City Council 5/5/2026

Awesome.

Good afternoon.

Thank you all for coming to the May 5th, 2026 meeting of the Seattle City Council.

It will come to order.

It is 2.02 p.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Len?

Here.

Councilmember Rink?

Present.

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Here.

Councilmember Foster?

Give her one second.

Go ahead and say her name again, please.

Councilmember Foster?

Here.

Councilmember Juarez?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Here.

8 present.

Thank you, please.

For the record, Council Member Juarez is excused from today's meeting.

Colleagues, at this time, we're gonna open up the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, and the Council's work program.

The Council cannot accept comments on quasi-judicial items or campaign-related matters.

Speaker, how many...

Sorry, Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up today?

I know that we have one, two, three, we have four online virtually as we're taking account.

Sixteen.

Sixteen in person plus four online is twenty, so every speaker is going to get two minutes.

Clerk, I will now hand it over to you to read the directions.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not enter comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Awesome, we will start.

I will call out the first five, so first five people can start coming up.

We have Ruth, followed by Joe Cox, Miss Carolyn Malone, we have Taylor, and then we have Mickey.

So we have Ruth is up first, followed by Joe, then Carolyn, Taylor, and then Mickey.

Is Ruth here?

Oh, hello, welcome.

Ruth, followed by Joe, Carolyn, Taylor, and Mickey.

So I don't know if you're gonna let me speak because I was not aware of this policy about, I wanna talk about zoning, of course.

So I'm not allowed?

Yes, you can.

You can talk about, yeah, absolutely.

All right, okay.

We find that the zoning is appealable to the Growth Management Hearing Board under the Growth Management Act rules that plans should be consistent.

Zoning should be consistent with plan policies.

We find that the zoning is not consistent with plan policies.

There's language in the plan about in a growing city states, in a growing city urban design can help seamlessly integrate the new with the old.

There was language about making gradual transitions, and there is language about zoning being compatible with the predominant height and scale of existing development.

That is not what is happening on the ground, and especially in our urban centers.

for example, Queen Anne, which I'm familiar with, 32 blocks being zoned overnight, mostly single family homes, five acres to five stories.

This is not transitioning.

We have a proposal which we will be sending you for a different approach, one that we believe will also preserve the feasibility of affordable and social housing, and that is phased development graduated, reviews every three to five years with the allowance of single family, excuse me, social and affordable housing in those areas anywhere up to five stories during the period of this transition.

We believe this will make social and affordable housing more feasible especially in areas of high amenity because with upstowning, you are going to see land value increases that will make those kinds of developments less feasible.

We will be forwarding this, our proposal to you soon.

We hope you will seriously consider it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ruth.

Next we have Joe Cox, followed by Carolyn Malone, Taylor, and Mickey.

There's a significant public safety issue at T-Mobile Park that is crying out to be addressed.

That is the use of amplified sound systems around the stadium before and after baseball games.

The preachers often arrive in a pack of three to five individuals and can be heard from a block away.

They take up positions on the north, south, and west sides of the ballpark, crank the sound levels up on their electronic megaphones to between 105 and 120 decibels, and blast away at anyone walking past them down the sidewalk.

These decibel readings were taken between 5 and 10 feet from the speaker, the same distance as the people being subjected to these noise levels.

And no, this is not a freedom of speech issue.

Blasting people with this level of sound is assault.

According to OSHA, a jackhammer produces sound levels at 95 decibels that can result in permanent hearing loss that cannot be corrected.

Mariner fans are being subjected to sound levels that are over 20 decibels higher than that while walking on public sidewalks in the City of Seattle.

Over 539,000 fans have attended Seattle Mariner Games so far this year.

At that rate, over 2.5 million fans will attend games this year.

How many kids are going to have to suffer lifelong hearing loss because the City of Seattle refused to take appropriate action?

This is the fourth time in over two years that I've made a presentation to the City Council.

I've spoken to the City Attorney's Office, two Captains in the Police Department, several times.

I met with Councilman Rob Saka last year in person.

So far, no change.

If anything, the volume levels have gone up this year.

Please do something to right this wrong.

The Emperor, in fact, does not have any clothes on.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

Next we have Ms. Carolyn Malone, followed by Taylor and Mickey.

I'm Carolyn Malone, and I commend all of you council people for the proclamations you bestow upon the well-deserving people, the unheard, the unrepresented, and the Southeast Asians who were really distraught about not being recognized.

I commend you, but there are also some hard issues you need to deal with, and the fact that you won't meet with me with my housing issues, police orchestrated problems tells me a lot about your priorities.

I just came from Seattle Office of Civil Rights, and it's always closed.

allegations against the director is troubling to me and others.

So I'm wondering what are you doing about it?

Are you looking into it or are you just working on the things that are pleasant for you and easy to do?

And also I'd like to address your presentation.

a little bit about giving respect.

If you want respect, you have to give it.

Each time I come into the building, security people treat me like a suspicious person, and I've talked to someone about it.

They tell me what I can and cannot do.

You have staff people who surveil me, keep eyes on me.

Each time I come in, I see the same people.

if you want respect or you want me to be respectful please talk to employees and security not all security but too many treat me lesser than and I don't like it but the fact that I cannot get your attention or get a meeting with any of you about my housing and police involved issues police should not be allowed to occupy space in my building it's for and police do not qualify.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Taylor followed by Mickey.

Welcome Taylor.

Good afternoon.

My name is Taylor LeGore.

I'm an elected leader in the Seattle chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and I live in District 1. I'd like to share a few examples of the steps the community is taking to protect ourselves and each other from escalating state violence.

Dozens of rapid response formations have been established in every neighborhood across the city to deploy community members to areas of confirmed ICE activities.

Civilian volunteers are providing immigration court accompaniment to ensure those who report to immigration hearings cannot be disappeared by secret police.

Educators at Franklin High School and other Seattle public schools have launched door knocking and canvassing know your rights campaigns.

In West Seattle, where I live, the National Day Labor Organizing Network has partnered with at least one local high school to provide community defense education for parents and teachers and organizes community observers to protect migrants seeking work near Home Depot.

Healthcare Workers for Palestine offers Stop the Bleed education, and my own organization, Seattle DSA, offers community education related to protest safety, de-escalation, and unarmed community defense.

I mention this to highlight the fact that we, your constituents, are dedicating countless hours organizing and wielding our collective power to strengthen and protect our community from an increasingly violent federal government.

So I must ask, what precisely are you doing to wield your institutional power to protect us?

The euphemistic term detention center obscures the reality of what our government is doing predominantly to people of color.

If we called these facilities what they actually are, concentration camps, would you be able to sleep at night knowing that the only steps you've taken against their construction was temporary?

Would you remain comfortable with the planned surveillance expansion knowing that it is used by a rogue Department of Homeland Security to hunt members of our community for the purpose of warehousing them in for-profit labor camps where they are made to work for as little as $1 per day?

This is the reality of what's happening in our country, and it will only get worse unless you do something to stop it.

It is with this said that I urge you to make the moratorium on concentration camps permanent and draw down surveillance infrastructure before it's too late.

Thank you, Taylor.

Next, we have Mickey, followed by Sadiq, then Jim, Ken, Bennett, Alice.

Is it Mikey?

Mickey, you're correct.

Okay, thank you.

Hi again, everyone.

I'm here feeling, I've been very kind and polite in the past, but I'm here honestly feeling a little bit frustrated looking at you all today.

It's sort of starting to feel like these city council meetings and this public comment period is just some sort of joke or performative art piece or something like that.

I have heard rooms full of people educate you all on how harmful these flock cameras are, how the flock cameras are being used by DHS and ICE to target our neighbors, our migrant neighbors, on their way to drop their children off at school, separating families, while they're in their Court appointments and hearings, trying to go through the process the proper way.

They are being abducted because of these flat cameras, and I've seen you all do nothing about it.

I heard a room full of people educate you on the need for resources for victims of police violence, and the only thing that I saw some of you all on this committee do was nod and say, oh, well, you know, it's a complicated issue.

We see arguments on both sides.

There's no argument against providing resources such as legal counsel and help or therapy to victims of police violence.

There's no other option.

We're reading right now about the helicopters not being allowed to land at Seattle Children's Hospital because the wealthy people in the neighborhood of Laurelhurst don't like the noise of the helicopters coming every once in a while.

and we just heard about the announcement that the City of Seattle is going to expand its use of AI.

I'm confused.

What have you all done?

There are only Democrats on here.

You have no one to argue with about these issues.

So at this point, it feels like all of you, instead of joining the City Council because you actually want to make our community better and make change, it's starting to appear and feel more to me like you all just want to feel important wearing your suits.

and doing nothing but giving each other pats on the back.

Thank you so much.

Sadiq, welcome.

Next we have Jim.

After Sadiq, Jim, Ken, Bennett, and Alice, welcome.

Hi.

Yeah, our mayor ran on getting rid of our ICE cameras, and that hasn't been done.

People are angry across the city about this.

This is something that we could solve today, tomorrow.

We could have solved it last week.

Those cameras should be gone, and you guys should be in charge of that.

Additionally, there's been a one-year ban on ICE detention centers in this city.

This should be permanent.

No one in the city wants ICE detention centers ever, and no one will want that.

If, in a year, a detention center gets built and members of our community are there, do you think any of our neighbors would be happy about that?

No one is.

We need to get rid of both of these and put a permanent ban on ICE detention centers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sadiq.

Jim Baines, followed by Ken Bennett, and then Alice.

Welcome, Jim.

Hi there, my name is Jim Baines.

I'm a member of the American Party of Labor.

Yesterday, in a blog post that she didn't want seen, Mayor Katie Wilson announced the expansion and use of AI across all departments within the city.

This will include our police department, which we have established does not use AI in any ethical way.

In fact, the King County DA has reprimanded SPD for their use of AI in writing police reports, criminal indictments.

and other court proceedings.

AI is not reliable.

It can lead to misidentification when it is employed through the use of cameras.

It can lead to wrongful arrest and it can lead to our data leaks.

AI also has a direct negative impact on people's critical thinking skills shown in multiple studies over the last 18 months.

Our police already struggle with critical thinking and their judgment in critical situations.

Failures in their judgment lead to wrongful arrests, knees on the necks of protesters, and murders in the street, all of which has happened since Seattle has left its consent decree.

Two murders, knees on the necks of protesters on April 19th, all consented and defended by this city council, especially member Kettle.

Giving our police officers unfettered access to this technology will not only put criminal proceedings at risk, but will also be dumbing down our already incompetent police force.

Second, Microsoft Azure is not secure and is vulnerable to data leaks.

Our data is not guaranteed to be stored safely and Microsoft Azure does not, from what I could find, have data centers in Washington state.

So our data and all of our private information will be stored off city, which is the same issue that we have with our cameras and data being stored out of state.

We're exceeding control to these techno-oligarchs and we need to take back control and take community control of our city.

Thank you, Jim.

Next, we have Ken, Bennett, Alice, followed by Ed.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, counsel.

My name is Ken.

I'm a candidate member of the American Party of Labor, and I'm also a former employee of FEMA.

I'm here to talk about the expansion of AI within the city.

During my FEMA service, my knowledge of internal systems and general government operations was critical to my role.

Drawing from that experience, I can confidently say that AI has zero place in any government tasks.

it is unreliable, it is inaccurate, and using it in any capacity is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible.

As public servants, you know as well as I do that there is information that should not be made public for the safety of the city and her residents.

Operational security is one of the core tenets and principles of government work at any level of government.

Feeding any information into a chatbot is a blatant disregard for these practices.

The possibility of a data breach, no matter the sensitivity, is unacceptable, especially with the World Cup game set here.

The mayor even justified installing more surveillance cameras due to the current geopolitical situation.

So why would the data of the city be treated with any less reverence or weight?

And as a reminder, last July, July 19th, I believe, Microsoft, this AI's host, experienced a data breach and it affected both federal and state agencies.

Acknowledging the danger of this expansion is not, quote, burying our heads in the sand.

It is the bare minimum to ensure the safety and security of Seattle and its residents, who elected you to represent them.

This decision is nothing short of a heinous misrepresentation of the people of Seattle and our priorities.

Thank you.

Bennett, followed by Alice.

Bennett and Alice, welcome.

Thank you, counsel.

So a former council president, Sarah Nelson, just sent out a tweet saying, Hannah Krieg cosplays as a normie.

Now this is in reference to something that Hannah Krieg tweeted out about Katie Wilson.

Just wanted to make sure you're aware that there is a new rule that after leaving office, you have to start talking and tweeting like Gen Z activists.

So this 47-year-old has prepared a usage guide to help you make the transition.

Might want to put the camera on the left mic.

For example, I am solidly mid, but I make up for it with my fit and my riz.

I don't mean that I actually do.

This is just correct usage of those terms.

Requiring Seattle Children's Hospital to land their helicopters a mile away from the hospital and then have an ambulance drive the pediatric emergency patient the last mile to avoid bothering the rich people in Laurelhorst with the helicopter noise, that is cringe.

Allowing the helicopter to fly directly to the hospital, that would be based.

Alternatively, tired, requiring the helicopter to land a mile away from the hospital.

Wired, allowing the helicopter to fly directly to the hospital.

So I hope you all feel you have been one-shotted and bed-it-pilled by this presentation so that after public comment, you all can resume.

Hashtag council maxing.

Six, seven.

This concludes the presentation.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody.

Maybe I will see you all out celebrating later.

I know Rob Sokka's least favorite drink.

the Mai Tai.

Oh, Joy, you've told stuff much worse than that.

Come on, what is that look?

Okay.

Very creative.

Thank you, Bennett.

All right, next we have Alice.

I don't wear ties.

So we have Alice...

my tie, I get it.

So Alice followed by...

that was actually pretty good.

Okay, Alice followed by Ed, and then is it Zaneb?

Zaneb?

Welcome, Alice.

I'm not going to be able to say any more than has been said about ICE already, other than continue the moratorium.

The people running ICE also are heavily tied to human trafficking, disappearance of children.

And now all over the country, they're looking at medical waste incinerators to attach to these ICE buildings.

You guys connect the dots.

I am going to congratulate Liliana Alala as Director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

And what I want to say specifically to her is that you will be getting pressure from companies like Microsoft, Google, and Palantir that are right here about AI.

AI does not serve us.

is higher energy costs, more water consumption, more pollution.

Talking about noise pollution, the high pitch of the EMF sounds that are emitted are hazardous to health.

high pollution.

And right now, the petrodollar going down is going to make the costs of the energy extremely high.

And they will be talking to you about mini nuclear reactors, which they will try to sell to you as clean energy.

But at the point of use, it may be sort of clean, but there's a point of mining, of transporting, of storage, of waste, and of, yeah.

It's not clean.

And we don't want nuclear reactors in our city, no matter how cute and small they are.

This benefits billionaires and cuts jobs and aids our massive surveillance state.

Thanks.

Thank you, Alice.

Next we have Ed followed by Zaneb.

Shut down ice!

Shut down ice!

Is Ed here?

Shut down ice!

Welcome, Ed.

Shut down ice!

Welcome, Ed.

Thank you so much.

Then we have Zaneb followed by Long, Keandre, Genevere, and then Jonathan.

Welcome, Ed.

First time speaking here, but as other people have noted...

Hold on, we'll pause your time.

Speak into the mic.

Let's restart the time.

Okay, go ahead, Ed.

As other people noted, the Seattle Police Department is pushing back against the laws that have been passed by this council to ban cooperation with ICE, but this is just one more symptom of a bigger problem with the police and culture in Seattle.

What you need is a more thorough comprehensive restorative justice that includes not just resources for victims of unwarranted police violence, but also police accountability by opening the archives so that people can see what the what the people tasked to enforce the law in their communities have been doing over these past years.

There's a cultural problem.

This is Seattle's version of a Nationwide phenomenon that's been going on for over 20 years now.

Increased militarization with local police acting.

Well, sometimes local police, other times sheriff's deputies acting more like occupying military than neighborhood law enforcement.

You have a culture in the police department here that's pushed out officers that are supported by their community.

And there's a new Seattle Police Officers Guild president that looks a lot like a PR move that's just less scandalized than the previous one.

Run out of time here, so I'll keep it short.

Mowing the grass and the kingpin strategy do not work.

and applying those strategies to organize crime, you can expect the same local results.

More violence, more criminals taking hold, more budgetary bloat for policing.

You had enough money for policing in 2021. They don't need more now.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ed.

Zaneb, and I'm sorry if I'm not saying your name correctly, I apologize.

Long, Keandre, Genevere, Jonathan, Sonia M, Silas, Summer.

Good afternoon.

I'm a Seattle resident and I'm here to demand action.

I call for an end to ICE surveillance, the defending of ICE and permanent ban on detention centers.

Additionally, we're seeing concerns that ICE is being used as a political silencing tool.

In 2025, we saw the case of Mahmoud Khalil, where ICE actions raised serious concerns about civil rights and due process.

Today we are seeing another concerning case involving Yousef Azizi, a legal Iranian academic and media commentator who has been detained by ICE.

We are seeing the case of a mother and a daughter, Soleimani and Hosseini, detained by ICE, accused of being related to a general of a foreign country.

or the case of Salah Sarsour who used his voice to advocate for others.

These cases raise serious concerns about how ICE powers are being used.

There is growing concern that immigration enforcement can be used in ways that impact individuals for their speech or political views.

This is dangerous.

I'm asking for clear restrictions on how ICE operates on legal residents.

I'm asking for oversight hearings on potential misuse of power.

I'm asking for accountability when authority is abused.

Human rights and civil rights must be protected for all individuals.

Legal residents must be protected from retaliation and targeting.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Long, is Long here?

Thank you, Long.

Long is next.

Then Keandre and Genevier.

Welcome, Long.

My name is Long.

I'm a member of Labor Militant.

Our demands are a permanent ban on the ICE detention centers to shut down their surveillance cameras, municipal IDs for undocumented immigrants.

immediate eviction moratorium, community control of the police, cutting the Seattle budget by at least $123 million to fund free healthcare.

And yeah, this is all demands that the city council here can definitely take up.

Not only that, but currently with the detention centers, and it's been over a year since Renee Good has been killed, and we need immediate action now.

The Seattle Police Officers Guild, President Mike Solomon, has said that the city police won't obey the executive orders against collaborating with ICE.

The police officer will not listen to his mayor.

We need community control of the police.

if they're not gonna listen to us we should have a board that can be elected by our community that has the power to hire and fire police and also to take away the budget from the police and put it into actual resources that we care about.

There have been victims of police violence that have come here multiple times demanding such a committee that would put resources towards victims of police violence and they have given up on, I mean, some of them cannot make it here today because it's like a 2 p.m.

meeting on a Tuesday.

And we've tried so hard to get people out here to appeal to you people.

And it's incredibly difficult because nobody believes you guys can do anything.

At the very least, you should put $5 million towards these victims of police violence.

you should be fighting for these demands.

I would appeal for you to fight for these demands and run as independent socialist candidates, and we would totally support you.

But right now, as it stands, we need to throw out every single democratic council member.

Thank you, Long.

Piandre.

We have Piandre, Genevere, Jonathan, Sonia M, Silas, Summer.

I said it once, and I will say it again.

We are out of time.

We are a month out from the World Cup, and all of the world's eyes will be on Seattle.

What will they see?

They will see protests, and they will see, just like last year, at the Capitol Hill riots where SPD brutalized protesters and made 23 unconstitutional arrests.

They will do the exact same thing with the World Cup.

It's been four months since Katie Wilson made it show that SPD needs to follow orders of investigating ICE, which some members of this council have said there is no way to actually enforce.

And just like his predecessor, Kent Lue have no intention on complying with these orders.

SPD is out of control.

They clearly do not share the values that the city council claims to uphold in their meaningless proclamations that they bring about every holiday.

There are families affected by police violence, and they deserve more than two minutes than we give here at the city council art show.

AMR.

You have done so much already for civil rights, and today we are asking you to do something else.

We ask that you put on a town hall addressing why SPD kills so many people in mental health crises, and so we can actually address this need for police accountability.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Guinevere followed by Jonathan Sonia M. Silas Sommer.

Welcome.

Hi, thank you, Council.

My name is Guinevere.

I live in D5.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

First off, we demand that you ban ICE facilities permanently from Seattle.

The federal administration is breaking the law while saying that they're not breaking it.

For example, violating judicial orders on deportation flights while denying that they even denied the orders.

When you're playing chess with someone and they start taking pieces off the table, and they look you in the eye and say, I didn't take a piece off the table, you're no longer playing chess.

And if you continue to pretend that you're playing chess, you're going to lose.

We need radical pushback.

I want you all to interpret every statute maximally in favor of the city and the state and we can litigate it in court later because that's what the federal government is doing and worse.

It's a joke to say that the US government will not take the footage from the cameras in the city.

Do you really think that the CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI cannot easily hack those out of state servers that these tapes are on?

do you think that this administration is going to start obeying the law now?

In fact, as was documented in Edward Snowden's NSA leaks, all Google and Microsoft data goes straight to the NSA anyway.

It was reported on wired.com.

I implore you to look it up.

Seattle is also the home to one of eight internet backbone locations in the United States.

All internet infrastructure still runs on the AT&T backbone, a relic of when AT&T owned all phone lines.

And we have one of those eight backbones here in Seattle.

The NSA, as was reported by Edward Snowden in Wired, has a machine in each of one of those eight backbones that copies every bit and byte of data that is sent across the internet.

There is no data privacy.

The only way to protect our data from the federal government is to not record it in the first place.

Thank you so much.

We have Jonathan followed by Sonia M, Silas and Summer.

Jonathan, Sonia M, Silas, Summer.

Welcome.

It's been a while, maybe a couple months or two.

I'm pretty excited to be back here because, as you know, the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression fights against all forms of racist and political oppression, so we had a campaign to fight against ICE, and through that process we learned that SPOG, the Police Officers Union, was such and impotent to our ability to get these cameras taken down that we said we need to take this campaign and focus on our accountability campaign for the police, which is our Justice for Christian Nelson and Jack Pillayley campaign, which, mind you, Christian Nelson, I can still see his body on the floor.

You know, he was left laying there for 12 hours after SPD murdered him.

and Jack Pillaylee was murdered in much a similar fashion when these two men were in the greatest time of need.

The worst of the worst came and did what they do best, which is to murder people.

And so it's with this that I am very excited to, you know, take up this campaign again because we still demand justice for these victims of police violence.

We're still calling for these officers to be identified not by a FOIA request but internally from the police department for that we can fire them so we can convict them and we want this footage to be released, not as if it's some sort of edit to make these men look like they deserve to die, but to show the true reality of what it looks like when you let rabid dogs who are police run on our streets.

So I'm very excited because on the 25th of this month, as we know George Floyd was murdered that day but we are going to have a march to the precinct so the South Seattle precinct in Othello will be there to put pressure on these because they think that they can come in and occupy our neighborhoods and murder people and run them over but the reality is that we are just waiting to string them up and fucking put them in jail.

Thank you Jonathan.

Next we have Thank you.

Next we have Sonia followed by M, Silas, and Summer.

Hi, my name is Sonia Herrera Perez.

I'm chair of the Seattle Alliance Against Racism, Political Oppression.

Me and others are here demanding police accountability, and SARPA particularly is dealing and hoping for justice for Christian Nelson and Jack Palaylee.

These two men were experiencing mental health crises, and SPD responded to those calls, and instead of responding with empathy and care and de-escalation, they were shot dead within seconds of arrival.

Christian Nelson's body was left there on the concrete in front of these apartment buildings for 12 hours.

The police shot directly into the apartment building.

There's still a bullet hole in the reception desk of one of those buildings.

it shook this entire community.

These murders happened in broad daylight.

In the case of Christian Nelson, he was murdered between the hours of 1 p.m.

and 2 p.m.

There's so much traffic at that intersection of people who are familiar at that Othello Light Rail Station, and so for him to be shot dead was not only a safety concern for him, who has now lost his life and is no longer with us, but also a safety concern of everybody who lived in that area and all of those people commuting back and forth.

SARPA demands SPD accountability in these cases and many others.

We demand full transparency and for the names of all officers involved to be released and for those killer cops to be fired.

SARPA stands with the demand for community control of the police.

It's a longstanding demand of the Alliance as well as the National Alliance through an elective board of civilians.

The public safety should be put into the hands of the people.

We need to put control back into the people's hands.

The people who come to you with concerns, we know that you can't fix every problem, but you do have the power and the ability to pressure those who do.

You might think, oh, some of these problems are well beyond us, but you have the connections, you have the strength to go and demand that these people actually put their power- Thank you, Sonia.

Do something good.

Thank you, Sonia.

Next.

We have Em, followed by Silas, then Summer, and then if you are online, we still have about six more speakers after that, and then onto online.

Welcome, Em.

Thank you.

My name is Em Smith.

I'm a member of Labor Militant and Seattle DSA.

It has been four months since Renee Goode and Alex Preddy were killed.

Four days ago, ICE reported the 18th death in ICE custody so far this year, in 2026. What have the Democrats done on this council?

The only thing the Democrats have done is pass a one-year ban on ICE detention centers.

Does anyone here really think that that's sufficient, given the attacks that working class people that immigrants are facing in this country?

No.

On top of that, the Democrats are now threatening cuts to public transit, Council Member Strauss is on the Sound Transit Board.

Katie Wilson is on the Sound Transit Board pushing those cuts.

The Democrats are threatening cuts to public services in the upcoming budget, refusing to tax the rich.

Council Member Rink is the only Democrat on this council who's even pledged publicly to support a permanent ban on ICE detentions.

That's less than the bare minimum.

But honestly, we shouldn't even give Councilmember Rink that much credit because, Councilmember, you could be introducing legislation on any one of these issues that we've been up here talking about.

Municipal IDs, taking down the surveillance cameras, community control of the police, including the power to fire cops who are illegally cooperating with ICE.

and affected person program to give full compensation to victims of police brutality and their families, an eviction moratorium.

Carolyn's been up here talking about the conditions in her housing.

We should be taking bad landlords, we should be taking their buildings into public ownership and run publicly through the Seattle social housing developer.

We should be taking those housing and letting renters govern them.

We could be introducing any one of these pieces of legislation, but the Democrats aren't doing it.

This is why Trump is emboldened.

This is why we have a war on Iran right now where there's a billion dollars a day that are being spent because the Democrats have failed to fight back against ICE.

They failed to fight back against the attacks on Venezuela.

They failed to fight back against the attacks on Iran.

Indiana just launched a new socialist party.

We need a socialist party here in Seattle to replace these Democrats and fight for what workers need.

Silas, is Silas here?

Silas is next, then Summer Miller.

Is Silas here?

Yep, you're Silas.

Awesome.

No, yeah, you can take this middle microphone right here, Silas.

Welcome.

Yeah, hopefully, if that's easier for you.

Awesome.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Silas James.

I'm an disabled organizer, advocate for vulnerable people, and I'm a current city council candidate for District 5. I'm here to ask you to cancel Seattle's contracts with Axon.

The company provides Seattle with closed circuit TV cameras and the real-time crime center.

We spend millions of dollars a year paying a company who works closely with ICE and YASHA.

DHS.

The surveillance is justified on the claim that it prevents crime.

However, there is no research that consistently finds that there is an increase in mining crime that can be attributed to the use of surveillance.

It's just not true.

What we do know is that the federal government works closely with surveillance companies like Palantir and Axon to execute their illegal war on our most vulnerable neighbors.

We are fortunate to live in Seattle, a welcoming city, but a key element of being a welcoming city is not participating in deportations.

Providing the infrastructure that can easily be used to assist in deportations is participating in deportations.

I implore you to cancel the contracts with Axon and put our neighbors at risk and go against the core of being a welcoming city.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Silas.

Next we have Summer.

Welcome.

My name's Summer Miller.

I'm also a member of Labor Militant and DSA.

King County Democrats are threatening to cancel light rails to Ballard with West Seattle, Everett, and Tacoma also on the chopping block.

The Sound Transit Board is made up of Democrats that include the new mayor, Katie Wilson, and Council Member Dan Strauss.

Why isn't Dan Strauss calling to expand the Amazon tax to King County to fund free mass transit and to fund these expansions?

At the same time, the Seattle Democrats are preparing additional cuts to health care, housing, education, other public services.

Since the George Floyd movement, Democrats have increased the Seattle police budget by $123 million, and every year they throw nearly half a billion dollars at SPD while claiming there's no money for clinics, child care, housing, transit.

That's $123 million that could fund free health care clinics serving 100,000 people a year, including free health care for undocumented immigrants, free gender-affirming care, and making clinics like Carolyn Downs in the Central District free again, like it was when the Black Panthers built it in the 1970s.

Since working people won the Amazon tax in 2020, Amazon's profits have more than tripled from $21 billion to $77 billion last year.

The Democrats could tax the rich to fund every public service that working people need, and instead, they're protecting Amazon, Microsoft, the corporate landlords, and the police budget.

The Democrats on this council have also failed to take action against ICE, as all of us know.

A one-year detention ban is less than the bare minimum.

We need a permanent ban.

And I wanted to ask all of you right now, who here can promise today that you will vote yes on a permanent ban on detention centers?

Anyone besides Alexis Mercedes Rink, who's already said that?

Anybody?

All of you need to be voted out of office.

Hands up!

Put your hands up!

so there's no there's no reason right that they can't take action on all of these issues except that they don't want to do this because they don't represent us they represent big business and the corporate landlords the Democrats won't fight for us working people won 15 and the Amazon tax by getting organized and forcing the Democrats to act we need a socialist party

Thank you, Summer.

Next, we have Jason.

So next, we have Jason followed by Howard, Gwendolyn, Steve, Allen, Justice, and Nathan Wall.

Welcome, Jason.

My name is Jason Thiel, I'm a renter in District 5, I'm also a member of Labor Militant in Seattle DSA.

It is shameful that only one member of this council, Councilmember Rink, publicly committed to passing a permanent ban on detention centers, and that fucking show of events is fucking shameful.

I asked this last week, Summer asked this last week, and nobody besides rank supported a permanent ban.

But that is, I mean, that's below the bare minimum.

Like, all nine of the nine counselors on this city council are Democrats.

The Democratic Party nationally is ramping up the drumbeat of lesser evilism, saying that if we bring them back to the House, that they'll fight back against Trump.

That's fucking bullshit.

Seattle is completely controlled by Democrats.

This state is run by Democrats.

And they can't even pass a permanent ban on detention centers.

Not a single mention, even from RINC, about municipal IDs, an eviction moratorium, community control of the police, to fire pro-ice cops.

Instead, they're cutting public transit.

They're cutting public services.

They say there's no money for health care and child care.

There's always money for cops.

Like people have said before, half a billion dollars every year in this city goes to police, and that has gone up 123 million more since George Floyd was murdered.

Sound Transit's board is made up of Democrats around the county, including Dan Strauss and the so-called socialist mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson.

They could easily tax the rich to fund the trains and make them free and build them before we're all dead.

Instead, they're ramping up fair enforcement.

We need a new party.

We need a socialist party in Seattle.

We need to unite behind an independent slate of socialists to throw out every one of these fucking pro-ice Democrats on this city council.

Joy Hollingsworth, the president of this council, is bought and paid for by corporate landlords, CEOs, and wealthy executives.

She attacked the minimum wage a couple years ago, trying to create a sub-minimum wage for the lowest-paid 200,000 workers in this city.

But to do that, we need to get organized.

United Front for a Workers' Party has our monthly meetings on the second Saturday of every month.

The next one's coming up this Saturday at the Garfield Community Center in the Central District at 2 p.m.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you.

Next.

Next, we have Howard Gill, followed by Gwendolyn, then Steve Allen, Justin, and Nathan Wall.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Seattle Office of Inspector General's review and conclusions as to what went wrong last year when SBD officers rioted and beat protesters, resulting in many injuries of protesters and 23 unconstitutional arrests, concludes that, quote, There is important cultural significance of the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The lack of acknowledgement of understanding of this context by SPD contributed to the heightening tensions among police and counter demonstrators." But the words of SPD officer Lieutenant Matthew Didier, in charge of crowd control on that day, make clear this was no cultural misunderstanding. Body-worn video reveals he said to his officers under his command, We are going in this time with guns blazing, with all our pieces in place. We are past talking to people. We are here to fuck people up now. We're done with these guys and the shit they're doing. They've pushed the envelope and now they're going to get the full something or other. This is not a cultural misunderstanding. This is not about one bad officer because not one single officer objected to that insane rant. The OIG has asserted that this event was a one-off, an aberration. Yet three days later, SPD officers once more demonstrated extremely biased policing in favor of right-wing provocateurs unleashing more violence and arrests, at least eight, right in front of City Hall. Last week and the next two weeks are the anniversaries of three completely unnecessary killings by Seattle police of African Americans in severe crisis, all three remaining ignored and unremembered by those in power. Sean Lee Furr, Terry Caver, and, sorry, and Ryan Smith killed seven years ago. All these cases have one thing in common and they will have inquest hearings over the next few months. It's likely that juries will find these killings were unjust and criminal when our accountability system found them lawful and proper. Whether it's protesters beaten by police, folks in crisis murdered by police, or family of such victims begging for meager resources to ameliorate the harms of your employees and your policies, your response is always...

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Next we have Gwendolyn, followed by Steve, Allen, Justin, and Nathan.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Gail.

Thank you, Mr. Gail.

Gwendolyn, followed by Steve, and then Alan, Justice, and Nathan.

If you are listening online, we are coming to you next after our in-person speakers.

Thank you.

Welcome, Gwendolyn.

My name is Gwendolyn.

I'm a member of Labor Militant and DSA.

We need to make this ban on ICE permanent.

It's the bare minimum.

But critically, there are no existing ICE detention centers in Seattle today.

We have to push the social ban in Seattle first and expand it across King County.

Otherwise, this is just performative nonsense.

Democrats, if they were serious about fighting against ICE and police violence, it would not have taken four months just to get to a temporary ban today.

I mean, municipal IDs for immigrants are implemented across cities across the country.

If they were serious, we would be seeing Democrats start a massive legal fight on the King County level to push this legislation through and ban the existing detention centers.

We'd be seeing countywide and statewide bans against ICE proposed on every Democratic legislature in the country.

We'd be seeing marches, demonstrations, walkouts of workplaces, especially with immigrants, but Democrats are not leading these types of initiatives.

Instead, demands against ICE are grinding forward against the Democratic Party political machine.

That's because Democrats are a party of the billionaires.

The Democrats in Congress are part of the same political machine as the Democrats sitting on city councils.

They're not here to fight the system.

They're here to run it.

That's including ICE.

And that's why Biden escalated ICE deportations after Trump's first term.

We need a new part of the working class to fight against the system for our interests.

Last week, there was a hearing in these council chambers about making the ban on ICE centers permanent, but only Mercedes Rink spoke out in favor of this.

These proposals have a tendency to die in the darkness once the public pressure is off, so we have to escalate the pressure now that there's a chance we could win it.

So city council members, you have a very easy opportunity in front of you to try and prove what I'm saying wrong right now.

Will you support actually Will you say right now, yes or no?

Will you concretely support this permanent ban?

Starting with Madam Council President, yes or no?

This is your time for public comment.

That's a lot more syllables than yes or no.

No one?

Anyone who even say yes to this, what are they worth?

Anyone who wants to say yes to this, we should vote them out, replace them with independent socialists next year.

Send them.

Next we have Steve, Steve, and then Alan.

Steve, is Steve here?

Welcome, Steve.

And we have Alan, Justice, Nathan, and Miss Yvette.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Steve Lee.

I'm a member of the Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, and that's what we need.

We need a revolution because the people who are running this city are following the interests of the billionaires.

They're expanding AI, they refuse to ban ICE permanently, and they're putting in surveillance cameras.

All of these things need to be changed.

We need to have a society where people are organized to meet the needs of people, and the needs of people are not for surveillance cameras.

That money should be going to healthcare, housing, education, childcare, et cetera, the things that people really need.

So quit following the dictates of the billionaires and fight for the interests of ordinary people.

Give up your corporate sponsorship and join the people.

Thank you, Steve.

Next we have...

Awesome, next we have Alan followed by Justice Nathan and Miss Yvette.

Welcome, Alan.

Thank you.

My name's Alan.

I'm also a member of the Seattle Revolutionary Socialists.

I've been to a couple of city council meetings now.

I appreciate your hospitality.

I appreciate the rhetoric about how this is the people's space.

It's very much in line with a lot of the rhetoric that I've heard from lots of people involved in the administration of this city about how proud we are to be a sanctuary city, about how community is everything here, about how everybody's welcome.

I understand that you're considering extending your moratorium on ICE detention facilities to an indefinite moratorium.

I would like to really encourage you to go ahead and do that.

But I wonder...

I wonder if it's worth it.

But I kind of figure, you know, since you're up here pretending that this is a democracy and that you will listen to us and that if we ask nicely, you'll do what we're asking you to do, I'm gonna go ahead and pretend.

I'm gonna play your game.

Please extend the moratorium.

Here's the thing.

If you don't extend the moratorium, You're completely exposing yourselves as not taking seriously the things you say about this being a sanctuary city, the things that you say about a community being everything here, about everyone being welcome here.

And we're watching.

The working class is watching, and you will expose yourselves as being beholden to the people who benefit, who profit from warehousing human beings, who benefit from the division of the working class.

The majority of your constituency, the vast, vast majority, is the working class.

And that's probably why you have these public comment sessions at two o'clock on a Tuesday.

but you're gonna keep hearing from us because there are those of us who are willing to sacrifice a day of work to come and hold you accountable and expose your lives.

Thank you.

Justice, and then Nathan, you're after Justice, and then Miss Yvette, you're after Nathan.

Welcome.

Hello.

A lot of people have already said a lot about how this issue is impacting us.

I just want to bring it into the broader context.

I want to talk about the war that's happening outside of this room.

And I'm not just talking about the war in Iran.

I'm talking about the class war by the billionaires against the working class in this country and all around the world.

Evictions kill people.

That's people out on the streets without resources.

They die.

When people are taken by ICE, they're unable to afford their bills.

They're unable to support their families.

Those families are going to be permanently and their health and their wellbeing.

And that will have ramifications, okay?

The police cannot be controlled.

The police cannot be, and ICE as well, other law enforcement agencies buy this body, okay?

They are beholden to the billionaires because at the end of the day, those are the people who have the resources to determine their side on the war, okay?

And you all are in the middle here.

I understand there's maybe a lot going on in your minds, thinking about your constituents, thinking about different individuals who are going to have conversations with you after this meeting, but I want you all to remember that we are living in the heart of an empire in collapse.

We are standing at the precipice of an economic collapse.

These are the conditions that have led to genocides in countless empires throughout history.

When we consider whether or not you all can protect us, we have to be recognizing that the actual movement that protect us has nothing to do with what you all say.

So your decisions here are really just determining which side you will be on when the bullets really start flying.

This class war will not end until one side wins.

It is us, the workers, or it is the billionaires, and it is time, and now I'm really addressing those of you in the room and those of you who are watching this, it is time to get organized, okay?

We cannot do this without collective action, community support.

We need to be talking with one another.

We need to be taking our greatest weapon into this fight, which is the strike, okay?

So, 2028, general strike, May 1st, let's get organized.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Nathan, followed by Miss Yvette, and then we will go to our online speakers.

Thank you, which we have five people signed up.

Okay, hi.

So I was happy to hear that the council was considering a ban on AI or a moratorium on AI data centers.

I'd like to see that become a ban.

I'd like to see it pass.

I was disappointed though to hear that Mayor Wilson was encouraging or pushing for Microsoft AI use in city government.

We need to be resisting AI at all costs.

It's not good for our brains.

It's not good for our society.

And AI data centers are, we need to do everything we can to make sure there is never an AI data center in the city.

I appreciate that you guys are passing legislation to make it so that ICE can't come into these communities and so that Seattle police can't cooperate with ICE, but a lot of these cops, they don't really care what you guys say.

I'm gonna play you a video.

I'm gonna copy Bennett, I guess, a little bit.

This is a video of a NYPD officer talking about Zoran Mamdani, and it's pretty short.

So he calls him an embarrassment.

He calls him temporary.

I don't think you can hear very well from this.

It's not.

He says he's not my mayor.

And finally he says All Democrats are a waste of the human race.

And this is a police officer in New York City.

I get that you guys don't want to have this be a dialogue with us, but I'm curious how you guys feel about that.

I'm curious how Councilmember Kettle feels about that in particular, because we've had a lot of conversations about...

constitutional rights.

I know that we disagree a lot on SPD and COPS, and I'm just like, how does that make you feel when you hear something like that?

And that's how they feel about you guys and Mayor Wilson too.

Thank you, Nathan.

Next we have Miss Yvette, and I know we have another person that signed up as well, so we'll call them up as well.

And then we'll switch online.

Hello, Miss Yvette.

of the United States of America, and two-three members for which it stands.

One nation, as it was, indivisible.

And also, I want you all to think about this, that you have a job.

As an SPD officer, you leave home every day, knowing you're gonna encounter high drama, crime in general, murders, assaults, people, and mental health crises.

So I don't know why you're vilifying, because we need law and order.

And just for what it's worth, when I'm out and about in my community, every time I encounter a police officer, I shake their hand and thank them for their service.

This is from a woman who grew up in the Civil Rights Movement.

So I know how it used to be, and we've come a long way.

and also any of y'all who want to run for city council, please do.

You'll see how hard it is.

And regarding the ICE situation, if y'all want ICE to be abolished, I get that, then organize yourselves and become sentinels.

Show up in places where you think the ICE will show up to protect the public.

That's the least you can do.

So instead of running your mouth, run out in the streets and protect the community, your own selves.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Aaron.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Aaron Tulloch.

I am the legislative aide for FMS Global Strategies.

And I just want to address this, everyone here.

I don't think disrespect is going to get you far if you want something that you want.

You can boo all you want, but disrespect is not going to get you far.

I don't care how it feels.

I don't care how you feel, but you should represent yourself with a quorum.

You should represent yourself with decorum because this is, they try to fight for you.

They're doing stuff for you.

So at the end of the day, I want to let everyone know that I'm here for you guys as well.

So thank you.

Thank you, Aaron.

Next we have, so we're going to go.

We're gonna go online, just asking that people be respectful while people are talking and trying not to interrupt them.

That's all.

We will go online.

Thank you.

So online, so we have Rose.

You're gonna press star six to unmute yourself.

We see your online, Rose.

Star six to unmute yourself.

We still see you on mute, Rose, but we do see you.

Maybe your phone's on mute.

Star six.

We'll keep holding you.

There you go.

There we go.

Sorry.

Last week, the DOJ filed suit in Texas to try and get patient data records in Rhode Island to try and be able to stop trans people from being able to escape their states.

As we are seeing increasing crackdowns that are happening on the federal level on trans people, we need Seattle and the state of Washington to be looking into what are the best ways to protect people here.

I had a friend last week that went to her doctor's appointment and asked her doctor, if the DOJ comes for you and your clinic, which was the University of Washington, what would you do to make sure I have hormonal care?

The doctor had nothing to say.

This is a huge risk for our community as people are fleeing here.

We've already talked about this extensively.

We had the proclamation that everyone on the council signed and we appreciate that, but those words don't mean anything if we don't have actions to back them up.

We are having individuals that are fleeing to Cal Anderson every single day, new people needing resources, food, basic things, and they don't know what things are right now and we need resources for them when they start landing.

The Idaho bathroom ban has been already passed and we have only about two months until that takes full effect and we'll see an influx of refugees coming here to the city of Seattle.

We need to hear what the council and the mayor are going to do to prepare for this impending crisis.

There are already things that are bad enough as is.

We have having people in Cal Anderson that are writing names of missing people that are happening from our community.

People show up with no identification or no connection with anyone and they disappear and nobody sees them again.

And we don't know what's happening to these people.

We need to have the city council be there for us as resources and also to help us as individuals.

We even have organizers who are struggling to make ends meet.

We've got to have your help.

Please help us.

Thank you, Rose.

Next we have Joe, followed by David, then Melissa, and then Castile.

Joe, star six, unmute yourself.

Thank you, President Collingsworth.

It's Joe Kunzler here, regular caller.

I really appreciate being able to call in this morning to talk about drones and the need for tight law enforcement around drones.

But I'm calling in today with some sad news, which is due to the fact that Mayor Wilson, a supposed Democrat, if you believe these public commenters you sortied today, you know, has not condemned anti-Semitism and we just had a violent riot outside a gathering to honor a medic who treated, guess what, dozens, not just Israelis.

So I want to read to you President Kaine's message about it, that free speech, including criticizing the policies or actions of our own government and foreign governments, including Israel, is a fundamental right in our country.

But when protesters scream profanities in attendees' faces and surround and bang on their cars, this crosses the line.

When protesters physically attack attendees and police, this crosses the line.

When protesters follow attendees so they are too scared for their safety to walk home, this crosses the line.

We cannot have a vibrant and thriving Jewish community without basic safety." End quote. I agree with President McCain and the Jewish Federation. I don't speak for them. But it's going to be very hard for me to support white rail projects in Seattle and for that matter Kirkland when we have these anti-Semitism problems. and we need to hear elected leaders condemn it and make clear that it's one thing to show up and want to take Seattle even more left, it's an interesting act of violence towards your political opponents. And I will conclude with this thought. I believe that when you put a sound transit station in the community, you are saying that you want to build a community around there with sound transit values like inclusion and courage and love for science and integrity. Thank you for your public service and thanks for all you do.

Thank you, Joe.

Next we have David, followed by Melissa, and then Castile is David Haynes, star six, unmute yourself.

All right, thank you, David Haynes.

There's not much on the agenda for all the drama.

You know, remember, no kings, no drama queens.

I want to address ordinance, I think it's 121203, the $19 million being paid to SoftBank and Workday and Deloitte.

Why is it that an extra $18 million has to be paid because maybe Bruce Harrell made a mistake that we seem to keep paying for and other policy concerns that keep exacerbating public safety and elsewhere.

But it doesn't seem fair that the people have to pay $18 million extra and then almost guarantee an overall amount of $50 million you know, why can't you negotiate?

Cause there was 18 corrections on the accounting process.

Like somebody didn't put an accounting category for vacation.

So they said, okay, you got to pay like $1.1 million.

And then you hire some dude on some short term contract making like chump change and he pretty much fixes it.

But somebody else pads the cost.

It's like these people are making up the 50% padded profits.

And I don't hear city council want to make any renegotiation on that.

Now I would, I'd like to point out that I think like May 4th, I punched up on AI, violence in Seattle last two weeks.

It says a 34-year-old was left in critical condition in front of the Madison Street yesterday and a Northgate attempted kidnapping and assaulting.

I think there's some girl was raped right by the bus stop in like District 5 or somewhere on 103rd Street.

And in Ballard on May 5th, I guess today, A 35-year-old was stabbed in the back during an altercation at 1400 block of Northwest Leary.

And downtown 3rd Avenue attacks, newly released footage.

It's like North Beacon Hill, some man was stabbed twice in the lake.

It's like South Seattle, 18-year-old was grazed by a gunfire wound on May 5. There was one armed robbery yesterday.

It's like, you all are still acting like the feds are the biggest concern.

And yet, if you could apply some efforts to fight the evil drug pushers that you keep exempted...

Thank you, David.

Next, we have Melissa Howard, followed by Castile Hightower.

Star 6, unmute yourself.

Melissa?

My name is Melissa Howard, and I'm a resident of District 6, and I've been organizing with R-Seattle, a grassroots group committed to holding the mayor accountable to her promises.

I want to use my time to combat the narrative I am seeing being shaped by SPD and Como News over the past few days following an event that the mayor was at when, unfortunately, a shooting occurred nearby.

Following this event, Como has aired multiple stories suggesting that the public is calling for increased surveillance.

For instance, last night, Como News aired another story claiming cameras helped arrest the suspect in a case where a 77-year-old man was beaten downtown.

It's a horrific story, but oddly that story ends with SPD's Axon body camera footage of the handcuffed suspect asking if the officer knew Katie Wilson.

It's such an odd statement, it almost seems planted, and I think anyone who watches will agree.

I want to remind the council and the public that Axon is the company selling us these cameras and the real-time crime center in addition to their lucrative contracts, existing contracts for STD body cameras and tasers.

Como used this Axon body camera footage to push a false narrative that the public wants the mayor and the council to spend more money with Axon and buy more cameras to police our city.

That is simply not true.

The people want real investment in public safety.

We want what the pre-Trump CDC recommends investing in, like job training and employment programs, mentoring and after-school programs, street outreach, treatment programs, unemployment insurance, expanded health care benefits.

The list goes on and on.

But nowhere in that list are surveillance cameras or increased police funding.

We want real public safety.

We want investment in community, not cameras.

Turn off the cameras and shut down the real-time crime center.

Cancel the contracts with Axon.

Last speaker, Ms. Castille Hightower.

Star six, unmute yourself.

You're unmuted.

Go right ahead for your public comment.

Hi, my name is Castille Hightower.

I'm the sister of Herbert Hightower Jr. who was murdered by Seattle police while experiencing a mental health crisis.

We were advised that my brother had a knife only to find out that it may have been a butter knife that caused the police to murder him in cold blood, feet from our house.

My family has continued to be harmed in a multitude of ways, one of which is a lack of access to resources.

I am standing with Teandre's ask of Councilmember Wink to hold a town hall in regards to talking about folks in crisis being killed by SPD over and over again.

13 months ago Councilmember Rink you made that promise publicly and nothing has come of that.

13 months ago Councilmember Rink you also promised me that you would work with us to create resources for victims of police violence and you have since ghosted us.

Councilmember Foster, you did the same exact thing.

I spoke to you, I sat across the table from you, and you said you would not ghost us in regards to creating resources for victims of police violence.

You have since done that.

Councilmember Lynn, at the last Public Safety Committee meeting, I asked you if you would at least pass a resolution, and you didn't have anything to say.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, I texted you a couple days ago asking if you could sit down with us to talk about resources for victims of police violence.

I have yet heard from you.

People continue to say we're begging for these resources because we know how life-altering, how life-damaging, how life-annihilating it is to go through such a traumatic event that is caused by the city employees and not have access to the basic resources to even bury someone.

Thank you, Castile.

So are there any, are there any more public comment periods?

No?

Okay.

Awesome.

So the public comment, so I want to thank everyone for coming.

We've reached the end list of registered speakers.

The public comment period is now closed.

Thank you for the comments today for online and on the phone and through email and the people who took out their time of their day to come to City Hall as well.

We really are grateful and appreciate your time Thank you and we're grateful for your presence and your comments today So thank you so much All right, we're just at ease so we can make sure everyone safely is outside.

Council members, and then I will begin.

Mr. Cedric, would you shut those doors for us?

Oh, they're shut.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you so much.

All right, so we're gonna move...

I will say, I know you got about 50 Dinishes that live in the Central District, so I don't wanna mess with Miss Yvette.

I just wanna let y'all know there's 50 Dinishes just in the CD alone.

So if there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

Hearing, if there's no objection, the agenda colleagues will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

We're gonna now consider the proposed consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar include the minutes of April 28th, and Council Bill 121203, which is payment of the bills.

Are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved in second to adopt the consent calendar.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Lynn?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Sacca?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Awesome, the consent calendar is adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf?

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

The report of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee joined item one, appointment 3491, appointment of Liliana Alaya as director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

The committee recommends that the appointment be confirmed.

Awesome, thank you.

Councilmember Lin, as chair of the committee, you are recognized to give the committee a report.

Thank you so much.

Super excited to have this on the agenda today.

We had a committee last week and just overwhelming support from community.

Super excited that Director Liliana Alala will most importantly engage with the community that she's gonna uplift the voices of communities most directly impacted by higher levels of pollution that most impacted by climate change and that she has the skills and experience and personality to bring our communities together to work with different departments, to work with different government agencies.

And yeah, look forward to, I encourage you to vote yes on her appointment.

Awesome, thank you, Councilmember Lin.

Colleagues, are there any comments regarding the confirmation today at all?

Any comments?

Okay, awesome.

I know that we spoke highly of the director and committee and answered all our great questions.

And so just looking forward to working with you and the Office of Sustainability and Environment and all the great work that you all do.

And thank you also for the great presentation that you all did as well.

Oh, Council Member Rivera.

I'm so sorry, Council President.

I was trying to find my hand quickly enough just to really I don't sit on the committee, but I know the acting director from her many years of service actually to the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

And I'm so honored to be voting on her appointment today.

she does great work in partnership with her great team at OSC.

There is so much I can say about Director Ayala, but just to say that I am very supportive of her confirmation today.

And thank you for all that you're doing.

Thank you, Council President.

Awesome.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage for the confirmation of Director Ayala?

Councilmember Lin.

Yes.

Councilmember Rink.

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Sacca.

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss.

Aye.

Councilmember Foster.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carry appointment is confirmed.

Congratulations, Director Ayala.

and you are recognized to give some comments.

If I may, I just want to express my gratitude.

Thank you so much, esteemed council, for your support.

I'm very excited to work with you throughout the course of my tenure here as director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

I appreciate you all.

Awesome, thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Well deserved.

So colleagues, there were no items removed from the consent calendar and there's not a resolution for introduction for, I always say for, for introduction and adoption today.

There is some further business yesterday.

I know that some colleagues had asked regarding signing on to our letter that the council will send to King County regarding rates that Council Member Lynn and I are part of.

So I think we had passed that around to the offices.

So hopefully people had time to review the letter.

So Council Member Lynn and I sit on the Regional Water Quality Committee and we are sending a letter to King County council urging King County to consider affordability as they raise the rates to 12.75 and urge them to do a measured approach.

And so we're just asking for a little bit of relief here at 10.75 increase.

Yesterday there was interest in other council members signing on.

So I wanted to give my colleagues a chance to fix their signature to the letter.

And Council Member Lynn, did you have any other additional comments as well?

on the committee.

Thank you, Council President.

I just want to appreciate your leadership here and working on this.

Even at 10.75, it is still a huge issue around affordability.

And so, you know, I think we need to push for them to take a hard look at these costs and do everything they can to minimize the impacts around affordability.

So thank you for that.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Lynn.

Look, I would have put zero, but you know, sorry.

Or a negative, refunds.

Okay, so colleagues, if there's no further comments on the letter, oh, there is another one.

Sorry, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President and former Regional Water Quality Committee member.

For two years I served on the Regional Water Quality Committee and I've seen firsthand some of the challenges that we're facing.

I just wanted to echo the letter's point about Chair Belducci's leadership, Councilmember Belducci, King County Councilmember Belducci's leadership of that committee, which has been great in trying to work through the challenges that exist.

It's important to note those challenges.

One of the challenges that exist, and I just want to foot-stomp, is how the Wastewater Treatment Division, King County, does its business.

you know it's interesting being in these meetings and seeing the planning process and I was really surprised and obviously raised my voice to made some points about it which was echoed and supported by members of MUPAC the Metropolitan Water Pollution Abatement Advisory Committee but the main piece was in terms of best practices is doing what we're doing.

In terms of having some understanding and planning is having the six-year system where the three years are locked and then the next three years are essentially a guide and working through the process and anticipating what challenges may be there.

One of the things that needs to happen, and I don't have a specific update on this, is that they need to adopt the best practices that we've adopted here in Seattle with SPU.

Otherwise, you know, these kinds of things will continue to happen, and it goes to the planning process.

that exist.

And colleagues, and I'm glad Council Member Lynn's taken my spot since I couldn't sit on it anymore.

But these are the things that make a difference.

And I just wanted to highlight that best practice.

And it's important that SPU does it for Seattle.

And by the way, there's gonna be a hit here too because that three-year lock on the rates is gonna be impacted, we're gonna be impacted with this massive increase from the county side, or from the regional side.

And so I just wanted to note that and foot stomp that, and also colleagues, Long ago at the beginning, I said I don't do sign-on letters, so the fact that I do not sign on this doesn't mean I don't support it, because I think it's a very well-written letter catching all the points.

And again, I just wanted to note that about King County Councilmember Belducci, but more importantly, really highlight the piece regarding the six-year period and the planning period.

That's so important.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Definitely a shout out to Councilmember Balducci and her leadership on this has been phenomenal during this process.

And colleagues, just so you know, besides the rate ask, it's also asking, like Councilmember Kettle said, a future planning so we can lock in rates.

And I know that I spoke to the executive office at King County and their intentions are to get it under single digits as we're moving forward, which is going to be very, very important.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proposed 2027 King County sewer rate and future projections letter?

Council member Lynn.

Yes.

Council member Rink.

Yes.

Council member Rivera.

Aye.

Council member Saka.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle?

No.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Awesome.

Thank you, colleagues.

We'll get that sent over right away.

Really appreciate everyone's collaborative efforts on that.

I believe Councilmember Rivera has something for the body as well.

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

I actually, well, today is May 5th, so I wanted to recognize our Mexican-American residents here in the city and throughout the country and for their many contributions to our city and across the country.

I wanted to just recognize that.

Also, on a more somber note, I want to give a shout out to our colleague, Councilmember Juarez, who I know is excused from Council meeting today, but she did remind me that today is Red Dress Day in recognition of national awareness for murdered Indigenous women and girls and missing Indigenous women and girls in folks wear red in honor of the victims.

We know that in this country, indigenous women and girls face a high risk of violent crime.

They're murdered at a rate 10 times more than the national average.

And so I really wanted to thank our colleague, my Latina sister, Councilmember Juarez, for bringing that reminder and wanted to just us have that recognition and acknowledgement today.

This is a very serious and important issue in this country and one that we have to continue to keep at the forefront.

So thank you for giving me the opportunity to shout that out in recognition of our colleague and just more importantly in recognition and acknowledgement of this continued issue in our indigenous community.

women and girls today.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Are there any other further comments to come before the body?

Before we end real quick, because this has gotten buried in the news, but I think it's very relevant, is that what needs to be highlighted a lot is that the Supreme Court has knocked out a lot of voting rights.

ahead of midterms, which really affects a lot of the southern states and that really affects the demographic that we see reflected in our body at the Senate and the Congress in the United States that affects local elections that we elect.

It's something that has gotten really buried in the news because other things that are really relevant, but I think it's something that we need to highlight and continue to talk about.

The Supreme Court, the highest court, knocking out a lot of the legs of that Voting Rights Act table that we have in the United States.

So just encouraging everyone to continue to vote.

as well.

So anyways, that is it for the good of the order.

I don't know if anyone has anything else to say.

I'll look left and right.

And we have reached the end of today's meeting.

The next city council meeting will be May the 12th at 2 p.m.

And hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you.