Seattle City Council Briefing 6/14/21

Appreciate it.

All right, colleagues, good morning, everyone.

The June 14th, 2021 council briefing meeting will now come to order.

The time is 9.30 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant?

Present.

Strauss?

Present.

Whereas here.

Council President Gonzalez here.

8 present.

Thank you so much.

Approval of the minutes is next.

If there's no objection, the minutes of June 7th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are now adopted.

President's report, I do not have a president's report this morning, so we will move straight into a preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees.

Of course, we will go in the roll call rotation, which begins, as a reminder, with Council Member Lewis, followed by Morales, Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbold, Juarez, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

As a reminder, Councilmember Mosqueda is excused from today's Council briefing and City Council meetings.

So I'm going to hand it right on over to Councilmember Lewis.

Good morning.

Thank you, Madam President.

Good morning.

I want to begin my remarks today by offering my sincere condolences to the family of Officer Harris, who was killed over the weekend in a horrible incident.

I'm sure more information will be coming out as there's more reporting.

We know that Officer Harris was off duty, that she was on her way home and decided to assist the Washington State Patrol, which she was under no obligation to do, but out of her sense of public duty, decided to do.

And I know that I join all my colleagues in just expressing the extreme sense of loss and grief at losing a public servant and a employee of the city of Seattle in such horrible circumstances.

And I just wanted to express My heartfelt grief to Officer Harris's family and all of her loved ones.

It is just a horrible thing when a member of the city family faces a tragedy like that.

I want to move forward now to the matters of today, which are brief.

I just wanted to again say we do have the legislation Regarding the homeless service provider expansion of spend authority for the bill that was originally intended for FEMA reimbursement, I want to express my gratitude to Council President for fast tracking this legislation and allowing us to hear it out of the order of normal committees so that we can front load these critical investments.

And get that money out the door.

I do want to call my colleagues attention to a letter that was sent over the weekend, or I believe by close of business on Friday, signed by a number of stakeholders, including the Downtown Seattle Association and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce supporting the legislation.

There is a sentence in the letter praising the leadership of the co-sponsors of this legislation, including Council Member Sawant.

Councilmember Sawant, I am proud to say that we have finally built a coalition that is united, the Chamber of Commerce and Councilmember Sawant, and it is this bill that's on this afternoon.

So I look forward to voting this legislation forward.

I appreciate the broad coalition that has come forward to support it.

And that will be coming up for final passage this afternoon.

I will be attending later this week the Board of Health.

It should be an interesting Board of Health meeting as we will be having a presentation discussing the Board of Health's helmet law, helmet mandate and law.

As part of the work plan that we approved earlier this year, people may recall due to extensive reporting from Crosscut by David Croman highlighting extreme disproportionality in the enforcement of the helmet law towards people experiencing homelessness and people of color, the Board of Health decided to undergo a assessment as part of the work plan on the efficacy and equity of the helmet law, both its existence and enforcement mechanisms.

And as part of that, we will be having an initial presentation from stakeholders.

And I'm really looking forward to the Board of Health this week.

It is a very, it's an interesting topic and we have certainly learned a lot in the lead up to it nationally on helmet laws and the impact that has on the community.

So it will be interesting to hear that presentation.

I look forward to that this coming Thursday.

I will also be attending the Queen Anne Farmers Market in the afternoon following the Board of Health meeting on Thursday, the 17th of June.

I will be at the Queen Anne Farmers Market from a little after 3 in the afternoon.

possibly later, depending on when Board of Health lets up, until 6.30 in the evening.

And invite community members to please drop by, and while patronizing the market, I'm happy to answer questions that people have about pending city business, and look forward to seeing people there.

With those updates, Madam President, I have nothing additional to report.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Luis, for those comments.

Are there any additional questions or comments regarding that report?

All right, hearing none, we're gonna keep going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Morales, and then after Council Member Morales will be Council Member Peterson.

Good morning, Council Member Morales.

Good morning colleagues.

Happy Monday.

I do want to begin by offering my condolences as well to the family and friends of Officer Harris.

I'm sure they're beginning a very hard grieving process and hope that through that process they can recall fond memories of her and really celebrate her life.

There are several items on this afternoon's full council agenda from the Community Economic Development Committee.

We have a bill, Council Bill 120069, related to food delivery platforms.

This is Council President Gonzalez's bill, which I'm sure she will speak to later.

And we do have several appointments as well from the LGBTQ Disability and Music Commissions.

So we will have I think there's 16 appointments to move forward this afternoon.

The next meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee is tomorrow, Tuesday at 2 p.m., and we will have a briefing and discussion on building an equitable economy.

We've got a great panel of stakeholders and community members who will be sharing their strategies for investing our city dollars in a way that really acknowledges the inequity of our past investment practices and looks to some, I think, very exciting and creative ways to start building community wealth in the city.

So I'm looking forward to that conversation and look forward to the committee meeting.

Department updates.

Excuse me, the process has begun for a candidate search for a new director for the Office of Arts and Culture.

My understanding is that the plan is to seat a new director before the end of the year.

So as that process moves forward, colleagues, I will be asking for your thoughts on questions that you have for the confirmation process.

It's pretty early stages, but just wanted to give you a heads up.

For the Office of Economic Development, the department is also reviewing or is reviewing a final report on the creation of a film commission.

We've been getting lots of requests to actually seat and begin a new film commission.

So they are in the process of reviewing a final report with the Film Industry Task Force.

to determine how and whether to move forward.

So we have asked the department to present a final decision at the July Community Economic Development Committee meeting, and look forward to hearing more then.

The department is also meeting with Human Resources on the process for selecting a new Creative Industries Director.

So lots of things moving at OED, and I will do my best to keep you informed as I understand processes moving forward.

Last week, I met with Public Health to discuss their work on youth gun violence.

There is a regional effort to ensure that we're supporting our young people and that we're really making the kinds of investments in our communities that can help change community conditions.

We've been talking a lot about that in the last year, so I was really happy to meet with them.

I've also met with young people from Meany and Denny Middle Schools who are part of the Rising Cares program.

They wanted to make sure that council members are hearing their vision for what community safety looks like.

And I was really glad to hear directly from middle schoolers about their interest in making sure that our homeless neighbors are protected, that our homeless neighbors have access to shelter services, to tiny house villages, to the kind of access to healthcare and medical services that they need in order to stabilize themselves.

It was great to hear such compassion from the young people in our city.

And they want to make sure that there is affordable housing and access to good food and safe places for people to work and play.

So I want to thank them again for inviting us to hear from them.

Also met with Dr. Quinton Morris and several members of the Seattle Arts Commission to discuss their need for recovery investments, specifically in the cultural sector.

Councilmember Herbold and I have been talking a lot about this.

We know that that is an important sector in the city and really drives a lot of the tourism that we have in the city.

So want to make sure that they are included as we're moving forward with what investment and what recovery looks like here.

And finally, my office on Friday distributed a joint council mayoral proclamation for Pride Month.

Colleagues, you should have received that on Friday.

The LGBTQ commission has crafted the proclamation that we sent.

We won't have a presentation at full council this afternoon, but did want to provide the joint proclamation to the commission and I just wanted to make sure you understand that last Friday, the mayor and the LGBTQ commission raised the pride flag at city hall.

And as always, we are excited to be celebrating and honoring all of our LGBTQ neighbors who continue to fight to make sure that they are well-represented at decision-making tables and that the needs of that community are reflected in the way that the city moves forward.

I don't think I have anything else for this morning, colleagues.

So that is my report.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

And I do need to call the roll on signatures to the proclamation that you just described.

So before I do that, are there any questions about the proclamation that was distributed by Council Member Morales in acknowledgement of pride?

Okay, I'm not seeing any questions.

So will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation proclaiming June 2021 to be LGBTQ Pride Month.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

it in favor.

Great, thank you so much.

Thank you Council Member Morales for bringing forward that proclamation, really appreciate it.

Next up is Council Member Peterson and then, excuse me, after Council Member Peterson will be Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

The 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 at 9.30 in the morning, and so our next committee meeting is this Wednesday, June 16th.

The committee agenda has six items.

Three appointments to the pedestrian advisory board.

Approval of a low interest loan as already planned to finance 66 million of the $570 million ship canal water quality control project.

As you may recall, this is a mega project planned over many years due to the state and federal governments requiring the city and county governments to prevent harmful stormwater and wastewater from polluting our local waterways.

This environmental protection project includes a new tunnel boring machine, creating a 2.7-mile stormwater storage tunnel from Wallingford to Ballard.

Our committee also discussed the strategic plan for Seattle City Light.

It's a multiyear plan for implementing the mission of this $1 billion city-owned utility enterprise, which provides affordable, reliable, and environmentally responsible electricity to over 900,000 people in Seattle and surrounding areas.

I'm pleased that despite several cost pressures such as COVID, Seattle City Light has surpassed expectations in keeping their rate increases under control.

City Light succeeded in not increasing the bills of electricity customers this year while also lowering future rate increases when compared to the previous strategic plan.

The net result is the six-year average increase will be less than 3.5% instead of the original 4.5% that was planned.

In other words, the rates will rise as closely as possible to the rate of inflation, which is fiscally responsible and reasonable.

Not surprisingly, the customer review panel has endorsed the plan and supports its adoption by the council.

It's just our first hearing of this at committee this Wednesday.

The CEO of Sound Transit and his team will be presenting to our committee this Wednesday on their so-called realignment process that this vital regional transit agency is considering for its new projects.

As you know, the Sound Transit Board has 18 members, and while only two of them are from our city government, our mayor and Council Member Debra Juarez are strong and tireless advocates for Seattle and the region.

I want to thank them for helping to make possible Sound Transit's visit to our transportation committee.

I share the stance of many others in our city that the Sound Transit Board should delay any drastic decisions on realignment until the rapidly changing revenues and costs become more clear.

I know the City Council and its residents and businesses are big supporters of transit, as evidenced most recently by our renewal of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District last year, despite the economic recession.

We're also excited about the opening this October of three new light rail stations in Seattle funded by the Sound Transit 2 measure approved by voters in 2008. The ambitious next steps are implementation of Sound Transit 3 expansion approved by the region's voters in 2016. Seattle voters were instrumental in making possible the funding for Sound Transit 3. So we want to make sure it delivers on its promises for Seattle.

This includes light rail stations to West Seattle, which will impact Port of Seattle, stations to Ballard, which will impact South Lake Union and Seattle Center, additional stations for South Seattle, as well as the station at Northeast 130th Street, and connections important to the entire region that will go through the International District.

So we're pleased that Sound Transit accepted the invitation to brief our committee members on the realignment situation.

I believe we'll have several questions about financial assumptions Sound Transit has been relying on to make their realignment recommendations to the board.

In addition to the presentation this Wednesday on realignment, we hope Sound Transit returns to our committee later to update us on the environmental impact statement process.

During the EIS or discussing the EIS is an appropriate platform to raise other issues important to us, such as the need for thoughtful community-driven and stakeholder input to ensure excellent access to stations and integration in our communities.

that can deliver a positive experience for transit riders as we encourage more people to move out of their gasoline-fueled cars to carbon-friendly transit as much as possible to meet our ambitious goals to address the crisis of climate change.

regarding transportation funding.

I know we all have a lot of interest in seeing whether more funding will come from our federal government.

The transportation funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA, signed into law in March, will go mainly to backfill losses suffered by the transit agencies, and that backfill funding is welcome and vital.

I know we're also hoping for more money for new infrastructure projects.

After combining recent media reports with the on-the-ground intel from our federal lobbyists in D.C., what's clear is that the picture from the federal government is murky.

This is because the federal government has already outlaid record-breaking sums of money, and the politics have become more fluid on infrastructure dollars, especially in the U.S.

Senate.

If Congress and the President ultimately agree on infrastructure legislation this year, it's likely to produce much fewer dollars than what President Biden originally to address our infrastructure needs.

There are lots of moving pieces, the infrastructure bills, reauthorization of five-year Surface Transportation Act, which expires September 30th, and there's the whole budget process, which will probably require budget reconciliation to avoid the 60 votes required in the Senate, and then the appropriations bills following that.

So I'm hoping the federal government will ultimately provide more funding for aging infrastructure.

I believe our federal lobbyists may be visiting council briefing or briefing council members later about this complicated process about federal government infrastructure dollars.

In District 4, I was able to visit the Wallingford Farmer's Market, which restarted this past Wednesday.

The Wallingford Farmer's Market will be open every Wednesday evening from 3 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

through the end of September.

For more information, you can read it in the neighborhood blog, wallyhood.org.

This is in addition to the University District Farmer's Market, which we're really lucky operates year-round.

This week, I'll be attending at least one community council in District 4. And that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, we will head down the line.

Next up is Councilmember Sawant, and then after Councilmember Sawant will be Councilmember Strauss.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President Gonzalez and everyone on the Council.

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 its regular time, one week from Tuesday, June 22nd at 2 p.m.

As I said at last week's city council meeting during the vote on the several bills from my office on eviction prevention, runaway rent increases are a principal cause of the acute housing affordability crisis in our city and region.

So in addition to eviction prevention laws, we also need to address the serious impact of rent increases That have become unaffordable to most renters if you especially if you use the rule of thumb that economists use, which is if if as a household you're paying any more than 25 to 30% of your overall income on housing, then you are in.

you are rent burden and you are in need of affordable housing.

Obviously, the city and the state both need rent control, a strong rent control policy free of corporate loopholes.

But in the meanwhile, we also need to bring in policies that will assuage the problems of rent increases.

So in next week's meeting of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, the committee will discuss two renters' rights bills from my office related to outrageous rent increases.

One bill requires that landlords must give renters notice about rent increases, up to six-month notice of rent increases.

Currently, two-month notice are required.

And the other bill requires landlords to pay relocation assistance when they economically displace their tenants because of, in other words, because of outrageous rent increases if the tenants are pushed out because of rent increases.

Next week, Sustainability and Winter Zets Committee will also vote on the confirmation of several appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board and will discuss with a panel of climate activists about the Stop the Money Pipeline campaign, which targets financial institutions and insurance companies that invest resources in the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure like Pipeline 3, the Keystone XL Pipeline, which after years of struggle by tens of thousands of activists was defeated because of the climate justice movement.

And we should keep in mind that this is also a follow-up of the bill that was passed by the city council from my office to divest the city of Seattle from banks like Wells Fargo.

And it is also related to a dire statistic that was recently reported by the Guardian newspaper, which showed that despite all the information on the perils of climate crisis and the impending climate catastrophe.

During the pandemic year, when usage of flights and other fossil fuel intense resources were reduced dramatically, during that same year, the world's largest banks actually increased their underwriting of fossil fuel projects by nearly $4 trillion.

So this is a huge issue, and it's important that the Stop the Money Pipeline movement is acting on this question, not only in the United States, but also in Canada.

My office is developing legislation to support the Stop the Money Pipeline campaign to give the Green New Deal Oversight Board the ability to rate insurance companies and other financial institutions when they bid on city contracts and to require the Department of Finance and Administrative Services to factor in that ranking.

And it will be important for the City Council to pass, as I said, to follow up on the 2017 bill related to Wells Fargo.

As I mentioned last week, my office is also introducing legislation requested by the decriminalize nature movement to decriminalize psychedelic drugs in Seattle, which Councilmember Lewis has also been looking into.

I support their demands for several reasons.

First, the general reason, even for harmful and addictive drugs, the criminal justice system is a terrible response.

Reagan's failed war on drugs did nothing but expand mass incarceration, decimating whole communities, especially communities of color.

The criminalization of psychedelic drugs is only a small part of that mass incarceration system, but it is a part.

More specifically, there is significant research showing that these psychedelic drugs are very rarely harmful and can have significant benefits.

Research has shown that they can have a powerful benefit in some circumstances to treat PTSD, depression, and addiction.

Psychedelic drugs also have a long history of use in religious ceremonies.

The legislation to decriminalize psychedelic drugs in Seattle uses the same legal approach Seattle used to decriminalize cannabis shortly before it was legalized statewide.

Essentially, Seattle does not have the power to legalize these drugs because it's not a city law that makes them illegal, but the city does have the power to essentially decriminalize them by making their enforcement the last priority of the Seattle Police.

This is what Seattle did with cannabis in the past, and this is what this legislation will do.

Last week the City Council unanimously adopted the resolution my office put forward on behalf of the renters rights movement calling on Mayor Durkin and Governor Inslee to extend or renew the current eviction moratoriums through the end of 2021. So alongside to follow up on that resolution alongside rank-and-file renters and activist organizations my council office is organizing a rally for the eviction moratorium for Thursday, June 24th at 6 p.m.

at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill to demand that the mayor extend the moratorium to at least the end of 2021. Be Seattle, Real Change, Nicholsville, Socialist Alternative, and Share are all co-sponsoring the rally.

I'm hoping more organizations will, including labor unions.

And rally speakers will also call for rent control and for the cancellation of COVID debt for renters, struggling homeowners, small landlords, and small businesses because big banks and big corporations, including corporate landlords, should pay for this crisis, not ordinary people.

Extending the eviction moratorium we know is a racial justice issue.

As the American Civil Liberties Union has noted, due to decades of inequalities in our housing system, communities of color and low-income women feel the impact of eviction, the most black women in particular.

That's a quote from the ACLU.

Also, according to apartmentlist.com, which is a corporate landlord website, nationally, 28% of renters started this year with rental debt, which is bad enough.

But for Black households, that figure was a staggering 53%.

And we know in Seattle, Black renters are served with eviction notices at more than three times the rate of other renters, according to the King County Bar Association's Housing Justice Project.

So Mayor Durkan has a choice.

She can stand with struggling renters and extend the eviction moratorium through this year and prevent what economists are predicting, which is a nationwide tsunami of evictions if the moratoriums are revoked or represent corporate landlords.

Our rally on June 24th will demand that Durkan stand with the community and extend the eviction moratorium to the end of 2021. Yesterday afternoon, my office staff was proud to join with 125 other demonstrators on Harbor Island to protest the arrival of an Israeli cargo ship, the Zim San Diego, which came to Seattle on June 2nd and has been waiting to unload its cargo.

The Harbor Island action to block the boat is part of a growing international movement of labor and community activists.

Please look on Twitter, hashtag block the boat.

It began last month with dock workers in South Africa refusing to handle a Zim ship to protest the Israeli state's repression of the Palestinian people.

Thanks to the community organizing of Palestinian Seattle-based grassroots collective of Palestinian feminists, along with the solidarity of members of the ILWU, the Longshore Workers Union, the ship has not been unloaded.

The Seattle action comes in the wake of tremendous community and labor solidarity in Oakland, California, where a community and worker coalition led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, AROC, again with critical solidarity from Longshore Union members successfully blocked an Israeli Zim ship on June 4th after 17 days of delaying the ship from attempting to dock.

As Jimmy Salami, a brother and Palestinian rank-and-file worker and ILWU Local 10 member in Oakland said, quote, an injury to one is an injury to all.

Just as ILWU Local 10 workers refused to unload cargo from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, We on our community pickets asking us not to unload cargo from Israelis and vessels and quote last month, the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions issued an important appeal to unions in the United States, they wrote quote.

We call on our friends and all the freedom-loving people in the world to do what they can to stop this aggression and Israeli racist policies, which remind us of those used by the apartheid South Africa regime that was defeated by the steadfastness of the African people.

The Palestinians are facing the same racist practices carried by the right-wing Israeli government." Among the solidarity that the Palestinian labor movement has urged is that U.S. labor union members refuse to unload the Zim ships. As I said to the May 16th rally in downtown Seattle organized by Falastaniyat, quote, international solidarity is crucial. What's even more important is a united movement of working class people in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank against the Israeli ruling class's policies, end quote. The role of organized labor in building international solidarity, as numerous historical examples demonstrate, will be decisive if we are to end the occupation. So it is crucial that members of the Longshore Workers Union have stood alongside the movement and have refused to unload the Zim ship. My office and my organization, Socialist Alternative, will continue to join with the community at protests at the Port of Seattle to ensure that the Zim ship's cargo is not unloaded. Most important will be coordinated actions by union workers globally, especially inside the U.S. and inside Israel, to refuse to load and unload armed shipments. In fact, Zim is Israel's largest cargo shipping company, often dealing in Israeli-manufactured military technology, armaments, and logistics equipment, which is why the Palestinian Collective has correctly decided to engage in the Block the Boat campaign. We need all socialists and the labor movement in the United States to stand up clearly in support of this historic struggle with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to U.S. administration's shameful and decades-long policies of diplomatic support and arms and weapons and military support for the Israeli system of apartheid. Related to our office's solidarity with this international movement to block the vote, my council office will shortly be introducing legislation to ban the Seattle Police Department from engaging in training with Israeli military and police. Amnesty International has documented the common practice of Israeli forces training US police, including police and departments like Seattle and Baltimore, that have been found by the US Justice Department to have a pattern of violating the civil and constitutional rights of community members. Coming on the one-year anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd, it's important to note that over the years, police from Seattle to Minneapolis to New York have all been involved in training with Israeli military and police. We absolutely must put an end to this deadly exchange. Police from more than 30 states and the District of Columbia have participated in these training sessions in recent years. And as recently as 2015, Seattle police made training trips to Israel according to the End the Deadly Exchange, a national organization of activists. While we've been told that there are no current plans for Seattle police to have personnel trained with Israeli military or police, we know that has happened in the past and want to make sure that it never happens again as long as Israel brutalizes the Palestinian people. My office is working with community members on the legislation, and I greatly appreciate the work of Greg Doss on central staff in drafting. I welcome the co-sponsorship of the legislation by other council members. And if you have any questions, please contact my staff, Jonathan Rosenblum. And I also wanted to thank council members Herbold and Mosqueda, who signed the letter along with me to the U.S. Congress and to President Biden a few weeks ago. Finally, on the struggle in solidarity with the Palestinian people, I wanted to congratulate MAPS AMEN, the American Muslim Empowerment Network, for organizing the full-page ad that appeared this weekend in the Seattle Times. I was proud to sign on, as was my organization, Socialist Alternative. The open letter noted the continued Israeli state violence against the Palestinian people and the fact that the Israeli state receives $3.8 billion a year in U.S. aid. The open letter, this was published in the Seattle Times as an ad, in the full page ad, called on Congress to support H.R. 2590, a congressional resolution to prohibit Israeli state from using U.S. taxpayer dollars for the military detention and abuse of Palestinian children. It also prohibits using U.S. tax dollars for the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property in violation of international law or for further unilateral annexation of Palestinian territory in violation of international law. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Excuse me.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

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

Next up is Council Member Strauss, and then after Council Member Strauss will be Council Member Herbold.

Good morning, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

I had a moment trying to find my mute button there.

Looking forward to this week, there are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is next week, Wednesday, June 23, starting at 9.30 AM.

There are five appointments today on our full council agenda from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, and they are the Seattle Chinatown International District PDA Governing Council's appointments.

So five appointments to the CID PDA Governing Council on today's full agenda.

Tomorrow at our Finance and Housing Committee, I will be proposing an amendment to the Seattle Rescue Plan legislation to increase the total amount of funding we intend to allocate to permanent housing acquisition to $60 million.

Currently, the legislation states that the intent of Council is to allocate an additional $40 million to acquiring permanent housing between 2021 and 2022, with 28.5 million allocated in this round of funding and the remainder to be funded in 2022. I appreciate the serious investment in housing and I believe if we're going to start addressing homelessness at the scale of the crisis, we need to provide even more, which is why I will be bringing this amendment forward to increase the total amount of funding to $60 million intended for 2022. Looking at my week last week, I'm really excited, colleagues, to bring another member of my team on.

We have a new teammate, Kate Hoffman, who started last week.

She comes to us from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, working previous to that at the state legislature, and before that, Navos Mental Health Solutions.

I am very excited to bring Kate on, and I will likely be requesting meetings with each of your offices as we used to, while in person, walk the hall and make introductions.

I'll be doing this virtually.

Also last week, I had the pleasure of having a town hall for District 6. We had City Budget Director Ben Noble, the Director of Office of Housing Emily Alvarado and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority CEO Mark Jones present about the Seattle rescue plan about how we are going to use those plan, those dollars to invest in housing here in the city, and how we are going to regionally address homelessness.

One of the things that stood out to me is that COVID put a pause on the hiring of the CEO of this regional authority on homelessness.

And that period of pause was longer than the amount of time it will take for the CEO, Mark Jones, to be able to bring on Seattle and King County's contracts into the regional authority.

So we had a year plus pause.

And by the end of this year, so nine months, six months from now, his office, their office, be maintaining all of the contracts for Seattle in King County.

So looking forward to that progress in short order.

Last week, I also joined the Finney Ridge Neighborhood Association and the Ballard Alliance for our monthly meetings, which proved very fruitful.

I also received an initial briefing on temporary code changes for regulations on street-level use of downtown.

Colleagues, I will be bringing this bill forward in collaboration with the mayor's office.

to ensure that we have a recovery downtown that again where the code meets the needs of our city.

Last week I also met with Director Dr. Ben Noble at the City Budget Office to discuss the Seattle Rescue Plan and SDOT Director Sam Zimbabwe about transportation issues including West Green Lake Way North.

Last week, I also joined a historical walking tour of Ballard, looking at the commercial district, historic district, and industrial district, which are all within three blocks of each other.

We looked at the history from pre-contact to early settlement to today and where we're going in the future.

I had a great time learning and sharing my own knowledge of Ballard's history.

One fun fact I'll share with you colleagues is before Ballard was annexed, Ballard was Washington's seventh largest city, competing with Seattle.

In other news of today, or last week, I also received a briefing from Seattle City Light on their strategic plan update, and as Councilmember Peterson stated, it is for the first time keeping rate increases as close to the rate of inflation as possible.

So I want to thank City Light General Manager Deborah Smith, Kirstie Granger, and their entire team for this great work.

Lastly, last week, it is graduation season, so I would be remiss without sharing congratulations to a number of people.

I started by attending the retirement party for Sandra Pinto Urrutia, who has worked for the city for 20 years.

Managing the Urban Forestry Commission just want to congratulate Sandra.

I also attended the graduation celebrations for our intern Natalia Salazar, my staff Lena Tebu and other legislative staff LaKeisha Farmer and Rita Moore.

I also attended a swearing-in ceremony for a former staff of mine, Akua Asare Canado.

She was sworn into the bar by the Supreme Court Chief Justice Gonzalez and Justice Madsen.

So I just wanted to take this moment to congratulate Lena, Akua, Lakeisha, Rita, Natalia, and Sandra.

Great work, and I can't wait to see what all of you do, especially you, Sandra.

This coming week, I will attend my quarterly meeting with Municipal Court Judge Gregory.

I'll be receiving briefings from SPU on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project and Sound Transit ahead of Wednesday's committee.

And on Wednesday, I'll be joining the Regional Transit Committee and meeting with SDCI to continue our work in improving the permit approval process.

And lastly, I'm looking forward to receiving an update on the Green Lake Boathouse Project, which has nearly completed its funding goals.

And here in District 6, as I mentioned, I held a town hall, which is on my website, along with my weekly video updates, all of my past newsletters, and the link to sign up for district office hours.

So if you'd like to receive my newsletter or join me for a one-on-one meeting, please do sign up on my website.

Last week, I met with neighbors from Ballard, Freelard, Whittier Heights, and five different people from Finney Ridge.

And we discussed how to assist permanent supportive housing being built, the use of underutilized city buildings, West Green Lakeway North, mental health and wellness, and the timeline for reopening neighborhood pools, homelessness in the district and throughout the city, traffic again on West Green Lakeway North, light pollution on Salmon Bay, critical salmon habitat, and addressing public safety, police accountability and expectations, tiny home villages, participatory budgeting, and again, the West Green Lake Way North opening.

So I guess I've in my last three videos addressed West Green Lake Way North, I have for the last year been advocating to have that open to both traffic and pedestrians.

We have seen over the last year that there is a desire to keep bikes on the outer loop of Green Lake, which means that we do need to have a two-way protected bike lane on West Green Lake Way North and a two-way travel lane for cars.

There is the space.

I've continued to advocate to the superintendent of the parks department and the director of SDOT, and I'll continue carrying that message.

And then this week, my office hours will be on Thursday, June 17th, from two to 6 p.m.

I look forward to meeting with neighbors.

And again, if you would like to meet with me, just sign up on my website.

There's a link to do so there.

Thank you so much.

And thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss, for your report.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

All right, seeing that, we're going to go ahead and go down the line here.

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

Good morning, Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you, and good morning, everybody.

So as others have this morning, I just want to note how our hearts go out to the friends and family and colleagues of Seattle Police Officer Alexandra Brenneman-Harris, who was tragically struck by a car.

on I-5 and died early Saturday morning.

She had pulled over to help at a collision on I-5 after her shift was over.

I spent some time last night reading summaries of Officer Harris's podcast, The Leaderist.

It covers topics of wellness, community connections, trauma, and leadership.

It's very evident that Officer Harris cared deeply for her community, and she will be mourned by her city family.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the circumstances that led up to this incident.

In Council Member Mosqueda's absence, she asked that I deliver her report.

The next finance and housing meeting will be on Tuesday the 15th at 9.30 a.m.

The committee agenda will have a panel presentation on the grocery workers hazard pay ordinance, a briefing and possible vote on the housing levy administration and finance plan and the accompanying housing funding policies.

And then finally, we'll be having, Council Member Mosqueda will be having a briefing and possible vote on amendments on the Seattle Rescue Plan Ordinance.

Council Member Mosqueda asks that I remind all council members that you are welcome and encouraged to attend the committee meeting.

and participate in the discussion, but as only committee members are allowed to take a vote and sponsor amendments, non-members can offer amendments, but we'll need a member sponsor to bring the amendment forward in committee itself.

If additional time is needed for discussion and vote on the Seattle Rescue Plan ordinance, Council Member Mosqueda will hold a special meeting on June 16th at 2 p.m.

Council Member Mosqueda is hoping to have a final vote on June 21st or June 28th.

And then final reminder on that, amendments received last week were published to the finance and housing committee agenda last week on Friday so the public and council members can review amendments of the week in advance of tomorrow's committee meeting.

Again, if you'd like to attend the finance and housing committee meeting on June 15th or 16th or both and you're not on the committee, please let Erin House and her committee know today.

items from the public safety and human services committee agenda.

There are no items from the committee on the full council agenda, but we do have an amendment to another bill and a bill that I have sponsored that's been working its way through Council Member Mosqueda's Finance and Housing Committee.

So on that one first, that's Council Bill 120069. referred to as the independent contractor protections.

On June 4th, in the Finance and Housing Committee meeting, this bill was voted out of committee unanimously with five votes in support.

In that, this was the last of several committee meetings where we've heard different versions of the bill, both before introducing and then after.

In this vote on the, or committee meeting on the 4th, we voted to address amendments rising from stakeholders.

and the office of labor standards for a substitute bill.

And lifting up substantive changes, there were some technical ones as well.

The bill, we're clarifying, it was never intended to, but we're making very clear that it does not include independent contractors.

We're the only relationship between the contractor and the hiring entity is a property rental agreement, which is an agreement to lease rent space from the hiring entity.

Example, of course, of this type of property rental agreement, which is not an agreement for employment or remuneration associated with work.

It's about, again, the underlying rental of space is, for instance, an independent contractor hair stylist.

whose only relationship with the salon is renting out a booth for work space.

We're also making amendments to the legislation related to some of the protections for platform gig workers, maintaining, for instance, the requirement for timely payment in the bill for platform gig workers, but because we're gonna be addressing so many of the platform gig workers' compensation issues in a subsequent piece of legislation.

And that was an amendment requested by Councilmember Strauss that I brought forward in committee that handily passed.

Next, we clarified the director's authority to rule for the enforcement of the legislation, just making sure that that was very clear.

We moved the effective date back to September 2022 at Office of Labor Standards Consent.

They'd asked for a little bit more time.

And as it relates specifically to some of the budget issues that OLS had raised, we added a non-codified section to ensure that OLS can use the process that's established by the Seattle Municipal Code to establish the office's funding needs for implementation of this policy.

Office of Labor Standards is one of the few departments in the city that has the ability to direct to the city council on what its budget needs are, unlike other city departments that its recommendations have to go through the mayor's office.

And then lastly, we adjusted the timeline in the bill that is looking forward on the pay up campaign for establishing minimum compensation and other protections for platform key workers.

Moved it up from late September to the end of 2021. I want to mention Councilmember Lewis' bill that will be before us today, Council Bill 120096, the Hotel Shelter Supplemental Budget Proviso.

I do have an amendment to that bill, which provides $3 million of the $12 million to expand the contract with the Law Enforcement Institution Program, or LEAD, also known as Let Everyone Advance with Duty.

I want to thank councilmember Lewis who is sponsoring the underlying legislation and for sponsoring this amendment as well.

I believe councilmember Morales is also sponsoring this amendment.

Many of us have received communications explaining how an increase in cost and the need for LEED services during COVID has grown and that leads efforts to respond to individuals engaged in low-level criminal offenses has also intensified.

As part of last year's budgeting rebalancing process, you may recall the council approved proviso requiring that LEAD accept appropriate referrals without approval from law enforcement.

from community sources and agencies such as the Mobile Crisis Team, the Crisis Diversion Facility, King County Prosecutor's Office, the Seattle City Attorney, the King County Jail, Business Improvement Associations, and other neighborhood groups and business groups.

such referrals are known as community referrals and is required by the council's proviso.

LEAD has provided written confirmation that they are receiving such referrals.

And again, these are referrals that they are receiving, not require law enforcement approval.

Defenders Association, which administers both LEAD and Just Cares, has described LEAD as the backbone of Just Cares, which is supported by the underlying legislation.

And if we are going to ensure that more dollars go out for Just Care, we really have to support that backbone as well.

She's providing a constituent quote here.

A lot of downtown behavior involves people who don't need and should not be offered a hotel, should not be offered a hotel via Just Care, housed, but involved in illegal behavior related to income instability or behavioral health conditions.

We need to respond to them too.

site response we use in Just Care relies heavily on LEAD and won't work in advance.

And it won't work to advance the $12 million for Just Care while allowing LEAD to collapse.

Just as a little bit of update on our efforts to bring LEAD to scale, you might recall as a result of some of our budget actions in August, the Human Services Department will be delivering a report to council on what it would look like.

to take LEAD to scale in Seattle, working in consultation with LEAD's policy coordinating group, and the report itself will include recommendations that should help council with budgeting questions in 2022. In the meantime, the amendment that we'll have before us today uses a portion of the $12 million to expand the contract with LEAD to ensure that both accept community referrals at an accelerated rate.

caused by COVID and retain the ability to cover the increased costs by operating during COVID.

It from the Human Services Department.

HSD provided an update on the Hospitality Worker Emergency Relief Fund.

Wellspring, which was selected to administer the fund, reports distributing 70 checks totaling an additional $81,000 in cash assistance the week ending June 4th for the Hospitality Worker Emergency Relief Fund.

The cumulative dispersed amount for the fund is 1,520 checks, totaling over $2 million in cash assistance to hospitality workers.

Quick public health update.

As we know, Seattle passed a critical milestone in the pandemic last week, with more than 70% of eligible residents being fully vaccinated.

In addition, 80% of Seattle residents have begun the vaccination process, making us the most vaccinated city in the nation.

Many thanks to the Seattle Fire Department for bringing a pop-up vaccine clinic this past Saturday to the opening of the new South Delridge Farmers Market in partnership with the African Community Housing and Development Association in District 1. I really appreciate the opportunity to stop by and thank everybody for being there.

vaccine is easier to find than ever.

If you need to show it, start at Seattle.gov forward slash Washington, forward slash vaccine.

Items coming up this week.

have a couple of meetings I just wanted to highlight.

One is a meeting with the Lower Duwamish Waterways Tribes Natural Resource Trustees and community members.

This is a regular meeting with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology to review concerns on waterway issues and there will be some technical presentations shared and it gives the stakeholders in the area the opportunity to learn both about the EPA's work but also to give input to the EPA about needed work yet to be done.

And then also want to just mention my office has been sponsoring weekly meetings with the pay up campaign to talk about minimum compensation for good workers.

We have second of our meetings coming up this week.

I just want to thank not only the pay-up campaign for their participation, but we're getting really good participation from the gig worker platforms.

And just want to also thank, of course, my staff, Alex Clardy, Karina Bull for staffing, as well as the participation of offices, the Lewis office and the Strauss office as well.

And that's all I have for today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Herbold, looks like we do have a question or a comment here on your report from a couple of council members.

So first in line is Council Member Lewis, and then Council Member Swann.

Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just wanted to flag that the amendment, I mean, I guess my co-sponsorship of it is sort of a tell that Council Member Herbold is bringing forward this afternoon is a friendly amendment.

As Council Member Herbold mentioned, the backbone of the Just Care program is the outreach and the work that LEAD does.

And so it's important to make sure that lead remains strong in order to build a robust, adaptable, and scaled model of just care that can serve the entire city, and that'll only happen if we're also able to keep lead in the shape it needs to be in.

So, you know, the amendment is critical to a lot of the underlying programmatic aspirations of the bill, and I am happy to be co-sponsoring it, and it is totally a friendly amendment.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis, appreciate that.

Council Member Salon.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

I don't have comments on Council Member Herbold's report.

Just her comments reminded me that I missed conveying my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the Seattle police officer who was unfortunately and tragically killed while she stopped to, as the Seattle Times reports, render assistance at a three-car collision on I-5.

So I just wanted to make sure that I noted that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

Any other comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, Council Member Juarez, you are next.

Good morning.

Morning.

So, let's see.

There are five items of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

Here's what we should expect.

Items seven to nine are related to the waterfront lid.

The first is a clerk file, the findings, conclusions, and the decision related to the lid.

The second piece is a bill to establish the final assessment role.

And the third and final piece is the financing piece regarding bonds and issuance.

And I'll speak more to that this afternoon, Council President.

Item 10 is regarding the Seattle Science Center code updates.

And item 11, agenda item 11, is a land swap between parks and SDOT.

Let me go right into the Metropolitan Park District.

As you know, that's coming up.

The first meeting of the Metropolitan Park District Governing Board is June 21st after our full council meeting.

We may be kicking that over a week.

I'm not sure.

But for right now, it's June 21st.

The membership constitutes the full council.

We will receive a presentation from the Parks Department at this meeting.

Please let Tracy Ratzcliffe know on central staff or my office if he will not be able to attend.

Parks, this is our update of parks department again, the shower program served almost 380 residents and 5 different community centers between June 2nd and June 8th.

And last week, the parks department served.

Approximately 300 children and 17 child care sites throughout the city.

In regards to the Clean City Crews, the Parks Department is reporting the Clean City Crews picked up about 23,000 pounds of trash from 21 encampment locations between May 31st and June 6th.

And the Clean City Crews also removed about 270 needles.

Crew members focused their deep clean efforts at Kobe Park and David Rogers Park in total The parks department has picked up more than 2.1 million pounds of trash and 55,000 needles.

So we meet weekly with the superintendent to see what parks need the most deepest cleaning and where we can allocate resources and what the money that was designated from budget and from council to continue to go to these parks, continue to do the cleanup, the hand washing, the sanity cans, emptying the garbage.

So I really wanna thank those folks that are out there doing that for us.

In regards to District 5, two big items, well, actually one big item, I'll get to that one in a minute.

The Albert Davis Park, the Parks Department informed my office that they still have work to do to reopen the park and have pushed back the opening until June 28th.

This is the park behind the Lake City Library that we have been trying to clean up for about three or four months.

And we finally got it clean and we're receding it and hopefully we can get this open by the end of June, first week in July.

so we can reactivate that park and get families and community members and other folks in there and behind the library and to assist the people that live on that street behind that park.

So this weekend, big doings up in D5, folks.

Saturday night, June 12th, between about 11 and certainly well after 2 a.m., the first span of the bridge went in on the northbound lane Yeah, big thanks to s dot.

It was the span itself was 240 240,000 pounds.

It took two cranes, and that is our pedestrian bike.

Hopefully it will be our Honorable John Lewis Pedestrian Bike Bridge.

They did it in the pouring rain, and I would like to say I was there.

I was supposed to be there, but I didn't go, but Brindell went, and I also sent out one of our volunteer staffers, also known as my husband, Michael Dupil.

So they were out there for three hours, well into the rain, and so that southbound lane, the span is now in there, and next weekend, Next Saturday, the larger span, the last big piece will go in.

So that's Saturday the 26th.

And so we worked with SDOT and want a big shout out to Kramer, the company, and the folks that showed up.

And again, it was pouring rain and they were out there.

I think my husband got home at like 2.30 in the morning.

So they're still out there.

But if you come up I-5, you will see it going northbound.

And next weekend, it'll be going southbound.

So we had some media there, but we're hoping to have some more there with their drones and their cameras.

This is pretty historical.

This bridge has been spoken about, talked about well since 2013 and certainly for me since 2015. So we're real excited about that.

And I'm hoping that once we get that, I also had a phenomenal meeting with the president of North Seattle College, Dr. Crawford, who's an amazing woman.

And we've been working together and are going to work together on some major projects.

She's also been working with OVG and NHL.

And the connection between the North Seattle College and Northgate with light rail and the pedestrian bike bridge is going to really bolster their enrollment.

And they're focusing on students of color, Native American students.

As you know, we have 200 units going in on the campus, as well as a longhouse with the Chief Seattle Club.

So we are pushing for that Native American presence in the North end, but also for the black community as well.

And that's what we talked about with Dr. Crawford.

So if you get a chance to meet with Dr. Crawford at North Seattle College, I would really encourage it.

She is certainly gonna be one of our leaders in the city like Dr. Brown was before he left.

Last week, I went to the meeting and met with some folks that I've been meeting with for a couple of years now, the Ramps to Nowhere.

I met with members of the Seattle's Arch Group, a group advocating for preserving a fragment of the R.H.

Thompson Ramps to Nowhere as a monument to the citizen activists who helped defeat this North-South Expressway.

Those of you who remember this, and I don't know if there's a lot of you that do, but I was around and you guys are much younger, but this has been going on since the 70s.

Anyway, we are preserving those arches, the archways and the columns and the pillars.

So in October 2016, Seattle Arch advanced a proposal to preserve four columns and a cross beam of the defunct freeway, which received unanimous support from Seattle City Council.

Yours truly here worked on that, so we're excited to finally see that happen.

In this meeting, the arch representatives presented four design approaches, and they also presented those approaches and discussed these issues with the University of Washington, the Arboretum, and their community groups.

And in addition, by complete happenstance, and it worked out great, I went on an Arboretum tour.

I also went on the tour to learn more about the upcoming programs and restoration projects within the park and how the city and state projects will impact Park Operations, as you know, they're doing the 520 project, which is connected to the Arboretum and the Arches and the University of Washington.

Big thank you to Ray Larson, Director of UW Botanical Gardens, Jane Stonfa, John, I can never say her last name, Stonecipher, Executive Director of the Arboretum Foundation, and Scott Lindsey, a member of the Arboretum Board for being our excellent tour guides, and they were very kind.

I got to ride around in a golf cart, so yours surely did not have to hike, which I don't do.

Anyway, our committee will consider legislation at the end of the year that will transfer 27 acres of washed up land to the City Parks Department for incorporation into the Arboretum Park.

If you had not had an opportunity to do that tour, please contact our office and we'll give you all the contact information.

It's really worth doing.

It's going to be a big project, probably for the next couple of years, particularly with 520 and transportation and the additional land into parks.

Um, this week, let's see.

Oh, I'm gonna be meeting with the interim new chief librarian.

As you know, we lost empty to Charlottesville, but we have Tom and Tom's great.

Tom Faye is traveling, and I'm also going down to South Seattle for a tour of the Detective Cookie Chess Park.

That council president.

That's all I got.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Thank you.

All right, hearing none, I'll go ahead and conclude this portion of the agenda with my report.

Give me just a second here.

Okay.

Introduction and Referral Calendar.

Colleagues, I have one item on today's Introduction and Referral Calendar.

It is a perfunctory bill related to city employment, but if you do review it and have any questions about it, happy to answer any of those questions.

I also have four additional items on today's city council agenda, excuse me, slated for a final vote this afternoon.

A two of three of those are appointments.

One is an appointment to the family's education, preschool and promise levy oversight committee.

And then I also have two appointments to the city's districting commission.

Additionally, I have one council bill up for final vote this afternoon.

This is council bill 120092, the fair food delivery bill.

which is modeled after some legislation in the state of California.

This bill is pretty straightforward and is narrow in focus.

It will require delivery platforms and restaurants to have a written agreement in order for a restaurant to be listed on a delivery platform.

I'll speak to this bill in greater detail this afternoon, but just so you are all aware, colleagues, we've heard broad support for the legislation from various sectors within the restaurant industry, food industry in particular.

But if you do have any questions, you can reach out directly to me or to my senior policy advisor, Bee Nguyen.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Governance and Education Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, July 13th at 2 o'clock p.m.

And lastly, just want to say thank you to the chairs of the Small Business Advisory Council who took an opportunity to meet with me and my legislative aide, Binwin, to have a conversation about how the city can better support our small businesses through the recovery period and ongoing challenges being faced by small businesses.

looking forward to continuing those conversations and to, of course, making sure that we are continuing to support our small businesses.

Also, my office met with students from Meany and Denny Middle Schools, just as Consumer Morales described, and we were excited to hear their vision of a better city.

And I was really happy that my office was able to participate, regretted the fact that I couldn't personally participate, But really do appreciate the invitation and opportunity to hear directly from this group of really strong young leaders in our city who have lots of great ideas about how to move our city forward.

And then lastly, also wanted to echo my sympathies that folks have already spoken to as it relates to Officer Harris.

It is loss of life is always tragic, of course, and really send my personal condolences and thoughts to Officer Harris's family, friends, loved ones, and of course, all of our city workers and employees who I'm sure had an opportunity to know her and work with her I wish all of you much recovery and an opportunity for you to properly grieve.

And we're very, very sorry to hear about this really tragic, tragic accident that unfortunately took a life of one of our own city family.

Colleagues, any other questions or comments?

I'm seeing Council Member Strauss, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to take this moment to also echo what you just said, sharing my personal condolences with the family and friends of Officer Harris during this tragic loss.

Thank you, Officer Harris, for your service to our city, and my condolences to family and friends.

You're in my thoughts.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any other comments or questions, colleagues?

All right, this does conclude our agenda for this morning's council briefing.

So I will see you all at two o'clock.

We are adjourned.

Thanks so much, everyone.