City Council Meeting January 9, 2024

Hello, everybody.

Good afternoon.

The January 9th, 2024 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 202. I'm Sarah Nelson, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Moore.

Present.

Councilmember Morales.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you very much.

Moving on, I'm not aware of any presentations for today, so we will move right into public comment.

We will open the hybrid public comment right now.

Public comment is accepted on items on the introduction and referral calendar, items on today's agenda, and items on the council's work program.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We currently have five people in person.

Jody, can you please confirm how many we have remote?

Remote, we have three signed up and only one present at this time.

All right.

We'll start with the in-chambers commenters and everyone will have two minutes to speak.

Madam Clerk, I'll now hand it over to you to provide the instructions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

There may be public comment speakers online and in person, and we will begin by calling the in-person speakers.

Each person will be called by name in the order which they registered.

And if you've not yet registered to speak and you'd like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period by going to the council's website or by signing up in the council chambers.

Once I call a remote speaker's name, sorry, my papers are mixed up today.

Once I call a remote speaker's name, If you're online, you'll hear an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted and you will need to press star six to begin speaking.

All speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

And once you hear the chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comments.

If speakers do not end their public comment at the end of the allotted time, the microphone will be muted.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first in-person speaker.

The first person is Kathleen Rose.

Good afternoon.

I am so happy to see you all here in person.

So I'm looking forward to what's going to happen this year.

And I'm here today to tell you that I would love to see Tanya Wu appointed to the vacant position.

And I'm just really excited you're here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Tilth Floyd.

Thank you.

My name is Tilitha Floyd and I wear many hats.

I'm a live free community organizer, street certified peacekeeper, mentor, black business owner, minister, two college graduate degrees, mother, facilitator, director, community member, black system affected statistic that wasn't supposed to make it this far.

But today I represent the spirit and intention of the Seattle People's Budget.

The participatory budget process that was run here in the city of Seattle through the Office of Civil Rights to allocate $27.25 million.

The people's budget has now completed its process, which was always rushed, but it led to a decision by the community that has been most affected historically by racism and inequity.

In the origins of this process, a community-led research project determined that there are five areas of focus that we need to invest into.

Those five focus areas are youth and children services, housing and physical spaces, mental health, crisis intervention, and economic development.

The people's budget centered the funding solution in and for the black and indigenous community, black being defined as those descended of slavery and indigenous being defined as Africans living here in Seattle in accordance to their cultural customs and traditions.

The community submitted over 500 ideas fitting into five focus areas that were turned into 18 proposals.

And now the committee has voted.

Six of those ideas will be funded.

But what about the other 12?

There are those in this space today that before election promised to come back into the black community within 60 days of being elected to hear and agendize the concerns.

The people's budget brought to surface those concerns.

the issues that led the community solutions and communities problems that could be created to solve the indigenous issues.

Let us not shy away from being intentional about centering black and indigenous communities since historically are paying a center to get support for funding, but never manages to get to us in the same capacity in which the funds are being awarded.

In closing, I want to ground us in this.

I invite you to recognize the written histories of the United States of America, the Pacific Northwest, and the city of Seattle as fractured.

Let us acknowledge that the United States, including Washington state, was built off the stolen labor of kidnapped African people.

Much of what we know of this country today includes cultural, economic growth and development throughout history and across time has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants who suffered the horror of the transatlantic trafficking, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow.

We are indebted to their labor and sacrifices.

We must acknowledge and witnessed today.

We recognize that these difficult histories persist in present-day racial realities and privileges in our nation and within our district here.

We commit to dismantling racism in spaces of our work and .

Thank you.

Our next caller, excuse me, our next in-person speaker is Ed Paras.

I would like to note that Council Member Morales is now present and folks have two minutes and when you hear the chime, that means you have 10 seconds left.

Is there an Ed here?

I'm not seeing an Ed.

So the next speaker is Jim Buchanan.

Like to say good afternoon to everyone.

I'm Jim Buchanan and I am from the community.

First generation.

Since 1959. My dad came here in 1942. I'm Jim Buchanan from King County Equity now in Washington State African American Cannabis Association.

We're aligned with many community partners.

And our goal.

And our purpose is to make sure that we bring equity and equality to our community.

I've got a lot of stuff written up, but the bottom line is that we all know the narrative.

We've got a lot of situations like the participatory budget and every other situation like that that we need to focus on bringing back where the origin of it was to be developed for.

And we need your participation.

We had a candidate form.

Everybody here participated in a candidate form.

And basically said that you were for bringing equity and the right equity back to our community.

It's our point now to put everyone on notice that we're here and we're going to be here.

We're going to be here every meeting if we have to.

We're going to do the necessary things we have to do to advocate for equity, equality for black people.

So I just want to rest that upon your minds as we navigate and we reach out to meet with each individual individually and as we collectively bring our whole community together to advocate properly.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rye Armstrong.

Hi, Council Members.

Happy New Year.

Madam President, congratulations.

I come to you today from the Executive Board of Theatre Puget Sound.

I was recently appointed last fall, and the organization is going to most likely close in the next three to six months unless the city intervenes.

Theater Puget Sound, if you don't know, is on the north side of the Armory building.

And thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth, for responding to my email so promptly.

I just wanted to stress the urgency of this situation.

We had a licensing agreement for the space back in 2014 that has never been renegotiated with Seattle Center.

And due to those terms, it does not look good in the coming, I guess, months.

So as the new treasurer on the executive board, I wanted to come to council and ask to see if you can please stress this need for the new Seattle Center Director Marshall to really take meetings with us and take this very seriously so we can renegotiate and save art space for the city of Seattle.

I grew up here with these rehearsal spaces.

I've seen national tours of Broadway shows rehearse and audition in these spaces.

They have been neglected for a very long time and I would appreciate if you guys all would support me in hopefully advocating for TPS.

and saving one of the, I think, bookmarks and staples of our community.

Thank you.

We have one more in-person speaker.

I believe it's Mr. Gardner.

Sorry.

Good afternoon.

KY King Garrett here today as a third generation community builder from the Central District of Seattle, resident for over four decades.

Happy 2024. Congratulations.

Welcome to the new council members.

I think with new faces, we welcome new opportunities.

And I think I just want to speak to the importance of the time that we're in.

We are now entering into another presidential election year, the last presidential election year, 2020. we saw the plight of black Americans, black men, black women being murdered at the hands of law enforcement, leveraged as an issue to advance political And then after that election, we've seen a lot of the commitments and proclamations, even just an outright attack on the equity agenda or the efforts to replace systemic, institutionalized white supremacy, which has emanated throughout our policies and practices in the society and locally in place in the name of attacks on DEI, as we saw just what happened at Harvard.

We see what's happening with the Black Women's Fund in Atlanta.

And I just want to say, locally, it's very important that anti-black racism be addressed and that the inability to acknowledge the needs of black Americans, multi-generational legacy, independent of any other agendas is a form of anti-blackness.

We know the significant number of harms that have been documented and the statistics show And in closing, I would just say that we want to make sure that we're addressing what does one Seattle, what does an inclusive, equitable city look like in numbers?

Will our population increase?

What will be the AMI of our population?

What will be the home ownership rates of our population?

And what are the specific strategies that we can work together to advance based on things that are already working?

Thank you.

That the nation can learn from.

Thank you.

Jody, we can now move into remote speakers.

Okay, we'll now move into the remote speakers.

And as a reminder, once I call your name and you hear the automatic prompt, if you have been unmuted, be sure to press star six before you begin speaking.

Our first remote speaker is Howard Gale, and he will be followed by David Haynes.

Howard, are you there?

Good afternoon.

Howard Gale speaking on accountability.

Last week, the council president, along with the new council members, said the word accountability nine times.

The question Seattleites are asking is accountability for what?

Last Friday, the Seattle Police Department posted on social media a second anniversary remembrance for a police dog that was killed on January 5th, 2022. What is not mentioned by the Seattle Police Department is that this dog was killed while biting the crotch of a man running naked through Beacon Hill while experiencing a severe mental health crisis.

a man who was then shot to death by the SBD.

What is not mentioned by the SBD is that the dog's handler has over 16 complaints filed against him, many for the improper use of a dog, with the dog being used to unnecessarily attack and bite people.

In one case, a bystander was attacked by this dog, resulting in a near quarter of a million dollar payout by the city.

So, accountability.

Is it accountability for the 11 other people experiencing a mental health crisis killed by the SBD over the last 10 years?

Is it accountability for the city to routinely deem every one of these killings lawful and proper?

Is it accountability for the money spent for the harms that are done?

Is it accountability for the failed systems that allow police abuse to go unsanctioned and forgotten?

A system, by the way, that has remained unaudited now for nearly seven years despite a city mandate for accountability.

Or is it accountability, or is it only accountability for the monies that are spent to try to ameliorate these harms?

Do we have accountability for the excessive rent increases or only accountability for the monies and legislation that struggle to undo the harms caused by these predatory practices?

Do we have accountability for the usual and customary practices that maintain the status quo?

Or is it only accountability for those efforts to undo those harms caused by the status quo?

We await your answer in the coming year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is David Haynes, and David will be followed by Bob Roberts.

Go ahead, David.

Thank you, David Haynes.

It's been three months since the new council was elected, yet another month before actual committee meetings.

I think this council needs to change the corrupt city chapter and allow for the people to have a special election to replace the council member.

Applicants for new council could have filed for a job within 14 days of verifying election results the people and the press could question candidates and choose by the end of january instead government officials choose government officials distracting the council from pressing business for example it's bitter cold today with council excuse me it's bitter cold today with the windshield piercing the cheap layers of clothing, especially if you are an innocent homeless person with no place to dry your soaking wet shoes and damp clothing, especially when King County Regional Authority refuses the efforts to provide emergency shelter or any semblance of capacity.

The only capacity the previous council financed was a capacity build of nonprofit reelection apparatuses.

The fact the previous city council exacerbated the public safety crisis and the homeless crisis justifies an emergency meeting of counsel to end the unnecessary suffering caused by bad policies from the bottom of the barrel progressives where repeat offenders are prioritized for housing and services, low-level drug pushes are exempted from jail, junkie thieves are never trespassed in question to find out where they got it, and innocent homeless people are racially discriminated, subhuman mistreated, and hated by scorned lived experiences at all home, and King County Regional Authority's agenda to dump their trauma onto innocent others while the whole time conducting a race war against local citizens.

Anyway, it's scientifically proven that the temperature below 39 degrees causes the body to overwork, leaving you vulnerable to hypothermia.

And please, the potholes could be taken...

Thank you.

Our last speaker is listed as not present.

So that would conclude our remote public speakers, Council President.

Thank you very much.

We have one more public speaker, Alex Zimmerman.

We have two minutes.

See Kyle.

My dirty damn Nazi fascist.

Our government, anti-Semitism, and junta, what is we have here.

My name Alex Zimmerman, I'm president of Stand Up America.

I hear this talking about accountability.

I don't know what does this mean.

And I come for 20 year here, you know, and speak about this.

I don't know what does this mean.

I have a couple dozen complain.

I never have one positive word.

No one.

for many years.

I can give you example because it's my 16 trespasses for 1400 day each trespass.

I complained to human right commission, 16 complaint, no answer.

Is this accountability guys?

I'm not care who are you?

Democrat, Republican, Marxist, socialist.

I'm not care about this, but what does I care?

Is the item on the agenda you are discussing?

What?

What is the item on the agenda or in our work program?

Same what this guy spoke before me about accountability.

What is different?

He can spoke, I cannot.

Why?

You see, it's very simple.

You are only one man who you interrupt.

Only one.

For many years.

Yeah.

Accountability very important.

But when you are crook and liar, it cannot doing job but supposed to be by constitution.

What is you swear?

You know what is mean?

In open public meeting act, it's very important.

What is another very important, for last 10 year, you bring a Nazi Gestapo rules, so cut everything what is called constitution, freedom of speech, And open public meeting act and who's guilty?

Only Alex Zimmerman.

There's only one guy what is guilty for you new rules.

So number one, come back to Seattle.

What does we have 10 year ago to stop?

Yeah.

Open car.

Speak in camera.

You know what is mean?

What does he stop it for almost two year right now?

Stand up.

America is my goal.

Thank you very much.

All right, colleagues in Mr. Zimmerman, please.

I would like you to pause and hear this.

You've repeatedly exhibited a pattern of disruptive behavior.

And I just want for the public to know the definition of disruptive behavior is explained in council rule.

There are nine components of this disruptive behavior definition.

One of them is that comments are not in compliance with the rules saying that we have to speak to something on the agenda or within our work program, and the other is behavior such as threats, personal attacks, or the use of racial, misogynistic, or gender-related slurs, abusive language, or other disorderly conduct that intentionally disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of or attendance or participation at a council meeting.

I'm reading this because I wanted to be completely clear about what constitutes disruptive behavior and off-topic comments.

And so next time, if you can hear me, if not, we can refer to this in the archive.

If you engage in this kind of behavior, the mic will be stopped, and if necessary, you'll be removed from chambers.

Moving on.

Council President, as I said in our last meeting, I found his behavior to be both abusive and harassing, which is also prohibited within our council rules.

Just wanted to note that for the record.

Yes.

I wanted to make sure that we were going with some of our most airtight rules here.

But thank you very much for that clarification.

Okay, moving on.

So, the public comment period is now closed.

We can move on to the next item, which is the adoption of the IRC.

If there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

And if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

And then finally, we'll consider the proposed consent calendar.

Are there any items that councilmembers would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the consent?

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Moore?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The consent calendar items are adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes in legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf.

Thank you.

There are no committee reports for presentation today and there were no items removed from the consent calendar.

Will the clerk please read the title of item one.

Agenda item one, resolution 32125 relating to participation for 2024 and 2025 on King County committees, regional committees, state committees, and city of Seattle committees and superseding resolution 32038.

Thank you very much.

I move adoption...

I move to adopt Resolution 32125. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

As sponsor, I'll provide a couple words, then open it up for comments.

So as previewed last time, this resolution establishes membership on external committees.

And first, I want to thank...

In particular, Director Esther Handy and Deputy Director Ali Panucci on central staff for all the work, the background work, the heavy lifting that went into establish the membership on all these committees.

Because if I were to play a guessing game, I'm not sure if you would guess how many external committees there are.

Well...

34. There are 34 external committees.

Those are King County, regional, state, and Seattle committees.

They meet anywhere from once or twice a year to every month to bimonthly, etc.

So it's like a...

It's like a game of Jenga, where if you try to move one thing, put somebody on, change an internal committee assignment, then that messes up the external.

My point is simply to let folks know that I very much appreciate the support staff that helped put this before us today, and I also led with wanting to make sure that the assignments were, spoke to your strengths, your interests, and your ability to help the people of Seattle through your membership.

So with that, are there any comments on the resolution questions?

All right.

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay.

Is there any other business before we talk about the next meeting?

Seeing none, I just want to remind people that we've got a A special city council meeting scheduled for July 12th to discuss this council vacancy.

The meeting will begin at 11 o'clock with an executive session, which is closed to the public.

And the city council meeting portion where the public is invited will begin at 2 p.m., which is our normal beginning meeting time.

The January 12th special city council meeting will be including public comment, which will start again at 2 o'clock.

Please refer to the published agenda for final details on Thursday.

And council members received an email that explains all of this as well before the meeting.

And so if you have any other questions, we have folks here after the meeting that can answer any of those questions.

But I just wanted people to realize that, again, we have a special meeting.

It starts at 11 a.m.

The first part of that meeting will be executive session.

But we will continue.

We'll either take a break and come have lunch or whatever if we don't talk until 2 o'clock.

But the public will be invited to provide public comment as of about 2 o'clock.

So that is what is going on this Friday.

We're advancing our work to fill that vacancy.

And going once, going twice.

Seeing nothing else, we've reached the end of today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting will be held on January 16th at 2. It is 2.31 p.m.

Thank you very much, everybody.

See you later.