Seattle City Council 6/24/19

Okay, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for being here in City Hall.

Thank you for being here in City Hall.

The June 24th, 2019 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's 2 o'clock p.m.

I'm Bruce Harreld, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Sawant.

Here.

Begshaw.

Here.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Mosqueda.

Here.

O'Brien.

Here.

Pacheco.

Here.

President Harreld.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you.

there's no objection today's introduction or referral calendar be adopted however I would like to say if there's no objection the council rules relating to the circulation of a council bill for introduction on the proceeding business day will be suspended.

And so we can hear from Council Member O'Brien on the matter.

So Council Member O'Brien, you have the floor.

Great.

Thank you, Council President.

I appreciate you suspending the rules.

And colleagues, I apologize for not circulating this bill by the 5 p.m.

deadline on Friday.

But I would like to move to amend the proposed introduction referral calendar by introducing Council Bill 119558, entitled, An Ordinance Relating to City Streets, Changing the Name of the Designated Festival Street Portion of East Any Way Between Broadway East and 10th Avenue East to East Barbara Bailey Way, and Superseding the Relevant Portions of Ordinance 4044, Ordinance 89910, Ordinance 102981, and any other ordinance to the extent inconsistent, and by referring it to the City Council.

Is there a second?

Okay, it's been moved and seconded to amend the proposed introduction referral calendar as stated by Council Member Bryan.

Any questions or comments?

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

So our introduction referral calendar is amended.

All those in favor of adopting the introduction referral calendar as amended, please vote aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

It is amended.

There's no objection today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

The minutes of the June 17, 2019 City Council meeting have been reviewed, and if there's no objections, I will sign it.

The minutes are hereby signed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

presentations.

We have two very exciting presentations.

I think many of you are not here to see me sign those boring minutes.

So Council Member Herbold, will you lead us on our first presentation?

Fantastic, thank you.

So I have a presentation honoring the Seattle Channel for winning five regional Emmy Awards.

I have a proclamation identifying the programs that received the awards and talking a bit about our love for the Seattle Channel.

We have a number of staff members here from the Seattle Channel, but before General Manager Shannon Gee makes some remarks, I was wondering if I could read the proclamation.

Please, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

A proclamation by the mayor and Seattle City Council honoring the Seattle Channel for winning five Northwest Emmy Awards.

Whereas Seattle Channel, the city's award-winning municipal TV station, is a cornerstone of civic engagement.

From City Hall to Seattle's vibrant neighborhoods, Seattle Channel helps residents connect to their city.

And whereas Seattle Channel's dedicated staff is committed to producing quality content with depth and impact and telling inspiring stories that shine a spotlight on the city's history, its evolving culture, and diverse people and places, whereas Seattle Channel was nominated for 17 Northwest Regional Emmy Awards in program categories including Environment, Politics, and Business, in the craft categories of Hosting, Photography, and Editing, and whereas Seattle Channel was recognized with five regional Emmy Awards by the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Science on June 8th for its Arts, Sports, and historical cultural programming as well as an interview special and promotional campaign.

Okay.

So, Samantha, we'll have public comment in a second.

So I'm going to ask that you sit down.

Otherwise, I'm going to find you disruptive.

So I'm giving you a notice that you're being disruptive.

And I'm going to ask you to stop.

So having said that, I'm going to have her removed, please.

Please have her removed from the quorum.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Now...

But I'm also...

It's unfortunate, ma'am.

Please have her removed and we'll try to...

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

So unfortunately, if you are...

President Harrell, if we cannot use security in this case, I don't think it's appropriate to use it.

We don't lay hands on people.

So I'm also putting on notice that you're going to be now, unfortunately, permanently banned because you are not adhering to the instructions of a security officer.

And we're going to ask that she be removed.

Okay, please have her move.

Thank you for your courage in speaking.

I absolutely think we do need non-violent disruptive movements and I think this is...

We're trying to stick with our agenda, Council Member Shwana.

No, I'm sorry.

We cannot just leave her in the lurch like this.

She asked for a response, so I'm saying that I stand with you as an immigrant myself and as a socialist, and this is exactly the kind of movements we will need.

Movements will need to disrupt routine, otherwise we're not going to address the climate crisis or the discrimination against immigrants.

We do need to abolish ICE.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

We, I would remind you that we do have public comment coming up.

So, um, Ma'am, would you be so kind as to accommodate the officers?

There's other rules associated with people.

Don't comply with the officer's instructions.

I don't think that in this case, I don't support using security against this activist.

I think they've made a very important point and they should be allowed to stay in the chambers.

So let me, I appreciate the enthusiasm.

So let me sort of tell you the rules of engagement here.

So the rules that even council members who want, I believe, supported would suggest that when a person, I don't condone the security officers laying hands on anyone, but we do, so I try to ask them not to use force.

But when a person refuses to comply with the polite instructions of an officer, there are other rules that take place, and so you'll be no doubt excluded from other participation.

So officers, she can stay here, but the other rules will kick in.

So let's proceed with the meeting.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for doing your job.

Okay, now having said that, sort of threw my rhythm off here.

Let's see, where was I?

I just want to be clear for the record, though, I don't support this activist being banned from City Hall because I think when Council President Harreld refers to other rules, that's what he's referring to.

I just want to state for the record, I don't support that.

I support your right to be in City Hall because that's exactly the kind of movements that we need to build to support immigrant rights and to fight for climate change.

So if that happens, I will stand with you.

Council President Harrell, if I could just make a quick comment.

Please, Council Member O'Brien.

I agree with the substance of everything the Speaker said, and I appreciate the content of it, but we have rules in place that we have to follow, and we can't simply say the rules apply to some people if we agree with you, and they don't apply to other people if we disagree with you.

And we have very strict rules because people have been coming to this place, speaking out, frankly saying some awful, hateful things for a long time, and we've been unable to remove them.

If we don't act uniformly and use the rules and laws that we have and apply them equally across everyone who shows up, we start getting to a place where we discriminate the people based on whether we like their free speech or not, and that is not a path I want to go down.

And so, Council President Harrell, I appreciate your gentle tone, but I also appreciate that we have the rules of standby.

I completely agree with everything that was said there, and yet we can't have these forums turn into Anybody who wants to show up, whether they're supported or not, can just stand up and scream out.

We have public comment coming in just a few moments, where everyone can line up and say their piece, and we will listen to that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor O'Brien.

So, thank you for those words.

Okay, Council Member Herbold, you still have the floor.

Thank you, I will quickly wrap it up.

Whereas feature magazine show CityStream and ArtZone with Nancy Guppy with its focus on Seattle's creative scene were recognized for their winning content, which included an inspiring look at the Special Olympics USA games, a glimpse into the past with a poignant portrait of Japanese-American World War II veterans, a profile of a local man who powers the sound behind some of rock's biggest guitarists, and a moving story of a Holocaust survivor, and a trio of light-hearted marketing spots.

And whereas Seattle Channel completed more than 625 productions in 2018, including nearly 340 city council programs and more than 60 events with the mayor, providing transparent coverage of local government and serving as an important source of information in a digital era where local news outlets play a vital role.

And whereas Seattle Channel and local cable access TV stations are a vital part of the country's public media, the channel's inclusive programming sparks informed public dialogue, gives voice to the people and cultural traditions that comprise Seattle, and serves as an important platform to showcase and share the city's diverse arts community.

Now, therefore, the City Council and Mayor hereby proclaim June 24th, 2019 to be Seattle Channel Day.

Thank you, Councillor Herbold.

Before we suspend the rules and listen to our recipients, does anyone else want to say any words on this proclamation?

If not, let's suspend the rules and hear from our guests.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I just want to say, you know, we are very honored and grateful and excited for this proclamation and acknowledgement of our work.

We're able to create and produce our programming through the support of the council, all of you, and the mayor and our department, Seattle Information Technology.

Thank you.

And like you all, we aim to do high quality work through our commitment to serve the residents of the city.

I wanna thank the Seattle Channel staff and contributors who have worked in service to the city.

Some is as few as three weeks up to over 30 years.

The people of the Seattle Channel use their hearts and smarts to create compelling programming.

And there are many who have helped us build the organization to where it is today.

So I wanna thank them as well.

We truly value our community and we tell stories and share information that reflects our city from our coverage of council meetings and mayor's press conferences and public hearings to our Emmy Award winning programming.

We see the continuum of this service to the city in this wide array of coverage, both in showing the business of government and telling the detailed stories of our community.

It really is all part of one thing.

So thank you for collaborating with us and supporting us in our endeavors.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Let's have everybody squeeze together.

If you can see the front of this, I can see you.

No hiding.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you Council Member Herbold for the presentation.

Thank you Channel 21 folks.

Okay, our next presentation will be Council Member O'Brien to talk about the Green New Deal and we would love to hear.

We would love to hear from you.

Council Member O'Brien.

Council Member O'Brien, you have the floor.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll be brief.

I want to circulate for signatures at this moment a letter from the Seattle City Council.

It's addressed to God Green and 350 Seattle regarding the Green New Deal endorsement.

What it says, I'll just read a couple parts of the letter and then I'll pass it around for signatures and we can pursue to public comment.

The Seattle City Council members named below endorse your bold vision for a Green New Deal for Seattle as outlined in your Green New Deal, Seattle for a Green New Deal endorsement letter, which is attached.

I'm going to quote from the letter.

Seattle has what it takes to be a global climate leader.

We have communities who have been fighting injustice for generations, who can lead the way in showing how we take care of one another while demanding a healthy, stable future for all of us.

We have neighborhoods striving for local resiliency.

We have industries full of workers who are increasingly asking how they can use their skills and knowledge for the public good.

We have city leaders who have time and again acknowledged that the climate crisis is not just fought at the United Nations or in Washington, D.C. It's fought and won here where we live.

This is the moment for all of us to come together and do what must be done for our common future.

I really want to thank folks who are leading the movement locally and nationally on this and I am excited to put my signature on this and we'll pass it around for you all to have a chance to sign that too.

President Harrell, if I could say a few words on this.

Please, Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

I just, first of all, wanted to congratulate the movement, led by many organizations, among them, a few among them, 350 Seattle, God Green, indigenous community activists, and as you know, I've also signed on to the Green New Deal program that you all have outlined.

And it's really such a pleasure to me to see you all.

Many of you were also involved in the fight that we had to divest the city from Wells Fargo, and we're taking steps for the public bank.

The No Dakota Access Pipeline resolution, the LNG resolution that we passed, no LNG, but of course the fight goes on.

Many of you are involved there, still in Tacoma.

But I also wanted to say, in addition to all of that, of course, we should be fighting to massively expand public transit, make it fully electric and free at point of use, by making sure that we raise progressive revenues, by building political courage to tax big business, but also move on the other thing that relates to carbon emissions in a big way in our city and region, which is the retrofitting, build residential and commercial buildings, for clean energy.

But for all of this, we will need resources, and we do need to connect our Green New Deal demands with taxing big business.

And also, let's keep connecting this with labor issues by making sure everybody understands that the Green New Deal means tens of thousands of new clean energy unionized living wage jobs.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I want to thank Council Member O'Brien for bringing this forward, the folks at 350 Seattle, the folks at Got Green, and so many of the other community members, especially the tribal members who came out today for the press conference that was held with Attorney General Alpaheet Holmes.

You know, today is about concretizing the city's commitment to a Green New Deal.

And we have been trying year after year to move forward to create greater green environmental policies and been met with fierce opposition.

Much of that Council Member Ryan has been trying to lead on, whether it's additional transit or bike lanes, greater density, When we allow for folks to live in this city, we create greater opportunities for people to breathe clean air.

One of the headlines said that duplexes and triplexes are one of the main ways that we can help create a greener economy and a greener environment in our neighborhoods.

When we create bike lanes and when we create bus lanes that are dedicated, that helps reduce traffic.

When we get people out of single occupancy vehicles, the largest emitter of CO2 in our area, we can improve our environment.

And when we hold polluters accountable, we can create true environmental accountability.

Let's create those green living wage union jobs in our green new economy right here in Seattle.

Thank you for all your leadership.

Proud to sign on.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Okay, Council Member Pacheco.

I just really quickly want to thank everybody who has worked to bring the crisis of climate change to the forefront of local and national conversations.

While no single individual can do everything it takes to address the crisis, each of us will have to do our part.

It will take more than just action from Seattle to truly confront the scale of this problem.

But as a city that has been an environmental leader in the past, I hope Seattle sees the Green New Deal as an opportunity to set an example for the rest of the country and the world.

As the youngest member of the council, a person of color, the last renter of this current council, it is my hope that we work together at the local, state, and federal level to bring the change we need.

Thank you all again for being here and for the young people that are here.

Please, please, please stay engaged, stay involved.

Thank you.

Before we, Council Member Bechoff.

Thank you again, all of you for being here.

Council Member O'Brien, you've been a leader on this the entire time we've been on the council and I'm grateful to you for your work.

And I'm very pleased to have signed this letter and also this evening I'm going to Eastern Washington, working with the Association of Washington Cities to try to encourage that group to sign on as well.

So, many thanks.

Before we go to public comment, I'm very pleased to announce that the letter has been signed by all nine council members.

Do we need to ask everyone to be removed now?

And with the benefits of technology, Council Member Gonzalez, who had an excused absence, has also signed.

So we are in full swing here and look forward to hearing your comments.

So with that, we'll move into public comment on items that appear on our agenda for the day or our introduction referral calendar.

We have several sheets of sign-ups.

here, so I think we have close to 40. So we're going to take it down to one minute and try to get through as many as possible.

So I'll call you out two at a time.

I'm going to start here and use both mics so we could hear from as many people as possible.

So Mr. David Haynes, you are first.

Sir Richard Schwartz, if you don't mind using this microphone, Mr. Schwartz.

So David, you're in the middle.

Are you here?

David, I thought I saw you.

He just saw him leave.

Okay, so Mr. Schwartz, you're gonna pass too, okay?

So Lydia Ringer and Joe Mangan.

So Lydia, are you here?

Lydia?

Yes?

Mind taking the middle mic, please?

And then Joe?

Are you here, Joe?

Joe, do you mind taking this mic over here?

Thank you, sir.

And then the third person would be Zoe Sherman, who will go back to the mic.

Go ahead and, are you two guys together?

Yeah.

Sorry, that's a personal question.

Sorry about that.

So Bob, we're trying to get one over here so we can...

No, no, one to the middle mic, and then one, so we can use both mics.

Thank you very much.

So Lydia, you're first, and then Joe, you're second, and we'll go that way.

Okay, go ahead, Lydia.

All right, thank you very much.

You make this very easy for me today.

Thank you so much for signing on.

My name is Lydia Ringer.

I'm a graduate of Roosevelt High School, District 4, and an organizer of Fridays for Future.

Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the land which we are upon today and the history of that land.

I would also like to encourage everybody in this room to recognize how this policy will affect and benefit marginalized communities.

As a student growing up today and a member of the class of 2019, there is much anxiety around the climate and Just listing them causes anxiety, but living them causes even more.

Here's what we know.

The Arctic region may have its first completely ice-free summer by the year 2040. Over 99% of the land in California is suffering from drought.

Earth's five warmest years on record have been in the past five years.

Now, it could keep going, but I think you get my point.

And I just wanted to say thank you for signing this and for taking this crisis seriously.

Thank you, Lydia.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify.

My name is Joe Mangan.

I live in District 4 and I also recently graduated from Roosevelt High School.

And I'm also an organizer of Fridays for Future Seattle.

I'd just really like to thank you all for signing on to this Green New Deal.

But I'd also like to say that my junior year of high school, I redesigned the streets around Roosevelt.

with a focus on safety and sustainability, and subsequently wrote the transportation policy for the 46th Legislative District Democratic Party.

I mention this because I'm sure you all know transportation accounts for more than half of Seattle's emissions.

So I'd like to not only thank you for signing onto this, but also to ask that in any Green New Deal resolution passed by the city that such a resolution would address the overwhelming effect that cars in Seattle have on climate.

Finally, just as an organizer for Fridays for Future, I'd like to again thank you for signing on to this and for sharing the excitement of all the youth that have been showing up every Friday and for just taking action on climate.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Is Zoe, Zoe and then following Zoe is Rachel Heaton.

Rachel, if you mind taking the other mic, we could keep going there.

Thank you.

I'm Zoe Sherman and I'm 13 years old.

I should be in school right now but I'm not because this is the one of the only ways that I can make a difference.

All of you have so much more power than that.

So much more.

Thank you for approving the Green New Deal.

But we need way more than that.

It's not enough.

It's just a start.

It's the best start that has been proposed, but it's still just a start.

I need all of you to take more action on climate change.

I need all of you to remember the future generations and the impacts that the choices we make right now have.

The last thing I would like to say is abolish ICE.

Hi, my name is Rachel Heaton.

I am a member of the Muckleshoot tribe, and I'm also a descendant of the Duwamish people.

First, I want to raise my hands to the youth that have been coming and being involved.

That's definitely why we do this work.

You guys have definitely made it easy.

We came up here to ask you to sign the campaign, but since you didn't, I still want to raise the point that we have 29 federally recognized tribes here in the state of Washington, and we are the first ones affected by this climate crisis.

And just that when policies are being made that we make sure that these are the individuals that are brought to the table, that these are the people that you're talking to.

And not only that, but that we are including our youth because they are the ones that are inheriting the decisions that we're making today.

So Seattle, let's be a leader in policymaking and let's really make those drastic changes and those changes that need to happen.

And they can't be just the simple focusing on what's happening here in the city, but what changes are happening here in the city that are going to trickle out of here.

So thank you.

Thank you, Rachel.

John, Scott, Anne-Marie, Dooley, and Jonathan.

I think it's F-I-K-R-U.

Sean, Anne-Marie, and Jonathan.

Can I get up here?

Yes, please.

Thank you.

I wanted to say, reiterate the thanks and the gratitude that others have expressed to members of the City Council for adapting this resolution, in particular the leadership that we've seen from Council Members O'Brien, Salant, and Mosqueda.

I think it's definitely the case that we often hear proposals for a Green New Deal throughout the country and we've heard them here in Seattle as well.

A lot of enthusiasm for the specifics of what we need to see as far as free public transit, as far as bike lanes as far as more affordable housing.

Where a lot of these conversations break down I think is over the question of where we're actually going to get the resources to pay for these things.

And so often progressive legislation at all levels of government is diffused with the retort of how you're going to pay for it.

So I would like to iterate that we would also like to see a commitment to progressive revenue solutions.

We would like to see perhaps a mansion sales tax, perhaps the city going into debt using its bonding capacity to pay for the things that we need to see.

And these revenue solutions, I think, are going to get us closer to where we need to be so that we're not only talking about what we need to see, but the roadmap financially for how we're going to get there with progressive revenue.

Thank you.

My name is Anne-Marie Dooley.

I'm a kidney doctor.

I'm also a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.

So you know that our climate crisis is not something that's just happening in Missouri.

It's happening here.

It's just why my organization today and 70 other medical groups announced today a call for action on our climate crisis.

Last winter, we were barely able to cope with a flu season.

There were no beds in the Puget Sound region.

we need a heat wave like the one they had in Europe in 2003 that killed 35,000 people for our health system to be overwhelmed.

Now we're here because of failed economic policy.

And I'm glad today that Seattle has decided not to assume the role of triage and bandaging our current policy.

Thank you for supporting the Green New Deal.

But your decisions today and the next few years will decide whether we stay healthy or thousands die from heat and smoke-related illness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Looks like, Jonathan, following you will be LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, and then Alec Conin.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Johnny Fickrew, and I'm an organizer with Got Green.

And I just Today I just want to reiterate what's said in our letter.

Climate change threatens everything we love.

From our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, to Mother Earth.

All of that is under attack and has been under attack for quite some time.

And if that's the case, everyone in this room has every single reason to raise our voices and do something about it.

Earlier this month, Got Green hosted a Green New Deal town hall.

Last week, 350 and Got Green organized a press conference in the mayor's office and we packed the hall.

And this past Saturday, we've been talking to community members about what a Green New Deal could look like.

And what I can tell you about all of those experiences is that there is incredible energy behind this campaign.

Folks can get behind this because we remember that a better world is possible and That's all I want to say.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chandler.

Apeti washti.

My name is LaDonna Brave Bull Allard.

I'm from Stanley Rock.

I am so honored to stand among you today.

These dreams, hopes, seeds that we have been talking about in indigenous country since 1983 when our spiritual leaders told us to go pray that we could make a change, I thank you for that.

I thank you for divestment.

I thank you for looking for the future.

I want to tell you, I have a great granddaughter that was born.

Thank you for her future.

But most of all, we got to move forward now.

I always tell people, Standing Rock was nothing more than a seed.

To tell the world we have to wake up, there's no more time.

There's no more time.

The rhetoric, the talk, the politics, we don't have time for it.

We have to stand up now.

We have to stand up against injustice of the fossil fuel industries.

We have to stand up with the injustice of the corporations.

We have to be empowered in ourselves.

I don't know when it happened.

but it happened when the people waited for the governments to make the decisions, when it should be the people who tell the governments how we are going to live.

So I thank you for taking that forefront.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I thank you for making history.

because Seattle has already made history and will continue to make history to be the first to stand up for our climate and our world.

An indigenous community, thank you.

Alec will be Eliana Scott Thurns and then Alice Green

My name is Alec Conn, and I'm an organizer with 350 Seattle and Seattle for a Green New Deal campaign.

Thank you very much for signing the letter and taking this first step with us.

I do want to talk a little bit about Seattle as an environmental leader.

In 2001, Mayor Paul Schell said Seattle is a national leader on climate, and we heard that a lot, that Seattle is an environmental leader on climate.

And the truth is that the last two years we have data for, Seattle's emissions rose by 58,000 tons.

And the truth is we are nowhere near on track to reach carbon neutrality, even by 2050, which is too late.

That's not leadership, that's failure.

The truth is that if you live in South Park or the Duwamish Valley or Georgetown, you're three times more likely to have asthma than you live in North Seattle.

That's not leadership, that's failure.

The truth is, if you live in South Park, the Duwamish Valley, or Georgetown, you're likely to die on average 13 years earlier than if you live in Laurelhurst.

That's not environmental leadership.

That's failure.

But the truth is that Seattle can lead on the environment.

Seattle can lead on this.

And we lead on this because we have a city council like you that is supportive.

And we have community members like us.

And together, we can figure out how we can actually finally live up to what we've been calling ourselves for 18 years and be a leader on climate at this moment when we need it more than ever.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll be Alice Green, Chris Esponda and then Tony Mills.

Many of the issues we struggle to address here are ones where we can count on the moral arc of the universe bending towards justice.

The personal and individual costs of delay is real and grievous, but we can improve working conditions, build housing, remedy injustice eventually.

But the climate catastrophe we face is different.

If we fail now, our children and our grandchildren will not have the opportunity to do better.

So I want to add my voice to those thanking you for endorsing the Green New Deal.

But words are not enough.

As the question was asked before public comment, what actions will you take?

We need you to take bold, concrete steps to give all of us a hope of a livable future.

And as you plan those steps, I want you to think not just about policies, but also about accountability, because the legislation you craft is useless if you do not ensure it is followed.

Words are just not enough here.

You also need to think about how we go about it and whose voices are being centered.

Too often the voices of those primarily impacted are ignored in designing and implementing policies, and remedying this historic injustice is part of building a better, more sustainable future.

Thank you.

Thank you City Council for the opportunity of passing the Green Deal.

It is an honor for me to be here.

I am a DACA recipient and my family was concerned about me attending to the protest about the pipelines and fossil fuel industry and the Chase Bank shutdowns with Seattle 350. But I couldn't keep quiet and I risked everything that I had to be a part of it.

And it's an honor for me to be here when I screened the movie called Black Snake Kill Us about Standing Rock.

I brought awareness to a lot of people, a lot of my family members, about what happened in Standing Rock.

And my nephew told my sister, Mom, I don't wanna live in that world about what happened in Standing Rock, and they're living in it right now, so I have to do what I can, because that's the future generation.

And this Green Deal means a lot, just how the Muslim ban, Seattle was a leader to this nation, and it will be because of this Green Deal as well again.

Thank you very much.

My name is Alice.

I'm with the Green Party of Seattle, as well as I'm a labor and delivery nurse, and I want a sustainable future.

I thank you all for signing on to this letter.

And please keep in mind when you're making policy decisions because politics is supposed to be about making sound public policy decisions.

Politics is supposed to go with policy, not just trying to get reelected.

Thank you for building positive policy and please keep in mind the signatures that you made when you're making decisions about tree planting.

transportation, housing, health issues, homelessness, this all is impacted by our environment that we live in and we all want a sustainable future that's across party lines.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I live in district 3. Thank you so much for your representative.

It means a lot to finally feel like we have a voice with our government.

And so I want to thank you very much for taking a step forward.

It's not a popular stance with big corporations.

And it's just a start, but I hope that your signature is just the beginning of you moving forward, and that it's not going to be lip service like so many other policies that have been promised to us.

So, again, thank you.

Thank you very much for taking this step forward.

Thank you.

So we have Linda Soriano, Randy Peters Sr., and Jess Wallace.

Linda, Randy, and Jess.

My name is Linda Soriano, Lummi Nation.

First of all, I want to thank you, Council Member O'Brien, for pushing this through on the new Green Deal.

I just want to briefly say that that is going to affect so much across not only Washington State, but hopefully it has a domino effect to other larger cities, and they will follow what Seattle has been doing.

Orcas, why is it in the news?

We keep seeing whales are washing up.

This new Green Deal is going to also help that part also, so that our plant life, our relatives that live in the water, it's all being affected.

So just hands raised, thank every one of you.

Thank you, Lenny.

Oh, CM.

Oh, CM.

Thank you, CM, for speaking to the people.

Maybe you came to them in a dream to get them to see what was happening, the disaster that was happening.

But today, we come here to say hijka.

I mean, thank you.

Thank you for coming to stand with us, because this is gonna make a difference throughout the land.

Throughout the land, up to Canada, Alaska, all over.

This is gonna make a difference.

But we thank you again.

I'm happy to see our warriors here from through the country.

On OCM, I support the Green New Deal.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Jess Wallach.

I'm an organizer with 350 Seattle.

And I want to lift up the thanks that have already been offered for standing with us in support of Seattle's Green New Deal.

This coming together today, this is powerful.

And we're ready, ready to get to work with you, ready for climate action at the scale of the crisis, ready for solutions that are going to make our city a healthier, more beautiful, more just place to live for all.

We're ready for Seattle's Green New Deal.

And that looks like investing in public transit for every neighborhood, so that we have less pollution, less traffic, and more options.

That looks like the build-out of tens of thousands of units of affordable housing, because climate can be solved with density and anti-displacement.

That looks like the weatherization of homes across the city, creating thousands of good green jobs and lowering energy bills for all.

That looks like all of us coming together to do something bigger, bolder, more beautiful than what Seattle has done on climate so far.

We're ready, and we're ready for you to work with us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Joanne Shatler, Laura Lowe Bernstein, and Nancy Barron.

Joanne, Laura, and Nancy Barron.

Joanna Shuttler, Roosevelt High School.

And I really am thankful that you are doing this Green New Deal.

I hope that the cities of Washington State follow you, especially up in Everett with Boeing.

I think we need to look at Boeing.

with all their gas that they use and hopefully that the engineers, my uncle helped design the 727 and the 737, I hope that those engineers will start thinking about different fuels that we can use instead of the fuels that we use today.

And I'm really thankful about the building codes as a property manager.

I always am looking at different codes that needs to get done.

And I hope that we also can include many building codes that we can have really sustainable kind of building products that are coming out these days.

So thank you very much.

I also want to acknowledge the Duwamish people and the people's lands that we stand on.

And I also just want to thank our indigenous community that are here and the leadership that they have brought to us.

And I also say down with ICE as well as our concentration camps.

Thank you.

My name is Laura.

I'm speaking on behalf of an organization, All Volunteers, called Share the Cities, that was asked to speak today.

I want to echo everything that was just said.

We're very honored to be included in this community push for a Green New Deal led by communities of color, frontline communities, and indigenous communities.

We support ending all new fossil fuel infrastructure within the city limits, holding the fossil fuel industry accountable, like we heard earlier, Attorney Pete Holmes is talking about creating the structures for Seattle's Green New Deal, which means an investment vehicle and a New Deal task force.

We need to robustly and urgently fund the Green New Deal.

We heard Sean Scott talk about that earlier, which is going to be billions of dollars.

This is going to take quite a lot of funds to accomplish and everyone here is inspiring and I just want to thank everyone.

Our group knocked on doors for 70 hours and talked to folks in North Seattle where Future Light Rail is coming to Shoreline in 2024 and hopefully to 130th station as well at that time.

And light rail is one of our biggest investments for the future but we're not prepared to help people walk safely to the station.

We need to make sure that happens.

Thank you, Laura.

This is Nancy?

Yes.

Following Nancy will be Asuka, Jax, and then Dakota, Case, Dakota.

I'm Nancy Barron.

I'm from District 4. I'm a retired middle school teacher.

I am going to talk about a different kind of climate change that we need.

The fact that Seattle police remain employed despite lying in official reports should alarm everyone in the city.

Police statements alter the course of people's lives.

When citizens distrust and fear the police, communities deteriorate.

Nationally and locally, the public perception of police is increasingly negative, largely due to audio and visual accounts of outrageous police behavior.

Yes, the job of serving as a policeman or woman is intense and difficult.

The emotional requirements are extreme.

Not everyone who wants to serve is going to prove suitable.

We must improve the pay and working conditions for our outstanding officers and terminate those who fail to meet the standards outlined in the Seattle Police Manual, Title V, Number 11. Employees shall be truthful and complete in all communications.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for always allowing me to be here and accepting us that are intersex because unfortunately, we're not accepted by a lot of people.

So I appreciate us being included and allowing our voices to be louder in the forefront that we deserve to be in movements like this.

A lot of people do not want to accept or acknowledge that climate change and fossil fuel industry health issues affect us that are intersex.

I was born with asthma and allergies because of climate change and the fossil fuel industry.

We must pass this Green New Deal with progressive revenue.

Thank you.

Hi Shabbat, CEObs.

Hi Shabbat, CEObs.

Dakota Case, Teetsda, Puyallupops, Chudda.

Thank you, honorable relatives.

My name is Dakota Case.

I'm a Puyallup tribal member and I'm a water warrior.

You know, my thing and a lot of people's thing in here is we have children.

We have to look our children in our face and tell them that we are giving it our all for climate justice.

You know, I get to see climate crisis firsthand.

I'm a fisherman.

You know, what you guys call treaty rights, I call a way of life.

You know, I sit there on the water and I sit there and our salmon come less and less and they come smaller and smaller every year.

Now we're cutting them open and they have growths on the inside of them from the damage that Fukushima is doing to our waters and our salmon and our ways of life.

So I want to thank you once again and raise my hands to you once again for taking the step and giving our children another day in life.

That's what all this work is about, is giving our children a fine chance at life, at clean water, fresh air, and Mother Earth being protected and safe.

So thank you.

Thank you, Dakota.

Patricia Gonzalez, Stacey Oaks, and John Van Lehey.

Patricia, Stacey, and Jan.

I'm sorry, Jan.

Hello, my name is Patricia Gonzalez, and I'm also a Puyallup tribal member, and I'm also part of our Water Warriors Council.

I just wanted to get up here and thank all of you.

It's been said multiple times, but, you know, I just wanted to come up here and speak from the heart and just leave you with a seed to think about, you know, as you're thinking about taking these steps forward that the leadership, the human beings that hold these leadership positions across the country right now, you're going to make history.

And that you get to choose whether that's going to be a negative or a positive.

Whether you're going to work with the community and the people who have been fighting for this, and you're going to make a positive change, and you're going to help us save Mother Earth.

or it's gonna be a negative and you're gonna go down a different path and you're gonna be known in history for helping us drown.

And so I just want to really reiterate, Mother Earth, she was never brought up to be, she's never been selfish with her resources.

And our one job is to take care of those resources.

So I just wanted to come up here and leave that, and that's what's on my heart, to leave those seeds with you as you think about these decisions.

May that be your first thought when something new comes to you.

What will I go down in history for?

So thank you.

Hi, my name's Stacey Oakes.

I wanna first also acknowledge that we stand on the stolen land of the Duwamish people.

And I think it's really important what a few people have said that as you move forward in this process that you really look at how are you setting the table and who's invited right from the beginning.

And I think that should start with the Duwamish people.

as well as all of the other indigenous tribes along the coastline here.

I would also encourage you, as you start to move into this process, to think what is the farthest you can go, and then go way beyond that.

We have a decade, maybe.

Maybe.

What does that mean for our children?

It means you go as far as you can and then go way beyond that with everything you do connected to this.

Please.

Thank you.

My name is Jan Von Lay.

I'm a Ballard resident, and I want to thank you, Councilmember O'Brien, for all you've done for us.

And I want to thank all of you for supporting this initiative.

You know, I canvassed for 1631 and every door, virtually, full support.

And I was at the Solstice Parade Saturday, and everybody wants Seattle to do this.

So I thank you for being bold leaders, and let's really make a difference.

Thank you, Jan.

I think the last name is Johnston.

It's O-N, like, I just can't make it out.

They're number 27, and they're before Lucas Vargas.

Lucas is after his O, I don't know.

Emily?

Emily Johnston.

Emily Johnston.

Emily Johnson, Lucas Vargas.

I took all my skills to pull that one out, Council President.

That was a tricky one, Emily.

How you got Emily out of that, I'll never know.

Sorry for my handwriting.

So I just want to add, say basically the same things everybody else here has said today.

But you know, we were told more than 10 years ago that to leave a devastated world for our children, all we have to do is to keep doing exactly what we're doing now.

And we are here today because we know that if we don't forcefully break out of the fossil fuel addicted system, we are going to lose everything.

On one side is the fossil fuel industry and its minions, and on the other side is all of life on earth.

You would think we would have the power to do this, and we do, but our current system is absolutely stuck and paralyzed, and here in Washington State, that has a lot to do with our taxation, of course, and we're very much hamstrung.

But we cannot prepare for climate change nor begin to slow it down if we don't invest in the people of Seattle, in healthy, affordable housing, in free and electrified transit, and in walkable, vibrant communities.

We know that cities are where most people live and where most of our emissions originate.

We know that in Seattle, our emissions have been rising for the last couple of years, and that is absolutely unacceptable when we know they have to fall by half in the next 11 years worldwide.

And we should be leading.

We should not be trailing behind everybody else.

Whatever it costs to fix this and to fix it now is less expensive than what we're going to need to do if we don't do this.

This is a time to be visionary, to break business as usual, and to do what it takes.

Seattle is one of the best educated, richest, and most innovative cities in the country.

We can do this, and we have to.

Thank you.

This will be Scott McClay and then Matthew Lang.

Thank you for allowing me to be here today.

My name is Lucas.

I'm a representative for UAW Local 4121 that represents academic workers at the University of Washington.

Our members are frustrated at the city's inaction on climate and environmental justice, and we're eager to contribute to the solutions.

It's irresponsible for the city to waste the resources that union members have to offer and a serious moral failure not to take action now.

Your approval today is not enough.

To engage union members, frontline communities, and indigenous peoples is absolutely essential if we're going to strive together for equity.

I study the physics of our climate, and we don't have a flashy headline.

We don't have clickbait.

We don't have ways of getting people interested.

All we have is the truth that this is a really serious crisis, and it's going to take everything we have, particularly the uplifting of indigenous communities, to make sure that we do this equitably.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Scott McClay.

I volunteer with 350. I retired early in order to throw myself into climate justice work because we're falling off the cliff.

We're not at the cliff.

We're falling off.

And I want to thank you immensely for signing on and endorsing the Green New Deal.

I wasn't expecting that.

That's an amazing statement.

And now the hard work begins, how to implement and make this happen.

And I want to throw out three things just to get into your minds.

There was huge press for New York saying they're going to cut their emissions by 2050. Our Green New Deal says 2030. We do not have until 2050. And that's going to be a huge lift.

I mean, saying New York's doing great is pitiful.

We have to act fast and boldly.

Second thing is that we're looking at congestion pricing.

We have to go beyond that.

We have to ban cars from downtown.

Maybe there are some exceptions, but we can make downtown vibrant and beautiful.

And the third thing is ADUs and DADUs are great for more density, but we have to get rid of single-family housing.

We have to move density up.

Thank you.

Hi there, my name is Matthew Lang and I'm here today in my capacity as the lead organizer of the Transit Riders Union as well as an educator.

I first want to appreciate all the work and the presence today of all the tribal leaders that are here, Got Green, 350 Seattle, all the youth that are here representing.

I really appreciate all of you for coming out and taking the lead on this work.

I want to talk quickly about The children that I work with, I've been teaching both summers now through smoke season.

And the children that I work with, the kiddos are suffering.

We have to shut them indoors.

They can't breathe.

They are having mental health issues where they didn't before.

We have to do a Green New Deal now.

So thank you for signing on to this letter.

Now I have some action steps to take on.

We need to create a Green New Deal task force and fund that is funded by progressive revenue.

We must define green zones that take disproportionately affected communities into effect.

and make sure that their children do not continue to suffer from generational inequality.

We must pass a moratorium on all fossil fuel infrastructure and hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their damages.

Please think of our children and the future of this city.

Thank you.

Next three speakers, Ben Smith, Ben Smith, followed by Joelle Robinson, and then Brittany Bush-Boulay.

Ben, Joelle, and Brittany.

Okay, so Ben's not here.

Joelle here?

Joelle?

Following Joelle is Brittany Bush-Boulay, and then J.P.

Kenwick.

Thank you, council members, for your leadership.

I'm Joelle Robinson with Climate Solutions.

Climate Solutions is here in support of the Green New Deal campaign for Seattle.

We have been hard at work at the state policy level putting in place Green New Deal policies that move us toward 100% clean in the Pacific Northwest.

As communities start to translate the concepts of the Congressional Green New Deal Resolution into policy, we think it is essential that the shared prosperity be front and center as we transition away from fossil fuels.

The 100% Clean Energy Bill that the Legislature just passed invests in low-income communities and incentivizes family wage jobs for those workers who will be building our new energy future.

Seattle has been a leader in establishing strong emission reduction goals and putting in place smart policies to reach them.

It's time to take that to the next level and Climate Solutions is here to be part of expressing urgency and support for solutions at scale.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, Council.

I am Brittany Bush-Bollet.

I am the chair of the Sierra Club Seattle Group, and I'm here to voice our support for this Green New Deal.

Accelerating climate change is an environmental, economic, health, and humanitarian disaster, and there is no longer time to fight it with half-efforts and small policies.

We need to move boldly and rapidly to advance policies that fight pollution, create jobs, and center the least represented and most vulnerable.

Sierra Club stands with Scott Green, 350 Seattle, with our indigenous neighbors, and our other allies, and thanks to Council for endorsing the Seattle Green New Deal.

Thank you.

Council, thank you so much for signing on to the Green New Deal today.

And thank you to everybody who's spoken out before.

I joined the climate movement in college, like a lot of young people, about 15 years ago.

And something that the elders in the movement were constantly saying to me was, sorry that we screwed this up and now you all have to fix it.

My wife is seven months pregnant, and I refuse to say to my child, so sorry, my generation screwed it up.

You guys are going to have to fix it.

And I think that's the course we're on.

and I hate to say that, if we don't really, really, really go for it.

I think this is a great first step, but I've also been around long enough organizing across the Northwest that I've seen a lot of toothless policy, a lot of fantastic resolutions passed, and little to nothing has changed in that time.

So I'm skeptical, I'm hopeful, and I really, really hope that my kid can benefit from the work that we're doing here today.

Thank you.

So our next three speakers, Kathy Lahan.

Kathy?

Sorry, Kathy.

And then Lipa Brasiulite.

Lipa.

And then Jesse Simpson.

Hello, Council.

I'm actually from Tacoma, and I live in the blast zone of the LNG plant.

So I've learned what fracking is.

I've learned what 86 times the destructive power of CO2 is.

I thank you for what you've done in taking this issue up in front of your council here.

We need to understand a few things.

William Barr stepped off the board of Dominion Energy in January this year, probably still has their stock.

That's what he's doing there.

As far as what's going on the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, 25% of the LNG in the world goes through the straits.

There's a huge glut in the U.S.

And that probably explains why there's a kerfuffle in the straits, to just try to stop that traffic, slow down that traffic, so maybe the LNG market can be saved in the U.S.

But I think it's too far gone now because people get it now.

Even though the local media doesn't seem to know the word Frank.

In fact, are there any members of the local media here?

Are there any members of the local media here?

What the hell is going on?

So so when that that's the reality and young man, you know, we had some idea and we should have been more curious and we should have worked harder.

Thank you.

But they will be violent.

That's that's something, too.

That's a problem.

We did face that as well with our leaders.

So we are all our own leaders now.

We will not stop until this until it's turned around.

Now, these fossil fuel companies have to be stopped.

Thank you.

My name is Liepa Bracelite.

I will start studying environmental policy at UW this fall, and I volunteer with several organizations, including 350 Seattle.

Thank you for signing up for the Green New Deal.

Every day that passes where we as a city and a society postpone bold, all-encompassing climate action, I grieve for the thousands of species of wildlife that are dying because of our inaction.

I grieve for the children who will grow up thinking that choking in smoke every summer is normal.

I grieve for the communities that have no choice but to suffer from asthma and cancer because of the proximity to fossil fuel infrastructure.

We must remember that what we do in the next 6 to 12 months dictates our survival in the next 10, 20, 30 years.

After all, we have 10 years to decrease our emissions by more than 50%, to have a mere chance to a future.

So we have to start today, not in a month, not in a week, but today, the second we sign the Green New Deal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Jesse Simpson.

I volunteer with Share the Cities and the Capitol Hill Renter Initiative.

Both groups signed on to this petition for the Green New Deal for Seattle and thank you very much for all of you signing on to it.

I urge you, though, to turn this into a reality, to find the funding through progressive means to get Seattle's fossil fuel, to eliminate fossil fuel usage in Seattle.

That means transportation, it means heating in both residential and commercial buildings.

This is going to take billions of dollars, and it's not enough just to sign a resolution and all talk about kumbaya, but we need to identify a real plan for eliminating fossil fuel usage in the next decade in Seattle.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The last two speakers I have signed up are Jim Benthal and then Megan Murphy.

Jim and Megan.

Is Jim here?

I'm Jim Bernthal.

I live in the second district.

And I am a volunteer and activist with 350 Seattle, Sierra Club, and a number of other groups that are really pulling together to make this happen.

I thank you, as many have, for each individually signing on to the Seattle Green New Deal.

When I first learned of the Green New Deal a year or so ago when it was introduced, At the federal level, I was so inspired and hopeful because it did the kinds of things that I've been looking and wanting and dreaming of doing for quite a while.

Now it's bringing it home to us locally here.

And I know how hard this could be to make this into real policy.

You've heard a lot of really good comments from other spokespeople about what that policy will include.

I will be watching each of you and working as closely as I can with others with you to make this happen.

But we will not just let it slide and slide.

And I will stand behind you when you stand up to the kind of corporate interests that will make this kind of work hard to fund.

We have to fund it.

You've heard that before.

I will be with you and standing up because most people do support this kind of work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I was watching Democracy Now last week, and it said that Iceland is melting 70 years faster than what they predicted.

It was 40 degrees warmer this time of year, and they had like a dog sled in water.

So I've heard a couple of big name politicians use the word existential.

I think Inslee and Joe Biden.

And it's existential.

The first available definition is our existence.

And the second definition would be our interior and our exterior conscience.

And we have to accept on an interior level that we are not moving fast enough to eliminate carbon dioxide.

And the amount of action we need to take is so ego shattering that I'm hoping that we as humanity can direct our anxiety.

Instead of directing our anxiety at the border and separating mothers from children, just like my son was separated from me in Iowa, and to separate a mother and a child and to pillage Mother Earth, we need to redirect our anxieties away from borders and towards green energy.

Thank you, Megan.

I did have Two sort of sign-ups on the last sheet.

Jared?

Is it H.

Howe?

Maybe we're Jared House?

Jared's here?

No?

Jared?

Okay, come on forward, please.

Oh, Jared had to leave.

And then Danny LaGaille.

Is Danny here?

Oh, Danny?

Okay.

Or Donny?

I'm sorry.

Danny, okay.

He'll be our last speaker.

Well, anyways, yeah, thank you all for signing the Green New Deal.

It's a step towards, you know, making our, well, it's a step to being an example for this country and for the rest of the world and the right step in the right direction.

However, the city's going in the right direction, but the rest, but this country's administration, There's other plans, especially with the environmental agency and who's been appointed there.

They have plans to, this Tuesday, their plan to deregulate the Clean Water Act and push it backwards to allow big corporate entities to remove 90 to 60 percent of federal protections against water, rivers, streams, what have you, and allow these big corporations to dump as much pollution as they want to in there, you know, to save on funding.

Of course, it's going to be good for the economy.

You know, it's going to make our economy good.

It's going to be the greatest economy ever, probably the best ever.

So what we're doing is a step in the right direction, but we have to be going against our own federal government, our own administration.

There's a lot that we have to do.

There's a lot that this city has to try and put an example for for the rest of this nation, for the sake of our children, for the sake of this country's future and the future of the rest of the world, because they look to this country as an example and a leader.

And if they see what we're doing, they're going to go down the same path and just destroy everything with the pollution that will affect the next generations to come and to come and to come and all.

Thank you, Danny.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to payment of bills.

Please read the title.

Council Bill 119548, appropriating money to pay out in claims in order and payment thereof.

I move to pass Council Bill 119548. Second.

Moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Any further comments?

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Pacheco.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passed and the Chair was silent.

Please read the report of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee.

The report of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee, agenda item one, Council Bill 119539, relating to emergency medical services.

Committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Esqueda.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I'm pleased to bring this bill forward on behalf of Council Member Gonzalez, who is the chair of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee.

This bill relates to the King County-wide Emergency Medical Services, or EMS, levy, otherwise known as MEDIC-1, which expires at the end of 2019 and is up for renewal.

This bill would authorize the mayor, on behalf of the city, to enter into an interlocal cooperation agreement with King County regarding the use of revenue for this levy.

This would also authorize King County to place this levy proposal on the ballot for the general election on November 5th, 2019. If approved by the King County voters, the renewed levy would provide an estimated $436 million in total revenues during a six-year period from 2020 to 2025. to the Seattle Fire Department for emergency medical services.

This bill, I want to remind folks I mentioned this this morning on behalf of Councilmember Gonzalez during our council briefing, but just as a reminder, this bill was held over last Monday because the county was reassessing the tax levy rate in light of changes to their financial forecasting.

However, the decision was made not to adjust the rate currently in the legislation, which is 26.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

So there is no amendatory work to this legislation that's in front of us, and it is now ready to proceed to a vote by the full Seattle City Council so that the levy proposal can be placed on the ballot for the November 5th general election.

Thank you, Council Member Skeda.

Any questions or comments?

Now please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Sawant.

Aye.

Begshaw.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Pacheco.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Ayton, favored, unopposed.

Bill passed and the Chair will sign it.

Please read the report of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee.

The report of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, agenda item two, Council Bill 119546 relating to conforming city code to match provisions of state law for rental housing inspections.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Pacheco.

So this legislation would update our rental registration inspection ordinance to better conform with state law.

As you all know, the RIO program requires rental properties be inspected at least every 10 years, either by a city inspector or a qualified private inspector.

For multifamily buildings, only a sampling of units are inspected unless a unit falls inspection, fails inspection, and SDCI orders more to be inspected.

Prior to 2017, a private inspector was only required to give the city a certificate of compliance that was issued after any failures were corrected.

In 2017, the council changed RIO to require that private inspectors provide the city with a full report if any failures are found, so that SDCI can determine if additional units need to be inspected.

This legislation would add a third option to Rio for property owners who do not wish to provide their initial results to the city.

It would allow property owners to hire a private inspector to inspect 100% of their units and only submit their certificate of compliance rather than the full report.

This change will allow private inspectors to identify larger problems and will provide more flexibility without weakening inspections.

Very good.

Any questions or comments?

If not, please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bangshaw.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Jaco.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Bill passed in the Chair of the Senate.

Please read the third agenda item.

Agenda item 3, clerk file 314413, council line use action to approve a temporary expansion of the North Seattle precinct located at 10049 College Way North.

The committee recommends that the City Council approve the project as conditioned with modifications of development standards.

Council Member Pacheco.

This clerk files an application by FAS for approval of a temporary improvement and expansion of the North Seattle precinct.

The temporary expansion would involve adding three portables on the site, which will contain a community room, storage, and a break room.

These spaces currently exist within the main structure, so moving them outside will free up additional space inside for operational purposes.

The plan would also reconfigure parking lots and add a small number of additional spaces for fleet parking.

This application requires council approval because it modifies one development standard to allow surface parking in required front yard along one relatively small stretch of the lot.

We received comments from the surrounding community about this application and SPD and FAS responded to many of those concerns at the plus committee.

FAS and SPD are taking steps to mitigate the impact in the neighborhood including protecting trees, making landscaping and irrigation improvements, and limiting parking to protect some of the green space.

Thank you, Council Member Pacheco.

Any questions or comments on this file?

Okay, so this is a file.

So those in favor of approving the project as conditioned with modifications of development standards, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the Chair will sign the findings, conclusions, and the decision of the City Council.

Please read the report of the Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee.

The report of the Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee, agenda item four, Council Bill 119531, relating to housing for low-income households adopting the Housing Levy Administrative and Financial Plan for program years 2018 and 2020. The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Council Member Esqueda.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I'm really excited about this legislation that's in front of us.

Council Bill 119531 is referred to as the Housing Levy Administration and Finance Plan and Housing Funding Policies for program years 2019 and 2020. But as my council colleagues who've been participating in this conversation at the Housing Committee know, I've referred to this as the moral compass document for our Office of Housing.

This is how we dictate to the city how they will spend the money that we have for affordable housing.

This is absolutely critical as we think about pulling together the funding that we have available from the housing levy funds, the incentive zoning payments, the mandatory housing affordability payments, as well as other funding sources that the city administers for creating affordable housing.

How we use those dollars and who we allocate and who gets approval for building affordable housing in the city is truly a moral decision and we have an obligation to build housing as fast as we can and to recognize that those who are in need of affordable housing are many of the communities that right now are at the highest risk of displacement.

We must be building affordable housing as fast as possible to address the increase in the population locally and to address the crisis of the cost of housing.

We have not responded fast enough to build that housing.

We have not built housing density types that we need across the city.

And we haven't worked with our community partners as fast as possible so that those who are interested in working with and leading with the voice of those who are at most risk of displacement can help get to the front of that list so that they can build housing that is culturally competent, that is rooted in community, that has women and minority businesses on the first and second floors, that has child care facilities, that has health facilities, that has plazas like Roberto Maesta.

this is the type of housing that we want to see created across our city.

And we have taken this opportunity through the administration and finance plan to reconfigure what should be our priorities when it comes to using these housing dollars.

Every two years, we have the chance to recalibrate how we administer the housing dollars based on our community needs.

And this year, we pulled together a robust group of stakeholders that have helped us craft the legislation in front of us We've pulled together individuals who assist and have themselves been eligible for affordable housing, individuals from the non-profit housing development world who have given us tips and tools for how we can improve our process, organizations that are newly interested and entering into the affordable housing development world, to help us identify how we can create affordable housing across Seattle, address the unaffordability issues and the displacement that we are observing every day, and we've pulled in our labor partners to make sure that we are building high-quality housing using good union labor and that we're aligning those labor principles in our housing policies.

So some of the really exciting components of this legislation, Mr. President, include supporting community-driven development and harmonizing the policies with our surplus land disposition policy.

And just by way of reminder, that was one of the first housing policies we passed last year to make sure that the city, if we had surplus land, that we stopped selling it off at the highest dollar figure, that we held on to that public land and used it for the most important public use, which is housing right now.

And we said, as you hold on to this land, the first people that we should be working with are organizations that are working to make sure that those who are at the highest risk of displacement are getting affordable housing.

At the time, community organizations said, that's great.

Thank you for holding on to that public land and not selling it off.

And we need your assistance with getting the dollars in hand so we can build.

So this document today complements that work from last year.

We have also emphasized that we want to co-locate not just housing units but to truly create homes and community.

We've included throughout the document the emphasis on child care facilities, health services, and other community services like public spaces and plazas and greenways so that we're investing in housing and we're creating community space at the same time.

Really excited about the language that's in here around community preference and affirmative marketing so that we can have an innovative and directive approach to prioritizing community members with historic ties to neighborhoods for that new affordable housing that we're building in areas especially at highest risk of displacement so that people can continue to have a place to call home that is affordable and we don't continue to see high risks or high rates of displacement.

We've also created more funding and more of a directive for acquisition of properties.

So when properties come up, the Seattle Housing Authority, nonprofit developers, Seattle itself, through the Office of Housing, has more of an opportunity to put forward the funding to acquire existing buildings so that we can actually create affordable housing.

And we've heard from folks like the Seattle Housing Authority and others that because of the cost of land, the limited space that we have, the cost of materials and labor, sometimes it is more affordable for us and quicker for us to get housing online if we can acquire existing buildings versus starting to build from scratch.

So we made sure to include that as well.

And lastly, I want to thank again Councilmember Herbold who, with our office and in partnership with the unions and building trade folks, We worked on a comprehensive strategy to address and advance labor equity in our housing investments.

And maybe you'll have more to say about that.

But really excited to make sure that we look across our housing policies so that we lift up some of the work that we did last year.

You might remember the K site work that we passed last year and we infused in there through conversations with labor ways that we could see apprenticeship utilization women and minorities getting hired into good union jobs, looking at ways that we can make sure that individuals have the opportunity to get into the building trades and have the ability to build the housing but not necessarily be eligible for it.

We wanted to make sure that we lifted up that language and so we're harmonizing that across the board.

Very quickly, Mr. President, maybe I'll save some of my thank yous for the end, but I just wanted to again underscore the importance of this document.

That sounds very wonky.

It is like alphabet soup, but the reality is that this, in combination with the public land disposition policy last year, will allow for us to build more social housing, socially responsible housing, housing that's affordable and accessible for communities across Seattle, and to do so with the urgency that this housing crisis deserves.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

In addition to working with Chair Mosqueda on how to advance strategies to advance labor equity outcomes in city-funded rental housing developments, we also asked SHA to begin now to look at how they can use pre-apprenticeships on its housing construction sites.

I really appreciated the opportunity to use the plan to define housing first principles as the expected approach to providing housing for homeless populations.

We made clear that we wanted to address the concerns that we read about mutual termination agreements in the, we read about concerns about the use of these agreements and the impacts on on evictions in the losing home report that the Seattle Women's Commission did with the King County Bar Association.

And moving forward, we're going to require that our providers have policies guiding the use of mutual termination agreements.

We included an expectation that housing providers comply with fair chance housing, our city's law related to criminal background checks, And then three other pieces I want to lift up.

I want to lift up some of the language related to incentivizing.

Council Member Mosqueda mentioned our desire to use more publicly owned land for social housing.

We also are incentivizing the use of levy funds for preservation of existing affordable housing, the stuff that we sometimes call naturally affordable housing by allowing for a more robust revolving loan front.

And then finally, we have some amendments that I think will help increase affordable housing options for low-income housing, specifically amendments increasing the subsidy for three-bedroom home ownership units for low-income larger families, and then also specifying that levy funds can be used to build a new detached accessory dwelling unit, in addition to making changes to an attached accessory dwelling unit consistent with the pilot project that Council Member O'Brien was instrumental in making sure that the Office of Housing work on in conjunction with our new ADU legislation that we'll be voting on in another week.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Any other comments before Council Member Mosqueda closes the debate?

Council Member Esqueda, you want to say a few closing remarks?

I want to thank the community members who have made this work possible.

You know, I have to underscore that as we're talking about climate change and the need to address climate change with urgency through a Green New Deal, this is one component of a more comprehensive strategy.

as we create greater density in the city of Seattle, and we do so through an affordability and a racial justice lens and a gender justice lens.

When we create housing that is specifically affordable for our working families and our retirees and those at the highest risk of displacement, we're helping to prevent people from having to move two and three hours outside of the city to have to have a car that has high carbon emissions or to take a bus that doesn't get them to work on time, potentially, because they've been pushed so far out of our city.

This is part of a much bigger strategy that we need to address climate.

And I think as we create affordable housing throughout the city, it's going to take this intersectional lens that we need to apply to housing, to transit, to holding the polluters accountable, and much, much more.

So I just wanted to underscore that connection today because of the leadership you all have shown on that issue today.

Specifically, some of the organizations that have been working on both climate justice and housing policy have been at the table to help us craft this policy.

And some of these individuals and organizations have been part of our community housing roundtable.

I just want to thank them.

Puget Sound SAGE, Got Green, Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Rasa Development Fund, Black Community Impact Alliance, Yesler Community Collaborative, Chief Seattle Club, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, Africatown, Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition, Homesite, Skipda PDA, Housing Development Consortium, Thank you for all of your work, and thank you again to the labor unions and our friends from the labor movement, including the Martin Luther King County Labor Council, Seattle Building Trades, Laborers, Local 242, Northwest Carpenters, Local 86, who were part of the work that we did last year on the K-site pilot that lifted up labor standards, and part of our efforts this year, again, to make sure that we concretize that commitment.

in the ANF plan.

Thank you again to the folks at the Office of Housing, especially Director Walker.

We know this is your last month with the City of Seattle and I want to underscore the amount of attention that our Office of Housing gets at the national level for the work that we've done.

We need those funds in hand and we need to expedite our commitment, but we couldn't have done what we've done so far without your leadership and thanks to your team, including Emily Alvarado, I want to thank our committee colleagues who are up here today, central staff, including Tracy Ratzcliff, who's done a ton of work on this, for your collaboration on this legislation.

I already thanked our council member, Herbold, but I also want to thank my staff, Aaron House, who has put a lot of work into pulling together all of those organizations I just mentioned.

And Aretha Basu, who just stepped out, who helped convene the Community Housing Roundtable, and to acknowledge and recognize her mother, who's with us today.

Thank you for being here, Sarita.

Very excited to have you.

Your daughter's doing great work, thank you.

And with the passage of this proposal and the amendments that we've included, building on the foundation that the Office of Housing and the Mayor's Office sent down to us, I think we have fully rounded out our moral compass for the Office of Housing over the next two years and look forward to working with you to expedite the creation of affordable housing throughout the city.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Council Member Esqueda.

Any further comments before we vote?

Okay, if not, please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bangshaw.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Pacheco.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Aiden, favor, none opposed.

Is O'Brien's aye counted as aye?

Please call the next agenda item to the record.

The bill passed and the chair was signed.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, very much.

Please read the report of the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee.

Please read all three agenda items.

The report of the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee agenda items 5 through 7, appointments 1373 through 1375, appointment and reappointments of Renee J. Peters, Jr., Torgy Madison, and Steven N. Maheshwari as members Community Technology Advisory Board for term to December 31st, 2020. The committee recommends these appointments be confirmed.

Thank you.

So I'm presenting one appointment and two reappointments to the Community Technology Advisory Board.

And I have to tell you, these three folks came to the committee and they were indeed impressive.

Not only are they technology gurus, as you will see by their background, but their commitments to environmental sustainability, affordable housing, human and civil rights issues was just astounding.

So I present to you the first Very impressive young man named Rene Peters, Jr.

He has been going to the meetings for CTAP pretty regularly.

He works at Microsoft in the Azure division with a broad knowledge of cloud technologies and an understanding of artificial intelligence.

Prior to this, he was a chemical engineer and project manager at Procter & Gamble.

He has a BS in chemical engineering from MIT.

and an MBA and MS in Design Innovation from the Kellogg School of Management.

Got to know him a little bit personally.

He actually hails from New Orleans, Louisiana.

So I'm going to bring him around District 2 to mentor some young folks.

And so we're very pleased that Renee has asked to join on the commission.

Our next person is Torgy Madison.

And Torgy has been on CTAP for two years, and he's been a contributor to many projects, including the FCC stance on comments on net neutrality and on our council surveillance ordinance and making sure our privacy rights are protected.

He's vice chair of CTAP and is co-chair of the Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee.

He recently left a 15-year career in enterprise-scale software as a service development to pursue independent video game development.

He worked at Tableau.

He's worked at several places, but indeed, Torgy, thank you for your leadership and your commitment.

And our last one is a reappointment, Steven Maheshwari.

who is a chair of CTAP.

Sorry, Steven, I slaughtered at a table, and I slaughtered it here.

But he's a marketing lead at Amazon, working on products and service for underserved communities.

He's a graduate from Harvard with a focus on sociology and economics.

His background includes a Fulbright scholarship, teaching in Borneo, Malaysia, where he developed programming to teach social entrepreneurship, English, and creative nonfiction writing, as well as introducing online tools to his school.

So I told you we had some impressive group, but their commitment to their communities is also equally astounding as their achievements.

So with that, I would ask you have any comments or questions of these appointees?

If not, those in favor of confirming the appointments, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The appointments are confirmed.

Okay, I believe that gets through our No, it does not.

I apologize for that.

I didn't turn my page.

Please read the report of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.

The report of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee Agenda Item 8, Appointment to 1371, Appointment of Vicki Clark as Member Levy to move Seattle Oversight Committee for term to December 31st, 2022. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Council Member O'Brien.

Great, thank you.

This is an appointment, this appointment replaces Brian Estes who's stepping off the committee for being on there for a long time.

Vicki is the Policy Director at Cascade Bike Club.

She has a Master's in Public Administration.

and I think she'll be a great addition to this committee.

Thank you very much.

Any questions or comments on this appointment?

If not, those in favor of confirming the appointment, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

I believe that concludes our agenda items.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

Councilmember Juarez just looking at the clock, so we're gonna have so on this meeting.

I think we will I'll adjourn it in a second we will start the Park district meeting at what time customer is let's take a five-minute break five-minute break five-minute break It shouldn't be that long agenda item is only three items okay, so with this we'll stand adjourn, and we'll see you in five minutes Thank you very much