Seattle City Council 6/21/21

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

It is 2.03 p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Morales.

Here.

Mosqueda.

Present.

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Lewis.

present.

And Council President Gonzalez here.

Nine present.

Thanks so much presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations for today, so we will move to approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of June 14th, 2021 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

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

Okay, colleagues, approval of the introduction and referral calendar.

As you heard from Council Member Lewis this morning, he does have an amendment to the introduction and referral calendar.

So what we are going to do is I'm going to make a motion to adopt the calendar, and then I will need a second.

After it has been moved and seconded, we will consider a suspension of the council rules in order to allow Council Member Lewis to propose an amendment to the introduction and referral calendar.

So I'm going to move.

It's going to be seconded.

I'm going to suspend the rules.

And then the motion is going to happen to amend the introduction referral calendar.

So first off, I move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

Is there a second?

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

And I am going to go ahead and let's see.

I'm going to go ahead and suspend the rules at this point.

If there are no objections, Council Rule 3.A.5 relating to circulation of a council bill for introduction by 5 p.m.

on the preceding business day will be suspended to allow consideration of an amendment to the proposed introduction and referral calendar.

Hearing no objection, Council Rule 3A5 is suspended.

And we will now hear from Council Member Lewis his motion to see if it receives a second.

Thank you, Madam President.

I wonder if Madam Clerk could assist me in providing the bill number.

It doesn't look like it was provided to me in advance of the meeting, if it's been assigned yet, so I can appropriately make this motion.

Council Member Lewis, I have Council Bill 1-2,

I move to amend the introduction and referral calendar by adding council bill 120109.

and by referring it to the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

Are there any additional comments on the motion?

Okay.

This is a procedural motion.

We will have lots of discussion on the substantive council bill, but this is just for purposes of introducing the bill in order to allow that conversation to occur in the committee that is chaired by Councilmember Lewis, which is the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

So hearing no additional comments or questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

The motion carries and the introduction and referral calendar is adopted as amended.

Are there any additional comments on the introduction and referral calendar?

Okay, hearing Hearing no additional comments on the introduction and referral calendar as amended, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amended introduction and referral calendar?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

None in favor.

None opposed.

The motion carries and the introduction and referral calendar is adopted as amended.

Approval of the agenda.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the City Council agenda, introduction referral calendar, and the Council's work program.

I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It remains a strong intent of the City Council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, the City Council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I'll moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

Today's public comment period is slated to last 20 minutes.

We do have a significant number of individuals who are signed up to provide public comment today.

So I am going to go ahead and extend public comment period by 10 minutes for a total of 30 minutes.

So colleagues, if there is no objection, the public comment period will be extended to last a total of 30 minutes.

Hearing no objection, the public comment period is extended to last 30 minutes.

In an effort to hear from as many folks within those 30 minutes, however, I am going to have to reduce the amount of time allotted to each speaker.

So instead of having two minutes each, every speaker will be provided a total of one minute to address the city council this afternoon.

Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered to provide public comment on the council's website.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number used for this registration and using the meeting phone number ID and passcode.

that was emailed to them upon confirmation.

This is different than the general meeting list and line call-in information.

Again, I'll call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you've not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website at seattle.gov forward slash council, that's C-O-U-N-C-I-L.

The public comment link is also listed on today's agenda.

Once I call your name, staff will unmute your microphone and you will hear an automatic prompt if you have been unmuted.

This will be your cue to press star six before you begin speaking.

Please begin by stating your name, the item that you are addressing, and as a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, or the council's work program.

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

Once you hear the chime, please begin wrapping up your public comment.

If you do not end your comments at the end of the allotted time provided, your microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so by watching us on Seattle Channel or any one of the listening options listed on the agenda.

The public comment period is now open.

And it is about 2.15 PM.

So we will go until about 2.45 PM.

And we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Again, after you hear you have been unmuted, press star 6 so that you can unmute yourself.

The first person is Howard Gale followed by Ariel Lapson.

Hi.

Howard Gale, on May 19th, 2020, the SPD murdered Terry Kaver.

Despite OPA Director Meyerberg being on site shortly after this killing and the clear video evidence that was immediately available indicating a profound failure of de-escalation, Meyerberg made a decision not to open an OPA investigation.

It wasn't until August 20th, three months later, that the OPA announced they suddenly found my complaint from June and were opening an investigation.

This, despite the fact that Meyerberg took charge of the OPA just weeks after Charlene Lyle's killing, and then watched as three more people of color in severe mental health crisis, all wielding a knife or no weapon at all, were killed by the SPD.

In all these cases, Meyerberg ruled the killings lawful and proper, or opened no investigation.

Last week, Meyerberg stated to KOW that the OPA is, quote, the most robust, transparent, civilian-led system in the United States of America.

It is not debatable.

We have more civilian oversight here than anywhere else.

I have not seen a model that's better than ours." This is Orwellian and patently ludicrous. We must create a true 100% civilian oversight of police. Please visit seattlestop.org to find out how.

Okay, next up is Ariel Lapson followed by Stephanie Ingram.

Ariel Lapson.

I'm speaking today to address Councilwoman Sawant and the deadly exchange resolution.

As a resident of Seattle I'm truly disappointed to see that Councilwoman Sawant is yet again using totally unrelated international issues to distract from the very real issues we face right here in our city.

SPD and any issues relevant to the city should not be entangled or conflated with international issues.

This absurd resolution will do nothing for the people that actually live here.

As Councilwoman Sawant points out in her resolution, the council recently cut $47 million from the SPD budget.

This is a huge and important change.

What work has Councilwoman Sawant led to ensure that provisions have been made for it?

This resolution is nothing but political grandstanding.

The issue of Israel is being invoked because it makes for good media.

Councilwoman named Israel because it gets her likes and page views.

Did you notice how Israel is literally the only country she named?

Why?

Because it gets her attention.

But you know what it doesn't do?

It doesn't change a thing about life.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Stephanie Ingram followed by Madeline Grigg.

Stephanie, welcome.

Hi, my name is Stephanie Ingram.

I'm a community member who lives in the Central District and I'm an advocate for the Community Driven Garfield Superblock Park Renovation Project.

I support the ARPA legislation before the council today and hope that some of the ARPA funds being distributed will go towards our Gar-Field Superblock project.

Our group has met with staff from the District 3 City Council Member Shama Sawant.

We are thrilled that she is committed to advocate for full funding for the Gar-Field Superblock project.

We urge other council members to also support this project.

Community engagement led to the idea of an arts and history focused park renovation at Garfield in 2005 and we have been fighting to make this project a reality ever since.

It is an ambitious project to create a vital civic space in the heart of the Central District that honors and tells the story through art and cultural presentations of the people who lived here over the millennia from the Duwamish people to the African-Americans today.

The development of a rich and vibrant community gathering space in the Central District is of critical importance to this marginalized neighborhood.

This project aims to honor the role of public space in the area, provide high quality infrastructure for many groups that utilize the park, and give the neighborhood.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Madeline Grigg, followed by Jared Brown and Mary Cypress.

If you are listening, you are showing up as not present on my end, so please confirm that you are calling into the correct number with the number that you registered with.

Madeline, welcome.

Hi my name is Madeline Grigg.

I am responding to the ARPA funding package and I just want to emphasize that language is super important when constructing this bill specifically that the funds be channeled directly into Black-led organizations and that the council use the word Black and to emphasize the significant contributions that have been made by our local Black community.

Um, there are a plethora of organizations that, um, need this funding, um, and the current white-centric, non-community-based services do not work for the predominantly Black service population.

And that's quoting Amiyah Smith from King County Equity Now.

Um, the council has an opportunity to set a new precedent by channeling directly into Black community instead of indirectly channeling through predominantly white-led organizations.

So, changing the channels by which these funds are distributed can prevent from the repetition of the outcome of the Paycheck Protection Program.

So, I just wanted to emphasize again that language is so important when writing this bill and vague.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Jared Brown, followed by George Scarilla.

Jared, welcome.

Thank you, Chair and Seattle City Council.

Hi, I'm Jared Brown.

I live in Seattle in the Lakewood neighborhood, and I'm here to discuss the end of the exchange legislation proposal.

I'm progressive, proud to be liberal, and proud to stand up for those who need help the most.

Coming off of Juneteenth and remembering the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many others, I agree that police violence often happens too easily and often goes too far.

That said, this proposal is not the answer.

On the contrary, it's an affront to progressive, liberal, and frankly, basic democratic beliefs.

The allegations against Israel are false and libelous.

It's ridiculous to imply that training and learning between the SPD and Israel are the cause of police violence.

Reflecting on Juneteenth this poorly veiled effort to demonize Israel undermines the important debate we should instead be having to find proper ways to reduce violence.

Further equating Israel to the apartheid is an affront to the Black South Africans that live through the actual apartheid and its racist oppressive and violent history.

Anti-Israel rhetoric like this gives cover and rise to anti-Semitism which results in violence against Jews in our own community.

Thank you for calling in, Jared.

Appreciate it.

Next up is George Scarola, followed by Cody Zaleski.

Hi, I'm George Scarola with Lehigh.

Lehigh is pleased to support the council's proposed first tranche of ARP funding.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, for your leadership.

This budget demonstrates a strong commitment to addressing our homelessness crisis.

It invests in both long-term and short-term approaches.

My colleague Naomi See will speak to the $28 million in rapid acquisition funding for permanent affordable housing.

I want to focus on your support for urgently needed emergency shelter.

The $400,000 proposed in this ARPA budget for tiny house villages will leverage the $2 million allocated by the state for tiny houses as well as private donations and will also leverage state support for apprenticeship programs and construction trades.

We also support funding for RV safe lots.

Of course, Lehigh will be advocating for additional funding in round two ARPA, but this is a strong start in addressing our homelessness crisis.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Now I'm showing that Cody Zaleski, you are not present.

So if you call back in, I'll make sure to call on you.

So right now I'm showing as not present, Mary Cypress, Cody Zaleski, Carolyn Hathaway, and Rachel Hort.

So Mary, Cody, Carolyn, and Rachel, if you can hear me, please double check the confirmation email that you received from our legislative department staff and make sure that you are dialing into that number with the password with the number that you used to register for today's public comment.

If I see that your status changes from not present to present, I will make sure to double back and give you your one minute.

Showing up as present and ready to go is Robert Amkraut, followed by Maiko Nglurchin.

Robert, welcome.

Thank you very much.

My name is Robert Amkraut.

I'm calling in today to ask the council to reject council member Sawant's anti-Israel resolution.

It's factually incorrect.

It's unbalanced.

It's disingenuous.

The resolution seeks to somehow conflate Israel's response to terrorism with policing here in Seattle.

Now, for the record, Israel's training of police forces is in how to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks and to save lives.

For example, when the Jewish Federation was attacked a few years back, that would be something that Israel would train for and how to respond for that.

It would also be crucial if there were a white supremacist, for example, to attack.

And unfortunately, Israel is probably the world leader in dealing with terrorism.

So this strikes me as anti-Jewish racism to try to falsely conflate things, and anti-Semitism, please oppose it.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling in today.

Next up is Maiko, followed by Reese Tanimura.

Welcome.

There we go.

Hello.

OK, great.

Hi, this is Michael Winkler-Chin, and I'm speaking today as the board chair of the Crescent Collaborative, a multicultural coalition of community development organizations in the CID, Yessir Terrace, Central Area, First Hill and Capitol Hill.

We thank Council for its focus on and commitment to supporting BIPOC businesses in our historic cultural neighborhoods.

But to truly meet the needs of BIPOC small business owners in our neighborhoods, we ask you to pay special attention to the following.

The first is funding for businesses should go beyond emergency stopgap funding, the $5,000 to $10,000 range that has enabled them to keep their doors open.

What the businesses need now are funds to put them on a solid foundation for reopening economy and strong future.

So consider guidelines that offer funds that provide businesses a measure of economic stability for a more lengthy time, potentially up to $100,000 and up.

The second thing is to get funds to businesses quickly and be patient about being paid back if payback is required at all.

So you've laid a firm groundwork for just an equitable program.

We urge you to keep your eye on the ball and keep it going.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mike.

I appreciate you calling in today.

Next up is Reese Tanimura, followed by Sharon Khosla.

Reese, welcome.

Thank you.

Aloha, council members.

My name is Reese Tanimura, and I'm the chair of the Seattle Music Commission.

Now I'm here to support the passage of the ARPA bill amendments 120093 and 120094 because they work to ensure that the arts and cultural ecosystem have a sport in recovering and rebuilding.

I want to thank Councilmember Herbold as well as Councilmembers Morales and Mosqueda for recognizing and uplifting the importance and value of our sector and ecosystems within the amendments that were passed in committee.

I want to emphasize that in addition to driving 18% of Seattle's GDP, our artists, creatives, culture bearers, and cultural workers have played a crucial role in interrupting displacement and cultural erasure.

And the $3 million dedicated towards arts would go a long way in jump-starting a good beginning to a new future for our sector.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Sharon.

COSLA, followed by Robert Stevens, Jr.

Sharon, welcome.

Hi, my name is Sharon COSLA.

I live in the central area and I'm part of the community-led grassroots Garfield Superblock Project.

We've met with Shawna Swan's office and are very pleased that she's committed to advocate for this project in full, for full funding for the Garfield Superblock Project.

We're hoping other council members will support it as well.

This project is unique.

Our vision is to create a space that will lift up the stories of the seven ethnic cultures that have endured and thrived in the Central Area.

When finished, this project will tell the stories of the Central Area, lift up the community spiritually and physically, and will provide a place where generations can play, relax, and celebrate with pride.

The Central Area is a historically marginalized community, as I think many of you know.

The Garfield Superblock is precisely the sort of investment that our community needs to keep the community healthy.

We need a minimum of 500K right now to get us to shovel ready.

We hope that all of you will support it.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for calling in today.

I'm going to go backwards a little bit because I'm showing one of my earlier registered Public commenters is now present, so we're going to go backwards here and hear from Carolyn Hathaway, and then we will hear from Robert Stevens, Jr.

Carolyn, welcome.

Thank you.

I'm calling to ask that the council members not vote yes for the Seattle Deadly Exchange anti-Israel resolution.

It is ludicrous and dangerous to blame Israel for Seattle issues with the Seattle Police Department.

A seminar in Israel about preventing terrorism attended several years ago does not change the thousands of decisions made every day at the Seattle Police Department.

And this unfair resolution ascribes abuse to Israel that is at best misleading and often toxic fiction.

I am the president of the Seattle sister Seattle Be'er Sheva Sister City.

And Israel is our political ally, our partner in commerce, and as well as our sister city.

This resolution makes Jews in Seattle feel unsafe.

Anti-Israel rhetoric leads to anti-Semitic attacks, and there have been many this year.

Threats, beatings, and vandalism.

Thank you for calling in, Carolyn.

Next up is Robert Stevens, Jr., followed by Lauren Chilton.

Go ahead, Robert.

Robert, if you're with us, just remember to press star six to unmute yourself.

There we go.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Afternoon.

My name is Robert Stevens, Jr.

I'm founder of the Garfield Superblock Renovation Project.

And over the past 15 years, we've had the coalition that been holding this project down, waiting on the city to keep its word.

This project was created through a city ordinance variant for the renovation of Quinter Jones Theater and the New Garfield Gym.

The mitigating was to work with the Central Area community and develop a whole superblock, which included Seattle Garfield Park's interior and exterior.

And all I'm asking is for the city to keep its word to this community.

Sometimes it seems like we're forgotten, and the promises that have been made so that we can keep our promise up.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in today, Robert.

Next up is Lauren Chodson, followed by Joe Kunzler.

Lauren, welcome.

Hi my name is Lauren Schultzen.

I'm born and raised in Seattle and have seen us go through many community issues and problems over the years.

I'm here to just request the the council reject Suwan's resolution to end deadly exchange.

And I urge you to reject it the resolution for several reasons.

It is not based on fact.

Anyone visiting Israel will see a prosperous Palestinian-Israeli community and not the one that the media represents.

We see Palestinians there in universities, restaurants, riding the same buses.

I don't even know why this is coming up in the Seattle City Council.

It singles out Israel that has endured over 4,000 rockets on its civilians from Gaza.

and no mention of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization running Gaza.

It creates more anti-Semitism in the Seattle city.

Thank you for calling in, Lauren.

Next up is Joe Kunzler followed by Ariel Sulkin.

Joe, welcome.

President, it's always a privilege and honor to call in and see how you're doing.

I, of course, oppose the anti-Semitic resolution by Council Member Iwona Iwona, and I hope she gets recalled, because I'm getting really sick and tired of the circus down there, and I'm sure you are too, as the best Council President in the game.

But that isn't why I called.

I emailed Council Member Strauss about the Alex Zimmerman 2021 Seattle Channel appearance.

And I would like it if somebody would get a hold of the Seattle Channel and tell them to enforce the City of Seattle Video Voters Guide Administrative Rules.

Mr. Zimmerman, for years, abused his opportunities and thrown Nazi salutes and worse.

And I think if we're going to fight anti-Semitism, we not just need to trash the resolution, we need to put a big fat mute on Zimmerman.

Again, please enforce the City of Seattle Voter Guides Administrative Rules.

I emailed Council Member Straus about this.

Thank you, Council President.

You're awesome.

Thank you, Joe, for calling in today.

Next up is Ariel Sulkin, followed by Naomi See.

Hi, I'm Ariel Sulkin, and I'm calling to ask the City Council to reject Council Member Sawant's anti-Israel and, frankly, anti-Semitic uh...

resolution and that the exchange uh...

compliment the want to have a yet history of the anti-semitism and the libel and and who all of my resolution is but that kind of rhetoric rhetoric is what is causing it over five hundred percent increase in anti-semitic attack around the world uh...

i'm at seattle born and raised woman and progressive and this kind of racism is unacceptable, especially in a city that I love so much.

And I'm hoping that the city council recognizes that Israel has nothing to do with Seattle City Police and you are calling out the one and only

Thank you, Ariel, for calling in.

Next up is Naomi C., followed by Imijah Smith.

Naomi, welcome.

Hi, all.

I just wanted to take a moment today to thank you for including the $28 million in ARPA funds for rapid acquisition and the $2 million for provider capacity and supportive services and permanent supportive housing and permanent housing building.

The supportive housing funds will allow us to deliver critical, critical services for our residents during a time when they're most in need.

And the rapid acquisition funds can be leveraged with the state and in order to quickly, quickly put buildings online, which we so desperately need for our lowest income individuals who are most vulnerable during this time.

So this investment represents an unprecedented level of investment and attention to permanent supportive housing.

And we thank you so much for that effort, as we all work to continue to develop resources for our communities.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for calling in, Naomi.

Next up is Amijah Smith, followed by Karen Estevenin.

Hello, my name is Amijah Smith.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity I'm calling really to support a vote that really does prioritize those most disproportionately affected, particularly, specifically the black community from COVID-19.

As I shared in prior meetings, that the black community across nationally, locally, particularly in our city and our county did not, has suffered immensely and did not receive the proper support through the impacts of COVID.

And so that this particular, opportunity needs to be tailored and targeted there.

I have read the language.

I do like that the language is specifying those who are disproportionately impacted for organizations that are led and rooted in communities that have been impacted, but I just want it to be very clear that we do not bypass or use people of color, BIPOC, so that every other community can get resources and then the black community still does not see any material effects from this opportunity.

So please, Make sure that that is focused and that you, your leadership.

Thank you so much for calling in today.

And next up is Karen.

Karen, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, President Gonzalez and members of the council.

My name is Karen Efevanen.

I'm speaking today as part of the Garfield Community Superblock Coalition.

This is a community-led coalition, and we are here to support the American Rescue Plan Act legislation that is before the Council, and hope that some of the funds disbursed will go towards the Garfield Superblock Project.

This is not a new project, as Mr. Stevens mentioned earlier.

Its creation dates back 15 years, and it unfortunately has been continually pushed aside.

This project will honor and tell the story from the Duwamish people to the current African-American enriched tapestry of cultures that it is today.

through a revitalized park and gathering space.

It will lift up the community and create and honor this community.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Karen, for taking the time to call in.

OK, that is the last person I have showing as registered and present for this meeting.

I'm going to call one last time.

I'm going to call out the names of the individuals who pre-registered but are showing as not present.

And during the reading of the names, if these individuals call back in, I will circle back and call on them just like I did with Carolyn Hathaway.

So I have Mary Cypers.

Cody Zaleski, Rachel Court, and Bill Jones.

So Mary, Cody, Rachel.

and Bill, if you can hear me, just quickly double check that you have called in to the right meeting ID with the password provided to you in the confirmation email from our legislative department staff, and that you are calling in with the same exact number that you pre-registered with.

Again, if I see that you appear here in the next minute or so, I will make sure to call on you and provide you your one minute of public comment.

If you're having technology issues and cannot get through, we're really sorry about that.

You can still contact the full council with your intended public comment by email.

And you can email all nine of the council members by emailing council, that is spelt c-o-u-n-c-i-l, at seattle.gov.

You sent us your comments there.

Again, all nine council members will receive your public comment as you intended to deliver it today.

Well, colleagues, I'm not seeing anyone else appear as present.

So I'm going to go ahead and close out the public comment period.

Thanks to everyone who was able to call in and provide public comment.

We're going to go ahead and shift now to other items of business on this afternoon's agenda.

So next up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title into the record?

Payment of bills, Council Bill 120104, an ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims for the week of June 7th, 2021 through June 11th, 2021, and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 120104. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any comments?

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

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Suarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

and Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read item one into the record.

The report of City Council, agenda item one, Council Bill 120102, an ordinance relating to city employment, authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Seattle and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 77 to be effective January 23rd, 2021 to January 22nd, 2023, amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget by increasing appropriations to Seattle City Light for 2021 payments, therefore, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts all by a three-quarter vote of the City Council.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 120102. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded, and as sponsor of this bill, I will address it first and then happy to open the floor to comments from any of you colleagues.

As the title states, Council Bill 120102 would authorize the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Seattle and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77. This collective bargaining agreement is a two year agreement on wages benefits hours and other working conditions for a term from January 23 2021 through January 22 2023. It affects about 565 regularly appointed city employees.

and its terms include a cost of living adjustment of 2.5%.

There is also an additional one-time base wage market increase of 10% to certain job titles as listed in attachment A to the collective bargaining agreement and an increase to the cable splicer and electrical constructor classifications for parity with the corresponding line worker classification rates of the pay.

The terms of the collective bargaining agreement do meet the negotiation parameters set by the members of the Labor Relations Policy Committee, of which five members of the City Council sit on and participate in actively.

And colleagues, after the Labor Relations Policy Committee process, I do, as the chair of the Labor Relations Policy Committee on behalf of the City Council, I do recommend that my colleagues support the passage of this legislation.

are there any additional comments on the bill?

Councilmember Peters?

Thank you, Council President.

I appreciate your hard work on this and the hard work of the members of the Labor Relations Policy Committee.

I'm not one of the five council members serving on the LRPC, which also includes the mayor's executive team.

essentially the combined council members and mayor's executive team represent management arm of city government that negotiated these labor contracts with city government employees.

So when this proposed labor contract appeared on the introduction referral calendar last week was the first time I was able to review it.

I'd like to take this opportunity to explain my vote today to my constituents and how I'm able to get to a yes vote on this.

First, I want to express my gratitude to our electrical workers who dedicate themselves and their skills to our city.

And thanks again to the hard work of the members of the LRPC, who members of the public may not know that you spend hours upon hours outside the spotlight working on all of these labor contracts.

As I understand it, this proposed contract would increase compensation for many of the workers by 12.5%, which appears to be unusually high.

In just one year, this is an increase of $7.5 million.

And most labor contracts with city government employees recently received an increase based on the consumer price index plus 1%.

This 12.5% increase today, as I understand it, is comprised of, as you said, the CPI of approximately 2.5 plus another one time 10%.

While the 10% is one time, it does create a new baseline of compensation for the city employees.

In other words, the higher cost will continue into the second year of the two-year contract.

So that's about $15 million increase over the life of the contract.

And while this 10% bump is significant, I have the benefit of chairing the committee that includes Seattle City Light.

So I have additional opportunities to witness the important work conducted by these workers who go out into the field under dangerous conditions to use the skills of their trade to benefit our city.

I understand there's been increased attrition within this group of workers, leaving Seattle City Light for other utility enterprises in the region who have been offering compensation at these higher levels.

So this proposed increase in compensation appears to be an appropriate adjustment to reflect market realities.

This is both public sector and private sector utilities.

That's what's special about the utility industry is you've got both public sector and private sector utilities we're competing against for our skilled field workers.

City light data also seems to show higher attrition rates among women and people of color.

So I hope this increase in compensation can help our utility attract and retain skilled staff to meet its race and gender equity goals.

Another important consideration is how this cost increase might impact utility rates for everyone in Seattle.

As we know, utility rates are aggressive.

lower-income households paying a larger percentage of their household income.

And in a city where many of us are concerned about affordability for our low-income residents, we want to be mindful when increasing costs.

In this case, Seattle City Light, under the leadership of Deborah Smith, has been working has been making so much progress to control other cost drivers that the overall electricity rate increases in their strategic plan have come down.

And as we've learned in our committee just two weeks ago, our electricity rate increases will average no more than 3.5% close to the rate of inflation, rather than 4.5% increase previously projected.

And this proposed increase in pay for these highly skilled workers is already built into that 3.5% average rate increase.

Proposed increase in compensation for these highly skilled professionals will not increase overall electricity rates further.

Another important consideration is that we're emerging from the pandemic.

which should help with overall city revenues.

This is relevant because our general fund takes money from Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities every year with what's called a utility tax.

I'd like to see city government tax on our publicly owned utilities reduced over time to further reduce the regressive rate pressures on low-income households.

I appreciate having the past week to review this contract.

I know it's not always possible, I look forward to an allocation of even more time to review labor contracts, especially when we're reviewing multiple ones.

This was just one, so it was manageable.

Our current council rules require us to vote yes or no on legislation at the full council, and so more time's always welcome to make a well-informed decision.

Thank you for the space to make these lengthy comments, and I will be voting yes.

Not a problem.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

I appreciate you digging in and taking a closer look at that.

Okay, colleagues, any additional, any other additional comments on the bill?

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

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Plattis?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

And Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor and none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, report of the Finance and Housing Committee.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item two into the record?

The report of the Finance and Housing Committee, agenda item two, Council Bill 120013, an ordinance related to the city's response to the COVID-19 crisis, creating a new fund in the city treasury.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate that, Madam Clerk.

Councillor Mosqueda, you are the chair of this committee, and I'm going to hand it over to you to provide the report.

Thank you very much, Madam President, and I am honored to be able to kick off a summary of this legislation that you and I had the chance to co-author together, along with the mayor's office and all of the council members that are here today who provided tremendous input along with community members.

So I will do my best to get us kicked off, and I really just want to say thank you.

I'm excited to be able to be here today as we look to pass the Seattle Rescue Plan, and I will note that this is the first of three acts that you can expect from us over the next few months.

as we seek to respond to the crisis that COVID not only created, but exacerbated in many cases when you look at the inequities in our previous system that were just exposed by COVID.

So first of three acts to come.

We have before us with this proposal in the Seattle Rescue Plan 1 in front of us.

the first tranche of the American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

This represents the first tranche that the City of Seattle is receiving that will total $232 million over the course of this year and next year, which means that half of that, $116 million, is being passed today.

We are adding to that $12.2 million from the Home Investment Partnership Plan.

These bills together, these investments together, represent an incredible opportunity for us to move forward on the commitments that this council made when we first passed Council Resolution 31999 back in March.

Since then, we've had five subsequent meetings.

We've had a public hearing completely devoted to hearing from the public about what community members need and where they would like these dollars prioritized.

We've had the chance to talk to city councils from Austin to Minneapolis to Denver and so many others to hear where other progressive cities are looking to invest these dollars.

And most importantly, we've heard directly from community partners, from organizations, from those most impacted by COVID.

and from all council members, where you would like to see these dollars invested so that our city money can be coupled with state and federal investments to truly make an impact now and to lay the groundwork for a more equitable economy as we seek to recover and respond to COVID.

Two weeks ago, we had the chance to introduce this legislation, again, in partnership with the council president's office and with the mayor's office, and we kept in mind all of the recommendations and the priorities that each council member added to the council resolution.

Since then, we've made sure that within our finance and housing committee members, we heard from various community members and committee council participants about their priorities.

And we had a chance to have discussions about where we would like to see dollars invested so we could address the most urgent needs in our community and lay that more equitable framework.

The priorities we centered in this bill are similar to the priorities we've been talking about since the beginning of the onset of COVID.

We included these priorities when we passed the jumpstart progressive revenue proposal back in June and July of last year.

We included them again as centering our values around equity and making sure that we were putting funding directly to those most impacted in our budget last year.

These bills in front of us today respond directly to the crises exacerbated by COVID by investing in housing and homelessness, economic resiliency and small businesses, into the arts and culture, and directly into making sure that those who've been most disproportional impact and often left out of previous federal assistance under the Trump administration were first to receive dollars, and that we centered investments, not just in ensuring that those individuals were thought of, but that the organizations who work directly with those individuals and who have trust and come from and have deep ties and roots within those communities are receiving those dollars.

There's only a few areas that I'll highlight because I know a lot of folks are excited about highlighting various commitments that they've included.

But one of the things I'm most excited about is $25 million in direct cash assistance specifically to go into the hands of working families and individuals, our elders, and folks who've been really struggling by the impacts of COVID.

to make sure that we can have a direct infusion into our local economy, recognizing that those who are experiencing hardship know best how to use that cash assistance.

I'm most excited about the child care assistance of eight million dollars combined going directly to support child care providers and five million of that going to create greater access to affordable child care throughout our city by making sure we have capital investments to build more affordable child care.

In King County and Seattle, we know that somewhere between 7 to 10% of our child care facilities have closed and some looking like they're going to unfortunately stay permanently closed unless we do something and act with urgency now at the city council level.

We know that this is a critical investment for us to make because across our nation and right here in the city of Seattle, if we don't invest in child care, it hurts our local economy as well as hurting local families.

The closure of childcare across our country is resulting in billions of dollars lost to employers each year and over 500,000 children without childcare in our country.

Childcare workers have found themselves out of work during this pandemic with a net loss of around 170,000 childcare worker positions open between January of 2020 and January of 2021. But we can do something about that right here.

And our investment of $8 million into childcare specifically attempts to make sure that we're encouraging the creation of additional child care and recognizing and honoring and appreciating those child care providers who've helped us during this last year.

We've talked about the need for this rescue plan to respond to the C-session, not the re-session, the C-session, recognizing that women were much more likely to have to have left the workforce because of lack of access to childcare, and also recognizing that it's been disproportionately women and people of color who've been on the front line more exposed to COVID if they've been able to keep their job as essential workers in the service sector in many cases.

I'm really excited about the ways in which we've tied in care for the trauma that people have been through in the last year by investing funding into domestic violence prevention, youth services, senior services to care for isolation and neglect.

And I know that there's much more that we need to do.

But I want to also see these investments paired with what the county has offered.

King County is investing about $38 million specifically for behavioral health responses and recovery to help identify ways in which we can make sure that those who've been hardest hit even before COVID, but especially those who've had their behavioral and mental health needs exacerbated during COVID, that they have the services they need.

And I want to applaud King County Council and the executive for the passage of their a rescue plan act just a few weeks ago.

our proposal is going to be packaged and complement many of the areas that King County invested in, and investments in behavioral health is one area where I'm excited to see the complementary funding streams aligned.

I want to note, as I'm sure Council Member Lewis may speak to, the importance of the over $5 million, I should say $7.5 million, if I remember from recollection, that's going in to match the King County Just Cares Like program, so services like Just Cares, that are responding directly to the need for homeless folks, for those who are experiencing homelessness, to have access to appropriate shelter during this time of COVID, recognizing we're not out of the...

storm yet and the variants continue to show increasing concern in our area, we want to make sure non-congregate shelter options like hotels are invested in and that we match the county's effort of around $7.5 million to bring programs like Just Cares to scale.

We said it countless times throughout the pandemic.

We know that the exacerbation of the inequities that were present before have just been made worse by COVID.

But those especially are true for the racial inequities that we see.

We see rates of communities of color who've been contracting COVID and dying from COVID.

be exponentially higher than white residents.

And this pattern follows many other social inequities that put racial and ethnic minorities at increased risk, at increased risk of health disparities, educational attainment disparities, wealth and income gap disparities, and so much more.

And that's why we have centered our investments today on making sure that we're looking at near and long-term investments for the Seattle Rescue Plan Act through the lens of what is just, just for our racial and ethnic commitments to making sure that folks who've been disproportionately impacted by COVID have the assistance they need, and that we're creating greater opportunities for economic stability and opportunity in the out years.

I'm very excited about the language that we also included that makes sure that community-based organizations are culturally relevant and historically rooted in and founded by communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID and have organizational leadership staff and board composition that reflect the communities they serve for the purposes of direct grants and allocation of grants to communities.

We built this language with community partners.

You heard a measure call in and others talking about it's not just important to talk about where the funding goes, but how the funding gets allocated.

And that language was intentionally written in and expanded actually as well into both this bill and the cash assistance bill that we will pass as a follow up to this legislation.

I will stop there with just noting those few areas and my excitement around the $28.5 million going into housing and acquisition and building more homes so that we're really creating affordable housing and stability for folks as we seek to recover from COVID.

And I'll save the rest of my comments, Council President, for wrap up at the end of this discussion.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

For that, Council Member Lewis, I do see that you have your hand up, so I'm gonna call on you first.

And colleagues, for those of you who would also like to make comments on this particular council bill, do let me know by raising your hand.

Council Member Lewis, please.

Thank you, Madam President.

I do just briefly want to lift up the really critical homelessness and public safety investments that are being made in this package today.

All of the conversation that we have been having in this council in regards to the Just Care Model, my comments this morning at briefing, some of that is going to come to reality through the very real investments that we are making here by joining forces with King County to do this joint procurement for a Just Care Like approach and Just Care Like strategy to extend the benefits that we have seen in the Chinatown International District and Pioneer Square neighborhood to neighborhoods throughout the city and really start to see a very the very tangible improvement and benefit that that model brings.

And I'm really looking forward to voting for this package.

For those investments alone, let alone all the other great investments that Councilmember Muscata just gave an overview for, I do want to just briefly address that over the last week working with central staff, we were able to get a go-ahead from the people we have been working with on downtown programming and reopening and support.

That they will be able to achieve their programmatic ambitions within how this package has currently been divvied up.

So there was no need to bring an amendment to seek additional exclusive appropriation for downtown recovery.

that.

I did want to address that since I had indicated that I would potentially be bringing such an amendment.

My understanding from talking to downtown Seattle Association, the department of economic development and our various arts partners is that there is enough resource that can be allocated under the current provisos and I think it is important to acknowledge that there are a lot of things that are going on in the package.

I just want to acknowledge that.

And with that, I don't have any additional comments.

I am looking forward to voting on this today.

Thank you.

Thanks so much, colleagues.

I do want to just talk about a couple of the amendments that were included in this bill.

Our office, after lots of conversation with small business, with arts organizations, grassroots activists, and even other elected officials, worked really hard to gather their ideas and input on how to use this sort of once-in-a-generation investment.

to build a more equitable economic recovery.

And I'm excited to have two amendments that were developed in partnership with them included here.

The kinds of conversations we were having included an acknowledgement that there just isn't enough economic opportunity for folks in the city.

46% of the workforce in greater Seattle was either unemployed or stuck in low-wage work before COVID, and we know that that problem has only gotten worse.

We know that there is also an inequitable access to opportunity in the city, particularly for Black and Hispanic folks in our community, and that Seattle ranks in the bottom third of large metro areas for Black and Hispanic representation in technology and in managerial roles.

So I'm excited that with this bill we can really begin to address some of these disparities and the commitment of $22 million into this bill to create good jobs, to begin developing skills that are relevant to good jobs, supporting firms with technical assistance, increasing access to wealth building strategies.

These are the kinds of investments that we need in order to really begin building an equitable recovery for folks.

The other thing that I want to acknowledge is that, and I do want to thank Council Member Lewis for your comments, you know, a big part of the inequity that we've experienced is because our neighborhood business associations, neighborhood commercial districts just don't have access to the kind of resources that, you know, a downtown BIA might be able to generate.

And so I do think it's important that $5.5 million of the funding will be specifically for neighborhood business organizations and associations.

And then the last thing I want to say is that the bill also addresses or begins to address the challenges of our young people.

who are trying to get the skills that they need to have a pathway to good union wage jobs, to career paths, and especially for those who may be taking care of family members or may not have an opportunity to go to college.

I'm excited that our office has been working with the Port Commission to expand the current Opportunity Youth Initiative by adding a million dollars to the existing program.

So as I mentioned before, an important strategy that can help lead young people into good union jobs includes expanding internships.

And this million dollars will go a long way toward expanding that program, not just for the summer, but expanding it to a year-round program that can really support our young people.

So I want to thank the members of the Finance and Housing Committee for their support of these amendments that I offered and look forward to passing a bill that is really rooted in the principles of an equitable recovery.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales, for those comments.

Next up is Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you so much.

I just wanna really recognize that there's just been actually some good news recently about the pandemic.

King County hitting 70% vaccination rates, hospitalizations and cases down.

families and friends reunited, reuniting and a statewide reopening right around the corner.

And, you know, the work that we've been doing here at the city council and that the county has been doing at the county council is really making this concept of building back better, something that is, seems like a realistic thing to strive for.

From addressing the harms and traumas of the last year and a half, which have taken a toll on each and every person in our community.

As always, those harms have not fallen equally on our communities.

And we know that BIPOC communities, immigrants, refugees, and those without technology access or mobility have been the hardest hit.

And so to truly build back better, we have to target these precious recovery funds to those who need them most, those who are the farthest from recovery.

So, you know, we know that families are still struggling to meet the basic needs of their children and keep food on the table.

Survivors of violence have been cut off from their network of support and crisis services.

A year of isolation and insecurity has taken its toll on the mental health of so many people in our community.

I've talked a lot before about the shadow pandemic, how the restricted movement social isolation, and economic security has increased our vulnerability to violence and self-harm.

But the Seattle Rescue Plan includes more than $35 million focused on trauma-informed well-being services to address the Seattle pandemic, including investments in senior isolation, mental and behavioral health, gender-based violence, diaper distribution and free meals.

With these investments, more families who have been the most impacted over the past year will have what they need to emerge stronger and healthier.

I really want to thank our partners for their strong advocacy for these investments, including Tony Sarge and Sarah Cody Roth at Westside Baby.

Mary Ellen Stone at the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, Meryl Cousin, and Marin Thea Torres at the Coalition for Ending Gender-Based Violence.

And in areas where the proposed version of the bill didn't quite live up to the promise of the council's intent resolution, Council Member Mosqueda helped right the ship so that we could fulfill all of our commitments.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

The package now also includes critical investments in Seattle's creative economy as we promised to do in the council's intent resolution.

The city's 2029 creative economy study found that the creative sector drives 18% of Seattle's GDP.

That's four times the national average.

So that means that this sector is so critical to Seattle's economic recovery, as well as being vital to making Seattle the unique and special place we love.

Artists and musicians have been uniquely, hardly hit, and many are struggling to hang on while still contributing to our communities.

I want to thank you to the council members who supported these amendments that ensure that artists hardest hit by the pandemic are eligible for direct cash assistance from this package, and for also creating a fund within the Office of Arts and Culture to focus targeted assistance on small and BIPOC-led creative organizations so that they can reopen and bring back their staff.

This investment will help ensure our ordinary creative communities are not yet another victim of the pandemic.

Like I did for the advocates working for funding to address the shadow pandemic, I want to also thank you the advocates who have worked to ensure that these critical cultural economy investments are included.

Thanks to Seattle Arts Commission co-chairs Sarah Wilkie, and Dr. Quentin Morris, and thank you as well to Seattle Music Commission Chair Reese Tanimura and the many musicians and artists who provided public testimony to help council understand how they've been uniquely impacted for and thank you for their extraordinary advocacy.

I want to also give a shout out to some of the work of my constituents in District 1 who have organized over the past year to preserve one of the positive legacies of the pandemic, the Keep Moving Streets.

This package ensures that the city will continue its work to consider I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work with all of you to do that

Thank you so much Councilmember Herbold for those comments.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

I'm not seeing any other hands raised but I would like to take an opportunity before I allow Councilmember Mosqueda to close out debate on this bill I would as one of the co-sponsors.

like to take an opportunity to make my own comments about this particular suite of bills related to these federal funds.

Council colleagues, again, thank you so much for the opportunity to comment on this legislation and for your strong collaboration and unification around the Seattle Rescue Plan.

I am going to try not to duplicate many of the comments made by others, including the budget chair, Teresa Mosqueda, but I did want to underscore some of the key highlights of this legislation.

from my perspective.

I'm proud of the hard work that went into creating a collaborative path to developing the Seattle Rescue Plan in the first place.

I'm grateful to Budget Chair Mosqueda, Mayor Durkan, as well as a number of council and executive branch staff that spent weeks drafting this plan in a way that addresses the most pressing priorities and objectives that were raised by council members, public commenters, and community-based organizations.

The fact that budget legislation of this size received so few substantive amendments I think is testament to the good work that was done to build a consensus package for us to consider in committee and subsequently in today's full council meeting.

Although $128 million is not sufficient to meet the various critical needs facing our city's residents, we have a unique opportunity with this funding to make a difference in the lives of countless Seattleites and set our city on a path towards a more equitable economic recovery from the COVID-19 public health and economic crises.

I am truly excited about the resources being provided in this legislation to do some of the following.

Expand affordable housing opportunities and homelessness services.

Provide direct support to small businesses, workers, and neighborhood commercial districts across the city.

Increase childcare infrastructure and enhance wages for childcare workers.

This infusion of resources will help home based and daycare centers reopen or expand, which will ultimately grow our city's child care network and allow parents to get back to work.

We'll also invest in the reopening of cultural and arts institutions.

We will reactivate and enhance our public spaces like parks and streets for outdoor recreation, commercial opportunities, and socially distant activities.

And this package offers direct cash assistance to those who have been most impacted by the pandemic.

These critical investments made in the Seattle Rescue Plan could not be possible without the hard work of our state's congressional delegation as well, particularly Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Representative Pramila Jayapal, who I want to thank for their efforts in passing the American Rescue Plan Act to begin with.

I am very grateful to our federal representatives and President Joe Biden for ensuring that these needed resources were made available to local government and, of course, our residents.

Finally, in closing out my comments, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the fact that had this council, led by Council Member Mosqueda and a broad coalition of stakeholders, had this council not passed the Jumpstart Seattle Progressive Payroll Tax in 2020, we would not be in a position to be making any of these investments.

Without the roughly $200 million in revenue expected from the Jumpstart Seattle Progressive Payroll Tax, we would have been forced to lay off hundreds of City of Seattle employees and drastically reduce city services.

Without that revenue, we would be using all of the funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to plug holes in the city's budget and simply restore spending and services to pre-pandemic levels.

Fortunately, Thanks to the tremendous work that was done to pass Jump Start Seattle and to defend its legality in court, we are in this position today to use these federal dollars to greatly expand the services and resources our city is able to offer as we look towards rebuilding equitably across our city.

So I want to say thank you to all of you, my council colleagues, and in particular, to our budget chair, Teresa Mosqueda, as well as all of our community partners that have helped us to set a course towards a robust and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the economic context and in the public health context.

So thank you so much for the opportunity to make some comments.

Again, I really want to lift up the tremendous amount of work that our legislative staff and our city budget office staff and mayoral staff have done to bring a consensus package forward that is a good moment for us as a city family.

And I especially want to thank Council Member Mosqueda's partnership and Sejal Parikh in her office and Cody Ryder in my office for all of the countless amount of hours we have spent together working on these issues with Allie Panucci, Jeff Sims, Yolanda Ho, so many others to mention.

Thank you, everyone, for all of your important work on this really, really important piece of legislation.

So with that being said, I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Mosqueda, who's going to close out debate, and then we will be able to vote on this bill.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you very much for your remarks as well, especially about Jump Start.

It's been tremendous to be able to work with you and your team as we've crafted this legislation in front of us, so thank you very much.

Colleagues, this is our chance.

This is our chance to build back better, and it's our chance to build back more equitably.

The Seattle Rescue Plan Act here today, again, the first of three acts to come this year, helps to ensure that the critical dollars are going to where they're most needed.

In attachment number one that you found, to address the trauma that so many have been through and are still dealing with.

$23.5 million into community and small business recovery and over $14 million going into community assistance, city This is a package we can all be proud of and a package that we can build on for the future.

Tranche 2 will be discussed later this year when we consider the 2022 budget.

And we'll have a chance in just the next few weeks, starting in July, to look at Seattle Rescue Plan 2, which will be a combination of funding that comes from the federal government that relates to the Older Americans Act funding, rental assistance, transportation funds from the federal government, and so many more pieces to help us center our recovery efforts.

again thank you to our congressional delegation as the council president rightly mentioned for helping to free up these much-needed dollars to cities across the country and especially to the city of Seattle where we continue to deal with you know five and six years now of a crisis in housing and homelessness that has only been made worse by the COVID pandemic and so this is truly an incredible opportunity to set the course to write our investments now and begin building on those in the upcoming months.

I want to thank every council member who offered amendments, as you all discussed in your summary of your amendments.

And Council Member Strauss, I heard you this morning say some great comments, and folks didn't get a chance to see that.

I hope you get to see Council Member Strauss's amendment summary as well, because every single one of those amendments truly helps to strengthen and clarify language in this final proposal.

I especially want to thank the work that Councilmembers Morales and Herbold noted on the work to extrapolate more details out of the $23 million that's being allocated to business recovery efforts, making sure that we're centering investments into Black, Indigenous, and people of color community organizations and businesses, specifically focused on small and micro businesses, neighborhood economic hubs, and our downtown core, by making sure that youth employment and paid internship opportunities we're investing in the recovery and vibrancy of our arts and cultural organizations and those workers.

This package is something that I'm proud of, and I continue to look forward to working with you as we build on these efforts in the summer efforts, again, for Seattle Rescue Plan Act No. 2 and for the fall budget activities, which will include Tranche 2 in our Seattle Rescue Plan Act No. 3. No rest for us because there's a lot to make up for here in terms of needs and investments in our community.

And as we do so, I know we'll continue to center homelessness response, economic resilience, and direct assistance to those who need it most.

And that we'll continue to draw direction and leadership from communities who've been writing in and helping us craft this bill together.

I want to thank as well central staff led by Allie Panucci and her incredible team.

I'll try to list a bunch of them, but I know that there's so many more involved.

Yolanda Ho, Tracy Ratzliff, Brian Goodnight, Dan Eater, Jeff Sims, Karina Bull, and so many others.

Folks in the city budget's office, Julie Dingley led the conversations along with Director Ben Noble.

Thank you very much.

And to Mayor Durkin, it's been really good to see this proposal come together so that we can I want to thank the executive team and the council team's communication departments who have been working to get the information out.

And again, to Council President Gonzales for the co-sponsorship on this legislation.

To your team member, Cody Ryder, who's been working on this on a weekly basis, along with Sejal Parikh, chief of staff in my office, and the entire team of within our office, Aaron, Sejal, and Aretha, along with Lori, but especially to Sejal for their work in coordinating the effort in front of us.

And I'll end with a quote from Aaron Height, a childcare provider union at SEIU 925. Every kiddo deserves a safe, nurturing place to spend their day while their parents are at work.

but quality care is expensive, and the workforce made primarily of women of color has been underpaid and undervalued in the past.

The pandemic made it clear to parents and employers that affordable, accessible childcare is critical to our economy and our recovery.

When schools shut down, childcare professionals stepped up, caring for kids and facilitating online learning for school-aged kiddos.

Today's legislation, the Seattle Rescue Plan, is one step in rebuilding a childcare system that works for everyone.

Whether you're black, white, or brown, this bill will help everyone and make us have a more equitable recovery.

Thank you very much for all of your work.

Look forward to building on this with your efforts in the future.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda, for those closing remarks.

Debate is now closed on the bill, so we're going to take a vote.

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

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

Thank you so much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Agenda item three, council bill 120094, an ordinance related to the city's response to the COVID-19 crisis, amending ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget, changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels, and from various funds in the budget.

Imposing provisos and ratifying confirming certain prior acts all by a three-quarter vote of the city council, the committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Skiddock, you are the chair of this committee, so I'm going to hand it back over to you to provide the committee report.

Thank you so much.

And I will be brief here, just noting that this is an important carry through so that we can adopt and implement the Seattle Rescue Plan specifically for the cash assistance, which is critical here.

And I want to just say thanks to Freddy de Cuevas, who I think I inadvertently left off in my thank yous to my staff in the last go around, who has been clerking all of these meetings for the majority of the last two months.

And thank you very much to all of you for your consideration of this legislation.

This is the trailer bill to the bill we just voted on.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

I also wanted to just briefly address the cash assistance fund bill.

So this obviously is designed to promote the good work that has been done by the city and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in particular, which reports to my committee to make this cash assistance possible.

We needed to rely on some of the good work and lessons that we learned from direct cash assistance programs that we have run through the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

This $25 million fund is being modeled after an incredibly successful City of Seattle and OIRA-led program to quickly deploy cash assistance awards of $1,000 to $3,000 to immigrant families who were unable to access federal support despite the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant and refugee families.

They did this by working with community to ensure that there was strong language access and prioritizing those people that are the hardest to reach.

OIRA is taking on the charge of administering this $25 million fund and to expand the eligibility criteria to serve not only immigrants and refugees, but also BIPOC families, artists, and other folks who have been most impacted by the pandemic.

I am confident that OIRA, although small, is very mighty and that they will have the ability and expertise to scale up and build on their success to help our constituents, and that they will center equity while lowering access barriers to help those who have been most impacted.

I'm excited by the opportunity to provide direct financial assistance to the individuals and families who have the greatest need for support, allowing them to share in the strong recovery that we hope the city and the region is about to experience.

So a huge thanks to OIRA and their contracted partner organizations in making sure we get these funds to the most deserving folks.

So with that being said, are there any additional comments on the bill?

All right, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

DeWant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read item four into the record?

Item four, Council Bill 120101, an ordinance relating to housing for low-income households, adopting the housing levy administrative and financial plan for program years 2021 through 2023, adopting housing funding policies for the 2016 housing levy and other fund sources, authorizing actions by the director of housing regarding past and future housing loans and contracts, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Mosqueda, this bill comes out of your committee as well, so I'm going to hand it over to you to provide the community report.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Colleagues, this legislation updates the city's affordable housing funding policies, also known as the ANF plan, and it makes some important updates building on the deep changes that were rooted in community needs and suggestions that we took in my committee back in 2019. Those changes included expanding upon and clarifying the city's intent to use community preference and affirmative marketing policies as a policy framework for ensuring that those who've been most disproportionately impacted by displacement had a strong opportunity to remain in our city and have access to affordable housing.

At that point, we included stronger labor standards to make sure that our new housing that was being built had opportunities for greater labor standards and that we looked for opportunities to strengthen our commitment to good living wage jobs as we built housing.

Language on that should be forthcoming in a report on the case site and other work that we did as well.

We also at that point increased Office of Housing's acquisition authority up to a cap of $30 million at the time.

And a lot of that work that we did in 2019 was really rooted in a number of community roundtable discussions that we had specifically with BIPOC-led housing development groups and communities who are most in need of affordable housing in this city.

So fast forward to 2021, this is an opportunity for us to expand upon some of those really important changes that we made and make some small sort of tweaks to really allow for some of those important policy changes to come to fruition.

But this does not include major policy directive changes given that this is a proposal that I think was really well crafted as it was sent to us and included some of the previous work that we had done just two years ago.

There's a few things that we should be really excited about in this legislation.

If you haven't had a chance to hear me say this before, this is a really great opportunity for the Office of Housing to increase its home ownership subsidy to make sure that we're adequately funding the construction of permanent affordable homes, to make sure that our very competitive and hot housing market has actual chance of having competition and being able to have more folks access first-time homeownership opportunities.

We are, in this legislation, removing that cap.

Previously, we had upped the cap on the Acquisition Authority.

Now we're removing it.

So the Office of Housing has the authority, where needed, when there is new revenue.

available to quickly move and seize opportunities to acquire property for the creation of affordable housing given the changing market conditions we're seeing.

And why is this important right now?

If we see multifamily structures going on the market or derelict buildings that could be used for affordable housing now or in the future, We want to be competitive and to bring in more publicly owned housing options and create public opportunities for folks to have access to good affordable housing within the city.

And removing this cap is a smart way for us to make sure that we're seizing those opportunities.

With the onset of COVID, we've also seen a huge demand in acquisition.

We've built some of the acquisition language into our jumpstart legislation from last year.

And with the money now coming in January of this upcoming year, we'll have the chance to spend those dollars.

We just put a portion of the $28.5 million for acquisition and development that you all just voted on in the Seattle Rescue Plan Act bill.

Acquisition, acquisition, acquisition is the theme of the show when it relates to affordable housing right now.

And we have made sure that that is a priority in this ANF plan as well.

And there's already several projects that have given notice to the city to apply for acquisition funds directly rooted in community organizations and community organizations that are working on building affordable housing have already submitted their notice to apply for acquisition funds.

And this year's notice of intent to apply round, and we know that there's much more opportunities needed on the horizon.

really excited to have these important changes included in the ANF plan and look forward to having your support and just very briefly want to thank Emily Alvarado and her team at the Office of Housing, Tracy Radscliffe from Central Staff and Erin House from my office who've been working closely on getting this legislation ready for us to vote on today.

I hope you'll support it.

Thank you so much Council Member Mosqueda for those comments.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

I don't see any hands raised for any additional comments.

So I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Vales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, item five.

Will the clerk please read item five into the record?

The report of the Transportation and Utilities Committee agenda, item five, Council Bill 120100, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities, authorizing the general manager CEO of Seattle Public Utilities to enter into a water quality combined financial assistance agreement between the State of Washington Department of Ecology and the City of Seattle Public Utilities Department to partially finance costs related to the construction of the Ship Canal Water Quality Project through a Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Peterson, you are chair of this committee, and I'm going to hand it over to you to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, as I mentioned at Council briefing this morning, this is Council Bill 120100. It authorizes Seattle Public Utilities to accept a low interest loan provided through the State Department of Ecology to finance $66 million of the $570 million ship canal water quality project, as you may know, or as you may recall, the ship canal water quality project's mega project planned over many years due to the state and federal governments requiring the city and county governments to prevent harmful stormwater and wastewater from polluting our local waterways.

This environmental protection project includes a new tunnel boring machine creating a 2.7-mile stormwater storage tunnel from Wallingford to Ballard.

This particular financing program through the state government enables a below-market interest rate of approximately 1 percent, whereas if we went out to the conventional bond market, we would need to pay a higher rate of around 3 percent.

using the state program will save ratepayers approximately $12 million from this particular loan.

This council bill was recommended unanimously by our committee.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson for those comments.

Are there any additional comments?

Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read items six through eight into the record?

Agenda item six through eight.

Appointments 1947 through 1949, the appointments of Eric K. Fitzpatrick, Heng Nguyen, and Grayson Simon as members of Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board for terms to March 31st, 2023. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Peterson, these also come out of your committee, so I'm going to hand it back to you.

Thank you, Council President.

Here are three appointments to our Pedestrian Advisory Board, very briefly on their biographies.

Erin Fitzpatrick has lived and worked in Seattle for six years, mostly in the Mount Baker, Columbia City area.

She works at Lighthouse for the Blind, providing orientation and mobility assistance for people with disabilities.

Erin's passionate about creating an accessible environment for all people.

Grayson Simon has lived in Seattle for eight years.

They are known within the community for founding and running the Transgender Language Primer.

As a trans person who commutes by public transit, they are passionate about pedestrian safety and access, especially basic needs like sidewalks and curb cuts.

Hung Nguyen grew up in the Puget Sound region and has recently put down roots in the Lake City neighborhood.

She is professionally and personally invested in building a stronger and more vibrant community with the mindset that the actions taken today should benefit people and the environment tomorrow.

HUNG's educational background shapes her work at King County Metro Transit, and her interest in ensuring public spaces are accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities.

The committee unanimously recommended all three appointments to be confirmed.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson, for those comments.

Are there any additional comments on the appointments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 1947 through 1949. Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

Thank you.

And Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Will the clerk please read item nine into the record.

Adoption of other resolutions, agenda item nine, resolution 32008, a resolution setting the public hearing on the petition of Seattle City Light for the vacation of a portion of Diagonal Way South, west of 4th Avenue South and the Greater Duwamish Manufacturing Industrial Center of Seattle.

According to chapter 35.79 of the revised code of Washington, chapter 15.62 of the Seattle Municipal Code and clerk file 314451.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to adopt Resolution 32008. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.

Council Member Peterson, you are the sponsor, so I'm going to hand it over to you to address this item.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, as I mentioned at Council briefing this morning, this is Resolution 32008. It simply sets the time of a public hearing at our Transportation and Utilities Committee for Wednesday, July 21st at 9.30 a.m.

to discuss another small property transfer associated with work on Seattle City Lights facilities and associated with the South Park to Georgetown Bike Trail.

If approved after the July 21st public hearing, our Seattle Department of Transportation will be authorized to vacate their right-of-way of the 13,000-square-foot parcel and provide that Seattle City light, which owns the adjacent properties at Diagonal Way South, just west of 4th Avenue South, in the Greater Duwamish Manufacturing Industrial Center of Seattle.

I would like to make a motion to approve this resolution.

The clerk file 314451 is associated with this resolution and is Seattle City Light's official petition to City Council for the vacation of SDOT's right-of-way.

The vacation of the right-of-way will be handled in a manner that does not negatively impact Seattle Public Utilities.

Again, this resolution simply sets the date of the public hearing and we'll get more information on the substance of this

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

Are there any additional comments on the resolution?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Lewis?

Yes.

And Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

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

Okay, folks, we are at other business.

Colleagues, I do have one matter of other business that came up after council briefing that I just want to read for the record.

It's going to be very brief.

because I know we have to get to a Park Districts Board meeting here.

But colleagues, I do want to acknowledge the recent news of the loss of David Schmitz, the former president of UFCW Local 21, who passed away on Sunday, June 20th.

I first had an opportunity to meet and work with Dave while I was serving as the chair of the One America Votes.

board.

Dave, in addition to being a leader for worker and union rights, was a steadfast advocate and ally in building multiracial and multicultural coalitions that were designed to lift up others to create lasting change for those who remain furthest away from justice.

Whether that was worker rights or immigrant rights, Dave was committed to it all.

I'm grateful for his legacy, and I send my deepest condolences to him, to his family and friends.

and of course the entire UCW local 21 family.

Is there any other further business to come before the council?

Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I appreciate the opportunity to just briefly recognize the passing of Dave Schmitz as well and just want to thank you for your words and the chance to say my condolences as well to his wife Pam and to their family.

both individual family but also the larger labor family.

We know that Dave Schmitz is larger than life and he leaves a legacy behind him that is the largest private sector union in Washington State with grocery workers and cannabis workers and pharmacy workers who in this moment have truly shown what it means to have solidarity in some of the most trying times.

that is in large part due to his tenacity to make sure that workers' voices were always centered at the heart of discussions.

And I did just also receive a message from the family at UFCW 21 who noted that he believed strongly in the outside organizing effort and wasn't, you know, wanting to put all of the baskets in working within the electeds only, but has the UFCW 21 has asked us to consider a resolution honoring Dave Schmidt's life and legacy in the labor movement here in Washington State.

and I'll look forward to working with all of you to bring that forward, per their request.

But very, very thrilled to have the opportunity to recognize his legacy and also more in his passing, as he is an incredible leader, not just within the labor movement, but in the broader progressive movement as well.

Thank you for that, Council Member Esqueda.

Council Member Solano.

Thank you.

Just wanted to express deepest condolences to Dave Schmidt's brother Dave's family and also to all the members and the leadership of UFCW Local 21 for this loss.

Thank you so much and solidarity to all the grocery workers.

I would like to thank you for that.

I appreciate it.

I learned about this after council briefing.

I would have brought this up during council briefing.

Our deepest condolences on behalf of the Seattle City Council go to Dave's family, friends and the larger labor Colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on June 28th, 2021 at 2 o'clock PM.

As a reminder, we will convene as the Seattle Metropolitan Park District Board once we adjourn this full council meeting.

Seattle channel has indicated that they need approximately five minutes to be able to transition between this meeting and the next meeting, which will be chaired by the board chair, who is council member Deborah Juarez.

So, we have been instructed to stay on this zoom call.

You do not need to switch zoom rooms.

but you can take the next five minutes after we adjourn.

You can take a quick break and step away for a moment, but we will be resuming at about 3.50 p.m.

under the leadership of Councilmember Juarez.

So that being said, I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

We are adjourned.