City Council 8/18/2026

Okay.

Okay, perfect.

The August 18th meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.06.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Lynn?

Here.

Council Member Rink?

Here.

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera?

Present.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Here.

Five present.

Awesome.

We are right at quorum.

Thank you, colleagues.

And we are gonna jump right into the meeting.

So we're gonna begin with a proclamation recognizing August 18th, 2026 to be Ms. Lynn Ruth Day for signature and presentation today.

Awesome.

And if you're at home, watching on the Seattle Channel, we have this wonderful church fans because Seattle didn't pay their electric bill for the air.

I'm just fine.

All right, so now we're gonna jump to Councilmember Rivera.

You oversee the committee and for Department of Neighborhoods, so we wanna pass it to you.

So this is a proclamation from the entire council.

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Council President, and first I wanna thank you for bringing this proclamation forward and bringing to our attention that Ms. Lynn has been working at the City of Seattle for over 50 years.

That cannot be, it just cannot be.

and it is so, so special and even more so because if you know her, then you know how special and how lucky we are to have her at the City of Seattle.

I met her many years ago and anytime you see her, whether it's at the coffee cart or in the elevator, on the floor, in a meeting, she's always smiling, always so helpful and always happy to be here.

So she is really a treasure in Seattle.

She's dedicated her professional life and a lot of her personal life to public service, has spent many of her years at the Department of Neighborhoods, which is, as Council President said in my committee, and we're lucky to have had someone so devoted and caring representing our city.

We are so grateful.

She began work at the City of Seattle in September of 1975.

Think about that.

She joined in 1990, she joined the Neighborhood Matching Fund Program at the Department of Neighborhoods.

Woo!

And for folks that don't know the matching neighborhood fund, it is a fund that anyone, any neighbor in the city can tap into to do things from block parties and other community and cultural events.

It's a fund that our city residents really have come to love and appreciate.

was there in 1990 doing the hard work of making sure that we were getting funds out to our neighbors to do those very important cultural events and block parties.

So a building community as the Department of Neighborhoods does and as Elin has done for many years.

I will also say that she oversaw more than $10 million in investments as that neighborhood matching fund coordinator.

and also food equity fund project manager as well.

And this is something that I know is dear and near and dear to your heart, Council President, as mine is to make sure that we're providing funding across the city to make sure no child and no person in need goes hungry in our city.

So with that, I'm gonna transfer it back to you, Council President.

I know you have some remarks to say as well.

and then I know we'll be reading from the proclamation, which I can do if you want to kick it back after.

Do you want to do it?

Oh, no, no, absolutely.

No, you're perfect.

Did you read all the highlights?

Did you want to read some of the highlights?

I read some of the highlights, but I can read the whole thing.

Yeah, read the proclamation and then I'll go.

Okay, awesome.

Thanks for giving me the time to do that because I'm really excited about it.

Whereas...

the city of Seattle recognizes Elin Denise Ruth of Seattle, Washington for her more than 50 years of extraordinary service to the city of Seattle and whereas Elin Ruth grew up in Seattle graduating from Garfield High School.

and attending Seattle Pacific University before beginning to work for the City of Seattle in September of 1975, and whereas Elin Ruth worked as a receptionist, administrative assistant, and a legislative assistant for the Seattle City Council in the office of Councilmember Paul Krebel before joining the Department of Community Development in 1984 as a neighborhood planner.

until 1990, when she joined the Neighborhood Matching Fund Program in the Department of Neighborhoods, where she has been a dedicated project manager and continues her public service as a Food Equity Fund project manager, designing, managing, and implementing the Food Equity Fund since 2020. and whereas Alynne Ruth has served as chair of the Department of Neighborhoods Black Caucus, supporting and mentoring the black employees that have worked in the Department of Neighborhoods, and whereas Alynne Ruth has always gone above and beyond for her community, serving as a board member for Roosevelt alumni for racial equity, volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, teaching Sunday school and mentoring many young people and fostering a commitment to public service and reinvesting in the future of their communities.

And whereas Lynn Ruth has overseen more than 10 million in investments as a neighborhood matching fund and food equity fund project manager.

and whereas in her role as a project manager, she stalwart to combat food insecurity in communities that are hit hardest by food and health inequity, supported the design, planning, and construction of Jimi Hendrix Park, and many more professional accomplishments that strengthen the city of Seattle.

whereas the City of Seattle honors this dedication to public service and her enduring impact on the government of the City of Seattle and the people that her work has uplifted, Elin Ruth is celebrated today.

Now therefore, the Seattle City Council proclaims August 18, 2026 to be Elin Ruth Day.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So how we'll do this, we're going to...

we have other comments, and then we are going to suspend the rules to present the proclamation.

We'll have you, Ms. Elyne, come up and say...

Can you all hear me real quick?

No, you can't?

Okay, we'll turn the volume up.

I'm sorry.

I got you, I got you.

We got you.

Okay, testing one, two, is that better?

No, it's not.

It's not better.

So they like it a little louder.

Okay, testing one, two, is that better?

Yes.

You guys just have to be quiet.

That's the problem.

You're too loud.

Okay, so I'm gonna say my comments really quick and then I'll open it up to my colleagues to see if they have anything that they would like to say.

Thank you for reading that proclamation.

Councilmember Rivera Misselin, this year you shared with me a story about you starting at City Hall.

and you said that there were a group of women of color, they were black women who worked in the cafeteria and other places that were some of the cleaning crews as well.

And what you shared with me is that those women were so proud of you because they told you that they were working those positions so you could be in the position that you were in.

and that always hit hard for me because I'm here to tell you that it's because of people like you is the reason why I'm sitting in the chair that I am today.

Straight up.

The sacrifices that you have made, the doors that you have opened, and the path that you blazed is the reason why I'm here today, the reason why Councilmember Rivera is here today, Council Member Rink is here today.

Women of color, you have blazed the path for us as well in the position that you have.

And it is my responsibility, our responsibility to do what those women did who were the cooks, in the city cafeteria, the ones who swept the floors at night, the people that took out the trash, the ones that were answering phones, that we continue to pay it forward.

For the next generation, just like you did, for those young girls that are within our city of Seattle, maybe watching this on the Seattle channel, because they have nothing better to do in the summer, just watch our meeting at two o'clock in August.

Ms. Lynn, thank you for paving the way.

God bless you.

God bless you.

You are a great gift to this universe, and there is no doubt in my mind that you are favored, okay?

So I just wanna thank you.

We love you.

We're so grateful for you.

We love you.

We thank you.

I told you, it's not 51 years.

It's 51 years.

Right?

That's how you say it.

Yes.

She's been working here for years.

Not years.

Colleagues, I will pause now to see if anyone wants to say anything else before we take the role for us to sign on to the proclamation.

Okay, awesome.

Hey, we said all we said, okay, which is a lot.

So now will the clerk please call the roll on the signing of the proclamation for it to be Ms. Lynn Ruth Day for August the 18th.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Yes.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five signatures will be affixed.

Awesome.

So it is officially Miss Alynne Ruth Day, and...

Yes.

So next steps, if there's no objection, we will suspend the rules.

I will come and present this proclamation to you.

It doesn't have signatures on it, but we'll get signatures on it, especially from the council members.

Well, we have to sign it, not especially from the council members.

And then if you want our signature on there, Ms.

Okay, I got you.

And then we also have people that are here to speak.

We have Director Pham, who's here, Zachary Pullen, we have Iona McKenzie, and then Miss Aline yourself.

Is that right?

In order?

No?

If not, you don't have...

Yeah, that's in order, okay.

So we're gonna suspend the rules.

I'm gonna come give you this proclamation and give you a nice big hug.

And you have some flowers.

From the council, we got you two dozen roses and some cookies that are only for you.

They're two dozen from Hello Robin.

You can share them, okay.

And then Director Pham, you all will come and speak.

So Director Pham, we have Zachary, we have Iona, and then Miss Elin.

So we'll suspend the rules.

Go ahead, Director.

Good afternoon.

Thank you so much, council members, for acknowledging this very special day and this very special person, Ms. Lynn Ruth.

In my time with the Department of Neighborhoods, which has been about four and a half months, I've really had the honor to get to know the staff and the stories behind what makes our department great.

And so I've had the honor to have some coffee conversations or kitchen conversations, water cool conversations with Ms. Aline to learn a lot about the history of our department, the role that she has played, and just the stories that she's encountered over the years.

So it's just been a true honor to be a new director and to be able to hear these stories directly from her.

So grateful for you, Ms. Aline, I'm gonna just throw you these flowers.

I'll hand them to you, so thank you.

Thank you so much.

And then we have...

I'll just be brief, but I just want to say I started here a year ago, and Alin was one of the first people to welcome me, made me feel very welcome.

She works right by my office.

And I'm just going to share a very quick memory I have of Alin.

And we were recently at the Pea Patch Community Gardening Fair, and she misplaced something.

And it was something very important to her.

It was her handbag.

And she spent most of the day looking for it.

And I found it for her.

It was precariously placed somewhere by a volunteer, but what was really special was that now Aline and I have a very special inside joke, and I feel like we're gonna be very much connected for the rest of our lives, but I think Aline is definitely one of the most special people I've ever met, and she definitely makes you feel very welcome and connected and certainly part of the Dawn family, and so I really do feel very grateful to be a part of Aline Ruth's story.

I think as you mentioned 51 years is very special and so I like to think that obviously the universe is a particularly wild place you know we're on the middle of this floating rock and the fact that two people get to be connected here miraculously and each other's story is very special so the fact that Two random people got to be connected here in our stories.

It's very special.

So I'm grateful that we got to be connected in our stories.

So I'm so excited for you.

Congratulations on your 51 years.

I would hope to be anywhere for 51 years.

So thank you so much for doing that.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Iona?

We have Iona next and then Miss Elin herself, a guest of honor.

Who did this to me?

I'm like, oh my god.

Anyway.

Lynn is such a Lynn.

I call her Lynn, sorry.

Don't call her Lynn.

Her name is Lynn, unless she invites you to.

So Miss Lynn has invited me to call her Lynn, so I'm going to call her Lynn.

She is such a special person to me.

The first day I started at Don, she came to my office to make sure that I was OK.

She's like, I'm here.

You need anything, come to me.

And I've been going to her ever since.

and I'm waiting for that pancake recipe.

Just saying, pancake recipe.

I'm putting it out in the universe.

I'm keeping hope alive, Aline.

Anyway, the one thing for sure that I know about Aline is community loves her.

Every time I go in community, and when you know you're a good person is when you are, not in the room and everybody just have good things to say about you.

I've been going out in community for a very long time, and every time Elaine's name come up, they're like, wow, she helped me do this, she helped me do that.

and whether it's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, late at night, early in the morning, if community calls, she answers the phone.

So Ms. Ellyn, 50 years.

I only have two and a half more to give.

I'm not going to make it to 50. Maybe, unless I win the lottery, then it's game over.

Miss Elyne, I love you and thank you for the community that you support and everyone is here to support you.

Thank you.

And then Miss Elyne herself.

Come on through.

It's beautiful.

I don't know how these things work, but I'll just ease on up here.

My name is Clifford Holland and I was Lynn's Vice President of the Executive Board of the Arena Vista Boys and Girls Club for many, many years.

She was working and when I retired in 2003, she worked me hard.

Hey, that's what we're all about.

We were a team, but I'm telling you what, it's a testament to all these people here what a Lynn Ruth means, because she just did so much for the kids of Rainier Vista and that neighborhood, whether it's raising funds, whether it's doing everything, I couldn't help, but I mean, not help, I just had to be a part of her team.

And Lynn, just the work that she does, she's still working.

which is way beyond what I even imagined, but that just shows how good a person she is.

And I just want to say, Elin, you're my hero.

Aw, thank you.

And now Miss Elin.

Now Miss Elin.

I'm gonna try not to cry.

You know, this is very special to me.

It's a special month.

It's the month that my mother passed away.

And she was the single most driving force in my life.

I'm a yes or tears kid.

And when someone told me this was happening, I thought, why me?

I'm just this little kid from YT.

And my mother's whole point was, she never asked us what we were going to be when we grew up.

She said, everybody does what they're paid to do.

What are you going to do that you're not paid to do to benefit others?

And I'm so happy to look around and see my Bible school students.

Stand up.

They can give you the books of the Bible.

The hard part about working in the Department of Neighborhoods isn't that we don't love it.

It's that we are no good to the department unless we're in community.

So it's how I show up at my church.

It's how I show up as a volunteer.

It's how I show up as a human being that makes me worth something to the Department of Neighborhoods.

And I have to say this.

God has really smiled on me.

He has really smiled on me.

I don't understand.

I'm not the smartest.

I'm the seventh of eight kids.

I'm not the smartest in my family.

Please believe that.

My sister became a firefighter at the age of 71. And my mother said to me when I was younger, she asked me to make sure that none of us ever lived in public housing again because it was so shameful.

to live in public housing.

And we were told, you're not going to graduate from high school.

You're not going to do anything.

So all my work at Rainier Vista with Detective Cookie and Cliff and Judge Anita Crawford-Willis, who had to go back, and Andrew Lofton, all of that was to make sure that no kid felt like we felt, to be told we were less than, that we're never going to graduate from college.

You're never going to get out of high school.

And so I just wanted no kid to ever feel that.

And my mother said to me, when I said to her, why do people hate us because we're poor?

She said, if you fail in life, it will not be because you came from Yasser, Terrace.

It will be because you fail to take advantage of every opportunity I'm going to give you.

And she went around and single-handedly changed the course of our life.

I listened to opera.

She took us to the museum.

She made us use the King's English outside of the house.

But she also opened up her home to everyone.

I'd like my family to stand.

Stand up.

If you don't look like me.

And it doesn't matter.

You have the same rights and privileges.

And I've always told people in the city, just because, you know, everybody who loved me don't look like me, I got a lot of family members.

The Yasutakis aren't here, but I, oh, are they?

The only one of my nephews I had to whip, by the way.

But I do want to say that, raise your hand, Toni Ruth.

I had so much fun.

Growing up in Yessler Terrace, a lot of things would have happened to me had I not had my older brothers as protectors.

So my sense of safety has always been rooted in black men.

And were it not for Anthony Douglas Ruth, who called me college girl, who told me when girls weren't supposed to answer questions, they were supposed to let the boys raise their hand first.

He told me, you can go to college.

My stepdad said, I think you can do it.

And when I got into Seattle Pacific, a school that didn't even accept black kids, but they didn't know I was black by my grades or by my name, he said, you can still do it.

When I was working 30 hours a week and tired, he just said, college girl, you can do it.

When I got a job at the city council and I didn't know how to do a budget, he said, you can do it.

He always said that.

And people in neighborhoods see him when I'm assigned something that's hard for me.

I always have my brother because my favorite thing to say is, I'll tell my big brother on you.

And Tony, I know I'm here because of some things I've done.

But you know I'm here because of you.

And now the whole world knows it.

And I love you with all my heart and soul.

And he was my only brother to really survive Vietnam.

Impossible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Brothers love is the only love you don't have to earn.

He would take me out when I couldn't get a date, kind of like now.

He takes me out.

He made me believe I was beautiful, and I didn't mean to go so long on you.

But I love you, and I wouldn't be here without you.

And my grandson, raise your hand.

Raise your hand, Lemon Stevens.

That's why I worked so long, is because I wanted my daughters to have houses, and I wanted my grandchildren, I have 10, to either go to college or get a house.

And if you hurry up, you can get both.

And he worked in the Department of Neighborhoods.

Went to China, and he's now back with his degree in library science, and he's teaching in a school for underprivileged kids.

And he took all.

I took all of my best coats to school last fall for those kids.

But it's OK.

But I'm going to stop now.

But I just thank all of you who came.

I can't believe you're here.

And I got to give a shout out to Vivian Phillips, because every time I tell people I know her, they say I don't.

But I do know her.

I grew up with some exceptional, exceptional kids, exceptional kids, and I'm just one of the crew.

But thank you so much.

This means so much to me, and it would mean so much to my mother.

If she were here, she'd say, baby, go sit down, and she'd be talking to you, telling you what you think she ought to do.

And the other part of my story that you didn't say is that the older black women said, we're so glad that you're able to ride above the fifth floor.

because there were no black people up there.

And I'm thankful to God to Paul Crabble, who had the audacity to have two black people on his staff, which you think it's not a big thing.

It was a big deal.

He allowed me to hire Bruce Harrell, who has been my mentor, my friend, the honorable mayor.

He taught me one lesson I'll never forget.

He said, fight just as hard for the rights of the people who you don't like is the ones that you're comfortable with.

And that is the lesson I'll never forget.

So I'm going to just say thank you.

This means so much.

And we may not be riding above the fifth floor, but you darn should run in the second.

So now what we're gonna do, now we're gonna do Detective Cookie, hold on.

We're gonna, I hear you, just one second, we're gonna take a photo with Miss Aline and then we're gonna jump into public comment and then Detective Cookie, if you wanna do that, you're more than welcome to jump in and do that so we can just kinda move through the meeting.

And I know y'all gotta go upstairs to 370 next.

So we'll take a photo, Miss Aline, if you'll come over here, we'll take a photo.

and then we will jump right into public comment and then I know that some people are gonna go to 370 for a celebration.

Did I, was that a surprise?

Surprise.

All right.

And then Deanna Lee, where's Deanna Lee?

There she is.

Okay, awesome.

All right.

Okay.

And we're just looking right here.

Just right here.

Okay.

All right, ready?

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Okay.

Sorry.

Okay.

I thought it was fine.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Yes, come on.

Okay.

All right.

Come on.

No, no, you're good.

No worries.

One more.

You're okay.

Come on, Brother Tony.

Come on, Brother.

I like his walk.

All right, we're right here.

I can't buy you a new camera now.

We're right here.

Camera breaks.

Come on, Brother Tony.

Right here.

All right, ready?

Okay, awesome.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Miss Elyne.

We are so, so grateful for you.

So next, I know that you all are going to be transitioning to 370. You're pointing down.

370, okay.

Birth of Night Landis.

Okay, 370, because we're going to transition to our public comment period.

So I know that you all are going to go to 370. Yes, during public comment, absolutely.

And then we're gonna jump right into our public comment period right now.

And if you're on TV, we're gonna pause because there's a transition right now.

So we're gonna pause really quick because there's a room change.

So 370 is where people are going.

We're at ease.

Yeah, we'll sign up.

So we're at ease right now.

Oh yeah, that's your copy.

We'll get it to you.

And we are going to transition right into public comment, period.

So we're at ease right now, but we are gonna do public comment, period.

So we do have some people signed up.

Thank you all.

We're still in a council meeting, so...

Okay, great.

Awesome.

If you have been online, thank you so much.

We're gonna transition into public comment period.

Thank you all.

You're just making your way to 370.

Thank you all.

Shout out.

We're just waiting for everyone.

Thank you all so much.

We are at ease right now.

And I see Joyce Walker here, the best basketball player the state of Washington has ever seen.

Coach Joyce Walker, male or female, doesn't matter.

The best basketball player in the entire state to come out of state of Washington, Joyce Walker.

Not Jamal Crawford, not Nate Robinson, not Spencer Hawes, not Joyce Walker.

And I did see CP, Judge Willis Crawford here.

Judge Willis Crawford Willis is here as well.

All right, now we're going to jump right into public comment.

Thank you.

If you're waiting online, we had a transition.

We had a lot of people here.

Colleagues, at this time, we're going to open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda, the introduction of a referral calendar, the council's work program, and the council cannot accept comments on quasi-judicial items or campaign-related matters.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up?

We have eight in person and four remote.

So we have eight speakers in person and we have four remote.

Everyone's going to get two minutes.

And will the clerk...

Yep, one second, we're at ease real quick.

I see you.

All right, we're just making a transition.

Okay, will the clerk please read the public comment instructions?

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Okay, awesome.

Speakers first, we have Ms. Jacqueline Ware, then we have Shelly, then we have Paul, we have Patrick, we have Catherine, we have Patricia, we have Ms. Yvette Dynish, and we have David Haynes.

Give us one second, and when you start, the time will start.

Ms. Jacqueline.

I just want to say that you guys took away my amen corner.

All the people that were over there were certainly going to back up and support, and I knew a good 90% of them about what I'm getting ready to talk about.

So that's unfortunate that you had them go eat when I had something to say.

With that being said, I'm going to talk about Lake Washington Boulevard, but based upon what Elin Ruth said, Ruth, who is part of our congregation, I've known her for years, I'm going to do a whereas.

Whereas Elin Ruth builds community, and she does not divide community the way community was divided by the closure of Lake Washington Boulevard three miles as a result of District 2 Representative Eddie Lynn, with support of the mayor, devised community, whereas Joy Hollingsworth builds community and did not support that three-mile closure of Lake Washington Boulevard that bars communities, that bars residents, that bars for anyone interested in driving that full stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard during the summer that has been clothed for a specific group and a specific group only, whereas Joy Hollingsworth, who is not our District 2 representative, supported residents that live around Holgate and Martin Luther King Way when we had...

My time is almost up.

So that being the case, what I do want to say is that the city council simply did not do their homework, did not pay attention, did not realize that residents and voters and members of the community that are directly impacted by that three-mile closure of Lake Washington Boulevard did not pay attention and realize that Surveys were not done, town halls were not conducted, and the full scope of people that enjoy that drive were not involved in the change.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Jacqueline.

Next we have Shelly.

Is Shelly here?

Followed by Paul.

Is Shelly here?

Yes.

Hey, welcome.

My name is Shelly Morrison, and I'm a member of Coexist, and I'm also a cyclist who has been participating in the bicycle weekends on Lake Washington Boulevard for over 40 years.

But I'm here to express my deep concern over the installation of locked permanent gates between Mount Baker Beach and Stan Sayers Park.

Lake Washington Boulevard is a public arterial and a public park, and this project has had no meaningful public process.

It's been rubber stamped through three different city departments without any community engagement and typical public comment.

A non-profit special interest group promoted these gates under the guise of safety because they wanted to keep cars out, but they have provided no data showing any accidents that would warrant this reason.

But problem is, as designed, these steel gates with concrete bollards are creating new hazards that are a liability for the city.

The gates span the entire roadway and have very little room on either side for participants to get around.

They are installed at Mount Baker Beach and near Stan Sayers, exactly where the motorized vehicles are turning in to get to the parking place.

So they're increasing interaction with cars.

The one at Holgate needs an ADA review.

There's no way a wheelchair is going to enter there.

But finally, the three locked gates will block emergency vehicles.

And we cannot afford any more increased emergency time on a mile and a half of Lake Washington Boulevard.

We've already lost.

Thank you, Shelley.

Thank you, Shelley.

Thank you, Shelley.

Next we have Paul.

Thank you so much.

And then Patrick.

Welcome, Paul.

Hi.

Because I have a bit of time, I first want to start with thanking you, Council President Hollingsworth, as well as every Council member for insisting on giving us at least one minute every time, including when it means you're going to have a four hours long meeting like last week.

So thank you for that.

Now, that being said, some of you are working on an ordinance to ban surveillance pricing.

The others will hopefully see that later.

But I am a bit surprised to see that it would only apply to groceries and hygiene products.

So I get it, the necessities.

Issue is, if a student or an artist computer breaks, they needed to work.

Don't they need it to replace it?

Isn't that a little necessity?

If a kid is part of a sports team, the gear breaks.

There's a match coming.

Doesn't it need to replace the gear?

Two weeks ago, Council Member Foster said that we do not have to buy pain tickets.

OK, what if we have to fly to a health care specialist or a dying parent?

is the personalized extortion then OK.

Because that is what it is.

That is personalized extortion.

So I mean, I get the strategy of starting small, then expanding.

But the issue is when we limit such bill to the necessities, we miss some of the needs, of the actual needs.

And the big companies might just miss those needs to take as much money as they can from us.

So still respecting the strategy of starting small, I would invite you to consider having an amendment ready for when this ordinance come to the council members that would extend this ordinance for all good and services within Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul.

Next, we have Patrick.

Thank you, Paul.

Next, we have Patrick, followed by Catherine.

Is Patrick here?

Welcome.

Yeah, hi, my name's Pat McKee.

I live in West Seattle.

Council members, Seattle Times reported this week Metro Seattle is experiencing a surge in ICE kidnappings.

IceOut.org reports more activity here last week than in Los Angeles, Atlanta, or DC.

A woman was taken at 7th and Stuart this morning.

Maybe she was the worst of the worst.

Maybe she was just headed to work.

Last winter we watched neighbors standing up for neighbors in the frozen streets of Minneapolis prevailing against secret police agents too legally compromised to disclose their own identities and yet empowered to use lethal force with impunity.

For a moment it looked like neighbors had won and our city might be spared, but ICE tactics evolve and resistance orgs and political institutions aren't keeping up.

Where I live there are multiple reports some days and it happens so fast they're generally gone before responders arrive.

Gone.

A neighbor snatched from their family, their livelihood, their home.

Maybe only a car left behind on the shoulder.

Outside this chamber, nobody cares whether the mayor showed the council sufficient respect when she fired the absentee police chief.

That's your process.

We need the council to address this urgent crisis for people who actually do live here and have for decades.

The gardener taken in Wedgwood, the contractor in West Seattle, the Amazon delivery guy outside of Wajemiah.

This weekend I got a call from a friend in tears asking what he should do.

A man he's worked with for years swung by Home Depot to buy supplies for a job they were doing and never came back.

He's in NWDC now, not the first guy kidnapped leaving Home Depot by the way.

Caring neighbors had to babysit his pickup for hours so SPD wouldn't impound it.

That seems like a problem the council could fix right now, right?

So many questions.

How are you leading on this issue?

Who are your allies?

Are big box stores sharing flock data?

Is there a role here for SPD or unarmed care teams?

Why is ISIS landlord SebiCorp still represented on the city light board while people are doing GoFundMes for victims' families?

Fascists are taking our neighbors.

It's a public safety issue.

What are we going to do?

Thank you.

Thank you, Patrick.

Next we have Catherine followed by Patricia, Miss Yvette.

Welcome Catherine, followed by Patricia.

Which one of these?

I don't do this very often, so forgive me.

Okay.

So, I'm ready.

My name is Catherine Alexander.

I'm an early member of Coexist, and I'm speaking today for myself.

I need to speak to the language that's being used to argue for changes on Lake Washington Boulevard.

We hear, we're gonna close it to cars and open it to people, as if the people in the cars don't exist, or they're not even human.

Here are two stories from people who have depended on cars to experience the lake.

There are more of these stories.

Vera was an elder widow on my block.

Our neighborhood was part of her support system.

When necessary, we'd make sure that she could get to everywhere she needed.

And every time we did, she'd ask us to drive along the lake or on the way home.

It made her happy.

She's gone now.

but there are other Veras living in the South End who still find joy in a drive along the lake, and these are all people.

Lucas was a young man who had a terrible cancer.

He stayed with friends in the South End when he was here for treatments.

He said that the lake brought him strength as they drove up the boulevard to the treatments, and it brought him comfort on the way home.

Lucas was a person.

He's gone now, but there are other Lucases still here.

Cancer doesn't take the weekends off.

From the beginning I've sensed a hesitancy from the city to acknowledge our stories even as it's made decisions that affect us deeply.

This disrespect is really very real to us.

And thank you so much for listening to me.

Thank you, Catherine.

Next we have Patricia followed by Miss Yvette and then David Haynes.

Then we'll go online.

Thank you.

Before I start, I'm going to talk about Lake Washington Boulevard too, but I just wanted to share my appreciation for a couple of events the city held this past weekend.

One was the big day of play, where we got to represent our Detective Cookie Chess Club as a sport for the mind.

And also, we had a joint emergency hub drill in Rainier Beach.

And it was just terrific.

It's just a brilliant program.

So I did want to talk about Lake Washington Boulevard.

And I'm sorry, Council Member Lynn is not here because, of course, he is our Council Member.

I've lived on Orca Street for about 35 years now, so I've had a very good view of this.

And I think everybody's aware of the half century of Bicycle Sundays, which happened once or twice a month.

I have to say, the whole community was, the whole city, I believe, was universally happy for that, including the hosting community.

It was much beloved.

And now we have this imposition, as you've already heard the details of that, and also the locking gates.

Never thought I'd see a gated community in our neighborhood.

I represented Friends of Seward Park on the Lake Washington Boulevard Visioning Tax Force.

So I can tell you that that task force was overloaded with folks who came in with stating their goal of closing the boulevard permanently.

I don't...

Is that really two minutes?

Okay.

10 seconds.

I just want to say it's about 180 degrees from equity.

Thank you.

Thank you, Patricia.

Next, we have Miss Yvette followed by David Haynes, and then we'll jump online to Laurel.

Laurel, excuse me.

Welcome, Miss Yvette.

Good afternoon.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

I want to add on to her old statement about closing the Lake Washington Boulevard.

I've got a lot of hits on social media.

4,000 people are against it as well.

And also the big day of play was hella fun.

Rainer Beach Playfield was rockin'.

I went there.

My only net complaint was that the food was not free, but that's a whole nother conversation.

I also wanted to comment on the fact that Lynn Ruth, I've worked with her for years and I worked with the city and in recognition of what she has done and my organization personally has gotten funding from the Food Equity Fund to help me to continue feeding almost 2,000 people directly and indirectly every month.

So the funding is very much appreciated.

And also, Backing up the Lake Washington Boulevard closure, like I mentioned, we're still pissed.

And we would at least like an explanation of how that decision came about in the first place.

So we will continue to advocate and push for some answers on that.

And thank you very much.

And we'll see you downstairs once you've got the food ready.

Ta-ta.

Thank you, Miss Yvette.

Next, we have David Haynes.

And then we go online to Laurel.

Online.

Welcome, Mr. Haynes.

Hi, thank you.

David Ains, when you exempt misdemeanor drug crimes and look the other way on over serving bartenders, you're allowing for an escalation of violence where rival drug gangs are claiming territory because there's so many people bearing witness to people getting away with destroying other people's lives and just ruining the pursuit to happiness.

And you all are paying the Human Services Department to undermine the public safety efforts while prioritizing self-destructive, junkie-thieving repeat offenders who have caused so many 911 calls that They've been deemed suitable to decide for themselves how much of an effort they're going to put into solving the crisis of their self-destructive behaviors and their willingness to look the other way on all these evil predatory drug pushers who keep supplying the open drug markets that the police chief executive staff keeps pushing around the community, all on the outer edge of Belltown.

It's called Helltown.

and the fright of Seattle is because of Ural's willingness to hire police chief executives who got a tainted interpretation of community policing and have allowed for a whole bunch of evil predators to get away with it because of their ill-suited training to proactively shut down all these evil, misdemeanor, predatory, low-life drug pushers and pimps and self-destructive repeat offenders.

who are like connected to the underworld that you all keep prioritizing for housing first, which has ruined it for everybody.

You all have allowed for a victimization of all these innocent houseless citizens because you all sarcastically in your policies claim you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

The thing is, is the 2026 budget is a violation of our rights, and it got Bruce Harrell kicked out, Jenny Durkan kicked out, Ed Murray kicked out, and you all are still appropriating the same bad spending priorities that still need to be addressed.

And y'all gotta get rid of this 10-second beep.

It's too damn noisy when you're still trying to make your point.

It gets drowned out, especially on the phone.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

So now we're gonna go online.

Laurel, then we have Rose, we have Cedar, Andrew Lynn.

Hi, I'm calling because I wanted to voice strong support for Councilwoman Rivera's Resolution 32217 on using evidence-based by National Network for Safe Communities programming.

I'm very upset with how local community groups in Seattle have been funded to tackle this problem that I do not believe they have the expertise to do.

They seem to have lived experience, but I think that really has failed greatly.

And I think some of them do more harm than good.

And I'm disgusted when I see like the tragedy of the bite of Seattle being used to direct more money towards these groups who worked to enable these gun offenders, repeated gun offenders to continue on The call is very much coming from within the House.

The CEO of Community Passageways can be seen on video bragging about keeping violent youth gun offenders out of incarceration and in, quote, community, unquote, and being able to work to remove 150 years of incarceration time.

And then the City Council is going to give them more money after a bite of Seattle, despite the fact their organization and similar organizations are responsible for the fact that the repeat gun offenders were still on the street.

It is clear these groups do not want to see people of their demographic incarcerated, but I'm sorry, but the city pandering to that sort of racial bias is despicable and has cost people their lives.

We need to focus on innocent people, not guilty people.

I'm glad that there's some help available for gang members and people involved with this, but ultimately the focus and centering needs to be done on innocent people not on trying to coerce violent people with more free programming and so on.

And I'm frustrated with seeing how communities are rewarded for their high rates of violence.

Again, I support Resolution 32217. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Laurel.

Okay, now we have Rose followed by Cedar.

Star six, unmute yourself, Rose.

There you go.

I hope you all can hear me.

I am currently at UW Montlake Hospital, so I'm hoping that things are coming through clearly.

This week, I think there's a lot to talk about police that have happened in the queer community.

This Thursday, my partner came down with meningitis and had her partner call 911 in order to try and get her help.

And instead of sending an ambulance, we had to wait two hours and have the cops show up first before she was able to get the help she needed.

We're lucky that she is living and that she is better and we'll be able to bounce back.

But I don't know why we are having such a thing where we are having basic care in our city that is denied to individuals we shouldn't have to bug the city to send basic human services in order to have individuals get the care they need that's unacceptable this is also further unacceptable we have individuals we have police officers that are harassing homeless people primarily in cal anderson park for smoking cigarettes i understand that in 2015 the city council The City Council, the Parks Board, said that smoking is not legal in parks, but it is not against a law.

It is an ordinance that says, as per the Seattle website, that it is primarily of education of telling people that they shouldn't be smoking in the parks.

However, we have individuals that are being threatened with being detained and arrested for smoking cigarettes in the park.

I mean, let's be real, people are smoking cigarettes, weed and other things in the park, but if we are coming down on people that literally have nowhere else to go, not only is it unfair to those individuals, it is also destroying whatever goodwill we are trying to get with the city to help these individuals.

We cannot help the individuals that are homeless in places like Cal Anderson if they do not trust you all because the cops are coming after them.

We need you all to crack down on the cops and make them do better.

Thank you, Rose.

Next, we have Cedar, followed by Andrin Lin.

Hello, my name is Cedar, and I am here to talk on the coming collapse of the country.

Part of it has to do with the fact that we are going through a Secondary Depression with a 1930s stock market crash, in part due to the fact that AI and mass surveillance centers are replacing jobs.

For example, in Ohio, they spent $55 billion on surveillance centers and they created 10 jobs.

Another part of the reason our country is going to collapse is because the soldiers above the Lincoln aren't going to be allowed to come home because as like Pat Tillman and Rachel Corey before they have now become liabilities to the Empire as they know too much and the farming collapse is coming due to El Nino and farmers not being able to afford crops and Yeah, I'm just on that end, I'm glad that they haven't, the public hasn't started blaming the 1% and our political and corporate and billionaire class for that, because it kind of is our fault.

Like, I'm from a rather wealthy background on one side of my family, and yeah.

Thank you, Cedar.

Next, we have Andrew Lynn.

star six, unmute yourself.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Angela from Pierce County District number two.

Today, I'd like to express my support on the historic preservation of the Wild Street Field House and the Burrow House designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board under chapter 25.12 from council bills 12-12-74 and 12-12-73.

Saving our local history and culture for educated purposes provides to the community a greater understanding of where those areas came from along with how things have been in comparison to the present for improvements in other areas to achieve a better future.

Each place has a story to tell full of lessons to learn that benefit other areas upon application.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And I don't think we have any more in person.

Public comment period is now closed.

We're so grateful that people took the time out to come do public comment for us.

And for the record, I think there was a comment, Council Member Lynn is present.

He's here, he's on, he's virtual, but just wanted to say that, that he is here and I know that he's listening to everything.

So thank you all as well.

And...

Yes, we're gonna now move right into our council meeting.

So thank you all for coming and taking time out of your day for coming down here to give public comment and the people that wait online as well.

We did a proclamation at the beginning and now we're gonna power through our wonderful meeting.

Thank you all.

If there's no objection, thank you.

If there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing none.

the referral, excuse me, hearing no objection, the introduction referral calendar is adopted.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We're now gonna consider the proposed consent calendar.

Items on consent calendar include the minutes of August 11th, 2026. Council Bill 121277 payment of the bills.

17 appointments from the library's education and neighborhoods committee.

Are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

You don't wanna remove the 17 appointments and vote on them one by one?

Okay, awesome, thank you.

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Awesome, 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 Kettle?

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

The consent calendar is adopted.

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

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

Agenda item one, resolution 32214, requesting the code revisor to reformat tables within the Seattle MISPA code to comply with federal accessibility guidelines.

Awesome.

I'm the sponsor, colleague, so I'm gonna move to adopt Resolution 32214. Is there a second?

Second.

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

As sponsor, I'll address it very quickly.

The city attorney's office drafted this resolution as a part of the city's continuing effort to comply with federal digital accessibility guidelines that go into effect April, 2027. This resolution requests the code is to reformat tables within the Seattle Municipal Code to comply with accessibility guidelines.

The executive department will be undertaking most of the work, bringing the city into digital accessibility compliance.

Are there any comments regarding the resolution?

All right, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council member Lynn?

Yes.

Council member Rink?

Yes.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Resolutions adopted and the chair will sign up.

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

Will the clerk please read item number two into the record?

The report of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee, June 2, Council Bill 121-274 related to historic preservation, posing controls upon the Wilds-Treadford House, a landmark designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board.

The committee recommends the bill pass this amendment, excuse me, the committee recommends the bill pass

Councilmember Rivera, as chair of the committee, you are recognized to present the committee report.

Thank you, Council President, and if it's okay with you, I'll just talk about both bills 121274 and 121273 because they're both landmarks.

The Landmark Preservation Board forwarded to us for our approval the controls and incentives for the Wild Stratfield House, and also the Burwell House both had approvals from the owners of those institutions and our committee went ahead and passed those through and are recommending full council to adopt these.

And there are various reasons why the landmarks board, there's a list of about five items that they look at, age of the house and significance of the houses or the structures.

And in this case, with their guidelines, they went ahead and proposed these two.

And so I offer them for your consideration.

Thank you, Council President.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Are there any comments regarding resolution, excuse me, one, two, or excuse me, Council Bill 121274?

Okay, awesome.

Well, thank you, Council Member Rivera for your work.

I know that you have a lot in your committee.

And so getting some of this, you know, technical stuff through is always a lift as well.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

And Council President, if I may just wanna acknowledge that all those appointments and then these particular landmarks also, as you know, our committee had both the library's levy or the library levy rather, and also the Families Education Preschool Promise implementation and evaluation plans.

So most of our committee work had to be used for those two very big pieces of legislation.

And so then with this committee, we were trying to get in as many of those appointments as we could, including some of this landmark work.

So thank you.

No, absolutely.

That's why I mentioned that because that was a lot of time spent on things that are important.

So will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Council member Kettle.

Okay.

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes, Chair.

We'll sign it.

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

Clerk, will you please read item number three into the record?

Agenda 3, Council Bill 121273, Lane Historic Preservation, posing controls upon the Borough House, St. Lanark Designation by the Lanark Preservation Board.

The Committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Rivera, you already spoke to this.

Did you have any final comments before we call roll?

No.

Awesome.

Will the Clerk please call the roll?

Are there any other comments, Council Members?

No.

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

Council Member Kettle?

Council Member Kettle?

You're on mute, Council.

Again.

Thank you, Council Member Lynn.

Yes.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes.

Chair will sign it.

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

Colleagues, there were no items removed from the consent calendar.

There's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

And are there any other items that come before the council before we adjourn?

So just a little quick update.

We've reached the end of today's agenda.

So the city council will be in recess from August the 21st, which is Friday.

No one's counting down three days until Friday.

And then we will return here September the 4th.

And the next city council meeting will not be until September the 15th at 2 p.m.

So we are on recess from the 21st through September the 4th.

gives us a week back to do work.

And then we will return back in chambers to you all on September the 15th at 2 p.m.

And hearing no further business colleagues, thank you all, Council Member Lynn, Council Member Kettle, Council Member Rink, Council Member Rivera for holding down the quorum today for our last meeting before recess.

Really appreciate your time, y'all.

And hearing no further business, this meeting's adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.