Seattle City Council Briefing 9/27/21

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Herbold?

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Five present.

Thank you so much.

And I do see that we have just been joined also by Council Member Mosqueda and Council Member Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Welcome.

And just for the record, we got word this morning that Council Member Juarez is not feeling well enough to be here with us this morning.

We hope to see her at 2 o'clock p.m., but she will keep my office posted as to whether or not that will be possible for her.

And whenever we're joined by Council Member Lewis, I'll make sure to note that for the record as well.

All right, approval of the minutes.

If there's no objection, the minutes of September 20th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report really quickly, colleagues, today marks the beginning of the council's budget deliberations period, and Mayor Durkan's proposed budget for 2022 will be formally presented to the city council later this afternoon.

On behalf of Mayor Durkan, Deputy Mayor Shefali Raghunathan will be with us at this afternoon's city council meeting to deliver the mayor's budget address as is required by the city charter.

My understanding is that the mayor will be making a televised budget address later on this evening at 5 o'clock p.m.

And for those who are interested in watching, you can watch live on Seattle Channel.

So with that being said, we'll go ahead and move into the next discussion item, which is a preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees.

I'm going to go ahead and call on council members as established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings.

This week's roll call rotation is as follows.

Council member Strauss followed by Herbold.

I'll conclude this agenda discussion.

My understanding is also that Councilmember Strauss will be giving a report out on behalf of Councilmember Juarez.

So we will hear next from Councilmember Strauss who is going to give his own report and also a report on behalf of Councilmember Juarez.

And then just for the record, we have been joined by Councilmember Lewis.

Good morning.

Good morning, Councilmember Strauss.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

There are three items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar.

Three appointments, one each to the Seattle Chinatown International District PDA Governing Council, the Historic Seattle Governing Council, and the Seattle Planning Commission.

There are 10 items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's full agenda.

Eight appointments to the Pioneer Square Preservation Board.

Council Bill 120157, which amends legislation we adopted earlier this year to allow larger buildings for affordable housing on sites controlled by religious organizations.

This legislation would amend that ordinance to increase affordability requirements from 68% AMI to 80% AMI in response to concerns raised by churches and community groups after full passage last time around.

We had a public hearing on this legislation at full Council last week.

And I'll be happy to take questions at the end of this report.

We will also have Council Bill 120153, which adopts provisions for small lots in Belltown to allow for modular and panelized construction.

Council President, I will ask to amend the agenda this afternoon to put all of those bills in the same section so that I can speak once at full council rather than multiple times.

The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee also voted four bills out of committee at a special meeting on Friday afternoon.

That legislation will be considered by our full council next Monday as it did not pass before Thursday.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is after budget on Wednesday, December 8th.

I'm anticipating that we may need to schedule two Special Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee meetings during the budget in order to consider contract rezones, that are mandated by the state to be considered within a certain timeline.

So my office is continuing to work with Council President's Office to finalize those dates for those meetings.

And additionally, I just want to take a moment to congratulate the Seattle Channel on winning 30 government programming awards and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and advisors at the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.

This includes seven awards of excellence, 13 awards of distinction, and 10 awards of honor.

Colleagues, this is why I always refer to the Seattle Channel as the award-winning Seattle Channel.

Just an overview of my work last week, my staff attended a rally with Governor Inslee call for more urgent federal climate legislation.

On Tuesday, I was able to meet with the Chief Seattle Club and very excited to hear about their new project to develop 200 units of affordable housing and a Coast Salish longhouse at the North Seattle College campus, something that Councilmember Juarez has been championing for quite some time.

And I also met with the folks working on the Green Lake Boathouse for an update and to outline next steps.

Colleagues, as you may know, They are very close to having full funding for their shovel ready project.

They first started with their boat out there's two boathouses in the city one in South Seattle and one in North Seattle they started with the South Seattle.

Boathouse first and now they're almost done with the North Seattle.

I was also able to meet with the chief of police direct chief Diaz, we discussed gun violence criminal activity in Fremont and summer drowning that occurred in Green Lake was also able to meet with some maritime and industrial stakeholders.

to discuss the mayor's process that occurred earlier this year.

And on Friday, I was able to attend the Association of Washington City's board meeting where we voted on the state legislative agenda.

This year, we were able to include rapid acquisition of housing within the agenda, and that was not within the AWC's legislative agenda in past years.

This coming week, my staff is attending the Fremont Neighborhood Council meeting tonight.

And on Tuesday, I will be attending the North Seattle Industrial Association meeting tomorrow morning I'll be checking in with our central staff director and SDCI director, Nathan Torgelson, as well as staff will be attending the community council meeting.

Sorry, it's not right before me, but staff and I continue to meet with, that's right, the North Precinct Advisory Council.

And for the viewing public here, you may know that The mayor has now transmitted will be transmitting the budget today.

So our calendar now changes going forward to reflect our budget calendar.

So the majority of this week, I will be focused on receiving updates and reports from our departments about what is contained within the mayor's budget.

And at the end of the week, I'm going to be attending the much-anticipated Sound Transit Northgate Link opening.

We are very excited to have this Sound Transit link spine grow and open here in North Seattle.

Here in District 6, I'm also very excited to announce that working with community and SDOT has worked.

West Green Lake Way North opened early.

They had a project date set for October 1st and Estop, thank you Director Zimbabwe and your entire team for getting West Green Lake Way opened earlier than anticipated.

It opened last Friday.

with a two-way protected bike lane and walking lane and two-way vehicular traffic.

Last week in District 6, I also held several meetings with local businesses, residents, and stakeholders, along with HSD, King County Regional Authority on Homelessness, direct service providers, and many more focusing on addressing homelessness in specific locations.

This work remains ongoing and I'm hosting weekly meetings to ensure collaboration and meaningful Interventions are achieved.

I think it's very clear that we need more emergency housing and shelter to have meaningful interventions.

I'll also be meeting this week with Seattle City Light about safety improvements in the Fremont industrial areas, specifically about street lighting as requested by a resident.

Later this week, I'll be meeting with the Executive Director of the United Indians of All Tribes.

Mike Tooley and with the budget calendar beginning this week our regularly scheduled district hours on Thursday from 2 to 6 may be adjusted if we have to skip a week like happened two weeks ago we'll be extending the following week.

This is one of those weeks where we will unfortunately not have our regularly scheduled office hours because of the budget calendar and so we'll be adjusting to make sure that We get to see everyone who has signed up.

Last week's office hours, I met with residents from Whittier Heights, two from Finney Ridge and East Ballard, four people from Ballard, four people from Crown Hill, four people from Green Lake, and two from Tangletown.

We discussed public safety, Seattle Police Department's budget, homelessness, updating the tree ordinance, approval voting, and two high-traffic and speeding areas that need some interventions by SDOT.

Colleagues, that is my report, and thank you, Council President and colleagues.

I'm happy to take questions about the bills coming before full council today.

Great.

Let's take a pause there, because I know you also have a report out on behalf of Council Member Juarez, but do want to give folks an opportunity to ask any questions or lift up anything else that might be top of mind related to your report in particular.

And I do see that Council Member Herbold has her hand raised.

Councilmember Herbold, please.

Thank you.

Just whatever your preference, I have a few words to say about a proposed amendment related to one of the bills that Councilmember Strauss just spoke to.

I could either speak to that now or hold until my report, which follows.

I think it would make sense to just do it all in one vein so we can keep it all together in the same sort of context.

So feel free to go ahead and address it now.

Great.

Thank you so much.

So let's see here.

We are voting on a bill referenced by Council Member Strauss in his remarks, a council bill 120157. This is legislation that makes some changes to a bill that was passed in late June of this year.

The mayor noted at the time that she had concerns about a provision in the bill that was added by amendment by the council.

The mayor signed it.

And then shortly after the mayor sent the council a brand new bill that undid the amendment that the council passed.

I believe that this sets a precedent that we should seek to avoid.

The change in the legislation that this legislation seeks to undo is not in effect and would not be in effect until July of next year.

The original legislation also requested the executive to report back on the types of projects being developed under the authority of the legislation.

concerned that by voting now, we are denying ourselves valuable data to understand what kind of developments are moving forward.

All of that said, those are just sort of my feelings about bringing this bill back to us after the fact that we just voted on it a few short months ago.

I am bringing forward an amendment that I hope will be seen as a compromise.

And this amendment would allow 80% AMI rental affordability thresholds to be used in the urban centers and villages identified in the comprehensive plan as having a high displacement risk.

But the amendment would maintain the lower 60% AMI rental affordability threshold in other locations throughout the city.

at a 60% AMI affordability threshold.

A qualifying one person would pay rent in a studio at $1,162 a month.

A four-person household would pay affordable rent in a three-bedroom at $1,726.

That's for the 60% AMI threshold.

Rented units that are developed on property owned in urban centers and villages with high displacement risks by religious organizations that receive the density bonus would have a more permissive 80% of AMI affordability threshold.

And that would result in rents for a studio at $1,545 a month.

or a three-bedroom at $2,295 a month.

As was discussed with Council Bill 120081, state law requires a minimum 80% AMI affordability and explicitly allows I should say, it allows a maximum 80% AMI affordability.

And the state law explicitly allows legislators to consider the needs of renters in our own cities by having lower affordability requirements, just like we do with MFTE, for instance, which state law authorizes a certain affordability, but we are allowed as legislators to set the affordability that addresses our market needs in the city.

So the old bill laid the effective date for a lower AMI affordability threshold until next year, next July, as in July 2022. That would have allowed any projects currently in the pipeline to move forward under the state law requiring only 80% AMI affordability.

So now that we are reconsidering this issue, this alternative path that I'm proposing maintains the 80% AMI threshold within urban centers and urban villages identified in the comprehensive plan and growth equity as having higher displacement risk.

This includes the central district and other neighborhoods where historic black churches continue to be displaced.

point of information.

We've done a little bit of analysis of the AMI for different demographic households, just to give us a little bit of a grounding on this legislation.

According to the 2017 ACS CHAS data, there were 1,400, 320 Black renter households in Seattle.

The Black renter households that were earning over 50% AMI but under 80% AMI, the number of those households was 1,505 households that earned over 50% but under 80% AMI.

That's only 10.5% of all Black renter households.

And then black renter households earning under 50% AMI represented nearly 70% of all black renter households.

And you could do this analysis for other demographics.

And just sort of generally just looking at renter households, generally the threshold to 80% AMI would leave a large number, leave these units out of the out of reach for a large number of renter households in the city.

And so I just really believe that if we allow all religiously owned properties throughout the entire city to develop at 80% AMI, we're creating a disincentive for religious institutions to partner with nonprofits, resulting in fewer rentals at the lower affordability levels that renters in the city really need.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

I know that Councilmember Strauss sent me a quick message saying that he'd like an opportunity to respond.

So I'm going to go ahead and recognize Councilmember Strauss.

And then I do see that Councilmember Lewis has his hand raised as well.

So I will call on Councilmember Lewis after Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Council Member Herbold.

I appreciate the spirit in which you're bringing this conversation.

I want to reground us with the process in which we engaged this bill.

We had these amendments in committee before it came to full council.

The amendments did not pass, and we heard from community about the reasons why they did not.

want this amendment to pass in the first place.

Um, when the bill came, this is a completely different amendment.

I'm sorry for interrupting, but this is a completely different amendment.

Councilmember Herbold, I'll give you an opportunity to respond, but if we cannot interrupt each other, that would be greatly appreciated.

So my apologies.

Go ahead, Councilmember Strauss.

No problem.

And Councilmember Herbold, let me broaden the conversation to the conversation about 60% AMI versus 80% AMI.

This conversation did occur at committee.

It was ultimately not passed because of the concerns that we heard from community members and churches about the flexibility that they need to provide services and the flexibility to meet their congregations where they are.

Council Member Herbold, you and I sat together next to each other at an event Saturday before the Monday vote, where I did not know you were going to bring these amendments.

And so I could not discuss with community members the impact of the 60% versus 80% AMI requirement.

You did brief all of us, all colleagues at the same time at council briefing.

uh the the morning before that vote and and we did not that did not allow us enough time to discuss with community members the impact and for them to be able to appropriately share i can say that i know there were community members who were ready to testify in support of the bill uh at full council but did not realize that these amendments were coming and so there's a process issue here so this is not about the mayor resending another bill that will create a precedent this is a about us working with community members to meet their needs in the best way possible.

What I've heard loud and clear is that churches need the flexibility to be able to have people up to 80% AMI in their buildings so that they can either choose to have people move back into the community that have been displaced or to use that revenue that creates the services that other residents are receiving I, as a policymaker, am not here to tell churches how they need to meet their congregation's needs and their housing needs in their community.

I am here to support them with legislation that gives them more flexibility to do so.

So again, I appreciate the spirit in which you're bringing today's amendment, which is similar and different, as you've noted, where you're now focusing the 60% AMI only outside of urban villages.

I unfortunately cannot support this amendment today because as many of us know, these are lines on a map.

They are, for better or for worse, imaginary boundaries that we as policymakers have created that look at density, not necessarily how we're supporting churches bringing the housing needs that they need to their community.

And so when I've reached out to community members about this, you have rightly focused in the central district.

However, there are still churches that we need that allow them to have the flexibility to meet their congregations needs, their housing needs that are not within urban centers and urban villages.

So, I have reached out to community members, they let me know that this is still problematic, and that, and for those, and because the community who we spoke to in committee, who then, you know, had opposition after we passed the final bill with the 60% in my amendment.

have now said to me the same things about about today's amendment.

So top line, I absolutely appreciate you being a problem solver Council Member Herbold and I appreciate the spirit in which you're bringing this and unfortunately I cannot support the amendment today.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Herbold, you wanted to add something into that conversation.

So I'm going to go ahead and recognize you and then if I can sort of create a little bit of space for Council Member Lewis to chime in as well after that, that'd be fantastic.

Thank you.

I appreciate the main point I wanted to make was that this is a different amendment than the amendment that came up at full council in a previous meeting.

I hope everybody recognizes the disadvantage that we are at.

under the new rules of the city council where we cannot actually attend committee meetings and vote on amendments.

The amendment in question from last June was an amendment that Councilmember Peterson had brought forward that did fail in committee that I brought forward in full council, which is I think, I hope, my right to do so as a council member who is not a member of the committee where the amendment is being discussed and voted on.

So it would have been great if this bill had gone back to committee and given been folks have been given another opportunity to discuss the bill again, now that we are being required to vote on legislation that we just voted on.

And just, I think it's important to realize that yes, we're here to address the needs of community.

That means making sure that we are building affordable housing that meets the needs of community.

In this case, the religious facilities are seeking to – particularly religious facilities that are located in areas of high displacement are seeking to receive a return on their investment sufficient so that they can maintain their institutions within these areas.

This amendment allows those churches to do so.

We also have a responsibility as policy owners, not only to make sure that developers are building housing that meets the needs of our renter communities, but we're also, in this case, we have an obligation to make sure that there is a public benefit.

We are basically doubling the development capacity of these parcels.

And so, as policymakers, we have the right and the obligation to define a public benefit in exchange for increasing the profitability of development on these parts of the property.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

And I am going to be interested in making some comments on the process generally, but before we volley back to Council Member Strauss, Council Member Lewis has been very patient with his hand raised, so if you don't mind, I'd like to go ahead and recognize Council Member Lewis and hear from him.

Thank you, Madam President.

I am going to do a topic change here.

So if you had something you wanted to weigh in on in the current discussion, I can make space for that.

A different topic related to another item from Council Member Strauss's committee.

Thank you.

Thank you for that clarification.

Let me go ahead and try to see if I can close the loop here and then we'll call on you Council Member Lewis.

So on some of these process issues, I do think that this amendment is a rather significant change from anything that was discussed in committee or previously debated and considered in full council.

I personally have not seen the language yet for this proposed amendment, and perhaps I missed it in my inbox, but my staff tell me that they also have not seen this proposed amendment.

So I don't have any, the benefit of any analysis from our Council Central staff or from my own staff or from department staff.

to give me a sense of what the impacts of the proposed amendment by Council Member Herbold would be.

And so I am concerned about that particular aspect of it.

Of course, we recognize that not all council members sit on all committees because of how we have had to modify our council rules.

I will note, however, that in other instances, we have had the opportunity to institute the model of an author versus a sponsor that would allow a council member who does not sit on a committee nor has the right to vote in a committee still has an opportunity to identify a council member within the respective committee and be recognized as an author of said amendment.

And they do have an opportunity to join the committee meeting and make arguments in favor of, or against particular amendments, regardless of whether or not they have the right to vote.

So I did want to clarify that for the record since there were comments being made about.

inability to lift policy issues at committees by virtue of not being a member of that committee.

We did create an opportunity for folks to overcome that barrier through this author versus sponsor distinction.

So I do want to just clarify that for the record.

So again, I think I think it'll be important for us to continue to have this conversation, but I am a little worried about the hefty nature of this amendment and not having most of us have the benefit of analysis, again, either from Council Central staff or from the department staff, or in my case, my own staff.

Let's go ahead and I see a couple hands raised.

I see Councilmember Strauss and now Councilmember Sawant.

Councilmember Sawant, it's going to be on this subject as well?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Let's go ahead and hear from Councilmember Strauss, then Councilmember Sawant, and then hopefully we'll be able to wrap up this conversation so that Councilmember Lewis can get to his different topic on Councilmember Strauss's report.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to respond to Council Member Herbold saying yes.

I mean, the ideal is that we have housing, affordable housing at 60% AMI across the city and in so many ways, and we have so many policies and funding mechanisms to do so through Office of Housing and our housing investments.

This is a bit separate from that where we need to give community members the flexibility that they need to meet their own needs.

And yes, this is absolutely an exception from the rule of how we should not typically bring back legislation that has been previously voted on and considered.

The reason that I am supporting this and that I've made the request to do this is because of the level of impact to the community and the ability for us to make that right by our community.

And thank you, Council Member Strauss.

And just to clarify, I am seeing that Council Member Herbal did send out the amendment.

It did, however, go out yesterday at 7.35 p.m.

And I am just, unfortunately, I'm just now seeing it and I'm trying to catch up here like I'm sure many, many others are.

So, Council Member Sawant, go ahead.

I just wanted to comment on the process itself, not so much on the amendment.

It's just I'm a little bit disconcerted by what I see as really inconsistent positions.

I mean, Council Member Strauss is saying this is too last minute.

And yes, the amendment did come on Sunday evening, yesterday evening.

but Council Member Strauss himself sent two drafts of an amendment in the middle of the council meeting last week.

So in other words, we all sometimes have to, are forced to catch up to things because, you know, things happen sometimes at a very fast pace.

And yes, ideally we should all bring amendments in advance.

My office certainly tries extremely hard to do that so that everybody has time.

But on the other hand, We all have been in that situation where we have brought amendments at the last second.

I think ultimately what matters is the substance of the amendment.

Does it benefit the vast majority of renters who are exploited.

And also in this case, the issue has been framed as affordable housing to help people return to their communities, the most low income and the most marginalized communities.

I think that that's where the discussion should be, not so much on the process, because clearly there are inconsistencies on what council members are upholding as the process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Solant.

Okay, anything, any other questions or comments on the Council Bill 120157, including the amendment identified by Council Member Herbold before we switch gears?

Council Member Mosqueda, I see you raising your hand.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Councilmember.

Thank you, Councilmembers and Council President.

I know that this is our process to normally sort of air what we're thinking about amendments, especially if they're coming the day of, so I wanted to follow that process.

I'm happy to also chime in this afternoon.

I wanted to go back to the comments that Chair Strauss had made about the importance of This legislation already including public benefits.

Really, I am very supportive of this legislation as it's coming back down again.

I see the ability to create affordable housing without having to identify additional public subsidies, which we can do better at 80% AMI as a huge public benefits.

And there's also greater density that we're also providing with this legislation.

The ability to build and to build within our city is a public benefit.

And I think that if we're creating bifurcated systems where rules are different outside of urban villages doubles down on the inequities that we've already been seeing and deepen by past public policy.

So I really am supportive of the legislation as it's come in front of us.

This legislation did consider all the public benefits that would be available at 80% AMI and I'm excited to see this legislation in front of us this afternoon.

I think that it's important to take this opportunity to restore a key facet of the legislation that ensures that this is workable for these religious organizations and communities, that the outcome is building affordable housing, and that we're doing it in a way that couples the ability to merge various funding sources and not have to have those entities rely just on public I'm going to be supporting the underlying legislation.

Thanks.

I was going to let this go, but I've heard it twice, so I just need to clarify.

The amendment does not permit the 80% AMI affordability threshold just inside of urban villages and urban centers.

It is specifically targeting those urban villages and urban centers that have been identified in the comp plan as having a high displacement risk.

out of recognition that in some ways the goal of the advocates is both to provide affordable housing at this 80% AMI, which is basically market rate, but it's also so that they can get a return on their investment sufficient so that they can not be displaced.

So the amendment is focused not allowing 80% AMI in all urban centers and urban villages, but specifically urban centers and urban villages that have high displacement risk because the analysis in the comp plan for high displacement risk isn't just focused on renters who are being pushed out of these neighborhoods because of how unaffordable they've become.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

I'm not sure if that's the case.

Thank you.

And again, Council Member Herbold, I deeply appreciate the spirit in which you're bringing this.

Again, I'll just highlight that my concern was that we're drawing imaginary boundaries in areas that have high displacement, high risk.

And that's why the urban villages and centers is inconsistent with my policy goal this time.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Okay, I think we have come to a conclusion on this particular conversation, so I'm gonna go ahead and recognize Councilmember Lewis for his question or comments on other aspects of your report.

Thank you, Madam President.

This discussion feels anticlimactic now, but I'm going to go ahead and queue it up.

So I'm going to be bringing an amendment today for Council Bill 120153. I believe this amendment has been circulated to all offices.

It came out of public comment from a community member.

during the initial hearing on this topic last week and took a little back and forth with the relevant departments to sort of determine how this could be incorporated into the bill in a way that met this community desire, but also met the spec of what the department was trying to create.

So the amendment is supported by STCI.

They've given it the green light.

The bill would restore some of the underlying requirements of the Belltown DMR zoning.

It would reduce the width to 90 feet for these new small lot.

Just as background, this is on the small lot development bill in Belltown.

It would reduce the width to 90 feet from 100 feet.

and it would put back in a 22-foot setback to allow for more lighting and air on the green streets that are going to come in around the small lot buildings that are going to be developed on these Belltown parcels.

This is an amendment that was brought by some constituents in Belltown that just want to make sure that these new small lot buildings that are coming in our building an urban environment that is still emphasizing a livable Belltown without undermining the increased density and better building standards that these buildings will be able to benefit from to add more residents to Belltown.

Like I said earlier, it is supported by the department.

And it should be a fairly uncontroversial amendment this afternoon, but I'm happy to make myself available between briefing and this afternoon to discuss it further.

And just appreciate the opportunity to flag that now at council briefing.

I would also say that this amendment was developed in consultation with of the Strauss office.

And I want to thank Noah for being available as a resource to go back and forth and make sure that this is in keeping with the spirit of the underlying legislation.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

For that, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Lewis, thank you for the reason that this is an anticlimactic briefing is because we were able to work together throughout last week on this amendment.

I know that I had still some concerns Friday evening.

I believe Noah has been working with your office, so I'll just make sure that those concerns have been alleviated and just really support, appreciate your collaboration on this.

great.

Okay, well, thank you for that.

Any other comments or questions on Councilmember Strauss's report?

We don't usually have that much action in your report, so we all get a go on this.

So it looks like no one else has any hands raised, so I'm going to go back to you, Councilmember Strauss, so you can give Councilmember Juarez's report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, I always endeavor to be short with the council briefing.

Unfortunately, I have not achieved that goal this morning.

Here is the report from Council Member Juarez, D.J. D5's District 5 report.

The next Public Assets and Native Communities Committee is on December 7th at 2 p.m.

The committee will consider legislation to renew Woodland Park Zoo contract Colleagues, if you would like to propose an amendment to the contract, please submit it to both Councilmember Juarez's office and Brian Goodnight's office by November 30th for consideration.

The deadline allows draft amendments to be approved by the Parks Department, Woodland Park Zoo, and the Law Department in advance of the committee.

The Councilmember Juarez's office will not consider amendments after the deadline.

The deadline is November 30th.

You have many months' notice, two months' notice in fact.

Please make sure to get proposed amendments to the Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo contract in by November 30th.

Metropolitan Parks District.

On October 18th, a Metropolitan Parks District meeting is scheduled directly after our full council meeting adjourns.

A public hearing has been set to discuss the mayor's Metropolitan Parks District budget proposal.

From the Parks Department.

The shower programming for the reporting period from September 15th through the September 21st, the park shower program served 222 users at six community centers.

As part of the summer wrap up, the parks department had a busy summer focusing on COVID safe ways to recreate for youth and community.

Over the summer, lifeguards at least eight swimming beaches kept watch over 140. 3,000 visitors and provided 75 assists to swimmers, including 28 active rescues of people in distress.

Their 17 licensed child care sites hosted an average of 350 children's kiddos per week.

The parks hosted an activity camps at four sites for over 1,121 children.

between 20 and 30% of kids at each camp were supported by scholarships provided by the Sweden beverage tax.

Career labs, a job readiness program for youth.

Had 142 young people complete the program, the Clean City Initiative, now giving the briefing for the Clean City Initiative.

For the week of September 13th, Clean City crew members picked up 4,500 needles and 56,120 pounds of trash from 37 encampments.

Workers focused on deep cleaning.

Deep cleaning three parks, Genesee, Commodore, and Volunteer Park.

Cumulatively, the parks arm of the Clean Cities Initiative has cleaned up approximately 3 million pounds of trash and 75,000 needles throughout the city.

Thank you, colleagues.

Council President, that is Council Member Juarez's report.

Thank you so much.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, let's go ahead and move down the line.

Next up is Councilmember Herbold, and then after Councilmember Herbold will be Councilmember Lewis.

Councilmember Herbold, are you ready to go?

Sorry about that.

It's okay.

a little slow on the draw here.

My report will be short.

A quick update from the Human Services Department.

Today and tomorrow, Human Services Department Interim Director Tonya Kim and Rex Brown, the new Division Director of the Safe and Thriving Communities, will be joining elected officials and community leaders including numerous city council members in community engagement forums hosted by community passageways to hear directly from youth regarding their thoughts on gun violence in our community.

From public health, I just want to remind the viewing public that starting on October 25th you will need proof of vaccination.

Some activities in county, both indoors and outdoors, it's best to make sure that you're ready for this change ahead of time.

So if you're not so that you're not caught without proof of vaccination or a negative negative test when you need one county is a super helpful.

Frequently Asked Questions webpage for general information about vaccine verification and where it will be required.

You can go to kingcounty.gov forward slash verify.

You may have heard that the Centers for Disease Control recently announced that boosters are available for certain people who receive the Pfizer vaccine initially.

This includes anyone who is 65 or older, residents in long term care facilities, and folks who are 50 to 64 years old who are at high risk because of certain underlying medical conditions.

Only booster doses of Pfizer vaccine have been authorized by the FDA at this time.

Booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have not been authorized.

Further, City of Seattle and Public Health are working out how to best support residents to receive their Pfizer boosters and I expect that more will be announced in the very near future about how you can get your Pfizer booster if you are eligible.

In the meantime, to find a booster shot or get started on your initial COVID vaccination if you have not yet had one, you can find vaccine locations as always at KingCounty.gov forward slash COVID.

And of course, a reminder that flu season is almost here and health leaders are urging everyone to get their flu shot this year.

In addition to protecting you and others from sickness, it will help our hard hit healthcare workers who are struggling with record levels of hospitalization right now.

And then just quick update for something that I know impacts my South Park neighbors in District 1, but also the other Duwamish Valley communities in District 2. Many of you may have seen the recent letter in the Seattle Times from Paulina Lopez, James Rasmussen, and B.J.

Cummings about the efforts to undermine the environmental and health protections promised by the 2014 decision for the Duwamish River cleanup.

the Port of Seattle, King County Wastewater, and Seattle Public Utilities were supporting proposals of the EPA to change cleanup requirements in the light of new science around acceptable levels of PCBs and other chemicals.

I think there is still reasonable minds can disagree about what the acceptable levels are.

The Seattle Public Utilities, the port, King County still believe that they are taking a position that is supported by the scientific understanding of what are called CPAH toxicity.

But they did write last week that I'm really pleased to announce.

They wrote, quote, we are committed to working with the EPA to ensure that community concerns are addressed including working to complete the cleanup of the Duwamish River as identified in the record of decision or exploring other effective means of addressing this concern.

So I really appreciate that the parties have expressed their willingness to clean the area above and beyond what is required by the recently updated toxicology assessment by the EPA and by And then, lastly, we do have a The proclamation is for Diaper Need Awareness Week and representatives from Westside Baby will be joining us this afternoon to accept the proclamation, talk about their work, meet that need in our community, including stepping up during the pandemic to distribute 860,000 more diapers in 2020 than in the previous year.

My office circulated the proclamation to council member offices on Thursday morning.

Council President, I'll hand it over to you to walk us through the next steps of securing signatures on the proclamation.

Great, thank you so much Council Member Herbold.

So the proclamation has been described.

I just want to make sure there are no questions before I request the roll call.

Seeing no questions, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation regarding Diaper Need Awareness Week?

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Ayten Favre?

Thank you so much.

Okay, Councilmember Herbold, anything else to report?

All right, all done.

With that being said, we're going to move down the line here.

Next up is Councilmember Lewis, and then after Councilmember Lewis will be Councilmember Morales.

Good morning, Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President.

So there are no items from It's like Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments before the council today.

Just as a reminder, I want to state for the public that the committee canceled its meeting on the 22nd because, substantively, it was going to be very similar to the meeting coming up in the Select Budget Committee, chaired by Councilmember Muscata, this coming Thursday.

So, in essence, the committee will be meeting this coming Thursday with Councilmember Muscata, chairing the Select Budget Committee, and hearing briefings from the executive from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and the Human Services Department.

to discuss many of the same topics that we would have discussed on the 22nd, as well as additional topics relating to the 2022 budget on homelessness and the regional authority.

So looking forward to that conversation on Thursday, and just wanted to note for members of the public that that is when that discussion will be occurring.

On a related note, I did have the opportunity to have a great meeting with CEO Mark Jones of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, now famous CEO Mark Jones after a great profile this weekend, detailing their experience and their early leadership of the regional authority.

This was a really productive meeting with CEO Jones where we went over some foreshadowing of some really aggressive plans in 2022. to scale up our housing assets, to work on pass through from shelter to housing, to work on increased acquisition of new assets like hotels, motels, and additional permanent supportive housing assets, as well as strategies to recruit and retain more folks to work in our beleaguered homelessness services sector, which, as we know, has a very high attrition rate and has had issues retaining folks, especially during the trying and difficult times of the pandemic.

In terms of more short-term takeaways from this meeting, I'm really pleased to report that CEO Jones feels like they have developed the capacity in the authority in terms of their staffing plan and their support network.

to take on some of the 2021 investments that this council has made, which has yet have been unrealized due to capacity issues in the Human Services Department.

and potential disputes with the regional homelessness authority on how to realize these investments.

This includes funding that the council has put forward in our ARPA plan for an additional three tiny house shelters, as well as a safe lot for up to 25 RVs.

I'm pleased to report that CEO Jones indicated that there probably is capacity for the authority to take on trying to implement those assets in 2021, which is really fantastic news.

I am hoping to meet soon with executive officials in the mayor's office, the Human Services Department and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

to figure out how we can get those assets out there by listing some kind of RFQ, be it within the Human Services Department, be it within the authority, or be it within some kind of joint RFQ.

There is a shared urgency.

between the city and the authority in realizing more investments to respond to the very real need that we're seeing out in the community.

And I appreciate our shared commitment to action and look forward to following up on what was a really great meeting.

Finally, I am going to be attending, along with it sounds like Councilmember Strauss, the Sound Transit Preview Ride on Friday for the new link between Northgate and the University District.

Really looking forward to that.

A long time coming.

I only wish it could have been done in time for when I was an undergrad at the University of Washington.

That would have been a really great and helpful transportation link to take advantage of.

Otherwise, I do not have any other updates.

Aside from stating that if full council can get out on time this afternoon, I do intend to go and stand in solidarity with our striking carpenters.

who are going to be holding a rally in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

We owe a lot to our union carpenters here in the city of Seattle, especially in District 7, given that all of these massive towers downtown that have fueled so much of our economic growth have been built by union labor.

And we owe it as elected officials to stand in solidarity with our carpenters and make space for their leadership and their demands as they go into a contentious period of additional negotiation with the associated general contractors.

And I am proud to go and center their voice, stand in solidarity with them, and push forward to make sure that District 7 continues to benefit from the great growth and great opportunities that our union carpenters make possible, and make sure that that growth is equitably distributed and represented in fair and equitable contracts and agreements, compensating them for this essential labor with living wages and good benefits.

With that, Madam President, I have nothing else to add.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report?

Council Member Roscada, please.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much Councilmember Lewis for the report out from your conversation with the Regional Homelessness Authority and CEO Mark Jones.

I too had a good conversation with Director Jones two Fridays ago and I think it was helpful to seek clarification about existing already appropriated funds versus future funds for the Regional Homelessness Authority and the desire that I think is universally shared between businesses and those experiencing homelessness and advocates and electeds that if funding is already appropriated, especially from our legislative partners, we should not let any dollar go sit on the table or reject it.

And I think what you've reported out is great news as we look to deploy the ARPA funds and the state legislative dollars from the capital budget to stand up these three tiny house villages and RV state bus we're in good shape.

That's my daughter in the background.

A little sick day, so I'm going to go back to that, but thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Any other comments or questions on Councilmember Luz's report?

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

Next up is Councilmember Morales, and then after Councilmember Morales will be Councilmember Mosqueda.

Good morning, colleagues.

We have six items from the Community Economic Development Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

One is Council Bill 120162, which creates the 15th Avenue BIA.

And then we've got five appointments for the Seattle Women's Commission that we'll be discussing.

There was one other bill in my committee regarding changing human rights definition to include immigrants, discriminatory category to add another protected class or two.

There's a little bit more work to be done on that bill and so we will discuss that again in my committee in December and then we'll bring that to full council.

I do have one item on the introduction and referral calendar for this afternoon that I want to let my colleagues know about.

Council Bill 120184 establishes Juneteenth as a legal holiday for certain city employees and establishes a legal parking holiday.

As you know, we already have a federal holiday this year.

Governor Inslee signed House Bill 1016, creating a holiday for state employees and King County passed legislation as well.

So I think it's important that as a city we acknowledge Juneteenth as a day to commemorate the notification of of former slaves of their emancipation.

I want to thank the council president for referring this to her governance committee and ask my colleagues to reach out to me if you've got any questions about the bill.

And I do want to thank Karina Bull and council central staff and my own chief of staff, Alexis Turla, for their hard work on this bill and for really making sure that we are having the conversations that we need to have with the law department and for crafting a really excellent piece of legislation.

Moving on, I do want to report I had a meeting with the Office of Civil Rights last week.

I'm very excited that preparations are underway for the participatory budgeting process.

OCR is staffing up and recently completed their first round of interviews for their participatory budgeting coordinator.

That person, once they're hired, will be working with community to help craft the RFP process.

for the contractor who will be hired later this winter.

And that contractor will be responsible for helping actually facilitate the participatory budgeting process next year.

So things are moving and I'm excited that we will get to see the fruits of all of those conversations very soon.

Last week, along with a District 2 homeless service provider, my staff and I toured a property in Soto where the owner is very interested in partnering with the city to turn a current building into non-congregate shelter to help our unhoused neighbors transition into long-term stable housing.

During the tour, the provider indicated that there are several properties.

They see the potential in the property.

And my guess is that there are several properties like that across the city, folks who are just waiting to be able to turn their buildings into shelter and services and permanently affordable housing for folks who are living unhoused.

These are really creative opportunities that I'm excited to explore.

And I have to say, I have had a couple of conversations with property owners in the last couple of months, folks who are interested in working with us to provide the kind of services that are needed.

And it's just really refreshing, candidly, to have conversations with property owners who are helping look for solutions.

And I want to thank them for being willing to reach out to us.

We also toured a thriving business hub on MLK.

that houses several Somali-owned businesses, along with the Alor Mosque.

There's a refugee assistance organization there and food pantry.

And this is just another example of community members who are really trying to stay rooted in South Seattle, serving their community with an array of businesses, religious organizations, social services, And they're interested in buying the land that they currently rent so that they can take it off the speculative market and really move it into community ownership.

So I was excited to be able to meet with them and hear about the plans that they have for their community.

I joined leaders of the Chief Seattle Club to tour Eagle Village last week as well and during the tour was able to meet some community members who are living at the village and who have been moved out of the village into stable long-term housing and have now returned.

to help provide services to the folks who are moving through that journey into more stable housing.

It's really great to see that kind of circle of how these organizations are really impacting community members in an acute way.

To the extent that once folks have moved through those programs, they're actually able to come back and serve as folks who have had lived experience and now helping other folks move through that journey.

So it was really nice to visit with them and to visit with Derek, who's the new director there.

I also had a conversation last week with Seattle School Board Director Brandon Hersey.

He is very interested in discussing the stormwater fees that the school district pays to see if there is a way to mitigate some of that expense to the district so that they can reallocate to services that are needed by the students in the district.

So look forward to continuing that conversation with him.

Council Member Peterson, I'm sure we'll be having that conversation together as well.

So heads up.

And then finally this weekend I was able to join the many organizations who were hosting the solidarity budget conversation yesterday.

It was a good opportunity to get a preview of what our constituents will be requesting from us about how to meet community needs and how to invest in the kinds of services and opportunities that can really help provide community safety, particularly for our Black and Brown community members and neighborhoods.

That is all I have this morning, colleagues.

If you have questions about anything, I'm happy to answer.

Great, thank you so much, Councilmember Morales.

I do see that Councilmember Lewis has his hand raised, so I'll go ahead and recognize Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just want to respond to the tour that Councilmember Morales reported taking in Soto with a provider that is interested in pursuing some kind of shelter.

That's awesome news.

I just wanted to flag my interest in being supportive and helpful with moving that forward.

My office does have a list of many such projects that we've been made aware of, either from colleagues here or from our own work with the provider community.

It is a long, long list of potential capacity that is paired, I would add, with provider representations of having capacity to realize the investment.

It drives me up a wall that more of that has not been realized.

But I'm hopeful that we're at a point, given my earlier report about the authority, kind of getting to a point where they might be able to take on more of these things.

having this list of projects is going to be very valuable at this point.

So Council Member Morales, if someone in your office could coordinate with Jacob Thorpe in my office just so that we also have that information, we're happy to like to really help push on that.

So thank you so much.

Yeah, I appreciate that council member Lewis.

We do have, as I said, you know, property owners who are very eager to help find solutions and and service providers.

You know, we did have folks come in tour with us to see what the potential is of this property.

We hadn't seen it ourselves yet.

And there's a lot of excitement about the opportunity to provide.

stability and services and, you know, an entry for people into into a system that can offer the kind of support that they need.

So Devin Silvernail on my staff will certainly reach out to Jacob and make sure that we're figuring out how we can pursue it.

Thank you.

Thank you for that sort of a as we're having that conversation that reminds me it's a little bit of a testament to the power of district representation and those relationships at work to identify some clear solutions and opportunities for.

these really important projects to get going so that we can truly meet the needs of those who have unmet needs in our community.

So appreciate all of that work by all of you to try to find those opportunities.

Any other comments or questions?

All right, hearing none, we're going to go ahead and go down the line.

Council Member Mosqueda is next.

And then after Council Member Mosqueda will be Council Member Peterson.

Thank you so much and good morning again colleagues.

Apologies if you do hear a coworker of mine in the back.

Our daughter is sick today so she's home in the office here with me.

Colleagues, we do have one item from the Finance and Housing Committee on today's full council agenda.

This is the legislation that lifts the proviso on the 30 million dollars available for the strategic investment funds that was made available by the sale of the Mercer Mega Block project.

This is legislation that follows through on the years-long process of advocacy by community organi- years-long, multiple years-long process by community organizations who have worked to ensure that the city makes good on its promise to community during the sale of this historically large and valuable piece of public land known as the Mercer Mega Block.

A reminder that this fund was initially established in 2019, when in addition to allocating a portion of the Mercer sale dollars to historic investments in housing, the council also passed a budget proviso on $30 million to create a combined, to create a community-driven strategic acquisition fund.

This included an advisory board to make recommendations on how to spend the money to support equitable development projects in communities experiencing high rates of displacement and low access to opportunity.

Last year, we as a council worked to reinstate this $30 million fund when the $30 million was cut by the mayor's proposed 2021 budget.

In our final budget, we restored the funding as originally intended so that it would go to the strategic investment fund and we had in this year the opportunity to have two committee discussions on the outcome of that advisory board and the community engagement that took place over the last year.

We also had an executive session for council members to learn more about the project slated and we are very excited that the possibility of getting these dollars out the door means that transactions will be on the near horizon here.

Given the timeline in the background, it's exciting to see this Proviso lift go forward so that we can get these funds out the door to the community-driven anti-displacement acquisition opportunities to support things like housing, child care, small business, and community space.

So really excited about the future grantees, and we will continue to work to support, in various ways, where possible, the other projects that did not get selected, given our ongoing work with the Jump Start, Seattle, progressive revenue proposal, and additional progressive dollars coming in the door.

$30 million is not enough, but it is a great investment that I know will make a huge difference to communities across Seattle.

In terms of finance and housing committee, we have no further meetings before we go into the budget session because our budget session really starts today.

The mayor will be sending down her proposed budget to council today.

We are excited about the opportunity to dive into this proposed budget and that will start this week.

We'll begin with department presentations and we'll have a chance to hear from various departments about details in the mayor's proposed budget.

We will have all day sessions with various departments to dive into the details.

Again, colleagues, the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday meetings have been published over the last month and a half.

As a reminder, those start at 930 in the morning and we will take a break at 1 p.m.

Wednesday morning, we will begin an introduction on the budget process and have an overview from Council Central staff and the CBO overview on the 2020 proposed budget.

Wednesday afternoon, we'll dive into the Office of Economic Development, Office of Sustainability and the Environment, and the Department of Education and Early Learning.

Thursday is going to be a lot of information and a long day as well, where we will hear from Office of Housing, Human Services Department, and the Citywide Homelessness Response System, as Councilmember Lewis alluded to in his report as well.

I want to thank Councilmember Lewis and Jacob Thorpe for working with our office to make sure that the Regional Housing Authority is incorporated in the Human Services Department's report out as well on Thursday afternoon.

Excuse me, on Thursday.

And then in the afternoon, we will hear about community safety and community-led investments, as well as investments in Seattle Police Department.

And rounding out the week on Friday, we will hear from the Seattle Parks Department and the Seattle Department of Transportation, closing out the day with presentations on our ongoing COVID response.

In other updates, I want to thank Councilmember Strauss for two great meetings last week.

The first was a public hearing on Wednesday and then a committee meeting on Friday on the legislation that I'm excited to be co-sponsoring with Councilmember Strauss to rename Single Family Zone to Neighborhood Residential.

This legislation was passed unanimously by the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee last week and it will be before full council as Councilmember Strauss alluded to on October 4th.

As discussed in the Friday committee meeting and in the public hearing on Wednesday, the name change is important because it recognizes that Seattle's neighborhoods are more diverse.

We need to recognize the diverse housing structures and households that are around our city and the importance of that diversity.

Currently, the name single family does not get to the full breadth of what our city's current fabric is.

Seattle's neighborhoods are home to legacy duplexes, triplexes, apartment buildings, and small businesses, parks, schools, childcares, and so much more.

This, in addition to the accessory dwelling units and detached dwelling units that we have continued to build since 1994, the single family name is really a misnomer.

And importantly, it has roots in exclusionary racist zoning practices of the past that are no longer going to be in statute if our legislation passes, and that is something we can all be proud of.

This is a step forward in our ongoing work to create a more equitable and inclusive Seattle, and I look forward to having the opportunity to work with all of you as that comes up for full council vote on October 4th.

Again, wanted to highlight those important hearings from last week and thank Councilmember Strauss.

Today, I too will be joining the Pacific Northwest Regional Carpenters, excuse me, Regional Council of Carpenters, who have been on strike since September 16th.

This strike, as noted from the Washington State Labor Council's news alert this morning, has halted the carpenters' work on hundreds of projects across the region, except for those where the project labor agreements are in place.

Today I will be joining with the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Martin Luther King County Labor Council, along with members of the Seattle Building Trades, UAW 4121, Iron Workers Local 86, Seattle Education Association, LIUNA Local 242, UFCW 21, and labor members from across the city and region as we call for a contract that respects the rights and the dignity of workers there.

I'll also be continuing to work with all of you as we continue to make sure that the bargained wages and benefits go even further by addressing things like housing and affordable, excuse me, affordable housing and parking in our city that often takes funding away from hardworking labor members across our city.

This Friday I have the honor of also joining with the Sound Transit partners and our other regional partners in the opening of the Northgate light rail station.

Very excited about the expanded light rail options and how this helps to continue to meet our environmental equity and accessible transit goals.

And I'll be participating in Wednesday's Affordable Housing Committee meeting where we will be having a chance to hear on the housing choice, diversity in affordable housing, advancing shared revenue principle strategies.

This makes sure that we're not only advancing housing across the region, but also making sure that there's adequate funding for building affordable housing.

And finally, just to report out from the Office of Labor Standards and FAS, first from Office of Labor Standards, I'm excited to remind folks that last month the Office of Labor Standards announced a settlement of nearly $1 million with Postmates.

It's important to lift up these important settlements as they truly create not only money in the pockets of the hardworking, workers across the region, but also are a reminder to companies to comply with our city laws.

PostMase is a large food delivery network company with over 1,600 Seattle workers, and they settled the allegations under Seattle's gig worker paid sick and save time legislation.

which included about $950,000 in remedies to the 1,600 gig workers and about $22,000 in fines to the City of Seattle.

Additionally, this month in September, OLS announced fining against two companies involved in residential construction industries, Baja Concrete and New Way Forming Incorporated, for violations of the minimum wage, paid sick and safe time legislation, and violations of our wage death ordinances.

These directed investigations resulted in an assessment of over $2.2 million in remedies for 53 workers in our region.

Colleagues, you can find more about these remedies for workers and the importance of complying with our city's labor laws at the OLS newsroom, which is their regular blog postings on news coming out of Office of Labor Standards.

Again, OLS newsroom to read more.

And then from FAS, just a reminder that FAS License and Tax Administration will be sending out the 2022 Business License Tax Certificate Rate Increase Notices to businesses in the upcoming weeks.

The Seattle Municipal Code contains consumer price indexing function that increases the business licensing fee based on local CPI.

and that rounds out my report for today.

Again, looking forward to receiving the proposed budget, so we can all dive into the details as our budget deliberations start this week in the Select Budget Committee.

Thank you.

Great, thank you so much.

Colleagues, any comments or questions for Council Member Mosqueda?

Okay, I'm not seeing any hands raised, so we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Council Member Peterson, you're next, and then we will hear from Council Member Solano.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Our City's Transportation Utilities Committee has no items on this afternoon's full City Council agenda.

Our Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, but we are entering our two-month budget season this week, so we will have our next committee meetings on Wednesday, December 1st and December 15th, both at 9.30 in the morning.

After our region's voters approved the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure 13 years ago in 2008, the big day is finally arriving this week.

As a few council members have already mentioned, this October 2nd, Saturday, three new light rail stations will open, including the Northgate station in District 5 and two new stations in District 4, the U District Station at Brooklyn Avenue and Northeast 43rd Street, and the Roosevelt Station at Northeast 65th Street and 12th Avenue Northeast.

Both District 4 stations will have festivities all day Saturday.

The U District opening celebration will have speakers at 11 a.m.

and the Roosevelt celebration at 1 p.m.

And these light rail stations, as we all know, are transportation game changers for mobility and for our environment.

Thank you, colleagues, for already highlighting the 30 awards recently received by Seattle Channel, as noted in a press release this past Friday, and for already highlighting the good news announcement by Seattle Public Utilities, the Port, and King County to reinforce their support for the cleanup of the Duwamish River.

Colleagues, last week, my legislative aide, Malik Davis, circulated a proclamation for your consideration, and we hope to obtain your support today.

The proclamation honors the late Professor Thaddeus Spratlin, who broke through racial barriers in academia to achieve a distinguished career that focused on researching and teaching important business issues.

He earned his PhD in 1962. and became the first African American to be tenured as a full professor at the University of Washington School of Business.

Dr. Spratlin co-founded the Caucus of Black Economists, now called the National Economic Association.

which promotes the professional lives of people of color within that important field of study.

Dr. Spratlin was a founder of the PhD project, which has quintupled the number of underrepresented minority faculty at business schools in the US since 1994. Dr. Spratlin was the founding faculty director for the University of Washington's Consulting and Business Development Center in District 4. The center has supported the growth of businesses owned by people of color and women across Washington State, helping to create more than 200,000 jobs.

Thaddeus Spratlin passed away earlier this year at the age of 90. The proclamation that we circulated proclaimed September 28, 2021 to be Thaddeus H. Spratlin Day.

And colleagues, I believe the council president will ask the clerk to conduct a roll call for indicating whether you will affix your signatures to this proclamation.

I hope I can count on your support.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

Before we do that, are there any questions about the proclamation?

Hearing no questions about the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation regarding Thaddeus Spratlin?

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Thank you.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Mosqueda.

Council Member Mosqueda.

We'll come back.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Seven in favor.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

Does that conclude your report, Council Member Peterson?

Yes, it does.

Thank you, Council President.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Any other comments or questions for Council Member Peterson on his report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Council Member Sawant, and then I will conclude this morning's Council Briefing with my own report.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you and good morning everyone.

There are two items for a vote on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

They are two bills from my office which will help address the crisis being faced by renters due to skyrocketing rent.

One bill is the Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance Ordinance.

It requires landlords to provide relocation assistance when they displace their tenants with outrageous rent increases, a process that has come to be known as economic evictions.

We know that over the past decade, there have been massive displacement and gentrification of our neighborhoods, primarily driven by skyrocketing rents, forcing thousands from their homes and neighborhoods and often the city.

Some also become homeless, according to nationally recognized studies that show that every $100 increase in average rents in a city results in a 15% increase in homelessness.

Out-of-control rent and housing costs, as we know, is not just a problem in Seattle.

It is happening all over the country and internationally, because it is being driven by macroeconomic factors.

The prices are not being driven by the cost of housing as the cost of housing.

They're being driven by ballooning real estate speculation.

The cost of residential housing goes up and up because investors believe they will be able to sell it for even more in the future.

And then property owners charge ever higher rents to cover the artificially inflated mortgages.

And it becomes a vicious circle.

And working people are left with increasingly fewer and fewer affordable homes to live in.

What we really need is citywide rent control without any corporate loopholes to actually regulate this out of control situation.

But in the meantime, we also need legislation to mitigate the harm done by increasing rents, and that's what today's bills will do.

In Seattle, renters who are displaced by redevelopment are eligible for relocation assistance through the Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance or TRAO, but renters who are forced to move by outrageous rent increases who face exactly the same burdens of displacement, exactly the same costs of moving, don't get any compensation.

So this bill from my office, the Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance Ordinance, makes renters eligible for relocation assistance when they're forced to move by a rent increase of 10% or higher.

This is similar to relocation assistance programs in other parts of the country.

As I mentioned before, in 2018, Portland, Oregon enacted an ordinance requiring landlords to pay relocation assistance to renters economically displaced by rent increases of 10% or higher.

There are two amendments to this legislation on today's agenda from my office.

One amendment pushes back the effective date of the legislation to July 1st, 2022 in order to accommodate the time the Department of Construction and Inspection say they need to set up the infrastructure to administer the relocation assistance program.

And then the other amendment essentially if passed, would reverse an amendment that was passed in the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee that was from Council Member Peterson, which was an amendment to require a means testing for renters to get relocation assistance under this bill.

Renters displaced by a rent increase would need to attest that they are low income, making no more than 80% of the area median income.

In the committee, I oppose the amendment primarily because any means testing creates a barrier for the most vulnerable people, the people for whom this assistance is intended to apply for the assistance they need and they deserve.

And this is true in many established means testing statistical studies.

And also in this case, there is no benefit to limiting the legislation by income because Like many other renters, there is a means test built into the life circumstances because I've never heard of well-off people being displaced by rent increases.

It is regular working people and especially low-income people who are displaced by rent increases.

So the amendment that I'm bringing to the city council meeting and it's both amendments are attached to the agenda will remove that means test and add whereas clauses explaining that means tests create a barrier for the most vulnerable people.

Council members should also review the analysis from the city attorney's office that City Council Central staff member Asha Venkatraman has forwarded to all council offices last week.

It should make all council members confident that there is no legal concern in passing the amendment that I'm bringing forward today.

And that was the original bill in the first place.

I've not seen any other amendments, any other amendments from council members.

So if you intend to bring one, please, in the spirit of the discussion earlier, where you did not want last minute amendments, please let my office and the public know right now.

And I hope that you are not going to bring last minute amendments.

Members of the public, and especially renters, have the right to know if elected officials are taking any action that would affect their lives.

The other bill on today's city council agenda from the sustainability and renters rights committee is the legislation from my office requiring landlords to provide six months notice for rent increases.

Currently in Seattle, only two months notice is required.

This bill was originally requested by the city of Seattle renters commission.

The way the bill appears on the agenda is unfortunately a little more confusing.

I said this in briefing last week than it should be simply because of the way the city's electronic legislation tracking system works.

Increasing the notice landlords are required to give renters for rent increases cannot stop the rent increase, but it does give renters the time they will need to find new housing and rearrange their lives if a rent increase forces them to move.

Both the bills have been recommended for a yes vote by the committee.

And as I said before, please let me know if there are any amendments.

The sustainability and renters rights committee last Thursday, there was one scheduled for last Thursday.

It was canceled due to a lack of quorum.

At that committee, we had intended to vote on legislation from the Department of Construction and Inspections, clarifying that the Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance, which is, as I said, TRAO, applies to buildings that exit the multifamily tax exemption or the MFT, Affordable Housing Program.

It's a clarification ordinance.

Because my office was We were forced to cancel the meeting because of lack of quorum.

We were unable to vote this bill out of committee on Thursday.

And so I appreciate the council president agreeing with my proposal to re-refer it directly to the full city council meeting for next week.

So council members will see the bill on today's introduction and referral calendar.

to all council offices, the PowerPoint presentation from the Department of Construction Inspections and the central staff memo explaining the legislation which we would have gone over in the committee, which are also attached as supporting documents to the legislation for members of the public if they would like to view it.

Again, as I said, the bill is for clarifying purposes and is pretty straightforward.

But if any council members have questions, please feel free to reach out to my office, to the STCI, or to Asha Venkatraman.

The other item that was scheduled for discussion last Thursday was a brief on the rent control legislation from my office.

My office still intends to bring that to a vote in December after the budget, and we will look for other opportunities to schedule committee meetings so we can brief the committee members and the council as a whole and the public on the contents of that bill.

Last week in council briefing, I reported on the staggering number of people in the Seattle area, as reported in the Seattle Times, who are in imminent risk of eviction if the eviction moratorium ended.

And I'd announced at that time that my office would be drafting a sign-on letter for the council to send to the mayor and the governor, urging them that the eviction moratorium be extended.

But I'm sure everybody has heard by now that Mayor Durkin has extended the eviction moratorium through January 15. The scale of the crisis certainly shows that even the moratorium is not enough.

cancel rental debt, basically cancel COVID debt, because the wealthy and big billionaires should be paying for the crisis, not working people and those struggling to survive.

And we also need to pass citywide rent control with no loopholes, because unless all of this is done, Seattle's housing and homelessness crisis will become orders of magnitude worse when the eviction moratorium does end.

But this three-and-a-half-month extension is another victory for the renters' rights movement and the struggle.

The renters' rights movement, of course, we know is not just local but is international because exploitation and gathering of working-class renters by corporate landlords is happening on every continent.

Yesterday, the movement achieved a historic victory that will reverberate worldwide Voters in Berlin, Germany voted to force the biggest corporate landlords in the city to sell 240,000 apartments back to the city, more than one out of every seven apartments to be run as affordable, publicly controlled social housing.

The corporate landlords that Berlin renters are battling are funded by the same venture capital speculating and banking giants that are responsible for sorting rents, not just in Berlin but in Seattle and elsewhere, and many of the ones who have, you know, internationally been responsible for housing bubbles and global financial collapses.

Like in Seattle, Berlin renters have been struggling with gentrification driven by some of the largest real estate landlords and speculators in the world.

Corporate landlords in Berlin hiked rents 85% between 2007 and 2019, very similar to what Seattle corporate landlords did in the same period.

So the renter victory yesterday in Berlin is our victory too.

It is the product of years of painstaking organizing by rank-and-file renters in Berlin and with renter struggles throughout the world having a positive impact on one another.

It should be a message to Seattle renters here that we should keep organizing to win big victories.

It's also a message to corporate landlords everywhere that renters are organizing and fighting back to make housing human right.

Recently, the Berlin renters movement had won an initial victory.

forcing a five-year rent freeze.

Shamefully, the courts overturned that earlier this year.

In the aftermath of that setback, activists fought back by introducing a referendum to take back privately owned apartment buildings into social housing.

The campaign, expropriate Deutsche Wohnen and Company, was named after the huge private landlord corporation that controls more than 110,000 apartments in Berlin, in many ways similar to the major corporate landlords like Goodman Real Estate and other companies in Seattle.

The political establishment, along with the real estate lobby, fought the initiative, but it got on the ballot with twice the signatures needed.

And yesterday, more than 56% of Berlin voters approved the measure, which will now force the Berlin Senate to take up the measure.

A leader in the campaign declared, quote, together we have moved the city and shaken up politics.

That's what we are celebrating today.

Thousands have become active with us.

We messed with powerful opponents and won.

We Berliners have decided no one is allowed to speculate with our apartments, end quote.

I have no doubt that the German political establishment will try everything to avoid implementing the referendum, but the renters movement there, at least at this moment, looks poised to keep fighting, and they need to keep fighting.

One leading organizer noted, quote, we will neither accept delaying strategies nor other attempts to stop the proposal.

We will not let go until the public ownership of the housing corporations has been implemented, end quote.

My office congratulates the renters rights movement in Berlin on their historic victory and we urge all renters in Seattle to stand in solidarity with them.

Workers have been pressed from all sides and our conditions have been deteriorating.

At the same time, American billionaires are raking in super profits.

Just since COVID crisis began, the billionaires have become nearly $2 trillion richer.

Meanwhile, we know Seattle rents have blown up.

And all workers, even union members and trade union members, including carpenters are increasingly unable to afford to live in the city that they helped build and run.

But despite all these odds rank and file carpenters are saying enough.

I applaud the rank and file.

carpenters and having the courage to reject four successive tentative agreements and I support them in all their demands which are fully paid parking, fully funded benefits, family supporting wages, improved protections against workplace harassment and a three-year contract to keep them in unity with other trade unions.

Carpenters are fighting against the so-called market share philosophy, which is the idea that they must compete with non-union carpenters for who will work the cheapest.

This is a race to the bottom for all workers, as we know, and undermines the very purpose of having a union.

This divide-and-conquer strategy of the contractor bosses must be rejected.

Carpenters are correctly opposing the idea of a four-year contract, separating them from the majority of the building trades contract negotiations.

Workers have the most power when we stand united in the face of the boss's drive for increasing profits at our expense.

The fact that all trades contracts go together right now, I mean at this moment, every three years is a rare thing.

And we stand with the rank-and-file carpenters in their fight to maintain that unity.

In fact, we need that unity every day if we are to overcome the attacks on organized labor and on millions of working families.

My office stands unequivocally with the carpenters in their fight against the contractor bosses for a fair contract.

I've supported the strike from its very inception, and I've sent two public letters to the rank-and-file.

And in fact, the rank-and-file have sent a response back to me with, at this point, over 100 carpenters saying that they appreciate the support and they want other progressive organizations, labor unions, and elected progressive elected representatives to also support them.

I've also sent a public letter to the union leadership sending my best wishes for success of the strike and pledging $10,000 from my solidarity fund, which exists because I take home only 40,000 of my $140,000 city council salary and after taxes, all the funds going to the solidarity funds.

I have pledged $10,000 to the union strike fund when they set it up and I urge organizations and individuals to also support the strike to also donate as soon as the strike fund is open and we support the carpenters calls that have come from day one of the strike to be able to pick at all possible job sites in order to bring the highest pressure to bear to win their demands.

Last week I also stood with carpenters and I picketed with them for many hours over several days to support their action which they are leading.

But I was really gratified to be able to be there in support of them for many hours and it was really inspiring to see their courage And on Saturday, we rallied with more than 200 carpenters, members and leaders of a dozen other unions, and other community members who support the strike.

I really appreciate the leaders and members of UAW 4121, the Seattle Education Association, the Physicians Union at the University of Washington, and many other union members and other leaders who spoke at the rally or who were otherwise there in solidarity with the carpenters.

We together marched to the headquarters of the Contractors' Association, AGC, with a clear demand for good pay and benefits and a three-year contract.

And I really encourage community members to turn out to the Carpenters' Rally at 4 p.m.

today at the south end of South Lake Union.

And last but not least, I was also proud to stand alongside carpenters and announce that our council office has begun work on three pieces of legislation to benefit not only carpenters but all construction workers and the one of the bills is to ensure that carpenters and other trades workers are able to have fully funded parking or fully paid parking within the city of Seattle.

We know that carpenters and other construction workers are required to drive to job sites because they have vehicles loaded with heavy tools required for the job, and they end up paying even up to $100 a week or even more sometimes for parking.

I talked to dozens and dozens of rank and file carpenters all of last week, and it is really Just gut wrenching to see how much work they do and as they say as their chance that they build everything, and they are not able to live inside Seattle.

I met so many carpenters who live in our thing Arlington Puyallup rent and they're forced to live far away because they not live close to their job, and this ordinance.

will make sure that 100% of the parking costs for all construction workers are paid by contractors within Seattle.

But this is in solidarity with their strike action, which is demanding fully paid parking, and I really hope that their strike demands themselves are able to succeed.

I also have other bills, one to restore the right of workers to strike on all agreements, on all project labor agreements, which we know are important because We, I strongly support and I helped fight for priority hire, making sure oppressed communities and women and LGBT communities have equal access for, for, for these jobs and they have increased opportunities for apprenticeship programs which is all very important, but it's very clear that the workers are saying they do not want the overall right of workers to have the right to strike, to be pitted against the right of oppressed communities to have these opportunities because they go together.

In fact, if we don't have the right to strike, then oppressed communities will suffer the most.

And also, I have told central staff to work on figuring out what else will we need to make sure that wage theft, which is unfortunately rampant on city of Seattle sites also, is addressed in a serious way.

It's really stunning to hear how much from carpenters, painters, iron workers, and other construction workers about how much wage theft is faced by our immigrant siblings and often non-union, and it is really heartening to see how union trades workers stand in solidarity with the non-union trades workers.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Sawant.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

I'm not seeing any hands raised, so I will go ahead and conclude council briefing with my own report out really quickly.

I have nothing on this afternoon's introduction and referral calendar.

Today in my role as council president, I am sponsoring item number one on our full council agenda, which is clerk file 314485, titled Mayor Jenny A. Durkin's budget address on the 2022 budget.

I have nothing to report out on behalf of my Governance and Education Committee otherwise.

Last Thursday at the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board meeting, the Executive Board approved the distribution of $901 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to the region's transit agencies.

These dollars will help to significantly reduce the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on regional transit systems.

And just as a highlight of those particular specific funding decisions, the Seattle-Tacoma Everett area is going to receive the benefit of a little over $867 million of those $901 million to varying agencies, transportation agencies in the region.

The city of Seattle was approved to receive a little over $4 million of those ARPA dollars, with King County Metro receiving a little over $395 million of that investment.

And Sound Transit also will realize an investment of a little over $275 million.

Again, highlight those in particular as they benefit our constituents here in the city of Seattle as well.

So excited that we had an opportunity to consider those additional pass-through dollar opportunities and really excited to see that level of investment going into our transit agencies to work on our region's transportation network.

The executive board also amended the operating procedures for the equity advisory committee to expand its size up to 20 members.

This action will help ensure there is a greater geographic and demographic representation on the committee, particularly from our Asian Pacific Islander community, and look forward to seeing who will be able to serve on that important committee to help guide PSRC's work, particularly in the transportation area.

Last week, I attended a Women in Politics conversation with Seattle University law students.

This conversation was hosted by the Women's Caucus, and I was honored to share time on that panel with Senator June Robinson and Jackie Payne of Galvanize USA, based in the Midwest.

It was a good conversation and an opportunity to share my perspective with students at my alma mater about community service and how to best utilize positions in government and otherwise to advocate for the betterment of our community.

My office also had an opportunity to join the inauguration of Seattle U's new president, Eduardo Peñalver, who is the first person of color, first Latinx person in the history of SU to be inaugurated as the president.

So congratulations to President Peñalver on his appointment and glad that he is with us now in our Seattle community.

He has made not just history, but did so during Latinx Heritage Month.

So excited about that.

Te vas a caer, mi amor.

Okay, this week I will meet with participants from Community Passageways' newest endeavor to interrupt gun violence in our neighborhoods and increase opportunities to stabilize the youth most impacted by the public health crisis.

I'll be meeting with a group of young folks who are impacted by gun violence in our community later today.

And I wanna thank Coach Dominique Davis and his team for coordinating that opportunity, that listening session, that learning opportunity.

And I also appreciate their ongoing their ongoing efforts and advocacy to continue to push us to address the systemic inequities that have led to the symptoms of gun violence within our community that disproportionately impact our BIPOC communities and our youth in general.

Lastly, I do have a letter that I am hoping you all will agree to sign on to.

This was circulated by my office last week.

This letter would urge Governor Jay Inslee to take action to reverse a longstanding gubernatorial action that has led to decades of confusion on the legal interpretation of Initiative 200. Since 1998, when Governor Gary Locke took action related to that initiative, there have been several interpretations of the executive action that worked to further stymie the efforts to create an equal playing field in Washington state.

The advocates at Washington Equity now have been diligent in their efforts to reverse and clarify this confusion, garnering the support of jurisdictions and organizations statewide for resolutions and letters consistent with what we are about to consider.

And of course, while we all respect the will of the voters, it is imperative that we create a consistent legal authority by which to interpret our laws.

And in the years since GA 98-01, been implemented, Washington's small minority and women-owned businesses have lost nearly $4 billion in state public contracting opportunities.

Washington has also witnessed a 45% drop in the number of certified women and minority-owned businesses from 4,917 in 1998 to less than 2,700 in 2021. And of course, BIPOC students now make up a lower share of enrollment at the University of Washington as compared to their percentage of Washington State's population.

Given these noteworthy setbacks on the road to a more equitable future.

I want to ask you colleagues to support support the effort of Washington equity now by affixing your signature to this letter that again was circulated to your offices last week.

Are there any questions or comments on the letter before we call the roll?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter regarding an executive order rescinding Governor's Directive 98-01.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

President Gonzales.

Aye.

Eight in favor.

Thank you so much colleagues for your support on that letter.

Really appreciate it.

Okay, that does conclude our items of business for this morning's council briefing.

Are there any other items for the good of the order?

Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Apologies, colleagues, and to Council Member Peterson.

I was not able to respond when called for signing on to their proclamation, so I'd love to add my name on Council Member Peterson's as well.

Great, thank you.

Thank you so much.

I should have made a point to circle back to you, and I did not make a note of that.

So we will add Council Member Mosqueda's signature to the proclamation presented by Council Member Peterson.

Thank you so much.

any other comments or questions.

All right, colleagues, hearing none, we are adjourned for today.

I will see you all at 2 o'clock.