Seattle City Council Briefing 7132020

meeting will come to order.

The time is 933 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Ores.

Ores.

Here.

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Mosqueda.

We see her.

Peterson.

Here.

Swant.

Here.

Strouse.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Nine present.

Council members, the council rules are silent on allowing electronic participation at council briefing meetings.

So in order to continue participating remotely, I'm going to move to suspend the council rules through August 1st, 2020 to allow this meeting to occur while participating through electronic means.

to allow electronic participation at Council briefing meetings through August 1st of 2020. Hearing no objection, the Council rules are suspended and Council briefing meetings will be held with Council members participating electronically through August 1st of 2020. If there is no objection, the minutes of July 6th, 2020 will be adopted.

hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, I'll try to get through this really quickly.

Just wanted to remind folks and give you all a quick update regarding the council's calendar for the remaining year.

You should have received some updates from Council Member Mosqueda as chair of the of the Select Budget Committee on some issues related to calendaring for the rest of the year, and I'm sure she's going to go through that in her report this morning, so I won't cover those.

I'll leave those for the Councilmember of State to cover.

But this week, I will be sending out a memo to the Legislative Department confirming the dates of the City Council's summer recess.

which for 2020 falls between August 24th and September 4th.

So as a reminder, the council rules state that council briefing and city council meetings will not be held on the last two Mondays of August.

in addition, the standing committees will not hold the regular meetings during those two weeks, according to the council rules, which were approved last year.

So I am sending this memo out because I think it's important for us to confirm that the council summer recess is still in effect and consistent with the council rules.

And I know that we are all working remotely.

And so things seem a little in flux and out of the ordinary and want to make sure that folks know that that recess is still in place and we will work our operations and our legislative efforts around that previously approved and on the books summer recess.

So I appreciate all of the work that our staff continue to do, that all of the legislative department employees do, and want to make sure that we confirm that that summer recess is still planned.

I don't have anything else to report on the Council of Presidents aspects.

Happy to take any questions if folks have any questions about that report.

Okay, hearing, seeing none, we'll go ahead and begin our next item on the agenda, which is a preview of today's City Council Actions, Council and Regional Committees as well.

We'll go ahead in order of the roll call, and this week we'll begin with Council Member Juarez, then we'll hear from Council Members Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, Sanjuan, Strauss, Herbold, and I will conclude this agenda discussion.

I do want to remind folks that we have two executive sessions scheduled for this morning.

So if we could tailor our comments this morning during this particular report out accordingly so that we can I would like to say thank you to all of you for joining us today.

We are going to dig into the executive sessions by no later than 1030. I would really appreciate everybody's cooperation so that we can end this morning's time together at 1230 PM and have an opportunity to prepare for this afternoon.

That being said, we will go ahead and start the reports out.

So there are two items from the Public Asset and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

Item number one is resolution 31950. It is regarding our recreation grant that we do every year.

This legislation authorizes the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation to submit grant applications to the state of Washington to their Recreation and Conservation Office, the RCO, for state funding assistance.

This resolution is routine and required as part of the formal RCO grant application process.

Seattle Parks and Rec applies for RCO grants each year and has a strong success rate in securing additional funding for planned capital projects.

In 2020, Seattle Parks and Rec will complete 11 RCO applications for a total of $6,120,000.

The RCO grants require a local match and will fund only projects that are included in an adopted plan.

And as you all remember, our adopted plan for matching funds were in the Seattle Park and Rec's 2016-2021 Capital Improvement Program.

The RCO will announce the grant award recommendations in January 2021, but the actual grant awards will not be contracted until the fall 2021. The funding will support currently unfunded project elements.

Second item.

First of all let me thank quickly central staff Brian and Tracy and Mr. Nellums at Seattle Center.

This is regarding the monorail.

Council Bill 119815. This legislation allows the Seattle Center Director Mr. Robert Nellums to take the next step in moving forward with the platform expansion by authorizing execution of an amendment to the existing monorail operating and easement agreement with Westlake Center.

If you recall, we worked on this, we've been working on this for the last couple of years.

The monorail, which is owned by the city and operated by a concessionaire, it's their own monorail services, has the capacity and we're hoping to achieve maximum capacity to transport 6,000 riders each hour in each direction of travel.

Conceptually, that's the goal there.

Traffic mitigations are underway in anticipation of the arena's opening, which is in the fall of 2021. So we are encouraging patron use of the Seattle Center monorail to help mitigate traffic.

Let's see.

Brian Goodnight of the Council Central Staff will be available after Council briefing if any Council members have technical questions.

Otherwise, this legislation is pretty straightforward and I look forward to Council supporting it.

Second item under Parks, Again, this morning, my office will update you with the weekly parks COVID-19 updates.

Very briefly, the Food Lifeline distribute, we have the distribution of emergency food.

Seattle Parks and Rec partnered with Food Lifeline to distribute emergency food boxes at Rainier Beach Community Center on Wednesday, July 8th.

Food Lifeline is distributing thousands of boxes this week at five locations around the region, including Rainier Beach Community Center.

The boxes contain fresh produce and assorted dairy items.

Second item, free summer meals in the parks.

In partnership with United Way of King County and the Seattle Human Services Department, Yale Parks and Rec is providing free summer meals this summer at parks throughout the city for ages youth one to 18. Each site is operating Monday through Friday from July 6th to August 21st.

And let's see.

The South parking lot at Golden Gardens will be reopening.

Beginning this weekend, the South parking lot near the entrance of Golden Gardens Park will be reopened for drop-off and limited parking, including ADA parking to help reduce congestion and improve traffic flow.

And the Japanese Garden will open on July 14th.

And let's see.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Except for the parking lot.

Well, there's one last item.

I'm sorry.

I just want to say I'm happy today because the Washington Redskins are no more.

That is great news.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Juarez, for that report.

Are there any questions or comments on Councilmember Juarez's report?

Hearing none, I would just quickly ask before we keep going if I would appreciate it if somebody from our tech department can correct the spelling of councilmember Juarez's name as it

Thank you, Madam President.

I will try to move quickly through a number of updates this morning.

First, I want to thank you, Council President, and your office for working with my office this week to get the personal guarantee suspension legislation on introduction and referral for today.

I had intended to walk that bill on last week.

I think that the way that we did finally resolve that worked out fine, so it is on introduction referral today.

Just as a bit of background to just kind of get us all up to speed on that bill again, this was a proposal that was brought from consultation with a number of small business owners in my district who have experienced essentially being shaken down by commercial landlords for their rent, despite the moratoriums and other regulations on that.

and then essentially threatened with invoking a personal guarantee clause in a lease, meaning that those landlords could go after the home, personal savings or personal assets of that small business owner as collateral for the rent.

A number of other jurisdictions, New York and some cities in California, and I think even the state of California is discussing right now similar legislation around suspending these personal guarantee clauses until the end of the COVID outbreak and state of emergency.

I think that it's only fair to do so given that a small business owner might sign up, knowing that many small businesses fail, to lose everything in the business enterprise they're putting together.

But no one anticipated that there was going to be this massive pandemic and an accompanying massive economic collapse that puts at risk not only losing the business, but losing all of your personal assets as well.

And I don't think anyone signed up for that.

And I do think that it's only fair that the enforcement of those clauses be suspended so that small business owners and nonprofits are not facing the prospect of losing everything in addition to their business.

And look forward to discussing that over the course of the next week.

I think that's a really good point.

Second, I just want to address that last week I had a really good opportunity with a number of community members demonstrating for the goals of decriminalizing Seattle outside the farming market.

I do support those goals, including a 50% reduction in SPD's budget.

But I did also say, and I was here today, that I want to work with my colleagues.

I apologize for that.

Councilmember Lewis, please.

the decorum of the online meeting, so thank you.

As I was saying, about the 50% cut, I do think that we, and I know it's the intention of everyone on this council, to work together throughout this summer session and the fall session to craft a plan to meet those goals, including the goal of a 50% cut.

I want to share at a high level three strategies that I think could be instructive to work with community and work as a council to realize a plan to realize those goals.

I think the first strategy, as we heard from our panel last Wednesday, is reallocation of certain civilian services to other departments or even independent agencies outside of the control of the police department.

Indeed, I was pleased to see a letter this morning that was circulated to all of us that the executive is apparently intending to transfer $76 million worth of functions outside of the sworn chain of command and into civilian control.

That includes the 911 dispatch, which was a specifically delineated independence I do think that that is an essential core.

the three strategies that I have sort of identified as wanting to focus on, because I do think it makes a difference in terms of the ethos, in terms of the culture, in terms of the mission of some of these services, that they be separated out from a sworn chain of command and that they be put into more appropriate departments and offices or even made independent.

with a changed focus and a changed leadership.

I think that that is a key component and I do applaud the executive for taking the initiative this morning in signaling that they are willing to make those reductions and to make those transfers.

I think the second strategy is the right sizing of first response.

And I think that we've done a lot of work already as a council on this in terms of identifying that over half of 911 calls are non-criminal in nature.

Those 911 calls could be better served by a different class of first responder.

I talked during briefing last week about the possibility of a Kahoot style first response.

We also have HealthONE and other potential methods of first response.

that would be more appropriate for these calls.

I think that a transition from current functions that are served by sworn officers to a different cornucopia of first response alternatives transferred by an independent 911 dispatch is a really core part of this strategy, and I would call that a right-sizing of first response.

And I think that that is a core part of how we realize a 50% cut goal in reallocation from sworn officers to new alternative public health and harm reduction based responder services.

I think the third strategy is long overdue investment and scaling up of investment.

and BIPOC-led organizations who are doing critical anti-violence and community building work in this city that mitigate the existing caseload of what we have SPD responding to and that build strong communities and long-term resilience that cuts down on the need for the type of service that has been provided by sworn SPD officers.

I think that, you know, we all of us on this council have worked with organizations doing this critical work.

We've seen proof of concept in how effective the work they have been doing has been.

And I think that there is strong opportunity in the scaling up and expansion of those services to make real long-term progress on public safety.

I was just sharing those broad, I know our time is limited today, but I think those broad three strategies are places we could really look to start making progress and putting together during this summer session a plan.

And I look forward to working with everyone on this council to make that a reality and truly honor our charter obligation to provide public safety to the city in a way that it is evident we frankly have not been doing based on the mismatch of 9-1-1 requests for assistance and the services we have been providing which have not been tailored to that response.

So I look forward to continuing to formulate that plan with everyone here and with members of the community.

I will be brief on this.

On the King County regional homelessness committee, I have been deputized by the Council President to provide the update on who our nominees as a Council will be to the implementation board.

of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

The Implementation Board advises the Governing Committee of which Council President Gonzalez and I serve on, and every sort of caucus on the Regional Homelessness Authority gets to nominate a few members to the Implementation Board.

So I just want to briefly share the bios of the two members, and then I'll close out my report.

And I want to thank the council president's office for working very effectively with my staff in coming to agreement on these two members.

I think we have two great nominees, and they will serve the work of the regional authority really well.

So first, Paula Carvalho, or sorry, Carvea Olio, is a graduate of MIT and currently works at the Rakes Foundation as a program officer on the youth homelessness strategy there, which is a critical anti-youth homelessness philanthropy in Seattle.

Prior to joining the foundation, She served as the director of youth programs at the Mockingbird Society, and in that role, oversaw statewide programming with a dual focus on youth development and systems reform.

She initiated and chaired the Racial Equity Committee, and until her departure from that previous scope of work, before joining or rather before working at Mockingbird, she was an independent living case manager for the YMCA of Greater Seattle.

She just has a great wealth of experience, has a master's degree in teaching from Seattle University, is going to make an excellent partner in making regional progress on chronic homelessness.

Our second appointment is Dr. Simha Reddy, who has worked in the field of homeless health since completing an internal medicine residency at the University of Washington, and brings a unique perspective, I think, from a lot of the other folks we're considering as a primary care physician.

And we know that public health is a massive part of the scope of work for the regional authority.

And really looking forward to having Dr. Reddy serve on the regional body, the implementation body as well.

And really looking forward to advocating later this month for both of these nominees and then hearing from the other members of the regional committee on who they are putting forward to serve on it as well.

I am happy to take any questions on the report today.

Otherwise, I am happy to yield it back over to Council President.

I did want to provide an opportunity to Jeff Sims from our council central staff who is back from parental leave.

Welcome back, Jeff, from parental leave.

And welcome back to being able to provide us a little bit more detail on this particular appointment process.

I did want to give Jeff an opportunity since we asked him to be on the call this on what the implementation board appointment process was that led to the identification of Paula Carvalho and Dr. Seema Reddy as the council's, Seattle City Council's recommended appointments to the implementation board.

So Jeff.

I see that you are off mute and want to hand it over to you to walk us through quickly what that implementation board process was, and then we'll take questions and comments from colleagues.

Council President, for the public's awareness, I just want to highlight that this Thursday, July 16th at 10 a.m.

is the next meeting of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority's Governing Committee.

That will be when these nominations get discussed by the Governing Committee.

The Seattle City Council was the only appointing authority that used the public process.

We solicited names by publicly posting a solicitation, also emailing out that request to all of HSD's homeless service providers and other stakeholders in order to cast a wide net and allow public input on that.

All candidates that were potentially eligible to be part of the implementation boards they weren't working at an ineligible entity or grantee were forwarded to all of the council members, and there was a process to engage everyone's feedback.

Through that, as you know, the top two candidates came to the top, or a small number, I should say.

And then, as also many of our council members are aware, there's a lot of qualifications and requirements and a list of 12 different skills and expertise that must be met.

the process.

I wanted to tip my hat to Jacob Thorpe who handled that process while I was on family leave to work with the other appointing authorities to make sure that all of those requirements were met.

Through that process we arrived at having these two nominees who I think would be excellent members of the implementation board.

on Council Member Lewis's report or any questions for Jeff specific to the implementation board process.

All right.

Seeing none, we'll go ahead and go through the rest of the reports.

Thanks again, Jeff, for being with us this morning.

You're welcome to hang up and leave the Zoom call if you've got to get to other things, which I imagine you do.

Thank you for being with us this morning and thank you to councilmember Lewis for reporting on that process and those nominees.

Good morning, everyone.

There are no items from the community economic development committee on the agenda today, but I did want to give a few updates.

I'm very excited to report that the Rainier Beach community is celebrating their $2 million award from the equitable development initiative.

That is going to go toward helping purchase sites for the Food Innovation Center, which is something they've been working on since completing their neighborhood plan update in 2012. So I want to congratulate Gregory Davis, David Silvio, Amanda Lopez Castagnon, and the entire RBAC team.

It's going to be very exciting to see that project moving forward.

I want to let folks know that the Office of Economic Development continues to work really hard with our small businesses to provide technical assistance to businesses that are trying to apply for different federal programs.

At this point, they've served 471 businesses.

with technical assistance and they are continuing to provide access to funding.

They've recently raised about $728,000 so that they can have another round of funding for the Small Business Stabilization Fund.

So there will be more details about that coming soon.

And I do want to make our colleagues and our community aware.

As we face the compounding effects of the pandemic and the economic crisis and the growing demand for racial equity, we sometimes forget to acknowledge the hard work and sacrifice of city workers, especially those who dedicate their work to racial equity.

As an elected official and a woman of color, I knew going into this process that there would be, I would have to face a lot of ire from some folks in our community and really from the part of our country's population that is strongly objecting to an equitable society.

So I want to let our community know that the public servants we have in the Office of Civil Rights are receiving death threats.

and harassment for their work in helping the city implement our goals and values of racial equity.

This is something that I'm really concerned about.

I think we all should be and I want to make sure that the community knows this is happening and that we really need to support support our city workers.

They deserve our thanks for the hard work that they're doing.

Many of the people, most of the people in the Office of Civil Rights are people of color.

This is not the first time they've faced death threats and it's gonna be really important for us to make sure that they have our support.

And so I wanna let folks know that that's happening.

I hope those workers receive the support of all of our city employees and elected leaders so that they can work without fear or intimidation.

On the calendar this afternoon, I have a resolution 31955 that reaffirms the city's commitment to support money transfer organizations.

These are entities that serve our Somali families in the city who are sending remittances back home.

And these money transfer organizations face some safety concerns because they have challenges opening bank accounts and therefore have to carry large amounts of cash around.

This is due to some federal action that was taken several years ago.

So the resolution calls for state assistance in identifying some policy solutions that can really provide better support to these organizations, and I can share a little bit more about that this afternoon.

I do want to thank One America, the Somali Family Safety Task Force, and others for bringing this to our attention, and I look forward to talking with colleagues about that this afternoon.

Last week, I was invited to join, along with several colleagues, join a press conference with Decriminalize Seattle, King County Equity Now, the Green Light Project, and others to call for divestment from SPD.

I want to thank them for allowing us to participate in that press conference.

I know there is a deep distrust of elected officials, so I appreciate their call for us to commit publicly to a 50% cut for the remainder of this year.

and to investing in a participatory budget process that is led by the community as we plan for the 2021 budget.

So I look forward to working with my colleagues and with community organizations to implement the changes that our community is looking for.

That is all I have today.

Thank you so much for that report.

I just wanted to echo your comments around our good staff over at the office for civil rights who do tremendous amount of work.

on the point around how this, how death threats are not a new thing for them.

I am reminded that about a year ago or so, they actually had to vacate the office because of somebody showing up with a gun.

And so, you know, these are, these are, employees who have dedicated their careers to advancing the civil rights of people in the city of Seattle.

They do so at great sacrifice and under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver results on behalf of the residents of Seattle, but also are held to the duty of holding us all accountable to the obligations to comply with and implement the principles around the race and social justice initiative that includes in-house training.

It includes making sure that we are leading with race in terms of how we process policies and how we look at the work that we do as government in that space.

And so you know, the fact that they are being so openly attacked for following through on their mandate around the race and social justice initiative is absolutely unacceptable and really appreciate that you as chair of the committee that oversees OCR is making time to address those particular concerns publicly because I do think it's important and I hope that they I'm here your remarks.

I hope they hear my remarks and any other remarks that council members make in support of their ongoing commitment, not just to do enforcement and investigation of our civil rights law as it relates to Seattle residents at large, but also the work that they do tirelessly and oftentimes with not enough resources and not enough support to advance the principles of the race and social justice initiative, which I appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge them this morning.

Good morning, Council colleagues.

Thank you so much, Council President.

There are no items on the Budget and Finance and Housing Committee on today's full Council agenda.

I did want to spend a few minutes, though, providing folks with a brief update on what to expect in the upcoming Budget Committee meeting on Wednesday this week.

Again, as per usual, we will have a 10 a.m.

meeting and a 2 p.m.

meeting, session one in the morning and session two in the afternoon.

This week, we will confine public comment to the 10 a.m.

slot.

So if you'd like to present and provide public comment, we will have an extended public comment period again at 10 a.m.

Sign up starts at 8 a.m.

Just wanted to note that for folks who are used to having two sessions.

The reason that we're doing that is we have a very packed agenda.

So let me give you a preview of what to expect on Wednesday and we will take any questions that you all may have and this follows up on some information that I sent this morning.

So first, thank you for your ongoing work.

We just finished an amazing process that led to new revenue to help fund our ongoing COVID-19 relief efforts and affordable housing and critical services in the out years.

So thank you so much.

Now, this week, we're turning the legislation to really focusing on rebalancing our 2020 adopted budget.

We will have the morning session to wrap up our detailed spend plan resolution and the afternoon session focused on the 2020 rebalancing effort.

But because many of us have not participated in a budget session yet, and almost all of us have not participated in a summer budget session, I wanted to give you a quick overview of what to expect starting this afternoon in the session two, 2 p.m.

budget sessions.

This also follows an email that I sent to you this morning with an overview of the process and the calendar.

We are aware that the mayor has sent down her 2020 rebalancing package.

We've now had two briefings from the mayor's office on that proposed budget from the city budget's office.

And this week, we will start our budget committee deliberations.

We've been working with central staff to develop a process that will help us review legislation through the policy lens that's important, including also the race and social justice considerations that this council has prioritized.

Again, this morning, I sent out a memo that describes the next steps.

And with your permission, please do take a look at the calendar there.

But I'm going to go into a few details here that might be of interest for you and your staff.

We will be considering 12 pieces of legislation during the rebalancing exercise.

To help us get oriented, central staff has been working with Director Kirsten Erstad, and we will kick off our July 15th discussion during session two with an overview of what it means to do a mid-year budget rebalancing package.

Central staff will then present on key issue papers, and we will be focusing on three areas.

First, human services department and COVID spending.

Second, the police department spending, and third, the fiscal reserve funds.

You'll also receive, with Wednesday's agenda, materials on the over 20 additional central staff issue papers on select departments, topics, and proposed legislation.

It's my intention that we will also have time to hear from council members on some potential amendments.

And some of those potential amendments will be outlined in the issue papers coming from central staff.

This is gonna be very high level.

It's gonna include a description with the more formal amendment process starting on July 22nd.

We will be using our normal amendment process.

So for folks who participated in the budget before, you might be used to hearing about green sheets.

For council members' knowledge, when we're doing the summer budgeting session, it's just normal amendment process.

So working with central staff to flag what amendments you might be interested in so that Lisa and the team on central staff can get those crafted for us.

Lisa will be sending out on Monday a form, that's today, Lisa will be sending today a form that each council member can use to develop their formal amendments, which will then be presented on July 22nd and 23rd.

So next week in the afternoon on July 22nd, council members will have a chance to then present their formal amendments.

Again, this week is sort of the high-level issue identification, next week on the 22nd, more formal amendment discussion.

And as a reminder to folks, these amendments should be self-balancing, meaning that if you have an ad that you would like to make, you are also being asked to identify the corresponding cut or reduction so that we can have a balanced budget.

If we need additional time, the presentations will continue in the morning of July 23rd.

We have asked you to hold that time on your calendar, but our hope is that we can get through it on the 22nd.

Finally, the Budget Committee will vote on the amendments to each piece of the legislation in its July 29th meeting, and central staff will take a couple of days to revise the legislation to reflect the Council's priorities and obtain legal review.

The Committee now is scheduled to vote on the legislation as amended on Monday, August 3rd.

Thank you to the Council President for his flexibility on that day.

We will plan to have a special meeting on Monday, August 3rd, after Council briefing.

That vote will finalize the committee's recommendation to Council and the Council will then vote on each piece of legislation in our normal afternoon session on August 3rd.

Again, if you have any questions about the memo or the process, please contact Lisa Kay or Director Aristad on Central Staff.

And additional memos will be coming out later this afternoon.

I just want to say thank you to Lisa, who's really been leading this effort, and Director Aristad as well, and who helped us prepare the 2020 rebalancing package memos that you will see later today and the ones you've already seen.

Council President, before I move on to what to expect in the morning session, I thought I'd pause very quickly to see if there's any clarification or questions that folks may have.

Any questions or need for clarification, colleagues?

Okay, looks like there isn't, so why don't we go ahead and move on to your description of the afternoon session.

Okay, great.

Well, thank you so much.

We are very close to wrapping up our Jump Start Seattle revenue package discussions.

Again, on Wednesday this week in the morning at 10 a.m., we will finalize the detailed resolution on the spend plan.

I want to thank Tracy and Allie from Central Staff who have been leading the Spend Plan Resolution and COVID Emergency Fund bill drafting and amendment drafting.

Allie sent an email on Wednesday, July 8th, with the text of the Jump Start Spending Plan Resolution.

This was the initial text that you would see in the resolution that is on today's introduction and referral calendar.

There's been some minor amendments that have been included as well, and this was just the base because I know many people are working on potential amendments.

As a reminder, the introduction and referral calendar has resolution 31957, and it is being updated as we speak with various amendments from you all, including myself as well, which I will preview for you this morning, and we'll have more time to discuss in detail on Wednesday.

I want to thank council colleagues who've identified potential amendments proposed by various council members.

Many of you have seen, many of you have had your amendments reflected in the draft resolution that was introduced and described in the July 1st central staff memo, so thank you.

Those have been incorporated into the draft resolution as introduced and you will also note that In the memo that central staff is sending around, each of the council members' names will be by each of the amendment text or concepts that were introduced so that we get a chance to acknowledge your work.

And for us on Wednesday, we'll be able to have those leaders or sponsors of those amendments speak to those issues.

During Wednesday's morning session, the committee will discuss and vote on the COVID Emergency Relief Bill, again, which is Council Bill 119812, and the detailed Jumpstart Spending Plan Bill, which is Resolution The COVID relief bill again as a reminder authorizes $86 million from the city's reserve funds in 2020 to provide support to people and businesses impacted by COVID-19 epidemic.

is the detailed jumpstart spending plan that provides spending details for the proceeds from the recently adopted jumpstart Seattle payroll tax for each year by program area focused on the key issues that we've identified in years 2022 and beyond.

the committee will first take up discussion on the COVID relief bill.

And it's important that we do it in this order because it's necessary for any amendments, if there are any, that increase the total amount of spending that we're taking from the emergency reserves to then be reflected in our resolution if it is adopted.

So we need to know the total universe of dollars that we're planning to spend before we can then talk about the spending plan.

Then the central staff will describe the COVID relief bill and briefly describe how it relates to the rebalancing package and provide details of the use of reserves and other COVID relief efforts that the city is investing in.

We will walk through the proposed amendments to the COVID relief bill and you will have a chance to see all of those technical corrections and other amendments that are currently under review by law with the memo and the revised draft that is going to be sent around soon.

We'll have a discussion afterwards on resolution 31957, which is our ongoing detailed spend resolution.

Central staff will describe what's in the resolution, how it's different from the proposed resolution that was originally introduced, and also identify areas where there's significant emphasis or interest from council members.

For example, adding community funding to addressing historic policies such as redlining and creating affordable housing in neighborhoods and communities that have seen historical disinvestment.

So we're going to walk through.

There's about seven amendments to the proposed resolution.

Central staff is currently sorting things out.

And any amendments that we see that are very similar in nature, we are going to ask folks to probably work together.

So we'll be flagging that later.

I'll pause there, Council President, just to see if there's any questions on what to expect in the morning session.

Again, two bills.

And the text of the spending plan resolution is very similar to what we saw introduced.

Colleagues, any questions for Council Member Mosqueda?

Looks like it's clear.

Okay.

And I'll just wrap up with this, Council President.

There's three things I would like to flag for folks.

Number one, there's going to be a substitute bill that we'll send around that reflects a number of the changes that you all have identified through public discussion and some key amendments that you flag for central staff.

We tried as much as possible if it was really streamlining conversations and non-controversial to try to reflect as many amendments as possible in the substitute so that there would be and easier process for us to deliberate a few of the changes made.

We've also included a few really key important issues that we heard from folks early.

I flagged for you all early that we were interested in clarifying language around child care entities.

That's one of the amendments that you'll see from us reflected in the substitute bill that will be going around so that entities don't currently have to be contracting with the city to apply for or receive benefits from the spending plan.

and I'm happy to address any questions, and I know Allie and Tracy will as well.

In any of the substitute language that you see coming towards you, it will also be accompanied by a memo.

I also want to flag for folks, we're having ongoing conversations right now with folks, both on council and in community about adding language related to Green New Deal priorities and affordable housing and historically disinvested communities, communities that have faced we are looking at strengthening some of that language with your support.

or invest in communities emphasizing amendment language on climate resilience and transitions from fossil fuels or assistance with energy conservation and weatherization retrofits for low-income homeowners in Seattle, particularly those who are already experiencing displacement pressures such as in communities of color and those throughout Seattle.

We're also working with our partners in labor to make sure that we continue to emphasize that jobs created through these investments are good jobs, union jobs, and that we're creating pathways forward for local communities of color to access these jobs.

And that includes also strengthening some of the language that we've been working on related to affordable housing investments.

So more to come from us on that effort.

Just wanted to flag.

those three efforts substitute additional language on Green New Deal and housing, especially in areas impacted by institutionalized racism and past discriminatory practices.

So we'll send out more information very soon on that.

Great.

That's it from me, Council President.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you so much.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Looks like there are none.

Thank you so much for that report.

Next up is Councilmember Peterson.

Hello, colleagues.

On today's City Council agenda, I have a couple of items related to transportation and technology.

Council Bill 119826 is accepting the 3.5 million for the West Seattle Bridge.

The money is from the Federal Surface Transportation Program and is going to our Seattle Department of Transportation.

Thanks to Council President Gonzalez and Mayor Durkin for their votes at the Puget Sound Regional Council a few weeks ago to prioritize those funds for the West Seattle Bridge.

Appointment 01585 will appoint Dr. Tyrone Grandison to the Community Technology Advisory Board.

Dr. Grandison founded a nonprofit technology organization, previously served as chief financial officer for the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, and earned a PhD in computer science.

There is an amendment clarifying that Dr. Grannison is a new appointment.

Dr. Grannison is so dedicated to the technology field, he has been attending these meetings to observe that he's practically already a member.

But the amendment will clarify it's officially a new appointment.

a resolution 31950 mentioned by Council Member Juarez.

Thrilled to support that today.

In addition to the three parks in other parts of Seattle, this resolution includes two important parks in District 4, at the southern end of District 4 at Terry Pettis Park in East Lake, and at the northeastern end of District 4 at Magnuson Park Play Area.

There are over 1,000 low-income families who call Magnuson Park home, and renovating this area is very important.

this resolution enables us to seek matching funds for all of these parks.

On the introduction referral calendar today, we've got Council Bill 119833. That is the proposed renewal of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District.

This Friday at 10 a.m., we will have our second meeting on Seattle Transportation Benefit District funding.

I want to thank our Vice Chair, Dan Strauss, and all our colleagues who were able to join us this past Friday.

I also want to thank our information technology team, Seattle channel, city clerk, council communications team and central staff who worked hard to enable a productive meeting.

Based on public comment at that meeting last week, I am interested in an amendment to the mayor's proposal to allow a shift of some of the road work dollars to create more transit hours.

Ideally, the full council will vote on the final measure by Monday, July 27, because the deadline is August 4 to put it onto the November ballot for voters to consider.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and move on to the next council member.

That is Council Member Sawant, please.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

There are no items on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

For City Council policy, the committee meeting scheduled for July 28 will be canceled due to the city budget deliberations.

I've been extremely proud to have worked in the last few weeks with senior clergy from the black community as they have advanced their central area housing plan, the centerpiece of which is a demand that the city commit to 1,000 new affordable homes in the central district to begin to reverse racist gentrification.

I just wanted to share with members of the public who are watching that I will be putting forward an amendment this Wednesday in our discussions on the Amazon tax what we call spending plan to dedicate $50 million per year towards this I would welcome other councilmembers to join with me and the community in putting real dollars behind the slogan of black lives matter.

designate dollars to this work of focusing affordable housing construction for working-class communities of color such as the black community that have been decimated by gentrification over the last years and even decades.

And we need to be very specific about that and the city council must affirmatively commit to the central district and other gentrified neighborhoods to build these homes and to use affirmative marketing and community preference housing policies to ensure that the homes are available to families who have been displaced from the neighborhood or who are at risk of displacement.

And as many of you know, following the Black Pastor's call, more than 220 faith leaders and activists from many different faith traditions have written an open letter to the city last week calling on the city to support the build 1000 homes demand in full and I'll make sure that my staff forwards the letter once again to all city council members to make sure everybody has a look at it.

This letter was signed in just three days time by a wide, wide range of people, including Michael Ramos of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Rev. Bianca Lovelace Davis of the Poor People's Campaign, Rev. Paul Benz and Elise Deguir, co-chairs of Faith Action Network, Sr.

Anila Afzali of MAPS Amon, Rabbis David Basior of Kadima, Jason Levine of Temple Betham, and James Murrell of Bet Habirim, among other rabbis.

And of course, the leading Black clergy, including the Reverend Dr. Robert Jeffries, Senior Pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church at the Central District, Reverend Lawrence Willis, True Vine of Holiness Missionary Baptist Church, Reverend Dr. Kerry Anderson, First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend Willie Seals, Cherry Hill Baptist Church, the church's The Christ Spirit Church and Bishop Gary Tyson Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church.

And of course, Reverend Angela Yang of the Bethany United Church of Christ who has played.

and important role in organizing this community and faith letter.

The faith letter shows the breadth of support behind this demand, and I hope all council members will join us in supporting this spending plan amendment, and I'm happy to share a draft of the amendment with other council offices.

If you're interested, please contact my staff member, Jonathan Rosenblum, and we're happy to share that.

I also wanted to report that the TaxAmazon movement met for its fourth action conference last Wednesday to discuss, debate, and ultimately vote on what to do with the 30,000 ballot initiative signatures gathered by our volunteers.

The resolution was passed almost unanimously to hold those signatures in reserve in case big business attempts to fund a repeal referendum like they did in 2018, but otherwise to hold on to them.

And in many ways, those 30,000 initiative signatures have been the bedrock of winning this Amazon tax victory because clearly big business would not have made this concession if it were not for a concrete threat, a credible threat of a ballot initiative.

The activists should make note of the impact that we can have and the game-changing consequences of having a genuine grassroots movement.

TaxAmazon, which was such a grassroots, democratically organized movement, has just won hundreds of millions of dollars through one of Seattle's only progressive tax options, paid entirely by big business.

And one week later, we are already seeing the legislation from the mayor's office for the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, which does not yet have a movement around it.

And as a result, the same elected officials who voted yes on the Amazon tax are now very likely getting ready to vote for an extremely regressive sales tax increase paid by poorest working class people.

and also proposing austerity, which the mayor has put forward, cutting the city's share of funding for King County Metro by three-fourths.

This is a big cut.

It clearly shows that working people cannot trust the political establishment and need to rely on the strength of our own movements.

And if members in the community want to avert this cut and not have it be paid by regressive tax mechanisms, then we are going to have to fight for it, just like we fought for and won the Amazon tax.

I was also very pleased to see that seven of the nine council members have publicly stated support for the Justice for George Floyd movement's demand to cut police budget by at least 50%.

And I was happy to be at the press conference with some of other council members last week.

And then to concretize it, as I've said before, and as I said at the press conference, in the budget committee, my office will be bringing in coordination with our people's budget campaign, I'm happy to look into cutting more and funding social programs instead.

The mayor is mayor Durkin is holding her own press conference and my staff are monitoring that press conference.

And Mayor Durkin has said that she will veto any cut from the city council for the Seattle police if it either zeros out the budget for this year or it does not meet the need for service.

And I wanted to share some highlights that my staff have shared with me from the press conference, which shows the kind of you know, political gaslighting and the specter of lost services that is being raised by Mayor Durkin's office, very dishonestly, and from the police chief.

And they claim that Mayor Durkin has claimed in this press conference, or at least raised the question, again, without any basis in reality, that the decision, if the city council decides to defund SPD, by 50 percent this year and 50 percent next year, she's asked the question, would that take us out of compliance with the federal consent decree?

This is completely dishonest, because the movement is not just talking about defunding the police.

The movement is talking about changing the way the police department operates, meaning we have to actually address the violence, the racism, the excessive use of force, all of this, all of the extremely problematic situation with the police department, and then holding them accountable.

And all of this, in addition, defunding is, of course, going to need an elected community oversight board with full powers over the police, including hiring, firing, and policies and procedures.

And so it's important that we push back against this dishonesty.

from Mayor Durkan and from Chief Best.

Chief Best also at the press conference said something to the effect of, I will not sacrifice officers of color for political points.

As a matter of fact, what is going on is Mayor Durkan and the police leadership using, again, more gaslighting tactics in order to push back against, in order to, you know, they're threatening people of color who are demanding the defunding of police by saying that, well, if you want to defund, Then what's going to happen is officers of color or LGBTQ officers or other minority community officers will lose their jobs first.

We completely do not accept that.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing preventing the city from negotiating an agreement.

with the Police Officers Guild that protects officers of color, as UFCW 21 Secretary Treasurer Joe Mizrahi noted on Friday in a tweet, and I will quote that tweet, quote, as a union leader, I call BS on the quote-unquote butt seniority argument.

If SPOG and the city had any level of commitment to equity, they could bargain over solutions, but instead they will hide behind labor principles to protect the white supremacy in SPD, unquote.

So I think this is a very important point that we are absolutely We will fight tooth and nail for labor rights, but this is not about labor rights.

This is the rights of working people everywhere, which is being supported by the labor movement as a whole, to have a society that is free of racism and police violence.

And let's not confuse the two in any way.

Durkin has also outrageously repeatedly said, and she repeated this in the press conference just now, that SPD training is literally the model for the nation.

Model for what?

Model for not a single police officer being prosecuted for killings of ordinary people, especially black and brown people.

Model for harassing homeless people and the poor.

I'm not clear what she means by that, and I would urge her office to clarify what they mean, what they think the Seattle police is a model for.

And we also have to note one other thing that she brought up in this press conference today in response to a media question is, and this is a paraphrasing or close quote from my staff of what Mayor Durkan said.

She said, it is unclear to me what the council means by cutting 50% because they have said it different ways.

You should tell the public what your plan is to replace those services.

Do you want to reduce response time so they show up 15 or 20 minutes after you call?

Well, let's be clear.

This is not what we're talking about.

Again, this is completely misleading.

And I wanted to just share, you know, Kairos 7 reported on June 22, 2020, that young people, teenagers, call Seattle police.

repeatedly to tell them that they had made a discovery of a suitcase that had washed up on the rocks at the Duwamish Head in West Seattle, where they suspected that there were body parts because they felt an odor.

And Seattle police confirmed that they had a response time of an hour and a half.

And the teens tell us, and this was from a TikTok video that went viral, they tell us that they called the police twice, but it took nearly three hours, according to the teenagers, for the authorities to arrive.

So we have to reject this idea that cutting the police budget or defunding them at 50 percent is somehow going to impact services negatively.

We have to talk about how the police only spend a small minority of their time investigating the actual egregious crimes.

The majority of the police time, and this is where mathematics is important, you know, let's count where their time is used, the majority of their time is used in harassing poor communities, communities of color, homeless neighbors, abusing protesters, and in the case of our sisters like Charlene Alliles, shooting the very people who have called them for assistance.

And so these are the things that our movement is proposing that the police no longer spend time doing, not responding to emergency phone calls where there is a criminal element.

I would really appreciate the mayor's office to not conflate these points and engage in this debate honestly.

And then the last point I'll make in relation to the cuts, of course, support the comments made by council members in this morning's briefing about standing in solidarity with the staff that are facing death threats and other threats and who are showing a lot of courage.

And at the same time, we have to make sure we also stand against the mayor's austerity because the civil rights, Office of Civil Rights is one department which does important work who are working really and the complaints don't get heard for months, even though the staff are very dedicated.

The mayor has frozen open positions in the office of civil rights.

I will say that applies to the office of labor standards as well.

And then the best way that the city council can show the support to the staff is in addition to our messages of solidarity that we've stopped mandatory furloughs or layoffs, and also end hiring freezes in crucial departments like civil rights and labor standards.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant for those remarks.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, we will move down the line to Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee has two items on the introduction and referral calendar today.

Council Bill 119832, which is FEMA-required legislation to update Seattle's flood insurance rate maps.

And due to a federal deadline, my intention is to bring this legislation directly to full council next week.

Also on the IRC is CB 119831, the childcare near you package, which the land use committee will be taking up over the next several weeks, making technical changes to how our childcare facilities are permitted throughout the city, reducing costs and allowing for childcare to be near you throughout our city.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is next Wednesday, July 22nd, the best day of the year for some of our colleagues.

We will hold public hearings on both the Child Care Near You package and the Land Use Omnibus Bill.

We will also hear a report from SDCI and OSC on their tree protection work that has been occurring throughout this COVID pandemic, despite not being able to present in our Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

Regarding Jump Start Seattle, on Wednesday I will be proposing two amendments to the Jump Start Seattle spending bills.

One amendment would add an additional $9 million to the Small Business Stabilization Fund to be taken from the Revenue Stabilization Fund and emergency funds.

Another amendment would express the City Council's intent to provide additional small business support by providing relief through B&O taxes.

I'm thankful to the opportunity to have worked with Councilmember Mosqueda and Council President Gonzales to have a few of my amendments included in the substitute to the 2020 relief bill so that we can streamline the process on Wednesday.

One of those changes that we worked together on is increasing the eligibility for small business support to businesses with up to 10 FTEs, which is an increase from five flat employees, allowing more flexibility.

Thank you to the great work from staff, Noah, and others in other offices for taking a look at how many businesses have what levels of employees that really helped us craft this amendment in a great way.

I will also be making an amendment that is included in the substitute that allows nonprofits that provide community services eligible for this support as well.

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the defunding of the police.

I want to make sure that everyone in our community knows that defunding the police does not mean decreasing public safety.

In fact, it means increasing public safety for so many members of our community.

The city has not been providing public safety in a way that our communities want.

I've heard this in Ballard, and I know that public safety works different in Ballard than on Beacon Hill.

It works differently in Rainier Beach than it does in Ravenna, and it works differently in Lake City than it does in Leschi.

We are defining how these cuts to the police department will occur.

In this transition, you will always be able to call 9-1-1 and have someone respond to your call, as is the case today.

Our metric of success at the conclusion of this transition will be that when you call 9-1-1, you get a fast response 24-7 with the appropriate first responder who has the resources that they need to resolve the call.

Transitions take time to be successful, and we need to be strategic with these changes.

We need to set up programs for success so that they and the people working within those programs are successful.

The worst thing that we can do is transfer responsibility before programs are ready, watch them fail, and then say this new way of providing public safety doesn't work.

We owe it to everyone to have the time for transition and ensure everyone is set up for success.

The questions are, do we need a police officer with a gun responding to traffic stops, mental health calls, non-criminal calls?

The answer is no.

Do we need a fast 911 response with the appropriate first responder with the resources that they need to be successful?

Absolutely yes.

We've talked about expanding low-acuity programs we already have in place, HealthONE, Crisis Response Team, and others, as we continue to speak about CAHOOTS and Eugene.

CAHOOTS is a good program, and the largest difference between their program and our program is that CAHOOTS is hardwired into 911 and doesn't require an officer to make the referral.

We have the programs that we have here in Seattle in place, and we need to hardwire them into 911 so that they don't need a referral from a police officer.

We've had daily protests in our city for over a month with the message to listen to our black community.

Our black community is not monolithic or has a singular voice.

And throughout these daily protests, we've also heard a consistent message of defunding the police.

What we heard last week in committee was organized members of our black community making very specific requests for our city government to act on.

We heard the proposal to scale down SPD funding and scale up community-based programs.

It is a false narrative to say that these approaches will not work and cannot work because they are not ready to step in today.

And again, the worst thing that we can do is give organizations the responsibility of responding without the time that they need to scale up and be successful.

We need to set up these programs and organizations to succeed in this transition.

We also received 911 call analysis and information which leads us to understand that these changes are possible.

We have for too long required our police officers to be our social workers, mental health providers, homelessness response, and protecting public safety.

It was clear to me from SPD's presentation and committee that we have the ability to place these responsibilities with the appropriate first responders.

We are clearly defining where these cuts are coming from so that we are not taking a percentage off the top of the budget.

We need, and we are using a scalpel, not an axe, to change how we provide public safety.

And we need to act with urgency and strategy.

We will look back on this period of time and wonder with astonishment how we lived the way we did.

Our future is bright.

The solutions are clear and in front of us.

And we have the opportunity to make important changes and to create the world we know is possible.

We will ensure public safety is maintained throughout this transition.

and that public safety is increased to all communities at the conclusion of this transition.

As for District 6, wonderful District 6, I had the privilege of attending a rally for Black Lives Matter and defunding the police at Bergen Place just yesterday.

And I'm also seeing residents across District 6 representing for Black Lives Matter at corners throughout the district getting cars to honk and waving signs, as well as having conversations with each other.

I've seen Sustainable Ballard, Sunrise Project, folks in Greenwood at 85th and Greenwood.

I even saw Barbara and Jordan out there on 65th and 15th one night.

These are meaningful demonstrations of the values that folks in District 6 have.

Last week, I also attended the Ballard District Council to discuss land use in Ballard and on Market Street.

It was a great conversation, and I really appreciated having the opportunity to attend.

I also attended the Ballard Alliance's Ratepayer Committee to discuss issues important to our neighborhood, homelessness, public safety, and Jump Start Seattle.

I also spoke to residents during our D6 residents conversation that I have every week about, again, homelessness, defunding the police, curb cuts, trees, and, again, even land use.

I had one constituent speak to me.

Her name was Autumn.

She's a massage therapist, and she talked to me about licensure and how In her work, she has to have a license to perform her duties, and that license follows her from any place of employment in any state.

And her desire to have also police officers or peace officers have a similar licensure, it requires continuing education.

It requires certain amount of upfront training.

Her license actually takes longer to complete than the police academy.

So that was something that she noted to me.

And one of the most important points that she mentioned is that If a massage therapist has a violation of their duties and responsibility, that goes on their record, and that follows them wherever they are employed, in whatever state they work.

And she thinks that that would be a good thing to also have our police and our peace officers have as part of their hiring requirements, and I have to agree.

We also worked in District 6 on getting the Golden Gardens lot back open and having changes made to the Stay Healthy Street up and down Golden Gardens Way.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez, for your leadership in parks, as always.

We also have spoken to a group looking to expand Sunset Hill Park into the street.

So that is an emerging topic that I continue to track.

and work with them on.

And again, we continue to hold resident meetings by phone every week.

I've really missed the opportunity to get to meet with people in person in our district office.

By phone, we'll have to do for now.

This week, as far as regional committees, last week I attended the Association of Washington Cities Committee, which was very meeting.

It's always great to see our other cities.

And then this week I will also be attending the regional transit and mobility committee in addition to our budget and special committee on transportation.

Thank you, Council President.

That is my report.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Any comments or questions for Councilmember Strauss?

I will pass it over to Councilmember Estrada.

Councilmember Estrada, please.

Councilmember Estrada, I want to thank you for your comments on clarifying what defunding really means.

I think your words speak volume to the impact that we are talking about in community.

Reinvesting in community is probably a more important verb to the comments that you just shared with the community over and over as we seek to clarify what it truly means to reinvest and re-envision what public safety and community safety means.

So thank you for your comments this morning and I'd love to share those out via our blog if you have those in writing and have you featured as a guest on Archer's The Tuesdays.

Thank you so much.

I also want to echo my thanks to you, Councilmember Strauss, for speaking so eloquently about the work that the City Council is actually trying to do as opposed to the spin that we're hearing about the work that we are undertaking.

I especially appreciate your comments about how The council is not looking at blunt cuts as has been described by the executive.

We are looking at scalpel-like approaches to be able to scale down what we use law enforcement to respond to and what we can scale up in terms of community-based investments that we know are a public health approach that will actually be more effective at addressing some of those issues that we are currently asking law enforcement to respond to.

And so I think it's really important to continue to talk about this plan of transition to scale down law enforcement investments and scale up community-based investments in a way that positions us to truly put forward a public safety model that is going to be responsive to the calls from Black Lives Matter movement and still comply with our obligation to deliver on public safety.

community service officers is something that we already do, for example.

And those are unarmed folks who respond to issues within communities that are nonviolent, that are needed, need a sort of type of response, and we're already investing in that.

There's no reason why we couldn't look at stronger investments in the community service officer program, for example.

as one of those potential models.

So again, really excited about the opportunity to continue to have these nuanced conversations about what approaches we can take over the I think it is important that we continue to work on this issue.

And I look forward to the coming months and years to make sure that we are actually rebuilding our public safety model and not just tooling around the edges.

And I am heartened by the fact that so many councilmembers are spending so much time on this issue and are really rolling up Thank you all.

Okay, next up is Council Member Herbold, please.

Got it.

Good morning.

Greetings everybody.

Just to start off, consistent with the Council's resolution regarding committee meetings, the Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting for July 14th has been canceled.

Just want to give a little shout out to the work that the Seattle Fire Department is doing under its COVID-19 test sites.

that are administered at both two sites, both one in Soto and one in Aurora, are up on Aurora.

They've done more than 48,000.

that we are doing.

We are doing a lot of testing.

We are doing a lot of tests for folks.

It's a walk-up service, drive-up service.

And it's some really important work that the fire department is doing that hasn't read last week about the Greek Row outbreak at the U-Dub.

Those folks were at, got tested at a fire department testing site, and the fire department was actually the ones who alerted Seattle, King County Public Health, that we had another outbreak.

So again, the work that they're doing is incredibly important, and their turnaround time for test results is also a real key to their success.

So I want to thank folks for that work.

And also, I'm happy to share sort of more granular details about the demographics of who they're testing and the results for those tests if anybody's interested.

On Friday evening, I sent a letter to the mayor and police chief regarding the threat to local journalist Amari Salisbury of Converge Media and the actual arrest of Andrew Buncombe, the U.S. correspondent for The Independent.

Both incidents took place as the CHOP was being cleared on July 1st.

The British ambassador to the United States has launched an official complaint with the State Department and the White House over the arrest of Mr. Buncombe.

And my letter notes that while Mr. Salisbury was not arrested, I'm concerned that such actions can have a chilling effect on press coverage.

First Amendment protections for the press in the United States Constitution are a linchpin of American democracy, and unless respected by the government, the quality of our democracy is diminished and eroded.

Further, our own laws, in this case Seattle Municipal Code 12A.12.020, the section of the Municipal Code that addresses the failure to disperse, explicitly exempts news reporters in the event of a public safety order.

Further, this council adopted an observer's bill of rights in 2017, which clearly states the right to observe the actions of officers.

I believe it's our job as elected officials to ensure that the press remains free and is able to carry out its work in accordance with the Constitution and city law.

city law protections for the press and observers do not exist for the convenience of government to be cast aside whenever they happen to be inconvenient to government.

And the letter requests the mayor and the city attorney to remedy this unacceptable abridgment of the First Amendment and improper use of city law.

I also want to thank all my colleagues on the council who have spoke very eloquently to our efforts to defund the Seattle Police Department budget and reinvest in community-based public safety programs that are evidence-based and we know can deliver positive public safety outcomes for our community.

I don't have much to add because I think everybody I think we spoke very, very well on what we're doing and what we're not doing.

So I'm going to put aside in the instance, in the seeking of brevity, I'm going to put aside sort of my broader remarks, but want to zero in on a couple things that we've heard from the chief I'm going to move on to the next item.

I just want to say that I and other council members are continuing to work through the Seattle Police Department budget, and we are in the beginning stages of developing proposals.

I recognize that this is going to be a short and truncated process for the rebalancing of the budget, but nevertheless, I'm not sure how it is that the chief can be prognosticating on the content of budget proposals that haven't even been developed yet.

In the case that some layoffs are necessary, of the many very worst case scenarios that the Chief poses, one is the firing of BIPOC officers.

I want to state very clearly that the Chief is empowered under the Public Safety Civil Service Commission Rule 15 to implement layoffs in a way that is called out of order.

This means she does not have to fire the newest officers hired first.

She can request the Public Safety Civil Service Commission Executive Director for permission to layoff out of order when doing so is in the interest of efficient operations of his or her department.

She's making the argument to the public now that firing BIPOC members of the Seattle Police Department would be harmful.

I agree wholeheartedly and I know that the chief can argue just as convincingly that maintaining the employment of BIPOC officers is in the interest of efficient operations of the SPD in requesting permission to do layoffs out of order to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission executive director.

I'm confident that she can make this argument and get this permission.

So I think that worst case scenario picture is really in the chief's hands when she decides the priorities that she wants to set should layoffs be necessary.

As it relates to the Southwest precinct, I wanna raise the fact that although under the charter, the chief decides how to deploy officers, the charter also states that there shall be maintained adequate police protection in each district of the city.

The charter doesn't protect SPD officers doing social work or addressing mental health issues, addressing noise complaints or traffic stops, for example.

This is the effort that we are making to narrow the number of things that SPD does to take out of their hands the responsibility to address things that are not related to law enforcement.

And finally, the Seattle budget has a budget control level for each precinct, including the southwest precinct.

And it's the council that has budget authority for the funding for each budget control level or the spending for each precinct.

In closing, on this topic, I just want to say I appreciate the update provided by Deputy Mayor Fong about the Mayor and Chief's announcement for actions that they estimate to be between $76 and $86 million in reductions to the SBD's 2021 budget.

And look forward to reviewing those more carefully.

I want to let folks know, just highlighting, this is something that we will be talking about more in the budget process starting on Wednesday.

proposing a proviso to remove the Seattle Police Department from the gatekeeping function it currently plays in the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program, LEAD and COLEAD, COLEAD being the evolution of LEAD during the public health emergency.

This is at the request of the Public Defenders Association, which operates LEAD and CoLEAD.

As most of you know, both CoLEAD and LEAD are pre-arrest diversion programs for people involved in low-level criminal activity.

currently all referrals to CoLEAD must be reviewed and approved by SPD.

The problem stems from SPD's current lack of capacity to provide this function.

And the result for CoLEAD is that they are essentially unable to act on any new referrals now that they are receiving from community members, from The staff and directors of business improvement associations, the things that are called typically social contact referrals, they can't, we have provided them resources to assist these people and they're unable to do so because they've been unable to get SPD to basically approve those referrals because of their current lack of capacity to do so.

And so their unique and scarce resources, including specialized case management and hotel rooms, are actually going unused, even though they are clearly and desperately needed.

The proviso will allow LEAD to accept referrals directly from community sources and public agencies.

It will not change the positive collaborative relationship that LEAD has built with SPD officers.

It just removes them from the administrative hurdle at the start of a referral.

As it relates specifically to work happening in the human service department, I just want folks to know a bit of an update about the legislation that we voted on last week to appropriate $13 million in one-time funding from the State Department of Commerce to support COVID response.

These are sorely needed and anxiously awaited funds to reimburse frontline homelessness providers for their extraordinary efforts and unanticipated costs to serve people during this pandemic.

I pushed hard to appropriate these funds as soon as we received the legislation, and I really appreciate Budget Chair Mosqueda's support and the Council's approval on that expedited timeline.

Less than 24 hours after Council's vote, I want to thank the human services department for releasing their RFP for $4.9 million of these funds.

I want to appreciate the extraordinary speed with which HSD acted after receiving the green light from counsel.

The intent of this RFP is to help nonprofits sustain guidelines and protections recommended by public response system.

Proposals are due on July 17th and awards will be made by July 27th.

Funding awards will cover the period of March 1st, 2020 through December 31st, 2020. Again, thanks to HSD for their quick reaction to get these dollars out the door as soon as possible.

And I will be letting you know more about the timeline on the balance of those dollars, the balance of the $13 million as soon as I learn more.

And then finally, as far as the departments in my reporting area, just want to highlight what we've all heard from public health.

We know that the coronavirus has been increasing in King County since mid-June.

There's been the largest increase in new cases in young adults and Seattle residents.

Public health, Seattle and King County is warning that the risk for infection has increased.

Our community has done better than most and it's important to follow the guidelines that have kept us safe so far.

Again, stay six feet apart from others, minimize contact with others outside your home, frequent hand washing or hand sanitizer, use cloth face coverings in public, and avoid group gatherings in poorly ventilated spaces.

I want to highlight again that coronavirus testing is free.

Consider being tested if you've been recently in close contact with anyone with COVID, or if you experience symptoms like fever, cough, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle aches, or loss of taste or smell.

If you have a healthcare provider, contact them about getting tested.

If you don't, the public health of Seattle King County has a website where you can find a list of free testing locations regardless of immigration status with free language interpretation.

Just Google King County COVID testing locations.

And lastly, I just want to I would like to flag for everybody on the Council a couple of amendments coming up for select budget committee.

We will be circulating an amendment co-sponsored by Councilmember in the housing and services bucket of spending would be 5% of the revenue for permanently affordable housing home ownership.

And the projects would of course only serve households up to 80% AMI and specifically targeted those who are at risk of displacement from their communities or who have faced barriers to accessing home ownership due to past discriminatory policies and practices.

we have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks.

specifically for direct financial assistance to Seattle's low-income immigrant and refugee workers and households, and ensuring that some of those funds are used to advise or provide navigation support to the recipients of direct aid to ensure that they can avoid inadvertently losing other income-tested benefits.

And that's all I have for today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

Any questions or comments for Councilmember Herbold?

public safety.

Councilmember Herbold, I want to thank you for your ongoing work in this space as our chair of the public safety committee.

I know that you are staying fairly busy at the moment with both the responsibilities of chairing public safety but also human services department in general.

I really appreciate your I just wanted to make a note that while it is true that this city for strategies and resources being dedicated to making sure that the racial makeup of Seattle residents is reflected in the police department.

I also want to make sure that folks understand that there is nuance to that position.

And the nuance basically is, and I'm quoting from a report done, two reports done by the Community Police Commission, one in 2016, another one in 2017, where it says that, quote, racial congruity alone is not enough to build rapport with communities, many of which have long felt oppressed by governmental institutions.

close quote.

So I think it's really important for us to understand that we're not, that sort of the argument that BIPOC officers lead to less oppression, less excessive force, and increased amount of trust from communities of color, that that is not necessarily true.

What is important is not only diverse hires, but making sure that the police department is taking a step further with regard to those hires.

including making sure that the individuals of color that are being hired have a true understanding of the different needs of those communities.

So, for example, the Community Police Commission report from January 2016 said, quote, research says, experts report that when a police department's officers reflect the racial demographics of the communities, they serve the department they serve the department fulfills several important purposes.

First, if a police department reasonably reflects the community's racial and ethnic makeup, it helps convey a sense of equity to the public.

If it does not, it can invite suspicion as to why members of various racial and ethnic groups are not represented.

Second, it increases the probability that the department will be able to understand the perspectives of racial and ethnic communities and be able to communicate more effectively with them.

Employing police officers who understand and empathize with various cultures may contribute to more effective policing.

Third, it increases the likelihood that officers will come to better understand and respect various racial and ethnic perspectives through their daily interactions.

Lack of exposure to other cultures can increase the likelihood that citizens' motives will be misunderstood," close quote. So I think it's really important for us to appreciate or understand Chief Best comments in that context that it's not diversity for the sake of diversity, but it is increasing the racial and ethnic diversity within the sworn officer personnel that has to be cultivated in a way that is allowing those officers to function within a system that appreciates and values and supports the cultural, linguistic, ethnic understanding of communities that have been historically over-policed and that are currently over-policed. And only then will we see positive results of increase in diversity in our law enforcement agencies, and the national research bears that out, and I really appreciate the Seattle Community Police Commission's effort in doing research specific to the Seattle Police Department. Again, that was a report in January 2016, and they did a follow-up in 2017 as well that I think will be important context for the public and certainly for us as policy makers to continue to to keep an eye on as we continue to identify ways to right-size this police department to respond to the issues that they need to respond to and not respond to the issues they don't need to respond to. So just want to take a moment to highlight and give credit to the Community Police Commission and thanks to them for I think it is important to recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion for doing a lot of work, historical work in the space of recruitment and retention, particularly as it relates to diversity and what kind of outcomes we can see if diverse hires are made. But again, that is only as good as the environment in which we are asking them to work in and the system we are asking those the power that the chief holds in making those decisions and the persuasive nature of her ability to be able to advocate for changes she needs that would not set the police department back on the diversity hiring and recruitment that they've been successful on over the last two to three years. Any other questions or comments for Councilmember Herbold? Okay, hearing none, I don't have anything to report other than to say that I don't have anything on this afternoon's full council agenda, and folks have sort of reported out on other things that we've been working on, and I did my duties at the top of the hour here with President's report, so we will go ahead and I will close out the public portion of this morning's council briefing unless there is anything else for the good of the order before I transition us to executive session. Councilmember Esqueda?

journalists and how abhorrent it is to have read that, but also how important it was for the reporter to have been able to describe the experience of being arrested, what happened to him and what happened in the jail once he was there.

So thank you for flagging that.

I will note that I'd be very interested in working with you as the chair of public safety to follow up on that incident, recognizing that now we've had a reporter jailed and another reporter that was hit with a flashbang.

And we want to make sure, as we've talked to other reporters about in the last few weeks here, we want to make sure that reporters feel safe in our community.

And looking forward to following up with you on that and following up on the conversations I've had with a number of journalists in the area about the need to do that on many levels.

So looking forward to following up with you on that conversation.

And perhaps if you get updates on the status of that individual and the case, we'd love to hear those as the summer continues.

Okay, thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda, for those last words.

Okay, we are going to move into executive session, folks.

As presiding officer, I am announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene an executive session.

There are two executive sessions scheduled for this morning and into the afternoon.

The purpose of executive sessions are to discuss pending potential or actual litigation and labor negotiations.

The council's executive sessions are an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open sessions.

I expect that the session, executive sessions to end in approximately 120 minutes, so that's two hours.

So I'm expecting that we will end by no later than 1.15 p.m.

If the executive sessions are extended beyond that time, then I will return to open session to announce an extension and the expected duration.

So with that being said, I will wait for the clerk's notice that we are no longer streaming live.

Thank you, Council President and Eric and Ian, if you would please confirm when the authorized attendees are on the line, I'll call the roll at the direction.