Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee Session I 11/18/2020

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you very much for joining the Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee.

Today is Wednesday, November 18th, and the Select Budget Committee meeting will come to order.

The time is 9.31.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Select Budget Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant.

Here.

Strauss.

Present.

Gonzalez.

Here.

Herbold.

Juarez.

Here.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

And we do expect all of our council members to be in attendance as we see Council Member Herbold join us.

I'll make sure to note her attendance for the record.

I want to thank all of you for being present today.

We have a long agenda.

The agenda actually...

It spans two days, if you see this agenda as probably going to be recessed, and then we will continue on Thursday, November 19th.

I wanna make sure folks understand that we are definitely going to have the one hour break between 1 and 2 p.m., and today we will adjourn by 5 p.m., because we will be able to continue the conversation tomorrow as well.

I'd like to move to adopt the agenda, is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.

Folks, today's agenda is an opportunity for council members to move to amend any items on the agenda.

You see a long list of items here.

We do not have to amend today's agenda for any new, for any substitute items.

To further clarify, amendments that are not substitutes to an item already on the agenda do not need to be added as an amendment to our agenda, because that item is already there.

Only new budget proposals that are not on the agenda and are additive at this point would be why you would amend the agenda.

And it's my understanding that while there are proposed changes to items on the agenda for substitute items, these are not new items.

And given that these are substitute proposals for items already on our agenda for consideration, I'm not aware of any item that would be needed to be added to the agenda and therefore amending our agenda this morning.

So if that's correct and there is no item to be added to our agenda today, I'm going to ask that our agenda be adopted.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Thank you very much Councilmember Herbold for joining us.

We're just getting started and I want to note your presence for the record.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, good morning.

I want to say first thank you to everybody who has called in, who's written us, who's testified.

We've had almost 13 hours of public comment just this fall alone.

We set out to have an inclusive process that centers this budget, the council's revised budget, on the needs of Seattleites.

And in just less than two months time, We've both unpacked the mayor's proposed budget, looked at various funding streams, engaged with constituents and experts in various fields, including how to ward off against austerity budgeting and make sure that we are preparing ourselves for the worst case scenario due to COVID and the economic crisis.

And the proposed budget in front of us truly reflects all of the council's input and I hope reflects our values as we begin to wrap up our deliberations here today, tomorrow, and on Monday.

We want to thank again our incredible central staff team who, as we've said, has been working around the clock over the weekends.

Our communication team as well, who've been helping to break down the budget so that folks can understand the budget and in the general public have a sense of where we are at, especially important as we work remotely.

Thanks again to our IT team, to the folks in the clerk's office, Seattle Channel, and everybody in the legislative department who has made all of these deliberations possible.

In no year is doing the budget ever easy, but in this year it was tougher than most.

We were dealing with multiple compounding crises, the economic downturn, a housing crisis, a homelessness declared state of emergency, civil rights reckoning, and a public health crisis all At the same time, we were dealing with a national federal election and the chaos that was sown by misinformation coming from the Trump administration.

In addition to very little support given the divided Congress and we appreciate all of our congressional members who did fight to make sure that there was COVID relief and we will continue to work with those federal partners and look forward to working with the new administration.

Colleagues, if you didn't see Westmead's column this morning, he really applauds Seattle City Council for stepping up and leading in the effort to make sure that we pass the Jumpstart Progressive Payroll Tax to help hundreds of workers, small businesses, I should say hundreds of thousands of small businesses and workers provide transportation assistance, provide assistance to immigrants and refugees.

and most importantly, ensure that folks stay housed and that our homeless neighbors have support.

Without the Jump Start Seattle package, to put it mildly, we would have been even more in a world of hurt.

And thank goodness that we did pass that because this budget, in part, balances because we have progressive revenue that we can rely on.

We had a slight uptick in the revenue forecast, but that is not the only thing that saved us.

All of you have really helped to prioritize investments directly into communities while we also rebuilt our reserve from $3 million in the proposed budget to now $40 million, just under $40 million.

And this is a huge, huge note of, I think, accomplishment, but it's also not enough.

And we will continue to work to make sure that there's additional assistance to make sure that those who are now having to shutter their businesses again because of the third wave of COVID and workers across the city and those small businesses get the support that they need in addition to our most vulnerable, our seniors, and our folks who are not able to work.

We want to make sure that they have assistance.

It's no surprise that our city is facing compounding crises at the same time and I want to make sure that folks know we are continuing to respond to that crisis through this budget.

We have stepped up and we have made sure that this is an anti-austerity budget.

What we have in front of us indicates in massive investments in homelessness support, housing, health services, community-oriented solutions to alternatives to policing.

And yes, I know there is more to do, but let's be clear, this is not an austerity budget.

This budget is centered on the principles that we set out to accomplish, equity and an economic recovery, making sure that we had more support for Seattleites to be healthy, housed, and safe.

We have prevented against austerity by preventing the layoffs for critical public sector workers who provide vital public services.

This is what makes our city run, and we want to protect those who help make these services possible.

This budget follows the data that shows that we cannot cut our way out of a recession.

We cannot eliminate positions and programs because that only prolongs economic hurt and worsens the outcome for private businesses and our residents as a whole.

This budget, in conclusion, with the inclusion of all of the amendments that you have continued to propose and the amendments we will be discussing today, invest heavily in stopping the spread of COVID, working to ensure small businesses have what they need to survive, and supporting our workers through the transit by making sure that they have access to transit and ensuring our neighbors don't fall deeper into housing insecurity or homelessness.

We are investing in community safety and we know we have much more to do.

But we're chipping away at those inequities, inequities that we know have only been exacerbated by COVID.

So we have a lot to do in front of us today.

I set that tone to say I'm really, really proud of the council and the way that we've all come together to work on this.

It is my attempt after working with all of you to make sure that we reflect all of those priorities.

And that folks in the community at large know the important work that you've done, the changes that you've proposed, the swaps that you're suggesting.

And then if there's additions that we come to today to make sure that we have a robust conversation about it.

We have much more to do in terms of the call for additional investments and divestments in public safety and the call to make sure that black lives truly matter in our budget documents and in our legislative documents to come next year.

And I hope this budget is seen as a continued investment in the strategies that we need for BIPOC communities through direct housing supports, additional support for rental assistance, food assistance, childcare opportunities, and making sure that we're addressing environmental racism.

by investing in Green New Deal, making sure that there's investments in clean and living buildings in our city, more tree support, and that we've provided personnel to actually stand up our Green New Deal commitments.

And all of you deserve a huge amount of kudos.

And this is important for us to do, especially because of working remotely.

I want to show the community what you all have been up to.

And Joseph Pija from our communication staff is going to briefly provide a tutorial for folks before we get into public comment to show how you in the public can track all of the ways in which your council members have offered various amendments.

And Joseph is the mastermind behind the moving graphics that you have seen this year, the small videos that have been created to highlight the ways in which council members are lifting up community priorities.

And I'm gonna turn it over to Joseph right now to show how members of the public can search for where their council members have really put items forward and in the over 160 items that we have been deliberating, how we can make this an easy process for you all to understand.

Joseph, thanks again for all the work you're doing, and please extend our appreciation to all in the communications shop as well.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda.

And for the record, my name is Joseph Pija.

I'm part of the council communications team.

And I thought I put together a tool that is intended to both help the public and members of council both kind of better parse out the draft budget as it stands now to understand which members sponsored which items, which categories they fall into, as outlined by Chair Mosqueda's balancing principles for the initial balancing package.

And then lastly, you can also group amendments by the packages that are being considered both today and tomorrow.

So with that, I'm just going to share my screen and show you what that looks like.

So this is a page that's live on the council website.

You go to the council homepage.

There should be a little slide there momentarily.

That'll take you right here.

And you can see there's a list of the council members here, as well as the budget committee, a list of the categories or budget principles.

And then lastly, the voting groups that will be considered over the next couple of days.

So those can help parse out the amendments.

So just to give you a quick example of what it looks like here, if you wanted to see all of the amendments that are under consideration by that are sponsored by Council Member Herbold, you can just click on Lisa Herbold up here, and you can see each of the amendments here, as well as a link to the PDF, the detailed documents compiled by Central Staff, and a brief description of what that does.

Similarly, if you wanted to see all of the amendments that are related to housing, you can click on housed, and there you go.

And then last, the voting groups.

So these are the groupings that are being used today and tomorrow.

And if you click on these, you might find it useful to follow along with the agenda as we go through things today.

So I hope this is valuable in understanding kind of that big swath of amendments and breaking them out makes it easier to understand for everyone.

So thank you very much.

Joseph, a huge round of applause for all of your work.

That is a really helpful tool.

Thank you.

I see members showing their appreciation on the screen here.

We want to thank you very much for all of the work that you have done to make this budget deliberation process possible, not only for council members, but for the general public at large.

Very exciting tool to have and really state-of-the-art, given the other websites we've seen for government and how we track amendments, you've made this process easy to understand.

So with that, we want to say thank you again, and we're going to turn it over to public comment.

Colleagues, today we have We have a desire to make sure that we have public comment for at least an hour.

I wanna thank everybody for signing up and their continued commitment to making sure that our public comment is available, accessible, and that you all are able to provide comment, especially when we're meeting remotely.

We're going to, at this point, ask that we get your agreement to amend the rules.

The rules only allow for 20 minutes of public comment, and I would like to provide 60 minutes to get through all the folks who have signed up.

Today we are going to, I move to suspend the rules so that the council public comment period can be moved up to 60 minutes.

Hearing no objection.

The rules are suspended, and today's public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

We're going to call members in the order in which they appear on the list, and each member will be given one minute.

Please do wrap up your comments, because we are going to have to end the microphone opportunity at that time to move on to the next person.

Please start by stating your name and the item that you are speaking to.

If you'd still like to sign up for public comment, you are able to at Seattle.gov's website.

Speakers, again, you are going to hear a reminder that you need to push star six after you hear you have been unmuted.

So on the line, you'll hear you have been unmuted.

That's your prompt to push star six so that you can go ahead and provide your public comment.

When you do hear the chime, please note you have 10 seconds to wrap it up.

Please end your public comment by hanging up and dialing in on the listen in line or watching on Seattle Channel and the other listening options listed on today's agenda.

With that, public comment is going to begin.

The first three speakers are Peter Shalitno, Maya Garfinkel, and Howard Gale.

Good morning, Peter.

Good morning.

My name is Peter Shalitno.

I'm a scientist living in District 4, and I use he, him pronouns.

We have a dysfunctional police department nearing a decade under a federal consent decree.

The obvious answer for any problematic department is to shift its funding elsewhere and dissolve it.

or at least reduce it by some meaningful amount, such as 50%.

This summer, council members seemed to understand how this would work and why it was necessary.

Black lives matter.

But if you are already talking about hiring 114 new cops in 2021, it's obvious that those words and your promises from this summer were meaningless.

No new cops, let black brilliance lead the way.

Defund SVD by an additional 9 million to prevent it from hiring in 2021. I support the solidarity budget.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time.

Maya, good morning.

Hi, my name is Maya Garfinkel and I'm the Seattle Tenant Organizer and a renter in District 4. Thank you to Budget Chair Mosqueda and all of the City Council members who have supported the budgetary amendment of an additional $500,000 for tenant education, advocacy and organizing.

BC Seattle is a proud endorser of the Solidarity Budget.

Please enforce a hiring freeze for COPS through 2021. Prior to the pandemic Seattle was experiencing a homelessness and gentrification crisis in the city.

Without action from the Seattle City Council we will see an even greater displacement and houselessness of communities of color.

In addition to committing to a hiring freeze this budget cycle I'm calling to ask City Council to keep education organizing and advocacy support for tenants in this year's budget.

I've seen landlords use intimidation and harassment to try to get around the eviction moratorium.

This budgetary amendment is imperative to fight evictions and prevent displacement.

Thank you for your time.

No new costs and please support the budgetary amendment for $500,000 for tenant organizing.

Thank you.

Thank you Maya.

Good morning Howard.

Good morning.

Howard Gale from District 7. In the spring of 2017 Charlena Lyles was murdered by the SPD and city council members became woke.

But by the fall of 2017, the woke council members hit the snooze button, giving themselves permission to vote in favor of the 2017 and 2018 police union contracts that ensured we would sleep through the next three years of police murders and abuse.

In the spring of 2020, George Floyd was murdered and the city council members once more became woke, but only woke enough to express outrage at a police murder 1,400 miles away but not the SBD murder of Terry Caver.

Just two miles from City Hall.

Once more, the council appears ready to hit the snooze button, giving up on substantial defunding of the police and giving up on any real police accountability.

Today, you will vote on item 143 to begin researching and drafting legislation for an elected community oversight board for police.

Will you hit the snooze button again and hide under the covers?

If you vote no on the proposal, you at least owe it to your constituents to explain how the current system has brought Justice for Charlena Lyles, Terry Caver, or the 25 other people killed by the SPD.

Thank you, Howard.

The next three speakers are Castille Hightower, Max Rapoport, and Kate Rubin.

Good morning, Castille.

We don't need more money to the police so they can continue to murder, brutalize, and commit war crimes against us.

We don't need what is indeed an austerity budget that refuses to raise the Amazon tax and cut $187 million from departments and programs working people rely on, including black and brown communities.

And we certainly don't need council members to make empty promises that they never planned to keep.

You see, my brother Herbert Hightower Jr. isn't here to tell you how he feels.

He was snatched from us by murderous police department that you still refuse to hold accountable and still refuses to release his public record.

But I am, and like so many others like me, are not afraid to hold your contempt for us up to you like we are exposing you for who you really care about and that clearly is not your constituents.

No new cops, defund SPD by 50%, create a police oversight board, and get out of the way of people trying to enact real change.

Thank you.

The next person is Max.

Good morning, Max.

Hi, my name is Max Rappaport and I'm a Mental Health Counselor and resident of District 3. I'm calling in support of the Solidarity Budget and to urge you to stand by your pledge from this summer to divest from SPD by at least 50%.

Sadly, the budget as it stands now not only falls pitifully short of that promise, it doesn't even commit to a police hiring freeze in 2021. In a time when our city is having to make so many sacrifices, it's hard to understand how we're still able to find more money to spend on the brutalization of black and brown neighbors and the emotional appeasement of wealthy white homeowners.

Every cop we put on the streets is a failing.

It's failing to address the root causes of crime, most often poverty.

It's failing to be bold enough to try something different when the status quo isn't working.

And it's failing to be the progressive city we often claim to be.

If you believe that Black Lives Matter, affirm that here today and this week with your votes.

Not with a hashtag on your Instagram or words printed on a piece of computer paper that you brought to a march one time.

Thank you and I yield the remainder of my time.

Thank you.

The next person's Kate.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm Kate Rubin.

I'm the Executive Director of B Seattle and a renter in District 2. I would like to thank Budget Chair Mosqueda for including the budgetary amendment of an additional $500,000 for tenant outreach education and organizing.

As endorsers of the solidarity budget, we recognize the direct connection between housing justice and racial justice.

Low-income Black and Indigenous people of color are more likely to be renters, and without sufficient funding for tenant services, we can expect greater displacement of these communities.

Even now, with the eviction moratorium in place, we have been supporting tenants whose landlords are trying to evict them anyway, as well as tenants facing landlord harassment and unlivable conditions.

Once the moratorium ends, we are anticipating a tsunami of evictions.

Without Know Your Rights education organizing and advocacy many renters will simply self-evict to avoid the hassle and humiliation of the formal eviction process and going to court.

Community-based organizations like B Seattle the Tennessee Union and others need sufficient funds to fight back.

We should not have to compete with each other and other community enhancement projects for funding when we should be taxing businesses and defunding the police by at least 50 percent.

Thank you.

Oops.

I'm sorry, I couldn't get off the mute there.

Good morning.

The next three speakers are Katie Wilson, Robert Krushnack, and Laura Black.

Good morning, Katie.

Just double checking.

Do we have Katie Wilson?

I think we lost her.

OK.

Apologies, Katie.

Dial back in, and we'll get back to you.

Oh.

Oh, there you are.

Hi there.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah.

Sorry about the delay, Katie.

Okay, no worries.

Hi, this is Katie Wilson with the Transit Riders Union.

Thanks for your work so far to improve this budget.

First, about the last minute proposal to include a $20 vehicle license fee in this budget.

The Transit Riders Union supports this funding source because our city's transportation needs far outstrip current funding.

But we don't think our city's scarce funding authority for public transit should be redirected to bridges, and we don't think there's been enough time for a full discussion.

Please set up a more robust public process to decide how these funds should be used.

We also strongly support all the priorities of the solidarity budget.

Just I'll mention a couple.

Please add funds for self-managed homeless communities.

Nicholasville's Tiny House Villages and Shares Tent City 3 have been working on a shoestring to keep people sheltered and safe this year throughout the pandemic.

They need city support to continue doing this work.

Please include them in the budget.

While we're grateful for the commitment council has shown to reversing cuts and funding community priorities, we're also extremely disappointed at the slow progress in this budget on divesting from policing.

Please shift $9 million more from SPD to prevent the hiring of new officers next year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Katie.

Robert, good morning.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Robert Crookshank, a District 6 resident with Sierra Club.

I urge you to defund SPD by 50% and implement the police hiring freeze.

On another topic, six years ago, the council and voters approved a plan to massively expand transit service in Seattle, with the council's $20 vehicle license fee authority being a centerpiece of that plan.

It worked so well that Seattle led the country in transit ridership growth, which is essential to tackling the climate crisis.

At that time, nobody ever envisioned that the council would later try to raid that funding and take it away from buses and use it for bridge maintenance, which, of course, can be funded from other sources.

But here we are.

I urge you to reject attempts to cut funding for buses, to refuse to step away from our commitment to climate justice, to be clear, there should be no question that should go to transit service.

Just a quick note on that one.

Council President Gonzalez has that amendment.

I appreciate all of your comments there.

Laura, good morning.

Laura, followed by Anna Sievert and Nathine Tsushima.

Good morning, Laura.

Sorry for that delay.

Thank you.

And good morning.

My name is Laura Black.

I live in District 3 and I work for Stella Ground with our Rapid Rehousing Program for Families.

I'm calling to support the budget proposal to fund $750,000 in rental assistance to help Rapid Rehousing Programs keep families housed.

I'd like to remind Council of the powerful testimony shared by program participants, Carrie and Gracia, at the October 27 public comment.

Carrie and Gracia shared each of their families' traumatic experiences with homelessness and their journeys to housing with support of Rapid Rehousing.

We were honored and privileged that these busy mothers took several hours of their time to be available to share their stories and I hope council continues to honor their experiences by voting to support increased funds for these life-sustaining programs.

Reparatory housing is a critical strategy to ending homelessness that has been severely impacted by the pandemic.

Reparatory housing participants are not eligible for community rental relief funds so it is critical that council support this initiative to ensure that we can continue to keep these vulnerable families housed and avoid the harms of facing homelessness again.

Thank you again to Council Member Herbold and other Council Members for your support of this important strategy to end homelessness.

Thank you so much.

And Anna, good morning.

Good morning.

This is Ana Zevarts from the Disability Mobility Initiative, Disability Rights Washington.

First of all, we support the solidarity budget.

But I also want to speak specifically about the addition of the $20 vehicle license fee.

We support this because there are so many underfunded mobility and accessibility needs in our city.

But we want to ensure that this funding goes towards advancing equity, accessibility, and sustainability.

Therefore, we support the amendment.

that will allow the city to have a deeper conversation about where this revenue should be invested.

Thanks.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

And President Toshiyama, Nenet, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Nenet Toyoshima, and I am the president of the Seattle Parking Enforcement Officers Guild.

I want to thank the eight council members who supported our proposal a few weeks ago, and Budget Chair Mosqueda, who included it in her balancing budget.

This year, we have seen millions of people take to the streets to protest injustice.

They demanded a new, reimagined way of policing.

We have an opportunity to answer that call by establishing a new community safety and communications center.

Our diverse unit is ready to take on new expanded roles, one that will reestablish trust and rebuild our relationship with the community, especially communities of color.

People are not angry because they don't have more efficient parking enforcement.

They're angry because nothing has changed.

Our unit wants to be part of this change, and we fully support the establishment of a community safety and communication center.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Barbara, good morning.

Barbara will be followed by Alice Lockhart, Helen Wallard, and Karen Geelan.

Do we have Barbara with us?

Okay.

I'm not seeing you, Barbara, so let's go ahead and move on.

We'll come back to you if you're still there.

Sometimes it takes a while to toggle through, folks, so apologies for that.

Okay, we'll go ahead and move forward to Alice.

Good morning, Alice.

Good morning, Council.

I'm Alice Lockhart.

50 Seattle and we continue to stand with the solidarity budget and defunding SPD.

Today I'm here to address the vehicle license fees.

350 Seattle has always strongly supported Seattle's vehicle license fees and their use to fund transit.

But with climate and COVID emergencies raging and with Seattle's climate emissions actually increasing, we're mystified by Councilmember Peterson's proposal to shift money from transit people need right now and use it for bridge maintenance.

That is a long-term investment in cars instead.

If there were a climate note attached to this legislation, it would read, are you kidding?

We support the alternative that would allow for an equitable process, including stakeholders like transit advisory board and transportation equity work group to determine how car tabs would be spent.

And we encourage council member Peterson to work towards long-term I'm a resident of district 7. I'm a senior who lives downtown Seattle.

abrogate 93 police officer positions in SPD.

Further reducing sworn officers before alternatives have been developed and implemented is putting our public safety at risk.

By also slashing overtime, there will be no recourse to respond to violent crime, which is increasing in our city.

We already have a very low ratio of sworn officers for 10,000 residences compared to others of the top 50 cities in the U.S.

Downtown and many of our other dense neighborhoods are becoming unsafe.

Our economy will not be able to recover after COVID if the city continues to become more lawless, repelling tourists, workers, and residents from our once great city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And we'll go back to Barbara.

Barbara, good morning.

My name is Barbara Finney, District 5 member of the People's Budget Movement and Solidarity Budget.

Seattle needs more than four tiny house villages.

Seattle Times article May 4th titled Seattle officials clear Ballard encampment raising concerns about where homeless can go during coronavirus pandemic.

There was a picture of Cynthia Cantrell picking up to leave after being swept and several weeks ago Cynthia Cantrell was struck and killed by a vehicle while trying to cross Aurora Avenue north at north 137th.

Her death should give us pause.

We don't have 10 cities in District 5, not one.

We have many unhoused neighbors, including children.

Tiny house villages provide shelter and life-saving community for people forced to live on the streets.

Funding for only four more is not enough.

Vote to support Council Member Suwant's proposed nine new tiny house villages, including self-managed stop the sweeps and defund SPD by 50%.

Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara.

The next three speakers are Susan Yang, Yvonne Nelson, and Peggy Hotz.

Good morning, Susan.

Hi, my name is Susan Yang, and I'm the Executive Director at the New Philly Education Center.

Today, I'm representing the Chinatown International District Vision Group in District 2 and 3. I urge the Council to support the revised budget, which includes $175,000 for the Department of Neighborhoods to continue to support the work of the Chinatown International District Visioning Phase 2 work.

It is critical that we're able to continue our efforts to create a community-led inclusive neighborhood plan that reflects our rich history and diversity within our community.

Some of our members include CISC, HIPAA Interim, Friends of Little Saigon, ICHS, Friends of Japantown, the Wayne Woods Museum, the BIA, and the Chun-Wa and other family associations in the community.

Over the last year, the group has been working to build a community-led framework to develop a full neighborhood plan.

A full neighborhood plan for the CID has not been developed since 1987. Due to the COVID crisis, racism on the rise towards our community, and the economic crisis which has hit our community hard, we urge you to invest this $175,000 in our community.

We also want to thank Councilman Gonzales's support.

Thank you very much.

And Susan, please feel free to send in the rest of your comments.

Yvonne, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Yvonne Nelson and I work for REACH.

And I just want to thank the council for adding new neighborhood outreach, which is really needed.

I address concerns between 23rd and Jackson and the central area to Rainier Beach.

And what happens in the midst of doing that is it creates trust and builds relationships not only with the unhoused population but also with the community.

We get many calls from community members and we go out and address concerns such as hygiene.

We've gotten people the COVID testing.

There is just recently John C Little had community members up in arms in that park and we were out able to collaborate with the tiny house villages and get all but three people out of that park and we're still addressing those concerns.

I just want to thank you and ask that you continue to support us with doing outreach efforts in our communities.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And thanks to everybody at REACH as well.

Peggy, good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Peggy Hotz and I'm a Nicholsville founder and volunteer.

I'm speaking in support of the $800,000 budget amendment for self-managed tiny house villages operated by Nicholsville and ShareWheel and sponsored by Council Member Sawant.

Diversity in shelter options is critically important.

That seems self-evident to many people.

One model doesn't suit everyone.

I want to thank in particular Council Member Muscata, Rosqueda and Council Member Morales for your serious work in making sure that our community wasn't forgotten.

And thanks all council members and staff for working so hard on the budget this year.

Thank you.

We appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Ryder Hoffman, Kelsey Mescher, and Jake Sisley.

Good morning, Ryder.

Good morning council members.

My name is Ryder Hoffman.

I'm here today to talk about agenda item one 20. I am a former PEO that worked for about 15 years from 2005 to 2020. During that time, I enjoyed working with a richly diverse workforce serving the people of Seattle.

The diversity has proven time and time again to better assist in problem solving adaptation to situations and a broader perspective to any issue at hand.

PEOs are capable and a professional group of individuals that have faithfully served this community for over 50 years.

I feel that we have a rare opportunity to re-imagine how parking enforcement can continue to better serve the community in these trying times.

Seattle can take a bold step forward and choose to be a model for the rest of the country in re-imagining better ways to serve this diverse city.

I support moving parking enforcement to the community safety and communications Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ryder.

Kelsey, good morning.

Good morning, council members.

This is Kelsey Besher from Transportation Choices Coalition.

Thanks for all your hard work on the budget this year.

I'm commenting on our support for using the VLF.

That is why so many of us have fought for it very hard.

But we do want to express concerns about dedicating the source for bridge maintenance.

Despite the pandemic, there is still a lot of transit need out there.

Just last week at county council budget discussions, there was a robust conversation about the allocation of 47,000 service hours.

And Seattle Prop 1, you know, despite incredible voter support, will not be funding the same level of bus service Seattle has been enjoying.

And a $20 increase in the BLS could provide tens of thousands of hours in critical access for people during this time.

We also wanted to express concern that, you know, this was introduced pretty late in the process, and so there hasn't been a great deal of time for statement or discussion.

So, you know, again, we support using the VLF to improve our transportation system, but urge you to look at transit and to...

I appreciate that.

Thank you very much, Kelsey.

Jake, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Jake Sisley, and I am a parking enforcement officer with the city.

I wanted to use my time to personally thank each of the members of this council for not just their initial support, but their continued support of moving our unit to the new Department of Community Safety and Communications.

Prior to becoming a PEO, I worked as an EMT for seven years responding to 911 calls in this city, and I've been around civil service and public safety my entire life.

Over the course of my life in public service, I have found it's the little things that build into bigger things, things like trust and respect.

Moving our unit to the new department is one of those little things, a small step in showing the people of this city that they're being heard, that the city wants to restore the mutual trust and respect that should exist between the people and their public servants.

There is more to be said about this than can be summed up in a minute.

However, know that this move was the right move, and we appreciate your willingness to listen to and empower us as we work together to find a solution to the needs of our city.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next three speakers are Jackson Petrish, Rebecca Gilly, and Amy Tower.

Good morning, Jackson.

Hey, good morning council members.

My name is Jackson peach like the fruit.

I'm a renter in district four.

Um, I moved here this year and I'm calling to urge the council to shift $9 million away from the SPD hiring budget and aim to not provide any new police positions.

when we have much more urgent priorities going on this year.

We need to take full advantage of officer resignations, as I appreciate the council is already doing, but transition away from investing in policing and so as not to leave a vacuum, invest in scaling up alternatives to 911. And in particular, I urge council members to support the budget amendments to restore funding for sidewalk projects in Beacon Hill, provide funding for home weatherization and electrification because we desperately need the Seattle Green New Deal, support self-managed tiny house villages because we desperately need new and more varied housing stock for houseless folks, and fund outreach to the scofflaw mitigation project.

Thank you very much.

Have a good day.

Thank you very much.

Have a good day as well.

Rebecca, good morning.

Good morning.

I first want to thank you for adding new neighborhood outreach workers as the outreach workers specifically assigned to SOTO.

These additional outreach workers in the north and south will bring much needed backup and overall support across all of the Seattle neighborhoods.

Doing outreach in a specific neighborhood means that we are able to build long-term trust and relationships with the folks who call each each neighborhood home.

Yes there is a movement across neighborhoods but I consistently encounter the same people and they consider SOTO home.

I know who I am seeing when I walk down the street and more importantly they know me.

They know how I am available to help them when they need it and how they need it.

Neighborhood Outreach is able to source people into housing that will be a good fit because we know them across time enough to recognize the level of support each individual needs rather than using a one size fits all approach that may result in eviction and more trauma.

We know where people are or where they're likely to be or who might know where they are which means that we have vital appointments we can get there then on time.

Neighborhood outreach can observe physical and mental changes in health over time, which is information that can better serve to connect neighbors to the right resources at the right.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Amy.

Good morning.

My name is Amy Tower.

I'm a tenant counselor and community organizer with the Tenants Union of Washington, and I'm also a renter in District 4. We support the solidarity budget and we have for many months and continue to support it.

We urge you to put the 9 million that's currently allocated for new cops towards true community safety.

Like so many, so many callers before us have been saying, you know, 911 alternatives, Green New Deal, self-operated tiny house villages are absolutely critical for working on the crisis that is the housing crisis in our city.

Please support the budget amendment that includes $500,000 for tenant outreach and education and organizing.

At the state level, the governor's office is already threatening to weaken the moratorium that extends until December 31st due to landlord pressure and landlord lobbyists.

So we know that we're going to have to scale up our efforts as time goes on and as this pandemic continues to really truly work towards public safety, which includes good affordable clean housing.

Thanks so much.

Thank you for your time.

The next three are Brittany King, Tia Kennebrew, and Peggy, I'm sorry, Peggy, we already heard from you, Aiden Carroll.

Good morning, Brittany.

Good morning.

Thank you, council members.

My name is Brittany King, and I am also a parking enforcement officer, and I just want to thank you for considering our proposal.

I've been in parking enforcement for the last three years, and I am a Black woman.

I grew up in South Los Angeles, a neighborhood that was highly publicized for crime and gang activity.

And yes, my neighborhood was filled with crime, but there were far more hardworking families.

My interaction with the police has not always been a positive one.

I felt that they did not understand my community or see people in the community and feared us.

The PDO department has a unique and diverse group of employees This is especially important because people are calling for enforcement from people from their communities people who look like them and understand them.

This is why I feel like the PEOs can be a bridge between the community and law enforcement.

The Community and Safety and Communications Center would be the best fit for us.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Tia good morning.

Good morning City Councilman and City Councilmembers.

My name is Tia Kennebrew.

I'm a shelter lead for homeless families at Mary's Place.

I am a strong single Black mother of four children and I am very grateful for the Social Services Provider Academy program.

It allows me to go to school full time and still have a full time job without the exhaustion and the worry about having to go and have to find the funds to pay for it.

I have been it has been my desire to further my education to match my life experience as I continue to grow my career in the human services field.

I love the fact that the SSPA classes are just two to three days a week and I work overnight so the time frame works perfect for me.

I have learned so much about myself and the instructors are great.

Please help to support the SSPA program.

The staff and the instructors actually care about us achieving our goals.

My goal is to become a social worker.

It's ironic that me and my children are doing Zoom classes and homework together.

I love the fact that we are students together and I'm setting a college example.

Please support this program so frontline workers like myself can reach our dreams.

Thank you doing the work that we love to do.

Thank you so much.

Aiden, good morning.

Good morning.

I think the most important thing to emphasize about the budget is that since we're in a recession, Keynesian economics shows that we need a stimulus where we increase spending over previous years and, if possible, cut regressive taxes.

However, we're not constitutionally allowed to do that at the city level, so I think we need to cut as little as possible so that we don't end up with what happened in 2009-10 when most of the federal stimulus was wiped out by cuts at the state level.

We can increase progressive taxes, can fund tiny house villages and other immediate solutions to encampments.

And this is important because I'm concerned about a potential backlash from homeowners against encampments.

And there are serious human needs there.

I appreciate what you're doing and please shift as much funding from police into alternatives.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Aiden.

The next three people, Chloe Gail, William and Ava.

Good morning, Chloe.

Hi, good morning.

My name is Chloe Gale.

I'm the co-director of the REACH program.

And I'm calling you to ask for $100,000 to support the Social Service Provider Academy for our frontline staff to access education and professional opportunities.

REACH currently employs over 100 staff doing street outreach work for our most disabled homeless people on the street.

Many of our staff represent or come from the populations that we serve and are incredibly skilled staff.

They know how to build trust with traumatized populations and creatively navigate them through significant barriers into housing instability.

But because of structural racism and discrimination many of our staff have never had opportunities to pursue higher education.

The staff that we have currently enrolled in the Provider Academy say it provides a path towards their professional goals that acknowledges their expertise and talent and supports them through the educational process.

support and grow our front-line employees who are majority BIPOC and folks with lived experience to become housing and homeless service leaders.

Excellent.

Thank you, Chloe.

William, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is William Levernoir.

I live in, I am a renter in Seattle District 7. I am calling to show my support for the solidarity budget.

I, and right now that, After deliberation, it seems like the, I would like to, I am interested in the Seattle Police Department hiring budget being cut.

I urge the police hiring freeze to continue through 2021. This money can be much better spent elsewhere dealing with the variety of issues plaguing us, including climate change and COVID and homelessness as a result of those.

And the, I support the Green New Deal, of course, and community infrastructure, including sidewalk projects to improve accessibility for everyone.

And I think that's all I'm going to say.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time today.

Ava, good morning.

Hi, Ava.

Good morning my name is Eva Palmer-Wells.

I'm a student at Center School and I'd like to thank the council for this time.

Growing up in North Seattle I've witnessed a drastic increase in the homeless population over the years.

With little to no support these people are left stranded without easy access to mental and physical health care food and shelter.

I ask that you increase the budget of Health One making it possible to have a team in all five SFD battalions.

Four additional Health One teams with new reductions in non-emergent calls to SPD and SFD leading the police to engage solely with calls With 50% of their clients experiencing homelessness, HealthONE redirects these people to critical services, rather than displacing them and providing them with temporary fixes, which is what SPD is currently doing.

HealthONE case managers connect our clients with social services to wrap around agreements with other organizations, which SFD and SPD are unable to do on their own.

With ongoing demands to defund OPSISA, I encourage you to invest more funds into HealthONE.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Sonia Puna, followed by Christine Sapp and Miles Joy.

Miles, it shows you're not present.

Feel free to call in.

Sonia, good morning.

Good morning.

As a working mom of two, I'm calling on the council to support Council Member Sawant's amendment to defund the police by 50%, invest that money in community priorities, and make good on your pledge to defund that you've made in June by turning that support into concrete action instead of just rhetoric.

That would truly make this an anti-austerity budget.

And police must be held accountable to our community.

Some call to abolish the police, which sounds great, but it's impossible under this capitalist system.

We still need policing, especially in black, brown, and working class communities who deserve to feel safe where they live.

We know these communities are disproportionately hassled, fine, and worse, and really should be treated the same as the rich suburbs.

What we demand instead is community control, and the people's budget has put forward an amendment calling on the city to take steps to establish an elected community oversight board with full power over police accountability, including the power to investigate reports of excessive force, the opposite of the police investigating themselves.

It's going to take some time, and it will require voter approval, so we should get started on this as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

My name is Christianne Sapp and I am a parking enforcement officer with the city of Seattle.

I am also the vice president of the Seattle parking enforcement officers guild.

I am addressing agenda item 120. First I'd like to thank the eight council members who are in support of our proposal.

I'd also like to thank budget chair Mosqueda for including our proposal in her balancing budget.

Parking enforcement is a diverse workforce.

Our officers bring a variety of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and knowledge to the table.

12 different languages are spoken within our unit.

We are well-trained, adaptive, customer service oriented, and look forward to continuing to serve our community in new ways.

I am in support of the proposal to move parking enforcement to the newly formed Community Safety and Communication Center.

Thank you so very much for the work you all do.

And I appreciate the opportunity to speak today.

Thank you very much.

Miles I still see you listed as not present.

And that is also true of Anthony DiAmesito sorry DiAmeso and Margaret Dungo.

So if you would like to call in please feel free to.

The next three speakers are Tanya Lowe Bernard Bentley and Camille Baldwin Bonney.

Good morning Tanya.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Tanya Lowe, and I am a Parking Enforcement Officer for the City of Seattle.

I'm here to support Line Item 120 in the agenda for the establishment of a new Community Safety and Communication Center Department.

As a Black woman who was born and raised in the Central District, District 3, and having the opportunity to reside near the University of Washington, as well as Rainier Beach, I have deeply rooted bonds with the communities I serve.

I strongly propose that our unit be allowed to transition and assimilate into the Department of Community Safety and Communications Center.

It is my honest belief this change will provide our diverse unit with more opportunities for community engagement, as well as a pathway to reinvent the image of the Parking Enforcement Unit.

Once again, thank you to the council members for your time, and have a safe Thanksgiving holiday.

Thank you, you as well.

Bernard, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Bernard Bentley.

I am a park enforcement officer.

I'm also a member of the board.

And first of all, I want to thank you for allowing us to have space to speak to this important issue.

I'm a pastor in the city of Kent.

I also have a church in Bambang, Tarlac, Philippines.

And I grew up trusting and having confidence and faith in the police.

I can recall back in my early years where Officer Friendly would come to our classroom and would encourage us to get good grades and to obey the law.

And we were close-knit with the police department.

Things now have changed.

There's a pretty big gap between the relationship between officers and the community.

I think that moving to community safety will not only help us bridge the gap, and also be a catalyst to bring change into the community.

So I support 120, and I support our community safety movement, and I think it'd be a good move for us.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time this morning.

Camille, good morning.

Hi, my name is Camille, and I'm a constituent of Seattle City Council District 5. I'm a mother of two, a healthcare worker, and a member of the ACLU People Power Group for police accountability.

We have the opportunity to follow the most large-scale civil rights movement since the 1960s and achieve both systemic change and greater public safety.

The cuts to SPD and the investment to the community in the City Council's budget are good first steps, but we can do more.

That's why I'm urging the City Council to cut an additional $10 million from SPD and continue the hiring freeze in 2021. The $30 million allocated to the Mayor's Task Force should be redirected to community participatory budgeting.

I urge the Council to support the priorities outlined by the Solidary Budget Commission, such as the Green New Deal, self-induced management, tiny house villages, and Scotland mitigation project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next person is Carol Johnson followed by Emily Dillis and Star Wiley.

Good morning, Carol.

Good morning.

I'm Carol Johnson and I'm a health care worker downtown and a member of Yes to SCS Coalition.

City Council has historically been a champion of supervised consumption spaces.

I'm here to thank each member who has shown leadership for evidence-based interventions to advance local drug policy.

We desperately need your continued support now.

With visible impacts of the drug user health crisis and so many of our vulnerable neighbors whose drug use is without safety and health, council should continue support for moving this funding forward.

Supervised consumption spaces and services are a key part of a community-wide public safety plan and our reality-based and research-proven intervention.

I'm testifying today for council to continue this leadership.

Thank you so much for your support and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good morning, Emily.

Good morning.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Good to hear you.

Thank you.

Emily Dills here, I'm a member of the domestic.

Workers Standards Board, and I wanted to talk today in support of funding for the Office of Labor Standards to continue the good work that they're doing around the Domestic Workers Ordinance.

I wanted to thank you for allocating funds to the OLS, but also to let you know that it's not enough.

I want to thank you, Chair Mosqueda in particular, for your leadership on this issue, and Chair Savant for your recent support of the workforce.

Domestic workers are often referred to as invisible, but they aren't anymore.

They're on the front line.

Many of them don't even know that they have protection, and the data reflects the Office of Labor Standards reached only 3% of the local population of workers.

The work of the Office of Labor Standards has just begun, and I'm hoping that we don't stop the momentum now.

The basic protections for domestic workers are a great step forward, but if the workforce doesn't know about the protections, then what good is the ordinance?

So that's why this funding is critical.

and I wanted to talk today to...

Emily, if you want to send in the rest of your comments, that would be great.

Thank you again for calling in in support of OLS and the Domestic Worker Standards Board.

The next person is Star.

Good morning, Star.

Good morning.

Hello, council members.

My name is Star Willey.

I'm a renter in District 7 and a furloughed Starbucks employee and a member of Socialist Alternatives.

I'm calling today in support of the people's budget and the solidarity budget.

Please increase the Amazon tax on big businesses that have been profiting through the pandemic while working people are struggling to provide for their families and their own basic needs.

And restore funding for all the budget cuts.

What is everything to working people is really a minuscule amount for big businesses and Durkin's austerity budget protects big business and the Seattle police while cutting basic services for working people.

Don't cut emergency COVID grocery vouchers, funding for affordable housing and related services, community centers, libraries, or bus hours.

We have to defend our planet and stop relying on fossil fuels.

Fund a New Deal election projects for low-income households.

Please stand by your word to defund SBD by 50% and support Council Member Shemesawant's People's Budget legislation to defund SBD by 50% or $170 million.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Alexis Dots.

It looks like you are not present, Alexis.

I just want to let you know if you're still listening, you can call in.

The next three speakers are Josie Jensen, Dawn Whitson, and Leah Polameter.

Good morning, Josie.

Just checking.

Do we have Josie Jensen?

Hello.

Hi there.

Can you hear me?

Hi.

Yes.

Hi, my name is Josie and I'm a sophomore at Garfield High School.

I support the solidarity budget and I'm calling on you all to listen to the people of Seattle and to defund the police by the full 50% and invest into a system that values human life because our current system does not.

This year alone, we have lost 119 houseless relatives because our city has failed to address the issues of homelessness and gentrification.

Police do nothing to address the root causes of these issues.

Instead, they respond to them by criminalizing people for being homeless and doing homeless sweeps.

Instead of investing in policing, invest in things that actually address the homeless crisis, such as tiny house villages, hotel rooms, affordable housing, and mental health resources.

Also, invest to expand the Green New Deal so that myself and other youth in this city can actually have a future, and invest in COVID relief.

stand with the people of Seattle, stand with the families of Charlene Lyle, Sean fewer, and all the other families who have lost loved ones due to police killing in our city and defund the police by 50%.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in Don.

Good morning.

Good morning, Don.

Uh, can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you now.

Oh, great.

Thanks for joining.

Go ahead, please.

Good morning, City Council members.

My name is Dawn Whitson, and I want to thank you for adding seven new positions to our Neighborhood Outreach Team.

I work for REACH in Georgetown, building long-term relationships with folks, people who trust that they can count on me to help them problem solve when there is a crisis, to give them a voice to tell their own story to City Council, Outreach helps folks with health care, mat services, trash removal, RV waste removal, harm reduction supplies, and other entitlements.

And none of these are quick and easy, and there is an endless need.

Put simply, more outreach means more help.

I ran into a client yesterday who was moving into her new apartment in two weeks.

She cried, and she thanked me for all the work that reached it in helping her access to Boxon, go to INQ when she was COVID positive, transfer her to a motel for her husband's cancer care, quashed her warrants so that she could be connected to VA services, who then moved her into the bridge and finally found housing for her.

She starts school in January and told me that she was offered a job at the bridge shelter.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Leah, good morning.

Hi, my name is Leah Perlmutter.

I'm a UAW 4121 member, District 3 renter, and a white woman.

I want to tell you about the time that cops invaded my neighborhood.

So I live on 10th near Montlake.

We don't see many cops that often, but there was a small group of 20 or 30 peaceful protesters.

They're being harassed by a large group of 30 or 40 cops who are making a nuisance with their vans, bicycles, loudspeakers.

So I go outside my house, find a whole row of cops on bicycles rushing past my doorstep.

And almost immediately, three police officers shoved me, cornered me against the neighbor's fence and threatened me. for walking down the street.

So now listen, when we have an enormous police force trained in violence and deployed in force, they will use that violence disproportionately against BIPOC folks and disproportionately against those who openly oppose police, but they will use that violence against anyone and everyone.

We need to abolish police.

In terms of budget amendments on the table today, defund SPD by 50% and create a civilian police oversight board with full power to hire, fire, and subpoena.

Furthermore, reverse the proposed cuts to affordable housing construction, community centers, libraries, and transit.

These cuts amount to an austerity budget.

Fund these services by...

Thank you very much.

Folks, we have about 15 minutes left, and we have 20 people to speak.

So I'm going to ask for folks to speak in a 45-second allotment so we can hear from everybody who is present.

The next three speakers are Angela Ham, Kyla Jackson, and Gordon Padelford.

I see Elissa is not present, so we'll do Anthony Rendevich.

Angelia, good morning.

Angelia are you with us still.

Okay.

Let's move on to Kyla Jackson.

Hi Kyla.

Hello.

Hi.

My name is Kayla Jackson and I'm a resident of District 5 and a program manager at Puget Sound Stage.

I'm calling to urge you to shift $9 million away from the Seattle Police Department hiring budget and use it to scale up alternatives to 9-1-1.

A just city budget just can't include more police on the street.

And as police quit or retire, we don't need more investments to replace them.

Please don't create public safety.

The best way to guarantee public safety is to meet people's basic needs and build out other ways of responding to harm in our community.

The council proposed budget takes some steps towards divesting from policing and investing in black communities, but not nearly enough.

And in your critical votes on this budget, please help us move towards a vision of an equitable and inclusive Seattle, not further away from it.

I generally am supporting.

Thank you very much.

Gordon, we still see you listed as not present, and we'll go back to Angelea real quick.

Angela?

Pam?

OK.

I'm sorry, Angelia, we will come back to you if you are still present.

The next three are Anthony Radovich, Kalia Davis, and Bridget O'Brien.

Anthony, good morning.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Tony Radovich.

I live in District 3, a founding member of Boca, Washington, and a person with lived experience.

City Council has historically and collectively been a champion of safe consumption spaces.

I'm here to say thank you for the Council's support and leadership for evidence-based interventions to advance local drug policy.

I'd especially like to thank Budget Chair Mosqueda's leadership in including and advancing SES funding.

We need your continued support, especially now.

The visible impacts of drug use or health and vulnerable members of our community without a safety net.

Council members should continue support for moving this funding forward.

Thank you.

Have a wonderful day.

Thank you very much.

You as well.

Kalia, good morning.

I believe we already heard from Kalia.

Actually, let's go to Bridget O'Brien.

Good morning, Bridget.

Unless we have two Kaleas.

Searching, searching.

Okay, let's go to Bridget.

Good morning, Bridget.

We'll give folks from IT a second to catch up.

Hi, can you hear me?

Hi there, Bridget.

Yes, thanks so much, and thanks to the folks at IT for keeping up with us.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Bridget.

Hi.

You can hear me OK?

Yes, we can.

Hello?

Sorry, I'm having technical difficulties.

Hi, my name is Bridget O'Brien.

I'm a renter in District 3, and I am calling to ask you to support the people's budget put forward by my council member Salant and the solidarity budget as well.

I also wanted to speak specifically about the agenda item regarding out-of-order layoffs for SPD.

I think it is critical that we get rid of officers with a history of misconduct and brutality, and that should just be a no-brainer for everybody.

And then I also wanted to speak in support of.

Thanks Bridget.

Please do send in that second item for us in writing.

Jonas Dodge followed by Doug Trum and Patrick Brady.

Good morning Jonas.

Hello my name is Jonas Dodge.

I'm a senior at the Sutter School and a resident of District 4. I've lived in the UDistrict for all 17 years of my life and witnessed the inhumane treatment of homeless people in the neighborhood.

But this treatment doesn't only apply doesn't only happen in my neighborhood.

This is a Seattle wide issue.

Throughout my life I've only seen this problem get worse and the only action I've ever seen taken is people talking about it or writing think pieces.

In the meantime the number of homeless people went from 7,980 in 2002 the year I was born to 11,751 in 2020. This growth is unacceptable.

The council has shown that it does not care about the homeless people by not by continuing to gentrify neighborhoods across the city not advocating for rent control, not creating truly affordable housing, and ignoring the organizations that advocate for homeless people.

And these are just a few things.

I beg you to do at least one of these things because you are failing these vulnerable people on a daily basis.

I have struggled.

The next person is Doug Trem.

Thank you, Jonas, for calling in.

Doug, good morning.

The urbanist supports the solidary budget and we support using vehicle license fees to fund bus service and transit access.

We oppose Council Member Peterson's rush proposal to divert VLF to bridge maintenance.

How much of the frequent bus network will be left if we divert our bus funding to bridge maintenance under the guise that buses use bridges too?

We urge you to support Council President Gonzalez's proposed amendment that would delay spending decisions until the city can engage key stakeholders.

$7.2 million is a band-aid for bridge maintenance, but it could do a lot for a bus network.

The Northgate bus restructure ended up being mostly cuts.

Metro's 61 could be brought back.

There's plenty of other ideas that the Transit Advisory Board could bring up.

I'm here to echo the previous comment about wider bus funding as well as the comments by the transit riders union and Thank you very much.

Brittany, good morning, followed by Teresa Holman and Malika Lamont, and we'll go back to Kalia after that.

Brittany, hello.

Hello, good morning, Council.

My name is Brittany Bush-Follet.

I'm the chair of the CR Club Seattle Group.

I'm calling first to express our support for the solidarity budget, including significant reductions in police funding and staffing.

We're also really excited about many specific items in the Council's budget, including the Green New Deal Oversight Board and advisor positions, other OSU staff positions, the Capitol Hill Public Life Study, Lakes and Springs Historical Science, the Georgetown South Park Trail, and other multimodal improvements.

And we really notice and appreciate the council's dedication to climate funding this budget cycle.

However, we want to express that we do not support the shifting of CARTAB funds away from funding transit.

We believe it goes well with their intent and their best use, especially as we work to maintain transit service.

The success of Prop 1 at the ballot box shows that over 80% of Seattle voters agree with funding transit.

Please find better options for bridge maintenance funding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Kalia are you still with us.

We have Teresa Homan and Malika Lamont as well.

Hi, my name is Teresa Homan, and I am the program manager of the Tiny House Village Program with Lehigh, and thanks for your support.

Two weeks ago, I accompanied Mellie and Yvonne from Reach, who are doing outreach at John C. Little Senior Park.

Standing in the cold rain, it felt good to offer people camping there a tiny house.

Ultimately, 10 people were sleeping in a warm, cozy house that evening, and there were about five less tents when we left.

So we urge you to support building more tiny house villages in 2021 and beyond.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Malika, good morning.

Oh, hi.

Good morning city council.

My name is Kalia Davis.

I'm a student at the center school.

I will be talking to you today about defunding the police, and regulating the funds to this community service.

This is important because I feel like we need a safer environment for the people of color after the incident with George Floyd.

The police have been getting away with harassing innocent Black people in the communities and that should be stopped.

As a Black woman I feel that we need to prioritize the communities over policing.

We when we look at the schools in the South End they are filled with Students of color especially students especially Black students in these schools are underfunded.

When you go to the south end of Seattle you see the police everywhere but when you go to the north where all the White people live there is significantly less.

Thank you Malika.

If you could or thank you Kalia if you could send in the rest of your comments.

The next person is Malika.

Hi, my name is Malika Lamont, and I am the director of Vocal Washington based in downtown Seattle.

We want to voice our support for the People's In Solidarity Budget, and we also would like to say thank you to the City Council for their support of SES funding and also to voice or ask for continued support as we have many of our community members that are unable to safely access housing or safe supply or treatment services in order to be able to assist them with their substance use issues.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

The next three, Naomi C., Ella, Kaplan, and Nancy Raiken.

Naomi, good morning.

Hey, all.

I just, first off, Hi, all.

First, I wanted to thank you for your work.

I just wanted to address two things.

First, the mayor's proposal to use hotel funds just feels so inefficient.

It gives funds to private hotel markets whose owners overcharge so they can maintain franchise agreements and make improvements.

And the hotel rooms are only available for 10 months.

You have been brought a proposal where for the same amount of money, you could put down a down payment that purchases the hotel for the long-term use and operates it for 12 to 18 months.

While we understand legal constraints please work to make this important investment that makes so much more sense financially and for serving individuals.

And the other thing is there are so many opportunities to acquire properties from the suppressed market.

Please please increase the bridge loan authority so we can capitalize on those.

Thank you so much.

Bye.

Thanks for your time this morning.

Ella good morning.

Good morning.

Hello Seattle City Council.

My name is Ella Kaplan and I am a member of the Yes to SCF Coalition Student University of Washington.

and peer education chair of the Students for Responsible Drug Policy, a student organization working to dismantle drug policies that historically disproportionately impact minority and poor people.

City Council has historically and collectively been a champion of Yes to SDS, and I'm here to give immense thanks for Council's support and leadership for evidence-based interventions to advance local drug policy.

We want to thank each Council member whose support is steadfast and for Budget Chair Mosqueda's leadership in including and advancing Yes, Yes, Yes funding.

As a majority, Council has a track record of official votes and public support for Yes, Yes, Yes.

Thank you so much for your time.

Excellent.

Thanks for your time.

Colleagues, we've reached the end of our hour allotment.

I only have 10 more people signed up here.

With your indulgence, I'd like to extend the public comment for 10 minutes.

the public comment will be extended for 10 minutes and we will keep it at 45 seconds to make sure we get to everyone.

Nancy, good morning.

Thanks for being ready.

Good morning.

My name is Nancy Raken.

I'm a 30-year resident of District 7. I call in support of the solidarity budget specifically to increase the payroll tax for big business.

We all know that many local businesses have profited handsomely from the pandemic.

Amazon has seen their stock double since last March when the pandemic began.

Throughout the city, the citizens voted last year for more equitable policies.

Five of the six council members won over their more moderate challenger.

Progressive policies should include increasing the payroll tax so that corporations pay their fair share to the city, and we stop punishing the poor with cuts to funding for housing, libraries, and public transportation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Daniel, good morning.

Daniel Clark, then Jesse Rollins and Audrey Schuman.

Morning, Council.

Ultimately, this is not about the money, but the character of the Council.

This is a day of opportunity.

No new cops is an affirmation of the Council's dedication to justice and moral character.

I've heard stories of police in Seattle throwing people off the bridges, generational beatings of both father and son with false charges, King County Jail is improperly strip-searching protesters in punishment in solidarity with SPD.

This is a civil rights issue.

Elders talk of dying in a racist world where Black Lives Matter is swept under the rug and a blind eye is turned to ongoing murders.

There's good reason and growing legal evidence to question the character of SPD.

Next election, only 25,000 signatures are needed for initiative on the ballot, and we are already planning it.

Make the right decision and amend the budget for no new cops.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Jesse.

We have Jesse Rollins next, Audrey Shuman, and it looks like Harper Polk and Katie Nooner.

Harper and Katie, you are enlisted as not present.

Do we have Jesse with us?

Can you hear me now?

Hey, Jesse.

Good to hear you.

Yes, please go ahead.

Hi.

Hi, good morning, council members.

My name is Jesse Rollins.

I'm the public policy manager at the Public Defender Association.

I just want to echo the many calls today of public testimony that were showing strong support for council's continued leadership for safe or supervised consumption spaces and services.

This council has a strong track record of supporting SES, and we need that support to continue.

So just really appreciate all of the leadership and the, quite frankly, political capital spent in supporting SCF.

So today's action will get us to one step closer to making SCF a success.

I also want to strongly support the flexible funding being added to the HOPE package that was initiated by Council Member Morales, with support from Council Member Herbold and Budget Chair Mosqueda to ensure that hotel lobbyists

Thanks Jessie and if you could send in the rest of your comments.

We appreciate it.

Audrey good morning.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Thanks.

Okay.

My name is Audrey Schuman and I am a student with the Center School.

I submit that I am confused on why the Seattle Police Department is only going to be cut by 17 percent in the proposed 2021 budget.

I know that change doesn't happen overnight and there there needs to be alternatives but only cutting the budget by 17 percent makes it seem as if this issue isn't being treated as the crisis that it is.

Police in the U.S. have murdered at least one Black person every week in 2020. This is a crisis and it has been for a long time.

I know that there have been plans to cut the Seattle Police Department further in future but why not now.

Every week every day counts.

Invest further.

into communities that are being most affected by these murders, put money into the human.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Alyssa.

Good morning, Alyssa.

Hi, my name is Alyssa Covill and I'm the Special Projects Manager at Whittier Heights Tiny House Village in Ballard.

I'm urging the Council to support many more tiny house villages in the 2021 budget as they help save lives and provide stability for those experiencing homelessness.

I see daily the positive impact that having shelter, food, and a safe environment to come home to have on the lives of our villagers.

I'm also asking you to please support the expansion of outreach programs to community organizations such as REACH, who we work with closely and do amazing work to help our unhoused neighbors.

I have seen firsthand the effectiveness of the REACH team out in the field.

And lastly, please also support adding the Purple Bag program to 30 sites and the Street Things program.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Katie Nunez, followed by Jennifer Gosar and Nicholas Nagel.

Hey, Jennifer, I see you up first.

Why don't you go ahead?

Good morning, City Council, and thank you to Chairman Mosqueda.

I'm a member of District 6 of Dan Strauss' district, and I'm calling again in support of Agenda Item 143, SPD Civilian Oversight Board.

The bodies already in existence have proved themselves ineffectual.

Please take a second to think of one significant change that any of those bodies have made to SPD practice or accountability actions.

You can't think of it.

It doesn't exist.

Thus, an elected all-civilian board with actual accountability powers would be a significant step to actually hold SPD accountable for brutality, for misconduct, for corruption, and for crimes committed against the public.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

And then we have, I think, Katie.

Is Katie available?

Hi, Katie.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

Oh, yeah.

We can hear you.

Oh, good morning.

My name is Katie Nooner.

I'm a small business owner and a president of District 2. Currently marching as we do every day.

We're currently on the way to, you know, hold people accountable.

I just was calling in today to remind you that we need to be investing in the youth because the youth right now are the truth right now.

And if we don't invest in the youth today, then we will end up with the inflated problems that we're suffering from.

in the future.

So for example, houselessness, poverty, addiction, and things like that.

If we don't give students and kids resources, they will end up in the same exact boat.

So we need to make sure that we are on top of it, preventative instead of reactive, which is what we're doing right now.

We're scrambling.

I also want to remind you that last year, Denny Durkin spent $1.5

Thank you for calling in as you march.

We appreciate it.

And if you could send in the rest of your comments, that would be great.

The last four speakers that are present, Nicholas Najel, Candace Faber, Tracy Roberts, and Leah Lucid.

Good morning, Nicholas.

Good morning.

Due to COVID-19 and over reliance on sales tax, the city of Seattle is projected to have its budget decreased to $1.3 billion.

Despite this, our expenditures have increased to $1.5 billion.

leaving us with a deficit of 200 million even after our emergency funds have been all but exhausted.

To offset these deficits, payroll tax has been projected to give the city enough funding to make up for this with almost no money to spare.

Our emergency funds are practically non-existent.

We are in the middle of a pandemic that is only worsening and if we are banking on our and we are banking our budget on the projected earnings from a tax we've only just instituted.

If the tax fails to meet projections or emergency funds need an increase, we will be forced to make cuts.

What I'm asking is that the City Council make plans for budget cuts so that if we do not meet our projected goals, we will be prepared to make the necessary adjustments without taking drastic action.

Thank you very much.

And then Candace is going to speak next.

Just for the record, I see Ish, G, Abby, Ekinser, Chris Ekinser, and Harriet Walden, all listed as desiring to speak but not present.

And so with that, we're going to go to Candace.

Sorry about that, Candace.

Please go ahead.

That's all right.

Thank you.

My name's Candace Faber.

I am a house cleaner and a small business owner.

currently unable to pay rent in the city, but I'm being sheltered by community members in D5.

And I'm calling today to ask you to take action to support the Domestic Workers Ordinance, which is a groundbreaking ordinance passed by this council to support the rights of domestic laborers who uphold the safety and comfort of families all across the city.

In spite of how important this ordinance is, it remains a symbolic victory that has had little impact, if any, on the material conditions of the more than 30,000 workers in our city.

Many, likely a majority of these workers are still forced to work for below minimum wage without access to the same basic rights as other workers.

And it's especially hard on them during this pandemic.

This will not change unless we make meaningful investments that demonstrate that.

Candace, thanks so much.

If you could send in the rest of your comments and we'll follow up with you on that one as well.

My understanding is that there's $1.8 million at OLS, and I just want to make sure that the $50,000 is being additive to that.

So we'll follow up with you on that one.

As you know, near and dear to my heart.

Tracy Roberts, and the last person is Leah Lucid.

Good morning, Tracy.

And after Tracy, we'll have Leah.

Do we have Tracy?

Let's go to Leah, and we'll come back to Tracy if she's still with us.

They are still with us.

All right, folks.

Hi, Leah.

I see you present.

If you want to push star six one more time.

Looks like, there we go.

Hi there.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

I want to say thank you to the council for all of your hard work on this budget.

and for allowing so much time for public comment.

My name is Leah.

I'm a graduate student at the University of Washington in clinical psychology and I'm calling to support the solidarity budget specifically to shift at least 9 to 10 million more from the police department to prevent the hiring of new police officers next year and to scale up 911 alternatives instead.

I know from a mental health perspective working in the field of clinical psychology that more police do not make people feel safe for so many people.

and so we need to be listening to the people closest for the solution.

Please also restore funding for sidewalk projects in Beacon Hill, the Seattle Green New Deal, Fort Nicholsville, and self-managed tiny house villages, and fund outreach to people living in vehicles.

Thank you so much.

Excellent.

Thank you.

We got it all in.

Tracy, you are the last speaker today, if you are present.

Tracy Roberts.

Okay, folks, I'm not seeing Tracy.

I'll give it one more second.

I want to thank everybody for calling in.

Tracy, hi, I see you.

Just star six one more time on your end.

And it looks like you will be unmuted then.

There we go.

Hi there.

Hi, can you hear me now?

Yes, thank you for waiting.

Oh, no worries.

Apologies for the text.

Good morning.

My name is Tracy Roberts and I'm a member of the F2FDF coalition.

I want to thank council members for their continued support and chair Mosquito's leadership includes SDS funding.

With less access to bathrooms during COVID, people are more visible in their drug use because they want to be found if they overdose.

SDS is an evidence-based and a proven intervention in drug use.

With a spike in overdoses and overdose deaths this year, it's just as much a public health emergency as it ever was.

There has never been a death from an overdose in any SDS around the world.

We have a duty to protect everyone in our community Please continue support of SCSs and make these spaces a reality.

We can make history by being the first official SCS in this country.

Thank you for your time.

Excellent.

Thank you very much for your time and for waiting.

That is our last speaker that is present today.

We did get through everybody who signed up.

There was 80 people who were signed up and thanks to everybody who provided testimony.

You can also provide public testimony tomorrow.

The link goes live at 7 30 in the morning.

We have gotten through an hour and 15 minutes of public testimony.

Now it is time to get into items of business.

Let's see, I want to just send a quick note of appreciation and thanks to the family and friends of Tony Lee.

For folks who knew Tony Lee, a longtime advocate, activist, a friend of mine in the halls of Olympia as well.

When I first started lobbying for the Children's Alliance, if you have read the Seattle Times article that's out this morning, I think everybody can relate.

The first sentence says, if Tony Lee was coming, people heard him before they saw him.

For decades, the activists' booting laugh echoed through the doorways in Seattle, City Hall, and all across the Washington Capitol campus in Olympia.

And that is so true.

I know all of us are thinking of his laugh right now, but probably more importantly, we are feeling the effects of his longtime advocacy.

We are seeing the importance of that work right now, as people struggle to pay rent and put food on the table.

And his legacy lives on in all of us who learn from him and in all of the policies that he put into statute.

Just a few examples include TANF expansion, fighting predatory lending, fighting for mortgage mediation, earned income tax credit, asset building for low income communities, especially communities of color.

He fought for naturalization and refugee assistance for employment services.

He worked to fight the three strikes language and fight the criminal justice system.

And he helped to stop redlining in insurance.

These are just a few of the things that Tony Lee's legacy lives on in statute and in all of our memories and in our fight to stand up and fight for working families, especially those who are facing generational poverty.

Chatted with Marcy Bowers this morning from Statewide Poverty Action, and we will be following the state legislators and the advocates in Olympia's lead.

We will also be introducing a proclamation to honor Tony Lee's life and legacy.

in a city hall with a proclamation that I would like to bring forward in December with the council's consideration.

With that, we honor Tony Lee's life and I want to just say how much we are going to miss him.

It's a huge loss for this, not only this city, this state, but this entire nation because he's taught so many people.

how to do advocacy, be in the belly of the beast, and never lose your moral compass.

And the way in which his policies have replicated across the country cannot be understated.

So Tony, we love you and we will continue to honor you and remember you in our work every day, especially as we think about the budget.

Okay, let's go ahead.

Madam Clerk, do you mind reading into the record items on today's agenda?

agenda item 1, introduction and voting process overview for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Folks, we have a number of items up for discussion today.

As you saw from the agenda and you will see in Ali's presentation, we are going to have a walkthrough of what to expect.

The Select Budget Committee is going to proceed with its voting on groups A, which is the agenda consent package.

items 1 through 125. Council members, you will hear from Allie that if you would like to remove any of the items from the consent package, which is in large part what we reviewed last Tuesday, you may do so as we walk through the package.

As a reminder, you do not need a vote to second your action to remove an item from the consent package.

As we are just looking at group A right now, the package is largely sort of been understood in detail during last Tuesday's presentation, but Allie is going to go ahead and help us, remind us what those items are just for the record.

And I'm gonna ask folks, if you do have items you would like to pull from the consent package, again, group A at this point, let's wait until Allie gets through the full list of all the items, and then I'm gonna ask for folks, if you would like to identify an item, we can pull it out at that point, so you have the whole picture of the items in front of us.

Allie, I think I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you to walk us through the group A items here, which are is our original consent package and appreciate all of the work you and your team have done to at least create this foundation that will then get us to groups B later and then group C.

Thank you, Allie.

Oh, Allie, it's real hard to hear you.

Let me see if I can change my OK.

I think that sounds better already.

Yep.

Is that better?

Okay.

Before we move into actually talking about the items in group A, I'm just going to briefly walk through the agenda for today and how the voting process will work.

So today we're on step five.

Next slide, please.

in the budget process where the committee will vote on the balancing package and amendments to that package.

As the chair just described, next slide, please.

Yeah, thank you.

There are three voting groups today.

Voting group A, this includes items that were presented on November 10th that are not affected by form C proposals.

As the chair described, this includes items two through 125 on the agenda that will be voted on as a consent package, excluding any items that council members remove for individual vote.

Voting group B includes proposals submitted via form C to modify the balancing package that are included in what we're describing as the chair's balanced amendment package.

This group combined with group A are a complete balanced package.

The amendments in group B include items 126 through 160 on the agenda.

And like group A, this group will be voted on as a consent package unless any items are removed from the group.

And finally, voting group C includes proposals submitted via form C that are not included in the balanced amendment package.

And these are standalone items that are self-balanced or do not spend any money.

These include items 162 through 169 on the agenda.

Next slide.

After the votes today and tomorrow, we will be on the final step in the budget process.

So on Monday morning, the committee will reconvene.

There will be some technical amendments that are necessary to reconcile all of the actions taken today and tomorrow and final votes on the remaining pieces of budget legislation.

Again, this will happen in committee on Monday morning after council briefing, and then that afternoon at full council, the council will vote on all of the legislation and will adopt the city's 2021 budget.

So before moving to the voting groups, I'm going to briefly walk through some procedural items.

The next two slides outline the motions necessary to add an item to the agenda.

With the agenda already adopted, I'm not going to spend a lot of time walking through these in details, but if a council member wants to add an item to the agenda later in the meeting today or tomorrow, we can return to these slides.

Patty, if you could move to the voting group process slide.

Thank you.

So how today will go, when we get to a voting group, the chair will move to approve all items in the voting group.

We'll then read items in the group into the record and council members may remove a CBA, a council budget action or statement of legislative intent, a slide from the voting group for individual discussion and consideration.

This can include removing an item from the group so that a substitution can be made when we return to those individual items.

Next slide, please.

After reading all items from the group and noting any items that were removed, the committee will vote on the group as amended in just one vote.

The committee will then take up the items that were removed for individual consideration, and those will be considered in alphanumeric order by department.

Next slide, please.

The chair already described the process.

If you want to have an individual discussion on an item or want to substitute a different option for the option on the agenda, you'll want to remove that item.

And as at the chair's request, please make the motions to remove items after we've read all of the items in the package into the record.

Next slide, please.

This slide demonstrates the motion that is necessary to remove an item for individual vote.

This does not require a second, and it does not require a vote.

You just simply need to make the motion to remove the item or a group of items from the consent group.

Next slide, please.

Let's see here.

When we return to the items that were removed from the package, and after the sponsor moves the item for consideration by the committee, a council member could then make a motion to substitute a different option.

This slide shows the motions that are needed to substitute one option for the other.

So as an example, a council member may have proposed to spend $100,000 to pay for a new staff position.

And another council member may make a substitute to modify the position title or to spend that money in a different way.

This motion requires a second, and after a second, we'll describe the proposed substitute and how it differs from the original item that was posted to the agenda, and the sponsor may speak to that proposal.

After just any discussion, the chair will call the vote on the motion to substitute.

This requires a majority vote.

Next slide, please.

If the motion to substitute is adopted, the original council budget action or statement of legislative intent is no longer available for consideration.

So a yes vote on the motion to substitute is essentially a no vote on the original item.

And we'll repeat this several times when we get to items that will be substituted.

relatively fast clip that sort of provides an overview of how the committee will organize itself today.

And unless there are questions, we can move on to the next item on the agenda.

I'm not seeing any questions.

Thanks so much, Ali.

Thank you.

So, folks, I just want to remind people as we hear about each of the items in group A, as you think about if there is any item you'd like to remove.

Just a reminder, you do not have to remove an item just to speak to it.

Before we do a final vote on group A, we're going to open it up for additional comments or questions.

And that's a chance to really lift up pieces that you have championed that are included in group A.

If you'd like folks to know more about what's in that package and that you don't want an item to get buried, you don't have to remove it.

We'll give you a chance to speak to it.

Really, removing items is a chance for us to have debate and discussion.

But if it's just a piece to lift up for clarity and to highlight, we'll welcome you to do that by keeping it as part of the group A, and we will allow for that comment to happen.

Okay, Allie.

Great.

Thank you.

So item two on the agenda is group A.

And so I will read the titles in.

Again, these items have been discussed in previous committee meetings.

So for group A, I will just be reading the sponsor and the title.

Items two through I think 28 are all budget legislation sponsored by the Budget Committee.

So I won't read the sponsor each time for those items.

Item two would pass Council Bill 119909, the 2020 third quarter grant acceptance ordinance authorizing the acceptance of $12.7 million of funding from non-city sources.

Item three would file the mayor's 2021 proposed budget in clerk file 314462. Item four, BLG 5A2 would file the mayor's proposed 2021 through 2026 capital improvement program to clerk file 314463. Item 5, BLG 6A2 would pass Council Bill 119912, the 2021 Recurring Grant Acceptance Ordinance.

Item 6, BLG 7A2 would pass Council Bill 119913, the Department of Construction and Inspections Fee Ordinance.

Item 7, BLG 8A2 would pass Council Bill 119914, the Parks Fee Ordinance.

Item 8, BLG 9A2 adopts resolution 31975, the 2021 general fund support for the Seattle Parks Department exception resolution.

Item 9, BLG 10A2 would pass Council Bill 119915, the Public Utilities Drainage Treatment Rate Pass-through Ordinance.

Item 10, BLG 11A2 passes Council Bill 119916, the public utilities wastewater treatment rate pass-through ordinance.

Item 11, BLG 12A2 passes Council Bill 119917, Seattle Centers 2021 through 2022, facility fees and contracting ordinance.

Item 12, 13A2 passes council bill 119918 Seattle centers operating interim loan ordinance.

Item 13, BLG 14B2 amends and passes as amended council bill 119919, the finance and administrative services multipurpose LTGO bonds 2021 ordinance.

Item 15, BLG 15A2, passes Council Bill 119920, the Omnibus Seattle City Light Bond Defeasance Ordinance.

Item 15, BLG 16A2, passes Council Bill 119921, the City Light Bond Ordinance for 2021. Item 16, BLG 17A2, passes Council Bill 119922, Public Utilities 2021 Drainage and Wastewater System Bond Ordinance.

Item 17, BLG 1882 passes Council Bill 119923, the Public Utilities Drainage and Wastewater Omnibus Bond Defeasance Ordinance.

Item 18, BLG 19A2, passes Council Bill 119924, the Public Utilities Solid Waste Omnibus Bond Defeasance Ordinance.

Item 19, BLG 20A2, passes Council Bill 119925, the Public Utilities 2021 Water System Bond Ordinance.

Item 20, BLG 21A2, passes the Public Utilities Water Omnibus Bond Defeasance Ordinance.

Item 21, BLG 22C2, passes Council Bill 119947, the Department of Transportation's Interfund Loan Ordinance.

Let's see.

Item 22, BLG 23A2, passes Council Bill 119928, the Budget Office's legislation to deposit admission tax proceeds directly into the Arts and Culture Fund.

Item 23, adopts Resolution 31976, the Arts and Culture Fund Policies Resolution.

Item 24 passes Council Bill 119929, Seattle Centers 2021 through 2022 Parking Rates Ordinance.

Item 25, passes Council Bill 119930, the Department of Transportation's Move Seattle Categorical Spending Ordinance.

Item 26, BLG 28A2, passes the Transportation Network Tax Threshold Amendment Ordinance.

Item 27, is BLG 29A2 adopts resolution 31977, the retirement 2021 credit interest rates resolution.

Item 28, BLG 30A2 adopts resolution 31978, valuation and actuarially required contribution for 2021. And then item number 29 is sponsored by Council Member Herbold, would amend and pass as amended, Council Bill 119933, which would create the Office of Emergency Management in the Executive Department.

The next four items are all sponsored by the Budget Committee.

Item 30, BLG 34A2, passes Council Bill 119936, the Transportation Network Company Deactivation Rights Ordinance Amendment.

Item 31, passes Council Bill 119937, the Paycheck Protection Program Exemption Ordinance.

Item 32, BLG 3782, passes Council Bill 119939, the Long Property Tax Ordinance.

Item 33, BLG 3882, passes the Short Property Tax Ordinance.

Okay, so that concludes all of the budget legislation items.

And so we'll now move into items that were more specific proposals, and in most cases sponsored by council members.

Item 34, sponsored by Council Member Peterson, would request a new internet for all section in the 2021 adopted budget book.

Item 34, CBO 2A1, is the errata corrections to the proposed budget and the capital improvement program.

I'll note here that this council budget action was not presented previously in the November 10th balancing package.

These are technical corrections identified by the budget office and by central staff that make technical corrections to the proposed budget as transmitted and are not substantive.

Item 36, deal 1A3 adds $550,000 of 2011 families and education levy to deal for study and funding for black girls and young women and black, queer and trans youth.

Sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

Item 37, sponsored by Councilmember Morales, would cut $550,000 from finance general and adds it to deal for a restorative justice pilot program.

Item 38, D01A3, sponsored by Councilmember Juarez, adds a planning and development specialist to and $130,000 to the Department of Neighborhoods to staff an indigenous advisory council.

Item 39, DON3A3, adds $75,000 to Department of Neighborhoods for a South Park Safety Coordinator.

Item 40, FAS1A3, requests that the Finance and Administrative Services Department reports on potential space for a food bank in Belltown sponsored by Council Member Lewis.

Item 41, FAS2B2, requests that FAS provide a report on small business and occupation tax relief options, also sponsored by Council Member Lewis.

Item 42, FG1A3 would add $150,000 to finance general to create an independent economics and forecasting office and imposes two provisos sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

Item 43, FG2B2, cuts $30 million from Finance General for the Equitable Communities Initiative and adds $30 million back to Finance General for the Strategic Investment Fund to restore funding for that fund and to address displacement and impose a proviso sponsored by Council Member Sawant.

Item 44, FG4A2, would cut $18 million from finance general for the equitable communities initiative and adds that to finance general for a participatory budgeting process and improves, excuse me, imposes a proviso sponsored by council member Morales.

Item 45, FG5A2 recognizes the city budget's office November 2020 forecast update and that's sponsored by the budget committee.

Item 46, HOM 7A3 adds $1 million to the human services department to increase funding for the mobile crisis teams.

And this is sponsored by council member Strauss.

Item 47, HOME 8B2 adds $2.8 million to the human services department to expand tiny home villages sponsored by council member Sawant.

Item 48 adds $1.4 million to HSD for a temporary tiny home village sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

Item 49, home 10A3 adds $655,000 to HSD to support 24-hour operations at basic shelters sponsored by Council Member Swatt.

Homes 14A3 adds $750,000 in one-time funding to HSD to increase funding to maintain rapid rehousing caseloads and imposes a proviso sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 51, Home 15A3 imposes a proviso to restrict $400,000 in one-time funds in the Human Services Department for homeless prevention services for families with school-age children and imposes a proviso sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

Home 16A3 adds $34,000 to HSD to fully fund the Landlord Liaison Program and imposes a proviso sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Home 17A3 as $1.7 million in funding to HSD to increase services at agencies specializing in American Indian and Alaska Native populations, sponsored by Council Member Juarez.

Item 54, home 19A3.

$109,000 and one term limited position in the human services department for grants and contract administration and imposes a proviso, sponsored by Chair Mosqueda.

Item 55, HSD 1A3 adds $60,000 to HSD for age-friendly Seattle, sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Item 56, HSD 2A3, request that HSD carry forward unspent funding for senior congregate meal programs to 2021. Sponsored by Council Member Sawant.

Item 57, HSD 4A3, adds $46,800 to HSD to provide safe services at a cultural center serving the native and indigenous community, sponsored by Council Member Lewis.

Item 58, HSD 5A3 adds $30,000 to the Human Services Department and $67,000 to DEEL for programs supporting Native and Indigenous children and families, sponsored by Councilmember Juarez.

Item 59, HSD 6A3 requests that HSD provide a report on demand and cost for citywide diversion programs by August 2nd, 2021, sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 60, HSD 7B2 adds $80,000 to HSD for commercial sexual exploitation services sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 61, HSD 8A3 cuts $10 million from Finance General from the Equitable Communities Initiative and adds $10 million to HSD for community-led public safety investments and imposes a proviso sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

And on this item, I'll just note the description of the item was modified slightly since what was presented on the 10th to reflect a stronger connection to the intercept model that was discussed during the criminal justice issue identification paper at the committee.

Item 62, HSD 9B2 adds $1.1 million to HSD for drug user health services and imposes a proviso sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

HSD 50B2 adds $200,000 to HSD to increase harm reduction programs and imposes a proviso sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 64, HSD 900A2 cuts $2 million from HSD for the joint community safety interdepartmental team recommendations sponsored by the Budget Committee.

Item 65, Ledge 1B2 adds $60,000 to the Ledge Department to supplement a King County survey on countywide human service wage inequities sponsored by Council Member Morales.

Item 66, $150,000 to Ledge to fund transportation impact fee studies sponsored by Councilmember Peterson.

Item 67, MO1A2 requests that the executive recommend strategies for consolidating urban forestry functions into one department in the city sponsored by Councilmember Peterson.

Item 68 cuts 1.1 million from Finance General and adds that to the Office for Civil Rights.

for community-based organizations providing alternatives to or addressing harm created by the criminal justice system, sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Item 69, OCR 2A3, requests that the executive participate in a work group regarding implementation of the 2019 Racial Equity Toolkit Report, sponsored by Council Member Morales.

Item 70, OED 2A3 requests that OED develop strategies to support farmer's market, sponsored by Council Member Strauss.

Item 71, OED 4A3 requests that OED develops a construction impacts mitigation program for small businesses, sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

Item 72, OH1B2, adds $200,000 of fund balance in the Office of Housing to fund the Home and Hope Program, sponsored by Council Member Lewis.

Item 73, OH2A3, adds $1.7 million to the Office of Housing for property acquisition and a feasibility study for the Aurora Commons Redevelopment Project, sponsored by Council Member Juarez.

Item 74, OH3A3 adds $200,000 of general fund for the Home for Good program sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

And I'll just note that this one is also in group B because we needed to change the fund source.

So I'm going to suggest that we remove this.

this item from group A.

It was originally funded using fund balance and OH, and we just had to swap it for general funds.

So I believe it's, it may be listed twice.

I'll confirm and advise.

Can you repeat the number?

Yeah, it's OH3A3.

And I'll just confirm with my team, if it's also listed in group B, we should only vote on it.

You should probably only vote on it once.

It is not modified in terms of what the money is for.

We're just funding it with general fund because we learned after the discussion on the 10th that the fund balance in the Office of Housing wasn't available.

No problem.

Thank you.

Thank you.

OH4A2 would add $100,000 in general fund to the Office of Housing for pre-development costs for property in the central area, sponsored by Councilmember Sawant.

Item 76, OIG1A2 adds $65,000 to OIG for a Sentinel event review, sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

Item 77, OIRA1A3 It would impose a proviso on $30,000 in OPCDs, the Office of Planning and Community Development's budget for the Comprehensive Plan Environmental Impact Statement sponsored by Chair Mosqueda.

Item 79, OPCD 2A3 would impose a proviso and $100,000 in OPCD for the Comprehensive Plan Outreach and Engagement in 2021 sponsored by Chair Mosqueda.

OPCD 3A1 would cut $1.6 million of short-term rental tax funds from the Office of Planning and Community Development and adds $1.6 million of general fund back for the Equitable Development Initiative grants.

This is sponsored by the Budget Committee and this is backfilling the funding based on the revenue update for the short-term rental tax proceeds.

Item 81, OSC 2A3 would add $130,000 to the Office of Sustainability and Environment for the Green New Deal advisor position sponsored by council members who want.

Item 82, OSC 3A3 adds $150,000 and a senior planning and development specialist position to OSC for the Energy Benchmarking and Building Tune-Ups Program Item 83, OSC 4A3.

RUT 1B2 requests that the CERs provide a report on sources and uses of city retirement funds and performance of the CERs 2 plan sponsored by Councilmember Peterson.

Item 85, SDCI 1A3 adds $99,000 and a position, a housing and zoning technician position to the Department of Construction and Inspections.

for the tenant outreach and property group and tenant assistance staffing.

And that's sponsored by Council Member Strauss.

Item 86, SDCI 3A3, request a report by SDCI and permit processing times, sponsored by Council Member Strauss.

Item 87, SDCI 4A3, adds $500,000 to SDCI for tenant outreach, organizing, education, and other services sponsored by Council Member Strauss.

Let's see.

Item 86, SDCI 3A3, report, let's see.

I think I was, was I on item 87?

Item 88, sorry.

Item 88, SDCI 5A3, request a report by SDCI on transferable rental history sponsored by Council Member Sawant.

Item 89, SDCI 6A3, request a report by SDCI on standard lease residential terms sponsored by Council Member Sawant.

Item 90, SDCI 7B2, adds $460,000 to SDCI for eviction legal defense, sponsored by Council Member Szilard.

Item 91, SDCI 10B2, requests a report by SDCI and the Office of Housing on the Mandatory Housing Affordability Program production, sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

Item 92, SDOT 1B2 adds $100,000 to SDOT for a public life study of Capitol Hill sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

Item 93, SDOT 3B2 adds $777,000 a week, one, to SDOT for the Thomas Street redesign CIP project sponsored by Council Member Lewis.

Item 94, SDOT 4B2, adds $500,000 of REIT to SDOT for the Route 4, 44 Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor CIP Project, sponsored by Council Member Strauss.

Item number 95, SDOT 5B2, adds $5.2 million of REIT 1 to SDOT for the Georgetown to South Park Trail CIP Project, sponsored by Council Member Morales.

Item number 96, SDOT 6B2 adds $943,000 of REIT, one to SDOT for the Route 7 Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor Project, CIP Project, sponsored by Council Member Morales.

Item 97, SDOT 7B2 adds $400,000 of general fund to SDOT for the Bike Master Plan Protected Bike Lanes, CIP Project, sponsored by Council Member Morales.

Item 98, SDOT 9B2 requests that SDOT provides monthly reporting on the West Seattle Bridge immediate response program consistent with the July 16th, 2020 mayoral proclamation of civil emergency sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 99, SDOT 900A2 adds $9 million of general fund to SDOT for debt service to backfill the reduced 2021 commercial parking tax revenue forecast sponsored by the Budget Committee.

Allie, do you want to take a quick second?

There's 100 items.

If you need to take a glass of water or anything.

I just really appreciate it.

And then for folks, for the viewing public, we are reading these items into the record.

So folks are officially aware of not just the items that we are amending in the mayor's proposed budget, but as you heard, the first 30 or 40 items really related to legislation that corresponds with this.

So I hope that was a helpful little break, Allie.

Yes.

Just a few more to go.

Yes, thank you.

And I just want to correct for the record, I was wrong about the office of housing item being duplicated in two packages.

So that can just stay in.

But I will note that it's still funded as originally proposed.

That was item number 740H003A003.

We are going to strike that from my list of possible items to remove.

Thank you.

And thanks to the team for figuring that out for me while I'm reading these items in.

Okay, item 100, S.901A2, transfers $9 million of general fund to the School Safety, Traffic, and Pedestrian Improvement Fund to backfill the reduced 2021 school zone camera revenue forecast sponsored by the Budget Committee.

Item 101, SFD 1B2 adds $254,000 to the fire department and $223,000 and staff to the human services department for a health one expansion and exempts the fire department from planned feet reduction sponsored by Chair Mosqueda.

Item 102, SFD 2A3, add $383,000 to the fire department to fund automated external defibrillators, Lucas devices, and ballistic sets, sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Item 103, SFD 3A3 adds $1.6 million to the fire department to restore recruit class and testing cuts, sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Item 104, SFD 4A3, adds $141,000 and one position to the fire department to fund a pilot program for a consulting nurse sponsored by Council Member Lewis.

Item 105, SFD 5A3, adds $150,000 and a position to the fire department to fund a crisis counselor sponsored by Chair Mosqueda.

Item 106, SBD 1A3, requests that the police department provides reports, the reports requested in ordinance 126148 and resolution 31962, passed by the council in 2020, sponsored by council member Herbold.

Item 107, SBD 2B3, requests that SBD provide reports on its overtime use, sponsored by council member Herbold.

Item 108, SBD 3A3, requests the police department that provides monthly reports on police staffing, sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Item 109, SBD 4B2, requests the police department to report on traffic stops, sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

Item 110, SBD 5B2, requests the police department reports on cost effectiveness of using parking enforcement officers for special events, contracting sporting events, and flagging, sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

Item 111, SBD 683, requests the SBD report on 911 call response times, sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

Item 112, SBD 8A3, imposes a proviso on SBD and requests out-of-order layoffs of 35 SBD officers sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 113, SBD 9A3, would cut $6.1 million from the police department from vacancy savings, adds that money to finance general reserves for participatory budgeting, and imposes a proviso sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

Item 114, SPD 10A3, cuts $3.7 million from the police department for overtime savings, adds that money to finance general for participatory budgeting, and imposes a proviso sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 115, SPD 11B2, imposes a proviso on $5 million in the police department for potential salary savings, Item 116, SBD 12B-2.

Item 116, SBD 12B-2.

Item 116, SBD 12B-2.

SBD 13B2 cuts $175,000 from SPD for their travel and training budget, adds that money to finance general for participatory budgeting and imposes two provisos sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 118, SBD 14A3 cuts $300,000 from SPD for discretionary purchases.

Item 119, SBD 17A2, imposes a proviso on $200,000 in SBD for 2020 recruit and signing bonuses sponsored by 949 to establish a new community safety and communication center sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

And this item has been updated to reflect what the, all the transfers and costs necessary to implement that legislation.

Item 121, SPD 503A3 would request a report on potential economies of scale for 911 dispatch sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

Item 122, SBR 5A3 requests that the Parks Department design and place signage at Lipton Springs, sponsored by Council Member Swan.

Item 123, SB 1A3 would request that SPU prepare a scope of work to analyze wastewater treatment plans and potential government structure changes, sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

Item 124, SPU 2A3 requests that SPU explores an expansion of the tree ambassador program sponsored by Councilmember Strauss.

And the final item in group A, item 125, SPU 3A3 would add $286,000 to SPU to expand the encampment trash program to 13 additional sites sponsored by Councilmember Morales.

Thank you very much, Allie.

I do hope you have A glass of water handy, I appreciate you reading those all in for the record.

Okay, colleagues, just want to remind folks we are on items in group A.

This is the consent package that we largely reviewed in detail on Tuesday last week.

Councilmembers, if you have an item you would like to remove from this consent package, you may do so now.

As a reminder, this request does not require a second, nor does it require a vote to remove an item.

Largely, these are items that have ideally received a lot of attention and discussion already.

If there is an item that you think needs additional discussion, please go ahead and indicate that you would like to remove it.

I want to make sure that folks know that these items will again be added to the end of group A, unless otherwise specified, and in alphanumeric order.

So just a quick reminder as well, if you did something really great that you're excited about in this package, you do not have to remove it to speak to it.

We will have a chance to speak to that item during the comments.

So what we are removing is items that really require additional discussion or debate.

Are there any questions about this process.

Okay, I hear no questions.

I'm going to go ahead and ask if there is a council member who would like to remove any item, please raise your hand and I will call on the hands in the order in which I see them.

Council members to want and then Council Member Peterson.

Council members to want, which items would you like to have removed from Group A's consent package?

I move that CBA BLG 982 be removed for an individual vote.

I would also request that we move this item to the end of voting group C because it is impacted by a budget amendment that will come up for a vote at that time.

And just to clarify, this item does not change the budget in any way.

Instead, it passes a bill that is legally required.

Only the city cuts the parks department budget below a minimum threshold.

Because the budget proposed by Mayor Durkin contains draconian cuts to parks, libraries, transportation, and housing, the parks department budget has fallen below its legal minimum.

Later in the meeting, item 162 on the agenda, council members will have the opportunity to vote on a budget amendment from my office to restore all the $187.2 million that is otherwise being cut from all these aforementioned departments by increasing the taxes on big business instead.

And if that amendment passes, then this legislation authorizing a budget below the legal minimum for parks will no longer be required.

So I'm requesting that we vote on this item sometime after item 162 in voting group C.

Thank you.

Oh, okay.

Thank you very much.

Council members to want item number eight, BLG 0 1 0 a 0 0 2, which is the, do I have the right number?

Great.

Uh, which relates to, I'm sorry, was it BLG 0 0 9 or BLG 0 1 0?

I believe it is BLG 9A2, item eight on the agenda.

That's correct.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Gonzales?

Yeah, just a quick point of order and information here.

Just to sort of, because we've done it.

If this is the first one, I'm already getting a little lost as to what the rules are here.

So a couple of things.

Is it the chair's request that we cite to the BLG number or to the item number or both?

Point number, question number one.

I'm having a hard time tracking when it's just the BLG number.

So I would ask the council members say the item number in addition to the BLG number in the group.

And just wanted to get clarity from the chair if that is doable.

And then second, are you asking council members to make arguments to justify the request to remove things at this juncture or not?

My understanding is that you just want us to save the item number, the BLG number, And move along, but I'm hearing on this 1st, 1 arguments being made or rationale being stated and I'm not being critical of that.

I just want to know what the I just want to know what the procedure is here in terms of.

How you want us to remove these items in the most efficient way?

Because I know we will be debating these items.

That's why we're pulling.

Yeah.

Thank you very much, as always, Council President, for process alignment here.

Colleagues, please do state the item number on the agenda and the CBA or SLI number as well.

This is important because our documents do not have the item number on the actual sheet.

They have the SLI or the CBA number, and we can correspond that with the agenda.

But for the ease of tracking, please list the agenda item number And then whether it's a SLY or a CBA, include the number there as it's indicated here on this line.

It would be item number 8, BLG009-A-002.

Second, this is not the time to debate the merits.

I think that council members will have plenty of time to do that.

We don't need it to be moved and we don't need it to be seconded.

So just identify the number that you'd like to move And then Council Member Sawant, to your last point, I think some of your comments were related to why you wanted it in group C.

For clarification, we are going to put this at the end of group A.

When we get to that item in group A, you can then move to hold it until after consideration of item 162 in group C.

So just for the process in terms of making sure we see where all of the items are going, we will go ahead and have you make that motion once we get to those items that have been pulled out.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Council Member Peterson, is there an item or more that you would like to include?

Yes, Chair Mosqueda, thank you for, I'd like to move for individual vote item 62, which is CBA HSD 009B002.

Thank you very much, Council Member Peterson.

Item number 62, HSD 009B002 from Council Member Herbold, related to health services and a proviso.

Was there another item, Council Member Peterson?

Yes, I've got three more.

Okay, please go ahead.

Item 113, which is CBA SPD 009A003,

Wonderful.

Item number 13, SPD-009A-003, which relates to the vacancy savings item from Council President Gonsalves.

Yes.

Next item?

116, that's CBA SPD-012B-002.

We have item 116, SPD 012B, 002 from Council President Gonzalez, regarding abrogation of the 93 positions.

Next.

The last one is item 141, which is CBA HOM 021A, 001. Let's just wait one second.

We're going to scroll there.

I'm sorry.

Item 141 is in voting group B, and this is voting group A.

Thank you very much for the reminder.

So this section goes to items one through 125. Council Member Peterson, thank you for your proactive heads up on that one.

We will hold that until the next discussion on group B.

Patty, thank you for the reminder.

Okay, colleagues, I'm not seeing any additional hands.

Just to summarize, and Allie, you can help me confirm, I see items number eight, number 62, Number 116 and 113.

That's correct.

Okay.

Are there any further requests for a separate vote on an item in this consent package?

I'm seeing none.

Hearing no further requests to pull any items.

Allie, please, for the record, I think we have already summarized those three.

You see them listed on the chart there right now.

Do you need to summarize them again for the record?

No, I think you have covered it and we will walk through them one by one after the vote on the package.

Excellent with the removal of the items listed by council central staff there in yellow and just summarized by me numbers 862 113 and 116 we're going to go ahead and consider the rest of the consent package the consent package has been amended We will now consider the consent package as amended.

I move that the committee recommends approval of the consent package as amended Is there a second second?

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded.

Are there any additional comments on group A here, the base of our budget?

Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the approval of the amended consent package?

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzales?

I'm just giving Patty some time to catch up.

Aye.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Tremaschetta?

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

This is a very great tool that you have there, Patty.

Thank you for capturing this for the viewing public as well.

The motion carries.

And the consent package is approved.

We got through our first item.

All right.

OK, let's go on to the four items that have been removed from the consent package in group A here.

And looking forward to the discussion.

We're going to take these in alpha numeric order, as it said on the agenda.

And the first item is item number 8, BLG 009A-002.

Council Member Sawant, would you like to make your motion at this moment?

I don't believe, Council Member Sawant, I don't believe that it needs a vote.

I just want to double check with the clerk.

My understanding is we reached this.

Um, when we reached this item, council members want could move to hold it until after consideration of item 1 62. Can I just confirm?

Does this need a vote or does the council or just need to state that for the record?

Um, because the fact that the committee has agreed to a process set forth by, um, as Ali described, where all items would be removed from a package would be considered immediately, and the request is to change that.

The recommendation is to move to hold it until after consideration of item 162.

Okay, thank you very much.

Council Member Swan, did you want to speak to this and make the motion?

Yes, I believe I should, just based on the procedure, I should say I'd move that CBA BLG 982 be moved to the end of voting group C, because it is impacted by a budget amendment that will come up for a vote at that time.

And since I've made my points earlier, I don't want to repeat them again, unless council members would like me to clarify.

Okay, thank you very much, Council Member Sawant.

I will second this for a procedural motion and we will take it up in group C with the consent of the committee.

Is there any additional comments?

hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the record on moving item number eight until group C after item 162.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Peterson?

Yes.

Soren?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Aye.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Schrammel-Skinner?

Aye.

None in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much for calling the roll.

I erroneously said record.

Thank you for calling the roll on that one.

The item will be moved to the end of group C.

Going back to group A, the next one in alphanumeric order, I believe, is item number 62.

That is correct.

Item 62 is HSD 9B2 that would add $1.1 million to HSD for drug user health services and imposes a proviso.

And if I might, Chair Mosqueda, I just want to note here as we're recording the votes and what will be published in the final clerk file that includes all of the changes the council made to the proposed budget.

Because Council Member Morales and Chair Mosqueda have the same initials in the voting box block, Council Member Mosqueda will appear as BC for budget chair, just so you will be able to distinguish which items they voted for and in what manner.

So I just wanted to note that for the being public.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Another reminder, as we consider these items that have been removed from group A from our consent package, central staff and the clerk will be reminding us of the steps to substitute any item if there is a substitute for consideration.

If there is a substitute after a motion to substitute is seconded, I'll then recognize the central staff to walk us through both the substitute on an item and on the agenda being substituted.

And then we will recognize the sponsor to address it.

many of these items here do not have a substitute that I am aware of, and I believe that they have been pulled for discussion purposes today.

At this point, Ali, would you like to summarize each item?

I'll then turn it to the person who has made the motion to remove it, and then to the sponsor of the item to initiate the discussion.

Chair Mosqueda, were you looking for a more detailed description than just reading the title?

Just read the title, if that sounds good to you.

So item 662 HSD 9B2 would add $1.1 million to the human services department for drug user health services and imposes a proviso.

And I'll just add a little here that this is actually funding that was provided by the council several years ago.

This is being to be cut in the third quarter supplemental to be added back to the human services department in 2021 to fund this proposal as well as two other proposals that are related to harm reduction services in the 2021 budget.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

And Councilmember Peterson, I believe you removed this item.

You are recognized to speak to your move to remove it, and then I will turn it over to the sponsor.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and I know this proposal has a lot of support and I appreciate the rationale behind that support.

I was not part of the original council that had approved the money originally, so I just want to be consistent.

I am, even though this is not setting aside a specific safe injection site, it's funding similar activities which still result in the same concerns that I've had and that I've heard from others.

I visited the, I had a formal tour of the Insight Injection Facility in Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada.

And the outcomes for that program in terms of getting people into treatment were not strong.

There was a report done by the Vermont Opioid Coordination Council back in 2018 that questioned the efficacy of certain programs like this.

And so I know this is a little bit different, but I just wanted to pull it out of the consent package so I could vote for the consent package.

And then I'll be voting no on this particular item.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Peterson.

I'm sure the sponsor would like to help to change your mind on this.

So let's give the sponsor a chance to speak about this item.

Thank you so much.

As Allie mentioned, the Council has voted on this in 2018, again in 2019, and the Council also voted on additional funding that was inadvertently removed.

in 2020. The budget action moves already appropriated funding of $1.12 million to HSD for similar services as approved by previous budget actions, but for new approaches to provide these services.

It directs HSD to contract with public health for these services.

Many thanks to my co-sponsors, council members Morales, Sawant, Straus, Lewis, and council president for their support.

As you know, these funds have been a high council priority for a number of years and spending these funds have been stalled for the same amount of time.

of the $1.3 million that was appropriated by council.

just again, it's a little bit additional background.

council appropriated the $1.3 million for what at the time were referred to as community health engagement locations known as CHELS and added an additional $100,000 in 2019. Council took this unanimous vote to restore an additional $100,000 which had been errantly omitted from the carry forward ordinance.

The Public Defender Association and the ACLU of Washington have developed a new approach to supervised consumption that does not rely on establishing a specific new location.

to provide supervised consumption sites.

Instead it focuses on providing services in locations that are already serving these folks.

My September 22nd Public Safety and Human Services Committee included a presentation on this approach, included a representation from King County Public Health, who, King County Public Health concurred that this new approach was consistent with the recommendations of the King County Board of Health received in 2018. I've shared this new approach with HSD Director Johnson and asked for feedback.

Director Johnson shared it with the mayor's office and indicated they were leading on this.

The Seattle Times has reported that the mayor's office said the mayor was interested in learning more about how this new proposal could work and would seek legal counsel regarding the risks giving upcoming changes at the federal level.

It will be important for us to receive additional counsel after the budget is passed, and I look forward to having a conversation with the mayor's office later this year about the approach.

For now, this action allows counsel to protect these hard-fought dollars and ensure that they are available in 2021. Councilmember Peterson spoke to treatment outcomes.

I think there are definitely different studies about the efficacy in treatment outcomes.

And I have seen some studies that are more more positive, but we can hold that for another day.

I think it's really important to emphasize that the most important outcome of safe consumption sites is the saving of lives.

There have been no drug overdose at any safe consumption sites anywhere in the world.

And if you have somebody that you care about and love who is an addict, What you care about most first is that they do not die in the throes of their addiction, and then you hope that they seek treatment.

But the objective of this is really to focus on the life-saving services that safe consumption services can provide.

We know that overdose deaths and harms from drug overdose have continued to rise in King County since 2011. And it's definitely time for us to do something different to save lives.

I think a lot of us have people that we love and care about who have these challenges.

And there are, again, a lot of different ideas about what is the best efficacy towards leading people to treatment options, but people will not receive treatment if they die.

And so this is really focused on the harm reduction principles that are necessary to implement in order to have any chance of helping people receive treatment.

I really want to just say, again, I appreciate the new ideas that have been brought forward by the Public Defender Association and the ACLU.

Just access to health, yes to SCS and others, and I hope that we can finally make it possible to move on these dollars in 2021. I think many of you saw the email that we all received from the ACLU of Washington this morning in support.

The email notes there's strong evidence that these services work.

Over 100 safe consumption services programs operate across the world.

There is no evidence of an overdose death at any of these sites.

Even the American Medical Association has called for these programs to be opened.

It's also aligned with Seattle's long history of being a leader for progressive drug reform, including being one of the first jurisdictions to adopt needle exchange programs.

The war on drugs and its racially based enforcement have failed.

Finally, a November 2020 editorial by two Seattle nurses who work with people struggling with substance abuse disorder spoke to their effectiveness and safety.

SCS do not lead to increased drug use or crime, and people who use SCS are actually more likely to seek treatment for substance abuse disorder.

In a study of over 1,000 injection drug users in Canada, referral to treatment increased by 30% in the first year after an SCS opened in their community.

Thank you.

Are there any additional comments on this item?

I'm seeing none.

I want to thank you, Council Member Herbold, for the conversation, the data that you provided.

I will encourage folks going forward to be brief in your comments so we can get through these items.

And I really think that this is going to be a long day, but it's going to be really informative for the public.

So again, thank you, Council Member Herbold, for sharing that data-driven answer.

Seeing no additional hands on this item, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

I'm sorry, let me turn it to Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Herbold, would you like to move this item?

Absolutely.

I move approval of CBA HSD 9B-002 as included in voting group A consent package.

I will second that.

It's been moved and seconded.

Is there any additional comments?

Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on item number 62?

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Peterson?

No.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzales?

Aye.

motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's move to the next item, please.

Thank you.

The next item that was removed from the package was item 113 on the agenda.

That is SBD 9A3.

This would cut $6.1 million from the police department for vacancy savings.

Adds that money to finance general reserves for participatory budgeting and imposes a proviso.

your concerns or comments.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

So I know we've all been diving deep into how to reimagine public safety, and there is much work to be done.

We cannot go back to the way it was.

They were actually protesters at my house just a few moments ago.

I'm at City Hall, but they were there at my home.

But, you know, it just speaks to the desire to see change.

And we are making a lot of changes in this budget.

I believe the key, though, is when I talk to constituents, I get a variety of views on public safety, on policing.

The issue is that people want positive change.

They also want to have that plan in place.

They want to see reinvestments, but they want to have the community alternatives scaled up first in most cases.

And so there are several budget actions today that would reduce funding to the Seattle Police Department and that would, you know, with the aim of reinvesting.

There were a couple of items that I pulled out because I just personally had concerns about them and will be voting no on both of them.

One is to, the first item is the $6.1 million of vacancy savings.

Those funds, It would be helpful before we take that money away to understand what the rate of attrition is going forward to make sure that we don't have the force reduced below.

the number that we had originally anticipated.

Attrition is already happening at a faster rate than we had anticipated.

And so this money is available to help to staff 911 response.

The memo, the budget action says should additional currently unanticipated vacancies affect SPD's 911 responder force, the department would need to answer fewer 911 calls or respond more slowly to 911 calls, or backfill 911 officer vacancies through the transfer from investigative or specialty units.

I'm just, I just am expressing concern with that.

I look forward to the participatory budgeting process and the community alternatives that come out of that to prevent crime, to increase public safety and community wellness.

I support this effort.

The other item that I was concerned about was.

Councilmember Peterson, I'm going to ask that we just do one at a time because we need to take the votes one at a time.

So does that conclude your comments for item number 113, SPD-009A-003?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Council President Gonzalez, would you like to speak to this item that you've sponsored?

Yes, sorry, took me a minute.

I was toggling between screens, and it took me a minute to get there.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda, and thank you so much, Councilmember Peterson, for pulling this item out for further discussion.

Of course, we've discussed this particular item quite a bit in committee, so I won't belabor the points, but unfortunately, I think Councilmember Peterson continues to misunderstand what or not clearly understand what this budget action actually is doing in the context of our full budget.

I'm just going to quickly explain for the benefit of the public and to make sure that it's clear what we are doing here so that there isn't any confusion or misinformation about the effect of this particular council budget action.

This council budget action does cut $6.1 million from SPD's budget.

However, what we are cutting here are literally dollars that SPD has said they will not use for purposes of hiring additional officers.

So the $6.1 million represents the total amount of dollars that we can expect in salary savings for sworn officer positions that are currently vacant.

and will remain vacant in 2021 according to SPD's own staffing model, which includes in that formula how many people they expect to hire, how many people they expect to lose.

This is how many bodies they expect to have in 2021. And so what we have done here through the benefit of the analysis of council central staff and data received from SPD staffing model is to really acknowledge that SPD's proposed budget in this area was proposed too large.

And so this is a correction of that line item to accurately reflect what SPD's own data says they will be able to do in 2021. So this is sort of, as I've thought about it in my head, it's like when I go to the grocery store and I buy more than what I need.

And so it's sort of like my eyes are hungrier than my stomach moment.

And I think that that is what we're doing here in this instance.

So we are not further reducing personnel at SPD.

We are not unnecessarily cutting into the opportunity for SPD to backfill in attrition that they experienced that they didn't expect.

What we are doing is we are saying that they have budgeted too much for this, and they're not going to use these dollars.

They're literally just going to be sitting there.

In the context of needing dollars in this tremendous recession for other council budget priorities, it is appropriate for us to move this correction forward.

to capture the $6.1 million that SPD has said they will not have any use for because they cannot realistically hire what they said or thought they were going to hire when the budget was transmitted, and to reappropriate those to community-based needs that we have identified through our budget process.

So that's what this council budget action does, and it should not be read as though this is cutting into I think that is a very important piece of information that we need to be cutting into existing positions at SPD.

Thank you, manager.

I just want to underscore the score that during the budget process, the council regularly adjusts the police department's budget in line with the staffing plan.

I believe this is done in prior years, including under the leadership of council member, Council President Gonzalez when she was chair of the budget committee.

And I think it's also, I just want to again underscore that it is the police department's staffing plan itself that shows that the department will continue to hire new recruits and the number of fully trained officers will correspond to the number of officers that this budget action maintains in the city budget.

This analysis has been confirmed by our own central staff.

And the other important point to make is that if we did not do this, And these funds were left over as we're anticipating and unable to be used to hire more officers.

The result would be that the executive would decide how to spend those funds.

And we are directing these funds to be used as part of the participatory budgeting process.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Are there any additional comments?

Seeing none.

Council President Gonzalez, would you like to move to consider this item back as part of the consent package?

I'm happy to.

I would like to move that item.

I'm a little confused as to the procedure.

I thought once it was pulled, we just do an individual vote.

Okay, thumbs up.

So I have on here on my script, move approval of council bill SPD-009A-003 as included in voting group A in the consent package.

And then we do an individual vote.

Does that work?

Okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

Is there any additional comments?

Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on item 113?

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Peterson?

No.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzales?

Giving Patty an opportunity to catch up here.

We're going pretty fast.

Aye.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

I will not be giving Patty an opportunity to catch up.

Aye.

Councilmember Patterson?

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda and thank you colleagues for your patience here so this is the item that would abrogate 93 unfilled positions in the Seattle Police Department and similar to the concerns I raised earlier I feel that we want to have the.

Eric Bussis, Applicant OLIV-MGND, he or she]: Full public safety plan, we want to have the alternatives sketched out more fully in terms of increasing public safety and Community wellness and we you know we're going to have that process unfold and the abrogating of positions to me.

While there is a good rationale for defunding, this is deleting the positions, and deleting the positions unnecessarily reduces the flexibility for what the chief and the mayor have intended.

I believe they abrogated 47 of the positions, but this is going to abrogate more of them.

And I believe we want to have that flexibility of having those positions still on the books, even if they're not funded in case they are needed.

Again, we're also seeing attrition occur at a faster rate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council President Gonzalez, as the sponsor, would you like to add any additional information?

Again, this is one that we've discussed quite a bit during our budget committee processes.

And I just, I guess I disagree with Council Member Peterson's characterization of the effect of this particular budget action item and on the impact it would have on the department.

So this budget action would eliminate the position pockets for all sworn officer positions at SPD that are currently vacant and unfunded.

So these are positions that are just sitting there on the shelf and have no money.

So even if SPD said we have all this attrition and we need to rehire people, they would not be able to rehire them into these particular abrogated positions because there is no salary associated with each of these positions.

So if the scenario that Council Member Peterson describes comes to fruition, SPD, even if we didn't abrogate these positions, would need to come to council to request funding for each of those extra positions before they could hire into those slots.

So this budget action does not have any impact on existing police officer positions.

It also does not impact SPD's current staffing or hiring plan for 2021 as they've proposed.

This budget action would restrict SPD from hiring above and beyond their current projected staffing and hiring plan.

So in other words, it prevents the department from growing the force in the future in a way that is inconsistent with their own current staffing and hiring plan.

If SPD does try to increase the size of the sworn officer force in the future, they would need this council or a future council to take legislative and budgetary action to authorize any additional positions.

And SPD has indicated that the abrogation of these positions in particular, the 93 positions, does not affect their staffing plan for 2021. And again, as a reminder, their staffing plan takes into consideration their projection of how many officers they can hire, how many they believe they will lose to attrition, including retirement, and what the net result of that will be.

And so based on their own evaluation, these positions will not affect their staffing plan for 2021. And so I think it is a responsible move at this point to eliminate these 93 officer positions Um, a portion of the 93 that are included in here were already proposed by the mayor's office to be, um, eliminated and, and in the event that, um, that there is a need for additional, um, positions.

After the mayor's task force related to functional analysis, uh, is completed, which again, council has a seat at that table after that is completed.

If there is a need to further adjust.

Um, what pockets are available for police office positions and even I believe that would be the appropriate time to consider reinstituting or reinstating these positions.

I suspect that will not be what an outcome of that functional analysis will tell us.

But again, I think that right now, this is a kind of no, no harm, no foul.

proposal here and would support, would request that my colleagues support item number 116, SPD 012B002.

And so I'm happy to make the motion or I will defer to the chair to make the motion.

Please go ahead, Council President.

I'm sorry, Council Member Herbold, I do see your hand now.

I just realized I cut off debate unintentionally.

I'm sorry.

I didn't see a hand.

I do see one now.

Go ahead, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I just want to concur with Council President Gonzalez, again, the former chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Appreciate her leading on this.

And this is really, I think, a good practice, not just as it relates a good budgeting practice and a good policy oversight role for the council, regardless of what department you're talking about.

This aligns the staffing plan and the FTEs with positions by removing positions that aren't filled and are not expected to be filled.

We do this in other departments in our oversight role as well.

A responsible budgeting practice is to have staffing aligned with the FTEs listed in the budget.

It allows for a clear public understanding.

Lack of alignment of these numbers is an ongoing issue.

Again, it's an ongoing issue, not just for the police department, but for many other departments where there's an executive practice of having unfilled and that does not allow the Council to exercise its oversight role in determining the form and function of the activities of the department.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Councilmember Herbold.

Council President Gonzalez did you want to move this item?

I will, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much.

I move approval of SPD 012B002 item 116 as included in voting group A consent package.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

Is there any additional comments?

I don't see any hands.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Peterson?

No.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Chair Mosqueda.

Aye.

Eight in favor, one opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries.

And item SPD-012B-002 is included in our consent package from voting group A.

I think those are all the items that have been removed.

That does officially get us through group A.

Thank you very much, colleagues, for the discussion.

We have about a half an hour left of this morning's session, and I am going to ask that we move into reviewing group B.

Thanks so much for your time here today.

I'm going to keep my comments very short.

I really just want to say thanks again to all of our staff who've been working around the clock.

Allie Panucci, Dan Eder, Tom Meisel, Lisa Kay, Patty Worgen for their work over the weekend, the last week or two, making a tremendous amount of to make sure that all of the items that we have in front of us are in the right places.

We want to make sure that requests fit into a possible amended consent package for your consideration as we look at group B.

There is really magic work happening here to make sure that various priorities that serve our most vulnerable, our seniors, those who are living houseless, working families, small businesses, got additional support here.

so that we could dig in to getting additional support.

And with the goal of trying to keep those reserves as high as possible, we have been able to keep those at approximately $40 million, just under $40 million.

As I mentioned this morning, the importance of building back that reserve that was near zero was about $3 million in reserve to make sure that those investments are available for especially our BIPOC communities and those hit hardest by COVID and the economic recession.

So I think what we have done here is a very responsible effort to try to identify additional priorities to complement the Form A items we just talked about.

And we have continued to maintain that commitment and that investment in the reserves.

We had a lot of Form Cs.

You can imagine.

The challenge of trying to get over 50 pharmacies into approximately a $6 million new spend slot.

But as we'll be discussing today, our attempts to do this, I think, have carefully balanced out.

We've identified where funding is available and we've continued to, I think, strike a healthy balance in terms of our commitments to reserves and key investments for communities.

So it's obviously been a tremendous amount of work, and I'll turn it over to Ali Panucci to walk us through the group B items here.

This time, colleagues, we are gonna walk through each item.

Since many of these items have been discussed and some of them have been discussed in public, but some of them haven't, they're somewhat new proposals.

I'm gonna pause at the end of each one.

for a discussion or questions if you have it.

And you can identify one by one if you need to pull it.

But I would encourage folks to try to see the whole package before pulling.

We're going to actually let me let me rephrase that.

I'm going to ask that you wait till we get through the whole list of items here.

And then if there is an item that you would like to pull at the end let's go ahead and pull it after we do a full discussion.

So again, we'll pause for questions, conversation about each item.

This is not a debate necessarily.

It's just to make sure that you have a better understanding.

If you think it warrants a debate or if there is any concern that you have about including it in the consent package, after we get through the items, you can then pull it at the end.

Okay?

Not seeing any questions.

Great.

Allie, I'll turn it over to you.

Again, thanks for all of your work on this.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Group B includes items 126 through 160 on the agenda.

As the chair noted, these items are either brand new proposals or are modified options of amendments that were presented to the committee on November 10. Because they are newer revised items, I'm going to ask the lead analyst to describe the items in the package, as the chair noted, in a little more detail beyond just reading in the title.

The first items will be presented by Calvin Chow of our central staff, and they relate to the Department of Transportation.

Before moving into these items, Chair, I'd just like to clarify, because we understood a few items might be removed, would you like the more detailed presentation of item 126 and 127 now at this point in the agenda?

I think that it is fine to read them into the record, give us a quick summary, but early preview, and I think it's probably no surprise to the sponsor, Council Member Peterson, it does sound like those items will be removed, but we want to recognize them for the record, and then we are going to go ahead and have them identified for removal after we get through the full list here.

But let's hold the longer presentation, Cal, for the discussion after the consent package on group B.

Thank you.

I'll turn it over to Cal, thanks.

Calvin Chow with Council Central staff.

Thank you.

Item number 126, which is S.500B1, is sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

This item adds $29.8 million of appropriations to SDOT to implement the voter-approved Proposition 1 for transit.

It also adds a new CIP project, the Seattle Transportation Benefit District Transit Improvements Project to the CIP.

to allow for spending on capital that was authorized by voters.

This proposal is a change from what was in the chair's budgeting package.

It adds $5 million for capital, again, as it was approved by the vote.

Great.

And Council Member Peterson, a short comment.

You are welcome to make a short comment.

I think Calvin summarized it very well.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Item 127.

Item 127 is BLG042001.

This item is sponsored by Councilmember Peterson.

It would pass legislation that has been introduced to implement a $20 vehicle license fee increase, and would add 3.6 million of those funds for bridge maintenance programs in SDOT.

And we already noted that there is a few forms on this one, so we are and I'll give a preview that this item will be pulled.

Councilmember Peterson?

Chair Mosqueda, thank you.

Just want to point out that that is co-sponsored with Councilmembers Herbold and Lewis.

Thank you.

Not official co-sponsors, but we do know that there was a press release on that.

So thank you so much for that.

I think for the council bill there.

Oh, okay.

I see what you're saying.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

No problem.

No problem.

Item number 128 is S.008D1.

This item is sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

It's a revision to an item that was in the chair's budgeting package.

It's the same amount of money, but it establishes a new CIP project for bridge maintenance for the 1.56 million of REIT II capital fund.

Great.

Council Member Peterson, any additional clarification you'd like to offer here?

This is for item 128?

Yes.

Yes, Calvin is correct.

That was based on feedback from SDOT to just set up the line items a certain way.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you very much.

Moving on to item 129.

Item 129 is S.010A1.

This is sponsored by Council Member Herbold.

It transfers $2.8 million from the West Seattle Bridge Immediate Response Project to the West Marginal Way Safe Street and Accessibility Project, which is also known as the Pedestrian Crossing and Improvements near the Duwamish Longhouse.

Excellent.

Council Member Herbold, any additional context here?

Just to add that SDOT has informed advocates as well as the members of the West Seattle Bridge Advisory Task Force that as part of the ReConnect West Seattle effort that this project is fully funded and this just ensures that those dollars are available.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Item number 130.

Item 130 is S.011A1.

This is sponsored by Council Member Morales.

It adds $550,000 from the School Safety, Traffic, and Pedestrian Improvement Fund to fund projects, a low-cost sidewalk project in South Beacon Hill.

Council Member Morales, any additional context there?

Sorry, everyone, technology issues.

So this is a project, as Calvin said, in South Beacon Hill where there are no sidewalks and it is a particularly dangerous stretch of road for kids who are trying to walk to school.

Sort of a blind hill and curve situation.

And so I am hoping for my colleagues support in including that in the package.

Thank you.

I want to thank you as well for your work with our office to identify a revenue source outside of general fund and the ability to use the school zone camera I think is a great compliment to making sure this project gets completed.

Item 131.

and the CIP.

And it would be targeted by proviso for pedestrian and bicycle improvements across Northeast 45th Street across I-5.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Peterson, additional context.

Thank you, chairman skater so this is really important to for that first last mile solution and for safety of pedestrians and cyclists who are going in between Wallingford and the U district as the districts up zone takes effect we've got the light rail opening up.

So this is something where I've met with community groups from both.

neighborhoods as well as cycling advocates, pedestrian safety advocates, and I strongly support this.

It also supplements well the Route 44 project.

So I'm very excited about this and working with folks that I usually don't get to work with.

So I look forward to doing more of that.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And I'll echo my appreciation for your work on this.

I do think that this is a great complement to the Route 44, the other sidewalk and pedestrian and bus strategies that we're including in this budget in addition to the item that Council Member Morales just spoke about and further enhance the safety improvements along that busy corridor.

Thanks for bringing this forward.

Additional items?

No.

Okay, let's keep going.

The next item is item 132, BLG 3B1.

And this would amend and recommend passage as amended of Council Bill 119911, the revised Jumpstart Appropriation Ordinance.

I'll just note the original council budget action was just regular budget legislation sponsored by the Budget Committee.

The amendment I'm about to describe is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez.

This legislation as transmitted with the proposed budget would repeal ordinance 126149 that authorized spending 57 million from the city's emergency fund for COVID relief efforts and replaces it with this bill that reflects the 2020 spending agreed to in the compromise between the council and the mayor that would spend a total of $45 million from the emergency fund in 2020 and 2021 for COVID relief efforts.

The amendment included in this budget action would amend the proviso related specifically to the appropriations for the Office of Immigrant and Refugees Affairs.

This is in Section 2E of the Council Bill.

And the amendment removes any specific allocations for language access and allows OIRA to spend the $9 million appropriation on direct financial assistance, advised recipients, and language access as needed.

So it provides a bit more flexibility.

Thank you so much.

I don't have anything else to add there.

Not seeing any questions.

Great.

Let's keep going.

The next item will be presented by Karina Bull, Central Staff.

The next budget action is CW001-A-004.

And this budget action is sponsored by Council Member Mosqueda.

It would add 2.18 million general fund to restore positions proposed for budgetary layoffs in five departments.

Those departments are the Human Services Department, the Office of Economic Development, Office of Planning and Community Development, Seattle Department of Transportation, and the Seattle Fire Department.

The budget action would also impose provisos to restrict spending of the specific amount of funds needed to retaining to the positions to solely being spent to keep those positions.

So the amendment in this particular budget action solely changes a proviso.

The amount of funding stays the same.

The proviso is for the Strategic Advisor III position at OPCD and the proviso is increased by $24,000 from $172,000 to about $196,000 to reflect the full cost of the position at OPCD.

So the amendment would restrict spending of about $196,000 and restrict it solely to retaining that position.

Thank you so much.

Just to add that this is a continuation of what you saw in Group A, where we were trying to identify budgetary cuts of concerns and making sure that those core government services could be maintained.

This is how we make sure that our most vulnerable have the services that they need.

Great, let's continue.

Lish Whitson, Council Central Staff.

Item 134 is DON4A1.

This adds $175,000 to the Department of Neighborhoods to support the Chinatown International District Visioning process, the phase two of that process.

The Council previously funded phase one in 2019. This money would go out to community groups in the Chinatown International District to address key issues in the community, including housing and homelessness, public safety, and mitigating impacts of major projects that are planned for the neighborhood.

Council President Gonzalez sponsored this item.

Any additional context, Council President Gonzalez?

Just really quickly, thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda and Lish for that description.

Really excited about being able to see this added as a Form C in this in this particular group.

This item will support ongoing city-funded efforts in the Chinatown International District for a neighborhood plan and visioning project.

As Lish mentioned, this is phase two of that work.

The work thus far has been very successful in bridging neighborhood dynamics to bring residents, businesses, advocates, and stakeholders together for a community-driven visioning process that is multigenerational and multilingual and supporting this community driven work is important.

I believe it will be instrumental to helping the CID respond to the many ongoing and complex challenges that the neighborhood continues to grapple with, including public safety, encampments, the impact of multiple infrastructure projects.

and displacement threats as well.

So this is an opportunity to continue to support our neighbors and the residents of the CID to continue doing that neighborhood planning that is going to be critical to make it through successfully in a post COVID reality.

So really excited about this and want to thank the chair for including it and also want to I want to say thank you to all of the councilmembers.

I appreciate the Nguyen and my office for working with community stakeholders on identifying this as a need and helping my office put it forward for

All right.

Item 135 is DLN 901 B1 from Council Member Strauss.

This replaces an item that was in the tiers package that proposed to cut funding for a position that's due to sunset at the end of 2020, the mayor's budget included funding to extend that position permanently.

This version or option would instead provide a lot of funds in DLN to be explicit about council's intent for this position, but it maintains funding and the department would have authority to continue the position in its work.

Great.

Let's see, Council Member Strauss, there you are.

It's so much appreciated that you put this forward.

Could you please speak to this?

Yes, thank you, Chair, and thank you, Lish.

This proviso ensures that the Department of Neighborhoods maintains its census outreach position, which will be working to continue the community engagement work that began with the census year engagement.

It's important that we not only engage on the front end, we also follow back up with community groups and engaging census partners in a post census plan means that historically disadvantaged residents and community groups that are currently merged within changing districts, including Districts 1, 2, and 3 will have an opportunity to give more voice to their community around issues such as transportation, school resources, delivery of city services, and other important issues.

This position will also work with city and county demographers to analyze the census data once it becomes available, ensuring that the city and public get the most accurate information and be able to share that data with stakeholders.

This position also runs the People's Academy for Civic Engagement, or PACE, and they will redesign and adapt Department of Neighborhoods' leadership and PACE program to create specific cohort-based training opportunities with census partners.

This funding was set to be cut earlier in the budget, and when Department of Neighborhoods clarified the intent for this funding, it demonstrated to me that this should be maintained.

This proviso ensures that the funds are spent on the work that the Department of Neighborhoods has said this position is intended to carry out.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Any additional comments?

Okay, seeing none, let's go ahead.

Item number 136, oh, Asha Venkatraman for Council Central Staff.

Item 136 is FG003B001, sponsored by the Budget Committee, and it would proviso $29.9 million in finance general for the Equitable Communities Initiative.

There's two provisos.

The first is on $29.5 million to go towards task force recommendations, and the remaining $400,000 would be for facilitation of the task force's process.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

As folks know, we have two investments that we're making directly into BIPOC recommendations, approximately $30 million going to the participatory budgeting process and to make sure there was an equal investment into the task force.

There's about $30 million going into the task force.

What we wanted to do was make sure that each entity is using the funds that have been appropriated for any additional costs for managing the work and any hiring that needs to happen, any consultants And that is our expectation of the participatory budgeting process as well.

We had clarified that in their work, and this is simply doing what the mayor's office had requested, front-loading some of those dollars to make them available, releasing about half a million dollars for the ability to hire folks and get the process off the ground so that there was a facilitator.

Happy to honor that request, and we have put it forward here to make sure that that is reflective of the conversations we've had with the executive.

Great, let's move on.

Good afternoon, Budget Committee.

Oh, hey, Tom.

Got to speak up a little bit.

Somehow we always end up with a little audio issue.

I apologize, Tom, but we can hear you.

Just go ahead and shout.

Great.

So Tom Mikesell, Council Central staff.

FG6, which one are we on?

FG6A2, sponsored by Chair Mosqueda.

would cut $10.4 million general fund from finance general for the equitable communities initiative and adds 33.7 million from the general fund as an appropriation in finance general for a transfer to the city's emergency fund.

By way of a little background, after accounting for 19.8 million of spending from emergency funds for COVID relief efforts in 2020, the 2021 proposed budget would deplete the emergency fund to nearly zero balance, about $60,000 in 2021. This budget action would then replenish the emergency fund balance to $33.8 million, which in effect replenishes the majority of the funds that were used to support the programs and services in the joint COVID-19 relief plan in 2020 and 2021.

Thank you so much, Tom.

And just to add one comment As we invest in the reserves, this is how we invest in protecting the health and safety of our most vulnerable communities, both from the attacks of the public health crisis of COVID and the economic consequences that are being worsened because of that.

And I see this as an important effort to make sure that we not only keep the health and safety of our residents first and foremost in our mind as we craft the budget, but also be thinking about the ways in which we can provide additional financial support to families and small businesses in the upcoming year as we see things continue to worsen.

So really proud of this piece.

I feel like the investments in our reserves folks are not getting a ton of attention and want to lift that up.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda.

I just want to express my thanks for your attention to this item.

You're correct.

The replenishment of these funds is not getting a lot of attention.

What did get a lot of attention is over the summer when we drew down on these funds.

And because of our commitment to financial responsibility and fiscal oversight in preparing for our future, this council made the commitment I think it is a great opportunity for us to be able to work together during the discussion around the jumpstart spending plan to replenish these funds in the 2021 budget.

Thank you for making sure that the Council fulfilled this commitment.

Again, we took a lot of flack over the summer.

that we have in this effort to maintain our reserves in a way that we can prepare for our future.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Council President, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Really quickly, I want to echo those thanks and the remarks made by Councilmember Herbold.

I also, you know, want to acknowledge that the Council did this with the understanding that there could be other shoes that drop as we continue to COVID-19.

In fact, right now, in this moment, we are all experiencing a third spike here in Seattle, King County, and across the country.

And so, as a result of that, we have now, just in this sort of late hour of our own budget process, have seen yet another set of restrictions reinstituted by Governor Inslee that are going to have a really uh, drastic negative effect on many of our small businesses and on the workers that they employ, particularly within the restaurant and bar industry.

And so, um, I think it was with good wisdom that we are reserving these.

And I also think that there is going to be, um, a in the near future need to deploy these these these dollars, given the late breaking news around the additional restrictions.

So I really appreciate the opportunity to have these emergency funds available for the emergencies that continue to be popped on us in the last minute.

And look forward to having additional conversations about how we can utilize these funds to meet the emerging needs of people in our city.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much.

Any additional comments?

Thank you very much.

Let's go on to the next item here.

Next item is number 138. If you could scroll up, please.

This is Jeff Sims from Council of Central Staff.

Item 138 is HOM 4C1.

It adds $1.218 million from the general funds to HSD to increase homelessness outreach services.

This is a aggregation of four different CBAs that appeared previously that were all sponsored separately by council members Herbold, Strauss, Juarez, and Morales.

and the lead sponsor here is Council Member Morales.

Sorry, Council Member Morales, any additional context?

Not really.

As Jeff said, this is a compilation of several council members' interests.

I think what is important is that we will see new outreach workers across the city, I believe four up north and three in the south end of Seattle, who will really provide a more robust network of experts to help us move toward the kind of I think it's really important that we have this kind of homelessness outreach that really centers the experts who know how to do this work best.

And at the same time, honors the humanity and respects the dignity of our homeless neighbors while they do that.

So looking forward to my colleagues' support on this.

I want to echo Council Member Morales and thank her, but more importantly, the social service, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and faith-based groups all thank this council for providing additional resources to provide on-the-ground resources, referral services for our unsheltered clients.

which is a long time coming.

So thank you very much.

And all the other council members where we, I hope we have more actions like this, where we combine resources and recognize those of us that represent districts.

First and foremost, we represent the city of Seattle, all of it, but we try to meet the needs of our district.

And it's times like this, I'm really proud when I can reach out to my colleagues and we can all come together on a budget ask because there's a budget need on the ground in our districts.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Okay, moving forward to the next one, please.

Item number 140, sorry, 139 is HOM 5E1 sponsored by Council Member Morales.

This repurposes 8FTE for a new homelessness outreach and provider ecosystem in the Human Services Department.

And adds $2.1 million from the general fund to HSD and makes a statement of legislative intent.

The $2.1 million would support continued capacity to operate shelters in hotels.

And the statement of legislative intent is regarding the use of $23 million in the 2021 budget of emergency solutions grant COVID funds that also are proposed to be utilized on hotel sheltering in 2021. This is put forward by Council Member Morales.

Great, thank you.

And Council Member Morales, I saw this piece as complementary to the item that we just spoke about.

If you would like to speak to this, and then we are going to go ahead and recess for lunch.

Sure, I'll be quick and we've spoken a lot already about the hope program and how important it is to move toward a more provider centered approach.

The difference between this and what we had already discussed is that we did add, as Jeff said, 2.1 million dollars for the non congregate shelter as we had been talking about.

It's really important to do the outreach, but the next step is making sure that there are actually places for people to go.

And so this sort of closes the loop on that effort by putting money in so that we can both move people into hotels and maintain what the CDC is recommending, which is that as we move people off the street into more stable shelter, that we do it in a way that ensures the non-congregate setting.

So I'm excited to be able to do this and look forward to your support.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I just want to share my deep appreciation for everybody who's been involved in the ongoing conversations that have been happening to shape this budget process, but also to really shape, not the budget process, but the budget proposal, but more importantly, to reshape the encampment management and outreach to people living outdoors in encampments.

and addressing the concerns of the house community and business community that are nearby.

My thanks go to providers and advocates, specifically REACH, DESC, Public Defender Association, and Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness.

and Deputy Mayor Sixkiller in the mayor's office.

Of course, thanks to Council Member Morales for leading this budget action.

I think we really need to underscore that this is a problem-solving approach to replace the navigation team, to provide outreach services, and actually, not just information to encampment residents and neighbors, but connecting people to lifesaving services as well.

We're working towards outreach that works to secure voluntary compliance, to mitigate hazards and obstructions, and minimizing the public health risks and involuntary relocations or removals.

This is a huge step forward.

It's a step forward that we are taking together collaboratively, providers, advocates, the mayor's office, and the council.

And this budget action memorializes these changes that the principals all agreed upon so far and provides the necessary increased funds to support the approach.

It is not the end of the work.

It's an important step along the longer path of reimagining encampment management driven by the urgency of keeping everyone safe during the pandemic.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Okay, wonderful.

Well, I just know folks want to take a quick break.

It's been a long morning already.

These two items I wanted to get in before lunch because they do go together.

And while we could potentially have additional comments during the discussion period when considering the consent package, I just want to note my appreciation on this item, Council Member Morales, for your leadership on it.

In addition to Council Member Lewis and Herbold, I know you spent a lot of time and calls with providers and the mayor's office as well.

So thank you for your work on this revisioned approach to not only doing outreach for folks who are homeless, but getting them into hotels.

Finally, this is something that we've been battling and pushing for for eight, nine months.

So thank you.

And then on the previous item, this was a combination, as you'll remember, between Council Member Strauss, Council Member Juarez, Council Member Morales, and Council Member Herbold's requests.

And then we added to it, not only additional personnel, but additional dollars to compliment the existing request.

So I'm really excited about these pieces and if they stay in, just wanted to get that comment in there because I know it's a big piece buried in a large package here of items and really worth pausing for.

With that, speaking of pausing, let's go ahead and take a recess.

Council colleagues, we will pick up where we have left off here and the council meeting will rejoin at 2 p.m.

If there's no objection, today's meeting will stand in recess until 2 p.m.

where we will continue with items of business in group B.

Excellent.

Enjoy your lunch.

The meeting is in recess.

Thanks all.