Seattle City Council Special Meeting 3/19/2020

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Herbold?

Here.

Councilmember Juarez?

Here.

Councilmember Lewis?

Here.

Councilmember Morales?

Here.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Here.

Councilmember Peterson?

Here.

Councilmember Sawant?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you to the clerk.

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

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

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Colleagues, I want to thank you all for making time for this special city council meeting.

We have a couple of bills that are of an urgent need related to the city's emergency response to the coven 19 public health pandemic and crisis.

That is. taking place not just in our city and our region and our state, but across the country and across the world.

Before we get started, I did want to recognize the fact that we're having this conversation in the context of knowing that there are additional COVID-19 diagnoses that are being made every day.

In fact, today, the State Department of Health announced 175 new cases, bringing the state total, I'm sorry, that was a new case count as of yesterday, bringing the state total as of yesterday to 1,187 cases, including 66 deaths.

Of course, out of the 66 deaths, the bulk of those are here in King County, where we have seen 56 individuals lose their lives to this unfortunate virus.

And we have 562 people who have fallen ill to the coronavirus right here in King County.

So I wanted to take a moment, if you will all join me for just a quick moment to acknowledge the fact that we are continuing to lose lives, unfortunately, and seeing people fall ill.

And I'd just like to recognize and honor those families that have been impacted by loss of loved ones.

And for all of us who are really concerned about this, to take a moment of silence to acknowledge the lives that we have lost in our community.

I want to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to take that point of personal privilege.

I know that many of us have people who have been touched by this and who will be touched by this unfortunate pandemic.

And I really do appreciate your willingness to write publicly via the phone, uh, acknowledge the lives that we have lost in the lives that have been impacted.

Uh, we're going to go ahead and dig into our business today.

As I mentioned, we only have two items.

I'm going to ask, uh, for the clerk to read item one.

So the report of the city council, will the clerk read item one?

The report of the City Council, Agenda Item 1, Council Bill 119757, amending Ordinance 12600, which adopted the 2020 budget, changing appropriations to the Human Services Department, the Executive Department's Office of Economic Development and Budget Control Levels, and from various funds in the budget for the purpose of providing financial assistance to small businesses and ratifying confirming search and prior acts.

Thank you to the clerk.

This council bill will require five votes in the affirmative in order for it to pass.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna move to pass the council bill, then I'm gonna ask for a second.

And once that second has been made, we do have Council Central staff on the line available for questions.

I will go ahead and suspend the rules to allow for questions to be directed to Council Central staff if any of the council members have it, or if the sponsor, which is Council Member Tammy Morales, wants to provide Council Central staff with an opportunity to speak to the bill as well.

So I'm going to go ahead and go through those motions.

I'm going to then allow Council Member Morales to address the bill, and then we will go ahead and take a vote on any amendments and the substantive bill.

So I'm going to move to pass Council Bill 119757. Second.

Second.

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

Again, council members, please note that Yolanda Ho, Amy Gore, and Ali Panucci of Council Central staff have joined this meeting should you have any questions.

I will move to suspend the rules if there are any questions for Central staff after the prime sponsor speaks to the bill.

Council Member Morales, would you like to address this bill?

Yes, thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

If I might take just a moment, I do want to acknowledge that the staff at the Office of Economic Development have been working tirelessly, as have all of our frontline folks who work for the city.

So I do want to acknowledge the hard work that they are putting in to help us as we get sometimes hourly new information about this crisis.

Our OED staff are hearing from small businesses who are worried about their employees, worried about their own businesses, and they are dealing themselves now with some of the kind of secondary trauma from hearing those stories over and over again.

Um, so I want to, I want to thank our city employees who are helping us navigate through what is a really unprecedented time.

Um, and I want to thank the mayor and director Lee for getting this bill to us quickly.

This is an expansion of the existing business stabilization funds that we have at the Office of Economic Development.

It is shifting about $1.4 million in community development block grant funds to provide emergency working capital grants to small businesses, really to micro-businesses who have five or fewer employees.

Because these funds are HUD funds, They require that the household income of the recipients be below 80% of area median income.

So, that's just a little bit of context for who will be receiving these grants.

And they are roughly about, you know, up to $10,000 to provide some sort of relief for working capital and being able to pay employees or pay rent or manage as best they can.

Great, thank you, Council Member Morales.

Anything else you'd like to add before I go to the next step?

I don't think so.

Okay, thank you so much.

If there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to have central staff address the council.

Okay, hearing no objection, the rules are suspended.

I wanted to open up the line really quickly just to provide council central staff an opportunity to add anything to the remarks that have already been made by Council Member Morales as it relates to Council Bill 119757. I will hand it over to Yolanda, Amy, and Allie in the event that there is anything else that you want to add.

And if there isn't, just indicate so.

Hi, this is Yolanda.

Yolanda Ho, Council Central staff.

I would just add that the appropriations from the Human Services Department are to are there are a couple of sources from the Human Services Department which Amy could speak to in more detail.

And I can also speak to some of the discussions we've had with the Office of Economic Development in terms of how they are distribute how they are planning to distribute these funds because there is As Council Member Morales has noted, an extremely high demand for these.

And so there is, and so the Office of Economic Development has been accepting thousands of applications at this point and is screening them right now and is closing the application window next Wednesday.

So, you know, please let everyone know.

And they are also conducting outreach to ensure that everyone has a chance to apply.

And they have noted that their intention is to prioritize businesses these small micro enterprises as they call them in neighborhoods at high risk of displacement.

And so there there will be a process by which they will select those who are eligible and and kind of weight it towards those businesses in those locations.

Thank you, Alonza.

Amy, is there anything you'd like to add?

No, I don't have anything to add, but I'm happy to answer any questions that council members have.

Great.

Thank you.

Allie, anything you'd like to add before I go through the process of asking if there are questions?

No, I don't have anything to add.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to go ahead and just to avoid the that the casualty of conference calls that is the cattle calls question, I'm going to actually call each of your names by order of district.

And if you have questions, please pose your questions at the time that I call your name.

And if you don't have a question, just say you don't have any questions.

But I'm going to go through the list kind of in a roll call fashion to try to keep this orderly.

So I'm going to start with Council Member Herbold.

Do you have any questions for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

I would love it if the Council Central staff or the viewing public and the press who might be reporting on this could just very quickly go through what this source, what the, this is, these are CDBG funds, they're CDBG funds that were programmed for another purpose.

If we could just go quickly through what those purposes were and how the departments are going to accommodate whether or not there's no need for those purposes as originally anticipated, or there's another source.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

This is Amy Gore of Council Central Staff.

To answer that question, approximately $400,000 of the funds in this council bill are from HSD for 2019 underspend.

of program administration funds.

An additional 1 million of the funds that are being transferred by this council bill are from the Human Services Department's Community Facilities Program.

And the intention of that funding was for a community care facility for seniors as part of the North Lot Project at the PACMED Center in Beacon Hill.

And what we have heard is that the project isn't quite ready to use those funds in 2020 and is okay with us using those funds for a different purpose.

And that we believe that in 2021 or in 2022, we will have other CDBG funds that we can devote to that project in a more useful time to the project.

Thank you.

Thank you, Amy, for that explanation.

Council Member Herbold, did that answer your question?

It absolutely did.

Thank you.

Okay.

Do you have any other questions for Council Central staff for the Prime Sponsor?

I do not.

Great.

Okay, I'm going to move to Council Member Morales.

I know that you are the Prime Sponsor, but in the event that you have additional questions that you'd like Council Central staff to run through, I'd offer you the opportunity to do that now.

And if you don't, just let me know that you don't.

Well, I do have one question.

Yolanda was looking at the, my understanding is that the intent is to use kind of a lottery system for awarding because we have so many people, so many small businesses who have applied.

I wonder if there's any additional information about how that process will work.

So I can tell you that the lottery is going to be a weighted lottery system so that the Office of Economic Development has stated that They are target, their goal is to that 80% of these awards go to those neighborhoods that are at highest risk of businesses in neighborhoods that are at highest risk of displacement.

Thank you, Yolanda.

Any follow-up questions to that, Council Member Morales?

I'm good.

Thank you.

Great.

Okay, we're going to move on to Council Member Sawant.

Do you have any questions for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

I don't.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson, any questions for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor or just comments in general?

No, thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez, any questions or comments for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

No.

All right, thank you.

And Council Member Strauss, same.

Any questions or comments for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

Not at this time, thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis, any questions for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

Not currently, thank you.

Thank you.

And Council Member Mosqueda, any questions for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

No, I'm good, thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much to Council Central staff for that description of the bill and for the follow-up answers to some of the questions.

And thank you to Council Member Morales for your attention to this detail.

I know that economic development, particularly protection over small businesses in our community, are very important to you and that you have continued to prioritize those issues.

And this is certainly an important moment to continue doing that work.

I also understand that you have an amendment to So we will go ahead and consider your amendment first, and then we will go ahead and vote on the underlying bill if and once it is amended.

So I will open up the floor to you, Council Member Morales, to make your motion to amend the bill.

Thank you.

So as Yolanda said, we do have lots of businesses who are very worried about how they're going to survive this crisis.

This is going to be an important fund to help mitigate for a couple of hundred businesses.

So I understand that we need to move quickly.

And I worry that in our case to react to the crisis that we might set in motion some systems that will perpetuate some of the inequities in our city.

So I just want to make sure that we have an equitable process for awarding these funds and any other funds that we make available to Seattle Life in response to this crisis.

So we have I think about 36000 small businesses in Seattle.

Thousands of them are owned by people who don't speak English.

Applications for this fund were available online but only in English for the first couple of days.

So if you speak English you can fill out the application online and hit send.

But it was a couple of days before they were made available in other languages.

and the online application had to be printed out and mailed in or handed over to an outreach worker.

So, you know, when those who don't speak English have extra barriers put in place in order to participate, we know that we've got some issues.

And I know that there wasn't any malintent here.

What we have instead is a small example of how, you know, very often our city government operates with blinders on to anyone who isn't part of the dominant culture.

And we really have to change the way our city functions so that everyone has access to these resources.

So rather than slow down the disbursement of this particular fund, I'm asking that we hear back from OED this summer about how the funds were distributed.

You know, how many applicants did we get from people who don't speak English?

How many folks were awarded who don't speak English?

And just making sure that non-English speakers also get access to these opportunities.

So if we're going to live up to our race and social justice goals, we really have to be thoughtful about infusing these principles into every aspect of our work.

And especially as we create these emergency responses to the COVID-19 crisis, I think it's really incumbent upon us to make sure that we aren't perpetuating these systems of inequity, even if it means that we slow down our response a little bit.

We really need to make sure that people of color, low income folks, limited English speakers have access to the information they need so that they can receive emergency relief too.

And so that is the spirit in which this amendment is offered.

It is not a requirement that OED provide this report.

It is merely a request that we hear back from them about how this money was distributed.

Thank you for that description of the amendment.

Council Member Morales, I still need you to move the amendment.

I move that we adopt Amendment 1.

Great.

So there has been a motion made and it's been seconded.

So Council Member Morales is already, as a sponsor of this amendment, has already spoken to it.

Are there any comments on the amendment?

Okay, hearing no further comments on the amendment, will the clerk call the roll on the amendment?

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Herbold?

Aye.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the bill is amended.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

All right, hearing no comments, will the clerk call the roll on the passage of the bill as amended?

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Herbold?

Aye.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Lewis?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

Aye.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

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

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

All right, we're going to go ahead and move to item two.

Will the clerk please read item two?

Agenda item 2, Council Bill 119758, relating to the City Light and Seattle Public Utilities Departments.

Temporarily removing the charge of interest on delinquent utility consumption and utilization accounts.

Superseding several sections under Title 21 that authorize and require the collection of interest on delinquent utility consumption and utilization accounts.

Declaring an emergency and establishing an immediate effective date all by 3 first vote of the City Council.

Thank you to the clerk for that.

We're going to go through the same process that we did with item number one.

So I'm going to move to pass it.

I'll need a second.

Then we will go ahead and invite the prime sponsor, who is Council Member Peterson, to speak to the bill.

We will then suspend the rules to allow central staff to address the council and answer any questions.

Council Member Peterson and I believe Council Member Lewis have some substitutions and an amendment.

And then we will go ahead and consider those and then vote on the full bill.

So that is the run of show, as they say, for this particular item.

So I'm going to move to pass Council Bill 119758. Second.

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

Again, Council members, please note that Eric McConaughey and Brian Goodnight of Council Central staff have joined this meeting.

Should you have any questions, I will move to suspend the rules.

If there are any questions for central staff after the prime sponsor speaks to the bill council member Peterson.

Would you like to address this bill?

Yes, and welcome back council president Gonzalez and thank you for leading with the moment of silence for all of those suffering from the covet 19 emergency.

So, with this, of course, with this public health emergency becoming an economic crisis to.

All levels of government need to provide immediate financial relief, and that includes relief from the utility bills that all households, small businesses, and nonprofits face each month.

With necessary public health protocols resulting in restaurants, cafes, other social establishments closing, many of our neighbors are seeing reduced paychecks or layoffs, and the last thing they need to worry about are bills for essentials like electricity, water, and garbage removal.

So this legislation I'm sponsoring Council Bill 119758 will waive all late fees for utility bills to provide additional relief for hundreds of thousands throughout Seattle during this crisis.

In addition to thanking the mayor, I'd like to commend both Deborah Smith of Seattle City Light and Mamihara, the head of Seattle Public Utilities.

This effort builds upon separate policy of no shutoffs, which is a humane policy that our utility departments put in place in large part due to the leadership of Councilmember Mosqueda.

Also want to thank Council Member Andrew Lewis for requesting an amendment that we will consider shortly that will make it crystal clear that nonprofit 501 C3 organizations would also benefit from this legislation.

This ordinance would waive late fees and interest charges from both Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities until the mayor's emergency declaration is terminated or August 1, whichever comes first.

If the cobit, 19 emergency lasts beyond August 1, the council can take additional action to extend this waiver.

So, I am prepared to move the substitute and I can explain that, but let me know if that's the appropriate time.

I think what we're gonna do 1st is, um.

I'm going to go ahead and suspend the rules to allow council central staff to address the council if they need to.

And then we can go ahead and move through the substitution in the last council member Peterson.

You believe that speaking to the substitution 1st would be would allow for a smoother conversation with council central staff.

Yes, the substitute is is fairly simple in that it makes it.

Yeah.

Why don't you go ahead and go through the substitution?

First, just describing it will will hold off on the moving of the substitution until after we've had an opportunity to hear from Council Central staff.

So go ahead and speak to the substituted substitution.

Sure, so version 2 the substitute makes it easier to administer this ordinance by clarifying that the income for small businesses is based on the annual receipts from 2019. It also adds some whereas clauses to underline the public health emergency that we are in.

Great, that's a very simple, clearer explanation of the substitution.

I appreciate that.

I'm going to go ahead and suspend the rules now.

So if there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to have council central staff address the council.

Hearing no objection, the rules are now suspended and I would invite Eric and Brian to provide us with any additional information about this particular council bill for consideration by council members.

Hello, this is Eric McConaughey on the Council Central staff.

Thank you, Council President.

At this point, I don't have anything that I think is more clear than has been already offered.

I am on the line.

I would be happy to answer any questions.

I will add separate from the bill, it's already been mentioned that this bill is a part of a package.

utility relief that the city is offering under the emergency.

Utilities will not be shut off.

Folks can apply for flexible payment plans.

And the utility discount program has been opened up more broadly for folks to self-certify to make it easier for people to get into that program.

So I just wanted to take the moment to mention those aspects of the utility relief the city is offering in tandem with the effects of this bill.

Great.

Brian, anything to add?

I don't have anything at this time.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Eric and Brian for being on the line and for being available for questions.

So I'm going to go ahead and in the same fashion as I did on item one, I'm going to roll call each of you to see if any of you have any questions.

If you do not have questions, just say that you do not and we'll go ahead and move on to considering the substituted version of the bill.

We'll start with Council Member Herbold.

Any questions for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

Yes, thank you.

For Council Central staff, as it relates to the impact of the bill, both to the utilities in the reduced revenue in interest payments as well as the reduction to the general fund, the estimate to the reduction to the general fund Can you let us know whether or not these impacts are eligible for federal reimbursement?

Council Member, thank you for the question.

This is Brian.

Good night.

I believe we would have to check with the departments about that.

That's not information that we have at this time.

I think it might be useful for all of these bills coming forward that have financial impacts if I would have thought to ask, I might have asked as it related to additional CDBG fund allocations in the future or reimbursement under the COVID-19 crisis.

It might just be a good standard practice for all of these revenue impacts to ask CBO whether or not the actions that we're taking that have financial impacts are actions that we can receive reimbursement for under COVID-19.

Okay, thank you, Council Member.

We will follow up with you on that.

Any other questions, Council Member Herbold?

None.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Morales, any questions or comments on the bill for Council Central staff or the Prime Sponsor?

I don't have questions, but I second Council Member Herbold's request that we keep in mind anything that we could possibly get reimbursed for later, I'm sure CBO is doing that, but the recovery plan is also on my mind and that's an important piece of it.

Great, thank you.

Council Member Sawant, any questions for Council Central staff for the Prime Sponsor or comments about the bill?

None, thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson, I know you've already spoken to the bill, but any additional Questions for Council Central staff or comments that you'd like to make?

No, thank you.

Council Member Juarez, same questions or comments?

No, I'm good, I'm good.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss, any questions or comments about the bill?

Great bill, no comments or questions, thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis, any questions or comments about the bill?

Not at this time, thank you.

And Council Member Mosqueda, any questions or comments about the bill?

Thank you Council President.

I first I want to thank Council Member Peterson for all of your work that you're doing for those who are on limited incomes already and especially thinking about them in the post COVID world as it relates to families and to businesses given the financial impact that this public health crisis could have.

I want to also commend the folks at Seattle City Light who we've been engaged with since Mid-year last year, thank you for the shout out earlier, Council Member Peterson, and a huge shout out to the folks at Seattle City Light for their creative thinking, not only with stopping the implementation of shutoff notices, but to being really open and receptive to community feedback on how to improve a number of their communications.

So I look forward to a future conversation in your committee, Council Member Peterson, where I think our council colleagues will be able to hear a number of provisions that they've put into place.

Waiving late fees is a really great first step and some of the other things that they're looking at that we really appreciate is how to simplify the language to make sure notifications are less scary and intimidating, especially in times like these.

Ensure that we're using language that is inviting to understand the ways in which payments can be done.

And I'm looking forward to a future conversation about basically debt forgiveness at some point, given some of the conversations that have happened in other municipalities.

As I say that, I also recognize we need to be looking at the revenue impacts.

And in our conversations with the budget director of Ben Noble, we've been asking a number of questions on each of the executive orders.

I really appreciate the suggestions from our colleagues to make sure that that is presented as we look at the various executive orders.

I will echo that call and look forward to the future conversations about how we not only address the crisis now, but make sure that we are budgeting for the future recovery and that the funding's going, especially to those in the biggest crisis.

And right now, I think that this is an excellent example of us following through on those priorities and values in this legislation.

So thanks again to Council Member Peterson and to the Mayor's Office for their good work on this.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

That concludes the roll call on any questions or comments on the bill.

I want to thank Council Central staff, Brian and Eric, for being available for questions and for presentation.

Thank you so much for being available.

So I'm going to go ahead and hand it back to Council Member Peterson, who needs to say the magic words to move the substitution formally.

Yes, I'd like this is Councilmember Peterson.

I moved to amend Council Bill 119758 by substituting version 2. Version 2 is as I described earlier.

And we need a second.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to substitute the bill.

Councilmember Peterson has already addressed the substitution as the prime sponsor of that substitution.

Are there any other comments on the substitute?

Hearing none, will the clerk call the roll on the substitute?

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Herbold?

Aye.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the bill is amended.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

Council Member Peterson, any additional comments?

Well, I would like to discuss amendment number 1, which was published along with the agenda.

Excellent.

So I will go ahead and hand it over to you to discuss and ultimately move amendment number 1.

Thank you.

Council President so amendment number 1, which was published along with this agenda would amend section 2 of the substitute.

And what it does is, and I want to thank Council Member Andrew Lewis for raising this and working with me and central staff on this to get this done.

It will clarify, make it crystal clear that nonprofits are also getting the waiver of the late fees.

So what it does is in Section 2, it adds a subclause saying customers that are nonprofit organizations as defined under Seattle Municipal Code Section 5.30.040.

And basically it's saying that's 501C3 organization.

So what we would consider as a traditional mission driven nonprofit would be crystal clear that they are exempt.

We're waiving the fees for them too.

Great, I'm going to go ahead Council Member Peterson and ask you to say the magic words to move this for consideration and then we'll go ahead and open it up for questions or comments.

Thank you, so I move to amend Council Bill 119758, Section 2, as presented on Amendment 1 on the agenda.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded to amend the bill.

Council Member Peterson has already spoken as to that amendment as the prime sponsor.

Are there any comments or additional information for Council Member consideration by Council Central staff?

Council President, this is Eric McConaghy.

I don't have anything to add.

Great.

And Brian, nothing to add?

Nothing to add.

Thank you.

Great.

Excellent.

Okay.

Are there any comments on the proposed amendment?

This is Council Member Lewis.

Madam President, I have a couple of questions if this is the appropriate time.

Yes.

Council Member Lewis, the floor is yours for questions.

Oh, sorry, I don't have any questions.

I just have a comment.

I don't know if you want to ask questions.

Nope, I just called for questions.

Sounds like nobody had any questions.

I'm now going to hand it over to you to provide some comments on the bill, please.

All right, thank you.

So I just want to first thank Council Member Peterson for working with me on this and putting this amendment forward.

You know, obviously District 7 has a massive concentration of arts organizations in the city.

The arts are really, really reeling from the response from COVID-19, given that so many of our artistic events, I mean, involve gatherings of large numbers of people.

They have just been absolutely slammed.

It's an industry with a lot of workers who as we know, unfortunately, do not receive the remuneration that they should for the cultural contributions that they make.

So they have a particularly vulnerable population.

One thing that has come up in talking to arts organizations in my district is that utilities are an ongoing concern for them.

Most of them are organized as mission-driven nonprofits.

So I just wanted to make sure that the opportunities that we are looking to create to provide relief through this ordinance be set up in such a way that those arts organizations could take advantage of this as well.

So I want to thank Council Member Peterson for his leadership.

It's been good to work with him on this over the last couple of days.

And I do hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting the amendment.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Are there any other comments on the amendment?

Hearing none.

Oh, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Council President, this is Teresa, Council Member Mosqueda.

I do have a question and I hope it's appropriate to ask now of central staff.

I could hold it for the overall bill if that's more appropriate.

If it's a question about the overall bill, I'd ask you to hold that question for when I solicit comments and questions about the bill as a whole.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Great.

Okay.

So we're just voting on the amendment right now.

Are there any other comments or questions about the amendment?

Hearing none, will the clerk call the roll on the amendment?

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Herbold?

Aye.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you so much.

The motion carries and the bill is amended.

Are there any questions or comments on the bill as amended?

And I believe Council Member Mosqueda, you indicated that you had a question.

Thank you so much, Council President.

This may be a question for either the sponsor or the central staff.

Are utility fees also waived for our nonprofit partners in contract with the Human Services Department?

and other city providers?

Yes, because they would be under this definition of the Seattle Municipal Code, the 501c3s.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Mosqueda, any other questions or follow-up?

No, I just I think that that's an important reminder for folks.

A lot of our human service providers are really trying to stretch their dollars right now as they respond to the COVID crisis as well.

So I think this is going to be very welcome for them.

Folks at Plymouth and DESC, for example, we saw their presentation in years past about the cost of utilities.

So thank you for this clarification.

Great.

Thank you so much for the question.

Are there any other comments or questions on the bill as amended?

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

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right, folks, that was our last item of business on the agenda.

And we have no other items to discuss for today.

So that concludes our item of business on today's agenda.

Our next meeting will be Monday, March 23rd at 2 p.m.

Council is now adjourned.

Thank you all and be safe and healthy.