update the record as people log in.
Okay folks, good morning.
We are about to convene the December 7th 2020 Council Briefing Meeting which will now come to order.
The time is 9 31 a.m.
Colleagues, I did receive a notice this morning from Council Member Sawant's office that she will not be joining us for Council Briefing or for full City Council this afternoon.
So we'll make sure to properly get her excused for this afternoon, but she will not be joining us for council briefing this morning either.
With that being said, will the clerk please call the roll?
Peterson?
Here.
Strauss?
Present.
Herbold?
Juarez?
Here.
Lewis?
Present.
Morales?
Here.
Mosqueda?
Present.
Council President González.
Here.
Seven present.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
If there is no objection, the minutes of November 30th, 2020 will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.
President's report, I don't have anything to report this morning, so we'll just go ahead and dig into a preview of today's City Council Actions Council and Regional Committees.
I'll call on Council Members as established by the rotated roll call for our City Council meetings.
This week's roll call will be as follows.
Council Member Peterson and then Council Member Strauss, Herbold, Juarez, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion for this morning.
So first up is Council Member Peterson, and then we will hear from Council Member I just want to note for the record that we have now been joined by Councilmember Herbold.
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you.
Good morning, colleagues.
The Transportation and Utilities Committee has nine items on today's full council agenda.
All nine of the items on today's council agenda from the Transportation and Utilities Committee were recommended unanimously for passage by the five members of the committee.
The items include various property easements and technical updates from both Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Lights.
Regarding transportation, we have Council Bill 119960, which is a six-month extension of the existing transit service funding agreement with King County Metro.
This brief six-month extension is needed because the previous six-year Seattle Transportation Benefit District was written in 2014 to expire at the end of this year.
rather than providing a cushion in case it was renewed or extended.
The sales tax was, of course, renewed by voters last month, so it'll be next year when we review and adopt a more extensive, longer-term service funding agreement with King County Metro for our supplemental bus service.
Speaking of the sales tax for the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, today's agenda also includes Council Bill 119959, which officially imposes that sales tax, which voters authorized last month.
Both of these transportation bills were passed unanimously by the committee and are not considered controversial.
The more substantive discussions will occur next year when we review the new transit services agreement with King County Metro and finally allocate the remaining reserves from the old 2014 STBD measure and the new revenues from the incremental $20 vehicle license fee that council adopted two weeks ago.
This will occur after SDOT's engagement process.
The Transportation Utilities Committee will meet again on Wednesday, December 16, which will be the last meeting of this calendar year.
regarding district four, on today's full city council agenda, there's also an item that impacts the district, specifically Magnuson Park, Council Bill 119746. With the solid ground housing and the relatively new Mercy Magnuson housing, there are now 850 low-income residents who live at Magnuson Park, 600 of whom identify as BIPOC.
As a council member for this district, those low-income residents are my main focus for Magnuson Park.
So I'm pleased that Council Bill 119746 regarding the Tennis Center not only frees a small historic building for other opportunities, but also strengthens the public benefits for the low-income residents of Magnuson Park.
And we work with central staff, the Parks Department, and the Tennis Center to make that happen, and I really I appreciate chair Deborah Horace's leadership on this as well.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Peterson for that report.
Any comments or questions?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Councilmember Strauss and then Councilmember Herbold.
Good morning.
Good morning, Council President.
Good morning, colleagues.
There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction referral calendar.
or on today's agenda.
Our next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is Wednesday.
It's going to start at 9 a.m., and this will be the final meeting of the year.
We have three items on our agenda, a briefing and discussion on the legislation to extend interim floodplain regulations that council adopted earlier this year.
The permanent regulations were not finalized this year, so we need to extend the interim measure.
A quarterly report from SDCI on their progress towards strengthening tree protections and a public hearing and briefing on an application to extend a contract rezone of 1106 34th Avenue.
This application is being considered under council's quasi-judicial rules, meaning the public hearing is limited to parties of record, and that council members should refrain from hearing arguments about the merits of the application outside of this public hearing.
An initial briefing on updates to the construction code will also occur during the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.
Let me get back to you this.
I believe that we had actually paused this briefing.
So council members, I will follow up with you about whether we will hear a briefing on the construction code update.
Events, last week I attended the Regional Transportation Committee where we reviewed draft changes to Metro Connect's interim and 2050 network maps.
Last week, I attended the Wallingford Community Council's meeting, where we heard from a number of homelessness service providers, and they presented to the community about their work in the Wallingford area.
And I also attended the Ballard subgroup meetings of the Maritime and Industrial Strategies Group on Tuesday and Thursday, where we had robust discussion about maritime and industrial operations, and land use, transportation, and many other topics.
Here in District 6, last week I spoke to neighbors from Ballard, East Ballard, Green Lake, Greenwood, Sunset Hill, and Fremont.
We discussed topics of neighborhood safety, addressing homelessness, participatory budgeting, traffic calming in and around the Brewery District.
As well, I will be continuing to hold District 6 resident meetings this week.
I'll be holding those meetings tonight and tomorrow night.
and if you are, for the listening public, if you're interested in meeting with me, please sign up on my website.
Thank you, Council President and colleagues.
That is my report.
Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.
Any questions or comments on that report?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Council Member Herbold and then Council Member Juarez.
Good morning.
Good morning.
be here with everybody.
I have no items from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on the full council today.
We do have a Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8th at 9.30 a.m.
Items on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting are as follows.
We'll have a briefing and discussion of legislation that Mayor Durkan and I announced last week to give explicit authority to our civilian-led police accountability system to issue administrative subpoenas when gathering information critical to their investigations.
Subpoena authority for SPOG and SPMA is still subject to CBA requirements, and the legislation was developed collaboratively with the Office of Professional Accountability, the Office of the Inspector General, the City Attorney's Office, and has been also been shared with the community police commission, the new legislation itself adds new sections to the municipal code, codifies and affirms that the OPA and OIG can seek subpoenas of those who have witnessed or been involved in potential misconduct incidents.
In addition, the legislation creates a process for OPA and OIG to directly issue the subpoenas and enforce them by seeking a court order should the subject of the subpoena fail to apply.
fail to comply.
The new legislation also requires that individuals and third party record holders served with subpoenas are provided a written notice of their right to due process.
This protection was not codified previously, and the addition is intended to increase civilian participation in OPA investigations and OIG audits and reviews.
The second item on our agenda will be a semi-annual audit report of the three accountability partners presented by and from the Community Police Commission, the Inspector General, and the Office of Police Accountability.
And then finally, we are going to have a discussion on the proposal for misdemeanor basic need defense.
The conversation is focused only on the defense associated with basic need.
It does not include discussion of the defense for mental health or substance abuse disorder.
We're picking up the conversation where we left off in the budget process.
We've had a few stakeholder conversations since then.
Again, no legislation will be presented.
ASHA will help lead a conversation about how we might codify the common law defense for meeting an immediate basic need, which will include a issue ID and decision agenda sort of led discussion.
Other items include this week's update from the Human Services Department.
On December 8th, the Aging and Disabilities Services Division Director, Kathy Knight, is presenting the city's Mobile Integrated Health Program, which includes HealthONE as part of a National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Innovations webinar, and Operation SAC Lunch.
served a warm Thanksgiving Day meal from its food truck outside City Hall.
The operations sack lunch director described the meal as well attended, well supervised, and very appreciated.
Multiple departments and the mayor's office coordinated on logistics.
Last week we heard news that the HSD interim director Jason Johnson will be departing at the end of the year.
and Helen Howell will join the city in January as HSD's new interim director, while a search for a permanent director is underway.
I'll be meeting with HSD tomorrow.
I look forward to learning more about the plans for the transition and the search.
Just as a reminder, the council passed resolution 31868 in 2019, which lays out the steps that the council intends to follow in the appointment process for a new city department head, and expects that the executive follow.
The process begins with the council requesting that the mayor communicate to the committee chair about the planned recruitment process prior to identifying a nomination process, including a description of the intended process and the engagement of any advisory groups, stakeholders, and subject matter experts who will be involved.
This process is designed to help ensure that both the council and the public have an opportunity to hear the mayor's goals and vision for HSD, as well as learning about the eventual candidate.
Hope to be able to share more with you soon.
As far as an update from public health, fire department COVID-19 tests administered at their four sites now, cumulatively is about 441,000 tests between June 5th and December 3rd.
Last week, I talked to folks about Washington Notify, a new smartphone-based app that helps track your coronavirus exposure while also protecting your privacy.
In the first week, more than one million Washingtonians activated WA Notify on their phones, and that's almost one in five adults in the state who are now using WA Notify to flatten the curve.
Studies from Oxford University and Stanford show that the more people who use a tool like WANotify, the more effectively it will protect us.
Quick and easy to enable.
If you haven't already done so, go to wanotify.org to get instructions or learn more.
As far as regional committee updates, just letting folks know that last week at the Regional Policy Committee, we approved the Best Starts for Kids Assessment Report We received a briefing on the direction of the implementation plan for the health through housing King County sales tax and also received a briefing on the King County parks levy.
This week I've got a regional water quality committee and then I also have this week the lead policy coordinating group quarterly meeting.
And then just wanna give an early heads up that on Friday the 18th from two to 6 p.m.
I'll be holding my monthly virtual office hours.
That's all I've got for today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.
Any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Councilmember Juarez and then Councilmember Lewis.
Good morning, Councilmember Juarez.
Good morning, everybody.
So there are 14 items of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.
There is one reappointment to the Seattle Indian Services Commission.
That's Mr. Michael Reichert, who's also the CEO of Catholic Community Services.
We have 11 appointments and reappointments to the Seattle Center Advisory Commission and two pieces of legislation.
The first piece of legislation provides flexibility to a contract between the Seattle Center and the Seattle Repertory Theater due to COVID-19.
And the second piece of legislation is regarding the Sandpoint Tennis Center's concession agreement with the city.
I believe Council Member Peterson spoke to some of that, and I'll share more about both of them this afternoon.
Week ahead, Tuesday, December 7th, I plan to attend the North King County Subarea Briefing for Sound Transit, and then we'll participate in the Government and Education Committee that afternoon, chaired by our Council President Gonzalez.
And on Thursday, December 9th, I have the Puget Sound Regional Council PSRC Transportation Policy Board meeting in the morning.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Juarez, any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Council Member Lewis, and then we will hear from Council Member Morales.
Good morning, Council Member Lewis.
Thank you, Madam President.
There are no items on this afternoon's agenda from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.
I do have a bill that is on the introduction referral calendar Council Bill 119975, which I alluded to in briefing last week.
This bill creates a new section in the Seattle Municipal Code defining and governing the construction of permanent supportive housing.
It also amends several other code sections in reference exempting permanent supportive housing from several development requirements and allowing administrative review of a lot of development requirements to expedite and speed up and reduce the cost of the construction of permanent supportive housing.
This bill will be heard in my committee a week from tomorrow on December 15th in the afternoon.
make sure that folks are marking their calendars.
We need five council members for a quorum.
And I look forward to everybody being there to hear more from central staff, but also from the stakeholders in the provider community who were really instrumental in shaping this.
And this bill is designed around issues that they have identified to me over the last several months.
and I'm really excited to be bringing this forward.
There has been an initial SEPA determination of non-significance that has been publicly posted and folks can find that and read that on my website, my council website.
And I look forward to a robust discussion.
on the 15th regarding this critical legislation to make sure that we are doing everything we can to build permanent supportive housing in a quick, efficient, and cost-effective way.
Additionally, on that committee meeting on December 15th, we will be receiving an update from the executive on the plan to stand up the investments that this council made in our budget last month in regards to the additive shelter and the additive outreach investments through the HOPE team.
That presentation will occur after our briefing on the permanent supportive housing.
But between those two things, we should have a pretty informative, robust, and packed agenda.
So I look forward to seeing everybody there.
I think we will have some good information about that not only for us as councilmembers but also for the public at that meeting.
I do want to close by recognizing Director Johnson's departure from the Human Services Department as Council Member Herbold alluded to earlier.
I just want to take a moment to thank Director Johnson, who announced his decision to leave the department in winter of last year, but stayed on throughout the COVID transition.
And a really critical time for the department in not only standing up a lot of emergency resources due to COVID, but also for his leadership and assistance in Seattle really showing up in a big way to present our vision for what the Regional Homelessness Authority should be.
I appreciate the consistency and leadership of director Johnson during that period.
It would have been difficult to have a lot of those conversations, I think, if we were also dealing with a leadership transition at that time.
So I appreciate that director Johnson held off his departure plans for a couple of months to make sure that those going according to plan and appreciate his leadership and look forward to our considerations on who the new permanent human services department director will be.
And Madam President, with that, I don't have any additional updates.
Thank you, Council Member Lewis.
Any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing none, thank you, Councilmember Lewis.
I do plan on attending your committee meeting that is scheduled for later this week and look forward to deeper conversation on many of the issues that you highlighted during your report.
Okay, next up is Councilmember Morales followed by Councilmember Mosqueda.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I just want to confirm with Councilmember Lewis, the meeting that you're talking about is that two o'clock.
Next Tuesday.
I misspoke, it is, you're right, it is next.
On the 15th.
Yes, it's on the 15th at 2 o'clock p.m.
I apologize for saying that it was this week.
That's okay, I just want to make sure I'm in the right place at the right time.
Yeah, thanks for confirming that, that is correct, it is the 15th.
Okay.
And I will be there, thank you.
Okay, so there are no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on today's, this afternoon's agenda.
I do have a proclamation for a community member, Yamani Gebremichael, who passed recently.
We did circulate that on Friday, so I'm hoping that my colleagues have had a chance to see that.
We will be presenting it this afternoon in full council, and I believe the son of Mr. Garber-Micah will be at the presentation or on with us at the presentation to make a few remarks.
So I'm looking forward to that opportunity.
Last Wednesday, I had a meeting of the Central Puget Sound Economic Development District Board.
They are working on their agenda, on PSRC's agenda, around their regional equity strategy.
In 2021, they plan to continue working on capacity building within PSRC to develop a deeper understanding of racial equity.
They've been working with GARE.
Some of you might be familiar with GARE.
national consulting firm that does a lot with government and regional and racial equity work.
So they're working with the staff and board to receive training and looking, using the data and research department to focus on displacement risk mapping and ways that PSRC can get more engaged in reducing disparities between communities as it relates to development and housing opportunities.
So I'm excited that that work is underway and we'll continue to report back to this council as that work develops.
In the district, last week I met with young people from Youth Corps and I want to thank Council Member Herbold for inviting me to participate in that conversation.
It was young people who are in the Duwamish Valley, so both Georgetown and South Park.
who really wanted to discuss with us their concerns around environmental equity, particularly around air quality in the area.
There's a lot of industry there, and so they're looking for support getting things like air monitors to monitor the heavy metals that are in the air.
They also talked about the need for a dedicated space for young people.
There's no place for them to gather.
Even without COVID, the community center in South Park is small and booked.
And so they're looking for some support in finding some dedicated space for young people in the Duwamish Valley.
And are very interested in better, more frequent, more reliable bus service in both Georgetown and South Park.
I was happy for the chance to have a conversation with them.
We also met with folks from Wablock and students from Rainier Beach High School and other community members about their fear of the looming evictions that are coming.
We've got a lot of constituents who are really worried about what happens when the pandemic era protections are lifted.
but also about the existing rent relief and the statewide work, the No Debt, No Evictions campaign.
So there's a lot of interest in the community and making sure that we are all aware of the looming problem and they're looking to us at every level of government to figure out what we are gonna do about making sure that people are able to stay in their homes.
And then on Wednesday, we did continue the discussion with the folks in New Holly who live around the John C. Little Park.
You know, there's been a lot of concern around the issues, not just there, but in other parts of all of our communities.
We've had similar conversations in Georgetown and Chinatown International District.
And so we thought this was a good opportunity to not just talk with them from our office or have them here from our office, but to bring some of our outreach providers to that conversation.
And so we did have folks from REACH and Lehigh.
forget who else was there, but that direct communication was really important because now the neighbors understand what this outreach work is.
They got to ask questions.
They got much more detailed information than we were able to provide about how that outreach and the engagement with folks who are experiencing homelessness actually works and how important it is to start building those relationships so that we can help move folks into more stable situations.
That was our district work.
The last thing I want to do is thank Randy Engstrom who we all learned this week, or last week is leaving the Department of Arts and Culture.
He's leaving in January to turn his attention to national issues.
I've known Randy since 2005 when he was leading the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.
Then we worked together on the King County Food and Fitness Initiative in 2008. So his deep, deep connection to the community I think is part of what made him so successful as a director of the Office of Arts and Culture.
It's been a huge pleasure to work with him just this year.
I'm sorry, I won't get to continue to work with him, but I'm really excited that before Randy leaves, he was able to see to the creation of a really important tool for anti-displacement work, for preserving arts and cultural space.
So we will be hearing soon from the mayor's office about the Cultural Space Agency, which is a PDA.
that is being finalized right now.
And it is a critical tool for stopping the displacement of artists who really fuel our creative industry, our creative sector.
So I'm looking forward to continuing that work with Kalenda Childers and want to wish Randy all the best as he moves on to other things.
That is all I have this morning.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Morales for that report.
Any comments or questions?
Okay, hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Council Member Mosqueda.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, Council President.
Good morning, colleagues.
Good to see all of you.
There are no items from the Finance and Housing Committee meeting on today's full council agenda.
However, there is going to be a finance and housing meeting scheduled for this Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Thanks so much for folks who are on that committee for making time available.
We have items on the introduction and referral calendar that are scheduled for our committee discussion on Wednesday.
Items five through eight on the introduction and referral council relate to the quarter four budget.
We will have a briefing and discussion and possible vote on the quarter four supplemental legislation.
I am anticipating a robust discussion during Wednesday's afternoon.
I want to make sure that all of us have a chance to get our questions answered, identify any direction we'd like to offer for the various departments for the associated spending, and also to get any concerns or questions answered before there is any vote is my intended goal.
You will see that there are items on the introduction and referral counselor calendar that do not have a sponsor, items number five and seven.
I did have ongoing questions about those.
So we are looking forward to making sure that all of our questions do get answered specifically regarding the SPD spending and that we get clarification this week, working with our central staff and with all of you during the conversation on Wednesday to make sure those questions get answered.
As you all will recall, we did pass a resolution this year throughout the summer budgeting process that stated the council will not support any budget amendments to increase SPD's budget to offset overtime expenditures above the funds budgeted in 2020 or 2021. And I think that the questions that we have for Wednesday are harked back to that language, making sure that we are asking questions about reasonable approaches to any overtime spending regarding the remaining quarter four spending.
I think it's our to make sure that we're applying a standard practice of allowing individuals to, individual departments to be able to identify if there is any overspending.
We obviously take that up in each supplement, supplementary quarterly spending.
But as this council has been very clear, we also want to make sure that we're interrupting the process and the practice of allowing SPD specifically to come back for overtime dollars.
and making sure that we are having a robust discussion about that with this council.
This has been a big, big priority over the last eight to 10 months here.
We are going to be working with our friends in these departments, but also within the central staff to get a better understanding of the dollars that are being requested and the potential provisos there.
I know that during this pandemic, we are very intent on making sure that our public spending is focused on areas where we are able to invest in individuals who are struggling due to the crisis, both the health crisis and the economic crisis, struggling with rent, food, and basic expenditures.
Wanting to make sure that we have our questions answered is in line with that effort to make sure that we are engaging in a robust conversation about where those dollars could be spent, how they have been spent, and asking some tough questions about where they were spent, especially in light of some of the recommendations that came from our accountability partners that did suggest continued de-escalation or decreased presence in the street.
So those are some of the questions that we'll be asking in advance of Wednesday.
And if you have any additional questions about that, I know central staff is out there ready to help us answer those.
There will also be a briefing and discussion and possible vote on the Community Roots Housing Loan Ordinance.
This legislation authorizes the Mayor and Director of the Office of Housing to execute a loan agreement with Community Roots Housing, formerly Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Program, in an amount up to $1 million, using general funds appropriated to finance general in the city's fourth quarter supplemental.
The COVID-19 pandemic is impaired.
has impaired community roots housing collective revenues, including commercial and resident tenants, resulting in a loss of operation of income approximately up to $3.2 million in 2020. So Capital Roots Housing has taken actions to mitigate this loss.
However, the shortfall, is around $1 million, and as a public development authority, the Community Roots Housing is not eligible to apply for COVID-19 federal assistance or PPP funds, and it is, I think, in all of our interest to make sure that they have the funding needed to address this shortfall.
In summary, this is a loan to fill the loss of the revenue from the tenants' rents, and it can be absolutely seen as part of our ongoing effort to address the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic is having on our renters across the city and making sure that we're providing both rental assistance and mortgage relief for our residents here.
There will also be a briefing and hearing and discussion on the 2021 annual action plan which allows the city to start pre-award spending in January from the community development block grant, home investment partnership program, and housing opportunities for people living with AIDS and emergency solutions grant federal funds.
So the CDBG, HOME, HOPWA, and ESG funds are all part of our discussion that we will begin on Wednesday this week so that we can engage in the pre-award spending ready for January.
Finally, I'm really excited about this, and I know the Council President will probably speak to it, so I'll be very short.
We do have $5 million in grants for small business restaurants and workers impacted for COVID-19 pandemic.
We will have that conversation on Wednesday and a possible briefing and discussion about the bill.
Proud to be a co-sponsor along with Council President Gonzalez and Council Member Morales in partnership with the Mayor's Office.
And I wanna, again, thank the Mayor's Office for their work to help expedite some of these funds.
Colleagues, our December 15th Finance and Housing Committee has been canceled.
And in other updates, I want to make sure that you know there is an invitation coming your way.
Hoping folks might be able to log on a little early, pop into an open house, and say hello to Andrew Houston, our new interim policy manager, and Lori Lynn Mahew, who is our intern for this year.
We're really excited to welcome these amazing folks and make sure that they have access to our incredible team and all the resources at the Legislative Department.
Want to have them get a chance to meet you as you did with the Aaron House send-off.
Hoping you can pop in to say hello to both Andrew and Lori.
That will be at 1.30 today if you're able to pop in and just say hello.
In normal times, in good times, we would be having an open house and just letting folks come on in.
So just pop in if you get the chance.
I'll send you a Zoom link here momentarily.
And I want to thank Erin for all of her work and good luck in the next six months as she is with her newborn.
Very excited for her.
And thank you all for potentially welcoming Andrew and Lori.
With that, Madam President, I will send the email invitation out.
And that concludes my remarks.
Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.
Any comments or questions on that report?
Councilmember Peterson, please.
Thank you, Council President.
Chair Mosqueda, just trying to get my calendar straight here.
So your meeting is this Wednesday afternoon, so it's a special meeting, essentially?
That's correct.
And it is not the full budget meeting.
It's not the select budget committee.
It's the finance and housing committee.
And that starts from one to three.
We know that folks also have RPC at the beginning, I think at three o'clock.
So trying to align all of those well.
Okay, thank you.
Any other questions or comments for Council Member Mosqueda?
All right, hearing none, I'll go ahead and conclude this section of the agenda with my report.
I'll start with the report of the Governance and Education Committee.
The next Governance and Education Committee meeting is tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8th at 2 o'clock p.m.
We have two items for discussion.
First will be a first item on the agenda is legislation that is transmitted by the Department of Education and Early Learning related to the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy.
This legislation will come to us so that it will allow DEEL a better opportunity to administer the FEPP levy dollars as the pandemic pandemic demands continue to require us to adapt and be flexible in how we serve Seattle families who who are now remote learning as opposed to learning on-site and in-person.
So that will be a bill that we will discuss.
It is listed for briefing discussion and possible vote.
The second item is legislation related to lobbying regulations.
So this legislation comes to us from the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.
They are requesting that we consider making three changes to the lobbying regulations that currently exist at the City of Seattle.
Central staff policy analyst, Liz Schwitzen, did circulate a memo to all of the members of the committee last week.
That memo details exactly what this legislation does.
Again, it does three primary things.
One, it requires directors and deputy directors and their direct reports To if there is lobbying of those individuals, then lobbyists will have to register that lobbying activity moving forward.
The other item that it covers is requiring or establishing grassroots lobbying regulations in the city of Seattle that mirror what currently exists.
At the state of Washington, that is probably going to be the most significant change for folks in our city.
So this will this will require folks who spend $750 in a month or $1,500 in a three month period.
On lobbying members of the public for purposes of influencing legislation policy or other decisions before us, it will require those sponsors as defined by the legislation to now disclose that lobbying activity.
It does not prevent people from continuing to engage in grassroots lobbying.
It will just simply require additional disclosure requirements for purposes of transparency and understanding by members of the public as to who is funding what grassroots lobbying efforts and activities and work that is designed to influence decision-making at the City of Seattle.
And then the third component, which I am now forgetting.
Just a moment here.
Usually I have all these details memorized and my brain is not cooperating with me this morning.
Give me just a moment.
Here we go.
And then the third thing that this bill will require is it will require disclosure by registered lobbyists for compensated work that is done for political campaigns.
So in effect, this bill is cleaning up and requiring additional registration and reporting in two categories.
establishing a new registration and reporting regimen as it relates to grassroots lobbying.
So looking forward to hosting the director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission and the commission's current chair, who is Nicholas Brown, at our Tuesday meeting of the Governance and Education Committee to have more conversation about that proposed legislation.
It is my hope that we will vote it out of committee.
Um, next week, and it will be available for consideration by the full council on December 14th.
So that's that's what we're striving for.
And I hope we can get there.
If you have any questions on that particular legislation related to lobbying regulation amendments, you can reach out to me when in my office or to listen of council central staff.
On this afternoon's agenda, we don't have anything for action on the full council agenda from my committee.
I do have several items on the introduction and referral calendar.
And I just want to highlight a few of those for awareness of you colleagues, but also members of the public.
First up is Council Bill 119966, which relates to the legal representation of Mayor Jenny Durkan in court proceedings concerning a recall charge.
This is unsponsored legislation.
It was developed by the city attorney's office at the request of Mayor Durkan.
It is very similar in nature to Council Bill 119891, Related to the legal defense of council members to want, which the council voted to pass on September 15th.
According to the summary and fiscal note attached to the council bill, the mayor's legal fees in the case totaled approximately 240,000 dollars.
The mayor is now seeking to avail herself of the statutory provisions that we rely on in these instances to seek reimbursement of the total sum of those legal fees that were related to her recall.
litigation.
So I expect that this legislation will be on the city council agenda for next Monday, December 14th.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office or directly to Jessica Nadelman at the city attorney's office.
Next, actually, I misspoke this 1 is on this afternoon's agenda resolution 31982 2021 state legislative agenda.
This resolution we have had 2 meetings and discussions during council briefing and presentations from our good folks over at the office of intergovernmental relations related to the city's 2021 state legislative agenda.
For the charter, we are required to formulate and adopt a legislative agenda in collaboration with the mayor that represents the stated priorities of the city of Seattle for each regular legislative session in Olympia.
This year, our agenda represents our continued commitment to affordable housing, the environment, a just economy, racial equity, substantive police reform, and progressive revenue that acknowledges and corrects for our extremely regressive taxation system.
We're also happy and eager to work with our state and federal partners for much, much, much needed COVID-19 relief for our neighbors, business owners and small business owners and impacted workers.
I want to thank each of you for taking the time to engage during council briefing on input and feedback and questions to OIR related to the legislative agenda.
And I want to thank the folks over at OIR for presenting and drafting the legislative agenda in the past few weeks and for their efforts in reaching out to each of you individually to get additional We will take final action on this resolution that purports to to.
And then we also have on the introduction and referral calendar, Council Bill 119977. As Council Member Mosqueda mentioned, this week we are going to have a really exciting opportunity to have a conversation around appropriations for additional COVID-19 relief.
Some of you may have seen that last week the city announced legislation for restaurant and bar relief in particular.
in response to the latest round of restrictions announced by Governor Jay Inslee, again, fueled by his deep desire to curb the surging COVID-19 infections.
Of course, we know that these restrictions are necessary at this point in order to continue to try to get the surge in COVID-19 infections under control.
but the restrictions do come with impacts, real impacts, to people who are working and doing business in our city.
Of course, we know that the industry that is most significantly and disproportionately impacted by that, both on the worker side and on the business operation side, are restaurants, bars, and hospitality.
industry so I'm thrilled to be sponsoring this legislation and I appreciate the support of Councilmember Mosqueda and Morales in supporting this legislation as well.
Also really want to thank Mayor Jenny Durkan and members of her team and her office for working with us over the Thanksgiving holiday week to I want to thank central staff for identifying an additional $5 million of general fund dollars that will be used to get this relief out the door.
2.5 million of those dollars will go directly to workers in the hospitality industry who have had negative impacts related to either reduction of hours or being laid off from a hospitality industry business, the direct cash assistance for those individuals will be up to $1,000 per individual, and we will be working with our human services department to administer that particular program.
An additional $2.5 million will be also distributed to small businesses who have previously applied for the Small Business Stabilization Fund and are looking forward to continuing to work on making sure that those dollars also get out the door quickly and efficiently.
It is my hope that we'll be able to consider this bill before we go on recess.
Of course, we know that the need is pretty dire.
And so my hope is that we'll be able to vote it out of the finance and housing committee this week for councils full consideration on December 14th.
And I'd be remiss in saying that.
that my ultimate hope is that Congress will actually step up and deliver on a massive scale relief bill for both for all of the millions of workers who are out of work right now and also for our small businesses who are trying to stay afloat so that workers who are currently laid off have something to come back to.
But until then, cities and local governments have a very unique opportunity to make smart, strategic, targeted investments towards industries that have been specifically and disproportionately impacted.
And I'm happy that this bill will hopefully help to provide some relief to the hospitality workers and restaurants and bars, small restaurants and bars throughout our city.
And then the last bill that is on the introduction referral, I already spoke to.
It relates to the 2018 FEPP levy flexibility.
We're calling it the flexibility legislation.
So that's on today's IRC.
I already spoke about it this morning.
So there's no need to belabor it here.
But happy to take any questions about that.
And I already spoke to the lobbying legislation as well.
So that is the end of my report on items on this agenda.
And I am happy to take any questions or hear any comments.
Council Member Herbold, please.
Thank you.
Just a quick question about the worker assistance bill.
I had originally heard it was focused on restaurant and service industry.
I hear you mentioning hospitality industry.
Does that mean that hotel workers who do not work at small hotels will be eligible for assistance?
Or is this only for the employees of small, or yeah, the workers at small businesses?
This is specifically designed for workers at small businesses, and there does have to be a nexus between financial loss for the worker and the small business.
So when you say hospitality industry, you are really, I mean, are there
I may be loose with my language.
So the intent here is to focus specifically on workers of small businesses, first and foremost, as a big filter.
And we are looking at focusing specifically on those workers who have been negatively impacted economically by the COVID-19 restrictions that have disproportionately impacted restaurants and bars.
Now, it is the case that in some instances there could be some smaller shop businesses that are co-located in hotels, and I certainly wouldn't want to preclude those workers from being able to access some relief if those businesses have experienced some financial impacts.
But we're talking about truly small businesses, not large franchises.
I totally get that for the assistance to the business side, but for the worker side, do we have an analysis that shows that people who in the service industry and in the hospitality industry that work at large businesses are not suffering as much as those same workforce working at small businesses?
I'm not sure I'm following your question.
Well, I mean, I think you referred to this as being targeted relief.
And I just want to make sure that we're targeting the relief to the workers most in need.
And I don't know of an analysis that shows that workers who work in the service and hospitality industry who work for small businesses are suffering more than that same workforce working for large businesses.
I, I don't have any sort of longitudinal studies that I could point to you point you to.
I do know that the unemployment numbers tell a story about who is being.
you know, pretty significantly impacted on the worker side in terms of unemployment rates.
We know that for restaurant and bar workers, that number is hugely significant in comparison to other industries.
And so I think because we're trying to focus on the relief on being a dovetail to the recent round of restrictions that the governor has imposed that specifically prohibit indoor dining.
So that impacts restaurants and bars, specifically if you don't have any outdoor space and can't shift your model.
And so that's why we're focusing on restaurant workers and bar workers in particular.
I'm not aware of this latest round of restrictions restricting further restricting hotels, for example, or or other large businesses or small businesses, frankly, who still have outdoor dining.
So we're trying to focus these strategies and target these strategies through the lens of this latest round of restrictions imposed by Governor Inslee, which unquestionably have a more profound impact on restaurants and bars who cannot afford indoor, who cannot provide indoor dining by virtue of how their business model is structured.
Okay, I think I understand the nexus here.
It's related also to the size of the business, is what you're saying, because of the inability in a smaller business footprint to still stay open and employ people.
Unlike in larger businesses, it sounds like you're saying in larger businesses, they're able to do that because of the larger floor plan.
Thanks for walking me through that.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, it's both a function of the larger work plan and also a function of the fact that some of the larger businesses may have outdoor space that they can shift their dining model to a lot of our small businesses.
don't have that.
I mean, the reality is, is we're all doing business in the city of Seattle.
We're outdoor space.
Dining space is a little bit of a luxury in normal times.
I mean, how many times have we all been asking ourselves, where can we find a rooftop deck where we can go have happy hour and come up with bumpkiss?
So I think that's the reality, right?
The infrastructure of our brick and mortar in the city of Seattle is really fundamentally designed and oriented towards indoor dining and and bar patronage.
And so we're trying to focus on those individuals and those businesses and their workers who just literally don't have the physical space to shift their model towards outdoor dining.
All right.
Any other questions or comments for me?
All right, well, I appreciate the questions.
Thank you.
Council member herbal.
I'm happy to continue talking with you.
If you have any additional questions or concerns looking forward to the conversation and council member.
Mosquitoes committee and then lastly, before we go ahead and adjourn.
I just want to give a big shout out to all of the advocates, activists, and DACA recipients and holders themselves.
Last week, we saw an extraordinarily positive federal court ruling on DACA, the Deferred Action Act.
Action Childhood Act.
This court ruling has ordered that the Trump administration must begin accepting new applications for DACA recipients for the first time since 2017. This is a huge win for our young Americans, commonly referred to as dreamers, and immigrant rights advocates everywhere.
It is a step in the right direction and I'm really thrilled on behalf of all of our immigrant brothers and sisters who are going to be able to get some level of stability for the first time since 2017. And really excited that last year our city council in its good wisdom and thought allocated additional dollars to help people apply for DACA status.
This was designed to be a renewal of your DACA dollars and looking forward to seeing how in 2021 we might be able to leverage some additional dollars to help not just with the renewal but with the actual application process for new DACA recipients.
So, really positive news on that front and just wanted to say congratulations to the millions and millions and millions of young folks in America who, as I know, they know, home is here and will always be here for them.
So, huge congrats to them.
All right, colleagues, any other comments or questions?
Council Member Estella, please.
Thank you, Madam President.
I just wanted to also end with a congratulations.
I have not had a chance to tell folks that Erin House did deliver her baby on the 25th, and then her beautiful baby is doing well.
And she is named Lena Maxine House Blake.
So for folks who've been sending us questions since this morning's announcement, just want to make sure you have that.
Welcome to the world Lena and congratulations to Erin and her family.
Congratulations and good morning, Camila.
Thank you everybody for your time and attention this morning.
That does conclude our items of business on this morning's agenda.
I look forward to seeing you all at two o'clock this afternoon.
Thank you.