Seattle City Council 9/9/19

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for being here in City Hall.

The September 9, 2019 City Council meeting of the full City Council will come to order.

It's 2 o'clock p.m.

I'm Bruce Harrell, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Gonzales?

Here.

Herbold?

Here.

Flores?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Here.

O'Brien?

Here.

Pacheco?

Here.

Sawant?

Here.

President Harrell?

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you very much.

At this point, I'll move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

I believe Council Member Sawant may have something to say about that.

Thank you, President Harrell.

I move to amend the proposed introduction and referral calendar by introducing Resolution 31907 entitled, quote, a resolution in support of the youth-led September 20th, 2019 global climate strike.

urging Seattle Public Schools to support its students' right to assemble and participate in the global climate strike, and affirming that City of Seattle employees may request unpaid leave for a day of conscience on September 20, 2019, and by referring it to the City Council for adoption on Monday, September 16, 2019. And I can say a few more things if I can get a...

Please, is there a second?

There's been a second.

Please go ahead and you can elaborate, Council Member Swan.

Thank you.

Just a few things.

The resolution is in collaboration with 350 Seattle and many of the youth climate activists who have been showing tremendous courage on this issue.

And as you know, many of them are doing Fridays for the Future events at the City Hall Plaza.

You may all remember the amazing student walkouts all around the world last spring to protest political inaction on climate change.

And those young organizers are now building for student walkouts as part of a global climate action later this month, and this resolution is intended to support those efforts.

And we intend to have a vote in the city council meeting next Monday in advance of the action.

It's been moved and seconded.

I'll have some discussion.

When I was informed about this, and certainly I'm supportive of what we're trying to do, I actually thought it was being referred to a committee.

I didn't realize it was going from full council to full council.

And so I'm just going to ask the chair and the proposer of the amendment I'm assuming this has gone through center staff and gone through law and gone through the appropriate channels before it gets to the full council Maybe you could talk about that a little bit.

Yes, it has gone through all the appropriate channels and we actually I didn't want to make a formal announcement, but we are working on having a discussion in my committee tomorrow on But I didn't want to make a formal announcement because we're still trying to arrange young people to be at the table.

Okay, and the resolution is being drafted and the council members should be able to see it by when?

We have copies.

Okay.

Sorry, I assumed...

They would be handed out by the clerk, but I can do it myself.

Okay, so it's been moved and seconded to amend the introduction referral calendar by referring the resolution that you now have a hard copy to the full City Council for next week as it moved and seconded.

All those in favor of the amendment to the referral calendar, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Those in favor of the adoption of the introduction referral calendar as amended, please vote aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Thank you very much, Council Member Sawant.

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

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

There are no minutes for approval today.

Presentations.

We don't have a formal presentation today.

We do look forward to hearing from many of our guests on the legislation that Councilmember Juarez will propose.

So at this time, and let me sort of explain this, we have general public comment and which will be supportive of the legislation we'll have today under Councilmember Juarez's leadership.

But in tradition, we would like to go a little bit out of order for our public comment.

It is now the part where we do have public comment, and we welcome our guests.

I did want to, and we'll extend it for 20 minutes here, I did want to recognize we have many elected leaders of tribal councils here in Washington state who've traveled here to grace us with their presence here at City Hall, and among those are and I do apologize if I mispronounce anyone's name, Melinda Degree from the Snoqualmie Tribe, Virginia Cross Chair of the Muckleshoot, Jessica Garcia-Jones from the Muckleshoot, and of course our former state senator and leader Claudia Kaufman here as well.

Thank you.

So if those four people would like to speak first, you're very welcome to and why don't I just say in that order and then we'll go through the lists here as we speak.

So unless you've had a pre-arranged order, I'm just, I have a list here.

Council Member Juarez, have I screwed up royally yet or should I just keep going?

Okay, keep going.

So, would any of those members that I just read, would they like to speak first?

Any of those four?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilman Harris, Harrell, and Deborah Juarez.

My name is Virginia Cross.

I'm from Muckleshoot Tribal Council.

I am the former chair of the Tribal Council.

I'm not just now a Councilman.

But we are here today at Councilmember Juarez's invitation, and we really appreciate that she has entered this resolution in for Council to review and accept.

With me today is Jessica Garcia-Jones from the Milwaukee Tribal Council, and her daughter Farrah, and Madreen Salgado.

Kylie Kaufman.

Oh, sorry.

Lita Baker.

Our Kaya of this year for one of our powwows is here today.

Her name is Ada McDaniel.

And with her is Susan Starr.

Did I miss anybody?

So we are the lecture group today.

We really do appreciate what Deborah Juarez has been doing for the city of Seattle, and we would like you to remember that Muckleshoot territory includes the city of Seattle, and we would like to be remembered in that way.

This has been our home territory for forever.

We are community-driven, and these efforts that you're doing today, if you do it, really reflect on our community and our participation.

On a personal note, I would like to say that I did have a niece who was murdered about five years ago.

So these really do come to our people.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Cross.

I'm going to go through the order here, and Claudia Kaufman, you are up next.

Would you like to speak?

Thank you, President Harreld, members of the Seattle City Council.

For the record, my name is Claudia Kaufman.

I'm a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, former state senator from the 47th Legislative District.

I'm here in support of the resolution for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.

the resolution which is paramount and the foundation in which we can move further policy and further action and commitment from the City of Seattle that is also driven and incorporates community, which is important that all community be included in these policy decisions.

I think this is a monumental time for us, yet this is not only a local issue, it's a national issue.

across the United States.

This is something that we need to pay attention to and provide action behind.

And action needs to be meaningful and results driven.

And that's what this resolution does.

And so I want to personally thank Council Member Deborah Juarez for your leadership on this and for your continued support for the Native communities in this area, not only Seattle, but across the region.

And so I'm here just in support of that resolution.

I appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you, Ms. Goffman.

Susan Starr, followed by Chelsea Hendrickson.

My name is Susan Starr Seedsta'a Stelbichetalchitl Muckleshoot.

I'm native from the Muckleshoot tribe.

I'm here today on behalf of our leaders and our family here today to say that this is a very important resolution.

I myself am very lucky that I have my life today because back in the 80s, We used to run around and think that we could run around and not listen to our parents.

We always paired up in two, but there was a time that we didn't pair up in two, and I lost one of my good friends in the 1980s.

She never came home to the Muckleshoot Reservation.

She left our home in Tacoma, Washington in the city.

trying to make it home and never made it home.

So that day left an open heart, left an open hole in my heart forever.

On that time, as you heard me say, I was also one of these women that I'm very lucky today that I am home, that I'm very lucky today to say that I have a life because I also was assaulted as a young woman because I was running around and not obeying or listening to the laws of my parents and not knowing today how big that this was going to be but that it's big and I'm really grateful today that I'm alive and that I can stand here before you and say thank you and please look at this resolution and make it come to your heart because it's huge into our heart and I thank you for your time.

Thank you Ms. Starr.

Chelsea will be followed by Abigail Echo Hawk.

My name is Chelsea Hendrickson.

I'm an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho tribe, and I'm also Chupik from McCoyack, Alaska.

I'm here today because I'm a family member of a murdered Indigenous woman.

My aunt, Geraldine Naha Hendrickson, was murdered in downtown Seattle 21 years ago.

I believe that she would not have experienced that had she not come in contact with a lot of racist and biased policies that the city of Seattle has when she was in the court system and ending King County Jail.

I'm also here to support the resolution 31900, and I want to raise my hand to Deborah Juarez and Abigail Echo Hawk for advocating on behalf of all indigenous women.

in Seattle and across Indian country.

I do believe that this is an opportunity for Seattle to truly be progressive, to really truly unpack and unweave those racist and biased policies that are embedded in all institutions of power and that You have an opportunity here to right some of the wrongs of Seattle's past.

And I want to honor all the MMIW women that are not here today.

Thank you.

Ha-ho.

Go Yana.

Thank you.

Following Abigail will be.

Is it Adele McDaniel?

Ada, sorry.

Good afternoon.

I'm Abigail Echo-Hawk.

I'm an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and I'm the Chief Research Officer of the Seattle Indian Health Board and the Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute.

And I'm here today because every day in this city, in this land, in this state, in this nation, our matriarchs are dying, and they're dying of violence that is based on one thing.

that they are indigenous women living in a country built on genocide with continuing colonization that results in the historical trauma where our women are dying.

The voices that should be singing at every one of our ceremonies, the hands that should be cooking the food to serve the next generations, the thoughts and the prayers that allow for our next generations to continue, these are the people that we are losing every single day.

And here in the City of Seattle, not only are we part of it, in the study that I was the co-author of that was released in November of 2018, the City of Seattle was number one for the number of missing and murdered indigenous women in the country.

And I know that data to be wrong.

And what I know it to be wrong in is that I know the City of Seattle, the Seattle Police Department, has been racially misclassifying American Indian and Alaska Native women in their data.

So that is actually a gross undercount.

There are so many women who were never counted in that data.

And as the women that I talk to, and I have also been personally impacted by missing and murdered indigenous women, as we cry together, as we laugh together, as we fight fiercely together, we have determined that this will no longer continue.

And I wanna raise my hands to the incredible Deborah Juarez, our councilwoman, our tribal member, our loved one, who has pushed us to the forefront because right now what you have the opportunity to pass is the very first legislation in the country with real measurable outcomes.

We will lead, not only here in Seattle, we will lead the state, and we will show the rest of this country the way that it should be done, because our voices will not be silent.

We will sing those songs again, and our women will be present.

Hello, my name is Ada McDaniel from the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

For me, the murdered Indigenous woman started in my family in the mid-60s.

My sister was murdered here in the city of Seattle with no investigation.

Her body was brought back to Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and buried.

To this day, every day, I think of my sisters, and she's not the only one in my family who has been murdered with no investigation.

So I'm going to support this resolution with my dignitaries, and thank you so much for what you have done for us.

And I believe the spirits are helping guide this resolution and all the investigations that have brought forth and been discovered in the past six months that I've seen.

I really do believe that, so thank you.

Thank you, Ada.

Our next three speakers, Noreen Hill, Marissa Perez, and Esther, Esther starts with an M.

With an L?

Oh, I even got that wrong.

I wanted to start off with a prayer, because we always start with prayers in our community, so I just wanted to do a really quick prayer for us all.

Thank you, Great Grandfather, for this beautiful blessed day in creating this history in this place of our homelands of our Duwamish and Muckleshoot people.

I wanted to say thank you to all of the leaders that are involved in this, this work that's been done to create this resolution and to the work of Anita Lachese as well for all the work she's done as well.

And I wanted to just introduce myself.

I'm the executive director of Mother Nation, founder And we are a frontline direct service provider for women who are suffering from gender-based violence.

We help with the healing that works with their families and their children.

We have a lot of support that we bring in to folks that are off-reserve and on-reserve.

We work with different tribes in the communities over the years.

We have a Native women's recovery house in Seattle as well.

And I just wanted to offer prayers to those families.

And I acknowledge the resolution and I pray that you guys support the resolution that's been set up in front of you there.

There's been a lot of work put into that resolution.

There's been a lot of work across the country for this, for our native sisters who can't speak for themselves.

And in my eyes, they're seen as the warriors that took that sacrifice for us.

And we have to do good by them and offer these words for them and offer this support for them.

And I wanted to acknowledge Council Member Deborah Juarez.

for all the work that you do in the community.

It's very nice to have one of our sisters here on council and to the council members here for giving us this time to speak and bring in our leaders together.

So I just pray that you can take a look at what's been said out in front of you and remember, I guess, the words you hear today and to also remember the cultural healing that comes with that.

So we're willing to partner as an organization, as an urban Native organization at Mother Nation to support the work that needs to get done for those family survivors that are still out there, that need that support, the advocacy and the healing circles that need to be done.

That's the only way that we can survive as a Native people is to remember who we are because it was taken from us.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Marissa Perez.

I am Oglala Lakota, and I have been a resident of Seattle since 2004, first as a college student at Seattle Pacific University, and now as a U.S.

Army veteran and an anti-violence activist.

I want to thank you for listening to the stories of our people today and being willing to come alongside and shoulder some of the burdens that we are carrying.

In 1926, my grandmother was sent, along with her brothers and sisters, to a Jesuit boarding school in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

13 years later, she left carrying the immense weight of shame that haunted her for 70 years.

She told her grandchildren that we were no longer Indian, that the nuns and priests had beaten the Indian out of her.

For 30 years, I have carried that shame.

I am ashamed that I do not speak my language, ashamed to wear my hair long, to wear a ribbon skirt, to go to sweat and ceremony.

I have carried the shame that caused the abuse of my father and aunt, the murder of my cousin Rhoda Twiss, the fetal alcohol disability of my brother.

The shame that my father still carries today when faced with the choice to teach his grandchildren their heritage or to let the pain of these wounds lie forgotten in the past.

The shame of intergenerational trauma that leads to our women being brutally murdered and stolen from their families.

My story is not unique.

I am not the only one who carries this burden.

Nearly 50% of our women have been raped, our men are imprisoned at rates four times higher than white men, and our children are put into foster care at rates four times that of white children.

This shame is killing our people, and I have come here today to say no more.

I am not carrying the shame any longer.

It is your turn.

As representatives of our government, you are representing those who laid the shame on my shoulders, and it is now time for you to take it back.

You must find our women, return our children to their grandmothers, and stop the murder of our men.

You must listen when we speak, you must walk on our land with reverence, and you must repair the relationships that were fractured so long ago.

It is your turn to carry that shame because I refuse to pass it on to my children.

It is your turn now.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, President Harrell and members of the Council.

My name is Esther Lucero, and I am Diné and Latina, and I've had the absolute honor of being the CEO for the Seattle Indian Health Board for almost four years now.

I too, like many others, have experienced a family member who's been murdered, and she is a two-spirit woman.

And so I want you to know that this not only affects our women, it affects our two spirits at a significant rate.

I'm standing here with great humility because these are movements that occurred 30 years prior to even my arrival here.

And I raise our hands to our relatives who've carried those voices of our unsettled ancestors forward so that we can stand here today when you are proposing a resolution, a resolution that creates true change.

Because it is the first that I've seen of its kind across this nation, where it has resources behind it, where it has powerful, tangible actions.

And that is powerful.

You want to know why?

Because the city of Seattle can set the mark for other cities across this nation.

And that's what I want to see happen today.

And I'll tell you that this could not have happened without the leadership of Councilmember Deborah Juarez.

This is what happens when we see our faces reflected in our city councils.

And I just want to thank you today for hearing us.

And please move this forward.

Thank you, Esther.

Our next two speakers, Marty Ray Ramsey, and then Glenn Pinkham, and then Yvette Pinkham.

And Esther, just because I do know you, and I apologize for that.

You know, if you put an L like that and a U next to it, it looks just like an M, by the way.

Good afternoon.

My name is Marty Ray Ramsey.

My given name in our longhouse is Wetemi, and I come here from the Warm Springs Nation, which is located in central Oregon.

And even today, as I testify before you, I have a little reserved concern because my 13-year-old daughter is traveling home from school.

And when I hear the statistics and I know the impact, and her mother who works the front lines, I work with Mother Nation as a Yahweh services advocate.

That means every day, every week, I go and I'm a first responder to abused domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and the like.

and know the truth of the risk that Indigenous women face in this community and across this country.

And I'm very grateful to be here and to honor Deborah Juarez and her work and your work here for the City Council.

I hope that me being here relocating to this land and serving my Indigenous people, especially my sisters, that somebody would be sent to my land to do the same work and to take action like this.

And I'm very grateful to see, after I read the resolution, especially in regards to the the parts that pertain to relationship with Seattle Police Department, because I've worked one-on-one with women who've come and been interviewed and said, okay, let's hear the real truth now.

And that's the real truth, is that a lot of times we're not believed.

A lot of times, not only are we misaccounted for, but when we sit there and tell our true story, it's not even taken as serious.

And we work with women and families who've experienced multi-traumas, not just one time.

And they've come here to relocate, looking for safety, only to find that they're still in jeopardy.

And I really hope that as this foundation is laid, that there really is tangible policy that's enforced and placed and training and knowledge and respect for this community and for these people because the reality is is that I'm glad for the foundational work but there is much more to be done.

And so I honorably thank you for welcoming me into your city and to the Duwamish and the Muckleshoot for allowing my family to be here, to reside here, to represent Mother Nation and my family and this community to serve.

Because there's nothing like when you experience firsthand on the front lines of women who are hurt and are battered.

In the month of July alone, there was 19 new people that came to my caseload, and that is an average.

We don't even have to advocate and look for them.

The need is so great that they're there.

And so as my service in my position of employment, I consider that an opportunity to be getting to those people Those are 19 women that have been prevented from experiencing this atrocity.

So I really thank you for the time.

Thank you, Deborah Juarez.

It's good to see you again, and I really appreciate the turnout.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Glenn, Yvette, and then Sarah Patton.

Honorable elected officials, thank you for letting us have this time to speak.

My name is Glenn Pinkham.

I'm an outreach worker with Mother Nation.

I'd like to express something to you that you must really understand.

When one woman hurts, when one woman hurts, they all hurt.

When one woman feels tragedy, even if they don't know the person, that tragedy affects all of them.

That trauma goes into them, because we're all connected spiritually.

We're not just connected with our mind.

We're not just connected by a piece of paper.

We're not just connected with our words, but we're connected with something that's bigger.

And you represent the bigness, that thing that holds us together, being an elected official.

I really sincerely ask that you remind your workers that when they deal with this kind of issue, because I come from Yakima.

I'll explain this real quick.

We had from the mid-70s, early 80s, we had over 29 women who were murdered on my reservation.

They were within five years younger than me, five years older than me.

And I knew all of them.

And I just want to let you know that your chance to give self-care to not just the women, all women, but especially to yourself.

Yeah, this is something that's very difficult.

This is something that's very challenging.

And you might have your own way of self-care.

But I encourage you to make a good decision, a strong decision that has vision, that has vision for things that dealt with the past to right now, especially for tomorrow, for those who are still unborn yet.

So this is a huge thing that you're about to do, something that's on a, like I said, example for all people.

Thank you for your time.

I'm grateful and honored to be here today and my name is Yvette Pinkham and I am Southern Cheyenne from Oklahoma, my Cheyenne name, Tisistas, is Ayesinio.

And my people come from a long line of genocide, and I am also a Sand Creek descendant.

And I come before you today to ask you to pass this resolution.

I am in support of this resolution.

I, too, like many of our neighbors here, our village here, have also lost family members, to missing family members, to murdered brothers and sisters.

I have a brother that was missing for two years, and it took a year for them to identify him.

And also, I am the cultural services coordinator for Mother Nation, and I facilitate healing circles and also schedule sweats for our gathering of women.

And I work with our unsheltered relatives, and our unsheltered relatives come to us, and they come to us with broken hearts and broken spirits.

And we work really hard to help them heal, and we have our own medicines help them heal.

And they talk about what is happening in our city, and they, too, grieve.

which means we grieve, and we want to help them.

We want to help them heal.

We want to help them give good medicine with good thoughts and good feelings.

And I hope that this resolution is passed.

And I just want to honor Deborah and all of you.

All of you have responsibility.

All of you live in this city just like we live in this city.

We would like to see good things happen.

We would like to see positive things happen.

We would like to see it passed and make that change and support and honor our unsheltered relatives and our sisters and brothers that have gone missing.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Our last three speakers I have signed up are Sarah Patton, Mary Coomer, and then Susan Balbus.

Hello, I'm Sarah Patton and I'm actually here today to talk about the Victor Sandberg Park resolution, but I feel quite fortunate that I have the opportunity to lend my personal endorsement and happiness to see that my city is taking such a leadership position to try to end the murder and abuse of indigenous women.

So that's a great I'm very happy to be here today for that reason as well as to bring you the Friends of the Market concern about the resolution 31891 and just to want to get into the record the fact that the Market Historical Commission for the Pike Place Public Market approved the design for this renovation of the park on August 28th and put in three pretty important constraints on that design process.

One, that the Parks Department should reinstall the totem poles before the park's reopened.

Two, that it replace the pavilion in the southwest corner before reopening.

And three, there were some paint colors changed from bronze to dark green, which is important for consistency without the market.

And I wanted to make sure that those were on the record for your approval of the design today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Mary Coomer.

I am from Makah Indian Nation, but I am working in an organization called Potlatch Fund right here in downtown Seattle.

We are really honored to be a part of a collective of Seattle Urban Native nonprofits, 14 organizations.

So I'm reading a collaborative statement from 14 Native-led nonprofit organizations.

The Seattle Urban Native Nonprofit SUN collaboration supports the passage of Resolution 31900. We ask the City Council to consult and partner with Native community members and organize in developing programs that address missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in crisis.

We call on the City Council to provide sustainable funding for Native community-led approaches to this heartbreaking crisis.

Further, we urge the City Council to create meaningful legislation that is responsive to the needs of Native community of Seattle, King County, and includes systemic reform that holds law enforcement accountable in data collection and reporting.

The Seattle Urban Native Nonprofit Collaborative brings 14 Native-led nonprofit organizations with a collective power and advance in health and well-being of the urban Native community in the city of Seattle and King County.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have Susan Valves and then Cecilia Tavallaro.

Hello, good afternoon.

I'm Susan Balbus, Executive Director of Na'a Ilihi Fund, one of the Sun Collaborative members.

We are Indigenous Women and Girls Fund.

We serve Native communities throughout the Pacific Northwest, and we're based right here in Seattle.

Everybody said many wonderful things.

I don't know really what I can add except that I think what has been demonstrated here today is the incredible passion of our community and how much of an issue this is for us.

Many of us have been doing this work for a long time.

I was in Washington, D.C.

at a gathering where they were presenting about some of these issues many years ago, and I got a really bad feeling in my stomach that Seattle was a hub for some of this activity.

And because of a lot of the characteristics that were in the report, I knew that our port city was among the top.

And I was right.

And it is.

So we are really doing our part in our community the best that we can, working with victims, survivors, trying to create healthy pathways for our people.

And I just want to urge you to be a leader in this and do what you need to do to put some teeth into some real laws where we can make a difference because this has been going on for far too long.

And we are a very vulnerable population and we are ready to stop it and to really make positive changes.

And we urge you to lead that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Cecilia Tavalero.

Thank you for this opportunity to address this body today.

I'm originally from Alaska, and I am currently a Tlingit and Haida Central Council delegate representing a faction of our Native people here in the Washington area.

I'm currently going through something that is so horrible.

My goddaughter, Maria Flores, is missing.

She was missing since May 20th, and our family just found out a few weeks ago.

The stepfather and the new stepmother didn't let us know.

We found out from a complete stranger.

So I know the pain and the horror that's involved with this.

We're doing everything we can to find her.

She's a missing child, she's 17, and it wouldn't matter if she was 40-something.

We would still go through the same process.

We're finding out what doors we can go through and what doors we need help opening, such as the FBI, military, CID.

It's an interesting process, and I wouldn't wish this on anybody.

It's hard.

I'm thankful we have faith in our creator, and that's helping us through this.

But I would like to say, this is a good first step, and Gunafchish, thank you for doing this.

Thank you for bringing this forward and bringing it into the light, because it is really ugly.

And we've had people ask us, do you think it's human trafficking?

And we don't even wanna go there with our thoughts, but we have to.

And no one has seen any trace of her since May.

Excuse me.

What it makes me think though is this country needs to say not in our land.

We need harsher sentences for people if there is in fact human trafficking going on.

More harsher sentences for those that would think that's a way to make money or even the customers that pay money to do this with children, and it's so ugly to me.

When you see something, you can't unsee it.

So I am hoping that this will lead to something harsher, if in fact it does lead down this trail, and we don't know.

We're praying for the best, we're hoping for the best, but we're also girding up ourselves, you know, in case, who knows where it will lead.

So, I thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank all of you for your public comment.

I have been made aware that our Mayor of Pacific is here, Leanne Gouyeres, but I don't see Mayor.

She is.

Oh, and thank you for being here, our Mayor of Pacific, since 2013, as I recall.

Did you want to say any words or are you just, you're very welcome.

And I apologize, I didn't recognize you.

earlier, but thanks to Council Member Mosqueda, she has better eyes than me.

Thank you, Chair Harrell and Council for allowing me to speak.

I think what you're doing here today is pretty wonderful.

I'm here on behalf of the natural gas legislation that's going to be introduced today, and I'm here to let you know that the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, which many of you know I also represent them, are strongly opposed of the legislation as proposed.

So that's all I wanted to speak on today.

Thank you and we're at the beginning stages as I think Council Member O'Brien would say about that discussion.

Thanks to you for being here and thank all of you.

That was some very heartfelt testimony and so let me move to

Section before we get to that legislation payment of the bill So, please read the title council bill one one nine six seventeen appropriated money to pay certain claims for the week of August 26 2019 through August 30th 2019 and ordering payment thereof Okay, I'll move to pass council bill one one nine six one seven.

It's been moved and seconded the bill pass or any further comments Please call the roll on the passage of the bill Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Pacheco.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor or nine in favor and none opposed.

The bill passes and the Chair will sign it.

Bills are paid for another week.

Please read the first agenda item.

The report of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee agenda item 1, Council Bill 119288 relating to the city's criminal code held May 20th, 2019. Council Member Herbold.

Thank you, so this legislation passed out of committee back in May.

In response to community members who had racial equity concerns, we decided to hold the legislation until today.

At this point, the mayor's office has committed to leading a process to engage stakeholders and work through some of the concerns that were identified, and this process is ongoing.

Consequently, I move to hold Council Bill 1192.88 until October 8th, 2019.

been moved and seconded to hold the legislation till October 8th.

All those in favor of the motion please vote aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

That item is held till October 8th.

Please read the next agenda item.

Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee, Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 119616, relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation, authorizing acquisition of real property, commonly known as 1902 Northeast 98th Street, authorizing acceptance and recording of the deed for open space, park, and recreation purposes, and ratifying and confirming search and prior acts.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, Council President.

This ordinance allows for the acquisition of the 1902 Northeast 98th Street parcel in the South Fork of Thornton Creek up in District 5 for open space and recreation purposes.

The Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee recommends full council pass this ordinance.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any questions, comments, or concerns?

If not, those in favor of adopting the resolution It's a bill.

It's a bill, Council President.

Pay attention.

Okay.

I was excited about the next resolution.

Okay.

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Pacheco.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

Bill passes and the Chair will sign it.

Now read the resolution.

Agenda item three, resolution 31891, approving the design for improvements to Victor Steinbrueck Park funded through the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy.

The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

The resolution will improve design improvements funded through the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy.

The committee recommends full council pass this resolution.

Any questions or comments on the Victor Steinbrueck Park resolution?

All good.

Those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next agenda item.

Agenda item four, resolution 31900, reclaiming the inherent responsibility of the city to protect its most vulnerable populations.

Acknowledging to the disproportionately high rate of violence against women of indigenous communities, urging city departments to deliver sustainable investments that address the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls crisis and establish a new racially appropriate framework of understanding and approach to ending violence against indigenous women and girls and calling on the mayor of Seattle to drive systemic reform that requests and empowers and holds accountable related city departments to work in cooperation with native communities to build trust and engagement for stronger government-to-government relations.

The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Council President, I have a, not real lengthy, but there are some thank yous that I want to get out of the way before I go into the text of the resolution and then end on a more personal historical note, if that's fine with you.

Please do.

All right, thank you.

I want to start by thanking elected leadership from Indian Country, former Chair and Council Member Virginia Cross from the Muckleshoot Nation who came here today, and also I understand gave her staff the day off for people from Muckleshoot to come down here today, which we want to thank you very much.

I don't know if I've ever seen a tribal leader do that, but I love it when women are in power.

Thank you.

I want to thank Jessica Garcia-Jones, who also accompanied Councilmember Cross from Muckleshoot with her daughter as well.

I want to thank Melinda Decree from the Snoqualmie Tribal Council.

There she is.

She didn't want to come up here.

And I also want to thank, as always, Senator Claudia Kaufman, who I've known since I was 12 or 13. And we're still here, Claudia.

So, with that, I want to go into some basic thank yous and then I would like to go right into the legislation and what it does for today and why it is so important and monumental.

I want to thank the Mayor's Office, Mayor Jenny Durkan.

I want to thank Chief of Police, Carmen Best.

I want to thank our City Attorney, Pete Holmes, who I believe is in the audience.

and King County Council Member Jeannie Cole-Wells for leadership and support to partner on a regional level.

We could not do this without our partners in the city government working with us, and we've had great discussions with Chief Best and Mr. Holmes and the mayor about how we get this legislation done and how we get it funded.

Central staff, I wanna thank the A-team, the three A's, Asha, I keep saying Asha's last name, Asha, I'm gonna say it wrong.

Assist Raman.

Thank you.

Amy Gore and Ali Panucci.

And I also want to thank Greg Doss.

And I also want to thank amazing work, Dana Robinson-Sloat, who has been working on our media.

And more importantly, I also want to thank Nageen Kamkar from my office.

Where's Nageen?

She's back there, who's been working tirelessly on this for about six months.

Very briefly, some of these people gave public comment today, but my dear friend, thank you for your good words and being here.

Esa Lucero, the CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board.

Abigail Echo Hop, the Chief Research Officer.

Aaron Speck, the Government Affairs Officer, who I always bump into in Washington, D.C. Francesca Murnan.

Did I say that right, Francesca?

Where are you?

Francesca, there you are.

Phenomenal.

Worked with our staff in policy and central staff in drafting this.

And that's what we really want to call outward advocacy, that we went to subject matter expertise folks and you guys actually drafted that legislation with us.

So thank you so much.

And Brad Engerman.

Brad, are you here?

Our media guy.

Thank you, Brad.

Good job from Saline Health Board.

And of course, again, one more time, the authors of the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report, Abigail Elkehock and Anita Luchese.

That's it, right?

Lucchese.

Lou Casey, got it, okay.

All right, now that I got that out of the way, let me just go right into the mechanics of what this resolution does, and it's no ordinary resolution that we're very proud of.

The Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Crisis has been going on for decades.

It wasn't until recently that indigenous stories have taken the stage for media, government, and the rest of the world to pay attention.

It has been pivotal for our current leaders to take time to educate themselves and truly understand our history and our diverse identities from one tribe to another.

We are looking at the systematic barriers for leaders to address missing murdered women and girls, which include poor data collection, racially misclassified data reporting, lack of direct health services for victims of sexual abuse, and lack of strong government-to-government relations.

This crisis spans the entirety of the United States, as well as into Canada.

Back in 2016, as you heard, Canada issued their report, which was about 1,200 pages long.

And after thousands of interviews and days of investigative efforts, they decided that Native women were more vulnerable to violence and lack of state action.

In the United States, our congressional leaders pushed forward policy recommendations including Savannah's Act and VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act, and unfortunately these pieces of federal legislation failed.

We're excited that the state, through House Bill 1713, passed the Washington State Legislature this year to create a liaison within the Washington State Patrol to work with indigenous communities across the state.

Here in Seattle, the Seattle Indian Health Board and I have also been working hard these last couple of years to help families right here at home for lasting systematic change.

You heard from some of our partners today, Noreen Hill from Mother Nation, we have people here from United Indians, and of course, Seattle Indian Health Board.

I'm honored to join the Seattle Indian Health Board in their efforts by looking at what they did in Washington, D.C., and looking at what they did in Washington State by taking this action with Resolution 31900. This resolution aligns the city's resources, i.e., money, towards correcting this historical pattern of neglect of indigenous communities and towards deconstructing institutional racism with the first step, that is, passage of this resolution.

The Seattle Indian Health Board is a national leader in the fight against missing, murdered, indigenous women and girls crisis.

Seattle Indian Health Board's chief research officer, Abigail Elkohock, and colleague, Dr. Anita Lucchese, published the nation's first response.

And of course, our city is not proud of the fact that we have the most, we're ranked the number one city with the most missing, murdered, indigenous women and girls, but I think we can counteract that by being the first city to pass this legislation to address that.

What is important to note is that the Seattle Indian Health Board's mission is to provide research and policy expertise to decolonize the data for indigenous people, by indigenous people, and we see this in the resolution.

The nucleus of this resolution With the Urban Indian Health Institute's research publication, published in spring of 2019, that's the report that Abigail was holding when she gave public comment.

This is the first ever publication in the nation on missing murdered indigenous women and girls for native people who live in urban areas, including the city of Seattle.

According to this study, Seattle ranks number one as having the highest rate of missing murdered indigenous women and girls across this country.

What our resolution asks of the city and leadership.

Number one, we decolonize the data by improving data collection and reporting methods.

We will be working with Carmen Best, Chief Best, Mayor Durkin, City Attorney Pete Holmes, and King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg and their support and leadership.

Number two, engage with the tribal community and confer with urban Indian organizations.

This allows for subject matter expertise and we want to and will leverage the government to government relationship we share with tribes and all their vast resources.

My aim is for a family of government response.

Number three, support capacity building assistance to organizations like the Seattle Indian Health Board.

The city can provide direct health care and behavioral services for American Indian Alaska Native patients impacted by violence and sexual assault.

And lastly, to provide a liaison, a real actual human being who has subject matter expertise and culturally attuned to bring indigenous approaches, resources, and training to build relationships with the city attorney's office, with the King County prosecutor's office, with Seattle Police Department to improve data collection and practices.

My resolution is a necessary first step for the city to respond.

Again, I want to thank Council Member Baggio and Gonzalez for their fierce commitment to this issue and committee, and I encourage my colleagues to please vote yes on this historic piece of legislation.

I'd like to end on a more personal note, a little historical note for those of you who know me.

My name in Blackfeet is Natoyi Mistisake, which means Holy Mountain Woman.

What I want to share with you is that late in the 1970s and early 1980s, Indian country and tribal governments had a resurgence, a revival of our inherent sovereignty.

Major cases from the United States Supreme Court and decisions and laws and congressional rights were passed regarding our basic human rights, most notably jurisdictional laws, religious protections.

Tribal determination and sovereignty, and even finally recognizing that tribes will determine citizenship of their own people, not the federal government.

So fast forward from 1978 to 2000 and 1941 years.

In 1978, a very important law was passed.

A lot of people, it's common knowledge now, but I remember it then, I was 19, the Indian Child Welfare Act.

That took an act of Congress to stop the government, both state and local, from taking our babies.

Up until 1978, federal government and state and local municipalities could take our children with no due process, no hearing, This wreaked unimaginable, horrific havoc on our traditional family, our social structures, and the breakup of Native American families.

The Indian Child Welfare Act was brought and pushed by Native women to protect Indian children and families from removal by government agencies, denying them of their birthright.

And today, in many languages, we have a word for them.

They're called the lost one, and we're still looking for them.

So that means every child born before 1978 could legally and legitimately be taken by the courts and the state simply because they were Native American children.

So today, like 1978, we are correcting and righting the historical wrongs of institutional oppression, as you heard many of the women say today.

Missing murdered Indigenous women and girls is an unjust manifestation of institutional racism and colonization.

They're policies, perspectives, procedures that don't value our lives or don't see us as human.

Except today, unlike the Indian Child Welfare Act, which took 18 years to get passed, the city of Seattle has bypassed Congress, bypassed the state, and is poised to pass legislation to directly address and fund this very important human rights initiative to address this crisis in human terms.

Every Native has felt the pain and trauma of losing our children.

a boarding school, a relocation, a termination, assimilation, and colonization.

We know that trauma.

Every native in this room has felt the trauma and pain of being invisible, of loved ones being lost, and nobody listening.

We hope that today, when our mothers, sisters, daughters, aunties, cousins go missing, that people will hear us, that they will see us, and they will go looking for them.

We hope that when our people disappear, it won't just be our people looking for them, but it will be the Seattle Police Department, it will be the King County Prosecutor's Office, it will be the City Attorney's Office, it will be this Council.

I submit that as my promise to you.

We hope that when one of us is murdered or left dying, that we will be identified so we can be brought home to the loving arms of our Native people and our tribe, so we can be buried the right way and recognize that our life didn't just exist for nothing.

Our people need to be returned to their family, to their tribe, to their people, to our way.

So I just want to end that we will be invisible no more.

that this is just the beginning and our very first step in making sure that when we lose our women and children, that somebody will be there to go look for them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

This is a voting item, so comments are certainly welcome.

Councilmember Bagshaw?

This is going to actually be shorter than I expected.

Council Member Warris, thank you.

Thank you so much for bringing this forward.

I have been honored to be with you through this.

And to the people who are here today, who have been invisible, you are very much visible to me.

Your stories have just broken through.

The fact that you brought this through your committee, it is a wonderful way of demonstrating how your background, your history, all of the good things that you have done in your life.

You are sitting here, and because you are sitting here, you have brought this to us.

And I just, I want to thank you for that so much, and to acknowledge my good friend, the Holy Mountain Woman, and say thank you.

And also, hello, Michael, I'm glad you're here.

Thank you, Council Member Eckshaw.

Any of the council members like to say a few words or?

I think in this situation, the power of our silence means how much we support you and what you've brought to us and in the community.

So I think we should have our silence is powerful in this and I've never seen this before.

So thank you.

Okay, let's vote.

Now you got me a little teary-eyed.

Sorry.

Yeah, you should apologize.

Okay.

Those in...

Those in favor...

Those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

I have a cold.

That's my truth.

Coming for the council.

It's okay to cry.

Okay, with that we stand adjourned.

Thank you.