Seattle City Council 5/30/23

Today is May 30th, 2023. The meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.01 p.m.

I'm Lisa Herbal, President Pro Tem of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Councilmember Morales?

Here.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

And Council President Pro Tem Herbold?

Here.

Six present.

Thank you so much.

If there's no objection, Councilmembers Mosqueda and Sawant will be excused from today's City Council meeting.

Hearing no objection, Councilmember Mosqueda and Sawant are excused from today's City Council meeting.

Further, if there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended.

Designate Council Member Peterson as the Council President Pro Tem for this meeting.

Hearing no objection, Council Member Peterson is designated Council President Pro Tem for the duration of the meeting.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Colleagues, I'm not aware of any presentations for today, so we will go to the next item on our agenda, which is public comment.

At this time, we will open the hybrid public comment period.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have two in person and zero online.

Okay, two in person and none online, and so we'll go ahead and play the recording with the instructions for public comment.

And each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

Hello, Seattle.

We are the Emerald City, the city of flowers and the city of goodwill, built on indigenous land, the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples.

The Seattle City Council welcomes remote public comment and is eager to hear from residents of our city.

If you would like to be a speaker and provide a verbal public comment, you may register two hours prior to the meeting via the Seattle City Council website.

Here's some information about the public comment proceedings.

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

Each speaker must call in from the phone number provided when they registered online and used the meeting ID and passcode that was emailed upon confirmation.

If you did not receive an email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.

A reminder, the speaker meeting ID is different from the general listen line meeting ID provided on the agenda.

Once a speaker's name is called, the speaker's microphone will be unmuted and an automatic prompt will say, the host would like you to unmute your microphone.

That is your cue that it's your turn to speak.

At that time, you must press star six.

You will then hear a prompt of, you are unmuted.

Be sure your phone is unmuted on your end so that you will be heard.

As a speaker, you should begin by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

A chime will sound when 10 seconds are left in your allotted time as a gentle reminder to wrap up your public comments.

At the end of the allotted time, your microphone will be muted and the next speaker registered will be called.

Once speakers have completed providing public comment, Please disconnect from the public comment line and join us by following the meeting via Seattle Channel broadcast or through the listening line option listed on the agenda.

The council reserves the right to eliminate public comment if the system is being abused or if the process impedes the council's ability to conduct its business on behalf of residents of the city.

Any offensive language that is disruptive to these proceedings or that is not focused on an appropriate topic as specified in Council rules may lead to the speaker being muted by the presiding officer.

Our hope is to provide an opportunity for productive discussions that will assist our orderly consideration of issues before the Council.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.

Thank you Seattle.

Our first speaker is Alex Zimmerman.

Zeke Heil.

Yeah.

Zeke Heil, them, Nazi, Gestapo, fascist, and mafioso.

My name Alexander Mann and I live in Bellevue for 35 years.

I want to speak about agenda number six, I think.

It's about your choice, somebody for police commissioner.

And I spoke about this for many years, a dozen times.

Why you choice only idiot?

Can you explain to me?

You're supposed to be choice people what is have something in their brain, but they don't have nothing.

And they not a professional.

I was in police commission meeting many times, they all freaking idiotic.

Nobody have experience with police.

I'm professional, for example.

I three time prosecute, you have experience with police dozen time.

So, why you don't choice me?

and I top educate and very freaking smart.

My IQ probably more than 250. Oh, I'm sorry.

It's like a Mexican person.

I'm sorry.

Guys, when you stop acting like an idiot, and I speak right now to everybody who listen to me, we need clean this chamber because when this idiot, Choice, idiota.

This mean all idiota government.

What is we have right now?

For this we have a collapse.

For this we don't have freedom of speech.

You never show people faces for one year and I speak all over.

You only one Nazi pig who don't doing this.

Why?

Nobody knows this.

Why?

Nobody knows.

So I speak right now to Seattle.

Stand up, America.

We need bring Seattle back to normal life.

Grid Seattle like we have before.

You know what this means?

Clean this Dory chamber from this cretina.

Our next speaker is James Thackler.

Yeah, James Fackler here.

Thanks for allowing me to speak.

I just want to say I do appreciate your guys' public service and the hard work that you guys do.

I know I mentioned this last time I was up here, but seriously, you know, I work for the city, too, and I know how difficult it can be at times.

You know, so you guys, hats off.

So I'm here to talk about, as a city worker, I'm also a shop steward and part of the contract action team for the coalition of unions, but I'm here really as my role as shop steward and as pro-tech 17. Just to talk about some of the realities of working in the city these days and kind of the tough economic conditions that we're in.

I understand, you know, we're Inflation is at an all-time high.

We're currently out of contract and we've been negotiating for nine months.

The labor negotiators from the city came back with a 1% cost of living.

adjustment for this year.

Inflation is at 9.2 percent, so that is an effective pay cut of close to 10 percent, which is a big chunk of people's budgets.

It effectively amounts to needing to work more than a month extra, so a 13-month year.

13 and a half months, maybe, to make up the difference, right?

So really what it affects is, for me, it affects discretionary spending.

My wife makes a fair amount of money, but it also impacts our budget.

I've got other colleagues that it's much more impactful for that make significantly less money than I do.

And this is stuff that's impacting people right now, today.

So really, I know that the mayor is the one that's in charge of negotiating.

You guys hold the purse and direct those numbers.

You know just would ask that you guys consider putting some pressure on the mayor to come back with a fair cost of living adjustment for coalition unions.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you and that does it for the public commenters.

Thank you, colleagues.

We've reached the end of the list of registered speakers, so the public comment period is now closed.

Thank you, everybody, for your comments today.

Next item on the agenda, if there's no objection, the introduction referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction referral calendar is adopted.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now consider the proposed consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar include the minutes from the May 23rd, 2023 meeting, a payroll bill, which is Council Bill 120583, and one appointment from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

Colleagues, are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

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

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Excuse me.

Council Member Pitt?

I will come back to you.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Councilmember Herbold?

Yes.

And Council President Pro Tem Peterson?

Yes.

Six in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The consent calendar items are approved and adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf.

Committee reports.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Report of the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee, Agenda Item 1, Council Bill 120576, relating to the City of Seattle accepting easements, each granting to the City of Seattle an easement for overhead or underground electrical distribution rights upon, under, and across real property in King County, Washington.

The Committee recommends that City Council pass the Council Bill.

Thank you.

Council Member Nelson, as Chair of that Committee, you are recognized in order to address this item.

Thank you very much everyone so city light requires that the owner of a new or altered electrical service contract provide the city of Seattle with an easement over private property in order that that the utility may distribute that electricity.

and under the city charter, council must pass an ordinance allowing the city to acquire that easement.

So that's what we're doing today.

Instead of doing them one by one with every single easement acquired, usually City Light bundles them together and presents one piece of legislation to council every year.

But because of the pandemic, we have not done that since 2020. So this ordinance will accept 136 easements that have been received and recorded since then.

And this passed unanimously out of committee.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any comments?

As the sponsor, Council Member Nelson, any closing remarks?

No, thank you.

Okay.

Excellent.

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

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

And Council President Pro Tem Peterson?

Yes.

Six in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

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 two into the record?

Agenda item two, council bill 120577, relating to the city of Seattle accepting easements for overhead or underground electrical distribution rights upon, under, and across real property in King County, Washington.

The committee recommends that city council pass the council bill.

Thank you.

Council Member Nelson, as chair of the committee, you're recognized in order to address this item.

Thank you very much.

Same idea here.

These easements are contained in short flats, lot boundary adjustments, and unit lot subdivisions approved by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

And this ordinance accepts 851 easements for overhead and underground electrical rights in King County, Washington.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any comments?

Councilmember Nielsen has sponsor any closing remarks?

No, I have none.

Thank you.

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

Councilmember Nielsen?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Herbold?

Yes.

Councilmember Lewis?

Yes.

Councilmember Morales?

Yes.

And Council President Pro Tem Peterson?

Yes.

Six in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

Next on the agenda, items removed from the consent calendar.

There were no items removed from the consent calendar.

Next agenda item, adoption of other resolutions.

There are no resolutions for introduction and adoption today.

Other business.

Is there any other business to come before the council?

Okay.

Hearing no other business before the council, we'll move on to adjournment.

Colleagues, this concludes the items of business on today's agenda.

The next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held on June 6, 2023. Thank you.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.

Recording stopped.