Good morning, everybody.
Thank you for being here for our regular scheduled council briefing should be rather short Given the fact that we're in budget and right after This meeting at 1030. We will move into a select budget committee at 1030 And I'll just start off by saying no items for vote this afternoon from the governance equity and technology committee I did want to mention that pursuant to some surveillance legislation that we all passed this afternoon this evening at 5 o'clock 630. There's a the first public hearing public discussion on the technologies that the cities are that we are using to look at both privacy interest in how we use surveillance technology.
These particular technology we'll study will be the automatic license plate readers and parking enforcement technologies.
It's at the Columbia City Branch Library from 5 to 6.30 and then later in the week at the American Legion Hall on October 25th at 5 to 6.30.
That's the one on Southwest Alaska Street.
They'll look at license plate readers, traffic cameras, emergency scene cameras, and hazmat cameras.
And so this, again, is part of the series of looking at 29 technologies that the city uses to understand how we use it and how privacy interests are met to put our surveillance technology ordinance to work.
And I want to thank all of you, Councilmember Gonzalez and others, for working on this issue.
And so it begins.
I just wanted to mention that.
Good morning, everybody.
Good to see you.
We have zero items on the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee this afternoon, but, of course, we continue with our budget work.
This morning at 10.30, as Council President Harrell mentioned, we will be diving into the sweetened beverage and short-term rental tax discussion.
So that'll start at 10.30.
The one item that I want to remind everybody is that if you have a green sheet, it's due this Thursday at 2 p.m.
So any questions, please talk with my office or talk with Kirsten.
I appreciate the fact that for the first round, when we were just getting the budget conversations going, everybody was very timely.
So thanks for getting the form A's in.
And I want to say special thanks to Council Central staff, but Allison McClain in my office and also to you, Councilmember Gonzales, for working with me as my vice chair on this budget.
I think it's going really well.
I appreciate your input and the fact that you're spending as much time as you are with me on this, so many thanks.
Tomorrow night will be our second public hearing.
That's Tuesday, the 23rd, here in Council Chambers, starting at 5.30.
And by the way, if you want to have dinner beforehand, the people will be coming around making sure that you have that option.
So that's it.
Thank you very much.
Council Member Herbold.
Thank you.
Likewise, no items on the full council agenda today and of course no committee meeting.
Just a heads up for people that next week on October 29th, and I'm giving y'all a heads up because it's a resolution, we're sending it directly to full council.
Thank you.
President Harrell, but this is a resolution in support of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
And then other things going on for me this week, we've got my monthly office hours on Friday at the Southwest Customer Service Center from 2 p.m.
to 645 p.m.
And then on Wednesday, I'll be co-hosting with the Arts of the Office of Arts and Culture, the Faith Action Network, and Real Rent Duwamish, a showing of the movie Promised Land here in City Hall at the Bertha Knight Landis Room on the main floor of City Hall.
The doors will open at 530. Welcome is at 544, 545. And the movie showing is at 6 p.m.
The admission is free and so is the popcorn.
The movie itself is an award-winning documentary about the fight for two tribes in the Pacific Northwest, the Duwamish and the Chinook, as they struggle for restoration of treaty rights they've long been denied.
And following this story, the film examines a larger problem in the way that the government and society still looks at tribal sovereignty.
That's it for me.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.
Councilmember O'Brien.
Sustainability and Transportation Committee has nothing on the agenda today, nor do we have a meeting this week.
That's all for me.
Thank you for that.
Council Member Johnson.
I will have to be just a tad bit longer.
We do have a couple of items on today's full council agenda from the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee.
That's the final actions required to approve a subdivision of a property at 2101 Northeast 88th Street.
This is the former site of the University Trailer Park.
Folks who were around a couple years ago may remember that This council fought for some additional funding through the city's tenant relocation assistance ordinance for many of the members of that trailer park.
Those members did have eligibility for state rental assistance for relocation, but that money is reimbursable, so you had to spend it and then get that money back.
We augmented those funds by adding another $3,500 to each of the eligible tenants That was non-reimbursably required, so it allowed them, I think, to relocate at a time when stressful for many folks to be relocating in the city.
This final action is required by the state law to come to the full council within 30 days of receipt.
So that's why it's coming to us today.
A couple of actions are required.
The Department of Construction and Inspections, Department of Transportation, and our own central staff have reviewed and have found it concurrent with the requirements that were part of the final subdivision approval, including a sidewalk and a gutter being provided along Northeast 88th Street.
So that's a small item that'll be on this afternoon's calendar for final unit lot subdivision.
I just did want to remind Council Member Bankshaw that unfortunately I'm gonna be missing our Wednesday afternoon deliberations because of the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force that I sit on has its preliminary final set of meetings happening Wednesday afternoon.
We're gonna be starting to offer some final recommendations around governance, around funding, and around policies.
So, regrettably, I'll be missing our budget discussions on Wednesday afternoon.
Right, but thank you very much, Councilmember Johnson, for serving on that committee.
I'm looking forward to hearing what recommendations come out.
Maybe you and I could have a conversation about it either late Wednesday or Thursday morning.
Happy to do so.
Good.
The other final piece of agenda for folks to remember is that next Wednesday is Halloween.
So we are going to be doing the usual city Halloween procession from 2.30 until 4.00 that afternoon.
So I encourage you to dress up if you want to.
No pressure, though.
And know that we'll have the beginnings of the tour.
We'll start at 2.30 downstairs in the lobby.
This is really intended just to be for folks within the city family.
Just basically here within city hall where we're inviting people who want to come and participate and we'll do a little photo at 230 downstairs and then we'll have kids tour the different floors here at city hall for the next hour and a half.
If you have busy council work to get accomplished that day, just make sure to keep your door closed and the kids won't come and knock.
But we'll be going to the open doors that are available that afternoon.
Great.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
My office got egged last year when I did that, so I'm a little concerned.
Mine saw a lot of toilet paper.
That actually happened at my house last night, folks.
In all seriousness, was egged and totally papered.
So I know that you're joking.
I know that our kids didn't actually do that to either of your offices, but it's too soon for me as somebody who woke up to a house that was egged and totally papered this morning.
Well, I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm sorry that we exposed you to a very triggering experience at the table.
Thank You council president good morning everyone and nothing on this afternoon's agenda from the gender equity safe communities new Americans in Education Committee And obviously no meetings because we're in budget I did want to just take a quick moment to highlight the memorandum that I circulated to all of you with a copy to the mayor and her staff and to Kirsten Aristad from our council central staff and to Greg Doss regarding the proposed collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
I just sent out an updated memo to all of you right before coming out here dated October 22nd.
So please disregard the prior copy and focus in on the one dated for today.
I inadvertently and mistakenly overstated what I thought we'd be able to I agree in terms of an engagement with the Federal Police Monitor, and that was my error and my mistake, so I've corrected that because I don't want to create a misunderstanding of what the process will be.
So, just really quickly, I want to thank Council President Harrell and Kirsten Aristad from our central staff.
I want to thank Cody Reiter from my office and Greg Doss for just helping me think through what a process could look like as it relates to evaluating the really important balance in this SPA contract of making sure that we have a fair contract for our police officers and sergeants and also wanting to make sure that we have a robust understanding of making sure that we have not taken steps back on many of the police reform accountability gains that we have been able to achieve over the last several years and certainly through our 2017 accountability ordinance.
legislative process.
And so as a result of their assistance, both in figuring out the timeline but also helping me think through what could that process look like in the context of an incredibly busy budget season, we have put together some concepts of a process in this memorandum.
that I circulated to all of you this morning.
It will include making sure that we hear from the Office of Police Accountability Director, Andrew Meyerberg, and the Inspector General for Public Safety, Lisa Judge, to make sure that they provide the council with their independent written analysis of how the proposed contract affects, if at all, their ability to fulfill their purpose, duties, and responsibilities as defined in the accountability ordinance and the consent decree.
The council will also likely contract an independent labor lawyer who can provide us with the Labor 101 primer that I think we might need in order to feel a sense of understanding and comfort with what our labor process was under our Seattle Municipal Code, under applicable state statutes, and making sure that, again, we all have a level of comfort and understanding with regard to the Labor Relations Policy Committee work that we did, and how labor negotiations actually function at the City of Seattle in the context of our obligations as management to engage in good faith labor negotiations with all of our labor unions, including SPOG.
And then my hope is that those additional components, together with the analysis that we received from our friends over the Community Police Commission, We will then be able to have the information that we need to be able to evaluate whether the representations that the labor negotiators made to members of the Labor Relations Policy Committee during that process are accurately and fairly reflected in the language of the collective bargaining agreement.
I think this is an important exercise for us to go through.
It's a reasonable exercise for us to go through.
And the reality is that we have not had a contract since 2014. There is a lot that has happened since 2014. and it's incumbent upon us as policymakers, as people who are the final decision makers on this contract, to make sure that we have the level of comfort and understanding that we have not lost police accountability reform in this labor negotiation process, but that we're also fulfilling our obligation to make sure that these bargaining units are treated fairly and equitably, consistent with our stated values and principles around standing in solidarity with the labor movement.
So I just want to make sure that folks have a good, clear understanding of that.
If you have any questions about the process or the Labor Relations Policy Committee process, you're welcome to speak with me.
Council President Harrell chairs the Labor Relations Policy Committee on behalf of the City Council So I'm sure he will always also make himself available to discuss the LRPC process with any of you all but my hope is that we will really have an opportunity to conduct this analysis in a way that is fair judicious and reasonable so that we can evaluate the actual terms of the collective bargaining agreement in a way that is going to lift up any potential concerns and potential next steps to address those concerns or likewise give us a sense of confidence that we have achieved what we can through this contract and that it's time for us to move forward.
Excellent.
great work, and I haven't had a chance to read the memo thoroughly yet, but some of my thoughts that I've shared with Councilman Gonzales is, of course, one of the sort of the challenges we will have, and we'll figure out how to get through it, is there's accountability work that is so critical to what we're trying to do, and then there's a union contract, and there's a gray area in terms of what we're trying to achieve through accountability and what one could argue is a bargain for a condition of employment, which triggers union issues and labor issues.
On the other hand, there could be accountability measures that do not.
But it's always critical to rely on legal advice on what triggers the issues.
And so as we try to achieve accountability through this labor tool, it's a fine line we have to walk.
And I know we've put a lot of work getting us up to this point.
So we're almost there.
So let's keep plowing through and we'll think about what legal mechanisms we can use to get through it.
But I want to thank Councilman Gonzalez for the work we're doing.
Find a way to keep plowing through and get us, dare I say, across the goal line during football times.
So I'm not going to say it, I'm going to think it.
And with that, I'm going to stand adjourned until we meet at 10.30.
Is everyone good to close our briefing?
Everybody good?
So we'll see you at 10.30 for our Select Committee on Budget right up here at 10.30.