Seattle City Council Briefing 8102020

to order.

The time is 9.35 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Here.

Straus.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you so much.

There will be, I'm sorry, approval of the minutes.

If there is no objection, the minutes of August 3rd, 2020 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, just really quickly, there will be a special meeting of the city council.

This is a reminder of that special meeting.

So this Wednesday, August 12th at two o'clock p.m., there will be a special meeting of the full City Council.

At this meeting, the Council will hold a veto override vote on Council Bill 119812, otherwise known as the COVID-19 Relief Spending Plan.

included in the Jump Start Seattle legislation.

As we know, the mayor vetoed and returned this bill to the council on July 31st, and we want to make sure that we have an opportunity to take up Council Bill 119812 in light of that veto.

At this full council meeting, the council will also take final action on bills necessary to effectuate the council's changes to the city's 2020 budget, including council bills 119, 860, 861, 862, and 863, all of which appear on this afternoon's introduction and referral calendar.

Finally, I would ask that today, this morning, as we did last Monday, I'd ask that council members endeavor to keep their council briefing presentations as brief as possible.

We do have another select budget committee scheduled to convene as soon as this meeting ends.

That Select Budget Committee meeting has a hard stop at 1 o'clock p.m., and we have a lot of business to get through in that Select Budget Committee meeting that is scheduled immediately afterwards.

Additionally, our city clerks and council central staff will need a significant amount of time between that meeting and the city council meeting this afternoon to process the various budget actions that we are intending to take in the select budget committee.

So with that being said, we'll go ahead and begin our next discussion on the preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees.

and I will call on Councilmembers as established by the rotated roll call for City Council meetings.

This week's roll call rotation begins with Councilmember Peterson, followed by Sawant, Straus, Herbold, Juarez, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueva, and then I will close out the meeting.

I also want to apologize if you hear some ambient noise.

I have a, I'm currently dealing with a protest of one person who is been screaming outside of my house since approximately 8.30 a.m.

this morning, riding around the neighborhood on a bike and screaming through an orange safety cone.

And so I apologize again if there is some ambient noise in the background.

I will try to mute to the greatest extent possible, and we'll try to get through this.

Okay, so first up is Councilmember Peterson.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hello, colleagues.

On today's City Council agenda, I have no items from the Transportation and Utilities Committee.

We are having a Transportation and Utilities Committee meeting on Wednesday, August 19 at 9.30, which will be very full, very busy.

We're also sending some non-controversial transportation related items directly to the full City Council.

as shown on today's introduction and referral calendar to take care of a lot of this business that's been backed up as we focus on rebalancing the budget.

On today's introduction and referral calendar, I am introducing a resolution I mentioned last week to memorialize our support for the national effort to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

That federal bill is H.R.

7120, introduced by Congresswoman Karen Bass.

Democrat from California, and supported by our own Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

This federal bill addresses many concerns raised by protesters that are authorized by federal law, such as the need to restrict qualified immunity for police officers across the nation.

So that's just on the IRC.

We'll vote on that, I believe, next Monday.

Regarding the budget today, just a heads up, as I mentioned during the Budget Committee last week, I have an amendment that, if approved, will ask our Police Chief to send an additional report to City Council on how our budget reductions will impact police deployment and response times.

Later today, we're already planning to request three reports from the executive on civilianization, expenditures, and salaries.

So this is just a fourth report to provide to the council and the public a fuller picture.

With the reductions we're making for 2020 that will likely carry on to 2021, I believe adjustments can be made so that response times do not get worse.

For example, remaining officers would respond to fewer types of non-criminal calls.

And this report is basically just asking for those details from the executive.

Regarding Resolution 31961 on today's agenda, I want to thank Councilor Mosqueda for introducing that resolution and for allowing me to sign on as a co-sponsor.

A journalist covering protests must be protected, and this resolution affirms that right.

to keep it short, I think I'll end there.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson, for that report.

Are there any questions or comments for Council Member Peterson?

Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and move along down the line of the roll call.

Council Member Sawant.

Oh, we can't hear you.

There we go.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, yes.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

Good morning, everyone.

There are no items on today's city council agenda from the sustainability and renters rights committee.

The regularly scheduled meeting of the committee this month has been canceled due to council's August recess.

I just wanted to mention to council members that in the budget committee that we're about to have, my office will not be bringing forward the 911 call center related We have made some progress on it and I believe the City Council needs to return to that question after summer recess to resolve several technical questions that have come up and I can speak to it more during the budget committee.

I wanted to mention that we will be voting in the budget committee Council briefing on the proviso to prohibit the Seattle Police Department from using City of Seattle resources to support the prosecution of people arrested in the Justice for George Floyd protests.

This was a budget amendment that was discussed, but we had held it back because questions had come up from council members, which we have attempted to resolve.

And again, I'll mention a little bit more when that comes up.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Salon.

Any questions or comments on Council Member Salon's report?

Okay, hearing none, we will now hear from Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

There are three items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's Introduction and Referral Calendar.

CBs 119847, 119848, and 119849. which are the landmarks designations for ordinances for Canterbury Court, the Roy View Apartments, and University of Washington Engineering Annex.

These will all be referred to full council next week.

There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's agenda.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is this Wednesday, starting at 9.30 a.m., and there are three items on the agenda.

A briefing and public hearing on CB 119827, which would rezone land in Rainier Beach for the development of affordable housing.

A discussion on Council Bill 119831, which is the Child Care Near You Ordinance.

We will also be voting on that.

a discussion and vote on CB 119835, the land use omnibus bill, and there will likely be a second, an additional central staff memo coming soon about potential amendments to the omnibus bill.

Regarding budget today, I have introduced a statement of intent in the 2020 rebalance to authorize two civilian positions for the 911 call center.

As I discussed last week, it authorizes a director and deputy director.

These are two civilian positions that would replace the last two sworn officers in the 911 communication center.

And these recommendations are, these are, These actions are pursuant to recommendations by an independent consultant as final steps to fully civilianize the 9-1-1 communications center.

The statement of intent further requests that the mayor include funding for these positions in her 2021 proposed budget.

I also made changes to my amendments 45 and 46. They have become amendment 56, although central staff, I'm flagging for you that some separation from a multitude of amendments entering into 56 may need to occur.

These are regarding my amendments from requiring the Seattle Police Department reporting every other week, and then an additional report in September.

The changes to these amendments will retain the reporting requirements, which is the focus of these amendments.

Briefly, last week in District 6, continue to have District 6 resident meetings.

Last week, I met with Ballard Merchants Group and different District 6 residents talking about the need for the resources within the Jumpstart Spending Plan.

talking about homelessness, public safety, small business assistance, what models we are looking at to use and determine what new policing looks like, and how we can ensure cafe streets and our famous Ballard Farmers Market can share space during these COVID times.

We continue to have D6 meetings, and this week we'll be speaking specifically with residents about Leary Triangle, Everspring Hotel, and that, Council President, is my report.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Strauss.

Any comments or questions for Councilmember Strauss?

Okay, hearing none, I do want to acknowledge that Councilmember Mosqueda has joined us.

She's been on the call and in the meeting for a few minutes now.

Okay, next up, we're gonna hear from Councilmember Herbold, please.

Thank you and good morning.

So let's start off with some items on the introduction and referral calendar this morning or this afternoon.

The referral calendar includes the appointment to the Community Police Commission of Robert Baker, a public defense position.

And we'll refer to full council for the meeting of August 17th with the cancellation of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on the 11th due to ongoing budget committee and additional full council meeting.

This is the reason we're referring directly to full council.

And we'll have additional comments about her appointment next Monday.

Also, another piece of legislation that is on the referral calendar today is the bill associated with the budget action to disaggregate patrol and list the budget control levels for each of the five police precincts.

The legislation will be heard at full council at the special meeting on Wednesday.

In addition, the referral calendar includes an item that Councilmember Peterson will be hearing in his transportation committee.

It is an Interfund loan bill, an Interfund loan specifically to fund 2021 and 2022 I'm hoping that Councilmember Peterson will allow me to join him in sponsoring that piece of legislation.

And then lastly, for the IRC, I and Council Member Lewis are walking on Resolution 31962. This is going on to the IRC this afternoon, but also for a vote today.

The resolution itself lays out the council's vision around defunding SPD and investing in black and brown communities in a new structure of community safety and violence prevention.

And it includes specific provisions, including our plans to do several department transfers.

It ensures funds for community-led research and participatory budgeting effort, creates an intention to, identifies an intention to create a new civilian-led Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.

It includes, as we're moving forward, it includes a request to SPD to prioritize certain types of 911 calls.

and to actually identify at least three different practices for SPD to deprioritize or continue that lead to bias-based policing.

So a request to basically study how those practices lead to bias policing and how we can work with SPD to deprioritize those practices.

The resolution also address out of order layoff requests and echoes the community's hope that the chief prioritize officers with multiple sustained complaints.

for out of order layoff requests.

And finally, the resolution identifies the council's intent to ensure full compliance with the city's charter obligations to maintain adequate patrol staffing in every district, as well as our obligation to the court under the consent decree.

to recognize the court's authority to exercise oversight of items related to policing in Seattle that are relevant to the consent decree.

And lastly, I should mention that the resolution also includes commitment to the intention of creating a police misconduct registry that would be accessible to the public.

This is an addition that Councilmember Deborah Juarez requested that we include, and it mirrors a similar registry that there is an effort to create at the federal level.

as far as items for full council today.

Myself and Councilmember Lewis have a technical amendment to the premium pay for gig workers ordinance that he and I sponsored.

The technical amendment clarifies that workers who are employees and are covered under the wage theft ordinance are not covered gig workers.

under the ordinance itself.

It clarifies that hiring entities must comply with gig worker and consumer protections for the duration of the civil emergency proclaimed by the mayor.

And it provides a clarification that the highest penalty for a third or subsequent violation of the ordinance is about $5,500 per agreed party or an amount equal to 10% of the total amount of unpaid compensation whichever is greater.

Also, there is another item on the full Council agenda that I'm co-sponsoring with Councilmember Morales.

I'm sure she'll talk more about it, but it is related to lifting a proviso of $170,000 that's been placed on the Seattle office for civil rights to help fund the efforts to create a work group to help us work together as a city to make recommendations for the criminal legal system.

This is a continuation of work that we began last year and both central staff and SOCR have been making good progress towards the goals and the release of this money will allow SOCR to start doing some of the external stakeholder work that is related to the criminal justice reform work.

And then finally, the budget items that I have for Budget Committee today, just a couple of them here.

The first is Amendment 27 to Council Bill 119818. That relates to the transfer of victim advocates from SPD to the Human Services Department.

Council voted to do so.

It would impact 11 FTE who work in that division providing support to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and vulnerable populations such as victims of elder or child abuse.

We have since learned that in order to ensure seamless provision of services, HSD needs to make arrangements around data access, and that may take a little bit more time than we had I'm going to be sponsoring an amendment that makes the transfer itself contingent on the ability of victim advocates to access from within the human services department.

information that is held by the SPD RMS system, the King County Ingress system, or any other system that provides the information necessary for victim advocates to perform their work.

This is the recommendation of central staff to, again, to make sure that the transfer happens in a way that allows the victim advocates to continue to do their work.

I also have an amendment related to the council's vote on the command staff salary proviso.

The amendment itself would reduce the chief salary to $275,000 a year instead of how we voted last week to move the chief salary to the very bottom of the pay ban, which is $185,000 a year.

That's about a We all voted for what is essentially, I think, more than a 40% pay reduction.

The chief currently has a salary of $294,000 a year.

She's currently the third highest paid department head in the city, moving her down to the lowest of her pay band.

would mean she would be the second lowest paid department head despite managing nearly 2200 full-time employees as compared to 65 full-time employees in the Department of Neighborhoods.

And the director of the Department of Neighborhoods would be, you know, if The vote that we passed last week went forward.

The director of the Department of Neighborhoods would be the only department head paid less in the entire city than the police chief.

It's important to recognize not only does Chief Best manage the largest department in terms of full-time employees, it's larger than SDOT or either of the utilities, but I'm sure we all remember that after a national search and first being passed over by the mayor selection team, she was awarded the job after the community rallied to support her and she became the first black woman chief of the Seattle Police Department.

And in doing so, received competitive pay.

There's room for debate about whether or not the chief's salary should be exempted entirely from the council's action last week.

And I have some thoughts about that.

And I know also some will oppose this amendment, but I will hold my remarks on both of those other positions until debate this afternoon.

Lastly, I just want to lift up, in my capacity as Public Safety and Human Services Committee Chair, that we've heard the Office of the Inspector General talking about her commitment to a community-based investigation of the events following the George Floyd protests and I'm speaking of the events related to policing protests and so the Inspector General has made an announcement that they're moving forward with the Sentinel event review and has begun to solicit community input for that review and the Sentinel review itself is a systems-based root cause analysis of incidents with significant negative outcome that is of importance and concern to community.

The goal of the review is systemic improvement that addresses institutionalized racism.

They're doing a virtual community listening forum for those who want to share their perspectives on Thursday, August 13th from 930 to 11. And for more information or to provide comment, you can email sentineleventatseattle.gov or go to seattle.gov forward slash oig forward slash community.

Lastly, just want to flag a couple of events this week have a firefighter pension board this week as well as I'm chairing the watershed resource inventory area.

I'm hoping to be able to participate in the local progress virtual convening beginning Thursday evening and going through Saturday.

Thank you.

Councilmember Peterson, please.

Real quick for the viewing public, if they're just tuning in on this for the first time, just a point of information on the salary reduction vote last week was a vote of six to three, and I did not vote to cut the salary of the chief, nor did Councilmembers Juarez and Lewis.

Just wanted to get that on the record.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay, hearing none, colleagues, does anyone have a report for Council Member Juarez?

Seen and hearing none, we'll go ahead and have Council Member Lewis report out.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and actually a lot of the items that I'm reporting on are fairly similar to Council Member Herbold, so I think I can take advantage of her comprehensive report and be fairly brief.

I will pass it over to councilmember Herbold.

Councilmember Herbold.

anything in addition, but I just want to thank central staff for diligently working with the law department, queuing those up and sending them our way.

And hopefully we will expediently pass those amendments this afternoon and strengthen that law, which just to remind the general public and everybody here is currently providing relief to gig economy workers who are being paid and receiving that consideration for the important and critical work that they do.

we have to make sure we keep that law in the books, keep it strong and by passing these amendments we can do that.

Moving on to the resolution Councilmember Herbold alluded to and I want to thank Councilmember Herbold for her leadership.

I also want to just provide an update that Council Member Juarez's office has notified us that she would like to be affixed as an official co-sponsor of the resolution.

So I can give that update to everybody.

here this morning, which is fitting, because Council Member Juarez did provide a considerable amount of additional content to the resolution, and it was good to work with her office over the course of the last week, as well as a number of other council offices in shaping and molding the content of this critical resolution about putting together a new department of public health and safety and violence prevention that will take on many of the roles that we are looking to protect, enhance, and expand that are community-based and outside of the scope of traditional armed policing.

So that resolution has been distributed.

Really look forward to discussing that today as providing a roadmap for how we can start doing things differently and work with community to really make sure that we are sending the appropriate first responder to situations.

that warrant a different kind of approach than traditional armed police, but also elements in the resolution that are requesting additional analysis and reporting from the police department on how a a smaller police department would have a role in the context of this new department of public safety to prioritize the 911 calls for the types of things we still envision police responding to.

So exigent acts of violence and other exigent criminal activity that would still warrant an armed response under a new comprehensive system of public safety.

And as was mentioned earlier, some reform components as well, including a database of complaints that's accessible to the public and that really daylights that process in line with national best practices that are being promoted in Congress and in other jurisdictions.

I do want to transition briefly.

I would have shared this last week, but I know that we had brief briefings in light of the busy agenda.

But I do just want to share that I was visited by the Everyday March a week and a half ago.

I went down to greet them, and we had a very cordial exchange.

And I want to say that I was very impressed by the young people who were facilitating the conversation and leading the discussion.

And we have actually had a considerable amount of follow-up since then, and they have actually consulted on the resolution that we are submitting today, I think the everyday marchers as as council members, Peterson and Strauss and Herbold could probably attest to in the last few weeks have had very good conversations with us about the direction that the city needs to take in revisiting our system of public safety and our overall system of policing.

And undoubtedly that next generation of leaders has a critical voice in this discussion.

I was troubled to hear That in Snohomish County, when the everyday marchers attempted to go and have a conversation with Chief Best, and I can't speak to the exact situation on the ground, but I have seen disturbing images of these same young people that came to my stoop.

being approached with firearms.

And based on my interaction with them, based on my conversation with them, it really saddened me to see these young people that are just, some of them just out of high school or still in high school, being confronted with such overt threats of violence by people when, based on my experience, they just wanted to have a conversation about the future of these big policy shifts that we are debating around public safety.

And I just want to say for all leaders, be it us here at the city council, be it folks that are in the departments, be it people in the state legislature or any level of government, I just think that these earnest young people and the views that they're expressing should be greeted by open ears and not open carry.

And I think that's something we need to take forward with us.

It's something that we need to say.

It's something where we shouldn't be ignorant to the fact that there have been certain acts that have been tangential to some of these protests that have been disturbing, including comments left at Council Member Peterson and Council Member Juarez's houses and other things that have come up.

But I don't think that rounds their movement down to something where people should be confronting them with firearms.

And as we're all moving forward and having these conversations that are no doubt difficult, responding with open ears instead of with force is going to be critical to the healing process necessary to reach that common understanding.

And I look forward to continuing to work with the everyday marchers, and I would condemn any effort to approach them with any kind of untoward intimidation.

and threat of force, because really in my experience, and I can only speak from my experience, they just wanted to talk and we actually had a good conversation.

So with that, Madam President, I don't have any other updates and I can turn it back over to you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we will now hear from Councilmember Morales.

And then before we do that, Councilmember Herbold, just a quick note that you are not on mute, just in case.

There we go.

Councilmember Morales, please.

Thank you.

I will be brief.

I first want to thank Councilmember Lewis for those remarks.

I think many of us have had similar experiences and certainly are feeling extraordinarily uncomfortable with the idea of these young people being met with guns.

So thank you for that.

I'm going to try to be brief here.

Last Friday, we kicked off, rebooted our constituent office hours.

So we have been meeting the last couple of weeks on Fridays with constituents and heard from folks about some utility issues that they're having, small business support.

I also did meet with The Columbia City Farmers Market, I know the Farmers Market Association is reaching out to many of us.

And my commitment is to work with them on how best to support the operations of the farmers markets.

Because this is, they are nonprofits, but it is also about supporting small businesses, small farm businesses, and some prepared food, although those can't operate right now.

But we really need to make sure that we are supporting the work of these associations as small businesses themselves and the local small farm businesses that are operating there and are really important links to providing access to the local healthy food for our constituents.

So there will be more conversation, I'm sure, with all of us and with the departments involved, but that was illuminating conversation.

Um, as far as the budget conversation this afternoon or later this morning, we have two provisos to amend, uh, council bill 119825, um, provisos 59 and 56. They provide 14 together, provide $14 million to community led public safety through an inner fund loan, um, to get money into the community now and scale up as we begin the journey of, um, figured out how we restructure the department.

We've had weeks of negotiation with Black community-led organizations, and the intent here is to fund BIPOC-led organizations that are doing this work.

So these amendments reflect that intent, but I do want to point out that, once again, we are running into structural barriers with our intent.

As we learned over the weekend, that I-200 prevents the city from intentional efforts, as we understand it, from contracting directly or stating that we must contract based on race and gender.

So we are working on this.

We will discuss this more this afternoon, but want to let folks know about that effort.

And then as Council Member Herbold mentioned, at full council this afternoon, We have Council Bill 119839, which lifts the proviso for $170,000 to the Office of Civil Rights.

This is for criminal legal system work that is intending to better coordinate and better align the efforts of the many initiatives, public safety initiatives, work groups, different things that have been created over the years.

And the goal here is to eliminate the duplicative work that these efforts are undergoing, especially as they impact communities of color who are repeatedly asked for meetings, for surveys, for community engagement, which puts a huge burden on community to participate in this work, even though they want to be involved.

And so the criminal legal system work is intended to do an assessment of all these different initiatives that have been in place, and figure out how best to coordinate them and align them so that there can be a more unified effort to do the kind of community engagement that we want to see.

So that's what is on deck for this afternoon and that is all I have.

Thank you Council Member Morales.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, hearing none, we will now hear from Councilmember Mosqueda, and then I will close out this morning's council briefing so we can get started on our select budget meeting.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Today, I'm looking forward to bringing forward the resolution that has already been discussed last week and earlier in today's briefing.

Along with some of my colleagues, thank you very much, Council Member Peterson, and I believe, Council President, you are also interested in putting forward this resolution.

This is a resolution to protect journalists, legal observers, and medics to make sure that folks are safe and free from harm or targeting so that they can do their jobs at protests.

As reported in Crosscut last week, increasingly journalists have had additional reasons to fear for their physical safety when covering events like protests.

Given the information that we've received and the data that we've seen from statistics over the last three years, protests have become an increasingly dangerous on-the-job site for journalists working in the United States over the past three years.

Also, Crosscut notes that much of the violence comes from police committing acts of violence against journalists, and sometimes from protesters as well who are lashing out.

And we know that with the SPD and the city's ongoing litigation that is pushing or suing journalists to hand over their videos and photos, that increases the risk that individuals will see members of the media as extensions of the government and extensions of the police, and this puts their safety at risk as well.

We have amended the resolution I sent around over the weekend to reflect some of the changes that we'd like to highlight, including from law, to make sure that folks are not being put in a position of danger when they're out there either trying to provide medical relief, be legal observers, or be journalists.

We've seen national images of reporters being harassed at anti-mask rallies and locally news crews not being able to fully cover the protests as they escalate.

We want to make sure that journalists have the protections that they need and that we take away any any sort of misunderstanding from the press.

I'm sorry, I'm from the public, but the press are extensions of SPD or the city.

The resolution again asked for our city to pull back on the lawsuit that is pushing for these materials.

And I am again asking our mayor to withdraw the lawsuit.

I think through this resolution we continue to emphasize the importance of this not only for protection of the free press and medics and legal observers but also ensuring the health and safety of people as they are out there continuing to cover these protests.

Thanks again to the co-sponsors who've indicated support for this and I look forward to your vote on this later today.

Also, later this week, I just want to highlight my anticipation for our Wednesday conversation, which will be repealing the mayor's veto of the Jump Start COVID relief funds.

These are COVID funds that are offering support for rental assistance, food assistance, small business assistance, and child care assistance.

And we will also be advancing, through our budget, $200,000 for FAS to implement the Jump Start payroll tax.

Again, we are gonna be replenishing these reserves.

I think that's really important to mention and has been somewhat glossed over in the conversation from the executive's office, actually completely omitted, that the reserves that we are talking about using will be replenished in full and will also be added to when we have jumpstart COVID relief payroll tax that goes into effect.

We are going to be replenishing our rainy day and our emergency funds with the payroll tax that starts to come in in 2022. Last week, Danny Westmeat wrote, despite the pandemic, venture capitalists are pouring money into the Pacific Northwest tech companies at unprecedented level.

This comes from a report recently in GeekWire, citing that the largest venture deal, in fact, was the biggest in local tech deals ever and was last month here at a firm headquartered in Seattle.

This is an opportunity for us to really right-size our economy, ask those who are doing well, especially during a time of COVID when so many businesses are having to shatter and so many families are on the verge of being kicked out of their homes and not being able to put food on the table.

Let's make sure that those who are doing extremely well in this time pay a little bit in to help our economy recover in the long run.

We know that right now more people are paying rent with credit cards than they are with unemployment checks because the unemployment checks are continuing to disappear.

We know that the $600 a week from the feds has now dried up and people are experiencing record high needs.

at food banks, while food banks are reporting record long waits to get food and the need for food is dire.

So this is really an opportunity for us to recognize that unless we step in, provide relief for families and also for small businesses and child care, which we know that about 30% will not open if they don't get additional assistance from us, this is the time for us to step in, especially as families and small businesses are looking for ways to have their kiddos cared for when schools are not going to be opening this fall.

And COVID jumpstart relief provides that opportunity.

So I look forward to that conversation on Wednesday this week.

Today in budget committee, I'll just briefly summarize.

We have our final select budget committee right after council briefing.

We're going to continue at the very beginning of the meeting to talk about potential legislation related to SPD and the budget that we will take in the following order.

First, the 2020 budget revisions, then the 2020 federal CRF, 2020 second quarter supplemental, 2020 grant acceptance, 2019 carry forward, and 2019 exceptions.

We will also have the resolution that I believe Councilmember Herbold and Lewis clearly described, which provides a one-year budgeting outlook, sort of a visioning document for 2021. I know there's going to be several amendments today.

Some of the council colleagues have already noted them.

I am going to ask folks, as you do walk those on, I'm just to remind us if they have been reviewed by law.

I know we've been moving very quickly, so I'll be asking to make sure that those steps have been taken and appreciate any comments that you may have as well about any stakeholdering that's been done.

Afterwards, we will be moving these bills out of our committee and we hope to have a final vote in full council.

Looking forward to the discussion today, and I know we are We are really grateful for your time, your team's time, our central staff, and everybody who've made this summer budgeting process possible.

More to come on what to expect in the budgeting when we get to that portion of today's agendas.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any comments or questions for Council Member Mosqueda that can't wait until Budget Committee?

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Two questions, one regarding the resolution supporting the press.

You referenced your position about the city's lawsuit subpoenaing records of journalists.

Is that referenced as a position in the resolution?

And if not, do you think there's time to consider including some language supporting that position?

It's one I share strongly.

And then secondly, given the fact that we've just I'm just wondering, I know we haven't had much time to think about it.

I'm just wondering.

Are we intending to have a conversation about how to address that additional shortfall as it relates to the jumpstart veto override?

It just seems like we should consider what exactly it is that we're going to override given this new news.

If I can just, before you answer Council Member Mosqueda, because it is now 1020. I'd be happy to have you answer the first question, but if we can put the second question about budget related bills and the recent correspondence we received from the city budget office, uh, to the select budget committee, I think that would be, um, that would be wise.

Um, so if we could answer the first question related to the resolution that we will be considering this afternoon and, um, and put the second question related to jump start and the additional revenue issues to select budget, that would be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

And thank you Councilmember Herbold for that question.

Happy to address it in our next meeting coming up here soon.

On the first question about the lawsuit that the city is advancing, I guess, against members of the press in our city.

It is included in the resolution.

Section four said the council requests the city attorney's office withdraw its support for enforcement of SPD subpoena so that the city can strongly protect freedom of the press.

And I think that that is still important even though we know that they've gone through one iteration.

I appreciate and applaud the members of the press and their entities who are appealing that decision.

So it is still ongoing and that is included in section four here.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate the willingness to defer the second question to budget.

Anything else, Council Member Muscata?

No, I think that's it.

Thank you, Council President.

As though there could be any more.

Thank you so much, Council Member Muscata, for that report.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay, hearing none, I will go ahead and close out this morning's council briefing.

There is no governance and education committee scheduled for this month in light of recess and ongoing budget deliberations.

There are two items from the governance and education committee that will be on today's introduction and referral calendar.

We have two appointments both to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

The first is Judy Tobin, who is an appointee proposed by the mayor.

And the second is Hardy Brekke, an appointee that comes from the city council.

So those will hopefully be able to be taken up for consideration on on August 17th.

It is also my hope that we will consider the reappointment of DEEL, Department of Education and Early Learning, Director Duane Chappell, at next Monday's August 17th full council meeting.

So that is the end of my report.

Happy to answer any questions or hear any comments.

Okay, colleagues, hearing none, that concludes this morning's council briefing agenda.

I want to thank you all for your attention and your commitment to giving briefer comments this morning so we can get to the business at hand in our select budget committee.

Council Member Mosqueda, would you like to take a five-minute recess, or a five-minute break, I should say?

before we reconvene, so we could reconvene at, say, 10.30 a.m., or would you like us back at a different time?

Let's do 10.35, colleagues.

Okay.

So, colleagues, we will adjourn today's council briefing with the intent of reconvening at 10.35 a.m.

for the Special Select Budget Committee, and I look forward to seeing you all at that time.

Thank you so much.

We are adjourned.