Seattle City Council Briefing 11/25/19

Is it for other people?

Yeah.

Good morning.

Thank you for being here for our regularly scheduled council briefing.

We have a long day today.

Just for my colleagues to know, we have this briefing, which should be brief, and then we'll move into a budget committee discussion this morning.

At two o'clock, we'll have our full council meeting, and then after that, we'll have a parks district meeting, so sort of four meetings.

this afternoon.

So I'll start briefly by saying we at the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee will have four items on the introduction referral calendar.

I'll speak more in depth next Monday because our meeting is December 3rd, and we'll have another briefing before then.

And so I'll just insert some end of the year legislation we're looking at.

That's all I'll say for now until we go into budget, I suppose.

So Council Member Schwan, you got the floor.

And I'm signing the proclamation now that you've done in open session, I should say.

Thank you, President Harrell.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

The proclamation that President Harrell mentioned is for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Thank you.

Remembrance and resistance that my office emailed you all last week.

Of course, timing-wise, this should have been passed around last week, but I was out sick, so I hope council members will sign it retroactively, and then we'll make this part of the 2019 record that the city council is standing with our trans community members against violence and oppression.

And of course, we know this is generally important, and we really appreciate trans community members themselves leading on this and hosting year after year the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which has now also turned into Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resistance, especially in light of the attacks by the Trump administration and their attempts to erase trans people from civil rights protections.

So I'm happy that we're doing this proclamation.

At the City Council meeting today, I intended to bring back the budget amendment that we had discussed to fund restorative justice programs like community passageways and youth consortium, but Budget Chair Sally Baxhaw, Council Member Baxhaw, has brought forward an amendment that I'm happy to co-sponsor with her.

She will be talking about this more, I'm sure, when she starts discussing the Budget Committee in a couple of minutes, and I support this amendment strongly.

Finally, I would like to share with you amendments for the TNC legislation that we have at our city council meeting in the afternoon.

And as you know, hundreds of TNC drivers, especially drivers of color have advocated for a driver solidarity and resource center.

This is something that I've discussed, but didn't bring forward an amendment because we were still talking to the drivers, and then also the drivers were discussing with the Teamster and the app-based drivers association.

And so in collaboration with them, we now have some amendments ready for city council.

this afternoon, and the TNC legislation has been grouped with other budget legislation, so we're bringing these amendments to the legislation today, and I will say more about this at the City Council meeting, so I don't take up too much time now, but I have passed around copies of that.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Bagshaw, before you begin, let me start my introduction over by saying we're joined by Council Members Sawant, Bagshaw, Juarez, Gonzalez, and Pacheco.

And if there's no objection, the minutes of the November 18th, 2019 meeting will be approved.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being approved.

And I do want to say publicly, Council Member Pacheco, I was waiting to do that introduction before you here.

This would be Council Member Pacheco's last briefing with us.

And we gotta milk every moment of it while he's here.

So thank you for being here.

So Council Member Beckshaw, and we're joined by Council Member Herbold as well.

Let our minutes reflect that.

Council Member Beckshaw.

Thank you so much.

And colleagues, thank you for all your work on the budget.

We'll have more times to say thank you during today's meeting at 10 o'clock and also at 2 o'clock.

But I really want you to know how much I appreciate the camaraderie and the willingness to move forward.

And also, I will thank our Council Central staff at length when we get to that.

But Ali Panucci, Dan Eder, the others on the team, Kirsten under her leadership, we've really made, I think, some tremendous strides and been able to prioritize.

what's really important to this council.

And also, I do want to acknowledge my own staff, Dan Strauss, our new council member-elect Dan Strauss, Emily Ratzler, Lena Thiebaud, and of course, Allison McClain.

That brings me to a resolution that I have distributed that we are going to be talking about at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

It recognizes the importance of our healthcare workers, and supporting the unionized workers of SEIU Healthcare 1199 Northwest.

And I'm bringing this forward really in honor of Aiden.

Aiden Wright is a little boy that was born 26 weeks into Allison's pregnancy.

And she's been very open about it and posting about him.

And Aiden needs these nurses and needs the people that are supporting him.

So that's why we'll be bringing forward this resolution this afternoon.

So I want to say thank you, all of you.

And also, with great pleasure, Council Member Shama Sawant and I are going to be bringing forward an amendment, something that last week we heard And my concern at that point was, and this is about the youth diversion restorative justice and education programs, that I personally had not talked with the police department about the source of funds.

I have since talked with the police department.

I've also connected with the executive.

People are not thrilled about having more money taken out of the police department, but frankly, I'm thrilled about this restorative justice and youth diversion and education effort.

So, Council Member Sawant and I will be bringing this forward.

I'm bringing it at 1030 this morning, so it will be part of our package when it goes forward at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

It'll be done.

People will know that we're supporting this additional two hundred and twenty two thousand six hundred dollars, and I appreciate all of you And your thoughtfulness on this last week on the dais, okay?

I think that is for me it we do have a budget meeting immediately after this meeting And I hope that it won't take us beyond noon Then we'll have a two o'clock meeting and as you said we have a parks committee meeting which I'm sure my Buddy here is going to talk to more about so thank you

Thank you, Council Member Baxter.

Council Member and Parks Chair, President Deborah Warris.

Wow, you've never done that before.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning.

Okay, so our next Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee meeting is scheduled for December 4th at 2. As far as City Council business, this afternoon the IRC includes 14 appointments to the city's new Central Waterfront Oversight Committee, also known as the CWOC.

The 19-member committee was established in 2019 by Ordinance 125761. This committee shall advise and provide feedback to the City and Central Waterfront Operating Partner on the operations, maintenance, safety and security of this public park.

These appointments will be made before my committee, the Civic Development, Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on December 4th at 2 p.m.

As you know, we've had a lot of work done on the waterfront and we've been working with the Office of the Waterfront And so I'm excited to work with this new board.

Quickly, as you all know, we had a meeting last Monday for the Metropolitan Park District.

And we will have one last one today.

So once the City Council meeting concludes, I will convene a Park District Board meeting in which you are all members of.

Last week, we received a briefing and presentation on the 2019 Park District activities, as well as the financials, by Superintendent Aguirre and Tracy Ratcliffe from Central Council Central Staff.

This was followed by a public hearing to accept comments on proposed revenue sources for the Metropolitan Park District's 2020 operating budget.

I'll say that there was some confusion over whether the proposed legislation is authorizing an increase in property taxes or the rate being charged to individual property owners.

The 2020 budget remains unchanged except for the receipt of unanticipated interest earnings that will cover the Park District's portion of the annual wage increase included in the proposed city labor agreements, as was covered during the discussion.

of the Seattle Park and Recreation's 2020 proposed budget changes.

The city authorized a six-year spending plan in 2014, and every year since then, we have approved the park district budget in November, parallel to the city budget process and timeline as required by the RCW.

So this is nothing new.

We'll just move forward again.

I appreciate your attention and I appreciate those individuals for coming out last week and speaking up.

Our next Park District Board meeting is this afternoon, immediately following our council meeting.

The agenda includes one presentation and five pieces of legislation.

I believe there are five resolutions that will authorize and adopt the 2020 Seattle Park District budget.

And I look forward to seeing each of you there.

Thank you.

Thank you Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Pacheco.

Good morning.

So this is my final council briefing but I'll be very brief because I want to say my thank yous a little bit later this afternoon if that's okay.

There are no items on the introduction and referral calendar for the Pledge Committee.

There are no items from the Pledge Committee as well and I'll say my thank yous again for a little later.

Thank you Councilmember Pacheco.

Councilmember Herbold.

Great, thank you.

I have no items on the, well actually I do have an item.

I have no Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee meeting this week.

I do have one item from the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee on the agenda.

It's item number 37. This is the hate crimes legislation that passed committee in the summertime that we've been holding, working on some resolution with the mayor's office and community stakeholders.

The mayor's office has a different approach that she wants to pursue.

I can talk a little bit more about that at full council, but I will be moving for an indefinite hold on this piece of legislation.

Thank you, Councilor Harwell.

That's it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman Gonzalez.

Good morning, everyone.

I have nothing on this afternoon's agenda from the Gender Equity Safe Communities New Americans in Education Committee.

We do have a busy December, however, in for my committee.

So just wanted to give you all a heads up as to a few meetings coming up in December.

So on December 5th, we will be having a special joint meeting and public hearing of my committee and the Labor Relations Policy Committee.

We will be joined at the table by the Community Police Commission, the Office of Police Accountability, and the Office of Inspector General to kick off the discussion on the public discussion on embarking upon labor negotiations with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

So that will be a hearing that we do on December 5th.

That is the earliest hearing we can do in order to comply with the statutory requirements that require the City Council to have a public hearing to hear from the public about their concerns related to the SPOG.

collective bargaining agreement before the executive can actually formulate those parameters and begin the official formal process of negotiation.

So that is December 5th at 5 30 p.m.

here in council chambers.

My staff will be walking the floor just to be able to identify who intends to come to that public hearing.

I really want to strongly encourage my colleagues to attend if you are available to attend.

It will be, I think, an important opportunity for us to hear directly from members in the community about ongoing concerns with collective bargaining agreement with SPOG.

This is something that obviously we will be negotiating with SPOG as management next year through the Labor Relations Policy Committee process, so this is our opportunity to hear directly from the public about ongoing concerns related to the contract.

If you have any additional questions about the structure of the committee or what you can anticipate at the committee, You can talk to Cody Reiter in my office, or you can also talk to Council Central staff Dan Eater.

who staffs this issue for the Labor Relations Policy Committee.

The next heads up I wanted to give folks is that on December 11th, my committee will be having its regularly scheduled committee meeting on December 11th.

That's a Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

We will be kicking off our first conversation around the Clean Campaigns Act.

This is our corporate pack.

We will have a slate of both local and national subject matter experts who will come in and have a conversation with us about why this issue is important for Seattle and also walk us through from both a legal and practical perspective what this law could accomplish in terms of continuing to protect our democracy moving forward.

And then the evening before, on December 10th, there will be a town hall organized by Fix Democracy First related to the Clean Campaigns Act and to issues related to corporate contributions and super PACs in our local elections.

We are still working on the details with them.

It'll likely be here at City Hall, but we are working with those advocates on structuring a program there, and that'll likely be on Tuesday, December 10th, at 6 p.m., which is the day before our first hearing on the Clean Campaigns Act, which is, again, Wednesday, December 11th, 9.30 a.m.

here in Council Chambers.

That is it.

Councilor González, I think Council Member Swan had a comment on one of the...

I was reading your body language, Council Member Swan.

You said December 11th for the...

And it's just an initial discussion, so...

In case I don't make it, we're going to have discussion in January.

So December 11th is just a briefing and discussion.

It will be an initial walkthrough by Lish Whitson, who is the council central staff working on this particular piece of legislation.

He'll walk through the legislation as it was introduced a couple weeks ago.

We'll be prepared to answer any questions about the legislation as it was introduced.

And then we will have an expert panel conversation of subject matter experts from across the country and here at home who will walk us through some issue identification, why they think it's important, and ultimately why they think that we have the constitutional right as a city to move forward with the bill.

Looking forward to that.

Thank you again, Councilman Gonzalez.

All of the elections will be certified by then.

We can have a nice candid conversation and I'm sure some good things will be generated from the work you're doing.

Thank you.

And Council President Harrell, we will also, as I mentioned in a public document, we'll be having related executive sessions about this particular piece of legislation.

So without divulging what the actual content is, that's another FYI, is that we will have appropriately scheduled executive sessions to make sure folks' questions are answered in that venue as well.

Okay, very good.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

Sustainability and Transportation Committee has a couple items on this afternoon's agenda.

So after we finish our Thanksgiving budget meal, we have some sustainability and transportation dessert.

We have two items.

One is the interlocal agreement for the existing streetcar segments with King County.

The current interlocal operating agreement, this is the agreement where King County Metro operates the two streetcar segments we have, that expires at the end of this year.

So this needs to be passed if we want to keep those things operational by the end of the year.

So this interlocal agreement is a five-year agreement with two five-year extensions at the city's prerogative moving forward.

And so that would keep those things operational.

A couple things that it changes is the kind of reconciliation billing period.

I think ultimately we'll transition to monthly bills.

In the past, there's been times where we've done a reconciliation at the end of the year, and things have shifted significantly financially, but we didn't know about it until the end of the year, so that'll clean that up a bit.

It also shifts some of the responsibility that SDOT had been taking on that makes more sense for King County Metro as far as maintenance of the actual maintenance facilities and stuff like that.

The second piece of legislation we have is a street vacation.

It's for a project called Willow's Crossing.

And it's vacated a portion of 39th Avenue South, just south of Willow Street.

This is near the Othello Station.

This is a private developer that's building a couple hundred units of affordable housing.

And while they used the land acquisition was aided in part with an office of housing acquisition fund that will be repaid back at the end of construction.

And there's no other city subsidy going into this project.

They're using some federal tax credits.

But it's great to see projects in addition to the roughly 1,000 units a year that we're building with city subsidized money that there's also for profit developers building affordable housing using other sources too.

So those are the two items for sustainable and transportation.

Thank you, Councilman O'Brien.

Okay, thanks team for the briefing.

So we're gonna get ready to go into some budget discussions and you wanna share 10 o'clock, I take it, or 10 o'clock will be up on the dais?

Yes, we will and we'll have public comment first.

We'll have public comment first.

Does the select budget committee agenda say 10 o'clock or 10.30?

I thought it had said 1030, but I was told by Amelia and crew that it can start at 10 o'clock this morning.

Oh, it says 10 o'clock.

So we'll have eight minutes.

And Council Member O'Brien, prior to your coming in, Council Member Sawant and I are going to be proposing an alternative to the work that she brought forward last week.

At that point, it was a 4-4 vote.

We have found an alternative source of money within the police department.

We're going to bring forward precisely what she was focused on with the youth diversion and education.

And I'm bringing that forward at 10.30 so it'll be part of our full package this afternoon.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

Good.

Okay.

We stand adjourned.

We'll see you at 10 o'clock.

See you at 10 o'clock.

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