Seattle City Council 4/6/2020

Good afternoon.

The April 6, 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's 2.03 p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Lewis.

Councilmember Lewis.

Present.

Councilmember Morales.

Yeah.

Council member.

Ms. Getta council member Peterson council members to law council members.

Present council member Herbold council member Juarez council president Gonzalez nine present.

Thank you so much.

The City of Seattle issued a civil emergency proclamation due to the coronavirus on March 3rd, 2020. Since then, the governor has issued a stay-home and stay-healthy order through May 4th of 2020. To comply with the recommendations and in the interest of the safety and welfare of the public and our employees, the Seattle City Council is meeting remotely and participating electronically.

The City Council anticipates continuing this practice for City Council and potential community meetings through May 4th of 2020. Colleagues, the council rules are silent on electronic participation at regular city council meetings and committee meetings.

At this time, public comment is not being provided at meetings where the city council is meeting remotely.

And I am not anticipating that this practice will continue throughout the entire emergency period.

In fact, we are currently reviewing options to find a solution that will allow us to conduct an efficient meeting and an opportunity for members of the public to provide public comment.

I am hopeful that a solution can be presented and implemented in the next couple of weeks and that we will be able to implement that at our April 20th, 2020 full city council meeting.

However, please keep in mind that even when public comment is reintroduced via remote means, this city council is still bound by the governor's proclamation prohibiting the consideration of legislation that is unrelated to the COVID-19 response or legislation that is not necessary or routine to our business.

To allow the council to conduct business remotely and without public comment, the council rules still need to be suspended.

I will make two separate motions to suspend the rules to allow the council to conduct meetings remotely through May 4th of 2020 and to suspend the requirement on public comment through April 17th of 2020. So if there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow council members to participate electronically at city council and committee meetings through May 4th, 2020. Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and the council will participate electronically through May 4th, 2020. If there is no objection, the council rules on providing public comment at city council and committee meetings will be suspended for meetings held through April 17th, 2020. Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and public comment will not be provided at meetings held through April 17th of 2020. Okay, colleagues, we're gonna keep moving through this agenda.

We've got presentations coming up next.

I am not aware of any presentations.

So we'll move to the approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the city council meetings of March 30th, 2020 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

OK, next is adoption of our referral calendar.

I want to move to adopt the proposed introduction and referral calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the proposed introduction and referral calendar.

I understand that Council Member Swant has some comments about that.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

I move to actually before I make a motion, I just wanted to acknowledge that there are community members who support the Amazon tax for currently watching this council meetings.

I just wanted to acknowledge that they are there on my council offices, YouTube, Facebook and Twitch accounts.

And I also wanted to clarify to those who are tuned in.

The votes today relate to the decision on which council committee will chair the discussion on the Amazon tax legislation that Council Member Morales and I have brought forward, not on the actual tax itself.

Just wanted to clarify that.

And then I will move to amend the proposed introduction and referral calendar by introducing Council Bill 119772. 119773 and 119774. And by referring the three bills to the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, the bill's short titles are as follows.

Council Bill 119772, an ordinance related to taxation, imposing a payroll expense tax on persons engaging in business in Seattle, Council Bill 119773, an ordinance relating to the financing of responses to the civil emergency, authorizing the loan of funds from the low-income housing fund to the general fund, authorizing the loan of funds from the housing incentive fund to the general fund, and Council Bill 119774, an ordinance establishing a spending plan for the proceeds generated from the payroll expense tax authorized by the ordinance introduced as Council Bill 119772 to fund immediate cash assistance for low-income households impacted by the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and the development of social housing that is permanently affordable, high-quality, and energy-efficient, to fund housing-related components of Seattle's Green New Deal as articulated in Resolution 31895, and to fund other investments.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Is there a second?

Hearing no second of that motion, the motion dies for a lack of second.

Are there any other comments on the proposed introduction and referral calendar for our consideration at this time?

Council President?

Yes, Council Member Morales, you are recognized.

I move that we reconsider the motion to amend the proposed introduction and referral calendar as proposed by Council Member Sawant.

Would you like to say a little more about your intent for that reconsideration?

Yes, I would like to reconsider it for the purpose of referring it to a different committee.

Okay, so it's been, there's a motion on the floor.

Is there a second for that motion?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to reconsider the motion to amend the introduction and referral calendar.

So right now what we have before us is a motion to reconsider the failed motion And Council Member Morales has indicated that her intent here is to have it referred to a different committee.

So all we're voting on right now is whether or not we should reconsider the motion.

So it's not a substantive vote yet on adding it to the introduction referral calendar.

It is a technical vote on whether or not we should reconsider the motion.

for amending the introduction referral calendar.

Okay, are there any comments on the motion to reconsider?

Council Member Salon.

At this point, I'm not fully clear on what the procedure is, but I would like to, if Council Member Morales agrees, to have an actual motion that will say that we introduce the three pieces of legislation and refer them to a committee of the whole of the council.

Councilmember Sawant that my understanding is that as a member of somebody who was not on the prevailing side of the previous motion.

That motion cannot be brought forward by by you.

But Councilman Morales has made a motion to reconsider.

So in order to have a conversation at all about where this bill goes in terms of a committee, we have to be able to go through the process of successfully passing a motion to reconsider first.

And then we will have a conversation about any amendments to your underlying motion.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Just a point of clarification that would help me.

The motion to reconsider does not include the name of the committee that the motion to reconsider recommends the legislation to be referred to.

I was under the impression that that was included in the motion to reconsider.

My understanding based on my conversations with the clerk around the Roberts rules of order is that that would be a secondary motion.

It would be to amend the failed motion, but we need to put the failed motion back on the table in order to amend it by proposing a different committee.

Got it, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, so any other questions or comments on the motion for reconsideration?

Hearing none, will the clerk call the roll on the reconsideration of the amendment?

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Lewis?

No.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

H.N. Saver, one opposed.

The motion carries and the amendment to introduce these council bills and refer them to the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee is before the council for discussion now.

Council Member Morales, I'm going to call on you for any amendatory language as you indicated originally.

Right.

I would like to move to amend the motion by amending the committee referral from sustainability renters rights to the Select Budget Committee.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the motion to refer these three bills to the Select Budget Committee.

Council Member Morales, as a sponsor of the amendment, would you like to address it first?

Sure.

Thank you.

Council colleagues, I do think that if this bill is not going to be heard in a committee that is chaired by council members so on, then I agree that a select budget committee of the whole on which we both sit and on which we can both participate and vote is an appropriate alternative.

We all know that Seattle has the most regressive tax structure in the country.

A family with $25,000 a year in income faces a tax rate four times higher than a family making a quarter million dollars.

And what this means for us, particularly in my district, is because of the history of segregation in our city, a family in Rainier Beach pays a tax rate that's four times higher than a family in Laurelhurst.

And so the bills that council member Sawant and I are proposing are critical to addressing both the current economic emergency that is developing in our city and the underlying housing and homelessness emergency that we have in the city.

I do wanna say that I was elected to address and act with urgency to address the needs of the black and brown families and community members in district two who bear the highest burden of our tax structure right now.

And when my constituents elected me to act on their behalf, they rejected a scarcity mentality at the ballot box.

and my constituents and your constituents know that our tax structure has created an unjust system and big business knows it too.

That's why they backed a measure at the state level to allow for a head tax to fund housing and homelessness programs.

So we have to fix our broken system so that it creates a more equitable way to finance public services and working families can't continue to foot the bill.

So I believe that these bills help create a new system that's designed very intentionally to reduce the disparities in our city.

For me, with this bill, I'm keeping the promise with these bills.

I'm keeping the promise I made to my constituents to bring the voices of District 2 to City Hall.

to work with our colleagues to find a more equitable way to fund government, because we know that it's going to take our collective effort to move toward a radically new vision for our city.

We've had a homelessness emergency and a housing shortage in this city for years, and now we're staring down the barrel of an unprecedented unemployment crisis that will leave many Seattle families with no income, no food, and no ability to pay for food.

So the legislation that we're sponsoring would tax the biggest 2% of Seattle businesses, those with annual payrolls in excess of $7 million, so that we can generate about $500 million in annual revenue.

It would direct the first $200 million to fund cash assistance for up to about 100,000 households, including those who were recently laid off.

low-income families, people experiencing homelessness, undocumented folks.

And then starting in 2021, would fund the construction of new social housing, as well as operating support for permanent supportive housing, and would also fund Green New Deal investments to be determined by the Green New Deal Oversight Board that we will seek this year.

So my hope is that we can get moving on this very important package of bills so that we can serve our communities and address the inequity that is inherent in our existing tax structure.

Thank you, Councilmember Morales, for those introductory remarks on the amendment and on the substance of the bills.

So we are now going to hear any other comments that other Councilmembers might have, again, on the amendment to refer these bills to the Select Budget Committee, which is the motion that is before us now, is a motion to amend the introduction referral calendar to refer the bills to the Select Budget Committee.

Are there any other comments?

I would like to speak as the co-sponsor and one of the two prime sponsors of the bills.

Okay, so we have Council Member Sawant and then I saw Council Member Herbold's hand also go up.

Council Member Sawant, the floor is yours.

So these three different pieces of legislation constitute the legislation that Council Member Morales and I are sponsoring to tax Amazon and other big businesses in our city, to provide emergency COVID-19 relief to working-class Seattleites immediately, and to fund a public jobs program in subsequent years, building affordable housing, and for a Green New Deal to help workers recover from the economic impacts which we are about to see of COVID-19.

In this coronavirus emergency, elected officials have a duty to act immediately and boldly to support the desperate needs of working class people created by the crisis, especially in the context where big banks, corporate landlords, and big corporations as a whole are still making money while the vast majority of the working class is facing the brunt of the crisis.

This legislation will fund basic life support in this year 2020 by providing $500 a month stimulus checks to workers, including gig economy workers like Uber drivers and Instacart shoppers who are outrageously classified as independent contractors and whose livelihoods are so impacted by the social distancing needed.

to control the spread of the coronavirus.

And then starting in 2021 and subsequent years, it will fund a massive expansion of permanently affordable rent-controlled social housing, which is going to be very important given that corporate landlords are even now increasing rents of their tenants and major investments in our Green New Deal.

This work of building affordable rent-controlled homes and investing in Green New Deal will also be a major public jobs program as well, which will create good paying public sector union jobs, which will be needed when we go into the months ahead.

The working class stimulus will be funded, as was mentioned, by a corporate payroll tax on Amazon and other largest 2% of businesses in the city, not on small and medium sized businesses.

And it will raise $500 million per year, $200 million for the remainder of this year.

And the largest businesses, like Amazon, have generally either profited off the suffering caused by this pandemic, or have been bailed out by the federal government.

And this tax would represent a tiny sliver of that revenue that is going into the pockets of the major executives, the billionaires, and the shareholders.

And they can afford to pay for it.

And frankly, in this pandemic crisis, it's the very least they can do.

This local funding will make a real difference in helping workers survive this crisis.

But we also have to be honest that it is far from enough, even if we pass this as a whole without watering down.

And that's why I support Senator Sanders' $2 trillion nationwide proposal to provide workers ongoing stimulus checks.

This legislation was produced by our offices in collaboration with the grassroots tax Amazon movement, which my office has been a part of for now three years.

So hundreds, and in fact, maybe even thousands of people have participated in rallies and action conferences.

By now, over 5,500 Seattleites have signed our petition, urging the council to support this legislation.

This morning, I forwarded you, all council members, petition responses, including 370 pages of comments from your constituents, and I hope that you and your staff will take the time to read them.

Today, since we do not have public comment in this council meeting, I would like to read out a couple of comments that our community members, working people who are struggling, have shared on the petition.

Landon from Queen Anne wrote, I am a bartender and my bar just rightfully closed due to the pandemic.

I will have to file for unemployment, but this is not enough of a safety net for me or my friends who work in the service industry, let alone gig workers like Uber and Lyft.

Please help to pass a legislation that protects those of us whose paycheck depends on tips and gratuity.

Ruth from First Hill writes, as a nurse and a public health professional, I urge you to tax big business, to free up funds, to help the many individuals on the precipice of disaster in our community.

I live in First Hill.

My apartment complex consists largely of 350 square foot studios with elderly people on fixed income, families, couples, and multiple roommate situations.

Rent is unaffordable for the precariously employed and fixed income individuals.

These people will require social services, financial support, and health care in the months to come.

The city cannot meet this challenge without additional revenue.

Amazon and similar businesses are some of the richest companies in human history, yet provide little revenue to contribute to the social good.

It's time to call on them, do more for society, tax them, and fight the crisis overwhelming And as I mentioned this morning, last Thursday, my office was joined by 300 people for a virtual town hall to talk about this legislation and to hear from workers in different industries, including frontline healthcare workers who are providing emergency healthcare.

in the ICUs throughout the hospitals in the region.

And I also wanted to clarify that if the council says that they support this initiative and they want to make sure that the lives of working people are eased during this crisis, I would urge no delays in having the urgent committee meetings that we will need to discuss this legislation and to pass this bill without any delays and without any watering down.

Thank you, Councilmember Sawant.

Next on the list is Councilmember Herbold.

The floor is yours.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you to Councilmember Morales, one of the sponsors of the bill, for her motion today.

I do support hearing the legislation in the Select Budget Committee so that all councilmembers, in particular the sponsors, can participate and vote.

Um, as we've discussed under the council rules, hearing the legislation in a regular committee, um, would limit the number of council members, uh, who could participate in the deliberations and, um, and who could vote.

And I, you know, just maybe on a personal note, I just, I'm sort of bristling at the idea that, um, this, this, uh, concept that the only way that, um, we will pass a strong progressive revenue bill is if it's heard in the committee of council member Sawant.

It really, to me, it feels like it is promoting this idea of a divided council that doesn't have the commitment to progressive revenue.

To pass a strong package and I am particularly in this in this crisis.

I really I don't think it's helpful to really promote that divisive approach to how the council does its business.

I think this council acts in a way that's fair and respectful of one another as independently elected officials.

And whether or not that means that we are all 100% aligned on a piece of legislation or not, I think we have proven that we can work together in a way that is fair and that considers the public's interest.

And I think, I believe that this is gonna be another example of that.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Are there, Council Member Mosqueda?

Thank you, Madam President.

First, I wanna thank Council Member Morales and Council Member Sawant for their work on this legislation.

As the chair of the Select Committee on Budget, I welcome the conversation about new revenue, as you know, and I'm sure the entire city knows there's a long track record of supporting additional revenue, both from my office and I think from the council as a whole.

I think it's important for us to have a conversation in the committee, give the city the opportunity to get into the details while there may have been.

a small stakeholder group involved in crafting legislation, and a larger group weighing in with support, which we greatly appreciate.

We do need to give this city a sense of engaging in the conversation as well, and that's exactly what I think the Committee of the Whole is for.

Madam President, I think it's been very clear from the committee meetings that I've chaired over the last two years that I intend to have a robust discussion, one that involves stakeholders from across the city, and one that makes sure that all council members have a chance to participate in the discussion.

That's the way that I've held council meetings in the past.

That is how I will hold them in the future.

And I will make sure that we do that with urgency, given the crisis that is presented in our community, both in terms of public health and the fiscal crisis that we face.

I look forward to having good participation from all of our committee members.

I'm sorry, from all of the council members, given this is a committee of the whole that's being proposed.

and an openness to a conversation with the city as a whole.

With that, Madam President, I call the question.

I'd like to move to call the question, given this is a procedural motion on where to refer the bill.

I would like to speak, Council President Gonzalez.

Okay, so Council Member Sawant, I saw, I appreciate that, Council Member Misquita, but I had a few other people, I have a bird's eye view of a few other folks who raised their hands before we called the question.

I do think, even though it's a procedural, issue that's technical, really the only issue before us now is which committee is going to hear it, not the substance of the bill or the policy issue.

But I do want to give an opportunity to those who raised their hands to speak.

So I'm going to call on Councilmember Lewis, who is next, and then Councilmember Sawant will have her last shot here.

Councilmember Lewis, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'll be brief.

I mostly just want to echo kind of some of Council Member Herbold's sentiment a little bit, and a little bit of our conversation from the fall, actually, before I became a Council Member, Council President Gonzalez, just around the new sort of structure that you as Council President were intending to impose in terms of having the smaller committees with the with smaller membership and really drilling down into issues at a committee level.

You know, it's part of the reason why, you know, I mean, it wasn't an idle decision for me to vote against the motion to reconsider, but part of the reason was just that procedurally, I do think that to echo Council Member Musqueda and Council Member Herbold's points, I think that things are gonna come up where our stuff is occasionally gonna be sent to different committees.

You know, some of the, things that might come out, for example, of the auditing resolution that we're going to vote on later today are going to go to Council Member Gonzalez's committee if there is legislation of which I am not a member.

But I mean, that's the system that I agreed to in January when I voted on the committee structure and voted on on the chairs.

I do intend to vote for Council Member Morales's amended motion.

I do think it's a fair compromise to send this to the Budget Committee, especially given the implications of the important legislation that Council Member Swann and Council Member Morales have brought forward.

But I do think that generally keeping things within the committee structure, Madam President, that you have laid out and that we voted on in January is something that I think as an institution will be good for the council and I just wanted to put that out there early since this is our first of what will probably be many conversations on this topic and just wanted to throw that out.

Thank you Council Member Lewis for those comments.

We have Council Member Sawant is next and then I have Council Member Juarez and I have now just seen Council Member Peterson raise his hand as well.

So Council Member Sewant, the floor is yours.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

I just wanted to clarify once again, as I have done many times before, that yes, legislation often can go into a committee that is chaired by a council member that is not the sponsor of the legislation, and that has happened often to my own legislation.

Council Member Lewis will remember that in January, my legislation to expand ability to build tiny house villages throughout the city went through the select committee that is chaired by him, which was fine by me.

Our movement was strong enough to win it and we won a really good vote without really watering down the legislation, which was really a sign of the strength of the movement.

But I just wanted to say in response to what Councilmember Herbold said, who said that she bristles that urging that the council put this legislation in a committee chaired by me and vice-chaired by Councilmember Morales, those of us who are the two sponsors of the legislation, that it gives the impression that the council is divided.

I would just remind community members who are watching this that the reason I have been insistent on this for this particular legislation, and as I said, I don't insist on this for every legislation that comes from my office, is precisely because many council members, including Council Member Herbold herself, voted to repeal the Amazon tax that the movement had fought so hard for in 2018. And that was done by seven of the nine council members through a backroom deal with Amazon lobbyists and with corporate mayor Durkin.

Council Member Herbold, you were part of that.

Council President Gundala, you were part of that.

So while I welcome your positive words now and I would be happy to work with you all, I think it is very clear why our movement was insistent that this time around the Amazon tax be heard in my committee.

But it's fine if it's not.

We will continue building our movement and We will make sure the movement holds all politicians to their words.

I'm happy to be working with you all.

I look forward to working with Council Member Mosqueda in the committee chaired by her.

Most urgently, I will look forward to discussing and my staff will be reaching out to your staff soon to schedule a meeting as soon as possible because at this moment, timing is of the urgency because a big push for this bill is to provide COVID-19 relief.

You all have a historic opportunity to show that the council is not divided by passing a unanimous bill that is very strong and taxes those who have the most so that the working people and the struggling in our city can survive and not repeal it after passing.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez is next and then followed by Council Member Peterson.

Council Member Juarez, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Council President.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Thank you.

Um, I will not obviously speak to the substantive piece of what we're, what we are, um, passing on today to amend the introduction referral calendar to have this piece, these pieces of legislation and council member misguided committee, but this is a general observation.

And some of what I shared this morning and also, um, supporting some of what council member Herbold shared.

Um, I choose bank council members to want and Morales for their tenacity and pushing this forward in their concerns.

But I want to share this, um, from a perspective of what we are as a Seattle city council.

Um, This type of politics in the midst of a lethal pandemic to me is unacceptable and a waste of time.

I don't think this is the time to promote any type of political movement.

And I don't think anyone should be accused of trying to undercut a movement.

Again, it's not the time to be divisive or accusatory.

We've seen enough of that on the federal level.

And as I've shared earlier, and you all know from the news, Katrina and 9-11 pale in comparison to what we're dealing with right now.

And we are concerned about people's lives and their livelihood.

And never before in the history of this world have we experienced a crisis together in real time.

So not only has technology connected us through all kinds of events, it also has connected our lives, our fear, and our livelihood.

I'm concerned that we are going to get off track and we're not going to focus on what we can do as a Seattle city council.

I don't want to find ourselves being sidetracked or going down a rabbit hole about who did or didn't do what back in 17, 2018. Um, I do believe that all of us are working hard within the tools that we have is elected city council members for the city of Seattle, not just our district.

Obviously you probably think that's odd coming from me.

And so I want to support and move forward this and have it go to Council Member Mosqueda's committee where every council member has an opportunity and hopefully we'll have public comment to pass or look at this type of legislation.

So with that, I yield the floor.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Peterson, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that I do support sending it to this Committee of the Whole, the Budget Committee, chaired by Council Member Mosqueda, and I do I hope that it is a robust discussion.

I think supporting sending it to that committee, I just want to signal that does not mean that I support the legislation that was just put out on Friday afternoon, so it's something that I'm still going through.

I am concerned about introducing a new tax at the time that we're going through this pandemic.

There's a lot of uncertainty going into a recession, putting a tax on employers.

I think it's going to bring up questions that we're going to have to answer in the committee, and I look forward to answering those and digging deep on those.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Is there anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to speak who would like to provide comment?

Okay, seeing none, we now have a motion in front of us to consider an amendment to refer these bills to the Select Budget Committee.

It has been duly seconded.

And, you know, I articulated this morning why I believe it should go to the Select Budget Committee.

I'm certainly not going to belabor those points.

I completely agree with many of the comments being made by my colleagues.

During today's full city council meeting.

I think it's appropriate for this issue to be considered not just by any committee of the whole but by the committee who is responsible for shepherding through policy issues related to city finances and And this suite of legislation is, first and foremost, a suite of bills designed to generate revenue.

I think it's important for us to have those conversations in the full context of the entire city's budget.

I have a lot of faith in the chair that we all collectively elected and appointed to serve as our budget chair, and that is Council Member Mosqueda.

And I believe that we will see that this legislation could actually benefit from great thinking of all of our council members who were elected in their own right across the city.

And so, like Council Member Herbold, I would like to see us move towards a path and a direction where we can stand together in the face of what will be a very difficult period of time for everyone in the city of Seattle, particularly for working families across the city.

This conversation is a serious one.

We are facing serious revenue deficits at the city of Seattle.

And now is the time for us to come together to try to work together and collaborate in a way that inspires confidence in the ability of local government to truly meet the needs of our constituents as opposed to drawing fabricated lines of division and separation amongst ourselves.

So I'm hopeful that we will We're going to recommit ourselves to that endeavor and look forward to having ongoing conversations through an appropriate committee process of the budget committee to make sure that we are flagging and identifying issues of critical importance and getting the answers and the information that we need on this suite of legislation.

And really want to thank, again, like many of my colleagues have, thank council members Sawant and Morales their work thus far on the pieces of legislation.

I look forward to working with them and all of you on making sure that we do the right thing for our constituents.

So with that being said, we're going to go ahead and conclude debate on this technical amendment, and I will ask that the clerk call the roll on the amendment.

Councilmember Lewis?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the motion to introduce the three bills and refer those bills to the Select Budget Committee is now before the council.

Are there any further comments on the motion to introduce the bills and refer these bills to the Select Budget Committee?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, will the clerk call the roll on the amendment to introduce the bills and refer these bills to the Select Budget Committee?

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

Council Member Musqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the introduction and referral calendar is amended.

Are there any further comments on the introduction and referral calendar as amended?

Okay, seeing and hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the introduction and referral calendar as amended?

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Councilmember Mosqueda.

Aye.

Councilmember Peterson.

Aye.

Councilmember Sawant.

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss.

Aye.

Councilmember Herbold.

Aye.

Councilmember Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The introduction and referral calendar is adopted as amended at 2 44 PM.

But who's watching the clock?

If there is no objection, the agenda will now be adopted.

Okay, hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now move into the payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Council Bill 119-767, an ordinance appropriating money to pay for urgent claims for the week of March 23rd, 2020 through March 27th, 2020, and ordering payment thereof.

Okay, move to pass Council Bill 119-767.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any comments?

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

Council Member Lewis.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez?

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?

We're now going to move to committee reports of the city council.

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

To report of the city council agenda item one, resolution 31941. establishing a committee to develop recommendations to enhance the capacity of the Office of City Auditor to conduct performance audits.

I move to adopt resolution 31941. Is there a second?

Second.

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

Council Member Lewis, you are the lead sponsor of this resolution, so I will yield the floor to you.

Thank you so much, Council President.

So as I mentioned last week during briefing, I started working on putting this together with central staff in the Council President's office in January.

Given that COVID broke out, we put it on hold.

for a little while, but having consulted with the city auditor and with the office of the inspector general, that there was a lot of feeling from stakeholders that there was capacity to move forward and do this work remotely since it didn't really involve much field work or require people to meet in person, and the meetings could probably be accommodated remotely.

The idea behind the resolution is essentially to have a group of experts composed of folks who have been practicing in the auditing space, our own Office of the Inspector General, and the city auditor, both of whom report to us and perform the auditing function for the city of Seattle as legislative officers in the legislative branch, though not the legislative department, but in their own departments, but in the legislative branch of government.

And for a group to come together and make a couple of recommendations to Councilmember Gonzalez's committee on something that could possibly enhance the oversight and efficacy driving role of both the Office of the Inspector General and the City Auditor.

just based on really looking into a lot of the capacity of those offices and what they're running and current needs are, just as a little bit of overview, the Office of the Inspector General, as it has been created in the post-consent decree space and beefed up, has essentially the sole auditing function of overseeing the Seattle Police Department and making sure the norms One through collective bargaining and mandated by this council are being implemented and that the department is meeting its goals.

And then obviously the office of the city auditor, which has that same goal or role essentially for every other department in the city.

We have a, from initial analysis, and I think that Lisa Kay is on the call.

Lisa, could you confirm that?

I saw your name earlier.

I don't see it in front of me now, but from central staff.

But from an analysis that she put together that I took a look at relative to other, oh, there you are.

Yes, I'm on the line, thank you.

Right.

And based on an analysis that Ms. Kay and central staff put together for my office, you know, the city of Seattle does have some things that are kind of unique to it in terms of how our auditing function is set up.

We have a smaller staff relative to some of the other auditing offices in our region, including King County and the city of Portland.

We use a lot more outside consultants and internal staff than some other auditing offices.

So instead of kind of stumbling through this as an amateur, because I'm not an expert in performance auditing, I thought it would be a good idea to convene a group with the blessing and support of the inspector general and the to look at some ways that maybe the function and capacity of their offices could be enhanced, and then have that report possibly inform some work for us as a council.

in the fall and beyond that.

So that's essentially what the resolution does.

It's pretty bare bones, but part of my inspiration for it was the Rental Housing Inspection Stakeholder Committee that I was appointed to by Nick Licata and the City Council back in 2011 or 2012. and sort of the work that that group did to be sort of a sounding board to help inform Council Member Licata's office on the eventual rental housing inspection legislation that was passed by the council.

So that's what we're getting at with the resolution.

And I know Lisa's on the call to possibly answer some questions and I'm happy to answer questions as well.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

So, you know, ordinarily we have to suspend the rules to allow non-council members to address the City Council.

So before I suspend the rules, I'm just going to ask first if any of my colleagues have questions about this resolution that are directed to Council Central staff.

Okay, I'm not seeing any of our colleagues expressing an interest in or a desire to get additional information from Lisa Kay.

So I don't think we need to go, unless you disagree Council Member Lewis, I don't think we need to go through the process of having Lisa address the council.

Do you have an objection to that?

Uh, no, no.

But I just I do want to thank Miss K for calling in so that we did have that on.

But if no one has any questions for I, um, I think we're okay.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Are there any questions or comments on the resolution?

Council member Peterson.

Thank you.

I wanted to thank Council Member Lewis for introducing this.

Anything that can give our City Auditor a high profile is great.

We just talked about an audit they released last week that Council Member Mosqueda had initiated about Seattle City Light.

I really believe that the City Auditor can do a lot of good for our city, especially as we face an economic recession where we're going to see our revenue sources dropping.

We're going to have a hole in our budget.

The city auditor is well poised to find savings and has done that in the past.

And I hope that this will make the office even more robust in finding savings, making the city government even more efficient.

So I want to thank Council Member Lewis for that, you know, and those of those of us who are really familiar with the workings of Capitol Hill know that the Congress has the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service, the General Accounting Office.

And so by us having a stronger city auditor is going to be better for all of us.

So I just want to thank Council Member Lewis for introducing this.

I did have a quick question, a clarifying question about one of the sections or subsections of the resolution.

Section 1A lists the members of the working group and I just wanted to clarify when it says, since we're talking about city government, when we're talking about a representative of a labor union, I'm hoping that would be a labor union that is representing city employees, just so there's more of a connection.

Yeah, and I'm happy to speak to that.

First, I want to thank you for your comment on the resolution as a whole, right?

Answer the question.

I do want to state, though, that it's really important to note that while oftentimes performance audits do lead to practices that are more efficient and do save money.

And in fact, King County has saved over $200 million in the last three years through performance auditing.

Auditing goes first and foremost to efficacy.

Are programs working?

Are they doing the things that we as a council wanted the programs to do?

Oftentimes, and not uncommonly, that actually leads to programs needing more money or finding Holes where more readers are needed for a program to realize that the full effect and impact so a flag that that You know like while efficiency is something that that tends to come as an ancillary benefit to an audit efficacy first and foremost the the primary goal, and it's the primary goal of what I hope would come out of this resolution.

So I did just want to flag that to make it clear that efficiency and efficacy, while they sometimes go together, sometimes an audit comes back and says, you know, we actually need more revenue.

We need more money because we're not, we don't have enough to make it work with this.

To respond to the question, yeah, I mean, my intent, and I've discussed this extensively with Protech 17. My hope would be someone from Protech 17 would be the labor person that would serve on this, because they represent a lot of folks across different departments.

I've talked to Sean Van Eyck, and he's excited to work with the council on this and to really see some of the changes that ProTec 17 has flagged over the years as places where the city could be more accountable, responsive, and efficacious.

So I appreciate that comment, Council Member Peterson, and I would hope that one of the bargaining units within the city would be in that position.

Thank you, Council Members.

Council Member Lewis, I had in my notes that you intended to make an amendment to this council bill.

Do you still intend to bring that amendment forward?

Yes, I do.

Council Member Gonzalez, thanks for flagging that.

And here, I'm just going to look up the exact language of the amendment here just to make sure that I get the wording right.

But I believe it was circulated in advance.

The proposed amendment is proposed amendment one.

It is listed on the regularly published agenda, so it was appropriately and timely circulated.

So we just need you to make the motion, get a second, and then we will talk about the proposed amendment.

Yeah, now that I have it in front of me, I do move proposed amendment one to be adopted.

Second.

And as the prime sponsor of the amendment, you should feel free to speak to it, Council Member Lewis.

Right.

I mean, mostly it just clarified that now it went to Lisa's.

Sorry, doing all this on one screen is challenging.

All right.

So proposed Amendment 1, it puts in an amendment to substitute Section 1A.

to just basically make it clear that council member Gonzales, you can designate somebody to be the primary city council member to be a member of the city.

to chair this work group and then like report back to your committee.

Whereas the old language doesn't necessarily make it clear that you have the power and authority to make that delegation.

So central staff felt it was important to have that language in there.

I agreed with central staff, so we are putting that amendment forward.

Great, so it's been moved and seconded to amend the resolution as described by Council Member Lewis.

He's already spoken to it.

Are there any comments or questions about the amendment?

Okay, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the resolution as amended?

Hearing none, I will ask the clerk to please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution as amended.

Council Member Lewis?

I'm sorry, Council Member Lewis?

Oh, aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Herbold.

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted as amended and the chair will sign it.

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

Is there any other further business to come before the council?

Okay, colleagues.

Did somebody say no?

Yeah, I won't tell you who.

I suspect I know who it was.

Okay, so.

For the love of God, no.

Yes, I hear you.

So that concludes the business on our agenda for today.

There is no further business on today's agenda, and we will convene again on Monday, April, I know what that day is, April 13th at 2 p.m.

Otherwise, we are adjourned.

Thank you, colleagues, for your patience and your attention.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you everybody.

Good job.

Bye.

Bye.

Goodbye.