Seattle City Council 9/14/2020

Good afternoon, everyone.

The September 14, 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2 o'clock PM.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Here.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Nine present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations.

Approval of the minutes.

There are no minutes for approval at today's meeting.

Adoption of the referral calendar.

Before we move for the adoption of the introduction and referral calendar, I want to take an opportunity to recognize Council Member Sawant, who has a short statement to make regarding Council Bill 119891. which appears on today's introduction and referral calendar.

Council Member Sawant, you are recognized in order to make comments before we consider the introduction and referral calendar.

Per ethics rules, I have been asked to recuse myself from any votes relating to this bill.

So I'm assuming I'm not able to, I should recuse myself from this particular vote.

Our ethics officer has indicated that you are ethically able to take a vote on the introduction and referral calendar if you wish.

But if you want to be careful and judicious and would rather not do that, then it would be important, I think, for you to state your preference on the record.

Yes.

For that, I would prefer to recuse myself from this particular vote.

Great, okay, so Council Member Sawant, Madam Clerk will be recusing herself from voting on today's introduction and referral calendar, which includes the introduction and referral of Council Bill 119891 related to legal defense for Council Member Sawant.

Okay, if there is no objection, the introduction referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction or referral calendar is adopted.

We do have one small amendment to the approval of the agenda, as mentioned by Councilmember Lewis during this morning's council briefing.

So we will consider that amendment shortly.

But first, I will put the agenda before us.

So I will move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

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

Council Member Lewis, consistent with your comments at council briefing this morning, I'm gonna recognize you in order to make a motion with regard to agenda item two.

Thank you, Madam President.

I move to amend the agenda by removing item two, resolution 31966 from today's meeting agenda.

Is there a second?

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Are there any additional comments on the amendment?

Hearing none, just for the viewing public, we did have an opportunity to hear specific comments from Council Member Lewis as to the intent and motivation for removing agenda item two.

And so we've had an opportunity to discuss this particular amendment to no longer consider resolution 31966. Hearing no additional comments on the amendment, I'd ask that the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Sawant is recused, Madam Clerk.

I thought this was on the agenda.

I'm sorry.

I didn't realize.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I apologize.

It is on the agenda.

You're correct.

Thank you.

Sawant.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the amended agenda?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the amended agenda?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Sorry, I'm confused now.

Am I allowed to vote on this one?

Yeah, it's the agenda.

I apologize.

We moved past the introduction referral calendar so quickly that I even forgot we were on the agenda part.

So yes.

Same here.

Yes.

Thank you.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzales.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

At this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the City Council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the Council's 2020 work program.

I continue to ask that everyone continue to be patient with us as we continue to operate this system in this virtual world and navigate through many of the changes that continue to occur.

We are continuously looking for new ways to fine tune this remote process and adding new features that allow for additional means of public participation in our council meetings.

It does remain the strong intent of the City Council to have public comment regularly included on our meeting agendas.

However, the City Council does reserve 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 in a manner in which we are able to conduct our necessary business.

As usual for today, I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes and each speaker will be given 2 minutes to speak.

I will call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

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

That's C-O-U-N-C-I-L.

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

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and the speaker will hear an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted.

At that point, the speaker should press star six on their phone in order to begin speaking.

Again, as a reminder, once you hear you have been unmuted, the speaker should press star six in order to unmute themselves and begin speaking to an item on the agenda, part of the introduction referral calendar, or the council's 2020 work plan.

I'd ask that speakers state their name and item that they are addressing, and as a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or the council's 2020 work program.

At about 10 seconds, the speakers will hear a chime.

That chime indicates that the speaker has exactly 10 seconds of their allotted time left and should begin the process of wrapping up their comments.

If the speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, we'd 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 one of the listening options listed on the agenda.

I will now open the public comment period, and it is 2.08 p.m., so we will go until about 2.28 p.m.

Again, as a reminder, please remember to press star six before speaking, and I will call on two speakers at a time so folks can prepare.

Our first speaker today is Walker Thomas, followed by Hayden Bixby.

Hello, my name is Walker Thomas.

I live in the third district here in Seattle, and I'm calling in to remind the city council about their pledge to defund the police.

The city still demands it.

People are still out here marching every day.

Just yesterday, I watched six police cars arrest a homeless person next to my house who had stolen food from the Safeway.

This is an unbelievable waste of money.

I work in a homeless shelter.

I know how desperate we are to actually provide services for the homeless, not just arrest them in some sort of never-ending carousel of misery.

They're using way too much of our money.

They're attacking protesters.

Our demands haven't changed.

You need to override the veto and give the people of Seattle what we're asking for.

Defund SPD by at least 80 percent.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Hayden Bixby followed by Monisha Singh.

Good afternoon to the council members and to the members of the public in attendance today.

My name is Hayden Bixby and I'm here to speak briefly on behalf of the resolution 31967 under consideration today to rename 28th Avenue Northeast to Hayashi Avenue in honor of the family who once owned the land on which it sits.

Shizuo and Yaeko Hayashi and their five children lived on Lake City Farm there in the 1930s and they were as far as our research can tell civically engaged and generous neighbors.

According to both Imogene England's book and the City of Seattle's tree walk guide for example they donated decorative trees for the new Lake City school when it was constructed just down the street in 1931. Tragically Mr. and Mrs. Hayashi along with their five children were removed from their land home and business in the early 1940s relocated to an internment camp through our government's response to World War II.

As it turns out my own family was moving into the Lake City neighborhood at about that same time.

and my own father toddled next to his mother every day over to Lake City School to deliver his older sister to kindergarten likely enjoying the shade and beauty of the very trees the Hayashis generously donated.

So when I was a new Lake City resident in 2018 and I stumbled onto the Hayashi story I found something both personally and historically poetic about the fact that the Hayashi farm was located on the very site where our in pre-COVID days Lake City farmers market now stands.

In order to begin a project to honor the Hayashis I reached out to Chris Leverson of Building Lake City Together and Mark Mendez with the Lake City Arts and Culture Initiative and we formed a committee that also included Molly Humphrey at the Lake City branch of the Seattle Public Library.

One of our first tasks was to attempt to find any descendants of the Hayashis and to do so we enlisted the help of Danielle Higa at Densho who located Bonnie Takasugi the daughter of the Hayashis youngest daughter and one living child Taiko.

Taiko and Bonnie gave us their blessing to move forward with the project.

as did every member of the Lake City business and nonprofit community with whom we discussed.

On behalf of the Lake City team and community, I'm grateful to Councilwoman Juarez and Dean Elsa from her office for shepherding us through this process.

And I thank the council as a whole for its consideration and approval of this resolution.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Monisha Singh followed by Mike Stewart.

Hello, my name is Monisha Singh, and I'm the Executive Director of the Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area.

Today, I'm asking Council to take the Seattle Small Business Pledge, which is at the top of your inbox and has over 500 signatures from local businesses.

The pledge describes the essential needs for small businesses to survive and thrive in Seattle.

Small businesses in Chinatown ID are experiencing traumatic events, including thefts, break-ins, assaults, and harassment during the already largest economic crisis of our time.

As we reckon with generations of systemic racism, we are left with redefining what public safety means, both existing and reimagined to our city.

We ask that you take small businesses, its owners, employees, customers, and adjacent residents into consideration when assessing the public safety needs for everyone in this city.

Confronting and dismantling systemic racism and providing a safe environment for our neighborhoods are not mutually exclusive.

They rely on each other completely.

I ask you to take the pledge and work with us on reimagining policing in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Mike Stewart followed by Mark Crawford.

Good afternoon, city council members.

My name is Mike Stewart.

I'm executive director of the Ballard Alliance, an organization that works to support the needs of Ballard small businesses.

Earlier today, you've received a letter on behalf of 19 neighborhood business district associations as well.

as the Small Business Pledge.

It's been signed by more than 500 small business owners and supporters from across the city.

I'm speaking today to ask each of you to take the Seattle Small Business Pledge.

At its core, the pledge is intended to highlight two fundamental needs for our small businesses that are working to survive the impacts of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic crisis.

Small businesses in Seattle need adequate safety services to ensure clean, safe, welcoming, and vibrant business districts and an assurance that employees and customers can frequent storefronts without encountering violent or destructive behavior.

I encourage you to sign the pledge and begin working with the current administration to solve these important issues.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in, Mike.

Next up is Mark Crawford.

And then we will hear from, and bear with me, Eternally 12 Tree Hugger Mariah Colonized.

Hi, my name is Mark Crawford with the U District Partnership.

Today you are receiving the Seattle Small Business Pledge, already signed by over 500 people, and that list is growing.

It calls on you to ensure that small business operators, their employees, and their customers can conduct their business with each other in safety.

Please hear these voices.

Ensuring public safety is the most basic and essential service of municipal government.

As you design a new model sorry, my computer's went out, a new model of public safety addressing past inequity and systemic injustice.

This means that you must ensure the viability of our small business community.

There is no either or in this process.

Small businesses and the people who work with them are the heart and the soul of our community.

They are the gateway to opportunity for entrepreneurs and for workers.

And yes, they've been devastated by the pandemic.

If people are going to come back into our neighborhoods, if they're going to shop in our stores, eat in our restaurants, and use our services, they must feel safe.

If not, our streets will continue to wither away.

People will continue to lose their jobs, and many of our most vulnerable and struggling neighbors will fall further into risk.

We call on you, take the pledge.

Please, come together, council and mayor, and move Seattle forward.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

And our last speaker signed up today is eternally.

Is speaker number eight with us?

Yes, I'm here.

I accidentally registered twice.

The second registration actually has my first name accurate.

Okay, go ahead.

We can hear you.

So time is yours.

So I am eternally at 12. Polly Amherst, Tree Hugger, Mariah Carey, Reincarnated, Rainbow Album, High Note or Low Note, Four-Lane Cyclist, No Helmet, Seeking, Four Brother Husbands of the Compass.

That's my first name.

I don't really have a last name.

Anyway, I'm calling because literally Seattle needs to have solidarity with the other cities that have lowered the voting age to 16, but take it a step further and lower the local voting age to 12. I have actually made a YouTube video about this called Evolved Voting Age to 12. And Akua Mabal, I'm probably pronouncing his last name wrong, but in the 90s, at the age of 12, he had already freed thousands of enslaved Indian children up in India after having his parents, having him sold to the carpet industry at the age of four or six.

And literally, the police of that area continued to allow these parents to sell their children into slavery and didn't do nothing.

And it was literally Akwaal, at the age of nine, who began to fight against this system and to liberate these enslaved children.

I mean, we could talk about Akwaal, but we could also talk about Tamir Rice, murdered by the police in Cleveland, Ohio at 12. Children are being charged as adults.

I don't know exactly the youngest age of children who are serving life sentences in the American prison system, but they're definitely being charged with assault even though they're children.

So, Seattle, you definitely have the power to lower the voting age to 12 this year, hopefully this month, because that will literally irritate and make, it will irritate lots of the voters nationwide, if not worldwide, it will irritate them, but the majority of the non-voters who actually are eligible to vote but are not voting, Did I run out of time?

I must have ran out of time.

You have six seconds.

Oh, Ranked Swift Voting often is out there too.

You need to head out to Ranked Swift Voting locally.

Thanks so much for calling in.

That is the last speaker on the public comment list that is both registered and showing as present on my list.

So we're gonna go ahead and close out the period of public comment and begin on items of business on our agenda.

First up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the titles?

Title of the bill.

Council Bill 119. Council Bill 119-880, appropriating money to consider and claim to the week of August 31st, 2020 through September 4th, 2020 and ordering the payment thereof.

I move to pass Council Bill 119880. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Are there any comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Moraes?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Committee reports of the city council.

Will the clerk please read agenda item one into the record?

The report of the city council, agenda item one, council bill 119869. related to violations of civil emergency orders, amending section 10.02.110 of the code.

Establish enforcement actions for violations of civil emergency orders, adding a new section 10.02.120 to Seattle Municipal Code to establish a separability clause to chapter 10.02, repealing chapter 12A.26 of the Seattle Municipal Code to provisions relating to civil emergency orders, declaring an emergency and

I will move to pass council bill 119869. Is there a second?

Second.

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

Councilmember Lewis, you are the prime sponsor of council bill 119869 and are recognized in order to address this item.

We may have lost councilmember Lewis actually.

All right, I'm sorry, folks.

It looks like we lost Councilmember Lewis from the virtual meeting.

So we're going to give it an opportunity to go ahead and.

see if we can get him logged back in.

He's calling in now, is what I understand he is doing.

But Council Bill 119869, folks, was heard, I will fill the time here, was heard in my committee on Friday, September 11th, this past Friday.

We had an opportunity to be briefed by Karina.

As you heard Council Member Lewis describe this morning, this ordinance really provides an enforcement mechanism for the city to actually create a system by which to enforce any potential violations of civil emergency orders that have been or will be issued now or in the future.

As we know, during this COVID-19 economic crisis and public health crisis, we've had an opportunity to consider several civil emergency orders, attempting to regulate private industries.

This is an opportunity for us to create some civil mechanisms by which to create enforcement of those emergency orders.

And and today we have an opportunity to consider this.

It did pass unanimously.

Sorry, it was not considered in my committee for votes since it was referred to full city council.

But we did have an opportunity to have a full conversation and briefing on this council bill.

and I will now hand it over to Councilmember Lewis to provide any additional remarks he might want to add.

He has joined us now via phone.

Councilmember Lewis, please.

Hey, thank you, Madam President.

Hopefully I'll be able to be back on in person in just a moment here.

Appreciate your remarks.

That was an excellent summary.

I think I'll mostly stand by Those remarks, given my comments last Friday in your committee, as well as my comments of briefing this morning, and just look forward to voting on this and updating the Seattle Municipal Code.

Excellent.

Are there any other comments on the bill?

Council Member Lewis.

I mean, Council Member Herbold.

Sorry.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

This is more of a question.

So given that we have passed a number of emergency orders already, and we are updating the code to say that there's an ability to pursue civil infractions for violation of emergency orders, will we need to go back and update the previously enacted emergency orders to reflect this new authority?

I'm currently working on that, Council Member Herbold, with the mayor's office.

We probably don't need to.

I mean, it goes without saying, and I don't know if this is the basis of your question, but the law cannot apply retroactively to violations that had already occurred if they had.

So I think going forward, once these go into effect, folks will be on notice that this is a potential Um, impact, um, but, uh, you know, we're seeing if, if maybe it makes sense to, um, to reissue the orders, um, or to, um, to somehow modify them to be in compliance, but it, it, it may not be necessary.

Um, but that might be a question for the city attorney's office and central staff as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold for that question and Council Member Lewis for the answer.

Are there any other comments on the bill?

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

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, agenda item two.

Item two has been removed from the meeting agenda, so we're going to move to agenda item three.

Will the clerk please read agenda item three into the record?

Agenda item three, Council Bill 119878, relating to city employment, authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Seattle and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District Lodge 160, Local 79, and ratifying and confirming search of prior acts.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 119878. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

A sponsor of the bill, I'll address it first and then open the floor to comments.

This council bill authorizes the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Seattle and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District Lodge 160, Local 79. The parameters of this collective bargaining agreement were approved by the Labor Relations Policy Committee, and its key agreements include the following terms.

The agreement is a three-year agreement on wages, benefits, hours, and other working conditions for the time period of January 1st, 2019, through December 31st of 2021. The bargaining unit includes approximately 40 regularly appointed city employees at the City of Seattle, and the agreement does include retroactive wage adjustments, like many of our other collective bargaining agreements for 2019 and 2020, and it also includes a re-opener on annual wage increases for the year of 2021. Finally, the collective bargaining agreement does include agreements on shared healthcare coverage payments and other matters such as the employee contributions to the premiums for the Washington State Paid Family Medical Leave Program.

And I recommend and encourage my colleagues to support the passage of this council bill this afternoon.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

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

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Agenda item four.

Will the clerk please read item four into the record?

Agenda item four, resolution 31967, providing an honorary designation of 28th Avenue Northeast from Northeast 125th Street to Northeast 125th Street as Hayashi Avenue.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I will move to adopt Resolution 31967. Is there a second?

Second.

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

Council Member Juarez, you are the sponsor of this resolution and are recognized in order to address this item.

Thank you, Council President.

This legislation, as you've learned, came from a resident, Hayden Bixby.

Thank you, Hayden, for all your information and your public comment today.

Regarding the Hayashi family that they once owned the property between 28th Avenue and 38th Avenue Northeast where the Bank of America now stands, if you guys had a chance to look at your summary and fiscal note, Dean put together some background information and I'm just going to share a few more details.

This land was their home and this was also their family farm where they grew and sold produce and vegetables to the community.

As you heard, they also donated decorative trees and plants to the community, whether there was a new school or other civic activity.

Unfortunately, the Hayashi family lost their farm when they were interned by President Roosevelt during World War II through his executive order.

After their removal, they never returned back to the neighborhood where they were once valued members.

As you heard from Hayden this afternoon, she found this information and she wanted to share it and wanted to do something about it and shared it with the community that we should acknowledge and honor the family that were treated so unjustly by our government.

So Hayden brought this history to the community, to the attention of the community, the Lake City community, and provided us with the background information about the Hayashi family, their land, their home, and their farm.

and their contributions to the greater North Seattle community.

Therefore, and after, community leaders formed an exploratory committee to attempt to recognize the Hayashi family using SDOT's honorary street name program.

Thank you, SDOT.

Community members reached out to Densho, an organization that is committed to preserving and honoring Japanese American history in the region.

Danielle from Densho was able to locate Bonnie, the granddaughter of the Hayashi family.

Bonnie is the daughter of the last living and youngest child of the Hayashi family.

They received a blessing from the family to move forward and they started to reach out to the community members and organizations in the area to build support for the project.

And we were happy that over 14 Lake City organizations supported the street renaming.

Another community leader, I'm sorry, Our friend Chris Leverson of Let's Build Lake City Together began asking for financial support from local businesses and the committee started a GoFundMe to fund the installation and the manufacturing costs for the project.

And just under, in 24 hours as I shared this morning, they reached their fundraising goals with the generosity of over 30 individual contributions.

So the community we hope will be holding unveiling ceremony and the public is encouraged to join.

while following the public health safety protocols, of course.

I've been told that the granddaughter Bonnie of the Hayashi family will be in attendance, and so I'm really happy to hear that.

SDOT is working with our office and the community to find a date to unveil the signs in honor of the Hayashi family.

At the time, as you heard me share this morning, we're hoping it might be the 25th of this month, but I'll let you know.

Just as a side note, as we've talked about this, for years, and particularly in this council, and particularly in our committee.

This is just an example of how sometimes when you just recognize the past and our past wrongs, and you address the truth and the history, and you offer just a simple humane gesture, recognizing of a family, the Hayashi family, and just changing the street name to really reflect the history of that place, that sense of place, that sometimes that truth and healing goes a long way.

So with that, I recommend council affirm I'm sorry.

Resolution 31967. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez, for bringing forward this resolution and for those comments.

Are there any comments on the resolution from my colleagues?

It looks like there are no additional comments.

I want to thank you once again, Councilmember Juarez, for shepherding this through the city council process.

and appreciate those who, like you, those who called in to give public comment in support of this resolution.

At this point- If I could just add, Council President, if I, I'm sorry, would you mind if I- No, of course, please, last word is yours.

Oh, I'm sorry, you were gonna do that anyway, I apologize.

Again, you know, going through parks and going through SDOT, and we've certainly seen this in committee with Native communities, we're doing this at Licton Springs for the, for the Duwamish community and other tribes.

When you go through the city, I also want to thank Abigail Echo Hawk who had us take down some offensive signs that were up at Maple Leaf and up at the community center.

You know, just going through the city and actually being honest and renaming the places and honoring what really happened there or didn't happen there, it is akin to just telling the truth and telling the history that we are on indigenous land and also that there are other people here that have a history that had been erased, and their families and their legacies have not been marked or honored.

So with that, I'm hoping if my colleagues have other places and hear from other community groups and stories that we learned, and really big thank you to Hayden for taking the time to do this and bringing this to community.

I would really encourage my colleagues in your committees and your communities to work with our office, certainly, And so we can help you shepherd through these kind of changing where we, what they say, decolonize, I guess, and rewrite and put in the right history so we are more inclusive about everybody's place in this great city.

And so I will leave it at that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez for those closing remarks.

Really do appreciate your work in this area and your constant reminder to say the names of those that are oftentimes erased by our history.

Okay, it looks like there are no additional comments from any of my colleagues.

So at this point, I will ask the clerk to please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution.

Juarez?

Lewis.

Yeah.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, the resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, agenda item five.

Will the clerk please read item five into the record?

The report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, agenda item five, Council Bill 119827. relating to land use and zoning amended chapter 23.32, get them to the code at page 208 of the official land use map to rezone land in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.

The committee recommends the bill passes amended.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Strauss, you are the chair of the committee and are recognized in order to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

CB 119827, would rezone two areas of the Rainier Beach to facilitate the development of affordable housing in the neighborhood.

The two rezoned areas are within a quarter mile along Rainier Avenue South and total about 2.72 acres.

One area is near the intersection of South Rose Street and the other is at the intersection of South Cloverdale.

South Rose Street area is currently split zoned and this proposed rezone would change a portion of it to low rise three, and another portion to neighborhood commercial two, allowing for the offices of services that need to accommodate affordable housing to be present on site.

Bellwether Housing is seeking to construct the affordable apartment building with family size two to four bedroom units, serving households between 50 and 60% of the area median income.

The South Cloverdale Street area is currently zoned Neighborhood Commercial 2, and would be rezoned to Neighborhood Commercial 2, 65 foot rather than 55 foot height limits.

The Mount Baker Housing is seeking to construct a mixed use building there with two to three bedroom family sized units, affordable also to 50 to 60% of area median income.

Their proposal includes ground floor space for the Rainier Beach Food Center, operated by the Rainier Valley Food Bank, The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee did hold a public hearing on this proposal in August, and we did not receive any opposition to these re-zones, as well as OPCD has provided for the record, and the record reflects how and why these re-zones needed to come through our committee at this time and in this manner.

Thank you, Council President.

That's the report from the committee.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss for that report.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Council Member Morales, please.

Thank you.

I just want to thank the Land Use Committee and Council Member Strauss in particular for inviting me to participate in the committee meeting last week and just share my thoughts.

As he said, this is a legislative rezone that coordinates, that serves the strategic purpose of the city in terms of increasing affordable housing, meeting our goals for racial equity in the comp plan.

And also providing really important services in an area of low economic opportunity and high risk of displacement.

So these are important projects that are underway and will be really critical to the neighborhood.

In addition to providing housing, they will also provide community food center with a commercial kitchen provides more dignified shopping experience for the clients of the Rainier Valley Food Bank.

And then the housing project also could be slated to provide some childcare, which we all know is desperately needed in the city, a childcare facility.

So I'm eager to support this, and I want to thank the Land Use Committee for the work that they did on this.

Thank you, Council Member Morales for those remarks.

Council Member Strauss, anything else to add?

Nothing further to add at this time.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much.

Okay, seeing...

Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't realize that there was other Council Members with comments.

I apologize.

Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Just a quick note to say how excited I am to support these projects that pair affordable housing with co-located services and equitable development.

features like childcare and job training services, small business incubation and community space.

We talked a lot about this in the last committee meeting and council members Morales and Strauss have already mentioned it, but I think that these are great examples of what we continue to strive to do in the city to place these amenities next to transit.

So it's a really great opportunity for us to highlight all of the work that I think we envision when we talk about development done right and through the community lens.

And it is possible because the Rainier Beach community has spent so many years advocating to advance, for example, as Council Member Morales said, the Food Innovation Center in the neighborhood, while also investing in affordable housing.

And we're doing this through the equitable development lens to ensure good jobs for community members.

I am hopeful, though, that in the future it doesn't take as long as it did to get this project underway and that we continue to do everything that we can as this council continues to lift up the priorities like this to make sure that we're investing in what community has identified as priorities to prevent against displacement and also to create economic resiliency.

This is a great example of that, and I want to underscore my appreciation for it, but also note It took a long time to get here.

And next time, I'm hoping it won't take so long.

So thank you so much.

And Council Member Strauss, excited that you got this over the finish line.

Appreciate it.

Happy to support.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any other comments on the bill?

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

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yeah.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Blount.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Folks, we have other business.

I understand Council Member Sawant has an item for other business.

Please, Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

I move to be excused from the City Council meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, September 15, 2020, because I must legally recuse myself from the issue that will be under consideration.

Is there a second?

Second.

I think it's been moved and seconded.

And Madam Clerk, can you remind me, do I need to call this to a roll or do I just need to call for an objection?

Council Member Gonzalez-Amelia Sanchez, you can do either or.

You can ask if there's no objection or you can ask us to call the roll.

Right.

I will simplify this and say, is there any objection to Council Member Sawant's request to be excused from tomorrow's a special full council meeting of September 15th, 2020 at 1 p.m.

Hearing no objection, the request to be excused is granted and Council Member Sawant will be excused from tomorrow's special full council meeting at 1 p.m.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

Okay, my further business is we gotta get more childcare ASAP.

Okay, colleagues, this concludes the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is on Monday, September 21st at 2 p.m.

Of course, the City Council will hold a special meeting tomorrow, September 15th at 1 p.m., and I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

We're adjourned, folks.