City Council Meeting 04/02/2024

Dias, right?

Order in the house.

Hi, everybody.

Good afternoon.

The April 2nd, 2024 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2-0-1.

I'm Sarah Nelson, President of the Council.

Will the Clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council Member Wu?

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Moore?

Present.

Council Member Morales?

Council Member Rivera?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Eight present.

All right.

Moving on, Councilmember Moore and Councilmember Wu have a proclamation proclaiming April 2024 to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Seattle.

Councilmembers Moore and Wu will provide comments on the proclamation, then I'll open the floor to comments from councilmembers.

And then after councilmember comments, we'll suspend the rules to present the proclamation to our guests and allow our guests to provide brief comments themselves.

Council Member Moore, you are recognized to speak.

Thank you very much, Council President.

So I want to thank my council colleagues for adding their signatures to this proclamation.

I want to thank the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, KSARC, and the Seattle Women's Commission for being here today to accept this proclamation.

On behalf, the city thanks you for all the work you do to bring awareness to the issue of sexual assault, your determination to combat this pervasive issue, and your commitment to provide support to survivors.

I'm honored to join Councilmember Wu in presenting you both this proclamation, and I will now turn it over to my colleague, Councilmember Wu.

Thank you, Councilmember Moore.

It's been an honor to work with you and the Office of the Council President on this important proclamation, especially thanks to Hannah from your staff for this partnership, as well as Lowman's Commission and the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center.

So...

Are we making our comments now?

Okay.

Today we gather not only as individuals, but as a unified force driven by a common purpose, and that is to confront the issues of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment.

And as we embark on this journey together, it is crucial to acknowledge the unique perspectives and experiences within the diverse communities of Seattle.

For too long, the shadows of silence have obscured the reality of sexual violence within our communities, cultural stigmas and taboos, have shrouded these conversations, leaving survivors feeling isolated and unheard, but together we stand to break the silence and to shine a light on this critical issue.

And so as a person of color, I want to point out the complexities and nuances that surrounds discussions of sexual violence.

And I also want to talk about the culture, tradition, and gender dynamics that can either perpetuate or challenge harmful behavior.

But let us be clear, no tradition, no cultural norm can ever justify the violation of another person's anatomy and dignity.

And so I wanna talk a little about consent.

Consent is not just merely a Western concept.

It is the universal principle rooted in respect and equity and equality.

It's about recognizing and honoring the agency of every individual, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, or background.

Consent is not silent, it is explicit.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that consent is not only understood, but actively practiced in every interaction.

And so awareness is alone not enough.

We must work tirelessly to dismantle the systems of power and oppression that enable sexual violence to thrive.

We must challenge harmful stereotypes and confront toxic culture that perpetuates a culture of entitlement and coercion.

And we must hold perpetrators accountable for their actions regardless of their status or privilege.

And so today we come together to commemorate Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Let us recommit ourselves to the fight against sexual violence.

Let us pledge to be allies to survivors and amplify their voices and to create safe and inclusive spaces where they can seek support and healing.

And let us never waver in our pursuit of justice, equality, and respect for all.

Council President.

Yes.

I know I was excused yesterday for Monday morning briefing and Monday afternoon briefing where we signed this.

If possible, I'd like to add my name.

Noted.

Sure, that's fine.

Thank you.

I will leave that up to the sponsors that...

Absolutely.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Did you want to ask my comments?

What?

Did you want to ask people my comments?

Yes.

At this point, I will open the floor for comments to any of my colleagues.

Well, I'll chime in and just say that as somebody who participated in the annual Take Back the Night march, and I know that I'm dating myself, I appreciate both of you very much for bringing this forward.

I recognize that things have come a long way since then, since back in the 80s, the emphasis on consent and the recognition of the breadth of people that experience sexual violence and assault.

However it is defined, it has grown, and that is a good thing, but we still have long to go.

So thank you very much for bringing this forward and increasing the awareness and the attention to the matter.

With that, if there are no other comments from my council members, if there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to present the proclamation and allow our guests to accept it and provide remarks.

Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and the proclamation will now be presented.

Thank you.

I will be presenting the proclamation to Whitney Nakamura from the Women's Commission.

Good night, everyone.

I'm glad to receive this proclamation on behalf of the Seattle Women's Commission.

We are a diverse group of women who volunteer as commissioners because we care deeply about our communities and about our city.

We develop our focus areas and work plans through surveys and other public engagement activities, as well as through our experiences and expertise from our various professional and community roles.

Topics around violence and safety continue to be priority issues identified by Seattleites and by our commissioners.

Therefore, the commission has maintained related work for many years, including subcommittees focused on health and wellbeing and addressing gender-based violence and especially missing and murdered indigenous women.

Thank you to the council and for the mayor for recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

This is an issue that impacts all of us and each of us has a role to take in being part of the solution.

Thank you to all the survivors, advocates, coalitions, groups, and organizations promoting healing, support, and hope in our region.

They envision the liberated anti-racist future that we deserve.

We need to continue resourcing these efforts and we can and must join alongside them in this work to create safe, healthy, and respectful communities.

Thank you.

So I am honored to have Kate Krug from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center joining us today to also receive this proclamation.

I want to thank Kate and everyone in this work spirit and the entire team for the extremely difficult yet crucial work that you do every single day.

Thank you, Councilmember Wu.

Hi, everybody.

As you just heard, my name is Kate Krug, and I am the CEO at the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, a nonprofit that serves the city and all of the communities throughout King County.

I'm here to accept the Sexual Assault Awareness Month proclamation on behalf of our organization.

Thank you for being part of the solution to sexual violence.

To the survivors in our community, I want to say you are not alone.

Sexual assault is common.

Half of women and one-third of men have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.

People from marginalized communities, people whose disability, race or ethnicity, gender or sexual identities are at even greater risk.

Chances are you know someone who has been sexually abused.

The trauma of sexual assault is something that can affect a survivor's mental, physical, and behavioral health, their ability to form healthy relationships, remain in school or in the workplace, and so much more.

but recovery from sexual trauma is possible with support.

KSARC assisted more than 4,800 individuals and survivors and their family members in 2023. Almost half of KSARC's clients are teens and children.

We know that young people are the most vulnerable to sexual assault and the least likely to speak up about it or to be believed about it.

I want to let our community know that we are free and confidential.

Help is always available to survivors or anyone who needs information about sexual assault.

Our 24-hour resource line is a good starting point.

888-99-VOICE.

We always say we can't change what we can't talk about.

Thank you for your leadership and willingness to be loud about sexual assault.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, colleagues, at this time, we'll move to the hybrid public comment period.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have 16 in person and nine remote.

Okay, we'll start with speakers in council chambers first, and each speaker will have one minute.

Madam Clerk, I will now lead the...

hand this over to you to read the instructions and call on individual speakers.

Thank you.

The public comment period will be up to 20 minutes, possibly a little longer.

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

We may alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers.

We will be starting with in-person speakers.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time, and speakers' mics will be muted if they don't in their comments within the allotted time.

So we can call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

I begin, we have one minute.

Is that right, Council President?

Was it one minute?

Yes, it was.

And before we continue, I just want to note that Council Member Morales is present.

Thank you.

Our first speaker will be Steve Claygett, followed by John Stomstad.

Go ahead, Steve.

Hi, my name's Steve.

You have to speak right into it.

Okay, my name is Steve Claggett.

I live in Councilmember Kathy Moore's District 5 at 1419 Northeast 107th Street.

Your website says two minutes.

I timed this three times to get it down to one minute and 52 seconds.

I'm going to abridge it for you as best I can to keep it to one minute.

I urge you to change your website, please.

Noted.

Thank you.

Seattle is one of the first cities in the nation to adopt a minimum wage.

Proudly, this council understood it must also provide minimum protections when corporate America evaded unions and regular employment by creating the gig worker, the so-called independent contractor.

Word down the street is that your governance committee is looking first up at reducing the protection of the pay-up ordinance.

Many of your campaigns got strong business support to do just this, but I caution you to wait, to watch, and to move slowly.

Your voters are watching, and the alarm is being raised, lest you step backwards from effectively maintaining minimum wage guarantees for all who work in our community.

Thank you sincerely for the council's history, the workers' support, and for its cutting-edge leadership.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is John Stomstad, followed by Sasha Bomarito.

When fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.

That is what has happened to Working Washington and their supporters.

Working Washington is sacrificing us as pawns in a larger labor dispute.

MLK Labor Council said the quiet part out loud in The Stranger last Thursday.

They mean well but are so privileged they can't see how the pay-up bill is harming so many vulnerable people, and instead they obfuscate the facts.

Look at the downstream costs of 1,000 people becoming homeless.

Those people lose their cars and their license because of a few tickets they can no longer pay.

Now they are unemployable.

Think about all the people who can't pay their taxes in a couple of weeks.

Last week, I worked 54 hours and made $325.

Last year for that week, I made $739 in 41 hours.

Drive Forward gave some great concrete info on how this bill is hurting workers.

But the people hurt most by the bill are taking online lobby group surveys, so the actual results are so much more dire.

I pick up from McDonald's on 3rd Avenue every day.

I see the people there.

Let's not add to it.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Sasha Bomarito, and Sasha will be followed by Ms. Hernandez with her interpreter, Danielle.

But go ahead, Sasha.

Thank you.

My name is Sasha Bomarito.

I'm chief steward with Machinist Union Local 289. We are your auto mechanics.

I've participated with the negotiating committee with the Coalition of City Unions that helped bring the union contract package before you today.

I'm also an emergency vehicle technician in the Seattle Fire Garage.

And if you read the Seattle Times yesterday, you know we're in trouble.

And if we're in trouble, if we're in trouble, this city is in trouble.

We're working on an aging fleet with a skeleton crew.

We are dramatically understaffed, and burnout is getting its hooks in us.

But it's not just the fire garage.

Mechanics in our division serve the Seattle Police, City Light, Downtown Motor Pool.

We are losing skilled technicians at an unprecedented and unsustainable rate.

It's not just the mechanics, it's carpenters, plumbers, electricians.

We need to be able to offer more and we need to do it fast.

Thank you so much for your support in this.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be Ms. Hernandez with her interpreter, Danielle, and we will allow two minutes to allow for the interpretation.

So thank you, timekeeper.

And go ahead.

Buenas tardes.

Soy María Trinidad Hernández de Sondiveros.

Fui Dasher por casi tres años.

Por eso estoy y estaré aquí para promover leyes que protejan a los trabajadores más desprotegidos.

Incluso los bancos, cuando solicitamos un crédito con nuestro depósito, dicen que esto no es un trabajo.

Entonces, señoras y señores del Consejo, ¿qué somos los trabajadores GIC?

Somos utilizados para hacer deliveries, cuidar mascotas, etc.

Pero no merecemos leyes que nos protejan y nos apoyen con un salario justo.

No merecemos días de enfermedad.

No merecemos pagos justos por parte de las compañías que utilizan, que nos utilizan, usan y abusan de nosotros.

Le pedimos al consejo de la ciudad de Seattle que piensen en los trabajadores de que día y noche hacemos estos trabajos y que estamos expuestos a robos de autos, golpes, asaltos y accidentes.

¿Dónde está el lema, nadie está por encima de la ley?

¿Y las compañías si pueden usar y abusar de nosotros?

Thank you, go ahead.

Good afternoon.

I am Trinidad Hernandez Ontiveros.

I was a Dasher for almost three years, which is why I promote laws that protect the most unprotected workers.

We gig workers are the most vulnerable and unprotected workers.

Even the banks, when we request a loan with our deposits, say this is not a job.

So ladies and gentlemen, what are we gig workers?

We are used to make deliveries, take care of pets, but don't we deserve laws that protect us and support us with a fair salary?

Don't we deserve sick days?

Don't we deserve fair payments from companies that use us and abuse us?

We ask the Seattle City Council to think about the workers who do these jobs day and night and who are exposed to car thefts, beatings, assaults, accidents.

Where is the motto, no one is above the law?

Can companies abuse and use us?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be Alex Kim, and Alex will be followed by Gary Lardizabel.

Go ahead, Alex.

Please do not applaud or...

or speak in between speakers, it slows down the process.

Thank you.

But you can silently express your support.

Hi, my name is Alex Kim, and I'm here in support of the app-based worker minimum pay.

This law has only been enacted for 80 short days before the government has decided to take action to repeal and replace the law with a version that's been created essentially by people who are Pinkertons.

Is this democratic?

Absolutely not.

If the majority of workers wanted this, maybe it would be.

But that's not the case here.

So why haven't workers been heard?

One, there's a belief amongst workers that saying how well you're doing is a detriment because it draws more people to your area.

So people aren't going to be saying, oh, it's so great for me.

Two, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, meaning the few people who have been resistant to change are of course gonna speak out against it and be loud.

People that are happy, they're just gonna be working.

Now three, Seattle says it's dedicated to equity.

Many of these workers are immigrants and do not speak English and are not politically engaged.

Immigrants make up one of the largest group of these workers and do not know what is happening.

It is the opposite of equity to change this law without hearing from them, pro or against.

The Seattle City Council cannot drive forward with replacing this law until more workers have been allowed to have their voices heard.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Gary Lardezabel, and he will be followed by Jason Oglenick.

Go ahead, Gary.

Reminder, please do not clap in between the speakers.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

I present today the grand compromise which will not take away protections and will not take away rights of workers.

Give this change a vote.

Let it see the light of day.

Both sides have an opportunity to basically reduce the rates.

DoorDash said they are willing to negotiate this.

Frankly, this is far more collaboration, this is far more collaboration than the 22 council received.

They had no collaboration with the companies.

Now we have that opportunity for collaboration to keep protections.

These protections are gonna be kept, which was falsely said by the last speaker.

Lisa Herbal took a leap of faith by saying, it's up to the gig companies to decide if they're going to raise rates.

Well, that leap of faith was a disaster.

Keep this leap of faith and make this right.

Rideshare is down.

Don't solidify your faith by not voting for this.

Let it see the light of day.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jason Oglenick, followed by Stefan Schmidt.

Go ahead, Jason.

And your time will start now.

Go ahead and start the time, please.

Financially, I've been treading water since January 13. I work 60 hours per week and I'm barely able to scrape by.

It's impossible to save for an emergency.

I work, eat, and sleep.

I have no time for anything that's not critical.

I need to utilize every possible minute as a work opportunity.

I keep coming back to City Hall because I know things can change.

They need to for couriers, restaurants, and customers.

I want to go over my earnings for a seven-day period recently.

for March 25th to the 31st.

I worked 53 hours plus.

My total earnings in that period were $613.

That's an average of $11.41.

That represents a better than the average week as well.

$11.41 an hour is not adequate.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Stefan Schmidt followed by Jennifer Clayton.

Hello, council.

My name is Stefan.

I work with Seattle Parks and Recreation.

I'm also a union shop steward representing the coordinators who supervise the community centers for the city of Seattle.

I'm here to optimistically say thank you for moving forward with a vote on the union council coalition contract in front of you today and optimistically say thank you for a vote yes.

Two of my positions have been GAAP now for 19 months and nine months of the last two years.

These are two of three core positions at a community center.

These positions organize regional sports leagues, senior programs.

They help scholarship registrants that may not speak English get access to our programs.

They provide programs for people with disabilities.

They deescalate people in mental health crisis.

They support childcare, respond to gun violence and mentor teens.

They are making Seattle safe and thriving today and for the future.

So I wanna thank you for moving forward with this contract, phoning yes, strengthening Seattle, making it safe, making it thrive.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jennifer Clayton and Jennifer will be followed by Spencer Cole.

Good afternoon.

I'm Jennifer Clayton.

I'm president of the Seattle Dispatchers Guild.

I'm here to represent everybody in our coalition and the contract we're about to talk about later.

As a longtime 911 dispatcher, we are the hub of many services.

We coordinate with several different departments within our city for requests from citizens of Seattle.

From parks, engineers, police, fire, EMS, CSOs, care, parking enforcement, and other public services, we are the first to pick up that phone when a community member calls for our assistance.

We work tirelessly around the clock, holidays, weekends, 24-7, to coordinate services to serve this community.

And we ask for the City Council's support today.

We ask that we support the coalition bargaining agreements as we support the community every day.

We need to support to continue to serve the city with experienced, dedicated employees through fair wages that allow us to be a part of this city.

We ask for you to answer a call today and support the CBAs of the bargaining units that keep the city running.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Spencer Cole and Spencer will be followed by Alex Zimmerman.

Go ahead, Spencer.

Yes, hi.

My name is Spencer, and I'm a supervisor with the 911 Center, also known as the Care Department.

As a civil servant, I'm deeply committed to serving Seattle, much like each of you.

Before speaking on my unique perspectives as a dispatcher, I'd like to praise all members of the coalition and city workers who tirelessly serve our community, each of them deserving to live in the city that they serve.

My coworkers and I work tirelessly through protests and pandemic.

We have endured low staffing numbers, greatly increasing our workload.

We experience firsthand the tragic gun violence that grips our city, and we hear unspeakable acts day after day.

Instead of spending holidays with family, I've instead been at work talking to someone as they take their final breaths.

These are the traumas that myself and my coworkers carry with us every day, all in the name of public safety and our profound dedication to service.

We've made significant sacrifices for a city that we now struggle to afford to live in.

Voting yes on this contract will allow countless city workers to maintain a healthy work-life balance and provide the quality of care to the citizens of Seattle they have dedicated their lives to serve.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alex Zimmerman, and Alex will be followed by Arianna Riley.

My dory them Nazi fascist junta, yeah.

Please pause the timer.

Mr. Zimmerman, please do not...

Mr. Zimmerman, please, I'm just asking...

I've stopped your timer.

I'm asking you to please not use that language.

It is considered disruptive behavior.

You may now please, Jody, start the timer again.

Go ahead and restart the timer, please.

Start the timer again.

Thank you.

So I can speak?

Keep speaking.

Yeah, so I want to speak about something that is very unique.

You cannot give every meeting one minute to people.

Look they, they like a children, you know what this mean?

Like a chicken, you know what this mean?

You give one minute and nobody protest this, why?

Because you make from they a slave, you understand?

I'm only one man for many years talking.

It's as constitutional rights speak for two minutes.

You cannot give all time one minute.

It's not possible.

Only psychopath can do this.

It's exactly what's happened.

We have too many bosses.

What is psychopath?

Example, we have three men in the row who are mentally sick.

How is this possible?

Stand up, America.

It's as constitutional right have speak here under...

Our next speaker is Ariana Riley, and Ariana will be followed by Ruby Romero.

Go ahead, Ariana.

Good afternoon, my name is Arianna Riley.

I'm a driver with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Amazon Flex in the Seattle area.

The revisions that are being proposed to the app-based work minimum payment ordinance violate federal law.

The proposed changes to the law violate not only federal, but city laws as well.

The text of the ordinance that is currently in place was written very carefully to make sure that drivers are true independent contractors.

Under federal guidance issued this year, if an employer decides when a worker can or cannot work, this makes a worker an employee and not a contractor.

Federal guidance also states that if an employer controls the wages, then a worker is an employee and not a contractor.

The proposed changes to allow DoorDash to go back to limiting our hours and to take away paid transparency conflicts with this directive.

$19 an hour for a DoorDash driver is not a $19 an hour take home, even before taxes.

As well, DoorDash already pays up to $24 an hour in Everett, yet complains that $26.50 is untenable in Seattle.

The council should abandon the idea of making...

Thank you, our next speaker will be Ruby Romero followed by Mark Solomon.

Hello, Council.

I'm a lifelong Seattleite policy analyst, musician, and most importantly, your colleague.

I hold a lived experience seat on the federal King County Continuum of Care Board, and I also co-chair the System Performance Committee for the KCRHA.

I'm here today as an individual and not representing the KCRHA.

I wanted to report on what we are focused on in reference to the questions I heard last week at the Housing and Human Services Committee.

In work groups, the board is focused on transparency and accountability that the council and the public understandably demand.

We are currently adjusting our consolidated application to eliminate performative actions made by organizations zero in on community specific gaps and continue to gather the required data for the HUD application.

We're gonna simultaneously expand those same metrics across the services landscape, including for the system rebid, which we all know is very important.

My ask is that council members join the new policy work group and tomorrow the COC board will vote to approve the scope of work.

I urge you to join because right now our solutions are more like a dog chasing their own tail and they know it.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mark Sullivan and Mark will be followed by Heather Nielsen.

Good afternoon, council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to address you.

My name is Mark Solomon.

I am a crime prevention coordinator with the Seattle Police Department, a civilian employee in that organization, and proudly represented by Protect 17. We're coming for you today to say thank you and ask for your support and your positive vote in favor of the contract.

When I first started in this position 34 years ago, our focus was residential block watch.

They're organizing and helping block watches get together.

I can't tell you the last time I actually did a straight up block watch meeting.

I can tell you the last time I had a meeting about a shots fired incident in the community.

I can tell you the last time I had a meeting about a home invasion robbery.

I can tell you about the last time that I coordinated with other city agencies to positively impact public safety and quality of life concerns in the community.

Our roles have evolved.

our responsibilities have increased and our contracts will reflect that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Heather Nielsen, and Heather will be followed by our last in-person speaker of Justin Capri.

Go ahead, Heather.

This is in regards to the payout bill.

It's obvious that most of the couriers are hurting very badly as a result of the gig worker law that started on January 13th.

And yes, it's obvious that proper studies need to be done on the negative effects incurred by the payout bill.

It's also obvious that the big corporations are not being transparent in all of their parts of their platform and payment structures.

However, rolling back the minimum wage protections provided by the Pay It bill is an ill-informed statement.

The gig workers are not being protected, nor is there time to conduct proper studies now.

Working Washington wants to keep the law as it is because they've spun the narrative that it's providing a minimum wage and couriers aren't hurting.

If this was true, we wouldn't be here.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

That's what Working Washington wants.

Drive Forward is the only group that has presented a proposed legal changes to the bill that would no longer hurt the couriers, Seattle businesses, and finally the big corporations willing to explore immediately reducing their fees if and only if a modification to the current law is made.

This is a win, win, win.

The only choice is forward is to amend the current bill as it is using.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, our last in-person speaker is Justin Capri, and then we'll move into a few remote speakers.

Thank you.

I hope Working Washington actually sees what they have done.

If anybody is unaware, let me expand on this.

The demise of the Seattle gig worker industry has arrived.

No longer is there an actual working wage for hardworking gig workers.

Some of the cars talk about how they are making money.

It's because they are sitting in traffic getting paid for nothing.

That's a waste of time and money.

As a bike messenger, I was working as hard as I could, doing as many deliveries as I could, which was 20 to 30 orders a day.

Now it's one to two if I'm lucky.

That cut my income from $200 a day to 13. My rent is due pay up working Washington because the craft that I have strived so hard to perfect over the past 10 years is done.

It's dead.

It's gone.

Thank you.

We'll now move into remote speakers, and as a reminder for remote commenters, to press star six when you hear a prompt if you have been unmuted.

That's the only way we'll be able to hear you, star six.

So our first remote speaker is Robin Dutt, and Robin will be followed by Michael Smith.

Go ahead, Robin, and you have one minute.

Timer, are they showing present?

Yeah, they are not unmuted.

Robin, you may need to press star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, we'll move on to Michael Smith and come back to Robin.

Michael, please remember to press star six.

You're up next.

Hello, my name is Michael Smith.

I live in Seattle third district in the central district and I'm a food delivery customer through DoorDash and Uber Eats.

I believe all workers deserve to earn at least a minimum wage and the pay up law makes sure that Seattle delivery drivers get paid fairly.

As a delivery customer, I want to make sure that the workers delivering my food are getting paid a fair wage after expenses.

If the minimum wage for gig workers is repealed, I won't feel comfortable using delivery services because I'll know that workers are being exploited every time I place an order.

I'm frustrated that delivery corporations have passed the expenses of paying their workers fairly onto their customers.

This is clearly a tactic for tipping the scales in favor of rich business executives instead of working people.

So I ask those on the Seattle City Council not to fall for these companies' unfair tactics and to keep the pay up law intact.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kat Beck.

Hi, I'm a delivery customer in District 3 in Madrona, and I want to testify in support of pay up and against Nelson's proposed corporate amendments.

I've always felt uncomfortable ordering delivery knowing how little workers get paid, and now I know that they're getting paid at least the minimum wage after expenses.

I'm seeing companies say that workers don't like the law, but let's be real, workers don't want you to cut their pay.

And I talk to workers when I order delivery, and what I hear from the vast majority of gig workers is that the law is working, and they're finally getting decent pay, and they don't want that to change.

And customers don't want it to change either.

We're proud of taking care of workers in Seattle, so please don't repeal or gut the pay-up law.

And also, while I'm here, please improve the Line 8 bus.

It's consistently late, and recently my closest staff was removed.

Thousands of people rely on this bus line.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Olivia Hill.

Hi.

My name is Olivia.

I'm a resident in District 2. I'm a customer of various delivery service apps.

And I've worked for DoorDash and Instacart at various points in my life.

And today I want to speak in support of PayUp.

I often use delivery due to my own work schedule.

and was disheartened, to say the least, when the aggressive anti-worker messages started popping up on the apps after pay-up was passed.

Paying minimum wage in Seattle or anywhere is really not negotiable, and to think our city council would consider repealing or rolling back protections, ensuring that, is really unacceptable.

I oppose changes to pay-up legislation or a repeal.

Don't let companies fool our city into going back on workers.

Thank you.

Thank you, our next speaker is Anne Gooden.

Anne, you may need, there you go, thanks.

And we're not able to hear you.

We might come back to you.

It sounds like a bad connection.

Let's move on to Earl J. Kaoli.

Earl J.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, yes.

So hello, my name is Earl J. Kawili.

I'm a resident and homeowner in Seattle.

I moved into my current home on November 2020. And at that time, I didn't know of the place next door called Clement Place.

It is a shelter for low-barrier, for homeless and low-income people.

I don't have a problem with housing for poor people, but what I do have a problem with is the lack of accountability.

We've had years of grief involving crazy people yelling in the middle of the night, talking about suicide, stalkers knocking on doors, and a lot of the homeowners in my area are single women.

Like there's specifically a person who was knocking on the youngest single woman's door.

And I know you brought up sexual assault, sexual harassment.

So I'm sure you care about that, right?

So you have breaking into cars, urinating and defecating around property and attracting criminal activities such as prostitution and drug dealing.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is David Haynes.

And then we'll go back and try Robin Dot after David Haynes.

Go ahead, David.

Hi, David Haynes.

I just had to walk in the middle of the road between 3rd and 4th because there's all these meth heads on the west side of the Westlake Tunnel.

And the transit security is just standing there acting like it's not on their territory.

And all the way down 3rd Avenue, there's all these drug addicts.

Some of them don't even have their pants on.

And it's a telltale sign that we need new laws to help fight the evil scourge of drug pushers and the fact that we need a new police chief and a new mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now we'll go back to Robin.

And Robin, try pressing star six if you have it, please.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Oh, OK.

I just want to speak on the possible repeal of the pay law for pay up.

that was passed in 2022. I do believe there's services that I use, and these are people that deserve to have worker protection.

They deserve to have at least a minimum wage.

Out-based workers doesn't mean that they get discarded.

And I really want to ask you, are you really representing your constituency if you disregard people, I've been an admin and I've been at the board meetings and a bunch of rich people mixing and all that, but you really need to listen to everybody else too.

Um, and realize who's voting for you, who is going to put in the effort to put that vote in, um, find people have a lot of,

Thank you, and our last remote speaker will try a better connection for Ann Gooden.

Ann, are you still there?

You may need to press star six.

I am?

Yes.

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, much better.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

I want to speak about, I live near a climate place in Seattle, a low barrier facility for the homeless, operated by the DSC.

Today I stand before you to request the Council's help in addressing and mitigating the negative impact some of the residents from this facility has on our communities.

We seek accountability and fair compensation for property damages and hold DSC and their facilities to create a lasting solution to the problems we face.

The West Place House is about 100 individuals, 20% of whom are unable to integrate with the community, causing significant risk cases.

Their behaviors include harassment, verbally, physically, public intoxication and vandalism, destroying public places like our community garden, littering, defecating and urinating in appropriate places, and contributing to a decline in quality of life and property values.

This has caused both financial loss and psychological trauma for residents.

Despite our grievances, DAPC has been mostly unresponsive in providing masks and solutions.

I'm asking that.

Thank you.

That concludes our public comment for today.

Thank you very much.

And for that last speaker, it would be appreciated if you could send in your comments because it seemed like you were reading from something and it was difficult to hear.

And that goes for any public comment speaker.

You're welcome to send in your comments to Seattle, no, council at Seattle.gov.

All right, we've reached the end of the list of registered speakers.

The public comment period is now closed.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments today.

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

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

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

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

We'll now consider the proposed consent calendars.

And here are the items on the consent calendar.

The minutes of March 26, 2024. Council Bill 120760, payment of bills.

Appointment 02778 of Cody L. Allen as member of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, Appointments 02779 and 02780 of Julio Perez and Martha Lucas, respectively, to the Community Involvement Commission, and reappointments, Appointments 02781 through 02783, reappointing Ahuacone, Heidi Morissette, and Julio Perez to the Community Involvement Commission.

Are there any items that councilmembers 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 very much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar.

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

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Wu?

Yes.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The consent calendar items are adopted.

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

All right, moving on to the meat of our agenda here.

Will the clerk please read the title of items one through four into the record?

The report of the City Council, agenda item one, Council Bill 120756, an ordinance relating to city employment authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Seattle and Washington State Council of County and City Employees, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Local 21SP.

And agenda item two, council bill 120757, authorizing the execution of collective bargaining agreements between the city of Seattle and certain unions in the coalition of city unions for the period from January 1st, 2023 through December 31st, 2026. Agenda item three.

Excuse me.

Council Bill 120758, an ordinance related to city employment providing wage increases effective January 4th, 2023 and January 3rd, 2024 for certain nonrepresented city employees and officers providing adjustments to certain pay titles in addition to the 2023 and 2024 wage increases.

Agenda item four, council bill 120759, an ordinance relating to city employment commonly referred to as the pay zone ordinance, adjusting the pay zone structures for 2023 and 2024 for the city's discretionary pay programs.

Thank you very much.

So here's how this process will go.

The Council Member Strauss is sponsor of all of these pieces of legislation.

You're recognized to move item one, and then we'll go forward and I'll explain the following process after it's been seconded.

Thank you, Council President.

I move to pass Council Bill 120756.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

And again, Council Member Strauss is chair of the Finance Committee.

You are welcome to address each item, one through four, together.

And I believe that's what you're planning to do.

And each item will be moved and voted on individually.

And then after all of the votes, I'll provide the opportunity for council members to make any final comments.

So with that, Council Member Strauss, you're recognized to address items one through four.

Thank you, Council President.

And I know that typical procedures that Council President sponsors these bills.

Thank you for the opportunity to be the sponsor.

It is incredibly important that all city workers know that we here at the City Council support the work that you do because we understand that without you, we cannot provide the basic services to all Seattle residents.

And you also need to be compensated in a way that allows you to live, work, play not survive, thrive in our city that we are in together.

Passing these contracts, or passing this deal, passing these contracts, I learned grammar in Ballard, so it's not great.

Passing this deal is a prudent decision.

It keeps our employees in our workforce, it invests in our employees, and it ensures, as I just said, The services that we up here speak about being so important to all Seattleites are actually implemented, that are actually completed.

I'll go through the list of what y'all do in just a minute because we can't provide our basic services or attend to our city's needs without public servants doing this work.

We appreciate, to our city employees, we appreciate the services you provide to all Seattle residents and all you do for our city.

Clearly I went off script and now I'm back on.

We have four bills related to our city labor agreements and the employee compensation that are up for a vote today.

I'm going to speak to them as a group because it's the simplest way to understand how they relate to one another and summarize the policy decisions that underlie them.

One bill authorizes initial collective bargaining agreement with a relatively small group of employees who sought union representation in 2021. And then there are three bills related to the agreement recently negotiated with the Coalition of City Unions.

Let me first speak to Council Bill 120756, which is before the committee today.

Right now at this moment, this bill approves the initial agreement between the city and a group of strategic advisors and managers at Seattle Public Utilities.

It took some time to negotiate this initial agreement and it actually only covers the years of 2021 and 2022. The agreement simply grants employees the same basic wage and benefits as the coalition for that period.

And going forward, this group is expected to bargain as part of the coalition.

Then there are three bills which directly relate to the new coalition agreement.

This legislative package authorizes the terms of the recently completed negotiations and extends those basic terms to nonrepresented city employees.

The legislative package includes Council Bill 120757 authorizing the execution of 18 collective bargaining agreements with the city and the coalition.

Council Bill 120758, the bill establishes comparable changes for city employees who are not represented by a union who work in similar positions.

And Council Bill 120759, which establishes comparable changes to the pay bands for the city discretionary pay programs.

This affects employees such as strategic advisors, managers, whose rate of pay is somewhat discretionary and ultimately determined by their supervisor.

So let me take this back into the basic terms.

The coalition contract is a four-year agreement covering the years 2023 to 2026. It will provide annual wage adjustments of approximately 4% to 5% for each year of the contract.

These increases will partially offset the impact of high inflation over the past years and will help restore the purchasing power of employees' wages.

In addition, the agreement includes market-driven wage adjustments for certain titles and modest changes to some other benefits, focusing on raising wages for the city's lowest-paid workers.

And this helps the city deliver high-quality services that our communities expect and demand.

In just broad terms, this is talking about filling potholes to fixing fire engines.

If you expect the fire engine to show up to help you with a medical emergency or put out the fire, you need to make sure that fire engine's working.

Thank you to everyone in the mechanic shop for making sure that that happens.

Make sure that when we want potholes filled that there's somebody out there to do it, the community center's open, that I could go on, and I will.

Focusing just on the coalition legislation, I want to highlight that we are considering a bill that approves agreements that have completed labor negotiations and passed agreed upon contracts with 18 unions, including Joint Crafts Council, Pro-Tech 17, LIUNA, Local 242, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Western State Regional Council of Carpenters, Washington State Council of County and City Employees, AFSCME, AFL-CIO.

There's a bunch of locals in there.

I'm not going to go through.

We appreciate you all.

Teamsters Local 117, Public Professional and Office Clerical Employees and Drivers Unions, number 763. Public Professional and Office, as well as 763. We just said that, excuse me.

There's a lot on this list.

Also the Seattle Municipal Court Marshals Guild and the Seattle Dispatchers Guild.

These contracts affect more than 6,000 city employees in over 1,000 job titles who perform incredibly important jobs, as I keep saying, from filling potholes to making sure our fire engines are operating.

Specifically, these contracts ensure we are retaining and valuing our employees who maintain our HVAC systems at the Seattle Center to make sure that the facilities are open to the public, maintain and improve our city parks as gardeners, golf course groundskeepers, forest maintenance workers, tree trimmers, arborists, Maintain city facilities as equipment mechanics, technicians, drainage and wastewater collections workers, and janitors.

Keep our recreation centers across the city open, staffed with lifeguards, aquatic instructors, special events coordinators, camp service aides, and other recreation specialists.

Provide construction services, electricians, building plan examiners, building inspectors.

Serve as parking attendants to collect revenue for city programs.

increase safety as park rangers and security personnel, provide critical infrastructure services, civil and mechanical engineers, and bridge mechanics.

These people help our city grow as capital project coordinators, provide administrative and fiscal support to city departments who do the work, ensure that our city services and programs are working for city staff as retirement specialists, fiscal analysts, management specialists, contract analysts, and planning development specialists.

This deal ensures that our city workers who are working for the community as counselors, customer service representatives, human services coordinators, and permit processors, permitting, we still gotta move faster though, enforcing city laws as civil rights and labor standards investigators, providing services affiliated with Seattle's law department as paralegals, victim advocates, and probation counselors, and performing a myriad of services for departments across the city.

If we want our city to work, these are the people that do it.

This is just a small sample of the incredibly broad range of services that our employees provide to support our city services and in turn support all Seattleites and in turn support the folks who don't live in Seattle that come to our city because our downtown is the meeting point between Bremerton and North Bend, between Tacoma and Everett, from Vashon, Bainbridge, Kitsap, Downtown is our meeting place and yes, we have to get downtown more vibrant and we can't do that without our city employees.

Just last week, I received an email from resident about swim lessons capacity.

The email reads, we're grateful for this public resource that it exists in our community.

However, securing a space in these classes feel a bit like trying to snag tickets for a coveted concert.

Registration opens at noon months in advance and the slots are instantly full.

That's the end of the quote.

This is hardly the only resident that I've received requests for the city, especially regarding lifeguard staffing at our pools and our beaches.

Colleagues, you may remember that Seattle Parks and Recreation was forced to close three beaches and two pools last summer, even though safe access to water is an important tool to help Seattleites cool down.

as our summers have been getting hotter.

A pay adjustment for lifeguards to help keep the pools and beaches open is how we can ensure Seattle has a place for everyone to swim safely.

This is just one example that shows that one of the greatest assets of our city are our city employees who provide these services to Seattleites and visitors.

I believe that this agreement with the coalition is a fair deal, it's a good deal, and I believe extending the comparable terms to the city's nonrepresented employees is the fair thing to do.

The 2024 budget anticipated much of this agreement, and reserves were established to pay for the 2023 and 2024 costs.

In 2025 and beyond, the increased costs associated with this legislation will grow the budget deficit that we're anticipating.

However, as we face these difficult fiscal realities, we must continue to honor the hard work of our city employees and continue to offer them a fair compensation package because Seattle is different than many other municipalities.

We have We've got the port that you could get a job with.

We've got the University of Washington that you can get a job with.

That is different than other places.

We are losing talented workers.

We are losing our frontline workers to these other government entities because we haven't passed this deal.

Just because we didn't reserve enough last year, or we need to make changes in the future, doesn't mean we shouldn't pass this contract.

And if we hope to attract and retain talent, we must continue to make the city an attractive and competitive employer.

And as a point of clarity, I know I'm over my 10 minutes, but I got four bills that I'm talking to you.

I wasn't counting.

I was.

I'm a stickler for the 10-minute rule, and I know I'm breaking it.

And as a point of clarity, this legislation before us does authorize changes in wages and benefits, but does not appropriate the necessary additional funding, which will include retroactive payments for 2023 and ongoing payments for 2024. A formal request for additional appropriations related to this legislation will come as part of the mid-year supplemental bill that will be submitted in June.

This will allow us to consider the request in the broader context of the overall budget changes.

And I know that everyone is hypersensitive to the budget shortfall that we have.

It's a structural shortfall.

This year, we are taking a more in-depth review and examination of our budget than we have in recent memory.

And this work, we don't have a lot of this information yet because the first forecast of this year for this quarter is next week.

And we'll be taking up in my committees this work in the coming weeks and months.

It's just a moment to say that, yes, this exceeds the reserves that we held last year, and we're going to have some tough decisions.

But one decision that is not tough is investing in the employees that make our city work.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss and Chair of the Finance Committee.

It's a good thing that you went through that information because you were part of the team that worked on this so long last year.

And I just want to make sure that people understand that the terms of these agreements were negotiated with representatives of the Coalition of City Unions by the mayor and his bargaining team and received concurrence from a majority of the council members on the previous Labor Relations Policy Committee, not the current one.

So I just wanted to make that clear.

And while you mentioned the things like budget shortfall and the fact that there were reserves that were planned for these contracts, I do think it would be interesting for the public to have a little bit more information because usually we go through in great detail budget items in committee and that didn't happen.

So if there is no objection, I'd like to suspend the rules so that Central Staff Director Ben Noble can address more specifically some of the impacts to the 2024 budget and then the 2025-2026 biennium budget.

Council President?

Yes.

Point of clarification, I'm not an objection yet.

This is out of step with typical process.

Is there a reason this didn't happen at council briefing or?

Well, you weren't here for council briefing and it is not uncommon to suspend the rules so that we can get additional information from people that have that specific detail.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And we talked to your office about this before coming in.

Thanks.

Hearing no other objection, you may come on up, Director Noble.

You should try the other one.

Sure, I won't.

The one with the green light's probably the right one.

So I can speak from a document that was shared with council members, and I have some copies, if that's helpful, in summarizing the impacts of the, and I'm gonna speak to the coalition agreement and the two other pieces of legislation that are packaged together and provide those same basic salary changes and benefits to all comparable city employees.

We've looked at this both from the general fund side and from the non-general fund side.

The combination, obviously, the total city budget.

To date, much of the public discussion about deficits has focused specifically on the general fund.

I'm going to spend more time there but I will mention and do acknowledge that there are additional expenses elsewhere as well.

So looking at the general fund, in terms of the employees that are affected by the three pieces of legislation, the salary base, so the total sum of expenditures related to their compensation, is just over $400 million.

So as Council Member Strauss explained, the legislation provides increases of about four and a half to 5% for across the board.

And then there's some additional market increases.

The net effect is an increase to that base of about 5% per year.

So the $400 million base for 2023 grows to 420 in 2024, 440 and so on in that way for the term of the agreement.

As Council Member Strauss has described, in building the 2024 budget, there were reserves set aside, recognizing that this agreement was in negotiation and would likely be finalized soon, and that as part of that finalizing the agreement that the city would owe employees for 2023 retro payments, so some of these increases are retroactive, So upon passage, the city will owe essentially 5% of that $400 million.

So roughly 20, it's actually a little bit higher, 22 million for 23. And then for 2024 and ongoing, there'll be additional expenses.

So the final agreement though does exceed the reserves that were set aside because the final terms of the agreement are somewhat more generous, just in a generic sense of that word, than had been anticipated.

So for 2023, the additional cost to the general fund beyond what had been planned is approximately $2.5 million.

For 2024, it's approximately $8 million.

And again, this year we will owe the sum of those two things because we'll have to pay the retro and then the ongoing.

So that's about $10.5 million beyond what had been anticipated for 2024 and beyond what we have in reserves.

That said, the executive has implemented a hiring freeze, which they anticipate, and we've reviewed the projections, they don't appear unrealistic, to save as much as $20 million this year relative to the budget.

And we just got a year-end report that indicates, year-end revenue report, for 2023 that indicates that general fund revenues came in at about forecast but uh payroll expense tax revenues for instance were actually more than 40 million dollars above forecast so there is some good news on the revenue front from 2023 we have yet to get the final year-end expense report for 2023 but consistent with past uh activities but there'll probably be some uh underspend there so bottom line there are enough available resources to pay for what we owe beyond the reserves for 23 and 24. To be clear, it's about $10.5 million.

And if it wasn't spent for this, it could be spent for other things.

So I don't want to just brush that aside.

But there are resources to meet those needs.

Again, there's another pay increase scheduled for 25. So by that point, the net increment over the $400 million base is about 65 million.

The current estimate of the deficit anticipated about, so again, I just said 65 million.

The current estimate of the deficit had anticipated about $55 million in additional expense.

So the net effect is to increase the projected deficit by approximately $10 million, actually closer to 11, for 2025. That's, again, so what had been a most recently published and fixed number of 230 million would be closer to 240, 241 million.

And for 2026, the amount above the reserves is 15 million.

So that again, what had been a projected deficit again of that same similar magnitude would be approximately $15 million larger.

So those represent, either reductions or increased revenues or some offset that will have to be found for 25 and 26. On the non-general fund side, the comparable amounts above reserves for the combination of 2023 and 2024 is about $35 million.

THAT'S TO BE PAID FROM ALL THE OTHER CITY FUNDS, WHICH TOTALS SOMETHING NORTH OF $5 BILLION.

SO IT'S FROM A SIGNIFICANT BASE, BUT IT IS ADDITIONAL EXPENSE.

AND THE INCREMENTAL AMOUNT ABOVE RESERVES FOR 2025 IS APPROXIMATELY $36 MILLION, AND FOR 2026, APPROXIMATELY $46 MILLION.

SO AGAIN, in absolute numbers in absolute terms these numbers are large they are respectively about five percent with each increment of the underlying labor base and for 2023 and 2024 at least there are sufficient resources to meet the additional expense and as councilmember Strauss explained with the mid-year supplemental ordinance that we will get from the budget office as approved by the mayor THAT WILL AUTHORIZE A VARIETY OF FINANCIAL CHANGES, THERE WILL BE A REQUEST FOR SOME ADDITIONAL BUDGET AUTHORITY TO MEET THIS ADDITIONAL EXPENSE.

AND IF NOT, I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS.

SEEING NONE, I WILL RETIRE TO MY SEAT.

THANK YOU, BEN.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

SO THE ITEM ONE HAS BEEN MOVED AND SECONDED.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER COMMENTS AT THIS TIME ON COUNCIL BILL 120756?

COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

Just to clarify, if we have comments, you prefer we make them about the whole package?

Okay, fair enough.

Isn't that what you said?

After the whole package is voted on, then there'll be comments?

Sure.

I mean, I don't care.

I was going to offer that option before or after, whatever you choose.

But I just wanted to make sure that people knew that there would be that opportunity as well.

Okay.

Okay.

No other comments on 120756. Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120756.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Aye.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Item two has already been read into the record.

Council Member Strauss is sponsored.

You're recognized to move the item two.

Thank you, Council President.

I move item two.

I move to pass Council Bill 120757.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Council Member Strauss is sponsor.

You have addressed this item.

Do you have any additional comments or does anybody else?

No additional comments, Council President.

Thank you.

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

Council Member Saca?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Moving right along, item three has already been read into the record.

That is Council Bill 120758. Council Member Strauss is sponsored.

You're recognized to move the item three.

Thank you, Council President.

I move to pass Council Bill 120758. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Council Member Strauss is sponsored.

You have addressed this item already.

Do you have any additional comments or does anyone else?

No additional comments, Council President.

Thank you very much.

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

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Item four has already been read into the record.

Council Member Strauss is sponsored.

You are recognized to move item four.

Thank you.

I move to pass Council Bill 120759. Second.

It is moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Council Member Strauss is sponsor.

You've already addressed this.

Do you have any additional comments?

I do.

I want to just take a moment for my colleagues.

I am absolutely a stickler for the 10-minute rule speaking on the dais because if all of us spoke for 10 minutes, that would be an hour and a half.

And so thank you for the grace today giving me a couple extra minutes since I had four items before us.

Finalizing and rounding this out, I have to thank everyone who was at the negotiation table.

I know it was ugly at times.

It was not a happy moment in places.

And we got the deal done.

I want to thank Mayor Harrell in particular for getting the deal done.

And I know, colleagues, you weren't on Labor Relations Policy Committee when the last parameters were set.

So I want to thank the folks that were there that got the deal done.

I'm excited to have this deal done.

And thank you to all of you who do the work on behalf of Seattle.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Will the clerk please?

May I?

Yep.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Council Member Strauss, I didn't know I wasn't going to let you have the last word.

You're fine.

I do think it's important that we acknowledge two things about all of these bills, that we take this vote understanding that it will have an impact on our budget.

So I want to thank...

Chair Strauss and Ben for acknowledging that.

And that city workers, like all workers, deserve wages that keep up with inflation and that your work for the city is recognized.

I do want to appreciate Councilmember Strauss for acknowledging that these adjustments will increase the deficit.

We will look to the supplemental to try to address this.

And we know with even more certainty now that we will need to have a discussion about increasing revenue to help address the structural issues, not just for this year's budget or next, but for the future.

These aren't raises that we're talking about.

These are wage adjustments that attempt to keep pace with inflation, which is at record highs for the last few years.

So I think it's important to acknowledge that.

And then the last thing I wanna say is, I know most of my colleagues weren't here at the time, but in 2021, I asked the city auditor's office to study pay equity in the city.

The auditor found that women and women of color in particular continue to be left behind in the city.

The report concluded that women of color, I think this is especially important as we acknowledge women's sexual assault awareness and the impact of being a woman on city payroll.

The report concluded that women of color are the most underrepresented at the top levels of pay and supervisory authority.

Even when women are promoted, they receive lower promotion pay increases compared to men.

And employees in the lowest pay band receive the lowest promotion pay increases.

So it's really important that we're passing these bills.

It's important that we acknowledge the impact that this will have on women in particular in our city family.

And all of this points to why it's so important that workers receive at least the wage adjustments that can help keep pace with inflation.

So this gets you almost there.

I know there's still a little ways to go, but just want to thank all of you and thank my colleagues for supporting all of these bills.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Will the clerk please read, please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries, the bill passes, and the chair will sign it.

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

At this point, I will ask colleagues if there are any final comments on the four bills passed by the council.

Hearing none, go ahead.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to say to the, for example, to the Seattle Dispatchers Guild, to the mechanics, and to all the unions represented, thank you for your service to our city.

And I should note, too, Council Member Strauss' point that in unique circumstances that we have here in Seattle, you do have choices.

I know this is true in terms of the mechanics.

I've had briefings and discussions on that.

And so again, thank you for your service.

And I do make the ask that you stay with Seattle as we move forward.

And I do also recognize we do have budget challenges requiring budget reform and hard decisions on programs and the departments and offices as we move forward.

So I look forward to working with our select budget committee as we move forward and also obviously the executive as well.

So thank you.

And again, thank you to all you that are out there.

Appreciate it.

Thank you very much for those comments.

I want to note that I do think that it is important that we do have the details about the impacts of our budget because that is just the responsible good governance thing to do is know a bit more about how much something is going to add to our already existing deficit before going ahead and voting on it.

However, it never occurred to me not to vote on this or the other pieces of legislation today because when you really do think about it, When we're looking at, for the general fund impact, this chart that I have that's been produced, we're talking about a $7,940,000 INCREASE ON OUR GENERAL FUND DEFICIT, WHICH IS CURRENTLY 230 MILLION.

SO WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, THAT IS A SMALL INCREMENT.

AND WE COULD GO DOWN THE LINE, 2025, 2026. THE FACT IS THAT I WAS AT THESE COUNCIL MEETINGS LAST YEAR, AND MANY OF YOU THAT I SEE IN THE AUDIENCE WERE BEFORE THESE PODIUMS TALKING ABOUT THE FACT THAT that you needed to have, you were waiting for this contract and that it was time.

And so I just am mentioning that two things can be true at the same time.

And it would have been nice to know how we, a little bit more about how the executive and council is thinking about how we deal with our existing $230 million operating deficit before taking on even the smallest new cost.

But that is not the reality.

And what we have before us is a contract and our agreements that need to be agreed to and we don't balance the budget on the backs of the workers that have been packing this room for months actually.

So I want to explain why I thought it was important to have that extra information and also commend the work that you did all last year leading up to the agreement on the terms and also the executive.

So thank you very much.

Council President, point of clarification.

Just want to note that that number 230 million is an estimate and it's moving.

We'll have a more accurate number later this month as year-end forecast revenues, as Ben mentioned earlier, as well as the revenue forecast next week.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

All right.

So if there is nothing else on these items...

There was nothing removed from the consent calendar.

There is no resolution for introduction and adoption today.

Are there any other items of business to come before council?

All right, seeing none, we've reached the end of today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held on April 9th at two o'clock.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.