Seattle City Council 412019

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for being here on April 1st, the April 1st, 2019 City Council meeting of the full Seattle City Council.

Come to order.

It's two o'clock p.m.

I'm Bruce Harrell, president of the council.

The clerk, please call the roll.

Herbold?

Here.

Johnson.

Here.

Juarez.

Mosqueda.

Here.

O'Brien.

Here.

Sawant.

Here.

Gonzalez.

Here.

President Harrell.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you very much.

Hearing no objection, Council Members, Sawant's absence, which was approved, is hereby rescinded.

She is here.

We see her.

Hearing no objection, that is rescinded.

I'd also move to excuse Council Member Juarez from today's meeting.

Is there a second?

It's moved and seconded that we excuse Council Member Juarez.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it, and Council Member Juarez is excused.

I will note for the record that this will be Council Member Johnson's last meeting here on the dais, at least in the near future, and we'll reserve our comments toward the end of our agenda to address that issue, but I can't promise him that there won't be comments made in between now and the end of the agenda.

If there's no objection, today's introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendars is adopted, and if there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

The minutes of the March 25th, 2019 City Council meetings have been reviewed, and if there's no objections, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objections, they are signed.

Thank you.

Presentations.

Very pleased to have Council Member Mosqueda present a proclamation about census awareness, and thank you very much for the council members that helped put this together.

Council Member Mosqueda, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr. President, and thanks to this entire council for your unanimous signing on of this proclamation and for the community partners for being here with us today.

We were just in community about an hour or two ago with county folks, with our philanthropic folks, with union members, and with state representatives as well, as we recognize that we are one year away.

one year away from initiating our one year away from this crucial process that contributes to shaping the structure of our democracy.

One year away from the 2020 census count.

We are acknowledging that we are one year away with this proclamation today in an effort to come together as a community to ensure that we are well equipped to, most importantly, build trust with the community, trust in our state, and trust with all residents.

It is our responsibility to conduct a robust census count of every person in this region.

As the law says, every person in this region, especially communities that have historically been left behind in our counting processes in the past.

When we count everyone in our communities, we are better able to prepare and plan for the development of our communities.

It facilitates the process through which we can access resources that we need to build a more vibrant, safe, inclusive, productive, and equitable region.

This is true for us in Seattle, and it is true for every other city across the country, and especially here in our state that's committed to creating an inclusive, safe, and welcoming environment.

This process of an accurate 2020 census count is critical for making sure that we get the resources on healthcare, making sure that we have access to federal funding when it comes to building affordable housing, making sure that those who need access to a healthy and affordable food have access through federal programs.

And probably most importantly, making sure that we count everyone in our region to make sure that we truly have a representative democracy and that our representatives in Congress truly know who is in our communities and that we have the numbers of representatives that we need to reflect the power, the voices, and the bodies within our jurisdiction.

But this White House and this administration is not interested in counting everyone.

They have a very different agenda, one that is exclusive, hateful, and divisive.

They are not interested in serving anyone, counting everyone, or acknowledging everyone, especially members of the LGBT community, members of our immigrant and refugee community, and members of our people of color communities.

So let's be clear.

In Seattle, we do things differently.

We're putting this proclamation forward in an effort to show that we are leading by example.

We are putting people first because we know this is how good governance should work, this is how you grow and build communities, and we know that every person in our region does count.

I'm excited to be working with all of you, the immigrant rights groups, unions, workers, small businesses, with the mayor, Councilmember Gonzalez who's sitting with us on the task force, with the county, with philanthropic organizations who are ready to do the work of combating bigotry, hate, and fear and ensure that every one of our residents is counted and that they have the trusted community partners through funding necessary to reach everyone.

We are providing that local communities have the power to mobilize and shape and change the census count by making sure that we provide resources as a region and that we ensure that every person in our community counts.

We are one year away, Mr. President, and I'm excited to be able to present this proclamation to our community partners on behalf of City Council.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, before we present, would any other Councilmembers like to say any words before we suspend the rules and hear from our guests?

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to thank Council Member Mosqueda for bringing this proclamation this afternoon.

I really appreciate the opportunity to memorialize today as the one-year mark of a lot of work that has to happen in community in order to make sure that all of the things that Council Member Mosqueda has described are are effectively accomplished and was really proud and excited to stand with the Mayor and King County Executive and Tony from the Seattle Foundation earlier this morning at El Centro de la Raza to announce this new investment of $1 million that will go directly to community-based organizations who are trusted messengers and will give us the best hope and the best chance possible to reach into historically hard-to-count communities to make sure that they are seen and counted and to ensure that the federal government understands that we not only expect but we demand the investment that our communities deserve and that that is really at the heart of what a census count is, is that we need to make sure that in these times when we have seen the effects, the dire, terrible effects of failing to invest in our communities that now is not the time for us to double down on continuing our lack of investment in these critical communities.

So really excited about this proclamation and more so excited about the year's worth of hard work that lays ahead of us.

Super excited about supporting this and about the effort to partner with Community to make sure this is the greatest success.

We can make it.

So thank you all for the support Thank you.

Councilman Gonzales.

There's no objection.

The rules are suspended.

We'd love to hear from our guests and thank you for being here Are you walking down?

Good afternoon council when I started is my name is Oscar Zambrano.

I

I'm the director of civic engagement advocacy for Latino Community Fund and we're currently the fiscal sponsor for the Washington Alliance.

And my name is Usman Nashab.

I'm a youth fellow at the Latino Community Fund.

I just want to say thank you very much for the proclamation.

It means a lot to us to also be recognized by all you amazing leaders for all the work that has been done.

I also want to recognize Elsa here in the audience for all her work prior to coming to the city and helping us set the framework which we're working for.

The census is a very important issue to all communities of color, especially because you all kind of mentioned already the high stakes today of what's at risk.

Earlier last year, the Trump administration pretty much attacked our communities of color and immigrants and refugees for adding the census question, which is a question that hasn't been in the census for many, many years.

Right away, Latino Community Fund, along with MALDEF and other 21 organizations across the country.

We put a lawsuit to oppose this question to make sure that communities and immigrants and refugees especially did not have to answer this question.

This question would severely impact the census complete and accurate count because it would discourage many non-English speakers, immigrants, refugees, and even with unknown statuses to not answer the census questions.

We know that this also, this question also asks more of our community, more information that it's needed to have a complete census.

The Census Bureau has other mechanisms they can get this information from our communities.

This census question and the whole process has been to really suppress the census count for immigrant refugees, the LGBTQ community, and other communities of color.

One of the Latino Community Fund's main mission has always been to build local and statewide resources to bridge the equity gap in our communities.

This is why the Latino Community Fund is proud to be the fiscal sponsor for Washington State Census Alliance.

Now for people in the audience and people in here, what is the Census Alliance?

We are, like Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez said, we are the trusted messengers for our community.

There is a big distrust between immigrants and communities of color, sometimes with just any type of government, or just the lack of information that they don't get.

And so when we come as a community group, it could be your faith groups, it could be school groups, it could be just community organizing groups.

that they have a relationship with.

It really builds more trust and it builds more capacity to have these questions and doubts be answered in a more accurate and trusting way.

So the Census Alliance was formed last year to make sure that we have a safe, fair, and complete 2020 Census count.

The Alliance convened over 100 community leaders of color and 67 organizations from across the state to build relationships and set forth an overall framework and a statewide strategy.

We understand that the City of Seattle and King County tend to have more resources based on our population, but that means that also we want to make sure that people in Central Washington and the rural areas get some resources as well.

So that's why we have been advocating successfully for $15 million at the state level from our budget.

Great news is that last Friday we got the Senate to actually approve $15 million and then the State House to approve $12 million.

So I'm asking all of you to please call your legislators and advocate to make sure that we get the $15 million we're requesting.

Many people ask, why $15 million?

$15 million doesn't go far enough.

And we want to thank also the philanthropy sector, the City of Seattle, King County, for today's big news that we're actually coming together as a community to build all of our resources into one and to actually support the community groups that are going to be doing the hard work, talking to the community members in their areas.

The two main reasons why the Census Alliance really exists is also to have, like we said, to have a safe and complete census account.

But the goal is to have the 17, sorry, to make sure that the biennial census drives the allocation of important federal resources.

It was estimated that $17 billion in education, healthcare, and transportation funds are granted to Washington State solely based on the census count.

These funds represent critical resources to support basic needs and infrastructure on which our communities depend.

Those that are the most vulnerable are the ones that are going to benefit the most from this count.

We have been saying that Seattle has been growing in population, and we can all feel the strain of that.

So we are to gain possibly another congressional seat, and that leads to the second point, which is political representation.

Under a federal constitution, the census is required to reapportion congressional districts.

Further, the data is used to draw up congressional districts.

all state legislative districts, and many at the local levels.

We fundamentally believe that our voices in all levels of government are strong when we have a more accurate census count.

So what that really comes down to is the fact that people of color, communities that are the most disenfranchised, actually feel and know that they have a seat at the table.

And so for us, it's very important that all of you here and through your networks, today we're launching, which Uzun will talk more about also of our big media push today, the census one-year anniversary, so to the actual count.

And so we want to make sure that those communities of color and communities that don't speak English get to know that today is a very important day because we're here in front of you.

Thank you for the proclamation and most importantly to make sure that the education pieces start going out and so that's why this money is really important to make sure that our communities are well educated about the issue.

So with that I just want to say thank you very much.

It's a great pleasure to join community groups, philanthropy sector, city and state and county governments to make sure that this funding gets allocated to the people that are going to be impacted the most.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Usman again, and I'm a youth fellow at the Latino Community Fund, and I'm here to talk about the census.

So 10 years ago, I was a 12-year-old kid on the playground, and I didn't really know what the census was, and I didn't know if my parents had counted me.

These past 10 years have seen many kids like me turn into adults.

Adults that depend on federal grants that fund our higher education and healthcare.

Adults who are just learning to use their political voice and deserve accurate representation.

So I'm here as a student and a youth advocate to say thank you for your support and leadership on this issue and towards having a complete and accurate census for all ages and all communities.

Thank you very much.

But yes, and also, so we are currently launching a media campaign across our social media platforms advocating since today is the one year countdown towards the census.

So we are using the hashtags countmein and census2020 to bring awareness to this issue and make sure that we are educating all of our communities and youth as well.

Thank you very much.

Should we start, do the chant count us in?

There was a chant that went wrong.

That's why she's reading that.

Really?

I want to know the back story.

Thank you, Oscar Nussbaum.

Thank you Councilmembers Mosqueda and Gonzales for presenting this.

Okay, at this time, we'll take public comment on item that appear on today's agenda or our work plan or introduction referral calendar.

And we are going to extend public comment for 20 minutes.

I have a list here in order with which you've signed up.

So we will start rattling off the names here.

So we are, we will start with David Haynes, followed by Alex Zimmerman.

David Haynes is first, Alex Zimmerman second.

City Council needs to reject financing Martin Selig and his bankers.

Vote no on Ordinance and Council Bill 119485. Reject this shady deal that hustles taxpayer money propping up artificially inflated rents and leases located in front of a noisy toxic coal and gas train yard.

The Parks and Recreation Department does not need Employees sitting down on the job distracted by rumbling horn honking trains.

We don't need corrupt political donors tied to President Trump buying off our local politicians to abuse tax dollars, propping up commercial real estate speculators, getting wealthy overcharging on leases every month.

While the same government salivates off of the squandered property taxes to buy more votes.

City Council must reject this deal because it further drives inflated cost of living and this city, is oppressing the attempts to discipline the greed by corporate welfare subsidizing Martin Selig and his banking donors while they laugh all the way to their bank with their capital gains every three months.

Perhaps we should investigate city councils lucrative retirement favors and promises.

from their work financing rich people ripping off the city every month, collecting inflated rents.

We need Parks and Rec to stop ignoring all the trash in this city as they refuse to get out of the truck, as if blaming homeless guarantees a lazy workforce protected by a suspect union.

We don't need to give Parks and Rec a waterfront view interrupted by coal and gas.

toxic trains while giving charity to Martin Selle because he chose a bad location where nobody wants to rent it because it causes PTSD by toxic rumbling horn honking trains that echo throughout the building.

And he needs to take a zero off that perceived value and you need to realize that Ed Murray still has an influence on this budget because his husband runs the Parks and Rec Department.

Thank you.

He should not be getting a waterfront property.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Our next two speakers will be Alex Zierman and then Lindsay Johnson.

Behild, my dirty Fuhrer, a Nazi Gestapo pig from Animal Farm.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I want to speak about agenda.

What is for me a very interesting appointment, two people, one for museum and one for LGBT, in support by Herbold and Savant.

It's a very interesting situation we have.

And I told you a thousand times before, Apple always follow not so far from three.

I am in many meetings with many commissioners, all identical, like the Consul, nothing different.

So the Consul-Servant and the Consul-Head Board go to re-election right now, and somebody in this Chamber, 10 minute ago, mentioned about democracy.

I totally confused about what is mean democracy.

I think we have a constitutional republic, something like this.

And constitutional republic, this mean law was to be dominate.

But these two people who go for re-election, Herbold and Savant, I don't think so, know about this.

I think they acting like a criminal or support criminal.

Because, very simple question, give to people what is the appointment, simple question.

Why Consul Gonzalez violate constitutional law, he open public field five times and they not mention about this?

I never hear this from re-election headboard, where they go for re-election or re-elect, will go for re-election, so on.

So this totally confuse me, are you, People, you go for re-election, it supposed to be no law.

You sit in this chamber for many years, hell, but sit like for 20 years.

I went like for six years.

It's a long time.

Yeah, I understand this.

I come to this place for 10 years every day.

I understand this.

But my question is very simple.

Where you stop acting like a criminal?

Stand up, America.

Stand up, Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next two speakers will be Lindsey Johnson and Christopher King, JD.

Hey, my name is Lindsay Johnson and I'm here today as a volunteer for unified Seattle and I'm making this statement today because I've had to.

I've had the chance to learn first hand about the issues.

surrounding low barrier shacks and the undeniable effort it plays on the community.

Low barrier shack encampments like the Lake Union encampment in South Lake Union will not be successful because like other shack encampments, it does not emphasize or require any lifestyle changes.

No real oversight or proponents conducive to adjusting their lifestyle.

Currently, drug use, litter, and the inevitable overflow of homelessness, individuals loitering to the streets of South Lake Union.

Neighbors to encampments are suffering the same consequences those did in North Seattle surrounding now closed Licton Springs encampment.

Despite the closure of the encampment due to low transition rates to permanent housing, the crime rate doubling in the area, the opening of the Lake Union encampment was still approved.

It has become obvious that low barrier shack encampments like the Lake Union encampment are adding to the homelessness epidemic.

Instead of helping to solve the homelessness crisis in Seattle, if this system remains the same, Seattle neighborhoods will continue to be invaded by the many downfalls of encampments like the Lake Union encampment and will suffer the consequences of these inadequate solutions.

We need a real solution, not shacks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Following Christopher King will be Oscar.

I assume you're just saying you want to speak again.

OK, so be Carrie Crock.

Cory Crocker after Mr. King.

Great afternoon.

May please the council.

I have a copy for each of you.

This is just a quick First Amendment reminder or warning to all of you.

Twenty years ago, I sued Columbus City Council for violating the First Amendment right to redress on behalf of my client, Jerry L. Doyle.

Case number 41F sub 2nd, 765 Southern District, Ohio, 1998, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, we technically lost that case, so we didn't get any monetary damages, but City Council never again interfered with his speech, and the whole city knew the truth because it was front-page news when there was still the real media.

Now, I'm here to tell all of you, and particularly Counselor Juarez, given her recent episode, well, of course she's not here today, but I'm here to remind all of you that you work for us, you know, this is a fact, and you are in no ways to treat speakers differently based on content or to interfere with their public comment unless there is a time, place, or manner of violation.

Bruce, you're a lawyer, you know the rules.

Okay, that's a fact.

So I have seen City Council discriminate against speakers, including me and many others.

And last week, of course, in the manner or two weeks ago, we saw with Councilor Juarez, then her interruptions to this public speaker.

So much has happened in the since that evening, five years ago, and many of you attended a foreclosure and underwater housing forum that I brainchilded with Michelle Darnell and SAFE.

You may recall the strangers Ansel Hirst served as moderator for that event.

Since that time, even though my videos demonstrate Shama Sawant and Nick Licata noting that the banks were engaged in quote criminal unquote activity toward homeowners, you have refused to allow my colleague Marie McDonald the right to present the findings of her auditory review of King County Recorder of Deeds, even though the taxpayers paid for that review, and even though she has been an expert witness in many trials, including the $5.4 million Texas verdict in Wolf v. Wells Fargo.

She basically said, you need to sue MERS.

You never did it.

And I'm just telling you, Lisa Herbold was very strong in her opinion about it.

But all we got from the city when I sued you guys was redactions from the city attorney.

We will address that later.

But I just want to share that with you today.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Following Corey Crocker will be Drew Dressman.

Great.

Thank you.

After half a dozen years of community discussion, engagement, and mobilization, we have delivered a unique example of a community-driven, stakeholder-vetted mobility plan for the area surrounding the U District Light Rail Station.

We thank you for your support of Resolution 31873 and implore you to remain engaged throughout the implementation of this plan.

In particular, we wish to recognize Councilmember Rob Johnson, and his legislative aide, Amy Gore, for their steadfast commitment to the project, and most importantly, for their belief in the power of community-led planning.

Throughout, our desired outcome was a holistic, multi-modal station area mobility plan for the U District.

Our guiding principles included the importance of safe and comfortable environment.

We wanted to prioritize walking and biking transit, create a great network for every mode, and a great network of public open space.

We wanted to accommodate people of all abilities, We wanted to transform the right of way into open space.

The project, the most active phase of the project was last year.

We brought together thousands of volunteers, stakeholders from the city, agencies in the community.

We hosted three community workshops, three online surveys, intensive design charrette with the city, and we held an interactive booth at the street fair.

We applaud the adept move to add a proviso to the funding on the rebuild of 43rd Street to incorporate pedestrian priority options.

The city is now implementing the plan and we need your help to follow through on its priorities.

But there are a couple of other things we'd like to get done.

Buses on Brooklyn, as no one knows what form the future mobility will take with innovation such as scooters and car share, bike share, the most realistic strategy is to remain flexible.

So unless changes are made to the final designs of the station, buses will be absent from Brooklyn Ave.

We encourage a coordinated effort to add six more inches to accommodate buses.

Also, what happens on 43rd Street will set the tone for the district.

And so we want to be bold with its pedestrian priority options.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Following Drew will be Rudy Reisler.

I just want to echo what Corey said.

Thank you, Council Member Johnson, for your support.

Folks like Rudy, who's speaking after me, for the last 10 years have really been going, OK, we're getting this light rail station in the U District.

How are people going to be getting there?

So I think what this plan represents was first an attempt to go to the agencies involved and say, what's the plan?

How are people going to be getting there?

And when the answer was a little muddled and not very well-developed, We asked, well, maybe you should have a station access plan.

And when the answer to that was, well, it's not really going to fit in the workflow, we were very thankful there was encouragement from the agencies, from Rob Johnson's office, to develop this community-led plan that we're presenting here today.

And what I think we'd really like to ask is that you just continue to be good stewards of these values and visions and goals and concepts that have been put forward in this plan and others.

We've done a lot of work getting out in front, talking to everyone who might have disagreements about how things should work around the station, making sure small business owners who deliver their goods with Chevy AstroVans feel like they have a workable plan as much as you know, the UW, how are they going to accommodate the next 20,000 people they'll be adding to campus.

So we just ask for your respect that those conversations have been going on for a long time.

And then we recognize that when there are the inevitable difficulties in a growing place like the U District that we refer back to these guiding principles that have been developed and these concepts and keep developing a great neighborhood that works for everyone.

Thank you.

Following Rudy will be Mona Best.

Hello, I'm Rudy Risler and I'm a bit surprised because Corey just signed me up to speak here.

I represent University Park Community Club, and our community club is obviously very interested in what happens in the U district, and so we've been involved in all the planning that's been going on for at least the past seven years, leading up to the up zone.

In the up zone, we got all sorts of tall buildings that are in the construction right now.

But what's really missing is all the infrastructure that needs to go with this.

That could be police support, that could be schools, that could be specifically what we're talking today, transportation issues.

And we really formed this working group that Cory and Drew have just been talking about.

to push along these things that were at the time also forwarded as part of a city council resolution.

And so we're really grateful that we now have another resolution that is pushing for some reasonable planning around the light rail station.

As you've heard, we've done a lot of outreach.

And we also recognize there may be some other opinions about this.

So one of the major things that we need in the future is not to box ourselves in, but keep things flexible so that as things evolve, we can do something reasonable in the long term.

And so that's what this resolution is about, in my opinion.

And thank you very much if you're going to pass it.

Thank you, Rudy.

Mona?

Best will be followed by Alicia Davis.

Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak.

Thank you so much.

I ask and invite you to engage this topic, not only cerebrally with your head, but with your heart.

Every day, well, I want to start by starting with what I am here to support and ending with that as well.

I'm here in support of a resolution in support of U.S.

Senate Bill 726, the Personal Care Products Safety Act.

Every day we are exposed to toxic chemicals throughout a variety of means.

The foods we eat, the air we breathe, our cleaning products, and the products we put on our bodies.

Daily exposure to toxic chemicals has a profound and lasting effect upon our health and our relationships.

Women of color have a higher incidence of chronic disease associated with the exposure to toxic chemicals.

Women of color have a higher level of toxic chemicals in their body that impact their children and their families.

But this is not just a women's issue.

One in three children are diagnosed with autism, ADD, ADHD, and other illnesses.

I have been a speech pathologist working in the medical and educational setting for almost 20 years.

Over this time, I have worked day in and day out with families, educators, and the honor of working with students and have seen a rise in this illness directly impacting the success of the students that I serve and their mental health.

I have been an educator and an advocate as it pertains to children and their families in the educational setting.

I am also here because I am a beauty counter consultant, the leader and the heart behind bringing clean, safer products to all people.

I am using my voice to educate and advocate as it relates to the lack of regulation and safety regarding the cosmetic industry.

Thank you, Ms. Bess.

Can you wrap up, please?

Yes.

A bill has not been passed since 1938 to improve transparency and health.

I leave you with thinking about the fact that that was when the ballpoint pen was created.

We need to have change.

This is our issue, and it is an issue that only all of us can resolve.

Thank you.

Our last two speakers will be Alicia Davis and then Robert Smiley.

I came here totally prepared to support all of my fellow consumers of the beauty industry and not prepared to speak, so bear with me.

I am also here on behalf of the Personal Care Products and Safety Act and want to say thank you to Rob Johnson for bringing a resolution forward.

As a consumer of the beauty industry, I was blown away to find out the facts of the nearly unregulated cosmetic industry.

It's confusing in an unregulated marketplace where as consumers we don't know everything that's in our products and products that are labeled natural and organic, green, they can still contain toxic chemicals.

So I'm here in support of regulating that, letting us as young women, middle-aged, whatever age we're at, giving us that choice of putting cleaner products on our body and therefore extending our lifespan and the lifespan of our young ones.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Davis.

Our last speaker will be Robert Smiley.

Afternoon, everyone.

My name is Robert Smiley.

I'm the founder of the Hand Up Project.

It's upnorth.org.

And what we do is we go out in the woods and the alleys and we talk to people and get them into detox treatment and housing within 24 hours.

Speaking on behalf of this Licton Spring and the Lake Union thing, I was always raised that doing the same thing over and over expecting different results was called insanity.

And with Licton Springs, we did a cleanup there with all the needles and put the owl out.

And then most of the people that are there are being moved over to the Lake Union place.

I know a couple of them that moved into the Licton Springs when it first opened, and now they're living over there in the Lake Union one.

If you want to help us with this homeless problem, you need to take a look at the fact that there's three different types.

There's mental illness, drug addiction, and economically displaced people out there.

And they all need three different types of solutions.

But low barrier is not one of them.

I deal with a lot of people in a couple of the camps that I have up north, and bottom line is there's zero tolerance.

If they don't have a problem with drinking and drugging, Great, I'll put them in a camp and work them through services, get them connected.

Every six to nine months, they graduate into their own apartment.

They're getting their kids back and getting their life back.

If they have an issue with drinking and drugging, I get them into detox treatment and recovery housing that works the program of recovery to get their lives back.

The idea of putting people that are still allowed to drink and drug into the resource of tiny homes is ridiculous, simply because when I've done that, I'm constantly not finding people for appointments.

They set appointments, I go out to find them, they're high, they're this, they're that.

Please reconsider what you're doing with the Lake Union property.

Robert Smiley, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Smiley.

That'll conclude our public comment.

We want to thank all of you for coming down and sharing your thoughts and ideas.

At this point, we'll move to payment of the bill, so please read the title.

Council Bill 119488, approving money to pay certain claims and ordering the payment thereof.

We'll move to pass Council Bill 119488. Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

The bill passed.

Any further comments?

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Herbold.

Aye.

Johnson.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Bill passed and the Chair will sign it.

Please read the first agenda item.

The report of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts Committee agenda item one, appointment 1267, appointment of Stephanie Ellis-Smith as a member of Museum Development Authority Governing Council for a term to July 11, 2021. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

This appointment to the Museum Development Authority is an appointment that is being brought forward to the Council by the MDA Governing Council.

It is an appointment for a vacant position and this will be Ms. Ella Smith's first term.

Ms. Ella Smith is the founder and former executive director of the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, otherwise known as CD Forum.

Currently, she is the founder principal of Phila Engage Giving, which does amazing philanthropic advisory work.

And also, she was the past board director of Artists Trust.

She served as a Seattle Arts Commissioner from 2008 to 2010, and a Washington State Arts Commissioner from 2000 to 2007. Very good.

Any further questions on this nomination?

I just wanted to thank Stephanie Ellis Smith.

I'm very aware of all the great work she's done, and thanks for agreeing to serve on the Development Authority Governing Council.

Thank you very much.

All those in favor of this appointment, please vote aye.

Aye.

Let's try that again.

My rhythm was a little off on that one.

I'll take ownership of that.

Those in favor of confirming the appointment, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

The motion carries, the appointment is confirmed.

Please read the next appointment.

Agenda item two, appointment 1275. Appointment of Wayne Adrian Rock as member of Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to April 30, 2020. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Mr. Rock is an appointment to the LGBTQ Commission brought to us by the council.

The council is the appointing authority in this instance.

Mr. Rock is a community engagement specialist, currently working at Asian Counseling and Referral Services, and has a wide variety of community experience, including work on environmental, housing, and disabilities issues.

Very good.

Any further comments on this appointment?

Those in favor of confirming the appointment, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The appointment is confirmed.

Please read the report of the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee.

The report of the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee, agenda item three, Council Bill 11945, authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to execute a lease agreement between the City of Seattle and Saddlewick Holdings Company, LLC, a Delaware-limited liability company, for office space in the building located at 300 Elliott Avenue West, commonly known as the Elliott Bay Office Park, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts, the committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Gonzalez, and thanks for filling in for Council Member Bagshaw.

Council Member Gonzalez has the floor.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Bill 119485 would authorize the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to enter into a 15-year lease for office space at 300 Elliott Avenue West.

This lease can be renewed two additional years for five-year terms for a total of up to 25 years.

The total space being leased is 28,000 square feet.

which again can be increased by up to 4,000 square feet within the first five years of the lease.

The lease rate is $33 a square foot or $924,000 a year.

The lease rate will increase annually by $1 a square foot starting in 2021. This new lease signifies the moving of 113 staff members of the Parks and Recreation Department that will be moved from the current office space in the RDA building in the Chinatown International District The current lease in that particular building and the current building expires in November of this year.

So there is a sense of urgency around timeliness of action on the city council bill to allow for this move to begin to occur.

The location of this new office space is also very close to the main parks administration building in Denny Park, which in addition to the favorable lease rate terms made this a good choice for the new space.

This ordinance was considered in the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee on March 22nd.

And it is the committee's unanimous recommendation that the city council pass this council bill.

Thank you very much.

Are there any comments or questions?

If not, please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Herbold?

Aye.

Johnson?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

O'Brien?

Aye.

Sawant?

Aye.

Gonzalez?

Aye.

President Harrell?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Please read the report of the Human Services, Equitable Development, and Renters' Rights Committee.

Both items, four and five, please.

The Human Services, Equitable Development, and Renters' Rights Committee agenda items four and five, appointments 1238 and 1276. Appointments of Robert D. Cook and Doris W. Coo as members, Pacific Hospital Preservation Development Authority governing council for term to December 31st, 2021. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Council Member Sawant.

President Harrell, Robert Cook and Doris Koo have been nominated to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority.

Robert Cook is appointed by the PDA itself and Doris Koo is appointed by the King County Executive.

Last week we had the, sorry, nominated by the King County Executive.

Last week we had the opportunity to talk to both of them in the Human Services Equitable Development and Renter's Rights Committee along with the President of the PDA about the Pacific Hospital and their work.

We discussed our plan to build affordable housing on the Pacific Hospital campus, which is partially funded in the proposed state budget last week.

Before the meeting, my office asked the nominees to prepare to answer questions about their position on this affordable housing project.

Of course, I completely support that affordable housing project and was seeking responses from the nominees at the table.

And both nominees expressed support for that affordable housing project.

And as a result, the committee unanimously recommends council confirm these appointments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swann.

Any comments or questions from the dais?

Council Member Skater.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I really appreciated having the chance to work with the PHPDA in the past, including Bob Cook and Doris Koo.

I'm very appreciative of the follow-up questions that we submitted to the candidates, and thanks to Bob Cook for his response as well.

We, I think, are all in alignment with wanting to see that affordable housing, child care facility, and senior center created on the North Lot, in addition to making sure, as the Council President mentioned this morning, that the good work that they do through grant funding for our community organizations who are working on ensuring that we are addressing health disparities and improving access to healthcare and healthy communities through addressing the social determinants of health, that they continue to get that funding out to critical community partners.

With the information that I received this morning and a huge amount of appreciation for the quick work on behalf of the nominee, very much in support of these two nominations going forward, and I'll be voting yes.

Very good.

Any further comments or questions?

If not, those in favor of confirming these two appointments, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Please read the report from the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.

The report of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee, agenda item five, resolution 31873, recognizing the community-led visioning process and the recommendations found in the U District Station Area Mobility Plan and supporting pedestrian focus rebuild of Northeast 43rd Street.

The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Customer O'Brien.

Thank you.

I am very excited about the imminent opening of the University District light rail station and the opportunity to create a vibrant, lively transportation hub there that serves all sorts of users.

And I'm really grateful to the community members who have come together to help create a vision of that and this resolution adopts that.

And I'm grateful for Councilmember Johnson's work to get us there.

And so with that, why don't I hand it over to Councilmember Johnson.

Councilmember Johnson.

I don't have much more to add.

We've got a lot of things that are happening in the neighborhood rather than wait, as you heard from community members, to respond to requests from a variety of different agencies.

I'm going to talk a little bit about the vision that we came up with.

I want to say thank you to all of them for multiple years worth of hard work.

We had a really great set of consultants that the city helped hire to help them create that vision.

I want to say thanks to those folks at Makers who did a lot of that work.

And as mentioned, my chief of staff, Amy Gore, spent literally years working on this project.

So we're happy to have this small resolution today to affirm the good work and look forward to its implementation.

Excellent.

Any further comments or questions?

I want to thank the members of the community for coming out in support of this resolution.

Those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next agenda item.

For adoption of other resolutions agenda item number 6 resolution 31875 retiring introduced and referred council of bills resolutions clerk files and appointments that have received no further action.

Thank you as I described this morning this is just sort of our administrative legislation where.

We have the process according to Rule 1A6, where we retire legislation that has been in a standing committee or before the city council for at least one year.

And again, this refers to bills, resolutions, clerk files, and appointments.

And we've made this a list, of course, publicly available as attachment one to this resolution, and it's something we do every year.

Any questions or concerns?

If not, those in favor, I will move to adopt Resolution 31875. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and chair will sign it.

Please read the next agenda item.

Agenda item 7, Resolution 31876 in support of U.S.

Senate Bill 726, the Personal Care Products Safety Act.

Council Member Johnson.

Thanks.

Just wanted to talk about this a little bit more.

As I mentioned during Council briefing this morning, this is a resolution that supports a bill in front of the U.S.

Senate that would do a better job of regulating the personal care industry.

It's a $70 billion a year industry, and it's regulated by approximately two pages of federal law.

That's an astounding thing to me.

As we heard in public comment today, no changes to that law since the invention of the ballpoint pen.

It's been now more than 80 years since we've had any action to ban chemicals from the kinds of things that we put on our bodies every day, whereas the European Union has banned more than 1,400 chemicals in the last two decades.

We as individuals, you know, put probably about a hundred different individual chemicals on our bodies every day.

I think that it is important for us to really be knowledgeable about what those things are and less folks think that it's just the beauty counter team who's here today.

And thank you to my wife, Katie, for helping to organize folks today.

But there are a lot of other major brands like L'Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, Estee Lauder, Revlon, Procter & Gamble, who have all supported this legislation.

It's also been supported by folks like the March of Dimes, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Women's Health Network, and a whole host of others.

It's a bipartisan bill.

I think it's time for us to start taking some action, and this is our little small way of demonstrating our level of support.

Thank you, Councilmember Johns, for bringing this forward.

questions or comments or concerns and you want to thank members of the community for showing such strong support for this resolution okay okay those in favor of adopting the resolution please vote aye those opposed vote no the motion carries the resolution is adopted and chair will sign it I'm gonna first ask if there are any further business to come before the council, which may include excused absences, and then I may say a few words, or rather let Council Member Johnson say a few words if he'd like, given this is his last time on the dais.

So is there any further business to come before the council?

Nope.

Okay, so Council Member Johnson, I'm gonna just start it off and say it's been absolutely a pleasure serving with you.

Thanks for leaving in the middle of the.

I mean nothing looking forward to another replacement process by the way I'm being very facetious Your your passion, you know I met you when you were lobbying on transportation issues and a strong lobbyist at that and I know your your passion for transportation solutions for our environment for neighborhoods and for the children and I think having young kids in it and The Seattle Public Schools, as I did when I first joined, gives it one, a very unique perspective as well and a valued perspective.

So it's been my pleasure serving with you and I look forward to working with you in your new capacity, but it's been my honor.

Did anyone else wanna say any words to Council Member Johnson and maybe he has some words for us?

Council Member Herbold.

I just want to say that I know that you will be proud for decades to come of the fingerprints that you have put on this city, both in physical ways and policy ways, that will have lasting positive impacts for our communities for a very long time, not the least of which, of course, is passage of MHA and the lasting contributions to affordable housing that that legislation will bring.

I will miss having you on my side of the dais and having somebody to kvetch with on occasion, joke with, and I've really enjoyed working with you.

We've not always been on the same place, but we've always, I feel, done a fine job of finding a way to meet in the middle, so thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Thank you, Mr. President.

Councilmember Johnson, I was noting to the President that I would very much like to say something because it's not only been an honor to serve with you on City Council, but it was an honor to work with you, I think now 10, 12 years ago, when you were with Transportation Choices and I was with the Department of Health as a recent graduate from the Evergreen School of Public Administration.

working on my final project running the Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy Leadership Group, just a mouthful of words.

And it was your steadfast leadership in that coalition that made me think that the change is possible.

And even though we kept running into roadblock after roadblock, on issues around safety, a safe route to school, getting healthier foods in school, you continue to sort of give me hope that change was possible.

And as a young policy advocate, seeing another young policy advocate who had been already successful in his career show that the pathway forward in the advocacy world, and now as a council member showing what it means to be inclusive and respectful and to be thoughtful in policymaking, You've shown, I think, the city how it's possible to take those good ideas that we hear about from our community partners, from our family, from the leaders that we've worked with in the past, and in these seats, turn those policy ideas into action and law.

So thank you for being there for the time that I've known you over the last decade plus to show that it is possible to make the changes and to lift up the community voice.

whether you're outside these halls or sitting in that seat right there, I know we're going to keep working with you to make sure that this city is a healthier and more inclusive place.

So thanks for all of your work over the years that I've known you.

Rob, I'm trying to remember when we first met and I'm not sure.

I know we served on the Viaduct Stakeholder Committee, it was probably over a dozen years ago, but we interacted before then, you at Transportation Choices and me as a volunteer at the Sierra Club.

And I've always valued our friendship and relationship and our work together.

It's been a real honor to work for nearly four years with you in an office right next to you on a day-to-day basis, and that's been amazing.

You're someone, when I count back to how long, I know that I'm a little bit older than you, and so I'm not sure when you, just a little bit.

And I thought I started pretty young at this, but you must have been like in elementary school when we first met you.

I don't know how the math works out, but you've been doing this for a long time.

And you're someone who, you know, you've been great to collaborate with, co-conspirator at times, but you've also been someone who brought so much knowledge to this work and has helped educate me. in my activism through that and understanding, especially around transportation and urban policy.

And so I've really appreciated that over the years.

And I know you got going too far away.

So I look forward to continuing our relationship and continue to work together and continuing to get advice from you as we move forward.

So it's been a pleasure.

Gonna miss you for the next six months, but look forward to what comes next.

Councilor Gonzalez.

Rob likes to joke that he hates going immediately after me, so I decided I'd get him one last time on the way out.

No, seriously, I have really enjoyed having you as a colleague, Council Member Johnson.

It has been an absolute pleasure for many of the reasons that have already been articulated up here.

I think, for me, it's really important to recognize that you bring a very different style of governance, and that includes always being willing to have tough conversations, even when you're really uncomfortable with them, and to really focus yourself in coalition building.

That's really where you come from, is from coalition building and from bringing people together who might not be sort of the people who would naturally come together.

And I think the first time I met you was actually at our first debate when you were running in 2015. And I was running in 2015 in Eastlake.

So it has been fun ever since then.

But really, I guess the following remarks are really intended more for Katie and your girls.

I hope you know, Katie, how wonderful Rob is.

I know that you know how wonderful he is.

But I hope you, appreciate how much he has done for this city and that it's been done out of the love for you and for your girls and for all of the families across the city.

And I know that you have made great sacrifices to support Rob's commitment to public service.

And so I want to thank you and the girls for letting us have him.

for a little over three years in this really tough, tough job.

So thank you, Katie, for your public service and allowing us to have.

Rob for this period of time.

It's been really amazing.

And I know that you all will be around and will be a part of our community.

And I've just been so thrilled to be able to fight for a more equitable, just, and inclusive city that includes transportation for all, that includes housing for all, that includes education programs.

And I'm really just proud to have been a colleague of yours for this short period of time.

We will miss you, and I'm still hoping that your speech is gonna end with April Fool's, I'm staying, you guys don't have to do a council vacancy reappointment thing, just kidding.

But I suspect that's not the gift that I will receive.

Wouldn't it be funny if I just did this for a three week vacation and then all of a sudden reapplied?

I wrote down a list of things that I'm really proud of accomplishing on this council for the last three and a quarter years, but it feels hollow compared to those very kind words.

So I'll just leave with a couple of thoughts.

I was really inspired to do this job, not just because of, kind of legends in the civic space like Jim Ellis and Aubrey Davis that we all hear a lot about when we're kind of in public policy in the city of Seattle, but also because of some personal heroes of mine.

Hazel Wolfe, who is not a very well-known individual, but is a a real legend in the environmental community locally for her commitment to environmentalism and environmental education, and my own grandmother, Margaret Smith, who was in the first graduating class at Seattle University, the first graduating class of women at Seattle University, and was known throughout the Depression as being one of those houses where you could come and knock on the back door if you were hungry and you needed a sandwich.

Those kinds of people inspired me to do this job because I think it's important that we have people who want to serve the public.

And, wow, I didn't expect a good emotional case.

And I think a lot about something that you and I talked about early on in this job, Council Member O'Brien, where you said our Mondays used to be really short.

They used to be 15 or 20 minutes.

We'd get some stuff done and we move on.

We haven't had very many short Mondays.

And I think the reason why we haven't had very many short Mondays is because we really work on hard problems and we work on hard solutions to those problems.

And those require a lot of complex work and a lot of behind the scenes work.

And I'm really proud to say that I think there's a lot of different ways to be a leader in the city.

And I hope that my sort of behind the scenes style and And collaborative nature has been one of the ways that's helped us get through some of those hard things.

I will confess to be a little concerned about some of the rhetoric that I've seen in the city right now, and I think that that comes from both sides.

Whether you're somebody who's shown up to city council very ardently in favor of something like the head tax, or whether or not you've organized public forums around public safety, that kind of intentionally pick on individual city council members or process.

That doesn't seem to be the Seattle that I grew up in.

It's not the Seattle that I want to see us become.

And I get concerned about that rhetoric because I think it really imitates the kind of rhetoric that we've seen at the national level, which pits us against each other.

This is a city that really does a good job, I think, of governing in particularly hard spaces when we can talk to each other.

and we can learn to disagree without being disagreeable.

I'm so grateful to you, Kates, for everything that you've done.

I love you so much.

We've had a really hard couple years.

to have lost parents, to have watched so many people step into our lives to help in those spaces.

I'm incredibly grateful.

I'm incredibly grateful to our parents who are still around, to those aunts and uncles and cousins and friends who've defended us, who at cocktail parties got into fights with people about land use because they knew how hard this job was for us.

to Jerry, and Emilio, and Amy, and Noah, and Patty, and Alicia, and Maya, and all the other folks in the office who've been around to babysit our kids, to be part of our lives.

I'm just so grateful to you for letting us do this job.

It has been a very hard job, but I'm very grateful to you all.

Thank you.

Didn't expect to get emotional.

This is one of those times where you wish that Seattle Channel wasn't live, and you could go back and edit some of this out.

But, you know, it has been a true honor to serve with you all, and I look forward to following your careers from afar.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnson.

passionate words, we stand adjourned.

Thank you very much.