Seattle City Council Briefing 1/10/22

Good afternoon, everybody.

Today is Monday, January 10th, and council meeting will come to order.

The time is two o'clock.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Nelson?

Here.

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant?

Present.

Strauss?

present.

Herbold?

Herbold?

You're muted Council Member Herbold.

Oh, sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Here.

Thank you.

And Council President Juarez?

Here.

Eight present.

So before we begin, I should note that Councilor Mosqueda is out sick today.

So we're sending her good medicine and hoping that she gets well soon.

We'll move to approval of the minutes.

There's no objection.

The minutes of December 13th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing or seeing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

I will move to the president's report and I do not have a report today.

So after that, we will move to what's next on the agenda.

Oh, signing of letters and proclamations.

So Council Member Herbal has a proclamation for signature.

Councilor Herbold, please leave the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before requesting signatures to be affixed to the proclamation.

My understanding is that it has to do with human trafficking and I'm sorry, human trafficking awareness proclamation.

Go ahead, Councilor Herbold.

Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

On Friday, my office circulated a proclamation declaring January to be Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and specifically January 11th, tomorrow, to be Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

This is a joint effort with the city's multi-branch Domestic Violence Prevention Council and the Human Services Department.

We learned this morning that Mayor Harrell will also be concurring, and I appreciate from Merrill Harrell.

People of color, youth, and young adults, trans, and LGBTI populations, and those made vulnerable through socioeconomic barriers are disproportionately affected by trafficking here in Seattle and elsewhere.

The city of Seattle invests over $1 million and a comprehensive network of social services and commits to a specialized criminal justice response to human trafficking that addresses the needs of survivors and holds perpetrators accountable.

More than 400 clients receive advocacy, counseling, flexible client assistance, shelters, housing, and therapeutic services as a result of this important investment.

Colleagues, are there any questions or comments about the proclamation?

I would just add, Councilor Herbold, thank you for bringing this.

This is going to work really well with the other works that we've done with missing murdered indigenous women and girls.

So thank you so much for that.

Are there any other questions or comments that you would like to make?

All right, not seeing none.

Seeing that there is no further discussion, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the Human Trafficking Awareness Proclamation?

Luis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Nelson.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

And Council President Paredes.

Aye.

Eight signatures.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

We'll move to item number four on our agenda, which is preview of City Council Actions, Council, and Regional Committees.

Um, so we will begin our next discussion on, of course, the preview of your city council actions and, um, other matters in the order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name and with the council president called last.

So we're going to do it a little bit different.

Um, this week's roll call rotation, we'll begin with counselor for Lewis.

So before we begin, um, we're going to, um, move forward kind of trying to replicate what we used to do when we used to be in person going around the table.

When Council Member Lewis finishes his report, he will ask his colleagues if they have any questions or concerns, and then he will hand off his, he'll be ready to hand off to his next colleague, which is Council Member Morales, and so on and so forth.

On Friday, January 7th, you received a memo with an overview of how we will do council briefings on Monday and council meetings on Tuesday.

And you've got the order of the roll call right up to the end of February, so everybody knows where they're at in the lineup.

And also in the memo, we laid out the deadlines for proclamations, letters, et cetera.

So with that, Council Member Lewis, you will be starting us off.

And I'm hoping that what we have is an opportunity to be a little bit more conversational, allow the person that's speaking to kind of control, you know, and ask people what their thoughts and concerns are, and then, you know, hand it off to their next colleague.

So with that, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much Council Member Juarez and it's good to be back here and having briefing and kick off the first session of the new year.

Congratulations on seeing you in this new role presiding over this new council briefing on a new day.

It's great to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to kick us off this afternoon.

I don't have a whole lot of items so I'll put the brief back in briefing here and be able to hand it over to Council Member Morales in short order.

First, I want to just flag coming up soon on February 8th.

We are going to be going back to the ballot box.

I know it feels like we're voting a lot these days, but we're going to be voting in a special election in February for the upcoming school district levy renewals, Proposition 1, the operating levy, and Proposition 2, the capital levy.

In the past, the Seattle City Council, under the leadership of former council members, has passed a resolution with the mayor concurring, endorsing those levy renewals, working with Some of the advocates of the levy in particular, former school board district director, Peter mayor.

My office has put together a draft resolution for the consideration of the council that I'm hoping to bring forward on introduction or referral for discussion.

among colleagues and with the council president's office on potentially having the city weigh in as we have in the past, supporting the renewal of those critical levies for a critical regional partner in the school district.

I'm just flagging my intention to bring that forward and look forward to having a conversation on If that's something the council would be willing to do, of course, I'm hoping that we will, given the critical importance of those levies to our partnership with the Seattle School District, and I will hopefully be distributing that resolution in short order for plenty of consideration and process in advance of that February 8th deadline, which is coming up.

Ballots are going to be going out soon, like it feels like they always are.

Uh, I do also want to recognize that I believe it's is it today or tomorrow?

The Washington state legislative session is going to be gaveling in.

There are, of course, a number of bills, but the one that is very relevant and that we have been working on for a series of cycles in partnership with Senator Joe win the Senate Bill 54 28. This is a bill that would exempt from SEPA review, emergency sheltering assets such as tiny house villages, but also other types of emergency shelters that might implicate needing SEPA review.

Just very briefly, It would help the city of Seattle's homelessness response immensely if we were able to waive SEPA review in a seamless and unambiguously legal way for a lot of these homeless sheltering assets that we have been working to stand up.

A tiny house village should only take about five to six weeks to build.

Last year it took 11 to 12 months.

A big reason for that was the SEPA review timeline.

There were other reasons that we don't need to go into dealing with the logistics of getting those set up, but SEPA review is a big part.

To our legislative delegation, if there is a way you are looking to be a significant partner in waiving red tape and waiving regulatory hurdles that are free and of no cost to speed this up and speed up the homelessness response, please pass Senate Bill 5428. I know that we got pretty close last session.

I'd like to just get it over the finish line this session if possible, and it'll be a big boon to helping this council and the new mayor, Bruce Harrell, respond with urgency.

I would just remind folks that the reason we were able to move in the fall and get everyone living in Ballard Commons and Bitter Lake into some kind of shelter option out of the elements in advance, I might add, of a massive snowstorm that undoubtedly saved the lives of people living in those encampments.

is because we were able to stand up a large amount of tiny house villages we've been spending all year building.

We can do more of that and Senate Bill 5428 is gonna help us do that.

So strongly, strongly urge our legislative partners to work with us on that and look forward to talking to the Office of Intergovernment Relations and how we can move that ball forward.

Finally, King County Regional Homelessness Authority, I do just want to do one shout out that the current request for proposals is out from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to build three new sheltering assets, which can include tiny house villages, pallet shelters, other enhanced shelter models.

That information is on the King County Regional Homelessness Authority's website.

Just a shout-out to all of our provider partners.

You have until January 28th to submit proposals.

Do please try to take advantage of this partnership between the City of Seattle and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to really get in there and help us stand up three more sheltering assets.

As we saw in the fall, those sheltering assets can be really critical to helping us reclaim public spaces currently being used for encampments and provide people a safe and dignified place to live.

This RFP that is out is going to help us build on those efforts in the fall in a big way and it closes on January 28th.

So do please take advantage of that available funding and bring forward some great innovative proposals to continue our collaborative work on responding to the homelessness emergency.

Finally, I will be having a King County Regional Homeless Authority board meeting this Thursday, where we will be approving the 2022 budget and receiving updates and information from the KCRHA regional leadership team.

I do actually want to ask for the, and I don't know if this is best directed to Council President, or who, but I do think we will need to have a plan for Thursday on who is going to be attending that meeting as our second delegate to that body.

I do believe that Councilmember Herbold and Councilmember Mosqueda are both still designated as alternates and maybe for the time being that might be the best way to deal with making sure we're represented is having either Councilmember Herbold or Mosqueda attend as the alternate if we're not yet ready to designate who are to be a second permanent person to that body will be given that it was Council President Gonzalez who no longer is serving on the Council.

So just making sure that we have a plan going forward so that we have both of our seats filled for this meeting where we approve the budget and hear some important updates on how we're going to move forward with that partnership.

So I would throw that out for the consideration of the collected here before turning it over to Council Member Morales.

But otherwise, I don't have any additional updates.

Well, that was brief.

Thank you.

Yeah, it is Council Member Herbold.

She will be in that seat.

So she will be there and present to represent the Seattle City Council.

Great.

Well, that's all settled.

So I think with that, unless there's any other questions, I can turn it over to Council Member Morales.

Are there any other questions on my report?

Seeing and hearing none, handing it over to Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

So efficient with our new method already.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Happy New Year.

Thank you, Council President Juarez.

Nice to see you in your seat.

As this is our first briefing for 2022, I do just want to take a moment also to welcome Council Member Nelson and her team.

We had an opportunity to meet last week briefly and then did have a chance to sit down and have a chat this morning.

So look forward to working with you and your staff.

The Neighborhood Civil Rights, Education and Culture Committee will be meeting this year every second and fourth Friday at 930 in the morning.

Our first meeting normally would have been scheduled for this week, but I'm not ready.

I don't know if any of us are ready to meet this week.

We'll be meeting with departments this week, particularly since there are three new departments in my committee.

I do want to have a chance to meet with those directors to hear what their plans are for the year, see what looming issues we should be expecting, especially in the first quarter.

And then we will have our first official meeting of the committee on Friday, January 28th.

So as we begin the new year and our work with the new administration, I do want to take a moment to say thank you to Mariko Lockhart, the Director of the Office of Civil Rights.

She's served as a really important steady voice in the department as we move into work that gives community access to power, whether we're talking about the Community Task Force on our criminal legal system reforms or setting up the new participatory budgeting process that we will be beginning this year.

These are programs that really give our neighbors some control over how their tax dollars get spent.

And so Monica was instrumental in helping create the Community Investment Division of the department to really hold that work of grant making and engaging deeply with communities.

So she's leaving OCR to take a position at DEEL.

And I'm excited that she'll be taking her passion and her commitment to racial equity and to supporting young people of color in particular to deal.

So I know they'll continue to benefit.

The city will continue to benefit from her important work and from the voice she provides.

And then I'm excited that I'll continue to be able to work with her in my capacity overseeing DEEL now.

So Mariko, if you're listening, just want to take a moment to thank you for your commitment to working, serving the people of Seattle.

Moving on, just a quick district update.

I want to give a special shout out and thank you to the Othello Station Pharmacy.

Ahmed Ali is the pharmacist there and he and his staff, his whole team has been really instrumental in providing testing, vaccinations and now boosters to our neighbors in South Seattle.

And he's been doing this for a year or more now.

working deeply, knocking on doors, making sure that our neighbors in South Seattle know, particularly in the Othello neighborhood, and New Holly, to know that these opportunities are available to get tested and to get vaccines.

So I do want to thank them for the work that they continue to do.

I don't know if any of us expected that we would be heading into a third year of COVID.

It's been really hard on our school families in particular.

I'm sure we're all hearing that educators are frustrated, parents and students are frustrated and scared of what this means to be, you know, moving into another school year.

As I think I'm the only parent on the City Council who has children in our Seattle Public Schools, so I can tell you that our educators are scared, our administrators are scared, our students are frustrated and scared, and really that continued trauma is having an effect on everybody's well-being.

So I think it's important that we do everything we can to support them, to keep our school communities safe.

Yesterday, Sunday morning, hundreds of people turned out to South Shore Elementary to get vaccinated and boosted thanks to the work that Ahmed is doing.

I'm very thankful that my own son was able to get boosted.

So I just want all of us to remember that there's large sectors of our community, families and schools who are dealing with this every day just like we are and they're needing our support.

I want to talk for a moment about Little Saigon.

I'm working with Friends of Little Saigon to coordinate a neighborhood meeting with local business owners, with our crime prevention coordinators, and others.

We all know how complex the issues are that our communities are facing, and to address some of the illicit activity that's happening, some of the public safety issues, and the folks who are living unhoused, all of these things are sort of converging and that will require several different approaches to increase safety and to find solutions for the activity that's happening there and to all the challenges that are created for folks who are experiencing homelessness.

I've met with the folks from LEAD and the Just Care program and with folks from REACH.

These programs are both assessing how to engage, in fact my staff member is meeting with them right now down at Ethan King, to engage on the intersection things that are happening there to really start moving people into services and to find stable housing for those who need it.

And Jessica notified me recently that they are beginning to develop an action plan, particularly for 12th and Jackson.

So I hope to have more to share with about that later.

I also met with Captain Strand, who's the new captain for the West Precinct.

He's been in touch with the narcotics unit, with property theft units, and has notified me that they have, well, this was a week or so ago, that they had identified a suspect in several of the shootings.

So I will follow up to see what more I can learn there.

And I know that there's interest in bi-weekly meetings.

I've been talking about the Mount Baker neighborhood for over a year now.

So you know that we're having bi-weekly meetings with the folks in Mount Baker to talk about very similar issues.

The folks in Little Saigon are interested in trying to do something similar.

So we are trying to coordinate some time on all of our calendars so that we can begin that process and really see how to make sure that everybody is updated and aware of what's happening there.

And speaking of Mount Baker, our bi-weekly meeting with the Mount Baker community is Wednesday.

So we will, it's our first meeting since before recess.

So it'll be a chance for us to get caught up and then begin the regular work of making sure that that community is safe as well.

That is all I have unless my colleagues have questions.

Yes, Council President.

Um, first of all, customer Morales, I got to watch you on converge with Omari Salisbury.

So if those of you haven't seen.

Council Member Morales on there, well done.

It was good watching you on there.

I know that you had been on there before, but I remember you mentioning that you were on there, so I went back and watched it.

So well done.

And I do say this with all sincerity, I know you and I had some talks about this over the vacation, but I'm really glad that you're gonna be chairing the Families Education Preschool Promise Levy and working with Deal and Mr. Chappelle and Monica and those folks, great.

I've enjoyed, we all enjoyed working with them and seeing the preschool.

And I know you and I are gonna have conversations about preschool and infrastructure and capital and the Mount Baker station and what we can do in D2.

So thank you, Council Member Morales.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Any other questions, colleagues?

Okay, Council Member Mosqueda is not here, so I will turn it over to Council Member Nelson.

Thank you very much.

I am so excited and raring to go.

My first council briefing.

So it's thrilling to be here.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Morales for that, that welcome.

And I want to extend my thank you to all of you for the warm welcome and also for your staff because they have been really helpful and in welcoming as well.

I've been asking for meetings with the chairs of the committees that I am participating on to get your a sense of your vision and so everybody's been great rolling out the carpet for me and my staff.

So thank you very much and also congratulations Council President Juarez.

I am You know, the historical significance of your presidency has been noted, but I also want to applaud that and also say that I really appreciate the tone you set for our work together.

And I'm completely supportive of a collaborative approach, and I look forward to working with everybody.

And so thank you for setting that tone.

My first committee, which would be tomorrow, is canceled.

The Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee is canceled for obvious reasons, but it will occur on January 26th.

It is canceled perhaps for some of the same reasons as Council Member Morales noted, is that it's brand new for me as well, and so what I'm doing is I'm meeting with the department heads to get a sense of incoming legislation, if any, and also central staff to plan my committee work plan.

So I look forward to that work.

I am starting to meet with stakeholders.

I met with the directors of the Soto and Ballard Alliance BIAs, and I will continue that work in the coming couple weeks.

And so that's all I've got right now.

I am excited to be here.

Thank you very much.

And if you have any questions, what are they?

Yes.

I'm not going to lie.

I miss my office, so I'll just leave it at that.

But you've got a really nice one right now.

I like your office better, but OK.

Thank you.

I like my neighbors.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

I now pass the talking stick to Council Member Peterson.

Good afternoon, everybody.

On tomorrow's full City Council agenda, there are no items from our Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Our first meeting of 2022 for the Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities will be held on Tuesday, February 1st at 930 in the morning.

This year our committee meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 930 in the morning instead of Wednesdays.

We will publish our agenda later this month as we get closer to the February 1st meeting date.

Regarding the recent snowstorms, as with most snowstorms, the icy conditions of the most recent snowstorm over the winter holidays drastically reduced mobility and delayed the collection of solid waste throughout Seattle.

I agree with what I heard from many residents throughout the city that we saw key arterial roads cleared of snow relatively fast.

would have appreciated additional attention to side streets, especially when that impacts other city services such as the collection of trash, recycling and compost.

I was pleased SDOT coordinated so well with other city departments and with King County Metro to prioritize the clearing of bus routes and safe routes to schools, COVID testing sites and hospitals.

I also heard the concerns of many property owners or that many property owners did not clear their sidewalks of snow and ice as thoroughly as they should.

I know we all appreciate the efforts of all the workers from Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Public Utilities, and several other city departments who braved the cold and icy conditions during and after these winter storms.

And I know everyone is eager to see the new Harold administration make sure crews quickly fill all those new potholes created by the winter storms and the heavy rains to report potholes.

You can call 206-684-ROAD.

That's 206-684-7623, or use the Find It Fix It app on a smartphone.

To find out about how much extra trash and recycling you can leave out for pickup this week, go to the online blog of Seattle Public Utilities, which you can find at atyourservice.seattle.gov.

Again, that's atyourservice.seattle.gov.

District 4, this past week, I attended the Northeast District Council's virtual meeting.

The Northeast District Council includes representatives from approximately 10 community councils within District 4. I really appreciate all the volunteers of district councils throughout Seattle who continue to meet each month to share information from city government departments and neighborhoods.

At last week's meeting, we discussed homelessness, public safety, and transportation.

That concludes my report, so I'll hand it over to Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

Do you want to ask if anyone has any questions?

Does anyone have any questions?

Well, yeah, Council Member Herbold does.

Council Member Peterson, I too heard from constituents who were disappointed that more streets were not being plowed and also interested in having the streets that were plowed done so with more frequency.

What I heard is that a lot of this had nothing to do with lack of prior planning, but that there simply were not enough healthy people to drive the plows.

People, there have been separations in SDOT, like there have been in many departments.

And then further, there are people who are ill associated with COVID.

And I'm just, I don't know what the solution is to an issue like that.

and people get that that's not a very satisfactory answer for folks um that there's you can't plan for people not being in the seats to drive the trucks and i know that the city did um in its efforts to do temporary assignments.

They did actually ask for folks with Class C licenses to, so for folks who weren't necessarily typically assigned to these functions in SDOT, they were looking for more people to do them.

And I'm just wondering, is that similar to what you've been told about in sort of the after-action discussions of the snowstorm, or is there something else that we should be thinking about in that sort of planning consideration for future storms.

It is accurate what you heard as well, that there was a shortage of workers and that SDOT did a good job leveraging other city departments for workers who could get out there and help.

And so there is the hope that this is an anomaly due to the COVID pandemic and the current variant.

Okay.

So.

So Council Member Morales.

Whoops.

Thank you.

So we could we could probably talk for a couple hours about this given that we all experienced stuff but Council President Juarez says no.

So I, you know, similarly, have a lot of questions about this.

I think I will just flag for you, Councilmember Peterson, that in committee, I think this is something I would like to dive into some more.

I happen to live on a block.

that I cannot leave without going up a hill or down a hill every time it snows, and so I was not going anywhere because the sidewalks were icy, the roads were icy, and I just couldn't get out.

So I think for me, You know, when I first moved here 20 years ago, Seattle hardly ever had snow.

I think thanks to climate change, that's different now.

And we can anticipate that we will have much more regular and possibly much more damaging snowstorms.

And so I'm interested in understanding what our new plans might look like so that we can invest in the equipment that we need.

I understand we have 35 trucks.

Maybe we need more.

I don't know if we want to make a commitment given the you know, timing of the or the number of storms we have, but I do think that we need to take some time to understand how we do this better, including how we clear sidewalks for, you know, the kids trying to get to school, the folks who are wheelchair bound or have vision impairments and just can't drive.

So all that to say, I think I'm hoping to spend some time in committee with you this year I'm beginning to think about what we might do to modify the plans as they exist because they're just not working for us anymore.

Thank you, Councilmember Morales.

And yes, the nice thing about having Seattle Public Utilities also on our committee is we had a lot of concerns raised by residents about the collection of trash recycling and compost as well.

And that is connected to the still icy, the icy conditions that we're on.

So hearing from both of them actually at the same time will be really useful in committing.

Okay.

I think that is it.

And I will pass it along to Council Member Salant.

Thank you.

Councilmember Strauss had a question.

Oh, yep.

Go ahead, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

I was going to save this for my remarks since we're talking about the streetscape from the snow.

I'll note that we have significant potholes in my district, and I'm sure across the city right now, a couple of axle breakers in our district.

And I've already begun speaking with SDOT about this, and I think it's important for us all to keep in our minds that if we were to go and fix all of every broken part of the street that has been broken because of the freezing temperatures and precipitation.

We may have to go back and do that again if we have another snow event this year.

And so I know that Estat's working quickly to address these issues.

They spoke to me about that today.

And it does provide one interesting opportunity.

These potholes, at least in Ballard, have unearthed Ballard's original brick streets, as you know, on May 29th.

1907 Ballard was annexed into the City of Seattle 115 years ago nearly.

Ballard was the second largest city in King County, and those brick streets are still standing the test of time.

So just wanted to make that note.

Thank you, Councilmember Pietersen.

Thank you.

We'll turn it over to Councilmember Stroud or Councilmember Sawant.

Thank you good afternoon, the sustainability and renters rights committee will hold its first meeting of the year at.

I am a member of the city Council.

We will have a discussion on two bills my office has been developing with the support of the grassroots activists, renters and environmental activists and city Council staff.

The first is a bill for the rate of inflation.

The bill from my office avoids some of the most damaging loopholes that have been used by corporate property owners and corporate real estate to undermine rent control provisions in other parts of the country.

The rent control applies to all rental homes in all buildings.

Landlords cannot avoid the rent control provisions by forcing out their tenants, like in some parts of California.

And there is a one-to-one replacement of affordable rents required during redevelopment.

The second bill that we will be discussing is in support of the Stop the Money pipeline movement, which demands insurance companies and other financial institutions divest from fossil fuel infrastructure.

This bill would give the Green New Deal Oversight Board, the board that my committee spent a lot of time making sure that we fill the positions.

Last year, this board will have the option for this bill, will have the option of rating financial institutions that bid on city business and requires the Finance and Administrative Services Department to consider those ratings when choosing whom to contract with.

Last week, I wrote to Mayor Harrell to urge him to extend the eviction moratorium through to the end of the public health emergency.

If it is not extended, it is scheduled to expire at the end of this week.

As a letter from the stay-at-home, stay-healthy coalition, co-signed by 40 organizations, including my own organization, Socialist Alternative, explained, The Omicron surge has filled hospitals to capacity, straining Seattle's healthcare system.

It is disrupting schools and workplaces, causing stress and confusion.

Federal child tax credit payments just ended, adding to the financial burden for many households.

Evictions often lead to homelessness, especially with occupancy rates at historic highs, and Seattle's homelessness response system is already overwhelmed," end quote. Even before the COVID emergency, conditions for renters in Seattle had already become intolerable. Skyrocketing rents driven by the predatory real estate speculation market forced many working class renters out of their homes and sometimes out of the city and even into homelessness. The economic devastation triggered by the COVID emergency massively exacerbated that crisis. Throughout the past year, an estimated 175,000 Washington residents fell behind on their rent. Ending the moratorium now would send thousands to eviction court, disproportionately renters of color, And according to the Losing Home Report, which I've quoted many times before during our meetings last year, almost 90% of them will become homeless. Over the past year, my office has fought alongside renters rights activists and we've won a series of victories. We won the winter eviction moratorium, the school children eviction ban, and several extensions to the COVID emergency moratorium in addition to closing loopholes in the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, winning relocation assistance for economically evicted renters. That's a law that's going to take effect on July 1st this year. and six months notice for rent increases which went into effect in early November of last year. All of these renters rights victories are a clear indication that renters find unacceptable the conditions that prevail right now and are prepared to fight. And that is also why we are building the movement for rent control. Ending the COVID emergency moratorium, as I said to Mayor Harrell in my public letter, now, ending the moratorium now would dramatically worsen the lives of our city's renters. So I urge the mayor's office to extend the moratorium. That is my report. Do council members have any questions? Seeing none, I will pass it on to Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President and colleagues.

I had a busy New Year holiday as I helped D6 residents with snow and power outage emergencies.

I want to thank both the SDOT and Seattle City Light emergency operators for their assistance during these emergencies.

They were able to deploy the right people right away to make, to address these emergencies.

This last week, I was able to meet with Estat about the interim design plans for the Ballard Avenue Cafe Street, as well as I met with the mayor's office about addressing homelessness here in D6.

and staff attended the North Precinct Advisory Council last Wednesday, where we heard from SPD about public records and crime prevention coordinators.

This week, I continue to hold operational coordination meetings with community leaders, governmental entities, and non-governmental entities to make meaningful impacts and interventions to address homelessness in specific locations in D6.

Earlier today, I was able to meet with the Nordic Museum to follow up on a funding program that I added in last year's budget to support museums during the COVID-19 pandemic who were not able to receive ARPA funds due to the fact that they did not have fixed seats in their museums.

By way of background, there's a large auditorium and a number of museums here in the city have large auditoriums that have movable chairs and that one small thing made it so they were not eligible for ARPA funds.

And thank you, colleagues, for supporting our budget ads for them.

As well as we're hoping there's a couple other museums, including the African-American Museum that we'll be working with.

As well, Wednesday evening, I'll be attending and presenting at the Green Lake Community Council meeting.

On this coming Thursday, as usual, I'll be hosting my D6 office hours from 3 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

And this week, I will also be meeting with Seattle City Light regarding some reoccurring power outages occurring in District 6 that we addressed over the New Year holiday.

In the Land Use Committee, there is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar, Council Bill 120253, which extends interim floodplain regulations to ensure compliance with FEMA's flood insurance program while a SEPA appeal of permanent regulations is resolved.

There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's full agenda, and our meetings are scheduled for the second and fourth Wednesday afternoons at 2 p.m.

This is a change from 9.30 a.m.

And our first Land Use Committee will be on Wednesday, February 9th at 2 p.m.

as we prepare the appropriate, as many of you know, it takes some public notice before we can take up items in the Land Use Committee.

Other introduction and referral.

Also on the introduction and referral calendar tomorrow is going to be Council Bill to be numbered, extending the free permits for street cafes until SDOT finalizes its long-term plan.

This is also in addition to allow Mayor Harrell to take a look and investigate the great work that SDOT has done so that we do this in partnership as a team.

In May of 2021, we extended the free permits to last until May 31st, 2022. I am proposing that we renew these permits again soon to give restaurants and small businesses the predictability that they need to thrive.

My hope is that this legislation will be on the February 1st Transportation Utilities Committee agenda.

And I really wanna thank Chair Peterson for working with me on this effort.

And before I close out, I do want to take a moment to recognize Some losses here in the city family, specifically here in City Hall.

The City Hall janitorial team experienced an enormous loss over the holidays with passing of two longtime colleagues, Jose Herrera and Dwayne Wester.

Jose and Dwayne both gave 26 years of service to our city and to City Hall and to us.

Jose was known as a family man from Orange County, California, where he loved the weather and was a huge L.A.

Lakers fan.

Jose also fixed up houses for a time and loved to see his work after a job was completed.

Dwayne was known for his great musical talent on the keyboards and drums and played gigs throughout Seattle.

He also had his own business years ago when pagers were a thing.

His business was called Boss Cuts.

And I just wanted to take this moment to recognize the two of them and this enormous loss because it's obvious Jose and Duane left an enormous impact on the city.

I know that they will be honored at a leadership forum in the coming days.

And I wanted to take this moment to hold the moment for them and to share my condolences to their families and a sincere thank you for their service to our city.

So I'll take a moment right now.

I want to thank you, Council President, colleagues.

Any questions?

Seeing none, I'll take this moment just to also say happy birthday to Noah on my team and his partner, Alex.

Thanks.

I'll pass it on to Councilmember Herbold.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss, and thank you for sharing that sad news with us all and giving us an opportunity to consider the contributions of the staff that have passed.

Really saddened to learn that news and hope to learn more about opportunities to honor and observe and celebrate their lives, so thank you.

First off, just there are no items from the public safety and human services committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

We do have a Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting scheduled tomorrow morning at 9.30 a.m.

The agenda has a briefing scheduled for three issues.

The first is the December 9th emergency 911 system outage.

Folks might remember in early December, there was a regional 911 system outage that had impacts throughout the region.

And so we will be joined by Director Lombard at the Community Safety and Communication Center to learn more about that.

We're also going to be receiving an update from Public Health on the latest on COVID-19.

And finally, we're going to be receiving a briefing from the Director of Office of Police Accountability on his findings about the Proud Boy ruse used by SPD on June 8, 2020. We will also be joined in that briefing by Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell and the Community Police Commission.

possibility that one of these items may need to be rescheduled because of a family health emergency.

If so, my office will advise as soon as possible.

Um, I know there is, um, as it relates to in particular to the third item, um, there's a, um, significant, um, interest in that, in that item.

And so I just want to let folks know now, even if you're not on the public safety committee, you are welcome to attend for this item or or any item that we are hearing tomorrow morning.

All of the briefing will proceed.

There are some time limits on the time slots when presenters are available for the meeting, so we will need to stick to the schedule allotted, the amount of time allotted for each of these items as much as possible.

And I just want to talk a little bit about that third item on the agenda related to the OPA investigation.

I did express my concern last week that there were no management action recommendations from OPA on this investigation.

I did ask OPA to reissue the not fully completed by SPD management action recommendations associated with a 2019 ROOS investigation from OPA.

Again, that was a ROOS investigation that OPA found sustained findings and also issued management recommendations that have not yet been completely fulfilled.

I also asked SPA – OPA why they made no recommendations related to the documentation of Aruz.

They – the OPA did, as part of their report, identify as a problem that there was no documentation, but they made no management action recommendations, and management action recommendations is when OPA finds a gap in the policy that led to a finding.

And in this case, the OPA, despite the fact that they identified that there was a problem with the lack of documentation, they did not make a recommendation for a new policy requiring documentation on the use of a ruse.

If you have no documentation, it's very hard to do oversight on that police action.

In the case of this ruse, as well as the 2019 ruse, the fact that there was a ruse at all came to light in the public, not because of any documentation from SPD, but because of inquiries that were made by members of the public in one case and members of the media in another.

been that some have asked whether or not this investigation was sufficient.

The sufficiency of the investigation is one element.

Whether or not there are findings associated with that investigation is another element, but I know there are concerns that the investigation itself was not sufficient.

And so I have asked the Office of Inspector General, whose job it is to certify sufficiency of an investigation.

I've asked them to provide some more detailed information related to their certification of this particular investigation as thorough, timely and effective, which they have done as relates to this particular investigation.

I think as most people know, ruses are legal under state law and SPD policies allow decisions, allow these tactics to be used in limited circumstances.

Nevertheless, the OIG is working, the Office of the Inspector General is working to ensure that SPD policy changes actually address the concerns raised by these cases.

And they're also raising the question of whether spite Washington State law making ruses legal, whether or not, and this is from DOIG, quote, a renewed look at their efficacy is needed, given the need to build and maintain legitimacy with community and the negative impact honesty in any form can have on public trust.

Also, the Office of the Inspector General's Sentinel Review Panel, is planned to include the use of the ruse in their upcoming third wave Sentinel review report.

As a reminder, we've only so far done – OIG has only so far done wave one report of the Sentinel review, which covers only the events of four days, May 29th through June 1st.

That one report covering those four days resulted in more than 50 recommendations.

We are expecting the Wave 2 report to be out soon, and as I mentioned, the Wave 3 review and report will cover and has been planned to cover the use of the routes.

One of the bigger picture issues regarding the use of the Proud Boys as part of the ruse at that moment raises questions of how, together with the abandonment of the East Precinct, how these events contributed to the conditions created by the CHAS.

The report states, quote, it was reasonably foreseeable to believe that the demonstrators would be afraid and concerned that the Proud Boys, some of whom were said to be open carrying, would come to the CHAS slash CHOP.

I do I've confirmed my recollection that after hearing concerns from constituents that night of June 8th that I did I did reach out to the chief about this and contacted her about the concerns that not that there was a ruse but that the proud boys were gathering in Seattle and was at that was at that time told that I should be more skeptical about what I hear in the media.

Moving on to some short updates on the Human Services Department.

Just want to let folks know that on January 7th, the Aging and Disabilities staff from HSD participated in a Dementia Action Collaborative Practice focus group interview with a Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner student.

Focus groups later this year will focus on health provider experiences when a person living with dementia is admitted to the hospital.

coordination of their inpatient care, and challenges facing hospital discharge.

Today, Aging and Disability Services staff will participate in a meeting with community partners, specifically the International District Drop-In Center in the Filipino Senior and Family Center and the African American Elders Program at Catholic Community Services.

This meeting is part of the PEARLS Network, a home-based depression management counseling for older adults with disabilities.

A five-year project conducted with the University of Washington's Health Promotion Research Center found Pearl's home-based depression management counseling significantly reduced depression symptoms and improved health status and chronically medically ill older adults with depression.

And then lastly, from the Human Services Department, the Community Safety Investments Team executed nine contracts with community-based organizations for their supportive reentry RFP, which is all part of an expedited funding to contract process and a recommendation of the Equitable Community Initiative Task Force.

Lastly, from the public health front, the West Seattle and Rainier Beach vaccination sites reopened to the public last week, and Rainier Beach is open for limited hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

West Seattle is open limited hours on Fridays and Saturdays.

The city is opening a new vaccination site at Virginia Mason on First Hill, open Saturdays, I'm sorry, Sundays through Tuesday.

ID and insurance are not required to receive a vaccination or booster.

Advanced registration is required for kids 5 to 11. For everyone else, registration is recommended but not required.

Nearly 90% of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and nearly 52% have received both of their doses plus a booster.

With the Omicron variant causing a surge in hospitalizations, Now is a great time to get those vaccinations up to date if you've not done so.

And just wanna always put that first in front.

The impacts to hospital capacity is really an important consideration and focus right now.

Major events coming up this week, tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Community Police Commission and the Consent Decree Monitor will be holding the first of three outreach meetings regarding primary assessments of the police department.

This meeting will be on crisis intervention.

Meetings over the next two months will be on stops and detentions and use of force.

You can access the meeting at the CPC's website, or you can find it at my blog post, herbold.seattle.gov.

And then lastly, West Seattle's Duwamish Community Advisory Group, from the advisory group to Sound Transit will be meeting about station areas in that area.

Again, that's the West Seattle Duwamish area.

They will be meeting about station areas from 5 to 7 p.m.

on Tuesday.

My blog post also has information about the upcoming meeting as well.

That's all I have.

Do any of my colleagues have questions or comments on my report?

for us.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

And again, you know, you've been on the on the working with OPA and OIG and the CPC, our accountability partners for as long as I've been on council.

So thank you.

And you always know this stuff.

And then some one One of the questions and concerns that I had a chance to look at what you were reciting on the Roos investigations that we know find their roots in legality and state law.

Are we going to learn tomorrow where we find the legality and how whether how that works under Seattle Municipal Code or city law.

Is that what they're going to share with us?

Like that you can do these investigations.

The state allows it.

So the city allows it.

Are we going to learn more from OPA how that works and what the timeline is going to be and what the results will be?

So to my knowledge, there isn't a law, but there is a police department policy related to ruses that is consistent with state law.

And when OPA does an investigation, there's been a violation of policy, they look at the existing policy and try to make a determination of whether or not the police actions that occurred are consistent with existing policy.

And even in those cases where, an investigation finds that there's been consistency with existing policy, often they'll make recommendations for changes in that policy.

So yes, you may have adhered to the policy, but the policy isn't good enough.

And that's when I refer to a management action recommendation, that's when the OPA is asking SPD to make a change in their policy.

In this case, For this particular investigation, there were sustained findings, meaning that they found that officers did not carry out an action that was a legal action to carry out, but they did not follow the policy that defines how they're supposed to carry out that action.

And the OPA investigation also found that there was no documentation of the ruse.

There's no requirement for ruses to be documented at all.

And so that's when I said that I was disappointed that there was no management action recommendation.

reflecting on the fact that I have asked the OPA director, and I've raised this also with Chief Diaz, that if ruses are going to be continued to be allowed in Seattle, there should be a policy that requires that they be reported so that we don't find out through an accident of either the media's looking into an issue or another member of the public looking into an issue, we don't find out by accident that a ruse has occurred and then that coincidence then leads to the investigation.

It should be the fact that there is a, just like they do with with uses of force.

For uses of force, you have to report uses of force.

If there's a firearms discharge, you have to report firearms discharge.

And so there's a reporting process whenever something occurs, and then you can easily review whether or not the action is consistent with the policy.

That is very difficult, if not impossible, right now to do with RUSEs.

Right.

And we found out this through someone in the media that did a PDR well over four or five months ago.

And then it finally came out.

OK, yeah, that's OK.

So I guess we'll learn more tomorrow morning.

OK, thank you so much.

I will just go ahead.

Is there anyone that wants to ask us any more questions?

OK, I do not see none.

Oh.

I will pass it on to Council President Juarez to give us her report.

Thank you, Councilor Hurdle.

So before we adjourn, let me say a few words about, as you know, how we're going to do council briefings on Mondays at 2. And I appreciate all of you being so flexible.

I know I talked to you about how we really want to have more conversation for you to talk to each other and ask each other questions.

So we will have our obviously our Seattle City Council meeting tomorrow at two and we will go back to our formal Roberts Rules of Orders and all the things that we need to do.

And my understanding is on the 17th, which is a Monday, we will all be celebrating Martin Luther King Day.

So we will not have council briefing Monday, but we will be back on the 18th.

And then tomorrow, of course, we will have council meeting at 2 o'clock.

And let's see.

One reason why I am kind of, and this is still a work in progress, is that I really want to thank, first of all, our clerks and our IT department that work behind the scenes, and also all of your staff in LA and central staff.

What I think I've learned, and I think we all can say this, almost coming up on, you know, since this started with the pandemic.

I'm really trying to limit your time of staring at a computer for four to six hours, because you have other committees, you have external committees, you have other things you have to do, you have to meet constituents.

And so I'm really concerned about people's mental health, about their physical health.

And I just don't want you to be chained to a screen four, five, six, seven hours.

It's not good for anybody.

So I'm going to ask that we all try to be mindful of everybody's health and their time.

And council briefings are just that, council briefings.

I'd like to know what you did last week, what you're doing this week, what you're doing next week, what proclamations you have teed up, what letters that you think we need to know about.

I know I talked to Council Member Strauss earlier today about talking and working more with the Seattle Channel.

to give you more of a platform if there's more issues that you want to expand upon.

I know some of you have newsletters, and I'm also going to encourage some of you to do video newsletters.

Those are great.

We do those in D5, and our constituents love them.

you know, quick little hot, not just hot takes, but what's going on, but also giving community members an opportunity to speak for two minutes about what's going on.

So I usually talk for a minute, and then I hand it over to five people in the community that talk about what's going on in our community center, our food bank, our clinic, you know, Children's Home Society.

And so that's what I'm hoping we do, that as we move forward, as you know, I'd like to just kind of keep things on track and move forward.

So with that, I don't think there's anything else to add.

And I will see you all tomorrow at 2. And with that, we are adjourned.

Thank you.