Seattle City Council 3/4/2019

City Council.

So this is March 4, 2019. The City Council meeting of Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's 2.07.

I'm Deborah Juarez, Council President Pro Tem of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Sawant.

Here.

Bangshaw.

Here.

Gonzalez.

Here.

Herbold.

Here.

Johnson.

Here.

Mosqueda.

Here.

Council President Pro Tem Juarez.

Here.

A present.

Thank you.

So before we begin today, today's kind of a historic day, not because of me, but I want to state a territorial acknowledgement that we are indeed on indigenous land.

and that of the Salish people.

With that said, as we say in Indian country, let's go forward today in a good way from a good place.

So with that, we'll begin the agenda.

Thank you.

We'll start with the adoption of the referral calendar.

I move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

Second.

Council Member Musqueda.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'd like to move I'd like to move to amend the introduction and referral calendar by introducing Resolution 31868, entitled, A Resolution Relating to City Council Confirmation and Reconfirmation of City Department Heads, describing the steps that the council intends to follow, outlining materials that should be submitted to the city council prior to and as part of the nomination, describing general criteria that the council intends to consider when evaluating the search process for an appointment and department head candidates, and superseding Resolution 30962, and by referring it to the Seattle City Council Full Council.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded that the introduction referral calendar be amended as stated.

Are there any comments?

Oh, Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Juarez.

I will be voting yes to include this in the introduction and referral calendar.

The resolution, if adopted, will reiterate Council's intended procedures for considering mayoral appointments for department director positions, and it asks the mayor to tell Council ahead of time how she intends to select the nominee.

I just wanted to clarify, just in the interest of not having confusion among members of the public who You may not know what's going on because, you know, everything sounds similar, resolutions, appointments, all of that.

Just wanted to make clear that this resolution that will be discussed and voted on later this month, I think, is not in conflict with the resolution that we have under vote today.

because that resolution does not reference the question of the nomination of the Human Services Director at this moment.

So the two resolutions are doing separate things.

And so I just wanted to clarify that the resolution that is referencing what the mayor should do about the Human Services Director appointment is still going to be in play today.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

I'm passing out a copy of the resolution that I shared this morning.

This one has a highlighted version so that you may see from the Council's perspective what language has been added to Councilmember Licata's resolution that was originally passed in 2007. And just to reiterate for the Council, as we discussed this morning during morning briefing, This resolution focuses on mayoral nominees that have not yet been submitted.

The resolution is to help ensure that Seattle City Council has a good understanding of the process the executive had used to put forward nominees in the future.

I think that's an important clarification and importantly this resolution recognizes that all departments are very different.

There may be different sizes, different scopes, different levels of engagement and so it is really an opportunity for us to have a better understanding of what the process was.

for each department and their unique characteristics.

So the selection and confirmation and processes afforded to the city council and the public really give us an opportunity to better understand the goals and the vision for new department directors, which is the focus of this resolution.

Look forward again to working with all of you on council and community to identify possible amendments, suggestions, questions you may have within the next week.

And our hope again is to bring this before full council by May 18th.

Again, we're just moving to put it on the introduction and referral calendar, and everybody will have an opportunity to speak to that.

We have Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on the line, so I want to move quickly to some housekeeping matters, and then we'll catch up, and I'll have Councilmember Gonzalez make a few words.

So those in favor of the amendment, vote aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

The motion carries.

Any further comments?

Seeing none, those in favor of adopting the introduction and referral calendar as amended, vote aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

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

So let's move on into the agenda.

Approval of the agenda.

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

Is this what I'm supposed to sign?

I'm still doing this newly, folks.

I'm still trying to decide.

Okay.

The agenda is adopted.

Agenda is signed.

Approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the February 25th, 2019 City Council meetings have been reviewed.

If there's no objections, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are being signed.

Did I already do that?

Okay, I'm sorry, I already did that, all right.

Now I'm gonna do, I'm just do presentations now.

I am not aware of any presentations today, all right?

So let's go into public comment.

At this time, we will take public comment on items that appear on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, and the city council's work program.

How many people do we have signed up?

50. 50. So, I will in a moment.

The public comment will be accepted for 20 minutes and speakers are limited to one minute of public comment.

If the speaker's comment exceeds one minute, the clerk will turn off the microphone.

Speakers are asked to begin their comments by identifying themselves and the agenda item they wish to address.

The clerk will call up to four names at a time.

If your name is called, please line up at either podium one, that's the middle aisle, that's podium one, and podium two, aisle by the window.

So if we have four people lining up, then we can just move along and everyone will have their minute to speak.

However, before we begin our public comment, we have an elected official who has requested to provide public comment.

We have Councilmember Gonzalez's resolution is on the agenda, and my understanding is that we are lucky today to have Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal speaking to support the Medicare for All resolution that will be proposed today by Councilmember Gonzalez.

As it is, as I said, as a custom, we are going to allow the Congresswoman to speak first.

So, I'm going to ask that we unmute the phone and allow Congressman, Congresswoman, I'm sorry, Pramila Jayapal that she can begin her public comment.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Juarez.

Thank you.

City Council Member Gonzalez and the entire City Council for inviting me to testify.

I am so honored to represent a good part of the City of Seattle.

and honored today to speak on behalf of City Council Member Gonzalez's resolution supporting the Medicare for All Act of 2019. Last week, I was proud to lead 107 of my colleagues in the U.S.

House of Representatives as original co-sponsors in introducing this landmark legislation that would transform our healthcare system and guarantee that every single person in our country has access to healthcare.

In order to do so, we know we have to bring down costs and improve health outcomes, all of which my comprehensive legislation addresses.

Today in America, we have the most expensive healthcare system in the world, spending double what most peer countries spend, and yet our outcomes are actually the worst of all industrialized countries.

Of all the industrialized countries in the world, we have the highest rates of moms dying in childbirth, the highest rates of babies dying, and we are the only industrialized country in the world where life expectancy is going down, not up.

Every single day, too many Americans are sick and dying because they can't afford insulin or cancer treatments that they need, even as the price of prescription drugs are soaring and insurance premiums are going up by double digits overnight.

I have received so many letters, emails, and phone calls about the medical costs that Seattleites are struggling with.

Just the other day, I spoke with a constituent who is HIV positive and whose medications cost $5,000 a month, and another one who has a disability and is covered by employer health care, but still pays a staggering $35,000 a year in premiums, deductibles, and copays.

That is simply unacceptable.

And that's why my bill tackles the deep sickness within our for-profit healthcare system that puts profits over patients.

Even if people die because they can't afford their treatment, the top pharmaceutical companies are raking in $75 billion in profits every year.

In 2018 alone, the health and medical insurance industry took in $43 billion in profits.

And the UnitedHealth CEO took home $83 million.

The Aetna CEO took home $59 million.

And the Cigna CEO took home $44 million.

So my Medicare for All bill addresses three issues, coverage, cost, and quality.

We cover everyone in one single large insurance network.

We provide comprehensive coverage, primary care, maternal care, dental vision, long-term care for seniors.

and individuals with disabilities.

And everyone gets to keep the same doctors and hospitals.

In fact, you'll have more choice than you would have with the increasing restrictions of private for-profit insurance companies who increasingly say that too many providers are out of network or not covered.

And my legislation gets rid of co-pays private insurance premiums and deductibles, and we bring down costs dramatically by getting rid of the administrative waste of those for-profit insurance companies and negotiating for lower drug prices.

It is a bold and ambitious plan, but I believe that the people of Seattle and indeed of America are ready, ready to ensure that health care is a right and not a privilege available to everyone, not just the wealthy.

So I am so grateful to my friend, Council Member Gonzalez, and to the City Council for introducing this resolution.

I want to thank you all for your hard work and your dedication to ensuring healthcare for all of our city's residents and for all that you do every day.

Thanks so much, and I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has them or let you get on to your public comments.

Congresswoman, I would love for people to ask you questions, but we have an agenda that's kind of packed, and I don't want to say no to you, but I think I have to.

Even though you're my Congresswoman, I have to say no.

But I want to thank you.

I totally understand.

I'll call you later.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Congresswoman.

Bye-bye.

Thank you very much.

Jodi, go ahead and we can start the public comment and we'll go for 20 minutes and we'll see where we're at then.

Excuse me, I'm going to call four names.

If you can all please come and line up at each of the podiums, two per podium.

First name is David Haynes.

The second name is Queen B. King's group, the Wheel Women in Black.

Number three is Yvette Dinesh and number four is Paul Nowoski.

Great, where's our number four person?

Okay, let's go.

Sir?

We need a second referendum amendment to once and for all hold the entire social welfare industry of government and non-government employees accountable.

Yet all this for one person's job is another deceptive guarantee that the corrupt social welfare industry is getting off the hook while conspiring to have another corrupt non-government official one of their own, put in position to guarantee that they can get a salary raise at next budget cycle, acting like they need more money to actually solve the homeless emergency crisis, while the whole time oppressing the poor, keeping them desperate so there's always a demand for more money with the same unaccountable $200 million government and non-government contractors.

There is over 20,000 social services employees, government and non-government, making a living off 12,000 home estate cheap daily, shortchanging, subhuman mistreating, denying services for lazy lying about bankers hours efforts.

It's obvious the city council is trading the integrity and proper interpretation of accountability of the social welfare industry as long as the activists and political operatives within the non-profits do the bidding of city council's re-election efforts to charade

Okay, sir.

Sir, thank you.

Your time is up.

Who's next?

The Queen Bee Group.

We are going to give you, I understand, two minutes.

Good afternoon, Seattle City Council members.

I am Queen B. King-Rios.

I am a member of Will and a leader of Women and Black.

Last year, in 2018, Women and Black stood silent vigil for 120 outdoor by violence deaths.

The Share Will Shelter Network provides a warm, safe, loving, church-based shelter network for clean and sober homeless men and women.

I thank God for the Women's Low Barrier Shelter that accepts any woman in any condition at any time of night with a no-turnaway policy, and it's the only one of its kind in the City of Seattle.

The City asked Will to start this as a women's shelter almost 20 years ago, come this May.

It is now a year-round shelter.

If you can see, we surely needed more today than we did then.

Women are scared and afraid.

Good afternoon.

I'm Anitra Freeman, a participant in Share and Wheel since 1995. I have seen human services directors who worked collaboratively with Share and Wheel.

That has not been our experience under Jason Johnson.

After this council voted unanimously to fully fund Wheels Shelter for two years, it took two months for the Human Services Department to send us a contract and then they told us they would fund us for only six months with no guarantee of any funding after that.

When you are homeless, you cannot focus on anything constructive when you're terrified.

The women in the wheel shelter, some of the most vulnerable women in Seattle are now terrified that their shelter will be closed.

Please, start the search over again and get us a director that won't do this to people.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council, Yvette Dynas.

I'm here to speak on the fact that in 2017, legislation was passed for the Race and Social Justice Initiative.

Well, come to find out then when it was passed and now the Seattle Office of Civil Rights is woefully understaffed.

So they cannot be effective or efficient in handling concerns that they would normally funnel through.

So ahead of the budget process, I'm hoping you to Fully fund them even more so they can hire more investigators or more staff.

They have one intake person So they can do what was legislated they should do and also people in my community the south in Genesee Rainier Beach are up in arms over the talk of having overnight parking for people that are living in their cars at Genesee Park.

So I'm letting you know that there's going to be some pushback on that.

They want community input on people living in their cars being able to park at Genesee Park overnight.

And thank you for being the temporary head thing.

That's pretty cool.

I like that.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sir?

My name is Kim Sung AE.

I'm actually a monarchy.

But the problem with Congress is that you can actually look at the research.

Research people, they have to be perfect.

And what happens is because of the amount of practice they have, it costs more.

So if you have a cell phone, which actually costs maybe $2.50 and you sell it for $1,000, that's the reason why.

And the other thing is, hey, Council Member Swamp, you never have come back for debate.

I really don't understand, but I'm doing City Council number three for Seattle this year.

Thank you, you have a nice day.

Thank you.

It's our next four people.

Speakers five through eight, Joseph St. Aubin, Tyrone Kinney, Joe Kunzler, and Amzie Jeffs.

Let's have all four of our folks come on up so we can make sure everybody gets a chance to speak today.

ahead of me.

Okay.

He would like me to see that.

So Joseph Aubin.

Okay.

Hello.

Thank you to council members.

My name is Joseph St. Aubin.

And I am here today because I want to support Councilmember Gonzalez's resolution for Medicare for all.

Medicare for all is something that is needed badly in our nation.

We need it, in my case, we need it for If a person needs long-term care, they have to be able to choose the facility of their choice, which right now one cannot do there.

Also, if you are living independently, for example, people who do need that type of assistance, a proper attended care can be provided.

Thank you very much.

How you doing, today's city councilman?

My name is Tyrone Kenny and also me and my wife doing a lot of different things in the community.

And also I brought a brochure of some things that the mayor has spoke on last year to give out free land to the non-profit that doing something in your community.

And so this is one of the things that I'm putting together.

That is a building for the young youth that wants that don't have a home and don't, and the ladies also, we're gonna be very high security.

And also we already got a plan for And just I need y'all help to give me the land because the one you said you would you've been put it in the paper And the mayor said she would do it And so i've been trying to get a meeting with you to get this land to be able to be fundable be able to be Understandable to be able to help the young youth out in our community Because we are losing our young youth in the homeless area because number one they don't have a place to stay they don't know where how to how to be able to have a place to Lay their head down and wake up and have food in the morning.

We need to help help me out on this situation.

Amen.

All right Thank you, sir I feel stupid

Oh, oh, I'm on.

Wow.

Wow, I'm here speaking at the Seattle City Council again.

It's always a privilege and honor to speak here, especially when Council Member Jerez is the council president.

Obviously, we prefer Council Member Gonzalez, but it looks like we brought the number one troll on God's green earth today.

And I really think it's an absolute disgrace that city council members have to sit and listen to being called horrible names.

I think it's a disgrace to the people who come here who want to just give you a piece of their minds and their hearts for a better Seattle and really work together and to hopefully not just talk at you but to also listen to you as you listen to us and work together to build a better Seattle and a better region so we can all work together in harmony and defeat racism, defeat sexism, defeat you know, homelessness, and really just coming together as a human race.

So I really think it's important that all the city council members enforce strongly, you know, public comment rules, no matter where you're on, federated board or not.

My time is up.

I have to go.

But thank you so much for having me on today.

Go Seattle, and thank you, Irina Gonzalez for throwing that out there.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Amzai.

I'm a member of UAW 4121 and also a socialist alternative.

In the context of Seattle's extreme housing crisis, it's totally inexcusable that Mayor Durkin would push through an HSD director that has been roundly rejected by HSD workers and by the people of this city, instead of adopting a transparent process and choosing someone who can lead a strong fight for housing justice in Seattle.

On the other hand, it's not surprising, given the corporate backers that Mayor Durkin has made herself accountable to.

Her actions amount to nothing less than bullying, and to defeat a bully, we have to stand up.

I'm really inspired to see so many people here today doing just that, and I think we're right to demand that City Council stands with us in rejecting Jason Johnson.

We expect that the City Council will listen to the people who have shown up today, to HSD workers, and vote yes on Councilmember Sawant's proposal.

Thank you.

Next, we have Speakers 9 through 12, and that's Dan Kavanagh, David McClanahan, Aaron Goodman, and Mike Stewart.

Hi, my name's Dan.

I'm a food service worker and a member of Socialist Alternative, and I'm speaking today because I think that while we have a homelessness state of emergency in this city, it's really important who is at the head of the Human Services Department.

And I'm really troubled by the mayor's approach of trying to force through a nominee without community input.

And then when members of Share Wheel are standing up and speaking against her nominee that she would threaten to cut, funding for homeless services.

I think that's absolutely atrocious.

I think it's the type of bullying, intimidation tactics that I would expect from Donald Trump, from Jeff Bezos.

And frankly, I'm not surprised that a mayor who took $350,000 from Amazon would stoop to that level.

But I think that our council members have a responsibility to say no and vote yes on Council Member Sawant's proposal because we're going to keep building this movement.

When our homeless neighbors are under attack, what do we do?

Stand up like that!

When our homeless neighbors are under attack, what do we do?

Stand up like that!

When our homeless neighbors are under attack, what do we do?

Stand up like that!

There is a reason why I talked about us acknowledging that we are an indigenous land and behavior.

I would hope that everybody would listen to what other people have to say.

This isn't a rally, it's public comment.

And everybody has a right to be heard, even if you disagree with them.

Democracy cannot live in a swamp if we don't like each other.

We at least have to listen to each other.

And that's all I'm asking you to do, is to listen for one minute.

Next four names.

When we got up to speak, we only were given two minutes.

Condensed time today.

It was condensed time, ma'am.

We have 50 people signed up.

That's fine.

OK.

Go ahead, sir.

Did you call the four names?

We have David McClanahan.

Hi, I'm a retired surgeon with 38 years experience working with the underserved.

For 25 years, PacMed allowed me to set up and staff surgery clinics in two of our safety net clinics, Country Doctor and International District Clinic.

During that time, I saw and cared for thousands of people who came in at a late time because of financial reasons until their condition led to disablement or an emergency.

I would hope that everyone in this country would be able to go to sleep at night without worrying about a medical condition causing them to lose their well-being, their financial security, and their family's future.

We will not be able to guarantee health care one in this country until we have a single-payer national health program, which is what Congressman Jayapal's bill would provide.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, I'm Erin Goodman with the Soto Business Improvement Area and I'm here today to urge you to vote no to Resolution 31862 and immediately proceed with confirmation hearings for Jason Johnson, the Mayor's choice to lead the Human Services Department.

I have appeared in front of this body many times over the past years to share the public health and safety impacts that our city's homelessness crisis is having on employees, business owners, and visitors in Soto, and on people experiencing homelessness in Soto.

My folks need solutions and actions, not political delays.

We need this office to be filled with a permanent director who can continue the city's focus on accountability and results to better serve our unsheltered residents and our neighborhood.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

Next.

Good afternoon, City Council Members.

My name is Mike Stewart.

I'm Executive Director of the Ballard Alliance.

We're a neighborhood improvement organization that represents hundreds of businesses and thousands of residents in the core of Ballard.

I'm here today to encourage you to vote no on Resolution 31862, which would delay consideration of the nomination of Jason Johnson for the Director of Human Services Department.

This resolution is nothing more than a political delay tactic that would create an unneeded process and result in lost time and a loss of focus on addressing homelessness.

Jason Johnson has years of experience within HSCs and is a qualified candidate for this position.

During his 10 months as acting director, Jason has overseen an increase in the city's emergency shelter, the city's response and improved outcomes by service providers.

He's also implemented new accountability and performance measures like performance pay for service providers to help ensure the city's investments are making the business biggest possible impact.

I strongly urge you to vote no on today's resolution.

Thank you.

Next we have Christopher Anderson, Anitra Freeman, Mary Castillo and number 17 Emily MacArthur.

Number 22 on your list is conceding her time.

Tara.

No.

Me?

I didn't hear what you said.

I'm sorry.

Conceding time.

Oh, OK.

He still has a minute.

Oh, go ahead.

Is that OK?

Still just one minute.

Still one minute.

Good afternoon, members of the City Council.

My name is Christopher Anderson.

I stay at Sheriff's Bunkhouse Shelter in the Rainier Valley.

On February 20th, my community testified to the Human Services Committee in this chamber.

We made clear our support for the resolution to restart the hiring of our Director of Human Services with an open process based on the city's racial and economic justice toolkit.

Our support for this resolution is even stronger today.

On February 26th, the Mayor's Office and Human Services Director told us they plan to cut shares contract for our indoor shelter network to six months, the end of June, 2019. This bypassed your unanimous decision to fund our community building and cost-effective shelters for the next two years.

It was the second year in a row that you had to restore funding to shares indoor shelters after the mayor and human services director cut them.

If the goal of the mayor and the human services department was to improve our shelters instead of ruining them, they would have sat down with us or told us specific- Get a wrap up, sir.

Thank you.

Next.

I did get to say my piece, but Mary is going to speak.

I apologize for the confusion.

Go ahead.

That's OK.

My name is Mary Castillo, and I am a staff member at the Weill Women's Shelter.

The women we help have been on this roller coaster ride with us.

Fighting for our funding, back in November of 2018, all of us took a big sigh of relief when the city council, all of you wonderful people, voted unanimously to approve our funding for two years.

Imagine the complete fear and heartbreak the women and us, the staff, felt when we found out last week that our funding was taken away.

Again.

The women who utilize our shelter have been coming up to me crying, scared, wanting to know what they should do.

Are we closing and when?

They are just plain scared because they think, and this has been said to me several times in the last few days, I won't be able to survive if I have to sleep outside.

I need you to wrap up, ma'am.

Okay.

So what you did three months ago was a good thing.

Please continue to stand up for us and yourselves.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name's Emily MacArthur and I'm a member of Socialist Alternative.

I'd like to speak to the HSD director proposed appointment.

I would urge you to vote yes on Shama Sawant's proposal.

I think you would imagine in a homeless state of emergency that's been going on for two years that there would be an energetic and organized approach to solving what's been recognized as an emergency, as a crisis.

Instead what we've seen is a chaotic and undemocratic system that moves the goalpost on a monthly basis.

That is the legacy of Jason Johnson.

The proposed director, Jason Johnson, is someone who's bragged about results-based funding.

We heard someone speak to merit pay as a positive thing, and I think when we don't have housing to put people into, merit pay is It's unethical.

We need an actual leadership, and HSD would be demanding a massive investment in publicly funded housing that we could actually put these people into.

I think the for-profit housing market is never gonna be designed to serve working class and poor people, and we should demand someone who's willing to fight on the basis of working class and poor people in this city.

Thank you.

At 2.49, okay.

Sir, if you don't stop, then I'm gonna have you removed.

Let's go on with the next four people.

All right, numbers 18 through 21, that's Ava Metz, Jordan Quinn, Sarah Stallman, and Ginny Kovalec.

My name is Eva Metz, and I'm a member of Socialist Alternative.

Numerous people have spoken about the homeless crisis in our city and the city's utter failure to address it.

They've repealed the Amazon tax, which would have been a substantial measure to address.

The housing crisis, they passed a budget with less than 1% of funding to build affordable housing, not any more than it was the previous year.

And Mayor Durkan has totally failed to take this into account with her HSD appointment process, which is super crucial in this crisis in providing services to fill the gap left by the city.

Over and over, people have raised their voices, city workers, community members, with concerns about Mayor Durkin's process, with concerns about Director Johnson and his failure to listen to his staff or take into account racial and social justice.

And I think if we talk about listening, important to listen to the people testifying today who testified at all these community meetings and are demanding an inclusive search process.

Thank you.

Sir?

I'm Jordan Quinn.

I'm also a member of Socialist Alternative.

I think it's really important that the council keep the mayor in check and defend our human services and not defund them, like in the interest of big business, just like the mayor wants to do.

I think it's ridiculous that just after a week, just a week after homeless services providers from Share Wheel spoke out against Jason Johnson's nomination, that the mayor informed them that she's going to be cutting their funding for the rest of the year starting in June.

I don't think the council should find it at all acceptable, you know, some of the stuff that we've been hearing from many of the service providers here today.

I think the reason for this, they say that they're getting this funding cut is because they're not effective, but it's like, you can't hold someone accountable for not being effective if the city's not providing affordable housing.

Saying that homeless service providers aren't doing their job because they're not getting people into housing that doesn't exist, that's ridiculous.

You should fight back against that.

I think more than that, you know, the City Council should be fighting back against cuts against share wheel, fighting back against retaliation, but also fighting to tax the rich and use that money to fully fund the human services that we need, that we vitally need.

My name is Dr. Sarah Stallman.

I practiced community medicine for many years, and I was at my first council-type meeting on the 20th to listen to the stories, many of which you've heard now, and I want to talk about my particular response to that.

For more than two hours, people stood up, spoke from their hearts, most of them volunteering, to take care of people less fortunate than themselves and provide housing, which, as a physician, I mean, that's absolutely critical to health.

You need shelter.

There was one, besides Councilman Sawant, there was one other council person there, And at the end of all this testimony, he started talking at length intellectually about disagreements with one particular person's.

I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up, ma'am.

No, I have more time.

I want to say this quickly.

Oh, say it quickly.

I left when the second person started talking on and on and on, addressing real people's concerns.

And I got out and I realized I could leave.

Okay, thank you.

And these house people without housing had no option.

Let's move to the next.

Ma'am, you have to be mindful of other people's time as well.

Name the next four people.

The next four people, please, that we'd like to hear from.

Following Ginny, we will have Terry Buckner, Sarah Weinberg, Imogene Williams, and Bonnie Morris.

Let's give them a moment to get up here.

I don't want to rush them.

We have more.

Oh, hi.

Sorry, I was looking at the slate.

Okay, go ahead.

I'm Jenny Kowalczyk, and I'm the communications director at the Alliance for Pioneer Square, a business improvement area.

I'm here today to encourage you to move forward with Jason Johnson's confirmation process.

In his role as acting director, Jason has shown leadership and competency in his role, and we believe he's a reasonable choice for an appointee by the mayor.

Our focus right now should be on how to prevent and address the homelessness issue.

that's impacting our city, now is not the time to recreate a system within our city government that's not broken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Terry Beckner.

Heaven forfend, there should be a break.

My name is Sarah Weinberg.

I'm a retired pediatrician, and I'm the president of Physicians for a National Health Program, Western Washington Chapter, speaking on behalf of over 400 members.

Most of us have been advocating for a national universal health coverage program for at least 30 years.

Now's the time, really, well past the time to provide healthcare for every human being living in the US.

You're here, you're human, you're covered.

So please pass this revolution, sorry, resolution, and go Seattle.

I like what you said.

We're here, we're human, we're covered.

I'm going to write that down.

Thank you.

I picked up a magazine I never saw before, Pacific Standard.

Interviews with people who are homeless.

They feel comfortable in the tent city because they feel safe.

And they don't have to carry everything around with them everywhere we go, everywhere they go.

If we would have got the head tax, the tent cities would have showers and garbage pickup.

That was so miserable.

Jason Johnson, that is the mayor's nominee for human services director, doesn't like share and he doesn't like wheel and he can't talk to homeless people and he doesn't like homeless people.

So vote yes on the resolution.

Thank you, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Bonnie Morris and I would like to speak about the resolution for Medicare for all.

I'm a retired nurse.

For 37 1⁄4 years, I worked at UWMC on the psych unit, and we cared for all people regardless of their ability to pay.

We did very hard work and worked in a team approach, but a 7 to 10 day was never gonna cure anybody's major mental health.

illness.

After that seven to ten days, we often found out at time of discharge medications were going to cost $300 for a two-week supply.

Patients that needed intensive counseling were only going to be able to get 15-minute med checks at a clinic that they were going to have to stand in line.

The places that we were going to have to go to were too far away or insufficient.

Right now, we spend way too much money of the money we pay for premiums.

Okay, only a third of it goes directly to our health care.

I believe that the Medicare for All universal single-payer will help with this issue.

We will save lives and improve health outcomes.

We are going to, if there's no objection from my colleagues, I'd like to extend public comment another 20 minutes.

So what would that put us at?

3, 2, 3, 10. Correct?

Okay.

Let's finish.

Let's call four more names.

And wait, hold on.

Secretary Buckner.

Yeah.

You want to call four names now?

This is very short.

I won't take the whole minute.

I'd just like to let you know it's very imperative to have the funding for sure for the women.

so they do not get lost and die on the street.

That's all I need to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

The next four speakers are 26 through 29. That's Carol Butterfield, Olivia Smith, Yin, and Sadiqa Sakin.

OK, can we have our four people up here?

All right.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Hi.

Thank you for hearing us today.

My name is Carol Butterfield.

I'm a Seattle resident and a parent and nurse practitioner.

I am here today to support Lorena Gonzalez's and Pramila Jayapal's proposal for medical care for all.

My reasons, I'm going to talk really fast, basically is first of all I believe healthcare is a human right.

Americans are brainwashed to believe that we have the best healthcare system in the world.

The topmost tier of Americans may have this level, but most don't have access, and we are behind most other developed nations in terms of access, quality, and cost.

We are paying for such a system already in terms of profits, charity care, write-offs, complications, disability, bad outcomes, and the ultimate cost cutter, which is death.

Once your patient's dead, you don't have to cover them anymore.

We have the most expensive health care system in the world with the worst outcomes per capita.

It's also not an efficient system, and I would also add that I don't believe that health care is a system where there is anywhere for profit.

I ask you to support Medicare for All.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Olivia Smith.

I was born and raised in Seattle.

I live in District 2 now, and I'm here to speak on the resolutions regarding the appointment of the HSD director, and I'm hoping this will be an open and equitable appointment process.

I'm working now with Youth Undoing Institutional Racism and the Greater People's Institute Network, including European Descent and the Village of Hope.

the Black Prisoners Caucus, and this anti-racist organizing network, which has touched so many people in this region, was invited to Seattle through the HSD.

And part of my work is to understand our history, and I understand very clearly that the people who have been in the department for decades are the people who helped develop the Race and Social Justice Initiative, helped develop the change teams, and who have leveraged money from the city to send kids across the country to learn about anti-racism, organizing.

This is the legacy I'm learning from now, and this is one of the many communities and collectives that are being overlooked through this whole unaccountable employment process.

And I hope you decide to vote yes on these resolutions.

And if you want to consider yourself a progressive politician, I think that you need to understand that your role is to use your...

We're done.

Let's have the next person.

Ma'am, you're done.

Yen, please.

Or who's next?

Yen, please.

Thank you.

Again, just ask people to be mindful of other people's time.

I don't want anyone exercising any kind of privilege here.

It's really not fair.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Ian.

I'm also in support of the resolution for Medicare for All and also to halt the appointment process of the director position for human service department that has been fast-tracked by the mayor.

So the political, you know, leverage, the person that said that this is a Political shift is actually from the mayor not from the community.

We need a public hiring process for this um department in charge of 170 million on the evening of january 24th the city employees changed team of hsd and the community voiced Their concerns to savant the only city council member that was there to listen to the community with 128 employees 130 have signed petition calling for and inclusive and accountable process.

We need to follow the lead from those most impacted and the city employees to honor their service and commitment to the city.

As with Transparent Seattle campaign, where the community also seek a public process that led to Kirsten Harris Talley temporary appointment, do your part to follow the community's lead that already hold a strong distrust of politicians.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sadiqa Saikhin and I'm the Seattle King County NAACP president.

We firmly stand behind Congress to enact the Medicare for All.

We must continue to fight towards universal health care system that is sustainable, equitable, and affordable to all residents of our country regardless of socioeconomic status, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, legal status.

As Dr. Martin Luther King states, of all forms of equality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.

Despite improvements in insurance coverage since implementation of the ACA, disparities persist.

Those least likely to have health insurance include low-income adults, unemployed, and communities of color.

We most invest now in developing systems that will not only be fiscally responsible, but that is morally imperative.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Council, please pass the resolution and demand justice within our broken healthcare system.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Speakers 30 through 33, that's David Loud, Tracy Taylor, Rebecca Orich, and Nicole Gomez.

Great, we got all of our speakers up here.

All right, sir, whenever you're ready.

Okay, council members.

Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, whom I'm representing today, is very excited to support this resolution.

And thank you, Congresswoman, Councilmember Gonzalez for introducing it.

For over 100 years, we've been trying to get to universal health care in this country.

We've taken some big steps.

Now it's time to finish the job.

This Medicare for All Act would bring our country into the modern era, establishing a national universal plan to meet the needs of all of our people, which, by the way, is the only way to tackle the cost of health care effectively and make it affordable and sustainable for us all.

For those already on Medicare, This bill would greatly improve our benefits by covering dental, vision, hearing, and long-term care, and by eliminating premiums, deductibles, and co-pays, as with everybody else.

The medical-industrial complex and its political allies are powerful foes.

We're going to need a mighty popular movement.

Even if we have a healthcare-friendly government, federal government, in 2021, we're going to have to fight like hell.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Tracy Taylor and I run a business up on Capitol Hill and am involved in many community organizations up there.

I'm here to ask you to vote no on Resolution 31862 and move forward with the appointment of Jason Johnson.

Our social service provider we lost over a year ago.

We've reached out to our council member to find some funding for that social service provider and have not received help from our council member.

This has been held up and if we can move forward with the appointment, we will start to see our services come through.

I've been listening to the people in the room today and it seems like issues are being conflated here.

Is this about not liking our mayor?

Is this about wanting to change the process going forward?

If so, please change the process.

Is this about one provider having difficulty getting their provisions renewed?

then let's work on that.

But for now, let's appoint Jason Johnson as the head of HSD.

Thank you, ma'am.

whenever you're ready.

My name's Rebecca.

I'm from Georgetown, Nicholsville.

Today I'm speaking about the HSD director resolutions.

Jason Johnson said, no power to the people.

And we say, bring humanity back to the human services.

leadership.

Two weeks ago, we were told that, well, we had a MOU contract by Lehigh, and HSD leaders then gave us until March the 8th to reach an agreement or else.

And so far, Nicholsville has been given no input into the MOU contract.

It takes away our democracy.

and it replaces it with whatever Lehigh decides they want.

Over 10 years of hard work and success are in danger.

Please be prepared to join us on Friday, March 8th, to protect our communities.

And thank you for all that you've done for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Nicole Gomez of District 6. I'm here as an individual and a co-founder of Alliance for a Healthy Washington in support of the Medicare for All resolution to Congress.

I've spent 15 years in the L&I and workers' compensation insurance, and a major barrier to recovery for workers' comp is non-covered comorbidities.

If an employee is off work longer than 90 days, many employers suspend personal health care benefits, placing them and their entire family on COBRA or in the individual market in which they usually do not purchase due to unaffordability.

The longer an employee is off work, claims costs go up, and ultimately employers face higher premiums.

The labor market effects of surging health care costs are slower wage growth, higher use of part-time and temporary workers, and outsourcing or offshoring.

poor health care impedes economic progress, and a universal health care system ensuring healthy workers benefits the entire state of Washington and the country.

Thank you for presenting this resolution.

Speakers 34 through 37. That's Michael Taylor Judd, Krista Diaz, Leslie A. Zucker, and Kelly Powers.

Okay, so let's get our speakers up here.

Great.

Who's starting?

Who's kicking us off?

Michael.

Michael.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Michael Taylor Judd.

While several of you may know me personally, you may not be aware that I'm an employee in the Homeless Strategy and Investment Division at the Human Services Department.

I'm here today in that capacity because I'm angry.

I'm angry that Council Member Sawant thinks it's okay to keep sending email blasts out directly to myself and my colleagues at our city addresses, advocating that we turn out like it's a rally to oppose the confirmation process around our director.

I'm angry that a small group of employees wants to speak out without making greater efforts to learn what all of our colleagues in the department feel about this.

And I'm especially angry that close to half of the public comments you've been hearing thus far at meetings have come from staff and supporters of a couple of providers who continually fail to meet performance standards.

who refuse to participate in developing improvements to our homeless services system and who have been accused of mistreating some of their clients and or have been recommended not to receive continued funding.

It's true that many of us wish the mayor's office had conducted a transparent process for nominating Jason Johnson, but that does not mean that we all want to see a national search process conducted.

Thank you.

Again, I'm not trying to be rude.

We have 50 people signed up, and I would love to hear everybody.

Go ahead, ma'am.

My name is Krista Diaz, and I'm a Seattle resident and an employee of the Seattle Human Services Department, and I'm here to urge you to confirm the nomination of Jason Johnson to continue leading HSD.

This is a significant time of change and transition for our department, specifically as we determine what a regional approach to addressing homelessness could be.

Stability in our leadership is key to ensuring that we continue to serve our communities and be good stewards of public funds.

I'm already concerned about the amount of staff time, resources, and effort spent in swirl around this process.

Jason has been interim director for almost a year now.

He's committed to maintaining continuity of services during a time of great transition, and he has shown his commitment to centering our work in race and social justice.

His ability, though, has been undermined by the delay in confirming his nomination.

Supporting the nomination of Jason Johnson as HSD's director and being committed to the principles of racial and social justice are not mutually exclusive.

Please confirm him and let us get back to work.

Thank you.

Ma'am.

My name is Leslie Zucker from Health Care for All.

Last week, noted disability rights attorney and health care justice activist Carrie Ann Lucas finished serving her death sentence inflicted by UnitedHealthcare for the crime of needing a $2,000 antibiotic.

In this perverse profit-making scheme, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare took home compensation of $31.3 million in 2016, while Carrie Ann Lucas needed to ration her medication till her last day.

Like Carrie Ann Lucas, I too am disabled.

Why do I deserve to live and Lucas to die?

According to our for-profit healthcare system, my life has more value than hers because I come from financial privilege.

My life has more value because when my private insurance company and then later on Medicare would refuse to pay a specialist, my family could simply write a check.

We need universal Medicare for all so that healthcare is a right, not a privilege of wealthy people like my family.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Callie Powers and I'm Vice President of Healthcare for All Washington.

We're an organization advocating for universal healthcare coverage.

We thank Councilmember Gonzalez for bringing this resolution forward.

HCFA Washington supports Representative Jayapal's National Improved and Expanded Medicare for All Act for many reasons.

But today I'd like to highlight the positive impact it would bring to local governments who are currently on the front line for mopping up the failures of the current system.

I'm sure I don't have to regale you with that information.

And also Representative Jayapal delineated earlier the high premiums and all of that, so we're all up to speed on that.

When Medicare for All passes, the negative outcomes of financial insecurity, bankruptcy, and homelessness due to unpredictable and soaring health care costs will virtually vanish for Seattle residents.

Medicare for All will provide relief to cities and counties struggling to use local resources to address these national problems.

HCFA Washington urges support of this resolution.

The passage of Medicare for all would go a long way to making Seattle more affordable and to stabilizing Seattle housing long term.

The number one issues facing Seattle.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Speakers 38 through 41, that's Gretchen Washkey, Patty Dawson, Melissa Maffua, and Audrey Bering.

Okay, let's get our four folks up here.

Okay.

Hi, you can go.

My name is Gretchen Waskey.

I'm a citizen of Seattle and also an employee of HSD.

We've heard a lot from the Homeless Services Initiative folks, and I actually work for Aging and Disability Services.

Initially, this statement is to Mayor Durkin.

For every ounce of resistance you've put into denying the collective voice of this community, you have been and will continue to be met with a pound of commitment to RSJI.

Your resistance is proof that you don't intend to participate in the values you've professed the city is here to uphold.

For every attempt you make to turn race and social justice into a game of smoke and mirrors, you will be met with the winds of change.

To the council members before me today, Mayor Durkan has made it clear that she believes she can cherry pick issues that deserve transparency.

That is not how equity works.

There is no way to split the difference when justice for all is the mission.

I implore you to feel in your heart and in your gut what has been presented to you today by community members who have returned time and time again to bear their souls in solidarity for the transformation the city's citizens deserve.

Favor resolution 31862, halt the HSD director appointment.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Patty Dawson, and I'm an HSD employee of 12 years.

Prior to that, I worked for 30 years in community mental health.

I was a clinical director at Community House Mental Health Agency, where we cared for a lot of homeless and had residential.

I'm here as a lifetime public servant.

Last year, I took the required City of Seattle training from the People's Institute and the HSD Change Team on institutional racism.

We were challenged to do something simple, to look deeper into the realities of institutional racism, including in our work environments, and take action where we can.

We saw that we have a problem right now at HSD.

We need to address that problem now, not later, at a more convenient time.

While I'm very sympathetic to the business community and I think that should be addressed, we also need to look at race and social justice and what is happening to our employees at HSD.

I need you to wrap up, ma'am.

I'm sorry?

I need you to wrap up.

We are asking that you support the resolution for an open and inclusive hiring process for the HSD director and all the city directors in the future.

The time for equity inclusion is not later, it is now.

Do the right thing.

My name is Melissa Mafua, and I'm an organizer with Protech 17. I am here today to let the council know that we are in full support of our members who seek a transparent and inclusive process in the hiring of the new director at HSD.

Thank you.

Okay.

My name is Audrey Beering and I'm a Seattle resident and an employee of the Human Services Department.

We all know and grown about Seattle's national reputation for being a process-driven city, so process-heavy that we can struggle to reach our goals.

The resolution on the table today that asked to delay the confirmation for the Human Services Director is an example of why we deserve our reputation and demonstrates how we're getting in our own way.

The mayor has the authority to appoint her cabinet without a formal process because she's been elected by the people to make these kinds of decisions.

Because if she had to run a formal process for every single cabinet member, her term would end before she could get her cabinet online.

Let me talk about what having an interim director is doing to our department.

You've heard a little bit about the swirl it's creating, but it also means we're trapped in purgatory, unable to make the needed changes to improve our work.

Because we have to consider the possibility that a new director might come in, have a different vision, and want different changes.

And this constant change is highly stressful and demoralizing for staff.

So we sit frozen, waiting and waiting for permanency and stability, while council delays scheduling a confirmation hearing for a nominee who is highly qualified and well-supported.

I urge you to uphold the city charter and keep the cabinet appointments as part of city operations.

The last two speakers are Russ Saunders and Leslie Bowling.

My name is Russ Saunders and I'm a proud father of a child with severe asthma that I nearly lost and I want to talk about Aurora and the need for a 50 meter buffer for public safety and public health.

You're putting tens of thousands of people at risk of pollution related causes.

The pedestrian plan that you have for Aurora puts people right against the street, trapped by the pollution.

It's a major trucking street, 3,000 plus trucks.

Don't create an urban canyon road that traps the pollution.

Our most vulnerable population deserves to be safe and to have clean air.

C1 and C2 protect those people.

It provides the buffer needed.

Good afternoon.

My name is Leslie Bowling.

I am a Seattle resident in District 2. I'm an HSD employee in the Youth and Family Empowerment Division.

The HSD Director appointment is not about a person.

It's about the legacy of racism and white supremacy in government.

I ask this body to use all of its available tools with regard to appointments within city government.

Say yes to Resolution 31862. Say yes to the resolution that Councilmember Mosqueda introduced today.

Vote no on the appointment.

Refrain from bringing the appointment before a vote.

Create an ordinance to change the city charter regarding appointments.

Only by working together can we dismantle the history of racism and white supremacy within our government.

On February 20th, Council Member Harbold shared about the struggle of separating an individual from the process.

I offer you, Council Member Harbold, and the other white-identified council members a resource that has provided me clarity with the subtle and nuanced ways that we perpetuate white supremacy in government.

I offer this to you.

Lastly, I want to indicate that I support the resolution on Medicare for all.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Thank you everybody.

That will conclude public comment today.

I want to thank all of you for coming down here.

I know you're all busy and sharing your thoughts and your concerns and let me tell you we'll take that into advisement.

With that, we're going to move on with the agenda to payment of the bills.

Please read the title.

Council Bill 119470, approving money to pay settlement claims and ordering the payment thereof.

That's Council Bill 119470. It's been moved and seconded that the bill passes.

Are there any comments?

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Johnson.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes and the chair will sign it.

All right, we're going to move on with our agenda.

So now we're going to go into committee reports.

But before that, we are going to, I believe, Council Member Gonzalez, you're going to be up on a resolution on your Medicare for All.

And thank you for providing Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

So with that, I'll let the clerk go ahead and read it into the record.

The report of the City Council, Agenda 1, Resolution 31867, Supporting the Passage of the Medicare for All Act of 2019.

So I, do I let Councilor Gonzales speak?

Okay.

Yes, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So folks are following along.

I have a minor amendment that I need to make to the resolution to reflect Mayor Durkan's desire to concur on this resolution.

And then, so I'm going to move for that amendment and then Assuming that amendment passes, then I'll make some substantive remarks about the underlying resolution, and then we can have discussion and a vote.

So that's the run of show, folks.

Okay, so I move to adopt resolution 31867. Second.

It's been, oh, I can't second, can I?

Oh, I can.

Oh, okay.

It's been moved and seconded that the resolution be adopted.

Are there any comments?

I would just like to describe what the amendment is.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

I looked at my script that says let Council Member Gonzalez talk.

Okay, so now that the resolution has been introduced, I'd like to move to amend resolution 31867 by adding the mayor's concurrence on the be it resolved in signature lines and as presented on the distributed amendment one, which was at your seats when we first started at two o'clock.

Second.

It's been, now I can talk.

Yes.

It's been moved and seconded that the resolution be adopted.

Are there any comments?

Council Member Gonzalez.

I have no additional comments, and I would invite a vote on the amendment.

OK, so it's been moved and seconded.

If there's no objection to the amendment, it will be adopted, correct?

The amendment is adopted.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed?

No.

OK, so if there's hearing no objection, the amendment is adopted, correct?

Right.

OK, so after it's adopted, I move to adopt Resolution 31867 as amended.

Second.

Okay.

Are there any further comments?

Yes.

OK.

Well, and I would invite my colleagues to speak about this resolution as well.

So Resolution 31867 is a resolution in support of the Medicare for All Act of 2019. As most of us are aware, last week on Wednesday, February 27, the Medicare for All Act of 2019 was introduced in the House of Representatives by our Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

and over 100 co-sponsors.

For years, Republican control of the House of Representatives has led to inaction and obstruction efforts to improve our federal health care system and increase access to health care, including the consistent undermining of the Affordable Care Act's health care marketplace.

In the meantime, the total cost of health care spending by the United States government has soared to about $3.5 trillion, about $11,000 per person, the highest per capita spending rate in the world for health care.

Despite spending roughly 19% of our nation's gross domestic product on health care, the US has among the worst health outcomes in the developed world.

Now, with Democratic leadership in the House And with the leadership of Congresswoman Jayapal, Congress is poised to hold hearings on single-payer health care policy proposals.

This, my friends, would be a first for us to receive a hearing on this really important issue, and that is thanks to the leadership of Congresswoman Jayapal.

Earlier today, during this hearing, we heard from Congresswoman Jayapal on her work to advance Medicare for all in Congress.

And I am deeply grateful for her leadership on this critical issue and for her staunch advocacy on behalf of all of the Seattleites that she represents.

And I'm really humbled and honored to have had an opportunity to work with her and her office on making sure that the city of Seattle would be the first city to discuss and hopefully adopt a resolution in support of her Medicare for All Act of 2019. It is no secret that the city of Seattle has one of the most significant affordability and homelessness issues across the country and certainly on the West Coast.

One of the main contributors and root causes to that is the lack of access to affordable health care, or in some instances, the lack of access to health care at all.

So this is absolutely relevant to our constituents, and it is really important for us to make sure that we, as representatives of our constituents, make our voice, collective voices, known as a body to those folks in Washington, D.C.

who have power to move on these issues, and really strongly encourage our residents to join in the effort to make sure that Washington, D.C.

can hear us all the way from out here in Seattle that we believe that healthcare should be a right and not a privilege for those who can afford it.

So I am really excited to have this resolution before us.

I'm excited that so many folks showed up today in support of this resolution.

This is just the beginning, and I hope that you will continue to support our Congresswoman and our entire delegation in Washington, D.C.

to make sure that they hear directly from you about why this is important for Seattle and why it's important for all Americans to make sure that we finally address what is a clearly broken healthcare, for-profit healthcare system.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez.

Councilwoman Mosqueda.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez, for bringing forward this resolution.

I'm very excited that you are leading the way to make sure that Seattle is the first city in the entire nation to pass such a resolution.

Hopefully that this will spread throughout the country, as we know that we have a health care crisis in this country, and it's up to all of us to come together to address this crisis, call for action, and not just needling around the edges, but true reform so that everyone can have health care and that it does not have a profit-driven solution.

I like that this resolution calls for action and it's a reminder for us about the urgency in which we need to tackle this challenge.

As someone who has chaired the Healthy Washington Coalition for almost a decade, who had the chance to chair the Health Care is a Human Right Coalition with many of you in the audience, We know that our efforts at the local and the state level are only a substitute, a placeholder, a stepping stone in order for us to get true universal health care.

And the Congresswoman mentioned it this morning, but it bears repeating.

If folks don't know this statistic by now, please memorize it.

We are the wealthiest country in the nation.

We have the most expensive medical care in the world.

and yet rank near the bottom, near the bottom of health results among all of the developed nations.

Our babies are dying earlier, our elders are dying sooner, our people, no matter what your income is, have poorer health outcomes because we do not have health insurance.

And if you want to look it up and check those facts, please do, because Steven Brzezdruska, right here at the University of Washington, talks about the Health Olympics, We are failing in every aspect to take care of our population.

And wealth inequality is a huge contributor to why we have health inequality.

So the question for our country is not whether we can afford universal health care for all.

The reality is we can't afford not to fight for it and pass it this year.

Councilmember Badshaw?

Sorry Councilmember, sorry just one more piece on that.

Sorry that was just the midway point.

You know I love health.

I know.

I know you do.

Just a strategic pause.

Just very briefly, I will add to that.

In addition to our call for national action, which Council Member Gonzalez has underscored for us, there's a number of national organizations who have done the same.

SEIU International, National Nurses United, Physicians for our National Health Plan, and many, many small businesses.

The lack of affordable health care is also crippling for our small businesses.

In addition to calling for this action at the national level, I know that I'm joined by my council colleagues here and our King County colleagues as well as we work on a local health plan similar to what Los Angeles has done with My Health LA and similar to what San Francisco has done with Healthy SF plan.

We know we can cover all residents in our county and I'm very excited to have been working with all of you in this last budget and also with the King County Council through the leadership of Council Member Dombowski We are working on a regional health plan.

In the meantime, as we work to fight for universal health care for all, how many of you would like to see MLK Care here in our region to cover everyone?

Yeah?

OK.

We'll work on that.

And I want to thank again Councilmember Gonzalez for her leadership on this, the state legislators who are taking up many similar bills to expand health coverage to those who've been left out, and our King County partners in addition to all the leadership that Congresswoman Jayapal has shown on this.

Very excited to have this day come forward.

You done?

Now I'm done.

You got it all?

Good.

Councillor Bankshaw.

Thank you.

I want to acknowledge Councilmember Gonzalez for your bringing forward this and to Congressman Pramila Jayapal.

If you're still listening or anybody is talking to you about what's happening here, many thanks.

Councilmember Mosqueda and Councilmember Juarez, thank you for your help on our Seattle-King County Public Health Board because this is where we're going.

In my mind, this is a stake in the ground for the 2020 presidential elections.

So this is a good start.

It is a great beginning.

The fact that Congressman Jayapal has over 100 of her colleagues in Washington, D.C.

supporting this bill I think is great.

We don't need to go through the statistics about being the only major nation, industrial nation that treats its residents like we do, it's really time for that to change.

We have this, I think, odious, unfair health care system.

This is a good start.

Thank you very much, and I'll be supporting your resolution.

All right.

OK.

Oh, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

I want to give a special shout out to the Physicians for a National Health Program, particularly Dr. McClanahan in the audience here today.

He's been working tirelessly on this issue for so many years with getting council to pass a similar resolution to the then single-payer proposal in the House bill.

676 back in 2009. That was Resolution 31111. And I want to just highlight that at that time, this was definitely a national effort to try to collect resolutions, both from cities and states.

And I hope that happens again at the time of the Council's passage of a resolution supporting HR 676 back in 2009. There were 25 cities and counties in 18 states that were passing similar resolutions.

So I'm hoping to see that this is sort of a springboard for national action in support of this bill.

And I think as it relates specifically to why this is so important to us here locally.

I want to thank Councilmember Gonzalez for sharing information from King County Health earlier today.

Even though the ACA has reduced the rate of uninsured adults here in King County, that we still see great, great disproportionality We see that Hispanic adults are 6.5 times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be without coverage and that low-income adults are seven times as likely as those in the highest income households to be uninsured.

Not to mention the fact that there are the types of health services that that folks are not receiving range from incomplete vaccines, incomplete or lacking entirely screenings for colorectal cancer, adult dental visits, and a really disturbing presence of childhood dental cavities, again, represented most in low-income families and people of color.

And then finally, just to identify sort of what kind of strong support we see for a single-payer program, 70% of folks surveyed in a recent survey support this approach.

And so I really thank Council Member Gonzalez for bringing this forward to us here at the City Council, as well as Congresswoman Jayapal for bringing this before Congress.

Council Member Bryan.

Thank you.

I will also be supporting this resolution.

Thank you Council Member Gonzalez for bringing this forward and Congressperson Jayapal for your leadership in Washington, DC.

It's embarrassing that here in 2019 we're still discussing how to get health care for everyone, but unfortunately that's the reality we face and I'm proud to be part of a council that will support that and hopefully, as Council Member Herbold said, many other cities around the country.

Thank you.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Morales.

I, of course, support this resolution, and I thank the many, many activists like David McClanahan and Kathleen Myers who are here, who have spent years dedicating their lives on this very important issue.

The for-profit private healthcare industry is deadly, literally deadly.

Donald Trump lies about an emergency at the border, but there is a real emergency in the U.S. healthcare system, which is killing people every day.

People live longer in countries with a single-payer public health care system than they do here.

They do not fall into bankruptcy or into homelessness when they have an unaffordable medical emergency because it's not unaffordable.

And despite having better outcomes, their health care system costs less than the private system because it is not funding the endless greed for profits by profiteering insurance and drug manufacturing companies.

However, we also need to be real about what it will take to get those powerful insurance companies to relinquish their immense profits.

Throughout Europe, universal health care was won in many countries after the Second World War when big business was faced with militant labor movements and movements of ordinary people and the real possibility of socialist revolutions and felt compelled to give real concessions to working people, concessions they didn't want to give but were forced to give.

In Canada, single-payer health care was won when regular people built a new working-class political party separate from their conservative and liberal parties.

In many neo-colonial countries, health care, actually in some cases better than in the U.S., was won as part of the colonial revolutions.

What is consistent in all these examples is that Medicare for All, or a version of that, was won in any country only when working people got organized under their own strength and fought for it.

That is why, in the absence of that, in 2008, when the Democratic Party won an overwhelming majority in the House, Senate, and the Presidency, partially with the promise of universal health care, what was eventually delivered by the Democratic establishment was a bill that helps insure more people, yes, and I supported that, but fails to break the power of insurance companies and overwhelmingly protects their profits.

So I support this resolution, but I also want to stress the importance of building a movement if we are to actually win Medicare for All.

There was also a point I stressed in September 2017 when I sponsored and the council unanimously passed a similar resolution supporting the Medicare for All Act Senator Bernie Sanders had introduced at that time for that legislative session.

That resolution, also passed by the City Council, also stressed that the two U.S.

Senators representing Washington State, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, continue to fail to support Medicare for All and have yet to agree to sign on as co-sponsors of any similar bill.

It is also worth noting that they accept substantial campaign donations from insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies.

So, in closing, in the words of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, we're going to have to fight like hell to win Medicare for All.

Okay, we will move forward then.

And again, one last thank you to Council Member Gonzalez.

May I make some closing remarks?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, you may.

Thank you.

I just wanted to thank everybody for their remarks in support of this resolution.

I think it's really important for us to be unified in our position on this resolution, on this issue as a whole.

I wanted to add a few more statistics to those that were already outlined by Council Member Herbold.

So here in King County, there was a King County Community Health Needs Assessment that was done and through our Seattle King County Public Health Agency.

And I think there's a couple of numbers here that are really important for folks to understand and that help to explain why it is really important for the City Council to speak up on this particular issue and to encourage our residents to join us in advocating to to our delegation the passage and support of Medicare for All.

So, really quickly, in 2016, low-income adults defined as those households with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level were more than seven times as likely as those in the highest-income households to be uninsured.

Lack of insurance coverage decreases with age in King County from a high of 8.1 percent for those people who are 18 to 24 years old to 4.9% for adults age 55 to 64%.

And while we've seen an increase in people enrolling in insurance as a result of the ACA, we still have a significant uninsured population that unfortunately results in unmet medical needs, of course.

through our Seattle King County public health system.

The city invests in by purchasing additional enhanced public health services through our Seattle King County public health system.

So any costs that we see as a result of the broken health care system, we are asking taxpayers in the city of Seattle to pick those costs up.

And I feel like it is appropriate for us to ask the for-profit medical industry to pick up the cost of those unmet medical needs and as a result of lack of affordable health care so this is a absolutely relevant to the work that we're doing here every day and to The work that I know at least three of our council members do as they sit on the Seattle King County Public Health Board to address the public health needs of so many folks throughout our county and our So, I just want to thank you all and acknowledge that this is just the first step and there's a lot more work that needs to be done to ensure that Congresswoman Jayapal is successful in obtaining a hearing and in making a case for wide support of Medicare for All.

Thank you.

Okay.

So, did I get it right?

We're all done?

We're all done.

Good.

We're good.

Again, thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.

Those in favor of adopting the resolution as amended, vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted as amended, and the chair will sign it.

All right.

Go Seattle, thank you.

Thank you for being nice.

Okay, so we are now going to move on to our committee reports and we're going to start with report of the Human Services Equitable Development Renters' Right.

Can you please read that into the, do we have to read that into the record?

And then I believe Council Member Sawant has agenda items 2, 3, 4, and 5. Go ahead.

The report of the Human Services Equitable Development and Vendors Rights Committee agenda item two, resolution 31862, a resolution to delay consideration of the mayor's nomination of Jason Johnson to be director of the Human Services Department until a formal search process can be completed and to convene a search committee representing all Human Services Department stakeholders to define qualification skills and attributes for an appointee and recommend finalists for appointment.

The committee recommends a resolution be adopted with abstentions from council members Harrell and Herbold.

All right with that Council Member Sawant.

Thank you President Juarez.

I will make opening remarks and I would like to make closing comments as the sponsor of the resolution.

And please remind me to let to have you do closing remarks in case I forget.

There is no reasonable justification for the controversy around this resolution.

When my office first discussed and was invited to discuss the appointment with human service providers, human services employees, and other community members, we heard very serious concerns.

And as the many speakers today and in previous meetings of the committee of the city council, where human services issues are discussed, what they have said is a very reasonable position, which is asking for an inclusive and transparent search for the leadership of a department which is ground zero for the most emergent problem in our city, which is the housing affordability crisis and the homelessness crisis.

In my view, this is an entirely reasonable proposition from the employees of the department and also from community members and human service providers.

And as speakers today have said, the city of Seattle has agreed upon a race and social justice approach to the work of the departments and that that be upheld in all the work that the mayor carries out.

and that the politicians do not engage in cherry picking where they will apply race and social justice and where they will not apply race and social justice.

So from that standpoint, I think that there is nothing controversial about this resolution because it merely expresses what we have heard from hundreds of people in our community.

This resolution is only controversial because the mayor has decided to go nuclear over it.

writing threatening letters, refusing to send representatives to council meetings, threatening to close homeless shelters, and so on.

Our city faces an unprecedented housing affordability and homelessness crisis.

Therefore, I do not think that issues are being conflated here.

The issue of the leadership of the department is very intricately tied to the work that the department's employees do in dealing with the crisis faced by our most vulnerable community members.

And so, in my opinion, behind the mayor's attempt to bypass a transparent and inclusive appointment search and to sideline the overwhelming and numerous voices of those who oppose her choice for Human Services Director position is a broader attempt to silence opposition to her underfunded and punitive approach to the housing and homelessness crisis.

The mayor's strategy effectively ignores the deeply embedded economic inequality, unaffordable rents, racism, sexism, and social inequalities built into the fabric of capitalism, problems that in this situation have been dramatically worsened by City Hall's longstanding support for and reliance on the for-profit market.

Human services workers understand that the humanitarian crisis in our city falls disproportionately on people of color, immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community, and they want a city leadership that also understands that.

Unfortunately, despite the deputy mayor promising human services employees in fall 2018 of a transparent and inclusive search, the mayor did not engage with the community all year.

Last year, while my office was asking her what she was going to do with the appointment, And immediately, and on December 19th, we heard that, we heard about our selection, and immediately after, my office began hearing from human services staff, the union that represents most of them, Protech 17, and human service providers and community members.

I've been in office in City Hall since the beginning of 2014. So in my time in the council, I have been asked to vote on any number of appointments of leadership in city departments.

I have never seen a case where there has been such widespread concern about a director appointment.

This is a petition.

signed by 130 members of Protech 17 Union who work in the human services department, asking for the council to send the nomination back to the mayor to conduct an inclusive search.

They also turned out in large numbers to their union meetings, to the change team meetings of the department to discuss how to respond.

Dozens of human services employees have turned out to both the committee meetings, and these were committee meetings where we had over 100 people join us at these meetings.

I would urge council members to think for a moment how much courage it would take for a human services employee to speak up on this issue and openly oppose the mayor's choice of the acting director of their department.

I wanted to say to you all, I have the deepest respect for your resolve and for your solidarity amongst yourselves.

And if there is any question of harassment or retaliation on the basis of the courageous position you have taken, I wanted to publicly state that I will stand with you.

And please let my office know if there's any such case.

This is the letter from the Human Services Department Change Team, who, among other things, advocate for Seattle's race and social justice principles and urge the council to send the nomination back to the mayor for an inclusive candidate search.

This is a letter from the Seattle Silence Breakers that also does the same.

This is a letter from the Seattle Human Services Coalition making the same request.

The coalition represents 182 nonprofit social services agencies in Seattle.

They are the agencies that the Human Services Department contracts with to provide food, shelter, supportive housing, healthcare, and services for people with disabilities.

elderly community members, youth, and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

These are community partners that the director of the Human Services Department must have a trusting and collaborative relationship with to be effective.

Councils should also take their input very seriously and should consider their courage in writing a letter demanding a truly inclusive director search.

because they also fear retaliation.

I also wanted to share an important letter sent by the Transit Riders Union in solidarity with the human services employees and social service providers for demanding an inclusive search.

I also wanted to comment on the fact that Cher and Weill have received a letter, I think two days after they testified in the committee in chambers, that their contract, from a year-long contract, will be cut to one terminating at the end of June.

And in that letter, the letter says, quote, the mayor wishes to convey that she is happy with improved exits to housing.

and hopes that the revisited award will provide incentive for improved utilization which could result in extension of the contract.

I mean, it's a very technical way of saying you've done a good job and we're going to reward you by yanking your longer contract and making you fight for it every month.

That's like telling an employee, I mean this is Orwellian double speak and it's like telling an employee you're not being fired, you're just being laid off.

I think it is important that those of us who stand for human services stand with share and will because they provide much-needed basic shelters and there's been repeated attempts by the mayor's office and by some council members to take their funding away on the basis of not having numbers, but the mayor herself has admitted she doesn't have numbers for transitions to permanent housing.

So why are we holding one small service provider accountable for that?

As a whole, if you repeal the Amazon tax and if you stand as an obstacle to any possible measure to expand housing affordability, then you're not in a position to tell individual service providers that they're not doing enough.

I think the timing of this was very questionable.

The timing of this announcement was very questionable, but whether or not it is retaliation, I will say the bottom line is, given the crisis that our city is reeling under, it is unconscionable to make any cuts to funding for social services and homeless services.

And the Select Committee on Homelessness, which I will be chairing on March 12th at 2 p.m., will take up this issue to make sure that shelters are not closed.

I also wanted to make sure that everybody knows that Protech 17, the union that represents, I think, half of the workers in the human services department, has sent a letter out in which they are clarifying that the union, as Melissa Mafua said, the union stands with the membership in asking for meaningful engagement with external and internal stakeholders.

And it says, PROJECT 17 membership maintains the firm position that a transparent process that embeds the race and social justice principles and values of the city and department is required to establish accountability and leadership.

So in other words, what this letter says is that whatever the mayor and the council may promise about the future is a separate question.

Don't make promises about the future if you're not going to uphold this resolution today.

So it's really meaningless for council members to say we will support a resolution that talks about what we will do in the future when the promises that were made about this are not being upheld.

Why should HSD employees and service providers trust promises of the future when current promises are not being kept?

I will say in closing that that This nomination is much more than about an individual.

It's about the choice that council members have about whether they will listen to the hundreds of community members who have spoken and do the right thing.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Johnson.

Thanks.

I'm going to be speaking against this resolution today.

You know, in The conversation that I think has happened in community, this has become a proxy for the confirmation of the individual who currently serves as the interim director for the department, Jason Johnson.

So I want to forward for the record that there have been dozens if not hundreds of emails that we've gotten in support of Jason as the permanent director.

Here's some of the qualities that people have expressed when talking about Jason.

He's qualified.

He's got a true concern for all Seattle residents.

He's trusted, admired, and competent.

He's got a grasp of the complexity on a wide range of the Human Service Department's programs.

He's got a commitment to positive solutions.

He's an asset to Seattle.

He's committed to accountability.

He's got a continuity of leadership that's important in this time.

He's committed to reform and continual review and improvement.

He's a people-focused leader and people-oriented.

He's a person with integrity.

And these have come from individuals, not to mention the letters that we've received from organizations as diverse as Solid Ground, the Pride Foundation, Chief Seattle Club, Accelerator YMCA, Catholic Community Services, and others who have asked for us to to quickly confirm Director Johnson.

So while I know that much has been made about this being about a process, I think that this is really not about a process.

This is about a person.

And I will be voting no today in the hopes that we can actually take up the confirmation of this individual.

Any other other colleagues?

Oh, Council Member Ryan.

Yeah, thank you.

I'll be voting in support of this resolution.

I want to just speak briefly to my thinking on it.

I want to be clear that I've had a good working relationship with Jason Johnson as both deputy and interim, or what's the proper term?

Interim and acting, thank you.

And I don't necessarily oppose his appointment ultimately, but I do believe that a process is important.

I think this is an important role and I think the request from community members and that there be a transparent inclusive process and a chance to compare candidates and get them to vet some of their opinions I think is a really important thing to do.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Councillor Mosqueda.

Thank you madam president.

I think I want to be very clear up here We understand fully that the mayor gets to nominate whomever she chooses for the department directors And also, I think we all understand that it's the council's job to run a confirmation process There's a few things that are clear to me as we have this conversation today many of the people who work at HSD and including those in the bargaining unit including those from the change team, including those who are members of the silence breakers, as well as others who are contracted providers don't feel like their voices were heard or that there was a thoughtful selection process in which they could make sure that their issues and their values were represented.

Number two, we know that we can't go back and fix a process, but we can indicate that what we wanted to see, what we expected to see, didn't happen at this point without enough time to make sure that those who are frontline staff and providers feel like their voices have been heard at the table.

it is imperative, I believe, to go back and ask for a more inclusive process.

And I also think that we need to work together as a city to ensure that we focus on big picture policy issues and pressing issues.

But this process should not be interfering either politically or policy-wise with the important role that HSD has to play.

We are very, very lucky to have all of the individuals who work at HSD.

We know we have a homelessness and housing crisis that is pressing and is getting worse every single day.

And I, like Council Member O'Brien, have had very positive interactions with the individual, Jason Johnson, and his leadership team, as well as the incredible folks on the front line.

But to me, the purpose of the resolution in front of us is to say that we need a process that is inclusive, that represents our commitment to race and social justice, that ensures that frontline staff and those who are being served by the department have had a chance to either be at the table or to make sure that their values are represented at the table.

So we understand, I believe, that our job is not to run the process.

But as we look at the process that's in front of us, we don't have the right tools to evaluate whether or not individuals' questions have been answered, whether or not they feel like their issues and their values have been heard, and whether or not there's a plan of action to ensure that the director, the new director, will listen to those concerns and integrate public policy changes to make sure that there's a process moving forward.

I also want to be very clear that this is our job.

This is our job to evaluate nominees that come down.

And I do take some offense with the staff member who wrote to us and said that resolutions aren't our job.

It is our job as a council to ensure the impact of communities have a seat at the table.

It is our job to ensure that there is a public and transparent process to decide on whether candidates are the right choice to lead the department.

and it is our job to be accountable to the people of this city.

We don't make decisions in a vacuum and as elected leaders we ultimately don't get to decide who gets sent down to us, but it is our job to make sure that the process was inclusive and thoughtful.

So from my perspective, regardless of how council members vote on this resolution, I want to reiterate that I do believe that we're doing our job to clearly question whether or not we have the right tools in front of us to make this decision today.

And from my perspective, this resolution is not about Jason's leadership or whether he's the right person to lead.

This is a question about the process, whether we got it right and whether it was inclusive.

And saying that we've had other processes that haven't had to go this route or that we've done it this way in the past, you know, we all also don't want business as usual.

We have to make some changes and in the time of Me Too and in time where people courageously speak up and tell their truth and speak truth to power, this means making space at the table and also recognizing that sometimes we do need to hit pause and ask if we've created the table for people to come to.

So I'll be voting in support of the resolution in the hopes that we can either have a process that's changed or that we will be able to vote up or down on the nominee and move forward.

And in deference to the mayor's office, I have held back the resolution that's forward-looking.

I do think that that helps provide us with additional clarity on what the city council hopes for in terms of a transparent and inclusive process.

I do look forward to finding a resolution on that resolution and appreciate all of the council members' comments throughout this process.

Regardless which way we vote, we all know that we want to make sure that our human service provider, frontline staff, provider organizations, and those who are experiencing homelessness get the direct services that they need.

We're incredibly proud to work with you on a daily basis.

And no matter which way folks vote today, thank you for your incredible service.

Thank you.

Council Member Baxhaw.

Colleagues, I want to thank you all for the work that you've done.

Council Member Mosqueda, you just outlined some things that I think are actually very important.

But before we talk about this a second, I just want to say thank you to all in SHARE and WHEEL for being here.

I know that many of you remember very clearly just a few months ago during our budget cycle that you were one of the first groups that came and said keeping people inside is critical.

We passed the budget making sure that you had that money to stay inside and warm and I want to acknowledge that I will continue to do what I can to make sure that SHARE continues, that the work that you do is supported and funded.

So I just, I do really do want to acknowledge how much I appreciate what you are doing to keep people inside.

And also, we need to improve the outcomes.

We all know that.

And it's the same thing we're trying to do up here.

I also want to acknowledge the concerns that many of you have brought forward about the process and I'm taking a little different view on this.

I was the chair of human services for the last couple of years prior to council members to want.

I know how important getting this right is but that said we've got human services to provide, we've got youth to care for, we have our aging disabilities group, we have our age-friendly group and the efforts that we're putting to support those who are victims of domestic violence.

Delay is not going to help us.

Another year-long search is not going to help us.

The Human Services Department has called me, service providers have called me, and we've received dozens and dozens of people saying, let's move forward on this.

We have a great man that is leading this work.

I've worked with Jason for years.

I regard him as a man of integrity.

I saw him back in Washington, D.C., where he was working very hard with national experts, and he is well recognized, and I appreciate the work and experience he brings to this.

So rather than saying let's do another national search, I'd say let's focus on the people we have, the excellent people and workers within the Human Services Department.

If there's a problem, let's get that right, but I would like to move forward rather than delaying this.

So I'll be voting against this resolution.

Okay, is there any other comments?

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

So, I attended the last Human Services Committee meeting back on February 20th.

I also listened to the testimony at the meeting previous to that.

At this last meeting on the 20th, I abstained from voting so that I could continue to consider the thoughts and concerns.

of individuals about the proposed resolution.

I've said before that I do not support maintaining the status quo as it relates to the council's expectations for how the mayor conducts department search processes.

Back in 2007 when the resolution that currently defines the expectations for the nomination and confirmation process was passed.

Neither the council mayor nor department RSJI teams contemplated utilization of the racial equity toolkit as part of a nomination and confirmation process.

I'm really glad that we're in a different and better place today.

And I want to formalize the changes to the status quo that address sort of this new expectation.

And as we've heard, in some cases, some council members have already made that part of their expectations to the executive for confirmation processes that they have overseen.

Members of the public are asking today that we change the nomination and confirmation process.

I say let's do that.

I support a transparent and inclusive process.

But I believe that the appropriate time for the council to raise these issues is at the beginning of the nomination process.

For that reason, I've requested that Councilmember Mosqueda include specific language related to that process in her resolution, specifically that prior to nomination, that the executive give to the council a written description of that process, the use of any advisory groups that will be part of that process, and the composition of that advisory group.

That way, the committee chair overseeing that nomination has the ability to engage with the executive about that process before the nomination comes forward.

Again, individual council members have worked with the executive in the past in developing these sorts of expectations.

As we heard from Council Member Gonzalez this morning, she described asking that the mayor use a racial equity toolkit during the police chief process.

I have shared my concern that this did not happen in this particular case.

Councilmember Sawant produced emails from her staff that appear to have been unanswered, asking questions about the unintended process.

That these emails were unanswered is unfortunate, but I'm unaware of any communication from Councilmember Sawant prior to the nomination to the expectation about her specific expectations for that process.

If Councilmember Sawant had made those expectations known prior to nomination and they were ignored, I might feel differently today.

We heard at the Human Services Committee meeting on the 20th that the Human Services Coalition had been seeking a meeting with the mayor since the beginning of her term to discuss the Human Services Coalition's hopes for the future of the Human Services Department.

The fact that they have not had such a meeting since the mayor has taken office was described by the representative of the Human Services Coalition as unprecedented.

The Human Services Coalition represents dozens of providers, hundreds if not thousands of workers, and tens if not hundreds of thousands of recipients of services.

I'm glad to report that the mayor's office has let me know today that the mayor will in fact be meeting with the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

As it relates to concerns that we've heard today from ShareWheel residents and their supporters, I've spoken with HSD about their intent in giving them a six-month contract.

Specifically, in writing and verbally, HSD has indicated appreciation for the progress made by ShareWheel and expectations for continued progress.

Last week, Meg Oberding assured me verbally, in person, that ShareWheel is a valued partner and that HSD is sincere in its desire to continue to support their services as part of an emergency services continuum.

As I have done before, I intend to try and facilitate a meeting with HSD and ShareWheel, I put that request in today with HSD, about the specific issues that HSD has identified as continued areas of improvement, as well as wanting to hear from ShareWheel about the barriers that they identify to improve completenessness data.

I want to clarify the issues that have been raised are less about outcomes to permanent housing and more specifically about completenessness of data itself.

So these are things that I'm really confident that we can work to resolve in time for the continued provision of the services that the council funded in last year's budget.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Council Member, okay, Council Member Sawant, you want to close for us?

Thank you.

I just want, first of all, I wanted to say that for council members who are saying that, oh, they're worried about the delay, I just want to clarify, my office has been asking the mayor since March of last year, which is almost a year ago now, asking them what they intended to do about the HSD nomination.

And in fact, the first email that my policy analyst, Ted Verdone, sent to the mayor's staff specifically says that, can we have an idea for who's going to be nominated before the previous director left?

Because we didn't want to have any delays.

So I think it's disingenuous for council members to say, you're voting no against the resolution because you're against delays.

We're against delays also.

This is not a question of delay.

It's a question of hundreds of people having spoken up and we have a council that is predominantly, it seems like, going to hide behind process-oriented points in order to not respond to and listen to the people that have spoken and I really appreciate council members O'Brien and Mosqueda supporting this resolution because voting yes on this resolution says that you as an elected representative are standing up for promises that were made to be fulfilled as opposed to simply saying well let's just roll it over to another promise in the future and why should people trust that those promises will be kept if these promises weren't kept in the first place.

And in response to Council Member Herbold's points that my office did not state the expectations, I'm sorry, these are very, very basic questions that ordinary people are asking about upholding the race and social justice process and including people.

This was a promise that Deputy Mayor Ranganathan herself made in fall 2018 to HSD employees.

So I don't understand why the mayor's office needs instructions from my office to do the very basic and minimally required actions that are her responsibility.

Furthermore, I don't understand why council members would elevate what my office did or didn't do in comparison to the many voices we have heard.

Regardless of what my office did or didn't do, I think your voices should count for far more than anything else.

Anything else.

It should count for more than any politician's voice.

So given that you all have spoken, that is the most important thing and that is why I agree to bring this resolution forward based on what you all said.

And I also wanted to share with members of the public that I had a meeting with the mayor this morning And I asked her, would she concur with this resolution?

In response to that question, she asked me a question in response.

She said, will you withdraw this resolution?

And I just wanted to let you all know that I said, of course, I cannot withdraw this resolution because that would be unconscionable, that I have to remain accountable, not to her, but to the ordinary people who have spoken.

And I urged her to concur with the resolution.

I also told her, regardless of how right you think, about the nomination you sent.

What matters the most, despite, regardless of any other process point you make, is that hundreds of people have spoken and you cannot just sideline those voices.

I will say this.

If this resolution does not get the majority vote, I wanted to urge everybody who has fought for this to know that it's never the end of the road.

We can still keep fighting.

And furthermore, there are concrete ways that we can keep fighting in this issue.

I'm not talking about in the abstract.

Somebody on the council will still need to move for the appointment of Jason Johnson.

And I appeal to you all to not give up and to keep coming.

and for us to keep strategizing, and I will just end by quoting Gretchen Wosky.

I mean, I'm gonna paraphrase you because I didn't write down the actual quote, but something along the lines of, let's keep building and organizing so that we can meet every penny of opposition from the mayor or any other politician with a pound of organizing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay, so.

With that, thank you, Council Member Sawant.

We will move forward on a vote.

Please call the roll on the passage of the resolution.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Begsha.

No.

Gonzalez.

No.

Herbold.

No.

Johnson.

No.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Juarez.

No.

Three in favor, five opposed.

So the resolution fails.

There's nothing for me to sign.

Okay, so with that, I understand Council Member Sawant, you have matters three, four, and five that are appointments on the agenda.

The floor is yours.

Oh, I do have to sign something.

Oh, never mind.

Read them into the record.

Oh, I have to read the record.

I'm sorry.

Agendas item three through five, appointments 1262 through 1264, appointment of Calvin R. Jones as member of Seattle Ranchers Commission for a term to February 28th, 2020, an appointment and reappointment of Regina Owens and Michael Padilla Ocampo is a member of Seattle Renters Commission for a term to February 28, 2021. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I will speak to all the appointments together.

Calvin Jones, Gina Owens, and Michael Ocampo are all dedicated renter advocates.

Calvin and Michael have already served on the Renters Commission in various forms and have participated well.

Gina is a new appointment.

She has been an amazing activist for for 18 years with Washington Community Action Network and has testified to counsel many times on important renter rights legislation.

The Human Services Equitable Development and Renters' Rights Committee recommends counsel confirm these appointments.

Thank you.

I just want to voice strong support for both Michael and Calvin.

I've worked with them both in the past and Michael and I go back, you know, almost five years.

He's got an incredible track record as a community organizer and is an excellent voice for renters in our community and want to thank them both for their willingness to serve.

Any other comments?

Okay, so we can do all three.

Okay, so I'll just move all three of them.

I'm ready to say all three.

Okay.

Those in favor of confirming the appointments, vote aye.

Opposed?

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Next is the report of the Gender Equity Safe Communities, New Americans and Education.

Council Member Gonzalez, you're on.

Actually, if I can have the title of the bill read into the record.

New Americans and Education Committee agenda item 6, Council Bill 119468 relating to the Seattle Police Department creating an incentive program for hiring police officers and repealing obsolete sections 4.20, .530, .540, and .550 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

May I, Chair?

Thank you.

So I need to move to amend this bill with a substitution version.

So I move to amend Council Bill 119468 by substituting version three for version two.

It has been moved and seconded that the substitute be adopted.

Any comments?

Okay.

I think we need to vote on the substitute version.

Is that correct, the amendment?

Man, I'm just not getting the scripting down, man.

That's okay.

I am here to help.

I know you are.

I'm giving you some gentle prompts.

You are.

Okay, so there we go.

Those in favor of the substitute vote aye.

Aye.

Opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the substitute is adopted.

All right, now I will speak to the substantive substitution bill 119468. So Council Bill 119468 creates an incentive program for the hiring of new police officers at the Seattle Police Department.

My committee and this council have closely watched the hiring and separations data coming out of the Seattle Police Department.

since the middle of 2018 when it became apparent that the department was lagging far behind their hiring forecast.

The department has continued to encounter hiring struggles in recent months, and this is, as we heard in my committee hearing, a reflection of a very challenging landscape nationally in which police departments across the country are struggling to recruit new officers.

The Seattle Police Department and the mayor originally proposed this legislation to offer lateral hires from other departments and jurisdictions, a signing bonus of $15,000 in total.

We have, through my committee process, following the initial hearing on this bill in my committee, identified several ways that I thought we could strengthen and expand this incentive program while creating additional accountability measures to ensure the strategy's success.

So I proposed four changes in total to this legislation, which were adopted unanimously in committee at our last committee hearing on the 27th of February.

The first is that my amendments would expand the incentive program to new recruits.

The executive's proposal would have authorized a $15,000 hiring bonus exclusively for lateral hires.

My amendment passed in committee authorizes the Seattle Police Department to extend hiring bonuses to new recruits of up to $7,500 per recruit.

Lateral hires only make up 20 of the 104 new officer positions in the Seattle Police Department's hiring forecast.

So considering that the bulk of new hires, approximately 84 out of 104, the department is seeking in 2018 our new recruits, I believe it's important the department direct its efforts and resources towards the new recruit strategy as well as the lateral hiring strategy.

In addition, a hiring bonus for new recruits can help reduce barriers to pursuing this profession and could enhance the Department's efforts to recruit and hire women and individuals of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds consistent with our Police Accountability Ordinance and in connection with some of the progress that the Department has already made in terms of increasing the number of diverse folks to become police officers.

Secondly, the second amendment that I advanced in committee was a new data collection analysis and reporting requirement that will help the council and the public determine if this program is successful, including data regarding the demographics of new hires and the lateral hires.

Third is a sunset date, which would require the executive to seek the city council's affirmative reauthorization from, excuse me, would seek our reauthorization before renewing or continuing the incentive program.

And then lastly, a clause that ensures that new hires who receive the bonus serve the department for three years before leaving the department.

Otherwise, they would be required to pay back the bonus.

to the city of Seattle if they depart before the end of those three years.

So following some additional discussions with the department and the city budget office, we agreed on several other updates to my original amendment, which is why I needed a substitute version.

Most of that was wordsmithing and technical language.

And that's all I have.

Happy to answer any questions.

But would urge my colleagues to support the passage of this council bill, which is, as I mentioned this morning, revenue neutral and will be supported through salary savings as a result of ongoing vacancies at the police department in terms of its hiring forecast.

Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez.

Councilwoman Mosqueda, I believe you raised your hand.

Thank you, Madam President, and thanks to the good Chair of Public Safety for her really intense work on this bill.

I think when I initially came to your committee when we discussed this, there was a lot of skepticism that I held about whether or not this was the right way to go because I know many of us are interested in continuing to ensure that any additional dollars and efforts, programmatic strategies go into community policing and trying to figure out how we can share some of the funds with our community partners.

And what I heard in that committee, because of your leadership, was really about how do we create stability.

The numbers spoke for themselves, and having a chance to hear directly from the department and community members at large, I think you really struck a nice balance here.

It's important, I think, to underscore what you just ended with again, which is that this is not new money.

There's three additional components for me that really make this a powerful piece of legislation in terms of accountability and transparency to ensure that this mechanism works for creating greater stability for our police force.

One is the sunset on the duration of the hiring incentive.

Two is the reporting requirements that you championed and included here so that we could actually see whether or not the new or the dollars were truly bringing in new recruits and lateral hires.

and that we maintained our commitment to race and social justice by not just focusing on lateral hires, but also recruits for new hires that would be hopefully younger folks, women, people of color.

So thank you for your work to incorporate all of these components into the revised version, and I'll be supporting you in this effort.

Okay, Councilmember Johnson.

Just briefly, as the third member of that committee, I wanted to offer my support for the recommendation and highlight two things that we covered in committee that I thought are worthy of repeating.

The first of which is the proposal is very consistent with what hiring bonuses are offered by jurisdictions that are directly neighboring locales, whether that's the county or the city or Snohomish County or other neighboring cities.

So not having this puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

By instituting this, it will put us at least on a level playing field with those other jurisdictions.

and the kinds of signing bonuses that they offer both to new recruits and lateral hires.

And then the second is I think it's very appropriate for us to highlight that oftentimes there is a rhetoric out there about this council not doing enough to ensure the hiring of new officers.

It is a national challenge for the departments around the country to bring in new people into the world of policing.

Some folks attribute that to the challenge of constitutional policing.

Some attribute it to the historically low unemployment rates.

Regardless, I think this council is doing our part to make sure that we are providing all kinds of incentives to ensure that not only are we doing fair and appropriate constitutional policing, but putting the resources necessary to make sure that we have the appropriate level of officers that are necessary to do that work.

So I want to thank the chair for her commitment to this, and I look forward to enthusiastically voting yes.

Okay, anyone else?

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I just want to highlight a different element of this effort specifically related to meeting our staffing goals.

The mayor's office is convening a hiring work group regarding, relating to recruitment and hiring, and I know that the council is a part of that hiring work group.

I want to raise an issue that I've raised before.

In 2017, the Community Policing Commission or the Community Police Commission published a report about specifically this subject.

It was entitled Recommendations of Community Police Commission for Recruitment, Hiring, and Training.

It includes numerous recommendations that can inform this work.

These recommendations have never been implemented and they serve as a, I believe, as a starting point including comparisons to policies and studies in other cities outreach to diverse communities.

I've requested that the workgroup not only consider the recommendations of the study but also find a way to incorporate the involvement of the CPC.

They are specifically chartered to advise the city on issues related to recruitment.

In addition, I want to highlight some other work related to recruitment that Councilmember Gonzalez and I have done over the last couple of years.

After the accountability ordinance adopted by the council included a section on recruitment and hiring related specifically to preference points, the two of us worked to get implementation of language related specifically to preference points to expand the pool of applicants and make it clear that their skill sets are valued.

It is true that for all of the qualified applicants who meet the requirements in the preference points policy, those folks are all being hired.

But my hope for the preference points policy is that it will actually send a message to our diverse communities that their skills are valued and actually increase the size of the pool applying.

In addition, I've also had concerns that we're spending a lot of time, although I absolutely support the addition of bonuses for lateral hires, and I appreciate Council Member Gonzalez's expansion to the new recruits.

I really want to have a laser sharp focus on what our approach is for new recruits.

Of our hiring plan for 2019, I believe 20 of those are supposed to come from lateral hires, whereas 80 are supposed to come from new recruits.

And to me, that is a real signal that that's where the lion's share of work really needs to be done.

And again, it needs to be done in a way that we do not lose the ground that we've gained on hiring a diverse workforce.

In 2013, 14% of all police hires were from racially diverse communities.

In 2018, we're up to 42%.

So again, we want to make sure that we're not losing ground in these efforts as we move forward.

But we really want to come up with, I think, new and innovative ways to encourage people to want to be a police officer in our city.

And then finally, one of the things that we've heard from the budget office is that the cost, the reason why there's this discrepancy between what we're offering new recruits in a hiring bonus versus what we're offering lateral recruits because there are more costs associated with new recruits.

I would really like to see that those costs actually you know, sort of calculated and put on paper.

So we're not just seeing the total academy costs, which I understand we've received, but what the costs are for training, including field training, understanding that this includes overtime.

I think that will help guide us on where we want to put our emphasis in developing with the department, this staffing plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

During the budget last fall, I proposed 11 amendments to increase what the city of Seattle spends on affordable housing.

One of those amendments was to slow the hiring of new police officers and to free up approximately $12 million to build an additional 75 to 130 affordable homes each year.

Studies over decades consistently have shown that decreasing inequality is far more effective in reducing crime and improving public safety than increasing policing is.

The majority of the council did not agree at that time.

This council bill, rather than investing more funds in addressing inequality by, for example, expanding affordable housing, is going to spend more money to speed up officer hiring.

And I don't think there's any data to support that actually hiring more police officers improves public safety and reduces crime.

It's actually addressing inequality that does that.

And for that reason, I will be voting no.

And on a side note, I will also mention how come we have not seen hiring bonuses for educators and emergency medical technicians and social service workers or any of the numerous other public jobs that do nonviolent life-saving work and are constantly asked to do so on some of the lowest wages in the city.

Okay, anyone else?

I know I'm gonna wrap it up.

I'm gonna try to make some closing remarks here.

So I think I wanted to just respond to Council Member Herbold's suggestions about some of the additional work that can be included as part of the work group.

My office will be able to have a seat at that work group, so we'll make sure to loop in your feedback, Council Member Herbold, to make sure that we are capturing some of that additional data that you've highlighted that I think is absolutely important and critical to this.

I also just want to note that in terms of the hiring bonus for laterals versus new recruits.

Part of the reason why I was motivated to expand this to new recruits and not just be hyper-focused on laterals is because laterals are a very small portion of the type of officers that the police department has historically been able to hire to address the hiring shortage and the staffing issues.

And so my hope is that by offering the new recruit hiring incentive, we will actually see a significant increase in bump of hiring in that particular section, in large part because we're the only jurisdiction that I'm aware of that will be offering a hiring incentive for new recruits.

And then lastly, I just wanted to clarify one last fact that I think was misstated by Council Member Sawant, which is that this is not a budget action.

We are not allocating additional dollars to the Seattle Police Department for them to fulfill this hiring bonus.

This is a policy shift and a policy change that would allow them within their existing appropriated budget to utilize the dollars that they currently have in their budget for staffing to also include this hiring bonus as a strategy.

And if the hiring bonus doesn't work, We won't be paying out any money and there will be absolutely no dollars spent in this space.

So the dollars that are gonna get spent within existing budget authority of the Seattle Police Department will only be spent if there is success in this area.

And if there is not, then that means we need to take corrective action and the data that we are requiring that the police department provide to us and the long-term work of the work group to address the ongoing issues of hiring and the staffing models and the forecasting will need to be informed by any lack of success or success in this space with this strategy.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.

Okay, I think that wraps it up and we'll move.

So we already did the substitute bill was adopted.

So right now I move to pass Council Bill 119468 as amended.

Second.

Are there any further comments?

No, seeing none.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

O'Brien I so want no bag shot.

I Gonzales I purple I Johnson musketa I President Juarez I Seven in favor one opposed the bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it

Okay.

So let's go on to, oh, Councillor Gonzales, you have another matter for us, an appointment.

I'll let you go ahead and tee that up.

I would love for the clerk to read this into the record.

Okay, again, I keep forgetting it.

Agenda item seven, appointment 1259, reappointment of Maya Babla-Apaia as member of Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission for term 2, January 31st, 2021. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

May I?

Yes, you may.

Thank you, President Juarez.

Appointment 01259 is the reappointment of Maya Bapla-Apaia as a member of the Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

Maya has already been serving on the Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

She joined us in committee last week.

She is currently one of the co-chairs of the Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

Her fellow commissioners have expressed strong support of her continuation and would appreciate us confirming her nomination.

She is currently a program manager within Microsoft's Global Talent Acquisition Team.

She has extensive experience with other tech companies, including in San Francisco, and she currently lives in District 6 and is very excited to continue her service on the Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission, and the committee unanimously recommends that the city council confirm her appointment.

Any comments?

Okay.

With that, those in favor of confirming the appointment, vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

Okay, now I see why I'm messing up here.

Because the script says report of the committee, please read the report.

Do you mean please read into the record?

Yeah, okay, that's where I was getting confused.

All right, so I will report of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts.

Council Member Herbold, please read into the record.

I report the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts Commission.

Item 8, Council Bill 119420, relating to the City of Seattle's Datum Point, updating the vertical and horizontal reference datum for City of Seattle departments and outside entities.

Committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you.

So Council Bill 1194.20 references something called a datum point that you will not have to hear me talk about anymore after this.

A datum point is a reference point that is used for the entire city in surveying and construction in order to provide a known location to measure from, to measure the position of a height, the position or the height of an object in relation to the datum point itself.

The datum points were last updated in 2020, I'm sorry, in 2003. This legislation would eliminate the need for future code updates and ensure that the city is at the most current datum point.

Both the horizontal and vertical datums will be updated In 2022, but that again will not require any vote from the City Council.

Great.

Any comments?

Okay.

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Swat.

Aye.

Pegshaw.

Aye.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Johnson.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Juarez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next item into the record.

Agenda item 9, Council Bill 119464, authorizing General Manager, CEO of the Seattle Public Utilities to execute a contract with Waste Management in Washington for construction, waste collection services and modifying and confirming certain products.

Committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you.

Waste Management is the current provider of these services and was selected again after an open RFP request for proposal.

The new contract is for 6 to 12 years and will begin in April 2019 if approved by the full council.

The contract covers delivery and collection of temporary drop boxes at construction sites for non-recyclable waste.

This contract actually covers a little less than 10% of total disposed construction waste, as most waste is actually serviced by independent recyclers or self-hauled by large construction firms who basically cut out the middleman by delivering their waste straight to the rail yard.

The new contract includes prices that are comparable to the current expiring contract.

All right, any comments?

Okay, let's go forward then.

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Johnson.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Morez.

Aye.

Ayton, favored, not opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it and please read the last two items for Council Member Herbold and do the record.

Agenda items 10 and 11 appointments 1257 and 1258 reappointments of Douglas A. Raff and Bob Strongest members Museum Development Authority Governing Council for a term to July 11, 2021. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Thank you.

The Museum Development Authority has nine members.

Three members are each appointed by the Museum Development Authority Governing Council, the Seattle Art Museum, and the mayor.

The first appointment is a reappointment.

Douglas Rath, he is a Museum Development Authority Governing Council appointment.

He's a lawyer who's been involved in civic activities, including the National Board of the Trust for Public Land.

the director of Sasquatch Publishing Company, and a trustee of the Bullitt Foundation, the Pacific Science Center, Coalition for Open Government, and the Seattle Parks Foundation.

Bob Strong is a Seattle Art Museum appointment.

He's a financial advisor who has been the chair of the finance committee of the Seattle Art Museum, the chair of the investment committee of the Seattle Art Museum, the treasurer of the Seattle Art Museum's board of trustees, and member of the board of directors of the Rainier Scholars.

Okay, so that's for both appointments.

Any comments?

Those in favor of confirming the appointment, vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

The ayes have it, the motion carries, and the appointment is confirmed.

The appointments are confirmed, I'm sorry.

I think that's it for Councilmember Herbold's committee.

So let's move on to a very exciting committee, Finance and Neighborhoods, Councilmember Baxhaw.

She has, we have two items.

Item 12. Clerk.

I'm sorry.

Madam Clerk.

Oh, I thought we did 10 and 11.

I'll read item number 12. I was just going to say that.

I was just getting ready to say it.

Go ahead.

The report of the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee, agenda item 12, Council Bill 119467 relating to historic preservation imposing controls upon the Broad Street substation.

Committee recommends it will pass.

So this exciting item after everything else we've done, I'm going to move to approve this council bill 119467, which will add to the table of historic landmarks to particular points of light in the broad.

substation for Seattle City Light.

We are looking at the significant aspects, both cultural, political, and heritage in this area, and there's some controlled features that include the control and crane buildings and the tower itself.

So with that, I would like to move adoption of the designation.

Second.

Okay, any other comments?

All right, so please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Johnson.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Juarez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next matter to the record.

Agenda item 13, resolution 31866, establishing a watch list of large complex discrete capital projects that will require enhanced quarterly monitoring reports for the 2019 calendar year.

The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Great.

Excellent.

Thank you.

With much thanks to Councilmember Lisa Herbold at this other end.

Did you want to bring forward an amendment at this point?

I do actually.

We have a proposed amendment to the resolution as discussed in committee that creates an expectation for where the quarterly reports on the projects that are included on the watch list will be heard.

Part of this enhanced reporting and oversight of large capital projects not only includes having some shared expectations with the executive, but it also requires, I think, a change in focus on the council, that we actually agree to find a time and a place at our committee meetings to hear what the reports coming out of these specific projects say.

with the idea that if we hear those reports in committee and we identify problems with projects on the watch list, we will be able to better hold ourselves accountable for addressing those problems with scope or budget as they are identified.

So it's important, I think, to actually embrace the role that the council has by affirmatively stating that we will hear these reports in a council committee, and so that's what this amendment does.

Should I read it?

Okay.

So, Amendment 1 to Resolution 31866 basically, like I said, memorializes the city's intent that the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee review the enhanced quarterly reports, and it states, The City Council anticipates that the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee or Successor Committee will review the enhanced quarterly reports.

Any other comments?

Okay.

So, it's been, so are we moving it?

Who's moving it?

She's moving it.

I'm seconding it.

Okay, great.

It's been moved and seconded.

And the amendment, let the amendment be adopted.

Any comments?

Nope, no more comments.

Those in favor of the amendment vote aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

The motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

Great.

And I'll just speak to the underlying bill then as amended.

So this resolution establishes a watch list of complex capital projects, something that Council Member Herbold brought up during budget.

And page three of the resolution establishes the initial watch list of the complex projects.

Quarterly, the mayor will provide us an enhanced list.

The oversight will primarily be focused on scope, schedule and budget of the individual projects.

And, as noted by this amendment, it will come to the Finance Committee.

We will get this started in the next quarter, and we'll invite all who have any specific projects from their committee, as I mentioned this morning.

If it's transportation, we will invite Councilmember O'Brien, give you plenty of notice to know when it's coming up, and then if you've got any issues around it, we'll get more information before the vote.

So, with that, I would like to propose that we adopt this resolution as amended.

Second.

All right.

Then we're done with that.

So, those in favor?

Oh, wait.

There's more talking.

I move to adopt resolution 31866 as amended.

I think there's a second already.

Yes?

Yes.

Okay.

Any other comments?

Oh, Councilmember Johnson?

Thanks.

Sorry about that.

That's okay.

I understand.

I just want to thank Councilmember Herbold for continuing this conversation.

I think a lot of this germinated when we all, many of us, started on the Council in early 2016 and were faced with a prospect of several major capital projects that were at 100% of their budget, but maybe only at 80 or 90% through their scope.

And folks were coming to us and asking for forgiveness rather than permission.

And what were we going to do?

We had left with no choice but to approve additional resources.

Because the thing that was going to get built or the thing that we were buying was the thing that we needed.

And I think that the intention here is to create opportunities for the council to have better communication with these individual departments and individual project managers.

as the projects move forward so that we have a chance to choose maybe some changes in scope or changes in timeline of delivery without having to necessarily be the recipients of bad news at the end of a project's budget when the project wasn't still yet complete.

So I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out over the next several years.

Council Member O'Brien, I wish you luck because 11 of these 18 projects are transportation related.

So it seems like you're going to be spending a lot of time in Councilmember Bagshaw's committee, though you are not necessarily a member of it.

And, you know, I just think that this is, at a base level, a lot of what we should be doing as government, working closely with those project managers to make sure that they are delivering their projects on time and on budget, and making hard policy decisions early in the process as opposed to late.

So I'm looking forward to voting yes on this.

Well done.

Okay, so let's move to a vote.

Those in favor of adopting the resolution as amended, vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted as amendment and the chair will sign it.

So, before we do that.

We have to go on to other business.

So is there any other business to come before council?

Councilor Mosqueda?

Thank you, Madam President.

It was exciting to watch you lead us through today's full council.

Thank you for your leadership on that.

I'd like to move to be excused next Monday as I will be in Washington, D.C.

for the National League of Cities Housing Task Force and convening.

Okay, motion and it's been seconded those all in favor of letting counselor mosquito go to Washington DC Say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

No, the ayes have it Go forward do good.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

So with that, I think we are adjourned.

Good job.

Thank god