Seattle City Council Briefing 9/29/2020

Let's go ahead and start the meeting.

Good morning, colleagues.

The special meeting of the September 29th, 2020 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 9.31 AM.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Morales?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Council Member Mosqueda?

Present.

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Here.

Strauss.

Present.

Juarez.

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Eight present.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

If there's no objection, the minutes of September 21st, 2020 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, colleagues, let me go really quickly to the president's report.

As all of you are aware, today marks the beginning of the council's annual budget process to deliberate over amend and eventually adopt the city's 2021 budget.

Mayor Jenny Durkan will present her proposed 2021 budget this afternoon with a virtual speech that will be streamed and televised beginning at 1 o'clock p.m.

At this afternoon City Council meeting, Senior Deputy Mayor Mike Fong will formally deliver the proposed 2021 budget to the City Council as required by the City Charter.

You all received a memo from me on Thursday afternoon establishing the Select Budget Committee's schedule and some new rules regarding the timely sharing of amendments.

These new rules will allow for the earlier release of committee materials and support our council central staff, council members, and your staff in having more time to consider.

and prepare for budget proposals and votes.

If you have any questions about these new rules, please do not hesitate to contact my office, Budget Chair Mosqueda's office, or Ali Panucci, our Central Staff Budget Manager.

And as a reminder, all regular and select committee meetings are suspended during the fall budget process.

In order to get an exception to this rule, a committee chair must seek approval to have a committee from both me and the budget chair, that's Council Member Mosqueda, in consultation with Central Staff Interim Director Dan Eder.

Are there any questions, colleagues, about that report?

Okay, hearing none, we will go ahead and go into a preview of today's city council actions and regional committees and I'll call on council members as established by this week's roll call, excuse me, for city council.

meetings with the Council President being called last.

So this week's roll call rotation begins with Council Member Morales, followed by Mosqueda, Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbolds, Juarez, Lewis, and then I will conclude today's agenda discussion.

So let's go ahead and dig in.

First up is Council Member Morales.

Good morning.

Good morning, colleagues.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll be fairly brief today.

On the introduction and referral calendar this afternoon, I have one item from the Community Economic Development Committee, which is reassessment from the SOTO BIA.

I had hoped to have a presentation on this legislation at council briefing, but of course, we are now up against the budget.

conversations.

So we will just be bringing it straight to council next week, I believe.

The legislation is really straightforward.

I anticipate that the ratepayers will be supportive because what they are actually asking for is just a delay in any increase because of COVID.

So nevertheless, FAS has mailed a notice of the proposed legislation to all rate payers last week, so they should be aware of the changes well in advance of council action next week.

The Office of Civil Rights, I want to let folks know, has released a request for proposals for the 2020 collaborative grant-making process, Community Alternatives to Incarceration and Policing.

The deadline for proposals is Monday, October 19th, and the RFP was developed through collaboration with the Office of Civil Rights and community members, and really the aim of this is to fund efforts by organizations and by coalitions to develop alternatives to and address the harm created by incarceration, policing, and other parts of the criminal legal system and immigration systems that we have.

So the plan is for a total of a million dollars to be funded to between two and four organizations.

So please let your neighbors know about this opportunity or any organizations that do that work are welcome to submit a request for a proposal or a proposal by October 19th.

And then finally, last week, we met with lots of constituents, including over the weekend, who are eager to share their budget priorities.

I'm sure all of us are hearing from our neighbors.

Here in District 2, priorities include community investments that advance racial equity, that advance Green New Deal commitments, and that increase neighborhood capacity for self-determination.

So I look forward to beginning this process with all of you, and that's all I have for today.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, colleagues.

There are two items from the Finance and Housing Committee on today's full council agenda.

Council Bill 119876 is the Transportation Network Company's Fair Share legislation.

This passed out of the Finance and Housing Committee with a five to zero vote.

And thank you to all members of the committee, Council Member Herbold, Gonzalez, Lewis, and Strauss are all co-sponsors as well on this substitute bill that provides fair share or fair pay for drivers of Uber and Lyft and other transportation network companies.

This is a really important piece of legislation, Council colleagues, and with everything that's happening in the world right now and in our city, I just didn't want us to lose sight of the significance of this legislation.

Again, according to the reports that our city commission and in conversations with the mayor's office, we know that the drivers who had been long asking for this legislation, according to the study, they are making less than $10 an hour.

Just over $9 an hour is significantly under the minimum wage for Seattle workers, and we must do something about it.

So this legislation provides large company minimum wage of $16.39 an hour to drivers and provides basic costs and benefits to drivers.

We'll have an opportunity to go deeper into the legislation when we talk about it this afternoon, but I just wanted to lift up the importance of the substitute bill.

And really to say thank you to all of our council colleagues who had the chance to work on this.

We added key components to make sure that pay could be maintained and at least make sure that there's a minimum wage and that people were getting compensated for very important time that they spend cleaning their cars, not just during the period of COVID, but ongoing because this is truly a change in our and norms when it comes to expectations around how we protect the public's health and safety.

So really excited about the piece of legislation in front of us.

This is a true economic driver for our local economy to make sure that there's equitable wages, especially for drivers who are more likely to be people of color, immigrants, and refugees.

Thanks again to Sejal Parikh, Chief of Staff, who worked on this piece of legislation.

Thank you so much.

And Karina Bulla from Central Staff.

If you have questions, colleagues, before the 2 p.m.

meeting, please do reach out to my office, to Sejal or to Karina.

The other piece of legislation that's from the Finance and Housing Committee is Council Bill 119890 up for vote this afternoon.

This is the Loyal Heights transfer of property.

This is a small but really exciting piece of legislation that builds on the work that we began years ago to enable the city and city-owned property to be transferred.

at no cost for the creation of affordable housing to community partners, beginning with community and housing advocates who really were pushing for this change for a long time.

We are very excited to see this transfer finally happen.

Just a reminder, in 2018, in partnership with our friends at the state legislature, we passed legislation that I sponsored to update the Seattle's disposition policies to put in place newly granted state authorization to make sure that we were prioritizing affordable housing on surplus land to embed an equitable development lens into that process.

We made sure that it was truly going to what the community was asking for.

And in many cases, that's affordable housing and other community supports like community centers, child care.

and social services.

Last year, we authorized the first no-cost transfer to the Office of Housing for affordable home ownership in Loyal Heights following that legislation.

And this piece of legislation follows up on that to enable the department to transfer the site to actually create permanent affordable homes, home ownership opportunities for the first time.

And on the site, you will be able to see seven three-bedroom townhomes that should be turnkey ready by 2021. Again, if you didn't have the chance to participate in our committee, you would have had the chance to hear that these are about $150,000, under $200,000 for a home in the city of Seattle.

We know how incredibly expensive it is, so this is a huge opportunity.

Finally, as it relates to the budget, as Council President just mentioned, we are expecting to get the 2021 budget transmitted by the Executive to City Council later today.

Over the past two weeks, I want to thank all of you for the time we've spent learning from you all about process and lessons learned from this summer.

We're really excited about the process that we've had the opportunity to work with the Council President on that just was outlined in the memos that you've received.

And I want to thank you all for your ongoing list of priorities.

Thank you, Council Member Morales, for highlighting a few from the community today.

I know we will continue to hear more as the budget continues to be evaluated as it's been proposed by the mayor and looking forward to having the council have its fingerprints on this budget.

We will begin our budget sessions on Wednesday this week.

Just a reminder, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week, we start at 9 30 a.m.

There will be at least a half an hour of public testimony in the morning.

I'm going to be very conscious though that we have limited time and I'm going to leave our public comment as just 30 minutes in the morning with a reminder that there is a large public hearing in the evening next Tuesday.

So 5 30 p.m it's just public hearing all evening.

So if you don't get the chance to provide public testimony please note that Tuesday next week is in perfect opportunity so you don't have to call in every day this week, but we do want to honor public testimony at each meeting.

It will be limited to 30 minutes this week.

Please do set your calendar, though, to participate in our public hearing next Tuesday at 530. We will have a presentation on Wednesday starting with the city budget's overview of the 2021 proposed budget, a break at noon to reconvene at 2 p.m for a presentation from the Department of Education and Early Learning, Office of Sustainability and Environment, and Office of Economic Development, and we will adjourn by 4 30. So I just want to make sure folks knew that for the purposes of planning your day and time with your loved ones.

Day two on Thursday, we will have a presentation from SPD for our session one in the morning and session two, we will have community safety presentation and the municipal court presentation.

And finally, on Friday, this is where we get the citywide HMLS response presentation and office of housing presentation.

Again, we will send out the calendar so you all have that at the top of your inbox.

I appreciate your time, but this is really our chance to have an overview of what the mayor is proposing so that we can dig into what the council would like to see as additional priorities as the conversation unfolds.

Lastly, Council President, in terms of other updates for COVID relief, there was an announcement that went out last week, and I just wanted to provide some clarity on that announcement.

Over the last couple weeks, we've seen a few announcements related to COVID relief, and much of this has come from our Jump Start COVID relief legislation.

We're really excited that the spending is being allocated, and it's at a critical time where we know more and more people are continuing to need support, whether it's coming from housing assistance or food assistance.

The first announcement related to rental assistance dollars including 8 million in rental assistance from the jumpstart COVID relief bill that council passed and 700,000 in mortgage assistance and foreclosure prevention.

I'm excited that that legislation I'm sorry, I'm excited that that funding got out the door.

And then last week, the mayor's office announced an additional investment of $9 million in grocery emergency vouchers.

While the council was not included in that press release, I think it's really important that we do highlight that this was funding that came from investments that the city council authorized through food voucher assistance.

The announcement read that the mayor had committed to $9 million from the city's Rainy Day Fund to expand the number of households receiving emergency grocer vouchers.

But central staff has confirmed that 100% of that funding did come from the Jumpstart COVID relief legislation.

So again, thank you all for all of your work on that.

We know UFCW 21, other food advocates, and many in the community worked hard to make sure that there was additional support for food assistance that was desperately needed.

I think it's really important that we give credit to those who worked on that legislation, especially all the women and people of color who were behind that funding support.

So I want to thank you all for your work on that.

And lastly, huge amount of appreciation.

Executive Dow Constantine noted that there's a proposal to create thousands of affordable homes through a new proposal at the county.

The health through housing proposal is an opportunity for us to create 2,000 homes with the goal of housing of 45% of the county's chronic homelessness population.

This would include creating housing through acquiring single room settings like hotels and motels and putting them into immediate use into shelters and affordable housing, putting funding into shelters and affordable housing with operating and support services.

Ultimately, this is the exact kind of partnership that we are hoping from others in the region.

And I really just want to thank the county.

I know Council Member McDermott had a huge role in this as well.

I'm very excited about the opportunity that this provides for us and looking forward to learning more about the proposal and just want to thank our county partners for this effort as well.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda, for that information.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

Just really quickly, Council Member Mosqueda, I know you've mentioned that in the afternoon sessions, at least as it relates to tomorrow, we're only going to go until 4.30 p.m.

On the other evenings, I'm assuming we're going until 5 o'clock p.m.

in the afternoons, at least.

And then in the mornings, are we intending to break after the morning session, and if so, can you give us a sense, just for scheduling purposes, how long into the afternoon you intend to go and how long of a break between the morning and the afternoon session we can expect?

Thank you for asking that, Council President.

Yes, tomorrow there is a conflict for some Council members in the evening, so we wanted to make sure to give Council members and the supporting staff time to prepare for the other events that are happening.

So tomorrow, as I noted, at 4.30, hard stop.

Thursday and Friday we will endeavor to end by five again trying to recognize the balance between work and life and other obligations that we have.

5 p.m.

will be my hard stop as well.

This is an overview so if there's a chance to ask additional questions from CBO or any of our executive team or central staff team, we still have the opportunity to do that.

So folks do plan to have your evenings free after 5 p.m.

on Thursday and Friday.

As it relates to the lunch break, the latest that we would adjourn for our morning sessions is 1 p.m.

So you can anticipate having at least an hour break between 1 and 2 p.m.

we are trying to give ourselves at least a two-hour break.

We are also going to try to adjourn around noon.

For the purposes of your planning, please do anticipate at least an hour break between 1 and 2 p.m.

All right, hearing none, thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

I look forward to kicking off our budget process under your leadership tomorrow.

Next up is Council Member Peterson, and then we will hear from Council Member Solan.

Council Member Peterson, good morning.

Thank you, Council President.

Hello, colleagues.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee held a special meeting this past Friday to get through several items of business before our budget season started.

Many thanks to the committee members who were able to attend on Friday.

The many items that our committee recommended will appear on the agenda for next week's council agenda for Monday, October 5. Those five items for next week's council meeting are from Seattle City Light.

At today's full Council meeting, I'm a sponsor or co-sponsor on four items, which I'll address quickly here.

Waterway 20, which is Council Bill 119882, I'm a co-sponsor with Council Member Herbold of this bill that formalizes the agreement between the City of Seattle and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for a shoreline access point in Wallingford called Waterway 20. While it's adjacent to the main location for our city's Harbor Patrol, the land could eventually become another point of access for the general public.

The legislation simply authorizes our city's Financial and Administrative Services Department to execute a permit with the State Department of Natural Resources for this land to the west of Gas Works Park.

The lease is for two years.

The lease requires the city to engage with the community as FAS develops a new lease application due a year later.

The required community engagement is a result of the community's request for many years, and we're glad to be able to take a step forward on this.

Council Bill 119896, I'm sponsoring this bill, 119896, which is another example of the relief we're providing during the COVID pandemic.

Specifically, this legislation is needed to extend for another several months the ordinance that we all passed earlier this year to prevent charges for late payments on utility bills.

This financial relief applies to both utility enterprises that we own and operate, Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities.

And I'm happy to support this extension and thank Mayor Durkin and her general managers of each utility, Deborah Smith and Mami Hara, for figuring out a way to make this happen financially.

The clerk file 314458. This is a memo from our city auditor, and he's requesting a few additional months to complete reports on two SDOT-related surveillance technologies, license plate reader technology, and closed-circuit TV technology.

So he's just asking for a few more months of that to get those reports to us.

Then we have Council Bill 119897. As Transportation Chair, I'm co-sponsoring this bill with Councilmember Herbold, and I know many others have worked on this, including Councilmember Strauss.

This is a long-awaited block-the-box transportation legislation that I'm sure many of you may want to address as well.

The transportation expert on our city council central staff, Calvin Chow, wrote an excellent memo explaining this council bill in detail.

In summary, this council bill authorizes the city to take advantage of a new state law to expand our use of automated cameras to enforce rules prohibiting vehicles from blocking crosswalks and bus lanes.

I know we're eager to have these cameras installed to help traffic flow along the Spokane Street swing bridge.

following the closure of the West Seattle High Bridge.

A state government authorized this as a pilot project that requires reporting of the results along the way and unless extended, it would expire in June 2023. Ideally, the results show that this legislation helps us to prioritize pedestrian safety and the efficient flow of public mass transit.

That's all for my report.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Peterson.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, hearing none, we'll move on down the line to Council Member Sawant, followed by Council Member Strauss.

Good morning.

Good morning, President Gonzalez, everyone in the Council.

There is no item from today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

Last Thursday, we held the last meeting of the committee before the City Council begins the fall budget discussions.

At that committee, we heard from renters about organizing to cancel rent and mortgage payments for people impacted by the COVID emergency and the recession and related renters rights issues.

We also heard from environmental activists about climate change.

They shared several important concrete demands that they have for the budget that the city council will be discussing this year.

And I'm not sure if the mayor is going to include these items in her budget that she will unveil later today.

But if not, I hope the council will amend those into the budget.

Like many in our community, I am outraged, but I am unfortunately not surprised by the court's decision that no officer will face any charge the brutal killing of Breonna Taylor.

What continues to be clear is that people of color in particular and working class and poor people in general can expect little to no justice from the courts, the police, or any other institutions of the capitalist state.

Under capitalism, the political establishment protects police officers from consequences or even the most horrific violence.

This was again on full display in Louisville where riot cops armed to the teeth lined the streets before the court ruled not to charge Breonna Taylor's killers.

Similarly, in Seattle, the grotesque video that has emerged of a Seattle police officer rolling their bike over the head of a protester already on the ground, and that officer subsequently being placed on leave with pay, shows the complete lack of accountability and wanton disregard for human dignity that is baked into the system.

The Seattle Police Department must be held accountable for their brutal violence.

And we need to invest in community safety that provides safety for everyone, not just the rich.

I hope in the budget deliberations starting tomorrow, the city council will vote to defund the police by at least 50%, as many council members have promised to do so.

And our city also urgently needs an elected civilian oversight board with full powers over the police.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Salon.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear from Council Member Strauss and then Council Member Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President and good morning, colleagues.

There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar.

There are nine items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's agenda.

There's CB 119838, which is the annual round of comprehensive plan amendments.

There is resolution 31970, which sets the docket of potential amendments for consideration in the 2020 and 2021 comprehensive plan cycle.

There are three appointments to the Urban Forestry Commission, one appointment to the Pike Place Market Historical Commission, two appointments to the International Special Review District and we also have CB 119877 which would extend virtual meetings of the Design Review and Landmarks Preservation Board.

This bill will be held for one week because it came out of committee with a divided vote and so please expect to see that at full council next Monday, October 5th.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, like everyone else, is after budget, so Wednesday, December 9th.

Here in District 6, last week, I met with community groups about the Ballard Commons, Leary Triangle.

I held District 6 resident meetings, and we discussed homelessness, public safety, and stay healthy streets.

My role as the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee chair, I also met with the sponsors of some of the comprehensive plan amendments last week.

and attended PSRC.

So this week, I will continue to have District 6 meetings and due to the budget cycle and schedule, I'll be holding these after 5 p.m.

so that I can remain accessible to the community.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Council Member Herbold and then Council Member Juarez.

Good morning.

You're actually unmuted now.

Oh, what do you know?

It's a good, it's a good thing you didn't say anything you didn't want heard.

Good morning.

Everybody good to see everybody on this Tuesday morning.

As far as the items that I have on today's full council agenda from the public safety and human services committee last week.

We have an ordinance, Council Bill 119893. This is the Whistleblower Protection Ordinance.

This bill amends the Whistleblower Protection Code to provide whistleblower protection to employees who report improper government actions to the Inspector General by amending the definition of report in the Whistleblower Protection Code.

This allows the Office of the Inspector General, as noted in committee, to address situations that have risen in the previous work of the Office of the Inspector General that has given rise to the need for this bill.

Again, the Inspector General has noted specific incidents in the past where there have been attempts to report particular types of activity and the complainant did not feel that the existing whistleblower protection code would give the protection of a whistleblower to the complainant in making the complaint.

And so this legislation corrects that so that the important principle of ensuring that people are able to come forward in exercising the high expectations of a public official in identifying behavior that is either against policy or against the law.

And this clears the pathway to do that.

The legislation also updates the title of the OPA to Office of Police Accountability from Office of Professional Accountability.

And in addition to, of course, the Office of the Inspector General support and that of the Inspector General herself, we also have strong support from Wayne Barnett, the Director of the Office of Ethics and Elections.

We also have on this Tuesday's full council agenda appointment of Dorothy E. Leggett as member of the Public Safety Civil Service Commission for a term of confirmation to December 31st, 2022. Safety Civil Service Commission is a three-member impartial quasi-judicial body.

The mayor and the council each appoint a member to the commission, and the city's civil service employees elect a member as well.

Each commissioner serves a three-year term.

The commission hears appeals of sworn police and uniformed police employees involving the disciplinary actions, the examination and testing, and alleged violations of the city charter, personnel rules, and the personnel ordinance.

For any proposal from the chief of police for out of order layoffs, we've been hearing about obviously the public safety civil service commission quite a bit recently.

For any proposal from the chief of police for out of order layoffs in the interest of efficient operations of the department as requested by the council, it is the executive director that makes the decision, but the commission hears appeals to that decision.

And the executive director makes decision consistent with or in consideration of the advice that the executive director receives from the commission.

Dorothy Yee Leggett has a wide variety of legal and policy experience at the federal, state, and local levels.

in areas including workers' comp law, family law, and nonprofit governance.

And she also has experience in a civil service system and quasi-judicial decision-making governance.

She serves as staff attorney for the Eastside Legal Assistance Program and assists survivors of domestic violence, hosts legal clinics, and advises clients on issues including employment, housing, public benefits, immigration law.

As staff counsel to this California State Compensation Insurance Fund, she conducted investigations and legal research of state regulations and case law and made over 500 appearances before the Worker Comp Appeals Board.

In addition, on full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee last week, we also have appointment of Catherine Marie McDowell as Municipal Court Judge Position 1. Judge McDowell is a pro tem judge who has served at the Seattle Municipal Court.

Pro Tem Judges fill in for absent judges and has been operating in that capacity for the Seattle Municipal Court and the King County District Court for over seven years.

Pro Tem Judge McDowell received a rating of well qualified from the King County Bar Association, qualified from the Lauren Miller Bar Association, and exceptionally well qualified from the Washington Women Lawyers.

We have received letters of support from the Judicial Evaluation Committee, which represents several local minority bar associations, Specifically, members from the Washington Women Lawyers, the Asian Bar Association of Washington, the Lauren Miller Bar Association, Q Law of Washington, Korean American Bar Association of Washington, the Public Defender Association, and co-chair of the Community Police Commission, and the city attorney's office.

There were 13 applicants that the committee reviewed.

consistent with the selection and confirmation process that is established through legislation.

The requirement is that there are specific recommendations that the Judicial Evaluation Committee has to make to the to the executive to the mayor this is a mayoral appointment and so the Judicial Evaluation Committee makes their recommendations from the applicants that are reviewed to the mayor herself and there were three individuals recommended to the mayor and Judge McDowell rated highly from the members of the evaluation committee.

Judge McDowell will serve a term until December 31st, 2022, and is filling the position previously held by Judge Edward McKenna, who, as we all know, retired in April.

items that I'm sponsoring that are being referred directly to full council.

Councilmember Peterson covered both of those items already.

One relates to the waterway permit and use of the of The first relates to the use of automated waterway 20 by Seattle police department's harbor patrol.

And the second, of course, relates to the uses for automated traffic safety cameras to newly include enforcement on in transit lanes as well as in block the box situations.

Joe Fitzgibbons, he's made a long-standing effort to get the state legislative authority that allows the city of Seattle to enact this legislation and really appreciate his long and consistent and dogged work on this effort.

inform the viewing public.

General access on the lower bridge is permitted from 9 p.m.

to 5 a.m.

School buses, employer shuttles, van pulls of essential workers.

access to Longshoremen and West Seattle bridges is allowed on other occasions.

Under state law, only warning notices are allowed in 2020 and fines of up to $75 starting in 2021. Half the funds go into a state fund and remaining funds may only be used for equitable access, transportation improvements, and mobility for persons with disabilities.

couple items related to the Department of Health.

Just want to get the word out, as I'm sure many of us have already heard, State Department of Health and the CDC is urging everyone to get flu vaccinations.

The presence of both flu and coronaviruses can put more people in the hospital and strain our health care system and first responders, according to Washington Department of Health.

We don't yet have a vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

We do have one to prevent flu.

The Seattle Visiting Nurse Association is hosting drive-through flu shots throughout October.

Just go to seattlevna.com and click Make an Appointment.

They will add additional dates.

All insurances are accepted.

There's no cost to the uninsured and the underinsured community members.

You can also find flu vaccine locations by calling your doctor, visiting a local pharmacy, or calling the Family Health Hotline at 1-800.

322-2588.

As it relates to the fantastic work of the Seattle Fire Department and their COVID-19 tests administered at their four sites, they are now from June 5th to September 28th up to completing over 212,000 tests for folks in our area.

I want to give a shout out and congratulations to HSD's Aging and Disability Services Division, which received a 2020 N4A Aging Innovation Award from the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging for involvement in the City of Seattle's Mobile Integrated Health Partnership, which includes HealthONE.

For four years, HSD has partnered with the Seattle Fire Department through programs focused on high utilizers and vulnerable adults.

Health One was added in 2019 to address non-emergency requests with a dedicated vehicle staffed with two firefighters who are also emergency medical technicians.

and an HSD social worker with experience serving people with diverse needs, including chronic conditions experienced by older people and individuals with disabilities.

In 2019, about 44% of nearly 73,000 medical calls received by Seattle's 911 dispatch center were non-life-threatening.

including behavioral health and addiction issues and calls from people with chronic conditions.

Less than eight percent of those calls required paramedic support.

Health One HSD social workers follow up with 911 callers whose complaints do not present an immediate danger and they help identify adults at risk for abuse and self-neglect.

Staff has provided training and resources for high utilizing locations like shelters and assisted living facilities and social workers are involved in triage, assessment, referrals, transport and warm handoffs to other providers.

So again, congratulations.

to HSD's Aging and Disability Services for receiving the Innovation Award, and also congratulations to the Seattle Fire Department for their partnership in this really important effort.

And then just wrapping up, I want to give folks a quick heads up on West Seattle Bridge related events.

Last week the community task force met and we discussed the criteria that SDOT will be using for their cost benefit analysis and the measurements that they'll be using to quantify each of the ten principle criteria in the cost benefit analysis.

criteria like maintenance and operations, constructability, environmental issues, equity, forward compatibility, funding opportunities, business and workforce impacts, mobility impacts, multimodal impacts, and seismic and safety issues.

On October 7th, the task force will be receiving what SDOT is calling rough order of magnitude costs.

and October 21st, a final cost benefit analysis as well as decision from the mayor on whether to repair or replace the bridge is planned.

So mark your calendars for those dates, October 7th.

and October 21st.

Upcoming this week, tomorrow, the 30th, from 530 to 730, District 1 Town Hall will be hosted by myself, as well as SDOT Director Sam Zimbabwe, Seattle Interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz, and the Southwest Precinct Captain Kevin Grossman.

This will be a town hall on public safety and the West Seattle Bridge.

The first hour will be focused on public safety issues, and the second hour on the West Seattle Bridge.

There'll be lots of time for questions on both topics.

You can RSVP by going to herbal.seattle.gov and clicking on the RSVP button.

we will have a Q&A session later today.

We will be e-mailing information to the RSVP list about how to participate in the Q&A and how to view the town hall.

Thank you to the budget committee chair for ending the meeting of the budget committee at 430 tomorrow so I can transition as well as my staff over to this event.

I really appreciate it.

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Council Member Juarez, followed by Council Member Lewis.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, everybody.

Let's see.

I have four items that I want to briefly get through.

The waterfront lid and Pier 58 parks, what's going on in Native communities and sound transit.

I'll start with committee.

The Public Assets and Native Committees Committee has one item on today's agenda.

And it's another appeal to the hearing examiner's report of the Washington, I'm sorry, waterfront lid assessment.

If you recall last week, September 21st, we passed resolution 31969. And now we'll be looking at a second appeal, which will be resolution 31972. So that will be item 20 on today's agenda.

As a reminder, this is a mandatory process to pass the resolution to set the time and place for each appeal to the hearing examiner's assessment report.

The council may not approve the final assessment rule for the waterfront lid without reviewing and deciding upon appeals of the hearing examiner's recommendation on the final assessment rule.

As you all know, and from the memo and information we've received, under state law, RCW 3544 and the Seattle Municipal Code 2004090, It requires the council to hear any appeals from the recommendation of a hearing examiner on the final assessment role for the local improvement district.

That's the LID.

And again, council's quasi-judicial rules 4A state that the council may delegate the appeal review to a committee, and the committee would then make a recommendation to the full council, and this resolution would state the council's intention to refer the appeal to the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee.

Just quick background here, and then I may revisit it again just so the public can hear.

The assessment role hearing concluded in July 2020, and following the conclusion of the assessment role hearing, the hearing examiner prepared a written report with findings and recommendations, and that was filed with the city clerk on Tuesday, September 8th.

So with the hearing examiner's filing of the recommendation, we will initiate, which will initiate the possibility of appeals of his recommendation to council.

That is why this resolution, the second resolution is before us today.

Again, the council may not approve the final assessment role for the waterfront land without reviewing and deciding upon appeals of the hearing examiner's recommendation and final assessment role.

So that is what we'll have in front of us today.

Resolution 31972 regarding waterfront lid 6751. Second, parks.

This morning, my office will send out parks weekly COVID-19 programmatic updates.

Big thank you to Nageen and our friends over at parks that meet every week.

And Mr. Jorge Susadere, superintendent, who checks in with us.

To give us the update, so I know you guys all get it in your inbox before the end of the day, the COVID-19 testing site now located at Rainier Beach High School will return to the Atlantic City boat ramp parking lot on Monday, September, that's today, 28th.

Let's see, I'm sorry, I got that wrong.

That was yesterday.

It returned yesterday.

Today's Tuesday.

Okay, so Seattle Parks Department with Seattle Public Utilities partnered with non-profit The Millionaire Club Charity.

That's a Seattle-based non-profit whose temporary staffing agency and supportive employment program offer job opportunities for those experiencing homelessness.

So they're going to continue the free shower program at Green Lake Community Center through maintenance work on the building via a mobile shower hygiene unit.

until Green Lake Community Center and Evans Pool are renovated and the stabilization project now underway replaces the boilers in the air handling system.

The tentative date for reopening the closed Seattle Parks and Rec parking lots is Monday, October 19th.

Parking lots at 14 popular parks were closed in late March to help reduce crowding.

Good news on the Native communities front.

As you all remember what we passed last year, We have an incredible opportunity, incredible job opportunity here at the City of Seattle.

Last year, the public asked that the Native communities took up recommendations from the Seattle Native Health Board from Abigail Alcohock's 2018 report on the missing, murdered, and Indigenous women and girls epidemic that our nation has faced for decades.

The report showed Seattle ranking number one for the highest rate of missing Native women in the United States.

Last year, November 19th, I'm sorry, in November 2019, we had consensus among the Seattle City Council, Mayor's Office, and the Police Department to combat this epidemic.

This was a major move for the city, and we were the first city in the nation to pass legislation and fund positions to address missing, murdered Indigenous women and girls.

I'm grateful that we have, we continue to have consensus and strong partnership to re-envision public safety and invest contract dollars for Native communities and invest in a new position within SPD to track missing murdered Indigenous women, girls, the casework.

This is a new and unique position.

We are working in partnership with Seattle Police Department and Native leaders will have the lead in determining who will get this job, the selection process, the procedures, and the implementation of the specialized position.

This is the strategic advisor position that has been posted online and we're awaiting applicants.

So, this is exciting for us and the city.

A big shout out to the Sierra Leone Health Board, Esther Lacerro, Abigail Elkahog, and all those folks that came forward and worked with us, including the Suquamish tribe, the Muckleshoot tribes, the Kwame, Tulalip, Puyallup, the Squally.

I could go on and on.

All of these tribes worked with us, and I'm excited that we finally got this position in place and funded to work on combating this epidemic.

In regards to Sound Transit, I'm going to get a little wordy here.

Last Thursday, I attended the Sound Transit board of directors meeting where we approved $85 million in capital projects that had been on pause as the agency assessed the financial implications of COVID-19.

I can give you more information offline and send it to you with the PowerPoint that was presented to us on the realignment.

how ridership is down, how that's impacting projects, but what projects are still gonna go forward.

One of the projects includes 4.5 million for routes between West Seattle and downtown Seattle to provide speed and reliability improvements on the Rapid Ride C. So I'm happy that that got passed and that's gonna be in there because we know our friends in West Seattle are having transportation issues, the bridge being down.

In other great news, our office worked with and partnered with King County Council Member Jermai Zahili, and we are happy to share that we are going to help execute a transfer of property from Sound Transit to imagine his vision for the Youth Achievement Center.

It's a youth jail diversion program that will match people to resources, new skills, and transitional housing.

At Sound Transit, and with the city and the county, and Councilmember Morales.

I've been working on this for months with the mayor, and of course, Councilmember Zahili.

So what we had to do is we had to get sound transit with the federal property to get permission from FTA, that is the feds, to transfer the property to King County.

So in order to, we needed to acquire the two sound transit properties near the Columbia light rail station.

So they've earned the support, obviously, of several elected offices and leaders in King County and Seattle, and as I shared with Council Member Morales, this office has been a big help in advocating for this.

This group has worked with Congressman Adam Smith's office to assist in executing the transfer, as it involves the federal government.

On September 9th, we received approval from the FTA, the Federal Transit Administration, to transfer the properties to the city for affordable housing, and in the process, extinguish the federal interest in the property.

So we're talking about a couple different properties here, some for housing and some for the Youth Achievement Center.

The FTA letter also allows for a transfer of the particular size of interest for the Youth Achievement Center to either the city or Seattle or King County, but this is going to go through King County.

So this will allow King County to act The community coalition involved includes Africatown, community passageways, and others.

There's still work to be done in partnership with the council member, the King County Council Member Zahili, and so that work looks like, and with the coalition and King County to map out the path forward will be ongoing, and I hope to continue to work with King County Council Member Morales, now in transit, and I do want to thank Mr. Rogoff at Sound Transit and the mayor for discussing with us how we take some of these properties from the FTA piece, from the transfer, from the federal piece, to transfer it to the city or to the county for these type of purposes.

So there should be more to come on this surplus property and what we do with it.

And finally, We've been having our meetings with Mr. Marshall Foster, the Director of the Office of the Waterfront on Pier 58, and there's a lot of material there, and so for now, we will start providing Seattle City Council on Monday mornings a brief report like we do with parks to give weekly updates on Pier 58, what is going on with the inspections, and other waterfront projects.

So with that, I think we'll have more to share Certainly with parks, you'll have something in your inbox before the end of the day, and I'm hoping that we start doing that and have something by the end of the day in regards to Pier 58 and the activity on the waterfront.

With that, that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

Council Member Morales, please.

Thank you.

I just want to give a huge shout out to Council Member Juarez for helping this transfer happen.

It is a really important project that we're talking about, this Youth Achievement Center at the Columbia City Light Rail Station, and it is part of a much bigger vision for the kind of community investments that we're talking about in trying to scale up the shift in how we do community safety, scale up the organizations that do that kind

Oh, Council Member Morales, I think we have lost a connection with you.

So if you are able to hear us, we'll need to circle back to you for those comments.

But I think we got the general sense of where you were headed.

So unfortunately, we are having some technical difficulties with Council Member Morales' line.

but I will open it up to any others who might have any comments or questions on the report that we just heard from Council Member Juarez.

Council President, if I may?

Sure.

I want to thank Council Member Morales, and I think just to add a little bit more context here, these kind of properties and the transfer of these properties and the physical transfer, the actual brick and mortar, the actual footprint of land, in these communities that will allow to create economic engines for the communities that have not had the benefit of generational wealth or legacy.

This is the stuff that we're working on and we've been doing, and this is the stuff that I've been doing in Indian country for decades, where you have that physical place, you have that economic footprint, you create that brick and mortar economic engine, And you have people who invest in that, whether it's a company, a corporation, a bank, whatever community deems appropriate.

And those are the conversations that we've had with Councilmember Morales's office.

And I want to thank her staff, who have been very wonderful in turning around information and working with my staff, mainly Brindell and Nagin.

So I think if I can just speak a little bit for Councilmember Morales, I think that is some of what she wanted to share.

And there is more to come on this transfer.

As you know, with Sound Transit, this is federal money, and federal money is restricted, so therefore, it isn't as easy as thinking that we can just transfer the property.

There is a process in there, and we could not have done that without the help of the mayor, the county exec, and certainly not without the inspiration and leadership of King County Council Member Girmay Zahaili.

So with them, Zahaili, I'm sorry.

So with that, I'll leave it at that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We are waiting for Council Member Morales to be able to log back in.

So we will certainly give her an opportunity to finish her remarks before we adjourn today, if she is able to join us again.

But for now, we're going to go ahead and continue down the line.

Next up is Council Member Lewis.

Good morning.

Good morning, Madam President.

So I don't have very much for this week, but we'll jump into the updates that my office does have.

We are currently still working with the provider community and with Council President's Office and Budget Chair Mosqueda to potentially plan or request either a special committee meeting or potentially a We have not had a chance to discuss homelessness outreach strategies.

I did want to echo councilmember Mosqueda's comments earlier about the The 2,000 units being proposed to be created from a $400 million infusion of investment created, and I do just want to thank Speaker Emeritus Chopp for his leadership and Representative Beth Doglio for her leadership in passing that taxing authority for King County to make that investment a reality.

To put it in context, if looking at the metrics laid out by the Third Door Coalition, the amount of units that could be acquired with that taxing authority represents almost a third of the five-year goal for reaching functional zero on chronic homelessness that Third Door Coalition, which is an alliance of small business owners, service providers, and academics has identified.

So it is an extremely significant investment in a very under-invested in segment of our homelessness strategy, being permanent supportive housing.

So I look forward to working with King County to build on that.

On our end, I know that we make considerable investment as well through the Jump Start Seattle legislation we passed last summer.

And it is just good to see regionally all of these pieces I think it is important for us to think about how we are going to be able to do this without clicking together and finally bringing some real resources to bear to get at the crux of the issue, which is the relatively scant available permanent supportive housing relative to the scale of the crisis before us.

that is a very significant investment, and I am hopeful that we get that online sooner rather than later.

I also want to just briefly take us all back to June, to the premium pay legislation that we passed as a council to assess a $2.50 hazard pay consideration for gig economy workers who are doing important frontline work, often bearing the cost of personal protective equipment, time to sanitize and clean their vehicles, and bearing that cost due to their mischaracterization as independent contractors.

I want to just give a shout out to the Office of Labor Standards and the settlement that was announced recently for $361,950, all remitted in a settlement back to workers who were owed I want to applaud the swiftness the Office of Labor Standards in making sure that money is getting out the door and that pay is being given to these workers doing this really important work, and just to really you know, encapsulates for me the great work that this council is doing on expanding equity in the workforce when it, you know, laws are not just words on paper, but actually are leading to material well-being for workers who are facing extreme hazards and hardships.

during COVID-19 and that these laws are making a very real and tangible difference in their ability to weather these conditions.

So I do just want to thank Office of Labor Standards, give a shout out to the workers doing that critical work and just appreciate the swiftness that a law passed in June can lead to a settlement like that in September on such a quick turnaround and get that money out the door.

So with that, the only other update I have is that due to the budget meeting commitments, I will not be at the Queen Anne Farmers Market this week.

It is my hope that I will be able to be there next week for what I believe is the final Queen Anne Farmers Market of the season.

and regret that I cannot go this week given the commitment for the Budget Committee.

Otherwise, no further updates.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Councilmember Herbold, please, and then Councilmember Mosqueda.

Thank you very much.

I have a question for Councilmember Lewis regarding last week's vote.

I know not very much time has lapsed since the vote last week to override the mayor's veto.

But as it relates to one of the items, just wondering if there has been any follow-up to his office from the mayor's office and that is related to specifically the council's decision to eliminate funding for the navigation team.

I have seen press reports that the mayor's office has said that they will move forward with layoffs for the city staff who are coordinating and helping individuals experiencing homelessness at encampments across the city.

That is a quote from the mayor's office.

That is not my characterization.

But there's nothing in the statement that refers to the other part of the council's action.

We did not only reduce funding for the navigation team.

We focused that funding on expansion of existing outreach to engage with the population of people that the navigation team traditionally has engaged with.

And I was very, very pleased to learn on Friday that the mayor gave an interview to Converge Media.

I'm just wondering whether or not you, councilmember Lewis, have any information about the expenditure of these very, very important funds for outreach.

of the navigation team without, as the council's intended, reinvesting those dollars to continue to serve the folks who are living outside, unsheltered, and addressing the needs of the communities around, the house communities and business communities around them.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold for that question.

Councilmember Lewis, if you can go ahead, if you are able to address it, that's fine.

And you have an opportunity to do that now.

Right.

And that is a good question, Councilmember Herbold.

Those conversations have been very preliminary so far, though I do understand that it is the intention of the mayor's office to to duly follow the first part of the proviso on sort of the disbanding of the navigation team.

The contracting on the other side is something that's still an ongoing conversation.

Though from talking to Director Johnson, he has intimated to me that it is certainly something that that they're in the early process of looking into.

And this would be a big part of any kind of committee meeting or presentation to the council that I'm currently working on trying to schedule to address this very issue.

And certainly, I think given that, I think the, to make sure the replacement strategy is in place.

I'm certainly talking to the human services department and the mayor's office about this and I'm hoping to try to package that all together to provide some information to the Council and an opportunity for interaction among members.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis, for your update.

I, too, wanted to just compliment the Office of Labor Standards.

Thank you so much for highlighting that important work.

It also brought to mind an issue that we're dealing with currently in this city.

Folks may know that members of our community who work in grocery stores like QFC and Fred Meyer were initially offered $2 an hour for the COVID pay.

The situation created additional work for them, obviously additional hazards from being in a place that's visited frequently by large numbers.

of people and wanting to recognize the work that they're doing.

Initially, UFCW 21 and folks at QFC and Fred Meyer had negotiated a $2 per hour COVID relief assistance amount to be added to their pay, but that was abruptly taken away and I think it's really important for us as a city to continue to emphasize to all employers, including us as an employer, that it is important for us to recognize that COVID is not going away.

There are increased numbers of COVID cases right here in Seattle, and there's increased numbers of deaths right now in our region.

Just noting that this is not a crisis that is beginning to decline, and in fact, we need to do everything that we can to be vigilant.

Not only did QFC and Fred Meyer take away the $2 an hour amount, They then offered additional compensation in the form of, wait for it, extra fuel points for their employees and a slightly larger employee discount.

You cannot pay rent with fuel points.

So as we think about the impact that COVID is having in our community, and especially for essential workers, it is essential that we continue to pay them.

for the work that they're doing and also to recognize that they are putting themselves in increased risk by being in our community at the very least, they should be continue to offer continue to be able to have.

I want to call out the importance of all employees being able to receive the hazard pay.

Very excited about the work that the office of but I think it's important to call out that this is still an ongoing crisis and essential workers still need additional assistance.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments on Council Member Lewis's report?

Okay, hearing none, I'll go ahead and give my report here really quickly.

Due to the kickoff of the fall budget process, there is no Governance and Education Committee Meeting scheduled for the month of October.

On today's instruction referral calendar, there are no items from the Governance and Education Committee.

On today's full Council agenda, there's one item related to the Governance and Education Committee.

That is Council Bill 119888 or Item 2 on the City Council agenda that relates to city employment.

This is legislation that comes to us from the Seattle Department of Human Resources.

This legislation presents the official 2020 citywide position list, which fulfills an important administrative function, but does not have a substantive impact to city operations, employees, or funds.

Positions in this list may have already been modified by administrative or legislative action that occurred on or after January 1st of 2020. Again, this is largely technical legislation that we consider just about every year at around this time.

If you do have any questions about the bill, you can reach out to me directly or to my chief of staff, Brianna Thomas.

I don't have anything else to report on behalf of the Governance and Education Committee meeting and did want to circle back to Council Member Morales who had some internet outage issues to see if she wanted to complete her remarks related to the report that Council Member Juarez was giving.

And if not, then we'll adjourn.

But Council Member Morales, would you like to conclude your remarks?

Thank you.

My apologies to everyone.

And one of these days, we will all have good internet.

I'll just say, finally, a big thank you to Council Member Juarez, because it's important work that we're trying to do to support our organizations.

And this is a part of that vision.

So thank you.

Great, thank you so much Council Member Morales and glad that we got you back online just in time to adjourn here.

But colleagues, there is nothing left on our agenda for today.

Is there anything else for the good of the order?

Hearing none, we are adjourned and we will see you this afternoon at 2 o'clock p.m.

for our very full and packed full council agenda.

Please be aware that I will only accommodate 30 minutes of public comment this afternoon that we hope to start shortly after 2 o'clock.

Depending on the volume of signups, I may shorten the period of public comment from 2 minutes to either 1 minute or 45 seconds, depending again on the volume.

I will make that call once I get the signup sheet, but please be aware that we will only accommodate 30 minutes of public comment this afternoon.

at full council, given that we have an incredibly packed agenda.

So I want to be respectful of your all's time and the general public's time.

So I will see you at two o'clock.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.