Seattle City Council Meeting 03/05/24

Good afternoon, everybody.

The March 5th, 2024 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 201. I'm Sarah Nelson, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Kettle.

Here.

Council member Moore.

Present.

Council member Morales.

Here.

Council member Rivera.

Present.

Council member Saka.

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council Member Wu?

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Nine present.

Thank you very much.

So the first item up is that Council Member Moore has a proclamation proclaiming March 2024 to be Women's History Month.

Council Member Moore will share some comments on the proclamation, then I'll open the floor for comments from Council Members.

And then after Council Member comments, we'll suspend the rules to allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide comments themselves.

So, Council Member Moore, you are recognized in order to address the proclamation.

Thank you very much, Council President.

So, colleagues, I wanted to thank you for adding your name in recognition of both the successes thus far and the work yet to be accomplished on behalf of women's equality.

The fact that the council has a super majority of women serving on the dais is a testament to the successes.

Each of you has had to overcome barriers to be the leaders that you are here today, and I am honored to serve alongside each of you, and I am grateful for the opportunity that we have as a group to improve the lives of all women in our community.

The work yet to be done, however, includes breaking down barriers for women in the workplace, including securing equal pay and affordable childcare and elder care.

We see daily attacks on women's reproductive healthcare, as well as some of the highest rates of maternal mortality.

After generations of work, there remains much to be done to tear down ongoing barriers for women, barriers experienced more acutely by Black, Brown, Indigenous, and BIPOC women.

Recognizing the importance of addressing the barriers women face, Seattle created the Women's Commission.

The Seattle Women's Commission is composed of 21 accomplished individuals who come together as volunteers to research, analyze, and make recommendations to the mayor, city council, and city departments on issues facing women in Seattle.

The City Women's Commission prioritizes issues experienced by all women and those most impacted by gender bias, including transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people who may not identify as women.

The last two years, the Seattle Women's Commission has focused their talents on affordable childcare, amplifying policy and public awareness surrounding missing and murdered indigenous women, and promoting housing access.

So I believe that we have Crystal and Sarah are currently the two co-chairs of the commission and have both been serving on the commission for almost two years.

So I wanted to thank both of them for their leadership on this commission and your work on this proclamation.

The city is lucky to have dedicated public servants such as yourselves.

And even though I'm doing it remotely, I am pleased to present this proclamation to the city's Women's Commission.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Are there any comments that people would like to add to this today?

Oh, okay.

Apparently they're not present, but...

Okay.

Well, I just would like to thank you again for bringing this forward.

So are they on Zoom?

Would they like to address us?

Yes.

Okay, so...

I don't see any other comments, so you are welcome to invite the people to speak.

I will have to, if there is no objection, I will suspend the rules to allow our guests to address us today.

Do we have members of the day of Zoom in?

At this point, they're not present.

When they do arrive, we can get back to this item, if that's okay with the council.

Sure.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

We will take a pause on this item and then come back to it when people are present.

Thank you very much.

Okay, the next item on our agenda is the public comment period.

Colleagues at this time will open the hybrid public comment period on items on today's agenda or within the scope of the council committees.

Madam Clerk, how many people are signed up today?

We currently have five in person.

Jody, do you have the number of remote speakers?

We have two remote, but neither are present at this time.

Okay, we will start with the in-person commenters, and each person will have two minutes.

Go ahead, Jody, with the public comment.

Thank you.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

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

If there are many speakers, we will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

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

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time.

to allow us to call on the next speaker.

We're going to begin with in-person speakers and the public comment is now open.

Our first in-person speaker is John, followed by Gary.

Thank you.

I am here because the pay up bill is not only not working, but is causing harm.

I was earning plenty before the bill.

We did not ask for a change to the pay model.

We knew this bill would fail.

The majority of businesses I've spoken to are down 30 to 50%.

We do want and need more transparency and job protection, and that is coming with the January 2025 bill.

Thank you for passing that.

Two weeks ago, I placed an order as a customer for $27 worth of food.

The fees were $21.

Fees have more than doubled from a similar order I placed on January 3rd.

Tax on orders went from 12% to 16%.

The service charge went from $7 to $9 and plus the new pay up $5 fee.

Customers are never going to come back if the delivery fees are over $20.

Last week, I worked 65 hours and made $419.

On Sunday, I worked seven hours and made $30.

We need the city council to help get our employment back.

This is no longer a viable job.

The old system was imperfect, but it worked for anyone willing to work hard.

Our next speaker is Gary, followed by Eric.

Good afternoon, Council.

Thank you for your time.

Brought some visuals.

Trying to go glassless here, I guess.

So $26.40 an hour.

This is $12 an hour.

And some are at that, $8 an hour.

So what we're thinking is...

Some restaurants might not care.

They have three locations.

They have two in Bothell or Everett, and who knows?

Maybe they look at it as a tax write-off.

Some have one in the city.

I've heard from those.

It's not good.

It's not pretty.

They don't understand it.

They just know that they're down X percent.

You heard that from John.

Some customers don't care, and those are the ones that John mentioned.

They might not come back.

Maybe they will.

Maybe they won't.

You know, essentially, there's disabled and elderly.

They're on a fixed income.

They have no choice.

That's, I think, a tragedy right there in and of itself.

You know, we want to restore our free market wages.

It'll enable mom and pop restaurants to recover and let Seattle be more of a free market again.

I think that was good.

We were all thriving under that in our craft, knowing what we're doing.

It's going to lower prices for consumers.

Higher volume, higher volume, higher volume.

That's what we need.

That's what the restaurants need.

Even the ones with three locations, they're not going to balk at that.

So I've sort of gone out of order here.

And I've seen the GeekWire article, Sarah, and I urge you to negotiate for all the restaurants, the consumers.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Eric followed by Joe.

Oh, yeah, I've been a driver for about five years.

Hello, I've been a...

Closer to the mic, please.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm new to this.

I've been a driver for about five years.

And I noticed right when the law changed, the first day the pay was great, and I was scared.

I was thinking, hey, I'm getting paid way too much money to deliver this food.

This is not economical for the employer.

I've been a business owner myself quite a few times, and I like to put myself in the shoes of everybody I'm working with and the restaurant owners and everybody else.

I think that there were some good things that were changed, but I think the pendulum a lot of times swings far one way and then far the other way, and it went really too far to the right.

The other day I was making a delivery and I took a wrong turn and it took me 35 minutes sitting in line at the restaurant that I was delivering for Popeyes.

And I got paid $35 for the delivery, which is great, but the food only costs like 12 bucks.

So it just doesn't make any sense.

So I think it definitely went a little too far and it's costing the customers a lot of money and the restaurants a lot of business too.

I've got a lot of friends my friends at burritos, California, and quite a few other ones, you know, Wendy's and the other business owners.

And I've heard the same thing that these guys are saying that, you know, they've lost a lot of business.

I've also heard from a lot of customers saying, I can't order this.

I mean, it's $25 in food.

It's $45 to order this.

I can't do it.

I think the customers will come back, you know, if they see that the fees, you know, change and there's advertising out there.

But, yeah, right now it's making it a lot slower for everybody.

And I think the biggest thing is this law right here is just not profitable for DoorDash or Uber Eats or Grubhub or any of the other ones.

It's just not a good business model, I don't think.

So that's what I got to say.

Joe will be followed by Kevin.

Appreciate your time.

Hi, my name is Joe Malloy.

I live in Ballard.

And I am the founder of an organization that believes that up to 85% of adults who experience homelessness are autistic.

Currently, this is a problem that is treated as a housing problem, a mental health issue, and a drug problem.

And it is all of those things.

But before that, it's an issue of a neurological condition that we collectively as a society do not understand how to treat.

Neurological conditions are different than mental health and physical health and need to be treated differently, particularly when it comes to communication.

There's no cure for autism, dyslexia, these sorts of things, and often the only treatment for individuals is a healthy support system that can allow them to sort of experience transitions in life and traumas without falling into mental health problems.

That is often what happens.

mental health problems are created after a trauma, and then in worst cases, drugs are used to regulate a dysregulated nervous system.

It's the same as being in a fight or flight situation all the time, right?

So our organization believes that re-approaching these issues through the lens of autism and neurodivergence can reduce the amount of people who cycle through short-term housing, these kinds of transitional spaces, and the amount of people who refuse services on the ground.

I've been a part of advocacy groups for like on the ground, and I've seen this in person myself.

I have people in reach and hope who would probably testify that they've seen this as well.

We just want to explore options for a new approach that matches people with the services based on their own neurological conditions.

Thank you for your time, Councilman Strauss, and look forward to your comments on the KCRHA reallocation tonight at the Finneywood meeting.

Thank you.

Our last in-person speaker will be Kevin.

Hold on, please.

And after Kevin, I would like to...

break public comment and move it to the two co-chairs because they just have arrived, I understand.

And then when the proclamation is finished, we'll terminate public comment.

Okay.

Hello, Council.

Thank you for your time.

I've worked as a courier for eight years in Seattle, and up until seven weeks ago, I loved what I did.

Since then, I've heard my peers and extended community lament about their pain since the new gig economy ordinance went into effect.

They've stated facts and made sound arguments for change and demonstrated consequences of poor legislature.

Today, I appeal to the humanistic side of the men and women in front of me, the ones who have the power to affect change.

As Sarah Nelson recently said in a GeekWire article, it's time to get over this us versus them attitude.

Why?

The animosity towards these corporate giants has trickled down to my peers.

When the built stress turned to infighting after the February 20th city council meeting, and now I feel alone as I struggle to maintain connection within my direct community.

Before working as a courier, I moved from Brooklyn, New York to work in the mountains of the beautiful Pacific Northwest as an outdoor educator and technical skills mountain instructor.

I facilitated single day, two week long leadership experiences for youth, young adults, all while teaching technical climbing, backpacking, mountaineering, and canoeing skills.

buttress through the establishment of rapport while managing physical and emotional safety.

This was inherently a stressful job, yet I felt alive and full of joy developing the trust and skills necessary to collaborate with my peers and those I instructed.

Outside of working in the mountains, I've climbed technical routes of Mount Hood, Baker, Adams, and Rainier, and been successful on many multi-pitch routes in the Cascades.

Again, these are inherently stressful, dangerous situations in which measurable consequences of life and death exist.

That's all to say, despite this stress and navigating these challenges, I overcame that, and I'm faced with stress now in my working environment in Seattle as a courier.

The last seven weeks have proven to be more stressful.

The scarcity is real, the powerlessness is real, the hunger is real, and the disconnection is palpable.

So I encourage you, President Nelson, let's make a change and move forward so that our community can get back to thriving instead of surviving.

Thank you.

It does not appear that the remote speakers are present.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay, so I will now declare that the public comment period is closed today.

Oh, it's held.

It's held, and then we can go back to public comment to finish the remote public commenters.

Oh, Jody, sorry.

Did you confirm that there are no currently remote public commenters present today?

There are no remote commenters present.

There were only two, neither of them are present.

So I believe we're finished.

Right.

So, colleagues, we have now reached the end of our public comment period and we'll proceed to the next item.

However, I will take this opportunity to say that I have written to the executive on the pay-up legislation and I said that this first in nation and this untested legislation caused a problem and it's incumbent upon us to find a solution that will result in lower costs of customers return to ordering at pre-implementation levels.

So that's the only thing that will reverse the unintended consequences I predicted long ago, reduced customer demand, reduced driver income, and reduced restaurant and retail business revenue.

So I hear you.

All right, proceeding right along, I will now ask Council Member Moore to introduce the people that will be receiving the proclamation.

And I am resuspending the rules so that the people that are with us today can address us.

Hearing no objection, those rules are suspended.

Great.

Thank you, Council President.

So I would like to reintroduce Crystal and Sarah, who are currently serving as the co-chairs for the Seattle Women's Commission.

We did present the proclamation to them, so I'd like to turn it over to them for any brief comments they may have.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Council Member Moore.

My name is Crystal Guerrero, and I'm a co-chair of the Seattle Women's Commission.

Can you all hear me okay?

Yes.

Awesome.

Okay.

So good afternoon.

On behalf of the Seattle Women's Commission, we are honored to accept this proclamation declaring the month of March to be Women's History Month.

The contributions of women throughout history have greatly helped advance our society, and yet the role of women has been overlooked and undervalued.

While there has been great progress made, there is still a lot of work to be done before we can reach the true gender equality.

Thank you, City Council, for recognizing the importance of this work and celebrating the contributions of women.

When we uplift women, we uplift society as a whole.

Let's all work towards a future where women's contributions and rights are fully respected and celebrated.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you very much.

It's been a pleasure.

Thank you for working with me on the proclamation and all the work that you do on behalf of women in all of the community in Seattle.

Thank you again.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

I look forward to checking out more of your work and I'm wondering are there any events or anything planned or are they accessible on the website about March 8th?

yes so um to learn more about what the women's commission is doing we have a public meeting uh open on march 18th monday march 18th and we will be able to share more information about what we're doing for women's history month at that meeting so please join if interested thank you very much and thank you again councilmember moore all right moving right along

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

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

And if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

WE'LL NOW CONSIDER THE PROPOSED CONSENT CALENDAR.

ITEMS ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR ARE THE MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 27, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING AND COUNCIL BILL 120746, WHICH IS THE PAYMENT OF THE BILLS.

ARE THERE ANY COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO REMOVE ANY ITEMS FROM TODAY'S CONSENT CALENDAR?

All right, well, I would like to remove item one, the minutes of February 27th for further consideration and perhaps more detail.

Are there any objections to that removal?

All right, thank you.

Item one has been removed from and will be addressed separately.

I move to adopt the consent calendar excluding item one.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar, excluding item one.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Excellent, the consent calendar excluding item one are adopted.

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

Thank you.

All right, will the clerk please call the roll, excuse me, will the clerk please read the title of item one into the record?

Agenda Item 1, Council Bill 120725 relating to the Cedar River Watershed, authorizing five years of ecological thinning in accordance to the Cedar River Watershed Habitat Conservation Plan and Forest Management Plan.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Hollingsworth is the chair of the committee.

You're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

Colleagues, thank you for this consideration on Council Bill 120725. This passed at a committee last week, five to zero.

I also wanna recognize and thank Council Member Peterson for his work.

He is the sponsor of this bill and that worked that work carried over to our committee this is regarding the cedar river watershed thinning i also want to note that council prince council president nelson brought it up in the committee as you can see in the bill that the sale of the lumbers to be sold to local companies for local use and i think that's really important that that will be kept locally a lot of the timber that is sold this has wide support from seattle public utilities and the muckleshoot tribe And I would also, if it would be okay to add my name as a co-sponsor to the bill as well.

And colleagues, thank you for your consideration of the bill.

And I'm hoping it will pass out today so we can allow Seattle Public Utilities to continue to maintain our beloved watershed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any comments before we take a vote?

Seeing none.

Well, Council Member Hollingsworth, what was the vote coming out of committee?

Excuse me.

It was five to zero.

Thank you very much.

All right Okay, I think that we're ready to To take a roll call vote.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Councilmember kettle Councilmember more Councilmember Morales.

Yes Councilmember Rivera Councilmember Saka Councilmember Strauss Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

And in favor?

None opposed.

All right.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Thank you.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item two into the records?

There's an item removed from the consent calendar.

The minutes of February 27th were removed.

So if there's no objection, the minutes of February 27th will be postponed until March 12th.

All right.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are postponed to March 12th.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item two into the records?

Agenda item two, resolution 32128, a resolution setting the public hearing on the petition of Denny and Eastlake Limited Partnership and Denny and Stewart Limited Partnership on the vacation of the alley.

Okay, this is an item coming out of this, regards the Transportation Committee, and so I am going to let Councilmember Saka address this bill.

Thank you, Madam President.

So, colleagues, the effect of this resolution would be essentially to allow us to schedule a public comment period, which would be set to allow us to consider basically an initial resolution briefing or hearing on this matter in our Transportation Committee meeting on April 2nd.

And so today's resolution on the agenda, again, it would set that public hearing for a very specific alley vacation request for the block of Denny and Stewart.

So this is in downtown.

So this is Councilmember Kettle's district.

The public hearing for the 1305 Stewart vacation would be held again on Tuesday April 2nd at our Transportation Committee meeting in that morning under state law the council Needs to set a public hearing on a vacation through the adoption of a resolution So that's this is the sort of nuts and bolts and mechanics how we effectuate that and live up to our legal obligations The exact project at issue, it would, well, the project that Vacation would facilitate, rather, is a 13-story biotech research facility, and the developer is Biomed Realty.

The alley is on the triangle-shaped block located between Denny Way and East Lake Avenue and Stewart Street, all near I-5.

And so fairly routine matter.

We're not voting on granting the vacation requests today.

We are merely complying with our legal obligations to move it forward for the next step, which is a public hearing.

And if granted, it would be on April 2nd.

Thank you very much for that explanation.

So procedural vote today here, just setting, passing a resolution that will allow us to set a public hearing so that we can comply with 30 day notice requirements.

Okay, I move to adopt resolution 32128. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.

Are there any comments from my colleagues?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor.

None opposed.

All right.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Is there any other business to come before council.

All right.

Well, then we've reached the end of today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting will be held on March 12th at 2 p.m.

It is now 2.31.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.