Seattle City Council 1/11/21

to order.

It is two o'clock p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Herbold?

Here.

Councilmember Juarez?

Here.

Councilmember Lewis?

Councilmember Morales?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you so much.

And as our two other colleagues make their way through the virtual rooms of Zoom here, we'll make sure to announce that they have joined us.

Colleagues, this morning we have a really important opportunity to present a proclamation, and I'm going to go ahead and recognize Councilmember Herbold in order to present the proclamation recognizing Tim Harris, who is with us in this virtual Zoom call today.

Thanks for being with us, Tim.

Always good to see you.

The council rules will be suspended prior to Tim being able to accept the proclamation.

So in the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Council Member Herbold, who is going to make the presentation on behalf of the Seattle City Council.

Thank you so much.

It is a real honor for me to have the opportunity to observe the good works of Tim Harris.

I have known Tim for about a quarter of a decade.

And it's been a privilege to get to work with him.

And it's a privilege and honor, again, for me to have the opportunity to, you know, really lift up the contribution that he's made to the city of Seattle and lifting the voices as he has done of many in our community for whom we do not spend enough time incorporating and engaging in our policy decisions.

And I think he's really, he is really the conscience of the city, one of many voices that are the conscience of the city, but really done outstanding work on poverty issues and on homelessness issues.

Very quickly, I'm going to read the proclamation, a proclamation honoring the community service of Tim Harris.

Tim Harris started Real Change News in 1994 and grew the street papers budget from $23,000 to over $1 million in 25 years.

Tim, through his tireless advocacy in Seattle and Olympia, worked to win many policy advancements to help people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

And Tim played a leadership role in the expansion of the international network of street papers headquartered in Glasgow.

And Tim, through Real Change News, has offered hundreds of vendors a worthwhile entrepreneurial experience, and in doing so, empowered vendors to house and provide for themselves.

And Tim has gained the support of thousands of individuals, families, businesses in the region.

Tim has authored and published nearly 300 weekly Director's Corner essays that have tugged the community's sleeve on issues related to our social consciousness, Tim became one of the most compelling and impactful voices of the community in advocating for the rights of the poor in our region.

Tim has never failed to support emergency human service needs, and Tim has taught us to view housing not as a reward, but as a basic need.

And whereas Real Change News, with Tim's leadership, has been honored with dozens of awards for excellence in journalism from the Regional Society of Professional Journalists and the Ken Tram Award for outstanding community leadership and commitment to social justice.

Now, my cat is agreeing, if you can hear the cat in the background.

Now, therefore, the City Council proclaims January 11th to be Tim Harris Day.

Thank you.

You see lots of virtual clapping in the background.

It's for those remarks.

Thank you Councilmember Herbold for reading that proclamation into the record.

I do want to also note that we have been joined by Councilmembers Morales and Lewis who were present during the presentation that I didn't want to Thank you for being with us.

So colleagues, I do want to, before we suspend the rules in order to hear from Tim Harris directly, we will have an opportunity to accept comments from any council members who wish to do so.

So are there any comments from council members before the rules are suspended to allow this proclamation to be presented?

We have a shy group today.

Anybody?

Councillor Morales, please.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilmember Herbold for bringing this.

Tim, I just want to say congratulations again and thank you for your years of service to the city.

And for really bringing up into relief the importance of all of us treating our homeless neighbors with dignity and respect.

And your mission to make sure that we constantly remember their humanity has been really important to the work that we're doing here as a council.

Thank you very much for your years of service and all that you've contributed to the conversation.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Are there any other Council Members who would like to make comments?

Council Member Mosqueda and then Council Member Sawant.

And Tim, I just want to say congratulations.

You have an incredible legacy and I know that the paper continues to live on.

One of the things that I think is incredibly powerful about your work is that you have helped to amplify and turn up the volume on the lives of people who are living unsheltered in the city of Seattle and in our region.

And in doing so, you have helped to make people realize that the call for action, not just for housing or shelter, must be more profound than that.

That we have to have true systemic change and actually create access to opportunity across the board.

By publishing stories on a weekly basis with the words of those who are experiencing homelessness, you have helped to bring tears to our eyes, but a call for action that will never be quelled and never be quieted.

I remember often reading stories from many of the authors that are featured in Real Change and just being so incredibly moved and also at your luncheons on an annual basis, seeing people that I would regularly see who are real change vendors and just being incredibly inspired.

But the work that you have done has helped to amplify the need for action.

And it is with great.

I am in great awe of all that you've accomplished and will continue to post some of those stories on my wall as I've done over the years as reminders of the why we do this and to see the incredible work that you've done.

And the folks at Real Change, just a huge applause for all of their incredible work and would go without saying that the call for action has clearly never been more evident now, given that so many people are living housing insecure and without the shelter and housing that they need.

we are not keeping up with the demand here.

Your stories amplify that on a daily basis.

And the response, the type of reactions that we've seen for folks who are living outside, especially from law enforcement, all of that is part of what we are committed to changing.

So I thank you for your incredible work and service and long-lived real change.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Sawant.

Well, there's a lot of things we could say about Tim Harris.

And to thank you, Tim, for all the work you've done over the many decades.

I'll just say a few things.

One is, I think, in addition to every service you and Real Change have provided to our homeless neighbors and to our community at large, because the soul of the community really can only be judged by how the most vulnerable amongst us are treated.

I think one of the most important aspects of the work of Real Change has been to absolutely insist on the humanity and dignity of our homeless neighbors.

And you cannot put a price tag on that.

And there are no words to describe it.

You just have to know that that's crucial and that cannot be negotiated away and I think real change has been a beacon on that front.

I really wish you well.

I wish your family well and I also look forward to those to working with those who are carrying on the work of real change all the organizers who are working with real change.

And as Tim and I had spoken before, my office looks forward to having you back when we ring the gong again.

But I will say that because the gong counts the number of homeless deaths, what I'm really looking forward to is a day in Seattle when we no longer have to do that because there are no homeless on the streets and there are no people dying because of homelessness.

and your contribution will have gone a long way towards making that happen when we do, if we do.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much Council Member Sawant.

Any other comments from Council Members before we suspend the rules?

All right, looks like no other comments.

Tim, I just wanna say thanks to you and all of the folks over at Real Change for all of the advocacy work that you do.

So in addition to just good journalism and strong journalism that really gives voice to people who ordinarily don't have a place to have a voice is so critically important.

But you all have in recent years done some amazing advocacy.

One of the things, that I had the pleasure of being able to experience in 2018 was actually being able to sit on the dais.

Sorry, 2019, sitting on the dais and being able to talk to our colleagues.

And I remember when you all were running the campaign around making sure that we had more toilets and hygiene facilities in the city, Council Member Herbold leaned over to me and said, This is one of the best campaigns we've seen one of our community partners run, and it was true.

And it was very powerful and important.

And as a result, we, that year for the first time, moved forward really significant, meaningful funding to allow for those hygiene and toileting facilities to be set up.

And little did we know at that point in time, how critically important those kinds of investments would be when shortly thereafter we're faced with a global pandemic of this unprecedented nature.

And I also will be happy to say that the book that you all gave us after you won the campaign, which is Everybody Poos, is sitting on my daughter's library in the living room.

So very excited for the point in time when she gets to read that.

And I'll tell her the stories about how that book came to be on her little kid's library.

So thanks to all of you for all of your work.

I know that it's not over.

This is a retirement is just that.

It's just a retirement from a formal job, but I know that you will continue to be engaged as will real change in many of the important issues facing our city in the coming years.

So colleagues, if there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow this proclamation honoring Tim Harris to be accepted and for Tim Harris to make brief acceptance remarks to the council.

Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended.

And Tim Harris, the guest of honor here with us this afternoon, you are now recognized in order to provide us with some remarks in acceptance of this proclamation that was led forward by Council Member Herbold.

And then don't forget to unmute yourself, Tim.

There we go.

You are now unmuted, go for it.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so very much.

This means a tremendous amount to me and it means a lot to the entire Real Change community.

I'm extremely grateful to all of the vendors who have inspired me over the years.

I have seen the most amazing transformations, really, really remarkable people rising above personal adversity to just do extraordinary things.

It's just, I can't even put words around how inspiring that has been and how much that has meant to me.

And the whole Real Change community, everybody who is working toward a world where each one of us is valued and none of us are abandoned.

That is the real vision behind Real Change.

And just so grateful to everybody who's been a part of it.

I'm gonna continue to be a part of that fight.

and look forward to working with you all to continue making Seattle a better city.

Thank you so very much for this and I'll be seeing you.

Well said Tim, well well said.

Thanks for those remarks.

Thank you for joining us at the top of the hour here to accept this proclamation and again thanks to Council Member Herbold for leading the effort on on drafting the proclamation and giving us all an opportunity to affix our names to this proclamation.

So you are welcome to depart the virtual room now.

We're going to go ahead and dig into important but much more mundane parts of our city council business.

Thanks so much again, Tim, for being with us.

Thank you so much.

Bye-bye.

Stay safe.

Bye-bye.

Okay, colleagues, approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of January 4th, 2021 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Adoption of the referral calendar.

I move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar, and I do know that there is a amendment to the introduction and referral calendar, but I will need a second before we can consider that amendment.

second.

Thank you so much.

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

I am going to recognize Councilmember Herbold who is going to make a motion to amend the introduction and referral calendar.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you so much.

I move to amend the introduction and referral calendar to introduce Resolution 31985, entitled A Resolution, calling on federal government officials to immediately remove U.S.

President Donald J. Trump from office by any means permitted by the U.S.

Constitution, including impeachment, for violating his oath of office on January 6, 2021, or for committing any other high crimes and misdemeanors, and by referring it to the city council for adoption at today's meeting.

Thank you.

Is there a second for that motion?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the introduction and referral calendar by introducing resolution 31985 for adoption at today's meeting.

Are there any additional comments on the amendment to the introduction and referral calendar?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the amendment to the introduction and referral calendar.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

President Gonzales.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The motion carries and the introduction referral calendar is amended.

Are there any other comments on the introduction and referral calendar as amended?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the amended introduction and referral calendar?

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the introduction and referral calendar is adopted as amended.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the City Council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the Council's work program.

I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It does remain the strong intent of the City Council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, the city council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes and each speaker will be given two minutes to address the City Council.

I will call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the Council's website.

If you've not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment.

by going to the Council's website at Seattle.gov forward slash Council, C-O-U-N-C-I-L.

The public comment link is also listed on today's published agenda.

Oops, excuse me.

Once I call a speaker's name, the staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and the speaker is going to hear an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted.

That will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak after they have pressed star six.

Again, please begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or the council's work program.

At about 10 seconds, the speaker is going to hear a chime.

That's the speaker's cue that they have exactly 10 seconds to wrap up their public comment.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time period, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, I'd ask that you please disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

Colleagues, the public comment period is now open.

It is 12, excuse me, it is 2.21, so we will hear public comment until 2.41 p.m.

or until we exhaust the list if it is less than 20 minutes.

We'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

Again, if you are signed up to give comment today, you'll need to hit star six after you hear the automatic prompt that you have been unmuted.

Our first speaker is Howard Gale, followed by Jim Street.

Howard, welcome.

Hi, good afternoon.

Howard Gale, District 7, commenting on police accountability.

We are now just weeks away from entering our ninth year of police reform.

That's right, our ninth year.

Over this last year, we saw the right-wing Seattle police officer, Mike Salon, overwhelmingly elected as president of the Police Officers Union, garnering over two-thirds of the SPD officers' votes, notably with huge support from younger officers.

Salon ran a campaign for union president where he promised to get, quote, serious, unquote, with protesters.

Salon campaigned to get rid of a radical city council and to have police take back control and change the narrative around Black Lives Matter.

Not, of course, to take control of their abhorrent behavior and abuse, but rather a call to increase it, which we saw come to fruition four months later during post-George Floyd protests.

Last July, Salon called for Trump to send federal forces to Seattle to call protests.

Less than two months ago, Salon said to a meeting of realtors that Black Lives Matter activists want to, quote, take your property and give it to Indians, unquote.

And now, days ago, Salon retweeted tweets blaming Black Lives Matter for the insurrection in D.C.

This last year has seen overwhelming evidence of the failure of police reform and what it looks like when police follow Mike Salon's call to get serious.

The egregious and hateful abuse of protesters.

Most recently, we hear that at least two SPD officers participated in last week's insurrection and riot.

To repurpose a quote variously attributed to Dr. Maya Angelou and Oprah, When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.

So when Seattle police officers overwhelmingly vote a hateful right winger to represent them, believe them the first time.

Then when they mercilessly, people after that, shame on you for suggesting the solution is for them to change who represents them.

Changes in leadership and policy and training will not change who they are.

We need fully civilianized police oversight and accountability.

Thank you.

Next up is Jim Street, followed by Valerie Schloren.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jim Street.

A week ago, I attended a meeting organized by People for Climate Action.

They were hosting the mayor's policy director on climate, and they were asking tough questions.

What are the mayor's priority strategies that will accomplish our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals by 2030?

What is the schedule for meeting those goals?

What is the schedule in 2021 and 22 for implementation of essential actions?

And finally, are we on track?

Over and over again, the answer he gave was, we are working on it.

We are working on it.

PCA members were very frustrated.

Working on it doesn't work when it comes to accountability.

The council's 2019 Green New Deal resolution made the systemic threat of global warming a central priority for city action.

As far as we can see, that hasn't happened.

A select committee will underscore the central priority that you are determined to give to this issue.

Meeting our climate goals will require that we as citizens also do our part to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions.

We need to believe that our combined efforts are on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. We need to know the answers to those tough questions that I mentioned at the beginning.

A select committee will enable the accountability and the transparency and the public engagement that are essential for our success on climate.

We need you to act on this now.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Valerie followed by Colin Madden.

Hi this is Valerie Schluret speaking to police accountability.

At this morning's briefing council members criticized Mike Salon the president of SPOG for his recent misleading statements about the violent insurrection at the Capitol last week.

This is not the first time that Mike Salon has made extreme statements about Black Lives Matter protests and policing.

His right-wing political views were very clear when Seattle police officers elected him a year ago as their spokesman.

He ran for that position as a hardliner with a video glorifying militarized policing.

Salon has a high profile on Twitter and in the media and has even appeared on national television.

It has always been clear who he is and what he believes and what he supports.

We should not be surprised to hear misleading and extreme statements by the head of SPOG.

because the nine-year SPD reform project is not working.

An aggressive anti-democratic voice and attitude is dominant in SPD because our city has failed to hold Seattle police officers accountable for undue aggression and violence.

We saw their immunity in the streets all summer long.

We cannot change the culture of the police without real accountability.

OPA has opened a preliminary investigation into Salon's recent comments.

What will that accomplish other than more talk and the illusion of accountability?

We need a new police civilian structure for police accountability, one that will have real consequences.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Colin Matten.

Colin if you're with us you'll need to hit star 6 so we can hear you.

Hi am I working now.

We can hear you loud and clear.

Go ahead.

Very good.

Thank you.

I'm a small small business person here in Seattle born and raised here.

I wanted to make comment in strong opposition to Councilperson Herbold's proposal to expand defenses for for misdemeanor crimes.

I want to just say I think that the current environment of permissiveness is just damaging the core of our city and the culture of who we are.

Livability is suffering already.

I believe that the citizens of Seattle, the vast majority of citizens are suffering as the council and city government focuses on the needs of relatively few, which I believe those needs are significant, but I believe it's misguided to pursue a policy of permissivism that encourages more of the same behavior.

I think it's been shown that we have people that are camping and abusing drugs and making our public spaces unlivable in the city and unusable for the regular taxpaying citizens.

And those people are coming from all over the geographic area not just Seattle because of this permissive already permissive culture that we have here now.

So I believe the real issue is mental health and drug abuse.

And I think that what we should be doing is focusing on those things and enforcing the laws we have and expanding diversion programs into mental health facilities.

But but I do not believe that a permissive

Thank you for calling in today.

Let's see here, just double checking my list here.

Our last speaker who is registered and present is Joe Kunzler.

We do have a Maury Oko listed and a Daniel Levy listed, but showing is not present.

So Maury and Daniel, if you're listening, now is the time to call back in before I close out the period of public comment.

Next up is Joe Kunzler.

Hello, Council President.

I'm assuming everyone can hear me.

Yes.

Okay, thank you, Council President.

You're awesome, as always.

I want to endorse you for remaining as Council President for another year.

Your leadership at the Seattle City Council is absolutely amazing.

You also showed great leadership before you were Council President, standing up to the attacks of Alex Zimmerman, who is a known Trump supporter.

I also understand there's a book out about Alex Zimmerman called Tackling Zimmerman on Amazon.

But I also want to call in and thank the council for passing a resolution calling on Trump to go.

He is a dictator.

He's a threat to our way of life.

You know, I think that, you know, people can be upset and hopefully print their own signs and show that upset in a civil manner.

But there is no excuse on God's green earth for blocking duly elected representatives from carrying out their legal responsibilities.

There's never an excuse for that.

I don't care who does it.

I also hope that you will subpoena Mike Salon and Arie Hoffman, among others, to testify to the Seattle City Council.

I hear that idea is going around on social media, and I'm sure it would be very interesting to hear what they have to say.

And again, Council President, I want to thank you for your leadership of our commons and our states, and frankly, you know, open public meetings before, with all these proclamations the past year, and for you, your staff at Seattle's Channel.

And I will stop there on a note of gratitude, and thanks again for being awesome.

Okay, thank you so much for calling in today.

I'm gonna double check really quickly our public comment list here.

It looks like no other folks have called in for public comment today, so we're gonna go ahead and close out the period of public comment and begin considering items of business on our agenda.

First up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Council Bill 119986, appropriating money to pay out of claims for the week of December 28th, 2020 through January 1st, 2021, and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 119986. Second.

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

Are there any comments?

Hearing no comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez aye.

Lewis yes.

Morales yes.

Mosqueda yes.

Peterson yes.

Sawant yes.

Strauss yes.

President Gonzales aye.

Nine in favor none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Committee reports.

Colleagues, there are no committee reports on today's agenda, so we're going to move straight to adoption of other resolutions.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, resolution 31985, calling on federal government officials to immediately remove U.S.

President Donald J. Trump from office by any means permitted by the U.S.

Constitution, including impeachment for violating his oath of office on January 6th, 2021, or for committing any other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to adopt resolution 31985. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.

Council Member Herbold, you are the lead sponsor on this resolution and are recognized in order to address the item.

And then we can hear from Council Member Peterson, who I understand is also a co-sponsor of the resolution.

Council Member Herbold, you're up first.

Thank you so much.

As I mentioned this morning, this resolution was written in conjunction with Local Progress and is based on a draft article of impeachment from Representative Ilhan Omar.

I've learned this morning that our sister city in Local Progress, Minneapolis, will be taking a similar action.

on Wednesday, and I suspect other cities will follow.

This resolution, the content of it has, of course, been reviewed and approved by the law department and the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

This is an updated version that includes changes from Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you to Councilmember Peterson and your staff for providing valuable input.

I want to uplift some of the elements of the resolution.

As mentioned, it mirrors the introduced resolution that accompanies the article of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives, charging Donald J. Trump with incitement of insurrection in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States.

It further states that Donald Trump suggested that Georgia Secretary of State should overturn verified Georgia state results of the presidential election, and he repeatedly made false claims that he won the election.

This person has used the presidency to incite violence and orchestrate an attempted coup across our country and against our country.

This effort has injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced members of Congress, the Vice President, and staff, and interfered with the congressional duty consistent with the Constitution to certify election results.

This person demonstrates with his words and his actions that he will remain a threat to the national security and democracy of our country and warrants impeachment and trial removal for office and disqualification to hold any future office in the United States of America.

I also want to condemn the possibility of any threat in Olympia and state legislatures across the country.

As I think we all know, the FBI has warned of armed protests being planned at all 50 state capitals, and as mentioned this morning in council briefings, our thoughts and hopes are with our delegation and the rest of the legislature in fulfilling their obligations to the the constituents of Washington State, and that they do so in safety and security.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold.

I'm going to hand it over to Councilmember councilmember Peterson next as one of the other co-sponsors of this resolution, and then colleagues, if anyone else would like to make comments, please do let me know by either raising your hand to the camera or using the raise the hand feature in Zoom.

Councilmember Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for your leadership on this.

On January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump swore an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

On January 6, 2021, the Associated Press reported and we witnessed with our own eyes the shocking video of a violent mob loyal to President Trump storming the U.S.

Capitol forcing lawmakers into hiding in a stunning attempt to overturn America's presidential election, undercut the nation's democracy, and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.

This is as reported by the Associated Press.

The rioters were egged on by Trump, who spent weeks falsely attacking the integrity of the election, and had urged his supporters to descend on Washington, D.C.

to protest Congress's formal approval of Biden's victory.

Five Americans are dead.

President Trump has violated his oath of office.

As someone who has had the honor to work inside those sacred halls of the Capitol Building in our nation's capital, I'm eager to join the call for federal government officials to safeguard peace, security, and democracy for our nation and its people by immediately removing President Donald Trump from office by any means permitted by the U.S.

Constitution And so one of the things we added to this was to basically expand it so that it could be through any means under the U.S.

Constitution, in addition to the impeachment articles that are proceeding through the House of Representatives.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

And I do want to thank both you and Councilmember Herbold for getting together offline to coordinate efforts around the proclamation.

Both of you had expressed independently interest in pursuing a resolution.

And again, I want to thank you for making it a little easier for us on the council to just do some of that background work to coordinate and give us one unified resolution to consider.

So my deep appreciation to both you and Council Member Herbold for those efforts.

And to your staff, of course.

Okay, colleagues, I haven't seen anybody raise their hand using the Zoom feature, but I just want to sort of do a quick scan again.

I think I just saw Council Member Sawant who also wants to make comments.

And again, if anyone else would like to make a comment on the resolution before I call the roll, please do let me know as soon as possible.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

I'm glad to vote in favor of this resolution supporting the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump should have been impeached long ago.

He should have been impeached for massive corporate tax cuts and handouts, including to his own companies, the expense of vital social services, for utterly failing to represent working people and instead representing the billionaire class beginning with himself.

He should have been impeached for an utterly criminal approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has undoubtedly directly cost tens of thousands of lives.

He should have been impeached for caging children.

He should have been impeached for sexually assaulting so many women.

And frankly, it is unfortunate that the establishment of the Democratic Party has done so little to fight his far-right agenda over the past four years.

Impeachment at this time would be symbolic.

I fully support it because we need to make crystal clear that there is no support for this right-wing violence.

But impeachment in the last few days of the Trump presidency are not a substitute for a concerted resistance to his agenda over the last four years or to building a left alternative to the right-wing going forward.

With mass protests, labor mobilizations, and political demands that would genuinely help working-class people like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, there could have been grassroots organizing that could have destroyed Trump's legitimacy by providing a genuine progressive alternative to the corporate establishment and also to right populism.

But Trump took advantage of the vacuum on the left and again was able to falsely pretend to be that anti-establishment alternative.

And on that basis, he won over 74 million votes in the last election and has widespread support, which should alarm anyone serious about fighting the right.

Biden won over 81 million votes.

He is the first U.S. presidential candidate to have won more than 80 million votes.

But Trump won over 74 million votes, which is more votes than any other presidential candidate has ever won, with the exception of Biden.

We know that all of this will do lasting damage unless we build the left and social movements.

Wednesday's far-right mob in DC, in a violent attempt to overturn a Democratic election result, should be understood as a wake-up call for the left.

Not surprisingly, the media report there are now warnings of plans for more armed far-right pro-Trump protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C.

in the days leading up to Joe Biden's inauguration, stoking fears of more bloodshed.

The right will continue to scarily grow as long as there is no alternative to the status quo of corporate politics, where despite their differences, the two parties serve the interests of big business and put the burden of the COVID crisis and brutal recession on ordinary people.

In Seattle, most immediately our movement needs to make sure the city council is accountable to the Black Lives Matter movement to the working class and all those fighting the right by and make sure that all council members who are correctly today going to be voting yes on the impeach Trump resolution.

should also make sure to pass the strongest possible ordinance on the ban on police use of the so-called crowd control weapons.

And I wanted to be clear that my office looks forward to working with any and all council members who want to make sure that the best and strongest possible ordinance is upheld.

And nationally, the best and only way to stop the far right is to build the left and social movements.

This is the only way we are going to pull millions of ordinary people away from the right wing's influence by building a powerful fight back for the interests of the working class.

And where actual fascists are in the street, they should be met by a massive show of force led by unions and the left.

This week, we heard the inspiring announcement of employees at Google forming the Alphabet Workers Union.

This is a step in the direction of what is urgently needed, the rebuilding of a militant American labor movement.

We cannot expect Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi to provide any alternatives.

That is why I have endorsed the grassroots Force the Vote campaign, which is demanding that the Squad and other movement-elected Democrats use a floor vote on Medicare for All as part of a larger strategy to build a fighting movement for socialized medicine.

Representatives of working people cannot support a corporate tool like Nancy Pelosi continuing as Speaker of the House while millions face misery as even the squad members have unfortunately done.

While I agree Trump should be impeached, this cannot be our main focus.

The left has the responsibility to address the urgent needs of the working class and that means as a starting point fighting tooth and nail for Medicare for all, comprehensive COVID relief, a socialist Green New Deal, and preparing the ground to launch a new party.

This is a critical juncture in history and we cannot accept a false unity with the corrupt democratic establishment, but instead we need to build a powerful unity of millions of working people and be oppressed to fight for a different kind of society.

The final point I will make is that we need to be clear about what needs to be condemned.

I condemn Trump's violence and the right-wing bigoted agenda that it serves.

I condemn Trump's authoritarianism and his attempt to steal the election, a democratic election result.

I condemn this con man for posing as a representative of working people while actually being an utterly reactionary representative of the rotten billionaire class.

We do have to be careful about using words like quote-unquote sedition and quote-unquote treason in a way that can backfire on working people.

These words have been used by elected officials throughout the nation since Wednesday.

These are words that are used overwhelmingly to attack movements of progressives and socialists and the labor movement.

In 1919, the great American socialist Eugene Debs was sentenced to a decade in prison for sedition, that was a charge, for speaking out against World War I courageously.

That same year, Seattle socialist Anna Louise Strong, the last socialist elected in Seattle before me, was part of a movement against World War I. She publicly and courageously stood by the Wobblies, or the industrial workers of the world, and one of their staff members, who was then jailed on sedition charges for opposing the war.

Soon after that, Strong herself was recalled from office at the school board for her association with the Wobblies and those who were courageously opposing World War I. The Smith Act of 1940 was created in response to attacks by the far right, but was then used to attack the left and the labor movement.

Thank you, and I will vote yes on this important resolution.

Any additional comments about this resolution?

Council Member Lewis, please.

Thank you, Madam President.

I wasn't planning on saying anything, but I want to share a couple of brief comments because I do want to point out that because there's been some speculation in the media if it's strategically worth it to impeach trump or what the value of impeaching trump at this late stages and it's important to note that the constitution provides that once someone's impeached uh...

they're disqualified from holding that office in the future president trump is currently eligible even having so nakedly violated the trust in his own uh...

to run again and any point in the future in a presidential election or hold other federal offices uh...

so this impeachment uh...

is more than symbol on this important each one is critical to the future america we want to build and i do want to share justin an observation about some news that uh...

i had actually wanted it to talk about briefly briefing but i i've forgotten but i think it is just important to point out that before we saw the worst of America on Wednesday, we saw the best of America on Tuesday when the people of Georgia sent the pastor of ebenezer baptist church the ministry of doctor king uh...

rafael warnock and the son of jewish immigrants john ossoff to the senate in violation and in condominium or in condemnation uh...

of the divisive politics of president trump and an explicit rejection of senators who had been running on a campaign of virulent racism and confrontation and the kind of divisiveness that Trump has attempted to cultivate.

And that the Democrats for the first time in 10 years, following on the disastrous results of President Trump, just to comment on the news, have unified control of the federal government on policies and platforms in stark contrast.

to the vision of this country that President Trump has perpetrated.

And I just wanna lift up briefly in a limited, to the extent that I can here, that that was only due to incredible effort of normal people in communities and neighborhoods all over this country who were apolitical, who never voted, who were never involved, who were never active, who saw it as their duty to get involved, to organize, and to push.

And it's in no small effort, the result of the organizing Fair Fight Georgia did for voter integrity and security, or Stacey Abrams as a community and movement leader in that state, that we have seen these results.

So I'm optimistic that the spirit that was present on Tuesday is gonna be a guiding force of American politics to come in the future instead of the division and treason that we saw on Wednesday.

And this resolution gets us closer there by encouraging the Congress to reject and firmly reject this man and this man's politics and to bar him from ever holding this office in the future, to bar him from drawing a pension for that office.

And there are lots of other relevant considerations to taking this action.

So I did just want to mention that and state that I will be very enthusiastically voting for this.

And I wanna thank Council Member Herbold and Council Member Peterson for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis for those comments.

Colleagues, any additional comments on the resolution?

I do wanna give the sponsors of the resolution the last word to the extent that they have anything else to add.

Council Member Herbold or Council Member Peterson.

Okay, I am receiving visual cues that there are no additional comments that either of the sponsors would like to make.

So I'm gonna go ahead and ask that the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

Other business?

Is there any further business to come before the council?

Okay, hearing none, colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Tuesday.

January 19th, 2021 at 2 PM.

Of course, Monday is an observed holiday.

So our full council meeting instead of being on Monday and our council briefing instead of being on Monday will be on Tuesday, January 19th, 2021 at two o'clock.

So I want to thank you all for your hard work today and hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon and evening.

We are adjourned.