Hi, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome back to our November 13th discussion of the proposed changes to the November 6th balanced budget package.
So we're canceling our recess, and we're back in business here.
So I want to say thank you to everybody that stayed.
Look forward to hearing from you at the conclusion of the discussion.
This morning, we got through 27 items.
We're going to start at item 28. And if you guys would be so good to introduce yourselves once again, and then we will start with this item.
And it's Council Member O'Brien's item, so I may be pinch-hitting for him.
Lisa Kay, Central Staff.
Calvin Chow, Central Staff.
Greg Doss, Central Staff.
Very good, thank you.
Calvin, is this yours?
Sure, item number 28 is Council Budget Action SDOT 3B1.
It would add $300,000 of general fund, the transportation network company tax, and one FTE for SDOT to support implementation of the transportation equity agenda.
It would do this by cutting $300,000 of finance general reserves.
This was a request that was not included in the initial budgeting package and has come forward again at a smaller amount.
Okay, thank you very much.
Any comments on this?
And I can't speak for Council Member O'Brien, do you have any other information that you would like to propose here?
I just note that this is funding to fund implementation efforts for the equity agenda and that the original request was 700,000 and this request is now 300,000.
Okay, thank you.
Any further comments?
If anybody would like to add your name as a co-sponsor, would you raise your hand?
Okay, let's move on to 29.
Item number 29 is Council Budget Action S.9B1. It is a proviso on spending for the Delridge Way Southwest RapidRide H line.
It prohibits spending on construction until the department has reported on 10 items that are detailed in the proviso.
Is Council Member Herbolds?
Okay, Council Member Herbold, do you have some additions?
Thank you, yes.
This replaces an earlier proviso that was not included in the Chair's initial balancing package.
The earlier version required additional council action to approve spending for the construction.
This version instead requires only that SDOT report to the council on a number of work program items that have been identified by the community as important before the release of funds.
So they would have to issue the report, the council would not have to act on that report.
The issues identified by the community that are important for inclusion in this report are outreach and engagement for businesses that might be affected by the project and the role of the Office of Economic Development to address potential impacts along Delridge, pedestrian access and crossings at bus stops, decisions regarding 24-7 bus lanes and parking removal, and implementation of the Bicycle Master Plan as part of these projects, and finally a consideration of a traffic diverter on 26 Ave Southwest.
The council has imposed earlier provisos as part of project stage gating and identified issues to evaluate.
SDOT has completed 90% design, yay.
And they've released information on their project website about what community feedback was included and what wasn't.
SDOT plans to complete 100% design in early, in January or early February.
And SDOT and Metro have an agreement to work towards project completion by September 2021.
Thank you.
Can you just clarify for me, is this proviso restricting further expenditures when it's 90 percent done?
What is it that you're looking for?
What's the outcome you're seeking?
So, we're at 90 percent now.
The requirement is that they report back on these issues and then we'll release the rest of the funding to get to 100 percent design.
We will not have to act, though, to release the funding as we have before.
All we have to do is receive the report.
Okay.
Very good.
Just to clarify, the proviso says that no spending on construction is allowed until they provide that thing, so it allows them to do the additional design work.
I missed the stage at which we were provisoring.
Correct.
Thank you very much.
So, talk to me a little bit more about the construction design going forward.
That's what you're supporting, but you're not supporting actual construction until you get that report?
Exactly.
Okay, very good.
Anybody like to add any more information on this?
I would.
Working with Councilmember Herbold's office and SDOT, we are planning to have a presentation on this project in our committee on December 3rd.
And so that's, you know, a little less than a month away, but it's possible that they have enough information as soon as that to address this.
And so, but we'll see how that plays out.
Okay.
Very good.
And should they have enough information?
Do we pull the proviso at that point?
What would your expectation be?
They will have fulfilled the proviso at that point.
Yeah, and it will be.
That will be after we pass the budget, almost certainly.
So, I mean, the meeting will definitely be after we pass the budget.
So, go ahead.
So, your expectation is if you get that information on December 3rd, they will have fulfilled the elements of your proviso and not needing to go forward further.
Okay.
Very good.
Those who want to add your name as a co-sponsor to this, raise your hand.
Okay.
Oh, and by the way, I had a request from the audience.
If you will tell me how many people raised their hands, because I can't always see them.
So, in this case, it was four.
I could see those.
And so, in the future, if you will just say that there are four new co-sponsors.
Thank you.
Okay, very good.
Let's move on to 30.
Item 30 is a Statement of Legislative Intent, S.15A1. We request that SDOT develop a plan to make all public transit in Seattle free to ride.
This was Council Member Swantz.
Okay, Council Member O'Brien, do you want to speak to this?
I do, I have some talking points.
One of the proposals in the Green New Deal resolution passed by Council is calling for a massive expansion of public transit and making it free for all to use.
This slide asks SDOT to make recommendations for how to make all transit in Seattle free for all to use.
Options include requiring employers to supply ORCA cards, taxing big business to fund ORCA cards for all, or coming to an intergovernmental agreement to make Seattle a ride-free zone.
And so, I will raise my hand in support of this.
Okay.
Any further comments?
Those in favor of adding your name, raise your hand.
Three, Council Member.
Okay, thank you.
All right, next item is 31.
Item 31 is a statement of legislative intent, S.19B1.
It's a request that SDOT report on an evaluation of Seattle's Complete Streets policy against national best practices and develop an alternative to level of service analysis.
This is Council Member Ryans.
Colleagues, this, I'm working with Council Member Pacheco to actually combine some of the language that he was hoping to put in in a separate slide around level of service.
And so the one you have posted to the agenda is a work in process, I'll say, and we're hoping to bring in some of his language too, essentially to get a comprehensive report back on how the streets are working for everybody in our city.
So, you know, on national best practices, or what is it called, NACO, NATCO, National Association of Transportation?
Yeah, I think it's, it would look at that for sure, but also just look at other model cities or peer cities on what they're doing, and seeing how, see how it stacks up.
I think what we find is places like NATCO standards actually evolve over time as certain jurisdictions pick up those policies, and so we'll be looking at a variety of things.
they will be looking at a variety of things.
That's my hope.
Okay.
So this...
Calvin maybe had some more too.
I don't know.
All right.
I would just like to ask a little bit more about the alternative to level of service analysis.
Is that something that SDOT has incorporated as the way they make decisions and priorities and we're asking to augment that or to switch out with now?
My understanding is that the language that's being worked out is to how to make the conversation about alternative level of service more directed towards the complete streets discussion.
So to try to wrap it up more into something that the department can actually move forward with as a policy.
as opposed to sort of an academic exercise, but how does it actually fit into the policy change that the department might do?
I'd also just note that the slide does speak to a specific best practices identified by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition, so there is a specific call out to a set of practices that were highlighted by that national organization.
Okay, very good.
Thank you.
Those who'd like to add your name as a co-sponsor, raise your hand.
for a council member.
Okay, thank you.
Very good.
All right, uh, 32.
Item 32 is statement of legislative intent, S.25A1.
It requests that SDOT and CBO report on the schedule and status of third-party funding discussions regarding Sound Transit's West Seattle and Ballard light rail project.
Very good, and I think this is Council Member Herbold.
Yes, this is a new proposal that was not submitted during the previous round.
It's in response to constituent questions I've received asking what's happening with third-party funding for Sound Transit Light Rail that will benefit folks all along Sound Transit 3. The slide proposes that SDOT and the City Budget Office report on process and schedule to discuss third-party funding options with Sound Transit and other potential funding partners, identifying key decision points and summarizing discussion.
The proposed reply date is July 1st in advance of the release of the draft EIS, and we've identified that date because of the fact that we're going to want to have a pretty good sense of what we're looking at as it relates to third-party funding opportunities by the time the final EIS is out.
So having a sense of where we might be by the time of the final EIS with a July 1st reply date seems prudent.
Okay, very good.
Those of you who would like to add your name as co-sponsors, raise your hand.
Three council member.
Okay.
Thank you All right, uh item 33 All right, great council central staff.
I'm, sorry, um council member o'brien.
I apologize, but I I wonder if I could make a quick comment on the very first s dot item before I move on I stepped out for a call and I apologize for missing that first item, but um just for the record i'm definitely supportive of it as I mentioned your guest and um in the previous budget round we were asking for a little over seven hundred thousand dollars for this It would have maintained the existing staff person who oversees the equity agenda work at the Department of Transportation and added an additional one, plus provided resources for strategically implementing that agenda.
This reduced amount would merely keep the existing person whose position is slated to end in April of this year.
That's the person that coordinates with the equity agenda task force or work group.
They will have recommendations this spring, and the idea would be to ensure that we have the staff to continue to work with them on strategically implementing those and have some funding, although a significantly reduced amount of funding to help fund those.
Okay.
Very good.
Thanks.
Thank you.
And I apologize.
That's all right.
Calvin stood in your stead well.
Okay.
Item 33.
Item 33, Madam Chair, is moving on to SPD.
This is a proviso.
The mayor's 2020 proposed budget would add $848,000 to pay for neighborhood emphasis patrols.
This proviso would restrict $100,000 of that funding to pay for emphasis patrols.
only in the University District, and this is Councilmember Pacheco's item.
Okay, Councilmember Juarez has some speaking points for us.
Thank you.
Councilmember Pacheco asked me if I could read his comments for him.
Councilmember Pacheco was proposing this proviso, but had to step out for the afternoon.
This item comes in response to community members who reached out earlier this year to express concern that the University District was not included when the mayor announced neighborhood emphasis patrols.
The U District has higher levels of both real and perceived crime than many of the neighborhoods that were included, and Councilmember Pacheco did not feel that the mayor's office ever articulated a clear reason for the selection of the neighborhoods.
In addition to SPD involvement, the mayor has committed to increased SDOT, Department of Neighborhoods, and other city department involvement in these neighborhoods to complement the patrols.
This action would proviso $100,000 of the $848,000 of emphasis patrol funding in the proposed budget to go specifically to patrols in the U District.
Thank you.
Those who would like to add your name to Councilmember Pacheco's proviso, raise your hand.
Thank you.
Okay, item 34, and this is Councilmember Gonzalez.
Item 34, Madam Chair, is a proviso.
It's actually two provisos on Seattle Police Department appropriations, restricting a total of $300,000 so that it may be spent on training related to sex work.
And it's Council Member Gonzalez's.
Nothing to add.
Okay.
Those who would like to add your name to item 34 proviso, raise your hand.
Okay.
We're co-sponsors.
Very good.
Thank you.
Item 35.
Item 35 is brought by Councilmember Herbold, and it is a statement of legislative intent that requires the Seattle Police Department to develop a citywide approach to collect and report the theft, damage, and vandalism of city assets, including theft of copper wire and the damage caused to city infrastructure during copper wire theft.
Nothing more to add.
I sort of previewed this during the last budget round, this and the one that follows.
We did not have a slide proposed yet at that point, but we talked about it at quite some length.
Okay.
Any other comments?
Those who'd like to add your name to this proviso, raise your hand.
For co-sponsors.
Thank you.
Item number 36 is requesting that SPD report on compliance with copper wire laws.
It's a statement of legislative intent that would require that SPD check with recycling businesses to make sure that they are following state law about accepting recycled metals.
I'm sorry and it's brought by Councilmember Herbold.
Council Member Herbold.
Similarly, since our last budget discussion where I previewed this item, I'm hearing from folks in the recycled metals industry about their efforts in this area.
So the word is out that the city is interested in doing this work and look forward to diving in more after passage of the budget.
Great.
Those who'd like to add your name to this, raise your hand.
As a co-sponsor?
Four co-sponsors.
Thank you.
All right, next item.
Item number 37 is requesting that SPD report on the community service officer program.
As council members are aware, there was an ad of 12 community service officers in the 2019 budget and another add in the 2020 budget of six more community service officers.
This slide would ask that the department report back to the council on the implementation and beginning of service delivery for the CSOs.
Great, and the Council Member Gonzales.
Brought by Council Member Gonzales.
Nothing to add.
Okay, those who'd like to add your name as co-sponsor, raise your hand.
Four co-sponsors.
Thank you.
Item 38.
Item 38 is another slide for SPD.
It would request that the department submit an implementation report on the initial positive results of their efforts to operationalize 12 recommendations that are funded as part of the recruitment and retention initiative that was talked about this morning and is funded in the amount of 1.6 million, reduced a little in the chair's budget to about 1.2 million.
Council Member Gonzalez?
Nothing more to add.
Those who want to add your name as co-sponsors, raise your hand.
for co-sponsors.
Good.
Item 39.
Item 39 is another statement of legislative intent for SPD.
This is a statement of legislative intent that was adopted last year.
It requires that in the third week of each month, the department provide data on hiring separations and census of precinct officers, showing how officers are distributed throughout the precincts and assigned to patrol.
This would merely keep the proviso from last year rolling forward into 2020, and it's brought by Council Member Gonzalez.
Further comments?
No further comments.
Those who want to add your name as a co-sponsor, raise your hand.
Co-sponsors.
Thank you.
All right, item 40.
Thank you, Brian Goodnight, Council Central staff.
Item 40 is SPU 2A1, and it's a statement of legislative intent that would request that Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle IT explore the feasibility of utilizing the city's water pipe infrastructure for deploying fiber optic cables for a municipal broadband network.
And that's similar to a method that the city of Anacortes is currently undertaking.
The slide requests that a report be presented to the council by August 3rd of next year.
And this item comes from Council Member Herbold.
Thank you.
And Council Member Herbold, would you just describe how this is different from your initial request?
Or is it the same thing?
I have lost track of that.
It's the same request as what was presented earlier.
Okay.
It's item 40. Nothing to add?
Nothing to add.
It's the same request.
Okay.
Very good.
Thank you.
Those who would like to add your name as a co-sponsor, raise your hand.
Three co-sponsors.
Okay.
Thank you.
Item 41.
Thank you.
Item 41 is SPU 4A1.
This is a budget action that would add $179,712 in the SPU Drainage and Wastewater Fund to fund a pilot program that provides mobile pump-out services to recreational vehicles, or RVs.
This would be funded by making an equivalent reduction in two ongoing Drainage and Wastewater Fund accounts.
It's estimated that the pilot program could provide eight pump-out events per month, with each event consisting of a four-hour period during which five to eight RVs could be serviced.
So in total, the pilot would service approximately 40 to 64 RVs per month.
And then lastly, one nuance relative to SPU's other RV-related programs, is that given that the funding source is the Drainage and Wastewater Fund, pump-out services would only be able to be provided in environmentally sensitive areas that are subject to the city's stormwater permit.
And this item comes from Council Member Herbold.
Thank you so much.
So many of you may have read the piece authored by Aaron Goodman and Mike Stewart from the Soto and Ballard BIAs respectively.
They wrote an article that was published in the Times in late October that talked about possible waterway contamination that RV dumping poses.
And we know from information that we've recently received that the issue does actually pose a very serious threat to the environmental remediation gains that Seattle Public Utilities has been making.
The utility has spent over $66 million over the last 10 years on reducing the harmful effects of stormwater runoff and protecting our waterways.
And we need to ensure that our continued progress of these efforts, we need to ensure our continued progress of these efforts so that we're not taking two steps forward and one back.
SPU has conducted two field tests earlier this year where SPU provided mobile RV pump out services.
And as Brian mentioned, we would be able to use the drainage and wastewater fund to do this work as long as we focused it on areas where environmentally critical areas.
And yeah, we have a good estimate of how often we could do this.
And again, as I've alluded to on a couple of other items, We are going to be seeing more information coming out about the critical nature of this issue in the upcoming weeks.
Okay.
So I know when you and I were talking about the mobile toilets, that I thought there was money included in that for some of this work.
Is this just adding on to that?
The mobile toilets are standalone facilities that don't, we looked into whether or not we could sort of, whether or not those mobile toilets have the facilities to do this work.
Oh, the equipment was the issue, correct.
Exactly, the equipment is the issue.
And the equipment that SPU is currently using, it's not theirs.
They, I think, contract out for it.
It has this capability.
Okay, very good.
And can you just tell me the money source that you're talking about?
Two from SPU, is this something that SPU has, have you talked with them about it?
Have they concurred that we can do this?
They have concurred that we can do this.
Okay, very good.
All right, thank you.
Any other comments?
I would just add if I can that I was astonished to learn that there are actually in terms of if you have a functional RV, there aren't, I don't believe there are any places within the city of Seattle where you can appropriately take care of waste from your RV.
So most people, have to travel outside of the city limits to address, to...
Where did we learn that?
Is it Kent that is the closest one?
Because Council Member Gonzalez is right.
Yeah, I'm not sure exactly where.
It might, Burien might be the closest, I think, at least on the south end.
I'm not sure about the north end, but I was pretty surprised to hear that there, that this setting aside the population that we're focusing on through this particular request being advanced by Council Member Herbold, it just doesn't exist in the city.
And so, but yet we continue to hear from folks in neighborhoods about the impacts of this issue of runoff and and this waste being spilt onto the street.
And in some cases, that's because the RV is not functional.
In other cases, it could be that it's functional, but it costs money to get your RV from Seattle to somewhere outside of the city limits to address what you would otherwise be willing to address.
So I think this is a huge gap.
And again, I was astonished to learn that these services and this infrastructure just doesn't exist at all within our city.
No, I appreciate you raising that because I know that at the marinas, they're required to have pump outs available at the marinas and you're dealing with, you know, that aren't going to have necessarily anywhere near as much of holding capacity as what we're talking about in RV.
So I think it's appropriate for us to look into this and see what we can learn, plus provide the additional money that Council Member Herbold is suggesting here.
Okay, so this is item 41. If you'd like to add your name as a co-sponsor, raise your hand.
Four co-sponsors.
Great.
Item 42, and this is Council Member Gonzalez.
Kareena Bull, Council Central staff.
The next three budget actions relate to the proposed legislation for transportation network companies.
The first one is TNC DRC 104 A1 and it proposes to amend Council Bill 119686 version D2 on Director's Rules and the rulemaking process and pass that Council Bill as amended.
This is referring to the TNC Driver Deactivation Rights Ordinance which establishes rights against unwarranted deactivation, sets up a panel arbitration proceeding, and also establishes a driver resolution center.
This particular budget action would require the Office of Labor Standards Director to issue rules on passenger privacy and safety concerns for deactivations that include allegations of sexual assault and the definition of egregious misconduct, which can lead to immediate deactivation rather than two weeks' notice of impending deactivation.
And the amendment also would require the director to include representatives of local sexual assault organizations in the rulemaking process.
Okay, very good.
Council Member Herbold, do you want to speak up?
It's mine.
Oh, sorry.
Yep, Council Member Gonzalez.
That's all right.
This language was brought to us and the concern was raised to us by the Coalition to End Gender-Based Violence and the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center.
They have pointed out that there are a number of deactivations that are related to accusations of sexual assault.
And as a result, they feel that it would be appropriate, and I agree, for them to have a table, a seat at the table during rulemaking and to also ensure that the arbitration panel, as currently envisioned in the legislation, be prepared and trained to engage with victims from a trauma-informed perspective.
in the event that the deactivation is a result of an accusation of sexual assault.
So this doesn't modify the taxation model, doesn't modify how dollars are spent, but does require a greater degree of inclusivity in terms of stakeholders who may be making otherwise legitimate allegations pending the arbitration proceeding.
OK.
Very good.
Comments?
If you'd like to add your name as a co-sponsor, raise your hand.
Four co-sponsors.
Thank you.
Good.
Item 43 and 44, we are on the home stretch.
Council Member Herbold, I think you've got the last two.
Item 43 on the agenda is council budget action TNC SPN 106C1 which would substitute resolution 31914 version D3B for version D1D and adopt the resolution as amended.
Very briefly, as you recall, the chair's balancing package includes council budget action TNC SPN 106B1, which would substitute version D3 of the resolution and adopt the resolution.
That substitute includes several changes, including a list, a change to the list of specified transportation and transit investments that are eligible to be funded with TNC tax revenues.
In the Chair's substitute version of the resolution, the following are included in the list of specified transportation and transit investments.
The Center City Streetcar Connector, the purchase of transit service, additional support for Sound Transit West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions, and a transportation assistance voucher program.
Councilmember Herbold is proposing Council Budget Action TNC SPN 106 C1, which would substitute a different version of the resolution.
The CM Herbold's version makes all of the same changes and maintains the list of specified transportation investments, but changes the purchase of transit service to the purchase of King County Metro bus service and all other eligible uses remain the same.
Very good.
Thank you, Amy.
Councilmember Herbold?
Nothing to add.
Any other comments?
If you'd like to add your name as a co-sponsor, please raise your hand.
One co-sponsor.
Just to clarify, it doesn't cut anything.
It just adds King County Metro to the other transit options.
All right, moving on to the next item.
All right, item, agenda item 44 is CBA TNC tax 103 C1, which substitutes version D4B of council bill 119684 and passes the council bill.
As we just discussed, this makes a similar change to the tax, the legislation which implements the TNC tax.
and it simply changes the purchase of transit service to the purchase of King County Metro bus service as an eligible use for the TNC tax revenues.
Okay, very good.
Council Member Herbold, do you want to add anything?
Nothing to add.
All right, if you want to add your name as a co-sponsor, please raise your hand.
Two co-sponsors.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Well, congratulations, team.
We've gotten to the end of all 44 items, and we're going to resume public comment.
And so I'm going to ask, I don't think that you were here this morning, but we'll have one minute each, and then if there's groups that are speaking together, not bunching up and coming up as groups multiple times, we can make a decision.
Okay, so I'm going to go back to the first pages this morning because there were a number of people here who had signed up but then left not realizing we were going to give time.
So I'm going to invite Charlie and Debbie and Colleen, if you are here, that you have the opportunity to speak.
Thank you for coming back.
Hi.
Yeah, I'm sorry I missed it this morning, but thanks for having me back.
I'm Charlie with the King County Labor Council, and I just wanted to speak very briefly about why we are supporting a budget item proposed by Councilmember Mosqueda to add $200,000 to the Office of Labor Standards for Outreach and Education.
We think this is really, really important because Part of what makes Seattle such an incredible place to live and work is our great labor standards, some of the best in the country.
But those standards are only as good as we are able to enforce them.
And this money, we believe, would go so far in helping educate workers so that they know their rights on the job.
So we're supporting this.
We think this is one of the best ways that we can give power back to the people who need it most, which are working people in our city.
So please support this amendment.
Thank you.
Thank you, Charlie, for coming.
Do we have Debbie and Colleen here as well?
All right, not seeing them, we are going to continue where I left off.
And I think there was Eric Davis and then Josh Castle.
Do I see Josh?
I know he was here this morning.
What is, what, sure.
I mean, what, are you signed up?
I am.
And where are you in the queue?
I'm in the, on the second page probably.
So do you remember your number?
No, unfortunately I don't.
Okay, what's your name, sorry?
Theresa Holman.
We'll find you.
All right, please go ahead.
Thank you.
Okay.
So first, we just want to thank you for your support, especially in the funding of our tiny house villages, safe parking, mobile pit stops, the root shelter and rental assistance for at-risk disabled individuals.
What I wanted to tell you is that I have worked in permanent supportive housing for nine years, and I now manage Whittier Heights.
which is a tiny house village for women.
And I'm surprised I'm a little nervous.
And I just wanted to say that having seen the other side, tiny house villages really set the residents up for success once they transition in.
And one of the things that we're doing is having the women monthly articulate the vision for their future and set a goal.
And then for every time they hit that goal, they're stringing together these successes that build their self-esteem, build their confidence, and set them up for success when they transition.
So we're rooting for tiny house funding.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming, Teresa.
All right.
It looks like Doug Dumas, Erica, and Dan Kavanaugh.
Can you raise your hand if any of those three?
All right, so we've got somebody, it looks like a group from the UW School of Social Work.
Okay, not here.
Violet, is there a Violet here?
Holly Williams about youth care.
Peggy, I know you're here.
So Peggy, Bruce, and Eliana.
And I don't see Eliana.
No, she had to leave.
OK.
I think Bruce did too.
OK.
Go ahead, Peggy.
Good afternoon, council members.
My name is Peggy Hotz.
Seattle needs many more tiny house villages to meet the need for shelter, not just one or two.
Please keep the proviso that will divert the money that was to be used to close Nicholsville-Northlake into funding for tiny house villages.
By the way, Nicholsville-Northlake residents are keeping their village open this year, despite HSD's desire to close it on December 31st.
Terrible and untrue things are being said about Nicholsville-Northlake.
Please meet with Nicholsville before the budget vote.
You need to hear from the people affected.
Continuing to promote one organization's monopoly to operate tiny house villages would be a serious fiscal mistake and not best practice.
Tiny house villages need to be varied to suit the needs of a variety of homeless people.
Grassroots organizations like Nickelsville and ShareWheel can operate with the same services at half the price and provide empowering self-management.
Thank you.
Thank you, Peggy.
I just understood that I may have missed Eric, so let me call those names again.
Doug, Eric, and Dan Kavanaugh.
Letzkes?
Okay.
You probably couldn't read it.
Well.
You're all right.
Okay.
Okay, good.
Come on up.
And I apologize for missing you.
My name is Eric Letzkes, and I'm with SHARE, and I currently am homeless and stay at St. Luke's Church in Ballard.
We have an enormous need for tiny houses managed by SHARE, who has provided shelters for homeless people for over 30 years.
My second point I want to make is please do not close the North Lake and Nicholsville.
This is unfair and shameful proposed closure.
This is about the city's refusal for responsibility.
Please support Cher and Nicholsville in managing some of the tiny houses that is desperately needed here in Seattle.
And lastly, please meet with Cher to address these requests and needs.
Thank you very much.
So, Debbie, I know Josh, you spoke earlier, and we skipped Debbie.
I've called her a couple of times now, Debbie and Colleen.
So, Debbie, if you want to come up, and then we've got Bruce, Eliana, if she's back in, and Barbara Finney.
Hi, my name is Debbie Yort, and I'm a home care worker and a member of SEIU 775. I'm here to ask support for outreach funding for the Office of Labor Standards.
Seattle has led the way in protecting vulnerable workers, including passing a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which protects nannies and house cleaners and home care workers like myself.
But we know that those laws are only good if the workers know about their rights.
So, we know that it takes a lot of work to educate everyone about their rights, and the best way to do that is by funding organizations who can reach workers in their communities and in their own language.
After Seattle passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and a law protecting hotel workers, funding for outreach hasn't been increased.
So I urge you to support additional funding for outreach this year.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Debbie.
Josh, is Colleen here?
She was.
Okay.
All right, then we're going to move on to Bruce, Eliana, I don't see, and Barbara Finney.
Is Bruce here?
Bruce Gogol?
Okay.
Eliana is not here.
Barbara Finney?
Okay.
Sean Butterfield?
Imogene?
I don't see Imogene here either.
And it looks like Alan Mortive, maybe?
Great.
Thank you.
Let me just find who's coming after you, Alan.
is...
Seattle City Council and Mayor's Office.
Do you want to be known as...
Hold on just a second, please.
Steve, you're back up after this, and Brandon Fisher.
Thank you.
Please go ahead.
Seattle City Council and Mayor's Office.
Do you want to be known as a city that dehumanizes the homeless and those in encampments?
Or do you want to be known as a city that gives people more opportunities to have a place to stay?
Another point is with this, what sale is it leaves the nation in, the number of missing and murdered indigenous women.
I'm guessing you got my email for that about getting funding for that.
If not, if you're rejected, then you're just this one people for what your city is named after.
Thank you.
So Steve.
Steve, then Brandon, oh, no, Brandon's already spoken earlier, and David Sword did as well, and Sean Smith you'll be after.
Steve, Sean, and then it looks like Christopher Yoon.
Please go ahead.
This budget reflects your values, and I think it's a problem.
I hear nothing about the North Precinct in it.
You know, we didn't accept In fact, most of the city did not accept the fortress, the bunker, whatever you want to call it.
But the problem still exists in the North End.
I propose a radical solution.
Let's have citizens primarily from the North End take a look at whether it should be two or one precincts.
Let's do something before we wait for the next big proposal that it's going to be take it or leave it.
The problem exists whether it's take it or leave it or not.
Now, I'm also going to suggest in this measly minute, because I know that public testimony is too strong to be taken in large doses, that let's take a look at bicycles and putting license plates and a fee on it again.
I probably won't get yelled at this time, but it's something that the city could use.
And we can't even get to what you haven't done on gentrification.
You've made it so bad.
in this city.
Thanks, Steve.
Sean Smith, then Christopher, then Brian Ballinger.
Good afternoon, State Council.
My name is Sean Smith.
I am the elected External Affairs Coordinator for Occupy Othaloa Village.
I want to first thank Council Members Juarez and Gonzalez for agreeing to meet with us.
I want to thank council members Bagshaw, Pacheco, and Swamp for meeting with us.
I'm asking the rest of you to meet with us before any decision is made about tiny house villages.
To the mayor, I want to say that two years ago during your election, you agreed to meet with us face to face.
You never did so.
Now you're trying to cut our throat.
If you want to cut our throat, come and do it in person.
We're not closing Northlake willingly.
We're gonna hold on.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sean.
Christopher Yoon, nice to see you.
I just want to clarify, is it Sun or is there another Christopher Yoon?
My handwriting might just suck, sorry.
I think you're up.
Awesome, thank you so much.
But before you start speaking, can I call Lonnie McMurtry and then Aaron Shea McCann after you?
Thank you.
Hi my name is Christopher Sun and I'm a team member of Samaritan.
I just wanted to answer some questions or concerns raised earlier about the use of beacons.
So I initially wanted to address the concern that beacons create an added workload for case managers and currently case managers in the city offer beacons to clients who are already on their caseload and or people that they want to be meeting with on a consistent basis only.
That basically means that there is no conflict of who gets case management, but the person coming in for the monthly visits and the person who's on their caseload are the same person.
So case managers are never asked to do monthly visits with anyone who's who they aren't hoping to connect with.
And because of this, case managers have shared that it's been a helpful resource in connecting with people who they otherwise might not be able to connect with.
If people have funds on their smart wallets and they don't attend their monthly life care visit, the funds don't leave their beacon.
We're trying to empower them to make change for themselves.
So the funds are just put in an escrow account until they're able to connect with their counselor next.
And we ensure that, you know, earlier it was mentioned that 54% of people have struggled, 46% of people struggle to connect with the case manager.
But actually that's 54% of people who want to attend their live care visits.
Everyone who wants to attend their live care visits has the ability to do so.
And we make sure of that ourselves.
I'm going to have to ask you to stop, but you're welcome.
And I invite you to contact my office just so I've got more information.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Brian, and then after Brian is Lonnie McMurtry and Aaron.
Anyway, thank you for having me again.
Getting to be quite familiar here.
What I'd like to talk about today is the navigation team.
We all know of the problems that, what brought me here.
So the navigation team's highest success was guiding me to you.
We know what the problems exist down there, you know, with the theft and the racketeering that takes place with the Compass Housing Alliance due to the nation, which I still haven't got my money back, which leads to the accountability.
You know, here we have a nonprofit stealing my money, my pride, my dignity, and they don't want to give my money back.
And you know, considering homelessness is a billion-dollar industry now, and millions of dollars are being transferred, why do we not have any program that sends people out to where they have firsthand experience with those groups to report to you.
We had a talk, you claim one thing, but you don't have it on paper to verify it, because you know, if it's not on paper, it didn't happen, right?
Right.
And one more thing, to help you guys out with the copper recycling, you may want to think about adding mufflers to the list, because what I know is the valuable metals inside of that muffler is just as valuable, and it's also more harmful to the environment.
You see, at the recycling center, those things, and then the muffler's gone.
So anyway, thank you again.
I sure look forward to being part of the solution instead of coming here and talking about the problem.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Lonnie, Erin, and Tiffany.
Hi, Council.
I'm Lonnie McMurtry, currently a resident at Whittier Heights Tiny House.
And I had to let you know what a door meant to me, my bare white door.
When I arrived, I was tired, battered, and broken.
There's so much more to this story that I'll leave unspoken.
Once I stepped in, the rejuvenation began.
I am so thankful for the hands that made it and the roof above they labored to shade it.
Day by day, night by night, don't get me wrong, sometimes they were so long.
Now rejuvenated, back to salvation, no longer walking the streets with shame and humiliation.
Today I'm a woman worth love, honor, trust, dignity, and respect.
My bare white door turned into so much more.
It's like a rainbow so bright, clean, and out of sight.
I'm so thankful for my door.
So soon I'll move on, a new lady will come along.
I know that bare white door will turn into so much more, a rainbow so bright, clean and out of sight.
Please fund more tiny houses.
Thank you.
Hey, Lonnie, Lonnie, have you published that anywhere?
I said, have you published that anywhere?
It should be published.
No, but I'm doing an interview today with a phone interview with the lady from Sacramento, and I went to the gala, and the guy's going to put it on social media.
Good.
Yeah.
Great.
Congratulations.
Erin, Tiffany, and then Claire Kander.
Good afternoon.
I'm Erin Shea McCann with Legal Counsel for Youth and Children, and we work to improve the well-being of young people by advancing their legal rights.
We're here today to thank you for including LCYC's budget request in the initial balancing package and just want to encourage you to move it forward as budget negotiations progress.
Our Youth Homelessness Legal Services Program provides holistic civil legal aid to young people in Seattle who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness alone, ages 12 to 24 years.
Our staff attorneys address a number of civil legal aid issues that directly impact young people's ability to access safety, stability, income, housing, education, and employment.
We advocate on things like warrants and record sealing, medical debt, accessing child protective services, orders of protection, name and gender marker changes, landlord-tenant issues, and public benefits.
And our request will support roughly 1,500 hours of legal services for young people.
We can continue to work with our partners at Youth Care, Seattle Public Schools, Interagency Academy, and others.
So thank you for including it, and we hope to see it in the final budget.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Tiffany, Claire Cantor, and then it looks like Mass Coalition.
I don't know if Mass is here, but Tiffany McCoy, raise your hand if you're here.
Claire Cantor, thank you.
Hi, I'm actually here to share a statement from Kiana Parker, who's a member of the Transportation Equity Work Group, who was unable to be here today.
I'm just going to hold this and hope you can hear.
I'm Kiana Parker.
I'm one of the members of the Transportation Equity Work Group.
I know the City Council has some very difficult decisions to make.
Can you get the volume up?
But to refrain from
I might just email that to you.
Can you summarize it while you're here?
I just want to say that, you know, I hear all of you speak about equity on a regular basis, and I hear the mayor speak about equity, and I hear SDOT officials speaking about equity in public meetings and in engagement opportunities all around the city.
And if we as a city are cutting the funding for our transportation equity agenda, that says a lot to me about who we are as a city.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is Mass Coalition here or a representative?
Great.
Thank you.
Hi.
Take a minute.
I'm sorry, what did you say?
Can they each take a minute?
Oh yeah, go ahead.
Hi, thank you council members.
I'm Brittany Bush-Bollet with the Sierra Club and I'm here.
It's part of the Mass Coalition today.
I want to thank you first for all the wonderful transportation work that you are doing and including in the budget.
Right now I very specifically want to speak about item number 28, which is the funding to continue the transportation equity agenda implementation.
And I just want to say that I cannot possibly imagine that the absence of council members indicates an absence of support for this.
Not when we know that people of color are more likely to be transit-dependent.
We know that people with disabilities are more likely to be transit-dependent.
We know that people in low-income jobs are getting progressively pushed further and further away from their workplaces.
This work is not done.
You've heard time and time again that a budget is a moral document.
You've heard it because it's true.
We must fund our values, and it's critically important that this continues to be funded.
Thank you.
Thank you, Brittany.
What she said, and I'm Alice Lockhart from Mass Coalition and also 350 Seattle, to say heck yes to the climate and equity friendly SDOT SLIs submitted by Council Member O'Brien, particularly SLI SDOT 19B1, which mandates a, that's the level of service one, which mandates a reevaluation of how SDOT applies the complete streets policy to projects.
shifts from car-centric traffic engineering toward the city's core transportation values of equity, safety, walkable neighborhoods, and particularly reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
So I urge everyone to include it in the final package.
And then a bit just from me and from 350, we say yes to cross-laminated timber, yes to tiny homes, yes to restorative justice.
Stop the sweeps and stop the NAV teams who have done irreparable harm, as I have seen many times to people in my neighborhood, in my local park, who lose their belongings when they're thrown away.
It's not okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alice.
I have two people left signed up, Lori Campbell and Jean Darcy.
Thank you for being here and staying here.
Is Lori Campbell here?
Raise your hand.
Oh, good.
Please.
Good afternoon, you people.
Thank you for listening to us.
The North Lake Tiny House Village is not closing this year.
The Human Resources Department is misleading you about this.
The great majority of the people at North Lake Tiny House Village will not leave until they have an opportunity to move into permanent affordable housing.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lori.
Gene Darcy?
Gene Darcy.
Right off the bat, I want to say yay for mobile pump outs, yay for more tiny house villages, and no on monopolies of management of those tiny house villages.
We need variety.
I spent the last eight years as a citizen volunteer, unpaid, with limited resources trying to keep people out of harm's way who are living in a vehicle.
We've been marginally successful at that, but not really.
There have been no meaningful outreach to vehicle residents during that period, to my knowledge, and I don't consider SPU cleanups to be outreach.
I call them sweeps, and they do great damage.
There are limits to what outreach there is.
Reach and lead only work with those who are drug addicted or have mental health issues.
I talk to a lot of people who don't have any of those things.
They are not getting helped.
And there's a man that I was working with just recently that is in that situation.
So, please, more resources for vehicle outreach.
Great.
Thank you, Gene, and thanks for all your work.
All right.
So, is there somebody who signed up that I missed?
What's your name, sir?
Okay, come on back up Thank you Thank you.
I'm Doug Dumas.
I'm a Teamster 174 representative.
I'm here to ask for your support in items 6, 17, and 19, the OED requests.
If Shama Sawant pointed out today the absolute and utter contempt that this mayor and her department heads hold us in, the labor unions that were excluded from disinvited in to, kicked out of, the retreat that was held today at the Xanadu, that is the arts and culture office at King Street Station.
We have been trying and trying and trying to communicate and converse with them, and this is exactly why we came to the council to begin with.
If there's no clear demonstration of the contempt and disdain they hold us in, then they're kicking us out of their retreat because of a piece of paper, because of something that we wrote because we can't communicate with them.
That's why we're not there.
That's why they're not listening to us.
That's why we have to come to you and go to the news outlets.
It is unbelievable that in this city, we can't sit down and talk.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for coming, Doug.
All right, that brings me to the end of the list.
Unless I've missed somebody that signed up, we're going to go ahead.
What's your name?
Oh, you're Paul.
No, come on up, because I did call you, and nobody was here.
So please come on up.
Anybody else that signed up that I've missed?
All right, Laura Lee, you are going to be our final speaker for the day.
Yeah, we want you to be really, really good.
Yikes, OK.
We'll see if I can figure out my computer.
Thank you so much for being here.
I had some other folks in my cohort from the School of Social Work, but they had to work one of their many jobs, as we all do as students.
So my name is Laura Lee Sturm.
I'm a Master's of Social Work student at UW, and I'm also the outreach manager for the U District Street Medicine with North Lake Tiny House Village.
I've had the pleasure of getting to know residents there for over the last six months, and we obviously support the expansion of the tiny house villages across the city, but I really want to make sure that we're making space to talk about how we need to preserve the North Lake tiny house village and do whatever we can to make sure that they're able to stay.
In the last 24 hours, we actually collected over 100 signatures on a petition being circulated around the School of Social Work and our community partners in order to stand in solidarity with Northlake to keep it open.
So it will be delivered to each of your offices this afternoon.
Initially, my friends were going to help me read it, but I have 13 seconds left, so we're not going to do that.
But I just really implore you to value the voice of our neighbors in shelter as much as the value of the voices of folks who are living in more traditional housing.
Thanks so much for your time today.
Laura Lee, thank you for coming, and thanks to your colleagues as well.
And I want to say thanks to all of you who stayed.
Also, I know there was a group that met with my office staff over the lunch hour.
Thank you for that.
And the news that I heard from the Wallingford Community Group was that they are in support of your staying as well.
That kind of community support is really important to us because I know that the Mayor's Office and Human Services Department sometimes, when permits are issued for one year with a one-year extension, they feel like, well, we promise, so we have to follow through with that.
if the community's coming around and saying, we're willing to work with you on something different, that's very helpful.
So thank you, Sean, for leading that, and I appreciate all of you for coming.
So our meeting is adjourned.
Thank you so much.
Thanks to everybody who stayed and commented.