Good afternoon everybody.
Thank you for being here for our regularly scheduled October 28th meeting.
The October 28th 2000 City Council meeting will come to order.
I'm Bruce Harreld, President of the Council.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Gonzales.
Here.
Herpel.
Here.
Juarez.
Here.
O'Brien.
Here.
Pacheco.
Here.
Sawant.
Here.
Benshaw.
Here.
President Harreld.
Here.
Ape present.
Thank you very much.
If there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.
If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
The minutes of the October 7th, 14th, and 21st 2019 City Council meetings have been reviewed.
If there's no objection, the minutes will be signed.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.
Presentations, I'm not aware of any presentations this afternoon.
public comment at this time we'll take public comment on item that items that appear on today's agenda the intellectual referral calendar and the City Council's 2019 work program given the fact that we're in the middle of budget and we're not holding committee meetings this should be a relatively short meeting on the public comment section I don't have anyone signed up so I will close public comment section unless someone would like to speak if come in to speak and Okay, so I'm not seeing anyone signing on the list here, so if you'd like to sign, feel free to sign up there and we'll give you two minutes to speak on an item that is on our agenda, the introduction referral calendar or our work program.
We'll give you a minute there.
Thank you very much.
We'll go for two minutes for public comment.
Let's hear from Brian Bellinger and then Kathy Yossi.
Brian, you are up, sir.
Thank you for taking time out of your meeting here.
First off, I'd like to thank you for seeing me.
It's good to see some of you.
When I first started here in Seattle, I worked with Speak Out Seattle and a lot of your guys' events that took place in Set Up and Tear Down.
I got to spend a little bit of time.
Brian, stop the clock for a minute.
Brian, I just want to make sure your microphone is on.
I don't hear it.
I don't know.
Is it on?
Is it?
He just needs to be closer.
Is this one on?
Yeah, but just get a little closer to the mic, and I'll go ahead and start his time over.
OK.
Go ahead, Brian.
So anyway, what I'm here for today is to, boom, is that a good looking guy or what?
That's me, Saturday's edition.
So what I'm going.
What I'm going for is tax ID number for a nonprofit organization, tax ID number 910578229. That is the Compass Housing Alliance.
They have stolen from me from the day that I walked in, charging me fraudulently to stay in a homeless shelter.
Under city contract, that's illegal.
And what I know is I would be in jail if I extorted $673 from anybody.
That's a fact because due to my recent life history, it proves it.
What I know is I can't get help from the city hall.
I've been in your office, Ms. Bagshaw, every day for I don't know how long.
Then it reduced to two or three times a week and I cannot get no help.
What I know is the Compass Housing Alliance has stripped me of my housing.
I'm now getting death threats.
What I have here is a whole bunch of paperwork stating that they took my housing voucher and now nobody wants to repay me.
I work hard.
I don't need a handout.
I need a hand up.
And what I know about this navigation team that goes out into the community, why would any homeless person want to accept any kind of help to go into a shelter that they have to pay, that they get 12 different interpretations of this policy to where it resorts to everyone's favorite ism.
favoritism amongst the staff.
What I know is right here, I signed my name, and that's all I have left today.
So I have integrity.
But that staff also signs it right here.
And when they choose not to go by that, they're committing fraud.
And so this nonprofit has to go.
The way that this whole system is set up to where they get all the money, that is a job security for them.
As homeless people, we're not getting no help.
I need help getting my money back.
Anyone want to help me?
Because what I know is that's theft and that's fraud.
And if I have to take this all the way to the federal government and bring all my information here, that's what I gotta do.
Because if this is the only good thing that I do for society in order to get through the gates of heaven, that's what I will do.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to me.
Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.
It's good to see you out of all these many visits.
Our next speaker is Kathy Yossi.
Judy, I believe...
Judy, I believe this gentleman would like to speak too, so let's put him on the...
Yep, hi there.
I'm Kathy Yazzie.
I'm a retired child care provider and vice president in my union, SEIU 925, and I'm here to speak to you in favor of two items in front of you.
The child care crisis in Washington is driven by a shortage in the workforce.
Providers face poverty totally across this industry.
and earn poverty wages.
Childcare providers make less than pet groomers and parking lot attendants.
Skyrocketing Seattle rents, lack of healthcare coverage and retirement plans, oppressive licensing burdens, expensive professional development requirements, all contribute to driving childcare providers out of our city.
People can't afford to do this work in this city.
This crisis hurts families and our state economy.
With limited options, families...
oftentimes manage to patch together friends and families and oftentimes unsafe, unlicensed providers, or they take time off from work.
Families are told to get on multiple waiting lists.
Even before they get pregnant, they're told to get on multiple waiting lists.
And even then, they find it really challenging and sometimes impossible to find appropriate care.
but our city can be a leader in expanding access to high quality care.
We, my union, support capital funding to build childcare, build a childcare center right here in our city hall and in the future in other publicly owned buildings.
We also support the city leveraging its position to require high standards for contractors.
Last year, my union supported the families and education levy because we need more providers, more childcare in this city.
The levy included labor harmony for providers taking that subsidy and we think other entities taking city money should also comply with this basic standard.
We support DEEL, working with providers and teachers to ensure that city contracts include labor harmony, meaning that if providers or teachers have problems at work, there's a process to resolve disputes.
The city can set standards around labor practices like it has in the past.
Can you start to wrap up, Kathy?
Excuse me?
You're beyond your time, so can you just wrap up?
Can I say three more sentences?
Yes, absolutely.
Since 2006, when we first formed our union, we have been able to raise wages by more than 30 percent through our negotiations with the State, but there is still a ton of work to do.
Other child care providers and teachers want to join us, and they should be able to do so smoothly.
All people should be able to have a union.
Usually I talk faster.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kathy.
Elmer Lee Cross, Jr.
You're welcome to the mic for two minutes, sir.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
My name is Elmer Lee Cross, Jr., and I'm here to ask for protection and for help, protection from I'm being physically, emotionally, and psychologically abused and terrorized by the White House everywhere I go, even in my own bedroom.
I'll start with what they're doing to me briefly.
They are doing something to my brain, my optical nerves, and my nervous system with electromagnetic signals and through the optical nerve.
So, Elmer, you and I had a long talk last week, so I just want to make sure the reason why you're telling us this is because we fund things in our budget and you want us to consider this, correct?
Well, I'm not asking you to put in it to fund it.
I'm here to just to speak to the City Council in general about the treatment that I'm getting.
And about our investments on mental health and and surveillance and that kind of stuff.
You want to talk to us about our work in this area, correct?
No, I'm asking for protection and for the City Council and the Mayor of the City Council to file a lawsuit and to tell the White House that they can no longer treat me the way I've been treated.
So you and I talked for about, oh, about 30 minutes last week outside and I suggested We'll try to help so go ahead.
I'm listening this so I could we could try to invest in so help Okay, so what they're doing is they're looking through my eyes, and they're speaking through my vocal cords last night I heard the voice of my brother come out of my mouth.
I've heard the voice of my mother come out of my mouth and they're draining my energy 24 hours a day, and they're manipulating areas of my brain that revolve around motivation, and my senses, sense of smell, sense of taste.
They're making my food taste like it's spoiled or like it's rotten.
They're making me smell like disgusting smells.
They put a dent in the top of my skull in Los Angeles.
They flattened my skull.
Ever since then, it's been going on.
They have bent my vertebral column.
I've developed a scoliosis there, and I thought I needed a chiropractor, and I was seeing a chiropractor for years in different parts of the country.
They put bunions on my feet.
Last night when I was shaving, they cut my lip open.
There's a scar on my lip.
I was bleeding from my top lip.
And they created a, they cut the top of my left foot and it was bleeding.
It's because I won't let them talk anymore.
They insist on talking through Thanksgiving and through Christmas.
They said it's their most important time.
They want to show people how evil and sadistic and cruel what they're doing to me is.
They insist on talk.
Thanksgiving is their holiday.
They said this country is only for rich white people, conservative people.
Thank you.
Not liberal people, but conservative people.
Thank you.
And they're telling me, they told me, you represent the governor of New Mexico.
They really did this.
We want everyone in New Mexico to go back to Brazil, go back to Spain, go back to Africa.
They're calling me a sissy, they're calling me a nigger, they're calling me a faggot.
So thank you, and I appreciate talking to you last week, and thank you for sharing with all of us.
We got a chance to hear you.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
And I just want to say one more thing, that everybody has the power to stop it.
Donald Trump is being sued by many people.
There are many losses.
They're stopping me from crying, and they're stopping me from really breaking down and pleading with people and having an emotional breakdown, and they're controlling my levels of anger as well.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for listening to me.
I trust that you will all put an end to this.
I have faith in you.
Thank you, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Is there, that'll actually conclude, just one moment here.
I have to do payment of the bills, I've already done that.
I have not, please read the title for the payment of the bills.
Council Bill 119693, appropriating money to pay out in claims for the week of October 14th, 2019 through October 18th, 2019 and ordering payment thereof.
I move to pass Council Bill 119693. Second.
It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass, any comments?
Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.
Gonzales.
Aye.
Herbold.
Aye.
Juarez.
Aye.
O'Brien.
Aye.
Pacheco.
Aye.
DeWant.
Aye.
Bangshong.
Aye.
President Harrell.
Aye.
Seven in favor, none opposed.
Bill passed and the chair will sign it.
I believe that concludes our agenda.
I will sign it first.
And just one moment.
Is there any further business to come before the council?
There's one statement I'd like to say during this section that if there's no objection, council rule 2B5 relating to the number of excused absences at a city council meeting in November will be suspended and to allow three excused absences on November 4th, which is our next Monday.
So I'm asking that we excuse the rules.
Suspend the rules, excuse the rules, and expend the rules.
Hearing no objection, the council rule is suspended, and three council members will be excused from the November 4th, 2019 City Council meeting.
And we will use the scheduled pro tem schedule to decide who presides over that meeting.
Any further business coming before the council?
If not, we stand adjourned.
Everyone have a great rest of the day, and thank you for your public comments.