SPEAKER_14

Good morning.

The Select Budget Committee will come to order.

It is 9.36 a.m.

November 23rd, 13th, 2024. I'm Dan Strauss, Chair of the Select Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Present.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_04

Present.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_01

Here.

SPEAKER_17

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_01

Present.

SPEAKER_17

Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_14

Present.

SPEAKER_17

Mine present.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

I received 10 demerits for being late.

My apologies.

And we are going to go immediately into recess until 10.30 a.m.

So the November, if there's no objection, the Select Budget Committee will be in recess until 10.30 p.m.

Hearing no objection, the Select Committee meeting is in recess until 10.30 a.m.

Apologies, my script says p.m.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Good morning.

Good morning.

The November 14th Select Committee will come back to order.

It is 1032 AM.

I'm Dan Strauss, Chair of the Select Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_16

Present.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_07

Here.

SPEAKER_16

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_07

Here.

SPEAKER_16

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_07

Here.

SPEAKER_16

Council Member Moore.

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Nelson.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

And Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_14

Present.

SPEAKER_16

Seven present.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The select budget committee is not accepting verbal public comment today.

As noted on the agenda, written public comment may be submitted by emailing council at council at seattle.gov and on the available public comment cards near the podium.

Today we are voting on budget amendments.

I'm going to wait to share some items in just a second, but we're gonna move to adopt the agenda.

I move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_12

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.

Today's agenda is before the committee and this is the opportunity for council members to move to amend the agenda to add an item to the agenda.

Only new budget proposals that are not on the agenda are added at this time.

So at this point I will call on council member Rivera.

Do you have any items before the committee?

SPEAKER_12

I do have an item before the committee, Chair.

Do I introduce it?

Do I move?

SPEAKER_14

No, you just need to amend the agenda.

SPEAKER_12

I move to amend the agenda with, and then I say the item number?

Yes.

Yep, with item, it's OIRA-001-A.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

SPEAKER_14

and seconded to amend the agenda, adding OIRA00181.

Council Member Morales, do you have any walk-on amendments today?

SPEAKER_03

I do, but I do not have the numbers yet.

Stand by, please.

My apologies.

SPEAKER_14

One at a time?

Yep.

And I'm being instructed we're going to do these one at a time.

So, colleagues, you will move each of your amendments individually.

It will need to be seconded, and then the agenda will be amended.

Is that correct?

SPEAKER_16

If we want to have individual votes, then we'll do one vote at a time.

Or if you want to group, we can group all the amendments at one point.

So therefore, it'll be one vote for all the proposed amendments.

SPEAKER_14

We'll do that.

So it'll be moved and seconded by the sponsor, and then we will vote on the package of updated amendments.

So far, we have moved and seconded OIRA 00181. Council Member Morales, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I move to amend to include SDCI 007A.

Is there a second?

Is there a second?

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded on SDCI 007A1.

Council Member Morales, you are still recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I move to amend to include SPR 015A1.

Is there a second?

Second.

SPEAKER_12

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to move SPR01581.

Councilmember Wu, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_08

I move to amend SPU008-A-1.

SPEAKER_14

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_06

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to amend the agenda to add SPU008B1.

Councilmember Moore, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_04

Let's see.

I don't know.

Moving to amend HSD002C.

What I have here is moving SDCI001B.

HSD002C, correct?

Yes.

I don't know where we are.

SPEAKER_14

I'll take it from here for a second.

I move SDCI 001B.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_01

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to amend the agenda to include SDCI 001B.

We do have one additional walk-on amendment that was not distributed by 5 p.m., which means that the rules will need to be suspended to add this item to the agenda.

Council Member Moore, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, so I move to...

SPEAKER_14

you'll need to request for the rules to be suspended.

So I got you from here.

Council Member Moore requests that the rules be suspended to allow a walk-on amendment that was not distributed by 5 p.m.

Amelia, do I need to ask for objections or do we need to take a vote?

SPEAKER_16

As long as there's no objections, we can move forward.

SPEAKER_14

Are there any objections to suspending the rules to allow a walk-on amendment that was not distributed by 5 p.m.?

Hearing no objections, we will suspend the rules.

And Council Member Moore, I don't have your amendment number before me, so you will need to move your amendment number.

SPEAKER_04

I move to approve HST 002C.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_16

Can we pause for a quick second?

Yolanda, do you have the new number for Council Member Moore's substitute version that's going to be presented today on the agenda?

I just want to make sure we get the right one.

Yep.

SPEAKER_09

There I am, okay.

It is HSD 2C1.

SPEAKER_14

I'm going to move to amend the agenda to include HSD 2C1.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_05

You're good, thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Council Member Moore, you might want a second.

SPEAKER_06

Second.

Second, sorry.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to add HSD 2C1 to the agenda.

I'm gonna read back everything that has been walked onto the agenda right now, and then we will take a vote.

I have heard that there has been It has been moved and seconded to include OIRA 1A1, SDCI 7A1, SPR 15A1, SPU 8B1, SDCI 1B, HSD 2C1.

Clerk, is that the understanding that you have before us?

SPEAKER_16

Yes, conferring with central staff.

SPEAKER_14

And central staff, is that the list that you have before us?

SPEAKER_06

I think so.

SPEAKER_14

Okay.

It has been moved and seconded.

Clerk, will you please call the roll on this list?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Second?

SPEAKER_00

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_99

No.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

Abstain.

Seven in favor, one opposed, and one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The agenda has been amended to include OIR 1A1, SDCI 7A1, SPR 15A1, SPU 8B1, SDCI 1B, HSD 2C1.

SPEAKER_12

colleagues we are going to move into our budget committee now I'm gonna take a personal privilege point of information what information point of information chair I didn't hear the OIR a 1a did you say that and I just didn't hear it that's correct thank you thanks for the clarification

SPEAKER_14

We are moving into voting.

Colleagues, I have not seen this number of amendments coming out of a briefing about the amendments to date.

So this is where I'm gonna share that I think that we have reached our first hiccup of budget with the number of changes, last minute changes that are coming.

We are going to be taking it slow to get things right the first time over the course of the next two business days.

We will be engaging in groups A, B, C, D, and now E.

E will be the walk on amendments.

D is the period of time that I think the most amount of time will be spent having discussion.

C and A will hopefully go quickly.

couple of reminders.

For Group A, you do not need to pull a CBA to speak to it.

So if your intent is to speak to it, you don't need to pull it out of Group A. If you want a vote, a separate vote on an item that is in Group A, you do need to pull it.

so for individual consideration so said another way please don't pull something that you just want to speak to only pull what you need to have voted on separately out of group a we will likely get through group a b and hopefully c today and likely take up group d in the morning colleagues this is the period of budget where you can speak to your heart's content.

This is where we're gonna go slow.

This is where if you have positions that you need to put on the record, please put them on.

If you have clarifying questions for central staff, this is a good time to ask.

You should have a very good idea walking into this meeting how you will vote because this is not a time for information seeking from central staff.

This is a time for clarifying what we already believe that we know or clarifying things that you might not have clarity on.

If you are asking questions for your baseline knowledge, that needs to be done before we come to committee.

We do still have time for that because A, B, and C are for the most part I think the questions have been answered.

So if you are asking questions to make a point, that is absolutely a good use of your time.

If you are asking questions because you don't know, I'm gonna ask you to make sure to get with central staff off the record so that our communal time together is used most efficiently.

I'm gonna ask that for folks, for them to make a statement, if you have a statement to make on an item, make the statement.

I am asking for us to not come back and have multiple, for individuals to make multiple comments.

If there is dialogue, not between members, but between members through the chair, so if you are speaking to another member, please REFER TO THE CHAIR AND I WILL .

IF THERE'S A CONVERSATION TO BE HAD, WE WILL HAVE THAT CONVERSATION.

THERE'S NO LIMITING OF WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE DURING THIS BUDGET PERIOD.

I'M SIMPLY SHARING THAT IF WE SPEND ALL OF THE TIME TALKING, WE WILL NOT VOTE ON EVERYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE VOTED ON IN THE NEXT TWO BUSINESS DAYS.

If we do not get everything voted on in the next two business days, we will come back on Monday for committee.

And what happens then is it does not allow central staff the time that they need to review all of our work before going to committee for a vote on Tuesday.

And so, colleagues, that is why I am sharing these parameters around speaking.

I'm telling you both that we should speak as much as we want and try to limit that speaking only once per item.

Questions are absolutely acceptable to clarify your knowledge or making a point.

And dialogue between members through the chair is also acceptable.

I'm just trying to make the point.

that if we don't get through all this voting, we're going to create some pretty big problems.

I'm making a bigger point about this this morning because we ran into the first hiccup of budget last night.

With that, before we begin, I see Councilmember Kettle, you have your hand raised.

Point of information, point of personal interest?

SPEAKER_15

Yes, Chair Strauss, thank you.

Just a quick question.

Is it possible to get a listing of all those that were pulled?

Is that something that we can have, like a listing?

SPEAKER_14

Yes, we will work to get that to you.

I haven't memorized the list in my head, except for one.

It is my understanding that there are two amendments that will be- So HSD 21A1 in the chairs in the A, and then SDCI 1A1 are the two that have walk-on amendments that are associated with amendments on the agenda.

The other walk-on amendments will be held to Group E. Colleagues, any further questions?

Amelia, anything I said correct or incorrect that needs to be clarified on the record right now?

SPEAKER_16

I think as we go through the agenda, central staff will help us facilitate as to the placements for some of those amendments that we just added to the agenda.

Some of them may be best suited after individual votes, after the groups themselves.

And I'm sure the presentation will also help us through this voting process.

SPEAKER_14

Fantastic.

I'm gonna turn it over to Director Noble and Deputy Director Ho to walk us through the next steps here.

SPEAKER_15

Deputy Director Ho, Master of Ceremonies.

SPEAKER_09

Good morning.

Let me just get this presentation rolling here.

So today you are here to discuss and vote many items on the agenda.

So just as a reminder, we're gonna start off with the plan for today and tomorrow is to start off with the approval of the consent calendar.

So that is the table of budget legislation that Ben briefly described yesterday.

And if there are any items that are removed from the consent calendar for individual consideration, we will consider those as appropriate.

Then we will move on to items, legislation for individual consideration, of which there are two pieces, one of which was a piece of legislation that required a technical amendment, and the second one is the participatory budgeting implementation ordinance.

And then we will move into voting on budget amendments in the groups A, B, C, and D, and E, I believe is the new category for the walk-on.

So just as a reminder of where we are.

So ideally, this is the plan for next week, is that next Tuesday it is solely technical amendments As the chair mentioned this weekend, the central staff team will be busily compiling attachment A and attachment B to the budget adoption ordinance, which is the positions and appropriation changes and all that good stuff, which is why we cannot have any additional substantive amendments, because that is a complicated process.

and requires a lot of detail and checking and double checking.

And ideally, next Thursday, you will all complete your review and adoption of next year's budget.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Before we go into the consent calendar, colleagues, I had two items that I forgot to mention in my chair's report.

Number one, I identified another error made in the chair's package, and I may have a...

a walk-on amendment tomorrow to clarify that error.

I have heard rumor that there's a desire to have verbal amendments at the dais today.

This is not a good practice, number one.

Number two, for this practice to work, We must have on the screen the language that wants to be changed so that there is clarity amongst all members.

I have seen this process go sideways and create more harm than good, which is why I have these strict parameters around verbal amendments.

And so just wanna clarify that.

To go over this, we're gonna move into the consent calendar, take up the technical fixes, participatory budgeting, and then we'll pause and talk about the budget amendments from there.

With that, I'm gonna turn it back to central staff.

SPEAKER_09

So before you all is the consent calendar of, there are two slides.

I believe the practice is they do not need to all be read into the record.

Correct, Amelia?

That this slide is sufficient for you all.

I will briefly pause on this one and I'll move to the next one so everyone has a chance to look at the list and consider.

SPEAKER_14

And I also realize that we still need to read the first item into the record.

Will the clerk please read the item one into the record?

SPEAKER_16

Introduction and process overview for briefing and discussion.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

And so we have, by reading into the record via the INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THE AGENDA AS WELL AS PRESENTED HERE IN COMMITTEE.

AT THIS TIME, COLLEAGUES, ARE THERE ANY BILLS WITHIN HERE THAT YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO POLL FOR AN INDIVIDUAL VOTE?

I AM SEEING NONE.

ARE THERE ANY BILLS THAT INDIVIDUALS WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO?

So this is our test run, right, where let's say I wanted to speak about the water bonds, which I could speak at length about.

This would be my opportunity to tell you all about the amount of bonds that we are putting out to make sure that we have clean water.

I can tell you that they are done at a rate where we refeeze or refinance these bonds so that we're not taking out too much debt, that there's policies there ensuring that we're not bonding more than we should be and that there's good financial record keeping of all of this and there's good financial practices and policies in place.

I don't need to pull the bill to say those things at this time.

I am hearing that there are no comments or bills that would like to be pulled.

And so I would like to move the set.

I would like to adopt the consent calendar as presented on the agenda.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_09

Second.

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar.

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

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saca?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Cattell?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Mine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion passes and the consent calendar passes.

These bills are adopted and the committee recommendation will be sent to the city council.

We're going to move on to the next item within item one, which is regarding council bill 120887. So I recommend passage of Council Bill 120887. Is there a second?

SPEAKER_00

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 120887. I'm going to turn it over to Director and Deputy Director to brief us on this bill.

SPEAKER_09

Council Bill 120887, as we discussed yesterday, was intended to be included in the consent calendar, but due to a technical fix that was needed, we pulled it for an individual vote.

Amendment 1 would remove reference to holding a public hearing, which was optional, and we just forgot to pull that out before we introduced it.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

As sponsor, I'll briefly address it by saying that this is a technical fix and an error that would not have been caught without our fastidious Calvin Chow.

Thank you, Calvin.

Colleagues, are there any questions, comments on the underlying bill before I move the amendment?

Then I will move to amend Council Bill 120887 as presented on Amendment 1 posted on the agenda.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_12

Second.

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on Amendment 1. Central staff, do you need to describe it again?

I think it's been described.

And so colleagues, is there any discussion on Amendment 1?

Hearing no discussion, we will move on to the adoption.

And so will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_05

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion carries, and Council Bill 120887 is amended as described in the Amendment 1. Are there any final comments on the bill as amended?

Hearing no comments on the bill as amended, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass Council Bill 120887 as amended?

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_12

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_12

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_05

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Bill 120887 as amended is recommended.

carries and the recommendation to pass the bill as amended will be sent to the City Council.

We're gonna move on to the next item.

Councilmember Hollingsworth has sponsored the next bill.

I guess I'm the sponsor of the bill, so I'm gonna move Council Bill 120893. Is there a second?

SPEAKER_08

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 120893. Central staff will provide us with a brief overview and then we will move on to the amendments.

SPEAKER_09

Council Bill 120893 would implement recommendations that were developed during the participatory budgeting process that was facilitated by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

The legislation as transmitted would appropriate 27.3 million in one-time general fund dollars held in finance general to five departments to implement projects that were identified as during this process.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member, Hollingsworth, would you like to?

I don't have any additional remarks as sponsor of the bill, so if colleagues, do folks have comments on the underlying bill?

Otherwise, we'll move right into amendments.

I'm seeing none.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don't have any comments, but I move to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented on Amendment 1, Version 2. I believe we can move Amendments 1 through 4 at the same time.

SPEAKER_14

Is that correct?

No.

I've heard Amendment 1, Version 2. Is there a second?

SPEAKER_09

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented in Amendment 1, Version 2. Clerk, do we need to take these one by one?

SPEAKER_16

For this one, yes.

If the next three, if you want to take them to consent package, you could consider that.

But at this point, we've already moved into amendment one with them moved into second.

SPEAKER_14

Great.

Well, we're going to go through each of these individually.

Council Member Hollingsworth, would you like to address this?

SPEAKER_09

We're going to have central...

I realized we needed Tommaso.

SPEAKER_14

We're going to have central staff give a brief presentation about the amendment, and then Council Member Hollingsworth, I'll have you address it.

SPEAKER_13

Good morning, Tommaso Johnson, Council Central staff.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Tommaso.

Colleagues, I'm going to just share why there's a bit of confusion going on up here right now, which is the time that we would have spent yesterday preparing the operational aspects of this meeting were spent working on amendments, which is out of cycle of where we are in the budget process.

And so I know that you've already given me grace today, and I appreciate that grace.

making the point as to why this is occurring right now.

Tommaso, thank you for introducing yourself.

Your floor is yours to describe the amendment before us.

SPEAKER_13

Amendment 1, version 2 to Council Bill 120893 would decrease the participatory budgeting appropriation and the underlying bill to Seattle Parks and Recreation by $5 million.

It would use that $5 million in two ways.

The first is it would appropriate $4.7 million to the Office of Arts and Culture to provide grants to support arts and culture preservation programs focusing on historically marginalized communities, including the black community.

This amendment would also appropriate $315,000 to the Human Services Department for contracted youth activities via specified entities in 2025. This amendment would leave $2.2 million appropriated to SPR to implement an alternate scaled down version of the public restroom improvement project in the original bill.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, De Paso.

Council Member Hollingsworth, as sponsor of the amendment, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don't have any further comments.

I made our case yesterday and would love everyone's support.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, any questions, comments about the Amendment 1, Version 2?

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair.

I want to appreciate all the work that Councilmember Hollingsworth has done with community to understand some of the requests we got after the voting was done on participatory budgeting, as she mentioned yesterday.

I was really trying to champion this four years ago.

It's been a long haul.

The process was fraught.

And while I understand that there's been a lot of discussion and a lot of frustration in community and some disagreement about the voting that took place and which projects were finally decided on, I do think it's important that we...

that we honor the process that we had laid out with the participatory budgeting.

So I will be abstaining on the amendments and just want to indicate I continue to support what community is asking for, but I do think it's important that we honor the process that we had laid out.

So I'll be abstaining on the amendments.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Colleagues, any other questions, comments on Amendment 1, Version 2?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on Amendment 1, Version 2 to Council Bill 120893?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Morales?

Abstain.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Eight in favor, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Amendment 1, version 2 to Council Bill 120893 carries.

We will move on to Amendment 2. Council Member Hollingsworth, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

I move to recommend, oh, my apologies.

I lost where I was at.

SPEAKER_14

Happens to me all the time.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

Oh, there it is.

I move to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented on Amendment Number 2. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented on Amendment 2. Mr. Johnson, would you like to brief us on the amendment, please?

SPEAKER_13

Amendment 2 to Council Bill 120893 would reduce the participatory budgeting appropriation to the Department of Neighborhoods included in the underlying bill by $3 million.

This $3 million would be instead appropriated to the Office of Housing to fund outreach and engagement and homeowner stabilization services to increase home ownership retention in communities at high risk of displacement.

Office of Housing would contract with community-based organizations who have experience providing outreach and engagement services to homeowners in need of such services.

The amendment would retain $4 million to the Department of Neighborhoods to implement a scaled down version of the urban food and farming project.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth is sponsor of the amendment.

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don't have any additional comments.

Thank you.

Okay.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, questions, comments?

Seeing no questions or comments at this time, will the clerk please call the roll on Amendment 2 to Council Bill 120893?

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Abstain.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Eight in favor, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Bill 120893 is amended as presented on Amendment 2. We will move on to the next amendment.

Council Member Hollingsworth, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented on Amendment Number 3.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented on Amendment 3. Mr. Johnson, if you could brief us on the amendment.

SPEAKER_13

Amendment 3 to Council Bill 120893 would reduce the proposed participatory budgeting appropriation in the underlying bill to the Human Services Department by $2 million.

That $2 million would be appropriated to the Human Services Department for the purpose of funding a young adult day shelter.

This amendment would retain $1.9 million and proviso that in HSD.

to fund youth and young adult shelter capital improvements as included in the underlying bill.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth is sponsored by the amendment.

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

I don't have any additional remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SPEAKER_14

Absolutely.

Colleagues, questions, comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on Amendment 3 to Council Bill 120893.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_03

Abstain.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Nelson?

SPEAKER_03

Aye.

Mayor Strauss?

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Eight in favor, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Amendment three to council bill 120893 passes and council bill is amended.

Council member Hollingsworth, you are recognized regarding amendment four.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move to amend council bill 120893 as presented on amendment number four.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_12

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It is moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120893 as presented on Amendment 4. Mr. Johnson, would you like to brief us on the amendment, please?

SPEAKER_13

Amendment 4 to Council Bill 120893 would modify the bill recitals to reflect the additional council funding priorities for participatory budgeting funds as described in Amendments 1 through 3.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_07

I don't have any additional comments, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, questions, comments at this time?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on Amendment 4 to Council Bill 120893?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Stockard?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Abstain.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Starr.

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Eight in favor, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Amendment 4 passes and...

Council Bill 120893 is amended as presented on Amendment 4. Colleagues, we now have the bill as amended before us.

This is the time to speak to the bill.

So this is all practice for what we're about to do 100 times between now and tomorrow.

So if you want to talk about participatory budgeting, now is the time.

I'm seeing no one wanting to make comments.

I am glad that we are able to get this money out the door to the community organizations as identified in both the process and through the amendments here.

Everything that I've said before is that funding black and indigenous communities cannot be a one-time activity.

This was generated out of the murder of George Floyd.

It can't be a one-time thing or a moment in time.

This is work that we have to continue doing every year.

With that, colleagues, it has been moved and seconded, and Council Bill 120893 has been amended.

And so, Clerk, will you please call the roll on the bill as amended?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_15

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion passes, and the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 1230893 as amended, and it will be sent to the City Council.

Mr. Johnson, at the public hearing the other night, I said kind remarks about Garfield High School, another one of our rivals, and so today I will also say nice things about your high school.

Roosevelt has done a very good job.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

I guess I now have to speak about Ingram next.

Colleagues, I give us some of that levity right now because this is a marathon.

For marathon runners, the first six miles is when you warm up and get loose.

That's what we've done because we are now going to move into agenda item 38, which is the council, or which is the council bill adopting the 2025 budget.

So this is the budget adoption ordinance.

In this we have groups A, B, C, D, and E.

And so we will now move into group A.

Yeah, I'm seeing a difference from yesterday about group C.

I'm going to pass over to the director and deputy director.

SPEAKER_09

So I was just going to provide a reminder about the process today and give some key pointers on scripts that you have all received a little motion cheat sheet from our deputy clerk, but also for the public to remind everyone there are lots of MOTIONS THAT NEED TO HAPPEN THAT ARE NOT TYPICAL FOR THE REST OF THE POLICY YEAR.

SO THIS IS JUST A REFRESHER FOR EVERYONE OR NEW FOR SOME OF YOU.

SO GROUPS A AND C ARE PRESENTED AS A GROUP OF CONSENT AMENDMENT PACKAGE, RIGHT?

SO THOSE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED WILL BE VOTED ON AS A SINGLE GROUP.

SO MULTIPLE ITEMS IN ONE GROUP.

SO GROUP A, AS A REMINDER, IS WHAT WAS INITIALLY PRESENTED AS THE CHAIR'S BALANCING PACKAGE ON OCTOBER 30th WITH SOME TWEAKS AS WE HIGHLIGHTED YESTERDAY.

AND GROUP C IS THERE WERE NEW IDEAS THAT WERE PRESENTED ON NOVEMBER 1st TO CENTRAL STAFF AND WERE PUT FORWARD AS A POTENTIAL CONSENT PACKAGE GROUP OF AMENDMENTS AS WELL.

AND THEN Group D is amendments just up for individual vote.

Group B is actually items that will be discussed immediately after Group A. So Group B is a little, it's not really a standalone group.

It will happen at the end of Group A. So just as a reminder, as we enter into Group A, if there is a desire to remove an amendment from the voting group, the chair will call for the committee members to request removal of the group item from the group under consideration.

So the script is as follows.

I request that, and you don't have to say CBA, I think, but you can say arts 1A1, for instance, be removed for an individual vote.

So just, we're gonna, I think generally we wanna check and double check to make sure we don't miss anything in this process.

If any member is, considering an oral amendment to an item in Group A, that means that needs to be pulled for individual votes.

So please make sure that if you are considering making an oral amendment to an item in this Group A, that needs to be pulled or else we will just vote on it as is and you will not have an opportunity to make said oral amendment.

And so that is the process for that.

It does not require a second or a vote.

Folks can just name the CBAs that they are looking to pull for individual vote.

And then after that happens, the chair will then move the remaining items in the consent package for the group, the vote on the entire group.

And then we will move into items that were pulled from group A.

All right, any questions on that?

SPEAKER_14

Colleagues, you all have scripts in front of you.

Council Member Rivera, I see you have a question.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Yolanda, for reviewing that.

If there is an item in Group A that you want to speak to but not necessarily remove for a vote, is there opportunity to do that then?

How does...

How do you request that, I guess, is my question.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Vice Chair.

So we are going to go into a process where if you want to speak to the item that's in Group A, for instance, we work together to make sure you got your 911 call center stuff into the package.

If you want to speak to the 911 call center, you can do so before we vote on the consent calendar.

And then I know that you have the OIRA amendment.

You would need to pull that CBA to make that amendment.

I'm going to use the participatory budgeting votes that we just went through as an example.

Everyone voted yes.

It took us about five to seven minutes to just go through the verbal yeses and the process.

If we did that for all of the bills in the consent agenda, we wouldn't leave here by 6 p.m.

tonight.

And so that's why we say if there's something within the package that you would like to speak to, we have that ability.

If there's something that you need to amend or that you don't want to vote for, like you want to vote against, then you would need to pull that CBA out of the consent calendar and we would take that up individually and then you could vote against it.

For instance, I don't think that you're going to do that.

I'm just using that as an example.

SPEAKER_12

Yes, so again, at what point, if you want to speak to something that's in group A, would that happen?

SPEAKER_14

Right now central staff is gonna brief us on what's in group A.

We will then, council members will raise their hand to pull items out of group A.

We will then read back the list of everything that we have pulled out to confirm accuracy.

We will then pass, or then we will then speak to the items in group A.

We will vote on the consent calendar and then we will take up the pulled items individually with amendments.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Absolutely.

Thank you for the clarifying question.

It helps everyone.

SPEAKER_09

It's important to understand the process.

So yes, that is the initial potential motion here that is going to be before you.

We'll add that.

So just to reemphasize, if you are planning on making an oral amendment to any of the budget amendments included in Group A, it must first be pulled for individual consideration, just reiterating.

that that step has to happen first or else you will have missed your opportunity to make an oral amendment.

Similarly, but different, is if you are seeking to substitute any items in this Group A with another item, you must first move to pull the item you are looking to substitute.

Otherwise, again, it will, otherwise it will stay in the consent package.

It will be voted on and you will miss the opportunity to offer your substitute amendment.

So I'm just making sure everyone knows not to miss your cue.

So, all right, so just as a reminder, if you are substituting a CBA, the first vote will be on the motion to substitute.

But if the motion to substitute is adopted, the original CBA that was pulled from the group will no longer be available for consideration.

So that first vote should be as if you were voting on the substance of the substitute, even though it is a motion to substitute, right?

So that is where we have tripped up in the past.

So that's why I just wanna remind everyone that the motion to substitute is kind of the critical crux of the vote here.

And then after that motion to substitute, the committee can vote on whichever option is still on the table.

So just reminding you all about that.

And then if there are no other questions, we can move on to actually voting on Group A.

SPEAKER_14

So group a the consent amendment package consists of the budget amendments presented in the chairs initial balancing package and as noted yesterday Some amendments were modified with non substantive changes The plan is to vote on all amend all items in a consent package before we consider removing items from Group A Central staff will provide an overview After the overview you will have the opportunity to remove items from Group A Please note this will just be a brief overview of the entire group yesterday there was the opportunity for discussion and questions central staff is available if there are additional questions about any specific item the reason that group a is different why is the group a different than all other groups is because this is now the third time that we've had them in committee as compared to groups B, C, and D, where this is the second time that we've had them in committee.

So yesterday, central staff provided us the detailed overview of each item in the voting group.

Today, they will provide us the high-level overview so that we can move on to voting.

As a member, I will ask members if they would like an item removed.

We will have that after the overview.

Once items are removed, that will be the time to speak to items within the package.

SPEAKER_09

From there, central staff, please take it away with...

Very brief overview of Group A. So Group A is 118 items that we discussed yesterday.

I think it impacts about 28 different departments and is reflective of council members' individual priorities that were included in the chair's balancing package.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, are there any items that you would like to have pulled from the package?

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair.

Do you want me to just give you, I have three or four items.

You want them all at once?

SPEAKER_14

Let's run down the list.

We're taking notes.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I'm requesting that we remove item S.03A1, S.04A1, S.06A1, and SPD105A2 for individual vote, please.

I have S.03A1.

SPEAKER_14

3A1, S.4A1, S.6A1, and SPD105A2.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

SPD105A2 is the last one.

Anything further, Council Member Morales?

Thank you.

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

Can you talk into your mic, please?

It's hard for me to hear all the way down.

SPEAKER_14

Council President, members must be recognized.

You can request a point of order for a microphone check.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

I request that item HSD002A2B removed for individual vote.

SPEAKER_14

Council Member Moore, could you repeat that?

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

I request that item HSD002-A-2 be removed for individual vote.

SPEAKER_14

Okay.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Yes, Chair.

I request that HSD021A1 be removed.

Also, excuse me, SDCI001A1 be removed.

And that is all.

HSD21A1 and SDCI1A1, is that correct?

SPEAKER_14

SDCI1A1, yes.

And the HSD was 21A1?

A1, correct.

Thank you.

Council President.

SPEAKER_01

THANK YOU, CHAIR.

I HAVE FOUR ITEMS I'D LIKE TO REMOVE.

ITEM 75, OH004SA1.

COUNSELOR, CAN YOU SLOW DOWN AND START OVER?

SPEAKER_14

OH004SA1.

THE NEXT ONE IS OIR001A1.

SPEAKER_01

The next one is SDHR001A1.

That's it.

SPEAKER_14

Okay, and these are items that you would like to...

Remove from the...

I'm confirming that it is more than speaking to it that you want to have a vote or an amendment.

SPEAKER_01

That is correct, because I thought that my...

I thought that the conversation was that we could not just talk.

SPEAKER_14

at this point?

That's preferable, because just voting on these is gonna be at least, my best guess, 15 to 20 minutes.

Great, colleagues, other items to be removed at this time?

I'm seeing none, so clerk, I'm gonna read back to you what I have, and then we're gonna take it through.

S.3A1, S.4A1, S.6A1, SPD105A2, HSD2A2, HSD21A1, SDCI1A1, OH4SA1, OIR1A1, SDHR1A1.

I have thumbs up from central staff.

Clerk, is that your understanding?

Colleagues, did I miss anything?

Thank you.

These items...

will be removed.

Any questions?

Yes.

Council Member Moore.

Council Member Ross.

SPEAKER_03

I just wanted to speak to an item, so are we there yet?

SPEAKER_14

Hang tight.

Okay.

Thank you.

The items that I just listed by number two times have been removed and will be addressed separately.

I move to adopt Group A, excluding items S.3A1, 4A1, 6A1, SPD10582, HSD282, HSD2181, SDCI1A1, OH4SA1, OIR1A1, SDHR1A1.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to adopt the Group A, excluding the items I just listed.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Group A?

Hold on.

Now is the time.

There we go.

Getting ahead of myself.

Council Member Morales, you are recognized.

Colleagues, this is the time to speak to anything that's in this group.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much.

I contemplated removing HSD 31 SA2 regarding the Sobering Center, but I think what I really just would like to know from the sponsor of the amendment is whether they were in contact with DCHS because the Sobering Center is, in fact, under the jurisdiction of the King County Department of Community and Human Services.

And my understanding is that they're...

we're not aware of an interest in this.

So I'm just wanting to make sure I understand that.

SPEAKER_12

Am I recognized to respond?

SPEAKER_14

Let me flow.

Let me flow.

Council Member Rivera has sponsored the amendment that has just been requested.

Can you speak?

I thought it was Council Member Moore.

Which amendment is this?

The Sobering Center?

Yes.

That's Rivera?

SPEAKER_04

No, yes, that's Rivera.

SPEAKER_14

Council Member Rivera, my apologies.

SPEAKER_12

You are recognized to speak about your amendment.

Thank you.

I'm waiting patiently, Chair.

Thank you.

I think there's some confusion about this amendment.

It's a slide requiring HSD to look into a sobering center for Seattle, the purposes of which are we know that folks who aren't ODing and would not necessarily qualify or need to go to the ORCA center that will be operational next year, but that are in need of sobering in order to offer services, whether they're picked up by one of our many service providers providers including the ones that the city has or whether they're picked up for under the drug possession law and it is determined they need diversion but they are not able to consent for services because they're not sober would go to to have to sober up in order for then us to be able to provide services and get that consent.

This is a slide requiring, or not requiring, excuse me, requesting HSD to please do the work of doing the research on what that would take.

Then we also know that King County has a sobering center that they are situating in Seattle.

So the slide makes mention of asking HSD to work and have conversations with King County about that sobering center and whether there's any opportunity for the city to use any of the beds at that sobering center.

And so that work is for HSD to do.

And I know that HSD is in contact with King County on that.

But it is not a slight requesting that King County do anything.

It is a sly requesting HSD to research the situating of a sobering center or working with our partners at King County to see if there's opportunity to use what they're already putting together in Seattle as any of those beds.

And then the request is for HSD then to come back to us to give us the information after they've done the research and had those conversations.

So I hope That helps clarify what I think has been confusion about that slide.

But if you read the slide, it's very clear what is being requested of HSD.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Morales, the floor, you still have the floor.

Should you?

SPEAKER_03

I'm good.

Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, other items that you would like to speak to within the chair's package within Group A?

Any other items?

Councilmember Rivera, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

I would like to point out OLS001A1, which increases OLS's funding.

for the Community Outreach Education Fund and the Business Outreach Education Fund, both of which are important, but I realize that the money that is being allocated is not being allocated 50-50 percent to each of those.

One obviously does outreach to communities so workers understand their rights, which is very important.

As someone who worked at the ACLU on Know Your Rights education, when you're contacted by the FBI, we know that it is important to educate the public, and in this case our workers, about their rights and to make sure that they are getting the wages that have been promised to them and all other benefits.

And I think equally important is making sure for the prevention side, is that we are educating businesses as to what they need to be doing.

And I know as someone who also worked at the Hispanic Chamber many years ago, we have a lot of small businesses, often BIPOC businesses, that don't necessarily understand all the requirements.

And there is definitely a level of education that needs to happen so that they're in compliance.

And so it is really important to do that education to the small businesses as well.

And I might add that a lot of these businesses, I know in my past experience, when I was doing the work at the Hispanic Chamber, A lot of those businesses wanted to, for instance, provide health care to their employees and they couldn't afford to do so.

So at the time I was working with the federal government to see if there was any type of assistance we can provide these small businesses who couldn't afford to do so.

So I say that as a way to say that a lot of these small businesses want to do the right thing and they don't always know.

And so there is this important piece about educating businesses.

And I feel that sometimes when we are doing the education, we're not doing the education as robustly to the small businesses.

So I decided not to remove it, but I want to make that important point.

And I also want to reach out to OLS to find out where they are more recently.

in their education efforts to the business community because I've been at the city for a few years.

I've worked with OLS in the past, and I know that their outreach to small businesses is something that they have had as a goal, but I'm not sure where they are in meeting that goal.

And so when I saw the funding not being equally distributed to ensure that we're doing that education, It raises a red flag for me, but like I said, I will do my work on the back end to reach out to the department.

And again, what's the saying?

An ounce of prevention, or what is it?

Prevention is a pound.

Exactly, so thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

As sponsor of the amendment that you were just speaking about, I will read for the record that this was a restoration from what was reduced in the mayor's budget.

We're not choosing favorites here, and I welcome you to check in with the department to understand the situation better for the comments that you just made.

Colleagues, are there other items for discussion?

SPEAKER_01

I have my hand raised on this one.

SPEAKER_14

I'm sorry, the turn up the volume aspect is here.

That's why I'm not seeing the next Council President and then Council Member Moore.

I now understand the technical difficulties I was experiencing.

SPEAKER_01

I want to echo the spirit of Councilmember Rivera's comments.

My committee oversees OLS, and I did have this conversation with the leadership of OLS earlier this year, making the point that the best way to get compliance with our labor regulations is to educate our employers.

And many of them want to do the right thing, but simply do not understand new regulations or don't understand that they've been implementing existing regulations in the wrong way.

So I mentioned that I would love to see a better balance between business education and community education.

So, you know, I...

I was contemplating bringing an amendment to even out this money, but the point is that I do think that this is something that will help us serve workers by making sure that employers know the right thing.

I mean, we just saw that, in fact, with the Workday issue, There were problems that weren't necessarily, you know, there were problems that were not intended, but that were mistakes.

And so I just really do want to say that going forward, I encourage OLS to maybe think about changes to how they balance education for businesses or to increase resources so that small businesses understand what their obligations are.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council President, Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

So I did go back and reworked my original amendment to exclude shelters and hotels, but I'm in ongoing negotiations with...

Councilmember Kettle right now, so I think we'll be coming forth with something modified.

But I do nonetheless want to speak to why I initially sought to exclude motels and hotels from this particular funding source, because we have hotels and motels in D5.

And unfortunately, people are dying in those hotels because they're not being properly monitored, and they don't have the proper wraparound services, and even the services that they have are not their subpar.

And I truly believe that the hotel-motel model is not the best model to utilize for long-term shelter.

And I think there are others that would agree with me, particularly if we do not have extensive case management services on site that are actively case managing people and actively providing services.

I certainly support master leasing.

But an important part of master leasing is to have those services and access to housing navigation.

We cannot take people right raw off the street and put them into an apartment and expect them to succeed.

And this is about making sure people ultimately succeed.

And I think the physical architecture of hotels and motels is problematic.

And while they can serve as a good, you know, getting somebody immediately off the street, I think is a long-term option.

We need to revisit that.

And that's something that I'll be revisiting with the KCRHA.

So I just think that we need to begin to have a discussion about what are the most appropriate places.

And this is not to say that, you know, Lake Oaks is a motel hotel, and they do a wonderful job, and they get a lot of people into permanent supportive housing.

Co-lead does a good job.

But all of these are imperfect models, and I think we need to be looking at how do we transition.

There really is a spectrum.

There's the street, there's emergency shelter, there's the street and tiny house villages, then there's master leasing into an apartment.

We have to really take a therapeutic approach to resolving this homelessness piece.

So that was my thinking behind being so insistent.

But obviously, I've also heard the concerns about, well, we need to get people off the streets.

And that's true.

We do.

And so not trying to limit options, but get the message out there that we need to be thoughtful about how we pursue those options.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Moore.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Yes, the item HSD00282, the non-congregate housing that we spoke to yesterday, that I spoke to yesterday.

I've been obviously having many conversations with various council members to include Council Member Moore and...

We can look to amend this one, which I would think forced all be one sentence, as I've done in coordination with some other council members, is good.

And now we're coordinating on a second sentence.

So that's the update on that.

But obviously the key here is to provide these options as we discussed yesterday in the discussion on this topic.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

And just to clarify, colleagues, we are speaking to the items that are still within the section one.

We will speak to the items pulled in just a moment.

Council Member Rivera and Nelson, are these new hands?

Okay.

I'm going to ask that once you make these comments, we're going to continue moving on.

SPEAKER_12

Okay.

Thank you.

Can you first clarify, Chair, so on the ones that we removed and then some of the walk-ons are to replace, right?

do we have an opportunity later to talk about them or is it a straight vote?

Is this the time to talk about anything that we're, you know, I guess I'm just trying to click.

SPEAKER_14

The period in which we are right now is the items that were not pulled from the consent calendar We'll speak to those.

We'll get to everything else in a couple steps.

SPEAKER_05

Great.

SPEAKER_14

So the item is in the consent calendar, and you're totally fine.

SPEAKER_12

That's why I'm clarifying, but thank you.

Thank you.

I do want to say if you'll...

Give me the opportunity.

SPEAKER_14

And Vice Chair, I am seeing that Council Member Wu has also raised her hand.

She has not yet spoken yet.

So we are gonna go to Council Member Wu and then colleagues, if you've already spoken, I will request unless you have questions that this will be the last time to speak and then we'll move to voting.

Council Member Wu, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you.

I just wanted to address something regarding ethics.

I consulted our in-house attorney as well as with Wayne from the ethics regarding me being able to vote on budget items regarding landlord-tenant and small business and have been resolved to be able to vote forward on these items.

Also, I wanted to address an item Actually, would you come back to me, please?

I wasn't prepared to speak so quickly.

SPEAKER_14

Yes, and colleagues, this is last call for comments, last call for comments, last call for comments.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

I did want to mention just the 911 call center ads that are in this budget.

It's something that I requested, but I know it's something that many of us care about, because we've heard from our constituents that when they call the non-emergency line, it's not being answered.

I didn't mention this earlier, because I know throughout this process, we've had these discussions.

But I recognize that some of our viewers only tune in for the big event, which is today.

So I thought it bared mentioning the reason why I included those four positions.

And I appreciate the chair including them in his chair's package.

This is really important to not just the D4, but across the city.

It is a public safety piece, and it's something that is really critical that when our folks call the 911 call center, that they're able to get a response, particularly because we've halt heard from the call center that about a third of the non-emergency calls actually wind up being emergencies.

So I wanted to point that out.

And then I also want to thank, again, the chair for including the neighborhood matching fund.

It is a fund that residents in the D4 utilize.

And again, it is a fund that residents across the city utilize.

And so that is two ads that I made.

And I appreciate the chair including in his package.

that are in this Group A. And then I did want to address something about that my colleague just raised is that I very much appreciate Council Members Kettle and Moore working together.

I want to note that we are all pretty aligned on these issues and we all might have a little different tweak to how we go about implementing and I think that they I appreciate their leadership that they've shown in working together and bringing their amendment forward later that we will hear.

But since you brought it up, I just want to thank both of you for your leadership and your modeling of how we work together to get things done.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

That's all.

And I won't be asking for another opportunity.

SPEAKER_14

We'll have more opportunities to speak in just a minute.

SPEAKER_12

On this one.

SPEAKER_14

We've got to get through this.

Council President, did you have a comment?

SPEAKER_12

No, I removed my hand.

SPEAKER_14

Council Member Wu, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_08

I want to address DON003-A-2.

I wanted to clarify.

This is for one full-time position in Department of Neighborhoods for planning and development specialists for community organizing, mutual aid, and de-escalation.

My goal for this was, just as Seattle Police Department has their Block Watch program that works very closely with the police department, having a very similar program in a different department that does not involve police, to be able to help people develop their own, or neighborhoods develop their own community groups to help establish mutual aid and de-escalation training, help people connect to Narcan, CPR training, as well as These groups organize, know what their rights are, and also know what shelter services are available in that area.

For example, being in the South Seattle area, if I see someone who's unhoused, I know exactly where to direct them on the local shelters.

I know the numbers.

I know the day centers I can send someone to.

I know where the food...

programs are.

I was in Ballard the other day, and I didn't know where anything was.

And so having someone identify in each neighborhood, each area, where the local shelters, resources are, to help people be able to connect and empower neighborhoods, to help people who are unhoused or who may need connection to resources because they don't have access to phones or the internet.

So that was my plan for this position.

There is a lot of information out there on the internet.

And if anyone has any additional questions, please email my office.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

I'll just state that the answer to where in Ballard to go is the Ballard Food Bank.

And it's a misnomer in name because at the Ballard Food Bank, they have mental, dental, physical care.

They have a free cafe for hot food.

They have the food bank aspect.

They have case management for people experiencing homelessness.

They are, that's why I say the food bank isn't quite the right name.

They really, they punch above their weight and do so much good for the entire city out of Ballard.

So the answer there is Ballard Food Bank.

Colleagues, I will now speak to the package A, and then I'm gonna double check that we have all of the polls correct.

I've said this a number of times, this is the chair's package.

This package is better because of everyone's participation.

The package has not been developed in this manner in the past, and that's not a slight at anyone.

Everyone has different styles.

But the style that I chose this year is collaboration beyond my comfort level.

And it turned out really great.

And it's really good.

And this package is better because of everyone's involvement and the ability to disagree without being disagreeable and work together even if there are differences.

So with that, and can you remind, I'm gonna ask to remind me who polled a number of these.

So I have on my list, HSD2A2, can you remind me who polled that?

That was you.

SPEAKER_04

That's me.

SPEAKER_14

HSD 2A2.

That's me.

HSD 21A1.

That was you.

O-H-4-S-A-1.

Council President, that was you.

O-I-R-1-A-1.

Was that you, Council President?

Yes.

SDCI 1A1.

Who pulled that?

1A1?

SPEAKER_16

I did.

SPEAKER_14

Council President.

Council President?

SPEAKER_99

No.

SPEAKER_09

I think it was Council Member Moore, was it?

Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_14

I was looking at SDHR.

SDCI 1A1.

That was me.

SPEAKER_09

Oh, that was Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_14

Okay.

And SDHR 1A1.

Yes.

SPEAKER_12

That's Council President.

SPEAKER_14

Council President?

SPEAKER_99

Okay.

SPEAKER_14

And then SDOT and SPD are all Council Member Morales.

Is that correct?

Great, any additionals?

Last call, last call, last call.

Going once, going twice.

It has already been moved and seconded to adopt Group A, excluding the items mentioned previously.

And comments have been made.

And so will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Group A, excluding the items just mentioned.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, Group A passes excluding the items mentioned and are adopted to the Council Bill 120905. Colleagues, we are going to move into items for individual consideration.

The way we're going to do this is we're going to go in alphabetical and numerical order.

I will read that order at this time.

HSD 2A221A1, OH4SA1, OIR1A1, SDCI1A1, SDHR1A1, S.3A1, 4A1, 6A1, SPD105A2, Central staff and clerk do I have that correct?

SPEAKER_16

I'm sorry.

Did you mention?

Oh, I are I did correct.

SPEAKER_14

Yes Thank you.

This is we are taking this slow to get it, right?

I am going to as we take these up individually I Will ask the person that pulled it to move and second the move the item will look for a sponsor I will call on the person that pulled and the item to explain why it has been pulled.

I will then call on the sponsor of the original amendment.

I will then have discussion and then the sponsor will have the last word.

and then we will move into voting.

And I will speak directly before the sponsor and not likely before.

When we are moving into these items at the beginning, I will not speak to the item because it's my job to go last.

And I will be providing a committee recommendation from the chair.

So I will say either I am recommending from the budget committee that we vote yes or vote no, or I will share the recommendation that I individually will be voting a certain way.

SPEAKER_16

Council Chair Strauss, just one clarification.

So Council Member Moore did remove an item, but that's going to be considered in Group B for the substitution.

And that one wasn't mentioned in your original list because of that.

SPEAKER_14

Okay, thank you.

With that, let's get into it.

Council Member Moore, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

I have a question about procedure because I think Council Member Kettle and I have come to agreement on language.

I don't know whether I think it would be easier to amend Council Member Kettle's, well, actually the bill that's in the package than to amend mine.

SPEAKER_14

So the preference at this time is to amend which item?

SPEAKER_04

To amend H, sorry, sorry, HSD02A.

SPEAKER_14

282?

282. Okay, so I'm gonna make this a little bit easier.

As chair of the committee, I will move the items that have been polled.

So that's the first one.

So I move amendment HSD 282 to council bill 120905. Is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented.

Ben, your mic's on.

It has been moved and seconded to adopt HSD 282. Councilmember Moore, as the person that identified this one, I'm gonna pass it off to you.

And this is a budget committee item.

So Councilmember Moore, you are recognized to speak to why HSD 282 was pulled.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

Well, I think I pulled this because, as I stated before, I was concerned about utilizing hotel and motel space.

I was also concerned about the high-impact language and the fact that there was no requirement that the providers provide comprehensive services such as case management and housing navigation.

So I've spoken with the original sponsor and have language

SPEAKER_14

Council Member Moore, I'm going to throw us all a lifeline.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

Yes, absolutely.

Desperately need one.

SPEAKER_14

This is why we're going to go slow to get it right.

SPEAKER_10

Sorry, we just got this information.

SPEAKER_14

Even our friend Patty must be recognized to speak.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to take a five-minute recess.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

And so...

Look, team, this is team sport.

This is team effort.

If there is no objection, the Select Budget Committee will be in recess until noon.

Hearing no objection, the committee is in recess until noon.

Seattle Channel, you can leave the cameras on.

We're going to turn off the mics for recess, though.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_99

Bye.

you

SPEAKER_14

Mics are hot.

If you are staff, we are returning to committee.

Colleagues, the November 14th Select Budget Committee will come back to order.

It is 12.02 p.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Do I need to call the roll?

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member LaValle?

Present.

Council Member Stockhouse?

Council Member Wu?

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_15

Here.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_04

Present.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Nelson?

SPEAKER_01

Present.

SPEAKER_17

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes, here.

SPEAKER_17

Seven present.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth is now present as well.

Let the record reflect.

Colleagues, I'm going to move to position amendment HSD 2A2 at the end of the agenda.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_16

Second.

SPEAKER_14

Do I need to call the roll on this?

SPEAKER_16

There's no objection.

SPEAKER_14

Hearing no objection, Or is there any objection?

I'm hearing no objection and Council Member Saka is present.

So we're gonna move HSD 282 to the end of the agenda in Group E that it doesn't technically exist.

I'm going to move HSD 21A1.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_12

Second.

Second.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, HSD 2A1 is seconded.

This was pulled by Council Member Rivera and the sponsor is Council Member Morales.

Council Member Rivera, I'll let you speak to it and I believe that we have an amendment for this item.

SPEAKER_12

Correct.

I have a walk-in substitution.

Thank you, Chair.

This is a friendly amendment to the sponsor's amendment, not changing the amount or the organization that it's being allocated to, but transferring it or hoping to transfer it to the department that I believe makes most sense given the the constituency this is for, which is immigrants, refugees, and communities of color, Our Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, I believe, would be best suited to hold this contract.

I know they're able to do so.

And also putting a proviso in place to make sure that the funds are being utilized for people that live and or work in Seattle because I know that the organization that is being selected for this contract provides services to a wide variety of folks, not just in Seattle.

So I'm hoping that I have your support for the walk-on and that the sponsor sees this as a friendly amendment.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

I'm gonna turn it over to Council Member Morales, and then Council Member Rivera, I'm gonna ask you to move the item.

Council Member Morales, you're recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I think it's important to understand that Communities Rise provides capacity building support for an array of small nonprofit organizations.

It does serve immigrant and refugee organizations, but it also serves a lot of local, black-led, indigenous-led organizations.

And so I actually don't think that moving this to OIRA is appropriate.

HSD has been administering this grant for 10 years.

Communities Rise has supported black-led arts organizations, black-led neighborhood news like the South Seattle Emerald, indigenous-led organizations like Common Acre.

It supported the CID Collective.

So it does serve immigrant and refugee populations, but it also serves a lot of other communities of color, particularly in the South End.

And I respectfully request that we not move the money to OIR.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Wood, do you have a hand for this item?

And recognizing that this is a substitute, Council Member Rivera, I'll let you move that in just a second.

From my perspective, we made a choice in the chair's package to have this contract in HSD with the department that has been administering this contract for a very long time.

I am going to vote to keep it in HSD as practice because learning new things, like if it's working, let's keep it working.

I haven't heard any problems.

So that's my position.

And my recommendation is the chair of the budget committee.

Council Member Rivera, you are recognized to move the substitutes.

SPEAKER_12

Can I speak to?

SPEAKER_14

I would move the substitute and then speak to it.

SPEAKER_12

Okay, then I move substitute.

One second, apologies.

OIRA 001A as the substitute.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, is there a second?

SPEAKER_12

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to move OIRA 001A what Council Member Rivera just said.

Colleagues, is there discussion on this?

Council Member Rivera, you are recognized at this time.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

Well, I guess I am confused as to why the sponsor put immigrant and refugees as the leading group here and communities of color if this was really intended for broad communities of color, not necessarily immigrant and refugees.

Typically, when we allocate...

funding to an organization, and we specify the constituency, that is the leading constituency for that funding.

So in this case, I'm not sure why the leading constituency mentioned immigrants and refugees if that wasn't the intended main recipient, because then that causes confusion, whereby I thought that this was better suited in OIRA.

And so I have then a concern about the language in the constituency that was specifically chosen because I don't think it is accurate and I think it causes confusion.

And I don't think that's fair to the constituencies as well who might see themselves in this and feel like this was intended for them.

So at the very least, then, this needed to be the wording needed to be wording that would befit what the intent was so that our folks aren't confused as to why this was intended.

I still believe that we need to put a proviso to ensure that the money goes to folks that either live or work in Seattle because the organization, and I looked up the organization I know, also supports folks outside of Seattle, and we want to make sure that our Seattle funding is going to folks that actually live and work here.

There are many people that fits these constituencies that live and work here, and they're the ones who should be the recipients of this funding.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, discussion on the amendment before us?

Substitute before us.

SPEAKER_16

And central staff has an opportunity to describe the two versions before them as well too.

That would also provide the context.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, I made a mistake here calling on the sponsor before central staff.

So moving forward, I will be calling on central staff first.

Jasmine, I believe you're the central staffer here on this.

SPEAKER_11

Yes, Jasmine Marwaha, Council Central staff.

I don't believe I have too much more context to add.

HSD 21A1 would have the funding go to HSD for Communities Rise.

It would allow for a direct selection for Communities Rise as well.

and the substitute OIRA 1A1 would provide funding for an organization such as Communities Rise for OIRA to administer.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Jasmine.

I will ask just an operational question and then I see Council Member Moore has her hand.

The aspect that Council Member Rivera just mentioned about ensuring that these funds are used for Seattleites or within the city, is that something that can be administered through the RFP or the contract at HSD to mitigate those concerns?

SPEAKER_11

Um, I, I believe HSD, um, could, uh, could put that condition upon the contract.

Yes.

And it doesn't have to be specified in the CBA, but it could be.

SPEAKER_14

Okay.

Thank you.

So just clarifying, like we can use the RFP process to make sure that that is, uh, attended to because it's a good point.

Council member Rivera.

Council member Moore.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, I have a similar question but on the other way.

Is there a reason why the funding could not, sorry, that in OERA that communities rise could not be considered the preferred, or at least be given consideration for that funding, so we continue it but just in a different department, and with the proviso that it's going for people who live and work in Seattle?

SPEAKER_11

So, OIRA would, because of the amount of funding, I believe OIRA would have to run a competitive process, RFP, and that would be part of the consideration for the RFP.

I don't know if I'm the best person to explain this, but for HSD, my understanding is that they would be allowed to direct select because of their unique role, and it's allowed in our code to direct select communities rise.

And so in that case, like I said, HSD could require it as a condition of their contract, but wouldn't necessarily have to issue an RFP.

I don't know if I'm answering your question, but hopefully.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, other questions?

You will have a second to last word, just a moment.

And I'm just going to mention that what Jasmine just shared, If we move this contract to a different department, it will create government inefficiency.

Council Member Rivera, you are recognized.

And then Council Member Morales, you will be the last to speak.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Yes, thank you, Chair, and it is exactly for that reason that I was bringing this, for efficiency, because again, if the constituency was immigrant and refugees as the main constituency, then it should go to OIRA.

They're the ones that manage these contracts.

I would be happy to do an oral amendment to my amendment to leave the contract at HSD, but put the provide, not the proviso, excuse me, put the language in place about the money needing to ensure the money is going to folks that either live or work in Seattle.

And I don't think that's simpler for us because we regularly use the CBA and the budget process to tell departments to, you know, direct departments to do things of this nature.

So I'm happy to amend my walk-on to leave the money at HST but still provide that language about leaving, about the working and living in Seattle.

SPEAKER_14

Council President, I'll call on you in just a minute.

I'm gonna respond to what Vice Chair just requested.

This is not in order at this time.

I'm not gonna be accepting verbal amendments.

And the frustration, colleagues, that you are hearing from me today is not about anyone's policy position or their politics.

The frustration you are hearing from me today is about process.

And so if additional amendments to this amendment want to be made, I will request that this amendment and substitute are postponed to the end of the agenda.

I'll let you make that decision right now, but I'm gonna now call on Council President who has her, do you, okay.

So Council Member Rivera, I will ask you, would you like to postpone this item to the end of the agenda to address the issues that you just raised?

SPEAKER_12

Happy to do so.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, that is in order.

If there's no objection, this item OIRA1A will be postponed to the end of the agenda.

We're gonna move on to the next item.

I move OH4SA1, is there a second?

SPEAKER_01

Second.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

I just want a point of clarification though.

SPEAKER_14

The OH4SA1 has been moved and seconded.

Council President Nelson, you will be called on first because you pulled this item.

I will then speak to it as sponsor.

We will have discussion and then the sponsor, I will have the last word.

So Council President, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_01

Just to be clear, I believe that you just mentioned OIR 1A1 will be discussed later, but that was not the item that we just talked about with the immigrants and refugee affairs.

I think that you said the wrong thing that would be discussed at the end.

I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council President.

In those moments, the proper Robert Jules procedure is point of order.

You don't have to be recognized.

You can just say point of order, and then we stop whatever we're doing to address that.

What I have before us, before me, is a OIRA 1A regarding...

Human Services Department communities rise for this purpose.

So I believe, unless somebody else has, did I, Deputy?

SPEAKER_09

That was, that we are, that was a proposed substitute that is now, I believe, being withdrawn.

And then there is, that's Council Member Rivera.

So we, that, but that will be taken up at the end of the agenda now.

SPEAKER_05

That's correct.

SPEAKER_09

Yes, so then I believe the next item is OH4SA1.

for discussion that was pulled.

SPEAKER_14

And that has been moved and seconded.

And Council President, you are recognized as the person that has pulled this item to speak to why you pulled it.

And then we will move on to me as the sponsor, Council, discussion, and then I will speak, and then we will vote.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I move to amend OH004SA1 to include my name as a sponsor, please, Chair.

Um, and the reason is because I am very much interested in this, in this work and had been speaking with, um, uh, Peter Nietzsche, who is in, who is working with, um, Council Member Gamay Zahili and over the course of a conversation when I attended the groundbreaking, on October 19th of their building trace 4001 had indicated my interest in pursuing this.

It sent something to central staff and just want to be recognized as a supporter of at least exploring this concept.

And you and I started to talk about that and then the conversation moved on to other things in the short time that we had.

So with your permission, I would like to be added as a sponsor to this item.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Noting that you are not requesting an amendment, you are requesting to be added as a sponsor.

As noted in a few council meetings ago, we are not adding sponsors to items moving forward.

And your support for this item is well recognized, noted on the record.

Everyone sees that you are supporting this item and we will not be adding sponsors to items today.

We're focused on the budget work before us.

I appreciate your support, Council President, and I look forward to working with you on the master leasing work in the future.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I'll just communicate with the...

with the proponents about some of the reasons why it wasn't able to be listed.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Okay.

I am clarifying for the record that a few meetings ago we made the determination that additional sponsors were not being added.

I will clarify on the record now why.

And the Questica budget software that we have only allows for two sponsors.

In years past, we have had a tool where council members could raise their hand on Zoom and be added by using a different tool that we could include many more sponsors.

We are not utilizing that software this year as a blanket rule to make sure that everyone's on an even playing field is why in committee on October 30th, we made the decision during the committee to not include additional sponsors.

Thank you, Council President, for your support of this work.

It's important.

Are there any additional amendments to this item?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on OH4SA1?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_15

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

OH4SA1 passes and will be attached to Council Bill 120905. I will now move OIR 1A1.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_12

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It is OIR 1A1 has been moved and seconded.

Council President, you pulled this item.

I am the sponsor, so we will move back to me, have discussion, and then back to the sponsor, and then a vote.

Council President, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sorry.

It's a budget committee, so I assume that there were lots of people.

I do have Were you going to explain it and then put it on the screen?

There we go.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Karina?

SPEAKER_02

Good afternoon, council members, Karina Bowles, central staff.

The oral amendment to OIR00A1, which would make this 001A2, would signal the council's intention to...

expand the scope of the funds for this amendment to include work in the international and federal affairs in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

The original amendment would restore funds $190,000 in 2025 and $201,000 in 2026. to restore funds for the international affairs portfolio.

There was one position that was proposed for abrogation in the 2025-2026 proposed budget.

This council budget action would restore the funding for that work, leaving OIR with two positions.

to work in the international affairs portfolio.

The intention of this oral amendment is to signal that it is council's intention for OIR to use the funds for the same position that is being restored to focus both on international affairs and federal affairs.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council President, anything else?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_14

Please, microphone.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, and I am passing the...

SPEAKER_14

Council President, we're still having trouble with your microphone.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

So, thank you very much for this.

I support the addition of this item to the budget.

In my meeting with the directorship of OIR this morning, I did query whether or not due to the changing national landscape, political landscape, whether or not they could see a need for potential flexibility in their resources to work on additional federal issues, communications, et cetera.

It was agreed by Director Hashemi that that would be very much—that they would be very much interested in this and had already broached conversation with Deputy Mayor Wong And it was greeted with enthusiasm that some language could be added that would allow for flexibility over the use of resources.

It doesn't necessarily mean that a different person would need to be hired, but that the work could be broadened so that they have a little bit extra support at the federal level as well.

So I am asking, my motion is to amend this budget action in the way that is indicated on the screen, and I am passing the suggested amendments to my colleagues.

I appreciate your support.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council President.

You were called on to move your amendment, but your comments are well taken.

Would you like to move your amendment?

SPEAKER_01

I would like to move.

I would like to move to amend OIR001A in the way that I just described.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

I don't have a problem, so as budget chair,

SPEAKER_05

We need a second.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded to amend OIR001A version one as version two as demonstrated on the screen and passed out.

I don't have a problem with the, as chair of the committee, this is budget committee legislation.

That is how I'm the sponsor.

I don't have a problem with the product of adding this in.

I have a problem with the process that this morning was the first time that I heard about this.

The concern that I have is that this is a position that is already filled, which means that and I have not had the time to have my questions answered about hiring practices if changing this also means that the position has to be rehired or anything like that.

So my problems here are not the product that is before me.

I think this is a smart idea.

I have a problem with the process.

I am going to be abstaining from this because the questions that I have asked have not yet been answered due to the timeframe in which I was aware of this to ask the questions.

With that, I see Councilmember Kettle has his hand.

Councilmember Kettle, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Noting what you just said on the budget pieces, yes, let's have T's crossed, I's dotted, but I know it says budget committee, but I was pushing for the international piece.

I'm a big supporter of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and particularly the international portfolio, because it's so important, given our role as a major port city, a window to the Pacific and the rest of the world.

I note the points made by Council President and I support those changes if that makes a difference at all.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, any other questions?

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

I appreciate Council President bringing this forward because I do think that we could use more assistance on the federal level.

now more than ever.

And so I appreciate also that council president worked with our new director, Mina Hashemi at OIR to when she was making amendments to this.

So appreciate that work and I will be supporting this.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Colleagues, any other questions?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on amendment version two, to OIR 1A.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

SPEAKER_14

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Abstain.

SPEAKER_17

Eight in favor, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion passes.

OIR 1A1 is amended for version two as shown on the screen and will be shown on Legistar once that is updated.

Moving on to the next item, I move SDCI 1A1.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_05

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to pass SDCI 1A1.

Council.

Point of order.

SPEAKER_09

Point of order.

Yes, there we are.

So you voted on the amendment to the- Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Yes, okay.

Point of order from myself, from the Chair's perspective, Patty just asked for a point of order, please.

And so we now have the amended OIR 1A1 before us.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of OIR 1A1 as amended?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Sotka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_14

Abstain.

SPEAKER_17

Eight in favor, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion passes and Council Bill 120905 is amended to include OIR01AV2.

Let's move on to the next item.

I move SDCI 1A1.

Is there a second?

Second.

SPEAKER_07

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved.

SDCI 1A1 has been moved and seconded.

Council Member Rivera, you pulled this amendment.

If you have an amendment to it, which I believe you do, I will then pass it to central staff for a preview.

And then we'll go back to the sponsor of the original amendment, have discussion, sponsor the amendment, and then voting.

With that, Council Member Rivera, you pulled this amendment.

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

I don't have a bill.

I just pulled it because I think that this amendment, we already have two enforcement bodies at SDCI and also at our Office of Civil Rights that do enforcement on, you know, for Seattle renters, and I'm not sure that, you know, to me this is a duplication of efforts and inefficient, and so I was removing it so we could vote on it separately, and I won't be supporting this.

amendment for those reasons.

I don't believe we need to bifurcate this work by creating yet another entity when we have two at the city.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Morales has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

We have a renter's commission that is not fully seated and we have departments that are trying to provide support for tenants, tenant services, eviction prevention, doing things, everything they can to make sure that renters in the city are not evicted and are able to stay in their homes.

The intent here is to create a collaboration between tenants and landlords, as Council Member Moore mentioned yesterday, believe has an amendment to specify that, so that we have at least the beginnings of a conversation between renters and landlords.

I think we all know that there is a lot of tension and a lot of frustration with who understands their rights and who understands their obligations.

in our city, and so this is an attempt to begin working through those discussions to protect renters, but also so that landlords have an opportunity to share some of the issues that they're having.

So I am hoping that my colleagues continue to support this idea.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

As chair of the budget committee, this was included in my budget package that was a collaboration amongst all council members.

And I will recommend to continue to keep this in the chair's package as many people got their requests included in the chair's package.

I see Council Member Moore, Council Member Rivera, Council President Nelson, Council Member Kettle, Council Member Moore, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

So I had, we had discussions yesterday about perhaps amending this and I had drafted an amendment which I'm not going to be pursuing because I decided in the long run that we don't really need to spend $50,000 on bringing together a new work group.

We do have the renters commission.

It does need to be fully seated.

But we also have a small landlord work group and some other landlords.

And we've been in discussion with the mayor's office as well, with the nonprofit providers.

And I really think that we have the structure in place to bring those groups together with the members of the Renters' Commission and seating the new members beginning in January.

That seems to me the structure is there that we can utilize, even if it's somewhat informal, because these discussions are already sort of in play.

And then as to, you know, SDCI, they are continuing to do the work, and we do have SOCR.

So I'm not sure that there's a need to discuss creating a new office dedicated to enforcing current laws.

And there's already discussion about whether we need new laws or how we can modify the laws we have.

So I think that we—I support the intent.

bringing the broad stakeholders together to engage in discussion and try to bring the temperature down a little bit.

But I think we can do that in the structure that we currently have.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Moore.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

I can go after everyone else since I've had an opportunity, Chair.

That's true.

Thanks.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14

Council Member, Council President Nelson, Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_01

I agree with the spirit of Council Member Rivera's actions here.

I am really concerned about some of the issues that our affordable housing providers have been raising and I think that those some of those issues really do need to be solved as I understand that there will be probably more resources spent to accommodate their some of their issues and so they I would want to make sure that that we comprehensively look at how how our our policy directions are impacting our affordable housing providers as well.

And so I think that the fact that we also do have a renter's commission and the chair of housing has been deep in this work already, I think that I would like to see that come to fruition first before initiating work on another body.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

First, I want to thank Council Member Rouse for bringing this forward.

I, like her, do believe in having protections for tenants.

That's really important.

I think that's really important to say first, actually.

I also recognize the landlord side needs to be addressed.

Guardrails need to be placed in terms of moving forward.

I look at this CBA as really something that should be going through committee, and I know that this is going to be, my understanding is this area of interest will be part of the upcoming 2025 for the committee, and I think that is the appropriate place to work this issue as we've been doing on public safety on various issues, and to have that that give and take and have it be part of that comprehensive place.

Because in addition to everything that was already said, there's also the question of why isn't HSD doing this?

Why is SDCI involved?

Unless it was related to the code of an apartment building or something like that.

So there's a lot of big questions and I think that should get settled through the committee process.

And I think in the end, we will be better off with that kind of comprehensive look and approach.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

And you're absolutely right, Council Member Kettle.

I should have led with it is important to do this work.

It's important to make sure, again, I said earlier in this meeting about know your rights education.

Renters need protections.

They need to know their rights.

And I'm glad that we have.

SDCI is a compliance body as well as SOCR.

So I want to state emphatically my support for renters' rights.

And I know I have a lot of renters, for instance, in the U District in my district, and I very much care about their rights.

And we also heard from some folks the other night, some seniors, actually, who are having some issues with the housing providers and spaces where they're living in.

And so we want to make sure that we are providing protections for renters.

And then I also appreciate that the tensions between the renters and the landlords.

And for my part, I feel very fortunate that we have Council Member Moore leading as chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee.

And I know she's doing a lot of work in this space.

I don't sit on the committee, but I do I attend the meetings because I care about all of this work.

And so I appreciate her leadership in this space We've had many conversations and I know that she is doing She's doing a lot in this space.

SPEAKER_14

So, thank you Thank you colleagues any other questions comments.

Otherwise, I'm going to turn it back to councilmember Morales Councilman Osaka

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So first off, I want to state my overwhelming support for tenants in our city.

And we need to have effective programs and services to make sure that we protect our tenants and make sure everyone, because everyone at the end of the day deserves a basic standard of habitability.

I think it is important for them to know that they can call home wherever they happen to call home.

This is something that I hear both sides and I appreciate the spirit and intent from council member morales.

I am a bit more persuaded and inclined to be a little more and her unique knowledge and insight, Council Member Moore.

And so of the existing structure and process, let us develop that a little further, and then maybe this might be appropriate to revisit next year.

And for those reasons, I will not be supporting this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_08

Just wanna echo what everyone's been saying.

Yes, we do need to make sure we protect Seattle renters and make sure tenant rights are there.

And it sounds like this is duplicative.

And it would be amazing to have all these current groups be able to come together.

So I will not be voting for this.

I think the scope needs to narrow and we have to identify what problems need to be solved.

But I think having these groups already in place and making sure that, you know, these groups are being able to fill their positions and work effectively before moving on to developing another group.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Morales has sponsored the underlying amendment.

You are recognized and then we will go to a vote.

So this is the opportunity.

Council President, is that a new hand?

SPEAKER_01

No.

SPEAKER_14

Okay.

Anyone else want to say anything?

Council Member Morales, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair.

All I will say is that, again, we do have a renter's commission.

If the desire is to have them and the small landlord group, convened to start working through these issues then I would hope that as soon as the new year begins those conversations begin because we have renters who are getting pushed out and we have landlords who don't fully understand their obligations and if we're going to do what we can to prevent homelessness adding to the homelessness crisis then we need to make sure that those issues get resolved quickly.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Thank you Council Member Morales.

Clerk will you please call the roll on SDCI 1A.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Succo?

Wait, wait, sorry.

SPEAKER_14

Clerk, I'm going to come back and restart this process.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_14

If you are in favor of SDCI having $50,000 to convene a work group, you will vote yes.

If you do not want SDCI to have $50,000 to convene a tenant work group, you will vote no.

Is that correct, Patty?

SPEAKER_09

Yes.

Correct.

There's no substitute.

SPEAKER_14

We're good.

Thank you.

Will the clerk please call the roll on SDCI 1A?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

No.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_99

Nay.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

No.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Abstain.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_15

No.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

No.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

SPEAKER_14

No.

SPEAKER_17

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Two in favor, six opposed, one abstentions.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, the motion does not pass and SDCI 1A is not attached to Council Bill 120905. We're gonna move on, so I move SDHR 1A1, is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded to have SDHR 1A1 before us.

And I'm looking at this.

Council Member Morales, you are the sponsor.

Council President, you have pulled this item.

So...

Council President, you will speak to this.

If you have an amendment, please move it in your first set of comments, and then we'll pass it over to central staff, back to the sponsor, council discussion, back to the sponsor.

If you do not have an amendment, we'll just go, once you speak, I'll turn it over to Council Member Morales.

Council President, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_01

My action is to oppose this item for the following reasons.

First of all, the mayor had to make some very difficult decisions and asked all departments to submit painful choices for reducing their budgets, and I oversee SDHR.

I know and respect and value Director Loving's understanding of what is needed for her department and for the values that SDHR represents, including workforce equity.

This was a reduction that was offered in response to the mayor's request, but I want to note that the two remaining FTEs that are addressed here will be absorbed into SDHR business operations.

So even if we do not pass this item, these employees will stay employed.

The rationale for the director's request to remove this unit itself is because doing this work at the department level was deemed to be potentially more effective model than having one organization or one unit within SDR spread out across the city.

And if we really want to institute the values of workforce equity, it was deemed that that would be a better way to go about it.

The workforce equity, and I'm now reading from notes from Director Eder, who got some information from the change request.

The workforce equity strategic plan is currently in the first year of a six-year execution phase.

Given appropriate resources and commitment from department leadership, it's assessed as entirely feasible for the city to administer the strategic plan without SDHR's direct leadership.

SDHR will transition to an advisory role with a consolidated workforce equity team within the department's business operation unit.

This team would continue to offer subject matter expertise to departments, aid in policy development, and provide critical reporting on affirmative action and equal employment opportunity metrics.

At the conclusion of the strategic plan in 2026, the City will need to reassess the outcomes and determine the necessity for a subsequent strategic plan.

The point is this work will continue to get done.

It's deemed that at the department level is perhaps more efficacious.

So I am inclined to value that approach.

I don't know to what extent we have investigated the alternative of why keeping it as status quo would be preferable.

But I do want to extend my deference to the department leadership and to the mayor for making this decision and knowing their really strong commitment to workforce equity.

It very well could be that we could see better outcomes if this work is administered at the department level.

If my colleagues agree to opposing this item, I would suggest that money that is not used for this purpose could be used for the to help the Environmental Treatment Services Organization purchase a mobile treatment unit.

They have sent a letter to me that I can circulate here.

This would be a one-time cost in 2025 for slightly above $400,000.

That would be able to serve the Third Avenue and Pike and neighborhoods where SOTA will be implemented as well as 12th and Jackson and around there.

There will not be any treatment services once the Navigation Center is closed in the CID.

Director Sharon Lee of Lehigh has asked for additional resources in that neighborhood.

Even if I did not have this priority of spending that money on this, I would still want to suggest that we respect the executive's original decision to accept their proposed cut in SDHR.

I just wanted to explain.

that what I want to use the money on is not why I'm suggesting this, but the two are interrelated.

And I know that I would have to submit an amendment, a CBA to effectuate the latter part of what I was just saying.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

I'm going to summarize real quick.

Council President, you have brought this before us to vote it up or vote it down.

You just referenced another program that could be funded, but there's not an amendment for it.

Council President, you are our council president.

I ask you to lead by example.

The amendment deadline was November 1st.

I'm gonna move on to Council Member Morales.

The motion before us right now is whether to include these positions within SDHR or not.

We will take up your other proposals at another time, but they are not germane right now.

If you have walk-ons, they will be put to the end of the agenda.

Councilmember Morales, as sponsor of the, and I will just state from the chair's perspective, this was one of Councilmember Morales' requests, which is why her name is on it.

This is something that I support wholeheartedly.

And for the same reasons, Council President, you are not added as sponsors.

I'm not adding myself as sponsor.

So just demonstrating that these rules are applied to everyone, including myself.

Councilmember Morales, you are recognized as sponsor of the amendment.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

So I guess the first thing I'll say is that this workforce equity plan, this division oversees the 2024 to 2029 Workforce Equity Strategic Plan.

They implement auditor recommendations for improving internal promotion practices.

They do incredibly important work to implement our race and social justice initiative, and they ensure that our own employees are not facing undue discrimination.

Considering how many complaints and how many lawsuits this city has made by our own employees within departments who have faced discrimination, I think it's important that we continue funding and implementing this work.

There are systemic discriminatory practices for which the city continues to pay out settlements.

and legal fees for employees.

And I will also say that our own auditor in the workforce equity and promotions audit that was done a couple of years ago, issued recommendations after finding disparities in the city's promotion practices and also noted that the city's decentralized HR framework hinders the necessary collaboration for implementing best promotion practices citywide.

So I understand that we have, you know, Departments were asked to create, to suggest cuts.

That doesn't necessarily mean that they think this is the best way to move forward.

And I think the fact that we have so many challenges in this city regularly, it really behooves us to make sure that we are continuing the work and we're continuing to support and demonstrate to our black and brown city workers that we Respect and want to continue to support their ability to work in a department and in their divisions Where we are not going to support You know the creation of hostile work environments, so I am asking my colleagues to please continue to support this work.

SPEAKER_14

It's really important Thank you colleagues.

This is the council discussion any council members wishing to discuss this item This is the time to be recognized Councilmember Wu, then Vice Chair Rivera.

SPEAKER_08

I have a clarifying question.

So this department has...

The work would continue.

This person would not be laid off.

It sounds like they're employed.

But this division would be moved to another work group?

SPEAKER_14

I'm going to ask Karina to answer that question.

I'd say we have received conflicting information as of the last 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02

Karina.

Councilmembers currently...

In the proposed budget, the division of workforce equity would be eliminated, and that would be done by abrogating 1.5 FTE, the director position, along with a part-time advisor position.

The part-time advisor position is vacant.

The director position is filled.

So, if this budget amendment were to pass, that the employee, the incumbent employee in that position would continue working, doing the work of the centralized oversight of the Workforce Equity Initiative.

If the position were abrogated, then there would be a layoff.

The work of the Workforce Equity Initiative is focused on the hiring, retention, and promotion of employees.

So it is specifically focused on that area of racial equity work.

SPEAKER_14

I'm gonna just clarify some of the questions there.

Sorry to jump in, Council Member Wu.

The position, if we do not pass the amendment before us, will the position be abrogated?

So if we do not pass this position, that the individual will be laid off.

SPEAKER_02

Correct.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Wu, back to you.

SPEAKER_08

No further questions.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you.

I'm gonna make a comment and then chair, is it appropriate to ask, because there is conflicting information, council president to address council member Wu's.

SPEAKER_14

You would pose it to me and then I would facilitate if it's a question back to the sponsor, to central staff or back to council member Wu.

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_12

I'll make my comment and then I'll do that.

Okay, great.

Colleagues, I think we're...

There's a lot of alignment on the things that we support.

We support, of course, equity in our workforce, and we work hard toward that.

I'm happy that this division was able to proffer a plan.

And I also want to hold department directors accountable for implementation of those plans.

One position at SDHR isn't going to guarantee that our workforce is you know, that our RHA goals are being met.

That is something that department directors have to lead in their departments to do with their staff.

So I don't think a person or a person and a half at SDHR is going to be the ones who are holding department directors accountable.

The mayor is, and I believe he is, and we are via the budget process and other mechanisms.

So I don't think that this is necessary for those purposes, though I will say we all agree.

We don't agree on how to get there, but we all agree on the importance of it, I would say.

So thank you.

Now, Chair, would you mind asking Council President to clarify the question as to whether or not that person will be laid off?

which I believe is what Council Member Wu was asking.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

And Council President is next.

So do you have any further comments?

No, no further comments.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Council President.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I would not have brought this forward if I did not understand that the positions would be absorbed within the department doing that same work.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so just to set the stage, currently there are four positions in the workforce equity division, 3.5 FTEs, four positions.

Three of those positions are filled.

The two positions, it's a program coordinator and a data analyst, would remain and move over to the SDHR business operations unit where they would continue focusing on workforce equity work within that division without a director.

The director position, if this amendment were not to pass, the incumbent employee in that position would be subject to layoff.

And then the fourth position, which is part-time, is currently vacant and has been vacant all year due to the hiring freeze.

SPEAKER_14

Council President, the floor is still yours.

SPEAKER_01

I'm finished talking.

SPEAKER_14

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, I'm just trying to get my head wrapped around that.

So currently three positions are filled.

Two would remain employed but in a different place.

one is unfilled, and then one would potentially be subject to layoff.

So my understanding was that if there was somebody who was up for being laid off, that they would have the option to get an opening in any other open position in the city.

That's what we were talking about with other departments.

Is that not true?

SPEAKER_02

So I will, do you wanna go ahead and then I'll clarify?

SPEAKER_14

I'm gonna say what I believe is true and then I'm gonna have Karina clarify that.

We have a program at the city that ensures that candidates get an interview if they are qualified.

There are a lot of issues with this, which is why this is one of my slides, about is it the same band?

Are they in a band that is higher than the jobs that are available to interview for?

Or are they below in a band and can't access jobs that are higher?

And then furthermore, they are allowed, granted an interview, but that is it.

Is that correct, Karina?

SPEAKER_02

There is Project Hire.

There's also a reinstatement list.

Project Hire, yes, does guarantee an interview if the employee meets the minimum qualifications for the same band or job classification or lower.

The important amendment in this situation is that the reinstatement list and Project Hire programs are only available for civil service employees, and the position that is subject to abrogation is a director level position.

It's an executive job classification.

It is civil service exempt.

So that position would not be, the incumbent employee in that position would not be able to take part in the project hire program or the reinstatement list, which goes to the statement of legislative intent on layoff programs.

One of the items that was proposed for consideration was expanding the scope of those programs to include civil service exempt employees, but right now it does not include it.

So the director would not be able to take part.

SPEAKER_14

Council Member Moore, you still have the floor.

SPEAKER_08

Oh, that was it.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_08

I support and agree with Council President who oversees SDHR, understands their needs and capacity.

We already know budget requires tough decisions.

Workforce equity isn't a single project of any one person.

It's the mission of the entire city.

Every employee, manager, including ourselves, has the responsibility to carry this workforce equity work in everything that we do.

That includes hiring retention with our RSGI lens and workforce equity policies that already exist.

And so this is...

I don't think responsible of just one person, but for all of us.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Council President, is that a new hand, old hand?

SPEAKER_01

No, it's not a new hand.

I'll take it down.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, any other questions or comments?

I will pass it back to Council Member Morales for the last word.

So that's why last call for comments on this item.

SPEAKER_03

I have nothing further.

SPEAKER_14

Nothing further.

And so will the clerk please call the roll on SDHR 1A version 1.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

No.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_06

Nay.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

No.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

No.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

No.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

No.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

No.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Two in favor, seven opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

SDHR 1A does not pass and will not be attached to Council Bill 120905. Colleagues, we have four votes left.

I'm going to keep us moving.

So, candidly, this is...

We're spending more time on Section A than in past years.

With that, I move S.3A1.

Is there a second?

Second.

SPEAKER_03

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded.

Council Member Morales, you pulled this bill.

Council Member Saka and myself are sponsors.

Council Member Morales, if you have an amendment, do you have an amendment?

No, okay.

So we'll go Council Member Morales, Council Member Saka, myself, colleagues, back to Council Member Saka and myself, and then we'll go for a vote.

Council Member Morales, you pulled this item.

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I appreciate that, Chair.

The last four here are things that I just want to be able to vote on individually.

This amendment would reallocate money that would go toward important transportation projects to what is essentially a Transportation slush fund for us and as much as I would love to have access to what looks like about seven hundred thousand dollars for my district That's not really enough money to get a lot of projects done.

So I will be voting now.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you Thank you.

I Can't remember soccer.

Do you want me to go first?

Do you want to go first?

I'd refer to you.

Mr. Chair Alright, I'm just gonna I'm gonna go we have Calvin Chow here who?

this was This is the product of SDOT bringing us a current law budget and identifying funds that are accessible to continue doing this work.

Council Member Morales, I hear your points, but maybe we could all team up and pool the money.

But this is money that SDOT identified from their reserve fund as able to be spent in the next two years.

And since the levy has passed, it does not have a specific funding allocation, which is why I encourage a yes vote on this item.

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And as chair of the committee that oversees this department, I also strongly urge and would hope to earn a yes vote on this item here.

I think what we've learned—by the way, this was one of the mayor's original proposals that didn't make its way through the final transportation levy package.

But we did hear, as chair of that committee at the time, the select committee at the time, I heard— generally overwhelming support from our colleagues at the principal level for smaller scale neighborhood safety type investments.

Think of marked crosswalks, stop signs, lighting signals, heck, maybe a traffic circle potentially, but smaller scale stuff.

Many constituents think we can just, as legislators, as you know, colleagues, think we can just wave a magic wand and, like, go build their thing.

I wish we could, but, you know, that is principally the power and responsibility of the executive department.

And so there are any number of ways that we can go about adding that traffic circle, adding that Mark Crosswalk, adding that additional lighting, whatever the safety improvement is.

In the new levy, for example, there's a neighborhood-initiated safety program, which is one method of doing exactly that.

SDOT retains flexibility under any number of budget items to drive and bring about safety improvements.

Again, what we're talking about is small-scale improvements.

Not large capital improvement projects, smaller scale things.

And so I think this year we've also seen the fact, we've learned that one of the new bells of the ball, so to speak, from a department perspective is SDOT.

They perform an essential city service.

And I've heard consistently that council members want a...

stronger at least an opportunity to provide stronger feedback and and you know hopefully will be more likely to be acted upon and because you know these these items are piling up and in my district these requests and I know a number of you all as well and so In any event, I also ask for your support here.

This is one of many ways that we can go about bringing about change in our district, and I appreciate the hard work that people at SDOT do every day to do this, and thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Colleagues, are there any further comments?

If there are no further comments, everyone's already, the sponsors have spoken, so we'll just take it to a vote.

Seeing no further comments, will the clerk please call the roll on, again, a yes vote means that we want to have the 7-7 fund, a no vote means that we do not want to have the 7-7 fund.

Will the clerk please call the roll on S.3A?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

No.

Council Member Morales?

No.

Council Member Nelson?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Eight in favor, one opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

S.3A passes and will be attached to Council Bill 120905. We're going to move on to the next item.

I move S.4A1.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_00

Second.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded to have S.481.

Council Member Morales, do you have an amendment or is this just an up-down vote?

Council Member Morales does not have an amendment.

I will call on her regarding the reason.

I will pass it to the sponsor and then council discussion and then back to the sponsor and we'll go to a vote.

Council Member Morales, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, I do wanna say I appreciate the hard work that Council Member Saka has done with his community and also understand that there is a lot of frustration very often when community members feel like projects are going in and they were not adequately informed or engaged in the process.

Nevertheless, this project would remove a barrier that restricts turns.

Restricting left turns lets traffic move more efficiently and is much safer for the public.

Most crashes that occur involve a left-hand turn, and not allowing left-hand turns is a policy the city really should be moving toward, not away from.

So for those reasons, I will not be supporting this amendment.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Saca has sponsored the amendment.

SPEAKER_14

You are recognized.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

A couple things.

First off, this amendment is principally about safety and addressing inequity.

This is about a safety for all.

It's not about the false narrative of pitting one mode of travel, whether it's transit, pedestrian, cycling, against another motorist.

It's a false choice.

Recall yesterday I said I was elected to clap back against those false choice, false dichotomy-type narratives.

So this is really about safety and equity for all.

Second point is the underlying community here is called the Refugee and Immigrant Family Center.

Like the name implies, it's member—community members, families, workers.

overwhelmingly from refugee and immigrant family backgrounds.

This is also notably, as we might have learned during some of our earlier EDI discussions this year, this is an EDI recipient.

It's also a small business.

It's also a community center.

And I think it's also a proud Seattle preschool program participant as well.

It's many things to many people, but it is a pillar of the community there in North Delridge, and it impacts them, their neighbors, and their sister site, the Southwest Early Learning Center, about half a mile north down the road in Delridge.

So, you know, my involvement, my unique involvement in history with this organization, with that community, is well documented and well established at this point.

Check the South Seattle Emerald article from two or three years ago now.

Shout out to the Emerald.

And, you know, why?

Because for a number of years, I had two kids, two of my three kids went there.

And...

I represented them.

I had the pleasure.

I had the distinct pleasure of representing them pro bono in connection with the dispute that they had with the city at the time.

And what happened was during the whole three-mile major rehabilitation project, construction of the Delridge project and the redesign and the underlying work, There was, let's just say there was more to be desired in terms of the outreach that was performed and the feedback that was listened to, heard, and acted upon, especially in that area.

And I don't know if you all remember a couple days ago from the public hearing, but a member of the Transportation Equity Work Group was here.

And later the next morning, another gentleman from the Transportation Equity Work Group was here.

They shared at the principal level some of their priorities.

All of them are consistent with everything we're doing right now.

But I want to specifically call out three things.

They mentioned language accessibility is key.

They mentioned they prioritize face-to-face interactions.

And third and finally, we need to drive and improve data-driven decisions.

Those three things.

And I know I've worked with the department enough.

It is full of smart, talented, hardworking people.

No one intended for some of these lapses to happen.

Taking the last item, for example, data-driven decisions.

That was taking for the sake of argument that they made a data-driven decision in the design and construction of that, which I have every reason to believe they absolutely did.

It still leaves more to be desired than those other things.

Language accessibility.

These are native Spanish speakers.

No one reached out to them.

No one.

Prioritize face-to-face interactions.

No, that didn't happen either.

I think what happened was, like, if you drive by it, it looks more like a residential home rather than a small business, rather than a community center, rather than an EDI recipient, rather than a Seattle preschool program.

And if it were just a resident, if it were just a resident, that makes probably a lot more sense.

But regardless of despite the great intent, The final construction, and it's too speculative to say one way or the other.

Had they reached out and done the requisite outreach and engagement and their final design, would it be the same?

It's too speculative, but I can't help but know it in my heart and in my mind that there would have been some change to that design because nowhere along that three miles Delridge corridor, by the way, folks, is another small business similarly impacted.

There's another community center similarly impacted.

And so this is direct response to strong community demands and needs, and we've seen the emails, and we've heard them come and testify themselves at the first public hearing.

And sadly, they lost Maestra Carla Gomez, who is a mother, daughter, worker, of her sister's sight and swell, and she's also the daughter of our beloved Chef Lupita.

And it was devastating for their community.

The timing was horrible for all this.

Otherwise they would have been here themselves.

Again, they had so many people the other night on their behalf, demanding that we as a city do better.

And this is the right investment for this community for this time and in this moment.

And as chair of the Transportation Committee that oversees this department, I view this as a friendly amendment to the committee.

And this is needed.

Also, I just want to emphasize a couple other material facts, because there's some confusion going around.

This is politics.

It is what it is.

This is not my personal issue.

I do have a documented history with them as their former pro bono legal counsel, and I make no apologies about that.

I'm proud of it, because I think that gives me a unique insight into the matter.

But this is the best thing that's best for this community.

And now I feel like I have an even higher responsibility and obligation as their elected representative.

to help right this wrong and address the inequity and make it truly safer for all.

Heard over and over again, Councilmember Kettle, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

Folks, this is a pound of cure.

And I know that this community, if this passes, I know that this community is ready, willing, and able and prepared to work with everyone to find a solution that works.

But I would submit to you, Colleagues, this is not it.

And at the time, three years ago, when I represented them, all they wanted to be was heard.

Less of a legal issue.

It's more of an advocacy issue.

Because lawyers wear many hats.

All they wanted to be was heard.

And I'm thankful I was able to elevate the situation in the mayor's office, met with now Deputy Mayor Emery.

Appreciate her partnership on so many different things.

Deputy Mayor Burgess, shout out to him.

And they felt at the time heard, even though at the time there was no commitment because namely lack of funding to address the situation.

And what we agreed to was let us periodically revisit the issue.

No different than what's going on right now in the safe and healthy streets in my district in Alki.

No different than what has been called for the past through various amendments.

Revisiting issues doesn't mean you have to change your mind.

Let us also continue to check in, and now, the time is now to revisit, and this is what that looks like.

So, not my issue, and for clarity, my family is not personally implicated by any of this.

I'm just now advocating an even higher duty.

I thought the lawyer-client relationship was the highest duty of all, and then I became elected.

And I'm just now advocating on behalf of my constituents, and just responding to long-documented, well-established community concerns and needs.

There's no, and also for clarity, there's no monetary, financial, or pecuniary gain or benefit by me or my family.

I wanted to say, I didn't think I'd be able to say pecuniary since I learned that word in law school.

But there's no pecuniary gain.

Why?

Because, well, I paid them.

They were my former...

daycare provider recall on top of that I volunteered the most precious resource we all have is our time to help and now I'm elected to serve them and everyone else and I know that this is the right decision at the right moment and the right treatment and this is what we need to do and again this is fundamentally about safety and addressing inequity this is my project in my district as chair of the transportation committee overseeing this I'm not going to second guess or meddle in any of the projects in any of your districts and thereby potentially risk jeopardizing harmonious relationships, I would ask the same courtesy of my district priorities, especially since I also wear the citywide hat in this role, in this capacity as chair of the Transportation Committee.

So, colleagues, I ask for your vote.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Council Member Kettle, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_15

THANK YOU, VICE CHAIR.

I WANTED TO SPEAK ON THIS TODAY BECAUSE I'VE HAD AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF OUTREACH TO ME ON THIS TOPIC BY MANY MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY, PARTICULARLY WITHIN THE TRANSPORTATION COMMUNITY, WHO RAISED CONCERNS, AS NOTED BY COUNCILMEMBER OSAKA, BUT ALSO NOTED CONCERNS AS RELATED TO HIS PERSONAL LINKS, BOTH PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL.

AND I WANTED TO SPEAK BECAUSE OF THAT INCREDIBLE OUTREACH TO ME I've first engaged with Councilmember Saka on this issue, both on the issue itself, but also the personal aspects, both himself related to his professional background, but also his family, his personal piece.

And he has done his due diligence on that point.

That's important.

So to address that point, that came to me in many ways.

And to the point that he raised with the insight of that area and working with SDOT and potentially working with SDOT 3A1 with the additional monies to the district, maybe the overall Delridge community can get additional pedestrian traffic safety improvements along this entire stretch, which I have not personally been to.

But I just wanted to highlight because of so many people came to me that I have engaged, and by the way, with Council Member Saka on this topic, I also heard all the commentary, which does need to be appreciated that came through the public hearing.

And most importantly, related to the personal aspect, because it was asked to me directly that I personally engage with Council Member Saka and his response to me was, APPROPRIATE AND SATISFACTORY ON THAT.

THANK YOU, CHAIR.

OR VICE CHAIR AND NOW CHAIR.

SPEAKER_14

THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER KEDDELL AND THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER RIVERA FOR STEPPING IN FOR ME AS I STEPPED AWAY FOR JUST A SECOND.

COUNCILMEMBER RIVERA, YOU ARE NEXT.

COUNCILMEMBER SACA, I SEE YOUR HAND, BUT I'M GOING TO CALL ON YOU LAST TO HAVE LAST WORD.

VICE CHAIR.

SPEAKER_12

THANK YOU, CHAIR.

OH, COUNCILMEMBER MOORE HAS HER HAND UP.

OKAY.

THANK YOU.

There is a big opportunity here for SDOT to improve on their outreach to constituents.

I've worked with SDOT for a number of years now, and I have felt that the communication that they do when they're doing projects in the neighborhoods has definitely need for improvement.

There are a lot of projects where I know adjoining property owners and buildings aren't being notified of projects that are being done ahead of time or even as they're happening.

And I think that this is really a critical piece.

Because when you do appropriate outreach, and as someone who did outreach in the past to communities, these types of issues surface.

And then you can work with community to find solutions on the front end and avoid what happens on the back end.

And I will say that SDOT Before I came to this council, but in the district that I now serve, did some outreach on a program they were running, and they did a survey, and the survey showed that over 60% of the people did not want the program that SDOT wanted to place in that community.

And SDOT did so anyway.

And there are consequences from their doing that.

And that didn't make sense to me because if you went through the trouble of doing the outreach and then 60% of the people said they didn't want it.

Why did you place it there anyway?

Or did you work with community to do something different?

And I understand SDOT is under a lot of pressures.

They have a lot of expertise that none of us have.

And also, it is incumbent upon them to really do the outreach to community because they are providing a service to community, an important one.

And so I just think this speaks to the importance of doing the outreach to community as they're out there doing these projects across the city.

And if you don't do that proper outreach to community, there will be more of these types of issues like Councilmember Saka is bringing today and like the ones I've experienced in my district in the time that I've been here there have been multiple I've had multiple conversations with many constituents in my district with safety concerns that I've gone to SDOT to try to address.

And so this isn't just one, this happens to be this project, but there are many, and I know there's some in your district, if there's some in my district, and it is frustrating to be working with, you know, you want to respond to constituents, you have to work through the department, And I just think if they do better outreach, they could be in a better position when these things arise.

And so I wanted to highlight that as part of this conversation because I think it is the most important piece of this conversation is the lack of community outreach that I'm seeing out of the department.

And I'm hopeful that Council Member Saka, U.S. Chair, will work with the department to improve upon that.

Because I also want to say I don't think it's ill-intended.

I don't want to suggest that it's ill-intended on the part of the department, but I do think it's something that they need to improve.

And quickly.

And it's been a long time coming.

And the other thing I'll say is, you know, we've heard this from constituents who come here, too, is sometimes SDOT listens to some constituents and not others.

And they have to listen to everyone.

There are no favorites.

We serve everybody.

We serve the public.

And so these are areas, in my opinion, that are room for improvements for SDOT.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council President, I saw your hand.

It's not up anymore.

You're okay?

SPEAKER_04

My points have been addressed.

SPEAKER_14

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore and then Wu.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to echo the comments of Councilmember Rivera.

I think we all have those stories.

And SDOT is a big department, and they do their best, but they also have a lot of room for improvement in how they deal with constituents, and I think this is a clear example of that.

And I also just want to say that I too received a lot of emails that engaged in attacks against Council Member Saka, and I just think it's, again, a reflection of what we're seeing on our national climate, and it's corrosive to our civil discourse.

We really need to work on being able to disagree without you know, attacking the motives of the people who we are disagreeing with.

So I just want to say, Council Member Saka, that I'm sorry that you've gone through that.

It's hard to work through it, but I know that you've pursued this in the best of faith and in your role as chair of the Department for the Transportation Committee.

People will not necessarily agree, but you are doing this to represent your constituents, all those voices, and not for any sort of personal gain.

So, thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Moore, Council Member Wu, and then Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_08

I just want to echo everyone's topics.

I don't want to repeat them, but I will just add that we have been slowly doing better, but we have a really great tool called the Racial Equity Toolkit that tells us how we do the outreach engagement with communities of color, migrant and refugee communities, and I cannot ever talk enough about this toolkit.

One other point I want to add is that I know I'm not the only one that has consulted with legal authority and the ethics department.

I know that Council Member Saka has done his due diligence.

So I know that there are not any financial interests and this is something everyone here on the dais also thinks about and considers so that we don't run into any issues.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_01

I just wanted to thank you, Chair Strauss, for including this in the balancing package, because it was clear to me from seeing so many public commenters coming out and praising you, Council Member Saka, and urging us to vote in favor of it, that I didn't know anything about it really until I listened to those comments.

And so thank you very much for enlightening me through this process.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council President.

Anyone, I think everyone's spoken, so I will share my comments.

Council Member Saka, you do not deserve to be attacked in any way over the positions that you have on the dais.

I was impressed to see Cesar from Lake City Collective all the way out in Delridge.

As I said before, D6 is not going to tell D1 what to do, and I'm also going to remove myself from the conversation.

So I will be abstaining today, and I'm going to let everyone else do as they please.

I have no recommendation from the chair's position other than the fact that it was included in the package because everyone's stuff was included in the package.

There you are.

With that, Council Member Saka has sponsored the amendment.

You have last word, and then we will go directly to a vote.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you also just want to thank you Mr. Chair also just wanted to clarify yes I have been and kind of got out of here but I appreciate in a good way you know about the due diligence that me and my office have directly performed I have proactively been engaged on a proactive basis with our legal counsel Lauren been proactively engaged NOT IN A RESPONSIVE MANNER, BUT PROACTIVELY ENGAGE WITH DIRECTOR BARNETT FROM THE SEATTLE ETHICS AND ELECTION COMMISSION.

AND JUST TO ENSURE CRYSTAL CLEAR, WE'RE FULLY BUTTONED UP HERE, IF THIS FACT PATTERN SUGGESTS SOME SORT OF CONFLICT, THEN LORD HELP OUR DISTRICT SYSTEM.

especially with the non-financial, non-pecuniary, let me say it one more time, non-pecuniary interest.

So definitely been very proactive about the situation.

And I appreciate the comments from you all colleagues about some of the tax.

I don't pay that any attention.

Sure it is what it is.

Unfortunately, some people have chosen to make this about the messenger rather than the message.

Some people have chosen to make this issue about me rather than the impact of community.

And what we learned this whole time, and it was made resoundingly clear a couple nights ago during the public hearing is, no, this ain't about me.

It's about that community.

They don't need people not from that community speaking on their behalf.

So I'm not worried or bothered.

I got some thick skin.

I'm built a little differently than every other elected official.

Ask about me.

Overcame and survived the foster care system.

I can overcome a little, you know, whatever attacks.

It is what it is.

But, colleagues, I do ask and would really appreciate your support on this.

And finally, I'll note, Transportation Equity Workgroup, Yes, Cesar was here.

He is a founding member, I believe, of the Transportation Equity Work Group, and he is a Transportation Equity Group member emeritus is what they, the honorific title they gave to, and he obviously strongly supports this.

And shout out to TEW.

They do terrific work.

And I heard over and over, like, SDOT, Every department, every person, every department, every individual is imperfect.

Me, myself, I'm a flawed, nuanced human being.

Me, myself, I wish I would have reached out to the TEW proactively earlier.

I ended up having a great meeting with them earlier this summer.

But as chair of that committee, I should have reached out to them earlier.

And I regret that I didn't.

But we have built the foundation for a great relationship moving forward.

And I've invited and they've accepted.

And they're going to come and present some of their great work early in the committee next year.

And I'm grateful for them.

And I want to continue to support and amplify the terrific work that they do every day.

exactly to avoid scenarios like this and create a truly safe transportation network for us all.

So colleagues, I ask for your support.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

And for the record, I believe that your strength, half of your strength comes from your Viking heritage.

With that.

SPEAKER_00

Sure thing, Mr. Chair.

You always love bringing that up, but yes, absolutely.

Viking or Finnish and Nigerian.

Yes.

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

With that, will the clerk please call the roll on S.4A.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_14

I'm going to restart.

Sorry, I will start prepping us a little bit better.

If you believe that there should be a proviso on SDOT for transit and roadway improvements on Delridge, you will vote yes.

If you do not think that there should be a proviso, you will vote no.

And so will the clerk please call SDOT for a...

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_17

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_06

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_06

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

No.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Abstain.

SPEAKER_17

Seven in favor, one opposed, one abstention.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion passes and S.4A will be attached to Council Bill 120905. We're going to go on to the last two items.

Hopefully they'll move quickly.

I move S.6A1.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_00

Second.

I can't.

SPEAKER_14

It has been moved and seconded.

Councilmember Morales, you pulled this.

Do you have a substitute or are you just looking for a vote?

SPEAKER_03

I do not have a substitute.

SPEAKER_14

Okay, we will have you speak to it and then Councilmember Saka and myself will speak to it as sponsors, council discussion, and then Councilmember Saka, you can have last word and we'll keep going.

Councilmember Morales, you're recognized.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, thank you, Chair, and I will say I did sort of assume these would be quick votes, so...

I will say this amendment would redirect $1.1 million to the School Traffic and Pedestrian Improvement Fund to go toward automated traffic enforcement cameras for non-school zone areas.

We know that the Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to them, 20% of kids 14 and under who die in traffic-related crashes are pedestrians who have been struck by a motor vehicle.

I don't believe that diverting funds that are intended to protect children children should go elsewhere.

And while I do support funding for speed traffic cameras, I don't support that at the expense of protecting kids.

So I understand that this is a school safety reserve, but that doesn't mean that it's not needed for keeping kids safe, and I will be voting against it.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

And I'm going to actually deviate a little bit.

Calvin, I'm going to ask you to brief the amendment because it's my understanding that this amendment what is before us right now will take money to deploy more cameras, which will make more money for the school zone camera, school zone program.

But I'm gonna let you brief us on what this does.

SPEAKER_10

Council members, Calvin Chow with Central Staff.

Currently, we're in the middle of a lot of changes in state law that are affecting cameras.

So we have on our books a history of how we've developed to follow along with the state authority for red light cameras, for school zone cameras, for all the camera authority.

Recently, there have been changes that completely changed that, that make it all essentially one camera program.

We have not enacted that locally yet.

We will need to to make any of this stuff happen in the future, but that has not happened yet.

Our authority, our laws are still allowable under what was then previous state legislation.

So one of the things that we did was dedicate 20% of our red light camera revenue for the school zone safety program.

And that has been a city obligation, not a state obligation, but something that the city applied to itself.

This proposal suspends that for the coming year and turns that $1.18 million to a separate service.

So instead of that general fund going into the school zone program, it's held aside and would be set aside for the implementation of non-school zone cameras.

The council previously asked the executive to...

Expand the school zone program and that is scheduled to be implemented beginning next year that will result in additional revenues for the school zone program.

That is shown as a.

reserve line that's being held in the schools on camera program that shows $3 million for next year, so this impact would reduce that by 1.18 million.

So it is money that would be in that fund.

It has not been programmed for any specific spending at this time, but it would have an impact on the fund.

In the future, when the city enacts the state laws, and that's all corrected, we essentially merge all of our camera funding together, so any camera fund can support other camera expenses.

We have to remit, I believe it's half the revenue to the state for the state's program, but that legislation is not before us yet.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka, anything to add?

SPEAKER_00

No, Mr. Chair.

As chair of the committee that oversees this department, I urge your support.

I do have some concerns about automated enforcement technology, such as speed cameras like these.

But...

I do think for equity purposes, but I think in certain communities where there's clearly a strong community demand for these type of cameras, in my district, for example, Elk Eye Harbor Avenue, and paired with the SAGE guidance and advice from our transportation equity work group, and working with other communities that we can sufficiently mitigate some of these concerns and make sure we have responsible deployment, and always periodically check, but yes, we need this, and yes, we need it now.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

I will just say that it takes money to make money in this scenario and that we will have the decisions before us as to where to provide the vision zero in interventions that camera funding will create and School routes to school are not always contained within the small geographic footprint that safe routes to schools is is within and so we need to be looking beyond.

We need to also be funding safe routes to schools and school zone areas and those decisions will be before us when we take up this legislation this January.

That last comment was for SDOT.

You will have the opportunity to transmit legislation by January or we'll take it up ourselves.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you, Chair.

Calvin, I just have some clarifying questions.

So this looks like it's a one-time use of funds.

And so are there school safety cameras that are scheduled to be put up that are not going to get put up because of this funding?

Or is this underspend?

I'm sorry, the CBA doesn't.

I need more information, obviously.

SPEAKER_10

This proviso would not affect, this proposal and proviso would not affect any of the executive's proposed expansion of the school zone program.

It would reduce the amount of funds that are in fund balance for future work, for work as the next year comes forward and a spending plan comes forward.

There would be $1.18 million less for that.

From this- The money is not, sorry.

SPEAKER_12

But this is one-time funding, so is this this year's or you're saying ongoing?

SPEAKER_10

If the money is not spent next year, it would be available for fund balance and could be spent in a future year.

So if you spend it, you can only spend it once.

It's not proposed to be an ongoing cost.

We don't know what those costs are.

This would be set aside for the deployment of essentially a new program, and we have The CBA actually puts a proviso on that because we don't know necessarily where all those monies need to be.

It may be that we need to support other funding in, say, the court or Seattle Police Department who actually review the citations.

So this would request an implementation plan, which is similar to what happened with the school zone camera expansion.

The council provided funding for it.

The executive actually has taken about two years to actually deploy that.

SPEAKER_12

There is some lead time to figuring some of these things out Okay, let me The I'm trying to as you can see I'm grappling with the I support the school zone cameras wholeheartedly There was an incident in my district in front of what the middle schools where a family got killed and subsequently they put school zone cameras there and I believe it's it's having a positive effect

SPEAKER_14

Impact the intended impact a point of order Microphone.

SPEAKER_12

Oh, sorry.

So this is something I really support the school zone cameras and I'm just trying to figure out is this It's not it won't impact any any school zone cameras currently on the books we don't have a plan for additional zone for school zone cameras yet and

SPEAKER_10

The executive intends to essentially double the number of school zone cameras next year, and that is baked into the budget.

There is existing funding for that.

There will be new revenue coming because of that.

We're never sure until we collect it to know exactly how much that is or how that performs, but that is showing up, and that is really what this higher fund balance is in the school zone camera.

Because we will have more cameras deployed, we expect there to be more funds there.

That is why they have established a reserve fund that will be $3 million next year, and this would have the effect of taking a portion of that money, reducing that reserve.

SPEAKER_12

Oh, it's almost an unanticipated overage.

Like, we know we're collecting, and this is more than we thought we'd collect, and so we're repurposing it for general cameras?

SPEAKER_10

Essentially, yes.

SPEAKER_12

And the general cameras, is this part of the legislation we passed earlier to expand?

SPEAKER_10

It will need to have new legislation to allow it.

Currently, the state law allows it.

Our current city code doesn't recognize that yet, so we will need to clean this up through legislation.

That is legislation that Council Member Strauss mentioned.

SPEAKER_12

But I'm saying, is this the usage of this part of like we passed CCTV and all these other things.

Is that part of what this would fund, for instance?

SPEAKER_10

Or no, something totally different?

No, this is strictly on the traffic enforcement cameras only.

SPEAKER_12

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Calvin.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

Council Member Stocker, I see your hand.

We're going to go last.

Council President, do you have...

No, okay, I'm gonna summarize real quick.

So in this package that we have before us, we are getting more and new school zone cameras that increase safety.

We are getting more money for school zone safety improvement programs.

We are using $1.18 million once to put a down payment on putting additional safety cameras in our city that will generate more revenue to increase Vision Zero and other safety programs.

And that $1.18 million will not be taken every year.

It will be used once to generate more funds.

Because we don't have these new cameras deployed yet, We don't know how much money we will take in, which is why these funds have not been programmed and there are no projects being cut.

SPEAKER_10

Please, if I got any of that wrong, Cal, tell me.

Just one nuance to it is the goal is not to raise money.

The goal is to improve safety.

The hope is that over time we will actually lose.

SPEAKER_00

That's correct.

SPEAKER_10

That these revenues will come down because we will be effective in changing people's behavior.

That is the point of these cameras in the first place.

But it is all about an expansion of that program and the deployment of cameras as part of traffic safety.

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

Thank you, Cal, because I was focusing on the revenue because that was the point that Council Member Morales brought up.

But the desire in my district of people who want these speed cameras that are not in school zones is because people are going 80, 90, 100 miles an hour in residential zones.

And the way to stop that behavior is by having a speed camera.

The way to get a speed camera is using this money to make the down payment.

Council Member, we are so late.

I can't even tell you how late we are.

Like we are beyond, beyond late.

So I see Council Member Morales, you've got your hand.

I'm going to, and Council Member Rivera, I'm going to ask that we just continue on.

Council Member Morales, you pulled this bill.

As the sponsor, I just spoke to it.

Typically, I don't.

give the floor back.

I'm going to give the floor back as an exception.

We have to get back on track with our schedule.

We will be coming to committee on Monday if we do not speed up.

And that's not a threat.

That's a fact.

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_03

I appreciate the conversation.

I appreciate you walking through all the details, Cal.

I have been trying to understand this since we saw it, but this discussion has been very helpful.

I apologize if we delayed another 10 minutes on it, but I do feel more comfortable supporting this now.

So thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_14

Thanks.

Clerk, will you please call the roll on S.6A?

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_05

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

S.6A passes and is attached to Council Bill 120905. We have one item left.

SPD 105A2.

I move SPD 105A2.

Is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded.

Council Member Morales, you pulled this.

Do you have an amendment for it or is it an up or down vote?

Okay, what is before us is either we are funding overtime in 2026 or we're not.

Greg, I see you're here.

If you want to give us a briefing beyond that, please feel free.

But I think that's the question at hand.

Council Member Morales, you will speak.

Council Member Kettle, you will speak.

Colleagues, if you like ensuring that we have funding for overtime, please just vote yes.

You don't need to say anything.

If you don't, then just vote no.

You don't need to say anything.

Council Member Morales, you are recognized.

SPEAKER_03

I appreciate it.

I don't think anybody will be surprised that I really pulled this just because I do want to be able to vote no and not include it in the consent package.

I will say I believe the additional investments in care create place for reducing the need for officers to work overtime.

I do not believe we have to spend 10 million in overtime because we've added 19 more crisis responders who will now be available to respond to the 50% of 911 calls that do not require police presence.

With our budget crisis and our housing crisis, we need to use some funding currently allocated for SPD to respond to poverty with dignity.

We are not offering other city employees access to $10 million in overtime.

Instead, we're eliminating very important permit positions, IT positions, and at the same time, we're laying off others and cutting services to the most vulnerable.

Thank you, Chair, for allowing me to pull this.

I will be voting no.

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle, anything to say or just vote yes?

SPEAKER_15

Yes, quickly.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

It's a bit frustrating because this has gone through committee.

All this has been played out.

And as due to the work of central staff, very thankful that you really can't look at SBD 105A1 in isolation.

You also have to look at SBD 904A2.

And in reality as well, SPD-101A2 as well in terms of the proviso.

We do the due diligence, the good governance pieces through committee on this, worked this through, had the different pieces as it relates to this through committee and here in full council and budget.

And this is about carrying through the strategic framework plan, carrying through the efforts of the mayor, the executive, and us in partnership on this to ensure that we're covered on public safety.

Because in the end, if we don't have that safe base in our city, everything else will fail.

And so colleagues, I ask for your support in a way again on this.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion before us is SPD 105A.

If you would like to ensure that SPD has funding for overtime in 2026, vote yes.

If you do not, vote no.

Will the clerk please call the roll on SPD 105A?

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

SPEAKER_17

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

No.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_14

Yes.

SPEAKER_17

Eight in favor, one opposed.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you.

The motion passes.

SPD 105A will be attached to Council Bill 120905. Give me just one moment, colleagues.

I have to readjust where I am in the script after all of this.

And so we have come to the end of group A.

We are going to take a 36-minute recess until 2.30 p.m., and we will come back here and continue voting on Group B and C.

We have to get through Group C today.

We had 10 items just now, and we have 27 items in Group D. They warrant more discussion than what we just had.

So with that, if there's no...

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

Just a procedural question.

B is my substitute, and we're going to be now bringing forth an agreed amendment during E discussion, so...

SPEAKER_14

We'll work that out in the recess.

Okay.

And we'll have a plan when we get back.

Okay, thank you.

With that, if there's no objection, select budget committee will be in recess until 2.30 p.m.

Hearing no objections, committee is in recess.

Don't forget to lock your computers, colleagues.