Seattle City Council - Special Meeting 11/21/2024

Thank you.

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

The November 21st, 2024 special meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 201, 202. I'm Sarah Nelson, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Nine present.

Thank you very much.

Okay, there is not a presentation today.

So colleagues at this time, we'll move into the hybrid public comment period.

For those who registered for remote public comment, please look out for a new email with today's call in details.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up to speak today?

We have 10 in person and four remote.

Okay, let's go with all of the 10 in-person speakers at one minute each and then we'll move into the remote.

Hopefully people will have gotten their email.

Thank you.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they're registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time and speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within their allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Excuse me.

Judy, just waiting for the timer really quick.

And just go ahead.

One moment, please.

It's 14 altogether?

Correct, 14 altogether.

I would like to amend that and say two minutes each, please.

Two minutes each?

Okay, thank you.

And the first speaker is Tim Eyman, and then followed by Tim is Alex Zerman.

Well, hello.

I was just trying to highlight when it comes to that capital gains tax that there is now a new state law, Initiative 2111, that 78% of the House members voted for, 76% of the state senators voted for, that took effect on June 6th.

And it said, neither the state nor any county, city, or other local jurisdiction in the state of Washington may tax any individual person on any form of personal income.

Did you notice it said city?

Four of you didn't notice because you're pushing a bill that is illegal because of this new law.

It is RCW 1.90.100.

I'm sure you have legal staff to look that one up.

It is frustrating, I think, for voters when they see a law in the books and see elected people ignoring that law explicitly.

It's illegal what you're doing.

You may want it.

Happens all the time.

I want $30 tabs.

I'm not getting them.

But we want things, but sometimes they don't work out.

And there is a state law now in effect that says you can't have this tax.

They were able to get the court to say it's constitutional, that's one thing, but do you want it or not?

The legislature said we don't want it.

It took effect on June 6th.

It's now illegal to do this thing.

28 seconds, so I'll just take a couple seconds more.

But this does run completely counter to this state law.

I would ask you to respect state law, not try and push laws, ordinances that clearly violate that state law, and appreciate your consideration of this viewpoint.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

You can mention my name, Alekseverin.

People forgot about my name.

You probably do.

It's okay.

No problem.

Yeah.

Zehiel.

My dirty, damn Nazi, fascist, bandita, you know what I mean, are cockroaches from Puerto Rico garbage.

My name Alex Zimmerman.

I am president of Stand Up America.

I want to speak about something that is talking about $8 billion.

$8 billion.

Are you listening to me, cockroaches?

From garbage, $8 billion.

And what has happened?

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened before, before, and before.

And nothing will be happen in future.

Why?

Because you don't give this...

cockroaches who come to this chamber, you know what it means, chance for speak.

So for approximately 10 years, 100 times I come and talk to give people right open better room in city hall one day per week for three minutes so people can go and speak without your control.

You don't doing this.

Why?

Because you Nazi pig.

You understand?

You are pure bandita.

You want control everything.

You cannot imagine so people can go and talk for three minute without your control.

Because when this happen, I guarantee you, next budget will be totally different.

But you don't want this.

Why?

Because you Nazi pig.

You know?

You are fascist.

And you keep this right now.

Other democrat.

cockroaches what is you are i don't understand where is a problem one day per week open better room in city hall so people can come in talking and talking without your control can you open this you're freaking nazi pig stand up america you know what is mean right now donald trump come in 100 million american support we need Viva Donald Trump!

Viva USA!

Viva 100 million Americans!

Thank you very much, Nazi pig.

Our next speaker is Noel Evangelista.

Hello, my name is Noel Evangelista.

I live in Beacon Hill, District 2, and I am a member of Malaya Seattle.

I go to the church at Beacon United Methodist Church, where many of the founding members have helped to make Jose Rizal Park possible.

Malaya Seattle, along with many other Filipino Seattle rooted orgs, know that more cops surveilling the parks does not mean that the houselessness issue is addressed.

It just means that the problem gets swept to another area of Seattle.

City Council, in discussing today's budget, we ask that you prioritize social services and keeping places like Jose Rizal Park and the International District safe.

The solution isn't more cops or more funds for weapons.

The solution is to restore what has been stolen and build up people to thrive, not sweep under the rug.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mish Vergara, and then followed by Mish will be Andy Pham.

Good evening, or good afternoon, council.

My name is Mish.

I am also a member of Malaya Movement Seattle.

We are a grassroots Filipino organization dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy, and sovereignty in the Philippines.

And we are really calling for the restoration of Jose Rizal Park and the defending of our local Filipino history for the community that really has helped build up this city into what it is today.

As Noel said, we agree that the funding for helping the park should go toward services for the people and not for more policing or surveillance.

And in fact, as you all know, the jumpstart payroll tax, 62% of which should be dedicated toward things like affordable housing for our houseless neighbors, $303 million.

330 million of that has actually been rated toward funding things like policing and surveillance, which studies have shown do not actually help the safety of our communities.

So we're asking you to please stay on your promise of servicing the people of Seattle, of providing housing for our neighbors, education, jobs, health care.

These are the things that will protect the people and the protection of our people's history.

So please show your commitment to the over 100,000 Filipinos in your city by defending Filipino history, restoring the park, Jose Rizal Park, and providing services for the people, not policing.

Thank you.

Andy, followed by Andy Pham will be Reverend Stephen Gerby.

And please, before you start, for the folks gathered here and enthusiastic about today's proceedings, please use jazz hands instead of clapping.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Andy Pham, representing SDOT's Transportation Equity Workgroup.

Within the group, I'm an advocate for Little Saigon's neighborhood and District 2 as a Friends of Little Saigon staff member.

I help to uplift the transportation needs of our local small businesses and other key stakeholders.

SDOT's Transportation Equity Workgroup has allowed our organization to partner closely with SDOT staff and community advocates around the city.

We've appreciated the opportunities to work collaboratively to uplift similar transportation issues our communities face, ensuring equitable outcomes.

Our group is asking the city to prioritize equitable transportation investments, especially for our most vulnerable, including low-income, BIPOC, immigrant, refugee, disabled, and aging groups.

Each neighborhood and community has their unique needs.

Levy investments and programs similar to the Neighborhood Initiated Safety Partnership Program, or NASPP, are vital to addressing historical underinvestment in marginalized communities where the needs are the greatest.

Programs like the NASPP ensure that there is multilingual engagement and participation, guaranteeing language accessibility, data is put into the hands of community to solve safety issues, guaranteeing community and data-centered decision-making, and trusted liaisons are employed to facilitate inclusive dialogue, guaranteeing face-to-face engagement.

We highlight these three principles, language accessibility, data-driven decision-making, and face-to-face engagement to ensure that the transportation systems we build work for all.

Prioritizing these areas also align with the city's race and social justice initiative, empowering communities while fostering healing and belonging.

Thank you for your time.

Good afternoon, council members.

Last night, I was meeting with residents in Tent City 3 and leaders from Share Wheel.

10 City 3 encampment is currently in the parking lot at University Congregational United Church of Christ where I serve as one of the pastors.

We heard about the challenges that folks are facing as members of the crisis response team and the Seattle Police Department bring unhoused people to their encampment because they know that community cares for one another.

They understand that the folks who are closest to the issues are also closest to the solutions.

They trust that organizations like Tent City 3 will provide for the needs of those who are most vulnerable.

We are facing a bomb cyclone of disinvestment from those who are most vulnerable.

The winds of poverty and despair are blowing through our city.

Jumpstart funding is one of the responses to lift up our community and invest in the places that are best suited to provide for those who are most in need.

Creating progressive revenue sources like the capital gains tax, will help bolster a more robust response so that we don't have to look in our communities, in our neighborhoods, to see our neighbors who are hurting.

You hear time and time again from folks who are pleading for jumpstart funding to support the community.

May it be so.

We now have Margo Stewart, followed by Joey Lopez.

Hi, my name is Margo.

I'm here as a member of Workers Strike Back.

I rent and work on Capitol Hill to oppose the shameful attack that the mayor and this Democrat council have put forward on the Amazon tax that our movement won alongside council member Shama Sawant's office.

It's a real spit in the face to the tens of thousands of working and young people in the streets who helped win this tax on big business.

at the height of the George Floyd movement.

And at a time now when there's more need for affordable housing than ever, this council would like to move that money towards the already bloated police budget.

I think it's abundantly clear at this point that this council is looking for any way they can to make working people rather than big business pay for the current economic crisis.

And I think it's worth talking about.

What big businesses are we looking at here?

It's companies like Amazon, who just in the last quarter alone made $15.3 billion.

That's up 55% from their profits last year.

Corporate profits across the board are significantly higher than they were before COVID.

That's 19.5% from 13%.

Guess who's not been thriving since COVID?

These big businesses can afford to pay more, but instead this all-Democrat council goes after working people like my close friend and my roommate, who can barely afford to keep a couple dollars in his account at the end of month after health care expenses.

Both food service workers, whose minimum wage council member Hollingsworth went after shamefully and sought to lower just weeks ago.

And it was us, as the movement of workers strike back, that stopped that attack.

And we said at the time that if small businesses are struggling, then they should join with workers who are struggling across the board to fight for an increase in the Amazon tax.

And the same is true now.

It's absolute insanity at this time to be turning funds away from affordable housing and towards the police budget when we so obviously need to tax the biggest businesses in this city.

who are thriving to fund the social services that we so desperately need.

But these Democrats won't do that.

They're entirely unwilling, because when push comes to shove, it's those same businesses that they represent.

So we need our own party, and I urge anybody who's listening to join Workers Strike Back and come out to our organizing conference in February to discuss how we can further fight attacks like these.

Next.

Next, we have Joey Lopez, and following Joey will be Long Jean.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Joey Lopez.

I'm the co-executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.

I live in District 3, I work in District 2, and I worship in District 7. For the past six weeks, faith communities from across Seattle have been present in these chambers, declaring that budgets are a moral document, and budgets speak to the values of our city through public investment.

We are sad to see a proposed budget that fails to speak to those values.

We are disappointed that the budget committee has not ensured the original jumpstart spending.

In the face of a daunting budget deficit, it's obvious the city has a revenue problem, not a spending problem.

Relying this heavily on jumpstart is a dangerous precedent, and we had hoped the council would not kick the can down the road.

We believe the city needs more progressive tax revenue sources in addition to Jumpstart, like the proposed capital gains tax.

It's beyond time for policy solutions that invest in communities, addressing systemic racism and long-standing inequities.

We need council to continue to create sustainable policy solutions that prioritize new progressive revenue streams and that fill the current gaps, like the capital gains tax.

Faith communities will continue to push this council to listen to the many, not the wealthy few.

Thank you.

After Long, we're going to have Carly Sevick.

Mayor Harrell and the council members here shamefully want to divert funding away from affordable housing to make up for their budget shortfall and to fund the Seattle Police Department.

It is no wonder that working class people have no faith in the Democrats to deliver on working class demands.

The only victories workers have won come from representatives independent of corporate funding, such as socialist and former city council member Shama Sawant, who won the $15 minimum wage and the Amazon tax.

These same Democratic council members, on the other hand, tried to attack the 15 victory just two months ago and are attacking the Amazon tax today.

That is why I am a member of Worker Strike Back, to break from the Democrats and Republicans.

One of the core demands of Worker Strike Back is we workers need a party for the working class, one that represents us, one that fights for working class demands such as affordable housing and free health care.

After Carly, it'll be Summer Miller and then Alex Olson.

Hi, my name is Carly.

I'm a member of Worker Strike Back, and I'm also a renter in District 3. The Jumpstart Tax is now the single biggest source of funding for publicly subsidized affordable housing in the city, generating over $400 million in 2024. The Amazon tax has actually shown success in the last years.

These funds allowed the construction for over 3,000 new affordable housing units in Seattle in 2022 and 2023. more than doubling the rate of construction during the prior two years.

As the cost of living skyrockets in the city, working people are forced to move or leave Seattle because there's not enough housing.

This is not the time to reallocate these funds in your budget.

This is the time to ask Amazon and other big companies for more money.

This year, Amazon reported a 55% increase in net income, closing out their third quarter books with $15.3 billion.

City Council, I ask that you please consider the working and lower income people of this city, the ones that desperately, desperately need affordable housing, a need that will only increase in the coming months and years as we enter into a presidency that will greatly affect working people.

Thank you.

My name is Summer and I'm a member of Worker Strike Back.

The cost of housing in Seattle is already out of control for working people and the need for affordable housing in Seattle is only increasing as rents and overall living costs continue to rise.

Council Democrats should be increasing the Amazon tax to fund even more affordable housing and other urgently needed social services.

Poor and working class people are being evicted and becoming homeless.

And if you follow through with this attack, more people are going to be thrown out of their housing because of you.

And it's not just these individuals up on city council, it is the party that they're a part of.

The Democrats on city council fight tooth and nail against our victories, and then after our movement wins those victories by building movements, they try to claim credit and give our victories stupid names like the jumpstart tax.

And then they fight to claw them back.

Hollingsworth and the Democrats were forced to back off from their attack on 15 because workers strike back, working people, and union members fought against it.

We will be fighting to make sure the Democrats don't use the rest of the year to try and ram through something when they think working people are not paying attention.

Democrats represent big business and not working people, and we need to build something new.

For anyone who agrees, sign up to become a member of Worker Strike Back at workerstrikeback.org slash join, and come to our organizing conference on February 22nd to get organized to fight back against both of these billionaire parties.

Registration is on our website.

Alex Olson is our last in-person registered speaker.

All right, good afternoon, council members.

My name is Alex Olson.

I'm a District 6 voter, and I am a member of Worker Strike Back.

I was here on Tuesday, and now I'm here again.

And I'd just like to say, Jumpstart was the best thing that happened to Seattle and our social programs in recent memory.

And with this budget, you want to bastardize it.

You want to give more money to cops and less for affordable housing, while we are in an affordable housing crisis.

Throwing our most disadvantaged neighbors under the bus, again, that has never worked.

Now, let's call your approach what it is.

It's austerity.

Taking money away from affordable housing is austerity.

Refusing to enact a capital gains tax is austerity.

Sunsetting jumpstart in 2040 is austerity.

Now, Amazon and big corporations have enough money.

It's us, the working class of Seattle, who are hurting right now.

Amazon's income is up 55%, as was mentioned.

increase their taxes instead.

This is not some zero sum game.

And the jumpstart tax is not some fixed amount that you can never change.

Filling the general fund deficit does not have to come at the cost of our much needed social programs.

You can't attack working people over and over and then act surprised when the voters don't have your back.

You didn't have ours.

You would think that after Councilmember Wu's crushing electoral defeat, that you would learn how unpopular what you're doing really is.

Austerity doesn't work, and austerity has never worked.

What we need are new sources of progressive revenue, and to increase the ones we have, not more of this conservative fiscal cowardice.

But no, you'd rather run this city into the ground just to line your donors' pockets.

The voters will remember.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to remote speakers.

A reminder to remote speakers, press star six after you hear the message that you have been unmuted.

Our first remote speaker is Howard Gale, and Howard will be followed by Alberto Alvarez.

Go ahead, Howard.

Good afternoon.

Howard Gale, District 7. You have demonstrated clearly to us that overwhelming public opinion is completely irrelevant to you over the course of 2024 as you vote for more punitive measures to address the consequences of social inequity while gutting the programs to protect folks that you subject to punishment.

You punish folks for the consequences of social inequity, and then you act to ensure that equity is perpetuated and even expanded, as with the severe cutbacks to tenant protections in this budget.

We have seen you destroy the Jumpstart Oversight Board, remove people affected by homelessness from the King County Regional Homelessness Boards, undermine and then kill the renters advocacy work group, and undermine and kill the only program to give victims of police violence a voice.

You've heard the saying, nothing about us without us.

You have instead embraced everything about you without you.

You do this under the guise of fiscal responsibility and make sure our dollars are spent wisely.

Yet where is the audit of the hundreds of millions spent on the SBD or the audit of over 70 million spent on a failed police accountability system, which has not been audited in over seven years of existence, despite the city auditor calling for one seven years ago.

You continue to fail to fund social needs programs to offer real solutions instead of punishments.

Your patronizing disdain for your constituents will continue to have consequences in the coming elections, as we just saw this month with the resounding rejection of the current policies and path that this Council is on.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alberto Alvarez, and following Alberto will be Brendan Colding.

Go ahead, Alberto.

Council members Hollingsworth, Moore, Morales, Saka, Strauss, work together, reach out, and partner on a plan that will build housing, protect workers, and bring revenue needed to build a city for all.

Mr. Saka, your crusade against Kirby the safety divider can end here today.

Mr. Saka, vote yes on Council Member Moore's amendment, and I will personally remove that curb from the street.

A local equipment company can donate the tools needed.

Mr. Saka, vote yes, and I will get this done.

You know I'm a dedicated individual.

Mr. Saka, vote yes on making the wealthy pay a fair share.

Take the $2 million earmarked for your crusade and send it to local food banks.

Tax the rich.

Get this passed.

Mr. Saka, tear down this curb.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Brendan Colding, and following Brendan will be Cullen Billharts.

Go ahead, Brendan.

Good afternoon.

My name is Brendan Colding, and I am a resident of District 1. I have long been an advocate for public safety.

I would like to thank the council for the efforts you have put into funding effective law enforcement in our city.

These efforts have not gone unnoticed and are very much appreciated.

I have called in this afternoon primarily to discuss traffic safety.

I live on Delridge Way Southwest, and I've been here for approximately 15 years.

I live about two blocks north of the RIFC.

I support the Delridge Safety Project, and I greatly appreciate Councilmember Saka's leadership on this matter.

The current setup encourages drivers to make U-turns across the double yellow line, which is not safe.

As a father of three, I am especially concerned with children's safety, and it troubles me that these maneuvers frequently occur with children in the vehicle.

I have personally witnessed several near accidents, one of which endangered a bicyclist.

I strongly believe that it will be responsible stewardship of the recently approved transportation levy to appropriate the necessary funds to explore and construct a safer way for drivers to enter and exit the RIFC.

On a different note, having had kids in West Seattle Little League and West Seattle Baseball and having coach in both leagues, I would also just like to voice my support for the field improvement at Fairmont Park.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Colin Billharts and following Colin will be BJ Last.

Go ahead, Colin.

Colin, I see you're unmuted.

Are you there?

Oh, sorry.

Apologies about that.

It was double muted.

Hi, my name is Colin Billharts, current D3 resident, former resident of other districts in Seattle, so I consider many of you my representative.

I'm commenting on CB120908, which is the taxation of capital assets.

To quickly to the commenter who questioned legality, I believe this is an excise tax, not an income tax.

Therefore, it's not subject to Washington state law.

Um, just wanted to say that, you know, we, we live in a time of growing class inequity.

We live in a time where we are closing public schools at unprecedented rates.

We live in a time where city council is rating or attempting to raid tax funds, such as the jumpstart tax to balance city budgets, where, whereas those funds were previously allocated for affordable housing and other necessary public services.

Taxes are most effective means for redistributing wealth within the city, and it's critical that we use progressive taxation to help those who need it most, and to ultimately close the class inequality within our city.

The proposed tax is subject to on earnings over $250,000.

That is four times the city median income.

I'm begging council that we began helping the people, not the people who are funding political campaigns, not the people who are gaining four times the median income on sales of stocks and other capital assets.

Please pass CB 120908. On a different note, I also wanted to comment about street cleaning within the City of Seattle.

I truly do not understand why We have and pay for street cleaning machines and street cleaners.

When we don't have no parking alternative days, it ultimately makes them wildly ineffective.

Maybe something to think about moving into next year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last remote speaker is BJ Last.

Go ahead, BJ.

Hello.

My name is BJ Last.

I'm a D6 resident.

I support the Seattle Solidarity budget.

This entire budget process has been really insulting to the people of Seattle.

One example, like multiple council members have now talked about needing to get to the root causes of why so many people need rental and food assistance.

It's easy.

The rent is too damn high and wages are too damn low.

That's why people need assistance.

And this budget is going to just exacerbate that because of decisions that this council has made.

Council has made active decisions to go and defund the Office of Labor Standards So workers have less protection to actually make sure they are getting paid and not getting stolen from by their employers.

This budget defunds tenant services.

So tenants have less protections to make sure that their landlord isn't stealing from them.

These are all decisions that this council has actively gone and made that are just going to exacerbate inequality and issues in Seattle.

And council members have also liked to talk about a survey by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce saying that people in Seattle don't trust the city to spend its money.

Well, have you seen what you guys are doing with Jumpstart?

Are you surprised why people don't trust you?

Don't be surprised people don't trust your spending decisions when you just always throw out a spending plan.

When your decision is, hey, anything that binds us and would stop us from paying money on cops, we can just change the law every single year so we can just throw that out.

That's why people don't trust you.

What you guys are spending money on is the cops.

The survey is telling you this is not what people want you to be doing, but would actually like you to follow things.

We also saw this with council deciding to throw out participatory budgeting.

This was a process that was years in the making and was supposed to be giving people direct control and say over how money would be spent in their communities.

And council didn't like what some of those decisions were and decided, hey, people, you don't actually get a decision if it isn't what the council likes.

And if the council can veto, that is then not a decision for the people.

That is the last remote registered speaker.

Is that correct, Jody?

That is correct.

Thank you.

Okay, we have reached the end of our public comment period.

Now we will move into the, let's hold on a second here.

Thank you very much for your comments today.

We will now move into the next item on our agenda, which is if there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

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

And if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Seeing none, the agenda is adopted.

All right, we'll now consider the proposed consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar include Council Bill 120900, Council Bill 120901, and Council Bill 120913, which is the payment of the bills.

And we'll also have 37 pieces of legislation from the select budget committee that are necessary to implement the budget, which we have mentioned before in previous select budget committees.

Are there any items that council members wish to remove from today's consent agenda?

All right, hearing none, I move to adopt the consent agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

All right, committee reports.

Before we begin discussing the next eight related budget items, the council...

Go ahead.

Fix your signature, please.

Pardon me?

Can we fix your signature?

Oh, yes, I'm supposed to do that.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes in legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf?

Thank you for that.

Okay, Item H, Committee Reports.

Before we begin discussing the next eight related budget items, the Council will have an opportunity to share their overall comments on the adopted 2025 budget before our vote on Item 3. So if you would like to make some comments or a speech on that item, it's best to wait until that item is before us.

So again, if you have comments about the overall budget, item three is the best place for you to make your thoughts known.

All right, with that, item one.

Will the clerk please read item one into the agenda?

The report of the Select Budget Committee, agenda item one, Council Bill 120893, amending ordinance 126955, which adopted the 2024 budget, changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels from various funds in the budget.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss, as chair of the committee, you are recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, and I think my script is a little bit different than what's going on here.

Can you remind me of the bill before us right now?

Council Bill 120893.

893?

Correct.

Great.

So this is the participatory budgeting implementation bill.

Colleagues, it has been discussed in committee.

The process was upheld and important adjustments were made here at council.

I'm happy to see that we are able to get this money out the door for black communities.

And what I said previously is that this can't be a one-time action.

This can't be a one-time moment.

We have to continue funding black and native communities every year moving forward.

Thank you.

I urge a yes vote.

So I will invite other comments on this bill, but I would like to privilege the comments of Council Member Hollingsworth, who made some of these changes.

So if you would like to speak, now would be your opportunity.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

off guard here.

I didn't know this was the first one on the agenda, but that's fine.

So I really appreciate the opportunity to speak.

I want to thank my colleagues for your unwavering support for this process.

I know that we have seen time after time, our black community, we need to continue to make investments.

And oftentimes, people use selective blackness to be able to push their agenda.

And I am here to say our black community is alive and well in our city.

Their voice wants to be heard.

Their voice was heard on this budget.

And the investments that we are making in the arts, homeownership, youth, homelessness, food insecurity are incredibly important to our community.

And I have talked with neighbors, I've gone to churches, I have walked neighborhoods, I've gone to different events, I have connected with people day in and day out, and they are extremely excited about the opportunities, particularly for our arts and culture community, because a lot of times, the people that are being out here in the streets, that are being murdered, that are being killed.

We often call it gun violence, but right now it's our babies killing babies.

If they knew their history, they would know their greatness.

And the arts is going to be incredibly important for us to continue to invest in our community, for them to be able to see their greatness, their history, and to be able to build connections and have...

loving relationships, and also a big piece for our community in this investment, which a lot of people don't realize, is the generational piece.

A lot of the events that we're bringing forth are multi-generational.

So you have the grandmas, the aunties, the kids, the moms, the dads.

It's very generational, and that's the one thing that brings this community together.

together.

So, colleagues, I appreciate that you all have supported this from day one.

I also want to thank all of the community groups that have signed on to this, from King County Equity Now to Africatown to Urban League to Bird Bar to the hundreds of different black businesses that have supported this since day one to the different community leaders, to all the churches.

They all lend their support behind this and couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity for you all to continue to make the investment in the original promise that was made to black community, the original promise that was made to our black folks after George Floyd, the original promise that was made to that community.

We are upholding that today as council, and I hope that we'll continue to make these investments for our community.

Thank you.

Are there further questions?

I will add a note of appreciation for Councilmember Hollingsworth.

This budget item far preceded my tenure on the council, but I was observing from afar the process of gathering people to collect priorities and then vet them and block them into categories and that was an arduous process and it's bound to be a little bit difficult and fraught when you're talking about 27 million dollars and I thank you for bringing the discussion back to its original intent which was to provide more resources, and center the experiences of black people in Seattle, specifically descendants of slaves.

I know that you met with so many people and did a lot of outreach.

I agreed with many of their THEIR PRIORITIES, AND I THINK THAT WE CAME TO A PACKAGE THAT MUCH BETTER REPRESENTS THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF THE PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING INITIATIVE.

SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR PUTTING THE ELBOW GREASE IN THAT AND BRINGING FORWARD A PACKAGE THAT SEEMS TO WORK FOR MOST EVERYONE AND HAVEN'T HEARD ANY DISSENT.

SO THANK YOU.

ANYONE ELSE CARE TO SPEAK?

Seeing no other commenters, it is now time to call a vote on the bill.

Would you please go ahead?

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Please fix my signature on the legislation on my behalf.

All right.

Item three, please go ahead.

Item two, excuse me.

Agenda item two, council bill 1209-12 relating to the payroll expense tax, suggesting the allocation of tax proceeds, eliminating the payroll expense oversight committee.

The committee recommends the bill passes as amended with council member Strauss, Rivera, Hollingsworth, Kettle, Nelson, Saka, Wu in favor, with council members Moore and Morales opposed.

Okay.

Chair Strauss, as this is coming from your committee, you are given the floor to explain the legislation.

Thank you.

This is Council Bill 120912 regarding long-term policies on how to use the Jumpstart payroll expense tax.

The bill before us is not the bill I introduced.

There's clearly more conversation to be had.

I will be voting in favor of it today, and I urge a yes vote on this bill.

even though there's clearly more conversation.

We saw this on the dais just the other day.

When the last round of jumpstart policies were passed, We all thought that today in 2024, as we're looking to 25 and 26, that we would be out of the economic, the downstream economic impacts from COVID-19.

The fact of the matter is that we are not out of the storm.

We are in the eye of the storm.

We have seen this as referenced by the downturn economic forecast in our budgeting cycle this year.

The only other times this has occurred is in October of 2020 and 2008. We've used Jump Start for general fund every year that the tax has been in place, and we need to ensure that the original priorities are safeguarded.

So, colleagues, that's the bill before us.

The current situation with our budget is not good.

We saw this with the downturn forecast.

We've seen this with sales tax.

We've seen this with the construction permits being down.

And this year we were able to use Jumpstart to ensure that there was more rental assistance in our city, to ensure that there's more food in our food banks, to ensure that more meal providers have food to make sure that homeless youth have access to legal assistance to make sure that people who might not have the opportunity have access to tax preparation assistance.

Jumpstart has prevented us from engaging in austerity budgeting, and we need to make sure that the original intent is maintained throughout the lifetime of this tax.

With that, again, The bill before us is not the bill I introduced, and yet still, I urge a yes vote.

Thank you.

Are there any comments from colleagues?

I would just like to mention one.

As I was reading over the documents the past few days, it did occur to me that the This legislation establishes a revenue stabilization account for the jumpstart dollars that will stave against any kind of, well, not any kind, but a downturn in our collections of the payroll expense tax.

And I thought that was a good idea because what happens to that revenue source is out of our control and therefore we need to make sure that we don't count on every single dollar to fund our budget needs.

And so this policy package does have a revenue stabilization account.

However, it does not have a policy defining when one can withdraw from that revenue stabilization account.

And the goal of that account is to establish a pot of money of about 10% of the total jumpstart revenue that exists.

So it made sense to me to establish a, well, since there is a revenue stabilization account, Like the revenue stabilization account for the reserve fund, I thought that it would be good to have a rule or some limits on how that money can be accessed and spent.

So I did consider an amendment defining mirror language than that which exists for the general fund revenue stabilization account.

But at the last minute, I thought there's been too many amendments, and it will not affect 2025, but I do think that we should consider this a policy about when we can remove money from that account going forward, you know, what kinds of emergencies, et cetera.

So I have I've decided not to put that forward, but I do think it merits consideration going forward if we are creating this revenue stabilization account to hedge against any kind of unforeseen downturn in the tech sector, which is what primarily supports the payroll expenses that are drawn from for this tax, for this resource for the city.

So I just wanted to note that maybe we can think about this during the year to come.

Anyway, are there any other comments on this bill?

All right, seeing none, will the clerk please Oh, sorry.

That's okay.

Yep, go ahead.

I'll make this quick and really just wanted to restate what I said earlier this week, which is that what we have before us is a bill that eliminates the guardrails on spending.

So even though the specific original jumpstart categories are included, it also adds general fund and doesn't put any guardrails on how much general fund to be spent, nor does it make a commitment.

to allocate resources for the original things like affordable housing and community development and Green New Deal and economic revitalization, which we all know are very important.

Aside from that, it also eliminates the oversight task force of the payroll expense task.

payroll expense tax and reinstates the sunset date at the same time that we are now increasing our reliance on what we know is a volatile source of revenue to fund basic city services.

That is not what fiscal responsibility looks like, in my opinion.

And so I will be voting now.

Thank you, Chair.

Council President.

Okay.

Is there anyone else?

Council Member Moore.

Thank you, Council President.

I, too, am going to be voting no against this, again, because it has no guardrails.

And as I stated when I voted no in committee, where I draw the line is at affordable housing.

I appreciate that in this current budget, we have allocated a fair amount of money to housing we've restored money we've just councils added a significant amount of rental assistance thank you very much but we cannot rely on the goodwill of the executive that's an abdication of our responsibility as a co equal and separate branch of government and I believe that that does this and I also was convinced by budget chair Strauss's arguments.

People were asking me to support the sunset.

I actually was convinced by your argument and amazing that we can be convinced by arguments on the dais and have the opportunity to change our minds based on the compelling and cogent arguments our colleagues have put forth and I support you.

I said as well that I do support using jumpstart dollars in general fund.

I think as a legislative body, we have to give ourselves that flexibility.

But we also have to set guardrails for ourselves as well.

And if we are going to continue to utilize...

general fund dollars to, excuse me, jumpstart to fill our general fund, then we should just be honest about that and remove the sunset.

And I don't think in 16 years we're going to find ourselves in a different position.

So for those two reasons, I'm voting against this.

Thank you.

Care to speak?

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

May I?

I'll just be last, though, if that works.

Sure.

Thank you.

I'm thinking about if there was anything else I had a thought and then it might have left my mind.

I reserve the right to remember and say it at the end, but go ahead, please.

Thank you.

Just wanting to bring up the oversight board and the evaluation.

This was something, a piece of nuance that had got lost in all of the action over the last several weeks.

The oversight board was not included in the legislation transmitted to up here at council.

And within there, there was still money set up for an evaluation of this program.

It is important for me that the evaluation of this tax still continue.

And when the evaluation money was removed, During our amendment process, that is when my position on the Oversight Board changed.

So this week you saw me vote in favor of reinstating the Oversight Board.

Had I known that the evaluation money was going to be taken, I would have included that in my original base bill.

It is not okay for us to...

remove the oversight board and the evaluation of this tax.

We can't do both of those things.

Both of those things have been done.

I'm still very concerned.

And yet still, today I will urge a yes vote.

There's still more work to be done though.

Any other questions or concerns?

All right, seeing none, will the clerk please read the, please call the roll on item three.

I'll call the roll on item number two.

Item two.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

No.

Council Member Morales?

No.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, two opposed.

All right.

Thank you very much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

All right.

Will the clerk read item three into the record?

Agenda item three, Council Bill 120905, Adopting a Budget Including a Capital Improvement Program and Position Modifications for the City of Seattle for 2025 and Creating Positions Exempt from Civil Service, all by two-thirds vote of the City Council.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Excuse me, with Council Members Straus, DiPietro, Hollingsworth-Kettle, Moore, Saka, and Wu in favor, none opposed, and with abstentions from Council Member Morales and Nelson.

Thank you.

As the community chair, you're welcome to address this.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, this is the bill to speak to.

I also want to thank our clerks and everyone else for making this budget voting process so much more straightforward using the consent agenda.

Colleagues, we would have voted on 35 bills individually had we not used the consent agenda Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Before I get into my remarks about our budget that we've amended, the chair's package and all of that, I'm going to bring us back to September 24th when we were here in chambers and we were receiving the mayor's package.

This room was filled with the people who do the work for us on behalf of the city of Seattle.

We had folks from information technology, we had people who make sure that we have clean great, amazing quality water.

We had folks in here that ensure that electricity is working, that we're generating electricity, and that even after intense storms, we're able to get electricity back up to as many customers as quickly as possible.

We had the people from construction and inspections, planning and community development, the people who make sure that the Seattle Center is the heart of our city, civics in so many ways, and the new waterfront.

We had the folks in here who make sure our roadways are passable and our sidewalks are walkable.

and if there are not sidewalks that they will build them after this next transportation levy gets implemented with the folks that make sure parks are enjoyable we had the fire police care our public safety and our accountability arms we had the people who are working diligently to prevent gun violence.

We had the people who make sure and work on economic development every day, the people who make sure that the city is working towards a more sustainable future and protecting our environment and addressing the climate crisis.

We had the people who make sure our libraries are open and welcoming, the people who are tasked with delivering our education and early learning commitments, the people in the Human Services Department that serve all ages and abilities on top of making sure contracts go out the door to deliver the services that we up here on the dais talk about, and they do.

We had people in the Department of Neighborhoods.

We had the folks who are increasing art access and decreasing graffiti.

We had the people from intergovernmental relations who have, over the last number of years, brought more money to us from the federal government than in recent memory.

And of course, we had Miss Barbara in the room.

I don't know if everyone knows Miss Barbara.

She was here.

It's always good to see your face, Miss Barbara.

Really, we had the workers who are doing the work that we talk about, the people who build the buildings, who deliver the services, who meet with the people, who meet with Seattleites on their worst days, and the folks who celebrate with them on their best days.

We had the people in this room who schedule the meetings to make the decisions, and make sure that the buildings are safe, clean, and welcoming for us to use.

This room on September 24th was filled with the people who do the work on behalf of Seattleites.

And so I just bring us back to that moment because over the course of the last number of months, so much as we have endeavored in so much.

And so I want to thank the members of the public for making their voice heard.

We've hosted five verbal public comment periods, two five plus hour public hearings.

And so thank you for taking the time to make sure your voice is heard.

real candidly.

It's great to have learned your name, Reverend Jervie.

Ian, it's nice to see you again.

These are people that I have come to know.

I think that might be Didi behind the mask, but I can't quite tell any way about it.

We've gotten to know each other.

Your voice has made an impact on this budget.

Colleagues, thank you for being here today to cap off a seven-month to get us to where we are today.

To be able to address one of the biggest budget deficits in recent memory while safeguarding the vast majority of public-facing services that our community depends on.

And gentlemen, if you want to continue your conversation, I'd ask to go outside.

The microphones still work out there, so you can still hear us.

When the mayor made his budget proposal, we faced a deficit of more than $250 million.

Then, less than a month ago, the revenue forecast increased, showed us that we could expect nearly $50 million less in our general fund, the continued result of the downstream economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to, this is the final year that we can use COVID relief funds from the federal government.

This budget would have been even harder and worse had the mayor not enacted smart budgeting solutions throughout the entirety of this year, which was the first step to structural sustainability.

He passed a budget, transmitted a budget to us, and then was the downturn forecast, which meant that even the mayor's proposal was out of balance.

And it was up to us to come up with the solution.

A hard job got even harder.

And through collaboration and lots of long hours, we've been able to address That problem while investing in the program Seattleites rely on everywhere in our city.

It was no easy feat and we have more work to do to ensure the long-term sustainability of our city's budget.

I wanna thank you all for your collaboration during this budget process.

This budget reflects priorities from every single council member on this dais.

I'm about to go alphabetically, not in order of favorites.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, thank you for your partnership in ensuring that we're not only restoring investments in food banks and for meal providers, we are also increasing them.

You championed important investments in our parks and ensured that we're fully funding the completion of the Garfield Superblock.

I've been happy to be the champion for Garfield Superblock for the past four years, and I'm also happy to have a district representative champion that work.

Councilmember Kettle, while this entire council is committed to increasing non-congregate shelter like tiny home villages, you were an immense champion throughout this budget process.

I want to thank you and your staff for the immense amount of work you did to shape our final proposal.

Because of it, we can expect to get nearly 100 more people off our streets into safe places.

Because of your advocacy, we're also making new investments in traditional housing and community-based public safety programs like We Deliver Care.

It goes beyond that.

You requested important investments for our city and the core of our city that everyone relies on.

From the Museum of History and Industry to Portal Park, you've made a big impact this year.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore, Because of your leadership on rental assistance, we've made an additional $7.1 million in investment in rental assistance over the next biennium.

You changed our minds on the dais regarding the last $3 million.

We know it's gonna go to a good and important place.

Thank you for your championship of this, and I'll just reiterate the words about being a housing champion that I shared on the dais the other day.

Without you, we would be in a worse place.

Councilmember Morales, thanks to your leadership, we've been able to restore critical investments in tenant services, make investments to help victims of gender-based violence programs from underserved Spanish-speaking communities, making investments in after-school programs like those at El Centro de la Raza, additional investments in youth employment program providing additional assistance to community organizations supporting immigrants refugees and communities of color and through your work you saved additional jobs of People who serve our city here in our city family.

Thank you for your work Councilmember Nelson counts president Nelson.

Thank you for your steadfast support of getting more funding into support for services for people experiencing substance use disorder It's something that you've championed every single year, and I'm really proud that it's in our budget together.

Also, thank you for advocating and restoring funding for the city's storefront repair program, since federal funding for that service has run out, and for all your work on the Seattle channel.

Council Member Rivera, thank you for making all the new investments in our 911 call center to answer calls faster, and that we're restoring the neighborhood matching fund that had been eliminated, and for creating a new community safety hub in North Seattle.

safety hub coordinator in North Seattle.

There was an additional word there.

Council Member Saka, thank you for championing additional investments in our city's popular childcare assistance program.

I don't think that I will ever forget your statements there of just being so exacting about what dollar figure could remove how many people from that wait list.

And we know that childcare can be as expensive as a second mortgage and that for working families, they need access to childcare.

This investment will change people's lives.

Back to my script.

You've also been a champion for strengthening Seattle's commitment to the third initiative.

Thank you for that championship.

This is a better budget because of your work.

Councilmember Wu, because of your advocacy, we are making larger investments in the community-based safety programs with the focus on the Chinatown International District.

You have rightly schooled us on which part of CID is a specific part of CID.

Like I just said, I will never forget getting schooled like that up here on the dais, thank you.

It has made us all better.

Because of you, we are supporting victims of domestic violence who are deaf and hard of hearing.

This is something that really you took up that mantle for, and that's why it's in this budget.

Thank you for making that happen.

Also restoring support for immigrant and refugee women that would have otherwise gone away.

You helped champion the Constellation Center for youth care that will make a difference in youth coming out of homelessness for years to come.

I said this before, I'll say it again.

Our city is better because you have served on this council and the amount of impact that you've made in nine months is incredible.

Thank you.

For myself, one of the most important things this budget does is preserve and protect many city jobs that were scheduled to end on January 1st.

When I talked about the mayor taking the steps throughout the year to get us on better budget sustainability and structural sustainability, a lot of smart budgeting choices were made, and that reduced the number of positions that could have been laid off.

I know earlier in the year, the It could have been much higher.

We were able to end up with fewer than 78 filled positions being laid off, and that is a very difficult decision.

Not the mayor, not anyone on the dais up here wants to make that decision.

And when we looked at the hard numbers, permits have been down for many years.

I'll just go on to say that it is clear that no one, not the mayor or anyone on this dais, takes these decisions lightly.

And these are some of the most difficult budgeting decisions that we've had to make.

And because of the magnitude before us, the tough decisions that needed to be made, I do appreciate the mayor's office for their hard work safeguarding a lot of these positions that could have been eliminated for doing that hard work.

It's never an easy choice because beyond their service to the city, each of these people who serve our city and who serve Seattleites have families, mortgages or rent, car payments, childcare, and many other everyday needs.

One of the most important things we've done and one of the most important things I'm proud of is working to preserve many of these jobs in this proposal.

And for the jobs that we were not able to preserve, we're giving employees six more months to create a smoother transition and hopefully having a chance to get them into another city opening.

And definitely to make sure that they don't have to spend their holidays worrying what January 2nd will look like.

I'll just end this part of my commentary of the mayor's office did really good job reducing the number of people that could have been laid off.

And I don't know that that's fully appreciated.

Another important question that the mayor called, the mayor's office called was about the Seattle Channel because the funding stream that it has relied on is not sound.

It is decreasing.

We've seen the presentations from a pure, without an additional intervention, there's no way to keep the Seattle Channel independent from elected officials' input.

And thanks to the work of Council President and thanks to the work of my staff, we're gonna work to make sure that the Seattle Channel has independent, has funding that allows for independent journalism and is able to maximize the hard and fast physical space that we have downstairs.

We have a full studio downstairs and a hallway full of Emmy Awards.

I'm hoping that that hallway of Emmy Awards will eventually extend all the way to the seventh floor.

Because of the work of this council, we're not just preserving jobs and services in the short term.

We're also creating a plan to safeguard them for future generations.

The first step in budget reform happened this year with the mayor's office making smart choices to get us to their budget proposal in September.

Throughout the course of the council's deliberation, we have put forward a number of statement of legislative intent, reports requesting the information that we need to continue this work.

Our job's not done.

I'll be the first to say it.

We have a lot more work to do, especially as we face an uncertain future on the national level and funding for so many crucial government programs comes into question.

If the past is any indicator of the future, I predict that we will be in this storm with the downstream economic impacts for at least two more years and likely up to four.

As was mentioned just a minute ago on the last bill, there are still unsettled questions about progressive revenue, how we use Jump Start moving forward, and how we ensure we are holding ourselves and the city accountable for achieving results through the budgeting process.

And through this budget process, we've learned that through hard work and consensus building, we can answer big questions.

And we've got more information on the way, so the job's not done.

We'll see you here again next year.

I want to thank you all for the hard work that you've put into this budget for your work here on the dais to get us to this point.

I want to thank Mayor Harrell and Director Dan Eder and your entire office and former director Julie Dingley for all of your work to get us to this point and your partnership this year.

Thank you to our central staff analysts for your patience and expertise.

We quite literally could not have done this without each and every one of you.

Thank you to the clerks, I said the CBO, the Seattle channel for making sure that this is on the air.

And thank you to my staff for making sure that these meetings ran smoothly.

I joked with a couple members that success isn't by accident, smoothness is not by accident.

Smoothness occurred this budgeting cycle for the most part because of amazing staff that know how to do this work and are doing this work every day.

To summarize, we took big steps towards structural sustainability this year, and we've requested important information to continue this work because we can't only grow our way out or only cut our way out of this structural deficit.

We will continue this budget reform work next year, and we have more work to do.

Most of all, Thank you to the community members for making their voice heard.

From the thousands of emails we got to the public comment periods to the five plus hour public hearings that we had, they were so long that I stood up for the second one because it just, we were here until folks didn't have anything more to say.

I want you to know that your voices were heard and it truly made a difference.

Thank you, colleagues.

I urge a yes vote.

Thank you very much for those comments.

And I would like to open it to the floor for my colleagues to make additional comments before we take a vote.

Are there any hands?

I am not seeing any.

Councilmember Rivera.

And then it would be Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

colleagues at the start of the budget process I made a commitment to my constituents to focus on public safety and accountability and I'm proud that this budget lives up to that promise.

I also made a commitment to set aside differences and work together with my colleagues and the mayor on a set of shared priorities and this budget reflects our efforts to come together on behalf of the people of Seattle.

I see a council largely aligned on key priorities.

Half of the amendments to the mayor's proposal and balancing package were related to public safety.

I prioritize investments in public safety because of the concerns I have heard from my constituents, and I was not alone.

In the last year, this council passed 11 pieces of public safety legislation.

We have also started to rebuild a working relationship with the Seattle Police Department.

We work to more quickly recruit, hire, and retain the officers that our city needs.

While we have more work to do, I'm proud that we have turned the tide.

We have seen a significant increase in people applying to the force in this last year.

Based on that increase, SPD is cautiously optimistic that it will hire more officers than it loses for the first time since 2019. and we added measures of transparency and performance so our officers will reflect and uphold Seattle's values.

In this budget, I am proud to have sponsored an amendment to add additional 911 call taker positions to be solely dedicated to answering the non-emergency line.

Wait times have been far too long, and one-third of the calls to the non-emergency line turn out to be real emergencies.

To address youth violence in the North End, I put forth an amendment with Mayor Harrell's and Councilmember Moore's support to create a youth violence prevention safety hub in North Seattle.

Nationally, we're seeing mortality rates among our children rise after four decades of decline because of youth violence.

We're addressing this worrying trend locally with investments in mental health supports and connecting vulnerable youth with community via safety hubs.

I also requested that the Human Services Department research the establishment of a sobering center to best meet Seattle's diversion needs.

I'm grateful for Council President Sarah Nelson's co-sponsorship on this request.

To provide accountability for these public safety efforts, I asked for two public-facing dashboards to ensure our investments in the 911 call center and the expansion of the care department are working.

During this budget process, this council began applying the same level of accountability to other programs and services.

We requested information and reports through statements of legislative intent, also known as slides.

That groundwork will help us gather the data we need to make well-informed, well-reasoned budget decisions based on performance and outcomes next year and beyond.

I will be tracking those statements of legislative intent closely.

The chairs of the individual committees also need to ensure that the slides are being submitted and analyzed in a timely manner.

If council can't get the information from those requests, then we can provide those funds next year to get the information we need.

This council must be highly focused on where our spending priorities lie for the next several years.

Not only because we will face a budget deficit in 2027, but because we do not know what our current political landscape will bring.

Our city government will need the ability to quickly address changing priorities or emerging crises.

We are all grappling with the best way to move forward with our funding sources.

I believe prescriptive revenue sources hamstring City Councils from addressing Seattle's challenging priorities.

Of course, there will be times when we disagree on the best way to proceed.

But as you saw in this budget process, we can do so with respect and civility.

I am proud of the conversations and compromises I saw in this budget.

This is a different tone at City Hall and it benefits all Seattle residents.

This is the people's budget.

I am honored and privileged to work with my colleagues on our residents' priorities so we can all live in a healthy and thriving city.

This budget package maintains the city's commitment to housing and human services.

We spend five times more on housing now than we did in 2019, an increase from $69 million to $342 million annually.

The package also provides funding for tenant services and rental assistance.

That includes reporting requests so we can learn where improvements need to be made to ensure our affordable housing is safe and available for those who need it.

Our budget has robust investments to meet the needs of Seattle's low income and vulnerable residents, which is critical.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to also support our working-class families who are feeling underrepresented.

That is why restoring the funding for apprenticeships to the trades through the FAS Priority Hire Program was important to me.

Young people need options for well-paying, essential jobs that are outside of a university degree.

Seattle must work for everyone.

Our vulnerable populations, our working families, small businesses, seniors, and young people.

Thank you to Chair Dan Strauss for his role in shepherding this budget through the legislative process.

I would also like to thank my fellow council members and their legislative aides.

I'm also grateful for the hard work of central staff, Director Ben Noble and his entire team, and also for our city clerk, Shireen Dedman, and her city clerks who helped us shepherd this budget through the process.

I want to thank my team, in particular Wendy Sykes and Gavin Haynes, for their many long hours of work and commitment to the District 4. As we finish this year's process, I remain committed to focusing on public safety and accountability and setting a new tone for City Hall.

Together, we can build a safer and more affordable Seattle for all.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Carroll.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, there have been many lessons learned from the Select Budget Committee experience.

First and foremost, we need budget reform.

And this process started.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for your work in this.

In addition to the reserve stabilization workgroup, we do need expenses stabilization workgroup.

And to this point, the data requesting statements of legislative intents can help.

And the Seattle Housing Investment Plan, for example, will be very important and a key effort to achieve this goal.

And thank you, Council Member Moore, for your efforts on this front.

We need greater backstopping of our budget work with council committee.

Too often we needed to make seat of our pants decision making that could have been benefited by having that topic worked in our committees to include public safety.

to include public safety, which I'm responsible for, like in the area of alternative response.

Committee work can in turn assist the executive represented here with Director Eder in next year's proposals.

On revenue, taxes should be seen in the context of the complete set of taxes to understand trade-offs, to understand second and third order effects of any decision made.

We cannot be looking at anything in isolation.

On revenue as well, I believe that creating silos or buckets for funds to be allocated reflects failure in many ways for both the executive and the legislative branches to properly define our priorities.

And if we are going to be doing silos and buckets, we need to have one called deficit.

We need to have one called reserve, which is what we've done in part with this budget.

So I just want to say thank you, colleagues, and the various teams on public safety for the support for the criminal justice system with the prosecutor and the two civil department assistant city attorneys on SPD, whether it's 30 by 30, championed by...

Council Member Moore, Council Member Saka, and others, the Parking Enforcement Office, the CCTV recruitment pieces, fire with the mobile integrated health, post-overdose work, recruitment, which is so important, even for fire department, care, Council Member Rivera on the 911 call system, but also the public data dashboard, and also to the executive for the registration program, which is so important.

It's kicking off with the downtown activation team.

It's a very important program.

OEMs.

an area that's often forgotten about, emergency preparedness.

Thank you for your support to the elements within the budget on that.

And so in addition, I wanted to say thank you in other areas, as Council Member Strauss noted, in public health, human services, because We can't succeed in public safety if we don't also succeed in public health or human services.

We cannot be just pushing on one.

We have to be pushing on both sides of that coin.

So to your point about non-congregate shelters, so important.

To legal services for homeless youth, very important.

The good neighbor agreements.

not talked about yet, but that's going to be key.

And that really goes to that public safety, public health, human services point.

We have to have those good neighbor agreements.

And as I mentioned, the Seattle Housing Investment Plan, that could be a surprise about how influential that could be on what we're doing in the future related to housing.

And for good governance and district, just doing things early and right.

Like, don't wait until there's a disaster at the Garden Remembrance.

Do the study now.

Understand what the challenges are.

Do it early, which is usually less costly.

Thank you, everyone, for the Portal Park study that kicked that park off.

So important for our community and hopefully for the community.

World Cup and the MOHAI, and also the support related to the Waterfront Park.

The Waterfront Park is a key new front porch for our city, and so I thank you for your support.

And again, thank you for the teams.

As I often say, I have my immediate team on my staff, but it's also the various committees team, the select budget committee team.

and the staffs, to include Council Member Strauss' staff that was so helpful to my staff, and the other staffs, too, as we were working individual efforts.

And then going out another layer, the central staff team, so important.

Director Noble, thank you so much, and to your team.

Not just the public safety, which we work so closely with, but all the others.

And this has actually been very beneficial in the sense of engaging with some of those central staff members we may not normally really engage as much with.

And then also with the clerks, the city clerk system, our recent birthday person, Amelia, sitting in front of us.

Sorry, I had to do that.

But for the entire team from the city clerks team, thank you very much.

And Council President, that's it.

Thank you very much.

Let me see who else has their hand.

Okay.

Council Member Wolf.

Thank you.

So this budget is more than a financial document.

It's a roadmap for action.

It reflects our commitment to tackling the issues we face head on, housing insecurity, public safety, economic disparity, climate change, and need to strengthen the social fabric that binds us together.

And so Seattle is a city of immense potential, powered by the diversity, creativity, and resilience of its people.

Yet too many of our neighbors are struggling, whether it's finding affordable housing, navigating our public safety system, recovering from economic setbacks, or dealing with the devastating effects of climate change.

In crafting this budget, I believe this council has remained focused on key principles that I believe will make a real difference in everyone's lives.

where we've made investments in housing and homelessness solutions.

Housing is a fundamental human right and includes critical investments in expanding shelter capacity and wraparound services, ensuring that more satellites will have access to a safe and stable place to stay.

We are also reimagining public safety.

Our communities deserve safety and justice.

That's why I'm proud to support the launch of the co-made initiative, Community Organizing Mutual Aid and De-escalation Teams, a program modeled on grassroots efforts in the Chinatown International District.

Higher neighborhoods with tools, training, and best practices to create safety from within.

Additionally, expansion of drug diversion services to support for safety ambassadors for children and elders in the CID.

We're building an inclusive economy that includes working families.

Small businesses are the backbone of our neighborhoods.

That's why this budget includes funding for workforce and small business initiatives supporting job growth and an equitable clean energy economy.

There's also funding for empowering refugee women to overcome employment barriers and promote sustainability.

We've strengthened arts, culture, and community.

We've created opportunities for young people in the arts workforce.

We've also protected the mission tax, ensuring vital resources remain available for art programs across the city.

And we're also supporting our most vulnerable neighbors, funding for survivors of gender-based violence, including deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

It also provides resources for libraries, legacy homeowners, food access, ensuring a stronger safety net for Seattleites.

And none of this would have been possible without the leadership of Budget Chair Dan Strauss and colleagues, whose commitment to addressing unmet community needs has been instrumental.

Together, we're all advanced initiatives that not only respond to today's challenges, but also lays the foundation for a brighter future.

Thank you all for making this process collaborative and supportive, and thank you to the legislative staff for all their work.

This budget is more than a reflection of where we are, it's a declaration of where we're going.

It's a tool for unity, empowerment, and progress, and with everyone's continued support, I'm confident we can build a Seattle where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

All right, I'm not seeing anybody else's hands raised, so I'll provide, oh, I'm sorry.

Okay, yes.

Who is first, please?

I have Council Member Saka.

Okay, Council Member Saka, please go ahead.

All right, thank you, Madam Council President.

And colleagues, I wanna today discuss three things.

A sustainable funding path, collaboration, the power of collaboration, and community wins that we earn together.

With respect to the first one, sustainable funding path.

Throughout this process, we're able to not only maintain funding and in some cases expand funding for critical services across our city.

Taking care of and looking after our most vulnerable.

But remarkably, we're able to also put ourselves on a sustainable funding path.

laid the initial groundwork from which to build upon.

And on that sustainable funding path, I'm reminded of, so first off, I try to take quotes and inspiration from a variety of sources.

And right now, I'd like to reflect upon the wise words of a great 21st century philosopher and future Pro Football Hall of Famer, Marshawn Lynch, beast mode.

who once taught us, take care of y'all's mentals, y'all's bodies, and y'all's chickens.

And colleagues, he wasn't just talking to those young sahabs.

Local governments like ourselves in Seattle can derive lessons from future Hall of Famer beast mode.

And we did that.

We initiated budget reform.

Thanks to the budget chair's leadership, we were able to closely examine and scrutinize or audit the budget, the city's budget end to end.

Examining opportunities for efficiencies, opportunities for driving further impact and investment.

That leads me to the power of collaboration.

Let's take a moment to pause, acknowledge, and celebrate how truly collaborative this process was.

Mr. Chair, I'm looking at you.

I always say that the full democratic process is rather messy, clunky, and oftentimes awkward.

No doubt we've seen a little bit of that, a lot of it of that live in real time throughout this process and other processes too.

And we will always have differences and disagreements, philosophical or otherwise.

And in this process, each time it is done without being disagreeable for the most part.

But we never, never question the motives of each other and always strive to assume the overall good faith and good intent of each other.

Colleagues, we were able to come together and rally and unite around one common goal of meeting the vastly diverse needs and huge needs of our communities that make our city such a vibrant place to live and work.

We must always remind ourselves that we are setting an example for our children and our young people of how civic and public discourse should happen.

That's why I want to take the time to personally thank each and every one of you colleagues.

Starting off with Budget Chair Strauss.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for tackling one of the most challenging budgets in our city's, certainly in our city's recent history.

And I appreciate your steadfast commitment to collaboration and ensuring that we do have a budget that reflects the wonderful diversity of our city and allows us to effectively meet the needs.

You shepherded and led a terrific and collaborative process.

Along the way, you provided some very unique historical knowledge and interesting insights and perspectives.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Madam Council President, the presiding officers of today's meeting, you have also provided steadfast leadership on any number of issues throughout this process, especially on issues related to good old-fashioned good governance.

Irrespective of where the winds are blowing, one this way or the other at any given moment, You've been resolute in your commitment to driving good governance, improving transparency, and accountability.

Your institutional perspective has also been incredibly helpful.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Council Member Kettle, the distinguished gentleman from Queen Anne, chair of our Public Safety Committee, thank you for your relentless focus on public safety and critical transportation investments.

including your strong support of transit security.

The issues we're facing as a city are highly complex, cross-cutting, and nuanced.

And personally, I admire how you are always able to effectively incorporate and weave in public safety into every single policy discussion.

It's true.

You've led the charge on most of the over 10 or 11 public safety bills that we adopted this year, some of which we put some additional resources behind during this budget process.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Rivera, chair of our Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee, thank you for relentless focus on transparency and just the nitty-gritty details that matter to people's everyday lives.

You've shown yourselves this year and throughout this budget process, most recently as a consummate champion of ensuring that our tax dollars are being wisely invested.

And you've shown that yet again during this budget cycle, your focus on holding governments accountable, not least of which You would apply to our own council.

It's something I hope we can all do a better job of living up to and following your lead on.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Moore, our distinguished chair of our Housing and Human Services Committee, thank you, thank you.

for asking the difficult questions as it relates to how our city funds critical needs like affordable housing, protecting those most vulnerable in our society.

You've emerged as a clear champion of affordable housing and tenants' rights.

And I am truly grateful for your leadership and advocacy in up-leveling the tough questions around Jump Start and exploring new progressive revenue options such as capital gains.

These conversations will continue, and I'm thankful you brought them to the dais sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Councilmember Moore.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, our distinguished chair of the PUT Committee, thank you for your focus on uplifting policies for our city's families and youth.

Your budget priorities, such as making sure no one in our city goes hungry, and the huge reallocation of funds of the participatory budget to the black community most impacted by disparity and inequity, just to name a few, was exactly the right thing to do.

I'm thankful for your leadership in that and so many other areas.

I'm both impressed and inspired by your leadership in helping to fund more turf play fields throughout our city.

The number of folks who came out from your district to speak on the various budget priorities that you championed is truly a testament to the connection to you and your community and your district.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council Member Wu, Chair of the Sustainability Arts and City Light Committee.

I want to thank Council Member Wu, who has been one of the most stalwart advocates for her community and a terrific representative for our city.

I am forever grateful for our time on council together.

I'm impressed by your work ethic and moved by your devotion to serving people.

efforts to bring forth the voices of members of the Chinatown International District is a legacy that we must all pick up the mantle where you left off and I know you will continue to be a highly respected leader and advocate in our community I look forward to seeing you testifying in council chambers someday or joining you on the streets in any number of shared community initiatives.

Thank you, Councilmember Wu.

Let's see, last but not least, Councilmember Morales.

Thank you, Councilmember Morales, for your unwavering commitment to policies around affordability, workers' protections, and especially your efforts to represent those who have had historically the least access to the levers of power.

You served as a model for all of us in so many material respects.

You have always stood up for equity and funding, and while we have not always been able to support certain of your proposals, they were all important needs that because of you, you were able to give voice and bring life to.

I'm honored to have been able to collaborate with you this year and most recently during this budget process on any number of things.

And I look forward to continuing that partnership on a going forward basis.

And because I see silver linings in all clouds, I do want to thank you, Council Member Morales, for elevating the discussion on all of my budget priorities, including in the chair's balancing package.

All of them.

All of them.

I will admit when that first happened, I was in my feelings a little bit, but I never at all questioned your motives or intent.

I knew you were doing the best thing.

what you thought was in the best interest of our city, your constituents, and our shared constituents across the city.

But it did give me a little, right here at first.

But truly, I'm grateful that you did that and any number of things in hindsight, because again, it did allow us to elevate the discussion on many important community issues.

And the result was, We had these public debates and discussions.

Communities rose up to the occasion, spoke for themselves, and zealously advocated on their own behalf.

And had a few watershed moments in the process.

That was sort of like—I love sports.

And it was a bit like the— Gary Payton to Sean Kemp alley oop where he where Sean Kemp dunked it with emphasis but we had these discussions and it was really important there was no losers because we needed to have these discussions we'll continue to need to have them So thank you again, in all honesty, for your advocacy and elevating the conversation on so many issues.

We're better together.

Thank you, Mayor Harrell, for your partnership throughout this process.

before the budget kicked off, and I look forward to partnering closely with you and your executive department leaders on implementing all of the things that we're funding in this budget package.

Thank you central staff, Director Noble, our city clerk, and assistant city clerks, and my own legislative aides, Elaine Coe, Ian Griswold, two members where we've been able to operate very efficiently and leanly.

They've went above and beyond and rose to the challenge to meet the needs of our constituents.

And I'm forever grateful for you all.

Thank you.

I appreciate all your legislative aides as well.

You as well, Mr. Chair, for helping.

Facilitate this process.

So so expertly you said a great example for success that I think again We can all live up to so finally community wins.

I think we're able to think all of us think beyond our own council districts and Personally during this process it was it was really I try to do this all year every chance that I got And I will continue to do so going forward, but this is you know where you're assigning appropriations to priorities and programs it was really my first opportunity to try to live up to one of my campaign commitments, campaign promises of representing the diverse voices and unique needs of all communities and all people in my district.

My wife absolutely hates it when I say that.

I will represent all the interests.

But I tried my level best this budget And I feel good that we can say we're able to do that.

More work to do.

All of this is a baseline of work, a body of work from which to build upon.

And I want to thank also my constituents.

Because of my constituents, I ended up proposing 21 amendments and slides on behalf of my constituents.

And many were designed to benefit them, and many were designed to specifically benefit all people across the city and address the broader challenges.

So last but not least, thank you to the members of the public who participated in this process.

who shared with us your views and your perspectives and insights, challenged us to be better, and fought to hold us accountable, to make sure, I'm proud to say, while I have tried my best to live up to these challenges and the opportunities, And although we may or may not agree on any given particular policy topic, you made this process better.

And for that, I'm thankful.

Look, that's it.

This is a better together story.

Thank you again, Mr. Chair, Budget Chair.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, members of the public.

And thank you to my staff, especially Elaine and Ian.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

We are better together.

Council Member Hollingsworth, I see you have the next hand.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

budget chair Strauss, but we're full council, council member.

Thank you, council president.

I know that she stepped out for a moment for your leadership.

I want to thank the budget chair, council member, Dan Strauss, for your leadership and your commitment to make this a collaborative approach that does not go unnoticed.

It's truly grateful for that.

And I thank you for your vision during this process.

I also want to take a moment to thank your staff as well for the early mornings and long nights they spent as facilitating between offices.

So thank you all.

I want to thank Director Noble, our incredible central staff, the city clerk, our city hall greeters, the Seattle Channel, our front desk, the janitors, Yaga, our security team.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your help during, again, these long nights.

I also want to thank my colleagues.

I don't have...

Individual words like councilmember Osaka went down the line.

I just want to just double down on everything that he said for His gratitude for all of you and the staffs who hope literally help make y'all look good too as well and make us look good as well our staff But also for you being great representatives for your district I know there's sometimes a City Council can be often a front porch of politics and But I truly believe every single one of you are serving your districts with love and intention and connection and always just trying to bring the temperature down and just serve.

And I just really appreciate that.

A lot of people don't know what it takes to be in these seats.

It's a lot of work.

You take a lot of hits.

And I just want to.

Just want to just send my appreciation for for each and every one of you today people will hear about the budget wins Council members are going to talk about the wins for the districts, but I know it's more than that It's wins for our city just because we might have improvements in a district doesn't mean it bleeds over It doesn't mean it doesn't bleed over into a different location or just stays in that geographical location.

It impacts others it's a win for our city of Seattle and Our approach was simple, focus on the bold basics that affect everyone's day-to-day lives, the fundamental of government service.

I met with people, I got on safety walks, I've visited schools, I've done community meetings, churches, events.

I've heard from every single person, and that's why we've made investments in food security through meal providers.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for your support for the food banks, the meal providers, also the late-night activities for our youth that includes food.

That's how we get...

kids inside as we offer them a hot meal.

That's why we were able to make sure that our softball fields have equity within sports.

We heard different teams come down here and talk about how they get rained out 30% more than baseball teams.

But now with some of our turfing, we will continue to close the gap as long as kids continue to close the gap and as long as i continue to serve i will work with my colleagues so we can make sure that we have equitable uh equitable access for all kids that's why we're able to make sure that we have investment in capitol hill i'm happy about the investments that we're making in capitol hill to make it a vibrant and colorful neighborhood i remember growing up that i remember growing up as a child i always say i'm a daughter of the cd but i grew up in the hill mural walks, safety coordinator, ambassadors, on top of all the investments, besides the cleaning, the new signage, the lighting, and other important investments, it is coming to Capitol Hill.

I heard you loud and clear.

We need more safety investments on the Hill.

But one common theme that I heard that I continue to hear as I walk around the streets, and someone said to me, Joy, what about the children?

What about our babies?

I used to work at an after-school program.

A lot of people don't know.

I used to work at this cool after-school program helping kids.

And I met this young man named Connor Dasa Holland.

I coached Connor.

I helped him with his homework.

I picked him up from school.

My job was coaching and being a mentor.

Connor went to Rainier Beach High School.

He played football and graduated.

Unfortunately, on Mother's Day in 2020, Connor was shot and killed in front of his house.

His mother, Alyssa, has been dedicating her life to youth activities and youth safety.

Last year, I went to a meeting, community meeting, where Connor's mom came up to me and I asked her, I said, what do we need to do better?

I'm tired of coming to these meetings.

What do we need to do better?

How do we need to get, what do we need for these kids?

And she looked at me and she said, Joy, you see all these adults in this room?

I need them over there.

And she pointed to the gym where kids were playing.

She said, I need the adults to stop talking about what they're going to do, and I need them to actually do.

They need to be in that gym.

That's why we made investments in resources that will help keep our kids safe, after school programming, funding the arts, We say gun violence.

That is a political term.

Colleagues, people are on the street saying it's our babies shooting each other.

That is what is happening in our community.

We are responding by pouring funds and dollars to have the impact for our babies to keep them safe.

Every time you hear about a young child, that's someone's young child.

We will continue to make these investments.

But these are some of the best investments we could ever make in our city is our kids and our youth.

When we talk about the most vulnerable, I want us to continue to talk about our kids.

They are so vulnerable right now.

And we are making those investments with a lot of the programming, the amendments that we have.

I'm very happy to see that, and we will continue to do that.

That's why we will work with the executive to do a full inventory on the youth programming from our city to figure out the investments, what's needed to continue to provide our youth the best resources to move forward.

I'm looking forward to continue to work with all of you because Team, we have a lot of work to do.

People want to see results.

They want to see impact.

They want to see movement.

They want to see us building community.

They want to see transparency, and they want to see things work.

I'm focused on the fundamentals.

I know that sounds boring, but it's the stuff that really matters to people.

It's the stuff that matters to our district, what I heard.

So people can do their jobs.

They can get to work on time.

Trash get picked up, potholes filled, sidewalks, crosswalks.

libraries open, community centers functioning, clean parks, safe streets, things that make our city work better.

Seattle's such a great city, and now we are on the main stage to show people how progressive can work, how we can make progress towards things.

build things, how we can actually make it work, focusing on the fundamental elements of government services.

So I look forward to working with my colleagues.

Thank you for the work that you all have done.

And I appreciate the investments that we have made in this budget.

Thank you.

Okay, Council Member Moore, have you spoken already?

No, I haven't.

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Council President.

And this is the nice thing about going towards the end, which is that I get to hear the amazing words of my colleagues.

I have sparse remarks, and I don't need them because of the incredibly gracious speech that Councilmember Salka has given and the inspiring words of Councilmember Hollingsworth, Councilmember Rivera, Councilmember Kettle.

I think that this We haven't necessarily agreed.

We've had some intense debates, but at the end of the day, I think we have coalesced and unified around a budget that we can all be proud of.

I think that it is a budget in which we have brought our respective passions and interests and expertise, and we have really complemented one another, and the citizens and residents of this city are going to be better off for it.

Do we still have work to do?

Undoubtedly, and I think we all acknowledge that.

Have we really tried to be authentic and real and committed in the work that we have done here today?

Absolutely, I have no doubt about that.

I want to say immense thank you to my colleagues for a, I think, unprecedented investment in rental assistance, which is going to make a significant difference for many, many people's lives in this city.

I also want to thank you for your support for a seasonal shelter in District 5, which, while it will be housed in District 5, will certainly serve communities across the city in the North End.

I also want to thank the mayor and also my colleagues for your support of the unprecedented investment of $2 million to fight commercial sexual exploitation.

And then also just to thank you for all of the things that you individually have contributed to making this a better city for all.

Chair Strauss, I wanted to thank you for running a very collaborative and thoughtful process.

It's been hard work, and I think all of us are pretty tired and are looking forward to it being done, but I really don't, I know there's always you know, concerns about, was it as transparent as it could have been?

I think it was.

I think you did a very good job, given the short amount of time that we have.

We can always improve, and that's what we're here to do, is to learn and improve.

But I have felt that we have all been heard in the process, and as we are heard, it means our constituents are heard, and so I thank you for that.

And again, I just want to thank my colleagues for for all that you've brought to this and to being willing to engage in conversation and to think about things as we come and not just be a stamp and to continue to challenge one another to be as good as we can be.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for everybody's comments.

I will make some...

I haven't gone yet, Council President.

Pardon me?

I haven't gone yet.

Oh, I just undid my hand.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

Go ahead.

I'd like to make some comments if I might.

Okay.

Get to my notes.

Okay.

I want to start by saying that we all know that 2024 has been a challenging year for our neighbors.

Housing prices continue to soar, wages aren't keeping pace, and growing homelessness and behavioral health crises have continued to mean that many people in our city are struggling.

I do want to first thank central staff, Ben's gone already, but I want to thank central staff for the incredible amount of work that they did this year, working late into the night and weekends to get us here.

And I do want to thank my team as well, Andra Kranzler, Naomi Lewis, Evelyn Chow, who worked really hard alongside and responding to both our individual constituents and the community organizations that represent our constituents.

I want to take a moment to talk about what we were able to secure in this budget, particularly for District 2. The budget does include my amendments to fund workforce development programs at the Filipino Community Center, funding for domestic violence services at Consejo Counseling, funding for technical assistance for black and brown immigrant small businesses and nonprofits, and for bilingual and bicultural after-school programs at El Centro de la Raza.

as well as sanitation services and public safety resources for the Chinatown International District.

We also worked hard to secure increased rental assistance to protect youth employment programs.

And finally, we directed our Office of Planning and Community Development to study ways to support increased homeownership opportunities and also support current homeowners who want to redevelop their properties.

So I'm thankful that we were able to include those things in the in the package.

And while I'm proud of what we were able to include, I'm extremely disappointed that so much good work in the city lost support in this process.

Several of my items were removed from the chair's package and voted down, including funding to convene a tenant and landlord work group, funding for arts cultural planning work, and restoration of the workforce equity division in our human resources department that would have supported city workers facing workplace discrimination as required by the charter.

Big picture, this budget lays off 48 positions in six city departments in 2025, including our Department of Neighborhoods, Finance and Administrative Services, the IT Department, SDCI, Human Resources, and Parks.

Seven additional positions are subject to layoff in 2026. The total ongoing cost savings for laying off these 55 positions is approximately $8.8 million.

I'm going to say that again.

The total ongoing cost savings for laying off 55 people is about $8.8 million, which is less than we will be spending on police overtime alone.

Despite numerous efforts, we were only able to partially restore tenant services, and that means that this budget creates a disaster for neighbors who are facing eviction and cannot afford to hire legal representation, and will create additional stress on our already depleted shelter system.

All year, I've been advocating for this council to take up the issue of our structural budget deficit.

In February, after we learned that the budget deficit was projected to reach $230 million, I published an op-ed in The Times calling for new progressive revenue options.

We should have begun this work months ago.

Unfortunately, that discussion came at the 11th hour, literally the last week of our 10-week budget cycle.

And so I do appreciate Councilmember Moore calling the question by introducing her bill to create a capital gains tax, and I'm proud to be a co-sponsor of that.

And I'll say on the record that I do intend to work with Councilmember Moore to revisit that bill if it does not pass today.

We will have a new colleague sworn in, and I'm hoping that we have a different balance on the council.

The time for new revenue was yesterday.

We did our deep dive on the budget, which has demonstrated that there are not actually many places to cut, as I think many of us have acknowledged in the last few weeks.

And urgent action is paramount to address the great need that exists in this city.

I am frustrated but was not surprised that both of my efforts to simply research additional progressive revenue options like a professional services tax or a digital ad tax were rejected, as was my amendment to preserve the spend plan for the payroll expense tax for affordable housing and community investments, along with my amendment to restore the oversight committee would have ensured accountability and transparency in this budget—in this revenue source.

And all of this at a time when, in just two years, we are projected to have another $80 million deficit.

In fact, not only did we not have a timely discussion about new revenue, in 2024, this council and mayor proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending.

The mayor's proposed budget was actually 5% larger than the 2024 adopted budget.

So out the gate, the budget did not reflect fiscal conservation.

And as a council, we added 3% on top of that.

The calls for audits and efficiencies and fixing our spending problem have given way to legislation that increases spending on downtown activation, graffiti cleanup, 30 new staff for homeless encampment resolution, SPD overtime, contracting with a disreputable jail, and brand new technology for SPD like the closed caption TV and the real-time crime center.

And while it's true that these reflect priorities for public safety strategies, They don't reflect priorities for addressing homelessness.

We need both, but this budget only delivers on one.

Which brings me to the conclusion that I must, for the first time during my tenure on this council, vote no on both our mid-year supplemental budget and our biennium budget.

Despite calls for fiscal responsibility, good governance, and data-informed decision-making, this budget does not reflect Seattle's values of care, prevention, equity, nor does it reflect the bold vision we need to create thriving, healthy neighborhoods for our seniors, our young people, our families, and our small businesses.

Instead of funding eviction prevention at a request of just $2.5 million, it expands the unified care team at $30 million.

It limits who can access tenant services to 200% of federal poverty, which is a national rate that will dramatically limit eligibility for housing support and services.

This budget gives huge funding increases for more police, more care team, more unified care team, the Seattle Fire Department, the Office of Emergency Management, but it cuts their IT support by 25%, which leaves these vital teams without the technology support they need to do their jobs.

And I will say, after this week's massive power outage, we had hundreds of calls to the fire department for elevator rescue.

We had SPD staff emailing us, saying that they were so grateful to have IT support during this outage.

So just to be clear, in future disasters, that support will be greatly diminished to our emergency response system.

This budget also funds $50,000 hiring bonuses for SPD and $10 million of police overtime, but it cuts the Office of Police Accountability overtime by 67% in a time when they are investigating many complaints and are, in fact, recognized by Judge Robart as a key component of our police accountability.

The bottom line is that this council turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the thousands of constituents who came here for at least 10 hours of public comment and have been emailing and calling us to maintain the Jump Start Spend Plan, to restore the Oversight Committee, to fully fund tenant services, and to protect our city workers.

I came into office five years ago to repair the harm that was being done to black and brown communities, particularly as a representative of District 2. So to the advocates who have worked so hard to protect funding for programs that serve communities of color, that serve the most vulnerable, or that could have addressed our housing and infrastructure needs, I'm sorry that this budget will cause more harm.

And that's why I will be voting no today.

I'm acknowledging the response in the chambers.

Thank you.

All right, I believe that I am the last one to speak, but please correct me if that's not the case.

Can I just say one thing?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Sorry, I would be remiss if I did not thank my staff, and I did not.

So I just wanted to shout out to my incredible staff, to Hannah, to Noel, to Melissa, and to Henry.

Thank you so, so very much.

for your amazing work and support.

And thank you to central staff, as well as the CBO office and the mayor's office.

Thank you.

That's it.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

Council President, just confirming I'll speak after you.

Is that correct?

However the system works well.

Did you, as the chair of the budget, get the last word and then that was it?

I'd appreciate that, Council President.

Okay.

I'll think about whether or not I have forgotten anything in my comments and then perhaps ask to add whatever I might have forgotten to say.

But for right now, here's what I'd like to...

to say when the budget came down in September after reviewing the mayor's budget, I said that I was going to enter into the deliberation process by approaching the budget through the lens primarily of public safety and preserving baseline funding for first responders and the city's attorney's office and municipal court system, and evaluating whether or not nonprofit providers of crime prevention and community safety services are delivering results.

And I'd also look closely to track investments in substance use disorder and treatment and homelessness and small business support, downtown revitalization and graffiti removal.

That's a big basket of priorities, but that's sort of what colored my thinking as I was going through the documents.

And I am glad to say that this budget makes historic investments in affordable housing.

And for the first time ever since I have been on council, this budget makes no reduction whatsoever to the mayor's proposed public safety spending.

And that is interesting to me.

In fact, we increase the spending that was sent down to us by restoring things like prosecutor positions in the city attorney's office.

adding an FTE to process firefighter applications faster.

It adds dedicated staff to the 911 emergency communications dispatcher for improved non-emergency line response, because we hear a lot about that from our constituents, adds a position to process firefighter applications faster, and funds neighborhood safety ambassadors among many measures.

And I would say that the I think that the bulk of some of that money was allocated to the CIG.

And so we took the mayor's budget and then added different forms of public safety items that made people and neighborhoods that they had been asking for.

that that would make them feel safer as they lived and walked and worked and circulated around our city.

So that is interesting.

That is also a 180 degree shift from two years ago when Councilmember Peterson and I actually voted no on the budget.

which was kind of a big deal back then.

I mean, for years, council members still wanted voting no on the budget, but it took a big step for us to decide to take a no vote because we had written an op-ed in the Seattle Times calling for the maintenance of the mayor's public safety investments.

That didn't happen, and so we took a stand and voted no.

That is not this budget.

That is not what is happening here.

There has been a shift in the way this council thinks about some of our basic services, including public safety.

So just some things that I'd like to note that were included in this budget that I'm pleased about.

First and foremost, Seattle Channel.

We saved the Seattle Channel.

The chair's budget, I mean, the chair's balancing package allows for two years of bridge funding.

And one of the pieces of legislation that we'll be voting on later today is a bill that I'm putting forward Council Bill 120911, it directs the executive to establish an ongoing dedicated funding plan for using revenue sources that include but are not limited to 50% or 1.7 million of existing cable fund dollars, whichever is greater.

departmental indirect cost allocations, a small part of the general fund which will only pay for the cost of producing the council meetings that are public.

And then the work group that Councilmember Strauss has committed to convening will also bring forth their ideas.

The point is that we are not going to go from year to year or two years to two years to figure out how we're going to fund the Seattle Channel.

We're hoping for some certainty much sooner than that, perhaps in the middle of next year.

So that is something that I'm very pleased at.

Other things include the maintenance of the storefront repair fund.

That's a high-demand grant program that reimburses businesses for having to repair damage due to break-ins, etc., That was due to Sunset, and they found the money, and it will be provided in exchange for public benefits proffered by the individual businesses.

Got some support for the CD Panthers youth football team.

That's a small but mighty team in the CD, and they've not had CD support in the past.

A couple pieces of funding for...

what I consider to be the city's greatest need, which is to address the opioid epidemic.

Not just opioid overdoses, but also helping people make decisions toward potential long-term recovery.

And on and on and on, there are also some, there's additional funding for graffiti removal.

I am talking about the items that I have heard my constituents are most interested in.

And I've also learned from my colleagues as they put forward their priorities.

So what I will say is that this is a long list of items and we all have our priorities and what this ended up doing was creating additional expenses in addition to the 76 budget shortfall for 2027. I think that our additions raised the shortfall in 2027 to about 100. I haven't seen how the latest item additions have impacted that but the point is we've still got work to do and that is why a big interesting and new piece of this budget is the over two dozen statements of legislative intent, some of them are provisos, that ask for very detailed information from departments so that we can make more better informed decisions about what kinds of reductions we might be considering going forward next year.

So while we spent down the reserves this year, what we also did was set ourselves up for making really good and detailed decisions as we look at these programs, as we receive the sly responses during the year and prepare ourselves for the budget and potential cuts that might make sense going forward.

And the criteria that we would use to decide that was looking at whether or not the outcomes of these investments are really meeting our needs and then having the political will to to potentially reallocate those investments.

So I think that is a good thing.

I'm sure that it was frustrating for our central staff members to hear yet another report.

I'm sure that the executive departments will be concerned about how they'll have the time to respond in depth and correctly to our inquiries, but this is what the oversight body, which is council, needs to make decisions going forward.

And since we're all new, this is all getting information at the same time.

So I will simply conclude by saying that this budget is in response to what we have heard are our constituents' primary needs.

We hear a lot about public safety, making progress on homelessness.

There are several changes and additions to the way that we can approach homelessness, not just at the city level, but through our work with KCRHA.

And we're setting ourselves up for taking some risk and engaging in some innovation going forward.

And that is a good thing, although it might have been annoying.

and demanding during this process.

So I will simply end by saying that the budget passed today or that I hope will pass today is responsive to our constituents primary top priorities and represents a seismic shift toward budgeting practices that really, really, really get down into the weeds and scrutinize every dollar spent while ensuring that the investments and priorities that keep citizens informed such as the Seattle channel continue to thrive.

So I commend Mayor Harrell.

I commend my colleagues.

You really, really, really, you dug in.

And you went for the answers.

And I appreciate that.

So I commend us all for doing the best we could in difficult circumstances.

as we have to look down the road and figure out how we're going to finish the work in years to come when there is still a deficit that is staring us in the face in a mere two years.

So thank you very much.

This has been an educational and hopefully at some level fun process for you all.

And thank you, Chair Strauss, for leading us through it.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council President.

Are there any further comments?

Chair Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

I had a couple notes I was taking that I had forgotten in my initial remarks.

But first, Council Member Morales, I'm sorry that you feel the way you do today and you don't feel like you can vote for this budget.

I tried really hard and I worked really diligently to meet your requests this year.

And I'm sorry that your priorities were targeted in the amendment process.

I will share that I'm not gonna go one by one, but in the statements that you just made, I didn't raise a point of order, but there were factual inaccuracies and we've had the discussions about those policy points.

I'm not gonna continue that conversation here.

I just wish that this council had taken care of you better to feel like you could support this budget.

The remarks that I was writing down was a little bit about Office of Emergency Management.

Council Member Kettle, nice work there.

Council Member Wu, you came to us earlier this year as the daughter of Seattle, and you leave these chambers this week as the auntie of Seattle.

An incredible transformative change.

Our city's better for it.

I was gonna make a joke about council rules limiting council members to speaking for 10 minutes on one item, but it seems like the air's kinda out of the room at the moment, so there's the joke.

I ALSO WANTED TO TAKE A MOMENT TO THANK ALI PINUCCHI AND TO KATE HOFFMAN, BECAUSE WITHOUT EITHER OF THOSE TWO INDIVIDUALS, THIS PROCESS WOULD NOT HAVE GONE AS SMOOTHLY AS IT DID.

AND COUNCILMEMBER MORALES, I WILL CONTEND THAT THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PROVIDED PUBLIC COMMENT have changed this budget.

That was evident in voting for additional rental assistance for Council Member Moore's proposal here on the dais.

It was changed.

I'm not gonna go into it and tick down one by one, other than to say that I have approached this process in a collaborative manner, trying to reach consensus.

And while I'm not a Quaker, it is based in Quaker values.

Lastly, I was gonna bring up a comment about the public hearings that we had, the five hour, multiple five hour public comment periods.

We haven't had an experience like that since before the pandemic.

It felt really good.

It was long and strenuous.

And it felt really good to hear everyone's perspective and for them to be here and speaking to us.

And usually in those moments, I would look for a familiar face in the crowd, the face of Jim Hillis.

And Jim passed away this year.

And so I just wanted to take a moment of recognition for Jim and a moment of silence and thank the public again for your input.

You did move my hand.

So with that, a moment of silence for Jim, and then I'll be complete.

Council President, thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

All right, colleagues.

If there are no further comments before adopting the budget, as I said earlier, this was the time to make comments.

If the clerk would please read the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

No.

Council Member Morales?

No.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saca?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Eight in favor, one opposed.

All right, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Moving on to item four, will the clerk please read the title into the record?

Item four, clerk file 314-539.

City council changes to the 2025-2026 proposed budget and the 2025-2030 proposed capital improvement program.

The committee recommends that the clerk file be approved.

Council Member Strauss, you are welcome to address this item.

Thank you, Council President.

This is the clerk file that tracks the changes that the council made to the proposed budget and CIP.

This is what was filled in over the last 48 hours.

I urge a yes vote.

Any comments or questions?

Otherwise, I will call the vote.

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

All right, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will you please affix my signature on my behalf?

And moving on to scrolling down item five.

Can you help me out here?

Agenda item five, resolution 32153, endorsing a budget and position modifications for the City of Seattle for 2026. The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Okay.

Chair Strauss, you're recognized to speak about it.

Thank you, Council President.

This creates the record for our next year's budgeting process, which will be for 2026. Colleagues, budgeting never ends.

Here's the next step.

This year, we budgeted for the biennium for 25 and 26. Next year, we will just be budgeting for 26. This resolution sets the stage for next year's work.

I urge a yes vote.

Okay.

Are there any questions about this bill?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

All right, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

And then next item, will the clerk please read the item into the record.

Agenda item six, Council Bill 120911 relating to Seattle Channel stating the city council's intent to establish dedicated ongoing funding sources for the operating capital cost of the Seattle Channel and requesting that the executive submit a funding plan by September 3rd, 2025. The committee recommends the bill pass.

So I will address this bill, even though it is in the budget chair's purview here.

As I've said many times already in different meetings, I am very appreciative of the fact that the chair included two years of bridge funding for the Seattle Channel into the balancing package.

This was necessary because the bulk of the funding that Seattle Channel receives comes from the cable TV fund, which is on decline because most people or increasingly people are accessing their entertainment, news, et cetera, from streaming services.

And so this source of revenue has declined.

And we received a budget that had eliminated six positions and all but the...

The public meetings that are first of all required by OPMA and covering us in this room right now, that would be remained to the public.

But all the shows that are popular amongst different constituencies in our city, and I tell you, it created a bit of an uproar.

And so This is the culmination of a process to find out how we can, in the short term, establish certainty that there will be money through 2026 for all the employees that had been warned that they would be let go, and also think about a long-term plan.

Because we really do have to think about a diversified funding stream going forward so that we're less reliant on the cable fund fee.

And we can also think about other sources of funding.

The legislation that I have put forward, it's Council Bill 120911, directs the executive to come up with a plan by mid-2025 that will be able to be implemented in 2026. And the backup is the fact that there is also bridge funding through 2026 as well.

But the point is we want to establish a diversified mix that makes up a funding stream that will be stable, ongoing, and does not create any doubt in our public's minds or in the talent of people that put on these shows at the Seattle Channel and the employees that through their their skill and their blood, sweat, and tears put on all of these programming all the time, 24-7.

And so this is an asset that is externally facing, considered a public benefit, and it's clear where our public wants us to go in making sure that this has a stable base going forward.

So that is what this legislation does.

And it also incorporates a timeline so that the work group that is going to be set up per the SLI put forward by Councilmember Strauss, will be incorporated into or inform the final funding plan that is eventually decided upon by the executive so that we have everything zipped up in time for 2026 and beyond.

That is what I'm asking your support for.

Thank you very much.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

All right, seeing no, will the clerk please call the roll on Council Bill 120911.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

The measure passes and the chair will sign it.

Please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Thank you.

All right, what is the next item to read forward?

Please go ahead.

That's agenda item seven, thank you.

Agenda item seven, council bill 120908, imposing excise tax on the sale or exchange of certain capital assets in Seattle, adding new chapter 5.66 to the Seattle Municipal Code.

The committee recommends a do not pass.

With council member Strauss, Hollingsworth, Moore, and Morales in favor, council members Rivera, Kettle, Nelson, and Saka oppose with an abstention from council member Wu.

All right, as this is a piece of budget legislation, yes I do.

So I will read what you just said.

The committee recommended that the bill do not pass.

The question before the bill, the question before is if the bill should pass.

Council Member Moore is sponsor of the bill.

You're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.

I've sort of read the room.

But I do want to say that I think there's a lot of misinformation out there.

I'll just address the first argument that's been presented that this somehow violates I-2111.

That's just a right-wing misinformation talking point.

Thank you very much.

And I'm not going to go into it any further than that.

We have plenty of information to make the decision on this bill.

This bill marries absolutely the state bill.

All of us individually read our voters pamphlets a year or two ago when we voted individually whether to support a capital gains tax on the state level.

We then hopefully read our voters pamphlets when we had to decide whether to vote for or against the initiative to repeal it.

And what I'll note is that 64% of state voters rejected.

They voted to affirm the state capital gains tax.

85% of Seattle voters voted to affirm the state capital gains tax.

This is probably one of the most well-vetted supplemental excise taxes available to the city and to the state.

It's survived legal challenge in the courts.

It's survived an initiative challenge.

The city bill marries it exactly.

The only two differences are, A, it applies only in the city of Seattle, and B, it's a 2% tax.

So I think we have, I disagree that we don't have enough information to make a decision about whether we should adopt this tax.

I do agree that we should.

I put together a particular spend plan because I did understand the concerns of some voters that they feel like, you know, we approve this money and then it goes into a big black hole.

And so I wanted to be respectful of that and also to look at this as not...

This...

Excise tax is never going to raise the kind of revenue that the jumpstart tax, the payroll expense tax will raise.

But it will raise, at a minimum, 15 million, and it could raise up to 62. So I have always viewed it as a supplemental source, not an entire replacement.

And I think, as Councilmember Morales pointed out when we were having discussion, it's incumbent upon us to begin to be looking at supplemental sources.

We can't put all our eggs in one basket.

So to the spend plan, my thinking was we did take a deep dive in a way that we really, I don't think, have been able, or this prior councils have been able to do on the budget.

We did make some cuts, but there was just a lot that we, there wasn't a lot to cut, and then there was a lot we were not comfortable cutting.

And so we have to be honest about the fact that we need more revenue to continue to provide the level of service and to meet the needs and the growing needs that the city is going to encounter, particularly with, I think, anticipated loss of federal funding.

And the areas where I think we really need additional funding are rental assistance to keep people housed.

We can keep people housed for $500.

We can keep people housed for $6,000.

We also need to increase the number of people who are able to own their homes because Being able to having a broader home ownership base creates a more stable society.

We've lost our middle class in this city and across the country.

We need to rebuild our middle class.

We need to move people up from the lower economic echelons to at least a middle class level.

And if we do that, we are able to expand our tax base, which, to Councilmember Hollingsworth's point, we can't just continue to look for revenue to expand our tax base.

We have to look at other ways.

We have to make this a city that's welcoming to small businesses as well as large businesses.

We've been pretty welcoming to large.

We need to do a better job with small.

But also one way we do that is by increasing the number of people able to own their homes.

And we were able, this council restored funding to the home ownership capital program.

That was a good thing that we did.

And we've all, I think, expressed our commitment to increasing home ownership.

And the spin plan I put forth for this capital gains excise tax would assist with down payment.

And the other thing that I wanted to look at was increasing food security, which Council Member Hollingsworth's been very clear is a crisis in this city.

Those are three areas in which we can target and strategically direct the funding, and we can really keep track of it.

where we can make sure that the departments that are distributing the money are doing it efficiently and the people who need it are getting it.

And so that was the thinking that I had behind the spend plan.

There were comments from colleagues that perhaps we needed to expand it to include infrastructure or other areas.

Absolutely.

I don't disagree that that's a legitimate area of topic and inquiry and committee work, as Council Member Kettle has mentioned.

That's the second bill.

That's not the first bill.

To me, there's really not a whole lot that we need to know about how the local excise tax will work.

It will work exactly the way the state excise tax works, and the state will collect the tax for us.

And that's why it's married, because it has some odd provisions like it exempts, you know, sale of livestock and salmon and things that aren't probably going to happen in the city of Seattle.

And the other thing that I really think it's important to be mindful of is exactly what Who will pay this tax?

Potentially up to 816 people, potentially, out of more than 755,000 residents.

And who will pay the tax?

It's an excise tax on passive income.

It's an excise tax on investment sale profits.

It's not an income tax.

We're not taxing your wages, your earnings, your hard work.

We're taxing...

As we are allowed to do, it's an excise tax, as the Washington State Supreme Court has made very clear, we're taxing the hard work that your money does in the stock market.

We're taxing the hard work your money does in the bond market.

And we're saying you need, if you have more than $262,000 in profits, I would say significantly more than a quarter of a million dollars in profit over the work that your investment has done, we'd like 2% of that, please, to help people who need to stay housed, to help people who need to be fed, to help people who need to get into their own home.

So let's just take a little mathematical example.

Let's say that Jeff buys $250,000 worth of stock, and Jeff has a Midas touch, and he sells his stock for a million dollars.

He makes a $750,000 profit.

under the proposal under the state law and what I'm proposing for the city law, he would then get to deduct $262,000, which would mean he had a taxable gain subject to the excise tax of $488,000.

Then he would have to pay 2%.

He would pay $9,760.

So after that, he would have $478,000 in change in his pocket, plus the $262,000 deduction.

So at the end of the day, he'd have $740,000 plus.

He would have paid less than $10,000 on a $750,000 profit.

I don't think it's too much to ask somebody who makes $750,000 profit on their money to pay $9,700 towards the social safety net of this city.

Okay, what about the people who say, oh my gosh, I don't have a lot of money.

I have $50,000 in stock that was left to me by my grandmother.

and now I need to sell it because I want to start a small business, or I need a down payment for a house.

They sell it, they make $100,000.

So they basically have a $50,000 profit, because they put in 50, they sold it for 100, they have a $50,000 profit.

What happens?

They take the deduction, the $262,000 deduction, That means that there is zero excise tax owed.

They will owe nothing to the city of Seattle under this particular plan.

So we're not going after the people who have a little bit of stock.

They were left by their parents or their grandmother or they're trying to cash it in so they can start their small business or they can get into their own home.

We are talking about the people who who are making a lot of money with their stocks and bonds.

This doesn't apply to the sale of real estate.

It doesn't apply to the sale of small businesses.

It doesn't apply to retirement accounts.

All of that's been dealt with by the state.

So I appreciate that not everybody is on board.

I appreciate that we have perhaps philosophical differences.

I appreciate that some people need more time.

Absolutely fine.

My position is the time is now.

Every day that we wait means there's less time that we will be able to actually track, collect, and then be in a position to allocate the dollars in 2027 when we're looking at a $300 million deficit if we don't continue to use the payroll expense tax to fill that gap.

And we can work on the spend plan, we can pass the tax today, and we can spend the next two years while we're tracking, collecting, working on a spend plan that we all feel good about.

Or we can kick the can down the road another year, another six months, another year.

And then we're looking at not having any money to help as a supplement until 2028. I personally don't think that that's acceptable.

And I realize that this is an uncomfortable conversation.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that we didn't introduce this conversation until earlier.

Part of the reason this conversation wasn't introduced until earlier is because, frankly, I was waiting to see what happened at the state level.

Because I wanted to know what the citizens of Washington and, more importantly, the citizens of Seattle thought.

And they told us in resounding language what they thought.

We also know that we don't have the opportunity to pursue an income tax because of what the state legislature did.

And that's fine.

They get to do that.

But we also have to call the question, we don't have some unicorn revenue that's going to be available to us that we can just keep waiting for the magical day that this additional revenue is going to suddenly be found or somebody's going to tell us it's not subject to legal challenge or whatever.

And this might be, even if this were passed, it most likely would be challenged because, boy, people don't want to have to give up their money.

even when they don't earn it, even when it's just the stock market that earns it.

But that's fine, they have the right to do that.

But it also means that we can be working on getting a spend plan in place while that's proceeding.

If we wait, then that just further pushes it down the road.

And we have to have the courage to stand up.

The same arguments that were made, this will push businesses out of the city, rich people will leave, the sky will fall, they were made for Jumpstart.

Exact same arguments.

And now, Jumpstart is saving our you-know-what.

Which is good.

I'm very, very glad.

that we have the money to continue to finance and support this amazing city.

Thank God.

Thank God for the courage and foresight of the former councils who take a lot of flack, and rightly so, in my opinion, on public safety.

But they did the right thing when it came to revenue, because we would be, where would we be?

We need to do the same thing again.

We need to say, we need to shut down those arguments.

Because we lost a few people, sure.

We also lost people because of COVID and because of the change in the way people work.

And Jeff Bezos went off to Florida.

Thank you, Jeff.

Florida loves having you there.

You know...

We're not going to lose people because they have to pay $2,000 or, God forbid, $9,700 on a, what did I say, $750,000 profit.

And if they do, oh well.

Seattle is an amazing place to live.

There is so much to offer in this city.

And part of the reason we're in this deficit is because we're trying to claw back out of our public safety crisis.

To me, it's more likely we're going to lose people if we're not able to address public safety, if we're not able to address homelessness.

And this council has been very, very clear and dedicated that its primary responsibility is public safety.

And we've done a really good job of trying to turn the ship around and make the funding that way.

But we have to continue to fund it, and we can't let the other things slip.

So, to my colleagues...

I appreciate that we can have a disagreement and we have a philosophical difference, but it's important that we be honest about that.

And if it doesn't pass today, okay, I'll be back with Council Member Morales.

I'll be back next year.

And we will continue to have this conversation because this is a conversation we can afford, we can't afford to not have.

Thank you.

Sarah?

Yes.

Council President?

Yes.

Council President?

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Haley.

Thank you.

So I'm gonna take a moment to address my last vote.

My husband works as a stock trader for Evergreen Financial Services, managing portfolios for his clients.

And like so many families, they both hold down full-time jobs because that's what it takes to keep our family restaurant going.

Now, I've consulted with Wayne from Ethics, and he says, I'm able to vote on this issue because this tax does not impact my husband's salary.

I wanted to make sure everything was above board, and I appreciate the process that ensures integrity in public service.

I also want to share this interesting tidbit.

We've gotten a number of emails.

As of 1.45 p.m.

today, I received 122 emails.

Of those, 28, which is about 23%, are in support of this tax.

The remaining 95, 77%, are against it.

And I just want to share those are the voices I'm hearing from constituents.

Now, let me be very clear about how I'm going to vote.

For me, this isn't about the tax itself.

I think it's a good idea, and I personally support it.

But my concern is with the process.

We can't rush something like this through during the budget season.

This kind of proposal deserves to go through the full legislative process of plenty of time for public input, outreach, and engagement.

And here's how I'd approach it.

You know, start by consulting stakeholders, introduce a committee, go through a full discussion there, only then to bring it before the full council, just like we do with all legislation.

And I appreciate that that's what you said you were planning to do.

And I agree with you, there's a lot of misinformation out there.

And the only way to address it is by taking our time over the course of the next couple of months to engage community, work out the details, make sure that the bill is in the best possible shape and the best possible place.

That's how we ensure it's not just good policy, but also trusted policy.

Thank you.

Who is next in line to speak?

I don't believe that there's anyone else, Council President.

Council Member Hollingsworth has raised her hand.

What did you say?

Council Member Hollingsworth has raised her hand.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Moore, for bringing this up.

As you know, and I just want to make this for the record, I did vote for it in committee.

It was recommended not to pass, and therefore I'm going to be voting no today because of that recommendation.

Sorry, point of order, Council President.

I wonder if we could take just a five-minute recess.

Sure.

Thank you.

If there's no objection?

There's no objection.

No objection, thank you.

I'm gonna object with a new one if we could be at ease.

We can be at ease if we all stay in the chambers, yes.

And as long as we need to and then the council president can call us out of ease when the council president is ready.

Is there a reason why you prefer an ease rather than a recess?

It's just easier, because otherwise we all have to leave and go back to our offices if we're at recess.

If we're at ease, we can all stay here.

Well, I might override because I am going to have a sip of water in my office, and so I would prefer a recess for about five minutes.

If there's no objection.

Thank you.

Okay, we're being recessed into 4.55, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It is 5 0 5 and will we please call the roll to make sure that we're all back here together.

Councilmember Wu.

Present.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Moore.

Present.

Councilmember Morales.

Here.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Councilmember Strauss.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Nine present.

All right, colleagues, thank you very much for your concern and for the break.

Today's been a long day and there's been a lot of going a lot going on this past week.

So thank you very much for your patience.

It's been exhausting, as I am sure you all are.

That said, I'm ready to complete today's meeting.

So let's proceed.

And I believe that Councilmember Hollingsworth was still making some points.

So please continue your your your talking points.

Thank you, Council President, and I'll just repeat what I said.

I supported this in committee, but it was recommended not to pass, and so today I will be voting no against this.

I want to thank Council Member Moore for bringing it to the table and for us to have the conversation, and as you so eloquently said, SPOKEN TODAY ABOUT THE CONCERNS YOU HAVE FOR OUR BUDGET AND REVENUE.

I DO WANT TO STRESS, WHICH YOU HAVE POINTED OUT, THAT OUR CITY NEEDS TO CONTINUE TO ENCOURAGE SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH AND CUT THE RED TAPE FOR US TO CONTINUE TO HAVE A VIBRANT NEIGHBORHOOD, FOR US TO HAVE SMALL BUSINESSES, BIG BUSINESSES, ALL THESE DIFFERENT TYPES OF REVENUE GROWTH AND OBVIOUSLY OUR HOMEOWNERSHIP PIECE AS WELL.

We can also explore different type of revenue things, but I do believe that it's not an either or, it's an and for me.

And so I just want to thank you for that.

And thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for the comments.

I will repeat a little bit of what I said last time on Tuesday when I spoke to this.

We were informed about the volatility and the uncertainty of the cap gains tax.

by the revenue forecast and by our central staff.

So part of my reason for not being for instituting a capital gains tax right now is just the fact that it's unpredictable.

And the range of revenue that could be generated ranges from 16 to 51 million.

And that is not a lot of money to plan our investments around.

And I do want to note that the investments that that are on the table, rental assistance, food assistance, and home ownership assistance.

Those are extremely worthy goals for city support, so I offer no disparagement about those priorities, but I just want to make sure that we've got better certainty on the range of revenue that could be collected.

And I also think that it's irresponsible, not necessarily irresponsible, that conveys a negative, but we should have a better sense of understanding how we will frame a new tax going forward and what it would pay for, because that helps.

our constituents contribute their buy-in to the idea that we are putting forward.

So that's specific to the capital gains tax, but the bigger point to me that I have made in other venues when we've been talking about resources is that We instituted the payroll excise tax in 2020, which was the largest city tax that did not go to the voters in Seattle history.

And before that was in 2020, established a spending plan.

And before the checks even began to roll in from the businesses in the beginning of 2022, Council put forward a statement of legislative intent calling for the formation of a new revenue, a progressive revenue workshop group to look at additional funds of, of revenue to pay for different kinds of priorities, partly because the federal dollars that funded some COVID release were used to devise expenses that were ongoing.

And so this is the tendency that I'm seeking to show that we can rise above and meet that we can judiciously identify the programs and services and vulnerabilities in our population that we want to help ameliorate and do so with the resources that we have right now.

Because that is the sort of thing, that's what our constituents want to see from their electeds.

The ability to use the resources that we have right now to help the greatest number of people and I do think that we need to build back public trust in our ability to do that before we seek another form of progressive revenue.

So those are the reasons that I voted against this proposal last couple days ago and the reason that I would do so again today, thank you.

Go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Again, I will thank Council Member Moore for bringing this.

I think she did a fantastic job of dispelling the myths around what the challenges of this tax would be.

Jumpstart is also volatile.

In fact, fewer pay into the payroll expense tax then would pay into the capital gains tax.

We have only about 100 companies that pay, and really only 10 who contribute the bulk of that revenue.

But we have over 54,000 millionaires just in Seattle.

And so while it may also be somewhat volatile and may not raise just as much as the payroll expense tax, the capital gains tax, could bring in supplemental revenue that could help stabilize and diversify our revenue sources and allow us to have a better opportunity to meet the basic needs of government.

And the last thing I'll say is that if the argument is that we should be waiting and demonstrate our ability to show restraint, That was our opportunity this year.

We had the opportunity to demonstrate how we were going to decrease our expenses, identify what we were going to cut, show the kind of fiscal responsibility that so many of my colleagues ran on last year, and that's not what happened.

What happened was we actually spent more than even the mayor proposed in his budget.

So I feel like this is just a red herring, and I really think that We need to think seriously about how we're going to address this issue because it's not going away.

And in fact, it's going to get worse over the next few years if we don't start getting serious about how we're going to.

So I will be supporting this bill and I think Council Member Moore for bringing it.

I'm looking around for other hands here.

Would anybody like to make more comments?

No?

Okay, well, please call the bill, the vote on the bill.

Council President, I just want to be clear that the vote here is whether the bill should pass, and a yes vote would be to be in favor of the bill, and a vote no would be in opposition to the bill.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Wu?

No.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

No.

Council Member Kettle?

No.

Council Member Moore?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

No.

Council Member Saka?

No.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

No.

Three in favor, five opposed.

Okay, the motion fails and we will move on to the next item on the agenda.

Agenda item eight, Council Bill 120909, establishing a spending plan for proposed use of the proceeds generated from the capital gains excise tax authorized in the ordinance introduced as Council Bill 120908. The committee recommends that you not pass with Council Members Hollingworth, Moore, and Morales in favor, and Council Member Strauss, Rivera, Kettle, Nelson, and Saka opposed, and Council Member Wu abstained.

All right.

Well, I... Council President?

Yes.

I move Council Bill 120909.

Second.

Thank you.

Go ahead, please.

Any comments?

Council Member Moore sponsored the bill.

Yep.

Yep.

I don't need to say anything.

I don't have any additional remarks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anybody else like to speak to the bill?

I'm seeing no desire to speak to the body of this bill.

So that given the case, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Council Member Wu?

No.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

No.

Council Member Kettle?

No.

Council Member Moore?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

No.

Council Member Saka?

No.

Council Member Strauss?

No.

Council President Nelson?

No.

Two in favor, seven opposed.

All right.

The motion fails, and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please fix it?

All right.

The motion fails.

So there were no items removed from the consent calendar and there are, is there any other item to be brought before the committee?

No other business.

Not seeing any.

And so we have reached.

Council President.

Yes, please.

Can I add one additional piece of business?

I just wanted to note that this is the last council meeting for our colleague, and I just wanted to note that with just a brief statement.

Please go ahead.

Colleagues, but specifically Councilmember Wu, I want to thank you for your service on this council, and I am proud to have nominated you and to vote for you.

My nomination was because of your work representing your community, being a community leader, a civic volunteer, and doing so even when it meant banging your head against city hall's walls, and the county's too, for that matter.

This perspective is so important, so needed, and why I nominated you earlier this year.

And I should say that was the reason, and despite and contrary to reporting suggesting otherwise.

In the Navy, in these kinds of times of farewells, we have a saying, fair winds and following seas.

So in this, your last meeting here on the council, on the dais itself, council briefing notwithstanding, I just wanted to wish you fair winds and following seas.

Amen.

Anybody else here?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle, for raising this.

I, too, on the record and with all of you here, want to thank Council Member Wu for her service to our city in this capacity because you've serviced our city as a community member for many, many years.

But I want to acknowledge the hard work that you've done this year.

I very much appreciated it.

your service on this council and I look forward to our continued conversations About all the work that you're doing in the CID and not just in the CID.

I know you now are Doing work across the city.

So I really want to thank you for that And I like I said, I look forward to our continued work Together in the future.

Thank you

I just wanted to make one final note that I didn't say earlier today.

You first came to my attention, Council Member Wu, when you packed this chambers with people of all ages, but primarily elderly people.

I think that they were wearing red shirts who had walked from the CID to pack the chambers and talk about safety that was before us.

And I was impressed that you were able to, or that someone was able to fill those chairs and really show show how important the community felt about this issue before us.

And you have done that again.

Recently during your campaign, when you had a public safety forum in the CID, that place was standing room only.

And so it really is clear that there That was my introduction to your ability to really tap into what your community wants and then translate it to the ears of policymakers.

And so I just wanted to say that that was my first impression of you, and I'll miss that organizing capacity here.

Thank you.

Council President?

Go ahead, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Wu, I knew your husband before I knew you.

He was a longtime...

No, I know that might sound weird, but no.

He was a ref, basketball ref, still is.

Randy's a great basketball ref throughout Seattle, very well respected.

And just want to thank...

You for your service you stepped up for your service to the community you always held true to your values and who you are and I could not be more honored and more just grateful for the time together here on council and And I know that you're gonna go on to do phenomenal things I know you'll continue to represent the CID and that community and I'm just incredibly proud of the strength that you know you Prevailed throughout this entire process and I know it's not easy being in this chair But really appreciate how you brought grace how you brought elegance how you brought honor how you really served

you know the cid very very very well and um i i'm just very grateful for you and your family who are incredible people so thank you thank you madam council president and plus one council member wu want to pile on from my perspective and share my effusive praise and express my endless gratitude for you and your leadership and your dedication and commitment to the city of Seattle and serving with pride, distinction, and honor the people of the city of Seattle.

And absolutely, make no mistake, you are a champion for all issues impacting the Chinatown International District, It's not limited to that either.

You served honorably as a representative citywide for all people.

And representation does matter.

And our city was so lucky to have you, as an Asian woman, and the voice and perspective that you represented on this council.

And our city is better for that.

And to all the people from various communities, in particular the API community, who might feel a sense of loss right now, I totally understand.

But I want you to know that I, and I hope my council colleagues here, intend to help pick up the mantle, make sure that we care for your terrific work in so many different ways.

And this is a sad moment, bittersweet moment.

You've earned the right to be here at this dais.

This is an absolute privilege.

Being up here is an absolute privilege.

And you've earned the right.

I know that regardless of what happens here in these halls and City Hall, I know that you are currently and will continue to be a strong leader.

serving all people in all communities.

And I look forward to partnering together with you on so many different things going forward.

I value your friendship.

I value your collaboration.

I value your feedback.

And I'm just grateful for you.

Honored to have been able to cast that...

Was it the final fifth vote?

I don't know.

That first ballot thing?

I don't remember.

But...

But I just appreciate you so much.

And not goodbye, but because you're not going anywhere.

You're here.

But I look forward to, again, continuing to partner together on any number of things and cheering you on and supporting you and uplifting you and helping you out in any way I can going forward.

And again, by the way, you will always be a council member.

You will always be a council member.

And no one can ever take that away from you.

And you've earned your time here.

And like I mentioned earlier, now you have the added benefit of, because you're a council member, we'll give you privilege next time you want to testify.

You get priority now.

But in any event, kudos, Council Member Wu.

You're...

Your legacy will live on and we'll partner together to ensure as much.

So thank you.

Council Member Wu.

Floor is yours, Council Member Wu.

Thank you.

It's been an absolute honor to work with you.

Thank you for putting your trust in me and your partnership, collaboration, and friendship.

Most importantly, I will treasure that forever.

It's been an amazing journey, and thank you for everything that you all have done for me and for our communities.

Thank you for allowing the communities that I work with to have a voice on the council.

And as you mentioned, there's so much more work to do, and this work is not done yet.

So you will be seeing me here in a different capacity.

I started off as a grassroots advocate and will continue doing that.

And so thank you so much.

I'll miss seeing you every single day, but you will still continue to see me.

And I look forward to all the amazing things that you all will do in the next year and couple years.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

President, Council President, is there any further business to come before the body?

No further business.

I will note that we are canceling the Tuesday meeting, full council meeting next Tuesday.

We are having a briefing on Monday.

We'll hear from OIR and the legislative agenda.

So that's what's going on coming up.

Pardon me?

Are we adjourning?

Yeah, we are.

I was just going to say what's coming up, and we are now adjourned.

It is 526. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, everybody.

Congratulations to us all.