Seattle City Council 1192020

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Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Here.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Presentations, I'm not aware of any presentations today, so we'll move to the approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of November 2nd, 2020 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Adoption of the referral calendar.

Colleagues, if you recall from our conversation this morning during council briefing, there will be a motion to amend the adoption of the referral calendar, but I'm going to move to adopt it so that it is before us for amendment.

So I move to adopt the introduction referral calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

I'm going to recognize Member Mosqueda who has an amendment to bring forward.

Thank you very much, council members and council president.

I'd like to move to amend the introduction and referral calendar by amending item three, council bill 119947 by substituting the title with the following new title, an ordinance relating to the financing of Seattle Department of Transportation, authorizing the loan of funds in the amount of $25 million from the Information Technology Fund to the transportation fund to support essential transportation program and that this new title in effect will also introduce a new version of the bill.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the introduction and referral calendar.

Are there any additional comments on the amendment?

Hearing none, we did, for the benefit of the public, have a conversation about this amendment this morning.

So that is likely why there are no additional comments on the amendment this afternoon.

So hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the amendment?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the amended introduction and referral calendar?

Hearing none, will the court please call the roll on the adoption of the amended introduction and referral calendar?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the amended introduction and referral calendar is now adopted.

Approval of the agenda.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We're going to move into public comment at this period of time.

So we will open the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda introduction and referral calendar.

And on the council's 2020 work program, I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It does remain the strong intent of the city council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, the city council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period for today's meeting is 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to address the council.

I will call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website at seattle.gov forward slash council.

The public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted.

will be heard by the speaker.

At that point, the speaker should then press star six before they begin to speak.

So again, after you hear you have been unmuted, then please press star six before speaking in order for us to hear you, you need to go in that sequence and in that order.

You will need to begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, or the council's 2020 work program.

At about 10 seconds, speakers will hear a chime.

That chime means that you've got exactly 10 seconds left, and you should begin to wrap up your public comment.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be automatically muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, please do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

So we're gonna go ahead and open up the public comment period, and we'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

And again, as a reminder, you're gonna hear you have been unmuted and then you need to press star six and then you can begin speaking.

So the first speaker is Howard Gail followed by Mari Delaney.

Good afternoon.

This is good afternoon.

This is Howard Gail from Lower Queen Anne District 7 speaking on police accountability.

Last Wednesday evening Kel Murphy-Dewford was brutally assaulted by police, rendered unconscious, taken to the hospital in critical condition, and placed on a ventilator.

All this for possibly, possibly engaging in graffiti.

The SPD, violating long-established policy to not speculate on cases or to disparage folks injured or killed by police use of force, made the irresponsible public comment that Kel suffered a medical incident due to a substance ingested prior to police contact.

Less than 48 hours after this incident, and while Kel was still unconscious in the hospital, my council member Lewis held a town hall where he simply ignored the issue of police misconduct and accountability until, as an afterthought, at the very end of the meeting, he spent as much time speaking on this issue as to an off-leash dog bar.

In Council Member Lewis' brief comments, ignoring the events two days prior, he excused the complete failure of our police accountability system by claiming its missteps were simply due to it being under stress.

Just this last Saturday, we memorialized the 80th anniversary of the stunning collapse of the Coman Dowers Bridge, Galloping Gurdon.

I'm sure the builders of that bridge also said its failure was simply due to it, quote, being under stress.

This is a shameful excuse which only emboldens the police to engage in more abuse so as to overwhelm the system and then excuse it.

This is an abdication of moral and civic leadership.

Further, OPA Director Meyerberg stated that he did not see in reviewing the footage from Wednesday night that this was worthy of an investigation.

Again, total abject failure of our system.

We can no longer afford police to be abdicating police and having undemocratic pretense of community oversight, please.

support council members to want proposals to have true police accountability and community oversight.

Thank you.

Okay, next up is Mari Delaney, and then following Mari will be Angela Jensen.

Hello, my name is Mari Delaney, District 3, and I'm also calling in relations to the lack of Y'all are super quick to jump on somebody for sidewalk, but y'all don't do anything at all about the continued brutality against protesters.

I ask that y'all please.

I wonder if, this actually, I hit my star six.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Yeah.

Timing out.

Anyway, y'all really should say something about the continued brutality against protesters, from cracking black women's skulls open to putting protesters in the hospital with broken knees, who are then disappeared for days on end and unable to contact their relatives.

When are y'all going to do something about this?

Thank you.

Hey, colleagues.

Next, we have three speakers that are actually using the same number.

So that's Angela Jensen, Carolina Lanza, and Jimmy Pena.

And if you are all together, we can just sort of take you as a group.

Is Angela on the line?

Carolina, I will be going first.

Okay, so how about we increase the time here to five minutes to actually make that, I'm sorry, make that six minutes.

Oh, five is fine.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, go for it.

Five is fine.

Okay, good afternoon.

My name is Carolina Alonza.

I'm a case manager for Seattle Indian Center's Outreach and Engagement Program.

We are here at this meeting because we would like the Seattle Indian Center, the Seattle Indian Center needs a larger building.

We have been reduced to half of the space we had before our forever home was taken in 2014. We are part of and serve the BIPOC community, so a larger building would mean we'd be able to better serve our client.

We would also like to be included in the outreach and response team.

Our agency has been doing outreach for years, working closely with the navigation team, especially during this pandemic, which has been so difficult for everyone, especially the unsheltered population.

We managed to stay open during this new harsh reality while some other agencies had to close, leaving these people without places to go.

Due to safety protocols for clients and staff, we had to take precautions for social distancing, making the small space we have even smaller.

We're asking for your help.

We need a larger site so we can better serve these vulnerable people.

Thank you.

Angela Jensen.

Go ahead, Angela.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Angela Jensen, and I am a Seattle Indian Center coordinator.

And I just wanted to add a little bit of history.

We've been in service since 1958. In 1988, Seattle Indian Center moved to what was supposed to be our forever home at 611 12th Avenue South.

In 2014, we lost our forever home, which had over 12,000 square feet.

We have never closed our doors and have remained open during this pandemic.

We are currently renting a 6,000 square feet facility that's too small for us.

We have no room or space to grow or work with new grants.

Last year, we provided over 130,000 units of service with 29,000 of that unduplicated.

And we had 26.63% were Asian-American.

24.88% were African-American or African.

19.64% were Hispanic Latino, 15.13% were Caucasian, 7.45% were American Indian, Alaskan Native, 5.59% were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

We are and we do serve the BIPOC community, and we need your help in getting a new facility that can fit our growing needs and the needs of our clients.

Thank you.

Mr. Pena is a client and will be speaking on behalf, on our behalf.

One moment, please.

Great, of course.

Hello, folks.

This is Jimmy Pena.

As a client, I'm speaking on behalf, and since these people have been, the Indian Center has been a big help for me.

Because of them, I have an apartment now.

And in the past, they've been really helpful with hot meals.

Call me, IG, stuff like that.

So if one of you says they are really helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Jimmy, Angela, and Carolina.

And thanks for calling in together as a group and being flexible with the time.

Really, really appreciate it.

OK.

We're going to go ahead and go to the next caller.

And the next caller is Joe Kunzler.

Can everyone hear me okay?

We can hear you, go ahead.

Hello?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Council President.

Yeah, listen, I've been hearing on Twitter that there's been some harassment of journalists again.

Apparently, there's been assaults on a Cairo 7 journalist.

And I call on the Seattle Council to do more to protect journalists.

I used to be one.

I also am on friendly terms with some of the Seattle Press Gallery, and I just want to very respectfully ask that the Seattle Council prioritize police protection for journalists and, you know, as part of how you reimagine law enforcement, because You know, without a free press, we don't have a democracy.

And yes, I thank God that Donald will no longer be president early next year.

Just as I thank God we're soon going to have a vaccine next year and we're going to have some of our lives back.

Let's hope we build a better commons out of this.

And with that, finally, I want to ask the Seattle City Council to please lobby and fight hard for more remote testimony.

It is important to have diverse voices heard and not just white male dudes, but all people.

And hopefully, we will have more Council President Marina Gonzalez.

And with that, I will yield the floor, Council President.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Our last speaker who has signed up but showing as not present is John Dumont.

And I'm just confirming that he is not on the line.

Confirmed.

Okay, he is not on the line.

So we are going to go ahead and close out our period of public comment.

Thank you to everybody for calling in.

And we're going to go ahead and begin on items of business on our agenda.

First up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Council Bill 119946, appropriate amendment to pay student claims for the week of October 26, 2020 through October 30, 2020 and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I will move to pass Council Bill 119946. Is there a second?

Second, thank you.

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

Are there any comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the role on the passage of the bill?

Juarez I Lewis I Morales.

Mosqueda I Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Item one.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

I move to pass council bill 119945. Is there a second?

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Council Member Herbold, you are the prime sponsor of the bill and are recognized in order to address this item.

Thank you so much.

As discussed earlier this morning in council briefings, this bill relates to both the Civil Service Commission and the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

Both entities have three members, one that's appointed by the mayor, one that's appointed by the council, and one that's elected by the relevant city employees.

For the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, that is police and fire employees.

For the Civil Service Commission, it is non-exempt employees who do not work for the mayor or council or Civil Service Commission staff.

both entities are having elections this year, and things are slightly delayed by COVID-19.

So this legislation allows the city clerk to hold the elections in December rather than November.

It allows for electronic ballots rather than only physical ballots, though the option of paper ballots will still remain.

And this schedule change is only for 2020, and these elements are only included in the ordinance, not the Seattle Municipal Code.

There are some municipal code changes, and that is only related to eliminating outdated language in the municipal code related to the election process, and it allows the city clerk to modernize the election process by rule in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Councilmember Hurwold.

The viewing public might not know, but during Council briefing this morning, we talked a little bit about this particular council bill, and I want to thank Councilmember Hurwold for clarifying.

I just want to point out to the public, the fiscal note does say that this legislation has contingent language to cover that the Public Safety Civil Service Commission is Because of the accountability ordinance from 2017 intended not to have any elected members in the future so that this leaves open the possibility to implement that provision of the 2017 accountability.

a police accountability ordinance, which I know several members on this council were champions of that and authors of that.

And so by passing this ordinance, we're in no way signaling any sort of deviation from our commitment to implement the rest of that accountability ordinance, which actually excluded employees from this commission.

So thank you for clarifying that this morning.

Great, thank you so much, Councilmember Peterson.

Any other comments on the bill?

Okay, hearing none, appreciate the ongoing conversation here.

I'm going to go ahead and ask the clerk to call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herpel.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation.

Items two through five.

Will the clerk please read items two through five into the record.

Agenda Items 2-5.

Appointments 1694-1697.

Appointments and reappointments of Jack O'Connor, Vernon M. Abelson, Rick Sever, and Valerie Tran as members of Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council for term to November 30, 2023. Thank you so much.

I move to confirm appointments 1694-1697.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to confirm the appointments.

Council Member Strauss, you're the sponsor and are recognized in order to address the appointments.

Thank you.

And just double checking, Chair, I'm able to speak through all of these appointments on the three different governing councils.

It's appointments 1694 through 1697, and that's agenda items two through five.

Copy.

Thank you.

So appointments 1694, so this is the historic Seattle Governing Council, and they oversee Historic Seattle's work to preserve the architectural history of Seattle.

Appointment 1694 is Jack O'Connor, who is a certified financial planner at UBS, and his financial experience is filling a gap in the current Governing Council's makeup.

Appointment 1695 is the appointment of Vernon Abelson.

Vernon is an architect who's worked around the region, including for SMR Architects and John Cheney Architects.

Appointment 1696 is the appointment of Rick Seaver.

And Rick is an architectural historian and general contractor who owns residential construction, which specializes in restoration and remodels of pre-1960s homes.

Appointment 1697, Valerie Tran.

Valerie is a senior project manager at BDS Planning.

where she manages the commercial district management practice and business improvement area portfolios.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any additional comments on the appointments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointments?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Item six, will the clerk please read item six into the record.

Agenda item six, appointment 1698, appointment Tiernan Martin as a member of Seattle Chinatown International Preservation Development Authority Governing Council for term to December 31st, 2022. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to confirm appointment 1698. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to confirm the appointment.

Council Member Strauss, you're the prime sponsor on this one and are recognized in order to address the appointment.

Thank you, Council President.

The Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, or SCIPTA, is the community development organization that works to preserve and develop the Seattle Chinatown International District.

Appointment 1698 Tiernan Martin is the Livable Communities Program Manager at FutureWise.

He lives in the Chinatown International District and served as the chair of the International Special Review District Board from 2017 to 2018. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any additional comments on the appointment?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbal.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

Item seven.

Will the clerk please read item seven into the record.

Agenda Item 7, Appointment 1699, Reappointment of Patrice Farentine as Member of Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council for Term 2, June 30, 2024.

Thank you so much.

I move to confirm Appointment 1699. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to confirm the appointment.

Council Member Strauss, this one is also yours, and you are recognized in order to address this appointment.

Thank you, Council President.

The Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council oversees the Pike Place Market PDA, which stewards the market.

Appointment 1699, Patrice Barantine, works on agricultural policy and economic development at King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks.

She has served on the Pike Place Market Preservation Council since 2013. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any additional comments on the appointment?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

All right, we're in the home stretch here.

Last item, item eight.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item eight into the record?

Agenda item eight, resolution 31979, relating to the findings and recommendations of the hearing examiner for the city of Seattle on the final assessment role for the Waterfront Local Improvement District.

Thank you so much.

I move to adopt resolution 31979. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.

Council Member Juarez, you are the prime sponsor of this resolution and are recognized in order to address the item.

Thank you.

As I shared this morning, the hearing examiner filed his initial report of findings and recommendations on the waterfront lid with the city clerk on September 8th, 2020. An initial report the hearing examiner recommended the remand of 17 properties to the city appraiser for further analysis of their valuation before making a final recommendation on the final assessment of the remanded properties.

The law department and city staff have recommended council reschedule the December and January dates to streamline the appeals process.

So in adopting resolution 31979 includes a few of these following expectations.

Number one, direct the city appraiser to submit further analysis of the 17 remanded properties to the hearing examiner no later than November 30th, 2020. Number two, direct the hearing examiner to consolidate any findings, recommendations, and decisions on the remanded properties with the findings and recommendations of the September 8th initial report into a final report.

Number three, request the hearing examiner to file a final report with the city clerk no later than February 1st, 2021. Number four, I think, provide for appeals for the final report.

And finally, reschedule the hearings of multiple appeals from the initial report.

The December 1st, 2020 hearings to March 2nd, 2021, and the January 5th, 2021 hearing to April 6th, 2021. Adopting resolution 31979 would not make any decisions regarding the final assessment of any property in the waterfront lid, nor regarding the approval of the waterfront final assessment rule.

As Chair of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee, I recommend Council adopt this resolution.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez, for those comments.

Are there any additional comments on the resolution?

Okay.

Well, I just want to thank you, Council Member Juarez, for continuing to shepherd through this process.

I know it's been a lot of moving pieces.

Oh, yeah.

Three years, girl.

Three years.

I definitely appreciate you staying on top of it and helping us work through the procedural steps that are still on our plate.

So thanks so much for that.

Thank you.

Of course.

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbal.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

Other business?

Is there any other further business to come before the council?

Hearing none, colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, November 16th, 2020, at 2 o'clock p.m.

I want to thank you all for your attention, and I hope that you all have a really wonderful afternoon.

We are adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.