Go ahead and start the meeting.
Hello, good afternoon everyone.
The April 5th, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will now come to order.
It's 2 o'clock PM.
I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Peterson.
Here.
Sawant.
Present.
Herbold.
Juarez.
Here.
Lewis.
Present.
Morales.
Here.
Mosqueda.
Present.
Council President Gonzalez.
Present.
Seven present.
Thank you so much.
Colleagues, if there is no objection, Council Member Strauss will be excused from today's meeting and from the April 19th, 2021 Council meeting.
Hearing no objection, Council Member Strauss is excused from today's meeting and the April 19th meeting.
presentation.
Councilmember Juarez has a proclamation honoring Marcellus Turner who is with us this afternoon for his service as chief librarian for the Seattle Public Library.
Councilmember Juarez will first present the proclamation and then I will open the floor for comments from Councilmembers.
After Councilmember comments, we will suspend the rules to allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide comments.
Councilmember Juarez, I'm going to hand it over to you to present the proclamation.
Thank you, Council President.
Good afternoon, colleagues.
I am presenting a proclamation signed last Monday, March 29th, by both Mayor Durkin and all of Seattle City Council to honor Seattle Public Library's Chief Librarian, Marcellus Turner, for his 10 years of service.
Seattle is a city of readers.
In 2019, the Seattle Public Library circulated over 12 million books and materials, and there were over 17 million visits in that year alone.
In my capacity as the Chair of Public Assets and Native Communities since 2015, I have had the honor of working with MT closely on legislation related to our 26 libraries and online services.
I've witnessed firsthand Marcellus or MT's tenacity to make equity the DNA of our library services to his patrons.
Chief Librarian Turner made it his mission to ensure access to BIPOC communities and low-income families and students.
We saw this in 2019 with the seven-year, $219 million library levy legislation he presented to council.
This was a renewal to continue and build upon strengths of our library system.
The levy renewal was placed on the ballot by the council and voters approved it with a whopping 23%, thereby showing that our library system is highly valued.
MT's hallmark statement was proven right, and I've stolen a few times in a few speeches, libraries are the public's university.
That is our motto.
Thank you, MT. As chief librarian, MT was also forward-looking.
He worked hard to build a system that mirrored the 21st century.
Oftentimes when talking about libraries, we imagine grabbing our library card and checking out a new book.
In addition to this service, Seattle Public Libraries offers a wide range of additional programs and services including special exhibits, classes, and resources.
Because of Seattle Public Libraries, our elders who need tech support can sign up for a class to easily learn how to use a computer or a cell phone.
Because of Seattle Public Libraries, anyone can sign up for a class to learn a new skill to bolster their resume.
Children can get tutoring and immigrant families can get assistance with English speaking skills.
The array of programs are what makes Seattle Public Library the library of the 21st century.
And we can again thank MT for this.
Last year Seattle Public Library was awarded the prestigious 2020 Library of the Year award by the Gale Library Journal.
Seattle was honored because of the library's work to reach underserved communities including low income children the insecurely housed, and immigrants and refugees.
Since last year, we have all seen, I'm sorry, we have seen all city officials adjust to a global pandemic.
As chair, I witnessed Yale Public Libraries inherit new responsibilities to respond to our growing homelessness crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that have shifted and increased the scope of their responsibilities, and they responded to that crisis.
MT did not hesitate to open bathrooms during our COVID lockdown for non-patron use.
During quarantine, MT directed staff to expand online and curbside pickup services for books and materials in line with the governor's orders to allow patrons and students to continue their education.
Indeed, MT is a role model for many public servants, including me.
I ask all of you to remember that we benefit from his hard work, and we have benefited from his hard work, during the best of times and the worst of times.
While this proclamation details the phenomenal history of MT's contributions and tenure here in the city of Seattle, I would like to read the last three lines into the record.
Whereas Mr. Turner has accepted a position as the Executive Director and Chief Librarian for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will be sorely missed in Seattle, and mainly by me.
I just threw that part in.
Whereas Mr. Turner's last day was March 31st, his legacy of kindness and fierce advocacy for equity will remain a cornerstone of our libraries for generations to come.
Now, therefore, the mayor and the Seattle City Council proclaim Wednesday, March 31st, 2021 to be Marcellus Turner Day.
Council President, I would like to close my presentation with a short video.
May I present?
Sure.
Stephanie should be doing something.
I wasn't advised of a video presentation, so I can't help you.
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's my script.
I thought you knew.
Oh, here we go.
Let me go on.
Thank you, Council President.
Now, Marcellus, we read a 2020 article in GeekWire where you said your favorite author is David Baldacci.
I hope I said that correctly.
David is a best-selling author and writer of over 40 novels.
We reached out to him, and he has a special message for you today.
Stephanie, start the video.
Hi, Marcellus Turner.
It's David Baldacci.
I understand you're a fan.
I also understand that you're leaving the Seattle Public Library System and you're moving to Charlotte, do the same there.
You've done great things in Seattle, elimination of fines, which is terrific, community outreach, which is what libraries are supposed to be about, racial justice for all, and greater access to the library system, which is critical.
You know, I grew up in Richmond, Virginia in the 1960s and 1970s.
It was heavily segregated at the time, and I could have turned out to be far different than I am today.
I never had the opportunity to travel when I was a kid, but I saw the world through books.
What saved me were the public libraries and books, because I would read about people that didn't look like me, eat like me, dress like me, pray like me, learn like me, but we all shared that core level of humanity, and I've never forgotten that lesson my entire life, and that made me a far different person than the circumstances in which I grew up in.
For me, Marcellus, you are a rock star because that's what librarians represent to me.
They change my life in very positive ways.
You have this superhuman power where you can make other people's lives fuller and richer and better.
Seattle will miss you, my friend, but what you need to do is to go to Charlotte and work your magic down there.
It will be better for it, and so will you.
So keep doing what you're doing.
And know one thing, Marcellus, you have a fan in me.
Isn't that sweet?
Thank you.
And Council President, I will turn my presentation over to you and then I will wait for a few closing remarks.
Sure, sure.
That was a great video.
Thanks for sharing it.
Council Member Juarez, really great.
Colleagues, any other comments before we suspend the rules?
Council Member Mosqueda, please.
Thank you very much.
I'm so thankful for Councilmember Juarez's leadership in this committee and always giving praise to MT. I heard your initials the first time when I had the chance to serve with her in one of my first committees and just all of the praise is well deserved.
But one thing I really wanted to lift up was the opportunity to have worked with you in the budgets over the last, especially the last two years.
and really your outstanding commitment to making sure that the workers on the front line have the services they need and that you responded to those services by making sure that people who had signed up to provide public service through libraries had additional resources to take on the challenges that libraries were absorbing.
Recognizing that you all have stood up in many ways to serve as day centers when we should be offering more housing and day services across our city that your libraries ended up being that resource and wanting to make sure that people working in the libraries felt safe and they had resources to refer people to.
So I just remember the way in which you talked about those who worked in libraries needing access to resources to provide youth with the services they need, connections to housing, making sure that they felt safe and the way that you centered your work on what the workers were experiencing really was a tremendous, truly impressive.
And what a cool way to have a send off Council Member Juarez with this author.
So happy to be here and I look forward to continuing to celebrate you in your next adventure.
Colleagues, any other comments?
I would also echo deep gratitude to you, MT, for your service to the city.
You know, I think one of the things that I really appreciated about you is just your honesty and your, you know, earnest desire to always be such a strong servant leader for those who need access the most to our public libraries.
And that came through for me in a couple of ways that we got to work together.
One was on expanding the literacy programming, particularly for non-English speakers at the library.
and to be able to bake that into the existing library levy to make sure that there is a actual stream of revenue going into those really popular literacy programs that teach parents how to be better parents and kids how to read and connect with each other will leave, I think, a really long lasting legacy for our youngest learners and for their parents who who really rely on those services to improve the lives of their families.
I want to thank you for your support of that effort.
And then the other wonderful memory I have of being able to connect with you is when we were down at the South Park Library with all of like about 20 kids.
This was in pre-COVID time.
This was not recent.
And to have them experiment with robotics and using our library in creative ways, not just for reading, not just for studying, not just for learning, but for hands-on experimentation and learning and being sort of captured in that moment by the innovation of the little robots while also enjoying their public library was a real joy.
And it just is a testament to the innovator that you are and how you think about libraries really belonging to the community and belonging to the people who live in those communities.
Charlotte is very lucky to have you.
We were lucky to have you for as long as we did.
And I know you will leave an equally remarkable impression and legacy for for those children and those families in Charlotte.
So thank you for your service.
Council Member Juarez, did you want to make some remarks now or did you want to make remarks after M.T.
speaks?
I'll let M.T.
speak.
OK, folks, I'm going to ask that the rules be suspended so that we can hear from our guest of honor.
So if there's no objection, the council rules are suspended.
And I'm sorry, if there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow Marcellus Turner to accept the proclamation and provide remarks.
hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and MT welcome again to the city council meeting.
I'm going to hand it over to you for some remarks.
Thank you so much.
Um, this is indeed an honor and I don't even know where to start and so many things I don't want to leave out.
So I'll start with things I don't want to leave out.
Go Gonzaga.
I will be waiting for them in a couple of hours.
Um, so I'm really excited about that.
Um, I have fingers crossed and everything hoping for that, but thank you for that.
David Baldacci, that was a surprise.
That was a big surprise.
I looked at him and I said, that really looks like David Baldacci.
I wonder what they're doing with him in that screenshot.
So that was a surprise.
And I only hope that whenever I have a chance to meet him, that he will remember doing that video for you.
So I will remind him forever and I'll have to figure out some way to get a clip of that because I've never had an author say my name so much.
So I'm excited about that.
But thank you for that.
That's a wonderful surprise.
Thank you for this opportunity.
I did not expect this nine and a half years ago and didn't even expect it as recently as now, but it is indeed an honor to be acknowledged by the Council.
I've enjoyed working with each one of you, even when you were sending me patron comments and complaints, I was glad to receive them.
Um, it was just, it just really showed the respect that you had for the office of the chief librarian to refer them to us to work with.
And hopefully we have served each of your districts and the entire city.
Well, um, as chief librarian, I am really excited for this.
Council Member Juarez, you've just been absolutely wonderful to work with, such a joy.
You're very real, and I've always appreciated that from beginning to end.
McGee has always been helpful as well as the entire office staff, but each of you have wonderful office staff who've always answered when the library calls, so I appreciate that very much.
We've done some great work at, and I should also apologize, I'm still grappling with the we versus they.
I'm still sort of a we when I speak of Seattle, but I am a they more so right now.
But when we were, when I was at Seattle Public, we did some wonderful things all with the support of the council.
And that cannot be lost on anything.
We're very supportive of our libraries.
You knew a good product when you saw it and knew that our libraries were worth investing in.
And I really appreciated that every time you took to the mat to speak on our behalf to defend the library, to speak about the good that we do.
That is really appreciated.
I will always enjoy my time at Seattle.
It was a great nine and a half years.
I think we did some great things, but I know you are in wonderful hands.
And because of that, I will not be a director from the grave when I leave, I am gone.
So you will not hear me saying oh I wish they would do this.
I am quite confident that I will read about Seattle Public doing wonderful things and hopefully our paths will cross again.
I would love to see you when I come back to visit.
Walking through Pike Place Market.
Going to many of the great things that are in Seattle.
I hope I see you but thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity.
Thanks MT. Wonderful remarks.
Casmira Juarez, bring us home.
Thank you.
I am really, really sad that Marcellus is leaving.
He let me know ahead of time that he was leaving and I asked him to take me with him.
He said no.
Anyway, I have enjoyed working with you so much Marcellus, not that I don't.
Well, I like working with Mr. Nellens and Mr. Agade, but you are my favorite.
I hope you're listening.
It's just been a joy since I inherited the committee in 2016, and we've done a lot of great work together.
And I've always appreciated your sense of humor and your kindness.
I will always, always laugh when we're at the library at Lake City and you saw a big squirrel and you thought it was a rat.
And I said, I don't know what goes on in North Carolina, but our rats don't get that big.
But anyway, um, we have a lot of great memories, like council president Gonzalez said, when you had me read to the kids at a couple of libraries and I'm like, I raised my kids.
I don't want to do this again.
Um, anyway, I am going to miss you so much.
And I'm glad that for the last, since 2016, we've also become very good friends.
And for me, it isn't goodbye.
There actually isn't a word for goodbye in Blackfeet.
It's see you.
And I will see you again.
And I miss you, my friend.
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you so much.
Again, you have a very good journey, MT, and we look forward to staying connected, not with you as sort of a zombie chief librarian.
But just as a hopefully still longtime booster of Seattle and the good work that you were able to do here while we had you for nine and a half years.
It's kind of remarkable to me that it was nine and a half years.
So congratulations on your new endeavors.
Our best wishes are with you and your family.
And congratulations to the people of Charlotte.
All right, folks.
Thank you, Council Member Juarez for that opportunity.
We're going to go ahead and move to other items of business on the agenda.
First up is approval of the minutes.
The minutes of the City Council meeting of March 29th, 2021 have been reviewed.
If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?
If there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda, introduction referral calendar, and the council's work program.
I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.
It remains the strong intent of the City Council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.
However, as a reminder, the City Council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.
I'll moderate the public comment period in the following manner.
The public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.
speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered to provide public comment on the council's website.
So, uh, we have been receiving a little bit of confusion from members of the public who preregistered, but are not called upon because they appear as not present on my end.
So we're going to add a little more to these introductory remarks to hopefully clear up any confusion moving forward.
So as a reminder, Each speaker must call in to public comment from the phone number used for public comment registration.
And each speaker, using that same phone number, must dial into this meeting with the same phone number, ID, and passcode that was sent to you upon confirmation of your registration.
So this is different than the general meeting listen line call-in information.
So if you signed up for public comment today but called into the listen line instead of the ID and passcode emailed to you in your confirmation, then you will appear on my spreadsheet as not present and therefore unable to be called on for public comment.
Again, I will call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.
I will call on speakers even if they appear as not present.
If you hear me say your name and the fact that you appear on my end as not present, please take a moment to confirm that you are calling into the meeting ID with the password provided to you in your confirmation with the exact phone number you use to preregister.
If your status changes from not present to present before the conclusion of today's public comment period, I will call on you.
For those of you watching at home or on the listen line, if you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment period by going to Council's website at Seattle.gov forward slash Council.
The public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.
Once I call the speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and you will hear an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted.
This will be your cue to press star six and then begin speaking.
After you press star six, please begin by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.
As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, or the council's work program.
Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.
Once you hear the chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.
If speakers don't end their comments at the end of the allotted time period, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.
Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.
And if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.
All right.
Public comment first up is Howard Gale, followed by Faisal Rana.
Go ahead, Howard.
Go ahead, Howard.
Good afternoon.
Howard Gale, District 7, commenting, as always, on continuing police abuse and failed police accountability.
October 7th, 2020. That is the day upon which and before all the horrible abuse meted out to the people of Seattle by SPD officers completely escapes accountability as we pass the 180-day mark for investigation and discipline.
The lesson learned by the SPD If you engage in abuse and massive infringement of First Amendment rights, do so in an overwhelming manner which swamps whatever tiny bit of accountability the system even pretends to afford.
More than 10 months after the murder of George Floyd and the four people killed by the SPD during these last 12 months, the council has consistently failed to deliver on police accountability.
All of the oversight bodies, the OPA, the CPC, and the OIG have failed to even suggest changes in policies that can guarantee these abuses will not happen again.
For only true accountability, not routinely violated policy can guarantee community safety.
The oversight bodies and the council's lack of action will guarantee more police abuse in the weeks to come as Black Lives Matter protests will resume with the conclusion of the George Floyd murder trial and the anniversary of his murder just weeks away.
This is on the immediate horizon.
How can you ignore it?
As we approach the one-year mark post-George Floyd, it is clear the council will not deliver on its promises of 50% or any significant level of defunding, nor on its promise to limit the weapons used by the SPD to abuse us.
Does Seattle not at least deserve what is 100% achievable by you now?
Full civilian control of police oversight, moving beyond police investigating police in a failed bureaucratized system.
It is happening in Nashville, Oakland, Portland, Oregon, and other cities.
Why don't we deserve that here?
Thank you.
Next is Faisal Rana, followed by Yasmin.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Faisal Rana, and this is my first time ever being a part of it here, and I really appreciate it.
My goal here today is to talk about the payoff campaign and the Seattle City Council's role in improving opportunities for gig workers.
My goal is to provide you, provide the council with some information about the kind of struggles that we deal with and why it matters so much to us citizens.
I'll be real quick.
I'll just say that a couple of years ago, I was at a real low point in my life and medical school didn't work out for me. and I ended up in the gig economy and it really helped me out because I was able to slowly build up my self-esteem and also have a positive impact in my community and build up my confidence.
I moved to Seattle and I ended up doing soul searching and ended up starting a tech boot camp and that's what I'm doing this year.
But my concern that I wanted to share was that I feel really scared that I could lose my income at any time because There's been several instances over the years where my gig ride share accounts go offline.
Even though I have over 6,000 rides and I'm a perfect five-star rating, somebody could report me for something.
Maybe they said my car smelled like a jug.
It could be anything.
There's so many reasons.
And recently, I got a ticket on the West Seattle Bridge while I was on gig economy, and that really scares me that I could go offline.
And yeah, that's all I'll say about that.
Yeah, and so I encourage the Seattle City Council to pass bills that can help us in our situation this year.
And yeah, and also I'll just say that one last thing is that I know that we've gotten a big pay increase, and I'm so grateful, and that's really helped a lot.
There is still work to be done
Thank you.
Next is Yasmeen Toll followed by David Haynes.
Yes.
Thank you so much for hearing us today.
I'm Yasmeen and I'm one of the gig workers that work with Instacart and also a member of the Pay Up campaign.
The main reason why I'm here is because as a gig worker working with Instacart for a long period of time, There's only a matter of time before we can't keep this up anymore.
We're getting paid way less than the minimum wage.
And mainly the pandemic is allowing these type of gig workers or gig worker platforms to take more advantage of us since the demand is a whole lot higher.
And they know that a lot of us have lost their jobs or that we need additional income to make ends meet.
And therefore they take advantage of us by giving us They do give us work, but they decrease the amount of money that we make an hour for most of the gig jobs.
Another big reason is that it helps us to be able to pay, you know, put food in our kids' mouths.
I know a lot of us, we bring our kids with us doing this to do the gig work because the amount is so low we can't even afford childcare.
It basically pays $7 a job.
And $7 a job when you have four kids and you're a single mom, it's not enough.
So on top of that, we're using our own resources.
We use our vehicles, which means we need more tire replacement.
We need money to replace our oil and have oil changes, not to mention gas, which is constantly going up.
For example, I even got in a car accident.
It's not like these gig jobs paid for insurance.
We normally pay our own insurance, and that's not enough.
$7 an hour is not enough at all in order for us to pay for that.
Thank you for calling in today.
Next up is David Haynes, followed by Carmen Figueroa.
Hello, City Council, can you hear me?
We can hear you.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
The homeless crisis is ongoing for veterans who are also civilians that are being forgotten, forsaken, and denied the same assistance in getting off the streets that the repeat offending nefarious criminals down in Pioneer Square in Chinatown are offered, which is a motel.
We need 10% to 33% of the $12 million in federal reimbursable homeless crisis money to be sent to the King County veteran housing program in the form of a debit card to allow veterans to apply online for housing.
There is a technical glitch due to an inner office rule change that caused veterans to be discriminated against by corporate landlords because antiquated offerings of a check for moving costs during COVID is not allowed.
All the veterans need is a debit card to be able to apply for housing online.
Because of this lack of funds for a debit card, veterans are forced back into the streets because no funds for motel extensions are offered while some of them are still disabled and needing to better care for themselves.
That requires a home with a bathtub to reheat the Achilles, then ice after stretching with lots of rest and elevation.
Now the Democrats got all the COVID homeless crisis money and the veterans need some of it to be shared by the city council and the executive office of the mayor.
Please share a proper percentage of the 12 million dollars right away.
I'm suffering an injury I can't take care of properly and the King County VA says there is no money and Washington State's VA won't help because they say King County is already helping me which they can't and they could Hold on.
And I'm getting cut off, man.
What the fuck?
We can still hear you.
All right.
Thank you.
Sorry about that.
Somebody else is calling me in.
Anyway, I was just hoping that, you know, instead of having some of the staff, you know, tell them that they're going to circle back to a particular issue.
Maybe we could like address some of the like ongoing crises and redirect some of that money to the King County veterans.
I think it's social services for veterans families.
As for Kaisa Birch.
Okay, next is Carmen Figueroa, followed by Lace Gearing.
Can you hear me?
We can hear you.
Go ahead.
Can you hear me okay?
Okay.
Hello, my name is Carmen.
I'm an on-demand gig worker on GrowPub in Seattle and a member of the Pay Up campaign.
I thank you for the opportunity to briefly explain why on-demand gig workers need lawmakers to raise our pay and set standards for this emerging and expanding industry by passing the pay up policy this year.
I started doing gig work because a back injury has rendered me partially disabled.
I am too disabled to work full time but not disabled enough to qualify for state or federal help.
Although it is illegal, traditional employers will not employ someone who needs minor disability accommodations, and I have stopped applying.
Gig work is the only industry that allows me the flexibility to set my own work hours while working at a pace and intensity that I am physically comfortable with.
And gig work is my only source of income.
But I also don't earn enough to get by on.
Grubhub uses some sort of crystal ball method to determine what an order is worth.
I can make as little as a few dollars per order.
And apps like Grubhub are trying to undermine the flexibility and pay per order that I depend on.
My rating can be lowered for various reasons by Grubhub, often reasons I have no control over.
A lowered rating results in lower paying orders, thus decreasing my pay.
We need Seattle City Council to pass the pay up policy for gig workers because we are not disposable and should not be exploited.
Gig workers should be afforded the same rights and dignities as traditional employees.
Thank you for your time and your support.
Thank you for calling in today.
Next up is Leif Gehring followed by Kimberly Wolfe.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, we can go ahead.
OK, so I I'm I'm a gig driver gig worker in the Seattle area and Andy in the East Side area.
Basically a northern King County and I so I know I recognize that the Seattle City Council has already done a lot of.
Made a lot of progress and concession concessions towards good workers, but.
I'm concerned that the current bill that is being uh uh discussed that would focus on uh independent contractors doesn't well not harmful doesn't really do enough or it isn't really directly related to what we need because the right to negotiate contracts and uh is great and everything but those contracts are only as as uh useful as the uh the uh laws are for uh Like if I'm not entitled to a higher pay, then it doesn't matter.
Then even if I have, even if I'm entitled to my contract, that's not going to necessarily be good.
Basically, I think that what I'm saying is that the city needs to focus on the pay up laws that have been, pay up policies that have been proposed instead of this vague independent contractor rights stuff.
And again, I appreciate everything the CL has done.
They've already made a lot of concessions, but we can still go further.
Thank you for your time.
I'm done.
Thank you so much for calling in.
And next up is Kimberly Wolfe.
You hear me?
We can go ahead.
Thank you, my name is Kimberly Wolf.
I'm in Seattle Shoreline area and we've been working on this for more than a year trying to get our pay up stuff passed.
And.
We're not here, we're not seeing enough motion forward.
The recent things that the Seattle Council passed for sick leave and that a couple things we did last year.
Those were awesome.
that they were for emergency majors.
And we need something that's a permanent thing.
We don't want it to go back to business as usual once this COVID thing has been deemed done.
So we need something on the books that are gonna actually help gig workers.
And that's a floor that's high enough that we're not making less than minimum wage.
We need to be making over minimum wage.
Our expenses are huge.
You know, when I popped four tires in one year on Seattle potholes, I paid for those tires.
When I had to do an extra insurance rider to work on Lyft on my personal insurance, I paid for that.
When I had to get a Seattle business license, I paid for that.
My gas, I pay for that.
The depreciation on my car, I'm paying for that.
All these things we're paying for, we are not making enough to cover our expenses and have enough to live.
And to demonstrate that, I'm sorry, we don't have a picture here, so I'll have to explain to you.
Right now, I'm looking at some zippers, a little hanging bag, a Mr. Heater, and a propane tank because I'm in a tent.
I am homeless because of these apps raced to the bottom.
I did not make enough to even pay for my only $600 room.
And I am now homeless.
This is a serious situation.
We need you all to really get on this and get us some permanent changes.
Thank you.
Thank you for calling in Kimberly and sharing your story with us.
Colleagues, that does conclude all of the individuals who are signed up and pre-registered for public comment today.
So we're going to go ahead and close out the public comment period and deal with other issues, other business on our agenda.
First up is payment of the bills.
Will the clerk please read the title?
Council Bill 120023, an ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims for the week of March 22nd, 2021 through March 26th, 2021, and ordering the payment thereof.
Thank you so much.
I move to pass Council Bill 120023. Is there a second?
Second.
It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.
Are there any comments?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson?
Aye.
Sawant?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Torres.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
There are no committee reports on today's agenda, so we're going to move straight to other business.
Colleagues, I have one item of other businesses discussed during this morning's council briefing.
Signatures will need to be affixed to the letter that was mentioned at today's council briefing meeting by Robin Koski of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
I'll address the letter first.
I will then call for any questions or additional comments, and then I will ask that the clerk take a roll call on those members who would like to have their names added to the letter.
Again, per discussion this morning with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, we have an opportunity to add our names to a letter calling on state leaders in the House and Senate to dedicate $400 million of one-time federal funds towards housing and homelessness investments as budget negotiations are underway in Olympia to reconcile differences between the House and Senate budgets.
Our ask to our state leaders and Governor Inslee via this letter is to dedicate, again, $400 million of federal funds for local jurisdictions to use in order to be nimble and responsive to the needs in our communities for housing and homelessness.
This ask is in addition to the minimum $300 million of proposed funding across the Governor, House, and Senate budgets in the Housing Trust Fund, Enhanced Shelter Capacity Grants, and Shelter Rapid Acquisition Fund.
Here in Seattle, we have rare opportunities to acquire multifamily buildings at a reasonable cost.
These are buildings that are almost complete or ready to open their doors now, meaning we can move people off the streets, out of our parks, and out of our green spaces, and into housing in the coming months, rather than wait years for affordable housing or permanent supportive housing projects to be developed, permitted, and built.
This action, if taken by our state leaders, could mean we can see more than 2,600 individuals helped in the next six months.
And I'm sure many of you agree, we just simply cannot afford any more delays on acting on the homelessness and affordable housing crisis.
And I hope you will join me in asking that our state leaders act for Washington state cities and counties in budget reconciliation.
And I would invite all of you to join me, along with several other local elected leaders across the state who have committed to signing this letter.
Are there any questions or additional comments before I request the clerk call the roll?
Council Member Mosqueda, please.
Thank you very much, Council President.
I wasn't planning to comment, but I will try to reiterate a few of the points that I made this morning, because I think it's important for context.
This is in addition to many of the steps that the council has taken over the years.
It's important to remember that this is a complementary piece of legislation that we are asking for from the state partners to complement and expand upon strategies that the city council has led on.
It's not a matter of the council.
being inactive, waiting for somebody else to step up.
It's not a matter of inaction or failure.
This is a matter of us recognizing that this issue is far bigger than our borders and we need state partners and thankful to have federal partners to help us address the crisis.
We have, through the City Council's work, and I was proud to have sponsored the legislation, acted to make sure that our Office of Housing has the opportunity to move forward with strategic acquisition when properties become available so that we can purchase hotels, apartments, multifamily structures, and do so with urgency.
We passed that in 2018, and we are seeing that legislation be used this year to purchase property.
This is part of the conversations that we've had with the regional housing authority chaired by Council Member Balducci, Council President Balducci from King County, where we've talked to our regional partners here about the importance of purchasing properties so that we can house people, whether it's shelters or it's long-term housing solutions, and to do that as a good way of being in partnership with small landlords as well, or property developers who do not have the opportunity to continue with developing those properties any longer.
We don't want there to be derelict properties in the middle of a housing and homelessness crisis.
And making sure that we are purchasing these properties quickly and we have the resources available to replenish revolving funds is critical.
So I want to offer that context as part of our ongoing discussions here in the city to really push back on any narrative that we are waiting for somebody else to step up.
We have in many ways stepped up to the plate.
The crisis is far bigger than we can catch up with even before COVID and now during COVID and seeing so many people lose their livelihoods.
More people are falling into homelessness.
We must act with urgency to expand upon what the city council has that we have put into play, including the $135 million that are part of Jump Start's revenue that will begin coming to the city next year.
So with that context in mind and with the strong leadership of the Council President in bringing this letter forward and your partnership with OIR and other cities across the state, I'm very happy to sign on.
I hope that context is helpful to show how we are continuing to look for additional partners and have been and will continue to show leadership here in the city as well.
Thank you, Council Member Esqueda.
Are there any other questions or additional comments?
All right, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
Peterson?
Yes.
Sawant?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Ms. DeBerry-Warren?
Yes.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
Council President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor.
Thank you so much.
Is there any further business to come before the council?
Hearing none, colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.
Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, April 12th, 2021 at 2 o'clock p.m.
I hope that you'll have a wonderful afternoon.
We're adjourned.