Seattle City Council 4/29/2025

Good afternoon, everyone.

The April 29, 2025 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.01.

I'm Sarah Nelson, council president.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Saka?

Here.

Council member Solomon?

Here.

Council member Strauss?

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Council member Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Moore.

Present.

Councilmember Rink.

Councilmember Rivera.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Sticks present.

Thank you.

I will note our colleagues when they come in.

All right.

There are no presentations today, so colleagues at this time, we'll open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, and the council work program.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have three in person, excuse me, five in person and three remote.

Okay, eight total.

And I will note for the record that council members Rink, Hollingsworth, and Rivera have joined us.

Let's give everyone two minutes and start with the in-person commenters.

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.

Our first speaker is Joe Cox.

After Joe will be Matt Payne.

I've been trying for over a year to resolve an issue with noise levels at T-Mobile Park that are so high they can cause permanent hearing loss.

I've sent emails to members of the City Council, police captains involved with enforcing noise ordinances in the area.

This is the third time I've made an oral presentation at the City Council meeting.

I've been told it is a matter of free speech that the police are looking into the situation, that the laws around noise are slightly complex, that SDCI was responsible for enforcement, and other reasons why the person I was speaking to could not help.

Nothing has worked.

OSHA says that sound levels above 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss that cannot be corrected through surgery or with medicine.

This past Sunday was Little League Day at the ballpark.

The paid attendance was 30,361.

Before the game, I recorded four individuals using amplified sound systems that blasted their message at over 100 decibels at baseball fans standing in line.

One registered 119 decibels.

The people in line could not protect themselves.

Why can't we protect ourselves from noise levels that are 30 decibels above the level at which permanent damage occurs?

Won't you please step in to protect these kids and their families from assault on your city sidewalks?

Thank you.

CHRISTIE WOODWARD- Matt.

Hey, so I'm Matt.

I'll probably get emotional.

Sorry.

I'm a former Marine, and I signed up to defend the Constitution a long time ago.

And all those Marines, sailors, they died defending the Constitution and the rule of law, and the rule of law is under assault.

And so I don't know I'm new to Seattle.

I've lived all over the world.

I've seen governments that don't, the dead bodies in the street, the governments that don't care, and I don't want that here.

But that's the way we're going.

I don't know what I'm gonna do if I see one of my neighbors who I know is on a visa.

If masked people without identification are trying to snatch her, I'm not gonna just stand back and say, gosh, I should probably film this on my camera.

That scares me.

I don't wanna get shot trying to help somebody getting abducted on the streets of Seattle.

So what can you do?

You can be on the right side of history.

You can be a Harvard versus a Columbia.

You can be a Perkins Coie versus a Paul Weissman.

We can stand up and fight.

We can sign up with California.

I know this is just Seattle, but we can sign up for California and sue against the tariffs.

If you weren't waking up every day and thinking, how can I fight against this?

We don't know if the 2026 elections will be real at this stage with the changes he's trying to make.

I want my voices heard.

I want your constituents' voices heard.

And if we don't do something and we just keep talking about budgets, you've probably been in this role for a long time.

There's always been a budget problem.

There's always been.

But there's not always been a fascist threat to our democracy and the presidency.

And we have to stop treating this like it's normal.

Thank you.

Alex Zimmerman.

Following Alex Zimmerman will be Howard Gale.

Thank you.

Zeke Heil, my dirty damn Nazi fascist mob bandit.

My name Alex Zimmerman, a president of Stand Up America, Trump support from beginning, MAGA member.

I have 6,000 day of trespass from King County, and five times prosecute King County, prosecute me.

I was speaking about something that is making me absolutely sick.

For example, we come to Consul Rink.

She asking for another...

Taxes, governor asked for another taxes.

Guy, taxes for rich is very good, for rich is very good.

But one problem, what is I seen?

I cannot understand for last 30 years under democratic mafia control.

You taxes, taxes, taxes.

And deficit go bigger and bigger.

How is this possible?

You have more money and more money on.

How is this possible?

Seattle right now, 300 million dollars.

State Washington, we're talking about billion.

This is number one.

So my question, because Ring right now support everybody.

Commission, you know what it means.

Council Ring, where last time you speak with your district people?

Before, for example, Don Constantine never spoke to people.

Mayor Harrell for four years not have one meeting.

And you, for my understanding, have a Mercedes, and I have a Mercedes.

Can you explain to me why we pay $5 for gas when many states right now, Trump talked this publicly last week, have $2.

How $2 for small states like Washington?

Why not?

In food, in store, you know what it means.

Jumped by two weeks ago by 25%.

How can I explain to you why?

Because Democrat mafia one talking.

Look, Trump no good.

We pay for everything.

It's because we have a mafia, a bandita, a conspiracy.

We were Trump.

We were new American revolution.

Stand up, people.

We need stopping this.

Howard Gale, it's going to be Bennett.

Good afternoon, Howard Gale.

Last month, the SPD killed the 19th person in a period of less than 14 years who was brandishing either no weapon or only an edge weapon in their hand.

If these people lived in the United Kingdom, they would still be alive.

Yet every single one of these killings was declared and accepted as quote, lawful and proper by all parts of our police accountability system.

Despite this, three months ago in the King County Inquest, jury found that the SPD was guilty of criminal conduct.

Two out of six jurors deemed it criminal conduct.

Five out of six found that either the SPD policy or SPD officers unnecessarily killed Ayoseo Folatogo in 2018. And lastly, It has been almost, we just had a hearing this morning on our police accountability partners.

Eight years ago, it will be eight years in September since the city auditor very strongly recommended having an independent audit of the OPA, the CPC, and the OIG.

That has never happened.

If you're confused by that, it's because the police monitor claims to have done an audit.

If you're confused, it's because the OIG claims to have done independent audits.

We have never had an independent audit.

So it's rather hypocritical of this body to proclaim accountability and budget concerns when eight years a new agency has not been independently evaluated or audited.

Thank you.

And Bennett is gonna be our last in-person speaker.

Right, good afternoon, so update.

So the city attorney Ann Davison and Natalie Walton Anderson have responded through their attorney to the complaint that I filed with the state bar.

So for the first time, they've actually addressed the things that I keep coming every week and telling you guys about.

So just to recap, about a year ago, the city attorney put out a press release disqualifying Judge Verdotti from hearing criminal cases.

They cited three examples of cases they thought that she mishandled, and two of those accusations against the judge were wrong.

In one case, they claimed Judge Verdotti didn't know that you can't have assault in Washington without touching, but in the court hearing, Judge Verdotti said, Had he even pulled the object out of his waistband fully and motioned toward the defendant, I think there would have been probable cause for assault.

In other words, she knows you can have assault without touching, she just didn't find probable cause in this case.

And in the other case, the city attorney said that Judge Vidati found the defendant was in compliance with the treatment and dismissed the case.

In reality, Judge Vidati explicitly declined to find they were in compliance and didn't dismiss the case.

So, in their lawyer's response to my complaint, they wrote, Ms. Walden Anderson regrets that the sentence contains an error with regard to Judge Vidati to dismiss the Phillips case.

Okay, now we're getting somewhere.

However, it also said, it is clear that a stray factual error in a report that otherwise accurately captures the sting of the report's message would not constitute reckless disregard for the truth.

But these are not stray factual errors.

Their entire criticism of how Judge Vidati handled one case was that she claimed that she didn't know that you can't have assault in Washington without touching when Judge Vidati specifically said the opposite.

Their entire criticism of how she handled the other case was that she dismissed the case when she didn't dismiss the case.

That's not what stray factual error means.

Okay, the best part in there, Laura wrote, further, there was such overwhelming evidence that in the city's view, Judge Vedati's rulings created a danger to public safety that there would have been no reason for Ms. Weldon Anderson to invent a fact.

In other words, yes, we said wrong things about this judge, but it's still her fault because she's such a bad judge.

We just got these rulings mixed up with all her other terrible rulings, which conveniently we are not listing here.

Okay, so the Bar Association said that I can respond to what they wrote.

I will keep you guys posted.

Thank you.

That was our last in-person speaker.

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

Our first remote speaker is Joe Kunzler and he will be followed by David Haynes.

Go ahead, Joe.

Wow, thank you for having me before the world famous Seattle City Council today.

Joe Kunzler here.

I want to register my absolute discussed at the abomination of Alex Zimmerman's continued anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, malicious, anti-American outbursts.

Alex Zimmerman deserves to be shot by the Seattle police, quite frankly, because he's a threat to...

Mr. Zimmerman is also, before the Bellevue courts for driving on a suspended license, and violating a trespass.

He's waiting for a competency evaluation.

I'm sure you'd agree with me that he's incompetent.

Why don't you call DSHS and say, hey, we've got this creep coming down here.

He's harassing us.

He's throwing Nazi salutes.

He just bullied a BIPOC city council member minutes after he bullied the BIPOC chair of the King County Council.

Why don't we make sure this guy gets his DSHS competency evaluation and get him out of his Mercedes that he just admitted to owning?

Did you also know that Alex Zimmerman owes the PTC over $35,000 in fines?

Yes.

Alex Zimmerman owes the Washington State over $35,000 for not filing his campaign paperwork.

Gee.

I think that'd be great staff work for the world-famous Seattle City Council.

I could, you know, I mean, maybe if we had a real council president, like the one in Redmond, a super Jew rock star in Vanessa Kirchner, this guy's room would be dealt with.

Of course, she could always do itself.

Please do to anyone who's threatening, but I'd rather see him rot in jail anyway.

Our next speaker is David Haynes, and that's our last remote speaker currently signed up.

Go ahead, David.

Societal implosion, wicked corrosion, and racist disgraces all over the places.

You know you're in Seattle.

When is the City Council going to write effective laws to end the scourge of the implosion that sees evil predatory criminals outsmart ill-trained cops, focus more, at law-abiding events, coming up with political excuses why crime is still rampant.

And when are you going to write the wrongs of the past that sabotage police reform, that shifted the paradigm away from improving the war on drugs, and then priority-hired police chiefs with the wrong philosophy on public safety, influenced by George Soros' racist woke professors, misconstruing what constitutes a criminal.

As repeat offenders are exempted from jail, prioritize for housing and services first, using homeless money, leaving racially discriminated, innocent homeless forsaken to the streets, subhuman mistreated.

You know there's a multitude of reasons why Seattle does not have proper effective police reform, and I noticed during the public safety presentation there was a video that showed one police officer, Garth Haynes, meeting two women, and it turns out he got promoted to a sergeant and has 14 complaints about his conduct.

He was on a video in Ballard drunk, kicking an innocent person in the head who was handcuffed, laying on the ground, causing brain damage that I think cost the city $70,000.

I don't see how that cop has the temperament for being in charge.

It's like when you ask for the supervisor, if the cop stops you and this guy shows up, you're in trouble because you ain't got a proper professional police officer.

But because of diversity, he gets a pass.

Yet if you're a white police officer and say something improper that's taken out of context that's overheard, you get fired.

The hypocrisy in Seattle runs to the bottom of the barrel as liberals scrape away at the bottom wondering what other diverse array of bad ideas they can come up with next.

That was our last remote speaker.

Thank you very much.

We've reached the end of our list of speakers and so the public comment period is now closed.

Moving right along.

We will now, just a second.

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

Hearing none, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

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

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

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

The items on the consent calendar today are the minutes of April 22nd, 2025, Council Bill 120974, payment of bills, and eight appointments from the Housing and Human Services Committee.

Are there any items that council members would like to remove from the consent calendar?

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

Is there a second?

Second.

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 Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Solomon.

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss.

Yes.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Moore.

Councilmember Rink.

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Moore.

Present.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

All right, the consent calendar items are adopted.

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

And would you please read item one into the record?

The report of the Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture Committee, agenda one, Council Bill 120952. Council Bill 120952 relating to the City Light Department authorizing department to establish eligibility requirements for customers participating in the Renewable Plus Program.

Can we recommend the bill pass?

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, as chair of the committee, you're recognized to provide the committee report.

Certainly.

So this pertaining to Council Bill 120952, Renewable Plus Program Rate Ordinance.

This legislation authorizes City Light to establish eligibility requirements for customers purchasing in the Renewable Plus Program.

It would add a rate charge to Renewable Plus customers for the delivery of dedicated renewable energy and its associated renewable energy credits.

As further background, in September of 2021, council approved ordinance 126437 to establish the Renewable Plus program and authorized City Light to execute customer participation agreements.

The legislation also authorized City Light to execute power purchase agreements with renewable energy providers for the Renewable Plus program.

And via the Renewable Plus program, City Light purchases energy generated from newly developed wind or solar generators and sells the energy to high demand customers that wish to purchase energy from renewable sources.

Renewable Plus customers purchase the renewable energy bundled with renewable energy certificates, the plus in Renewable Plus.

One REC is issued when one megawatt hour of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource.

Electricity generated from renewable sources is indistinguishable in its physical properties from electricity produced from other sources.

RECs are a means to account for renewable energy that customers could use to demonstrate compliance with environmental standards.

Currently, the SMC requires Renewable Plus customers to have an aggregated annual consumption requirement of 10,000 megawatt hours.

This bill amends the SMC to remove the fixed threshold and instead allow City Light to establish rules to include Renewable Plus customers with less aggregated annual consumption if the department has sufficient renewable resources to sell.

City Light has executed two power purchase agreements for renewable power projects that are expected to deliver approximately 210,000 to 230,000 megawatt hours annually.

Both of these projects are solar.

This is really exciting for our system.

So I'm happy to share that this passed out of my committee.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Are there any questions or comments from anybody?

All right, I'm seeing none.

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

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

And will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, Council Bill 120953 relating to the City Light Department accepting the following easements for electrical distribution rights in King County, Washington.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you.

Go ahead again, Council Member Rink.

I'll keep this short.

City light requires that the owner of a new or altered electrical service provide the city with a distribution easement whenever city light power lines must pass over, under, or through the property of another person, or when service equipment such as poles or volts must be located either on the property being served or the property of a third party.

So this legislation would allow, would accept the 61 distribution easements that have been recorded in property records with King County since the previous distribution easement acceptance ordinance was approved.

This passed out of committee unanimously, and I urge a yes vote today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Questions or comments from anyone?

All right, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council member Sacca?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

And then finally, item three.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Agenda item three, Council Bill 120954, relating to the City Light Department, accepting the following easements for electrical distribution in King County, Washington.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

This is the last one from our committee today.

So Council Bill 120954. Similar to the previous legislation, this would accept 129 easements for overhead and underground electrical rights that have been recorded on property with King County since the previous platted easement acceptance ordinance was approved.

These easements care are called platted easements because they are contained in short plats, lot boundary adjustments, and unit lot subdivisions approved by SDCI.

This was passed unanimously out of committee, and I urge a yes vote today.

Thank you.

Thank you, all right.

Not seeing any hands, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Salomon?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

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?

Okay, there were no items removed from the consent calendar and there's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

Council Member Salomon.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

I request to be excused on the May 13th meeting.

I will be teaching a crime prevention through environmental design course in Tumwater.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, Council Member Salomon will be excused from the May 13th, is that what you said?

Yes.

City Council meeting.

Excused from the May 13th City Council meeting.

All right, I'm not seeing any other hands.

Oh, Council Member Rink, go ahead.

Thank you, Council President.

Just for the purposes of good of the order for today and thinking about the public comment that was given today, I find myself, at times up here, and with all due respect to the body and the work that we do, at times disillusioned when we look at also the broader context that we're working in, in which we're conducting our work.

This is not business as usual.

I think we know this.

We are in a growing constitutional crisis, and increasingly I know my office is hearing concern across the city as families are preparing their own safety plans.

whether they are legal permanent residents or citizens.

And I think that is a really frightening reality for many of our residents.

When our own residents are thinking about moving out of our city for the sake of their safety, when we have so many residents that also are even looking at international opportunities for work because their job prospects have dried up due to losses in federal funding for research.

And now as we're continuing to learn on the human services front and housing front, very real losses coming down the pipe when we're looking at things like Section 8 potentially going away, which as a reminder, Section 8 in King County between the Seattle Housing Authority and King County Housing Authority houses 25,000 households.

And we're hearing talk that this could be going away.

This doesn't even factor in all of our agencies that rely on Medicaid billing reimbursement to keep business going.

This doesn't count the emergency housing vouchers that we had 100% successful lease up as a region.

That was 1,400 households that we were able to house and promised 10 years of housing affordability to, and that resource potentially going away as early as the end of this year.

These are just a couple of things, and I know we take this up in committee, and I know we'll continue to talk through our separate committees about the various impacts that are happening, but I think it's just worth naming that I know this weekend I talked to a number of families that were terrified for their safety in this city.

And we are going to have to get really creative and move differently as we go about our work for the months to come.

So I wanted to name that for the record today.

And again, I look forward to working with each of you in partnership so we can truly protect our residents.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you very much.

Is there anything else that anyone would like to bring before Council before we adjourn?

Okay, we've reached the end of today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is on May 6th at 2 p.m.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned and it is 2.30.

Thank you.