Seattle City Council Briefing 7/6/2021

I think we're good.

Thank you so much.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Welcome back.

Let's see.

The morning is...

July 6, 2021, council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 9.31 AM.

Before the clerk calls the roll, just a reminder that Council Member Strauss is excused from today's meeting.

We also received notice from Council Member Herbold that she is unfortunately unable to attend this morning's council briefing, so she will also be excused for this morning.

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

Peterson?

Here.

So want present.

What is here?

Who is present?

What Alice Mosqueda and council president Gonzalez here.

7 present.

Thank you so much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of June 28th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

I don't have anything to report on the president's report, so I'm gonna go ahead and move us straight over to the preview of today's City Council Actions, Council, and Regional Committees.

Again, the order for this morning is going to be Councilmember Peterson, followed by Swamp, Juarez, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

So without further ado, good morning, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Regarding our city's Transportation Utilities Committee, we have no items on this afternoon's full City Council agenda.

Our Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning, and so our next committee meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, July 7. We'll vote on resolution 32009 conferring on to South Hill Street between 21st and 22nd Avenue South an honorary designation to call it Clarence A. Cox Jr.

Way after the legendary and award-winning drummer and jazz band director for decades at Garfield High School.

This resolution is co-sponsored by council members Herbold and Morales.

Our committee agenda for tomorrow includes our final discussion on the strategic plan for Seattle City Light, and we'll vote on that resolution, which is Resolution 32007. As part of that discussion and vote, we will hear from the City Light Review Panel and learn more about why they fully endorse Seattle City Light's strategic plan.

We will vote on an ordinance Council 120103 to authorize Seattle city light to enter into a long term lease with the community development authority for the old Georgetown steam plant structure, which is a national historic landmark.

And the last item on tomorrow's agenda of the Transportation Utilities Committee is Council Bill 120115, which proposes to increase on-street parking rates during large special events near Key Arena, now known as Climate Pledge Arena, in the Uptown neighborhood, formerly known as Lower Queen Anne.

Friday I circulated a letter to all council offices, a letter of support drafted by our Seattle Department of Transportation to include in their federal grant application for the East Marginal Way Corridor Improvement Project.

letter of support.

So the East Marginal Way multimodal project is in District 2 and will share benefits with many District 1 residents who could use that route.

It's my understanding the offices of both Councilmember Morales and Councilmember Herbold are supportive of this letter and the Mayor's Office will be signing it as well.

Again, it originated with SDOT.

At the appropriate time and under the guidance of our council president chairing this meeting, we can ask council members whether they'd like to affix their signatures to support the letter for this transportation project for the federal grant request.

SDOT's requesting $20 million from a U.S.

Department of Transportation grant program called RAISE.

According to the U.S.

DOT, projects for RAISE funding will be evaluated based on merit criteria that include safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness, state of good repair, innovation, and partnership.

With these criteria, the department will prioritize projects that can demonstrate improvements to racial equity, reduce impacts of climate change, and create good paying jobs.

This project is a good fit for this grant program.

Last Thursday I joined Council President Gonzalez and Public Safety Chair Herbold at the memorial service for our city government colleague and Seattle Police Officer Lexi Harris who grew up in the Wallingford neighborhood where her father still lives.

It was a moving ceremony showing much love and support for this dedicated public servant who was killed while she voluntarily was helping others.

Much gratitude to her family for enabling our city to have her service for as long as we did.

I'm hopeful that her upbeat and compassionate legacy will endure.

Quick note from District 4. Specifically, our university district neighborhood is looking forward to a new tiny home village before the end of the summer.

While the site at Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 45th Street is empty today, that's because the tiny homes are being built efficiently off-site.

I had the opportunity to check in on their construction in person last week at what they call the Hope Factory.

I think some of you, some of my colleagues have been there.

I'm happy to report that nearly all of the tiny homes for our you district site are built and painted.

I got a tour from Barb, the professional and inspirational leader of the dedicated volunteers who have increased their pace of tiny home construction.

We're also very thankful to Sound Transit for granting the city access to the site in the U District for at least the next couple of years, and grateful to the nonprofit Low-Income Housing Institute for leading the effort to pull everything together, which will include professional case management to empower the residents to transition from tiny homes to permanent low-income housing.

That concludes my report.

Great, thank you so much Councilmember Peterson.

We will go through the process now of asking for folks who have any questions about the letter that you described related to the SDOT grant.

Are there any questions about this letter before I ask the clerk to call the roll?

I am not seeing any hands raised.

So with that being said, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter regarding City of Seattle East Marginal Way Corridor Improvement Project RAISE grant application.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Lattice?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

PB, Lupita D Montoya PB, Lupita D Montoya PB, Lupita D Montoya

Thank you so much.

We are expecting to have Councilmember Herbold at our afternoon full council meeting.

So we will give her an opportunity to add her name to the letter in open session at the top of the agenda.

But for now, Councilmember Peterson, you have at least seven signatures of those members who are present this morning, of course.

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

All right.

Hearing none, we're going to go ahead and move down the line.

Next up is Council Member Sawant, followed by Council Member Juarez.

Good morning, Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

Good morning, everyone.

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

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for A special time Thursday, July 15 at 2pm.

The committee will discuss continue the discussion on the two bills that we began in the last committee on the fight for renters to have a renters Bill of Rights.

The first bill that is up for discussion that we already discussed, began the discussion last week, last time requires landlords to provide six months notice for rent increases.

And the second one that is also under discussion 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.

I expect that we will bring both these bills to a vote at the committee following the next one, which is on July 27th.

And at our July 15th committee meeting, which is the upcoming committee meeting, we will vote on the confirmation of four more appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

And we will continue the discussion on the principles of rent control.

We know that the crisis for renters is deepening, not letting up.

That's because corporate landlords are wasting no time in jacking up rents in 2021. Seattle landlords have raised rents at an average of 18.7% between January and June, 2021, according to industryanalystapartmentlist.com.

In 2021, landlords are increasing Seattle rents at double the national average.

I mean, this is just stunning.

So to put this in more concrete terms, these 2021 rent hikes will cost a typical Seattle renter an additional $3,300 a year in increased rent.

And this is coming at a time when tens of thousands of Seattle renters are deeper in debt than ever before due to the COVID pandemic and the recession that hit the capitalist economy all of last year.

That same Apartmentalist.com, by the way, it's a corporate landlord website.

So this same report from Apartmentalist.com boasted to its landlord clients that, quote, pandemic pricing is officially over, end quote.

And also, quote, 2021 has seen some of the fastest rent growth we have on record in our data, end quote.

These shocking 2021 rent increases are precisely why we need to ban the rent increases without six months notice and require landlords to pick up the cost of the trauma and dislocation they cause when they evict tenants through rent increases, which are the two bills now under discussion in the committee.

And of course we need rent control.

On top of that, about a year ago I stood at the tax Amazon press conference outside New Hope missionary Baptist Church with a dozen of clergy and community activists and socialists to demand that the city establishment support.

The Central Area Housing Plan, which had been developed by the Reverend Dr. Robert L. Jeffrey Sr., who is the senior pastor at that church, and also other area clergy members from Black churches.

As a result of this advocacy, and with hundreds of community members joining us, we were able to win an amendment in the final bill to dedicate a portion of the Amazon tax each year towards central district affordable housing, which was an important accomplishment and directly a victory for the black lives matter protest that year, but we also know that's not enough.

And over the years I've spoken with.

many faith leaders, including prominently black clergy members who are eager to build affordable housing on their properties and also are advocating for affordable housing throughout the city.

As a part of this struggle, they understand keenly both the urgency and the moral mandate for affordable housing throughout our region.

Reverend Jeffrey has, for example, explained how 50 years ago the city's democratic establishment at that time essentially forced the church to sell its land to the city.

The forced selling price under the city establishment's threat of taking it through eminent domain was $34,000.

This was a travesty against Seattle's black church community and against the black working class and the working class as a whole.

That land today is worth probably more than $2 million, more than eight times the inflation adjusted selling price of 50 years ago.

At least a part of the property can and should be developed into affordable housing, and the clergy members and the community members are starting to demand that this happen.

The church, in partnership with the Low Income Housing Institute, Lehigh, has developed a plan to build affordable housing for 87 households on this previously city stolen property with community preference for people who have been displaced or are threatened with displacement because of the rent increases from the central district.

And we know this project is urgently needed.

The Reverend Jeffrey has spoken eloquently about how the city's political establishment needs to make reparations for that theft that happened 50 years ago.

by giving the land back to the church community and to the Black working class and poor, and funding the $10.7 million that are needed to complete the Anti-Gentrification Affordable Housing Project, striking a blow for racial and housing justice.

Working with a wide range of union and community members and Black Lives Matter and Palestinian rights activists, my council office, as council members know, I have reported this in briefing before, is preparing legislation that would ban the Seattle Police Department from engaging in training with states that have been found to – states meaning nation states – that have been found to have violated international human rights.

Last year's historic Black Lives Matter street protest movement put a spotlight on the role of the police and the state under the exploitative system of capitalism.

Police departments in cities across America, many cities like Seattle with a Democratic Party-controlled establishment, brutally carried out violent repression of peaceful protest marches.

Long before the violent repression of last year's BLM protests with weapons like tear gas and rubber bullets, the Seattle Police Department has had a history of excessive force, as we know, especially directed against black and brown communities and against poor people.

No fewer than 11 people have been killed at the hands of the Seattle Police since 2017, when Democrat Mayor Jenny Durkan was elected, first elected.

The democratic establishment has failed to hold the Seattle police accountable and among the community demands is that Seattle police must be banned from training or having any exchange with the military or police of any nation violating the Geneva Conventions of the United Nations, which are basic humanitarian standards that have been agreed to internationally over the last 70 plus years.

The city council has an obligation to support the legislation that my office is bringing forward in solidarity with community and labor organizations to do exactly that.

And not everyone has been familiar with the fact that The Seattle Police Department has admitted that in the last eight years they sent top officers, including former chief Carmen Best, to train with the Israeli police and military forces.

This is an example of what this legislation seeks to prevent, which is engaging, having the police engage with nation states that have violated the Geneva Conventions.

It's extremely troubling because it is the same Israeli state forces that have been responsible for brutalizing the Palestinian people for decades.

and that were roundly condemned worldwide by unions, faith communities, human rights groups, and governments just this past spring for their brutal and disproportionate military assault on the people of Gaza, their attempted eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, and their instigation of violent right-wing mobs.

The Israeli state has been found by organizations such as Amnesty International and by Israeli human rights organizations to have repeatedly violated Geneva Conventions of the United Nations in its aggression and violent attacks on Palestinians and the forced seizure of their lands.

The International Court of Justice has found that the Israeli state violated the fourth Geneva Convention a humanitarian rights of Palestinians.

The United Nations Human Rights Council repeatedly has determined that the Israeli state violated international human and civil rights laws and committed war crimes against Palestinians.

And in January, Israeli human rights groups B'Tselem detailed systemic human and political rights violations by the Israeli state India report, This is Apartheid.

So all of these are very mainstream large organizations, international organizations that have documented these facts.

And in addition, the Israeli state has also failed to provide the COVID vaccine to, quote, vast majority of the nearly 5 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, end quote, even though the majority of Israeli citizens have been vaccinated.

That quote is from Human Rights Watch, which has documented this blatant discrimination and has noted that that is a failure to comply with the Fourth Geneva Convention.

So this is an example of where there's a clear record of human rights violation and why it's important the city council should take a stand and support this legislation from our office, which is also being advocated for by, as I said, many organizations, including End the Deadly Exchange, Palestinians, Jewish Voice for Peace, Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans, unions like UAW 4121 and the Seattle Education Association, And also maps, amen and care which are Muslim organizations in our community as one community member who wrote today.

when they signed our petition calling for the end to these trainings said, quote, it is unethical for Seattle police to train with violators of international law.

Most citizens and officials in Seattle decried former president Trump's willful disdain and violation of national and international law.

We need to be consistent in our respect for basic justice, end quote.

I expect to circulate draft legislation shortly and of course, invite all council members to co-sponsor who are interested.

My office is also excited to be working with a broad range of community groups in the central district who have for 15 years been making efforts to develop and complete renovations and improvements to the play fields facilities and other public spaces around the Garfield Community Center and Garfield High School.

This Garfield Superblock Coalition is a grassroots effort in the Central District to create a vital civic space that honors and tells the story through art and cultural presentations of the people who have lived here over the millennia, from the Duwamish people to the Black Americans today.

The Garfield Superblock, working with staff from the Parks and Recreation Department, aims to enhance the area around the Garfield Community Center, Medgar Eberspool and Garfield High School with art that celebrates the area's history, new trees and walkways to ensure access for all, new safe publicly accessible bathroom facilities and other urgently needed community amenities.

The Garfield Superblock is precisely the kind of excellent public project that should be funded in neighborhoods like the central district.

We know when completed, this will be a community gem.

Later this month, when the city council takes up the July supplemental budget, my office will be proposing an amendment to use $500,000 at least of the $5.4 million that the council already voted to take out of the police department to invest in Garfield Superblock project.

which as I mentioned is a concrete demand by the community to shift funds from the police to urgently needed community projects.

I urge community members to learn more about it at GarfieldSuperblock.org and urge council members to join me in supporting this community amendment.

Additionally, community members are welcome to join me and the Garfield Superblock activists and community members in celebration and display of the project next Wednesday, July 14 at 5 p.m.

outside the community center.

As I reported before and just quickly to reiterate it, thus far Garfield Superblock project has received some funding from the Office of Economic Development as well as the Equitable Development Initiative With $500,000 in the supplemental budget, the project could quickly get to shovel-ready status, and it already has some of the construction funds lined up.

In addition to enhancing the community, this project will create good union jobs for the neighborhood.

We know we need more of this kind of space, and we need this as an alternative to a militarized police department that has committed acts of violence against some of the same community members who will need these facilities and will use them.

And we know that completion of this project will amplify the space as a historic place making ground that it is honoring the history of the central area.

Last week, during the city council briefing, I talked about the legislation my office had recently sent for introduction to the council president's office to decriminalize various psychedelics like magic mushrooms, ayahuasca, and MDMA.

We also sent a courtesy copy to council member Herbold as a chair of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee because, of course, my office intended to refer the bill to her committee after it was introduced.

And as I explained last week in the briefing, we first made the request to refer our bill to the Public Safety Committee two weeks ago, and that if Council Member Herbold is, for some reason, unwilling or unable to schedule it, then I'm happy to refer it to the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee that I chair instead.

I am flexible on what committee it is referred to, but I am concerned by the delays that have already happened in the introduction.

Research shows that many psychedelic drugs have a powerful potential to be used in the treatment of PTSD, depression, and addiction, and some have little or no harmful effects.

The substance that can be harmful, potentially like ecstasy, the harmful effects are almost always the result of other drugs, as research shows, like meth, laced into the ecstasy without the knowledge of the consumer.

In Canada, there are incredibly successful programs to offer free testing of drugs without any risk of arrest, as And essentially, this is a testing tent set up where you can bring your drugs to see if what you're about to consume is what you think you're consuming or it is laced with something more powerful.

This alone, as research shows, has saved many lives.

But the whole premise is that it works because people are willing to use it because they don't have the risk of arrest.

And so the point is that even the drugs that can be harmful, we know overwhelmingly it has been shown that the criminal justice system is a terribly, terribly inhumane and also ineffective response.

It prevents this sort of harm reduction approach that saves lives.

And it is part of the failed war on drugs that has expanded mass incarceration so dangerously.

And psychedelics are only a small part of that mass incarceration.

system, but they are part of it, and we should not delay passing their decriminalization.

Unfortunately, as I said, the introduction of this legislation is being delayed for a second week because Chair Herbold, who unfortunately is not here today, but I will be talking to her as well, Chair Herbold has not responded to the repeated request from my office about whether she will accept the bill to refer to her committee or not.

She is, as I said, not present this morning, and I'm happy to talk to her office again later today to find out if she's unable or unwilling to have this legislation.

And if so, I can propose to refer it to my committee, but I want to give her every opportunity to say she's interested in taking it up first.

For example, as soon as our legislation was ready, Ted Verdone from my office sent it to Council Member Lewis to ask if he wanted to co-sponsor it.

And I appreciate Council Member Lewis responded right away saying, quote, thanks for sending Ted, not at this time.

Appreciate Council Member Sawant's leadership in this area, end quote.

Unfortunately, we have not received responses from Chair Herbold to any of our inquiries.

despite my office attempting to call her staff 23 times last week.

So I will be, as I said, contacting her, and I would appreciate it if her office can respond to my office today itself without any further delays, whether her office will accept it in the Public Safety Committee.

And if they will accept it, when will they approve it in introduction and referral?

We obviously don't want delays.

And instead, should we refer it to my committee?

Once the legislation is placed on the introduction and referral calendar, it makes it available for the public to see and comment on.

And in my opinion, that should happen without delay.

I joined other council members in signing the letter to the new Ad Hoc Overdose Emergency and Innovative Recovery Task Force, asking them to review this issue.

But I don't believe that that should be used as an excuse to prevent everyone else from weighing in in the community.

And we know the introduction is a formal first step to open up that democratic process.

I am particularly concerned about the delays at this point because there are not many more committee meetings left before the budget begins.

And if the legislation is not introduced soon, it will be delayed until after budget, which often means for practical terms, it will not be taken up this year.

And effectively, we would need to restart the process next year.

And as I've said again and again, I'm happy to discuss with Council President Herbold, I mean Council President Gonzalez and Chair Herbold, the introduction and refer.

deferral of this bill, but I hope that there will not be attempts to block the introduction before a public and democratic discussion and debate happens.

In Olympia, progressive legislation is blocked every year by sending it to a hostile committee where it will die.

I really urge council members to not establish that tradition in Seattle.

Thank you, and I apologize if my audio was cutting out a bit.

You are coming through just fine, Council Member Estolano.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report?

All right, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Council Member Sawant, I want to thank you for your ongoing engagement with my office.

I know we've been having lots of good back and forth around just some of the introduction referral calendar issues that you've highlighted here.

Certainly for my office, not interested in creating any undue delay, just want to make sure that we are following through on the proper process and procedures.

And I'm confident that we will be able to do that and that we will be able to give this legislation do consideration and look forward to ongoing conversations with your office and Council Member Herbold as we continue to work through some of those procedural issues.

Appreciate it.

Okay, next up is Council Member Juarez.

Good morning.

Good morning, everybody.

So there are no items on today's council agenda from the Public Asset and Native Communities Committee.

The next meeting of our committee will be Friday, July 16th at 2. My report this morning includes six topics as usual.

The overview of parks, libraries, the Clean City Initiative, native communities with an emphasis on the Canadian residential schools and United States boarding schools, sound transit, and a summary of last week.

So under parks last week, the parks department served about 300 children at 17 child care sites throughout the city between June 23rd and June 29th.

The park shower program served 350 users at five community centers.

The Parks Department responded quickly to the historic heat wave over the weekend and through Monday by opening four facilities with air conditioning to serve as daytime cooling centers.

That would be Northgate, Rainier Beach, and the International District Chinatown community centers, and Building 406 at Magnuson Park.

In regards to the Clean City Initiative, during the week of July 21st, the Clean City crew removed 76 pounds of trash and about 1,800 needles from 35 encampment locations.

Crews this week focused last week on their deep clean efforts on Greenwood Park and the Duwamish Head green space.

Cumulatively, the park's arm of the Clean City Initiative has cleaned up about 2 million pounds of trash and 58,000 needles throughout the city.

Under libraries, I'm pleased to share that we have four libraries that have reopened.

The Seattle Public Library will be reopening Green Lake, Northeast, Northgate, and West Seattle branches.

With these additional libraries, Seattle Public Libraries will have 21 of the 27 libraries reopened.

And we actually are beyond schedule on that.

So that's great.

Native communities.

This is an update, and I'm sure most of you have seen this in the news, on Canada's residential schools and in the United States called boarding schools.

of more remains of children being found.

And there's a reason why I'm bringing more of this to your attention.

And at the end of my comments, I'll share with you why.

A brief recap of that.

In May 2015, I'm sorry, in May, there were 215 unmarked graves that were discovered by Canada from the First Nation group at the Culumbs Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

Following that discovery in June, we had another 750 remains were found, mainly of indigenous children, at the Maryville Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

And in last week, or June 30th, the Lower Kootenai Band of the Kanaks Nation announced the discovery of another 182 unmarked graves found closer to a former Indian boarding school near British Columbia, Crane Brook, British Columbia.

which may also include children.

So for over a century, as you know, our country, the United States, has enacted laws and implemented policies establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the nation, beginning with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819 and continuing over a century through the 1960s.

So these laws led to the creation of 367 native boarding schools throughout the United States and in the Pacific Northwest.

That would also include the Tulalip Boarding School up in Everett, and the Cushman School and later the Cushman Hospital or Indian Hospital, which now the Puyallup Tribal Community Center and Hospital and Casino now sits on those grounds.

And also Chumawa Indian School in Oregon, where my parents and grandparents and aunties and uncles all went, with over 70 native boarding schools still operating today.

So on June 22nd, United States Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the Department of Interior would conduct a nationwide search of federal boarding schools for possible burial sites of Native American children.

So basically, Deb Haaland, our Interior Secretary, has put together a group to investigate throughout these other boarding schools to go look for children being buried there.

In addition, as a Congresswoman, Deb Haaland authored the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the United States to establish the first formal commission in the United States history to investigate, document, and acknowledge past injustices of the federal government's cultural genocide and assimilation practices.

This act was co-sponsored by the Senate by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The history of boarding schools in this country and our push to go into not just boarding schools, faith-based organizations, the Catholic church, other other organizations to re-educate and assimilate Native children being taken from their families is not new.

We have been fighting this fight since my whole life.

So I'm glad to see that we are finally seeing how important this is.

And I can't help but believe it's because we have a Native American woman heading the Department of Interior that is now going to have this truth and this commission and this investigation.

and to these children.

Not all of them died from some disease, and we just want to make sure that these children are returned to their people and culturally buried the appropriate way.

In a recent online op-ed of Native Action Network, Erin Payment acknowledged the vast multi-generational impact these schools have had on all Native families with the following words.

And I want to share this quote for you because many of you have heard me talk about trauma.

historical trauma and what that has done to our communities and not just the Native American community.

Each of these experiences of genocide at the hands of the American government over the generations explains what is called historical and intergenerational trauma.

This also explains why American Indians, indigenous people, have the worst of the worst statistical outcomes on every dimension.

This includes the lowest high school graduation rate, the highest rates of suicide, the highest rates of drug and alcohol addiction, and the highest rates of unemployment.

So I know you've all heard me talk about this before, and unfortunately, this country has had a federal policy, a state policy of removing our children, of breaking up our families, of denying us the right to vote until 1924, and we continue to fight for these rights.

So what I want to do is our office is doing, in conjunction with tribal leadership, Our office is drafting a resolution in support of Secretary Holland's recent actions in congressional approval of the creation of the commission.

So this draft will be shared with you soon, and I hope I can look forward to your support.

In regards to Sound Transit, last week I attended the Sound Transit Executive Committee, which discussed the board's Chair, that's Mr. Kent Keel.

Proposal for realignment.

As you know, we'll be voting on that.

We may or may not be voting on that on July 22nd.

I also attended the ridership and operations committee where we reviewed two contracts with council member Joe McDermott.

The next board meeting is scheduled for July 22nd.

And as I shared, this meeting may include a vote on the chair's proposal.

Last week's summary, I toured the Detective Cookie Chess Park in South Seattle, which is under development.

Thank you, Aaron Lau, Pat Killam, and Yvette Dinesh for showing me around.

I also attended the Lake City Farmer's Market, where I had the pleasure of introducing Dr. Chamille Crawford.

She, as you know, is the president of North Seattle College.

And Dr. Crawford rang the bell announcing the opening of the Lake City Farmer's Market, that it is open for business.

And that, Madam Chair,

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council President.

On this short week, I might set my record for my shortest briefing update.

So I appreciate being here this morning.

There are no items on the introduction referral calendar from my office, nor is there anything on this afternoon's agenda from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

Later this week, I will be meeting as a member of the Overdose Emergency Innovative and Recovery Workgroup Task Force this coming Thursday.

I will also be taking a tour of the Nicholsville Tiny House Village in the Wallingford neighborhood later this week.

Other than that, In addition to my committee appearances as a member of the Finance and Housing Committee and among other council commitments, I don't have anything to report on at this time and look forward to a short week.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

Appreciate that.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, next up is Council Member Morales, and then we will hear from Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning, Council Member Morales.

Good morning.

Sorry, I was expecting a little more time there, Council Member Lewis.

Good morning, colleagues.

I regret that I have to begin another briefing by acknowledging the loss of life in my district.

On Friday, two people were struck by a train at the Columbia City light rail station.

We all know most of the stations in the Rainier Valley were constructed at grade, and that leaves pedestrians at extreme risk when trying to cross both the tracks themselves and the major arterial of Martin Luther King Jr.

Way, especially when there are no safety gates or any other kind of barrier to protect pedestrians.

I still don't know the names of the two victims.

They were a 76-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man.

And I just want to let folks know that there are middle schools along the corridor on either side of the tracks.

So we've got students, elders, people with mobility issues who regularly cross these tracks and use those stations.

I've been in discussion already with Sound Transit about the general safety needs in the Rainier Valley and this incident really demonstrates just how critical it is that the existing stations receive the investments in safety equipment that they should have received in the first place when these tracks were originally built.

All of these issues were raised and yet they were constructed without any safety equipment in place and so my office will continue to advocate for this and our advocating with Sound Transit and with some of the electeds at the state level to make sure that we have the funding to those measures in place.

On this afternoon's calendar, I have no items from the Community Economic Development Committee.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, July 20th.

We do have a resolution that I'm co-sponsoring with Council Member Herbold to provide an honorary designation of South Hill Street between 21st and 22nd Avenue as Clarence Acocks Jr.

Way.

And as Council Member Peterson mentioned, that will be in his committee tomorrow.

Regarding departments, the Equitable Development Initiative received 78 applications for funding.

That round just closed.

There was about $50 million in asks, most of it for land acquisition.

and as you know there are only 6.8 million dollars available so I think it really demonstrates the huge demand for support in community-led development projects in the city.

I'm very excited to know that they did such a great job advertising the opportunity but clearly we need to we need to acknowledge the demand and see what we can do to help support that more.

So EDI is pulling together the review committee.

There will be decisions at the end of August.

I think it was over 75 percent of the requests were for land acquisition, but the 6.8 million will fund They're projecting maybe between 7 to 10 projects.

Additionally, in mid-July, applications are due for the strategic investment fund.

And the EDI advisory board will be meeting next week.

Sorry, next month.

They have a retreat.

As you know, this board is finally coming together.

The hope was that they would be seated in time to begin working together and discuss how they will be using jumpstart money in addition to the other funding that is available.

My understanding is that the jumpstart funding is part of the first conversation.

Really, there's huge demand for projects, for support for community projects.

And because there is additional, so much additional funding, there is also an interest in the department, in the division of additional staffing for contract management, community engagement specialists.

So I think part of the discussion will be, you know, how to address all of the needs in the department.

Last week, my staff and I met with outreach workers from REACH and Neighbor Care to help distribute water and supplies during the excessive heat on Monday.

We met with several neighbors living at an encampment in Georgetown who continue to reiterate that they need safe, non-congregate shelter where they can be with their partners and with their community.

And that includes places for folks who live in their RVs.

Many of the people we met with last week were not in RVs.

They were actually living in tents.

And I can tell you that heat on concrete asphalt was really oppressive.

So it was really important that outreach workers were out distributing water.

And I want to thank all of the outreach workers who were really out there working hard to try to keep people safe in that heat.

This week, I'll be meeting with the CID Public Safety Committee to talk about issues in the Chinatown International District.

That will be tomorrow afternoon.

My staff and I also continue to coordinate with members of the Mount Baker community who are very concerned about safety.

As I mentioned in my briefing last week, community members are especially concerned following a shooting that happened at the stop across from the light rail station.

Following that incident, we had a meeting with community members, with Sound Transit, other departments, as well as State Senator Saldana.

At that meeting, a member of the mayor's staff was present, so I want to thank her for attending.

They did commit to holding a forum with neighbors so that the mayor could hear firsthand from community members about their concerns.

looking forward to the response from the mayor's office.

And at that meeting, community members also requested that a nearby parking lot, which is often used as a spot for drug dealing, that that parking lot be made available to neighbors for their own parking needs so that they don't have to park far away and walk through what has become a fairly dangerous space.

The lot is part of the site that is now held by the Office of Housing.

And so my office has reached out to Office of Housing so that we can try to get that conversation started and see if there can be a temporary use there while that project is in development.

I also toured the WASCA site in Soto last week, the Washington Oregon Shippers Cooperative Association.

That is a site between the stadium and the highway.

And as you know, there are lots of conversations happening around maritime and industrial lands.

Neighbors in Pioneer Square are very interested in making sure that that piece of property, that they are able to consider their own vision for what that might look like.

And so we met with neighbors from Pioneer Square and several folks from Washington Department of Transportation to talk about their plans for creating a community engagement process on what that would look like.

Neighbors also expressed a real interest in, I should say, a concern in their capacity.

As we know, the Chinatown International District and the Pioneer Square neighborhoods are about to embark on the EIS process for the Sound Transit, the West Seattle to Ballard station, to figure out what that station location decision should be.

And so they are very invested in making sure that their capacity and energy can go towards having a kind of community influence in that process that they expect as residents and business owners of those neighborhoods.

And so there is also interest in not having a second EIS process happening at the same time.

And so they've asked my office to begin conversations to try to see if there can be not a, just a little bit of a delay in that EIS so that they can do one thing at a time.

So we'll begin conversations about that as well.

I think that is it for me, Council President.

My last request is that I would like to ask to be excused on Monday, July 26, and Monday, August 16.

And is that from full council?

Yes.

OK.

You will need to make that request during other business?

During council.

OK.

Yeah.

During full council.

But thank you for giving me a heads up, because that'll prepare me for this afternoon.

OK.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thanks so much, Council Member Morales.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, next up is Council Member Mosqueda, and then I will conclude this portion of the agenda.

Good morning, Council Member Mosqueda.

And also happy belated birthday.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning.

I appreciate that.

I hope everyone had a good weekend as well.

Colleagues, there are no items from the Finance and Housing Committee meeting on today's full council agenda.

We do have three items on the introduction and referral calendar.

The first is Council Bill 120017. This is follow-up legislation to legislation that we passed last year.

Last year, the council passed legislation 126161 to create the 2021 LTGO taxable bond fund and authorize an inter-fund loan to support spending on the West Seattle Bridge in anticipation of the 2021 bond projects.

Um, excuse me, in anticipation of the 2021 bond proceeds.

This was before the 2021 adopted budget was presented and before decisions to repair or replace the West Seattle Bridge were made.

And the 2021 adopted budget anticipated additional taxable bond sales for the overlooked walk and aquarium expansion projects and directed those proceeds to the same fund.

Finance and Administrative Services Department has since determined that we can sell non-taxable bonds for the West Seattle Bridge repair, but these bonds proceeds will need to be held in a separate fund from the taxable bond.

So this legislation will do that and it will go straight to the Finance and Housing, excuse me, it will go straight to full council avoiding the Finance and Housing Committee.

The expected date that we would be able to receive this in our full council meeting would be July 12th.

And we also have two other items on the introduction and referral calendar.

Just let me pull up my notes here real quickly.

Okay.

Okay, colleagues.

We have the Grocery Worker Hazard Pay Legislation and the Jumpstart Fund, which I'll talk about very briefly.

These two items will also be on our agenda for Finance and Housing Committee meeting on Friday at 9.30 a.m.

The Grocery Worker Hazard Pay Legislation is Council Bill 120119. This legislation would end hazard pay requirements in recognition of the considerable progress made towards supporting the health and security of frontline workers and communities that have high rates of vaccinations and reduced the number of COVID-19 exposure and hospitalizations.

We did hear about the improved trends from the folks at the Public Health Seattle King County at our last committee meeting.

As you will remember, we did pass at the beginning of this year our hazard pay legislation, which we were the first one in Washington state and many other cities followed suit.

After seeing other cities across the West Coast take up similar legislation offering $4 an hour extra pay requirement for frontline grocery store workers who have been risking their health and safety and the health and safety of their families by going to work during COVID.

We had a commitment in that legislation that we would revisit it after four months.

And this legislation is that commitment coming around.

The legislation went into effect in February.

And after we heard from Public Health Seattle King County in June, we are now moving forward with this legislation for your consideration.

I want to also underscore that if this bill is to pass, the hazard pay requirements, specifically around $4 are not in effect, but the rest of the hazard pay for grocery store employees would remain in effect.

That includes record keeping requirements, prohibition against retaliation, prohibitions against enforcement, and would continue for three years after the original effective date of the legislation.

And then it would be sunsetting after the three years without subsequent action by council.

I wanna make sure that folks know that we did do outreach to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, of course, and we also had members of the industry at our panel.

And folks are well aware that we also continue to call for greater protections for frontline workers overall, as this legislation was intended to be temporary.

There's also ongoing concerns about the need for grocery workers to have access to equitable vaccines and public health measures, and also to make sure that their voices continue to be heard about safety concerns within grocery stores overall.

So we'll look forward to supporting them in those endeavors that are ongoing.

The next piece of legislation is what I'm referring to as the Jump Start Fund.

This is the Jump Start Seattle Fund created through Council Bill 120118. Colleagues, I'm really excited to bring forward this legislation for your consideration, and again, it will be up for discussion, briefing, and possible vote on Friday at 9.30 a.m.

This follows through on Jump Start Seattle's commitments.

It's been widely acknowledged.

Thank you, colleagues, for your mentions of this as well, and folks and members of the media.

who have noted the importance of the Jumpstart Progressive Tax legislation that we passed last year, which meant that there was no budgetary layoffs, no drastic or draconian cuts to community services.

We avoided austerity budgeting and meant that we could use all of the federal dollars to invest in additive programs and additive support for the community instead of backfilling holes like many cities are doing with their federal ARPA funds.

We also just recently had a court victory that had dismissed the charge against Jumpstart with prejudice, which means we are very excited to see this legislation continue to remain in law and are anticipating 2022 funds coming in.

As you'll recall, in 2022, The spend plan that we pass via resolution focuses on permanent funding strategies in housing, equitable development, Green New Deal, and economic resilience sectors.

And all subsequent budgets starting in 2022 really have a chance for us to center those priorities in housing, homelessness, economic resilience, and direct aid to make sure that we are investing in a more equitable economy as we seek to recover from COVID.

This legislation in front of us Council Bill 120118 on Friday helps accomplish two goals.

The first is to create a more transparency and more accountability around the jumpstart revenues that we will be receiving starting in 2022 to track exactly how much is expected to come in since our initial amounts that we cite are projections and we would like to see what the actual revenue is starting in 2022. The second thing that it helps us do is make good on the promises and commitments that we made to the large coalition and community members who've been calling for progressive taxation and specifically worked on creating the spend plan as detailed in the ordinance.

So you will see that the legislation codifies what we put into the resolution in the first place and is in line with our Council's values around transparency and accountability, aligning the intent of the goals of the stakeholder plan and the thousands, excuse me, the hundreds of stakeholders who helped to build Jumpstart.

And we are excited about the legislation in terms of good governance and accountability, transparency measures, and a way to make sure that we can follow through on those spend plan requirements that we put in the original package of legislation.

This also has a reference to the original legislations oversight board, which includes a committee to oversee the programs and services and funds of the tax that we provided in last year's legislation.

And importantly, it includes sound budgeting strategy by making sure that there is a valve to recognize that if there is a revenue shortfall below our pre-COVID baseline projections, we can potentially be flexible.

But the real intent here is to make sure that we're adhering to the spend plan as originally codified in the legislation.

Those two bills are gonna be on the Finance and Housing Committee agenda on Friday, and along with those, we will have the South Park Property Acquisition Legislation.

This legislation authorizes the Office of Housing to acquire two parcels in South Park for affordable housing development, along with community ground floor space.

I'm really excited about this legislation in front of us.

This is the first time the Office of Housing is able to use The direct acquisition authority that we allowed for in my committee two years ago where we increase the amount of funding available to $30 million.

We did this through an amendment that I sponsored in the administration and finance plan that we passed in 2019. And we increase the Office of Housing ability to act quickly on this type of acquisition, recognizing the more public property that we can acquire to create public goods like housing and ground space for child care and community centers is good for the entire community.

And especially during this, I guess, competitive market that we have right now, it's important for the Office of Housing to have every tool in their toolkit.

This was an increase that we made two years ago, and through your support on this year's administration and finance plan, we've now lifted that cap to allow for the Office of Housing to have even greater acquisition authority in the future.

So excited about that, and we'll have more to say on Friday.

And the last piece of legislation.

to brief preview for you for Friday is the MFTE COVID extension legislation.

This is legislation that narrowly focuses on allowing an extension of the program's applications for projects that have been impacted by COVID.

There will be another piece of MFTE legislation coming in to my committee in August that will implement other changes made to the MFTE program by the state legislature that address broader scope of issues, including extensions for the larger number of MFTE units.

that are set to expire in the upcoming years.

This legislation and committee narrowly focuses on a small handful of projects that have been impacted by COVID and are expecting delays that necessitate extensions to their application windows.

All of this helps us move towards creating additional housing in our region, which is so desperately needed.

In other updates, last year I had the chance, last year, feels like last year, last week was a year ago in terms of my age, right?

Last week I had the chance to speak at the Aspen Institute from Germany.

I also had the chance to, along with other colleagues, talk to Senator Murray and extend our appreciation for her leadership and championship of the ARPA funds and have the chance to do an overview of the ARPA legislation that Seattle passed through the Seattle Rescue Plan.

and appreciate Senator Murray's ongoing commitment to helping make sure that we have additional support for infrastructure and child care, child care as a component of infrastructure, and really think that we all felt a collective sigh of relief as additional federal dollars were passed and potentially are coming to our region.

Very appreciative of her leadership.

And lastly, from the Finance and Administrative Services updates, we do have a few notices to give you all updates on.

FAS did resume noise readings that were halted due to COVID-19 last year.

FAS performed three noise readings responsive to complaints from the public.

And due to the COVID-19 precautions, inspectors are still taking outdoor readings only.

FAS will continue to follow up with owners of the buildings in advisory manner to make sure to share the results.

The fire station air sampling readings wanted to update you that FAS is continuing to do air quality samplings, focusing on taking samples from various fire stations.

And they have conducted samplings at Fire Station 16, which is in Green Lake 17 in the University District.

22, which is Roanoke, and number 38, which is the Hawthorne Hills.

No concerns were found thus far.

And finally, a huge note of congratulations from our team at FAS to Dr. Sarah Mantovini, who has been selected as the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association Awards Committee to receive the 2021 Distinguished Achievement Award.

Dr. Mantovini is a provider with us at the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation and has been nominated for her outstanding contributions in the field of shelter medicine, in the area of forensic and cruelty investigations and protocols related to bringing forward techniques for legal cases.

Congratulations, Dr. Sarah Mentovini on the 2021 Distinguished Achievement Award.

That is it for me, Council President

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, looks like there are none, so I will go ahead and do my report really quickly, and then we will be able to adjourn for this morning.

First up is Introduction and Referral Calendar in this afternoon's City Council meeting.

I have one item on this afternoon's Introduction and Referral Calendar.

That is Agenda Item 7 on the Introduction and Referral Calendar, which is Council Bill 120120. This is an employment-related ordinance that would give civil service status to five public disclosure officers who process the public records requests of all elected officials within the City of Seattle.

Two of those positions are currently assigned to the mayor's office, two in the legislative department, and one in the city attorney's office.

This legislation was developed in partnership with the city attorney after engagement with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, Seattle Information Technology Department, and public disclosure officers themselves.

And it is intended to ensure City of Seattle employees are shielded from political influence while carrying out their duties to respond to Public Records Act requests on behalf of elected officials.

This legislation is a really important step towards protecting the transparency and effectiveness of our public disclosure process, and especially when those requests are directed at elected officials.

So we will be taking additional steps in the following months to further improve the city's public record disclosure process.

And this legislation is a single and first step of that broader effort.

we will consider this legislation at my next Governance and Education Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, 2021 at 2 o'clock p.m.

Other than that particular piece of legislation, I have nothing else on this afternoon's City Council agenda scheduled for final action.

This Thursday, July 8th, there is a meeting of the PSRC Transportation Policy Board.

At that meeting, the board will welcome the Puget Sound Partnership for presentation on its 2022-2026 action agenda update, including coordination opportunities with the Regional Transportation Plan.

The board will also be presented with updated data on the estimates of revenues and expenditures from here through 2050 as part of the plan's financial strategy.

And lastly, colleagues, you may have received a note in your inbox, I believe, this morning from Seattle Department of Human Resources Director Bobby Humes, who has provided us with notice that he is ending his time of service with the city, effective July 30th.

The mayor's office in the meantime will be identifying an interim director for the remainder of the year.

But I do want to wish Director Humes much luck in his next role as the Director of Human Resources for the Washington State Investment Board.

So thanks to Director Humes and his leadership of the Seattle Department of Human Resources.

We wish him much luck and look forward to working with the interim director once one is identified by Mayor Durkan.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none.

Colleagues, the last thing that I will just mention really quickly is that I know many of you are wondering with the reopening of Washington State by Governor Inslee, what is going to happen to our operations here in the city council and the legislative department as a whole.

I will be sending out some messages providing clarification and guidance to each of you and your offices and other legislative department staff.

In terms of our public meetings, the proclamation issued by Governor Inslee that allows us to continue to do remote public meetings is still in effect.

And after consulting with several folks, it does appear that the preference is to continue to conduct our city council meetings virtually and remotely.

until later this year.

And that would be a practice that would continue to be consistent with the governor's proclamation related to the Open Public Meetings Act and how we conduct our business.

So for now, you can expect that the status quo will continue in terms of how we conduct our city business, which is via Zoom.

If those operations are set to change for any reason, I will make sure to provide folks with ample notice.

But for now, you can expect things to continue as they are as it relates to our committee meetings and our full council meetings and council briefing meetings until further notice.

Again, I'll be providing some additional guidance to you all consistent with some work we've been doing with the executive related to return to work policy.

So please keep an eye out for that additional guidance.

And as usual, my office and specifically my deputy chief of staff, Cody Ryder, are available to you and your staff with any additional questions or need for information.

That being said, I don't have anything else to brief you all colleagues on.

I'm happy to take any questions if any questions exist.

All right.

Anything else for the good of the order?

I am not seeing anything.

So thank you all for your attention this morning.

I will see you all at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

For now, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye.