Public Forum - Seattle City Council Pos. 4 (District 4) Applicants

Thank you for joining us this evening.

I'm Brian Callinan, host and moderator from the Seattle Channel.

We are here tonight to hear from 11 applicants who are looking to fill the position vacated by former council member Rob Johnson in District 4. This will be a roughly sixth month term lasting until the elections this fall.

Our session tonight will consist of a number of things.

We'll start with opening statements.

Then I will ask some questions the city has received from different community groups.

After that, we'll hear some more questions from the tables of community groups that are with us tonight.

And finally, we will have some questions from the audience.

I want to ask in advance for your patience and understanding.

This requirement for a public forum with council applicants is new for the City Council, as you may know, and we are looking forward to a meaningful and respectful discussion between these applicants and the public.

This hearing is happening live on Seattle Channel.

Everyone want to wave?

Here we are.

It's also streaming on seattlechannel.org and the city council will be evaluating this hearing and having its own meeting on April 17th, just a couple of days from now, in council chambers with all of these applicants where once again the public is invited to make comments.

The council plans to make a selection of this replacement council member by no later than April 25th.

So as you can see, we have a lot of candidates to hear from.

And with regard to time, this meeting will last until 8.30 this evening.

I'm going to try to stay to that as best we can.

And candidates, excuse me, applicants, I just want to make sure that you keep an eye on that timer right in front of us here.

I will make sure that I let you know how much time you have before your answers.

And we'll try to stay on the clock here tonight.

So I ask you to bear with me there.

So, we are going to begin with 90 second introductions by each of the qualified applicants.

We will go in alphabetical order to begin with, starting with Brooke Broad.

Brooke, please go ahead.

Hello, my name is Brooke Broad, and I'm really excited to be here tonight to talk with folks about some of the pressing issues facing Seattle.

For over 10 years, I've worked in nonprofit advocacy and policy, helping people build their individual and collective power so they can participate in civic life.

I'm especially proud of the work I've done to ensure that more diverse voices and marginalized voices are at the decision-making table.

I have some important skills, I think, to bring to the office.

My experience as a community organizer means I know how to bring people together, find common ground, and work through controversial issues in a trustful and respectful way.

My experience advancing policy means I understand the way the legislative process works.

I have a track record of bringing pragmatic and positive solutions.

My proposal to amend the MHA legislation to include two and three bedroom apartments to make room for families was adopted citywide.

I also have been deeply engaged in a number of other issues that will come before this appointee, including advancing multimodal transportation, addressing our homelessness crisis, and making room for more backyard cottages and basement apartments.

So I really come prepared to tackle all of the range of issues that this person is going to need to face from day one.

I chose a career in public service because I really care about creating a sustainable future for Seattle where prosperity and opportunity is shared for all and I would be thrilled to serve the district in this capacity.

Thanks very much Brooke.

Next up is Darby Ducombe.

Darby go ahead.

Thank you.

My name is Darby Ducombe and I also want to thank everyone who made this evening possible.

This is a really great event.

I've lived in the district for over 25 years, over five years in Eastlake and almost 20 years in Wedgwood.

I'm a mom, a neighbor, and a woman really passionate about governance.

social equity and moving our district and our city forward.

I worked for the city of Seattle for over 17 years and I just loved my time at the city of Seattle.

This work included more than 10 years in land use and 11 years working through the city's budget process.

I remain steadfast in my commitment to race and social justice.

I'm a former public defender and environmental citizen suit activist.

I taught Raised the Power of an Illusion trainings at the Department of Construction and Inspections.

I was an Institutional Racism and Ethics Lawyer teacher and also taught Race and the Law at the UW Law School.

And then in 2012, I won an Excellence in Race and Social Justice Management from my city peers.

So really, I'm gung-ho about social justice.

My current area of expertise is land use, making me a seamless fit as a caretaker for the committee work that Rob Johnson leads.

I'm a strong supporter of MHA, transit, affordable housing, and maintaining the balance in our neighborhoods as our cities grow.

I'm here today because I want to improve upon District 4's trust in city government, and I want to make a priority, a strong transition for our new representative when they take on their new role.

And I also want to ensure that the day-to-day work of the committees is completed in a responsive, earnest, and frank manner.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Catherine Gardo, you're up next.

Thanks so much.

Hi, thanks so much.

My name is Catherine Gardo and I've lived in the district since 1986 and I'm pleased to be running for the interim district council position.

I'm not interested in the full-time position.

So why did I throw my hat into the ring?

I'm passionate about the City of Seattle and especially District 4. Despite the negativity that the city is plagued with on issues of homelessness and lack of affordable housing, we have so much in this city to be proud of and thankfully We have the strength, fortitude, and innovation to solve many of these pressing problems.

Knowing this is an interim position, it's important to work well with the current council members while working through the budget issues for District 4 and the city as a whole.

I've built, implemented, and worked with budgets, therefore can bring this expertise to the 2019 budget process.

I know that all money is green, but each bucket is not necessarily transferable between different accounts.

My work on the State Public Works Board, the Burke-Gilman Public Development Authority Board, Executive Director of PCC Farmland Trust, and my own businesses are all examples of where I've worked with budgets.

I have more than 30 years of land use experience and civil engineering expertise.

I've developed ordinance, reviewed plans, and run projects.

Most recently, I worked with a team to evaluate a 30-unit mixed-use project in Southeast Seattle for an East African woman.

I'd love to tell you more about it.

My decision making is to ask pertinent questions and be deliberate.

I look forward to working with you to make Seattle a great place to live, work, and play.

Thanks very much.

Up next is David A. Goldberg.

David, go right ahead.

Thanks very much.

First, I want to thank you all for caring enough about Seattle to be here.

It really says something about the city, I think.

I stepped forward for this opportunity because as a member of the Planning Commission and someone with long experience in transportation, I feel I can help with a seamless transition to fill Councilmember Johnson's roles on Planning and Transportation Committees.

My professional career for 25 years has been devoted to planning for city growth that makes neighborhoods better, more livable, and not less.

Areas that accept growth and change should get more and better transit service, safe and beautiful streetscapes, better parks.

We need to keep our trees and add more greenery to our streets.

We also need to see more real progress on race and social justice.

For example, why is it still true that the deadliest cities in Seattle are in communities of color?

How do we undo the legacy of redlining and racial covenants, even in my own neighborhood, Wallingford?

While I have the intellectual preparation for the job, I also have the heart and deep experience in communicating with all types of people.

That starts with listening.

It's something that I do in my daily work as the state's first ombudsman for a transportation megaproject, working with people of different perspectives to find a way forward.

When we listen to one another, we remember all that we have in common.

Our love for Seattle and its culture of compassion.

Though we will have disagreements, we have to stop dehumanizing each other, whether by labeling our homeless neighbors as criminals or by calling people NIMBYs when they're concerned about the pace of change.

I promise to do my best to live up to that ideal if I'm given the opportunity to represent District 4.

Thanks very much.

Up next is Jordan Goldwarg.

Jordan, go right ahead.

Hi, my name is Jordan Goldwarg, and I'm an educator, a community activist, and a nine-year resident of District 4, living that whole time with my husband in a triplex in Wallingford.

I spent the past five years as the founding director of the Seattle chapter of Kids for Peace, a non-profit organization that brings together Muslim, Jewish, and Christian teenagers for leadership development and social change programs.

In our city that can too often be segregated by race, socioeconomic status, or even just the hassle of trying to get across the ship canal at rush hour, we were a diverse coalition that worked across the city to do things such as respond to Islamophobic hate crimes and help pass initiative 940, improving relationships between police and communities.

Every day at Kids for Peace, I saw a microcosm of what our city could look like.

I saw a world in which those who traditionally lack power, like youth, people of color, and immigrants, were able to use their voices to affect positive change.

And I saw a world in which progress is made through listening, empathy, and understanding.

As a white man, I know that I have tremendous privilege and that the city has given a lot to me.

My goal during the seven months of this appointment would be to give back to the city by amplifying the work of those on the ground who know the solutions to our most pressing problems, whether it be homelessness, housing affordability, transportation, or health.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Up next is Sheree Lascelles.

Sheree, go ahead.

Hi.

I want to let you know, first, I'm so lucky to be in this room.

There's a lot of things that I've had to deal with in my life that made it so it was a struggle to be in Seattle, let alone in this room with all of you.

I want to thank you all for coming out.

participating in this process that is somewhat unaccessible to some demographics including people that look and are like me.

I also want to thank especially everyone else at this table.

I know that the district is going to be in good hands if any of us are appointed and I thank you for putting your hat in the ring and showing your love for your neighborhood.

I think that my history of using all my resources that I've ever had to uplift the voices of stakeholders in every room that I can speak for them or raise their voices and my organizing with underprivileged and stigmatized populations to be able to advocate for themselves including on the recently passed in the Senate HB 1756 which is strippers rights and safety gives me a unique ability to do intersectional organizing from a place in those communities as well as a place of listening to those communities when others won't.

They have been historically ignored and I think that by being in this position in District 4 and listening to the most underprivileged in this neighborhood and bringing their voices to the top so that they can fight along with everyone else in it is what I would like to do.

Also, I have a ridiculously high aptitude to take new information, synthesize it and put it into practice in an efficient and ethical way and I look forward to being able to do that for my district and the place I love.

Thanks very much.

Up next is Jay Lazerwitz.

Jay, go ahead.

Hello, my name is Jay Lazerwitz.

I'm a visual artist and an architect with a strong focus on sustainable building practices.

I'm a 35-year resident of the Roosevelt neighborhood.

I've been fortunate to have secured a home way back when it was much more affordable.

I've devoted my privilege into civic volunteerism over the past 30 years.

I've given hundreds and hundreds of hours, including time in the Seattle Arts Commission, Light Rail Review Panel, co-founding an arts non-profit focusing on artist affordability.

For the past 10 years, I've been directly involved with the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, and for five years, chairing the Land Use Committee.

I helped develop community engagement workshops, educational opportunities for this community that could be a model for the city at large.

I have led the deep affordability development at the Roosevelt Light Rail Station, enlarging the number of community-minded people involved in the process, partnering with Sound Transit and producing the well-regarded community principles that have guided the project proposal.

This project is just one step towards social equity for housing in this neighborhood.

I hope to bring that to other neighborhoods throughout Seattle.

I'm not a politically motivated person, and I'm constantly guided by my mother, honoring her civic commitments as a civil rights activist and running campaigns for Richard Hatcher in 1968, when I first licked stamps, when I was 10 years old, seeing up close race issues in Gary, Indiana.

I will continue to use my privilege to be welcoming, inclusive, and focus on social equity.

Thank you very much.

I want to make sure we pass that microphone down so there's one right in front of our candidates.

Make sure it's in front of you at all times candidates as best we can.

Abel Pacheco Jr.

You're up.

Good evening everyone.

I'm seeking the appointment to represent District 4 as it's the district that has made Seattle home as well as giving me the opportunity to rise myself out of poverty and as well as giving me every opportunity that's been afforded to me over the last 10 years.

I moved to Seattle to go to graduate school at the University of Washington at the Evans School of Public Affairs, where I lived in Wedgwood at the time and began my career with a fellowship at the Seattle Foundation.

I then moved over to Wallingford to work at the Seattle Police Foundation, building community partnerships to improve the safety of our neighborhoods and create the vibrancy that our city has.

Then I've now have had the opportunity to work at the University of Washington to create STEM opportunities for young kids of color and young girls and expand those opportunities statewide through our MESA program, which is Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement.

My heart for service is to give back to my community and the community that has given so much to me.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I also want to make sure people in the audience, if you have a cell phone, please silence it just so we can make sure we can concentrate on these answers.

And if anyone sees the Mariner score later in the evening, I'm taping the game.

So don't give it on that one either.

Up next is Marjorie Press.

Marge, you're up.

Thank you.

Hello and good evening.

First, let me just apologize for my voice.

It's disappearing today.

I'm Marge Press and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to be with you tonight.

90 seconds isn't a whole lot of time to give you a sense of who I am and In my experience District 4 residents are pretty on top of things and I suspect you've seen the applications online.

So here's what I'd like to share with you.

As a Seattle resident of near 30 years, there have been some defining moments in my life setting the path that brings me here tonight.

The thrill and the relief of finishing my master's thesis and getting my master's in urban and regional planning.

Picture a young planner working on what was the regional transportation project, which is now our link light rail system, seeing it built and riding it and using it.

The joy and gratitude as a Pride Foundation board member, giving away our first million in grants and scholarships.

The chance to invest in a Seattle small business.

The humbling experience of being appointed to the Seattle Planning Commission.

reconnecting with my religion and my spirituality, and receiving the recognition of my peers when I was elected to a national board seat for the American Planning Association.

It's the same work, commitment, and passion that I will bring if I am appointed the District 4 caretaker.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Up next is Maritza Rivera.

Maritza, go ahead.

Thank you.

I'm Maritza Rivera.

I'm seeking the interim appointment to position four of the Seattle City Council because I believe that the decisions that we make over the next six months will have a lasting impact in ensuring that Seattle remains a city for everyone.

I'm a mother of two girls who attend Seattle Public Schools and a daughter of Puerto Rican parents who moved to the mainland in search of a better life.

I grew up in the inner city in a low-income neighborhood where I saw people working hard every day to raise their families and get a piece of the American dream.

Unfortunately, Seattle is now a tale of two cities.

We see growing wealth and prosperity for many, but too many others are left behind.

I will be a voice for building more affordable housing, expanding short-term housing and services to those experiencing homelessness, expanding transit and keeping our neighborhoods safe and our parks open and clean for families to enjoy.

I've spent my career listening to diverse communities and building coalitions, from my time working at the White House to working here in Seattle.

Finally, as the national rhetoric becomes more reckless and dangerous, I'll be a strong advocate every day for making everyone feel welcome in Seattle, just as I did working for the ACLU right after September 11th, helping ensure that Seattle's Muslim American community had a strong advocate to protect their constitutional rights.

If appointed, I look forward to working with the community on representing your interests on the City Council.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Up next is Luke Wigrin.

Luke, go right ahead.

Thank you.

My name is Luke.

I reside in Wallingford.

I'm a filmmaker, a musician, a swim instructor in the high schools and tonight I just want to thank you for coming to this public forum.

There are many issues we'll cover tonight, and a lot of them are local to District 4. I've only been there for a year and a half, maybe.

So a couple of them I was not familiar with, like the U-District alley activation plan, which sounds really cool.

It kept me up at night in a good way.

I don't claim to be an expert on any of them, but I do know that there's a citywide issue of incredible importance and that's affordable housing.

Seattle is facing an unprecedented housing crisis, however it's a crisis that's not being equally felt by everybody.

It is a crisis that goes beyond rising rents to rising houselessness and even more alarming We see a spiraling back towards a cultural erasure and racial resegregation.

As a Stanford graduate with a bachelor's degree in comparative studies in race and ethnicity, I have studied the damage that unchecked inequality can do to a society over generations.

And I'm very alarmed that we've allowed our city to get to this point where stark gaps in income and wealth become deciding factors in who does or does not get to belong in the city.

I think that we need to see housing as a human right.

We need to invest in housing as a infrastructure.

And we need to do it like we did for light rail.

We need to do it for racial justice.

We need to go to the state and petition the federal government to make this happen.

And I want to be a part of this movement over the next six months on the council.

OK.

Thank you very much, Luke.

Can we give these candidates, these applicants, I should say, a round of applause?

Thank you all for being a part of this process here.

And once again, yeah.

All right.

Big pat on the back all the way around.

And we'll make sure we keep on passing those mics up and down the line.

Moving on, I am going to ask three questions of our applicants here as provided by community organizations in District 4. So the City Council reached out to 35 organizations about this forum, 18 organizations expressed interest in this event tonight, and I believe we have 14 of them that are present here.

Thank you very much for being part of this.

More than 50 questions were submitted by these different groups.

We're not going to read all of those tonight, but you can if you want.

Every single one of them is on the council vacancy website presented by the city clerk at seattle.gov slash council excuse me seattle.gov slash city clerk slash council dash vacancy.

So I've worked with the city council to find three questions that cover some of the major topics that came up in what was submitted by the community.

So we will start with the end of the alphabet and work backwards this time.

So Luke, you're on deck here.

And again, we'll have a minute and a half to answer these questions.

The first question is as follows, and everyone's gonna answer this one.

This is a short six month tenure.

If you are appointed to the council, what are the top priorities you believe you can accomplish within that time?

Luke, please go ahead.

So I've set the bar pretty high.

I think we do need to create not just 6,000 units like the MHA, which I do support, has put forward.

We need to even, I think, go beyond the 50,000 that was recommended.

We should be aiming as high as possible, I think 100,000 units.

With the help of the state and the federal government, it's something that we need to do.

We need to bring Seattle home.

We don't have the numbers for how many people have been pushed out of the city over the last four decades, really.

And I think that in the short term, it's not a lot of time.

We're not going to make all that happen in six months.

I'm aware of that.

But I can help the council members in the current functions that they're working on, Teresa Mosqueda with creating public land bank and humane solutions for houselessness like the pallet homes that were out in front of City Hall the other day.

And also supporting Lisa Herbold and the mayor on the community preference policy for those that are at right now teetering on the edge of leaving the city that we can keep them when we do build those units, bring them back.

All those things I am happy to support.

I do want to support all of the council members and the work that they're doing because it's, you know, there's a lot to do.

I'm not Rob Johnson.

And I don't think that that should be too big of a problem, though, because I'm willing to work together with who's on the council.

All right.

Thanks very much, Luke.

If you could pass the microphone down to Maritza.

I'll re-ask the question.

Again, this is a short six-month tenure.

If you're appointed to the council, what are the top priorities you believe you can accomplish within that time?

The tenure is very short, but I think the most important is to ensure that our community gets a voice on the city council so that we can work to look at options for affordable housing and transportation choices in this city.

I think that giving the district a voice will be the most important thing to accomplish in the next six months.

And I look forward to being able to work with the community on moving that voice forward within the council.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks.

And your answers can be shorter than a minute and a half too.

Absolutely fine.

So moving on down the line there.

Marge, you're up.

This question again, a short six month tenure.

If you're appointed to the council, your top priorities you think you can accomplish in that time?

Well, similarly to 92nd, six months is quite a short time.

My top priority will be caretaker of District 4 and to make sure that I understand what the needs and challenges are for the residents in District 4. Taking that information, my understanding is that there is still some work for the PLUZ, Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, which Councilmember Johnson chaired, and he was also vice chair of the Transportation and Sustainability Committee, and those committees have work that remains.

So one of my priorities would be to address that work, such as MHA implementation, the U District Urban Center rezoning, there's some electric vehicle legislation, some design guidelines needing review, there's an effort for a regional task force on homelessness, and then of course there's legislation for Trees for All.

So I would be working on those agenda items that were on Councilmember Johnson's plate as well as reaching out to the community.

But my thing is equity and inclusion, and that would be a top priority across everything I do.

Thank you very much.

If you could please pass the microphone down to Abel.

And again, that question is about your short six-month tenure here if you're appointed.

Top priorities you believe you can accomplish?

Sure.

My first priority would be to elevate the civic discourse.

I think it's quite unfortunate that I think that we've seen both nationally and locally just the level of civic discourse that's happening in our city and across the country.

Continue the conversation about affordable housing by supporting the expansion of accessory dwelling units.

As I said with my introduction, when I lived in Wedgwood and lived in Wallingford, I lived in an ADU.

And understanding both the district needs as well as being able to support the student populations that are surrounding District 4 is something that I want to be helpful in leading with regards to how it creates affordable housing for more residents throughout a district.

And lastly, As someone without a car, looking at how we can improve both the transportation systems to better serve individuals, especially the young people in our district who are, I walk past every day to go to my office one of the white bicycles of someone that was hit and making sure that it's safe environment for folks to cycle around the university and looking how we can get more people out of cars to relieve both the congestion that's in our streets as well as how the city can better serve individuals like myself without a car.

All right, thanks very much.

Pass that on down to Jay.

And Jay, I think you know the question here, six-month tenure and your priorities in that short time.

I do.

I'd like to follow through on some of the MHA, the upzoning issues that are still on the table.

And of course, an area that's dear to me is what's happening along the ave, whether or not it becomes part of the upzone.

I think there's some other character issues that should and could be talked about and strengthened.

I'd also like to bring back discussion about the tree legislation that's been on and off the table for a long time and needs to be discussed a lot more heartily within the community.

It's not something that might be solved within this seven-month tenure, but carrying through on that conversation.

I'd also like to bring forth some long-term affordability visions in terms of planning, really looking out further.

And trying to bring the kind of community workshops that we had in Roosevelt to other communities, maybe through department neighborhoods.

And this kind of segues into a lot of our term will be focused on the budget.

So bringing some of those ideas into early considerations and getting some monies allocated for the next term in terms of affordability, homelessness, and transportation as well.

So those would be my highest priorities.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Passing on down there to Sheree.

And again, six-month tenure, priorities you can accomplish within that time?

Priorities for me, if I've got the six-month tenure, would be to deal with the housing crisis and the situation with homelessness.

I think we could probably figure out a way to look into that and further the task force to investigate what solutions might work long-term.

It's a double edged thing.

So having more affordable housing and following through on the work that they've already put in on that process would be one of my priorities.

The other thing would be we've been not talking about it at all tonight, but they're safe injection sites ready to start operating.

And I think that looking into how we can get them up and running and helping the parts of our community that are further stigmatized and also probably in intersectional ways dealing with homelessness would be a great way to start at the bottom and work with the stakeholders that are unheard the most.

And then making community involvement the priority.

So this is a privilege to be here.

It's very inaccessible to be able to advocate for yourself.

So trying to provide spaces as well as accessible ways to advocate for yourself as well as teaching people the tools to advocate for themselves on these big issues that affect our entire community would be my priority.

Bringing those voices and stakeholders to the table, either through me or by bringing them straight into every discussion that we have would be my priority.

All right, thanks very much.

Please pass the microphone down to Jordan in a minute and a half, sir.

So even though it's only a six month appointment, I don't think we should underestimate how much can actually get accomplished in six months.

And like a lot of other folks, one of my priorities is addressing the twin problems of housing affordability and homelessness.

On homelessness, I think we already see a lot of solutions, individual solutions that are working in the city.

We know that permanent supportive housing is working.

We know that enhanced shelters are working.

We know that the LEAD program helps people who are experiencing homelessness and drug addiction.

to stay out of the criminal justice system and get the supports that they need.

And so I want to keep focusing on those and also expanding tenant relocation assistance and helping to support community land trust as well as another model that can really help to build more affordable housing in the city.

I definitely support MHA and will continue to work on the implementation while simultaneously making sure that displacement is not something that accompanies new development that comes with MHA.

On transportation, we'd love to see more people using public transit.

I think we can do that by expanding access to the OrcaLift program and allowing more low income folks to have free transit passes.

I've seen a proposal to reinstate the ride free zone in the transit tunnel downtown now that it's just link light rail in there.

That would be a great thing to do.

And finally, I think that there's a lot of wealth and a lot of resources in District 4 and I would love to help foster conversations about how we use the resources and the welfare to benefit the entire city.

All right, thanks very much.

And next up, David, go right ahead.

So my first priority is really just to listen.

I'm a new set of ears, and you will have someone that you can talk about your issues with who come with an open mindset.

On affordable housing, they are linked, affordable housing and homelessness.

The homelessness aspect, I think the recent Ninth Circuit decision made it clear that we need more 24-hour enhanced shelter, and permanent supportive housing is another thing that we need to beef up in the budget.

On the affordable housing side, in addition to the ADU legislation that will be coming through, I would also like to see how we can advance some of the ideas in our Planning Commission report, Neighborhoods for All, which talks about ways to find more ways to get homes for people of all incomes throughout the city.

We'd like to advance the, in District 4, advance the important transportation projects that need to be done in advance of the light rail coming in 2021, to continue to advance the, what's in the modal plans that are for District 4, and we'd love to strengthen our Complete Streets Ordinance.

I coined the term Complete Streets years ago, and Seattle is the first place to adopt the Complete Streets, but we don't have any teeth in the ordinance.

I'd love to see if there's a way to strengthen it.

The Avery Zone will be coming to the to the Planning and Land Use Committee.

And I think that's something that we need to take a very careful look at.

We'll also be looking at the Multifamily Tax Exemption Program, which I would love to see rebooted and especially emphasize family-sized housing.

We also need to take up the tree ordinance.

That's a good list.

Sounds good.

All right, Catherine, you're up next.

Thank you.

So I think it's three.

So I think the most important thing is the budget.

And out of the budget, I have two priorities that need to be looked at and be part of the budget, is looking at homelessness and what we can do to address the homelessness issues.

I've been talking to friends and neighbors and colleagues about this issue, and learning that the LEAP program that Jordan talked about is working successfully in some neighborhoods, and perhaps we can expand that program in other neighborhoods.

Also with affordability, workforce housing, really critical piece of work that we need to do, especially since I have young people who are now in college and will soon be wanting places to live in this city.

We need to find, make sure there's places for the people like my kids to live.

And so looking at the accessory dwelling unit ordinance and the detached accessory dwelling unit ordinance are good things.

And I think what's most important in this district is to talk less and listen more.

I saw that on a board in my neighborhood and we need to listen and I'm willing to listen to the people in my district because I'm sure they have a lot of things that they think would be good for our city.

Thanks very much Catherine Darby you're up next minute and a half please.

Thanks.

My goals my three goals are to improve trust in city government within District 4 to provide a strong transition for our new district representative when they take office in six months.

and to complete the day-to-day work of the committees really in an earnest, frank, and responsive manner.

I think in order to improve trust, we've got to, like many of these candidates have said, we've got to change the dialogue.

We've got to get more professional about how we exchange ideas and make decisions.

We need to work hard.

I'm always open.

I'm always transparent.

I always get back to you.

It would really be my goal to work together with all of you to bring our collective ideas to the front.

and create a collective vision for the outcomes.

I'd like, as part of that transition, to be working all six months with our candidates to make sure that we know what the priorities of the district are, we're addressing the district's priorities in the budget, and that we're setting up our new district rep for a really successful four-year term.

That's really important to me.

And then, in terms of finishing the day-to-day work of the committees, I know that the tree protection ordinance has been languishing for a long time, It's on a lot of people's mind that we need to get to work on that.

I am absolutely committed to working on that tree protection ordinance and bringing people together and trying to solve the issues going on there and advance that as far as I can.

If I can't get it done, it'll be in really great shape for our new district rep. And I know the University District business improvement area is up in the next few months and that's going to be a really big deal for the U District and for all of us in District 4. want to make sure that's on the front lines.

And I know the ADU ordinance is coming up as well.

All right.

There we have it.

We'll move on to Brooke Broad.

We've got a minute and a half.

Brooke, talk about your priorities.

All right.

Well, although this is going to be a very short term, I think there are still some very concrete things that this person is going to have to work on and be prepared to work on.

So I'm very hopeful that ADU and DADU legislation will be before the council in June.

I would be a strong supporter of that.

I am lucky to have an ADU and was able to have a place for my stepfather to move into my basement when he was displaced from his own home that he had rented for 30 years.

So I know they are an important part of the affordability puzzle.

Second, we in 2018 got $13 million through MHA fees.

That is expected to go up.

I want to ensure that a portion of those fees is earmarked particularly to combat displacement by investing in our equitable development initiative, by devoting more monies to acquiring already existing affordable homes, and continuing to expand our pilot projects on limited equity co-ops.

Finally, as other people have mentioned, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program is a really successful tool that gives our officers compassionate tools to respond to people who are experiencing poverty and homelessness.

We should not be offering jail and fines that only compound the problem.

LEAD is currently in the North Precinct.

It started in 2018 in Ballard and Aurora.

I would want to prioritize bringing it to the U District, especially the Ave, where I've heard many times from business owners that that kind of low-level property crime is an issue.

Thanks very much.

All right.

And just for planning purposes here, folks, we'll ask these questions that we've received from the different community groups, and we'll probably take a restroom break after that.

So getting closer to 7 o'clock as we get through the program here.

So the second question, I'm going to start in the middle with Sheree Lascelles and Jay Lazarowitz, and head outwards there if we can.

So roll with me on this one.

Second question, it's similar to the first, but maybe putting a finer point on it.

If you are appointed as a council member, you will be serving at a time the City Council will adopt a budget for 2020. What are your top three budget priorities and how will they benefit D4?

Budget question.

I'll give you 10 seconds to think about it there.

You got it, Sheree?

You're all over it.

All right, Sheree Lascelles, go right ahead.

No, I don't think I have a complete grasp on what I would say, but thanks for giving me the extra 10 seconds.

It really helped.

Anytime.

I've never gotten the pleasure of dealing with a budget plan for this scale, but I've definitely budgeted for building out a business.

I've also budgeted for large projects and for households.

The biggest probably is build out of a business.

My priority would be to take the work that's already been done and actually listen to the people that know better than I do about what's going on and also take into consideration the community comments on what they think that we should allocate the funds for.

I mean, there's always going to be a blueprint for what should be done and what has been done, but maybe the idea of taking in something new and prioritizing something bigger and better is good.

I think that the houselessness issue is the biggest thing that I could possibly throw my head in the ring for, for like, getting more funds allocated to dealing with sheltering people that have not had the opportunity to have shelter and who knows how long.

And I think that as someone who has been homeless, that it's something that's extremely close to my heart.

So I think that that would be the thing that I would be focusing on the most.

And I've mentioned before that the safe injection sites are out there.

We're just waiting on a vote on it and how to operate it.

And I think that allocating some money towards that to get that up and running is going to go a long way to help our community, especially in the U District and District 4.

Alright, thanks very much.

Jay, you're up next, and Jordan, you'll be after that.

Jay, go right ahead.

Thank you.

I think the budget is a place to start looking at future visioning, and I think looking at the affordability issue is one of the important things, homelessness and transportation as well.

So under affordability, I think looking at some different land use models, it's been mentioned, the community land trusts, other low equity investments, looking at public sites as well, making sure we have some monies in the budget for that, talking to other council people in advance through the budget process.

Homelessness, looking at the programs that are in place right now.

There's an agreement that's either signed, being signed with the city and King County to look at this in a more regional level.

So to make sure that that is solid and in place and what needs to be added, you know, in adjunct to that as well.

In terms of transportation, the council is looking at impact fees for transportation.

They might be even looking at open space impact fees too.

So what are our long-term visions for all those priorities?

And again, there might be some place in the budget for putting some money into neighborhood planning, the same way that we did in Roosevelt to assist each neighborhood, whether or not, and really having them determine their own priorities, whether or not it's planning or social services or other issues.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Jordan, you're up next, and then Abel, you'll follow him.

Thank you.

Focusing specifically on homelessness, some of the ideas that I mentioned in my previous response, providing funding for community land trusts.

We know that one of the biggest barriers to land trusts expanding is just the actual cost of acquiring property, especially in a city like Seattle, where land is so expensive.

Tenant relocation assistance, if we provide additional funding there, we can expand both the number of people who are eligible for it and the situations under which people can receive relocation assistance, including when people just get priced out of their rental properties because of severe rent increases.

Things like this will help to benefit District 4 by just relieving some of the pressure on housing in the city overall.

And also we know there are many people in District 4 who are experiencing homelessness and so this can provide a direct benefit to them as well.

Also education with the new families education preschool and promise levy.

We have opportunities there to really expand educational opportunities for youth across Seattle from kindergarten all the way up to expanding the number of high school graduates who can get free tuition at Seattle colleges.

And so as an educator that's definitely a priority for me as well.

And I think that's a program that would benefit all youth in District 4. And we also know that education is fundamental to really building a strong society.

So the more kids we can get with solid education, the better off we'll be.

Thanks very much.

Abel, you're up and David, you're on deck.

90 seconds talking about the budget.

Sure, I like to work with our local food banks in the district to ensure that they have the food, the resources that they need for families as right now with growing inequities, I know it's been a struggle for many, especially I know with the student population that is within the University of Washington as the university has opened up a food bank for students.

Secondly, identifying public-private financing options for families so that they're able to expand the ADUs is something, again, as we look in towards the affordable housing conversation, how we can make it easier for more families to be able to build the units as well.

And then lastly, identify the transportation options within the district to make it easier to get to the light rail.

We're gonna have three light rail stations open up within the district over the next four years.

Looking to how we can get more people to those light rail stations is gonna be a high priority for the next six months as well.

All right, thanks very much.

David Goldberg, you're up and Marjorie, you're on deck.

Yeah, I think people have pretty much nailed a lot of priorities to this point.

On homelessness, we are starting to get a lot of information about what's working and what's not.

We're getting some reporting that really will help us to make some decisions about what should be getting more funding and strengthening, but maybe what less.

And I think LEAD is coming out ahead.

Permanent supportive housing clearly is.

We do have an alarming shortage of toilets and hygiene facilities and we need to figure out how to expand those for people who are living outside of shelter.

We are also in transit and transportation.

The impact fee question is one that's thorny to me and I think we will be tackling it and I have a lot of questions about it but I think it'll be an important one to figure out whether we will have revenue from that and how to allocate that.

The access to the light rail stations is going to be incredibly important.

We need to make sure those projects are staying on track.

A sort of a sleeper issue that maybe a lot of people aren't thinking about but I think will be really important is that we'll have a comprehensive plan update that's coming up and that sort of shapes all the policies and investments that we make And we will be going out for an environmental impact statement, which really lays the groundwork for what we'll be doing.

And District 4, it'll be critical when we fund that to make sure that we're looking at the transportation needs, the tree canopy, water and sewer issues in that EIS for our District 4.

All right, thanks very much.

Marge, you're up.

And Catherine, you're on deck.

We're talking budget priorities.

Thank you.

As a planner, I would approach the budget as I approach anything I do, gather my data, talk to District 4 residents, talk to the council members, find out what the needs are, what we need to do, where we need to do it.

and overlay a social equity lens on the budget process because the bottom line is we're facing a situation where Seattle is not accessible to everyone and the budgeting process gives us an opening to seeing where we can put our dollars and line up with what we say we want to do and line up our budget with what we say we want Seattle to be 20 years from now.

If I have to pick three areas of the budget, I'm not sure I can say that, pick those, because I believe a lot of the line items interact.

And so I would focus on housing, human services, the library, and transportation.

And all of those would have an impact, hopefully positively, on District 4.

Thanks very much, Marge.

Catherine, you're up.

90 seconds talking about the budget priorities.

And Maritza, you're on deck.

Thank you.

I see three issues that would be top priorities or top of the list.

Oh, thank you.

I see three issues of top priority or top interest of mine where I feel as though I could make an impact on these areas.

The first again is many that Many have already mentioned is the issue around homelessness and the programs that can effectively address those concerns.

The LEAD program or the LEAP, I don't know if it's LEAD or LEAP, but it does seems to be something that would be good to work with.

I'd also be looking at the changes for the U district and improvements.

to help that district become a vibrant, even more vibrant neighborhood.

And I think also what's really exciting is that we're going to have two new transit stations open in District 4 and how do we connect those stations to be able to be the best, most vibrant communities that they can be.

And that needs to start now.

I know some work has already been done on that, but those budget issues needs to go into this year, because I think it's only two years away, which is pretty darn exciting to have light rail go into new neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Maritza, 90 seconds.

We're talking budget priorities, and Darby, you're on deck.

I know that the City Council this year will be looking at the budget that was passed in 2018 and looking at the things that were funded and seeing if making decisions about priorities within the funding that was passed and three of the items that I think looking at for this year's budget as we're looking at priorities is one is the families and education preschool and promise levy will be implemented so making sure that the implementation that's going to get moved forward aligns with what the people of the city want the, I'm sorry, looking at the families in Ed Levy and making sure that those funds are aligned with the priorities for the city for education.

And I know that D4, District 4, the schools in District 4 will be looking to making sure that the families in Ed Levy dollars go to funding.

the schools in our district as well.

Also food access in the city.

So looking at programs like Fresh Bucks and other food access programs and making sure that there is adequate funding to make sure that the residents of the city have access to food is another program.

And then on the housing.

We're wrapped up here.

Thanks.

We'll keep on rolling here.

And Darby, why don't you go ahead.

And Luke, you're on deck.

90 seconds, please.

Thank you.

I would say that my first priority would be looking at our public health and safety needs for the city and for District 4, responding to the audit from the navigation teams that was just released by the city auditor and making sure that we're providing the hygiene centers necessary, that our social service agencies are coordinated and are actually getting us the results we should be able to see with what we're investing and how much work we're putting into homelessness outreach.

I would prioritize smart transit investments, making sure that we prioritize pedestrian access and accessibility, and also making sure that we're getting people to the link rail stations.

That was a large oversight with the Husky Stadium station, and I'd like to see us not repeat that in District 4. I think we need to figure out what it's going to take to clean up our city.

I'd like to see us clear the backlog of illegal dumping complaints and other garbage complaints and then find a way to maintain our city in a clean manner.

That's really important to me.

And I think we also have a huge opportunity to really be aggressively planting trees.

We're losing trees to development, but we also have enormous amounts of public land, whether it's our parks, our right-of-ways, our highway infrastructure, where we can plant a lot of large evergreens.

And I'd really like to see a citywide effort to restore our evergreen trees.

And the other thing is that, you know, it's not really about my priorities for District 4 in the city budget, but it's what yours are.

And I'd like to figure out what those are.

Sounds good.

Luke, 90 seconds talking about your top three budget priorities, please.

My top, well, I would be working with the city council and I've never looked at a budget like this before.

And I would be hoping to, you know, really add, the problem is that we don't have new revenue coming in enough to the point where we could do a lot of the things that I believe that we should be doing to confront houselessness and services for people at the edge.

And that's increasingly, that's even harder because we're not being realistic and looking for progressive taxation and creating that revenue that we need to see to fund all those things like the community food banks, Wallingford Food Bank, the UW Food Bank, and all the programs that give people access to food, and also to tax and create subsidized transit for the people who have been pushed farther and farther away from their jobs.

We need to create revenue sources that are going to allow us to basically allow people to have those means of access.

And finally, with houselessness, I think that there are a lot of ways.

It is a complex issue.

There's a lot of ways to look at it and to go at it.

But I think that one thing right now that we're doing that's very inhumane is the sweeps.

We need to stop the sweeps and put that money into alleviating the situation, the conditions that people are having to face.

Thanks, Luke.

Brooke, you're up.

Talking about budget priorities, please.

Great.

So, in addition to bringing a lead specifically to the University District and earmarking our MHA money for displacement, I think a couple other priorities that would be important to me is around transportation and our coming light rail stations, making sure that there are SDOT money for widening our sidewalks.

We're going to have increased pedestrians, more signals to increase pedestrian safety.

I'd love to see some more of the all-way crosswalks like there is on 15th and 40th and Stevens Way.

And finally, I think that there's some really important recommendations from the navigation report that would have a direct impact on District 4. Number one, I think utilizing the mobile pit stop idea, which we're using in San Francisco and Los Angeles, which allow the city to have more flexible response to hygiene needs as they pop up in different neighborhoods.

I also, one thing that really popped out to me and spoke to me, given my volunteer work around homelessness, was calling out the need to pay for professional development for trauma-informed care.

And I hope that everybody on our navigation team, all the service providers, that we should be investing in providing them with the training to provide that trauma-informed care for people who are experiencing homelessness and have gone through many traumas.

And thank you very much.

Thank you to all the candidates for answering those questions.

Our third question, generated from the questions sent in by the community groups, is as follows.

And Brooke, I'm going to start with you and we'll head down the line here.

This question is as follows, just putting a finer point on some of the comments made earlier here.

If you are selected to serve on the council, how would you address the issues of homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety?

I'll repeat the question so you can give it a few seconds to think about it.

How would you address the issues of homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety if you're selected to serve on the council?

Brooke, please go ahead.

Great.

Thank you.

So last year, over 30,000 people accessed homeless services.

And in our point in time count, when you ask people who are experiencing homelessness if they would accept safe and affordable housing, 98% of them say yes.

The solution to homelessness is clear.

Permanent, affordable housing.

Permanent, affordable, supportive housing.

In the meantime, we need to make investments in diversion, enhanced shelter, and important transitional housing like the tiny house villages, which I have been a part of supporting.

In terms of addressing the issues that come from poverty, crime, property crimes, and things like that, I do not believe in criminalizing poverty.

I do not believe in criminalizing homelessness.

That is why me, like many of the other folks here, have spoken about the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program.

That provides people with case managers, not tickets, support, and not jail.

That's how you treat people who are experiencing homelessness.

All right.

Thanks very much.

Passing on down the line there.

And Darby, you've got 90 seconds.

And again, we're talking about the issues of homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and overall public safety.

I think the first thing we have to do, this was a quote in the auditor's report on the navigation team, is that we have to be willing to not accept the unacceptable.

Our unauthorized encampments are in an abysmal condition, and they're in an abysmal condition because we've allowed them to become that way.

I am a strong believer in outreach early, often, and again, and over and over again.

It takes a long time to make relationships with people who are living unsheltered and who have been unsheltered, especially for a long time.

And I also believe in cleanups.

We have to clean up the encampments.

And I would say to staff when I worked for Mayor Nichols, yes, it's frustrating to feel like you're the maid service, but if this was the Motel 6 or this was the Holiday Inn, the maid would come through every day, every week, and we would have a clean room.

And our homeless people, the unsheltered in our community deserve a clean environment.

I also believe that chronic offenders and the system failure report needs to be addressed.

I would call on our police department, our city attorney, our jail health services, our municipal court, and our community-based health services and other organizations, housing organizations, to get together and figure it out.

How are we going to connect with these people, bring them into the system, Get them well and return them to the community.

Thanks very much.

Catherine, you're up next.

And again, we're trying to focus on homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety.

You have 90 seconds.

Thanks so much.

Homelessness is a big issue in this city.

It's painful.

It's very painful to see it.

I know coming down, I come down to Pioneer Square quite a bit and it's hard to see.

Thankfully, it's not quite as big a problem in our district, in the north district number four, but it is a big problem.

Again, the law enforcement program, from what I've heard, it works quite well.

I think that needs to be expanded.

I think in the budget issues, it needs to be a top priority to be able to look at these pieces of what we can do.

I agree, too, that I don't understand why the city does not go through and help clean up these places where the homeless are living.

It just doesn't just doesn't feel like it's the right thing to do just to leave garbage there.

I also question just in thinking about our police force and our policing system and thinking about the north precinct and that whole issue on whether we need to be starting to think better on how to have our police force work better in the north area of the city and perhaps the two precincts offices in the future.

Homelessness is a big issue.

We have the capacity in this city to help make it better, and we can do it.

Thanks very much.

David, again, we're talking about homelessness and trying to focus on unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety.

I think the creation of the navigation team approach was a really important turn for us away from the law enforcement-based approach.

You have to go out and meet with people and find out what services they need and connect them with services, but then you have to stay with them through the system.

One thing that I understand is that Each program, each agency has its own basically way of tracking, its own number or account number associated with a person.

So you can't track a single person all the way through the system to see if they're getting the drug help that they might get.

They may be a veteran.

They may also be eligible for benefits.

Who's figuring out for each one of these individuals along the way and tracking them and helping them get where they need to go?

I work for the Washington Department of Transportation as the ombudsman for the 520 program.

And as that people have complained to me many times about folks who are camping on washed out property.

And so I have gone down to the navigation team meetings when they're doing the triage to figure out where they're going to go first to offer help and to do any cleanup and hazmat cleanup and that sort of thing.

And the list is incredibly long.

And the triage is, you know, is it a dangerous place?

Are the people who are camping endangered?

Are they endangering somebody else?

Are they near a school?

All these, you know, all these things.

And by the time you get down to it, there's just not enough resources to get out to each one of these sites.

But I think fundamentally what, I think this is a compassionate city and I think most people don't want to just try to round people up and put them on an island somewhere.

I think, though, what bothers people is the trash and that sort of thing.

So I think that's one of the things we need to address.

And then, as I said before, hygiene stations, the mobile pit stop idea is a really great one.

There's a lot more to be said, obviously, on this topic.

And I'm sure we'll hear some more tonight.

Thank you very much for that.

We wouldn't mind passing the mic down to Jordan.

You have 90 seconds.

Again, trying to focus on homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety.

Well, I think one of the very first things that we need to do is to reframe this issue as a human rights crisis and really stop the perpetuation of this narrative of criminalization, of homelessness that is so prevailing right now.

But beyond that, I mean, encampments are really, really awful things.

And nobody would want to live in an encampment.

I wish we didn't have them in our city.

And at the same time, we know that sweeps are expensive.

We know that they are not effective.

And they really just reinforce trauma among a population that has already experienced all kinds of trauma.

And so I think it's really important that we look to things like the auditor's report from the navigation team to identify where we need to be focusing our efforts.

One of the things that came up there was having stronger coordination to identify folks who have just lost their housing so that they can be rehoused quickly when it's much easier to do that.

Something that's been mentioned already is increasing the number of restrooms that are open 24-7 so that people have access to sanitary facilities.

And then one other thing that hasn't been discussed as much is actually engaging people who are experiencing homelessness in the process to design solutions.

They're the ones who have the most on-the-ground experience, the lived reality of knowing what this is like, and we really need to tap into their knowledge and their wisdom to know what is going to work best for them.

Thank you very much.

Sheree, we'll pass it down to you.

We're talking about homelessness, and once again, with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety, you have 90 seconds.

Awesome.

Thank you, Jordan, for actually mentioning that.

The criminalization, over-criminalization of these populations is one of our biggest concerns.

So halting the raids would be the first thing that I would want to prioritize.

And then, too, you touched on this as well.

The populations that are facing it are the best to decide what's best for them.

So actually communicating with stakeholders and actually imbuing them with the power to actually help fix their communities because they know how they operate.

They are for the most part self-policing.

They're the ones who have most investment in working out for the better.

So helping them to get the tools to actually help in their own communities and then communicate with people that can make decisions and allocate funds to help them.

There's already an app to report people that are not currently homed and maybe repurposing that to gather information on the health of those people reporting what they'd like to be highlighted as issues and their concerns directly from the population versus assuming what would be best for them or what they would want.

Also using the overlap with the drug use, bring up the injection site again.

They can't stay alive in order to see a better day if they don't have a way to access cleanliness and hygiene access as well as a way to inject that is going to be safe for them so that they don't kill themselves.

There's no better day if you don't make it there.

So that's a big priority for me as well.

And then don't spend the money on the raids, spend the money on the solution.

All it's going to do is make it worse for them, make them more desperate and possibly up property crimes.

All right.

Thank you, Sheree.

And we'll pass it on to Jay.

90 seconds, asking you to focus on homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, public safety.

I agree it's a huge problem.

It's not just a city problem.

It's not just a regional problem.

It's not even just a national problem.

It's worldwide.

How do we solve this in our own kind of home front yards?

I'm a strong believer in the Housing First program.

It's lacking in how many we can put into housing, of course.

It's kind of the top dollars that way, but I think it's a high priority with me.

A lot of the Housing first sites low-income sites come with some coordinated services as well, which are Critically important not just giving somebody housing but giving them some ways to transition out of their current state The unsanctioned encampments not that I want to really sanctioned those to be, you know, that we want to keep those growing, but we do need the, you know, coordinated hygiene sites.

I mean, it's a matter of civic safety throughout, both for the people who are in the encampments and people around.

I agree with the idea of especially having some safe injection sites to get behind that idea.

I think it's really important to treat people humanely and work with them to transition out of their current problems.

Thanks very much.

Let's make sure you have a microphone right in front of you there.

And Abel, you have 90 seconds.

We're talking about homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety, sir.

Sure.

Homelessness is the end result of systems failure, whether that's systems failure with regards to our veterans or systems failure with regards to the economic inequities that we have or with our issues of creating enough sufficient housing, affordable housing.

So those require very difficult and nuanced conversations and I think those conversations are conversations that I would like to engage in and start.

But first, improving coordination for our regional partners with regards to rapid rehousing strategies and providing the support that's necessary for some of our non-profit partners.

I happen to have been on the Young Professionals Board for Plymouth Housing and trying to raise the awareness of just housing first solutions for individuals in crisis.

And then acknowledging the public safety concerns that I hear from families and just being able to provide just the sanitary resources that are needed for our homeless population so that we're able to collect the waste and be able to discard the waste, not necessarily criminalizing but just being able to acknowledge the concerns that residents have.

And then lastly, public health.

You know, we have mental health and drug addiction issues that were outlined by the BIA report, and being able to provide the resources for individuals who are experiencing crisis or drug addiction is something that we need to be keenly aware of and mindful of and providing more support for.

Thanks very much.

Make sure that Marjorie has a microphone in front of her.

There you go.

In 90 seconds we're talking about homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety.

Thank you.

Compassion.

I would handle this with compassion.

This is not just a police enforcement issue.

It's not strictly a human services issue.

This is a big issue that involves or challenge.

It's a challenge that involves multiple city departments our neighbors, the county, looking at this, looking at people who find themselves unsheltered are no different than we are.

That we're all one, two, three steps away of being unsheltered and I'm not comfortable with an us and them sort of scenario.

We need to find the compassion and the resources in our budget to reallocate funding so that we can put together a program or a system that addresses this before it gets out of hand.

The navigation report gives us some ideas of what to do.

There are other jurisdictions that give us ideas of what to do, but compassion and understanding what's going on is how to start.

Thanks very much, Marge.

And Maritza, we're talking about homelessness once again in 90 seconds.

We'd like for you to talk about homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety, please.

We need to make it a priority to make this a livable and safe city for all.

And this includes investing in affordable housing and supportive services to move people out of homelessness while at the same time making sure that we are cleaning up our parks and our public spaces so that we can all enjoy them.

I think Obviously, this is a hard issue.

The one thing I think is difficult, which others have talked about, is pitting one thing against the other.

Obviously, criminalizing homelessness is not something that we should do.

But while at the same time, we need to really work hard to move people out of homelessness and to clean up our open spaces so that we can all enjoy them, so that our kids can enjoy our parks and we're making sure that people are having access to mental health and drug services.

so that they can also live fruitful lives.

And so I think that the best way to approach it is a two-prong approach, is to really handle the work on the affordable housing side and the supportive services side, and at the same time work on cleaning up our public spaces.

OK, thanks very much.

Luke, I'll let you wrap this segment up here.

And again, we're talking about homelessness.

If you're selected to serve on the council, how would you address issues of homelessness with regard to unauthorized encampments, drug use, property crimes, and public safety?

I definitely don't want to tie criminalization to the houseless in any regard.

And I think that to dehumanize the houseless will continue to push these human beings farther and farther away from solutions.

What we need are tangibles, and we do need housing, as I've already said.

We are seeing a city that is stratifying so much so that the bottom's falling out for people who couldn't afford to live here.

Many of the houseless folks in the city, the 12,000 who are living in cars, living in shelters, and living in parks in some cases, this is directly in my view of things tied to the immense wealth that's being saturated into the top earners in this city.

We need to create housing and we need to begin to also just realize that these sweeps that we're doing, it's not just cleaning up garbage, it's not just cleaning up a park, it's actually cleaning up people.

The houseless do not go from one place to another It's us pushing them around.

If we can provide those services, then we'll get—if we can provide those spaces, we'll get a better outcome.

Okay.

Luke, thanks very much.

I promised that siren wasn't coming for you.

We just want to make sure we wrap things up here.

I will say, can we give our candidates or applicants another round of applause?

Thank you.

That is definitely a lot to go through there, and we put them through the wringer here.

At this point, folks, we're going to take a very short break.

I'm going to save five minutes with the full knowledge that it just might turn into ten, but if you don't know where the restrooms are, back around the corner here by City Grind, that coffee shop, those are the restrooms here on this floor, and that's for men only.

The women's are straight down the hall.

If you'd like some water and coffee, it's over here.

You can fight each other for the cookies that are left on that table.

If you're in a community group, would you stay put for just one second?

I'm going to go around the room just to make sure I know who I have.

So let's take five here, folks.

And welcome back to our community forum.

I'm your host, Brian Callinan, as we continue with the 11 applicants who are looking to replace Rob Johnson temporarily as council member in District 4. So we are going to have the many community groups who are here ask their questions of these applicants.

In the interest of time, I'm going to narrow it down to one question apiece, at least to start.

We'll see how we're doing on time.

Please, one question from the 14 groups who are here.

So make sure it's your best question.

I will be using a random number generator to have three applicants answer each of these questions with each applicant getting one minute to respond.

And I'll do my best to make sure each applicant is able to answer some of these so we can do this equitably.

I'm going to come over to people with this microphone.

And I believe our first group with a question is the Transit Riders Union.

If you wouldn't mind standing up, come right in front here and make sure you identify yourself, who you are, the group you're with, and then we'll get these questions going.

Hang on just a sec.

Hi, my name's Katie Wilson and I'm here with the Transit Riders Union.

We have two really good questions, so I gotta choose one, right?

Okay, first question.

Do you think large employers should subsidize transit passes for their employees?

Do you think the city should require this?

Great question, hang on.

All right, through the power of the magic random number generator, we are going to have Jordan answer this question.

We'll do them in this order.

Jordan, then we will have Maritza answer this question, and we will have David answer this question.

So, Jordan, you're up first.

You've got a minute to answer that question from the Transit Riders Union.

Go ahead.

I took the light rail to come down here today so I'm definitely a fan of public transit and absolutely I think we need to do everything that we can to encourage folks to use public transit and provide as many incentives as possible.

And so I definitely would love to see large employers subsidize those passes and I would be happy to see that be a city requirement.

Alright great.

I believe I said Maritza was next.

Maritza if you wouldn't mind you've got a minute to respond.

Yeah, I too ride the transit to get to work every day and so I do support employers subsidizing transit for their employees.

I think we should encourage it.

In fact I think we may currently encourage it but we should find more ways to get large employers to support employees that way so we can get people out of their cars and people moving more or transit moving more quickly in the downtown corridor.

Alright thanks very much.

David you're up next and I'll give you a minute to respond to that question from Transit Riders Union please.

Yeah, I do think we should consider that.

I think it would be an important measure.

We have a rapidly growing city with roads that are filling up and we need to get people around with transit more.

As an employee of the DOT working in King County, I get a transit pass.

I don't know why that shouldn't be just standard practice in the city of Seattle.

Alright thanks very much.

Short and sweet and to the point as I asked for.

We have a question coming up from Transparent Seattle and I think this is going to be a little bit different so I'll have that representative explain it to you.

Would you mind standing right in front there?

Hi, thanks everyone for your time.

We are going to do a lightning round of yes-no questions.

You don't have anything that says yes or no, so like maybe like a big thumbs up or thumbs down really fast.

I'm going to ask more than one question.

Okay, is everyone ready?

You guys ready for this?

Sample, what does it look like?

Thumb up, thumb down?

Everyone got it?

Okay, so if everyone could answer each of these questions as we go along.

I'm sorry, your name is?

I'm Erica, representing Transparent Seattle.

Okay, here we go.

Alright, do you support community ownership models like land trust and allocating resources to support this?

Yeah.

Do you support free transit passes?

There's some side thumbs too, okay.

In 2015, City Council passed a resolution for zero percent detention of youth.

With that in mind, do you support ongoing construction of King County's youth jail?

Do you support the Block the Bunker campaign to prevent the construction of a $180 million police precinct in North Seattle?

If you could slow down just a little bit.

She said lightning and she wasn't kidding.

Currently a huge chunk of our city budget goes towards Seattle's police force and public safety budget.

Should this budget be reduced?

Do you support safe injection sites?

Should 35th Avenue have a bike lane?

It's estimated that each homeless sweep costs a million dollars.

Are you supportive of sweeps?

Do you support a head tax?

Thanks, guys.

OK.

All right.

Well done.

I think we got a few extra questions in there, but I appreciate you rolling with that.

Happens in the world of politics here.

Yeah.

Wasn't that fun?

All right.

I believe we've got a group here.

I'll let you explain what that acronym means.

If we wouldn't mind standing right here.

The folks from NESTJAC are here.

Could you explain who you are and what your group is?

I'll hold the mic.

Yeah, my name is Terry and our organization is the Northeast Seattle Equity and Social Justice Council.

Shall I ask?

Please.

Our district includes low-income housing in and near Magnuson Park.

These vibrant communities face challenges arising from past trauma, isolation, and poor management.

Their concerns include transportation, streets, and lighting, and access to healthy food options.

How will you ensure that this community's concerns receive the attention and support they deserve?

Thanks very much for that question.

I'll get the random number generator going here.

Get some answers.

All right, we will start with Abel.

And then we will move on to Brooke.

And then we will move on to Sherry.

Abel, you're first.

Sure, as someone who growing up there was six of us in one bedroom.

Some of my earliest memories as a kid are waiting in food lines.

So I'm very empathetic to the resources that are necessary to create the pathways of opportunity for low income families.

Because it's how it's allowed my personal story to be possible.

So these are conversations that are both difficult but also understanding that what we can do to provide further access to opportunities is something that it's a particular focus of mine.

And so being able to engage and listen to the communities and see what's needed to provide more support is something that I would like to do.

All right, thanks very much.

I believe I said Brooke was next on this one.

We'll reset the clock here, and you have a minute to try to answer this question, please.

Great.

Well, as a community organizer, I think my first instinct when I want to know what the community needs is to actually go out and sit down and have coffee and have a discussion, right?

That's what I used to say my job was about, going and meeting for coffee.

So I think to truly address your problems, I would need first to come and meet with you and listen and learn what you need.

In terms of specifically the food, I think we have some really great models and programs in District 4. The University District Food Bank offers snack packs, which are delivered to students at school who are on free and reduced lunch.

They offer delivery.

So I would also work with residents to make sure that they are connecting to the existing resources to get access to food that exists in our district.

All right.

Thanks very much.

I believe to wrap that up, we had Chere.

I wonder if a double mic moment would amplify this even more.

Well, they both said basically what I would, but the whole point about access is people don't have the extra time to just come out and advocate for themselves.

So pairing the two.

Meet them where they're at.

If they're already in search of services and are coming out to the food programs in order to access something, there needs to be someone there that is ready to hear what they have to say about their concerns and what they would like to see done.

Don't make people go further out of their way and, you know, get involved that way, get to where they are, where they need their services given to them, and then talk to them on that spot, not just going out to get coffee, because not everyone can afford an extra cup of coffee in this city.

Even though we all love caffeine, it's not always accessible either.

So going to those programs and being there on the front line with the other people doing the social work and asking them exactly what they want when they have the time, not trying to get them to come out of their way to do it.

Yeah, that made sense.

Sounds great.

Thanks very much.

I believe the NAACP did not have a representative here, but I know TREPAC is here.

If you wouldn't mind identifying yourself and explain a little about what your group is, and then ask your question, please.

My name is Richard Ellison, and TREPAC is a political action committee for trees.

I have a variety of questions, but I'll try to pick one that's going to work.

Seattle's big trees and tree canopy are being actively removed in the redevelopment of Seattle's neighbourhoods, and incentives to developers to save trees have failed.

With the passage of the new MHA ordinance and the soon-to-be-likely approved ADU legislation, our neighbourhood's big trees, the heart and soul of District 4, are threatened.

How will you protect these trees?

Thank you very much.

I'll head back here and crank up the random number generator once again.

Okay.

We will have Darby answer this.

Then Luke.

And then Jay, please.

Darby, you are first.

60 seconds, if you would, on that question about trees.

I would say that we have a multi-pronged problem when it comes to tree protection and so I'd like to see us look at a number of items.

The first is, you know, a solid inventory and a database system where we know where our trees are and when property owners go on DCI's website, there isn't a message that says there's no trees, no heritage trees.

When they have exceptional trees and significant trees, that's creating a lot of confusion for folks.

I'd like to see, I'm willing to dig into and update the tree protection ordinance.

I know that that's been an ongoing process that's been really long and drawn out and so I would like to sort of get to the bottom of that and figure out what's going on there.

I'd like to think that there was a lot of progress we could make there as long as we don't make the perfection the enemy of the good.

There's also a lot of things we can do to be planting trees in public spaces to bring back our tree economy and restore the large green evergreens.

in our district and I'd like to see a really robust public system for replanting public lands.

Thanks very much.

I said Luke was next and then Jay after that.

So Luke go right ahead.

Make sure you have a mic in front of you bud.

I am all for protecting the trees.

I think it's hard to do at the moment because when we upzone neighborhoods, the only people that are developing in those areas are for-profit developers.

There's a premium on them to use that space where trees are to build you know, for more square footage in this case.

So I think at this point we are not prioritizing livability, the canopy, and we don't really have any control over what happens once we up zone and then a developer comes in, a for-profit developer comes in to make use of that land.

If we were to do a massive infrastructure campaign to create affordable housing in the city, I believe that the government would be much better at protecting those trees and making sure that we have that canopy in the future.

Thanks very much.

Jay, 60 seconds to answer this question from TREPAC, please.

Okay, I'm definitely a strong supporter of having trees.

I've planted quite a few on my small urban property.

I think limiting what trees can come down.

I think there's arborist reports that sanction excluding trees that might be unhealthy.

I've seen that used probably too liberally to cut trees down.

I've looked at the tree legislation that's both current and proposed.

I'd like to talk to people like Tree Pack and find out exactly what details within that could be strengthened even more.

I think apprising the residents throughout the city of the desperate need for trees and the permitting requirements to really trim or cut any trees is really critical.

I think with the ADU legislation, if the current legislation goes to not require parking, the amount of tree cover won't change substantially from existing single family homes.

I think that's important to recognize.

Alright, thanks very much for that.

I'm going to ask for the group STCC to have a representative stand up.

Please tell us who you are and what your group is and then ask your question please.

Would you mind jumping around here, please?

Thanks.

Right about there, and I'll hold the microphone for you.

Hi, my name is Elizabeth Tukop.

I came from an organization, STC, a group of Magnuson Park.

My question, do you consider a refugee and immigrant to be an assist or threat to Seattle's future?

Immigrants and refugees a risk or threat to Seattle's future?

Thank you very much for your question.

Let me generate some numbers here so we can get some answers.

Certainly a topic that's of national import.

How about we'll do Marjorie, then Catherine, and then Sheree, please.

Marjorie, you have 60 seconds to answer that question from SDCC, please.

Simply, absolutely not.

person who had immigrant grandparents, maternal and paternal, I don't see how this should be an issue anywhere, especially in Seattle where we try so hard to be inclusive.

We're a sanctuary city.

I think everyone has the right to live, work, and play here and not be discriminated against because they weren't born here.

So, in a word, no.

Thanks very much.

We'll move on to Catherine.

You have a minute to answer this question, please.

Thank you very much for the question.

I am a granddaughter of immigrants.

My dad's parents were immigrants.

And I get to visit my family in Germany, where they came from.

And it makes me connect to another culture.

My grandmother was very active in the migrant ministry.

She actually started it in Western New York.

And these were early formative times when I was a kid supporting immigrants and migrants who came to Western New York to pick fruit.

I'm also the mother of two children, both adopted from South Korea.

And obviously they were not born here.

And I have lived a life of a mixed race family.

My kids are now 19 and 21, and I absolutely support immigrants and refugees.

Thanks very much for that answer.

And Sheree, you're up next.

You have 60 seconds, please.

As a point of clarification, I heard the question as, do you see immigrants and refugees as an asset or a risk?

Is that correct?

Could I get a yes or no?

She was talking, do you see them as a threat, I think was the initial question.

A threat or an asset?

Okay, an asset, obviously.

I mean, Seattle speaks this big game about wanting to be inclusive and diverse and intersectional and support everyone, especially from the lower end of privilege and bringing them up to being part of every part of society and that upward mobility.

So as an asset, I mean, the things that we've been able to accomplish in this city have only been because of us working together through diverse groups.

And as someone who, if it's not evident, is multiracial, I can't really even tell you what my background is in because I haven't had the privilege to have my genetics done, but I know that as a person that is representative of multiple different demographics, that it's always an asset to have different perspectives at the table when you make decisions for the community as a whole, because everyone needs to be represented in those decisions.

All right, thanks very much.

I'm going to head back to our next group here.

If you wouldn't mind identifying who you are, what your group is, and what it's all about, and then ask your question, please.

I'm Frank Fay from the Wallingford Community Council.

And my question is, how would you, excuse me, what policies would you want the city to engage, do to engage neighborhoods with land use planning, new projects, and city government?

engaging neighborhoods.

Thank you very much for the question.

Let me generate some people to answer here.

Hang on just a sec.

All right.

We'll have Maritza.

We'll have Brooke.

And we'll have Marjorie in that order please.

Maritza you've got 60 seconds to talk about community engagement please.

Neighborhood engagement.

I have an extensive background in outreach actually and so how I would go about engaging community, which is I think what the question was, is to really have conversations and dialogues and community forums with community members in the community.

and to work with the neighborhood councils and the community groups and all the stakeholders to make sure that they're engaged.

I see city council offices as that being a huge part of the work that they do is to make sure that they are engaging with all these stakeholder groups and making sure that the community voices are being heard as they move forward to do this work.

So that's how I would go about engaging the community.

Got it.

I believe I said Brooke was next on this one.

Yeah, great.

Well, with the passage of MHA, I think many communities in District 4 now have the opportunity to do what we did in the University District, which is to update the design guidelines, which will shape how the development that comes to your neighborhood actually looks.

What are the kind of landscaping?

What do the roofs look like?

What are the materials that are being used?

So one thing that I would want to do in my very short amount of time is to begin the process of working with communities and connecting them with the Office of Planning and Community Development to go through that design guideline update process.

Alright, thanks very much.

Last up on this question we will have Marjorie.

Marge, go right ahead please.

Well, I think I mentioned earlier that I'm a planner, so I've spent my entire career working on projects where I've engaged the community to get input, feedback, ideas.

just everything I could possibly gather so that I understand what the community that's affected by that project needs for it to be acceptable to them.

And I've spent my career working with teams and stakeholders on diverse and difficult issues and getting to a mutual understanding and goal.

And that's what I would do here.

I would reach out to all of you District 4 residents and find out what you need, what you want, how it would affect you and that becomes part of the data we use to implement a policy or a project, a plan, what have you.

Thanks very much Marge.

I'm going to head back to the next group.

Who's up?

If you could jump right over here, I'll make sure we get your question in.

Tell us who you are, the group you represent, and your question please.

I'm Jessica and I'm from Welcoming Wallingford.

We are a neighborhood group focused on making sure that our neighborhood is accessible to all.

My question, we've heard about ADUs, we've heard about development.

What are your plans to increase that vital missing middle development that our city greatly needs?

at middle development.

Thank you for the question.

Let me make sure we get three people to answer it here.

And those three people are as follows.

Darby, we'll start with you.

Abel, you're on deck.

And Catherine, you'll go after that.

Darby, you have 60 seconds, if you would please.

Thanks.

I'm assuming middle development refers to low-rise structures and communities with small multifamily type buildings and structures, right?

Well, I think we need to look for more opportunities to develop low rise zoning.

I think we're seeing attention right now with the current ADU proposal to eliminate the owner occupancy requirement that what we're really talking about in Seattle is triplex low rise zoning coming to single family neighborhoods, which I think is a great idea.

I think we have a lot of missed opportunity in especially along our arterials and in some of our bigger areas where they have space for new housing and new housing can come to build that low-rise development.

I think when we build that, much to what Brooke alluded to earlier, we really need to have your input on the design.

Because even though those places are small, we can create little community spaces within them.

We can create through setbacks and other shared resources, public amenities and community amenities for those structures that will make them more inviting, more community-centered.

And I'd love to see something like that.

Thanks very much.

I believe next up we had, oh boy, help me out here, folks.

Where was I?

Abel.

Abel.

Sorry, y'all.

Go ahead.

Thanks, Abel.

I think we can do three things.

One is to expand our MFT tax credit, develop the public-private partnerships for the development of ADUs.

I think that's gonna be the second part of that discussion with regards to how we increase the number of ADUs throughout our district and throughout our city.

And then lastly, look to diversify our housing stock.

So, looking for opportunities to diversify our housing stock and really being inclusive about that conversation so that more solutions are being brought to the table.

Okay, thanks very much.

I believe I had Catherine.

Oh, excuse me.

It is indeed.

Catherine, go right ahead, please.

Get that mic in front of you.

Thank you.

So on the missing middle development, I assume it's also price.

Is that another important piece of it?

And low rise, so there's lots of possibilities here.

I would like to look at perhaps shared wall housing, townhouses as an option.

I know that as we age, oftentimes we don't necessarily want to be in a single family home anymore, but perhaps we want to be in some place that's smaller, not necessarily an apartment building.

And so those houses as people age and move out of those houses have the opportunity to move to new places that perhaps are.

smaller and better access to transit.

Also, I think the condominium rules could also be being changed right now in Olympia, which I think would also create new opportunities for home ownership in our city that people moving out of homes and into smaller homes would like to have condominiums.

Thanks very much and thanks for the question.

Let's head to our next group here.

Is there someone else from this table here?

Moving on.

Please identify yourself, the group you're with, and ask your question.

Inga Manskop from Ravenna Bryan Community Association.

My question has to do with access to transit.

So as some of you have already talked about, we'll have two new light rail stations opening up in District 4 within the next few years.

We already have UW light rail station.

And as some of you have also said, there are some issues with connecting with the UW light rail station.

So how do we prevent that from happening in the future with the other two light rail stations that we have so much of our district living within a mile of those stations?

What are your solutions for the first and last mile connection?

The first last mile connections connecting to light rail and just so you know folks on this one I think I'm going to have four applicants answer so we can make sure we're even up on the people who are answering questions here.

Let's talk with David, then Luke, then Jordan, and then Jay.

David, you're first.

You have 60 seconds.

Talk about that first mile, last mile connection to light rail, please.

Yeah, this is one of the critical issues around light rail.

We kind of missed the boat in the last go-round in some of the stations.

We have to make sure that there's good, safe access, particularly these stations, U District and Roosevelt, because they're not going to have parking.

You can't drive to them.

You have to walk, roll, take transit to make a connection there.

somebody's going to be a pedestrian or a bicyclist getting there no matter what.

So we have to make sure those are safe.

I like the idea in the U District mobility plan of pedestrianizing 43rd and doing the buses on Brooklyn.

I understand there's going to be an issue though with Sound Transit and SDOT.

about getting that to be possible.

But I think those are the kinds of solutions that we need.

Make sure the bus connections are close, make sure that there's good pedestrian access.

And we can't let politics drive every single one of these projects.

If it's in a station area, we have to be able to do it.

We're going to have more and more people living in those areas and we have to make sure it's safe and convenient to have access.

We have to follow through on our plans.

Thanks very much for that.

And Luke, you're up next talking about this connection to light rail and you have 60 seconds, sir.

Definitely not rely on Lyft and Uber to get us that last mile.

It's not going to be effective or fair to the people that don't make Lyft and Uber that are making too little to use the services.

We should create you know, zones where bikes are very, they create more bike lanes in those areas immediately around the transit zones, around the light rail stations, and also increase bus traffic into those areas.

And I also love the idea of pedestrianizing the avenue over on Broadway and not Broadway, University Avenue, making sure that it works in Charlottesville, in a college town, it works in Santa Monica, and I think that it's a terrific idea.

We should just do it not in, you know, 2028, but 2021 when it opens.

OK, thanks very much.

Jordan, you're up next on this question, please.

60 seconds.

So I live about a mile and a half from the UW station, so this is a question I think about a lot.

And I think part of the answer is just really making sure that people have as many options as possible to be able to get that last mile to or from the station.

So it means making sure that bus connections are frequent and reliable.

that they minimize distances between transfers.

For me, when I take the 31 or the 32 to try to get to the light rail, that's a four or five minute walk from where the bus drops off.

And so for folks who have limited mobility or during poor weather, that was really a missed opportunity.

Continue to invest in bike infrastructure to make sure that it's as easy as possible to get by bike to the stations.

So that includes things like adequate bike parking at the stations, bike lanes to get us there, and continue developing bike share programs in the city.

I think that there's even a place for ride hailing, like Lyft and Uber, for folks who can afford to do that by having dedicated drop-off zones and pick-up zones to increase traffic flow at the stations.

And even with car ride sharing, like Lime Pods and Car2Go, developing parking spaces at UW Station and the lot there, for example, to make it easier for folks to take that option there.

Thanks very much.

We'll wrap up this question with Jay Lazarewicz.

Jay, make sure you have a microphone, and let's get this thing going.

I did read through the U-District mobility plan and I'm highly appreciative of that work.

I think having some transit-only access roads or paths for that might be very critical.

I think having drop-offs immediately adjacent between buses and the light rail.

Going forward, I think we have to look at the long term in terms of what we're going to do in Ballard and West Seattle, especially in this regard, because I see the past mistakes in both sides of the U District.

I think in Roosevelt we're a lot luckier.

And also encouraging, of course, some higher density affordable housing at those areas, too.

But I think we might have to come up with some other circulator buses within the neighborhoods, too, to bring people to the transit.

Okay, thanks very much.

I believe we have a question for the University Park Community Club here.

If you wouldn't mind telling us your name and what your club's all about, please, sir.

I'm Rudi Ressler, I'm with the University Park Community Club and I would like to drill down a little further on the accessory dwelling unit questions.

Specifically I would like to know what your opinion is on the ownership requirement that the owner lives in one of the units.

I'd like to know what you think about dropping all the all the on-site parking requirements and basically putting the cars in the street and I would like to know what your opinion is about having neighborhood specific solutions for this thing rather than just one size fits all.

So we're talking about ADUs and I believe there's three parts to this.

We're talking about the requirement for the owner to live in one of the units.

We're talking about parking.

And then we're talking about making this a more neighborhood specific policy rather than one throughout the city.

So great question.

Thank you very much for that.

I think I summarized it.

as best I could.

Let's try it this way.

I'll generate a few answers here.

If I could please have Brooke and Maritza and Marjorie answer this question.

I know there's a lot to it.

Let's shoot for a minute here and see how we do.

Brooke.

Great, so in regards to the owner occupancy rule, I really think that's kind of a solution in search of a problem at the moment.

We already have 20% approximately of single family homes that are rented out and do not have an owner occupying them and we are not seeing mass chaos ensue.

That said, I do think there is a compromise on the table that I think, you know, is worth considering, which offers somebody a year requirement before owner occupancy.

So I think that is a fair compromise that I'm willing to consider.

In terms of on-site parking, as we've heard before, requiring parking actually compromises our ability to preserve trees, particularly in many neighborhoods where you are close to transit.

I do not think that we should be You know privileging car storage at all.

So I think I think that answers all of them for the most part.

I know we're talking about that.

I know it's all right.

We'll try to get to the rest of them.

It's the overall question about something specific to a neighborhood or a city wide type issue.

I think that was a great start to it.

Thank you very much for that, Brooke.

Maritza, could you answer this question next?

We're talking about ADUs, DADUs.

We're talking about three segments to it, if you can try to jam it into a minute here.

The owner-occupied requirement, parking requirements or lack thereof, and then the neighborhood-specific versus a citywide type of application for rules of this nature.

Maritza, please go ahead.

I think it's important to remove barriers that currently exist to creating ADUs and DADUs.

The ownership requirement, we really need to look at a compromise option.

I think true of the citywide versus one size fits all, I think we just need to look at more options for the ADUs and the DADUs.

And not look at it as a one size fits all.

And true with the parking.

Thanks very much.

Marjorie I'll pass it to you.

In a minute if you could try to tackle the owner occupied piece of this.

The parking requirement and that neighborhood specific versus citywide type of dynamic here please.

Accessible dwelling units are a tool that help make Seattle accessible to more people.

It's also a way to help a homeowner garner some income.

in light of increasing taxes and cost.

I think the parking requirement for me would be tied to neighborhood specific requirements.

If the ADU is in an urban village that is in close proximity, that particular property is in close proximity to frequent and reliable transit, there's no need for a parking requirement.

And I do think that the permitting part of this process should be neighborhood specific.

If you're in an urban village, it should be one requirement.

If you're outside the urban village, but all of this requires some major data gathering.

Okay.

Thanks very much.

Complex question.

Thank you for tackling that.

I'm going to move on to our next group here, please.

Who's up?

Identify yourself, your group, and please ask your question.

My name is Rick McLaughlin.

I'm president of the U District Small Business Association.

Earlier today, we had a young lady come up and ask a question if you guys supported immigrants.

And everybody was like, yes.

Well, the YAB is full of minority women-owned businesses.

And the YAB has been threatened multiple times now through upzoning.

And what we've seen a trend so far in the city is that when you go through a commercial business district and you upzone it, the people that get hit the hardest and the quickest are the minority and immigrants that are running businesses there.

So I ask you do you support or do you not support an up zone for the app?

Pretty basic question there with a lot to it.

Thank you very much for that Rick.

Answering this one put it through the generator here.

We will have Catherine, we will have Luke, we will have Jay.

Please go ahead.

Catherine, let you gather your thoughts there for a second, but you will have 60 seconds to answer this question about up zoning on the app.

So that's a very good question and I do support small business and I frequent small business and so I know how important it is to have a vibrant business community.

I also know our city is going through rapid change at this time.

I would need to know more before I could say yes or no on an up zone to the U District with the light rail coming into town.

It makes sense that we do have increased increased housing opportunities there with so I don't have enough information I would say at this time.

Long term with light rail there it eventually will happen I suspect.

At this stage is it the right time now?

I'm not so sure.

Alright thanks very much.

Luke I've got you next please.

60 seconds talking about up zones on the app.

That's a tough one.

I think it is one of those places that the Ave has a certain cultural cachet, I would say.

It does play a significant part in the lives of the college students in that area, as it is in the form that it is, which isn't completely dominated by for-profit development.

venture to say that as a part of a plan of creating 100,000 affordable units in the city to prepare for the Seattle of 2030, 2040, we may at some point need to up-zone that area.

But I believe that in all of the city-owned buildings that we would create under a plan such as this, there would be a similar small business preference for immigrant-owned businesses, any small business that is currently there.

And food banks, safe injection sites, If we develop it, we can basically figure out the preference for how things get in there.

Thanks very much.

I believe, help me out here folks, I've made a few too many tick marks here.

Did I have David coming up next?

Is that right?

Oh, it is Jay.

I'm sorry, Jay, go right ahead.

We'll get you now on the next one, David, I promise.

Jay, please go right ahead.

As I talked to some people in the U-District earlier today, I'm a strong fan of the U-District.

I lived my first year right on the Ave.

Although I'm not I think without MHA that the app could get developed and that's my concern.

I think with MHA you could put more stringent requirements on what might happen.

I think we'd be losing out on some affordable housing monies.

I think we could add some more stringent requirements in terms of commercial affordability.

and also in terms of the character of the new structures.

In my discussions with developers in the Roosevelt neighborhood, I've seen every developer go ahead and invest their project in advance of MHA.

And I think we've lost a lot of funding for affordable housing.

They feel that it's both an unknown but a huge fee, and given the land prices that they paid, they have gone ahead and invested in advance of the MHA.

I'd like to keep it on the table and talk about the fine-grain issues.

Okay.

Thanks very much for that.

Some important questions.

Who's next here?

You want to jump up, tell me your name, the group you represent, and please ask your question.

Yeah, my name is...

I'm sorry.

Head over this way.

I want to make sure we...

Oh, sure.

My name is Corey Crocker and I represent a number of organizations in the U-District, but one of them that has been most active has been the U-District Mobility Group, working on trying to make sure the station access is equitable and accessible for all.

The big question we have is for the U-District station in particular, do you support the U-District Mobility Plan's goals of providing direct bus rail transfers on Brooklyn and pedestrianizing portions of the Ave and NE 43rd Street.

Bus rail transfers on Brooklyn and pedestrianizing portions of the Ave and Northeast 43rd Street.

I'm going to have David, I will have you jump up first on this one.

Abel, you're next.

And then Chere, after that, please.

You have 60 seconds.

And if you need the question repeated, I can certainly do that.

Yeah, I think I alluded to it before, but I think that the mobility plan is a good one, and I think the idea of the bus transfers on Brooklyn is good.

I understand that there's six inches lacking in the design for Brooklyn that Sound Transit is loathe to go back and revisit because they're worried they'll get mired in red tape and they won't be able to stay on their schedule.

That's the kind of thing I work on every day in my WSDOT job, so I'd love to take that one on, actually.

I think it's a great idea.

Long-term, I think pedestrianizing the Ave is also a great idea.

I think it's going to be a longer transition, and it ties back to that rezoning question, which I'd love to talk to you about some more.

Thanks.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

I believe I had Abel next up, if you'd like to answer this question.

Would you like me to repeat it, Abel?

You think you got it.

That'd be helpful.

Sure.

So for the U-District Station in particular, do you support the U-District Mobility Plan's goals of providing direct bus rail transfers on Brooklyn and pedestrianizing portions of the Ave and NE 43rd Street?

Well, I think this gets to the broader question for the future of Seattle, which is how do we plan more around people, not cars?

As someone that doesn't have a car, I think about this quite candidly, regularly, in terms of making it more accessible to get to those light rail investments that we've made as a community.

I think the U District has the opportunity to be the economic and community vibrant epicenter of District 4 of the future.

So ensuring that it can be the walkable storefront pedestrian friendly place would be something that's a priority for me so that we make it the center for the district so that we can drive, make it family friendly and so that we're driving the foot traffic that can make the immigrant and small businesses there thrive as well.

Thanks very much.

Sheree, you're up next.

Would you like me to repeat the question?

Sure.

Sure, here we go.

For the U District Station, do you support the U District Mobility Plan's goals of providing direct bus rail transfers on Brooklyn and pedestrianizing portions of the Ave and NE 43rd Street?

Absolutely.

One, I've been living in the U District since the day I moved to Seattle July 1st, 2010 and I've been a pedestrian and transit user the entire time because I've never driven.

So it would really help me and most of the community since it is one of the densest and poorest neighborhoods in the district.

We could really use that extra push to be on the ave and be going and shopping and using the services that are available to us in our district.

We could also use safety while we're walking because it can get a little dangerous walking around and walking to your bus stop, walking to the link light rail station.

So having a really direct way of doing that and cutting down on us having to use our cars when there's really not that much parking in our neighborhood to begin with would be wonderful.

And I personally would benefit a lot.

I wonder if you can all raise your hands if you would too.

I also think that the idea of pedestrianizing the situation on the ave would help the businesses and give us more time to deal with the idea of up zoning if we have it as a central hub for our neighborhood.

Thank you for covering that ground there.

I believe we have one more group represented here.

And come this way.

I want to make sure that I see your face.

Let's talk to the group here and say who you are, your group, and your question, please.

Hi, I'm Mark Crawford.

I'm the executive director for the U District Partnership.

We're an independent 501c3 serving economic development, neighborhood revitalization, and livability in the district.

We're also the program manager for the U District BIA.

Question I've got is this.

Right now, globally, nationally, statewide and locally, we're all going through a crisis of mental health on our streets and in our neighborhoods.

It is especially profoundly affecting those who are homeless and it is especially affecting those who are also facing drug addiction.

Right now, the City Council provides little or no funding to provide mental health outreach in communities themselves.

Instead, the only outreach that takes place is when there's a crisis, somebody comes by, talks to them for 10 minutes, and then assumes that that person who is suffering is going to seek services.

It doesn't work.

Four of the districts are now funding, through their businesses and residents, mental health outreach workers in the districts.

If you're a district council member, will you support funding to help support these people who are in crisis and the communities that are being profoundly affected?

Thank you very much for that question.

Pretty big question.

How about we have four applicants answer this one, just so we can break it up a little bit and have some different answers here.

Darby, if you would prepare yourself on this one.

Jordan, I'm going to ask you for an answer on this one, too.

Maritza, and then we will wrap it up with Abel, please.

My answer is probably going to be really short.

That's an emphatic yes, for sure.

It's so critical.

It's so important.

And I'm so proud of the BIAs for taking this on.

And I think we can get there.

We should get there.

OK.

Thanks very much for that.

I believe I said that Jordan was next.

Jordan, do you have an answer for this one?

60 seconds, please.

I also agree absolutely I would support this.

I mean in my work with youth over the years I've seen many youth struggling with mental health issues and I know that especially for chronic issues it requires chronic care and you can't just have a very short-term intervention and so I think this sounds like a really great opportunity for us as a city to invest more in mental health services.

Okay thanks very much.

Maritza would you mind going first please and then we'll have Abel wrap it up.

I absolutely agree and I absolutely support funding for mental health services.

As I mentioned in one of my other responses, I think mental health services are very much needed in our community.

And so we really need to prioritize mental health funding to address a lot of the issues, not the least of which is the drug addiction problem in our community.

Okay thanks very much.

Abel if you wouldn't mind answering this one with regard to mental health please.

Yes, and I think I'm really glad to see that the state is also making an additional investment and as they're writing the state budget, it looks like there will be more resources for mental health.

But I have a deeper appreciation with regards to our own individual and collective mental health and emotional well-being as it's been probably been outlined before.

Four years ago, I had called the police for help in experiencing the criminal justice system firsthand.

When the officer responded and made the mistake of arresting me, what I learned from seeing those individuals in jail and talking to the different men that I met that morning.

is how many of them are in crisis and how many of them are having a disservice by experiencing the criminal justice system and not experiencing the mental health system that they need or the drug addiction services that they need.

Okay, thanks very much.

Can we give these applicants another round of applause?

They've been going through some tough work here.

And also a big round of applause for our community groups who showed up here to ask some questions tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Some good challenging questions.

Thank you for that.

At this point, we are going to open things up to questions from the audience here.

You can line up at the microphone that's on the east side of the room here.

Again, I'll be using a random number generator to pick three applicants to answer each question.

Instructions are basically as follows.

I would like for you to ask a question and please be brief.

Thanks very much.

First question, please.

Please ask a question.

My question is very simple.

So, my question is very simple.

Guys, I like you because you're absolutely identical to this same console, but as I said before, for 30 years in DC.

My question to you is very simple.

How about we stop and spend time and money?

It's very simple.

You know what it means?

Because you're all in technical.

And I go to every forum.

You're absolutely technical.

But as I see before, for 10 years with guarantee, because I go every day.

So guys, question very simple.

Stop doing election, start open lottery.

Who for this?

OK.

Stop an open election and have an open lottery to pick a position like this one?

OK.

Thanks very much.

You can have a seat.

And well, let's see.

Let's see if we can answer this question.

Supporting a lottery for appointing a position rather than some sort of election for council members.

Heck, let's give it a shot here.

David, what do you got, bud?

Let's start there and then Sheree and then...

You know, I just met you, but I'm not sure you and I are going to be friends.

We'll see.

Good to hear from you too, my man.

Let's see how we do here.

If we had a lottery and I missed the chance to sit and do this, then I, you know, it would have been a great loss.

And I would not have had a chance to meet all these wonderful people.

So I'm not sure I support that.

Thank you very much for engaging the question there.

Luke, do you have any thoughts on this one?

I thought I'd throw it around the table here.

And Shere, you're up next.

Yeah.

I mean, To me, when I was given the opportunity to apply for this position online, I thought it was quite strange that at a time of What I see as debilitating crisis for the city that we do have to spend time doing this.

I appreciate the conversation.

I feel like frankly it's a little bizarre though that we have a council member who's left.

It just strikes me as problematic in the time and with the urgency of the things that we're facing in this city.

I believe that this is the way to go about it, this panel here, but I do find that having to spend, you know, two weeks to do this is problematic given the urgency of the situations that the city is facing.

That's fair.

And Alex, you can have a seat so we can have some other people ask questions.

Thanks very much.

Sheree, if you would, talking about this process here to replace a council member.

Yeah, David, you kind of hit it on the head.

In a way, for me especially, it feels like a lottery because it's very unlikely that someone would pick me out of anywhere to just do this exact thing and to represent my district without putting forth my face and my voice and bringing the support and encouragement that I've gotten from my community to do this.

I wouldn't have been at this table.

But I kind of don't like the idea of saying that we're all identical.

If you can't see me, I'm definitely someone with blue hair and a giant POC that you probably wouldn't normally see in this seat.

And I had to be here to prove that accessibility to being part of this process is really important and I think anyone can do it.

I just want to support the people that care to put their voices out there and prove that I want to bring the voices of my community out to the front when they might not be heard in any other situation.

But yeah, I don't think we're identical.

Thank you very much for that.

And ladies and gentlemen, that is an example of a pivot, I guess you'd have to say.

Some of these different issues are brought up in some challenging ways and Mr. Zimmerman certainly has done that for the council a number of times.

It's a part of being on the Seattle City Council and I'm glad we're able to engage it tonight in a way that I think was productive.

So thank you for answering that question.

I believe we might have another one please.

Ask a question, identify yourself, be brief and be seated.

All right.

So over the past year there have been many city developments that I have kept tabs on.

So first off there was the city wide head tax debacle and that rush through attempt to tax businesses in the city to combat the homelessness and housing problems the city faces under the guise that it was solely a company like Amazon's fault.

As we know this head tax failed from an overwhelming outcry from a plethora of businesses.

As in the city, but most importantly, individuals who voice her opposition to such outrageous taxes being shoved down our throats.

Next, looking at district four, I experienced an inaccessible.

and often one-sided than City Council member attempt to force his bike lane agenda down the throats of his constituents.

The alarming aspect that I point out a few instances with that was that before the outcry last year in May with, say, 35th Avenue and SAFE and whatnot, there was originally 60% opposition to the bike lanes originally conducted by SDOT.

In the end, of course, the community did carve out a win.

with the help of the mayor's office and working with the city council.

If you could ask a question, please, that would be great.

Thanks.

Yeah.

So my two questions, just a simple yes, no.

First off, and this of course is for everyone, is will you be committed to being truly accessible and reachable to your constituents in the district and really listening to the needs and wants of your constituents and bringing that to the table when you vote yes or no?

Looks like we've got some Thumbs up here for accessibility.

That sounds like a good one.

Is there another question you have?

Yes.

And then my second question is, will you aggressively seek out a budget audit that maximizes current funding for key issues like housing, homelessness, and addiction without constantly taxing the city, yes or no?

That's an interesting question there.

There's a lot more to it than a thumb, I think.

But I appreciate you bringing it up.

Thank you very much, sir.

Next question.

Again, if you could try to focus on one question and be brief and be seated.

Thank you.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Jean Paulson and I know you want to address homelessness and I was homeless for about three weeks.

And I came into a lot of problems with these application housing forms.

And they cost about $50.

And I've wasted at least over $200 on these things.

And there are these gatekeeping things that basically you fill out this form, and it goes to some third party in Texas.

Whereas if most places in the country, you fill out a form, it goes directly to the city, costs maybe $10, and that could have saved me money, and I never got this money back.

And some of these application housing forms ask illegal questions, because obviously they're from Texas and they don't give them.

Oh, easy now.

My point is, would you...

No one here from Texas is here to defend the state.

Wait a minute.

I hate to bash Texas.

It's a nice place, but there's not many laws.

But my point being, would you have like a form from the city where you could just fill out or, you know, for a background check or, you know, what do they call it?

A financial records check rather than plunking down $50 you're never going to see again.

Thanks very much, Jean.

I believe this question...

And bipolar.

Okay.

Whittling it down, trying to simplify the housing application process for people who might be homeless.

A random number generator has thrown a few at me here.

Darby, could you try this one for 60 seconds?

Also Marjorie.

And how about Jordan?

We'll go in that order, please.

Darby, I'll let you gather your thoughts here.

This is talking about housing applications, making them easier to come by and perhaps a little more streamlined for people who might be homeless.

I would say that's right at the heart of my essence.

I believe in really easy to use city services and I'm aghast that I'm hearing that there's a $50 fee for homeless people to even fill out an application for housing.

That should not be happening.

We should stop that right away.

Okay.

Thanks very much.

Marjorie, I'll have you take an answer at this next please.

Okay.

Thank you.

I believe that charging a fee is not a good idea.

I don't know enough about the situation.

I would want to see some data to help me figure out what the reason behind this.

I volunteered at Capitol Hill Housing and I watched, you know, the organization help people find housing through Capitol Hill Housing.

And it seemed fairly direct and easy.

So I would like more information.

And essentially, this is like what we talked about with the navigation report.

Having multiple departments and organizations come together and figure out how to streamline this and make it a one-stop shop to help people find housing.

Thanks very much for that.

Jordan, a 60-second answer, if you can manage it, talking about applying for housing, please.

Sure.

So in one of my earlier answers about homelessness, I talked about making sure that we center the voices of people who have experienced homelessness in developing policy.

And so this is a perfect example of that.

I would love to chat more with you and understand more about what happened, and then work to change that policy to make sure that people don't have to be spending money just to try to get the basic right of housing.

Thank you very much.

I believe we had another question.

If you wouldn't mind coming up, tell us who you are and ask your question and be brief and be seated.

Thank you.

I am Alex Peterson.

I'm one of the candidates running for the District 4 full-time position.

Thank you for your courage in stepping up to fill this steward role.

Two quick thumbs up, thumbs down questions.

The first one is, do you pledge to confer with the two candidates that make it through the primary in August?

Do you pledge to confer with them on budget issues of the $6 billion budget and other pressing matters before the City Council?

Thumbs up, thumbs down.

Looking for a thumbs up.

OK.

And then the last question is, do you pledge to not file for the full-time position in May?

There we go.

Except, yeah, sure.

If you do not get picked.

OK.

I think we've got thumbs up there.

All right.

Thank you for the question, sir.

Let's pledge not to run, right?

Yes.

Pledge not to run if you are selected.

Voting for the negative there.

It's always confusing.

All right.

Another question, please.

Hi there.

My name is Ken Langston.

I'm a former military member.

And one of the situations that I've come to see is that living in Seattle for the last couple of years of my life already, there's a lot more of my group coming over to Seattle and it's expanding.

So what would any of you be able to do to help the transition period or create sort of informational help spread awareness of the veteran community to help better set them up for the future?

Thanks very much for that question, Ken, talking about the military.

I've got three people to answer this one, who would be Brooke, and then Jay, and then Catherine.

Thanks again for the question.

If you'd like to ask one, please do line up here.

Brooke, I'll have you go first, please.

Great.

I mean, I think that is an enormously great question.

I haven't given it tons of consideration, but I do know, you know, Washington State is home to one of the largest military bases, Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

We have, you know, VAs in Snohomish County.

We have lots of services here.

So I think it would be a great opportunity for whoever takes this position to work with the community to start developing some proposals and plans which can be handed off to whoever is elected into the position in November.

Thank you very much for that.

Jay, if you wouldn't mind trying this one, please.

I think it's obviously a microcosm of many different groups that have come to Seattle, too, and have tried to find some support in different ways.

You know, different groups of color, people, immigrants and such, and I'm not sure what helpful services and total resources there are that way.

But I think listening to you and the group that's representing, you know, military people who are transitioning here and finding out what are the first steps you need, you know, housing, jobs, connecting to other people, what other services, and listening and trying to make connections either to the Veterans Administration and other appropriate social services.

Thanks very much.

Catherine, I've got you up next, please.

Thank you.

As with many changes in people's lives, veterans, people leaving college, people coming out of homelessness, they always need services and help with those transitions.

And I believe that with this community, Having served our country, they deserve attention and services to support them in becoming full-fledged working citizens in our community.

It's so important to do our best not to leave people behind and to help them become part of the community, this great community where we live.

Thanks very much for that.

Ken, thanks for the question and thanks for your service.

Who's up next?

Hi there.

Some of you have talked a big talk about income inequality, and one part of income inequality is giving back to the very bottom, but the other part of income inequality is taking from the very top.

Do any of you have any particular plans for dealing with this that are more progressive than, say, a soda tax?

Okay, looking for new ways to deal with income inequality.

Big question here.

Let's see where we go.

I've got Darby, I've got Luke, I've got David on this question.

And let's see where we head.

Darby, you're first up.

I think really it's our tax system that we need to address and it's really a statewide problem.

The City of Seattle is advancing a number of really progressive initiatives to bring less regressive taxation and more progressive tax rates to the different income levels in our community.

Hopefully they'll be successful in that because I think it's an important thing that needs to happen.

But if they're not successful in that, I think we need to continue to work as a community and really organize to descend on Olympia and make this a reality for our state.

We can't keep relying on sales tax to run our community.

It's extraordinarily regressive and penalizes the poor the worst.

And I would love to see really fantastic income tax reform in the state of Washington.

Thanks very much for that.

Luke, an answer please.

Grab that microphone up.

That is at the heart of what I'm here to talk about.

I came here because of the head tax and its failure in the loss of transparency and trust that I began to have in the city council.

It didn't start there necessarily, but it really became evident that our city won't get real about really backing up what it says it wants to do to help the most marginalized in our society until they start addressing tax and not just asking but demanding that there be more taxation on those that are earning and bearing the fruits of this region and the people that live here.

I think that there are many ways to give that tax back, both by building housing, but I definitely think that there needs to be that tax.

We need to change up the tax structure.

OK.

Thanks very much.

David, a response to this, please.

Yeah, I think Darby hit it on the head, but we have one of the most regressive tax systems in the country, in Washington.

And it does start at the state level, and we have to do something about that.

Over-relying on property tax as well as sales tax, the property tax gets passed along to people in terms of rent.

So it really is a problem.

I think something like the head tax, I think maybe Folks just tried to move too fast without building support, without building a case for what it was for.

You're always going to get kicked back from those who have the wealth and power if you try something like that.

But if you have the people behind you, maybe you can make it work.

And I think you have to be a little bit more deliberate about it and communicate better and maybe over a longer period of time.

But it starts with the regressive nature of the tax statewide.

Thanks very much for that.

And thank you for the question.

We're going to do this for about 10 more minutes here, folks, with these questions.

So if you'd like to ask one, please line up.

And if there are some community groups that might want to jump in there, if you didn't get a question answered, then please feel free.

Yes, thank you.

I'm not up as a community group now, I'm up as Jessica.

I was inspired by the person who spoke earlier about their application fees while looking for housing.

Over the last several years, we've come up with some great tenant protections.

We're talking source of income protection, move-in fee protection, code violation, tenant relocation, but there are two major problems with these.

One, they're all based on the tenant actually reporting them.

So you show me a $15 an hour worker, 40 hours a week, who has the time to wait on hold with the city office to report a code violation or to get their tenant relocation assistance.

Two, the two departments that usually defend tenants in this are vastly under budgeted and understaffed.

That would be SDCI and the Office of Civil Rights.

Do you have any ideas on how we could strengthen those previous protections we've given to renters so they aren't just feel-good legislature?

And also, if so, would you apply those to future tenant protections as well?

Thanks very much for the question, Jessica.

I'm going to ask this of Maritza and of Catherine and of Abel, in that order, talking about renter protections.

And Maritza, if you wouldn't mind going ahead, please.

You raise a really important point and we need to do more to help people.

we need to make sure that we're funding these services in a way that is not punitive to renters and the people that utilize the services, which is what so often happens because we're underfunding programs.

So we really need to look at the programs.

We need to look at these departments that are involved.

with renter protections and see how we can try to increase funding for those departments to help people with these services.

Thanks very much.

I believe I had Catherine next on the list there.

Catherine, would you mind going ahead with the answer to this one, please?

I missed a tad bit of the question, but I'll try to answer it as much as I can.

That's the spirit.

What I heard her say is that there is inadequate staffing at the times that are needed when people have And what I don't know, I don't know about this system and whether there are forms, email forms at all and how quickly those could be returned or whether that's something that could be implemented.

that in other words you type in your request.

I don't know if they have adequate services to take voicemails or if you do calls that way.

So obviously there needs to be more help in being able to get information to those folks and making sure that it's adequately staffed and perhaps maybe some metrics on making sure that questions get asked answered in a reasonable quick amount of time.

Thanks very much.

Definitely answering the spirit of that question there.

Abel, I'll have you wrap up on this question, please.

Sure, we can pass all the tenant protections that we desire, but of course, obviously, outreach and engagement needs to be a big part of this.

I just know from firsthand, my girlfriend used to work for the Office of Civil Rights, and she used to tell me just how inadequately funded so many of our outreach and engagement programs were, or are, I should say.

So it's something that I'm mindful of.

It's something that I think when we think about our most vulnerable communities, how do we strengthen the outreach and the engagement so that they not only know their rights, but their rights are being supported.

It's something that I'm mindful of, so.

Thanks very much.

Next question, please.

Hello, I'll try to represent myself as a District 4 representative.

Do your best.

My name is Richard Ellison.

The original assumption of district elections was to have a representative to represent the district first, in a sense.

There seemed a real disconnect between the council representative for District 4 and the wishes of its residents.

They wanted developers to protect the private property trees, but add housing.

They did not want bike lanes on 35th, but on adjacent streets.

They wanted you to be working with the businesses.

How will you do what we want and not what the downtown agendas say?

Big question there.

And we will have these three applicants answer.

Sheree, you're up first.

Brooke, you're second.

And then Jordan, you are third.

Definitely glad you asked that question.

I am in that area.

I am connected to those businesses.

I already do what I can in order to support the community that kind of is the center of District 4. So I don't have any property that I am trying to upzone and I am definitely a renter of almost nine years, so eight years, nine months, and 15 days that has been shopping and living and eating and working in the U District that entire time.

So what I'm going to do is the same thing I do every day.

I'm going to walk down the ave, I'm going to walk the streets, I'm going to ride the bus, and I'm going to talk to everyone I possibly can that will give me the time of day to find out what they want and how I can help them accomplish it.

Thanks very much for that.

Brooke, you're up next, please.

Great.

I think Richard asks a really important question.

Who shows up at the mic?

Who gets a chance to have their voice heard?

And as somebody who both has spent their career helping other people get a seat at the table and who has participated myself as a private citizen, what I've seen and experienced is largely who shows up and who gets a voice are people like me. homeowners, white people, people with a lot of privilege.

So while I am certainly here to listen to every single person in the district, regardless of who you are, I want to make sure that voices that have traditionally not been heard get their seat at the table as well.

Thanks very much for that.

And we'll have Jordan wrap this one up, please.

So in my work with Kids for Peace over the past five years, I spent every summer running a program for up to 50 Israeli and Palestinian youth to come together and try to find common ground.

If we can do it there, I think we can do it in District 4. But I think what's really key here, as Brooke was saying, is thinking about equity and who actually has a voice.

One of the things that concerns me is that even though we have district representation in Seattle, we are still one city and a lot of people come to District 4 and use our services there and have an interest in what happens in District 4 beyond just the residents.

And so for me, I'm very clear always in my positions and where I stand on things, but I also really love to chat with people to get input.

and then to find places where we can compromise and find common goals.

But really, the interests of our district need to be balanced with the interests of the city as a whole, taking an equity stance to that.

Okay.

Thanks very much for that.

I appreciate the question, Richard.

What's up?

You can't have two of them.

Forget it.

No, no, no.

We're moving back.

We're moving back.

No cuts.

No cuts.

Here we go.

Hello, Frank Fay from Wallingford again.

Several major city projects are over budget and behind schedule.

As a city council member, what actions would you take to show citizens that they are getting their money's worth with city projects?

Big question.

I'm going to have these four council members answer this.

Excuse me.

Look out.

Not yet.

Applicants.

You've got to figure out you want the job first, right?

How about Jay, and then we'll have Marjorie, and then we'll have Luke, and then we'll have Brooke, please.

Okay, it's a good question.

I don't have all the answers for that, but a lot of it comes down to how the executive is playing out and overseeing the budget.

Do we need an outside auditor every time?

I mean, some of the large projects we might require that, of course.

I don't think we're going to get one of the council people to sit in the weeds on the budget overruns, but we need to be able to explain that to the constituents, of course.

And it might take a third party to oversee some of these projects as well to get some clarity.

Okay, thanks very much.

Next up, I had Marjorie, if you wouldn't mind.

Please go ahead.

Well, as a planner who has worked on many, many projects that sometimes went beyond schedule and over budget due to a number of varying reasons.

I think what I would do is find out what's happening, talk to whatever department that's responsible for the project, or talk to the outside agency that's running this and find out what the challenge is, where are the hiccups and why is this happening.

Sometimes things happen, we all lived through Bertha, barely, but things do happen.

But gathering that information and finding out, go to the source and find out what's wrong and see if you can fix it or have an explanation as to why there's a delay.

There's no reason to withhold information.

All right.

Marge, thanks very much for that.

Luke, would you mind taking a stab at this one, please?

Yeah, I think transparency is first and foremost up there in terms of what a council member is supposed to do and then, you know, by being clear about their interests and their sort of their desire to connect the dots for folks about what's really going on.

There's a lot of projects that, like the 35th Avenue bike lane, that went over budget but wasn't even created because there was no belief, there was no true heart behind making these things happen in the way that we had planned to go about them.

And I think that it's important to check in along the way, but I think we can't just throw money at things that don't materialize.

Thanks very much.

Brooke, I have you next year, please.

Great.

So, I mean, I think it's first important to recognize that for major public works projects, construction audits are required.

Secondly, I mean, I've certainly seen over the years of engaging with city council that it's been very difficult for council members to actually get reports on a regular basis from the executive office on departments and what they're doing.

So I think, you know, the council has a role to be more demanding on their oversight role.

And finally, I think another thing that we've seen when it comes to budgets and auditing is not really great forecasting, particularly around contingency.

And so I think when we are getting budgets in the first place, I think council members should be providing much clearer oversight and ensuring that budgets are doing proper forecasting.

Thanks very much.

We have time for two more questions, so if we can sneak those in, that would be great.

Please.

Hi, my name is Lorna Murray.

I'm with the Stronger Together Community Council and NESJEC, and I'm a resident of District 4. My question is, so the U.S.

Justice Department has determined that the disproportionate targeting of minority communities by law enforcement helps to perpetuate cycles of poverty.

With Seattle getting ready to hire four times as many officers as we normally hire, how will you make sure that the underrepresented minorities and communities that are historically marginalized in District 4 and throughout Seattle are not disproportionately targeted by law enforcement?

Tell you what, we'll go down the line here.

I'll have four applicants answer this one.

Darby, Catherine, David, and Jordan, please, so we can make sure we have equal time for folks.

Darby, would you mind starting with this one first with regard to law enforcement?

And grab that mic in front of you.

Yeah, I think this is a multifaceted problem, but it's such a critical one that we really have to be smart about it.

The first thing is, I would want to see that we're doing outreach into those communities of color to make sure we're drafting police officers from those communities.

We need police officers also who are people of color and come from those communities and have relationships with those communities.

When we train our officers, we have to have really good And so I would really want to see that.

And then we have to be really aggressive with our data.

You know, we have lots of data.

We know where our hot spots are.

We know which officers are being left too long in which neighborhoods and, you know, need to be rotated, need a refresher, you know, and all these types of things.

And so I just think we need to be very holistic about the approach to it.

We need to not be afraid of it and we need to address all those issues.

Thanks.

Catherine, would you mind grabbing that mic and giving us an answer please?

Thanks.

Sure.

Very good question.

I have done training through the People's Institute and continue to have conversations on these issues with the targeted communities, people of color.

And we have a long way to go in this community and this world on these issues.

I do know that officers in the police system need to be adequately trained and perhaps trained again.

As each person, as they go through additional training and awareness, new awareness has come to be.

And it's the only way we can move forward in being a better people and a better society.

Thanks very much.

David, 60 seconds please.

Yeah, I mean, clearly we need to try to recruit from the communities that we're concerned about.

And training is very important.

But we also need to get feedback from those communities.

When officers are spending time in particular neighborhoods, we should be getting regular feedback and interacting, surveying those communities to see what their relationship with those folks are.

And we need, ultimately, while I don't I hesitate to use the term zero tolerance in most cases, but in the terms of a police force, we have to have zero tolerance for racism and for any actions that display bias towards people.

Thanks very much for that.

Jordan, you're up.

Thanks so much for the question.

I mean, I would start by questioning the assumption that we actually need to hire that many more police officers.

And I'm really not convinced that that's the case in our city.

I think that any decisions that are going to be made about hiring or police infrastructure or other questions related to policing really need to be tied into really strict equity guidelines.

I want to try to strengthen community oversight and civilian oversight of the police.

I think the community police Commission is a good first step to that, but it doesn't quite go far enough.

And as Initiative 940 continues to be implemented, I think we can monitor how that implementation is going and see what additional adjustments need to be made in consultation with community groups like Not This Time that have tons of experience trying to work against police brutality.

Thanks very much for that.

We have time for one last question.

Can you try to sneak one in?

Is there one last one we could have?

Thank you.

Hi, Mary Ruffin from District 4, also with the Stronger Together Community Coalition.

My question is, what practices or policies, if any, do you plan on pursuing to promote racial and social justice in our community?

Great question.

Sheree, we'll start with you.

We'll go Sheree, Jay, Abel, Marjorie, and Maritza, so we can make sure we give equal time to folks here.

Sheree, would you please start?

All righty.

So earlier this year, there was a work group to kind of analyze recidivism and reentry process for people that have been incarcerated.

And there were actually a couple of recommendations out of that that I would like to pursue with as much energy as I possibly can allocate toward it.

That would be eradicating the the charges for drug loitering and for prostitution loitering because it's found that it's only going to make people have a harder time re-entering into society if you keep tacking on more charges and getting them back into incarceration versus meeting them where they're at, connecting them to services, and actually hearing what part of the community they'd like to be engaging in.

So I'm hoping that Gonzalo's in the the group to steer decisions on criminal justice reform gets going while I'm in office.

Because I would really like to have a say in that, cuz nothing about us without us.

Thanks very much.

Jay, your answer please.

Well, I think District 4 is an underrepresented area for people of color.

And I think my focus has been on affordable housing and homelessness issues and future planning.

And I think there's a lot of other issues in terms of social justice that I need to take a better look at and come up with policies, really.

And I think it's inherent in where we are right now.

And I'm willing to take a deeper, deeper stride at it.

Thanks very much.

Abel, your answer please.

Seattle has some of the best educational programs in the country.

However, not everyone has access to those programs.

And so thinking about how we just ensure better access to those programs is something I'm going to be keenly aware of.

The leading the conversations with regards to the model of criminal justice.

I think that Seattle has an opportunity and the Puget Sound has an opportunity to really reform and set the model for how we should be able to address communities that are impacted or touched by the criminal justice system.

And then lastly, looking to fund diversion programs that fully fund diversion programs that are desperately needed so that young people are able to have the opportunities, the second chances that are necessary.

Cuz we all make mistakes and how do we all learn and grow from those mistakes is something that I'm gonna be keenly, mindly aware of.

And so that we're not impacting disproportionately communities of color or low income communities.

Thanks very much.

Marjorie, your answer to this one, please.

Well, some of our work on the planning commission is around the equity indicators related to the comp plan.

I have participated in training with the city's race and social justice initiative.

I would certainly continue to promote that.

The equity indicators will tell us a lot about how the city's growing and what's happening.

And I think practices and policies that I would promote, follow, and teach, if you would.

We have this challenge and we interchange words.

And so I think we need to educate ourselves.

When we talk about diversity, we're talking about representation.

When we talk about inclusion, we're talking about access.

And when we talk about equity, we're talking about the characteristics of the conditions of parity.

And we interchange those words.

And I would champion the city being better at that.

Sounds good.

Maritza, you can wrap up on this question, please.

As a woman of color, this is racial and social equity, something that's really important to me.

Policies related to affordable housing, transportation, education are all policies where we really need to make sure that we have a racial and social equity lens attached.

It's often disadvantaged communities that really lose out when we're talking about affordable housing transportation options and access to education.

So those are the policies of the very many, but that I would prioritize to look at.

Okay, thank you very much for that answer.

Deep breath everyone.

One small round of applause for these applicants here.

We're just about wrapped up.

I'd like for each of our applicants to get that little sip of water you need because we're going to wrap up with some closing statements here.

Luke, I'm going to start with you and come back this way.

I know.

It doesn't seem like it's been three hours, does it?

That's how exciting it's been.

But I really appreciate all of your work here and hanging in there.

This has been a good meeting and a lot of great interaction here.

Thank you, everybody, for your questions here.

So a 60-second closing statement from each applicant starting at the end and working this way.

Luke, you're first with 60 seconds, please.

Okay, thank you for listening this evening.

Thank you for being here and being present in this.

If I've impressed nothing else on everybody here, it's that I believe that housing is the thing that we need to be focusing on and I think that we need to get real about the impact that it's having on communities.

So many of the issues that we've touched on, they are They go back to housing.

They're harder if you don't have housing to deal with.

And ultimately, I think that that is kind of where we need to put most of our efforts right now, whether it's petitioning the state, petitioning the federal government, or just raising taxes right here in Seattle, Washington.

It needs to be done on the big businesses that are here.

Lastly, I just want to say, You know, if we could do it for light rail, we need to do it for racial justice.

If we can do it for stadium after stadium, we need to do it in the name of helping LGBTQIA community and women.

If we did it for the bus tunnel, we can do it for immigrants.

And if we do it for the three billion waterfront tunnel, we can do it for the justice of the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.

All right.

Maritza, last statement, please.

Thank you for the opportunity to engage with you tonight.

It's evident from your questions that addressing homelessness, housing affordability, transportation options, and community engagement are priorities for you, and they are priorities for me as well.

And if given the opportunity to fill this interim seat, I look forward to working with you on these really important issues.

Thank you.

Thanks, Maritza.

Marjorie, if you would.

Thank you all for being here and providing the opportunity to say our piece.

If I am appointed the District 4 caretaker, I will bring the same hard work, commitment, and passion to that role as I've done throughout my career as a planner.

And as a planner, I believe I have the skill set and the experience to help tackle the hard decisions that lie ahead.

I'm well versed in planning, land use, zoning, and transportation.

I've demonstrated my commitment to making Seattle a wonderful place for everyone to live, work, and play.

And if, again, I'm afforded this opportunity, I'll bring all of this to bear and help us work through the rest of the year.

I'll be there.

I'll be accessible.

Thanks very much.

Abel, your closing statement, please.

I grew up with divorced parents, and my mother used to say to me as a kid growing up, your dad isn't the man that made you, it's the man that raised you.

So I grew up in a Mexican and black household, and my aunt who helped raise me married my uncle Bobby, who's white.

My oldest sister married an Italian guy, my other sister married a Puerto Rican guy, and my brother, his fiancé, her family's from Bangladesh.

And what I've learned from this experience is that my family has really good food, but also that by and large we all want the same thing.

And when I look at the challenges that are before this city and before our district is how do we reframe these conversations to better serve individuals experiencing homelessness, better serve and get more people out of cars, to relieve the congestion that's on our streets, and look to address the issues of housing affordability in a way that's more inclusive, but also that begins to set up the city for the future in terms of growth.

I'm seeking this appointment because I would like to serve my community that has given me so much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next up, Jay, go right ahead.

Well, thank you all for attending tonight.

I'm impressed that you're both still here.

You're all still here.

And as we are, we've given a lot of time, volunteer time in our lives, and I'm sure you have too.

And I appreciate that.

In my community, I've gained the respect from people in the neighborhood, as I welcome all.

I've been talking to homeowners, renters, developers, understanding the needs of all the residents and the realities of providing housing and services and social equity.

I'm a good listener and problem solver.

I share information.

I guide the discussion.

I set up a framework for positive results.

I have a deep knowledge of zoning and long-range planning issues, earth stewardship, and community engagement.

I feel I have the background to step right into the land use planning and sustainability and transportation issues, and it's by understanding the many issues, being open-minded, patient.

I'll always carry with me also a great love for the city and the peoples.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Shiree, you're up.

So I noticed that almost everyone sitting up here with me, beside me, has made a commitment to prioritizing equity and social justice in underrepresented communities.

Interestingly enough, I have a unique set of qualities that make me pretty intersectional, QTPOC.

have had issues with mental illness that I have overcome and been dealing with every single day of my life.

I've been homeless in this state and figured out a way out of that and help other people do the same.

I have also been a non-driver my whole life and so of course I rely on public transit.

I also really enjoy all the businesses on the Ave that are struggling to keep it going.

So what I'm hearing is that you're all going to listen to everyone that I represent as well as me.

That's a pretty good vote of confidence.

So I'm pretty excited to be up here, but I'd also like to move forward and represent the people that I look like, I feel like, I talk to every day, and are part of my same neighborhood and community that I've been in for almost 10 years.

Thanks very much.

Jordan, you're up next.

Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for being here tonight.

Like so many people, I was attracted to Seattle because of all the benefits of living here, like great culture, fun neighborhoods, and a spectacular natural setting.

As someone who moved here at the start of the current boom, however, I know that I have been contributing to some of the problems that accompany the city's growth.

I've also been shocked to realize that despite all of the great things about Seattle, we live in a region that has both the two wealthiest people in the entire world and also 12,000 people who do not have a home.

This fact needs to rally all of us to do more.

Fortunately, despite these challenges, I remain inspired because people in Seattle care about the issues in our community, and I know that we have the creativity and the resources to solve our problems.

If appointed to the City Council, I would work tirelessly to ensure that our community problems are solved with community solutions.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

David, you're up with a closing statement, 60 seconds.

Thanks very much.

I want to thank all of you for staying here as well, and I want to thank all of the fellow applicants.

I'm really quite humbled and amazed at the number of people who've come forward with such empathy and such smarts.

I offered myself, as I said before, because I think I can keep the ball rolling on planning and transportation committees, and I think I have the skills and the mindset to help calm waters at a time of division in our district and our city.

I have strong ties to the community and experience working with city departments on city issues.

We need someone who will work for all residents of District 4, and I think everybody here would, and for all Seattle.

For homeowners and neighbors without homes, for business owners and low-wage workers, people of all ages, abilities, and incomes trying to get around the city safely and efficiently.

I want to work to make Seattle a more equitable city, as many have said, a place where all races and backgrounds feel at home anywhere and are able to get ahead.

And I know, as a white guy, I have privilege and that I have to look beyond that.

This all starts with listening.

It's how I do my job as a problem solver for people affected by a construction megaproject.

And I hope that I get the opportunity to serve District 4. Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Catherine, your last statement please.

I woke up this morning and it was sunny and Mount Rainier was out and I said, this is a great place to live and I'm sure that when you see Mount Rainier, it gives you the same.

Wow, what an amazing place we get to live, work and play in.

And I know that I support the issues around equity, social justice, and in this work, I would do that also.

I'm a good budgeter, and I look forward to working on the issues around housing, homelessness, transit, and making sure we have a good 2019 budget.

I think it's important to talk less and listen more.

When I saw that on the reader board, I'm like, yes, that is what is important for this position.

We need somebody who's willing to take the time to hear what people have to say.

I'd love to serve this district.

I've lived here 30 years.

It's a wonderful place to live and I'd be honored to do so.

Thanks very much.

Darby, you're up.

Thank you.

I really just want to say thank you to everyone here who's in the room that made this possible tonight and to this stellar panel of candidates.

I too am just so humbled to be up here and to be presenting tonight to you.

I've attributed my success in public policy to the fact that I'm a team player and I don't shy away from hearty debate on the issues that concern us the most.

I work very hard to incorporate everyone's ideas and objectives and find common ground and create a collective vision and outcome that we're all bought into.

And I commit to those team efforts and then I get things done.

I'm going to bring the initiative, work ethic and mediation skills needed during this transition period to serve our district and the city as a whole.

Equally important, I have the City Hall budget and land use experience and knowledge needed for this temporary position.

I promise to hit the ground running and keep running until November 26 and beyond.

Thank you.

Great.

So thank you to everybody who's managed to stick it out this long.

And I also really want to thank the various community groups who came out tonight and asked such thoughtful questions.

I think you gave everybody a really clear understanding of what the priorities need to be for the next six to seven months.

I think to be effective in this short period of time, the person taking this position really needs to be an active listener.

They need to be curious about the district.

They're willing to learn.

They need to be knowledgeable on a variety of issues.

They need to be able to understand how to bring people together and achieve compromise.

And they also really need to have a deep understanding of what the legislative process is like and how you take a policy idea and move it to become a law.

I believe that I have the right combination of skills, experience, and knowledge to serve this district really well for the next four years.

And I would be thrilled to bring my knowledge, my passion, and my love for this city to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

One more time, a round of applause for our 11 applicants here.

We have been through quite an evening here, and I very much appreciate your patience in dealing with all of this.

Thank you to all of our applicants for joining us here this evening.

If you'd like some more information on this, you can attend the City Council's meeting on Wednesday of this week in Council Chambers at 530. These folks will be there.

You can have some public comment there as well, or you can also check out the City Clerk's website and the Council Vacancy section for more background.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks for everyone watching on Seattle Channel, and good night.

Yeah, right.