Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee Public Hearing 10/12/21

Good evening.

Thank you so much for joining tonight.

This is Tuesday, October 12th.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Select Budget Committee.

The Select Budget Committee meeting will come to order.

The time is 5.31 p.m.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Juarez?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Council President Gonzalez.

Present.

Herbold.

Present.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

And Council Member Morales.

Here.

Nine present, eight present, I'm sorry, eight present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And when we do see Council Member Juarez, who we expect to join us, I'll make sure to announce that.

Colleagues, I want to note at the top of this hour, we do have interpreters with us who will be offering translation.

This includes translating my opening remarks and the instructions for facilitating the public comment.

I want to make sure to slow down.

They have been provided the script in front of us today for the opening comments here, but this will give everybody the opportunity for translation.

We're going to start with these opening comments and we will have break at each sentence to make sure to offer translation services.

Today we will be offering translation in Spanish and we do have instructions for folks who have a need for additional translation services in future meetings.

Okay, vamos a empezar.

Colleagues, today we have a number of interpreters joining us today to provide translation for members of the public who requested translation services in Spanish in advance.

The interpreters will be translating opening remarks and directions on how to moderate today's public hearing, in addition to translating the public comment from today from Spanish to English for folks who wish to testify in Spanish.

pause here and confirm that we have our translators and interpreter services on the line here with us, Madam Clerk.

I'm going to continue to read my comments because the translators have been offered these comments in writing.

So we'll make sure to review them fully in Spanish when they do get on the line.

But I will stick to my script.

Vamos a seguir porque las personas que van a traducir estamos entrando la reunión aquí.

Entonces voy a seguir con las palabras que tenemos aquí enfrente de nosotros.

Y ellos van a traducir cuando lleguen aquí.

For future language access requests for the Budget Committee, please make sure to contact Farideh Cuevas in my office 72 hours in advance of the committee meeting to submit your request for translation.

Colleagues, we have today almost 200 participants signed up, and we know that it is important for us to hear directly from constituents as we build this budget.

Like you, I've heard from folks even before we began to receive the mayor's proposed budget that were very interested in providing information to us about what was going to be included in the mayor's transmitted budget.

It is not and cannot be the case that each council budget process is the first time which we hear from constituents, advocates, and deliberate in public what people value at the table.

So transparency, accountability, and good governance mean the council budget process has to be more than checking an executive budget box.

That's why we hold public comments like this.

But it's not the only time council members have the chance to engage with constituents.

I very much appreciate how many council members have flagged the ways in which your offices have been engaging constituents and advocates and look forward to having you share some ways for folks to engage in providing comment to all of us in addition to these public hearings offered today.

I'm going to pause very briefly and see if our translation services have joined us.

I'm going to offer this concluding paragraph and then I will make sure to again pause for the translation services.

As budget chair, we have worked to increase communications towards the public.

We've worked with the communications department to provide transparent sign-on tools for budget actions and increase the number of public hearings to hear directly from members of the public.

This budget cycle, we have three public hearings.

This is the first one.

The next opportunity for a long-form public testimony will be November 10th at 5.30 p.m.

And the last one will be November 19th at 9.30 a.m.

That will conclude at 11.30.

In addition to these three public hearing sessions, we have the first 30 minutes of each budget meeting dedicated to hearing members of the public provide testimony.

We've spent the last few weeks hearing from hundreds of individuals and organizations centering the issues that impact the city the most, including homelessness, equitable public safety, affordable housing, and economic revitalization through a series of office hours, community round tables, and hearing directly from community members during our normal budget meetings.

We did receive a note that says that the translator services are having a hard time logging in, so I just want to flag for folks who are waiting to hear translation services, we will be offering the translation services officially.

And Madam Clerk, if you have any questions about who needs to be admitted, if you can connect with Frida Cuevas, who I know you've been working with, thank you so much in advance.

Colleagues, before I turn it over to see if you have anything to offer, I'm going to do my best to translate this in Spanish.

Gracias a todos que estamos aquí para esta reunión hoy.

En unos momentos vamos a tener interpreters para facilitar esta noche en español.

Ellos van a describir cómo puedes accesar a public comment hablando con el público aquí en este forma y vamos a proveer este servicio a los que quieren hablar en español y cambiar las palabras en español a inglés.

También, si alguien más quiere tener traducción con nuestras public comment reuniones en el público, necesitamos saber tres días antes de la reunión.

Estamos aquí con casi 200 personas que quieren hablar con nosotros y sabemos que es muy importante oír de las personas que están en la línea.

Vamos a escuchar de todas las personas que están llamando.

Como todo el mundo, sabemos que es muy importante que este proceso y el producto final tiene la información de ustedes, de las personas que viven aquí en Seattle.

Y por este proceso, con sus palabras, vamos a mejorar el producto al final de este mes.

Es importante tener la oportunidad de oir de ustedes, no solamente hoy, pero también tenemos dos más reuniones.

El 10 de noviembre a las cinco y medio por la noche.

También el 19 en noviembre a las nueve y media en la mañana.

Y también cada reunión que tenemos, vamos a tener el primer 30 minutos a oir por las personas del público.

Gracias por todos que están aquí.

Gracias a los cientos personas que estamos hablando en las meses pasados.

En anticipación a este momento hablar del budget y todo lo que queremos hacer para mejorar la calidad de vida aquí en Seattle.

Mejorar la calidad de casas y oportunidades a tener su negocio y ser or if anybody else has anything they'd like to add, I know Council President Gonzalez, you would have done a much better job translating that, and we are trying to get the translator services on the line, so we will make sure to get them in here as soon as possible.

Okay, with that, colleagues, I'm not seeing anybody else jump up to add something.

So I would like to open it up to office hours.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda and colleagues.

As you all hear during council briefing each week, I hold office hours weekly with District 6 residents.

So District 6 residents, if you're listening now, feel free to sign up for my office hours on my website.

This week, we have made adjustments because of the three full days of Budget Committee.

and this public hearing.

So we are reducing office hours this week and extending them next week.

So feel free to sign up on my website and I'm happy to be with you here tonight and listening.

I will say tonight is one of my best friend's birthday, one of the best people in the world that I know, my friend Noel.

And so I can't celebrate with you in person tonight, Noel.

want to wish you a happy birthday.

Again, to District 6 residents, I hold office hours every week, and please sign up on my website and look forward to meeting with you.

Thanks, Council.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Is there anybody else who has any office hours or community meetings they want to highlight?

Feel free to do that.

Council Member Herbold, thank you, Vice Chair.

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

My next office hour is scheduled for Friday the 29th.

They are scheduled between noon until 6 p.m.

that day, and that is just a designated time for folks to meet, but I just want to let the listening public know that I'm meeting with constituents every day on budget issues as well.

So that is not, by any means, the only time that I'm available to hear from you about your budget recommendations.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Good reminder, this is in addition to our daily meetings that we are all taking.

Council Members Sawant, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I also wanted to reiterate to members of the public who are listening that anytime they want to reach out to my office, they should feel free to do so.

And we are continuing to, as others have said, engage with community members and advocates on the specific needs that they all have expressed on the budget.

And I just also wanted to share with members of the public that earlier today I sent to The chair and all council members, the initial list of budget and progressive budget amendments that have emerged from community discussions around the people's budget.

And I just, I've shared that on my council office blog post on council office Facebook, but also have sent to all council members and We will be reaching out to all council offices for meetings in the next couple of weeks to make sure that there are opportunities for across co-sponsorship and your progressive amendments and progressive amendments from my office.

And last but not least, because it's an unusual date, I just want to take this opportunity to make sure people know that the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee has, does have a meeting on November 30th.

And usually we don't have a meeting around that time because it's around Thanksgiving time, but we're having to do that because of, you know, certain requirements.

And so I just want to make sure people know that we will be discussing the rent control legislation at that meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you for those notifications.

Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

And after the Council President speaks, if there's anybody else in the queue, please feel free to let us know.

And if you are not able to share tonight, we know that people are putting it out on their social media, and we will do our best, as well as the chair of this committee, to amplify those opportunities.

Council President, I just wanted to see if you had an item.

I see your hand up.

I think we will make sure to go back to the council president if that was a I apologize for that, Council President Gonzalez, and we will make sure to come back to you before opening up public comment.

But with that, I am going to go ahead and read into the record here, the process for engaging in public comment.

Before I do, Madam Clerk, do you have any way to confirm for me if our translation services are on the line?

Chair Mosqueda, they're still working on getting them on the line.

Apparently, they were there and were dropped off.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Council President Gonzalez, thank you so much.

I believe you had your hand up.

If you had anything, you are welcome to chime in.

I did.

I'm so sorry.

Can you hear me okay?

Okay, great.

Sorry, I'm standing outside.

I'm in transit.

But did want to acknowledge that I like many of you all colleagues have been having a lot of meetings with community stakeholders.

My office has had well over 30 meetings already with three different stakeholder groups on different budget priorities.

So we're really excited about continuing to have that level of engagement.

And for those folks who are waiting to hear back from us, don't hesitate to contact us via email.

And for those who are still looking to reach out to us, we definitely invite the opportunity to connect with you all to talk about your budget priorities.

So appreciate an opportunity to share what my office has been doing and look forward to continuing to connect with members in the community around various budget priorities.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council President.

Wonderful.

Thank you all.

And Council Member Morales, I see your hand.

Please go ahead.

Sorry, Council Member, you are mute.

There you go.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda.

I do just want to echo that we have been meeting with folks really since the end of the last budget cycle to talk about what folks in District 2 have as priorities.

And I don't think anybody will be surprised to hear that what folks really want to talk about is expanding EDI.

opportunities for tenants to buy their homes, more opportunity for home ownership, and infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure.

We also are hearing from not just the organizations that have been involved with the solidarity budget, but with individuals.

We've had lots of constituents calling during our office hours who are not necessarily affiliated with the organizations, but who have heard about it and are very interested in the priorities that are identified there.

We are looking forward to the conversations over the next several weeks and are definitely hearing from our constituents that they expect us to be bold in what we are advocating for and asking for on their behalf.

And I look forward to having those conversations with my colleagues.

Thank you very much.

Okay, at this time, I'm gonna read the instructions for how to participate in today's public comment.

I know that the translator is, translation services are trying to get on the line here, so we will hopefully have translation available.

We are going to read this directly so that translation can be offered once they join.

At this time, I will be opening the remote public comment period.

We have almost 200 people registered to provide public comment tonight.

To be able to go through everyone who has signed up today, we need to moderate the public comment in the following manner.

We will ensure that everyone who has signed up today has the chance to speak.

Each speaker will be given one minute to speak.

For those folks who need translation services, you will be given one minute to provide your comments, and there will be one minute for translation services.

This will include interpreter services that will be offered through consecutive translations, so a total of two minutes.

I'm going to call on three speakers at a time in the order in which you've registered on today's website.

If you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public hearing by going to the council's website at Seattle.gov backslash council.

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

Please make sure that you are calling in with the same number you signed up with.

If not, we will only see the number you are calling in on and it will not match the number you've registered.

Once I call on a speaker's name, staff will unmute your line and you will hear you have been unmuted.

This is your cue to hit star six to begin speaking.

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

Tonight, please keep your comments related to the 2022 budget.

Speakers will hear a chime at 10 seconds, when there's 10 seconds left of your allotted time.

And once you hear that chime, we ask that you wrap up your comments.

If you don't wrap up your comments by the end of your allotted time, you will have your microphone disconnected.

So we ask you to wrap up your comments so we can hear your full thoughts.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask you to disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to call in on any, if you plan to continue watching, which we hope you do, you can dial in on the listen in line at 20, 253-215-8782.

The meeting ID is 586-416-9164.

Again, that is listed on today's agenda.

You can also follow us on the Seattle channel that is live streaming this.

Thank you so much to the IT support team, the technology team, all of the clerks who you've already heard from today, to my team, Farideh Cuevas, for all of the work that she put into this effort, especially to make sure that translation services will be provided for folks during public testimony.

And I want to note that we will be providing about a two to three minute pause at each hour to make sure that we are offering folks a chance to change translation services if needed.

At 8 30 p.m if we still have individuals on the line to speak and there are more than 30 people signed up to speak then we will take a full 15 minute recess to make sure that people have the ability to get their rest break in.

If there's only about 30 people signed up we are going to continue through so that we can aim to end before it gets into the wee hours of the night.

If you are not able to wait until your name is called on tonight's list, given the large number of people signed up, please remember those three public comment periods, public comment opportunity at the beginning of every meeting, and you can always send in your public comments to council at Seattle.gov or join any of the conversations that the council members have flagged tonight in their district and citywide.

The public comment period is now open.

I am going to call on three speakers at a time, and you will hear you have been unmuted.

Again, that's your reminder to hit star six on your end.

Madam Clerk, please feel free to interrupt me if we do get the opportunity to be joined by the translation service.

Not a problem.

Thank you so much.

The first three speakers are Marisol Ruiz, Kate Rubin, and Neil Anderson.

Buenas noches, Marisol.

Si quieres empezar, puedes.

Y si quieres esperar por el intérprete, puedes esperar también.

Good afternoon, Marisol.

You're welcome to begin speaking.

If you'd like to wait for the interpreter, you're welcome to do that and we'll come back to you.

Marisol.

Buenas noches.

And also, folks, make sure that on your own phone, it does not have you on mute.

Sometimes that happens.

So it looks like you're unmuted on my end.

If you could just check.

Bueno.

Bueno.

OK, gracias.

Marisol.

¿Puedo hacerlo en español?

Sí, sí puedes hacerlo, pero el intérprete no está aquí todavía.

Si quieres esperar por unos momentos, podemos regresar.

OK, espero.

Espero.

Okay, gracias, Marisol.

Marisol is going to wait for the interpreter services.

Gracias por su paciencia.

The next person is Kate.

Good afternoon, Kate.

My name is Kate Rubin.

I am a renter living in District 2 and the Executive Director of the Housing Justice Organization de Seattle.

As proud endorsers of the solidarity budget, we are calling on the council to adjust the mayor's budget to fully meet our community-generated demands.

We're in the middle of a housing crisis.

The working class is being continuously pushed further and further outside of the city, with Black and Brown communities being disproportionately displaced.

Rather than divesting from our bloated police budget or raising new progressive revenue, the mayor's budget raised jumpstart funds earmarked for affordable housing to pay for priorities not included in the council's community-supported spending plan.

We can't adequately fund housing in this budget without maintaining the integrity of the Jumpstart Spending Plan.

We need to stop the sweeps and invest deeply in social housing tenant opportunities to purchase their homes eviction prevention and rentier education and organizing.

The Solidarity Budget moves us towards a Seattle where everyone has a support opportunity and community to thrive.

A city that addresses anti-Blackness where housing is recognized as a human right and no one has to struggle to fill basic needs.

Please fight for us.

Thank you so much.

The next person is Neil Anderson.

Good evening Neil.

Hi my name is Neil Anderson and I'm here in support of the solidarity budget.

We've all been learning a lot more recently about the indoor air pollution caused by gas stoves and we know that this is much worse for children since their lungs are still developing.

But as more people get the message about how harmful it is to burn gas indoors In many cases, wealthier families are able to get rid of their gas range and replace it with electric, while for lower income families, that's often not an option.

We know from the health disparities map that residents in poorer communities already breathe more polluted air.

But if this trend continues, it means that children in those communities will be more likely to breathe toxic fumes when they're at home, too.

We can't be a city that allows climate progress to leave behind our most vulnerable residents.

So I ask that you follow the recommendations of the solidarity budget to allocate $85 million per year for the next three years to transition all low-income homes in our city to clean energy.

We know that today's children will be the ones who experience the worst effects of the climate crisis.

Let's at least do what we can to give all children in Seattle a healthy start.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

The next three speakers are Jacob Scherer, David Hines, and Peter Condit.

Good evening, Jacob.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Jacob Shear.

I'm an organizer with Real Change.

I'm calling in on behalf of Real Change and our vendors to ask the Council to dramatically readjust the Mayor's proposed budget to align with the actual needs of our community laid out in the 2022 Solidarity Budget.

The Solidarity Budget provides a deeply researched, community-centered blueprint for providing true community care and safety, which was achieved by a participatory process that included people like Real Change vendors.

Our vendors need the commitment to funding deeply affordable and social housing laid out in the solidarity budget, not austerity and the hiring of more police to perpetuate racist violence and the criminalization of poverty.

Real Change hopes that the council will use the 2022 budget to create a new path forward for our city, one that centers housing as a human right and creates new and vital ways to ensure that people like Real Change vendors can live and thrive in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

David, good evening.

Thank you.

It's evident that this City Council refuses to solve the homeless crisis and only manages to buy off the same re-election apparatus that does all the protesting around here to fill up the public comment period, to saturate and censor the narrative about why we need an investigation of the six-figure salaries and all the donations to the activists, union organizers, and lobbyists paid by nonprofits who then broker deals with City Council not to investigate and look the other way on the abuse of innocent homeless for a trade of data and integrity and oversight for election support, buying off protesters and union leaders, dumping lump sums of hard-earned dollars in votes for lies and reasons why it's totally unsafe in Seattle after City Hall sabotaged police reform that refuses to arrest any crack meth or heroin pusher under three grants, who are victimizing people for $5 in drugs, destroying, scorning, raping all these people that are strung out in your front doorstep, desperately seeking help and never come.

It only shows up at city council meetings demanding more homeless money for not protesting.

Yet liberals think that it's more important to get...

Thank you.

Peter, good evening.

Thanks for waiting.

Thank you, Budget Chair Mosqueda.

This is Peter Condit.

I'm a scientist in District 6. I'm here to support defunding SPD and the solidarity budget.

Defund SPD is a statement of love.

Defund SPD means we as a city will respond to people's needs without the threat of violence.

Defund SPD means we will respond to distress in our community with compassion.

Defund SPD means we will spend our resources not on surveillance and weapons, but on investments that empower residents.

There are many good ways to spend public dollars that are laid out in the solidarity budget, participatory budgeting, social housing, and more.

The key element of the solidarity budget, though, is that it defunds the violence.

I encourage each and every council member to tell SPD loud and clear that you're taking their money away.

Stand up to the violence.

The budget is the ultimate accountability mechanism, and it lies in your hands.

Council Member Strauss, I encourage you in particular not to leave the hard work of defunding SPD to other people in the council.

You all have equal power to decrease SPD's budget, and I hope to see you propose an amendment

Thank you.

Good evening, Brady.

Brady Nordstrom, followed by Virgil Wade, and then we'll do Maria Solis, followed by Marisol Ruiz.

Brady, Virgil, then Maria and Marisol.

Brady, good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Brady Nordstrom and I'm with Seattle for Everyone.

I'm commenting today in support of substantially more funding for OPCD to conduct robust community engagement environmental study for the 2024 major comprehensive plan update process.

Housing justice is also about land use.

The major comp plan update will set direction for land use and growth in Seattle for at least the next eight years.

Right now, OPCD's outreach and environmental impact study is underfunded.

Meaningful, equitable community outreach takes a substantial investment of time and resources, especially if we're to capture the voices of those most impacted by the housing crisis.

We urge you to prioritize enough resources for all Seattle's communities to shape OPCD's proposals for Seattle's future land use and growth, not just those who have traditionally engaged in the processes or have enough resources to do so.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling in today.

Good evening Virgil.

Good evening.

My name is Virgil Waite.

I am the Deputy Director for Chief Seattle Club a non-profit here in Seattle working with urban Native people.

I would like to comment in support of an item in the mayor's proposed budget regarding funding for services from agencies specializing in American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

This funding will allow the Chief Seattle Club to continue the delivery of critical services.

This includes funding for our day center which has safely provided meals to community members from all backgrounds.

This item would also provide funding for other high need areas including our reentry programming our outreach team and our domestic violent sexual assault services.

Additionally we are asking City Council to include funding for the joint venture between Chief Seattle Club and Bellwether Housing with our partners at North Seattle College.

This project will bring 200 units of affordable family housing to the campus along with the contemporary Coast Salish Longhouse and college uses.

I want to thank you for your consistent support that the council and residents of Seattle have given to our organization and our partners and we humbly ask for this support.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you very much.

And the next two speakers will be Maria Solis and Marisol Ruiz.

Bienvenidos, Maria, y después Marisol, y voy a traducir, porque todavía tenemos dificultades tecnical, entonces voy a tratar, y gracias por su paciencia.

So let's put two minutes on the clock, dos minutos por favor, y vamos a empezar.

Okay, Maria.

Y necesitas imprimir estrellas seis, por favor, para empezar.

If you could put star six to start speaking, estrellas seis.

Cuando estamos esperando aquí, vamos a dar un bienvenidos de nuevo a Marisol Ruiz.

Let's pull up Marisol Ruiz again so that we can have her in the queue as Maria works on getting unmuted.

Bienvenidos, Marisol.

Gracias por esperar.

Lo siento por la esperanza.

Voy a traducir por vos, si está bien con usted.

Yes, yes, thank you.

We're going to begin.

Okay, buenas tardes.

Mi nombre es Marisol Ruiz y estoy aquí representando a mis compañeros y compañeras para pedir que se destine o se otorgue dinero del presupuesto a los y las trabajadoras domésticas para continuar con el proyecto de los beneficios portables para los trabajadores del hogar.

Soy niñera en Seattle desde el 2005. Actualmente trabajo para una familia cuidando de dos niñas.

Durante el tiempo que tuvimos que quedarnos en casa, fui testigo de cómo varias de mis compañeras fueron despedidas sin recibir ninguna compensación.

Y además, no tenían ningún beneficio que las protegiera, como días de enfermedad o ahorros.

Eso nos muestra que es importante tener los beneficios, porque no sabemos cuándo los necesitamos.

Y tenerlos es un alivio económico, físico y emocional.

Pasar estos derechos en Seattle e incluir a todo el estado de Washington Thank you very much Marisol.

Okay.

Colleagues, I am going to try to do this justice.

Good evening.

My name is Marisol Ruiz.

I come here on behalf of my companions, my comrades in the work of domestic work.

We are asking for there to be investments in this year's budget to support the development of a portable benefits package.

I've been here since 2005 working as a domestic worker, working like many of my comrades without adequate wages, without adequate compensation, without adequate benefits like sick leave and paid time off.

It's important that we don't just, it's important, especially now in the wake of COVID, that we see this as an economic justice issue.

We want to have the same rights and dignity that other workers have, not just in Seattle, but also in Washington State.

The time is now, especially in the wake of COVID, domestic workers, work is incredibly valuable, and we need to be investing in domestic workers.

Gracias, Marisol.

Maria, si quieres empezar, por favor, puedes imprimir estrella seis para empezar, por favor.

Okay.

Muy bien, Marisol.

Muy bien, bienvenidos.

Buenas tardes.

Good evening.

en ocasiones tenemos que pues acabalar a la renta o incluso hasta algunos víveres, la gasolina para los trabajos, por la pandemia no tuvimos unos pagos justos, a muchos nos despidieron, entonces pues para nosotros sería muy importante que dinero siga, que siga siendo, que siga habiendo ayuda para nosotros los trabajadores.

Esta ayuda portable sería muy buena para nosotros.

Gracias.

Hola.

Hola.

My name is...

Diana, ¿estás aquí para traducir?

Yo creo que sí, solo que yo solo escuché una pequeña parte.

Okay, muy bien.

Si yo puedo empezar y vos puedes ayudarme si algo está perdiendo, okay?

Okay.

Okay.

So I'm going to start, and bienvenidos, welcome to Diana, who is here as our interpreter.

Yay, we're happy to have you.

And to translate Marisol's testimony, I'm going to offer the beginning, and then Diana, who heard half of it, is going to add anything else.

Good evening, my name is Maria Solis.

I'm here testifying in support of making sure that there's more money for investments in domestic workers.

I've been a domestic worker as a nanny for 15 years.

In that time, there have not been good benefits, there have not been good wages, and having portable benefits is good for emotional health, it's good for economic health, and it's good for stability for workers.

It means that we can have more stability and assurances to pay things like paying rent and other bills that are due.

This is a very important element to continue the work that we have done with helping domestic workers.

Diana, would you add anything else?

No, that's all.

Okay.

No, eso es todo.

Okay, muy bien.

Gracias a ustedes.

Gracias, Maria.

Okay, thank you so much, Maria, for your testimony.

And Diana, we'll keep you on the line.

And I think you have the same list of folks who have asked for translation as we do.

If we hear other folks who would like translation, thank you for being here, Diana.

Okay, thanks, colleagues.

Yes, thank you for your patience to Maria and to Marisol for allowing me to translate.

The next three speakers are Alice Lockhart, Jorge Barron, and Tiara Dearborn.

Good evening, Alice.

Alice, just hit star six one more time.

There we go.

Sorry I didn't realize I was next.

I'm Alice Lockhart with 350 Seattle but tonight I'll be reading a comment from Green New Deal volunteer Rebecca Kate who couldn't stay long enough to speak as number 89. Rebecca wrote the following.

I urge you to adopt the solidarity budget in its entirety.

Specifically I want to speak to the Green New Deal and the need to fund solutions that meet the scale of the climate emergency that we are facing at this very moment.

We need to accelerate the transition of homes and buildings off fossil fuels.

We also need to fund community climate resilience hubs.

The heat dome we experienced this summer was a true wake up call.

It was a clear sign that the deadly effects of climate change are here and we in the Northwest are not immune.

I live Rebecca Lance near Lake Washington and hundreds flock to the lakeshore to stay cool and survive the heat during those extreme weather days.

We need to face reality and plan now for more extreme summer weather and poor air quality from frequent flurries, fires.

That's why I'm calling on the council to expand the number of clean air and cooling centers so that every Seattle resident.

Thank you very much, Alice.

Good evening, Jorge.

Chair Mosqueda and council members, my name is Jorge Barron.

I'm the Executive Director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

And Chair Mosqueda, I commend you for your efforts this evening on ensuring language access.

I'm here to ask you to maintain and expand the city's investment in the legal defense network.

The network has been an outstanding example of how the city practices its values of being a welcoming community.

And I wanted to acknowledge the vision of Council President Gonzalez in establishing it in 2017. For the past three years, the Council has recognized the value of the network and has allocated funding at a level of $1 million per year for this critical resource.

Unfortunately, Mayor Darkin's proposed budget would reduce funding for the network to a level of $810,000.

This cut would significantly reduce the LDN's ability to serve existing clients.

We're therefore requesting that you, at a minimum, maintain the current level of funding of LDN at the $1 million per year level.

We are also asking that you make additional investments to ensure the LVN can be sustainable into the future and can adequately respond to emerging community needs.

We shared a letter with more details on this request yesterday, but our ask is that you set the LVN's budget at $1.471 million in the 2022 budget.

Thank you, Jorge.

The next speaker is Tiara Dearborn.

I did want to note that Council Member Juarez has joined us as well, so if we can get her into the screen, that'd be wonderful.

Thank you, Sol.

Good evening.

My name is Tiara Dearbone.

I'm a project manager for LEAD in Seattle.

Thank you, Council, for your consistent support of the LEAD framework that works to address low-level crime and public health concerns using a community-based harm reduction approach.

and serve the most vulnerable people within our community.

Those who have fallen through the cracks of our behavioral health social and other services and oftentimes land in jail as a result.

As a colleague of mine likes to say the streets of the new jail where folks are surviving in conditions we didn't know could get worse over the past 18 months.

These are folks who don't fit the typical criteria for behavioral health or housing services and who LEAD continues to show up for.

There is an enormous need right now so so much that we have been declining eligible referrals for several months now due to capacity constraints.

You'll hear from some of the community here today about the need that they see in their communities.

We ask that you continue to scale up LEAD a backbone to the work of Just Care at this troubling time so that we can continue to respond to both community need for public order and to those who have continually been excluded.

Additionally we support the efforts to invest in collaborative and inclusive community

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Chris Woodward, Janice Sigucci, and Trevona Thompson-Wiley.

Good evening, Chris.

Good evening, Councilmembers.

My name is Chris Woodward.

I'm the Business Development Director with the Alliance for Pioneer Square and D7.

I'm calling for support for bringing the LEAD program to fidelity and scale as presented in the HSD proposal to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

I support LEAD because, first, LEAD is a solution that can work and help people who are committing low-level crimes due to extreme poverty or unaddressed behavioral health needs.

Next, within Pioneer Square, the LEAD program staff actively engages stakeholders to create a sense of involvement between the program and neighborhood.

And finally, LEAD works with many individuals who don't qualify or have fallen through the cracks of other services.

Pioneer Square needs effective solutions implemented in the short and midterm to address the challenges our neighborhood faces.

Thank you, council members, for your ongoing support of the LEAD program.

Thank you for your time tonight as well.

Janice Deguchi, it looks like you are not present.

We'll call you back at the half hour mark.

If you are there, we will welcome your public testimony.

Good evening, Trevona.

Welcome.

Hello, my name is Trevona Thompson-Wiley.

I'm a resident of District 2. I'm a resident of District 2. I'm calling in today to support the Solidarity Budget.

The Solidarity Budget literally will save the lives of people of this city.

The Solidarity Budget will literally invest in the community that has been begging for investment.

We are begging the city council to put this into affordable housing.

The Solidarity Budget literally is talking about putting $635 billion into affordable housing.

As a black woman, third generation from this city of Seattle.

Housing has always been an issue for black folks, the people that are poor, the people who cannot come to city council meetings, the people who could not advocate for themselves because they have to work.

We need help.

And it's up to the city council to do its job.

It is up for the city council to stand for the folks of this city, the people that cannot advocate for themselves.

And I'm asking and I'm begging and I'm demanding that you look into the solidarity budget because it will save the lives of everyone in this city.

Thank you for calling in today.

The next three speakers are James Lovell, Matt Thompson and oh excuse me Thomas and Jordan VanVost and good evening James just star six perfect.

Good evening my name is James Lovell and I'm an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and I'm also the development director for the Chief Seattle Club working alongside a previous commenter Virgil Wade.

Today I would like to add comments in support of funding for services from agencies specializing in American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

First regarding the items that were mentioned by my colleague earlier which included our day center reentry programming outreach and DVSA work.

My only additive comment is that this is bridge funding as many of these items will have new requests for proposals coming in 2022. Some from the city's HSD processes and some from the newly established King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

We're thrilled that these items are included in the mayor's proposed budget as these services are needed now as much as ever.

My other comment is on the capital request for Chief Seattle Club in partnership with Bellwether Housing.

156 years ago, it was made illegal for Native Americans to reside within the city limits of Seattle, a city named for a then living Duwamish and Squamish tribal chief.

We are so excited to bring this request to you as the inclusion of 200 units of family housing and a contemporary Coast Salish longhouse at North Seattle College near the historic Licton Springs will be another important step forward in our efforts for restorative justice for the residents of Seattle.

We thank you for considering.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Matt Thomas.

Good evening, Matt.

Okay, I'm going to move on.

Matt, we'll come back to you if you get logged in.

Jordan Van Vost, you are up next.

Good evening, Jordan.

You could hit star six one more time, Jordan.

Perfect, thank you.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Jordan Van Vost.

I live in District 3, and I'm joining you to comment on the 2022 city budget.

Last week, I participated in an interfaith panel speaking to high school students on the challenges of violence, poverty, and widening economic inequality.

From a Buddhist perspective, all problems circle back to greed, hatred, and ignorance.

We are all connected.

We cannot build a healthy world if we allow people to go unhoused, deny people medical care, or expand police without funding community services.

We need to heed the dire state of our planet in the climate emergency and fund clean energy solutions that eliminate fossil fuel use, as in the Green New Deal.

Please fully fund the proposals outlined in the Solidarity Budget and the People's Budget with no cuts to the Amazon tax.

Budgets are moral documents reflecting our deepest priorities.

Thank you for working together with the highest good of people and planet in mind.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Bill Sampson, Simona Grosen, and Julie Buna.

Good evening, Bill.

Star six, please.

And one more time, Bill, if you could hit star six.

Okay, why don't we tee up Simona and we will see, Bill, we'll keep you on the screen here so we can see if you come off mute.

Star six one more time, Bill.

And let's go ahead and tee up Simona.

Good evening, Simona.

Star six, please.

Wonderful.

Good evening.

My name is Simona Burleson.

I'm the Executive Director of VISTA-POPE located here in South Seattle.

We've worked closely and have assisted many of the tiny house villages such as Othello Village Tiny House Interbay and Union Tiny House Village.

We've assisted them with food clothes educational classes as well as helping them to transition into homes.

I'm happy to say that many of the people that we've assisted in the last five years are still in their homes today and it's a must that we continue to assist the homeless.

Please reinstate the Jump Start spending program.

and plan for more affordable housing, we also ask that you consider providing additional funds for tiny house villages.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Excellent.

Thank you.

We will go on to Julie and we'll come back to Bill and Janice at the half hour mark here.

Julie, are you on the line?

Good evening, Julie.

Just hit star six, please.

Hello my name is Julie Buona.

I am a resident of District 3 and a part of the Seattle Group for Police Accountability.

I also work in the field of food access and food justice.

I'm speaking at this hearing today along with hundreds of other Seattle community members to express my support for the 2022 Solidarity Budget a budget put together by hundreds of community members and organizations.

By divesting from policing and our harsh criminal justice system The Solidarity Budget reimagines community safety by investing in things like equitable housing accessible infrastructure food sovereignty environmental justice and much more.

Just to take one example with just under 5 percent of the SPD budget proposed by Mayor Durkin we could fund the entirety of the Solidarity Budget's food access and sovereignty plan.

which sees investments in food banks and other community-led food sovereignty organizations to create a resilient food system.

I ask that the council use a solidarity budget as a starting point for determining how our money will be used and how the city will prioritize community safety.

Thank you very much, Julie.

I'm going to read the next three speakers because you are listed to speak but are not present.

Steve Hooper, Sean Glaze, and Bob Williamson.

We'll come back to you at the 6.30 mark if you're able to join us.

The next three speakers that are present are Crystal Peterson, Julia Buck, and Jesse Friedman.

Good evening, Crystal.

Hi, my name is Crystal Peterson.

I live in the Greenwood neighborhood of District 5. I'm calling to voice my support for bringing the LEAD program to fidelity.

As presented in the HSC proposal to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee and allow LEAD to be brought to scale so that it can respond to priority public safety concerns city wide.

LEAD is near and dear to my heart because it's made a difference in our neighborhood in the last six months directly addressing our public safety concerns LEAD has an effective solution to help people who are committing low-level crimes due to extreme poverty and unaddressed behavioral health needs.

LEAD works with many individuals who don't qualify for other services when they need it most.

Our city needs LEAD services because it reaches those in our neighborhoods that need it most in a proven and effective way that

Thank you very much.

And Julia you are up next.

Was that Julia?

Wonderful.

Julia.

Hello.

My name is Julia Buck.

I'm a homeowner in Ballard in District 6 and a member of 350 Seattle.

I'm calling because transitioning Seattle homes off of Royal Heat is urgently needed to tackle Seattle's fastest growing source of climate pollution.

Improve the health of our community.

Amount our schools and create good living wage jobs.

I support the solidarity budget call for $85 million per year for the next three years to transition all low income homes in Seattle to clean energy.

I also support the people's budget demands especially funding and attaching a proviso for tiny house villages.

I have talked to unsheltered people who've expressed how helpful and supportive tiny houses are and how, and I've seen the statistics about how effective they've been in transitioning out of homelessness.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you for being here tonight.

And Bob Williamson, please go ahead.

Bob, star six to unmute.

If you want to hit star six one more time.

Okay, the next three speakers after Bob will be Jesse Friedman, Brioni Scott, and Karen Galen.

Bob, just hit star six one more time if you can hear me.

Okay great.

Let's go ahead and keep you on the line here.

We will tee up Jessie and if I see you come off mute we'll come back to you Bob.

Jessie good evening.

Star 6 please.

Great.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name's Jessie Friedman.

Here tonight from Youth Care.

And like all agencies COVID has been tough for us.

We're proud to have remained open and been able to continue our programming because the young people we serve can't wait.

I want to take a moment to voice my support for the Seattle Human Services Coalition's priorities in general.

and tell you a bit about a few of youth care's essential needs specifically.

For youth care, this means continuing emergency assistance to ensure we can keep our sites open and staffed despite increasing costs.

It also means continued funding for our engagement centers where young people can come in 24 hours a day for wraparound services.

Lastly, in order to ensure that homelessness is brief and one time, we're seeking support for our workforce development programs which support young people into living wage career pathways.

Over the past year, youth care has not only been able to keep our sites open, but also increase salaries for our frontline staff and support nearly 1,500 young people.

We appreciate your support as we continue to grow, change, and serve.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And Brione, good evening and welcome.

Hi there.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

I can.

Thank you.

Hi.

We are in a housing crisis and a food and social justice crisis.

I'm the director of clean dreams and we're on there and we want to be able to continue to fight to help our community.

help them build our community.

Our community is being ran out due to the rise in rent.

We want to be able to bring them back and continue to provide fresh organic produce to them and education.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And Karen, you are our last one in this first tranche.

Karen, good evening.

Hello.

Hi.

Yes.

My name is Karen Gillan, and I'm a senior living downtown in order to lead a car-free life and walk as much as possible.

Downtown isn't just my home, but also a regional crossroads and a hub for visitors from all over the world.

While only a tiny fraction of the city's landmass, downtown generates about half of the city's business and property taxes.

Before COVID, downtown businesses were closing at an alarming rate.

COVID and efforts to defund the police have accelerated the problem.

Many of us are rethinking living in the city due to shootings, chronic theft, assault, open drug sales, and drug use, and inadequate police coverage.

Please remember that if public safety continues to erode, downtown will spiral downhill, losing residents, businesses, and visitors.

Continued efforts to defund or abolish the police will only serve to destroy the core of the city, and with it, the source of funding for the programs that serve the entire city.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So colleagues at this point, I'm going to go back to folks who are listed as not present but are present now.

We'll start with Janice.

It's a good chief.

Then it will be Bill Samson, Steve Hooper and Bob Williamson.

And just a reminder to.

Excuse me, that was my reminder to go back and check the list.

Just a reminder to Matt Thomas and Sean Glaze, you are still listed as not present, so if you are with us tonight, please do dial in and make sure to use the same number that you registered with and we'll get you up to speed.

Janice, followed by Bill, then Steve, and Bob.

Good evening, Janice.

And Janice, if you can hit star six one more time.

Okay, Janice, I'm seeing you still on mute on my end.

We're gonna ask you to hit star six as we tee up Bill, please.

And Bill, if you can hit star six, we'd love to have you join us as well.

And hi, Bill, just star six on your end.

Okay.

Bill, I'm going to keep you on the screen as well.

If you hit star six, we'll get you to speak.

Steve, Steve Hooper, you are welcome to join us as well.

Please hit star six on your end to join us.

Hi, Steve.

Hi, Council Member Mosqueda and Council Members.

Pleasure to be with you this evening.

On behalf of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the proposed budget.

I just want to highlight in particular for the restaurant community, the importance of public safety in the proposal and including funding for triage team, additional community service officers and restoring the number of officers available for quick response times.

Restaurants, as you all know, have been very hard hit by this pandemic economically.

And we're also being impacted severely by the crime and homelessness crises that also are plaguing us at the moment.

For the safety of our team members in particular, our guests and friends that want to come from outlying areas to visit our city, we really urge a focus on reducing crime, decreasing the underlying causes of homelessness and improving public safety across the city.

As we've lost officers, it's just become very apparent that response times have dropped and whatnot.

And so we thank you for this time to speak and look forward to a flourishing city.

in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Steve.

And we're going to go back to Bob Williamson.

Good evening, Bob.

Thank you for waiting.

Just hit star six on your end.

Okay.

This is Bob Williamson.

Are you there?

Yes, thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

I've been a resident of Interbay Tiny Homes for several years, and I must say, you guys really need to keep these tiny homes going, because when I first moved into there, I worked late hours, you know, I didn't get up until like two in the morning, and the shelters just don't do it.

The indoor shelters, they don't work for it, you know?

I'd get there at three in the morning, go to sleep at two hours, and they didn't help me out.

What am I supposed to do?

I was sick the rest of the day.

And I couldn't.

I couldn't find a place.

There wasn't a place that worked for us, you know?

And the time at home was a lifesaver for me, you know?

And if it wasn't for that, I don't know where I'd be.

But it helped me get my own games and get everything done.

So, really, please keep this going, you know?

It's the only way you're going to get people off the street and into houses.

Excellent.

Thank you for your testimony tonight.

I do hope our regional partners also hear this call.

All right, colleagues, I'm going to continue on again.

For folks who are on the line, please remember to hit star six when your name has been called and make sure your phone itself is not on mute.

We're going to continue here with the next three names.

Forrest Bungrette, Giselle Lopez and Barbara Finney.

Good evening, Forrest.

Hello, my name is Forrest Brungard.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today about the budget.

If I'm being honest, I'm a little emotional today because I'm in mourning, but I'm not alone.

My entire generation is grieving.

This is why we grieve.

Climate change.

Everything has been taken from us.

Our childhoods are gone.

Our futures are uncertain.

People are suffering.

Our environment is collapsing.

We are in the beginning of a massive extinction.

Kids should not have to fight for our futures.

I should be studying for a test not begging for my future on Zoom.

We are terrified but our voice is powerful.

That is why I'm here to be my generation's voice.

So please politicians have already stolen our childhoods with their empty promises.

Do not steal our futures as well.

We demand you amend the budget so it aligns with the solidarity budget.

Anything less is unacceptable.

If you fail us we will never forgive you.

Thank you.

Okay, Giselle, good evening.

My name is Giselle Lopez, and I'm a staff attorney of the nonprofit Kids in Need of Defense in Seattle.

Since 2004, Volunteers for Immigrant Justice, which later became KIND Seattle Office, has represented unaccompanied immigrant children who migrate alone.

I'm here today to respectfully request that Seattle support increasing the investment for the legal defense network to the full amount requested in the 2022 budget.

I represent children who have been horrifically abused sexually assaulted and trafficked.

Many of them are still recovering from the disproportionate impact of the pandemic.

Legal services are essential to helping these youth qualify for services and benefits.

For example we worked with a youth to help obtain a work permit to help provide for his family after his mom was laid off last year.

clients like this remain shut out of the most affordable housing options.

These children are not guaranteed attorneys in court, even though they must face trained government attorneys and may return home to danger.

And immigration judges are 97 times less likely to grant for unrepresented children.

Please fully support the LDN budget.

The city of Seattle cares about its children, and we must work together that no child must go to immigration court alone.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening, Barbara.

Hello?

My name is Barbara Finney, a D5 Bitter Lake resident, union delegate to the MLK Labor Council, speaking in a personal capacity, a member of the tax Amazon movement in support of the people's budget and in solidarity with the solidarity budget.

I'm asking you to increase the Amazon tax by $120 million to expand funds for affordable housing and the Green New Deal projects, including urgent building and home weatherization.

And to add $4.6 million to open three new tiny house villages and follow through on the opening of the three villages the people's budget won funding for last year, including the Bitter Lake tiny house village, which our community desperately needs.

Place a proviso on the tiny house village funds in the HSD's budget stating that those funds may not be used for other purposes.

provide bridge funding to the New Hope Community Development Institute.

Fund housing and services by cutting down, cutting Durkin's proposed $13 million police budget expansion.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Doug Trump, Tara Kamp, and Camille Baldwin Boney.

Doug it looks like you're not present so we'll come back to you at the 730 mark to make sure that we get a chance to hear from you and the other folks who were not present before including Matt Thomas Bill Sampson and Sean Glaze.

So Tara that means you are up.

Good evening.

Hi.

Good evening.

My name is Tara Gamp.

I'm calling in from District 7 and I'm a volunteer with 350 Seattle.

And I just wanted to call in to emphasize my extreme support of the solidarity budget especially in regards to its commitment addressing the housing affordability and homelessness crisis that we have going on.

These are very important issues to me on top of the climate crisis as well.

However the $25 million dollars within the solitary budget that would be allocated for these issues is absolutely essential to ensure homelessness services and provide affordable and equitable housing.

I want to thank you for your time tonight.

I truly hope that you can support the solidarity budget in its entirety for a safer more equitable and a healthier future for all.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Camille.

Good evening.

Camille I hope I'm saying your name right.

And you may have your own phone muted.

Could you just double check for me.

Yes can you hear me.

Yes thank you.

Okay.

Hi my name is Camille and I am calling in support of the solidarity budget.

The mayor's budget falls short of the $60 million needed for participatory budgeting and there is no mention mention of a community-led program such as Kahoot!

for STAR that have been extremely successful.

This is a huge gap in the city's public safety plan and continues to leave Seattle residents experiencing mental health crisis.

without services.

The addition of 35 sworn officers is heading us in the wrong direction.

We've been down this road before.

We have seen the outcome of the tough on crime era and the over-policing of BIPOC communities and mass incarceration.

There is no shortage of successful community models.

Community violence prevention programs are highly effective.

They've been shown to reduce crime by up to 60 percent.

These aren't just numbers they represent real people and real life states.

If you're looking for data that demonstrates violence prevention of misdemeanors from SPD, you will not find it.

Thank you very much, Camille.

Will Tosburn, followed by Jen Adams and Steve Glap.

Good evening, Will.

You can star six to unmute yourself.

There we go.

Hi.

Councilman is Will and I am speaking on the 2022 budget on behalf of Solid Ground.

Solid Ground is supportive of the solidarity budget and we support its calls for transformational investments in community care, housing and more that will create true community safety.

Investing in the community is not enough.

We must also disinvest from carceral systems that have caused so much harm specifically in black, brown and other marginalized communities in our city.

We support council efforts to invest start funding as the spending plan was determined and to go further in allocating funds to increase social housing, support community groups to acquire land for culturally specific housing, and more.

We also endorse the package of recommendations made by the Seattle Human Services Coalition, including funding for the wage equity study for human service workers.

We're also deeply concerned about the ramp down of funding support for food assistance.

I urge council members to maintain COVID levels to support for emergency food and adopt food and meal recommendations in the FHSC package.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Jen, good evening.

Hi, Jen, go ahead.

Jen, you may be on mute on your own phone.

Is that better?

That's better.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Adams.

I am a vehicle outreach advocate.

I've been doing this for almost 10 years.

Last year, we got $100,000 for our budget.

With that, we were able to, so far this year, outreach to over 300 people to expand our team to help several people with vehicle licensing.

We hope that you will keep funding vehicle outreach.

We would like to get into parking spaces and do parking lots and do outreach and case management.

This is very, very needed.

These are 45 percent of the homeless population.

No one else is doing this.

We work collectively with all other service providers and the city, we really appreciate you looking at our proposal.

Thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate you.

Appreciate you as well.

Thank you for dialing in tonight.

Steve, good evening.

Thanks for waiting.

Hi, I'm Steve Gill from Normal Cities Collaborative.

I'm here to speak in support of the allocation of $1 million for clean energy pre-apprenticeships and career entry programs for green jobs in the mayor's proposed budget.

A recent study by the Seattle Jobs Initiative showed that 80% of journey workers in the energy-related trades of electrical, plumbing, pipe fitting, sheet metal, and HVAC are white men.

More troubling is that approximately 80% of the apprentices in these fields are also white men.

As we make investments in climate resilience through the Green New Deal and more sustainable housing, we need to provide more opportunities for women and people of color in these trades that provide middle-class wages and benefits.

It is essential that these fund support programs specifically target at mechanical trades, since these are the least diverse, and that funds support both union and non-union pathways that have been underserved by other programs.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Steve.

The next three speakers are Shanita Sanchez, Hannah Swoboda, and Bill Corrine Hackett.

Good evening, Shanita.

Shanita.

Shanita.

I'm sorry.

Hi.

This is Sanatina Sanchez.

Wonderful.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Sorry for the mispronunciation.

Am I am I on?

You are on.

Oh, yes, thank you.

Yes, I'm calling today again in support of the solidarity budget, especially considering it is the best way to address our housing crisis.

And on a personal level, I am especially interested in its investment in our transportation budget.

As a primarily pedestrian transit rider and former biker and want to be future biker, I would like to be able to get around my city without fear of being hit or without fear of walking around my neighborhood.

And we don't we shouldn't put money into costs because that is not what we will will actually bring us safety.

It is investment in our community and our ability to travel safely throughout community.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Hannah good evening.

Hi, my name is Hannah Suvoda and I'm a renter in District 3. I'm speaking as part of the People's Budget Movement.

The Mayor's proposed 2022 budget, which cuts $100 million from the Amazon tax funds for affordable housing and Green New Deal projects, is completely unacceptable in the context of rapidly rising rents and looming climate disaster.

Billionaires have made new fortunes off of the pandemic, and we absolutely cannot settle for simply using our movement's hard-fought Amazon tax funds to cover up budget cuts.

We need to build affordable housing, and we need to continue taxing big business to fund it.

We need to increase the Amazon tax.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

There's many other things that working people need in this budget season which others are going to continue to speak to today.

Shout out to everyone who's coming together through the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget and community members who are getting organized for the first time.

We need to stand together and fight for a budget that benefits working people not big business.

Thank you.

The next person is Bill Curlin-Heckett.

Hi, Councilmembers.

I'm Bill Kerlin Hackett.

I direct the 2021 city contract for scoffle mitigation, where we do vehicle residency outreach under our fiscal host, University Heights Center.

That contract's $100,000.

That's the only funding that goes to vehicle residency outreach, and we serve more than 2,300 vehicle residents.

We exceeded the contract performance measures by having more than 100 households go into HMIS 11 households get emergency housing vouchers, and yet the mayor cut our program.

Nothing's in the budget right now for vehicle residents.

We've been training regional homelessness authority staff, spent eight hours with them, even taking them into the field.

Remember, half the unsheltered live in vehicles.

I also want to call your attention to safe parking expansion, which is critical.

RHA supports that.

And U-Heights has given you some proposals for how to expand that.

Finally, keep LEAD funded.

We are partners with LEAD.

They are consistent partners with us, and we need to continue that work together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Cecile Hansen.

And apologies, Chairwoman Hansen.

I did not see that you were on my list until now.

It's usually our custom to allow for elected members to speak first, so apologies for that.

Chairwoman Hanson from the Duwamish Tribe.

Please go ahead.

Hello.

My name is Cecile Hanson and I am the current chairperson of the Duwamish Tribe.

The First People of Seattle.

We are still here.

I'm calling in today to support the solidary budget proposal that includes over $16 million in investment that would will directly impact the lives of underprivileged members of the Duwamish Tribe.

As you well know we are the first people to experience homelessness in Seattle as a direct result of the Native American ban passed by the city in 1865. This city has been has a long history of authorizing policy that continues inequities and places communities of color.

This solidary budget will invest in Seattle's historical underfunded communities and bring us closer towards being a city that upholds justice and provides housing for all of our good neighbors.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you again for dialing in tonight.

The next three speakers are Maureen Ewing, Summer Stinson, and Jason Walsh.

Good evening, Maureen.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Ms. Skada, and council members.

I'm Maureen Ewing.

I'm first and foremost a parent of a preschooler during the pandemic and the executive director of U-Hike.

Thank you for your leadership during this very difficult year.

We greatly appreciate your recent investments in early learning programs.

During the pandemic my family struggled for several months to find child care when nearly 30 percent of early learning slots were wiped out.

The lack of child care has disproportionately impacted women and BIPOC communities and their ability to go back to work.

U Heist is doing our part by offering 175 early learning slots.

During the pandemic we welcomed child care provider UTCS when they were displaced after 50 years when the church they resided in was demolished.

U-Heist has been home to children since 1902 but we need to make capital upgrades to get a child care license.

Please help us save the 70 plot from evaporating 50 percent of which will be allocated for families who are low income.

Thank you.

Thank you Maureen.

The next person Summer.

Good evening Summer.

Hello this is Summer Stinson.

I live in D6 and I support the solidarity budget.

In the last five decades as investments per person in public schools social programs public health and needed infrastructure have dropped investments in policing prisons jails and the criminal court system have skyrocketed.

We must rebalance this inequity and the solidarity budget does that.

Please invest even more in homelessness transit supportive services and further decrease SPD's budget.

We can give more to affordable housing the Green New Deal and all the programs that Seattleites need to be able to thrive and not just survive.

Thank you.

Thank you Summer.

The next person is Jason.

Good evening Jason.

Good evening.

My name.

Good evening.

My name is Jason Keeham and I'm a resident of District 4. I'm speaking today in support of the Solidarity Budget and its commitment to addressing the crises of housing affordability homelessness and also directing investment towards improving walking rolling biking and transit in our city.

Housing insecurity and transportation are both social determinants of health and with cascading effects on short and long-term health outcomes.

To address these, the solidarity budget is calling for an investment of $635 million in affordable housing, which is more than three times the amount proposed by the mayor's budget.

The solidarity budget also proposes $25 million to develop stable, equitable, quality workforce in homeless services and housing services, while the mayor's budget allocates $750,000.

The budget also proposes an investment of $40 million to expand transit service by over 100,000 hours in 2022 and fund improvements such as bus lanes throughout our city, while also creating good-paying union jobs.

These are just a few of the absolute essentials that the solidarity budget will address, and I urge you to stand in solidarity with the people and adopt the budget and be part of the work to create a more equitable Seattle.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time.

The next three speakers are Reverend Lawrence Wills, Gina Aftab, and Robin Thompson.

Good evening Reverend Willis.

And just hit star 6 one more time to unmute.

Hello.

Hello.

Yes.

My name is Lawrence Willis pastor of the Trueline Church also president of the United Black Christian Clergy.

and Executive Director of Pre-Apprentice Program, love to do.

I am in support of the tiny houses.

Number one, the tiny houses give back to the community by having jobs for the community, especially African-American young men and women, giving them training on building tiny houses, but also having it be a safe place for someone to live and have dignity and safety with shelter.

I am in support of tiny house villages because it also helps with this environment with this COVID that's going on, having a nice, clean and secure place to live in warmth and safety.

Also, it replaces encampments where there are outcomes of the way that they're living out in the cold, in the dampness.

So security with the tiny houses is really

Thank you very much, Reverend.

Gina, you are listed as not present, so we're going to move on to Robin.

Robin Thompson will be followed by Shirley Henderson, Mary Hackney, and Vendrana Durabhok.

Hello, Robin.

Hi, my name is Robin Thompson.

I'm part of the People's Budget Movement, the Solidarity Budget.

I'm calling on behalf of Clean Greens Farm and Market and the New Hope Affordable Housing Building Plan.

The city has seen over 50 percent of the African-American community from the central district displaced.

The income wealth equity gap disparity is glaring and growing.

Clean Greens Farm and Market has been providing fresh food to this community providing an essential service taking care of the community in urgent need.

I strongly urge the council to respond accordingly to help these existing efforts and fund clean greens farm and market in the people's budget and fund the new hope affordable housing building project and increase the Amazon tax.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Shirley, you are up next.

Good evening.

Star six to unmute, please.

Okay.

Hi I'm Shirley Henderson a small business owner in District 3 an activist with the People's Budget which over its eight years has won tens of millions of dollars in affordable housing and many more things.

I'm also in solidarity with community members speaking on behalf of the Solidarity Budget.

Our small businesses is signatory on the Solidarity Budget because we know it's vital that we unite forces to win the maximum possible funding for affordable housing.

and Green New Deal programs, in other words, a budget that works for working people on the planet, not the super rich.

COVID has wreaked havoc on small businesses and working families, especially marginalized communities, as U.S. billionaires have gotten 62 percent richer through the pandemic.

It's criminal that in this context, Mayor Durkan's proposed budget cuts $100 million from the Amazon tax for affordable housing and Green New Deal projects.

We need to increase the Amazon tax by $120 million and also cut Durkin's proposed $30 million expansion to the police budget, and instead build tiny homes and affordable housing for the new Hope community.

Thank you.

Thank you for your call.

Mary, it says your list is not present.

We'll come back to you at 7.30 if you are able to join us.

The next person is Vedrana.

Good evening, and a reminder to hit star six to begin speaking.

star six to begin speaking.

Wonderful.

Please go ahead.

Hi, good evening, council members.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

I'm Vedrana Zorakovic with Sound Generations commenting today on the mayor's 2022 proposed budget and as part of the senior coalition that I'm representing on the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

With that said, the East African community has had a vision for developing a more robust senior center program to provide wraparound programs and services.

The need for this development was identified a number of years ago but funding has not yet been allocated.

From an equity standpoint it has prioritized this community which has long been underserved.

We were not able to get the SASC into the mayor's budget and it seems that the most of the funding is directed toward food programs which are important.

But what we need is funding to provide the wraparound services that are equally important.

Fortunately, we have secured some startup funding that will allow us to launch the senior program and provide these services, but we need an additional support to through the end of 2022. We know that the.

No, that time went by so fast, please do send the rest of your comments in for Jonah.

Thank you, Steve.

Good evening, Steve.

Thank you for joining us.

Steve Daschle.

Welcome.

Just star-6 to unmute and followed by Steve will be Katie Wilson.

Trey Aguirreos.

And then Carrie Cooley-Strong.

Good evening Steve.

Hey.

Good evening council members.

My name's Steve Daschle.

I'm speaking on behalf of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

Human services are essential to build and support well-being especially in this time of challenges and opportunities.

Mayor's proposed budget does not rise to those challenges.

SHSC members urge City Council to include funding for the pay equity analysis needed to reverse the legacy of harms caused by underpaying human services workers.

The investments the city makes in human services are all less effective if we do not address the central issue of wage equity for human services workers.

Second, ramping down funding to food banks and meal programs is insupportable and directly contradicts needs in the community.

SHSHC recommends maintaining 2021 levels and adding $7,750,000.

Additional prioritized recommendations are included in our full package.

We have some of the answers to making services more accessible and equitable for Seattle residents.

We need your partnership.

Thank you so much.

The next two speakers that were listed are not present.

Katie Wilson and Trey Aguirreos.

So we will go on and we'll come back to those names at 7.30.

The next three speakers are Carrie Cooley-Strom, Colleen McAllar, and Colin Moen.

Good evening, Carrie.

Hi, I'm Carrie Cooley-Strom.

Hi I'm with Catholic Community Services living in District 3 speaking in support of workforce development and housing and homeless services.

Keeping people safe in the pandemic has overwhelmed service providers with accelerated displacement and a severe shortage of skilled staff to meet the needs of vulnerable and marginalized people.

We can address this with essential workforce development noted in the mayor's budget that focuses on employees who've experienced structural barriers to higher education like racism and poverty.

Please one continue funding the Social Services Provider Academy with Seattle Central College.

Two the Housing and Homeless Service Certificate Program also with SEC aims to dismantle entrenched barriers in equity by preparing staff for advancement into leadership positions.

Three the Housing Maintenance Certificate Program with Highline College will combine technical and social service education to prepare staff for living wage positions.

And there is no workforce in this field.

These new education pipelines will address workforce demand and equity, strengthen our affordable housing and homeless services, and support our city's economic recovery.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And good evening, Colleen.

Just hit star six to unmute yourself.

Yes, good evening.

My name is Colleen McAleer, and I'm representing Lower Hearst Community Club.

Our community club strongly supports the funding for the homeless crisis, especially the building and the acquisition of permanent housing and provision of mental health facilities and services, both short and long term.

We support the LEAD program and youth care.

Those are some of the top performers that are in our wheelhouse.

But we also want to bring attention to the mayor's budget.

Embedded in there, there was a plan to close one community center out of 26 in the entire city and convert it into a private rental facility for the city.

There'd be no programming for seniors, young children, and after school classes.

After 94 years, the Laura Hearst Community Center would be closed.

With climate change as one of the city's top priorities and being able to walk to recreation classes and the center's proximity next door to the elementary school, which has 46% students of color, and 36% low-income families, it would be a detriment.

So we ask that City Council restore the programming hours and stop the press.

Thank you for dialing in today.

Please send the rest of your comments in.

I am going to start calling two names at a time to avoid dead air.

So let's do this.

Colin Moen followed by Cesar Garcia.

Good evening, Colin.

My name's Colin Moen.

I'm a union electrician in IBEW Local 46 and a renter in District 2, and I'm calling in support of the People's Budget, which has organized ordinary working people, union members, activists, and renters every year since 2014 to win major victories, including tens of millions of dollars in affordable housing, funding for tiny house villages, services for homeless neighbors, renter organizing, and attorney services against evictions.

Many union members like myself fought hard to win the Amazon tax last year because workers urgently need affordable housing and union wage jobs.

I urge council members to support the people's budget demands to increase the Amazon tax by $120 million to expand funds for affordable housing and Green New Deal projects, including the urgently needed weatherization of buildings and homes.

I also want to express solidarity with the solidarity budget demands.

I think it's critical that the people's budget and the solidarity budget fight on a united basis to win the maximum possible funding for working people.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Cesar Garcia followed by Michelle Witzke.

Good evening Cesar.

Good evening.

My name is Cesar Garcia and I'm with Lake City Collective a community-based organization in District 5. I'm calling to support bringing the LEAD program to scale.

as presented in the proposal to the Public Safety Committee.

And with that, allow LEAD to respond to public safety concerns citywide, but especially in high risk of displacement and low access to opportunity areas where minority families live, such as the Aurora Avenue North area by North 125th, where services like those offered by LEAD are hugely needed, but not sufficient due to lack of resources.

Our experience is that LEAD has been willing to listen to affected families and do something about the safety issues they face day and night.

Thanks for your support and consideration to the many BIPOC clients they serve and the hundreds of BIPOC families we serve.

Could they serve to live safely like families living in single-family zones too?

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Michelle Woodsky followed by Valerie Schollert.

And Valerie, it looks like your list is not present.

Michelle, please go ahead.

Hi, my name is Michelle Witzke, and I live in the Highland Park neighborhood, which is the Seattle community that borders White Center.

And I'm also here to advocate for the LEAD program going up to scale.

And first of all, I would like to start by thanking Councilmember Herbold and the City Council for funding this program in the past.

And in 2013, my Highland Park community was the first to advocate for the LEAD program for our South Delridge community.

as a way to deal with low-level crime in a compassionate and thoughtful way.

And in these eight years we've seen other communities get the program and go up to scale while we've seen like the communities in the South having to wait.

And finally in 2021 we were able to get this much-needed program but it's not up to scale and I've witnessed firsthand the real positive results that it's had especially along the area that's that and White Center.

So I'm just hoping that you can find the money to fund this program and also here to advocate for funding for the staff.

Thank you very much.

Valerie, it says that you are still listed as not present as well.

Good to dial in and we'll get you by 730 tonight.

Cecilia Ling followed by Dominique Davis.

Good evening, Cecilia.

Hi, this is Cecilia.

Hi there.

And I'm here to...

Hi.

I'm Dawn here.

I'm with Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area in Council District 2 and 7. And I'm calling towards my support for bringing the LEAD program to fidelity as presented in the HRC proposal to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee and allow LEAD to be brought to scale so that it can respond to priority public safety concerns citywide.

And I support LEAD because as a public safety response where community members can submit referrals about people who are committing crimes due to poverty or behavioral health, lead response with wraparound services.

This is very important for our community, especially when there are not enough resources for Public Safety at this moment.

As the Public Safety Coordinator in CID, I received many messages from the community and they tell me they know someone who needs the service from LEAD and I can see how much impact LEAD can make in the neighborhood if they are able to provide service.

Thank you very much for dialing in, Cecilia.

The next person is Dominique.

Dominique Davis followed by Matthew Smith.

Good evening, Dominique.

Hello.

Hello, hello, hello.

Hello.

I'm Dominique.

I'm Dominique Davis with Community Passageways.

I want to thank you guys first of all for funding the Seattle Safety the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

Now it's time for us to reallocate this funding.

In the first year we've been able to get four organizations that do gun intervention and prevention work to collaborate and build unity together.

We were able to hire over 60 plus people from the community to do this work and go through intensive training.

We've been able to support the community at a very high level, and we've also been able to give support to people who have been affected by gun violence at a high level.

We have provided safety at funerals, safety at repasses, safety at vigils that were threatened to be shot up.

That's a very important work to do in the community.

I say, as we work on rolling over into the King County region,

Thank you Dominique.

Matthew Smith followed by Laura Radford.

Good evening Matthew.

Hi Matthew.

Star.

It looks like you hit star-6.

Can you check your phone and make sure it's not on mute too.

Oh hi.

Sorry.

Hi.

My name is Matt Smith.

I'm a renter in District 2. I was active in the Tax Amazon and the Black Lives Matter movement last year.

U.S. billionaires have gotten $1.8 trillion richer during the pandemic.

That's a 68% increase.

I don't know about others.

My income has not gone up by 68%.

In fact, thousands of working people are struggling with COVID rental debts, skyrocketing rents in Seattle.

At the same time, as others have mentioned, we're facing an escalating environmental crisis.

So it's totally unacceptable, given the huge needs of our community, that Mayor Durkan's budget proposal cuts $100 million from the Amazon tax funds for affordable housing and Green New Deal programs.

I support the demands of the people's budget and also stand in solidarity with the solidarity budget demands.

Durkin's trying to make us choose between funding housing and Green New Deal programs and fully funding outdoor critical services.

We need to reject that false choice.

That means the council has to increase the Amazon tax by $120 million.

The council can also add money for housing, including the expansion of tiny house villages by rejecting Mayor Durkin's proposed $13 million expansion of the Seattle budget.

Durkin wants to get $13 million in

Thank you, Matthew.

Laura, good evening.

Laura will be followed by Guadalupe Mabry.

Good evening, Laura.

Laura, it looks like you're not present.

We'll come back to you at 7.30 if you're able to join us.

Guadalupe, good evening.

Guadalupe Mabry followed by Quinn Pham.

Guadalupe, it looks like you're not present as well, so we'll move on to Quinn.

Quinn Pham will be followed by Holly Towns.

And I'm just waiting for Quinn to pop up on our screen.

Okay, Quinn, it looks like you're also not present.

We will come back to you if you can dial in by 730. Holly, good evening.

Are you with us?

Holly Towns followed by Hannah Ferguson.

Okay, Holly's also not present.

Hannah, good evening.

Are you with us tonight?

Wonderful.

Hi, Hannah.

Lucky number 70, thank you for joining us.

Hannah, you may be muted on your line as well.

Oh, sorry, you were unmuted on the system if you want to hit star six and then just make sure your phone itself is not muted.

Hello.

Yay, hi, thanks for your patience.

Thank you so much.

My name is Hannah Ferguson and I live in the neighborhood of Skyway.

I'm urging council members to add more funding to the budget for affordable housing and homelessness and to reinstart the Jump Start program and spending more affordable money on affordable housing, in addition to funds for three more tiny home villages next year.

The homeless population in Skyway, they're incredibly vulnerable due to the lack of resources in our small community.

Since the opening of the newest tiny home village in June of this year, we've gotten 42 people sheltered with dignity.

And I've been near it and the community has been so activated around this new village.

And they're playing a really active part in making Skyway safe and equitable for everyone who chooses to live there.

So I've seen it work.

Homelessness is solved by home.

I'm also asking to add $1.9 million to add support services and case management resources to the existing villages.

So, thank you so much for your help in supporting that.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Let's see here real quick.

I just want to make sure we get these folks because they are present.

Laura Radford and Holly Towns followed by Ella Shawn.

If we can get to you, Laura.

Good evening, Laura.

Hi this is Laura Bradford.

Hi there.

Thank you very much for your.

Hello.

I want to thank the council for listening to all these comments today.

I would like to lend my support to funding LEAD.

We have been extremely pleased with the progress that LEAD has made in West Seattle.

I'm the executive director of the West Seattle Junction Association.

This is especially important to us because our business merchants, they need more assistance from the council and from LEAD when it comes to help moving people who are obviously experiencing homelessness and mental health crises into a pathway that will be more beneficial to them and also will give LEED a deeper sense of purpose in the West Seattle in the West Seattle community.

So I'm asking the council to please fully fund LEED in this next budget.

Thank you so much for dialing in.

And Holly good evening.

Hello council members.

I'm Holly Towns a Seattle citizen with grave concerns about the impact of delaying substantial investments in fighting climate change.

And today I was reminded again about how discouraged our young people are about their future and the willingness of our society to act to meet the urgency of climate change.

The ideas in the budget for greenhouse gas reduction and climate justice policies are good but much more is needed to meet the city's goal.

We need at least the original jump start allocation, $21 million, not $13 million.

Multiple city departments as well as the capital budget could be used to make real progress.

In addition, the budget needs funds to match probable federal funds for climate change.

The 43rd environmental causes submitted written comments with many specific ideas and includes items to support the mayoral climate pledge, signed both candidates and to date several city council members.

We ask you to seriously consider our ideas for the city budget.

Thank you so much, and we will do that.

If you have any additional comments, please do send them on into us, Holly.

The next two speakers are Ella, Sean, and Olivia Johnson.

Oh, apologies as well.

Council Member Johnson, on behalf of the Duwamish Tribe, apologies for the delay.

So Ella, please go ahead, and then we'll come, we'll move on over.

Thank you.

My name is Ella Sean and I'm a preschool teacher in the City of Seattle and I'm voicing my support today for the Solidarity Budget.

A lot of people have been calling in about concerns about rising crime and safety and I just want to emphasize like we need affordable housing we need child care and those are the things that are going to make us safe.

Those are the things that are going to reduce crime and make us all safe in the city.

And so I support the demands of the Solidarity Budget and urge City Council to move 50% of Seattle Police Department's budget into community programs that truly keep us all safe.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you.

And Council Member Johnson from the Duwamish Tribal Council, thank you for waiting.

Again, apologies, we usually have Council Members speak at the beginning, so please go ahead.

And Council Member Johnson, if you can just hit star six one more time on your end.

Okay, Council Member Johnson, we're going to keep you up here, Olivia Johnson, and we're going to look for the mute button to come off of hold again, star six, so that we can hear you.

And if we can keep Council Member Johnson on the screen, the next three speakers that we have are Addie Smith, Dorothy Thomas, and Elvia Cortes, all listed as not present.

Elvia, se dice que aquí quieres, no está presente.

Si quieres llamar, podemos escuchar sus palabras.

Si quieres llamar cerca del, cuando quieres o cuando puedes, vamos a escuchar de voz.

Okay, let's see.

Councilmember Johnson, just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, I'm going to continue here.

We can keep Councilmember Johnson on the line there to look for the unmuting.

The next speakers are Sam Wolf followed by Tracy Williams.

Good evening, Sam.

Hi, my name is Sam Wolf, and I'm a project manager for LEED in Seattle.

I'd like to thank the council for their consistent support, and I'd like to make a call to bring LEED to scale.

so that it can respond to all priority public safety concerns citywide.

Our clients often face barriers to other services and have been without support sometimes for many years.

LEAD works to get these individuals the services they need, but we are not operating at saturation.

Our case managers are severely overloaded, so we're being forced to deny eligible individuals whose outcomes could be vastly improved with support.

Tools like LEAD need to be brought to scale along with other crucial resources that our clients need.

including non-congregate shelter options with wraparound services, community-based and culturally competent human services, crisis response by trained behavioral health specialists, vehicular homelessness services such as the Scott Law Mitigation Team, and supportive housing options with sustained behavioral health supports.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you for your time.

Tracy Williams followed by Ricky Burns.

Good evening, Tracy.

This is Tracy.

Can you hear me?

I can hear you.

Yes.

Thanks.

Hi, I'm Tracy.

I'm a former resident of the tiny houses.

And I just want to say that we need to continue building tiny houses to get people off the streets because this year is going to be really cold.

And I don't like seeing people in doorways.

And I don't want to see anyone die this year.

So we need to continue building tiny houses throughout the whole Washington.

so we can get people off the streets.

Lehigh, the program really works.

I'm a recovering person.

From there, I stayed there six months, and they got me permanent housing, and they got me an employment.

So the program really does work.

If we just get more tiny houses, I believe that we could save a bunch of lives.

Thank you for your testimony today.

I appreciate that.

And Council Member Johnson, Olivia Johnson, we still have you on the screen here.

in case you're able to join us, hit star six.

I'm going to call Ricky Burns and then want to tee up Elvia Cortes along with our interpreter services to provide translation, please.

So Ricky, please go ahead.

And Ricky hit star six, please.

Hi, my name is Ricky Burns, and I am a client at Tiny Village, and I'm here to speak on your behalf.

Some of the stuff that we have to go through to get to this place is worth the money alone.

Let's fund these things without any opposition.

Let's get some folks moved, and it's a miracle waiting to happen.

I don't know if any of you have been there, but it's a rough spot, and this is a nice place to get out of it.

Thank you, and good day.

Thank you, and good evening to you as well.

Okay, great.

So we have with us Diana, Interpreter Services, and we're gonna pull up Elvia Cortes so that Elvia can speak as well.

Buenas noches, Elvia, gracias por esperar.

Thank you so much, Elvia, for waiting.

Y puedes empezar, Elvia.

We're gonna have two minutes, dos minutos, por este porción, por favor.

Thank you.

¿Ya puedo empezar?

Sí, por favor, gracias por esperar por nosotros.

Okay.

My name is Sergia Cortez.

I clean houses and organize the workers of Casa Latina's home.

Every day I hear difficult stories that are happening in their lives.

During the pandemic, due to not having benefits like paid sick days or paid free time, my co-workers continued to work, risking their health in order to be able to bring food to their families.

Because if they don't work, there is no income for their home.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Deanna.

Okay, hello.

My name is Elvia Cortez.

I clean houses and I organize the domestic workers Casa Latina.

Every day I listen to difficult stories, the things that are happening in their life during the pandemic because we don't have benefits like sick days that are paid or paid free time, my co-workers, domestic workers, they continue working and risking their health so they could—this way, they could take food for their families, because otherwise they wouldn't have any money for their homes.

We have been excluded since many years ago, but now we have this bill of rights, and we know that we are protected here in Seattle.

This way, I'm asking you, please, for your support to protect this half a million dollars that are part of the recommendations that include the portable benefit.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Gracias, Elvia.

The next two speakers are Ala Hassan and Melissa Zhu.

Ala?

Wonderful, I see you, if you can hit star six to unmute yourself, Alaa.

Okay, Alaa, we just need to hit star six, and the next person, excuse me, the next person is Melissa, if we can have Melissa teed up.

Hi, Melissa, if you wanna hit star six while we wait for Alaa, thank you.

Go ahead, please.

Hi, my name is Melissa Xu and I'm working in Chinatown International District.

I'm calling to show my support for the LEAD program that's presented in the HSD proposal to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

Allowing LEAD to be brought to full scale is very important to me because I personally did a homeless referral to LEAD early this year, and I saw the impact it has made on our community.

LEAD staff responded to my referral immediately and offered help and a solution to my public safety concerns effectively.

With LEAD, I can be engaged in the process of addressing my community's public safety issues.

Therefore, I would like to thank the council to continuing to support the LEAD program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And going back to Alaa, I see you on the screen here.

You can hit star six or Council Member Johnson from the Duwamish Tribe.

Star six, please.

Okay, folks, we are going to move on to the next two speakers.

We had Jake Tronson, Trones, and John Grant.

They're both listed as not present.

So the next person will be Silvia Gonzalez and interpretation services will be provided.

Hola, buenas noches.

Mi nombre es Silvia González.

Soy trabajadora del hogar y co-presidenta de la Mesa de Estándares Laborales de las Trabajadoras aquí en Seattle.

Primero quiero agradecer al alcalde por considerar los $500,000 para llevar a cabo la implementación de las recomendaciones que hizo el Estándar Board.

Algunas de ellas específicas que podrían lograrse con el presupuesto incluyen comenzar el trabajo técnico y de políticas que se necesitará para desarrollar una plataforma de beneficios portátiles para los trabajadores del hogar donde las trabajadoras tendrían la oportunidad de tener días de enfermedad pagado o tiempo libre pagado.

La pandemia nos ha hecho ver esta necesidad ahora más que nunca.

También una variedad de iniciativas de divulgación y alcance para informar tanto a los trabajadores como a los empleadores sobre sus derechos y responsabilidades en virtud de la ordenanza sobre las trabajadoras del hogar.

También fortalecería una de las aplicaciones especialmente en la que respecta a las entidades Gracias, Silvia.

Thank you, Silvia.

If you want to begin, you can start translating.

Hi, my name is Silvia Gonzalez.

I'm a domestic worker and I'm also the co-chair of the standard labor board of the domestic workers here in Seattle.

First of all, I want to thank the mayor for considering the half million dollars to do the outreach of all the recommendations of the standard board.

Some of the specific things that we could do with this budget of half a million dollars are to start the technical work and policies that is needed to develop a platform for the portable benefits for the domestic workers, where the workers could have the opportunity to have paid sick days or paid free time.

The pandemic has made us see how needed this is, and this is needed more than ever.

also a variety of different initiatives to do outreach, to give information to all the workers and also to the employers about their rights and responsibilities because of the ordinance about the domestic workers.

enforce the application of the ordinance, especially about the entities that contract different platforms, third parties like Handy.com, and to create additional policies to protect the workers, like to say what are the rights for the domestic workers.

That's why I'm asking for your support to protect this half a million dollars.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Okay, colleagues, we have reached the 7.30 mark, and at each of the 30-minute after marks, we are going back to see if there's anybody who has joined us, who was listed as not present before, so I'm just gonna quickly read some of these names.

We had, I see Katie Wilson, who has now joined us, so Katie, you will be first up, and I'm just gonna read the names briefly of folks who were not present in this last tranche here.

Doug Trump, Gino Afitab, Mary Hackney, Trey Aguirreos, Valerie Schroedert, Guadalupe Mabry-Quintanilla, Olivia Johnson from the Duwamish Tribe, Addie Smith, and Dorothy Thomas.

Okay, we also had Arla Hansen on the line here, but we're not able to hear from you, so we will try to get you back if we see you listed as present.

Good evening, Katie.

Thanks for waiting.

Hi, and thank you for coming back to my number.

This is Katie Wilson with the Transit Riders Union.

We are in support of the Solidarity Budget, and I just wanted to call out six amendments that we understand Councilmember Morales' office is putting forward, and we strongly support these and hope that other councilmembers will co-sponsor.

First, we support additional funding for the equitable development fund to take land off the secular market.

We also support funding for a new tenant purchase opportunity fund that could ultimately help tenants to purchase their building if that goes on the market.

We support funds for a social housing acquisition fund.

We support permanent public toilets downtown.

We support expanded funding for home zones and expanded funding for sidewalks.

Finally, I'll just say we really hope that the council will take action to form a tax structure working group to research progressive revenue options and ways to make Seattle's tax system more equitable.

Great.

Thank you, Katie.

Thanks for your patience today.

Okay.

I am not seeing anybody else that was listed as not present from that first tranche, so we are moving on.

For folks following along at home and wanting to know if your number is coming up, we are on number 80. All right, the next three speakers are Jake Drones and John Green.

It looks like you are now present, so we're going to go back to you, Jake.

Please go ahead.

Hi, I'm here with Olivia Johnson.

We called in on one line, and so I'm going to ask if she can go first, and then I'll follow her.

OK, Council Member Johnson was listed as number 71, so that will be fine.

OK here you go.

Hi everybody.

My name is Olivia Johnson.

I'm a Duwamish Tribal Council member and a member of the Solidarity Budget Coalition.

In the absence of federal recognition funding and human services Duwamish Tribal Services has struggled to provide numerous social educational health and cultural programs to the public during the past 35 years.

I think it's time to give back to the people who gave so much while getting nothing in return.

And the City of Seattle can honor the Duwamish people by prioritizing the following $2.8 million of investments that promote the tribe's Indigenous sovereignty which are mental health services including medical social counseling and support services grants for drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and inpatient care for tribal members and also rental food and basic needs.

vouchers for the tribal members making low income.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you and we will restart the clock.

Please go ahead Jake.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Jake Stainis.

I'm a graduate student of Yusef Evans School.

I'm currently an intern at Duwamish Tribal Services.

My comments will speak in favor of the solidarity budget proposal and urge the city to listen to the Black and Duwamish community members that have been most impacted by historical inequities perpetuated by the City of Seattle.

Specifically I'd like to ask the city to invest $8 million in constructing the Duwamish Potlatch House which is a recreational space with before and after school programming for youth and facilities and families.

as well as programs such as financial literacy programs suicide drug and alcohol prevention classes elder food programs and integration programs to bring elders and youth back together.

In addition the solidarity budget includes $500,000 for re-entry housing to support members of Duwamish Tribe.

$5 million in investment to construct the reclaiming home project to address displacement for Duwamish Tribal community.

And finally $250 or $280,000 of funds to retrofit the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center to invest in local indigenous managed clean energy sustainability and cultural preservation projects set.

Thank you very much and I'm glad that we were able to get Councilmember in on that line as well.

Thank you for that creativity.

We'll do John Grant and we'll go back to Addie Smith.

John, please go ahead.

John, if you are speaking.

There you go.

Thank you so much.

Hello, my name is John Grant.

I'm with the Low Income Housing Institute.

I want to thank the council for their support for the tiny house village program and to encourage you to expand the program to meet the enormous need that the unsheltered homeless population faces in our community.

I am also requesting support for hygiene services for the homeless through our urban rest stop program, especially in the Ballard neighborhood.

The urban rest stop provides a clean, safe, and welcoming facility where individuals and people experiencing homelessness can come and use restrooms, laundry facilities, and showers.

We're requesting about $212,000 to increase services in the downtown and Ballard area, but in particular in Ballard, where we're seeking to add two team members and a team lead to expand services over the weekend and also provide more services during the week.

This investment will add 10,000 showers, 1,000 loads of laundry, and 500 new homeless clients.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we are going to continue here.

So we're going to do Elizabeth Bennett followed by Julianne Scott.

Julianne, it says you are not present.

We will come back to you at the 830 hour if you are not able to join us by the time we move on.

Go ahead, Elizabeth.

I'm sorry, did I skip Addy?

Addy, I said I was going to you next.

Please go ahead, Addy.

Sorry for the confusion.

That's okay.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thanks for waiting.

No worries.

My name is Addy Smith.

Very quickly, Governor Inslee must extend the original eviction moratorium now.

Voters are watching.

I'm calling on the city to increase the Amazon tax at over $106 million for affordable housing.

provide bridge funding for the New Hope community.

Governor Inslee, House and Senate Democrats, and judges who are upholding systemically racist and oppressive landlord-tenant laws must stop supporting and protecting corporate landlords.

Washington State residential landlord-tenant law, RCW 59.18.130, paragraph 8, is one of them.

The House Democrats passed this law in 2011. It targets predominantly black people.

The law evicts people from their apartments and housing for assaulting another person resulting in arrest.

There is no addition or revision to this law that includes self-defense or self-defense in hate crime attacks.

Black women in Washington state are being attacked, stalked, harassed, and threatened by white people, and police are refusing to write police reports.

When black women fear for their lives after multiple attacks and fight back, they are

Thank you very much, Eddie.

Okay, Elizabeth, you are up next.

Please go ahead.

Thank you very much.

My name is Elizabeth Bennett.

I'm a long-term resident of the Lake City community in District 5, and I'd like to ask the council to reconsider and put back into the budget the $5 million that have been allocated to build a Lake City community center.

Lake City is a hub community, and over the last 20 years or so, we've had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of apartments built.

We have a richly diverse community and many families who need a place for health, for recreation, for fun, and for celebration of the diverse community in which we live.

From a race and social justice standpoint, Lake City is really deficient in assets, and I really ask you to consider and reconsider putting that money in for the Lake City community this year.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your time.

I see that Julianne Scott is still listed as not present.

We're going to do Sean Blackwell followed by Paul Patu and then we will include Sean Glaze as well.

Please go ahead.

Sean Blackwell.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name's Sean Blackwell.

I work for LEAD in Seattle and I sincerely thank the council for its continued support.

I implore the council to bring the LEAD program to scale so that it can respond to public safety concerns citywide.

I'm a mental health professional who has worked extensively with True Blood class members.

There is nothing worse for a person experiencing mental health crisis or chronic mental illness than to find themselves strapped to a gurney or confined in a cold hard cell.

oftentimes waiting for weeks before a provider can meet with them to diagnose and prescribe medication.

Perhaps the most effective way to prevent mental health crisis is care coordination.

And LEAD is operationalized and poised to facilitate robust and coordinated system responses via interagency care coordination.

I implore the council to bring the LEAD program to scale so that it can respond to public safety concerns citywide.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And Paul, good evening.

Hello, my name is Paul Patu, longtime committee member in Seattle.

I'm here to advocate for the continued funding for the Seattle Community Safety Initiative in the 2022 budget, which is a community alternative solution for public safety.

I want to thank the council for making a $4 million investment in this year, 2021. With that investment, we've hired, trained, developed, and deployed several community safety teams throughout Southeast Seattle, the Central District, and West Seattle.

Both increased public safety with an emphasis on serving BIPOC communities.

We have had modest and promising results in our first year, and the need is for the city council to stay the course by continuing to invest and believe in community-led solutions for public safety.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

And Sean, good evening, Sean Glaze.

Hi, everyone.

This is Sean Glaze.

I use they, them pronouns.

I live in Beacon Hill and I'm calling in support of solidarity budget.

I'm calling in support of Indigenous sovereignty and the $2.9 million to meet basic needs, hygiene needs, et cetera, for our Tuamish siblings, as well as the $8 million for the Potlatch House.

I'm also calling in support of the $150 million investment that the Solidarity budget puts for child care, an essential service, especially during a pandemic.

That would support multiple programs, including about a $9 million income gap pilot program to make up the gap in living wages between living wages and the wages of single moms in South Seattle.

Also calling in support of $4 million to expand the spaces where child care can happen because we know that child care happens outside of just the immediate family including the immediate family but also child care centers and in public spaces.

So we're especially looking for BIPOC-led and BIPOC-vetted

Excellent.

Thank you, Sean.

The next speakers are Brian Wise followed by Laura Lowe.

Good evening, Brian.

Star six, unmute.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Brian Wise.

I'm a D5 resident and the board chair of the Aurora Commons, a nonprofit serving our neighbors living without shelter in North Seattle.

Over the last year, the Aurora Commons has had 11,134 visits from our unsheltered neighbors and provided one-on-one support to over 500 individuals.

I'm happy to report that we have secured financial support from local community partners in the state of Washington for our permanent home.

We kindly ask the council to maintain the previously approved funding for use through 2022 so that we can serve our most vulnerable neighbors for years to come.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Laura Lowe followed by Lily Osorio.

Good evening Laura.

Hello everyone and thanks for these public hearings.

My name's Laura.

I'm a renter in D7.

I support the solidarity budget.

I will be speaking at future council meetings in support of Duwamish funding studying design review public bathrooms a TOPA fund and comp plan and green new deal investment.

Today tonight I'm representing volunteers of Upgrade King County a working group of Share the City's Action Fund.

They are enthusiastically supporting the solidary budget digital equity demand.

More Wi-Fi in more places.

Computers laptops tablets and similar devices for school and after-school programs.

Creating a workforce of community-based and focused technology experts educators to lessen the income gap and boost paths to STEM careers.

Separately Upgrade King County volunteers would like to highlight the dwindling table funding.

That means Seattle Channel and Digital Equity team are going to run out of funding in 2023. We also support building public broadband in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And the next speaker is Lily Osorio followed by Rebecca Kate.

Lily bienvenidos y vamos a dar un bienvenidos de nuevo a nuestra intérprete Diana.

Puedes empezar Lily?

Y Lily, si estás hablando es posible que todavía estás en mute en su propio teléfono.

Puedes verificar que no estás en mute?

Perfecto.

Okay, gracias.

Puedes empezar.

Buenas tardes.

Mi nombre es Lili Osorio.

Soy trabajadora del hogar desde hace nueve años.

Antes que nada quiero agradecer que hubiéramos sido tomados en cuenta para el presupuesto de la ciudad.

Treinta mil trabajadores del hogar en las decisiones de la ciudad.

Somos un gremio importante en el desarrollo de la sociedad, economía y seguridad.

También les quiero pedir su ayuda para proteger los quinientos mil dólares asignados a este sector tan vulnerable.

Especialmente en este momento de crisis de salud y seguridad.

En el que el sector laboral ha sufrido por olvido y falta de apoyo por parte del gobierno en todas sus escalas.

Personalmente yo lo viví siendo sobreviviente de cáncer.

Soy una persona vulnerable ante la pandemia y al no tener ningún apoyo me he visto en la necesidad de seguir trabajando.

Pues al ser madre soltera soy el único soporte para mi familia.

Yo les exhorto no sigan tomando en cuenta lo posible en este momento.

Thank you.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Lili Osorio.

I'm a domestic worker, and I've been working as a domestic worker since nine years ago.

First of all, I want to thank you that you are counting us in this budget of the city.

30,000 workers, domestic workers, are part of the decisions of the city.

We are an important guide in the development of the city, in the economy, and in security.

We also want to ask you for your help to protect the half a million dollars that are assigned to this sector that is so vulnerable, especially in this moment that we are having a crisis, a health crisis and also a security crisis.

the labor sector has suffered because they forgot us and because we don't get the support from the government in any possible way.

Personally, I know that because I am a cancer survivor.

I am also a vulnerable person during the pandemic and I don't have any support and I feel that I have the need to continue working because I am a single mother and I am the only support for my family.

I am asking you please continue thinking of us in everything that is possible in this moment and also for the future because we are an important sector in this city and also think about the about all of your decisions to be on our side.

Everything that you do for us is going to be valued very much, and everything that you apply for us is going to be very good for all the domestic workers.

This is important that we have a policy that we can access sick pay time, even if we have different employers.

Please, let's protect the half a million dollars.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Gracias, Lily.

The next person is Rebecca Kate, who is listed as not present.

We'll come back to you at 8.30 if you're still not listed as present.

Ingrid Archibald, followed by Curtis Riggins.

Good evening, Ingrid.

Just hit star six one more time, Ingrid.

Hi, everyone.

Hi.

Hi.

Sorry about that.

My name is Ingrid Archibald and I live in District 6 and I'm an organizer at an organization called Standout Earth where I work with communities who are working to end local fossil fuel expansion.

And we are one of the organizations who is thrilled to endorse the Solidarity Budget.

Housing safety and clean air are all human rights and yet so many people in this city are systematically denied those rights every day.

This year's budget provides a huge opportunity to build a Seattle where all of us can thrive.

by prioritizing justice and community-led solutions.

I want to specifically uplift the proposal to invest $85 million in transitioning to clean electric fossil-free housing.

Burning gas in our buildings is terrible for our health our air and the climate and it disproportionately harms lower income folks and communities of color.

We need to invest in solutions that will protect our public health and help us work toward climate justice.

I urge you all to pass the solidarity budget and follow the community leaders who are working so hard to build a just Seattle.

Thank you all so much for your time.

Thank you for dialing in today.

And we have Curtis Riggins, you are listed as not present if you'd like to dial in.

That brings us to number 93 on today's list.

So that gives us about 100 more people to go through.

If you were wondering where you're at, we're at number 93. Number 93 is Marty Jackson followed by Jamal Suleman.

Good evening, Marty.

Just hit star six on mute.

Hello are you able to hear me.

Yes.

Thank you Marty.

Hello.

Okay.

Hi my name is Marty Jackson and I'm with Boys and Girls Club.

I also am the South End Safety Hub Director for the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

I want to thank you all for supporting the Seattle Community Safety Initiative for this year and I am urging that you continue to support our effort of Seattle Community Safety Initiative for 2022. We've made great efforts collectively with the four organizations who are part of this collaborative, and we've been responding to incidents in our neighborhood.

We've also prevented a number of incidents from happening, particularly in the Rainier Beach Safeway parking lot.

We have been given information as a part of our presence in the parking lot as well as the rest of the neighborhood, but that in particular, we were told by Safeway that there were 12 shots fired incidents last year, and this year, In August, there have been zero incidents since our team has been in that parking lot, and we've been responding.

Our teams collectively have been making a difference, and we want to continue these efforts so that we can have more collective impact on our community.

Thank you very much.

And if you want to send the rest of your comments in, Marty, that'd be wonderful.

The next speaker is Jamil Sulman, who is listed as not present.

So we'll move on to Jordan Quinn and Dre Good evening, Jordan.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Great.

Hi, I'm Jordan Quinn.

I'm a renter in District 2 and a member of Socialist Alternatives.

I've been a part of the People's Budget Movement.

I've fought alongside Council Member San Juan's office since 2014 and spearheaded numerous victories for workers.

Well, the Amazon tax funds that our movement won last year for agreeing to deal in affordable housing The mayor and the Democratic council members used to shore up other budget cuts.

Now the mayor wants to cut the Amazon tax again.

And this is just a divide and conquer trick.

We got to reject this.

We're demanding no budget cuts to essential services and that last year's promise for affordable housing and a Green New Deal be fulfilled.

So we're demanding that the Amazon tax be increased by $120 million to expand funds for affordable housing and Green New Deal by adding $106 million for affordable housing and $13 million to the weatherization and low-income subsidies.

and to fund housing and services to cut the proposed $13 million police budget expansion, which includes a million-dollar increase for recruitment and retention and hiring bonuses.

It is ridiculous.

Where's the hiring bonuses for social workers?

Thank you for dialing in.

Please send in the rest of your comments.

For folks who don't get the chance to finalize their comments it's council at Seattle.gov where we look forward to seeing if you do have comments.

Dre it still looks like you are listed as not present.

Dre Avila.

So we're moving on to Barb Oliver followed by Devin Majka.

Good evening Barb.

Just star six on mute.

There we go.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Thanks Barb.

Okay.

Hi, this is Barb Oliver of Sound Foundations Northwest.

We build quality tiny transitional homes for Lehigh's Tiny Home Village program.

Since 2018, I've done extensive research on homelessness, including the Built for Zero Global Initiative.

I've also talked to several other tiny home builders all over the United States.

They all say the same thing.

The problem of homelessness is not a lack of a home.

The problem of homelessness is lack of community.

Tiny home villages teach homeless folks about community.

Tiny home villages are the best first step in ending homelessness and we would urge Seattle City Council to continue to fund this vitally important program.

My time here is ending and surprise surprise I have a lot more to say.

Respectfully I will email each of you with some further thoughts.

Thanks for your time and attention.

I got a prompt that says I was on mute.

So apologies for that.

I said, thank you very much, Barb.

It was good to hear your voice.

And the next people that we have lined up are Devin Magic and Joan Horn.

Good evening, Devin.

Good evening, Council, and thank you so much for the opportunity to be here.

My name is Devin Micah.

I use she, her pronouns and I I'm the manager of the LEAD program at REACH here in Seattle.

It's been an honor to hear so many folks from the public tonight speak about the impact of the LEAD program and its effectiveness.

I've been at the LEAD program for seven years and it makes me incredibly proud to hear folks from across the city speaking about our really unique program and our approach to care.

I want to amplify the voices of our direct service staff who are joining this meeting tonight.

Many of them will be on in the next hour and are staying quite late to speak to you about the importance of their work with clients of being a low barrier outreach based harm reduction program that really serves the hardest folks to serve in our community and those that have been so targeted by our criminal justice system.

Thank you.

Thank you for dialing in today.

Joan Horne followed by Haley Skyes.

Hey, Joan, you might still be muted on your end on your own phone.

Okay, so you went back on mute with star six.

If you hit star six one more time and then just double check that your phone is not on mute on the device.

And after Joan will be Haley Skyes and Peter Fink.

Joan, if you can hit star six for me one more time.

I had you there for a second.

Okay, we're going to keep you on the screen here.

Hit star six for me one more time.

And we're going to go to Haley, who is not present.

And then we're going to do Peter Fink.

So Peter, if you want to come on screen, hit star six.

And Joan, when I see you come off mute, we'll come back to you, OK?

Peter, star six, please.

Great.

Hello.

Wonderful.

Hi there.

Speaking today in support of the 2022 Solidarity Budget, which I strongly believe is necessary to ensure climate justice, racial justice, and housing justice here in our city.

As we know, Seattle has seen many climate impacts and will only see more.

Seattle has been suffering from severe lack of affordable housing that is safe and healthy.

And as well, we've seen extreme violence used by the police, which is absolutely unnecessary.

The solidarity budget calls for a defunding of cops, courts, and prosecutors.

because we know that it does not help our community or keep it safe.

As well, it's very important that we begin focusing on climate justice because it is continually the area that will be the most impactful on frontline communities here with us.

Thank you so much.

And the next person was, Joan, I just, I see you on the, on the, on the screen here.

If you want to hit star six one more time.

Star six.

Hi.

There you go.

Okay.

And then your phone's not on mute itself.

Sometimes our cell phones are on mute with the little button on the screen.

So just want to double check that.

Can you hear me?

Joan, I'm sorry, we're having connection issues.

I see you have pushed the right buttons.

You are not showing our mute on my end.

It seems like we have an audio issue.

So I'm going to leave you up there in case your voice starts coming through.

We'll come right back to you.

Katrina Peterson, followed by Hugo Yang.

And Joan, anytime you want to test your audio, you're welcome.

Hi, Katrina.

Oh, excuse me, Katrina.

Please go ahead and star six to unmute yourself.

Katrina, if you can hit star six to unmute yourself.

Let's go ahead and pull up Hugo.

Can you hear me?

Hey, hi, Katrina.

Hi.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Katrina Peterson.

I am the Climate Justice Program Manager at Puget Sound SAGE and I'm also a resident of South Seattle and District 2. I am here tonight in support of the solidarity budget and support preserving Jump Start revenues for its intended use including investments in the Equitable Development Initiative and the Green New Deal.

In particular we support the solidarity budget's demand for 85 million dollars to accelerate the transition of homes and buildings off of fossil fuels.

Energy costs are regressive and low income people are more likely to live in old homes that are not energy efficient increasing heating and cooling costs.

An equitable transition to renewable energy requires that the city fund energy efficiency upgrades and make them accessible to black brown and low income communities.

Instead of allowing the mayor to rage on start we urge the council to fully adopt the solidary budget and seek more progressive revenues to fund critical community infrastructure so that we can have an equitable recovery.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your time.

And Joan just coming back to you.

Want to test your audio.

Okay I cannot hear you.

Went back on mute on our end.

Might be a headphone situation, too.

Sometimes that happens.

So if you want to hit star six one more time and ditch the headphone, go with speakerphone, we're here for that.

I'm going to call Hugo Yang and Etelvina Hauser.

Hugo, you are welcome to join us.

And Joan, you're going to have to hit star six one more time when you want to speak.

OK, Hugo, go ahead.

Hi, Hugo.

Hi, good evening, everyone.

So my name is Hugo Ying, and I'm living in Chinatown International District.

My home is next to the City Hall Park on 3rd Avenue that LEED has worked on cleaning a few months ago.

I'm boasting my support here to bring the LEED program to fidelity and allow LEED to be brought to scale so that it can respond to public safety concerns citywide.

This is very important because LEED is making a huge impact on the community.

Our neighborhoods are increasingly interested in LEAD to respond to public safety needs.

The meaningful work LEAD has done in my community and the long-term case management offer reduced the incidence of crisis in my community and helps people who really need help to get on path to stability.

Thank you.

That's all.

Thank you very much.

And, Evelina, buenas noches.

Gracias por esperar.

Aquí tenemos Diana para traducir.

Puedes empezar cuando quieres y primero empuja Estrella 6 por favor.

Good evening, Etervina.

If you can hit Star 6.

¿Sí, Etervina?

Sí, puedo escuchar.

Gracias.

Hola.

Puedes empezar.

Buenas.

Mi nombre es.

Permíteme un segundo.

Querido concejales de la ciudad de Seattle, mi nombre es Etervina Houser.

I am from the Garifuna community and I work from home.

I take care of older people.

I am part of the Standard Board of the Home Workers.

We have worked hard to earn basic benefits for the Home Workers.

But we have seen the need to reinforce the scope for the Home Workers and know their rights.

That is why we thank, I thank the mayor for having designated in the city budget los $500,000 para llevar a cabo las recomendaciones del Standard Board, en cual tendríamos la posibilidad de tener una legislación donde podamos tener derecho a días de enfermedad pagados como los demás trabajadores de la ciudad de Seattle.

Es por eso les pido su apoyo para proteger los $500,000 designados a este sector laboral.

Gracias.

Gracias.

Diana, ¿puedes empezar?

Okay.

Dear council members of the city of Seattle, my name is Etervina Hauser.

I belong to the Garifuna community.

I'm a domestic worker.

I take care of senior people, older people, and I am part of the standard board of the domestic workers.

We've been working really hard to gain some basic benefits for the domestic workers.

However, we've seen that we need to increase the effort for outreach and enforcement for the domestic workers for them to know their rights.

That's why I thank very much the mayor that she designated as part of the city budget $500,000 to do all the recommendations that the standard board requested.

We also would, we could have the possibility to have also in legislation where we can have the right to have paid sick days like every other worker in the city of Seattle.

That's why I'm asking for your support to protect the half a million dollars assigned to this labor sector.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Gracias et albina.

Okay, the next speakers and folks who are drowning at home, we're at number 107. The next speakers are Sonia Ponath, Melanie Dressman.

Good evening, Sonia.

Star six, unmute yourself, please.

Hi, this is Sonia Ponath.

I'm a working mom in District 3, a landlord and an activist.

The People's Budget Movement has been organizing since 2014, and we have won tens of millions of dollars in affordable housing and social services.

I welcome those with a solidarity budget to the fight.

Together, I know that we can fight to increase the Amazon tax by $120 million to expand funds for affordable housing.

Programs like bridge funding for the New Hope Community Development Institute and Lehigh, so they can buy a local building and build those homes.

Also let's cut out Perkins $13 million increase in the police budget which includes hiring bonuses and instead use that money to fund public showers bathrooms safe parking sewage and garbage services for our unhoused neighbors forced to live in their vehicles.

We should also add $200,000 to fund Clean Greens it's a central Seattle area nonprofit which provides organic produce free of charge to working and low income families.

I'm calling on all activists to join.

Thank you so much.

And Melanie Driesman followed by Albert Shiver.

Good evening Melanie.

Star 6 to unmute.

Melanie Star 6 to unmute.

Thanks.

Hi my name is Melanie Driesman calling from District 4. Thank you for your commitment to increasing early learning opportunities.

especially for low-income families.

We were aware of the lack of child care before the pandemic began but it is evident now more than ever especially as even dual-income families struggle to afford quality child care.

It is critical that we invest in supporting working families.

As an ICU nurse at Harborview Medical Center and as a parent of a toddler I would not have been able to continue work throughout the pandemic without accessible child care.

I'm also president of the board at UTCS an early learning program that has been operational for over 50 years.

We relocated to U Heights when our building was demolished.

U Heights as a historical building requires several capital upgrades that are necessary to obtain DCYF child care licensing.

I urge you to support capital upgrades at U Heights to save 70 early learning slots with 50 percent allocated to low income

Thank you very much.

And Albert good evening.

Good evening.

I'm Albert Shriver.

I'm from Community Passageways.

I'm an operations manager for the organization.

I thank you guys for giving us this opportunity this platform to use our voices.

I'm advocating for the Seattle Community Safety Initiative for continued funding through 2020-22.

I'm here to show my support for the collective.

Through this initiative I'm witnessing life-changing work that has been critical in changing and saving lives.

This work needs to continue because by not doing so we're telling our young people that their lives are just a discussion amongst adults.

We must show them that we care our actions and continue on this work.

By not continuing this work this past efforts may have all been for nothing and to do that would be detrimental to the Black and Brown community.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for dialing in today.

We're going to do Christopher Anderson followed by Aaron Burkother and then Laura Gonzalez.

Good evening.

Christopher.

Thank you.

My name is Christopher Anderson.

Here's what SHARE Seattle Housing and Resource Effort has observed about the budget process and how it affects efforts to survive and solve homelessness.

Thank you for adding to last year's budget $800,000 for the operation and founding of more democratic and self-managed community-based tiny house villages than in Kamloops.

Earlier this month HSC finally agreed with both SHARE and Nickelsville on amounts we'd be reimbursed for from this budget item.

This is the first new money for tiny house village projects HSD has processed this year.

The same $800,000 designation for self-managed democratic encampments is now in the mayor's 2022 proposed budget.

Please don't take it out.

Our other request is that you support the new proviso set forth by Councilperson Simak that money the city council designates for tiny house villages only be used for tiny house villages.

Over and over city HSD workers that have transferred over to the new regional housing authority in the past have used tiny healthy village money for other projects.

Chair supports the expansion of...

Thank you very much for dialing in.

Aaron, it says you are listed as not present.

So we are going to tee up Deanna and Laura Gonzalez after Teresa.

Good evening, Teresa.

Hi, council members.

My name is Teresa Holman, and I'm a program manager with Lehigh.

We all see the homelessness today because it's everywhere.

It's in our neighborhoods, our parks, and along our freeways.

It's in our downtown business doorways and even spills into our streets, and it's growing, which can feel overwhelming and hopeless.

But it's not hopeless because you've seen one solution that works, and that's tiny house villages.

Every day, I see how they're changing people's lives.

I watch as our villagers strengthen and grow forward toward empowerment, confidence, and hope.

When they leave our village because they've secured permanent housing, we celebrate.

I thank you for your continued and ongoing support of the tiny house villages and ask that you continue to fund them so that we can build more.

As a stopgap measure, until we have more affordable housing available, They provide a real solution and one that works.

Thanks again.

Thank you very much for dialing in tonight, Teresa.

And Laura, bienvenidos.

Gracias por esperar.

Vamos a escuchar de Laura.

Y Diana está aquí presente con nosotros.

Laura, you are welcome to get up here and push star six.

And Diana is with us as well to interpret.

After we hear from Laura, we'll hear from Michael Malini and Liana Paredes.

Good evening, Laura.

Buenas noches, bienvenidos.

Buenas tardes.

Mi nombre es Laura Gonzales.

He sido niñera en la ciudad de Seattle por más de 18 años.

Formo parte del colectivo de niñeras y estoy aquí para apoyar la asignación del dinero en el presupuesto para beneficios portables para las trabajadoras del hogar como yo.

Nuestra industria es históricamente una de las más abusadas y oprimidas, particularmente en las personas de color y o inmigrantes que generalmente viven por debajo del nivel de pobreza y no tienen acceso a ningún recurso extra más que el dinero que obtienen de su duro trabajo.

Cuando no tenemos acceso a tiempo libre pagado significa que muchas veces debemos presentarnos a trabajar enfermas y tener que tomar la difícil decisión de ajustar nuestro presupuesto que generalmente está ya al límite.

pues muchas vivimos al día con nuestros gastos y crear extra con la idea de cómo enfrentaremos gastos básicos como la renta, el pago del teléfono, gasolina.

Por eso le pido a ustedes su apoyo en la realización de las recomendaciones que la mesa de estándares ha presentado.

Por favor, mantengan este dinero asignado en el presupuesto para este objetivo.

Muchas gracias por su atención.

Gracias Laura.

Puedes empezar Diana.

I've been a nanny in the City of Seattle for over 18 years.

I am part of the Nanny Collective, and I am here to support the money assigned in the budget for the portable benefits for the domestic workers like myself.

Our industry is historically one of the places where there is more abuse.

and oppression, particularly with the people of color and immigrants that generally live below the poverty line, and they don't have any access to any resource extra for money.

So they only have the money that they obtain with their hard work.

When we don't have access to pay free time, that means that many times we need to go to work sick.

And we have to take the very difficult decisions to adjust our budget that usually is very limited.

And it's all to the limit, because we live day to day with our expenses.

And extra stress is a problem.

creating the idea that how are we going to pay our basic expenses like rent, like telephone, gasoline, or how to maintain our cars because those are usually our work tools.

We need the possibility to have a payday without having to take the decision like whether we have to work or we have to think about our health.

This is why we need the city to approve this money in the budget, so it can go and it can become the law.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

Okay, we will do Aaron Burkhardt.

We just called your name, so thanks for joining.

Michael Malini and then Liliana Paredes.

Thanks for being here, Aaron.

Hi, thank you for having me.

My name is Aaron Burkhalter.

I'm a project manager with the Public Defender Association for the LEAD program, working my area, District 1. I've been really grateful for the City Council's consistent support for the program.

In District 1, we feel the expansive and growing call for LEAD services from individuals and businesses that are seeking a service forward solution to public safety challenges.

I've heard from businesses and law enforcement calling us, seeking support, because they want to help clients and avoid arresting or sweeping them, and they want to interrupt the criminal justice cycle upstream.

We are operating at capacity, and we've been forced to say no to qualified referrals, but the need has remained.

A lead is an effective and evaluated approach.

Please fully fund the program so that anyone who qualifies can be referred.

Thank you very much.

And Michael, good evening.

Thanks for waiting.

Hi, my name is Michael Mulaney.

I'm a renter in District 3, and I'm calling in support of the solidarity budget, including increasing the Amazon tax by $120 million to expand funds for affordable housing and Green New Deal projects, including $106 million for affordable housing.

and to add $13 million for building weatherization and low-income facilities to transition homes from oil and natural gas heaters to electric, as well as adding $4.6 million to open the three new tiny house villages with funds only being used for those other purposes.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time tonight.

Good evening, Liliana.

Liliana is followed by Max Rappaport.

Hi, Liliana.

Oh, hi.

Thank you, Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you, Councilor Members.

Good evening.

My name is Liliana Paredes, and I'm the Director of the Business Opportunity Center at El Centro de la Raza.

And I am directing the City 2022 General Revenue Sources to continue funding the Youth Job Readiness Program for El Centro de la Raza.

El Centro de la Raza has been running the youth program for five years now.

It has been a learning process each year, understanding the needs of our youth community and engaging with partners to provide the necessary skill and employment opportunity.

Our mission has been since day one to fill in the gaps that our immigrant youth lack the skills the knowledge and experience needed to succeed in the school a school or job.

This year has been a success.

17 out of the 19 students from the program were placed in an internship in the summer.

All of the students finished the school year with outstanding grades and the majority of them feel more confident when they speak English.

The language and cultural barriers can be a burden with the success in the school.

Therefore I appreciate the great job of our programs to help the students gain the financial knowledge.

There are a lot of students Latinx students and families that need help and we are ready to provide the support they need.

And for that it will be essential to have the support of the City of Seattle.

Thank you very much for dialing in tonight.

Max Rafferty followed by Liz.

Good evening, Max.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Max Rappaport and I live in District 3. I'm calling tonight in support of the Solidarity Budget and its commitment to addressing the housing crisis in our city.

We desperately need a major investment in deeply affordable social housing in this city and we should start by using new progressive revenue in the mold of Jumpstart to pay for it.

The Solidarity Budget calls for $635 million to be spent on affordable housing in our city which is more than three times what the mayor's budget proposes.

Please say no to Mayor Durkan's insufficient housing budget and her insulting attempts to raid Jumpstart funds while funneling millions of additional dollars to SPD's already floated budget.

Thank you to the council for holding this hearing and everyone who signed up to comment today.

Thanks.

Thanks back to you.

And good evening, Liz.

Liz is followed by Josh Castle.

Just star six to unmute.

Hello.

Good evening.

Hi.

So good evening council members.

My name is Liz Visar and I'm currently the youth programs manager at El Centro de la Raza.

I'm here requesting funds to keep our middle school after school program operating.

Over the years we have built a program intentionally designed to understand the unique challenges of our Latino youth in Seattle.

Some of those include navigating school and home cultures bilingual responsibilities in the way of mixed legal status household Our program addresses youth barriers by enacting a model to empower youth agency and creating intervention during the middle school years.

As we move past the pandemic we know the cultural support we offer our youth and their families will be even more needed.

Losing this program will disrupt the positive impact we have among some of Seattle's most vulnerable communities including Beacon Hill and South Seattle.

I urge council members to include us in this year's budget.

Funding our program is an investment in Latino youth.

It's confirmation that we believe in their potential that they each have.

Please consider looking at written comments as youth have created graphic designs asking exactly what I'm asking now.

Fund our program.

Thank you.

Thank you for dialing in today.

And Josh, good evening.

Thank you for being here.

Followed by Grayson Van Arceville.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Josh Castle, Community Engagement Director with Lehigh.

Thank you, council members and the amazing unsung heroes on your staff for your work in support of 165 new permanent supportive housing units, providing homes for 180 of our unhoused neighbors before winter strikes.

Many are transitioning out of our tiny house villages and emergency shelters through the tireless work of our case managers.

We're grateful to our partnership with Youth Care for one of these buildings.

Please add 1.8 million to increase support services and case management resources for our existing villages to support equity across our sites.

We'd also appreciate your support to add $212,000 for our urban rest stops providing life-sustaining hygiene services for over 500 people a day.

We'd like to significantly increase hours at our ballot location to open evenings and weekends and add much needed support at our downtown site.

One study found over half the people accessing these services are employed So there's especially a lifeline for those who are unhoused to get ready for work and sustain their income to successfully obtain housing.

Please fully fund LEED.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Grayson will be followed by Ellen Anderson.

Good evening, Grayson.

Hi, I'm Grayson.

I'm a renter in D3 and I'm here to support the people's budget demands as it enters its eighth year in fighting for and winning millions of dollars in critical funding for working and marginalized people.

I just want to point out that so many people have talked about the need for affordable housing on this call already, and yet Durkin's budget proposes that the 62% of the Amazon tax intended for affordable housing be reduced from $145 million to just $38 million.

Not only is that a slap in the face to the movement that fought so hard to win this funding, it would be a pretty bizarre policy choice for a city that's been in an affordability and homelessness crisis for the better part of a decade.

We need not only the full amount intended for affordable housing and Green New Deal programs, we need to increase the Amazon tax to fully fund those things in the future.

I thank Council Member Sawant's office for, as always, organizing community members to fight for what we need and refusing to settle for less.

And I look forward to the Council making the only decision that makes sense, which is to increase the Amazon tax and fully fund affordable housing, homeless services, and Green New Deal programs.

Thank you for dialing in.

Good evening, Ellen.

Ellen will be followed by Victor Juarez Lopez.

Hi, Ellen, just star six to unmute.

And Ellen, just star six one more time if you already hit it.

Let's go ahead and tee up Victor as well.

Hey, Ellen, hey, Victor, star six to unmute.

Hi, Ellen, wonderful.

Yes, please go ahead.

Hi, I'm a member of Socialist Alternative and I'm calling support the people's budget.

As Grayson just said, so many people have called in talking about housing, and especially after COVID, this is more important than ever.

I support the people's budget call to fund housing services by cutting Jenny Durkan's proposal of $13 million police budget expansion, which is absolutely ridiculous after the past year's massive Black Lives Matter movement And this includes a $1 million increase for restarting police recruitment and retention, such as hiring bonuses for police officers, which are some of the highest paid city employees, where the hiring bonuses for social workers is what I would like to know.

I think we can cut the 650K expansion of the do nothing officers of the inspector general.

And I think I would be better spent on hiring 10 more staff members for the city's office of labor standards.

about $1.4 million a year.

Great.

Thanks for dialing in today.

Victor, please go ahead.

Victor will be followed by Rebecca Michael and Margo Stewart.

Good evening, Victor.

Star six, unmute.

Hi, Victor.

Hi.

Hi, Victor, we could hear you.

Oops, you just went on mute again.

You can hit star six one more time.

I see on my screen here.

Okay, so Victor, just star six one more time.

I heard you say hi, and then it went back on mute.

And Deanna, I wanted to say thank you for your translation services tonight.

According to my list, we have everybody who has dialed in to provide translation services who has testified, so I wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to work with you tonight, and thanks for your incredible work.

But you're welcome to stay on in case there isn't anybody, but I think at this point, all the folks who preregistered for translation have been spoken so thank you.

Okay um if you guys want I can stay until the end of the meeting that's not a problem I'm glad I would say.

Okay wonderful well happy happy to have you as well and Victor if you are listening we have you um showing as not present now so we might have accidentally lost you so we'll come back to you and Margo I see you on the line here so why don't we have you hit star six and you can go ahead.

Margo, just star six.

Okay, folks.

Hi, Margo.

Hi, sorry, fumbling my phone.

No problem.

My name is Margo.

I, for sure, I rent and work on First Hill.

I'm calling in support of the people's budget and the amendments put forward by council members to want, you know, This year, rents have already risen by 26% for Seattle tenants.

On average, that's an extra $4,000 to $5,000 in rent per tenant per year.

We have 60,000 Seattle-area renters in rental debt vulnerable to eviction in the context of a deadly pandemic where billionaires have raked in trillions in profit.

And I think of that context as criminal to present the demand for affordable housing and a Green New Deal.

as in contest with preventing cuts to other essential services.

You know, we need to expand the Amazon tax on big business that our movement won by at least $120 million to combat the housing and climate crises.

And we also need funding for all the other things folks have talked about.

You know, the New Hope Project and the CD, investigation of wage theft, supporting venture organizing, funding Clean Greens, economic displacement, relocation assistance, all these things.

And our city is home to the richest corporations on the planet.

You know, we can afford these things, but we're going to need a powerful movement to win it.

And that's why I'm also standing with the Solidarity Budget folks.

Thanks, everyone.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

And we do have Victor back up on the line here.

So, Victor.

Oh, did I lose you again, Victor?

Sorry about that.

Thought we got you back on the line here.

Okay, we are at that 8.30 mark and I said I would go back and call for anyone who was not present to be able to speak again.

We still have Allah Hassan who says that they are present here.

I wanna try and tee them up one more time to see if they are able to get unmuted.

Allah, if you can hit star six.

Perfect, can you hear me?

Go.

We're still having audio issues.

I can see that you are unmuted appropriately, so don't hit star six again.

Hello?

Hi.

It works.

Hi.

Thanks for waiting.

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

All right.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Ala Hassan, and I manage the volunteers at the Low Income Housing Institute.

Before my current role, I was a case manager at Frye Apartments, a permanent supportive housing site.

While supporting over 230 residents at the Frye, I had the opportunity to listen to their stories and many who had transmissions from tiny house villages.

They were able to rebuild their lives thanks to the onsite support of staff at each tiny house village where case managers help them get access to permanent housing.

That's what a tiny house village offers.

The support necessary to connect individuals to resources help them receive a source of income and apply for IDs or provide support through their immigration process.

Each resident receives an insulated and heated home with a door that locks.

They are welcoming for couples and pets unlike congregate shelters.

which do not provide the same level of safety and security for homeless individuals with unique circumstances.

In fact, our tiny house village program has a 99% utilization rate.

I'm asking for the council to continue their support and fund more tiny house villages.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much for waiting.

And I don't see anybody else who had signed up for public comment who was not present, who has dialed back in now from the folks that we've already called.

Colleagues, we have reached the 8.30 mark.

According to my script here, this was our opportunity to potentially take a break for either five minutes or for 15 minutes, depending on how many people were present.

We have 30 people present of the remaining 60 or so who have dialed in.

So instead of taking a 15 minute break, I would like to suggest a five minute break so that we can give the appropriate breaks to our clerks.

And I wanna thank both of them for their two shifts that they've already done.

And we are going to then reconvene at 8.36.

If there's no objection, we would just take a five-minute break so that we can power through those last 30 people who are signed up.

If there's anybody else, obviously, who dialed in, we want to hear from them.

Does anybody have any objection to a five-minute break?

Hearing no objection, we are on recess until 8.36.

See you back here in five minutes.

For everybody on the line, do not hang up.

We are almost there.

We will get to you.

hearing the Select Budget Committee meeting for October 12, 2021. Welcome back to Old Quarter.

The time is 8.37 p.m., and the public hearing will continue with the numbers that we left off on.

We want to make sure that folks have the chance to provide all of the public comment that is signed up to provide testimony tonight, and we are going to begin again here with Kimberly Harrell and Marvin Marshall.

folks following home at home.

We are on number 124. Kimberly, thanks for waiting and thank you all for your patience as we took a five-minute break.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Kimberly Harrell and I'm a case manager on the North Lead team at REACH.

We are a long-term harm reduction program serving the most impacted by our criminal justice system and the war on drugs.

I would like to thank the city council for all the hard work and endless support they have showed us over the years.

One of the reasons why I chose this career was I wanted to help those who were born of despair advocate for others who face and see harsh discipline, oppression, unfair and unjust treatment.

I'm asking for your help and funding for those who have taken the first steps to reach out wanting to get into the program that works, but were denied because of capacity and too short staff.

Many times my clients have given my number out because they have received the help that they needed, such as navigating through the court system, being helped with treatment services, supporting them through the CPS mental health and housing system.

One reason why you can't see growth is because some have been left behind.

I'm requesting your help for those, for the ones who have been left behind and for my clients that trust that we can reach this goal collectively.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony tonight.

Marvin Marshall followed by Rita Pichu.

Hi Marvin.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thanks.

Can you hear me?

Okay, hello, my name is Marvin Marshall, and I'm the Director of Violence Prevention Programs with the YMCA Social Impact Center, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

I would like to point out that these four organizations that have come together have been able to mobilize the safety hub, and this is a monumental initiative in a sense that the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, Community Safety, Community Passageways, and Urban Families have been able to align our work in the best interest of the community.

These are exactly the kinds of investments that community has been asking for and that the council committed to supporting last year during the 2020 racial justice protest.

And there were promised investments in community safety alternatives to police.

And now the city is close to going back on that promise.

Until recently, the city agreed with us and funded this program.

Leaving it out of the budget would be a huge mistake.

Thank you.

Thank you for dialing in tonight.

The next person is Rita Pichu.

It looks like you are not listed as present.

Pichu?

I'm sorry, I got a mispronunciation, Rita.

So if you dial in, we'll come back to you.

Amarithia Torres, you are up next, followed by Lanisha Seacrest.

Good evening, Amarithia.

Hi there.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Amarithia Torres, and I'm here on behalf of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, which is made up of over 40 community-based, culturally-specific, and BIPOC-led orgs, all working towards an end to gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, rape, and domestic violence.

I'm here tonight to ask Council for an investment of $3 million to fund what we already know works, which is survivor-driven, mobile advocacy with flexible financial assistance.

All of our member programs who work with survivors of gender-based violence utilize this model, and there's strong consensus that we need investments in survivor-driven advocacy to meet the diverse needs of survivors.

Unfortunately, The mayor's budget does not allocate any new funding to expand these critical services that gender-based violence programs and advocates provide every day.

Domestic and sexual violence are among the top precursors to housing instability, mental health issues, substance abuse, among many more.

Now is certainly not the time to underinvest in these critical supports, especially given that survivor-driven advocacy is an evidence-based practice that's been shown to result in increased housing stability and safety for survivors and their families.

Thank you for waiting tonight and thank you for your testimony.

Lenisha, it looks like you are listed as not present, so we will go ahead and move to Robert Steffens Jr.

Again, for anyone who's listed as not present after a number 120, we're going to come back to you at 930 and see if you would still, if you're available, if you'd still like to speak.

So we're going to continue with those who are present here today.

Robert, you are welcome to start speaking.

Thanks for waiting.

Star six to unmute yourself, please.

And as we're waiting for Robert to come off mute, just star six, the next two speakers will be Tia Petrovich and Ivan Tellez.

Good evening, Robert, just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, Robert, we're going to keep you on the screen and we're going to pull up Tia as well.

Hi, Tia, just star six to unmute yourself.

Thank you.

Hi thanks for this opportunity.

My name is Tia Petrovich and I live in Pioneer Square.

I've lived here for 30 years and I chair the Pioneer Square Residence Council.

I'm calling to ask that you fully fund LEAD and bring the program to scale.

As a community member I've chaired this program on for over 10 years.

LEAD is a powerful tool in our toolbox diverting eligible individuals to programs and services.

LEAD offers a path forward using officers caseworkers and community services.

LEAD is built around a Seattle based value which is compassion.

LEAD gives back.

LEAD allows our police to actually have compassionate and humanitarian roles in building relationships.

LEAD can provide meaningful public safety by reducing criminal recidivism.

LEAD's just a high value program.

What LEAD is not is fully funded or fully scaled.

So let's change that.

Thanks so much.

Thank you Tia.

Robert you are now off mute.

Please go ahead.

Yes, there's a difference between the star and the hashtag.

Yeah.

Good evening.

I really want to thank you guys for paying as much respect for the community and sitting here this time of the evening.

But my name is Robert Stevens.

I am the curator of the Garfield Campus Superblock Renovation Project.

And on behalf of the coalition, we are calling in to ask for your support of Dr. excuse me, Councilor Davis-Watts budget amendment.

And thank you for the resources that you helped us to get through the, what they call that stable ready stage.

Now we want to move towards the implementation to show the community that even though there's been a 15 year journey, it's still worth being done.

And we appreciate the support that you guys have stepped up.

and we ask you to please continue to support the amendment.

Thank you again so much, all of you.

Thank you for dialing in tonight.

The next two speakers are Ivonne Tennis and Rosemary Sweeney.

Good evening, Ivonne.

Just star six to unmute.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thanks for waiting.

Hello?

Yeah.

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you.

Good evening my name is Yvonne Pérez.

I am the Workforce Program Coordinator with the Business Opportunity Center.

I am calling in support of the continuation for the Youth Job Readiness Training Program at El Centro de la Raza.

This program provides support for many Latino students to outreach education and referrals to different opportunities that they may not have.

Many of the students have benefited from the program by obtaining employment through internships in the maritime construction or green job industries.

By being part of this internship, they not only learn more about the different career paths they can take, but they also are giving back to their community.

The program not only impacts their lives, but they also impact the lives of their families.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

And Rosemary says you're not present.

Teresa, you are up next.

Teresa Dillard, good evening.

Hey, Teresa, just double-check that you're not on mute on your own phone for me real quick.

I see you unmuted on the line, just can't hear you on your own phone.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council, and thank you.

My name is Teresa Dillard, and I'm the Director of the Housing and Essential Needs Program, also known as HEN, at Catholic Community Services.

I'm calling tonight in support of the continued funding for the Home for Good program.

We so appreciate the foresight of council in funding the Home for Good program.

It is so very very needed.

Our hope is to maintain the current funding level of $750,000 which would allow us to assist the up to 170 City of Seattle residents we have identified who are at risk of losing their housing when they lose their HIN eligibility in 2022. Without the Home for Good program, these folks will very likely lose their housing because they will be awarded SSI, and then they will lose their HEN eligibility.

And what the Home for Good program does is it provides a shallow subsidy for these folks.

Again, I want to thank you for your time, and I look forward to continuing our partnership and serving the most vulnerable members of our community.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you for dialing in.

I am going to list the next eight or so speakers here that are listed as ready or up to speak but are not present and see if maybe there's three people who are dialed in that don't have a name associated with their name.

So I want to make sure that we unmute those lines to see if they are any of these folks as well.

Lenora Rodriguez, Hillary Damon.

Rosa Garcia, Dalanari Santos Romero, Mark Cohan, Bramar Lamar, Alton McDonald, and Juana Mas.

I see one person unmuted.

You're welcome to introduce yourself.

And if you're not listed there and you are listed somewhere else, we'll also cross you off.

So go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I am Patience Malaba with the Housing Development Consortium, and I am calling to express our grave concern about the mayor's budget proposal that proposes taking about $140 to $150 million from the Jumpstart Fund and move it to the General Fund.

This will impact our collective priorities of increasing funding for housing.

in the sense that it's taking away the funds and backfilling those dollars with the creeper federal source, which is a one-off fund source that's unsustainable and it's not really going to be predictable to support more affordable housing production at a time when we really need a reliable source.

So we are encouraging you to reinstate the job starts funding dollars so we have more funding for housing and we don't create a future funding creep for affordable housing production.

And with that, I want to thank you for your leadership and the work you're doing in shepherding the budget process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Patience.

And we will note you as already spoken.

Your name was just up here next.

And then we have one more person that has listed as unnamed.

If we can get you to hit star six.

You should have just heard a prompt that says you have been unmuted.

I can hit star six.

Okay, great.

I next have Nick Wong.

Nick Wong will be followed by Cassandra Oaks.

Good evening, Nick.

Thanks for waiting.

Hi, my name is Nick and I'm a volunteer with Lehigh and Sound Foundations Northwest.

And I'm here to advocate for more funding towards tiny home villages in Seattle.

A lot of the previous advocates have already gone into great detail about why and how tiny home villages will work.

And I just wanna add that they not only provide a home, but they provide an opportunity and it's an opportunity for people to rehabilitate themselves.

You know people are not disposable.

Homelessness is not a problem.

We just sort of sweep away to another place that we don't have to see.

And most everyday people are maybe three consecutive strokes of bad luck from ending up in a similar situation.

So in my view supporting tiny home villages is a key example of how in helping others we can help ourselves.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for waiting tonight.

Cassandra, you are up next, followed by Annie Patu and Richard Finley.

Good evening, Cassandra.

Hi, thank you for taking my call.

My name is Cassandra Oaks, and I'm calling on behalf of Black Daughters Task Force and Clean Green Farm, asking for sufficient funding in the 2022 budget for our small African-American community-led nonprofit.

that has been serving King County since 1989. Clean Greens Farm and Market delivers affordable organic vegetables to the community at low cost.

However, during the COVID pandemic, Black Dollar Task Force changed their program goals of low cost to no cost, which enabled Clean Greens to serve the community pesticide-free vegetables during this unprecedented time of unemployment and health concerns.

Our community was suffering and unsure of the environment to shop for food.

So we provided safe access for organic vegetables during the distancing requirements and all the extreme health concerns.

Thank you again for dialing in tonight, Cassandra.

Annie, you are followed by Richard Finney.

Hi, Annie.

Okay.

Hi.

Annie Patu, proud assistant principal of Rainier Beach High School.

I'm calling to advocate for the continued funding of the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

This initiative has done amazing work in our community and has expanded out to Franklin, Garfield, and West Seattle.

If you take this away, you will do immense harm to the work that we are doing with our kids in the schools, Because of them, SPD's delayed response, they have stepped in to support our kids in this community.

They have the relationships.

They provided restorative justice services, care management.

You can't take this away.

Our kids, we are building a culture of safety and care in our community.

Please, council, do not take this service away.

Thank you.

Thank you for dialing in tonight.

And Richard, good evening.

Good evening.

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

My name is Richard.

I'm great.

I'm great.

I'm getting better.

My name is Richard Finley and I represent the Boys and Girls Club and the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

This is our city and this is our community.

And I think with the rise of crime and violence, along with the economic challenges, it only makes sense to put money into programs that will promote safety and hope.

So please do not make the mistake of disregarding our youth only to realize it is a big mistake.

Do not risk living.

We don't want to risk living with the sad memories of a lost opportunity to invest in our future and our kids.

Thank you.

Well said, thank you very much.

I'm going to read the name of the next 10 or so people that are listed next but not present.

That way, if you hear your name, you know you need to dial in before 9.30 so that we can try and get you back in the queue here.

Michael Wilmarth, Catherine Santo Romero, Dean Chenevert, Martha Quiroz, Kim Lundgreen, Hamdi Abdule, Petrola Castro, Maria Fuentes, Diana Romero.

All of those folks are listed to speak next but not present.

I want to welcome Maria Casares and Maria and Mary Cole as the next speakers.

Good evening Maria.

Thanks for being here.

Hello.

This is Maria Casares with the Seattle After School Program at El Centro de la Raza.

I'm here to talk about the importance in funding our after-school program.

With our program we've been able to assist families directly as they navigate systemic barriers that that impact their daily lives.

Our staff has directly supported our families with a variety of services including meal support and rental assistance applications which have showed to improve the overall well-being of our families and their youth.

Through our program we've also seen an improvement on the academic and social development of the BIPOC youth we serve.

Our youth have found a safe space where they can share their ideas and truly express themselves while also engaging in ethnic studies programming.

Our goal is to continue creating a community to inspire and empower critical thinkers.

To continue doing this we ask you to support our sci-fi program.