Seattle City Council Community Economic Development Committee 6/3/21

Good afternoon, everyone.

The June 3rd, 2021 special meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee will come to order.

It is 2.01 p.m.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Juarez?

Here.

Councilmember Lewis?

Councilmember Peterson?

Here.

Councilmember Sawant?

Present.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Chair Morales?

Here.

That is five present.

Thank you.

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

Hearing no agenda, No objection.

Today's agenda will be adopted.

Colleagues, I do want to note that Council President Gonzalez has joined us today.

She's here to discuss a piece of legislation that she has in our committee.

And just as a reminder, the Council President is not officially a member of this committee, so she is here to discuss but will not actually be able to vote on this bill.

I just want to make sure everybody understands that is one of the new rules that the Council has implemented as of last year.

Okay, at this time we will open the remote public comment period.

I ask everyone to please be patient as we operate this system.

We are always looking for ways to make this better and it does remain our strong intent as a council to have public comment regularly included in our agendas.

But as a council we do reserve the right to modify the public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently.

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

The public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes.

I think we only have a few folks signed up, but we will see how we go.

Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

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

and the public comment link is also included in today's agenda.

Once I call your name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and you will hear an automatic prompt if you have been unmuted.

At that time, you need to push star six to begin speaking.

Please begin by stating your name and the item on the agenda that you're addressing.

You will hear a chime when you have 10 seconds left.

And once you hear the chime, please begin to wrap up your comments so that we can allow the next person to speak.

If you don't end your comments at the end of the allotted time, your microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person.

If you would like to continue to follow the committee after you've spoken, we ask that you disconnect from the line and that you continue to follow the meeting via the Seattle channel or other listening options on the agenda.

Okay, so we will go ahead and open the public comment period for now.

We will begin with Austin Miller.

Austin, please press star six and go ahead.

Hello, council members.

My name is Austin Miller and I'm speaking today on behalf of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance to share our support for CB120092.

Without this legislation, many delivery platforms list restaurants without their knowledge.

Customers often assume that the restaurant has agreed to be listed on a delivery platform and will place blame on a restaurant for any issues that may arise with their order, from menuing inaccuracy to long wait times.

This can cause damage to the reputation and success.

By requiring that food delivery platforms operating in Seattle first obtain a written agreement with any restaurant prior to offering takeout or delivery services, This legislation will ensure the best customer experience with accurate pricing, menu options, and the best quality food.

The Seattle Restaurant Alliance would like to thank Council President Gonzalez for her leadership on this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Austin.

Next, we have Melissa Purcell.

Melissa, please press star six and go ahead.

Hi, thank you very much.

My name is Melissa Purcell.

I'm a prop master by trade in the film and commercial industries.

I'm also the business agent of IATSE Local 488. We represent the crew members that work on film, television, commercial and corporate content.

I'm also a member of the Seattle Film Task Force, which was created in late 2019, which in part is supposed to help the city determine if a film commission was needed in order to advise on improvements the city could make to support and to grow the film industry.

In November of 2020, the city did recommend the creation of the Film Commission, and in April of this year, they postponed that decision.

Today, with complete due respect to the Seattle Music Commissioners and the Seattle LGBTQ Commissioners who are about to be reinstated or sworn in, the Film Task Force continues to ask the city to create the legislation for a Film Commission as recommended.

And as a compromise, the film task force will accept that a commission may not be seated until the next administration, but that the legislation be created now in order for the film industry to see that the city supports this need, especially as the city is deciding how to reorganize the Office of Film and Music and other creative industries and set priorities for recovery and support of our industry.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa.

Next, we have Abby Ekenazer.

Abby, if you're with us, you'll need to push star six so that we can hear you.

Abby, are you there?

I see you, but you are muted as far as I can tell.

Can you push star six?

Okay.

Abby, you now appear unmuted, but we still can't hear you.

Oh, hello.

Can you hear me now?

There we go.

Okay.

Sorry.

I don't understand why my phone was doing that.

Okay.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you so much for giving me the time to comment today.

My name is Abby Ekenizer, and I am a writer and director in the Seattle film industry.

I'm also part of multiple organizations and events that are film related here in the Seattle area.

And I have my own production company that helps to bring diverse voices to film and television.

Along with Melissa, I am a member of the Seattle Film Task Force, which I was able to join early last year amongst the middle of the protests that I was involved in.

It was one of those situations that hearing the news that the Seattle Film Commission wasn't going to be preceded by the city.

It was very upsetting to hear that.

And it felt like it was another situation where, you know, we as people of color are told that, you know, diversity and the like is going to be brought to our film industry.

And the commission was supposed to help make sure that that was something to happen.

What is upsetting is that the fact that amongst all of the policy that we put together, we were postponed, unsure when, not given an actual date of when we were supposed to come back or even have the option of bringing Seattle Film Commission.

And it is important to me along as a number of other filmmakers in this area to make sure that that is considered, especially when you all are making your decisions.

Thank you very much for my time.

Thank you, Abby.

I do not see any other folks signed up.

Just want to confirm that.

There are no other public comment registrants.

Great.

Thank you, son.

Okay, so that concludes our list of speakers from the general public.

We will move on to the first item on our agenda.

Let's see, Darzel, will you please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, council bill 120092, relating to the regulation of food delivery businesses and platforms, adding a new chapter 7.30 to the Seattle Municipal Code.

Thank you very much.

We do have Yolanda Ho here from Central Staff and Council President Gonzalez, whose bill this is.

So I will pass it to you, Council President, and let you introduce your bill.

Sure.

I'm not going to make a lot of introductory remarks.

I'll make some remarks after Yolanda's presentation.

So I'm going to go ahead and defer my comments until after Yolanda has gone through her presentation, and then I'm happy to make some comments before we make a motion.

Thank you.

Yolanda, please go ahead.

Okay, I am going to load up this presentation on the whole Council Central staff for the record.

And can you see that?

Okay, chair.

All right.

So, well, I'm just going to provide a or an overview of the proposed legislation that would require to establish a written agreement with a restaurant prior to offering takeout or delivery services for that restaurant.

This is Council Bill 12092. This legislation was drafted under the direction of Council President Gonzalez, and we'll be providing context for this legislation, summarizing the Council Bill, and then describe potential impacts of the proposal.

All of this was covered in my memo that is also attached to the agenda.

So food delivery platforms such as Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash have steadily grown in popularity with the widespread adoption of smartphones in recent years.

This chart illustrates growth of all food delivery platforms in the United States.

The blue bars are the number of users in the millions, and the axis to the left, and the orange line is the year over year growth.

The axis is on the right.

And for reference, average annual growth was about 10% between 2015 and 2020. The spike in growth between 2019 and 2020 is due to impacts of the pandemic, which heightened demand for these services due to a variety of factors, including restrictions on indoor dining to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, people just staying home because they were concerned about being potentially exposed to the virus, and community interest in continuing to support their local restaurants, even in a time of crisis.

So competition between food delivery platforms for revenue and market share has resulted in a number of practices that have caused problems for restaurants.

Some of these include charging delivery commission fees that sometimes range as high as 30% of the orders total.

This is currently kept in Seattle at 15% due to the civil emergency order that was passed last April.

And then more recently, in 2019, food delivery platforms began adding restaurants onto their online listings without these restaurants' knowledge or permission.

This slide provides a general description of two key terms.

There are partnered restaurants versus non-partnered restaurants.

The key differences here are that partner restaurants have an agreement with the delivery platform so that their menu information accurate and restaurants are prepared to meet customer demand and expectations.

Partnered restaurants are also responsible for paying the commission fee.

For non-partnered restaurants, the food delivery platform's practice of listing these restaurants without their permission can cause a variety of issues.

One of the callers in a public comment noted some of these challenges.

For instance, they may be offering takeout or delivery from a restaurant that does not offer either of these options.

The most famous case being California, there was a restaurant that was entirely closed due to COVID that found themselves on these delivery platforms, much to their surprise, or offering delivery from restaurants that only want to offer takeout directly to their customers to ensure the quality of the food.

They also may provide inaccurate menus, as I note on the slide.

The food delivery platforms are just pulling information from the internet, which may or may not be correct.

And additionally, restaurants may not have an item available or want to limit what they are delivering or allowing to be delivered, kind of recognizing that all food items do not travel well, such as French fries being a primary example.

and listing restaurants that just do not have capacity to meet demands of being listed on a food delivery platform.

So a small restaurant used to catering to their local neighborhood suddenly getting area-wide access can be overwhelming.

So sometimes these restaurants will only discover that they have been listed on a platform without their permission when delivery drivers appear to take orders.

All of these issues can result in restaurants canceling orders, failing to provide what customers have ordered, or excessively long delivery times.

Again, as was noted during public comment, customers kind of assume that restaurants are on there with their permission.

They don't know that restaurants are being kind of proactively added.

So they naturally blame the restaurants if there are issues.

And so that this can result in negative reviews, which then harms the restaurant's reputation and then cause a loss of revenue because other customers are seeing these reviews and may avoid ordering from that restaurant.

So to address this issue, the California State Legislature passed legislation last fall requiring that food delivery platforms attain the permission of restaurants prior to listing them.

This went into effect on January 1st of this year.

Other states have explored similar issues, measures, but none have thus far become law.

Anyone have any questions at this point?

So on to a summary of Council Bill 12092. This is modeled on the California law and other similar proposals in other states and would require food delivery platforms to establish a written agreement with any restaurant prior to offering takeout or delivery from that restaurant.

Additionally, it would allow restaurants to terminate these agreements with a written request And the food delivery platforms are then required to remove the restaurant from its listing within 72 hours of receiving such a request.

It would also authorize the Department of Finance and Administrative Services, also known as FAS, to impose a maximum fine of $250 per violation with each day of noncompliance counting as a separate violation.

The revenues generated from these penalties would be used to support restaurants with five or fewer employees.

The Office of Economic Development would provide recommendations on how these funds should be used.

And it would also allow restaurants as individuals or a class to directly sue food delivery platforms in court for failing to adhere to the requirements of this legislation.

Anticipating that this legislation would be passed by the council this month, the effective date is delayed to September 15th of this year to provide restaurants and food delivery platforms with time to establish agreements prior to this legislation going into effect.

I will move through a few slides of the driving potential impacts of this legislation.

Given the fact that California is precedent at this point, I would note that in response to the California law going into effect on January 1st of this year, tens of thousands of restaurants were removed from the delivery platforms statewide.

So we are currently not sure how many restaurants in Seattle have an agreement in place.

I would just note prior to the California law going into effect, One report estimated that only 16% of the 700,000 restaurants listed on Postmates had agreements in place when the legislation was signed into law last September.

Given that only tens of thousands of restaurants were removed, it appears that there were a number of agreements that were put into place between September and January 1st.

So my best guess is that passage of this legislation would likely result in hundreds of restaurants being removed from the platforms that are operating in Seattle after the effective date.

I note on the slide that we have about 4,000 active business licenses in Seattle for restaurants, caterers, and other food industry businesses.

So, you know, rough estimate of how many restaurants there are fewer than that.

And then I did a quick search on Grubhub the other day and it offered delivery from over 4,100 restaurants in the Seattle area.

I'm not sure how expansive that is, but just to give you a sense of the scale here.

Also, the legislation would require any non-partnered restaurant that wants to continue offering takeout or delivery through food delivery platforms to establish an agreement, which will result in the restaurant now being responsible for the commission fee versus that being passed on to the customer.

This will lower costs for the customers because now it's being charged to the restaurant.

and thus potentially increase demand, which may help to offset the additional costs.

However, it's likely that some restaurants may down entirely due to the financial impact.

Overall, legislation is likely to benefit restaurants as those who do not want to be listed on food delivery platforms no longer have to deal with the consequences that were described earlier.

It's highly probable that there will be fewer restaurant options to choose from for customers with this legislation, but customers should have a better experience because they were only engaging with those restaurants who actually want to be listed on food delivery platforms.

In terms of racial equity impacts, this donut chart shows that about 48% of businesses in the food and accommodation services industry in the Seattle metropolitan area are owned by people who identify as black, indigenous, or other people of color.

And kind of more specifically, the largest share is Asian, who represents about 41% of business owners in this industry.

Given that this legislation is intended to protect the interests of restaurant owners and their customers, And looking at these demographics, this proposal would promote racial equity.

Additionally, any revenues from penalties for violations of the new agreement requirement would be used to support restaurants with five or fewer employees, based on guidance from the Office of Economic Development, who would be prioritizing investing any funds in an equitable manner.

Also impacted by this legislation would be those who deliver the food to the customers from the restaurants, the delivery drivers.

These are similar to those who work for Uber, are independent contractors, so they're not employees of the platforms.

So these folks may also be finding jobs via transportation network companies like Uber, grocery delivery services, and other similar gig work.

We do not have good local data on these gig workers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics describe the work they are engaged in as in-person, electronically mediated work.

But I will just refer to this as gig work for our purposes.

At the national level, gig workers are disproportionately Black or African-American and slightly more likely to be Hispanic or Latino.

I would also note that some recent news reports highlighted that during the pandemic, more women have turned to food delivery work after either having lost their jobs or needing to quit their jobs because of the loss of childcare or the shift to remote schooling, that flexibility has kind of been appealing to people looking to make money but also teach their kids at home.

So by reducing the number of restaurants the food delivery platforms can list, this legislation could result in a decrease in the number of food delivery opportunities, though it's not really clear how great this impact could be.

Assuming the national level racial breakdown of these workers applies to Seattle area, job losses may be more likely to affect gig workers who are black or African American, Hispanic, Latino, and potentially women.

However, for those jobs that do remain, the risk of conflict between delivery workers and restaurants should be decreased as any restaurant listed on delivery platforms would be a willing participant.

Then just a quick overview of the other impacts, just noting the need for outreach and engagement to restaurant owners to increase the awareness of A new regulation would expect that the Office of Economic Development, perhaps the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and others may need additional resources to engage with owners and provide technical assistance and translation services to execute agreements with food delivery platforms prior to that September 1st effective date, September 15th effective date.

Additionally, the Department of Finance and Administrative Services would be required to levy penalties on any food delivery platform found to be in violation of the requirements.

Based on the experience in California, the platforms have been largely compliant.

So I do not expect that this would create a capacity issue for FAS.

But also then with few fines, there might be less, not very much revenue from penalties should they be compliant, which would be the goal.

And finally, this legislation would establish a private right of action so that restaurants as individuals or as a class may sue food delivery platforms for damages if they fail to comply with the requirements of this legislation.

That was the overview of the legislation.

Happy to answer any questions.

Colleagues, any questions for Yolanda about what this bill is proposing to do?

I have a question.

So the requirement here is that there are already written agreements that the vendors have, the platforms have with some businesses.

How do we know that the new businesses would have these written agreements?

And do we have copies of that?

Or can you just talk a little bit about how the enforcement piece of this would work?

How do we know?

So it would be complaint-based, right?

So a restaurant does not have a written agreement, right?

So that is between the restaurant and the food delivery platform have that contractual agreement.

But should a restaurant, after the September 15th effective date, see itself listed on, let's say, any of the food delivery platforms, and they do not have a contract, what they would do is take a screenshot or whatever, timestamp it, and provide it to FAS and say, hey, they are not abiding by your requirement here.

OK.

Thank you.

I don't see any hands in the raise hand function.

So, Council President Gonzalez, I'll hand it back to you.

Great, thank you so much, Chair.

First of all, I just want to say thank you, Chair Morales, for making time in your really busy committee schedule to allow for us to consider this important piece of legislation.

The Fair Food Delivery Bill, or Council Bill 12092, 92 will help restaurants by ensuring their presence on a delivery platform is in their hands and that they can continue to own the guest experience from beginning to end.

The guest experience for many restaurants is really, really important.

We heard a little bit of that during public testimony this afternoon.

But, you know, restaurants work really hard to build and to execute that guest experience.

And when restaurants are unwilling participants in these delivery platforms, it just creates a lot of opportunity for bad customer experience, but also for really negative experiences for the delivery drivers as well, who are sort of left in sort of this in-between negotiating role between the restaurant and the customer.

And we want to eliminate that negative experience, both for the delivery driver, but also for the customer and also for the restaurant.

So it's my hope that this bill will allow.

delivery drivers to just focus on what their function is, which is the basic delivery of food.

When a restaurant isn't a willing participant and there may be an old out-of-date menu online, it just creates havoc.

We've heard recent examples here locally of those issues happening.

Everything from Cafe Racer, who was closed down, but Uber Eats still took orders for months for that cafe.

Schmaltzy's Deli made a very public comment recently, similarly expressing much frustration with out-of-order menus and not knowing that those out-of-date menus were placed on a platform.

And then Lark is another recent example that was publicly written about.

Lark, in this instance, doesn't even offer delivery or takeout via the third-party delivery apps.

And nonetheless, their menu appeared on a delivery app, creating, again, a lot of confusion, both for the customer and the restaurant and the delivery driver.

So this bill will address all of those particular situations.

And I think it's really important also to emphasize the significance of this bill as it relates to the impact on drivers who have little or no protections or benefits in this space.

So this is gonna be a really important bill to make sure that drivers aren't having to go above and beyond to avoid a negative review on their delivery.

For any of us who've used the third party platform, a lot of times you'll get a little text survey and they ask you questions specifically about your experience with the food delivery driver.

And, you know, sort of this legislation allows for, you know, sort of maximizing good reviews of the delivery driver if In fact, the restaurant is a voluntary participant and we are allowing the opportunity for the driver to have to also order your food for you in order to avoid the negative consequences of a bad review if you as a customer don't get what you thought you ordered from the restaurant that you thought you were able to order from.

So other businesses across the city have shared really similar issues and experiences with these deliver platforms with my office.

Some of those include Brimmer and Heel Tap, Bang Bang Cafe, Cafe Petrioso, Simply Soulful, El Chupacabra, and many others.

My office has also engaged with Working Washington, Teamsters, hospitality groups like Seattle Restaurant Association and Seattle Restaurants United.

We've also engaged with delivery platforms directly, and we've also heard directly from other restaurants, all of whom have expressed really broad support for the bill, which is intentionally narrow in focus to ensure restaurants are willing participants in the delivery food business that is now very, very commonplace.

So I hope this bill will help improve and streamline the process of ordering for customers, making the food reflective, an up-to-date menu for restaurants, And it will also allow delivery drivers, again, to just focus on pickups and making deliveries.

So I think this is a pretty straightforward piece of legislation, and I'm excited about having it move forward through the legislative process.

Last, I just want to thank Meemawyn, my senior policy advisor, and the fabulous Yolanda Ho from our Council Central staff for their really solid policy work on the Fair Food Delivery legislation.

And with that, Madam Chair, I would urge members of the community Economic Development Committee to vote yes on this council bill.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council President, and thank you, Yolanda, for walking us through that.

I do not see any hands raised from our colleagues, so with that, colleagues, I move that the committee recommends passage on Council Bill 12092. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation that the bill pass.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Council Member San Juan?

Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's four in favor, none opposed.

Sorry, can you repeat that?

Five in favor.

Yes, sorry, I couldn't get to the unmute button.

No worries, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so the motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to the June 14th full city council meeting.

Thank you very much, Council President, for joining us.

You're welcome to stay for the 16 appointments if you'd like.

I'm going to excuse myself and go continue to nurse this terrible summer head cold I have.

Thank you everybody for your support.

Really appreciate it.

We'll see you soon.

See you later.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you everybody.

Um, let's move on then.

Uh, Darzell, will you please read item two into the agenda two through six agenda items two through six appointments, 1931 through 1935, the reappointment of Benjamin J. Hunter as member Seattle music commission for a term to August 31st, 2021. the reappointments of Jolene Winther-Hughes as member of Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2023, and the reappointments of Paula Olivia Nava Madrigal, Judy Raffaella Martinez, and Terry Morgan as members of Seattle Music Commission for terms to August 31st, 2024. For briefing, discussion, and possible votes, excuse me.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

I want to bring on Alex Rose from OED and Reese Tanimura, the chair of the Seattle Music Commission.

It is my understanding that Benjamin Hunter is not actually up for reappointment.

He is finishing his current term.

Is that right?

That's correct.

Okay.

I'm going to ask the clerk if I need to do anything about that since he is listed as an agenda item, as an appointment on the agenda.

Hi, Council Member Morales.

This is Linda Barron.

You want to make a motion to remove the item from the agenda, and then when there's a second, you can just have it removed.

Thank you.

Very good.

Okay, then I am going to move that we remove appointment 01932 from the agenda.

Second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded to remove the item from the agenda.

Do I need to vote on that now?

No, you shouldn't need a vote.

OK.

Thank you very much.

We have removed Benjamin Hunter.

So Alex, I will pass it on to you for the remainder of those appointments.

Perfect.

I'd love if Reese can just share a little bit about the commission and then we can go through those.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Hello, council members.

My name is Reese Tanimura.

My pronouns are she, her, they, them, and I am the chair of the Seattle Music Commission.

as well as the Managing Director of Northwest Folklife.

And just like to talk a little bit about what we've been doing the past few years, but especially in the past year.

As you know, for many folks, but particularly for the arts and cultural sectors and creative industries, we've had a pretty hard 2020. The Music Commission, you know, Alongside our fellow bodies, the Seattle Arts Commission, the Film Task Force, and our adjoined offices have been really engaged in artist advocacy.

We know that our artists were some of the first to lose their livelihoods right from the outset of the stay-at-home orders and have continued to be challenged to find work through now and even, you know, we'll continue until some of the venues and things start to open up again.

So advocacy, both on the level of professional development and ways to get into more of a digital realm and as well as finding ways to bolster our support for gig workers.

And another piece of our work has been largely involved in cultural space and venue rescue and hopefully intervention in the loss of that.

We've been very involved in the work on the Cultural Space Agency, PDA, and and are continuing conversations about continued losses or interruption of losses for venue spaces and cultural spaces.

As you know that as following during this time the next concern will be you know disaster displacement and gentrification so that's something that's that's very on our awareness and worked with a couple of you council members on digital equity this year for our young people and for artists who relied heavily on or sometimes couldn't rely very heavily on the method that we are all gathering here today on.

So those are some bigger topics that we've been involved in.

The other piece of that is providing workforce development to make sure that we continue to be on the front edge of the emerging economy and industries, the creative and cultural industries, and really working with our city departments and all of our partners to leverage arts and culture as essential workforce and essential parts of our economy and society.

So I really appreciate you hearing our reappointments today to give a little chance to highlight some of the amazing folks in our community that are spending, you know, volunteering their time to make sure that the issues from their particular parts of the sector are coming to the fore in our work with you all to create great policy and great economic plans moving forward and development plans, as well as just highlight the work that they've been doing to keep arts music as something that we can all look forward to and convene around.

in this time that's been fairly, fairly isolating in the situation.

So, and hopefully that we can all say that we're heading towards, you know, the fuller reopening.

So with that, Alex, shall we present our?

Yes, I would love to.

And thank you, Reese, for that introduction.

And thank you for your leadership in this.

wild time.

Thank you, council members, for having us here.

First, I'd like to present Jolene Winther-Hughes.

She is the founder and fearless leader of Hughes Media Law Group, which has a number of different types of clients across creative industries and technology.

She has a varied perspective in terms of the music industry as she was once senior counsel at Real Networks and also back in the 90s was big in artist management, which was an exciting time as you know in Seattle music.

Recently, Jolene was a speaker at our monthly mixer series to share her wisdom and advice on music licensing, which is a subject that mystifies some of the most seasoned folks in the music industry to this day.

So just really appreciate her bringing her expertise to bear in those spaces.

And also for the way that she has been able to help the Music Commission spread connections beyond just music.

So thinking particularly about a partnership with GeekWire that she spearheaded a couple years ago to bring live music to that summit.

Great.

Do you want to just go through?

Yeah, let's just go through the other three books.

Thank you very much.

So next I would like to introduce Paula Madrigal.

She is a conductor and cellist originally from Mexico.

She works with immigrant youth and intergenerational communities to train them, teach them classical music and directs orchestras, community orchestras.

She has the organization Orquesta Northwest and she has been doing really amazing work to diversify the classical music world.

Right now her organization is offering scholarships for an African-American, Latinx, Indigenous and women conductors for further workforce development.

And Reece, I'll pass it to you.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about Kitty Wu, a.k.a. Judy Martinez, a.k.a. Kitty Wu, who is a co-director at 206 Zulu, their nonprofit that use hip hop and the arts for community development and education and social change.

And 206 Zulu is also an anchor partner at Washington Hall, which is in the Central District and a very historic and a beautiful space that a lot of communities come together, both to utilize as a performance space and gathering and education.

So Kitty is, you know, in addition to the Zulus, being a worldwide movement and being very involved in, you know, production, music production, video production, all kinds of media.

Kitty has been extremely involved this past year in both the local venue conversation about, you know, being able to continue to survive and thrive as a venue, but also in our, in the reopening of our venue safely.

coalition, which is a is a national and global coalition that has been working on understanding the best ways to utilize science and safety to make sure that as we bring live music and live events back online, that we are utilizing the best knowledge from not just what is here locally, but from, you know, England and Europe and from Austin and some of the other anchor cities in that group.

So this is a great example of, you know, a member who is deeply involved in youth development and local community development, who also is, you know, being a leader for Seattle nationally in terms of making sure that we're at the forefront and being in partnership and coalition with the things that are happening around the nation.

And next I would love to introduce to you Terry Morgan, who is, and he has just a huge and long resume in history, is the founder and president of Modern Enterprises.

And it's, I mean, some of the things I could name that you'll probably maybe have participated in, Borealis, the Festival of Lights, Terry and partners put on the New Year's show at the Needle this year, which we know was spectacular and viewed worldwide.

It utilized all kinds of fabulously spacey science things in terms of being able to chart off stars in order to create those fantastic images that were put behind the needle.

Also has been very involved in representing musicians, local musicians that have gone gone global.

And so, Terry also just brings a lot of, a lot of both deep connection to the community and his work with the volunteer park transformation of the, you know call it amphitheater or the the performance area at volunteer park um you know and also uh looking at different pieces of uh the uh the facilities at seattle center and around the city um to make sure that We're a city with world-class facilities that both can provide a channel of professional development for our local artists and also attract global and international visitors.

uh, artists of note to our city, uh, to perform and engage.

Um, so, uh, with this slate of fabulous, um, reappointments, um, I also wanted to just give a quick shout and thank you to, uh, council members for also helping us to get through, um, reseating.

We were a little bit low in our, interceding of the commission, but thank you so much for also, you know, helping us with the new appointments that are coming forward.

I think this is a really important time that we have a full strength of voice and of thought partnership with entities from around our community to make sure that our sector recovers well.

and is built back as better as it can be.

Thank you so much.

I agree.

It's really important that we get these commissions seated because they have important work to do.

And we know that they're all volunteers.

So when you don't have a full commission, that means the folks who are there have that much more work that they're trying to get done.

So thank you very much for bringing these folks forward.

Thank you, Reese.

Alex, I don't know if I'm getting dyslexia or if I'm just a child of the 80s, but I keep wanting to say Axel, Rose, and I'm sure you hear that all the time.

Alex, thank you for being here.

And I do wanna thank, I know they aren't here, but Terry, Kitty Wu, Paula, and Jolene for their willingness to continue serving on this commission.

Colleagues, any questions or comments before we take a vote?

Okay, I am not seeing any, so I'm gonna move that the committee recommends the confirmation of appointments 1931, 1933, 1934, and 1935. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded.

To recommend confirmation of the appointments, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Yes.

Oops.

Oh, did I just vote for Council Member Sawant?

Sorry.

I thought you said me.

Oh, I will take your vote now.

Thank you.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's five in favor, none opposed.

Terrific.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries.

And these committee recommendations will be that the appointments be confirmed, will be sent to the June 14th City Council meeting.

Thank you very much, Alex and Reese.

Nice to see you again, Reese.

And we'll talk to you soon.

Thank you.

Okay, Darzell, will you please read items seven through 12 into the record?

Agenda items seven through 12, appointments 1920 through 1925, Seattle LGBTQ Commission, the appointments of Andrew Ashiofu, D'Andra Braswell, and Raja Fuad as members for terms to October 31st, 2022, and the reappointments of Latasha Carroll, Deontay Damper, and Brian Simpson as members for terms to April 30th, 2023, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

Again, we are hearing about folks for the LGBTQ Commission, and I'm going to ask Janet Stafford from Office of Civil Rights to join us to share a little bit about these appointments.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I just want to give a quick, short background on the commission.

The LGBTQ Commission serves as an advisory commission for city council, the mayor's office, regarding concerns with the LGBTQ Commission, the community, and anything that arises that's relevant.

within the city of Seattle.

Some of their past work has included a video series surrounding Pride Month celebration.

There's been a candidate forum as well as continued advocacy support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I believe today we will be reappointing three commissioners that have been with us.

The first one is LaTosha Carell.

So LaTosha, just a little background regarding LaTosha.

Over the decades, she's advocated for LGBTQ rights.

In 2016, she co-founded Mistress Peace Theater, which is a LGBTQ-centered community performing arts organization focused on supporting women and the LGBT community.

Currently, she is the chair of the People of Color Stakeholder Committee and definitely looks forward to her continued work with the commission.

We also have Deontay Damper.

Deontay is a Seattle native and has focused his work on bringing HIV AIDS and awareness and the LGBTQ affirming education to marginalized communities.

He started with his work for POCAN as a peer navigator for the Department of Health.

In 2019, he made history as the NACCP's first LGBTQIA chair.

And this was the first in over 110 years of the organization's time.

From there, he began as a transitional specialist for the Washington State Department of Correction, then moved into working at Rainier Beach High School as a Black Student Union advisor and supporting groups of color, of young men of color, specifically Black Recovering Overcoming Trauma Health and Awareness groups.

currently serves as a co-chair on the Seattle LGBTQ Commission.

And our last reappointment is Byram Simpson.

Just a a little bit about Byram.

Byram currently sits as another co-chair of the commission.

Over their time, Byram has only become more passionate about building bridges between the LGBTQ community and the city government and ensuring the voices of most marginalized are not only being heard, but that they are being elevated.

Byron is proud of the achievements that they've made during their time on the commission in making meetings more accessible to the community and also remaining accountable to folks.

The City of Seattle continues to face an emergency centered around housing, which primarily impacts QT BIPOC individuals.

Byram looks forward to working and continuing this advocacy in regards to amplifying the voices.

And then I believe our continued folks on the LGBTQ Commission are present.

Can they share specifically?

Yes, sure.

I'd love to hear.

So it looks to me like the new appointments are Andrew, Deandra, and Raja.

Yes.

Correct.

Okay.

Let's, um, sure.

We'd love to hear, um, Andrew, do you want to start and just share a little bit about, um, why you're interested in this appointment?

Uh, thank you.

Um, the council, thank you, council member Morales and everyone on the council.

Um, I, one thing that really pushed me to do something is growing up as a Nigerian American, um, gay person, I knew what it was to be shown.

by community based on my sexuality, and I also face racism from the LGBTQ community because I'm black.

And here in Seattle, it had been a lot of struggles because people always talk about the liberty that abounds, but there was no representation I see on a larger level that spoke to people like me.

The intersectionality of being black and immigrant and gay at the same time, is different from things.

There's no one-shoe-fits-all.

And my goal is to be the voice of the minority LGBTQ immigrants and refugees, which is a lot here in Seattle.

But because they don't see people to identify with, they always are in their hidden.

And one of my also goal is to bridge the differences between the racial disparity in the LGBTQ community and look for policies and procedures that make everyone feel very involved.

And a special area would be health care, especially HIV, which predominantly Black people have low access to quality HIV health care.

And I do that because I sit on the county LGB, the county HIV trans grants council.

And I'm also a member of the, I'm a vice chair of the King County Democrats DEI committee.

And I'm looking forward to doing a lot with the people here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Andrew.

D'Andra, please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for having me.

D'Andra, my pronouns are they, them.

I was interested in serving because I really wanted to expand resources and community.

So for the past year, I've been working with the Alphabet Alliance of Color and other grassroots organizations.

My main focus is providing resources and uplifting and supporting specifically Black trans people.

in the city of Seattle, they're often overlooked everywhere.

So as a Black trans person, I figured, yeah, having this opportunity would be pretty amazing.

And I really look forward to, yeah, the work that we can do together.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

And Raja, please go ahead.

Am I saying that correctly?

You are muted.

All right.

Yes, that is correct.

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

My name is Raja.

My pronouns are they, them.

First of all, I want to thank the council for taking the time to meet with us today, as well as the commission for the work that they have been doing so far.

I moved to Seattle here about five years ago from Alabama and live in Beacon Hill this whole time and honestly love the city and it has been an amazing journey so far.

My political work in Alabama brought me to Seattle actually quite a few times before, and that's when I fell in love with the city and wanted to move here.

My work before moving here centered around black and queer politics.

That work included fighting for the LGBTQ rights in both city and court systems in Alabama for civil and civic rights.

I also worked at the fight to implement police cameras, and that was a huge success as well, as well as the fight for 15, I took some time off to focus on my coming out and transitioning, but I am ready to start the political work again and start working for my community.

I want to focus especially on fighting for trans rights and trans healthcare.

I would love for the city to move forward, not just providing safe spaces, but having queer and trans folks be an integral part of society and having the same opportunities that everybody else in the city and the country enjoys.

As an immigrant and an asylee, I also look forward to working with immigrant community here as well and fighting for civil rights of those in detention still.

I am really excited to start working for the city and representing my queer and trans folks of color.

Thank you.

Thank you very much to all of you.

Again, really appreciate your willingness to engage with the local government, help us figure out how we can serve your communities better, and really just your willingness to do this as a volunteer to come forward and step into this role.

Really appreciate it.

Colleagues, are there any questions for our candidates here?

Council Member Juarez, please.

Thank you.

I'm sorry I didn't use the computer thingy because I can I as you saw before I voted for customers to want I was still figuring like I got three screens going so I'm trying to do this right first of all um my comments are mainly to um Raj am I saying that correct Raja am I saying that correctly

Yes.

Oh, first of all, congratulations from Alabama to Beacon Hill.

Wow.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who's ever said that, so welcome and thank you.

You said something that has really, really been important to us that we've been working on since 2016, and that is on the trans health issue and working with Secretary Kreidler and some other folks.

when we were talking about particular states and courts upholding people's First Amendment right to basically weaponize it against transgender folks and their health care, and not just about transitioning about dentists who say it's against my religion.

We had cases out of Bellingham, Olympia.

We've had federal cases out of Texas and the East Coast.

I've been involved in that on the Two-Spirit Native American side with my folks and friends down in New Mexico and Montana.

So that's been an issue for a long time.

So welcome.

And I'm really glad to hear it to say you have that experience.

And so I look forward to working with you on those issues.

Great.

I look forward to working with you as well on this.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any other questions or comments?

I do not see any.

Okay then, colleagues, I'm gonna move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 19-20 through 19-25.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant.

I'll vote for her.

Yes.

And Chair Morales.

Yes.

That's five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the June 14th council meeting.

And just so you all know, you are welcome to come, but your presence there isn't required.

I will share a little bit about your appointments and about the committee's recommendation that it all pass.

Thank you very much and congratulations.

One quick little step to go.

Okay, will the clerk please read items 13 through 17 into the record?

Agenda items 13 through 17, appointments 1926 through 1930, Seattle Disability Commission, the appointments of Hayawat Amare, Dawn Daly, and Taylor Woods as members for terms to April 30th, 2022, the appointment of April Snow as member for a term October 31st, 2021, and the appointment of Christine Liu as member for a term to April 30, 2023, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, Darzell.

Janet, are you going to discuss these candidates as well?

Yeah.

So actually, I believe everyone is here except for maybe Don, really.

OK.

Let me check my list here.

OK, then I will just call on each person individually and ask you to share a little bit about your background and why you're interested in serving.

And we will start with Haywat.

Am I saying that correctly?

You're saying it correctly.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead.

My name is Haywat.

My pronoun is she, her.

I'm excited to be part of the Seattle Display Commission.

I don't know what to say, so sorry.

That's okay.

Do you mind if I read just a little bit about your background?

Wait, what again?

I said, do you mind if I share just a little bit about your background?

So in part because you want to see people the same color as you in positions of leadership and to see people who have disabilities in positions of leadership.

And because you will be 23,

very young for joining.

I'm already 23.

You're already 23. Happy belated birthday.

So still learning about how to be a leader and developing your own leadership style.

So these experiences are really important to share on this commission.

And I'm really glad to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

OK, next we have Dawn Daly.

Is that who you said is not here?

Yeah, I believe that they are not attending.

And I don't know what the protocol is.

If you have a little bit to share about Dawn, that would be great.

Absolutely.

So Dawn Daly.

Dawn has been working with the University of Washington since 2019. During this time, they've worked in different fields, including public, supporting public and youth programs, engaging with family support as families and individuals come through the University of Washington.

They've created virtual curriculums and working specifically in the Disability Opportunities Information and Technology Center.

They are really looking forward to continuing some work on the Disability Commission.

And yeah, thank you to that.

Great.

Thank you, Janet.

Let's see, next we have Christine Lu.

Welcome, Christine.

Hey, thank you so much.

Hello, my name is Christine Liu.

I use she, her pronouns.

I was born and raised in Western Washington.

I've lived in Seattle for the past four years as a student at the University of Washington, studying psychology and disability studies.

I'm about to graduate next week, actually.

I am queer and disabled identifying.

I'm also a CODA, which is child of deaf adults, which means most of my parents are deaf.

So I grew up kind of in and out of the deaf community and deaf culture.

And I have American Sign Language as my first language.

I've been working for the past four years as a disability justice advocate through UW Student Government, the ASUW, as the director of the Student Disability Commission.

I've been involved in Special Olympics Washington, and I've been volunteering with a bunch of different deaf organizations across King County for a while.

I'm just really excited to continue this work through the Seattle Disability Commission, and particularly interested in identifying and really tackling barriers for people with disabilities in education and employment, and really seeing disability as a part of diversity and seeing people with disabilities as really amazing sources of innovation and creativity.

Thank you so much, Christine.

Really exciting to hear about the different kinds of experiences that you will all be bringing here.

So next, we have April Snow.

I know I saw April here.

There you are.

Okay.

Please go ahead, April.

I, well, you know, April Snow, my pronouns are she, her, hers.

I have worked in the nonprofit sector.

Well, okay.

My disability showed up around the same time that I started working in the nonprofit sector, and it's been almost 20 years.

And I, change is important, and social services are important to me.

For the longest time, I was okay with it just being, I'm a database nerd.

I work in, you know, databases and that, and I was okay behind the scenes.

As I've grown, I want to be part of the advocacy and making change.

I didn't know that this actually was, I didn't know anything about the Seattle Disability Commission until one of my coworkers sent it to me and said, you should apply for this.

And so now I'm really excited to be able to be a part of that and enable some change, hopefully.

Thank you.

Thanks so much, April.

And finally, we have Taylor Woods.

Taylor, there you are.

Hi, thank you so much for having us today.

Thank you, Council Members, for having us today.

It's a really exciting opportunity.

My name is Taylor Woods.

My pronouns are she, her.

I am from Central Washington.

I went to school at Central Washington University, where there was no such thing as a nonprofit degree.

So I made my own, and I studied interdisciplinary studies with minors in business admin and nonprofit management.

And then once I graduated, I came over here to work.

And I started out in Linwood, and then I moved to Seattle, I think about four years ago, where right now I work at Seattle Children's Hospital.

And I've done that for almost six years.

I started serving the front lines working in patient scheduling and patient reception and meeting patients at the front door and getting them secured for their appointment.

And now I work in a program coordination role where I'm more on the doctor and caregiver side, where I'm making sure that the doctors have everything that they need and the clinical staff have everything that they need in order to serve the patients.

So my history and my love has always been in health care and health care access to disabled people and disabled children.

That's really my passion and it's what I want to work in the rest of my life.

Outside of work, I have done a lot of different volunteering gigs.

I just finished a year with the Junior League of Seattle where I served on their diversity, equity, and inclusivity committee.

And I also have done different stints with Sparrow Clubs of Washington, Ronald McDonald House, Make-A-Wish, et cetera.

So I'm really excited to try to bring all of that experience to the Seattle Disability Commission and see what I can offer and see what I can do to help make change.

I'm really interested in seeing what work we can do in the intersectionality of disability justice when it comes to the racism and the sexism, et cetera, in our community and seeing what we as a committee can do to address those things on a systemic level.

Very happy to be here today to talk with you all about that.

Thank you.

Thanks so much, Taylor.

It's really interesting just to hear the experiences that you're bringing, the passions that you're all bringing to why you want to do this work, and the folks on the LGBTQ Commission who are similarly interested in making sure that there is not just access to the things that local government does and offers to our community, but representation that you're actually, our leaders in the community look like our community.

I think that's really important.

So really wanna thank all of you for stepping up and being willing to serve in this role and being willing to help guide us as we're making policy decisions and budget decisions so that the diversity of our community is reflected in the work that we do.

Colleagues, are there any questions or comments for our candidates here?

I do not see any.

So I'm going to move that the committee recommends appointments – ah, I lost my numbers here – recommends confirmation of appointments 1926 through 1930. Is there a second?

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's five in favor, none opposed.

Fantastic.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that appointments be confirmed will be sent to the June 14th City Council meeting.

So thank you all very much for being here.

We look forward to working with you once your appointments are confirmed.

Okay, is there any other business, any other questions from my colleagues from the committee today?

I don't see any.

Okay, in that case, this concludes the June 3rd, 2021 special meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee.

Thanks everybody for joining us today and we are adjourned.