Thank you.
All right.
Good afternoon, everyone.
The April 19th, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will now come to order.
It's 2 o'clock p.m.
I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Herbold?
Juarez?
Here.
Lewis?
Present.
Morales?
Here.
Mosqueda?
Present.
Peterson?
Here.
Sawant?
Present.
Council President Gonzalez?
Here.
Seven present.
Thank you so much.
Colleagues, today, as I mentioned this morning during council briefing, I have a proclamation honoring one of our distinguished community members, Kwa Pham.
I will present the proclamation and then I will open the floor for comments for any other council members who may wish to make comments about this proclamation.
So this proclamation is in honor of Khoa Pham of the Phoboc family.
Khoa passed away last month at the age of 35 from heart disease, and this proclamation marks April 21st, his birthday, as Khoa Pham Day.
And we do have his sister Yanvi on with us today in the Zoom.
And so I'm going to go ahead and just read directly from the proclamation.
And then we are going to have an opportunity to take and hear comments from any council members.
And then, of course, we will allow Yanvi and welcome her to accept the proclamation and to make any remarks to us and members of the viewing public.
Whereas Khoa Pham was an entrepreneur, restaurateur, community advocate, philanthropist, and dog lover, and whereas Khoa Pham was the only son of the Pho Bac family, the first Pho restaurant in Seattle established in 1982, became the co-owner of Pho Bac in 2008, and served as CFO of the company.
And whereas Khoa Pham was committed to uplifting dozens of businesses and nonprofits in Little Saigon and Chinatown International District, making it a better place to live for all ages.
And whereas he shaped the efforts to bring Little Saigon from dream to reality, Khoa Pham treasured Little Saigon, and he was a vibrant community business leader among the Vietnamese American community.
And whereas he built bridges and helped many people connect to each other in Little Saigon and Chinatown International District, his generosity and heart for service impacted the community in a big way.
And whereas he loved the CID in Little Saigon, he helped shape the bustling vibe of the neighborhood.
Khoa was a big donor and contributor to Friends of Little Saigon and a CID business relief fund during COVID-19.
He was an innovative genius and always available and willing to volunteer his time from events to boarding up windows of other businesses.
And whereas Khoa was a generous soul and left a massive imprint on the CID, from business advice to manual labor, he would do anything anyone needed help with.
And whereas he committed his life to the Vietnamese American community and Little Saigon, He wanted to grow and enhance the neighborhood for his community to be proud of and enjoy for generations.
The Foback family will do their best to continue his vision and legacy.
Now, therefore, the mayor and the Seattle City Council proclaim Wednesday, April 21st, 2021 to be Quaff Man Day.
So it is my honor to be able to bring forward this proclamation and I know that he is deeply missed by his family, friends, and community members.
And I'm really sending many of my thoughts and our hearts are collectively heavy for the family and appreciate the opportunity to be able to bring this important proclamation forward to acknowledge his contributions to the community.
Are there any other comments on the proclamation before I suspend the rules?
Hearing none, if there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow Yen Vy Pham to accept the proclamation and provide remarks.
All right, hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and I'm going to welcome Yen Vy to the city council meeting officially.
And I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Yen Vy to accept the proclamation and to provide any remarks to the city council and the viewing public.
Hello.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Hi.
Good afternoon.
We're good.
Thanks for being with us, Yanvi.
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor to be in this meeting and for you guys to even acknowledge this and for us to be in this combination, it's really, really thoughtful.
Great.
Anything else you wanted to say about your brother in particular or anything else before we
I think you guys covered it really well.
No, I don't.
I think what the publisher said, it just covers everything.
And I'm glad to share this time with you guys to get to know him or just know what he did for the community and for our family.
And I hope you guys have a good rest of the day.
Thanks, Yanvi.
We appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day.
We know that you have a lot on your plate, no pun intended, and appreciate appreciate all that you also do for our community.
And again, our thoughts are with you and your family as you continue to not just only mourn his loss, but celebrate his legacy and his life.
And we look forward to continuing to support you and your family and all that you do in our community.
Thank you so much.
But I do want to see everyone at Hello Anne for coffee in the morning.
So please come by and I'll see you guys then.
All right.
Thanks, Yemi.
We'll see you there.
Bye bye.
Bye, guys.
Thanks, everyone, for that opportunity.
We're going to go ahead and move to other items of business.
Next up is approval of the minutes.
There are no minutes presented for approval today, so we're going to move to approval of the introduction and referral calendar.
If there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Colleagues at this time, we are going to start with public comment.
I did want to acknowledge that we've been joined by council member herbal.
Thank you so much for joining us.
And let's go ahead and start with public comment.
I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.
It does remain our strong intent to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.
However, as a reminder, the City Council does reserve 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'll moderate the public comment period.
The public comment period for today is scheduled to be 20 minutes, and each speaker will have two minutes to address the City Council.
Speakers are going to be called upon in the order in which they register to provide public comment On the council's website, each speaker must call in from the phone number used for this registration and using the meeting phone number ID and Pasco that was emailed to them upon confirmation.
This is different than the general meeting listen line call-in information.
So again, if you are on standby waiting to be called on, make sure that you are using the same phone number that you used for registration and that you are calling into the meeting phone number with the ID and passcode that was emailed to you upon confirmation of your registration.
Again, I'll call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the Council's website.
If you've not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to council's website at seattle.gov forward slash council.
The public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.
Once I call on you, staff will unmute your microphone and you'll hear a prompt of you have been unmuted.
That will be your cue that it's your turn to press star six and then begin speaking.
You can begin speaking by stating your name.
The item that you are addressing and as a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or on the council support 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 needed to allow us to call on the next speaker.
Once you have completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line, and if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so on Seattle Channel or any one of the listening options listed on the agenda.
Okay, public comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.
Please remember to press star six after you have heard the prompt if you have been unmuted.
First up is Howard Gale, followed by Cynthia Spice.
Howard, welcome.
Good afternoon.
Howard Gale, District 7, commenting on continuing police abuse and failed accountability.
On today's agenda, there are two appointments to the Community Police Commission.
In 2016, the Seton Hall Law Review published a comprehensive review of civilian oversight among the 50 largest U.S. police departments.
They concluded, quote, a weak civilian review board is worse than no civilian review board because it gives the illusion of independent accountability, but actually provides little to no accountability.
A weak Civilian Review Board can lead to an increase in community resentment." In the last five years, numerous other academic studies have concluded the same. A Civilian Review Board without real powers, powers to investigate, discipline, and set policy, will actually serve to undercut accountability and community trust. We see exactly this in Seattle, where the CPC, in its ninth year continues to receive no public comment beyond mine and from the folks that I work with, indicating no community trust in this body. Indeed, why should there be when just two months ago, the CPC voted unanimously to not support the full civilianization of investigations of police in complete contradiction to overwhelming community input that this was necessary? Why should the community have faith or trust in the CPC when, with very rare exceptions, They have spent over eight years failing to have open meetings with community to garner input, even prohibiting public comment at regular meetings until very recently. Why should the community have faith or trust in the CPC when, after 29 killings by the SBD, they have been complicit in the whitewashing of investigations into these killings? Why should the community have faith or trust in the CPC when, as we approach the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder, the CPC has been silent as Seattle police escape any real accountability beyond reprimands for their brutal treatment of protesters over the last year? We need full civilian control of police oversight, as they have now in Nashville, Portland, Oakland, and other U.S. cities. Why not here?
Thank you.
The next speaker is Cynthia, followed by David Haynes.
Hi, I'm Cynthia Spies, an independent security researcher and District 6 resident.
My comments are on the five SPD surveillance technologies.
I support both proposed amendments.
However, many gaps remain.
There are still 30 outstanding issues I informed City Council about across these five surveillance technologies.
Similarly, there are still 24 unheeded recommendations out of 26 given to City Council by the Community Surveillance Working Group via their Privacy and Civil Liberties Impact Assessments covering these technologies.
Both these totals even give the benefit of the doubt where City Council only took the step of requesting reports.
So even with full credit applied to those partial steps, City Council has ignored 92% of the Community Surveillance Working Group's recommendations.
Some of the working groups' recommendations include meager changes, such as for policy, but even those have not been heeded by city council.
Why even have the working group if you aren't going to listen to them?
I know why.
It's so that when you pass these bills, you can pat yourself on the back for engaging with stakeholders who represent minority groups targeted by surveillance.
What that leaves out is that you engage with them, requiring their time and their effort in good faith, only to turn around and throw their recommendations in the trash.
These surveillance technologies are a mess, Take the automated license plate readers or ALTR for parking enforcement.
Just like ALTR for patrol, this system has never been security reviewed, never been audited, and never been assessed for its efficacy.
On top of that, this council bill would permit the continued commingling of data by the sharing of non-hits to SPD's patrol system.
Parking enforcement exists to enforce parking regulations.
This bill gives the go-ahead to turn parking enforcement into an arm of surveillance data gathering of innocent individuals on behalf of SPD.
We would never find it okay if Seattle Parks and Recreation were to install ALPR cameras to record vehicles and provide that data to SPD.
Why is it okay for parking enforcement functionality to conduct mass location surveillance?
Please stop this data sharing.
Listen to the working group and the public.
Please see my emails.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next up is David Haynes.
And I have Abe Getney and Ann Chloe Wombre signed up and registered, but showing up is not present.
Again, Abe and Ann Chloe, you might want to check to make sure you're calling in with the number that you registered for and double check that you're calling in to the appropriate number and not the listening line.
Next up is David Haynes.
Go ahead.
Hi.
Thank you.
Can you hear me?
We can.
All right.
First, I would like to say we need the American Recovery Act money to be used to solve the homeless crisis.
Last night, a black guy burst into a white female encampment in a warehouse downtown and ransacked, stole all the computers, phones, and anything he could sell, and then pulled his pants down, attempting to rape them.
There's too many innocent homeless people being racially discriminated against while all these evil predatory criminals have destroyed lives and won't let you live in peace and are constantly bothering and stealing.
We have to alleviate the oppression within the local communities.
Neighbors are suffering because the drug pushers have been exempted from jail by the mayor and council, and they've destroyed so many people's lives, creating a bunch of junkie thieves turning against the entire community, while the city council wants to prioritize housing, motel vouchers, and services for the drug pushers and the reoffending junkie thieves on a self-destructive suicidal path, while policies and social welfare are purposely discriminating against innocent White House citizens.
Where's the moral compass?
It certainly isn't coming from the leadership.
Secondly, I'm really concerned about the conflict of interest taking place inside city council when it comes to paid activists used as a broker between council support and protection for politically connected donors and owners of multi-million dollar taxpayer finance contracts that need investigation because money is used as a re-election apparatus for Democrats at expense of innocent poor citizens, subhuman mistreated by service providers, who helped organize votes to paid operatives, also paid by city council, to redirect local grassroots activists, cheating innocent Americans.
I'll give you an example.
Two years ago, February 2008, I waited two and a half hours to speak first and city council about what to do about solving the homeless crisis.
And one of the city council's paid off with who's also a union leader who takes money from sharing other contract owners was allowed to speak up in a city council chambers 10 minutes early and fill in 22 names denying me to speak.
Okay, I am looking at my public comment sign up sheets to, sorry folks, give me just a minute.
There we go.
I am looking for one last time, Abe Getney and Anne-Chloe Wombrey, both are showing up as not present on my public comment sign-up sheet.
So again, Abe and Anne-Chloe, if you are listening, you'll need to make sure that you dialed into the proper number, not the listening line.
And if you show up here in the next couple of seconds, I'll make sure to call on you and give you an opportunity to give public comment.
All right.
I am not seeing their status change, so we're going to go ahead and close out public comment and begin on other items of business on our agenda.
First up is payment of the bills.
Will the clerk please read the title?
Council Bill 120047, an ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims for the week of April 5th, 2021 through April 9th, 2021, and ordering the payment thereof.
Thank you, I moved to pass Council Bill 12047. Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you, it's been moved and seconded at the bill pass.
Are there any comments?
Hearing none, will the will the clerk please call the role in the passage of the bill?
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Council Member Juarez?
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Yes, aye.
Peterson?
Yes.
Sawant?
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez?
Aye.
Seven in favor.
None opposed.
Thank you.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my bat?
Will the clerk please read item one into the record?
The report of the city council, agenda item one, council bill 120034, an ordinance relating to city employment, authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Seattle and Protech 17 strategic advisor legislative bargaining unit, to be effective January 1st, 2019 to December 31st, 2021.
Thank you so much.
Colleagues, this is Council Bill 12034. It authorizes the city to execute a collective bargaining agreement with PROTEC 17 Legislative Analyst Unit, otherwise known as the Central Staff Analyst Bargaining Unit.
This is a new collective bargaining agreement and the first ever for the Legislative Department of the City of Seattle.
The Legislative Analyst Unit is comprised of approximately 15 regularly appointed city employees who certified ProTech 17 as their bargaining agent in July of 2020. This collective bargaining agreement is a three-year agreement on wages, benefits, hours, and other working conditions from January 1st, 2019 through December 31st, 2021. It provides four wage adjustments of 4% in 2019, 3.6% in 2020, and 2.9% in 2021. The terms and conditions of this collective bargaining agreement were established consistent with the parameters approved by the Labor Relations Policy Committee and the related Seattle Municipal Code.
I encourage my council colleagues to support the passage of this council bill, and in doing so, authorize the execution of this collective bargaining agreement with the Legislative Analyst Bargaining Unit, represented by PROTEC-17.
I'm happy to hear any comments or take any questions.
Hearing none, I move to pass Council Bill 1203.
Sorry, President Gonzalez, I was late.
Oh, that's okay.
Go ahead, Council Member Sawant.
Thank you.
I am, of course, really happy to vote yes on this bill authorizing the execution of the union contract between Protech 17 and the city administration to represent the hardworking people in central staff.
Unionizing is crucial for all workers.
As an individual worker, you have little to no power to push for your rights.
But when you get organized into a union, you have the power to shut your workplace down.
And that is real power to bring your boss to the negotiating table as you fight for better pay and working conditions.
Getting a first contract is historically one of the most difficult and important steps in successfully unionizing the workplace, so as a union member myself, I want to congratulate central staff and Protech 17 on this step forward.
Ultimately, a union is its members, and unions are only as strong as their members are union activists.
In the labor movement, we have seen At the moment, you sign a contract, you start to see things that may go wrong with it.
You need to start preparing for the next contract negotiations.
Ultimately, it will be up to the union members to decide what to fight for in a contract.
And just speaking as a council member who fights alongside social movements and the labor movement, I'm very aware of the work that central staff do in order to put the interests of ordinary working people and marginalized communities forward.
All the victories that we have won through the legislation from our office and from our movement, all of them have the central staff's imprint on it.
And that is part of the historical and political record.
And I wanted to thank them for all the work that they do.
And I also understand that workload and work hours is that is something that needs to be taken up for them in the next round of contract negotiations, because I know that that is an important part of what central staff are trying to achieve.
And it is certainly something that the union has the power to bargain and I wanted to stand in solidarity with all the union members in the central staff.
Just a recommendation, finally, I have for unions bargaining this and other union contracts is to do everything in their power to remove no-strike clauses.
Most union contracts in the U.S. today have no-strike clauses that prohibit strikes during the contract.
That was not always the case, and it's unfortunate because it abandons one of the most important forms of worker power in advance.
Obviously, that is not something that is concretely posed right now, but in general, as a general point, I think it's important in the labor movement to remove no-strike clauses or not accept no-strike clauses.
And retaining the option of a strike is always important for the power of a union to resolve grievances and to fight for their members on other issues.
So I just wanted to make that general comment while congratulating central staff on winning their first contract, and I'm happy to vote yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Sawant.
And colleagues, I apologize.
I just realized that things were a little out of order on my script, so I should have moved the bill before speaking to it, and I failed to do that.
So my apologies for that.
So I'm going to now move to pass Council Bill 12034. Is there a second?
Thank you so much.
It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.
As sponsor of the bill, I already addressed it a little out of order.
Again, apologies for doing that.
And we just heard from Council Member Sawant, her comments, but I do want to offer yet another opportunity for anyone else who might have comments on the bill.
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Rebold?
Yes.
Warren.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Seven in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Will the clerk please read item two into the record?
Agenda item two, council bill 120035, an ordinance relating to the city light department, amending terms and conditions of pertaining to the emergency bill assistance program and temporarily expanding access to assistance to certain eligible households for a limited time in response to the COVID-19 emergency, and amending section 21.49.04.042 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
Thank you so much.
I move to pass Council Bill 12035. Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.
Council Member Peterson, you're the sponsor of the bill, so I'm going to hand it over to you to walk us through the legislation.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, as I mentioned at Council briefing this morning, Council Bill 120035 and Council Bill 120036 are two straightforward refinements to key COVID relief measures from both City Light and Seattle Public Utilities.
Both council bills were posted on our introduction referral calendar a week ago, and they simply expand the utilities emergency assistance programs for struggling ratepayers for 2021. Our central staff analysts circulated a brief memo about both bills last week.
In short, both bills are a helpful expansion of the emergency assistance programs during these difficult economic times.
These ordinances are required even for these simple modifications just for 2021. I encourage my colleagues to support both bills today to benefit low-income ratepayers.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Her vote.
Yes.
Juarez I. Louis yes.
Morales yes.
Mosqueda I. Peterson yes.
So want yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, nine opposed.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Will the clerk please read item three into the record.
Agenda item three, council bill 120036, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities Emergency Assistance Program, temporarily expanding access to assistance and amending section 21.76.065 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
Thank you.
I move to pass Council Bill 120036. Is there a second?
Second.
It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.
Council Member Peterson, you're also the sponsor of this bill.
I'm going to hand it back over to you to describe the legislation.
Thank you, Council President and colleagues.
This is just the second bill that I just spoke to.
The first bill was Seattle City Lights program, and this is the program, the Emergency Assistance Program for Seattle Public Utilities.
I recommend passage.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Council Member Herbold, please.
Thank you.
Just real briefly, I want to thank both of the utilities for bringing these forward.
It's so important to assist customers who are behind on their bills.
Even though we have a no shutoff policy, we know that overdue utility bills could be used to evict a tenant after the moratorium is lifted, so making it possible for people to get current on their bills now is really important.
For customers who have accessed the program over the course of the year, I know many folks were told that they could only access the assistance once a year.
We've confirmed with both Seattle Public Utilities and City Light that customers who have already received assistance this year will actually be contacted again.
to let them know that they can now utilize the assistance a second time.
And I just really appreciate that extra attention, not only to the need, but to the outreach to let folks know that the policies have changed.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Aye.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzales.
Aye.
Eight 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.
Will the clerk please read item four into the record.
The report of the Governance and Education Committee, agenda item four, resolution 32002, a resolution supporting renewal of King County's Best Starts for Kids Levy.
The committee recommends a resolution be adopted.
Thank you so much.
As chair of the committee, I'm going to go ahead and provide the committee report.
Colleagues, as I mentioned this morning during council briefing, I'm excited to have this resolution before us today for our collective consideration.
At Tuesday's Governance and Education Committee, we did have a briefing about the current status of Best Starts for Kids.
That briefing was delivered to us by King County.
We had an opportunity to hear about all the great work and significant infusion of child care access for families with children under five, including home-based visiting programs for new parents and supports and services for homelessness prevention for thousands of young people and their families.
All of these programs are features in the Best Starts for Kids levy renewal.
This, of course, is in addition to many other services that will help to build strong children, families, and communities.
The resolution before us today creates an opportunity for the city of Seattle to express its support of the renewal of the Best Art for Kids levy at the county and would encourage your yes vote on this resolution.
Are there any additional comments on the resolution?
Madam President.
Council Member Mosqueda, please.
Thank you very much, Madam President.
I just wanted to say how much I'm looking forward to Passing this today and I had the great fortune of being part of the regional body that had the chance to consider this legislation as part of the county's regional, excuse me, part of the county's regional efforts to consider this policy and want to thank all of the providers who engaged in making this policy.
more applicable to our region's providers, especially the folks from SEIU 925. I wanted to thank them for their diligent work to care for our kiddos and looking forward to having this passed today and expanding access and services across our region.
Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for that and for your work on the Regional Policy Committee as they were deliberating the structure of the levy renewal.
I, too, am very supportive of this.
I know that the levy has funded over 570 programs, and it's reached over 500,000 babies, children, youth, and families throughout the county with community-driven programming, and we have an opportunity to renew this really important investment in those families and expand the base of services provided to families across the region and really excited to have an opportunity to vote yes on this and to have the concurrence of Mayor Durgan as well.
Any additional comments?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?
For both?
Yes.
Warren.
I. Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Let's get a.
I.
Peterson.
Yes.
So want yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
I eat in favor not opposed.
The resolution is adopted in the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Will the clerk please read items five and six into the record?
Agenda items five and six, appointments 1868 and 1869. The appointment of Zachary Pekelas Jones as member of Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term to December 31st, 2022. And the appointment of Kristen A. Haas as member of Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term to December 31st, 2023. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.
Thank you so much as chair of this committee.
I'll go ahead and address these recommendations.
We did have an opportunity to hear from both appointees at the governance and education committee meeting last week.
Of course, the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission is the body responsible for both governing and enforcement related to the ethics code for employees and elected officials at the City of Seattle.
And they also monitor many of the new innovative election laws and programs applicable to our local elections, including the implementation and refinement of the Democracy Voucher Program.
Zachary Michaelis Jones is seeking an appointment via the mayor's office.
He would serve a term from January 1st, 2020 through January 31st, 2022. He is currently serving as an assistant attorney general in the Complex Litigation Division.
He has expertise in elections law and voter rights laws, having worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division.
of the voting section of the U.S.
Department of Justice.
He's litigated many cases at the federal level enforcing voting rights law and investigating potential voting rights violations.
Before going to law school, he was a teacher in Brooklyn, New York with Teach for America and a senior associate at the Urban Education Leaders Internship Program in the District of Columbia Public Schools.
And he is excited to be able to lend his experience to the Seattle Ethics and Relations Committee In this new role, if appointed by the committee, we did have an opportunity to ask him some questions and hear his responses.
And the committee recommends that the full council approve his appointment to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.
The second appointment, appointment 01869, is the appointment of Kristen A. Hawes, also to be a member of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.
This is also a mayoral recommended appointment that would go for the same term, January 1st, 2021. to December 31st, 2023. Kristen is a real estate attorney with the Summit Law Group.
But prior to that, she worked as a public defender in New York.
She is a Seattle native and actively engaged in her community through supporting her children's schools and coaching their basketball teams.
She attended Claremont McKenna College and NYU Law School and is interested in serving in the commission due to her strong interest in civic engagement and responsibility will bring and we believe that her responsibilities will bring a great perspective to the commission.
I'm happy to answer any questions about either of these appointments.
Hearing no additional comments or questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1-868 and 1-869.
Lewis.
Aye.
Morales.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Aye.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.
Will the clerk please read items seven and eight into the record?
The report of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, agenda items seven and eight, appointments 1872 and 1873. The appointments of Catherine Siebel and Lajaya A. Washington as members Community Police Commission for terms to December 31st, 2021. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.
Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.
You are the chair of this committee, and I'm going to hand it over to you to walk us through these appointments.
Thank you.
So Catherine Siebel serves as the Director of Public Policy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She works to develop and advocate for legislative priorities for NAMI Washington, that is the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She has served as a legislative and policy analyst for the Committee for Children, where she analyzed, tracked, and advocated for legislation related to social emergency learning and child sexual abuse and bully prevention at multi-state and federal levels.
She is a teaching associate at Columbia University School of Social Work when she was a teaching associate.
She suggested class content from a racial equity lens and she has an MSW with a public policy concentration from Columbia University.
LaJiah Washington serves as operations specialist for King County Equity Now, where her duties include tracking policy projects and participating in panels and community events.
Her professional experience includes working at Seattle CARES Mentoring.
CARES works to cultivate the genius of Black Children and Black Community Impact Alliance.
She served as the assistant to the deputy coroner in the city of Pasco's coroner's office, and she interned in the office of King County Council Member Larry Gossett.
LaJaya's volunteer experience includes the Urban League, the Central Area Chamber of Commerce and the Tyree Scott Freedom School.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are there any additional comments on these appointments?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1872 and 1873. Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Aye.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, nine opposed.
Thank you.
The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.
Will the clerk please read item nine into the record.
report of the Transportation and Utilities Committee, Agenda Item 9, Council Bill 120024, an ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting the surveillance impact report for the Seattle Police Department's use of 911 logging recorder technology.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.
I'm going to hand it over to you to walk us through the committee report.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, as we know, the Council adopted the surveillance impact reports on the existing technologies already being used by Seattle City Light and the Seattle Fire Department.
This is part of our required work to comply with the underlying surveillance ordinance adopted in 2017 and refined in 2018. To implement our cutting-edge surveillance ordinance, our existing technology and computer programs undergo an extensive review process by the executive departments, a community-led surveillance working group, and other stakeholders.
While technology is vital to enable local government to provide services more efficiently to the public, some technology can also have surveillance capabilities or privacy concerns that need to be evaluated with surveillance impact reports.
As promised, we took the single council bill containing the five existing police department technologies introduced February 22nd and broke it into five separate bills.
We heard them in our committee over several meetings, March 3rd, March 17, April 7. Thank you, committee members, for finalizing your amendments so that our city attorney's office could complete a thorough review of them.
On April 7th, our committee amended and then unanimously approved these five surveillance impact reports on existing SPD technologies.
And that's what's before us today for final adoption.
Council Bills 120024, 0025, 0026, 0027 and 0028. These five existing technologies are the 911 recording info, license plate readers for patrol, license plate readers for parking enforcement, computer-aided dispatch technology, and online crime reporting technology.
Based on some feedback after committee, Councilmember Herbold is further refining a couple of the bills today.
I support Councilmember Herbold's amendments.
These are the remainder of the so-called Group 2 technologies.
We also have Group 3 and Group 4 surveillance impact reports coming later this year, which again undergo a thorough review by our Information Technology Department and Surveillance Working Group.
The good news from an accountability perspective is that it's not over after council's approval of these ordinances, because then our city auditor and office of inspector general will continue to review the technologies after we've approved these reports.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.
Council Member Herbold, I understand you have an amendment to Council Bill 12024, so I'm going to hand it over to you to make your motion.
I move to amend council bill 120024 as presented on amendment one on the agenda.
Second.
It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on amendment one.
Council member Herbold, you are recognized in order to walk us through your amendment.
Thank you.
So this amendment adds a recital to the council bill recognizing the plan to transfer 911 dispatch to the new community safety and communication center.
and the need for an updated surveillance impact report to align with the new organizational structure once that occurs.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Are there any questions or comments on Amendment 1?
All right.
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1?
For both?
Yes.
Or as I.
Louis.
Yes.
Morales.
Council member.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mosqueda.
Hi.
Peterson.
Yes.
So want.
Yes.
Council president Gonzalez.
Hi.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
The motion carries.
The amendment is adopted and the amended bill is before the council.
Are there any additional comments on the bill as amended?
All right, hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the amended bill?
I'm sorry.
I'm a little slow.
No, that's all right.
Go ahead, Council Member Sawant.
Thank you so much, and apologies again.
My comments are for both the agenda items 10 and 11 of today's agenda, which are connected.
These agenda items approve the Seattle Police Department and parking enforcement's use of automatic license plate readers.
As the patrol car drives around with an automatic license plate reader, it automatically scans every license plate it sees, records the number, and compares it with a list of numbers it is looking out for.
To be clear, it scans and reads every license plate it sees, whether or not you are doing anything wrong or illegal.
It is the automated equivalent of facial recognition software being randomly used by the police on every face they see, and is an unacceptable infringement on privacy, in my view.
It is also important how the surveillance technology is being used.
According to this surveillance impact report, it is used to enforce Seattle's scoff law ordinance, which I voted against.
The scoff law ordinance criminalizes people for being poor, If you cannot pay your parking tickets, you are declared a scofflaw and the city boots or tows your car.
For people who rely on their vehicle to get to work, who are forced to live in their vehicles because of the housing affordability crisis, this can be particularly devastating.
With this technology, if the police drive past your car and you have unpaid parking tickets that you cannot afford, the computer will announce that you should be booted or towed.
even if you are parked legally at the time.
The surveillance impact report also says that this technology is used to find people with outstanding warrants.
Think about Dante Wright who was stopped first for expired plates and then for an outstanding warrant before he was killed.
This is technology used to allow the police to do more traffic stops like that.
No doubt proponents of this technology will point to uses like amber alert.
But the reality is you do not need a computer for serious issues like what we know which are we generate amber alert human beings will look can and will look for a car in an amber alert, you need to compute, you need the computerized of technology only when you want to scan everyone looking for minor things like unpaid parking tickets.
This is the technology of a surveillance state that prioritizes the power of the police over the privacy of ordinary citizens.
I will be voting no on items 10 and 11, authorizing the approval of this surveillance technology.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, colleagues, so we are now going to call the rule role on item 9, which is Council Bill 120024 in less than or any additional comments.
I apologize if I spoke out of turn.
I for some reason I.
That's why I was confused and got late anyway.
Well, that's OK, that's OK.
I just wanted to make sure that reorient us all to item 9. I appreciate the heads up on items 10 and 11. OK, well, the quick please call the ball in the passage of the amended bill.
Herbal.
Yes.
Whereas.
Lewis yes.
Morales Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Yes.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Will the clerk please read the title of item 10 into the record?
Agenda item 10, Council Bill 12025, an ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting the surveillance impact report for the Seattle Police Department's use of automated license plate reader technology.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, I'm gonna hand it over to you to address this item.
Thank you, Council President.
This is one of the five existing surveillance technologies that are used, and my comments earlier apply to this as well in terms of the lengthy process that each of the surveillance impact reports go through to get to this stage, and that the Inspector General, the Office of Inspector General, will be continuing to monitor the use of this technology.
I want to thank committee members for amending this ordinance in committee, which helped to address some of the concerns.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are there any, I'm sorry, I understand that Council Member Herbold has an amendment on this particular bill as well, so I'm going to hand it over to her to make her motion.
Thank you so much.
I move to amend Council Bill 120025 as presented on Amendment 1 on the agenda.
second.
It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on amendment one.
I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Herbold to walk us through amendment one.
Thank you.
So this amendment requests that the Seattle Police Department report no later than the end of the third quarter of 2021 on the feasibility of retaining records of non case-specific automated license plate reader data for no more than 48 hours.
This alters a previous amendment that I brought and was passed in committee.
That amendment asked SPD to consider retaining records for no more than seven days.
Since that committee meeting, we were contacted by the ACLU, a member of the work group, and they pointed out that their recommendation was actually for no more than 48 hours.
And so, amendment.
And this is consistent with the recommendation contained within the workgroup surveillance impact report.
Thank you.
Warren.
Aye.
Lewis.
Aye.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Yes.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
All in favor, none opposed.
The motion carries, the amendment is adopted, and the amended bill is now before the council.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Council Member Sawant, please.
Thank you.
Just wanted to clarify to members of the public who are watching that my previous comments were meant for this item and the next item.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Okay, any additional comments?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the amended bill?
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Aye.
Peterson?
Yes.
No.
Council President Gonzales.
Aye.
Seven in favor, one opposed.
The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Will the clerk read item 11 into the record?
Agenda item 11, council bill 120026. An ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting surveillance impact reports for the Seattle Police Department's use of parking enforcement systems, including automated license plate reader technology.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.
You are the chair of the committee, so I'm going to hand it back over to you to address this item.
Thank you, Council President.
So this is the third of the five items here, and this is where parking enforcement team uses this technology to do part of their work.
Council Member Swan spoke to this as well.
I want to thank the committee for the amendments that they made to make it stronger and for the work by the departments on answering all of our questions during committee.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
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?
Herbold?
Yes.
Torres?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Aye.
Mosqueda?
Aye.
Peterson.
Yes.
Sawant.
No.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Seven in favor, one opposed.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Will the clerk read item 12 into the record?
Agenda item 12, council bill 120027. an ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting the surveillance impact report for the Seattle Police Department's use of computer-aided dispatch technology.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Peterson.
Back to you to walk us through this bill.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, this is the fourth of the five bills, and this deals with the computer-aided dispatch technology and its basic use in terms of the 911 dispatch, and very important to how the police department operates and dispatches calls.
So we did ask questions during committee, and we got the answers we needed to move ahead, and we did amend it as well.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Any additional comments on this bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Aye.
Peterson.
Aye.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Item 13, will the clerk read item 13 into the record?
Agenda item 13, Council Bill 120028, an ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval and uses, and accepting the surveillance impact report for the Seattle Police Department's use of the CopLogic technology.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, back to you to walk us through this item.
Thank you, Council President.
So this is a technology used for online reporting.
It's online reporting for citizens as well as for small business owners.
We did have a lot of questions about this technology, especially from the standpoint of the small business owners reporting.
We had our questions answered.
We also amended the bill.
We had three amendments that passed at committee.
I want to thank Council Member Morales for her amendment in particular regarding having the Office of Inspector General provide more information as part of their review that continues beyond our passage of this ordinance.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
I'm not seeing any hands raised.
I did want to, just for the record, note that we did have a very robust conversation in committee about this particular technology.
In particular, I know that there are individuals who are concerned with, and I share the concerns, about the underlying policy issues related to particular areas where this information may be used.
But I received a lot of assurances and clear concise responses from the Department on where the lines are being drawn in terms of sharing information that could lead to prosecutions or usage in other way.
This information was also, the committee meeting was also really illustrative in the fact that we had quite a bit of conversation around sort of how do you, capture information that could lead to perhaps identifying patterns of disproportionate use of the program, but then wrestled with the idea that we don't want more information to be captured.
And that's the whole purpose of the surveillance impact report is to limit the capturing of that information.
So I think we still have some work to do in the policy areas related to some of these programs, but I feel comfortable with the surveillance impact report trying to thread the needle between what kind of information we're gathering and for what purpose, and look forward to supporting this bill based on that really robust conversation that we had an opportunity to have in Council Member Peterson's committee.
Any additional comments?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Are both?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Peterson.
Yes.
Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
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, this morning Council Member Herbold mentioned in Council briefing that she was bringing forward a letter for our signature relating to King County.
And so I am going to hand it over to her to introduce the matter before we ask for signatures.
Council Member Herbold.
so much.
So, um, last year to COVID the city and the county, uh, work to reduce the number of beds being used at the jail in order to maintain social distancing and prevent the spread of the virus.
Um, the city contract includes an 18 for, for the jail, uh, includes a $18 million commitment for an average daily population of 180 individuals.
The average daily population of King County jail has been on the decline for years.
And in 2020, because of the work I mentioned earlier, really focused on limiting the number of folks in the jail associated with mitigating COVID impacts.
The average daily population over the course of 2020 was 85 people.
With continued efforts to divert individuals out of incarceration, 75 is the estimate of what the city budget office realistically thinks we'll be using in 2021. So in response to a statement of legislative intent, CBO 4-A2, sponsored by Council President Gonzalez, the city and the county began negotiations to redirect funds from jail operations.
These conversations were informed by the city and the county's efforts to reimagine public safety and to ensure that those most disproportionately affected by the legal system and incarceration, receive the benefits from the redirection of funds.
The city and the county, with representatives from both councils, the mayor and the county executive, met several times, came to an agreement.
It's outlined in this letter before us today.
The joint letter, which you should have received last Friday, states in part that King County and Seattle share a goal to recognize and address the centuries-old style, both national and local, in which systemic racism disproportionately impoverishes communities of color and then criminalizes the poverty and poor health of those same communities through racially disproportionate uses of incarceration.
and the criminal legal system.
Understanding how systemic racism has impacted communities of color, most clearly in black, African-American, and indigenous communities, through a cycle of underinvestment in disproportionate policing and incarceration, the King County Executive, the Mayor of Seattle, and the undersigned members of the King County Council, whose districts include the City of Seattle, and the undersigned members of the Seattle City Council, seek to stop and reverse that cycle.
The joint letter of intent documents three commitments that will inform actions of the King County Executive, the Mayor, the King County Council, and the Seattle City Council in 2021 and 2022. mitigate impacts of institutionalized racism and address divestment from a system that impoverishes and then criminalizes the poverty of communities of color.
And those three commitments are divestment of $16 million over 2021 and 2022 from operations, investment of that $16 million for community-based health and housing programs for communities that are disproportionately affected by the legal system and incarceration.
And three, add a commitment to collaboration and transparency in the form of establishing the jail advisory group.
This group will center race and social justice The principles create a regular forum to determine the areas of interest and concern and exchange information and ideas how to address these interests and concerns, provide transparency on operations and protocols, really consider all recommendations for improvement in jail operations and the services provided to and fees paid by incarcerated individuals, work to identify, track, and respond performance measures, and identify opportunities for Seattle and King County to collaboratively pursue strategies to continue to decrease the average daily population, while also identifying priority programmatic improvements to operations and conditions.
In addition to Council President Gonzalez's leadership, that of Mayor Durkin, the City Budget Office, the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, the King County Executive, and the King County Council, I also want to thank Central Staffer Asha Chiron, Alex Clardy in my office, and Brianna Thomas in Council President Gonzalez's office for their work on this effort.
Thank you.
Well said, you covered all the ground there.
Councilmember Herbold, really appreciate it.
So colleagues, as we mentioned, signatures will need to be affixed to the letter sponsored by Councilmember Herbold relating to a joint letter with King County regarding improving community health by further divesting from incarceration.
Are there any additional comments on the letter before I ask the clerk to call the roll?
Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the King County and Seattle letter regarding improving community health by further divesting from incarceration.
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Aye.
Peterson?
Yes.
Salant?
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez?
Aye.
Eight in favor.
Thank you so much.
The signatures will be affixed to the letter.
Is there any other further business to come before the council?
Hearing no further business, colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.
Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, April 26th.
2021 at 2 o'clock PM.
I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.
We're adjourned.
Thanks, everyone.