Seattle City Council 6/10/25

2025 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2 0 4 p.m.

I'm Sarah Nelson, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Rink?

Present.

Council member Rivera?

Present.

Council member Solomon?

Council member Strauss?

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council member Kettle?

Here.

Council member Moore?

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, council members Saka and Solomon will be excused from today's city council meeting.

Hearing no objection, the council members Saka and Solomon are excused today.

There aren't any presentations, so colleagues at this time will open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar and the council work program.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have three in person and four remote.

Okay, let's give everybody two minutes and start with the three in person.

Judy, do you need me to read the instructions?

Oh, that would be nice.

Excuse me.

No, I've got it.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers mics will be muted if they do not in their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

We'll now begin with our in-person speakers.

All right.

Our first speaker is Rose and then following Rose will be Victoria and then Stacy.

Hello, my name is Rose.

Is the speaker working?

You just get really close.

OK.

You can use that tall one too.

OK.

Hello, my name is Rose, and I am here because of some concerning things that happened this morning.

This morning, legal observers have for a while been at the federal building intending to be able to watch ICE agents from kidnapping our neighbors.

However, they were barred from doing this this morning for no reason at all because a protest was opposed to the fact that ICE happened, even though that protest was entirely peaceful.

We are meeting a very difficult time in history.

We are seeing what's happening in LA.

We are seeing what's happening elsewhere.

If things are allowed to continue getting out of control by individuals, continually hiding from the public, continuing kidnapping our neighbors, this will only spiral out of control.

We are in need more than ever to take decisive action against organizations like ICE that are doing these things.

We have individuals right now who are at this moment trying to kidnap our neighbors who won't even identify themselves.

We don't know who these people are.

We don't know if they are ICE agents.

We don't know who they are sent or anything.

It should be the Seattle City Police that should be asking these people, who are they?

Who are these people that are trying to take our neighbors from us?

It is essential that we all know that we know who these people trying to kidnap our neighbors are.

If we do not have this understanding of who this is, this can be literally anyone waltzing in and trying to take anyone that threatens the very nature of our democracy.

We should force these individuals to identify themselves and make it known who they are, or they should be facing the same charges that everyone else who tries to kidnap our neighbors do in this city.

It is essential that we make this decision.

It is essential that we do this because we are recognizing that in New York City, in Phoenix, in LA, we are seeing an explosion of individuals who are taking more and more decisive action because they are not being hurt.

People are being peaceful now.

If we are not going to make the actions to try and make their peaceful actions heard, it will get much worse from here.

Hello, I am Victoria Palmer.

I'm an executive board member of the King County Republican Party and a Seattle resident in District 6. I am here today to reiterate my comments from two weeks ago condemning Mayor Harrell's response to the recent Christian gathering at Cal Anderson Park.

At this meeting, disruptors drowned out my one minute to speak, which by the way, I clipped a video of that city council meeting and it was shared on Facebook by the Washington state GOP and seen over 15,000 times by Republicans and others all across Washington state.

They were horrified by what they saw going on at that Seattle city council meeting and how the disruptors were allowed to take over the meeting.

The next day, I shared the story of Tuesday's rally with a national audience on Fox News, sharing the intolerance of our Seattle mayor toward the peaceful Christians gathered at Cal Anderson Park.

All we ask for is what most Seattleites would like to see, a return of civility and respect for law and order.

that we are all accorded equal treatment whether we are members of a special class or not, and that public officials uphold our constitutional freedom to gather, speak, and worship as we see fit and not bow to special interest groups just because they yell louder.

I recognize that the Democrats on the council are people like me that signed up to improve Seattle.

I'd like to thank Cathy Moore for her efforts during her time in office.

Thank you.

Our last in-person speaker is Stacy.

Hi, my name is Stacy Sprout.

I go by Anastasia.

And I'm here today, I suppose it relates to today's agenda with an appeal to Stephanie Morris.

She is appointed.

I'm speaking about children in Seattle.

I'm speaking about the kiosks that were talked about last week.

I didn't hear them being referred to as smart kiosks, but I'm really concerned about a global agenda to make Seattle a smart city.

What smart actually stands for is self-monitoring analysis reporting technology.

And as I looked into the seamless Seattle digital control, What it looked like to me was not helping people find ways to get around, but controlling their minds through mass technology mind control.

So I'm from an organization called Support for Organized Abuse and Addiction Recovery.

We're located here in Seattle, but I work with people all around the world.

We're getting more and more complaints of tech torture, voice-to-skull technology, things that are interfering on people's sovereign right to think and move around.

And I appeal to you as a council to be conscious of smart technology, what it actually is, Because it's my experience that if something is given to a city for free, then we, the Seattle citizens, and all the tourists who come into the range of these devices, and device can also mean weapon, we are the product.

Human beings should not be anyone's product.

We should be allowed to think for ourselves.

There are very legitimate concern raised about the landscape of our city and what this would do to the view of the city.

But most of all, I'm concerned of what it will do to children, their impressionable minds, and if this has been adequately studied about the impact on children.

So I hope you will take up this concern as you go forward with this endeavor.

Thank you.

I'll put my cards.

Can I go to remote speakers?

Yes, as a reminder to our remote speakers, please press star six after you hear the message that you have been unmuted.

Our first remote speaker is Howard Gale, who will be followed by Alberto Alvarez.

Go ahead, Howard.

Good afternoon, Howard Gale.

This council will soon confirm Sean Barnes as chief of police.

In the last 83 days, we have witnessed two deeply embedded cultural constants in Seattle policing shockingly reassert themselves.

The brutal killing of Urban CA at the West Seattle precinct on March 19th, which was the 14th SPD killing in less than 14 years of a person in crisis with an edged weapon or no weapon at all in their hand.

and the SPD's display of brutality, bias, and repeated failures to deescalate at the demonstrations on May 24th and May 27th.

Despite Chief Barnes' testimony at the Public Safety Committee meeting this morning, the reality is that SPD officers showed bias at the May demonstrations when they allowed right-wing protesters to freely mix with counter-protesters and yet aggressively denied counter-protesters access to the right-wing protesters' space, and also when they arrested a counter-protester instead of the right-wing agitator that assaulted them.

Policing experts often note that police, quote, behavior is more likely to conform to culture than to rules, unquote.

These last three months in Seattle indicate a failure to change deeply rooted police culture.

On May 27th, council member and chair of public safety, Bob Kettle, left City Hall while confrontations and arrests were happening, showing no interest in witnessing firsthand the abuse indicating a failure to confront the reality of toxic SPD culture.

It would be unfair to expect Chief Barnes to change the police culture in 130 days, but his failure to respond appropriately to these recent displays of deeply embedded and destructive police culture is a complete failure of leadership and votes poorly for how the SPD will deal with increasingly heated demonstrations that will unfold in the coming days and weeks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alberto Alvarez, who will be followed by Anne Williams.

Go ahead, Alberto.

Hello.

Council is facing a severe economic downturn and a budget that will not match the needs of the people.

Production services and staffing will destabilize working class families and elders on fixed income.

People are making sacrifices just to keep a home and live on a shrinking budget.

Sarah Nelson's methods are an active threat to that stability and grace.

Council will have the job of appointing a District 5 member.

A business-backed choice will bring only pain and loss.

The danger is real.

You have to get this one right.

No more landlords, no more corrupt business cronies on this council.

Your appointment is a life and death decision for thousands of people.

Thank you and have a good day.

Thank you.

Ann Williams is not present, so our next speaker will be David Haynes.

Go ahead, David.

Hi, thank you, David Ains.

Is there any way that this city council can reintroduce a law that says before each meeting, if there's a conflict of ventures, that the council, the staff, the mayor has to acknowledge that before each and every meeting?

I ask because there's some disingenuous virtue signaling that's going on from this council.

And some non-members of public safety want to defer and promote bad policies from bad leaders.

And they have a specific issue regarding like a particular park.

as their sole motivation to try and prove that they're good at manipulating the data on public safety.

We need to have a more transparent effort when it comes to what the council is representing, because you all have sabotaged the integrity of enhancing the comprehensive plan because people like Maritza Rivera have a $790,000 investment and a concern of trying to make $29,000 a month to get rich off of her rental.

And there's a smorgasbord of other landlords who have bad judgment and trying to force issues regarding sound transit.

Like you all should reject ST3 because ST1 and ST2 have not been properly solved and they are proving to continue to repeat the same problems.

But yeah, y'all keep punch pulling because there's billions of dollars that you all can't get the rapid ride that you're going to be competing with to be a little bit safer.

So you think expanding from the train, somehow it's going to be even safer for people.

But a lot of times when you all are talking about public safety, you're talking about a fricking side block.

You're not talking about shutting down the evil drug pushers that we see supply in the open drug markets every fricking day.

And the chief acts like he don't see it because he's got priority to walk through the local neighborhoods of law abiding residents to let them know that he's the new swinging dick in town.

Excuse my French, but it's insane to me that you have a race fading untrustworthy Thank you.

That was our last remote speaker.

Thank you very much.

So we've reached the end of our list of public commenters.

So public comment is now closed.

All right.

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

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

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

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

We'll now consider the proposed consent calendar.

The items on the consent calendar include council bill 120998 payment of bills, one appointment from the city council, one appointment from the land use committee and four appointments from the transportation committee.

Are there any items council members would like removed from the consent calendar?

Council President.

Yes.

Go ahead.

Council President.

I've been informed due to conflicts that my appointment for the Transportation Levy Oversight Committee can no longer serve in that role.

And so I would like to withdraw appointment zero three one six seven from the consent calendar.

Okay.

Do we need to vote on that or just...

No, I just need a request to remove an item from the consent calendar.

And then when we get to that item on the agenda, then we can just determine the next steps.

Okay.

All right.

So please, clerk, remove that item from the consent calendar.

Anything else?

Just to clarify, what was the appointment number again?

I apologize.

Appointment 03167. Appointment of Kyle Nolan as member, Transportation Levy Oversight Committee for a term of to December 31st, 2028. Thank you.

That's item number four.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

Okay, so that, so I've read all the items now.

Okay, so I have moved it.

Is there a second?

All right.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar, excluding item four.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar.

Council member Rink.

Council member Rivera.

Council member Solomon.

Excuse me.

Council member Strauss.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Council member Kettle.

Council member Moore.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

All right.

The consent calendar items, excluding item four are adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and the legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf.

Okay, moving on.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record.

They report the Land Use Committee, agenda item one, Council Bill 120975 relating to land use and zoning, addressing signed clarifying requirements and supporting efficient permitting process for light rail transit facilities.

The committee recommends the bill passes amended.

Thank you very much.

Our land use chair is is excused.

So Councilmember Strauss is vice chair of the committee.

You are recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

Still the vice chair of the land use committee before us.

What we have today is a streamlining and efficiencies bill.

for sound transit three as it will be coming through our city the estimates are anywhere from 14 to 25 billion dollars worth of construction if these permits were not streamlined and batched together we would be spending a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of delay on the permitting of these facilities.

One example here is that we're going to have three or four stations, depending on how you slice downtown, in a two to three square mile area.

If we were to permit these individually, we'd be going through the same exercise on each permit one after another.

By being able to bundle these permits, we are able to examine at the same level as we would if they were done individually, and we are able to understand them as a cohesive package what that cohesive impact on the community is during development and what the cohesive benefits for the areas that are going to be disrupted temporarily for this light rail construction.

This is an important bill.

It sets us up on a regional stage to be able to show other cities and municipalities how permitting should and could be done in their own jurisdictions And so we are more than just creating efficiencies and streamlining, cutting red tape by streamlining processes, we're also setting this up to be a regional example of how others can do this work.

I haven't used any of my talking points, so let me just double check to make sure that I haven't missed anything.

It does establish an advisory review process by Seattle Design Commission to evaluate design proposals and to make recommendations to Sound Transit and city departments.

It does not reduce any permitting, but it clarifies and improves the processes as permit decisions will be more focused and efficient to issue uh to issue by eliminating types of reviews and clarifying that the city's authority to grant flexibility from codes and define the conditions of approval it does again clarify that the content of reviews for sound transit projects must receive must go through the environmental critical area light rail exemption permit Basically, this takes a situation that we could appeal so many times and that that delay on each individual permit could put us out many years.

This is a good bill before us.

It streamlines the permitting process and it sets sets us up for success to receive billions of dollars of construction funds and 100 year infrastructure through the heart of the densest part of our state.

Thank you, Council President.

I urge a yes vote.

Thank you for that.

Are there any comments from colleagues?

Is this the time to move my amendment?

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, I moved to amend council bill one two zero nine seven five as presented on amendment a second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on amendment a council member more as sponsor you're recognized to address the amendment.

Okay, thank you.

So this amendment would add information required in a community outreach report that would be submitted by Sound Transit at the time of the permit application.

This language was included in the original amendment and then removed and now I brought it back at committee upon the request of Council Member Rink.

I held it to bring back as a walk-on so that we could get clarification.

So basically what we're requiring is to say who you talked to, how did you talk to them, what was the purpose of talking to them, and what information did you provide.

But we wanted to make it very clear, and the amendment has been revised to do so, that this is specific to the information that was shared in the community outreach report, so it doesn't apply to any previous processes, which I think was a concern that Councilmember Strauss had expressed.

And I have run this amendment, specific amendment language, past the mayor's office and their answer to quote is, provided this isn't amended between now and the vote, you won't hear any objection from us.

So I think it's basically a technical amendment and I would ask my colleagues to support it.

Thank you.

I'm looking to see Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

The underlying legislation is vital in our efforts to ensure our light rail and sound transit projects are not delayed nor inflated in cost.

And as we saw in committee, the smallest of changes can have big impacts.

THANK YOU TO COUNCILMEMBER MOORE ON ALLOWING US MORE TIME TO CONSIDER THIS AMENDMENT IN FULL COUNCIL.

AND AS SHE STATED, WE HAVE HEARD FROM SOUND TRANSIT AND OTHER ESSENTIAL STAKEHOLDERS, AND THEY'VE SEEN NO REASON TO BE CONCERNED WITH THE LANGUAGE HERE TODAY.

AND SO I WILL BE VOTING YES ON THE AMENDMENT.

AND THANK YOU AGAIN FOR PROVIDING US THAT TIME TO GET THAT CLARITY.

COUNCILMEMBER KETTELT.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

I AND MY TEAM HAVE ALSO done some engagement with those concerned offices and departments and like that are responsible for this.

And, um, like, uh, council member Inc.

I heard that, um, there's no hurdles, uh, to supporting this amendment.

So I too will be supporting it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other comments here?

All right.

Is your hand up?

I'm sorry.

I was just expecting final comments.

Did I close it out?

I just wanted to have a final comment on the amendment.

We'll vote on the amendment.

OK, hearing none, no final comments on the amendment.

Would you will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment A?

Councilmember Rank?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council member Kettle.

Council member Moore.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and amendment A is adopted.

Are there further comments on the bill as amended?

Council member Kettle.

Thank you, council president.

I just wanted to speak to this bill generally and echo some of the comments that council member Strauss had spoken to in committee and in the sense of we need to be smart in terms of how we proceed with ST3 and we need to ensure that it's being done in a way that really brings the transportation piece to four so that we get to, you know, where we are, where we need to be regarding transportation, particularly with light rail.

And I also wanted to note that, you know, as mentioned in that committee meeting, you know, there's been discussions obviously with the ST3 regarding, you know, the fiscal challenges that they face.

And I also wanted to echo the point of we need to have the left hand of the regional partners talking to the right hand.

On one hand, we're going through this comprehensive plan.

You know, the PSRC, the Puget Sound Regional Council, we're creating a Ballard Regional Center.

For one hand to say that and the other hand to potentially not extend ST3 to Ballard would be a major fault and a major failure of our regional partners of having their hands talk to each other, you know, to have that kind of comprehensive approach.

because as mentioned in the last select committee on the comprehensive plan, it is so important to have land use and have transportation working in concert.

If we press forward on one without the second, I mean, there's a lot of different areas, as we know from the elements of the comprehensive plan, but fundamentally, if we don't have land use and transportation in sync, that's a problem.

And if there's plans to stop ST3 and Smith Cove, yes, Pier 91's there, but that's almost like the bridge to nowhere.

You know, you have the West, you know, Queen Anne Greenbelt.

You have really tight slopes on the west side of Queen Anne.

You got 15 and you need to, okay, Pier 91. But generally, it'd be equivalent of a bridge to nowhere.

At the very least, it should be going to the Dravis Neighborhood Center.

I mean, if you can't go underneath the cut, at least go to the neighborhood center.

And so when I hear talk about this, this is the reason why I bring it up, is that we can't have that discussion, Smith Cove.

What?

No.

We need to have land use and transportation in concert.

We need to have them in sync.

And I understand fiscal pressures and so forth.

At least go to the neighborhood center, the Dravis neighborhood center.

So I just wanted to call that out because we have our responsibilities at the local level where we're having the left hand and right hand talking to each other that we're being in synced in different elements that fall under our responsibility to include helping ST3 and what it's trying to do to be the leader and set the example for other jurisdictions.

But what we can't have is at the higher level Um, them not being in sync into equivalent of not having the left hand talking to the right.

So thank you.

Thank you for those comments.

I saw council member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to say overall, and I agree with you, Councilmember Kettle, we've got to have agencies working together in concert and full transparency.

I fully support.

We need a light rail system that's going to work for everyone across the city, and we need more transportation choices.

across the city.

And toward that end, I should say that my spouse sits on the Transportation Choices Coalition Board, so my family's been a longtime supporter of public transit.

You've heard me say this.

And I will say I did offer an amendment related to that is in this bill related to outreach.

because we need to make sure that we are letting folks know what we're doing when we're doing it, and that includes the work that we're permitting other partners to do.

So, you know, outreach goes to ensuring folks know what's happening.

It goes toward transparency.

It goes to trust in government.

It is not, it doesn't go to prohibiting projects.

On the contrary, it goes to building support and making sure that folks are aware of what's going on.

So I fully support the expansion of light rail and I'm looking forward to voting for this piece of legislation.

Thank you.

I will just thank you very much for everybody's comments.

Just say that whatever we can do to get out of our own way is, I don't know, I think...

attractive to me, and that does not, we can do both things, which is streamline permitting on our side and make sure that we're working well with other jurisdictions, et cetera, and not scrimp on informing the public, outreach to the public, et cetera.

We can do both.

So I thank everybody for putting your work in.

Okay, I'm not seeing any other hands up.

Would you like to have the last word?

Thank you, Council President.

Yes, just this is not just about Seattle.

It's not just about the projects here in Seattle.

Sound Transit is also known as the Central Puget Sound Transportation Authority Transit Authority.

Excuse me.

This is because we are a regional entity spanning three counties, Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

We have not we only just reached Snohomish County last August.

We have not yet reached Pierce County.

We will be voting on final alignment and initial budget authority to reach Pierce County at our system expansion meeting this coming Thursday.

I say that because in the original efforts, in the original initiative to build sound transit, Connecting the spine was the first thing that was supposed to be done.

We are not there yet.

And this bill before us is critically important to demonstrate to the region Seattle's commitment to getting the spine done because we are making the process in Seattle more streamlined by cutting red tape while retaining processes and retaining appeal opportunities, but not unnecessarily.

And so, colleagues, I hope you'll join me in my support of getting Sound Transit to complete the spine and do our part along the way.

Thank you, Council President.

Okay.

Seeing no other hands up, will the clerk please call the roll on the amended legislation?

Councilmember Rank?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, and will the clerk please also read item two into the record.

The report of the Transportation Committee, agenda item two, Council Bill 12094, leading to Seattle's commute trip production program, adopting an updated CTR plan, updating references to state law.

The committee recommends a bill pass.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Council member Hollingsworth is vice chair of the committee.

You're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

And these are words from our chair of the committee, Council Member Saka.

Council Bill 120984 is an executive-driven legislation that is passed, that if passed, approves 2025 to 2029 updates for Seattle Commute Trip Reduction Plan.

This plan is required under the State Clean Air Act from 1991 and would allow the city to remain eligible for future CTR funding from Washington State.

In short, the state requires the local governments are required to adopt plans for the reduction of single occupant vehicles and large employers are required to develop and implement a CTR plans in partnership with our Seattle Department of Transportation.

Seattle's first CTR plan was developed all the way back in 1991. The state deadline requires that this legislation is passed and signed by June the 30th, so in 20 days from now.

This legislation passed out of committee unanimously and the chair encourages a yes vote.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, I'll just say that I didn't know that.

I didn't know that it was associated with the GMA, that it was required.

Anyway, are there any comments?

Okay, seeing no other comments will the chair please and will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council member Rink.

Yes.

Council member Rivera.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council member Kettle.

Aye.

Council member Moore.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign up.

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

And I would like to amend my unawareness.

You said it was a Clean Air Act, correct?

Correct.

It's required under the state's Clean Air Act.

Okay.

I was mixing up that with the Growth Management Act.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

They reported the Select Budget Committee, Agent Item 3, Council Bill 120979, Amending Ordinance 126955, which adopted the 2024 budget, including 2024 through 2029 Capital Improvement Program.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Okay, thank you very much.

Are there any...

Oh, Council Member Strauss, as chair of the committee, you're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you.

Clarifying we are on Council Bill 120979, is that correct?

Yes.

Agenda item three.

Yes.

Councilman 120979.

Thank you.

Colleagues, this is one of two bills before us coming from Select Budget Committee, actuating and implementing our budget reform practices that we continue to refine and work on in our offices.

Meet weekly every other week with the city budget office and weekly with central staff engaging in budget reform.

This is one of the two bills.

As you can see, this is the exceptions ordinance allowing and giving retroactive approval for overspending budgets.

We have reduced the number of departments that this is occurring from from a high of four or five down to two this year.

We've also reduced the fiscal amount of money that has been overspent to an all-time low.

I continue to and from my conversations with departments, believe that we could next year only see one or fewer exceptions.

And so with that, I urge a yes vote on this bill, Council Bill 120979, the 2024 budget exceptions ordinance.

Thank you.

Okay, are there any comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Council member Rink?

Yes.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Yes.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council member Moore?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

And will the clerk please read item four into the record?

Agenda item four, Council Bill 120988, Unbending Ordinance 127 to 156, which adopted the 2025 budget, including 2025 through 2030 capital improvement program.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Okay, Councilmember Strauss is chair of the committee.

You're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

This is the second of two of these budget reform bills before us.

This is a bond redemptions appropriation, Council Bill 120988. This allows us to pay off bonds earlier than anticipated by using interest generated from bonds that we fully expended that funding for the projects that they were...

pulled up for.

So we have interest that we received off of bonds that we built other city projects with as the city budget office and my office continue to go through budget reform.

This is one of the areas that additional funding was found needs to be used on a same or similar purpose.

And so the uses of these dollars are limited and they should be used in the way they are today which is paying off a bond early so that we are able to see a savings in future years of having to pay off these bonds incrementally I urge a yes vote thank you all right I'm not seeing any hands raised are there any comments okay seeing none will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill council member rink

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss.

Yes.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Moore.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Item four, let's see.

Item four, appointment of 3167 was removed from the consent calendar.

So we don't have to do that.

There are no resolution.

Council, council president, my apologies.

At this point, the recommendation would be to move to postpone the item indefinitely.

So therefore the item will be closed and we can move forward with the appointment not coming back to the city council moving forward.

So the motion would be to move to postpone the appointment 3167 indefinitely.

I move to postpone appointment 3167 indefinitely.

Second.

It's been moved.

It's postponed.

What?

Oh, we have to vote.

All right, let's vote.

Council member Rink?

Yes.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Yes.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Council Member Moore.

Sorry, aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The appointment is postponed.

I'll write indefinitely.

Moving on.

Okay.

There's, as I was saying, there's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

Let's see.

Council member, we're now in other business.

Go ahead.

I see.

Is your hand up for other business?

Yes.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, council president.

I have four items of business in good of the order today or other business.

One just noting that Seattle channel has won the highest level of Emmy possible, and they are possibly the first city level TV agency to receive this level of Emmy in the nation.

Boston might also, but we're still figuring those details out.

So colleagues, when you hear us say the award-winning Seattle channel, this is just another award on their trophy shelf.

Congratulations.

I did, I forgot to mention yesterday, second item, forgot to mention yesterday at council briefing colleagues that CBO interim director Dan Eater's appointment will be coming before the Finance Committee.

If you have questions for the CBO in their packet, those are due this Thursday.

And so we will not be accepting late requests, late questions.

So I ask if you do have questions, please send them to us by Thursday.

I do have a request for a colleague for Council Member Moore to be able to co-sponsor the AI rent price fixing bill.

Yes, that's fine.

Thank you.

As I offered initially, but happy to have you co-sponsor.

And then council president requesting to be excused on June 24th so that I can be attending the association of Washington cities board meeting as part of my duties as a Seattle city council member.

Okay.

Is there any objection to excusal on June 24th, you said?

June 24th.

Right.

Hearing none, you are excused.

Okay.

Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Rank had her hand up.

Councilmember Rank.

Thank you, Council President.

And Councilmember Strauss, I was gonna talk about the Seattle Channel and celebrate them.

You took the words out of my mouth, so congratulations to our already award-winning Seattle Channel for bringing home the Overall Excellence Award at the 62nd Annual Northwest Regional Emmy Awards this past weekend.

We already knew the Seattle Channel was excellent, but it's really great to see this level of recognition across the region, so congrats, colleagues.

we're going to have to start calling you the Emmy Award winning Seattle Channel from now on.

To pivot a little bit, I wanted to share that today after the Public Safety Committee, where we heard directly from Interim Chief Barnes, his response to some of my questions about the identification of ICE officers in our community and ways in which to protect residents and Seattleites who are protesting the federal administration and maybe facing the US military on the streets of Seattle, I took a trip down to the federal building with my chief of staff after hearing reports that legal observers had been asked to leave the federal building.

And we had a chance to listen to some of the, and connect with some of the immigration attorneys outside the building who are serving our immigrant neighbors every day in federal courts and detention centers.

And colleagues, I know we often allude to what is happening as a truly as troubling or as disturbing, but I want to color this a little bit by saying we are talking about our neighbors who in a number of cases are in the green card process or already have green cards and are getting them rescinded, who are having their cases dismissed by federal judges just down the street and are being immediately detained.

These are our residents.

Our office has been engaging with a number of immigrant advocate groups on this matter, but we just want to continue to shine a light on what's happening and really explain to the public what is happening.

I will be at the federal building tomorrow to accompany a neighbor who will be going into court as a part of regular immigration proceedings.

And I don't know what to expect, but I know as representatives, we need to bear witness.

We need to stand up where others can't.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council member is are there.

Did you still have your.

Nope.

Okay.

Well, uh, I have, um, I have an item of business.

Council member Solomon.

Is that new or old?

Okay.

Council member Moore.

So thank you, Council Member Rink for those comments and that observation.

I guess my question is, what are you asking us to do as city council members?

What do you think we should be doing?

Yeah, I appreciate that call to action.

I think when we've been engaging with a number of advocates, I think just the matter of using the power of our offices to talk about what's happening, to be able to shine light on ways to be able to support and help, um, this, the request to accompany was a direct request from one of our immigrant advocate organizations.

Um, this is something that, that is actually being done across the country.

They've been doing this in Arizona, having elected officials accompany and go into federal court, understanding that of course we're within a federal building out of jurisdiction.

But I think there's the matter of bringing visibility and shining light onto what's happening is tremendously important and a show of solidarity.

Um, I think there's a lot of opportunities as well for us to speak with a shared voice.

to condemn some of the things that are happening.

I think it sends an important message to our community that we're gonna do our part to really, our part, even if that's just using the power of our offices and the platform that we have, to be active and really use our voices is really important.

And so I don't profess to have the perfect solution here.

This is an unprecedented time, but I think there's a lot of power in us using our voices.

And the more that we can join together and speak with a shared voice, a united voice on whether it be sign-on letters or arriving to certain spaces together, whether it be at the federal building, I certainly welcome that.

And I would love to see that partnership between all of the council offices represented up here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to follow up on the discussion with Councilmember Rink and Councilmember Moore to highlight our Public Safety Committee meeting this morning with the confirmation of first meeting on the confirmation of Chief Barnes as our police chief.

I think a theme that came out of that for the police department, but also as we look to address the challenges that we're facing today because as noted, what was happening in LA and may happen here, is the idea of being professionals, doing our jobs, leading, engaging on the topics, but doing it in a way that doesn't mirror the performative acts from the federal.

We need to be doing our due diligence, our responsibilities, and doing it in a professional manner.

And I think that's the best way to lead by example, because clearly it's not happening at the federal level.

And I think it'd be best for us as a city to lead by example, by being professional, by doing our due diligence, understanding the rules, the rights, and in advocating on behalf of those.

And I just wanted to echo what came out of this morning's Public Safety Committee meeting on that point.

And really, this is for us as Seattleites too.

I was down at the Federal Building earlier today as well, and, you know, my call is, hey, let's follow the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, you know, this county is named after.

Let's be responsible in our protests.

And, you know, these are the lessons learned that we need to learn there too.

And I think if we do so, you know, a combination of community and government, you know, showing and leading by example, being professional, being responsible, I think we can be that much more successful in the long term.

and show not just the federal side of things but other states, other jurisdictions around the country that this is Seattle and this is what we stand for.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Rink and Moore.

I appreciate your comments.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Rink, for elevating this.

And thank you, Councilmember Moore, for posing the question.

I'll be super quick, and I think what we're getting to here is what are we going to do beyond the statements?

What are we going to do beyond the words?

What are we going to do beyond the words?

when you're talking about this in the media, or we're using our platform on the dais to help elevate this.

And I think one of the things I want to point out is that when we say it as elected officials from the dais, or we say it from our social media page, whatever it might be, people take that heavier and they receive it differently because we're documenting it and we're elevating it.

And the council member went to the federal building and sought for her own eyes what is happening.

And those documents, those are real.

It's not just, hey, we heard Jimmy said such and such about this.

We are elevating it from an official platform.

And I think that is incredibly important.

because people rely on us to receive certain news.

They rely on us to report the actual facts and data, what is actually going on in our community, and they have elected us to be in these things.

And so I never take that lightly, understanding our position and having that, and also showing solidarity and community and connection.

But we can also show it how we show up with our budget, how we show up in community, how we are engaging with people.

And there's a lot of stuff that we do not elevate here at council.

We do a lot.

I know colleagues, I see the work that you all do day to day, coming into the office, out in community, a lot of stuff you all do not highlight on social media, or you do not tell people, or you're not at a press conference, or you're not putting it in a press release.

I see the work that you all do, and I think we're all on the same page.

in showing a unified front in our, and I don't wanna speak for everybody, but I'm gonna speak for you all, but our unified support in ensuring that the people that are in this city are protected.

And I hear a lot of people always say, how are you gonna fight for us?

How are you gonna fight for us?

The first thing I wanna do is protect.

That is the first thing that I want us, because we are elected officials, and we only have so much.

We are city council members, and there's only so much we can do, so much jurisdiction we have and impact that we can have, and just want to make sure that that protection is also there as we are all navigating this together.

because we are navigating this together.

This is not one versus the other.

This is not political statements.

This is not us doing all this performative dance.

This is real impacts, real life.

We understand how it impacts folks.

And so at times I think it's okay as elected officials to say, hey, we are actually figuring out a plan.

We're actually navigating that together.

you know there there there's some real humanity uh humanity in this when uh we are just people as well i know some people think as the city as a robot the city but that's not it's a group a collective of people that are trying their hardest to make sure that they are trying to serve so anyways i just want to thank council member rink for bringing that up um and and and recognizing what is going on and then council member Council Member Moore for posing the question to say, okay, what are the next steps?

What is life beyond?

What are we gonna do?

So I really appreciate that.

I know that we are fighting really, really hard to continue to do our job to make sure the city is running, to make sure our parks are clean, to make sure that people are safe in their homes, that kids can go to school, all these things in conjunction with the madness and craziness that we are constantly seeing on TV or we're getting emails about or phone calls about or being approached about in the grocery store, all these different things.

So I just wanted to point that out and know that I know my colleagues are

at heart and we stand with you council member ring thank you for elevating this you have our full support and we'll continue to elevate these concerns and use our platform for good so thank you council member rivera thank you thank you for that council member hollingsworth i'll also say that you know we and folks may not know but all of the investments that the city makes also go they go to everyone who's living in seattle and we're not checking Um, folks is, you know, um, uh, status, um, when we provide those, those services.

And so, you know, other, other cities may, but Seattle does not because we have a strong commitment to all our residents.

regardless of status.

So I wanted to say that because that is important.

Our residents need to know that we do have their backs, including all the investments that we make they are eligible for and we do that.

We do that through all the various investments that we make, including the levy.

We fund kids in schools, and we do not ask for immigration status when we are funding our kids in the schools and feeding our kids in the schools and providing all the academic tutoring and supports and mental health supports that we do.

And I want families to know that, and that is purposeful.

So I wanted to just state that.

We do that at the city because that's the commitment that we make to our residents, including our immigrant residents.

So thank you.

Um, Thank you very much for everybody's comments here.

And Councilmember Moore, your question, I've been asking myself a lot.

What can council do?

Is there anything, what more, et cetera?

And I believe that our constituents are also looking to their closest elected that they have and, you know, which is probably their their council members and feeling perhaps powerless with the situation and with the administration and what's happening to our most vulnerable neighbors.

And so that's a really key question.

What can we do and what more can we do, et cetera, besides showing up and seeing what is happening with our own eyes.

So, um, and I will just continue and, um, council member Hollingsworth, I like that you, uh, that you sort of named what we do on a day to day basis, transportation, um, you know, keeping the lights on, et cetera.

And that's the, that's the work of local government delivering basic services.

Not that it's not the only thing we do.

We also have an office of, um, immigrant and refugee affairs, which I, which you oversee.

And so I would, you know, I would certainly want to, educate myself on what are the new developments as the director is seeing.

But I'm just trying to say that I do believe that a strong form of resistance is is a strong local government delivering services to the people of Seattle, doing the things that we, um, that are, that are our charter responsibilities to do because we have been the laughing stock by that guy in DC for, for, you know, for one thing or another.

And it is, um, you know, we can just, uh, um, get our work done and, and focus on, um, we can't lose focus and we can't get distracted and we can also bear witness and, uh, and take a stand too.

So just wanted to put a little plug there for, um, the fact that we, um, we see and, um, notice any other comments.

Yes.

So, yeah, I agree.

I appreciate the comments of yourself and Council Member Hollingsworth because our job is to provide for the services of all of the residents of the city to make sure that local government works as well as it possibly can to provide for the general welfare and public safety.

I do take the point that we also need to be witness to what's happening in our community.

And it is just so incredibly frustrating to see that our neighbors are in fact being deported and often improperly detained and to lack the the individual power to do much about that.

Although we have joined King County in suing, we've joined the city attorney.

So we are trying to seek redress through legal avenues, which to date has really only been the opportunity for on the abuse of power that we're seeing out of Washington.

But one thing that I would ask, and again, we always run this risk of like, are we making matters worse?

Are we just being performative?

But is it worth considering us as a body going down to the federal courthouse just to observe as a body?

And again, I pose that question as, Are we gonna make matters worse by doing that?

Is that gonna be viewed as just performative?

Or is it us saying as the representatives of our neighbors and the constituents in the city, we should go down and see what's happening?

I'm just posing that because the thought just occurred to me.

I'm not expecting an answer, but I think it's worth thinking about.

And I also, There was a, I think the commenter asked, could SPD request ICE identify themselves?

So we know that it's not just rogue actors that are actually snatching people from the streets.

And I don't know the legal answer to that, but I think it's worth inquiring.

What kind of power does SPD have to ensure that it's the actual lawfully authorized agents that are engaging in legal but abhorrent behavior but so I think that's a question that we do need to to further explore and again we have to be mindful that we we have a president who's looking for any excuse to bring the National Guard here to bring Marines and you know so we have such a delicate balance to walk Anyway, just kind of thinking off the top of my head here.

Thank you.

Agreed.

All right.

Um, are there any other hands up?

I don't see any.

So I was, uh, I was about to note that council member Solomon was approved to be excused from the May 13th city council meeting and then the council member did attend and participate at the meeting.

The council will need to rescind the council member Solomon's request to be excused to reflect his attendance.

So if there is no objection, Council Member Solomon's excused absence from the May 13th City Council meeting will be rescinded.

Hearing no objection, Council Member Solomon's excused absence is rescinded.

just so people know out there, we do take these excusals seriously, clearly.

I want to just end with one note.

I heard from Ivan Sandoval, who attended the Northwest Institute clerk classes all week, and he just conveyed that our clerk, Emilia Sanchez, did.

I believe that you presented a paper.

Let's see, just a second here.

You led a workshop, I believe.

Anyway, it is wonderful to see Amelia, a representative of the city council, engage and share her knowledge with various clerks in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

I heard from several attendees on how valuable the information was and how most cities look up to Seattle as a model for clerical work.

Thank you very much for all you do, Amelia.

All right.

We've reached the end of today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on June 17th at 2 PM.

Hearing no further business.

We are adjourned.

Thank you everybody.