City Council 6/30/2026

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The June 30th, 2026 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.04 p.m.

My name is Joy Hollingsworth, City Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Lynn?

Here.

Council Member Rank?

Here.

Council Member Rivera?

Present.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Here.

Council Member Foster?

Here.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council President Hawingsworth?

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you.

There are no presentations for today or no proclamations for presentation.

So we're gonna jump right into public comment.

Colleagues at this time, we're gonna open up the hybrid public comment period.

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

Council cannot accept comments on quasi judicial items or any campaign related matters.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up today?

We have 10 remote and 14 in person.

So that is 24 if my math is correct.

So that means that because we have fewer than 30, everyone's gonna get two minutes today.

Clerk, will you please read the instructions for the public comment period?

The public comment period we moderated in the following manner.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they 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.

Public comment period is now open and we'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

Awesome.

Thank you, clerk.

And if you are online, we will come to you.

after we finish our in-person speakers.

And I will let you know that in-person speakers, we have 14. So we will be here for at least 28 minutes for in-person and then we will, so about 30 minutes and then we'll transition to online and I'll keep you updated about how many speakers before we switch online.

So I'll call the first five people.

We have Miss Yvette Dynish, Victoria Palmer, Ruth, we have Clive and Alicia Ruiz.

So if you all start getting ready on deck, Miss Yvette Dynash, welcome, followed by Victoria, Ruth, Clive, Alicia, welcome.

Any microphone you wanna use.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Council Member O'Kell, I wanna give you a shout out.

I read your email regarding the...

Climate Pledge Arena Community Fund.

Thank you for the shout out.

It was pretty interesting.

And hopefully people will take advantage of that.

And also Council Member Lynn, when the mayor decided to close off Lake Wyston Boulevard for the whole weekend, were you notified ahead of time at all or just something she took upon herself?

I'm sorry?

He'll talk to you after.

This is for your- Oh, okay.

Yeah, go ahead.

We'll talk later.

Because the reason I ask is because the Rainy Beach community is really pissed about this and there will be pushback.

Also, I've noticed in recent meetings that when a particular group has an issue, they show up in mass to view the opinion, which is a good thing, but to the public at large, two civic engagement conference showing up at regular council meetings and also in other events that other organizations in your community doing.

And like I said, showing up on the record in person or in remote.

And that's a good way to stay engaged in the community.

And then, oh, lastly, there's a public safety forum tonight.

I don't know who's public safety committee.

I know it's tonight, but I forgot where it is.

So if you just kind of let me know, cause I would like to go if it's at all feasible.

and thank you.

It's nice to have a full council again and welcome back, Amelia.

And that's all I have to say for now.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Ms. Yvette.

Next, we have Victoria, Ruth, Clive, and Alicia.

And just a reminder, if you ask the council members questions, this is public comment period for you all.

And then usually sometimes after council members can stay engaged.

It's just a reminder that we won't answer you, but at the end, thank you.

Hello council, my name is Victoria Palmer and I'm an executive board member of the King County Republican Party.

First I want to thank our city leaders for their efforts to make Seattle a fabulous host city for the World Cup and how nice it is to see Seattle shine with all the world watching.

Today I'm here to share comments on the Trans and Queer Interdepartmental Team, IDT, formed by the mayor to establish a structured permanent framework for supporting transgender and queer individuals who have relocated to Seattle to escape hostile environments in other states.

The clear intent of the IDT is to redirect public funds to pay for housing, food, and elective and cosmetic medical procedures for trans individuals.

We oppose the use of taxpayer money for these purposes.

It's clear that the appeal made to the mayor to declare an emergency of trans refugees was based on highly inflated numbers and that no such emergency exists.

I am calling on the council to take action to disband the IDT and I will bring more public attention to this issue to help facilitate this.

It is ironic to claim there is a genocide on the trans community when the truth is that the trans movement is the genocide upon our people.

It is unconscionable to persuade a child to damage or destroy their reproductive organs before they've even reached the age of consent.

The trans movement is a glamorized form of population control pushed by leftist ideology.

So yes, trans individuals have been victimized, but not by Republican policy.

In fact, Seattle Republicans can be a part of welcoming them, seeing them as equals under the law, and recognizing them as contributing members of society.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ruth.

Next, we have Ruth, followed by Clive and Alicia.

Welcome, Ruth.

Hello?

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

OK, great.

My name is Ruth Berga.

I live- Hold on.

We're going to pause time.

Oh, sorry.

We'll pause your time.

We have a little disruption in the background.

Mr. Diaz?

Mr. Diaz?

No worries.

We're good.

We're good.

We're all good.

All right.

Give us one second.

Mr. Diaz?

You're good?

All right.

No, no, no.

You're good.

We're good.

We're good, Bennett.

All right.

Go right ahead.

Thank you.

Great.

Hi, again.

My name is Ruth Berga.

I live in Ballard by Sunset Hill, Loyal Heights.

So my statement is, the city is spending valuable time and taxpayer resources studying the creation of a transgender sanctuary.

Before doing so, I ask five simple questions.

What documented harm is this sanctuary intended to address?

Is there evidence that local government, this local government, can reduce that harm?

Who would be eligible to be in the sanctuary?

And if the eligibility is restricted, what is the legal basis for that restriction, since we are giving money to the public and then restricting it to only certain people?

The last question is why, and I'm not expecting you to answer these questions.

I heard what you said.

Why should Seattle taxpayers fund it?

So they're rhetorical.

Seattle faces a serious budget shortfall, and our residents struggle every day with public safety, transportation, housing costs, and the declining quality of our neighborhoods.

Longtime taxpayers deserve to know why city resources are being directed toward a new sanctuary proposal instead of these urgent local needs.

This proposal is presented largely as a response to federal policies, yet the people being asked to bear the cost are Seattle residents, many of whom oppose these policies.

The recent Medicaid changes affected many vulnerable people, including families caring for autistic children, people who depend on Medicaid for basic health care, and workers whose jobs were affected.

These needs are real and immediate.

If Ciel is considering creating sanctuaries, then I urge you to consider a sanctuary for biological women.

Women alone bear the burdens of pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive disease, and many other sex-specific health conditions.

Women also experience the overwhelming majority of sexual violence, stalking, intimate partner violence, and persistent sexual harassment.

These are harms that affect millions of women.

This proposal also includes discussion of a transgender

Thank you, Ruth.

I'm more than happy to put your comments in the bucket.

Thank you so much.

Clive, in the bucket to your left, my right.

Clive and then Alicia, thank you.

Council members, my name is Clive Hayward.

I've performed safely on the Seattle waterfront for 11 years.

On June 12th, the security issued me a one-day exclusion while I was engaged in street performance activity.

The notice threatened criminal trespass if I returned.

There was no violence, obstruction, property damage, emergency access, or crowd control incident.

The issue was that it was all because I was outside of a designated expression location.

After Seattle Police arrived, I said I would move if exclusion was being threatened.

ESU excluded me anyways.

I asked the Waterfront Park Management to rescind or correct the notice, provide neutral review or state refusal.

they responded that the administration review is available only for exclusions of seven days or more.

That exclusion cost me real income, and more importantly, it burdened my First Amendment protected performance activities.

A short exclusion is not harmless when it stops protected expression and carries criminal trespass consequences.

But the city is taking a position that it gets no meaningful review because it's short.

This matches a broader problem.

I've made multiple complaints about Seattle Center staff and they all end up in a black hole.

These complaints are backed by video evidence, written reports, and I've received no meaningful response.

HR discussed that there was no need for us to respond to my complaints because ethics and city attorney office were copied.

However, records produced so far should contain no follow-up.

Please identify who has the authority.

Thank you, Clive.

Next we have Alicia, followed by Scott, then Ivana, Keith, Paul, and then Glenn.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, President Hollingsworth and members of the Council.

My name is Alicia Ruiz, Advocacy and Policy Manager at Habitat for Humanity, Seattle King and Kittitas counties.

Habitat's mission is a world where everyone, everyone has a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.

And Seattle's Office of Housing is one of our strongest partners in making that mission possible.

We're here today in support of three items on your agenda.

First, CB121218, updating the housing levy, administrative and financial plan, which strengthens the subsidy tools we rely on to serve working families.

Second, Council Bill 121237, the Montlake home site.

This neighborhood has a great need for affordable home ownership.

It is amenity rich, transit rich, and is adjacent to essential essential worker job centers.

This legislation moves us towards 50 new affordable homes there.

Third, Council Bill 121238, two parcels in this central area.

This is a neighborhood where the black community has fallen from nearly 75% in the 1970s to about 15% today.

and where black home ownership has especially been hit hard.

Securing this site for affordable for sale housing is a meaningful step towards reversing that displacement.

We are swift passage of all three and thank you for your continued partnership in building towards Habitat's vision of a Seattle where everyone has a safe place to call home.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alicia.

Next we have Scott followed by Ivana, Keith, Paul, Glenn.

Is Scott here?

Scott?

Anyone else?

Anyone named Scott here?

Okay, we'll come back.

Ivana?

Is Ivana here?

Ivana?

Is there an Ivana here?

No?

Okay, next we have Keith Carpenter.

Hey Keith, welcome.

Hi there, I'm Keith Carpenter.

I'm the pastor of Epic Life Church in North Seattle.

And Council, I just want to commend you for taking some action in our neighborhood, in 105th and Aurora, and the Aurora tragedy that we have going on up there.

There's been a lot of years of this, and thank you for curbing some of it with the barriers and whatnot.

I do want to encourage you, on a couple things, is not to forget that we just put a Band-Aid on the problem.

And it's not solved.

And wouldn't it be great if Seattle could solve a bigger problem?

There's real victims who are young girls, mostly, young boys as well, on the street.

And they're being victimized and abused.

And there needs to be something more than just a Band-Aid.

And I really want to encourage you to lean into it even farther.

We have an opportunity because there's some momentum.

And I think if you get the right people together, you could really cause some really important policy and probably change in this city.

The city is supposedly known for prostitution.

Not a good thing to be known for.

The city around the world, you say Aurora Avenue and around the world in Seattle, people know.

I tell people all the time that I have a business and I'm a pastor on Aurora.

They're going, oof.

I'm like, I know, but the human tragedy is worth it, and it's worth sitting there now for 18 years in this space.

And I want to encourage you to look at the rot of a society that allows its most vulnerable to be continually used over and over.

It is horrific.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Keith.

Next we have Paul, followed by Glenn.

Hi, I'm Paul Tomlinson, and I've been here before, talked about neighborhoods.

I've also worked with Keith in his area, cleaning up graffiti and walking the streets and kind of safe walks with people.

So I want to back up what he's saying.

This past Saturday, we did a cleanup in Washington Park, and I want to give a shout out to our president, Joy, who was there with about 50 other people.

who was a result of two neighbors, one business person and a community member, circulating 130 handouts, encouraging people to come and actually clean up, walk up the hill, clean up where the encampments were.

And I believe we had about 50 people there.

I've talked to all of you about neighborhood working together and we hope more and more that we can get you out and come to these some of these cleanups people are beginning to see what the problem is but they can also be a part of that and so we just want to thank you we know you're addressing that and what Keith is doing and some of the churches that are working with him are doing an amazing job of pulling people together.

And we can do that.

The World Cup has shown that we can do a lot of things.

And President Joy, I really appreciate your effort.

And you actually did quite a bit of work that day.

I was very impressed.

So anyway, thank you very much.

Thank you for that, Mr. Paul.

Glenn, don't mind getting my hands dirty, okay?

Dirty hands, clean money.

Is Glenn here?

Glenn?

Glenn, hey, Mr. Glenn.

Welcome.

And then, after Glenn, we have Max, then Gabriel, then Howard, and then Bennett.

My name is Glenn Stockwell.

I'm Chairman of Washington State Economic Development.

It's a non-profit entity and I'm coming before you today to ask you two questions.

And I would like to work directly with Patty Murray for a period of one month.

In one month, I put together large state projects before when I was much younger.

What I'd like to do, there's over $5 billion sitting on the federal table President Biden put there on November 15, 2021. And nobody has gone out to get it.

I've known Patty for many years.

We get along well.

And what I'd like to do is gift one month of my time to go back to Washington, D.C. And in one month, I know this sounds strange because of government and all of that, We will start the initiation process to get the $5 billion.

And the project that I'm talking about is the Columbia Basin Project, the completion of it.

It was brought to Washington State in the 30s by the Washington State Democrat Party.

And it's never been completed.

It was only half completed.

The party goes all the way from Grand Coulee Dam all the way down to Walla Walla.

What I'd like for you to do is, would you help Senator Murray, Governor Ferguson and Mayor Katie Wilson bring the largest economic development and job project in U.S. history to Washington State?

You have a lot of political power.

Would you be willing to help Governor Ferguson by using your political leverage to help reverse the millionaire tax and the state income tax.

There's a way out of this.

You know, he was only six years old when the problem was initiated.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you.

That's very nice of you.

Next we have Max, Gabriel, Howard, and Bennett, and then we'll switch to you online.

So we have four speakers in person, and then we will go online.

Welcome, Max.

Oh, give us one second.

Oh, you can start.

Someone else is monitoring the time.

Go right ahead.

Go ahead, Max.

Hello, Council.

I'm here to comment on the agenda item regarding authorizing street closures to enhance public safety.

This past Friday, I attended a memorial ride for two cyclists recently killed on city streets, Marity and Christian.

I've ridden in memorial rides for West Sale neighbors Rob Mason and Steve Holzman.

I constantly ride past ghost bikes, including one for Marvin Miller, killed by a driver who ran off the road on Marginal Way.

I've waited with injured cyclists for ambulances after they were struck by drivers on Delridge Way and Spokane Street.

We are assuredly in a moment of crisis.

Last year, I gave public comment about the transportation chair's history of blocking traffic calming on West Yale Greenways, measures that are meant to save lives.

He responded by recasting my concern as wanting to worsen a food desert that I myself live in, saying removing those traffic calming measures was a position he'd championed and would keep championing.

Yet at Meredith's memorial this last week, that same chair said he wouldn't meddle in SDOT's process, even though he earmarked hundreds of thousands of dollars to expedite a project for driver's convenience on Delridge Way not long ago.

Even when people are telling you exactly what would keep them safe, we grind through a slow process.

It's been two weeks since Meredith was killed.

In a similar amount of time, the city was able to install protected bike lanes on Southwest Andover Street simply to disperse a homeless encampment.

It should be as fast, if not faster, for when someone dies in the street.

I've worked and lived in West Seattle for 15 years.

While infrastructure around the peninsula's edges has improved somewhat, getting between our own neighborhoods has not.

We're dangled the same promises on a loop, a Fauntleroy Boulevard greenway traffic calming, both proposed over a decade ago and then canceled.

You have the authority right in front of you tonight to close the street for safety.

You should use that same urgency for the streets where people are dying when using the street itself.

At the memorial, Meredith's daughter said, and I'm paraphrasing, that this is bullcrap.

She is right.

We need to do far, far better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Max.

Next we have Gabriel, followed by Howard, and then Bennett.

Welcome, Gabriel.

Hey folks, my name is Gabriel Diaz, and I'm here to speak today again about the Cal Anderson protest and the response to it.

Firstly, to our trans brothers and sisters, happy pride.

Ignore that noise from earlier.

Hateful BS has no place in Seattle, and it's no wonder the King County Republican Party is where it's at with people like that at the helm.

We here in Seattle stand against all hate, and that's including calling out blatant hatred and discrimination when it's there.

Now, last time I spoke, I mentioned my close friend who, after being arrested, swore at a cop, and in response, that cop wrenched his arm and his shoulder while he was restrained as a punishment for swearing at the cop.

Now, originally OPA ruled that this just did not happen.

We had clear, convincing video evidence.

They said it didn't happen at all.

The issue is that after OPA makes a ruling, there is no process to appeal that.

So after a blatant video where we could see the video and they had just been clearly talking in their response to it, you can clearly talk about a different time, what do we do?

However, because the evidence was so clear and convincing, I, along with many other vocal citizens, asked to re-review.

We were all met with the same email, essentially saying, sorry, already reviewed it, nothing we can do.

However, after hundreds and hundreds of emails, the main person got a report, made an email going, hey, sorry, we screwed up.

Will we investigate?

They missed a very clear violation.

They had to watch 30 minutes of body cam footage, and they missed a very blatant violation that was very, very clear.

It took literally hundreds of emails for OPA to even consider catching a very obvious mistake and trying to correct it.

However, there's no real way to do this.

It is actually against the policy for them to re-review it, so we don't know what that looks like or how that process happens.

And I wonder if they miss something that obvious, how much else is being missed?

How much is being covered up?

OPA has been consistently showing they are incapable of handling mass uses of police violence and holding people accountable after.

SPD has disabled multiple people, including myself.

You, as the city council, owe it to make sure that they get justice what happened and make it very clear that this was wrong.

OPA cannot and will not do that.

I am once again calling for an independent investigation of the Cal Anderson protests and the firing of officers Matthew DeDere and Officer Kevin Howard.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gabriel.

Next, we have Howard Gill, followed by Bennett.

Good afternoon.

Last week I noted that the June 18th, 9th anniversary of Charlene Lyle's murder by SPD passed unmentioned and seemingly unnoticed by city council or electeds.

July will bring us the 11th anniversary of Sam Tashiro Smith's murder by SPD and the 12th anniversary of Larry Andrew Flynn's murder by SPD.

All three of these people were in crisis holding an edged object when killed by SPD.

If they had lived in the UK or Japan, they would still be alive.

13 days ago, a King County inquest jury split in its findings on the 2020 SPD murder of Sean Furr, shot in the head while holding his infant son and no weapon.

Only three of six jurors found his killing authorize the use of deadly force and not criminal, despite all aspects of our police accountability system deeming this killing lawful and proper.

Lawful and proper is not my words, it's not rhetoric, it's the actual words put in every document.

The shooting of someone in the head, a black man in the head with a baby, lawful and proper.

In 13 days will be another King County inquest into the SPD murder, also deemed lawful and proper, of Ryan Smith in 2019, an African-American man in severe crisis holding a knife.

I believe the jury's verdict in this case will be far clearer as to the unnecessary and criminal nature of this killing.

I hear the word accountability thrown around a lot by this council.

There's certainly been no accountability for these murders, but I know you are far more concerned with financial accountability.

Given that and given repeated inquest verdicts indicating that our accountability system is doing something very wrong, I would ask, Why has there never been an independent audit as requested by the city auditor in 2017 of our police accountability system given that they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the last nine years?

Hundreds of millions of dollars and the repeated scandals involving folks that head up this system.

Lastly, I'll just note, a lot was said last week about gun violence.

It's not me, MLK noted this in the 60s.

You can't perpetrate and perpetuate violence abroad and at home via police.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Next we have Bennett.

And I don't know if there's more folks.

Nope, signed in, all right.

Good afternoon, Council.

So update on violence in the protest scene.

Remember last time I showed you a screenshot of the woman saying,

and beat Bennett to death like a man who raped a five-year-old child.

And by the way, this is the person who is running the memorial rally for George Floyd a couple weeks ago.

So not everybody there agrees with her saying this stuff, but they're still putting her in charge of things, which is kind of weird.

Well, I was in Cal Anderson Park last Thursday and it happened.

A bunch of people recognized me.

They got on the phone to call more people.

When they had enough of them, they came up on me and tackled me to the ground and pepper sprayed me in the face and put me in a headlock and punched me a couple of times in the face and stole my phone.

All right, that's a picture of how I looked a couple of hours later.

The redness faded a little bit.

You can still see the bruises.

So what is this about?

Like I said last time, 90% of the violence in Seattle protests has the same cause.

Prior to the event, a young woman says something over the line about the Jews or whatever, and I want to be really clear.

The men say this stuff too, but the rest of this only happens if a woman says it.

And then me or some other guys, we go to them and say, that's bad.

The woman calls it sliding into DMs or sexual harassment, and that gives the other guys an excuse to get violent.

It is not the proud boys showing up and starting fights at these things.

It's always this.

So here's another real example.

This is a woman who posted something about the Jew slaveholders in the United States.

I'm not gonna read it and screen grab it off the Seattle channel if you want.

This is gonna be like, hey, no.

This is gonna be like, who, me?

And she is out there right now calling this sexual harassment and sliding into DMs.

And because they live in this factory environment, this has escalated recently into calling it rape.

I'm gonna play you something from the body cam for a protest.

You can clearly hear her saying the word rapist.

When you use words like rapist and predator to describe a man saying stop talking shit about the Jews, that causes this violence.

That's how it happens.

Thank you, Bennett.

So we're going to transition online.

as well.

So we have Gabriel Newman, followed by Jen Carl, Colin, and then Peter Orr.

Good afternoon, Seattle City Council.

Oh, sorry.

No, no, you're good, Gabriel.

Hold on.

Restart your time.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, start when you're ready.

Good afternoon, Seattle City Council.

My name is Gabriel Newman.

I'm the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the SBA, which proudly serves at Washington's LGBTQ and LA Business Association and Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce.

I'm calling in to testify in support of the legislation authorizing the Department of Transportation to close streets.

Safe neighborhoods are essential to thriving business districts.

Our members consistently tell us that public safety is one of the most important factors influencing whether customers choose to visit commercial areas whether employees feel comfortable commuting to work, and whether entrepreneurs are willing to invest in Seattle.

While this legislation was prompted by the tragic pattern of gun violence in neighborhoods near Aurora Avenue North, we believe its value extends beyond a single location.

Giving the city flexibility to implement targeted, temporary street closures when recommended by public safety professionals can help prevent violence, perception of our businesses, and restore confidence in neighborhoods experiencing extraordinary safety challenges.

As an LGBTQ plus business association, we know that many of our members serve communities that have historically experienced harassment and violence.

Creating environments where people feel safe walking, shopping, dining, and gathering is fundamental to building inclusive commercial districts.

Public spaces that feel secure encourage economic activity and strengthen neighborhood vitality.

We also appreciate that this legislation is narrowly tailored.

It does not create so many closures or broadening restrictions.

Instead, it gives FDOT the authority to act when there is demonstrated public safety need and allows closures to be implemented in a way that preserves access to those who live and work in the affected area.

No single policy will solve violent crime.

Street closures should be used alongside investments in law enforcement, behavioral health, sickness and services, and long-term community safety strategies.

However, when lives are at risk, the city should have every reasonable tool available to respond quickly and effectively.

Thank you so much for considering this legislation.

I appreciate it.

Awesome.

Thank you, Gabriel.

Next we have Jen Carl, followed by Colin Morgan Cross, star six on mute yourself.

Welcome, Jen.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Jen Carl.

I use she, her pronouns, and I'm our Neighborhood Safety Coordinator for Capitol Hill through the GSBA in proud support of Seattle's LGBTQIA plus community and business owners.

I'd like to echo the testimony around DOT closures provided by my colleague Gabriel with the added consideration of preparedness for potential vehicular attacks.

In addition to that, I'm also testifying in support of the legislation amending and adding to the Seattle Municipal Code to describe the duties of the Community Crisis Responder Team.

While we understand this legislation will not have direct impact on the vulnerable populations it serves, we believe in the importance of solidifying the existing expanded role of care and the CCRs within the SMC.

We as GSBA and just myself as an individual appreciate all of the work that you continue to do.

So thank you very much for representing our city.

Thank you, Jen.

Next we have Colin followed by Peter or Colin star six unmute yourself.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the Council.

My name is Colin Morgan Cross.

I'm the Vice President of Real Estate Development at Mercy Housing Northwest.

I'm here to comment today on Council Bill 121236 regarding a ground lease of property at 2929 27th Avenue South.

Mercy Housing Northwest is headquartered a few miles south of the property in Rainier Valley and we are proud of our track record and commitment to serving Seattle's families with affordable housing and services for the last decades.

We're also proud to be partners with El Centro de la Raza in this exciting, innovative, and impactful project.

The vision for our development is based on key themes derived from public input.

We aim to create a neighborhood that is welcoming, safe, diverse, accessible, and community-centered.

Key elements of the new community will include 241 units of new affordable homes for working families, primarily made up of two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments, A new Rainier Valley Early Learning Campus for the University of Washington with 35,000 square feet for childcare and university teaching space.

Community serving commercial for locally owned businesses in partnership with the Office of Economic Development.

And at the heart of the community, a large public open space that is available to residents and the wider community for outdoor activities and gatherings.

We have collaborated with members of the community, the Office of Housing, multiple other city departments, and our stellar design team to re-envision the Mount Baker Station area and to create a new, vibrant, and inclusive community.

We've made it a priority to start construction later this year so that we can open the new community as quickly as possible.

The legislation before you today is an essential milestone that will allow us to do just that, and I ask that you support it by voting yes.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Colin.

Next, we have Peter followed by Paula Sardines.

Peter, press star six to unmute yourself.

Good afternoon, counsel.

My name is Peter Orr.

I'm a 16-year resident of the North of Laura neighborhood, and I'm just calling in to express gratitude and support for the Bill 121233. The barriers that the mayor and SDOT eventually did put up have been definitely providing a quieter, environment and I think that having the ability to enable the chief of police to initiate these is brilliant.

Thank you specifically to Councilmember Juarez, Kettle, Saka and Lynn for your local support of this and I also want to just echo what Keith Carpenter mentioned that this is just one small step towards actually addressing the problem and so far I've seen from this council more determination than any other branch of our current government in addressing the situation.

So I applaud your measures and I ask for your continued creativity in providing tools to the prosecutor and the mayor to take the crimes on Aurora as seriously as they deserve.

Thank you, I yield my time.

Thank you, Peter.

Next we have Paula Sardinas, followed by Erin.

Welcome, Paula.

Good afternoon, Madam President, members of the Council.

For the record, Paula Sardinas, President and CEO of FMS Global Strategies in the WBBA.

Calling in today on behalf of our members who are very prevalent in the Seattle area to comment on the proposed MHA reduction the Council will be considering.

While we all agree that Seattle needs more housing, the question is whether reducing the MHA by 80% for market rate developers is the right to decision.

Based on the information presented to date, we do not believe this is.

You've seen credible evidence demonstrating that MHA fees are the primary barrier prevention that allows affordable housing to go forward.

If the city is being asked to forego up to $20 million in affordable housing revenue, The burden should be on those requesting this reduction, not on the backs of black and brown people that can least afford it.

MHA is one of the city's most cost-effective tools for ensuring that Seattle grows, and as it grows, affordability grows with it.

Weakening that tool without measurable accountability will shift that and cause more harm.

The proposal also raises significant long-term concerns.

Once MHACs are reduced, there's no guarantee that they're going to return to today's current level.

The city risks permanently weakening one of its strongest, most affordable funding mechanisms without any assurances that this is going to pencil or that additional housing production will actually occur.

If the projects are genuinely feasible, we welcome that data-driven conversation.

Show us the analysis, the project-specific information, the transparent evidence.

Public policy should be driven by facts, outcomes, and accountability, not assumptions.

So on behalf of the WBBA members there in the city of Seattle, we would respectfully urge you to consider not taking up this proposal, but instead to preserve the integrity of MHA to have meaningful conversations for black and brown residents are not just participants in the conversation, but we own those seats at the table.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paula.

Next we have Erin, followed by Rose and then Joe.

Council President Hollingsworth and members of the Seattle City Council.

My name is Aaron Tulloch, Legislative Aid with SMS Global Strategies, and I'm testifying today on behalf of SMS Global Strategies and the WBBA in opposition to reducing the MHA fee.

Many of our affordable housing developers, community development organizations, and housing advocates are members of the WBBA.

we recognize the urgent need to build more housing across Seattle.

The question before us is not whether we should increase housing production, it's whether we should weaken one of the city's primary affordable housing funding tools without evidence that doing so will produce the intended results.

This proposal will reduce mandatory housing affordability fees by 80%, resulting in estimated loss of 10 to $20 million in affordable housing funds.

Yet to date, we have not seen that data demonstrating that MHA fees are the reason that these projects are not moving forward.

Projects may be stalled, but that alone does not establish that MHA is the barrier.

As someone who grew up in the CD, I've witnessed the effects of displacement firsthand.

Black and brown communities have already paid a disproportionate price for Seattle's housing crisis.

They should not have to be asked to shoulder an even greater barrier burden by reducing the resources dedicated to affordable housing while providing significant fees, reducing the market rate development.

If developers believe projects are financially infeasible, we welcome a transparent, data-driven discussion supported by project-specific financial information.

Public policy should be based on evidence and accountability, not assumptions.

On behalf of FMS and WBBA, we respectfully urge the Council to reject this proposal and preserve mandatory housing affordability as a critical tool for expanding affordable housing and protecting communities most impacted by the displacement.

I thank you for this time and this consideration.

Thank you, Aaron.

Next, we have Rose followed by Joe, and that will be the end of our online public commenters.

Rose and then Joe.

So star six, unmute yourself, Rose.

We see you online, star six.

There we go.

There we go.

Different than pound six.

Today, this is the last day of Pride Month.

It is also horrifically one of the most terrible days that we have had in transgender legal history.

The Supreme Court handed down decisions today saying that not only do they believe that trans people are not entitled to be in sports as anyone else's, but also that we do not have any recourse under the 14th Amendment.

Let me say that again.

The Supreme Court of the United States has indicated that they do not believe that trans people should be protected under the 14th Amendment of the United States through the Equal Protection Clause.

They are setting the stage for denying trans people any sort of protections for being ourselves, which when we talk about the ongoing and increasing early stages of genocide, this is what we're talking about.

We are talking about them trying to pull passports, whether it's and ICE trying to make it so that individuals that come here to the US are not able to be recognized for being trans or this or all other marginalization and targeting that's happening.

This is getting worse and this is just the beginning.

This is why we are talking about the violence that is happening to our communities and also why the emergency declaration is necessary.

Tomorrow goes into effect the Idaho transgender bathroom bill and we are going to see more and more people coming here.

And this is only going to get worse as the year progresses.

And that's not even what all that's going on here.

We had SPD that targeted people in Cal Anderson last week and kidnapped people and did not let us know where they went for days for seemingly no reason.

We need to know what's going on and we need to have people in the City Council and the Mayor support us because we need that right now more than ever.

Thank you, Rose.

Next we have Joe.

Welcome, Joe.

Thank you, President.

Joe Kunzler here.

I want to comment about some things and I really appreciate the full two minutes today.

The first thing is, as I attempted to call into the KCHRA last Friday and was rudely interrupted by an inexperienced chair, when I was trying to raise the issue of the fact that this mayor promised 500 tiny homes in time for the World Cup and wasn't able to deliver, and I wonder how much of that was because of KCHRA's incompetence.

I hope that the City Council will demand answers as it considers whether or not to shut down KCHRA, and I encourage you to seriously consider this.

What is needed is to have posters all around Seattle saying, you can't be the council president on drugs.

You can't play for the Seattle Storm on drugs.

You can't play for the Seattle Seahawks on drugs.

I mean, you kind of get the picture.

And you certainly can't beat council member Dan Strauss on drugs.

He's also a great South Transit board member, by the way.

Moving along, I also wanted to call in today, and I I don't want to get back and forth with the previous caller, but I think it's generally unsafe to have trans persons playing with natural girls.

Now, if fully adult women want to make that choice of inclusion, it is a choice that adult women should be able to make.

I, as a cis male, don't want any voice in that, but just to protect natural girls because there's a possibility of injury and all.

So I think we should get politicians away from medical decisions.

Moving on, I do also want to comment on something else that's troubling me, which is the lack of condemnation of anti-Semitism.

I think more can be done to protect the Jews in our community, and I think it's important we all condemn anti-Semitism.

And finally, I want to conclude on this positive thought.

I'm very happy with the way Seattle is being managed and run in the transportation element.

Go Storm, Go Sun Transit and Go USA.

Thank you for your public service.

All right.

Thank you, Joe.

Thank you.

Are there any more folks that signed up?

No, I want to thank everyone for whether you signed up online or you came in person for your public comment today and really appreciate you taking your time out of your day.

And as I always say, the people that send us emails and connect with us on the bus or at the grocery store, wherever you may have where you would like to give us public comments.

Thank you so much.

Or at the park on a Saturday in the morning at 10 a.m.

while we're picking up litter.

Thank you for all your comments.

Today, so we're gonna, public comment period is now closed.

We're gonna transition right into our meetings.

And if there's no objection, the introduction referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction referral calendar is adopted.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now consider the consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar include minutes of June 23rd, 2026, and Council Bill 121239, payment of the bills.

Are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Will someone kindly give me a second?

Second.

Thank you.

There is a second.

It's been moved and second to adopt the consent calendar.

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

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Awesome, the consent calendar is adopted.

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

Now, we'll jump right into the meat of the meeting, or the tofu of the meeting.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

The report of the Public Safety, agenda item one, Council Bill 121-233 relating to closing public streets to maintain or enhance public safety, authorizing director of transportation to close streets, amending section 11.16.125, the Seattle Municipal Code declaring emergency and establishing an immediate effective date all by three-fourths vote of the City Council.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Awesome, Council Member Kettle.

As chair of the committee, you're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Chair.

Committee report, I will defer to our colleague, Councilmember Juarez, for the first and last word on this bill, given that she's the prime sponsor.

Awesome.

Councilmember Juarez, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair Kettle, and thank you, Council President.

I just want to comment before I go into some of the comments that had made during committee that Council Bill 121233 is a manifestation that has a long history beyond the last six months that we've seen, particularly in my time on Seattle City Council, going on nine, nine and a half years in Aurora and its history.

That being said, let me get through my comments and then I want to respond.

I also want to thank my co-sponsor, Council Member Saka, and then I will do a few more thank yous if Council Member Kettle likes me to close this out.

This ordinance allows SDOT, Seattle Department of Transportation, and SPD to close public streets based on the recommendation of the chief of police, quote, in order to prevent criminal activity.

And that would include gun violence, drug activity, solicitation, sex trafficking, prostitution, et cetera.

The original legislation was drafted and transmitted by former Mayor Harrell.

I want to thank Council Member Lynn again when he was in the City Attorney's Office.

Council Member Lynn, thank you.

As I shared earlier, this is a great example of shared leadership for bringing this legislation to my attention and to our office in working with us.

I also want to thank quickly and I'm doing some things up front because these are the people that helped us work through some of the language besides Councilmember Lin.

Working with City Attorney Evans, Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Kettle who is the Chair of Public Safety.

I want to briefly go through the community support and events timeline.

What we saw is our neighbors saw an 8% increase of gun violence in the month of May.

Recent shootings have taken place further into neighborhoods, that's on the east and west sides of Aurora, as crime-related vehicles park and wait in neighborhoods rather than near Aurora itself.

Neighbors held public safety meetings and walks with city officials and called for the streets to be shut down.

Neighbors blocked the streets with planters May 24th to May 28th and then we did see a reduction in some activity and shootings on those streets during that street blockage that the neighbors did themselves.

On May 28th and 29th the mayor's office removed the planters and installed slowdowns and then, of course, the shootings returned on May 30th to June 1st.

On June 11th, as you all know, we had a press conference with community, and again, Council President, City Attorney Evans, King County Prosecutor Lisa Mannion, Council Member Strauss, Council Member Rivera, Council Member Kettle, along with the Mayor and Interim SDOT Director Angela Brady made the announcement to close the roads from 95th to 102nd.

and also increased the police presence.

And as I shared before, you can go on Aurora, you can go from about 85th to 130th, and you can see the activity, and it's gotten worse over the years.

And as I had shared before, it's gotten more violent, more predatory, and more gun violence.

This legislation is meant as a temporary tool when public safety issues arise in concentrated areas, providing the city the ability to act quickly in subduing crime, which allows time to assess long-term needs and implement solutions for these areas.

And that's where we're looking at the executive branch more importantly SDOT and how we can have more, as some folks said today in public comment, more than a Band-Aid.

For those living in this area, SDOT is looking for direct feedback from you.

They have an online form where you can submit feedback through the summer and if you reach out to our office, we can send you the link as well and meet with you as well.

I want to be clear again that SDOT and the Mayor's Office have always had the authority under our city charter, Article IV specifically, and Article 5 to direct such actions.

The charter is, as we all know, is to protect and enhance the health, safety, and general welfare of the people.

Let me make a correction.

Article 4 is the legislative branch.

Article 5 is the executive branch.

We know and we've experienced and we've watched that SDOT can close streets for pedestrian bike safety, speed limit, traffic calming, safe streets, healthy streets, speed bumps, roundabouts, parking restrictions, street vacations, street racing, national nights out, and for bike lanes.

We also, as you know, we can close streets for pedestrians, bikes, heavy foot traffic for sporting events, etc.

It's certainly as we saw for FIFA.

SDOT in the past has closed streets such as Golden Gardens for safe streets, Alki for healthy streets, Pike Place Market 2025 through a pilot project to 2026 for the Sip and Savor.

And I should add, during COVID, we closed many streets for safety and health purposes.

and also what we've also heard and we've watched and experienced, I think the council president has spoken to this, Lake Washington Boulevard has been closed many times for the weekend for bikes and pedestrians.

And I just wanna share that while we appreciate transit and we appreciate those that use transit and I just wanna add that we also have people that need their cars.

We also have people that can't always walk and we're not just a transit oriented city.

With that being said, I want to add that and thank City Attorney Evans along with Council Member Kettle, Chair of Public Safety in our combined efforts to and work with the Mayor's Office in a supplemental budget request for a Vice Prosecutor, an FTE position that will be cross-deputized with King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office to address, investigate, prosecute, those involved in sex trafficking, solicitation, and all the activity in prostitution that we see going on on Aurora and has gotten, as I said, worse.

We can and have the authority to shut down a street for bullets flying and endangering the very lives of those that live there, gunshots that we have seen and heard.

People should be able to walk safely, take the bus, walk their children to school, worship, go to church, use the transportation without the fear of being shot at or be involved in cross gunfire.

Lastly, I want to thank those folks that came down to public comment, that called our offices, that reached out to our other council members.

who called in and showed up in community, attended the walks on Aurora for those to see that this is real and the violence is real.

And again, as I shared before, your courage is indeed contagious and it far outweighs fear.

I wanna address something very quickly.

I made some notes and I wasn't gonna share this, well, I was gonna share, but when I heard some more public comment, it's something that we've always known.

that the root of the problem on Aurora is the sex trafficking, is the prostitution, is the drug activity.

And that today, I agree, it is a band-aid.

And hopefully with SDOT and their engineers, they can look at something more permanent to make Aurora safe.

and if the root of the problem is this type of criminal activity, then as you know, what comes of it is gun violence, is crime, is prostitution, solicitation, sex trafficking, drug activity.

You can look at those bus stops.

All of them are used and you can see people on fentanyl all the time.

There is a time that in the last seven years that I, believe it or not, would go on Aurora and would count how many pimps and prostitutes and sometimes they'd be up to 40. right up from 85th all the way up to where the Ulta former Amazon parking lot is.

And that is real.

And I think some people want to say, oh, well this is, you know, maybe if we legalize prostitution it would make it better.

No, that's not what we're talking about here.

and so I want to thank those of you from the faith-based organizations.

I want to thank Aurora Commons.

They've been a partner with us.

Many of you who sat here, we've worked on their budget.

We helped them expand their services with Harborview and the UW for not only services, medical services for those trying to escape sex trafficking, but also to offer services and we'll continue to do that.

And lastly, I want to thank this council for being so supportive on the legislative branch and working with not only myself, but also council member and chair of the public safety committee, council member Kettle and city attorney Evans, who whatever criticisms you have about city attorney Evans, I'm going to say this.

She showed up in January, and I've met with her many times.

And more importantly, not more importantly, just as importantly, Chief of Police Barnes.

I have met with him more than a dozen times.

And I appreciate that this chief of police, like the last three I worked with, call me directly, including when we thought we had ICE raids up on Aurora.

And that is what district representation was supposed to do for us, is that we have folks that live in the district that understand the neighborhood, that we honor the needs of our district, but we represent the whole city.

and so I'm glad that we are shining a light on Aurora, that we're going to see that it isn't just a few pimps, but there's actually gunfire and it saddens me, though people don't know this, that the neighbors had to on their own go up and put up barriers.

What people don't know is people have been, neighborhoods have been doing this across the city, at least in my district, I've seen it.

They've just been quiet about it.

They've put out planters to discourage RVs from parking in front of their homes.

We've worked with SDOT to reconfigure parking spaces so you don't have at one time, I think I counted 17 RVs behind Safeway on 15th.

I mean, I know D5 like the back of my hand, so I can tell you every hotspot Albert Davis, Virgil Flam, Lake City Way, the park, I mean, I can tell you.

And when we're here today, and again, this is for all of my colleagues, We care about this city and we care when there's gunshots.

And we particularly care when people who aren't even doing anything, they're just the gentleman that we had come and talk about his child and the gunshots that went through his house and he has an infant.

So with that, I'm hoping colleagues that you will all vote and support this council bill.

And with that, I yield back to the chair of public safety or the, I'm sorry, council president.

Thank you.

Thank you, council member Juarez.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair.

I want to first thank you to Council Member Juarez and all those that she thanked as well, and especially the North Aurora neighborhood.

Colleagues, we need a comprehensive approach in North Aurora.

We need to have balance between the focus on our neighbors in crisis with a focus as well on our neighborhoods in crisis like that in North Aurora.

We need leadership that is sustained with an element of follow-up and follow-through.

This is not just a summer issue.

This goes throughout the year.

We need implementations of ordinances passed into law.

We need accountability to match the compassion in our efforts.

And we need the integration on one hand of public safety to traditional public safety with public health, housing, and human services on the other hand.

and so I ask that, you know, we actually to move forward that we address the crisis in North Aurora by achieving our goals related to SBD staffing.

The more officers we bring on board, the more that we can pull off patrol and put back into detectives, put back into the specialty units that are designed to, you know, work this problem set.

that we can take advantage of the great force multiplier that is the real-time crime center, its CCTV program, and as it relates to this, the automatic license plate reader program, which would be so key on Aurora.

again, implement our ordinances.

As Councilmember Juarez pointed out, we need the partnership between King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and the City Attorney's Office.

They need that assistance.

They need that person, that prosecutor, to tackle the legal sides of these things.

We need service providers that relate to commercial sex exploitation to be there at second and third watch.

I've been up at the North Precinct.

They don't all show up at second and third watch.

In fact, it's very few.

And here's the issue, we can't wait till nine o'clock the next morning.

So we need to engage on the human services side of the thing to ensure that they're there when needed and they can partner with the North Precinct.

Again, this is the seam defined, the seam between public safety, public health, housing and human services.

And I would add to the more general point that was raised, we need the unified care team.

which engages with community, and it's not what it's been characterized to be by others.

We need to have this comprehensive approach.

But today and right now, what we need, and colleagues, I ask for your support, is passing Council Bill 121233. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez for those opening comments.

Colleagues, want to open the floor up if there's any more comments regarding the bill before us, which is Council Bill 121233. Council Member Strauss, you are recognized.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll be brief, just want to say I've had the pleasure of working with Councilmember Juarez when she was here before.

I got to watch no momentum lost in the transition to Councilmember Moore and no momentum lost in the transition back to Councilmember Juarez.

That's very important because when you lose momentum in a space, in a place like Aurora, things unravel very quickly.

and, you know, I shared this at the press conference a few weeks ago that I lived on Motor Place in Aurora in the early teens, just after the Thunderbird Motel was closed, but still standing.

And throughout my life, the issues that are occurring on Aurora have extended all the way down to the Ship Canal.

And when I took office, they were down to 83rd and Aurora.

And what I've always really appreciated about Council Member Juarez is that, and I've been supportive of your work.

We work a lot behind the scenes because district lines are made up and what is not made up is my dedication to the residents of District 6 and District 5, honor the district, but represent the entire city.

What I've seen is that while the issues have, we closed down some hotels on 83rd, we closed down some hotels on 87th, and the problem continued northward, but we're not done.

This legislation is important.

It is not the end-all solution.

And what I strive to do in the legacy of Council Member Juarez, because I watch you do this all the time, is to both support the community through programs like Aurora Commons and protect the community by ensuring that criminal activity is not occurring on the streets where people are trying to raise their families.

and what I heard very loud and clear at the press conference a few weeks ago is that multiple layers of government, the Seattle City Council, the Mayor, the King County Prosecuting Attorney, the Seattle City Attorney, all, and Police Chief Sean Barnes and Assistant Chief Nicole and Chief Barton, but the message was clear that if you want to engage in criminal activities on streets where people are raising their family, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted, through the process of our municipal, through our court systems.

And it's that simple.

We have to both support our community with programs like Aurora Commons and protect our community on the streets that they raise families.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

I just want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Juarez, for her leadership in bringing this legislation forward.

You know, as she mentioned and as we talked about at the last press conference, we don't need to bring emergency legislation.

We have the authority to do so, but we're under a situation where this is how seriously we're taking this.

that Council Member Juarez brought forward this emergency legislation so we could do something right away.

And I really not just admire, but appreciate her leadership, which is why I joined her at the press conference a couple weeks ago.

Um, I did not vote on this legislation last week because I had a conflicting meeting and the vote took place right after I had to leave, but I indicated then as I will, as I'm going to now that I wholeheartedly support this legislation.

Um, as was mentioned earlier, uh, I represent the D4, but I also work on issues related to every constituent across the city.

We are district specific, but we are here to also and partner together and work together toward the entire city, not just the district that we represent.

And in that way, we support each other when we are trying to help our constituents.

This, I agree, this is not the solve-all.

We will have to continue to work to figure out the atrocities that are happening on Aurora.

There are girls and women being trafficked and abused and used, and we need to do more as a city collectively, working with all branches of government.

to take some serious action.

And you all know that I very much care about gun violence.

That's why I'm sitting here today, that I hosted a gun violence symposium.

I am working on next steps for that, and you all will hear more about that.

But it involves everyone working together toward this common goal and solution, because we need to take these things obviously very seriously, and we can't just give lip service to it, we actually have to do something.

And toward that end, that is with Council Member Juarez, with our chair's support, Council Member Kettle, and all of us are doing today is actually taking a step toward actually doing something and not just talking about it.

So I'm saying that because I want everyone to know that we are about taking action and that sometimes unfortunately action takes longer to happen but that we're serious about it and that is what we're working toward.

And you have my commitment to continuing to take action.

to deal not just with what is happening on Aurora, but across the city related to gun violence.

So again, thank you, Council Member Juarez, and I'll be supporting this today.

Thank you, Council President.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Are there any more comments about Council Bill 121233?

Before we turn it back over to Council Member Juarez, I will say this before you have the last words.

Really, I'll add to the thank yous, but really I'll just say I appreciate I appreciate your leadership around this because as the conversations and topics have been about the gun violence, the street closures, the pimps, the johns, I know that we all care about those little girls that are out on Aurora.

and to continue to bring that back to the conversation of the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16-year-olds that are out on Aurora.

And I have a cousin who's a social worker, and I talk about often at McKinney-Vento, and to hear the stories that they have to deal with about the aftercare for some of these young girls.

I support this legislation.

We all know it's a first step, really appreciate your advocacy on this and using the legislative, your legislative role and powers within this department to do everything that we can to get the outcomes that I know that the city attorney wants, I know that the mayor's office wants, I know that a lot of people that we want to make sure that Aurora is, Aurora, excuse me, is safe.

So I wanna thank you Council Member Juarez for your leadership on that and getting us all to understand the severity of this issue.

So thank you and Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

I'm just going to add on two notes.

First, I want to apologize to the folks on Aurora, East and West, that it took us so long to have a legislative response, emergency legislation, when you were experiencing gun violence, and we've seen it all over the city.

and second, I do want to thank and highlight our at-large representatives, Councilmember Foster and Councilmember Rank, who've been incredibly accessible and also admire their youth and intuitive status of understanding the issue and moving things forward and really caring about this.

I'm I'm kind of laughing to myself as Councilmember Strauss made a comment that I told him about years ago That we may we rep we honor the needs of our district, but we represent the city And what I always used to tell him after that which he doesn't say is that I actually stole that line from either Star Trek or Deep Space Nine one of them But I just want people to know because Councilmember Foster and Rink aren't in a district, obviously, they're represented citywide, but they listen to us and they talk to us and they come in our offices and they say, what's going on in your district?

I understand this.

And I can tell you right now that we have had their undivided attention in this legislation, not only just in DeFi, but other areas as well.

But I didn't want to have that go unsaid.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

If there's no other further comments, will the clerk please call the roll on passage of Council Bill 121233. Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Len?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Sacca?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Council President, all of those?

Yes.

None in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes, the chair will sign it, and will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Okay, now we're gonna jump into item number two.

Will the clerk please read item number two into the record?

Agenda item two, Council Bill 121-232 relating to the operation of the Community Assistance and Engagement Department, describing the duties of the Community Crisis Responder Team.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Council Member Kettle, chair of the committee, you're recognized to give the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

This bill really kind of goes with what we've just been talking about.

It's about providing that, you know, what we're seeing on our streets, providing that alternative response and, you know, bringing that to the table.

And this bill focuses on a few things.

One is to highlight that, you know, the care crisis responders are our first responders in the clinical crisis and those that are in behavioral health crisis.

It's also about diversion.

It's about bringing that piece into what we're doing and to do it better and to bring it with the care department with purpose, dignity and action and the law enforcement assisted diversion that we have to help those that are in addiction, substance use disorder.

And then the third piece is public health, to truly bring public health, again, the same, bring public health in partnership with public safety.

And the way we do this, given the fact that the county has public health responsibilities, is to identify within the public safety space that connection, that lead partner in terms of this kind of alternative response piece, you know, this area that we're seeing on our streets.

and that's what this bill does.

It brings that into place.

And it's also in keeping with what we're doing with our strategic framework plan for, say, for Seattle.

You know, we have six pillars to the plan, and working backwards, pillar five, addressing the scene between public safety, public health, housing, and human services.

This is where the care department resides, right in the scene.

This is where alternative response is, right in the scene.

And we have to build this up, and this is an opportunity to do so.

Pillar three, there's the gun violence piece that Councilmember Rivera was speaking to, but it also has community safety.

Bringing that piece into the partners that we have in this alternative response space, not the government piece, but the community piece, to bring that into play, and that's really important.

And then the last one being pillar two, furthering a functional criminal justice system.

It is so important for us to work all those pieces that we have the hiccups on, that there's speed bumps, there's these mismatches, whatever it is.

We have to have a further and proper criminal justice system.

And this includes bringing in diversion.

This includes working with those that are in behavioral health crisis or clinical crises.

And so what we're doing is in sync with the overall plan to bring this forward in terms of what we're seeing on our streets to, again, since we have many from North Aurora, what we're seeing on North Aurora.

Because it's not just what we were just talking about.

It is across the board.

And at the end of the day, and this is how I approach and I know my colleagues do as well, is that we should be looking for ways to set up individuals and organizations up for success.

You know, the CARE enabling ordinance, you know, it's, we've been going through these iterations and our goal should always be to set up the organization for success.

Because at the end of the day, if CARE is successful in this alternative response piece, that means our neighborhoods are going to be more successful.

And importantly, our neighbors that are in crisis that they're being helped and set up for success.

So colleagues, with that, I ask for your support regarding Council Bill 121232. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, is there any other comments regarding the bill before us, Council Bill 121232?

Okay, seeing none.

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

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes Council Member Rink?

Yes Council Member Rivera?

Aye Council Member Saka?

Aye Council Member Strauss?

Aye Council Member Foster?

Yes Council Member Juarez?

Aye Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes.

Chair will sign it.

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

Good job, Councilmember Kettle.

Will the clerk please read item number three into the record?

The report of the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee agenda item three, Council Bill 121-218 relating to housing for low-income households.

Adopting the 2023 Seattle Housing Levy Administrative and Financial Plan for program years 2026 through 2028 Adopting housing funding policies for program years 2026 through 2028 And for the 2023 Seattle Housing Levy and other fund sources authorizing actions by the Director of Housing regarding past and future housing loans and contracts The committee recommends the bill passes amended

Awesome.

Councilmember Foster, chair of the committee, you are recognized to give us the committee report.

Thank you so much, Council President, and thank you, colleagues.

So excited to bring this forward for your support.

This is an update to the housing funding policies that the Office of Housing does once every two years.

As a reminder, and colleagues, you know that OH did a more substantial update two years ago.

The majority of this update was technical in nature, although I will just highlight for you Our office did work with the Office of Housing, and actually I want to express my gratitude to the Office of Housing and the Mayor's Office for their work on this update.

We did work on some changes to update and clarify language regarding details on debt restructure and stabilization loans.

As we know, Office of Housing made those for the first time in 2025 as part of their notice of funding availability awards.

And we wanted to make sure that the HFP policies provided clear guidance on that.

We also worked with OH to clarify changes for supplemental funding adjustments to facilitate construction finance closing or conversion from construction to permanent financing.

Again, this is a practice that the Office of Housing already had in place and was already authorized to do.

We just added some additional language to provide guidance in the HFP policies around that.

So overall, a really good package of updates that just ensures that as we move forward implementing our housing funding, including PET, MHA, and money from the housing levy, that we have clear and strong Council oversight.

With that, this passed unanimously out of committee and colleagues, I ask for your support.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Foster.

Are there any comments regarding the bill before us?

Okay, awesome.

Will the clerk please call the roll for the passage of the bill?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

The Chair will sign up.

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

Will the Clerk please read item number four into the record?

Agenda Item 4, Council Bill 121236 relating to the Office of Housing granting a ground lease of real property located at 2929 27th Avenue South, authorizing Director of the Office of Housing to grant a lease of the real property to and authorizing a related agreement and actions to support the development of affordable housing and commercial space intended to be used for early learning, childcare center and associated uses.

The committee recommends a bill pass.

Awesome.

Councilmember Foster, we going back to you for the next items, number four, five, and six.

So all you.

It's a real housing party over here.

Thank you so much, Council President.

And I will share a few words and then just to give him a heads up, if Councilmember Lynn wants to speak on this, I'll also make sure that you have the opportunity to do that.

This is a really exciting opportunity, colleagues.

We heard some public comment here about this project today and the collaboration between Mercy Housing and El Centro de la Raza.

This is a project that's taking place right at the Mount Baker light rail station on what many folks may know as the former UW laundry site.

And this puts us on track to build 241 units total, 239 of those that are going to be affordable units.

And what is really, really exciting about that is the number of two, three and four bedroom units that are going to be at this site.

This is a really important opportunity for us to build family size affordable housing here in our city at a moment where many families are struggling with the high cost of living and in particular being rent burdened.

This project is already fenced off and they are like ready to break ground this fall and this is the final piece of the pie through passing this legislation.

I want to express my appreciation to the Office of Housing and the Mayor's Office on this, and I believe Council Member Lynn will speak to this as well, but there's a long history of people who have been working on getting housing and childcare at this site, including our partners in the state legislature, and so I want to express my appreciation.

This was a long time coming, and colleagues, I'm excited to ask for your support.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Foster.

Council Member Lynn.

I know you didn't raise your hand, but I'm sure you want to.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Foster.

And this is a super exciting development right at the Mount Baker Light Rail Station.

And just a little bit of history.

I got the opportunity to work on this when I was in the city attorney's office for about six years.

But the former speaker, Frank Chopp, when he was in the legislature.

You know, this was owned by UW.

Colleagues who were on council before or have been here for a while probably recall that we accepted this property via transfer from UW at no cost.

and that was again, thanks in large part to former Speaker Chopp.

It is super exciting to, there's many firsts here, including a UW early learning facility, which is super exciting.

There's a community workforce agreement, which is only the second one we've done with Office of Housing funds.

So that's also an exciting development and can't wait to see them break ground.

So thanks to all the community partners and look forward to celebrating soon.

Awesome, thank you Councilmember.

Lynn, is there any other comments regarding the bill before us?

Really happy for this project.

I think it's right behind the light rail and there's so much opportunity along Rainier with the light rail.

You have Mount Baker Transfer Station, you have the QFC, the grocery store.

Hopefully we get another thing next to in that parking lot where you have a grocery store and then also something else like whatever it is, but I know it used to be a drug store.

But what I learned what was interesting, cause we talked about all these surface parking lots and putting buildings on there that there's a massive water main that runs through that parking lot.

And so that's why there's not able to have certain type of development

on that area, so it will continue to say what it is, but looking forward to this legislation.

Colleagues, are there any more comments?

No, is there, did you say something?

Oh, there is an amendment, excuse me, I'm sorry.

Okay, Councilmember Foster, you are recognized to move your amendment, Amendment A. Oh, thank you so much.

I move Amendment A. Sorry, I need to...

I believe this is coming from Councilmember Lynn.

So I... It's not in my script.

I would like to move Amendment A. Is there a second?

Second.

Austin, it's been moved and second to amend Council Bill 121236 as presented on Amendment A. Council Member Foster, as sponsor, you're recognized to address the amendment.

Thank you so much for this.

And I wanna appreciate Council Member Lynn for his eagle eye and the fact that he was working on this as a lawyer for six years and caught a technical change in the language that needed to be updated to ensure that the language and the ordinance is reflecting what it needs to accomplish our goals under the law.

So this is just a friendly technical amendment that we are advancing.

And colleagues, I ask for your support.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Foster.

I wouldn't expect anything less from Council Member Lynn and his eagle eye.

Are there any comments about Amendment A?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment A?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lin?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Helixworth?

Yes.

Aye.

Any favor, none opposed.

Motion carries Amendment A is adopted.

Are there further comments on the bill as amended?

Any closing remarks from Council Member Foster, Council Member Lin?

No?

All right.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill as amended?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lin?

Yes.

Council Member Rank?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Sacca?

Aye.

Council Member Schaus?

Aye.

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Wires?

Aye.

Council President Hoxworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes as amended and the Chair will sign on.

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

Will the Clerk please read item number five into the record?

Agenda item five, Council Bill 121-237 relating to the Seattle Office of Housing placing acquired real property In the Montlake neighborhood under the jurisdiction of the Office of Housing authorizing the Office of Housing to issue a competitive request for proposals for selection of a preferred developer and to execute and deliver a contract for transfer of land deed related documents to the selected developer, the committee recommends the bill pass.

Awesome.

Councilmember Foster, House Party, back to you.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much, Council President.

So colleagues, another really exciting opportunity in front of us.

Whereas the piece of legislation that we just passed is getting us into the lease that we need to do to ensure that the development moves forward, this is helping us set up our pipeline again for continuing to build affordable housing in the city.

So I will start also with an appreciation again to our colleagues in the state legislature.

who appropriated resources for the Office of Housing so that we can purchase this property, this piece of surplus property from WSDOT.

And what's exciting here is this is an opportunity to build, again, my favorite words, family size housing, and this gives us an opportunity to do so in what is a high opportunity neighborhood that does not actually have subsidized affordable housing in it yet.

So folks will remember this location as the site of the former gas station and convenience store that WSDOT acquired in order to do the work around the 520. And now this is surplus property that the city will be acquiring with the opportunity to develop and build affordable home ownership here.

I do want to highlight some work that we did, again, and express my appreciation for the Office of Housing, work that we did with the Office of Housing in the pre-introduction edits to ensure that there is a provision where the selected proposal must address both pedestrian safety and environmental impacts given the site's proximity.

to 520 and the arterials.

And also to ensure that the project will propose, excuse me, the project will prioritize proposals that provide a significant number of family size units.

So excited to bring this forward to ensure that we have property that we can continue to develop for affordable home ownership in our pipeline.

And with that, colleagues, I ask for your support.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

And I know I was not at that meeting, but totally support this.

It's in District 3 in Montlake and very excited for this project.

Had heard about it online for a long time coming over and just really appreciate the attention to detail that you put in about the pedestrian safety and also the prioritizing family housing as well.

So thank you for that.

Colleagues, are there any...

Are there any comments about the bill before us for Council Bill 121-237?

Okay, awesome.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Do you have any closing comments, Councilmember Foster?

I'll just add one other piece.

It's not a requirement in the RFP, but because I mentioned that the site used to be a gas station and convenience store, there is also an encouragement for ground floor commercial because we want to make sure that we are doing what we can to bring back that grocery.

I mean, it wasn't a full grocery, but that access to food in the neighborhood.

Absolutely, thank you for that because that was a family owned grocery community store and those are really important to have because I know a lot of people talked about how much they missed that so really appreciate that too as well.

We want more of those in our city.

All right, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Schaus?

Aye.

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes.

Chair will sign up.

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

Will you please read item number six into the record?

Agenda item six, Council Bill 121-238 relating to the Office of Housing authorizing the acquisition of two parcels in the central area for the purpose of developing affordable home ownership units Placing the property under the jurisdiction of the Office of Housing authorizing the Director of the Office of Housing or the Director's designee to issue a request for proposals and to select a developer and thereafter to execute and deliver a contract for transfer of land, deed and related documents.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Councilmember Foster, back to you.

Thank you so much, Council President.

And we're still in your district, so I'll go back to you here in just a second, I think.

So colleagues, really excited.

Again, this is another acquisition that allows us to continue to set up our pipeline.

This, again, for affordable home ownership, and this time right in the heart of the Central District.

So this is a building that was previously, or until we passed this, operated and owned by the Central Area Development Association.

It operated as affordable housing for more than 25 years and the Office of Housing worked closely with CADA in order to bring forth this piece of legislation where we are both acquiring a building that was previously affordable rental as well as a parcel that is directly next door, both of which were under the ownership and operation of CADA.

And what I'll highlight here that I'm excited about this opportunity is that we worked with the Office of Housing on some pre-introduction edits and work so that the future development of this location will utilize community preference.

And community preference is a policy that we have here that allows us to affirmatively market and prioritize individuals who have historic ties to the neighborhood and the community.

and I can't think of a location in our city where that is more important in its application than in the Central District.

So I'm really excited that we will have this opportunity to bring back affordable home ownership right in the heart of the Central District.

And colleagues, I will ask for your support and turn it back to Council President.

She wants to comment about this in her district.

Awesome, thank you Councilmember Foster, fully support it, and also support the intentionality behind when we are building in our areas that might have been redlined, or not might, or have been redlined, intentional about the architect, the builders, the developers, the people that are developing these properties as well.

And then the home ownership piece, how important that is.

So really appreciate your attention to detail on that too as well.

and fully support this legislation.

Colleagues, are there Council Member Juarez?

Madam?

Thank you.

I have a question of Council Member Foster.

She got by me too quick.

What was the term that you used for?

Community preference, is that the one you're asking about?

For the actual, in the district?

Yes.

The community preference.

yes wonderful because we have a different term for that in Indian Country but that's what we do and I'm maybe you should if you want me to I can draft up a land acknowledgement so thank you

Thank you for that, Councilmember Juarez.

I will say I think that setting the term aside, I think the impact of this will be felt because we've seen it used with rental housing previously already here in the city, and we've seen that have an impact in the ability of some of our affordable housing rental operators to allow folks who have been displaced to return to the neighborhoods that they've been displaced from.

So I take your comment, but I do want to share we have tangible impact from this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

because we know she wants the land back, the land acknowledgements.

Council Member Ward says if you wait, same here, if you're giving labor acknowledgements, what's up?

Like, just don't acknowledge the labor.

I'm just saying.

Okay.

Colleagues, are there any more...

Sorry, is there any more...

Is there any final thoughts regarding this land community preference piece?

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on Council Bill 121238?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Sacca?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Hogsworth.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes, the chair will sign it.

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

There were no items.

That was a good job, Councilmember Foster.

There was a housing party, House Party Number Five.

Would that be the sequel, House Party Five?

Remember House Party?

Yes.

Kid in play?

I do.

Okay, maybe I'm too old.

No.

Did you watch that movie, Councilmember Kettle?

He says yes.

I did.

Come on.

There were no items removed from the consent calendar, and there's not a resolution for introduction for adoption today.

Colleagues, is there any more to come before the Council before we adjourn?

Councilmember Juarez, who is elegantly wrapped in black with the gold earrings and the red lipstick and the fresh haircut.

I just want to acknowledge that.

Councilmember Juarez, with the blush.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Two things.

First of all, I did watch House Party Five, so got you there, Council President.

I'm requesting to be excused from the July 7th, 2026 City Council meeting.

Yes.

If there is no objection regarding Council Member Juarez being requested to be excused, hearing none, you are excused.

Am I?

Have you got something to say?

Council Member Juarez, the floor is still yours.

Oh, that's it, right?

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Awesome.

Councilmember Strauss.

Council President, I believe I requested to be excused for July 7th as well.

I have another meeting that I have to attend in district.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

If there's no objection to Councilmember Strauss being absent from July 7th meeting, hearing none, you are excused, my friend.

Thank you.

It looks like doubly so.

Apologies.

It was double.

I think we had already, yeah, but you know what?

You asked twice, so you get to be double excused.

Are there any other items to come before the council before we adjourn?

Colleagues, we'll look left and right.

Okay, awesome.

Well, guess what?

Thank you all for a great meeting.

There is no other items on the agenda, so we have reached the end of today's agenda.

I will take personal privilege to welcome my new niece into the world.

Her name is Rain Hollingsworth, and she is a week old and I just want to thank her for coming into the world.

Thank you, okay?

She will see this and so will my nephew Ivy, but they were born at Swedish Hospital, both of them, and for people who don't know, Swedish Hospital, as I always say, that is in District 3. produces the most baby in the state.

So they have the most births in, about 6,000 to 7,000 births every single year are coming, are pumping out of First Hill, okay?

So they are coming, all right?

And I have, and my family has added to two of those.

in the last couple years.

So I just want to say welcome rain to the family.

You don't hit the lottery, baby.

All right.

Love y'all.

Thank you.

We have reached the end of today's agenda.

The next city council meeting will be July 7th at 2 p.m.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, council president.