Seattle City Council 1/25/22

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

The January 25, 2022 meeting of Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2 o'clock or 2.03.

I'm Deborah Juarez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Nelson.

Present.

Peterson.

Present.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Herbold.

Yes.

Here.

Present.

Thank you.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Council President Ores.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So today, colleagues, Councilmember Strauss has informed me that he will be absent from today's council meeting.

There's an objection.

Councilmember Strauss is excused from today's meeting.

Hearing no objection, Councilmember Strauss is indeed excused from today's City Council meeting.

Presentations, I'm not aware of any presentations today.

Let's go to approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the Seattle City Council meeting on January 18th, 2022 have been reviewed.

There's no objection.

The minutes will be signed.

If no objection and hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Now go to approval of the IRC.

That's the introduction and referral calendar.

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

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is indeed adopted.

Let's see.

Approval of the agenda.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Let's see.

Public comment.

Colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the Seattle City Council agenda.

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 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 this general public comment period, and I will now hand it off to our madam clerk.

And I understand, madam clerk, that we have 15 people signed up.

Correct?

Correct.

OK.

I'll let you take it from here, madam clerk.

Thank you.

The 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 in the order in which they registered to provide public comment on the council's website.

Each speaker must call in.

from the phone number used for this registration and using the meeting phone number ID and passcode that was emailed to them upon confirmation.

This is different than the general meeting listen line call-in information.

Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered online to provide public comment.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number provided when registered and use the ID and passcode that was emailed upon confirmation.

Please note this is different from the general meeting listen 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 it is their turn to speak and then the speaker must press star-6 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 the chime we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.

If speakers do not end their comment 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.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Please remember to press star six once you hear the prompt you have been unmuted.

So I'll call on the first two speakers and the first speaker is Howard Gale and the second speaker is Rachel Ibarra.

Good afternoon.

Howard Gale District 7 speaking on our failed police accountability system.

This morning the Public Safety Committee discussed the federal court monitor's report on SPD crisis intervention, a report based on the flawed and self-serving statistics provided by the SPD.

Council members have accepted false assertions by the monitor, despite data to the contrary, with no council member asking questions and demanding a follow-up or an independent assessment.

Sam Tashiro-Smith, Shun Ma, Leighton Taylor, Charlena Lyles, Danny Rodriguez, Ryan Matthew Smith, Terry J. Caver, Derek J. Hayden, and the person still unnamed killed on January 5th.

These are the nine people in mental health crisis killed by the SPD in the last six and a half years and unaccounted for in the data presented by the SPD and the Monitor.

Erased from life, denied an independent investigation, homicides covered up by a failed accountability system, and now Seattle has even erased them from the database.

We need to build, through a city initiative, a police accountability system that provides full civilian community control over police policy, police misconduct investigations, and police discipline, as so many other cities have done post-George Floyd.

We can't have a court monitor and a city council, CPC, OPA, OIG, simply reconstituting and representing Floyd data from the SBD.

Go to seattlestop.org to find out how.

Seattlestop.org.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rachel Ibarra followed by Barbara Finney.

Hello I'm Rachel Ibarra.

I'm speaking to the resolution that Sushama Sawant represented or presented to the council today.

I've worked in the service industry since I was 17. I tend to count myself among the people who genuinely love the work.

I enjoy interacting with people and finding out odd scattered pieces of information about their lives.

Something is beautiful about taking on another person's needs for just a second, making something in their day a little easier.

But I and many, many others have also been torn down endlessly by the conditions we're expected to work in and live in.

There was a mental health crisis in this industry well before the pandemic, and these unsafe working conditions have also made it that much worse.

We face customers who refuse to wear masks, work that damages our bodies, and policies that put profit, not people, first.

And we do all of this while being expected to smile and make a connection with each and everyone who walks through our door.

Starbucks policy gives us the barest minimum benefit and gets away with calling them progressive.

When anyone who's worked there knows that for all the rainbow flags and conveniently timed pro-BLM Starbucks does not care about people.

It does not pay a living wage, provide adequate accessible health insurance, ensure the safety of its workers, or pay enough staff for us to do jobs properly.

They call us partners.

I've even been told that one big family.

Well, to them, I ask, would you see your family live in poverty if you could do something about it?

Would you like to live with chronic illness or pain that goes unmanaged or forced to find someone to find someone to work for them when a member of their family has died?

I suspect that you wouldn't.

We, the employees of Starbucks, ask that the council stand by us in our fight.

In a resolution presented today and let Starbucks know that here in their hometown, we will domestic better from them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Barbara Finney, followed by David Haynes.

Hello, Council.

My name is Barbara Finney.

I'm a delegate to the MLK Labor Council for AFG 3197 and a member of Seattle DSA, a retired RN, speaking in a personal capacity.

I urge you to vote to extend and not end hazard pay for Seattle grocery workers, extend it through the end of the public health emergency, and further expand hazard pay to more Seattle frontline workers.

Per UW Medicine tweet yesterday, quote, King County hospitals are in the worst situation yet in the pandemic, unquote.

Dr. Jeff Duchin yesterday quoted A quote tweeted from the New York Times editorial, people should avoid the three Cs, closed spaces, crowded places, and close contact settings, end quote.

That's exactly what grocery workers face, all shifts long every day, closed spaces, crowded places, and close contact settings.

Yes, Mayor Harrell said, quote, The hard truth is that we are not out of the woods yet, and we must continue to act like it," end quote. And that's correct. Please stand, please keep the hazard pay for our grocery workers. I also call on you to vote for Council Member Shamas Alon's resolution urging Starbucks to respect card check neutrality at its union, unionizing stores in Seattle, in other words, not to interfere with workers' efforts to unionize. Tonight at 6 p.m. at Cal Anderson Park is a solidarity rally in support of unionizing Starbucks workers and solidarity with Starbucks workers, all frontline workers, and unionizing Starbucks workers. Solidarity.

Thank you.

The next speaker is David Haynes, followed by Julia Buck.

Thank you, David Haynes, District 7. I would like to address the need to extend hazard pay and point out there is no indication of what council is authorizing to be paid in bills this week.

Now, our democracy provides a legislated pen that's supposed to protect the workers, the people, and discipline the greed and keep the capital gains from abusing local community that's going to Wall Street middlemen, foreign and domestic, that are draining the lifeblood of Americans, proving capitalism is abusive when it's free to rip off the workers, while securing record profits for nonworking middlemen shareholders of Wall Street, buying off our tainted republic and fraudulent democracy.

The workers need a three-and-a-half-day workweek seven-day pay, with a doubling of the jobs to boost morale, with all the money redirected and taken from the most corrupt entity within capitalism, namely the middlemen of capital gains, ripping off and stealing from this nation every three-month quarterly report.

Just take a look at Kroger Profits.

They've soared as big business proves they hate the workers, tossing their rights and respects in the trash, because there's plenty more desperate to take advantage of.

City Council has to improve their use of the democracy pen to protect the workers doing all the work.

And secondly, if you don't mind, there is a problem at Pier 62 with the Parks and Recreation Department security guards hanging out with their friends in their personal car on the pier last night with the toxic engine running, ruining the only place a local resident has access to.

Yet at 10 p.m., the same unprofessional Parks and Recreation peer 62 security guards, evidently getting paid 24-7 to hang out on the pier, get to treat locals, such as myself, like a criminal if they go on to the pier 62 after 10 p.m., resulting in wasted assets, denied to people, paying a oppressive, abusive, ineffective security, refusing to keep safe, allowing proper use all night.

Our next speaker is Julia Buck followed by Brent Ace.

Hello my name is Julia Buck.

I'm a resident of District 6 and a member of 350 Seattle and Seattle DSA.

I am calling to ask City Council not to repeal the hazard pay for essential workers and grocery workers.

Just yesterday the City Council extended their telework policy for the legislative department.

And they also extended the telework stipend for eligible employees because of the pandemic.

This was this is a reasonable move as our COVID cases are higher now than they have been at any point during the pandemic.

However it makes little sense for the council to extend these protections to themselves and other legislators and then deny them to grocery workers who are forced to work in person by the nature of their positions and who have borne the brunt of feeding people for this entire pandemic.

I would urge city council to please keep hazard pay in place.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Brent Hayes followed by Star Willey.

Hello, my name is Brent Hayes and I am a barista working at the 1200 Westlake Avenue Starbucks location.

Partnership is a word that I feel is frequently thrown around at Starbucks.

And to me, a word like that should hold more weight than it does.

It means that we have a voice.

It means that we have a seat at the table and a chance to influence the change being made in our stores.

This is why I'm calling today.

It is to discuss Kshama Sawant's resolution and show solidarity with the working class, because we have been blindsided by changes in pandemic benefits, removal of our health and safety protocols, and we have been crammed into small cafe spaces with not enough space or resources to enable us to remain safe during this pandemic.

It is in the best interest of our marginalized communities, as well as our most vulnerable communities, to stand together as true partners.

We also would like to discuss the $4 hazard pay and the removal of such.

As a worker in the service industry, it is basically insulting the notion that during a time where we need to work in order to keep a roof over our heads, yet are at risk and our families are at risk due to COVID, we are unable to actually do so.

Cuts in hours because businesses cannot remain open for as long.

Cuts in hours because CEOs are taking losses due to the pandemic and do not want to pay us.

All of this is unfair.

And that $4 hazard pay really was a buffer.

I'm calling upon the City Council to support Starbucks Workers United in our efforts to unionize our stores.

And I am also calling upon the City Council to reinstate the $4 hazard pay.

and apply it to the frontline workers who have been the backbone of Seattle tirelessly risking their lives so that people who are more wealthy can enjoy their dinner their coffee or a movie.

Thank you.

Our next caller is Star Willie followed by BJ Last.

Hello.

My name is Star Willie and I'm a barista at Starbucks and a renter in District 7. I'm calling today to echo the other Starbucks workers that have called in and voice that I strongly support Councilmember Sawant's resolution demanding that Starbucks bosses immediately stop their shameful union busting and accept card check neutrality.

I don't have any illusions that the executives will do this because it's the right thing to do and we really could use the support of City Council for the fight ahead.

We as workers need to fight to force them to concede.

Thank you very much, Council Member Sawant, for putting forth this resolution and for always standing with workers in true solidarity with your actions.

My message to the eight Democrats on the City Council is that I hear you saying often that you support workers and you support unions, but what we want and what we need is not words, but actions.

So I'll say it loud and clear.

If you don't vote yes on this resolution, if you vote no or you try to water it down, Then no, you are not pro-worker nor pro-union.

You are pro-exploitations of workers by the wealthy.

It's that simple.

Please stand with Starbucks workers now by adopting this resolution.

And I would also like to echo the other callers today in voicing my strong support to extend and not end the hazard pay to grocery workers.

The pandemic is raging on and grocery workers and other frontline workers are out there every day taking care of us all.

They deserve the protection in the form of hazard pay.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is BJ Last followed by Sarah Pappin.

Hello.

My name is BJ Last.

I'm a Ballard resident and a small business owner.

I ask council to uphold the mayor's veto of CB120119.

Council should not end hazard pay for grocery workers while the COVID pandemic is still going.

And the COVID pandemic is absolutely still ongoing.

Every three hours and 52 minutes, another resident of King County is dying of COVID.

Nationally, someone in the U.S. is dying of COVID every 36 seconds.

So during about each caller so far, about four people in the U.S. have died of COVID.

This is why this meeting is being held remotely and why city council extended the telework policy and telework stipend for the legislative branch yesterday.

Council should not end hazard pay for grocery workers while it is still working remotely due to the pandemic.

Hazard pay for grocery workers should remain in effect until the council or mayor terminates the COVID civil emergency which has been in effect since March 2020. Grocery workers did not start receiving hazard pay until almost a year after the proclamation of the civil emergency.

They should not lose hazard pay before the civil emergency is over.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

The next speaker is Sarah Pappin followed by Gianna Reeve.

Hi, I'm calling to urge you to sign council member Thomas Wan's resolution to call for Starbucks to cease its blatant union-busting tactics.

Starbucks is engaging in an obvious anti-union campaign, and it's so clear what they are doing.

Starbucks insists that they are not anti-union and dresses up their tactics by being pro-partners.

Does Starbucks think that its employees are stupid?

Because anyone paying attention can see that their actions are textbook union-busting.

Frankly, it is an insult to my intelligence and to my co-workers' intelligence to try to thesify.

It's embarrassing to watch and I'm ashamed to start a faction.

I urge the council to support Council Member Schwantz's resolution and I also a resolution in solidarity with us as we fight for our rights to unionize.

I also urge the council members who voted to take away the vital hazard pay for grocery workers who are providing us with incredibly vital labor at incredible risk to themselves to change your mind and restore that pay.

Thank you.

Our next caller is Gianna Reeve followed by Sam White.

Hi.

My name is Gianna Reeve.

I am a shift supervisor and barista from Buffalo New York and I am calling you today to demand that you vote yes on Council Member Sawant's resolution in solidarity with Starbucks workers and that exec executives must immediately stop their union busting.

I know what the union busting looks like.

I was at the heart of it for months and I know that Starbucks cannot be held accountable in not bringing that to Seattle to bringing that to their hometown.

We need to demand that they stop.

They will host captive audience meetings.

They will threaten their partners.

They will push us and manipulate us psychologically and through the benefits that they give us now.

They will try to force us in any way to vote no, to give us an unfair election.

I would also like to point out that I am in strong agreement.

We must uphold the $4 an hour for grocery workers.

They risk their lives every day to distribute food that people need to survive and they need to survive as well.

If we don't uphold this for grocery workers, what are we doing?

These are human beings.

These are people that do work that we considered essential months ago.

And now we want to take this away from them.

We want to take away the security that's been provided.

It's unacceptable.

And if you vote against this and the resolution that Council Member Sawant has brought in any way shape and form if you so much as try to dilute it you are against it.

So please vote yes.

Thank you.

Sam White followed by Casey Moore.

Hi my name is Sam White.

I am a union barista.

That's been that's meant that I'm a frontline worker through the pandemic.

All these corporations including Starbucks have made record profits you know passing on all the risks of that work onto these workers onto my union siblings and my my fellow baristas who were trying to form unions passing on all the risks to us but none of the fruits of our labor.

And I agree with what's been said about the City Council getting to telework while we're having to work in person.

And that brings me to agreeing with the need to keep hazard pay for grocery store workers.

I heard from a Trader Joe's worker this morning talking about how that $4 cushion is just the tiniest but most essential protection against having to go into work sick, knowingly putting people at risk because there's no other safety net.

So that $4 cushion is in place of all the other safety net that we should have.

So please keep hazard pay for grocery workers.

And grocery workers need a union, and so do Starbucks workers and baristas.

Starbucks has consistently put profits over their workers, over partners throughout the pandemic.

Yeah, baristas need hazard pay, but they also need a union at a time when rent has gone up 25% just in the last year in this city, while inflation has gone up 5%.

Baristas are taking, like, pay cuts and just not being able to keep paid.

So I'm urging the city council to vote yes on Shamatha Warren's resolution in solidarity with Starbucks workers trying to form a union.

And to the city council, you're not progressive if you're not pro-union, if you're not clearly on the side of workers.

So this is an opportunity to show what side you're on.

Please vote yes on this resolution.

Stand in solidarity with the workers and denounce Starbucks corporate union busting.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Casey Moore followed by Jonathan Bischofsky-Cruz.

Hi my name is Casey Moore and I am a barista from a a Starbucks barista from Buffalo who has come all the way to Seattle in order to support my fellow partners in Seattle organizing a union and support Councilwoman Flan's resolution to call on Starbucks to end their union busting.

Just to give you an idea of what this company has done when we launched our efforts in Buffalo at the end of August they have brought in over 100 managers across the country into our stores to spy on us to intimidate us to threaten us They have managers.

Imagine the person that's responsible for giving you your paycheck coming and pulling you off the floor personally and telling you that they would be heartbroken heartbroken if you voted yes to the union.

They have done everything from closed stores that are filing for union elections and they have turned them into a training center in order to try to train as many people as possible in order to dilute the union vote.

Seattle is the home of Starbucks.

You guys are where it started.

it's coming from here and it's an organization that calls itself progressive, that says it's pro-partner, that says it cares about its workers.

All we're trying to do here is get a voice on the job to make our workplace democratic.

And it's simply unacceptable what they've been doing.

They've essentially been waging psychological warfare on us to try to get us to vote no to the union.

And they've said time and time again that they're not anti-union, and that's, it's not true.

The union-busting tactics that they've done in Buffalo and now across the country, it has to stop in Seattle, and you all have the power to stop it from happening.

As being the home of Starbucks, this is in your hometown, and you have the ability to take a stand and hold them accountable and be the company that we all know that they can be.

We're fighting to make Starbucks a better company and a better place to work.

You all can be trailblazers in setting an example around the country.

And we also stand with grocery workers for the $4 hazard pay.

It's a necessity.

Thank you so much.

Our next speaker is Jonathan Byszkowski-Cruz followed by Will Johnson who is not present and then followed by Anne Woodford who is the last public comment speaker.

Hello.

My name is Jonathan Byszkowski-Cruz and I'm a grocery worker at Trader Joe's.

Many of the people making decisions that determine my livelihood do so, as in the case of today, from the comfort of their homes, behind the safe wall of a webcam and a keyboard.

While folks with money and security can pretend that everything is just fine, those in the service industry have no choice but to face the grinding realities of this pandemic.

As the systems we rely on for food, safety, goods, and our fragile health bend and break, not only under the endless stresses of illness from the negligence of those with the power to help.

As a grocery worker with a chronic case of asthma that feels like it's getting worse by the day, I wheeze through my shifts facing close contact with hundreds of strangers.

Only the barest attempt at safety is provided to me.

All safety measures are enforced to the legal minimum by those with financial interest in things seeming as normal as possible.

My situation is not unique.

In fact, I have it a lot better than most.

My industry at least gets the consolation of having a $4 an hour bump to soften the choice of forgoing wages to stay at home when sick.

Even so, I've seen many not afford but to work while infectious with COVID.

Hazard pay should be expanded to other workers, if anything, not eliminated.

You have a moral imperative to uphold hazard pay.

It's the least you can do, the least.

I'm demanding today that all city council members join workers and council members in upholding the grocery workers hazard pay.

I'm asking that you vote yes on council members' resolution in solidarity with Starbucks workers and that the executives must immediately stop union busing.

I stand in solidarity with the baristas fighting for their rights and every worker overlooked here today.

Thank you.

And the last speaker is Anne Woodford.

Hi my name is Anne Woodford and I am a worker at a Trader Joe's pet store in Seattle.

I would like to ask the city council to please extend the hazard pay.

It has been a difficult almost two years working every day with the public.

The ups and downs of COVID enforcing rules not enforcing rules having protection i.e. plexiglass between us and our customers.

allowing social distancing in the break rooms.

All of those safeguards have now disappeared for us and yet we are expected to come to work with a smile on our face.

Four dollars an hour extra hazard pay has helped people as Jonathan said be able to take a day off from work go find a test and be able to ensure their own co-workers safety as well as their own.

Not to mention the general public.

Our store has had over 15 cases of COVID in the last three weeks, most of them who have given it to a co-worker while on site.

That does not account for the chance we have passed it on to the public, to children who are in the store, to elderly people who are in the store.

We come to work because It is our job where they're providing food to the City of Seattle as essential workers.

Please extend the hazard pay until the state of emergency the end of the pandemic is here.

You must give us that grace.

Please City of Seattle Council.

Also please pass the resolution presented by Shawant today.

Thank you.

Council President, that's the end of the public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So thank you for those of you who gave public comment today.

I appreciate the time that you took to call in and let us know what your thoughts were about today's agenda.

So as I've shared, we've reached the end of our allotted time for public comment, and the public comment period is now closed.

So moving on to on the agenda to payment of the bills, payment of the bills.

Please read the title, Madam Clerk.

Council Bill 120261, a property mine to pay certain claims for the week of January 10th, 2022 through January 14th, 2022 and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you.

I move to pass Council Bill 120261. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

Have the bill passed?

Are there any comments?

Hearing and seeing no comments.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Nelson.

Council Member Nelson.

Let's loop back to Council Member Nelson.

Peterson.

Yes.

Swarnt.

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Council President Juarez?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

So now we're going to move into some of our agenda items and first up we have as you've heard, reconsideration of council bill vetoed by the mayor.

Madam Clerk, will you please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, Council Bill 120119, relating to employment in Seattle, amending sections 100.025 and section five of ordinance 126-274, and to establish a new date for any hazard pay requirements and automatically repealing the ordinance.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'm calling up the reconsideration of passage of council bill 120119 to consider passage of the bill and the mayor's veto.

The reconsideration of council bill 120119 is now pending before the council.

Before I go to my colleagues for some comments, I want to add a few, I want to kind of contextualize where we're at with this particular item.

Ordinance and what we're doing here today, and then I'll go to my colleagues for for some comments.

First of all, thank you, Karina Bull, for pulling this together for me and our own Sarah Mays, who put this together for me this morning.

So I just want to put how this how we got here today.

So for reference, this is a quick hazard pay timeline.

So on January 5th, 2025, 2021, exactly one year ago today, Council passed emergency ordinance establishing hazard pay for grocery employees and the vote was eight to zero.

Everyone voted yes and I did not vote because I was not here.

So anyway, then on February 3rd, hazard pay for the grocery ordinance went into effect.

And then from there, we started with council bill 120119, which is what's before us today.

And those are the amendments to the hazard pay for the grocery employees.

That is that this would be the bill to end hazard pay requirements upon the effective date of the ordinance.

And again, that's what's before us today.

So on July 9th, 2021, out of council member Mosqueda's committee, finance and housing, The bill was voted out of committee, vote to four to zero.

And in favor of that vote were Council Member Chair Mosqueda, Council President Gonzalez, Council Member Lewis, and I believe Council Member Herbold Epstein.

Then on July 27th and August 9th and September 13th, this council held the bill on those three dates.

On July 27th, council voted to hold passage of the bill seven to zero.

not present was council member Morales and Mosqueda.

On August 9th, this council again voted to hold passage of the bill.

It was eight to zero.

The only person not present that day was council president Gonzalez.

Then on September 13th, council voted again to hold passage of the bill.

It was a nine to zero vote.

So everybody voted yes on September 13th to hold passage of this particular bill.

This bill then went to the full council again, on Monday, December 13th, 2021, and the vote was eight to zero to end hazard pay, everyone was present except for council member Sawant.

So that's why the vote was eight to zero.

So on December 27th, 2021, Mayor Durkan got this piece of legislation and she vetoed it and returned the bill back to council.

So here we are today, exactly one year to the day, January 25th, 2022. So council will have an opportunity to reconsider passage of the bill.

So I'm going to, at this time, turn it over to any of my colleagues that may have some comments to say, and then I'm gonna give some instruction about how we're gonna vote on this.

So with that, I'm gonna open up the floor.

Colleagues?

Council Member Herbold, I see your hand is up.

Thank you so much.

Madam President, your sharing of the history of the council's decision to not act on the suspension of hazard pay on several occasions over the last several months, and appreciate that that that those actions that the council has taken in the past to not vote on this legislation reflected the uncertainty that many council members had around the timing.

When I did vote on the hazard pay the ending of the hazard pay, the legislation.

I did say publicly at that time that I recognize that we may need to revisit it because of the uncertainty.

And this was, this vote was more than, just a little bit more than a week before the Omicron surge.

So Omicron surge hadn't happened yet.

Many of us, myself included, said when we voted on the termination of hazard pay debt that we may need to revisit it and that we recognize that public health is the number one priority as we continue to get updated advice from public health officials that we must react quickly to protect the health and safety of our constituents.

I issued a statement after the mayor's veto of the council's bill saying that I supported it and I'm glad to be here today to affirm my support of continued hazard pay for these frontline workers at essential businesses.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Is there anyone else that would like to comment?

Council Member Nelson, go ahead.

Thank you very much, President Juarez.

I'm going to vote in favor of the proposed substitute because I think you did the right thing in December in sunsetting the $4 an hour hazard pay increase, which you passed as emergency legislation before the vaccine was widely available.

And now 87.5% of residents over 16 are vaccinated and five years and up, 83% are vaccinated.

So, Mayor Durkin vetoed Council Bill 120119, which repealed hazard pay shortly after maybe just days after Omicron came on the scene.

And before we knew anything about its transmissibility or its virulence.

And now, according to public health officials, Omicron seems to be going in the right direction.

It's anticipated that it'll peak in February.

And locally, the Seattle King County Public Health Dashboard shows today that the number of new cases in Seattle is down 49% from last week.

So the point is that conditions have changed.

And since your original legislation, you know, Washington ended its official, I mean, it's reopened officially in June, schools are back open for in-person learning.

Just today, UW announced that it would go back to in-person and our own libraries are reopened and our librarians aren't getting hazard pay.

So here's why this matters.

I have spoken with PCC and the independent brochures and they're really struggling with this significant pay increase.

I'm concerned about their viability because if they close, those jobs go away and the neighborhood loses that asset.

And there was one example of the grocery outlet in District 2 that did close.

So that is why I'm concerned.

And we're not talking about Kroger here.

We're talking about largely family-owned, many of them family-owned.

And if they don't raise their, if they don't close, they might have to raise their prices.

And we already know what's happening with prices, with all the supply chain problems.

They're already going up, and working families are hurting.

So that is the crux of the matter for me.

If we vote no on this legislation, in other words, sustain the mayor's veto, this hazard pay increase will be in place indefinitely, until the mayor calls an end to the civil emergency.

uh...

and right now most of the other jurisdictions have already uh...

sunsetter repealed their had to be i think that needy durian and administered are two exceptions but the vast majority pretty much all of them have indeed this and united food uh...

workers of america local twenty-one didn't signal it's green light or the repealing of hazard pay and i believe that they were already negotiating other contracts so uh...

That work is ongoing right now.

And it was said in committee in December that this legislation was not intended to be a permanent wage replacement.

And so let's let wages be dealt with in contract negotiations.

So if we pass this proposed substitute, the $4 an hour wage will be in effect for another month to 30 days.

We're likely to have more information about Omicron at that point.

And I believe that this thing is going to keep changing all the time.

We don't know.

Now there's a new Omicron variant.

But the point is, we have to follow the recommendations of public health officials.

And the mayor's letter in vetoing this said that, I'll quote it, in the new year, the incoming administration and the city council will have the benefit of much more information regarding Omicron and its impacts and can work with organized labor, other workers and impacted businesses to evaluate the appropriate next steps.

And I think that we're at that time for appropriate next steps.

And that is why I am going to vote in favor of this legislation.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

Is there anyone else?

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council President Juarez.

Colleagues, as you know, I voted for the original bill in January of 2021 to support Seattle grocery workers and require their employers to provide hazard pay.

I also supported efforts to keep it in place for a full year, due in part to the earlier Delta variant of the coronavirus.

I have been, however, torn about whether to continue to require those payments into 2022. Just a few weeks ago, on December 13, eight of us voted to sunset this hazard pay.

I know several of my colleagues, including Council Member Herbold, are making good points about why to support and uphold Mayor Durkan's decision a month ago.

Ultimately, however, I've decided to be consistent with my December 2021 vote.

And so I'll be voting to override the veto of our former mayor so that the hazard pay requirements could sunset in 30 days.

I want to acknowledge that frontline workers in numerous industries that bravely serve Seattle every day should not only be paid well, but also be able to work the quantity of hours they need.

And a key question for me is, when is it a city government's role to intervene and require business owners to pay above their current compensation?

The pandemic has spurred the creation and expansion of many relief programs funded by several different sources.

And I've supported nearly all of these interventions because a pandemic is an extraordinary crisis warranting extraordinary responses.

And my original vote in January, 2021, a year ago to support grocery workers, it received criticism from several of my constituents when the Cincinnati based Kroger company announced the closing of a cherished QFC grocery store in the Wedgwood neighborhood.

But I stand by my original vote a year ago, but I need to explain why I think we should override the mayor's last minute veto of our sunset legislation.

Again, Seattle has imposed this special hazard pay for a year.

The supplemental pay would not end immediately, but rather after 30 days.

Dr. Fauci recently announced that things look like they're going in the right direction.

Today, the University of Washington and Seattle University announced they will be returning to in-person classes next week.

Beyond the government-imposed minimum wage, I believe workers and their employers should negotiate compensation and benefits without a local government dictating what they must be.

The local union, United Food and Commercial Workers, UFCW Local 21, is very effective throughout Washington State and beyond in advocating for the grocery workers they represent, in organizing those who may want to form a union, and in influencing policymakers.

Temporary hazard pay for grocery workers already ended months ago in all 35 California jurisdictions that originally required it.

And it is also ended in about half of the Washington state jurisdictions that required it.

Ending the hazard pay in Seattle could make it more financially feasible for other stores to move into the Wedgwood location and open stores throughout Seattle or to remain in business.

As we strive to emerge from the COVID pandemic, I believe it may be time to transition away from some of the emergency measures we have put in place over the past two years, unless such measures are required by public health authorities or funded by the federal government.

And so I'll be voting to override the mayor's veto today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

I see that Council Member Sawant, you have your hand up, please.

Council Member Sawant.

I am, of course, opposing the legislation originally sponsored by self-described progressive council member Mosqueda that would end the $4 an hour hazard pay that grocery workers depend on during this public health emergency.

In other words, I am voting to uphold the veto from the outgoing mayor.

We know that over 330 community members have emailed the council saying that the council cannot dare to repeal the hazard pay.

We've seen a petition to the council from Trader Joe's workers, over 40 Trader Joe's workers have signed this petition, urging the council to maintain the hazard pay.

In December, this bill came to the council for a vote on a day that I was out sick and scandalously, all of the eight other council members who were present, all Democrats, voted to end the hazard pay for grocery workers.

This is totally unacceptable.

As I had explained in Council meetings throughout last summer, when this bill ending hazard pay almost came to a vote several times, but the vote was quote-unquote held, which means that the vote was delayed at the time.

Grocery workers have risked their lives on poverty wages to make food available to all of society throughout this crisis.

I have repeatedly argued that the hazard pay should not only be maintained for grocery workers but should be extended to all frontline workers for as long as this public health emergency lasts.

To get a sense of how anti-worker, the Democrats' ending of the grocery worker hazard pay was, Consider the study released by the Economic Roundtable of Grocery Workers in Washington, California, and Colorado.

This survey shows that while Kroger's CEO made $22 million last year, most of the company's frontline workers faced homelessness, eviction, or hunger.

The study surveyed a staggering 10,000 workers and found that more than three-quarters of Kroger's workers are food insecure, 14% faced homelessness in the past year, and real wages for Kroger workers have decreased in the past few years, while executive profits have increased.

The original hazard pay ordinance said that the hazard pay should last as long as the COVID public health emergency lasted.

As long as there is an emergency, hazard pay is really the least that grocery workers should be getting.

Former Mayor Durkin vetoed the end of hazard pay, which was not the right thing to do.

And we have to be clear that she had no choice but to veto.

She was a corporate politician, but she had no choice to veto because the bill came to her desk right when Omicron started sweeping the city.

Council members, and as you've heard today, have attempted to excuse their anti-worker vote in December by saying that they could not have predicted Omicron.

While it is true that Omicron could not have been precisely predicted, that is not the question at all.

The question is, why were council members, many of these self-described progressive council members, so eager to end the hazard pay for grocery workers, so eager that they could not even wait for the official state of emergency to end in our city?

At the same time that the city council itself gets to be safe and work from home, Kroger executives get to be safe and work from home.

None of these excuses are acceptable.

And council members Nelson and Peterson not only say that they believe that voting to end hazard pay in December was the right thing to do, but also say that they're voting to end hazard pay now in the middle of the deadly Omicron surge.

This is just stunning.

My allegiance is to the grocery workers, not to the bosses at Kroger.

I will, as I said, of course, be voting to maintain the hazard pay.

I really urge all council members to reverse the scandalous position you took in December and vote to maintain the hazard pay.

Finally, I want to urge all working people in Seattle to support grocery workers who are rank and file members of UFCW as they fight this year for a decent contract and to stand with Starbucks workers fighting to unionize and to fight and to push for rank-and-file-driven, democratically organized unions.

I also want to be, you know, I want to say that last year across the country inflation far outpaced wages.

In other words, the average family took a real pay cut, a pay cut in real terms last year, because even when wages may have gone up in nominal terms, inflation has outpaced it.

As an economist, I want to be clear that Council Member Nelson's assertion that price increases are somehow caused by the tiny wage increases by the lowest wage workers is completely unfounded.

I mean, this has no basis in statistical evidence.

Wages are falling behind prices while stock market speculation runs rampant.

Grocery workers need hazard pay but also need a substantial raise, safe working conditions, and decent hours.

I stand in solidarity with grocery workers and rank-and-file members of UFCW in their fight to protect hazard pay, and also with all grocery workers, whether they're unionized or not, who are fighting for this hazard pay, and for all non-unionized grocery workers to get unionized and then fight for a good contract.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Is there anyone else that would like to say before I see a few closing comments?

Thank you.

Council Member Sawant, thank you for your comments, but I just want to add that members are reminded it is never in order to attack the integrity of your colleagues for why they're voting the way they're voting.

Every member should be reminded that it's never in order to make personal comments or undermine what party any of us belong to.

I think everybody is trying to rely on each other and hold each other accountable, to the rules of civility, decorum, and kindness.

So while you may not agree with the vote of our colleagues, Council Member Nelson and Council Member Peterson, and you may not agree with what you deem any particular party, it's really, it's really, this isn't helpful for the debate and the civility and for Seattle City Council to move forward and to the discussion, quite frankly, about how we approach not just today's work in front of us, but every day the work in front of us.

I will add Council Member Nelson, you did refer to the mayor's veto letter, which was dated December 27th.

And I, Madam Clerk, please correct me.

That's in the clerk file, correct?

The actual mayoral veto letter is part of the record and is on the agenda, today's agenda as well.

Okay.

And so if somebody who's been listening and wanting to see that letter, they can easily access it.

That is correct on today's agenda.

Okay.

So with that, is there any other comments?

Okay, I don't see any.

I'm going to give a few more comments about how we're going to move forward on this vote.

So here we go.

And again, thank you, Madam Clerk.

And thank you, Karina Bull for assisting us and getting us through the procedural piece of this.

The city council will now vote to reconsider passage of council bill 120119, and to either override or sustain the mayoral veto.

During roll call, council members will either vote aye to pass the bill and override the mayor's veto or no to not pass the bill and sustain the veto.

If the vote on the motion is tied or two thirds, that is six or more votes no, the bill fails and the veto is sustained.

If the vote on the motion is six or more votes in favor, The bill passes, the veto is overridden and all provisions within the bill go into effect.

Are there any questions on the procedural vote?

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council President.

I might've heard it two different ways.

So if we're voting to override, is that a yes or no?

I'm just getting to that.

So let me get to the rest of it.

I'm going to read a little bit more than I'm going to, I'm just going to wrap it up.

Okay.

As a reminder, council members will either vote yes to pass the bill and override the mayor's veto or no to not pass the bill and sustain the veto.

Now, let me tell you what this means to me.

A vote of yes ends hazard pay.

ends hazard pay and overrides the veto.

And a vote of no will sustain hazard pay.

It would not override the veto.

So with that, any other questions?

Okay.

So will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120119, and the consideration of the mayoral vote.

Nelson.

Aye.

Peterson.

Yes.

Sawant.

No.

Herbold.

No.

Lewis.

No.

Morales.

No.

Council President Juarez.

No.

Two in favor.

Five opposed.

So that means the motion fails, correct, Madam Clerk, and the bill does not pass and the veto is sustained.

That is correct, Council President.

Okay, so we are done with that.

Okay, can we read the next?

We'll go into committee reports, we have another vote here.

Madam Clerk, can you please, it looks like we have something from Council Member Lewis on public assets and the Homelessness Committee.

Can you please read that into the record?

The report of the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, agenda item two, Council Bill 120258, accepting the deed to certain real property located at 5910 Corson Avenue South and 933 South Doris Street, Seattle, for general municipal purposes to be used for consolidation of Seattle Public Libraries, building maintenance, custodial, landscaping, storage, and fleet facilities at one site, and ratifying confirming sector prior acts.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Lewis, you're the chair of this committee and you are recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Madam Chair, or Madam President, rather.

As you're aware, as a member of the committee, we had a robust discussion on this bill and a presentation from an interim librarian discussing this property swap in the Georgetown neighborhood to acquire facilities for the library to use for storage and other custodial and maintenance activities to sustain the library system.

This was unanimously recommended deal by the Seattle Library Board.

and then sent along and referred for the committee's consideration.

The committee unanimously reported the bill out for the consideration of the council.

And that is where we are now.

I'm happy to answer any supplemental questions or to put this matter to a vote.

Thank you.

With that colleagues, are there any questions or comments that you have for council member Lewis and his proposed ordinance in front of us?

Seeing none.

Is there anything you want to add towards the end there, Mr. Lewis?

No, thank you, Madam President.

I'm ready to roll.

And your hair looks fine.

It's the Omnicron right here.

So I got to get in to get it taken care of.

But I've been studiously self-isolating, as evidence.

OK.

All right.

So not seeing any comments or questions for Council Member Lewis, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Nelson?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Moving on to other business.

Is there any other business to come before the council today?

Seeing none, I will add that everybody's hair looks good today.

So with that, we will see you guys next week at our regularly scheduled meeting on February 1st at 2 o'clock.

Have a wonderful afternoon.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.