Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you for being here at City Hall.
The April 15, 2019, full City Council meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.
It's 2-0-3 p.m.
I'm Bruce Harreld, President of the Council of the Clerk.
Please call the roll.
O'Brien.
Here.
Sawant.
Here.
Begshaw.
Gonzales.
Here.
Herbold.
Juarez.
Here.
President Harrell.
Here.
Six present.
Thank you very much.
At this point, I will move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.
I believe there may be a comment.
And I will entertain that comment from Council Member Gonzales if she is so ready.
I am ready.
Okay.
I move to amend the proposed Introduction and Referral Calendar by introducing Council Bill 119500, entitled, An Ordinance Related to Land Use and Zoning, amending Ordinance 125791 to correct map errors contained in Map A for 23.58B.050, Map A for 23.58C.050, And attachment one to ordinance one two five seven nine one and by referring it to the select committee on the citywide mandatory housing affordability Is there a second?
It's been moved and seconded that the uh introduction referral calendar be Be amended as stated by councilman gonzalez any further questions All those in favor say aye aye opposed the ayes have it now, I will move the introduction and referral calendar as amended.
Is there a second?
Second.
The introduction and referral calendar is moved and seconded.
All those in favor, please say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
The ayes have it.
Thank you very much.
If there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.
If there's no objection, today's agenda is adopted.
Let the record reflect that Councilmembers Herbold and Bagshaw have joined us.
The minutes of the April 1st, 2019 City Council meeting have been reviewed, and if there's no objections, the minutes will be signed.
If there's no objection, the minutes are being signed.
Presentations, we're very excited to have our presentations led by our own Councilmember Gonzalez.
Councilmember Gonzalez, you have the floor.
Thank you, Council President.
Colleagues, it's my honor to present a proclamation today to members of the Cambodian community to acknowledge the genocide that occurred in Cambodia as a result of the Khmer Rouge regime.
And I'm going to take a moment to go ahead and read from the proclamation, if I may, Mr. President.
Yes, please.
Thank you.
Whereas the rich heritage of Surak Khmer, one of the original civilizations in Southeast Asia, dates back over 4,000 years, and whereas during the Khmer Genocide, one of the bloodiest holocausts in world history, approximately 2 million people, nearly a quarter of the entire Khmer population, lost their lives at the hands of war and genocide between April 1975 and January 1979. And whereas after 1979, over 145,000 refugees, predominantly from overpopulated Thai border camps, relocated to the United States in order to escape the harsh living conditions experienced in the camps and sought asylum from a battered war-torn Surak Khmer.
And whereas over half of the members of the Khmer population experience varying degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of mental health issues brought forth by the Khmer genocide.
And whereas the legacy of genocidal violence is inherited in the form of intergenerational trauma afflicting the Khmer youth of this generation, through deprivation of identity, self-knowledge, stability, and self-empowerment.
And whereas over 900 Cameroon Americans have been impacted by this genocide and re-traumatized throughout systemic oppression and deported back to a country they have no understanding of, enduring separation from their U.S. citizen, children, family, and friends.
And whereas Cameroon community leaders and elders from across Washington State work together relentlessly to rebuild historical and cultural identity.
nearly exterminated by the Khmer Rouge, and to uplift their communities through education and cultural empowerment.
And whereas the greater Seattle metropolitan area is home to over 22,000 individuals of Khmer descent, whose versatile members increasingly contribute to many thriving local and international organizations and businesses, to the rich cultural tapestry through arts and civic engagement, and whereas it is important to honor the Khmer people who suffered and to remember those who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge during the Khmer Holocaust.
Now, therefore, the Seattle City Council and the Mayor of Seattle do hereby proclaim April 17, 2019 to be Khmer Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez.
Before you present this to our guests, are there any other members that would like to share a few words about this purported memorialization of our history?
If not, I'd like to just say a few words.
Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez, for once again bringing such an important atrocity in our human history to our attention, and thank you, community, for being here.
I'll date myself a little bit when I say this, but I was in high school when I would read the newspaper to read about this international atrocity.
And I think when you were in comfortable Seattle at that time reading about this, it changes one's view on what this world could be when at its worst.
And so thank you for reminding us of what this world can be when not unchecked, when there are powers that are unchecked.
I know this has affected your community, your relatives, your family members, and particularly the younger generation of leaders in your community for making sure that we never forget.
So thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez.
And if I may ask for the rules to be suspended in order to present the proclamation.
And I believe there are members from the community who would like to make some remarks to the council.
Yes, if there's no objection, the rules are suspended and please proceed.
Okay, and then you can make remarks.
The official one.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Use either mic, and they're both, press a button and the green light's on, and it's collapsible, so you could bend it down to reach your height as well, and we'd love to hear from whoever'd like to speak.
I'll go first.
My name is Stephanie Ung.
My dad is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge.
I want to thank the Council President Harrell for having us here and sponsoring Council Member Gonzalez.
Thanks also to the Duwamish people as we are on their ancestral lands.
This proclamation is important to our community because of the impacts of the Khmer Rouge are not isolated to that time period and to those survivors.
The impacts are still felt today and I feel the most when I learn about what my father has been through and what our people have been through.
I think when people talk about trauma from the war, they talk about the survivors and how they pass that on to their children, their families.
What people don't talk about is how it impacts the youth when they find out what their people have been through and how their people have survived.
So both, I think, traumatic and also very empowering.
So not only did a quarter of our population perish, nearly along with it our culture and language, and ultimately with it our identities.
This is not just about remembering one tragedy, a one-time event.
This is about recognizing and celebrating Khmer resilience as well.
This proclamation symbolizes our people's will to survive and is not just, as Stephanie said, this recognition of a tragedy but also a celebration of Khmer resilience because we are here today and we are thriving and by sharing this knowledge and this history with our own communities that have been kept from us from a very long time.
It is a step towards learning about our history and ourselves because in order to know ourselves, we must know our history first.
And with that, we are really excited to be able to also present this proclamation on an event we'll be holding this Wednesday, April 17th at Red Square at UW.
where we will be celebrating Khmer resilience, remembering, honoring this history and being able to collectively heal as a result to allow our youth and our community to really get a better understanding of how this has affected us and to express our trauma in art, through art, so.
Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity because through this we hope to be able to take space to show and make sure that the world knows that this is something that we cannot forget.
Thank you both.
Thank you both for your leadership and commitment.
Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez, for bringing this to our attention.
Thank you very much.
Absolutely.
And I understand from our guests also that it is for the Kamai people.
It is also the kickoff of Happy New Year.
So Happy New Year to you all and I hope that you have a really wonderful celebration in the Red Square.
Thank you for being with us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, so at this time we'll take public comment on items that appear on today's agenda or our introduction and referral calendar or our 2019 work program and I'll call you out in the order with which you've signed up and we will have speakers speak for two minutes.
We'll start off with David Haynes followed by Alex Zimmerman.
City Council, a few days ago, a 95-year-old man saved a woman's life when an enraged junkie thief came out of the bushes and started to attack her in the University District.
The 95-year-old man, who's a 35-year resident of Upper Queen Anne, didn't want to fight the younger criminal, and when the attacker was convinced by the 95-year-old not to attack the woman, the attacker turned against him, and so the 95-year-old went into the church.
And the attacker ran inside the church to kill the 95-year-old.
And the 95-year-old sought assistance from two pastors about calling the cops.
The 95-year-old is forced to defend himself and punches the evil, junkie, thieving, violent criminal one time and dropped the attacker.
Now, there is a serious conflict of interest between city council members and Lisa Dalgard and the secret agreement with the Police and Safety Committee.
Chair, The relationship between the Director of Community Police Commission and the Millions to Public Defender, Lisa Dalgard, expects from counsel to literally protect Evil, nefarious characters who destroy lives daily and get listed non-violent and guaranteed not to be deported because racist hypocrites on the city council think foreign-born criminals only commit crimes because they didn't have a legitimate ID.
I know Mosqueda has mentioned that the only reason people are criminals is because they're not a citizen.
Mr. Haynes, hold it for a second.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
City Council needs to realize the lies of why Seattle is dying and who is responsible for the root causes of liberal societal implosion.
Know this, Attorney General, now Mayor Durkan has, and excuse me, Attorney General, Mayor Durkin, has sabotaged the 2012 police reform by unconstitutionally adding a sentence that literally exempted the low-level drug dealers from jail.
Lisa Dalgard is probably the most fact-stabbing reason our City Council and Mayor have been ill-advised about believing that saturated community in drugs is a societal issue.
I'm sorry, man, I didn't mean to call you out on this, but I know for a fact that City Council Musqueda has Listed criminals who deal drugs.
You're being disruptive, and so I'm gonna have you removed by security.
Please have him removed, please.
Please have him removed.
Okay.
So, Council Member Mosqueda, would you like to comment?
Point of order, Mr. President.
In order for us to restore decorum, I think it's important for us to constantly ensure that those who are speaking are speaking to items on the agenda.
Again, in this case, I don't believe that that was
Point well taken.
If I understood his comments, while he did engage in disruptive behavior, as evidence of him being removed, he was speaking on part of our work program.
But even if he's speaking to a relevant matter on our work program, as I interpreted his comments, he cannot do it in a disruptive way, and he has been removed accordingly.
And I do apologize for the personal attacks that you and others have had to suffer.
unnecessarily so for those kinds of comments.
Having said that, we'll keep moving down our public comment section, and that will be Alex Zeriman, followed by Sean McEachern.
Thank you, sir.
Can I spoke about this Khmer fascism that has killed a million people?
Yeah, thank you very much.
Sieg Heil, my Fuhrer.
A Nazi social democratic mafia with progressive Gestapo principle.
A pure killer is exactly what everyone speaks.
My name is Alex Zimmerman.
Fascism always kills people.
A couple of millions, huh, comparable to German Nazi or Soviet communists who killed Sixty million people.
Yes.
Six million Jews.
All my family is white.
Please stop the clock, sir.
Please stop the clock.
Mr. Zimmerman, you've yet to address our work program, our introduction referral calendar, or today's agenda, and your description of history.
So please speak to one of the three subject matters, sir.
It's okay, but...
Please resume the clock.
I understand, but this is an agenda about Khmer killing this dictator.
So why I cannot speak about it?
Clock's running, sir.
So I can speak?
About fascism?
It's a fascism, what this Khmer did.
Can I speak?
No?
Okay, no problem.
Okay, I will speak about agenda number three, about Central Waterfront Improvement Program.
It's totally make me a shock, because we need a ferry.
Ferry transportation, what is important.
So why this money come from me, from another poor people?
We cannot fix too many problems like homeless, for example, or need 300,000 housing.
When people who live in waterfront or after tunnel come, supposed to be paid a million and million, million.
Why they pay only $7 per month?
Can you explain to me?
This is totally confuse me because it's support by this...
Ordinary support by Berkshire and Harrell.
I'm totally confused.
Berkshire, for my understanding, a multimillionaire who live in this location.
In Harrell, you're a multimillionaire, too.
So my question right now, very simple.
Why we don't charge from this crook who live next in who we spent a billion dollars for what?
Thank you, sir.
Our next two speakers are Sean McEachern and then Sean Moore.
Thank you, Council President.
I was here to speak on behalf of 1194 87 as amended, but I was reading through the amendment.
It wasn't didn't mirror what was discussed this morning So I'm I wouldn't there's not really anything in it.
I Don't know if this is the right I'll wait.
The other thing that I had on my mind is something that I'll wait for another date.
So, thank you.
Thank you, sir Sean Moore will be followed by Ken Lang Sean Moore Ken Langston.
Is Sean here?
Sean Moore?
No?
Okay, so Ken Lang?
Langston, sir.
Oh, you didn't write the S-T-O-N on there.
Yes, sir.
Go ahead, you can proceed.
So I want to speak as a member of District 4 on behalf of Abel Pacheca.
I want to speak about how I feel that he would be an addition to helping out some of the issues that are going on in the Seattle District Area 4. I've had a personal chance to work with Mr. Pacheco in the past.
We work actually together in Mesa.
He's done great work for the community and also taking time to go to Olympia and speak on behalf of students that are trying to get into STEM.
What I'd like to possibly see in the future is him being an active member, not only to lead because he also shares the same values I do, but also to be a member that can help everyone else, especially with the homeless problems, the issues that are coming up.
the affordable housing, things like that, because he speaks out to the community, and he takes time to listen.
He's taken time to listen to me, and I'm an advocate for veteran support, veteran rights, and because he took time to understand my culture, the people I associate with, it really spoke to me, and then I got a chance to understand where he's coming from and what he's able to do.
What he's able to do is he's able to put time in.
which is something that I've had a chance to see myself by going to knock on people's doors, taking time to speak to them and show they really cares about this particular district and Seattle, which is expressed to me multiple times, having been a part of his home.
This is home to him and he's taking time to actually get to know it.
So for the record, I'd like to make sure, you know, as a representative for the veteran community, and speaking for Mr. Pacheco himself, I'd like to see him become an active member as a councilman.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Langston.
Mr. Langston, I'll have you sign this.
Can you pass that to Mr. Langston, please?
You'll see.
I'm going to improve that a little bit there.
OK, so.
Alex is back there harassing Monica.
Oh, God.
So we'll move on to our agenda.
Yes, sir.
We had one more request.
Please, please, sir.
Eric, is it Shire?
Eric Shire I have after Mr. Langston.
Thank you, council members.
My name is Eric Shire.
I am the commissioner, the co-chair for people with disability.
I want to thank you for your time and efforts to review my proposal for having captioning in public places.
I want to thank you to the three council members for working with me this in time, Scott, O'Brien, and Herbold.
And I would thank the members of my commission who are here uh, the three who are here and I hope that we vote in support of passing that legislation.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Okay, we'll move on to our agenda.
We'll move to the payment of the bills.
Please read the title.
Council Bill 119495. Appropriate amendment to pay settlement claims in order to end payment thereof.
I'll pass the Move to pass Council Bill 119495. Moved and seconded that the bill pass.
Any further comments?
Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
O'Brien.
Aye.
Sawant.
Aye.
Begshaw.
Aye.
Gonzales.
Aye.
Herbold.
Aye.
Juarez.
Aye.
President Harrell.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
The bill passed and the Chair will sign it.
Let's move to our first agenda item.
Please read it into the record.
The report of the City Council, agenda item one, resolution 31877, setting the public hearing on the petition of Trinity Trailside LLC for the vacation of a portion of Northeast 48th Street between 24th Avenue Northeast and Burke-Gilman Trail in the University Community Urban Center Neighborhood Planning Area, Seattle, according to chapter 35.79, revised code of Washington, chapter 15.62 of the Seattle Municipal Code and clerk file 314380.
So I'm going to ask Council Member O'Brien to pinch hit on this one if he's so prepared.
You bet.
This is pretty straightforward.
It's simply a notice for the public hearing as described in the bill.
Certain public hearings are required to have a resolution from council to do that, so we are doing it.
Okay, any further comments?
Those in favor of adopting the resolution, please vote aye.
Aye.
Those opposed vote no.
The motion carries.
The resolution is adopted and chair will sign it.
Please read the report of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee.
The report of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee, agenda item 2, Council Bill 119487 relating to public accommodations, requiring persons owning or managing a place of public accommodations to activate closed captioning on television receivers and adding a new chapter 14.05 to the Seattle Municipal Code.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Council Member Herbold.
Thank you very much.
I'd like to first get the amendment before the council.
And so Amendment 1 adds a new Section 2 and renumbers the remaining sections' numbers accordingly.
Thank you.
Speaking to the amendment, the amendment itself is one that my staff worked with the Office of Civil Rights to specifically focus that we get more detail in the form of a report on the racial equity impact within the 180-day outreach and education period, specifically detailing the impact of enforcement of this ordinance on immigrant and or refugee-run businesses.
The law itself goes into effect 30 days after the mayor signs, but the enforcement of the law does not go into effect for 180 days.
And so this amendment, as it's written, allows us to get that information before SOCR begins enforcement.
And just as a reminder, the enforcement mechanism and approach that SOCR is going to be using for this ordinance is very similar to that used for the all-gender restroom ordinance.
So it's much more of an education and outreach approach, seeking compliance rather than seeking the issuance of violations and fines.
Very good.
Thank you for that.
This is just the amendment only.
Are there any comments on the amendment articulated by Councilmember Herbold?
So we'll vote on the amendment.
All those in favor of the amendment, please vote aye.
Aye.
Those opposed vote no or nay.
The noes have it, the ayes have it, so we have an amended piece of legislation.
Would you like to describe the base legislation as amended?
Counselor Harbaugh?
Please, thank you.
So this ordinance basically puts into law what is currently, arguably, already a required accommodation as it relates specifically to a public accommodation obligation under the ADA.
And so what this does is it shifts the onus which currently exists in the ADA where people have to request an accommodation.
And instead what it does is it shifts that onus from the individual in the deaf or hearing loss community to request closed captioning as a public accommodation.
to instead have the expectation that it be provided in advance.
And this is, again, the objective is to shift norms so that people are better able to engage in public life.
And so the ordinance itself is modeled in some ways better than similar ordinances in other jurisdictions.
Some cities, some states have similar, Similar ordinances, Portland's law passed in 2015, Ann Arbor, Michigan's ordinance took effect in 2017, and there's a similar bill in Rhode Island.
And basically what it would require is it would require that in public places that the closed captioning on a television be basically turned on.
One of the things I learned through deliberations on this bill is TVs all have the ability to simply turn on the closed captioning with their remote.
So this is a simple and easy thing for businesses to do.
The background on this is that the Commission with People with Disabilities adopted a resolution last November to support this ordinance.
They identified it as a priority in their work plan with the intent, again, to ensure full participation and inclusion for members of the hearing loss and deaf community to take place in public activities.
The, again, the Office of Civil Rights will be the enforcement mechanism, and enforcement will consist of a report of violation and an investigation notification to the business and a request for a written response.
And the, again, the model is very much replicating that of the all-gender bathroom ordinance.
The other benefits of this bill are there are also benefits not just to the hearing loss community but folks who have English as a second language and the really appreciated the opportunity to work with the business community and introducing some amendments that they had requested.
One requested amendment was to create some exceptions for programming that is not, that is already exempt under state and federal law.
Another amendment clarifies that if multiple televisions are for sale in a public area, that at least one of each model must have closed captioning turned on.
And again, one of the things that I've learned through working with the disabilities community on this is that the need to have to request a public accommodation really has a psychological impact on groups that have been historically marginalized.
And some of those studies have been Some of that experience has been captured in studies that are academic studies and that point to the fact that internalized bias and inferiority inhibit the ability for people to be confident and take advantage of opportunities and activities available for the rest of the public.
And I know that we here in Seattle want to make sure that we're removing those barriers whenever we can.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any further comments on the legislation as described by Councilmember Herbold?
Okay.
If not, please call the roll on the passage of the amended bill.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
O'Brien.
Aye.
Sawant.
Aye.
Bangshaw.
Aye.
Gonzales.
Aye.
Herbold.
Aye.
Juarez.
Aye.
President Harrell.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Bill passed and shared with Senate.
Please read the next agenda item into the record.
Short title, please.
The report of the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee Agenda Item 3, Council Bill 119490, relating to the Central Waterfront Improvement Program, authorize the Director of the Office of Waterfront and Civic Projects to execute an agreement with the Washington State Ferry System for the construction of facilities to support electronification of ferry vessels at the Coleman Ferry Terminal.
Committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you very much.
This will affect our 2019 waterfront budget and it authorizes our Director of Waterfront and Civic Projects, that's Marshall Foster, to accept non-city funds for capital costs and expenses relating to our waterfront.
There will be an opportunity for the office to enter into a contract with Washington State Ferries to construct electrical improvements to support hybrid ferries on the Coleman Dock, and also as external funding in the tune of $2 million from WSDOT around design funding, and $10 million for the public benefit on the Pike Pine Corridor, and that's part of the money that comes from the Convention Center.
And it also updates our adopted 2019-2024 CIP to be consistent with the revised local improvement district.
Committee recommends do pass.
Any comments or questions?
Council Member Juarez.
Thank you, Council President.
First of all, I thank Council Member Bagshaw, my vice chair in my committee.
I've only been working on some of these issues for the last three years, but she's been working on them for almost a decade.
I echo Council Member Bagshaw's comments regarding the, well, in fact, the Lid Formation Ordinance and the Waterfront Agreement were authorized by City Council this past January, so that is nothing new.
This ordinance confirms those stipulations.
Thank you to the Office of Waterfront, Dory, thank you for being here.
for working diligently and thoroughly through each phase so we can soon connect our new waterfront to the rest of Seattle for everyone to enjoy.
And for hopefully the first time in many, many decades, we will be reconnected to the Salish Sea.
So thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Juarez, for those comments.
Okay, if there's no further comments, please call the roll on the passage of the bill.
Mosqueda.
Aye.
O'Brien.
Aye.
Sawant.
Aye.
Bigshaw.
Aye.
Gonzalez.
Aye.
Herbold.
Aye.
Juarez.
Aye.
President Harrell.
Aye.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Bill passed and the Chair will sign it.
We're gonna move to other business and I believe Council Member Gonzalez has something she'd like to say on the other business part of the agenda.
I do.
So this morning at Council briefing, I mentioned during our briefing from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations that we were working on a letter in support of the Senate Bill 5163, which would modify existing wrongful death statutes to eliminate the ban on non-resident parents so that they can bring a lawsuit on behalf of themselves for the loss of an adult child.
So it's both for non-resident parents, but also for just current resident parents to be able to have that equitable access to our court system in the event that they have an adult child who does not have any survivors, legal beneficiaries under the law to be able to file suit and have the loss of their children and the loss of the parent-child relationship be acknowledged within our legal system.
So this has been a priority of mine for a long time since I was a trial lawyer and continues to be a really important legislative fix in my mind to correct a lot of wrongs in our existing system that really do treat non-resident parents, meaning immigrants who live in the country or live outside of this country, if they have a child who is an adult who is killed as a result of a negligent action, they are legally prohibited currently from bringing a lawsuit and holding the entity that is responsible for that death accountable for their actions in causing that death.
And likewise, same thing applies for resident parents who currently live in the country.
Super important, really large equity issue, and this letter would signal to our state legislators and the House of Representatives that we support a clean bill on Senate Bill 5163 without two amendments that would, if passed, those amendments would actually water down the bill and not correct these fundamental issues that I've just described.
So I'm going to pass this letter around consistent with council rules since we have to sign letters by the full council in open session.
So I'm circulating it now for signature.
Very good.
While you pass it, let's filibuster a little bit because that's going to take a while.
Thanks for addressing it in open session.
Council Member Baxhaw.
Thank you.
Thank you Council Member Gonzalez for bringing this forward.
Can you talk to me about the retroactive application, if any?
I don't believe this is retroactive, it would just be forward going, is my understanding.
And as Councilman Gonzalez has pointed out, we will sign this in open session.
Thank you for your leadership on this and making sure we support SSB 5163 and certainly oppose and encourage rejection of the amendments 511 and 683. Council Member Mosqueda.
Thank you, Mr. President.
In light of your suggestion to help Filibuster, I would like to be excused, if I may, on April 5th, sorry, May 13th.
May I have a motion to be excused?
Okay, so let me ask, is there any further business to come before the Council?
And what we heard is that Council Member Mosqueda would like to be excused on May 13th.
Is there a second?
All those in favor of Council Member Mosqueda being excused on May 13th, say aye.
Opposed?
The ayes have it.
And along those lines, is there any further business to come before the council?
And we'll just take a moment to wait for the signatures and open session.
and deal with that awkward moment of silence that we have to deal with on occasion.
I've learned better not to tell jokes.
Trust me, I learned the hard way.
Okay, we've made it down there and everyone have a great rest of the day and with that we'll stand adjourned.