going to pull up my.
So let's go ahead and get the meeting started.
All right folks the December 7th 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.
It is 2.03 p.m.
I'm Lorena Gonzalez president of the council.
Will the clerk please call the roll.
Council Member Peterson.
Here.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council Member Juarez.
Here.
Council Member Herbold.
Here.
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Present.
Council President Gonzalez.
Here.
State present.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
If there's no objection, Council Member Sawant will be excused from today's City Council meeting.
Hearing no objection, Council Member Sawant is excused from today's meeting.
Presentations, we'll go ahead and move to presentations now.
Colleagues, during this morning's council briefing meeting, Council Member Morales presented a proclamation recognizing Yamani Gebremichael.
Signatures will need to be affixed to the proclamation before it can be presented to his family and members of the community, so I'm going to ask that the clerk call the roll to confirm which council members' signatures may be affixed to the proclamation.
And we're going to do that before I recognize Council Member Morales to read the proclamation into the record and make any other remarks she would like to do.
So are there any questions before I request the roll call?
Hearing no questions, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation?
Council Member Peterson?
Yes.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Juarez?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Lewis?
Yes.
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council Member Mosqueda?
Yes.
Council President Gonzalez?
Yes.
8 in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The final proclamation will be prepared with those council members signatures.
Council Member Morales, you are now recognized in order to present the proclamation and the council rules will be suspended just immediately, just prior to our guests making comments on the proclamation.
So we'll take a Quick little pause after your comments to allow for the procedural step to suspend the rules in order to hear from our guests on the proclamation.
But for now, Consul General Morales, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Council colleagues, as I mentioned at this morning's briefing, this proclamation is to honor the life and the impact of Yomani Gebremichael on our community.
Yomani was a leader in many circles of community organizers, including many that I've had the privilege to participate in over the years.
folks who are advocating for access to land, for stronger programs for young people, for immigrant rights.
So I'm honored to be able to do this for him and his family today.
And I would like to go ahead and read the proclamation into the record if I can.
Okay.
So you all have a copy of this.
We did circulate it last week, but I will read it now.
Whereas Yemani Gebremichael was a mentor, a friend, and community leader in Seattle and Washington State, whereas the city of Seattle recognizes Yemani's dedication to youth through afterschool programs, improving education outcomes for English language learners by advocating for the creation of the Seattle World School, increasing standards for home child care, and caring and advocating for every child he met.
Whereas the City of Seattle recognizes Yemani's commitment to public health, ensuring access to clean water and food across the globe, educating communities around indoor and outdoor air quality, and increasing food security for communities across Washington State, Whereas the City of Seattle recognizes Yamane's devotion to a vision of thriving immigrant and refugees through his 20 years of service to immigrant and refugee community organizations in Seattle, leadership for the creation of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs as a strategic advisor to the city.
advocacy for the creation of the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, leadership in the fight to raise the minimum wage in SeaTac in Seattle, small business organizing, including home child care owners, and a focus on civic engagement.
Whereas the City of Seattle recognizes Yamane's dedication to his family as father to Nathan Yamane, Emnett Yamane, and Baroque Yamane, and loving grandfather, Yamane was an elder figure to thousands of community members, young and old.
And whereas the City of Seattle and its elected leaders mourn the loss of Yamane and graciously celebrate his life and the efforts to affect justice, now, therefore, the City of Seattle proclaims December 7th, 2020, to be a day of recognition for friend, mentor, and leader, Yamane Gebremichael.
Thank you, Council Member Morales, for the proclamation and for the wonderful recognition of Yemani via this proclamation.
Really appreciate you bringing it forward.
Colleagues, we're gonna go ahead and suspend the rules here.
I'm gonna make a motion to suspend the rules in order to hear from guests who are, I understand, with us, and I'll be looking to IT to signal to me that they are, in fact, on the line and available.
They are not present.
Not currently present.
Okay, so Council Member Morales, how would you like to proceed given that our guests aren't present to receive the proclamation?
Well, I will stall for one second here to see if I know what is happening.
I thought they were going to be calling in.
It is possible that they will be calling in during the public comment period instead, but we had let them know that we could set aside a couple minutes here.
If they are not on the line, then I would ask that we just proceed and we will make sure that family members get a copy of the proclamation.
Okay, that sounds fair.
It looks like I'll just check one more time with IT to make sure that they haven't called in since we've been chatting.
And if they haven't, then we'll go ahead and leave it to you, Council Member Morales, to present the proclamation at your discretion to the family of Imani.
Thank you.
Thanks, everyone.
And IT, just want to confirm one last time that our guests have not called in.
Sorry, they have not called in.
Okay, great.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Okay, folks, we're going to go ahead and move along again.
Thank you.
Councilmember Morales for that proclamation and the recognition.
Also don't mean to cut off the discussion here.
Is there anyone else, colleagues that would like to make comments on this proclamation before we move to approval of the minutes?
We are going to move to the approval of the minutes.
The minutes of the City Council meeting of November 30, 2020 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?
We are going to move to the adoption of the referral calendar.
Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.
Approval of the agenda.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Public comment.
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 2020 work program.
I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.
It remains 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 today is 20 minutes, and each speaker will have two minutes to address the city council.
I'll 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 council's website at seattle.gov forward slash council, that's C-O-U-N-C-I-L.
The public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.
Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and you will hear an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted.
After the speaker hears that automatic prompt, then you will need to press star six before speaking.
Please start speaking by stating your name and the item you are addressing.
And as a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or the council's 2020 work program.
At about 10 seconds, speakers are going to hear a chime.
That chime means that you have 10 seconds left of the allotted two minutes.
Once you hear the chime, we'd ask that you please begin to wrap up your public comment.
If speakers don't end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, your microphone will be automatically muted in order to allow us to call on the next speaker.
Once you have completed your public comment, Please disconnect from the line, and if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so on Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.
So the public comment period is now open.
We're going to begin with the first speaker on the list.
Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.
So the first speaker is Howard Gale, followed by Julia Pasciuto.
Yes, exactly.
Good afternoon.
Howard Dale District 7 commenting on police reform and accountability.
Today you will be.
Can you hear me.
Today you will be discussing the city council's the city state legislative agenda for the 2021 session.
You are calling for the state quote to pass legislation that enhances the authority of police chiefs to discipline officers that violate professional standards and public trust unquote.
Given the 27 killings by the SPD in the last nine years and the obscene abuse by the SPD of protesters over the last six months, it should be clear that, quote, the authority of police chiefs is not really the issue here, nor has anyone even suggested that defense for the continuing abuses in Seattle.
Rather, the only way to accomplish needed reform is through a civilian oversight entity that can both investigate and, when necessary, punish officers who abuse their power.
It is absolutely necessary in this post-George Floyd moment to abandon a military vision of police, which has dominated for over 150 years now, where the chief of police is viewed as the final commander and the final decider.
We do need civilian oversight.
In the same legislative agenda you're proposing and discussing today, you will also call for support of policies that, quote, reduce the use of force and negative externalities associated with crowd management.
and to support the establishment of a statewide use-of-force database.
It is curious that the council would ask the state legislature to do something it has mainly failed to do for decades, even failing to deliver on the claim that the SPD has made over the last five years that use-of-force data is publicly accessible.
It is not.
Only summary and metadata are currently available, I checked today, on the website, once more indicating a disconnect between city council and the actual realities of police accountability in Seattle.
move to a system that allows for public input and public oversight.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Next up is Julia Prosciutto, and I do have a Dave Roberts signed up, but he is listed as not present.
David, if you are listening, now's the time to call back in so that we can go ahead and call on you.
Next up is Julia.
Hello council.
My name is Julia Pachuto.
I'm calling today as a resident of Seattle.
I'm joining in to celebrate and honor the life of my friend Imani Geber-McHale.
Imani was an agent of change not because he was the loudest in the room or the most brazen but because he planted seeds and built up community leaders to tend those seeds all the way to a vision.
Imani was an organizer and invested in people and relationships.
Even though our relationship was as coalition partners trying to win policies and system change he always made sure to connect on a personal level and get to know and care for everyone in the room.
He asked after my parents and my child before delving into the work.
Yamani dedicated his time and energy towards building a more just world which he did by investing in people and relationships and making sure every young person knew their full the full expanse of their potential.
Yemani's contribution to the city is too long to fit in just one proclamation, and his tireless enthusiasm will be greatly missed.
I know his spirit lives on inside of all of us, and I'm dedicated to continuing to work to make Yemani proud.
Thank you.
Thank you, Julia, for calling in today.
Okay, colleagues, I'm going to check one more time to see if our last speaker is now here.
He is still not listed as present.
So we are gonna go ahead and close out the public comment period and move into items of business on our agenda.
We have a lot of items on the agenda today and looking forward to discussion on all of them.
Payment of bills.
Will the clerk please read the title for the record?
Council Bill 119965, appropriating money to pay sergeant claims for the week of November 23rd, 2020 through November 27th, 2020, and ordering the payment thereof.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
I move to pass Council Bill 119965. Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.
Are there any comments on the bill?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson.
Aye.
Strauss.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Herbold.
Aye.
Lewis.
Aye.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Committee reports.
Will the clerk please read item one into the record?
I report the public assets and Native communities committees.
Agenda item one, Council Bill 119964 relating to the Seattle Center Department authorizing the Seattle Center Director to execute the third amendment to the facility use and occupancy agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Repertory Theater.
The committee recommends that the City Council pass the bill.
Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Juarez, as chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report.
Thank you.
So the Seattle Repertory Theater like the rest of Seattle's arts community, is facing, has faced severe economic challenges as they will be unable to hold in-person performances until the governor's restrictions are lifted.
To address the challenges caused by the pandemic, this proposed third amendment to the 1996 agreement would remove the obligation for the Seattle Repertory Theater to make their 2019 and 2020 fiscal year contributions to the fund.
The 2019 fund is $170,571 and the 220,000 fiscal year contribution is $174,836.
So since they're unable to make their contribution to the fund, we want to move to make sure that we can allow them to use the fund for operating expenses through June 30th, 2022. I will clarify why 2019 is listed.
While COVID struck beginning of 2020, the 2019 fiscal year contributions to the fund were due June 2020, but because of the pandemic, the schedule was not met.
So basically, the obligation for the Seattle Repertory Theater to make these contributions couldn't be done in light of COVID.
The Seattle Repertory Theater would be required to maintain a minimum balance of $160,000 in the fund.
The fund, which is owned and managed by the Seattle Repertory Theater and per the 1996 agreement, was to have been used solely for replacement, maintenance, and repair purposes of the Bagley-Wright Theater.
The Seattle Repertory Theater was founded in 1963 under the leadership of Bagley-Wright.
It is one of the oldest resident organizations on the Seattle Center campus.
So after our committee hearing last week, the Public Assets and Native Cues Committee would recommend that Council pass Council Bill 119964. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Oh, there we go.
Council Member Herbold, please.
Thank you so much.
I just want to express my thanks and appreciation as I did in committee to Seattle Center for working to address the dire needs of our arts organizations in this really difficult time and really.
appreciate sort of understanding that the efforts of the city to meet those needs will not have a negative impact on the ability of the theater to address maintenance needs, but will put the theater on better footing for when they are aiming to reopen.
So thanks to Director Nellems for his and his staff's work on this.
Thank you Councilmember Herbold.
Are there any other comments on the bill?
All right, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Herbold.
Yes.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
President Gonzales.
Aye.
Ayten in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 2. Will the clerk please read item 2 into the record.
Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 1199746 relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation, authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to execute an amendment to the amended and restated concession agreement with Tennis Center at Sandpoint LLC at Warren G. Magnuson Park.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Juarez, this bill is also from your committee, so you are recognized in order to provide the committee's report.
Thank you.
First, I want to thank Councilmember Peterson for his work to move these updates forward.
The proposed council bill authorized an amendment to do four important legal and community-based changes and additions, long time coming, but we saw this on the horizon.
One is to update the language in the concession agreement.
Number two was to add an additional five-year term extension option to the concession agreement.
Those are pretty common.
We've seen these in the concession agreements in the past.
Number three, to redefine public benefits, processes, requirements, and offsets, that is free court time for youth and seniors.
I'm going to loop back to the public benefits in a minute.
And then finally, number four, amend the fee payment due date.
Getting back to redefining the public benefits, as you know, we've worked on revamping that whole piece in the last four or five years.
So we have a real expansion of public benefits, a real analysis of outreach with an emphasis on access and equity and race and social justice, basically keeping civic assets and keeping the public and public assets public.
So this is another great way to update the contract and the concession agreement and the amendments and to expand the public benefits piece, which we have been doing across all the civic and public assets that the people of the City of Seattle own.
So with that, the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee recommends that Council pass Council Bill 119746 as amended.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Juarez, for that report.
Colleagues, are there any other comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Aye.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Yes.
President Gonzalez?
Yes.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Item three, will the clerk please read item three into the record?
Agenda item three, appointment 1574, appointment of Michael L. Reichert as member of SAIL Indian Services Commission governing council for term to November 30th, 2022. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Juarez, this one is yours as well, and you are recognized in order to provide the committee report.
Thank you, Madam Chair or Madam President.
This is the reappointment of Michael L. Reichert Sr., who's also the CEO of Catholic Community Services, to the Seattle Indian Service Commission.
As you know, the Seattle Indian Service Commission is a public development authority, a PDA that was created in the 1970s, I believe, of the community block grants.
Mr. Reichert's extensive experience with Catholic Community Services, as well as his management experience in social services, housing advocacy, and within Indian country, make him an ideal candidate to continue working on this council.
public assets and Native communities committee recommends that council confirm his reappointment.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.
Colleagues, are there any additional comments on the appointment?
Hearing no additional comments on the appointment, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?
Madam Clerk, you might be muted.
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yeah.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Yes.
President Gonzalez?
Yes.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you.
The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.
All right, moving along to agenda items 4 through 14. Will the clerk please read items 4 through 14 into the record?
Agenda items four through 14, appointments 1700 through 1710. Reappointments of Gloria Connors, Todd Lieber, and William Ludlam as member of Sales Center Advisory Commission for term to September 28th, 2021. Appointments and reappointments of Michael George, Koichi Kobayashi, Mark F. Dieter and Donna Moody as member of Sales Center Advisory Commission for term to September 28th, 2022. And appointments and reappointments of John Olenski, Brian E. Robinson, Holly D. Golden, and Sarah C. Rich as members of the Sales Center Advisory Commission for term to September 28th, 2023. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
All right, folks.
Council Member Juarez, you are recognized also in this context to provide the committee report.
Thank you.
We were in committee.
We're delighted to have director Robert Nellum's of the sales center.
He spent time with.
All 11 applicants before the committee and express his excitement for 4 new and 7 returning appointees.
so that's 11. so 4 or new and 7 or reappointments.
The Seattle Center Advisory Commission is a great group of people that provide direct feedback, guidance, established policies, and submit to the council a regular report on the progress Seattle Center is making.
This has been particularly important in light of the intense economic development and recent reconstruction of the Seattle Center, also now known as the Climate Pledge Arena, and the scheduled opening of the NHL climate pledge arena for the NHL Kraken team in the fall of 2021. If you recall, these last four years or so, we have been working hard of having OVG and NHL come to the city of Seattle to not only redevelop and reconstruct Seattle Center, but also the NHL Training Center in the north with new hotels, restaurants, low income housing, affordable housing, as well as market rate housing.
This has been our emphasis on the north end around light rail, the Northgate light rail station for transit-oriented housing, transit-oriented development, transit-oriented employment, and we're hoping transit-oriented childcare.
In addition to that, we are happy to report that Virginia Mason will be joining the medical community up north with Northwest Hospital and UW Medicine.
That being said, the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee recommends that council affirm the appointments 01700 to 01710. Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Juarez for that committee report.
Are there any additional comments on the appointments?
Council Member Lewis, please.
Thank you, Madam President.
I just wanted to speak briefly to the appointment of Michael George that's before the committee, and I'm really excited to see Michael putting himself forward for this opportunity to serve.
I got to become acquainted with Michael yesterday when he was a candidate for Seattle City Council District 7 and one of my opponents in the primary, and I came to have extremely high regard for him, and we've been social since then and collaborating on a lot of projects, including downtown school and other issues related to livability and safety downtown.
You know, I know him to be a person of the highest ethical character and the highest commitment to public service and everything that we're trying to do here in the city of Seattle to move the ball forward on homelessness, on the built environment, on all sorts of issues where Michael has expertise and demonstrated commitment and really fortunate to call him my friend and soon fortunate to call him a board member.
So I'm looking forward to voting to approve Michael along with the other nominees today and really appreciate seeing him step forward for this great way to make a difference.
Thank you, Council Member Lewis.
Are there any additional comments on the appointments?
Hearing no additional comments on the appointments, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointments.
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Yes.
President Gonzalez.
Yes.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you.
The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.
All right, we're gonna go ahead and move to the committee report for the Transportation and Utilities Committee.
Will the clerk please read the short title of item 15 into the record?
The report of the Transportation and Utilities Committee, agenda item 15, Council Bill 119953 relating to the City Light Department accepting various easements for overhead and underground electrical rights in King County, Washington.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Peterson, as chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to provide the committee's report.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, we've got nine items from our Transportation Utilities Committee on this agenda.
The first two are from Seattle City Light.
The first one that was just read into the record, Council Bill 119953, is similar to the next one, 119954. These two measures are the routine approval of almost 600 easements needed by City Light to provide service to new developments and other situations where service is physically changed.
These easements allow the utility to locate wires across property not owned by either the served customer or the city government, and to provide service to all customers in any new subdivision.
The committee unanimously recommended approval.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Yes.
President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 16, will the clerk please read the short title of item 16 into the record.
Item 16, Council Bill 119954 relating to the City Light Department accepting various easements for overhead and underground electrical rights in King County, Washington.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Peterson, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report on this council bill.
Thank you.
Council Bill 119954 is very similar to the one we just passed.
It's various easements for Seattle City Light and the committee unanimously approved it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson?
Yes.
Strauss?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Aye.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Aye.
President Gonzalez?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
Item 17, will the clerk please read item 17 into the record?
Agenda item 17, Council Bill 119956 relating to Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the general manager, CEO of Seattle Public Utilities to execute an agreement with King County Fire Protection District 40 for fire protection and emergency medical services for certain city of Seattle water system properties in King County, Washington.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Councilmember Peterson, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report.
Sorry, Councilmember Peterson, you are on mute.
Thank you, Council President.
This bill, Council Bill 119956, approves a negotiated agreement to provide fire coverage for Seattle Public Utilities' Cedar River Pipeline Maintenance Facility at Lake Taps.
SPU pays King County Fire District Number 40 for that service, and this is an update of a prior agreement.
The result is a small positive fiscal impact due to a slightly lower cost to SPU for the fire district services.
The committee unanimously recommended approval.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson?
Yes.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Yes.
President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 18, will the clerk please read the short title of item 18 into the record?
Agenda item 18, Council Bill 119961, relating to Seattle Public Utilities, authorizing the general manager and chief executive officer of Seattle Public Utilities to acquire, accept, and record on behalf of the city of Seattle, both temporary and permanent property rights from owners of property.
Committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Peterson, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report on this council bill.
Thank you.
Council Bill 119961. This bill approves a few easements Seattle Public Utilities obtained to facilitate construction of the ship canal water quality project.
It's a large environmental capital project that includes storm water storage tunnel between Wallingford and Ballard.
The overall project remains on budget.
The committee will be receiving a briefing and update on the status of the project early next year.
The committee unanimously recommends approval.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson?
Yes.
Strauss?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Yes.
President Gonzalez?
Aye.
Ayes in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 19, will the clerk please read the short title of item 19 into the record.
Agenda item 19, Council Bill 119962 relating to Seattle Public Utilities, authorizing the general manager and chief executive officer of Seattle Public Utilities to enter into a stormwater facility construction and maintenance agreement with the state of Washington and grant a non-exclusive easement with the state of Washington.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report on this council bill.
Thank you.
Council Bill 119962, this measure will approve a maintenance agreement Seattle Public Utilities negotiated with the Washington State Department of Transportation, WSDOT.
Regarding two adjacent stormwater ponds along I-5 in South Seattle, the committee unanimously recommended approval.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson?
Yes.
Strauss?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Yes.
President Gonzalez?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 20, will the clerk please read agenda item 20 into the record?
At agenda item 20, Council Bill 119959, imposing a revenue measure of 15% sales, excuse me, 0.15% sales of use tax for transportation purposes as authorized by Seattle voters at the November 3rd, 2020 election and ratifying confirming search and prior acts.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.
This one is also out of your committee, so you're recognized in order to provide the committee report on this council bill.
Thank you, Council President.
Council Bill 119959. On November 3rd, the voters of Seattle, by a very large margin, approved the 0.15% sales tax to provide revenue to the Seattle Transportation Benefit District.
Today's action by us is essentially ministerial, authorizing the city finance director to take all actions needed to work with the State Department of Revenue to turn on that revenue stream for us.
The committee unanimously recommended approval.
Thank you so much.
Are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 21, will the clerk please read the short title of item 21 into the record.
Agenda item 21, Council Bill 119960, regarding the Transit Service Funding Agreement with King County, authorize the Director of Seattle Department of Transportation to execute an amendment to the agreement.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Council Member Peterson, this one's also out of your committee, so please feel free to provide the committee report.
Thank you, Council President.
This bill 119960 is a six-month extension of the existing transit service funding agreement with King County Metro.
It's a brief six-month extension that's needed because the previous six-year Seattle Transportation Benefit District funding was written to expire at the end of this year.
There was no cushion built in at that time, so this is just giving six more months under the existing regime.
We will have a more robust discussion later when we receive the new service funding agreement with King County Metro.
We'll have a bigger discussion about that later.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Colleagues, are there any additional comments on the bill?
Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Peterson?
Yes.
Strauss?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Esqueda?
Yes.
President Gonzalez?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 22, will the clerk please read the short title of item 22 into the record?
Agenda item 22, resolution 31981, relating to the Seattle Department of Transportation authorizing the director to act as the authorized representative slash agent on behalf of the city of Seattle.
The committee recommends that the resolution be adopted.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, you're recognized in order to provide the report on this bill.
Thank you.
Resolution 31981 allows the Seattle Department of Transportation to apply for a grant that, if obtained, will provide significant funding, $910,000, for construction of the Georgetown South Park Connection Trail project.
The committee unanimously approved this.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
OK, colleagues, are there any additional comments on this resolution?
Hearing no additional comments on this resolution will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution.
Peterson.
Yes.
Strouse.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
President Gonzales.
Aye.
Eight in favor none opposed.
Thank you so much.
The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Item 23, will the clerk please read the short title of item 23 into the record.
Agenda item 23, resolution 31980, granting conceptual approval to construct, install, maintain, and operate below grade private utility lines.
The committee recommends that the resolution be adopted.
Thank you so much.
Council Member Peterson, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report.
Thank you, Council President.
Resolution 31980. This resolution is a preliminary approval for development of a heat capturing project that needs a permit to locate pipes under city government streets.
The project is an environmentally beneficial way to capture, for use, heat from sewer lines that would otherwise be wasted.
We'll see this project again with complete drawings along with a permit application later.
The committee unanimously recommended approval.
Thank you so much for that report.
Colleagues, are there any additional comments on the resolution?
Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?
Peterson?
Yes.
Strauss?
Yes.
Herbold?
Yes.
Juarez?
Aye.
Lewis?
Yes.
Morales?
Yes.
Mosqueda?
Aye.
President Gonzales.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.
Okay, adoption of other resolutions.
Will the clerk please read agenda item 24 into the record.
Agenda item 24, resolution 31982, setting forth the city of Seattle's 2021 state legislative agenda.
Thank you so much.
Madam Clerk, I will move to adopt Resolution 31982. Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you so much for the second.
It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution as sponsor of the resolution.
I'll address it first and then open the open the floor to additional comments on the lobbying agenda.
I won't spend too much time talking about the contents of this particular resolution.
The attachment does represent the proposed city's lobbying agenda for consideration and discussion today.
It is intended to, of course, be a, excuse me, a blueprint of sorts that will guide our lobbyists in Olympia on values and principles and hopes in terms of what we would like to see from the state legislature in terms of statutory fixes or revenue allocations and appropriations.
that would benefit the residents of the city of Seattle.
As I mentioned this morning, we have had an opportunity to have a public discussion about the draft lobbying agenda during council briefings.
We've done that twice now.
That presentation was made to us by the folks over at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
In addition, the Office of Intergovernmental Relations reached out individually to each council member to request a one-on-one meeting, both to brief each of you on the contents of the draft agenda, but also to solicit your input and your proposed changes to the lobbying agenda for inclusion in the current draft.
And I want to thank each of you and the members of our Office of Intergovernmental Relations for the work that you've done in the background to get us to a point to consider taking final action today on approving the city's legislative agenda for 2021. We've heard multiple times from OIR that this legislative session will be a historic one, given that it will be happening remotely and in the context of the global pandemic and the other crises facing our shared constituencies across the state.
This is going to be a tough legislative session, but a very important one in which we can lift up the city's priorities on behalf of the people that we represent.
We oftentimes say that the city can do a lot and we do a lot in terms of meeting the basic needs of our residents.
But we need all the help we can get during these times from our partners at the state level, and of course, our partners at the federal level.
So this year, generally speaking, our agenda represents our continued commitment to affordable housing, to climate resiliency and environmental justice, to a just economy, to a just and equitable economic recovery in the face of COVID, to pushing further on racial equity, to advancing issues related to substantive police reform, And to continuing our advocacy for progressive revenue by acknowledging that we need to immediately correct for our extremely aggressive taxation system across the city.
So we are happy and eager to work with our state partners in addition to all of those things on much needed COVID relief for our constituents here in the city of Seattle.
And we are looking forward to working with the state partners on identifying additional COVID-19 relief opportunities for the people that we all currently serve.
So I will leave it there.
There's a lot to be excited about in our lobbying agenda.
And again, for folks who are both new to the council, but also for folks who are watching and may not be familiar with the lobbying agenda, You won't see any specific bills called out in our lobbying agenda.
This is a, again, blueprint of values and principles that we want to generally advocate for or against once we are down in Olympia.
And once we have an opportunity to see actual language from bills, we are able to empower our lobbyists and our Office of Intergovernmental Relations employees to Advocate accordingly to the lobbying agenda in Olympia, we will have an opportunity in the new year in 2021 to regularly have presentations in council briefing from members of our lobbying team, including staff from the office of intergovernmental relations.
who will report to us on progress or lack of progress on various items and principles included in the lobbying agenda.
So I will go ahead and close out my comments there.
Happy to hear any other comments from any of my colleagues.
Thank you.
Councilmember Herbold.
who has had an opportunity to participate in a legislative work session promoting these ideas.
Really appreciate their sharing these concepts with us early so that we could get them in the agenda.
Just high level, removing accountability from the bargaining process, removing arbitration as a route of appeal for police misconduct, repairing the broken decertification system, Ensuring community is represented in the Washington State Training Commission.
Currently only three of 16 members are designated for community members.
We would love to get at least 50% of those folks to be community members.
Institute truly independent investigations through the establishment of a statewide use of force database and an independent state agency to investigate use of deadly force incidents.
and independent prosecutions of deadly force, ending qualified immunity, and strengthening court requirements for officers to intervene when they witness police misconduct.
In addition, the Black Excellence in Cannabis in King County Equity Now recommendations have been included.
They offered support that we have included in this agenda.
for review of marijuana licensing and the incorporation of a racial and social equity program that recognizes historic inequities and harm resulting from over-policing of marijuana offenses in communities of color, including the resulting lack of ownership opportunities and expunging all cannabis-related felonies and offenses to address the disproportionate impact on the Black community.
In addition, we included language to support legislation to reduce the impact of economic disparity by de-linking driver's license suspensions from non-payment of traffic fines and expansion of work that we've done here at the city related to DWLS3.
And three non-criminal justice reform things I want to just mention and thank everybody for helping get these in.
There's a floodplains by design initiative to support investments in I'm sorry, the taxable value of properties impacted by the stay at home order.
in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
This is uplifting an effort of the King County tax assessor, John Arthur Wilson, to allow him some flexibility to result in lower tax bills of properties impacted by stay-at-home order.
And then finally, continued and expanded support for Seattle's own Home for Good so that we can continue it as a program year after year.
Thank you.
Thank you so much Council Member Herbold for highlighting those important issues.
Are there any additional comments on the resolution?
Hearing no additional comments on the resolution will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution.
Peterson.
Yes.
Strauss.
Yes.
Herbold.
Yes.
Juarez.
Aye.
Lewis.
Yes.
Morales.
Yes.
Mosqueda.
Yes.
President Gonzalez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you so much.
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 other further business to come before the council?
Hearing none, we're going to go ahead and close out today's meeting.
That does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.
Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Monday, December 14th, 2020 at 2 o'clock p.m.
I will see you all then or in committees, various committees this week.
Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon.
We are adjourned.
Thank you.
you