and cultural sector.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Kim England.

Good morning, Kim.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Kim England.

I support the Domestic Workers Standards Board recommendations.

I am the Harry Bridges Endowed Chair of Labor Studies at the University of Washington.

I speak today as a proud member of the Coalition of Domestic Workers and their allies.

Earlier this year, the coalition conducted a survey of employers of domestic workers.

Over 120 employers responded.

I will highlight just a few of the findings.

A little over 70% of employers said domestic workers should receive paid vacation time.

Approximately 90% of employers say domestic workers should receive paid sick time.

And about 90% of employers responded that domestic workers should get health insurance.

And as you already heard from Marcus Martinez, nearly 60% of employers included the hiring family among the list of who should pay for domestic work benefits.

Our one-on-one conversations also show that many employees are supportive but confused about portable benefits for domestic workers.

Employers told us they are keen to get clearer ground rules from city leadership and that they are eager for a platform of record-keeping compliance that is simple to use.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Kim Wolfe.

Good morning, Kim.

My name is Kimberly Wolfe.

I'm a long-term gig worker and a proponent of the Pay Up campaign.

I support CB120069 specifically because of the language laying the foundation for the council's commitment to move forward with much-needed pay standards.

We support the passing of policies which increase transparency for independent contractors and commit to the next step, a pay standard for gig workers in 2021. We were already making subminimum wages, but during COVID, When the gig companies are making billions more, they dropped our pay even further.

It's now lower than ever.

The discrepancy has become so vast that people are bleeding money, unable to pay their bills, and it's seriously hurting tens of thousands of workers, your neighbors, and our local economy.

Without the long overdue pay-up standards in place, the race to the bottom in the gig economy will only pick up speed, leaving more vulnerable and marginalized workers behind.

We need the council to pass the pay up policy for gig workers this year.

Thanks for your time and supporting gig workers by moving forward without delay.

Thank you very much.

We have John Burbank followed by Elvia Cortez and Burke Sonsbury.

Good morning, John.

Good morning, Chair Mosqueda, and my name is John Burbank.

I'm the executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute in Seattle.

I want to extend our heartfelt care and affection for Council President Lorena Gonzalez in this moment of great grief for her.

She should know that we are all a feeling for her.

Child care workers, I want to talk about the American Rescue Plan and the first tranche of possible funding.

Child care workers are essential workers.

They are women, particularly women of color.

Child care workers have been historically underpaid.

King County child care workers now make about $16 an hour.

But childcare workers have also stepped up as essential workers.

And as this council has deemed that grocery store workers are essential workers and deserve a $4 an hour wage increase, we are proposing that childcare workers get a $2 an hour wage increase that will bring their pay up to about $18.50 an hour.

That will cost about $6 million for calendar year 2021. It would cover workers in child care centers, family homes, school-age kids, ECAP workers.

This is a fundal.

Thank you, John.

Please do send the rest of your public testimony.

I appreciate the time today.

The next person is Elvia.

Good morning.

and as we look for it.

Buenos dias.

Hi Elvia.

Buenos dias.

Mi nombre es Elvia Cortez.

Soy trabajadora del hogar desde hace 10 años y también organizadora de las trabajadoras del hogar de Casa Latina.

Actualmente organizo a un grupo de más de 90 trabajadoras.

Cada día escucho historias difíciles que está sucediendo en sus vidas durante la pandemia.

por no tener acceso a beneficios como días de enfermedad o tiempo libre pagado, ya que trabajamos pocas horas a la semana.

Por no tener acceso a esos beneficios, muchas de mis compañeras han seguido trabajando durante la pandemia por el miedo de perder su trabajo, aunque corren el riesgo de ser contagiadas del COVID-19.

Yo me siento impotente por no poder ayudar a mis compañeras.

Es por eso que estoy aquí en nombre de todas las trabajadoras del hogar, que en su mayoría son mujeres de color emigrantes, para decirles a ustedes que es urgente y necesario que se encuentre un mecanismo para tener el derecho al acceso a beneficios portátiles mandatorios.

Gracias.

Hace dos años, las 33,000 trabajadoras del hogar en Seattle, logramos salir de las sombras, pero necesitamos seguir visibles.

Dignidad, respeto y beneficios portátiles mandatorios para todas las trabajadoras del hogar.

Gracias por escucharme.

Thank you.

Y cariño, gracias por la traducción, si puedes.

Hi, my name is Elia Cortez and I have been a domestic worker for more than 10 years.

I'm also an organizer of domestic workers from Casa Latina.

At the moment, I organize a group of more than 90 workers.

Every day, I hear difficult stories right now during the pandemic about not having access to benefit like sick days or time off since we work such few hours.

Because we don't have access to these benefits, many of my colleagues have continued working during the pandemic for fear of losing their work, even with the risk of being infected with COVID-19.

I feel powerless that I'm not able to help my colleagues.

That is why I'm here on behalf of all domestic workers, most of them are women of color and immigrants, to tell you that it is urgent and necessary that a mechanism for portable benefits be made mandatory.

Two years ago, the 33,000 domestic workers in Seattle, we were able to come out of the showers, shadows, but we need to stay visible.

Dignity, respect, and benefits must be mandatory for all workers.

for all domestic workers.

Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you for your time.

Gracias, Elvia.

The next three speakers are Burke Stansbury, Delmia Argueta, and Enriqueta Vega.

Hi, my name is Burke Stansbury, and I'm speaking today to urge the council to implement a portable benefit system for domestic workers.

My son was born with a severe neuromuscular disease.

He has a tracheostomy.

He uses a wheelchair.

He requires constant care.

We have a nurse in our home five days a week to help with that care.

We also employ a house cleaner who comes once or twice a month.

I'm sure that working in someone else's home is a challenging experience.

My partner and I do our best to provide a safe and comfortable work environment, but it still means constantly navigating someone else's personal space.

Meanwhile, most domestic workers did not receive benefits.

The nurses who work in our home are paid through a private agency, yet we still feel the responsibility to ensure they have fair compensation and benefits.

For the woman who comes to clean our home, we know that benefits are not part of her work, which includes having many different families as employers.

That's why we worked with the organization hand in hand a few years ago to set up an account for the Aaliyah platform to help her with benefits.

Yet in order to effectively provide benefits like paid time off to workers, we need clear information from the city about the laws and clear guidance about what platforms we can use to provide those benefits.

We can't.

Thank you very much.

Please send in the rest of your comments as well.

Delmis, good morning.

Delmis Argueta.

Followed by Enriqueta Vega.

Just looking on my end for the squares to pop up.

Welcome, Delmis, if you can push star six one more time.

She may need Spanish.

Okay.

Delmis, press star six to mute.

One more time.

Star six, if you can push star six one more time.

Perfect.

Thank you for being here with us.

You can start.

Buenos días.

Mi nombre es Delmis Argueta.

Limpio casas y cuido niños desde hace cinco años.

Soy miembra de Casa Latina y fui promotora de la Carta de Derechos de las Trabajadoras del Hogar en el primer año que entró en vigor, que fue en julio del 2019. Apenas estábamos asimilando que teníamos algunos derechos laborales cuando llega la pandemia y nos obliga a ver la necesidad de tener beneficios de días de enfermedad pagados.

Due to COVID, I lost my job, my income, and no type of benefits.

If we, the workers, had the right to free time or paid sick leave, at least we wouldn't have the stress from the costs.

I am a member of a platform for portable benefits called Aaliyah, in which some of my clients registered to collaborate.

I was very excited, but since it's not mandatory, Solamente uno de ellos me siguió aportando.

Hay varios modelos de beneficios portátiles que funcionan.

Es por eso que pido a este consejo que, por favor, apoye la recomendación de que podamos tener una plataforma de beneficios portátiles que sea mandatorio para las trabajadoras del lugar aquí en Seattle.

Muchas gracias.

Good morning, my name is Delmy Sarageta and I'm an immigrant domestic worker.

I've cleaned houses and taken care of children for five years.

I'm a member of Casa Latina and I was an advocate for the Bill of Rights for domestic workers in the first year when it came into effect in July 2019. We were just assimilating that we had had some basic labor rights when the pandemic hit us and forced us to see the need for paid sick benefits.

Due to the COVID-19, I left my job without and now I have no income or any kind of benefits.

If domestic workers were entitled to sick days or paid time off, at least the stress of not having income would be less.

I'm a member of a portable benefits platform called Alia, in which some of my clients signed up to contribute an amount every time I went to work.

And that thrilled me a lot.

But since it is not mandatory, only one of them now continues to contribute.

And I would like all of my employers to contribute.

There are several models of portable benefits that work.

That is why I ask that the council support the recommendation around a portable benefits platform that is mandatory for domestic workers here in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Gracias.

And the next person is Enriqueta Vega.

The next person is Enriqueta Vega.

Bueno, bienvenidos.

Buenos días, buenos días a todos los representantes.

Mi nombre es Enriqueta Vega.

Soy trabajadora del hogar por más de 10 años y soy miembra de Casa Latina.

Nunca me había sentido tan vulnerable como en este tiempo de pandemia.

Ha sido un caos quedarme sin trabajo y sin protecciones.

Estando en mi casa sin trabajo, sentía que mi vida dependía de un hilo que en cualquier momento se reventaría.

También me di cuenta que tan importantes son para nosotras las trabajadoras del hogar los beneficios portátiles.

Trabajamos para diferentes empleadores, lo cual resulta difícil tener beneficios como días de enfermedad pagados, tiempo libre pagado, desempleo o una seguranza médica.

Las trabajadoras del hogar estamos unidas, luchando sin parar para construir una sociedad en la cual tengamos los derechos y el respeto que merecemos.

Por eso pido hoy a ustedes su apoyo total para las recomendaciones, pero en lo personal la recomendación de encontrar un mecanismo para tener acceso a días de enfermedad pagados.

Haría un cambio enorme a la vida de todas las trabajadoras del hogar.

Gracias por escucharme.

Gracias por estar aquí con nosotros.

Good morning to all council people.

My name is Enriqueta Vega and I have been a domestic worker for more than 10 years.

I'm also a member of Casa Latina.

I have never felt so vulnerable as in this time during the pandemic.

It has been chaos to be without work and without protections.

Being at home without work, I felt that my life depended on a thin thread that at any moment would break.

I also realized how important portable benefits are to domestic workers.

We work for different employers, so it's difficult to have benefits such as paid time off, paid sick time, unemployment, or health insurance.

Domestic workers are united, fighting nonstop to build a society in which we have the rights and respect we deserve.

That is why I ask you today for your full support for the recommendation.

But personally, the recommendation to find a mechanism to access paid sick days would make a huge change to the lives of all domestic workers.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Gracias.

Folks, I want to let you know we have reached the end of our 45 minute time.

I'm going to ask for your willingness to extend the public comment for another 15 minutes.

We only have 11 more people signed up for public testimony.

That should give us time for translation if needed.

If there's no objection, the public comment will be extended.

I see a thumbs up for 15 more minutes.

I appreciate the support.

I know people have been preparing for this public testimony, so thank you.

Okay, vamos a seguir y tenemos 15 más minutos por testimonio.

Martha Barrientos, followed by Rick Araluce and Sarah Wilk.

Good morning, Martha.

Buenos días, Marta.

¿Estás con nosotros, Marta Barrientos?

Vamos a esperar un momento y después de Marta sería Rick.

Marta, debes oprimir estrella seis en el teléfono para salir de mudo.

OK.

Aquí está Marta.

Buenos días, Marta.

Buenos días.

Okay, good morning members of the council.

My name is Marta Barrientos.

I've been cleaning houses for 10 years.

I'm a member of Casa Latina.

During the week, I clean houses two or three times a week, but I have six employees a month.

In this time of pandemic, I was left without a job, without any type of income, with a lot of stress, and without the opportunity to receive benefits for days of illness.

Because this system is designed only for one employer.

There are many, many other workers And we are in the same situation.

I see the urgent need to be able to extend those benefits.

And I ask you from the bottom of my heart to continue to assist this labor sector, which is still always vulnerable and oppressed.

We don't have a pilot because we don't have a pilot.

It's difficult to hear your voice, but if you want to continue.

Yes, it's difficult to hear my voice?

Yes, but we have the translation and I think that if Karina has the words, we will hear it in English as well.

But you can finish because your time is up.

Yes, yes.

Por eso le pedimos humildemente que Seattle siga mandando un ejemplo a nivel nacional en los derechos laborales para las trabajadoras del hogar.

Good morning, members of the council.

My name is Marta Barrientos.

I have been cleaning houses for 10 years and I am a member of Casa Latina.

During the week, I work a few hours because I clean houses two or three times per week, but I have six employers.

During this pandemic, I was left without a job, without any kind of income, with a lot of stress, and without having the opportunity to receive sick days benefits because the system is designed only for workers who have only one employer.

Just like me, there are many, many other domestic workers who are in the same situation.

That is why I see the urgent need to be able to access those benefits.

I ask you from the bottom of my heart to continue supporting this labor sector that remains vulnerable and oppressed.

We need your support to have a paid time mechanism or portable benefit be made mandatory.

We do not want a pilot because there are already several models that work, such as the benefits platform, of which I form a part of, but it's not mandatory.

I humbly ask that Seattle continue to be an example at the national level on labor rights for domestic workers.

We trust you.

Thank you.

Oops.

Gracias, Marta.

Okay, folks, as a reminder, we only have about 10 minutes left, so you are going to have your lines cut off at one minute.

That includes for the Spanish speakers as well, but we will also have another minute for translation after that.

The next three speakers are Rick, Sarah Wilk, and Donna Hutchinson.

Good afternoon.

Good morning, Rick.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you for checking.

Oh, yeah, thanks.

Yeah, I don't have prepared remarks, but I'm a member of the Seattle Arts Commission, and I want to strongly recommend the commission's budget proposal for the funding, the American Rescue Plan.

Just want to state, you know, as a member of the arts community since 1994, and I moved here and from Los Angeles before that, just want to restate, generally, how important, utterly vital, I believe, that the arts are to the community, to funding, to taxpaying, to creating a vibrant and a vital ecosystem for us as a community.

And I just would recommend strongly that going forward with the necessary, incredibly necessary funding and to advocate for arts in general.

It's an investment.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time.

And the next person, Sarah.

Good morning.

My name is Sarah Wilkie, and I'm the co-chair of the Seattle Arts Commission.

And I'm asking today for allocation of direct aid from the American Rescue Plan to the arts and culture sector.

The direct aid for this sector was not included in the CARES Act, and we've really seen the impact.

As you've heard before, more than 62% of artists and creative workers are fully unemployed, 95% have received significant income loss, and 71% of arts organizations have considered to receive a severe financial impact this past year.

You know, this is the very sector that can be and should be really foundational to the Seattle recovery right now.

We have the skills and the talent and the ability to be able to bring people together for mutual benefit, common growth and understanding.

But we can't do that if we don't have the stability and the support to be in a healthy place ourselves.

And so that is one of the reasons that I am asking for that direct allocation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the next person is Donna Hutchinson, followed by Ashley Thomas.

And Donna, just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, after Donna, we have Ashley Thomas, Michael Wolfe, and Sandra Nelson.

Do we have Donna with us?

If not, let's go ahead and move on to Ashley, please.

And Donna, if you're still there, we'll come back to you.

Good morning.

I want to thank the committee for including $2.5 million for housing stability and resident services in the ARPA budget.

I work in resident services at Community Roots Housing, and we provide affordable housing to over 200 people throughout Seattle.

We work to connect residents to life-affirming resources that support their housing stability and community connection.

Our resident services staff is stretched beyond capacity.

Currently, we only are able to provide one resident services professional for every 400 residents.

An investment of 2.5 million in 2021 will help address the negative economic impacts of the pandemic by helping our neighbors and especially our low income neighbors and communities of color that are hardest hit.

Get them connected to economic, social, mental health and educational opportunities.

When residents have access to resources to thrive and not just survive, it creates cascading impacts of stability and sense of community.

Thank you again for including this in the ARPA budget.

Thank you.

And the next person is Michael Wolf.

Good morning.

This is Michael Wolfe.

I'm the executive director of Drive Forward, and I'm here to testify on Council Bill 120069, the independent contractors transparency bill.

Drive Forward does support transparency for app-based gig workers in their work.

a bit this bill as usual is a little convoluted and how it gets there and doesn't really uh...

isn't really practical for how at based gig workers do their work on a daily basis and create complications for them and how it gets the transparency We would love to be able to work with council to make this a better bill that all drivers could get behind and all companies could get behind.

And I think that's a pretty easy lift to do.

And so we'd love to work with you in the future to be able to get this bill to be something that everyone could get behind.

Transparency isn't an issue that anyone opposes.

It's just a matter of getting the legislation correct.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michael.

The next three are Sandra Nelson, Holly Jacobson, and Vanessa Diabos.

Sandra, are you with us?

Star six, unmute yourself.

And we're still looking for Donna Hutchinson as well.

Okay, I am not seeing Sandra pop up.

All right, let's move on to Holly, Holly Jacobson.

Holly, are you with us?

Good morning.

This is Holly Jacobson.

Thanks for taking the extra time to allow additional comment council.

Um, I'm the CEO of path with art and had the honor of sitting on the Seattle arts commission.

I'm here to advocate for the arts and cultural sector for the investment in the American rescue plan as a means of support, a more equitable, meaningful community recovery.

We know that a vibrant art sector is necessary for a thriving community and city history has made this case and we can make this case at every level.

at the individual level and at the societal level, and yet at the economic level.

The Path of the Art, for example, provides arts opportunities to low-income individuals from over 50 social service partners as a means to recover from trauma, be that trauma from racism, violence, abuse, homelessness, substance use disorder, or poverty.

The arts help our participant artists connect back to themselves and our community.

The arts also connect us with each other to see each other through the story and human experience versus statistics, They are a powerful means to foster empathy and understanding in an increasingly fractured and divided world.

And the arts impact our economic well-being as well.

There's strong...

Thank you very much, Holly.

The next three speakers are Vanessa Valevos, Karen Toring, Enrico Alvira, and then the last person is Erica Lehner.

Vanessa, are you with us?

And we're still looking for Sandra Nelson too.

Good morning.

Just star six.

Okay.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

I can Vanessa.

Thank you.

Oh, hi.

Thank you so much.

Council members for extending this time to allow for a little bit of commentary.

My name is Vanessa Villalobos.

I am an independent BIPOC artist, an independent contractor.

I know you're looking at some of those things today too.

And also a part of the Seattle Arts Commission.

I just want to echo the previous members support for arts funding and really asking for this 15 million dollar direct allocation to the creative workers as well as a hopeful minimal allocation of 20 million to our cultural institutions.

As an artist and I just want to leave you with this you know really really think about what has gotten us and your community through the pandemic, the music, the beautiful design you see daily, trips to the aquarium if you have to pass through, all of those little moments are crafted, are premeditated and created for audiences to experience.

The 2022 and 2023 year would still hold Seattle as a destination city if you can please prioritize arts funding this time around.

We were left out at the beginning.

Thank you very much, appreciate that.

Karen Toring, good morning.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Hi, Karen.

Hi, this is Karen.

Hi, this is Karen Toring and I'm calling to talk about the American Rescue Plan and the allocation for funding.

Um, I support all of the previous speakers who spoke in a relation to supporting arts and cultural workers.

Um, but I'd also like for the council to consider prioritize.

Indigenous and people of color arts and cultural organizations, uh, who are, we can probably name on one or two hands.

I'd also like to, uh, mention the small business opportunities that might be available with this funding.

And I would like for the city to consider pathways to funding that are grants, not loans, and to make fast.

A lot of times, you know, there are allocations of funding to see groups with patients and individual artists, and we can't float 30 days.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

It makes sense.

Rico Avila.

Good morning.

Thanks for waiting.

And Rico, I see you.

I think you just need to hit star six one more time.

Star six, and then the last person will be Erica, if you want to get teed up, Erica.

Rico, I see you on my screen here.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, well, let's keep Rico up, and we will go to Erica, and we will look for Rico to come off mute.

Erica?

Okay, folks, I think we're nearing the end here.

Rico, Erica, and Sandra, I am not seeing you pop up on my screen.

I'm going to give it one more second here for my tea.

I heard somebody.

If you just came off mute, feel free to introduce yourself.

Rico, I see you on mute.

Erica, I don't see you on the line here.

And I am not seeing Sandra.

So folks, that will conclude our public comment for today.

I want to thank everybody.

Sandra, wait before we go.

And Erica, I see you there.

Let's go ahead.

Since you waited this long, let's give you a minute to testify.

Sandra, you are first.

Can you hear me, Sandra?

Are you on mute on your end?

Oh, can you hear me?

I can hear you, Erica.

Go ahead, Erica.

And Sandra, you'll be next.

I saw you go back on mute.

OK, Erica, let's do this.

Good morning, council members, and thank you for the extended time.

My name is Erica Lanier.

I'm the executive director of Seed of Life Center for Early Learning Child Care Centers located in South Seattle.

As a child care provider for the past 24 years, we've been, and most recently since March 2020, we've been working through the pandemic as essential workers.

We have been providing childcare, incorporated remote learning, adapted services to provide response supports for children, social, emotional, academic, mentoring, technology, and basic support for all of our communities served.

We have been the backbone of the working community to provide essential childcare services without receiving additional financial support.

So we're asking for the childcare community, especially as that have been open during the pandemic, to give a $2 compensation for increasing child care workers.

Thank you.

You're on mute, Chair.

Thank you, Council President.

Sandra, I see you listed as present still.

And Rico, we're trying to wrap this up, folks, if you can hit star six to unmute yourself.

And you've been waiting this whole time, so I want to respect your time as well.

Okay, folks, I'm not hearing you come off the line.

I want to thank everybody for being here for public testimony.

I want to thank Cariño Barragan for your translation services this morning.

We really appreciate it.

And we do know that there was a lot of folks who had been wanting to provide public testimony and needed translation as well.

Thank you very much for your extra time this morning, colleagues.

Madam Clerk, will you please read into the record item number one?

The item number one, domestic worker standards board recommendations for briefing and discussion.

Okay, colleagues, this is where I'm gonna ask you to go ahead and refer back to the email that I recirculated again this morning.

You will need to choose a translation service.

Interpretation in English and Spanish is available.

You should be able to click on that button on the bottom that looks like a little globe.

Please select the language in which you'd like to listen.

Today's options are English and Spanish.

You will choose a language and you will only be able to hear folks in that chosen language in the quote room that you're in.

I want to thank Cariño Barragán.

And I want to thank Cariño Barragán for the translation services.

And we really would not be able to have done this without her expertise.

We want to thank Council President, IT, and the clerk's office, and Freddy de Cuevas, who've been working to systematize our services here.

And we are going to continue to work on it so that everybody can hear the translation services.

If you have any questions, please do hold your questions until the end of the presentation so that the translation services don't get interrupted.

Please remember, presenters, to speak as slow as you can so the interpreter can capture what you're saying.

and try to avoid using acronyms as those are difficult to translate.

For the audience, the presentation will be streamed on Seattle Channel in English.

For our audience that is joining us via Zoom, you will need to select the chosen language at the bottom of the presentation.

Does anybody have any questions?

¿Alguien tiene unas preguntas?

¿Necesitas escoger el idioma que quieres escuchar en el globo?

Wow, no questions.

Thank you for the instructions.

And today, colleagues, We have with us presenters, Sylvia Gonzalez, co-chair of the Domestic Workers Standards Board, Dana Barnett, co-chair of Domestic Workers Standards Board, Jasmine Maraja, Office of Labor Standards, and Karina Bull from the central staff.

Attendees on this line also include Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Coalition members who are here mostly for questions.

I know one person is going to also be adding some context here today, but I want to honor their presence and their work as well.

Emily Dills, Teresa Hill, Dana Barnett, Jordan Goldwig, Lonnie Todd, Andra Ketzler, Liz Hunter Keller, Rocio Alvia, Daniel Alvarado, Doris Garcia Flores, Andrew Kashop, and Veronica Fascianelli.

Gracias por estar aqui con nosotros tambien.

Thank you for being here with us as well.

I will turn it over to the presenters for today, long awaited presentation.

And with that, thank you for the translation once again.

Council Member Mosqueda, I just want to call it out for the record.

Bailey Freeman, I'm actually the current co-chair.

So Sylvia and I will be the main presenters for today.

I appreciate that.

I'm sorry if I said that wrong.

That's OK.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bailey.

And thank you, Sylvia.

Gracias, Bailey.

Hola, buenos días.

Mi nombre es Silvia González y voy a introducir un poquito sobre la justicia del lenguaje.

La justicia del lenguaje es justicia social.

Es un derecho humano de toda persona el poder hablar en la lengua que se sienta más cómoda en un momento determinado.

El propósito de crear un espacio multilingüe dinámico y funcional es permitir que las personas se expresen en la lengua que prefieran sea cual sea, y que otras personas en la sala puedan escuchar y entender lo que dice, sea que hablen o no el mismo idioma.

La lengua es un elemento crucial del proceso de lucha por una sociedad más justa e inclusiva.

Con excesiva frecuencia suceden los movimientos de justicia social.

Y ello, a pesar de nuestras mejores intenciones, que reproducimos las mismas formas de dominación lingüística que operan en la cultura dominante en Estados Unidos, como en buena parte del mundo, el inglés ocupa esta posición dominante.

Gracias a este concilio por crear ese espacio para poder expresarnos en la lengua que mejor nos sentimos cómodas.

Nuevamente, mi nombre es Silvia Gonzalez.

Soy una de las co-chairs del Standard Board y represento a las trabajadoras del hogar, especificamente a las que limpiamos casas.

Y hoy vamos a estar hablando de la presentación de las recomendaciones.

Next, por favor.

La siguiente.

Slides.

Okay.

Vamos a introducir un poquito a El Standard Board fue establecido en el 2019 como parte de la ordenanza de trabajadores domésticos de Seattle.

La Junta de Normas para Trabajadores del Hogar proporciona un lugar para que los trabajadores, empleadores, hogares privados, organizaciones de trabajadores y el público consideren y sugieran formas de mejorar las condiciones laboral de todas las trabajadoras del hogar.

Y aquí tenemos las personas que conformamos parte de la Standard Board.

Silvia González, que yo soy, y Bailey, mi compañera, estamos al frente como co-chair.

Y también menciono a mis demás compañeros que también nos están acompañando en este espacio virtual que se ha convertido tan famoso últimamente.

¿Verdad?

Dana, Emily Diels, Jordan, Etelvina, Teresa, Liz, Andra, y Lani.

y compañeros que también fueron parte pero ahora ya nos dejaron por mejores condiciones quizás, Alaya, Candace y Victor Lozada.

Todos estos formamos parte del standard board de las trabajadoras del hogar.

Adelante la siguiente por favor.

Wow.

I don't know if you remember this photo, that several were there where they signed.

It brings me good memories, right?

What do we believe, right?

The Rules Board for Home Workers, which provides a world in which home workers are informed and supported, y las entidades contratantes sean responsables y estén reguladas.

También creemos en que se cultiven mejores relaciones entre las trabajadoras y entidades contratantes en todos los idiomas y culturas.

También creemos que las pólizas sean claras, que se apliquen de manera constante y que mejoren significativamente la vida de los trabajadores del hogar.

Y eso no nada más quedó ahí en el 2019, ¿verdad?

Cuando ganamos.

Por eso es que escuchamos tantos comentarios públicos ahorita de una necesidad grande de que esto siga avanzando y no quede nada más en lo poquito.

Para mí es poquito lo que se ganó, ¿verdad?

Somos ambiciosas las trabajadoras del hogar y por eso creemos en que merecemos más y estamos aquí luchando para esto.

Mi compañera Bailey sigue con los siguientes slides.

Thank you, Sylvia.

In our presentation today, we will discuss our recommendations and the issues that they seek to resolve, including barriers to outreach enforcement and implementation.

We will also touch on next steps as we expect to work closely with council and city staff on the implementation and development of these recommendations.

Afterwards, time permitting, we will invite other board members and members of the Domestic Workers Coalition to help with a short discussion that will follow.

Next slide, please.

Outreach and education has been going on in earnest since the ordinance went into effect.

Despite the Office of Labor Standards efforts and accomplishments regarding outreach, including reaching thousands of hiring entities and workers so far, there has only been one investigation out of 15 inquiries.

This is not due to lack of interest or action from the Office of Labor Standards to perform this work, but due to the very real barriers that we will discuss in the next slides.

Next slide, please.

So let's talk about the barriers to implementation of this unique ordinance.

Domestic workers are a unique workforce with no centralized networks.

Some workers don't see themselves as domestic workers, and even more homeowners and parents don't see themselves as employers.

These individuals may encounter materials about the ordinance, but assume it does not apply to them.

Fear and mistrust is a very real issue for workers, both in engaging with city officials as well as concern about retaliation from their employers.

There is no anonymity when you are making a complaint as the sole employee and referrals and references are critical to future employment in this word of mouth driven industry.

Finally, there are tens of thousands of domestic workers in Seattle and even more hiring entities who speak many languages.

Reaching all of them and building trust in their communities is a massive task and one that requires significant and consistent support.

I will turn it back to Silvia to discuss working conditions.

Gracias, Bailey.

Hablando de barreras y condiciones laborales, ¿verdad?

Una de las principales son salarios bajos y sin beneficios.

Hemos estado hablando tanto de los beneficios, ¿verdad?

Me encanta como las compañeras se armaron de valor y vinieron a decir aquí, a luchar por lo que ellas creen, ¿verdad?

Y tenemos derechos.

Más de la mitad de los trabajadores del hogar luchan por pagar el alquiler y otras facturas, ¿verdad?

Y sin hablar de poner comida en la mesa para sus niños.

Especialmente ahora con la pandemia, que muchos se quedaron sin trabajo, ¿verdad?

Los trabajadores del hogar van a trabajar enfermos porque carecen de beneficios de como días de enfermedad pagados o simplemente un tiempo libre pagado porque se sienten con tanta ansiedad y tampoco tienen atención médica.

Entonces, por eso, por esas barreras de salarios bajos y sin beneficios, seguimos aquí, ¿verdad?

, luchando por eso.

El trabajo del hogar durante el COVID-19, los trabajadores domésticos hemos sido trabajadores esenciales que hemos estado enfrente de la barda, ¿verdad?

Luchando sobre eso para proveer cuidado infantil, asistente, cuidar a nuestros enfermos, también a los papás de las familias, limpiar sus casas, desinfectar sus casas, todo esto para que esta economía siga adelante, ¿verdad?

that leave their children in care of the nannies to be able to go to work.

Which one of you here doesn't have a nanny, right?

Which one of the members of the council doesn't have someone to clean their house?

We were still doing all of this with COVID.

So we have been at the forefront of the battle.

That is why we continue to demand derechos como cualquier otro trabajador verdad entonces los trabajadores latinos son seis veces más tienen seis veces más la posibilidad de morir por el COVID y lo hemos visto en las estadísticas verdad entonces por eso es que estamos aquí exigiendo pidiendo que sean considerados las recomendaciones que estamos presentando aquí.

Siguientes slides por favor.

Y estamos proponiendo cuatro recomendaciones, ¿verdad?

Que en realidad no son muchas para todo lo que nosotros necesitamos, ¿verdad?

Como cualquier otro trabajador.

Invertir en la experiencia de la comunidad y generar confianza.

Ese es el número uno.

El número dos es proporcionar materiales específicos para los trabajadores del hogar y las entidades contratantes.

Yo escuché hace un rato un comentario público de alguien que dijo que el empleador no sabía que había derechos para los trabajadores del hogar.

Entonces, es tan importante cómo hacer llegar esos materiales a toda esta gente.

El número tres es implementar cambios en las políticas para mejorar la ordenanza de las trabajadoras del hogar.

Y el número cuatro es aprobar el derecho a tiempo libre pagado portátil.

para las trabajadoras del hogar.

Estas son las cuatro recomendaciones que estamos nosotros haciendo.

Cada recomendación tiene sus partes de las cuales vamos a estar metiéndonos un poquito más adentro, Bailey y yo.

Yo voy a empezar un poquito con la primera, si quieren pasar las siguientes slides, por favor.

Esta, invertir en la experiencia de la comunidad y crear confianza.

Creo yo que es tan importante porque Nuestra experiencia es lo que está haciendo.

Experiencia y necesidades es lo que está haciendo los cambios para poder seguir pidiendo las recomendaciones.

Pero nuestra experiencia también tiene un valor, un significado, ¿verdad?

Y es tan difícil a veces conseguir que los compañeros den su tiempo, porque les sale un trabajito, ¿verdad?

Y prefieren irse al trabajito, están en pedir al trabajo o contar su experiencia.

Entonces, por eso pedimos ampliar significativamente los fondos para el alcance de las trabajadoras del hogar.

Y eso genera construir sobre la confianza de las organizaciones, esas organizaciones que pueden llegar más a las trabajadoras o trabajadores del hogar.

Un ejemplo, yo puedo hablar de Casa Latina, ¿verdad?

Es mucho más fácil que las trabajadoras vengan a nosotros porque creen en Casa Latina.

Entonces, por eso es tan importante crear esa confianza, cerrar las frechas, cerrar las frechas de las comunicaciones que existen con las comunidades como africanas y AP Chaya, la comunidad asiática.

Entonces, cómo poder acercarnos más a esas comunidades para escuchar de ellas.

Y invirtiendo un poquito más en esto, es cómo podremos llegar a estas organizaciones y poder alcanzar más a la comunidad.

y hablar de compensar a los trabajadores por su experiencia, pagar a miembros de la junta del standard board que son trabajadoras del hogar, financiar encuestas pagadas y entrevistas de las trabajadoras del hogar para informar los esfuerzos de las juntas de la oficina de la labor standard.

Ya estoy mezclando mi Spanglish.

Y yo pongo de testimonio y de experiencia a Etelvina.

Etelvina es una compañera que es caregiver y forma parte de la mesa de estándares laborales, pero tiene muchos retos.

con estar en la mesa de estándares laborales donde puede traer una experiencia enorme, pero también está que tiene que ir a trabajar.

Viene a la mesa o va a su trabajo, aporta a la mesa comida, paga sus rentas, o está en la mesa al standard board.

Entonces, ella trae un testimonio tan importante aquí para hacer un poquito de conciencia sobre este punto.

Adelante, el video.

Hello, my name is Etelvina Houser.

I am of Garifuna origin and I work from home.

I have been taking care of older people for 15 years.

One year ago, I had the opportunity to serve as a representative of the workers for the letter of the rights of the workers of the place.

Raising the voice of other workers in my community.

But it has been difficult for me to attend all the meetings that are being held.

If I am a housekeeper, the salaries are too low.

They are basic and there is not much work.

Sometimes I have to to decide whether to attend the meeting or to go to work.

But the accounts and the rent, gentlemen, are ours.

If I had the opportunity to receive any compensation for being at the meeting, it would be of great help.

Our passion and experience Como trabajadoras del hogar, que aportamos a la mesa de Standard Board, merecen ser reconocidas y valoradas.

Es por eso que pido a ustedes, a ustedes, su apoyo.

Esta recomendación, de esta recomendación, los derechos de las trabajadoras del hogar son importantes, demasiados importantes.

Gracias.

Hola.

Gracias a Etelvina.

Cabe mencionar que pedimos permiso a la persona con la cual estaba trabajando ella, porque ese día ella estaba trabajando y íbamos a hacer el video.

Entonces, nos introducimos ahí a la casa de la persona donde ella estaba trabajando para agarrar un poquito del tiempo de ella para poder grabar este video.

Entonces, es bien importante.

Los derechos de las trabajadoras del hogar importan, importan mucho como lo mencionó ella.

Gracias a Telvina.

Le paso a Bailey para la siguiente diapositivas.

There we go.

Thank you, Silvia.

So new materials and increased materials for outreach are critical to reaching workers and hiring entities.

Language barriers and the privacy of individual home workspaces make outreach very difficult.

We need funding to expand mailed materials to every home, a strategy used by other city departments to reach more employers and workers where they are and provide these materials in languages they are comfortable with.

The current funding for the Office of Labor Standards outreach is not enough at the scale that we need.

We also want to highlight the importance of third-party platforms who connect workers and other hiring entities.

These platforms are large corporations who are disconnected from the daily struggles of those on the ground, and their practices leave many workers vulnerable and hiring entities ill-informed.

The good news is that these companies are often covered by our ordinance as hiring entities themselves.

Strong city representation insisting that these platforms take responsibility for educating their clients and protecting workers can change the industry for the better.

These platforms, when held accountable, can be an incredible resource for changing the culture of this invisible work and improving enforcement methods.

Next slide, please.

Access to structured health care is the number one requested benefit by workers based on our local research and that of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

We ask that the city researches ways to provide affordable structured health care to workers, exploring various models and educating hiring entities on their options.

Domestic work is taxing on one's body and can result in short and long-term injuries, and these workers have an especially difficult time obtaining the necessary health care.

They work through injuries because they can't afford to miss a shift, let alone go to the doctor.

COVID has made this exponentially more dangerous to workers and their families.

Even if they have insurance, language and technology barriers increase the difficulty of negotiating our current health care systems.

Researching ways to improve on these problems and helping to lobby state legislation to expand current offerings to all individuals in Washington will improve lives across the board.

Next slide, please.

Policy changes, the policy changes that we have outlined in our detailed recommendations are designed to make our ordinance stronger and make enforcement and outreach easier and clearer.

We simply seek to eliminate any exceptions to the Domestic Worker Ordinance coverage on both sides.

No workers excluded from coverage and no hiring entities excluded from compliance.

This adjustment to the ordinance is supported by the relevant local union representatives as well as workers.

A further notice of rights provided by employers and third party platforms will help ensure that workers understand their rights.

If you don't know what your rights are, it's harder to tell when they're being violated until it's too late.

Regarding the new independent contractor legislation, we ask that the city do its due diligence to make sure that all the vulnerable workers affected by this legislation be engaged directly to make sure that the process helps them in practice and that their concerns are taken into consideration.

I will pass it back to Sylvia to discuss portable benefits.

Sylvia, you're on mute.

Gracias, Feili.

Y vamos a seguir hablando de beneficios portátiles, ¿verdad?

Y seguiremos levantando la voz sobre los beneficios portátiles para tener derecho a tiempo libre pagado.

Derecho a un tiempo libre pagado con goce suelto para todas las trabajadoras es tan importante para garantizar que las trabajadoras del lugar puedan dedicar tiempo, y no nada más tiempo a ellas, sino tiempo a sus seres queridos.

Ahora con la pandemia nos afectó tanto que aún así gente enferma iba a trabajar, gente no pudiera trabajar porque tenía que quedar a cuidarse a sus enfermos, ¿verdad?

Las trabajadoras del hogar merecen el derecho a una licencia pagada portátil con goce de sueldo por días de enfermedad pagados, día de descanso y otros que puedan necesitar.

Los beneficios portátiles son beneficios que se pueden pagar o acumular de muchas entidades contratantes a una cuenta de un trabajador.

Yo sé que lo podemos hacer.

Necesitamos su apoyo, ya que sabemos que Filadelfia lo está haciendo.

San Francisco nada más está esperando como que qué estamos haciendo nosotros para de ahí puntear, para salir de ahí salir a seguir trabajando.

Solamente están esperando qué es lo que estamos haciendo.

Porque nosotros, Seattle, en esta industria laboral, hemos sido pioneros.

Fuimos la primer ciudad.

that we had portable benefits and the most ambitious thing is that there is a table of labor standards that there is nowhere else in the country.

So, the portable license for all home workers must be mandatory and supported by a strict and simple application, right?

That simple.

Because many of the workers, as they mentioned a while ago, are people a de color, personas inmigrantes, que tienen muchos miedos y necesitan algo sencillo, y muchos retos con la tecnología.

Quizás ustedes vieron cuántos retos tuvieron alguna de mis compañeras para accesar, ¿verdad?

El simple hecho de apachurra la estrella y el número seis, a veces es tan complicado.

Necesitamos una plataforma de beneficios sencilla, que no sea tan complicada para que todas mis compañeras trabajadoras del hogar puedan acceder a esto.

Gracias.

El siguiente slide, por favor.

Yeah.

Derecho a licencia portátil con goce de sueldo para todas las trabajadoras del hogar.

Las malas noticias, ¿no?

El 57% de las trabajadoras del hogar no reciben ningún beneficio.

Lo hemos estado escuchando aquí.

Solo el 36% recibe licencia por enfermedad pagada Los trabajadores informan que van a trabajar regularmente cuando están enfermos.

Y solamente estoy haciendo eco a la mayoría de los comentarios que hemos escuchado.

Elvia mencionó que ella es la organizadora de aproximadamente más de 90 trabajadoras del hogar.

Si ustedes escucharan un poco esas historias tan desgarradoras de compañeras trabajadoras del hogar que limpian casas que van, ¿Cómo van a trabajar tan solo por poner un poco de comida a su casa?

Es desgarrador.

Si tuviéramos beneficios portátiles, quizás no nos harían la vida maravillosa, ¿verdad?

Pero aliviarían un poco a todos esos problemas que las trabajadoras están pasando económicamente.

Las buenas noticias es que el 87% de los empleadores apoya el tiempo pagado por enfermedad para los trabajadores del hogar.

También escuchamos testimonios de algunos empleadores que estuvieron diciendo que están de acuerdo y el 69% apoya las vacaciones pagadas.

bravo por ellos, ¿verdad?

Necesitamos que se contacten con otros empleadores para poder estar ellos juntos también y nosotros poder tener la esperanza de que podemos recibir días de enfermedad pagados y vacaciones pagados.

Más de la mitad de los encuestados, porque hicimos una encuesta para poder sacar todos estos números, ¿verdad?

Más de la mitad de los encuestados de empleadores, que son el 58%, creen que la agencia y las entidades de contratación individual deberían de ser responsables.

Yo voy a dejar a mi compañera Liz para que hable un poquito.

Estaba un video, pero creo que ella lo va a hacer aquí en persona para que dé un testimonio.

Ella, como empleadora, ella tiene una nanny y una limpiadora de casas trabajando para ella.

Voy a dejar a Liz para que ella dé testimonio de la importancia de por qué tener días de enfermedad pagados.

Liz?

Good morning.

My name is Liz Hunter Keller, and I am a member of the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

But more importantly, I am an employer, and I am here to voice my support for benefits and paid leave for domestic workers.

Over the years, as a board member, I've heard from domestic workers who have no benefits at all.

That means they go to work sick, which we know over the last year and a half is bad in a number of ways.

They work in close quarters with their colleagues and the families that they work for.

which means that the possibility of transmission is greatly increased.

It also means that the domestic workers may take longer to get well or that something small could turn into something large and dangerous and costly.

And it's not just sick leave.

I've heard from workers who can't take paid time off to visit a sick family member or even attend a funeral.

I believe employers like me would be willing and even happy to pay for benefits for their employees.

As you've heard, we have results from surveys and interviews conducted by community organizations that show employers support paid leave.

I currently use an online platform to pay my nanny.

which helps me manage my employer taxes, pay into her paid leave, and social security.

There are several of these nanny pay platforms on the market, which means there is a demand for a domestic worker pay system.

Unfortunately, it's hard to find a way to pay into other domestic workers' benefits, such as housekeepers or gardeners.

That means that PTO and benefits are left up to the employers to figure out.

Housekeepers often work for multiple households and they need a way for each household to contribute a fair share of benefits.

If we made paid leave mandatory for domestic workers and supported a portable benefits platform that would allow various households to pay into a central account, domestic workers could accrue paid time off, paid leave like the rest of our city's wage and salary workers.

A single platform would make life easier for employers and drastically improve quality of life for domestic workers.

Let's make sure domestic workers have the ability to take paid leave like the rest of us.

Everyone should be afforded the right to take some time off without financial or physical hardship.

Thank you, Liz.

Turn it back.

Gracias, Liz.

Gracias.

Siguiente slide, por favor.

a licencia pagada con goce de sueldo.

¿Cómo un sistema portátil de beneficio sería exitoso?

Aquí tenemos dos, cuatro, siete puntos, lo cual harían exitoso a este beneficio portátil.

The number one, portability.

The right to a remunerated license must be transferable to be consistent with the real working conditions of many home workers.

So, it must have a centralized account.

Let's move on to the next one, which is a centralized account system.

All, well, La mayoría de los que limpiamos casas, voy a hablar de los que limpiamos casas, tenemos diferentes empleadores, como lo mencionó Martita, ¿verdad?

Martita decía que tiene seis empleadores.

Entonces, ¿cómo podemos tener una cuenta centralizada donde todos los empleadores de Martita, voy a poner Martita, te estoy usando de ejemplo, puedan poner los aportes a esa sola cuenta.

Entonces deberíamos de tener una cuenta centralizada para cada trabajador donde todos puedan, los empleadores de ese trabajador puedan poner su dinero en una sola cuenta.

Y el número tres es, ¿quién lo administraría?

¿Verdad?

Necesitamos otra entidad aparte de la ciudad que pueda manejar este esta cuenta centralizada para crear más confianza, para que las personas se puedan acercar más ahí.

Necesitamos definitivamente una tercera parte para que puedan, un third party para que puedan hacer esto, ¿verdad?

¿Y cómo podemos enforzar?

También tenemos que buscar una parte que sea enforzada y fuerte porque si no, no no tiene no tiene poder verdad tiene que ser mandatorio porque si dejamos opción al empleador probablemente pueda probablemente no pueda verdad entonces por eso debe de ser mandatorio también necesitamos una cobertura universal para todos los trabajadores del hogar el derecho a la licencia remunerada debe estar disponible para todos los trabajadores del hogar ya sean empleados o contratistas independientes a todos los que abarca lo que es la Carta de Derechos de la Ciudad de Seattle.

Y también continuar colaborando con los trabajadores, ¿verdad?

Que los trabajadores sean los principales, la voz de ellos que sea lo principal en esta sección de los beneficios portátiles.

van a ser los que nos den la pauta a nosotros para seguir trabajando en esto.

Y sé que el liderazgo de ellos es tan importante y sigue siendo tan importante porque gracias a ellos hemos hecho estas encuestas y hemos sacado las necesidades de ellos.

y Teresa recordará las veces que la concejal Teresa recordará las veces que estuvimos en las sesiones de escucha, lo fuerte que fueron las voces de estos trabajadores.

Y queremos seguir trayendo esas voces aquí para que sea esto liderado por ellos también.

Pero por eso es tan importante también la última parte, a seguir haciendo outreach.

y educación tanto para empleadores como para trabajadores.

Porque si no trabajamos juntos, no vamos a poder llegar a la meta, ¿verdad?

Tanto uno como otro nos juntamos.

Y también quiero mencionar las organizaciones tan importantes en este papel que estamos jugando de los beneficios portátiles.

Gracias.

Yo le paso a Bailey la siguiente slide.

Gracias por su tiempo.

Thank you, Sylvia.

So this is our last slide of the presentation, touching on next steps.

Continued engagement with stakeholders and board members throughout this 120-day response period and beyond is of huge importance to the board.

We would like council staff to attend our monthly meetings to provide substantive status updates and apply our suggestions and feedback.

Additionally, the Portable Benefits Subcommittee and the Domestic Workers Coalition expect regular updates and engagement from council staff specifically on portable benefits.

A meeting about this recommendation should take place within the first 30 days of the response period.

Overall, we expect that workers, community experts, and board members are central to guiding the implementation process and that their expertise is prioritized as the voice of the workers.

Our recommendation materials are continued with an appendix containing research conducted by the board and local stakeholders to illustrate the needs and priorities of real workers and hiring entities.

We appreciate the trust that you have placed in us by creating this unprecedented advisory board in the first place.

Please let us exercise our power to continue being hands-on in putting these recommendations into practice.

We plan to continue to make recommendations to guide the expansion of domestic workers' rights.

That concludes our presentation.

And at this time, I'd like to invite questions and invite members of the coalition and the board to help answer them.

Sylvia, would you like to speak?

Yes, I didn't want to close before the questions, without stopping to echo only to several comments that the colleagues mentioned.

We don't want a pilot, because it already exists, Liz mentioned it several times too, right?

We just want the mechanism to help us.

a tener días de enfermedad pagados, porque sabemos que tenemos derechos a días de enfermedad pagados las trabajadoras del hogar, pero como tenemos varios empleadores y pocas horas, no existe ese mecanismo del cual nosotros podamos recibir esos beneficios.

Solamente quería recalcar eso porque es lo que dijeron tanto en los comentarios públicos.

Gracias.

Ahora sí.

Lo siento, Bailey.

Okay, I'm going to step in here.

I want to give folks a chance to understand where we're at in the agenda.

This is our first agenda item.

We have two other agenda items.

So our revised agenda timelines is allowing for 30 minutes, which should be more than necessary according to Ali for the next agenda item.

We're going to start that at 1145. So we have about 15 minutes of questions and discussion right now.

And then we will start the last agenda item at 1215 which will give us 45 minutes for that so that we're ending by our one o'clock time.

Okay, I'm seeing nods from council members, great.

Just wanna make sure to orient us to the time here.

And then also as the last slide said, as folks know from the participation in the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights drafting and co-sponsorship, thank you council colleagues.

You'll remember that we put in a pretty strict language to require a response to the recommendations that were submitted.

As the last slide shows, we're required to respond within within, I think, a 90-day period.

So that's September 15, 2021, according to the slide.

And that ensures that recommendations don't come forward and then just sit on a shelf.

There needs to be actions and discussion and conversation about what's possible, if it's not possible, what is possible, and alternatives proposed so that it's really action-oriented.

So a reminder on that.

And then just in terms of process, colleagues, we really want to make sure that there's a transparent and open dialogue, both with members of the board here and members of the public.

So we will be asking you to share your questions and thoughts, not only in today's presentation, but future committee meetings, for example, on July 9th.

and we want to be able to have a letter crafted and discussed at our July 20th or August 3rd committee meeting.

So all of this will be a very public discussion about responses to the recommendations, and today is really a chance for us to walk through those four high-level recommendations, have some questions, and then there will be another three committee meetings over July and August where we'll have the chance to really that and discuss the recommendations even more.

So just wanna make sure you all know what the process was going to look like so that we as a collective council will be drafting our response as required in a series of meetings coming up.

Okay, let's turn it over to questions.

And again, I want to thank Karin Ybarragan for translation services.

I know that's a ton of work, both for public comment and for the conversation here.

And we have board members with us who popped on the screen.

It's great to see all of you in addition to the co-chairs.

Colleagues, questions?

Okay, I will pop in one question.

Hi, good to see so many faces.

I do want to say, oh my gosh, it's like a reunion coming on screen here.

If we were in person, this would be very exciting to see all of you one day again.

Just for the viewing public, I want to make sure that folks know when we were talking about those who are currently considered as exempt from this, there is information on the slide labeled number three, which is policy changes to improve.

Just as a quick reminder, this was also done in coordination with the large coalition working on the domestic worker standards Bill of Rights, where at the time there was some concern about having duplicate standards for Medicaid reimbursable long-term care providers.

And it sounds like some of the conversation has changed around that.

And so that is part of the recommendation.

But I just want to make sure that folks know why they're originally excluded and the sort of evolution of the thought around that.

So people might just wonder, well, why were they excluded in the first place?

I think that there was Some lessons learned in the last few years as we've implemented, and now the recommendation is to include some of those Medicaid reimbursable orders.

Additional questions?

Okay, well, we do have a few more minutes.

Are there any additional comments that board members would like to pop in and chime in on since we can see your faces?

I'm happy to hear any additional context you might like to provide.

I just want to say that there has been an incredible amount of work to try to engage, this is Andra Kranzler, a credible amount of work to engage domestic workers.

And we are desperately trying to get more workers at the table.

I'm really proud to say that as I move, transition off of this board, that my role will be replaced, has been replaced with a worker.

But we have, intentionally tried to reach out and to engage and to be thoughtful.

And we really have appreciated your leadership, and we appreciate the directive written in the ordinance.

And we are asking you to do lots of big, different things, but we don't want you to be overwhelmed by the ask.

We are willing to be here in solidarity with you to do the hard work.

And we just want to say thank you so very much.

And, um, Council Member Gonzalez, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Andrea.

And I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for your service on the board as well.

I know we just recently voted to appoint your replacement, but just really appreciate you helping to get this entity off the ground.

And we know that you will still be involved in various ways.

Yes, Veronique.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Veronique.

I'm with the Coalition of Domestic Workers.

and also Casa Latina for short.

And I just wanted to reiterate that, I mean, really what we realize, and especially speaking about portable benefits, that as you've heard all the public comments, all the domestic workers sharing their testimonies, as well as what we've seen through the pandemic, right, it is very highly needed to have support, to have protection, especially pay time off, especially at PEC-6 days.

So I wanted to reiterate that it is something, the portable benefit request is not, it's already, I mean it's there and it's so needed.

So it's so needed and it's possible.

We've seen it with Aaliyah and I want to kind of give us a little bit of information about Aaliyah for those who are not so much knowledgeable there is like Aaliyah is a platform that is gathering workers and employers to pay in a worker's account.

It is a platform that was designed and created by the National Domestic Workers Alliance Lab.

So it has been in existence for the last at least two or three years.

And Rocio who is from the National Domestic Workers Alliance is here and can add some to it.

So there is a, there are different mechanism in existence, but Alia worked to some degree in terms of usability what we heard from all the, we had about 80, if not more domestic workers at Casa Latina will use it.

only half of their employers opted in.

So if it's just an option, it doesn't work.

ILEA could be that mechanism, but it needs to be mandated.

So that's why it's very important to have something, to have a mandated policy on that so that it's not an option from the employers to say yes or no.

The last thing is like, however, we've seen that a lot of employers are willing to pay for it.

They've been mentioning 87% say they should be paid.

We are willing to pay portable benefits.

And because they've seen it through the pandemic and because they rely on all those domestic workers who are doing the work that is needed for all the other workers to go out and work.

And as we're coming back to hopefully some kind of normalcy, that's going to be even more and more needed.

But we shouldn't forget what the domestic workers went through through the pandemic.

That's when it was so visible that now we can do something and we should do something.

In Seattle, especially the city council, has been so much always in the forefront of all the new legislation, the 50 minimum wage and all that, that we want to be part of that group of of in the, in the front, we have, and we have other cities who are also working on that, which would be also something that we can learn from.

We have Philly, Philadelphia, we have San Francisco that we can all learn from and work for on behalf and for the benefit of all domestic workers, not just in Seattle, but hopefully in Washington and in the whole nation.

So thank you for listening to all those domestic workers.

And I know you're going to do the right thing.

But let's do it all together, especially with the workers.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

I did have a question as it relates to the ALEA platform.

And really appreciate the time.

I think it was 2019 that I had the chance to go to New York and meet with folks at the Domestic Workers Alliance, and we talked a lot about Aaliyah.

So it's definitely been around for a while, and I know that it's been a helpful tool for many domestic workers.

In Philadelphia, I believe you said that they mandated portable benefits.

Are they using an Aaliyah platform?

How did they, what vehicle did they use to get those benefits out to folks?

My name is Rocio Avila and I am with the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

I will try to answer your question.

So the ordinance in Philadelphia has been passed and we are in the regulatory phase of it.

The platform itself is being designed by the engineers and the NDWA labs.

Aaliyah, as you may have learned and as raised by Veronique and others, is the current system.

But what will be unfolded in Philadelphia and hopefully in San Francisco is going to be something different because it's going to be based on the ordinance and the specific a rule pertaining to how you accrue hours, and it's going to be a different, yeah, a different application.

But the concept, which really stems and originated from the ALEA pilot that you all are familiar, is the spirit of what will be, you know, folded out in Philadelphia and hopefully in San Francisco soon.

Thank you, that helps.

And then maybe a follow-up to that is, do you know when the Philly and San Francisco platforms will be available for employers and hiring entities and domestic workers?

And then the second part of that question perhaps is for OLS.

I saw our friend Jasmine on the line here.

Thank you, Jasmine.

As part of the ordinance, we had requested a draft contract or a model contract that could be used.

Does the model contract that we envision go beyond explaining the rights to a guaranteed X amount of pay so that there's something in paper showing how much a domestic worker will earn?

Does it also talk about how they can potentially accrue or earn paid time off or sick leave as part of that model contract if a hiring entity at this point chooses to do so?

recognizing they should be, since we put it in the law, especially as Eldovina mentioned, it's part of the required PTO, I'm sorry, paid breaks, or at least part of the contract that we envisioned.

Do we also envision PTO being listed in the draft contract?

So the domestic workers, hi everyone, my name is Jasmine Marwaha, policy analyst with the Office of Labor Standards.

The domestic workers ordinance right now says that OLS shall make available a model notice of rights, which is slightly different than a model contract.

So notice of rights that we've provided as a sample just lists the rights that are entitled that domestic workers are entitled to from the domestic workers ordinance.

So it does not make reference to the option of affordable benefits.

That's right.

I forgot that.

So we had asked also the Domestic Workers Standards Board to come up with potential model contract language.

Is that right?

That was partly, that was a possible topic of discussion that was listed in the ordinance, but it wasn't necessarily a directive to the board.

I do know that some community partners that are funded by OLS have do have some model contracts.

And I know that the National Domestic Workers Alliance also has model contracts available.

So those resources do exist in community, but they're not necessarily from OLS.

Now, I just wanted to clarify that the ordinance Philadelphia mandates written agreements and it will intersect with the notice of rights.

And once the portable benefits system is rolled out and to answer your question, we expect it to be rolled out by the end of the year.

San Francisco, it's not law yet.

We are going to introduce the ordinance in mid June or the end of June.

So there's no ordinance yet in San Francisco, but we're getting close to a proposal that will be vetted by the Board of Supervisors.

Wonderful.

I see Bailey.

Yeah, thank you.

So one of the things I wanted to touch on regarding the model contract is that that was a point of discussion in the board.

And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, fellow colleagues, but I think that we needed more discussion and we needed more time to engage more workers to make sure that it was something that actually worked for them and didn't create barriers.

to that situation because, you know, contracts and formal agreements can induce, you know, kind of fear and kind of emotional barriers to that situation.

So we kind of determined over time that it needed more discussion and needed more worker engagement to see if that was going to go forward.

Thank you for that update.

Council Member Herbold, did you have something?

Just a question for Jasmine on what the current funding is that's available for outreach and if it's broken out by type of outreach.

And my notes say that so far OLS has received 15 worker inquiries resulting in one investigation.

Are these outcomes associated with the The current laws, is this part of the call for more outreach resources that the Domestic Workers Board would sort of take on?

I want to understand more about the thinking.

I see 15 worker inquiries in one investigation, and if those numbers are correct, then that would lead me to believe, not that I want to believe that there are a lot of violations in the community, but it would lead me to believe that more information about workers' rights is important, but I'm just trying to see whether or not we are considering those metrics as part of the argument for why we need more resources.

And again, just wanting to understand what the current budget is for outreach.

So I can speak a little bit to the current budget, and then I'll let the board advocate for why they want more resources, since OLS has not taken a formal position on the recommendations yet.

But, and we can also get, we can also circle back and have something in writing for you in terms of the breakdown of the outreach budget.

You know, currently OLS, as you may know, has a community outreach and education fund, as well as a business outreach and education fund.

And the DWO is among the list of labor standards that community organizations do outreach for.

But it's folded into, it's not necessarily specific to that ordinance, so it's folded into our suite of 16 labor standards.

And then there's also about 35,000 that OLS receives that is for DW, it's both for DWO outreach, but also for a DWSB costs, which include costs of interpretation and translation and other sort of administrative costs.

I don't have the breakdown of how much of that 35K goes to outreach versus board administration, but that's the pot.

And then as you may recall, council allocated an additional $50,000 of one-time funding this year to help sort of jumpstart the implementation of the recommendations.

And part of our response and our evaluation over the next couple of weeks, in months is going to be in collaboration with the board, kind of like what can be done with that 50,000, what will need additional resources, and kind of just doing a prioritization exercise with them.

Any closing comments in response to the question or overall?

I believe Doris and Emily both had their hands up.

Thank you.

I just wanted to quickly comment that it's a little bit on the contract side.

As Bailey mentioned, yes, there is a lot of fear from many workers on creating a contract that they might not feel comfortable with.

But I think a very well already created vehicle to make sure this happens is through the notice of rights.

And I think it will be a great idea that Council Member Mosqueda mentioned to add, if possible, even the accrual system for workers in that notice of rights.

The only issue that I see and many other workers confront towards this is that it's not mandatory.

This notice of right is not mandatory to offer to the employers.

I think that will be a great push for this work that we're already doing to be able to enforce the law that we already have and push for more people to really follow the law.

Unfortunately, a lot of workers feel intimidated when talking to employers.

A lot of workers don't have the capacity or the you know, confidence to talk about their rights to workers.

So it is a matter of that relationship that they have to develop with them, and they have to learn to be employers.

So I think one great opportunity for us is through the already created notice of rights, making it mandatory, starting from that, so that we can keep enforcing this the way it was meant to be from the get go.

I appreciate you for the language justice you're doing today.

I decided to speak in English just to make my points across.

But I really appreciate the time and capacity that you're putting into making this available for our workers.

So I appreciate a lot that and I hope you keep continue doing this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doris.

And Emily, to close us out.

Thank you.

OK, really quickly, I won't keep you long.

I want to thank you, thank everybody here for all the work that you're doing.

And I'm just going to be quick around to advocating resources for investing.

And just shout a little, Emily.

OK, just really investing and bringing people to the table, the workers, is what I kind of have a concern about, and I wanted to point out that the past two years of our board service, that three of the people who left were workers' voices.

And I believe, not speaking to their personal situations, but I believe that it was different, the reasons that the employer representation left.

It was more of they had to make the decision, as Etelvina mentioned, between going to the board meetings are going to work.

And I think that we really need to make an effort to find a way to bring those people to the table for more equitable representation.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Rocio, I saw you come off mute.

Any last comment?

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that the Philadelphia bill is law and we're working on the design and unfolding the platform.

It is a permanent mandate.

And the San Francisco bill that I'm working on will also be permanent.

And the Board of Supervisors has unanimously in support of it.

Excellent.

Great.

Well, I want to thank all of you for your time.

Dana, did you have one more thing?

I just wanted to say I would love the time to respond.

I know I can't do it now, but to the question that council member raised about outreach and why it's been so difficult, especially in regard to outreach to employers.

So as a staff person for Hand in Hand in Philadelphia, sorry, in Seattle, and who's very much responsible for doing a lot of that outreach, I would love to talk about why we do need that outreach funding.

Well, that would be very welcome.

And I saw a lot of heads nodding.

If there's any additional context that you want to provide, wonderful.

We'll take letters.

We will take examples as we consider our response here.

And then just to clarify for members of the public, while the notice of rights might not have a mandatory PTO and sick leave in it, which is the topic of discussion today, I want to remind folks it is mandatory that workers, domestic workers, get rest and meal breaks according to the law.

That is mandatory.

And at least the minimum wage, which is also mandatory, obviously above that.

And a lot more conversations to come.

Bailey, last comment.

Yeah, very quickly.

I just want to get a commitment from council members in this room right now to engage with us on a monthly basis going forward for this 120 day period.

I know it's going to be a busy time, but we do want to make sure that the that the response isn't 119 days to the end of the period.

So can I get a commitment from council members and staff here to continue to engage with us on a monthly basis for the rest of this response period?

Great.

I think you saw some thumbs up, and I don't think anybody's been shy about engaging.

I just already mentioned that there's going to be three more committee meetings on this as well.

So I saw a thumbs up from staff.

Wonderful.

Okay, we're going to close this out.

I want to thank all of you, and especially Cariño Barragan.

Hearts back to you.

Thank you so much for your time today.

And we're going to move on to item number two.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you.

Agenda item number two, the American Rescue Plan Act Direct Aid for Briefing and Discussion.

Allie, I want to thank you for your patience today.

I know that you said you have a short presentation and the time I allotted for you continued to shrink, but I think we still have more than the 20 minutes than you said you needed.

So please go ahead and walk us through item number two here.

I know you have some good news, bad news situations from the federal relief dollars that we just learned more about last Monday.

Thank you, council members.

I'm Allie Pinochet of your council central staff.

And as chair Mosqueda described, I will try to keep my presentation brief, but I'm happy and I'm happy to follow up with any of you one-on-one.

And we will also be back in committee discussing this topic in a couple of weeks.

So today I will update the committee on the guidance issued by the department of the treasury on May 10th regarding the city's allocation of coronavirus local fiscal recovery funds.

That's the flexible direct aid to cities and the eligible uses.

Very briefly discuss county and state spending in areas that overlap or complement spending priorities identified in resolution 31999 by the council, and then outline next steps for the committee's consideration of use of these funds.

So the guidance issued on May 10th provided more detailed allocation information for the CLFR CLFR funds that the amount allocated to the city of Seattle came in about $7 million below previous estimates that have been discussed in this committee.

So that is the bad news that Chair Mosqueda referred to.

So for 2021, the committee will be considering an appropriation bill that would authorize spending the first half of those dollars, so about $116 million.

as well as considering use of some targeted aid for specific purposes that I'll highlight briefly at the end of the presentation.

The guidance issued on May 10th also included an interim final rule that provides more detailed guidance on the eligible uses of the direct aid to cities.

These funds provide flexibility for the city to address the needs of our community, including support for households, small businesses, impacted industries, essential workers, and the communities harvested by the crisis.

The funds can also be used to make necessary investments in water, sewer, and broadband.

So this is consistent with the initial guidance or what we assumed based on what the language that was in the American Rescue Plan Act.

There is a lot of information in the detailed rule today.

I'm just highlighting a few pieces related to guidance around investments that address the negative impacts of the pandemic.

The guidance describes use of the funds to provide assistance to workers and families, including direct cash assistance, supporting job training, as well as aid to households facing food, housing, or other financial insecurity.

Again, either through direct financial assistance or through services and programs that support workers and families.

Also allows for supporting small businesses, including providing loans, grants, or in-kind assistance and counseling programs to support small businesses, their nonprofit organizations to rebound from the downturn, and then investments that will speed the recovery of the tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors, as well as rebuilding the public sector.

Oh, Council Member Herbold.

I apologize.

Real quickly, the first bullet, as it relates to housing insecurity, that included facing homelessness.

And the third bullet calls out specific sectors for recovery investments.

Does the hospitality or tourism, does that include the arts and entertainment sector?

Council Member Herbold, to the first question related to providing homeless services, the guidance is a little bit I'm clear in that area.

So we're still digging into that, but it is really focused on providing services and resources to help get people in to housing.

So we are still sorting out exactly all of the specific eligible uses as the city's strategies to support our neighbors experiencing homelessness are fairly broad and also include specific language about supporting certain types of public health responses for both the general public as well as people experiencing homelessness.

So there is more to come there, but I'll just also note there's also $12.2 million of home funds that are specifically focused on supporting people experiencing homelessness.

And then in terms of the language around the tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors, I haven't read all of the details on that piece, but it is fairly broad.

And I think that the arts and entertainment industry could be considered as part of that, as well as supporting small businesses.

So I think there is some flexibility there, but I will follow up with more information.

Thanks, Hallie.

Let's see here.

So the guidance focuses on providing support to communities and families most impacted by the crisis.

This supports the principles the Council adopted in Resolution 31999 that expressed Council's intent to prioritize use of these funds to support individuals and families who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and to really build on the type of investments that were funded in the Jumpstart COVID Relief Plan in 2020 and in 2021.

Allie, I just want to orient myself to the slides with the bifurcated screen.

In a previous presentation, you had done what was in our resolution versus what the guidance said.

Is that also how these are oriented?

No, this was just actually a space saver on this particular slide to just separate out the language in the guidance, funds to serve the hardest hit.

And then it provides some specific language about what the guidance says about how we identify the communities that are hardest hit.

So the right portion of the slide is sort of describing what the intent is around how we might define those populations, which again, there's some very specific language about serving households or families who live in qualified census tracts or supporting services or businesses within those qualified service census tracts, but it also provides language to support other populations, households, or geographies that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

So we have not yet, but we'll go through the exercise, for example, of looking at what is identified as a qualified census track in Seattle, as well as the work the city has done, for example, to identify areas of the city that are at high risk of displacement and or do not have good access to opportunity.

Great.

Thank you very much.

So this slide highlights the information that the guidance that identifies categories of spending that are not eligible for use of the CLFR funds.

I'll just note here that for the most part, the priorities identified in council's resolution do appear to be eligible uses of the funds.

The one piece I'd point out that was included in the resolution is investments in critical transportation infrastructure that would not be eligible unless it is needed to respond to pandemic related public health needs.

or is an investment that would have been funded otherwise, but for reductions to the Department of Transportation's budget due to reduced revenues in 2021. So this slide, I just list the nine categories to prioritize the use of federal funds identified in council's resolution.

And highlight some of the proposed.

So the next, excuse me, the next slide, slide seven through 11 highlight proposed appropriations of the county.

and the state's adopted operation or capital budget that overlap with or complement these priorities.

I'll just note that this is a highlight of many of the proposed investments.

It's not comprehensive and the county is still deliberating on their proposal.

And so some of these numbers may change as they finalize their decisions.

So I'm not going to spend a lot of time going through the details on the slides, but if council members have questions about any of the information, I'm happy to talk offline and bring along with me other analysts who may have more of the details on some of these specific investment areas.

Just to orient you to the slides themselves, what this does is it, the topics in bold, like vaccines and testing, that's an identified spending category in council's resolution.

And then underneath that, it highlights some of the areas, in this case, at the county that supports those priorities.

So this can be used moving forward as the committee considers the appropriations bill in areas where there may be sufficient resources provided by the state or the county, and where there are opportunities to complement or be a partner with the county in supporting certain services or programs.

And this is, again, consistent with the principles laid out in the resolution where the council highlighted as a priority leveraging shared resources to ensure that the city's response is addressing gaps in service and to expand the city's financial partnership with the county to support county programs and services that benefits workers, nonprofits, and small businesses throughout Seattle.

Well said Ali, I was just going to chime in to say this is really an important effort for us to look at how we can be aligned in certain investment areas, bring programs and services to scale or identify where the county is stepping in.

And perhaps that means that the city is able to take resources into another category.

So, thank you for reentering us to this slide again.

Bold is where we have language.

that replicates what's in our priorities from the resolution, and the bullets are in King County's draft proposal still to be discussed, as you see in the note with the asterisk at the bottom.

Vice Chair Herbold, did you have a comment?

Yes.

It's the question.

Do we have a level of detail that would let us know whether or not any of the investments under homelessness and housing services include acquisition of buildings for sheltering?

I believe we do have that level of detail, but I don't have it right in front of me.

So you're specifically talking about the county's proposed.

Correct.

Proposed spending.

Yeah, I can follow follow up with that information.

We do have more details and their materials are available online so we can dig in more and check in with county staff.

the city is using from a different source, or excuse me, the county is using from a different source to support acquisition of hotels, for example.

Executive Constantine recently announced.

believe.

The $50 million, I just need to double check, because the county's bill is incorporating not just the direct aid to counties.

It is also using other funding sources, such as their reserves and, I think, a couple other resources from the county.

Thank you.

So this slide is just a continuation of the same, but it's focusing on a couple of other categories.

I'm not gonna dive in to the details here, but I would say the investments are aligned with many of the principles and priorities outlined in council's resolution.

For example, supporting apprenticeship and job training programs, prioritizing investments in BIPOC businesses and economic resiliency and that sort of thing.

And then similarly, the state budget that the council had a more detailed briefing on from our colleagues in OIR on Monday at council briefing.

So I won't spend much time here, but this is some sampling of some of the investments that are included in the state's recently adopted budget.

Just clarification on that though, Ali, these are statewide numbers, correct?

This is not.

That is that is correct.

And some of this may flow to the city, but most of it will throw flow through other agencies and organizations where that were like businesses or renters or landlords will have access to those funds.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so skip.

Oh, go ahead.

Sure.

Thank you.

Councilmember Morales.

Hi, Councilmember Morales.

I meant to say welcome to you.

For the record, Councilmember Morales has been with us since public testimony and has been a regular participant in finance and housing even when not an alternate technically.

Appreciate you being here with us, Councilmember Morales.

you know, sort of equitable investments.

I am curious if there's any specific funding item that does talk about, for example, land acquisition, you know, how we would support microbusiness development, access to capital for microbusinesses, that sort of thing, either in the, the King County priorities that you were talking about, Allie, or in how that's reflected in the other priorities that we listed.

So the language and the guidance from the Treasury is primarily focused on addressing the economic impacts of businesses or workers that were impacted.

So there isn't so far that I've come across very specific language, although it may be in there.

The document is about 150 pages, so we will We will double check.

There is very clear language about acquisition to support investments in affordable housing and supporting businesses through helping sort of secure long-term leases and addressing back rent and that type of thing.

But specific to micro businesses or sort of land acquisition as a more general principle for long-term community wealth building, that type of thing, I will need to get back to you about that.

I'm not going to be able to answer that question.

I'm going to leave it at that.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking that question.

That is a big priority for a number of us as well.

Land acquisition and equitable development, capacity building is something we have heard a lot about during public testimony.

Looking forward to hearing more about that and how that can

Okay, next step.

So the plan is to introduce an appropriation bill on June 1st that will include authorizing spending of the first tranche $116 million of CLFR funds, as well as $12.2 million of ARPA Home Investment Partnership funds.

Other targeted aid the city has or will receive may also be included in that bill if funding awards are known.

or may come quickly on the heels of making a decision on that bill.

That includes the additional rental assistance the city is anticipating of about $28 million, as well as specific allocations from the Older Americans Act that will be used to support services and programs that support seniors.

So on June 4th, the committee will discuss the introduced legislation and we'll begin to identify potential amendments or where there needs to be more detailed information provided for the committee's consideration.

And then at the Finance and Housing Committee, the second committee in June, there will be a discussion and possible vote on amendments and the bill or potentially bills.

There may be, for technical reasons, a need to have more than one bill to consider these investments, but we're still working out those details.

and that was all I had for prepared presentation.

I'm happy to address additional questions.

Before we get to questions, I want to say thank you, Allie.

Thank you for spearheading this conversation.

I know you and Sage Parikh, our chief of staff in my office, Cody Reiter in the council president's office have been in many conversations.

I want to thank the council president for her leadership on this, as well as folks in the CDO.

We have been We've been actively working on compiling the various notes from council members, discussions in these committees, priorities that you all have brought up, and items that we've heard from public testimony, and are now in the process, as you can tell, of aligning those with what is possible in the guidance that we received.

Obviously, very happy to hear about potential additional fund sources to align with this proposal as we seek to get as many dollars out the door as possible.

I want to thank folks for all of your work on this.

As a collective, the council has been actively engaged in putting priorities forward in these meetings and the public as well.

So lots of work is going into trying to see how fast we can get out this $116 plus million and recognizing this is just tranche one with much more relief still needed in our budget and tranche two.

Vice Chair Herbold, please go ahead.

to understand a little bit more, given the timeline that is being proposed, how we will find out more about the King County.

I think Council Member Herbold may be frozen, but I think I got the general intent of her question around when we will find out more about King County.

So the, I believe that that bill is before their, their committee.

Oh, sorry.

There are childcare investments as, as well.

Um, I'm, I'm interested in, um, uh, a proposal for, um, childcare work.

Council member Herbold, your video in audio is cutting out.

If you can hear me. but I believe we're catching what you are interested in, specifically in the childcare piece as well, given the six million that's noted in this slide.

Ali, I'll turn it over to you and Council Member Herbold, if you can hear me, apologies for speaking over you, we cannot hear you.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, Councilmember Herbold.

So the county, it is in committee, their appropriation bill has been introduced.

I don't have the number in front of me, but I can distribute a link.

And it is being discussed in committee this week.

And I believe they are in, at least the plan is that the county will act on their appropriation bill.

By the end of the month, it was the last update I had had.

So it will be before this committee is being asked to make a decision on appropriations bill.

And so we'll continue to track that and seek additional details that can help inform your decisions about where to complement some of those investments.

I'm not seeing any additional questions.

Okay.

And as a reminder for folks, we will, as Allie appropriations legislation in front of us for discussion.

We know that this federal guidance has been helpful and also, you know, also discouraging that we got 7 million less total than we thought we would receive.

So trying to crunch those numbers and really reflect some of the priorities that we've continued to hear about has been a lot of work.

So thanks again to the entire team who's been working on this.

And we will, because of the holiday, will not be introduced on the 31st of May, and instead on the 1st of June, as Ali noted.

And we will then have a meeting in our Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

Note that it is on a Friday.

We don't usually meet on Fridays, but because of the holiday, we are moved from Tuesday to Friday.

So at our June 4th meeting, we'll really be devoted to walking through that draft proposal.

And then folks know that we do have a hold on your calendar, not only on the 15th, which is our normal meeting day, but also on the 16th in case we need two meetings as we did previously as well to make sure that we could accommodate discussions.

And we will make sure to keep you updated as we get closer to those dates for those times.

But if you could graciously hold those two dates, that would be appreciated.

Other questions?

Hearing none, Allie, thanks again for walking us through.

And guess what?

It's 12.15.

We're on time for our new aligned agenda.

Thanks so much, colleagues.

Let's move on to item number three.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item three into the record?

Agenda item number three, Council Bill 120069, an ordinance relating to independent contractors in Seattle establishing labor standards requirements for independent contractors working in Seattle for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

And Karina Bull from Central Staff is with us, our leader and expert on labor standards, has provided us with a memo and a presentation.

Councilmember Herbold as the prime sponsor on this, who's leading up the charge.

Do you have any opening comments that you'd like to share?

Both in the interest of time and because my internet is unstable, I'm going to just hand it over to Karina.

Thank her for her work.

It's a continuing conversation.

Last meeting was on May 4th.

This is a work in progress, and we're going to be, I think, through Karina's presentation, keying up how the legislation has changed and some additional amendments for consideration.

No plan to vote today.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone.

I am Karina Bull with Central Staff.

And per Council Member Herbold's introduction, I have a presentation that will highlight the introduced legislation and focus on some changes from the draft that was discussed on May 4. And also, as Council Member Herbold said, bring some issues to the Council's attention for consideration.

So to begin, the introduced legislation would require commercial hiring entities, that's the legal term for business in this legislation, to provide independent contractors with pre-contract disclosures, timely payment, and payment disclosures for services valued at $600 or more.

These requirements would become effective on March 1st of next year, and they would be implemented by the Office of Labor Standards.

The policy changes begin with hiring entity coverage.

This legislation would solely be limited to covering commercial hiring entities.

At the last meeting on May 4, it was discussed that any hiring entity of a domestic worker would be removed, and that is reflected in this introduced legislation.

Next, there is a new requirement to address the needs of small businesses that may have a difficult time administering the requirements of this legislation that mean the disclosures for intermittent contracts are smaller contracts so in light of that there is a new requirement for a value of services and this legislation would only cover independent contractor services with a proposed actual or expected compensation value of $600 or more in the calendar year.

Next, transportation network companies would still be required to provide their drivers with timely payment, but they would not be required to provide pre-contract or payment disclosures.

They, of course, would still be required to comply with the TNC minimum compensation ordinance that was passed last year and went into effect in January.

That law requires payment of a minimum compensation and does require payment disclosures.

It does not require something akin to a pre contract disclosure or that sort of thing.

But so this this law would recognize that discussions were already had with the TNC companies and drivers for their needs.

And so this legislation would only focus on the timely payment and the notice of rights as well.

Next, a presumptive contract.

At the last meeting, there was discussion about how the draft legislation would have a rebuttable presumption of a contract in the enforcement context, which would mean that if a hiring entity had not provided a precontract disclosure or had a pre-contract disclosure and did not honor it.

If there was a payment claim, whether it be in court or the Office of Labor Standards, there would be an automatic presumption that the pre-contract disclosure had turned into a contract when the contractor began work, or in the absence of that pre-contract disclosure, that the independent contractor's claims for payment were true.

So to introduce legislation, that that presumptive contract now begins for any services that are provided.

That presumptive contract just happens immediately when the contractor begins agreed upon work for the hiring entity.

It doesn't wait necessarily until there is a payment claim.

although it is likely to come up in the context of a payment claim.

There is still the rebuttable presumption in the enforcement context for situations where an independent contractor was not given a pre-contract disclosure.

At last, model notices.

Those are required for any hiring entity to provide in English and in the independent contractor's primary language.

The Office of Labor Standards is required to create and distribute those model notices and including those translations by a specific date, which is the date that this law would go into effect on March 1st, 2022, so that all businesses and independent contractors would be ready to go with the information that they need for this law to be successful.

Just a couple of issues for the council to consider.

One is coverage of government entities.

The law is silent on whether these requirements would apply to government entities, so it's something that the council may want to consider.

about whether the City of Seattle should be explicitly included as a hiring entity.

If the law is silent, it would be implicitly included, but there could be value to declaring that the City of Seattle is covered, and then also to what extent the City of Seattle is covered.

For example, the legislation would need to make it clear that coverage may only apply to situations when the city is acting as a commercial hiring entity, and there would need to be more research on what situations that would apply to.

It could be the public utilities or City Light.

Those might be the only situations.

There might be other ones.

Another option for council to consider is coverage for any contract with the City of Seattle.

enters into, so that would be for child care.

It could be for mediation services.

There are, of course, a plethora of different kinds of contracts that the City of Seattle enters into.

Another option is to explicitly exclude the City of Seattle from hiring entity coverage.

Item number C is to exclude other government entities from coverage that could include King County, local government, federal government, a combination of any of those options or make no changes to the legislation and the end result would be that the City of Seattle is covered as a commercial hiring entity.

It just wouldn't be explicitly announced.

Are there any questions about that before I go on?

Hearing none, I'll move on.

Oh yeah, go ahead.

If you could, reacquaint us with the definition as is currently drafted for a commercial hiring entity?

Yes, I will.

I will turn to that in my copy of the legislation.

As I said earlier, it's essentially the legal term for a business.

And what the legislation says is that it is an entity that is regularly engaged in business or commercial activity.

which regularly engaged in business or commercial activity, is if the entity owns or operates any trade, occupation, or business, including a not-for-profit business, or holds itself out as engaging in any trade, occupation, or business.

And so the question here is whether or not, for clarity's sake, we need to explicitly define whether or not the city of Seattle is considered a commercial hiring entity.

I think there's a couple of different ways that the legislation could go about it.

One could be that the city could be announced as covered.

The law would cover commercial hiring entity or the city, or it could be the law covers commercial hiring entities and the city, you know, to the extent that it engages in commercial hiring entity functions or operations, or the city could be added to the definition of a commercial hiring entity.

So there are a number of different ways that it could be accomplished.

Thank you.

Other questions?

The next issue is regarding value of services.

As I mentioned earlier, the legislation would cover situations where a contractor is hired to provide services that are valued at $600 or more in a calendar year.

The reason why this specific amount was selected is because the Internal Revenue Service already requires businesses to report on a 1099 NEC form the amount of non-employee compensation that is paid to workers of $600 or more.

So that's a nice alignment.

It aligns with the type of reporting that businesses are already required to do.

Now as time marches on, $600 will be worth a different amount in the future.

And so council may want to consider rather than changing the legislation or letting it become stagnant or less applicable in the future, addressing what happens to $600 now.

A couple of different options for that is that there could be language stating that that $600 will be changed to reflect any change in the IRS reporting requirements for non-employee compensation.

And another option is that the $600 could be changed to reflect the rate of inflation.

And then, of course, another option is not to make a change.

For either A or B, there also could be a requirement that the Office of Labor Standards would need to determine the amount and then file it with the city clerk and also make sure to do some outreach and announcements so that both independent contractors and businesses are aware of this change in the value of services.

Yes, Council Member Herbold.

And just to clarify, A and B are two different approaches of adjusting the value of services, correct?

Yes, they are.

Okay, thank you.

Just to provide some background, in the legislation, as is typical with any labor standards, the amounts of civil penalties and fines are adjusted each year to reflect the rate of inflation.

Of course, in the minimum compensation law, the minimum compensation is adjusted every year.

So there is a standard practice of adjusting amounts to reflect the rate of inflation.

If that is something that council members are interested in for this law, it could be applied to the $600.

the piece to think about is that it might not align with that IRS reporting requirement.

And last, the financial impact on the city in regards to the cost for Office of Labor Standards to implement this law is something that council might want to consider.

The council has asked OLS their estimate of what it would cost to implement this legislation.

And their initial estimate is up to $684,000.

That's $60,000 in one-time funds and then 624,000 and ongoing funds, and this would be for three positions, a senior investigator, paralegal, and engagement specialist that would conduct outreach.

This amount would cover administrative expenses to onboard those positions, would pay for the creation of model notices, court navigation documents.

There is a piece of the legislation in the enforcement section that establishes two new types of enforcement mechanisms for Office of Labor Standards.

a complaint procedure, which is a non-adversarial exchange of documents that OLS would facilitate, and also a court navigation procedure where OLS would be providing outreach on how to access the court for independent contractors.

So both of those procedures and mechanisms were designed to reduce the workload on Office of Labor Standards, but to get them running, it could take some extra work on their part.

Next, funding for outreach and rulemaking.

Yes, Council Member Herbold.

I just want to note here that it appears to me that, you know, we just heard from the Domestic Workers Standards Board and OLS about how the lack of funding for outreach has brought them back to us to seek additional funding.

So, you know, and I think the number that we heard was $35,000 for outreach for that bill.

So I recognize that there is a need.

This number makes me feel like there's a sort of a fundamental misunderstanding about what our expectations are around enforcement for this legislation.

And it's not clear to me. how much of these ongoing annual costs are associated with enforcement.

But I think we need to have a bit of a conversation with OLS because I think the enforcement expectations are really that this is a law that is intended to empower workers to assert their rights without relying on OLS to enforce the law.

And so I'm just sort of flagging that in recognition of this proposed price tag for ongoing annual costs.

And I'm interested in trying to figure out, given the effective date and the work that actually needs to be done before the effective date of the legislation and next year's budget process, whether or not we can sequence addressing the needs of OLS in a way that corresponds to sort of our expectations for rolling out the ordinance.

Yeah, certainly would be helpful to hear from Office of Labor Standards, whether in a committee meeting or offline as well, compare this legislation to other laws that have been recently passed that have been funded and then have not been funded.

My notes remind me that Office of Labor Standards received about $276,000 to implement the Domestic Worker Ordinance for two positions and about $300,000 to implement the TNC Minimum Compensation for Drivers Ordinance, also two positions for that, different amounts of outreach What OLS said when they provided this estimate to central staff is that they believe that this law has a wider scope than any law that's been passed since the minimum wage for all employees in Seattle and the wage theft ordinance.

And so it is their thought that this would have a wide scope for outreach.

And so as far as what you're saying, Council Member Harreld, about a much more limited scope of enforcement that would certainly benefit from hearing from Office of Labor Standards on that approach and how that might impact this estimate.

Yeah, I mean, I hear what you're saying, Karina.

Perhaps broader scope for outreach to notify covered employers and workers of the obligations, but more narrow scope for enforcement.

And I just want to see that the numbers, the estimates that OLS is providing aligns with that.

And I also want to just lift up that the reason why this potentially has a broad scope for purposes of notifying workers and the folks who are contracting with workers for these tasks.

The reason why it's a broader scope is because this is an area that is growing, right?

There are more workers who are working as contract workers.

And so I think that really, I agree the need for funding for outreach to make sure that both workers and the contract employers are to the requirements of the ordinance.

I just want to also make sure that OLS understands it's a narrower expectation on the enforcement side.

Because again, this is intended to be, these are intended to be rights that are, that empower workers to assert their rights.

So operationally, Council Member, how do we How do you want to address making sure that those either misunderstandings or potential points of confusion are addressed with OLS?

I think it's just more conversation that we need to continue to have.

OK.

OK, great.

Thank you for keeping us updated.

Appreciate it.

And this next page on options, not meant to be discussed, but just something for council to consider.

Options for responding to OLS's estimates could include adding money to their budget during a supplemental budget process, the next year's budget process.

Of course, that would entail finding the money to do that and perhaps reducing money in other areas as well.

So there certainly would be an impact of that happening.

OLS has proposed that perhaps delaying the effective date could allow them more time to prepare for implementation and balance the needs of their existing workload, a combination of those approaches, or taking no action.

And OLS would prioritize their workload using existing resources as they have done for other labor standards that have passed.

That concludes my presentation.

Are there any more questions on this?

I'm not seeing any questions.

Council Member Herbold, any additional questions?

Okay, and Council Member Herbold, do you want to walk us through a little bit more of the timeline that you're thinking of as well?

Yes, so in continued discussions with both LSAC and Office of Labor Standards, as well as working Washington on a number of items within the bill itself.

both as relates to the fiscal impact of the bill and some of the items that Karina queued up today, trying to clear up some, I think, misunderstandings about the expanded scope of the bill beyond what was recommended by LSAC.

as it relates to the pay-up campaign requests for the council's commitment around a minimum compensation standard, still talking with them about the timeline expectations in that legislation.

I think we're hopefully gonna be back in early June.

Okay, great.

Well, we will stay tuned, appreciate it.

Karina, anything else from your perspective?

That is all.

Thank you for allowing me to be here today.

Well, I appreciate your time and thank you for your patience on the line.

I know the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights is probably very interesting as well, since it has your fingerprints on it.

appreciate you being with us this morning slash afternoon.

It's 1235, which means we're slightly ahead of time.

I thought we were going to go to one and be pushing it.

But I want to thank all of our colleagues.

You all have been true champions today.

Thanks for staying on the line here with us.

As a reminder, we do have a meeting on Friday, not Tuesday, Friday, April, excuse me, April, losing track of time here, June 4th, Friday, June 4th, and we will have the ARPA Direct Aid Bill, the transparency requirements for contract workers pending confirmation by Councilmember Herbold.

We're going to also have the Housing Levy Administration and Finance Plan and policies in front of us.

follow up on additional budget related items.

So thanks so much to everyone for your time today.

If there's nothing else for the good of the order, have a wonderful afternoon and we hope everybody gets a little bit of sunshine before that rain comes.

Great to see you all.

Thank you so much.