Seattle City Council Governance, Accountability and Economic Development Committee 4/24/2025

I'll give her one more minute.

Okay.

Good afternoon, everyone.

It is Thursday, April 24th, and the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee will come to order.

It is 2.03 p.m., and Councilmember Maritza Rivera's birthday.

I'm Sarah Nelson, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll, and Councilmember Kettle is excused.

Councilmember Rivera.

Council member Solomon.

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Chair Nelson.

Present.

Three present, and I just got a note from council member Rivera's office, she will be joining Ramone.

Okay.

So we have four present.

Is she here right now?

Okay.

All right.

We will announce Council Member Rivera has joined us when she does.

Okay, everyone.

Today we've got a fairly short agenda with three mayoral appointments and reappointments to the Labor Standard Advisory Commission.

And so if there is no objection, the agenda will be approved.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is approved.

Now, before we begin, I'd like to share some brief updates for the good of the order.

Last week, pursuant to Ordinance 127026, adopted in May 2024, the Seattle Police Department shared their recruitment and retention report for the second half of 2024. And we would have probably had folks come and present some of the highlights at the table today, but didn't get on that in time.

For everyone's recollection, that ordinance was put forward to improve SPD recruitment and hiring processes.

And I'm very happy to say, having put that forward, that the report shows signs of some good progress.

If you haven't had a chance to read it, I encourage you to do so, but here are a couple highlights.

Applications are up to about 11 applications per day from 10 per day in the first half of 2024. and I'm researching what the number per day was in 2023 and the first half of 2024, so I can get that information later.

Additionally, since November, when a new full-time recruitment officer was added, the Public Safety Civil Service Commission conducted personalized outreach to 576 candidates in November and December, despite a slight decline during the winter months.

and Central Staff Analyst Greg Doss, who received the report and did a prior read and gave us some notes on it, notes that these types of personal contacts did not occur prior to 2024 and are likely happening due to the position added to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission via Ordinance 127026. That is exactly what I wanted to have happen because other jurisdictions make a point of contacting new applicants within about 48 hours of receiving applications and there is more personalized communication that occurs after receiving an application and throughout the whole process.

So this is very good news and that's exactly what we wanted.

Some jurisdictions set a benchmark for getting in touch within 48 hours of an application being received.

But anyway, the report goes through lots of facts and figures, and there is still a lot of work to be done, especially with initiatives to increase our women and minority representation among new applicants.

But in general, there is good news to be seen in the report.

And Greg ends his email saying that he recently had talked with SPD's HR director and finance director.

And from what he was told, SPD is on track to greatly exceed its hiring projections this year.

So that is...

That's really good news.

All right, moving on.

I look forward to continuing to monitor progress throughout this year to ensure that our investments are being used for their intended purposes, which is to staff up, to build up SPD staffing numbers.

All right.

Earlier today, I also had the opportunity to go on a tour hosted by Seattle Made, Seattle Strong.

I mean, by Seattle Made.

And if you'll recall, Seattle Made is an association of small manufacturing businesses.

They were mentioned many times in association with the legislation to allow workforce housing in the stadium district.

They were one of the sponsors because the small light industrial businesses would benefit from having space in our industrial zone.

So basically, I took the opportunity to respond to an invitation and visit some of the businesses that are not located right in that area, but on the south end of town.

And we visited Seattle Strong Coffee Company, Middle Fork Roasters, and Aditi Chai.

And one of the takeaways for me and my staff was that Seattle small businesses are an interconnected web, really helping each other.

For example, the coffee that is made by, is used, all coffee used by Seattle Strong Coffee is roasted by Middle Fork Roasters, but they all had it, so that's a symbiotic relationship there, and that exists everywhere, not everywhere necessarily, but so many of our small businesses, what a visitor or a resident experiences of our small business community when they're out, and about during their day or shopping or whatever, they see the retail but they don't necessarily see all the ways in which our small businesses support each other because they're in the same town and they are dealing with some of the same pressures and needs and so therefore they form informal relationships or relationships through business associations and really do end up helping each other.

So the Aditi Chai and Seattle Strong, just a couple of show and tell props here, share a kitchen and are able to produce what they do using shared space, which is really important because rents are high.

Commercial rents are expensive and so that is one of the benefits of that legislation.

And then the Middle Fork Roasters, I learned a lot about the coffee industry and what it takes to deal with all the regular issues that coffee roasters and other small businesses have right now to say nothing of the threats that the tariffs will be bringing to the industry coming up.

All right, anyway, just wanted to note that there are opportunities for anybody to go visit some of these businesses if you would like, because it's really great to get a sense of what is a small manufacturing business in Seattle.

All right, with that, we will move into our public comment period.

How many people have signed up for public comment today?

Chair, we have one in-person and one remote speaker this afternoon.

All right, let's give everyone two minutes and start with the one in-person speaker.

All right, first, the only in-person speaker today we'll have is Alex Zimmerman.

Come on down, Alex.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

My dirty damn Nazi fascist and mob bandit.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I'm president of Stand Up America, support Trump, MAGA member, I have 6,000 days of trespass and five times you prosecute me.

I want to speak about accountability in economica because what I want to speak right now is very touch.

Number one, council ring, yeah, district 8 proposal taxes for rich is good.

Rich have too much money.

It's absolutely sure.

Ugly people.

But you're doing this for many years, and life in Seattle go down and down and stay down, down, too.

Number second.

For my understanding, you know what it means.

Have a Mercedes.

I have a Mercedes, too.

Can she explain to me why I pay $5 per gallon?

You know what it means.

When Trump, a couple of days ago, publicly in TV talking, five states paid $2.

Two dollars, five state pay.

We small state, why we pay five bucks?

Huh?

What is this?

It's a ricketeering, a bandita, make money from us.

It's no question.

And second time, what I want to explain to you, what is absolutely critical.

EU council exactly explained about small business.

Price in grocery for last two weeks jumped by 25%.

I shop in every day.

I know this market very well.

Why 25%?

Can somebody explain to me, what is this bandita mafia doing this?

It's inflation, inflation, not 25%.

Why is price jump for two weeks ago?

Price jump for one day, boom, 25%.

Why?

Can somebody explain to you?

You're supposed to be stopping this.

It's a crime by law.

Viva Trump, viva new American revolution.

We need something doing for people.

People, poor, 80%.

Thank you, Alex.

Thank you, Alex.

Thank you very much.

Next we'll go to the virtual commenter as a reminder.

When you hear the chime, you'll have 10 seconds left.

If you exceed that time, your microphone may be cut off so that we can move on to the next speaker.

If you're offering remote comment, please make sure to press star six to unmute yourself.

And then David Haynes, please press star six and go whatever.

Yes.

David, press star six, tell me yourself.

Hi, thank you, David Haines.

It doesn't matter how many cops you hired when you prioritize hiring the wrong type of cop and chiefs following the same lame, ill-trained, wrong policies that continue to run interference for evil criminals.

Is the city council going to fire or investigate the office of housing director who just took a travel junket with tax dollars to go copycat more bottom of the barrel bad policies of running interference for evil criminals tied to the prolific gun violence?

Progressives have already proven unqualified to deal with that.

It's as if the city council thinks that they've already done enough for public safety in the homeless crisis.

It's like the only thing that city council has pulled off is an easy work schedule.

Every week you get extended weekend vacations.

You're off on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, show up barely on Monday, and then you allow a counseling of a bunch of committee meetings because you've got more important things to do than the people's business.

Yet we have the same lame laws that originated from defunding the police, shifting the paradigm away from improving the war on drug pushers, and then the spending priorities that council increased last budget that was misled by the coached city staff, who along with a progressive who defunded the police, pulled the wool over the eyes of the new council, allowing for an increase in the same bad spending priorities that have exacerbated public safety and the homeless crisis.

Well, you're literally treasonously running interference for repeat offending criminals, allowing the racist Office of Housing to squander millions of dollars, prioritizing repeat offending criminals for housing and services first, while racially discriminating against innocent houseless, self-human mistreated because they've been deemed unentitled because of so-called white privilege, while listing criminals as the most vulnerable because they don't have anything, they don't know any better.

And it's unacceptable.

You people are justifying the revolt.

And I think you all need to, like, revisit all of the policies that the progressives created in the last five years that you claim you're going to that you haven't done yet.

And council president that concludes public comment.

Thank you very much.

We have gotten through our list of public commenters and the public comment period is now closed.

All right, moving on.

Will the clerk please read items one through three into the agenda and then I will provide some remarks before we go into the presentation.

Agenda items number one through three, appointments 3143, appointments of Patrice Tisdale as members, Labor Standards Advisory Commission for a term to April 30th, 2025. Appointment 3010, Sylvia Gonzalez as member, Labor Standards Advisory Commission for a term to April 30th, 2026. Appointments 3011, Karina Yabela as member Labor Standards Advisory Commission for a term to April 30th, 2026. Item one is for briefing and discussion and items two and three are for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you very much for that.

We're joined today by the Office of Labor Standards and candidates and so I welcome you up to the table.

Please come on up.

And before, as they're taking their student, I do want to mention that item one was read into the record, but it will only be discussed today.

It was brought to our attention that the term and date of appointment 3143 will expire before it reaches the city council on May 6th.

The mayor's office is submitting another appointment packet for the council to consider, and it will be for confirmation for the full term.

In the meantime, we'll have one of the appointee here today with us and want to still provide an opportunity for us to discuss it in open session and ask any questions we may have about the appointee or about the mission itself.

So the new appointment packet that includes the full term will be sent directly for introduction to the city council.

So that's just, we're just correcting, we're just making sure that the new legislation that will be sent down has different dates in it, but otherwise it's all the same.

Just wanted to make sure that everybody was aware that my understanding is that this candidate, this nominee, was filling in for somebody else for a while there, and we're just, I should restate that that position had been vacant, I believe, for a while.

And then...

it's this new candidate's paperwork was just sent forward at the very end of a term, so it makes more sense just to go ahead and confirm for a full term.

That's what we're doing.

Anyway, with that, please go ahead and introduce yourselves.

Go ahead, please.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking the time to consider a mayoral appointment for Labor Standards Advisory Commission.

My name is Shuquan Zhou, and I'm the policy analyst with Office of Labor Standards, and I'm also the department liaison for Labor Standards Advisory Commission, LSAC, and today with me are Sylvia Gonzalez and Interpreter Christel and also virtually Corinna Ibalia.

So I'm gonna briefly introduce LSAC, and then I'm gonna invite all of the candidates to introduce yourself.

Established in 2016, LSAC is a 15-member commission comprised of business, community, and labor leaders.

LSAC is tasked with advising the Office of Labor Standards, the mayor, city council, and also different agencies regarding wages, working conditions, worker safety and health, and labor standards and protections.

The Commission also provides feedback to OOS regarding the labor standards implementation.

Finally, the Enabling Ordinance SMC 3.15 charges LSAC to recommend efforts to achieve workplace equity for women, community of color, immigrants and refugees, and other vulnerable workers.

So I'm going to invite the candidates to introduce yourself.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Silvia Gonzalez and I was a domestic worker for a very long time.

Currently, I am the community organizer at Casa Latina, and I'm one of the co-chairs of the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

And one of the vice president of the Washington State Labor Council.

Just a presentation?

Just a presentation?

Yeah.

Okay.

Good afternoon, my name is Patrice Tisdale.

I am the general counsel with Drivers Union and have been filling in and attending some of the meetings for LSAC.

So are we doing a presentation?

Yeah, I was hoping the candidates can also talk about why they would like to join LSAC.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah, sure.

I'm sorry.

I thought you were doing something else.

Para mí es muy interesante ser parte de esta comisión para que también las trabajadoras del hogar estén involucradas en lo que es la comisión de LSAC, ya que hemos sido por mucho tiempo fuera de las leyes laborales.

Es importante que vean las necesidades y los retos que tenemos las trabajadoras del hogar.

I want to be part of the LSAC because I want to bring the voice of domestic workers for many years and I think it's important for LSAC to consider the needs and the challenges that domestic workers face.

Hi, sorry, mine is a little bit longer, so bear with me.

As I stated, my name is Patrice Tisdale, and I'm honored to be joining the Seattle LSAC Commission.

I come to this work as a labor and employment attorney, and as general counsel to a union that's representing gig workers.

So over the years, I've negotiated legislation and contracts with companies like Uber and Lyft, securing just cause termination for drivers who had none.

and creating systems that give workers a voice, especially in industries where they've been long invisible.

At Drivers Union, I've had the privilege of working closely with app-based drivers throughout Washington, and I wanna be clear, the driver community is not a monolith.

I've never seen themselves as entrepreneurs that are building something for their families, and others identify as workers simply seeking a fair shot.

But what unites them is a shared feeling of being treated like second-class citizens and disregarded by companies that rely on them but too often fail to recognize their humanity.

And it is this united position that, one, I want to take a moment and acknowledge and uplift what the city of Seattle had done previously and their forward-thinking leadership in passing the deactivation rights ordinances.

That has laid the groundwork for much needed for what we've done.

That's what that groundwork has made it possible.

Seattle was the first city in the nation that passed an ordinance protecting gig workers from unfair deactivation and various forms of wage theft that was investigated and enforced by OLS.

These local laws have become the blueprint for statewide protections.

Today, they're being looked at by driving communities in different states to try and model a work-centered, community-driven policy and what it can look like.

And that's no small feat.

It's something that we should all be proud of.

The work that I do at Drivers Union sits at the intersection of law, advocacy, and dignity.

Whether I'm in arbitration defending a driver who's been deactivated without cause and without knowledge, or advising legal policies and approaches that live out to the values that we want to see, it all comes back to ensuring that people are treated fairly and that labor standards are more than just words on a website, that they're actually put into action.

This work is also deeply personal to me.

I'm an immigrant.

I'm from Jamaica.

I come from a family that are both workers and business owners.

And I've seen firsthand how people occupying that space at the same time creates So I carry this duality with me.

The work that we're doing and the mission of LSAC speaks directly to that lived experience, and I sit at that very intersection of those that are impacted by labor law, and I don't take it likely.

During my term on the LSAC, I hope to support this and support policies that reflect this complexity and ones that honor both the autonomy and vulnerability that exist in this space.

So one of the first things I'm looking forward to is a joint event that we are doing with the Domestic Workers Standard Board in June, where we are going to be inviting members of both the immigrant and business community worker community to sit and talk about the resources available to them in the city, what their concerns are, and hopefully help to advise the policies that are going to be coming out of LSAC.

So we absolutely would invite council members to join us in that event as well so that the individuals can be heard directly from you.

Again, these types of cross-sector conversations I believe are critical to bring in labor standards that are equitable and forcible and rooted in the real lives.

Thank you for your moment.

Thank you.

And Karina Ibala, you're welcome to introduce yourself and talk about why you are interested in serving.

Thank you, Council President Nelson, and thank you to members of the committee for considering my appointment to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission today.

I'd also like to just take this moment to thank Mayor Harrell for putting forward my appointment and to wish Councilmember Rivera a happy birthday.

I also want to apologize I can't be in that I can't be in chambers in person with you today.

I'm currently on bed rest with injury and I'm glad that I could still be here to speak about why I want to serve on LSAC.

So I'll share a little bit about my background.

Over my last 10 years of living in Seattle, I've been a retail worker who has utilized services from the Office of Labor Standards, a union member with the Office and Professional Employees International Union, or OPEIU Local 8, a staff person to our county's 150 plus unions, and a consumer at many of the small businesses that make our city so special.

I currently work at MLK Labor, whose members are the unions that represent over 100,000 Seattle workers across dozens of industries, including nurses, hotel workers, laborers, teachers, and more.

And it's often my job to balance the interests of unions in these different sectors.

I believe that my close connection with organized labor puts me in an excellent position to inform the work that LSAC does.

And I recognize it as a unique opportunity to collaborate with employers and members of the small business community in a space that welcomes all ideas.

Before MLK labor, I worked on the advocacy team of Solid Ground, which is a nonprofit based in Wallingford that serves Seattle's low income, BIPOC and immigrant communities.

And before that, I worked retail at the University Village while earning my degree at UW.

As I shared earlier, this is also where I saw firsthand how OLS can help both employer and employee remain in compliance with our city's strong labor standards ordinances and come out of the experience all the better for it.

With this perspective, I hope to lend my experience to LSAC's work of outreach and education, to serve as a resource to this council and the mayor's office on matters of labor standards, and to help bridge the gap between what employers and workers need out of OLS.

So I greatly appreciate your time and consideration today and hope that you'll approve my nomination to LSAC.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I will note that Councilmember Rivera just arrived in person and has been following the meeting online as well.

Did you, I'm sorry, it looked like you wanted to add.

Sí, gracias.

Happy birthday, Marisa.

Thank you.

Yes, I just wanted to mention that I want to bring to this committee all the experience that I have in the Domestic Workers Standard Board, since they have achieved great advances in the movement for the workers' workers.

And we have been an example not only at the local level or state level, but at the national level.

I just wanted to mention that I want to bring the experience that I have as member of the Domestic Workers Standards Board to the LSAC because we've been able to achieve great things for domestic workers and we have served as an example at the local level, at the statewide level, and at the national level.

Y, como mencionaba Patrice, estamos en un momento que ya todas las comisiones se están uniendo para poder reforzar todo nuestro trabajo y poder ayudar a la comunidad inmigrante, ya que sabemos que no importa nuestro estatus, todas las personas tenemos derechos laborales.

And like Patrice mentioned, we are at a critical moment.

We are getting together as the two commissions in order to try to improve the conditions of immigrant workers since we know that our status shouldn't impede us from having our labor rights protected.

And we hope that we can have your support.

Are there any questions from my colleagues, comments?

I have a question about the work of the commission as a whole.

I hear that there will be a joint meeting with folks on the Domestic Worker Labor Standards Board.

I realize that I'm saying that improperly, but what are some of the other items of business or big to do's on the list or what is the scope of work that the commission is looking at right now?

Yeah, I can try to answer that question and then see if you want to add on.

So LSAC's task, one of the tasks is to advise OOS in terms of labor standards implementation.

And at this moment, LSAC meets regularly every other month.

So at each month and regularly we'll have OS director and also different teams will take turn and come to present their projects and programs and also enforcement procedure.

And then so regularly LSAC members will get a chance to hear about how the work is going and then what kind of feedback they can bring from business community and worker organizations perspective.

So that's the regular routine agenda items for the regular meetings.

And then, as Patrice mentioned, this year, because of the federal policy change, so the LSAT and also Domestic Work Standards Board decided that they want to join for us to have this special community forum to do Know Your Rights for immigrants, business owners, and workers.

That's a special event.

And at the same time, LSAC has named two other priorities, and one is to increase labor and business collaboration, both within LSAC, but also how we do our work.

And this special event is actually one of the manifestations of how we think about how to provide no real rights for both business and laborers all in the same room, and then kind of bridging and acknowledging that when policy changes, when immigration policy changes, impact workers, but also disrupt businesses.

So they are, you know, have a lot of shared interests together.

So there's one of the priorities.

And second priority is also trying to understand more of the impacts of labor standards.

Just, you know, that kind of understanding that labor standards in City of Seattle has developed so many years and now all has enforced 18 and as well both Patrice and Sylvia mentioned that there's a lot of impact at the state level.

Do you want to try to do more documentation of what has been the impact, what has been the major impacts?

So these are the two priorities outside the regular feedback for OOS work.

Thank you.

And I know that I will be speaking at an event, I believe it's, well, it's on May 1st, I believe, and I believe it is in the CID for small businesses located there.

Could you talk a little bit about that event, please?

Yeah, I hope I'm not misrepresenting this, but I do know.

So OOS regularly do the Mayday outreach.

Actually, a majority of our staff will come out and also some of LSAC members will also join too.

So we'll meet in CID in a location and then there'll be a kickoff and then all of the staff and also LSAC members will divide it into small teams and we'll visit the different businesses on the street.

and then talking to them about how much they understand the city's labor standards, if there are any resources we can bring, are you familiar with this office, and then if we can answer any questions, and here are the posters and resources we can bring.

This is answering as OS staff.

Right.

I'm really glad I'm looking forward to that meeting because I always say that it's the best way to ensure compliance with our labor laws is to make sure that the business owners and employers, not just business owners, but all employers understand what those laws are.

So thank you very much for doing that work.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council President.

I just had a quick comment.

I didn't have a question.

Just thanking you all for your time.

being here.

Karina, I see you online.

Good to see you as well.

And for you all volunteering your time just to make our city better and enhance the labor laws and represent a lot of people.

I really appreciate the words that you said, Ms. Tisdale, about the driver's union and just saying, hey, this is the common ground that everyone is believes in, and we want to be able to build from there.

We might have all our differences all over here, but hey, this is the one thing that we can start with, and if we know anything, we all need common ground in our world.

So I just really appreciate you all, and Ms. Gonzalez, thank you for being here as well, and I see you creating online.

I'm gonna butcher your last name, and I apologize, so that's why I didn't say your last name, but I appreciate you and all the work that you're doing at MLK Labor as well.

Thank you all for being here.

Okay, I'm not seeing any other questions or comments, but you will get a moment.

Right now, I am finished with mine for the moment.

I will go ahead and move the appointments.

Let's see.

I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 3010 and 3011. Is there a second?

It's been moved and seconded to confirm appointments 3010 and 3011. Now is the opportunity to say any final words before we go to a vote?

Council member, yes, go ahead, Rivera.

Thank you, council president.

I just wanna thank the appointees for, I always say this every time we appoint folks, but these are volunteer positions that are really critical in their advisory capacity in the work that we do.

We don't take it lightly that you step up and your willingness to serve in these positions that are unpaid.

They're volunteer positions.

And like I said earlier, very important.

So I really want to thank all the appointees for stepping up to do this important work.

Gracias.

Okay, I would like to also add my thanks and gratitude, and I'm giving you a hello there.

So it takes a lot of time to come and sit through a meeting, but it's all the work that one does in between meetings, researching, and attending other meetings in order to be able to fulfill the mission of the commission.

So I just, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much, our government members, owes a lot to the folks that aren't elected, aren't paid, but still help us do our work for the people of Seattle.

So I thank you very much for stepping up.

I do note that there are a couple vacant positions that I believe are council appointments as well, so I have put out the word to some of the names to put forward.

We've got a mix of worker organizations, labor, and business owners here, and so I recognize that the ball's in my court to provide some names and fill our positions as well.

Thank you so much for doing that.

Yes.

Okay, seeing no other questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the appointments?

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Chair Nelson?

Aye.

Four in favor?

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and appointments 3010 and 3011 will be sent to the May 6th City Council meeting for final confirmation.

And as a reminder, appointment 3143 will not be voted on today.

Well, it was not voted on today, but we'll have a new appointment packet for introduction with the correct dates.

And so we'll just take that straight to full council.

We just wanted the opportunity to meet everyone at one time.

All right.

This concludes the April 24th meeting of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee.

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for 2 o'clock on Thursday, May 8th.

Seeing no further business, this meeting is adjourned, and it is 2.41.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.