Seattle City Council 4/22/2019

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for being here for our April 22nd full council meeting.

The April 22nd, 2019 full city council meeting will come to order.

It's 2 o'clock p.m.

I'm Bruce Harrell, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

O'Brien?

Here.

Salant?

Here.

Bagshaw?

Here.

Gonzales?

Here.

Herbold?

Here.

Juarez?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Here.

President Harrell?

Here.

Ape present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

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

I'll also move to adopt the proposed agenda.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

I would like to make an amendment and let me sort of describe it.

I'll move to amend the proposed agenda to include the voting procedures for the appointment of City Council position number four.

listed under the item of business to be as follows.

As chair, I will open nominations to fill the city council position number four.

Council members will have the opportunity to nominate an applicant and an applicant will need to be nominated by a council member for them to be considered and a second will be required to consider that nomination.

After nominations have been made, the call for nominees will close.

The council members will then be given an opportunity to make any comments about the selected nominees the factors or criterion they used in deciding whom to support, and any other information they wish to share before the voting begins.

When it is time to vote on the nominees, the clerk will call the roll and council members will respond by stating the name of the nominee they wish to appoint from the selected nominees.

Council members may not change their vote until the next round of elections, should there be one.

If one nominee receives five or more votes, that individual is appointed to fill position four and will assume office immediately after accepting the position and taking the oath of office.

If the nominee does not receive five votes, the next nominee will be considered, and if no nominee receives five votes, the process will repeat until a nominee receives five or more votes.

Okay?

So that is the amendment I'd like to propose for the agenda.

Are there any questions or comments about the procedure I described?

Okay, so we're going to amend the agenda.

All those in favor of the voting procedures for the appointment of City Council position number four as I described, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the voting procedure has been established.

Therefore those in favor of approving the agenda as amended please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the agenda is adopted as amended.

Approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the April 8th and April 11th 2019 City Council meetings have been reviewed and if there's no objection the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Presentations, I'm not aware of any presentations this afternoon.

So we'll move to public comment.

At this time we will, just one moment here.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

At this time, we'll take public comment on items that appeared on today's agenda, our Introduction and Referral Calendar, and the City Council's 2019 Work Program.

And so I'll call you out in the order with which you've signed up, and I have a list right here.

We'll start out with Mr. David Haynes, followed by Jenna Williamson, and we'll go for two minutes per speaker.

City Council, we need an invigorated pedestrian advisory group to influence the 21st century development and combat the abuse of being a pedestrian disrespected by road rage horn honkers.

We need to elevate the punishment of road rage horn honking that's detrimental to the health of individuals subjected to noise pollutions that justify ticketing horn honkers.

We need pedestrian priority.

As it is now, pedestrians are subjected to delays in crossing the street because cars are prioritized, forcing you to stand there breathing toxic pollution from exhaust causing leukemia cancer.

And any person unfortunate enough to be forced onto 3rd Avenue knows that pedestrians are subjected to road rage horn honking by our bus drivers, inconsiderate of others, while they honk, while speeding through the bus stop, getting off work, or wailing on the horn at an Uber taxi, while every pedestrian is overwhelmed by the bus horn honking.

So good luck to the 21st century attempts to give the people a reprieve on the city on the side of the highway.

Thank you, Mr. Hayne.

Our next speaker is Jenna Williamson, followed by Ashley Gordon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jenna Williamson.

I'm here today as a volunteer for Unified Seattle.

I'm here to make a statement today regarding low barrier shack encampments, which are not only hurting the community, but the homeless residents themselves.

Low barrier shack encampments go against the recommendation of homelessness experts.

Seattle has already seen shack encampments fail.

For example, the Licton Springs encampment in North Seattle, crime has doubled.

Failed solutions enable struggling homeless addicts rather than encouraging rehabilitation The goal for these residents is for them to be able to live independently and support themselves.

An example of the failure of these encampments, just two weeks ago, the Lake Union encampment locked out city officials in a hostile takeover.

This was due to disagreements on how the encampments are run.

The nonprofit groups that have refused the city officials entrance have also failed to show transparency on any outcomes on their use of public funds.

This proves that they are the only ones to stand to benefit from the low barrier shack encampment proposals.

If Seattle continues in this vein, the homeless epidemic in the city will only get worse and people will continue to suffer on our streets.

We need real solutions, not shacks.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you.

Ashley Gordon will be followed by Alan Bickham.

Good afternoon.

I am here in support of Abel Pacheco for the vacancy for District 4. I've known Abel for several years and I am here because I really do believe that Both personally and professionally, and in all of his spare time, he's shown a dedication to being a part of shaping the future of Seattle.

And his work with the University of Washington, in particular, around diversifying STEM programs, is really personal to me as a black woman and someone who's interested in seeing initiatives that are inclusive across the board in the city.

I also think that as a resident of District 4, as well as a professional in District 4, he brings a unique perspective on both ends of the spectrum around public transit and issues of homelessness.

And we'll do it with a sense of compassion, which is really important to me and I think to a lot of residents.

Overall, I think in particular for this appointment, you're looking for someone who can come in and of toe the line of bringing new ideas and a new perspective and a lived experience that maybe isn't right on the council right now, but also someone who's going to want to partner and collaborate and see through the programs and initiatives that are already in flux.

And I think in ABLE you will find someone who can do that.

So I really do hope that I help, you know, tip the scales in his favor.

Thank you.

Our last speaker will be Alan Thickem.

Hi.

I'm just going to be talking about the FEPP levy.

And I'm a student at Seattle Central College and part of the Promise Scholarship that's provided there.

And I would say it's been a huge benefit to be a part of that.

I think it's nice for students to have the time to kind of figure out what they want to do take those two years if they're not ready, I guess, having those two years to kind of explore and really see what it is that they want to do in college or what they want to do for the rest of their life.

And some students just aren't ready to go to a four-year university straight out of high school.

So I think that having that opportunity for future students will benefit them a lot.

And it definitely has benefited me a lot.

And saving money, too, with college, because it's very expensive.

And yeah, so thank you.

Thank you.

Thank all of you for your public testimony.

That'll close the public comment section of our agenda.

And we will move to the payment of the bills section.

So please read the title.

Council Bill 119501, an ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims and ordering the payment thereof.

I move to pass Council Bill 119501. It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any further comments?

Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Thank you very much.

Please read the first agenda item.

The report of the City Council Agenda Item 1, Resolution 31878, a resolution providing an honorary designation of 72nd Avenue NW between NW 56th and NW 57th Streets as Rob Mattson Way, introduced April 15th, 2019. Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, I'm excited to pass this designation today.

This would designate the 22nd Avenue between Northwest 56th and Northwest 57th, so that's the block between or on the west side of the Ballard branch of the Seattle Library.

as Rob Mattson Way.

Rob passed away last year.

He retired in 2013 from the city of Seattle, having worked for the city for 42 years.

In 1973, under Mayor Wes Ullman, he was appointed the director of the Ballard Little City Hall at the time.

As head of the Ballard Neighborhood Service Center and founder of the Ballard District Council, Rob continued his work connecting residents of Ballard with each other and the city services through most of his career.

In later years, Rob was often referred to as the Mayor of Ballard.

By introducing this resolution, Mayor Durkin, along with his family and friends, intend to honor Rob with this honorary street inestimation.

There will be a celebration as the signs go up in the neighborhood at a date to be named in the future, but Rob was someone I didn't get to work with a whole lot, but someone who I know is respected by just about everyone in the community.

He's an amazing person.

Thank you, Council Member Bryan.

Any other comments or questions on this resolution?

Actually, my honor in supporting this.

Thank you, Council Member Bryan, for bringing this to the full Council's attention.

Okay, those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

The motion carries and the resolution is adopted and the Chair will sign it.

If I had some fans out there, I'd have given a longer speech.

Okay, please read the next agenda item.

The report of the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee.

Agenda item two, appointment 1277, the reappointment of Ryan P. Vancell as hearing examiner, office of the hearing examiner for a term to March 20th, 2023. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Thank you.

So it's my pleasure in presenting to you the confirmation or reappointment of our hearing examiner, Ryan Vansel.

A little background for the viewing public.

The hearing examiner is perhaps in an office that a lot of people don't know what they do.

They may associate it with simply land use appeals, but certainly the office covers much more, including many issues that arise from our city code appeals that are taken to that office.

It becomes a critical place because many people are not represented by council.

Many are.

A critical place for really understanding due process when people are having issues, legal issues, associated with the City of Seattle's directions on land use and issues and many other ones, many other issues.

So a little description of how we got to this point.

Over a year ago, we had an opening because of the retirement of our former hearing examiner, Sue Tanner.

There were several rounds of interviews.

The first round of interviews for the hearing examiner was conducted by a three-person selection, and on that panel, there were representatives from the Seattle Department of Human Resources, the King County Ombudsman, the King County Bar Association, per the hiring process described in our municipal code.

And from that process, over 20 applications were reviewed, and five applicants were forwarded to the second selection panel.

From that, from that second selection panel that consists of four individuals, Councilmember, former Councilmember Rob Johnson, who was Chair of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, Ann Watanabe, who was a former hearing examiner, Karen Jackson, the Legislative Department's Human Resources Director, and myself.

And from those interviews, Mr. Vancell was the top candidate.

Fast forward to today and the recent process.

He was confirmed originally for one year.

And after that process, the more exhaustive confirmation process took place very recently.

Members of the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee on April 2nd and April 16th interviewed Mr. Vansel and forwarded him several questions and oral questions as well and presented the responses to the full council.

We also sought feedback from basically everyone in this office, the Deputy Hearing Examiner, all staff from the Office of the Hearing Examiner.

And upon the review of all of the evaluations, I was very pleased to call for a vote of the Governance, Technology, and Equity Committee, and he was unanimously recommended on April 16th.

A little bit about his background, he holds a Juris Doctorate from the Seattle University School of Law.

He holds a Bachelor's Degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and a Master's Mediator Certification in the King County Dispute Resolution.

practicum in that was since July of 2013. He served as the deputy hearing examiner from October of 2016 to the 2018 and of course from 2006 to 2016 he was in private practice primarily operating in the area of land use.

In response to his questions about, well, what kind of hearing examiner will you be if you are so chosen?

And sort of a deeper dive into his values is sort of what makes him tick.

And new ideas.

What kind of new ideas do you have?

He had some very interesting and I thought courageous responses for that.

I commend him.

He talked about looking at their current caseload that has indeed picked up in recent years with all of the land use and zoning issues that he is confronted with.

And so he is very interested in a new caseload database system, working with IT and looking at best practices throughout the country on how other cities and jurisdictions handle their database management of different issues.

He's interested in exploring more mediation possibilities using a committee section that he belongs to, the Land Use and Environmental Mediation Committee.

That's a joint standing committee of the Washington State Bar Association's Environmental and Land Use Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

So he has some creative ideas on how to encourage and foster mediation in many of these disputes.

He's interested in exploring video conferencing, sometimes known as Skype or FaceTime, in that kind of process to have more hearings and making it more accessible and available to members of the public who often have it challenging to come down, particularly on some of the matters in front of them.

He talked about embracing the RSGI Race and Social Justice Initiative wholeheartedly with he and his staff, making sure that all members have registered into different workshops and understand the work that we're trying to do.

He's specifically looking at a translation product where the hearing examiner will take steps and identify where there are great opportunities to enhance access for individuals who may not speak English.

And he also talked about the land use section of being not very diverse at all in engaging both law students for student outreach, let them know this is a dynamic area of the law, and the use of hiring lawyers, people of color to act as pro tem hearing examiners.

He has a budget for that and wants to be very intentional about that kind of outreach as he moves forward.

So, again, it's my honor to support Mr. Vancell as our new hearing examiner, or our returned hearing examiner, I should say, and it's my forward in submitting this to the full council.

Any questions or comments from any of my colleagues before we take a vote?

Okay, that's always a good sign, Mr. Vancell.

Okay.

All those in favor of confirming the appointment, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The appointment is confirmed.

Congratulations, sir.

At this time, we could suspend the rules if you'd like to address the council with a few words of wisdom.

And I mean that literally, so.

Well, members of the Council and Council President, thank you very much for approving my reappointment as Hearing Examiner.

I appreciate your confidence in myself and in our office.

I'm grateful to serve the city in the role of Hearing Examiner and look forward to maintaining the office of Hearing Examiner with its historical reputation of dedicated, efficient service to the community and working to progress the office with several initiatives that Council President mentioned and now that I'll actually have the time to see to through fruition.

Earlier this month, Our annual report for 2018 was distributed to each of your offices.

With the conclusion of this process, I'll be reaching out to each of you to schedule a time to discuss that report, the steps I hope to take over the next several years, and to seek your input and comment.

I hope that each of you will have time to have that discussion, knowing that you're all busy and I may not get that meeting.

I and also that many of you are actually cycling off council.

I want to express at this time my regret at that change in the context that each of you in various ways has influenced how I am approaching the office.

You set a tone for policy and leadership in the city that I think is heard throughout your various staff, including myself.

And I regret simply that you will not be here to see beyond the distance of this year how that input takes fruit and the office progresses as I hope it will.

I do look forward to working with you for this coming year and of course with those who remain in future years.

And again, thank you for your consideration and my reappointment.

Thank you, Mr. Vancell.

Don't go too far away.

We'll now ask that the clerk give you your oath of office.

Ryan, once again, it's my honor to administer your official oath of office.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I, Ryan P. Vancell.

I, Ryan P. Vancell.

Swear or affirm.

Swear.

That I possess all the qualifications.

That I possess all of the qualifications.

Prescribed in the Seattle City Charter.

Prescribed in the Seattle City Charter.

And the Seattle Municipal Code.

And the Seattle Municipal Code.

position of hearing examiner of the City of Seattle, that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Washington, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Seattle, and that I will faithfully conduct myself

and that I will faithfully conduct myself.

As hearing examiner.

As hearing examiner.

Okay, please read the next two agenda items into record.

Agenda items three and four, appointments 1287 and 1288. The appointment of Tanya C. Wu as member International Special Review District Board for a term to November 30th, 2019, and the reappointment of Sergio Max Ligon Talamony for a term to December 31st, 2021. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Thank you very much.

So the International Special Review District is one of Seattle's eight historic districts and it's a collection of early 20th century commercial and hotel buildings that serve as the center of Seattle's diverse Asian American community.

The district was established by the City of Seattle through an ordinance in 1973 to preserve the district's unique Asian American character and to encourage rehabilitation of areas for housing and pedestrian oriented businesses.

I'm very pleased to announce the consideration for Tanya C. Wu.

Tanya was born and raised in Seattle and she grew up in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

and the Chinatown International District, and her grandparents and parents are lifelong community volunteers, and many of you know her parents, I believe.

She's participated and volunteered in many of the local CID organizations and community activities throughout her entire life.

She's worked in several roles in journalism for much of her career, which includes working at King Phi for 10 years.

And her family is a partial owner of the Louisa Hotel, and she devotes all of her time to the Hotel Redevelopment Project and Prohibition Mural Restoration.

Very pleased to have Tanya as part of the board.

Mr. Legon Talamony is trained in architecture and design and has worked both locally and internationally on community-driven design and community development projects.

Sergio worked for Environmental Works and serves on the board of Architects Without Borders.

He grew up in South Seattle and has a great familiarity with the Chinatown International District as a community member and as a past applicant who previously presented to the board.

So he's completing his first two-year term, and so this is a reappointment.

So with that, I'm pleased to request that the full council consider Ms. Wu and Mr. Legon Talamony to the International Special Review District Board for a term of confirmation to December 31st, 2021. Any questions?

Great.

Okay.

Those in favor of confirming these outstanding appointments, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and appointments are confirmed.

And thank you very much for serving, Tanya and Sergio.

Is Tanya here?

She is not.

Yes.

Okay.

Please read the next agenda item into the record.

The report of the Select Committee on the Library Leviage and Item 5, Council Bill 119491, an ordinance relating to regular property taxes providing for the submission to the qualified electors of the city at an election to be held on August 6, 2019, a proposition to lift the limit on regular property taxes under Chapter 84.55 RCW, authorize the city to levy additional taxes for up to seven years for the purpose of sustaining investments in library.

The committee recommends a bill pass as amended.

Councilmember Juarez.

Thank you, Council President.

So, you know, this has been quite a process.

I'm glad we're finally here.

In 2012, Seattle voters approved access to critical educational and literacy resources for every resident by passing a seven-year, $120 million library levy.

Levy funds concluded by the end of this year, hence the creation of the Select Committee of the Library Levy to assess a proposed renewal to continue services.

I am proud and honored to have chaired this committee regarding one of the city's most valuable institutions and assets, our public libraries.

As a committee, we closely examined the mayor's proposal, which slated to continue baseline services while keeping up with the demands of a growing city.

Seattle Public Library is invested in priorities and values set by our constituents, all of our constituents, residents across the city of Seattle, and users of the library who have set which include, I'm sorry, the four R, the open hours and access, collections, technology, online services, safety and maintenance.

Maintenance meaning that we are protected from earthquakes, because you all know I can't say that word.

Seismic.

Seismic.

Libraries are the people's university.

They are the most public of institutions since our country's founding.

The library of the 21st century provides more services than ever in these past decades.

They are neighborhood centers that give greater access to learning, books, electronics, media equipment, conference space, lecture series, and much, much more.

including library time for little ones, for reading, and for English as a second language.

At its core, libraries have been serving millions of people and transforming lives to build a stronger, more democratic society.

I hope that we continue to look at libraries as we do with other institutions as they evolve.

Last week the committee approved three amendments that strengthen the proposal in addition to the mayor's proposal.

Number one I want to thank Council Member Gonzalez for her amendment to the expansion of play and learn from zero to five years old zero to five years for education.

Second I want to thank Council Member O'Brien for his amendment for the proposing the additional open hours at 26 libraries.

And finally I want to thank Council Member Mosqueda who worked very closely with our office and adding the expanded community resource specialist program for youth.

Thank all of you for working with our office and the mayor's office to move this important levy forward.

The total committee has presented from the mayor's proposal is an estimated $219 million.

The select committee and library levy recommended that the city council pass council bill 119491 as amended.

And hopefully, or I hope, that this will be on the August 6, 2019 ballot.

I again want to thank central staff, that would be ASHA, for doing a phenomenal job in briefing us and drafting the amendments, and the dean in my office who worked closely not only with the executive but with ASHA and put together much of the framework and the analysis.

And of course, I want to thank my colleagues for supporting this very important levy.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any other comments or questions on this legislation?

Council Member Bagshaw.

Thank you, President Harreld.

Council Member Juarez, thank you for your leadership on this.

Just as in some of the previous items, I appreciate very much your organization getting that information to us early and keeping the notebooks updated.

Marcellus Turner, thank you, MT, for being here.

We really appreciate your leadership in this as well.

I don't know whether our Library Foundation or Friends of the Library are here, But having that kind of a robust community engagement on the front end is really helpful.

So, I'm fully supportive of this.

I think it's a good package, one that is tempered, but still addresses the needs of the people's university.

Yes, Council Member Juarez.

I just want to add one thing.

I want to thank Marcellus.

Marcellus, I'm sorry, I did not see you sitting out there.

But thank you so much and your staff for getting all the material back to us.

And I know we pushed a lot of deadlines on you and asked you for tons of information and statistics and trends and more information.

So thank you so much.

Any further comments?

Council Member Esqueda.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Madam Chair, who helped shepherd this library levy through the process.

It was great to be able to work with Chair Juarez and the Select Committee and all of my colleagues to help strengthen the levy package that we're bringing to voters this August.

I want to specifically thank the folks on the front line, our librarians, and the folks who are working in the libraries who came up with some of the strategies that we floated during this last few weeks.

I'm very, very honored to have been able to work with you to get into this levy.

the ability to make sure that we have community service officers who are serving our youth across the city in more locations, especially for those who are self-identifying as homeless, making sure that we're connecting them to housing services, health services, and educational and job opportunities.

We heard from folks who came to testify that sometimes our libraries are unintentionally being used as day centers.

And while the reality is we need to continue to scale up our housing and shelter services, the librarians, the folks who are working on the front line, you all are providing tremendous service to the community at large.

And we want to make sure that there's community service officers there to help make sure that we're connecting those who are self-identifying as being without shelter into appropriate shelter and services.

So I see this as a huge complement to the work that you all are already doing and an additional need that was identified by folks on the front line.

I look forward to working with the council and the budget chair as we think about some of the other opportunities going forward around child care and greater security for our folks who are both patrons and workers at the library.

So thank you and thanks to your team and to the board for all that you do and to our frontline staff.

Thank you, Chair Juarez, for your work with us on this.

And I'll just say a few parting words.

Thank you again for your leadership, Councilman Juarez.

Thank you for shepherding this through and your various boards and volunteers and employees.

You know, the library has always been very personal to me.

My mother, as I think you well know, spent most of her career at the library and retired from the library.

And so I just think it's so critical for this to pass.

And so the sometimes difficult conversations we had looking at the finance of this, of what we're trying to do were good conversations, because at the end of the day, our library system is so much more than just brick and mortar.

I mean, particularly given all of the issues that are facing our underserved communities, our youth, people on fixed income, the libraries are just one of our most treasured gems.

And so I think the hard work will begin after this to make sure that everyone Understands that and so it's gonna be my pleasure and actually supporting this legislation.

I don't think all of the hard work that went into it.

So So having said that Please call the roll on the passage of the bill O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Aiden in favor none opposed.

Bill passed and the chair will sign it gladly Okay, please read the next agenda item into the record.

The report of the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee agenda item 6, Council Bill 119494, an ordinance relating to King County Conservation Futures Levy proceeds.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Council President, the proposed ordinance will significantly streamline the Conservation Future Levy, the CFL, the Interlocal Agreement Amendment process.

This upgraded process will allow faster reimbursement for Seattle CFL projects that have been awarded funding by the King County Council.

The Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities discussed these items last week, last Wednesday, and voted out of committee, and we recommend that City Council pass this bill.

Thank you very much.

Are there any further questions or comments?

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

O'Brien.

Aye.

Salant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passed and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next agenda item.

The report of the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee, Agenda Item 7, Council Bill 119497, an ordinance related to monitoring and inspecting vacant buildings for compliance with the requirements of the Housing and Building Maintenance Code.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

Just really briefly, this ordinance would implement a new set of rules for inspecting vacant buildings, but I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, Councilmember Herbold, who did a lot of work on this.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you so much.

So this is legislation that I sponsored post-budget cycle last year.

During the budget, the council acted on an amendment to the existing mandatory, I'm sorry, not mandatory, vacant building monitoring program.

And these recommendations came out of a couple years process that council had engaged in.

We both hired or funded the hiring of a staff person at SDCI to make some recommendations for how to improve the monitoring, the vacant building monitoring program.

And we also indicated in a prior piece of legislation that we intended to make these changes in last year's budget cycle.

Because of the concerns that the executive had about those changes, we agreed to have them not go into effect until the beginning of June, and we addressed some of the concerns that they had prior to it going into effect.

So the changes to the program will modify fees for buildings found to meet the requirements of the code to better reflect the cost of the inspection, to the Department of Construction and Inspections, fees would change from $171 to $261.

Again, this is intended to be a fee neutral program.

The fees associated with inspecting these buildings are intended to pay for the inspections themselves.

It also allows buildings to fall off of the monitoring list.

In other words, no longer be enrolled in the monitoring program when there have been three consecutive inspections without violation.

And then finally, the amendments allow the city to enroll buildings after one violation if that violation is not remedied by the compliance date established in the note of violation, or if there are subsequent violations within 365 days from the date of the first notice.

Again, just this sort of big picture, the reason why this is really important is we've seen how much damage can be done to a vacant building that is not being maintained in a way that is consistent with the city's existing vacant building code.

Those are requirements that really are focused on boarding up the property so that people cannot access it and so that frankly they can't be magnets for crime and other unlawful activity.

We found through our review of the existing program that police and fire are often having to go out to these properties hundreds of times and that is being paid for with public tax dollars instead of being paid for by the property owners who are choosing to keep these buildings vacant rather than either maintaining them occupied buildings for people to live in or Moving forward with their development projects because many of these properties are within the development redevelopment process and cycle Very good.

Thank you.

Councilman her bold.

Are there any other questions or comments on this bill?

Councilman Gonzalez Thank You council president.

Oh and I I might need IT later on because I just spilled a bunch of water on my keyboard.

Oops.

I just wanted to say that I was one of the council members during the budget process that expressed some reservations and concerns about this particular program as it was being proposed and wanting to make sure that whatever approach the city took was one that was going to be responsive to the realities around the implementation of the program and really want to appreciate the work that Councilmember Herbold has done as the prime sponsor on this bill to make sure that those the flexibility is going to continue to exist within the program but also making sure that we're managing community neighbors expectations about the city's obligations to respond to what are real real concerns within the community.

So I really do appreciate your hard work over a long period of time to be responsive to those, what I think were reasonable concerns around implementation, and am excited to be at a place now where I am supportive of this legislation.

Thank you for those comments.

Any other questions or comments?

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

O'Brien?

Aye.

Sawant?

Aye.

Bagshaw?

Aye.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passed and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next agenda item into the record.

Agenda item 8, resolution 31880, a resolution recognizing the effects of the North Delridge community to prepare an action plan for their community.

The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

This resolution would recognize the North Delridge Action Plan.

We had a good discussion in committee.

And like the last item, I'm also going to refer to my colleague, Council Member Herbold, who did a lot of work on this.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

And I should also thank the Chair for his willingness to have both of these pieces of legislation in a committee that didn't necessarily have to be moved forward.

And this was sort of a holdover legislation from previous chair Rob Johnson's committee chairship and so I really appreciate Councilmember O'Brien fulfilling those commitments.

So this resolution memorializes many years of effort by community members in North Delridge to develop their neighborhood plan.

The action plan itself identifies six separate priority areas.

diverse and engaged communities, dynamic neighborhood destinations, access to affordable healthy food, active transportation choices, a healthy Longfellow Creek basin, and supportive parks and cultural facilities.

The resolution also requests that the executive review and make recommendations regarding the action items indicated in each of those six priority areas, so we'll be looking for movement on funding some of these priority areas in the budget process this year.

And then finally, the resolution requests that the Office of Planning and Community Development review and make recommendations as identified by the community in the action plan in the 2035 comp plan for consideration in 2020. I have a very small amendment that I mentioned in briefings this morning, and I'll pass it out.

And basically, it just makes a change to one of the action plan priority actions to just clarify that one of the action items, its success moving forward really relies on our ability to coordinate efforts with city departments.

First, I'd like to move Amendment 1, which is contained in Attachment B, the North Delridge Action Plan Priority Actions.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to make the amendment as described by Council Member Herbold.

This is just the amendment vote.

All those, any questions on it?

Just a quick question, if I may.

Please.

Council Member Herbold, just want to confirm that the language that you just handed out now is the same as what you handed out this morning?

It is.

Okay, great.

Okay.

We had it this morning.

Good to go.

All those in favor of the amendment, please vote aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

The resolution is amended.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I just want to thank the community members who participated in the development of the action plan.

Again, for several years, this has been a long time coming.

And I want to thank also David Goldberg at the Office of Planning and Community Development for shepherding the process.

Very good.

Okay, any other questions on the amended resolution?

All those in favor of adopting the resolution as amended, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries, the resolution is adopted as amended, and the chair will sign it.

Please read the next two items, please.

The report of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee, Agenda Items 9 and 10, Appointments 1284 and 1285, the appointment of Joshua N. Morris and the reappointment of Weston Brinkley as members, Urban Forestry Commission for terms to March 31st, 2022. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

Had a great discussion on the committee with both the appointment and reappointment.

Joshua Morris is an urban conservation, is the urban conservation manager at Seattle Audubon.

Weston Brinkley is an urban environmental scholar specializing in urban natural resources, natural resource planning, and he teaches at Antioch, Seattle University, and University of Washington.

Very good.

Any questions or comments on these appointments?

Those in favor of confirming the appointments, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and appointments are confirmed.

Please read items 11 through 15, please.

Agenda items 11 through 15, appointments 1289 through 1293. The appointments of Carol Katchadourian, Han Youngko, Anna Leticia Zavartz, and the reappointments of Patricia M. Chapman and David Seter as members for terms ending March 31st, 2021. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

Another great discussion about the pedestrian advisory board, we heard from a lot of folks, a lot of interest in continuing to push the city to make sure that all of our right of way is safe for all transportation users.

Carol is an active transportation planner, formerly worked for Washington, D.C. Metro.

Han Young, also known as Coco, is a research scientist in gerontology, the study of old age and would bring an equity lens to walkability in the city.

Anna is the program director at Disability Rights Washington.

They have visual impairment and so they don't drive.

Patricia is a master in urban planning, retired as a planner for the city of Kent.

And finally, David is a volunteer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, hoping to transform Seattle streets into safe, equitable, into streets that are safe, equitable, and comfortable for all.

A great slew of folks.

Thank you, Council Member O'Brien.

Any questions or comments on these appointees?

Okay, those in favor of confirming the appointments, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, vote no.

The motion carries.

The appointments are confirmed.

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

The report of the housing health energy and workers' rights committee agenda item 16, resolution 31879, a resolution supporting a safe and responsive workplace in the city of Seattle's legislative department and providing guidance to update legislative department policies, including POL LD100 on workplace expectations.

The committee recommends a resolution be adopted.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Over the last year and a half since arriving, and before that even, when working at the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, I've been constantly working to try to make sure that we're creating safe workplaces.

That means not just safe from hazards and injury, but also safe from intimidation, harassment, and retaliation.

I'm really excited that this council and the city at large has been engaged in a conversation to respond to the Me Too movement and to make sure that those who are speaking up and speaking their truth to power, that those who are sharing their experiences of retaliation or intimidation or even assault and harassment are having their words met with action.

Today, I'm excited to move forward the resolution that looks internal to our department and the legislative department and our smaller affiliated departments.

External from the executive branch, we have made a commitment to supporting policy changes within our legislative branch, to changing our policy, to updating our training, to making sure that we are learning from the stories directly from frontline workers and incorporating anti-harassment and prevention training on the front end.

I've been excited to participate and learn from the folks on the interdepartmental task force as we've talked about ways in which we can change the city's response to creating inclusive and welcoming workplace.

And now as we move forward with looking at our own department policies, we have such an incredible opportunity to build on that work on the leadership of our department leaders and making sure that we have a responsive resolution.

This incorporates the voice of city workers on the front line, from silence breakers, from change team makers, and from labor unions.

We asked them directly what they would like to see in terms of amending our policies and procedures so that we can not only ensure that those who are getting elected adhere to these requirements for a safe and respectful workplace, but that we're also making sure that as staff we're responsive and creating a safe place for people to come and share comments here and that as electeds and staff that we have a decorum that we expect of our communication with the public at large as well.

I'm excited to make sure that the folks who've engaged with us from the very beginning of this resolution will continue to have a role in helping us shape what the policy changes will be going forward and that our workplace resolution is about setting the table, making sure that those who've had direct experiences of intimidation or harassment are helping us understand better what we can do to update our personnel policies.

We're reaffirming our commitment today that staff should be treated with respect by members of the public and by any bosses and middle management.

We're also making sure that we're stepping up and creating not just a place for one-time advice to be given, but an ongoing work group so that we can continue to advise us as electeds and our department leaders on policies and practices.

I want to thank you, Mr. President, for your support on this.

I want to thank Monica Simmons for her support and work with our office on this as well, and specifically to the frontline workers who provided feedback and ideas.

We, again, here in public office are hoping to lead by example.

As public employers, we want to show across the city what it means to stand up and be responsive and good employers, high road employers, as we respond to the Me Too movement.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I would love to have the full council support as we move this resolution forward.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any questions or comments from any of the colleagues on the dais?

Council Member Mosqueda, I just want to thank you for your leadership.

and for working all the constituents and the issues and making sure that we are leading by example and certainly your commitment is a lead that we should all follow.

So thank you very much for your leadership.

Okay.

Those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

The report of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee, Agenda Item 17, Council Bill 119480, an ordinance relating to the 2018 Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy.

Council Member Gonzalez.

Council President Harrell, if I may request that the clerk also read Agenda Items 18 and 19 into the record.

I'd like to speak to all three of them at once.

Excellent.

Please do that.

Agenda Item 18, Resolution 31881, a resolution relating to the 2018 Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy, approving a partnership agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle College District.

And agenda item 19 resolution 31882 a resolution relating to the 2018 families education preschool and promise levy Approving a partnership between the city of seattle and the seattle school district number one the committee recommends the resolutions be approved Adopted okay, we will vote on them individually of course councillor amber gonzalez lead us through these

Thank you, Council President Harrell.

I spoke to all three of these pieces of legislation during council briefing today.

I won't rehash all of the remarks that I made this morning since I know that I spent quite some time going through all of the details of the amended version of the council bill and I walked us through the bare components of the partnership agreements with our partners.

I do just want to say that the Bill the underlying bill which was originally transmitted by the mayor's office the City Council in this particular version of the bill is It includes nine different amendments from committee work in my committee all all really centered around making sure that the implementation and evaluation plan as presented in this council bill is in alignment with the the priorities of the city council as adopted both in the ordinance and in the resolution that we all considered last year before the levy went to voters for their consideration in the fall.

And again, I won't belabor those points.

I went through them pretty thoroughly this morning during a council briefing, but I'm very excited about having the council bill in front of us at this juncture, which will effectively provide appropriations to the Department of Education and Early Learning in order for DEEL to be able to begin the process of contracting out with partners to begin the process of investing taxpayer dollars in the various areas of education, both from preschool to the K-12 system, and of course, by establishing a sustainable revenue stream for the Seattle Promise Program, which will provide two free years of college for high school graduates of our public schools.

And so Council Bill 119480 would accomplish all of those things consistent with the levy as adopted and approved by the voters.

And of course, our FEPP Levy Oversight Committee also considered the bill and the resolutions that I'm about to talk to and recommends that the City Council approve all of the above.

The two resolutions that we will consider, 31881 and 31882, are resolutions that would approve the partnership agreements between Seattle School District Number One and the Seattle College District.

These are our first two identified partners as it relates to the K-12 investments and the Seattle Promise Program and again, the FEPP Levy Oversight Committee Reviewed those partnership agreements and approved or recommends that the City Council adopt those resolutions I will also note that as it relates to the Seattle School District there the Seattle School Board did review and consider the partnership agreements and they approved those partnership that partnership agreement last week during their Seattle School Board meeting and I will just end by saying a few thank yous.

There are some folks in the audience today and some folks who couldn't be here today, but I do want to thank some folks before we take a final vote on advancing the implementation and evaluation plan and the accompanying partnership agreements.

I'd like to thank Chancellor Pan from the Seattle Colleges.

Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon.

And Dr. Sheila Edwards-Ling, also here from Seattle Colleges.

Thank you so much to both of you for your ongoing partnership and making sure that we got the model just right and that we're centering the Seattle promise program on on those students who have the least amount of access and opportunity to pursue a college degree or a certification for a career after.

after graduating from high school.

So really thank you to both of you for all of the work that you've been doing this and for your ongoing commitment to making college accessible and affordable for as many students as we possibly can.

So thank you both.

Also wanted to thank Superintendent Denise Juneau and her staff over at the Seattle Public School District Number One for all of their ongoing partnership and cooperation in structuring our education investments in a way that will really, really wrap around a student who has additional needs to be able to learn and be successful in their academics.

I've really enjoyed getting to know and work with Superintendent Juneau on these really critically important issues and have just been really honored to be able to share that space with her and to really see her center the academic performance of our students that are furthest away from educational justice within the Seattle Public Schools system.

So thank you all for your partnership.

Equal thanks go out to the Seattle School Board and their members.

Really appreciate their insight as we continue to develop these investments.

And again, making sure that these partnership agreements are workable for the Seattle School District is really, really important to making sure that the investments are being leveraged as efficiently and as strongly as possible as they continue to look at their budget as well.

And then I would also like to thank the Department of Education Early Learning Director Dwayne Chappell and all of his staff for all of their really hard work on shepherding this along over the last a year and a half or so.

We've actually all collectively have been working on the Families in Education Preschool and Promise levy proposal and now implementation and evaluation plan since 2017. So it has been a long road and I'm really excited to be able to be at this juncture where we can finally give our final vote of approval to the Department of Education and Early Learning to begin deploying the dollars and investing in our kids through our partners.

So thank you so much to Director Chappelle, who just happened to walk in.

It's like he heard me.

And to all of his staff for really being so committed to this work and ultimately to the kids of our city.

So thank you all so much.

Also want to thank Mayor Jenny Durkin for her cooperation and her steadfast commitment to working with my office and with City Council on advancing these really important areas of investment.

Especially want to thank Chris Alejano from her office who's here with us and serves as a representative on the FAPA Levy Oversight Committee, thank you all so much for your ongoing partnership and wanting to continue to work in the spirit of collaboration to make sure we give our kids the best opportunity they can have.

And then lastly in my office, I wanted to thank Vy Nguyen who really worked very hard and diligently on shepherding through a lot of my policy priorities in this implementation and evaluation plan and the overall levy as a whole.

I also want to thank her for shepherding through a lot of her own priorities in this levy to continue to invest in English language learners and diversifying our teachers and educators within the Seattle Public School System and in really making sure that we are continuously centering our work on those students who again, are furthest away from opportunity.

And then last but not least, I wanted to thank our former colleague, Rob Johnson, who was my co-chair on the Select Committee on Education and really worked closely with me and my staff and my office to just continue to champion the needs of kids, particularly in the K through 12 system.

So he is missed because he's not here with us in the physical sense, but his legacy will continue to live on in the work that he did on this particular levee.

So I want to give him a shout out also for all of his partnership on the families and education preschool levy, including this implementation evaluation plan.

I think the only thing he didn't get to do was take a final vote in committee.

So I know he's watching, so I want to thank him.

Thank him for that.

And with that being said, I would like to move for the council to adopt Council Bill 119480.

doesn't have to be moved because okay well then I won't move it but I'll just encourage you all to support it very good well done any other comments or questions?

Council Member Mosqueda.

I was ready to second that because I'm very excited about the work that you've done.

And I just want to congratulate you, Council Member Gonzales.

You mentioned you and your co-chair have been working on this for years.

And as we talked about it in your committee, there was a round of applause and murmurs as people had talked about how long that they had been waiting for this to happen.

Just a huge amount of congratulations to you and everything that you got accomplished in this levy.

You had a good document to start with and you made it even better.

Thank you for all the work that you did to include race and social justice, especially trying to think about alternative career pathways.

good living wage jobs, making sure that we had a focus on our earliest learners.

You mentioned the legacy, as we think about our former colleague, Councilmember Johnson, and I think you should also give yourself a pat on the back, or we'll do that for you, for the legacy that you've also included in this legislation.

I also want to thank our colleagues, and especially you as the chair, for your support for the amendment that we were able to work in to make sure that our public dollars are being used to really support our institutions that are adhering to labor laws and a commitment to labor harmony.

The amendment that we got in, as you read this morning, item number eight, ensures that our city dollars are providing a baseline protection for the labor policies that the city has already passed and that we don't further erode labor protections or collective worker voice.

And I just think that this is really important to lift up, especially in the era of the Janus and the attacks on labor nationally.

that we continue in this city to stand up and show what it means to be a strong union city, to support workers across the board whether or not they have a collective bargaining agreement or not.

And I applaud you for including this in there.

We were really excited to make sure that our amendment was included because we wanted to make sure that We applaud the fact that when we have higher unionization rates, we see higher retention, less turnover, less stress, and improved health outcomes.

And all of these things are good for our kiddos and our city at large.

I also think that it's important that we continue to applaud the good work that our public schools are doing just by recognizing the hard tasks that you all have in front of you um to to raise our youngest learners all the way through now the Seattle Promise Program.

So thank you for everything that you do and to your frontline staff for helping to raise and grow our kiddos in this in this community.

Thank you.

Thank you Councilmember Esqueda.

Councilmember Sawant.

Thank you President Harrell.

This resolution adopts the implementation plan detailing how the funding from the education levy will be distributed to schools and programs.

When the mayor first sent it to council, my office was concerned to see that the mayor explicitly put in the implementation plan that funding might go to charter schools in Seattle.

I do not support charter schools as an institution.

They are cynically used to disempower teachers and their unions.

They remove democratic community oversight of schools and they drain resources from the already deeply underfunded district schools.

Ever since labor movements have won public education, there have been relentless profit-driven forces trying to privatize it.

In the 90s, these forces tried to push for vouchers that would take public education funds and put them towards private schools.

When they failed to win support for that, they started pushing for charter schools, which in many states, though not in Washington state, are operated by for-profit companies with devastating impacts for both children and our teachers unions.

The Waltons, the owners of Walmart and the Gates Foundation, both are examples of institutions that pour money into charter schools.

Even in cases where charter schools may be well run, they siphon off funding from the district schools, hurting the education of other students.

And of course, we know the most adversely affected are very low income and poverty stricken communities with no accountability.

Seattle's charter schools are non-profit, which is good, but they are all run by charter school chains out of California.

I hope these problems are considered when funding awards are made so that Seattle Public Schools does not lose out.

I will vote in favor of this implementation plan because I support the overwhelming majority of it, but I just wanted to state for the record that I do not support funds being taken from our public schools to fund charter schools.

Ultimately, educators at charter schools will need to unionize to push back against the privatization and austerity agenda of the so-called school reformers, and it is encouraging that charter school teachers in cities like Chicago are starting to move towards this.

As a member of an educator union, American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, I know firsthand how important unions are.

Adjunct professors will tell you, you know, adjunct professors who cobble together a living by teaching courses in different universities will tell you that they are paid more in institutions where they have a union than in universities where they don't even though the universities that don't have unions may actually have larger resources.

Simply because when you have a union you have better wages and benefits if any educators at the Seattle's charter schools do want to unionize I would urge you to contact the Seattle Educators Union or My office so that we can make sure that all charter schools are unionized and then ultimately brought into the public purview.

Thank you Thank You councilmember Swann There's no further comments.

I'll say a few words and I'll ask us from his Alice if she'd like to close I just want to thank councilmember Johnson and councilmember Gonzalez basically for doing their job so well that this is a time where the legislative department will do a very deep dive almost very granular in its approach to make sure that the investments are exactly where our priorities are and that's not easy work.

It's thorough work and I want to thank you and commend you for the level of detail that this legislation presents.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Gonzalez, would you like to say any closing remarks before we vote?

Just really quickly, I want to thank Council Member Sawant for her remarks.

I think it is important for us as an institution and an agency that continues to invest in education to make sure that we are centering the children that we are investing in at the center of that.

And I also think that our investments in the area of educator diversity really signals to potential partners that those are the things that we really value.

So even though charter schools will be allowed to apply for levy dollars, it doesn't mean that they're guaranteed funding.

And it is my expectation, I think the city council's expectation, The deal will be taking our priorities very seriously in evaluating any applications for funding of public dollars in the space of education.

So it is very common for us to invest in nonprofit organizations.

Our Seattle Preschool Promise I'm sorry, our Seattle Preschool Program relies on nonprofit agencies that are not public entities to deliver preschool and early learning opportunities.

We also have a similar partnership with Seattle School Districts in terms of co-locating preschool classrooms with K-12 And again, I think my expectation and this council's expectation is that we will continue to work with partners in the area of education that really fundamentally understand and have a strong commitment to race and social justice equity and to educational justice.

And at the same time with partners who are willing to commit to transparency, accountability, reporting, data sharing, and also to their workforce.

We know that when we invest in our educators and when our educators look like the students they are serving, we do well in terms of reducing the opportunity and achievement gap for our students of color in particular.

And I have full faith in Deal that they will figure out how to tread the line of complying with the law of the land while also continuing to center our investments on the students who need the most investment in order to be able to succeed.

in school and beyond.

And there is some work that is left to be done through the implementation and evaluation plan.

For example, figuring out how to connect students who are graduating from charter schools, figuring out how to connect them to the opportunity of Seattle Promise is something that still needs to be done.

Again, those are dollars that go directly to and opportunities that go directly to students.

And that's a good example of when I think this council would be supportive in general of making sure that those partnerships exist for purposes of connecting with the actual student and not punishing the student for having gone through a charter school process but could still benefit from Seattle Promise.

And the last thing that I'll say that I learned in terms of Council President's comments around the granular details in this space One of the things I found most astonishing is when you dig into the demographics of who is attending the three charter schools in Seattle.

It is a predominantly majority demographic of students of color, of students and children who are on free and reduced lunch.

And I think that's exactly the kind of population we want to be helping in the future.

So my hope is that we've been able to thread the needle well enough here to be able to comply with state law while at the same time continuing to center our work on the students who need it the most.

And I'm looking forward to continuing to do that hard work with DEEL and with community partners to make sure that we continue to get it right.

So with that being said, thank you so much.

Really appreciate my colleagues' engagement on this somewhat wonky but very important policy area and really look forward to continuing this work in my committee.

Thank you.

Okay, I think we're ready to vote.

We're going to vote separately on three different pieces of legislation.

We'll take the bill first.

Please call the roll on the passage of bill, Council Bill 119480.

O'Brien.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Bagshaw.

Aye.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

President Harrell.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Bill passed and Chair will sign it.

We're going to vote on resolution 31881. Those in favor of adopting resolution 31881, please vote aye.

Aye.

Those opposed vote no.

The motion carries and the resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

And those in favor of adopting resolution 31882, please vote aye.

Aye.

It's a little weak on those eyes.

Please vote aye.

Aye.

There you go.

Now we're in rhythm.

Those vote no.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Just one moment.

I need just a quick second.

Can we applaud?

Because that's so exciting.

Yes we can applaud.

Yay.

I was standing between the end and identifying a new colleague, so thank you so much for allowing me an extended period of commentary on this.

And I may have to do that as well.

Okay, we will move to the adoption of other resolutions.

I don't believe we have any resolutions for introduction and adoption, so we'll move to other business.

which of course is our Council vacancy position.

So the City Council will now vote to fill the vacant Council position formerly held by Councilmember Johnson.

I'll say a few opening remarks and then I will solicit the floor for nominations.

As many of you know, former Councilmember Rob Johnson made his resignation known publicly on March 21st, 2019. The city charter gives the City Council 20 calendar days to fill the vacant council position I know many people have questioned that we actually did a little research and found it's actually been that way since 1896 One of the arguments is that we certainly don't want a segment of the population going without representation, but it certainly is a type time frame and within that time frame It's very important to think the 15 applications or applicants we did receive.

We received 15 by April 5th at five o'clock.

Of those 15, two did not meet the legal eligibility requirements and two subsequent applicants withdrew.

So today we stand 11, 11 qualified applicants.

Those applicants were invited to the community involved public forum and the special city council meeting on April 17th, where all 11 applicants were provided the opportunity to formally present a three-minute presentation and respond to questions from council members.

And I must say that I was indeed both impressed and humbled by the quality of the applicants, their preparation and their commitment to public service.

I want to thank you personally for such a splendid display.

All applicants, of course, were required to participate at the public forum and again, appear at the city council at the special city council meeting on April 17th.

as we stated at the outset on the onset of the process that the desired qualifications for this council position were an individual qualified to chair the planning land use and zoning committee and a caretaker who agrees not to seek election to the council this year and an individual who has an understanding of our governmental operations and budgeting and the legislative processes and demonstrates the knowledge of public policy issues associated with potential committee assignments and demonstrates a commitment to social justice and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively across cultures and with diverse populations.

So again, before we take nominations, I'd like to thank all of the applicants who applied.

That was not a An easy process to be subject to such scrutiny.

I hope somewhere along the line that irrespective of the outcome that you realize you did yourself and your community a great service by displaying your talent and your commitment and indeed should be very proud of the efforts that you've shown.

All 11 were outstanding.

Okay.

I'm going to slow it down just a little bit as we go through this.

For number one, it's a lot of paperwork involved here.

And number two, we don't do this all the time.

At this point, I am going to open up the floor for nominations.

And I would ask that you simply nominate the person.

I'll ask for a second.

And then at the conclusion, I will make a motion to close the nominations.

And then we'll allow people at that point, after the nominations are closed, to speak about anyone that was nominated and part of the selected nominee committee.

OK?

So at this point, I will Accept nominations for council position for councilmember back show.

Thank you.

I would like to nominate David Goldberg Is there a second?

Okay, it's been moved in second at the David Goldberg be click be placed in the nominee Group, are there any other?

Nominations councilmember.

So what I would like to nominate Shirae LaSalle's.

Is there a second?

It's been nominated Ms. Lozales has been nominated and seconded.

Just one minute.

This is where I'm going to go a little slow so I could take notes here, even though I know that the clerks are down there much better than me on this stuff.

Are there any other nominees?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I would like to nominate Abel Pacheco.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been, Mr. Pacheco has been nominated and seconded.

We have three nominees.

Are there any other nominees coming from the floor?

And there's no pressure.

Council Member Gonzalez.

Thank you, Council President.

I would nominate Brooke Broad.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded that Brooke Broad be placed as a nominee.

Just one second here.

Are there any other nominees to come from the floor?

And again, following Council Member Gonzalez's lead, I will filibuster just a little bit to make sure we do this right and no one's over.

I have a great joke.

Would anyone like to hear one of my?

No, I'm not going to go there.

I always mess up on that.

Any other nominees to come from the dais?

Okay.

I'm going to just wait for a second here.

And I will move to close the nominations.

Is there a second?

It's been moved and seconded to close the nominations.

All those in favor to close the nomination, please vote aye.

Aye.

All opposed?

The ayes have it.

So the nominations are closed.

Just to reiterate to the public, we have four nominees.

I'm just going to read them out in the order with which they were nominated.

David Goldberg.

Sheree LaSalle.

Abel Pacheco Jr. and Brooke Broad.

Am I correcting my notes, clerks?

Thank you.

Okay.

I'm going to go a little slow here, and the way this will work is, based on the roll call position that rotates every week, the clerk will call out the names, and I would just ask that the council member Articulate their candidate that they are voting on the first round.

It could be over on the first round, we'll see, but just one candidate there to select.

And I hope those rules are clear to everyone.

And Yes, Council Member Sawant.

I apologize.

Maybe you already clarified this and I missed it.

Did you say you would do the first round of votes before any comments or do you want us to say comments before?

That's a great point.

I think it makes sense to...

I would like to explain why I nominated you.

So I get three mistakes.

So that was one.

That was my first mistake.

I forgot to let people talk about it.

I was going to go right into it.

So mistake number one.

I get two more, though.

At this point, prior to voting, we would like to hear comments from any council member on any of the applicants in the four nominations, but any of the other seven as well.

So now is the time to hear from the dais on comments.

And I'll just recognize you as I see hands.

Okay, well I think Council Member Swatt can go first.

No, no, no, absolutely.

She yields.

Council Member Baxhaw.

Thank you.

I am very pleased to nominate Mr. Goldberg.

And I had a number of phone calls from people who have worked with Mr. Goldberg, including Senator Jamie Peterson and others that worked with him during the 520 mega project.

And obviously his land use experience is deep and since we're replacing Councilmember Johnson, hard to replace, but having somebody with that experience I think is important.

I also want to acknowledge the fact that not only has he been on the planning commission, reappointed to the planning commission here, but also in his work in Decatur Georgia, near Atlanta.

And I also respect the fact that he's worked on the Ped Board, the Pedestrian Board, something that's very important to me personally.

And lastly, his education credits are impressive, from the East Coast, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Harvard University.

I appreciate that good work, but also he has been very deeply involved in community, local community communications and strategic work.

I think he would be a fine colleague.

And I urge your vote.

Very good.

Thank you, Council Member Bagshaw.

We were still receiving comments from the dais on any members in the nomination pool.

Mr. Chair.

Yes.

I think if for consistency, so we can keep it straight in our heads, maybe we should do with the order in which we nominated.

Would that be okay?

I'm fine with that.

I can't remember that.

I wrote it down.

But I would just assume just raise your hands.

I mean it's not that formal on that process.

So why don't we just see where the spirit moves somebody to speak and we'll just see hands fly up.

Everybody's so shy today.

Okay, Councilman Gonzalez, our go-to questioner during the special council meeting.

I have, first of all, I'll just say thank you to all of the 11 folks who threw their name into the hat.

I know that that takes a certain level of courage and and vulnerability to put yourself out there as somebody to be considered for a very public position outside of the context of a full election cycle.

So just want to say really just thank you to all of you who are wanting to serve your neighbors and community members in District 4, and consequently to sit up here with us every Monday and have this much fun.

and also to really just help us as a city council and entity really struggle with some of the most difficult issues facing our city.

Of course, we are here looking at replacing former council member Rob Johnson and District 4. In my evaluation, I I'm hoping to be able to support somebody who comes to this work with a body of experience and understanding of land use policy in particular, as somebody who's going to be the chair of the planning land use and zoning committee, as well as somebody who's going to be a member of the sustainability and transportation committee, and as well as somebody who's going to be a member of my committee, the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee.

And as a result of that, after having reviewed all of the materials and after last week's public hearing and having my staff help me identify additional information about all the candidates, I've decided to nominate Ms. Broad largely in part because of her ongoing advocacy and commitment in the land use area and wanting to make sure that we have the most inclusive set of policies available to us at the City over the next seven months that will really promote and support the success of the Mandatory Housing Affordability Program, of hopefully getting us to continue to advance and move around the ADU conversation.

We have some issues related to the multifamily tax exemption program that are going to be coming up.

And I think having somebody like Ms. Broad in the seat who shares some of the values that I have as it relates to inclusive land use policy is really important to me.

Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez.

Council Member Esqueda.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

And I too just want to say thank you to all the applicants.

We see you sitting out there.

We heard you on Wednesday.

We heard you on Monday prior.

We've received your letters and just a huge amount of appreciation.

This is not easy.

This is also very different from, you know, running for office, which then we get to evaluate you based on your criteria for all of the positions in which you could potentially be serving on council.

Here we have a specific square and we're trying to fit into that specific square as we finish out this year.

So it's a little challenging, and we appreciate your willingness to step up and to really put yourself out there.

That wasn't easy on Wednesday.

I was nervous, so I can imagine that it was a hard discussion for a lot of you.

So any of the comments that we make today, I hope folks take away from this.

You all were tremendous candidates, and as we speak in favor of certain candidates, that doesn't actually mean anything about not wanting to see one of you on council one day.

So I hope that that is still something that you're all interested in and that this process was inspiring versus being nerve-wracking, which I'm sure it was.

So thank you once again for just putting your name out there because we know that it's hard and we say thank you for running to people who run for office.

So thank you for putting your name forward and being part of this nomination process.

It is not easy, I understand.

I do want to say I'm really excited to be able to nominate first Abel Pacheco.

As you have heard him in previous committee discussions and in the debate that he had on Monday last week and our conversations on Wednesday, he brings to this nomination process excessive experience in land use planning, development, and specifically through the eye of race and social justice from the neighborhood and community perspective.

He served as the Wallingford Community Council Quality of Life Chair from 2013 to 2015. He served on the HALA Focus Group as the Wallingford representative in 2017. He worked as part of the Young Professionals Group of Plymouth's Housing Group from 2013 to 2016. And really, I'm excited about the letters of recommendation that we have seen from him.

from the Land Use Chair of the Ravenna Bryant Neighborhood Association and the former Planning Commissioner member.

Really excited as well about the support that he received from Senator Joan Nguyen, somebody who has been a young elected leader, a leader of color as well, who stepped up and pushed for greater density, greater zoning that's inclusive in the face of opposition.

These are not easy positions to take and those are not easy boards to serve on, so thank you for your past work on that and thank you for your interest in bringing that forward to this council.

One of the things I'd also like to pass out for the committee's consideration is a letter of recommendation that we received from the Martin Luther King County Labor Council AFL-CIO who wrote in support of ABLE last week.

ABLE has done important equity work at the University of Washington and already has extensive relationships with the community departments and As a former union member and renter and man of color, Abel has intangible lived experience to respond to Seattle's most pressing challenges.

He has our full report that is part of their letter to us in summary.

I would just conclude by saying, you know, one of the things that I really liked about Abel's presentation is that he lifted up that he's currently a renter.

And in a city that's over half the city who is renters, in a city where we're trying to encourage more people to get out of their cars.

He talked about the need for greater density, development around transit-oriented development, the ability to walk to parks and grocery stores and schools and libraries and child cares and create safe working environments.

So bringing his lived experience as an immigrant, as a person of color, I'm sorry, as the son of immigrants and as a person of color, as a renter, as a warrior for social justice, I would love for folks to consider our friend Abel and again kudos to everybody who put their names forward because I think we saw a lot of these great qualities in many of the candidates that came forward.

Thank you Abel for putting your name forward so I can nominate you.

Thank you Councilmember Mosqueda.

Councilmember Juarez.

Thank you.

It gives me great honor to again echo the words of Council Member Mosqueda and my support for Abel Pacheco.

Before I launch into a few items about what I know about this young man and watching him these last four years work, particularly in District 4. I want to point out to my colleagues that when we did the, when we put out the City of Seattle Council District Number 4 Applicant Summary, there were 13 factors, or 13 issues to look at, and one of them, of one of 13 only says, does applicant identify any previous planning, land use, and zoning experience?

Now, I draw that to your attention to say that you don't necessarily need to have an intense background and land use, transportation and zoning though it is helpful.

Land use, transportation and zoning is statutory in nature.

I think every one of these applicants possess the intelligence and certainly the work ethic to move forward and do this job adequately for six months.

What I value and what I look for and anyone who wants to be a public servant, is to not only as I see enable who can best represent the interest of the city as a whole and who also honors the needs of their district.

I think public policy experience is important as well as being an advocate and an activist.

I value hard work.

and results, civic mindedness, more importantly, quite frankly, than just someone who is passionate or very confident.

In this world, a lot of people have unearned confidence.

And I see a lot of that.

And with this young man, I see earned confidence.

I see integrity, and I see someone that is committed not only to their city and to their community, but I want to thank this individual because I've worked with him in Indian country, in advocacy and leadership, in the MESA program, in the STEM program.

He's an inspiration to many of our youth, our Native American youth, our Latina and Latino youth, and more importantly, our young women in these areas of science, engineering, and math.

I also had an opportunity to watch this young man work with him and look at his writing and his analysis and his innate intelligence when we discussed HALA, which eventually We move forward and most recently passed MHA and I appreciated the conversations I had with Abel about District 4 and the mandatory housing affordability, about issues of displacement, his concerns about zoning and about the ave and what District 4 meant to him.

With that, the only other thing I want to add more on a personal note, is that while you see us up here every week, as Council Member Gonzales said, it's a difficult job.

People aren't always kind.

It's difficult sometimes trying to do the right thing.

You can't give everybody everything that they want.

But I think if you come to this job with an open heart, civic-minded, community-based, that you're pragmatic, that you care about our city and our community, And again, that you value hard work and results, then I think for me, that would be Abel Pacheco.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Harrell.

Before I talk about the candidate I nominated, Sherela Sells, I first want to talk about the appointment itself.

Yes, the appointment is only for a few months, but anytime there is a position on this council, It's a very important question because the city council is the highest legislative body of this city.

And as an elected representative of working people myself who takes it very seriously using my office to amplify the struggles of ordinary people, I think that even for those few months it matters.

And I wanted to talk about that in a second.

I wanted to talk about what this, in my view, what this appointment is about in a second, but I wanted to first talk about what I don't think this appointment is about.

In my view, this appointment is not about land use experience or any kind of technocratic experience, to be very clear.

The reality is every council member and their office depends heavily on the expertise of the subject matter experts in the council central staff and other city department staff.

And that is as it should be.

We do and should rely on subject matter experts Because the role that I think you have to fulfill as an elected representative is not having subject matter expertise on every single subject, but more, but actually not about technocratic experience, it's about political courage.

What are you going to use your seat for?

That's what matters.

To give a very concrete experience, my staff and I did not have experience with Seattle City Light when we were first elected, and that was the committee that was handed to us.

I'm an economist.

My staff members have experience in different fields, but not in that particular field.

But we were very successful in sharing the energy committee because of the incredible help, technical help of the council, central staff and other staff members in the city of Seattle.

And we used our committee, my office used this committee and our position as chair to carry out a major expansion of the utility discount program, making it opt-out rather than opt-in, which it was initially, advocating for progressive rate structures, which we are still doing because we haven't had council members support that, and many other issues that are related to the environment using you know, advocating also for a pilot project of municipal broadband using City Light.

I don't have to be a broadband expert to advocate for municipal broadband.

What I do need is political courage to stand against Comcast and CenturyLink.

That's what it's about.

And I think this appointment is about political courage.

And at this moment, as we all know, the most urgent crisis the city is facing is the question of the escalating homelessness and the rising lack of affordable housing.

And we know that renters are absolutely facing the brunt of this crisis, but we also know that middle class and working class homeowners are facing the crisis also because we haven't had a real progressive revenue source like the Amazon tax, which was repealed by the majority of this council.

and most of the tax burden lands on ordinary people through the sales tax and ordinary homeowners through the property tax.

And so I think we urgently need to build a united movement of renters and ordinary homeowners against the domination of big developers and financial speculators and property management corporations.

So, What I was looking for in this appointment process was who has shown to have some courage in standing for the correct positions on these most urgent issues that are faced by our city.

I first met Sheree Lascelles when they and their fellow advocates for sex worker rights came to my office to talk about those issues and I asked them, we would like you to be part of the Amazon tax struggle and they readily agreed.

And I remember there was one memorable moment which Surya mentioned during their responses to this council last week at the really exciting meeting that we had, rally that we had at the Vermilion on Capitol Hill after we had won the Amazon tax, but before the council had repealed it where we were just launching about, you know, just then launching our summer and autumn campaign of door knocking and tabling to really be able to push back against the lies of big business and hopefully win against the big business referendum that was coming at us last November.

Sheree reaffirmed their support for the Amazon tax at the question and answer that the council did last week when I asked them about it, and joining the movement of ordinary people fighting for it.

Everyone says that they support more affordable housing, but what does that mean, other than empty words, unless you're actually willing to support a realistic way to fund the needs of affordable housing.

And as a matter of fact, the amount of Bandwidth that's being used up by talk about affordable housing has grown since the council refused to actually take a position on this.

Not only did the majority of the council repeal the Amazon tax, they refused to vote yes on the 11 separate amendments that the People's Budget Movement brought in the budget discussions last year.

So what we need is somebody who will really use their position to stand with the community that has brought them forward.

And I think Sheree has said those words to that effect.

They have also met with my office staff last week, and they have said that they support rent control, which we know will be necessary to stop the hemorrhaging of the remaining affordability, rental affordability in our city.

In fact, when Ted Verdone, my office policy analyst, asked Charay about rent control, they said they support it and that they themselves as a renter needed that.

It was also very important that Charay said that they are opposed to the ineffective and inhumane sweeps of homeless people.

I think that is another concrete thing that this city council has refused to do, which is stop the wastage of tens of millions of dollars and use it for affordable housing.

Shari has taken many other progressive positions, but I won't go into all of it.

I raised these issues as examples because they are the most pressing and they are where we need the most courage.

And so I really urge all city council members to support a candidate who has shown that they would be willing to stand up for the community that they represent.

And I also wanted to say for anybody who gets elected, if you have professed, sorry, appointed here, not elected, for every candidate who professes that they will do the right thing, again, once again, wanted to articulate that if you have already come under pressure, then you have no idea what kind of pressure you will come under once you are in this position.

So the need for courage will be much more after you are appointed, not before.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swatt.

Council Member O'Brien.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I'll try to be quick and just reiterate a few points that have already been made.

First of all, it was amazing as a resident of Seattle to sit here on Wednesday and listen to all the folks that showed up to talk through their passion for the city and their dedication to it.

So often in the political world when there's vacancies and openings, political pundits in the press come up with a small list of people that are often recycled throughout the system.

And to see some folks who I've had a chance to work with and a lot of folks I've never worked with at the table, I felt really proud and honored that there's so many amazing people that I believe could all do an amazing job as city council member.

So it really went home that evening at ease knowing that I felt like who couldn't go wrong.

And yet, still, I have a decision to make.

And when I look at the folks who are before us today, there are two individuals who I'll speak to just briefly who really rise to the top for very different reasons, but I think could equally well serve the city.

Cherie, I really appreciate the comments that you made, kind of your honesty and transparency.

about what you wanted to do and why you wanted to be here and what motivated you.

You talked about the courage it took to be there and how hard it was.

And I appreciate hearing those words.

What I saw was a real strength that I think would be amazing on this council.

The other person who really rose is David Goldberg.

I've had a chance to work with David a bit.

But I didn't know, frankly, all of your story until you spoke on Wednesday.

I still don't know all of your story, I'm sure, but there were pieces of it that I didn't know.

And it really brought into light, helped me understand how some of your values and your lived experience interact with what I've known you about, is about transportation and land use policy.

I know that I'll have to make a decision here in a moment.

Going to be struggling with that for the next few moments, but There's there's I don't think we can go wrong with anybody certainly the four that are before nomination or outstanding to and I'll be deciding between the two of you on the first round.

So, thank you Thank you.

Councilmember Brian So we're going to vote I'll read some instructions instructions again just to be clear.

I I did want to address one comment that was said that this position is for a short term.

It's actually for seven months.

And I will share with you, try serving in a position for five days.

That's a short term.

So this is a long term.

So having said that, I'm going to ask that the clerk call the roll on the vote to nominate a candidate to fill council position four, and each council member would simply state the name of their chosen candidate.

Okay, are we ready, clerk?

All my colleagues ready?

Okay, let's proceed.

O'Brien.

I will vote for David Goldberg.

Sawant.

Shari LaSallis.

Beng Xia.

David Goldberg.

Gonzalez.

Brooke Broad.

Herbold.

Abel Pacheco.

Juarez.

Abel Pacheco.

Bosqueda.

Abel Pacheco.

And Harrell.

Abel Pacheco, Jr.

We have four votes for Abel Pacheco, one vote for Sheree Lascelles, two votes for David Goldberg, and one vote for Brooke Broad.

So no candidate reached five votes.

I'm going to give my council members a moment to gather their thoughts and we will in a moment proceed with another round of voting in the same manner.

I'll give you a moment.

Okay, does anyone need more time?

Hearing none.

And can I ask you, your pace was just a little fast, just a little slowed down just a little bit, if you don't mind.

Okay, we are going to go to a second round.

And we shall now proceed.

O'Brien.

David Goldberg.

Sawant.

Sherry Lascelles.

Beg Shah.

David Goldberg.

Gonzales.

Brooke Broad.

Herbold.

Brooke Broad.

Juarez.

Mosqueda.

Abel Pacheco.

And Council President Harrell.

Abel Pacheco.

We have three for Abel Pacheco, two for David Goldberg, two for Brooke Braun, and one for Sheree Lascelles.

Okay, just one moment here.

I'll ask that the council members deliberate internally.

No talking to your neighbors.

And we're going to proceed to round three, but on my cue, and the cue has not been given yet, just one moment here.

Everybody ready?

Please proceed with round three.

O'Brien.

David Goldberg.

Wow.

Sawant.

Shari Lascelles.

Bangsha.

David Goldberg.

Gonzales.

Just one moment.

I'm going to do the Gonzales pause like she did.

I'm trying to.

But I'm trying to see, and I think my notes reflect that this is the identical vote to round two.

So I'm going to say Brooke Broad, especially there's actually a shift in votes.

And what I will signal to my colleagues is this on round four, that if the votes do not significantly change on round four, I'm going to move that we end the process, and we will have to have a special meeting and reconvene.

Maybe I'll do a round five, but I don't see, with just one vote deviation from round two to round three, I don't see any movement.

And for the viewing public, this is an open and transparent process, and so that's how we're going to proceed.

I haven't said we're not going to do a five.

I was just I was bluffing a little bit trying to see if we can get some some motion here.

I'll tell you what I will do before we go to round four.

I would like to open up the floor just in case any of my colleagues wanted to make any any comments before we go to round four.

I didn't want to deprive Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you.

I just want to speak to my support for Brooke Broad.

I do believe that land use experience is important for this position, but I also am balancing it with other attributes that I think Ms. Broad has.

Those attributes primarily being her commitment to our stated priority of wanting to find additional revenue sources for housing.

And I also want to speak to the fact that I was very impressed that Ms. Broad spoke to some of the recommendations in the navigation team audit.

This is a piece of work that is really, really important.

And I truly appreciate the fact that Ms. Broad has paid some attention to the fact that with the implementation of some of those recommendations that we can result in having better outcomes for our neighbors who are living unsheltered outside.

Thank you, Council President.

I would just also, I also want to make some additional comments about Ms. Broad.

In addition to the nomination comments that I made, I think one of the things that I also appreciate about her skill set is her understanding about how city policy is directly impacted by what happens at the state legislature, and she has had some experience at the state legislature doing some lobbying work there.

Again, I think this is one of the, most notable legislative sessions in my mind in terms of the City of Seattle's ability to actually get some real meaningful movement on legislative priorities at the City Council.

And with the news that a special session is probably upon us, I think we could benefit from an additional person on the City Council with some of those relationships.

And just really fundamentally the understanding of how we are hampered in some ways at the city level by laws that exist at the state level is really important.

I also really appreciated her intentional remarks around collaboration and the importance around making sure that that collaboration is front and center in terms of her style of interacting with other members of the city council and with members of the public.

I do think that in an era where civic discourse has gotten away from us, it's important for us to have council members who who will be willing to listen and learn.

That doesn't mean that you're compromising on your values or your ideals.

It just means that you understand and appreciate that other people have a different perspective and that instead of making moral judgments and escalating, that sometimes it is better to listen, learn, and still have your position.

But listening and learning is an important value, I think, as a council member.

And then the last thing that I recall her saying in addition to what Council Member Herbold just reminded us about is her fundamental understanding that it's one thing to pass laws and it's another thing to think about passing laws through the lens of implementation.

How will it work?

Will it work?

And what is working?

I think those are all important things that we will be struggling with over the next seven months as we undergo another budget process and as we get some very complex policy issues across the finish line.

So that is my additional statement on behalf of Ms. Broad.

Thank you, Council Member Gonzales.

Before we hear from some more comments, and I think I saw a hand in queue, Madam Clerk, would you be so kind as to read the vote tab for round number three, the last round?

Brooke Broad, three votes.

David A. Goldberg, two votes.

Sheree Lascelles, one vote.

Al Pacheco, Jr., two votes.

Abel, thank you very much.

Abel Pacheco, thank you.

Okay, I've asked the clerk to prepare voting tabs for rounds five and six, just in case.

Council Member O'Brien, would you like to say a few words?

I would.

Thank you, Council President.

And colleagues, I appreciate the comments that others have made for Brooke Broad.

I do think she is highly qualified.

I'd like to speak a little bit for David Goldberg and some of the comments that we heard on Wednesday.

Starting with David's background about how he got into this work and the path he's been on, and the commitment to making sure that we have a system, both a land use and transportation system that works for everybody.

I also think that I feel very strongly that David's values when it comes to especially tricky land use decisions are consistent with some of the positions this council has taken in the last few years.

But I also similarly appreciated some of his comments about how we get to that is not, the endgame is also about the process.

And a conciliatory tone, you know, I believe he lives in a neighborhood where the MHA zoning was very contentious.

and talking about how calling each other names is not a productive way.

And we have to be making these changes because it's necessary for equality, climate change, but we also have to do it in a way that brings along our neighbors in a way that makes people feel heard.

And I really think that that tone and tenor that he would bring to this council would both be consistent with the direction, but also be very helpful.

Thank you, Council Member O'Brien.

Council Member Esqueda.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thanks for getting some of the additional sheets printed up as well.

I think that if we could vote for each one of these candidates, I think all of us would because we see incredible strengths in all of them.

I do want to comment on thank you to every one of the candidates who reached out to our office, who I had the chance to meet with.

I did have the chance to meet with Brooke, and I really appreciate your honest answers around supporting labor unions and supporting public education and supporting teachers.

And while we just took a vote today on the Seattle education levy, there's going to be a lot of issues that you have a deep knowledge and understanding of in terms of education background that we're really excited about and your support for public schools.

And those teachers, I think, is really important.

So thank you, in addition to everything else that everybody else has commented on in terms of pedestrians and cyclists and density.

So thank you.

And I think that one of the reasons that I continue to, I want to underscore that is because I think there's a lot of value in all of the work that the candidates have brought forward.

But I definitely understand where our colleagues are at in putting all those names forward, but the growing number of votes for you.

So I thank you for your time and your explanation on some of your positions earlier.

I think that in this position we're at right now, I'm going to continue to encourage our colleagues to support Abel Pacheco.

I also think that as we think about who's most impacted by housing discrimination and workplace, sorry, housing discrimination specifically, it's immigrants and people of color as we think about the lack of affordable housing in Seattle.

We see high rates of both housing discrimination and housing displacement.

And having brought forward, I think, to the previous councils that Abel has sat on, again, the Wallingford Community Equality of Life Council, the HALA Focus Group, and the Young Professionals Group of Plymouth, there's a real value in being able to have that voice brought forward.

I hear what my council colleague is saying in terms of It doesn't necessarily have to be that one-for-one replacement of our former colleague, and that's impossible, I think, for any individual to meet, but to have the ability to bring forward that lived experience and to also then serve as the chair of land use and planning, very much still in the camp of wanting to see our friend Abel Pacheco Jr. bring forward his perspective from those previous councils.

And that doesn't take away from any of the experience of any of the other nominees.

I just think in this day and age with the type of discrimination that we see, it would be great to have that voice represented on council.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Again, I want to stress my support for Abel Pacheco, Jr.

Before I actually kind of get a little bit wonky, I want to frame this in the hearts and minds of people who are watching.

While I do think it's incredibly important that a skill set such as Mr. Goldberg and Brooke are phenomenal, And I'm sorry, Brooke, I should have said your last name too, Brooke Broad.

Very impressive.

Brooke, I appreciated that you came down during public comment and gave great public comment regarding MHA.

And for that, that actually informed me a lot about who you are and what you've done.

But getting back to what two major points I want to make, I had the opportunity, as some of us up here on the dais back in 2015, to watch Abel on the campaign trail for 10 months.

So I don't just know his stump speech.

I know what he stands for and what he wants to do for District 4 and for the city of Seattle.

I appreciate the youth.

I also appreciate that when you come from an adverse background and you've dealt with adversity, that it builds character.

And those kind of experiences, touching on what Councilmember Sawant said, really frame and mold how you approach situations with courage.

Yes, I said incorrectly, seven months or six months.

It's a seventh month gig.

I want to point out that one of the things that I've always felt in my other discussions with people at the University of Washington is that the University of Washington has the largest economic, obviously, and academic footprint in District 4. And I've had discussions with Abel about University of Washington, and not only who they are and what they do here in the city of Seattle, but statewide and certainly in Olympia.

Abel also has the experience of working successfully in Olympia, where he successfully co-led efforts to receive $2 million from the state legislature for expansion of the Washington Mesa Community College program.

As a result, the Mesa program was able to grow from 12 to 18 centers.

Now this may not seem a lot, but for people on the other side of the mountains, particularly in Indian country, the Yakama Nation, for the first time they had received additional $150,000 for First Nations.

And that was no small feat.

And I watched how Abel brought people together, not just myself, but other state legislatures and leaders, and leaders in Indian country, which is not the easiest thing to do.

And I just want to add one last comment, if those of you have not seen what Abel has done besides his whole resume, which is online, is that he has not only practiced but has taught introduction to political science and leadership and management in those skills and does hold his MPA from the University of Washington.

And again, I want to go back to something Councilmember Sawant said.

Nobody comes into this job with a perfect subject matter expertise skill set.

If they did, I'm thinking of the 13 things that we listed when we were looking for particular candidates, we would at least have more than one saying that you need some experience.

You have eight other colleagues, central staff, legal counsel, and everything here to give you the tools you need.

And when we had our last council member, Kirsten Harris-Talley, who came on board, people thought that she couldn't get on the job quick enough and handle a $5.9 billion budget, and she did.

So this is about talking about how you, not only your city, but your district, and knowing your district and knowing those needs.

And so with that, I will continue to support Abel Pacheco, Jr.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, President Harrell.

I just wanted to share with members of the public that at least, I mean, obviously, I think many of the candidates, I don't know if this is true for all candidates, but many of the candidates have had people write to the council in support of their nomination.

I just wanted to share with members of the public that 40, as far as my staff has informed me, 43 people have written to the council supporting, strongly supporting Shari LaSalle's nomination.

an appointment to this position.

And I've looked through many of the names that I'm seeing in the emails that have come.

I have the whole stack here with me.

And what I'm seeing is, first of all, I see many familiar names, names of people who themselves are activists in their own right and have been on the forefront of not only the fight for the Amazon tax and renters rights, but also these are people I see when I'm out there marching for immigrant rights and the rights of communities of color in the BLM marches.

So these are not I mean, the people who have written in this stack, they are not members of Socialist Alternative, my organization.

And as far as I know, not a single one of them is a self about socialist, but they are genuine people who may disagree on various things, but they are genuinely fighting for social justice.

And they have written really good testimonies as to why they support Ms. LaSalle's nomination and appointment to this position.

Many of them are D4 residents, so I really don't agree with this characterization that somehow this candidate does not have that kind of experience and I stand by my position that it's not about technocratic experience, it really is about political courage.

Ordinary people know this and you don't have to convince them of this because they know this and they see the lack of political courage in every realm of politics around them.

And I also should mention, and this is very relevant, the vast majority of the people who have written in favor of Sharae LaSalle have written on the basis of having watched Sharae's testimony at the community forum and at the city council meeting, and I think that's substantive support, meaning they have watched their responses and are saying these are the kinds of things that we agree with and that's why I wanted, this is not Sheree's personal friend saying I would like her on the council because she's my personal friend, but because they're impressed with the kind of commitments that Sheree has made.

A co-chair of the Seattle Disability Commission is one of the people who has written.

Jordan Goldwark, whose responses also impressed me in his commitment to, or at least his, you know, professed commitment to many of the issues that I care about, who has withdrawn his name and offered his support to Sharia LaSalle, which is quite a significant thing.

And a lot of the people who have written in have said that What they've said is Sheree is perfectly capable of collaborating, it's just the right kind of collaboration, it's unity with ordinary people, people who are struggling to get by, people who are extremely vulnerable, and really building real confidence among them.

I believe also in that kind of collaboration.

Collaboration absolutely important.

Unity is absolutely important, but it has to be on a principled basis.

It has to be with ordinary people who have a stake in the fight against LGBTQ people facing, you know, against the violence faced by LGBTQ people, people struggling to just get by and pay their rent, facing housing instability.

So there are many of these examples in the letters that have come in support of Sheree's appointment.

Thank you.

Thank you councilmember so what?

Okay, so we are going to proceed with another round of voting and if we are ready, I think we should be at this point Madam clerk, please call the roll O'Brien David Goldberg So on the cells Big Shaw Abel Pacheco jr.

Gonzales Herpold.

Abel Pacheco.

Juarez.

Abel Pacheco.

Mosqueda.

Abel Pacheco, Jr.

Harrell.

Abel Pacheco, Jr.

That's five votes for Abel Pacheco, Jr.

One vote for Chere LaSalle, one vote for David Goldberg, and one vote for Brooke Braun.

He has been read mr. Abel Pacheco jr.

Has been elected and appointed to fill the City Council position for I'd like to invite mr. Pacheco jr.

To the podium and the City Council has elected you until the November 5th 2019 general elections are certified I Descript requires that I ask you a question and that question is do you accept the position sir?

Yes

Congratulations on being appointed to the City Council.

Mr. Pacheco, will you make sure the microphone is on?

There's a little green light on the button.

I want to make sure.

Right at the, there you go.

Make sure there's a green light on.

And at this time, I'll ask our clerk, Monica Martinez-Simmons, the City Clerk, to administer the oath of office.

And if I made a mistake on that, Madam Clerk, I have two more to go, so I'm fine on that one.

Are we to read the oath?

the oath of office now, correct?

Okay, let's proceed.

First of all, Abel, it's my honor to administer your official oath of office.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I, Abel Pacheco, Jr., swear and affirm that I possess all the qualifications prescribed in the Seattle City Charter

prescribed in the Seattle City Charter.

And the Seattle Municipal Code.

And the Seattle Municipal Code.

For the position of.

For the position of.

City Council Member.

City Council Member.

For the City of Seattle.

For the City of Seattle.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the State of Washington.

The Constitution of the State of Washington.

And the Charter and Ordinances.

And the Charter and Ordinances.

Of the City of Seattle.

Of the City of Seattle.

And that I will faithfully conduct myself.

And I will faithfully conduct myself.

As Seattle City Council Member.

As Seattle City Council Member.

Mr. Pacheco, will you please address the council and share with us, congratulations first, sir, and please share with us some words of wisdom and realize that I did have printed out rounds five, six, and seven for votes.

I think that scared him to get him off the dime.

So Mr. Pacheco, the floor is yours, sir.

First, thank you, Council, and thank everybody that went with me through the process.

As you all, I've gotten to know all of you, boy, over the last few years, but there's one person that, two people that I want to thank who aren't with me right now, and those are my parents.

Take your time, sure.

It's been both their love that's inspired everything that I've done.

My dad, who's raised me as his own son, and I recognize how fortunate I have been throughout my entire life because of that.

And my mom.

You all have met her, had the chance to meet her, see her once.

And I know she's, unfortunately she couldn't be here today, but I know she's watching.

And so, I just want to say, nine years ago, I kissed her on her forehead and I told her that I'd make her proud.

Leaving her was the hardest thing I've ever done.

But I also recognize why any one of us would ever seek a position like this.

And it's her that I think about now and always.

So I just say thank you all for the opportunity.

And just like I told her, I hope to make all of you proud just as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir, and congratulations.

And I thank all the other candidates as well for helping us out with the process for applying.

Thank you, Mr. Pacheco, and congratulations.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

If not, we stand adjourned, and everyone have a great rest of the day.