Seattle City Council Briefing 11/30/2020

Good morning, everyone.

Let's see here.

Today is November 30th, 2020. And the council briefing meeting for today will come to order.

The time is 9.31am.

Colleagues, please be advised that I did receive a message from Council Member Teresa Mosqueda.

Advising that she is feeling under the weather this morning and will not be able to join us for council briefing.

But she does plan to, at this point, call in for and be present at our full council meeting this afternoon.

With that being said, will the clerk please call the roll?

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant?

Here.

Strauss?

Present.

Herbold?

Juarez?

Here.

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Seven, present.

Just really quickly, Madam Clerk, I do see that Council Member Herbold is with us.

Can you please call for her attendance as well?

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

Eight, present.

Thank you so much.

Well, good morning everyone.

Thanks for being here this morning.

We'll go ahead and begin with approval of the minutes.

If there is no objection, the minutes of November 23rd, 2020 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, I have a little bit more to report this morning than I usually do.

And I appreciate an opportunity to do that very quickly before we dig into our 1st presentation.

Our only presentation of this morning, which is a presentation on the 2021 state legislative agenda for the city of Seattle.

Colleagues, of course, welcome back everyone from our brief holiday break.

I hope that you all had a very safe and restful Thanksgiving and.

You know, I think it's important to acknowledge that following a statewide shutdown and then back to back budget sessions over the summer and throughout the fall, the council is finally at this juncture, returning to its normal legislative schedule.

Although we will continue to execute that schedule remotely.

I want to congratulate and thank all of the community partners, residents, neighbors, city employees, including our legislative department staff, who all contributed to the development of the 2021 budget for the city of Seattle.

We all have a lot to be proud of from what we accomplished for next year's budget, but of course, we acknowledge and know that there is always much more work to be done.

The next three weeks, we will be busy with lots of committee meetings and legislative work that will occur before the end of the year.

As a reminder to everyone, the city council's annual winter recess will occur from December 21st through January 1st, and there will be no city council, council briefing, or committee meetings during those two weeks.

After our winter recess, the city council will resume its business, including city council, council briefing and committee meetings on Monday, January 4th, 2020 throughout the remainder of the 2021 year.

Lastly, on November 20th, 2020, the city council received notice from mayor Durkin that the telework guidance for executive branch employees.

would be extended until July 5th, 2020, consistent with that, with what our partners at King County have also done.

So in the next week or so, I do intend, as council president, to issue a similar directive for the legislative branch that would extend our telework protocols to be aligned with the extension recently announced by Mayor Durkan.

With news of a COVID-19 vaccine potentially becoming available in Washington State as early as mid-December, it is important to recall that we still do not have details about how that vaccine will be distributed and who will be prioritized.

As a result, the CDC continues, and so do other public health officials, continue to recommend that office workers work from home.

I will continue to review this telework guidance as new information becomes available.

But in the meantime, legislative branch employees should be prepared to continue telework until July 5th, 2021. As for the City Council and our essential workers, should the governor's proclamation regarding the Open Public Meetings Act be rescinded or should it expire?

I wanted to make sure that you were all aware that I've been working closely with City Clerk Monica Martinez-Simmons and FAS on reviewing and approving physical modifications to council chambers.

such as the installation of plexiglass on the dais and clerk station in the event we would be required to gather in person in the next year.

We have also been working with our legislative HR director, Karen Jackson, to develop recommendations for physical changes in maximum occupancy for offices, conference rooms, and other gathering spaces on the second and third floor of City Hall, in addition to guidance for those employees who may need to come into work as an exception to the telework rule.

Again, I want to emphasize that this would be an exception to the telework guidance.

Any potential in-office work would be an exception.

And I want to emphasize that I still continue to strongly recommend that employees of the Legislative Department telework.

But I acknowledge that there may be an occasional need for our staff to come into City Hall.

So the protocols that I've been working with Director Jackson on will provide all of us some guidance in the hopefully rare instance in which telework is not possible, coupled again with many of the physical changes that are happening both in our internal offices and and elsewhere on the second and third floor that I've been working on with our city clerk and with the assistance of folks over at FAS.

More to come on this topic, but I did want to give you-all an update on these important issues related to workplace safety in this time of COVID-19.

I hope to be able to provide you-all these written materials and guidance sometime next week, certainly before we go on recess.

to make sure that we are all ready for whatever the new year 2021 brings to us.

So thank you so much for your attention on those particular issues.

Happy to take any questions or hear any comments about my report.

Okay, for those of you who might have questions about any of these things, you're always welcome, of course, to reach out directly to Legislative Department HR Director Karen Jackson or to our City Clerk, Monica Martinez-Simmons.

Okay, let's go ahead and dig into presentation on 2021 State Legislative Agenda.

We are joined once again this morning by members of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations to discuss the City of Seattle's 2021 State legislative agenda this this will be the 2nd and final briefing on this item following their initial presentation of a draft legislative agenda, which occurred on November 2nd.

Council members, you and your staff have had an opportunity in the last few weeks to meet with the team and to also discuss possible changes to the draft.

legislative agenda.

Following this briefing, I expect that the City Council will take final action to adopt this agenda either via resolution on either December 7th or December 14th, depending on the number of final amendments that need to be incorporated into the draft we're about to discuss this morning.

So let's go ahead and begin with a quick round of introductions.

And I'm gonna go ahead and hand it over to Director Wilson-Kodega for those presentations.

And then I think she'll have some opening remarks and we will go ahead and dig into the presentation.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President, Council Members.

Lily Wilson-Kodega, Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Robin Kosky, Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council Members.

Quinn Majewski, State Relations Director.

Good morning.

Helena Smith, Government Affairs Program Director.

And as Council President Gonzalez mentioned, we are before you today with the second draft of the upcoming legislative session agenda as we wrap up the process of drafting for 2021 with the goal of final passage before the holiday recess.

So it sounds like some dates are still being worked out, but as long as that happens before the holiday recess, we're good to go.

And I'd first like to thank many of you for taking the time to meet with us, to review your specific legislative priorities, and for the feedback we've received in the past several weeks.

Don't panic, although we were not able to incorporate all of the additional language we received later last week and this weekend into the draft before you today as it had already been published.

Rest assured, there's still time to incorporate those edits we've received later.

And this weekend, I know Quinn will be working to incorporate that, or excuse me, this week, Quinn will be working to incorporate that additional language we've received from your offices in the final version before it comes before you again.

And just a few highlights I wanted to talk through before I turn it over to Quinn.

As we've discussed previously, this upcoming session will be primarily virtual in light of risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is still a chance the governor may call a special session in advance of the regular session in January.

We will continue to monitor those developments closely and report back to you all.

And in terms of format today, Quinn will begin with a session overview and budget update for you.

We'll then review education, technology, climate, revenue, land use, and transportation under the vibrant and interconnected city sections.

Robin will review the council's public safety, racial, and criminal justice priorities under the safe city section.

And finally, Hannah will review the council's safety net, public health, and COVID housing priorities in her portfolio under the affordable city section.

Lastly, just one thing I did want to reinforce this year, given the council's commitment to centering the city's legislative priorities in racial justice, I also want to recognize our department's commitment to advocating for policies that center Black, Indigenous, and people of color, actively challenging institutions that have been up that have been used to uphold systems of oppression, and also ensuring immigrants and refugees have access to economic and legal resources and support, particularly in light of the disproportionate impact the COVID pandemic has had on our communities of color.

Finally, I want to give a big thank you to Marika Lockhart, Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Legislative Leaders in the Black and Members of Color Caucus and the legislature for their partnership assistance and assistance this interim.

And I will now turn it over to our State Relations Director, Quinn Majeski.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lily.

So just to before we jump into the legislative agenda, just to provide a brief update on the upcoming legislative session.

We provided an overview last time, but there's a few things that we want to keep you apprised of as we move forward.

As Salili mentioned, there is the potential still for a special session.

Governor Inslee addressed that potential in a statement to the press last week.

This special session would be focused primarily, as best as our understanding, on response to COVID-19 and the recent surge in cases throughout King County and the state.

It sounds like it would be pretty tight and they would try to keep it relatively short.

But we're still gathering information on that, so we will be sure to relay any additional updates or news as we receive it to you and your offices.

The other update that I wanted to provide before we dive into the legislative agenda is that there was a updated revenue forecast released last week.

And again, the news is positive from a budgetary standpoint.

The 2019-2021 biannual budget, which is the budget we're in currently through the end of June 2021, has seen an increase of just over $600 million in the forecast.

And the 2021-2023 budget, which is the budget that the legislature will be considering this upcoming legislative session, the forecast has seen an increase there of $328 million.

Those two increases in the forecast combined bring the expected shortfall for the upcoming biennial budget, the 21-23 budget.

down to 3.3 billion.

Obviously, that is still a large number, but it's significantly less than the 10 billion, which we were, which the forecast showed over the summer, and even the 4.6 billion from earlier this fall.

So the budget picture continues to improve.

As I've mentioned previously, there is a negative effect there of alleviating some of the pressure on to the progressive revenue system.

So that's something that we are continuing to monitor and continuing to work with stakeholders and others to push for as we know that progressive revenue is a priority for the city of Seattle and for you all individually as council members.

So we're still working closely on that, but just to keep you apprised of the dynamics as they exist in the legislature.

With that, I think we can go ahead and move to the legislative agenda.

Last time we provided an overview, a broad strokes overview of the agenda.

Much of it has not changed actually since last year.

So we provided an overview of all of the major issues.

This presentation, what we would like to do is focus on some of the changes that have been made, both from feedback that we've received from city departments, as well as from your offices and central staff.

So to start things off, I'm going to hand it over to Robin Kosky to talk about the first section on the legislative agenda, which is the safe city section.

Thank you very much, Quinn.

Before I talk about the safe cities question, I did just want to mention that we are closely monitoring what is going to happen with the eviction moratorium and we'll just keep you posted on that because I know that's a matter of interest and how that interacts with our city moratorium as well.

I'm getting into the safe cities issue today.

Representative Goodman, the chair of the Public Safety Committee in the House, is hosting a work session on police reform.

Committee days are happening this week, and so they should be providing a little bit more of an overview of what police reform proposals the House hopes to introduce this year.

I will certainly share notes with all of you.

It might take me a little bit to finalize them, but that should be an interesting meeting this afternoon.

To highlight some of the changes in the safe city section of the agenda, I believe we did have some on the COVID response in the last agenda, but certainly highlighting that that's there, including homelessness, small business and eviction moratorium issues.

On police reform, we made a few changes to reflect how proposals are moving forward and what we're hearing that are priorities from legislators as well as other stakeholders.

We made some changes to language around arbitration, decertification, independent investigations.

We included chokeholds.

duty to intervene and duty to report, statewide use of force database that we know some legislators are very interested in working on, and also misconduct thresholds.

We also added some gun control issues, which include limiting open carry in dangerous environments.

and then also increased legal protections and representation for sexual assault survivors.

So those are sort of the broad strokes of what we've changed in this, also based on some comments from you as well.

So I think if anyone has any questions, that sums up my highlights for today.

Thanks, Robin.

Colleagues, any questions on the changes highlighted by Robin or any additional request for additions to what is currently in the draft.

All right, looks like nobody has any questions, so we can go ahead and keep chugging along.

Thanks Robin.

Moving on to the vibrant city section, which includes quite a number of different policy issue areas.

In the education section, we expanded the section to include additional resources and funding for after school programs and summer learning.

There's also, per Council Member Morales' request, we have included a statement in support of a more racially and equitably just school curriculum that includes requirements for Black and ethnic studies.

And related, we have also expanded on our existing childcare section, which includes support for for providers and expanding access to the number of facilities to include some additional support there and support for home care providers as well, which is another area that we could and should see some additional child care service provided.

In the technology section, we've made explicit reference to in the sort of broad need for additional technology investments and resources and infrastructure, made explicit preference, highlighting need for broadband investments to reduce the digital divide.

In the taxation section, we in addition to the general broad support for moving towards more progressive revenue sources and the response to in response to several council member requests have included explicit support.

for a statewide capital gains tax and progressive payroll tax that don't preempt the city's authority.

We have also, at Council Member Peterson's request, included a change to a rather arcane element of the tax code that prevents the city from reducing our sales tax without it being commensurately increased at the county level, which basically prevents us from We have expanded the climate section to include additional references to resiliency and climate adaptation as well as environmental justice.

more equitable land use and zoning policies, as well as inclusionary zoning and support for additional parks and green space.

I'll pause there before moving on to the interconnected city section and see if anyone has questions or additional changes.

Thank you, Quinn, for that presentation.

Colleagues, any questions, comments, or additional requests for modifications to the section of the draft?

Okay, looks like it's clear.

Thanks, Quinn.

Go ahead.

Absolutely.

In the interconnected city section, we have a broad new section about the importance of bridges.

There's a specific call out to the West Seattle Bridge, but highlighting the importance of bridges overall for multimodal connections, for connections throughout the city, for mobility, and for economic development and support of manufacturing and industrial industries and jobs.

We have a new section from the Department of Transportation, from SDOT, talking about the importance of transportation safety, in particular for vulnerable users, and changes to state laws there that would allow us to prioritize safety and achieve our Vision Zero goals.

We also from SDOT and from council members have a new section on what we've come to call the decriminalization of transportation activity, which includes Reducing fines and citations for pedestrian activity includes the de-weaponization of traffic enforcement, as well as greater allowances for non-officer enforcement of events and parking lot management.

That covers the primary changes in the interconnected city.

So I'll pause again and see if there's any questions or additions.

Any questions or additions, colleagues?

Seeing none, let's go to the next section.

Great.

And I will hand it off to Hana for the affordable city section.

Good morning.

In the affordable city section at the beginning, we've added a new paragraph emphasizing the need to address the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically on housing and affordability.

That includes language about new programs to relieve the effects of COVID-19, like rental and foreclosure assistance, utility assistance, and a moratorium on evictions throughout the crisis.

We're also keeping in mind a potential wave of evictions that may come that many of you have flagged for us as a priority.

The public health language in that COVID paragraph is similar to previous years, but framed in the urgency of the pandemic.

Deeper into this section, we've increased language on the flexibility for affordable housing financing, including language We also expanded our language to include acquisition, development, and operation of permanent supportive housing.

And at your request, added some language to expand ownership models, including alternative models of land ownership as a means of providing affordable housing alternatives, including cooperative ownership.

So those are the changes to the affordable city section.

If there's any questions.

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go to the next section.

Thank you, Hannah.

That concludes our overview of the sections of the legislative agenda.

So I guess we can go ahead and open up to more broadly any questions or changes that you would like to see to the city's 2021 legislative agenda.

Thanks, Quinn, so much for that.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions about the draft legislative agenda?

Council Member Herbold, please.

I just want to thank OIR for being so proactive in working with my office and appreciate being given a little extra time and we'll appreciate the fact that there are some changes that we've requested that haven't made it into this version yet, but I think we'll be getting them folded in before we see the next version.

So thanks again.

We know you've been busy.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Any other comments or questions either on the process or on the substance of the legislative agenda?

Okay, I'm not seeing any hands being raised and I don't have any messages from folks wanting to make any additional comments.

Just wanted to also echo my thanks for the OIR team.

I know you all have been working really hard on pulling this together.

I know that this legislative session is going to be a historic one for all of us.

And appreciate, again, the opportunity to continue to have conversation with you all about how to create greater connectivity between us as legislators at the city and the legislators at the state level, particularly some of our freshman legislators, which, you know, we, some of us have pre-existing relationships with, and others of us are looking to develop relationships, stronger relationships with those who are currently in the house or who are themselves also freshmen.

So really appreciate the opportunity to continue to work together.

Colleagues, again, for any of you who might take a closer look at the draft after today's meeting and have additional thoughts, I strongly encourage you to reach out to the team at OIR right away.

We are hoping to be able to get this on the introduction and referral calendar for consideration on Monday, December 7th, but we have given ourselves an extra week in case there is suddenly a flurry of ideas and modifications that OIR has to work through.

And so December 14th is our backstop date, but ideally we'd like to go ahead and get this resolved on December 7th, particularly if there is going to be a special legislative session.

I think it'll be important for our team at OIR to have as much guidance and firm guidance as possible before any kind of special session is called for.

So again, colleagues, please, my request is that you prioritize taking one last look at this draft, getting any feedback over to OIR.

My office will stay in close connection with the folks over at OIR to make a determination as to whether or not December 7th is the viable opportunity for us to take a final vote on this matter in full council.

So that's the goal and that's the hope.

Our backstop will be December 14th, but December 7th is the target here.

Okay, well, thank you so much, Director Wilson-Codego.

Do you have any other comments that you'd like to make as we say goodbye to you all?

Note that concludes our presentation.

Just appreciate your attention to that.

Hoping for passage on 7th.

OK, Robin, thank you so much everyone.

Alright.

Thank you all so much.

Thanks for being with us and we will.

We will be in touch.

Thank you.

Okay, colleagues, we're going to go ahead and move through our agenda, and we're going to move into our preview of today's City Council Actions, Council, and Regional Committees.

Today's rotation order will be as follows.

We'll first start with Councilmember Peterson, followed by Sawant, Straus, Herbold, Juarez, Lewis, Morales, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

Please keep in mind that we do have an executive session scheduled for today.

It is scheduled to last at least 30 minutes.

So my hope is that we'll be able to get it done within those 30 minutes, and that we'll be able to wrap up this morning's council briefing by no later than 1130 a.m., although we're a little ahead of schedule now.

So let's go ahead and begin our discussion of today's City Council Action Council and Regional Committees.

First up is Councilmember Peterson, and then we will hear from Councilmember Salant.

Good morning, Councilmember Peterson.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President.

Hello, colleagues.

The Transportation and Utilities Committee has no items on today's full City Council agenda.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee meets this Wednesday, December 2nd at 930 a.m.

and again on Wednesday, December 16th at 930 a.m.

This Wednesday, December 2nd, the agenda includes property easements and other technical updates from Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities.

Regarding transportation, this Wednesday's agenda includes Council Bill 119960, which is a six-month extension of the existing transit service funding agreement with King County Metro.

This brief six-month extension is needed because the previous six-year Seattle transportation benefit district was written in 2014 to expire at the end of this year rather than providing any cushion on timing in case it was renewed or extended in some form.

The sales tax was, of course, renewed overwhelmingly by voters earlier this month, so next year Next year is when we will review and adopt a more extensive, longer-term service funding agreement with King County Metro for our supplemental bus service.

So this agenda item, again, is just a six-month extension of the existing one.

Speaking of the increased sales tax for the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, this Wednesday's agenda also includes Council Bill 119959, which officially imposes the tax which voters authorized last month.

the new transit services agreement with King County Metro and when we finally allocate the remaining reserves from the old 2014 STPD measure and the new revenues from the incremental $20 vehicle license fee that Council adopted last week.

This will occur after SDOT's stakeholder engagement process as instructed by the Council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson for that report.

Colleagues, any questions or comments on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Councilmember Sawant, and then we will hear from Councilmember Strauss.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez, and good morning, everyone.

There are no items on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

We were unable to convene the last meeting of the committee because of lack of quorum, understandably, as it was during the Thanksgiving week.

And because the committee meets on the fourth Tuesday in each month, it would now fall during the winter recess in December.

So my office will be contacting committee members to find a special time to hold the committee meeting.

Today at the City Council meeting, I will circulate for signatures a letter to Seattle Police Department Chief Diaz requesting that the department urgently compile and release all of their records regarding the death of Herbert Hightower Jr., who was fatally shot by Seattle Police in 2004 while experiencing a mental health crisis.

These public records were requested in August by the family and on behalf of the family, and the Justice for Herbert Hightower Jr.

Movement.

My office has been in contact with Castile Hightower, whom council members will have heard testifying about this during the public comment in the last months.

Castile has reported that the police department responded to their public records request with delay after delay, first promising them by September 21st, then October 14th, then November 5th, and now November 30th, which is today.

And as of last night, she has not still received the records.

It is understandable that all records would require some time to recover from archives, but It is unacceptable to make this family wait months to release records about the death of their loved one.

The Hightower family is now supported by more than 1,850 community members who have signed a petition demanding that Seattle police release those public records.

My office has circulated a draft of the letter to your offices a couple of weeks ago.

And I wanted to thank Council Member Herbold for all her edits.

All the edits have been now incorporated into the latest draft that Ted Verdone from my office has re-sent to you all this morning.

So hopefully it should be at the top of all your inboxes.

I look forward to any questions or any further proposed edits, but I would like to circulate this and really hope for all of your support for the letter.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

I see Council Member Herbold has a comment, so I will hand it over to her.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

I just want to mention that I have discussed this letter with Seattle Police Chief Diaz and Dr. Christopher Fisher.

They have both explained that they can't actually prioritize some cases over others, though they appreciate our uplifting the council's concern around the timelines that is contained on the SPD's website informing people about the I also want to highlight that the city auditor has identified issues associated with responding to the public disclosure process in the Seattle Police Department.

Some of those issues are staffing issues, but others are issues related to technology.

The audit itself was in 2015. And as I think everybody knows, the city auditor does an annual report on previous year's recommendations to report out to the council, the executive, and the general public on what items the departments being audited have responded to.

And as I mentioned, staffing remains to be a challenge, but also technology is a real challenge that the department faces.

SPD is one of the few departments asked to process its own email searches rather than referring to the Seattle Information Technology Department, and they do not have access to an email review platform that can perform searches with accuracy, speed, reduplication capability, and the current system frequently crashes, requiring searches to be run repeatedly.

This report from December of, well, it was a report I think we received in early 2020, but it was on 2019 updates.

but they say that SPD hopes to procure access to a more efficient system in 2020. I don't know whether or not that's happened, and I will be checking.

They go on to say, in addition, SPD continues to struggle with the amount of video it is required to produce, not only for public disclosure, but also responsive to legal discovery for prosecution and subpoenas, which are attached to strict court-ordered deadlines.

The video unit processes thousands of such requests on a monthly basis, particularly with respect to in-car video, which also requires time-intensive searching and downloading the CDs.

Processing delays can be significant, and then they go on to say the SPD is in the process of procuring a new in-car video system.

With computer aided design integration and cloud based storage, which will reduce delivery and processing time.

So, again, these are 2 items that I intend to check up on that.

I think we're supposed to be delivered in 2020 that are.

distinct from the staffing challenges that SPD faces that are legitimate staffing challenges for sure.

But I also just again want to highlight that we can send this letter, but the police department cannot prioritize one case over another.

They have to take them in order of the request.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Any other comments on the water?

Okay.

I also just want to echo the reality around the fact that SPD has an inability to prioritize one public records request over the other, even though council members may be signaling their support for this letter.

And so that is not And I don't think it's been explicitly said.

So I want to explicitly say that that's not because of a policy or a procedure at SPD or the city.

It's because of existing state law that prohibits prioritization of public records be made in any kind of fashion.

Just want to make sure that that's clear for the for the public public record Councilmember salon, please.

Yeah, just wanted to clarify that I don't think the family in any way or my office had any.

We're trying to put forward an argument about prioritization, obviously, I would say, I mean, first of all, just the bottom line is all the families that have lost loved ones lives.

All of those are priorities and I don't think that the height our family sees, they are.

loved ones death as in any way a greater priority.

I think the motivation behind the petition and all the 1800 people signing it is more to use this case as a way to highlight that the police department needs to be responsive to these requests in general.

And obviously it has to be in the order that they have to do it.

Great, thank you.

I'm going to look to the clerk here.

I think in order for signatures to be added to this letter, there has to be a roll call during council briefings.

So Madam Clerk, I'm looking to you for some clarification around the procedure since it's not included in my sprint.

Council President Gonzalez, that is accurate.

During the city council meeting, we will request a roll call under other business and council members can indicate whether they'd like their signatures to be fixed or not affixed to the letter.

Got it.

So this will occur.

The roll call will occur at our colleagues, just for clarity, the roll call for adding your signature to the letter as proposed by council members and as discussed We will be done at 2 o'clock p.m.

at our full Council meeting during the other business section of our agenda.

Please, if in the meantime you have any additional edits you would like for Council members to want to consider and incorporate, you have until at least noon today to be able to suggest those edits.

Any other comments or questions?

Council Member Swann, were you done with your report or did you have more?

You're done.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

We are going to go ahead and go down the line here.

Next up, if memory serves me right, is Council Member Strauss followed by Council Member Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

There are no items from the land use and neighborhoods from today's introduction and referral calendar.

There is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the full agenda today, which is CB119907, extending the moratorium on redevelopment of manufactured home parks for an additional six months while we take the time to complete the permanent solution to this policy issue.

And again, thank you, Council Member Juarez, for all of your diligent work on this.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is on Wednesday.

December 9th, starting at 9.30 a.m., and we anticipate four items on the agenda, a public hearing and possible vote on an extension of a previously granted contract rezone at 1106 34th Avenue in Medrano, a brief discussion and proposed construction code updates, again, a briefing and discussion on legislation to extend interim floodplain regulations, and our quarterly report from SDC on their tree protection There will be a final land use to neighborhoods committee, this will be the final land use and neighborhoods committee of the year as the next round would be during our council recess and.

Councilmember Lewis, thank you for reaching out about your permanent supportive housing legislation that is based in the land use code and typically we would love for these types of pieces of legislation to come through the land use and neighborhoods committee, and as our committee is full this this month, we would love for you to be able to take that if so, if you desire.

events in D6.

Last week, my staff attended the Fremont Neighborhood Council meeting to share updates about the city budget process.

Today, I'll be attending the Regional Transportation Committee, where we will review draft changes to the Metro Connect's interim and 2050 network maps.

This Wednesday, my office will be attending the Wallingford Community Council meeting, where they will be hosting a number of homelessness service providers to present about their work.

As well, my office will be attending the Ballard subgroup meetings of the Maritime and Industrial Strategy Group on Tuesday and Thursday.

Last week, I met with a campfire troop where we discussed homelessness, salmon health, Black Lives Matter, and even the police contract.

I'll tell you, nothing gets by these campfire kiddos.

It was a pleasure to join them, and I'm feeling very confident in the next generation of leaders after that meeting.

Lastly, I'll resume my meetings with D6 residents this week.

We'll be meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you'd like to speak with me, please reach out through our website.

We host D6 resident meetings every week and we are filling up quickly.

So we're trying to squeeze everyone in before we go on the holiday break.

And if not, we continue to host these D6 resident meetings every single week.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Council Member Herbold is next, followed by Council Member Juarez.

Good morning.

Good morning, and thank you so much.

Good to be back with everybody after the brief holiday break.

No items on the full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, but we do have a committee meeting coming up next Tuesday.

That is December 8th at 930 a.m.

The items on that week's agenda include include, let's see, I think an initial discussion on a proposed piece of legislation.

granting the OPA and the OIG subpoena power.

We are also, I believe, having a briefing from the COLEAD program.

COLEAD is an evolution of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program that has been developed during the COVID 19 crisis to assist folks who are, it's more of a focus on folks who are living unsheltered in response to community needs to address the impacts of those folks, both impacts to the people who are living outside as well as the surrounding community.

And then finally, I believe we are also going to have an initial discussion related to the proposal to provide a legal defense for people committing certain misdemeanors.

And when those misdemeanors have.

linkages to people's poverty and or mental or substance abuse disorder conditions.

So not discussing an actual bill, but discussing some of the concepts that we might contain in such a piece of legislation.

I just want to give my weekly shout out to the Seattle Fire Department for their COVID-19 tests administered at their four sites.

We're now cumulatively at 404,000 tests that have been administered between June 5th and November 23rd.

We're now facing the third wave of COVID-19 cases Seattle is nearing 11,000 cases with 34% of the city's total cases even just total cases ever just in November alone.

Hospitalizations have reached the same levels as in March and April.

The third wave is known to be the most dangerous phase.

I know we are all tired, but let's consider that our doctors, nurses, and essential workers are at even greater risk than ever, as hospitals are at the verge of being overwhelmed.

If we're all able to do our part, we can reverse this trajectory, protect our community's health and our economy.

The Washington State Department of Health today announced the launch of something called Washington Notify.

This is a simple anonymous exposure notification tool to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

You can download Washington Notify on your iPhone or Android phone.

Washington Notify will alert you if you spent time near another Washington Notify user who later tests positive for COVID-19.

Washington Notify uses privacy-preserving technology jointly developed by Google and Apple and works without collecting or revealing any location or personal data.

You can find out more at www.wannotify.org.

Just a quick mention from HSD.

They've asked us to help push out the fact that earlier this month, they convened 20 East African community and food bank leaders to brainstorm solutions to make food bank services more culturally responsive.

Results included a shared list of culturally appropriate foods to stock and potential partnerships between food banks and East African grocery store owners.

Attendees were active participants in the convening and expressed gratitude for the work to help build new alliances in this effort.

The group will have a follow-up next year to continue the important work.

I think that will do it for me.

In addition, coming up this week, we have the regional policy committee.

And the regional law, safety and justice committees.

Finally, I think other events coming up, nope, those are all last week's events.

I think that will do it for me.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks so much.

Again, that comes from her bold for.

Regularly, including reports and comments in in your portion related to covet 19. the numbers are.

shockingly bad, but not surprisingly.

So long as we continue to gather with our loved ones and with our friends, we will continue to see a surge and it is incumbent upon us to really honor the social contract with our neighbors and our loved ones.

And that means unfortunately limiting our interaction in person with people who we could expose unknowingly exposed to this very contagious virus.

So really appreciate you lifting up the work that the city is doing in this space and also on reminding us about the importance of making sure that we are doing our part.

Okay, next up is Councilmember Juarez, followed by Councilmember Lewis.

Good morning, Councilmember Juarez.

Good morning, everybody.

Okay, so I will be brief.

There are no items of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

There is a meeting of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee tomorrow, December 1st at 2 o'clock.

This is the final meeting of the year.

There is one appointment to the Seattle Indian Service Commission and 11 appointments to the Seattle Center Advisory Commission, and two pieces of legislation.

Most have been pending due to COVID-19 and the budget.

The agenda was published last week.

If you have any questions, please contact Nagin in my office.

The week ahead, on Wednesday, I will attend the Growth Management Planning Council.

On Thursday, I have a Sound Transit Rider Experience and Operations Committee meeting.

And that's all.

Thank you, Council President, and good morning, everyone, again.

Good morning.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Okay, hearing none, let's go ahead and go down the line.

Council Member Lewis and then Council Member Morales, good morning.

Good morning, Madam President.

So I'll jump right into it.

First, there are no items on this afternoon's agenda from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

It is my hope that we will schedule a December committee meeting before we go on break.

My office is in touch with Council President's office to arrange the scheduling for such a committee meeting.

I do want to transition that I enjoyed reading over the break a column written by Danny Westneat in the Seattle Times, imploring that the city create 1,000 tiny houses as part of our strategy to respond to the ongoing state of emergency and crisis of our neighbors experiencing homelessness.

I appreciate that he highlighted that this council did expand tiny house placements by 120 units.

I read with just as much pleasure a rebuttal by Erica C. Barnett on Publicola correctly laying out that this is only as useful, the tiny house strategy, as exits to permanent supportive housing are readily available.

And it's with that transition, having that conversation over the break, that I think today is a particularly appropriate day to announce a project that I've been working with the Third Door Coalition on for the last couple of months on permanent supportive housing and ways that we as a city can loosen and streamline certain land use controls to make permanent supportive housing a cheaper and faster thing to build in the city of Seattle.

Just to start off for the viewing public, we know that 98% of chronically homeless individuals accept offers into permanent supportive housing.

We know that 90 to 95% of folks who get placed in a permanent supportive housing are still in those placements after a year.

And as many of us know who have been talking to providers and advocates, our region needs about 6,500 additional units over the next five years to meet the anticipated demand of folks who are chronically homeless who will need a permanent supportive housing placement to be successful.

So with that, my office has been working since the big announcement in the spring by the Unlikely Alliance of the Third Door Coalition, which is an alliance of business luminaries like Matt Galvin of Macrina Bakery and Pagliacci Pizza and Chad McKay of El Gaucho and other restaurants.

along with folks in the provider community, like Professor Sarah Rankin and Paul Lambros of Plymouth Housing and Dan Malone at DESC, to come together and talk about how they could work towards a common goal of scaling up permanent supportive housing after being on the opposite sides of the debate during the head tax discussion.

So this unlikely alliance combined their expertise to identify the cost drivers that Plymouth Housing and DESC have identified that makes permanent supportive housing more expensive than it needs to be.

Currently, on average, it costs about $331,000 per unit to build permanent supportive housing in the city of Seattle.

And just to put a finer point on that as well, that is typically, in addition to philanthropy, a lot of taxpayer money, money that's either from our general fund, from tax credits, or most commonly from the housing levy that we approve on a regular basis as city voters, money that we ourselves, through the levy process, decide to spend to scale up more permanent supportive housing.

Given that we're in a state of emergency on homelessness, we need to do everything that's in our power to stretch those limited public resources.

And that's why today I'm announcing a bill to implement some of the reforms that Third Door Coalition has identified and called for.

And that bill will be ready for introduction and referral on Friday.

of this week.

For the first time, this bill will define permanent supportive housing as multifamily units with 90% of the units below 50% area median income and a project that by design receives public money given that it is subsidized for folks who in many cases are at zero area median income or thereabouts.

and the housing includes on-site services and case management, typical of permanent supportive housing, and that would be part of the definition.

The bill would then go further and cut a considerable amount of red tape in our development regulations as a city, including a permanent exemption for permanent supportive housing from design review, for permanent support of housing from short-term bike storage and on-site bike storage requirements.

Authority for the director of SDCI to waive or modify development standards to maximize permanent support of housing units in a given project.

And to allow permanent support of housing to be cited in commercial two zones in addition to residential multi-family zones.

Critically, the bill would retain and codify the requirements for community outreach and community relations planning requirements that providers like DESC and Plymouth Housing are used to and have successfully delivered on as partners in being housing providers in our region for decades.

These reforms were produced in collaboration with the Third Door Coalition to lower that per unit cost.

And according to their calculations, these reforms could lower the per unit cost from the current $331,000 to $284,000 per unit, a savings of almost $47,000 per unit.

This legislation was developed with support from the Office of Housing and from SDCI, and I want to thank the Third Door coalition members, particularly Matt Galvin, Chad McKay, Professor Sarah Rankin, and Tim Parham at Plymouth Housing, who is a former Planning Commissioner Chair, particularly for a lot of the details and the calculations of the potential savings per housing unit.

It's my hope that this legislation will be referred to the Select Committee on Homelessness, as Councilmember Strauss indicated earlier in his remarks, that is acceptable to him based on the docket for the Land Use Committee, and that this will probably require an extensive amount of discussion, markup, and deliberation as it makes its way through the Council.

This would be in keeping with the tiny house legislation that Councilmember Swann sent through the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments earlier this year.

I'm hoping to have an initial hearing on this legislation in December before recess and then to take this up again in January.

As I said, the details and the legislation will be publicly posted this week and hopefully ready for introduction and referral on Friday.

I'm happy to answer any questions now or reserve them until briefing next Monday when folks have had an opportunity to review the actual bill.

But I do think this is an exciting opportunity to work with our provider community, to work with the business community, and to bring folks together to really focus on how we can stretch our public money to maximize the investment in this critical housing that we know we're going to need more of.

And I look forward to discussing this over the next several months.

And with that, Madam President, I don't have any additional updates.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis for that report.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report at this juncture?

Okay, hearing none.

Colleagues, of course, the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments is a committee of the whole, which means all nine council members are members of that particular committee.

So we will work closely with Council Member Lewis's office to make sure that there is an opportunity in the next two weeks for him to have and convene a select committee meeting.

And of course, it's always like playing a little bit of Jenga here as it relates to the calendar and getting virtual space in the in the schedule, but we will do our best to accommodate the request to have at least an initial conversation on that particular particular issue.

So look forward to working with your office on that.

Okay, seeing and hearing no other questions, we will go ahead and hand it over now to Council Member Morales, and then I will conclude this portion of the agenda.

Good morning, everyone.

I hope you were able to enjoy a little bit of relaxation over the last few days.

There are no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

And we also do not have a meeting scheduled for this month.

The next meeting will be January 19th at 2 p.m.

On Wednesday of this week, I do have a meeting of the Central Puget Sound Economic Development District Board.

We met with several constituents over the weekend to discuss public health guidance for reopening to indoor gatherings.

Now that the governor has locked down again, folks are wondering when they will be able to plan for reopening and what that should look like given that we are now in the third wave.

I know folks have lots of concern about that.

Also talk to many people about small business assistance, the assistance that's sort of in development that will be coming from the state level.

People are very interested to know what that might look like and whether the city will be able to fill gaps that the state is not able to meet.

As a reminder, speaking of small business, we do have an additional $4 million in small business stabilization and economic opportunity grants available.

Today is the last day to apply for one of those grants.

These provide up to $10,000 grants for small businesses about Seattle who have been financially impacted by COVID-19.

And you can apply for that or let your small businesses in your area know.

They go to the Seattle.gov OED website.

The application link is there.

And as a final reminder, if you're planning your holiday shopping, please consider shopping local and supporting your local Seattle independent businesses.

They need all the help they can get right now, so please do that.

I do want to mention briefly, over the last week, I'm sure we all heard the report that came out of Public Health Seattle-King County called, Where is COVID-19 Transmitted in King County?

And I just wanted to share one piece about this.

The report discusses some of the key root causes that were identified early in the pandemic for why communities of color carry a disproportionate burden from COVID-19.

Two things that stuck out, living in larger or multi-generational households make it harder for households to limit their exposure.

And there is an overrepresentation among essential workers who have to be at their job sites and to commute during the pandemic.

These two root causes may of course compound each other when multiple residents work as essential workers in different locations or at multiple jobs and then return home under one roof.

and that increases the likelihood that someone could expose someone else in the household.

And as the report indicated, we're finding this to be true, especially in South King County and some of our south end neighborhoods where we have large families of multi-generations living together and who are having to commute throughout the city to get to work.

So I say all that just because it is an important reminder about why those of us who have the option to stay home really need to stay home so that we can protect the rest of our neighbors who don't have the option.

I know we're all eager to get out, eager to get into our community again, but we really need to make sure that we are keeping one another safe.

And I mean, stay in home if it's at all possible.

That is all that I have this morning, Council President.

Thank you Council Member Morales for that report.

Any comments or questions?

Okay.

Hearing none, I'll go ahead and give my report of the Governance and Education Committee.

Nothing on this afternoon's agenda from the Governance and Education Committee.

The next Governance and Education Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8th at 2 o'clock p.m.

We will be discussing two pieces of legislation.

One is related to the families education preschool and promise levy.

We will take up what we are referring to as a flexibility ordinance to allow in some instances for deal some additional flexibility as the as the delivery of services and programs funded by the FEP levy continue to be impacted by.

remote learning and emerging and pressing needs related to child care.

So looking forward to having Deal with us on December 8th to have a conversation about their proposal related to expenditures and programming of those dollars for the 2021-2022 school year.

We'll also take up some legislation related to lobbying regulations on grassroots lobbying in particular.

That legislation is being referred to my committee by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission and look forward to having a conversation publicly and more in depth around some of the proposed changes that the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission would like to see made to the lobbying regulations related to grassroots lobbying in our elections code.

If you have any additional questions about either of these pieces of legislation, you can reach out to my senior policy advisor, V. Nguyen, in my office.

As it relates to the FEPP levy ordinance, Council Central staff policy analyst, Brian Goodnight, is the lead on that one.

And as it relates to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission lobbying regulation ordinance, Lish Whitson from Council Central staff is the lead policy analyst on that issue.

Also welcome to reach out to them as well.

Again, no items on today's introduction referral calendar related to the Governance and Education Committee.

On today's City Council agenda, there are no items for the Governance and Education Committee.

Report of regional committees for this week.

On December 3rd, I plan to attend the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board meeting at 10 o'clock in the morning.

At that meeting, the PSRC Executive Board will host a panel discussion with representatives from Boeing and Alaska Airlines who will share insights on how COVID 19 is affecting the region's aviation sector and local businesses.

These are public meetings, so for those folks who have interest in the subject, you are welcome to attend virtually.

In addition, the board will meet in the executive session to conduct the executive director's annual performance review.

Additionally, on Wednesday, December 2nd, at 5 o'clock p.m., I'll be attending the International Affairs Advisory Board meeting.

And I think that sort of rounds out, oh, no, wait, I'm sorry, December 3rd, Thursday, December 3rd at 8 a.m.

I've been invited to speak at a international program.

It's the International Visitor Leadership Program.

where we'll be having an opportunity to speak about a more safe and secure world and in particular highlight some of the criminal justice reform work that the city of Seattle has been doing to guests and members of the World Affairs Council who are convening this particular panel.

Look forward to joining them there as well.

Lastly, I'll just say that this is somewhat relevant to what Council Member Morales just reported on as it relates to additional business relief.

I'm really pleased to report that I've been working very closely with Mayor Durkan and her office to put together a proposed economic small business and worker relief package in response to the latest rounds of closures impacting our small businesses, in particular restaurants and restaurant workers.

It's our hope that we will be able to get some emergency, some legislation that would provide additional emergency relief to some of these small businesses and their impacted workers.

and sign before Council adjourns for recess.

And as a preview, the relief package will be a mix of strategies, supports, and financial assistance for both restaurants and their workers.

More to come on that particular issue.

Excited to have a conversation with each of you this week before introducing that particular legislation.

And looking forward to continuing to work on this important strategy to fill the void and the gap as it relates to the most recent round of impacts as a result of the additional restrictions from the governor's office.

Happy to answer any questions or hear any comments.

All right, colleagues, well, thank you so much.

We are now going to move into our executive session.

We have one executive session this afternoon.

We are almost 30 minutes, actually 45 minutes ahead of schedule, which is good news.

So I'm going to go ahead and call us now into the executive session.

As presiding officer, I am announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene an executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

I expect that the time of the executive session to end by 1115 AM.

If the executive session is extended beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.