Seattle City Council 11/30/2020

Good afternoon, everyone.

The November 30th, 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's 2 o'clock PM.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Mosqueda?

Present.

Council Member Peterson?

Here.

Council Member Sawant?

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Eight present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations today, so we'll move to approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of November 23rd, 2020 have been reviewed.

If there's no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Adoption of the referral calendar.

If there's no objection, the proposed introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

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

Approval of the agenda.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

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

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

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

However, as a reminder, the City Council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods.

At any point, if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And before you speak, the speaker must press star six in order to have us hear them.

So again, you will hear a prompt if you have been unmuted, and then you will press star six in order for us to be able to hear you.

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

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

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their allotted time.

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

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

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

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

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

Again, please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.

And the first speaker today, oh, excuse me, will be, oops, Castille Haitar followed by Howard Gale.

Hi, my name is Castile Hightower.

In 2004, my brother Herbert Hightower Jr. was killed by Seattle police while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Our family was torn apart and we are still searching for answers.

Answers that the Seattle police have failed to give us since we requested a 16-year-old records of 100 days ago.

We continue to receive the same copy and page answer each time the release date passes.

I'm asking for the city council support in helping my family find answers as to what happened to my brother and urge all the council members to sign the letter drafted by council members to want on behalf of my family.

letter asked the SPD and Mayor Janey Deggart to release my brother's record today, the last date they advised it was to be released.

We have gotten over 1,800 signatures on a petition requesting the release in multiple endorsements, including for missing and murdered indigenous families, Will Change, Slareshash Will, and communities who have suffered violence and complete lack of police accountability, like my family and other Black and Brown community members have.

Your support in bringing some healing and answers to my family will be much appreciated.

It will be a small step towards real accountability to the community.

All the families whose loved ones have been killed at the hands of Seattle Police deserve answers and accountability.

And I speak in solidarity with all of them.

Council members, please sign the letter.

And thank you, Council Members DeWine and our office for the support you have already given in circulating the letter and helping put together the petition.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Howard Gale, followed by Dan Roach.

Hi, good afternoon.

Howard Dale, District 7, commenting on police reform and accountability.

As you just heard from Castile, there's a letter before you today trying to get unstuck the fact that SPD has not been providing public records.

Herbert Hightower, Jr., killed in 2004, was a person of color in severe mental health crisis, as were many of the 27 people killed by SPD over just the last nine years.

including Charlena Lyles, Danny Rodriguez, Ryan Smith, Sean Lee Fur, and most recently, Terry Kaver, just this last May.

They were all people of color in mental health crisis, brandishing knives.

What is notable in all these cases are two things.

Our current police accountability system has never provided answers or justice to their families and loved ones.

And the current changes to public policy, both those enacted and those proposed by the council, would have made absolutely no difference in the outcome of these cases.

In every one of these cases, regardless of proposed public safety changes, an officer with a gun would have been called to the scene and an officer with a gun would have shot the person dead.

This doesn't happen in the United Kingdom.

It happens routinely in the United States.

It should also be noted that at this morning's council briefing, it was incorrectly claimed that the Seattle Police Department could not prioritize the release of these public records.

That is simply not true.

The Washington Administrative Code 44-14-04005 actually says agency has flexibility to prioritize its responses to be most efficient to all requesters.

An agency cannot simply prioritize based on the content of the person, but they can prioritize based on the simplicity of the request.

And in this case, it's a very limited and specific request.

So again, I would ask that the council do everything in its power to make sure these records are released.

Thank you.

Okay, next up is Dan Roach.

And I do have one speaker, Jim Johnson, who is registered but not present.

So Dan, Dan Roach, please.

Thank you for your thank you for allowing me to speak.

My name is Dan Roach and I'm here to support Castile Hightower in finding out the information she needs to find for her brother Herbert Hightower and finding justice for him and so that they can have closure for their family.

I find it egregious that the Seattle Police Department can't release the records that are simply should be a matter of public record.

It kind of reminds me of the Invisible Institute's battle in Chicago of 10 years of court battle just to get the records for police misconduct.

We are having a struggle with having our elected officials and our police officers to be held accountable.

I find it that if we are, if you're working as a public worker, as far as serving for the public, you should be having transparency as your first rule in your employment.

And the fact that we are struggling just to get a letter is outrageous.

So I want to thank council members for one, for all she does for fighting for justice, for all those who are being put upon by the system that we currently exist under.

The fact that 1,850 people have signed a petition to ask for them to release the records that affect these families, and still today we have not done it, it only leads one to believe that there is something to hide.

If there's nothing to hide, it would be easy to be transparent.

I want to thank Shama for that.

And I want to encourage everyone to keep fighting and keep resisting because the only way it's going to change is if we all are involved and we demand change.

I want to thank you for your time and thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you for calling in today.

Let me recheck to see if we have any other speakers pre-registered and present.

Just a moment.

We do not have any additional individuals who have signed up and are showing up as present.

So I'm going to go ahead and close out the public comment period.

We'll go ahead and dig into our items of business for today.

The first step is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title into the record?

Council Bill 119957, a property of mine to face out of claims for the week of November 16th, 2020 through November 20th, 2020, and order in payment thereof.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 119957. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Are there any comments?

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

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Committee reports of the City Council.

Next up is item one.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record.

Item one, Council Bill 119907 relating to land use and zoning.

extending for six months a moratorium established by Ordinance 125-764 and extended by Ordinances 126-006 and 126-090 on the filing, acceptance, processing, and or approval of any application to establish a new principle or accessory use or change of principle or accessory use for any site currently used as a mobile home park as defined in Section 23.84A.032 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, for reading that into the record.

I move to pass Council Bill 119907. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Council Member Struss, you're listed as a prime sponsor of the bill and are recognized in order to address this item.

And then I will call for general comments by any other Council Members.

Council Member Struss.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

This legislation would extend the existing moratorium on redeveloping manufactured home parks by an additional six months.

We held a public hearing on this legislation two weeks ago at full council and did not pass this bill last week as due to the budget being passed and taking up most of our priority time.

The City Council first adopted this moratorium in January 2019 and has renewed it twice.

The current moratorium that is enacted expires on January 8. And so an extension requires 30 days to take effect, which is why it's before us today in an expedited manner.

In adopting the original moratorium, council expressed its intention to consider permanent regulations to preserve mobile home parks and laid out a work plan for doing so.

In collaboration with the Department of Construction and Inspection and the Office of Planning and Community Development, this plan is being worked on right now.

This legislation before us today would extend the moratorium for an additional six months to allow that work to be completed.

As I've shared before, my office has been working closely with Councilmember Juarez who has been taking a lead role in this effort over the last number of months.

And she's been working on it for years.

I've been working on it for the last year.

We expect to co-sponsor together that permanent legislation that will adopt the permanent regulations in the first quarter of next year, which is why this final extension of the moratorium the temporary moratorium is important so that we can finalize those last details on a permanent fix.

Our offices are also in contact with residents of Halcyon Mobile Home Park, as well as relevant city departments informing how those final steps are taken.

I want to thank Council Member Juarez for her ongoing attention to resolving this issue in a meaningful way.

Not being a lawyer, it is very helpful to have a smart lawyer on the team.

and for her work making sure that it was on the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee work plan as a top priority this year.

Thank you, Council President, thank you, members of the board, thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Other business.

Colleagues, we discussed this morning during the council briefing meeting that council members to want will have a matter for us to consider during other business.

Again, this is related to a letter to Chief Diaz on pending public records requests relating to the shooting of Herbert Hightower Jr. in 2004. Signatures will need to be affixed to the letter, as I mentioned this morning during council briefing, and I will ask the clerk to call the roll to confirm which council member signatures may be affixed to it by Council Member Sawant's office.

But first, we'll go ahead and hear from Council Member Sawant in terms of the letter that I just described, and then we will go ahead and open it up for discussion and any additional questions before I ask the clerk to call the roll.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Gonzalez, and I appreciate that introduction.

As we discussed in the council briefing this morning, I'm circulating four signatures to the letter to Police Department Chief Diaz requesting that the department urgently compile and release all their records regarding the death of Herbert Hightower Jr., who was fatally shot by Seattle police in 2004 while experiencing a mental health crisis.

These public records were requested in August on behalf of the Hightower family and the Justice for Herbert Hightower Jr. movement.

We also just heard from Castile Hightower, the sister of Herbert Hightower, and also we heard from community supporters.

My office has had many discussions with Castile, who has reported that the SPD responded to their public records request with delay after delay, first promising them September 21st, then October 14th, and November 5th, and now November 30th, which we are, you know, we are at November 30th today, and as of last night, she had still not received them.

It is understandable that old records would require some time to recover from archives, but It is unacceptable to make this family wait months to release records about the deaths of their loved one.

But I also agree with Castile.

This is not only about the Hightower family.

It's about all the families of others who have lost their lives at the hands of the police.

I understand the police department has argued that they are unable to respond to public disclosure requests quicker than several months.

And while there may be some issues there, I do honestly find it incredible that a $350 million a year department cannot provide public documents in a timely manner, especially in the context of the systematic issues that we have seen that have been revealed by much of the process that happened in the wake of the John T. Williams death many years ago, but also that have been highlighted nationwide in the George Floyd movement this year.

And as a matter of fact, I think we can safely say that if we had had real police accountability, we would not be in the situation in the first place.

As I mentioned this morning, The Hightower family is now supported by more than 1,850 community members who have signed a petition demanding that the police release the public records.

And I really look forward to all council members supporting and signing this letter.

And last but not least, I greatly appreciate all the input from Council Member Herbold.

And as I said before, all of the edits suggested by Council Member Herbold's office have been incorporated in the final draft of the letter.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant for those remarks and introduction to the letter.

Colleagues, are there any questions or additional comments before I request that the clerk call the roll?

Okay, looks like there are no additional, oh, okay.

Council Member Herbold, please.

So sorry, I had both my mute and my video off.

I just want to make note that we may have all seen a recent Seattle Times editorial that notes that the Seattle Police Department had, as of November 16th, 2,412 open records requests, and officials had completed 6,202 requests since the beginning of the year, and is on track to receive about 9,000 total records requests this year.

As I noted this morning, I have discussed this letter requesting public records related to this tragic 2004 death of Mr. Hightower at the hands of police during a mental health episode.

I discussed the letter with Chief Diaz, who has explained that they cannot legally prioritize some cases over others.

In addition to staffing challenges associated with responding to public disclosure requests of the volume that I described earlier, SPD also has technological barriers to efficiency in processing public disclosure responses.

In 2015, the city auditor published an audit of the Seattle Police Department's public disclosure process.

Every year, the city auditor publishes a report on I've asked some follow-up questions to the Seattle Police Department.

First, I've asked whether or not the police department has been able to procure access to a more efficient system for reviewing emails as they committed to doing and is identified in the 2020 city auditor's report as a pending action for SPD.

And then secondly, I've asked whether or not SPD has been able to procure a new in-car video system in 2020. the city auditor's report identifies in 2019 as a pending action, this new video car system, in-car video system will be able to provide computer-aided design integration and cloud-based storage that will reduce delivery and processing times by limiting the use of disks and relying on cloud sharing to transfer data.

So we'll definitely share with council members and the public what I learned because, again, these public disclosure processes are very important for transparency for the public, for people who are of crime, suspects of crime, and as well, to members of the press who have also rightfully noted concern with the amount of time that it takes to respond to public disclosure requests of the police department.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, for those comments.

Are there any additional questions or comments before I request that the roll be called?

Okay, Council Member Sawant, anything else to add?

No, nothing.

Okay, thank you so much.

Okay, colleagues, we're gonna go ahead and close out discussion of this particular item.

Again, colleagues, we are about to ask the clerk to call the roll to determine which council members would like to affix their signature to the letter presented to the full city council by Council Member Sawant directed to Chief Diaz on a pending public records request relating to the shooting of Herbert Hightower Jr. in 2004. The letter has been circulated and has been revised since it was initially circulated by Councilmember Solan.

So this is an opportunity for you all to indicate whether or not you'd like to have your signature affixed to the letter.

So without further ado, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter as described and presented by council member Sawant.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

President Gonzales.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, the letter will be prepared with the signature of all nine council members.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant, for presenting us an opportunity to sign the letter, and thank you for working closely with Council Member Herbold on making some of those revisions.

Appreciate it.

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

Okay, hearing none, colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, December 7th at two o'clock p.m.

I do hope that all of you have a wonderful afternoon and a good rest of your week.

See a lot of you in committees this week.

So for now, we are adjourned.

Thank you, colleagues.