Good morning and welcome to the council briefing meeting of January 27th.
The time is now 9 33 a.m.
I'm council president pro tem Lisa Herbold and joining me this morning are council members Stross, Lewis and Peterson.
Before proceeding I'd just like to say a couple words about the shootings downtown last week.
I want to express my heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Tanya Jackson, the shooting victim who died, a resident of Plymouth Housing at the location of the shooting there.
As Council Member Lewis and I noted in a statement sent last Thursday morning, our hearts are filled with grief for the loss of life that occurred as a result of last night's shootings.
We are deeply saddened for all of the people affected by the tragedy and by the recent spate of gun violence downtown and in other parts of the city.
I want to thank the more than 100 police officers and 55 fire department first responders who are at the scene.
Police officers and fire department each responded within a minute.
the former because there were emphasis patrols already working in the neighborhood.
We've heard from a lot of constituents about this and the concerns that they have about safety.
Councilmember Lewis and I attended the press conference last week with the mayor, police chief, and fire chief at the West Precinct headquarters and at the press conference itself the police department announced that they are placing a mobile precinct near the location where the shooting took place.
They're bringing in additional officers to the area including extra gang detectives and working with area business owners to determine what kind of physical changes can be made to the area using crime prevention through environmental design to make the area safer.
One of the things as public safety chair I will be looking at is working to ensure that the decisions around extra police that have impacts to precincts other than the West Precinct are data-driven decisions so that we aren't sacrificing necessary police resources in neighborhoods that also have hot spots that are well addressed by the visibility associated with these emphasis patrols.
We will, you know, I think be well served if we recognize that there's no single action that ends violence in our community.
All jurisdictions have to work together.
We are going to hear from folks about our state legislative agenda, and we have a number of items associated with gun violence on our state legislative agenda.
The language in that agenda states, we support common sense, responsible solutions to reduce gun violence, including efforts to limit high-capacity magazines and expanding gun-free zones.
And we believe that governments should have the ability to regulate firearms or weapons to ensure the safety of their communities in accordance with local circumstances.
The Alliance for Gun Responsibility has a number of really important bills before the legislature this year that align with those goals.
And then finally, the council in its budget in 2020 authorized a number of public safety-related actions, both relating to the Seattle Municipal Court's recommendations around high users of the criminal justice system, And we are working with the court to look at some of those recommendations, and they will be reporting back to the Public Safety Committee on those recommendations.
In addition to the youth violence prevention funds that are baked into our budget for the programs that we have been supporting for a long time, There's also an additional $1.3 million in funds that the council allocated in last year's budget to really focus on specifically youth diversion programs, like Choose 180, like community passageways.
And so those are some new investments that this council has identified as important upstream investments.
The Public Safety and Human Services Committee that I chair will hear from the chief on Tuesday morning and next month and also hold a briefing on the status of police department staffing goals and meeting and hitting their 2019 hiring and retention goals.
We'll be hearing a report on that next month, but this upcoming meeting, meeting Tuesday, we're going to hear from the chief a little bit about this particular incident and tragedy downtown and the police actions in response to that.
I don't have, let's see here, so first item on the agenda, thank you for indulging me in those opening remarks.
First item on the agenda is approval of minutes.
If there's no objection, the minutes of January 21st will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.
I don't have any additional items for a president's report to share today, other than to note that this is the last council briefing meeting in January, so next month we'll have a new council member pro tem, Council Member Juarez, as listed in the pro tem calendar adopted by the council earlier this month.
this month.
Today we are going to get, as I mentioned earlier, a state legislative session update from our Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
And with that, I'm going to move into preview of today's council actions, council and regional committees.
The agenda today is pretty pro forma, adoption of introduction referral calendar, approval of the agenda, and payment of bills, and we have a resolution that is before us, and I will allow, defer to Council Member Peterson to talk about that.
The Public Safety and Human Services Committee has no items on the full council agenda.
Our committee meeting is Tuesday at 9.30.
As mentioned, we'll have a briefing with SPD Chief Best on the recent downtown shootings.
And I really appreciate the chief's willingness to be here for this item.
And any council members who are not on the committee, I am now obligated to invite you to join me if you wish to join.
So any council members who are not on the committee, you're hereby invited to join for the discussion.
We also have five mayoral reappointments to the Seattle Fire Department Fire Code Advisory Board.
And we'll consider a resolution that I have introduced following the Seattle Police Officers Guild hearing on the bargaining process.
And specifically, the resolution title is affirming the city's good faith intent to consider raising in the collective bargaining process for the 2021 contract renewal police accountability proposals that have been identified by the public and the city's police oversight agencies.
This is along the lines of a resolution adopted by the council prior to a previous bargaining process in 2014. The municipal code requires the committee dedicated to public safety to hold a public hearing.
on the effectiveness of the city's police accountability system at least 90 days before we begin collective bargaining.
Councilmember Gonzalez's committee held this hearing in December, and the Municipal Code requires the city to consider in good faith whether and how to carry forward the interest expressed at that hearing.
So this resolution is designed to represent the public comments as well as the positions of the three accountability bodies, the Community Police Commission, the Inspector General, and the Office of Police Accountability.
And then finally, the last item on our agenda for tomorrow's committee meeting will be a review of the progress that the Human Services Department has made on funding that the council added to their budget in 2020. And this is specifically the Human Services Department items that are not through the Human Services Investment Division of HSD so it's the non-human services ads from that the council made with the understanding that council member Lewis's select committee will be Watchdogging and shepherding the implementation of the council's ads in HSD that are specifically homelessness investments.
During the budget process, the council added almost $7 million to the Human Services Department for non-homelessness items.
The funding is meant to accomplish a variety of goals, from funding youth diversion, as I mentioned earlier, in education programs to educational programs targeted to the African-American diaspora on HIV, AIDS, and chronic disease.
It also includes $3.5 million to fully fund and expand LEAD, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program.
The Human Services Department has provided an update on their progress towards expending that funding, and we'll review that update with central staff.
And that's all I have.
Council Member Morales.
Good morning, thank you.
The Committee on Community Economic Development met last week and had briefings from our departments, the Office of Civil Rights, the Equitable Development Initiative, the Office of Arts and Culture, and the Office of Economic Development.
So we heard from them about some of their 2020 priorities.
We will be having a special meeting on February 6th at 5 p.m.
here in Chambers.
And at that meeting, we're going to be inviting community members and organizations to talk about the impact of these city policies on their ability to stay in the city and thrive in their communities.
Kind of the theme for our committee this year is going to be how we build community wealth.
and how we make sure that we're making policy decisions that really support thriving neighborhood commercial districts and the ability of folks to stop getting displaced out of the city.
So please join us on February 6th.
And then our regular February meeting will be moved again because of the holiday.
So we will be having our normal committee meeting on February 20th.
And that will be at 930 in Chambers.
Thank you.
Council Member Peterson.
Good morning colleagues.
I wanted to thank Council Member Morales for a very informative committee and for framing it around building community wealth.
That was really helpful and there's going to be a lot of common ground there in all of our districts with preventing displacement.
Thank you for taking the lead on that.
wanted to express my grief for the eight victims of last Wednesday's shooting in downtown Seattle.
And my heart is with the seven victims as they begin their difficult journey to recovery.
And the victim who lost her life, Tanya Jackson, my heart aches for her and her friends and family.
I'm sick about this tragedy, and it must not remain the new normal here in our city.
These street corners in the heart of our city have been dangerous for too long, and I don't think we can tolerate this disregard for the innocent commuters and workers and shoppers and children and tourists in the area.
One of my staff was on 3rd and Pine when the shots were fired and fled in the chaos.
And so it's affecting, you know, this affected thousands of people.
Consistent with what I've been saying over the past year, I believe public safety must be a priority.
I know a lot of us share that.
And I believe we need more police officers and more probation officers.
I don't believe the city's kept pace with the number of police officers called for in the 2016 Berkshire study.
And meanwhile, our city's population continues to grow rapidly.
So look forward.
I'm happy to hear we'll be talking about staffing at one of the Public Safety Committee meetings that are coming up.
And look forward to the meeting tomorrow.
As chair of the Transportation Committee, there are a couple of transportation issues that actually came up during this tragedy.
There were reports of Uber and Lyft overcharging customers with surge pricing.
The reports were sort of mixed, so I'm sending a letter to Lyft and Uber today inquiring about the so-called surge pricing that occurred during this time of crisis.
You know, you shouldn't have to be wealthy to escape violence during a crisis, so I look forward to hearing back from Uber and Lyft about what actually happened.
I think it's a good idea to have a meeting with the city council to see what we can do to remedy this situation if there is one.
Regarding the transportation and utilities committee, there are no items on the full council agenda from that committee.
Our next committee meeting will be as scheduled on Wednesday, Last week, I circulated a resolution at council briefing.
It's on today's agenda.
We have a new city council.
A lot of us are new here, and it reaffirms Seattle as a welcoming city, recognizes the good work of prior councils and states emphatically that we oppose all forms of oppression.
I'm happy to, you know, if there are any questions about that or you want to talk to my staff before the committee meeting today, happy to entertain refinements to the language in that resolution.
Let's see, in District 4, This Thursday, we're having a town hall in Eastlake at the Seward School, otherwise known as Topps School.
It's hosted by the Eastlake Community Council.
It's open to everybody in District 4. We heard there will be a lot of discussion about transportation and zoning, so officials from SDOT and Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection will be there.
in case any really detailed questions come up.
Every week, we continue our office hours.
We call them Fridays in four, in District Four, and they're Friday afternoon, 3 p.m.
to 6 p.m.
at Magnuson Parks, Building 30, in the conference room.
And that's all I have.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Council Member Lewis.
Thank you, Madam President Pro Tem.
So good morning to all my colleagues.
I'm going to speak to the tragic events downtown later in my remarks, including the statement I circulated earlier to your respective offices.
First, I have a few other updates for the council.
First, Homelessness Strategies and Neighborhoods Committee.
Last week, we had our first meeting of the committee.
The committee has no items on this afternoon's agenda.
But I did appreciate the great conversation last week at that committee meeting where we got an update from the human services department on the efforts toward the new co-locating regional authority between King County and the city of Seattle.
We also had a robust conversation on council members who wants transitional encampment ordinance.
I do just want to give an update to the council, if my colleagues haven't seen already, that I did schedule a special meeting for February 10th of the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Neighborhoods.
That committee will meet directly after full council.
So we will, after resolving the agenda of full council on that day, go into a special committee meeting of that committee.
since it is a committee of all members, seemed like the most efficient way to do that.
The agenda for that committee is almost exclusively going to be discussion of the transitional encampment ordinance, potential amendments, and I would like to queue that up for a vote potentially at that meeting, so just to, so that everyone is aware that very real possibility of a vote.
I would again request that if folks have amendments they want to pursue or ideas on that ordinance to coordinate with Ketel Freeman on central staff to make sure he can get that all queued up in time and that we have time to look at and consider those potential amendments so that the discussion can be informed at that committee meeting.
And that is the update for that committee.
I want to echo the statements from Councilmember Morales and Councilmember Peterson about the Economic Development Committee meeting that I was in and applaud Councilmember Morales on a great first meeting of that committee.
It was a really good conversation, and I look forward to working with all those stakeholders and with Chair Morales to make some real progress on those issues that are facing all the neighborhoods in the city of Seattle, including the neighborhoods of District 7. Moving on to some other issues in my district, I attended the Magnolia Community Council last Tuesday, gave them a brief update on the first month of council business.
So it was good to get out to another community council to get some feedback on what folks are concerned about and also just be present as their representative for them.
I had a great meeting with a group of folks in West Queen Anne concerned about speeding on 10th Avenue West and that arterial getting busier given that a lot of traffic is being diverted.
I think there are a lot of issues around pedestrian safety and around safety for bicyclists and commuters and residents.
I look forward to making progress on that.
As just one last note on in-district office hours, my office this week is going to roll out a schedule of reliable office hours.
I don't know if I've come up with a time that will alliterate quite as well as Fridays and Fourth, but we'll see what we can do.
Seven's a tougher number to come up with something like that for, but we will be rolling that out and I'll be letting my constituents know in a newsletter about that later this week.
I want to now move to some of my comments on 3rd and Pine.
I apologize to my colleagues that this might take a little bit longer, but I do think it's important as the representative of District 7 that I speak out on this.
District 7 saw three shootings within 48 hours, one that left a man dead at Westlake Center on Tuesday, and then, of course, the tragic mass shooting at Thurden Pine that left one woman dead and several other people seriously injured.
I do want to join my colleagues and thank them.
also in their remarks were expressing the greatest remorse and heartfelt sadness at the loss of Tanya Jackson, a resident of Plymouth Housing at that intersection.
I did have the opportunity this weekend to speak to Paul Lambros and other folks in the Plymouth Housing community about that, and that tragedy has struck them very acutely.
And my heart goes out to them that such a tragic act occurred in District 7. As many of you know, on this council, I walk on almost a daily basis from my apartment in Uptown to Seattle City Hall through the downtown core.
I walk back home most evenings.
I personally have a P.O.
box at the post office on 3rd and Union in the Pike Pine Corridor.
I routinely check that P.O.
box after work on a regular basis.
I wanna be clear that on any given day, I could have been at Third and Pine at 5 p.m.
That is fully within a regular routine that I typically take on any given day.
And I mean, this tragedy has struck not just at a personal level as a representative, but a personal level too as someone who lives, works, and interacts around that corridor the downtown core of our city.
I went to the scene of the shooting for a briefing from the Seattle Police Department on Wednesday evening and had a conversation then with Chief Best and other officials from the Seattle Police Department as the situation was developing.
I received a further briefing with Councilmember Herbold, Councilmember Strauss, and the Chief of Staff to Councilmember Gonzalez-Briana Thomas on Thursday morning that a press conference followed after that.
I just want to say that I'm very grateful for the presence of Councilmember Strauss and Councilmember Herbold throughout that process on Thursday and what was a really difficult day for District 7 and a really difficult day for me personally given the scale of the tragedy.
So thank you so much for for being there and and to Brianna Thomas and Councilmember Gonzalez's office.
I'm very grateful for the support at a really difficult time.
I want to further thank all of our first responders last week, Seattle Police, firefighters, EMTs, nurses, who all did heroic work to apply life-saving measures to the victims, conduct an efficient and comprehensive investigation that identified suspects quickly and has already resulted in one suspect being taken into custody.
Our first responders did work that can make everyone in Seattle very proud last week in the face of a terrible tragedy, and I'm very grateful for their action.
I'm also grateful for the immediate support that the Seattle Police Department has given to the Pike Pine Corridor in the wake of the tragedy.
The mobile precinct that is in the area, the increased emphasis patrols that are welcome intervention at a time of heightened anxiety for our neighbors, businesses, and service providers.
And I'm not just speaking for myself in that, but over the weekend talking to folks at Bellwether Housing, talking to folks at a lot of the other providers in the downtown core.
There is a lot of gratitude for the initial actions that the police department has taken to mitigate the situation downtown, and I do appreciate that.
But transitioning now, it's become apparent to me After all of these conversations over the last week with law enforcement, service providers, community leaders, my colleagues here at the council, regional government officials, that while a sustained law enforcement presence is a necessary part of our strategy downtown, it alone is not going to be sufficient for the lasting change that we're going to need to see in that corridor.
You know, I have never in my life seen a third pine that is different from what, is there now.
And before coming to the briefing this morning, I had the opportunity to read a piece that David Croman wrote that was published in Crosscut earlier this morning.
I'm not sure if folks have had a chance to read it yet, about police staffing on 3rd Avenue.
And I just want to state that the statistics cited in that Crosscut piece are very eye-opening, that 2019 saw 2,718 additional officer hours in the Pike Pine Corridor.
That's 67 full-time weeks over the typical police presence in the area.
This presence is why, I want to be clear, why officers were able to respond to the shooting on Wednesday within 15 seconds.
It's why, without a doubt, lives were saved to many of the victims who were able to receive care and response within 15 seconds.
And on a daily basis, those police hours are a resource to the residents, businesses, and visitors of downtown.
A response based solely in the presence of police officers is not going to lead to reducing the trauma, the public health investments, and the community organizing that's necessary for lasting change in the Pike Pine Corridor.
And we have to be really clear about that.
That's why today I've issued a statement, and a number of you, everyone should have received it, issued a statement calling for a new brick and mortar community storefront in the Pike Pine Corridor, staffed by one of the initial classes of our new community service officer program.
Community service officers, as their mission is currently constituted, have three primary responsibilities.
The first is helping residents navigate services.
Community service officers are unarmed, they're trained in community service officers are trained in deescalation and And that's their first function.
The second is engaging with communities and neighborhoods.
Community service officers can build strong partnerships between a lot of the stakeholders that are in the Pike Pine Corridor, service providers, city officials, neighborhood councils, and they can maintain that communication and build trust to make sure that we are engaging and bringing folks together and that we have officials that are trained to do that.
And their third role, which I think is particularly important, especially given my previous job as a prosecutor and seeing the effect and impact of these programs, is community service officers help support programming for at-risk youth.
community service officers, as their mission is currently constituted, will build youth-focused programming, maintain relationships with community-based youth organizations, including service referrals and school and community-hosted events.
As someone who worked closely, and I do appreciate earlier, I believe Councilmember Herbold, in your remarks, referenced the Choose 180 program and community passageways, programs that I have worked with when I was an assistant city attorney and have seen firsthand the impact that those organizations have had in building community, empowering young people to make choices in their lives, and giving resources and a sense of self have been extremely impactful in mitigating a lot of the long-term trauma and violence that we have seen in the city of Seattle over the last couple weeks.
Any way to further help work and elevate the work of these organizations in the Pike Pine Corridor is a step in the right direction, and these community service officers can be critical partners to facilitating those kinds of interventions.
I want to be clear, having discussed the community service officer program, that I'm calling for this to complement, not to replace, the current sworn officer patrols that are in the Pike Place Corridor, but the permanent, sustained presence of community service officers that form a public and open community are a new intervention.
It's a new approach.
It's something that is different from what the city has been doing over the last several years in this corridor, and it can make a serious and sustained difference.
I hope to work with all of you here I think we will have a conversation about this in this room over the following weeks and months on these issues.
I appreciate Councilmember Herbold that we will have a conversation about this And again, just want to thank your leadership as Chair of Public Safety throughout the last week.
It's been really great to have you with me as we went through and navigated the crisis.
And I really appreciate everyone's comments earlier and look forward to working with you further.
Thank you.
Before we move on, just a couple responses, if I may.
As it relates specifically to storefronts for law enforcement, public safety purposes, I know that they are an effective intervention.
I appreciate your call for a storefront in downtown.
I am interested in knowing what the department's approach is for making those decisions about where to locate them.
After the shooting death of a father of four in South Park at the end of 2019, South Park residents also made a call for a community storefront and we were informed.
by SPD that they were considering a storefront in South Park.
So I think an appropriate approach is really to ask the department what their formula is, again, for making data-driven decisions about how to create the infrastructure necessary for more prevention activities, more intervention activities, and more visibility activities for public safety.
With that, Council Member Strauss.
Thank you, President Pro Tem.
I will save my remarks about this week's event for just a moment and I'll take care of business first.
There are zero items on the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the agenda and or on the introduction and referral calendar.
Next week, The next Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is on Wednesday, February 12th.
Three items on the agenda.
First, the reappointment of Director Nathan Torgelson of SDCI.
And so my staff will be circulating with your teams to identify any questions that you would like to have asked and answered.
There will be a presentation from SDCI in response to last year's tree resolution.
And there will be a vote on clerk file 314434, which is a contract rezone of 4600 Union Bay Place.
It's a rezone for 20,000 square feet near University Village and would rezone the property from commercial 2 with 55 foot height to commercial 2 with 65 foot height, matching the allowed heights across the street and impose a higher MHA affordability requirement to the site.
The proposed development would include 98 dwellings, 2,000 square feet of retail space, a public courtyard, and parking for 63 cars and 92 bikes.
The project will participate in MFTE, so 20% of the units will be affordable between 65% and 85% of the area median income.
And I would like to note that I Really think that our city and all of our policies need to focus on affordable housing being 30 to 60 percent of area median income Because we know those are the folks that are That really need it most That's my official business And so I do want to share my thoughts and prayers with all of the families and victims of the shootings last week on third and pine You know and thoughts and prayers aren't aren't good enough.
I because this has been a problem and an issue for a very long time.
Just a month ago, I was staff for District 7, and this was something that we had worked on and heard quite a lot about.
We also worked on similar issues in Pioneer Square, where the cannery building was also creating blight.
And we currently have condemnation legislation in our records currently.
If this property is not redeveloped, we've been working with the owner of this property to have that property redeveloped so that it becomes a benefit to the community rather than a blight.
And we need to have bold actions like this to address the systemic and systematic issues that we've been experiencing for so long.
I applaud the idea of a brick and mortar Center as long as we are not, you know increasing or Replace the cost as long as the cost benefit doesn't negatively impact the city family also something to the degree of having visitors Welcoming Center because you know, we have so many visitors passing through that area and it would be nice I do like your call for The community service officers, this has been a call that I've been requesting to have in Ballard for quite some time.
And unrelated, I will be going this Friday on a ride along with North in the North Precinct with Seattle Police Officer Sergio Garcia.
This was planned well in advance of any of the actions last week, and this will actually be my second time on a ride along with him.
The first time was not publicized in any way because my desire is to learn what are the tools, what are the gaps, what are the things that we need to be doing that increases safety for everyone in our community, not just one subset of the population.
Also tomorrow, Tuesday, I will be attending with the Association of Washington Cities a trip to Olympia.
I'm very excited to see Office of Intergovernmental Relations here.
And so I see some really great bills, the red light camera bill, and there's many good gun responsibility pieces of legislation there.
Also happening Tuesday is the Ballard Interbay Regional Transportation Study Open House at the Ballard Library at 6 p.m.
The interesting aspect of both of these events occurring on the same day is as staff I worked to set up the Ballard Interbay Regional Transportation work group which then Representative Tarleton advocated for a million dollars to create additional study funds so that we could package the programs and projects that are in interbay Together to make each of these projects more competitive.
This study is a product of those state dollars and I will be excited to lobby advocate tomorrow for additional resources for Interbay and the Ballard-Interbay Regional Corridor because this is the third most used north-south route behind Interstate 5 and SR 99. Other occurrences in Ballard.
Ballard Swedish has already closed their labor and delivery unit.
They are planning to close their emergency room for three days this week due to a SEIU 1199 Northwest strike.
This is very problematic and troubling because this reduces our emergency services in Ballard having a been a longtime user of the health and emergency services at Ballard Swedish.
The reason that this is so troubling is because if an individual was to arrive at the emergency room expecting emergency services, they would not be able to have those services provided, whether they would have to travel to the university district or travel all the way to Harborview, unless you're in an aid car.
getting to Harborview is very difficult.
When I was hit by a driver while riding my bike in Ballard, I thought that I would be transported to Ballard, Swedish, which was a five minute, less than five minute ride from the intersection of the collision.
The reality of the situation was I was taken to Harborview, and that trip took about 10 to 15 minutes in an aid car.
And I know that that is not how fast it takes to get across our city if you are in a private vehicle.
And so this is why it's so troubling.
The cost of using an aid car is so high just to get the services you need.
We need to have the emergency room open in Ballard for the residents of our community.
It's my understanding that the strike is based chiefly on patient safety and safe staffing levels.
Having been a recipient of important healthcare from nurses and doctors alike, I understand and know the need that we have to have safe staffing levels because otherwise I might not be in as good of health today.
Also, happenings in Ballard this week, Thursdays in Ballard.
I don't have as good of a saying as either of you.
But yeah, we meet in Ballard every week, and we'll be meeting in other parts of the district throughout the coming months.
Thank you very much.
And with that, I will invite the Office of Intergovernmental Relations to join us and give us a briefing on the 2020 State Legislative Bulletin.
And while they're joining us at the table, I just want to mention, because I failed to mention, that I also have my in-district office hours this week on Thursday between noon and 5 p.m.
at the Southwest Customer Service Center.
Drop-ins are welcome, or appointments can be made if people prefer that.
Thank you, and let's start with introductions.
Good morning, Council President, Council Members.
Lily Wilson-Kodega, Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
And before they start in with introductions, I also just wanted to note that we are very, very grateful in OIR to have Robin Kosky and Quinn Majewski on our team, who also continue to play a role at the Office of Housing and in SDOT.
But given many of your priorities correspond with their expertise, we're very glad to have them on board this session.
Robin Kosky, State Director with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and Government and External Affairs Manager at the Office of Housing.
Gwen Majewski, State Relations Associate at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and Government Relations and Policy Analyst at the Seattle Department of Transportation.
And I'm Cheryl Swab and I'm just the Deputy Director of OIR.
not just the Deputy Director.
So we are entering our third week of the short 60-day legislative session, which is already moving very quickly and will hopefully end on March 12th.
We appreciate the collaboration with Council in developing the City's 2020 legislative agenda, and we will be reporting today on activity on Council's priority bills, taking any questions that you have.
and making sure that we are advocating in the areas that are most important to you and the city.
And while it is a short session where the legislature makes more minor adjustments to their adopted 2019-2021 biennial budget in the form of a supplemental budget, much of the legislature's attention is focused on transportation, given the passage of I-976, continuing the good work around gun responsibility from the past several years, housing, shelter, and behavioral health.
And the governor's budget, as many of you know, included a little over $300 million with a stated goal of reducing homelessness by 50% in the next two years.
from the budget stabilization account for housing assistance and increased shelter capacity.
And while many legislators on either side of the aisle, I think you're hearing about this from both Democrats and Republicans as a priority issue, many agree with the governor that this is an emergency requiring immediate action.
There are still strong differences of opinion among legislators on utilizing rainy day funds.
Where those funds should be focused is also a discussion that we'll continue on.
And some folks are saying that a one-time boost won't solve the problem as ongoing funding streams are needed, particularly for the housing trust funds.
We will continue to monitor.
those discussions and report back.
I'm going to now turn it over to beginning on page one in your council bulletin.
We will go through section by section, take questions at the end or at any point.
And I'm going to turn it over to Cheryl Swab who's going to start in on the education section.
Good morning.
For the education section, we have two bills that, while not related to services that the city provides, have been of interest to council members during past sessions.
The first one is the Comprehensive Sexual Health Education Bill.
A House version of the bill was heard and scheduled for...
Is your mic on?
The Senate bill came out of rules and was passed again and is also now in the house education committee.
There was a similar bill last year that stalled due to lack of bipartisan support, but it is widely believed that there will be a bill this year.
It's unclear whether it will be the house or the Senate bill.
The next education bill is for menstrual products to be provided in schools.
If Washington were to pass this bill, it would join states like California, Illinois, New Hampshire, and New York in providing menstrual products in high schools.
The bill was heard on January 17th in Senate Early Learning.
It has not been scheduled for executive session.
There is a lot of interest in the bill, and it has gotten a fair amount of publicity.
While everyone appears to be in support, it is an unfunded mandate for the schools, and there has been some concern expressed about that.
Thank you, Cheryl.
And moving on to the environment, I'm going to hand it over to Quinn.
In the field of environment, there are a few pieces of legislation that we are tracking.
The first is House Bill 1110 concerning greenhouse gases and transportation fuels, more commonly known as the low carbon fuel standard.
This is a major priority for the governor and for the environmental community.
It would direct ecology, the State Department of Ecology, to adopt rules that would reduce the intensity of transportation fuel carbon emissions by 10% by 2028 and 20% by 2035. And it would also create credits for generating transportation fuels that are below 80% carbon intensity.
something that would benefit our very clean utilities here at the City of Seattle.
Last session, this bill passed through the House and made it through the Senate committee, but ultimately did not pass the full Senate chamber.
It's back in the House per the rules of the second half of the biennium, and it could potentially move as early as this week, although it can be somewhat difficult to predict the floor schedule in the House, but we are hearing that it could move as early as this week.
Next up in the environmental field is House Bill 2310. This is another governor's priority.
This regards the reduction of emissions from on-demand transportation services, specifically with regards to transportation network companies, TNCs, Uber and Lyft, as well as in the initial form of the bill, food service deliveries that operate through app-based services and goods delivery.
There is a proposed substitute that is going to be up for executive session and vote in committee tomorrow.
That executive or that proposed substitute is going to remove goods delivery, which was a ambitious part of the proposal.
It would also include several changes that our Office of Sustainability and Environment had suggested, including requiring companies that submit plans to the Department of Ecology to include a action plan to ensure that these reductions don't hurt low-income operators of these vehicles.
It would also allow for companies who submit plans to ecology to receive credit for investments in electrification infrastructure.
And so just to be clear, this bill is likely to be focused on the transportation of people, not delivery services associated with food and goods?
It still includes the delivery of food, so things like Grubhub and services like that, but it no longer includes goods.
Thank you.
Yes, moving on.
to House Bill 2405. This is the Community Property slash Clean Energy.
The full sort of title of this proposed program is the Community Property Assessment and Clean Energy and Resilience Program, also known as CPACER.
This would create a new program for local governments, allowing them, it's similar to a LID, but on a much smaller individual property scale, allowing for improvements to be made to buildings that invest in energy efficiency and climate resilience and emergency preparedness resilience, to be funded through a special assessment by the local government or by an interested private party.
So this would be a permissive authorizing piece of legislation.
It's a priority for the Office of Emergency Management and several of our other city departments.
It was moved out of committee last week and continues to largely draw a positive reception.
I was going to say this bill is so important because within emergency management we have unreinforced masonry.
And so many parts throughout our city have buildings that are unreinforced, and little known fact, we're in a seismic zone.
Downtown Ballard is another place that has many unreinforced masonry buildings, and being able to make them resilient while also not economically infeasible is a very fine line to walk, and I think this bill will help in that area.
Absolutely.
And Barb Graf, yes.
in some of her final days before retiring was spending her time down in Olympia speaking to the benefits of this bill for our unreinforced masonry building.
So that's a point well taken and something that we're emphasizing down in Olympia.
A hurdle last year when this came up during the legislative session was the position on the State Association of Treasurers.
Is that something that we've been able to address their concerns?
As Council Member Strauss said, this is incredibly important.
There are more than 20 states nationally that have these kinds of programs, and not only is a program like this really important to being able to, for our city to roll out an unreinforced masonry, a program that also includes requirements in order to be compliant with that program.
We have to really develop our financing tools in order to ensure that the stakeholders in the property management, property ownership, and property development communities are on board with us.
So I would be really interested to know if there are barriers or hurdles or opposition like we experienced in the last state legislative session.
This is a high priority for me as well.
And have been working with SDCI and the Office of Planning and Development.
on planning and community development, I should say, and on some much-needed changes to our transfer development rights program.
on historic buildings, and those changes are another financing option.
But again, the costs of this program are enormous.
And so it's going to take definitely a suite of options, and we are not going to be able to move forward without this legislation.
As I understand it, there are still some concerns being expressed by the treasurers.
Barb Graf is sort of leading efforts for emergency management officers, fire chiefs, and others to make contacts and have discussions to try and work on their concerns.
But I do understand it as an issue at this point still, which is one of the hurdles that the bill needs to come over for sure in Olympia.
I would welcome the opportunity offline to understand those concerns a little bit more and get your counsel on anything that we can do in order to address them.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
The final bill in the environmental category concerns heating oil insurance.
This bill would direct the pollution liability insurance agency to close out their existing program for heating oil pollution liability.
This is a program that helps homeowners who, or property owners who have homes that use heating oil transition to more sustainable and safe heating methods in the event that they have a leak or their tank becomes broken, which can become a hazard for the property.
Our Office of Sustainability has had some concerns with this legislation because there are between 16,000 and 18,000 homes within the city of Seattle that use heating oil currently, and it can be a major cost burden for homeowners who have to make a significant replacement and repair to their home.
The bill was moved out of committee in the House, and it did include an amendment that we pushed for to provide the Pollution Liability Insurance Agency with the authority to do some rulemaking for their secondary program, which would become the emphasis for that agency, the Underground Storage Tank Revolving Loan and Grant Program, to provide support of loans and more support of grant programs for low-income individuals and individuals with additional financial needs.
I think there are still some concerns on our part about the implications for the city and so I don't think we're there yet and we're going to continue working on this bill but our friends at the state have shown an interest in making sure that the impacts for low-income individuals are mitigated and so we're going to continue working on that.
Thank you, Quinn.
And moving on to the middle of page two, we'll turn it over to Cheryl, who's going to touch on some of the general government highlights.
There are several bills this year related to privacy issues.
We're tracking them, but chose three to mention to you today.
Please let us know if there are other ones of concern that you're interested in.
The first one is the Digital Equity Bill.
This bill is modeled after a federal bill introduced by Senator Murray.
The bill creates a grant program and incentives for jurisdictions to provide greater digital access to all their residents.
Many services, including healthcare, education, civic activity, occur online, and not all residents have equal access.
There was a hearing on Friday with overall positive support and editing on a substitute is underway.
It's scheduled for executive session in the House Innovation Technology and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday.
The Senate Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee passed two bills addressing data privacy and facial recognition last week.
One, the Washington Privacy Act, is modeled after the European Union's GDPR and California's CCPA, which provide consumers with new rights to access, delete, correct, and move their data, or opt out of data collection.
The bill applies to any business located in Washington or targeting Washington consumers that controls or processes personal data of 100,000 consumers or more, as well as businesses that control data of more than 25,000 consumers or derive more than 50% of their revenue from the sale of personal data.
A similar measure passed the Senate last year before dying in the House.
The Facial Recognition Bill seeks to provide regulation of facial recognition technology through judicial oversight, transparency measures, and community engagement.
While both bills are supported by Microsoft, the ECLU and legal communities have concerns about both bills and are opposed right now.
So we're monitoring these.
Great.
And moving on to the health care and housing section, I'm going to turn it over to Robin.
I think in the interest of time, I'm not going to go on a bill-by-bill basis, but I will say in the healthcare area, something that we're working on with Representative Macri is a bill that would require prescription of opioid overdose reversal or naloxone at the time of prescription of opioids.
We attended a meeting on that on Friday.
That bill hasn't been scheduled for a hearing yet, but we do expect that it will be.
The governor also has a comprehensive bill on vaping, which is Senate Bill 6254 and House Bill 2454. That is scheduled for executive session this week on the 27th at 1.30, and it is quite a comprehensive way to address concerns around vaping in our state.
If anyone doesn't have any questions on health care, I'll move on to housing.
There are certainly many bills in the housing field.
I think many of you may have noted that the governor proposed a $300 million investment in homelessness in his budget.
That money would have come out of the Rainy Day Fund, and I think that there is...
a pretty universal feeling that it won't be possible to get the majority that's needed to use those funds.
Though I do think that legislators are interested in doing something.
I suspect that the amount of money will be much less, somewhere on a fifth or a sixth of the scale that the governor was talking about.
So we will watch the budgets for that and get back to you on that.
The Housing Alliance in terms of budget this year has a rather modest trust fund ask.
Last year there was $175 million investment in the Housing Trust Fund, which was not the most, but certainly the most significant investment that we've seen in recent years in the Housing Trust Fund, you know, based on the recognition that we really do have a crisis of affordable housing and we need to provide funding.
This year, the Housing Alliance's ask for the trust fund is $10 million, and it's focused on preservation of buildings that will expire, where their rent and income restrictions will expire.
I think that with many tax credit properties coming up on their end of their life, we will be facing certainly many expiring buildings.
starting to have a discussion about that is certainly very important.
There are two other bills that are sort of connected to that preservation idea.
One is a real estate excise tax exemption that would be provided if the sale of a property were to go to a nonprofit developer and that if they promise to keep that as affordable housing.
So those two things sort of go hand in hand.
There is quite a few tenant protection legislation bills, and I have promised Councilmember Herbold that I will get her a comprehensive list of all of those, and so I will provide that to all of you as well.
It's, even though with the short session there are many things out there, one of those things is House Bill 1694, which would establish tenant installment payments very similar to what we already have in Seattle.
And then another very important bill is the Just Cause Eviction Bill.
which had a very successful hearing on Friday morning, I understand, and is scheduled for executive session this week on the 31st.
That's House Bill 2453. And it's very similar to Seattle's Just Cause eviction requirement, but it also extends to month-to-month tenancies.
There is a significant amendment in the proposed bill that would help close a loophole in Seattle's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance.
Seattle's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, although intended to cover not only month-to-month tenants during every month of their tenancy, was originally intended to also cover tenants at the end of their fixed-term leases.
Because of a lawsuit in 2000, the Office of Construction and Inspections began enforcing the law differently and is reverting to language in state law that basically says fixed term contracts are over when they're over and the tenant doesn't have a holdover right.
And that was not the intention of the council in the 80s when they extended Just Cause.
The point was to end arbitrary evictions regardless of what your tenancy was based on a month-to-month agreement or a lease agreement.
And so the language in Representative Macri's Just Cause Eviction Bill not only would extend Just Cause that we've had for 40 years to the rest of the state, but it would also help us close this really important loophole that if not closed has continued and will continue to allow for arbitrary evictions of tenants at the end of their fixed-term leases.
Thank you.
And beginning, if there are no additional questions on that in the housing portfolio, I think.
More of a statement than a question of both with housing and health care, mental health, housing.
We've seen a chronic underfunding of both of these pieces of infrastructure since the 1980s at the federal level.
following at the state level, thus putting a lot of the problems that we are experiencing here in Seattle on the local municipalities back.
And while Seattle is strong, we have the solutions and we will get solutions.
If the state and federal governments do not act, the preference would be that the state puts in their piece of due responsibility.
And so thank you very much for your work in advocating for these solutions.
Absolutely.
We'll certainly continue to prioritize leveraging those resources.
And one thing, just last thing to add on housing, the governor did propose some changes to the multifamily tax exemption, which would include a 12-year extension, which would address expiring units.
We have about 850 units in the next five years that will expire in Seattle.
That's Senate Bill 6411, which had a hearing last week, and House Bill 2620, which hasn't been scheduled for a hearing yet.
There's definitely some very robust discussions going on in Olympia about these bills, so we'll also keep you posted on that.
Thank you.
And beginning on page 5 under public safety, we are seeing significant momentum around several gun responsibility proposals, including governor and attorney general request legislation to ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, also an effort resulting from last year's study bill to centralize Washington's background check system, as well as a bill to repeal the statute preempting local jurisdictions from regulating firearms, so restoring our local authority there.
And then moving to safety and civil rights, at the bottom of page six, Representative Tai's open courts for all proposal has been introduced, kind of piggybacking on the Keep Washington Working Act, which I know is important to many council members last year, which limited data sharing with ICE and arrests without a judicial warrant in the workplace.
House Bill 2567, at the top of page six, would similarly prohibit warrantless civil arrests within a mile of a courthouse, as the spike in courthouse arrests, as I understand it, over the last several years has had a chilling effect on the most vulnerable members of our society, specifically those impacted by domestic violence.
Under House Bill 2567 and Senate Bill 6522, civil arrest would be prohibited without a court order under this bill.
And this is a major priority for many of our partners in the immigrant community.
So we will continue to track that and advocate for its passage.
And then working down page six, Representative Stonier and Senator Cleveland have also introduced a proposal aimed at reducing, excuse me, harassment, and employment discrimination for isolated workers.
House Bill 2681 and Senate Bill 6205. Senator Solomon's DWLS-3 proposal continues work to decriminalize driving without a, with, driving with a suspended license due to unpaid fines.
This is sometimes known as driving while poor.
And Senate Bill 6313, towards the bottom of page six, is a Senator Lia's bill that would make voter registration opt-out versus opt-in in certain public agencies, as well as give 17-year-olds the ability to vote in a primary election if they will turn 18 by the general election.
And I'm happy to take any questions or move on to transportation unless there are none.
Before moving on to transportation, I just want to make note, one of the gun control bills that I'd like to learn more about, I don't see listed here, is a gun control bill that allows for the confiscation of guns in instances when there's an intersection between gun ownership and DUIs.
So folks who have more than, I think, two DUIs, local law enforcement can take their guns because there is a nexus between gun violence, in particular suicides.
It's very similar to our program as it relates to domestic violence and expands that analysis of the nexus between gun ownership and certain activities that make somebody more likely to engage in gun violence.
Yes, there is a Senator Dingra proposal that would impact folks who are pending trial or sentencing.
So if folks are already charged with that conviction, those protections are already in place.
But this is for people pending trial.
And if they have committed vehicular homicide or if they have three prior DUI offenses or a felony DUI offense.
it would permit that, and so that bill is moving.
I believe it was heard in Senate Law and Justice last week, and I do sense there's a lot of momentum given the advocate community is very concerned about recent research around the nexus between violence and DUI convictions.
Thank you.
We'll include that in next week's report.
Great.
And if there is nothing else in that section, I'm going to turn it over to Quinn to end with our transportation priorities, including block the box.
Finishing here in transportation, there are two major pieces of legislation we're tracking here.
is a bill that would expand the options available to local governments for financing transportation.
And this would benefit our Seattle Transportation Benefit District.
It would provide new authority for sales tax, transportation utility tax, and a local gas tax.
This is something that the city is interested in.
I will say it does have a bit of an uphill struggle this session.
A lot of legislators see We are continuing to work this piece of legislation, but it is likely that we will need to make this effort a multi-year effort in that conversation, that broader conversation about statewide transportation revenue.
I welcome other revenue options from the state for transportation benefit districts, but just to assure my colleagues, we won't be waiting around for the state legislature to enact this transportation benefit district here in Seattle expires this year.
So that's a number one transportation priority in my committee to make sure we have the best options for renewing that.
And happy to talk with any of you offline about what we're thinking about.
And then we'll talk more about it in the committee as well.
But we're not taking our chances.
We're going to make it a priority.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
And then moving on, finally, to expanding the automated enforcement authority to blocking the box and transit lanes.
This remains a top priority for the city and for the Seattle Department of Transportation from last year.
Last session, we were able to move the bill out of the House and out of Senate committee, but unfortunately, sort of in the last couple days of session, ran out of time.
We are continuing to work the bill this year.
And there is a hearing tomorrow in the Senate committee.
We're continuing to work with senators and representatives and stakeholders to work through a handful of issues related to the geographic scope.
It had initially been something that any city could do, sort of throughout the legislative process got pared down to just really like the greater downtown Seattle and we're We're working to preserve that scope to make sure that we can address our most high-priority congestion areas.
Also, I'm continuing to work through some issues around citation amounts and the interaction between block-in-the-box and transit operations.
We remain hopeful, and we're making some good progress with stakeholders.
a positive sign that we're getting a hearing in the Senate where we have traditionally struggled this early in session.
So we are continuing to work this issue and stay tuned.
Thank you.
Sorry, just real quick.
The block the box portion, is that the portion that is constrained to downtown?
Or does that also include the bus only lanes?
So it's a little bit without getting too deep into the weeds a little technical it would basically for both automated enforcement for block the box and transit lanes would be areas zoned downtown a half mile outside of that non interstate highways for three miles outside of that area and principal arterials extending up to one mile outside of of those non-interstate highways.
So this would capture, yes, the legislature likes to make things slightly complicated sometimes.
That, to their credit, mostly has to do with not being permitted to name specific jurisdictions or streets in legislation, so it's a bit of a- Have we mapped it?
We have mapped it, I'd be happy to provide that to you.
I would really like to receive that.
We have a lot of bus lane needs in West Seattle, and there's a lot of interest in having more enforcement of the bus lanes there.
I will say specifically to West Seattle, Representative Fitzgibbon is our sponsor in the House, and so it does include...
He's not going to let go, right?
I don't think so.
It does include the West Seattle Bridge, Avalon, and 35th.
Fantastic.
That's great to know.
Council Member Strauss.
Yeah, in 1907, both West Seattle and Ballard were annexed into the city of Seattle, so maybe we could use the downtown centers of these parts to...
Thank you very much for your advocacy on this bill.
I was excited to hear how far it had made it last year.
My first time working on this bill was 2014 at the same time Greg Doss from our central staff had testified in favor of the bill so we've come a really long way.
And I really do want to highlight the importance of not only blocking the box, what Council Member Herwold has already shared, the importance of automated enforcement for our bus only lanes because we see in San Francisco their ability to have a traffic enforcement camera on the front of their bus allows for the enforcement of bus only lanes in a way that we have to require uniformed police officers to do so here in the city of Seattle and we have great We have higher pressing needs for the use of our police department, as Council Member Lewis has stated earlier, than enforcing our bus-only lanes.
And we need to be able to move the freight of people throughout our city without getting stuck in traffic.
It's going to help us just with our quality of life moving around, as well as reduce our carbon emissions and addressing the climate crisis.
So we'd love to maybe check in with you after council briefing I'm just so excited for this team.
You have some really amazing people and really looking forward to working with you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Any other comments?
All right.
Well, thank you so much for joining us.
I look forward to seeing you next time.
I know we're working on organizing a lobby day.
Thank you to council members who aren't waiting for the council's lobby day.
But I look forward to that as well.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
With that, if there are no further comments, it's 10.44 and we are adjourned.