Seattle City Council Briefing 3/1/2021

Good morning, Seattle Channel.

We're ready to go.

I see the recording button has begun.

Good morning.

I'm Dan Strauss, Council President Pro Tem.

The March 1st, 2021 Council Briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 9.31 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Herbold?

Here.

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Present.

Here.

So want Council President pro tem Strauss present seven present.

Thank you.

If there's no objections the meeting, the minutes for the February 22 2021 meeting will be adopted.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are adopted.

Item two on this morning's agenda is the President's Report.

I am the Council President Pro Tem.

Council President Gonzalez had pre-scheduled vacation, as well as Council Member Juarez provided me advance notice that she would not be able to attend this morning's meeting.

At full council today, we will be introducing and voting on the resolution that sets the council's work plan for 2021. As many of you may know in my committee, I have very strict rules about what can and cannot be spoken to during public comment.

And one example was when the Tree advocates came and sang what I loved.

I really loved that tree song, but it was out of compliance with the orders of decorum.

So they did receive a warning at that time.

On this afternoon's agenda, we do have this resolution that sets the council's work plan for 2021. So there is a wider array of topics that people can speak to within my strict rules of speaking to items on the agenda.

I just want to thank everyone, every office, for working with central staff to develop your respective committee work plans.

And Allie Panucci is on the line this morning in council briefings to provide a quick overview and answer any lingering questions.

And so we'll come back to that at the end.

Item number three is our state legislative sessions updates.

And we have our amazing OIR team, Director Wilson-Kodega, Robin Kosky, Quinn Majeski, Hannah Smith, my apologies for the rest of the team, I didn't have your titles memorized.

I would love to pass it off to you and give us an update of what's going on virtually in Olympia.

Good morning, Lily Wilson-Kodega, Director, Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

I'm gonna pass it along to Robin Kosky for a brief introduction.

Robin Kosky, Deputy Director, Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Ben Majeski, State Relations Director, Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Kyle Smith, Government Affairs Program Director, OIR.

Thank you, team, and good morning, council members.

We are before you today with a state legislative update with approximately two months left in the 2021 virtual legislative session ending on April 25th.

And at this point in session, we have passed several major milestones, House of Origin Policy Committee, the Fiscal and Transportation Committee cutoffs, and the House of Origin floor cutoff is coming up right around the corner next Tuesday, March 9th.

Legislators are now in the midst of very long days of floor action with folks in both chambers currently working late into the evening to advance proposals from major climate change policy to police reform to progressive revenue.

And before I turn it over to Quinn today, I specifically like to thank counsel for your assistance working with key stakeholders and legislators last week on the Worker Protection Act House Bill 1076. I also want to thank the Association of Washington cities.

for working very collaboratively with our team and you all at both the staff and leadership levels to work through our concerns and for moving to a position of neutrality moving forward given this is such a high priority for council members Mosqueda and Strauss as our AWC board members.

So House Bill 1076 passed out of appropriations on a largely party line vote on the 22nd and time for fiscal committee cutoff and has been referred to rules.

And I am now going to turn it over to Quinn Majewski, our state relations director.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

We appreciate you having us this morning.

I will start with an update on budget and revenue.

In the budget and revenue space, we are in a bit of a lull.

Most of the major legislation has had its public hearings.

However, all of these bills are considered necessary to implement the budget or NTIB.

which means that they are not subject to the variety of cutoffs that the legislature imposes.

So while most bills have had to make it out of their committees and face the upcoming deadline to make it to a floor vote and move out of their house of origin, These bills do not and will continue to be worked on throughout session.

The big update in the budget and revenue space is that this month, on March 17th, there is the state revenue forecast.

This will really frame for legislators and budget leaders exactly what the budget scenario is that they need to work with.

We have the most recent update, but legislators like to have the most up-to-date information as they are crafting their budgets.

We have heard anecdotally, but from folks who are closely connected to the revenue forecast team, we are likely to see an uptick in state revenues.

Right now, the talk is that we're looking at somewhere between 500 and 700 million.

Obviously, that number is subject to change.

We still have several weeks before we hit March 17th, but that is the current picture.

As we mentioned over the summer, as the revenue forecast has continued to improve, that's obviously good for the overall budget picture.

It means there's less of a gap that needs to be closed.

And with this latest increase, we'd be looking at a rather small shortfall, actually, However, the double-edged sword here is that that does also blunt some of the momentum for real progressive revenue reform.

That said, there are still a number of legislators who are committed to revenue reform in both chambers.

And the focus really seems to be centering in on the capital gains tax.

The Senate, as we mentioned in our previous updates, passed their proposal out of committee.

We have heard that the Senate is likely to take the first action if they move forward with capital gains, as that's been sort of the bottleneck in the past.

And so we will be watching that closely and continue to work with legislators and stakeholders to support that effort.

Um, I think that is, that is all I have for the budget and revenue space.

So I will pause for any questions.

I'm seeing no questions at this time.

All right.

I will pass it off to Hana for education.

Thanks.

A couple updates in the childcare space.

Senate Bill 5136, which was the childcare licensing fee bill that we'd been following, unfortunately was not voted out of ways and means and has died.

But there's good news in Senate Bill 1213, or 5237, the Fair Starts for Kids Act.

Both vehicles continue to move and were placed on second reading last week.

Additionally, bills increasing the access to the opportunity scholarship and the school board election qualifications, which allows permanent residents to run for school board have both passed two rules as well.

Those are the big updates in education, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

I'm not seeing any questions.

Moving on to environment.

Unfortunately, we did see one major environmental bill drop off this after the most recent cut off has built at 84 the building decarbonization legislation governor request bill, also known sometimes as healthy homes clean buildings.

did not make it out of appropriations before last week's deadline so that bill is is dead for this year.

I think unfortunately we saw a lot of opposition from fossil fuel companies as well as some concerns about impacts on on workers and so that is not moving forward.

There is an effort to incorporate some provisions potentially into budget provisos, particularly around studying beneficial electrification, as well as looking at the potential heat pump electrification program in the Department of Commerce.

But unfortunately, that bill will not be moving forward this year.

Bills that are continuing to move forward, however, include House Bill 1091, the Clean Fuel Standard, that was approved by the House on Saturday.

As it has been in previous years, it was a close vote, largely party-line vote with a few Democrats voting no.

That will head over to the Senate, and we will continue to monitor it closely there.

And then, as we reported last week, Senator Carlisle has introduced his substitute version of 5126, which is the Climate Commitment Act, the governor requests legislation.

It makes a number of changes to the policy in an attempt to address concerns raised by the environmental justice community about some of the provisions allowing emitters to continue emitting in a cap and vest system.

So it makes a number of changes there.

That was voted out of committee last Thursday, the Senate Environment Committee, and is now headed to Ways and Means.

This bill is considered NTIB, and so it is not subject to cutoffs, but we do expect it to continue moving.

That is all I have for the environment.

I will pause for any questions.

Thank you, Quinn.

I'm not seeing any other questions.

which speaks in, you know, across the board, it speaks to the great work from your team every week, answering so many questions that we've gotten to a place where there are fewer questions to be asked.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

In general government, a couple updates here.

House Bill 1016, which is the legislation that would make Juneteenth a legal holiday, passed the House by a very strong 89 to 9 vote.

That is headed over to the Senate now.

Uh, House Bill 11 73. This is the, uh, what we know is the armory PDA legislation, which has to do with the National Guard facility and the potential redevelopment of that as they make their move over to North Bend in the coming years.

That bill was passed by the House on a 77 to 21 vote and is also headed over to the Senate.

And then one unfortunate update, House Bill 1264, which would establish equity impact statements for legislative proposals, similar to the RSGI analyses that we do here in the city of Seattle, unfortunately did not make it out of appropriations and so is dead for this year, but we will be looking to work with stakeholders closely to advance that legislation in future sessions.

I think that's all I have for general government.

So I'll pause again for any questions.

Again, not seeing any questions.

Good job to the team.

And thank you colleagues for making sure that any questions you do have are focused.

I will hand it off to Hana for healthcare.

Thanks, Quinn.

An update on the bill that died, House Bill 1191, which extended health care coverage to undocumented folks, unfortunately died.

But there are efforts to pursue that in a budget proviso, so we'll be continuing to advocate for that policy.

bills that continue to move through House Bill 1477, which establishes the national 9-8-8 line here in Washington.

There had been lots of concerns over the implementation timeline and costs for that bill.

So a second substitute passed out of appropriations last week and is now in rules.

The substitute made several changes, including establishing an implementation team that includes crisis call centers and behavioral health delivery systems.

And it turned many of the behavioral health crisis items into recommendations rather than requirements.

That includes the availability of community-based mobile rapid response teams.

Senate Bill 5068, which extends postpartum Medicaid passed out of the Senate on a 46-0 vote with strong floor speeches in support and continues to move.

5195, the opioid reversal medication was amended and continues to move.

The amendments remove a hospital's obligation to dispense opioid overdose reversal medications under some circumstances.

but that bill continues to have strong support.

Senate Bill 5313, which is the health insurance discrimination for gender reaffirming surgery, passed the Senate 30 to 17, and Senate Bill 5399, which created the Universal Healthcare Commission, was placed on second reading.

I'll pause for healthcare questions.

We cannot see any.

We'll now turn over to housing and homelessness.

There's not too much news in the housing forum.

Unfortunately, House Bill 1035 that would provide a tax exemption in exchange for providing affordable housing in older buildings.

Some of you remember the city worked on this a few years ago, a similar proposal to this one.

That bill didn't make it out of the Finance Committee.

I just wanted to let you know that House Bill 1277 by Representative Ormsby that would increase the document recording fees by $100 to generate funds for rent assistance and potentially operations and maintenance of affordable housing has been agreed as necessary to implement the budget, so it's not subject to the regular policy and fiscal cutoffs and is still being considered and is, you know, potentially could move forward.

I also wanted to let you know about Senate Bill 5287, Affordable Housing Incentives.

This bill is still being negotiated by a number of actors, including other cities, housing advocates, and legislators.

But this would authorize local jurisdictions to implement a 12-year extension of the MFTE program to preserve affordable housing units.

And it would also require tenant protections as part of the negotiations going forward and would establish a 20-year exemption for affordable homeownership, which is of interest to our affordable homeownership providers in Seattle, certainly.

I will keep you posted on that.

As I said, the exact details of the bill are still being worked on, and I'll just have to kind of let everybody know.

It looks like it may move in the Senate this week, so I will keep the council posted.

I also just wanted to let you know that the city signed on to a letter with a number of other affordable housing organizations and anti-poverty organizations that went out to the whole legislature asking for funding at the level of $18.5 million, as was in the governor's budget for foreclosure prevention in the operating and supplemental budgets.

And I'll just pause there to see if anybody has questions on housing.

Hearing none, I think I can move on to police reform.

Some very exciting things have happened over the last week in the police reform forum.

Many of the, almost all of the proposals are still continuing to move forward in the legislative process, which is very exciting.

And several bills passed out of their house of origin last week.

First of all, House Bill 1054 passed the House on Saturday evening by a vote of 54 to 43. Some fairly significant changes were made to the bill.

One was some changes around the definitions of military equipment to change the definition of grenades and silencers were removed from the definition of military equipment.

The tear gas provisions of the bill were also changed, and the ability to use tear gas was restored in hostage situations, situations where individuals might be barricaded, or in some riot situations, with some significant parameters around when and how it would be established that tear gas could be deployed.

The chokehold definition was modified slightly.

The moving vehicle provisions of the bill were clarified to establish when an officer may fire on a moving vehicle.

And then finally, the canine provisions of the bill were removed.

The prohibition on use of canines was removed.

And there was a requirement put in that the Criminal Justice Training Commission must adopt model policies on use of canines.

a sticking point for the bill and there were quite a few negotiations that happened with the prime sponsor and law enforcement agencies to come to an agreement on that provision.

So that in a nutshell is House Bill 1054. Senator Peterson's oversight and accountability of police officers, colloquially known as decertification, Senate Bill 5051, also passed the Senate late last Thursday night.

This is the bill that broadens the ability to decertify police officers.

The vote was 29 to 16, but not before 39 amendments were offered to the bill.

All amendments that were adopted were technical in nature and didn't make significant changes to the bill, but quite a big night last Thursday evening on the Senate floor for that bill.

And then Senate Bill 5066, the duty to intervene bill by Senator Dingra also passed the Senate last week.

requires officers that they have a duty to intervene when they witness excessive use of force.

And it also requires police officers to report wrongdoing to the other officer's supervisor.

So really good news this week in terms of some police reform proposals continuing to move through the legislative process.

And I'll stop there for any questions.

I'm not seeing any other questions.

Terrific.

Well, I'll just move on to one last bill in the Public Safety Forum.

The bill that is one of the bills that would prohibit armed intimidation, Senate Bill 5038, also passed the Senate last week.

That bill is Prime Sponsor Senator Cooter.

And this is the one that prohibits open carry at the state capitol and at public demonstrations.

it passed the Senate 28 to 20. Also very significant piece of legislation to move forward this year.

So some good news this week.

That is indeed great news.

Colleagues, any questions?

Seeing none, Hannah, please take it away.

A couple of bills that passed this week in the safety net and civil rights area.

House Bill 1078, which restored voting rights and automatically restored voting rights to people convicted of felonies, passed the House 5714. And House Bill 1151, which is a big public assistance priority bill, passed off the House floor 8216. Great bills continuing to move forward.

Other safety net bills we are monitoring are continuing to move forward in the process and are placed on second reading.

I'll pause there.

But also quickly might pass it off to Quinn for transportation.

Rounding it out in the transportation space, not a lot to update here.

Transportation leaders continue to work on their transportation revenue proposals.

That is happening largely in the backdrop, but as.

The legislature shifts its focus to floor action and in anticipation of the upcoming revenue forecast, legislators are also working on the baseline transportation current law budget, the no new revenue budget.

We don't anticipate any big news on the broader revenue package in the near future.

In terms of legislation, House Bills 1301 and 1304 are currently in rules awaiting action, and we are working closely on those and tracking them closely.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Quinn.

Colleagues, any questions?

Director Wilson-Hodega, any other?

That concludes our presentation today, unless there are any questions, but I just wanted a note to thank Council President Pro Tem and council members for the engagement and assistance this week.

Given the virtual session format, we've been asking a lot of you and we're very, very appreciative of all of the work that you have done helping to bolster the city's lobby team.

So much appreciation there and look forward to briefing you again next week.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Director Wilson-Codega.

And again, it speaks to the robust presentations that your team gives us every week and working with us individually.

And how this is demonstrated today is that no one had any questions because you are doing the great work and keeping us informed as we go.

And also colleagues are not waiting until the once a week opportunity to ask you questions.

So great work to the OIR team.

very high compliments.

We are so appreciative of that and look forward to seeing you again next week.

Wonderful.

See you soon.

And colleagues, uh, we will now move on to item four, the preview of today's council, uh, actions council and regional committees, and we will begin our next discussion on the preview of today's city council actions and, uh, council and regional committees.

I'll call on council members as established by the roll call for City Council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name and with the Council President called last.

This week's roll call rotation begins with Council Member Herbold, then Juarez, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, Sawant, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

Since I would have started the rotation this week, I would have been the first one to go.

Next week's order will start with Council Member Juarez, and will conclude with me and then the Council President Gonzalez to maintain that alphabetical order.

And so colleagues, now we will begin and Council Member Herbold, you are up first.

Council Member Juarez is excused for today.

So following Council Member Herbold will be Council Member Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, and we will just continue on.

Thank you, colleagues.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much and good morning.

I just want to start off with a notice that the Public Safety and Human Services Committee has no items for today's full council agenda, nor is the committee meeting this week.

We will be meeting next Tuesday morning.

From the Human Services Department, they have asked that I share with the viewing public exciting news that the Seattle Youth Employment Program is preparing job readiness trainings and employment opportunities this summer despite the uncertainty that COVID-19 brings.

Depending on COVID-19 safety guidelines and the number of participating employers and types of experiences that employers can provide, the summer program may include in-person, virtual, a hybrid of in-person and virtual, or a stipend-based learn and earn model.

Applications for the Seattle Youth Employment Program 2021 internships and employers are now open and will close on Friday, April 2nd.

The program will run July 7th through August 17th.

And if you want to apply, you can visit the program website at seattle.gov forward slash SYEP.

Uh, news today in the public health area.

The city has announced this morning the locations of three city run mass vaccination sites.

One at the Southwest Athletic Complex in West Seattle.

another at the Atlantic City Boat Ramp in Rainier Beach, and a third at Lumen Field Events Center.

The West Seattle and Rainier Beach sites are launching this morning, and they are also the location of COVID testing and will continue to offer that service as well.

Appointments will be available through referral initially, and between the two sites, they will initially offer 2,000 doses per week administered by the Seattle Fire Department.

Lumen Field is expected to open in mid-March in partnership with Swedish, and they will initially administer 5,000 doses per week.

Eventually, when the vaccine supply improves, the West Seattle and Rainier Beach sites will be able to administer 1,000 shots each day, and Lumen Field will administer up to 150,000 shots per week.

All appointments for the temporary clinics have been filled so far with partnerships with over 50 different BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving organizations in Central, South, and West Seattle.

And to register individuals for the clinic, they focus on vaccine-eligible people who are 65 and older who live in areas of West and South Seattle most impacted by COVID-19 cases.

Locations for these max vaccination sites serve the goals of the city's resolution on vaccine equity.

West Seattle, South Park and Rainier Valley have the second highest rate of COVID deaths in the entire county.

Yet our seniors in those in those specific neighborhoods 75 and above have fallen significantly behind those in other parts of the county and accessing vaccine.

Only 46% in West Seattle, South Park and Rainier Valley have received a first dose compared to 59% countywide.

The federal government's three-week forecast shows Washington State receiving a small but steady increase in vaccine through mid-March, with a large proportion reserved for second doses.

Recent news that the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine has been approved will significantly increase the number of vaccine doses available in the long run, but likely it will not make a significant difference in the short term.

This week, the fire department administered its 10,000th COVID vaccine.

Roughly 70% of those vaccinated by the city, these are the vaccines that are being delivered by the Seattle Fire Department, the city's special allocation that I've been reporting back to folks on every week, 70% of those vaccinated by the city, by the Seattle Fire Department, identify as black, indigenous, and people of color communities.

The state has launched a new resource for individuals who are blind or have low vision.

Blind and low vision individuals can call 360-947-3330 to ask questions regarding access to COVID resources or go to blindcovid.com.

Just a couple words about an editorial.

I wanted folks to have a chance to see if they haven't already.

There was an editorial that appeared in the Seattle Times last week by Antonio Oftali.

That is the court appointed monitor overseeing the consent decree.

It's definitely a good read and shares a lot about his perspective.

as it relates to moving forward in Seattle under the consent decree.

He included a comment emphasizing the importance of standing up for programs in the context of potential Seattle Police Department budget reductions.

Council Member Herbold, your audio is a little muffled or broken.

Maybe IT, if you have any suggestions at the moment.

I just wanna make sure that we're hearing your good words.

Oh, that's great.

Okay, great.

I'm like, I don't know what to do from here, but okay.

I'm just wrapping up here.

Just wanted to share an excerpt from that editorial.

The statement is though the consent, through the consent to create the city made a set of binding promises about how SPD will promote public safety.

Compliance with the decree requires that the city provide resources necessary to carry out those promises.

Stripping funding away from SPD without meaningfully standing up the alternative community resources and social programs necessary to provide for community well-being risks undermine the progress that Seattle has made over the past eight years.

And I have raised with folks during briefings meeting, shared with everybody a little bit about the work that's being done in my committee to get the funds that the council allocated for community safety alternatives.

There's been $4 million released.

We're working on encouraging and supporting the Human Services Department in the release of another $12 million.

And then there's the work that's being done in the IDT also to look at creation of new crisis response efforts, including expansion of Health One.

But there's more to be done and more to be done quickly because there is, as I wrote in an editorial a couple weeks ago now, there is, you know, real urgency in dealing with an increase in public safety challenges during this time of COVID-19.

And then lastly, just very, very quickly, I want to mention this week I have coming up a regional water quality committee meeting, and that's on Wednesday.

And then Friday, I'm participating in the hiring panel for the Watershed Resource Inventory Area 9, the director for the staffing of that group.

And last week held office hours from 2 to 6 and talked to a lot of constituents in District 1 about many different important issues to the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

And up next, because Council Member Juarez is excused this morning, we have Council Member Lewis, followed by Morales, and then Council Member Mosqueda, you're on deck.

Thank you, President Pro Tem Strauss.

Good to be here this morning.

On introduction and referral, I have Council Bill 120007, which is the right to counsel in eviction proceedings legislation that I'm co-sponsoring with Council Member Sawant.

Looking forward to that discussion on that important bill as someone who is still a current and standing member of the bar.

I think the right to counsel is fundamental in any situation where there can be a grave deprivation and we know that there can be fatal consequences to someone's livelihood if they're denied housing security and that in a lot of cases we see eviction proceedings where the deck is stacked heavily against tenants and I firmly believe that we should be one of the most one of the most recent cities to adopt this right.

There is similar legislation currently working its way through the state legislature, and I look forward to having this discussion here at the council to follow the lead of other cities, such as Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York City, San Francisco, pilot program in Houston.

This is something a lot of cities are doing, and I think it's time that this fundamental and essential right to council be extended to these proceedings.

committee report from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

Council Bill 119975 was unanimously passed by the committee last week and will be before the council today for final passage.

This of course is the legislation streamlining many aspects of permanent supportive housing to make production of permanent supportive housing faster, cheaper, and to respond to the urgent need that we see every day to have more of this critical housing resource.

I look forward to that discussion this afternoon and look forward to final passage of these essential reforms.

Just care update.

I continue to work with stakeholders at King County, at the mayor's office, with council colleagues here.

to seek a city and county partnership on the critical Just Care program.

Just as a reminder to folks in the community, Just Care is the collaboration between service providers, neighborhood organizers, and business associations that has been active in the Chinatown International District and Pioneer Square for several months, making visible and critical progress on the highest barrier neighbors that we have with public health barriers to being successful in permanent housing, and using hoteling as a strategy paired with wraparound services to give dignity and comfort and security to our neighbors who are experiencing those vulnerabilities, as well as peace of mind to neighbors and small business owners in the International District in Pioneer Square, who should not have to add being a service provider to their list of obligations as a small business owner.

I continue to work on figuring out a way to make sure that by the end of this month, we have a plan in place to deal not only with the existing 124 people being cared for by Just Care, but to expand the caseload of Just Care to the maximum they have reported that they could assume, which is about 300 or so folks.

This is critical work.

I wanna thank our movement partners on this, Alliance for Pioneer Square, the public defender association and the downtown Seattle association, chief Seattle club, community passageways, who have all made it abundantly clear that by coming together on this critical program, we can make the visible impact on chronic homelessness on public safety that we're experiencing in the center city on a daily basis.

So I look forward to continuing that work this week, and I look forward, Councilmember Muscatis, to the discussion in your committee tomorrow on this topic.

Moving on to a fun announcement on redistricting.

So I know that we're doing a lot this year, but the city will be convening its first ever redistricting commission, which has been announced by Council President Gonzales, who asked that I relay this to the general public and breach this discussion this morning at briefing.

that we will be assembling our first ever five-member redistricting commission to redraw the boundaries of the council districts in anticipation of the 2020 census.

This is going to be a great opportunity.

I'm sure there's a lot of folks out there in the community who would like to put their stamp on Seattle history by being one of the first members of the redistricting commission to really engage in this I do want to just briefly report there are some charter restrictions.

You cannot be an elected official.

So sorry, guys, none of us can serve on this for the best.

There is an exception.

If you serve as a precinct committee officer who is elected, you are eligible to still serve.

You cannot be a registered lobbyist.

you cannot be a candidate for elective office, and you cannot be a city employee.

So if you are someone who does not fall into those categories, please reach out to us to seek a potential appointment to this.

If you are interested, the city council gets to appoint two of the members of the commission.

The mayor appoints two members of the commission, and then a fifth member is picked by the other four commissioners.

So applications are going to be due at 1159 p.m.

on March 29th of 2021. it will be a 9 to 12 month commitment to engage in this process and there is a per diem for reasonable expenses associated with your appointment as a commissioner.

so do please reach out to us with inquiries on that.

again that's March 29th 2021. applications due by midnight on that day.

Moving on, I do want to give one last shout out to a cluster of tents that had been preventing a ongoing hazard to outreach workers and small business owners in the Pioneer Square neighborhood for several months that had been concealing highly concerning criminal activity and not being used for shelter.

I do just want to thank because I think we see we've seen a lot of cases of bad policing and we rightly admonish bad policing when we see it as we should.

strongly and unequivocally.

I think we should also recognize good policing when we see it exercised with discretion and subject to careful investigation.

The West Precinct Community Response Group built a careful and deliberate case working with community and working with stakeholders to identify these tents that weren't being used for shelter and that were being used to camouflage ongoing criminal enterprises, providing a general issue to the community and friction for outreach workers who had been active in that area.

With the obstacle of those tents and the activity they concealed removed, we can now move forward and proceed unhindered in those activities in that neighborhood.

And I do just want to appreciate that as we transition to having more of a focus of a scalpel rather than a hammer and how we deal with looking at situations in our community of particular clusters of tents or encampments.

I think it gives more credibility to enforcement actions when we are leading instead first with engagement and then coming in in a more surgical way to conduct enforcement actions when there are problematic activities.

And I want to just call out the investigative group in the West Precinct that was responsible for doing a diligent job that was careful, that was well managed, and that has been well regarded by people I've talked to in the community as an example of how this work can be done.

in a way that emphasizes the public safety for everybody involved, but it's not overly prescriptive to labeling our neighbors experiencing homelessness uniformly as criminals and being overly punitive to people simply for being poor.

So good job, West Precinct.

More of that careful investigative work.

definitely like to see that and appreciate your service.

With that, Mr. President Pro Tem, I do not have any additional updates.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Well said in your report, and thank you for your good work there.

Up next, we have Council Member Morales, followed by Mosqueda, and then Peterson.

Good morning, Council Member Morales.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Good morning, colleagues.

There are no items on the Community Economic Development Committee agenda on today's agenda.

We did meet last Friday and we voted to recommend appointments and reappointments to several commissions.

We also voted to recommend the first group of appointees to the new equitable development initiative advisory board.

You may recall through the jumpstart legislation, we approved $20 million in funding for EDI.

So I'm very excited that this group is getting seated.

They will help guide the investment decisions with that fund.

critical that they gear up this year so they are ready.

All those appointments will be coming before council next Monday on March 8th.

And the next meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee is March 16th at 2 p.m.

You may have seen in the paper this morning an op-ed from Port Commissioner Ryan Culkins and the Executive Director of Ventures, Beto Yerce.

They begin by highlighting Monica Matthews, whose grand opening of Queen Care I attended recently, so that was exciting to see.

But really what they're talking about is the challenge that we have in facing an equitable recovery.

As we know, small business accounts for more than half of the state's private employment.

Nearly a third of all small businesses are minority-owned, and it's these very businesses that were hit hardest by the pandemic-induced recession, as they say.

They're also the businesses that have suffered a higher percentage of permanent closures in the city.

So, Calkins and Yarse writes, if the first step toward an equitable recovery starts with supporting small business, then we need to address the basic needs and challenges that siphon time and resources away from growing a small business.

And so they highlight issues that we have to fix if we're really going to demonstrate our commitment to that kind of a recovery, and they include child care, health care, residential and commercial rent relief, access to capital, streamlined regulations, and better technical assistance for small businesses.

So as we emerge from the last recession, the economic recovery plan emphasized big business, as they indicate, and this time we need to really start small.

So as you know, we have an interim director for the Office of Economic Development.

There is a lot of work to do in the city to ensure that we have an equitable economic recovery in the city.

And so I'm looking forward to working with interim director Banks to support our small businesses.

I have invited her to the March meeting to present the 2021 work program that is not confirmed yet, but I do look forward to working with her this year.

I also want to note I was sorry to learn last Friday that our director of OPCD, Sam Assefa, is stepping down.

Sam brings a real passion for and commitment to community-led planning practices and principles.

My hope is that we continue to center those practices as we begin the very important work of reviewing our comprehensive plan and as we stand up the new EDI advisory board.

Last week I met with neighbors in Mount Baker to discuss issues related to homelessness and public safety around the link light rail station.

We brought outreach staff from reach and lead to have a discussion with community members and to strategize on ways to help people living unhoused.

and to address concerns from the folks who are housed who live nearby.

Following this meeting, my office engaged with several departments to also address concerns around road pedestrian infrastructure, street cleaning, and illegal dumping, which is happening quite a bit around the area and the intersection of Mount Baker, sorry, Rainier and MLK.

Additionally, we connected neighbors who provide mutual aid in the Chistie green space with outreach workers so that the two groups can work alongside each other.

And then I also learned at this meeting that since 2017, Mt. Baker neighbors have been asking for an interdepartmental team meeting, an interdepartmental meeting to have a dialogue between residents and departments.

So my office is putting together that meeting for neighbors on March 11th and have asked representatives from HSD, SPU, SDOT, Office of Housing, SPD, Parks, and DON to participate.

Neighbors have a lot of questions about the different development projects, infrastructure projects, and just different things that are happening in that intersection.

And so we thought this was probably the best way to get those questions answered.

And more on that as the date approaches.

I continue to meet with constituents during office hours.

I have office hours on Sundays from 3 to 5 and Thursdays from 10 to noon.

If you'd like to meet with me, you can request a meeting via my council website or through my newsletter.

This week, I heard from constituents who want to help the city provide more equitable access to education and to literacy programs through our public library and our school libraries, and who would also like to see the city step up on shelter and who are working proactively with unhoused neighbors to address ADA concerns in particular.

We have a lot of folks who are in wheelchairs, who are having a hard time managing our sidewalks.

This week, I don't have any external board meetings.

The last thing I want to say – well, actually, I have two things.

On Friday, I sent out a statement voicing my frustration and anger, as well as the anger of other Seattleites over the mayor's decision to leave FEMA funding on the table.

I wanted to just highlight a couple parts of that statement, if you will indulge me.

As I've been talking about regularly in this briefing, homelessness is by far the biggest issue that my office responds to on a regular basis.

Everyone is frustrated at what appears on the outside to be a lack of willingness from our city to react to the plight faced by unhoused people.

And that's why my staff and I have personally worked with providers like Just Care, REACH, LEAD, and Lehigh to engage with and offer services and shelter to unhoused neighbors in District 2. That's why we visited neighbors living unhoused.

We've worked with mutual aid groups to get folks much-needed supplies.

And it's why we worked hard to stand up the homelessness outreach and provider ecosystem, or HOPE, and why we've advocated for more hotel and more tiny house funding.

We all know, colleagues, that as a council, we are using all of the tools at our disposal, legislation, advocacy, and budget actions, and we're even going outside the scope of our work to connect people to services and shelter.

And those actions can only do so much.

We need a partner in the executive.

The least we can ask from the executive, from the branch of government with the most power to change the situation, is to spend money on services when it's available and to listen to the recommendations of experts in the field.

To leave FEMA funding on the table when the Biden administration has said that reimbursement is possible is frustrating to say the least.

It's cruel to our unhoused neighbors who would take a hotel room if one were offered.

And it's perplexing to my constituents who wonder why we'd rather let people sleep outside where they risk contracting COVID.

I think we will continue to do this work.

We will continue to legislate past budget actions and to call for the kinds of response that we know can make an acute difference in the way our unhoused neighbors are living and their access to services and shelter.

But we need a partner to help us actually implement these tasks.

The last thing I want to say is this afternoon, Council Member Mosqueda will present a resolution.

I will leave it to her to discuss, but I do want to thank her for acknowledging the anniversary of our first report of a death in Washington State from COVID and honoring the families who have lost loved ones as a result.

And I will have more to say about that this afternoon.

That is my report.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Up next, we do have Council Member Mosqueda, and she will be presenting a proclamation for us to sign, so colleagues be ready for a roll call.

And then also, there is the ability to discuss the work plan.

Let me just make sure that I'm reading my scripts correctly.

There's an opportunity for Allie to provide an overview of the sly item on today's agenda.

So just flagging that, there are going to be a couple of breaks in this report.

And Council Member Mosqueda, good morning to you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Please take it away.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Mr. President Pro Tem and council colleagues.

I appreciate the opportunity to bring forward a proclamation as The president has noted, and as Council Member Morales has also noted, you should have received a draft that was circulated, the final draft on Friday, and again, sent around this morning from my office with the final language and details of the proclamation.

The proclamation names March 1st, 2021 today as COVID Victims and Survivors Memorial Day for us here in Seattle.

Yesterday, as we know, marked the one year anniversary of the loss of lives for folks who here locally were the first around the nation to be known to contract COVID and the first life to be lost in our country as a result of COVID.

Last week, we saw our country's COVID-19 death rate hit over 500,000 individuals.

I'm honored to bring this proclamation forward with your support today, but I'm also incredibly sad to have this proclamation in front of us.

This is being done in coordination with approximately 150 cities across the nation who are coordinated by the Smart City Policy Group.

I'm bringing this forward in honor of the lives who've been lost and whose lives and families have been impacted by COVID-19 along with these other 150 cities as we honor and remember those who've lost their lives due to COVID.

While locally, Our County Board of Health and local health systems have been working hard to prevent and treat those with COVID.

There is incredible challenges in front of us.

We've talked recently about the incredible vaccine.

um, response system that's ready to be stood up if we've just had enough vaccines to be distributed.

We have talked already about the incredible disparities that exist, especially among low income and black indigenous and people of color communities who are much more likely to contract covid and die from the illness.

This proclamation serves as a acknowledgement of the deep impact and the toll that COVID-19 has taken on our communities, including the loss of lives, the people who've lost loved ones, and the people whose lives are forever changed due to the lasting impacts of COVID-19.

For us on council and in this city, we know that these are not just statistics, these are not numbers.

As you will hear later today, these are our friends and families, these are our team members, and these are our neighbors.

I appreciate your consideration of signing on to this proclamation today to recognize and honor the lives lost due to COVID and the years worth of work that we have in our past to try to address the crisis that COVID has wreaked upon our community members, especially among community members who have lost loved ones due to this virus.

The mayor has indicated that she will be signing on to this proclamation, and I thank her for her support on this work and her support for this proclamation specifically.

I want to thank Council Member Herbold as well as Christina in her office for helping to think through this proclamation details, and Lori in my office who has led on drafting this proclamation along with Sejal Parikh.

Council President Strauss, I believe that the signatures can be added to this, and I will hand it back over to you to walk us through that step for collecting signatures to the proclamation.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

And colleagues, I just want to double check that, does anyone have any questions?

Looking for any questions.

And I do know that if anyone is not able to vote in the first round, let's keep the voting open so that we can come back to folks.

Great.

See everyone present now.

Signatures will need to be affixed to the proclamation before it is presented.

I will ask the clerk to call the roll to confirm which council member signatures may be affixed to the proclamation.

If there are not any questions before we call the roll.

Clerk, please take it away.

Herbold?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Rescheda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you very much and thank you very much council colleagues.

I know that people will most likely have more comments to share this afternoon and I greatly appreciate your signatures and support today as we want to bring this proclamation to our community and especially directly to family members affected by the loss of COVID.

So thank you for doing that and look forward to the discussion this afternoon.

Also on this afternoon's agenda from the Finance and Housing Committee, we will have various appointments.

We will have the appointment of Stephen Marchese, who was recommended unanimously from our committee to be appointed as the permanent director for the Office of Labor Standards.

We also have the appointment of Rita Howard as a member of the Seattle Housing Authority Board, and the appointments of Jamie Marsh and Munira Mohammed as members of the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.

Finally, we have a resolution that adopts the statements of legislative intent for the 2021 budget.

And as the Council President Pro Tem noted, Ali Panucci is here from central staff to help provide an overview of the statement of legislative intent item that is included on this afternoon's agenda.

Mr. President, I'll hand it back over to you.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

And Ali, please feel free to answer any questions.

I will just start off with my questions.

Understanding that looking to this screen to look at it, the capital improvement program, is this different than the capital project watch list?

Yes, good morning, President Pro Tem Strauss, Council Member Mosqueda.

As Council Member Mosqueda noticed this afternoon's agenda includes Resolution 31995 that adopts the statements of legislative intent that were approved as part of the budget process.

And I think the reference to the Capital Improvement Program is part of the process to adopt the 2021 budget as well as the CIP program, but it is an entirely separate item and action from the the capital watch list.

And if you'd like I could go into a deeper description of the resolution if this is the appropriate time.

Please do, yes.

Great, thank you.

So as I noted this resolution is on the introduction referral calendar and also on the full council agenda for action today.

Um, it includes the 29 statements.

Uh, excuse me, 29 slides that were approved as part of the budget process as a refresher.

Statements of legislative intents or slides are used for various purposes during the budget process and throughout the year.

This includes, um, uh, requests to give guidance on city policies such as describing how Council intends a program to operate.

So it really is just a statement to the executive.

Sometimes they include a call for additional studies, such as requesting a report analyzing the effectiveness of a new program or to identify a strategy to stand up a new program or to consider a different way of doing city business.

One example is there is a slide this year requesting some consideration of how the city manages its urban forest functions.

And in addition, it often is creating a work program for a department or the council or calling for a new concept or approach.

There is an example of asking the executive to participate in a work group regarding the Office for Civil Rights work.

The 29 slides that are included in the resolution are the same as what was approved by the council in November, with just a few exceptions.

Compared to what was approved this fall, there are minor changes to four of the 29 slides.

This includes two updates to due dates and making minor corrections or clarifications to the text of two slides.

Those changes are described in detail in the summary and fiscal note.

or in more detail in the summary and fiscal note, but I'm happy to answer any questions council members may have.

Thank you for that report.

I do see a question from council member Mosqueda and colleagues.

This is the time to ask any questions on this resolution about statements of legislative intent.

Council member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Mr. President Pro Tem.

And thank you, Ali, for being present to walk us through this.

I know this is probably more of a formality in terms of the presentation and voting on this afternoon.

I do know that a lot of people spend a lot of time working on the details for those statements of legislative intent that we include in our budget.

And every year there's various issues that we have asked.

central staff and the department staff to consider.

This is as important of an item as an investment item.

And so I really appreciate your attention to this topic this afternoon, folks.

The one thing I would just like to put out there, and Ellie, this is not something that I think needs to be formally adopted, but just to note that when we do receive report back from the executive on these statements of legislative intent, they often just say the sly number.

and they don't say what the topic is.

And so it's often very hard for folks to know what the topic is and who was the original sponsor.

If there's any way for us to be proactive in asking for the executive to include the full title of the slide and who was the requesting author, as they send it back, that might draw more folks' attention to various slides.

Because I do, I know, I know, I am in the same category.

I know that when there are issues of utmost importance and we are not able to fully address those in budget in terms of money allocations.

Many times we include slides, so I want to make sure that that hard work does get recognized and those reports get fully read.

Thank you, Chairman Skater.

I'm happy to talk.

We work closely with the city budget office and coordinating the submission and review of those fly responses, and I will follow up with them to try to add that specificity when those reports are being distributed.

Thank you.

I don't have anything else to add if there are no additional questions for me.

Great colleagues.

Seeing no additional questions, Council Member Mosqueda, back to you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ali, for that walkthrough today as well.

I do want to thank you, Mr. President.

You did a quick preview of one item on our Housing and Finance Committee agenda for tomorrow.

So thank you very much for that.

The Finance and Housing Committee will be tomorrow, Tuesday, March 2nd at 930 a.m.

Council members, through the legislative assistant staff meeting last week, you all should have received an invitation if you'd like to attend the committee meeting and you don't usually attend if you're not on our roster, you are welcome to attend.

There is a handful of items that may be of interest to the full council, especially around the capital projects watch list.

I mentioned this two weeks ago during our meeting to request that if you had any amendments, we'd like to see those last week so that we can try and incorporate any amendments into that list.

for our consideration on tomorrow's meeting, with the hope to try to get any amendments included before it comes to full council.

If you haven't had a chance to do that and you do have a burning amendment that you'd like to see, please do contact us, our central staff ASAP, as this is on the agenda for tomorrow for briefing, consideration, and possible vote.

We will also have a briefing and take a consideration and possible vote on council bill 12004. 06, which is the 2021 LTGO bond ordinance revision for Seattle Center signage project.

This legislation would authorize amending the 2021 multipurpose limited tax general obligation bond, or LTGO bond, ordinance to include $8 million of financing for a Seattle Center signage upgrade project.

Thank you very much to Brian Goodnight, who sent a memo about this bill last Thursday.

It was sent about 1.40 p.m.

to all council members.

I just sent that around again this morning with an amendment for your consideration.

of the bonds issued to repay the Interfund loans for the repair of the West Seattle Bridge that we approved last September may be issued as tax-exempt bonds.

Very important caveat that we want to make sure gets included here.

FES anticipates that the issuance of tax-exempt bonds would result in interest savings of $10,000.

approximately $5 million relative to the issuance of taxable bonds over the life of the bonds, which is 20 years.

So a good governance piece here, just a small but very important technicality that got missed the first time.

And this is our chance to amend it to make sure that we can make those taxes exempt and have a savings of approximately $5 million.

So you have those two documents in your inbox, both the amendment, amendment one, and a summary from central staff.

We will also have a briefing from central staff on the federal funding and council priorities as we discussed in our committee last week.

There is an interest, a strong interest in circulating a resolution that includes some of the very urgent funding needs we all have outlined.

that flow from our conversation from last year, our early discussion about the COVID relief funding, the conversation that filtered over into our Jump Start Seattle spend plan.

At a very high level, colleagues, what I will be sending around later today will include a draft resolution for your consideration.

We are going to have tomorrow during our committee meeting and then two weeks later on March 16th.

a chance to consider this resolution.

At a very high level, the central staff have prepared a presentation that aligns with the draft resolution.

I'll be sending around this afternoon for your feedback and opportunity to review in advance.

Very briefly, what we'd like to do through this resolution is accept and authorize in the expenditure of $22.7 million in the emergency rental assistance approved by the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2021. Consider legislation authorizing expenditures to support the Just Care Program.

And in anticipation of congressional passage and the presidential signature of the ARPA, which is the most recent round of the $1.9 trillion that's being made available in response to the ongoing need in communities across this country Congress is considering the $1.9 trillion in federal relief that is available for us.

So there is a draft resolution that will be sent around for your consideration.

And as we prepare and begin deliberations on this legislation, I'm excited to work with you about finalizing a draft and would welcome any thoughts that you might have about what you'd like to see in this resolution.

You are, again, welcome to join in on providing feedback on the resolution and, again, anticipate a robust conversation.

Our goal will be to accept and authorize spending of these federal funds so that we as a city collectively can get to work can get these funds into our community and make sure that those who've been hit hardest by COVID have relief that they need.

We're doing this in partnership, ideally with our county partners who are similarly looking at COVID relief assistance this week and next week as well.

We will adopt the resolution and any final changes as soon as we get feedback and have this discussion and look forward to being able to hopefully pass it as early as March 16th and look forward to your feedback.

There's a lot going on right now, but I do hope to see many of you in tomorrow's meeting as this important discussion really prioritizes the needs of small businesses, our housing insecure families, those who are experiencing homelessness, our most vulnerable workers and BIPOC communities and many more.

And then lastly, as Council Member Lewis noted, I am very much looking forward to another conversation about hotel assistance.

We absolutely need to see resolution to the crisis of those who are sleeping in hotels and making sure that there's assistance.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales, from reading from your statement from last Friday.

I absolutely agree with all of the comments that you mentioned this morning and what I read from your statement last Friday.

We know that it would be not just heartbreaking, but potentially deadly to individuals to ask them to leave housing right now, 150 or so people leaving housing right now and being handed a tent and walking outside, especially during the crisis of COVID, still ongoing, the more deadly strands available and percolating in the community.

We need to have non-congregate shelter options opening, not closing.

So I look forward to having a conversation that's a follow-up to the discussions we've been having already about not just how the city is utilizing the over $2 million that the council approved in hotel funding, but how we can more expeditiously actually work with those federal dollars that are available to us, 100% reimbursable like San Francisco and Los Angeles and so many other cities are doing to help house folks during this crisis.

So the conversation I don't think is over by any means, and we will continue the discussion tomorrow.

In terms of events on the calendar, last week I had the incredible honor to volunteer Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at the Rainier Beach Vaccination and Testing Clinic hosted by the City of Seattle, by the firefighters, members of IAFF Local 27, and incredible community partners who helped to get very vulnerable, eligible folks to those vaccine clinics.

Thanks so much to members from SEIU 775 who brought in their home care providers and made sure that they had access to vaccines.

Leaders within the CID, the Chinatown International District, and also members of the East African community who brought in elders.

It was an incredible opportunity to see how these pilot efforts to vaccinate folks We're working in real time.

I just am incredibly humbled.

I think very much members of the firefighters Sarah Smith, Captain Wallace and so many others who I had the chance to see from the firefighters and Jen who is running the operations and is managing the staff there.

She does an incredible job and they have been working day in and day out.

on the tests since the last summer and now are really excited to see the vaccines going out.

The staff was mostly younger folks, folks of color, and watching the staff interact with elders in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways was really inspiring as we continue to endeavor to do better and to do more on our commitment to equitable access to vaccine distribution.

I really am excited about the upcoming mass vaccination clinics and the ongoing way that the city is working with especially our BIPOC partners to get individuals into vaccine clinics.

And I know there's a lot of work to be done to streamline the process for many of our elders who were looking for ways to sign up for vaccines.

We had a few who came in during those days who said, how do I sign up?

So really getting information out more broadly.

And I know that there's a phone number coming soon will be important.

And just a few updates, Mr President, from the vaccination planning and implementation from F.

A. S. F. A. S. Continues to lead the planning and implementation of high volume vaccination site efforts and preparedness in preparation.

F.

A. S. Source and procured over 10,000 items needed to set up and run the high volume vaccination site.

The high volume vaccination site is scheduled for a stop opening in mid March, which council member Herbal spoke to, and I'm really excited about that.

Hope we get a chance to volunteer there as well.

COVID vaccination hotline.

All customer service bureau staff have been trained and can register patients for vaccines at King County vaccination sites in Kent and Auburn.

Customer service specialists can assist patients who do not have mobile phones or internet.

and need help cancelling or rescheduling their vaccination appointment.

We'll make sure to get that information up on our social media as well on where to dial.

In terms of updates from the Seattle Housing Authority, the Seattle Housing Authority has been collaborating with the Seattle Fire Department and the City of Seattle among others to provide vaccination clinics.

to Seattle Housing Authority properties over the last month.

It's important to note that SHA is a critical avenue to promoting more equitable access to vaccinations.

SHA houses more than one in three of Seattle's Black and African-American populations.

More than one in three.

And about half of the city's African-American and Black households with low incomes who live in SHA housing.

Nearly 12,000 of SHA's BIPOC population reside in SHA properties where they make up over 77% of the residents.

And in recent years, roughly 50% of the new residents were experiencing homelessness when they moved into Seattle Housing Authority homes.

Um, well, many of the housing authority residents lack internet access and digital literacy.

S.

H. A. Is helping by scheduling vaccination appointments through on Saul and their ability to do outreach to these very vulnerable populations on site is an important asset to making sure we get everyone who lives in S.

H. A. Housing a vaccine.

Approximately 70% of those eligible living in those properties have participated in the vaccination efforts, and 95% of those who are eligible for a second dose have already received that second dose.

In closing, Mr. President, there is an update from the Board of Health.

First Board did pass a resolution last week outlining the board's concern about multiple COVID-19 outbreaks and facilities operated by Washington State Department of Corrections.

The resolution requests the Washington State Legislature to hold a hearing on the management of COVID-19 prevention and outbreaks in the Department of Correction Facilities and ask the legislature to initiate independent investigations about the allegations of mismanagement and the impacts of people who are currently incarcerated.

The board approved the annual work plan, which focuses on COVID response and racism as a public health issue.

Thanks very much to Aretha for her work on the D.

O. C. Uh, resolution and letter and to 40 day for her work on the work plan.

I want to also note a variant strain.

This is from public health.

A variant strain of coronavirus was first detected in South Africa has been detected in King County.

As folks I'm sure are aware, the patient tested positive for this new variant on January 29th, a month ago, the lab found evidence of 19 additional addition 19 additional cases of a different strand.

This brings the total number of cases of the variant in Washington to 39. We need to continue to do all we can to prevent the spread of covid and push the rates of covid exposure down.

We must continue to follow strict CDC guidelines, including wearing a mask with two layers that snugly fits your face and around your nose.

Keep your gatherings outside of your home limited wherever possible and avoid social gathering indoors.

Make sure to wash your hands often and do not touch your face.

Carry hand sanitizer for use when water and soap are not available.

Stay home if you are sick and if you've been exposed to COVID-19.

Isolate and get tested for COVID-19.

There is walk-up clinics throughout our city right now with no waits, so make sure you do get tested if you have any concern of exposure.

And when you're eligible, please make an appointment to get vaccinated.

And I will just say that reminds me that during our past budget, we approved $100,000 for a street sink pilot project.

And as folks saw in the news coverage, so far only one street sink has been installed outside the Ruth's Young Adult Shelter.

We want to know when that 100,000 will be installed to make sure that there's 63 street sinks around the city.

And I appreciate, I believe it was Council Member Morales who may have led on this one.

I appreciate the council's full support for that.

and we'll be looking to make sure that that truly gets implemented because this is about protecting folks from COVID.

This is a public health measure and it is still a public health deadly pandemic right now where the CDC's recommendations are wash your hands with soap and water, as I just read.

So we'll be following up on that as well.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Up next, we have Council Member Peterson, followed by Council Member Sawant, and then I will close out as Council President Pro Tem.

Council Member Peterson, still morning, good morning, take it away.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Strauss.

Colleagues, our Transportation and Utilities Committee has no items on today's full City Council agenda, except as with other committee chairs, we have a draft work plan for our committee for 2021. Just a quick highlights from the work plan for our Transportation Utilities Committee for the next 10 months.

We'll be approving and monitoring various transportation and transit projects from the voter approved Seattle Transportation Benefit District We'll be monitoring the restoration of the West Seattle Bridge.

We'll be having the city auditor return to discuss any progress made on our audit of Seattle Bridges.

We will be approving surveillance technology impact reports for technologies already in use by city departments.

We will be pushing implementation of our Internet for All action plan.

And we'll be considering the rates that residents and businesses will pay for both Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities, ideally keeping those rate adjustments within the promises made to rate payers in 2018. Our next meeting of the Transportation Utilities Committee is scheduled for this Wednesday, March 3rd at 9.30 a.m.

And we have six items on the agenda.

A quick preview of that.

The first two committee items are minor.

One is granting an easement to the city of Kirkland to complete a pedestrian and bike path.

The second is the creation of a small public path and plaza along with a handful of parking spaces in the East Lake neighborhood in District 4. The larger items on the agenda include allocating the one-time reserve funding left over from the 2014 Transportation Benefit District for already approved transit-related projects.

Then we have three council bills to approve existing technologies used by three different city departments.

To give everyone additional time, we published on last week's February 22 introduction referral calendar, the three surveillance technology items that will appear on this week's committee.

We'll be providing two committee meetings to hear those items, March 3rd and March 17th.

Pursuant to the so-called Surveillance Ordinance, which was adopted in 2017 and amended in 2018 with Ordinance 125679, our existing technology and computer programs undergo an extensive review process by the executive departments by a community-led surveillance working group and other stakeholders to determine which technologies we are using to conduct our city's government business, while enabling us to be more efficient and get more work done for the public, might have surveillance capabilities or privacy concerns that we should review.

After delays due to the COVID pandemic, we can now review several of these required surveillance impact reports.

These technologies are already in use, and the surveillance impact reports provide more information about them.

In addition to this lengthy and in-depth process to produce the impact reports, these technologies are reviewed later by our city auditor and for police items, our Office of Inspector General.

So we got these on last week's introduction and referral calendar.

So members of our Transportation Utilities Committee, which includes oversight of our Information Technology Department, could get a head start on reviewing the nine or 10 surveillance impact reports.

I recommend starting with the three central staff memos and then going to the shorter executive overview summaries.

These two items will provide context before digging into the much larger surveillance impact reports themselves.

Lisa Kay from our city council central staff and Cara Valle from my staff are available to answer questions before the committee this Wednesday morning.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Up next, we have Council Member Swann, and then I will close it out.

Council Member Swann, good morning.

Good morning, President Pro Tem Straus, and good morning to everybody.

On today's city council agenda, there are no items from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

The next meeting of the committee is going to be this Thursday, March 4th at 9.30 a.m.

In that committee, we hope that the committee will vote on the right to counsel legislation from my office, which guarantees that any renter in Seattle facing eviction has the right to a lawyer, regardless of ability to pay.

Thank you so much once again, Council Member Lewis, not only for co-sponsoring this legislation, but also for speaking in support of it.

over the past several years through the people's budget movement and efforts from my office in coordination with the people's budget, we have won city-level public funding for eviction defense attorneys through the housing justice project.

The right to counsel legislation would commit the city of Seattle to contracting for all the legal representation that would be needed such that the attorneys from organizations such as the housing justice project can defend every renter facing eviction who needs help.

And we know from evidence that having an attorney present makes all the difference to tenants facing eviction.

In previous years, the Housing Justice Project has estimated that it would cost the city approximately $750,000 per year.

This year, because of COVID, it is obviously unclear how much legal support will be needed.

And will really depend on what happens with the eviction moratoriums, at least in the next immediate next months.

So at this stage, there is no supplemental appropriation required and the fiscal note acknowledges this future uncertainty, but this is exactly why.

My office has also launched a petition demanding that Mayor Durkin and Governor Inslee immediately renew the eviction moratoriums for renters, small businesses, and nonprofits through 2021. This unprecedented economic crisis, as the petition says, for working people, will extend at least to the end of this year.

And as Seattle and state public health experts have recently reported, the public health crisis, which was the original basis for the emergency declarations last March, also will extend at least through the end of 2021, even with the best projections from state health officials on vaccination dissemination.

Back to Right to Council, in our last committee meeting, national experts really did a fantastic job explaining the Right to Council legislation that exists in other cities.

In some cities, like San Francisco, the Right to Council is guaranteed without any means testing.

This is absolutely crucial, as they explained, because any time there is means testing, it creates significant barriers to people accessing that service, even people who are eligible.

And we have seen from food stamps to eviction defense, means testing has resulted in a significant chilling effect on people's ability to use the service.

One extreme example is the CDC eviction moratorium includes means testing requiring renters to make a declaration of financial hardship.

What's happened is that in Houston, the courts have interpreted that to mean that renters need a notarized declaration, even though notarized is not in the CDC's rules.

But as a result, 99% of eligible renters became disqualified from the eviction moratorium.

Obviously, that's a worst case scenario, and in most cases, means testing will not have that kind of sweeping impact.

But statistical studies over many decades show, you know, just absolutely statistically overwhelmingly that means testing has a bad effect, not a good effect on people who are eligible for programs receiving those programs.

And it's also important to note that means testing has the exact opposite effect of what those who often advocate for it claim it does many times.

Conservative politicians advocate for it because they say it promotes accountability in terms of who gets the benefits.

In other words, making sure well-off people don't steal the benefits.

But in reality, all that means testing does, you know, even if there are good intentions, all that it does is become a serious obstacle to people who are eligible from receiving the programs.

We also saw this in the city utility discount programs as well.

After our movement pushed that then Mayor Murray to make the UDP opt-out from opt-in, the numbers of eligible households who enrolled just shot up.

So it really shows that for all those statistically well-established reasons, the right to counsel legislation should not contain means testing, especially at this time of extreme crisis.

I also hope that the right to counsel bill will be the first in a series of renters' right legislation coming this spring from the committee.

In Thursday's committee meeting, after the Right to Counsel legislation, we will discuss with a panel of renter and renter rights advocates about those next steps that we hope will come.

One key issue is the issue of default evictions.

Half the evictions in Seattle are done by default, and I've mentioned this before in our previous briefings, which means that the courts agree to evict the renter because they did not show up to the hearing or did not do the necessary paperwork to request the hearing.

This is a huge problem, and we will discuss how to address it primarily by getting legal support to the renters before the default, but also by appealing to the courts to accept the intervention of the city funded attorneys wherever possible.

The panel will also discuss the need to extend the eviction moratorium.

which I just mentioned the petition for, which if the mayor and the governor fail to act would expire at the end of this month.

Finally, the committee will vote on four reappointments to the renters commission.

On Wednesday, February 24th, the lives of thousands of residents and workers in Seattle Central District in the heart of District 3 were disrupted because of a dangerous underground gas leak and fire involving pipes controlled by the for-profit corporation Puget Sound Energy, PSE.

Our community owes a deep appreciation to the union workers of the fire department firefighters local 27 and from PSC electrical workers local 77 who responded to this dangerous situation stopping the legal leaked gas and putting out the fire.

Once again frontline workers put themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of the community.

Council members will have seen the letter from my office to the State Utilities and Transportation Commission urging them to comprehensively investigate whether and to what degree PSC has neglected maintenance and safety upgrades throughout its entire pipe infrastructure.

The gas fire shows yet again the damage for-profit energy companies continue to do to our communities and the climate.

Puget Sound Energy, owned by a group of investors including the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, seems to care more about financial returns for their wealthy shareholders than they do for the safety and security of our community.

PSE profits off fracked natural gas operating gas lines throughout Seattle and the region, burning natural gas in power generators across Washington, and recently building a massive liquefied natural gas plant in Tacoma.

In 2016, an explosion in PSC's gas lines leveled the city block in Greenwood, injuring nine firefighters, destroying three small businesses, and damaging dozens of buildings.

The State Utility and Transportation Commission found that PSE failed to retire an old section of gas pipeline leading to the explosion and fined PSE $1.5 million for this neglect.

Given this history, it's not surprising that central district residents have been reaching out to my office with deep concerns about PSE's reliability.

Their anxiety about PSE is entirely justified.

To quote a worker who shared their thoughts with me, Following the fire, quote, for five years, I have worked for companies that locate PSE's underground facilities in Washington State for construction and excavation.

The mapping system for the power and gas facilities hasn't been updated for over a year, and there are several facilities that are mismapped, as well as numerous areas where gas services and mains are faulty and unlocatable.

Given all this, I am not surprised by Wednesday's gas leak, and I'm grateful that no one was hurt.

Due to faulty infrastructure, I expect such issues as seen in Wednesday's leak are likely to happen again with more frequency.

I personally look forward to the natural gas systems to be safely deactivated so that the region can move towards cleaner, more efficient, renewable energy sources.

The sooner, the better and safer for all of us." I really appreciate the worker sharing this information that he has gleaned from his firsthand experience from having worked on these pipelines. From Texas to Seattle Central District, for-profit energy companies like PSC do double damage to our communities. They maximize profits by cutting corners, causing catastrophic explosions and fires, and they rely on fossil fuel like natural gas responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing a climate catastrophe. Seattle's electricity is run by a public utility for the benefit of all residents, not for global profit-seeking investors. It's time to take the big energy companies like PSC into democratic public ownership so that working people can have a say over the impacts that they have on our communities and the climate, and can reorient these companies away from fracked gas and towards clean, renewable energies. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swann.

Council Member Peterson, I see you have a question.

Colleagues, this would be the time if you have any questions.

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you.

I just wanted to thank Council Member Swann for sending her letter to Puget Sound Energy over the weekend.

I support one of the main components of that letter, which is to call for an investigation of their pipelines and the maintenance and safety programs.

So I appreciate your sending that out.

I mentioned that because our committee focuses on utilities, albeit, you know, the municipally owned utilities that we're fortunate to have Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities, but I appreciate you sending this letter to PSC and to the commission actually that oversees utilities statewide.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Colleagues, any other questions?

Council Member Swan, thank you for your report.

Finally is my report as your council president pro tem this morning.

For full city council, there are eight items on full council agenda.

The appointment of Steve Marchese as director of office of labor standards.

Appointment of Rita Howard as a member of the Seattle Housing Authority.

Appointment of Jamie Marsh and Munira Mohammed as members of the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.

Council Bill 119975, the zoning regulations for development of permanent supportive housing.

and three resolutions adopt one adopting city council 2020 work program another adopting statement of legislative intents for 2020 adopted 2021 adopted budget and capital improvement program and the third setting a time for hearing on appeals for the hearing examiners as well as we have a presentation of the proclamation we just signed.

At the end of my report will be an opportunity to ask Ali Panucci any questions that you have about the resolution adopting the City Council 2021 work plan program.

From the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, we have no items on the agenda on today's introduction and referral calendar or on the City Council agenda.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is on Wednesday, March 10th.

Three items will be on the agenda.

A discussion and vote on Council Bill 120001, the bringing business home, a small business support bill, which we had an initial briefing on last week.

Thank you to Councilmember Peterson and Councilmember Juarez.

You brought really great questions about the bill that helped make it stronger and explain some of the nuances.

It's a very narrowly focused bill, and so it can seem like it takes on a life of its own when really it's pretty, pretty narrowly focused.

So your questions helped describe that.

In our next meeting, we will committee meeting.

We will also have a report from S.

D. C. I. On their permanent review times into last year's statement of legislative intent.

And we will also have a presentation on S.

D. C. From on S.

D. C. I. And O. P. C. D. S. Annual reports In my work last week, on Monday, my staff attended the Fremont Community Council.

On Tuesday, I joined the North Seattle Industrial Association for their monthly meeting.

I met with the Green Lake Chamber of Commerce and the owners of Rubin's Brews to help get the mechanisms of government working for them.

Just on background, there's many different types of issues that they're experiencing, and so sometimes having Offices like myself step in to help make sure everything is getting done is helpful Being present to ensure that residents have government working for them is something that is very important to me.

I also last week met with interim director Howell of the Department of Human Services Great conversation.

I spoke to my Ballard the blog for my monthly interview and And that was last week.

So much more was done, but we'll get on to this week on Tuesday.

My staff will attend the Finney Ridge Community Council.

I'll be attending the North Precinct Advisory Council on Wednesday.

I'll be meeting with the group of neighbors and business owners who have been working to Activate the Leary Triangle for five or plus more years.

And so we'll be meeting to continue that work this Wednesday.

I'll be joining the Association of Washington City's Board of Directors Steering Committee on Thursday, as well as the Puget Sound Regional Council Growth Management Policy Board on Thursday.

And then finally, on Friday, I've got an interview with Omari Salisbury on Converge Media.

Here in District 6, I continue to hold District 6 resident meetings.

Last week, I had conversations with neighbors from downtown Ballard, East Ballard, Green Lake, Loyal Heights, Blue Ridge, Fremont, Finney Ridge, and Greenwood.

We discussed homelessness at Ballard Commons Park, homelessness in Green Lake, and across the city in the District.

People were interested to know ways to volunteer in District 6. folks talked to me about density in their neighborhoods.

Another individual was calling because to talk about the participatory budgeting, your voice, your choice, and police response times.

As already came up this morning, we had a conversation about hand-washing stations and the history of trying to get hand-washing stations distributed across our city, as well as discuss the purple bag program, how to prioritize encampment outreach, and especially around schoolyard play fields.

And I even had the opportunity, it was a surprise to hear her voice.

Kara, who ran again, was one of the 13 people who ran for this seat.

It was really great to hear inspiring words from her.

So again, I thank all of the D6 neighbors for taking their time.

I host office hours every week, and I'll be speaking to folks this Thursday, March 4th, from 2 p.m.

to 7 p.m., and feel free to sign up on my website for a time to speak.

again in my role as council president pro tem we do have a full council today the resolution that sets the 2021 work plan for our council and this is the time where colleagues if you have questions we have ally on the line councilmember peterson is that a hand from earlier or is that a hand for right now looks like for earlier not a problem at all Colleagues, any questions?

Allie, do you want to give us a brief rundown on what we should be expecting this afternoon?

Happy to, Council Member Strauss.

As Council Member Strauss indicated, this afternoon's introduction referral calendar and full council agenda includes resolution 31994, adopting the council's 2021 work program.

Consistent with past years, the 2021 work program organized by committee is a public facing description of policy areas and projects that the council plans to address during the coming year.

The council president's office will use it as a guide to make future decisions about the orderly distribution of legislation to the council standing and select committees.

It's also a helpful tool, allowing central staff to make staff assignments to support the council's legislative priorities.

But the resolution does not reference those specific assignments.

I'll just note here that the work program is a point in time look at what projects may be taken up by the committee this year, but it is a bit of an imperfect crystal ball.

It's likely that some projects included in the work program will not be ready for action in 2021 because of changed circumstances.

Conversely, committees may decide to take up other projects that for one reason or another were not included in the work program.

So again, this is just a work program for this moment in time, but other activities may occur in committee throughout the year.

The plan is for this afternoon to introduce the resolution and take action.

And that would conclude adoption of the 2021 Council Work Program.

Thank you.

Thank you, Allie.

Colleagues, any questions?

I know for myself, I have been so in the weeds with not only my committee, Land Use and Neighborhoods Work Plan, and also Council Member Peterson's committee, which I serve as Vice Chair of the Transportation Utilities Commission, committee, sorry, not commission.

And so I've been deep in the weeds on those, and I can only assume that everyone else has as well.

But if we are seeing no questions, Allie, it seems like your briefings of council members has done its trick.

Great, seeing thumbs up.

So Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Just before we wrap up, I able to note that I do have Council Member Juarez's notes.

I'm happy to read those when appropriate.

Please, yes, this would be a great time.

Take it away.

Thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem.

And colleagues, on behalf of Council Member Juarez, from the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee, there is one item on today's full council agenda.

Agenda number eight is resolution 31996. This resolution sets the time and place for hearings on appeals to the hearing examiner's final report on local improvement district number 6751. She'll speak more to this during the council meeting at 2 p.m.

There is also a P.

N. A. P. A. N. C. Committee meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 2nd at two p.m.

They will be holding the first of two hearings for appeals to the hearing examiner's final report.

A reminder to members of the committee.

Eric McConaughey from central staff sent members the committee and members of the committee an index to easily navigate the list of appeals.

If you have any questions, please contact Eric on central staff for any questions because this is also a a quasi-judicial issue.

From Parks, a report from the Clean Cities Initiative from the week of February 15th to February 21st.

During the week of February 15th, the Clean City crew picked up over 70,500 pounds of trash and 1,344 needles from 51 encampment locations.

From the shower programs, Parks served 402 users of the shower program, with Uplift Northwest serving 115 users at Green Lake Community Center.

The emergency food distribution at Rainier Beach Community Center included food lifeline distribution boxes to food for over 1,165 individuals and families.

The Pea Patches Improvements Program from the Seattle Conservation Corps, a unique parks and recreation program that provides employment for people experiencing homelessness, recently completed work at three gardens, including Coleman Park, Ma-Ne-Lai Nidik, which is my mother's garden, and Hillman City Pea Patch.

From the Queen Anne Pool, the Queen Anne Pool opened for Seattle Public Schools high school swim teams on February 22nd.

Queen Anne Pool will also be available to all Seattle Parks Aquatic staff for training and lifeguard certification.

Getting geared up for summer and better times ahead.

The Lake City Community Center, after being closed for almost 11 months due to COVID, the center was opened as a day center on February 13th for homeless individuals in the area.

During the closure, the center was broken into and vandalized.

The Seattle Parks and Recreations workers spent several weeks securing and repairing doors, patching and painting walls, and making repairs to prepare for the facility's reopening.

Regarding the joint park and parks district oversight, board committee meeting.

The Parks Board and Parks District Oversight Committee met in a joint meeting on February 25th.

This meeting included presentations of the annual John C. Little Award to long-time Seattle Parks employee Chuck Chukundi Salisbury for his work to reach out to engage with Seattle's inner city youth and in particular in recognition of his efforts to form the Seattle Youth Green Corps.

The Youth Green Corps provides career pathways into livable wage jobs for young people and fosters love of outdoors.

And finally, regarding the installation of the reservoir signs, new reservoir signs were installed to meet ADA requirements at Jefferson Park, Beacon Reservoir, Magnolia, Manor and Magnolia Reservoir, Maple Leaf Park and Maple Leaf Reservoir, Myrtle Reservoir and West Crest Park, West Seattle Reservoir.

Lastly, Seattle Transit Last Thursday, the Seattle Transit Board of Directors had their regular board meeting to discuss staff model for realignment discussions.

In addition, the board approved transferring Rainier Valley surplus property to the city's Office of Housing for Affordable Home Ownership.

Yay!

This transfer is at no cost following the Federal Transit Administration's approval last fall.

And I'll also note is the model that we used for transfer of public properties, which was authorized by the state legislature a few years ago.

Very excited that Sound Transit had led the effort in that way.

So thank you very much, Council Member Juarez, for your report.

I hope I did it justice.

I'm happy to send that around to council members as well, if you'd like to see more.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Colleagues, any other comments, questions, concerns, or items for the good of the order?

and double-checking no further questions for Allie Panucci.

Seeing none and no items for the good of the order, this does conclude our council briefing for March 1st, 2021. We conclude at 11.18 a.m.

and I look forward to seeing you at full council this afternoon at 2 p.m.

This does conclude the meeting and we are adjourned.