Seattle City Council 3/22/2021

Good afternoon, everyone.

The March 22nd, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will now come to order.

It is 2.04 p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council President Gonzales.

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Presentations.

Colleagues, as you can see, we are joined by quite a few distinguished guests this afternoon, and it is my pleasure to introduce this particular item.

Council Member Juarez does have a proclamation honoring the life of Snoqualmie Chief Andy De Los Angeles, Council Member Juarez will first present the proclamation, and then I will open the floor for comments from other council members.

After we hear from other council members, we will suspend the rules to allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide comments.

Council Member Juarez, I'm going to hand it over to you in order to present the proclamation.

Thank you, Council President, and welcome.

If this was ever a time to do an indigenous land acknowledgement about who we are as indigenous people, it would be now.

So thank you.

I want to start.

I hope my colleagues have had an opportunity and I know the Snoqualmie Nation has the proclamation that was written by the family.

But before I go into my written script, I just want to say a few personal things about Andy before we begin.

The proclamation, which is two pages, can never ever capture all the great things that Andy did, besides working for federal recognition for his tribe.

We all surely had an opportunity to work on that, besides making sure that he protected the Snoqualmie Falls.

And I was with Andrew for three takeovers, including Cascadia, where the Puyallup Tribal Casino now sits.

Andy was involved in the fish wars in the 70s, and he was there when we took over Fort Lawton.

He was a mentor of mine and a dear friend, and he was at I could not tell you what he did in Indian Country for Indian Child Welfare, working with Ramona Bennett, Vernon Joe, Roxanne Finney, and yours truly again, when I was in law school.

A lot of people don't know this about Andy, and it's in the proclamation, but it's kind of buried way at the bottom.

He was one of our very first Native American journalists and started Northwest Indian News with Ella Aquino, Auntie Julie Johnson, Tilly Cavanaugh, Jerry Hamley, and of course, Bernie Whitebear, and what we call the Gang of Four.

Andy was certainly a force and he was a dear friend of mine.

I am now going to read the proclamation, not the whole proclamation, but just the excerpt and give the opportunity to the leadership and the family to speak on behalf of this amazing man.

This proclamation was written by Chief Andy's family and members of the Snoqualmie tribe.

Thank you for your beautiful tribute so that we can honor him through your words directly.

Chief Andy was born on February 15th, So we will dedicate every year of the day, February 15, to be Chief Andy Day.

I will close by reading an excerpt from this proclamation.

Whereas Chief Andres Andy Juan de Los Angeles, former chairman of the Snoqualmie Tribe and nationally beloved indigenous civil rights leader, passed on January 21st, 2021. Whereas known affectionately as Chief Andy, he was a compassionate and tireless activist who dedicated over a half a century of his life to fighting for the rights of all tribal nations, safeguarding their culture and history, and protecting the sacred.

And whereas, due to his advocacy and civic leadership, his contributions will long outlive this generation, and Chief Andy's kind and unwavering voice for truth and justice will always live on as an inspiration and call to action.

and now therefore the Mayor and the City of Seattle City Council proclaim February 15, 2021, and every year henceforth on that day, February 15th, to be Chief Andy Day.

With that, Councilmember or Council President, I will hand it over to you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Juarez, for reading that into the record and for your introductory remarks.

Are there any additional comments from any of the other council members?

Oh, Council President, I'm sorry, I made a mistake.

Okay.

I just realized on my script, I apologize, I was going to switch it up.

But I wanted to make sure that I stated the guests and I believe Bob de Los Angeles, if I miss anybody, he will follow up with those names.

These were the names that were given to me by tribal leadership.

The Honored guests are, and family, are Bob DeLos Angeles, Chief Andy's brother and Council Chairman, Steve DeLos Angeles, Council Vice Chair, Gabe DeLos Angeles, Chief Andy's son, Doug DeLos Angeles, Chief Andy's son as well, Ginger DeLos Angeles, his daughter, and Subqua DeLos Angeles, his youngest daughter.

Also, I would like to recognize current and former members of the Snoqualmie Tribal Council, Pat Barker, Suzanne Salido, who's also with us, Jolene Williams, I see is with us, Marlene May, Shawna Ship Martinez, Canem Ventura, Chris Castleberry, Bill Sweet, Melinda George, I hope I said that right, Diggory, someone will correct me, I'm sure, Wes Willoughby, and Michael Ross.

And with that, if I missed anything, I'm sure Bob will correct me.

Thank you, Council President.

Of course, not a problem.

Okay, are there any comments from any of the other city council members?

I'm not seeing any hands raised, so I'm going to move to suspend the rules.

If there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow Chairman Bob de Los Angeles to accept the proclamation and provide remarks.

hearing no objection.

The council rules are now suspended.

Chairman, welcome so much to the City Council meeting.

We're very pleased to have you here as our honored guest.

You are recognized in order to provide remarks to the City Council and the viewing public.

Take it away.

To the Seattle City Council for having us here today.

Hello, my name is Robert De Los Angeles and I'm the chairman of the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe.

We have Chief Andy Siblings, Gabe DeLos Angeles, Doug DeLos Angeles, Ginger DeLos Angeles, and Sebekwa DeLos Angeles, and also the Tribal Council, Steve DeLos Angeles, Vice Chairman, Treasurer Shauna Ship Martinez, Secretary Melinda Degree, Deputy Secretary Chris Casselberry, Council Member Dan Willoughby, Council Member Mary Mai, Council Member Bill Sweet, Council Member Suzanne Celto, Council Member Jolene Williams, and our Chief Nathan Pat Barker.

Thank you again.

This proclamation for Chief Andy Day in the City of Seattle is a huge honor to him, his family, and the tribe.

My brother gave his life to ensuring that the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe could receive recognition for our sovereignty the federal government.

He also spent many years protecting historical and cultural sites.

He recognized that Seattle is the part of our ancestral history, and he never gave up in telling that story.

I know that having a day in his name would make him so proud.

He loved Seattle and all the memories he built working in and around the city.

He often did this work without recognition or a thank you.

And so this proclamation is a fitting acknowledgment of that work.

I accept this proclamation on behalf of his family and the Snoqualmie Indian tribe.

We sincerely look forward to celebrating and sharing Chief Andy Day with our family, his friends, and the tribe.

Thank you again for your time.

Thank you so much, Chairman, and all of the members of the council who are with us today and all the family members.

We really appreciate being able to share this space with you.

I do want to hand it back over to Council Member Juarez for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Bob, the Los Angeles and family.

I am just going to end on a personal note.

Those of you who look and watch Seattle City Council notice that I have a a blanket on my chair, which is customary in Indian country.

And the blanket that's on my chair is a gift from Chief Andy D. Los Angeles.

Every time a new blanket came out, I got a blanket and that's what sits on my chair in Seattle City Council.

And as you all know, that gift is basically what I'm saying is that I honor the indigenous people that were here.

We understand why we do an indigenous acknowledgement.

It's not a checklist.

It's not everyone's indigenous passport to say everything's okay.

Because if it was, they'd have to give back Elliott Bay.

But what it is, is a recognition that we are a guest on your land.

And we thank you.

And I'm gonna get a little emotional.

Because like I said, I knew Andy since I was probably about 12 or 13. And he was my baseball coach as well.

And I think he would be smiling and so happy and so proud that this great city with this great nation are celebrating and honoring him today.

So thank you.

Thank you.

My hands up.

Thank you, Council President and colleagues.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez, for giving us an opportunity to consider the proclamation and for signing it unanimously this morning.

So thank you to all our guests for being with us.

We really appreciate you being here once again.

And can I add one last thing?

Marilyn Mai.

I've been a social worker in child welfare in Muckleshoot and with our tribe and public sector for over for 30 years and worked with Andy.

And I think that that's a part of Andy's work that sometimes gets overshadowed by by a lot of this other great stuff that he did.

But Andy protected Indian children for many, many, many years.

And that was a great part of his work.

And something that meant everything to him was he worked diligently and hard to protect children and make sure that they were safe.

Thank you for that, appreciate it.

Okay, folks, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon.

We're gonna go ahead and move into the next item of business in our agenda.

I really do appreciate you all's presence today and look forward to seeing you again soon.

I hope you all stay safe.

Bye sisters, bye brothers.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, take care of yourselves.

Okay, colleagues, we're going to move to approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of March 15, 2021 have been reviewed.

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

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Approval of the introduction and referral calendar.

I move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

I will need a second, and then there will be a motion to amend.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the introduction referral calendar.

Council Member Sawant, I'm going to hand it over to you to make your motion for an amendment.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

I move to amend the introduction and referral calendar by introducing appointment 1846, entitled Appointment of Rachel Heaton as Member, Green New Deal Oversight Board for a term to April 30, 2023, and by referring the appointment to the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the introduction and referral calendar to introduce appointment 1846 and by referring it to the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

Are there any additional comments on the motion?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the amended introduction referral calendar is before the council.

Are there any further comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amended introduction and referral calendar.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the introduction and referral calendar is adopted as amended.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So we will move now to public comment.

We will open the remote public comment period for items on the City Council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the Council's work program.

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

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

However, as a reminder, the city council does reserve the right to enter eliminate these public comment periods at any point.

At any point, if we deem that this 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 in the following manner.

The public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes and each speaker will have 2 minutes to speak.

I'll call on each speaker by the name that they registered with on the City Council website.

And again, each individual has two minutes to address the City Council.

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

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

Once I call your name, staff will unmute your microphone and you will hear a prompt that says you have been unmuted.

That'll be your cue that you must now press star six before you begin speaking.

Again, please start by reminding us of your name and telling us the item that you are addressing.

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

At about 10 seconds, you're going to hear a chime.

That chime means that it's time to begin to wrap up your public comments because you have 10 seconds of your allotted time left.

If you do not wrap up your comments within the allotted time, we will mute your microphone in order to allow us to call on the next person on the list.

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.

So the public comment period is now open.

We will go until 2.42 p.m.

or until we run out of callers to call upon.

So the first speaker is Howard Gale followed by Robin Briggs.

Go ahead Howard.

Good afternoon.

Howard Gale District 7 commenting on continuing police abuse and failed accountability.

Nashville, Tennessee, San Diego, California, Oakland, California, San Francisco, California, Long Beach, California, Sonoma County, California, Newark, New Jersey, Portland, Oregon, Columbus, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, Atlanta, Georgia, Honolulu, Hawaii, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

These are 14 of the many cities that have recently established robust police accountability built on a foundation of 100 percent civilian investigation policy development and discipline.

All of these systems have come about in the last few months via citizen initiative because politicians in these places found it far easier to virtue signal than to act with virtue.

In 2017 Seattle was already out of step with cities like Newark New Jersey when we passed a crippled version of police accountability legislation.

Four years later, as Seattle remains stuck in the past, we are now out of step with 14 and growing cities and counties across the U.S.

Seattle's pretense of having police accountability has blocked any hope of justice for the people horribly abused by the SPD over the last year and for the families and loved ones of the 29 people killed by the SPD since John T. Williams.

Further, The council's lax of action will guarantee more death by SPD as the mental health and homelessness crises worsen and more police abuse in the months to come as Black Lives Matters protests are sure to resume.

With the death of Washington State House Bill 1203 two weeks ago the fight for civilian control of police accountability is now in the hands of Seattle.

If our elected leadership runs from this fight let there be no doubt that the people of Seattle will not.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Robin Briggs, followed by Jim Street.

Robin, welcome.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Go ahead.

Great.

My name is Robin Briggs.

I'm testifying on behalf of People for Climate Action Seattle.

And this is about the Resolution 31999, which is about how to spend the federal funds.

So we really welcome the priorities that are outlined in the resolution and the clarity that they bring.

We'd like to suggest that the council also consider an additional priority, which is sustainability.

All over the world, this has been a key theme for building back that we need to do it in a way that takes the climate into account.

We should do the same thing here in an intentional way.

I'd like to emphasis on the multimodal transportation and transit.

People have gotten used to walking and biking a lot.

Let's not give that up as we recover, but give everyone space to move.

I think we could continue to do a lot more outdoor restaurant space.

I'm also really looking forward to riding the bus again for non-essential trips.

Last but not least, let me suggest weatherization and electrical apprenticeship programs.

Weatherization pays dividends both in decreased costs and decreased DHT emissions.

And if we're going to electrify our buildings and transportation, for sure we will need more electricians.

Let some of those folks be our youth who are now really needing job opportunities.

So we urge you to highlight the actions the city is taking towards addressing our climate emergency and add sustainability to the list of priorities in Resolution 31999. Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in today, Robin.

Next up is Jim Street, followed by Arvia Morris.

Jim, welcome.

And Jim, if you're with us, just remember to hit star six.

I am not hearing Jim.

Is Jim still with us?

Jim, we're having a hard time hearing you.

Maybe you can press star six one more time and make sure it's star, not pound.

All right, I'm still not seeing.

Jim, come up on my screen here.

Let's move down the list to Arvia Morris, and then we'll circle back to Jim in a moment.

Hopefully by then the difficulties will have resolved.

Hi, my name is Arvia Morris.

I'm from the 43rd District and the 4th Council District.

And I'd like to also speak about Resolution 3199. So the use of federal funds is to build back better, and that for me means a more environmentally just city.

The environmental disparities map from University of Washington shows that the areas all along our major freeways, especially around the ports, have the most health disparities within our city.

And this has to do with the pollution there, which is climate change pollution.

from all of the trucks and traffic, and also co-pollutants, which cause asthma and various other lung diseases, which are obviously, when you have a pandemic like COVID, going to be a whole lot worse for people who have that extra exposure to those diesel fumes.

So part of the funds should go to cleaning up the air pollution around the ports.

And this will make us more resilient and much more fair for the people who work around the ports.

There's things you can do to work the trucks to make them cleaner, and also use biofuels, which are cleaner, burn cleaner.

Also clean buildings.

We need to, that the Jumpstart funding is full, that there's train programs, especially lower income residences.

This will also improve indoor air pollution, which will also have a beneficial effect from an environmental justice and health disparities perspective.

The other thing that's super important is to have really good internet access for everybody.

This will really improve our resiliency and make the city much more fair.

People with good internet access can reduce vehicle miles traveled if they can work from home.

increase equity with schooling, medical information, looking for work.

Thank you for calling in today.

It looks like we did lose Jim Street from our call list, so we're going to move to the last person I have signed up, who is speaker number seven.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Uh, hi.

Um, this is, um, Attorney Luke 12, she had their Mariah Carey reincarnated, polyamorous, comes from Florida, her husband's a homeless cyclist, colonized person, built Hammer City.

Anyway, I'm calling because the agenda item is regarding surveillance and also the funding.

Every city council meeting has to begin to incorporate the beliefs, voices, and politics of children, um, because they don't have the right to vote just yet.

However, There's another city in Massachusetts who just recently recognized polyamorous people.

Y'all could do that, and y'all could also lower the voting age if you have home rule.

I don't know if you have home rule or not, but children have a right to participate in our democracy, and that also includes city councils across the nation, including so-called liberal Seattle, lowering the voting age to 16, unlike other cities have done.

And really, there should be no voting age at all.

So if we want to lower it to 12 or zero, that would actually be a more solid theory.

It would be decolonizing how we treat our democracy.

That wraps up my public comment.

However, defunding the police is also essential to children's rights because Let's not pretend like the police are nuts in our school systems, indoctrinating and militarizing our children.

Well, I mean, their children, because I hate to use the word ours if we own the children.

Children of their own age, too, may deserve to speak for themselves.

That wraps up my comment.

Thank you for calling in today.

Colleagues, we don't have anyone else signed up for public comment today, so I'm going to go ahead and close out the period of public comment, and we'll move to other items of business in our agenda.

First up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Council Bill 120-020, Appropriate Amends to Arrested Incident Claims for the Week of March 8th, 2021 through March 12th, 2021, and order in payment thereof.

Thanks so much, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 120-020.

Is there a second?

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

Are there any comments?

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

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Council Member Juarez?

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

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?

Sorry about that.

Item one, will the clerk please read the short title of item one into the record?

The report of the Finance and Housing Committee, agenda item 1, Council Bill 120019 and many ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget, including the 2021 through 2026 capital improvement program.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Esqueda, you are the chair of this committee and I'm going to hand it over to you to walk us through the report.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

Council Colleagues, thank you for all of your input on this item.

Just as a reminder, this is our resolution that outlines the principles and our broad spending categories for the anticipated additional federal aid that's coming from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA.

As Senator Bernie Sanders said recently in an interview on Democracy Now!

, this is the most significant legislation for working people that has been passed in decades.

Saying what this legislation does, he commented on the fact that this legislation advances priorities in this country that we have ignored for far too long, noting that we have the highest rates of child poverty of any major country on earth, and this legislation expands tax credits and lowers childhood poverty in America by up to 50 percent.

This legislation says that in the richest country in the history of the world, people should not be going hungry.

The legislation passed by Congress provides help so that when moratoriums on evictions end, people will get the assistance they need to be able to stay in their homes, whether a rental unit or your own home.

and the federal act more than doubles funding for community health centers.

These are among other priorities.

It is with great anticipation that the city of Seattle is looking forward to working with all of the residents in Seattle to allocate the funding to address the immediate needs that have become worse due to COVID and also address the underlying inequities that were present prior to COVID.

The crisis of the pandemic has only exacerbated and made worse many of the situations that families were living in in poverty or whether they were vulnerable communities or families who are living on paycheck to paycheck and a disproportionate impact especially on women and people of color as a result of the consequences of COVID.

I'm really excited about this resolution.

It is the first of a few pieces of legislation that I know the council will pass soon related to the American Recovery Act plan, but this resolution provides the backbone, the frame that we will continue to go back to as we allocate funding to provide necessary services both in the near and the long term to recover from this crisis.

The priority investments in this resolution are informed by policies that many in the community have engaged in deep conversations with the Seattle City Council on over the last year.

This builds on previously passed legislation like the 2020 budget revisions, like our jumpstart Seattle COVID relief plan, the initial one that we passed and the final one that was submitted as well.

and it builds on the 2021 adopted budget, all as key components as we look at items for immediate relief and flagging ongoing investments in the out years.

The resolution was developed with the following considerations in mind.

First, I know.

Oh, excuse me.

I'm so sorry.

But I just realized that you're speaking to item two and we are on item one.

I apologize as well.

You're so excited about this resolution that we're all excited about that you just skipped right over the first bill.

I thought it was me.

I thought I was off.

Thank you.

I thought I was going crazy.

I'll just file that away for Bill 2. And I apologize to Council Member Lewis.

Yeah, so I think we're all equally excited about Council Bill 120019. So I'm going to hand it back over to you to walk us through that one at first.

And if you'd like to defer to Council Member Lewis, also happy to do that.

Well, Council Member Lewis, I appreciate your leadership on this.

I will be very brief.

Item number one, colleagues, is Ordinance 120011. This does require a three-fourths vote of Seattle City Council, so I'm equally as excited about this piece of legislation.

I will note that it provides the $12 million appropriated needed for the non-congregate shelter services, including hotel rooms, tiny house villages, or enhanced shelter.

we have to look at non-congregate shelter options for individuals experiencing homelessness and an increased risk for contracting COVID.

I greatly appreciate the leadership of Councilmember Lewis and the Council President and the negotiations on this bill.

And it comes to us after both receiving clarity and after a year of being in compliance and trying to be in compliance with CDC recommendations, which require us to look at non-congregate shelter options for all of those who are experiencing

Councilmember Lewis, would you like to make comments on this bill as the prime sponsor?

Yes.

Thank you, Madam President.

And thank you for your leadership and in moving the ball along on this and bringing all of the parties to the table, including FEMA, the city budget office and the mayor's office, as well as the key council stakeholders.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for co-sponsoring this and moving it expediently through your committee last week on a expedited timeline.

A lot has been said about this over the last couple of weeks as we've discussed this in the news as a community, not just as a city government, that we make sure that we are aggressively pursuing every possible resource to make a impact on the really, really difficult issue that all of us see on a very daily basis of chronic homelessness in our community, knowing that there are lots of things we can be pursuing with this federal reimbursable resource to mitigate the impact of this emergency, get people inside into a private, hygienic place with four walls and a door that locks, where they can live with dignity, and where they can be protected from the very real and rampant COVID pandemic.

We know from some of the conversations this morning and Councilmembers Mosqueda, Morales, and I know from our briefings in Board of Health last week, that despite a lot of cause for optimism, There is still a rampant virus out there that folks experiencing homelessness are more vulnerable to without having a lot of the places that we take for granted to be able to shelter in place in a safe and hygienic way from the unique challenges of the pandemic.

This resource specifically will help the city to address that, to provide the kind of non-congregate shelter that is essential for people who are 65 and older people with comorbidities, people with enhanced vulnerability to the disaster can take advantage of.

I do want to note that this is a resource that is on top of other resources this council has appropriated and put forward to provide more non-congregate shelter.

It is additive to the 300 hotel rooms that the council provided funding for last fall.

It is additive to the 120 additional tiny houses that the council provided as well as the 125 enhanced shelter spaces.

Those 545 total aggregate spaces, the executive is still in the process of setting up in collaboration with the council, and we should get a pretty big update on all of those assets in the April meeting of the council.

But in the meantime, we can be leaning in with this additional resource to take advantage of the generous offer from FEMA to 100% reimburse for certain expenses that meet their criteria that we have spent a lot of time really drilling down into the specifics of, and this legislation addresses that.

I think that is a great point.

One last thing I do want to say on this just to make sure we don't forget.

I know Council President indicated an interest in being added as co-sponsor.

I want to make sure we do that before the full passage.

I don't know if this is the time to signify as prime sponsor that that is absolutely very warranted given the key leadership role Council

Thank you for that, Council Member Lewis, really appreciate it.

I would like to have my name added as a co-sponsor to this really important bill, and I appreciate you, Council Member Lewis, following up on that.

So I'm hoping that the clerks are listening.

I'm sure that they are, so that they can make sure that the record reflects my co-sponsorship.

And I will wait for one of them to tell me that I need to say more specific words if I need to, and happy to do that.

We've added you as a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

Really appreciate it.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions on Council Bill 120019?

I'm not seeing any more comments on this.

I am really excited to be able to vote in favor of this particular council bill.

And I think it makes a lot of sense based on what the prime sponsor and Chair Mosqueda just mentioned.

And I'm glad that we were able to find So much needed clarity on the policy position related to this bill from the federal level that really allowed us to move this particular legislation forward.

And of course, there is no 100% guarantee of 100% reimbursement, but I think that any opportunity we can to get reimbursement, even if it's partial, is critically important to continue to protect those who cannot shelter in place from the devastating, deadly impacts of COVID-19.

We know that it is going to take us a while to catch up to the demand and the need as it relates to vaccination.

And we also know that when we're talking about hard to reach community members, like those who do not currently have housing or are unsheltered, It's going to be even more challenging to deploy vaccinations into the community.

And it's going to take us, unfortunately, a little bit longer because of the transitory nature of the population.

So this hoteling strategy and other strategies that allow us to focus on non-congregate shelter for those individuals who will continue to be at significant risk to COVID-19 is going to be critically important for the city moving forward.

So I appreciate the the good sense here in advancing this bill.

All right.

I'm not seeing any additional comments on this bill, so I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 12019. Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Siwa?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, item two.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, resolution 31999. Agenda by the city council's priorities to maximize local use of future federal funding to support COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts.

The committee recommends that the resolution be adopted as amended.

Council Member Mosqueda, this is the item that you were very excited about.

So now I'm going to hand it back over to you to finish your remarks and then we'll take up the resolution.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Council Colleagues.

Apologies for that.

Thank you for letting me preview item number two and to pick up where I left off.

As a reminder, this is the resolution that provides that backbone and guiding document for us as we consider future ordinances that allocate funding from the Federal Rescue Plan Act.

So appreciate all of the work that you provided.

As a reminder, this includes priority investments that were made in the following categories.

Looking at investments grouped into categories such as vaccines and testing, food assistance, homelessness and housing services, including rental assistance, immigrant and refugee support, childcare support, small business and worker assistance, and workforce recovery.

community well-being, transportation, and revenue replacement and financial resilience.

This is the foundation for the future work that our council will work on, that the city will use as we respond to the crisis that we see right now in the streets, the crisis that many small businesses and workers are facing with lack of access to security and the ability to open up shops or get back to work, and how we also invest in the long-term when we create more equitable economy as we look to recover.

This resolution was developed with the following four principles in mind.

First, a need to be prioritizing equity, prioritizing investments for those who are most impacted by COVID and the associated economic impacts.

Second, coordination, ensuring that the investments are coordinated with other entities to address gaps in services or provisions.

Third, flexibility.

As we heard from our federal partners this morning who are tracking the development and allocation of funding out to cities and states, we need to be flexible and nimble, prepared to respond as needed both to federal guidance that comes out and also to the ongoing needs that are growing and evolving in our community right now.

and fourth, resilience.

This allows us to guard against future austerity measures, future uncertainty, and position the city to make new investments such as the resolution that we passed that went along with Jump Start, our concrete spend plan that was baked into Resolution 3-1 This is our effort to make sure that we are resilient, more equitable economy in the horizon so that we don't go back to normal.

That we actually go back to a much better, more equitable city.

The resolution was developed with the following considerations in mind.

First, that we have a need to be pivoting the city's efforts from acute emergency relief to longer-term economic community recovery.

The second, for potential to leverage other local, state, and federal programs and partners.

And third, our recognition of the city's capacity constraints that would limit our ability to deliver services if we didn't do it in partnership.

A great example is the ongoing work that we're doing with the county, per the ordinance just passed and led by Council Member Lewis, to partner with King County as we think about responding to the crisis that's manifesting in terms of homelessness and growing homelessness.

Soon we will be working through this public outreach process and look forward to working with you as we get word out to the community about how they can engage.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Thank you so much Council Member Mosqueda for that.

Any other comments on the resolution?

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to thank the Chair of our Finance Committee, Councilor Mosqueda, for providing the opportunity to non-committee members to provide feedback on the resolution.

I was able to make sure the resolution mentioned access to internet, supporting our transportation infrastructure, and I look forward to working collaboratively with the executive to invest these funds in the most effective manner possible.

But really want to thank the inclusiveness from our Finance Chair.

Thanks so much, Council Member Peterson.

Any other comments on the resolution?

Hearing no other comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted 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?

The report of the Transportation and Utilities Committee, agenda item three, Council Bill 120-008, relating to the City Light Department authorizing the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer to release a portion of an existing transmission corridor easement to the City of Kirkland and accepting the payment of fair market value for the partial release of easement.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Peterson, you are chair of the committee, and I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to you to provide the report on this bill.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Bill 120008 facilitates the completion of part of the regional rail to trail project by having Seattle City Light grant a small easement to the city of Kirkland.

The city of Seattle is retaining sufficient rights for ongoing City Light access for maintenance of the power line.

Our committee held the public hearing March 3rd and then recommended unanimously at our committee on March 17th.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson, really appreciate it.

Are there any additional comments on this bill?

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

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read the short title of item four into the record?

Agenda item four, council bill 12017 relating to grant funds from non-city sources.

The committee recommends the bill passed.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Peterson, this one is yours as well, so I'll hand it back over to you.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, Council Bill 12017, which is co-sponsored by Councilmember Herbold, accepts a grant from the Puget Sound Regional Council for the West Seattle Bridge.

Many thanks to Council President Gonzalez and Councilmember Juarez, as well as to our city government staff members who enabled us to secure this grant to help pay for the restoration work for this bridge that is so important to the city, the region, and the state.

We look forward to the High Bridge reopening, which is scheduled for the middle of next year.

Thank you.

And not a moment too soon, let me tell you.

All right.

I imagine that there are additional comments on this bill.

So are there any other comments?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you so much.

and my thanks.

Council Member Juarez, you're on my list, so I hope it's okay.

I want to thank the PSRC Executive Board members, Council President Gonzalez, Council Members Lewis, Strauss, and Mayor Durkin for their work at the Executive Committee and to the PSRC board members and alternate council president Gonzales and council members Juarez and Peterson for their work on the transportation advisory board for making the recommendations in the first place to move this funding to the executive board for their final action.

Really support, appreciate the support and the commitment of all of the city's elected officials to attaining funding for this critical work out of recognition that this is a regional asset.

To date, $124 million has been secured for the overall project.

In addition to the $100 million approved by the council, the total of grants secured so far is $15.9 million, with $9 million of the funds coming from the Transportation Benefit District.

Last week we all signed a letter to U.S.

DOT Secretary Buttigieg in support of an infrastructure for rebuilding America grant for around $20 million, and that we're also, the city of Seattle, seeking $25 million in funding from the state during the current legislative session.

feeling good about the funding piece.

And yes, this bridge can't open soon enough for a lot of folks.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, for those comments.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Yes, I have one comment, Council President.

I want to thank everybody for everything all the time, but more importantly, I want to thank how long it took us to get this money and not name names because it's been going on for about six months.

Finally got across the finish line for people to recognize that West Seattle needs their bridge fixed.

A lot of people go over that bridge.

It isn't just Seattle's bridge, it's everybody's bridge.

And let's see, who did I forget?

Yeah, everybody.

I want to thank everybody.

So thank you.

I just want to make sure you got everybody.

All right.

Let it be known that we are very grateful group of council members.

from here and to every other corner of the state of Washington.

We are incredibly grateful.

So thank you so much to everyone.

If there are no other comments, I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll.

Hearing no other comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Thank you.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read item five into the record.

Agenda item five, Council Bill 120-002 relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting surveillance impact reports.

or city lights use of current diversion technologies, the committee recommends the bill passes amended.

Council Member Peterson, you are the chair of this committee and I'm going to hand it back over to you to give us this report.

Thank you, Council President, and colleagues, bear with me.

Some of these remarks will sound very similar to what I said at Council briefing, but for the viewing public, wanted to set the table again for this.

The surveillance ordinance adopted in 2017 and refined in 2018 created for Seattle a strong process to review technology that, while used to increase efficiency of government operations and services, could have surveillance capabilities.

And thank you to Council President Gonzalez and others who crafted the surveillance ordinance It puts in place a thorough review process that requires the departments using the technology to justify and provide policies for use of the technology with a focus on protecting privacy and civil liberties.

This is followed up with a review by a volunteer surveillance working group.

and by our information technology department.

Our committee received an overview of the surveillance technology impact report approval process back in January.

Then three ordinances were put forward for nine of the 26 existing technologies back on February 22nd on the introduction referral calendar We heard from all the relevant city departments and central staff at our committee on both March 3rd and March 17. I want to thank the staff from the departments using this technology, the staff from our information technology department, the volunteers on the surveillance working group, our central staff analyst Lisa Kay and my legislative aide Cara Valle for their work on these group two existing technologies.

The committee unanimously recommended the impact reports for both Seattle City Light and the Seattle Fire Department technologies.

And these are the two bills before us this afternoon, Council Bill 120002, which is for City Light, and 120003, the next item, for the Fire Department.

As mentioned this morning during our morning briefing, Council Member Herbold published a friendly amendment on today's agenda to have the fire department explore the feasibility of an additional computer security feature based on the fire department's responses during our committee, and that's an amendment to the next bill.

But this bill before us right now is just for City Light to approve their existing technologies.

I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

This bill, of course, is just related to Seattle City Light and does not have any amendments being proposed to it.

And I'm happy to hear any comments or questions from any of our colleagues.

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

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, item six.

Will the clerk please read item six into the record?

Agenda item six, 120-003, relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting the surveillance impact report for the Seattle Fire Department's use of computer-aided dispatch.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you so much, Council Member Pietersen.

I hand this one back to you.

Thank you, Council President.

And colleagues, as I mentioned before, this is Council Bill 120003, which is for the fire department, their technology, specifically their 911 computer aided dispatch.

And thanks.

Thank you to Council Member Herbold, who I think will be speaking to her amendment shortly.

It's a friendly amendment.

It was based on Q&A during our committee with the fire department.

And this technology is pretty basic, and it's something they already use.

And it's just something that falls within the definition of potential surveillance.

But again, it's just their 911 computer-aided dispatch.

So happy to answer questions and support Council Member Herbold's amendment.

Great.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Council Member Herbold to make her motion for consideration and discussion of Amendment 1.

Thank you.

I move to amend Council Bill 12-0003 as presented on Amendment 1 on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on Amendment 1. Council Member Herbold, I'm going to hand it back over to you to walk us through the amendment.

Thank you.

Chair Peterson did a nice job of explaining what this amendment would do in a way that's a heck of a lot more simple than I did this morning.

It is really just that simple, as simple as the fire department to look into whether or not an additional layer of security could be included as part of access being granted to an account.

you know, again, to enhance the security and prevent somebody from logging in, even if they have access to a password.

So I don't I don't need to go into all the minutiae about two factor authentication, or token based authentication, unless people want me to.

But thank you.

I think we're good on the IT lesson for today, but I appreciate your offer.

Are there any additional comments on Amendment 1?

Because now's your time to ask about two-factor authentication or whatever it is.

All right, looks like nobody's taking the bait.

So will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted and we now have an amended bill before the council.

Are there any additional comments on the bill as amended?

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

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine 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.

Other business.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

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

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, March 29th.

2021 at two o'clock PM.

I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

Did you have something to say or were you waving?

Council Member Juarez was just waving.

Okay, we're adjourned.