Select Budget Committee Public Hearing 10/6/20

Good evening, everyone.

Today is Tuesday, October 6, 2020, and the public hearing for the Select Budget Committee will come to order.

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

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant?

Here.

Strauss?

Present.

Gonzalez?

Here.

Juarez?

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

I really appreciate your time today to the clerk's office, to our folks from the IAT office, to the communications team, and all of the team that help us run these remote public hearings.

We greatly appreciate your time.

I also see Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Herbold, are you present as well?

I am indeed.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

We also have a full council attendance today for our select budget committee.

I want to thank all of you for your time tonight.

This is our opportunity to hear directly from the public on the proposed 2021 budget as it was transmitted from the mayor's office to Seattle City Council.

I want to thank all of you again for your generous time tonight.

We do have over 150 people signed up.

And as is a custom, we allocate a full two minutes to each person.

For many of you who participated in the MHA hearings or past budget hearings, you know that it is customary for us to allocate the full two minutes to each person.

And my hope is that we will be able to get through everyone who is signed up.

I will announce the number assigned to each person as they have dialed in, so you are aware in the viewing public of what number we are at.

If you are over 100, you can imagine that it's going to be a pretty long night.

Council colleagues and members of the public, I really appreciate your time.

It is very important for us to be able to get this public testimony.

I do hope that we can wrap up our public testimony around 10 p.m., if not prior.

Just a few pieces for logistics.

I will go through, in each 20 minutes, I will remind folks what number we are at in public testimony.

I will also make sure to call the names of everybody, even if you're listed as not present.

For folks on the phone, we know that there is a listen-in line and also the public testimony line.

We wanna make sure you're on the right line.

So I will call your name and let you know if you're listed in our system as not present, and that will be your indication to dial into the listen-in line.

Hopefully everybody is on the right line to start with.

Please push star six when I call your name so that it will unmute yourself.

Our team will also queue you up to be the next spokesperson.

As per our custom, we will call three people at a time to try to get folks enough time to get prepared to make their remarks, and our IT team as well, enough time to unmute people.

But you will need to hit star six to unmute yourself.

At each hour, assuming we are going multiple hours here, we will have the chance to just take a two minute break.

Our IT and clerks team will need to switch turns and switch lead in who is managing the desk and the functions behind the scenes.

So we greatly appreciate their time and applaud their work as well and want to make sure that each hour we give at least two minutes for them to make the switch as needed.

We will also be monitoring emails if there's any glitches or any concerns, please do email.

into my office, Teresa.Mosqueda at Seattle.gov.

I want to thank Farideh Cuevas, who is the chair, I mean, sorry, who's the clerk for this committee that I have the honor of sharing.

And Farideh has been tremendous enough to offer to continue to monitor our email system as well this evening.

So if you are having any problems, there is a number as well on the page that you have signed up, but do feel free to give our office an email and we will jump right on it.

Again, folks, this is going to be a fairly long evening.

We will endeavor to give our IT and communications folks and our clerk's office a small break around 8.30 if we're still going that long, just to make sure that people have the appropriate rest break for the four-hour period.

And again, our hope is to end by 10 p.m.

at the latest.

At this point, I just want to say a quick thank you.

Many of you have received the memo that we sent out yesterday.

Each week, my office will be sending out a budget memo that has highlights from the last week and upcoming indication of what to expect this week.

And today was our big item to feature for this week.

We have our first public hearing.

which will give us the chance to hear directly from the public.

As I noted in our memo that you all received, this is a really important opportunity for members of the public to chime in on areas of interest, where they'd like to see changes, things that they'd like to see protected, and questions that they have.

As we're all in the question-asking phase as well, before we begin our priorities, we are really appreciative of the public's opportunity to weigh in We get the budget at the same time they get the budget.

So the questions that they ask really do help us be aware of any concerns and ideas that they'd like to put on our radar as we continue to deliberate the budget over the next seven weeks.

This is an eight week process.

We're in week two.

And just as a quick reminder to my council colleagues, your form A's or issue identification forms are due on Thursday.

You know, much of the public comment today will probably inform what you'd like to highlight in the upcoming public testimony.

I mean, sorry, from upcoming public testimony for our public hearings that will be coming up in the next few weeks here.

So committee hearings next Thursday, Friday, and the following week.

And then our next large public hearing like this will be in two weeks on October 27th, 5.30 PM as well.

And we will send you information about how to sign up for that.

Lastly, I just want to take a moment to thank the members of the firefighters team, the folks that I met with this afternoon from HealthONE, incredibly generous with their time and provided really an insight into how we can better serve our community as we scale up the HealthONE system and look towards harm reduction, holistic ways to really help our most vulnerable.

As 911 is called, they are actually dispatched from a line within 911 and for medical emergencies.

So do know that if you see someone who's in distress, who needs help, If you call and you ask for a medical response, they can help triage to get firefighters and HealthONE van there.

I'll have more to say about that as we deliberate various priorities to come.

But many folks know, as we talked this summer about the need to have the opportunity to dial something other than 911 when we see people in distress.

I mentioned the case of an individual just around the corner from my house who appeared to be sleeping.

He had his pants off and he needed help.

That's almost the exact same call that we responded to today on the HealthONE right along.

An individual in distress, disoriented, along the pier who needed help, and he sought out some bystander to call to get him help.

And it was the HealthONE van who called.

They brought him pants, they brought him socks, they got his daughter on the phone, and really did a warm handoff to the King County team who was getting him into shelter.

It was an incredible way to see our systems in action.

And I'm incredibly proud of the City of Seattle and King County in this partnership that they have, especially our firefighters, Chief Scoggins, John and the incredible team at HealthONE.

They have done tremendous work in a very short period of time.

Again, we'll have more to report out on that.

But it was an excellent example of where I think the country would like to head as we think about holistic public health-centered calls for our public safety response system.

With that, thank you all for your time tonight, and we are going to open up public comment.

It remains Seattle City Council's strong intent to have public comment at all of our meetings, and we will continue to endeavor to make changes at various points to make sure that the system is being used correctly and is a stable means for making sure that our meetings receive public comment efficiently and effectively.

I'm going to moderate the public comment in the following manner.

Each presenter will be given two minutes to speak.

I will call on the speakers.

3 at a time, and if you are not registered to speak but you'd like to, you can still sign up at Seattle.gov backslash council.

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

Once I call on a speaker's name, staff will be given the chance to unmute your name, unmute your line, and your microphone will be unmuted, but you also need to push star six to begin speaking.

Please push star six before I call your name so that you are teed up to speak right away.

As you speak, please introduce yourself for the record and please keep your comments directed at the 2021 General Revenue Sources, the Mayor's Proposed 2021 Budget, and the 2021-2026 Capital Improvement Program.

These are all proposed budgets that came from the mayor's office.

Speakers, we'll hear a 10-second chime at the end of their allotted time.

That gives you 10 seconds to wrap up your thoughts, and please remember that your microphone will end at two minutes, so we're asking you to wrap up your comments.

If you did not get the chance to wrap up your comments, you can absolutely e-mail us at council at seattle.gov, and we will distribute that throughout all of the council offices.

You also, if you're not able to stay on the line due to any personal commitments this evening and we don't get to your name, please do email that same email, councilatseattle.gov, and your public comments will be distributed.

I also want to thank the folks at Seattle Channel.

Don't know if you hear it enough from us, from me, the council president, the entire Seattle City Council.

We are very, very appreciative of your time.

You make this public comment period possible.

You bring the stream to the public and make it possible for us to continue to get good programming outside of our committee meetings.

So really appreciate your time and your generous willingness to stay with us late into the evening tonight.

So to the entire team at Seattle Channel, thank you.

Okay, with that, Ava Metz is up first.

The first three speakers we will hear will be Ava Metz, Emily Graham, and Doris O'Neill.

Doris, you are listed as not present, so if you are present, please do dial into the public testimony line here.

Ava, good evening, and thank you for joining us again.

Hi, my name is Eva and I'm a student and a renter in district two.

Mayor Durkin's proposing a budget, uh, that's totally business as usual, completely inadequate for what working people need, uh, especially communities of color.

And on top of that, her bogus a hundred million dollar investment into BIPOC communities is just a total shell game.

This is coming from the same mayor who tried to veto the $3 million investment won by our movement in August.

and the same mayor who oversaw police brutality against protesters.

I want to thank Council Member Sawant, who's been the only consistent voice for defunding SPD by 50% to fund community programs.

The people's budget initiated by Council Member Sawant's office has a long track record of winning victories through grassroots organizing, and that's what we'll need again this year to reject the austerity budget from the mayor.

Working people need a massive expansion of affordable housing.

We need free transit, good union jobs, moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the pandemic, an end to police violence, and a Green New Deal for Seattle.

We need well-funded community centers, libraries, and parks.

And unfortunately, the Democrats on city council are failing to live up to their promise of defunding the police in the summer.

So our movement has to build independently of the political establishment.

And I hope people who are listening can join us for the People's Budget Town Hall which will be online at 6 p.m.

on October 20th.

Thank you very much.

Emily Graham.

Emily if you're with us.

And remember folks.

Hi Emily.

Just star 6 to unmute yourself.

Can you hear me now.

Yes.

Thank you.

OK great.

I had to do it twice for some reason.

Hi, my name is Emily Graham, and I live in District 3. I am calling today about the Solidarity Budget.

The Solidarity Budget pledges to divest from STD and fossil fuel interests and to reinvest in the community.

It fights for affordable housing, public safety, health care, clean energy, and good union jobs.

This year we've seen our entire community fight to breathe through the ongoing protest for racial justice, through the wildfire smoke that stayed for weeks, and through the coronavirus pandemic, which has destabilized our economy and our health both physical and mental.

None of this is acceptable and all of it is especially harming the Black and Brown communities here in Seattle.

Seattle's at a crossroads while crafting the 2021 budget.

We can choose to battle systemic racism the climate crisis and COVID-19 or we can follow a status quo that will further racist policies allow more of our earth to burn and push our neighbors onto the street when they cannot receive COVID relief.

As a member of Sunrise Movement Seattle, I stand with the 60-plus organizations committed to fighting for a solidarity budget, and I ask City Council to divest from SPD, implement participatory budgeting processes to redistribute those funds, and to fund COVID relief, affordable housing, and a Seattle Green New Deal.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

The next person is Doris O'Neill.

And, Doris, I have you listed as number three on the list, and it says you're not present, so if you can hear me, Please do dial back in and we will get to you as soon as the folks from IT notify me that we see you in.

Again, Doris O'Neill, I don't see you listed as present, but we will come back to you.

The next three people are Amy Tower, Sarah Starman, and Peter Chalito.

Amy, good evening.

Welcome.

Hi my name is Amy Tower.

I'm a lifelong Seattle resident a current renter in District 4 and I'm also a tenant organizer with the Tenants Union of Washington State.

I'm calling on behalf of the Tenants Union to urge you to divest from the Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent and we support a participatory budget process for the distribution of those funds.

The funds divested from the SPD need to be invested directly in Black communities for community-led health and safety efforts.

Rather than putting money towards violent evictions and traumatic encampment sweeps, the city needs to fund dignified housing for all, including the single room accommodation through the purchase of hotels as an interim measure on the way to permanent housing.

Housing justice is racial justice.

In King County, Black renters are evicted six times more than white renters, which is disproportionate and actively perpetuates cycles of racist housing in this country.

The Tenants Union urges you to follow through on your commitment to standing up for Black lives through a participatory budget process and defunding the police by at least 50%.

And at the minimum, regarding an immediate public safety issue, the city should install a crosswalk from the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse across the street so that everyone can safely access the park.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Sarah, good evening.

Hey Sarah I saw you on for a sec.

Oh there you are.

Welcome back.

Hey.

Sorry about that.

My name is Sarah Starman.

I am living in Finney Ridge in District 6 which is Dan Stouts' district.

I am also calling on the City Council to support the solidarity budget like the people who spoke before me.

I am amplifying demands from the BIPOC community to defund SPD by at least 50 percent.

and to reinvest that money in Black communities and community health and safety programs.

I also fully expect that those communities will get the $100 million that Mayor Durkin promised, and that that money will not come from Jump Start, which was money earmarked for COVID relief, the Green New Deal, and affordable housing.

I think it's really important that our budget reflects our values as a community, And I think what we've seen this summer is that our community is crying out through protests, through public comment, through calls and emails for values of community safety, equity, justice, affordable housing, sustainability, and that we're all standing together in solidarity to win all of those fights at once.

And we expect the budget to reflect those values and to reflect that solidarity.

So again, I want to see the city council amend Mayor Durkin's budget to defund SPD by 50%, reinvest that money in BIPOC communities, make sure those communities get the $100 million that Mayor Durkin promised, while still using the Jump Start money to provide for affordable housing, livable conditions in the city, and a citywide Green New Deal.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Peter, good evening.

Hi, sorry about that delay.

My name is Peter Shelato.

I use he, him pronouns.

I'm a resident of District 4 and I spend my time volunteering for Seattle Public Schools and King County Equity Now.

I'm calling to support the solidarity budget.

I urge you to divest from SBD by at least 50% and to support a participatory budgeting process to distribute those funds in a democratic way that provides us all with true public safety.

I'll call out my council representative, Alex Peterson, as well as SPOG President Mike Solon and Mayor Jenny Durkin, to say that the more you drag this out, the more people will continue to get killed.

I'm talking about, among others, Charlena Lyles, Horace Anderson, Jr., Summer Taylor, and whoever might be next.

Beyond policing, I urge you to buy hotel space to help our unhoused neighbors and to create a crosswalk from the Duwamish Longhouse to the park across the street.

The budget you vote on should reflect a city that works for all of us and one that elevates black lives.

I'll end with the fact that in early 2019 the median net worth of black households in Seattle was 5 percent that of white households.

Structural racism is not about intent.

It's about outcomes.

Thank you for listening.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Derek Bonafilia followed by Carly Gary and Maya Garfinkel.

Derek, good evening.

I may have been on mute.

The next three people are Derek, Carly, and Maya.

Derek, good evening.

Hi, my name is Derek Bonifilia, and I'm a renter in the U District in District 4 and a member of Sunrise Movement Seattle.

I'm calling today to stand with the more than 60 organizations from across racial justice, climate justice, housing justice, labor movement, and more who are calling for a solidarity budget, a budget that divests from harmful systems like policing and fossil fuels, and invest in efforts that help communities thrive.

We're standing together and refusing to fight between ourselves for scraps while SPD is given hundreds of millions of dollars to harass, oppress, and murder BIPOC and unsheltered community members.

The demands we're making should be familiar to you by now.

We're calling on you to defund SPD by at least 50% and invest that money, not jumpstart money, not Green New Deal money, in black communities.

And we're calling on you to allocate that money through a community-led participatory budgeting process, not a task force, and certainly not a mayoral task force selected by this city's anti-black mayor.

And I want to add that at this point, I think I've heard every council member agree that our public safety system does not work for the people of Seattle, and that systems based in white supremacy are oppressing communities of color, and particularly oppressing Black and Indigenous communities here in Seattle.

But I've also heard council members like Andrew Lewis, Alex Peterson, and Dan Strauss fail to fully embrace community solutions.

saying that things are more complicated than they seem, and generally implying that they, for some reason, know better than community members what needs to happen.

And I want to be clear that if you're saying that you know better than the oppressed communities that are leading this movement, you are the system of white supremacy that you claim to condemn, and it's you that is oppressing communities and standing in between us and the better world.

Thank you.

I would encourage folks to keep their comments directed to the budget in front of us and not impugn the motives of any of the council members.

Appreciate it.

The next three people are Carly Gary, Maya Garfinkel, and Ingrid Archibald.

Carly, good afternoon.

Hi, my name is Carly Gray.

I'm a renter in Andrew Lewis's District 7. I'm also a member of Sunrise Movement Seattle and a member of UAW 4121. I'm speaking to you today to amend Mayor Durkin's proposed budget to reflect the demands that community has been proposing for the last six months rather than moving forward with her tone-deaf austerity budget.

I'm echoing what others have said tonight and asking that first the budget must defund the Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent and reinvest these funds not other funds in Black communities and community-led health and safety systems.

The $100 million promised by Mayor Durkin is step one.

We must continue to move our city towards abolition of policing and our prison systems and our money and our budget must reflect those priorities.

Second, the money divested from police and the $100 million promised by Mayor Durkin must be allocated through participatory budgeting, not a task force handpicked by the mayor.

Third, and finally, the revenue from Jump Start Seattle should remain dedicated to COVID-19 relief, affordable housing, and Green New Deal investment.

$100 million dollars that Mayor Durkin promised should come from divestments from the city's policing budget if that wasn't already clear.

I stand with 60 plus organizations who have signed on to a solidarity budget which outlines the three key amendments to the mayor's budget proposal.

We deserve a budget that prioritizes true public safety solutions not reactive policing that introduces violence to our communities and perpetuates white supremacy.

Those closest to problems are closest to the solution so it is timely uplift and we pay people Seattle's BIPOC leaders for their solutions.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Maya, good afternoon.

Hello, I'm Maya Garfinkel, a tenant organizer with B-Seattle and a District 4 renter.

On behalf of B-Seattle, I would like to urge the council to defund SPD by at least 50%, allocate at least $100 million in participatory budgeting, and prioritize funding for housing and community-led homeless outreach.

Funding a revamped navigation team will not help those experiencing homelessness.

Unhoused people have said time and time again that the navigation team does not work.

The city's dollars should go towards addressing root causes of housing insecurity instead of prioritizing the concerns of property owners.

The city dollars should fund community demands instead of encampment sweeps and further displacement.

The navigation team must be disbanded and the funds must immediately be distributed to trusted community organizations already doing work to support our houseless neighbors.

The City Council should fulfill their promises to defund SBD by at least 50%, invest in participatory budgeting, and prioritize funding housing and community-led homeless outreach.

We need you to invest in housing and community care.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for calling in.

Ingrid Archibald, followed by Castille Hightower, Alyssa Webster, and Ashlyn Cooney.

Ingrid, good evening.

Hi.

Hi, council members.

My name is Ingrid Archibald, and I live on unceded land of the Duwamish people.

I'm a renter in District 6. I'm a member of the Sunrise Movement here in Seattle, and I also organize to end fossil fuel expansion with an organization called Stand.Earth.

I'm speaking tonight to echo what other folks have said and call on you to amend the mayor's budget to reflect the demands that the community has been calling for.

I stand with over 60 groups who are calling for a solidarity budget.

We're working together to win a budget that works for all of us, one that divests from police and pollution and invests in community instead.

I know that you all have heard over and over and over again from community members about the multitude of ways that our system is set up to harm the most vulnerable.

namely black and brown communities, indigenous peoples and working class and poor people.

We have a lot of work to do to reform and restructure our society so that our system cares for all of us, serves everyone's needs and safeguards a livable future.

This won't be achieved in one year's budget in one city, but we can and we need to take huge steps right now together.

You all have the immense power to pass a budget for our city that serves the people, and starts to write the injustices that have been so deeply ingrained in our society for so, so long.

Too many communities are being harmed and just way too much is on the line.

And there's absolutely no excuse for you to drag your feet right now in this budgetary process.

The $100 million promised by the mayor for Black communities should come from the city's policing budgets, not from Jump Start Seattle's revenue, which has already been dedicated to emergency COVID-19 relief, affordable housing, and Green New Deal investments.

I urge you to listen and honor the demands of Black communities and organizers by defunding SPD by at least 50 percent and reinvesting these funds in Black communities and community-led health and safety systems by using a participatory budgeting process and not the mayoral task force.

Thank you so much for your time and I yield my time.

Thank you very much for your time.

Castille.

Good evening.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Testo Hightower and I'm here to remind you that there is a human cost to your decision making.

that while it may be politically motivated to go back on your word to defund SPD by 50%, the motivations of those who fight against that are personal.

Personal in how my brother was a victim of SPD's violence in 2004, Herbert Hightower Jr.

Personal in how we too struggle with housing.

Much like those, you will be failing with the disgraceful proposed budget and the inhumane treats of the homeless population and the slashing of programs for working people, failing to stop gentrification, refusing to increase the Amazon tax that have made billions in profits Price gouging on products that people desperately needed.

Shameful.

If you say you stand with us, prove it with a budget for the people, not SPD and not the pandemic profiteers.

I yield my time.

Thank you for your time.

Alyssa, good evening.

Hi, Alyssa.

Please go ahead.

We see you on mute still.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

While you're pushing star six, I'll read the next three.

Ashlyn Cooney, Lucas Vargas, and Matthew Lang.

Alyssa, just star six one more time, maybe.

Heard somebody else say it took twice on their end.

There we go.

I can see it now.

Go ahead, please.

Oh, OK.

Sorry about that.

Had to press multiple times.

That's OK.

Thank you.

Yeah my name is Alyssa Webster.

I live in District 6. I'm contacting the council on behalf of the Solidarity Budget Amendment to Mayor Durkin's proposed budget.

That includes our support for defunding the Seattle Police Department's 2021 budget by at least 50 percent and reinvesting those funds into BIPOC communities and community-led health and safety.

Putting at least $100 million towards establishing participatory budgeting for the City of Seattle.

Preserving vital services such as transportation Continuing fare-free transportation during COVID-19.

Emergency COVID-19 release.

Anti-hunger work and more.

And investing in housing and homeless outreach without the presence of police to reaffirm the council's decision to eliminate the navigation team and put funds instead towards trusted community organizations.

I've heard many opponents in previous public hearings of a 50 percent budget cut to SPD and reinvesting those funds in other programs argue that we can't make rash decisions without having the answers.

Those people don't realize how long this conversation has been going on.

They aren't listening to the countless organizers and community leaders who already know from the work they've been doing that investing in people jobs housing transportation and programs like restorative justice are the answers.

And the longer we wait the more people suffer.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Aisling followed by Lucas.

Folks, we are on number 14, in case you're wondering where we are in the lineup.

Aislinn, good evening.

Hello, my name is Aislinn Cooney, and I'm a D7 resident and a protester who has been assaulted and arrested by SPD with lasting physical and psychological effects.

I applaud the council for overriding the mayor's latest veto, and I expect to continue to see this type of courage and commitment.

If I were on council, I would not put much faith in the mayor's budget proposals for 2021, as your constituents have shown to overwhelmingly reject her leadership Our mayor has shown herself to oppose the will of the people.

So as we await the decision for her recall, we ask that you reject Durkin's attempts to push through an austerity budget.

We want that solidarity budget that we've been asking for.

Our demands remain the same, to fund SPD by 50% in 2021 and invest the money in Black community.

Specifically, we want to see the $100 million Durkin proposed for Black communities come from policing budgets, not from jumpstart.

We need that money for COVID relief, a Green New Deal, and affordable housing.

And we need that money to be taken from the police budget.

Preserve and expand our public services and cut the SPT budget instead.

We want to see money going to homeless outreach, not cops.

We want to make sure the council is actually committed to getting rid of the navigation team that has caused so much harm and instead put the resources into getting people into houses.

We should buy hotels as we work on expanding the houses to make sure we actually start addressing the ongoing homelessness crisis.

We want to see $100 million invested into a participatory budgeting program that gives people the power to control how their money is being used.

We don't want the work to be redone by a task force chosen by the mayor that duplicates work that Black experts have been doing at King County, Equity Now, and Secret Seattle, and many more.

We want the budget to fund the Seattle Green New Deal to address the climate crisis that brought the smoke.

For decades, Seattle has failed to protect and prioritize BIPOC communities.

During the pandemic and wildfire crisis, the city has failed to protect the houseless, During the uprising for racial justice, the city has failed to protect protesters.

But we can now, we can lead the country.

And thank you.

Thank you very much.

Lucas, good evening.

Hi, Lucas, I can see on there just star six to unmute yourself.

Lucas Lucas will be followed by Matthew Lang Leah Lucid and Gabriel Pelli.

Lucas if you can hear me just push star 6 one more time.

Thank you.

We can either.

Sorry about that.

Lucas I'm a climate scientist at the University of Washington and a volunteer with 350 Seattle.

And in both those capacities I'm here to speak in favor of the solidarity budget.

somebody who spends their days thinking a lot about climate change and its impacts around the world.

I'm here to tell the council that climate justice is racial justice.

And in that vein I strongly support the Solidarity Budgets platform primarily to divest from SPD and reinvest in BIPOC communities.

I'd like to hold off the ask to defund Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent and reinvest those funds in Black communities and community led health and safety programs.

The $100 million proposed promised by the mayor is only a first step, and it must be part of a larger strategy to divest from systems of policing and incarceration.

And I want to echo the call to not take that money from the jumpstart legislation that was won with so much hard work by so many activists around the city, specifically to provide COVID relief and the foundation for a Green New Deal.

We need a healthy and just climate for everybody.

To get there, we have to divest from harm, police, and pollution, and invest in what makes our communities healthy and climate resilient.

So I'm proud to stand with the 60 plus groups for racial justice coalitions, environmental justice, and climate organizations, service providers, affordable housing advocates.

We're calling for the solidarity budget.

We want to work together to win a budget that works for all of us, one that divests from police, divests from pollution, and invests in the community.

Thank you very much.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Matthew, good evening and welcome back.

My second council member, I'm trying to search for the color.

Matthew, you may have to push star six again.

We're not hearing you.

Great, now we can see you.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

All right, good evening, Council.

My name is Matthew Lang.

I'm a small business owner, the lead organizer of the Seattle Transit Riders Union, and the Climate Justice Chair of Standing Against Foreclosures and Evictions, or SAFE.

Today, I'm here to speak in favor of the solidarity budget, which both of those organizations have signed on to.

We must defund the heavily militarized Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent.

At least $100 million of that funding must be utilized for participatory budgeting processes with a focus towards Black and Indigenous communities so that programs like SAFE's Afro-Indigenous Families Fund which gives direct cash assistance to folks who have been left out of the deal since long before COVID can grow and serve community as administered by community that best knows its own needs.

We must provide continued growing funding for vital services and complete projects like the Duwamish Longhouse sidewalk and crosswalk completion so that we are serving our communities as planned.

We must grow economic investment in dignified housing and decriminalized outreach to the unhoused community.

The mayor may no longer have the navigation team at her disposal but that has not changed her stance on encampment eviction.

We must follow through with humane approaches that do not destabilize folks.

I went to celebrate the defunding of the navigation team with folks in the unhoused community, and many folks were still terrified of the possibility of police violence towards them.

We must change these terrorizing practices wholly.

This is the time to make it right.

Lastly, Jumpstart is not a fun to do this all with.

I was involved in community engagement in my TRU capacity, and the group's Jumpstart Seeks to Benefit must not be stiffed.

We must not rob Peter to pay Paul.

Speaking for myself my teaching business still hasn't come back.

I was booked for a full load of parkour camps this summer which was going to be about 50 percent of my teaching income for the year but those all canceled out.

That was about a third of my annual income lost.

Sorry about that, Matthew.

We did not get a chance to hear the end of your story.

If you could email that in, that'd be great.

And just want to double check that we do get the chance for the chime.

I didn't hear it this time, but it could just be me.

Matthew, thanks again for your testimony tonight.

Number 17, Leah Lucid, followed by number 18, Gabrielle Pili.

Leah, good evening.

Hi there.

Thank you for Thank you.

Thanks for hosting this extended public comment this evening and thank you all again for overriding Mayor Durkan's offensive veto of the 2020 budget.

This is Leah Lucid a homeowner in District 4.

And I'm Catherine Manbeck a renter from District 7. We're calling in together to voice our opinions.

We're both doctoral students at the University of Washington.

As members of Morning March Seattle we're calling to ask you to divest from SPD by at least 50 percent for the 2021 budget.

and to support the distribution of funds divested from SPD through a participatory budgeting process in line with the solidarity budget.

City Councilors, we call on you to advocate for the use of a true participatory budgeting process rather than Mayor Durkin's cherry-picked task force.

We're also asking you to make sure that investments, such as the $100 million that Mayor Durkin has promised for Black communities and community-led health and safety, come from funds that are divested directly from police, prosecutors, and courts.

We urge city council not to take any of these monies from city council funds or city funds such as Jump Start Seattle.

We also call on the Labor Relations Policy Committee to please redo the police union contract now.

This is urgent.

The current contract is inflexible, expensive, and unjust, and is a major impediment to accomplishing our shared goals including removing officers from the force who have committed crimes against the people they're supposed to protect.

This expires at the end of the year.

Please be working on this now urgently.

I'd also like to share a personal anecdote.

Having survived the murder of my best friend by targeted gun violence, having an armed officer being the person to ask me questions right afterwards was an additional trauma on top of her death.

And I share this to motivate you to rethink how many armed officers the force really needs.

Despite Chief Diaz's recent statements to you all that he needs more not fewer officers please think creatively about this as a whole.

The budget you vote on should reflect a city that works for all of us and one that elevates Black and Indigenous lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you and thank you both for calling in.

Number 18 Gabrielle Pelly followed by 19 Karen Gillian.

Gabrielle good evening.

Hi, my name is Gabe Kelly.

I'm a renter in district six, a member of socialist alternative and a part of the people's budget movement.

I'm not going to mince words.

I think it's scandalous that the democratic establishment mayor Durkin has announced a budget slashing social programs for working people or corporations like Amazon are making record profits.

And Jeff Bezos alone has made $70 billion since the start of the pandemic rather than the mayor's cuts to transit housing and public services.

A people's budget would defund the police and raise the Amazon tax that we won this past summer to fully fund housing for all, a Green New Deal, and a union jobs program to eliminate unemployment.

Just like it took an independent movement to overcome the opposition to the Amazon tax by big business and the democratic establishment, it will take a movement to win a city budget that prioritizes people over profit.

As we faced on COVID, an economic crisis, and systemic violence against our BIPOC neighbors, The need for people's budget movement is more urgent than ever.

Thank you to Council Member Solon's office for helping build this movement over the past six years, proposing cuts to the bloated police budget every year since 2014, while also securing crucial victories for affordable housing, rental organizing and defense, homeless services in tiny house villages, and restorative justice.

I'll finish by saying I'm not satisfied with 100 million, which is a sliver of the six billion Seattle budget can and must use the whole budget to build a city for working people and not a playground for the rich.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Number 19 Karen Gillen and 20 is Catherine Dawson.

Karen good evening.

Hello my name is Karen Gillen and I'm a 65 year resident of Seattle.

Downtown Seattle has always been a vibrant, thriving community, which was an attractive place to live and work.

People came from all over the region, the country, and the world to enjoy it and bring Seattle economic benefit.

We felt safe to walk through the city at any time of day or night.

Since then, since the last 10 years, the situation has deteriorated due to increased shoplifting, vandalism, open-air drug sales and use, and a concentration of seriously mentally ill and drug addicted individuals who have lost most of their human dignity.

The pandemic and ongoing destruction by fringe demonstrators has only made a bad situation worse.

We have been losing local businesses at an alarming rate, leaving us with blocks of empty storefronts.

Now even the remaining businesses are boarded up and it is frightening to walk in the city.

Now that you have dismantled the navigation team, public health and safety will be compromised further.

You are responsible to ensure that our beautiful city is a place where people can live in safety and with the expectation that they can get the services they need.

I urge you not to use an arbitrary number to dismantle a police department without first considering how their work will be accomplished and who will be doing it.

Magical thinking will not deter criminals.

And until alternative non-police solutions are designed and put in place, you will be creating a vacuum that will be filled in one manner or another.

Downtown criminal shootings have become a routine.

Downtown has been the economic engine of the city, providing the largest share of the tax base of our city budget.

The 2021 budget must address these problems or our city will end up like many others with a blighted core and all of our neighborhoods will suffer as a result.

I would also like to remind you that it is very difficult for people who didn't grow up using computers as most of the people on this call that you will hear tonight are.

It's very hard to get on to this call and get in line fast enough.

So I urge you to give equal weight to the written comments and to recognize that these speakers that you will hear tonight do not necessarily represent the entire population of the city.

Okay, thank you very much.

And yes, we will happily take written messages.

And I know each of our offices have been getting a number of calls as well.

So thank you for that reminder.

You can send in written comments to council at seattle.gov.

Number 20, Catherine Dawson and 21, Rohana Amajdi.

Catherine, good evening.

Hi, my name is Catherine Dawson.

I'm a renter in District 3. Before I begin my full comment, I'd like to quickly respond to the person before me and say, I recognize that you might have some peers that are being brought up by a proposal that's new to you.

However, the police don't make a lot of people feel safe.

And having violent regulation of people who are in a house does not improve our communities.

It might make you feel more comfortable, but that's not necessarily representative of the population as a whole either.

I personally value people over property.

The economic concerns of businesses in downtown are not my priority.

My priority is my community and the people who live around me and the safety of all.

And we know specifically that people of color and specifically our black communities are threatened by police, and our unhoused communities are threatened by police.

I'm very grateful to live in a district who's represented by council members so long, and I want to thank her for continuously fighting to defund and demilitarize the Seattle police.

I'm calling to support the solidarity budget that includes the demands of the Defund SPD movement.

I'm urging the council to divest from SPD by at least 50% and invest in the BIPOC community, which seven council members have already pledged to do.

So please stand by that pledge now that we're in a new budget cycle and show you weren't just trying to postpone this conversation.

The police do not keep us safe.

They exist to protect power and property, not people, maybe some people, not all.

The $100 million promised by Mayor Durkin needs to come directly from police funding and not from the pool of Jump Start funding.

As many people have pointed out, our budget reflects our priorities.

By investing in programs that meet community needs, we can create true public safety that allows us to build an abolitionist future.

Kind of on that note, in response to the questions before me, I've had some council members stop at the idea of abolition, which is truly baffling to me.

I want a leader who can imagine a world where they're not caging their constituents.

I want a leader who can imagine a world where people are cared for and who can take actions to make that happen.

And we're looking to you now to take that first step.

If you pass a budget that maintains a police budget in the NAVTEA, you are signaling the priority is violent regulation and caging, not care.

Thank you very much.

Folks, I'm going to read the next few names here.

And our IT team has let me know that they're going to fix the chime so that people can hear at 10 seconds to the end of their allotted time, their chance to wrap up their comments.

I hear it very faintly, but they're going to dial it up a little bit so you can all hear it.

So we're going to give them a second to chime in, to make that chime change.

I'm going to read into the record the next three names just so that folks know where we're at.

Number 21 is Rahana Amaji.

22 is Tiara.

Dearborn, and 23 is Claire Bookmap.

Also for Doris O'Neill, you were listed as caller number three.

Please do note we still have you listed as not present.

So if you're wondering why you haven't been called, we are ready to hear from you.

You just need to dial in to the public testimony number that you were given when you signed up.

All right, with that, let's go ahead.

The next person is Ronhanna.

Please go ahead and feel free to correct my pronunciation.

Hi, my name is Rana Amjadi and I'm a homeowner in District 2. Council members, thanks for listening this evening.

Like many others before me, I would like to remind you all that there can be no meaningful effort to invest in the true health and safety of Black communities and frankly of all communities.

without an equal and joint effort to divest from the very systems that inflict the most harm.

Violent over-policing and criminal punishment.

You cannot fully fund the disease and then ask us to accept some inadequate half-baked treatment for it.

You must divest to invest.

Put aside the many months of abuse Seattle residents have endured at the hands of the SPD.

The police have control over way too many areas of our collective health and well-being.

They have no place managing our mental health our housing our kinship our bodies.

we need to reduce the possible landscape of harm and right-side police presence in our society.

At the town hall last week, the mayor herself stated time and time again how it's the community-based solutions that have proven to be the most innovative and effective in achieving greater measures of equity.

Yet she somehow wants to position community efforts as complimentary to her own sham task force and other governing bodies that continue to give abusers more power over the folks they harm.

She wants the labor and the brilliance from the Black community but doesn't want to give them the budget and thus the agency to define the processes and solutions for their own communities.

That approach and her budget proposal are anti-Black.

Equity begins with agency.

We all know this.

The only way forward is to divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and invest 100 million from those funds into a participatory budgeting process.

Please show us that Seattle is ready to build a more equitable future.

Please do not let us down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Number 22, Tiara Dearborn, and then Claire Bookman.

Hi, Tiara.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Tiara Dearborn, and I'm a project manager for the LEAD program in Seattle.

I'm here to thank the council for your continued support of LEAD, including the recent adoption of the gatekeeping proviso and your efforts to connect us to communities who are concerned about public safety.

Because of the expansion of lead services in the city, we have been able to continue to hire a diverse group of people who have been directly impacted and who have lived experience in order to serve and to offer alternatives to policing of the communities we belong to or we come from, including Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color who have been most marginalized and harmed over time.

We are in support of continued efforts to invest in alternatives to traditional enforcement and investment in BIPOC communities.

We are also in support of the expansion of HealthONE, who has shown to be a valuable referral source for LEAD, connecting those who desperately need long-term sustained care after a crisis response.

We continue to connect with community organizations and businesses across the city who are overwhelmingly supportive of the work that we are doing with LEAD, CoLEAD, and Just Care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Claire, good evening.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Thank you so much, Claire.

Hi.

My name is Claire Bomkamp, and I live in Ballard in District 6. I'm calling to ask my council member, Dan Strauss, and the rest of the council to cut the SPD budget and police staffing by at least 50 percent for 2021. The police do not do an effective job of keeping Seattle residents safe, and unfortunately, in many cases, they make people less safe.

This is especially true for black and indigenous communities.

The more than 200 million the city would save by defunding SPD can be put to better use, including $100 million allocated via participatory budgeting.

To be clear, that funding should come out of the police budget and not from cuts elsewhere.

Please preserve the $100 million in funding that has already been approved for Jump Start Seattle.

The mayor's bad faith attempt to score points by pitting community groups against one another is not acceptable.

Please cancel this bond contract as it prevents us from holding SPD officers accountable when they've used the power they've been given.

and for making changes to how we achieve public safety in Seattle.

As a taxpayer, it upsets me to see the city's funding being used so inefficiently.

If the goal is the safety and well-being of Seattleites, spending so much on SPD and so little on COVID relief, public transit, and affordable housing and other services for our unsheltered neighbors is just a bad idea.

SPD is not equipped to handle mental health crises and other things we are currently asking of them.

Let's stop asking them to do things that should be outside their job descriptions and start funding programs that can actually address our city's needs.

Finally, I'd like to thank the council for your recent vote to override the mayor's veto, and thank you for your time today.

I failed my time.

Thank you for your time.

Number 24, Hattie Rhodes, and then Clara Lazor.

Hattie, good evening.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Hattie Rhodes, and I am the site coordinator for Georgetown Tiny House Village.

Thank you for your continued support of Seattle's current villages.

Today, I am speaking on behalf of the countless people that come to our gate asking how they can get into the villages.

Today, I am speaking on behalf of the countless people calling desperate for a warm, dry place to stay.

I am asking you to be more than what the mayor is willing to be.

Add funding for additional tiny house villages so more of our unhoused neighbors can finally be safe in a village too.

mark funding from the Emergency Solutions Grant CARES Act that Lehigh can also create supportive housing using the Holiday Inn in the north, not just during this pandemic, but as an ongoing solution.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for calling in.

Number 25, Clara Lazer, followed by Alicia Glenwell.

Good evening, Clara.

And Claire, you may have to hit star six one more time.

There we go.

Hi, my name's Clara Lazor.

I'm a renter in the Ravenna neighborhood of District 4, and I'm also a lifelong resident of this district, and I am a member of the Sunrise Movement.

Like most of the others on this call, I am asking the City Council to amend Mayor Durkan's budget proposal, which does not meet the needs of our community at all, and instead go invest in a solidarity budget.

First, you need to defund the SPD by at least 50% and reinvest those funds in black, indigenous, and people of color-led health and safety initiatives.

This money must be allocated through a participatory budget process as opposed to a hand-picked task force, which will inevitably represent the mayor's interests instead of the true interests of the community.

And finally, this money must not come from the Jump Start Seattle revenue as the mayor has proposed because that money has already been marked for important needs in our community.

And reallocating this money only forces our communities to compete for funding when we have enough wealth as a city to ensure that all of our residents have their health and safety needs met.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you for calling in tonight.

Number 26, Alicia Glenwell, then followed by Jenny Price.

Good evening, Alicia.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Alicia Glenwell.

I'm with the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

I'm speaking today from our coalition's collective experience of working to prevent and respond to domestic and sexual violence in Seattle and King County.

We're also proud members of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

We support SHSC's recommended budget policy framework for an equitable recovery.

Safe, healthy families are the foundation of safe, healthy communities.

To overcome abuse, survivors of gender-based violence need what we all need, affordable housing, living wages, transportation, child care, food, parenting support.

and advocacy services that support healing and self-determination.

We urge you to prioritize funding for BIPOC-led community-based programs that sustain well-being for all Seattle residents, including services addressing domestic and sexual violence already being provided at cultural specific programs, supporting survivors and communities all over our region.

Though we appreciate that the mayor's proposed budget maintains and expands community-based human service funding, it doesn't go far enough.

We stand with the many, many, many organizations and leaders across our city to urge you to go further by sourcing additional health and safety and human funds from collected rollbacks of our city's inequitable overinvestment in police and the criminal legal system.

Please protect revenues from the jumpstart payroll tax, which have already been promised for other vital community needs.

Please truly honor your commitments to listen to your constituents and pass a budget that really reflects the perspectives and needs of all of your communities.

Use your power now to create a healthier safer and more equitable Seattle where all can thrive.

Thank you for your testimony.

Number 27 Jenny Price then Jennifer Ward.

Jenny good evening.

Hi can you hear me now.

Yes.

Thank you Jenny.

Oh yes.

Thanks.

Hi.

My name is Jenny Price and I'm a renter in District 4. I'd like to add my support to the many people who've spoken already and the 60 plus groups that are calling for a solidarity budget.

These groups include racial justice coalitions environmental justice and climate organizations service providers affordable housing advocates arts and culture organizations as well as labor unions.

We call on the council to amend Mayor Durkin's proposed budget to one that divests from police divests from pollution and reinvests in community.

This means defunding the Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent and reinvesting those funds in black communities and community led health and safety systems.

This reinvestment should be done through a true participatory budgeting process and not a task force handpicked by the mayor.

Additionally, the $100 million promised by the mayor for black communities should come specifically from the city's policing budgets and not from Jump Start Seattle's revenue, which has already been dedicated to emergency COVID-19 relief, affordable housing, and Green New Deal investments.

Thank you and I yield my time.

Thank you so much.

And the next person we called was Jennifer Ward.

After that, we're going to give one minute to the IT team to switch folks who are managing the system behind the scenes.

So Jennifer, please take it away.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Ward and I'm a renter in District 7. I'm calling about the proposed 2021 budget and in support of the demands of the solidarity budget and the people's budget movement.

Mayor Durkin's proposed 2021 budget is cruel, austere, and disproportionately affects marginalized people by flashing public services by over $200 million in the middle of a recession caused by an ongoing global pandemic instead of flashing the bloated police budget.

Because of the pandemic, it was more important than ever to fund dignified affordable housing and stop the inhumane sweeps that only serve to hurt unhoused people.

We need the city council to make good on their promises to defund the police by at least 50%.

We know that the police don't keep marginalized people safe.

If the council truly believes that black lives matter and that they have an obligation to support working people in the pandemic, we're asking them to reject the mayor's proposal and instead support a budget that defunds the police and funds community justice and initiatives that support and are led by marginalized people and black and brown and indigenous communities.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

And it is 6.30, just a little after 6.30.

So we're going to give the folks from IT a chance to switch folks who are out the helm and we will continue here in a second.

I want to take a quick PSA to let folks know we are at speaker number 29. I do see a few speakers who are coming up who are not present and we'll call you out right now just so you know to dial in and be ready to speak probably within the next 20 minutes or so.

And that's number 42, Daniel Macron, number 43, Steve Darkshell, and number 48, Rich Voget.

Just a reminder, those are upcoming names.

We see listed as not present.

I don't blame you for listening in and maybe calling in just a few speakers beforehand because it's a long night.

But just wanted to flag for you, you are listed as not present.

So within the next 20 minutes or so, you may want to join in.

All right, the next 3 speakers that we have are going to be number 29, Scotty Miller, number 30, Naomi C, and 31, Logan Swan.

Good evening, Scotty.

I'm going to, there you are, I see you, Scotty, and folks from IT, just let me know if you need more time after Scotty.

Scotty, please go ahead.

Hi, my name is Scotty Miller.

I am a District 3 resident, and I There's been a lot to see going on in the city this summer.

The over-policing of Seattle has been clear for a long time, but it is continuing to harm the city's residents with targeted arrests of protesters, homeless camp sweeps, extrajudicial murders, et cetera.

Overinflated police budget can be appropriately adjusted by at least 50%.

If you do that, you're going to end up freeing funds for the needs of the city and its citizens.

This includes contributing to departments like SDOT, housing, and other strong community support strategies that can replace the police response.

I was able to watch a lot of the budget sessions.

I know that several of you council members are not pleased with the budget that Mayor Durkin has proposed and how much of a miss it is for the needs of this community.

But in addition to defunding the SPD, the city has other available options to create new revenue streams as well.

Capital gains tax, head tax, gas tax, Some of you council members as well as the community have been talking about these options for months.

You are aware of them.

Cities like Salt Lake City have already shown us that the solution to homelessness is housing.

Council can help the residents of the city by ensuring they aren't left to choke in wildfire smoke coming up from California and Oregon.

We can fire up a Green New Deal in Seattle.

The whole world is desperately in need of steps to fight climate change, but Seattle can start taking the steps it needs.

You've got the tools at your disposal.

Please use them.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your time.

Naomi C.

followed by Logan Swan.

Good evening Naomi.

Hello.

Hey can you hear me.

Yes.

Thanks Naomi.

Hey my name is Naomi and I'm a student at the University of Washington and a volunteer with the Low Income Housing Institute.

As you all know well, outreach to people experiencing homelessness is ineffective if they have no place to go.

With this said, I would like to urge the council to invest in proven housing and service models.

Specifically, please authorize the Office of Housing to increase their bridge loan authority for the strategic acquisition of sites and hotels in line with the county's health through housing proposal.

Please also invest in permanent hygiene facilities like urban rest stops, as opposed to porta-potties and mobile trailers, Please expand tiny house villages.

As you know, villages yield significantly better housing outcomes than traditional shelters.

Every day we get dozens of requests from people experiencing homelessness who are hoping for a tiny house village.

There are sites throughout Seattle whose owners are ready to welcome a tiny house village.

And often these sites are developed into affordable housing and can host villages during the pre-development period.

And finally, please expand safe camping sites throughout Seattle.

Thank you for all of your tireless work.

And the same to you.

Logan Swan.

Good evening.

Hi my name's Logan Swan.

I'm a rank and file union iron worker out of Seattle.

I'm calling in solidarity with the people's budget demands to defund SPD by at least 50% and to reject austerity by increasing the Amazon tax to fund programs and departments working families really need.

Seven of you committed to defunding SPD by 50%, but the only one standing with the movement is Council Member Shama Sawant, while the other six have backtracked.

I keep hearing from Democrats on the council that they don't support an austerity budget.

But there's a massive budget shortfall from the regressive taxation methods of Seattle, King County, and Washington State being swamped by COVID and recession.

The only way to prevent an austerity budget that places the burden of these crises on the backs of working people, disproportionately on the most oppressed of the working class, black and brown families who have already been struggling for years with racist gentrification, is to cut the bloated police budget and raise progressive revenue.

Otherwise, you're just playing shell games like Durkin is trying to do with our hard-fought Amazon tax.

When you cut parks and recs, SDOT, and public transit, you're cutting union jobs.

When you fail to tax big business and cut SPD's massive budget that's been increased by 42% just in the last six years, then you're making a conscious choice to put the burden of this on working class families.

And we've been dealing with it for years.

We dealt with it during the boom of this city that saw the majority of working people and of people from communities out of the CD and out of Capitol Hill get displaced.

And now we're being told that was during a boom and we can't take this for the duration of a recession.

We're already dealing with COVID in our workplaces.

We're already dealing with skyrocketing living costs.

We need a Green New Deal.

We need a people's budget.

We need to defund SPD and we need to increase the Amazon tax.

Thank you very much.

The next three are number 32, August Garneth, Kelsey McGrath, and Aaron Mandel.

August, good evening.

Hello, can everybody hear me?

Yes, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hello, everybody.

My name is August Garneth and I'm a renter living in Columbia City in District 2. I'm a member of the Sunrise Movement, and I am here to express my support for the Solidarity Budget.

We need a healthy, equitable, and just climate future for all.

To get there, we must divest from the harm caused by police and pollution and invest in what makes our communities healthy and climate resilient.

Housing, healthcare, public safety, clean air, and good jobs.

First, I'm calling on the Seattle City Council to divest from SPD by at least 50% and reinvest those funds into BIPOC communities via community-led health and safety programs.

Second, the promised $100 million for BIPOC communities should be allocated through a true participatory budgeting process, not a mayoral task force.

Third, this $100 million should come from the city's policing budgets, not from jumpstart Seattle's revenue already dedicated to emergency COVID-19 relief, affordable housing, and Green New Deal investments.

Lastly, please reaffirm the vote you made in the 2020 rebalancing package to eliminate the navigation team and instead untrusted community organizations and nonprofits to conduct outreach to encampments without the presence of police.

The budget you vote on should reflect a city that works for all of us and one that elevates Black lives.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Kelsey McGrath followed by Aaron Mendel.

Hi, Kelsey.

Hi, I'm Kelsey McGrath, a renter and teacher in District 3 on unceded Duwamish land.

I fully support the solidarity budget.

I'm calling on you to follow through on your promises from June and defund SPD by minimally 50% in the 2021 budget cycle.

Honestly, go for 100%.

SPD are violent enforcers of white supremacy, harassers, brutalizers, and abusers.

It is beyond time for them to be defunded and abolished.

I also call on City Council to engage in a participatory budgeting process to redistribute these funds from STD divestment.

The folks most impacted by these racial capitalist systems are closest to the solutions.

Black, brown, indigenous, sex worker, houseless, and immigrant communities are most harmed by COVID-19, climate injustice, racism, and criminalization.

These folks must be at the center of a participatory budgeting process with true power and ownership.

Additionally, I urge City Council to act with urgency to use the Jump Start funds to provide dignified housing for all and COVID-19 relief as they were intended.

Lastly, and contrary to a previous comment, the people who have lost their dignity are not the folks most harmed by white supremacist capitalist systems, but rather those that are upholding violent white supremacist capitalist systems.

Abolition means imagining and creating a reality where everyone can be their most human.

Let's start by defunding SPD by at least 50 percent and using participatory budgeting to invest in our Black and Indigenous communities.

Thank you very much.

Number 34 Erin Mendel followed by Walker Thomas.

Erin good evening.

Hi, uh, my name is Aaron Mandel.

I'm a lifelong resident of Seattle and currently live in Greenwood in D six on unseated Duwamish land.

I'm calling because I like literally every single person on this call stand with the over 60 organizations who have endorsed the solidarity budget.

I urge the council to listen to black leaders, listen to King County Equity Now and Decrim Seattle.

Y'all pushed the ball while rebalancing the 2020 budget, so I'm urging you to keep your word and divest from SPD by at least 50% and support distribution of funds divested from SPD through a participatory budgeting process.

I'm also asking you to make sure that investments in black communities and community-led health and safety come from funds divested from police, prosecutors, and courts, not from Jump Start Seattle funds or any other Seattle funds.

Now more than ever, we need to preserve vital public services and complete urgent projects, including creation of a crosswalk from the Duwamish Longhouse to the park across the street.

I urge you to fund dignified housing for all, including single room accommodations through the purchase of hotels as an interim measure on the way to permanent housing.

Please reaffirm the vote you made in the 2020 rebalancing package to eliminate the navigation team and instead fund trusted community organizations and nonprofits to conduct outreach to encampments without the presence of police.

As many have said, the budget you vote on should reflect a city that works for all of us and one that elevates black and indigenous lives.

Mayor Jenny Durkan continues to be all talk and no action.

She's proved time and time again that she will protect the police and business interests rather than Black folks in this city.

City Council, I urge you, do not back down and let the mayor bully you.

I urge the City Council to listen to Black leaders, listen to King County Equity Now and Decrim Seattle.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Number 35, Walker Thomas, followed by Bill Sampson.

Walker, good evening.

Hello, my name is Walker.

I'm a resident here in Seattle, and I would like to add my voice to the overwhelming chorus of people calling in and marching multiple times every single day in the face of incredible danger and police violence, as well as people who email in all the time.

And people who called explained to you that we all want the same thing, which is the police budget cut by at least 50%.

They're not helpful.

They're not doing anything to make our community a better place.

I work at a homeless shelter downtown.

My partner is a Seattle public school teacher.

We both know how desperately this money is needed for all sorts of other things that are actually helpful instead of what the police provide, which is basically terrorism.

So please do what everyone is asking you to do, to fund the police by 50%, invest that money in the community, you have the rest of my time.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Bill Simpson, followed by Jessica Scalzo.

Bill, good evening.

Hey Bill if you can hear me just push star six one more time to unmute yourself.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Hello.

Oh you're welcome.

Can you hear me now.

Yes we can.

Thank you.

OK great.

Thank you.

Hi.

My name is Bill Sampson and I'm a resident in District 4. I'd like to echo my support for the solidarity budget And I'd also like to point out a few things I've noticed over the summer and in the proposed budget executive summary.

While there were the ongoing protests going on, it seemed to me like there were peaceful daily protests when chemical weapons and more extreme weapons like blast walls were banned.

However, before and after these more violent, you know, crowd control methods were used, there was often violence.

And so I'm kind of suspicious of the story often told by the police of what was happening at the protest.

And so, and the police budget is much larger than like the Seattle Parks and Rec budget.

And one of my favorite things about Seattle is all the great libraries, parks, and community centers that provide lots of recreational and educational opportunities.

And I'm noticing in the budget, I understand that things are very difficult budget-wise and with COVID now, but I'm disappointed to see the closing of community centers, pools, and reduced maintenance spending.

So I would like to see spending for parks and recs, you know, not be cut in austerity.

Thanks for listening.

Thank you for calling in.

Appreciate that.

And we will be circling back to that as many of those items were slated for funding in the original 2021 spend plan for Jump Start.

So thank you for flagging those.

Jessica, followed by Karen Salinas.

Jessica, good evening.

Hi, good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity.

I live in district three, and I am calling for a couple things.

One, I want to echo up basically what everyone is saying tonight, which is fantastic, that now's the opportunity to follow through on your promise that you made this summer to defund SPD by at least 50% and make sure that all of that funding goes to black and brown restorative justice programs.

I am concerned that the mayor has said She is allocating $100 million to black and brown indigenous communities, but there's not much of a plan.

And one of her criticisms of defunding the police is that there isn't much of a plan.

And I find this concerning because black and brown restorative justice programs have existed for a while.

They have a plan, the plan works, but they just need the funding.

And so we just need to defund them and give them the money because they know what to do with it.

My other concern is the jumpstart Seattle and the funding that that would raise.

It needs to go specifically to what we pushed for, which was affordable housing, specifically to house our most vulnerable people, our homeless population in Seattle.

And on top of that, we also allocated $18 million of that specifically to go to affordable housing in the Central District.

specifically for black households.

And it would be concerning to actually raise that money and not spend it on that, because that's what we pushed for.

And that's what we were speaking to people about when we're collecting signatures, trying to get everybody on board.

People really felt it was important that housing was built specifically in the central district first.

And so I would hope that you would please keep these things in mind when you are finalizing or starting this 2021 budget process.

And that's what I want to say.

Thank you.

Good timing with three seconds left.

Appreciate it.

Karen Salinas, followed by Bia Lacombe.

Karen, good evening.

Hi, my name is Karen.

I'm the lead screening outreach coordinator for the North Precinct with the REACH program.

So thanks a lot to the last person.

We definitely know how to use the money.

In the last two years of the north expansion, we've received 418 referrals for our precinct alone, when we were allotted 75 for our first year.

Our folks are people who are homeless, who use drugs, engage in the sex trade, have mental illness, and most recently have been evicted from the Everspring.

After years of incidents inside and out of the motel, it was finally shut down at the behest of the neighboring people, resulting in the immediate displacement of at least 50 people, but also a loss of shelter for many on Aurora, who would be able to rent there without an ID, use drugs in peace, be mentally ill without having the police immediately called on them, or be able to stay there with friends, or have some leniency in paying their bill.

Many of these folks have never heard of housing resources, felt that the services fit their needs, or live a life that makes the vulnerability of asking for help a possibility.

Histories of generational poverty, domestic violence, mental illness, family history and the sex trade, and yet violence and crime has condemned these people to the mercy of systems that do not understand them or make the space for them.

Our approach is simple because these are our people.

Meet people where they are.

Treat them with dignity respect and radical hospitality and take the time to know them as people not just numbers on a sheet.

To think of plans together that fit their needs and will get them to the goals that they want to achieve and where they want to be in life.

This is the essence of liberation.

What gets in the way is harmful high barrier systems funds not being released as promised and inflexible abstinence-based program policies that don't allow grace for human errors.

As you all, the mayor and the citizens of this city, come to terms with racism inherent in our society in Seattle, I urge you to make amends and keep in mind the people on the street who don't feel like they have until tomorrow or next week for bureaucracy to move and who have been failed by every system we have ever created.

Thank you very much.

Next is number 39, Bia Lacombe, then Greg S. Bia, good evening.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Bia Lacombe.

I'm a member of Socialist Alternative and the People's Budget Movement.

I wanted to talk about Mayor Durkin's austerity budget, which failed to defund the police and actually proposes to continue hiring officers despite, you know, this whole summer of protests.

While working people suffer, while black and brown working class people suffer disproportionately from this pandemic and economic crisis, Mayor Durkan is also cutting vital public services like parks and libraries that working people depend on because she refuses to make billionaires and corporations pay their fair share.

Mayor Durkan is determined to put the cost of this crisis on the backs of working people, despite the fact that billionaires have increased their wealth by over $600 billion during this crisis.

I wanted to share that in contrast to this, in past budgets, the people's budget struggle, led by Councilmember Sawant and community activists, One funding for community passageways, LEAD, and other restorative justice programs that are proven to reduce violence by investing in services, not more cops.

By building a fighting people's budget movement, we can do the same now, but trusting Mayor Durkin or the promises of council members who promise to defund and then refuse to even second Councilmember Sawant's legislation is a dead end.

I really want to thank Councilmember Sawant for every year since she was elected fighting to defund the SPD.

And I really want to urge everyone to join us at 6 p.m.

on Tuesday, October 20th for the People's Budget Town Hall to help us build this movement together.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Greg S.

and then Greg will be followed by Steve Daschle and Reverend Yang.

Greg, good evening.

Hi, my name is Greg Stone, and I'm a renter in District 4. I'd like to register my support for the Mayor's 2021 proposed budget.

I implore the Council members to take the difficult road to real reform.

This involves, first and foremost, acknowledging that the City Council can no longer continue to legislate in a vacuum.

Any budget passed by this body must take account of many different stakeholders, including not only the protesters expressing righteous anger at the state of police reform and accountability in this city, but also the groups that have been working to implement the legally mandated reform process that has been underway in Seattle for nearly a decade.

Going forward, the council must prioritize working collaboratively with the CPC, OPA, OIG, and Judge Robart to enact legislation that does not conflict with the federal consent decree.

I'd also like to emphasize the importance of this FOG contract negotiation process over all other tools at our disposal, including the clumsy half-baked proposals to reduce SPD's budget by a punitive and arbitrary 50%.

As one council member said recently, all roads lead to the contract.

If we fail to bake reforms into the next FOG contract, it will be impossible to create meaningful change around the injustices we wish to address, full stop.

Moreover, legislation that conflicts with this FOG contract will provoke lawsuits which the city will lose, bumping us back to square one.

Finally, I'd like to comment regarding the city's 2021 general revenue sources.

I ask that council members consider enacting a modest flat income tax rather than increase the property taxes.

Given the circumstances currently facing our city, an income tax would raise revenue more equitably than a property tax increase.

This is because it would primarily affect those such as myself who have remained employed and compensated throughout 2020. while a property tax increase would also affect many unemployed or retired homeowners, many of whom have also been dealing with increased financial and medical instability.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time, Steve Daschle, and then the Reverend Angela Gaines.

I'll also note we have Daniel McCraw, who is number 42. Daniel, we don't see you listed as present, so if you could dial in, that'd be great if you're still listening on the other listening options.

Steve, please take it away.

Steve, you may need to hit star six one more time.

Okay, Steve, I see you're still on mute.

I'm going to ask you to hit star six and then we're going to tee up the Reverend Angela Yang.

We'll come back to you, Steve.

Welcome, Reverend.

Please go ahead.

Yes, good evening council members.

I am Reverend Angela Ying, senior pastor of Bethany United Church of Christ, whose faith leaders and community leaders are in every one of your districts working for racial, economic, LGBTQ plus, and climate justice and equity.

I urge you to please do what you said you would do.

Thank you so much for leading and following through.

The council must defund the SPD by 50% and use the $200 million to fund affordable housing, tiny house villages, restorative justice, a Green New Deal.

In these challenging times, we need leadership and integrity, which is doing what you said you would do.

Every day we hear promises that are not kept, and every day our communities continue to be shot at, discriminated against, and killed.

As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared, an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Though council makes decisions every week, Seattle's 2021 budget amidst a pandemic will be remembered and will impact our workers, our young people, our children, and our children's children.

and whether you had the political will to genuinely help your constituents, to defund SPD by at least $200 million, to increase the tax Amazon, to prevent evictions and foreclosures, to fund affordable housing, tiny house villages, and a Green New Deal, and to do so without cuts to public libraries, parks and recreation, mass transportation, and services for the most vulnerable.

Please invest in our communities and help us dismantle systemic racism.

and stand in solidarity with our working people and BIPOC communities to right this wrong.

As you have heard from so many of us tonight, we do not need nor want an austerity budget that fails our working people and the poor and marginalized communities.

We need a budget for and by the people that funds human needs.

Leadership with integrity is doing what you said you would do for the people, your constituents.

I know you can do this.

Thank you so much, council members.

Be well.

Thank you, Reverend.

We still have Steve Daschle and Daniel McCraw.

We will come back to you.

Steve or Daniel?

Hi, Steve.

Can you hear me?

Just star six to unmute if you're still there.

Can you hear me?

There we go.

Hi, Steve.

Yes, now we can see you.

Oh, thank you very much.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Steve Daschle, and I'm the executive director of Southwest Youth and Family Services, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

This year, instead of a portfolio with a list of new activities to fund, SHSC has recommended a framework for re-envisioning the city's budget with new priorities focusing on an equitable recovery.

Human services are essential to build and support well-being.

the COVID pandemic and simultaneous long overdue racial justice reckoning have provided the city with challenges and opportunities.

SHSC fully supports the city councils creating and passing the Jumpstart Progressive Revenue Source, which has provided the means for minimizing cuts to services in this time when the pandemic has suppressed revenues.

We also appreciate the way the mayor's proposed budget not only continues current community health and human services, but also adds to these resources that build well-being, and we trust that the City Council will sustain that funding.

At the same time, we feel strongly that the Council can go further than the Mayor's proposed budget.

As some Council members noted in the opening Budget Committee session, shifting our institutional structures charged with community safety away from militarized responses and toward systems that support well-being requires divesting from responses that endanger communities as well as investing in more supportive responses.

We appreciate that some actions and resources are planned toward that goal for 2021, but urge city council to take the counsel of black-led community organizations for the good of the entire community and put further steps in place in 2021 than those outlined in the mayor's proposed budget.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you for your time tonight.

And Daniel, we have you with us.

Thank you so much.

All right, well, thank you for the opportunity.

Hello, Budget Committee and members of the Council.

My name's Dan McCraw.

I am the Chair's Housing for Work Program.

I wanted to talk to you all about what I believe is an important part of the solution and has been past, present, and future for Seattle's homeless population, which is SHARE and its network of indoor shelters, Tent City, and its sister organization, WEAL, all of which have navigated COVID-19 and they're turning into 24-7 operations.

And I want everyone to think, you know, on this call especially, you know, the model's been 12 hours in and 12 hours out.

We've turned to 24-7, giving people a lot more dignity along the way, and we want to stay that way.

Budget and I will be looking at it as if we're doing the old model.

Well, the self-management model, our tent city three and our shared indoor shelters have a record second to none when it comes to adopting safe practices and best practices as far as it matters.

And it matters as far as who we should support organizations, as we need more access to shelter amid COVID, possibly a second wave being imminent.

And specifically with city three, which has never had the official support of the city.

Even though, while it has not had a single active case of COVID, it is safer by nature in its very design with individual tents set up in a community that is supportive of each other and that its surrounding communities have become very supportive of as well.

Please support local grassroots organizations like SHARE, WHEEL, and Artensity.

And with decades of results and success, we're ready to step up.

And not enough to say it, but thank you city council members for your help on these issues.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your time tonight.

Number 46 is Hannah Juan and then Preston Shabu.

I will also note We still have Doris O'Neill, who is listed as not present.

And a quick heads up to number 50, Star Wheelie, and number 58, Ellen Anderson, we have you listed as not present.

Now, pretty soon would be a good time to give a call in so we can get you in the lineup.

Hannah, good evening.

Thanks for joining us.

Yes, hello.

My name is Hannah One, a property owner and basic income advocate residing in District 7. I'm calling in support of a people's budget, also known as a solidarity budget, and defunding the police by 50% and using those funds to support community programs.

I want to uplift the many previous callers who have presented several arguments in agreement.

So if people are concerned about public safety, the solution is not more police.

We need to address the root causes of crime, including poverty, income inequality, and lack of community support and resources.

We need to stop treating poverty as if it's a crime.

We do not need a gang of officers who think that pointing a gun at everything is going to solve our problems.

We need to take care of our neighbors and members of our community.

And I'm not forgetting small business owners who are vital to the health of our neighborhoods.

Businesses need customers with disposable income to stay open.

So if members of our community are unable to afford their basic needs or without homes because billion-dollar corporations are not paying back into the system they profit from, That puts additional burden on local small businesses and property owners to make up that revenue shortfall.

So we should all be working together.

So please, support a community-led people's budget, a Green New Deal, affordable housing, and defund SPD.

Thank you for your service, and I yield my time.

Thank you for your testimony.

Preston, good evening.

Yes, hi.

Am I coming through?

Sorry, I'm nodding.

Yes, you are.

Okay, yeah, no problem.

Hi, my name is Preston.

I'm a U District resident, member of Socialist Alternative, and a rank-and-file organizer with UAW 4121, which represents thousands of academic student employees at the University of Washington.

My local was a proud member of the Tax Amazon Coalition, primarily because so many of our members are rent burdened in the city.

We have to live close to campus, and it makes it very difficult and The rising rents and our low wages make it very difficult for us to afford those rents.

And also my local has participated in the King County Labor Council in ousting the Seattle Police Officers Guild and fighting to defund SPD by at least 50% because my union really does believe that black lives matter.

and we will take the structural actions necessary to make that reality.

So given those two things, it is absolutely disgusting that Mayor Durkin's budget uses the Amazon tax to fund the Seattle Police Department.

It is disgusting that $150 million is being cut from the Central Public Services, which is a savage attack, not just on the people who have been thrown out and left out in the cold in the economic recession, but also the public sector workers who will be facing brutal attacks from these budgets.

The labor movement absolutely stands against these savage attacks, and we need a budget that works for working people, not the billionaires and not the real estate moguls of this city.

It takes the movement to fight to win these things.

As we saw a couple weeks ago, it took a movement of people calling in and constantly, for weeks on end, raising hell so that even the tiny gains of the previous budget could be passed.

And so it's going to take a similar movement this time.

Raising Amazon tax and defund the SPD to restore and expand services.

Thank you.

The next person is Rich Voget and then Sonia Ponath.

Hello, Rich.

Hi, my name is Richard Voget.

I live in District 4 and I'm a member of the 43rd District Climate Caucus.

Climate change is not pausing while you deal with the health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you think you can hit the pause button for dealing with climate change, you are hiding from the truth.

Years ago, Denny Westnate wrote a column in the Seattle Times that documented past Seattle climate goals that were not met, starting with Mayor Nichols.

The snarky conclusion was Seattle is where the future is always green.

And it's happening again.

Mayor Durkin rolled out a 2018 climate plan which has been either ignored or unfunded and then made an executive order last January that calls for a Green New Deal budget memo for consideration in the budget process by June 1st.

I don't see that in the budget.

What happened to the Seattle Green New Deal Community Oversight Board.

At this budget hearing, I am requesting that part of the budget be devoted for staff salary so that planning to meet the climate strategies and goals can continue.

Don't hit the pause button and stop necessary planning.

The longer you wait, the more progressive taxes you will need to pass.

And look at the blowback from the Amazon tax.

More will be needed.

How much more is dependent on how long you drag your feet.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Number 49 Sonia Panath and then number 50 Star Wiley.

We don't see you listed as present but wanted to give you a chance to call in.

Sonia please go ahead.

Hi everybody.

I'm Sonia Panath and as a working mom of two kids it is stunning to me that in the middle of a pandemic and the worst recession since the Great Depression The Democrats, led by Jenny Durkan, are intending to pass an austerity budget that puts the burden on working people.

Rather than increasing the Amazon tax or movement just one, the Democrats are slashing social programs by over $150 million.

The Democrats' budget cuts affordable housing by a shocking 37 percent.

That's $49 million.

This $49 million from housing, including a $35 million reduction from funding for new affordable housing construction.

all while homelessness continues.

This budget document fails to stop the cruel, inhumane, and ineffective sweeps of our homeless neighbors.

And then, after spending a whole summer saying Black Lives Matter, they are set to pass a budget that utterly fails marginalized communities and working people.

The movement has been calling to defund the police by 50% and use those funds for programs we already know work.

I don't see that in this budget.

So all this shows that ordinary people cannot rely on the Democratic Party politicians.

I'm tired of asking again and again to fund services that we desperately need, only to be ignored, told to let the system just work for us, or hearing that we need more data.

We already have the data, and we can see with our own eyes what isn't happening to fix our problems.

So we have to build our own strength.

So I hope you will join me on Tuesday, October 20th at 6 p.m.

for the People's Budget Town Hall so we can get organized.

Thank you.

The next three people are Star Wiley, Gilberto Stangenich and Ellie Leverts.

Also, I feel like it's important to clarify for the record for the viewing public.

This is a hearing on the proposed budget that is coming from the mayor's office.

The executive branch sent some proposed budget to the legislative branch.

There's no legislators who were engaged in drafting the budget, and I just want to make sure that that's clear what today's hearing is on.

The three bills that make up the proposed executive budget for 2021. Gilberto, I see you next because I still see Star is not present, and I just want to let Star know if you do dial in on the email that was sent to you when you signed it for public testimony, we will come back to you.

Gilberto, you are number 51. Please go ahead.

Hey good evening Teresa and the rest of the Seattle Council.

So I am Gilberto and I have been a resident of Seattle since 2014 except for the years 2019 and 2019 but I came back to Seattle this year 2020. I have met a lot of people in South Seattle through my work as a tax preparer volunteer at the Seattle Public Library and El Centro de la Raza.

For that reason my fiance and me decided to move to Seattle to continue growing.

But our lives quickly got shaken when a homeless camp started growing one house away from our house inside the John C. Little Senior Park in the Seattle New Holy neighborhood.

Since the homeless camp started back in May, we have seen a constant increase of insecurity and unhealthy conditions, but very little help from the city and the city council members, for example.

The persons living at the homeless camp are constantly harassing neighbors, and I have been personally harassed a couple of times, but I have also seen them burning fireworks a few feet away from our neighbors farming at the Patch Garden.

The camp occupants keep burning trash on a regular basis, and if you remember how bad was the air quality two weeks ago in Seattle because of the fires, the air quality here is the same every time the homeless people burn trash.

On the morning of September 7th, 2020, at 6 a.m., we heard the sound of a gunshot at the park, and that's about 100 feet away from our home.

The police show up, but they stay inside their police cars without doing a formal investigation at the camp.

Camp members keep coming to take water and electricity from our homes, and they also leave the water tap open, and they are not even wearing a mask.

It is concerning that they hang out around our homes I have a long list of examples.

I have already talked to Tammy three weeks ago and she mentioned the rich team was going to be involved with this group but obviously this is not helping.

Please consider these issues when planning the next city.

already looking into this issue.

And Gilberto thanks for your time tonight.

Ellie number 52 Ellie LaBoutse followed by Molly Grunney.

Ellie good evening.

Thanks.

My name is Ellie LaBoutse and I'm a District 6 resident a member of Sunrise Seattle Movement and UW Department of Biology.

I'm speaking in favor of the solidarity budget.

I first want to be absolutely clear that all humans have dignity always and forever.

As a government representing the people of Seattle that thing needs to be recognized by a budget that protects the health and well-being of us all not just the privileged and housed.

Divesting from the police is a critical step in this process.

Divestment will save lives because we have seen time and again that reform attempts backfire and solidify racist practices.

The projects that will be defunded by the projects that will be funded by divestment are vastly more supportive of our collective health.

Council members, it is time to amend the 2021 budget from the mayor in order to defend SPD by 50%, direct the money into a participatory budgeting process that invests in the Black communities and community-led health and safety initiatives, including vital public services, Green New Deal, decriminalized homeless outreach, and dignified housing.

Thank you.

Thank you, and good evening, Molly.

Please go ahead.

You hear me.

Hi I'm Molly Gurney a renter in District 2 in Columbia City.

I just want to thank you for first vetoing the mayor's budget and I expect you all to continue to be accountable to community asks.

We've seen through this pandemic that rapid change is possible and defunding SPD by 50 percent is not a wild ask.

I'm asking you today to amend Mayor Durkin's proposed budget to reflect the following demands.

One the budget must defund the Seattle Police Department by at least 50 percent and reinvest these funds in Black communities and community-led safety systems.

The budget needs to prioritize the safety of Black and Brown communities not coddle racist fears of many White folks.

Two the $100 million for Black and Indigenous communities of color that Mayor Durkin promised must be allocated through inclusive participatory budgeting not by a task force selected by the mayor which keeps power centralized in City Hall.

Three.

Reinvestment into Black communities cannot come from revenue from Jump Start Seattle.

The $100 million must come from divesting police not diverting funds from affordable housing good union jobs and COVID-19 relief.

Zirkin's way of investing in Black communities by de-investing in these important initiatives attempts to turn communities against each other.

Racist police and prison systems have killed and oppressed people of color for a long time.

It's time for direct reparations.

100 million must come from police budget cuts.

So all these demands are part of a solidarity budget that you've heard from many other people tonight of over 60 organizations committed to racial equity.

Seattle is not as progressive as it boasts but the City Council can start by encouraging a more equitable environment through reinvesting police funds in Black communities.

I urge the council members to show leadership in these difficult times by listening to BIPOC leaders and working towards community-driven safety measures.

We have seen the harm that following the political status quo has done.

And it is time for bold progressive measures that authentically uplift the community.

The vast majority of people on these public comments are asking for the same thing.

So please act accordingly.

Give us a little hope for 2021. The system of policing is racist and violent and needs to be defunded so we can move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yvonne Nelson.

You're next followed by Teresa Metler.

Good evening Yvonne.

Hi my name is Yvonne Nelson and I am asking you that you defund the police and use those funds to support homeless outreach services for Black folks and other people of color.

I'm an outreach care coordinator with REACH.

REACH has managed to provide me the opportunity as a Black woman to provide services for other Black folks mostly those that have been pushed by the wayside as far as services are concerned.

I currently do neighborhood outreach from Jackson to Rainier Beach.

As you may know Black folks in this area have been severely and adversely affected by gentrification.

I have been supported by REACH to do what is necessary to build relationships and provide resources for those in these areas and that may not reach out on their own.

As a black service provider with REACH, while working alongside, I'm sorry, as a black service provider with REACH, I am afforded services to provide that other services are not available.

I have, while working alongside the NAV team, The focus was not on people, it was on property.

I was unable to provide sustainable solutions to the unhoused folks.

I followed a black man around for three years, moving from one encampment to another with his belongings being thrown away each time.

He's moved around the city because of the encampment removals.

It wasn't until the shift from the NAV work neighborhood outreach was able to provide for him.

He is now housed.

REACH as an organization continues to push the envelope when serving Black folks and other people of color, those chronically addicted to substances, challenged by the criminal justice system, and left behind due to homelessness.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you very much for your time and your service through REACH.

I appreciate your public testimony tonight.

Number 55, Teresa Mettler, and then Dawn Whitson.

Teresa, good evening.

Good evening, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you so much.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Teresa Mettler and I live at Georgetown Tiny House Village.

I have to say to you, and I've been looking forward to this, I need this village.

This village took me out of 15 years of staying in a tent I was in and out of shelters that made me so unsafe and go right back to living in a tent.

Here, I have a space of my own.

I can shower daily.

I have a place to put my clothes.

I can sleep warm.

And I'm not wet and cold like I was always in Washington state when it rains.

I feel safe here.

I'm 60 years old.

And I need you to fund the current villages and add more.

Everyone should feel safe.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight and for sharing your story.

Appreciate it.

Dawn, good evening.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you so much for sharing your story again, Teresa.

Dawn, if you can hear me, just star six to unmute yourself.

And for folks who are pushing star six, it will give you a little chime that says you are now unmuted.

Hi, Dawn, I can see you now, go ahead.

Okay.

Hello, budget committee and members of the council.

My name is Dawn Whitson.

I use she, her pronouns, and I am calling in support of the solidarity budget and all that it entails.

On a finer point, I am calling as an outreach care coordinator for REACH in the Georgetown area.

I'm the only case manager available from REACH to more than 500 unsheltered folks in this area alone.

REACH has never stopped serving clients throughout this year's COVID crisis, and we've served thousands of meals, ordered countless IDs, partnered with teams from Neighbor Care, Public Health, and DESC's street medical team to perform assertive encampment testing for COVID-19 and to vaccinate our clients against Hep A and B during our recent hepatitis outbreak.

We've signed hundreds of folks up to receive their stimulus checks, provided clothing, tents, sleeping bags, and assistance with food benefits and health services.

It's not enough.

We need more outreach case managers, more shelter beds, specifically non-congregate setting shelter beds.

I can't refer a client into a shelter when there are no beds available.

We need a pathway to housing for more than just the most vulnerable 10% of those folks that are living outside.

We need community agency providers using the harm reduction model of care with an intentional anti-racist vision to meet the needs of our community members out there.

If there is any doubt as to where funding should be allocated I challenge each one of you to come out to Georgetown with me and ask some folks who they trust who they turn to and who shows up to honor their humanity their past traumas and their God-given dignity.

And then I will remind you that there is only one of me for all the needs of this neighborhood and the same is true throughout the city.

Seattle is a beautiful prosperous city and there is no excuse for anyone to be left behind.

Thank you for your time and support.

And now I'm asking you for more.

And I'm asking that the funding for these services be taken from SPD and nowhere else.

I yield my time.

Thank you for your testimony and your story tonight.

Number 57 is Sean Smith and then 58, Ellen Anderson.

Ellen, we do see that you are listed as not present.

So if you want to call back in, that would be great.

And then we will go back up to Star Wiley.

Thanks, Star, for calling back in.

Sean, good evening.

Thank you.

Good evening, city council.

My name is Sean Smith and I reside at Nicholsville, North Lake Tiny House Village.

2020 has been a momentous year for our city.

Seeing the taxation of the largest corporations in our city, the awakening of our city's consciousness over the use of force by our police in the emergence of COVID-19.

2021 looks to be just as momentous with 2% reduction in the police budget, we could reallocate that money into projects that are based needs for our communities, such as two tiny house villages, moving one that definitely needs to move over the spring.

And for the first time, funding the first or the city's oldest, the country's oldest city.

We have enough to do this 10 times over and still fund all kinds of other services.

We urge each of you to reach out to us, and so that we can speak to you about the projects that we have proposed.

Thanks for your time.

Bye.

Thank you for calling in tonight.

Ellen, I still see you as not present.

We will definitely come back to you.

I'm going to go to Star Wiley.

And Ellen, if you can call into the number that was emailed to you when you signed up for public testimony, that would be great.

Going back up to number 50, Star, good evening.

Hi, thank you.

My name is star Willie and I live in district seven.

Um, I'm calling in today, um, to echo requests.

That you all please amend the mayor's budget for 2021 and defund at CD by 50%, at least, and reinvest that money into communities.

Um, I support the solidarity budget.

and urge you to support the solidarity budget and participatory budgeting and a Green New Deal for Seattle.

Please don't support the already bloated budget of SPD by cutting more city services like public transportation, park services, and libraries to balance the 2021 budget.

Thank you for your time and for listening to me today.

Thank you, Starr.

Thanks for calling back in.

Again, Ellen Anderson, see you listed as not present.

We'll come back to you.

The next two are number 59, Tobias Girl and Ryan Packer.

After that, colleagues, we will take a break very briefly, one-minute break to switch team again at the background so that our IT system can get a break.

Tobias, good evening.

Go ahead.

Good evening, members of the council.

My name is Tobias Girl, and I'm a District 4 resident.

Being evicted in the popular vernacular means that you've been removed from your home by your landlord, but that's not what it means to the legal term.

As soon as a civil case is filed against you, you've entered the eviction process, and that eviction will be visible to the public unless you arrange to have it sealed as part of a settlement agreement, even if your case doesn't go to trial or you move out on your own.

Once you have an eviction on your record, most landlords will refuse to rent to you because you're perceived as a risk.

Evictions are not an inconvenience.

They're precursors to long-term homelessness.

Seattle evicted an average of 24 people per week in 2018, not counting extrajudicial evictions, and we didn't have a pandemic that year.

When I worked in eviction law in San Francisco, we filled an entire floor of the courthouse, conducting settlement conferences in the hallways.

It was like watching cattle shuffle down the slaughterhouse corridor, but these were human beings the city had chosen to discard.

There are numbers in reports, but I remember the crying.

Once a tenant has been evicted, it becomes brutally unfairly difficult for them to find housing again, and they knew it.

I urge you to prioritize all of the tenants' union demands in your budget process, focusing on unconditional rental forgiveness and upcoming eviction moratoriums, funding for tiny house villages, And all associated temporary housing for homeless individuals are also necessary steps right now.

All of this is difficult politics, but there is no other choice.

You either take the steps that People's Budget and the Tenants Union are proposing, Or you get to live with what a wave of evictions will do to Seattle.

You get to think about cattle to pack to move in an already overcrowded courthouse and you get to think about what happens to them after.

Good evening and make wise decisions.

Thank you very much Tobias.

Ryan Packer.

Good evening.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Ryan Packer.

I live in district three.

I'm asking you to continue the work you started this summer to defund SPD and invest in community and full support of the solidarity budget.

When I look at the budget, the mayor's proposed here, I see a budget that works, uh, sorry, a budget for a city that thinks the status quo is mostly fine.

That thinks climate work can be paused for a year or two.

That doesn't view safety for people walking, biking, and rolling in our city as a priority.

I know that's not the city we live in, though.

The city that was choked in wildfire smoke for a week, a climate vanguard city.

It's trying to treat all of our states of emergency, housing, climate change, with the urgency that we're giving the West Seattle Bridge crisis with its $100 million bond issue in this budget.

Fund the Green New Deal, advisory board, and all the climate work that needs to happen can't be put on hold.

We can't wait until 2022. Thanks so much.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

With that, I'm just going to do a quick note.

Ellen Anderson, number 61, Nancy Hussar, and number 68, Aiden Carroll, you are all listed as not present.

Happy to hear from you.

If you can dial back in, we're going to take a quick pause here.

I'm going to read the next three names as the IT folks are getting set up here.

And that would be number 62, Brandi Flood, 63, Jess Walach, and 64, Stacey Johnson.

It looks like we have our team ready to go.

So Brandi, just star six to unmute, and you are up.

Hello, my name is Brandi Flood.

I'm a homeowner in District 2 in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.

I've lived here all my life, been deeply impacted by the war on drugs, has been afflicted on my community as an African-American woman.

I'm also the program manager of the LEAD program that is housed in Reach.

And so I just want to shed light on the fact that our BIPOC staff serve a BIPOC community that has been very invisiblized about this conversation.

We serve the unhoused, the criminalized, and the often forgotten in this conversation about defunding the police.

And I just want to remind people that We are there on the scene at the Everspring at encampments, at the fountain.

If you go to the fountain on 3rd and Yester after 6 o'clock, all that's left is black, brown, and indigenous people.

We are the individuals who serve those communities using fundamentals of harm reduction that allow for respect and dignity in collaboration with organizations such as Chief Seattle, Community Passageways, and other effective homeless service organizations that are doing this work.

And so I think it is despicable that the mayor is using inequitable practices to create a a budget or a system that may pit organizations against each other and pit organizations against community organizations where we are leveraging all of our resources to serve the most affected people in our communities.

And so I just want to remind people that it's our staff and other BIPOC staff and other homeless organizations that came to this work for intentional reasons to do this work and remove barriers to get people out of the criminal punishment system.

in your efforts to do this work really use a racial equity lens and make the right decisions on how to use the budget.

I appreciate the time I've had and I yield my time.

Excellent.

Thank you for calling in.

Jess good evening.

Hi Jess I can see on there if you want to go ahead you are up.

Jess, it shows on my end that you are unmuted.

Do you wanna try one more time?

Oh, now it says you're muted.

Life in Zoom.

Okay, try it one more time, Jess.

I think I can see you now.

Okay, I'm sorry, Jess.

I think we're having technical difficulties.

I will come back to you if you want to keep trying.

It might be your headphones that had that problem earlier this week.

We are using out our equipment.

in this remote world.

Jess, I'll come back to you.

Stacey Johnson, you are up now.

Hello, Stacey.

And Stacey, just star six unmute.

Stacey is followed by you.

Hi, Stacey.

Stacey, you're followed by Maliki Lamont, and then Katie Nooner.

And we'll go back to Jess.

Go ahead, Stacey.

Hello.

I'm Stacey Johnson, bookkeeper at Georgetown Tiny House Village.

I was disappointed to hear the mayor decided not to add any funding for more tiny house villages.

Did she forget that we're in the middle of a great plague?

Maybe she doesn't realize no one in any of the villages has tested positive for COVID-19.

Maybe she'd want to spend the night at one of the larger shelters with a mat on the floor and the constant worry about having their stuff stolen.

Most people would prefer to have a safe warm place to keep their things.

I know this council is better than the mayor and will actually continue supporting the villages we have and make sure we can add more villages in the next year.

Thanks for listening.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yeah, of course.

Thank you for your time.

We'll we'll try Maliki and then we'll go back to Jess Maliki.

I'm sorry for the pronunciation.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Hello.

Hi.

Hi.

My name is Malika Lamont and I'm the director of Vocal Washington Voices of Community Activists and Leaders based in downtown Seattle.

I'm also a member of a coalition called Just Access for Health.

And Just Act Asks for Health is a community collective of drug users, social workers, health care providers, drug policy experts, and community advocates who all work to improve the health and well-being of individuals who use drugs and who believe that all types of drug use merit their collective support and care.

We also recognize that programs such as law enforcement-assisted diversion, and thank you for removing the gatekeeping by police in the last budget consideration and amendment, But we also recognize that drug users need access to health and case management and other behavioral health services such as REACH.

And we ask that you fully consider funding and expanding these things and also defunding the police.

We advocate for that as well.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you for calling in tonight.

We'll go back to Jess.

And I know it's probably frustrating to be on hold and then not be able to have the phone work.

Jess, can you hear me?

It shows on my end, you are unmuted.

Want to try speaker on your end?

We will give it another second here and I'll read the next three.

Katie Nooner, Mary Strickland, and Aiden Carroll.

Okay.

Jess, how you doing?

Can you hear me?

Oh, I'm sorry, Jess.

I can't hear you.

Okay, Jess, I'm going to go on and we will come back to you again.

If you want to email Jess to Teresa.Mosqueda at Seattle.gov or the email that you received the public testimony sign and call, you're welcome to do so and we will troubleshoot with you.

Apologies for that.

Katie, good evening.

You are up.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you, Katie.

Hi.

Good evening.

Thank you for holding this extended public comment session.

And also thank you again for vetoing the mayor's or overriding the mayor's veto.

And I just want to encourage you again to continue that progress we've made in starting to defund the police and on the road to abolishment.

A lot of people so far have mentioned investing in people experiencing homelessness.

I also want to encourage us to look at investing in the youth because they truly believe in investing in the youth will get us the future that we all truly desire and will help reduce homelessness and crime and many of the issues that we face today in the future.

It won't be instant, but it will truly be an investment worthwhile.

For example, Rainier Beach, a beautiful place to live.

I noticed that money was transferred into the Department of Neighborhood And I think when we defund SPD by at least 50%, we should look into investing more than $500,000 in a program that's doing such amazing work in youth prevention of crime and things like that.

So again, thank you for holding this public comment session.

And I also want to encourage people to look into the history of SPD and really keep the pressure on as we go into the next couple of weeks in this fight.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mary Strickland.

Good evening.

Followed by 8 um Adon Carroll.

Mary thanks for joining us.

And just star 6 to unmute your line.

Okay.

Mary it looks like you're still muted on my end.

We're going to go ahead and call numbers 68 as we wait for you to unmute.

Oh hi Mary can you hear me now?

Oh there you are.

Hi good evening.

No worries.

Hi.

Okay my name is Mary Strickland and I'm a resident of Tent City 3. Tent City 3 is a share wheel organization of homeless men and women that is solely self-managed that since it opened in 2000 has never been funded by the City of Seattle.

Today we are requesting $80,000 for Tent City 3 specifically over for our annual budget which covers the cost of upkeep and materials such as tents, blankets, pallets, and gas for our generator.

We pay for honey bucket porta-potties, garbage removal, laundry, and bus tickets, and our quarterly moves, which require truck rentals and insurance.

And now we have the added cost of COVID supplies like masks and hand sanitizers.

Tent City 3 has had zero positive cases of COVID since the epidemic, partially due to its outdoor environment.

In the past, we've acquired this money through an annual public auction, which cannot be held this year due to COVID.

Homeless people die in the streets every day due to neglect, exposure, and violence.

This year, there have been 88 homeless deaths with additional bodies at the morgue waiting for identification.

There are more than 14,000 homeless people in King County and not enough beds.

Tent City 3 is a democratic self-managed community of around 50 people, half of whom work full-time.

We are a weapons-free, drug-free, violence-free community and like to think that we leave our neighborhood better than when we found it.

what and misunderstanding is what separates us and education and opportunity is what will bring us together.

So please consider our $80,000 annual budget.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your call in tonight.

Aiden Carroll followed by number 69 Dorit Greathouse and then number 70 Kelly Nespere.

Aiden, good evening.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

There you are.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

uh...

by eighteen and i'm uh...

i district six resident um...

and uh...

i'm a regular it's been in the morning march i'm going to ask you to at least fifty percent and support distribution of funds uh...

uh...

trip preparatory budget process uh...

to make sure that those uh...

come from and directed from the criminal legal system not other c funds We need to preserve vital public services and projects, complete urgent projects like a crosswalk from the Duwamish Longhouse to the park across the street, dignified housing for all, including single room accommodations through the purchase of hotels as an interim measure, and tent cities.

Please continue with the steps you've been taking, like overriding the veto and eliminating the NAV team.

On that note, I noticed that the NAV team is seen by some people who should know better in social media as better than nothing.

But we know that those are not the only two choices.

We need something alternative, and we need it soon, or the political backlash will fester from the right.

We have other ways of doing this, and it's so cool to see that the response to a world without police and prison is possible, necessary, and coming, but at a time has gone from you're crazy to I'm not sure I totally agree with that yet.

Thank you for all you're doing.

Thank you very much, Dorit.

Great house.

Good evening.

Hi, Dorit, please go ahead.

Oops, we saw you unmuted for a second.

There you are.

Hi there.

Can you hear me?

Because I see you unmuted, but I can't hear you.

We will come back to you, Dorit.

I apologize for that.

How about now, Dorit?

All right.

Just trying real hard here because I know if folks are waiting on the line for a long time, it's frustrating to have your name called and then not be heard, so.

Hi, Dorit, can you hear me now?

Okay, I see you unmuting and muting, so we are gonna keep you on with us, but we will ask you to send an email back to the email that you got a response from or to my office and we'll troubleshoot with you.

Kelly, good evening.

I'm just star six unmute.

Hi there.

Hi, my name is Kelly Nestle and I live in District 7. I support Mayor Durkin's plan.

Improve on this plan by requiring accountability.

Require SMART goals to access taxpayer funding.

This includes police, to non-profit outreach, to housing projects.

Every department, every recipient must be accountable.

Every taxpayer dollar must be held to SMART goals.

Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

You have a fiduciary responsibility to require this.

I echo the message that defunding the police by an arbitrary number and dismantling the NAV team is irrational and putting us at risk.

Let's provide services that are essential to our overall health and safety.

I do not support the solidarity budget proposed.

At Council Member Lewis' town hall, representatives from the very groups you are reallocating resources to specifically stated they believe an and team should remain.

The services they provide are essential.

What came out of the town hall was additional housing for homeless was the number one need.

I have sent many emails to the entire council receiving only one response, one and a half months late with a reply that didn't even come close to responding to my concerns.

I am one of many on Speak Out Seattle with similar views.

We should not have to destruct property and march to your homes to be heard.

Public health and safety are your number one responsibilities.

And as you bring everyone together to come with come up with a planned budget for 2021, police and the NAVPANE must be sitting at the table.

Govern with unity for the entire community with accountability.

You have a fiduciary responsibility.

Thank you very much.

Jim Street, followed by Chris McDaniel, and then we'll go back to Dorit Greathouse if there has been the ability to troubleshoot the audio there.

Jim, just star six to unmute yourself, and it is your turn.

And for folks, when you hear your name called, just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, Jim, I still see you muted.

All right, we will come back to you as well, Jim.

Star six to unmute yourself, folks.

You might have to hit it a few times so you can hear the chime that says you have been unmuted.

Chris McDaniel, if you're with us, we will turn over to you now.

Yes, thank you, Chris.

Hello.

Hi, please go ahead.

Oh, hello, my name is Chris McDaniel.

I'm a resident of Georgetown Tiny House Village.

I would like to urge you to continue funding the tiny house villages.

I wouldn't have any place to live if I didn't live here.

My house is failing and I can't stay in a shelter.

Camping out is miserable.

I can barely get around.

The only thing keeping me from housing is there's no place that I can afford.

I'm getting it, $1,200 a month.

But there's no, you know, I'm just waiting.

But there's nothing coming anytime soon.

So please continue to fund Tiny House Villages.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

The next person is Paige Killinger, and then we'll go back to Dork, Great House, and Jim Street.

Paige, good evening.

Just star six, unmute yourself.

Great.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Paige Killinger, and I'm a case manager with an emphasis on working with unhoused Black folks with the REACH program.

The mayor and the council need to recognize and invest in the idea and importance of boots on the ground outreach and harm reduction based social services.

Trust the folk the voices of BIPOC folks and folks with lived experiences in social work.

If the city of Seattle truly sees itself as a liberal utopia of the Pacific Northwest more work must be done for our unhoused Black brothers and sisters.

Black Lives Matter can't simply be a yard sign or a political statement thrown around by elected officials in a time of civil unrest.

In order to honor and protect Black lives in the city, the mayor and the council must fully invest and work towards the protection and available resources and safety of all Black lives, even the unhoused ones.

Funding needs to be allotted towards organizations that have a track record of working with the most vulnerable POC unhoused folks, while also uplifting new organizations and groups willing to do the work in a holistic, trauma-informed manner.

I believe the funding is available and needs to be made a priority.

We need more organizations and more neighborhood-based community outreach, such as the work that Missy Vaughn and Don talked about earlier on the call.

Organizations such as REACH have long and positive track records of making large-scale plans and changes in the lives of our clients, clients that feel overlooked and over-policed here in the City of Seattle, a city that says Black Lives Matter, but just as long as they're not camping on your street or near your business.

As a black woman, I can say, until our residents are housed, safe and secure, we cannot begin to do the work of healing generational trauma and begin to nurture our souls.

I'd like to share a James Baldwin quote.

What is it that you want me to reconcile myself to?

I was born here more than 60 years ago.

I'm not going to live another 60. I'm not going to live another 60 years.

You asked me, you told me that it's going to take time.

It's taken my father's time, my mother's time, my uncle's time, my brother and my sister's time.

How much more time?

So I ask you, counsel, and the mayor, how much more time do you need?

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Dorit Greathouse and Jim Street.

Dorit, I just want to go back to you to see.

Hi Dorit, can you hear me?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

We got you.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Thanks for staying on the line with us.

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

My name is Dorit Greathouse and I'm a case manager with the LEAD program in the West Precinct.

I would like to thank the council for the support and utilization of the program.

I ask that SPD be defunded by 50% and reroute those funds into housing.

Homelessness is a challenge that most municipalities have had to deal with.

and Seattle, Washington is no exception.

In a point-in-time homeless count conducted by All Home, a King County social service agency, approximately 12,000 people sleep in cars, tents, and emergency shelters.

Even in the face of persistence of this challenge, case managers working with populations are particularly committed to ensuring that they are assisted in the most humane ways possible.

Even though each homeless person is vulnerable and needy, the Black, Indigenous, and people of color present a particular challenge to case managers.

Racial disparities in the criminal health care system put this population at a more disadvantaged position.

The population is highly likely to run into problems with law enforcement and less likely to get health care and assistance when they need it.

Additionally, this population is particularly most likely to engage in addictive drug substances.

This makes BIPOC a special population that needs more attention to address the needs of this population while maintaining dignity of people with multiple vulnerabilities.

Case management followed the following approaches.

We need more funds to go into more client-centered approaches.

Services to BIPOC are adapted to their needs as opposed to service delivery expertise and efficiencies.

We need more funds to go into lower barrier programs.

The program priority is given to those that do not require them to be in treatment or abstinence.

Such programs are not only attractive to them, but also motivate them to make changes.

We need more funds to go into harm reduction.

We have focused on this reduction of harm associated with population, risky behaviors, as opposed to preventing them.

Dorit, thank you very much for your testimony, and I would love to see If you have written comments for the last few sentences there, that was very powerful.

Please do send it our way.

Jim, I'm going to turn it back over to you.

Jim Street, are you with us?

Hi, Jim.

Looks like we have you muted.

Jim, if you can hear me, just star six to unmute.

Hi, Jim.

Okay.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Hello.

Okay.

I'm glad you stay.

Thank you.

I seem to have perpetual trouble with this.

My name is Jim Street.

And I'm testifying today regarding the budget and the Green New Deal is currently very difficult for the public, including me, a former city council member to track the city's progress toward greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

What has happened to the mayor of January 2020 executive order, which calls for a Green New Deal budget memo for consideration of the city's budget process by June 1. It also called for key indicators to track emission trends and priorities investments by September 30. Despite COVID, we need transparency regarding what is happening.

The council must ensure that it has the means to track progress on climate change initiatives and to hold the executive accountable.

For each strategy identified in the council's 2019 Green New Deal and in the mayor's 2018 executive order, we need the following, and please track this.

When do the council and mayor intend to begin implementation of the strategy?

What is the executive and council work plans for the strategy for 2021?

When are departments expected to complete next steps in 2020 and 2021?

What is the 2021 budget for planning and implementation of this strategy?

And to what council committee is the strategy assigned in 2021?

What is the committee's schedule for action in 2021?

We also need progress reports from executive departments available to the public at least quarterly regarding what is being developed to address climate.

Some of this information may already be available, but it is not in a form that is readily available to citizens.

We need transparency and accountability.

We are looking to your leadership to adopt and implement actions that would make real make real Seattle's commitments to the strongest, most urgent response to the climate crisis.

If you don't, if we don't, our children, our grandchildren, our most vulnerable will suffer the consequences.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Street, and thanks for your service from 83 to 95. Really appreciate you calling in tonight, and thank you for those pieces of advice.

The next three speakers are Laura Loew Bernstein, Andrew Constantino, and Melody Reese.

Melody we have you as number 76 unless it is not present.

If you do have the chance to call in and can hear me that would be great.

Laura good evening.

Hello.

My name is Laura.

I'm a renter in District 7. I've lived in Seattle for 11 years.

I'm calling today on behalf of all the people that I organize with called Share the Cities.

We voted unanimously in our Slack group to support the communities most impacted by police brutality and economic and racial injustice.

We support the solidarity budget.

We support a participatory budget process.

We're ready to mobilize along with over 60 organizations to show support for a budget that truly reflects the values that this mayor claims to have.

This budget isn't it.

Mayor Durkin should have to sit through this hearing alongside each of you.

If you claim that Black Lives Matter if you've held up a sign if you've marched if you've wondered what you could do to show support and you worked on this mayor's budget You had a chance here and failed.

Mayor Dirken this budget is not acceptable.

This budget is not our city's values.

There's many important points in the statement of joint principles for the 2021 Seattle City Budget Project that the solidary budget folks that we all sign on to.

But in particular I want to emphasize the Seattle's Green New Deal bullet point.

To ensure a healthy and just climate future for all Seattle's Green New Deal must be anti-racist pro-worker and led by Black, Indigenous, and communities of color.

Divesting police funding into community solutions like health care, affordable housing, and good jobs is an essential step towards realizing the city's Green New Deal commitments.

Thank you.

Laura, thanks for your testimony tonight.

Number 75, Andrew Constantino.

Hello, Andrew.

Please go ahead, Andrew.

Andrew, it says you are unmuted on my end, but I cannot hear you.

Oh, there we go.

I heard something.

Go ahead, please.

My name's Andrew Constantino, and I work for Interbay Village in District 7. During uncertain times for all of us, I've been blessed with the knowledge that those homeless men, women, and children that come to our village will find refuge, security, and community.

The tiny house model has proven extremely resilient during the covid crisis, and I'm sure it will do so again as we begin to face the fallout from the financial burdens placed on many low income families as rents come due.

The tiny house villages provide a net to catch those who may fall into homelessness and a life raft for those already experiencing it.

I'd like to thank the Magnolia neighborhood for being so supportive and expressing concerns for our villagers, often daily, while our city weathers the storm.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony tonight.

And we still have a Melody Reese, number 76, listed as not present.

Melody, if you are hearing this, please do dial in to the public testimony line that was emailed to you or shoot my office, an email at Teresa.Mosqueda at Seattle.gov.

The same is true for Joseph Klobber, Warren L, and Katrina Johnson.

We have you listed coming up here soon and showing as not present.

The next three people that are present are Lisa Owen, Orissas Gomez, and Anna Torres.

That's number 77, 78, and 79. Hello, Lisa.

We have you listed next.

Just star six to unmute yourself if I called your name.

Thanks, Lisa.

Hi, my name is Lisa Owen, and I am a client with 29 other women at Will's Shelter at Trinity, 8th and Cherry.

And I'm calling in response to requesting funding because we have been given the opportunity because of COVID to be able to be indoors 24-7.

And so I'm asking that we can keep the change after COVID for the 2021 budget and also I want to give a thanks, a big shout out to Mayor Jenny Durkan.

Thank God that she has allocated 300 rooms for hotels.

And all we're requesting is for half of that for 150 for women who come in at night who need referrals.

And so we want to always provide that because we have a 20 year standing with King County, Seattle, Washington.

And in this request, I also want to ask that we get funding for $445,000 for the next year's budget so that we can be indoors.

And it's really making a difference.

It's made a difference in me.

It's making a difference in the lives of all these women.

And it's given us the chance so that we can move on and we can move forward.

And we get the rest that we needed versus every night we were standing and waiting until 8 p.m.

at night to get to bed.

So I just want to yield my time and thank everybody on the council.

and Mayor Jenny Durkan for your time this evening.

Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate your testimony.

Osiris Gomez, you are up next.

Is he muted on my end?

There we go.

Hi there.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thanks.

Hello my name is Osiris Gomez.

I'm the community manager at the Post Apartments in District 7. I am asking the city to provide more resources to the homelessness in Seattle.

Since May we have voiced our repeated concerns about an encampment on the sidewalk of Western Avenue between Columbia and Marion Street.

Over the last few months we have filed numerous complaints with the Metro Metropolitan Improvement District navigation team and through the Find It Fix It app.

to address the unsafe conditions such as trash, urine, feces, graffiti, needles.

On more than one occasion, residents of the post departments and the on-site staff have been threatened by occupants of the encampment.

Reports to Seattle Police Department go unanswered if the caller mentions the encampment.

We had an incident where a resident and our service supervisors were threatened with a knife by an occupant at the camp and the police would not respond.

We also had a stabbing that led to one person's death in the encampment, and the city did nothing to relocate these people to a safer environment.

Taxpaying residents and on-site team members shouldn't have to suffer from the lack of resources.

On September 2nd, the navigation team notified us that they were relocating the encampment due to safety concerns from the failing Marion Pedestrian Bridge, but no one notified us that the encampment was to be relocated on our doorstep you authorize the closure of the limited public parking on Western Avenue.

Resident safety and well-being is our top priority, and it should be yours too.

The Post Department has experienced a 15 to 20% vacancy rate since the homeless encampment was allowed to run wild since May.

Taxpaying residents do not want to live in fear, walking outside of their building or stepping in needles and in human feces.

The property owner should not be left with the financial burden of tending to the homeless in Cannon because you have failed us.

Our business has been affected tremendously because of the lack of resources from the homelessness in Seattle.

Our residents want answers and we are requesting this be addressed immediately due to the...

Thank you very much, Ms.

Cyrus.

We will follow up with you.

follow-up with you both on the concerns that you have and also to get the remaining comments in your public testimony.

Thank you for following in tonight.

Number 79, Anna Torres, followed by Joseph Clover.

Joseph, if you could call in, we still have you listed as not present.

And then Quan Wan Lui, you are next.

Anna, good evening.

Star six time, mute.

Okay, Anna, can you hear me?

Just star six to unmute.

I see you on my end, but we got a mute button still on.

Okay, I'm gonna come back to you, Anna.

Anna, Anna, creo que en el español, vamos a esperar por el intérprete.

O si, Anna, si quieres empezar, podemos, Podemos regresar a su nombre en un momento.

Folks, I think that I just got notification that Anna may have an interpreter that we are waiting to join on the line.

So I'm going to make sure to keep Anna on the line, and we're going to come back to this speaker.

All right.

The next person we have is Joseph.

Collaborator listed as not present.

So Quan Wan Lui, if you are present, please go ahead.

Hi there, if you can hear me, please go ahead, Kwan.

Okay, hello.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, thank you.

Hello, my name is Kwan and I live on District 7. I'm calling for City Council to push the solidarity budget for 2011. And I want you guys to work on taxing big businesses and Amazon that haven't paid their fair share because they need to.

The city cannot sustain itself when the big businesses do not want to pay their taxes.

Also, SPD needs to have the cuts cut by at least 80 percent.

And I have heard stories about these horrible, horrifying police violence to our protesters, such as there was one bicycle police officer doing this white supremacy hand gesture to a protestor on September 15th.

And then I have also heard stories in which the police officer pulled out the respirator of a protestor and amazed the protestors, as well as another police officer threatened to shoot the protestors when he was totally unarmed and he didn't have his hands raised up.

And aside that, I do not trust Jenny Durkan, and neither any – the other light should just trust in Jenny Durkan.

If she has any dignity, she should resign herself.

If she doesn't want to resign, there is a fire Durkan campaign going on, and I do my time.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

And if you're listening, we're going to call the interpreter.

If you want to start, we also have some people here who can translate if you want.

Or if you want to wait, that's fine too.

So don't worry if you want to wait, but I wanted to give you an option for the time.

I know it's late.

If you want to start, we can translate for you.

lado de nosotros.

Y si puedes escucharme, necesitas imprimir la estrella y el número seis para hablar.

Folks, we are letting- Are you listening?

Yes, yes, please.

We have a member of my team who is going to translate.

I know it's very late, so if you want to start, that's fine, and we can translate.

One moment, I'm going to say this in English, okay?

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Folks, we have an interpreter that was going to be on the line with us.

It is our custom to make sure that we have interpreter that is a trained and paid interpreter with us given the hour one of the members of my team has offered and very incredibly kind to offer to translate but we do want to take her up on this given the late hour so that Anna can provide public testimony just a note for the viewing public it is our practice both for our staff and also for the trained interpreters out there to use an interpreter so This is a deviation from the norm given the hour.

It's 808. I want to give Anna the chance to testify.

Farideh, thank you for offering to testify and we also want to compensate you for this extra work that you do.

So just want to make sure that we note that this is outside of our norm and we will give four minutes to testimony.

Anna, si quieres empezar, tenemos cuatro minutos extra tiempo para, como interpret, Y si puedes hacer unos pauses por ellas, sería bien.

Gracias por esperar por nosotros.

Ana, puedes empezar.

Soy Ana Torres.

Soy limpiadora de casas y también promotora de la Carta de Derechos de las Trabajadoras del Hogar.

Hello, my name is Ana.

I am a housekeeper and also a promoter for Casa Latina.

Desde que entró en vigor la ley, el grupo de promotoras hemos dado alcance a más de 70 charlas a trabajadoras del hogar.

Since we started our work, a couple of the workers have had a couple of discussions about workers' rights.

En ese sector laboral, más del 60% no saben acerca de sus protecciones que tienen.

And in those discussions, we found out that more than 60% of the workers don't know their rights.

They don't even know that there's an office of labor standards.

That's why we're asking council to invest more funding in education for workers' rights.

A través del OLS y las organizaciones comunitarias asociadas.

Ana, ¿cuál es la organización?

Escuché.

OLS, así me lo tradujeron.

We're asking you guys to provide some funding through OLS.

Yeah.

And we would like to see some changes for the more than 30,000 domestic workers in Seattle.

It's important because other than the Bill of Rights, we still feel like we are not protected.

Thank you very much.

Pues mil gracias, Ana.

Gracias por su testimonio hoy.

Farideh, thank you as well.

Gracias por su traducción hoy.

Thank you very much, Ana, for your testimony and to Farideh Cuevas for her translation.

Y Ana, gracias por esperar por nosotros.

Thank you for waiting for us, and folks, OLS, as Anna mentioned, Office of Labor Standards.

Thank you so much, Farideh, for stepping in.

Appreciate you doing that.

And Anna, gracias por hablar con nosotros hoy.

The next three speakers are Joseph Clover, Warren L., and Sharon Appelt.

I see Joseph and Warren as listed as not present, so we will call on Sharon next.

Joseph and Warren, if you can call in, we will get back to you.

Also, the next four speakers after that are listed as not present.

Now's your time to call in on the number you were provided at number 84, Katrina Johnson, 85, Kendall Counts, number 86, Cece Fetti, and number 87, Robert McKay.

With that, we will go to Sharon.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Can you hear me okay?

We sure can.

Thanks for waiting.

Okay.

Thank you.

My name is Sharon Appel.

I live in district seven and had lived in Seattle for 36 years.

I'm a homeowner, an ordinary citizen, not an activist, not a student, and not a member of an organization.

I'm a taxpayer.

I love the city and do not like what is happening here.

All of a sudden I see neighbor's houses go on the market.

Most are moving out of Seattle.

Will businesses follow?

I believe in a budget that successfully addresses the basic services of the city.

The services which are in exchange for the taxes we citizens pay, basic services, sanitation, water, streets, the public library, parks, schools, food inspection, fire department, police, ambulance, transportation.

No one is talking about these services except to defund SPD.

I believe in a strong, healthy downtown.

Have you walked the streets of downtown Seattle lately?

As one of my neighbors said today, it almost made her cry, it boarded and closed up businesses.

My friends that live downtown do not feel safe in walking around the city to support the few businesses that are open.

What happens when COVID-19 is in the rear view mirror?

Will all the robust sources of city revenue return, the tourists, the conventions, after all the bad PR Seattle has received?

If I were planning a convention today and saw downtown Seattle, I would run the other direction.

We need to stop the violence in our downtown and Capitol Hill and restore safety for our residents and businesses.

Downtown Seattle is a major driver of many of the funds you are trying to budget with.

I do not support divesting SPD by 50%.

We need to have a clear plan to replace any reduction in funding to SPD.

What makes the council so sure that directing millions of dollars elsewhere will restore the health and safety of our city?

You need to answer these questions before you do it.

In summary, your responsibility to Seattle is to build a budget that provides the basic services to the citizens of Seattle.

You will not be able to correct all the problems in one budget cycle.

Take a breath and think logically as to what best serves

Thank you very much, Sharon.

The next four people that I have listed are shown as not present.

Katrina Johnson, Kendall Counts, C.C. Fetty, and Robert McKay.

If you call back in, we are happy to come back to you.

After that, we have number 88, Daniel Hetmer, 89, Robin Briggs, and number 90, Anitra Freeman.

Good evening, Daniel, and thanks for waiting.

Just star six to unmute one more time.

Perfect.

Thanks.

Council.

I'm a renter in district six.

Uh, I believe if city's priorities are in its budget, which means that our budget should invest in sustainable transportation, alternatives to policing and affordable housing.

We should defund STD by 50% and use that money to find new public safety programs that are being asked for specifically by BIPOC communities.

We should reserve jumpstart money for its original intent as directed by the council.

We should accelerate the downtown streetcar extension instead of simply delaying it or canceling it altogether.

We should fully find S dots, bike lane and pedestrian projects.

We should find metros recently cut rapid ride extensions.

If we hope to reach our city's climate goals, which I believe are, which I believe are realistic.

We need to fund these projects rather than a hundred than pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into new roads and bridges, which we can't even afford to maintain.

These are my priorities for the city, and I believe there has never been a more critical time to pursue them.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you for your testimony tonight.

Robin, good evening.

And after Robin will be a neutral.

Hi, Robin, just star 6 to unmute yourself.

Perfect.

Yes, thank you.

Robin.

Great.

My name is Robin breaks.

I live on Capitol Hill.

Thank you for taking your evening to listen to public comment.

I'm calling to urge that the budget have money set aside for climate mitigation planning and that the Jumpstart funding be preserved for affordable housing and the Green New Deal.

The city has set good goals for handling climate change, but has done very little to make sure that they come to pass.

There was a plan for funding the low-income building electrification with Jumpstart, but now that is threatened.

In the executive order from January, there was a plan for a city team to meet and plan ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

That's not happening.

The same order had a plan for a greenhouse gas emissions dashboard, but that seems also to be not happening.

We need a transportation plan that will get us back up and running without requiring all of us to have cars, but that is not happening either.

So I ask you to please go back and look at our climate goals.

The executive order from January, the Green New Deal, the Seattle Climate Plan.

What will it take to achieve them?

The first step is the easiest.

It is setting aside funding in the budget in every department to do the planning and community outreach necessary so that next year we will have plans ready with the necessary support and can move forward.

It's not like we don't care about climate change in Seattle, and it's not that we don't have the money collectively.

There is a way through this, but we need leadership.

That's it.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for your time tonight.

I appreciate your testimony.

Anitra, you are up next, followed by Tara Moss and then Adam Monk.

Hi, Anitra.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Anitra, star six one more time if you can.

It looks like you're still muted on your line.

Okay.

Anitra, I may come back to you.

We have Tara Moss, number 91, and 92 is Adam Monk.

Hi, Tara.

I can see you on my end.

Just star six and unmute yourself.

There you go.

Excellent.

Hi.

Thank you.

My name is Tara Moss.

I'm the Seattle King County Lead Project Director.

But I am also speaking as a child from inner city of Detroit a daughter of a parent who struggles with her harmful substance use and a granddaughter of a woman I have never met because she was deemed too mentally ill to advocate for herself and her kids and ultimately died homeless on the streets of San Francisco.

In the past weeks as I walked through downtown Seattle by more BIPOC individuals living outside than I've ever seen in my 20 years of harm reduction and homeless services here I can't help but be reminded of my hometown.

or Black folks in the 80s and 90s were de-policed and also abandoned and deemed unimportant due to their criminal history behavioral health conditions and extreme poverty.

I see the same types of folks struggling in our community currently and are being left behind during this economic homeless and public health crisis.

And I'm concerned about what will happen to them if there isn't someone walking alongside them and making sure they have what they need during these unprecedented times.

It is with that perspective that I do this work.

I view it as a great honor to work alongside the folks at PDA REACH in the greater community with the goal of centering, loving, and lifting up folks that are often the most marginalized and left behind, and do it with the goal of increasing public safety and health for all through their amazing outreach, harm reduction skills, and criminal legal advocacy efforts.

And for that, I want to thank the city council leadership for continued support that allowed me to grow.

and innovate including the expansion to keep case management at fidelity levels and lifting the gatekeeping role of SPD.

As a result we are doing things such as September with 68 new referrals and connecting people to 24 new case managers.

In short we're able to respond quickly effectively and responsibly to public health and safety concerns thanks to your support.

The folks you heard from today and many others in need are opting to take care of those folks that are the most vulnerable.

I have nowhere to go.

These are the people who I would have wanted to take care of my family.

I urge you council to visibilize their work.

They are incredible people and doing incredible things and trailblazers in rethinking public safety for all especially those who are unhelped.

Thank you.

Thank you Tara.

Very powerful.

Thank you for sharing your your story with us tonight and for all the work that you do.

Good to hear your voice again.

The next person that we have is Adam Monk.

And Adam are you with us.

Hi, Kendall.

I have you and Adam together.

That's great.

Yeah, Adam, if you're with us, please go ahead.

All right.

Thank you.

My name's Adam Monk, as she said.

I'm a new resident of Share and Wheels, Tent City 3. And in the short time I've had here so far, I've noticed the clear benefits of involving our own members in the intake, security, and maintenance functions that keep the city running safely and efficiently.

We've adapted, all of us, to work well as a group, although many of our activities are limited by the lack of around $80,000 in proposed city funding that our group requested.

We do have those who are assigned to coordinate donations, although our honey bucket services, bus tickets, and general maintenance items are covered very occasionally by share auctions.

and distributed between there's ten cities but we are still reliant on the city funding that we to this point have never had uh...

ten thirty three was begun in march of two thousand and we have been running on our own sense then and we hope you'll consider the importance of funding our efforts to provide a secure space that helps people get their lives back in order uh...

with your donation thank you for your time

Thank you for your time tonight.

And before you hang up, if you can still hear me.

Yes, I can.

Okay, great.

I just want to check.

Do you have Kendall with you as well?

We have Kendall counts listed as number 85.

Yep, 1 2nd.

Okay, great.

Good evening members of city council.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thanks.

Kendall.

Please go ahead.

Okay, my name is Kendall counts and I live at ten city three, which is a part of the share wheels organization.

Ten city is a democratic self managed community that provides a temporary solution and a sense of security for those experiencing homelessness.

Ten city three has had no positive cases for coronavirus by three design having the community in open air and having the community shelter and personal tents has the benefit of providing individuals with the safe distance to cut transmission during the pandemic.

Within ten city we are a diverse community who Hold one another accountable to ourselves and the community, who sponsors us, making sure we are respectful and that we keep the community clean and safe.

Today we are asking for support for Tent City 3, which has never been supported by the city in its 20 years history.

Having this community improves the individual's chances of obtaining a job and one day standing on their own two feet, becoming independent and self-sufficient.

In the upcoming months, with the increased evictions and job loss, services will be needed to help those struggling with homelessness.

the communities of Seattle.

In your upcoming budget please consider targeting your support for organizations like Share and Will which empower the people directly and help high-risk low-income individuals climb out of poverty and homelessness.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Kendall.

Thanks for waiting on the line with us.

Okay folks I'm going to call the next three speakers.

The next three are Robert McKay.

Anitra Freeman and Tarina James.

Robert, just checking to see if you can hear me.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

I can see you on my end over here.

Excellent.

Can you hear me, Robert?

Yeah.

Excellent.

Yes.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

Yeah, I'm Robert McKay, a resident of Capitol Hill for a couple of years.

I'm an educator with Seattle Highline Public School.

I run a small business tutoring kids.

Just basically here, because I think the last couple of speakers are both great examples of the sort of alternatives to policing community public safety strategies that I would love to see invested more in.

I also wanted to sort of ping back to the speaker who is concerned with, you know, lack of policing and perception of unsafe public spaces being a damper on business.

I hear that concern and I think, you know, none of us here want to see nobody pick up on the end of 911 or, you know, the streets feeling unsafe.

But I think that, you know, a community-led process of rethinking how we do public safety is in order given the pretty clear that, you know, the current approach is not working too great.

You know, I think a lot of, as a, you know, condo owner and business owner, I don't particularly feel unsafe because of, a lack of visible policing.

In fact, I think a lot of folks feel less safe with the amount of kind of police flexing that goes on on the streets.

So I think that also just from an economics perspective, I teach financial literacy, among other things.

A lot of the spending on police is not really productive, right?

Not all of it necessarily, but a lot of those functions could be better done with other things.

And public spending is much more, you know, counter-cyclical, as they say, right?

Helps fight the economic downturn if you're lifting up small businesses and then the poorest folks who are more likely to spend that money, right?

And spending it on policing and security is just sort of unproductive just from a purely economic standpoint.

It doesn't really include business activity as long as, you know, there's not this perception Cool.

So, yeah, I think I'm out of time, but that's sort of my two cents.

Thanks.

Excellent.

Thank you for that, Robert, and thanks for waiting on the line today.

Anitra, can you hear me?

Hi, Anitra, just star six to unmute yourself.

I see you're still muted on my end.

Sorry, Anitra, you're still muted on my end.

And then wanna tee up Tarina James, who we have next as well.

Anitra, we'll come back to you.

I don't see it coming off mute yet.

Tarina, please star six to unmute yourself as well, and we will turn to you, thanks.

Hello, can you hear me, council members?

Yes, thank you.

Okay.

So my name is Karina James and I am a local member.

I'm one of the original founders of Local Washington.

I work for a public association and I'm a LEAD alumni.

First, let me thank you for your constant support, evolution and utilization of the program and urge you to continue investment in LEAD.

LEAD is and has always been about making it possible for people with substance use issues to heal and recover without having to enter the criminal system.

criminal legal system.

Use, this is, I'm sorry, this is not a new idea, but one that has been working well for about nine years now.

But it has never been offered to most people who need it.

Lead is staffed by people who have lived experience and deep skills with no barriers.

Lead respects participants' role in deciding their own course of their own lives.

highly regarded in the streets and in the community.

Let me first just say that I had went down a really bad road and almost lost my life and LEAD is who helped me to help myself at my pace and taught me to have confidence and to grow and that, you know, I could get my life back.

Without them, I don't think that, you know, I would really be here today to be honest with you, as with a lot of other people that I know.

It is an amazing program, and I really urge everyone to please continue investing in it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I'm going to try Anitra one more time.

Anitra, can you hear me?

Star six.

OK.

I cannot hear you, Anitra.

We will come back to you if you dial back in.

Folks, I want to let you know we have hit 8.30.

We had announced that we would take a break, and as per our custom to keep pushing for workers' rights, as you know, in Washington State, every four-hour chunk deserves a 10-minute paid break for folks.

I will note the next three so people know where we are in the lineup.

We are two-thirds of the way through public testimony, so just 10-minute break.

We'll come back at 8.40.

We will go back to Brighton, Madison, Grace, Chris, David Wright and Delmas Agueta.

Brian, Grace, David, Delmas, you are all listed as not present, so you have 10 minutes to call in.

And then the three that are present after that are number 98, 99, and 100, Claire, Chris, Shanti, Mensai, and Margo Pulley.

So we will start with you all, assuming that the others don't get on the line.

You are present, please don't leave.

Folks, 10 minutes.

I know everybody's been waiting for a very long time.

We will get through everybody.

It's important to have these breaks.

We will see you at 840 Sharp.

So please don't hang up if you're on the testimony line.

It's just five people equals 10 minutes, so you're not too far delayed.

We'll see you in 10 minutes.

Thanks, everyone.

you Yeah.

So, do

Okay, folks at Seattle Channel, I think we are ready to start in just a moment.

Whenever you are ready, we will happily

So you just I'll look for the prompt to go up on the live feed and we will get started when you are.

Welcome back everyone.

The recessed Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee meeting will come back to order.

It is 840 p.m.

We just took a 10-minute recess very briefly as we are in the last third of public testimony today.

I appreciate everybody staying on the line and for offering our teams the opportunity to take a needed break and also for us to not miss a beat as we get on with public testimony.

In the meantime, some folks who were not present have called in.

We appreciate you doing so.

So I'm going to read the names of the three people left to speak here.

The first three are Brighton Madsen, Grace Chris, and David Wright.

Grace and David, I see you listed as not present yet.

So if you get online, we will happily come back to you.

Brighton, please go ahead.

Byron, I'm sorry, Byron, good evening.

And just star six to unmute yourself.

It's actually Brian Madsen.

It's a common mistake.

Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it.

So what I wanted to mention is I feel like I need to be a little bit of a voice of reason.

So I want the council to seriously consider the fact that the City of Seattle has approximately 750,000 total residents within its city limits.

And I've been on the phone for the past with everybody else, I suppose, two and a half going on three hours.

And I've heard a lot of testimony.

And I want to enforce the fact that the testimony that I have heard has come from mainly two or three groups.

And I want the city to just remember that while the goal of ultimately trying to help those who need help is obviously important and nothing that I disagree with.

You have to also remember that they don't necessarily represent 750,000 people.

And what I'm here to speak of is what, and this isn't a political thing, it's just what I see every day living and working around downtown Seattle.

I have gone into work in downtown Seattle every single day since March and since the virus began.

I have watched it obviously continue to go into disarray and frankly to a point of lawlessness.

And so what happens is when that occurs, then obviously people start voting with their feet.

You might not hear them calling in, maybe other than myself, because I've witnessed it over the last six months personally.

But take, for example, and I'm not a commercial real estate broker, but there is right now over 3 million square feet of subleased space available in downtown Seattle, much of which has come due to the fact that people can no longer feel safe and working there.

And you have to remember that that sublease space represents the loss of about 5,000 to 10,000 jobs.

And so it's important for the council to remember that the way you get your revenue in order to fund what I support in Jenny Durkan's budget comes from businesses being in and employing people who have been on this phone.

Thank you very much, Brian, and thank you for calling back in.

Please do send the rest of your public testimony to us.

Grace, David Wright, and Demias Agueta, I don't see you listed as present, so we will come back to you if you do call back in.

The next person that I have as present is Claire Christ.

Welcome, Claire.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Hi my name is Claire and I'm a lifetime Seattle resident and currently live in District 5. I'm a recent college graduate a member of Morning March Seattle and a member of Sunrise Movement.

I first want to thank the city council for listening to the residents of Seattle and overriding the mail veto.

Some callers have noted that the callers on this group are not representative of the city of Seattle as a whole but I want to again draw attention to the 96 calls before me that virtually all supported the solidarity budget and calling for defunding the SPD.

I am also calling to urge you to divest from SPD by at least 50% and support the distribution of funds divested from SPD through a participatory budgeting process.

Additionally, I'm strongly urging you to immediately begin reworking the SPD contract to keep the community safe.

I'm also asking you to make sure that investments in Black communities and community-led health and safety come from funds divested from police, prosecutors, and courts not from Jump Start Seattle funds or any other city funds.

You can't fund both the disease and the cure to these community issues.

Now more than ever we need to preserve vital public services and complete urgent projects including the creation of crosswalks from the Duwamish Longhouse to the park across the street.

I urge you to fund dignified housing for all including single room accommodations through the purchase of hotels as an interim measure on the way to permanent housing.

Please reaffirm the vote that you already made in the 2020 rebalancing package to eliminate the navigation team and instead fund trusted community organizations and nonprofits to conduct outreach to encampments without the presence of police.

The budget you vote on should reflect a city that works for all of us and one that elevates black lives.

Please continue to listen to your citizens.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Shanti Monsi.

I have you listed as not present.

If you call back in, we're happy to get to you.

The next three, number 100, Margo Poli, 101 Gay Manan, and Rachel Bregel.

You are up next.

Margo, thanks for waiting.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay Margo.

Hi.

I'm so sorry.

That's okay.

I'm so sorry.

Here I am.

And I want to thank you for being here so late.

I'm going to because so many people have said so much already I'm going to just make this really short.

First of all Council Member Musqueda and your and your colleagues thank you so much for passing Jump Start and for your recent veto.

You're doing the right thing.

I am calling simply to support and lift up the voices of Black and Indigenous and people of color in support of the solidarity budget.

and in support of racial, social, and climate justice.

And thank you all.

I'll yield the rest of my time.

Thanks so much.

Wow.

Thank you so much for staying on the line for those comments.

Appreciate it.

Gabe, good evening.

Hello.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Hey there.

Thanks for listening to all the public comment.

My name is Gabriel.

I'm a renter and software engineer in D3.

I'm just going to say, like so many others before me, that the support among my friends, my colleagues, and my neighbors in the city, in particular here in D3 and Capitol Hill for reallocation of funds from the police department to community programs and housing, remains enormously supported, and it's a given among people that you talk to.

And if it seems like the noise around the defund movement has died down, it's only because of the abundant trust that residents have in our elected officials like yourselves.

I urge the members of the Council, don't violate that trust.

Do the right thing.

Act in accordance with your commitments to fight systemic racism through building a more just city that fully funds the support of services and does not disproportionately fund the police.

The key detail of that commitment, as we all remember, was a full 50% divestment of our bloated police budget and reallocation of those funds into community investments and services that will proactively fight crime before it starts.

It goes without saying that the mayor's $200 million in proposed cuts are entirely at odds with that commitment to justice.

You cannot in good faith say in the spring that you'll reallocate money from the police and then turn around in the fall and then vote in support of a budget that maintains police funding while making draconian cuts to city services.

Your commitment to racial justice and restorative budget necessitates both defunding the police by 50% and maintaining the funding of city services like our parks and libraries.

I support the people's budget and its efforts to maintain full funding to city services through progressive taxes.

As someone who personally collected scores of signatures for the Amazon tax, a.k.a. Jumpstart, I want to remind the council that these funds came as a direct result of the 30,000 Seattle residents who, like me, signed the petition and passed it on to their friends.

We did so on the understanding that these funds would actually be used as a special measure to provide housing through taxing big business, not to patch holes in an abysmal austerity budget.

I'm proud to live in D3 where Council Member Swant has made her maintained commitment to social justice movements clear, and I urge the council to follow her lead.

Thank you very much.

Rachel, good evening.

Thanks for waiting.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

And after Rachel will be Candice Faber, Kimberly Harrell, and Thomasina Schmidt.

Rachel, can you hear me?

Just star six unmute.

It looks like you're still muted on my end.

Okay, Rachel, I will come back to you.

Thank you for being on the line.

We will make sure to get you in.

Candice, I can see you on the line now.

If you'd like to hit star six, you can unmute yourself.

Excellent.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Great.

My name is Candace Faber.

I am a, well, I was just displaced from District 5, but I'm still in Seattle.

I am calling to support both the solidarity budget and the calls that everyone has made for emphasizing housing in the upcoming budget.

I also want to add that it's important for the council to be recentering racial justice in the budget and every single department and taking the cuts from the departments that are doing the most harm to community and not from the departments that are fighting the hardest for a swift collective recovery from COVID-19.

And I want to speak specifically to what is financially a footnote in the budget but is an incredibly meaningful ask for the community.

And that is to continue funding at its current levels for the Office of Labor Standards work to implement the Domestic Workers Ordinance and to supplement it with an additional $150,000 to be spent in year 2021 under the guidance of the Domestic Workers Standards Board to reach out to the many domestic workers who have been among the hardest hit by COVID-19 with the fewest community resources for handling that to make sure that they know their rights to make sure that there are appropriate channels for them to receive restitution where there has been wage theft or health theft by negligent employers, as well as to invest in long-term solutions that will enable this critical workforce, also group of human beings who are multiply marginalized in our society and deserve justice to make it through.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And Kimberly Harrell, and then we'll go back to Rachel.

Hi, Kimberly, just star six to unmute yourself.

Hi, my name is Kimberly Harrell.

Hi, I work with REACH.

I'm a case manager in the LEAD program.

As a case manager and a black woman, I joined this work with an urgency wanting to help the homeless crisis.

along with giving and spreading love to an unremembered, ignored, neglected, disregarded human population.

Not knowing that this fight would look, feel, behave, and sound different for my Black men and women clients.

The fight for shelters, food, medical help, treatment programs, income assistance, housing, legal advocacy, simple documents such as birth certificates, ID, and social security cards is like getting ready for combat when it comes to accessing these services for my black men and women clients.

If the mayor needs a visual on what exactly I'm speaking about, I'll give you one.

Everspring, a community of black, low-income, poverty-stricken human beings.

It was allowed for those individuals to be made poor.

By continuing to overlook the horrendous, horrible living conditions, you allowed and gave permission for a business owner to have resulted in the behavior to continue targeting and taking advantage of a Black community.

Being one of the first case managers on site, I witnessed and felt every level of pain, every level of anger, despair, confusion, desperation, and loss.

Where was the help?

Where is the help?

I'll tell you, along with myself, my team, and a fierce leadership, LEAD gave hope and shelter, along with continued case management to a Black community that would have been not seen, not heard, and left behind if it was not for the long hours we put in hearing everyone's stories along with emotions and trauma.

And now Seattle's mayor is leaving the funding behind, which leaves the population I serve still suffering.

You, mayor, asked us for help.

We did.

But you put stipulations on where and who can receive help.

By trapping and blocking funds, why?

You have just created another unnecessary combat.

I have to fight as a black woman and a case manager.

Please stop social distancing yourself from a community that needs your help.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your public testimony tonight.

Um, Thomasina and Rachel Berger, let's go to Thomasina first.

Good evening, Thomasina.

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Excellent.

Hello my name is Thomasina Schmidt and I'm the executive director for Seattle Neighborhood Group a local nonprofit focused on public safety and community building.

I'm calling in support to renew funding for two of our contracts for the 2021 budget.

First is the South Park Public Safety Coordinator position.

This position was the top priority recommendation in the 2017 South Park Public Safety Task Force report funded by the City Council.

The second contract is our GOTS program which stands for Get Off the Street.

This program provides crucial support services for African-Americans ages 21 to 55. Services include intensive case management clean and sober housing support along with food and hygiene supplies.

Both of these contracts have had positive impacts for BIPOC communities and we respectfully ask the City Council to renew funding for both of these contracts.

Thank you for your consideration.

I yield my time.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And going back to Rachel.

Rachel, if you can hear me, just star six to unmute yourself.

Hi there.

Can you hear me?

Hi.

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Oh, good.

Sorry for the delay.

Thank you for hanging on the line.

No problem.

So yes, my name is Rachel.

I'm a renter in District 3 on Duwamish land.

I'm calling to ask that the council follow in their commitments to defund SPD by 50% and reinvest in the BIPOC community.

The budget you passed for this quarter was a start in the right direction and it made necessary cuts especially to SBE's navigation team.

But overall the cuts fall extremely short of what was demanded by the community.

Please build on what you started and defund by a full 50 percent this coming year.

And this includes 50 percent cuts to SBE's salary and staffing.

I also ask that you ensure $100 million goes into the Black and Indigenous communities and towards the funding of a participatory budgeting process.

This process is necessary because in order to build solutions to public safety, those most impacted, including queer folks, BIPOC, and unhoused folks, need to have a voice and need to have the tools, funding, and resources to make their solutions a reality.

But it must be made clear that the funding for this process must come directly from Cut to SPD.

With so many people in our city in crisis, we cannot afford to cut other necessary city departments.

In response to the small number of people who called in with concerns on the solidarity budget, we cannot blame the BIPOC or unhoused communities for not having fully fleshed out ideas if we refuse to give them the funding and resources they need while simultaneously funding harmful systems like FTE that actively tear down these communities.

If you're unhappy with the current situation regarding homelessness in Seattle, particularly the downtown area where I also work, I think everyone on this call would agree with you that homelessness is a problem and that's why we are advocating for change.

The most proven solution to homelessness is to give people housing.

Policing does not help unhoused folks, rather it disrupts their lives and creates more trauma.

This is why we are asking for the police budget to be reduced to provide funding for housing and other community support systems to actually reduce harm and violence.

If you're unhappy with the state of Seattle right now, join this movement to create new solutions.

And if you feel that police keep you safe, please listen to the voices of those in other communities who have had very different experiences.

Thank you and I yield back to my time.

Thank you very much for calling in tonight.

The next three speakers we have are Carino Barragan, Tadakon Kelly, Nesbill and John Francisco.

Carino, it says you are not listed.

Please feel free to call in.

And then after that, Alana Lessing, number 109, you were also listed as not present.

So we are going to turn to John.

John, you are present and thank you for hanging on the line.

Star six, unmute yourself and it is your turn.

Hi, my name is Frank.

I'm a D4 resident and I'm speaking on behalf of my two housemates as well who work for Seattle nonprofits.

I would like to say that the 2021 budget needs to include defunding of the Seattle Police Department by at least 80%.

These funds need to be allocated directly to Black and Indigenous communities.

The 100 million proposed by the mayor cannot come from the dumpster program.

It needs to come directly from the Seattle police department.

Uh, please shut down the youth jail.

Now, not in five years, immediately tax Amazon and use those funds to combat houselessness.

Like everyone already agreed to.

Um, as for the rest of my time, I would like to address a direct instances of the SPD violence against protesters, including constant improper deployment of non-lethals, including throwing flashbang grenades at people's heads indiscriminately, um, using mace and.

Running over protesters with, um, bikes, attacking them with vehicles while off duty arrest Molly Clark.

I yield my time.

Black and Indigenous Lives Matter.

Free the land, pay the fee, ACAB.

OK, the next three speakers that I have are Jordan Goldwarg, Marlo Chavez, and Hannah Lake.

And then after that, I see Kyle Oswald and Teresa Homan.

We have you as not present, so if you want to call in, that'd be wonderful.

Jordan, good evening, and thank you for waiting.

Thank you.

My name is Jordan Goldwarg, and I'm speaking today as a resident of District 4 and also as a member of the City of Seattle's Domestic Workers Standards Board.

I am the employer of a domestic worker, specifically a cleaner who works in my home.

And as you begin deliberations on next year's budget, I want to echo many comments made tonight about the importance of supporting the most vulnerable right now and ask you to ensure that protections for domestic workers are included, as Ana Gomez testified earlier.

As a particularly vulnerable population during the best of times, and especially during the pandemic, it's imperative that we invest in initiatives to improve working conditions and keep domestic workers safe.

Members of the Standards Board who are domestic workers have personally experienced violations of their rights, both before and during the pandemic, and we have heard of other similar experiences from countless other workers.

As one example, one worker reported that she was threatened with legal action by a client after she left a work site because it was unsafe with members of the household not wearing masks and not practicing social distancing in clear violation of previously agreed on COVID policies.

While the board is rightly proud of the city's domestic workers ordinance, we know that there's still much work needed to ensure its full implementation.

Additional funding is needed for outreach, not only to ensure that domestic workers know their rights, but also to the employers of domestic workers, many of whom are unaware of the ordinance and may not even consider themselves to be an employer with obligations and responsibilities.

With the pandemic creating even more challenging working conditions for so many domestic workers, from house cleaners to nannies to home health aides, the time is now to continue to invest in their safety.

Specifically, I'd like to amplify the following requests from the Standards Board.

First, maintain all current funding levels related to the Domestic Workers Ordinance.

And secondly, I urge the city to allocate an additional $150,000 to the Office of Waiver Standards for the further outreach and enforcement of the ordinance as determined by the upcoming recommendations of the board due to the council by the end of the second quarter of 2021. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in tonight.

Malu, Chavez, good evening.

Yes, good evening.

My name is Malu Chavez, and I am an immigrant rights attorney, and I serve as deputy director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

I first want to echo the comments in support of defunding SPD to invest in much needed services, including for our community members living homeless.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on the mayor's proposed budget and to share with you more about why restoring funding for expanded legal defense network is particularly important.

I have been at NERC for over 12 years now, and I can tell you that the Seattle King County Expanded Legal Defense Network has made a difference in so many community members impacted by immigration enforcement, and their families and communities have also been positively impacted.

The $190,000 cut from the funding level of $1 million per year would be devastating to the current clients we have taken on for representation, but also for future community members seeking legal defense many of them who are on our wait list.

In fact, there are over 50 ELDN cases currently of people who we've taken their cases of with final hearings scheduled in 2021, and at least 40 unaccompanied youth waiting for their asylum interviews due to backlogs.

Immigration cases are already taking years to resolve, and without ELDN, immigrants will not have access to counsel that would assist them this almost impossible to navigate and complex system.

They would face deportation proceedings on their own.

Seattle has already shown leadership in the time where the federal government is trying to divide communities.

You have stood up against these injustices and have made it possible for people to remain in the communities they belong with their loved ones.

With ELDN, you have given advocates also the ability to say yes to more clients.

I hope you agree that this is unfair to hit communities with decreased funding, communities that have already been so harshly impacted in the recent years, and in particular during this homeless and public health crisis.

Thank you very much for your testimony, and thanks to NERP for all of your work.

The next three speakers are Elena Lessing, Hannah Lake, and Danny Rosenberg.

Elena, you are number 109. You are welcome to speak if you can push star six to unmute yourself.

Hello.

Hello.

My name is Ilana Lessing and I'm calling to ask you to stand by your commitments that you made over the last several months to defend the police by at least 50 percent if not 80 percent.

I am in support of SOL of the solidarity budget and participatory budgeting.

It's time to listen to what our community is saying and invest money into the community by listening to them.

King County Equity Now has asked for at least $100 million for participating budget from SBD's budget.

This needs to be provided and it needs to be provided by money outside of the $100 million already fought for and directed to Jump Start and COVID relief.

We need funding for tiny houses along with single hotel rooms.

We need safe we need COVID safe places for people to go.

We need to fund transit and stop charging fares during the pandemic.

Charging of fares which put both people both bus riders and bus drivers in unfair risk of COVID.

I urge you to listen to me and the majority of people who called in especially the Black Indigenous people of color members who have called in to express their very very well thought out and research views.

In addition I would like to urge you to shut down No New Youth Jail now not in 2025. Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Hannah Lake.

Good evening.

Just our sixth time mute.

Great.

Okay, my name is Hana Lake.

I would just like to say that I support the people's budget and that we really need at least 40 more tiny house villages for the homeless.

In addition to larger corporations that manage tiny villages, I believe self-managed grassroots organizations like Nickelsville should receive funding from the city.

The same cookie cutter treatment for the homeless doesn't work for everyone.

We need options.

I also believe that the police department needs to be defunded by at least 50% They have failed at keeping us safe time and time again, and that money could be used in more constructive ways, such as going into black and brown communities, mental health, and unhoused people.

Lastly, people with mental health issues do not belong in jails.

We need to fund social workers and counselors instead of police officers to address mental health concerns.

So many people end up in jail when they should be getting the help they need.

This needs to change.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time tonight and waiting on the phone and Danny Rosenberg.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Danny Rosenberg.

I'm a homeowner in district 1 and I just want to start out by saying that our city has been built on stolen land with stolen labor from the Black and Indigenous communities.

And those communities are the ones suffering the most harm from Seattle Police Department.

The safest communities do not have the most police.

They have community resources such as properly funded schools community centers grocery stores and green space.

As a member of Seattle Public Schools I'm enraged by the ease with which education the true form of power is so simply and easily defunded every year.

But we have to watch people physically harmed and murdered by the police and march in the streets for months to still argue the and have the conversation that SPD needs to be defunded.

I am standing in solidarity and calling to urge you to divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and support distribution of funds divested from SPD through the participatory participatory budgeting process.

Thank you and I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

I want to flag for our IT system.

I got a note from one of our colleagues that the listen line stopped working about four minutes ago and folks are listening via Seattle channel.

But if we can make sure that the listen in line didn't time out, that'd be helpful.

We are aware of it and we are.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I should have assumed you were on it already.

And thanks to our colleagues for flagging that.

We want to make sure people can listen in if they are calling in as an option.

Thank you for calling in, Danny.

Appreciate it.

OK, I'm going to read a list of about six people that are up next.

Number 113, Kyle Oswald, Teresa Homan, Dario Rustembeckva, David Haynes, Jaslyn Huerta, and Chris Conley, along with Heidi Madden.

We have you listed coming up next, and you are listed on our end as not present.

I hope that you are able to dial back in so that we can get you teed up to present here.

The next three people that I have listed as present are number 121, Susan Rubstello, and Jamie Powell, along with Janet Willem.

Susan, good evening.

And press star six to unmute yourself.

I can see you on the line over here, Susan.

Just star six, unmute, and there we go.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Good evening, Counselor.

Can you hear me?

Yes, it's excellent.

Thank you.

Hello.

I would like to support the mayor's budget and the navigation team.

I think it's short-sighted and to throw the baby out with the bathwater until you guys have another plan in place.

It's the best we have right now.

And talking about budget without having a plan is really not making anyone safe.

We have serious issues going on in these parks with trafficking, goose killers that take heads off, Children being nabbed, lots of shooting in parks.

We need to have some public safety in places where people can go and get outside.

And even though it's getting colder and stuff, this isn't humane to the people in the parks.

This isn't a homeless issue.

I know you guys don't want to sleep and there's issues with that as well.

And I understand that with COVID, but there's a criminal element that's using this to do heinous things in our parks.

It's not making anyone safe.

Until we come up with a better plan and we figure out what we're going to do with policing as a community, for the entire community, they're what we have.

So please, don't sell us short.

We need something.

And there's a missing little girl who's indigenous.

Her name's Maya.

And the only person out there looking for her in the parks besides me is a sergeant on the NAV team.

Nobody's chanting Maya, but we got some real problems here.

And I know that Council Member Gonzalez and Council Member Juarez are very aware of that.

So get some ambassadors and attendants in the parks and let's do the best we can with the budget shortfall and the lack of revenue.

Thank you so much and good luck to you all and have a nice evening.

Susan, thank you so much for calling in and for waiting on the line.

I appreciate your time tonight.

Jamie Paul, you are up next, followed by Janet Willem.

Jamie, if you can hear me, there we go.

Perfect, go ahead.

Hi, I'm Jamie Paul, fourth generation occupier on Duwamish land that's unseated.

I stand in solidarity with the People's Solidarity Budget.

Durkin's budget falls short of what our community needs to protect our Black, Indigenous, and Brown communities.

I've definitely, I mean, growing up here, feeling safe in community organizations like Parks and Rec, basketball courts, outdoor and indoor courts, and different things that keep children and communities safe and occupied.

Things that aren't criminal and things that keep everyone safe should be a focus.

The kids and the youth need activities and things that they can learn and grow and create communities that will keep them safe and will keep them growing.

And yeah, just the cops have shown exactly who they are this summer.

I've been indiscriminately brutalized for just speaking my mind, for free speech and human rights.

And it's just kind of, it's absolutely out of hand.

We need to protect our community and that means defunding SBD by at least 50% and investing in Brown, Black and Indigenous communities.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

And Janet, good evening.

to star six to unmute yourself, Janet.

Wonderful.

Good evening, and thank you, honorable council members.

My name is Janet Gwillam.

I live on Beacon Hill in District 2 and am the managing attorney of the Seattle Office of Kids in Need of Defense, or KIND.

I respectfully request that the council expand the mayor's proposed 2021 budget and fully restore funding for the expanded legal defense network to maintain the current commitment from the city at $1 million per year.

Since 2004, we have provided immigration-related legal representation of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children who come to the United States alone.

We represent both children who are detained by the federal government as well as those who are released to sponsors in Seattle, King County, and the rest of the state.

My staff and I represent children who have been horrifically abused, sexually assaulted, and trafficked Many have also been hit especially hard by the pandemic.

Numerous clients have tested positive for COVID and some have seen their caregivers hospitalized for several months or even died due to COVID.

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

Unaccompanied children represented by legal counsel are 70 times more likely to be granted immigration relief than unrepresented unaccompanied children.

The expanded legal defense network is one of the few sources of funding we have to represent Seattle's unaccompanied kids.

King County is the top receiving county in Washington for released unaccompanied children, receiving about 38.3% of the unaccompanied kids in Washington state from fiscal year 2015 to 2020. Even with ELDN funding, we have a wait list of children needing attorneys.

These resilient children and youth are part of our Seattle community now.

Attending remotely our schools cheering on the founders and serving as essential workers.

Please support fully restoring the ELDN funding and show that Seattle cares about its children and youth.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much for your time tonight.

Again, I'm gonna read the names of folks that are listed as not present, and give you the chance to call in, and we will come back to you.

Number 113, Kyle Oswald, Teresa Homan, Dara Raskin-Volga, David Hines, Jazlyn Huerta, Chris Connelly, Heidi Madden, and Karen Taylor.

Thank you so much, that brings us to Number 127, Jordan Quinn.

128, Candace Luth.

And 129, Cindy DeWitt.

Jordan, welcome and thank you for waiting.

Hi, I'm Jordan Quinn.

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

I'd first like to thank Council Member Sawant for organizing the annual People's Budget Movement for the last six years.

I've been the only council member who has consistently fought to defund the Seattle Police Department for the last six years and to create green union jobs.

So suffice it to say, I support the demands of people's budget movement this year.

And many of the demands raised by the majority of everyone who has spoken so far to reject Mayor Durkan's austerity budget proposal.

We've had an unprecedented wildfire season on the West Coast.

And with record level unhealthy air quality this summer, on top of high unemployment after decades of eroding good union jobs and inaction on investing in a sustainable economy, it's absolutely ridiculous that the mayor would be proposing cuts of up to $200 million to this year's budget.

I completely support council defunding the Seattle Police Department by 50%, like Shama proposed in the 2020 rebalancing process, and to invest in Green New Deal programs.

Durden's proposal would double down on the race to the bottom by moving new tax money from the richest billionaires to barely plug up cuts elsewhere.

So council should raise the Amazon tax instead, the tax that our movement won this summer to fund what it was passed to do, particularly funding green jobs.

Weatherization in existing housing in Seattle, for example, would reduce carbon emissions by a third over 10 years alone.

And this would mean hiring thousands more building trades workers like those in the Carpenters, Liuna, and Teamsters.

The council too should reject Durkin's proposed cuts to Metro King County as well.

Instead, we should be funding more in public transit, not less.

Funding green jobs like bus operators of 18587 would put people to work while cutting carbon emissions, which we can't wait any longer to do.

Council should also fight to protect workers like our bus drivers by extending fare exemption.

It's not only condescending to make passengers pay to ride a bus they could catch COVID on, It's also making our bus operators, sisters and brothers, enforcing pay.

Thank you very much for calling in tonight.

Candace, good evening and thank you for waiting.

Just star six on mute.

Hi, Candace.

I can see on my end.

Go ahead.

Oh, I had my speaker on mute.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

Thanks for staying so late to listen to public comments.

My name is Candace Luth, and I'm an 18-year Seattle resident, a small business owner of a florist and wedding planning company, and a renter in District 5. Also, working in a tenant relations role for a property management company, I want to personally say that I have not had any tenants come to me with fears for their safety.

In contrast, I've seen an uptick in our tenants' care and concern for those experiencing homelessness around our buildings, and hope for us as property managers to treat these people with increased kindness and dignity.

I'm calling in today to speak in solidarity with Decrim Seattle King County Equity Now and countless other organizations with regards to the 2021 budget.

I urge you to divest from SPD by at least 50 percent and support the distribution of the funds divested from SPD through participatory budgeting process.

I'm also asking you to make sure that investments in Black communities and community led public health and safety come from funds divested from police prosecutors and courts not from Jump Start Seattle funds or any other city funds.

Now more than ever, we need to preserve vital public services and complete urgent projects, projects such as the creation of a crosswalk from the Duwamish Longhouse to the park across the street.

I also urge you to fund dignified housing for all, including COVID safe, single room accommodations through the purchase of hotels as a step on the way to permanent housing.

I also ask council to reaffirm the vote you made in the 2020 rebalancing package to eliminate the NAB team, and instead fund trusted community organizations and nonprofits to conduct outreach to our most vulnerable neighbors without the oftentimes and increasingly harmful presence of police.

The budget you vote on needs to reflect a city that works for all of us and elevates Black lives.

Thank you again so much for your time, and I hope you have a great night.

Thank you.

You as well.

Cindy, good evening.

Just star six, unmute yourself.

And then after that, we're going to do Jaslyn Huerta, Alyssa Starr, and Anne Wheeler.

Thanks, Cindy.

Hi, my name is Cindy.

I'm representing the state's largest assisted living building located in Holly Park in Rainier Beach District 2. Most of our medically compromised seniors receive under $800 per month in income and would increase our unsheltered population without us as a resource for them.

I feel that throwing an arbitrary number at the problem as far as defunding police is reckless and without much thought.

There are many problems within our systems, but cutting off funding without a plan is not the answer and process by committee, as we know, can take an eternity.

Our area has always had some minor issues with car prowls, random violence, stuff like that.

But the community police team, later coined as the navigation team, was always there to lend our support.

And then came COVID.

I've worked in this location for 12 years, and we have never had the level of unsafe activity in our area.

We have Unsheltered encampment, I think unsheltered is the correct word for me to use today, that has grown from three to 30 in the last few months.

Police are instructed by dispatch not to respond to issues at our building, including when there were four gunshot victims directly across the street from vulnerable adults.

That I think is repulsive.

I believe that everybody has a right to social and economic support.

But this is not the way.

Defunding is not the way.

We need to support each other through this crisis.

Thank you very much for your time tonight.

And we're going to go back to Jaslyn Huerta.

Melissa Starr and Ann Wheeler will be followed by Diora Rustambakva.

Jocelyn, thanks for waiting.

Hey, thank you for keeping the public hearing open so late.

I really appreciate it.

I'm Jocelyn Huerta.

I'm a voter living in District 3, and I'd like to echo what the overwhelming majority of callers are demanding.

I'm calling to request that you uphold your commitment to defund the SPD's 2021 budget by at least 50 percent.

At least 50 percent.

It's important to reinvest that money into Seattle's Black and Brown communities and fund alternative community led safety solutions.

So on a personal note over the last year I've gone out to protest and say that Black Lives Matter and I've been tear gassed.

I've been maced.

I've been cut up by exploding CS canisters.

They shoot right at us.

In fact, every time city council commits to defunding the police, they act out violently at the community, as I've seen and experienced firsthand.

It's pretty scary.

But I'm happy to go out there.

And not because I love being tear gassed.

I obviously hate being tear gassed.

It burns.

And when you sweat, it burns again.

And so that's a fact for those at home.

Also, the police will, like, try to hit you with their bikes, and it's terrifying to run, but also try not to, like, run over people as the cops are chasing you.

Horrifying experience.