Finance & Housing Committee 12221

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you so very much for joining the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

Today is Friday, January 22nd.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Housing and Finance Committee.

Happy New Year.

Welcome to 2021. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Madam Clerk, you may be on mute.

Vice Chair Herbold?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Five present.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Farideh Cuevas, who is our clerk to our committee.

It's great to see all of you.

Thanks to our guests for joining us today.

We do have a packed agenda for our first meeting of 2021. As a reminder, items 1 through 14 on the agenda are all related to appointments and reappointments to various boards, commissions, and public disclosure.

development authorities.

The second category on our agenda is housing update from Seattle Housing Authority.

Thanks again to Director Loftin and the team for being with us to provide an excellent update on housing-related activities.

And the last item on our agenda is item number 16, which is a briefing discussion and possible vote related to the emergency hazard pay legislation.

Colleagues, it's great to see you again.

I appreciate all of your time.

It looks like it's beautiful and sunny in parts of Seattle.

Thanks for joining us on a late Friday afternoon.

It's so bright, says the council president.

Beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon.

We really appreciate your time and appreciate the flexibility here given the holiday.

Happy Martin Luther King Day to everybody as well as we close out this week.

Folks, that's our agenda for today.

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

hearing no objection, our agenda is adopted.

Let's move into public comment first.

There are 21 people signed up for public comment.

Folks on the line, you're probably used to us doing one minute of public testimony during the budget discussions today.

We're going to give you a minute and let's do a minute and a half today to try to get through as many people as possible.

within this first half hour here.

And we will endeavor to get to everyone on the list.

So a minute and a half for our technology team, if we could.

I'd like to remind everyone that we are going to endeavor to try to do this as robustly as possible to ensure that there is the ability to have public comment during this time when we are working from home due to the mandate that we stay home to stay healthy for the betterment of our population as we struggle to keep the rates of COVID transmission down.

Thank you all for your continued engagement online.

We will call the first three people on today's list who are present, and you have a reminder.

You will hear you have been unmuted, and then you also need to hit star six to unmute your own line to provide public comment.

Please speak to an item on the agenda for today or our work plan for this committee, and after you are done speaking, please hang up and go ahead and listen in on Seattle Channel or the other listen-in options on our agenda.

Also, please do state your name at the beginning, Note that you will hear a 10-second chime by the end of your allotted time.

That's your cue to wrap it up so that we can hear your full thoughts and nothing gets cut off.

With that, moving into public comment, the first three people listed I see are Holly Chisa, Maggie Bershers, and Jerry Cole.

Good afternoon, Holly.

Good afternoon, Madam Councilmember and members of the Council Committee.

I am Holly Chisa.

I'm here on behalf of the Northwest Grocery Association.

In the interest of time, we are submitting written comments today, but wanted to comment on 119990, the $15, I'm sorry, the $4 increase in pay.

The pandemic has asked a good deal of our employees when we responded with an expanded benefits package offered by both our union and non-represented employers.

This included sick leave, a temporary increase in wages and other benefits.

Many employers chose to expand these benefits on their own as well.

Employees and employers are still able and always to return to the table to discuss wages as their right.

The ordinance before you intervenes by dictating wages to be paid to grocery workers by the city instead of as a discussion point between grocery management and our employees.

As the higher temporary wages increase will only apply to some retail workers, but not all retail workers within the city.

The ordinance doesn't cover other business and also that expect to remain open like drugstores or public employees checking on our open businesses to ensure that we are compliant with safety practices.

And we do have concerns that this could be a violation of equal pay law.

There is also no acknowledgment in the ordinance of those employers who continue to pay a higher wage during the pandemic.

The $4 an hour pay is required on top of the additional wages already offered by many of our employers.

The ordinance expressly prohibits a reduction in salary to accommodate for the $4.

So an employer currently paying.

Holly, sorry, I didn't hear a chime.

I just wanted to provide you with a verbal chime to just let you know your time has expired if you want to wrap up.

I'd be happy to.

We just would ask that you would look through our written comments.

I'm happy to take any questions.

But we believe this is a rushed vote on the proposal and premature and we ask you not to move the proposal today.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you very much, Holly.

Maggie, good afternoon.

And Maggie, just as a reminder, star six to unmute yourself as well.

One second, as Maggie is getting teed up, I want to note that Jerry Cole, we have you listed as not present.

We are happy to include your public testimony if you dial back in.

We will look for you to join us soon if you're not able to get in.

Again, Maggie Bershers is up next, followed by Jerry Cole, Taylor Farley, and Joe Mizrahi.

Do we have Maggie with us?

Okay, I'm not seeing Maggie.

So let us go ahead and I'm not seeing Jerry present.

Let's go over to Taylor.

Taylor Farley, are you with us?

Good afternoon.

Yes, I am.

Yes, I am.

Hi.

Hi, I am Taylor Farley.

Thank you.

Hi, I am the Program and Development Manager at LGBTQ Allyship.

Allyship is here to support the grocery hazard pay ordinance The safety of our community is the most important to us, and the impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ community has been greater than our heterosexual counterparts.

LGBTQ plus folks are more likely to have a weakened immune system, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other chronic illnesses that make us more vulnerable.

Therefore, LGBTQ plus grocery workers are even more at risk to testing positive for COVID-19.

LGBTQ plus grocery workers are worried about coming in contact with COVID-19 because they are working on the front line with the community every day.

They put themselves and their families at risk while companies are making a profit.

Workers love their jobs, but did not sign up for to put themselves in harm's way, and grocery workers are essential.

They provide access to food for the rest of the population.

Hazard pay helps retain workers to keep stores running safely.

Hazard pay helps LGBTQ grocery workers to feel supported as their health is risked, are greater in this line of work, and the compensation, they coordinate to the risk of the work.

So I'd like to thank you for your time and support of the grocery hazard pay ordinance.

Thank you very much.

Really appreciate your time.

And just checking with our I.T.

team if we can get the chime to be a little louder.

I'm also not hearing it.

Thank you, Taylor, for your testimony today.

We'll go to Joe Mizrahi and then we'll come back to Maggie to see if Maggie's still present.

Good afternoon, Joe.

And Joe, just star six to unmute yourself.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

My name is Joe Mizrahi, Secretary-Treasurer of the OCW 21, and I'm speaking in favor of hazard pay for grocery store workers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, since day one, grocery workers were at work.

Even when Seattle was at the epicenter of the American outbreak, when nearly everything else was shut down in those early days, when everyone was rushing out to buy toilet paper, grocery store workers went to work.

Even when we didn't know how COVID spread and we were being told grocery workers were being told not to wear masks, grocery store workers went to work.

And even as cases have spiked and death tolls have increased and hospital beds have filled up, grocery store workers have gone to work.

While grocery workers have faced extreme hazards day in and day out, their employers have made record profits.

Kroger has seen profits of over 99% increase from last year.

Albertson has seen profits of a 270% increase from last year.

I don't think I have a calculator big enough to calculate Amazon's profits.

In the early days, many of these national grocery chains did the right thing and gave hazard pay to their employees.

But in the summer of 2020, these payments stopped, not because profits slowed down, not because the danger went away, but because the corporate chains could get away with it.

So where did the money go?

It went to massive CEO bonuses and huge record stock buybacks in the billions, the B, billions of dollars.

Grocery workers are proud of the work they do.

They're proud to keep their community fed.

They're proud that they are essential.

They're proud that whether it's a pandemic, a power outage, a snowstorm, where do people rush off to?

They go to the grocery store.

But we need to show care for the workers who care for us.

They deserve hazard pay for hazardous work.

We can do better here in Seattle passing hazard pay for grocery workers.

We'll send a strong message that in Seattle, we appreciate the workers who are there from day one.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Secretary Treasurer Mizrahi.

Let's go back to Maggie.

Maggie, I see you present.

And it looks like you are unmuted now.

Thank you for waiting.

Can you hear me, Maggie?

Yes, hi.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

My name is Maggie Breshears.

I'm with UFCW 21 and I'm speaking on the issue of hazard pay.

You know, I love my job.

I love helping people and I wish this hazard wasn't out there, but it is.

And when the pandemic hit, our leaders told everyone to stay home in order to stay safe.

But our grocery store workers went to work.

You know, we're out.

We're not out there saving lives, running into burning buildings or keeping the peace, but we are nonetheless essential.

Given the additional risks now present for grocery store workers, it is not unreasonable to ask for added compensation, especially now that there are even more contagious variants emerging in society that make the job even more dangerous.

Each person who refuses to social distance, who pulled down their mask in order to have a conversation, or who reaches over me in order to grab a zucchini is putting not just me, but my family in harm's way.

Now, I didn't sign up to sacrifice myself in order to keep my community going during the worst public health crisis of my lifetime, but that's what's being asked of me.

That's what's being asked of all grocery store workers, and that's what we're doing.

and we're doing it for the same pay as when the greatest risk we faced was crossing the parking lot at the end of the shift.

So I urge you to please pass this hazard pay legislation and let grocery store workers know that you value the sacrifices that we have all made and continue to make in order to keep this community going.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your time, Maggie.

The next three speakers are Byron Gildery, Tammy Petrix and Keith Allery.

Is that Brian or Byron?

Good afternoon.

And just star six.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Sorry for the mispronunciation.

Hi, my name is Brian Gilderoy.

I work for Fred Meyers and I'm here to speaking in favor of hazard pay for grocery workers.

I've worked in grocery for nearly 20 years and primarily in produce.

And throughout my career, I have been faced with many hardships, but none of the magnitude such as this.

I come to work every day with the fear that I might contract this horrible virus and possibly spread it to my loved ones.

I see the stress in my coworkers are dealing with it too.

And it's overpowering at times.

When the pandemic first hit, we were thought as heroes.

There were even commercials about us.

Some people were even calling for hero pay, and we were actually paid hero pay, according to my paycheck.

But the stress of the pandemic has worsened.

People's lives were suffering.

The appreciation that we once felt has since depleted.

We are expected to enforce social distancing and mask mandates, but are met with anger and resentment from our customers.

I am expected to stock the produce section, but I am constantly worried because the customers hover over me and directly ignoring the six foot social distance rules.

My store's COVID policy looks great on paper, but lacks proper follow through.

If hazard pay is given to us, it would be having an immediate impact on my life.

I would be able to build up my safety net and have some peace of mind.

I would like, feel like all my hard work and the risks that I'm taking are worth it.

I love where I work.

I love that we are able to provide the essential services to our neighbors.

We risk our lives every day and we need to be recognized.

Sorry about that.

Please go ahead and wrap up.

Sorry to interrupt you.

Okay.

Voting for hazard pay today would show us all, show all of us how much you care about our hard work and our safety.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you, Brian.

Appreciate you.

calling in today.

Tammy.

Tammy is followed by Keith.

Good afternoon, Tammy.

Good afternoon.

Thank you very much.

My name is Tammy Hetrick from Washington Food Industry Association.

I'm testifying today in opposition to Council Bill 119990. We represent the independent grocers, convenience stores and suppliers.

Because grocery stores are open seven days a week and several hours a day, The grocery industry provides many jobs in Seattle and it's easy for this industry to reach the 500 employee threshold.

The safety of our employees shoppers and distributors continues to be our top priority.

We're very concerned that this legislation would do to the remaining grocery stores in Seattle.

Our independent grocers are very unique and it will impact them quite differently than larger chain stores.

We work in very low profit margins commonly within 1 percent.

And COVID-19 has had a significant impact on those margins with increasing operating costs on safety measures to protect our customers and employees.

Our Seattle stores primary sales usually come from tourists office workers and sports fans.

We've actually seen sales decline since the start of the pandemic.

High risk workers are eligible for unemployment benefits and many have been off during this time to help protect them and keep them safe.

Over the last few years, we know of three stores in critical areas that have shut their doors permanently due to increased costs, increased theft, and low sales.

We're deeply concerned that this legislation chooses who heroes are by singling out just one industry.

And I do have written testimony, and I will submit that.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Appreciate it.

Keith, you are up next, followed by James Kelly, John Harshman, and Ames Reinhold.

Good afternoon, Keith.

Good afternoon, members of the council.

My name is Keith Allery, and I work at the PCC Green Lake Village.

20 years ago, when I got into customer service, my first job, I was a telemarketer.

That set a bar for the amount of stress that I've been able to do.

I'm speaking in favor of the hazard pay for frontline grocery workers, because we are as essential as everyone else that is being put out there and asked to do this.

It'll provide a financial security that is really desperately needed to most everyone right now.

I'm fortunate enough to have someone here with my child to be here with them while they're away from school at the moment, but I know of many of my coworkers who, because of inconsistencies with that have had to call out of work.

And we suffered because of that.

And my employers have actually made massive amounts of profit as a result of the pandemic.

It's just important that we vote in favor of this because it would make us all feel that much more appreciated and actually give us back our appreciation pay as it were.

Yeah, just please pass the hazard paper.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your time today.

James Kelly, we see you listed as not present.

If you do call back in, we'll make sure to note it and come back to you.

After that is John.

Good afternoon, John.

Good afternoon, Madam Woman Mosqueda and members of the committee.

My name is John Harterspan and I'm a seafood clerk at Metropolitan Market in West Seattle.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak in favor of providing hazard pay for grocery workers.

I have experienced the devastating chaos of this pandemic firsthand last December when I contracted COVID-19 and had to use my vacation pay and sick pay to cover the time that I missed.

I have asthma and I'm concerned about the impact that COVID-19 has on my lungs and body moving forward.

Because of lost wages from missing time and mounting medical bills I worry about being able to go to the doctor as much as I may need to.

Receiving hazard pay would provide relief in dealing with these medical bills that are a consequence of having COVID.

I am not alone in the feelings of desperation.

Most of my co-workers share similar concerns.

We just want to be treated fairly.

We're putting our lives on the line every day with a smile on our face to provide essential services to all Washingtonians.

It's time for us to be compensated for risking our families' health and safety.

I ask you to please vote yes to provide grocery workers with the hazard pay that we deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, John.

The next person is Ames.

Good afternoon, Ames.

Hi, Ames, can you hear me?

Just star six, unmute yourself.

Oh, sorry, Ames, that might have been my mistake.

Now you're back muted.

Let's try one more time.

Hi, Ames.

And if you could just look at your phone real quick to see if it has mute on the phone, the actual physical phone.

Sometimes that's the problem.

It looks like you are now unmuted on my end.

Excellent.

Hi, Ames.

Yes, we can hear you.

Hello, Teresa Muscata.

I am your cheese monger at Metropolitan Market uptown store.

I started wearing a mask early March because I knew what the COVID was going to be.

The first day I wore a mask, my store director said it was fine.

Then that afternoon, they said the corporate office thought it scared the customers.

The next day I came to work and said I was going to wear a mask.

And they said they had no policy regarding wearing a mask.

So I took a sick leave and went home and told them to figure it out.

Now we have to wear masks.

Unfortunately, the COVID has brought out the best and worst in people.

I pride myself in my work, being a good cheese monger and helping people plan all their meals.

I urge you to vote yes on this, as a lot of people in my store, my age, which is 68, are still having to work two to three jobs just to survive.

We're all in this together, and we all need to take each other better.

And we all need to end the economic oppression that the corporate people are laying on.

Thank you very much, and take care.

Thank you, Ames.

Good to hear your voice.

And thank you for all the times you have helped me.

Appreciate that.

Looking forward to the discussion today.

The next three people are Nicole Grant, Kirsten Wilder, and Sarah Charon.

Good afternoon, Nicole.

Good afternoon Councilman Mosqueda and everybody on the committee today.

I'm from MLK Labor representing workers and unions throughout King County and we wanted to join the voices in support of hazard pay.

The workers themselves and their union have done an incredible job of explaining what it's like to risk your life at work these days.

MLK Labor represents longshoremen and teachers.

Healthcare workers like nurses.

People who build aircraft and drive buses.

Construction workers and more.

One thing we all have in common is that we need to eat and $4 an hour for hazard pay is in no way excessive to acknowledge the risk that the workers who literally provide our food supply contribute during this pandemic.

Please pass it and thank you for your leadership.

Thank you for your leadership as well at MLK Labor.

Appreciate it.

The next person is Kirsten Wilder.

Good afternoon, Kirsten.

Hi, like she said, my name is Kristen and I work for QFC Uptown in the Queen Anne area by the Seattle Center.

I've been working there for five years.

One of the things we were so excited about was hazard pay when we first got it because we're like, oh my gosh, we think they do care.

They might actually care.

Then they took it away from us.

And then we started realizing that we don't have that much power as far as like telling people to take their mask off.

And we endure it so much at Uptown QSC, at QSC period.

We don't have big check stand tables.

So the customers are having to come up straight to us.

And if they come up to us without a mask, it brings, at least for me, my anxiety up.

And it makes it hard for me to give them good customer service because I don't want them to be upset.

And I'm trying to also keep my job at the same time.

But through all of this, I live in a family home.

So when I work around these conditions, I think about my family constantly.

And it just worries me being in those situations every single day and not having the power to say, take off your mask, and feeling like my job is not there to support me. have been a hard one to deal with every single day.

Thank you very much for calling in today, Kristen.

Sarah Charron will be followed by the last three speakers present, Elena Perez, Delia Pinto, and Yolanda Suarez.

Jerry Cole, John Harshman, and Kristen Wilder were duplicates on our list.

And it looks like Jerry and We'll go to Sarah.

Good afternoon, Sarah Charron.

Good afternoon, members of the committee.

I'm Sarah Charron, executive vice president of USCW 21 testifying today in support.

Just wanted to talk a little bit about things that we might hear as we move forward from some of the opponents and why we really encourage you to pass this as soon as possible and pass it out today as possible.

We've heard from some that they're saying, you know, Yes, grocery is profitable nationwide, but those are national numbers and the Seattle numbers might not be as high.

We know that Seattle is a big profitable market for grocery.

In fact, we've seen three large chain grocery stores open in Seattle during the pandemic.

So we know that grocery stores in Seattle are making money.

Second, you know, why only grocery?

This question about why only grocery?

This is this is the industry that pairs both.

profit, unprecedented profit during this moment and unprecedented hazard.

It makes sense and obviously it makes sense in other jurisdictions as we see this being passed in various places.

And the third thing I just want to talk about a little bit is the sense of urgency.

Why do it so quickly?

I don't know if you all had a chance to read, there was a Vox article recently that said the new strain, the new variant of COVID actually is potentially more contagious.

So not only is the hazard real right now, you've heard that from our members, it's going up.

So it's imperative that you guys do it now.

It got taken away nine months ago.

No moment like the moment right now.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Vice President Sharon.

The last three speakers are Elena Perez, Delia Pinto, and Yolanda Suarez.

Good afternoon, Elena.

Hello.

Good afternoon, Chair Mosqueda and council members.

My name is Elena Perez with Puget Sound SAGE here in solidarity with grocery workers to ask you to please pass the emergency hazard pay legislation.

We are approaching a grim one-year mark of when COVID hit home here in Seattle.

It's been a year of frontline essential workers struggling to protect themselves, their families and their customers from this deadly pandemic.

Early last year, I was invited to join a call organized by the Grocery Workers Union to create an open forum for their members to express concerns, fears, questions and suggestions.

And it was packed.

Workers without protective equipment.

Workers feeling exposed to customers without proper distancing in their stations.

Workers concerned for their customers' safety, especially the elderly, as aisles were crowded and essential items like toilet paper, gloves, and sanitizer were disappearing from the shelves.

And workers fearful for themselves and family members with underlying health conditions.

With their union support and through organizing, things have gotten better, but we are not out of the woods.

With quarantine fatigue at an all-time high and vaccines becoming available, people are letting down their guard.

There is a false sense of security among many of us that is not felt by frontline workers.

Until we are past this risk with herd immunity, we need to do right by grocery workers.

Passing the hazard pay doesn't fix the risk, but it names it and it offers workers the resources they need to cope with the additional burdens they and their families face.

Please vote yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Elena.

Delia, good afternoon.

Star six to unmute yourself.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

My name is Delia Pinto, and I'm here today as a volunteer member of the organization Community Alliance for Global Justice, CARDI, who to transform unjust trade and agricultural policies and practices imposed by corporations, government, and other institutions, while creating and supporting an alternative that embodies social justice, sustainability, diversity, and grassroots democracy.

As a resident of the Lake City neighborhood, today, I'm here advocating for a continuation of hazard pay for grocery store workers in our state, addressing Agenda CD119990, which I think is a social equity and justice issue.

As I'm sure many of you are aware of, the COVID-19 pandemic made it very clear that there are significant social inequalities impacting the health of our communities.

As frontline essential workers, grocery store workers are at highest risk for work-related exposure by public health experts, while at the same time being an essential piece of our community's food supply.

Anyone who has gone to grocery stores since the pandemic started last year can give testimony of how conditions have changed for these workers.

They have needed to keep working to be able to feed themselves while helping many of us to stay at home while ensuring our food supply.

HACCP recognizes that workers have taken on new duties that are essential to our community's health and help keep people in the workforce so that these public health duties can continue.

I have another line.

Can I finish?

Please, go ahead.

Many industries have continued seeing a great increase in their sales and revenue during this crisis, but workers are making the same and have to pay in the several months ago.

It seems to me that these increases should include an equivalent increase in compensation for workers who are producing this wealth in conditions that risk their lives.

So I support that this is passed.

and that we help our local workers who are our neighbors, families, and community members.

Thank you for considering.

Thank you very much.

And the last person is Yolanda.

Good afternoon, Yolanda.

Hello.

Thank you for having me.

Can you hear me okay?

We can.

Thank you.

Great.

My name is Yolanda Flores and I am a grocery worker at Metropolitan Market.

And I just wanted to give you a firsthand account of working at a grocery store.

I personally have had four COVID scares in my employment since the pandemic started.

And each time, needless to say, the amount of anxiety that I endured as a result of that.

But I think the worst thing about it was the very first time I was told I may have contracted it from a coworker, I was sent home and the company paid for my time off.

The other three times, It was taken out of my own sick leave.

And I urge you to support the hazard pay.

Knowing that I have to pay for my own time, my own experiences during the hazard of work environment, it would mean a lot to me, and I know for other grocery workers, for the council to tell us, send us a message that you care, you care about our well-being, you care about our life, you care about the working conditions that we are put under.

Social distancing is a lie in that we are in confined spaces with people who aren't adhering to these mandates.

We have to endure people who do not want to wear masks and have those kinds of confrontations.

Once again, I just urge the council to tell the community, tell us that you care about people over profits.

And I urge you to pass the hazard pay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thanks for everybody for calling in today.

That concludes everyone who is on our list and present.

That will conclude our public testimony from today.

And let's move on to other items on our agenda.

Madam Clerk, will you please read in items number one through nine.

Colleagues, these are all appointments related to the Community Roots Housing PDA.

Three of these are new appointments.

Six of these are reappointments.

We will have the three new appointments with us for a brief introduction and conversation, and we will go on to the rest of the appointments and reappointments that are listed on the agenda after we deal with Community Roots Housing.

Madam Clerk, items one through nine, when you can.

Thank you.

Agenda item one through nine, appointments of Sarah Cubillos, Michelle Moreland, Michelle Perel Hepburn, and reappointments of Paul Miriam Hackert, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

We are also joined by Hannah Smith, Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Hi, Hannah, good to see you.

And with us on the Zoom today is Sarah Kubilos, Michelle Morlan, and Michelle Purnell-Petburn, all three new appointments to the PDA.

Hannah, would you like to kick it off with an overview of what the PDA has been up to very briefly before we hear from our esteemed guest?

Thank you.

Community Roots Housing, formerly known as Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Project, is one of the city's eight public development authorities.

Founded in 1970, Community Roots owns and maintains nearly 50 apartment buildings across Seattle and provides affordable apartments for over 2,000 residents.

Their new name reflects the growth beyond Capitol Hill neighborhood and the deep connections to the community that they serve.

and they are governed by a 15-member community council.

As you mentioned, we have nine of their members up today and three of them are new members joining us, all appointed by the governing council.

Thank you very much, Hannah.

It's excellent to see many of our friends.

Thank you so much for all of the work you all have done on social justice issues, which is centered on having a place to live.

And love the new name, Community Roots Housing.

Why don't we go in the following order?

We'll have Sarah, then Michelle Morlon, and then Michelle Purnell Hepburn, if that sounds good.

and we have our guests with us today.

Sarah, I see you on the screen right here in front of us and want to say thanks for joining us.

Currently serving as a strategic advisor for Seattle Public Utilities.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're excited to serve on the PDA?

Yeah, I have been a resident of the capital neighborhood for about a decade and over my time have interacted with then was Capitol Hill Housing has been really into the types of buildings that they do.

My background's in urban planning, and I had a special focus on real estate, but ended up working in environmental justice, and that's what I do at Seattle Public Utilities.

So having the opportunity to serve on the board at Community Roots Housing has been really awesome to still stay connected to affordable housing issues.

And I think Community Roots Housing has a great intersection with environmental justice, thinking about their eco-district, and the other things that they're doing in the neighborhood.

That's excellent.

I love that connection between environmental justice and housing and drawing that out.

Thank you.

Let's go to Michelle Morlan.

Good afternoon, Michelle.

Good afternoon, Madam Council members and Council members, Michelle Moreland with Lotus Development Partners.

I'm a founder and principal of Lotus Development Partners, which is a developer of affordable housing.

I have been doing the work of affordable housing development for about 25 or 30 years.

at least over 20 of those in this community.

And I've supported the work of formerly known as Capitol Hill Housing, Community Roots Housing in the past, have worked on specific projects or supported the work of their 12th Avenue Arts Project in particular, and have followed the work of the organization for many, many years.

And I am very, very interested in continuing to support that work in the capacity of a board member just to bring this specific sort of development and real estate finance skill set that I have to support the work that staff, this very hardworking staff is doing on a daily basis and trying to really address particularly the crisis that we are facing right now.

in delivering affordable housing in an equitable and sustainable way.

So I'm just really excited to be able to contribute what I can to that effort.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And apologies for not reading your title in.

Principal Lotus Development Partners, as you said.

I just wanted to make sure I said that as well for the record.

Very excited to have you with us today.

And then we also have Michelle Purnell Hepburn, DEI Director of the Seattle Foundation.

Thank you for joining us.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Councilmember.

Good afternoon, all.

Good afternoon, City Councilmembers and guests.

I am Michelle Purnell-Hepburn, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director at the Seattle Foundation.

I was actually recruited from my work with Liberty Bank of Seattle and now the Liberty Bank of Seattle building.

That was founded by my parents back in 1968. I was recruited to be on their advisory board to raise that property to be the Liberty Bank building.

And I was very, very honored to serve on the advisory committee, mainly for the point that Seattle had history on that corner, that corner of 24th and Union.

And I was more than thrilled that Capitol Hill Housing was willing to keep that history alive.

And once the building was complete, I was asked to be on their board.

My family has served the public community in terms of being prosecutors for King County, being mayor of the city, being executive director for Metro over the past 50 years, if you will.

And it is now my turn to serve.

Thank you.

incredible legacy.

Thank you very much for sharing that story.

Really appreciate the three of you being with us today and your interest in serving on the PDA.

I'll turn it over to my colleagues to see if there's any questions or comments at this point for our new appointees to Community Roots Housing PDA.

I am seeing no additional comments.

I think we are all humbled by your expertise that you bring to these positions.

And in every answer that we just heard about the why you want to do this, you've lifted up the intersect between racial justice, social justice, gender justice, and we started with environmental justice.

So we cannot be environmentally friendly if we're pushing folks out of the city or into forest or green space.

So very excited about the intersectionality that you all are bringing to this role.

And I know all of us here have had the chance to work with the entity before it was community-based housing and visit some of the incredible places that they are allowing to be called, not just housing, but a home.

So excited about the work you all do, and I don't have any additional questions either.

Okay.

Hannah, is there anything else that you would like to tell us about the other six reappointments?

Paul Beckenridge, Jillian Knauer, Bob Fisco, George Staggers, Derek Belgrade, and Rachel Ben-Shmuel.

Anything else you'd like to tell us about those reappointments?

Sure.

They bring a wide variety of skills.

This reappointment will be for their second term.

Rachel Ben-Shmuel will be for her fourth term.

A variety of expertise from the Central Area Development Association, Chief Seattle Club, Hunter's Capital, and other consulting firms.

So it's a really great group to continue working and serving the PDA.

Excellent.

Are there any additional questions about the reappointments from my colleagues?

Okay, seeing no questions about those either.

Folks, I think it's time.

I'm very excited the three of you are with us because we are going to go ahead and move these appointments and reappointments I move the committee recommends passage of appointments one through nine.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

Enthusiastic seconds from the committee members.

It's been moved and seconded.

Any further comments?

Okay, hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the passage of appointments one through nine?

Vice Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Yeah.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda?

Yes.

Madam Chair, that's five in favor.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

The motion passes and the committee recommendation for these nine appointments and reappointments will be sent to the February 1st Seattle City Council meeting for final vote.

There is no need to be physically or I guess remotely present, but we will love to sing your praises on that day and look forward to working with you.

pending this final passage in full council and really appreciate all that you already do and your willingness to serve on the PDA.

It's an honor to see all of you and meet some of you for the first time.

Looking forward to working with you as we go forward.

Thanks for your time today.

Excellent.

Let's move on to the next set of appointments.

This is to the Labor Standards Advisory Committee appointments, item number 10 through 13. Madam Clerk, if you could read those items into the record, that would be wonderful.

Agenda items 10 through 13, appointments of Ilona Laurie, Jeannie Chun, and reappointments of Artie Nosraty and Samantha Grad as members of the Labor Standards Advisory Commission for a briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Excellent.

Well, it's really wonderful to see many folks on the screen here today.

We also have with us Karim Levitas from Office of Labor Standards and Karina Bull from Central Staff.

As folks know, the Labor Standards Advisory Committee is comprised of 15 members, and this is really my honor today to be able to bring forward as the council has a chance to offer members to serve on this committee These are four councilmatic appointments that we are seeking today, and the council splits appointments with the mayor's office.

So it's a really great opportunity for us to make sure that the work we've done and all that we want to do has the chance to have both employers and employee advocates at the table.

Karina, is there anything else you'd like to say about the Labor Standards Advisory Board before we turn it over to Office of Labor Standards?

Karim or Karina?

I did say Karina.

I'm so sorry.

Go ahead.

My only comment is I really appreciate the good work that the Labor Standards Advisory Commission does.

And they've just issued a really interesting report on recommendations for misclassification or how to prevent misclassification of independent contractors.

And I'll leave it to Karim to say the rest.

Yeah, thanks, Karina.

Um, uh, yeah, I, uh, I serve as, uh, the commission, uh, the commission liaison at the office of labor standards.

And, uh, I just wanted to briefly acknowledge, uh, one other OLS staff member, uh, Megan Jackson couldn't be here today.

Who also provides a lot of support to the commission has done.

So, uh, uh, for many years, um, I've worked on and off, uh, with LSAC, uh, for, for about four years.

Um, and, and, as commission liaison for the past two.

So I just wanted to briefly welcome the new nominees and say hi again to Artie and Samantha.

I look forward to working with all of you over the coming months.

Very quickly on LSAC's work.

LSAC serves a valuable advisory function to our office, to the executive more generally, and to city council as well, of course.

And it's very unique in that it brings together business owners, business advocates, workers, and worker advocates to provide insight on labor standards development.

And as this committee knows well, frequently Seattle is not merely advancing best practices for labor standards, but creating them.

And given that groundbreaking work, the inside of LSAC has proved extremely valuable as a stakeholder group to assess sort of real-world implications for policy development, outreach, and enforcement.

And LSAC has played a role in advising our office on outreach priorities and enforcement methods, and as Karina just mentioned, most recently developing recommendations for transparency principles for independent contractors.

So that's really all I have to say.

Both Megan and I really look forward to working with all of you.

And thanks for creating the space for comments from OLS.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Karam.

Very excited to have this lineup of folks with us today.

And let's start with new appointees.

Jeannie, I see you on the screen here.

Jeannie Chen, if folks don't know, founder of Seattle Restaurants United and has been an incredible outspoken supporter of small businesses during this time.

I'll turn it over to you to maybe give an introduction of yourself and why you're interested in serving on LSAC.

Thank you.

Thank you all for your time.

I appreciate being here.

My name's Jeannie.

I use she, her pronouns.

I just want to take a moment to recognize the unceded Duwamish territory on which we're having this meeting.

A little about myself.

I've been in the restaurant industry my whole life.

My parents and grandparents emigrated to this country and opened Chinese restaurants on the East Coast.

As Council Member Mosqueda said, I've been living in Seattle for 20 years and mostly managing fine dining restaurants in Seattle, so Cafe Campania.

Canlis are the two most notable, and most recently as the director of operations and community engagement for Sea Creatures, which is Renee Erickson's restaurant group.

Post-COVID, I founded Seattle Restaurants United.

We're 250 restaurants in the Seattle area.

We've been advocating at a city, state, and federal level.

Because of that work, I was invited to sit on the advisory board for the Independent Restaurant Coalition.

I'm co-chair of the policy committee.

So I helped write the Restaurants Act of 2020, which will provide $120 billion grants to independent restaurants around the country.

That was volunteer work.

For my paid position, I'm the director of engagement for Ray's High Road Restaurants.

We are a national network of 800 restaurants around the country that fight for workers' rights and labor standards.

Specifically, we are an affiliation of One Fair Wage, so we're working on wage justice.

President Biden recently – it actually will be introduced on Tuesday, but Biden-Harris administration has come out in support of that, so we've raised the minimum wage to $15.

and bring the subminimum wage, which is currently $2.13, to $15 by 2026. So I'm interested in being on the Labor Standards Committee.

And I'm honored and humbled that I would be asked.

And yeah, I think my experience probably explains why I would love to be a part of it.

It certainly does.

Thank you very much for sharing that with us.

And we'll get through maybe the rest of the folks, and then we'll see if folks have any questions.

The next person that could not be with us, I believe, is Ilone Lawry.

And do I understand that Office of Labor Standards, you want to provide a quick update on the nominee?

Yeah, she provided just a statement to read in to the record.

So I'll just go ahead and do that.

So she said, joining the Seattle Labor Standards Advisory Commission is particularly important to me.

Small business is my passion.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and grew up in and manage our family-owned businesses for several years.

After immigrating to the United States, I entered a career in banking and was a business banking manager in the Seattle region for many years.

Small business is at the heart and soul of everything I do.

My current role as vice president of membership and programs for GSBA, Washington's LGBTQ and Allied Chamber of Commerce, allows me to combine my passion for business and social justice on a daily basis.

Representing 1,400 members statewide, with approximately 900 of them in Seattle itself, GSBA has a 40-year history of strong and collaborative work between civil rights and small businesses.

GSBA has supported many efforts to strengthen labor standards and employment conditions, from anti-discrimination protections to raising the statewide minimum wage.

We have at times stood alone as the only business organization willing to speak out on these issues.

This is a reflection of our broad and diverse membership and their priorities.

We represent small businesses and nonprofits who understand the need to set guidelines on fair working conditions, and they also want to make the implementation of and compliance with those guidelines as practicable as possible.

GSBA has received outreach and education grants from the city of Seattle for several years in coalition with the Ethnic Chambers of Commerce coalition.

Thank you very much for reading that, and we really appreciate that that statement was provided.

Let's turn it over to Samantha Gragg.

Samantha, very excited to have you with us, Legislative and Policy Director or Political Action Director with UFCW 21. Tell us a little bit more about yourself as a reminder and the work that you're interested in continuing to do on LSAC.

Yeah, thank you.

There's a lot of words in that title.

But what matters most is actually our organization, UFCW21, and the members we represent.

So we represent a lot of different industries.

We represent in grocery, healthcare, cannabis workers, laundry facilities, meat and seafood processing, retails, pharmacies.

So we represent a lot of different industries.

We have about 47,000 members statewide, and about 10,000 of those are within the city of Seattle.

and in many of those different industries.

I am super excited and have been really humbled to have served on the LSAC committee so far and see the great work that the committee is doing, but more importantly that OLS is doing.

The hard work of the entire team there is truly remarkable.

And the thing that I am most excited about continuing is making sure that our laws that you all fight so hard to pass on behalf of workers are are upheld and are properly enforced.

And then also making sure that we are doing good and important education and outreach to our business owners to make sure that folks actually understand the law.

Sometimes they can be a little complicated.

I'm thinking back to that secure scheduling bill that is so important, but we want to make sure that people actually understand how to implement those laws and making sure that that education goes hand in hand with that enforcement has really been the part that I have enjoyed the most and making sure that we can support the investigators and the agency in doing all of that hard work.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Samantha.

And then Artie, welcome back.

Artie, field director for Working Washington.

Remind folks all of the work that you're currently doing and what you are excited about with LSAC.

If you could.

Yeah.

I have been in labor organizing for, I guess, 10 years now.

And I would say that it hasn't always been a passion of mine.

I did start out as just a retail worker who was broke and come from a broke family.

And I think that is where I think Um, my, my interests in these issues come from, I, um, just to be like a really personal note.

And if I seem unprepared, I I'm in a, I'm in a hotel in Minneapolis on my way to Wisconsin to visit my mother who, um, our family has been pretty wrecked by poverty.

She is, um, terminal on her way out and starting hospice.

And after working for 20 years at Walmart, the first thing I thought is, can she afford hospice?

And that is not, I think, where we want to be as a society and for workers to have that kind of worry when there's so many other things to worry about.

The City of Seattle can solve all these problems.

I don't think a volunteer commission for the City of Seattle can solve these problems.

But the bigger the problems are, I think the more important each paycheck is and the more fragile I think people's situation is.

And so I was happy to work on the notice for misclassified or even properly classified independent contractors.

If even one paycheck can be secured right that could save I think a lot of instability for families and I think at least solve some amount of the problem.

So I'm looking forward to continuing that work.

And as Samantha said you know like the enforcement of that is is what makes it real.

And I'm looking forward to continuing that that work as we go.

So I appreciate the opportunity to do so.

Thank you very much, Artie.

It's been quite a privilege and honor to be able to work with you over the years.

And thank you for sharing your story.

I know that it resonates with a lot of folks.

I'm very sorry to hear about the health of your mother.

And thank you for sharing that as an example of why this work is so important for the long haul and sending you a big hug virtually.

Folks, are there any comments, questions for our folks who are stepping up to be appointees and reappointees to LSAC?

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thanks.

I just want to say how happy I am to hear so many people reference your recent recommendations regarding transparency for both properly classified contract workers and improperly classified contract workers.

And I'm really appreciative that You, then LSAC and OLS responded so favorably to the resolution that the council passed in February of 2019 asking you to look at this particular body of work.

These are workers that aren't very well represented by unions.

They're not protected in many instances by our labor laws.

So I think it's, really commendable that you took a step really away from self-interest as workers to take this work really seriously and I'm really excited to, in the next few months, with the agreement of, of course, Madam Chair, to roll out some legislative action associated with those recommendations.

So I'm really thrilled to hear those recommendations mentioned multiple times, and thank you all for your work.

Thank you, Vice Chair Harbaugh.

Any additional comments or questions?

I am not seeing any.

Oh, Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chairman Mosqueda.

I just wanted to thank all of our appointees.

Jeannie, you had come up in conversation within my office earlier today from your work with Restaurants United, so thank you for your work there.

Sam, your work has also come up in our office a number of times, and Artie just wanted to share my condolences.

No one should ever have to be in a position to think if whether or not hospice is an option for them.

My mom was a hospice social worker, and that's my deepest condolences.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Council colleagues, I will also reiterate appreciation for the LSEC current board members and Office of Labor Standards.

Thanks so much for the work you're doing.

I know that LSEC has also continued to be a champion to make sure that OLS has the resources that it needs to make sure that there's education, outreach and enforcement as Samantha grad alluded to.

So we will continue to do that work with you as we continue to expect more and more out of our office of labor standards, including from today's conversation.

So there will be more work to come in that arena.

I also want to say again, thanks to folks for setting up and being part of this work already for I really appreciate it.

And if folks haven't seen the incredible list of small businesses that are at Seattle Restaurants United, it is truly a representation of the entire city and almost every corner of our city, and really appreciate that you lift up those voices.

I just want to send a note back to you, a note of solidarity for you and your members as we weather this COVID storm.

So many of our small mom-and-pop shops with their windows boarded are struggling and we know that this has been a year of personal loss and financial loss.

And we are obviously very proud of what we've been able to do together, but know that there's much more that needs to be done.

In addition to that, any ongoing breaking of windows and harm to small businesses is something that we do not stand for.

We've continued to say we condemn that kind of action, especially on our small mom and pop shops, who are largely owned by women and people of color.

to be thinking about how we're creating resiliency in this time and not making it harder for folks to weather this crisis, this pandemic, and to be there with you all as you seek to reopen.

And more to come on that, but just wanted to send a message, both calling out the bad behavior in terms of broken windows, but also know that there's many broken hearts out there as you see those small businesses shuttered.

And we will continue to work with all of you to make sure that you all have the support you need to reopen.

Just a note of solidarity on that.

Any other comments today?

Okay.

I'm excited about LSAC.

Can't wait to see what you all have coming forward.

I know there's a long list of to-do items from LSAC's previous conversations, and we'll be even more informed by all of these great appointees and reappointments.

Let's go ahead and move this.

I'm going to move that the committee recommends passage of appointments 10 through 13. Are there any, is there a second?

been moved and seconded.

Is there any further comments?

Hearing none, all in favor, I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the passage of the appointments 10 through 13?

Vice Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Council Member Luez?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda?

Yes.

But I'm sure that is five in favor and none opposed.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

Thank you very much, folks, for stepping up.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation.

These appointments and reappointments will be sent to the February 1st Seattle City Council meeting for a final vote.

Thank you for joining us today.

There's no need to tune in on the first, but we will make sure to let you know how to get all the information about the final confirmation.

And we just are so thankful for all of your time today and all that you do.

Thanks, everyone.

And then we have one more appointment, and this will feed into our next agenda item, the reappointment to the Seattle Housing Authority, item number 14. Madam Clerk, can you please read item 14 into the record?

Agenda item number 14, reappointment of Paula Houston as member of the Seattle Housing Authority for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

And Executive Director Loftin, I see you here for this item and the next item.

I understand that Dr. Paula Houston is not with us, but Director of Healthcare Equity at the University of Washington Medicine, who's been serving as the Vice Chair of the Seattle Housing Authority Board, just comes with incredible recommendations.

So I'll turn it over to you to see if there's anything else you'd like to add to her credentials.

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

It's my distinct pleasure to bring before you and speak on behalf of Dr. Paula Houston.

She's been a wonderful board member and helping guide the Housing Authority over the last four years on many of the larger projects that we've been involved in that you've been aware of.

and we'll give you an update on a couple of them here later today.

But she's been a tremendous leader for the board.

She's been a tremendous advocate for residents and for particularly around the issues around social justice and health outcomes.

And we've really been pleased with her commitment and dedication to the Housing Authority and its residents in the work that we do.

So we're very pleased that she wants to continue her tenure on the board and we offer her name on behalf of the Housing Authority and the board for your consideration.

Excellent.

Thank you so very much.

Very excited that Dr. Houston is interested in serving again.

I very much recommend this reappointment.

Is there any additional questions or comments for Director Loftin?

Okay, Director, I don't see any.

Vice Chair Herbold, did you have a question?

I'm getting ready to make my second.

Let's get up to vote.

Yes, let's do that.

I move the committee recommends passage of the reappointment of Dr. Paula Houston to the Seattle Housing Authority Board.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded.

Any additional comments or questions?

Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the adoption of the reappointment of Dr. Houston?

Vice Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Yeah.

Yes.

Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Madam Chair, that is five in favor and none opposed.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation will be sent to the February 1st Seattle City Council meeting for final vote.

Director Loftin, if you could pass on our appreciation and the good news.

And we look forward to working with all of you and your board going forward.

That brings us to item number 15. We've already had a preview of the incredible work and a chance to see our friend from the Seattle Housing Authority, Director Loftin.

I will give you a chance to also give us an update because we know that there was some news shared in the fall about your soon-to-be retirement.

I'm glad it's not immediate, but in 2021, and I just wanted to get a chance to have you tell us a little bit more about that.

But before we get too far down the road, Madam Clerk, could you please read item number 15 into the record?

agenda item number 15, Jesler Terrace update and Seattle Housing Authority acquisition program for briefing and discussion.

Excellent, thank you.

We are joined by Director Loftin, Terry Galani, Director of Development, Rod Brandon, Director of Housing at Seattle Housing Authority, and Tracy Retzliff, our very own Seattle City Council Central Staff, point on all things housing.

Director Loftin, do you want to get us kicked off with this item, and then maybe I'll say a few words before we go over to the discussion.

Yeah, so thank you very much.

I appreciate the opportunity to talk with the committee about the progress that we've made at Yesterterris, about one of the new initiatives that we have been involved with since 2018 to bring you up to date on some of the things that we've been able to do in the world of affordable housing.

And we look forward to sharing with you that progress and certainly would be available to delve into any additional questions that you might have as we go finish the presentation.

Excellent.

I know we have a presentation to pull up here.

I'll just say, Tracy, I'll turn it over to you to see if there's anything also to add.

But when we were having a conversation in December, and Director Lefton, you were giving me a summary of the things that Seattle Housing Authority has been involved in, and just an update on the tremendous work that you've done, not only with implementing strategies that bring back folks to development areas that had previously been displaced, as you think about our lowest income neighbors who the Seattle Housing Authority seeks to serve and how we've created a system to help prevent displacement as we build new housing and new opportunities, mixed housing opportunities often.

There's some really great examples that we have asked you here today to highlight to set the tone for what could possibly be on our agenda this year as we think about taking these strategies and amplifying them, especially as it relates to strategic acquisition and acquiring new properties so that we can drive down the cost of the land and provide truly affordable housing and housing opportunities to our residents and neighbors that had been previously excluded from these opportunities.

So folks, this was our chance to really set the tone for a housing frame that could inform future discussions.

And I think we're right on time.

We have about until 3.30, and I'll turn it back over to you, Director Loftin, seeing a nod from Tracy, and we'll let you walk us through your presentation and update.

Okay, I'm going to try to share my screen.

I'm probably not the best person to be doing the technological piece of this, but we'll get our ways through it.

Can you see the screen?

Yes.

Okay.

So, we're gonna try to walk you through very quickly some progress on yes, or terrorist redevelopment give you the background of our acquisition and preservation program.

and talk just briefly about the most recent acquisition under that program, Northgate Commons, and give you a little sense of where we are with that, because that's a significant project that will require a partnership with the city.

And we are very excited about that opportunity and what it brings, opportunities it brings for the city as well as for that neighborhood.

I'm gonna ask, Rod Brandon, who's a director of housing operations, to talk a little bit about the people side of Yesler Terrace redevelopment.

Then turn it over to Terry Gallani, who's the director of development, who will give you an update on the physical progress of the project.

And then Jared Kummer, who is our director of our housing finance unit, will talk about the acquisition and preservation and why we, got involved in that program and what we believe has been a tremendous success.

But as you recall, Yesler is obviously a major redevelopment.

But what we tend to lose sight of is that the fundamental core of redevelopment of Yesler is about the ability for us to assist our residents and to help them in their ability to succeed.

And so in combination with the physical development has been working around succeeding with our residents programs that will support their ongoing success.

And that's what we mean by the people side, making sure that they have good health outcomes, making sure that they have access to great education and making sure that they can compete in the economic, setting of Seattle as well.

So with that, let Rod run through these very quickly, and then Terry will give you an update on where we are with the physical development.

Great.

Great.

Thank you, Andrew, for that.

And thank you, Council, for once again inviting us to share with you some of the just the good work that we're doing at Yesler.

I'm really glad the order of the slides actually, because a lot of times these presentations you want to see the bricks and mortar of the projects and then the people come less come afterwards.

It's nice to see that the people and switch we have emphasized throughout the yesterday's project redevelopment have been coming first for us.

It's been resident centric from day one.

We have been very, very busy recently at Yesler with COVID and the pandemic.

We wanted to make sure that our residents there had a chance to access testing sites and access the flu vaccination as it became available.

So we brought those services to Yesler.

We did not just want to encourage folks to seek it out on their own.

So we work with different medical providers and different clinics to bring mobile units to Yesler so we can have our residents begin to get tested on site.

And that's been going very, very well so far.

We've had four different events of various testings and we'll continue to pursue that as the vaccination becomes available and finding creative ways to make that happen as well.

We've been doing a plethora of services for our residents.

So we realize that the pandemic has hit in a number of ways.

So we've looked at ways of checking in our residents through wellness calls and giving them numbers that they can call us to check in and see how they're doing.

But we also looked at food delivery programs and looked at other primary supplies that they need for their household and figured out ways to partner with private folks and public entities to bring those things to us and their residents.

And they've been going really, really well.

For those folks who are on site, we've been looking at doing visual events.

for our youth to keep them active, as well as just to keep a tight community.

And we've done some of this through a small newspaper that our artists and residents help facilitate for us to just continue to keep good, strong communication within that tight community.

The presence of the Black Farmers Collective has been great at Yes Sir.

just having them there and having them continue to show good habits of farming, and then involving our residents and producing fresh produce.

It's just, it's great.

Seattle Public Schools, other local nonprofits, we partner with them to help our students navigate through the challenges of going to school during a pandemic.

So we're just doing things as they come up to support those families, as they interact with the school system, as well as the kids, as they try to figure out just how to get their homework done and their breaks throughout the day and engage in the community.

We continue to keep the community council involved in the activities at Yester, as well as the future and ongoing redevelopment.

So those are just a few of the things that our staff is engaged in, and we look forward to just continue to do more and more as time goes on.

I'm going to let Terry, Terry jumped on to relocation.

So as you know, relocation has been a very, very big deal for us at Yesler.

When we started relocation back in 2013, we wanted to make sure we did it right.

We wanted to take our time, get the residents involved, help them establish their criteria on which things we should be considering as we navigate and move people around Yesler, off Yesler, and back to Yesler.

We made some bold promises.

We made some promises that focus on every single one of the residents who are at Yesler has a right to return back to Yesler.

So if you choose to come back at any point in time as we redevelop this community, you have a right to do that.

We're going to make that happen.

So we have set procedures in place for that to happen.

So we've had 493 households now who have relocated, you know, from Yesler, a number of those stayed on site, a number of those went off site, and then returned.

Those who went off site, as we continue to check in with them, they're pleased on where they're at.

Those who chose to be off site temporarily and come back, we made it easy for them to come back, and they can come back at any phase of Yesler.

that they choose.

Each time we redevelop a property at Yesler, we go back over that list based in order of when folks left and call them again, invite them again, see if they're interested in coming back to the new redeveloped unit.

So far, roughly about 20, just under 20% of the folks who left Yesler have decided to come back to the new redeveloped Yesler.

A vast majority of them stayed on site and moved around Yeser and are now in their permanent place at Yeser, so that's great.

Question real quick from Vice Chair Hurdle.

Quickly, sorry.

That's okay.

I know the right of return guaranteed to residents at Yasar Terrace was a requirement of the cooperative agreement with the city of Seattle passed by the city council.

I also know that the right of return has been obtained in other previous MLAs for HOPE VI redevelopments at the other sites.

I recall one year, I don't remember if it was Holly Park or Rainier Vista or High Point, but one year there was actually a city audit of the fulfillment of the obligation to give tenants a right of return.

I'm just wondering if generally you've done any sort of comparison to the rate of people who have returned.

at Yesler Terrace as to the rate of return for tenants in your other redevelopments?

No, I'm not aware of any, but that's not a bad idea.

I'm not aware of any analysis that we've done along those lines.

Andrew, are you?

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I haven't figured out how to unmute myself.

I apologize.

Um, yeah, we have some information along those lines.

We haven't gathered it recently.

Council member herbal, but we can do that.

The right to return for the previous, um, hope six, um, projects were slightly different than yes.

Slur because we, um, worked with and gave authority to the residents.

Um, at the time of the projects to determine who and what criteria would be used to allow people to come back.

And so we followed those criteria in the previous HOPE VI developments.

Yes, sir, we did do differently and just made it a blanket right to return without any criteria associated with it.

So they're slightly different criterion that we were used for those right to return commitments.

But yes, we can, if you'd like to, we can put that information together.

We haven't looked at the HOPE VI information for quite some time because they've been completed for a while, but we can go back and put that together for you.

Thank you, Director Lofton.

I mean, just in general, it's good to see people exercising their right to return while also respecting their self-determination to live where they want to live.

But again, given that there have been so many important investments in these communities, we just hope that the folks who once lived there can return and benefit from those deep investments that we have all made in those communities.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And that's a great point.

And we're going to keep that door open for them.

So thank you for bringing that up.

In addition, we just paid attention early on to the families and the families with school age kids.

So we normally with relocation, you're required to give 90 day notice that you're going to be doing relocation officially.

We went beyond that.

We took 18 months notice for each of those households.

And that gave us and them the time to plan, to think, to make timing work that worked out on their schedule.

And we're really glad to do that because we had a lot of good counseling sessions during that window with families.

They've changed their minds a couple of times and that allowed them to do that as they were processing.

and allowed us to be just better prepared to secure either Intim or our home for them.

And then we try to do everything we can to make sure that they were not going to be paying out-of-pocket money for their relocation.

So we took those expenses and made sure that that expense was bared by us, SHA, and not by them.

And in cases where they needed to do sometimes double moves to get into the right location, we took on that expense to make it easy for them.

We took on the extra time to help them organize and pack and do the things that they needed to do.

So I'm really proud of that, and we'll just continue to learn from that.

This has been a good model, both for SHA and folks across the country as they reached out to us to admire some of the work we've done in this area.

So thank you very much for that.

And just a quick summary for the council on the relocation.

This slide here gives you some of the raw statistics of those 493 households.

So to date, 259 have returned and are now living in the new buildings at Yesler Terrace.

There's another 116 who are um, living off site, but are living in an S.

H. A. Properties.

Those are generally the folks, as Rod indicated, that are satisfied with their living arrangements and probably will not exercise their right to return because they're satisfied with where they are.

But they still have that right.

There's another 89, um, households who are living in non S.

H. A. Properties out into the community off site.

Those, we contact them every time a new building comes online and they get a chance to exercise their right if they like to.

And we will continue to do that.

And there's been about 29 households that have exited the program for a variety of reasons.

So we are feeling really good about where we are with the relocation.

We have one building that's under construction now that will have another 80 or 80 plus replacement units included in it.

And we have two additional buildings that are under design that will be completed in the coming years that will complete the replacement housing of all 561 units.

So those are kind of where we sit today with relocation stats.

And if you would like some additional information on that, we can drill down in that for you in the future.

So let me turn now to the, if there's no questions about that, to the physical progress and ask Terry to give you a quick update on where we are with the actual physical progress.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members.

Just really quickly trying to get through this to respect everyone's time.

To date, as Andrew said, we have completed five buildings and we have completed more than half of the 561 replacement units have already been built and are occupied on site.

So that's a great milestone.

In addition to that, We have built another 100, what we just called regular affordable units on site, you know, well on our way towards our commitment of 290, 60% and below units.

In addition to that, one thing I think we're all very proud of is at Yesler, completed on site right now, there are 624 income restricted units that are at Yesler right now.

And that includes the replacement units, that includes the additional 60% units that we have built, as well as the 80% units that our market partners have built on site.

So that's something that we're really proud of.

In addition to that, there are 865 additional affordable units, income restricted units that are currently in development.

So that is either under construction or well into the design and permitting process.

So beyond units, there's been more than $50 million invested in infrastructure in the neighborhood that includes parks, open space, infrastructure, arts programs, and utilities, roads, et cetera.

Getting back to the comment earlier about having residents reap the benefits of some of those.

We have ongoing partnerships with our market developers there.

I mentioned earlier they have provided quite a few 80% units on site.

And that is continuing to be a success story out there.

226 80% units and then 650, nearly 650 market rate units currently on site.

In addition to that, you may have noticed recently we completed a purchase or sale of one of the sites with Kaiser Permanente, and are really excited to have them there.

They're going to build a major medical facility at Yesler, more moving towards the vision of Yesler as a mixed income, mixed use neighborhood, and really hopeful about partnering with them and having jobs in the neighborhood and having a diversity of uses.

Excellent.

So I'm going to turn quickly to the Acquisition and Preservation Program.

And Jared Kummer is going to run you through that quickly.

It is an effort that we initiated on behalf of the board to expand our affordable housing footprint and portfolio and do it in a way that we thought was financially prudent as well.

Jared?

Thank you, Andrew.

And I apologize if there's some background noise, my neighbor has decided to do some jackhammering on a Friday afternoon.

So if it gets a bit too loud, I may have to turn it back to Andrew to carry on.

So please let me know if you're having problems hearing me.

So with the acquisition program in late 2018, We set an initial program goal with the board of acquiring 500 units.

And of those 500 units, the goal was to have 50% of the units serve households at or below 30% of area medium income.

So extremely low income households in the city.

And then the other 50 serving above 30% of area medium income.

We also established some guiding questions around how we would evaluate properties for acquisition.

And those were based on the six questions on the slide here.

With our mission and what our goals are for who we serve in the city, serving more low-income households is always a priority and therefore should have been a, is a priority of the acquisition program.

We also wanted to ensure that any acquisition that we brought on did not put the housing authority in a financial position that was not sustainable because our financial strength is one of the things that allows us to continue to serve more people and more extremely low income households as well.

We're also looking to always preserve affordable units.

So that's both households that are subsidized right now but also some people refer to it as naturally occurring affordable housing that is rapidly being gentrified in the city.

So that was the point of our next question there.

And then we're always looking to improve access to neighborhoods and neighborhoods that traditionally low income households have been priced out of.

So that's where we're looking at high opportunity neighborhoods.

And then another big thing that the Seattle Housing Authority provides in the city is large family units.

So three, four and five bedroom units.

And that's a very difficult unit size to find, especially with the way new construction is going in the city.

So that was another goal of the program and another criteria that we looked at.

And then finally, Um, you know, can we purchase these new units at a lower cost than new development?

Because if we were buying a older building at a higher cost, the economics wouldn't make as much sense.

So we were always looking for the value there.

I'm just going to also note we are getting close to the end of our time.

Those last few questions, I think, were that impetus for wanting to have this discussion as well related to acquisition, especially right now when we see the possibility of landlords, small landlords with properties that might go derelict if we don't think of opportunities to purchase them through strategic acquisition policies.

We could be missing opportunities for two, three, four bedroom units and affordable units potentially at that if done through Seattle Housing Authority.

the timing was really good to lift up the ways in which SHA has been pursuing this policy, especially in the time of a pandemic when we've seen so much harm and hurt in the local economy.

So I just wanted to flag that sort of nexus to why now have this discussion and trying to elaborate more on options for the city and our partnering cities in the county to think of these strategic acquisition opportunities as a true win-win, especially for landlords who might be struggling in this moment who are looking to sell.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

So thus far, we have purchased in 2018 and 2019, we purchased five properties throughout the city and for a total of 540 units.

The total program cost was $112 million.

with an average of 208,000 per unit.

And you can see the distribution there.

We have a number of studios and ones.

We do have a number of twos and we were able to get some threes, which is really great.

And just one thing to note as well, the MLK apartments, but as well as Golden Sunset and the Weller apartments, We partnered with the city on those and received a loan, an acquisition loan for just over $15 million that helped offset some of the acquisition costs.

And those properties, the MLK Apartments, Golden Sunset Apartments, and Weller Apartments serve households at 30% of area median income.

So they're a subsidized property.

And then Northgate is on there and we'll talk more about that in a bit.

And then Spring Lake Apartments is up in the Lake City neighborhood.

And it is a 70, just under 70 unit apartment building, 69 units.

And it was naturally occurring affordable housing households in the 60 to 70% of AMI range.

So those households When we purchased the building, it was 100% occupied.

I apologize, not vacant.

And those households have remained in place.

So that's been great.

Excellent.

Do you mind if I ask us to go to some of the summary slides here that you have on the strategies on our docket to, I guess, continue to pursue as you go forward?

Because we'd love to come back with you on those target areas that you show in the slides and the details, but I'm wondering if there's a big sort of to-do items for us to keep our eyes on in 2021.

I appreciate the time challenge we have.

So for this, I will just say that Northgate is an example of an opportunity for the city and SHA to address the question of affordable housing, both in terms of increasing the supply of affordable housing as well as creating a community that will serve a population that is going to be important for that transit-oriented area.

So, we are in conversations now with the Office of Housing.

We will, in partnership with them, we'll be coming back to the Council to lay out criteria, to lay out our roles, to lay out the timeline for the redevelopment of that project and the agreement on the goals of what we want to accomplish there and what it will take in partnership for both the city and SHA to make that happen.

So I won't go into Northgate any more than that, other than to say that it's going to be a significant project that will come before the council for your consideration.

And it is, as you can see, the core goals and commitments here are the kinds of things that we think are consistent with the city's priorities as well as SHA's priorities.

as it relates to affordable housing, as it relates to community development as we go forward.

So I think we can stop there.

And if there are some questions from the committee or council members, we'd be happy to entertain them.

I really appreciate it to the entire team.

And Jared, sorry for cutting you a little short there.

We appreciate the details provided in the PowerPoint as well.

and I want to make sure that we do get our colleagues out by 430 at the latest.

Are there any questions today, folks?

Please, Council Member Herbold, and appreciate always your expertise and your history on these issues as we look to not just have good practice, but we want policy and law to make sure that these items are being adhered to.

I know you have a long history with tracking these items.

Please go ahead.

I just appreciate knowing from SHA that we're going to be hearing more about Northgate.

That area is an area that has been on the list of a lot of people who worry about displacement and as an area that is was likely to be sold and redeveloped.

And so really, really appreciate that SHA has swooped in and saved the day and look forward to hearing more about the redevelopment plans and the extra inclusion of affordable housing in the future.

My question, though, relates to The issue that I know is near and dear to the hearts of my colleagues, Council Member Mosqueda, Chair Mosqueda, and Council President Gonzalez related to the childcare at Yesler.

The slide earlier showed that only about a third of the child care providers chose to return to Yesler Terrace, and I think a lot of those were in-home child care.

I'm just wondering whether or not there's now a gap in child care providers for this community and whether or not we have any work underway to address the need.

So you're correct in that that's that's who has to date decided to come back to Yesler.

We have in the redevelopment of Yesler, the number of child care, child daycare units were replaced one for one.

So the number of units that were used for daycare at the time of the redevelopment have been replaced or will be replaced when we're finished.

So as I recall, there were 26 businesses at that time.

And so we have 26 units that are equipped to have a home daycare.

Some of the, there've been a few daycare providers who are happy where they have landed.

So while they may not come back, they are still in business and are still providing that service but only to a different community.

But we do have the capacity to include the same number of daycare providers that were on the site when we started the redevelopment.

You have the capacity, but that doesn't mean that the same number of childcare slots are in operation right now.

But some of the units that were able to be used as in-home childcare facilities are still able to be used for that purpose?

That's correct.

That's correct.

And are they reserved for somebody who wants to do that?

Or can they be used by somebody who has no intention of running a daycare out of their home?

They can be used by someone who has no intention.

We wouldn't hold a unit vacant until someone decided to start a daycare.

But if someone had that intention, then we would try to accommodate them because there's only so many units that could be used for that.

So- And council member- Until someone came over.

That's correct.

And we can move folks on site to free up that daycare unit if we have a need for someone coming back and wants to operate a daycare.

So we will work with them on that so that they don't have to go on a long list and wait three or four years to operate a daycare.

Thank you very much for your answers.

I appreciate it.

Thank you as well.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Not seeing any additional questions on this.

Okay, Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and thank you to the Office of Housing for presenting this great information.

I just wanted to flag Sunset West here in District 6. I had the privilege of living next door to this apartment complex and just wanted to highlight its history.

It was originally built by the Aerospace Machinists Industrial District Local 751 as a retirement facility and I'm just glad to see that it is going to be preserved in perpetuity to serve people who may not be able to afford the rising rents in Ballard.

So thank you all, and thank you for your hard work.

Thank you, Council Member.

I have heard a desire to make sure that we have you back on the agenda here soon to get an update on Northgate.

And again, perhaps, Jared, we can follow up on some of the other strategic acquisition highlights that you would want to feature at that point as well.

If that sounds okay, Director Love.

Absolutely.

I will be at your disposal.

And we know we have the opportunity to work with you until July.

Is that right?

Well, actually, it's till May.

Dang, I just thought I'd push it a little.

Yeah, we've been trying.

Yeah.

Well, we'll definitely get you back well before then and have a chance to celebrate the amazing tenure that you've also had at SHA.

Thank you for that reminder and early congratulations, but we're not ready to go yet.

You all have been tremendous.

Thank you for your time this afternoon and thank you for the presentation.

No further questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for continuing your commitment.

Excellent, thank you all.

Bye-bye.

Okay, let's move on to the last item on the agenda today.

We have item number 16, if I'm not mistaken.

Madam Clerk, could you please read the last item into the record?

Agenda item number 16, Council Bill 119990, an ordinance relating to employment in Seattle establishing labor standards requirements for additional compensation for grocery employees working in Seattle.

For briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

We have with us esteemed Karina Bull from our central staff who spent a tremendous amount of time working with other, or understanding what's going on in other jurisdictions as we looked at the possibility of the hazard pay ordinance in front of us.

Colleagues, I appreciate your time today and have asked our team to let your offices know that we're hoping to be done no later than 4.30.

Karina, that gives us about 45 minutes and I know that you have a presentation that you're walking us through along with the legislation in front of us.

So I am thankful in advance for your time and colleagues.

I will keep my comments very brief here.

You heard it best from the workers who called in and spoke this morning.

People leaning over them, reaching for zucchinis.

They can feel their breath.

They see their mask below their nose and their mouth, and they're putting their lives at risk just to go to work.

They don't have the opportunity to work from home like many of us on this call do today.

and they're also making sure that we have food on the table, able to access toilet paper and essentials.

And when we talk about workers being heroes or putting themselves out on the line, being essential and sacrificing their health, we should not treat them as sacrificial and we should compensate them for the hazard that they are in.

That is what this is about.

It is what the cities of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, Berkeley, Sacramento and so many others are considering right now at this very moment.

Santa Monica is coming up.

Santa Monica has pastors as well.

LA is passing theirs next week.

Montebello passing on January 27th.

Oakland and San Jose the first week of February.

So like many cities up and down the West Coast with the skyrocketing costs of housing and goods and also the skyrocketing cases of COVID.

I'm excited to bring this legislation forward to you for consideration today and appreciate your time.

Karina, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you.

I'm going to...

I have a PowerPoint presentation.

All right, there it is.

I am Karina Bull.

I am with Council Central staff and I prepared a presentation for the committee that includes an overview of the introduced legislation.

It was introduced on Tuesday and along with a substitute bill that makes a small number of amendments as well.

So to begin, this legislation is emergency legislation, which means that there are a host of findings that show the need for emergency legislation that would have an immediately effective date due to the existence of the COVID-19 emergency and of the dire nature of the grocery workers who are on the front lines in the mix of the public performing their work.

This legislation at its heart would require grocery businesses operating in Seattle to provide employees working in Seattle hazard pay at a rate of $4 per hour for work performed in Seattle during the COVID-19 emergency.

There are a number of provisions in the ordinance that are familiar to those who already know our labor standards, and we'll be going through each of these in this presentation.

To begin, the employers that are covered by this proposed law would be grocery businesses, that's a term of art in the legislation, with 500 or more employees worldwide.

And that 500 count would include employees in a franchise network, and it would include all of the employees in what's called an integrated enterprise.

So if it's a subsidiary of a business, all of the employees across the globe and the parent company would be counted.

covered employees would be those who are hourly and who are covered by Seattle's minimum wage ordinance.

Just on that last slide, I want to know, you know, yes, we are recognizing the urgency of the COVID crisis, but we also have done due diligence to check in with other jurisdictions.

I did ask how the other jurisdictions were defining the size.

Some of the jurisdictions that I mentioned earlier Many of them are using 300 employees.

We did decide to go with the 500 number, just in case you're wondering how it compares.

Wanted to offer that, colleagues.

Yeah, and the 500 number is consistent with the City of Seattle's other labor standards, secure scheduling, minimum wage, also uses that 500 threshold and also counts employees across the franchise network as well.

In the substitute bill, there is a proposed revision to employer coverage.

Actually, this one, it relates to employer coverage, but I'm gonna bring it up again when we talk about grocery business.

So slight pause on this.

Regarding employee coverage, the substitute bill proposes a clarification that employees are covered if they work for a grocery business at a retail location.

So what that means is that if a grocery business has a space that is purely comprised of administrative workers, purely admin, then those workers wouldn't be covered.

It's the workers at a retail location.

And for those retail locations, it's everyone that's covered.

Even if there's a back room where there's a bookkeeper, those workers still might eat in the break room.

They still might have opportunity to co-mingle with workers that are on the floor interacting with the customers.

So this proposal seeks to cover all of them.

The definition of a grocery business is something that was adopted from the Los Angeles proposal for hazard pay and it's been adopted to fit the needs of Seattle.

It would cover two kinds of businesses.

One of them was over 10,000 square feet in size that is primarily engaged in the sale of groceries and then that would be the more classic kind of grocery store.

And then another one is over 85,000 square feet with 30% or more of its sales floor space dedicated to the sale of groceries.

So that's the kind of situation where it's a very large store that is engaged in selling general merchandise, some of which includes the sale of groceries.

And this precisely pinpoints it at 30% or more of their sales floor space.

To clarify the types of businesses that are not covered, the legislation specifically says that it does not include convenience stores or food marts, and that is to make it crystal clear both for outreach and enforcement and the general public to know what kinds of businesses are not covered.

In the substitute bill, there is a proposed revision to also make it absolutely clear that farmers markets are not covered by this law as well.

They're outside and the square footage wouldn't apply necessarily to those kinds of operations.

Going back to an earlier Uh, proposed revision regarding employer coverage when the office of labor standards is considering what kind of employer is covered and maybe some of the information and the definition isn't immediately available.

primarily engaged or whether it be the 30% of floor space.

This provision would allow OLS to take a number of factors into consideration to figure out if a business is covered.

Marketing of promotional materials, statements from representatives of the employer and other items.

So this is a part of the law that seeks to help OLS make efficient determinations and be able to have a quicker investigation.

So moving on to the hazard pay requirements, as I stated previously, it is $4 for each hour worked in Seattle.

The hazard pay is on top of the employee's other compensation.

So what that means is if an employee is earning $20 an hour in wages, this hazard pay would be on top of that.

So that employee would be earning $24 an hour for the period of time that this law is in effect.

The law does include a prohibition on reducing an employee's compensation to meet these hazard pay requirements.

So what that means is that an employer would not be allowed to reduce an employee's compensation from, say, $20 to just the minimum wage at $16.69 and then layer the $4 on top of that.

And instead, this hazard pay is clearly to be paid on top of what employees are already earning.

And consistent with the requirements that are already in law under the wage theft ordinance, there are notice requirements.

Employers must provide a revised notice of employment information.

That's individual notice to the employee that they'll be getting this hazard pay.

Typically, that kind of notice is required before the change in pay happens.

In recognition that this is emergency legislation, it's going into effect quickly.

The law does allow employers 30 days to provide that kind of information to employees.

Also, the hazard pay needs to be provided on the regular payday that wages are paid, and the hazard pay needs to be separately itemized on each paycheck.

That way, employees know that they're getting it.

One thing to mention is that we know that some businesses have already been providing hazard pay.

And whether it be in an increased rate per hour, $2 per hour, or in a bonus that might be $4 per hour averaged out over a period of weeks, this particular hazard pay would need to be paid out each time wages are paid.

So a lump sum payment once a month wouldn't comply with this ordinance.

However, this next piece, which is in the substitute bill, I'm going to go, I'm sorry, I'm going to move ahead recognizes that some employers by the time this law goes into effect may already be paying employees hazard pay say they're already paying them $2 an hour.

The purpose of this law is not to augment employees pay.

$6 to the existing $2 plus another $4.

The purpose of this law is to make sure that employees get a sum total of $4 per hour in hazard pay.

So in the proposed revision, there is what's called a hazard pay offset, and what that would allow is an employer to.

Count the additional compensation that they're already providing towards the $4 hazard pay obligation, There would need to be some things in place in case this ever came to Office of Labor Standards for a deeper look to make sure that employees are aware of why an employer may only be increasing their pay by $2 rather than $4.

So previous communication to workers that this is the additional compensation, this is being paid due to working during the COVID-19 emergency.

and employers would bear the burden of proof to show that this additional compensation was for the purposes of working during the COVID-19 emergency.

At the end, when an employer may blend previous additional compensation with new compensation, the employer would need to make sure that all of the pay is being provided on the employee's regular payday, not a blend of some of it on the payday and some of it once a month.

So that is what these two proposed revisions are seeking to accomplish.

I will go back and say that another substitute bill proposed revision is that employers are required to keep records of any reason for reduction in an employee's pay.

And so that will help establish that the reduction in pay is due to a different reason than anything related to this law.

Other requirements in the law include a standard display of a Notice of Rights poster in the workplace, similar to the gig worker legislation that was passed last summer.

The responsibility is on the employer to develop this Notice of Rights and put it in the workplace.

The employer has 30 days to do that.

The Office of Labor Standards may develop a model poster, but it is ultimately the employer's responsibility for making that poster.

Recordkeeping as a standard with other labor standards, a three-year obligation to keep records, and of course, retaliation is prohibited for workers who are exercising their rights.

You probably have already gathered from what I've said that the Office of Labor Standards would be responsible for implementing this law.

That's policy development, outreach, and enforcement.

There also is a private right of action, so employees would be able to file a lawsuit to enforce this law.

And remedies, again, similar to other labor standards, up to three times the amount owed, penalties payable to the city, to the aggrieved party, and fines.

A couple of brief proposed revisions to the enforcement section.

One is that right now the director is required to consider a range of factors when determining remedies, which might help the director decide to not impose the full amount of the remedy that's owed say the.

Full amount of remedy is always paid to the worker, but there are penalties that can be up to $500 levied against the employer.

So there are situations when the director decides not to levy that full $500 per worker penalty.

Right now, the director is required to consider these factors and this revision would give the director discretion to consider those.

And next, The director is able to designate a daily penalty if an employer doesn't provide adequate records in the course of an investigation.

This revision would make it clear that that penalty is $50 a day.

Again, that goes to the worker.

That penalty would only be in place when an employer is not providing sufficient records.

The duration of the legislation right now is employers would be required to pay the, I'm sorry, it says premium pay on there, but it should say hazard pay.

Pay the hazard pay for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency declared by the mayor.

The recitals make it very clear that council intends to consider modifying or eliminating this requirement after four more months of implementation and recognition that after four months, employees might be fully vaccinated.

And it might be appropriate for the council to consider eliminating these requirements.

The legislation is set up right now that the hazard pay would continue throughout the duration of the emergency, given the fact that right now it's a rapidly evolving situation.

Nobody knows what's going to happen in four months.

So the foundation is that it continues throughout the emergency and council may come back and then decide to modify that.

The rest of the legislation, is in place for three years after the emergency.

That gives OLS the opportunity to look at those records and to enforce complaints of violation.

So the next steps is that this may be up for a full council vote on Monday, and of course the committee may take action today.

I did want to add a few words about the Office of Labor Standards because I have received questions about their capacity to take on a new law given their high workload.

So I did want to give an overview of what's happening in the Office of Labor Standards right now and what they did to implement last summer's l gig workers.

That was a p gig workers.

That is the of hazard pay for gig wor items for food delivery n also pay tick and save ti OLS did a tremendous amount of work to implement those laws.

They didn't have to develop FAQs or rules because the laws already addressed those issues.

Similar for this law, OLS was a very close collaborator and provider of feedback for this hazard pay law.

So this law reflects a lot of the items that they usually would need to address in rulemaking or Q&As, but this law already addresses those issues and they've had a chance to weigh in on this legislation, and we really have appreciated their input and collaboration.

But going back to last summer, OLS was able to create fact sheets and web pages, and those fact sheets were in English and up to 10 languages.

They had recorded webinars.

They were able to have predetermined pre-investigation settlements of up to $300,000 for the premium pay legislation.

So they accomplished a great deal.

They do believe that this particular law is well similar to the premium pay for gig workers legislation is a bit different that could result in some additional work for them.

One of them is the happy occurrence that this law covers employees and employers that are already covered by some of their other laws.

And so those folks are, they're ready to ask and reach out to OLS for questions and assistance, and that can create some more work for them.

If there is an investigation that's opened up for this law, then that might include investigation of those other laws as well that touch the employers, the wage theft ordinance, minimum wage, secure scheduling, et cetera.

So that is at the top of Office of Labor Standards' mind.

They have indicated that for $10,000 before outreac to fill a pocket that wa an outreach person.

This It's still there.

It just wasn't funded as part of the last budget.

So that is something that the council could consider as far as a supplemental budget or something that perhaps or less could have an emergency basis.

One last piece is that OLS accomplished everything last summer in the midst of a hiring freeze.

They were short staffed and they couldn't hire folks.

At this moment, they just hired two investigators.

They have about seven vacant positions.

That's about a quarter of their office.

They are budgeted for 30 FTEs.

They are in the process of hiring for four of those positions.

They're gonna post job announcements for the two positions that were approved in the 2021 budget as soon as all the HR paperwork is done.

And then they're waiting on next steps for a vacant outreach manager position when they're new.

director comes on board which is the last thing I'll say is that of course OLS has a nominated director that will come on board at the beginning of February and then move through the confirmation process.

So that is my presentation for this legislation.

I welcome any questions.

Thank you so much.

I see Council Member Herbold's hand is up for a question.

Just kind of do a quick thank you to Karina for this amazing presentation and all of her work on this.

Karina you've really done a great job of walking us through the supplemental bill as well as the underlying bill.

Thank you for your research and your time.

I also want to thank Sejal Parikh, my chief of staff, who has been doing a tremendous amount of outreach and engagement on this issue and really knows this issue in and out now.

And given the urgency, really stepped in immediately after the holidays to help make this possible this week.

I also want to thank Holly Chizay, you heard from her first at the top of the public testimony with the grocers.

We've had a few conversations and I always try to reach out and get feedback on items, even if there is sort of disagreement on the direction that that feedback has been very helpful and has helped inform many of the changes that you see in the supplemental bill in front of us.

So we really appreciate the grocer's time on this and letting us know some things that are more workable or some concerns that came up so we could help brainstorm some solutions.

And then, of course, the folks at USCW 21, specifically Samantha Grad, who's been doing a lot of outreach to various jurisdictions that are considering similar legislation, which I'll reiterate in just a few minutes.

But just wanted to say thank you for all of your work, and I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Herbold for her question, I believe, on that last issue related to OLS.

Yeah, a suggestion, and then I have a question.

My suggestion, as it relates to funding, is whether or not we could investigate federal reimbursement associated with COVID response.

I'm hearing that potentially the city might want to think about being sort of more creative in some of our requests to the federal government.

For instance, King County has done a reimbursement under COVID for the work that they've been doing around hate crimes, because there's been an increase in hate crimes during the time of COVID.

Similarly, this is not legislation that we would need anybody to enforce, but for the presence of COVID.

So just throwing that out there, that might be something worth checking with the budget office as they manage the things that they are requesting reimbursement for from the federal government.

My question goes back to the definition of excuse me, of grocery store for purposes of application of this law.

And I ask it because I know I will be asked.

I will be asked, why aren't we just using the NAICS code?

The definition seems really complicated.

And so I wanna be able to answer folks who ask why we're not just simply relying on the NAICS code.

Thank you.

Great questions, and we have this discussion as well.

So I know Karina has some good answers on that.

I just want to note, thank you for the suggestion on the federal funds, especially for COVID relief.

This is very much in line with some of the other conversations I've had with the Director of Budget and would very much like to take that up as we think about ways to help provide some immediate relief to our friends at OLS.

Thank you for flagging that, Vice Chair Herbold.

Karina.

Yeah, so there were a range of different definitions that were considered for this legislation.

The NAICS code, the land use code, what was actually landed on.

And the NAICS code can be helpful.

It also can be a bit confusing because employers choose their NAICS code and then they use that for their business license.

And sometimes they choose a NAICS code that isn't actually appropriate for their business.

So for example, when I looked at the NAICS codes, QFC was listed as a general merchandise rather or at least one was rather than a supermarket.

In other words, we're listed as a supermarket.

I found that many, many, many convenience stores chose to classify themselves by the NAICS code for supermarkets rather than for convenience stores when there actually is a NAICS code for convenience stores.

So that can be confusing both for businesses and for the Office of Labor Standards when they're trying to do enforcement if they have to rely solely on the NAICS code.

They've been grappling with that in the implementation of the Secure Scheduling Ordinance, which actually is a little bit easier because it's broader, but still for For this legislation, which is more narrowly focused on particular employers that are primarily engaged in groceries or that do it as part of their larger general merchandise sale of items, it was determined to go ahead and base it on this bifurcated definition that distinguishes between primarily supermarkets and then general merchandise, which has 30% of its sales force base in groceries.

Does that help?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Karina, for the good work on this.

As always, very thorough.

Just wanted to make one on the on the COVID federal reimbursement potential.

Just wanted to remind folks that we will actually have our federal lobbyists with us on Monday during council briefing.

So put a pin in that.

Let's bring that up on Monday to make sure that we we signal that interest to our federal lobbying team.

I think that's a great suggestion.

Karina, really quickly on the issue of deductions.

So there was a slide that you went through where you laid out that this can't come out of compensation of employees.

The first thing I thought of is, are we going to see employers do a deduction on employees' paychecks, which can arguably be considered not taken away from compensation, because it's not part of the hourly wage.

It's something else.

It's an other deduction.

And then you went on in your presentation, and you had a different slide that talked about the fact that when there are deductions, they have to be recorded and documented.

So I'm not quite clear if the legislation explicitly prohibits deductions for purposes of accounting for the requirement to pay for hazard pay?

Does the legislation explicitly prohibit an employer who this law would apply to, does it explicitly prohibit the employer from imposing a deduction on an employee's paycheck for purposes of making up the difference on the hazard pay?

It's a great question.

My memory of state minimum wage law on deductions is recalling that for an employer to take money out of an employee's pay, there needs to be an agreement from the employee to do that.

It can't be something that the employer unilaterally does.

And so that is the first part of my answer.

The next part is that I believe, and if that is partially true or wholly true, I believe that the legislation covers this and that it has a very broadly worded statement.

And this is on slide 10 of the presentation.

a one that employers as a shall not take steps to r so as to prevent them fro pay at a rate of $4 per ho My thought is any deduction from compensation is a step to reduce that compensation.

And so I would think that kind of action would fall into that prohibition against employers from taking any kind of step to reduce the compensation to not reflect that full $4 an hour of hazard pay.

Council President.

Can I answer your question, Council President?

Not really, I'm still concerned that, and part of it is because I don't have the actual definition of compensation in front of me.

What I'm worried about is that there will, I need to get a clear understanding of what compensation is in this ordinance.

Because I think there's an argument that could be made, depending on what the definition of compensation is, that would be sort of narrowly scoped to the hourly wage.

So in other words, if compensation is defined as $15 per hour, but I'm basically saying I'm going to deduct $4 from your paycheck for other reasons, does that actually mean that we are, that that employer is impacting compensation?

Or would it be considered in a different non-compensation category for which an employer can justify the deduction?

Does that make sense?

I'm just a little concerned that there might be some vagueness there.

And maybe there isn't because we've clearly defined what compensation means.

But I'd like that clarity because what I don't want is to have vagueness around that deduction component and effectively see employers reducing paychecks in a different way under a sort of other deductions category.

Yes.

And so the first thing I'll say is that I will follow up with you offline to make sure that these concerns are addressed.

And then I'll also say that compensation is defined in this ordinance the same way that it is defined in the wage theft ordinance and in other ordinances.

Again, it is quite broad.

And it means the payment owed to an employee by reason of employment.

So any payment that is due by virtue of being employed, whether it be wages, tips, service charge distributions, overtime, rest breaks, promised or legislatively required pay or paid leave, and even including reimbursement for employment or for employer expenses.

All of that is in the definition of compensation.

So I'm feeling confident that it addresses that situation that you said.

But again, I will follow up to confirm that and get back in touch with you.

Awesome.

Thanks, Karina.

I appreciate that.

I just want to make sure that we're clear on sort of what is what can be deducted from a final paycheck and what cannot be under this hazard pay legislation because it is the council's intent to make sure that a deduction framework isn't used as a vehicle to circumvent the compensation components and restrictions of the bill as proposed by Chair Mosqueda.

So if you could just sort of confirm that for me, that'd be great.

And if it's, if we can't confirm it and we've sort of realized that there might be a little bit of cleanup needed, I would certainly be interested in working with the Chair in advancing some some technical clarification there to make sure that that deduction component is not going to be able to be utilized in a way that would be contrary to the intent of the legislation.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Council President.

I appreciate the questions, and I know we all want to make sure every I is dotted and every T is crossed, so thank you very much, Karina, for following up on that.

I also share a similar level of confidence in having gotten some feedback from some of the folks as well who have received this from the worker sort of advocate side and wanting to ensure that the language was clear.

The thing that was most, I think, important in the response that we received was that there is the clear records that must be kept, which is something that they really wanted to make sure of.

So I think that there's similar crossover in both the desire for the outcome of the legislation and that the intent is being replicated on this.

And I believe I hear the council president saying If there's any questions by Monday, then we would potentially work on some technical cleanup.

Yeah.

And I think the sort of record keeping piece is really important.

But if the law is at all ambiguous about how deductions can or cannot be utilized in the context of hazard pay, then I'm nervous that we'll have record keeping on deductions, but not a way to sort of do a course correction in the event that we're seeing employers utilizing the deduction aspects on a final paycheck to circumvent the intent of the law.

And it sounds like we've addressed that in the bill and that that is not a concern.

And I'm appreciative of Karina saying that and I'm looking for Karina to just confirm that offline once we have a little bit more time just to make sure that that is triple, quadruple confirmed.

Excellent.

I appreciate that.

And thank you, Karina, as well for your answer for us all here today.

And then also we will follow up with our colleagues on Monday to make sure that that answer is also reflected in the public record for our discussion.

Are there any other questions?

Are there any comments?

Madam Chair, is Council Member Lewis on the phone?

Excellent.

Please go ahead, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just have a brief comment.

I appreciate during Farina's presentation that some of the rulemaking and some of the backend administrative stuff at Office of Labor Standards that was done for the gig-based or the app-based gig worker ordinance that Council Member Herbold and I co-sponsored last year is going to be instructive in implementing this, which was good to hear, and, you know, was proud to move that forward and proud to support this legislation.

I would just, the only other comment I would make at this time, I'll reserve most of my comments for Monday, is I would express, given my past support of that gig worker hazard pay legislation and my really, really deep interest in this general issue of providing hazard pay relief for workers, I would just like to express my interest at this time to be added as a co-sponsor to this legislation, and really thank you for bringing this forward and the coalition that's been assembled in support of this, and I'm proud to support it today and on Monday.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

Absolutely would welcome your co-sponsorship and would also let our council colleagues know on the Finance and Housing Committee your incredible support and leadership on labor issues not only this last year, but before that has been, I incredibly appreciate it.

So if anybody would like to add their name as a co-sponsor, thank you very much Council Member Strauss.

I saw your hand.

We'd be happy to do it with Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you for adding.

Hey, Council Member Herbold, thank you for adding your name as a co-sponsor.

Karina, that's a testament to your very thorough work and your presentation today.

We appreciate it.

Also acknowledging, I want to make sure we follow up on the questions which are well received.

Any additional questions or comments today?

This has been a very, very, I think, helpful walkthrough.

You have provided this presentation in a way where we can all keep up to speed with the incredible research that you have done.

So I just want to say thank you for that as well.

Colleagues, I am sensing that by your co-sponsorship, folks are feeling pretty pretty passionate about wanting to move forward on this legislation and the sense of urgency around this.

I think we have an opportunity in front of us to address what the data is showing, and that is that grocery store workers, according to the British Medical Journal, who looked at grocery store workers in the city of Boston just last October, found that employees who were working on the grocery store floors were five times as likely as those who interacted with customers because of their interaction with customers to contract COVID compared to their colleagues who didn't have to work engaging with customers out in grocery store aisles.

This is the time to act is now.

We know that there was over 400 cases in just one day of people dying.

And with the new strand that is making its way into our communities and becoming ever more prevalent, the vaccine cannot get here fast enough.

And we must do everything that we can to protect our Our friends and neighbors and our family members who are working in grocery stores.

As a reminder, the city of Berkeley passed their legislation with $5 an hour hazard pay.

Long Beach passed as well their hazard pay with $4 an hour.

Los Angeles City's committee meeting is the 26th with the final vote on February 9th.

LA County's final vote will be on the 26th.

And Montebello is on the 27th of January.

Oakland and San Jose are set to act the first week of February.

and down the west coast, folks who are in similar situations dealing with the high cost of living and the prevalence of COVID are acting in many aspects just like we are today with a sense of urgency and centering our discussion on those most impacted, our frontline grocery store workers here today.

I would like to move the committee recommends passage of council bill 11990, and then I will move to amend it.

Is there a second?

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 11990. Before we take comments, let's go ahead and move the amended version.

I'd like to amend Council Bill 119990 by substituting version one or version two.

Is that correct, Karina?

That is correct.

And I heard a second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded We have a motion that we substitute for version 2. Are there any additional comments on this bill in front of us?

You all have already said very powerful statements in your questions and comments already.

Thank you very much.

If there's no additional comments or questions, will the clerk please call the roll of the adoption of the substitute bill?

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda?

Yes.

Madam Chair, that is five in favor and none opposed.

Excellent.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

The substitute bill is adopted.

The bill as amended is now in front of us as a committee.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

I will note thank you as well to Mayor Durkan and her team who have indicated support for this, especially the emergency aspect of it.

I appreciate the notes of encouragement from their office as well.

Madam Clerk, please go ahead and call the final passage of substitute Council Bill 119990. Vice Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda?

Yes.

Madam Chair, that is five in favor and nine opposed.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and the substitute bill, as adopted, will be sent to the full Council.

Council President, I believe on Monday, January 25th for consideration.

Yes, I do believe, but I'd look to the clerk.

I believe you have to move to suspend the rules before we adjourn today in order to allow for that to happen.

But yes, I have previously, consistent with council rules, agreed with the chair's request to allow for that motion to occur, to allow the full city council to consider this legislation on Monday the 25th.

Thank you very much for that, Council President.

Consistent with those rules, because this meeting is on a Friday, the Council rules would refer this bill to February 1st City Council meeting, but we, unless we suspend the rules.

The Council President, as you heard, has provided her concurrence to allow this bill to be placed on Monday, January 5th meeting for Seattle City Council's full agenda.

I move to suspend the rule to allow this bill to be referred to the January 25th meeting.

If there is no objection, hearing no objection, The council rules related to referral of legislation considered at a meeting after 12 noon on Thursday will be suspended to allow for the referral of council bill 119990 as amended to be on the January 25th Seattle City Council meeting.

Hearing no objection, the council rule is suspended and the bill is now officially referred.

Thank you again, Council President, for considering that as part of your agenda.

Thank you all for your feedback and your your quick action to help save lives and help prevent the spread of COVID.

As we all stay home to stay healthy, appreciate everything that our grocery workers and their employers are doing to help protect the health and safety of employees on the front line.

And this will be truly a way for us to recognize that they are in harm's way in exposing themselves to the hazard of COVID every day.

Looking forward to this hazard pay legislation passing on Monday.

If there's no other comments for the good of the order, it is 4.30.

I promise I'll get you out of here.

Thank you for staying with me a little extra, and our next meeting will be on February 2nd at 9.30 a.m.

on our normal time on Tuesday.

We will have the appointment to the Housing Authority, another appointment to the Seattle Housing Authority, and two appointments to the Sweetened Beverage Tax Board, and potentially a few other items with your input.

With that, today's meeting is adjourned.

Have a great weekend, and thank you all for all of your work today.