Thank you.
Let me.
Good afternoon.
Today is April 26, and this is a meeting of Seattle City Council.
Will the Seattle City Council please come to order?
It is now 2 o'clock.
I'm Deborah Juarez.
And Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?
Council Member Mosqueda?
Present.
Council Member Nelson?
Present.
Council Member Peterson.
Present.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council Member Herbold.
Here.
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council President Juarez.
Here.
Eight present.
Thank you.
And Council Member Sawant, for the record, is excused today.
Moving on to our agenda, to the presentations.
So we have Council Member Herboldt here, has a proclamation on Seattle Denim Day, and she will present the proclamation, and then I will open the floor for comments from Council Members.
After Council Member comments, we will suspend the rules and allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide comments.
Council Member Herboldt, the floor is yours.
Thank you so much.
I'm very glad today to welcome members of the Seattle Women's Commission.
to accept a proclamation declaring tomorrow, April 27th, to be Denim Day in Seattle.
This proclamation was signed by members of the council and by the mayor.
Denim Day was founded to call attention to the misconception about rape and sexual assault.
It was created after the Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction.
The judges decided that since the victim was wearing tight jeans, she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, implying consent in their thinking.
The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament all came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with that victim in that case.
Tomorrow, I hope everyone will wear their jeans in solidarity and take the opportunity to educate others that there is never an invitation to rape.
To accept the proclamation today, we are joined by Tanya Yasu of the Seattle Women's Commission, co-chair of the Seattle Women's Commission, Sarah Liu, the Get Engaged Commissioner, and Ophelia Parker, also a commissioner with the Seattle Women's Commission.
And it is my honor to virtually present this proclamation declaring April 27th to be Denim Day here in Seattle today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold.
Would any of my colleagues like to speak to Council Member Herbold's proclamation before I move to suspend the rules to allow our guests to speak?
Okay, not seen any with that.
If there are no objections, the council rules will be suspended to allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide remarks.
Welcome.
The floor is yours.
Tanya and I'm trying to see who else we have here.
Yeah, greetings.
Oh, there you are.
The microphone probably should be down by my mouth.
Yeah, that's helpful.
Now we can hear you.
Yes, I come in peace from this strange planet.
But, um, thank you so much.
I'm honored on behalf of the Seattle Women's Commission to accept this proclamation for Denim Day.
I am Ta-Nehisi and I am five years on the Seattle Women's Commission and co-chair I'd like to introduce and share the floor today with one of some of our newest commissioners, which is Sarah Lou, who is our good engagement, well, Council Member Herbold already mentioned that.
So I wanted to give them some space and time to share the floor because we've been on lockdown for so long and haven't been able to come out and do the things we do.
So, Sarah, if you will please share your remarks, please.
We saw Sarah yesterday.
Yeah, definitely.
Yes, hello again.
Yeah, so thank you for the introduction, Tana.
Just to share a little bit more about myself.
Hello, my name is Sarah Liu.
My pronouns are she, her.
And I am the Get Engaged Commissioner for the Seattle Women's Commission.
And I just want to say that I'm really proud of us as a city for adopting this proclamation.
I think it really speaks to the values that Seattle holds as a city and how we're standing in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault.
I feel like this is especially pertinent now during the pandemic.
I know we've all been affected by the pandemic, but it's had it's especially had an adverse effect on survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence which we've seen.
through a rise in cases.
And I would also say as speaking as someone from the younger generation, I believe that if we do want to, if we want to fully eradicate sexual assault, it's crucial that there is a greater focus on sexual assault prevention, and that we start educating people on how to do that.
at a young age and instilling those values in them.
So there's definitely a lot of work to do on that front, but I think this proclamation would help with furthering that goal and spreading awareness.
So I will definitely be wearing denim tomorrow.
And on top of that, I'd encourage people to also explain why you're wearing denim, to educate people and support survivors and challenge misconceptions around sexual assault.
and just send the message that no matter what a person wears, it's never a sign of consent and it's never an excuse to rape.
So yeah, thank you again for adopting this proclamation and just showing our commitment to exposing these harmful behaviors and attitudes around sexual violence.
Wonderful.
Thank you, Sarah.
Ophelia?
Good afternoon.
As mentioned, I'm Ophelia Parker, pronouns she, her.
And as Tana mentioned, I'm a newer commissioner as of July 2021. So almost a year, time flies when you're having fun.
Denim Day is a very important day for this commission and the work that we do.
And I thank you all so much for having us today.
As we know, Denim Day is a day that marks action and brings awareness and attention to sexual assault, but also serves as a reminder against victim blaming with regards to sexual assault, and in my eyes, any kind of assault.
Our biggest goals on this commission revolve around understanding and advocating for women across various issues.
So for us, every month is Sexual Assault Month, and every day is Sexual Assault Awareness Day.
And all the work that we do comes back to that or touches that in some way.
Seattle has been my home for five years and one of the things that I've loved about living here is how open the city is and how welcoming the city is and how Seattle inspires everybody to embrace who you are and bring your best self into every area of this city.
And so I hope that, you know, with this proclamation, it inspires not just the women's commissions or the leaders of Seattle, but everybody in Seattle to advocate and support laws that fund education and resources with regards to sexual assault prevention, but also helping the victims that are here and everywhere else where we can as much as we can.
And I will be wearing my denim jeans tomorrow in an act of solidarity for women everywhere who have been victims of sexual assault, for myself, for women in the world, that we remain safe and that the clothes that we wear are not an excuse or opportunity to make us feel unsafe or unwelcome in any way.
And thank you so much for having us today.
Thank you, Ophelia.
So, Tana, do you want to close us out?
Then I'm going to hand it off to Council Member Herbold.
Yes, fantastic.
Yes.
Denim Day does speak to and calls out victim shaming, which is totally unacceptable.
And I just want to mention that sexual assault affects everyone.
It's even more than women.
It's everyone.
Men, women, children, elderly, disabled, rich, poor.
It just permeates all of our society.
And it would be really fabulous to be able to eradicate this.
During this time with the police situation being so stressed out, I just ask for community members to step up and we need to care for ourselves and be that support because it is very difficult for sexual assault victims to reach out.
It's very difficult.
And so with our police being so stressed, We see the numbers and we know that they need support that's going to have to come from the community as well.
Thank you, Tawna.
Thank you, Tawna.
Thank you, Sarah.
And thank you, Ophelia.
And I'm going to let Council Member Herbold close us out on this.
But thank you for being here today.
Council Member Herbold.
I just want to thank the Women's Commission for every year bringing forward this important proclamation.
It goes alongside Sexual Assault Awareness Month proclamation, but it stands alone as well as a really good tool to educate the public.
I also want to thank my colleagues and all of the other advocates out there who have worked so hard to ensure that survivor services are well funded by the city of Seattle, as well as funding programs that lead to prevention of sexual assault.
In my committee, This morning and this afternoon, we heard from the Human Services Department about an RFP that they're going to be releasing around survivor services.
And it's just, I think, really important to recognize the robust funding that the city provides, more than $12 million in community-based programming to end gender-based violence via prevention, intervention, coordinated response, and defender accountability programming, but it's not enough, and we must do more.
So thank you for reminding us of that today.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold.
So with that, we will move on our council meeting agenda calendar, and we will move to the approval of the consent calendar.
So are there any items that any council member would like to remove from today's consent calendar?
OK, I am going to request that we remove item 8, appointment 2127 be removed.
and that is Oxana Reva.
My understanding is that she has withdrawn her application on the commission.
So we have a full calendar with commission of appointees today.
We originally had 23, we have 22 today.
Yesterday, we looked at 19 commission appointments in which 10 of the appointees showed up and spoke.
And I wanna thank Leslie Horton from the YMCA and Chase Monroe from the mayor's office.
Leslie walked us through every one of those appointments.
And so we learned about the application packet.
And so with that, is there anything else my colleagues would like to add?
OK, I see nothing.
So I moved to adopt a consent calendar excluding item 8. Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold.
It's been moved and second to adopt the consent calendar, excluding item number eight.
Will the clerk, I'm sorry, please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Aye.
Council Member Nelson.
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Aye.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council Member Morales.
Yes.
Council President Juarez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The consent calendar is indeed adopted, excluding item eight.
And will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf.
So moving down the agenda to approval of the agenda, I move to adopt the agenda.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.
And I have one amendment, and that is I move to amend the agenda by removing item number eight, appointment 2127 from the agenda.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to amend the agenda to remove item number eight, that is appointment 2127. I will briefly address this amendment.
One of the proposed get engaged appointees, Ms. Oksana Riva would like to withdraw her name from consideration for an appointment to the Community Involvement Commission.
Are there any comments?
Not seeing any comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?
Council Member Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Lewis?
Yes.
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council President Juarez?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you.
The motion carries.
The amendment is adopted.
And the amended agenda is now before council.
If there is no objection, the amended agenda will be adopted.
Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Going down our agenda, we are on public comment.
So my understanding today is we have 10 speakers.
So let me do the instructions first before I hand it over to you, Madam Clerk.
Colleagues, at this time, as you've heard every Tuesday, well, you've heard a lot in the last two years, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the council's work program.
It remains the strong intent of the city council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting and 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.
Our city clerk will moderate the general public comment period.
And before I hand it off, we have 10 speakers on the line and each speaker will be given two minutes.
Council President Juarez, really quick, we now have 11 speakers.
OK, so we have 11 speakers, two minutes each, correct?
Correct, unless you'd like to modify that.
I think we're good.
OK, I will proceed.
OK, thank you.
Public comment period for this meeting is up to 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.
Speakers are called upon the order in which they register to provide public comment on the council's website.
Each speaker must call in from the phone number which provided when registered and use the ID and passcode that was emailed upon confirmation.
Please note this is different from the general meeting list and line ID listed on the agenda.
If you did not receive an email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.
Once a speaker's name is called, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that is their turn to speak.
And then the speaker must press star six to begin speaking.
Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.
Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.
Once you hear that chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.
If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.
Once you have completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.
And if you plan to continue following this meeting, please do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.
Public comment period is now open.
We will begin with the first speaker on the list.
Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt if you have been unmuted.
Our first caller is not present.
I will proceed with the second one.
This is Gordon Haggerty.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes.
Hello.
Yes.
Thank you.
My name is Gordon Haggerty and I'm addressing CD 120305, the rent repayment plan revisions.
I wanna thank you members of the city council for this opportunity to address you today.
And I look forward to the opportunity hopefully soon when we can meet again face to face.
uh...
i've been a builder in an affordable housing provider in seattle for over fifty years and over that time i've been watching the regulatory burden for housing providers steadily increase becoming more adversarial and downright hostile at times to small providers like myself while watching affordability become nothing more than a catchphrase uh...
while the aim of cb one two zero three zero five is to revise the current city plan to align with the state plan, changing the timing from the ending of the state's emergency declaration to six months after the city's declaration creates not only confusion but also additional hardship on local mom-and-pop housing providers like myself.
Regardless of your best intentions, Seattle is currently hemorrhaging rental housing units.
As you know, Seattle's rental registration rolls have dropped by almost 10,000 units between May 1st, 2021 and January 1st, 2022. That's 10,000 rental units gone from Seattle in just seven months.
About 12.7% of those are single-family units, most likely converting from rental to owner-occupied.
The remainder, duplex and more, when sold likely go to developers who demolish the older affordable housing stock and replace with denser, more expensive, and more profitable units.
Small mom-and-pop housing providers like myself are being forced to get out.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Daniel Bannon.
Hello.
My name is Daniel Bannon, speaking on behalf of the Rental Housing Association of Washington.
We represent over 5,000 small housing providers across the state, many of which are from Seattle.
I'm here today to urge you to amend CB120305.
We are supportive of bringing city regulations in line with state laws, as this will give housing providers clarity on which rules apply.
This ordinance references the requirement for repayment plans, but it ties the city repayment plan to the city emergency, not the state emergency.
This is unnecessary, confusing, and will leave Seattle housing providers guessing which state or city laws apply to them, making it more difficult to ensure they are fully in compliance with city and state law.
RHA urges the council to amend the proposed ordinance to sunset along with the state's state of emergency proclaimed by Governor's Proclamation 20-05.
The state already provides ample protections for tenants facing ongoing financial difficulties resulting from the COVID pandemic, including the statewide requirement for a payment plan that already applies to Seattle.
We must prevent further isolation of Seattle's rental housing policy that is forcing small housing providers out of the city at unprecedented rates as seen in your RRIO data.
We would like to see future housing policy have a more robust stakeholder process where all voices are brought to the table.
We must work together if we're going to pass policy that will actually address the housing crisis present in Seattle.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Aiden Nardone.
Hello.
Can you hear me.
Yes we can hear you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Aiden Nardone.
I'm a renter in District 6. A city council member recently stated that the proposed COVID rent repayment plan came about because they listened.
Who did you listen to?
I haven't seen any panel discussions, Zoom meetings, or reports from the meetings that might have been held with the promised legislation that you were going to stand up a small landlord commission for small property owners.
There's a plethora of timely data available in the city pertaining to a vast number of important issues.
But it seems the city council is not interested in listening to timely SDCI data called from the RIO database that tracks the number of available rental units.
This legislation will just escalate the decline of affordable rental housing as the small landlords continue to flee the market.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is George Scarola.
Council President Juarez, council members, I'm George Sparola on behalf of the Low Income Housing Institute.
Lehigh is asking the council to help us find an urgent solution to the operating funding dilemma we're facing at the newly built South End Tiny House Village.
I wanna thank council members Mosqueda, Morales, Lewis for your proactive help with this issue.
Regardless of how we got here, today there are 40 tiny houses two blocks from the Rainier Beach light rail station standing empty.
Our partners are Trubine Baptist Church and Refugee Women's Alliance.
Together we're ready to start serving up to 60 people counting families couples and individuals.
Now for our part Lehigh stands ready to work with the council the mayor the RHA to stretch all available resources to open and operate South End Village immediately.
Thank you.
Thank you, George.
Our next speaker is Jeff Johnson.
Council President Juarez, council members, for the record, my name is Jeff Johnson.
It's my honor to testify before you today.
Last time I did so, I was president of the Washington State Labor Council, and now I'm co-president of the Tucson Advocates for Retirement Action, and I speak in support of the resolution to stop the privatization of Medicare.
Never has our Medicare system been under such a threat.
PSAR has partnered with the Physicians for National Health Plan, Social Security Works, and Congresswoman Jayapal to stop Wall Street from profiting off our Medicare system.
For four decades, Wall Street has tried and failed to privatize Social Security.
Now they've set their target on our Medicare system.
And it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out why.
It's expected that by 2028, $1.6 trillion a year of annual Medicare expenditures will happen.
To Wall Street, this is the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.
To seniors and the disabled, it is our health, our quality of life, and in some cases, our actual lives that are at stake.
Public health experts predict that if Wall Street firms are allowed to skim profits off the Medicare system, it will result in a diminution of both quantity and quality of Medicare benefits and services will be an increasing drawdown of the Medicaid trust fund, which will then result in either further cuts in Medicare benefits or increase in Medicare taxes and premiums or both.
To spin a phrase, what is good for the Wall Street goose is not good for the Medicare recipient gander.
Please stand with PSARA, seniors and the disabled and pass this resolution to say no to privatizing our Medicare system and to say yes to ending the ACO REACH pilot.
Thank you for your consideration and thank you for your work.
Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
Our next caller is Bruce Becker.
Hi, thank you.
My name is Bruce Becker.
I'm a small landlord in Seattle.
I also live in Seattle and I'm calling with regard to Council Bill 120-305.
It's very disturbing to me that the city is switching the laws around, following the state law for tenant repayment should be what is followed, not having something that's separate.
Extending the time frame is confusing for the repayment program.
The state legislature clearly defined the time period where these measures are needed.
Constantly changing requirements for housing providers is driving out small mom-and-pop landlords like me.
We're the best low-cost housing providers in the city.
And this is a real problem.
The goal should be to encourage mom-and-pop landlords, people who are attentive to their tenants and keep their rents relatively low by comparison to new and what's often new replacement modern construction, and the goal of the city council should really be to make it as easy as possible to be a landlord rather than putting extra burdens on it.
As a result of the burdens that the city has put in place, people are selling their affordable housing units.
I get an offer at least every week.
Sometimes multiple offers come in the mail, people wanting to buy my rental property, And then what they would do is they would tear it down and put up a single family house.
That's what they are.
I've got two affordable single family homes and they would tear them down and put up multimillion dollar property.
And that's not leading to what you really want in the city.
I thank you for this opportunity.
I encourage you to vote against council bill 120-305.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Cindy Domingo.
Good afternoon.
My name is Cindy Domingo and I have lived in Ballard most of my life and I'm active in a number of social justice organizations including the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, TSARA, and LELO, a legacy of leadership, equality, and organizing.
I want to speak in support of the resolution to stop the privatization of our Medicare system and thank Council Member Mosqueda for sponsoring this resolution.
This issue is important to me not only because it affects our general society, but because it is personal to me.
As a senior citizen now, I now depend on Medicare for the care of my health.
As a matter of fact, we have many seniors in our family, including my husband, who have major health issues that depend on Medicare.
Working people fought for Medicare and other safety nets And as a lifetime worker in the United States, I paid for the system, and I don't want any further privatization of it.
I don't believe that the opening of doors to private corporations by implementing Biden's ACO reach will improve, enhance, and especially address the inequities that already exist in our healthcare system.
Equity is one of the principles upon which the right to healthcare is based on.
We must ensure that seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, and poor people who have been denied many of their human rights have good quality healthcare.
In fact, ACO reach will have the opposite effect.
Therefore, I ask that the council pass this resolution and demand our president and Congress act in the interest of all our people and close the door on third-party entities in our Medicare system.
Thank you.
Thank you, Cindy.
The next speaker is Kirk Robbins.
Hi, I'm Kurt Robbins.
I'm a resident of District 6. I live a few blocks from the Bardall plant.
And I'm calling about fire safety matters, specifically whether or not cocaine tanks are legal within a very small radius of that place.
We've had fires not far from me in the Leary Triangle and in the Ballard Commons Park.
Environmental mediation is happening in Ballard Commons Park in part because of this matter.
Please address the question of fire safety and the use of propane tanks in public places in parks unregulated on permitted and apparently without any difficulty from anybody in the city is much more within your purview of your expertise than privatization of medicare uh...
i personally am on medicare i'm a medicare advantage which is a private sector matter so i think that this is a really complicated issue at the federal level spend your time on something that's local and pertinent to our lives which is fire safety in Ballard and elsewhere in the city.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kirk.
That was our last speaker present.
Okay, so we have reached the end of public comment, the list of registered speakers.
We had 11 and 6 showed up, Madam Clerk, 7. Around there.
Okay, good enough for me.
So we will move on in our agenda to committee reports.
And our first one up is out of the Finance and Housing Committee with Councilor Mosqueda.
So Madam Clerk, will you please read item one into the record?
The report of the Finance and Housing Agenda, item one, resolution 32049, modifying the template for regular payment of claims ordinances.
The committee recommends that the resolution be adopted.
Thank you.
Council Member Esqueda.
Thank you very much Madam President.
Colleagues, I'm excited to bring to you this piece of legislation that is all about transparency and accountability.
This is an update to the Payment of Claims Template, a document that we see every week here in full council.
However, that document has not been updated for the last 20 years.
It's an old document that references now a defunct audit committee and it's an opportunity for us here as we not only make technical corrections but really recommit to making sure that us as council members, members of the city family in partnership with the executive and in partnership with the community are providing a transparent accounting of all of our payments and claims.
The template and the resolution in front of us is really the result of collaborative work between our city central staff, Tom Mikesell and Ali Panucci, and also the City Budget's Office.
I want to thank Director Julie Dingley and also the Finance Director Glenn Lee for their contributions to updating this template in front of us today.
Of course, this work is only part of our overall process to provide greater transparency, accountability, and clarity as we move forward with our budgeting efforts over the next two years.
Again, proud to serve as your budget chair and look forward to having your support on this updated document so we can have greater clarity every week as we vote on the payments of claims.
I want to thank Sajal Parikh, Chief of Staff, who has really helped to spearhead this work with our office as well.
And the committee voted unanimously to support this resolution.
Thank you, colleagues.
Thank you, Councilor Mosqueda.
Are there any comments or questions for Councilor Mosqueda before we move to a vote?
Okay, not seeing any.
Madam Clerk, please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution.
Council Member Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council Member Morales.
Yes.
Council President Juarez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.
And Madam Clerk, please affix my signature to the resolution.
Let's move to item number two.
This is out of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee that Council Member Sawant chairs, but Council Member Strauss will be presenting on her behalf today.
So Madam Clerk, can you please read item two into the record?
Agenda item two, Council Bill 120305, modifying ordinance 126081 concerning repayment plans for rental areas occurred during or within six months after the termination of the civil emergency declared on March 3rd, 2020. The committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you.
Council Member Strauss.
Thank you, Council President.
And thank you for, I know that the chair of the committee is not present with us today, and I appreciate the fact that we're able to bring my bill before us today.
I also appreciate the...
Say again?
I just said anytime, buddy.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
I love this.
Anyhow, I really also appreciate the public commenters today who called in, which is why I along with Councilmember Lewis created small landlord work group and I know that it.
There are some snags in getting that set up.
And I can tell you that we both met about it this week to get it moving faster.
And we both set up the rental housing market study.
We funded that so that we could have that information for the first time since 2018 when that started so that we can back up and so that we can have the data that is with us today.
It's important for us to have this data so that we can back up the stories of the mom and pop landlords who are selling their properties with the data before us so that we can make decisions with all the information.
The bill before us today helps us ensure that landlords are made whole and tenants have a reasonable time to repay their debt.
The tenant does remain responsible for repaying any and all debt that they've incurred.
This bill is a technical correction to the legislation we passed in 2020, which was passed two months after the pandemic began.
In May of 2020, the council adopted ordinance 126081, which required that tenants with unpaid rent from the pandemic be offered repayment plans that lasted three to six months, depending upon the amount of rent owed.
Today is April 26, 2022. If this was 2020, the pandemic would have started last month and we would have passed the original bill next month.
At that time, we believed that the pandemic would first only last two weeks and then two months.
And we definitely did not foresee it lasting two years or more.
We did know then when everything was shut and many people's line of work suddenly froze that people needed time to address the debt incurred during that close down.
The following legislative session, the first legislative session in Olympia once the pandemic began, the state passed a similar repayment legislation.
If we were in 2021, this bill would have passed nine days ago.
The legislature had the benefit of having a year longer to understand the pandemic was going to last longer than two weeks or two months.
The reason I refer to this modest bill as a technical correction is because the legislation before you today is a mirror of our state's legislation.
There are some very small differences that come from the original bill.
and this bill requires a reasonable repayment plan for debt incurred during the COVID-19 state of emergency.
Colleagues, I know I brought this up at council briefing yesterday, and again, I'm happy to answer any questions.
Matt, are there any questions for Council Member Strauss?
Right, not seeing any.
Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the passage of the...
Oh, I'm sorry, Council Member Nelson.
Can't hear you.
upper right.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
So I have to say thank you very much for bringing this forward, because I do believe that clarity in repayment plans is necessary.
And I will admit that I missed the conversation in the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, and that's on me.
However, this legislation was uh, was heard in committee only a couple days after introduction, and we only had one meeting to discuss and vote.
But, um, regardless, what's important to me is that landlords had the ability to weigh in on this before we discuss it.
And I'm told that was not the case.
But basically, uh, this bill is characterized as a technical fix to bring us into alignment with state statute.
And, um, Digging into this since then, I've learned that it's not quite in perfect alignment, and it would likely lengthen the time, the arrears specified in the repayment plans, longer than the state statute provides for.
So I'll just read some comments from central staff when I asked about this.
This bill is tied to the end of the city's civil emergency, not the state's public health emergency, and extends for six months after the end of the city's civil emergency, where the state statute does not extend past the end of the state public health emergency.
The state ended its eviction moratorium on June.
30th, 2021. So ours has gone on much longer than that.
And this would cover arrears that are incurred during the six-month period after the end of the civil emergency or after the end of the eviction moratorium.
There is much more detail in here, but the bottom line is that I am concerned about losing rental housing stock, particularly that of small landlords who have less resources to weather the eviction moratorium and unpaid rent that is ongoing.
And so we require them to keep their properties in good condition.
for their renters, and I'm just concerned about prolonging the time that these small landlords will have to get that money to maintain their properties and add additional uncertainty about when that might happen.
So I again apologize for bringing up these concerns at the last minute, but I will have to vote no on this piece of legislation.
Thank you, Council Member Nelson, and thank you for sharing your policy reasons for your vote today.
Is there anyone else?
Okay, not seeing anyone else, will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council Member Nelson?
No.
Council Member Peterson?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Lewis?
Yes.
Council Member Morales.
Yes.
Council President Juarez.
Aye.
Seven in favor, one opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes.
The chair will sign it.
And Madam Clerk, please affix my signature to the passage of the bill, to the bill.
Moving on to item number three, we have Council Member Peterson from the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.
Will the clerk please read the short title from item three into the record?
Agenda item three, Council Bill 120303, relating to grant funds from the United States Department of Transportation and other non-city sources.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Council Member Peterson.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, Council Bill 120303 is authorizing the Seattle Department of Transportation to accept grant funds from non-city sources for two projects, multimodal improvements to East Marginal Way and sidewalk improvements along 4th Avenue South near I-90.
It was recommended unanimously by our committee.
Thank you.
That's what I like, short and sweet.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Are there any comments or questions for Council Member Peterson regarding this bill?
Council Member Mosqueda, and then Council Member Herbold.
Thank you very much.
I just wanted to thank the Chair of Transportation.
Thank you very much, Council Member Peterson, for all of your work.
Obviously, this is something that we would like to see as routine legislation, but in these times, especially, you've stepped up to identify other sources of possible revenue, working in partnership to find federal dollars for key city projects through SDOT.
is something I've been really excited to be working with you on.
So thank you for this effort and for the other efforts that you're doing to try to identify more revenue sources for critical infrastructure projects.
Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.
Council Member Herbold.
Thanks so much.
In addition to thanking the Chair for bringing this legislation forward, I want to thank SDOT for answering the questions that I had in committee about the status of this project, which is so exciting.
It's advancing from 90% to 100% design with construction plan to get underway by the fourth quarter of this year.
This is a really high priority project for folks in District 1 who are seeking bike access between West Seattle, downtown, and Soto.
So thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Herboldt.
Is there anybody else has any questions for Councilmember Peterson?
Not seeing any.
Would the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Mosqueda.
Aye.
Council Member Nelson.
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Aye.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council Member Morales.
Yes.
Council President Juarez.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes.
The chair will sign it.
And Madam Clerk, please affix my signature to the bill.
Let's move on to item number four, which is Councilor Peterson again.
Madam Clerk, will you please read the short title of item number four into the record.
Agenda item four, Council Bill 120304, vacating a portion of 39th Avenue South.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Councilor Peterson.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, Council Bill 120304 grants final approval of the vacation of a portion of 39th Avenue South near the Othello Light Rail Station, which facilitated the development of the 211 unit low income housing project called Willow Crossing, for which the Council granted conditional approval back in November of 2019. This bill is recommended unanimously by our committee.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Are there any questions for Council Member Peterson, or does anyone want to thank him for doing his job?
Oh, wait, Council Member Skoda.
So we have no questions.
Oh, Council Member Strauss, yes.
Thank you, Council President.
As Vice Chair of the Transportation Committee, I have to thank Chair Peterson of the Transportation Committee for holding an excellent committee meeting where this was briefed before us.
Thank you, Council President and colleagues.
Thank you.
Council Member Nelson.
Yes, I also do want to thank Councilmember Peterson.
I do not sit on this committee, but it's good to know that he's got our interests in mind as he is legislating.
So thank you very much.
Thank you.
So with that, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?
Councilmember Mosqueda?
Aye.
Councilmember Nelson?
Aye.
Councilmember Peterson?
Aye.
Councilmember Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Lewis?
Yes.
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council President Juarez?
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The bill passes.
The chair will sign it.
Madam Clerk, please affix my signature to the bill on my behalf.
Okay, now for the fun part.
Let's go to item adoption of other resolutions.
This is Council Member Mosqueda's resolution number 32052. Will the clerk please read item five into the record?
Agenda item five, resolution 32052, a resolution to stop privatizing the United States Medicare system.
Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.
Thank you very much, Madam President, and thank you, colleagues.
I know that there's shared interest on health care, health care for all, and appreciate your interest in this and all of the ways in which we've continued to call for protection of social safety net services.
I want to thank you for considering this resolution in front of us today.
It follows previous efforts to support Medicare for all, to support a strong call for social safety net programs at the national to the local level.
I want to thank the folks who called in this morning, or I guess just to say this afternoon, to encourage us to support this resolution.
The Washington State Labor Council, former President Jeff Johnson, and co-chair currently of PSARA, which is Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action.
We also heard from Cindy Domingo, a community advocate, API leader, and member of PASARA as well.
We are here today to consider this resolution that is a call to make sure that we're continuing to defend Medicare services, services for seniors, members of the community with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations who need Medicare now.
And I think for all of us as well, who will need a strong public Medicare program in the future.
The resolution in front of us shows the city council's concern regarding repeated attempts to make inroads towards privatization of the Medicare system.
This isn't about attacking President Biden or his agencies.
This is about raising concerns about unintended consequences so we can steer the federal administration towards a better path.
We are sending a message, a call for action in a respectful way to our president and the federal agencies, just like Congresswoman Jayapal did and 50 other members of Congress did, who expressed their concerns about the proposed effort to move towards privatizing Medicare and to keep in process.
a pilot project that was current when the administration took over.
At the heart of the concern from the healthcare community and from congressional members is that under the previous title of Medicare Direct Contracting and under the rebranded title now of Accountable Care Organizations Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health, otherwise known as ACO REACH, no matter the title, the concern remains that CMS, or our Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, can contract with private entities to manage Medicare services.
Now, these contracts could be with hospitals and clinics, but they can also be with for-profit investors like private equity firms, insurance companies, or corporate health care businesses.
Under their initial ACO pilot, the direct contracting entities, it allowed for 75% of the governance to be controlled by private insurers and other investment backers.
So when Congresswoman Jayapal sent in her letter in late February, she said, direct contracting is a major threat to Medicare coverage.
It's hidden in the bureaucracy.
And while she's glad that the administration is taking steps towards transitioning away from some of the flawed programs, waiting until next year to roll back the program will only embolden the private investors that are already taking advantage of the system, and more must be done to continue to fight against this effort.
This echoes what you heard from Jeff Johnson as well and other public health advocates around the country who see no difference between the ACO REACH pilot and the direct contracting pilot, since both programs allow for third-party private entities to wedge themselves between patients and their health care.
This is about making sure that we're reinstalling trust and stability into Medicare as a system, and we need to ward off against any efforts to draw down the Medicare trust fund by making huge profits for corporations in other ways, including weakening services for Medicare beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries who are elders, community members with disability, and members of the community with other vulnerabilities.
There is no clear plan for the ACO REACH pilot to address the fundamental inequities suffered, especially by BIPOC community members and BIPOC individuals due to historic under-resourcing.
That's where we should be focusing our effort.
So thank you for considering this resolution, this resolution that calls for Council to send a united message to our representatives in Congress that we stand with those who sent in messages and to ask for reconsideration of the pilot project in front of us.
Congresswoman Jayapal, the other 50 members of Congress, us and other jurisdictions around the country who are sending a message to encourage President Biden and Secretary of Health Human Services Javier Becerra to move away from this pilot effort because of the risk it creates to the Medicare system.
Again, this is not about attacking President Biden or his agencies.
This is about raising those concerns, the unintended consequences, so we can steer the federal administration towards a better path for all of us.
Current Medicare beneficiaries and all of us will be future Medicare beneficiaries.
Thank you for your consideration.
And I know that there's other council members who worked on this issue as well for a long time, including Council Member Herbold.
So I thank you for the opportunity to raise this for council today and hope for your support.
Thank you, Councilor Mosqueda.
Before we move on, Madam Clerk, was I supposed to move the adopted resolution or is Council Member Mosqueda supposed to move?
I don't think I moved.
You're correct.
It has not been moved at this point.
Either you or Council Member Mosqueda can move it at this point.
Um, so will council member skating?
Would you like to move your doctor?
We'd love to.
You can tell him so excited about this topic.
Um, council colleagues, I move to, um, I move resolution 32052, which calls for stopping the privatization of the Medicare system.
Is there a second?
Can we have a second?
So Councilor Mosqueda has already introduced and moved her resolution.
So now we're gonna open the floor.
Is there any council members that would like to speak to the resolution?
And I will speak last before, well, actually, yeah, before we do the roll call.
So we have Council Member Herbold and we have Council Member Nelson.
Councilor Herbold.
Thank you, Madam President, and thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for bringing this forward.
I have worked on council resolutions in the past supporting Medicaid care for all.
I have not worked on this particular issue, and I'm so glad that you have taken it up, Council Member Mosqueda.
You may have mentioned this in your remarks, but one of the points that I really want to lift up is how well Medicare spends its dollars 98% of its budget is spent on patient care.
And so that is tax dollars going to directly support patient care.
Whereas these direct contracting agencies reportedly spend 60% of their tax dollars, our tax dollars, on patient care, which makes it possible for up to 40% of tax revenues to be used for their own profit and overhead.
And so just from a fiscal responsibility, watching the taxpayer dollar, as well as ensuring that those tax dollars go further to serve more people in our communities, this is a really important issue.
And again, thank you for bringing it forward and thank you to Congresswoman Jayapal for wearing her organizing hat and getting so many members of Congress to sign on in support of this effort.
Thank you, Council Member Herbold, Council Member Nelson, and then Council Member Peterson.
Thank you very much.
The title of this resolution is Stop the Privatization of Medicare.
And I'm a lifelong Democrat, like President Biden, and I, of course, oppose the privatization of Medicare, but I try to avoid legislating by slogan.
And I appreciate the added information that Councilmember Muscata provided yesterday in in response to my question, and there are still a lot of unanswered questions that I have about how this impacts our constituents.
But first, I must note that of the 50 people that signed that letter, only Congresswoman Jayapal, of all of our delegation, signed it.
And I am concerned about damaging our relationships with our federal delegation by just by voting on this without knowing what their thoughts are.
So like I said, I'm concerned about the impact to our constituents.
And yesterday I noted that there is still no, I have no information about how calling, for the cessation of this program would impact our residents?
Is there another program that would be better?
Does this program fill a need that Medicare simply cannot provide?
There was information provided in favor of this in Council Member Mosqueda's remarks and in the information she sent yesterday.
There is also information online from the Center for Medical Services which talks about how this program is very different from Trump's previous program.
And so it's not necessarily, depending on one's perspective, simply a rebranding of a Trump program.
So in any case, I don't have enough information to know what would be the implications on our constituents.
And that's who I represent.
I don't represent advocates or medical service providers.
So that is something that I think that should be that we need to keep in mind when we vote on something as extremely complex as health care policy.
Thank you, Council Member Nelson and then Council Member Peterson.
And if we don't see anyone else, then I will make my last statements and then we'll go to a vote.
So Council Member Peterson.
Thank you, Council President.
I agree with the sponsor of this resolution that Medicare should not be privatized.
Thank you, Council Member Esqueda, for your strong advocacy on health care and public health and for representing us on the National League of Cities.
I also share some of the concerns raised by Council Member Nelson.
Again, I oppose privatizing Medicare.
This resolution does seem to contradict President Biden regarding a specific complicated issue that would impact this complicated system several months from now.
President Biden was here in Seattle just last week.
I don't think our Office of Intergovernmental Relations was able to confer with the Biden administration about this.
So even if this resolution about a federal policy were not expedited onto today's agenda, I'm just not able to give this issue the time it deserves being focused on some of the local issues in my committee, for example.
So I believe this is a good example of why it might be appropriate to provide us as independently elected officials with the option on a case by case basis of abstaining for certain issues like this.
So this is why I've been collaborating with the council president on how best update our abstention policy, which will be discussing in our governance committee this coming Thursday.
So thank you.
Thank you.
So I want to make a few comments, and then I have a statement on where I'm at on this particular resolution.
First of all, thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.
I think being on Seattle City Council sometimes, we all have prior lives, and at some point, a lot of us have subject matter expertise from our former lives, and I know that Council Member Mosqueda has a in-depth experience with healthcare services.
And I rely on that because that's her committee, if you will, and has an understanding.
And I trust her judgment that she would bring to us something that's important.
That being said, though, I do understand what Councilmember Herbold, or I'm sorry, Councilmember Nelson and Councilmember Peterson are saying.
that i don't think we're in imminent danger of medicare or medicaid for that matter being privatized and we certainly don't want that so i understand that and i also understand what council member nelson said about you know slogans and i don't think she meant that in a negative manner more or less like we can't have a shorthand way Back to Council Member Mosqueda, I think we all have read Naomi Klein and privatization and the dangers of that, but that's not why we're here today.
And I understand where everybody's intentions are in regards to this resolution, and I'm glad Council Member Peterson brought up that Thursday in committee we will be addressing and changing the rules so council members indeed can abstain if they believe they need to on any particular resolutions.
So that being said, number one, I'm not too – well, I'll just leave that alone.
I don't want to make an offhand comment.
I was going to make a joke, but that probably would be funny right now.
So I just want to say this.
This elected body, this city council, has a long history of supporting, opposing, clarifying, educating, or addressing many issues and policies directed at federal agencies.
We do that most notably with Department of Interior, Department of Justice.
Department of Homeland Security in regards to immigration, we do it with HUD, we do it with Health and Human Services.
In short, we don't need a direct regulatory, we don't need direct regulatory authority or jurisdictional authority to have an opinion or to authorize or propose to pass a resolution to address any of these issues like what Council Member Mosqueda brought us today.
But I will say being on this council for six years, there have been times where some resolutions have come before us that quite frankly, we're in other countries, and even though I understand the issue, I understand what Council Member Nelson was getting at, we have to be clear about what affects us not only as Americans, but what affects us regionally, what affects us locally, and also representing tribes.
We've done many of these kind of resolutions and letters to the congressional delegation and just about every federal agency regarding everything from healthcare to environmental issues.
So it's not uncommon.
It's an elected tool and I think we use it well.
But I think the point here is at some point, like a team, we have to trust that our teammate may know a little bit more and therefore is bringing this forward in good faith.
And I want to err on the side of that.
So I will be supporting Council Member Mosqueda's resolution today because I don't really care if we get the president mad at us.
I don't really care how many Congress people sign this.
I think that Council Member Skater brings a wealth of knowledge, lived experience, and professional experience.
And I believe she wouldn't just put this in front of us.
And some of the people that spoke, particularly Cindy Domingo and their family, go way back.
And I understand the history there.
So I understand that.
And I guess I have the added advantage of being the oldest person here.
So with that, I don't think that this is just a slogan, but I do really respect what Council Member Nelson said, and I respect what Council Member Peterson said.
And again, I want to thank Council Member Mosqueda for bringing this forward.
So with that, I will be supporting this.
And Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?
Council Member Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council Member Nelson?
Where is she?
Council Member Nelson.
Let's loop back.
Council Member Peterson.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council Member Morales.
Yes.
Council President Juarez.
Aye.
Six in favor, none opposed.
Thank you.
So the resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.
Madam Clerk, can you please affix my signature to the resolution on my behalf?
Okay, let's keep going down today's agenda.
We're now at section other business, correct?
Correct.
All right.
Is there any other business before council?
Oh, Council Member Strachan, you have something, go ahead.
Thank you, Council President, and I'm sorry, Council Member Nelson and Peterson aren't here to also hear this.
I want to take this moment to highlight my staff member, Amanda Pleasant-Brown.
Today is her last day in our office, and she's served the office for over the last two years in an amazing and diligent way.
I want to take this moment to uplift her service to our city, to our office, to our floor, to the residents of District 6, and congratulate her on her next adventure with the county.
So she's still going to be serving us, I just wanted to take this moment to thank her for her work.
Thank you.
So moving forward on our agenda, colleagues, I don't think we have any more items on our agenda.
Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on May 3rd at 2 o'clock.
And I hope you all have a great afternoon.
We are adjourned.
Thank you.