Seattle City Council Briefing 6/21/21

and the June 21st, 2021 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 1030 a.m.

before the clerk calls the roll.

Colleagues, I did want you to be aware that I heard from Council Member Lewis's office and he will be arriving late to this morning's council briefing.

So he, I will make sure to announce his arrival for the public record when I see it, that he enters into the Zoom room.

With that being said, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Present.

And Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Eight present.

Thank you so much.

We will move to approval of the minutes.

If there is no objection, The minutes of June 14th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, I don't have anything to report related to operations of the legislative department.

I did want to make sure that I have an opportunity to, for those of us who celebrated over the weekend, Juneteenth, of course, was on June 19th, which was this past Saturday.

I wanted to just acknowledge the fact that we now, as a country, have this federal government holiday, which is good news, but of course, we have much more work to do to continue to lift up our black neighbors here in Seattle and across the country and look forward to continuing to work on that really important issue.

Secondly, colleagues, I do want to take just a quick point of personal privilege this morning by acknowledging a really atrocious act of racism against my chief of staff, Breonna Thomas.

who last week was on a Zoom and was subjected to the repeated use of the N-word during that Zoom.

And regardless of whether it is official business or electoral work, that kind of behavior and subjecting people in our city to that type of hatred is absolutely beyond the pale.

I know that all of you join me in admonishing and rejecting that kind of harmful, hurtful racism being subjected to any member of our community.

And when it hits home, like it has for us here on my team, it is particularly painful.

So I hope you all will join me in calling out that behavior and in helping my team support my chief of staff, Breonna Thomas, in this moment as she continues to process the events of last week.

Thank you, colleagues.

I appreciate the opportunity to just have a personal moment of privilege at the top of today's agenda.

We will go ahead and shift now to a discussion of preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees, and I'll call on council members as established by the rotating roll call this week Again, first up is Councilmember Mosqueda, followed by Morales, Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbold, Juarez, Lewis, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

So first up is Councilmember Mosqueda.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Thank you very much for starting today's briefing with an acknowledgment of what happened to your chief of staff and to a team member here at City Hall.

I, too, want to stand in opposition and strong opposition and condemn the language that was used against Brianna and also acknowledge that this happened right next to our celebration of Juneteenth.

As you mentioned, Council President, we can't pat ourselves on the back for having a federal holiday declared when that type of racist language is used in an overt and explicit way against any member of our team or any member of our community.

I also appreciate that Tina Podlodowsky, the chair of the King County Democrats, again, who's not an endorsing agency of any kind, as you said, it doesn't really matter whether or not it's an electoral side or a legislative matter.

What the chair of the King County Democrats said in her statement was, we must stand in opposition to any kind of statements like that and make sure that especially women of color and black women have the ability to run and not be subject to such racist behavior.

So thank you again for starting today's meeting with that acknowledgement.

I also want to piggyback on the comments that you made about Juneteenth.

We are all, I think, in a position to recognize the importance of Juneteenth.

I did hear so many people over the weekend talk about how this is not a celebration necessarily.

This is a day of acknowledgement and the acknowledgement of decades of delayed action.

And here in 2021, when the federal government has finally recognized Juneteenth We still see places like Texas pushing anti-Black voter disenfranchisement laws.

Elected officials across the country pushing to ban critical race theory.

And we know that also here in our own backyard, we must fight against any effort to co-opt Juneteenth while we simultaneously create policies that actually invest in communities of color and help shift resources from previously status quo investments that actually cause more harm, especially to the black and brown communities of Seattle.

So while we acknowledge the importance of Juneteenth, we will continue to fight.

We will continue to commit towards action to fight against racism and recognizing the tremendous demands upon us to undo decades, if not centuries, regressive policies that actually are at the root of inequitable housing, inequitable education and security, and inequitable health disparities, especially as we continue to see health disparities continue in this moment of COVID.

Moving on, I want to say Happy Father's Day to all folks in our community, recognizing that fathers and parenting come in all shapes and forms.

Happy Father's Day to all who celebrated this weekend as dads and daddos, as we say in our household, as folks recognize that this is not just about fathers in the traditional sense, but also chosen parents and chosen parenting models.

I appreciate all who take care of our kiddos across this community and across our country.

And I also know that this is possibly an especially hard day for those who may have lost loved ones during the last year as parents, grandparents, kiddos, uncles, and others.

So thinking of everybody and thanking everybody for continuing to care for our kiddos and no matter what form of parenting you engage in.

We do have three items from the Finance and Housing Committee on today's full council agenda.

The first two relate to the Seattle Rescue Plan Act.

These are Council Bill 120093 and 120094. I want to thank all of you, council colleagues, as this is a very exciting opportunity for us to pass the Seattle Rescue Plan Act.

Two weeks ago, I, along with Council President Gonzalez, introduced this legislation package with the mayor's office while keeping in mind the resolution that you all passed that all council members weighed in on to create the appropriations that reflect truly the diversity of opinions amongst our elected officials and the diversity of needs that we heard from community constituents who called in over the multiple opportunities that we had for public testimony.

As you'll recall, this is the first tranche of the American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

Seattle's portion of the federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars totals $232 million, and today's Bill in front of us is an opportunity to pass the first half of that $116 million along with $12.2 million that come from the Home Investment Partnership Fund dollars.

These bills are the results of Council Resolution 13999, passed in March, and the five subsequent committee meetings that we had to hear what was happening, A, in other cities, B, directly within the city of Seattle, C, directly hearing from folks who've been disproportionately impacted due to the consequences of COVID, both as individuals, as families, and as organizations who are rooted in those communities most disproportionately impacted.

I think that the package in front of us represents strong coordination amongst council colleagues here today and intentional listening with the community members and also strong collaboration and coordination with the county and state officials who together we looked at the amount of dollars coming into King County so that we could make sure that funding got directly to those in our community who had the most needs.

We have an opportunity here to make a significant investment in helping to address the harms caused by COVID, both in terms of lost lives and lost livelihoods, when you think about both the physical health consequences and the economic health consequences imposed on our community.

But I want to recognize again that $116 million, even adding the extra $12 million from the home investment plan, is not enough.

Today's package of $120 million is really important first step, and this infusion provides an incredible one-time opportunity to commit resources to our communities most affected.

that we are all committed to, and so I see this as a first step, is the first tranche to the building blocks that we will continue to put together throughout August, September, and October, as we work on the budget in front of us and into the ongoing years.

As a reminder, starting actually in July, we're going to have an opportunity to begin our conversations around the supplemental budget.

we'll have a chance to look at the grant acceptance ordinance, strategic acquisition fund investments from Mercer Mega Block proceeds, and we'll be able to support the city's equitable community initiative, along with the new economic revenue forecast that will bring us additional revenue opportunities to directly invest in those most impacted.

The second item, or the third item on the introduction, excuse me, on the full council agenda this afternoon is Council Bill 120101, which is the Housing, Levy, Administrative, and Finance Plan.

I'll describe this very briefly for folks who didn't have the chance to participate in the Finance and Housing Committee.

This legislation offers the city the ability to update its city affordable housing funding policies or our ANF plan.

It makes important updates in building deep affordable housing, and it is an opportunity for us to expand, not just building housing, but really specifying where the housing should take place and who should be in that housing.

In 2009, through my committee, we worked to update the community preference policy framework, included stronger labor standards, and increased the Office of Housing's acquisition authority, to just name a few significant changes we made in 2019. This update in 2021 offers the opportunity to couple those important changes by making sure that we're increasing the Office of Housing's home ownership subsidy to make sure we're equitably and adequately funding the construction of permanently affordable homes to reflect today's market conditions.

We're removing the cap on the Office of Housing's acquisition authority when there are new revenue sources available so that the city can move quickly to seize opportunities to acquire properties for the creation of affordable housing given changes in the market.

and I'll have more to say about all of the important but small changes we're making here as we really look to follow through on the previous changes that we made.

Thanks again to Erin House for her work on the ANF plan and along with Stachel Parikh and our team for the work on the Seattle Rescue Plan Act along with Cody Ryder and Council President Gonzalez for their work on the Seattle Rescue Plan Act.

In our committee report, we have the next finance and housing committee on July 9th at 9.30 a.m.

We are still working on the agenda, but some major components to point out are the grocery worker hazard pay, the South Park property transfer, MFTE legislation, and a few possible budget-related items, notably the capital projects quarter two update to be determined.

In other updates, this Tuesday I will be joining the Association of Washington City's annual conference.

On Wednesday, I'll be speaking at the University of Washington's Women's Center for National Education of Women's Leadership Institute program.

And I will also be speaking in the evening at the Urban Design Forum to discuss Seattle's existing small-scale neighborhood centers.

our current, I would say, exclusionary zoning policies to have a better understanding of how our city can continue to make changes to actually meet our goals of a 15-minute city planning concept that would connect neighborhoods and communities through the lens of more equitable and inclusionary zoning.

Council President, I will go ahead and stop there.

We do have quite a bit of updates from FAS.

Just want to say thanks again to their work on the constantly giving out PPE and mass donations.

They've done a tremendous job of working with folks like Black Dollar Days Task Force, the West Seattle Food Bank, the First Tongan Senior Nutrition Program, Airtrain Association and so many more organizations as they have been working to donate masks and personal protective equipment to the community to make sure that we're continuing to address COVID as we also work on vaccinating especially our most hardest to reach communities and our more diverse neighborhoods.

And the Board of Health wanna just say Thursday we had our Board of Health meeting and we had a briefing on the comprehensive view of the helmet law in King County and its ramifications, specifically ramifications on communities of color being disproportionately policed by the enforcement of that law.

We talked a lot about the importance of wearing helmets and the need to make sure that we are using helmets effectively and effectively.

and delivering helmets if we can free especially to communities in low income areas and among communities of color, but the hardship and the public health crises that's being created by having disproportionate policing related to the helmet law is something that the Board of Health will begin taking up that seems unanimous in terms of our discussion that we will continue to look at how we can reform that antiquated approach as we look towards more holistic public health solutions to making sure folks can wear a helmet, have access to it, but not are enforcing it through punitive and harmful measures that rely on law enforcement only.

Thank you so much.

I will stop there.

Thank you so much.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

All right.

Hearing none, I'll have some comments to make about the Seattle rescue plan, but I'm going to, in the interest of time this morning, I'm just going to save those for full council.

I do just want to, in anticipation of that, thank Council Member Mosqueda and Sajal Puri from your office, of course.

Mayor Jerkin and her team and folks from CBO who really dug into the details and worked really hard on so much of what is in the Seattle rescue plan.

So, of course, Cody writer from my office was having participant as well.

So, looking forward to making more comments about what is. the most exciting part of the Seattle Rescue Plan from my perspective, and thanks again for all of the work to get us to this point to be able to finally take a final vote there.

So with that being said, let's go ahead and go down the line to Councilmember Morales next, and then after Councilmember Morales will be Councilmember Peterson.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

There are no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on today's agenda.

Last week I did meet with OPCD to get an update on their work for the rest of 2021, specifically to talk about the equitable development initiative team.

They are very focused right now on contract management.

We know there's an RFP out right now and there's you know, the strategic investment fund oversight and contracts.

So there's a lot of work happening in that division in particular.

The EDI advisory board is in the process of doing their strategic planning, figuring out their evaluation methods and what kind of administrative support they need.

As we know, getting this team together is really important because they need to be working together and have their processes established so that when the $20 million from the Jumpstart revenue comes in, that team is already finally tuned.

So I'm excited that they are mostly seated.

I think there's a few seats left, but that group is working well together already.

The EDI team is also working on a comprehensive funding strategy.

They do have revenue for short-term rentals.

from the Strategic Investment Fund, from Jumpstart.

So there's a lot happening and they are working hard to make sure that there is a coordinated and well-functioning process in place for how to get those dollars out the door.

And they also, the department just wants to make sure that they are elevating the Indigenous Seattle program.

to acknowledge and to continue to incorporate the values and principles and community members needs and expectations about the kinds of investments that will be happening there as well.

So lots happening in that division and I'm excited for all of the funding opportunities that are coming down the road thanks to some of our work last year.

Last week in the district, I was invited to speak to neighbors on Friday night for their Make the Patio Permanent event at the Columbia City Patio.

This is one of several street cafes throughout the city blocking off part of Ferdinand at Rainier Avenue, and it has been hop in ever since it was created.

So folks are really excited about the opportunity to keep it permanent and they were excited to hear that we've extended the permits until May of next year.

and eager to support the effort toward keeping those street cafes open.

I also did get to celebrate a beautiful Friday night outdoors, listening to music from our neighborhood band, The Pandemics.

Lots of neighbors came together early last year and have been performing out there on weekends.

was fun to see.

And I do want to thank Karen Callender with Columbia and Hillman City Neighbors in Action for organizing the event.

And this really is something that the neighbors want to take on is the maintenance and continuation of that street cafe.

They don't want the Neighborhood Business Association to have to have that responsibility.

They really want this to be a neighbor-owned sort of driven thing and so they're excited about the opportunity to do that.

This week I'll be participating in another town hall in Rainier Beach.

This one will be focused on restorative justice.

I will say that before heading to the Make the Patio Permanent event on Friday evening, I was at the Dollar Store in Rainier Beach getting some balloons for the event and was in the store when there was a shooting at Rainier Avenue and Henderson.

A kiddie corner from the dollar store is the Rainier Beach Community Center.

And as I looked out the door to see what was going on I saw the corner greeter tents from Rainier Beach Action Coalition.

As I understand it, the victims, there were two victims, they were in stable condition when they arrived at Harborview, and the Corner Greeters themselves, who had not actually experienced something like that while they were out doing their work, were, as you can imagine, a bit shaken.

It really demonstrates the need for more investment and better protocols.

As I talked with folks from the Corner Greeters afterward, what they really wanted to stress was that there are these community programs, there are the violence interruption programs.

I saw Coach Dom there very shortly after.

But what there isn't yet is a comprehensive post-incident response for community, a way for those first responders to debrief together.

And so I'll be working with folks to try to figure out what the right post-incident response is so that the there is a process in place for people to kind of debrief and decompress from something like that.

I do want to say though that this Thursday we will be having another town hall.

This one is about restorative justice and we will be hearing from community passageways, southeast network safety net, Marina Beach Action Coalition and Urban Family.

And I just want to thank these groups again for inviting me and King County Council Member Zahalai to be part of the conversation.

This week I'll also have a follow-up meeting with neighbors in Mount Baker and the Sound Transit Agency to talk about how we improve lighting and activate space there.

We've been talking about Mount Baker for quite some time.

As you recall, we had an interdepartmental a team of folks come and meet with community members to talk about some of the issues that they're having.

So we continue those conversations and continue trying to engage different departments and different agencies to figure out how we can activate these spaces, respond to community members concerns about safety, about how to make sure we're supporting our homeless neighbors, and to really make sure that the the different challenges that our community members are facing are being addressed by us as a city.

So that's the next step is to see how we can engage Sound Transit in addressing some of the lighting and other safety issues that are presented from the fact that this is an elevated platform and there's just not a lot of good things happening underneath.

So we're trying to figure out if we can start to activate that space in some way.

Colleagues, that is all I have.

Oh, finally, I am excited to announce that we will have a new staff member soon.

Imani Carey has been an intern with our office for the last eight months or so.

She recently graduated from the University of Washington and has been a really crucial part of our team.

Now that she is a graduate, we are very excited to welcome her as an official member of the D2 crew.

And she will be starting right after the 4th of July holidays.

So once she's officially on board, we will make sure to have some sort of open house welcoming for her so that you can all get to know her as we have.

That is all I have this morning, colleagues.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you so much.

I just wanted to comment on two items.

First relates to Council Member Morales' recognition, correctly so, that there's a big need for collaboration and coordination of folks that are doing violence disruption work.

And just wanted to let folks know that as part of the $10.2 million that HSD is doing the RFP for on violence prevention, capacity building for violence prevention work, and that's going to be, we'll be hearing announcements about that in the next few weeks, probably early July.

Some of the requirements of this funding is really focused on exactly that.

So funded applicants will be participating in systems coordination meetings that will involve sort of Processing individual events that folks are dealing with, evaluation and learning efforts, developing relationships, sharing resources, and beginning to develop community level indicators for safety.

I just want to flag that there's a recognition I'm really happy to see that the city for its own 10.2, I think it is, million dollar RFP that the council funded, that we are replicating some of the approaches that are used regionally by organizations, for instance, such as LINC.

I also wanted to flag as it relates specifically to the recognition that we need to be looking at restorative justice as a tool to address varying levels of crime.

The city attorney's office last week, or maybe two weeks ago, put out the annual report for Choose 180. And I'm sure folks remember the history on that, that in 2018, Seattle reentry work group wrote a report where they recommended that the city attorney expand CHOOSE 180 to ages over 25. And so this annual report of the city attorney's office I just want to mention the work of the current program.

The city attorney is still working on the racial equity toolkit that was included in their work plan last year for the expansion of I'm going to turn it over to Carlos Lugos to talk about some of the recommendations of our own Carlos Lugos in the draft criminal legal system strategic plan.

it should explore restorative justice-based programming because intervention should be matched to an individual's risk to re-offend, and individuals with a lower risk level would require a lighter touch, which restorative justice conferencing could provide.

So we don't have much in the way of restorative justice for ages above 25. We also don't have much in the way of of diversion programs for non-specialized groups of people.

Another finding in Carlos's report is that the city does not currently offer a mainstream diversion, non-age-restricted option for populations of people who have not been identified because they're repeatedly cycling through the criminal legal system.

So this is definitely an app for the city that I'm looking forward to working with the rest of you all in the city attorney's office on filling.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold, for that information.

Really helpful.

Any other comments or questions?

All right.

So moving down the line, we'll hear next from Council Member Peterson, and then we will hear from Council Member Solan.

Good morning.

Good morning, colleagues.

Thank you, Council President, for opening our meeting today by condemning the racist hijacking of the Zoom meeting that targeted our colleague, Breonna Thomas.

I join the condemnation of that and any racist and hateful attack.

Racism and hate have no place in Seattle or anywhere.

Thank you again for opening the meeting that way.

Appreciate it.

Regarding our city's Transportation Utilities Committee, we have five items on this afternoon's full city council agenda.

We have three appointments to the Pedestrian Advisory Board.

All of these applicants were approved unanimously by our committee, and we met them all at committee.

They will not be at the full council meeting, but I'll give non-committee members a little bit about their bio at the full council meeting.

Council 120100 will authorize Seattle Public Utilities to accept a low-interest loan provided by the State Department of Ecology to finance $66 million of the $570 million Ship Canal Water Project.

And as you may recall, the Ship Canal Water Quality Project is a mega project planned over many years due to the state and federal governments requiring the city and county governments to prevent harmful stormwater and wastewater from polluting our local waterways.

This environmental protection project includes a new tunnel boring machine creating a 2.7-mile stormwater storage tunnel from Wallingford to Ballard.

This particular financing program through the state government enables a below-market interest rate of approximately 1%, whereas if we went out to the conventional bond market, we would need to pay a higher rate of around 3%.

Using the state program will save ratepayers approximately $12 million just from this one loan.

This council bill was approved unanimously by committee.

If you have any questions before full council today, please contact Brian Goodnight on City Council Central staff.

Resolution 32008 simply sets the time of a public hearing at our future Transportation Utilities Committee.

It'll be for Wednesday, July 21st at 9.30 a.m.

to discuss another small property transfer associated with the work on Seattle City Lights facilities and the South Park to Georgetown Bike Trail.

If approved after the July 21st public hearing, our Seattle Department of Transportation will be authorized to vacate the right-of-way of a 13,000-square-foot parcel and provide that to Seattle City Light, which owns adjacent properties at Diagonal Way South, just west of 4th Avenue South in the Greater Duwamish Manufacturing Industrial Center of Seattle.

clerk file 314451 is associated with this resolution and is Seattle City Light's official petition to City Council for the vacation of SDOT's right-of-way.

The vacation of the right-of-way will be handled in a manner that does not negatively impact Seattle Public Utilities.

But again, this resolution today simply sets the date of the public hearing.

We'll get more information on the substance of this proposal before and during the July 21st public hearing.

at our Tuck Committee.

If you have any questions about this resolution before this afternoon's council meeting, please contact Lish Whitson of Council Central Staff.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning, and so our next committee meeting will be Wednesday, July 7th.

Other news, our Transportation Utilities Committee, as you know, monitors Seattle's Information Technology Department, which includes nearly 700 employees and a budget of nearly $300 million.

So it was disappointing news that we received last week from their leader, Saad Bashir, who serves as our Chief Technology Officer.

That his last day working for our city government will be at the end of this month.

In only two and a half years serving Seattle, Saad Bashir has made progress on several important fronts.

Our city government has nearly 40 departments, and they all rely on Seattle IT to complete the work for the people of Seattle.

And Saad and his team stepped up when suddenly thousands of employees had to work remotely during the pandemic with additional technology needs, including cybersecurity.

I want to offer a special thanks to Saad and his teams for their crafting of the Internet for All Action Plan, that was based on the resolution the council supported so that we can accelerate our efforts to deliver digital equity.

It's a solid action plan and I would expect any successor at the department to prioritize.

I look forward to Mayor Durkan appointing an interim director of Seattle Information Technology Department to serve for at least the rest of her term as mayor.

And one of Saad's accomplishments was to put together a very strong teams throughout the department.

So I'm hopeful we'll see a smooth transition.

And I wish Saad the very best in his future endeavors.

In District 4 this past week, I attended two community council meetings, and both meetings addressed concerns over public safety.

At one meeting, the captain of Seattle's North Precinct answered questions.

The North Precinct is the largest geographic area in our city, which makes it more difficult to respond quickly than 911 calls.

At the other meeting, one of our city's crime prevention coordinators answered questions.

I really appreciate these dedicated city employees spending their evening hours sharing information and answering questions for these and other communities throughout Seattle.

Thank you.

That concludes my report.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Peterson.

Are there any comments or questions for Councilmember Peterson?

Seeing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Councilmember Salon followed by Councilmember Strauss.

Good morning.

Thank you, Councilperson Gonzalez, and good morning, everyone.

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

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for its regular time tomorrow, June 22nd at 2 p.m.

At that committee, we will discuss with community organizers involved in the Stop the Money Pipeline campaign to force financial institutions and insurance companies to stop backing fossil fuel infrastructure like Tar Sands oil pipelines.

After years of organizing, direct action, and building the climate movement, the Keystone XL Pipeline has finally been defeated.

This is a major victory for the climate justice movement that has involved tens of thousands of people.

The fossil fuel corporations were forced to abandon this project because activists and organizers made its completion so difficult from every angle that big business decided to cut their losses.

We need to use this strategy of blocking the corporate profit pipeline to every proposed expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure from Keystone XL to the Dakota Access Pipeline to Line 3. We have to be sober, however, that while the billionaire class will be forced to take some measures both for their own profits and under pressure from mass resistance, it has been and will be a day late and a dollar short.

To have any hope of averting full-on catastrophe for the planet, we will need the international working class to take the fossil fuel.

banking and other sectors into democratic public ownership to urgently shift into a global socialist economy powered by clean, renewable energy.

Just to give a concrete example of the complete failure of capitalism and its inability to deal with this crisis, it has been reported by the Guardian newspaper recently that just since the Paris Climate Accord, which itself was completely insufficient and inadequate, was signed in 2015. Just since then, big banks, the 60 largest banks in the world, have increased fossil fuel financial underwriting by nearly $4 trillion.

So given these dire statistics, it is absolutely clear that we will need to fight for a socialist economy which will have to begin with the fight for a democratic public ownership of all these sectors.

Organizing such as to end the Keystone Pipeline and the Stop the Money Pipeline campaign are absolutely crucial first steps that are being taken by determined activists and my council office is proud to be organizing with them.

This will be needed alongside a militant mobilization of the union worker movement in the fossil fuel sector with the whole labor movement in solidarity to demand just transition and retraining for workers into the clean, renewable energy economy.

Last Friday, community organizers from my office joined an action of the Stop the Money Pipeline campaign where the activists painted a mural outside of Liberty Mutual in resistance to the Trans Mountain Pipeline, that beautiful mural says, ensure our future, not tar sands.

This demonstration in Seattle was part of a day of action all around the world in solidarity with land defenders fighting the tar sands pipeline.

pipelines.

With the help of Yolanda Ho from City Council Central Staff, my office is developing legislation to give the Green New Deal Oversight Board the legal authority to rate insurance companies and other financial institutions who bid on city contracts to enable the City of Seattle to join the international movement pledging not to do business with financial institutions backing the fossil fuel corporations that are endangering all of humanity.

And I'm looking forward to the discussion at the committee tomorrow, which is going to be led by indigenous and other climate justice activists.

The committee will also discuss with and vote on the several executive appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

They are on today's introduction and referral calendar.

After the Green New Deal Oversight Board appointments, the committee will discuss several renters rights bills focused on rent increases and addressing the exorbitant rent increases in our city.

We need strong rent control in the city without corporate loopholes.

And as I've informed the members of the public through a very important press conference a few weeks ago, my office has prepared legislation.

It is currently undergoing review.

Corporate landlords have raised rents at a staggering 13% in just the last five months.

So tomorrow's committee will also discuss rent control frequently asked questions and we'll go over what kind of rent control policy we need and how we have to completely reject the kind of loopholes that have been put in place in other rent control laws.

The committee will also be briefed by Asha Venkatraman from City Council's central staff about legislation from my office to require landlords to provide six months notice for rent increases, and another bill from my office to require landlords to provide relocation assistance when they displace their tenants with outrageous rent increases, a process which has been referred to correctly as economic evictions.

Last week, Mayor Durkin finally was forced to concede to the demands of renter organizers and extend the citywide eviction moratorium to the end of September.

Council members will remember that two weeks ago, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed this resolution 31998 from my office, which demanded both Mayor Durkin and Governor Inslee to renew and extend city and statewide moratoriums to the end of 2021. The mayor's announcement today is a victory for all renters.

It belongs to thousands of renters who have been speaking out, signing petitions, rallying, and demanding that the political establishment extend protections against evictions, and the hundreds who spoke up and emailed the city council to pass the resolution from my office.

While our movement celebrates the extension of the moratorium as a direct result of mass action, we will also not stop fighting because we cannot afford to.

The movement has demanded an extension of the moratorium to the end of 2021, not just through September, because that is what is needed at bare minimum.

So the movement will continue to fight for that.

In fact, This is the second time that our movement has demanded that the mayor extend the moratorium to the end of this year.

And each of those times, she has responded with only a three-month extension.

If we win enough three-month extensions, of course, it will eventually add up to an extension to the end of this year.

But honestly, if the mayor was actually trying to proactively make sure that renters were protected, then she would have extended the moratorium to the end of this year to begin with, because that's what would have given renters, these are working class people who have faced the brunt of the crisis, the peace of mind that they need to be able to focus on recovering from the financial shocks that they've experienced from the COVID emergency and getting their lives back on track, rather than living in constant fear of imminent eviction.

My office had previously planned a rally for June 24th to extend the eviction moratorium that is this Thursday, which was a part of building the movement to win that demand.

We are now, for the moment, canceling this rally for the best of reasons, because we won the moratorium extension until September 30th.

We will be announcing our upcoming steps very soon in coordination with community and labor organizations who've been part of this struggle to extend the eviction moratorium so that we can continue organizing to extend the moratorium to the end of this year.

International solidarity is growing for the Palestinian people in the wake of the Israeli state's last – most recent brutal attack on Gaza and its continued expropriation of land and eviction of Palestinians from their homes.

Last month, I was glad to be able to send a letter, along with Council members Herbold and Mosqueda, to President Biden and the U.S.

Congress urging them to immediately stop all military and diplomatic cover to the Israeli state.

My council office will shortly be introducing legislation, as I have announced before, to ban the Seattle Police Department from engaging in training with the Israeli military and police.

Crucially, we will need to build international working class solidarity with unions and the labor movement taking action in order to end Palestinian oppression by the Israeli ruling class.

Worldwide, unionized food workers are showing the way by courageously refusing to unload cargo from Israeli Zim ships, responding to the call for solidarity from labor unions in Palestine, including the Palestinian Trade Union Confederation.

First, it was the South African and Italian dock workers who refused to handle the coding which is which in the case of the Italian workers.

headed to Israel.

Then in Oakland earlier this month, a community and worker coalition led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, or AROC, with solidarity from members of the International Long-Term Warehouse Union there, successfully blocked an Israeli Zim ship on June 4th after 17 days of delaying the ship from attempting to dock.

As Jimmy Salami, a Palestinian rank and file ILWU member in Oakland said, quote, An injury to one is an injury to all.

Just as ILWU Local 10 workers refused to unload cargo from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, we honored community pickets asking us not to unload cargo from Israeli Zim vessels." End quote. Zim is Israel's largest cargo shipping company, which often deals in Israeli manufactured military technology, armaments, and logistics equipment. So it's correct that activists led by the Palestinian Coalition in Seattle, and also activists worldwide have targeted these ships. Last week, the struggle was centered in the Port of Seattle. And last Thursday, I was among a group of, my staff and I actually were among a group of 150 community members who peacefully gathered and picketed outside Terminal 18 on Harbor Island at a demonstration organized by a Palestinian. While I was at the protest, I heard Seattle police declare over a loudspeaker that they intended to enforce the interests of big business profits over the rights of community members peacefully engaging in First Amendment protected activities. This is shameful, but it's not surprising given that the historic role of the police under capitalism is to defend the state and big business. In the end, the Seattle activists blocked the unloading of the ship for over two weeks, which is a tremendous step forward. But their peaceful protest last Thursday was disrupted when police swooped in and aggressively and forcefully broke up the protest and arrested 11 people. These people should not have been arrested in the first place and threatened with charges. They, along with all of us who marched and picketed on Thursday, were standing up for basic human rights and against the decades-long oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli ruling class. My Socialist Council office is proud to be mobilizing along with union members, socialists and activists from the Jewish and Muslim and other communities of faith and many others to call on the Port of Seattle to not permit the Zim shipping line from accessing the Port of Seattle. My office, as an organizing office for working people, will continue to support activists in the Free Palestine Movement, including supporting those who have been unjustly arrested in the fight for basic human rights. Last week, my office staff met with six community activists who are heading up the Garfield Superblock Coalition, a grassroots effort in the Central District to create a vital civic space that honors and tells the story through art and cultural presentations of the people who have lived there over the millennia, from the Duwamish people to Black Americans today. The Garfield Superblock will enhance the area around the Garfield Community Center, Medgar Evers Pool, and Garfield High School with art that celebrates the area's history, new trees and walkways to ensure access for all, new safe public bathroom facilities, and other urgently needed community amenities. When completed, it will be a community gem, a long overdue gem. This is an amazing community building project led by grassroots activists who have doggedly pursued this project since 2005. And I urge community members to learn more about it at garfieldsuperblock.org. Garfield Superblock Project is precisely the sort of investment that the city needs to make in historically marginalized communities like in the Central District. My office has committed to work with the community activists to fight for the funding they need to complete this project, about $500,000 to get the project shovel ready and then about 6 to 7 million for full construction, which in addition to enhancing the community will also create good union jobs in the neighborhood. Thus far, the Garfield Superblock Project has received some funding from the Office of Economic Development as well as the Equitable Development Initiative, and my office is committed to advocate alongside the community this year to secure full project funding. Whether this community development is funded through the funds won in the budget last autumn, or the ARPA funds being allocated today or some other source of funding. Regardless, it will be essential that the central district create this community space. My office will also continue to advocate for defunding the bloated police department budget to fund projects like this one. And if it's not funded through the dollars already allocated, then my office will propose this as part of our people's budget campaign later this year to demand that the city funded with money out of the $5.4 million that the city council previously pledged to cut from this year's police budget to balance the $5.4 million that the department overspent on their budget last year. We will need more community civil space, art, and accessible parks and investments in historically marginalized communities. And we will need much more expanded access to public bathrooms, not the continuation of a political establishment handing hundreds of millions of dollars to a militarized police department that has committed acts of violence against hundreds of community members in the last year, and has repeatedly demonstrated a real lack of accountability for the funds that they are responsible for. As I mentioned last week, my office is also introducing legislation requested by Decriminalize Nature to decriminalize psychedelic drugs in Seattle. My staff have had meetings with the activists in developing the legislation. As I've said before, the legislation to decriminalize psychedelic drugs will use the same legal approach that Seattle used to decriminalize cannabis shortly before it was legalized statewide. by essentially making their enforcement the last priority of the Seattle Police, which is what Seattle did with cannabis in the past. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Solan.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none.

Colleagues, I did want to note for the record that we were joined by Council Member Lewis at 9.56 a.m., so he has been with us, and I had neglected to recognize his entry into the meeting, so I apologize for that.

Okay, next up is Council Member Strauss, and then after Council Member Strauss is Council Member Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

My computer's having a little bit of trouble, so if I start getting glitchy, please do let me know.

Just also want to start my comments off this morning, sharing celebration for Juneteenth and condemning the racist attacks against Breonna Thomas last week.

From my committee this week, there are seven items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar, five appointments to the Landmarks Preservation Board, and Council Bill 120106, a landmark designating ordinance for the Bordeaux House in Capitol Hill.

We also have Council Bill 120108, which will amend the master plan for Yesler Terrace to allow for future development of currently vacant sites, and we are gonna be adding more trees.

There are no items from the land use and neighborhood on today's council agenda.

And then meeting of our use neighborhoods this Wednesday, June 23rd, starting at 9.30 AM.

There are four items on the agenda, a public hearing and vote on council bill 12081, which allows for zoning flexibility for religious institutions, developing affordable housing.

We will also have a briefing and vote on council bill 120106, the Bordeaux house landmark I just mentioned.

and a briefing from Office of Planning and Community Development on their racial equity plan for the comprehensive plan major update process.

And then we'll have a briefing from Seattle Department of Construction Inspections on their quarterly permitting report, which I'll speak a little bit more in just a minute.

I will hold my comments this afternoon about the Seattle Rescue Plan and make them now.

In the interest of time, for what I can imagine, will be a long meeting which will lead into our Parks District meeting.

I just want to thank our Budget Chair, Council Member Mosqueda, and our Council President, Council President Gonzalez, for their great work alongside Budget Director Ben Noble and the Mayor's Office.

I have had shared priorities with each of you about addressing homelessness, supporting small businesses, making sure that we have childcare and that childcare providers are well paid.

The overarching theme that I have heard from everyone working on this is we want to get the federal money and people's hands as fast as possible.

And this process was sped up by Council Member Mosqueda, starting with the resolution nearly two or three months ago at this point, so that everyone has a clear frame in which to work within.

I just really want to thank, again, Dr. Bandol, Council President, Budget Chair, And everyone in the mayor's office who worked on this, Cody Ryder, Sejal Parikh, who are not in the mayor's office, just wanted to say thank you.

I can see Council Member Juarez looking at me for thanking everyone.

Moving on to this, or I guess last week, I attended my quarterly meeting with Municipal Court Judge Gregory, who's implementing transformative.

I'm excited.

I was excited to hear about it.

And for anyone who had heard about it, I know they just had an exciting rotation in the Safety Committee.

I'm looking forward to supporting their budget requests, which will reduce recidivisms, incarceration, and establish housing for people in the judicial system.

It's amazing work, and thank you, Judge Gregory.

I also met with Seattle Public Utilities on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project and Sound Transit on their realignment proposal, which were held in committee last week.

We also did more organizing work around the Ballard Avenue Design Charrette so that we're able to provide a meaningful framework for across the city so that everyone can have street cafes and not have to worry that they might go away someday.

So Council Member Moore, I'm glad to hear that it's working well for your district and I'm excited to be able to share for the entire city.

I had the opportunity to meet with the Equitable Communities Initiative Task Force, and I was updated about the Green Lake Boathouse Project.

And most exciting last week, on Saturday night, I got to tour and watch the Northgate Pedestrian Bridge be put into place with Council Member Torres, her partner and friend, and meeting from her office as well as Murphy.

It was really an exciting moment for nearly a decade's worth of work finally being put into place.

This week, like many of you, I'll be meeting you for the Seattle Park District meeting this afternoon, and I'll be speaking a bit about the Green Lake Boathouse project, which The only about 1.2 million dollars of winning completed funding, they're real.

They have all the designs.

The, there are only 2 boat houses in the city.

There's 1 another 1 stance.

I just.

Pits down South Seattle, and that product was done 1st.

so we started in the South end and now we're.

working on the second boathouse in the city in the north end.

This is about $1.2 million away from fully.

You'll hear much more from me.

The city's already put some money in.

We've been advocating to anyone who will listen, including the government, just ready to help them get their last $1.2 million.

Later this week, tomorrow, I'm attending the North Seattle Industrial Association.

And for the majority of this week, I will be attending the National Association of Washington City's Board of Directors annual conference.

It is important to have these cross-municipal relations, especially during the legislative session.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the partners from across the state.

I will also be attending King County Management and Council, where we are voting on up-to-date county law-abiding policies.

And I'm also scheduled to attend the Puget Sound Regional Executive Board meeting this coming day.

Here in six last week, a hammer and enjoyed getting two parts along the first Solstice Walk, which was years of what sure everyone in the city enjoys, which is the Fremont Solstice Parade, which would have been placed yesterday.

If you there are still ways to participate in the Fremont Solstice Art Walk, if you want to unlock this, some of the largest and exciting points.

We spoke about public safety in the industrial areas, ADUs and DADUs.

Aurora, the history of Aurora, and the current state of Aurora.

We talked about hazard pay law, sea conservation, which is, I won't take more time to talk now, but an amazing program from the Seattle Parks Department, helping people out of homelessness.

We discussed long-term planning for people with behavioral health issues, drug addiction, address homelessness at the soul of our crisis, and tertiary for businesses and homeowners.

that are born in relation to not meeting the crisis at the scale of experiencing it.

I also spoke with a neighbor of the Everspring Hotel and public safety.

And in my town hall recently, I noted, I asked, answered a question about the Everspring Hotel.

We do not have a date certain for it reopening.

And wanna highlight again, the important work of Jesse Roll and his team when the Everspring Hotel was closed on short notice.

Jesse and their team were able to make sure that there were housing options available for everyone who was living in that hotel.

This is a critically important work because if Jesse had not done the work, all those people would have been on the street corners in front of people's homes rather than being housed.

Lastly, I spoke to residents about the reopening of Green Lake Way North.

Again, I think I've said a week for maybe a half, two months now, I think it is time that we open West Lake Way North and we need a two-way protected bike lane along West Green Lake Way North to complete the circle of protected bike infrastructure around the lake.

There's the width within the roadway and now we just need to do it.

forward to talking during my weekly office hours this week on thursday june uh 21st i believe it is thursday 21st from 2 p.m to 7 p.m thank you council president you colleagues that is for thank you council member straus um and we will make sure to get it um if it can connect with you after this meeting that would be great you were

you were rather glitchy, especially towards the end there.

I think we got the gist of what you were saying, but when it's glitchy, it's pretty bad.

So if we can prioritize addressing Council Member Strauss's technology concerns and difficulties before full council, that would be wonderful.

Otherwise, it's gonna be really challenging to understand you this afternoon.

Sorry about that.

And I can tell you my son has already sent me an email with my instructions.

I will be following up with that as soon as possible.

Okay, thanks so much.

Okay, colleagues, we're going to go ahead and move on down the line here.

Next up is Councilmember Herbold, followed by Councilmember Juarez.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you so much.

I want to echo my own appreciation for Madam President Gonzalez for opening today's meeting with the recognition of both Juneteenth and your condemnation of experiences of racism and hate recently experienced by our colleague, Breonna Thomas.

Seeing what's in the hearts and minds of some hate-filled members of our community is a stark reminder for me, but one that is not a reminder, but rather a lived reality for many, that indeed, we have a long way to go to make Seattle a more just place.

I have no items on the full council agenda today.

I do have a committee meeting, a public safety and human services committee meeting on Tuesday at 930. It's June 22nd, and we'll have three agenda items on that.

First, there will be a briefing and discussion of legislation to limit the use of less lethal weapons.

Legislation follows the engagement with the Department of Justice and the consent decree monitor in line with the process laid out in the consent decree for use of force policies.

The legislation builds off of the legislation originally introduced by Councilmember Sawant and unanimously adopted by the council.

It builds off of the subsequent consensus recommendations from the three accountability bodies and feedback from the public.

Safety and Human Services Committee, as well as for this last round.

You may recall the version coming out of committee was not an introduced version of the bill.

It was draft legislation.

We've shared it not only with the Monitor, but also with the Department of Justice and received some feedback.

On the bill itself, and so this this new bill incorporates the Department of Justice's feedback related to adding a definition of for the purpose of crowd control in the bill.

and allowing the Seattle Police Department 60 days to update policies after the legislation is approved by the court.

It also conditions the use of less lethal weapons on whether or not the risk of serious bodily injury is from violent actions, outweighs the risk of harm to bystanders.

And it includes updates noting action by the court since the council acted on the draft version and action by the state legislature limiting the use of tear gas.

the staff memo and presentation will be linked to the meeting agenda just as soon as they're approved.

I just want to underscore that the legislation maintains a full ban on acoustic weapons, energy, directed energy weapons, blast balls, ultrasonic cannons, and water cannons.

It also, so that's a full ban as it relates to use in in rallies or demonstrations.

It maintains a ban on flashbangs or noise diversion devices, and it creates conditions under which launchers and pepper spray and tear gas can be used.

And there's a sort of a tiered approach for when and under what circumstances those less lethal weapons can be used.

We'll also be hearing in committee a presentation from the Human Services Department on the City Council's investments in crisis response.

You may recall in April, we heard an update from the Human Services Department on the new Safe and Thriving Division, and we focused the conversation both on the creation of that division, as well as the transfer of victim advocates from SPD into HSD.

Tomorrow's presentation will cover some of the additional investments that the council has made in crisis response that are part of the HSD portfolio.

And so that's including the social workers that work with HealthONE.

They are housed in HSD.

And the health professionals that are part of the mobile crisis teams.

Again, housed in HSD and the crisis response team that pairs with SPD also housed in HSD.

And then finally, we're going to be hearing and considering a vote on the appointment for the new court administrator for the Seattle Municipal Court.

Just a quick public health update.

I want to just highlight that June 15th, the entirety of King County achieved an important milestone with 70% of residents aged 16 and older having completed their vaccination series.

Because of that success on June 29th, when all of those vaccinated folks will have received full protection, the King County mask directive will end and folks who are vaccinated will be able to start following the State Department of Health's somewhat less restrictive guidance on masks.

While coronavirus continues to circulate throughout our communities, it's becoming clearer that the great majority of cases are among those who are unvaccinated, further proof that the vaccines are working.

Many thanks to everyone who has already been vaccinated for helping us reach this important milestone.

I also want to, as we celebrate what we've accomplished, it's important to remember and recognize that 1,611 King County neighbors have died from COVID in the last year.

And then finally, if you are interested in getting vaccinated, you can check out your local pharmacy or go to seattlegov.vaccine.

I also wanted to just real quickly mention some investments that were announced last week as part of of HSD's portfolio.

You may recall that in 2019, HSD did their periodic RFP for food services, and that was going to be for 2020 funding.

And one of the things that they discovered when they received all of the applications in 2019 is that there just simply weren't enough applicants who were seeking to fund the needs of people living in Delridge, Georgetown, and South Park.

And so in order to address that, HSD, I think very wisely, decided to issue a second RFP.

to really focus on the needs of folks in Delridge, Georgetown, and South Park.

And they put aside about $223,000 for the needs of those communities.

And so last week they announced, HSD announced the recipients of funding for those three neighborhoods and called out funding for Cultivate South Park, I want to highlight and I'm making inquiries with HSD $70,000 less than we were told in 2020 would be held out in 2019. So just looking, you know, given the fact that the needs are great in these neighborhoods, just looking to figure out what has happened with that additional $70,000.

As far as meetings that are coming up for me this week, I've got a regional committee meeting with the Regional Law, Safety, and Justice Committee.

I also have my office hours on Friday between 2 and 6 p.m.

And then lastly, I believe the inaugural meeting of the Overdose Emergency and Innovative Recovery Task Force is happening this weekend as well.

And I know a number of us on the Council are acting as conveners and representing the city in this new effort.

really looking forward to learning more about that and representing our interests on the council to address the important needs associated with substance abuse disorder and substance use.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold.

Are there any comments or questions for Councilmember Herbold on her report?

I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Colleagues I do, I received a note from Council Member Mosqueda that she actually had raised her hand for a question for Council Member Strauss and I missed her hand so I'm going to call on Council Member Mosqueda so she can ask I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to her question.

Just keep in mind that Councilmember Strauss' technology is glitching right now.

So hopefully he'll be, I see that he might have changed his device.

So hopefully he'll be able to respond and we'll be able to hear him.

So go ahead Councilmember Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Sorry to delay us just a little bit.

I just wanted to maybe it's less of a question and more of a note of excitement that this conversation is coming up.

We do have, I believe the.

report out from OPCD that should include the racial equity toolkit on our existing zoning policies.

Folks may remember that we passed this in 2018 in the budget.

We expected a report back from the racial equity toolkit in December 2019. We had heard at the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, that it was expected to be delayed.

And then in early 2020, we obviously had the onset of COVID.

We understand that that resulted in a few delays across the city in terms of report backs, but have been eagerly awaiting the report for the last few months in the committee, and it has been delayed for several months.

So I'm really looking forward to the upcoming conversation on the 23rd to hear back on the racial equity toolkit that we passed.

And this is a really important step, I believe Council Member Schroes, in anticipation of the I look forward to working with the city council on a major comprehensive plan that is coming in 2023 and 2024. looking at how our existing zoning policies is rooted in racial equity and whether or not it's rooted in racial equity.

We know, like many other cities, Seattle has a history of racist exclusionary zoning policies and racial restrictive covenants and redlining practices that have locked Black, Indigenous, and communities of color into developments in certain areas of the community by excluding the ability to have more affordable housing for all communities, especially our BIPOC communities.

low-wage families and wanting to make sure that we have more home ownership opportunities across the city.

So I think it will be a really exciting conversation, much anticipated, but just wanted to draw your attention to that.

And thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for continuing to have that on your agenda, even though I know it's been moved a few times.

And Council President, may I respond?

Of course, please.

Great.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

I will note that while we have it scheduled, I have heard that there may be complications in it coming to committee.

So we are at this time holding reserving the time on my committee.

As many committee members know, this fall is going to be in the rest of the summer is going to be a very jam packed committee schedule.

And so we are reserving time for OPCD to come and present this week.

However, I am flagging that I've heard that there might be complications with it.

So hopefully, we will have OPCD presenting as this is the time that we have reserved after many delays.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

I appreciate you including that on your agenda.

I just want to underscore the importance of having it, even if it's just a partial report back on that, especially given the delays that we noted at the beginning.

I look forward to having the actual presentation given it was due in December 2019. Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate that.

Okay, colleagues, we're going to keep going here unless there are other questions or comments for Councilmember Strauss or Councilmember Herbold.

Okay, hearing none, next up is Councilmember Juarez, and then after Councilmember Juarez will be Councilmember Lewis.

Good morning, Councilmember Juarez.

Good morning.

So there are no items on the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

However, once this afternoon's full council meeting is adjourned, the council will immediately begin the first of three Metropolitan Park District meetings for the year.

On the MPD agenda is a briefing and discussion of the 2021 Outlook by Superintendent Jesus Agare.

Then we'll have two items for discussion and possible vote.

One is Resolution 42, which will formalize the decision to delay the next six-year strategic plan.

As you know, because of COVID, we've been unable to have our community meetings and gatherings to discuss what that six-year plan would look like.

And Resolution 43, which combines the Park District Oversight Committee, also known as the PDOC, and the Board of Park Commissioners into one commission.

This is agreed upon dissolution.

and realignment.

So we have one entity because some of their duties and members all overlapped.

So this seemed like a more efficient way to get work done since we have the same people with the same issues.

On July 9th, the public assets and native communities meeting has been rescheduled to July 16th.

I believe that's a Friday at two o'clock.

Update for parks again, a short update.

The parks department shower program served about 330 users between June 9th and June 15th.

We want to thank the community centers that have opened up obviously for the last year.

The community centers for those can come in and use their services.

Last week, the parks child care program again served over approximately 300 children.

at 17 childcare facilities throughout the city.

And this week from June 7th, I'm sorry, the week of June 7th to June 11th, the Clean City crew has been very busy.

They picked up over 49,000 pounds of trash and 670 needles from 35 encampments across the city.

The crews focused on deep cleaning of Columbia Park and the Jackson Park golf course.

Cumulatively, the Parks arm, because as you know, it's SPU and SDOT, of the Clean City Initiative has cleaned up about 2 million tons of pounds of trash and 55,000 needles throughout the city and will continue to do so.

Although I recently mentioned that the Parks Department had ended its partnership with the Food Lifeline, the organization shared that they were able to serve 33,000 families with almost 1.6 million pounds of food due to their partnership.

So we're very proud of that.

Food Lifeline distributed food to families from over 100 zip codes in the Puget Sound area.

The Parks Department is getting ready for the summer, and as I shared last week and the week before, and still has season staff positions that need to be filled.

We need enthusiastic workers to ensure that the Parks Department can offer numerous summer activities.

So we need folks to sign up for these job postings.

The job postings can be found at seattle.govparks.gov.

about us, work with us.

So you can also not only visit the website, but you can also visit our site as well.

That is a District 5 site as well.

Sometime, I think this week or next week, we've been preparing, and I will be sharing with my colleagues, some legislation, some draft legislation regarding the acknowledgement or the trauma that indigenous families and children have experienced from residential schools and boarding schools.

Without going into the whole long history, I don't want to be here forever.

This is a very painful chapter in Indian country and for our country.

As you probably heard, there were 215 graves unearthed in a residential school in Canada.

And we have those same schools in the United States are called boarding schools.

And my family, my grandparents, my aunties, my uncles, my step parents, including my mother, all were sent to residential or boarding schools.

This history is not only dark and painful, but it is violent and it has not left our people.

I think what's left behind is the resiliency and the fact that we're still here.

Indian Country Today did a great article back on the week, last week, in which at the Carlisle Indian School, there were 40 graves.

And of those 40 graves, 10 of those children will be re-interned by their tribe and their family.

And I think it's really, shocking and emotional and painful to see in the article that of the 40 graves, they're all color coded with the tribal affiliation of the child, their Indian name.

And so I'm happy that those 10 children will be returned back to their family and their tribe and buried in the appropriate manner.

But the Carlisle boarding school, I think is one of 40, I'm sorry, one of 400, over 400 boarding schools.

that did not stop the practice until I think the last boarding school was closed in the late 80s.

This also goes back to some of the legislation we looked at regarding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, in which this government had a policy of removing children from their families.

So this is going to be a very emotional but important piece of legislation to not only to acknowledge the trauma in the horrific history of trying to wipe away our culture, our children, our history, our language.

But for me, as always, moving forward is the healing and the comfort and the discussion to address this and that we can still celebrate that as Native people, that as tribal governments, as sovereign governments, that we are still here and we will continue to be here.

So with that, that legislation should be teed up and hopefully to you by next week.

Let's see, Sound Transit.

This week, I will attend a board of directors meeting for Sound Transit.

Chair Keel will present a proposal to the board for a realignment decision.

As you know, we've been discussing that for quite a while.

We were on hold for a while because of COVID.

We will be making that decision, I believe, in July.

I appreciate that, Council Member Peterson, thank you for inviting Sound Transit to your committee to answer questions about realignment.

I understand they provided you with a 45-page PowerPoint, and you had an opportunity to ask Mr. Rogoff and everybody and staff how this realignment decision, how we've put everything into tiers and scenarios, so hopefully that answered community's questions.

I was not at the meeting, but I did listen in, so thank you for that, Council Member Peterson.

Last week, early Sunday morning, I know Council Member Strauss mentioned this, we got to witness again the last final portion of the, now it's called the Northgate Pedestrian Bike Bridge over I-5.

We were there from about 1130 to 230 in the morning.

This last span weighed over 210 tons, I believe.

And I think it's no secret that I have been pushing hard, and I hope this council will support me, that it's fittingly that and rightfully that we named this bridge after John Lewis.

It's a bridge, certainly a bridge Mr. Lewis walked over, the Pettus Bridge in the 1960s, which was the Civil Rights Act.

And I think it's important to note out that in the north end, we have a real lack of placeholders, markers, interactive trails that designate people of color that are part of this city.

that are part of this country and that they should be recognized.

As we know, places are sacred.

And when you name them, people ask, who is that person?

Who is Representative John Lewis?

What did he do?

And then they will know who they are.

There's been some concern and some discussion that, you know, maybe Mr. Lewis did not have a connection, quote unquote, with the city of Seattle, though he did visit the UW in 2017. But neither did George Washington or Mr. Jefferson or anybody else.

So with that, I think we have to look at how we decide what is history, how it's commemorated, who our heroes are, who made history, and who's in a position to acknowledge and honor those folks so people do ask those questions.

So I will be looking forward to this council's support in the naming of this bridge, which is phenomenal.

It's going to link North Seattle College with Northgate Mall.

It's been in the making for a long time.

I'm glad to finally see it drop into place.

and we do name it after the Honorable John Lewis.

Let's see, next week, this week, I'm sorry, I will be speaking for the Native Action Network, as I've shared with you before in the past.

This organization, I have been a part of it for almost 20 years, is led by Senator Claudia Kaufman, Nez Perce, and Iris Friday, who's Tlingit, two Native women who've been major leaders in Indian country for Indian women.

We have a new cohort group of Indigenous women and leaders, young women coming in, who are looking to have people, as we do in our world and other places as well, mentor these young women to become even greater leaders.

The title of the speech, or what I'm supposed to speak to, is Shaping Native Futures.

So what we do at Native Action Network is we provide a pipeline, an educational cultural space to mentor and help indigenous women become greater leaders in their communities and beyond.

So I look forward to meeting the new cohort group.

Like I said, this has been a successful group.

My daughters used to go to it and now they're 30 and 27. So it's been around and it's been very successful.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

I only have one technical question, and it's about logistics.

Council Member Juarez, we are supposed to convene as the board of the Metropolitan Parks District right after full council.

Can you give me a sense of how much buffer time you need between the adjournment of full council and the time before we can get going on the district's meeting?

I'm assuming you've had conversations with technology and the clerk's office about that transition.

You know, I don't anticipate, I mean, if you need 10 or 15 minutes, I'd be fine.

Okay, it's really I think it's really going to be Council President how the how your how your calendar moves, how your agenda moves.

I don't it's pretty straightforward.

I don't anticipate.

So if you want to do a 10 or 15 minute break, that's fine.

Okay.

We will I will confer with the clerk's office and and technology just to make sure that we can make the the switch that Seattle channel can make the switch, which I think is going to be the biggest.

Delay normally in real life, we could do it pretty pretty quickly, but the.

technology difficulties continue to exist here.

So we will make sure to let folks know how we are going to move forward before we adjourn full council so that we all can get back in our seats wearing a different hat.

Okay next up is Councilmember Lewis.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President, and thank you for indulging my late arrival to briefing this morning.

And later in my report, I will report on what happened this morning.

I do have an item that will be walked on for introduction and referral.

That item was not listed in the initial introduction referral calendar through some kind of error.

My office has been communicating with counsel president's office this morning and I have been assured by Cody that it will be put on introduction referral and capable of being walked on.

It is legislation that has not yet been assigned a bill number to allow the city of Seattle to accept private contributions into a city fund to support shelter and homelessness outreach activities that are specially bequeathed.

This has been a request from a number of different entities my office has been coordinating with through our It Takes a Village initiative, as well as additional initiatives to try to cultivate public and private partnerships.

Obviously, private contributions are no replacement for steady, consistent, and reliable investments in housing and homelessness services through progressive revenue.

but when people in the community are standing up with an interest in giving the city funds to lean into successful strategies that have been getting our neighbors experiencing homelessness inside, I believe it is our responsibility to provide an outlet for people to engage in that level of servant leadership if that is how they want to be a part of the solution.

So we will be discussing that legislation in the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments this coming Wednesday.

We will additionally have some written updates from the Human Services Department in anticipation of their big presentation in July on the rollout of a number of different investments through the American Recovery Act, as well as through other sources of city revenue, as well as updates on the Rapid Rehousing Program and Hotelling Surge Program.

Those will be through an in-person panel at our July meeting of the committee, but we will have some written updates that central staff and myself will report on on the record to the committee on Wednesday based on questions from my office and fellow council members.

We are also going to have a update on from the Office of Emergency Management on the city's smoke sheltering response as we are starting to get unfortunately into the season where wildfire smoke is going to be probably part of our Seattle summer and we need to be prepared and ready.

to get more of our neighbors experiencing homelessness inside and into shelters and cooling centers when inevitably we do get hit by wildfire smoke later this summer.

We will get an update from the Office of Emergency Management on how that process works and at what point the shelters will be open.

That will be augmented with I have been informed that there will be written representations from the human services department regarding the status of the smoke shelter system which I have been informed is going to be a better resource than last summer.

I look forward to that committee meeting and look forward to seeing everybody there on Wednesday.

because I was holding a press availability with representatives from the Defender Association, Just Care, Co-Lead, as well as a number of other outreach organizations.

Also present was Rachel Smith from the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

as well as representatives from the Downtown Seattle Association and other major downtown property owners, as well as Rick Yoder, the owner of Wild Ginger and the Triple Door.

It was an opportunity to bring together the unique coalition that helped remove a very problematic encampment that was on 3rd Avenue, but guarantee shelter and services and assistance to everyone living in that encampment and to do it in the Just Care model where there is no displacement of people who are living outside.

This model, as we've discussed several times here at Council, centers the interests of people who are living unsheltered, as well as the interests of house community members and business owners, to lead to the resolution that all parties want to see.

which is people getting inside, getting the services and assistance that they need, while additionally making sure that public spaces are there for everybody to enjoy and not to be used as an unsanctioned shelter when people should be living in a place with four walls and a door that locks.

We had a good time celebrating the success of this model on that particular block of 3rd Avenue.

And really just centering and lifting up the work of the people there who really made it happen.

The outreach workers who were present, who were on the ground and have been building relationships for weeks in that corridor.

I just want to give a shout out here to Nicole, to Kirby, to Sherry, to Michael.

The work you guys are doing is heroic to really have a people-centered and outreach-centered approach to resolving our ongoing, this fall, six-year state of emergency on homelessness.

I want to give a shout-out to the Human Services Department and the HOPE team who assisted in the operation and provided 14 placements for people experiencing homelessness that were more suitable to the needs.

of the folks who the outreach workers were making contact with, and really showing a model whereby pooling the Just Care shelter services and the Hope Team services, we can really make sure we're in a position to solve for everybody and make sure we're getting everybody inside.

And this was really a great example of leadership from the Human Services Department, from Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington, and really having an integrated approach of the city with Just Care in really doing some heavy lifting and getting the result that we saw.

I want to thank Seattle Public Utilities, the Parks Department, and SDOT for similarly providing additional infrastructure lifts and debris removal for debris that was left behind and designated by campers as something they wanted removed because they would not need it in the hotel or shelter placement they were going to.

This truly is the approach that we should be leaning into more, especially as we go into budget season to talk about what the future system of homelessness outreach in the city of Seattle will be.

It's a way we can work together as a county.

as a city and really move the ball forward and really center the politics of collaboration instead of the politics of conflict, which have often reared their head over the course of our state of emergency.

And I just want to thank all the parties involved.

I want to thank the leadership of you, everyone here, my colleagues in supporting this model.

And we have a lot of work to do, but it is important along the way that we celebrate our victories and that we celebrate operations that showcase the success of what can I do want to just give one last shout out to Just Care.

My office will be circulating to all council offices.

I mean, it's public, so folks can find it on their own anyway, but we'll also send to all council offices the final report from Dr. Beckett, who reported at the May committee meeting for the Select Committee on Homelessness some preliminary findings from her report.

And this is Professor Beckett at the University of Washington.

On the Just Care model, this report includes the analysis of the program to this point, as well as findings and conclusions that could be helpful for scalability.

I am going to be I'm definitely digging into that report myself here over the course of this week.

I definitely encourage folks who want to see some of the empirical findings regarding this model to take advantage of this report, especially in anticipation of potential initiatives to expand and scale the kind of work we've seen Just Care doing.

I did, I had the honor to pay my respects on Friday to the memorial of Officer Harris at the Seattle Police Officer Harris who passed in the wake of a horrible and tragic accident last week, I had the honor of paying my respects at her memorial at the West Precinct on Friday morning.

I want to thank Captain Allen of the West Precinct for greeting me there and allowing us to exchange a few words about the heroism of Officer Harris.

It was very powerful to see the community outpouring of grief at her loss at the memorial.

and to see the very large outpouring of flowers, of notes, of well-wishers dropping by, really centering her servant leadership, and appreciated the opportunity to come and pay my respects in person.

And my heart goes out to Officer Harris's family, Officer Harris's colleagues.

It's a great loss for the city of Seattle, the people of District 7, and the people of the West Precinct.

On regional committees, the Board of Health last week, we had a meeting where we discussed at length, among other items, the helmet law, as I foreshadowed in my remarks last week that we would hear the presentation.

my brief summary of the findings.

as reporting from David Croman and Crosscut has made clear.

That the helmet law is being disproportionately enforced against our neighbors experiencing homelessness as well as people of color, BIPOC communities in King County and the city of Seattle in terms of the overall volume of citations.

We then heard several reports indicating that there is not a clear linkage between the presence of a helmet law and whether the public accordingly responds in wearing helmets.

Of course, the Board of Health reached a conclusion that people should wear helmets and that it is essential to wear helmets and that the conclusion of the medical community is near unanimous, that the wearing of helmets has a considerable impact in preventing head injury related to collisions for folks who are on bikes or other multimodal methods of transportation.

And there was a widespread consensus to certainly do something different with the helmet law to reflect that and to have some kind of programmatic system providing at scale free helmets, education regarding the use of helmets, systems to distribute helmets to people who might not have access to them, and then to seriously reconfigure the helmet law itself or potentially eliminate the helmet law entirely.

That work will go on with the Board of Health.

A final decision was not made in the last meeting, but definitely recommend anyone who is interested to go and watch the recorded presentation.

The panel was very impressive, and I really appreciate it as a board member hearing from those folks about the nature of the helmet law.

I will, in addition to my council duties, this week, also be attending the regional committees of Puget Sound Regional Council.

I'll also be attending, as Councilmember Herbold alluded to, the Overdose Emergency and Innovative Recovery Task Force, which will be convening its first meetings to start the discussion around reassessments of our drug policy including the addition to the work plan, as this council indicated, I believe, two weeks ago in a letter Council Member Herbold and I co-authored requesting the addition for a study of entheogens, for example, psilocybin, and policy towards that substance as part of its work plan.

Madam President, with that, I have no other updates for the council.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis, really appreciate it.

Are there any comments or questions on Council Member Lewis's report?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, I will conclude this portion of this morning's agenda with my own report.

I have several items on this afternoon's calendar.

First, I have two items on today's introduction referral calendar.

Item three on the introduction referral calendar is Council Bill 120107. which would authorize a collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Fire Chiefs Association, IAFF, Local 2898. This legislation is consistent with municipal code, went through the full Labor Relations Policy Committee process.

If you have any questions about the proposed collective bargaining agreement, you can contact Greg Doss from our council's central staff.

Item five on the introduction and referral calendar is appointment 01951, the appointment of Jeffrey Windmill to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term through December 31st, 2023. This is a council nomination.

Next, I have one item I am sponsoring that is slated for final action this afternoon.

That is listed as Agenda Item 1, which is Council Bill 120102, authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77. This CBA is a two-year agreement on wages, benefits, hours, and other working conditions for a term from January 23rd, 2021. through January 22nd, 2023. It affects about 565 of our regularly appointed city employees, and its term includes a cost of living adjustment of approximately 2.5%.

The terms of the collective bargaining agreement meet the negotiations parameters set by the members of the Labor Relations Policy Committee.

And this afternoon, I will ask colleagues to support the passage of this collective bargaining agreement.

Um, this Thursday, June 24th, like counselor Lewis, I will be attending the Puget sound regional council executive board meeting at that meeting.

The executive board will discuss updates to both the regional transportation plan and the regional economic strategy.

Tomorrow, I'll be meeting with representatives of the Mexican Consulate in District 1's South Park neighborhood.

And lastly, on my report, as we know, Pride Weekend is about to kick off this weekend here in Seattle and in many communities across the country.

On Saturday, June 26, 2021, I'll be attending the dedication of the AIDS Memorial Pathway, or AMP.

which will occur at the Capitol Hill Station near Count Anderson Park in District 3. The installation will be acknowledging the first of several art pieces to be installed on the amp.

The first is from artist Christopher Paul Jordan.

The two-ton metal sculpture that will be installed at the edge of the new plaza facing the Capitol Hill light rail station was just put in over the last week.

The sculpture is titled, And I'm Gonna Miss Everybody, and it is the centerpiece of the AIDS Memorial Pathway Project.

As a reminder, colleagues, the AMP is a trail of public artworks that will connect the northwest corner of Cal Anderson Park with a new plaza.

The AMP will be one of the few art installations in the Pacific Northwest that is dedicated to memorializing the HIV AIDS epidemic and its horrific impact on our local community.

Seattle, which is home to one of the largest LGBTQ plus populations, is one of the last major US cities to get a permanent public and physical space for grief and remembrance of the past and current loss of lives to HIV AIDS.

As a council, we have supported the development of the AMP, including funding the project through our budget process.

In total, this is a $2.8 million project that over a period of six years involved six artists, five government agencies and multiple private partners before coming to fruition.

This is a truly community-driven and developed project, and there are many, many people in our community who were involved in bringing us to this point.

But I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the contributions of our former colleague, former Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, a District 1 resident, who in 2015 planted the early seeds of growing a public HIV AIDS memorial and formed a group to look into the effort.

Six years later, here we are with an opportunity to celebrate this inclusive and accessible public art installation that again acknowledges this important issue.

that continues to impact our entire community, but especially our LGBTQ plus community members.

So I hope that others will visit this really important art installation.

And of course, I hope that everyone has a happy and safe pride this weekend.

With that being said, I don't have anything else to report.

I'm happy to answer any questions or hear any additional comments for the good of the order.

All right, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

So colleagues, that does conclude our agenda for this morning's council briefing.

With that being said, we are adjourned and I will see you all at two o'clock.

Thank you very much.