Seattle City Council Budget Committee Public Hearing 102720

Thank you.

I want to thank you all for joining us again.

This is the October 22nd public hearing of the Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee.

The meeting will come to order.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Select Budget Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Drouse.

Present.

Gonzales.

Here.

Herbold.

Juarez.

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Peterson.

Here.

Swan.

Here.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you so much, and when Council Member Herbold joins us, I'll make sure to welcome her for the record.

I want to thank all of you for joining the Select Budget Committee public hearing today.

As you know from the agenda, this is a full time slot just dedicated to hearing from members of the public, and that is what is on our agenda today.

If there is no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Thank you again for all of the folks who have signed up to provide public testimony.

We have about 220 people signed up for public testimony today, and it is our goal to make sure that we hear from every single person.

We're going to go ahead and open up the remote public hearing on today's 2021 general revenue source agenda, including hearing from any members of the public on property tax levy increases, the mayor's proposed budget, the 2021-2022 capital improvement program items.

You are welcome to speak to any items that relate to our budget, and I want to thank you all again, as we do at the beginning of every meeting, for your patience as we endeavor to make sure that this remote public testimony opportunity is made available to all of you and it is accessible as well.

We are going to continue to try to make sure that we get everyone heard and in order to do so, I'll be conducting public testimony tonight in the following manner.

Due to the high level of people, the high volume of people signed up to testify tonight, each speaker will be given one minute to provide public testimony.

I'm going to call on the order in which people are listed, including folks who are calling from numbers outside of the city limits.

We do want to hear from you as we know that workers are coming in and out of our city as well.

And we want to hear what your priorities are.

And I will also call those who are listed as not present to give you a chance to make sure that if you're listening in, you do call in.

But please be prepared to be ready to speak when we get to your number.

I'm going to call on your name.

You will be given the chance to unmute yourself by pushing star six and we will also unmute your line.

Please remember to push star six and double check to make sure that your phone is also not on mute on your end.

With the normal devices that we have, it can be tricky to both hit star six and double check to make sure you're not muted.

Thanks for doing that in advance of your name and number coming up.

Speakers are gonna hear a chime at 10 seconds towards the end of their allotted time to speak.

That's your cue to wrap it up.

But tonight we're gonna give a little extra time, 15 seconds to wrap it up.

So just note, we do want you to provide your closing comments so that you're not left without those last few words said.

So please do make a note of that and aim for a one minute total though.

Once you have finished speaking, please do hang up your phone and call in to the listen in line or you can listen in on all of the other options listed on the agenda today, including at Seattle Channel.

Please note that if you have not been able to stay on the line for your allotted time, we are absolutely interested in still hearing from you.

Please email us at council at seattle.gov.

We will make sure that that information gets circulated around to every council member automatically when you email that way.

You can also email my office teresa.mosqueda at seattle.gov and we will distribute it.

I also want to announce that we are going to make sure folks know where we are at in the list of public commenters.

About every 15 minutes, I will announce what number we are on and make sure that people know where we're at in the rotation.

At about an hour and 30 minutes into the presentation, I'm going to pause for a quick second to allow for our amazing central staff, clerk's office, and communications team, our IT team to have a quick break.

We know that people, especially in the clerk's office, need to do a shift rotation.

So please note that about an hour and a half into the hearings, we will make sure that there's that short break so that people can rotate responsibilities.

I am also going to announce for our colleagues on the line here, like we did last time, we did not take a break for dinner.

So we are hoping to get through this by 10pm.

I understand if you are both listening and eating dinner while we are online, I appreciate your participation in this evening.

So I wanted to make sure you knew what the process was here.

We will though, however, have about a 10 minute break to make sure that people do have the appropriate time that they need for, I'm sorry, a 15 minute break so that people have the appropriate time that they need around 8.30 to take the state law breaks that we've been so proud of in this state and in our city to make sure that around 8.30 people have a 15 minute break.

Okay?

If there's no questions, let's go ahead and open it up.

Thanks again for calling in.

We are going to call people in the order they have been signed up to testify.

And the first three people are Peter Shalito, Bill Samson, and Aisling Cooney.

Good evening, Peter.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Peter Shalito, and I use he, him pronouns.

My district council member Alex Peterson has said that the only capacity in which he is willing to defund Seattle police is through fixing what he calls the unjust, inflexible, and expensive police union contract.

I agree the contract is problematic, but I also encourage him and all of you to think logically about this.

Broadly speaking, a reformed, cheaper contract is one that would pay officers less and hold them to higher standards of accountability.

Officers want the opposite.

So working for the SPD will become less desirable and attrition will increase further from its current rate.

Losing officers is only problematic if we keep their scope of work the same.

On the other hand, if we follow the lead of decriminalized Seattle and King County Equity Now and defund the department as a whole by transferring public safety responsibilities out of the SPD, then the number of officers needed would decrease to keep pace with the attrition.

And in that case, no one loses.

Council Member Peterson, it is illogical to think that the union contract can be reformed without decreasing their scope of work.

Black Lives Matter.

We need to defund the SPD by 50% at least.

I stand with King County Equity now in supporting the solidarity budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bill.

Good evening.

Oh, excuse me, Bill, before you join Councilmember Herbold, I'm not sure if I welcomed you.

I saw you come online right after we started, so you've been here this whole time.

Thank you for joining us.

Just want to make sure I noted that for the record.

Bill, good evening.

Okay, Bill, I could hear you for a quick second, and then you went back on mute.

Oh there you are.

OK.

OK.

Hi my name is Bill Sampson and I'm a resident in District 4. Today I'm calling as a volunteer with the Sunrise Movement.

I think now more than ever we need to preserve vital public services and complete urgent projects that support local economies cultural centers and community well-being.

There's a few projects in areas of South Seattle I'd like to talk about that are not in my district but the Duwamish Longhouse.

It's very unsafe for pedestrians and visitors unless you park at the parking lot there and that their parking lot people are often asked to leave that parking lot for volunteers facilitators and people with accessibility needs.

There's other parking lots nearby, but they're very dangerous for pedestrians.

And another similar area is Rainier Avenue, like the area where Emerald City Fish and Chips are.

It's very dangerous for pedestrians, so I think funding should be maintained for improving safety in these areas.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you, Bill.

Aisling, good evening.

Hi, my name is Ashlynne Cooney.

I'm a protester and a victim of police brutality.

I support the solidarity budget.

In the 2021 budget, we demand the defunding of SPD by at least 50% and reinvesting that money in Black communities.

Participatory budgeting.

Don't let Durkin steal the jumpstart funding.

Focus on public services, including transit, parks, COVID relief, housing for all, and a Seattle Green New Deal.

I support Suwant's proposed backing of Africatown's affordable housing on Yesler.

Finally, I support Suwon's call for an independent civilian oversight system with full control over SPD.

The OPA, OIG, and CPC are ineffective.

OPA ruled it was reasonable to punch the subject twice to stop them from striking officers with a water bottle.

As a victim, the process is hostile and stacked against us.

10 of the 12 investigators are sworn officers who cycle back onto patrol, creating a huge conflict of interest.

After I told my investigator about my brutal assault, she asked me if I would like to sit down with my abusers and talk it out in mediation.

This is not accountability.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

The next three speakers are Tiffany McCoy Barbara Finney and Mara Deegee.

Tiffany good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Tiffany McCoy.

I'm the lead organizer for Real Change.

I'm calling in support of funding to expand the Seattle Street Sync program.

Real Change has worked with an amazing team of architects and advocates which joined together at the beginning of the pandemic to create the street sink.

It is a simple low cost way to make handwashing accessible to anyone that needs it.

It was a grassroots community solution to a public health crisis.

So please fund it and help us expand this program citywide.

We also at Real Change support Morales' expansion of the Purple Bag Program and the Hope Team We also voice our support for Councilmember Sawant's bills to increase tiny homes, the purchase of a hotel, Tent City 3, and all services for Share Wheel.

We need to immediately ramp up short-term housing to meet the need.

We are already seeing not so cloaked by business and neighborhood groups to ramp up sweeps, and we do not have enough shelter space for those living outside.

Finally, we need to defund the police by at least 50% and redirect that money into housing and services.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Barbara, good evening.

Thanks for joining us.

Hello, my name is Barbara Finney.

I'm a homeowner in District 5, a union delegate to MLK Labor Council, member of 350 Seattle, Seattle DSA, and I support the Solidarity Budget, and I'm a member of the Tax Amazon and People's Budget Movement.

The people's budget demands that you city council fund social, environmental and city services by increasing the Amazon tax our movement fought for and won.

Both the solidarity budget and the people's budget are demanding that housing, restorative justice and the Green New Deal, all things that working people need and marginalized communities need be funded.

Council Member Sawant has put forward the proposal to increase the Amazon tax to fund these needs.

Other council members, you need to sign on to People's Budget Advocates Defunding SPD by 50%.

Defund SPD by 50%, make big business pay by increasing the Amazon tax, reject austerity, fully fund libraries, parks, roads, human services, communities, Thank you.

Thank you.

Mara good evening.

Thanks for being with us.

Hi my name is Mara.

I'm an attorney a business owner and a Generational District 1 resident.

So I think it's important to ground all of these really historic budget conversations in reality.

The historic push to divest from SPD is Black-led it's Black-centered.

And it's based in both love and truth.

So many folks calling in to speak with you today the thousands of people in the street the mass groups working in the background are all mobilizing towards a future that honors Black people.

And this is also about truth.

It's about acknowledging the very ugly past and present and the specific anti-Blackness of your past decisions and making the right decisions moving forward.

So here there's a hopeful inflection point.

that in love and truth all of you will support the solidarity budget calling on Lisa Herbold specifically to retain the SPD hiring freeze in 2021 and for everyone to allocate funding towards the K-Roll Project which is a leading anti-identification effort in the Central District.

Again I support the solidarity budget the equity solutions that they proposed and really urge all of you to remember all of this is rooted in love and truth.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Amy Hightower.

will be followed by Sonia Panath and Jimmy Hightower.

Amy Hightower good evening.

Good evening.

Hi my name is Amy.

I work with the Tenants Union of Washington and so I'm here representing the TEU.

I'm an education counselor and a tenant organizer and I am a renter in District 4. We stand totally in solidarity with the Solidarity Budget.

There's some amazing organizations that are black-led and we desperately, desperately need to be redefining our priorities.

We spend more on parking enforcement than we do civil rights enforcement or tenants' rights enforcement combined.

And this is a huge issue and we see it every day on our hotline.

Renter households in Washington statewide could owe up to and over a billion dollars in rent by the end of 2020. The rental assistance that we have is only a fraction of that.

In order to address the coming eviction wave we really need to be investing very very strongly in more affordable housing especially as Black households are more likely to be evicted.

So please please please pass all of the solidarity budget demands.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sonia good evening.

Thanks for being with us.

Hi there Sonia.

Hi I'm Sonia Ponaf.

I'm a mom of two high schoolers working in District 3. A member of Socialist Alternative and a member of the People's Budget Movement which is also standing with the Solidarity Budget.

Our movement is demanding that the city council stop the budget cuts, increase the Amazon tax for movement one, and defund the police by at least $170 million, or 50%, as council members have proposed.

I'm not personally struggling, but I'm very tired of all the taxes I pay, including bloated property taxes because of our regressive tax system here, and watching companies like Amazon and Boeing get handouts from our establishment politicians paying little to no federal taxes.

But we have to fight so hard for the smallest increase to fund our important social services.

But when we fight back, we win.

We won the Amazon tax by building a fighting movement and through the incredible multiracial solidarity that exists in the working class.

And we have seen that winning anything meaningful requires a struggle.

Now we have a new and extremely important proposal from the African Town Land Trust to expand urgently near the community-owned affordable housing in the central district.

I urge council members to support that amendment from council members to want to enact this proposal to acquire the Cairo Center as 1601 UCS3 Way to be developed into community-owned permanently affordable housing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jimmy, good evening.

Hi, I'm Jimmy Hightower, a resident of District 5 and calling to support the proposal of the behavioral health outreach workers in North Seattle, specifically Lake City.

As the community letter sent to council this week attests, conditions in our city's park are becoming dire.

Living across the street from Albert Davis Park and near Lake City Mini Park has been challenging these last several months as both parks have substantial encampments that have been attracting significant illicit activity and putting already susceptible populations at greater risk.

With a group of community members, we have proposed the creation of two Lake City behavioral health outreach specialist positions to help fill the gap and provide services that SPD could not and to help folks obtain affordable housing and services while working in tandem with businesses and house neighbors to deescalate conflicts and provide resources to folks in crisis.

I firmly believe that together we can make positive change in our community through innovative approaches and better support our most vulnerable neighbors and ensure safety for all of our neighbors.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

The next three speaker on Kelsey Kelsey McGrath, Ellen Lubar lab.

So I'm sorry, Ellen, you'll have to correct me.

And then Spencer Rittering.

Kelsey, good afternoon.

Hi there, I'm Kelsey McGrath from district three, and I call on city council to defend SPD by 100% and support the solidarity budget.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore says abolition is about a presence, not absence.

It's about building life-affirming institutions.

I fully support the demands of the solidarity budget because they are in alignment with this principle.

First, I urge you to defund STD by 100% and extend the hiring freeze in 2021. Second, invest this money from defunding STD, not jumpstart, in Black and Indigenous communities using a participatory budgeting process.

Next, fund dignified housing for all, and decriminalize poverty to ensure people trying to meet basic needs or experiencing mental illness or substance use are not persecuted.

Support the Green New Deal and fund community identified priorities like the crosswalk for the Duwamish Longhouse.

Lastly I support Council Member Morales' two proposals for funding for culturally responsive curriculum and restorative justice programming.

Black lives matter.

Indigenous lives matter.

Abolish STD.

Invest in liberation.

Thank you very much.

Ellen, good evening.

Hi, I'm Ellie Leibis from District 6 and the Sunrise Movement.

I'm calling in support of the solidarity budget.

I'm a volunteer at Harborview, currently on COVID hiatus.

Too many of the patients I visit are not only trying to heal, but also looking for a place to live after discharge.

The services offered to them are incredibly difficult to navigate.

My heart breaks every time someone asks,

Do you know when someone will call me back about my housing plan?

We need to overcome these interlocking inequities by funding dignified emergency shelter sanitation and affordable housing.

And in order to make these new systems accessible and just we need to give leadership to the folks that know these experiences specifically in the form of paid positions.

These essential steps and more are included in the solidarity budget a bold reversal of Mayor Durkin's harmful proposed budget.

Council members let's build a Seattle without anti-Black racism.

and with an equitable recovery from COVID and climate change.

Divest from SPD and reallocate at least $100 million into Black communities using participatory budgeting.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Spencer good evening.

Hello.

Hello.

My name is Spencer Rittering and I'm a home homeowner in District 3. I'm a parent and a supporter of the Solidarity Budget.

In my entire life, I have never required the police.

I've needed medical attention, animal control, a clerk to record a theft, and I've required the fire department, but I've never needed someone with a weapon.

I urge you to divest from the SPD by at least 50% and put those funds to better use by investing in Black communities and community-led health and safety programs.

I also urge you to expand the direct defense We shouldn't be convicting people of crimes if they're trying to meet a basic need or struggling with mental health or drug use at the time of the offense.

Finally, please reaffirm the vote you made in 2020 rebalancing package to eliminate the navigation team and instead find trusted community organizers and nonprofits to conduct outreach to encampments without the presence of the police.

Black Lives Matter, Dax Amazon, thank you.

Thank you.

And the next three speakers are Summer Stinson, Kitty Wu, and Paul Chapman.

Good evening, Summer.

Hi, I'm Summer Stinson, a D6 homeowner and board member of the Economic Opportunity Institute.

Now is the time for you to lead and to be on the right side of history.

Budgets are moral documents.

I strongly support the Seattle Solidarity Budget.

To overcome our gaping economic and wealth abyss, systemic racism, and COVID-19, the Seattle City Council must pass a tax the rich and no cuts other than defunding SPD by 50% budget for 2021. I urge the Seattle City Council to reallocate at least 50% of the funds from SPD and reinvest that money into Black communities and towards community-led health and safety programs.

Fully fund our parks, libraries, sidewalks, before and after school programs, child care options, and cultural programs and spaces.

Invest much more in dignified emergency shelter, community-owned housing, affordable housing, and the Green New Deal.

I urge you to vote for progressive new revenue options, including a city income tax and a capital gains tax as soon as possible.

We are depending on you to lead.

Thank you.

Thank you, Summer.

Katie, good evening.

Hi this is Kitty Wu.

I'm a concerned mother who lives and works in District 3. I'm the co-director at 206 Zulu and I sit on the Seattle Music Commission and the Digital Equity and Youth and Communities Committees.

I support a 2021 budget that protects our least protected and supports our least supported.

We now know that 2,000 Seattle public schools families still need Internet.

Those families need devices.

I support Internet for All Action Plan and dollars allocated to it.

Digital navigators are a vital bridge between devices and internet that can help the babies to the grannies get reconnected.

I support the solidarity budget, divesting from SPD by 50% and investing in lifelines and human and public services for marginalized people in a participatory budget process.

More police does not equal more safety.

Let's move away from criminalization of our people towards community-led solutions that help us and our neighbors thrive.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Paul, good evening.

Hi, I'm Paul Chapman, a member of Welcoming Wallingford, Share the Cities, and the 43rd Democrats.

Thank you to council members for listening to us.

Seattle is facing an existential crisis for the soul of the city.

Will we follow Mayor Durkin to a future plagued with fear and austerity?

Or will we follow 158 community organizations and thousands of residents calling for a solidarity budget rooted in equity, justice, and generosity?

We're one of the wealthiest cities in the country.

So let's divest from SPD and their white supremacist violence.

Let's decriminalize poverty.

Let's invest in our neighbors suffering from our policy failures that cause homelessness.

Invest in our Black community.

Invest in our Native community.

Invest in municipal broadband.

Invest in four floors and corner stores.

Invest in passive house affordable housing.

Invest in more transit and bike lanes.

Invest in a progressive tax code.

In this historic inflection point, let's not build a future as stable as a West Seattle bridge.

Let's be bold and create in this moment the equitable city we need.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate the analogy.

The next three people are Doris O'Neill, Maureen Ewing, and Alan Balway.

For folks' reference, we're on numbers 17, 18, and 19. That would get us up to number 20. I do not see Doris, O'Neill, or Maureen Ewing present, so we will come back to them if they do join us.

So let's go ahead and move to Alan.

Good evening, Alan.

Good evening.

I'm Alan.

I'm a resident of District 7, and I wanted to call in to voice my support for the solidarity budget, as well as a complete rejection of Mayor Durkan's racist and climate denialist proposed budget.

I want to highlight that we need to defund SPD by at least 50% and we need to consider alternative options than building up more and more fossil fuel car infrastructure and invest in transit as well as our indigenous community.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you for your testimony.

And the next three speakers we have are Tushar Kunara, Carly Gary, and Castille Hightower.

That would bring us up to numbers 22. Still don't see Doris or Maureen.

I also do not see President Tushar and Carly.

So we are gonna go ahead to Castille.

And Castille, thanks for joining us again tonight.

Please go ahead.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thanks so much.

By now, you should know my brother Herbert Hightower Jr. was killed by SPD in 2004 due to a mental health crisis.

The 16-year-old public records of which we are still fighting to be released.

By now, you should know the demands of the People's End Solidarity Budget, such as defunding SPD by 50%, creating community-owned affordable housing through Ascot Town, fully funding schools, getting community centers, providing good-paying union jobs, a Green New Deal, and implementing a democratically-elected Community Oversight Board with the power to hire, fire, and discipline officers which can prevent continued tragedies like my brother's, expand arrest limits and the de minimis ordinance, and so much more will all take the burden of this pandemic off of the shoulders of working and poor people and force pandemic profiteers like Amazon with their crowd scouting to pay their fair share.

And now that you know, now that you heard the voices of the people impacted by your decision-making, demanding a fair share to life and liberty, it's time to put your promises to pen and show you stand with us and not against us.

Thank you, I yield my time.

Very much.

Thank you very much, Castille.

The next three speakers are Emily Murphy, George Barron, and Akisha Chatterjee.

Again, if you heard your name and you are not present, calling on Doris, Maureen, Tushar, and Carly, we will come back to you if you do join us on the listen in line.

Until then, Emily, thanks so much for joining us again.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you Madam Chair.

I'm Emily Murphy.

I'm a resident in D4.

I was born and raised in D5 and I am a member of North Seattle for Black Lives a network of neighborhood groups working to undo North Seattle's ongoing legacy of white supremacy and support the movement for black lives.

We support the black led community solidarity budget including Divest from SPD by at least 50 percent.

Participatory budgeting to distribute divestment from policing.

Preserve vital public services.

Increase dignified emergency emergency shelter and affordable housing and decriminalize homelessness services.

Implement Seattle's Green New Deal and curb the criminalization of poverty and mental health struggles.

We call on City Council to make sure that investments in Black communities come from funds divested from police not from Jump Start Seattle or any other city funds.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Emily.

George, Jorge, good evening.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda and Council Members.

Thank you for your time today.

My name is Jorge Barron and I serve as the Executive Director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and reside in District 7. I am here to urge you to support Councilmember Gonzalez's amendment to maintain level funding for the Seattle-King County Expanded Legal Defense Network, or ELDN, which is based out of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

As a resident of Seattle, I was proud to see our city create this program in 2017 to ensure that city residents and workers who are facing a deportation hearing would not have to face an immigration judge alone because they are not provided appointed counsel if they cannot afford one.

We're disappointed that Mayor Durkin proposed a nearly 20% cut in funding to the program and her proposed budget from the current levels and are asking you to support the amendment to maintain level funding for 2021. I'm cognizant of the challenges the city faces in addressing the fiscal crisis caused by the pandemic, but I urge you to consider the challenges faced by the people ELDN serves.

As we gather virtually this evening, there are hundreds of community members being held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, including Seattle residents or workers.

Some of them will be facing deportation hearings as early as tomorrow morning, and if they can't afford to hire an attorney, they will have to face the prospect of being separated from their families or being sent to a place where they face harm without legal assistance.

but some of them won't face that injustice because of the LDN.

So I urge you to support fully funding this critical program.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Jorge.

And good to hear your voice.

Sorry for the mispronunciation of your name as well at the beginning.

Thanks for calling in.

Akisha, good evening.

Thanks for joining us.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Hi, my name is Akiksha Chatterjee.

I'm a renter in District 5, a student at the University of Washington, and a volunteer with 350 Seattle.

I'm speaking today to ask that the City Council make the following necessary amendments to Mayor Durkan's 2021 budget proposal.

First, I repeat what many have said and urge you to divest from the SPD by at least 50% and reinvest these funds in Black and BIPOC communities and community-led health and safety systems.

This is only the first step towards divesting from systems of oppression.

Second, these funds must absolutely be allocated through a just and true participatory budget process, not a hand-picked Mayor Durkan task force designed to silence community voices.

Third, this money should come from the city's policing budget, certainly not from jumpstart Seattle funds needed to meet basic human needs.

We must recognize that an investment in the community goes hand in hand with divestment and policing, without which we cannot create the change Seattle so badly needs.

I stand in solidarity with the people who have endured injustice for too long.

The time to undo racist systems of oppression was yesterday.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And Kelly, good evening.

Hey, Kelly, it looks like you are on mute on our end.

Just push star six one more time.

And as Kelly is unmuting, I just want to note we will go back to Maureen.

Maureen, thanks for calling in.

Kelly, any luck with unmuting?

Just star six on your end.

Okay.

Why don't we go back to Maureen and then we'll come back to Kelly.

Kelly, if you can hear me, just we'll come right back to you.

Good evening, Maureen.

Thanks for calling in.

Good evening, Council Chair Mosqueda and council members.

Thank you for your leadership during this time and the opportunity to speak.

I'm Maureen Ewing, the Executive Director of the University Heights Center in the U District.

And I'm here tonight to wholeheartedly advocate for a proposed tiny house village in the U District.

The U District is in great need of supportive services for unhoused neighbors and has a long been home to a large population of unhoused youth.

We see firsthand every day the disproportionate toll that the pandemic has had on our underserved communities.

And we know that tiny house villages are proven programs to give folks the safety of locking a door at night, the dignity of hygiene services and a pathway to housing.

We know that 40 to 56% of tiny house residents eventually find their way into permanent housing with the support of case management.

And we thank Council Member Peterson for already identifying a great location at a Sound Transit site at Roosevelt and 45th.

So please act now and find a tiny house village in the E-District.

Thank you.

Thanks, Maureen.

Good to hear from you again.

And Kelly, we're going to go back to you.

See if we can get you off mute.

Star six.

After Kelly is going to be Joe Scott, Justin Barr, and Katie Wilson.

Kelly, I still see you muted on my end.

And just a heads up to Joe Scott, it shows you as not present as well.

So if you could dial in, we'll come back to you.

Kelly, apologies for that.

If you want to shoot our office a message and let us know if we can help troubleshoot, that'd be great.

I know our team is standing by as well as the tech team from the email that you received a message for the dial-in number after you logged in to sign up for public testimony today.

So let us know if you can get back in and we will come back to you if we can get you unmuted.

I don't see Joe Scott listed, so let's go ahead to Justin Barr.

Good evening, Justin.

And just star six on music.

Perfect.

Yes now we can.

Thank you.

OK.

My name is Justin.

I'm a District 5 renter member of Socialist Alternative.

I'm active in the People's Budget Movement and also support the Solidarity Budget.

Tonight I urge the Democrats on the City Council to join Council Member Sawant in opposing Mayor Durkin's shameful austerity budget.

You promised to defund SPD 50 percent and then you betrayed the Black Lives Matter movement by not supporting Council Member Sawant's concrete proposal to do this.

Don't betray us again.

If you do not accept the amendments from the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget, that means you approve a racist, anti-worker, anti-poor budget while the wealthiest in our city have raked in massive profits during this pandemic.

We demand that you defund the police 50% and increase the Amazon tax or movement one to fund a massive expansion of affordable housing by taxing the rich instead of workers and poor folks.

the amendment from Africatown and council members to want to expand affordable housing in the central district.

And for those in the movement listening, we know we can't put our faith in these democracies building mass pressure to make sure they accept our demands.

The next person is Katie Wilson.

Hello, Katie.

Thanks for joining us.

Hello, council members.

Hey, this is Katie Wilson, representing the Transit Riders Union.

We enthusiastically support the solidarity budget.

In particular, I want to emphasize the importance of expanding duress language and the de minimis ordinance and extending the police hiring freeze through 2021. Along with the math coalition, we support amendments to restore funding for sidewalk repair on Rainier Avenue, the Georgetown to South Park Trail, the Route 44 multimodal project, and also continuing planning bike connections in South Seattle.

We ask that you restore the $30 million strategic investment funds to acquire land for community-driven development and anti-displacement projects.

If we don't use these funds to acquire new public land for public use, then what the hell was the city doing last year when it decided to sell a massive piece of public land in South Lake Union?

We also strongly support funding for Wheels Low Barrier Women's Shelter and Shares Indoor Shelter Network to remain open 24-7 and for self-managed tiny house villages and Shares Tent City 3. We support funding for Council Member Morales' Hope Team Amendment and also for hand-washing stations and additional trash pickup for encampment residents.

Thank you.

Thank you, Katie.

The next three speakers are Natalie Lipson, Gabrielle Guthier, and Marcy Bowers.

Natalie good evening.

Hi my name is Natalie Lutzen.

I'm a renter in Council Member Peterson's District 4 and I support the demands of the solidarity budget and I urge you to defund the Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent and reinvest those funds in Black communities.

I also wholeheartedly support a participatory budgeting process to determine how the funds for health and safety are deployed.

Finally we are in a triple pandemic.

COVID-19 of course but also the climate crisis and systemic racism.

We need to address all of these crises simultaneously.

The $100 million promised by the mayor for Black communities should not come at the expense of emergency COVID relief and Green New Deal investments.

I urge you to divest from the police and invest in the health safety and future of all Seattle residents.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And Gabrielle.

Gabrielle you are next.

Good evening.

Hi.

Hi my name is Gabby and I'm a renter in the U-District and also a graduate student at UW.

I'm calling today in support of the solidarity budget.

We need a budget that communities in Seattle actually support and we need a budget that actually supports communities in Seattle.

This means that in this budget cycle we need to defund SPD by at least 50 percent and invest that money into Black communities and community-led health and safety systems.

And that money needs to be allocated by the community through a participatory budgeting process.

Also eight months into a global pandemic and coming out of the worst fire season in history we can't be taking funding away from COVID-19 relief and the Seattle Green New Deal.

Now more than ever, we need to be increasing funding for these vital programs, not taking funding away.

I urge you to legislate in support of all the solidarity demands and use this budget cycle to begin working towards a Seattle where everyone is safe, has a place to live, and can thrive.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And next we will hear from Marcy Bowers.

Marcy, after you, we're going to go back to Carly Gary.

sorry, Carly Gray, Kelsey Nesbill, and then we'll hear from Laura Lowe.

Marcy, good evening.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Marcy Bowers.

I'm here tonight representing Solid Ground and Poverty Action.

I'm here tonight to urge the council to do three important things.

First, support the solidarity budget that ensures investment in Black communities come from funds divested from police, not from Jump Start or other city funds.

Second, support a $750,000 investment in rapid rehousing to support the housing needs of our city's residents in the wake of COVID-19.

And finally, to include $85,000 in funding for the city's Human Services Department's Organizational Advocacy Contract.

Poverty Action has held this contract for over 15 years, and it's been a successful partnership with the city doing anti-poverty policy advocacy and organizing.

You've rightfully heard plenty tonight about the solidarity budget, so I'll focus on the advocacy contract.

This advocacy contract represents a modest investment from the city that brings a significant return to people in Seattle, especially people with low incomes.

It brings direct cash assistance to the pockets of Seattle's residents and limits the need for city-funded services, and we urge your support on each of those three things.

Thank you so much.

Great, Marcy.

Thanks for your time tonight.

We're going to hear Carly.

Carly good evening.

I'm wondering if we got the mute button worked out on your end.

It might be on our end so please let us know.

Oh great it looks like it came unmuted.

Please go ahead.

Hi my name's Carly Gray.

I'm a resident of Andrew Lewis's District 7. I'm also a member of Sunrise Movement Seattle and UAW 4121. I'm calling like many other people tonight in support of a solidarity budget that makes six key amendments to Mayor Durkin's budget.

I first support the demand that you've heard in the streets and in countless city council meetings to divest from the Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent.

Those funds should be distributed through a participatory budgeting process.

Aspen investments in Black communities and in community-led health and safety solutions are funded through money divested from police prosecutors and courts not by taking away money from Jump Start Seattle revenue or other city funds.

I reject I urge you to reject Mayor Durkin's tactics and refuse to pit community identified priorities against community health and safety.

Continue to fund projects like the Georgetown to South Park Trail sidewalk repair along the Rainier Avenue corridor and creation of a sidewalk for the Duwamish Longhouse.

Fund essential services in Seattle and reject the austerity of Mary Durkan.

Five months of protests and organizing should make our message more than clear by now.

I urge you to support a solidarity budget for Seattle in 2021 and beyond.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling in, Carly.

And the next two are going to be Kelsey Nesbill and Joe Scott.

And then we'll go back up to number 33, who is Laura Lowe.

Good evening, Kelly.

Just star six, unmute yourself.

OK, Kelly, if you can hear me, just star six.

Oh, perfect.

Great.

Go ahead.

Sorry for that difficulty.

This is Kelly Nispel, and I'm in District 7. And I need to get to my notes now after all that.

Oh, my gosh.

Hold on one second.

It's OK.

We'll restart your time here.

Go ahead, Kelly.

I know.

I'm sorry.

That's OK.

OK.

Kelly Nispel, District 7. We support Mayor Durkin's budget.

No to the solidarity budget.

Please listen to Council Member Peterson.

Improve on this plan by requiring accountability.

Every taxpayer dollar must be held to smart goals.

You have a fiduciary responsibility to require this.

No to defunding the police.

Your actions have already caused 44 police to leave.

No to legalizing misdemeanors.

Your number one responsibility is the safety of those who live here.

No to providing loopholes to criminals.

Use the rainy day fund as is necessary.

Unprecedented economic downturn due to COVID and civil unrest is what the Rainy Day Fund was meant for.

Mask up, open up.

Encourage Governor Inslee to open up to at least phase three.

The very science that caused Washington to close has now provided us a way to reopen.

Address homeless as your number one item.

Reinstate the NAV team.

The trash, human waste, needles litter our parks, sidewalks, and storefronts.

rat infestations, open drug use, operative shelters, social services, housing, options with rules, acceptance is required, involuntary incarceration as appropriate.

Our community cannot survive with this mess or tolerate criminal activity.

Thank you for calling in tonight, Kelly.

Joe, good evening.

Thanks for being with us.

Just star six, unmute yourself.

Great.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Joe Scott.

I am a renter in district four of Seattle.

I'm on this call today to speak in favor of the solidarity budget, specifically in favor of amending the mayor's budget to defund the police and invest in BIPOC communities.

What brings me here is also a personal story.

My bike was recently stolen from my house.

When I found it being resold on Craigslist, I actually called the police to see what could be done.

They told me essentially to set up my own sting, best case this officer told me.

We show up and get the guy.

Worst case he attacks you.

I realize no matter what involving the police would mean violence potential harm to an officer and myself and definite harm to the thief.

All over a couple hundred dollars.

So I want to affirm the truth that more and more people are realizing the police are a violent and ineffective force for creating public safety.

If we want to promote safety we must make Seattle economically just and the solidarity budget would help steer us toward that horizon.

I also want to give a shout out to the very first speaker on this call who called out Alex Peterson specifically for his illogical kind of nonsense statements on this issue.

I support his statement.

Thank you.

Laura, thanks for waiting.

Laura Bernstein is going to be followed by Meir Gerwald and then Anna Marie Dooley.

Laura, good to see you on the list again.

Please go ahead.

Hi Council.

I'm calling today just as myself to say a long list of wonderful things that we need to do.

I wanted to also say that the unity that the solidarity budget has brought to the budget process is so inspiring and energizing and it's good to have hope in these difficult and dark times.

And I'm just just wowed by the work of the folks that have led the protest for 150 days and then are leading on this budget process and and really unifying all of us.

Seattle for a Green New Deal.

Sunrise.

Solidarity Budget.

The Mercer Mega Block Alliance.

Folks like Be Seattle.

And I'm really happy to see things like the HOPE program from Council Member Morales and really creative solutions that are coming from the community and that are being brought forth from electives.

And it's just a really hopeful sign.

And I hope that you feel that energy and are inspired to take bold action and not settle for a really awful jerking budget.

And thanks for all you're doing.

Thank you, Laura.

And the next person is number 34. Mayor, M-E-H-R, I don't see you listed as present.

So please go ahead and call in now and we'll come back to you.

Anne-Marie, you are up next.

Thanks for waiting.

Thank you.

I'm Anne-Marie Dooley.

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

Unlike the council members listening, I don't write budgets.

Instead, I write prescriptions, and this year I've written too many.

First for dialysis for those dying of COVID, then prescriptions for inhalers for many unable to breathe from the smoke, all linked to our climate crisis.

You can't continue to write budgets in the way you have, because the public health costs of our climate crisis are upon us now.

Costs including chronic ill health, increased medication use, and days lost from work.

Costs budget makers never measure because they fall in lower income and communities of color.

So fund the Green New Deal by restoring staff positions in the Office of Sustainability.

Restore cuts to transportation, sidewalk, and biking projects.

I have to give people bad news every day.

You must give large corporate groups the bad news that they have to pay more.

While they may complain about revenues lost, I'm concerned about lives lost.

Please put public health and solidarity before profit.

Thank you.

Thank you and thanks for everything you do on a daily basis during this time of COVID as well as a health care provider.

Lauren, Lauren Hensley Butler, followed by Sean Smith and Amanda Sorrell.

Sean, just a quick note, number 37, we have you listed as not present, so please call in now as well.

Lauren, good evening.

Thanks for being with us.

Hi, thanks.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thanks.

Okay, great.

My name is Lauren Hensley Butler.

I'm a D3 renter and I've worked in social services in Seattle for the past 10 years.

I'm also calling the protester to express my unequivocal support for defunding SPD by at least 50% in order to invest specifically in Black and Indigenous community solutions.

I also want to add my support for the South Seattle program that Council Member Herbold spoke about that seeks to train new social service workers who have lived experiences accessing services themselves.

Speaking as a person with a master's in social work, I know for sure that you do not need a social work degree to be effective.

I want to be working alongside people with relevant lived experiences in this field.

This is an important way to ensure that social services do not just reproduce existing systems of control.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Sean, I still see you listed as not present.

Sean Smith.

So we'll come back to you if you dial in.

Number 38, Amanda.

Good evening.

Thanks for being with us.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thanks, Amanda.

Hi, my name is Amanda Sorrell.

I'm a renter in D4 and an organizer with 350 Seattle, and I'm here today in support of the Solidarity Budget.

One of our demands is that you defund SPD by 50% at least and reinvest those funds in Black communities through a participatory budgeting process.

Mayor Durkan shouldn't be able to hide behind a self-appointed task force or promises of support that Pitt community needs against one another.

Durkin promised $100 million to Black communities, which is a start, but that money should come from police, prosecutors, and court budgets, and not from the Jumpstart tax that thousands of us worked to make a reality.

The funds from Jumpstart were already dedicated to COVID-19 relief, affordable housing, and Green New Deal investments, all of which are vital.

What isn't vital is SPD's continued violence and punishment of people who are trying to survive through these overlapping crises.

With that money, you can work to meet people's basic needs and build other ways of responding to harm in our communities, which will result in the public safety the police claim to provide, but do not.

Vote for a budget that keeps us all safe and healthy and not just some of us.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Robin Briggs, Tyler Saxton, and Anita Pebbles.

Robin, good evening.

Hi, this is Robin Briggs.

I live on Capitol Hill.

I urge the council to prioritize budget items that are addressing the climate emergency.

We know that postponing action on climate will cause catastrophic damage.

Therefore, I ask you to restore the funding for the OSC ad backs.

These planning positions are critical to being able to make forward progress on addressing climate change.

Without them, we will lose as much as two years of progress because we won't be prepared when we do have more resources.

Further, the jumpstart revenue should be directed according to the council's original spending plan, which included weatherization and building electrification, as well as affordable housing.

Lastly, I support the MAS proposal.

With COVID-19, the need for safe routes for walking and biking has grown tremendously.

We have a road deficit that cannot be repaid at the expense of walkers and bikers, and we should prioritize those projects in the south end where the need is greatest.

Thanks very much.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Tyler Sexton, you are up next.

Good evening.

Yeah, my name is Ty.

I am a renter in district three.

And as others have already said, budget is a moral document.

And so Mayor Durkin's budget is clearly immoral, because it's an austerity budget that unnecessarily cuts too many of our essential public services, right in the midst of multiple crises that we're facing.

And austerity is only going to worsen these crises.

So we have to reject austerity.

And we need to pay for the vital investments that we need to address these crises by increasing and extending taxes on big businesses and the rich, because they are the ones who have to pay for this crisis.

Their exploitation of our regressive tax structure here in Seattle and in Washington has actually created this budget crisis by underfunding these essential public services for years and by concentrating absurd amounts of wealth in the hands of the ultra-rich, where this wealth is really least likely to be spent in the public interest.

So let's increase taxes on the rich and use that money to increase funding for affordable housing, parks, libraries, roads, community centers, emergency food programs, and a Green New Deal.

Thanks.

Thank you for your time.

Anita, good evening.

Hello.

This is Reverend Anita Peebles and I'm a resident of District 7. I'm the Associate Pastor at Seattle First Baptist Church in District 3. I'm calling to urge you to lead with courage in this historical moment and divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and support distribution of funds divested through a participatory budgeting process.

I and others in my congregation are asking you to invest in Black communities and community-led health and safety with funds directly from divestment from SPD.

in a restorative gesture for justice and wellness.

As a faith leader I urge you not to let community needs be pitted against each other but to see that systemic racism housing for all and climate justice are all the same fight and that another world is possible if you make the brave choices today to be leaders who take seriously the needs of those among us who live closest to the margins of society.

Seattle First Baptist Church endorses King County Equity Now's Solidarity Budget.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much for calling in tonight, Reverend.

The next three people are going to be Sean Smith, Rich Vogt, and Daniel Lockett.

Thanks, Sean, for dialing back in.

If you can hear me, you are up next, Sean.

Please hold, Council Member.

Hi there.

Thanks.

Good evening, Steve and City Council.

My name is Sean Smith and I reside in Nicholsville, North Lake Village.

Nicholsville supports the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget.

We oppose sweeps of any team that includes police or city workers going out to the cabinet and shutting them down.

We do support the idea of a Hope Teach.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant, for the support and including the two budget actions that we are focusing on tonight.

One is to increase the encampment house, encampments and tiny house villages in Seattle and to fund Shares Kansas City.

Thank you, Council Member Morales and Louis for his co-sign.

The other is to help Shares indoor shelters stay open 24-7, so they don't have to go back to a nighttime home.

Thank you to Kim, to Matt Pearson, to Morales, and Gonzalez for co-signing this, and Councilperson Kerbal for your concern for the future.

My main point tonight is that diversity in shelter options is necessary for moving forward.

Cookie cutter shelters and villages do not fit all people.

We must build a variety.

In conclusion, please support diversity and share shelters and encampments.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sean.

Rich, good evening.

My name is Rich Vogut, and I am a member of the 43rd District Democrats Environmental Caucus.

Lately, I read the following.

COVID is a pop quiz.

Climate change is a final exam.

Now, in college, you could goof off and cram and still pass a final.

Climate change is more like farming.

You can't goof off in the summer, plant a crop in September, and harvest it the next month.

Not addressing climate change now brings us closer to the point when it becomes irreversible.

The cost to climate change grows every day that we delay.

It's absolutely clear the city needs additional revenues in 2021. We do not support the diversion of the jumpstart payroll tax.

We hope you will consider now the $20 increase in the vehicle excise tax and consider submitting the full $60 tax to voters in 2021. We support funding of executive and council staff to study possible taxes, such as a 1% income tax, a Seattle gas tax, and a building carbon excise tax, and then implement one or more of them in 2021. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Daniel.

Daniel, good evening.

Good evening, my name is Daniel Lokick, Economic Development Manager for the U District Partnership.

I'm calling today to support Councilmember Peterson's statement of legislative intent to propose a strategy for funding and distributing financial assistance to small businesses adversely impacted during construction projects.

In the U District, seven BIPOC businesses are at risk of displacement as construction of the light rail station and 43rd Street COVID-19 and most recently vandalism have had a compounding and disproportionate impact on these small businesses.

We need your help to create a construction impact mitigation program today.

Please support Council Member Peterson's statement of legislative intent and please implement a construction impact mitigation program to prevent the displacement of many of the small businesses we all love.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

The next three speakers are Grace Nordhoff, Melinda Frazier, and Logan Swan.

Grace, good evening.

Grace, just star six to unmute yourself.

Hey, Grace, if you can hear me, just star six to unmute yourself one more time.

Sometimes it doesn't go through that first time.

Okay, Grace, I'm gonna come back to you.

We will go to Melinda.

Good evening, Melinda.

Yes, we can.

Thanks, Melinda.

My name is Melinda Frazier and I stay at the will women's shelter at Trinity parish.

And I'm asking for your support for budget item number 19 so that our shelter and those.

Um, and those of our brothers and sisters and share can continue 24 hours through 2021. When I'm depressed, I can just stay inside and know I'm safe and I can rest and eat in peace and I don't have to worry about tilting my stuff around and where I'm gonna get my next meal.

I have PTSD and being outside, I don't know what's going to set me off.

Having 24-7 shelter has helped me heal and look to the future and get my life together.

like my old self again.

I was homeless, I'm getting me back.

We've been given a chance again by being here 24-7 and this funding will save our lives.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your story tonight.

Logan, good evening.

Yeah, my name is Logan Swan.

I'm a union iron worker and member of Socialist Alternative.

I'm calling this evening with the People's Budget Movement, which also stands with the Solidarity Budget.

For years, I've been building glittering towers in the cities.

I watched my brothers and sisters struggle to manage the long hours being involved with their families, the ever-increasing commutes from home from an increasingly unaffordable city, and now the safety concerns of working during a pandemic and the kitchen table concern of a flagging economy.

In previous meetings, I've heard council members say they oppose an austerity budget.

But that's exactly what Mayor Durkin is pushing with over $200 million in cuts to vital services.

A majority of city council members also pledged to defund SPD by at least 50%, which is necessary if our libraries, parks, housing, and roads are going to keep their funding.

So far, the only council member unambiguously on the side of working families and marginalized communities is Shama Sawant.

What's being decided in the city budget is priority, and you all are making a clear choice of whose side you're on as we enter prolonged crisis and widening inequality.

The world's billionaires enrich themselves by over $2 trillion just during the pandemic while working families are standing in lengthening food bank lines that stretch for blocks.

Don't put the burden of recession and pandemic further on the shoulders of workers.

Our needs are already buckling from high rents and low wages.

Tax big business not us.

Don't prioritize the bloated police department over Black lives.

Combat racist gentrification by funding affordable housing.

Support Africa Downs Council Member Shama Sawant's amendment to acquire Cairo Center to be developed into community owned and permanently affordable housing.

Our movement already won a progressive tax mechanism with our tax on Amazon and big business.

So use it.

Thank you, Logan.

And we're going to go back to Grace again to see if we can address the technical issues on our end.

Make sure that you're off mute star six.

Oh, great.

Wonderful.

Please go ahead.

Hello, city council members.

My name is Grace Nordoff.

I live in District four.

and I'm a board member of the Seattle Public Library Foundation.

Since the Seattle Public Library closed our library branches on March 13th due to COVID-19 library services programs and access to books and materials have gone online.

Mayor Durkin's budget assumed our libraries would remain closed through June of next year.

But since her budget was sent to the council Governor Inslee submitted guidelines that create the opportunity for our libraries to open at 25 percent capacity.

I hope the Seattle City Council will give full consideration to increasing the mayor's budget request so that the library can successfully implement the governor's guidelines to safely and creatively reopen our libraries at 25 percent.

It would be wonder wonderful to have our libraries reopened again.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Naomi Natsuhara, Kate Rubin, and Chris Sams.

Naomi, good evening.

Hi, I'm Naomi Natsuhara.

I'm a red shirt in District 5 and I support the solidarity budget.

We must divest from SPD by at least 50% with those funds distributed to communities most impacted through a participatory budgeting process.

The best way to ensure safety is by meeting basic needs through investments in housing, healthcare, and other essential services.

And that these investments come from funds divested from police prosecutors and courts, not many other city funds.

We cannot create holistic or sustainable community safety by draining other public services like transportation parks and COVID relief.

Under-resourcing and over-policing black communities has already led to the criminalization of basic survival for these individuals and families.

It's time to show you believe in Black Lives Matter by divesting from police and prosecutorial systems that have perpetuated the destruction of black lives.

We must further decriminalize survival for those unhoused, beginning with reallocation of navigation team funds to offer dignified supportive services for those living homeless via affordable housing, access to sanitation, emergency shelter, and rapid rehousing alongside community-based outreach rather than policing.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time tonight.

Kate, good evening.

And just for the record, Kate Rubin is who we're looking for.

Thanks Kate.

Hi my name is Kate Rubin.

I'm a renter in District 2 and I'm the executive director of Be Seattle.

We are proud endorsers of the solidarity budget.

I'm calling to ask you to divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and invest these funds into Black communities and community led health and safety programs.

We are experiencing a homelessness crisis in this city with Black and Indigenous folks being disproportionately affected and we are facing a massive wave of evictions upon the end of the moratorium.

Investing directly in our community by fully funding tenant services and eviction defense, tiny house villages, purple bag trash pickup for encampment residents and street sinks, as well as implementing the proposed HOPE team would improve the quality of life for many marginalized members of our community and ultimately reduce crime and segregation.

This pandemic is not ending anytime soon and we need to protect our neighbors rather than criminalizing poverty.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Kate.

Chris, good evening.

Hey, Chris, just star six to unmute.

Hello.

Hi there.

Good evening, neighbors.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Great.

Thank you.

Well, I'm Chris Sims, resident of D5, commenting on the proposed budget.

Illegal encampments are devastating lives all across Seattle, and we're fed up with illegal encampments in our parks and public spaces and the human trafficking and illegal drug use that your policies are allowing to continue.

As a result, we share the following human dignity proclamation, which we ask the council to consider.

We will no longer tolerate human trafficking and illegal drug use in our parks and public spaces.

We affirm that all people have dignity and are to be treated with respect and kindness.

We'll provide safe and secure shelter for unsheltered people where they will be offered rest, food and services to help them find their way out of homelessness.

We will remove illegal encampments citywide and the people living in these encampments may choose from three options.

One, to be transported to city-provided shelter where they will be offered services and rest.

Two, to move on.

Or three, to be cited and or arrested as the law allows.

We will prioritize human dignity in working through the complex challenges facing our community while recognizing that government cannot and should not solve everything.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chris.

The next three speakers are Elisa Roman, Andrew Palmer, and Brian Clark.

Elisa, good evening.

Hello, this is Elisa Roman.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thanks, Elisa.

Okay, thank you.

I am a constituent and I represent over 6,000 Seattle supporters of Moms Demand Action.

We stand today with our community partners, Choose 180 and Community Passageways to urge you to ensure that this $100 million investment is designated through participatory budgeting, not through the Mayor's Task Force.

This time calls for a paradigm shift in how we disperse city dollars and participatory budgeting is that shift.

Those most impacted know what their community needs to be healthy and safe and should decide how to spend it.

We ask that these funds be invested specifically in the Black community as this community is most historically underfunded due to our racist policies.

And we ask not that the money not be taken from other critical BIPOC led efforts resourced by the city.

We support assigning funds to violence intervention and prevention programs based on what the community deems most impactful.

Thank you very much.

Excellent.

Thanks for calling in.

The next three speakers are Andrew Palmer, Brian Clark, and Kyla Newcomer.

I do want to note before Andrew, before you start real quick, we are still interested in hearing from Doris O'Neill, number 17, Tushar, Kunanra, number 20, and Mir Grewal, number 34. With that, we'll turn it over to Andrew.

Andrew, you're number 51. Thanks for waiting.

Just star, six, then mute.

Looks like we still have you muted on my end over here, Andrew.

Star, six, then mute real quick one more time.

OK, I thought I saw you come off mute earlier.

So I'm just going to remind folks we have Andrew and then Brian Clark and Kyla.

Andrew, if you can hear me, just star six on mute, or we're happy to come back to you.

OK, great.

We'll come back to you.

Brian, good evening.

We'll turn it over to you.

Thanks for waiting.

and just star system you.

Perfect.

Hello council.

My name is Brian.

I'm a homeowner in Ballard.

I'm calling in support of Defund SPD, Defund Seattle and 350 Seattle.

We're calling you to follow through on the commitment you made this summer to Defund SPD and reinvest those funds in BIPOC communities through a participatory budgeting process.

I'm calling on you to fund COVID relief affordable housing and Seattle's Green New Deal.

Specifically to my council member Dan Schaus.

You've said this year that you're committed to defunding SPD and that you're following the lead of BIPOC community organizations.

If you don't vote to cut SPD's budget by 50%, you're failing to uphold your commitment.

And while I understand you've got a lot of constituents in Malibu with differing concerns, I find it baffling that you continue to support the navigation team despite their history of violent activity.

Be the leader that you claim to be and vote for relief from police violence and for aid to survive COVID.

Throughout the summer, we were told that 2021 budgeting process is where the real material defunding of SPD could take place.

I stand with the many groups and overwhelming number of callers this evening who are calling for a solidarity budget to divest from police and pollution and invest in community.

Black Lives Matter.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

And Kyla, good evening.

And then we'll come back to Andrew.

Hi, good evening, Kyla.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Hi my name is Kayla Newcomer and I'm a resident of District 6 and I'm here tonight testifying on behalf of Youth Care.

As one of the largest providers serving youth experiencing homelessness in Seattle we urge you to redirect at least 50 percent of SPD's funds directly into community-led public safety organizations youth-focused safety programs and participatory budgeting for public safety.

The participatory budget process is key to centering the voices needs and concerns of our most affected and most vulnerable community members.

Youth experiencing homelessness are disproportionately BIPOC and disproportionately experience excessive force at the hands of law enforcement.

We need to stop criminalizing homelessness.

Reinforcing community-driven health and safety systems will prevent harm and not merely respond to it.

That starts with reinvesting in our communities and passing a budget that reflects the values of social justice and racial equity.

This is an investment in community health and safety for all Seattle residents.

Thank you for your time.

for calling in today.

Let's go back to Andrew and see if we have addressed any technical issues.

Andrew, if you can hear me.

Just want to see if we can get you in.

Star six to unmute.

Great.

I see you are not muted.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

All right.

Here we go.

My name is Andrew Palmer.

I'm a homeowner and part owner of two music venues in D6.

I'm commenting today and restoring the nightlife business advocate position.

Seattle's reputation as a live music city makes it a national tourist stop, drawing tens of thousands of musicians annually and making us a destination city for Washington residents and national and international travelers.

Live music industry pumps millions of dollars into our economy, not just for venues, but for hospitality and tourism industries, which generate $12 for every $1 spent on a concert ticket.

The nightlife industry directly employs thousands of workers and supports an entire ecosystem of labor, from musicians to graphic artists to instrument shops.

But now, Seattle's creative ecosystem and reputation as a live music city are in jeopardy Economic clusters like ours take decades to build, yet are threatened due to the pandemic, which would have a direct and long-term negative impact on cultural workers, tourism, hospitality, and other industries.

The Nightlife Advocate is the one person in city government who understands and is dedicated to our plight during the pandemic and our survival in the years to follow.

If these responsibilities are split up amongst various positions who don't understand our industry or situation, our sector's voice will not cut through.

Scott Puskelek, the current Nightlife Advocate, has spent years developing relationships with live music venues, and he's uniquely positioned to understand the challenges we face.

He's been our lifeline to loan and grant info and permitting challenges during the pandemic.

Seattle Nightlife so desperately needs an advocate when it comes time to figure out how to reopen safely and jumpstart our industry.

The heart and soul of Seattle depends on a healthy creative sector which depends on the nightlife advocate to ensure a safe and robust return to business post pandemic.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Feel free to send in your comments too.

I think we got the most of it and appreciate you talking quick, but that was really helpful.

So if you want to send it in, that'd be great.

The next three speakers are Daniel Wang, Catherine Dodson, and Gwendolyn Hart.

That will bring us up to number 56. Daniel, good evening.

Just star six time mute.

Hey, Daniel, I see you are still muted on my end over here, just star six.

Perfect.

I can hear me.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Daniel.

I'm a Seattle renter in District 4 and a member of Socialist Alternatives speaking here in support of the People's Budget Movement and the Solidarity Budget.

Today is the day to take a stand against Mayor Durkan's austerity budget.

This thing is an absolute slap in the face to all the people who came out on the streets this summer, the absolute contempt for working people, to cut $49 million from affordable housing, and then to fill budget holes with revenue from the Amazon tax, which a mass movement fought so hard for to address Seattle's housing crisis.

If you want to fill budget holes, why don't we take a look at our police department?

There has been a movement all summer long demanding that police budgets get defunded by at least 50%.

And despite all the supposed support for BLM from city council members, council member Sawant has been the only one to put forward this demand from the solidarity budget.

It is time for the rest of the city council to get on board with defunding the cops by at least 50%.

It is time for them to support the people's budget proposal of an elected community oversight board with full powers over the police, including hiring and firing because the police are supposed to protect and serve communities.

And if you stop ignoring the people in these communities, you will find that they feel neither protected by or served by, or even safe from the cops.

But I'd like to finish on the Africa town land trust, important proposal to acquire the formal Cairo Cairo center and to develop it into community owned affordable housing.

Council Member Summon has put forth a budget amendment to enact this proposal.

If you think Black communities matter, vote for it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Catherine.

Good evening.

You are up next.

Just a reminder, Star 6, to unmute yourself.

There we go.

My name is Catherine Hudson.

This is a grant from the Department of Pleasure and through a majority commitment to defund SPD, but to keep us connected and invest in Black communities.

To that end, the $100 million promised by Mayor Durkan needs to come directly from police funding, not from the Amazon tax.

We need a massive expansion of progressive taxes like the Amazon tax to fund housing and avoid a sanity cut.

I'd also like to voice specific support for Council Member Sawant's amendment supporting the Africatown Community Land Trust proposals, as well as Council Member Morales' amendment for culturally responsive curricula and restorative justice.

These proposals go hand-in-hand with community calls to defund SPD by at least 50 percent or 100 percent, to close the youth jail now, to end state contracts with CEQA, to stop the sweeps, and to make the SPOG contract negotiations transparent.

I'm very grateful for the district represented by Council Member Noah and want to thank her for continuously fighting to defund and demilitarize the Seattle Police.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Gwendolyn, you are up next.

I'm a voter.

Hi there, we can hear you.

I'm in today to support the people's budget and the solidarity budget.

Right now you have a choice before you about who will shoulder the cost of this pandemic, big business or working people.

Big businesses like Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks are currently reporting record profits.

And meanwhile, the working people of Seattle have been burdened greater than ever before by COVID.

And they cannot bear the additional weight of this austerity budget by Mayor Durkin.

We cannot afford cuts to libraries, transportation services.

We need to increase the Amazon tax and make big businesses pay their fair share as outlined by the people's budget.

We must also cut the police budget, which has ballooned to ridiculous size.

We need to cut it back, defund it 50% or more, and put that money back where it belongs in our communities.

We need to invest these funds in programs that counter gentrification and racism, into the Tiny Homes Program to provide a path to housing for homeless people and to rent and mortgage relief and the COVID relief and into the Green New Deal.

So you'll have a future to look forward to.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

The next three speakers are Aaron Christmore, Darnell Hilber, and Tori Westman.

If you can all hit star six now, that'd be great.

Aaron, you are up first.

Please go ahead.

Hello my name is Erin and I'm a renter in District 4 in support of the people's budget.

I am a medical laboratory scientist at Harborview Medical Center.

I voluntarily transferred to UW virology in the beginning of this pandemic to help with the transition with COVID testing and my partner is an emergency room nurse.

We both work evenings and walk to and from work.

This meant we had to walk home during the height of the Black Lives Matter protest and were personally impacted by the SPD excessive use of force.

We frequently walked home through clouds of tear gas, then had to fall asleep to flashbangs, sirens, and helicopters flying overhead nearly every night.

I had so much trouble sleeping, I had to get prescription sleep aids.

I'm well aware that the terror we experienced from the SPD during this time mirrors the experiences that Black and Brown communities have had for decades, and I demand that we hold the SPD accountable for this terror.

Where are our priorities when we cannot provide our healthcare workers with proper PPE, but we can provide an endless supply of tear gas and flash grenades to the police departments to use against these healthcare workers.

Healthcare workers like myself are caught leasing our budget slash and they're constantly seeing education budget slash and community resource budget slash.

Now Mayor Derrican is asking for more cuts in the bridal services, yet she cannot ask for cuts in a polluted police department.

I find all of this unacceptable.

This is why I support the police, the people's budget that will defend SPD and reinvest in communities hurt by their policies.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Darnell, I see you listed as not present, so if you do call back in, we're happy to go back to you, Darnell number 58. On to number 59, Tori, good evening.

You are up next.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Tori Westman.

I live in District 5 and I'm a member of IBW Local 46. I'm calling to represent myself and a group of union members who support Black Lives Matter and the solidarity budget.

If Seattle wants to say that Black Lives Matter then we must listen to the people who have been asking for the police to be defunded by at least 50 percent.

We're asking to ensure that the money is being invested in Black communities comes from divesting from the police not from Jump Start Seattle.

We're asking not to criminalize our houseless neighbors but instead provide affordable housing tiny houses basic sanitation and emergency shelter.

To keep Seattle a pro-union city, we must make sure the Green New Deal Community Oversight Board is fully staffed and funded to help create union jobs.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time tonight.

The next three speakers are Luv Sharma, Anna Hickman, and Erica Baber.

Luv, you are up next.

Hi, my name is Luv Sharma, and I'm a homeowner in District 4. I'm a software professional, and I'm also a member of Maple Leaf in solidarity with Black Lives.

I'm calling to express support for the solidarity budget, and to urge you to defund SPD by at least 50%, and to let BIPOC-led community organizations have a say in how these funds are used.

Instead of policing, we need to invest in education, housing, healthcare, and empowering communities to support themselves.

Statistics after statistics show that investment in community is what prevents crime, rather than over-policing, which only results in our overly punitive society and further damages those communities.

Also, I want to say hello to Council Member Peterson, with whom I've been having a one-sided conversation for over six months now.

Alex, please return my calls.

Thank you.

The next person is Anna.

Good evening, Anna.

Hi can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Thanks.

Okay.

Hi my name is Anna Hackman.

I'm an educator at Seattle Central College D5 resident and a rank and file member of AFT 1789. I am here to voice my support for the solidarity budget put forth by decriminalize Seattle and the King County Equity Now Coalition.

Seattle Central students are working class BIPOC Seattle residents who are suffering austerity on our campus.

losing their financial aid, unable to register for classes, no tech to transition online, in addition to unemployment, houselessness, and police violence, all while trying to keep themselves safe from COVID-19.

And what is so outrageous about this is that it doesn't need to be this way.

We have the money to support our students' education, housing, and other material needs.

The problem is the money goes to the institutions that kill them rather than those that support them.

and it is time for a budget that reduces human suffering rather than contributing to it.

And the solidarity budget is a necessary way forward.

We need to defund the police, not jumpstart, not the equity fund by 50% and let the youth who are most impacted by police violence be the ones to guide that redistribution through participatory budgeting.

Thank you, Black Lives Matter.

Thank you for your time.

And Erica Baber, you are up next.

Hello.

I am Erica.

I'm a sophomore at Garfield High School a District 3 resident a member of the Sunrise Movement and a lifelong Seattleite.

I'm here to ask that you make the following three changes to the 2021 budget to align it with the demands of the solidarity budget.

First divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and put those funds into BIPOC communities through a process of participatory budgeting.

Please do not create public safety meeting people's basic needs.

Thus point 2. Investments in BIPOC communities have to come from released budgets not jumpstart Seattle money needed for COVID relief and to keep important services running.

Three this budget must include funding for affordable housing and dignified homeless outreach.

Having armed officers conducting sweeps of homeless people just doesn't make sense.

Instead that money should go towards community based outreach workers and creating more dignified shelters.

The Seattle I have grown up in is one with countless parks and expanding transit system schools that have helped me grow a minimal police budget.

I'm asking that you expand an experience like that to more Seattleites by adopting the principles of the solidarity budget.

Thank you.

All right, thanks so much.

Folks, we are at number 63. We're going to take a quick pause for two minutes.

I'll put my timer on over here.

I want to give the folks in the clerk's office and our IT folks a quick pause as they change shifts.

So if you'll bear with us one second.

I'll also give folks a quick reminder, a PSA.

I am sorry I did not understand the technicalities here, but I do want to note, it appears that you need to push star six after you hear the prompt.

that you have been unmuted.

That might be where things are getting a little crosswise.

So once you hear you've been unmuted, then push star six.

And I'll make sure to give a quick pause so that folks can do the sequencing of that unmuting action.

But again, you'll hear star six on the line and then push, I'm sorry, you'll hear you have been unmuted on the line and then that's your cue to push star six.

Okay, so we'll give it another try.

Looks like our team is still getting set up behind the scenes.

We'd want to thank our folks from communications, IT, clerk's office, Seattle Channel, and Freddy de Cuevas in my office, who is helping to staff this effort for our public hearings and the Select Budget Committee overall.

I'm going to go ahead and read the names of the next three people and I think by then we will have given folks the two minute time needed to do the switch over.

In fact, I'm going to read the next five names because there's two people that are listed as not present.

So I want to make sure that we call your name so that you hear it and get a chance to dial in.

The next three speakers are Alicia Glenwall, Joe Montgomery, and Annie Unruh.

Annie, I have you listed as number 65 and not present, so please do dial in.

And after that, we have Neil Anderson and Dave Ellenwood.

Dave, you are number 67, and I have you listed as not present.

So please dial in, Annie and Dave.

With that, I think we're ready to go.

Alicia, you are up next.

And again, you'll hear you have been unmuted and then push star six.

Thanks all.

Hi there.

This is Annie Unroom.

So you might have your numbers mixed up.

So my name is Annie Unruh.

I am a renter in District 3. Today is actually my birthday and my birthday wish is for Seattle City Council to defund SPD by 50 percent and follow the solidarity budget by decriminalizing Seattle and King County equity now.

Their priorities are the following.

Divest from SPD.

Use a participatory budgeting process.

Preserve vital public services.

Increase access to shelter and affordable housing.

Create a Green New Deal.

And curb the criminalization of poverty poverty and mental health struggles.

If nothing else, please fund the $100 million for BIPOC communities that Mayor Durkin has promised, using money from SPD and the criminal justice system, not the jumpstart tax and rainy day funds.

I also support funding for public handwashing stations, and please stop the sweep.

There's no reason to put people at risk by getting rid of their home.

I also support the once proposed funding for tenant education to keep people from falling into homelessness.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time tonight.

The next person is Alicia.

Yes, yes, we can hear you, Alicia.

Oh, we could hear you for a second.

I think the star six has hit one.

There we go.

We got you now.

There it is.

Okay, sorry, thanks.

Hi, my name is Alicia Glenwell.

I'm with the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

We're also proud members of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

Our work to end domestic and sexual violence and the work of all the other providers, community members, and social and racial justice activists speaking to you tonight are inextricably linked.

Safe, healthy, liberated families are the foundation of safe, healthy, liberated communities.

And all people deserve the chance to live whole, fulfilled lives.

We agree with the many speakers here tonight that Mayor's proposed budget doesn't go nearly far enough in investing in our communities.

Please go further in rolling back our city's inequitable over-investment in the criminal legal system.

Prioritize funding for BIPOC-led community-based programs, including services addressing domestic and sexual violence.

Protect revenues from the Jumpstart Payroll Tax.

Fully fund the expanded legal defense network.

And put your full-throated support behind the solidarity budget and participatory budget process in order to truly reflect community needs and capacities to address public safety and public well-being.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

The next person that we have is Neil.

And I also see Joe Montgomery.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Joe I see you are teed up so let's go ahead and have you go because you are listed as number 64 and then we'll go to number 66 who is Neil.

Thanks Joe.

Take it away.

Hi.

Okay.

Hi I'm Joe Montgomery.

I live in Meadowbrook which is in Councilmember Juarez's district.

And I want to talk about Seattle Street Sinks Um, and, uh, I've been volunteering for them for the last three months.

So I want to tell you a little bit about that project.

Uh, it is, um, just a really concrete suggestion for how we can spend money, um, and just a small amount of budget and do some real tangible good in our communities and reaching the people who need it.

Um, uh, the street scene project is asking for money to install 63 sinks or nine in every district.

And just in my short time helping them out, this is such a cool project.

It brings dignity and community spirit.

There's these really cool planner boxes you get that recycles the water.

And it goes a long way towards promoting public health, which as we know, is something that impacts everyone.

For example, just one street sink in U District provides hundreds of hand washes every week.

And so 63 of those would do just an incredible impact on the city.

The project is already working, and so all we need is just for you to get behind it, support it, and it's just going to be a really cool thing for our city.

Seattle Street syncs.

Thanks.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And the next three are Neil Anderson, Dave Ellenwood, and Star Wiley.

Good evening, Neil.

Hi.

My name is Neil Anderson, and I'm calling in support of the solidarity budget.

Some have argued that redirecting police funding to community programs can't be done in one step.

that we have to wait to see if they work before taking cops off the street.

The results from other cities have already shown that this works.

In Eugene, 911 calls that involve people with mental illness are handled by trained counselors rather than police.

They now handle 20% of the 911 calls at a fraction of the cost, and even the police chief says they've been more successful.

And now this is being replicated in at least four other cities.

Another argument against it is that civilian responders could be placed in danger.

but the facts don't bear this out.

With less than 1% needing police backup, the data showed that people experiencing mental crisis are overwhelmingly not dangerous, and an armed response too often escalates into a conflict that could have been avoided.

Taking these calls out of the police department doesn't get us all the way to 50%, but this one change can get us a lot of the way there.

And since a quarter of police shootings involve someone experiencing mental distress, reducing the number of these interactions is in everyone's interest.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Dave, just want to let you know, we still have you listed as not present.

If you are listening in on the listen-in line, please dial into the number that was sent via email after signing up on the public testimony link.

That's true as well for Darnell Hilbert, number 55, Castille, number 22, number 34, Mayer, and 37, I'm sorry.

37 we did hear from.

So those three folks, let's keep going star.

Good evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Hi, I'm star Willie, a renter in district seven, a barista on furlough and a member of socialist alternative.

I'm calling to support the people's budget and the solidarity budget.

Please sponsor and support amendments put forth by Council Member Sawant.

Don't cut millions from libraries, parks, community centers, transportation, and affordable housing.

Build more tiny houses, fund the Share Wheel Hygiene Center, and emergency food programs.

Stop the cuts to working class people and increase the Amazon tax.

We shouldn't have to sacrifice our basic needs to get by.

Working people have lost hours and jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, while billionaires like Jeff Bezos increased their wealth by trillions of dollars.

Defund SPD by 50%.

SPD's loaded budget is more than twice what the city spends on human services, including elder care, homeless services, affordable housing, and neighborhoods, arts, and culture combined.

Fund the Community Elected Oversight Board and give it the power it needs to hold SPD accountable.

Fund BIPOC communities and community needs for all.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time tonight.

Jessica, Jessica Scoslow, Joey Wallace, and Lucas Vargas are the next three people.

Jessica, good evening.

Hi, good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I am calling, like a lot of people, in support of the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget, and also calling to encourage all council members to make good on your promise to defund SBD by a full 50% to get that money promptly to Black and Brown restorative justice programs and other community programs.

I am still very concerned about the mayor using the Jump Start Seattle money to cover the cost of budget cuts.

We fought really hard for that money, and specifically for it to go to affordable housing.

And also specifically, the first $18 million of it to go to affordable housing in the Central District, specifically for black households that have been pushed out of the Central District, and that is very important.

And working people and poor people do not need to pay for this crisis that they did not create.

Let's go where the money is.

The corporations have it.

Let's increase the jumpstart tax.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joey.

Good evening.

Yeah, that's great.

I just want to know what you guys are going to do about the illegal encampments and specifically the public health crisis with the drug addiction problem.

You know, these people are not going to go away willingly.

I hope you realize that.

And to be frank, a lot of these people are quite violent.

So be realistic here.

I know Andrew Lewis went to the London School of Economics, but is he really a genius?

Come on.

And how are you going to enforce this new policy of yours?

You're just gonna give free money to BIPOC communities?

What does that mean?

Free healthcare centers?

I mean, you gotta have a way to let these people contribute.

And that's through innovation.

Just think about it realistically here.

And I read an article in the KOLA News.

It also said that people are demanding these legal encampments be removed immediately.

So why aren't you doing anything about it?

Need law enforcement.

Enforce the law.

Yes, provide community service, but does do that with common sense and rationality.

Thank you.

And the next person is Lucas.

Good evening, Lucas.

Hi, Council, I'm Lucas, a volunteer with 350 Seattle and a member of UAW Local 4121. I'd like to say that we can do better as a city.

There's a disappointing paralysis that some of our elected officials seem to be experiencing, but it's important to recognize that Seattle can be an agent of change.

According to the Seattle Stranger, between 2017 and 2019, Seattle police killed at least 16 people, many of which were not investigated.

That is equal to the number of people killed by the police in the entire United Kingdom, the entire country of Belgium, and the entire country of the Netherlands over the past five years.

Given their performance, Seattle's police budget is an outrage to common sense, and the evidence does not support the idea that sensible reductions to the police budget will impact public safety.

I urge City Council to use their brains, do what's right for our communities, and pass the solidarity budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Michael Wilmarth, Max Report, and Laura Black.

Michael, good evening.

Hi, Michael.

Michael, you are up next, followed by Max Report and Laura Black.

Just star six unmute yourself, Michael.

Just one more second.

Michael, if you can hit star six, unmute.

Okay, we see you are still on the line and want to make sure to come back to you.

You just look muted on your end.

So we're going to go to Max and then Michael will come back to you.

Good evening, Max.

Thank you.

My name is Max and I'm a mental health counselor in Residential District 3. I'm calling to express my support for the solidarity budget and disapproval of Mayor Durkin's austerity budget.

If Seattle wants to call itself a progressive city, we need to put our money where our mouths are.

That means divesting from SBD by at least 50%, using those funds equitably in communities disproportionately impacted by our regressive and racist policies, preserving funding for parks, transit, and other vital services, investing in affordable housing and low-barrier shelters, decriminalizing poverty and homelessness, and implementing a Green New Deal and addressing our climate crisis and our crisis of inequality.

We're watching what you do here.

and will not accept half measures budgetary sleights of hands or other or or efforts to punt these decisions behind the veil of the Seattle process.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you very much.

Laura.

Laura Black you are up next.

Hi there.

My name is Laura Black.

I'm a renter in District 3 and I work for Solid Ground with our Rapid Rehousing Program for Families a federally funded contract through City of Seattle.

I'm speaking today in partnership with Wellspring Family Services about our rapid rehousing programs which help homeless families to obtain and maintain stable housing through supportive case management and short-term income-based rental assistance.

Our families were hit hard by the pandemic with most of them losing work and wages leading to our programs paying one and a half to two times their rental budget and extending services far beyond program design.

We are running out of money needed to keep our families housed.

Our contract monitors are allowing us to spend 2021 funds now to get through this year but we are very concerned about next year.

I encourage council to support increasing rapid rehousing funds by $750,000 in 2021. Thank you to council members who have already stepped up to support this critical program and thank you to our participant Carrie who will be speaking with you tonight in support of this important strategy to end homelessness.

In closing I would also like to urge the council to support the solidarity budget.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And we're going to go back to Michael, followed by Camila Walter.

Michael, hi, thanks for joining us again.

Hi, sorry about that.

My dumb phone was not cooperating.

My name is Michael Wilmarth, and I'm a resident of District 3. I'm calling this evening, like so many others, to voice my support for the solidarity budget.

How we allocate public resources is a direct reflection of our city's values.

that some of our communities are under-resourced and over-policed is not an accident, but a function of a long history of extraction, discrimination, and criminalization.

Rather than continue to finance an increasingly militarized police force whose primary role is the maintenance of a wildly unjust social order, I strongly urge the council to defund SPD by at least 50% and distribute those funds through a participatory budgeting process that centers building equity in an explicitly anti-racist and ecologically sustainable manner.

The principles espoused in the solidarity budget and the incredible coalition that has emerged in support of it provides a framework for transforming our city into a place that prioritizes taking care of its own.

Thank you.

I give up my time.

OK, thanks so much, Michael, for calling in.

I totally understand the phone issue, so no problem.

Camila, good evening.

Hi, my name is Camila and I work for Real Change.

I'm a resident of District 6. I, like so many people who have already stated this, want to urge the city council to take very seriously the needs in our city.

The solidarity budget outlined investments that will support equity and a more livable Seattle for all.

Please defund the Seattle Police Department by at least 50% and invest in Black communities.

Offer housing for all, decriminalize poverty, and support a Green New Deal for Seattle.

We are in crisis.

Our communities are hurting and are not safe.

It is cold outside.

Please support the solidarity budget and choose to do something different and take these issues seriously.

I also urge the council to fund the Seattle Street Sink which provides handwashing stations in high traffic outdoor areas and is accessible public health intervention at all.

I'd also encourage you to support the Purple Bag Program and Council Member Morales' Hope Team.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you.

The next three people are listed as not present, so if you are listening in, please do dial into the public testimony line.

The number should have been sent to you in the email that you received this confirmation.

Number 76, Brian Cook, number 78, Rebecca Michael, and number 79, Tracy Harrell.

Please do dial in if you can hear me, and we'd love to hear from you when we see you are present.

We'll go back to you.

The next three speakers will be Megan Shankar.

You'll see Cohen and Jackson Petrish.

Good evening.

Meghna.

Hi my name is Meghna Shankar and I'm a second year at UW and a member of Fridays for Future Seattle and Sunrise UW.

As many others have said tonight it's imperative that you vote to adopt the solidarity budget because our city's most vulnerable members especially Black and Indigenous people have been consistently harmed and marginalized by the Seattle Police Department and the city's inequitable policies.

At my school the UW Black Student Union has been tirelessly fighting for the university to recognize their demands to stop glorifying slave owners and to reduce the influence of UWPD.

But our city also needs to change so that my Black classmates and community members are given the equity that they deserve.

Reallocating the 2021 budget through the Solidarity Budget puts Seattle on the path to combat racial and climate injustice while ensuring that the people have a say in where the money comes from and how it's spent.

This money should not come from Jumpstart where it is also needed.

It should come from defunding SPD by 50 percent.

There are so many more places where this money is needed rather than a police department that commits violence against minorities and peaceful protesters.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Yossi Cohen, Jackson Petras, and Kerry McDowell.

I want to note as well, Matthew Lang, if you can hear me, you are listed as ready to sign up number 81, but not present.

So please dial in if you can, Matthew.

Yossi, good evening.

Hello, my name is Yossi Cohen.

I rent an apartment in District 3, just next to Cal Anderson.

In this meeting, you're hearing from organized activists that do not represent most of the Yatel.

A poll from the end of September shows that only 20% are supporting defunding the police by half.

I urge you, council members, please listen to polls.

Please make sure that you listen to regular people who live in the city.

Please reach out to everyday members of your community and make sure that you hear their voices.

Specifically, I want to call out Dan Strauss, Andrew Lewis, and Lisa Herbold.

You made promises in the past to increase the number of officers.

We, the residents of Seattle, still want to see you follow up on these promises.

I want to express support for the mayor's proposed budget, and I want to also express some objections to Lisa Herbold's economic duress legislation, which could end up hurting people who live and work in this city.

And last, please listen to Council Member Alex Pedersen when he's saying that every taxpayer dollar must be spent using smart goals.

specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

The next person is Jackson.

Good evening.

Hey, good evening.

Thank you.

My name is Jackson Peach, like the fruit.

I'm a renter in District 4. I'm a deeply disorganized and barely active person.

Thank you, previous caller.

Firstly, Council Member Peterson, you're absolutely right that the SPOG contract needs reform, but follow our first caller's advice and match that reform with shifting SPB duties away.

Otherwise, there's no point in trying to reform the contract.

Also, yes to the proposed tiny house village on Rose Belton 45th.

We need more and more diverse solutions.

And I think I've called in before and mentioned that I just moved here this year and have been deeply disappointed with Seattle's priorities so far.

Like people have said before, the budget is a document that shows our moral values.

So support the demands of the King County Equity Now Coalition in decriminalized Seattle and the Solidarity Budget, which many before me have more articulately articulated.

But just to remind you, let's play the hits.

Divest 50% from SPD or more.

Preserve vital services.

Green New Deal.

I spent a long time lucky enough to be able to dodge and smoke inside.

Not everyone was so lucky.

In other words, thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you for your time.

Carrie, good evening.

Hi, my name is Carrie McDowell.

I would like to say good evening to the council members.

Can you hear us?

I can.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

I am part of the Rapid Rehousing.

I am someone who has been helped by the Rapid Rehousing program.

Without Rapid Rehousing, my family would not be together today.

My children and I would not be living and pursuing housing and being able to stay in steady housing.

They have been a great part of keeping me basically housed from the point when I lost my housing to now, and they have given me the tools in order to keep that going.

I really appreciate your guys' time, and I really do feel the need that rapid rehousing definitely does need funding in order to keep more families off the streets.

You still have some time.

Anything else?

Well, basically, like I said, rapid rehousing is very important to families in order to keep them together.

I'm also a youth survivor, and that is part of what has really helped me is because the workers there, they actually look at you as not just a case by case, they look at you as an individual family.

And more programs like this are most definitely needed in order to help, you know.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Sorry, we had to cut you off at the end there.

That was very helpful.

Glad you got that last piece in.

The next person is Chris.

Good evening, Chris.

Chris Miles, Miham Lakhani, and Lisa Wheeler.

Lisa, we have you listed as not present, so please do dial in.

Good evening, Chris.

And Chris, just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, Chris, I see you listed as still muted, so I'm going to go back up to Brian Cook, and then we'll come back to you, Chris.

Brian, number 76, please go ahead.

We will unmute you here in just a second.

Great.

Hi, Brian.

Chris, can you hear me now?

All right.

I'm going to go ahead with who I see as listed as unmuted, and that is Chris.

Chris, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, Chris, go ahead, and then we'll go back to Brian.

Go ahead, Chris.

Okay, Brian, if that's you, you can go ahead.

Yeah.

Hi.

I'd like to say good evening to the Council Budget Committee members, my name is Brian Cook.

I live at the Share Shelter Gift of Grace.

Share supports the people's budget and a solidarity budget.

We oppose the sweeps, whether by police or any city workers shutting down the encampments.

I'd like to thank Council Member Sawant for authorizing the two budget actions we're focused on tonight.

The one is to increase the encampments and tiny house villages in Seattle and fund chair 10, 10 to three.

Like to thank council person Morales and Lewis for co-signing this.

The other is to help shares into our shelter state open 24 seven.

So we won't have to go back to nighttime only.

And like to thank council member Morales and Gonzales for this.

and Councilor Herbert for your concerns of the future of the shelters in the age of COVID and beyond.

I would like to speak about Council Member Solano's proposal for developing a hygiene center at the site of the Josephinium.

This hygiene center would help in containing the spread of the coronavirus that is also

I want to thank you, Brian, for calling in tonight.

I'm sorry we didn't get that last piece.

And if you could send in your comments, that'd be great.

And if there's anybody else who got cut off tonight, we want to make sure to hear the rest of your comments as well.

Chris, thanks for waiting.

My name is Chris Miller.

My testimony today is about my Thank you so much.

Maheem, you are up next.

Hello, everyone.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Maheem and I'm a D4 resident and a member of AFD Pro Staff Union.

I would like to use my time to make a supplication to all the city council members.

I would like you all to remember the time in July when all of you were condemning the incidents of police brutality happening nationwide and how close we all felt to making a systemic change.

Most of you were on board to make a near 50% budget cut to the SPD and use that money to cure the afflictions caused by COVID and general destitution in our city.

SPD has a history of protecting what police departments call bad apples with a fervor.

They have worked really hard as an institution to make themselves not accountable for their transgressions.

The mayor's budget that takes money out of affordable housing, libraries, COVID relief fund, transit, and parks is just a seal of approval on SPD's prolonged cruel and immoral behavior.

Instead of promoting progressive taxation initiatives, the mayor's budget takes money out of essential services, and I urge all of you to reject the mayor's budget and support the people's budget.

I work at a local community college.

My wife is a librarian.

This summer, while protesting shoulder-to-shoulder with our students and colleagues, the police shoved us physically and threatened us unprovoked.

From our work in education, we both see that what our community needs is resources.

Thank you very much for calling in.

The next three speakers are Lisa Wheeler, Doris Garcia, and Karen Gramling.

I have you all listed as not present.

Lisa, Doris, Karen.

So we're going to go ahead with Shannon Wells, Megan Tiana, and Emily MacArthur.

Shannon, good evening.

Oh, Shannon, we had you.

I was unmuted.

And then I just heard you mute yourself if you could hit.

There we go.

Hi.

Sorry for this.

Appreciate you.

Yeah, it's talking to me on the phone, and it's confusing.

Yes, I know.

And I'm probably making it more confusing.

So I apologize.

Thank you for being with us tonight.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Shannon Wells.

I live in District 2, and I've worked in District 7 for the last 18 years at the Showbox.

I'm asking council to restore the nightlife advocate position in the 2021 budget.

The nightlife advocate assists over 100 venues and has over 250 nightlife stakeholders.

These businesses employ thousands of people who are anxiously waiting to return to the work they love.

The advocate's work is based on relationships built over the past four years.

Our sector has tremendous under normal circumstances and has been devastated by the pandemic.

The nightlife position is not interchangeable with OED staff who work with restaurants, micro-businesses, and events permitting.

To take away nightlife, one advocate leaves us with piecemeal support in a time when we need laser-focused recovery.

Seattle is hemorrhaging cultural spaces and workers.

Music and nightlife are part of the heart of Seattle and feed an ecosystem of artists, cultural workers, interconnected businesses, and arts lovers.

We need a long-term investment in recovery, and we need our nightlife advocate who knows our industry and who we trust to support us every step of the way.

Please restore the nightlife advocate position.

And thank you, council members, Lewis, Herbold, and Morales for supporting this position.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Megan.

Good evening.

Hey, Megan, I see you listed as unmuted on my end.

Just maybe double check to make sure you're not muted on your own phone as well.

Okay am I unmuted.

Oh you're great.

Yes we can hear you now.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm Megan Tinney.

I use she her pronouns and I'm a junior at Nathan Hale High School.

I advocate for the solidarity budget because I can't I believe in divesting from the racism and investing in community.

The most efficient way to build safer communities is to stop it at its roots.

So investing in affordable housing health care and public safety as well as invest investing in clean energy and good jobs I think would really help Seattle actually stand up for what it calls to be like a good liberal city that cares about climate activism and racist policies.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Emily you are up next.

Good evening.

Hi my name is Emily McArthur.

I'm a Seattle renter and a member of Socialist Alternative and the People's Budget Movement which also stands with the Solidarity Budget.

You know I've watched my roommates lose their jobs.

Struggled to pay rent.

Struggled to pay tuition.

And I've marched in the Justice for George Floyd protest.

And tonight I'm gonna be speaking to urge the Democrats on the city council to join Council Member Shama Sawant in passing the people's budget, standing against the Mayor Durkin's austerity budget.

Durkin wants to shamefully cut over $200 million from the parks and community centers, transit, and even affordable housing.

This at a time when the majority major corporations like Starbucks and Amazon have been profiteering from this pandemic.

So what does it mean for politicians to say Black Lives Matter repeatedly and then pass a budget that puts the burden of the recession of the pandemic on marginalized communities and working people rather than on the wealthiest of our cities?

The People's Budget Movement is demanding that the city council stop the budget cuts and increase the tax Amazon and our movement one to defund the police by at least $170 million as Council Member Sawant has proposed.

Thanks to the grassroots organizing pledge by black faith leaders and the Amazon tax movement, we were able to win.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Karen Gramling.

Good evening, Karen.

Good evening, members of the City Council Budget Committee.

My name is Karen Gramling.

I live at Shares Tent City 3. Shares supports the people's budget and the solidarity budget.

We oppose the sweeps.

Any team that includes police or city workers is going out to encampments and shutting them down.

We support the HOPE team.

Thank you, Councilperson Swann for authoring the two budget actions we're focused on tonight.

One's to increase encampments in tiny house villages in Seattle and fund Shares Tent City 3. Thank you, Councilperson Morales and Lewis for co-signing this.

The others to help shares indoor shelters stay open 24 seven.

So they don't go back to nighttime only.

Thank you.

Council person Morales and Gonzalez for co-signing this and council person Herbold for your concern for the future of shelter in the age of COVID and beyond.

I have a master's degree, but I'm homeless now.

Shares tent city three allows me to be in a safe, fenced in sanitary violence and COVID free environment.

Share shelters offer effective, safe, and cheap solutions to homeless who aren't druggies or rapists.

support diversity and share shelters and encampments.

You still have a few seconds.

OK, great, thank you very much.

We appreciate you calling in tonight, Karen, and I look forward to hearing from some more folks on the line as well.

Sue Donaldson, followed by Anthony Saw and Flora Wright.

Sue, good evening.

Thanks for joining us.

One more time Sue.

There we go.

Well thank you to the council for taking public testimony tonight.

I'm Sue Donaldson a Library Foundation board member a District 4 resident and a former Seattle City Council member so I well know the tough task you have before you.

Earlier this evening Grace Nordoff addressed the funding needed to open the library branches earlier than the mayor's budget assumes.

The library recognizes that currently the city faces many crises, as all the testimony tonight reflects.

Social and racial justice, housing availability, the list is long and very important.

Among these challenges is the fiscal crisis.

As you know, all departments have proposed cuts.

The library can live within the proposed budget cuts, but will need additional funding if the council wants the library to add any new Thank you for all your enthusiastic support.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks for dialing in today, Sue.

Anthony, good evening.

Good evening, members of the City Council Budget Committee.

My name is Anthony Saul, I live at Sheriff's Tent City 3. Should suppress the people's budget and the solidarity budget.

We oppose the police and any team that includes police or city workers going out to encampments and shutting them down.

Thank you, Council President Sawant for authoring.

According to two budget actions we are focused on tonight.

One is to increase encampments and tiny house villages in Seattle and funds shares 10 city three.

Thank you council person Morales and Lewis for co-signing this.

The other is to help shares indoor shelters stay open 24 seven so they don't go back to nighttime only.

Thank you council person Morales and Gonzalez for co-signing this.

And council president Herbar for your concerns for the future of shelter in the age of COVID and beyond.

You can keep going.

It's okay.

We have a few more seconds.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, absolutely.

And folks, if you do hear the chime, you have about 10 to 20 seconds to wrap up.

Okay, let's keep going.

Flora, good evening.

And we are at number 95. Flora, thanks for waiting.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thanks for checking.

Hi, I'm Flora Wright from District 3. I'm a member of Sunrise Seattle and Washington Youth for Climate Justice.

I'm calling in support of the solidarity budget endorsed by over 150 local organizations.

The 2021 budget must defund SPD by at least 50% and reallocate these funds into Seattle's Black community and community-led health and safety systems.

The $100 million promised to the Black community by the mayor must be distributed through a participatory budgeting process and come from Seattle's policing budgets, not from vital public services, including Jump Start Seattle's revenue for pandemic relief and a Green New Deal.

I broadly ask for expansion of housing projects and dignified shelter, including community-owned affordable housing in the Central District.

Lastly, I urge council to expand the duress defense for more equitable Seattle.

The solidarity budget rejects the notion in the mayor's budget that we have to pick between funding our interconnected needs, all while millions of dollars are funneled into anti-Black violent policing.

This is an opportunity to invest in true community care.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in tonight.

The next person is Anitra Freeman and then Kathy Tambao.

Anitra, hi, good evening.

Let's wait one more second.

Anitra, just push star six one more time on your end.

Looks like you're still muted on my end.

Okay, Anitra, we'll come back to you.

Hello?

Oh, hi, Anitra.

I can hear you now.

Please go ahead.

It's mine.

I can hear you.

Okay, we'll stay with you, please go ahead I Thought Lisa was that Lisa take over for me, please Lisa what's your last name?

No problem Lisa go ahead Okay, and I guess I'm speaking on item regarding item 19 in regards to Okay, thank you.

In regards to the Trinity Episcopalian Parish, and because of time and because I know you folks have been on the phone and listening to us, I've come up with a quick analogy.

I hope that this will be okay.

I would like to engage you in a progressive dinner and a proverbial, sorry, I have a mask on, a proverbial conversation.

and you meet together, right?

So there's a dinner and there's a bunch of people and we're enjoying ourselves.

And this is how the 24 hour shelter is working for us is that we're actually being given the capability and the ability to get back up on our feet.

And so I'm requesting that you would include us in the budget for our shelter of 2021 so that we can continue on and move forward and leaning ahead to the things that are better for us so we can be all like each other.

Thank you so much and have a good evening.

Hey, you did great.

Thanks so much.

Anything else, Anitra?

Okay, we'll come back to you if you get the chance.

Just feel free to sign back up for public testimony.

Appreciate being on the line.

Kathy, good evening.

Kathy, you are followed by Jess Walsh and Sarah Kenny.

For Jess and Sarah, you're listed as number 98 and 99 and we have you not listed as present.

So please dial in now and we'll get a chance to hear from you as soon as you dial in.

Kathy, good evening.

Please go ahead.

Star six.

There we go.

Hi there.

Yeah, Kathy.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Kathy Tombaugh and I stay at the Wheel Women's Shelter at Trinity Episcopal Parish.

I am asking for your support for budget item 19 so that our shelter and those of our brothers and sisters in share can continue a 24 hour operation through 2021. Having shelter only at night means that I'm scared all the time because of the COVID and because of crimes against women.

But having shelter around the clock means safety and being able to take care of myself and stay clean and healthy.

I have been able to accomplish my goals of getting housing and staying COVID free because I was safe and well cared for in this wheel shelter this year of 2020. Thank you.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Thank you very much for your public testimony.

Jess Walsh and Sarah Kenny, we're going to come back to you if you dial in.

Seal is not listed here currently, and we'll go on to the next three.

Paul Quinones, followed by Gabriel Mahan, and then Leah Lucid.

Paul, number 100, thanks for being with us.

Yeah, Paul Quinones here, political director.

We work in Washington Fair Work Center.

As an organization that builds power with black and brown workers who are systematically under-invested in and over-policed, we'd first like to reaffirm we stand with black leaders who are calling on council to honor your commitment to divest from policing and invest in black communities.

This summer, we partnered with council to pass the nation's first hazard pay and paid sick days laws for gig workers, which led to thousands of workers seeing vital increased pay during the pandemic.

Through organizing, we learned that Postmates was not compliant with the law, work would impact the workers, and no less quickly responded moving Postmates to agree to settle for back pay and interest for 3,000 of the lowest paid workers in Seattle.

This and so much more is only possible with adequate funding for community-led enforcement of our labor laws.

And tonight, we're here to request an increase to OLS's Community Outreach and Education Funds of 8.5% to account for inflation since 2017. This is the fund that resources this vital work, and we further support the Domestic Workers Standards Board request to allocate $150,000 to OLS to implement their upcoming recommendations.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul.

And congratulations on the new gig.

Excited to hear your name.

Jess, good evening.

Thank you for joining us.

Jess, and then I see we still have Gabriel.

So let's go with Jess.

Star six, unmute Jess.

Hello.

Hi there.

Oh I'm so glad that worked.

Thanks for your patience.

Good evening.

My name is Jess Wallach.

I'm an organizer with 350 Seattle and I'm calling in because Seattle's Green New Deal is fundamentally about building a world where no person or place is disposable.

And that's why we as climate justice advocates in 350 Seattle support divesting from SPD by at least 50 percent.

We urge you, council, to make sure that investments in Black communities and community-led health and safety come from these funds divested from police and not from Jump Start Seattle.

This will critically free up revenue to reverse proposed cuts to transportation projects, parks, emergency COVID relief, Seattle's Green New Deal, and other vital city services.

We know that police don't create public safety.

The best way to guarantee public safety is to meet people's basic needs.

which in the midst of a housing crisis, global pandemic, economic recession and climate chaos is more important than ever.

We won't get there overnight, but there's common sense steps that we can take this budget cycle to begin walking towards a healthy future for all, like expanding access to dignified shelter, affordable housing, funding the Green New Deal Oversight Board, investing in good green jobs by transitioning low-income homes to clean energy, extending the police hiring freeze into 2021 and curbing the criminalization of poverty and mental illness by expanding the duress defense and de minimis ordinance.

Thank you very much.

Great.

Thank you.

And we'll go back to Gabriel.

Thank you for waiting.

Hey, my name is Gabriel.

I'm a renter in district three and a tech worker.

I'm calling in support of the people's budget and the solidarity budget.

Because in this time of global pandemic, we need so much.

We need affordable housing, especially here in District 3, and in particular in the gentrified Central District.

We need funds for tenants and tenants' rights to protect them from evictions.

We need emergency housing, and especially an expansion of tiny house villages.

And we also need to expand food programs.

And on top of all these things, we need to keep our city livable by maintaining funding to our parks and libraries.

And we also need to prepare for upcoming climate disaster by funding a Green New Deal for Seattle.

And because we need so much, we also need to know where this funding comes from, and that is so important.

We cannot come from TaxAmazon.

As a volunteer for the TaxAmazon movement, I helped over 30,000 Seattleites sign a petition, and I want to remind the council that we cannot use those funds for anything but affordable housing and not to fund the mayor's austerity budget.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Leah Lucid, Camille Baldwin-Bonnie, and Spencer Rawls.

Leah, good evening.

Good evening.

This is Leah in District 4. Thank you for hearing all of us tonight.

I'm part of the Coalition of North Seattle Neighborhood Groups in Solidarity with Black Lives.

I marched with the Mourning March Seattle, and I've personally witnessed the excessive force and violence of the militarized SPD at peaceful protests all summer and now fall.

I'm calling to urge you to divest from SPD by at least 50% and support the redistribution of funds divested from SPD through a participatory budgeting process.

To my council member, Alex Peterson, you keep doubling down about your admiration for the navigation teams and we really want you to hear us from working directly doing mutual aid work with our unhoused neighbors that they do not want the navigation team.

They have been directly connected to SPD violence and sweeps of encampments and have often made referrals that were functionally useless such as referring people to shelters without any actual available beds.

So I hope you realize from Karen, oh, sorry, Kelly, who called in earlier, agreeing with you, you're falling in the side of the oppressive, racist, neoliberal elitist.

It's not too late to learn about anti-racism and change your actions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next person is Camille.

Good evening.

Hey, Camille, one more time.

There we go.

Gotcha.

Okay.

My name is Camille, and I'm a constituent of Seattle City Council District 5. After a summer of protests and large-scale civil rights movement, I'm urging the city council to stand by their commitment to BIPOC communities by divesting from SPD and reinvesting in community.

We know that over 50% of 911 calls are non-criminal in nature.

Asking officers to solve problems of housing instability Drug addiction and mental health is costly, ineffective, and does not increase public safety.

The 100 million promised to black communities should come directly from the city's policing budgets.

This will free up resources for COVID relief, housing, and other priorities.

The 30 million equity funds should be reinstated.

I support the 2021 solidarity budget, and I urge the council to do the same.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you for calling.

Spencer good evening.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Hi my name is Spencer.

I'm a regular person who lives in District 2 in North Beacon Hill and I'm a member of Sunrise Seattle.

I'm calling in like a hundred plus other people today in support of the Solidarity Budget.

It's great that the city is planning to invest in black communities, but that money should come from defunding SPD, not from the jumpstart revenue intended for COVID relief and the local Green New Deal.

That money should also be allocated through participatory budgeting, not by the mayor's task force.

Criminalizing homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction doesn't do anything to actually solve those problems.

So instead of overfunding police like we currently do, we should invest in dignified emergency shelter affordable housing, COVID relief, mental health services, sanitation, public transit, and the Seattle Green New Deal.

That will actually do something to solve those problems.

We deserve a budget that provides for the health and safety of everyone, not just the affluent.

Please be on the right side of history and pass a budget that invests in the future equitably for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Chloe, Yo, Andrea G.

and Scotty Schools.

Andrea, you are number 106 and we see you listed as not present.

So if you could please dial in, we'll get to you.

When you dial in.

Chloe, you are number 105. Go ahead.

Hi, this is Morgan.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thanks.

Awesome.

Hi good evening everyone.

My name is Chloe.

I am a renter in District 7 in Belltown and a member of Sunrise Seattle.

Like most everyone here I'm just calling in today in support of the solidarity budget.

I urge you all to defund SPD by at least 50 percent and to reinvest those funds into black communities and community led health and safety systems.

As y'all probably know, we're entering month eight into the pandemic, so I also urge you to fund COVID relief, affordable housing, and Seattle's Green New Deal.

Instead of, you know, wasting vital money and resources criminalizing homelessness and poverty, we deserve a budget that meets the scale of the crisis that we're in and actually invests in our communities for years to come.

So please show us that you have the courage to transform our society into one that values Black lives and prioritizes a just equitable future so that we can survive this pandemic and climate apocalypse.

Thank you and I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you very much.

Andrea we still see you as listed as not present so we're going to go to Scotty Schools.

Good evening Scotty.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Scott Shuler.

I'm a resident that shares the Vet House Shelter.

I wanted to speak to you tonight specifically about Budget Action 19 proposed by Council Member Sawant, which allowed 24-7 operations of shelters to continue for the foreseeable future.

The gentleman wasn't far off the mark earlier when he said these people aren't going away.

That is correct, sir.

If we do not do anything, these people aren't going away.

I can assure you, however, that I have no intention of staying in shelters indefinitely.

I, like everyone else, found myself in a situation that I couldn't predict, and in doing the best that I can to get out of that situation, the shelter has been critical in allowing that to happen.

However, if it's not 24-7, there is no solid footing for me to stand on.

It's kind of like being out to sea.

Being homeless is like being washed overboard.

Throwing a life raft to keep your head above water, but bringing someone back on the ship or getting them on solid ground actually allows them to re-evaluate their situation and get back on their feet again.

I urge all council members to support this critical budget action so that we can all continue moving forward with sure footing, playing on solid ground in such uncertain times.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

We are going to move on the next three speakers.

Let's see, Delmis Agueta, Devon O'Donnell, and Evan Gerthofer.

Delmeis, you are up next, and please do correct my pronunciation.

Just star, six, seven, mute yourself.

While you're doing that, I was gonna say I saw Sarah Kenny, who was present, and happy to go back to Sarah.

Sarah, I just saw you listed as not present again, so I apologize for that.

Oh, if you're there, we'll come back to you.

Delmeis, can you hear me?

Star, six, seven, mute yourself.

Okay, let's go back to Sarah quickly and then we'll come back to Delma.

Sarah, good evening.

Thanks for waiting.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, my name is Sarah Kenny.

I live in District 3 and work for Wellspring Family Services in our Rapid Rehousing for Families program.

As our partner Laura from Solid Ground said earlier, our programs have been hit hard by COVID-19 with insufficient employment opportunities and virtual schooling barriers.

Parents in the program are not able to obtain needed income to pay their rent.

It would be devastating to see previously homeless families face homelessness again during such dangerous times.

We are running out of money needed to keep families housed and our clients are not eligible for community rent assistance programs.

We are asking you to provide additional rental assistance funds in 2021 for family rapid rehousing programs to ensure that we maintain our commitment to families and help them maintain stable housing during these uncertain times.

Thank you to council members who have already stepped up to support this critical program.

And thank you to our participants Grecia and Ricardo who will be speaking later tonight in support of this important strategy to end homelessness.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for calling in.

The next person, we'll go back to Delme.

Just want to double check, Agueta, if we're saying your last name.

Great.

I see you as unmuted.

Please go ahead.

Hello.

My name is Delme Sargueta from Casa Latina.

Can you hear me?

Hello.

Oh, we could still hear you.

Thank you so much, oh.

Okay, we're gonna keep you on the line there, and if we can get you back in, we're gonna come back to you, because we could hear you well.

Okay, Devin, Devin O'Donnell, and then let's go back to Delmay, if you are with us, we would love to hear from you.

Devin, star six.

Hello.

Hello.

Hi there.

All right.

over the safety and sanctity of the people you claim to represent.

You show your cowardice and incompetence.

It's freezing cold tonight.

People will die.

Shame on the city for failing to act during the smoke and now during the freezing temperatures.

During this pandemic and the cold, the city is starting to charge for buses again.

Many people do not have access to heat and rely on buses for both transportation to work, medical appointments, groceries, and the chance to heat up in this freezing temperature.

To resume charging when people haven't had income in months is horrible.

Stop embedding regressive policies and invest in the communities.

You know the demands.

I don't understand how you succumb to pigs who make more money than you.

You can pull their budgets away from them.

Don't hold up.

Act now and destroy the police.

Save thousands of lives.

Hey, I'm going to go back to Delmase.

Hey, Delmase Agueta, if you can still hear me, we'd still love to hear from you.

Hi.

Sorry that it wasn't coming through.

So let's try that again.

I see you unmuted.

Hello.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

My name is Dermis Argueta, but please, I need an interpreter, please.

Oh, OK.

Lo siento.

Yo puedo, si esta bien con vos.

Si, perfecto.

Okay.

Folks, I'm going to try to translate and we're going to give the over two minutes of time.

Apologies as well.

We do like to have professional translators with us, but I will give it my best today.

Thank you for bearing with us.

Señora, voy a tratar, usualmente queremos usar una profesional, pero voy a tratar hablar en español por vos.

Okay.

Muchas gracias.

De nada.

Buenas.

Mi nombre es Delmis Argueta.

Soy limpiadora de casas y en ocasiones hago de niñera también trabajo.

Formo parte del grupo de productoras de Casa Latina.

Okay.

My name is Delmis Argueta.

I am a domestic worker.

I work cleaning houses and I'm also part of Casa Latina.

As part of the group from Casa Latina, who is part of the domestic workers, we fought very hard to fight for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

We're not just interested in sort of the changes we need to work on enforcement and to make sure that our employers also know the rules of the enforcement.

Si, para que ellos reconozcan que son empleadores y sepan que tienen que cumplir la ley.

That our employers know that we're cleaners and as employers they need to know and conform with the law.

Es por eso que pido a este consejo invertir más dinero en los fondos para la educación, el alcance y el cumplimiento de la ordenanza.

It's because of this that I'm asking the City Council to put more funding towards the Office of Labor Standards.

¿Más dinero y qué más?

Más fondos para la educación, el alcance y el cumplimiento de la ordenanza.

more funding for the Office of Labor Standards and making sure that there's more outreach funds as well to make sure more people are aware of the law.

It's very important that this happens because everybody needs to know the new law and that is also true for domestic workers.

They need to be able to have these protections as well.

This is it.

This is it.

Thank you so very much for your help and have a good night.

Okay, thank you.

I said, thank you very much for your time today.

I'm trying in the moment to provide translation, but I hope that everybody got a general sense of what she was saying.

So thank you for bearing with me.

And thank you very much.

Okay, Evan, I see you listed as next and thanks for being ready.

Hi, my name is Evan Gerthoffer.

I'm a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 46. I live in District 3. I'm a renter.

I work in Seattle and I'm a member of a group Union for Black Lives Matter that includes rank and file trade union membership who wants to express that working people are in solidarity and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

People from all walks of life are speaking up loud and clear that the City Council needs to address the issues facing our BIPOC neighbors, our houseless neighbors, and every working person in Seattle.

City Council needs to support the solidarity budget and direct community involvement in the funds that we will be redistributing once SPD's bloated budget has been defunded by at least 50%.

SPD does not keep the people of this city safe.

They have brutalized the most vulnerable people of our city for years, and in the past year, have brutalized anyone and everyone willing to make their voices heard.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

The next three people are Carrie Cooley-Strom, Sharon Hummel, and Sheridan Grant.

Sheridan, I see you listed as not present, so just dial in if you get the chance.

Carrie, good evening.

And star six to unmute yourself.

Hey, Carrie, I see you listed as still muted on my end.

If you can hit star six one more time.

Okay, I'm going to come back to you, Carrie.

We're going to go to number 112, which is Sharon.

Good evening, Sharon.

Hey Sharon, I see you also is still muted on our end.

So Sharon and Carrie, just star six unmute.

Okay.

Sharon, I'm gonna come back to you as well.

If you have any technical issues, please go ahead and email us.

And the next person we have is Norman Webb.

Norman, good evening.

I see you are unmuted.

Can you hear us?

This is Norman Webb.

Excellent.

Hi, Norman.

Please go ahead.

Okay, good.

I'm Norman Webb and I'm in District 4. I support a request for the report on 911 response times because I'm concerned that changes in the police department may adversely affect response time to 911 calls.

I had a stroke in 2016 and my wife called 9-1-1 immediately.

Responders came within minutes.

I was in the hospital shortly.

Because of the quick response, I now have only a few side effects to the stroke.

I believe 9-1-1 response time is very important to the health and safety for all residents.

Before the council takes action that may have an impact on 9-1-1 calls, I think it's critical that you get some information on what the impact of such action will be.

We live in emotional times, I know that.

But action by our leaders should be based on reason and decision-making, sound decision-making.

This requires making some effort on the study and impact of potentially far-reaching and critical actions.

Thank you very much.

Excellent.

Thank you very much for your testimony tonight.

Before we go further, I want to note that we have Carrie Coonley-Strom and Sharon Hemel.

We were having a A little hard time getting you unmuted, so before we go ahead, Carrie, I see you up there.

It still says you're muted.

If you could do star six one more time for us.

Okay.

Sorry, Carrie, for the...

for the delay here.

Sharon, do you want to try and push star six?

And let me see if I can get you teed up.

Oh, great.

It's working for you, Sharon.

And why don't we keep Carrie listed there so that we can see if they come unmuted as well.

Why don't you go ahead, Sharon?

Thanks for waiting.

Okay, after all that, I don't hear you.

If you could check your phone to see if it's muted on your own device too.

Sharon can you hear me?

Okay.

No Sharon's there.

Okay that's okay.

Hi Sharon.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

I know you've been waiting a long time.

We didn't want to keep going so thanks for waiting.

Go ahead.

Well I'm Sharon Hamill and I am a 30-year resident of District 2 and I am here in support of the essential role of libraries in our community and that You know a lot of what has been said tonight just shows that a valuable role the library can play.

We thank all the council members for their enthusiastic support of the library.

And as you know Seattleites love their libraries and we appreciate all your efforts to preserve quality programs in the branches for all the residents and in particular for those most in need and those historically left out.

You know I mean.

We're essential to a healthy and equitable city.

We're supportive of increasing the budget so that the mayor's proposed budget so that we can support the library's financial needs as we open and provide safe services at our branches.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

And let's try one more time with Carrie.

Carrie, if you can hear me.

Still shows you as muted, just star six.

As we wait to see if Carrie's line comes unmuted, the next three speakers are Dee Powers, Chris Ingersoll, and Joey McAllister.

Dee and Chris, it shows you are not present, so please do dial in and we'll come back to you.

Carrie, I hate to move on because I know you've been waiting for a while and it shows you as solicitous present.

Carrie, if you want to email our office, we are happy to help troubleshoot or the email that you got as a note for signing up for public testimony today.

Okay, let's go to Joey.

Good evening, Joey.

Good afternoon city council members.

My name is Joey McAllister.

I live at the brand new Nickelsville central district tiny house village.

Nickelsville supports the people's budget and would like to thank council members who want for including small grass roots organizations for funding.

Nickelsville was the first organization to implement the tiny house concept.

We are self-managed and democratically run system here.

Diversity in encampments will help the growing need to house everyone instead of all the tiny house villages.

Thank you very much.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Patricia Hayden, Chris Anderson, and Reed Olson.

Chris and Reed, we see you listed as not present, so please do dial in and we'll get to you.

Patricia, good evening.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

And after Patricia, if we don't hear from Chris or Reed, then we will go to Stephen Gross, Craig Anderson, and John Grant.

Patricia, hi.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening.

I'm Patricia Hayton, the chief program officer of the YWCA and co-chair of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

SHSC is recommending applying a framework for re-envisioning the city's budget with new priorities to focus on equitable recovery that includes sustaining community and health and human services.

We fully support the city council's creating Jumpstart Progressive Revenue Source while also making important new investments.

We also urge council to restore proposed cuts to services like expanded legal defense network and the statewide poverty action network.

We feel that council can go further to work towards structural changes by divesting institutional responses that harm communities and invest in more supportive responses.

And finally, we urge city council to take the counsel of black led community organizations for the good of the entire community and put further steps in place in 2021 than those outlined by the mayor's proposed budget.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for calling in.

The next person who's present is Stephen Gross, number 121. Hello, Stephen.

Hello.

My name is Stephen Gross, and I'm a renter in District 3. I believe it is time to invest in equity.

I support at least a 50 percent divestment in SPD and an allocation of those funds to support black and brown communities as well as for the decriminalization of homelessness and offering support to the homeless community in Seattle.

Mayor Jenny Durkan's proposed plan is an insult to the people of Seattle and it is time for the council to move forward in support of all the communities in Seattle not just those that profit from the status quo.

Increase the tax on Amazon other large corporations and the rich.

I support the people's budget Seattle's Green New Deal and the solidarity budget.

Black Lives Matter.

I yield my time.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And the next person is Craig Anderson.

Good evening Craig.

Good evening.

My name is Craig Anderson.

I'm 65 years old.

I live in the share indoor shelter share supports the people's budget and the solidarity budget share also supports the whole hope team.

Black Lives Matter and defunding SPD by at least 50 percent.

I'd like to thank council members so far for her authorship of these budget actions.

Number one, please increase the number of tiny house villages and please fund SHARE's Tent City 3. Two, help SHARE indoor shelters stay open 24 hours so we don't have to go back to nights only.

In my shelter, 60% of the residents are over 60 years old.

Too old to be walking the streets or clogging the public libraries.

SHARE needs 24-hour shelters to keep our members safe and healthy.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for calling in tonight.

And John, good evening.

Good evening, members of the City Council Budget Committee.

My name is Christopher Anderson.

I'm at SHARE's bunkhouse.

As you've heard, SHARE supports the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget.

We also support the HOPE Team, not sweeps done by teams that include police or city workers.

Thanks again, Council Member Chwant, for the two budget actions we focused on tonight.

First, for increasing encampments and tiny house villages in Seattle, and funding SHARE's 10-City-3.

I'd like to thank Council Member Morales and Lewis for co-signing.

Second, the assistance given to SHARE's indoor shelters, allowing them 24-7, As you've heard, it's helped greatly.

Thank you from Councilmembers Morales and Gonzalez for co-signing this, and to Councilmember Herbold for your concern on the indoor shelters during the COVID crisis and beyond.

City Council support for an estimated $100,000 to renovate a hygiene center would bring online a much-needed commercial washer and dryer, showers, and hygiene supplies.

We've worked as a coalition partners to help jumpstart the tax Amazon source, of city funding that the city is now lucky to have.

Hopefully this council can see these requests are meaningful allocations that better the daily lives of those struggling with homelessness in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And then we'll hear from John and then we'll go back to Carrie and Reed.

So John, please go ahead.

John, one more time on star six.

Okay, there you go.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Great.

My name is John Grant.

I'm a District Two resident.

I'm here with Wellspring Family Services.

calling in regards to the rapid rehousing crisis in terms of funding.

I have one of our families on the line, and I wanted to turn over so that she could provide her testimony.

Her name is Grecia Guzman.

So Grecia, why don't you go ahead.

Hello, Councilmembers.

My name is Grecia Guzman Carranza, and I live with my family in Skyway.

We moved into our apartment through Wellsprings Rapid Rehousing in May after two years in our car with family.

and a poor condition trailer and shelters.

We're here to support Wellsprings and Solid Grounds rent assistance proposals for rapid rehousing families.

Staying in a shelter at the beginning of COVID with two kids and several risk factors really worsened my mental health.

It took three months longer than we expected to find a place because of offices being closed due to COVID making it hard to talk to these staff and looking at unions.

It was also harder to find work between my spouse and I.

One of us out of a job for almost a month and the other one was working only part time.

But while space gave.

Let's keep the time going for them since they were a group.

Thank you so much, John.

And if you could have your team send the rest of the public testimony, that would be great.

Okay, let's go back to- Council Member, we're- Oh, you're still there.

Okay, go ahead.

Just a few more seconds.

I didn't realize that we had two of you on the line.

So we want to give you another few seconds to wrap up for testimony.

Thank you so much.

Grecia, please continue.

It was also hard to find work between both of us.

One of us was only working part-time, and the other one didn't have work at all.

But rapid rehousing helped us pay for our moving costs and a few months of rent.

That helped us stay out of crisis and keep us, you know, getting to our jobs.

Without rapid rehousing, we'd still be unhoused.

This has been a difficult journey.

Sometimes I wanted to give up.

But with the structure and support Rapid Rehousing gave us, we've been able to keep moving forward.

Thank you so kindly for your time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Okay, to reorient, folks, we're gonna go to Carrie, who we called earlier, number 111, Reed, number 120, and then we will continue.

The three people after Reed will be Yolanda Matthews, Hannah Lake, and Andrew Constantino, who we also have as not listed as present, so please do dial in Andrew.

Okay, going back to Carrie.

Carrie, thank you for your patience.

Let's get back to you, and you have the floor.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, Gary, I see you still muted, Aaron.

I'm sorry to miss you.

Please do feel free to send us a message if you get back in.

Reed, please go ahead.

Thanks for waiting.

And Reed, it shows you as muted still on my end as well.

If you wanna hit star six one more time.

I saw you, there we go.

Hi there.

Hi.

My name is Reed Olsen and I live in District 2. I'm calling to support solidarity budget and I urge you to divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and support the distribution of funds divested from SPD through a participatory budget process.

I'm asking that you make sure that investments in Black communities and community-led health care and safety come from funds divested from the police.

Just over a year ago I was violently attacked by a stranger.

In my moment of need I was kept alive by friends and paramedics.

police cannot be expected to prevent violence.

At such a moment of great need in a real world where real people live and die, where I have watched the police behave more like my attacker than keepers of the peace, please, I beg of you all to defund the police by 50% and invest in communities and the living, breathing people of Seattle for a more peaceful and just world.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thanks for calling in tonight.

The next person we have is Yolanda.

Good evening, Yolanda.

Hey Yolanda.

Thanks so much for being here.

Hello.

Hi there.

Hi.

Good evening.

My name is Yolanda Matthews.

I'm a resident of District 2 an organizer with Puget Sound SAGE and we support the solidarity budget for 2021. I'm calling to urge you to divest from SPD by minimum 50 percent and support distribution of funds divested from SPD through a participatory budgeting process.

I'm also asking that you please extend the hiring freeze of the SPD into 2021, and that if police quit or retire, to not support investments to replace them.

As it stands currently in our society, police do not create public safety.

They create chaos and provoke violence, as evidenced once again by the senseless killing of another young black, known mentally ill man in Philadelphia just last night.

I call on all members of this city council Seattle City Council to be the example of change that not only Seattle needs, but that this country is literally burning for.

The $100 million promised by the mayor for Black communities should come from the city's policing budget to truly invest in Black communities like Africatown's Community Land Trust and community-led health and safety.

Funds should be divested from police, prosecutors, and courts, not from jumpstart Seattle funds or other city funds.

We ask that you support common sense measures that care for our communities rather than policing them.

Excellent.

Thank you, Yolanda.

Hannah, good evening.

Hi, I'm Hannah Lake and I live at North Lake Nicholsville.

I support Shawna's bill to fund self-managed homeless encampments and tiny house villages with $800,000.

Self-management gives people a sense of dignity and responsibility that they can carry over into their lives and in permanent housing.

Thank you Council Member Sawant for proposing this bill.

It would help us so very much and it would help all the people that, well not all the people, but many people that are struggling outside right now.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And Andrew Constantino, we have you listed as not present, so please do dial in.

The next three speakers are Annie Coppola, Carl Furnier, and Michelle Lucas.

Those are numbers 127, 128, and 129. Good evening, Annie.

Hi.

Good evening, members of the City Council Budget Committee.

My name is Annie Coppola.

I live at Sherriff's University in Lucerne, Ulu.

Sherriff supports the people's budget and the solidary budget.

We also sweeps any team that includes police or city workers going out to encampments and shutting them down.

Thank you Councilperson Savant for authorizing two budget actions we are focused on tonight.

One is to increase encampments and tiny house villages in Seattle and fund Sherriff's Tent City 3. Thank you, Councilperson Morales and Lewis for co-signing this.

The other is to help shares indoor shelters stay open 24 seven so they don't go back into nighttime only.

Thank you, Councilperson Morales and Gonzalez for co-signing this.

And your Councilperson Herbold for your concern for the future of the shelter and the age of COVID and beyond.

And my main points tonight are COVID being in half capacity, six feet apart, We simply need more real estate, especially with rent and foreclosures going on.

Designated areas specifically for tents, tiny houses, and encampments instead of random tents and people on the streets.

24-hour indoors.

Thank you very much, Annie.

Carol, good evening.

Hey, Carol, we see you as muted on our end still.

If you want to hit star six one more time.

Great.

Hi there.

Hello.

Hi.

What name did you call, please?

Hey, Nature, we called Carol Fournier.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Do I have your name?

Yeah.

Wonderful.

Hi, Carol.

We can hear you.

Oh, okay, okay.

Well, my name is Carol Forney, and I stay at the Wheel Woman Shelter at Trinity Episcopal Parish.

And I am asking for your support for budget item number 19, so that our shelter and those of our brothers and sisters and share can continue 24-hour operation to 2021. Just go straight to that part.

And then having shelter around the clock.

I'm 77 years old.

And this shelter is a woman's shelter, a 24-hour shelter.

It means being able to rest for me and eat in peace.

And we get to have a good day.

Oh, is it over?

Yeah.

Oh, you can keep going.

There's a few more seconds.

Okay, in a community with friends who are watching out for myself and each other.

And I feel like I'm getting my life back.

Please don't send me and my friends back outside.

Thank you very much.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Carol.

Appreciate your time tonight.

Good evening, Michelle, you are next.

Thank you, council members.

My name is Michelle Lucas, and I'm the directing attorney of the Tenant Law Center, a renter, and a D3 resident.

The mayor's budget cut $230,000 from eviction prevention funds, and I urge the council to increase or at least maintain this amount.

We're thankful for the council's support in the past, but we're in the middle of an unprecedented housing crisis now.

The funds being cut support legal aid attorneys who keep families in their homes.

It supports partnerships among organizations, providing tenant info sessions in multiple languages, because everyone has a right to understand the laws that protect them.

Maintaining these funds is a race equity issue.

We know that COVID-19 more drastically impacts communities of color.

This funding allows programs like the Tenant Law Center to provide targeted assistance to those most in need, most often our BIPOC community members.

Having a roof over our heads is a right, not a privilege, and too often it requires legal representation or advocacy.

to protect the most basic human needs.

People who are unable to pay their rent are certainly unable to pay for an attorney, and we're awaiting an inevitable flood of evictions when the moratorium lifts.

Because of this, we urge the council to increase or maintain the funding for eviction prevention services.

Thanks.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Ansley Mayo, then Susan Heth and Karen Boe.

along with Ronaldo Sims.

For Ronaldo and Karen, numbers 133 and 132, we show you as listed as not present, so please do dial in.

Until then, let's hear from Ansley Mayo, number 130.