Seattle City Council Briefing 5/24/2021

Fourth, 2021 Council Briefing Meeting will come to order.

I'm Lisa Herbold, Council President Pro Tem, and the time is 9.30 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Sawant?

Present.

Strauss?

Present.

Lewis?

Morales?

Mosqueda?

Here.

Okay, thank you.

Sorry.

No, it's all right.

Mosqueda?

Oh, she's coming in right now.

I'll hold on.

Council Member Peterson?

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Present.

And Council Pro Tem Herbold?

Here.

Six present.

Thank you so much.

The first item on today's agenda is the approval of the minutes, and there are no minutes for approval today.

Next, we have President's Report.

I'm going to dispense with President's Report and hold my comments to the end of today's meeting.

And we'll move into the preview of council actions and the order for...

The order for roll call is going to be the order for the presentation of council member reports today.

The reports include a preview of council actions, council and regional committees.

I will call on council members as established by the roll call.

And today that will be Sawant, Straus, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, And then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

So with that, let's move right into it and start with Council Member Swatt.

Council Member Swatt.

Thank you, Council President Trotem-Herbold, 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 will be at its regularly scheduled time tomorrow, Tuesday, May 25th at 2 p.m.

Tomorrow's committee will discuss three renter rights bills, and we hope to vote on all three if the committee members are ready to do so.

There will be for potential vote the bill from my office to ban the school year evictions of children, their families, and educators, which the committee has discussed for the past two meetings.

I have repeatedly asked members of the committee to let my office know of any concerns or amendments.

And I've not heard any so far, but I'll again appeal to any council members who are in the committee who have questions or concerns or amendment to please share them with my office so that we can work on those.

As I reported earlier, the Seattle Education Association's representative assembly passed a resolution supporting this legislation by an overwhelming majority vote, and I've also personally had communication with the Seattle Education President Jennifer Matter, who has expressed support for the bill on behalf of her membership.

There will also be for potential vote the legislation from Councilman Morales' office creating a defense to a further defense to evictions for rental debts during the COVID-19 emergency.

I support this legislation as chair of the committee and I am a co-sponsor and Council Member Morales, who is its prime sponsor, will of course be describing it in more detail.

Finally, there will be for potential vote legislation that Council Member Morales' office and my office are jointly prime sponsors of to create a right of first refusal for renters on fixed term leases.

Both our offices, as council members will remember, had previously introduced draft legislation to address what I have called the fixed term lease loophole in the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, which effectively allows landlords to refuse to renew a renter's lease for no reason whatsoever.

This issue in our earlier draft have been discussed for the past three committee meetings.

Through these discussions and from technical feedback, it has become clear that what renters really need in these situations is the right of first refusal.

where a landlord is required to give the current tenant the first chance to sign a new lease before offering that lease to any other potential tenants unless there is a just cause.

Our new united bill takes that approach.

What renters really need is a new lease long before there is any question of eviction.

Few renters in reality who are told by their landlord that they will not have their lease renewed will refuse to leave just because Seattle law says that they cannot be evicted in that situation.

Because in real life, ordinary people, working people, renters, especially families with children who have many other urgent responsibilities would start looking for a new place to live, even though they may know, they may be aware that it is unjust and they cannot be evicted because they understandably don't feel confident to have to potentially fight it out in court.

Our new bill puts the right of first refusal into the part of Seattle's law, which is Chapter 7.24 of the Seattle Municipal Code, that the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections has the power to enforce.

That means that if a landlord does not offer a new lease and does not also have a just cause 60 to 90 days before the end of the lease, then the Department of Construction and Inspections has the power to follow up Investigate, tell the landlord that they either need to offer a new lease or present a just cause not to.

SDCI, the department, can issue a citation or a notice of violation and start issuing fines if a landlord refuses to follow the law.

All this can happen before the lease ends, so ideally these issues can be resolved and the renter can get a new lease without anyone going to eviction court.

A few other details, the bill also includes a private right of action so that renters have the option of doing that and not relying solely on the Department of Construction Inspection to help enforce their rights.

It includes a provision in Seattle's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance that states that, and this is a provision currently in the law, that states that a landlord may not bring the tenant to eviction court if the landlord has failed to follow this right of first refusal law.

In other words, if the landlord does not follow this new right of first refusal law, then they cannot then also benefit from that law by evicting someone.

This is consistent, as I said, with other parts of Seattle Just Cause law that enforces the duties of landlords.

For example, a landlord may not evict a renter from a unit that is not registered as a rental housing unit in Seattle.

The bill will also create structures for when and how a mutual termination agreement can be rescinded, and the bill amends Seattle's first-in-time law to clarify that the first-in-time provisions only relate to searching for a new tenant, so they take effect only after someone, the current tenant, does not agree to renew their current lease.

The committee has been discussing these bills with the hope to vote at tomorrow's committee meeting to allow us to stay on schedule.

Council Member Morales and I hope to walk on to today's introduction referral calendar, this new draft of the bill.

We need to walk on a new draft rather than simply bring an amendment to committee tomorrow because there is a title change.

I really appreciate the work of Roger Wynn and Clara Park from the City Attorney's Office, Asha Venkatraman from the City Council Central Staff, and Ted Verdone and Devin Silvernail from my office and Council Member Morales' office for working to get this legislation ready for introduction last week and over the weekend.

Because this draft was not ready in time to send to the city council offices by the Friday at 5 p.m.

deadline, we will need to request to suspend the rules before making the motion to amend the introduction and referral calendar for our council rules.

I intend to make that motion at the city council meeting today at 2 p.m., and I hope all council members will support introducing this new draft so that we have it available for the committee discussion tomorrow.

This new draft of the legislation will be sent to all council offices this morning.

This morning I'm also circulating a city council letter to President Biden and the US Congress for signatures.

The letter calls on President Biden and the US Congress to put an end to military aid weapon sales and diplomatic cover to the Israeli government in their attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza, evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, and the organized violence against the Palestinians by the Israeli government and by settlers.

After issuing our initial draft from my office last week, And following our discussion last Monday at the city council briefing, as many of you already know, my office went ahead and sent the original version of the letter to President Biden and Congress members last week.

As I had mentioned, that letter had received support from many community organizations.

And additionally, as I had said at briefing last week, I was looking forward to working with all council members to get a version of the letter ready that incorporated edits from you all as long as the essential message of the letter was not watered down.

My office has received substantial feedback from several council members which I greatly appreciate.

Over the last few days we've shared the evolving draft with council members and though I don't necessarily prefer all of the edits, my office has incorporated all of the input from council members into the final version as the essential message is still is carried through and I'm really happy to see that.

My staff sent you the final version just before 9 a.m.

today because the edits were still evolving and I hope all council members sign on to it.

Over the past week, I've heard from hundreds of Seattle community members demanding that we, as the legislative body of the city, take a stand in solidarity with Palestinian people and denounce the U.S. funded state violence perpetrated by the government of Israel.

And this letter, this last version of the letter does that.

And I really look forward to your support.

We also know that nearly 700 community members have written to the council urging that we we send this letter to President Biden.

The letter properly notes the tragic loss of both Israeli and Palestinian life in the fighting in the last week, and quotes Congress member Rashida Tlaib, among others, who said, quote, no child, Palestinian or Israeli, whoever they are, should ever have to worry that death will rain from the sky, end quote.

But we also know this is not about both sides bearing equal responsibility.

As the organization Jewish Voice for Peace has correctly pointed out, quote, the violence between Israelis and Palestinians is often falsely presented as a conflict between two equal sides with irreconcilable claims to one piece of land.

In reality, this is a conflict over territory between a nation-state, Israel, with one of the world's most powerful and well-funded militaries, and an indigenous population of Palestinians that has been occupied, displaced, and exiled for decades." We need to be clear that the Israeli government bears responsibility for the provocative actions that led to the current conflict. First, with the Israeli government's ongoing evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and elsewhere in East Jerusalem. Second, with the government's armed assault on Muslim worshippers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. and third, with the organized violence against the Palestinians by the Israeli government and by right-wing settler mobs. All of this is noted in the letter alongside, as I said, with all your edits incorporated. We have to be clear also that the U.S. government has played an important role in supporting these policies, with nearly $4 billion in annual aid to the Israeli military and the political cover for the government's decades-long brutality against the Palestinian people. It has been part of a long-term policy of successive U.S. governments to support the apartheid against the Palestinian people. And successive U.S. administrations have attempted to portray themselves as honest brokers of peace, but in fact have blocked peace both diplomatically and by providing this exorbitant military aid to the Israeli government. Finally, I think it's also important to state, which seems obvious but also extremely important, that it is not anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic to be pro-Palestinian and against oppression. In reaction to the Israeli state violence, we've seen an increase in anti-Semitic activities in this country and worldwide, and we have to absolutely condemn those activities. And as I stated over the weekend on my council office social media, my office joins with Palestinians, socialists, Jewish community members, progressives, and others in denouncing anti-Semitic hatred in all its forms. As Jihad Abu Salim of the Americans Friends Service Committee has noted, quote, anti-Semites are never welcome in the movement for justice and peace in Palestine, end quote. This morning I join you all in welcoming the continued ceasefire, but even though last week's bombings are for now halted, we know this letter is a vital and timely statement for us as elected representatives to make. The Israeli Government is continuing mass arrests and repression of Palestinians, Gaza is in ruins, and the brutal injustice of the occupation continues unabated. As Palestinian writer and activist Mohamed Elkurd told Democracy Now! this morning, quote, colonial violence is still business as usual in occupied Palestine at large, end quote. That is why I urge all council members to stand with the Palestinians, stand with the immigrant community and the social justice community in our city and region for human rights, and add your signatures to the letter. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

I just want to mention that we have Council Member Sawant's letter, as well as a proclamation from Council Member Mosqueda and a proclamation from myself, we'll deal with collecting signatures for all three at the end of the meeting.

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

And just checking the participant panel to see if there are any virtual hands up.

Seeing none, we will move on to the next speaker in the roll call.

The next speaker in the roll call is Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Good morning, colleagues.

Good morning, Council President Pro Tem Herbold.

I'll start off with the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, get to what I did last week, report out on what's coming this week, and then talk about District 6. From the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, two weeks ago, I shared that Council Member and I are proposing legislation to preserve the last two remaining manufactured home parks in Seattle.

Unfortunately, due to a SEPA appeal filed last week, that legislation is now on hold temporarily.

We are introducing the legislation today still, and we will not be able to vote on it until the current appeal The current appeal is resolved.

In the meantime, I'm introducing legislation to extend the current moratorium on redevelopment of the manufactured home parks from an additional six months to allow time to complete the work needed for the long-term solution.

We have passed these six-month moratoriums during our efforts to create this long-term solution, and this should be the last one.

Since we have the SEPA appeal already in process, for the first time I think that we have a good understanding of what the timeline is.

The moratorium legislation will receive a full public hearing at the full council next week on Tuesday, June 1st and there will be a full council vote on Monday, June 7th in order to implement the extension before the current moratorium expires on June 10th.

There are 11 items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction referral calendar, Council Bill 12080, the manufactured home park redevelopment, the extension, a reappointment to the Community Involvement Commission, an appointment to the Urban Forestry Commission, an appointment to the Seattle Design Commission, an appointment to the Pike Place Market PDA Governing Council, Council Bill 12079, the long-term mobile home Park legislation that is now on hold as I just spoke to the Council Bill 12081 which provides land use flexibility to religious institutions constructing affordable housing, something I've been very excited to receive Council Bill 12083 which makes minor fixes to the construction code Council Bill 12084 which updates the grading code Council Bill 12085 which updates the boiler and steam engine operator codes, and Council Bill 12086, a mutually offsetting benefit transfer of the Greenwood Senior Center to the Finney Neighborhood Association.

Doesn't everyone love the Land Use Committee?

It is chock full of very exciting policy.

There are five appointments to the Seattle Design Commission on the full council agenda today, and the next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is on Wednesday, May 26th, this Wednesday, starting at 930. There are seven items on the on this week's agenda and so I will.

keep my thank yous short as we move urgently forward through this legislation.

On this Wednesday's committee agenda, we have a public hearing on Council Bill 12079, the Mobile Home Park Preservation Legislation, a briefing and vote on the appointment of Nick Setter to the Pike Place Market PDA Governing Council, a briefing and vote on Council Bill 12086, the property transfer of the Greenwood Senior Center, which has been long awaited, a briefing and discussion of Council Bill 12081, the Religious Institution Affordable Housing Legislation, and a briefing and vote on three technical code bills from SDCI.

As I just mentioned, the fixes to the construction code, the grading code, boiler and steam, engine operator code.

We knew that the timing was going to be tight on these bills, which is why we had an initial briefing last committee meeting, even though the legislation had not yet been introduced.

So I want to thank SDCI and Christine Apostle weight in particular for getting me all briefed on that.

We are looking for this Wednesday.

Looking back on last week, it felt so long ago.

We had St. Demi in Ballard with a car parade and a walking parade from Scandinavian Specialties down to Skal Beer Hall.

I was happy and excited to join so many neighbors in a way that protects public health and celebrates Norwegian Constitution Day.

We in Ballard have the largest Constitution Day parade in the world outside of Norway.

It's always a great time to see our friends and neighbors.

Last week I also announced and we passed here at council the cafe streets extension and pathway to permanency which we got to celebrate on Ballard Avenue as well.

And last week, I also attended the Regional Transportation Committee.

I toured Yesler Terrace with the Seattle Housing Authority.

I got to meet with a number of different residents during office hours, which we held from 11 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

on Thursday.

And I also did a walking tour of Green Lake Way Wallingford Mobility Project with SDOT team.

Thank you, Krista, Brian, and Laurentia.

I want to thank each of you for all of your work.

That project is so close to being complete and you've just done amazing work.

This coming week, my staff will attend the Fremont Neighborhood Council.

Tomorrow, I'll attend the North Seattle Industrial Association meeting.

I'll be checking in with Director Torgelson from SDCI and Superintendent Aguirre from Parks.

I'll be receiving comp plan updates and an update about the technical code from SDCI.

On Wednesday, after Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, I will be joining the King County Growth Management and Planning Council before we have For my staff will be attending the Longford Community Council Annual Meeting on that evening.

On Thursday, I'll attend Puget Sound Regional Council and the Maritime and Industrial Lands Meeting, which should be the last one.

Colleagues, I'll be excited to update you on that great work.

And I'll be hosting office hours from 3 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

on this Thursday.

Every Friday, I receive briefings from departments to prepare for the week ahead, which is how I'll be spending Friday.

Here in District Six, last week I met with neighbors from Sunset Hill, Loyal Heights, two people from downtown Ballard, Finney Ridge, West Woodland Greenwood, West Green Lake, and Crown Hill.

We talked about Golden Gardens and the benefits and drawbacks to having a regional attraction there in the summertime.

I met with one person who's interested in how they can participate in activating Leary Triangle in the Fremont Industrial Area.

One person's main intention for the call was to find out what do they do and who do they call when they see someone in crisis.

We also talked to somebody else who was interested in know how to report and how to get the city to respond to graffiti and trash removal.

In short for the listening public, please fill out a find it fix it app.

And if you're in district six and you ever need additional assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to my district director.

I had many people reach out to me about West Green Lake Way North, which was closed.

I spoke to it at last week's council briefing, which is that I have long advocated for both For us to be able to have some car traffic on there, and to have one lane still reserved for people riding biking and walking that closure, did it was completely reclosed because there were too many people disobeying the signs and driving the wrong way.

on the street, which is a safety hazard.

So, S dot and parks continues to look for ways that we can have both cars and people in that space.

But until that plan is finalized, it will remain closed to public trip to traffic.

So if you know one of your neighbors who was driving the wrong way, please make sure they don't do it again so that we can keep it open to both cars and people moving.

Long-term success here will be having both a place for people to run and bike around the lake and to have cars having two-way movement.

Last week, I also met with a neighbor experiencing some drainage issues here in the Northwest.

It was not surprising.

And I got to speak to a small group of small landlords from District 6. I'll be talking to residents during office hours this Thursday from 3 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

It's always a highlight of my week.

And I look forward to chatting with you.

If you're ever interested in signing up for district office hours, I meet with about eight people per week, and you can sign up on my website.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem, that is my report.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Do colleagues on the council have questions about Council Member Strauss' report or comments?

Seeing none, we'll move on to the next council member in the roll call, and that is Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Lewis, are you with us and are ready to give your report?

Yes, thank you, Madam President Pro Tem.

I do have one thing that is on the agenda this afternoon.

That is Resolution 32006, a resolution requesting the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, to transfer excess property to Seattle Parks and Recreation from their site located in Discovery Park.

As all of you here who I'm sure have enjoyed one of our city's premier parks, located in the Northwest corner of district 7 in the Magnolia neighborhood discovery park.

There is a prominent tower.

in the middle of a field left over from the old military base days at Discovery Park.

And this FAA site has a considerable amount of surplus fenced land around it that is superfluous to the needed land to operate the FAA site successfully.

This request is brought on behalf of the Friends of Discovery Park, and I really appreciate Phil Vogelsang bringing this to our attention.

I believe Friends of Discovery Park and Phil Vogelsang have distributed a letter to the entire council expressing support for this resolution.

And it's a great opportunity for us to expand the amount of space in Discovery Park for the enjoyment of the public.

The area that is currently fenced in is currently protecting and obscuring what will be a really, really great view of the Puget Sound from up there on the bluff.

So I look forward to continuing to work with the Federal Aviation Administration on following several other cities, namely St. Louis in Missouri, in reducing the square footage of the FAA site to accommodate more public use.

I want to thank Council Member Juarez, chair of the relevant committee, for her assistance and cooperation in crafting the resolution and the ability to consult with her office and staff on the best way to approach this.

I also want to thank the offices of Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Patty Murray, who have been working with us on the early side of scoping out what might be required to bring this to pass.

And I want to thank Seattle Parks and Recreation for giving us the go-ahead to proceed with this and for informing us that taking over this parcel of land from the FAA would not result in any added cost or expense for the department and could be absorbed within existing resources.

So with that, I look forward to passing this resolution this afternoon and look forward to following along on this project to increase the amount of space available for public enjoyment at Discovery Park.

Just as a reminder, we do have a committee meeting for the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments coming up on Wednesday of this week, where we will be hearing about the Just Care program and having an extensive briefing on the work that they have been doing in the Pioneer Square neighborhood and the Chinatown International District.

Just as a little bit of getting in the mood for the general public and for council colleagues.

COLEAD, through the Defender Association, did recently submit a video featuring the COLEAD program, which does serve as part of the nucleus of Just Care.

This video features a number of providers, medical professionals, people with lived experience who have been clients of Just Care, as well as brief appearances from a council member of Muscata, city attorney Pete Holmes and myself.

So I do encourage folks to track that video down, share it on your social media to spread the word about the model that is being developed in the city to really provide a rapid response and well-resourced system of care for people who are experiencing extreme public health barriers to accessing safe and accessible housing.

and really see the great work that Co-Lead Just Care and the associated providers are doing.

We will be hearing more about that at our committee later this week.

With that, Madam Chair, I don't have any additional updates, and we'll pass it back over to you.

Madam President Pro Tem, that is.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

Really appreciate that update.

Do we have any questions or comments from colleagues on the council before we move on to Council Member Morales' report?

Seeing none, Council Member Morales, you're up.

Good morning.

Oh, you're on mute.

Of course I am.

Excellent.

Happy Monday.

Everybody good morning.

There are 2 items from the community economic development committee on today's full council agenda.

The first is Council Bill 12000, which is an ordinance relating to the Office of Civil Rights.

This would extend the term of the director through the end of next year and would also update a section requiring a racial equity toolkit in the department, which has already been completed.

This was voted out of my committee last week with the recommendation that it pass.

The other is Council Bill 120071, which relates to commercial tendencies.

This is Council Member Herbold's bill that clarifies rules around payment plans for small business.

I'm assuming she will speak to it a little bit later.

Also passed out of committee with the recommendation that it do pass.

I have one item on the introduction and referral calendar for today.

This is Council Bill 120087, and this is the legislation lifting the proviso for the participatory budgeting process.

Last week in committee, in my community economic development committee, we heard the draft legislation to lift this proviso.

As a reminder, the 2021 adopted budget included just over 28 million, 28.3 for participatory budgeting in different council budget actions.

That money is sitting in finance general under proviso.

This bill would lift one proviso.

and would appropriate $1.05 million to the Office of Civil Rights for participatory budgeting and impose two new provisos.

The funds are intended to staff three positions at OCR through December 2023 and to carry forward automatically.

The staff roles for this process would be to develop, in partnership with community members, to develop an RFP process to hire a third party vendor.

who would then lead the process out in community.

The three staff members would provide administrative, technical, and logistical support, and the third party administrator would be responsible for hiring and managing the steering committee for participatory budgeting, as well as other staff and kind of managing the volunteer process and providing technical support and expertise.

And the third party vendor would also manage funds to reduce barriers.

For example, we've talked about digital equity.

We've also talked about youth fellowships.

And so the third party vendor would manage those processes as well.

The legislation also includes $15,000 to support community members in their participation in helping craft the RFP and to participate in the selection process itself.

So we heard the bill in committee last week, and I am requesting that rather than delay to hear the final bill, we do have the bill number now, Rather than delay that to hearing committee again, that we add it to the introduction of referral calendar and that my colleagues be prepared to vote on it in full council on June 1st.

This would allow us to step the process up by a couple of weeks and finally start to get this money out the door.

So that is what is on the calendar.

I would encourage my colleagues, if you have questions, if you have amendments that you might be considering, to reach out to me or to my staff member, Lakeisha Farmer, who I just want to say has been doing a fantastic job of collaborating, coordinating central staff and OCR and community members and has really helped shepherd this process through.

So thank you to Lakeisha.

Colleagues, please let me know if you have questions.

Okay, moving on.

My office has, as you know, also been working on a Tenants' Bill of Rights, as Councilmember Sawant mentioned.

We've been working with a coalition of community stakeholders to build a Tenants' Bill of Rights this year.

The first piece of legislation is intended to close the no-cause termination gap in existing legislation, and to provide all tenants with protections under the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance.

We have been working together, as Councilmember Sawant outlined.

Our two offices have come together and agreed to take sort of the best elements of both and move forward on a jointly sponsored new bill.

that could close the gap and offer a right of first refusal, seek new tenancy in their current home and end the specified tenancy language.

So this would allow tenants the opportunity to stay in their homes.

It would still require that landlords have a just cause reason to have a tenant involuntarily removed.

but would be able to provide protections to folks.

So I want to thank Devin Silvernail and my staff for doing the coordination on that side of the work that we are advocating and advancing.

And also thank Council Member Solomon's office for agreeing to work together on this really crucial protection.

I do also want to thank Council Member Lewis for continuing to support this effort to close the gap and want to invite him to co-sponsor the new bill as well.

Our two offices have planned to walk this on to the IRC this afternoon, so it can be referred to the Sustainability Committee for discussion.

The second piece of legislation in this Tenant Bill of Rights is the Sound at Home Eviction Defense, and we'll be hearing that in the Sustainability of Renters' Rights Committee tomorrow.

Colleagues will recall this defense will protect renters from facing eviction if they suffered a financial hardship brought on by the pandemic.

And what we know is that renters most affected by pandemic related rent are people of color, the essential workers who have really kept our community running for the last year.

And so it's really crucial that we pass both of these protections before the end of the eviction moratorium in June.

So I do want to call on our mayor to extend the moratorium at least through the summer, not the end of the year, so that we can be sure folks have protections and that they aren't caught in this trap of mounting debt and an inability to take care of that before this legislation passes.

I want to thank community members and my colleagues who have supported the tenants' rights work that we've undertaken this year, and I look forward to their support on this legislation.

Last week I attended the Board of Health meeting, the King County Board of Health.

I think everybody knows by now that Dr. Jeff Duchin, our public health officer, issued a directive this week asking, last week, asking folks to continue wearing masks if they are in indoor spaces.

We know there's no way to know if somebody who is not wearing a mask is vaccinated or just chooses not to wear a mask.

And because we still have elevated hospitalization rates and case counts, and because less than half of the people in King County are eligible, are fully vaccinated, including my children who are under 12 years old, and all of our children who are under 12 years old, people who are immunocompromised.

These folks still need all of us to be very careful so that they can have some assurance that they will be protected.

At the Board of Health meeting, we also passed a resolution recognizing June 4th as Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Day in King County.

This is done in cooperation, in alliance with part of National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

So don't forget to wear orange on June 4th.

And if you don't know the reason that color was chosen for Gun Violence Awareness Day is because that's the color hunters wear when they are out in the woods to make sure people see them.

So we want to make sure that we're elevating this.

And there is some really important work happening with a public health lens as it relates to community safety and gun violence.

So I'm really excited that this work is continuing to happen at King County.

And then, sorry, I just lost my notes.

And then also we have begun work as a Board of Health on understanding the social determinants of equity.

We talk a lot about the social determinants of health.

But determinants of equity is a really important conversation that we're starting to bring a public health lens to the question of how our policies, how as policymakers, we are impacting what our community members experience, whether it's through land use, or parks or transportation or any of the other things that really create the built environment and making sure that as policymakers we're understanding the impact that we have as we make decisions.

So we had the first of what is going to be a series of conversations about this and I look forward to bringing that work forward as well.

Last week, staff from my office met with staff from Councilmember Lewis and Councilmember Mosqueda.

They joined a panel along with representatives from Department of Neighborhoods and SPU to finally award street sink contracts.

So thanks to everybody who helped get that moving.

The Clean Hands Collective will receive an initial $60,000 of funding.

Industrial design non-profit makers will receive $40,000.

So as part of this funding agreement, SPU has agreed to work with council to request another $40,000 for the Clean Hands Collective and $25,000 for makers so that they can fully fund both proposals that came in.

And that would bring potentially up to 90 sinks across the city, which, as we know, will be really crucial in fighting not just COVID, other diseases that are transmitted when people don't have access to good hand-washing facilities.

Lastly, I held my first in-person office hours at Columbia City Farmer's Market last week.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and I had the distinct pleasure of ringing the bell in for the Farmer's Market, which was really fun.

We had several constituents stop by to talk about public safety and homelessness and gentrification and small business recovery.

So I'm excited to be out in the community, socially distanced and masked, of course.

My next in-person office hours will be at the market on June 9th, and you can sign up to meet on that day or through our virtual office hours, which are also on Thursday.

You can do that to my council website.

And that is all that I have this morning.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

I see Council Member Lewis's hand is raised.

Did you have a comment about Council Member Morales's report?

Yeah, I just want to start by by vouching that ringing the bell to bring in a farmer's market is an awesome feeling.

I got to do that last year at Queen Anne.

So I appreciated seeing that video of Council Member Morales doing that at Columbia City.

But more importantly, I do want to also accept the invitation to co-sponsor the legislation for the right of first refusal.

that has been introduced today, which is in keeping with the previous legislation I co-sponsored with Council Member Morales, just accomplishing the same goal in a different way.

And just wanted to indicate that in open session, that if that invitation is still open from the sponsors, I am happy to have my co-sponsorship so affixed to the bill.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

I appreciate you noting your sponsorship for the record.

Any other comments from Council Member Swann?

I see your hand up.

Thank you, President Pro Tem Herbold.

I want to just say I appreciate Council Member Lewis offering to co-sponsor this new bill.

And I really, as one of the prime sponsors of the bill, I really welcome that.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

And one thing I was remiss in not mentioning, which I had mentioned at last week's briefing, but I wanted to Just say it again today because I think we're coming up on it is that three months ago, my office had brought a resolution forward for the city council urging that the arena mayor that the city wide moratorium the eviction moratorium.

we extended to the end of this year.

And we built a lot of community pressure at that time with hundreds of people signing a community petition.

And just before the resolution was going to come up for a vote, the mayor extended the eviction moratorium at that time to June 30th.

And if council members remember, we had held the vote on that bill to a future date, and that future date is coming up, which is June 7th.

June 7th is a Monday, and at that city council meeting's agenda, this resolution is slated to come up for a vote, and the resolution basically says that the election moratorium should be extended to the end of this year.

And I mentioned this last week also, but I wanted to say it again, because I think it's really important, which is to express my thank you to the Washington Community Action Network, who just sent out a community email last week about how that they also are observing from their conversations with renters and the crisis that renters are under, that the crisis is far from going to be gone, even though the economy is picking up a little bit and that the eviction moratorium being extended to the end of this year is a bare minimum necessity given the debt, unfortunately, that so many working people and renters have accumulated from the past months of the pandemic.

So I really wanted to thank the Washington Community Action Network again, and also just remind council members that that is coming up for a vote.

Thank you.

On June 7th, not next week.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

If there are no further comments or questions related to Council Member Morales' report, I do have just a couple words.

As mentioned by Council Member Morales on the council agenda this afternoon, we have a vote on council bill 120071. This bill strengthens the existing commercial rent control and existing protections, rent protections for small businesses and nonprofit renters.

You may recall that ordinance 126066 was passed by the council in April, 2020. in response to concerns for the financial health and stability of our city's beloved small business and nonprofits during COVID.

The bill itself provided them with additional protections during the existence of the pandemic civil emergency declared on March 3rd.

Its main provisions are putting in place commercial rent control by way of a moratorium on rent increases for small businesses and nonprofits as long as the civil emergency persists.

It also requires lessors to accept late rent paid in installments according to a payment plan during the term of the civil emergency and for six months following the civil emergency.

And it sets parameters for an acceptable payment plan.

For instance, the payment plan can't require small businesses or nonprofits to pay more than one-third of late rent within any given month.

All late rent must be repaid within a year of the civil emergency, and no late fees, interest, or other charges can be added.

These all are protections that are currently in place for small businesses and nonprofits and will continue to be in place until the end of the civil emergency.

In the case of rent control and for six months beyond the civil emergency, in the case of payment plans, So the legislation before us amends this legislation to ensure that the first rent installments paid according to a payment plan negotiated under the original ordinance 1260.66 cannot be considered late.

This particular clarification comes at the request of a commercial tenant whose landlord is attempting to exercise a non-renewal clause in their lease regarding late rent, even though that rent is being paid according to a payment plan as authorized.

Us making this change is not going to help this particular tenant, but it shows a gap in the existing legislation.

That's a gap that exists for other tenants who are taking advantage of the payment plan option provided by the bill passed by council last year.

So I'm really hoping that taking action this time will encourage small businesses, nonprofits, and their lessors to enter into conversations about what it will take for tenants to recover and address their arrears to the good of all parties and the communities they serve.

In developing this legislation, my office reached out to the small business owners who helped us with the first bill to check in with their thoughts.

Joe Fougere of Tutabela emphasized the importance of giving landlords and tenants a reason to sit down together, talk about their respective financial positions and perspectives.

He's both a commercial tenant and a landlord.

And from his perspective, his experience was that the conversations are difficult, But he has found that he was able to break through in all cases, negotiate plans that work for everyone.

And again, this legislation gives folks a foundation to have those conversations.

We also requested that the Washington Hospitality Association review the proposed legislation and gave them the opportunity to suggest additional changes.

They shared it with the members who gave it the green light.

I wanna thank council member Morales for allowing this at last week's community economic community and economic development committee so that if approved, it could potentially be in effect before the end of the commercial eviction moratorium on June 30th.

And thanks to council member Lewis for adding his sponsorship to this legislation in the community and economic development committee meeting.

Thank you.

And if there are, No questions about that item.

Just a little bustling here to give folks a chance to put their hand up if they have any.

Council Member Morales, yes.

I would also be interested in co-sponsoring this legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Really appreciate it.

Moving on in the roll call to the next presenter, Council Member Muscata, you're next.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning colleagues.

I am reporting that there are no finance and housing committee items on today's full council agenda.

However, as Council President Pro Tem noted, I will be bringing forward a proclamation honoring the life and legacy and work of Department of, excuse me, of Public Health Director Patty Hayes.

As folks know from last week's announcement, she will be retiring on May 28th from the Seattle King County Public Health Department after serving the department of over 1,500 employees, serving 2 million residents in King County over the past seven years.

She's also been part of the team leading us through the historic crisis we faced both in combating the impacts of COVID and she's been instrumental in bringing forward additional priorities related to the other public health crises of gun violence and racism.

I've had the opportunity to work with Director Hayes going back to about 2005, when she was at the State Department of Health.

And I'm really excited about honoring her work and legacy and wishing her well in her next endeavor in retirement.

So colleagues, that is a proclamation that Council President Pro Tem was mentioning that I hope to bring forward this afternoon.

And I believe Director Hayes will be with us to receive that.

The next finance and housing committee meeting will be on Friday, June 4th at 9.30 AM.

I do want to highlight that this is on a Friday, not a Tuesday due to the holiday weekend.

And we are going to make sure that we include a briefing discussion and all the details you may need on the American Rescue Plan Act ordinance.

This ordinance will be on the introduction and referral calendar on June 1st for you to review prior to the meeting.

And my office is going to be reaching out to schedule some time with each of you to discuss the process around the ARPA funds here.

I want to thank all of you for continuing to share information in those committee meetings and highlight various priorities that you'd like to see, both colleagues and folks from the public, and excited to actually walk through a first draft of the legislation with you.

We are also anticipating that King County will be passing their ARPA bill on Tuesday this week.

This will give us a chance to walk through the legislation with all of you and identify where their priorities intersect with ours, where we are able to maybe bring some of their programs and services to scale, and where you might not be seeing some investments in the city's proposed plan, how that complements what the county is doing to make sure that there are not gaps in services.

We're going to be able to also walk through the transparency requirements for contract workers ordinance that council member Herbold has been leading on in that committee meeting.

And we will have the housing levy administration finance plan and housing funding policies for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Folks again, that's Friday from 9.30 to approximately one and appreciate your extended time on that.

As always, council members are welcome to attend the Finance and Housing Committee meetings, even if you are not members of that committee, because we recognize that the ARPA funds are something that we would very much benefit from having all council members input on.

And if there are questions, concerns, discussion that we can have in committee, that would be tremendous.

Also, if you're not a member of that committee and are interested in a possible amendment, I've offered to all of our colleagues who are not currently sitting on the Finance and Housing Committee, the opportunity to offer a sponsorship of your amendments so that those issues can be heard.

And other updates, I attended the Seattle King County Board of Health meeting where we had our annual retreat along with council members Morales and Lewis, and we focused on racism as a public health crisis and how we aim to address it by looking at the root cause of inequities and how those manifest in the social determinants of health and disparities in social determinants of health.

Great conversation led by a board member DeCastro.

I also attended the Affordable Housing Committee where the county debuted its Regional Affordable Housing Dashboard.

You can find more information about that on our Twitter feed that we put out late last week.

And also Councilmember Balducci from King County wrote an op-ed about this if you'd like to learn more about that Affordable Housing Dashboard.

It's really interesting if you look within the details you can see that the Affordable Housing Committee set out a goal of creating 44,000 permanent affordable homes between 2019 and 2024. just right around the corner.

And what the new dashboard shows us is, to date, we've only been able to build 1,595 affordable units, or to put it really plainly, that's just 3.6% of what our goal has been.

We're leaving a gap of about 42,000 units, and that's why it's so important for us to secure revenue for building housing, for us to continue with strategic acquisition efforts that help make sure that affordable units remain permanently affordable and that we convert those potential derelict structures into affordable housing opportunities, and that we keep our promise to allocate the Jump Start funds to the spend plan that was detailed by council colleagues.

You can find more information about the dashboard at kingcounty.gov backslash housing data.

This week, I'll also be speaking at an event co-hosted by In the Public Interest, Social Economic Justice Leaders, and Ford Foundation about good governance, representative democracy, and what it means to do policymaking and implementation within and outside government.

I want to give a shout out to Teamsters 117. Hundreds of Teamsters joined the meeting in the Union Hall down in Tupelo earlier, I'm sorry, over the weekend.

These are members from the solid waste industry who were joining together to take a vote to authorize a strike on Republic Service.

The vote was unanimous.

If negotiations with Public Service don't progress, they unanimously voted that they will go on strike.

The folks from Teamsters 117 are headed back to the bargaining table today, and what the Teamsters drivers want is to make sure that everyone who drives for Republic, whether they drive a solid waste track or a pickup yard, waste or recycling, everyone should be able to have access to the same pay and benefits.

They have been working every day since day one of the pandemic, and Republic is a major national company, and we think that they can do the right thing by honoring what these workers are trying to seek at the bargaining table.

Again, I'm sending a message of solidarity to the Teamster drivers and really hoping that the company and the Teamsters are able to find a bargain, excuse me, a bargain, a fair equitable contract for those frontline workers.

Good luck, everyone.

I also wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you to my team.

First, thanks to Andrew Grant Houston.

This is his last week with us.

He's finishing up his temporary contract that he has been doing since December.

And in his tenure here and the time that he's been in our office, he's led on affordable housing, zoning changes, covenant code changes, Green New Deal priorities, and helping to make sure that we have more efficient building permit processes and safe streets.

I wanna thank him for his work and really, really appreciate him stepping in while Aaron House was on leave.

We'll also be welcoming Erin House back from her family leave starting next week and look forward to seeing her and her baby.

So thank you very much, Andrew.

I also want to say thanks to Aretha Basu and congratulations.

Aretha had the chance to participate in a forum on Saturday to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month.

This event was put on by the U-Dub Ethnic Studies, the U-Dub Women's Center, the Wing Luke Museum, the Filipino community of Seattle, and so many more organizations and departments within U-Dub.

The forum was called Not the Model Minority Asian American Women Rising, and that she is, Aretha.

Congratulations on an amazing panel and representation of civic engagement and activism.

Colleagues, I do want to note in relation to the letter that was described earlier in reference to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine, I continue to be amazed by the many ways in which the international community and local community are showing up to support the people of Palestine, also speaking out unequivocally against anti-Semitism, and speaking up for an end to the ongoing Israel and Palestine conflict.

I understand that this letter is just one way to express concern, one way to call for support for House Resolution 2590, and to continue to call for an end to military aid and the blockade.

And I recognize that signing this is just one of those avenues.

I encourage folks to consider all of the avenues as well as this letter and make sure that the message continues to get sent to President Biden and to Congress.

One example of the platforms that I'll also be signing on to is Jewish Voice for Peace.

And I'll also be signing on to the letter today and hope folks continue to look at the various ways to communicate to our president and Congress that we need to both welcome the ceasefire and also continue to say that the ceasefire alone is not enough.

For example, in the Jewish Voice for Peace statement, it says, we grieve for these unthinkable Palestinian lost lives and the lost lives of Israelis.

The ceasefire may end this current conflict, but it will not create safety.

We need to get to the root of this violence.

Congress member Cori Bush noted a ceasefire ends this current bombardment, but blockade continues.

Our government must stop funding the status quo.

And Congress members have been incredibly brave and outspoken on this, including our own Congresswoman Jayapal.

I want to thank her for her incredible leadership as always.

And in addition to maintaining the ceasefire and the international community is calling for an end to the blockade, making sure materials can get in to rebuild homes, hospitals, and schools.

and to open up the Gaza crossings, lift restrictions on imports so that the community can rebuild decimated neighborhoods and folks can have more than six hours of electricity in Gaza.

There is international concern for the tens of thousands of Palestinians that have been displaced with 14,000 units of housing damage.

And to reiterate a critical and essential point made across this nation and across the international community, the critique of Israel's government and the human rights abuses is not a critique of Israeli people and is not an excuse for anti-Semitic hate crimes or harassment.

This movement, the Solidarity Movement, works in coalition with Jewish human rights groups and organizations seeking justice and there is no room for anti-Semitism.

there is no room for anti-semitism in this movement and that type of violence and hate must be unequivocally condemned, period.

I also want to note from the departments here, OLS is, and I'll end after this, OLS is producing translated versions of mini flyers for the right to use paid sick and safe time to get COVID vaccines.

This mini flyer, mini flyer, shows how information is available in English and Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and other languages and can be downloaded at the resources and language access pages.

on the OLS's website from Office of, excuse me, from the Finance and Administrative Services Department.

Just two reports, FAS reached out to short-term rental platforms to let them know about imminent proposed Director's Rule changes regarding data reporting to offer the platform representatives the opportunity to meet with the Consumer Protections Director.

and to share their comments.

Folks should know if you are a short-term rental platform or work in that area, the proposed changes were published on May 19th.

And finally, thanks so much to FAS's Anna Pavlik, who testified at the Port Commission meeting in support of the City, Port, and Sound Transit's $1.75 million investment in construction training and retention services.

The Commission, President Feldman thanked the City for our participation, and I know this is a big priority of Councilmember Morales, we are going to continue to see in our ARPA discussions.

With that, I will end and say thanks so much in advance for all your work in June.

It's going to be a marathon, but we're going to get through it and we're going to get some funding out to folks who are in much in need of ARPA assistance.

Thank you so much, Council Member Esguerra.

I see Council Member Lewis's hand raised.

Council Member Lewis, did you have comments or is this a holdover?

No, thank you, Madam President Pro Tem.

I similarly just wanted to take a moment in response to Council Member Muscata's report to express my great appreciation for Andrew Grant Houston's leadership as a legislative aide on the virtual second floor during a really trying historic period in the life of this council, working on the remote footing and tackling the issues we've been tackling.

Myself and my staff have greatly enjoyed working with Andrew Grant Houston on a number of different issues and priorities that have, you know, led to great progress during his time here and also planted seeds for land use policies, housing policies, progressive taxation policies down the road from his time with us.

And I just want to express my appreciation for his leadership on the second floor for always being a diligent and cheerful collaborator on a lot of important projects with our office and representing the Mosqueda office exceptionally well.

and appreciate that he will continue to be involved in our community and look forward to continuing to work with him on these shared issues of public policy that we all hold dear.

So I also just wanted to express that appreciation given that his time with us is now ending.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, and Council Member Herbold, President Pro Tem, if I can just say thank you for saying that, Council Member Lewis.

It's so hard to have a team member leave during these times, and we can't all get together to celebrate.

So I really appreciate you saying that, and the seeds that you mentioned that he planted, you will soon be seeing those grow.

Over the last six months, he's been planting many a seed, and we have a lot in the hopper.

So thanks so much for those kind words, and we'll make sure that he gets a chance to see this if he's not already watching.

I hope he is.

Thanks so much.

Well, I'm sure it's on Twitter already.

Yeah.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis, and thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for your report.

If there are no further questions or comments, we will move on to Council Member Peterson's report.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Herbold.

I've also have Council Member Juarez's remarks.

I'll go ahead and read those first from Council Member Deborah Juarez.

There are no items of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

The next meeting of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee is Friday, June 4 at 2 p.m.

Regarding parks, there are no updates from the Parks Department this week.

That concludes Council Member Juarez's remarks.

Now for mine.

Good morning, colleagues.

The Transportation Utilities Committee has nine items on this afternoon's full City Council agenda.

The first item is a reappointment to the School Traffic Safety Committee.

The second item, which is Council Bill 120052, enables Seattle City Light to accept a small piece of property as part of its environmental protection efforts.

There are four items on this afternoon's agenda which are simply renewing time-limited term permits that allow the continued use of a skybridge and three pedestrian tunnels.

Our committee approved these unanimously.

There were three items on this afternoon's agenda regarding surveillance impact reports that our committee amended and approved unanimously.

Colleagues, as you may recall, we are working our way through several groups of surveillance impact reports as required by our city's thorough surveillance ordinance.

We recently amended and adopted the so-called group two surveillance impact reports for some of the existing technologies already used by Seattle City Light, the Fire Department and the Police Department.

Today, we vote on the so-called Group 3 surveillance impact reports, which are three existing technologies from SPD.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, for your thorough amendments, which our committee approved unanimously last week, so that these three council bills are in good shape for our vote this afternoon.

If council members have any questions, please consult City Council Central Staffer Lisa Kay before our full City Council meeting today.

Our Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning.

So our next committee meeting is Wednesday, June 2. In District 4, my office attended last week's meeting of the Ravenna Bryant Community Association.

In addition, I have my weekly in-district office hours virtually, again, Friday afternoon.

And I'm looking forward to in-person office hours later this year.

That concludes my remarks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Just looking to see whether or not I have any virtual raised hands or raised hands on the video.

And I see none.

Appreciate your report.

And I will now move on to mine.

So the city council, full council agenda this afternoon has One item, well, actually it has two items.

It's one item from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee and one item going directly that was referred on last week's IRC committee related to the item that is on today's agenda coming from committee.

So just stepping back a little bit, the item that is on the full council committee agenda that came out of committee is called council bill 120065. And this bill is intended to transfer both 911 dispatch and the parking enforcement units from SPD to the community safety and communication center, the new community safety and communication center as contemplated and directed by the council during the, the budget, sorry, yes, the fall budget legislation.

I will be bringing an amendment to this bill that was posted on the agenda.

And the amendment is intended to remove the transfer of the PEOs from SPD to the new community safety and communication center from the legislation.

So they will not be transferred with the passage of this particular bill.

Once the PEOs are removed from the bill, I intend on moving the bill as amended to transfer the 9-1-1 dispatch to the new community safety and communication center.

So with the amendment, it will allow more time for consideration around the PEO transfer, but it will authorize the transfer of the 9-1-1 dispatch to the new department.

Also on the agenda is item 13, that's council bill 120078. And the intention of that bill is to extend the proviso that was enacted by the council during the fall budget deliberations and allow the PEO unit to continue to get paid until September.

The reason why this is necessary is that the council with the budget process enacted a proviso, and that proviso was intended to ensure the council's direction to move both 9-1-1 dispatch and PEOs into the new division, into the new community safety and communication center.

The proviso that basically says that both units would only get paid through September if they weren't transferred Um, we need to amend that legislation if we're not going to transfer the PEOs at that time at this time, um, and allow us a little bit more time to continue these conversations.

So I will be amending the agenda to switch up the order.

and move consideration of Council Bill 12-0078 to directly follow consideration of Council Bill 12-0065 because both issues go together.

And just some background for folks who aren't watching what's happening in my committee meeting.

The reason we're doing this is because Council Bill 12-0065 was voted out with a divided report.

And in my estimations, Today's actions with these amendments are intended to give the council additional time before finalizing the transfer of the PEOs as previously panned and requested by the PEO rank and file.

Just a quick background during the budget, we passed ordinance 1262.33 that established the new community safety and communication center and included both 911 dispatch and PEOs in that new center.

The creation of the Community Safety and Communications Center is intended to help reframe how the city provides for community safety and respond to the council's interest in exploring expanded duties for the PEOs.

The community safety and communications center was intended to begin performing the 911 call center and parking enforcement functions by June 1st.

As mentioned before, included a proviso in that council action during budget in order to make sure that that actually happened by June 1st.

And as outlined in the central staff memo, the council at the time took a different approach than the one that the mayor was proposing in the budget to have the PEOs transferred to SDOT.

This different approach was initiated by Um, the when I say the different approach, the approach that the council took was initiated by the PEO rank and file themselves who reached out to council with their vision of being a part of the new civilian public safety response team.

So to fulfill that vision, the ordinance 12 62 33 also required that the executive report on the possible expansion of PEO responsibilities to include managing traffic at lighted intersections, reporting on minor thefts, response to non-injury collisions, and a number of different functions, some of them related to right-of-way management and some of them not.

In addition, the council passed two slides, one on the cost of using the PEOs for traffic control during special events, and one on merging or co-locating the police department and the fire department call centers.

So these reports have been delayed.

And then also just for context of who this legislation would impact, there are roughly rank and file peos and 12 supervisors.

Before I move on, just wanna, um, take a pause.

Um, central staff, both Ali and Lisa are on the call this morning to answer any questions about this process, both the process and the content of, um, of the bills before us.

If anybody has questions or comments, again, I'm gonna take a pause before I move on to the rest of my report.

And I see Council Member Lewis, your hand is up.

Yes, Madam President Pro Tem, I just wanted to voice support for the way that you're proposing and going forward with this thorny issue.

I, you know, and for me, and maybe I'm getting ahead of it because I think you're inviting central staff questions, but I'll, I'll just get it all out there now.

I appreciate the approach that you're putting forward because.

You know, as a policymaker, I feel pretty comfortable navigating the bureaucratic issues around this.

You know, I support the vision of having the parking enforcement officers be a big part of the new public safety system that we're creating that has a role for, a bigger role for them in a variety of different issues that have historically been done by uniformed armed police.

But the thing for me that makes me want to take a little bit more time is that we do have some labor division.

And I think it's important not only to recognize the expertise of the rank and file.

parking enforcement officers, but also the unionized supervisors that do have some disagreements.

And seeking labor unity on an issue like this, I do think warrants our attention to take a few more months to really intentionally listen to both of these unions to try and reconcile their concerns and reconcile it with the vision we all want to see.

So I just want to signal to the public, you know, like it's not so much concessions for some of the more bureaucratic reasons or a competition of different bureaucratic units, but it really is for me an interest in seeking a harmony between the different labor groups here and just making sure that we center their leadership and center their concerns and take it seriously.

When we do have a workforce in Protech 17 that represents the supervisors coming forward and saying, no, no, like we have a couple of things we wanna have worked out I think that warrants us taking some time to respect that process, respect their leadership.

And it doesn't mean we ultimately won't put the parking enforcement officers into this new unit, but it just means that we'll do it in a way that's intentional and that does not create division within this workforce between the supervisors and the rank-and-file.

And I really appreciate, Madam President Pro Tem, your leadership in setting out this course to give space to those discussions, and I think it'll lead to a better longer-term policy and peace between those two bargaining units.

So thank you so much, and I look forward to supporting the actions as you have laid them out.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

I don't see any other raised hands, but I am going to ask Lisa Kay whether or not there any gaps in my description or any other points that you might make to make this afternoon's discussion, the parliamentary pieces go a little bit more smoothly?

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

I don't really have anything to add.

I think at one point you mentioned that the, just wanted to clarify the original budget proviso would have transferred the employees June 1st.

The extension wouldn't extend it to September 1. I think there was just a small glitch in that.

statement.

But other than that, everything you said or anything I would have said.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

All right.

Not seeing any other raised hands, I'm going to just move on to the rest of my report, which I'm going to I pick up the pace here.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee is meeting this week.

We're meeting tomorrow at 9.30.

There's one item on the agenda.

It is the Office of Police Accountability 2020 Annual Report.

I would like at this time to invite all council members to attend that committee meeting if that is something that you have time and interest in attending.

I say so because I know that the, Activities of the OPA in response to police actions, responding to protests over the last year are issues of high interest on this council.

And I did let Director Meyerberg know that I would be extending an invitation to other council members to attend tomorrow's meeting.

Just a quick public health update.

On Thursday, King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin issued a new directive temporarily requiring masks for everyone five and older in places open to the public, such as grocery stores and restaurants, regardless of vaccination status.

Masks are also required inside correctional facilities, homeless shelters, schools, public transportation, and many healthcare settings.

When at least 70% of King County residents age 16 and older are fully vaccinated, the mask guidance will be lifted.

As of May 19th, 54% of King County residents were fully vaccinated, and he estimates that we will reach the 70% mark in late June.

Last week, Governor Inslee announced we are working toward a June 30th statewide reopening date.

It could be earlier, if 70% or more Washingtonians start vaccinating before then.

While it's disappointing to not be able to leave our masks at home, the end is truly in sight.

Let's mask up and vaccinate.

I wanna thank the fire department, which is offering vaccination clinics for school kids with a goal of vaccinating all students 12 and older before the school year ends.

They're offering an in-school vaccination clinic for public, middle, and high schools and pop-up vaccination clinics for private school students.

Families can drop by or make an appointment at the city's four vaccination sites in West Seattle, Rainier Beach, Lumenfield, and North Seattle.

You can learn more at seattle.gov forward slash vaccine or you can call 206-684-2489.

week I just want to touch give a little bit of a status update on some meetings that I mentioned this time last week that was that were coming up this week.

I did attend the SPD African American Community Advisory Council meeting on Thursday.

And I'm mentioning this to you today because their membership in attendance at that meeting asked that I share with each of you their desire to be consulted by council members on issues related to public safety.

So I committed to bring you that message and I'm doing so today.

Also last week, I hosted an all Seattle cohort for the What Works Cities Sprint.

For the viewing public, What Works Cities launched what's called the What Works Cities Sprint.

It's an eight-week long virtual learning opportunity designed specifically to help cities advance on data-based practices that are foundational to a well-managed city and do so in a short period of time.

The effort that we're engaged in now is specifically focused on learning from peer cities committed to implementing programming to improve emergency response and public safety.

And I wanna thank Council Member Lewis and the Mayor's Office for working together to bring the What Works City Sprint to Seattle.

But we're not the only city participating.

There are, I think, nearly, there are several dozen, let's just say that, cities participating in the Sprint.

And cities are sharing their own experiences and hearing from folks who are considered expert practitioners in the field of emergency response.

And so we've heard from the CAHOOTS program, we've heard from the Portland Street Response in Portland, Oregon, and we've heard from STAR in Denver, the Support Team Assisted Response Program.

So again, last week, I hosted a meeting of our all Seattle city cohort.

We have representation from both inner city stakeholders and external stakeholders on these issues.

And so the all Seattle cohort meeting on Friday was attended by nearly all of the participants, totaling over 30 city and community participants.

And the purpose of this sort of opportunity to sort of touch base as we are all participating with cities across the country, I thought given that we were at the halfway point, it was really important to determine what our main takeaways have been so far in participating and tracking sort of our reactions and alternatives that the city should be focusing on.

And this next upcoming month, Uh, during the what works city sprint, the executive will be presenting data on the types of 911 calls that the city receives.

Um, and during during our internal meeting, we discussed why that might be, um, an inadequate data set because people, um, use alternative methods of reporting behavioral health related issues.

And if the point of of, uh, getting data is to determine sort of where the gaps are in our system that we should not just rely on the data associated with 9-1-1.

I was really, the reason why I'm sharing this internal meeting is just because I just want to say that I'm really encouraged that we seem to be moving in, if not exactly aligned direction, pretty close to it.

I think representatives from each the executive and the council and the external partners all seem to be in agreement on what the sort of the challenges are with designing an emergency response that fills the gaps of what we have currently.

And it just was a great opportunity to just to make sure that we're all sort of growing in the same direction.

And really wanna say thanks again to Council Member Lewis for helping getting this started, for being present, and his staff being present in the meeting on Friday.

I want to thank my staff, who have mostly all been engaged in this effort to varying degrees, depending on their assignments.

And I want to thank the mayor's office, as well as the police department, who sent folks to meet with us and the fire department who joined us as well and the human services department.

So it was a really encouraging meeting.

Last items I just wanna mention before moving into the signing of the proclamations for regional committee coming up this week.

I do have the regional law, safety and justice committee meeting coming up on Thursday and I have office hours on Friday between two and 6 p.m.

this coming Friday.

So with that, unless there are other questions or comments about my report, seeing none, we'll move into the signing of the proclamation.

So we are going to be getting signatures for each Council Member Mosqueda's proclamation, my proclamation, and Council Member Sawant's letter.

And let's start.

As long as there are no objections, let's start with the council member.

Musk is a proclamation signatures will need to be affixed to the proclamation before it's presented.

I will ask the clerk to call the role to confirm which council members signatures may be affixed to the proclamation.

Are there any questions before I request the roll call on prison pro team?

Yes, absolutely.

I had a question about the letter.

I'm still reviewing it since we only received it, uh, about an hour and a half.

I'm sorry.

We're on Council Member Muscat's proclamation.

Well, we'll collect.

We'll get comments and questions about council member.

So once letter in a moment, we're gonna do the two proclamations first.

Okay, you had asked about timing of use as a group.

I've raised my hand, but yet hold on.

I Yeah, I moved them all down to the bottom of the agenda together, and we're going to deal with Councilmember Muscat's proclamation first Councilmember my my proclamation second and then Councilmember so wants letter last will collect.

Um, we'll do the do the roll call for each of the three and discuss Any comments or concerns that we have on each of the three separately as we go through?

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Absolutely.

So any questions or comments on Council Member Mosqueda's proclamation honoring Public Health Director Patty Hayes?

Council President Pro Tem?

Yes, absolutely, Council Member Mosqueda.

Thanks so much.

Just wanted to sort of orient us as a reminder, this is a proclamation honoring Director Patty Hayes' life and legacy in public health, just to make sure that we're all looking at the right document here.

And a reminder that Patty Hayes has been an active advocate for race and social justice in public health.

has worked at Seattle King County Public Health, has previously worked at the Department of Health at the state level where I got the chance to know her first and then continue to be able to work with her at Within Reach.

If folks remember that entity, it was previously called Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies and just thought that this was a great opportunity to celebrate her since this is her last week at work and I know that she is off to visit some family since everyone is now fully vaccinated and it's been over a year.

So we wish her a lot of luck, but I really wanna appreciate all of you for considering signing this proclamation in relatively short time for Director Hayes.

And I wanna thank Farideh Cuevas in my office for drafting this in a very short period of time and turning it around for all of you to see.

It showed up in your inbox, I think midday on Friday.

So hope you have a chance to review it and appreciate your consideration of the proclamation for Director Hayes today.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

I believe Director Hayes will be with us to accept the proclamation.

Excellent.

Very good.

Looking forward to that.

Any other comments or questions?

All right.

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation entitled Honoring Seattle and King County Public Health Director Patty Hayes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

And Council President Herbold?

Yes.

Seven in favor.

Thank you so much.

So the next proclamation is a proclamation that my office has been working on.

recognizing May 25th to be Education for All Day in Seattle.

My office circulated the proclamation on Thursday.

It marks the 50th anniversary for the passage of State House Bill 90, which mandated free and appropriate special education services for children with disabilities in Washington State in 1971. The proclamation will be accepted this afternoon by Gene Bowes, President and CEO of the Northwest Center want to thank Christina in my office for her work on this effort.

Are there any questions or comments about this proclamation?

Okay.

Seeing no questions or comments, Again, the signatures will need to be affixed to the proclamation before it was presented.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation entitled, Recognizing the 50th Anniversary of the Passage of the Washington State House Bill 90, Education for All.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

I. Peterson.

Yes.

And Council President Herbold.

Yes.

Seven Council Members.

Thank you so much.

So now we have a Council Member Sawant's letter.

Again, signatures will need to be affixed to the letter before it was presented.

I'll ask the clerk to call the roll to confirm which Council Members may be affixed to the letter.

But before we get to that, I'll hand it over to Council Member Sawant to add any comments to those that she had already mentioned in her report before I take other questions or comments from council members.

Council Member Swann, anything to add?

Thank you, President Pro Tem Herbold.

I just quickly wanted to share some things that just came in in relation to this.

And also, I know Council Member Strauss was starting to say something about the edits this morning.

I just wanted to say that my office obviously circulated the first version of the letter last Monday, and then sent out the draft on Tuesday morning, sent an updated version last Friday, and another one with further updates on Sunday evening and the final version this morning.

And some of this timing was just because of the timing of the edits in which we were receiving, so it's not something we could have done anything about.

Um, and then, uh, you know, so a lot of the edits, uh, came in during those iterations.

And as I said, I've incorporated every single one of the edits that came from council members.

We haven't received any edits from customer Strauss at any point in this drafting and sharing.

And then also I wanted to, um, share that while we were having our briefing this morning, an important letter arrived to the whole council, you know, so all council members have this in their email box.

I really wanted to recognize this publicly because it's such an important letter from Rabbi David Basior of the Kadima Reconstructionist community.

in which, and I'll just read an extract from the letter, not the whole letter, but in the letter Rabbi David says, the Jewish people are who I have directly dedicated my life and family, and today I am asking for your help.

The Jewish leadership of the state of Israel needs outside intervention to end its heartbreakingly brutal and ongoing occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, its siege of the Gaza Strip, and its military-backed continued settlement project, please help us say not in our name.

This letter could be a historic step in the direction of holding my people lovingly accountable, a step we sadly need for our own sake as much as for the sake of the millions of Palestinians whose lives have, sorry, millions of Palestinian lives that have been ended, limited, ruined, and traumatized on behalf of cynical right-wing Western ideologies such as Christian Zionism, Jewish Zionism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy.

Please sign the letter brought forward by CM Samant and celebrate it as not only an important acknowledgement of the above, but also as an act that represents your local constituents.

Really wanted to thank Rabbi David for this absolutely moving letter.

And I think this is part, I think, part of the historical record of the of people in our city who are taking a correct position on a very important issue.

And just to also update what I'd said in the briefing, I think the city council has now received 773 emails in favor of our Palestine letter.

There are 157 letters against.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swann.

Council Member Strauss?

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you, Council Member for bringing this forward.

You have not received edits from me because I was waiting.

I thought we had until today at 2 p.m.

to review any changes that you had made and then submit my edits to you, Council Member, in part because the The letter that we received last week was not workable, in my opinion.

So glad to see that the letter has made movement forward.

I still have edits before I would be comfortable signing my name.

And council members, colleagues, I urge us to each individually send a letter.

If the choice is between signing the letter today right now and signing the letter or not, I would urge us all to each send our own individual letters.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

I just want to note that The discussion of this letter as other business on last week's full council agenda was unusual.

The normal practice of Council President Gonzalez is to do letter and proclamation signing in the morning.

And so that's why I'm sorry if you were under the impression that we were going to be hearing this at full council at two o'clock.

I'm reverting to the customary practice of Council President Gonzalez to collect signatures for both proclamations and letters in the morning.

And again, my apologies if that information did not make it to you.

I do wanna just say a couple words about my appreciation that Council Member Swant has accepted at its own discretion from that had been offered so that the letter can reflect the perspective of a broader segment of the council.

And in particular, I really appreciate Councilmember Mosqueda's edits that were accepted that really focus the letter towards support of H.R.

2590, of which our own Congresswoman Jayapal is a cosponsor.

The goal of H.R.

2590 is to promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

and to ensure that the United States taxpayer funds are not used by the Government of Israel to support the military detention of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropriation, and destruction of Palestinian property, enforceable transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or further annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law.

Again, appreciate that this – that the letter is really focused on supporting an action that is before Congress and see that we have Council Member Swann and Council Member Strauss' hands both virtually raised again.

Council Member Swann?

Maybe it makes sense for me to go after comments have been made.

Uh, so going, I don't see any other comments.

I do see Council Member Strauss his hand up again.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

I understand the customary nature of your recording stopped.

I noticed that the recording just stopped.

Is that intentional?

I think we have a technical difficulty that just occurred, so let me just begin recording again.

Thank you.

Recording in progress.

Award-winning Seattle Channel, are we still there?

We are recording.

Great, thank you.

Thank you, son.

Just for the record, there was nothing that I stopped my comments.

I just, you know, Council President Pro Tem, I recognize your desire to keep us on track with the customary nature of having resolutions and letters in the morning.

The issue that I'm having here is similar to the issue that you explained last week with the lack of time to respond, to review, and to share important edits.

I guess I had also not understood that we were going to continue moving forward with this letter this week since the ceasefire had occurred between the letter conversation last week and today.

I sit in a unique position here.

As a Jewish American who is on this council, I have very nuanced understanding and I condemn the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

It does not, it is not within my frame, my world frame view of how we should be conducting business in this world.

It's a humanitarian crisis and should be addressed as such.

That said, I also am not at a comfortable point signing onto this letter without being able to provide additional feedback.

And so that's the issue that I sit personally in this moment on this council.

And I know I have urged many times for us on council not to engage ourselves in international politics, yet here we are.

That's why my personal request as Councilmember Mosqueda mentioned this morning, there's many ways for many of us to engage in different ways and that's why today I kindly ask colleagues for if you have a If you have something to say, please do say it.

And my request is for each of us, if we have something to say on this, to write our own letters or to take the time that is needed to get this letter right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

I want to support the comments made by Council Member Strauss The violence in the Middle East is horrible and I believe all of us want to see sustainable peace, justice and economic opportunity there and throughout our planet.

Regarding the letter proposed and revised by Council Member Swann, thank you for everybody who did put in revisions and for Council Member Swann's willingness to look at those and incorporate those.

Many people wrote to our offices supporting the letter and many wrote opposing the letter and I will be declining to sign this letter for the following reasons.

Despite the importance of these issues, I believe Seattle City Council has a responsibility under our city charter to focus on addressing the many local challenges here, rather than spending inordinate amounts of time assessing fluid and complex international relations.

Just as I would not expect the U.S.

Congress to spend its time, its limited time, passing resolutions about complex Seattle problems, I generally do not think city council members should be crafting and sending letters for all of us to debate on complex international affairs.

With over 300 large cities in the U.S. and so many other stakeholders to consider, I also don't think those tasked with conducting international relations are looking to see what a particular city council thinks, and therefore I feel our efforts would not have a meaningful impact.

And with so many international conflicts, and injustices layered with complex histories.

I generally have faith in the diverse perspectives and experience of our Seattle Congressional Delegation, as well as the Biden administration to represent us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

I'm not seeing any other hands raised.

I do see Council Member Swartz.

So sorry, Council Member Herbold.

I didn't have my virtual hand up.

Okay.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thanks so much.

I already made some comments about the letter earlier today, but I just wanted to reiterate Council Member Strauss's point as well.

I know there's many ways to continue to send messages to the President and to Congress, and I mentioned one of those ways, which I've also signed up for.

The action alert that Jewish Voice for Peace has sent out is a great opportunity to do direct calls as well.

And so I hear today's discussion more about process and less around the necessarily debating the issue.

I know that all of us want to continue to send messages of both solidarity with the Palestinian people, call for an end to bombardments, and also try to make sure that there's lasting peace in the area.

I appreciate that folks are using various vehicles to get that message in.

And I think that one important thing for folks to remember who might be watching this online is that our council has a requirement that if we're going to do sign on letters, it does have to happen in public.

We ran into that issue a few years ago.

And so we have this sort of process that is somewhat unique.

I know in Congress, they don't do sign on letters and by bringing something to the floor.

So this is somewhat unique to ask for sign on letters.

through this vehicle.

I will be signing on today.

I do appreciate the edits.

Thank you for including those and to Council Member Herbold as well for her edits on the letter.

And I think that it's really important as we continue to think about the various ways in which messages are being shared with Congress and with the president to continue to thank our congressional member, Congresswoman Jayapal for her leadership.

Again, she's a co-sponsor of House Resolution 2590, and is continuing to be part of the, I think, courageous and growing voice around the need to end additional military aid so that we can continue to see lasting peace in the area.

I know there's a lot of concern about the fragility of the ceasefire.

So really getting at those root causes of the ongoing conflict and finding sustainable peace and solutions to the true crisis that we've seen over the last few decades is really important here.

Just wanted to say I appreciate the various messages that are being sent, the international solidarity that we're seeing for folks who have been suffering.

And I do appreciate this letter being edited in the way it will.

I will be sending on today.

And I know, again, that this is not a usual process for how letters get signed on to.

But wanted to thank you all for your comments and look forward to continuing to see letters sent to the president and Congress on this important issue.

Thanks again for accepting the edits that I submitted.

and I'll stop there.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Strauss, I see your hand up, but I didn't, okay, it's down.

Okay, it was a holdover.

Oh, no, it was not a holdover.

It was not a holdover, okay.

I'm coming back to you because Council Member Sawant has asked to speak last, so.

Correct.

All right.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

I just, I know that Council Member Peterson indicated that he supported the words that I had to say.

That is not a two-way direction.

Our comments are separate.

I don't, he may agree with what I have to say.

I'm leaving his comments separate and aside.

They do not reflect my views.

And just indicating for the colleagues and for the viewing public, I'll be sending my own letter on my own regarding this topic.

If the choices are either sign on to what is written now or sign on to or write our own letter, I will be taking the latter option and writing my own letter.

Thank you, Council Member, Council President Pro Tem Purple.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

I appreciate how difficult this is.

If it's possible, given your last comment, I really want to say I support the concept of council members sending their individual letters, but I also think.

is my desire to minimize the amount of time that we spend on this issue.

And so that is why I actually agree with the part of what Council Peterson said related to the need to sort of, you know, try to create some bumpers on the amount of time that we spend.

And so that's why I would not support continuing to hold over the letter.

But really, again, I agree with both Council Member Mosqueda and you, Council Member Strauss, in that really think that there are a lot of different ways for folks to, including council members, to express their opinions on this really critical issue.

Council Member Swatt.

Thank you, Council President Frotem Herbold.

One of the comments I was going to make earlier was just, I think you covered it really well, just about the fact that this vote wasn't the briefing, that has been the practice.

And also, I was going to just state that you as the president, Frotem, decided that I didn't decide that, and I've been fine either way.

And so as you correctly stated, that has been the practice.

So that's where we are in the briefing.

I just wanted to quickly just say, I mean, it's not clear to me at all.

I mean, the political opinions of Council Member Strauss, those are his opinions and I have my own opinion.

What I did want to clarify though is I don't understand how Council Member Strauss' office could not have been aware that we were moving forward with this letter.

President Pro Tem Herbold was very clear about that last week, about when this would be taken up.

And we, meaning my office, sent emails with Thursday as the deadline.

Other council members have provided substantial edits, as I said, and we have incorporated every single edit.

Council members have had a week to review and provide feedback.

And so I just wanted to echo what you said, President Pro Tem Herbold, that I don't think it will make sense to postpone this letter any further.

And I wanted to just end by thanking the hundreds and hundreds of community members who have spoken up about the letter itself, insisting that the custody council take a position on this and the thousands of Seattleites and people in the region who participated in the protest actions, including the vigil, and also thank especially the Jewish community leaders and the rabbis who wrote in in support of this letter.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Okay, hearing no more in the way of debate, questions, or comments.

I am just reminding folks that We are doing this again in open public session because the Open Public Meetings Act requires it when we are seeking to get the signatures of a number of council members that might be considered a quorum.

So again, I will ask the clerk to call the roll to confirm which council member signatures will be affixed.

And with that, I will do so now.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter regarding Israeli state in Gaza, U.S. military aid and weapons sales?

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

I'll send my own, thank you.

Is that a definitive no, Council Member Strauss?

I'll be sending my own letter, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Lewis?

Declined to sign.

Morales?

Council Member Morales?

Council Member Mosqueda?

Yes, please.

Council Member Peterson?

Decline to sign.

And Council President Herbold.

Yes.

That's three signatures added.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate your help, clerk.

And we will move on to the last item on the agenda.

The last item on today's agenda is an executive session on pending potential or actual litigation.

Executive session, as presiding officer, I will announce that the council will convene an executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

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

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

And I expect the time of the executive session to end by, let's see, end by, it is 1124, end by 1154 a.m.

And if the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

you