SPEAKER_96

Good afternoon, everybody.

The September 17th, 2024 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.04 PM.

I'm Sarah Nelson, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_70

Present.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Saka.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Wu?

I'm sorry, Council Member Wu?

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Here.

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_96

Present.

SPEAKER_110

Nine present.

SPEAKER_96

Excellent.

Thank you everyone for being here.

So folks, we've got a full agenda today with consideration of Initiative 137 and the proposed alternative Council Bill 120864, which was mentioned in briefings yesterday and also propose distributed by release yesterday afternoon.

And then we've got a proclamation and then finally two pieces of public safety legislation.

And so that being the case and because we've got so many people signed up for public comment, I'm hoping we can get through all of our agenda items with minimal or no disruption.

And so just for everyone's information, here's the definition of disruption which is prohibited by Council Bill 11D1.

Failure of a speaker to comply with the allotted time established for the individual's public comment.

Outbursts from members of the public who have not been recognized by the presiding officer.

Comments that are not in compliance with Council Rule 11C2A, which is about abusive language.

Delaying the orderly conduct or progress of the public comment period, using a comment for purposeful delay, standing in the center aisle of a front row, et cetera.

Behaviors such as threats, personal attacks, the use of racial, misogynistic, or gender-related slurs or abusive language, and the failure to follow the direction of a presiding officer or security official.

So my goal is to avoid lengthy delays, recesses, et cetera.

So with that in mind, will you please tell me how many people are signed up for public comment?

SPEAKER_108

We currently have 50 and continually to sign up, 50 in person and 59 remote.

SPEAKER_96

OK, of course, we'll start with people who have come in person for public comment, proceeding in batches of 10, alternating between in-person and remote.

And after the instructions, I ask that folks have been given numbers.

This is for the in-person commenters, have been given numbers so that they know where they're at in the sequence.

And so I'll ask that people line up, at least in groups of five, so that we can get through the folks quickly without Well, without delay and without mispronouncing names, please go ahead with the first speaker on the list or read the instructions and then proceed.

SPEAKER_110

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

We will alternate between sets of in-person speakers and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

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

SPEAKER_108

We are now gonna begin with speakers number one through 10. If you can please sign up or line up between these two sets of mics.

Both mics are active and please make sure that the mic is close to you so that you can be heard.

Thank you.

Speaker one.

Yes.

SPEAKER_80

My name is Sarah Ann, and I am the Director of Survivor Services at The More We Love.

I'm also a survivor.

And today, I am only speaking for the women who are currently suffering from being exploited and are victims of human trafficking on Aurora.

Sex work and the women that we're talking about is two totally different things.

So I am excited.

saying that I support this bill in hopes that we can keep working together as well as Kathy Moore has been doing with survivor-led organizations and really change the game and show up for survivors in a new way.

So yes, I support the bill.

SPEAKER_31

Speaker 2. Hi there, my name is Christine Moreland, esteemed members of the Seattle City Council.

I stand before you today in strong support of the SOAP bill and the loitering law, designed to establish stay out of prostitution areas.

These measures will hold both johns and pimps accountable by providing a vital pre-booking diversion for commercially exploited women and children on Aurora.

Crucially, this bill has been crafted with the advisement of direct service providers, including esteemed organizations like the ones I represent, The More We Love.

It's built with thoughtful intention, ensuring that the Seattle Police Department will be receiving training from those most knowledgeable on this issue, direct service providers and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.

Passing this bill represents a critical step in our fight to protect and restore dignity of vulnerable individuals and communities.

As direct service providers, we are committed to rallying together to support the necessary work that needs to be done.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_66

Hi, my name is Leslie Krug, and I've been a case manager who has worked on the front lines of Aurora for the past three years, and I'm standing in support of the loitering law.

While I understand that this law is not a cure-all and won't fix everything, it is a crucial first step.

We need to start humanizing people and stop walking by trauma every day.

Today, we are not talking about sex workers.

We are talking about vulnerable children and women who desperately need intervention.

I understand the concern about criminalizing anyone, but I hope that service providers, along with Kathy Moore and the council, will stay accountable for the changes made to ensure this law works to protect, uplift, and not punish.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

We're at speaker four.

SPEAKER_105

We're a little out of line here.

Four?

SPEAKER_99

Hi.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kathleen Brose.

I live in District 6. First of all, Initiative 137, which you're going to talk about later, is not ready to be presented to the voters.

It is ripe for waste and fraud.

It needs to be overhauled.

Go back to the drawing board, please.

Secondly, I support soda and soap.

The Seattle City Council oversees the financial health of our city.

Almost 800,000 people depend on you to oversee public safety as well.

Stop the open drug use in so many different neighborhoods of Seattle.

Stop the sex trafficking and turf war occurring on Aurora.

My daughters who attended Ingram High School in the early 2000s were propositioned while waiting for the bus after attending after school events.

I stopped going to Lowe's because I am concerned about potential gunfire in a turf war.

Please vote yes for soda and soap.

Safety is your number one priority.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

Speaker 5?

SPEAKER_47

Good morning, good afternoon, council.

My name is Amy Koyama with the Coalition for Rights and Safety for People and the Sex Trade.

I'm also a survivor and an advocate.

Four years ago, at the height of the protests in defense of black lives, this council repealed prostitution law that was widely seen as racist, ineffective, and harmful to women of color and trans women.

Four years later, the same council is bringing back the same failed policies of the past, and then some, without conducting any racial equity toolkit assessment, offering concrete strategies to mitigate its racially disparate harms.

This is the greatest backsliding of the city's commitment to supporting black lives and racial equality.

Today is your last opportunity to take a step back and work out a truly equitable solution to violent crimes that does not scapegoat or sacrifice the most vulnerable among our communities.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_97

My name is Marcia Sanders, and I'm a long-term resident of District 5. I live near 99. My neighborhood has changed.

It's dangerous and demoralizing.

I used to commute from Shoreline down 99, and as soon as I crossed 145th into Seattle, it became a different world.

Girls and women are bought and sold.

Why doesn't this happen in Shoreline?

I read that some trafficked workers make $7,000 a night for their pimps.

With this kind of money, the pimps are intent on keeping the profit.

There are turf wars.

There's violence.

There's gun violence.

Sometimes I hear gunshots for nights in a row.

I've had close neighbors whose homes have been shot by bullets, barely missing them.

I no longer patronize shops near me.

I don't go to the gas station near me.

I don't wait at the bus stop near me.

It's too dangerous.

I used to make additional income by hosting foreign students.

I don't anymore.

I decline requests for keeping them because it's too dangerous for a student to live there.

SPEAKER_96

When you hear that chime, you have 10 more seconds, just so you know.

SPEAKER_97

So I am for this proposal because we obviously need to do something for our neighborhood.

SPEAKER_37

My name is Iskra Johnson.

Opponents of soap and soda say the reason Shoreline has no visible prostitution and drug market on Aurora is not that it has exclusion zones, but that it spent $140 million to make the street pretty and the sidewalks wide.

That may have had some effect.

It's unprovable.

Common sense says that if you have a decriminalization zone at Block South, business will move there.

Soap and soda send a message.

This is not welcome.

I live within eight blocks of Aurora.

Within those eight blocks, there have been seven homicides in three years and countless shootings.

I've seen firsthand the destruction of local businesses.

There are virtually no cashiers at Lowe's because employees have told me workers are afraid to come to work.

Walgreens is closing.

Countless other businesses have closed or are on the brink.

Gangs have moved into the prostitution business, and this has led to increased violence and nightly shootings.

It is not the job of our public safety laws to solve the underlying conditions of capitalism, for urban property or to protect the livelihood of drug dealers and pimps.

It's to protect the public from harm.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_105

Hello, council, my name's Rebecca Fondin.

I'm an anti-trafficking consultant.

I live in Seattle, Washington.

I was trafficked on Aurora Avenue North over the course of two years.

And before we begin today, I really wanna preface that language is very and extremely important and that when we're talking about the individuals and the young people who are trafficked on Aurora, I was one of them for many years, we're talking about human trafficking.

And so I just wanna make that very clear today.

Many of us can agree that traffickers and buyers must be held accountable.

And this is what this bill explicitly lays out with promoting loitering.

There is a discussion as to whether the prostitution loitering clause will potentially target marginalized communities based on race or demographic and harm the people on the streets of Aurora.

There is an ability to prevent this unintended consequence by making sure protocol is developed along with SPD and the input of survivors and survivor-led organizations are able to work on these protocols and implementations.

So I do support.

SPEAKER_108

Speaker Nine.

SPEAKER_43

Hi, my name is Heather Bell and I am a survivor of human trafficking.

I'm a survivor of domestic violence and also a survivor of Aurora from 85th up to 145th.

When I was 17 with no life experience and naive to all the evils in this world, my then pimp slash boyfriend set me down on Aurora and I turned my first trick and I gave every dollar of my profits to my aspiring pimp slash boyfriend.

And today I stand in full support of the loitering law because any girl that walks up and down Aurora has a pimp, and that is a fact.

But anyone that's here who hasn't walked on Aurora has no purpose here because you are not the ones that will be impacted by this bill passing.

I recognize that there are sex workers who feel empowered and haven't experienced the same level of trauma, but that doesn't mean you get to ignore the countless...

bring who anything for intervention way out the reason I'm in favor of this legislation is because of the soap bill which focuses on targeting traffickers and buyers the true source of the problem simple supply and demand there won't be a need to supply this is where our energy and attention should be directed to protect those who are most vulnerable naive and being used and abused on a never-ending daily basis please vote yes on this bill

SPEAKER_25

Hi, my name's Trey.

Back in February, my home was shot up by a random stray bullet fire, and the bullet almost hit my terminal father-in-law, who unfortunately only had three months left to live at that point.

We had seen an uptick in violence going on in our neighborhood for about 18 months at that point, and then we had reached out to Kathy because we had no other option for finding any sort of help.

The police weren't helping.

No one was helping.

And we were able to talk over the law and what was going on.

And the revisions that were created after hearing pushback for protections for the sellers on the street and going after the buyers and the promoters was more in line of what we were looking for because we have seen nothing but turf war over who goes where in my neighborhood.

This bill isn't being made for neighbors' comfort.

It's to start tackling a larger issue of growing violence in the community that has added holes to so many homes and put multiple people in the hospital.

SPEAKER_108

That was our last speaker in this set.

We'll move on to remote speakers.

And if you have an empty seat next to you, can you just raise your hand so someone can thank you?

Jody, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_110

For remote speakers, I'd like to remind you after you hear the message that you have been unmuted, please press star six in order to speak.

Our first three remote speakers will be Robin Peterson, followed by Stella Hakala, followed by Howard Gale.

Go ahead, Robin.

Robin, you may need to press star six.

SPEAKER_115

Go ahead.

Hi.

SPEAKER_06

Hi.

I am a current resident.

I live on 103rd, a couple blocks away from Aurora.

We moved into this neighborhood in 2010, and we have two small children and a dog.

We have seen nothing.

but extreme gun violence in 2020. Can you hear me?

Hello?

SPEAKER_109

Please pause, Robin.

My husband and I have lived in this house for 50 years.

SPEAKER_06

We moved into this neighborhood in 2010, and we have two small children.

Sorry, should I just keep going?

I just want to just iterate.

The gun violence here has been absolutely terrifying this summer.

We've had gunshots before 10 p.m.

on our streets.

We had, you know, Johns coming into the street, parking their car in front of our home, doing things where we have to shove our kids upstairs away.

Our in-laws visited in July, and we counted 31 gunshots.

It's night after night.

It's made this neighborhood feel incredibly distressed.

So, and we reached out to Kathy to help put something in place.

And the barricade on 101st has made some improvement.

So we'd like to see more of that.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Howard Gale.

And Howard will be followed by Peter Condit.

Go ahead, Howard.

SPEAKER_10

Good afternoon.

Howard Gale from District 7. The soda and soap legislation you're voting on today, legislation that attempts to control where and how people in Seattle can exist indicates a stunning degree of cynicism and patronization.

We know this because while you repeatedly admit that it is social and economic circumstances like unaffordable housing that places folks in situations that you would like to disrupt, this very week you will propose legislation to undermine I-137 by replacing $50 million per year of new tax revenue for housing with a paltry...

Am I being heard?

Oh.

SPEAKER_96

Go ahead.

Keep on going.

SPEAKER_10

I'm sorry.

I need to start over.

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_96

That's fine.

SPEAKER_10

This is, yeah.

Good afternoon.

Howard Gale.

The soap legislation you were voting on today, legislation that attempts to control where and how people can exist in Seattle, indicates a stunning degree of cynicism and patronization.

We know this because while you repeatedly admit that it is social and economic circumstances like unaffordable housing, that places folks in situations that you would like to disrupt, this very week you will propose legislation to undermine I-137 by replacing $50 million per year of new tax revenue for social housing with a paltry $10 million per year robbed from the existing Jumpstart Fund, thereby crippling the new social housing initiative and taking away money from other social needs.

Really?

Did you guys just get back from a junket to a Comic-Con festival where you learned how to be cartoon villains?

We are all aware that in the next few months, you will not only fail to fund the needed social programs to offer real solutions for these problems instead of punishment, but that because you refuse to explore other revenue sources, you will almost certainly cut back on the needed programs, proving your patronizing disdain for your consumers.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Peter Condit, and Peter will be followed by Kate Rubin.

Go ahead, Peter.

SPEAKER_17

Thank you.

My name is Peter Condit.

I live in Green Lake by Aurora and 85th, and I'm calling to oppose soap and soda and to support I-137.

The soap and soda bills follow a racist legacy of redlining and the war on drugs.

These bills fail to address the root causes of drug use and prostitution and will severely destabilize and disadvantage already marginalized folks.

Councilmembers Kettle and Moore, it is obvious that you are only listening to the short-sighted concerns of business and property owners who want poor people to disappear.

You're being accountable to people like Juergen Oswald, the president of the Seattle Hotel Association, who spoke here last week despite living in Bremerton himself.

Council members, if you ignore the informed will of the people and the racist impact of these bills and instead align your vote with private investors and outside interests, it creates, at best, the appearance of corruption.

At worst, you're a bigot, pretending that racism in policing doesn't exist and working directly against efforts to create a city in which Janavi Kandula, Herbert Hightower, Charlena Lyles, and John T. Williams could still be alive today.

These bills should be withdrawn by their sponsors.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kate Rubin, and Kate will be followed by Chris Woodward.

Go ahead, Kate.

SPEAKER_06

My name is Kate Rubin.

I'm the organizing director of Be Seattle and a renter, worker, and voter living in Beacon Hill.

We're a week away from budget season and the city is facing a shortfall of $260 million.

It's audacious for the city council to consider passing the outrageously expensive anti-human soda and soap legislation.

These tentative approaches have been tried, failed, and cause disproportionate, irreversible harms to black, indigenous, disabled, queer, and trans communities.

Experts have said this repeatedly, legal experts, public health experts, social workers, and most importantly, people with real life experience and their communities.

Ignoring these voices continues City Hall's pattern of silencing the public and pushing harmful agendas.

We see this continuously, cutting off public comment, withholding tenant work group funds, gaslighting community orgs about EDI funds, and now attempting to undermine social housing.

When the council claims to reject special interests, they're actually rejecting the needs of those harmed by their decisions while favoring those who profit.

From a social and economic perspective, we cannot afford soda and soap.

Vote no.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Chris Woodward, and following Chris will be Peter Orr.

SPEAKER_109

Go ahead, Chris.

Star six.

SPEAKER_98

Chris Woodward I represent the Alliance for Pioneer Square located in District one.

The Alliance is a neighborhood based community and economic development organization that supports the district's long term vitality.

I am providing testimony in support of Council Bill 120835. This bill will give the city a tool to disrupt entrenched drug markets in Pioneer Square that negatively impact residents and businesses while balancing access to employment, transit, housing and other services.

We've heard that the current conditions are hurting small businesses and neighborhood safety while also affecting individuals suffering from substance abuse disorders.

We urge the council to adopt Council Bill 120835 to help ensure Pioneer Square is a safe and welcoming place to live, work, and visit.

Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Peter Orr, and Peter will be followed by Violet Whispers.

Go ahead, Peter.

SPEAKER_113

Hello, Council.

My name is Peter Orr.

I am a resident of District 5, living in the Soap Zone.

I am a father of two small children, and I have a wife.

And I'd just like to mention, a couple months ago, I was driving my car southbound on Aurora, turned west on 100, came back to my house.

And two minutes after stepping in the door, I heard gunfire.

This was the shootout that made the news.

couple moments earlier and i would have been caught in it and my kids would not have a father possibly um i the next morning we walked to the bus stop which is on the same route as um that was littered with gun shells that were the size of my kids fingers we can't have this going on um in our neighborhood and i i sympathize with the people who are concerned for other victims that may result But we can't let this go on until there's a tragedy involving people who live here.

Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Violet Whispers.

And Violet will be followed by Kai Bagwandan.

Go ahead, Violet.

SPEAKER_121

Thank you.

Hello, City Council.

I'm Violet.

I'm a trafficking survivor.

I have also worked at Aurora Commons and volunteered with the street community on Aurora.

I don't feel comfortable sharing where I live, and I think you can understand that.

I feel that SOAP is a sideways policy because gun violence statistically does not have to do with sex work or trafficking.

And nobody in that area has thousands for a rest fine.

The ban would cut people off from basic survival for actions that could be explained in many other ways.

When people get out of jail, they're usually in a worse situation than when they were put in and less resources is not, not whatever our needs.

I really thought we were past the time when people got arrested for insisting and I hope you'll vote this down this harmful proposal.

Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kai Wonden and following Kai will be Megan Cruz.

Go ahead, Kai.

SPEAKER_06

Hi, my name is Kai Begwandan, and I live in District 5. I'm calling to ask the council to vote no on soda laws.

As a woman of color living in the affected zone, I will be directly negatively impacted by this law that the city of Seattle previously removed after research proved its discriminatory nature.

Anytime I go for a walk, I expect to be catcalled or harassed by men.

That's what it's like being a young woman.

Under this law, I would be criminalized.

for being approached or called to by men.

I would be at risk of arrest, police violence, and being banned from my own home just for simply existing in my own neighborhood.

Both Seattle Police Department and other elected officials have been found guilty of murdering women.

This law puts a target on my back.

And as we heard in the public comment from last week, we'll do nothing to address gun violence.

Please vote no on this bill.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our last speaker for this remote group will be Megan Cruz.

Go ahead, Megan.

SPEAKER_119

Good afternoon.

I'm Megan Cruz, a resident in the SOTA area proposed for the 3rd and Pike downtown drug market.

I support SOTA as a tool to disrupt 24-7 drug dealing, fencing, gun violence, and assaults that are now overwhelming everyday life in this residential and business neighborhood.

I also believe soda isn't a permanent solution to the crisis on these blocks, so I asked the council to stand up permanent supportive housing with drug and mental health services as an option for the hundreds of people on these streets we know need help and want it.

Outreach groups suggest jump-starting this effort by reactivating the hotels and apartments used in the pandemic.

For everyone's sake, with any measures we adopt, please require that they come with oversight and accountability.

This is a crisis, so if a plan doesn't work, we need to know why and adjust.

Thanks for your consideration.

SPEAKER_108

We're now going to move into the next 10 speakers.

So will speakers number 11 through 20 please come up to the podiums and line up?

Thank you.

Speaker 11 is going to be the first speaker.

SPEAKER_33

And I am born and raised here in Seattle, Washington.

I grew up right up the street in the extraterrestrials projects.

I'm a support.

of the legislation with some room for improvement for amendments.

Because one of the facts that, you know, knowing that it will greatly impact especially what our black and marginalized communities.

And I talked with, you know, Ms. Moore before about new strategies and new ideas.

And I know there's a lot of conflictual, you know, rhetoric that's going around, but also to not only as a provider for over 25 years in this movement, I want to thank you for trying to respond and make an attempt to help and rescue and resolve the issues that are happening on our street.

I'm a direct service provider.

And if you're not, there shouldn't be a whole lot you should have to say.

And I know that the concerns of our constituents and our community, that this will be a great

SPEAKER_39

Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Keith Carpenter.

I'm the pastor of Epic Life Church at 105th and Aurora, and thank you for hearing our comments.

I really appreciate the courage that is taken to do this.

This is a very difficult conversation, and anybody who's laughing at it needs to probably see it in a little different light.

I just want to tell a story, and you can take it.

A few winters ago, I always go to the back door of our church when I first arrived there in a dark morning to find often people left there, usually young women who are very little clothed and have a lot of scars and beatings on them.

That one night when I picked up that lady and brought her inside, girl, She's running from her pimp, only to walk out later on across the parking lot to see a young woman coming down the street with nothing on, running.

And I'm tired, it's difficult, there's a lot of tears, and people need help.

And if this helps, please be wise about making this vote.

SPEAKER_108

We're at speaker number 13.

SPEAKER_111

Good morning, my name is Bingo and I'm here again today because I'm a disabled survival sex worker and performer in District 7, here to oppose both the soap and soda bills.

I testified against these bills last city council meeting about it and I'm absolutely appalled by your passing of it.

You heard me, yes?

You, you.

Yes, are going to kill us.

This bill is going to kill us.

What do you expect will happen when you criminalize sex work fervor and remove any sort of support for us?

Sex workers, especially those working on Aurora, need resources and safe spaces.

Fervor criminalizing them will fully affect sex workers' ability to find regular jobs, which sex work is work, and safe housing, et cetera.

shoves us deeper into poverty how can sex workers stay alive without any access to those resources what do you think the very clear answer to that is we need protection safe and transitional housing for those that need it resources for at minimum basic needs and we need community support we are people we are not vermin as you like to present us as we deserve basic human rights then more than that we are no less important than anybody in this room including

SPEAKER_83

My name's Mackenzie, I live in District 4, and I'm here to oppose the soap and soda legislation, but due to some time constraints, I'm gonna focus on soda.

If the purpose of this bill is to stop drug abuse and addiction, it's not gonna do that.

The first thing I learned in Al-Anon when I was a teenager is that you can't force somebody to stop using.

My dad's a recovering alcoholic, and I tried for a lot of years to make him get sober.

I poured his alcohol down the drain.

I tried to constantly supervise him, and I even stopped speaking to him.

My mom limited his access to money, and our entire family was ruined because of it.

He only got sober because he wanted to.

It wasn't that he didn't care about us.

It's because addiction is a disease, and it needs treatment.

It doesn't need criminalization.

Some of you I know have suffered addiction.

Can you honestly say going to jail and being marginalized would have helped you?

No, it wouldn't have.

If you actually wanted to work on public safety, you'd be doing something like harm reduction, decriminalization, or safe injection sites, which would stop people from using in the streets.

But what's really at the heart of this law is that you don't want to see poor people suffering.

SPEAKER_96

Please keep the clapping to a minimum between speakers.

Go ahead and please line up so that you can come straight to the mic when the other person is done.

SPEAKER_87

We're at speaker number 15. I'm JM, I'm here as part of Massage Parlor Outreach Project in Puget Sound stage based in the Chinatown International District.

I have a few quick things to say quickly to you because you have decided you can talk endlessly and those of us with better things to say have only one minute.

So talk about liking to hear yourselves talk and the lie of American democracy.

You are able to do the right thing right now and vote with your conscience, humanity and legacy in mind, not parlor tricking or classism.

You will be remembered for your actions in this watershed legislation.

You know that this will create a ripple effect in the region, aggravating the climate of anti-homelessness and the racist war on drugs and further criminalizing sex workers.

You will join the current of racist politicians who sacrifice human lives for the interests of real estate and corporate power.

Thank you very much.

Go ahead, next speaker.

SPEAKER_96

Please stop speaking and let the next person continue to speak.

I am now giving you a warning that you are continuing to speak.

Cut the mic.

Okay.

Would you please have a seat?

I am asking that you please take your seat.

SPEAKER_87

That's all I have to say.

SPEAKER_54

I'm a burlesque performer in District 3. Although I'm not a current sex worker, there is a lot of overlap in communities.

I'm here to oppose the soap and soda bills, but focusing on soap.

This bill will harm my communities, my friends, and threaten our safety.

Prostitution loitering laws focus mainly on appearances and perceptions.

The reason City Council repealed this law in 2020 was because SPD consistently engaged in racial profiling and abuse of power.

If Cathy Moore says that her goal is to help victims in trafficking, consider decriminalizing sex work, a measure that organizations such as the ACLU, MSC International, and Human Rights Watch support so people can actually access help and resources.

Loitering laws and criminalization threaten sex workers' ability to make a living as well as their safety.

This will not protect sex workers.

You're making them more vulnerable to abuse and less likely to report it.

It's clear you're willing to sacrifice sex workers and trafficking victims simply for others' comfort of not having to see them.

See us as people, as equals.

Listen to us.

This bill is not the solution.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

Are you Speaker 16?

Okay, awesome.

Thank you.

And then we'll go back to 18 after that.

SPEAKER_42

Y'all love to use the term additional tool of policing, but there are things you need to leave out of the shed.

Segregationist policy is one of them.

Banishment orders have existed elsewhere and elsewhere in Washington state.

This is true.

But that story is incomplete without mention that the banishment orders of the 90s empowered violence against women.

and that the rhetoric of those banishment orders culturally encouraged violence against sex workers, including the Green River Killer.

Pushing problems and lives that you don't want to see further to the margins is not a policy of public safety.

Y'all love to use the term finely crafted and carefully constructed in your hollow justification for these segregation banishment zones.

But just because you shit out some computer program confirmation bias of where crowds are in Seattle, reintroducing loitering statues will and always be sweeping segregationist policy.

You need to oppose this.

SPEAKER_108

Speaker 18.

SPEAKER_78

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Amaranthia Torres, and I'm the co-executive director of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

I appreciate the work of our coalition members to try to improve the SOAP bill and to Councilmember Moore and Councilmember Strauss for making changes that seek to minimize harm to survivors and add evaluation of the bill's impacts.

However, because our coalition values addressing the root causes of gender-based violence, we cannot in good conscience support this loitering law and the increased arrests of victims and survivors that will occur because of this bill.

We are also troubled by the soda zones.

Domestic and sexual violence are among the top precursors to housing instability, mental and behavioral health challenges, and substance use as survivors try to cope with the impacts of trauma and abuse.

Arrest and jail is not where healing happens.

They are places that increase the risk of sexual assault and abuse of power.

They are places where more trauma is endured.

Our sign-on letter opposing the learning law received support from gender-based violence programs in every district this council represents.

I truly hope with the sake of survivors in this city, the council will move beyond punitive responses and instead work with us toward the supportive and effective solutions to gender-based violence that survivors deserve.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_67

As a local sex worker, I'm here to oppose the loitering soap bill, which the ALCU raised serious constitutional concerns.

I used to strip in Houston where many dancers had pimps.

Most people think that pimps protect sex workers, but realistically, that's the opposite.

In Texas, sex work can result in a felony or large fine, and I can't help but wonder what those people's lives would look like if there wasn't a harsh penalty or jail time.

I want you to close your eyes and envision a sex worker.

Do I strike you as a sex worker?

Just another person that lives in Seattle.

Now tell me, what do you think a sex worker looks like?

You can't because we are all different people with different identities and different backgrounds.

on police to judge someone based on what they look like.

In 2020, the last time this bill was overturned, more people than ever were doing some form of sex work.

I experienced a number of people I never would have thought do sex work doing so and thriving for the first time in their lives.

Sex work is just as valid as 9 to 5 and likely better for the economy.

We all have bills to pay, children to raise, and lives to live.

Please do not put the SOAP law into action.

This is my desperate plea to think of the people in this community and who it affects.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_101

Good afternoon, my name is Cadman McVoe Cahill and I'm speaking on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.

We strongly oppose the soap and soda legislation proposed here in council.

I've worked and lived in the city of Seattle for the better part of 20 years, taking the bus to Third Avenue.

And what I think that you're trying to solve for is a public health crisis and the results of inequitable and insufficient access to health resources and requires a public health solution.

And I'd ask for you, when reviewing this proposal, to question, does this increase access to services or does it restrict access to services?

And I'd urge you to speak to public health officials and the vast majority of service providers who currently provide services here in Seattle.

Meet with them and ask them, will this restrict or increase access to services?

Zones like this have been tried before and they've only caused harm and they have made it much harder for people to get the services they need to be healthy and to thrive.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

We'll now move on to remote speakers.

Our next remote speaker will be Audrey Baedke.

SPEAKER_96

Familiarizing myself with the rules, there is a rule that says that total public comment period shall not exceed 20 minutes unless extended at the discretion of the presiding officer.

I am seeking your input or basically is, please voice your objection if you object to me extending the public comment period.

Is there any objection?

Go ahead, thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next remote speaker will be Audrey Babke, and following Audrey will be Akira J. Go ahead, Audrey.

SPEAKER_06

I work with Rust, a nonprofit that engages more than 600 survivors of the sex trade each year, many who have walked Aurora and because of pimps and because of poverty.

The route out of sex work is complicated and typically requires resources, relationship, and time.

We appreciate Kathy Moore's diligence to listen to survivors.

We are happy to see pre-filing diversion.

We are concerned that this will increase the need for services, relying on agencies already working maximum capacity.

But we also hear survivors say an intervention is better than ignoring a person's existence.

People are already being harmed on Aurora.

We ask that you remember now and at implementation and budget time, we all deserve not only intervention, but an alternative to arrest, a route to health and wholeness.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Akira J. And following Akira will be Bryce Baylor.

Go ahead, Akira.

SPEAKER_117

My name is Akira, and I am testifying in opposition to the soap and soda laws.

After last week with community members telling you to your face that these laws will kill them and their friends, if you pass these laws, you will have blood on your hands.

And after last week with testimonies being overwhelmingly against soap and soda, how dare you seek to expand and add additional zones?

Your choices thus far do not reflect the people.

I have friends who are sex workers, and I am extremely concerned for how this will affect them.

If you pass these laws after being told that this will literally kill people, I have no other words except for shame on you.

Take action for the people.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Bryce Baylor, and following Bryce will be Julia Buck.

Go ahead, Bryce.

SPEAKER_75

Hello, my name is Bryce Baylor.

I'm a licensed independent clinical social worker and social work doctoral student.

I'm here as an independent citizen and District 3 resident.

I'm here to speak against soap and soda bills as they are currently composed.

Here's three reasons to vote no on these bills.

They are scientifically misguided.

Research demonstrates that criminalizing substance users and prostitution survivors increase the risk of poverty, homelessness, and trauma.

Exclusion zones are an ineffective tool for reducing substance use or prostitution.

These bills will make it more difficult to serve victims of exploitation and trafficking.

They are fiscally irresponsible.

This council has fretted for years about the overburdened and understaffed SPD.

These bills will pull law enforcement and judicial resources away from serious crimes to focus on these issues, which can't be effectively addressed by the criminal justice system.

They are morally wrong.

We know that these laws will disproportionately affect people of color, women, LGBTQ folks, and those in poverty.

That's why you haven't even done the racial equity toolkit analysis of these bills.

This type of segregation will make it more difficult for these individuals.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Julia Puck, and following Julia will be Ann Johnson.

Go ahead, Julia.

SPEAKER_06

Hello.

My name is Julia.

I'm a homeowner in Ballard.

I'm calling to express my opposition to the soda and soap bill, in particular because these bills allow people to be punished without having to prove that they have actually committed a crime.

Someone can simply be accused of being on drugs or being involved in a sex trade, and then if they happen to be on a fairly wide swath of our streets, including major transit corridors,

SPEAKER_04

then they're guilty of being in, they're guilty of existing in a space.

SPEAKER_06

And I can't believe that we are prosecuting people, or that we are punishing people without actually having the authority to convict them of anything.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Anne Johnson, and following Anne will be Red.

Go ahead, Anne.

SPEAKER_115

My name is Anne Johnson.

I'm the general manager of the State Hotel on 2nd and Pike, as well as a resident of District 5. I've been a part of this community for over 15 years.

I'm here today to express my strong support for the SOTA legislation.

As a downtown business leader, I've seen firsthand how drug activity has made our public spaces unsafe.

Our hotel guests who speak highly of the amenities of the city are in disbelief of what is happening just outside of our doors.

Not only witnessing homeless encampments, fentanyl smoking, drug dealing, but also overdosing.

My staff and I have been assaulted, threatened, and left unprotected.

One of my employees was even hospitalized after being attacked after leaving the hotel after his shift.

We need the city to take decisive action to reclaim our streets and restore safety.

Please approve this legislation.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is red.

Following red will be Jennifer.

SPEAKER_116

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is national voter registration day, register to vote and take action.

It's time to vote it out the city council and their project 2025 agenda creeping into Seattle.

Their soap and soda laws have already been discredited as ineffective, yet they keep pushing policies that devalue and harm our community.

These laws mirror Project 2025. Read the PDF.

They want to turn Seattle into a Project 2025 city.

If they bring back overturned legislation like soap, they are endorsing Project 2025's dangerous agenda.

National and international studies show the violence and harm these laws cause.

Even Mayor Harrell's own reentry work group contradicts these measures.

This isn't just policy.

This is about punishing our most vulnerable and handling control to extremists.

Don't let Seattle fall in line with Project 2025. Vote them out and protect our city.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jennifer Diskin, and following Jennifer will be Tice E. Go ahead, Jennifer.

SPEAKER_06

Hi there.

I'm a D5 resident, and I live on 93rd and Aurora inside the soap zone.

My family has lived on Aurora since my son was eight.

He's 16 now.

He walks by sex workers every day, and he wants me to tell you that they are regular people, our neighbors.

I'm not afraid of his safety on Aurora.

I was afraid for his safety when a kid was shot to death in the hall of his high school by another kid two months into his freshman year.

Leasing is incredibly expensive and we know it doesn't work because here we are with the same problems.

What works is the $10 million in mental health funding you just took back from Seattle Public Schools.

Aurora Commons should be the best funded nonprofit in Seattle.

You could fund peer resource outreach on the E line and do much better than you are today.

These are easy solutions.

I will remember, Councilmember Moore, what you do today when you are up for reelection.

I have never door-knocked for a political campaign in my life, but I'm feeling very inspired to start.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you, Jennifer.

Our next speaker is Tice E., and Tice will be followed by Jacqueline Gordon.

Go ahead, Tice.

SPEAKER_46

As others have said here, what we're really witnessing is the backsliding of human liberties here in Seattle, which has always been held up as a light of progressivism in this country.

We're getting ready to pass these laws that were just repealed a few years ago because we know that they target trans people, because we know they target people of color, and yet they don't care, right?

Every single issue that people out here living by war are complaining about is due to the people who set up these systems that have poverty thriving within our communities.

The people on the council know that they actually hold the keys and solutions to reducing poverty, which in turn will reduce crime and violence.

But instead, they choose to try to gut Initiative 137, which will actually build housing.

Instead, they want to jail people instead of providing services that will make people safer.

Vote no on soap and soda and whatever kind of bullshit gutting you're trying to do with Initiative 137.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jacqueline Gordon and following Jacqueline will be Jennifer Ives.

Go ahead, Jacqueline.

SPEAKER_06

Hi, my name is Jacqueline.

I live in District 4 and I'm here to ask you to oppose the SOAP law.

I believe it is incompatible with the so-called free society to give the government the power to arrest people for essentially any reason they choose.

Victims of this law would also be barred from the area where Aurora Commons is located.

making it impossible for the victims of sex trafficking to get the resources they need.

For residents in Aurora who are justifiably concerned about gun violence, I urge you to read the full text of this bill.

The word gun appears exactly four times in this 20-page bill, while the word prostitution appears 88 times.

This is not the solution you think it is.

You claim that this is, as a council, that this is a yes and solution and you want more programs to protect victims.

So show us the and part first.

instead of falling back on these terrible loitering laws.

We will not continue to vote for a council that fails to listen to us.

If you can't be bothered to care about some of the most vulnerable people in your society, I hope you can at least bother to care about your own reelection.

I urge you to vote no on this law.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our last remote speaker for this group is Jennifer Ives.

Go ahead, Jennifer.

SPEAKER_06

Good morning.

My name is Jennifer.

I am a D3 resident, and I strongly oppose the unconstitutional and ineffective soda and soap legislation.

These laws don't work, and we already know that.

This anything-is-better-than-nothing attitude towards legislation is not only paternalistic, it's dangerous.

We know what works to reduce gun violence, increase gun control, and strong local economies.

This is Council's refusal to even consider any meaningful funding increases for existing programs instead of continuing to criminalize existence is abhorrent and shameful.

You need to vote no.

This doesn't work.

It isn't the answer.

And we already know that.

I do not understand why you keep bringing this back to us.

We know it doesn't work.

Stop it.

I yield the rest of my time.

SPEAKER_108

We'll now go back to in-person public comment.

And we are going to call the next 10 numbers.

And the number set's going to be numbers 21 through 30. So 21 through 30, if you can please line up at the two sets of microphones, please.

Thank you.

And number 21 is going to be the first speaker in this set.

SPEAKER_30

Good afternoon.

My name is Joe Conniff and I'm here today in opposition to the soda and soap zones which have been positioned by Council as an effort to increase public safety and address crime in certain areas of the city.

My previous personal experiences with failed soda orders as a drug user in downtown Seattle and my professional experiences in outreach and social services have only reinforced that prohibited zones and the displacement of community members only shuffles drug use in the related activities to another area.

or alley and also destabilizes the ongoing needed work of street-based outreach and health care providers.

Pushing our vulnerable community members further into the margins during this polysubstance overdose crisis will lead to more fatal overdoses as people become less visible by systems of care and people that can provide linkage to the necessary services.

public health and person-centered approaches rather than more of the same harmful downstream criminal legal responses we've always done.

SPEAKER_38

My name is David Tamash-Parris.

I'm a D6 resident.

I'm a member of Tech for Housing.

I've got a few questions.

These laws were repealed because we tried them and they did not work.

Why do you believe they will work this time What data are you looking at?

Our police are under federal supervision for being too zealous in violating people's civil rights.

You're now giving them more surface area to decide someone looks like a sex worker or a drug dealer, request they be barred from free movement without a conviction, and police their presence in broad swaths of the city.

Are you confident that our police will be responsible in exercising this new discretion, and why?

The ACLU is telling you these proposed laws are unconstitutional and ineffective.

Do you think that the ACLU is telling you this frivolously, or are you actively trying to get the city sued by the ACLU as some sort of misguided political stunt?

These are basic questions.

They match the intensity of questions you would get for proposing a plan of action for a problem at any normal job.

As council members, subject to at least the same standards asked of me when I propose a solution at my job as a software engineer.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_26

My name is Nick Short.

I'm a homeowner on Capitol Hill.

I've lived and worked in Seattle since 2005 and spent a lot of time on our public transit.

I'm here in opposition to SODA and SOPA and to support public housing.

I'm very tired of Seattle promising to arrest its way out of the street problems that we have had for a very long time.

I worked and lived downtown here at Third and Pike.

I lived in Belltown.

Over decades, we have seen street disorder that we cannot arrest our way out of.

Currently, we do not have enough police and we do not have enough jail capacity to enact these laws in any effective manner.

Police already have plenty of laws to arrest people for assault, theft and other such crimes.

Judges are able to set restraining orders and these laws are not going to prevent people from doing drugs and entering the places of the city that are vital.

SPEAKER_96

Please begin speaking.

SPEAKER_29

Hello, I'm Prithiva Chanmugam, and I'm 82 years old and live in downtown, close to Little Saigon.

I frequently walk or take public transportation to the international district and downtown to restaurants, museums, and concerts, and have never felt unsafe, even in the evenings, despite the number- Refrain.

SPEAKER_96

Pause, please.

Please refrain from making noises when somebody is speaking.

This is a warning.

SPEAKER_29

I have not felt unsafe, even in the evenings, despite a number of homeless people on the streets.

In fact, I feel I'm in greater danger from reckless drivers and have nearly been hit several times just crossing the street.

I'm opposed to the soda legislation, which several speakers have mentioned will be ineffective, and recommend instead that you raise progressive revenue to provide services and housing for the homeless, and also, if possible, to reduce reckless driving, which will ultimately benefit us all.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_68

I'm Hope, I live in District 4. I urge you to vote no on SOAP today.

I'm a sex worker and I did not wanna come here today, believe me, but I did.

Many of my colleagues across the adult industry oppose this bill, but did not make it today.

That's because they fear the risk of being outed, violence, losing financial opportunities if they testify or worse.

Of course, many are working right now or taking care of their kids because they can't afford to take the time off in this tough economy.

But the fact is you've already heard from many workers that are directly impacted by this policy.

They just didn't feel safe to identify themselves.

That's why it angers me that you repeatedly ask sex workers to come here and testify, yet you ignore us, especially when we are risking our safety and livelihoods to share our perspective.

Why are you ignoring us and the evidence from expert orgs that show these laws will harm, not help?

Sex workers in all corners of the industry say this year has been more financially tough than most.

We're vulnerable to picking bad clients, taking safety risks.

The SOAP law is going to make this worse, not better, for the most vulnerable in our community.

SPEAKER_49

My name is Alyssa.

I own both a home and a business in District 5 just off of Aurora in the proposed soap zone, and I'm here to speak in opposition to the soap and soda loitering bills.

Nearly every day, I walk to and from work down Aurora Avenue North.

Frequently, a friend will pick me up halfway through my walk to drive me home.

This is a rather normal and mundane occurrence, but according to the proposed legislation, it could get me arrested because I'm doing exactly what they claim causes someone to look like a prostitute.

This, of course, is unlikely to happen because history tells us that these laws are disproportionately enforced against those who are black, brown, and poor.

We do need to address violence, drugs, and trafficking, but we've seen over and over again that making already marginalized people's lives harder does nothing to help them.

So I beg you to listen to the people you serve and provide resources and social services to those who are struggling, rather than pushing them further outside of community to try to hide them from those of us with more problems.

SPEAKER_108

We're now at number 27.

SPEAKER_02

My name is Mimi.

I live in District 2. I'm here to ask you to vote no on Councilmember Moore's SOAP law.

Above all else, I'm a mother trying to provide a better life for my daughter.

Laws like this would devastate my family, leaving her alone in this world, putting me in a legal financial bind I likely would never recover from.

Although I'm in a vocational school hoping to rely on engaging in sex work less, it is still a necessary form of work to support us in an expensive and hostile economy.

I have a right to engage in the safest way I can, which over these last few years proves more difficult.

Some of us solely rely on this to survive.

We know best how to do it safely, not to have the state criminalize us as they speculate and project a false narrative onto an already highly stigmatized profession.

We keep each other safe.

fining, jailing, forcing an already vulnerable person to carry a criminal record implemented with extreme bias doesn't.

I ask my city council members to vote no on CM Moore's loitering laws.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_85

L, District 5 resident and Greenlight Project volunteer, here again in opposition to the prostitution, loitering, and soap bill.

My sex worker friend in District 5 came here today to testify with their kid but had to leave because being a working mother makes doing things like this really difficult, so I'll be testifying for them.

The recent bill amendments to target pimps and clients instead of workers doesn't change how ineffective and harmful the bill is.

Despite the loitering law not currently being in effect, Greenlight Project's outreach participants on Aurora have been getting arrested for loitering and having their lives upturned at an increased rate since the bill's introduction to council last month.

Again, the loitering law is not in effect and sex workers are still being arrested.

Why would the amendments change anything?

The bill purportedly targets those who promote prostitution, loitering in the soap zone.

As written, SPD could decide that includes GLP when we're doing outreach or anyone else giving rides or providing food or housing to sex workers.

Kathy Moore did not listen to the most impacted stakeholders and does not have community trust when it comes to crafting this kind of legislation.

Even with the amendments, this bill will not.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you.

SPEAKER_85

Next, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_22

I'm here to support Cathy Mooresbill.

On a school day this spring, my three and seven-year-old and I were in a front yard of our house, ready to pick up their six-year-old sibling from his elementary school a block away.

As we were ready to walk, two cars sped past us at dangerous speeds.

It was a non-pimp and a gang member that drove from Aurora.

Seconds later, we witnessed them firing shots at each other right outside Christ the King School.

The house where the casings were found has a seven-year-old living in it.

The time of the shooting was 2.58 p.m.

This is when elementary schools let the kids out.

The gun violence from PIM turf wars is creeping further into the neighborhoods.

This terrified us.

Now, my children are not allowed to be in the front yard.

A small school implemented drills, and our school canceled an event on Fremont and 107th, and sure enough, that afternoon, there was another shooting.

SPEAKER_95

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

Speaker in the set, speaker number 30. Okay.

SPEAKER_50

My name is Maya McComsey and I live in District 5. I'm a master's student at Antioch University and I'm asking you to vote no on the soap zone.

Having close friends who are sex workers and living two blocks from Aurora, I've seen firsthand the violence and exploitation in our community.

Yes, my district needs help, but not through more arrests.

The people we're proposing to ban from this area are our neighbors, and they deserve our support, not exclusion.

Displacing people through soap zones will push sex trafficking further underground and to other communities, making it more dangerous for sex workers and everyone involved.

This law is fundamentally transphobic, racist, sexist, and classist because it disproportionately targets and profiles marginalized people.

This is not what I want from Seattle.

We must focus on real solutions.

Housing First Initiatives, Decriminalizing Sex Work, Production Programs, and Healthcare for All.

Please vote no.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

We'll now move into 10 remote speakers.

And as a reminder, remote speakers, when you hear that you have been unmuted, please press star six.

Our first remote speaker for this group is Indigo Nimmo.

And following Indigo will be Taylor Farley.

Go ahead, Indigo.

Indigo.

SPEAKER_06

Hi, my name is Indigo.

SPEAKER_117

I live in district three and I am testifying in opposition to soap and soda.

Public spaces belong to everyone and it's wrong to let police decide who's allowed to exist in which spaces and in what ways.

People who are accused of loitering will not be able to access key Seattle transit routes and will be cut off from all the businesses, housing and other resources in the area.

And because laws like these are disproportionately enforced on black and brown people, it will lead to de facto segregation.

SPEAKER_06

Supporters of Moore's bill claim that it targets promoters and buyers rather than sex workers or trafficking victims.

SPEAKER_117

The reality is the prostitution moitering law as written in SOAP still applies to sex workers.

SPEAKER_06

If you claim you're trying to solve the problem of trafficking and help victims, you don't also get to pass a law to arrest them.

What other law can you name that helps victims of abuse by arresting them?

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Taylor Farley.

Following Taylor will be Allison Baker.

Go ahead, Taylor.

SPEAKER_121

Hello.

I am Taylor Farley, and I'm the executive director at Queer Power Alliance.

We strongly oppose both the orders of soap and soda as they do not prevent crime nor reduce gun violence.

This has nothing to do with the safety of people.

This is giving more money to do more funding for police and taking away from other programs.

Those that are the most harmed will be black, brown, indigenous, poor, and LGBTQIA individuals, particular black trans women.

There is a better pathway, solutions for a safer and more inclusive Seattle.

And instead of reverting to harmful policies and wasting our funding, we ask you to expand harm reduction programs, decriminalize sex work, strengthen anti-discrimination protections, and promote restorative justice.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Allison Baker, and following Allison will be Ellie Robertshaw.

Go ahead, Allison.

SPEAKER_120

Hello.

My name is Allison.

I was born and raised in Seattle.

I oppose the soap and soda laws.

They are archaic laws that would put vulnerable populations in a more precarious situation of getting trapped in the legal system.

Going to jail does not help people get clean or reduce violence.

Furthermore, this law was proven not to work in the past and does not prevent sex trafficking or crime.

This law would even go a step further.

It would make it so that police could arrest people for just seeming, quote-unquote, like they're prostitutes.

It would be up to police to make that judgment call, making it more likely for police brutality to occur.

Evidence from the past shows that this law targets poor black, brown, indigenous, LGBTQIA and people with disabilities of our community.

This law does nothing to help people that are already in hard situations, only make it more difficult for them to survive.

I see people that are already in harm's way of gun violence.

If you want your children to be safe from gun violence, we need to increase public gun control.

Why commit to a law like this when it does nothing to stop sex trafficking?

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ellie Robertshaw.

And following Ellie will be Noel Gomez.

Go ahead, Ellie.

And Ellie, you may need to press star there.

SPEAKER_04

Go ahead.

Hi.

Thank you.

Hi.

My name is Ellie.

I live in Renton and work in Seattle.

By blocking the Grassroots Housing Initiative 137 The City Council is continuing to empty Seattle of all the wealthiest families with school-age children.

You are also making things harder for middle-class families that do try to stay in Seattle.

And you're putting a strain on resources in neighboring cities that are more accessible to families.

For example, the Renton School District enrollment is now above capacity, and we are sending some Renton students to Bellevue Public Schools.

Seattle school enrollments, meanwhile, are well below capacity.

I wonder why that could possibly be.

Seattle is one of the wealthiest cities on the planet and you are trying to prevent a badly needed source of progressive revenue.

Please don't do that.

Put initiative 137 on the ballot with no alternatives and no to soap and soda.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Noel Gomez and following Noel will be Paris Chapman.

Go ahead, Noel.

SPEAKER_118

Hello.

Good afternoon.

My name is Noel Gomez and I am a sex trafficking survivor.

And I have also worked for AIDS in the Seattle area with sex trafficking victims.

I am hearing of the bill.

This bill will be going after people who are choosing to use the exploited people on Aurora who we are not talking about here.

We are not talking about the people who are being trafficked on Aurora, all the 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old kids that I've worked with off Aurora.

We are not discussing that here, and I'm confused about that.

We need to hold the buyers and the traffickers accountable for what is going on on Aurora.

This is about the majority of the people that are stuck in this life, not the minority of the people who call themselves sex workers who feel empowered.

We as a society cannot leave these exploited people out there to die.

We must make an intervention at this point.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Paris Chapman.

And following Paris will be Thi Reinert.

Go ahead, Paris.

SPEAKER_18

Hello, everyone.

My name is Paris Chapman.

I'm the transformative justice and prevention manager at the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

I've grown up in a family full of women who have survived sex trafficking, who are descendants of human trafficking survivors, et cetera.

We can agree that intervention is necessary, but the soap and soda bills have already been ineffective and were already repelled in 2020 because they continued to follow harmful patterns of discrimination against survivors of color in particular.

And so I wanted to just make sure that we know that these bills are an investment in criminalization, the same criminalization that we saw against survivors trying to make their way out of slavery in 1676, and also the same survivors that we see trying to make it, trying to get their bills paid, trying to make sure that they have a viable way to live in 2020. So my ask is that you both know on these bills.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Thee Reinert, and following Thee will be Rivka Herskovits.

Go ahead, Thee.

SPEAKER_06

Hello, my name is Leah Reinert.

I am a resident of District 3. I am calling to oppose both soda and soap.

One of the things that has been touched on briefly by other speakers but not discussed in detail is how this is an unfunded mandate and all of this is going to cost money.

We are going to have to ask for more police budget despite the fact that people have made it very clear they do not want any more money going to the police.

Also, at this moment, there is an issue with court system in that the prosecuting attorney has made it so that one criminal judge cannot take cases, which means right now the criminal caseload is overwhelming.

People are getting stuck in it.

Criminalizing people who look like they're doing sex work is going to put them in.

They're not going to come out for a very long time.

It's not even going to keep them out of sight for very long because the pipeline is clogged because we are so overloaded.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rivka Hershkowitz and following Rivka will be Maya Matta.

Go ahead, Rivka.

SPEAKER_15

Hi, my name is Rivka Hershkowitz.

I grew up not too far from Aurora.

I went to Ingram High School and I used to go to the late night at Bitter Lake Community Center quite often.

Um, what people are suffering from in my community is poverty, um, and locking us up and preventing us from accessing our own community is not going to help that issue.

What could help that issue is someone mentioned the kids that are over there.

What do kids do when they get out of school?

Well, there really isn't anything for us to do.

Um, so funding, uh, community programs like the late night at the community center and things of that nature could help us to not have to You know, engage in other extracurriculars that aren't super helpful.

And I think it's also important to, like, understand that addressing poverty is what we should focus on here.

And funding public housing would help to alleviate that.

I oppose the SOAP laws.

I think it's barbaric.

And, yeah, it's kind of crazy that y'all are...

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Maya Matta, and following Maya is Alberto Alvarez.

Go ahead, Maya.

SPEAKER_06

Hi.

My name is Maya, and I'm a resident of District 5. I'm here to ask you to vote no.

I'm concerned about this bill as it will directly harm my community.

I have two black siblings who attend Ingram High School, and the implications of this bill could directly impact our lives and our neighbors.

The bill undermines mental health initiatives.

We've seen an awful trend towards punitive measures rather than investing in mental health programs.

Mental health issues are often linked to police violence, instability, and inadequate support, which worsens the problem.

With how vague this bill is, there's a high probability for increased litigation, potentially paralyzing critical services.

Data consistently shows that increasing policing tends to exacerbate violence rather than alleviate it.

For marginalized communities, this could mean heightened vulnerability and reduced access to essential services on Aurora.

My siblings are already scared to go to school in fear of being shot.

Stop creating more opportunities for discrimination on their way to school.

We barely even have sidewalks.

We just got a sidewalk, and I even graduated from Ingram, and I didn't have a sidewalk.

Can we fund the right things, please?

Maybe metal detectors.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our last speaker for this remote group is Alberto Alvarez.

SPEAKER_11

Soap and soda zones do nothing about the problems this council aims to fix.

Instead of affordable housing, crisis outreach, or drug rehab, Kettle and Moore, along with their far-white allies and financial backers, seek to harass the poor and struggling.

These laws have been proven to over-police black and brown people.

Moore even had to censor such info from her publications when she introduced her bill.

Making a target of the LGBT community in our city, these laws have often been used by the police to gain sexual favors in return for letting people off the hook.

How is this justice?

How is this right?

These bills are racist and solely the product of NIMBYs and the elite.

Shame on Mr. Kettle and CM Moore, and shame on those on this council who have not spoken out against these bills.

Vote no on soda and soap.

SPEAKER_108

We're now ready for the in-person speakers.

And we are now at number 31 out of 101 speakers.

The next speakers, again, are going to be numbers 31 through 40. So if you're numbers 31 through 40, please line up.

And number 31 is the first speaker in this group.

Hi, folks.

My name is Gabriel Jones.

SPEAKER_23

Good to go, awesome.

Hey folks, my name is Gabriel Jones and I have some super exciting news today.

I am now a small business owner, which means my opinion here matters more than anyone else's.

Who cares that groups like, let's see, who cares that groups like the ACLU of Washington, the Seattle King County Coalition of Homelessness, and the King County Public Defenders said this is an awful idea.

I'm a small business owner.

That means my opinion matters more than anyone else.

Who cares, we've tried this over and over and over again and it didn't work.

Who cares if we're going back 50 years, try the same thing again and again and again, hitting our heads the same way.

I'm a small business owner, guys.

Listen, I'm so excited.

Isn't it great?

My opinion matters so much more than anyone else.

That's why I got the email to come earlier to make sure when we cut public comment off, only the people we want heard get heard over and over again.

But once again, I am a member of a small business.

So great.

My opinion matters more than everyone else.

So I'm very excited for the tax cuts I get.

I'm very excited to be worshiping.

I'm very excited for the council to kiss the ground I walk on because I'm a small business owner.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_95

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_77

Sorry.

Hi, my name is Rata.

I live in the Little Saigon part of the International District.

I lived there since before the streetcar was built on Jackson, so I have a front row seat of what's happened to 12th, one of the areas that's proposed by the soap and soda bill.

Who knew being city council member would be such a hard job, right?

You wanted to do this job because you believe you would do the most good for your neighbors.

Please, please, please really listen to the experts who are here to talk and tell you that this bill will cause more harm than it will do good.

Being a city council member is hard, And reinstituting a once repealed law is an easy fix.

A bill that, if passed, will probably at least, at best, bring another lawsuit to the city, and at worst, be a death sentence.

It's hard to create new solutions for the same old problem, but don't actually cop out of the job.

How is giving more discretionary powers to a problematic police force the best solution?

SPEAKER_95

Thank you very much.

Your time is up, please.

SPEAKER_77

Have a seat please.

SPEAKER_95

Next speaker, go ahead.

SPEAKER_88

Hello, my name is Amber Bergstrom.

I live and work in District 5, just a few blocks off of Aurora Avenue North.

I volunteer for Greenlight Project, doing outreach twice a week on Aurora for street-based sex workers, drug users, and people experiencing houselessness.

Greenlight Project has been providing resources and services to street-based sex workers every week since 2019. I have personal relationships with people who will be negatively impacted by the loitering ordinances.

I'm here to oppose the proposed reinstatement of racist, sexist, transphobic loitering laws and the soap soda zones.

Every community expert and Seattle organization that works with sex workers currently and trafficking victims is unanimously opposed to this ill-advised, badly written, and intentionally vague legislation.

There are 57 organizations.

that have stated their opposition to this bill, including mine, the Coalition for Rights and Safety.

Please listen to the experts and the sex workers testifying today.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_59

Hi, my name is Andrew Steelsmith.

I'm a Seattle area native and U.S.

Coast Guard veteran that lives four blocks away from Aurora.

I support legalizing sex work.

It's not going away.

Sex workers deserve autonomy, not being recruited by a man and sold to another man.

They deserve to verify their clients online, not gamble with whoever drives up to them.

They deserve workplace safety, like not getting shot by a rival pimp or gang in the middle of a turf war.

They deserve a safe working environment, like a brothel, not contorted inside of a Ford Fiat at 2 p.m.

in an alleyway in my house.

Sex workers deserve fair competition, not standing next to a 15-year-old trafficking victim.

These laws give trafficking victims enough plausible deniability to get away from the pimp and the chance to put him in jail by safely testifying against him.

Otherwise, a pimp goes free.

These laws are exactly what regulation framework would look like in a legalized industry, right?

But I've never seen the opposition in my neighborhood.

I've never seen them on Aurora because this isn't OnlyFans.

I've never seen sex trafficking victims on Aurora.

I've only seen sex trafficking victims on Aurora.

And I only hear gunshots in my house.

SPEAKER_96

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_103

Speaker 35, my name is Amanda.

My pronouns are any and all.

I have lived directly off of Aurora and 101st for the last 17 years.

I used to come down to Aurora all the time and ride the bus as a kid, 8, 9, 10 years old by myself.

I never had an issue.

I have never felt unsafe in my neighborhood up until the last 18 months where every two days there was a shooting.

I can't wash my car.

I can't park my car.

I can't take out my garbage.

I have come into contact with trafficked children, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old, that I have tried to help.

We do need more services.

And I agree that sex work is absolutely work.

And it is hard work.

But this is not what we're talking about.

We are talking about trafficked children.

We are talking about gun violence that has escalated over the last 18 months to the point where neighbors do not feel safe.

They're moving out of the neighborhood.

I and my husband literally have chosen not because of where we live.

SPEAKER_95

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_74

Thank you.

My name is Heidi Wilson, and I've lived in D5 four blocks off of Aurora near 105th for over 15 years.

I'm a social worker and a mother of three children.

I strongly support the SOAP bill.

The most vulnerable members of our community are our children.

Our children hear gunshots at night and screams from sex workers being beaten and even shot.

Our children watch pimps drop off sex workers and johns pick them up.

Our children dodge used condoms while on walks in our neighborhood.

Our daughters are leered at and propositioned by pimps and johns.

This proposal is a direct result of a plea for help from residents affected by the gun violence and illegal sex trade taking place along Aurora.

This bill may not address the root causes of the issues, nor does it prevent us from taking action to address those root causes.

The city must take action to address the increased gun violence and sex trafficking along Aurora corridor that is putting nearby residents in danger.

These ongoing illegal activities have traumatized the children and residents who border this zone.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_82

Hi, I'm Sophie Debs in opposition to soda.

I'm a trans woman who has previously been unhoused and suffered from drug addiction and is now stably housed one block west of Soda Zone 5. Council Member Saka, as you have said, shame on us for allowing people to live in the street like this.

Shame on us for not depending better accountability for outcomes.

We will invest heavily in the solution.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, I see everything connected to poverty.

You gotta go into the deeper question of why do people join gangs?

Because connection, family, it offers them a sense of belonging.

And Councilmember Moore, yourself, it is so much easier to keep people housed than it is to house them once they become unsheltered.

People live in these areas.

People who are in the process of escaping from situations of desperation and who will be forced out of their homes, out of their communities, and any sense of connection and stability they have.

Where is the relocation support?

This is not a public safety solution.

This is a recipe for homelessness and will actively create more of these issues it purports to sweep away.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_95

Go ahead, please.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_56

My name is Sarah Dickmeyer.

I'm a resident of District 3. I grew up in District 5. I'm the sister of a sex worker who died earlier this year in District 7. I'm here to speak in strong opposition of the proposed soap zone, pushing sex work further underground to the next block or into a jail cell, does nothing to curb trafficking or improve the lives of sex workers.

This policy will make life and work more dangerous and exacerbate the cycle of criminality for your constituents most in need of your support.

We must bring people in, not push them out.

We must lead with empathy, resources, and respect, not incarceration, fines, and discrimination.

Building safe, healthy communities amidst unmet need and decades of underinvestment is hard, and the pain expressed by everyone here today in these last two meetings is real.

But banishment is not diversion, banishment is not care, and banishment does not work.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_73

Go ahead, please.

My name is Phoebe Felcher.

I'm a resident in District 3 and union representative for OPEIU Local 8. Before I did that, I worked in direct service for six years.

Local 8 represents workers at Lehigh, Compass, Plymouth Housing, Youth Care, Roots Young Adult Shelter, CMAR, Solid Ground, Friends of Youth, and Crisis Connections.

The council has already heard that the soap and soda ordinances are an attack on civil liberties.

Many experts have told you that these methods simply do not work and will exacerbate the issue.

You've heard repeatedly that the most effective evidence-based means of solving homelessness is the most humane, to house people.

It seems that none of this has moved the council, so I want to emphasize that your constituents are watching.

OPEIU Local 8 and the over 7,000 members we represent across the state stand against these ordinances.

Our labor community, MLK Labor, stands with us by unanimous vote.

Make no mistake, we are watching, and we will remember your decisions when it's time to vote.

SPEAKER_95

Go ahead, next speaker.

SPEAKER_104

My name is Lou Bond.

SPEAKER_34

I'm the manager at the Melbourne Tower at Third and Pike.

I've been there for 39 years.

I thank the city council.

I thank Councilmember Kettle, Councilmember Wu, each of you for listening to us and participating in this.

We know it's not easy, but I'll tell you what, allowing for drug addiction, allowing for open-air drug use, allowing for property damage, allowing for open-air theft and people just walking in and out, selling right on the sidewalks, employees being roughed up and hurt.

One of my coworkers was put in the hospital And he was out for two months with a broken cheekbone because of a young person that had sucker punched him on the street.

This is not what we need.

I do urge you to support WDC and co-lead and lead also for supportive housing.

But we need to support this.

This is very important.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

We'll move on to remote speakers.

Our next three remote speakers are Eliza.

SPEAKER_95

Please.

SPEAKER_110

Yes.

SPEAKER_96

We have now been in session for an hour and a half and we do need to get to the initiative discussion.

So I will ask that we continue this, that we go through this batch of remote speakers and then we will consider breaking for the consideration of the initiative because it will be getting on toward the end of the meeting time.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_110

Next three speakers, Elijah Bojani, Jerry Murma, and Kat Beck.

Go ahead, Elijah.

SPEAKER_96

Please go on to the next speaker.

SPEAKER_110

Jerry Murma, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_03

Hi, my name is Geri Mumala and I am an enrolled tribal member.

I am a survivor of trafficking.

I also in Washington get sexual exploitation ways forward and I'm a direct service provider and serve as the executive director for an innovation human trafficking collaborative.

I strongly support this bill.

What we currently have on Aurora is de facto decriminalization and it is allowing individuals to buy and sell commodified trafficked victims.

We are not talking about sex work.

This is trafficked individuals that we are discussing.

And the soap order would affect buyers and traffickers.

There is no provision of arresting anybody that's out there.

What we want to do is provide services And when I was trafficked on Aurora, I was extremely exploited and it still is happening.

I strongly urge you to support this bill.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_110

I had Kat Beck.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Kat Beck.

Um, and I am against the soap and soda laws.

So these two proposed laws are backwards, racist, and frankly, an ugly look for Seattle.

Firstly, looking like a prostitute is subjective.

And allowing police to profile people, in this case, often women of color, is extremely dangerous and should not be allowed.

These harsh policing policies keep people in poverty.

Banning someone from a particular area of town just prevents them from being able to do things that may be essential to them, to their families, and to their community.

And we are talking about sex workers.

And if sex workers and community members and organizers are asking for respect and begging you not to pass these laws, listen to them and don't do it.

It's understandable to be concerned about violence, but it's not going to be solved with these weird and out-of-touch, tough-on-crime policies.

I'm not okay with living in a city that believes that sex workers should be vilified, banned, and jailed, and that is why I am strongly opposing these two laws.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Our next three speakers are BJ Last, Aiden Carroll, and Scott Stemberg.

Go ahead, BJ.

SPEAKER_16

Hello.

My name is BJ Last.

I'm a Ballard homeowner.

And I'm strongly against soda and soap.

It's funny how council claims are so concerned about gun violence, rape, trafficking, you know, things that are already illegal that council is going to criminalize other stuff randomly.

Somehow that's going to address it.

Where we know this won't reduce public drug use or sex work, central staff memos lay this out and mention all this.

So everyone involved in this conversation knows none of that is actually going to get reduced.

We do know this is actually just going to bar people from the city.

without a conviction just because the cops arrested them and a prosecutor told a judge that they swear there was a nexus to drugs and or sex work.

And we know that this will disproportionately impact BIPOC communities because that's who SPD arrests at rates seven times higher the rate of white people to nine times higher the rates of white people.

We know those community members also get much, much harsher sentences than white people.

The example claims there's going to be services, but we know that's not going to happen.

Council's already cut student mental health, affordable housing.

We can't even keep our libraries open or maintain those hours.

SPEAKER_110

Go ahead, Aiden.

Aiden, please press star six.

Oh.

SPEAKER_07

There.

The legislation of the soap zone fails to distinguish between Sex trafficking victims and consensual sex workers.

We know both exist, so the proportions are not the issue.

It also fails to differentiate between buyers of sexually exploited trafficking victims and buyers of consensual sex work.

The legislation isn't capable of doing so because of the way it is written.

Obviously, these things should not be treated the same.

Ariana Riley pointed out that the most traffic-intense jobs are construction and agriculture, but we don't propose arresting all of them.

And yes, this law will arrest sex workers and then promise not to charge them, pinky swear.

The soda zone is even worse.

We know that drug use is a disability and that it is caused by all sorts of self-medication and mental health issues and other trauma needs.

There are...

SPEAKER_110

Go ahead, Scott.

SPEAKER_14

Hi, my name is Scott Sternberg.

I'm a resident of Beacon Hill.

I vehemently oppose the bills for soda and soap.

I'm speaking as a concerned community member, parent, teacher, trainer, public health researcher, and psychologist, family therapist, and substance abuse counselor for over 25 years.

These are not public safety bills.

These are violence against the community and a vehicle to increase funding to SPD and the pipeline to prison.

It is critical that the council and SPD stop criminalizing members of our community, particularly marginalized folks, BIPOC, immigrants, queer and trans, and our neighbors who are homeless, and invest in evidence-based solutions supporting the community violence.

King County declared racism as a public health crisis.

Yes.

Members.

SPEAKER_110

Our next three speakers are Ashley Ford, Katie Gendry, and Aaron Wheeler.

Go ahead, Ashley.

Okay, we're gonna skip Ashley.

Go ahead, Katie Gendry.

SPEAKER_06

Hello, my name is Katie Gendry and I'm calling in today to oppose Soak Soda.

I have direct service providers and street-based outreach.

My heart goes out to those who have or are experiencing human trafficking.

The city should decriminalize sex work and invest in resources and support.

Council, please ask yourself, Why you feel most comfortable choosing to fund punishing people rather than helping people.

I believe that love and care towards people is what truly brings healing and safety and reduces harm.

Can you find compassion within yourself to invest in systems of community care, affordable housing such as I-137, which you should stop delaying, food access, low barrier voluntary health care, especially mental health and substance use support, jobs that pay a living wage, libraries and child care, just to name a few.

Why do you feel the need to continue investing in racist systems of violence, such as policing and incarceration and perpetuating cycles of poverty?

We have decades of data that show these approaches don't help.

They harm.

Please invest in evidence-based solutions to reduce violence.

Stop criminalizing our BIPOC neighbors.

Go ahead, Erin.

Hi, this is Ashley.

Can I speak?

I wasn't able to get to the phone.

SPEAKER_110

Go ahead, Ashley.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Ashley and I'm one of the co-chairs for the LGBTQ commission for the city of Seattle.

I'm also a nonprofit worker and resident of district five.

I'm calling in today to speak in opposition to soap and soda legislation and to encourage city council to engage with constituents from diverse communities, specifically black, brown, and LGBTQ folks that will be disproportionately harmed by these racist policies.

At our last LGBTQ commission, we spent over 25% of our time hearing concerns from community members who are begging to be heard, fearful of what these laws will mean for them.

We submitted a resolution to the council and have yet to receive a meaningful response.

The Office for Civil Rights and the ACLU oppose these bills.

Doing something for the sake of doing something without considering the racist and harmful implications is exactly why these laws were repealed to begin with, and I implore the council to consider alternative database options and to specifically engage with groups and organizations like the LGBTQ Commission to create policies that address gun violence and human trafficking without putting LGBTQ people at undue risk.

We want to work with you, but we need you to work with us.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Go ahead, Aaron.

SPEAKER_40

Hi, my name is Aaron Wheeler, and I'm a Masters of Social Work student studying policy at the University of Washington.

I've lived here for 15 years and have been a service provider for folks who will be affected by this policy.

I strongly ask you to vote against exclusion zones.

Local and national research has proven that exclusion zone policies do not work.

Per the previous speaker in Seattle Code, I demand you implement the racial equity toolkit under the race and social justice ordinance before passing the set of laws.

These policies are racist and classist.

That's part of the reason we stopped doing it in 2020. Intervening in situations involving exploited sex workers and human traffickers and people suffering from addiction requires trauma-informed victim-centered approaches To focus on safety, support, and long-term recovery, criminalization, coercion, and banishment has been proven to be an ineffective and harmful intervention.

These laws will not end the gun violence or sex trafficking mentioned by previous speakers.

Arrests and banishment are not an appropriate or the sole intervention available to us.

We and other cities ended policies of banishment because they don't create positive change and reinforce structural racism.

SPEAKER_110

Rejecting exclusion zones shows us...

Our last two speakers are David Aaron and Brett Popowski.

Go ahead, David.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah, hi.

Yeah, hello.

My name is Dave Aaron, and I'm a homeowner in District 5. And I've raised kids here, been here for 20 years.

And I support the SOAP legislation, the legislation.

And I'm curious, the reason I'm doing it is just because there's been such a large raise in gun violence over the last few years.

And it strikes me that people have talked about how they stopped doing this since 2020, and of course, there's been the great gun violence since then.

So anyways, I support the legislation and applaud the city council for doing something.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_110

Brett Papowski.

SPEAKER_06

Hello, I'm Brett Papowski.

I'm another co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, which opposes the soap and soda laws.

We have heard from an incredible number of our constituents, just as the council has heard from an incredible number of their constituents who would be affected by this legislation and oppose it due to their ineffective and dangerous consequences that they would have for some of the most marginalized people in this city.

Please listen to your constituents and vote no on this legislation.

SPEAKER_110

That concludes this section of remote speakers.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the public comment period will be postponed until after consideration of the initiative and the presentation scheduled for today's meeting.

Hearing no objection, the public comment period is postponed until after consideration of the initiative and today's presentation.

All right, so that means that we are proceeding to item D on our agenda.

Initiative 137 is before the council for consideration, and the council will continue to consider the options provided by the charter and within the allotted 45 days provided.

As noted above, we've got a proposed alternative to I-137 before us, and we're joined by Jen Lebrecht to present it and answer any questions that council members may have.

Pausing for central staff.

While we're waiting, if there is no objection, the rules will be suspended to allow council central staff to address the council.

Hearing no objection, the rules are suspended.

Hello.

We have suspended the rules to ask you to just walk us through the main points.

SPEAKER_92

Give me a moment to pull up my notes.

SPEAKER_96

Yeah.

SPEAKER_92

So I will be providing a brief overview of the alternative for I-137.

And give me just a moment to catch my breath.

OK.

So you have on the introduction and referral calendar today, there will be or there is an ordinance proposed legislation for an alternative to I-137.

That alternative amends the payroll expense tax code to dedicate $10 million annually for five years to the Seattle social housing developer.

Funds can be used to acquire, develop, or rehab social housing, and to provide administrative support.

And that $10 million will be adjusted, $10 million will be adjusted annually for inflation.

Up to 95% of the funds can be used for acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation costs, including pre-development costs, and up to 5% can be used for the Seattle Social Housing Developers administrative costs.

A couple of key things to note about the ordinance funds dedicated to the Seattle social housing developer.

Let me just take a step back and say that the ordinance, in addition to.

Also amend some other things in the PET code or the payroll expense tax code.

Under the legislation, funds that are dedicated to the Seattle social housing developer can be used to support units up to 80% AMI.

Currently, the payroll expense tax can only be used for units up to 60% AMI.

The Seattle social housing developer would need to find other sources for any units above 80% AMI.

Under this legislation, the Seattle social housing developer would be considered an eligible borrower provided that it has a CEO, a CFO, and adequate financial controls.

Under the current housing funding policies, the Seattle social housing developer would not be considered an eligible borrower due to lack of experience.

The Seattle social housing developer would not have to compete in OH's regular NOFA process for its dedicated portion, that $10 million of capital funds.

But it would need to submit a complete project application And any application would be subject to OH's standard underwriting processes as found in OH's housing funding policies.

Therefore, a funding award is not guaranteed.

Unless otherwise exempted in the ordinance, all of OH's housing funding policies will apply to any social housing project receiving dedicated funds.

Those policies include, but are not limited to, eligible and ineligible costs, criteria for complete application, underwriting standards, loan conditions, management and operations requirements, and ongoing project monitoring.

There is also a reporting requirement consistent with both current and future reports that OH provides on use of all of its capital funds.

If dedicated funding is not awarded within three years, then it will be made available through OH's regular NOFA process.

Dedicated funds can take either the form of a grant or a loan, which is more flexibility than the housing policies currently allow.

Currently, for affordable housing projects that are receiving funds through the Office of Housing, it's in the form of a loan.

Under the legislation, the Seattle social housing developer must compete like any other organization for other PET dollars outside of their dedicated funding amount or other types of OH capital dollars.

For any funding outside of that $10 million in dedicated funds, all OH housing funding policies would apply.

And the OH director has discretion to make an award greater than 40% of the total development cost for a project, which is the typical limit in OH's housing funding policies.

And one additional thing, which I should have prefaced at the beginning, and I think has probably become clear at this point with the summary, is that OH, the Seattle Office of Housing, would administer this $10 million in dedicated funding according to the housing funding policies.

Council adopted housing funding policies.

And the only places where the housing funding policies would not apply is specifically where they are exempted in this particular legislation.

And I'll stop there.

SPEAKER_96

Do my colleagues have any questions or comments on either Initiative 137 or the alternative?

Go ahead, Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_76

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Gen Central staff, for being here and taking us through the high points of this alternative.

As you know, and as I said yesterday, I co-sponsored this alternative with Housing and Human Services Chair Kathy Moore and Council Members Kettle and Wu.

The mayor had a voice to support for voters to have an alternative on the ballot.

We've created an alternative.

We can all agree we need more, and we do agree we all need more affordable housing in Seattle.

As I said yesterday, the alternative measure balances the need for innovation with the need for accountability.

It allows a Seattle social housing developer, a new public development authority, to demonstrate proof of construct.

of concept instead of the city giving over a blank check to yet another new agency that does not have a track record of creating housing.

As you heard from our central staffer, the alternative requires that the new social housing effort complies with the same safeguards that are in place for the city's existing affordable housing providers.

And that will ensure public dollars are spent wisely and effectively.

As stewards of public funds, we are ultimately responsible for ensuring that taxpayers see the intended returns on their investment.

We need to see results first.

Both pieces of legislation would appear on the ballot in February for voters to decide the alternative and the resolution to include both the legislation, the original I-137, and the alternative.

will appear for a vote this Thursday at a full council special meeting, which is September 19th at 2 p.m.

And so Jen is here to answer any questions.

I'm happy to answer any questions as well.

This both would appear, and I am going to say that this will appear on the February ballot.

I feel pretty confident that We're all going to vote to make sure this appears on the ballot with or without the alternative.

But we have crafted an alternative that was thoughtful and that kept in mind what current housing providers have been delivering on.

They have experience doing this work.

And like I said, happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Council President.

SPEAKER_24

Go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Questions, but I do have a comment.

Go ahead.

The first of which is that I think there is a complete lack of understanding of what this preservation, what this development authority would be doing and how it would actually work with existing nonprofit and for-profit affordable housing developers or businesses.

even market rate developers, given that it can go up to 120%.

So I think there's just a misunderstanding about what the intent of this model is.

The other thing I will say is that this alternative robs Peter to pay Paul.

It is taking from affordable housing providers, from anti-displacement projects, from homeless shelters who are dependent on the payroll expense tax.

Our shelters, we know, are grossly underfunded.

Our service providers are grossly underfunded.

Our anti-displacement projects are grossly underfunded.

And our investments in Green New Deal projects are grossly underfunded.

We are woefully behind in producing enough housing in the city for low and middle income individuals and for families.

And we should be investing every cent we have into our housing and homelessness crisis.

So pitting one type of developer against another and making everybody compete for particular resources is not the right answer.

We needed bold investments yesterday.

For those on council who need proof of concept, I would suggest you talk to the Montgomery County Housing Opportunity Commission.

For the last few years, they've been actively employing a social housing model.

Chattanooga, Tennessee is working on a similar housing innovation.

Chicago, California, Hawaii, Atlanta, Rhode Island.

The list goes on and on.

In fact, I chair the Social Housing Committee on the Local Progress Organization, which is a group of elected officials from across the country who are interested or already promoting this kind of model.

Social housing is not a radical idea.

It is an internationally proven model, and countless jurisdictions are taking it up here in the United States.

We should have been investing in this model decades ago, but this is our opportunity to start to do the right thing.

Public safety isn't just incarceration or more police or more punitive policies.

It is investing in the social fabric of our society.

And this alternative would drastically hamper the innovative potential of this model here in Seattle.

I strongly oppose it.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_91

Quiet in the house, please.

Are there any other comments?

Council Member Wu.

I do have a clarifying question.

So this money is coming out of Jumpstart.

Is it coming out of existing funding or excess funding from Jumpstart?

Where specifically is that?

SPEAKER_92

So this money would come out of the existing Jumpstart revenue.

It's not additive.

Does it take away from any of the buckets?

The legislation itself is silent about that.

It just says $10 million of Jump Start will be used for or dedicated for this purpose.

I think where it comes from and what other programs are impacted in order to accommodate this is still to be determined during the budgeting process.

SPEAKER_91

Thank you.

So I believe we need more housing.

Pause please.

SPEAKER_96

Will security, you have been warned about not speaking during the, or making disruption between, while we are up here conducting our business.

So will you please now stop that behavior.

The next time I will ask security to escort you out or get you to, convince you to discontinue that behavior.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_91

So I also want to clarify something.

And social housing model, I believe, is 80% to 120% AMI.

So when we say this housing is going to help our unhoused neighbors and our unhoused folks, I don't think that's correct.

I think this will help people who, what we'd call 80% to 120 AMI, people who are middle, what would be a term for that?

SPEAKER_92

Some of the, you hear various terms, and I think that there's no formal definition.

Sometimes you hear workforce housing.

Sometimes you hear missing middle housing.

It can depend.

No specific definition.

SPEAKER_91

I think as our role in government, we need to help fund the people who need the most resources, who need the most help.

That's zero to 40% AMI.

As an affordable housing provider, we do workforce housing.

We charge rent based on people's income.

We found that the 30, 40, 50...

And under AMI, there's a waiting list for this type of housing.

80% AMI, which is what social housing is, I believe, it's not that.

SPEAKER_96

Multiple individuals are engaging in disruptive behavior, and that's causing disruption of our meeting.

I am directing security to approach and remove individuals that continue to cause disruption to this meeting.

If order is not restored, we'll have to go to the next step.

to wait for security to escort the individual that has spoken while we were trying to conduct our business to please leave or I can just ask that person please yes we you are engaging in disruptive behavior by what'd you say Let's try it one more time.

It is very difficult for me to identify individuals who are doing the disruptions.

So let's pause here, and we will continue with our meeting.

And the next time there is an interruption, please escort that person out.

SPEAKER_91

OK.

So basically, could you clarify what social housing is, what AMIs specifically we're addressing?

SPEAKER_92

OK, now it's on.

Under I-135, which is the initiative that passed to create social housing, it said that social housing should have a range of incomes or units affordable to a range of incomes to the maximum extent possible.

And that range of incomes was from 0% AMI up to 120% AMI.

So this would help people who are homeless, basically.

I think that the idea is that there would be a range of income served to the maximum extent possible.

And what that maximum extent possible is would depend on the project created.

So it's hard to answer that in the hypothetical.

But it could.

It's envisioned in its sort of purest form to serve a range of incomes.

SPEAKER_91

Great.

I was under pressure that this was 80% to 120% AMI.

But regardless of that, to finish my sentence, under 50% AMI, we see there's a waiting list.

There are a lot of people who want and need this housing.

But when we look at the 80% AMI range or any 50% or above, these units remain open, basically, and they're a little hard to lease out.

So we always end up lowering the AMIs for these units.

I believe we need housing of all types.

We want social housing to succeed, but we also want to make sure there's a strong legal foundation and a well-established source of proven safeguards for this funding.

And so I think, you know, I would like to see this go before the voters.

I would love to have an option as well for voters to look at.

And so I will be supporting both to go before the voters to see what their thoughts are.

SPEAKER_96

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_41

Thank you, Council President.

And I just wanted to thank first Council Member Rivera, who put a lot of work in with Ms. Lebrecht and The central staff team so I appreciate the effort that was done on this and I also as councilmember Rivera noted I also appreciate the mayor and his expression that you know to the need that we should have an alternative on the ballot for the voters and to Council Member Wu's point, to decide.

As I noted last week, for me, this is about good governance versus the legal issues that exist.

I-130 is going to give a challenge.

It's going to lose, most likely, in court.

And so we need to have a legal smart alternative on the ballot.

And we can't wish this away.

I'd made the point about funding sources last week regarding the various sources that we have, the MHA, MFTE, the PET, and other names for that, which I won't go through again.

And I think this provides an opportunity for us on existing and established funding source to dedicate funds to the social housing effort, which I appreciate.

Also noted last week, structure.

The social housing PDA, in my mind, is not getting off to a good start.

And we have suffered because of the failures of the start of the King County Regional Homeless Authority.

What we can't do is have another KCRHA 2.0 when it comes to the social housing PDA.

And I think the measure, the alternative, will help in this regard to ensure that we do get social housing.

At the end of the day, to have that in the mix in terms for what we're looking to do.

And I'll restate again, in terms of the good governance point, that we went through an incredible process with Chair Saka on transportation, with the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Housing is just important.

I believe we should go through a process similar, different but similar, that has the...

the rigor and the looks and brings it up through community engagement and then at one point then comes to the council.

I think we can learn a lot of lessons learned from the process that we went through with the Seattle Transportation Plan to help the housing efforts that we are trying to do in the city.

So with that, I am a co-sponsor of the alternative and I thank again Council Member Rivera with central staff's help and with the support of the executive for that.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you, Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_70

Thank you very much, Council President.

I just wanted to clarify, Jen, that the funding is for coming from the payroll expense tax.

It could come from the entire bucket, right, of the payroll expense tax.

This isn't necessarily, it hasn't been designated to come from the housing portion that we've set aside that many of the other housing providers are pulling from.

Is that correct?

SPEAKER_92

That's correct.

This legislation does not designate what pot or bucket of the payroll expense tax this funding is coming from.

That is still to be determined as part of the budgeting process.

SPEAKER_70

Okay.

So there is access to the totality of the payroll expense tax.

So we aren't necessarily pitting one provider against another with this alternative.

The other thing I wanted to clarify is that 80% AMI based on...

of housing for one person is about $83,000 a year.

And the way the PDA is currently set up there is no requirement for a certain percentage of 80%.

So it' s really targeted more at 120%.

And serving on the king county affordable housing committee The statistics show that where our greatest need is zero to 30, and that's why we have a housing levy, but also significantly 50 to 60, and to me, that's where we are really falling down.

Not to say that we don't need additional housing in 80 to 120, but if we're talking about affordable housing, that's where the greatest need has been identified.

And just to Councilmember Morales' point, I mean, yeah, social housing is being done.

It's being done in Europe.

It's a great model.

It's being done in Maryland.

It's being done differently in Montgomery County, and they have a lot more accountability in the structure that they've set up in Maryland.

I would also note that when I-137 was passed, we were given assurances and promises that they would be self-funding, that they would not be seeking...

government, you know, local city funding.

And two years later, they're back here asking for government funding and basically to bypass the process through the council so that there's no oversight about how they're actually managing the money and delivering on the promise of desperately needed social housing.

And lastly, I would say that this gives the voters the opportunity to listen to the arguments of both sides to make up their own mind about which is going to better deliver on the promise of desperately needed housing between 80 and 120 percent.

And that's why I'm proud to be a co-sponsor.

I want to thank Councilmember Rivera for her thoughtful work here.

SPEAKER_96

I was going to make a comment and then I will then you can and then I'll allow the prime sponsor to finish out.

So I'll just note, and we will have an opportunity, this will be before us on Thursday in a special meeting where we will then actually take formal action.

And I don't have much to say today, but I just simply wanted to note that it's clear that voters overwhelmingly support affordable housing.

last year with good margins.

However, that was an initiative that was basically an unfunded mandate.

People thought that they were voting for affordable housing, but there was no funding mechanism to go along with that.

And so now here we are.

I do believe that the backers of the original Initiative 135 could have been more transparent about where they thought that the money would be coming from.

They did mention that in conversation shortly after one of their first presentations last year.

Be that as it may, we have a responsibility to ensure that public dollars are spent wisely and effectively, and we also have a responsibility to consider minimizing risk to the city as we have been and we have met in one of our first meetings on this topic earlier on.

So I support the, I support giving voters a choice, and I appreciate Councilmember Rivera bringing this forward, because we need to make sure if everybody is wanting affordable housing, which I do believe we do, we have to set up the conditions for success.

And in creating a funding mechanism for an organization that has had a year to ramp up but has not released any plans for development or acquisition of housing and doesn't have a track record of any expertise or specific knowledge of the topic, it does make me concerned.

And so this alternative balances accountability with support for a new housing model, which I think that a lot of people want to see.

If it can work here, it dedicates a funding stream to enable the PDA to demonstrate that the concept works, but still aligns the social housing effort with the safeguards that apply to other affordable housing providers.

And so, like I said, we do have, as council, a responsibility to ensure that public dollars are spent wisely and effectively and to minimize legal risk.

And by sending this alternative to the ballot alongside 137, we're laying a firmer foundation for the PDA's success and ability to deliver on their promises and operate a new housing model in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.

So those are some of the comments that I want to say.

No doubt there will be comparisons to when I opposed sending an alternative to the ballot.

I believe it was in 2022. And that was not, that did not concern a public, that did not concern the expense of public funding.

And so this is a different situation.

Go ahead, Council Member Williams.

Council Member Morales, and then I'll let Rivera close us out.

SPEAKER_24

Yeah, I just want to be really clear that we have a spend plan for the payroll expense tax.

So if that $10 million isn't going to come from the housing allocation, then it's going to have to come from EDI or from Green New Deal or from the economic development line item because we do have a spend plan for how that revenue gets made.

That was my point about pinning projects and...

and priorities against one another in using that tax to fund the social housing developer.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

I will also note that between the April and August projection of PET revenues, that number went up 70%, I mean $70 million.

And so it does, you're right that it doesn't, that there are percentages that that money is to go to, but quarter to quarter, it seems to be overperforming.

Go ahead, Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_76

Thank you, Council President, and you and Council Member Moore.

Thank you for your comments because you actually made most of the comments that I was going to raise, which is it is true that payroll expense tax is overperforming, so there's no reason to think this is taking money away from any of the current housing providers that apply for those funds.

It's also true that we, while social housing might be working in other cities, it is new to the city of Seattle.

It is not a proven concept at the city of Seattle, and we we have not seen any plans that the pda has released for their version of social housing and so we just don' t know it is not a proven concept in seattle.

I will say that both of these things will appear on the ballot for voters our responsibility and the reason why bringing the alternative is because we want to make sure that we are being responsive to taxpayers and being responsible for public dollars as the mayor also indicated when he said he would like to see an alternative We really want to make sure that whatever is created in terms of social housing is actually set up for success, quite frankly.

So this alternative was put together with that in mind.

If the social housing PDA, if this particular alternative passes with the safeguards that we've put in place that other housing providers are also subject to, providers that actually have experience creating low-income housing, then the pda will be you know if it's successful then they will have access to we can do dollars in into the future for it so they have to do a proof of concept to do that it really is a way this alternative is a way to give the pda the opportunity to show that they can do the work and if they do i think that's great because i as i started with we need more affordable housing in this city there are in this alternative things baked in that the pda will have access to that current existing providers do not so there is some allowances for the pda in order to help set them up for success so it really was a thoughtful way of moving forward an alternative that voters can consider that really does put accountability at the forefront.

So thank you, and I know we'll be talking more about this on Thursday, but just to give some, to address some of Council Member Morales' concerns and to give more information on how this was put together.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Any other comments?

All right, then I move to postpone Resolution 32142 for consideration at the September 19th Special City Council Meeting.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to postpone resolution 32142 to September 19th.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the motion to postpone resolution 32142 for consideration at the September 19th special city council meeting.

SPEAKER_110

Council member Moore.

Aye.

Council member Morales.

Aye.

Council member Rivera.

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council member Saka.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_91

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The motion carries and the resolution is postponed until September 19th, the special city council meeting.

All right, moving on to E, presentations.

Thank you very much for your patience, everyone.

Council Member Saka has a proclamation proclaiming September 17th, 2024 to be Olympics Paralympics Athletes Day.

Council Member Saka, you're welcome to present this proclamation and just take it away and then we will ask questions afterwards.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_63

All good.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Exciting times here.

Get to do this business.

Proclamation time.

So...

Colleagues, today I'm honored to present this proclamation signed by Mayor Harreld and by you all colleagues to recognize, pay tribute to, and honor all the terrific local athletes from the greater Seattle area who competed and those who ultimately achieved medals in the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As our proclamation specifically points out, all the athletes who competed are winners.

Irrespective of whether they ended up standing on the podium or not, we honor them, we appreciate them, and today we celebrate them.

Here with us today are a few important people directly relevant to this discussion.

Let's see.

Coach Callahan was here, had to leave, unfortunately.

He's a UW rowing coach.

But we have a few UW alumni.

So we have Riley Milne, Evan Olsen, and Peter Quinton here with us today.

And the team that ultimately achieved a bronze medal for Team USA, congrats.

And a few alumni who also couldn't be here, UW alumni who couldn't be here in person.

So next, we are pleased to welcome Taylor Swanson.

See Taylor in the back, stunting in the back with your bling medals.

I love it.

So Taylor Swanson is also a proud Seattleite who now lives and trains in Spokane.

She is here with us today with family members.

She is a Paralympics sprinter who has won many competitions and recently won a silver medal in the T37 100 and a bronze medal in the Mixed Universal Relay.

Yeah, shout out.

Shout out to Taylor and Riley and Evan and Peter.

So I learned that the T-37 is a disability sport classification for disability athletics in track and jump events.

Even more interesting and inspiring, in fact, to share about Taylor.

She was born in South Korea, and at age two, she was diagnosed with phonological process disorder, which affects language processing.

Although she exhibited signs of cerebral palsy growing up, she wasn't officially diagnosed until June 2023, when doctors discovered she had a type of cerebral palsy.

She has trained, hard, dedicated, her life to recently to stand and ultimately achieved success by standing on the podium.

And I'm so proud of you.

The city of Seattle is so proud of you all.

Again, whether or not you stand on the podium or not, I want to just express our gratitude as evidenced by this important paperwork and document here.

Thank you all for hanging out in my office during some of the earlier conversations.

You all look amazing.

You all look amazing.

You obviously, your contributions as Olympians reflect obviously not just great credit on your country, They reflect great credit on your community and your city.

We are tremendously proud of you.

I'm a UW alum, happen to be.

I also represent Cougs.

But regardless of your school and college affiliation, your contributions on the rowing side, we're all proud of you.

So thank you again.

If any of the...

So...

Do any of my colleagues have any comments or questions at this time?

SPEAKER_96

Are there any opportunities locally?

What is the schedule for the appearance of these sports here in Seattle in between Olympic events?

SPEAKER_63

That's a great question.

But they can...

Yeah, well, we're going to give them an opportunity to say some remarks here in a moment.

Maybe they might have better insights on that.

But we can support our athletes.

Some folks named here, for example, have ties to the Seattle Storm.

So Jewel Lloyd, for example.

You know, we can come support them and honor their work and their success on the court by showing up to a Storm game.

UW...

Kelsey Plum, UW alumni Kelsey Plum competed hard for the UW women's basketball team.

So there are many other opportunities that don't rise to the level of the remarkable success that these great athletes and ultimately Olympians and Paralympians did, but we can support their work and their athletic achievement in so many different ways across our city.

So they probably have better thoughts and remarks on that, but that's my two cents from the chief seats.

SPEAKER_96

All right, thank you very much.

So if there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to present the proclamation, which you've already spoken to, but also allow our guests to say a few remarks.

Thank you so much for being here.

Hearing no objection, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_13

Yeah, so for me, I want to start off by thanking the City of Seattle Councilman Rob Salka for this honor.

It's been an absolute dream come true to get the opportunity to represent the United States at the Paralympic Games in track and field.

My journey into para-athletic wasn't exactly expected or I didn't even know that it was available for me.

As a kid growing up in Seattle, I had a dream of one day going to the Olympics, but I wasn't sure that was going to happen.

So being able to represent the United States at the Paralympics was a dream fulfilled.

As a child, I grew up in Seattle, Washington.

I went to Roosevelt all four years in Seattle.

I competed track there as well.

Although I competed well compared to my peers, what I didn't know at the time is that I always had a qualifying disability, which is cerebral palsy, which is a neurological and coordination disability.

And then for me, there were many hurdles, many hurdles along the way to get me to this point of competing.

at the Paris Paralympics that I didn't see or even know at the time.

These obstacles were needed as they helped me not just in athletics, but in life to learn about CP.

After high school, I had plans to continue to do track.

I still had my Olympic dreams, but it didn't go like I expected as I continued to train with a local elite club here in Seattle.

And then in 2014, I had a knee injury and ended up needing many surgeries on my right knee.

These surgeries resulted in permanent nerve damage, so I developed foot drop.

And then I saw many doctors over the years and other healthcare professionals.

There were so many, I can't even remember how many.

After several years of doing physical therapy with no improvement, my physical therapist thought I might qualify for para-athletics.

But I didn't know how to get started in para-athletics.

This was completely new to me.

So I did what most people do, is Google.

and found a local para-meet in Spokane, and this was kind of my starting to para-athletics.

When I went to Spokane for a track meet put on by ParaSport Spokane, while I was there at that track meet, I met with Teresa Skinner who did an unofficial classification in ParaSports.

Classification is a series of tests used to measure the impairment in order to group similar disabilities disabilities together to compete.

Though the series of tests performed during the classification, Teresa told me that the result of that showed that I had cerebral palsy, which at the time I had no idea about.

When Teresa told me that I had cerebral palsy, it was a complete shock to me because no one ever told me I had CP.

But after doing a little bit of research, there were so many puzzle pieces that fit together.

It was an answer that I was looking for but never knew I needed.

I had many challenges growing up that now made quite a bit of sense with the diagnosis or finding out that I had cerebral palsy.

And there were, like for example, I had difficulties in school.

I had horrible hand-eye coordination, and I got fatigued a lot quicker than everyone else, my peers, and that was just a few things.

A few months later, I ended up moving to Spokane to train with ParaSport Spokane.

My coach, David Gregg, has really helped me to get to the level and has taught me so much about both having cerebral palsy as well as how to train as a para-athlete.

It has made all the difference and one of the reasons I was able to compete at the Paris Paralympics.

I'm still learning more about my disability and how to train and what cerebral palsy looks like for me.

The Paris Paralympic game, Games were my first Paralympics.

I was blown away by racing in front of 70,000 spectators in the stadium.

Having a competitor from France and it being in France, the loud reception she received was definitely a new experience for me.

In Paris, I raced both the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and I also did the universal relay.

The universal relay is a four by one relay comprised of athletes with different disability groups representing each leg of the relay.

Although things didn't start off as I had hoped, I ended up crashing in the 200 final.

But I was able to pick myself up, refocus, and came back and got a silver medal in the 100 and helped Team USA win a bronze in the relay.

These Paralympic Games surpass all of my Olympic dreams as a kid.

But at the Paralympics, just as amazing, just as electrifying, and just as powerful.

I'm super excited for Los Angeles to be next up to host the Paralympic Games in 2028. And then thank you again for this incredible honor and looking forward to representing the United States, City of Seattle, City of Spokane, and my club, Parasport Spokane, as I continue to chase my dreams and compete, hopefully, compete at the 2020 Paralympics in LA.

SPEAKER_80

Go ahead.

Yes.

SPEAKER_28

Hi, everyone.

My name is Evan Olson.

I was born in Seattle.

I live in Bothell, and I have lived in Bothell my entire life.

I started rowing when I read the book The Boys in the Boat, which is about a group of Americans from Washington that trained together at University of Washington and then went off to the 1936 Olympics and won a gold medal.

And that was kind of the starting point for me.

I started rowing just a couple months after I read that book.

I rowed at a local club up in Everett.

And then I moved down to Pocock Rowing Center, and I rowed there the duration of my high school career.

That's just on Lake Union.

Then I went off and I rowed for four years at the University of Washington.

And it was always a dream of mine to go and compete at the Olympics.

So that's been a 10-year journey for me.

So I'm from Seattle through and through.

Seattle's my home.

I'm honored to be here.

I'm honored that all of you guys are here and that you had us.

This is just an amazing accomplishment for me and for the United States of America.

And I'm truly honored to be able to represent not only America, but the city of Seattle and my hometown, the city of Bothell.

I'm really excited to continue training for the home games, LA 2028. You know, like the Paris crowd had a lot of French people and they really cheered loud for all the French athletes.

And I'm really excited for the opportunity to continue training for the home games.

Yeah.

So thank you all so much.

SPEAKER_36

Hi, everyone.

I'm Riley Milne.

I'm from Windville, Washington, and I went to University of Washington with these guys.

I'd like to say thank you, Rob, and your staff for being such great hosts and the City of Seattle Council and the rest of you.

I know you guys are on break.

There's an important day, so I appreciate it.

So, yeah, we were in the men's eight that won bronze.

We were also all of us were at the University of Washington.

And I know the city supports it.

so much to a degree that our largest home race, the Windermere Cup, it actually has probably close to as many in-person fans as the Olympic Games actually had.

The Windermere Cup has people watching on boats and on the shores.

And I know no other university or city is able to present that.

The Olympics is the only other big event I know that's like a race like that.

So yeah, thank you, everyone.

I know it's a big day, but thank you.

Go Seattle.

SPEAKER_00

Hi, I'm Peter Quinton.

I'm actually from Portland, Oregon, but I came up here to university and rowed here for a year.

But I grew up racing here in Seattle on Lake Union, on Green Lake, so this city is close to my heart when it comes to rowing.

And I just want to thank all of you for your continued support.

of this sport.

As an aide, we actually came out here in April and trained.

And the people of Seattle opened their houses and hosted us to train during that month.

And that was an integral piece of our training block.

So thank you all for supporting this sport that we love so much.

SPEAKER_96

Go ahead, Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_63

No, I was just going to say, love everything about this.

Thank you all again.

Thank you, Taylor, Riley, Evan, Peter.

And I'm not sure if Taylor's mother is still here.

I had the pleasure of meeting Taylor's mama back in the back.

One thing I love about the Olympics and Paralympics is that the athletic performance of each individual athlete is on full display for the world.

But what I find personally most powerful about the Olympics and Paralympic Games is that athletes like yourselves, you not only represent your country, self-explanatory, you also represent your city, your communities, and the countless parents, siblings, coaches, influential mentors, and teachers in your life that helped you achieve what you ultimately achieved, whether that achievement is being at the Olympics or earning a medal.

We are tremendously proud of you.

Thank you, thank you.

So special hats.

Everybody give her mama a round of applause, please.

Taylor's mom, a round of applause.

The parents, honor our parents.

So thank you again, Madam Council President.

Well, actually, before we get there, does anyone else have any comments, questions?

SPEAKER_76

Thank you Council Member Sacca for bringing these amazing young people forward.

I just want to say in addition to all the accolades that Council Member Sacca just went through, you all are role models and people are looking at you, young people are looking at you and saying, I want to be an Olympian too.

Thank you for what you do.

Thank you for being such great role models to some young people out there that hopefully will be in your shoes someday in the very near future.

So thank you and congratulations.

So proud.

And I'm just going to stand and clap again.

SPEAKER_63

Awesome.

Madam Council President, if you would kindly join me in presenting the proclamation to our guests.

Yes, I would.

Appreciate that.

They have the ultimate flex with these medals.

I love it.

SPEAKER_99

Thank you.

SPEAKER_47

USA.

USA.

SPEAKER_79

Do you want to take a recess at any point?

SPEAKER_96

Okay, so colleagues, we broke to have the discussion of the initiative and also the presentation of the proclamation.

I would like to know if people were alerted that this meeting would probably go on longer than usual.

So before we decide what to do next, are there people that have any hard stops, any time that is a hard stop tonight that you have to?

Depart, okay.

All right, how many more people are listed on the?

SPEAKER_76

Sorry, Council President, I do have a hard stop at six.

SPEAKER_96

Six o'clock.

SPEAKER_108

We have 58 signed up speakers so far in person and four remote.

And I'm not sure if all 58 are currently still present, but we can go through the numbers to figure that out.

SPEAKER_96

Okay, in order to make sure that we get to all the items on the agenda before 6 o'clock, I will be ending the public comment period at...

Council President.

Go ahead, yeah.

SPEAKER_21

I think it's incumbent upon us to hear from everyone who's remotely or physically present, and with due respect to the colleague who needs to leave, I think we need to hear from the public.

SPEAKER_96

I totally understand that, and I am trying to figure out how to accommodate that our colleague gets to vote on the legislation.

What were you going to say?

SPEAKER_76

Yeah, is it possible just to finish our business and then go back to public comment, or do we need to go to public comment and then finish the business?

SPEAKER_96

We will, let's just...

No, because probably people want to vote on, I mean, they want to speak on something that we are ending up voting on.

So, I am going to confer with folks, and please, let's go with the next 10 public comment speakers that have signed up on the list, and then we will...

See what's happening.

SPEAKER_108

Okay, we will start with the next 10 in-person speakers.

We're at number 41. 41 through 50, if you're still here, please line up.

And we'll start with 41. Is 41 still here?

If you are, can you just raise your hand to let us know?

Thank you.

SPEAKER_27

Good afternoon, council.

My name is Josh Martinez.

I'm a small business owner in D2.

I'm asking you all to vote no on the discriminatory soap and soda zones.

We know you know better.

You've heard from so many that this will harm black, brown, and native people.

It will harm trans people.

It will harm immigrants, people living homeless, and sex workers.

You're betting it won't harm anyone who has your direct number.

but we are your constituents too.

This council edited an impartial memo, limited public comment, ignored experts, and voted away from the public to pass this bill.

That's how we know you know.

You cannot blame ignorance, and we will not accept your callousness.

You know which communities you're willing to let the police surveil and exploit, but we are your constituents too.

In time, voters will know it's your fault when these laws didn't help and only hurt, when more people are jobless or on the streets because police prostitutes and loiterers.

This and past councils have voted against fair housing, drug treatment, and mental health counseling.

This is now your cruelty we see in the CID, on Pike Pine, on Aurora, and other parts of the city.

This will be your fault.

Kindness never kills.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_20

Soap has already been repealed because it's not effective and it's racist and transphobic and sexist.

Soap relies on racial and gender profiling and what, telepathy?

What does a prostitute look like?

Is this what a prostitute looks like?

But this is not what you'll use to train your cops in profiling, right?

Every single one of us knows and loves a sex worker, former, current, or future.

Whether working the streets, dancing, a porn performer, or a high-end escort, every single one of you knows a sex worker and loves a sex worker.

And we are connected.

There is no hierarchy.

You criminalize workers on Aurora, the next city council will be coming for the sex worker that you love next.

And every single one of us knows and loves a consumer of sex work, digital or in real life.

Most of us are consumers of sex work.

We deserve dignity and respect and choice and autonomy.

Criminalization is not helpful, period.

Legalize all sex work and address the root causes that trafficking thrives on.

SPEAKER_117

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_96

Next speaker please.

SPEAKER_35

OPEIU Local 8, the MLK Labor Council, and Seattle service workers stand united in opposition to these regressive soap, soda, and prostitution loitering ordinances.

Workers know that a safer Seattle will come through good, high-paying union jobs, building social housing, building community spaces, and providing social services.

These ordinances will not make a single person safer.

Criminalization and incarceration are the most expensive, the least effective, and the most harmful ways to address social problems.

This council faces a historic deficit.

This council also faces a historic opportunity to fund things that work and put people first.

Invest in our communities.

Invest in our labor.

Invest in things that work.

Vote no on soap and soda.

Vote no on the prostitution loitering ordinance.

Vote no on the failures of the past.

Workers stand united.

We invite you to stand with us.

SPEAKER_62

Thank you.

Go ahead.

My name is Ivana.

I'm speaking on behalf of Queer of the Land and Decriminalized Sex Work.

I'm also a former sex worker who worked a block away from a war on 104th.

I'm also a current city employee, so that should give you perspective.

I worked at Bitter Lake Community Center, Ballard Community Center, right now Garfield.

I worked at the Business Service Center.

I worked as a senior event scheduler.

So I did sex work from the ages 18 to 23 while I was employed at a community center.

Would you arrest me?

I also stand before you to oppose this law, but I also wanted to say this.

I passed Kathy Moore and called her trash while standing outside of Einstein Bagels.

Hold on.

And it's kind of crazy how you can sit there and talk obliviously around your surroundings.

I think it's shocking to not be able to be hypervigilant and aware of your surroundings.

But you're...

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_72

Thank you.

My name is Shira Cole.

I've been a sex worker for 20 years.

Criminalization only moves us underground.

Underground is harder to find trafficked victims.

This policy will make many of us more dependent on pimps to find clients.

Criminalization is why sex workers are working on the streets in the first place.

When you make somebody illegal, you make it legal to harm them because they cannot call the police.

Haven't we already learned from marijuana and alcohol?

that it's criminalization that makes things dangerous?

As a single parent facing unaffordable childcare, I have two realistic options, sex work or to be dependent on someone else and thus live with someone I may not want to live with.

Criminalization removes choices, pushes marginalized people into being financially dependent and thus vulnerable to exploitation.

The people best equipped to make decisions for themselves are themselves, not a policy passed by people who have never met them.

All criminalization policies were campaigned under anti-trafficking.

These groups have made sex work illegal, pushed us into unsafe and isolated platforms, and then cried at the damage their policy

SPEAKER_108

Thanks.

Number 47.

SPEAKER_51

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Sam.

I live in District 5. Hi, Donya.

The safe zone laws horrify me, and I just want this on the record.

These policies are the war on drugs 2.0.

Punishment and carceral approaches as a focus on arrests and negative incentives very publicly exacerbate the issues while shielding the cops from criticism under the guise of doing what's needed.

As the problem grows, the punishment also grows.

And then we're just told that we need more arrests before things get better.

But this never bears out.

It never leads to more resources, and it never will.

When you send someone to jail, it doesn't just affect them.

It deepens the waves of poverty and instability rippling through our communities, my community.

When you arrest someone, do you understand that that also affects their lives and their family members?

How do you think that affects the crime rates?

How do you think that this affects them?

This affects us all directly and as a test case.

These safety zone policies come on the heels of increased surveillance as part of a broader Seattle safety measure where safety is measured in terms of arrests.

We've seen the precursors to this bill in terms of the expansion of...

license plates, surveillance data basing, and score funding.

All of these bills are prison pipelines.

We see what you're doing.

We see they're connected.

If you vote for this bill, this will be your last term.

We know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_53

I'm a District 5 voter and I'm asking the City Council to oppose soap and soda.

This law does not target violent offenders.

Their crimes, along with everything else concerned people brought up today, are already illegal.

It's obviously illegal to kidnap children and sell them on the street.

Soap and soda, despite what this uninformed supporter say, has nothing to do with this.

Police are choosing to spend their time and money doing high-speed chases, hitting and killing pedestrians, and taking field trips to Israel to train and...

protester suppression with the IDF.

You should be angry that police are choosing to ignore shootings and ignore violent crimes against sex workers and trafficking victims.

This law creates new crimes that are so vague that they target anyone police believe are behaving like sex workers or drug users.

We have money, but city council chooses to invest it into punishment and failed policies.

When Kathy Moore was running for city council, I brought up my concerns about...

urged her to listen to the frontline workers that are giving clear evidence-based requests and recommendations the consensus on this bill is that it will make the problem worse you're diverting resources from rehabilitation in order to inflict punishment

SPEAKER_89

and I live in District 3 and I'm a mutual aid organizer in Chinatown International District, which is one of the neighborhoods in the proposed soda zone.

I'm speaking today in opposition of this legislation.

It is striking that the council central staff's own research on these builds concludes that the proposed soda and soap zones are not anticipated to reduce public drug use or sex work.

Instead, they would destroy the livelihoods of the communities that I'm a part of and serve.

Queer and trans people of color, people experiencing homelessness and people with disabilities.

They would prevent people from accessing vital social services and public transit.

Criminalization of people in poverty only drives them further into poverty and as a means of survival into the activities that the city wants to put an end to.

These policies divert funding away from evidence- effective solutions such as housing and substance use disorder treatment that actually address the problems of poverty and will reduce community violence.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

We have one more speaker in this set, speaker number 50.

SPEAKER_100

Good evening, my name is Kari Larum from Rainier Beach District 2. Thank you for holding this forum and having us speak so late.

I'm here to ask you to vote no on bringing back outdated and harmful soda laws.

I have a PhD in sociology, and I'm a professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at University of Washington Bothell.

I'm also a former co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission.

I know from more than 30 years of research, teaching, and listening to individuals in the sex trade that laws like this are a tired, old playbook, harmful to those they propose to help.

In fact, I often showcase such laws in class to teach my students how to identify spurious logic and instead instruct them on how to identify direct lines between cause and effect.

Soap and soda laws are not just based on spurious logic and bad research.

They are based on a lack of moral and political courage.

to search for true causes of these problems and drawing evidence-based solutions.

This room is full of people who have deep knowledge of the roots of these problems.

Please work with us to create a better proposal.

SPEAKER_95

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

We have remote speakers.

Please, Jenny.

SPEAKER_110

There's three remote speakers, David Haynes, Regina Walsh, and Nathaniel Johnston.

Go ahead, David.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you, David Haynes.

Maybe social housing needs to be given the land where all the slum hotels are that traffic to all those people with eminent domain of need, and then have the Army Corps of Engineers cut some footers to help them out with the cost, because there's definitely a need for capacity.

But the thing is...

and the pimps, the crimps of progress, causing a societal mess, forcing women to undress.

Instead, City Hall is still exempting low-level drug pushers from jail and sabotaging police reform, allowing evil repeat offenders to destroy lives daily and then get prioritizing for housing and services first before they get properly punished and separated from community that they conduct an uncivil war on.

They need to be trespassed and questioned in the interrogation room at the police station before they get transferred to find where the drug supply is and the safe house is and go shut it down.

SPEAKER_08

Council needs to write a law that the cops get overtime instead of dispersing them and grabbing a couple of people who are all messed up

SPEAKER_110

Go ahead, Regina.

Regina, you may need to press star six.

SPEAKER_05

There we go.

Hi, thank you for being so patient.

My name is Regina and I want to first address I'm in no way representing my place of employment.

I'm speaking against the unconstitutional CB 12836. I believe this bill will do a terrible disservice to those people most vulnerable with intersecting identities of LGBTQIA plus and BIPOC.

This bill is criminalizing people rather than raising them up.

I agree, sex trafficking is terrible and gun violence is outrageous, but this bill will absolutely not do anything for that.

This bill will scare people from seeking help if they know the consequences of being in a soap or soda area.

What does probable cause look like for soap?

Are police going to start questioning why people are wearing what they're wearing?

Are we wanting to put women of color, especially trans women of color, in even more danger?

This bill says it's supporting diversity.

Are we going to add more resources?

Because we definitely don't have enough now.

Soap and soda are not the answer.

This bill is just going to help landlords sell...

SPEAKER_110

Go ahead, Nathaniel.

SPEAKER_112

Hi, I'm Nate.

I'm an aspiring sex worker.

The soapstone laws aren't going to work.

If you already know where they are, why don't you go find out who is doing what when so you can actually figure out who is being trafficked and who is just out there working.

They've been doing the same thing to combat sex trafficking for 500 years dating back to the red light district.

You need to get your thumb on it while you still have the chance.

If you cast them out and don't tell them where to go, how do you know they're not going to go somewhere where you don't want them to be?

Vote no.

SPEAKER_110

That concludes our remote speakers.

SPEAKER_96

Please continue with the next 10.

SPEAKER_108

Our next set is numbers 51 through 60. If you can please line up.

And if you wouldn't mind stating your name before you start your public comment, that'd be great, just so that we can know who's speaking.

Thank you.

Number 51, thank you.

SPEAKER_64

Good afternoon, council.

My name is Ali, resident of Little Saigon Mutual Aid and Harm Reduction Organizer and public transit user.

I'm here today to urge you to vote no on the soap and soda bills.

However, I will be focusing on soda due to my personal experience.

Neither my partner or I, both young disabled queer femmes, have never felt particularly unsafe walking around or taking transit in the neighborhood even at night except for when there are police harassing or honestly harassing people or honestly just being there all this is is a power move it's intimidation it's emotional abuse it's the same thing the u.s military does protecting oil fields in the name of democracy Be directly responsible for more deaths and an increase in crime, both petty and violent.

From my time doing mutual aid and harm reduction, both in Saigon and across the city, I've seen and heard that anytime you displace someone, both crime as well as overdoses go up because people are desperate and in despair.

And let's be real.

That's what you want.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_55

I'm Lexi, District 3. I live near the proposed Soda Zone in Capitol Hill.

On my third day of living in the neighborhood, I was part of an effort to stop an overdose.

My neighbors responded quickly with care and we saved a person's life.

With soda in effect, that person who overdosed would be pushed away from community, increasing the rate of preventable death.

Last Saturday, I canvassed the Aurora neighborhood and talked to Cathy Moore's constituents about the anti-prostitution laws.

People expressed concerns for women's safety and the issues of rising violence in the area, but many constituents didn't believe the SOAP laws to be a real solution.

Criminalizing johns and profiling women ultimately pushes sex work into more dangerous areas.

People in the sex trade, over 55 expert organizations like the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the City of Shoreline, and even the SPD agreed that the prostitution, loitering, and soap won't work and will make violence worse.

Voting for the displacement of our most vulnerable community members is undemocratic and deadly.

Vote no to soap and soda.

SPEAKER_01

My name is and I live on Capitol Hill.

I don't think you all understand how depressing it is to be represented by you people.

Week after week, people have come in here, often in the middle of their work days, to tell you how obviously bad of an idea these laws are.

No one here thinks gun violence or human trafficking are good, but these laws don't fix either of those problems.

We know these laws will displace people.

We know they will drive people further into desperate situations.

We know they will simply shift the problem as you see it somewhere else.

We know that means you'll just expand the zones so they resemble or exceed the previous zones we had that we got rid of because of their known racist impact.

We know this will only empower the police to harass people they think don't belong in public.

A few days ago, SPD's union posted a video on Twitter of a person walking on Capitol Hill they thought wasn't wearing enough clothes.

Is this the morality police you want to set loose on your constituents?

Stopping queer and trans people in the streets based on how they're dressed, checking to see if they have permission to look like that in public?

As much as a waste of time these hearings have been, I guarantee you if you pass these laws, it won't fix anything.

It'll lead to more unnecessary...

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_32

Travis DiPrato, I'm from D3.

Regarding I-137, this is a last second bait and switch.

The city council had months and weeks to propose an alternative, but delayed so much that they had to have a special meeting on this Thursday so that they can get it approved.

There are co-sponsors of the alternative who are asking basic facts about I-137.

This is not a plan to solve homelessness.

I-137 is not.

And it doesn't have that goal.

It's a plan to build more housing and begin to stop the bleeding that forces people into homelessness.

It's a yes and plan.

It's not subsidizing housing for people who make 120% of the area median income.

Everyone pays 30% of their income and higher income people subsidize the lower income people.

That's why capping it at 80% will kneecap the whole thing.

You say you don't want to see another failed experiment, but the alternative is essentially guaranteeing a social housing developer will fail.

Tanya Wu, you said you are not...

introduce a competing ballot measure to I-137, and yet here we are today, the same day that you conveniently withdrew from the City Hall candidate forum run by the social housing provider.

You're an unelected.

SPEAKER_108

We should be at number 56.

SPEAKER_52

Madison Zakwu.

I am a board member for the Cupcake Girls, an anti-trafficking org that represents 36 states.

I'm a lead organizer on strippers or workers.

I'm also a published researcher on sex work and decriminalization.

I didn't have anything prepared, but I just wanted to address some things that I've been hearing from the council, especially in the last hearing.

There's been a lot of talk about how there's so many sex workers or people who identify as sex work coming up here who don't have lived experience.

And I want to say that these labels, whether we use them or not, cannot be put on us.

There are plenty of sex workers, including myself, who have experienced trafficking, have experienced what would be considered trafficking or assault.

And we may not be holding those labels to identify ourselves.

And I also want to point out that this process is incredibly difficult for people in the sex trade to engage with when they do not have the privilege of being paid by organizations to do so.

We risk being outed.

We risk being stalked.

We risk being killed.

And for there to be conversations about not hearing from enough of us, it is extremely oppressive.

And I really just want to name that.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_86

I'm a mutual aid organizer in Little Saigon and a resident of a neighborhood under consideration for a soda zone.

And I'm opposed to soda and soap.

There's so many mutual aid groups providing life-saving essential resources and services in these proposed zones that people could be denied access to.

Soda and soap have been framed as policies to enhance public safety, but safety for who?

People who use drugs, people who live on the street, people who do sex work also want a place where they can feel safe.

This is what I hear from my neighbors when I'm in Little Saigon.

We are safest when our most marginalized neighbors have their fundamental needs met.

The city is creating a hierarchy of who's allowed to be visible in a neighborhood and this is deeply unethical.

Seattle has enacted banishment zones before and it's been ineffective.

Why is city council recycling policies that don't work?

This doesn't enhance safety.

What does enhance safety is social services and affordable housing.

This also promotes racial profiling and city council acknowledged this when it revoked similar policies in 2020. Being poor shouldn't be a crime.

SPEAKER_96

Please begin.

SPEAKER_81

Hi, my name is RJ.

I oppose soap soda and I oppose covering the city in band-aids.

Between, oh, I exist between district one and three, focusing my professional energy on overdose and gang violence prevention, education and outreach.

Holding different titles in multiple different positions in the greater Seattle area.

And I feel called to share my thoughts.

A world cup and a world divided.

Apparently this city has its limits.

Let's talk lack of communication, education, lack of understanding, compassion for all of the stories we don't know where to put.

We're changing the narrative without educating ourselves on the problems associated.

These problems are not going away.

We're just moving them along.

We're using this funding to direct traffic and strengthening the visible lines that already separate and divide the city.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

We will continue with public comment.

Everybody will speak before we bring any item up for a vote.

And I would like to call for a ten minute recess simply to give staff and council members a break before returning.

So thank you very much for your patience.

We will continue with public comment and we're in a brief recess right now until 513.

SPEAKER_99

you Bye.

SPEAKER_104

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

5.15, we do have quorum.

Will you please read the roll, take the roll just for officialness, and then we'll proceed.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Council Member Morales?

I'm sorry, I'm not hearing anything.

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_96

Not present yet, but we do have enough to proceed.

So just continue with the roll.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Saka.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Wu.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council Member Kettle.

Council President Nelson.

Thanks, President.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Please proceed with.

public comment with the next batch of speakers.

SPEAKER_108

We are now at number, the next 10 set is number 61 through 70. I believe number 63 is the next one.

If 63 is here, please raise your hand.

If not, thank you.

So we'll go on number 63 through number 70. So if you are number 63 through 70, please come up.

SPEAKER_90

Hi, I'm a voter and a homeowner who lives on Capitol Hill in District 3, and I vehemently oppose these two bills.

I oppose these bills for various reasons, on moral grounds, on ethical grounds, and on practicality.

But more importantly, I oppose these bills because they are unconstitutional.

It is wrong to target a person's status, and that is exactly what these bills try to do.

I think you need to look at the root causes of why we have this situation.

You need to look at poverty.

You need to look at the inequality that exists and the racism that exists in our city.

These bills will not help that.

I have never felt unsafe in my neighborhood, which is right next to a zone.

These proposals are shameless, unconstitutional, and will end up costing this city millions of dollars in trying to defend them.

Thank you very much.

Please proceed with the next speaker.

SPEAKER_114

Go ahead.

My name is Anitra Freeman from WEAL, Homeless Women Organizing.

We want to be safe on the street.

We want families and neighbors to be safe on the street.

There are already laws against violent crime.

Why aren't those being enforced?

Is it going to improve enforcement of those to tell police to go chase prostitution loitering?

We want women who want to get out of sex trafficking, whatever you call it, to have help.

That takes resources.

Resources take money.

Money takes progressive taxation.

So do the real courageous thing and raise progressive taxes to pay for real solutions.

SPEAKER_106

Hi, my name is Josara Schroeder, and I'm here representing SHARE, which is a group of homeless and formerly homeless men and women.

I spent a year in a car, a block off of Aurora, and I've lived in a tent city for a couple of years.

I'm not going to repeat the arguments.

Everybody else here has done a great job in presenting the arguments.

But I want to take a moment then to talk about the bigger picture.

Transformative change is possible.

We have the knowledge.

What we lack is the political will.

You know in your hearts that this is a Band-Aid.

I can guarantee you that in a year you'll have a different group of homeowners and business owners here complaining about the people that you've pushed out of the original zones into the new areas where, you know, things are happening.

So I want to ask that you stop looking to failed policies in the past and that you start really making transformative change that will create a community that cares for everyone, that cares for the homeowners, that cares for the people struggling with addiction, that cares for the business owners, and that cares for the sex workers who have been speaking here today.

SPEAKER_108

We're at number 68.

SPEAKER_93

Good afternoon.

My name is Tammy Canavan, and I'm the president and CEO of Visit Seattle and a District 7 resident.

Visitors spent $8.2 billion in our community last year, generating $787 million in state and local taxes that help support important programs and services that improve the quality of life for all of our residents.

Visit Seattle exists to grow the visitor economy responsibly to the benefit of our community.

None of that matters if our community is unsafe and unwelcoming, particularly in our highest visitation area.

And we hear about that from our visitors and our clients every day.

The SOTA legislation is not perfect.

We need access to more services for real healing, but our hope is that this law will disrupt the sale of deadly drugs, giving recovery a chance while protecting visitor safety and their impact on our economy.

supporting our residents, including the people struggling in the Soda Zone.

Legislation before you today.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_95

Go ahead, please.

SPEAKER_99

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_95

Right, number 69.

SPEAKER_108

Wait, I can go to the business zone, but I'm a big...

Kathy, say it again.

SPEAKER_99

Kathy, say it again.

Kathy, please.

Kathy, please.

SPEAKER_19

Can I go?

SPEAKER_96

Please begin.

Okay.

SPEAKER_19

I'm Bea Jackson.

I'm an independent contractor and I work in District 5. I know from firsthand experience that a police presence is not helpful.

I have been assaulted in clubs that I work at by undercover cops who have told me that they are undercover, paying for a service that when I tell them they are not allowed to assault me sexually, they say, oh, I'm one of the good ones.

This is what SPD does, and I do not trust that they will get special training to help victims of sex trafficking.

This is the reality of what SPD does.

They assault sex workers.

Help them.

Vote no on soap and soda.

No.

SPEAKER_108

We are now going to move into the next group of 10. And we're at number 71 through 80. And number 73 is the first speaker in this set.

So if you're number 73 through 80, there's two sets of microphones again, please.

Thank you.

And if you can just please start by saying your name or number, that would help us so we can know which numbers to call on next.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_60

Hi, my name is Bennett Hazelton, speaker number 73. I hadn't spoken on soap and soda before at a public comment because I just don't think I have the expertise.

But I think in situations like that, you should listen to the people in the institutions that have the expertise, groups like Legal Voice and the ACLU and the King County Public Defenders Association and Harborview Abuse and Trauma Center.

I assume you all, whatever else we think of you guys, I assume you all like believe in vaccines, right?

But the reason you believe in vaccines, it's not because you've read the medical literature yourself.

It's because you trust the judgment of the people in the organizations that have devoted their lives to studying that stuff.

And they overwhelmingly recommend the use of vaccines.

So why would you not apply the same logic, listening to all the institutions and groups that have come to speak out against this?

I mean- Probably at some point laughed at someone on Facebook for saying they did their own research.

Please don't become the anti-vaxxers that you laugh at.

It's not too late.

SPEAKER_95

Go ahead for the next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_107

My name is Adriana Sulu.

I am with Utopia Washington.

We are a queer and trans-led organization, but I'm also someone with the lived experience.

The bills are in question.

I no longer need to tell you firsthand how vital it is that policies that reflects the reality of those most affected.

Council Member Moore, during the last week's session, you mentioned not hearing from those with lived experience.

Well, we are here.

We've always been here.

The real question is, are you truly listening?

You are not.

Soap and soda are not new laws.

They are recycled failures that continues to push on our community for decades.

For the past years, we've been on the front lines.

During the pandemic, we were there.

During the harsh cold weather, we were there.

We were providing essential resources and support.

And I ask you, where were you?

Stop recycling bills that continues to impact our community.

Put soap and soda exactly where it belongs, the trash.

Let's do something new, please.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_84

My name is Drew Korori, and I work at Utopia Washington's Mapumaya Clinic, where we directly serve sex workers working on Aurora Ave North.

Sex workers are workers who deserve to have their rights protected and respected.

Passing soap and soda will only cause harm to those who need our support.

Not listening to those with lived experience is not going to drop crime rates.

Instead, it will push those who are marginalized further into the margins.

If you actually want to support sex workers, then decriminalize sex work and provide direct services and listen to them.

Soda and soap would disproportionately affect black, brown, and trans folks and is further adding to the gentrification of the city.

You cannot wipe us out.

Do your jobs and serve the city and all its people.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_107

Good evening.

My name is Tweedie Fatuessi, and I serve as a program manager with Utopia Washington.

I'm here to ask you to vote no on this proposed legislation on soap and soda.

For the past few years, I've had the honor of providing direct services and support to street workers in Aurora and all of those throughout King County, and I approach this work with the lived experience those who are not in this room.

Passing this bill will impose further discrimination towards sex workers simply based on how we look, how we act, and how we dress.

As someone who has worked to develop ecosystems of care within many of the organizations who have spoken before you today, I can tell you that this is not the solution.

The solutions that we need needs to focus on the decriminalizing sex work and destigmatizing sex work so that laws do not further criminalize or isolate people who are continuing to struggle.

I urge you...

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

We're at number 78.

SPEAKER_99

80.

SPEAKER_108

You're 80?

Okay, there's no...

Go ahead.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_102

Good evening.

My name is Elizabeth Hendren, and I'm an attorney with Sexual Violence Law Center.

I've worked with criminalized survivors for 12 years.

I serve survivors statewide, and our office is downtown, so I'm in the SOTA zone.

I'm here once again asking you to please not pass this SOAP ordinance.

Criminalizing survivors of trafficking makes their situation worse.

A criminal record makes obtaining safe employment and housing even more difficult, increasing vulnerability to coercive situations like trafficking.

Diversion doesn't avoid that, and vacating criminal records three years later, as required by our state statute, also doesn't avoid that.

RCW 996080 addresses criminal records for victims of sex trafficking, and it requires a three year waiting period.

So this council was given a letter signed by multiple service providers, including ourselves.

We're asking you to please work with us on real solutions.

This isn't it.

Please vote no.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

We now have the next set.

The next set's going to be 81 through 90. I believe we're starting with number 84. So if you're number 84, please let us know you're still here.

Number 84. All right, number 85. Thank you.

Go ahead.

And then after, then 85 through 90. Thank you.

SPEAKER_61

Hi, my name is John Butler, and I guess I'm only going to be the second oldest person to speak to you today.

The 82-year-old gal got me beat.

But I want to speak from a slightly different angle about the mistake that this law represents.

Sixty years ago, I spent a year as a street kid on the U District, and I sold LSD.

That was my...

At that time, it was illegal, but Seattle Police Department had two detectives who were on campus regularly, who kept an eye on what was going on, and I was never disturbed, nor was my life interrupted.

I went back to school, went to medical school, worked at Microsoft, and I've had a great life.

Please vote no on these bills.

SPEAKER_69

I'm 87. My name is Ariana Riley.

I live in District 1. Sitting here and claiming that any of you care about trafficking victims is disrespectful and unserious, given that the police force you guys keep forking over money to unconditionally has decided as a matter of policy that they don't investigate rapes at all.

and don't feel like responding to domestic violence calls in any sort of timely manner.

Both the soap and soda laws are stupid, racist, and ineffective, but you already know that.

Racism is not a deal-breaker for you guys.

The policies you all have put forward since the beginning of the year have shown that you love racism, and you want more of it.

Many shootings in reality are tied to domestic violence.

If you were serious about decreasing gun violence, you would be funding DV shelters, increasing minimum wage so people can afford to leave their abusers, supporting family court reform, and decriminalizing sex work.

No to soap and soda.

SPEAKER_57

Hello, City Council.

I'm Rachel Snell.

FIFA World Cup is coming to Seattle in 2026. Yay!

Seattle is projected to generate $90 to $100 million in revenue.

Revenue, that is so exciting.

This event will attract so many tourists from around the world.

So we need to start now in preparing for this big event.

This means public transportation, restaurants, hotels, and other establishments need to be prepared with extra resources and tools to accommodate a massive amount of tourists.

This will require every business to be fully staffed so that the flow of business will be smooth and everyone has a wonderful time.

Last week, I addressed my concern regarding the deficit and increase of crime in the city.

With that being said, there needs to be an increase of security in the streets, public transportation, and all business establishments so everyone in Seattle will be protected while enjoying themselves.

And after all, no one can have fun without safety and security.

Thank you.

Peace and solidarity.

SPEAKER_108

Number 89.

SPEAKER_71

Good afternoon, my name is Courtney and I'm a longtime Belltown resident and small business owner in the proposed Soda Zone 3 and the drugs are out of control.

I understand that this is like kicking an ant's nest, but that's part of the point.

The businesses and the residences in these areas need a break.

There was a bomb in our alley two weeks ago and three shootings in the last year and a half.

I think everyone in this room and online knows that we don't have enough police to arrest, nor do the jails have room.

So this is basically permission to give warnings.

On the other hand, I don't live in a soap zone, but I say give women autonomy over their own bodies and decriminalize prostitution.

SPEAKER_49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

Number 90.

SPEAKER_65

Hi, my name is Alex Gastel.

I am the senior community organizer at the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and I'm also a constituent of District 2. At the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, we aim to prevent gun violence through education and advocacy, which is informed by data-driven solutions.

SOAP will not prevent gun violence.

The SOAP bill conflates sex work with gun violence, yet gun violence along Aurora Avenue is not driven by sex workers.

Targeting them fails to address the root causes of gun violence.

Sex workers experience extremely high rate of violence of all kinds, including gun violence.

More than 80% of sex workers report being the victim of violence, and 30% reported violence or threats of violence from law enforcement.

SOAP does nothing to change the socioeconomic conditions that led to trafficking, exploitation, or risk of violence.

Fear of arrest may cause sex workers to avoid reporting incidents of gun violence, leading to a significant underestimation and therefore further misunderstanding of the problem.

Please invest more.

More money into Greenlight Project and the Seattle Care Team.

Soap will not prevent gun violence.

I urge you to vote no on soap.

SPEAKER_108

We're now moving into the next set of 10. So numbers 91 through 100. And I believe number 95 is the next person who's next registered person to speak.

If you're number 95, raise your hand, please.

Okay, we have 95. So then after 95, 96 through 100. Thank you.

SPEAKER_44

Hello, my name is Rachel K. I'm a resident of district for Ritz Riviera's district.

I am urging the council to vote no on soap and soda and also to vote.

to just make sure that I-137 makes it to the ballot so the voters, instead of the lobbyists and independent expenditure committees who bankroll the elections of representatives like Tonya Wu, like Bob Kettle, like Cathy Moore, like Sarah Nelson, Get a voice.

Instead of the real estate and landlord lobbies like the Rental Housing Association and the Multifamily Housing Association.

Honor the will of the voters, not the lobbyists and the independent expenditure committees.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_79

Number 96, Jonathan Perrault.

I'm a fifth district resident and I appreciate Kathy Moore's leadership.

Long time coming.

I support the effort to interdict the dangerous illegal activity on Aurora Avenue North.

I'm very disappointed that it has taken so long to address the situation.

I'm much happier to see what we have made up as our city council now than the people that were here before.

Okay.

In addition to the danger caused to local residents, we have seen many businesses leave.

This has led to a loss of tax revenue and good-paying jobs.

You, the City Council, are stewards of our tax revenue.

One of the main reasons of the City's current budget deficit, over $200 million, is loss of B&O revenue.

Lawless law leads a negative leads to a light negative business environment.

Your number one job is to create an environment that attracts businesses and in turn employees.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_99

99 99.

SPEAKER_108

Okay.

100.

SPEAKER_45

My name is Rose, and I'm a registered voter of District 3. I'm here to oppose the soap and soda bills, but due to time, we'll speak about soda.

The soda bill is a dishonest, inhuman, ineffective solution to a problem.

Its dishonesty is outlined in the first page enlisting the 763 overdose deaths.

These deaths are listed in an attempt to garner support for soda, but it's a dishonest attempt.

If you cared about these people, you'd provide them a safe place to inject.

You'd decriminalize drugs.

You'd allow people to reach resources and hopefully get sober.

You'd allow unhoused people who are much more likely to be victims of addiction to stay in their homes and not sweep them away, causing only more and more damage to the unhoused and more and more addiction.

You would make a real strong effort to expand health care so people wouldn't have to self-medicate.

You would create accessible and successful rehab programs, all real solutions that if you spoke to the populations you pretend to want to help, you would hear repeatedly.

Instead, you further criminalize populations that are already disenfranchised and distanced from services and health care.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_108

We're at the last three in-person speakers, so it's number 101, 111, and then number 122, which I know does not have a number, so that is Patricia Stracker.

So again, numbers 101, 111, and 122, which is Patricia.

Are the other people here?

I don't see them.

Please come up.

SPEAKER_48

Well, after hearing everybody comment about DeSoto and SOAP, which I don't know everything about it, I live on 107th and Whitman.

Block, right there's Aurora.

Underwater Sports is right there.

The parking lot gets used.

My street, there's 105th and Aurora, 107th, 109th.

All the streets get used, okay?

There's girls at the end of the street.

They need safety and protection.

That's a separate matter.

I'm talking about the activity on Aurora.

The guys who are not even buying anything go whipping around the blocks.

I see it.

My window right there.

They go whipping around the blocks.

The pimps sit there or they stand outside.

My neighbor was run over by someone speeding through.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_95

Thank you.

Please go ahead and finish your comments via email.

Feel free to do that.

SPEAKER_108

Go ahead.

We have one remote speaker.

Jody.

SPEAKER_109

Hanna go ahead.

SPEAKER_110

Hanna you may have to press star six.

There you go.

Go ahead please.

SPEAKER_06

Hi, my name is Hannah Buckendorf, and I'm a homeowner in Cathy Moore's district, and I'm imploring you to oppose the soap and soda legislation.

This council and this city is full of brilliant, caring people, and I know we can come up with better solutions rather than updating old, racist, bigoted legislation that the ACLU, strippers are workers, green light project, and more oppose.

We can and must do better than to create an additional pipeline to jail for some of our most marginalized neighbors.

Monies and resources should be focused on going towards the community organizations already doing the groundwork.

Additionally, the gun violence that has been on the rise in the neighborhood is already illegal.

Creating shortcuts to arrest people that seem suspicious cannot be a solution to the gun violence which has Not only increase in our neighborhoods, but all over, especially when law jails have been climbing in mortality rate over the last 20 years.

Even the interim police chief acknowledged that.

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

We also have Kate Baldwin.

Go ahead, Kate.

SPEAKER_06

Hi, this is Kate.

I live in Greenwood and I just want to thank Kathy Moore for all this work.

This neighborhood has become so dangerous.

I've lived here for 23 years and I've experienced nothing like it's been in the last one or two.

It's just insane.

I'm afraid to be in my own neighborhood and this legislation is not going to solve everything, but it's a start.

Please, please vote yes I don't know what else we can do to make positive steps in the right direction.

And I just thank you for your time.

Otherwise, what else is it going to take before this stops?

I mean, is somebody going to have to get shot?

The gunshots are insane.

I hear them multiple times a week.

Anyway, thank you.

Please vote yes.

SPEAKER_110

That concludes our remote speakers.

SPEAKER_96

OK, we've reached the end of our public comment list, and public comment is now closed.

We'll now move on to the introduction and referral calendar.

Just one moment here.

If there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing none, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

And if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

And now we'll consider the proposed consent calendar, and the items on the consent calendar are the minutes of September 10th, 2024, Council Bill 120863, payment of bills, four appointments from the Housing and Human Services Committee, six appointments from the Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee, and 23 appointments from the Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee.

Are there any items that the council members would like removed?

Seeing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_76

Second.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

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

And will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu?

SPEAKER_91

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_94

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The consent calendar items are adopted.

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

All right.

Moving on to committee reports.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

SPEAKER_108

The report of the Housing Human Services Committee, agenda item one, council bill 120817, related to the multifamily housing property tax exemption program, amending section 5.73.120 of the Seattle Municipal Code, and to extend the program's sunset date to March 31st, 2025, the committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

As chair of the committee, Council Member Moore, you're welcome to present this item.

SPEAKER_70

Thank you very much, Council President.

So Council Bill 120817 simply extends the multifamily housing property tax exemption program, which would otherwise sunset at the end of December.

It is a vital tool for providing affordable housing in our community, and so We want to make sure that it continues.

The legislation extends the sunset date to March 31st, 2025 in order to give the Office of Housing more time to prepare their proposal for the next program and more time for council to review that proposal.

The extension of the sunset passed unanimously from committee.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much for that summary.

Are there any questions?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_76

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_76

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_76

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_58

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

All right, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, moving on to item two.

Will the clerk please read the title into the record?

SPEAKER_108

Agenda item two, council bill 120835 relating to the state out of drug area zones, creating the ability to issue written orders to criminal defendants describing conditions of their pre-trial release or post-conviction conditions of sentence.

Creating SOTA zones and providing for both the issuance of court orders related to those zones and administration of those zones creating the gross misdemeanor of violating a SOTA order.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_96

Council member Kettle is chair of the committee.

You're what?

Recognized to present it.

SPEAKER_41

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, drug dealers prey on the vulnerable in crisis each day, creating tragedies on an individual basis, but also on a neighborhood basis, too.

I recognize the arguments made about Council Bill 120835 and the focus on aiding those suffering from addiction.

I agree we must start with compassion to have empathy for those afflicted, and I support those programs that aid them.

We must also, though, have the wisdom to look at the whole of community, the whole of neighborhoods.

Neighbors have been assaulted, placed under constant threat, and unable to have community.

Businesses have been harmed where workers, baristas, retail workers have been assaulted, threatened on a daily basis, and many have lost their jobs.

Yes, businesses have been shuttered and neighborhoods damaged.

This bill, covering less than 0.5% of Seattle, will not solve in itself what we're facing with the drug markets, but will help disrupt the drug trade, building on the lessons learned from previous editions and following the data-driven approach to achieve the goals of our strategic framework plan and to create a safe base in our city.

Separately, I applaud our service providers helping those in need and respect their views both for and against this bill.

We as council members have a broader responsibility to look at the whole of community.

And so therefore, I ask my colleagues to support this bill.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

I will open the floor for questions or comments from colleagues.

SPEAKER_21

Council President.

SPEAKER_96

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_21

I'VE GOT A NUMBER OF AMENDMENTS.

IS THIS THE TIME THAT YOU'D LIKE ME TO MOVE THESE AMENDMENTS?

SPEAKER_96

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IF ANYBODY HAS ANY QUESTIONS ON THE BASE LEGISLATION FIRST.

NONE?

GO AHEAD.

SPEAKER_21

THANK YOU.

I'LL ADDRESS ALL SIX AMENDMENTS BRIEFLY AND THEN I'LL MOVE THEM.

COLLEAGUES, I HAVE A TOTAL OF SIX AMENDMENTS TODAY, THREE FOR THE SODA BILL AND THREE FOR THE SOAP.

THEY ARE MIRROR AMENDMENTS FOR colleagues I do have concerns about both of these bills and these amendments create additional accountability through data collection analysis and regular reevaluate regular reevaluation here at the city council through data collection analysis my concerns will either be proven with data or nullified by data and that is for the data to determine.

At a high level for both of these bills, I have an amendment in the recitals of the bill, an amendment requiring the auditor to audit the data in a comprehensive evaluation about the outcomes of these pieces of legislation, and an amendment requiring the Public Safety Committee to reevaluate these policies on a regular cadence.

Council President, I move to amend Council Bill 120385 as presented on the recently distributed Amendment A. Second.

SPEAKER_96

Would anybody like to address these amendments?

SPEAKER_41

thank you very much.

thank you very much.

I thank council member strauss for bringing the amendments.

The bill does have accountability measures in and I do view our public safety committee as an the progress that we've made on the consent decree but also with our accountability partners.

That said, council member Strauss' amendment brings additional pieces to include bringing in the auditor, which is the difference.

We had some of the base pieces he added to it.

The big difference is also adding the auditor aspect, city auditor aspect.

Under good governance rules, I welcome more data, welcome more insight, and so I support Councilmember Strauss's amendment.

Council President?

SPEAKER_21

Yes.

Thank you.

Regarding Amendment A, which is before us, this amendment would add recitals to the bill stating our commitment to being data-driven and having a focused approach when it comes to soda zones.

This amendment states these zones need to be based on data-driven boundaries, and if these boundaries become too expansive or if there are too many zones created, the policy becomes less effective and unintended consequences are increased.

This amendment adds these recitals to the bill, and I ask colleagues for your support.

And thank you to the chair for being open to this.

SPEAKER_96

Do you need to move each?

This is, you are referring to Amendment A. Does each need to be moved separately?

SPEAKER_21

Yes, we have to move, second, and vote on each separately.

SPEAKER_96

Yes, so does that count as a move?

And it has been seconded.

So are there any comments?

More, okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the on Amendment A?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_33

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

All right, Amendment A passes and it will now become part of the base bill.

Let's bring up the Amendment B. Council President.

SPEAKER_21

Go ahead.

I move to amend Council Bill 120835 as presented on the recently distributed Amendment B. Second.

GO AHEAD AND EXPLAIN IT.

THANKS.

AMENDMENT B WOULD GIVE COUNCIL BETTER INFORMATION ABOUT THE EFFECTIVENESS AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THIS LEGISLATION THROUGH A PHASED EVALUATION OF THE BILL'S IMPACTS BY THE CITY AUDITOR OR THIRD PARTY.

THIS WILL INFORM US ON HOW THE ZONES ARE WORKING, WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE AFTER THEY RECEIVE SODA ORDERS, AND WHAT IMPACT THIS LEGISLATION IS WITHIN THE ZONES AND SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS.

as well as what unintended consequences are occurring and at what level they are occurring.

This amendment sets a baseline standard for this phased evaluation, and I ask you for your support.

SPEAKER_96

Are there any comments from my colleagues?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Moore?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

SPEAKER_76

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Rivera?

SPEAKER_76

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Saca?

SPEAKER_76

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

SPEAKER_76

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

SPEAKER_96

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and Amendment B is adopted.

Moving on to Amendment C. Go ahead, please.

SPEAKER_21

Thank you, Council President.

I move to amend Council Bill 120835 as presented on the recently distributed Amendment C.

SPEAKER_96

It's been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120835 as presented on Amendment C. Go ahead and present it, please.

SPEAKER_21

Thank you for walking this path with me.

Amendment C would create the process for regular reviews of soda zones every two years by the Public Safety Committee and request formal recommendations about what needs to be changed or amended.

This will ensure this legislation will be reviewed and re-evaluated on a regular interval.

When paired with the previous amendment, these amendments together provide the opportunity to update the policy based on data and third-party analysis.

Thank you to the chair for your welcomeness to these amendments.

Colleagues, I ask you for your support.

SPEAKER_96

Questions, comments?

Not seeing any.

Will the clerk please call the roll on Amendment C?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_24

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Rivera.

SPEAKER_24

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Saka.

SPEAKER_24

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Strauss.

Yes.

Council.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

9 in favor 9 opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The motion carries and Amendment C is adopted and we will now there are are there any further comments on the base legislation.

Go ahead, council member.

Yes, this will be now final comments on the legislation, the base legislation as amended.

SPEAKER_24

Okay, thank you very much.

I had contemplated trying to bring some amendments to improve this bill.

I do believe that Councilmember Strauss' amendments may get marginally better, but this is still not something that I can support.

The overwhelming response about these bills has been that any truly meaningful solutions to the problems we seek to address will not be found in this legislation.

So there are three points that I'd like to make about the bill.

The first has already been made here many times.

We've tried this before, and it didn't work.

Supporters claim these laws will decrease gun violence, decrease drug dealing, decrease trafficking.

In truth, Seattle has been using exclusionary policies for 25 years, off and on, and we haven't meaningfully addressed any of these issues.

That's why we made an evidence-based solution to abandon these pointless policies.

We've heard the sponsors say many times that we need to reintroduce these measures because conditions are bad and we have to do something.

I agree that we have to do something.

Far too many people live in dire circumstances on our streets, and this has had a negative impact on our neighborhoods.

There's no question about that.

To say nothing of the harm to individuals who are out on our streets dealing with addiction, with income instability and homelessness, we do need to do something.

But we should be turning to approaches that we know are effective.

We need to be including the activation of public spaces like City Hall Park and Occidental Park and Pioneer Park and Westlake Park.

We need de-escalation and problem solving, as provided by the Third Avenue Project.

We need long-term case management, as provided by LEAD.

The hotspots identified for soda zones could instead be the focus of intentional engagement and case management and street-based safety teams and shelter and housing placement, with law enforcement doing the direct enforcement of serious law violations, not misdemeanors.

Number two, disruption as a tactic actually increases violence and overdose deaths.

Our city is dealing with several crises at once.

We know we have public safety issues.

We also have public health issues, and we have a housing crisis.

And while these bills may scratch an itch to feel like council is doing something to address public safety, to claim that these laws will address any of these problems is dangerous, and it is the epitome of performative.

I do understand the desire to just wave a hand and disband the illicit street economy and the harms that are associated with it.

But that is magical thinking.

Even if that were possible, there is substantial evidence that disrupting drug markets actually increases violence and increases overdose deaths.

And this is because those who use drugs suddenly have to find new suppliers whose product is of unknown quality, because those who sell come into conflict as they establish new distribution areas.

A study in the American Journal of Public Health just last year, based on extensive data from Indianapolis, found that police disruption of drug markets was associated with a rise in overdose deaths, and multiple studies over many years have tied enforcement against drug sales with a spike in associated violence.

Even if these measures that are being adopted actually do disrupt drug markets, there is every reason to expect that this will be associated with a rise in overdose deaths or an actual increase in violence.

And finally, it's time to be honest with the people of Seattle.

Excluding people all over the city will just make accessing services more difficult.

We have intentionally located services in certain parts of the city so that the people who need them can access them.

The people engaging in certain behaviors can get access to the services that they need.

And now people are being excluded from the very places they need to be.

In District 1, this includes DESC, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and YMCA.

In District 2, the CID, it's ACRS and the Seattle Indian Health Board.

In District 3, it's the Seattle Central Reentry Programs.

In District 4, teen feed and youth care.

In District 5, Valley City's behavioral health and Planned Parenthood.

In District 7, share wheel and public defenders.

This disregard for the health of poor, vulnerable neighbors is callous.

I will also say it's problematic that a public impression has been created that soda orders will be pointed primarily at those who sell to others or who engage in gun violence.

Contrary to many comments that we've heard from those supporting the soda ordinance, soda orders will not be issued to people being prosecuted for drug dealing or gun violence.

Drug dealing and assault with a weapon are felonies, and those are not charged by the Seattle Municipal Court.

But these orders only provide authority to Seattle Municipal Court judges.

Instead, judges are authorized to issue soda orders for drug possession, public use of drugs, and several other misdemeanors.

So despite the stated intent not to focus on people who are drug users or who are living in dire conditions due to poverty, those will in fact be the primary recipients of soda bans.

So we need solutions, and we need them quickly.

Luckily, we do have a detailed auditor's report that provides a roadmap on how we can take an evidence-based approach to addressing places in Seattle where overdoses and crimes are concentrated.

These include assigning a high-level city project champion to convene and work in collaboration with the mayor's office, the Office of Emergency Management, fire and police, and other stakeholders to build out a coordinated multi-agency group with well-defined objectives and goals and reporting mechanisms.

We need formalizing an ongoing city relationship with the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area's Overdose Response Strategy Group to leverage their technical assistance resources and coordination with other government agencies.

We need to improve recovery supports using enhanced delivery of evidence-based treatment, recovery support, and integrated harm reductions.

And we need to fully fund care and the dispatch crisis team to these areas of our city.

I would love to work with my colleagues on finding ways that the city could partner with other jurisdictions, with business and philanthropy, and anyone really who's willing to commit to the long-term planning and investments that can increase access to services, shelter, job training, counseling, drug treatment, the things that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of our neighbors.

But this bill is not it, and I will be voting no.

SPEAKER_96

Looking for comments from my colleagues.

I'm going to provide you the opportunity to give the last word.

SPEAKER_41

I could just take the last one right now unless my colleagues have anything else to say.

SPEAKER_118

Go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_76

I'd like to speak on the soda bill, please.

I want downtown Seattle and neighborhoods like the University District to be a place where residents and students are safe and feel welcome, where our vulnerable populations can receive the help they need without being preyed upon by drug dealers that are causing the most harm.

I've heard from so many residents, including parents, the University of Washington, and the business improvement area in the University District who are supportive of this stay out of drug area zone.

They're sick and tired of the open drug dealing in the area and the additional crime that comes along with it.

The Stay Out of Drug Area Bill will allow SPD to more effectively disrupt the sale and use of illegal and dangerous drugs like fentanyl and meth.

One example of what people are facing is the University Heights building in the U District.

There are two preschools, an elementary school children's choir, a children's Japanese language school, a children's theater program, and other community programs that operate out of the building.

Parents and teachers have serious concerns about the drug dealing on and around the property.

Kids are coming to school and being confronted with drug dealing and an increase in needles on and around the property, and this is not okay.

This is why I brought an amendment to include the University District to the Stay Out of Drug Area legislation, which Councilmember Kettle sponsored on my behalf at the Public Safety Committee.

I appreciate his leadership on this legislation and his sponsoring of the amendment that I brought.

We know this is not the only solution, but it is another tool to address the drug dealing that is happening in the hot zones across the city.

And I want to address something about the elimination, the prior elimination of these laws by the prior council.

Though these laws were eliminated and increases were made to human services, we see this has not made a difference.

And in fact, things have gotten worse.

To be clear, and to be very clear, I and many of the residents I speak with, if not all, support treatment and human services across the city.

To address a separate issue that activation of spaces like parks will cut back on some of this activity, I will say that activation of parks has not curbed the drug dealing that we are addressing.

We see it in the University Heights Open Space Park that is littered with drug dealing and needles which children three years and above have to navigate on their way to preschool and school every day.

So while I support the activation of parks and public spaces, this alone is not dealing with those people that are causing the most harm in the city.

I remain open to working together with this council and with our partners.

internally and externally with our city departments and the mayor to continue to explore solutions as i said this is one solution not all the solutions but i will be supporting this bill because we cannot sit around while residents are asking for us to do something and not be able to do something to help in this regard and so for those reasons i want to thank council member kettle for his leadership and i will be voting for this bill thank you

SPEAKER_96

Thank you.

Go ahead, Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_91

So I'm sure many of you know I have a mutual aid group.

We go to 12th and Jackson.

And I grew up near the CID.

So I've seen the changes in Little Saigon.

Five years ago in 2020 when the prior council repealed SOTA, Little Saigon was a thriving business district.

People came from all over the city to shop there.

And today, it's very different.

So within these last five years, you can go there anytime, and there would be 100 people in need of services there.

But not just people in need of services, but also businesses.

drug dealers.

And we go up there.

We do mutual aid.

We go at night.

We go at, like, 9, 10 p.m.

We know who is dealing the drugs.

We know who has the guns.

And we are afraid.

And yet we still go out there because we are trying to develop trust.

We know who does what, who needs resources, and who are preying on those who need resources.

And so I...

I also have seen, you know, we just had grand opening of Hoi Mai Park, and we were so excited.

You know, the children's park, we had all these activities planned, and now that park is lost to us because at any one time, there is about anywhere from 15 to 20 to 30 people there engaging in fentanyl drug use, as well as, you know, Nisei Vets is right next door, and they're worried about vandalism on the wall.

the Veterans Wall Memorial.

And so, I mean, when you go talk to the residents in Little Saigon, you talk to the business owners, not only in Little Saigon, but today at Third Pike and Pine, the sense is just desperation.

You know, this is not how we remembered growing up in Seattle, what it looked like.

It's never gotten this bad.

But at the same time, it's...

It's, we have compassion.

We have the sense of talking to people who are on 12th and Jackson, Third Pike and Pine, the sense of hopelessness and that hunger for human connection.

People who are on fentanyl, I think we also have not talked about how deadly fentanyl is.

You know, many of us have, we heard about today, done Narcan, have done CPR.

Some people have survived.

Some people have not.

It's just devastating to see young people and old people die who, because they were taking drugs that they may or may not have been aware had fentanyl in it.

But we know where to buy these drugs.

Yes, we do, because these are the zones.

But it's just—this is a different time, a different drug, and it's very evident in Little Saigon, the changes there.

And so while, you know, we want to be compassionate and we believe in LEAD and We Live Recare and REACH and the amazing work, especially the care team does in these areas, it's just simply not enough.

And I know this is just the first step as part of a holistic approach.

I am supporting this.

I thank Council Member Kettle and Council Member Strauss for his amendments.

But I'll also be fighting for LEAD and REACH and We Deliver Care to be able to expand their programming because while I'm hoping that this legislation will address the drug dealers, but later during budget we could address more programming and resources for those who are undergoing addiction.

Because fentanyl, if you've seen people on fentanyl, they are not themselves.

They're a totally different person.

The fentanyl bend is real, and it's just tough.

And so it's going to take a lot more in doing what we have not been doing before, but doing more and something new, and especially getting out there and developing that trust with people who are addicted and trying to get them out of the sense of hopelessness and out of the sense of...

of, I guess, there's that poverty of not only money, of poverty and human connection and touch and being seen.

And so I think it's a multifaceted approach, but I will be supporting this piece of legislation today.

SPEAKER_96

All right.

Thank you very much.

Anybody else?

Come on.

I'm looking at you, Council Member Saka, because you usually have something to say.

No?

Okay.

I appreciate you, Councilmember Morales, mentioning and shining a light on the audit that was presented in my committee because I refer to it quite often to think about what we should be doing for not just drug-related crime but also overdoses.

And all those recommendations that you ticked off indeed are important.

The coordination, the leadership, the using of already existing resources, federal resources, take a page from jurisdictions that are managing the intertwined problems better.

So, yes, that is all covered in the audit, and I fully endorse them, and we'll be getting back to the mayor's office to find out.

So how are we doing with implementing some of those things?

But the central and the central...

recommendation in that audit is to take a place-based approach to crime, be it drug-related crime or crime overlaid with overdoses or whatever, but take a place-based approach because that is the best way to target our limited resources, be they law enforcement or human service resources.

And so that is precisely what this legislation does.

And I spoke at length about why I support it during the committee meeting.

I just want to thank the city attorney and her team for transmitting this legislation and working with the Kettle office very early on to craft it well.

And I am hoping that you will respond to why the maps expressly seek to um to recognize where locations where there are service providers but in any case thank you city attorney's office thank you city attorney davidson and also thank you chair kettle for bringing this forward go ahead all right thank you council president i i

SPEAKER_41

I recognize my colleague's position from District 2, but let's be clear, and I recognize there's a lot of public commentators.

I appreciate it here, I appreciate it in the committees, and for and against.

But I have been on walkabouts, I've done neighborhood community meetings, countless, countless, I've seen it firsthand, working the issues with the various departments again and again and again.

It is overwhelming the need and the support that we received on this.

The neighborhoods need this support, it is clear.

And the other thing, this bill did not just come out out of nowhere.

This bill was created through a one Seattle approach, months in the making, multiple meetings with city attorney's office and others to craft a plan that builds on the lessons learned of previous additions.

So I recognize the arguments against it, but those arguments are using the old plan.

This plan is different.

It takes in the lessons learned.

It is focused.

It's less than 0.5% of the city, not like the old plan.

It took in account the service providers, and we looked at those locations, and we couldn't do it 100%, but dramatically, almost very little, that have those impacts.

This is about creating safe neighborhoods for ourselves, and it's about implementing our strategic framework plan that addresses the permissive environment that the prior terms of this council created, along with the former city attorney.

We have to take action to undo what they've created in terms of the challenges that we face today.

So clearly, I absolutely disagree with my colleague from District 2. And even in District 2, just last week, I was at a forum in Chinatown.

They need our support.

And here's the thing.

We cannot rely on wish strategies anymore.

We have to be practical.

We have to be thoughtful.

We have to take in all the data with the oversight and accountability from Council Member Strauss, which is most of it was already in, but I appreciate his amendments and move forward.

So thank you very much.

Everyone for your support.

Please go to the vote.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_70

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_96

Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_70

Okay, I.

SPEAKER_96

Why don't you start that again, please?

SPEAKER_110

Thank you.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

No.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_58

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_58

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Eight in favor, one opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The measure.

Stop disrupting.

You are in violation of the council rules.

I ask that you stop that behavior.

All right.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will you please read the third item into the record?

SPEAKER_108

3836 relating to prostitution creating the crimes of prostitution loitering and prohibiting loitering for the purposes of prostitution establishing policies governing arrests for prostitution and prostitution loitering creating state stay out of area of prostitution zones and providing for both issuance of court orders relating to those zones and administration of those zones creating the gross misdemeanor of violating a soap order and adding new sections the committee recommends the bill passes amended

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Although this is in the Public Safety Committee, I recognize Council Member Moore to walk us through this legislation.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_41

Thank you, but I will...

As Chair of the Public Safety, I recognize Council Member Moore, the architect of this bill.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_70

Okay, thank you, Chair and Council President.

And I wanted to thank Council Member Rivera and Council President Nelson in joining me as co-sponsors, and to Public Safety Chair Kettle for his collaborative approach in managing his committee, and to my Public Safety Committee colleagues for their support and vote last week.

It continues to distress me, so many of the misunderstandings, whether unintentional or intentional, of this bill.

And I just want to walk through this a little bit.

This is not the bill that was repealed in 2020. And I deliberately, in consultation with survivor groups, with direct service providers- Please pause.

SPEAKER_96

Multiple individuals are engaging in behavior that is causing disruption and interrupting the orderly conduct of our meeting.

So please refrain from that behavior.

The members of security are here to assist if that is not possible.

Please go on.

SPEAKER_70

Thank you.

As well as with the human trafficking unit, detectives there who have been doing this work for 15 years, both locally and nationally, to look at how do we address what's going on.

And when we talk about the increase in gun violence, I'm not, neither I nor anybody else up here is saying that that is the result of the individual who's being prostituted.

Absolutely not.

What it is the result of is a criminal enterprise, which is called commercial sexual exploitation, where women and other individuals are being trafficked and being prostituted for the very, very profitable gain of pimps and the sole personal gratification of buyers.

And they are causing...

the city of seattle city attorney's office based on a review of video on a hundred and seven twelve hours documented between one thousand and two thousand john interactions that is a tremendous amount of money which fuels a tremendous lucrative trade, which people are seeking to control, and which is absolutely driving the gun violence.

We saw it in the video before, and the statistics from SPD and from Detective Washington make it clear that that is a huge factor in what's happening with the gun violence that we're seeing in our community.

And it is not unfair to ask that this council do something to make everyone in the community safe.

The neighbors in the community safe, the businesses safe, the kids who go to and from middle school, elementary school, and high school safe.

and even the women and individuals who are being trafficked and prostituted on the street.

We have an obligation to make everyone safe and to not allow the ongoing trauma and profitization of trauma.

And that is exactly what we're doing.

And in 2020, there was a well-intentioned review and repeal.

I don't blame that, because we were in the throes of a racial justice reckoning, and we had a reentry group report.

that recommended taking that step.

I will note that all of the data that that report relied on did not come from Seattle.

It came from New York.

It came from California.

It didn't have local data.

Very different circumstances in those communities.

But what I think we have to acknowledge is that since then, we have to have the courage to acknowledge that so much of that has not worked.

largely because we have failed to put in the sufficient resources to provide all of the support that people have talked about here today.

We have not provided enough housing.

We have not provided affordable housing.

We've not provided treatment.

I'm the first to acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do.

And that is why I have continuously said that I will be, this is not a funding bill, that I will be making a request in the budget, two weeks from now for an emergency receiving center and funds for resources because we absolutely do need to expand that.

That said, as Detective Washington so adroitly noted, the message was sent that Seattle is a prostitution haven and you are free to come here with no consequence and to traffic whoever.

Children as young as 9, 10, and 11, people who are drug addicted and rely on their pimps to keep them drug addicted so they can do the quote unquote work on the streets.

We cannot continue to allow this degree of trauma and suffering on our street corners, nor can we continue to allow the gun violence and the general violence that has been propelled by it.

And so what do we do?

Well, you know, we have limited resources.

So one thing we have to do is we don't want to further traumatize women, because bringing prosecutions for promoting prostitution, which is a felony, requires the victims to come forward.

So how do we work so that they don't have to be endangered?

How can we pursue and disrupt the market?

How do we go after the pimps?

We create an entirely new law called promoting loitering for the purposes of prostitution, and we make it a misdemeanor, and we base it on the observable behavior of the exploiters.

of them monitoring, surveilling, shouting at, directing, transporting individuals to the Aurora corridor.

And we have this behavior on video.

You can go on YouTube and watch a woman being chased around a doggy daycare by her pimp shouting at her.

She's terrified.

Is that what we're saying we support in this community?

Absolutely not.

She deserves the right to be safe.

She deserves the right to have resources.

And for us as a community to say that behavior is unacceptable and we are going to do something about it.

And that is the genesis of the promoting loitering for purposes of prostitution.

So we can do something about it.

This is not the old bill.

The old bill didn't attack pimps.

The old bill didn't go after buyers.

They didn't go after the purveyors of trauma and harm.

They went after the women and the other individuals, our trans, our gay neighbors.

I acknowledge that.

And we have to learn from those lessons and acknowledge the lessons.

And that's why this bill is focused on law enforcement for those individuals.

Because of the way the law works, we cannot go after the pimps for promoting loitering if loitering is not a crime.

But what we can do is say very clearly and explicitly that loitering by the cellar is to be diverted into services, into receiving centers, which are, you know, run by many of the people here who themselves were victims and have had the courage to come forward and know what it's like and who have presented compelling testimony which doesn't necessarily align with some of the ideological positions of the ACLU or Amnesty International, people who have refused to look at what's really happening in places like New Zealand and other Germany.

There is an ideological divide here that we cannot ignore, but it doesn't need to prevent us from providing safety for everybody in our community.

And so we've created a loitering for the purposes of prostitution, which is different.

We've made it very clear that diversion is the first and really the only option for loitering by sellers.

And we've made it very clear that you're to go after the behavior of buyers.

And to the concern that people think they're going to be arrested because they're wearing skimpy clothing, that is just utter nonsense.

If you actually took the time to read the bill, you would see it's behavior-based.

And its behavior base for sellers and buyers, and that was intentional, used to be that you could be arrested for simply looking like a sex worker.

We have learned that lesson and we've taken it out.

And to the point that other jurisdictions have repealed their laws, I would have you look at what's happening in California.

It is an absolute Armageddon down there.

They repealed their loitering law, and it's beyond what we are seeing here.

It is just an absolute disgrace and disaster, and they are desperate to reinstate it.

So we are not the only jurisdiction that is needing to have the intellectual opportunity honesty and moral courage to take a difficult position, learn from the lessons of the past, and try to move forward in a thoughtful harm reduction approach.

And that's what this legislation does.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Are there any comments?

Council President?

Yes, Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_21

Let's do this again.

I appreciate you.

Colleagues, as I mentioned before, I still have concerns on this policy, and my amendments create additional accountability to data and ensure we are creating an environment for data-driven decision-making.

Colleagues, these amendments that I will speak to right now look very familiar because they are similar to my SODA amendments, and that is by design with the intent to create as uniform as possible process for our re-evaluation of the stay out of areas.

Council President, I move to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on the recently distributed amendment seat.

SPEAKER_96

You explained it, and we do have Amendment I. I was looking at you first, but Council Member Moore does have Amendment A. So I would like to first provide her the opportunity to move.

SPEAKER_70

Sorry about that.

I should have interceded sooner.

Thank you.

Yes, so I would like to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on Amendment A on the agenda.

SPEAKER_104

Second.

SPEAKER_70

Thank you.

This is simply a technical amendment which was recommended by law.

It clarifies that both buyers and sellers are covered by the definition of commit prostitution under the loitering provision to make it airtight that that law applies to buyers.

SPEAKER_96

Any comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_24

Abstain.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saca.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_108

Aye.

And before you now.

Wait, Jody.

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and Amendment A is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

SPEAKER_58

I have Amendment B. I didn't know if we were going.

Go ahead.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council President.

I move to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on recently distributed.

I have a walk-on amendment for Amendment B. That's second.

SPEAKER_96

It's been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on Amendment B. Council Member Hollingsworth, please go ahead and present your amendment.

SPEAKER_58

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Moore for bringing this bill.

My amendment is super simple.

There's an annual reporting piece to this.

This amendment would require the data from the Seattle Municipal Code crime of the prostitution loitering which basically defines buyers and those charged as sellers.

This data will count arrests, referrals to the city's attorney's office for prosecution, and referred cases dismissed before, on, or during trial.

I think just we are...

I'm personally data-driven.

I think this creates a little bit more transparency and accountability and for us to be able to analyze about the SOAP law.

So I would look forward to my colleagues' support in that and happy to answer any questions.

SPEAKER_96

It looks like you would like to speak to that.

SPEAKER_70

I just wanted to say thank you to Councilmember Hollingsworth for bringing this additional level of detail and direction, and I do consider it to be a friendly amendment.

SPEAKER_96

Okay, no further questions.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

Okay, the motion carries and Amendment B is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

SPEAKER_21

Council President, I move to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on recently distributed Amendment C. Go ahead, go ahead.

Thank you, I won't repeat my comments.

Again, Amendment C would add a new recital stating our intent to conduct regular reevaluation and improvements to the zone to minimize unintended consequences.

I ask for your support.

SPEAKER_96

It's been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on Amendment C. Would you please call the roll if there are no comments on this?

I'm assuming there are not, but looking twice.

Go ahead, please call the roll on Amendment C.

SPEAKER_108

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saca?

SPEAKER_58

Aye.

SPEAKER_108

Council Member Strauss?

SPEAKER_58

Yes.

SPEAKER_108

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_58

Yes.

SPEAKER_108

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_58

Aye.

SPEAKER_108

And Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The motion carries and Amendment C is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

SPEAKER_21

Yes, Council President, I move to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on the recently distributed Amendment D. Second.

SPEAKER_96

You're recognized to discuss it.

SPEAKER_21

Thank you.

Amendment D would give the council better information about the effectiveness and unintended consequences of this legislation through a phased evaluation of the bill's impact by the city auditor.

This will inform us on how this policy is working, what the outcomes of people given SOAP orders are, and the efficacy of diversion services, and what unintended consequences are occurring and at what level they are occurring.

This amendment sets the baseline standard for this phased evaluation.

I ASK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

SPEAKER_70

COUNCIL PRESIDENT, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A REQUEST THAT THE RULES BE SUSPENDED SO THAT I CAN MAKE AN AMENDMENT TO AMENDMENT D THAT'S BEEN PRESENTED AFTER THE DEADLINE, WHICH I HAVE DISCUSSED WITH COUNCIL MEMBER STRAUSS'S OFFICE, AND JUST TO SAY I DO VIEW ALL OF THESE AMENDMENTS AS FRIENDLY.

SPEAKER_96

So if you are wanting to amend that, then that is fine with me.

Do you have a particular change you would like to make?

SPEAKER_70

Yes.

Okay, go ahead.

So I guess there's no objection to suspending.

There is no objection.

Okay.

So I want to move to amend Amendment D to new Section 6D6 by deleting potential or actual...

from that section, so it would now read unintended consequences of this ordinance, which is the auditors to look at the unintended consequences of the ordinance.

SPEAKER_76

Second.

SPEAKER_108

It's been seconded.

SPEAKER_96

I heard the second.

I am just reading the effect and trying to find out where that change would make and just running to follow up.

SPEAKER_70

I don't have a printed copy.

What I can tell you is that right now it reads- Thank you.

Potential or actual, and I'm asking to remove potential or actual.

Strike that and just have unintended consequences of this ordinance.

I just think it's a cleaner language.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Got it.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the amendment?

Are there any questions?

Okay.

Please call the roll on the amendment to amendment D.

Council member Moore.

SPEAKER_110

Aye.

Council member Morales.

Yes.

Council member Rivera.

Aye.

Council member Saka.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Council member Wu.

Yes.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council member Kettle.

SPEAKER_94

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council president Nelson.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

Are there any further comments on this amendment or before we go forward to the final one?

None?

Okay.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_108

We just need one roll call on Amendment D as amended.

SPEAKER_96

Yep, go ahead.

Amendment D as amended is now up for vote.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_24

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_24

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_24

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The amendment carries and the amendment is adopted.

Are there any...

Further comments?

I do have to say that it is an awkward process to have to amend an amendment.

And that is because the amendment was not circulated well in advance.

I recognize that sometimes people don't know what they're going to do on a bill until the last minute or upon reflection or talking to stakeholders, and so I do welcome amendments at full council, and I just hope that during the budget PROCEEDINGS THAT WE WILL BE, THAT THE GRACE WILL BE EXTENDED TO HAVE THE SAME KIND OF FLEXIBILITY DURING THE BUDGET CONVERSATIONS AND DELIBERATIONS.

DO YOU HAVE, LET ME MAKE SURE, IS THERE ONE MORE AMENDMENT WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE?

SPEAKER_21

COUNCIL PRESIDENT, IF YOU'D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT THE MANAGEMENT OF THE BUDGET SESSIONS, WE CAN HAVE THAT CONVERSATION, BUT I THINK WE'RE HERE IN FULL COUNCIL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO GET DERAILED BY WHAT I BELIEVE STEPPED UP TO THE LINE OF IMPUNING MY MOTIVES.

I move to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on the recently distributed Amendment E. Second.

SPEAKER_96

It's been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120836 as presented on Amendment E. Councilmember Strauss, you're recognized in order to address the amendment.

SPEAKER_21

Thank you.

Amendment E would create a process for regular review of this policy by the Council at the Public Safety Committee.

This amendment will ensure this legislation will be reviewed and re-evaluated every two years.

AND HAVE FORMAL RECOMMENDATIONS ABOUT WHAT NEEDS CHANGING.

WHEN PAIRED WITH THE PREVIOUS AMENDMENT, THESE AMENDMENTS TOGETHER PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY TO UPDATE THE POLICIES BASED ON DATA AND THIRD PRIORITY ANALYSIS.

I ASK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

SPEAKER_96

COMMENTS, QUESTIONS?

SEEING NONE, WILL THE CLERK PLEASE CALL THE ROLL ON ADOPTION OF AMENDMENT E. COUNCIL MEMBER MOORE.

SPEAKER_110

AYE.

COUNCIL MEMBER MORALES.

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER RIVERA.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

SPEAKER_21

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Wu?

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_94

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The motion carries and Amendment E is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

SPEAKER_70

May I make final comments?

Yes, you may.

Okay.

SPEAKER_96

Never mind.

We'll make sure that you make final comments.

Okay, go ahead.

Council member, I don't know who raised their hand first.

Council member Rivera.

Go ahead, please.

SPEAKER_76

Council member Morales, I think, had her hand up.

SPEAKER_96

Council member Morales, you have the floor.

SPEAKER_24

Okay, thank you very much.

Colleagues, I'm sure it will be no surprise that I'll be voting no on this bill.

In voting no, standing with the countless sex workers, survivors of gender-based violence, service providers, anti-trafficking organizations, civil rights organizations who have come out strongly against this bill.

Among these is Freedom Network USA, the nation's largest coalition of human trafficking service providers, survivors, and attorneys working directly with trafficking victims.

Other organizations who have come today and have been coming, Cupcake Girls, the Coalition for Rights and Safety for People in the Sex Trade, Domestic Abuse Women's Network, and dozens of others.

These organizations represent people, many of whom you see in this room today and others who cannot be here and who have experienced some of the worst horrors that can be afflicted upon human beings.

To negate their experiences and plow through this bill is simply unjust.

While the sponsor points that she amended her base legislation to exclude sex sellers from the soap zone, this bill still includes a reinstatement of the prostitution loitering law, which we all know counsel unanimously repealed in 2020. As the ACLU shared, this new proposal risks ensnaring well-intentioned individuals who seek to protect people in the sex trade.

For instance, a friend or fellow person in the sex trade watching out for someone's safety could inadvertently face charges.

If we want good governance, Seattle must consider the full body of research that reflects the experiences of those trafficked and those in the sex trade.

Legal Voice conducted a review of available studies on the impact of prostitution laundering laws on communities, and found that increased criminalization did not correlate to a decrease in gun violence.

And I have to say, we know that right now our police department is still under a federal consent decree for its explicit bias in racist policing.

In addition, SPD has numerous lawsuits alleging gender and racial discrimination and harassment, even by its own rank and file within their own department.

And so when we hear from folks who are sex workers that they have been targeted, I don't think it's hard to imagine that happening.

And finally, there is no accountability in this bill for the police to follow through on diversion services, even if it is available.

Increasing criminalization of sex workers as the preferred policy to regulate sex work has only resulted in more harm and depletes our vital public safety resources without actually solving the problem.

These performative regulations are Band-Aids.

Real solutions, such as supporting stable, long-term access to social services for people in the sex trade, resourcing organizations who have built trust with these individuals to provide safe off-boarding processes for those who want to leave the trade, and providing stable, affordable shelter and housing could go a long way in curbing the public nuisance and help us stop sex traffickers more effectively.

Sex workers are among some of the most stigmatized people in society.

And to allege that this is a broadly supported bill by people who are going to be the most impacted is simply not true.

I will not be supporting this today, and I'm really disheartened that we're having these conversations again as a city when there are things we could be doing to address the root causes of all of these issues.

So I will be voting no.

SPEAKER_76

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

This bill has been thoughtfully designed to protect the women who are being victimized and the underage girls for prostitution.

As someone with a law degree and who has worked for the ACLU and who has been on the Board of Legal Voice, understand the concerns around civil liberties and we also need to be clear that there is no civil right to victimize children and women and there is no civil right to traffic humans which is what we are addressing with this legislation.

It emphasizes, this bill emphasizes diversion, which I very much support, as does, I know, my colleague, Council Member Moore, when she brought this forward, and the countless of former sex workers who we also heard from today.

And I appreciate their sharing their stories and being brave to come forward.

I know it's not an easy thing to do.

It emphasizes referrals to social services, placement in safe houses, and other alternatives to booking while giving the Seattle Police Department more tools to get the Pamps and the Johns off the streets.

Those are the people doing the most harm, and those are the subject of this legislation.

We also need ways to reduce the unacceptable gun violence that we've been seeing in the neighborhoods around North Aurora.

We have seen some good amendments today that will ensure accountability, which I very much support.

The data is important, and I'm a huge proponent of accountability and metrics of success.

There are gunfights outside people's homes.

Children are being solicited on their way to school, such as at Ingram High School, where my kids went to school, and also Robert Eagle Staff and Cascadia Elementary.

We must address this.

We know that constituents want action.

We know that this is not like the stay out of drug area.

This is not the only solution, but it is a tool to address the human trafficking on Aurora and holding those that are causing the most harm accountable while offering services to the victims.

I very much appreciate everyone who came down here today for public comment.

That is your right, that is a civil right to come down here and tell us what you think and I very much appreciate that.

And also we need to be very thoughtful about the fact that when we are trying to do things to address these issues that we're trying to address in the city, we are doing it well intentioned and we are looking at the things that prior council has done and making sure that we're making changes along with our colleagues in the city attorney's office and in the mayor's office and across the city departments to ensure that we're not causing further harm with the things that we are doing.

But we can't sit around and have constituents who are living up in this area and are asking for us to take action and say that we're not.

We need to do the best that we can with the resources that we have.

We very much and we are very clear that we are trying to help the victims of of the pimps and the johns and we need a mechanism for for taking pimps and johns off of the street and that's what we're doing and with the great amendments that were offered for accountability we're going to look at is this working and And if it's not, then we are going to make changes, because that's our commitment to you.

Because at the end of the day, we are looking to protect the victims of human trafficking up on Aurora and the children that are getting trafficked up on Aurora.

And as a parent, that means a lot to me.

And I know I'm not alone.

And I've heard from many residents from not just my district, from the D5 and other areas of the city who also care about this.

So I want to be very, very clear again as my final point.

We are trying to help the victims of human trafficking and the women and other humans who are being victimized up on Aurora.

And we are wanting to put the johns and the pimps who are causing the most harm, just like the drug dealers are causing the most harm, away.

And we cannot...

We cannot, we must do something about this.

We can't sit around and not do anything about it.

But this is why I'm co-sponsoring this legislation with Council Member Moore and I appreciate you bringing this and your leadership on this despite the fact that I know it's been a very long and rough road.

We want to acknowledge that but also want to acknowledge that you are trying to do good here and that you did your due diligence and working with many folks And that we can agree to disagree on some things because that's how we govern and that's how we work together and that's how we're in community and space together.

We agree to disagree on some things and then on other things we come together and we work together to help people.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_91

You're recognized to speak.

So it is true.

Many of us do know sex workers.

I know a few, and I have family members as well.

And so I was really torn about this legislation, but these are some stories I've dealt with in my community.

I was out at 10 p.m.

at night.

A young lady who just was, I guess she was kicked out of a car.

She fell from a car, and she was half-dressed.

Basically, she just had a final shirt tied around her waist and she was not wearing anything else and she was yelling.

And we tried to approach her.

Would you like some water?

Would you like some—a jacket?

And she was lashing out on us because she was just raped.

And there wasn't anything we could do.

And so we made sure that, you know, she was safe, and we followed her, and we asked her if she needed help, would she like to talk to him.

And she was like, no, no, I have to go to my—I have to go to my friend, or—and it was a male name.

And so, basically, she just laid down and just rested, and we did not want to call for the help because we weren't sure she was going to accept it, so we made sure she was safe.

There was another lady.

She looked like she could have been my sister.

She was also thrown from a car, and she was obviously...

We knew her.

We knew she was a sex worker, and we knew she had a pimp.

And we tried to do outreach.

We tried to build that trust, because we knew that she loved her pimp, and we couldn't get her away from him.

And so we had to...

try to, like, hey, this is our number.

If you ever need help, if you're in danger, give us a call.

We also met a man who was, I guess, proposing services to a group of other men, and then they started beating him.

And we got in there and we deescalated the situation, like, leave him alone, let him go.

He just wants to go back to where he lives, which was a tent down the street, fortunately.

And what best we could do was like, hey, this is our number.

If you ever need help, please let us know.

We could get you resources to get you to a safe place.

But unfortunately, I believe they love the person who they're working for, that they're giving their money to.

It's a sense of mind control and feeling so helpless that, you know, you need to get away from this person.

We want to help you.

We want you to be safe, but they have to choose to.

So I support this legislation because this goes after the pimps.

It goes after the johns.

That causes the traumatic effects of what I saw these three people go through.

And hopefully, when the johns and the pimps are separated from these people, who need resources and need help and can give them away from that control, then there is a chance that they'd be willing to accept resources and accept help.

So I'm supportive of this bill.

I also know how dangerous it is to be on Aurora Avenue North.

Many of my friends who are engaged in sex work are not Aurora.

They go through other means to find clients because they know how scary it is there.

And so how do we make sure we allow for the area to be a little bit safer, to stop that sex trafficking, to separate people away from their pimps, away from Johns, from that traumatic situation, and allow them to...

get the resources they need to heal and to hopefully move on.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thanks.

say thank you very much to the city attorney for transmitting this legislation and working so closely with council member Moore to craft it and all the nuances that we see here before us today.

And I also thank you very much for sticking with it and listening to community and making changes that you thought were necessary in conversation with the people that you spent a long time in conversation with.

If there are no more comments, I will now bring this to a vote.

SPEAKER_70

May I just say one thing?

Thank you very much to my colleagues for your comments.

I really appreciate the understanding of the complexity and the nuance and the support of that.

And I understand, I really appreciate the support of this work.

It's controversial, it's tough, and I think we are all coming from the same place while we may get there differently.

And that we are trying to put an end to the ongoing cycle of trauma and harm.

And I, as I have said, am committed to making sure that we get more money.

We will move money around in our budget to make that happen.

And for me, this is the beginning of the work.

It is not the end of the work.

And I want to say...

Thank you so, so much to the people who showed up today, to the survivors and the direct service providers, including Rest and Ops, but also the More We Love and the Silent Harm Task Force.

I mean, I could not have done this without you.

This bill represents your experience.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Okay, will the clerk please?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the bill?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_99

No.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_41

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Eight in favor, one opposed.

SPEAKER_96

Excellent, the bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, deep breath.

Moving on to the next item on our agenda, and folks, we have four more items, but they should go fairly quickly.

Will the clerk please read item four into the record?

SPEAKER_108

The report of the Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee, agenda item four, council bill 120860, ruling to the Seattle Center Department.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_96

Councilmember Hollingsworth is chair of the committee.

You're recognized to provide the committee report.

SPEAKER_58

Thank you, Council President.

Okay, so this is Council Bill 120860. This is the Seattle Center Department lease agreement.

Currently, this is to renewal of a lease agreement where they are renting an area, Kitty Corner, to...

I will pause for disruption and let our guests leave so we can continue with council business if there is no objection.

Thank you.

Okay, so this is a renewal of a lease, and for the Seattle Center to continue their storage.

Colleagues, once Memorial Stadium is built, that lease, they will move a lot of their materials and event things that they have to Memorial Stadium, but this is necessary for them to continue their operations, and I'd love your support.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Any questions or comments?

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

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yep.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Will the clerk please read item five into the record?

SPEAKER_108

Council 120855 relating to public utilities.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_96

Again, Council Member Hollingsworth, go ahead.

SPEAKER_58

Thank you, Council President.

This bill is for SPU to entail their intimate, excuse me, eminent domain, I was gonna say intimate, sorry, eminent domain for, basically there's two properties, there's a pipe running through there that's 67 years old that goes to Pipers Creek.

They would like to purchase these properties in case that water main breaks and they'd be able to access it to continue servicing folks.

So it's very simple and I would love your support.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Any comments or questions?

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

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

And the chair will sign it.

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

Moving on, will the clerk please read item six into the record?

SPEAKER_108

Council 120843 relating to King County Conservation Future Levy Proceeds.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Again, this is the legislation coming from Councilmember Hollingsworth's committee.

Go ahead and please provide the report.

SPEAKER_58

Absolutely.

Thank you, Council President.

This bill authorizes our mayor and our interlocal agreement for us to do open space acquisition projects.

It's changing of the language, so we'll be able to continue our growth.

and sustainability with purchasing of different parks and continue our open space plan.

So the committee passed it, five in favor, none in pose, and would love your support.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

I see no comments, no questions or comments.

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

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saca?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_94

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

And will the clerk please read item seven into the record.

SPEAKER_108

Council 120854 relating to staff public utilities authorized an acquisition by negotiation of two parcels of land.

Committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_58

Go ahead, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council President.

This bill has been five years in the process.

This SPU is going to acquire a piece of property that's going to help to restore our salmon recovery plan.

They are purchasing the property from, say, a young woman who's 92. And I believe her name is Miss Helen, who is still on the property.

and she will continue to maintain a little part of this parcel so she can live out her days and they will honor her with this transfer of property that she has given back our city so we can continue with the restoration of our salmon and environmental impact that we have.

And just really excited and happy for this gift to our city and five in favor, none opposed out of our committee.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Seeing no comments or questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_58

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf and read item eight into the record.

SPEAKER_108

Agenda item eight, resolution 32146, relating to the city's participation in the state of Washington's clean fuel standard programs.

Can we recommend the resolution be adopted?

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Wu is chair of the committee, recognized to provide the committee report.

SPEAKER_91

Thank you.

So this resolution acknowledges and approves the city's participation in the state of Washington's clean fuel standard program.

It also acknowledges the interdepartmental memorandum of agreement among City Light, Finance, and Administrative Services, the Seattle Department of Transportation, and Seattle Public Utilities.

Joining this program aligns with Seattle's commitment to combat climate change and improve air quality for our residents and our participation in the Clean Fuels Program, or CFP.

City Light and other participating departments will be able to sell CFS credits and use the revenue to further the city's environmental justice and equity goals.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Seeing no questions or comments, talking slowly and just in case.

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

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saca.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_96

Aye.

SPEAKER_110

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf and read item nine into the record.

SPEAKER_108

Agenda Item 9, Resolution 32144, Adopting the 2024 Food Action Plan.

The committee recommends that resolution be adopted.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Council Member Wu, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_91

So the Office of Sustainability, Environment, and Human Services Department collaborated to create the first update to the city's food action plan since 2012. So the food action plan serves as a roadmap to creating an equitable local food system.

And there are about 47 very specific actions that will enhance food security, support local economics, and ensure environmental sustainability.

The plan also emphasizes racial, social justice, addresses food security, security disparities, and also supports local food businesses and producers by increasing equitable land access for agriculture.

So OSC did a great job.

They engaged with over 250 community partners, including tribes, local organizations, to truly make this plan a success, and I ask for your support.

SPEAKER_96

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_110

Councilmember Moore?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

SPEAKER_84

Yes.

SPEAKER_110

Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Saka.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council Member Kettle.

Council President Nelson.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_96

is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf and read item 10 into the record.

SPEAKER_108

Agenda item number 10 when council bill 120479 related to historic preservation posing controls upon the east pine substation.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

SPEAKER_96

Council member Rivera you're recognized to address this item.