Good afternoon, everyone.
The March 19th, 2024 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.
It is 201. I'm Sarah Nelson, president of the council.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
And I would like to note that Council Member Moore is excused from the meeting.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council Member Rivera.
Present.
Council Member Slaka.
Here.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council Member Wu?
Present.
Council Member Hollingsworth?
Present.
Council Member Kettle?
Here.
Council President Nelson?
Present.
Kate?
Present.
Thank you very much.
I'm not aware of any presentation for today.
Okay.
I am now excusing Councilmember Moore again.
I mentioned that before, but anyway.
So no presentations.
We'll move right into the hybrid public comment period.
Madam Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?
We have eight remote.
And seven in person.
Eight remote and seven in person.
Correct.
doing the math.
We will give 90 seconds for public comment today.
And we'll start with the in-person speakers, please.
Jodi?
In-person?
Correct.
I'm just waiting for the instructions.
Our first speaker will be John.
I live in District 3 and I'm here to comment on the pay up bill.
Last week I worked 54 hours and made $346.
I don't think I ever made less than $800 for a full week before January 13th.
My job has been destroyed by the pay up bill.
Even the name pay-up is bad.
To customers, it feels like a holdup.
Choose a name where customers feel good contributing to workers having a living wage.
The pay-up bill was poorly conceived.
We workers all knew it would fail.
The situation was not a surprise.
Nothing in the bill matters if the delivery fees remain too high.
Right now, only rich people can afford to order, and that is wrong on so many levels.
I used to have a regular customer who happened to be visually impaired, but who was always the most considerate, always there waiting for me as I arrived.
I haven't delivered to them once since pay up went into effect.
Regular people can no longer afford to have food delivered.
Please think of the workers who don't have the privilege to speak to you today.
Think about the worker who has to go home to a spouse after working 10 plus hours and tell them they made only $50.
That's a stressful and painful conversation.
Many people are having serious life challenges because of this situation.
Please don't delay.
Every month you wait, more and more people are having housing insecurity issues.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Wei Lin and then followed by Lee Holland.
Is it Wei Lin?
W-E-I?
Okay, I'll be back.
I'll come back then.
And then Lee Holland?
Just a second.
We'll increase the time to three minutes.
Okay.
Jody, can you please increase the time to three minutes?
Thank you.
Shall we go on to our next speaker?
Okay.
We're going to move on to the next speaker and we'll come back to that.
And Jason, is this the next speaker?
Hi, I'm here to discuss the gig worker ordinance.
I'd like to discuss my weekly income for March 11th through 17th.
I would typically work 10 hours a day across three different network company apps.
On Monday 11th, I averaged $14.59 an hour, which has been quite high actually recently.
For Tuesday the 12th, $12.62 an hour was my average.
Wednesday the 13th, there was a significant drop off.
I averaged $5.29 in 10 hours.
Thursday the 14th, $6.98 an hour.
Friday the 15th, $4.77 an hour.
Saturday the 16th, $4.04 an hour.
Sunday I took a much needed day off to take care of personal matters.
My weekly income for working 60 hours was $482.79.
That's an average of $8.05 an hour.
That's all, thank you.
I believe Mr. Whelan.
Can you give me a second?
I was just walking.
I didn't know I was a Vax Payne.
Let me find my speech.
Speech.
OK.
All right.
Got it.
All right.
I'll start now.
Hi, my name is and I I'm an app-based gig worker and a member of the PayUp campaign.
I'm here today to share my voice to support the past app-based work minimum payment that just went in effect on January 13th.
The reason I'm here to supporting this is the last 10 months before the Seattle ordinance ran in effect, was a desperate situation for me.
I'm barely making less than $7 per hour because when there's no guaranteed pay and minimum pay protection for us as a driver.
And the importance of this kind of job is I can maintain my flexibility of work time and work my way to survive in Seattle.
And I slowly lose them all because I have no choice but become an Work at the same job for the same 100 hours, but only make quarter of what I used to.
That stressed me out deeply.
The company has been cutting our pay, our basic benefit and our base pay for no reason for the past 10 months before the Seattle ordinance into effect.
and without communicating with the drivers and without consulting with customers.
And now they've been blaming the driver for the increased fee cost on the customers without telling the truth that the Seattle owners never demand any app company to pass any fee on customers.
But company been announcing like that, like the driver is the problem.
Driver is the reason that it raised up the fees.
I just want everyone knows driver never had the power and the voice inside the company to make that change.
Our next speaker is Michael Wolff followed by Gary.
Good afternoon, Council President Nelson, members of the Council.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Michael Wolff.
I'm the executive director of Drive Forward, a nonprofit association whose 2,500 members are app-based workers statewide.
Drive Forward was part of the stakeholder process for the pay-up app-based worker minimum payment standard.
At the time, we were supportive of the idea, of a minimum payment standard, but fundamentally opposed to the law that was pushed through by the previous council.
We warned back then that some of the results app-based workers are seeing since the effective date of this ordinance would have happened given what was passed.
Since the effective date of this law, Drive Forward has conducted a survey of Seattle app-based workers with over 550 respondents.
It found 80% of respondents said they were receiving fewer offers, 64% saying the frequency of tips had significantly decreased, 58% reporting dollar amounts of tips significantly decreasing.
Tip-inclusive earnings of app-based workers have dropped up to 15%.
Base earnings before tips have fallen up to 36% and are up to 37% below minimum wage.
since this law took effect.
In our 2021 survey of app-based workers, pre-tip earnings were only about 5% to 8% below minimum wage, and only for a small subset of workers.
This law needs to be fixed.
Our next speaker will be Gary, followed by Kevin, and that'll be the last in-person speaker.
Thank you, Council and Mayor Harrell, especially last week with the Drug Task Force and everything going on.
I thought that was great.
I'll begin with my favorite quote, know the outcome and you'll see the journey.
Now to the gig stuff.
The numbers from speakers before speak volumes.
But I think we have to ask ourselves at this point, what do all the players want?
Drivers, couriers, more order, more money.
Restaurants, more orders, higher profits.
Customers, lower prices.
Customers, lower prices.
Gig companies, probably all of the above.
The dictionary says perception is how you see, hear, feel, and taste.
Perspective is a particular attitude or way of regarding something.
It's a point of view.
The CIA found that 98% of people are trapped in their own perception.
2% that live in perspective or learn how to develop it can manipulate everybody's perception, politicians, entrepreneurs, salesmen, spies.
The key differences between the two concept is empathy.
So ask yourselves, what do you guys want?
Do you want that perspective?
I ask you to be hands-on and have a real I ask you to gain perspective.
Take that journey, gain perspective, and I hope your decision is made with empathy.
Our last speaker is Kevin Sullivan.
Afternoon, counsel.
Thank you for the time.
I was pretty excited yesterday.
I started a new part-time job at a bike shop.
And I was scheduled from 12 to 4 just for training.
4 o'clock rolled around, and I had plenty of work to do.
And I looked at my boss, and I said, hey, I'll happily stay for another hour.
He looked at me.
He's like, oh, that's some good initiative.
5 o'clock rolled around.
kind of looked at each other again.
He's like, oh, are you in position?
I said, no, of course not.
At least I'm guaranteed money when I work here.
So I get my $20 guaranteed times two, that's 40 extra dollars.
I realized last week when I was actually tracking my mileage on my cycling computer, I rode around for about 20 miles downtown without receiving a single order.
And that's kind of the game we play.
We gotta go around, get pings off of different restaurants, pick up the order, do the work, et cetera, et cetera.
That makes the math and you know, we make money.
But again, none of that's really guaranteed.
We end up working a lot.
We enjoy part of that.
But ultimately, it is a little scary because we don't know how much money we're getting.
But I went back and I did some math since the ordinance went into effect.
That first week, I ended up making $20.97.
That's pretty good.
It's not as good as I used to make.
I would peak at $34 an hour.
Between two and three weeks, these are statistics based upon Uber, that dropped to $13.46.
Week four and five, $11.53.
And week six and seven, $13.
So that's...
We will now transition to the remote speakers.
Our first remote speaker is Amy Scott and Amy will be followed by Jordan Green.
And I'd like to remind the remote speakers to please press star six when you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.
Amy Scott will be our first speaker.
Go ahead, Amy.
Hi, I'm Amy Scott and speaking on gig workers minimum pay.
I have been working with Instacart since before the pandemic and utilize the service for a substantial income for myself and child.
especially since I was a preschool teacher that didn't pay well.
During the pandemic, my weekly income was roughly $1,000.
Over time, Instacart has then lowered the base pay to $5, and with tips not being guaranteed, that's $5 for easily one to two hours of work.
I was still doing my best by working long hours daily that decreased my earnings to maybe $600 to $700.
When the Seattle pay-up ordinance took effect, I knew this would be more substantial to go back to the roots of where I was born and raised in Seattle, to work and with the benefit of the greater pay in Seattle, I can now work minimally three to four hours a day and have that is what I need five to six days a week for my family.
Working in Seattle with a better pay has allowed me the time for my family to understand what a healthy work and life balance is.
I am now able to bring in weekly $1,300 to $1,400.
That allows me time to have a rainy day fund, save for child's present and future education to support my family.
I can be available for my child more than before.
I know many individuals that use this platform as their main source of income that now travel from over an hour to sure more of a substantial workday, feeling confident they're making enough to support their loved ones and self due to pay in Seattle over any other surrounding cities in Washington state.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Jordan Green and Jordan will be followed by Michelle Halzer.
Go ahead, Jordan.
Hi.
I'm Jordan Green, and I'm a gig worker primarily on Instacart, OnSpark, and a few other ventures.
Six in total.
Originally, I'm from Alaska.
I started gig work in 2020, but I started working gig apps in Seattle in 2021. I'm a husband and father of two kids.
Doing Instacart has supplied a form of flexibility, especially during COVID when times were uncertain.
I fell in love with doing Instacart and being able to reward myself with my own hard work while being able to pop in on my family.
Due to child care costs, it made it easier for me and my wife to just continue having opposite schedules while being able to work as much or as little as needed once things started to settle down.
I'm here in support of the past app-based worker minimum payment that just went into effect January 13, 2024, because I would love to see these companies being held accountable and to be able to live a livable pay with transparency.
Being able to see the full details of my payment has been a game changer, and I'm no longer wondering if I'm being shorted or how.
I feel the orders may be paying better, but you can no longer instant cash out, a huge feature for many, They have completely made it difficult for customers to tip, and I'm not understanding why.
Trying to get orders feels like it's almost impossible, and it's just not what it used to be in any way, shape, or form.
They are also telling people that we make $26 an hour, which is not true, and it's not necessary.
These are all forms of retaliation.
We are the ones putting in all the work, using our vehicles, doing it.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Michelle Bowser, and she will be followed by David Haynes.
Go ahead, Michelle.
Hello, council.
I wasn't going to talk today, but I decided to because I have left numerous messages for a council member and have not received a call back, even from an aide or an assistant.
I know that this is a big topic.
Councilmember Nelson, when you came into the council, I know that you were very much in opposition of this law.
I don't know if it's because of your, you know, being a business owner, you align more with the companies than the workers.
But I feel like there's some bias here.
I will say that this law is totally working.
People are making more money.
And the orders are still coming in.
I get it.
DoorDash, new breeds, increase the fee.
And people don't like that.
But you know what?
They're going out to eat.
They're spending time with others.
They're not ordering on the platform.
The weather is getting nice.
The companies are retaliating.
They're purposely making things uncomfortable so workers will complain about not making money and hopefully convince you to repeal this.
And that is not the case.
People are absolutely making money.
Orders are still coming in.
I still have 20 orders on my board at any given time.
This law is working and it's benefiting people because we know we're going to make a certain amount.
We're no longer relying on tips and the company shouldn't be having a tip.
We're doing a job and we're getting paid for it and we're getting paid adequately.
The protections, the activation are essential.
Last week I had to help four people fully deactivated and I didn't even get to work half the week but I still made my goal and that's amazing and I wouldn't have been able to do that with
Our next speaker is David Haynes, and David will be followed by Ruth Todd.
Go ahead, David.
David, you may need to press star six.
And if not, we'll come back.
Let's go on to Ruth Todd.
Go ahead, Ruth.
My name is Ruth, and I've been a shopper for Instacart for the last four years.
I only do Instacart, and I am in support of the pay it up ordinance, specifically because of the deactivation protection.
This is going to provide.
I have been wrongfully deactivated three times in my last four years, most recently last week for eight days.
after accusations they made against me that were false.
This was actually due to a glitch.
However, unlike a typical company, it was a computer that fired me and every instance of communication following that was automated.
I either didn't get a response or got the exact same email that all the other 10,000 people affected by this glitch got.
This is not okay.
It will never be okay, and this law prevents that from happening in the future.
I strongly encourage and beg that this law be an attack, and we can continue to protect the people in our community.
I'm a single mother.
I have three boys that I've raised, and not having...
that income for days at time is a huge loss for me and for them to have to be held accountable would be a huge win for all of us thank you thank you our next speaker will be nick hate and then we will try david haynes again after nick go ahead nick please and you'll need to press star six
Hi, my name is Nick.
I'm here to address the Pay Up campaign for Seattle.
I think it's been very beneficial.
There have been problems.
Order volume is absolutely much lower, but pay is much higher, so it kind of balances out.
I've been with Instacart since 2017, and it's my full-time job.
I only do other apps when it's really slow, and I do want to highlight that there's a big world of difference between Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Instacart.
Instacart is a lot more work.
So I feel like there should be kind of allowances based on not just the app being classified as gig work, because they are all different.
Uber Eats and DoorDash are absolutely dead.
I can go hours with no orders.
And the fees they charge are not in line with the customer experience.
They are overcharging to get this overturned.
Before they would pay $2, now they pay $5.
However, the fees for the customers are just incredibly absurd and, again, out of line with what they're actually paying.
They're clearly trying to manipulate the city council to revert the app.
Now, I will say my pay has gone up.
I've always been an outlier.
My best week since the pay law was 2,444 hours.
I averaged about $50 plus an hour doing Instacart, but that is not because of Seattle.
It's pretty common.
One thing I will want to say is Shipt left the market and they didn't want to pay.
So I do believe that there's a balance that needs to be struck.
However, we do need protection.
Thank you.
Our next speaker will be David Haynes and David will be followed by our last speaker, BJ Last.
Go ahead, David.
I see you, but it looks like you may need to unmute still.
Star six.
Okay, let's move on to BJ Last.
Thank you, BJ.
Go ahead.
Hi, my name is BJ Last.
I want to speak to Resolution 32129, which adopts the Statements of Legislative Intent for the budget.
I'm really disappointed at some of the slides that are actually not getting adopted and are quietly getting killed by this resolution.
In particular, I'm disappointed that HSV-016S-A, which requested that HSV assess and report on city programming related to gun violence prevention, is not getting adopted and is effectively getting quietly killed by this resolution.
At a time when the city leadership is really talking about gun violence and the need to address this serious problem all the time, it's really disappointing.
The city council is going to kill a report that would have, well, reported on city programming and investments on actually reducing gun violence.
It seems really unaligned with other moves that the city council and this entire city leadership is trying to do.
really disappointed that this slide is getting dropped and would like to see the resolution amended to actually adopt this slide.
Thank you.
I yield my time.
That's it for our public commenters remotely.
Thank you very much.
Moving right along.
We have reached the end of our allotted time.
Hello?
Okay.
Moving right along, we've reached the end of our list of registered speakers.
The public comment period is now closed.
Thank you for your comments today.
I must note that if I were sitting in your seats there, week after week talking about this issue, I would be impatient with the lack of action.
That's understandable.
What matters is that the deliveries become more affordable so that people, so that that will drive up customer demand more so that you get more orders and people can, and restaurants and other businesses can regenerate their revenue and also so that people can get their, their needs met when they order, either because they can't get out or their circumstances, they've got health circumstances of some nature.
I'm getting, I'm flustered because I recognize that this is taking a long time to even address legislatively.
I want you to know that there will be progress soon and It's taken a long time to get important information to really understand what's going on with an eye toward what's happening to the drivers as the priority, and we've just gotten final survey results.
All right, so moving right along with our agenda, if there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.
And if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
In hearing none, the agenda is adopted.
We'll now consider the proposed consent calendar.
Items on the consent calendar include the minutes of March 12th, 2024, Council Bill 120751, Payment of Bills, Clerk File 02765, which is appointment of Nicholas A. Ramirez to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, Clerk File 02752, reappointment of Anthony R. Salazar as member, Ballard Avenue Landmark District Board.
Clerk File 02753, appointment of Sarah E. Baker as member, Pike Place Market Historical Commission.
Clerk File 0254, reappointment of Mark C. Childs as member, Pike Place Market Historical Commission, and then clerk file 02755, reappointment of Lance Wagner as member, Pike Place Market Historical Commission.
Are there any items people would like to remove from today's consent calendar?
Okay, well, before moving on, I'd like to say thank you very much, people stepping up to serve on our commissions.
Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar.
Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council Member Rivera?
Aye.
Council Member Rivera?
Thank you.
Council Member Saka?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Wu?
Yes.
Council Member Hollingsworth?
Yes.
Council Member Kettle?
Aye.
Council President Nelson?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Great.
Will the clerk, the consent calendar items are adopted.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes in legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf?
Will the clerk please read the title of item one into the record?
Agenda item one, resolution 32129, adopting the statements of legislative intent for the 2024 adopted budget and 2024 through 2029 adopted capital improvement program.
Thank you very much.
I move to adopt resolution 32129. Is there a second?
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.
As sponsor, I will address this item first and then open it up to council members for comments.
So this is a resolution affirming and making updates to the list of statements of legislative intent, or SLIs, that were part of the budget process last fall and passed by city council.
And as you all know, SLIs are one type of a council budget action.
It allows the council to put forward various priorities.
So the council considers these slides during the budget process and adopts them with the budget.
Among the purposes they serve, most commonly they are to request additional studies or reporting from the executive departments.
or lay the foundation for future legislative action or call for non-legislative work like the formation of a work group or task force to examine or nuance existing policy.
Each SLI every year sets a due date and identifies the council standing committee with oversight.
I meant to say each SLI in particular that we vote on in budget process does set a due date and identifies the council standing committee with oversight.
And then in the first quarter of the following year, the council updates and readopts the SLIs for that year by resolution, which is what we're doing right now.
Typically, that includes any needed clarifications to SLIs, as well as updates to due dates and updates to council committees.
For example, we have a lot of new committees this year because it's a new term for council and we reorganized the committees.
This resolution updates due dates and committee jurisdiction and it also removes some requests for slides for a handful of reasons.
First, some of the slides are intended to establish a glide path or lay the foundations, as I said, for a policy priority of council members who are no longer here to eventually advance that initiative in the future.
Second, slides take a lot of staff time, especially to do them right.
And the mayor has enacted a hiring freeze due to the general budget deficit and general fund deficit, and that has caused staffing constraints that will be ongoing likely for the rest of the year.
And this body of work does create a significant – It adds hours to staff's work plan and it impacts department's ability to get the regular work done.
So in the spirit of One Seattle, I am trying to remove some of the unnecessary burden on our executive departments.
And then finally, some were removed because they contemplated future budget action, a future legislative action that would have fairly broad budget implications.
So those are some of the reasons that these are removed.
And then finally, some of the slides that were removed asked the executive to do work that's already being done.
For example, one asks for a report on opportunities to support turning non-residential buildings into housing, but the mayor's office transmitted legislation on that exact subject this past week.
So a commenter earlier during public comment was asking about a resolution that requested information from the Department of Human Services on gun violence programs, and in fact, there is an audit that is doing that same work.
And so, long story short, I called in collaboration with all of you council members to see which ones you would agree to remove, starting with the people that were here last year.
and everybody had the opportunity to provide input.
And so originally there were 36 slides and this resolution reduces the number to 16. So without further ado, this memo or the list of slides before us right now for approval and that will go forward was circulated, I believe on March 8th.
So, and the list is in attachment A.
That is what we're trying to do here.
That is the reason we're doing what we're doing.
And I invite any comments or questions.
All right.
Well, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?
Council Member Morales.
Council Member Rivera.
Aye.
Council Member Saka?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Wu?
Yes.
Council Member Hollingsworth?
Yes.
Council Member Kettle?
Aye.
Council President Nelson?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
The motion carries and the resolution is adopted.
The chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
You're welcome, Mayor Harrell and your departments.
Thank you very much for working with us on this as well.
Okay, there were no items removed from the consent calendar and there's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.
So if there's no objection, adopted resolutions, If there's no objection, adopted resolutions 32124 and 32127 will represent the city's work program for 2024 and 2025 for purposes of defining the work program as referred to in the council rules.
I said that I was going to do this yesterday and it is an official item of business, but let me just explain.
In the past, council has spent the first three or four months of a new term Each council member has built a work program, and usually what happens is that they continue what was there in the previous year, the previous term, and then add a lot of items that sometimes don't end up getting worked on that year, or people end up spending a lot of time doing something, an emerging issue.
And so in working with central staff this year, we decided that that was an exercise that didn't really reflect what council was actually doing.
And so that is why I am putting forward a motion to adopt the resolutions that we that we passed on the first meeting, and then I believe it was the second meeting, which outlines what our committee structure is and what each committee, the work plan, I mean, not the work plan, but the body of work that each committee is responsible for and the departments that report to those committees.
And so that is the motion before us, is to...
to approve this so that we can actually have something to refer to when we say, for example, during when we're opening up public comment, comments must pertain to items on the agenda or in our work plan.
This establishes officially our work plan.
Are there any objections?
Council President.
Yes.
I do need to have another briefing on this before I'd be comfortable taking a vote on the dais today.
Okay.
Let's hold it until we can return to this once you feel comfortable with it.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
If there's no objections to that.
Pardon?
If there's no objections to postponing it.
Are there any objections to postponing it?
Seeing none, it is postponed.
Okay.
Is there any further business to come?
Yep.
Council President, I am requesting to be excused from full council on April 9th and July 9th.
Okay.
There is a request to be excused from council on April 9th and July 9th.
Seeing no objection, that is, you are excused.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
Okay.
And then just finally, I want to note that there was a public speaker who needed an interpreter, and we tried to secure an ASL interpreter.
BUT WE DID NOT SUCCEED.
WE GOT THE REQUEST LATE.
STAFF TRIED REACHING OUT TO OTHER DEPARTMENTS AS WELL.
AND SO I DO WANT TO EXTEND AN APOLOGY AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE HAD A SPEAKER HERE WHO WANTED TO SPEAK AND WAS NOT ABLE TO FOR THAT REASON.
ALL RIGHT.
OKAY.
SO WE'VE REACHED THE END OF TODAY'S AGENDA.
OUR NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED CITY COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON MARCH 26TH AT 2 Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.
It is 2.39.
Thank you, everybody.