City Council Meeting 5/7/2024

Good afternoon, everyone.

The May 7th, 2024 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.02.

I'm Sarah Nelson, president of the council.

Will the clerk please read the roll?

Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Councilmember Strauss.

Present.

Councilmember Wu.

Present.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore and Council President Nelson.

Present.

Five present.

I will note for the record that we had a late transportation levy meeting earlier, and I know that all my colleagues are en route here.

We will proceed, however, anyway.

I will note that Council Member Morales was already excused from today's meeting.

All right, we don't have any presentation for today.

Talking slow.

Colleagues, at this time, we'll open the hybrid public comment period.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have, excuse me, we have eight in-person and 12 remote.

Okay, let's start with the in-person speakers.

Everyone will have one minute to speak and let's break it into chunks of five.

five in-person and five remote?

Sure.

Yeah, so the public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they're registered.

We will alternate between sets of five in-person and five remote speakers.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time, and speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comment within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

So now we'll begin with the first five in-person speakers.

Each speaker will have one minute.

Our first speaker is John Stamstad, and he'll be followed by Mopoa Tshabua.

I'll note that Councilmember Rivera has joined the meeting.

And Anne Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council President.

I think you're good.

The pay-up bill is a failure in the real world.

To the people who say that 113 days isn't long enough of a test, I ask all of you personally, how many people need to go homeless before it is long enough?

Shame on you and your elite, privileged, selfish perspective.

Please think about others who are being harmed.

Yesterday, I made $45 and seven hours of work.

Of all the gig workers I spoke to yesterday, the most that was made by anyone I ran into was $51.

The pay-up bill is doing the opposite of its intention.

It has provably decreased worker pay, and the proposed revisions should fix this.

If restaurants are down 40%, it is not possible under the structure of the pay-up bill for the majority of couriers to be making more money than they were before.

I am confident that the City Council has the best interests of the majority of workers in mind with the revised bill.

The revised bill is an attempt by council to increase workers' wages to achieve an actual minimum wage instead of the false promise of one with the pay-up bill.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mupopa Tishbawa, followed by Wee Lin.

I strongly oppose the revised bill.

proposal to reduce minimum wage.

None of these drivers want any of the companies to fail.

Until drivers can have their own union to negotiate, we count on you to make sure that drivers are treated Fairly.

Unfortunately, the proposal at this time is not fair because it relies on the 1997 minimum wage, which does not consider the situation of drivers who have to use their own cars and have to pay their own taxes.

That is about 25% from the current ordinance.

I think you can do it much better than that.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Wee Lin, and following Wee Lin will be Jason Oglenick.

And I will also take a moment to excuse Councilmember Moore from today's meeting.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Wei Lin, and I'm here today to emphasize the positive impact of the Seattle owners championed by the pay up campaign.

Since the enactment on January 13, this legislation has been a beacon of hope for gigaworkers, providing essential protections such as minimum payment, transparent data access, and safeguard against unfair deactivations.

However, the work does not end here.

The PayUp campaign continues to advocate for the enhancements to make the law more effective and responsive to the need of workers.

Unlike cooperation that often disregards the voice of workers, the PayUp campaign engages directly with the worker through initiative.

like a fair work center, those efforts empower worker by giving them a platform for voice their concern and shape a policy that affect their living hoods.

In the world of Jane Jacobs, city has the capability of providing something for everybody only because and only one when they are creating by everyone.

This ordinance embody the cooperation spirit need to create a city where everyone can thrive, worker, business, and community-like.

Thank you.

Thank you, our next speaker is Jason Oglenick and following Jason will be Ariana Riley.

Last year, I was consistently earning a base of $20 an hour, but usually more.

I was able to work 40 hours a week and even set aside money for emergencies.

It was a low stress job that commensurated with the pay.

Under the current law, my average pay is $10.86 an hour.

I'm forced to work 60 hours at half of last year's wage, and I'm barely able to cover my basic expenses.

The current law is leaving me in a place where I need to postpone basic vehicle maintenance.

I need new brakes and cables, which are only about $60, but right now it's truly burdensome.

$60 is more than half of what I make for $10 of work on an exceptional day.

Living on $10 an hour in Seattle is not sustainable.

It's a wage that puts workers behind one notch each week until they're stranded.

This law needs to change.

Thank you.

We'll now move to our remote speakers.

And a reminder to the remote speakers, when you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted to press star six.

Our first remote speaker is Meredith Seary.

Hi, my name is Meredith.

I am a driver for Uber, Grubhub, and DoorDash.

I am calling to strongly oppose the proposal by Uber, DoorDash, and Sarah Nelson to cut our pay and reduce the cost of minimum wages.

I'd like to share an example with you, which happened just the other day, of how the payout policy protects us.

Before I do that, I also just want to inform you that these companies do have the power to create demand by employing the concept of ghost kitchens by crafting brands and fulfilling them through the restaurants.

It's a pretty important fact that you should take into account.

So this past Sunday, a restaurant never received the order I was picking up.

It's something that happens often.

I had to inform the cashier of what the brand was, what the order was, what the items were.

I waited the 10 minutes.

I delivered the order as agreed.

The payout policy protected me as a driver by holding the company responsible to pay me fairly for my time.

Before payout, my time would have been wasted and my earnings would have been much lower.

Personally, I made about $50 an hour for that order.

Either way, I would have either waited and left, and the order would have been bounced to another driver, screwing over both the driver.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Shawn Ikayan, followed by Alex Kim.

Hi, my name is Shawn Ikayan.

I work with Instacart and Uber Technologies.

I'm here to oppose Sarah Nelson's proposal to cut pay.

Apps claim demand is down in Seattle because they have finally been required to pay a minimum wage.

um which i would like to see statewide with a fluctuation according to different counties requirement but demand is down everywhere outside of seattle there was a massive impact at the same time the paid up structure went into effect outside of seattle as well as inside of seattle um the company's effort into retaliate into the workforce that was the backbone of them turning great profits reported at the end of last year is unnecessary.

The problems with Sarah Nelson's proposal emphasize that only pays straight minimum wage on engaged time with job.

Announce to you, sub.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alex Kim, and following Alex will be Nick James.

Go ahead, Alex.

Hi, my name is Alex Kim, food delivery driver and District 2 resident testifying against the proposed revision to pay up.

I encourage everyone to do this.

Go to archive.org and enter driveforwardseattle.org.

Go to the July 2017 archive and go to the About Us page.

Drive Forward wrote the following describing themselves.

Quote, we were founded by Uber.

You can also go to the March 15, 2023 Finance and Housing Committee video at the 740 mark You'll hear Michael Wolff trying to weaken the paid sick and safe time law by changing it to hours instead of days.

Because we all know when we get sick, we just need a few hours off, not a whole day, right?

Why does Drive Forward say the proposal guarantees a 1997 wage floor?

It only applies to active time, so it's absolutely not a guarantee.

And it is a wage ceiling allowing for top-ups, not a floor.

Drive Forward has misrepresented themselves, and the process to create this revision has been a sham.

It is not good governance to allow corporations to write their own workers' rights laws.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Nick James, and following Nick will be Valerie Schleret.

Go ahead, Nick.

Hey, my name is Nick.

I drive for Uber, Grubhub, and Instacart.

By the way, I made $275 yesterday.

Most of the days I've been out, I've made more since the new law.

And most drivers I actually talk to, real drivers who aren't sent here by DoorDash, are making more.

And I understand demand is down, but it's down because the companies wanted to.

They want to go back to paying sub-minimum wage.

Think about what you're saying with this new proposal on the table.

You can go back to making $13 an hour, but you can work 15 hours a day and in the end you'll make more.

That's a disgusting message to send to people.

Keep the ordinance in play.

Do not pass those.

and if you want to fix stuff you know make the companies do i'm here you know all the sad stories about disabled people old people are there anything in place to cap their fees make it cheaper for them no it's all on the back for the drivers that you know this needs to be done only paying the driver's sub minimum wage is the answer it's disgusting thank you our next speaker is valerie schluret and then we'll return to in-person speakers

Valerie, you may need to press star six.

Okay, let's move on to Shayla Childers.

Shayla?

Hi, I'm Shiloh Childers, and I'm a worker for Amazon Flex, and I'm opposing Nelson's proposal for a pay cut for Seattle's minimum gig workers.

Amazon has already stolen about $300.

For me, please, please do not let them influence anybody to take any more money from the workers.

That's all I'm asking you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next in-person speaker is Nathan Beckwith, and following Nathan will be Castile Hightower.

I want to address the $30 burrito in the room and speak against Sara Nelson's proposal to cut our pay.

On April 25th, my brother and I shared a couple of beers and a pizza in Ballard.

Our tab was $57.

I can tell you where to get a good burrito for $8, but Google won't.

If you Google Mexican food, it will only give you results of businesses who have paid the exorbitant advertising fees.

DoorDash does the exact same thing.

The fact that someone paid $30 for a burrito is not my fault.

Gig workers in Seattle get paid 136% of minimum wage.

I have heard that gig workers in New York City get paid 200% of minimum wage.

We need that extra pay to account for our extra time and costs as contractors.

Everything is expensive here.

It's expensive to own and operate a car or a bike.

It's also dangerous and emotionally and physically draining.

Food is expensive.

It's more so expensive when you don't know where to get a good deal and have to rely on bad companies.

Paying us below minimum wage is not a solution.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Castile Hightower, and Castile will be followed by Justin Taylor.

Come with me.

OK, we're going to do this.

Oh, we're going to do this.

My name's Castille Hightower.

My brother Herbert Hightower Jr. was murdered by Seattle police officer Steve Hojack in 2004 when he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

I have a funeral for him and I have continued to suffer trauma ever since that time period.

I helped pass legislation twice already in the city of Seattle to create a city dedicated office to victims of police violence called the Affected Persons Program.

Twice it's been obstructed.

At this point in time, the program has been cut, and the city of Seattle is now refusing to pay me for three months of back pay, which has put me in a situation where I'm now at risk of losing my house.

So this little kid here is at risk of losing his home because his mother decided to stand up for victims of police violence, including his uncle, Herbert Hightower, that he's never been able to meet.

I'm here because, Joy, I've emailed you, and I haven't heard back from you for at least a week and a half.

Tanya, you were cc'd in that email.

You never replied.

And it's unacceptable for my family to be put into this situation to be at risk of houselessness because of bureaucratic rent.

Thank you, Castile.

Our next speaker is Justin Taylor.

Thank you, Miss Hightower.

Okay, your time is up.

And it's not okay.

I'm tired of the crap.

I've tried to talk to you all on multiple occasions, Joy.

I was at the last community meeting, and we had a conversation, and I thought things were going to move forward, but it's completely stalled again.

I'm not going to allow you guys to continue a business as usual as my family...

$100,000 was passed.

I'm only asking for a small percentage of that, which was work that I worked hard for for three months.

It's one thing to obstruct.

It's one thing to obstruct a program for victims of police violence.

It's another thing to maliciously try to destroy that family because we want to make sure that we have money to bury our loved ones, to have a funeral for our loved ones, because

Thank you.

I do have to say that we have to move on.

Whether you believe a victim is right or wrong, left or right, when a city employee murders someone, you at the very least should have the human decency to make sure that they're buried and have a funeral.

Okay?

Okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Justin Taylor.

I'm a gig worker and I am opposed to the proposed changes that are before the council.

I really hope that you council members are doing your best to like educate yourself about other programs that are out there in other municipalities and cities that are addressing gig worker pay.

One that I would specifically call to your attention is California Proposition 22, which just to remind you, and this is like a quick Wikipedia search.

The app company spent $205 million in their campaign in California.

percent of the local minimum wage.

So if you guys vote for this, if you say that's okay, why are drivers in Seattle, why are we worthless?

Why are we worth less than the drivers in California who the app company spent $205 million to advocate for that change?

So I would encourage you to pass some amendments and oppose this legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now move back to remote speakers.

Our next remote speaker is Emma H. Oh, wait, hold on.

I think, what did you say?

Ariana Riley?

Oh, yeah, we said the name and then...

Oh, I'm sorry.

Come on up, Ariana.

How did I do that?

I read it, didn't I?

I must have forgotten it.

I apologize.

I didn't know it was going to happen.

Thank you.

Yeah, good afternoon, and my name is Arianna Riley, and I'm a gig worker with DoorDash Uber Eats and Amazon Flex.

I'm here to talk about DoorDash's most recent earnings call.

They stated in their most recent earnings call that refunds and credits are actually down in Seattle.

In most cases, refunds and credits came out of the restaurant's pocket, not DoorDash.

There are 15 reasons listed on DoorDash's website as to why they would not pay restaurants for orders.

I used to work at a restaurant that was very popular for delivery, and every day there were at least a few orders that we did not get paid for for various reasons.

Now, per DoorDash's own admission, in Seattle, restaurants are paid for all delivery orders they make, which helps restaurants' profits, and DoorDash is processing less refunds and credits, which is more profits for DoorDash.

This law has improved both service and profit margins for restaurants and DoorDash alike, and customers are benefiting from better service.

It is working better than intended.

Please keep the law in place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now move into our remote speakers.

Our next remote speaker is Emma H., and Emma will be followed by Rob Engel.

In March of last year, DoorDash stated that they were, quote, fierce advocates of legislation like Prop 22 in California and are now pushing for a similar bill in Massachusetts.

These bills set pay at 120% of the minimum wage plus the mileage rate.

Even the app companies understand that the employee minimum wage proposed in Nelson's pay-up provision would result in gig workers taking home far below everyone else.

Unlike Seattle, these bills also provide a health insurance stipend to frequent workers.

In California, a gig worker with 25 active hours per week can make as high as 148% of the employee minimum, compared to Seattle's 132%.

In higher cost of living areas, therefore, the hourly wage can exceed Seattle's.

Yet, all of this can and has been done with additional fees in the range of only $2 and the fierce support of the companies.

The self-imposed high fees in Seattle are a red herring being used to overturn data transparency and worker protections.

Don't fall for it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rob Engel and following Rob will be Hermione Karsten.

Hi, I'm here to speak up in support of Castile Hightower and that she get paid for the work that she already did for the city.

I think it's unbelievably insensitive and disgusting that you guys are aren't even standing to the commitments that you already made.

It doesn't even make sense.

This city has so, so much money, and I just cannot believe that you're pretending like you can't give out $100,000 even.

It's an unbelievable amount of money to me, but to the amount of money you're handling, it's nothing.

Hand over the money for the AP.

This is work that was already done.

She already did the work.

The only mistake Castile made was trusting you people to actually hand over the money without this protracted struggle.

It blows my mind, and you should be ashamed.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Hermione Karsten, and following Hermione will be Jamie Cortez.

Excuse me.

Hermione and then Jamie.

Thank you.

This is Hermione Carson.

I am a customer of Delivery People.

My husband and I are very high risk from COVID.

Delivery folks save our lives every day.

I'm here to support the fair living wage from PayUp and I propose the proposal to cut pay.

Seattle is one of the 2% most expensive cities in the world.

I've lived a life where I have been hand to mouth on minimum wage and it sucks to make the decision to eat or pay rent.

If I can't get local delivery in order to save our lives, I would have to go to national chains and I would hate to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jamie Cortez and following Jamie will be Kimberly Wolf.

Hello, my name is Jamie and I am here in reference to the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee.

Specifically, I'm calling about the affected persons program and the hard work that Castile-Hightower has put in as an actual affected person.

Please pay her salary in full without further delay for at least the first three months of 2024. This is a reasonable expectation following the legislation and written communications from the City of Seattle regarding the APP passed in November 2023. FAILURE TO PAY HER SALARY COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEM SHE HAS ENCOUNTERED EVER SINCE SPD KILLED HER BROTHER.

THE COMMUNITY HAS HAD TO RALLY TO SUPPORT CASTILLE TO MAKE UP FOR THE WAGE SLAP FROM THE CITY FOR WORK SHE ALREADY COMPLETED.

THIS IS WRONG AND NEEDS TO BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY.

CASTILLE NEEDS TO RECEIVE HER BACK PAY WITH INTEREST SINCE THE CITY HAS BEEN HOLDING HER WAGES HOSTAGE.

PAY CASTILLE NOW.

Thank you, our next speaker is Kimberly Wolf, and following Kimberly will be Alberto Alvarez.

Alvarez.

Kimberly Wolf, gig worker.

I'm speaking regarding the Councilmember Nelson's bill to dismember the pay up law that's being rushed to you.

I want to make sure that you understand what's really going on.

Nothing in this bill helps workers, restaurants, customers, or restores order volume.

It fixes nothing.

It's a gimme to a handful of out-of-state companies and strips worker protections from the original law from workers right here in Seattle.

It drops those gig workers back down to subminimum wages.

We're talking under $14 an hour when you actually figure for the expenses that have to come out of pocket for these gig worker contractors.

That's tens of thousands of Seattle gig workers stripped of rights and protections for a few companies.

And all of this is a smokescreen to avoid OLS analyzing their data and exposing their shenanigans.

So do not vote for Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alberto Alvarez and he will be followed by David Haynes.

Hello, my name is Alberto.

I'm a delivery driver here in Seattle.

DoorDash made a report for their quarter one earnings of this year.

And these are their words.

We estimate the regulations, meaning the ones in Seattle, regulations reduced our total orders by less than 1% in quarter one of 2024. Now, according to DoorDash, Seattle and maybe places like New York were small potatoes, but yet they're spending all of this money paying Drive Forward, which Uber runs that.

They control it and they pay for it.

They're spending all of that money to take away our fair pay.

The changes that are proposed, they're punitive because they set us at a sub-minimum wage.

and take away our rights and the protections that we fought for for over two years.

Not only are you cutting our pay, but you're taking...

Thank you.

Our next speaker is David Haynes, and David will be followed by Valerie Shloret.

Hi, David Haynes.

It's not fair the finance chair has lobbied and coached the central staff to sugarcoat a so-called audit that's distracting from the fact that the previous councils and some president who defunded the police and shifted the paradigm away from fighting crack, meth, heroin, and fentanyl, and instead prioritizing repeat offenders to appease the business community, virtue signaling a problem solving that's exacerbated the public safety crisis and the homeless crisis with bad spending priorities that have not been addressed and dealt with on all levels of legislative requirements where we need to stop exempting evil low-level drug pushers from jail and trespass these repeat offenders who are connected to the underworld, who've never been questioned by the police chief to find out where they keep getting the drugs and shut it down before we keep paying people to stay out of jail and steal from the innocent homeless, getting...

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Valerie Shluret.

And Valerie will be followed by Alex Zimmerman.

I see you're connected, Valerie.

You may need to press just once, star six.

Okay, I guess we're not gonna hear from Valerie today.

Alex Zimmerman.

Thank you.

Please start the time.

Thank you, yeah.

Ze hail my dirty damn Nazi fascist junta, a bandita and killer.

My name Alex Zimmerman.

I'm president of Stand Up America.

I want to speak about something what is we need right now doing.

Right now, this year is a fundamental year what can change America.

Or we will come back.

Or we will go for another 50 year in garbage.

It's exactly what's happened.

In fundamental principle of this is give people chance, speak like a post to be by definition.

One minute, two minute, 30 second, 15 second.

You have choice.

Give us choice too.

Why you don't give a chance to speak?

So I'm talking about this for many years.

We need open better room in city hall one day per week and give everybody a chance to speak for three minutes.

Like everybody is doing.

And I spoke from Tacoma to Everett more than 4,000 times.

You understand what is I talking?

We need stop and fascist this here.

Dirty fascism.

Thank you.

And that concludes our public comment.

One more?

Are we good with one more?

One more.

Wait, let me turn on your mic.

Here we go.

Nelson's bill is a pay cut for a $13.17 minimum wage.

It does nothing about fees, no guarantee of doing anything for bikers, Mayor Harrell actually said last Wednesday at the press conference they need more data and more worker input.

This is Nelson's personal bill, and we know that she's bothering you by pushing you to rush this when nobody else thinks it's a priority.

If we do this, are the apps actually going to reverse their blackmail?

Can they keep sabotaging their own business around here indefinitely to scare other cities into following?

Or could we just ban the fees that are the actual issue that they're retaliating with?

And I've been hearing about Castile's situation several times this week.

And I think that's especially dishonorable, even for this council.

So please fix that.

Thank you.

Was your name Casper?

What's your name, please?

Aiden Carroll.

Aiden Carroll.

Thank you, Aiden Carroll.

Now I believe we're finished.

Okay, folks, we've reached the end of our list of registered speakers, and the public comment period is now closed, and thank you very much for your comments today.

Moving along, if there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

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

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

We'll now consider the proposed consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar are the minutes of April 30th, 2024, Council Bill 120782, which is payment of bills, and then two appointments from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, one to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission and the other to the Labor Standards Board.

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

All right, hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

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

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Excuse me.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The consent calendar items are adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes in legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf?

All right.

There are no committee report for consideration today, and there were no items removed from the consent calendar.

And there's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

Is there any further business to come before council today?

Council President, I'm asking or requesting to be excused from the May 21st council meeting.

All right.

Hearing no abduction.

Thank you very much.

You're excused.

Anything else?

Okay.

All right.

Going once, going twice.

There is no, we've reached, there's no other business before us today.

We've reached the end of today's agenda and our next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held on May 14th at 2 p.m.

Hearing no further business.

We are adjourned.

It is 2.36.

Thank you.

Thank you.