Hello, I'm your host, Brian Kalanian.
How is Seattle handling a record heat wave?
Where are new funds for COVID relief heading in our community?
And what's the City Council's new approach on regulating how police use less lethal weapons for crowd control at demonstrations or rallies?
Council Public Safety Chair Lisa Herbold joins me to answer these questions and the ones you're sending in, too, next on Council Edition.
We don't want the eviction moratorium to be lifted.
for people have a chance to help them pay their rent
And we are joined this month by Councilmember Lisa Herbold from District 1. Councilmember, thank you very much for joining us here.
I wanted to talk about an important issue that's been breaking down over the last couple of days here as we're taping this show here.
Some record high temperatures for Seattle.
The super hot weather can be dangerous for a lot of people, and the situation gets even more troubling when you consider how early we are in the summer season here.
I want to have you tell us what you've been doing to help people in your district, citywide too, and some thoughts on how to prepare for later this summer.
Sure, the city has been working really hard on addressing the impacts of this incredibly concerning heat wave, record-breaking heat, between opening up cooling centers, fixing water fountains, delivering water.
And one of the things that I've been really focused on is the dry, hot conditions and how they contribute to fire risk.
We know that the Seattle Fire Department has been out there working hard on fighting fires.
On Sunday alone, they responded to six brush and bark fires.
And I just really want to take this opportunity as we are coming up on Independence Day, July 4th, that the use of fireworks in these conditions is extremely dangerous.
They are not only fire risks, but their use can be deadly.
You may remember two years ago in White Center, just south of West Seattle, there was a burning house, a death from smoke inhalation, and the displacement of 12 residents from a neighboring home, and that all resulted from the use of fireworks.
So please, don't light fireworks.
Also dispose of smoking materials, improper receptacles and douse in water.
Make sure that change or other car parts are not dragging from your vehicle and do not park on tall grass.
All right.
A lot to consider here this summer.
Thank you for for breaking that this part of it down.
We're also recording the show just as the expiration of the eviction moratorium has been moved again from June 30th to September 30th here in the city and statewide.
You work with council members Morales and Lewis back in May on some legislation to protect nonprofits and small businesses that are behind on rent.
But I want to talk about this.
Is this help from the cou when the rent comes due i in listening to the govern like he's really trying t
Yeah, I think an unanswered question about whether or not the resources that we're making available for rent assistance is sufficient.
And one of the reasons why we don't know is because there are so many applications that have come in that have not yet been processed.
And that's really the reason why we've at the city level as well as at the state level have expanded the eviction moratorium because we don't want the eviction moratorium to be lifted before people have a chance to receive funding to help them pay their rent, before landlords have a chance to see that funding as well.
So it's been very frustrating to me as a policymaker, then that we have allocated significant funds.
By the end of the year, I think we're anticipating that we will have allocated about, $50 million towards rent assistance, both for small and large landlords.
And we really need to see those dollars get out the door in order for us to do a good assessment of what the remaining need is.
Yeah, yeah.
And let me follow up on that question with regard to landlords, especially.
There are some housing p saying the continued exte and the work by the Counci laws are causing serious housing market.
I got an landlord on this.
Corey r housing providers are sel we are losing supply.
It' it's largely driven by le about rental housing.
Th Thank you for that email.
And I want to talk to you about this council member because I know you've spoken in recent meetings here about helping smaller landlords, especially here.
Some who haven't received rental payments for 16 months and counting.
What is your message to landlords right now?
Yeah, I mean, it's really important, I think, for the city to recognize the needs of small landlords, and that's why again we have set up a separate pool of funds for small landlords as far as the city allocation.
$8 million of the dollars that we have previously allocated is specifically for tenants and small landlords, $7 million to assist larger landlords.
The county also has separate pools of funds for small and large landlords.
They have allocated about $22.5 million for tenants and small landlords and $75 million for large landlords.
One of the things that I have found out from talking to constituents who happen to be landlords is that there is, on occasion, there's a situation where a tenant isn't availing themselves of the resources, the rent assistance resources.
They're not applying for assistance.
And that's why I worked really hard with the Office of Housing and the United Way to set up a separate portal for landlords to access.
The landlords themselves can apply for assistance.
They don't have to depend on a tenant applying for the assistance.
And then the United Way will serve as sort of the interface between the landlord and the program to make sure that any information that is needed from the tenant is able to be attained.
That sounds like some good news for landlords.
Just a quick question on this.
I know the city of Seattle is trying to move out some of this funding.
The county is too.
Why is it taking so long for this to happen?
You know, again, I am frustrated that it is taking so long.
It is being allocated through other programs.
I know last year we were able to get out a significant sum of dollars in that first tranche.
It is being allocated through other programs funded by the state, by the county.
and by the city, and I know that we are intending to get these dollars out the door.
I really don't have a lot of good information about why it's taking so long, though.
Yeah, I know this has been a challenge for a lot of people, but thank you for taking on that question.
I want to move on to the council's recent approval of the first half of the American Rescue Plan Act funding, or ARPA, the city calling this the Seattle Rescue Plan.
I want to talk about this generally before we dive into the specific details of your work with arts and culture organizations.
with this first wave of f million dollars.
You, the out what that really mean going to see a better ci
Sure.
So, I mean, again, this is once in a lifetime funding.
It's intended to invest in the city and the existing inequities in our economy that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
You know, as you say, the mayor and the council echo the call of President Biden to work to build back better.
And that's exactly what that means is it's recognizing that we have structural inequities in our economy that have been with us for a long time.
And in order to build back better, we need to make sure that we're targeting these resources to those structural inequities.
And so what that means for Seattle Rescue Plan, It means funding to address housing and homelessness needs, funding for community and small business recovery, including downtown, funding for community well-being, such as direct cash assistance to particular groups of workers that have been suffering.
One of the community well-being items that I allocated or advocated, I should say, to be included in the package as proposed was $225,000 for diaper distribution for organizations like our own Westside Baby.
Diaper need is really closely linked to depression in new moms, more so than even hunger, and diapers cost $80 to $100 a month.
16% of Seattle families struggle to afford diapers, and there's been an 86% increase in the number of diapers that were distributed to children and families during the pandemic.
So, you know, in the community well-being bucket, it's recognizing what is referred to as sort of the shadow pandemic, some of the behavioral, emotional, and mental health needs that are associated with the pandemic, whether or not it's an increase in suicide, increase in domestic violence in the home, and increase in community safety needs just generally in our city.
Yeah, thank you for breaking that down on the large and district level too, but I want to focus on some of the funding that you've secured for the arts and culture sector in Seattle.
So this part of our economy, as you know, has been absolutely demolished by the pandemic and is likely going to take a lot longer to rebuild.
So you worked on some legislation to create grants for arts and cultural organizations and also some direct financial assistance for individual artists and creative workers.
What impact are you hoping to see from this?
I know arts and culture make up a bigger part of our economy than a lot of people might realize.
That's right.
Yeah, that is absolutely true.
The Creative Economy Study found that in Seattle, the creative sector drives a full 18% of our city's gross domestic product, and that's four times the national average.
So if you're talking about helping our economy revive in the wake of the pandemic, if you're going to do that, you have to have the creative economy at the table.
And in past COVID relief packages, we have considered arts organizations, cultural organizations to be small businesses eligible for funding.
But what we found is that they weren't accessing the funding because it was going through the Office of Economic Development.
And what we really need is we need the Seattle Arts Office who works with these small arts organizations to really take the lead on getting funds for small arts and cultural organizations out the door using the grant program that they have for some of those groups.
The other piece that I worked on on this is related to a direct assistance to artists.
recognizing that artists themselves are the types of workers that are, again, suffering in this pandemic, and we really need to look at ways to support them.
And so the amendment included in this package expresses the council's intent to provide funding to direct relief to artists.
And just a couple other interesting, I think, facts about the arts community.
Washington State employment security data shows that the arts sector had the highest job loss of any sector in King County at 55%.
And the Census Bureau reports that this sector is likely to take longer than most other sectors to recover.
More than a third of arts and cultural workers have gone hungry at some point during the pandemic, according to the America for the Arts survey, and 80% of income-claiming musicians have sold an instrument to make ends meet.
right?
A lot going on th fund set up for those ind sure you check with the O folks.
If you're interes of this because it's an of the economic recovery.
on one more note of covid The council is now considering ending the $4 an hour hazard pay boost for grocery workers sometime later on this summer.
I know you've heard from a few stakeholders on this issue in the Council's Committee on Labor.
Just some thoughts about this.
Is now the time to consider ending this pay boost?
Do you think this program was successful?
Some thoughts about this, please.
Yeah, we heard a panel presentation from from from workers and from the representatives of the grocery industry in our mosque.
It is committee last week.
We know grocery workers have been essential workers since day one of the pandemic when offices around the country and the world began closing up grocery store workers often the pandemic.
in the This is, I think, an evolving question.
I think it's important that we continue to listen to the CDC and our local health experts so we know how we should begin lifting restrictions.
I'm just now in the sort of beginning stages of learning about proposals to lift the $4 hazard pay.
Got it.
Got it.
Time of transition now to be sure.
I want to transition if I could to another issue in the show here.
It's been a big part of your role as chair of the Public Safety Committee for the past 12 months.
The council's ban on less lethal weapons used by police.
So when the council passed these measures in June of last year, banning blast balls, stun grenades, tear gas, etc.
It led to some pushback from the Department of Justice and the federal monitor overseeing the consent decree process that the SPD has been under for nearly a decade here.
Those concerns, as I understand it, This kind of a ban could lead to police using higher levels of force in crowd control situations and also putting a ban like this in place without training could create some big problems.
So I want to fast forward to where we are now.
You've received some input from the DOJ and the federal monitor.
Have you been able to answer those concerns and will the council be able to pass a less lethal weapons ban this summer?
Yeah, thank you, Brian, and thank you for putting the work that I'm doing now into this sort of larger context.
That's true, back in June of last year, the council unanimously passed legislation that severely restricted the use of less lethal tools.
I included language in that bill that recognized the role of the consent decree and said that the council expected that the court would review the bill and that we would hear from our accountability partners at the Office of Professional Accountability, sorry, the Office of Police Accountability, the Community Police Commission, and the Office of the Inspector General.
And so, The court is basically a restraining order on the implementation of that bill.
And so we went back to the drawing board, developed new legislation that has been built on sort of the original bill, We showed the original bill to the accountability stakeholders and said, what are the things in this bill that you agree on?
What things do you think should be changed?
And we started with the areas of consensus among the three accountability bodies.
And we also sought the informal feedback from the Department of Justice and the Monitor and have had a number of meetings in the committee.
two briefings with the three accountability bodies and a second one with the Seattle Police Department.
The consensus recommendations of the three accountability bodies, again, form the basis of the first draft.
In February, we voted to send a new draft of the bill that has not been introduced yet to the monitor and the DOJ for their review.
The version that we talked about in committee Last week was the version that does make some changes that is reflective of what we heard from the Department of Justice and the monitor.
back of the envelope picture of what the legislation includes.
It does include a full ban on acoustic weapons, directed energy weapons, blast balls, ultrasonic cannons, and water cannons.
And then use of what are called flashbangs, noise flash devices, are banned in demonstrations, but it's not a full ban in all instances.
And then the bill conditions the use of pepper spray and pepper ball launchers in instances where the risk of bodily injury from violent actions outweighs the risk of harm to bystanders, and then tear gas is only allowed in a very few circumstances.
And so those are some significant changes.
Key updates in response to the feedback from the DOJ and the monitor include adding a definition of crowd control.
And this addresses one of the issues that you raised in the beginning, allowing the police department 60 days training after the court approves the legislation as required by the consent decree, allowing for that training on these new requirements before they go into effect.
Yeah, a lot still ahead with this process.
Thanks for breaking all that down.
I wanted to talk.
Oh, sorry, if you would.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just because there's been a lot of confusion about what the next steps are.
I'd like to thank you.
I really appreciate it.
There's been some inaccurate reporting, so I just want to take every opportunity I have to say what happens next.
So if the council passes the bill, SPD then would have to draft policy revisions within 60 days of its passage.
Secondly, the Department of Justice and the monitor would review the policy revisions.
This is when their formal review under the consent decree takes place.
They're not gonna be reviewing the ordinance itself.
They're gonna be reviewing the policy that comes out of the ordinance.
Then the court reviews the policy revisions as proposed by the police department to reflect the changes in the ordinance.
And then the court decides whether or not it's going to approve the policy revisions.
then the revised policy and substantive provisions of the bill will take effect.
All right, thank you for that, because I know there's a lot of work still ahead with that, and I appreciate you bringing that up.
I wanted to move on to another public safety topic, if I could.
Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, LEAD, a program that works to get people who might be repeat offenders into treatment rather than incarceration.
You recently worked to appropriate $3 million for LEAD, getting into that program.
It's been overwhelmed with referrals during the pandemic.
And you've also worked to change this program a little bit, too, such that referrals don't just have to come from law enforcement officers.
I have a viewer who wants to know how this new version of LEAD is going to work.
The question is this.
How can Seattleites get neutral reporting on public safety impacts outcomes as LEAD scales up given tight political relationships between public defenders, city council, and academic evaluators?
A question about accountability there.
Your thoughts on that and your expectations for the expansion of LEAD.
Yeah, I mean, I think LEAD is like any program that the city funds.
There are contracts associated with LEAD and expected outcomes and reporting on those contracts and outcomes and corrective action if outcomes aren't achieved.
I think it was 2019 sponsored legislation that requires HSD to use results based contracting in order to address concerns that folks have about transparency and outcomes and making sure that we are making our policy decisions on funding based on providers that use best practices to deliver the results that we expect.
Yeah, yeah.
And then in terms of LEAD itself, expanding it, what results do you hope to see out of this program?
So, I mean, I think a great example is the use of LEAD here in West Seattle a few weeks ago.
There was an outdoor encampment on a sidewalk.
in South Delridge, and it had been there since late February.
And the city had been using the HOPE program, which is the replacement for the navigation team, and had been doing outreach and engagement with the residents of the encampment.
But it wasn't until we called lead in, in, let's see, probably, I guess it was May, that we quickly saw a turnaround within a week.
We saw people beginning to leave the encampment.
And really that's because of how LEAD, the diversion program that assists people in accessing case management services, drug and treatment services, basic needs, how it works together with the Just Care program, which is a program that has hotel rooms for people to access.
And, you know, ideally that's how that program should work together with Just Cares.
It's been working, it worked that way very well down on 3rd Avenue.
We saw a wonderful celebration about the ending of an encampment downtown, and we're hoping to pivot the partnership of Just Cares and LEED to City Hall Park.
in the upcoming weeks.
Wow, OK, I know there's a lot of work ahead with that one.
I'm going to try to if I could cover some other topics with you.
Another public safety topic.
I know you've been working on moving some of the jobs traditionally handled by police officers into different departments like human services.
Your committee recently heard a report about the safe and thriving division of HSD, so victim advocates from the Seattle Police Department are getting transferred there.
Also positions dealing with mental health are getting transferred into human services too.
What does the transfer of these positions mean?
What impact are you hoping to see here when it comes to public safety?
Sure.
You know, when I think about this question, I always have the voice of a particular police chief.
I may have actually quoted him on your show before.
A Dallas police chief noted back in 2016. And I've heard other police chiefs say similar things.
I've heard our own Southwest Precinct Captain Grossman say something similar.
But the quote is basically every societal failure, we put it on the cops to solve.
Not enough mental health funding, let the cop handle it.
Not enough drug addiction funding, let the cop handle it.
schools fail, give it to the cops.
That's just too much to ask.
Policing was never meant to solve all of those problems.
And so for me, the framework is by asking police officers to do less of what they are not trained to do, allows them to focus more on their core law enforcement mission.
And so cities, All over the United States have made police departments responsible for more than law enforcement over the years.
Local government has turned the job of a police officer into one that is expected to fix a wide variety of problems from resolving community disputes to addressing substance abuse disorders, working at schools, deescalating behavioral health crises, responding to complaints about outdoor encampments.
And so really it's this effort is, again, it's about identifying who is most trained and most able to address non-law enforcement actions and trying to divert 9-1-1 calls to those other alternative responders.
Right.
And thank you for breaking that down.
I've got just about a minute left, but I wanted to make sure we gave people some updates on the West Seattle Bridge in your district.
They're shut down since March of last year due to those fast moving cracks in the concrete here in June of 2021. The repair is moving right along a good environmental review approval that happened last week or so.
Also, an $11.2 million grant from the feds to help wit of chatter about this.
A one person writes, this i too late to get anything Another says we need this ASAP council member.
Herb perspective.
How do thes move the project ahead?
C
You in your remarks noted that the just this month we received the National Environmental Policy Act approval and That's a perfect example.
We only just received that permit approval.
That is not something that we can speed up.
It's in the hands of another jurisdiction.
But it's a really important step that we've reached this benchmark.
And we received the approval of this permit earlier than anticipated.
the city does a watch list on its capital projects and it identifies specifically permitting as one of the risks associated with this project.
And so the fact that we've cleared this risk really shows the benefit of collaborating with outside permitting agencies.
And it also shows that there's some things that we can collaborate with outside agencies, but we don't have 100% control over what happens.
People who are asking for the project to be delivered more quickly, I understand.
I feel your frustration.
But we are really moving as quickly as we can.
And I'm so grateful that we chose the repair option instead of the replace option.
I hear you loud and clear on that one.
Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold, for joining us.
Thanks, everyone, for joining us here on Council Edition.
We'll see you next time.