Seattle City Council 10/12/2020

The October 12th, 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.01 PM.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll go ahead and move through the agenda.

Presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations today.

Approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of October 5th, 2020 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Adoption of the referral calendar.

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

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

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

And I will note for the record that we have been joined by Council Member Lewis.

Welcome, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President.

Of course.

And when we are joined by Council Member Herbold, I will make sure to reflect that for the record.

Okay, colleagues, at this time we will open the remote public comment period for items on the City Council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the Council's 2020 work program.

I thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It does remain the strong intent of the City Council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, the City Council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

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

I will call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you've not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website at seattle.gov forward slash council.

That's C-O-U-N-C-I-L.

The public comment link is also listed on today's published agenda.

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to press star six before speaking.

Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

Again, you have to hit star six On your end, after you hear the prompt, you have been unmuted in order for us to hear you.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, or the council's 2020 work program.

Speakers will hear a chime when they have 10 seconds left of their two minutes.

Once you hear the chime, we ask that you wrap up your public comment.

If speakers do not end their comment at the end of the two minutes, the speaker's microphone will automatically be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you have completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line, and if you plan to continue following this meeting, please do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

So the public comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

And so we will go to public comment until 2.25 p.m.

today.

Again, for the speakers who are with us today, after you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted, you have to hit star six before speaking or we will not be able to hear you.

So let me refresh my public comment sheet here.

First up is Howard Gale followed by Quan Wah Lu.

Good afternoon.

This is Howard Gale from Lower Queen Anne, District 7, speaking on police accountability.

Today is Indigenous Peoples Day.

It is a day of celebrating and honoring the histories and cultures of Native Americans.

It is inextricably linked to a history of genocide, appropriation, and oppression, a history that is still with us.

It is a good day to reflect not just on the crimes and injustice of the past, but on how we can end those of the present.

In this historic moment, when we are reevaluating policing, we cannot fail to address all aspects of policing, both what tasks are appropriate for people who all too often answer a cry for help with a gun, and whatever tasks we do deem appropriate for armed officers, how we hold them accountable when they inappropriately use that gun, as they did most recently against Terry Caver in May as he cried for help.

As you look at the public safety budget, You must not just consider the failures of policing, but also consider the near-complete failures of our police accountability system that spends nearly $9 million a year.

You must ask yourselves, what accountability has that $9 million purchase for the 27 killed by SPD since John T. Williams 10 years ago?

What accountability has that purchase for Terry Kaver, whose name I would note only council members Morales and Sawant have repeated in council sessions?

And what accountability has a $9 million purchase for the now hundreds of folks beaten and injured, some very seriously, by our police?

Finally, Council Member Lewis, last Friday you spent a few more minutes discussing police safety than you did in Off-Leash Park on Queen Anne.

Please, don't fail to address questions that were asked of you last Friday at town hall.

In order to reimagine policing, we must reimagine both accountability and develop a system that is led and accountable to the public.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Kwan Wah Loo, followed by William Parham.

Hello, can I speak?

Yep, you're up.

Go ahead.

Sure.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Kwan.

I just want to reinstate our statement about Today is Indigenous Peoples Day.

We really need to honour and celebrate the Indigenous people because they are the original people that own this land.

And also we need to dismantle Christopher Columbus.

Christopher Columbus is a coloniser from Italy and there should not be a public holiday that is named after any coloniser, period.

Europeans did not discover America and And also there's a way that people could honor the Duwamish people by going to rerent Duwamish.

So it is a way for people to pay proper rent to the Duwamish people, who are the people that own this land.

And I also would like to readjust the city to meet the five demands set by King County Equity Now and discriminate discriminalized Seattle, the one defund SPD by 50% in the next year, and eventually abolish policing slowly.

Adrian Diaz, the current chief, might not be arresting protesters right now because he's trying to gain public support on his side, but he is refusing to do anything about it in the long term.

Second, we need to relocate the $200 million of police budget to the needy community.

especially Black and Brown and houseless people.

Release all protesters, including Jonathan Duggar, a Black activist who was accused and arsoned by King County prosecutor Ben Stratenberg.

And I yield my time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Last speaker signed up for today is William Parham.

I'm William Parham from Antifa Equity Outreach, and I just want to wish everyone a happy Indigenous Peoples Day.

But more than wishing a happy Indigenous Peoples Day, I'm wishing that the city of Seattle would step up and help out the Duwamish tribe by aiding them in their quest to be recognized federally.

Giving indigenous people their land back is the same as giving the stolen Africans that were brought to the stolen land reparations.

Reparations now and land back.

Now as city council members, I ask, who are you really representing and who are you really appealing to your native and African populations continue to get pushed out by the gentry.

Where is the city council's compassion?

Where is their humanity?

Pledges of solidarity and token distributions of money to the BIPOC communities are not enough.

We want a seat at the table.

We want self-determination.

As a member of Antifa Equity Outreach, I'm demanding housing first, food security, and the right to live.

Instead of investing an Antifa task force and ways to suppress free speech, let's focus on ways to empower our BIPOC communities and make them self-sustainable and thriving.

Pay real rent to the Duwamish.

Pay reparations today.

If you acknowledge that your privilege has given you an unfair advantage in this system and free Ryan Wyman, a political prisoner, free Ryan Wyman now.

Thank you for calling in today.

That's the last speaker I have signed up for public comment today.

So we are gonna go ahead and close out the public comment period and begin on items of business on our agenda.

I will note for the record that we were joined by Council Member Herbold at 2.06 PM, so she's been on the line for the public comment period.

Okay, colleagues, payment of the bills.

Payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Council Bill 119908, appropriating money to pay salaries and claims for the week of September 28th, 2020 through October 2nd, 2020, and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 119908. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Yes.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

Thank you.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation?

Committee reports of the city council.

Colleagues, as I mentioned this morning during council briefing, today's agenda does not include any committee reports as we've all been busy on budget related matters and there has been no committee business.

So that concludes our items of business on today's agenda.

Is there any other further business to come before the council?

Hearing none, colleagues, this concludes the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, October 19th, 2020 at 2 p.m.

I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

We are adjourned.