Seattle City Council 8/5/19

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for being here for our August 5th meeting.

It's 2 0 1 p.m.

On the for the August 5th 2019 City Council meeting.

I'm Bruce Harrell president of the council the clerk.

Please call the roll Jacob He's here Calling just calling a roll sir So on cure Bagshaw.

Gonzales.

Here.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Mosqueda.

Here.

O'Brien.

President Harrell.

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted, but Councilmember O'Brien may have something to say about that.

Councilmember O'Brien.

I do have something to say about that.

I appreciate you reminding me, Council President Harrell.

I'm gonna filibuster here for a second while I pull out my notes.

I would like to amend to the Referral Council by introducing Council Bill 119604 entitled, An Ordinance Relating to the Green New Deal for Seattle.

Establishing the Green New Deal Oversight Board, providing compensation for those who incur financial hardship by their participation on the board, requesting that the Office of Sustainability and Environment create an interdepartmental team to advance the Green New Deal for Seattle, amending section 3.14.970 of the Seattle Municipal Code, and adding a new section 3.14.979 to the Seattle Municipal Code, and by referring it to the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.

Well stated, Council Member Branstad, almost as though you had a script to say all of that.

Okay, we have an amendment, and it's been seconded.

Any questions or comments?

All those in favor of amending the Introduction and Referral Calendar, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

So now we're going to actually adopt it.

Those in favor of adopting the amended Introduction and Referral Calendar, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

The minutes of the July 29, 2019 City Council meeting have been reviewed, and if there's no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Presentations, I believe Council Member Mosqueda will have a presentation, and we look forward to hearing from her.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I'm very excited today to bring forward a proclamation that has been signed by all of the City Council members and the Mayor in support of the Art Workers Union and the work that they are currently doing to raise the voices of art workers at Frye Museum.

I want to first thank Council Member Sawant for her statements of support and your support ongoing for these efforts over the last few weeks slash months and to reiterate our commitment as an entire council as well for this work.

Our office was contacted about the ability to concretize our support and to show a standing in solidarity with the workers who are bringing these issues to light and bringing bargaining forward and making possible for many of the art workers in our region.

A big thank you to John Eden, Sarah Osborne, Kelsey Barnes from the Art Workers Union who are here with us today, and especially thanks to John who reached out and worked with us, including Sejal Parikh on our Chief of Staff, who is not here to be able to celebrate with us today, but was really instrumental in pulling this together.

As we mentioned this morning at Council briefing, art workers and craftspeople have throughout history helped to lead and support labor and other progressive movements in their work, words, advocacy, art, and leadership.

Earlier this year, the staff of the Fry Art Museum, who have long struggled with wages, working conditions, and the desire to bring a voice to the job, decided to form a union.

Many of these workers have struggled over medical costs, housing costs, and have been forced to live further and further away from their jobs and their community and more.

Last Monday, they began to bargain with the museum and in true Seattle fashion, the security staff at the Frey Art Museum has also put forward their effort to create a union for the security staff at the museum in our city and in our state.

So it's really exciting to be able to bring this forward.

This is your work and in honor of your work and in honor of the struggle that you are currently engaged in.

It's also a really exciting year to be able to bring this forward.

We celebrated earlier the 100-year anniversary of the Seattle General Strike, the 110-year anniversary of the Spokane free speech fight, and the 100-year anniversary of the Centralia tragedy, and the 20th anniversary of the battle in Seattle.

So in light of our work to applaud, uplift, and support unions, the right to collectively bargain, and frontline workers, we applaud the Art Workers Union and want to stand in solidarity with you with this signed proclamation, and really appreciate your courage, your dedication, and your passion, and your artistic leadership that you bring to the community and to the movement building.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Before we present or hear from our honorees, would any other council members like to say any other words?

Council Member Siwan.

Thank you, President Harrell, and thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

As a rank-and-file member of the Teachers Union myself and an elected representative of Seattle's working people, I am very happy to be supporting this proclamation and honored to stand with Art Workers Union, some of whom are here today.

from the moment you all decided to get unionized and maybe before that.

And thanks also to all the labor organizations and DSA and Socialist Alternative who all stood with you all from the very beginning.

It's very important to have a strong community solidarity.

And as the proclamation says, you know, we are celebrating the formation of a new union, especially in light of the fact that union density has gone down over the past decade.

So new forces among the working class becoming part of the union movement is extremely important.

And as your own experience is starting to show, as you've started bargaining, that the union-busting tactics of the bosses don't stop once you form a union.

You have to continue to fight for achieving a just contract, and that is why we're really delighted to stand in solidarity with you.

And to that effect, I wanted to I'll mention two things.

One is, I sent a letter to the director, Joseph Rosa, who's the CEO of Fry Art Museum, today, just at one o'clock, and I wanted to quickly read that out.

It says, Mr. Rosa, as a rank and file member of the local teachers union, as district three city council member, and an elected representative of Seattle's working people, I urge you to negotiate, without delay, a just union contract with the museum security guards, unionized as the art workers union.

I have been appalled to learn from the members of the Art Workers Union about the obfuscation and hostility you have displayed to date.

You challenged the voting eligibility of nearly half the workers in their union election last month.

You have now hired a huge international law firm, Dorsey and Whitney, to represent you at the bargaining table, and your lawyer proceeded to bully and threaten the workers at the very first bargaining session, according to reports I've received from union members.

Your hostility to the workers is completely counterproductive, and I can assure you that my council office will spare no effort to see that the FRI workers receive full justice.

There's no excuse for FRI management to deny wage and benefit improvements for the workers.

The FRI security guards are among those who have helped make Seattle a vibrant, dynamic community.

They've shared their creativity and artistry as glassblowers, printmakers, painters, and pen and ink artists.

They're called security guards by Fry, but in fact they do more than guard artwork.

They guide museum visitors and lend their own artistic expertise in teaching people about the Fry's exhibits.

And yet these workers face economic eviction from Seattle because of the vice grip of your stinginess and unaffordable rents from greedy corporate landlords.

Your museum board of directors has chosen to nickel and dime the workers on wages while paying you, the CEO, more than $229,000 a year and paying themselves, relatively well-to-do directors, the equivalent of $115 per hour for their board service according to the museum's own 2017 IRS 990 filings.

And so we mentioned in the letter how the FRI has talked about the endowment that makes it the envy of its peers.

It proclaims that FRI receives contributions from Balkan, U.S. Bank, BNY, Mellon Wealth Management, Wintermere Real Estate, and other major corporations.

And so we really urge the FRI management to make sure that they immediately negotiate a just contract.

And the last thing I wanted to note is, this is August 5th, almost to a date a year ago, August 6th, 2018, the Museum of Modern Art Union, which was at that time, as you all I'm sure know better than I do, were in contract negotiations.

And on that day, almost a year ago, the MoMA Local 2110, which is a union that represents 200 members of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, walked out of their post, descending the stairs into the museum lobby to protest the current contract after being offered by the museum administration.

So in other words, this proclamation is happening on a really interesting anniversary of art workers, you know, continuing their struggle.

So congratulations to you all.

And we look forward to you receiving a just contract.

Thank you, Council Member Swat.

Council Member Mosqueda, would you like to say a few more words?

Just before I hand over the proclamation, Mr. President, to read the last two whereases and the proclamation itself, if I may.

Please.

Whereas art workers and craftspeople throughout history have used their skills to advocate, fight and protect and protests for labor standards and civil liberties for the betterment of people everywhere.

And whereas organizing policy victories and labor innovations that start in Seattle often replicate across the country, therefore, it now will be known as August 5th that the city council and the mayor's office proclaim August 5th as the day of Art Workers Union Day.

Thank you all for your incredible work, and I'll deliver this to you now.

Okay, if there's no objection, we'll suspend the rules so we can hear from our guests.

If anyone would like to say something, you're not required, but we always want to give you the opportunity.

We should go through.

So we can ask if we can suspend the rolls to here.

I'd like to start off by thanking Council Member Mosqueda for introducing this proclamation for City Council.

Of course, I'd like to also thank Council Member Sawant for the help she and her office has given us since being publicly announced.

our union, the Art Workers Union, and of course, thank you very much for that letter today.

This support is invaluable.

It also represents City Council's dedication to ensuring Seattle remains a leader in workers and civil rights in the United States, and city support is a great reminder to our team that we are a union town, and this furthers and strengthens our resolve.

We are scrappy, We're a scrappy group, but we're resilient, and we have grit.

And despite the hardships my co-workers have faced, including, as stated earlier, unlivable wages, traveling up to an hour to get to work, foregoing medical treatment, too few work hours, or the exhaustion of extra work being available, but that work instead being contracted out to a third party, subcontracted out, they keep showing up to the job they love.

But love doesn't put food on the table, and passion doesn't keep a roof over your head, and dedication doesn't pay medical bills or commuting costs.

Sorry.

This is why we formed the Art Workers Union.

The first museum-based union, not only in Seattle, but in the state of Washington, to make sure the place we love working remains accessible, not only to the Seattle public, but to the Fry's employees as well.

The O-World has a long, vibrant history of protest and action, and we don't see the AWU as being any different.

Now we hope that FRI management hears City Council's support and lives up to their progressive mission by promptly meeting in good faith at the bargaining table to establish a contract with the AWU.

Because when the FRI's workers thrive, so will the FRI.

Thank you very much.

Thank all of you for being here and for your commitment to that work and council members from SCADA and so on for Recognizing their efforts.

Thank you very much okay at this time we will take public comment on items that appear on today's agenda our introduction and referral calendar or our our 2019 work program.

I think we have two people signed up.

Thank you for signing up We'll limit our comments to accept comments for 20 minutes, and then we'll go two minutes apiece We'll start off with number one Megan Murphy followed by number two Colleen McCallion McCallion McCallion

Hi.

Hi, Megan.

I'm really glad you're passing the ordinance for sound protection for orcas from the naval testing.

You can't quite protect it, but you can endorse that you're against it.

I think the degradation of the environment is so rapidly accelerating.

It's really scary.

So I think people who have an interest of selling things that come from degrading the environment, I think that there needs to be a check on them from the state, because that's in the best interest of the most people.

So I think super PACs should be banned, which there's going to be something at the Seattle Municipal Tower Suite 4010, that's going to be on I think it's August 13th.

And I also think that there should be free transit because I think that also upgrades the environment.

So the Seattle Transit Riders Union is having something at 6 on September 11th at SEIU 775. I do this as a mother who's had, because of the state's judgment, you know the state is in this thing of flux where sometimes they can protect people and sometimes people aren't being protected because I lost custody of my son from a diagnosis I don't even have and there are people at the border that are being separated from their families because of militaristic reasons, reasons for trading with people that are not in the best interest of the common good.

So I'm really glad you're thinking of orcas and the sound levels and how it hurts their ears.

And I only wish everybody could be so sensitive.

Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Murphy.

Colleen will be our second and last speaker, I believe.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

My name is Colleen McAleer, and I speak as an individual today.

And today I just want to support the acquisition of the Sun Park that's on the agenda as part of the open space acquisitions.

And just a little bit of background for fun.

Today usually it's something heavy, but this is a good thing.

Today we're representing our founders, Gene Amick and Dixie Porter.

and the eight-member steering committee of the SUN Park.

And SUN Park stands for Saving Urban Nature.

And in 2007, it was a vision that was created through the purchase of a very small private lot.

And then thank you to the city, we had a neighborhood grant, and neighbors and community members participated in the process to develop a native plant garden as a teaching tool.

Over the years, we needed to find a place to steward it, and Fortera, formerly Cascade Land Conservancy, became our partner.

And so they kept the funds, and we've continued to raise over $100,000 to give back in addition to this gift to the city for acquisitions to be purchased elsewhere in the city.

And over the last 12 years, the SUN team has envisioned, built, weeded, and spent over 1,200 hours taking care of that little park, which is right across from the elementary school.

Teachers use it as an outdoor classroom and a laboratory of the native plants.

So we thank you, city council members, for considering this, the gift, and we also want to thank our founders.

Again, Jean Amick, Dixie Porter, Parks Department City, Chip Nevins and Michelle Conner of Fratera.

Thanks again.

Thank you, Ms. McAleer.

Thank you for your testimony and that will conclude our public testimony section.

I think we are finished with that.

So let's move to the payment of the bill section.

Please read the title.

Council Bill 119596, a property in Miami to base our claims for the week of July 22nd, 2019 through July 26th, 2019 and ordering the payment thereof.

I think I'll move to pass Council Bill 119596. It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Any further questions or comments?

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

Pacheco.

Aye.

Salant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

The bill passed and shared with Senate.

Please read agenda item number one from the Civic Development, Public Assets and Native Communities Committee.

The report of the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee, agenda item one, Council Bill 11582 relating to the Department of Parks and Recreation authorizing the acquisition of real property, property commonly known as 7900 10th Avenue South, authorizing acceptance of a recording of the deed for open space park and recreation purposes and ratifying confirmed research and prior acts.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Today I think we have three items up and I'm really happy to say and thank Council Member Gonzalez and Council Member Bagshaw that the city actually can grow some property every now and then.

And the Duwamish Park acquisition, and I've been wanting to say this for a long time, when I'm done speaking I believe the good lady from District 1, Council Member Herbold, would like to say a few words.

This ordinance authorizes the purchase of a parcel of land located within the Duwamish Waterway Park that is currently owned by King County.

The purchase price is about a million dollars.

The park will serve the South Park community.

City staff performed due diligence, which included obtaining soil samples that revealed low-level arsenic and soil below the grass and some discrete hot spots with higher concentrations in soil below the grass at the north end.

The city will promptly perform a remedial action upon acquisition of the parcel to remove the contamination even though the locations and concentrations currently do not present, excuse me, do not present an immediate public hazard.

King County was notified and they agreed to reduce the purchase price by $100,000 and sufficient funds, these are sufficient funds for the city to perform the remediation.

This is compliant with the requirement to pay fair market value for the property.

While the city remains responsible for any park remediation costs exceeding $100,000, the results of the due diligence investigation indicate that exceeding the cost estimate is very unlikely.

In addition, City staff, with the assistance of the law department, negotiated that King County retain all liability associated with contaminant releases from the property that are being remediated through EPA's Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Sentiment Cleanup.

The Civic Development, Public Asset, and Native Communities Committee recommends full council pass this ordinance.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Herbold?

Thank you so much.

I want to thank King County for its consideration of reducing the price of the property in consideration for the needs around site remediation.

I also want to thank the Seattle Parks Foundation because of their effort in leading a fundraising campaign for future improvements at the park.

I want to take this opportunity to flag a couple of issues that we learned about at a recent South Park community safety walk and talk with the executive departments.

Those two items that have been flagged is a request from the Duwamish Rowing Club to add some sand and or rocks to the beachfront area so it's easier for them to take their rowing equipment in and out of the park.

And the executive is looking at working with the Army Corps of Engineers to get a permit to do so.

And it looks like we're making some good progress there.

The other item that was flagged in the executive Walk and Talk in South Park in July relates specifically to ongoing graffiti tagging in the park and looking for the fact that in the past using murals to dissuade graffiti tagging has been very effective.

in South Park, so we're looking at more opportunities to work with youth and create art on the surfaces around the park in order to discourage future graffiti.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Herbold.

Any other comments or questions?

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

The Chico I so on I bag shop I Gonzales I her bold I whereas I was going to.

O'Brien I.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passed and shared with Senate.

Please read agenda item number two.

Agenda item two, Council Bill 119587 relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the acceptance of a gift of three art pieces and art tiles entitled Explorer Voyage from the Friends of Christie Park to be installed in the Christie Park for public use.

Committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, Council President.

This is a bill that authorizes the acceptance of a gift from Friends of Christie Park.

Friends of Christie Park are represented by a group of Taiwanese-Americans who value celebrating their culture, exploration, and friendship between the people of Seattle and Taiwan.

The donation called the Explorer Voyage includes three sculpture pieces made of fabricated steel with wood slating for bench seating.

Friends of Christie Park chose to donate art by Paul Sori, an artist who was inspired by the Taiwanese boat culture, specifically boats from Orchid Island.

The donation includes a $6,000 endowment to maintain the pieces.

Christie Park is located in the heart of the university district.

The Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities recommends full council pass this ordinance.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions or comments?

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

Of the bill.

Of the bill.

Of the bill.

Pacheco?

Aye.

Warren?

Aye.

Bagshaw?

Aye.

Gonzales?

Aye.

Herbold?

Aye.

Moraes?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Nine in favor and none opposed.

The bill passed and the chair will sign it.

Please read agenda item number three.

Let's go with the short title please.

Item three, Council Bill 119588 relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation amending Ordinance 125724 which adopts the 2019 budget including the 2019 through 2024 capital improvement program authorized in the acceptance of a donation of real property in Seattle from Futura Northwest.

The committee recommends that the bill pass.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

As you heard from our individual that came, if she's still here, our supporter, there she is, she just raised her hand, to thank her for coming and also coming to committee.

So item three, as you know, is an ordinance that authorizes acceptance of a donation of real property and cash to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, the Laura Hearst community, and Forterra Northwest would like to donate the property located at 4700 Northeast 47th Street, and the donation is $100,000 for stewardship of the park.

As you heard, Forterra Northwest is a nonprofit since 1989 whose mission is land conservancy and bridging the gap between public and private entities.

We've worked with Forterra Northwest in the past on many projects.

Lower Horse residents play an active role in stewardship of this park.

They have established this as Sun Park and the ordinance also allows Sun Park to become part of the city's park system and family, and we welcome that.

The Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities recommends full council pass this ordinance.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any other questions or comments?

Council Member Bexshaw.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez, for shepherding this, and Ms. McAleer, thanks for all the work that you and your neighbors have done.

I also want to recognize the work that was done on Yesler Slough, is that what you called it over the years?

I just appreciate the work that you have done, so happy to support this.

Very good.

Council Member Pacheco.

Just first, thank you, Colleen, for coming to speak on behalf of the Lower Horse Community.

And we now have two additional treasurers in District 4, so thank you.

All right, excellent.

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

So please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Pacheco?

Aye.

Sawant?

Aye.

Bagshaw?

Aye.

Gonzales?

Aye.

Herbold?

Aye.

Moraes?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

O'Brien?

Aye.

President Harrell?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passed in share of a Senate.

Please read the next agenda item from the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee.

The report of the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee agenda item 4, Council Bill 119579 relating to city employment establishing new wage relationships for certain job titles.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Bekshaw.

Thank you very much.

item would raise the wages of the hydro maintenance workers one and two at Seattle City Light and their boundary dam the boundary dam employees.

Council Member Mosqueda would you since this comes out of Seattle City Light do you have anything you'd like to add or you want me just to continue?

No, that's great.

Please continue.

And thank you again for your leadership on this.

Absolutely.

So this was requested by the union in October of 2018. Seattle City Light pulled together a wage review committee and determined that wage increases for this group of workers were appropriate for the positions due to an increased scope of work.

And the total cost of additional expenditures to Seattle City Light will be about $77,000 annually.

And we recommend approval of this item.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions or comments?

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

Pacheco?

Aye.

Sawant?

Aye.

Bagshaw?

Aye.

Gonzales?

Aye.

Herbold?

Aye.

Moraes?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

O'Brien?

Aye.

President Harrell?

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

The bill passed and the Chair will sign it.

Please read the report of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee.

Please read the short title.

The report of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee, agenda item 5, Council Bill 119589, relating to the city's criminal code conforming the Seattle Municipal Code to state law for crimes that require the submission of biological samples to the state of Washington.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Councilman Gonzalez.

Thank you, Council President.

This council bill would conform the Seattle Municipal Code to state law for 11 serious or sex-related crimes that require the submission of biological samples, in other words, DNA, to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.

A little bit of history here.

Until 2014, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab had been processing and entering into the federal combined DNA index system database.

DNA from offenders convicted of misdemeanor crimes as defined in the Seattle Municipal Code.

Officials from the Washington State Patrol discontinued this practice in 2014 because they believed that it was not legally required for the state to process those samples from offenders that are convicted of local crimes under local statutes.

However, in this last legislative session, thanks to the leadership of Representative Orwal, she was able to solicit and receive an opinion from the Attorney General's office that noted that the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab would be bound legally to process Seattle DNA samples and results if the SMC, the Seattle Municipal Code definitions conformed to state law.

So the city attorney's office transmitted to council this particular bill, council bill 119589, in order to bring the city's code into compliance with that attorney general's office opinion.

And then the city attorney's office has also spent much time with me in my office and also joined us at committee last week to walk us through the proposed legislation and made very clear that this legislation does not substantively change the elements of any of the underlying 11 crimes for which DNA samples are taken that would then be placed in the They also clarified that the DNA that would be captured in this instance would only be after conviction, so we're not talking about pre-conviction, before a conviction.

All of this would occur after conviction, consistent.

with the ordinance and with state law.

It is really, I think, important for us to make sure that we continue to support these efforts in the advancement of general public safety.

Staff from our Seattle Police Department have indicated that this recent change in the state law will shift responsibility from the Seattle Assistant City Prosecutors to the Seattle Police Department.

This burden of collecting the DNA from out-of-custody offenders and so This would be really necessary in order for them to continue that work and SPD has indicated they can absorb this additional burden within existing budget.

So in total, we again have reached out to various stakeholders and who were involved pretty heavily in this issue over the last several years at the state legislature.

None of them have expressed concerns with the underlying components of this bill and feel that it's consistent with what the intent was under the state law.

So I feel pretty comfortable that we're not creating a drag net here or taking other punitive action in this area.

This is purely largely a technical bill to allow us to continue the efforts to deal with both backlog issues related to our DNA samples, which in large part are related to, again, sex crimes.

We've heard pretty clearly from a lot of survivors in this area that this is an incredibly important step to move this public safety issue forward.

So implementing this legislation in summary will allow the police department and other law enforcement agencies to use DNA evidence to solve crimes, catch perpetrators, and bring justice to victims and their families in the future.

I'm really happy and proud to advance this particular piece of legislation together with City Attorney Pete Holmes, who I'd like to thank for his advocacy in this space.

I also want to thank John Shockett and Kelly Harris.

from the city attorney's office for their work on both drafting the bill, coming to committee to present on the bill, and making sure that we had all the information necessary to walk some of our advocacy organizations and friends through the various components of this bill.

I also want to thank Rebecca Johnson who joined us at the table last week.

She represents the city on a variety of public safety related legislative priorities.

This was one of the city's legislative priorities last session and so she was able to join us and walk us through at the committee the varying degree of engagement with privacy concerns and with the public safety concerns at the committee table.

Really appreciated her time and attention to that.

And then lastly, just wanted to thank Greg Doss from Council Central staff for doing an analysis of the bill as submitted by the City Attorney's Office and to Brianna Thomas from my office for being the policy lead on this issue.

So with that being said, the committee considered this last week in a special committee and we recommend that the City Council pass Council Bill 119589.

Thank you very much Councilman Gonzalez.

Councilman Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I want to thank the committee chair for her leadership on this issue, not just in committee but also with your advocacy at the state level to advance this legislation in addition to the community partners that you mentioned.

And I think that the clarification that you've offered today should help set the record straight.

I also want to offer a few pieces to clarify and underscore some of the comments that you just made due to the concerns that the ACLU has continued to raise and have been covered on some of our local media channels.

I think it's really important to hear the words that Councilmember Gonzalez just said and to clarify that this legislation creates a mechanism for the State Patrol to be able to accept the DNA samples that have already been collected from people who have already been convicted of a serious or sex-related misdemeanor crime.

So this bill does not lead to any new process or changes at the city level.

And we all are mindful of the unintended consequences, the unintended impacts, especially on communities of color, as we think about individuals from communities of color being disproportionately represented in the criminal legal justice system, and are mindful any time it comes to collecting information or DNA, how this information could potentially be misused.

We address those questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for your answer to those questions in committee and to the advocates at the table who addressed it head on.

And in addition to the point that this is not seeking to create new changes in our current process, we are also wanting to underscore today that this sharing of information, of data, of DNA that has already been collected could help uplift and underscore our commitment to exonerate people who have been wrongly convicted.

So to the extent that we are sharing information and can help free individuals who are wrongly being held and don't have the DNA evidence to yet prove that, this DNA may be able to help exonerate some individuals who are wrongly being convicted.

I want to thank uh the chair again for making that um rsji Comments really heard last week and again today and to the sexual assault and survivor protection advocates including representative orbal And our city attorney again for continuing to work on this, but I think that's an important clarification to to write the wrong narrative on this Thank you cast member skater Any other questions or comments?

Okay, again, I want to thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez and Councilmember Mosqueda for asking all the right questions and getting to the heart of it all.

So with that, please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Pacheco?

Aye.

Sawant?

Aye.

Bagshaw?

Aye.

Gonzalez?

Aye.

Herbold?

Aye.

Juarez?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

O'Brien?

Aye.

President Harrell?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passed and chair will sign it.

Please read agenda item number six.

Agenda item six, clerk file 314417 Seattle Police Chief 2018 Annual Report concerning activities regulated by ordinance 108333. Committee recommends that the file be placed on file.

Council Member Gonzalez.

Thank you, Council President.

Clerk File 314417 is a 2018 annual report from the Seattle Police Chief report concerning activities regulated by Ordinance 108333, which is commonly referred to as the Investigations Ordinance.

If you look at the underlying bill, it's very simple.

There's, I think, two pages worth of reports.

This is in order to comply with Seattle Municipal Code 14.12.380 that requires that the chief of the Seattle Police Department submit an annual report on the implementation of that chapter to the mayor, the city council, and the city clerk for filing as a public record.

And so really what this annual report does is it lays out the type of information that the Seattle Police Department may have collected in the prior year for law enforcement purposes.

There are requirements under the Seattle Municipal Code that require destruction of that certain types of information if it is gathered.

And this is the chief's obligation to report to us and the general public as to the agency's compliance with those regulations.

those retention and or destruction provisions within the ordinance and consistent with Council Central staff's report and the Chief of Police's report, it appears that the ordinance has been complied with.

So this is our due diligence in filing this report publicly consistent with the Muni Code.

So the committee recommends that the clerk be, that the clerk file be filed.

Very good.

Any questions or comments?

If not, those in favor of filing the clerk file, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the clerk file is placed on file.

Please read agenda item number seven.

Agenda Item 7, Clerk File 314423, Chief of Police Audit Report of select files obtained through the Police Department's membership in the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit and the Western States Information Network, maintained exclusively for confidential information.

Dated February 27, 2019, in accordance with Ordinance 108333. The committee recommends that the file be placed on file.

That's Member Gonzalez.

Thank you, Council President.

This is the last of my very heavy law enforcement public safety items on the agenda.

So this is also related to the previous agenda.

Agenda item six, clerk file 314422, excuse me, 314423 is also a report that seeks to ensure compliance with ordinance 108333, which is the investigations ordinance.

That ordinance requires that the Chief of Police audit select police files maintained exclusively for confidential information.

This information would have been obtained through the police department's membership in the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit and the Western States Information Network.

Chief of Police Best has submitted her latest audit report as required by the ordinance, and that report indicates that she found no violations during the audit process.

which she is required to do under the ordinance.

So she has now filed a certification through this clerk file for the public record to certify the fact that the audit report was prepared by the chief and that she is certifying it as final.

And for those of you that didn't have time to go through the report, it appears that there were 30 administrative documents that were audited in the law enforcement section and there were a lot more audited.

About 230, 240 audited in the Western States Information Network files and only 176 audited items are currently being retained.

consistent with the ordinance under the confidentiality provisions.

So with that being said, the committee considered this and was able to ask questions and received a briefing from Council Central staff and voted to recommend that the City Council file the clerk file.

Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.

I was trying to prolong it because you were gone and so I added a little bit more detail than I probably would have otherwise done.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay, those in favor of filing the clerk file, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the clerk file is placed on file.

Please read the report of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee.

The report of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, agenda item 8, Council Bill 119471 relating to land use and zoning, clarifying the definition of vessel and consistently using the term vessel in the Shoreline Master Program and amending sections 23.68.204.916 and .942 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Council Member Pacheco.

So this legislation clarifies the city's definition of a vessel to address a ruling from the hearing examiner in December of 2016. The clarification will return the vessel definition to its original intention and will close a loophole that has allowed non-operable, formerly recreational vessels to be verified by the city as floating on water residences.

This loophole has led to an uptick in non-operable vessels being verified and could lead to many more if we do not act today.

As part of the consideration of this legislation, my office and others met with stakeholders including the Lake Union Liveaboard Association to better understand the concerns.

The proposed changes do not affect any existing floating on water residences.

I'd like to thank Council Member Herbold for bringing an amendment in committee which reaffirmed this fact.

And so with that said, we also want to thank central staff, Kito specifically for his assistance on this bill.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions or comments?

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

Racheco.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

Bill passed and chair will sign it.

Agenda items nine and ten.

If there's no objection, I'd like to do by unanimous consent, I'd like to reverse the order such that we can hear Agenda item number 10 before 9. I've been told by the chair of the committee Councilman O'Brien that flows a little better that way.

So if I don't hear any objection, I'm going to ask and direct the clerk to read agenda item number 10 first and then we'll come back to 9 after.

Okay.

Okay, please read agenda number 10.

Agenda item 10, Council Bill 119564 relating to the Department of Parks and Recreation accepting an easement from and entering into a maintenance agreement with Seattle Children's Hospital and Washington Nonprofit Corporation as a condition of the public benefit requirement for the street vacation of portions of 41st Avenue Northeast and a portion of Northeast 46th Street petition approved contained in clerk file 309690. Committee recommends that the bill pass.

Thank you very much.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

So this is a portion of a trail adjacent to the Burke-Gilman Trail that connects the Burke-Gilman Trail to the Seattle Children's Hospital campus.

It's something that's been in place for a number of years and it was part of the requirement for a street vacation Approval we did a number of years ago And the ordinance today, they finally got all the legal pieces in the line And so this will accept the easement so the parks can take over operations of that connection I will say this is the final piece to formally be completed from the street vacation that was a conceptually approved by this council a number of years ago.

And so the reason I asked to flip these is because once this is done, we will be in the clear and we can actually do the street vacation.

I don't know that a few minutes makes a huge difference, but doing them in order seemed like the prudent thing to do.

Thank you very much.

Any questions or comments on this council bill?

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

Pacheco?

Aye.

Sawant?

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formally adopted the the easement for parks.

Seattle Children's Hospital has met all the conditions of the street vacation that was conceptually approved and so this will finalize that and make it formal that the streets are now vacated in part as Children's Hospital.

Thank you very much.

Any questions or comments?

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

Pacheco?

Aye.

Sawant?

Aye.

Bagshaw?

Aye.

Gonzales?

Aye.

Herbold?

Aye.

Juarez?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

O'Brien?

Aye.

President Harrell?

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

The bill passed.

The chair will sign it.

Please read agenda item number 11, the short title.

Council Bill 119581 relating to Seattle commute trip reduction program adopting an updated strategic plan adopting a local designation of Seattle City Center, Center City as a growth and transportation efficiency center.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

This is an update to the Commute Trip Reduction Program of the City of Seattle.

That's a program that's authorized by state legislature, requires businesses with more than 100 employees to participate in the Commute Trip Reduction Program.

Seattle is a partner with the county and Downtown Seattle Association through Commute Seattle and does a lot of great work with that.

This legislation does a lot of updating and setting some new targets.

Some of the transportation modes that were in place just a few years ago during the last update to the community production program are in place today, I should say, didn't exist then, specifically TNCs, and so it does a number of cleanup things to make that work better.

I want to just applaud and commend the SDOT staff who continue to do great work on commuter production and also the team at Commute Seattle.

This legislation will help them continue to do their great work and I believe we need those teams to be doing even greater work in light of the climate crisis we're facing.

Thank you very much.

Any questions or comments?

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

The bill passed the chair will sign it.

Please read the 12th agenda item.

Agenda item 12, resolution 31892, expressing concerns with the Northwest testing and training proposal of the United States Department of the Navy for Puget Sound.

Coastal waters from Northern California through Washington State and for Alaska.

The committee recommends a resolution be adopted.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

So the Navy is considering additional tests of their sonar and explosive devices in the waters off of Puget Sound and up and down the coast, as the bill describes.

As part of that proposal, they've been required to do a supplemental environmental impact statement.

I believe NOAA actually conducts it.

And through that, what we've seen is that the work they're proposing to do would have significant impacts on marine mammals who use various methods for navigating and communicating, including the orca population of Puget Sound.

We know that the massive amounts of sonar that can potentially be put underwater or explosives have had sometimes debilitating and occasionally life-threatening impacts on these marine mammals.

And this resolution asked the Navy to reconsider their proposal in light of the science and come back with some ideas of how they can conduct their tests in a way that's sensitive to the population, particularly highlighting the plight of the orcas in Puget Sound.

The reality is that those three pods that make their home in Puget Sound waters and the greater Salish Sea are on the brink of extinction, and the death of just one or two of them could jeopardize their ability to sustain those populations.

Also, we will be sharing this with our federal delegation.

I asked my colleagues and others to highlight this for our federal delegation so that they can have a similar conversation with the Navy to try to adjust their proposal.

Thank you, Council Member O'Brien.

Any other questions or comments on the resolution?

We're the orchestra.

No, no closing words.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council Member O'Brien for bringing this to everyone's attention.

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.

Is there any further business coming for the council?

Council Member Gonzalez.

Thank you, Council President.

I need to move to be excused on August 12th, 2019. That's next Monday, as I mentioned during Council briefing this morning.

I will be leaving on Friday evening to join a multidisciplinary cohort in Copenhagen, Denmark for an immersion program around sustainability and planning public spaces and will need to be excused.

But I do plan, as I mentioned during council briefing, to make accommodations to have the rules suspended so that I can call in for the vote, the re-vote on the sweetened beverage tax ordinance.

It's been moved and seconded that Council Member Gonzalez be excused on August 12th, but she will participate on at least one agenda item around midnight, as I understand, around your time.

It'll be midnight my time.

Okay.

Any other questions or comments on that before we vote?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Councilman Gonzales is excused for the 12th.

Any other business to come for the council?

If not, we stand adjourned and everyone have a great rest of the day.