Seattle City Council 6/22/2020

The second 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's 2 o'clock p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Sawant.

Here.

Straus.

Straus.

Herbold.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Mosqueda.

Here.

Peterson.

Here.

President Gonzalez.

Here.

Seven present.

Thank you so much.

Folks, on March 29th, Governor Inslee established Proclamation 20-28, which waived and suspended certain Open Public Meeting Act requirements for in-person meetings.

And since then, it has been extended by the governor.

and the leadership of the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives through July 1st of 2020 to comply with the recommendations and in the interest of the safety and welfare of the public and our employees.

The Seattle City Council is meeting remotely and participating electronically.

As I mentioned last week, the City Council anticipates continuing this practice for City Council and committee meetings through December 31st, 2020. But for now, we're going to undergo the exercise of I will move to suspend the Council rules to allow the Council to conduct meetings remotely through July 1st, 2020, consistent at this with Proclamation 20-28.

So if there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow council members to participate electronically at City Council and community meetings through July 1st, 2020. Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and the council will participate electronically through July 1st.

Presentations, I'm not aware of any presentations.

So we'll go ahead and move on to the minutes.

The minutes of the city council meeting of June 15th, 2020 have been reviewed.

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

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

And I'd ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes.

We are going to move to the adoption of the referral calendar.

There is one small amendment that will need to be made to the adoption of the referral calendar.

That motion will come from Councilmember Mosqueda.

We will go through the process of moving to adopt the IRC first with the second so it is before us before Councilmember Mosqueda makes her amendment motion.

I will move to adopt the proposed introduction and referral calendar.

Is there a second?

Thank you so much.

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

I will hand it over now to Council Member Roscada who has an amendment.

Thank you, Council President.

I move to amend the introduction and referral calendar to add Council Member Lewis as an additional co-sponsor to Council Bills 119810, 119811, and 119812. councilmember Lewis.

Is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded to add councilmember Lewis as a sponsor to those three bills.

Are there any additional comments?

Councilmember Mosqueda.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

I really appreciate you going through the formal process of adding Council Member Lewis as a co-sponsor to those bills.

Any other comments or questions on the amendment?

Okay, hearing none, I'd ask that the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment.

Sawant?

Sawant?

Strauss.

Aye.

I said aye, sorry.

Oh, thank you.

Strauss.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The amendment is adopted, and Councilmember Lewis has officially been added as sponsor to Council Bills 119, 810, 811, and 812. Are there any other comments on the amended introduction and referral calendar?

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

Sawant?

Aye.

Straus?

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Sorry.

Aye.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

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

Colleagues, if there is no objection, the agenda for today will be adopted.

hearing no objection the agenda is adopted.

So at this time we are going to go ahead and move to open up the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda introduction and referral calendar and the council's 2020 work program.

I want to thank my colleagues our legislative department staff and the public for their ongoing patience as we continue to improve upon and refine the remote system for public comment, including pre-registration for the remote public comment period.

We are continuously looking for ways to fine-tune this process and adding new features that allow for additional means of public participation in our council meetings.

If members of the public, after participating today, have feedback, they can always email that to my office at Lorena.Gonzalez, that's with a Z at the end, at Seattle.gov.

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

However, the City Council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and in a manner in which we are able to conduct our necessary business.

I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period for this meeting was noted on today's agenda to last up to 20 minutes.

We do have a pretty robust public comment sign-up sheet.

I think we have about 50 folks or so signed up.

So I am going to go ahead, and in the spirit of wanting to hear from everyone, I'm going ask that each speaker scale their comments down to a one minute speaking time.

That should allow us an opportunity to I would like to hear from just about everybody on who signed up today, because I'd like to go ahead and on the front end just extend our public comment period to last up to 60 minutes instead of 20 minutes.

So that would take us to about 3.15 p.m.

hearing from members of the public.

So if there's no objection from my colleagues, I'd like to go to extend today's public comment period to 60 minutes.

Hearing no objection, we'll go ahead and do that.

and allow everybody one minute to speak.

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

If you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website at Seattle.gov forward slash council.

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

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone, and an automatic prompt of, you have been unmuted, will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak.

I'd ask that you begin speaking by reminding us of your name and the item that you are addressing.

And as a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction and referral calendar, or the council's 2020 work program.

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

Once you hear the chime, I'd ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.

If speakers don't end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, then the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

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

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, We ask that you watch us via the Seattle channel on channel 21 or any one of the listening options listed on the agenda.

So the public comment period is now open.

We'll go ahead and begin with calling on the first speaker on this list.

As promised, I said that we were going to do an hour.

We're starting now.

It's about 2 11 p.m.

So we'll just call it 2 15 p.m.

and go until 3.15 p.m., and our first speaker is Andy Nguyen, followed by Savannah Sly.

Hello, my name is Andy Nguyen, resident of District 2. I want to use my time to read a statement from a sex worker in our community.

My name is Pepa Vina, and I'm a trans woman of color with over 10 years of experience as a sex worker.

I'm the community engagement manager at Utopia Seattle.

I fight for the rights of all sex workers, and I'm an advocate for POC trans and gender diverse sex workers.

When having conversations about repealing prostitution, loitering and drug loitering, we need to include black, indigenous and other people of color, fems in order to understand the racist origin of both laws.

One originating from the war on drugs era, the other under the guise of decreasing sex trafficking, further marginalizing individuals like myself, black, indigenous, trans women of color living with chronic illness and disability, living with HIV, poor people needing to provide for their families.

As a sex worker, I am against any form of human trafficking, including trafficking of individuals in the sex trades, which very much affects young, queer, and trans folks seeking survival when ostracized by families.

Please pass 119-807-808.

And also, we recommend banning confiscation of condoms.

Thank you so much for calling in today.

Next up is Savannah Sly followed by Emi Koyama.

Hello, my name is Savannah Fly, and I'm a council member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project of Seattle and an active member of the Coalition for the Rights and Safety of People in the Sex Trade.

I'm also a sex worker who has operated in Seattle since 2010. I'm testifying today in support of the motion to strike drug and prostitution loitering laws from the Seattle Municipal Code.

Due to the criminalized nature of our existence, sex workers have an inherently antagonistic relationship with law enforcement.

Loitering laws are absolutely vehicles for racial, gender, and class-based profiling and discrimination and must be repealed.

Similarly, soap and soda orders criminalize a person for being in a given area on suspicion of drug or prostitution, and the council should consider future legislation to prevent the police from enforcing these types of orders.

Lastly, we need to end the criminalization of people in the sex trade.

As we move into a deep recession, punishing people for making ends meet is cruel and senseless.

Help does not begin with handcuffs.

It is time to strike the crime of prostitution from the Seattle Municipal Code.

Thank you very much to the sponsors of these two pieces of legislation today, and thank you to the council.

Thank you, Savannah, for calling in today.

Next up is Emmy, followed by Laura Lowe Bernstein.

Hi, my name is Emmy Claremont, and I'm the director of Coalition for Rights and Stakes for People and Sex Trade, a network of 20-plus community organizations.

I'm speaking in support of bills repealing crime with prostitution, loitering, and drug traffic loitering.

Prostitution law in particular is actively being used by Seattle PD as a pretext for profiling young women of color leading to unnecessary and unwarranted police interaction with background checks, unconsent and often illegal searches, harassment and other harms.

But the council needs to go further.

As long as the crime of prostitution remains on the book, even if it's rarely prosecuted, similar profiling and harassment of young women of color will continue.

Further, the city needs to stop the police from enforcing the SOAP, state out-of-area prostitution, and SOTA orders, which are used exactly the same way as the loitering ordinances against exactly the same population.

We have waited for two years since the city's own reentry work group recommended repealing the loitering laws.

Pass the bills now and come back and go further next week.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for calling in today.

Next up is Laura Lowe followed by Zachary Gardner.

Hello Council.

My name is Laura Lowe.

I'm the founder of Share the Cities an all-volunteer organizing collective with a hundred member staff organizing group and we do quarterly land use advocacy and educational meetings.

Sex workers are workers.

They should have strong worker protections.

Creating a criminalized mindset around sex work does not stop it from happening.

It just creates terrible dangerous working conditions for people trying to feed themselves their families and pay the rent.

This small step Council Bill 119-808 indicates to me that the relentless efforts to educate people about the need for decriminalization by people like Sheree LaSalle and orgs like POC SWAP and Green Light Project are finally being heard.

Please pass this bill and move far beyond this to create safe and fair labor standards for sex workers in Seattle like you have for so many other marginalized worker populations.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Zachary Gardner, followed by Josh Castle.

Hello, my name is Zachary Gardner.

I'm a resident of Belltown in Council District 7. First, I would like to thank Council Member Lewis for drafting this legislation as thoroughly needed.

I fully support the repeal of these antiquated loitering laws due to drug and prostitution left over from the failed war on drugs.

I would also just like to reiterate my support for full 50% repeal of police budgets and supporting more equity for the black and indigenous communities in the city of Seattle.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Next up is Josh Castle, followed by Diaglin Fitzsimmons.

Hi, my name is Josh Castle.

I'm from Lehigh.

We stand in solidarity with thousands of community leaders in the call to reallocate at least half of the $400 million in SBD funding to other crucially needed investments.

We also stand with African American faith leaders in the funding of 1,000 new affordable homes for residents displaced due to gentrification and racist policies.

funded by big business tax.

Please see the letter they sent to all of you.

We are grateful to council members Morales, Sawant, Mosqueda, Lewis, Gonzalez, Herbold, and Strauss for your work on progressive and big business taxation to fund grossly underfunded housing and homelessness services.

We enthusiastically support all three proposals.

We urge city council to support the funding of 20 villages over the next three years and five to 10 this year using state and federal COVID funding.

As we did recently with three sites that were up in four weeks, We have the ability to scan these up quickly and cost-effectively.

We want to partner with other providers and nonprofits in operations and case management, so we have a mix of talent and organizations involved.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in, Josh.

Next up is, and I apologize if I am butchering your names.

I'm doing the best I can here.

Diaghlin Fitzsimmons, followed by Naomi See.

Hi, my name is Declan Fitzsimmons.

Thank you.

I am District 5. I'm a trans person, former drug user and sex worker, and I'm sending my support for the removal of drug and prostitution loitering laws, charges from the municipal code.

As a sex worker and drug user, interactions with police never made me feel safer.

In fact, they actually made me feel the opposite.

I've lost colleagues because these laws push people to seek out more private areas to work and are taken advantage of by predators.

Please please on this Pride Month strike these codes for the sake and safety of PSD and trans folks who are disproportionately likely to engage in sex work due to lack of job security.

I appreciate you listening and I also would like to say that I think it's past time for Seattle to decriminalize sex work.

I have worked in the legal system in Nevada.

I would not recommend it.

It's basically just like making the government into your pimp.

So decriminalization.

We need that ASAP.

Thank you.

Thank you Degran.

I apologize for butchering your first name.

My apologies.

Next up is Naomi followed by John.

Hi my name is Naomi See and I'm a student at the University of Washington.

I just want to urge the council today to please support the proposal put forth by the reverend in the central area to implement the central area housing plan as well as invest in homeless housing, shelters, and also pass a progressive tax that helps support some of these initiatives that combat years of displacement and disinvestment in communities of color.

Thank you for your work, and please refer to the letter that the reverend sent you a couple weeks ago.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is John Delfeld followed by Hattie Rudes.

Hello, my name is John Delfeld and my family and I live in District 5 and my daughter and I wish to address the council for systemic changes in policing.

I'm Sophia Delfeld.

I'm six years old.

I believe No one, no black people can ever get killed or hurt by anyone.

We are outraged by the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Manuel Ellis, among others.

We would like to see the permanent ban of chokeholds and tear gas, as well as the overall demilitarization of our police force.

Beyond reform, we need a new philosophy of policing in our city and our country.

a re-envisioning that includes community leaders, city council members, interested in systemic, sustainable change.

We will review and redirect a portion of the police budget to social programs, create new training programs, and pursue an outcomes-based mission to serve.

Thank you, John, for calling in and for having your daughter participate in public comment today.

She might have been the youngest public commenter we've had yet at City Council, but we appreciate your participation.

Next up is Hattie Rhodes, followed by Catherine West.

Hello, my name is Hattie Rhodes, formerly of the Georgetown Tiny House Village.

Tiny House Villages are a safe, dignified shelter for homeless people, as well as we've realized that they are a perfect shelter for when we have a major pandemic.

I urge the City Council to look at any and all ways to fund more tiny house villages so that any experiencing homelessness have the chance to rebuild their lives.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Catherine West followed by Matthew Lauder.

Hello, my name is Hello, my name is Catherine West.

I'm an attorney with Legal Voice, a nonprofit feminist legal organization that has fought to advance the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ people in the Pacific Northwest for over 40 years.

We, in 2017, drafted a white paper regarding sex work, which I have already submitted to the council by email.

And the reason why we took this issue up is because it intersects with our core advocacy around ending gender-based violence, advancing economic justice, and protecting reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.

We believe that the laws and policies relating to sex work should center the perspectives and needs of sex workers, including Savannah Sly and Emmy Koyama, who have already testified today.

We support council's proposal to decriminalize the consensual exchange of sexual services between adults.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Matthew Lauder followed by Devin O'Donnell.

Hi, my name is Matthew Lauder.

I am a resident of the Queen Anne neighborhood.

I've lived in Seattle my whole life.

I would like to voice my support for Council Bills 119807 and 119808. It is unacceptable that our sex workers and drug users in the city have been treated as criminals.

And I hope that the removal of these laws from our books can serve as a precedent for further reducing the impact of policing in our city, reducing the prevalence of policing in our communities.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Devin O'Donnell, followed by Shira Cole.

I'm calling in support of, I'm Devin O'Donnell calling in support of CB 119808 and 807. This is the first step towards the decriminalization of sex work.

Credit to POC Swap, JLP Seattle, and specifically Shira Ellis Ellis.

We need to get rid, we need to decriminalize sex work.

And honestly, like the level in which violence is put on sex workers is by the police.

A recent FOIA request shows that, like, from 2018, the cops are being paid $200,000 to $300,000 a year consistently in Seattle.

Meanwhile, Seattle 911 violent calls are 1.3%.

Police assault sex workers.

40% of cops are domestic abusers.

Y'all need to hold your pigs accountable because you are murderers.

You funding the police allows them to commit an acts of violence.

Every single pain, every single hurt is on your hands.

You must be held accountable.

Support these bills and defund the police, you cowards.

Okay, next up is Shira Cole, followed by Howard Gale.

Hi, my name is Shira Cole, and I would like to say that I support repealing the prostitution and drug lawyering laws.

I actually support full decriminalization of all sex work.

And I'd also like to point out that there's two different approaches to the trafficking problem.

One's a rights-based approach, and one is a criminalization-based approach.

And the criminalization-based approach that a lot of groups are advocating for is very, very harmful for active sex workers.

And I would really encourage the city council, when they do speak to trafficking organizations, that they speak to organizations that advocate the rights-based approach.

I'd also like to say that I'm also an on-again, off-again sex worker.

I've been sort of forced out of the industry because it's been so difficult to do it, and I'm now a lot of the times relying on government assistance because of that.

In 2018, FOSTA-SESTA made it pretty much impossible for sex workers to advertise online.

This is why they are on the streets.

Next up is Howard Gale, followed by Andrew Constantino.

Hi, this is Howard Gale from District 7. It's only been 24 days since George Floyd demonstrations started in Seattle.

And we've already seen that in that short time, seven years of police reform have either come undone or finally have been revealed as a very, very fragile facade.

Two days ago, last Saturday, we saw this fiction further unravel as police failed in their response to a deadly shooting in the protest zone, and then followed that up with a cover-up of their incompetence with completely false accusations about violent protesters, preventing them from getting to victims.

I want to point out It took over 20 minutes, over 20 minutes from the time the 9-11 call was logged on Saturday until officers arrived at the area of the shooting.

Over the last four years, the mode for such response times has been four minutes or less.

So this is a very serious issue.

Further, the false claims by SPD concerning these unexplained delays violate existing policies 1.110 and 5.001.

Thank you.

Okay, next up is Andrew Constantino, followed by Teresa Holman.

Hi, I'm Andrew Constantino, site coordinator at Georgetown Tiny House Village.

I support the expansion of Tiny House Villages.

Villages have provided dignified shelter to hundreds of Seattle's most vulnerable, and Tiny House Villages have case management, which helps clients seek treatment, counseling, medical care, and permanent housing.

During the COVID crisis, villagers have been able to self-isolate while having basic needs met.

Operation Stack Lunch has been providing meals to villages, and hopefully this will continue once the public health emergency subsides.

We need to do more tiny house villages.

Let's offer everyone on our streets a chance to rebuild their lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Teresa Holman, followed by Danielle Shapiro.

I'm here to ask that some of the Seattle Police Department funding be reallocated to fund 20 new tiny house villages over the next two years.

They're safe, cost effective, and an immediate response to homelessness.

We would also ask that three meals a day be funded at each village, existing and new.

Thank you for your work on big business taxation to fund addressing the homeless crisis.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Danielle Shapiro followed by Sean Case.

Hi my name is Danny Shapiro and I'm a resident of District 3. Many of my loved ones are sex workers in Seattle and elsewhere and I'm asking each of you to use your power today to remove both drug and prostitution monitoring crime from the Seattle Municipal Code.

It's a small change to the code that could have a huge tangible impact on some of the most vulnerable populations in the city including many of my friends and loved ones.

To do this would mean fewer actions interactions with the police fewer arrests incarceration lower costs to the city and much more safety and security to Black Indigenous and people of color in our city.

It would mean fewer families hurt and broken up by policing jail and prison systems.

And doing this would show an actual commitment to racial and gender equity during a time when city residents are losing faith in our government leaders commitment to taking care of us.

You have the opportunity to make a big impact at an important moment.

and we're watching and we're remembering how you choose to act as we protest, as we organize, and as we make decisions about voting in upcoming election cycles.

Please make the right choice by repealing these crimes from the code.

Next up is Sean Case followed by Roxanne Robles.

Hi, my name is Sean Case.

I'm a District 3 resident and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and I'm speaking in support today of Council Bills 119, 807, and 808. Striking drug possession and prostitution from the Municipal Code would be a positive step for Seattle.

Criminalizing drug possession and sex work effectively criminalizes poverty, particularly for people of color and trans folks.

We need full decriminalization.

It would lead to fewer police interactions with some of our community's most vulnerable populations, and therefore fewer deaths and other acts of violence at the hands of police.

We'd also set the groundwork for more far-reaching policy and legislation like expanded access to counseling, treatment, STI testing, safe injection sites, expanded public housing, the list goes on.

These are concrete ways in which public funds can be spent that don't amount to dumping more money into our bloated police department.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Roxanne Robles followed by Ryan Paul.

Hello, Council, and thank you, Council Member or President Gonzalez for pronouncing my name correctly.

I am calling in support of Council Bills 119807 and 119808. I support the decriminalization of both sex work and drug traffic lawyering, as well as the full decriminalization of sex work.

I think it is it is work and it's an important part of giving people with less access to traditional forms of income agency over their own lives and their own bodies.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Ryan Paul, followed by Samantha Siciliano.

Hi, Council.

My name is Ryan Paul.

I'm a resident of District 6 and a Share the Cities volunteer.

I'm asking you all to support Council Bill 119808, As a first step towards decriminalization sex work, a lot of credit should go to people in groups like Popswap and Greenlight Project, and people like Shirley says for bringing awareness around these issues.

I'm also asking you to support Council Bill 119807, removing the crime of drug traffic loitering.

Sean Scott, our local organizer and former D4 candidate, has pointed out that this part of the code is often used to surveil and harass citizens.

Both these pieces of law have allowed for continual harassment over our Black or Indigenous, people of color, transgender, and sex worker neighbors.

And I urge the council to remedy this and take one step towards dismantling the systemic racism and transphobia in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Samantha, followed by Alicia Glenwell.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Samantha Siciliano from District 3. I'm calling to urge my city council members to vote yes on the legislation to repeal drug and prostitution loitering.

This is a law that disproportionately impacts people of color.

This targeting often leads to people being sexually assaulted, harassed, coerced, and extorted on top of being arrested by the cops under the pretense of the law.

I myself have been a sex worker for 10 years, and most of my community includes sex workers.

Like others who have firsthand experience with police, we as sex workers know personally that cops do not spend most of their time on the beat stopping crime in its tracks.

This reality is especially clear for people of color, especially for black people, who are much more likely than white people to be stopped, pulled over, and searched by police.

As a result, lower income people of color, and particularly black people, are disproportionately arrested for nonviolent code violations, loitering, and drug possession, and forced into a criminal legal system grounded in punishment and mass incarceration.

For this reason, we must repeal the laws that criminalize people for trying to survive, or simply how they live their lives and what they look like.

This includes all ordinances that criminalize people involved in the sex trade, drug trade, and street economies.

This vote is a good first step, but ultimately, I'm calling to decriminalize prostitution and drugs.

Thank you for calling in, Samantha.

Next up is Alicia, followed by Sheree Lascelles.

Hi, my name is Alicia Glenwell.

I'm with the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

Along with our many colleagues who've already spoken today, I'm speaking in support of today's bills, eliminating the crimes of drug traffic and prostitution loitering from the Seattle Municipal Code.

For many years, advocates for people in the sex trade have been calling for an end to prostitution loitering laws.

As the Seattle Reentry Work Group reported in 2018, this ordinance targets a group already at high risk, exacerbating underlying unmet needs and exposing them to further physical and sexual harm.

Eliminating these crimes today is a welcome step and more is needed.

Council should end SOAP and SODA orders that function in essentially the same way as the loitering laws.

Council should also eliminate the crime of prostitution itself.

As advocates for survivors of sexual and domestic violence, we understand that the threat of arrest and incarceration is no way to help survivors or populations vulnerable to exploitation and violence, and in fact, perpetuates gender-based violence.

Thank you for your vote today to repeal these crimes and please continue to take action on these issues in the future.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Sheree followed by Leonora Russell.

Hello, my name is Sheree LaSalle, and I'm a resident of District 4. I'm also a member of Green Light Project, TalkSwap, and Decriminalize Seattle.

I wanted to thank everyone that's called in in favor of decriminalizing prostitution loitering as well as drug trafficking loitering, CB 119-807 and CB 119-808.

Also, thanks for showing up, everyone that's in here, and thank you for hearing these comments and having this on the agenda today.

It means a lot, and I can't wait for the next steps after this.

Thank you, Sheree, for calling in.

Appreciate it.

Next up is Leonora Russell, followed by Amber Bergstrom.

Hi there.

So I, my name is Leonora Russell and I work with Decriminalize Nature Seattle and Seattle Entheogenic Society.

And my biggest concern right now is that the massive drug problem, problem on the streets of Seattle, we have seen the Nixon drug war and the war on drugs cause irreparable harm to families, particularly families of color.

And right now, we have a systemic system of bias and war on the poorest and most vulnerable.

And so I'm here to talk about the fact that we've met with Lisa Herbold with Seattle City Council, and she has asked us to show us that there's a movement to decriminalize these plant medicines that have helped so many.

And right now, the fact that Oakland and Santa Cruz have taken the initiative with their city councils to go ahead and do this, they have done this by actions of the people for the people, And that is my request of you guys today that you actually look at what can you accomplish yourself that don't have to be brought to your door but you actually do for the people and by the people.

Thank you.

Thank you Leonora.

Next up is Amber Bergstrom followed by Bruce Hanamura.

Hi my name is Amber Bergstrom.

I'm a 17-year resident of Seattle in District 6. and a volunteer for Green Light Project.

I'm here to voice my support for CB 119-807 and 119-08.

As a volunteer, these bills directly affect the communities we serve who are primarily Black, Indigenous, and POC, multiple marginalized folks.

Laws that criminalize poverty only make vulnerable populations more likely to experience violence, death, and harm.

These bills do not go far enough.

We must decriminalize sex work and we must defund the police.

In order to make our city safer for everyone, all of the residents, I urge that the City Council to reconsider the proposals that POC Swap and Greenlight Project and Sheree LaSalle made last fall and have not been acted on.

Please act on them now to save lives.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Bruce Hanamura followed by Candace Faber.

Hi, my name is Bruce Honomura from the 3rd District, and I'm calling today to urge the Council to repeal the drug and prostitution loitering laws.

These laws only continue to harm an already marginalized community, and it allows continued harassment and violence by the very police who claim to protect them.

In 2016, Amnesty International supported full decriminalization of sex work, and we can even look to New Zealand for guidance.

It works.

And the people these laws harm are your neighbors your friends your loved ones the patrons to your businesses and my partner.

Repealing is a good first step and full decriminalization is the only answer to do the right thing.

So yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Candace followed by Evie Flowers.

Hi.

My name is Candace Faber.

I'm a resident of District 5 and also a volunteer with Green Light Project.

I'm calling to unequivocally support the bills to repeal prostitution and drug loitering for all of the reasons previously mentioned.

But I wanted to add a few things.

The first is that I want to acknowledge that every person who has called in and outed themselves as a sex worker has done something that should not be courageous in our society, but still is.

And I believe that credit should go first and foremost to the sex workers who have been advocating for themselves long before this bill came before the council.

I would also urge the council moving forward to more actively engage the communities that are most affected.

Sex workers are very capable of advocating for themselves and know what they need which are resources to be redirected from the police and toward peer led community support organizations.

I urge you to make this retroactive and to take further steps toward decriminalization of all sex work.

Thank you.

Next up is Evie Flowers followed by Martha Mickelson.

My name is Evie Flowers.

I'm a resident of District 2 and I'm a sex worker and volunteer at the Green Light Project.

I'm calling in support of 119-808 as a step further to criminalization sex work.

The criminalization of sex work increases our risk of experiencing violence and assault at work especially by police.

Additionally I support the full funding of police and redistribution of funds to Black and Indigenous communities who have been targeted disproportionately by police violence.

Continue to support projects like Poxwell and Greenlight Project who support the most marginalized members of our community.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in Evie.

Next up is Martha Mickelson followed by Erica Reem.

Hi my name is Martha Mickelson and I'm a resident in Capitol Hill.

I appreciate your legislative work to reimagine public safety.

That being said I'm calling to voice my disappointment in the city's response to the protest zone known as CHOP.

From my vantage point, it seems the city has had no interest in working with these specific protesters beyond minimal public safety measures while they occupy their space.

Treating the zone as an isolated demonstration space without intentions to co-create a resolution inherently puts our neighbors inside the zone and surrounding community at risk.

I'm asking for the parties to meet the people in the zone where they're at to develop a plan that will safely, transparently, and productively conclude this occupied protest.

Thank you for your time and thank you again for your redefining public safety work.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Erica Ream followed by Nicholas Ponvert.

Hi my name is Erica Ream.

I'm a District 5 resident and a sex worker and I'm calling to ask you to support CB 119-808 as a first step towards decriminalization of sex work.

I'd like to echo everything else said by my other community peers.

Please follow the guidance of sex worker led organizations like POC Swap and the Green Light Project in making the city a safe place for sex workers to live.

We are community members and outlawing our lives is a human rights violation.

As a sex worker I've witnessed the ways in which policing of our community makes everyone less safe.

I survived a sexual assault while working in a Seattle strip club and did not even consider contacting authorities because to do so wouldn't would put me and my co-workers at risk of arrest and exploitation.

Criminalization of consensual sex work puts too much power in the hands of abusers and prevents us from seeking justice and protection.

By supporting CB 119-808, you are showing our community that you believe our exploitation and abuse is unacceptable.

Please show us that our lives matter to you and take this step.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Nicholas, followed by Jackie Vaughn.

Thank you, Council.

My name is Nicholas Convera, and I'm resident of District 4. I fully support council bills 119807 and 119808 striking the drug and prostitution loitering laws in Seattle.

I think this is a necessary step towards reimagining our approach to public safety here.

I believe that we need to decriminalize drug use so that we can treat drug issues as medical issues and not criminal justice issues.

I also believe that we need to fully decriminalize sex work so that we can better provide desperately needed medical care for sex workers and so that it's possible for sex workers who are victims of trafficking or violence to actually rely on the city to help them.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Jackie Vaughn, followed by Mira Sefi.

Greetings, council members.

My name is Jackie Vaughn.

I'm a resident of D2, and I'm the executive director of Surge Reproductive Justice.

I'm calling to urge council members to repeal the drug and prostitution loitering laws that currently disproportionately impact Black and brown sex workers.

by putting sex workers in positions that increase their exposure to violence, both at the hands of police and those who take advantage of our lack of support for sex worker rights.

I'm asking that the council pass council bill number 119807 and 119808, and adopt harm reduction policies that were created by Green Light Project, POCWAP, and Decriminalize Seattle.

I sent an email to the council with those additional policies that can move the city of Seattle towards a framework of harm reduction and workers' rights for sex workers.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for calling in today.

And for those who are wondering if you're still on the line with us we are about to call on speaker 41. So we're we're getting we're getting close to the end here.

So next up is Mark Brannan followed by Mira Sethi.

Hi my name is Mark Brannan.

I live in North Seattle and own a home just a few blocks from the Aurora Corridor.

I am also a dad and I've driven along Aurora Ave North hundreds of times often with my children.

But hear me loud and clear.

I'm speaking today in favor of the amendment and repeal of Sections 12a.10.

We should repeal these backwards laws for many reasons.

The two I would highlight now are evidence-based approaches to policy and the importance of teaching our children consent.

What I see from the evidence is that laws criminalizing sex work have many unintended consequences.

Some of those consequences prop up systemic racism.

Another frightening side effect is that it creates a disincentive for witnesses and victims to report real crimes, such as violence or human trafficking.

I also observed that such laws send a bad message, that it is okay to police other people's bodies or sexual activities through force and coercion.

That's the very opposite of what I'm trying to teach my 11 and 13-year-old now that they're growing up.

I'm far less worried about seeing a sex worker walking down the ave than seeing the flashing red and blue lights,

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Mira followed by Ty Nguyen.

Hi my name is Mira Seti.

I'm a grad student in biology at UW and a District 4 resident.

I'm calling in support of Council Bills 119 807 and 808. As a scientist I think it's vital to make evidence based decisions about legislation.

There is strong evidence that decriminalizing drug use reduces addiction overdose and the spread of HIV AIDS and does not increase drug use or other crimes.

There's evidence that decriminalizing sex work protects both sex workers and public health, reduces violent crimes, and reduces sex trafficking.

These bills are first steps, and there is no good reason not to pass them today.

Since the over-policing of Black and Brown people is closely connected to these issues, I also urge you to defund the police, redistribute funds to community organizations, drop charges against protesters, and impeach Mayor Durgan.

Each day these demands go unmet puts lives in danger in the protest zone.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Ty Nguyen followed by Eric Gray.

Hello my name is Ty Nguyen.

I represent District 2 or District 1. I am a Peer Support Facilitator at Peer Seattle and a Director of Community Organizing at Seattle Online Broadcaster Association.

I stand in support with all three ordinances but specifically in reference to anti-criminalization of votering and sex work.

As evidence and real world results show, efforts to decriminalize prostitution, sex workers, has only done more harm to the victims and to our fellow communities.

I hope that through further action and listening to fellow leaders in this space, that sex work and our continued community can further no longer be decriminalized and treated as a threat to our communities.

I also request that the council please find time to support the CHOP and our fellow community and do not treat it as something separate from our community.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Eric Gray followed by Jackie Levitt.

Hi my name is Eric Gray.

I'm a queer HIV positive Indigenous survivor of human trafficking and the commercial sex trade.

I'm also the City of Seattle Human Rights Commissioner.

As a survivor of human trafficking commercial sex trades, I'm writing to request you not approve CB119808 and instead vote to revise and assign a survivor led, diversely staffed, and demographically representative work group to lead the revision of the proposal, claims, and support.

I previously tried to work with city council, have been pushed out and down by council members of Herbal's office with my tribe survivor contingency.

I would like to have a seat at the table along with many other survivors who have things to say about this bill, particularly around protection of procurers and buyers, which is our only contention with this bill.

I think that you're disturbing a restorative justice model, which has allocated a hundred something thousand dollars, under $68,000 for supporting survivors of human trafficking and the commercial sex trade.

And we need to really understand the full impact of this bill.

And in my, in my culture and language, there was no word for prostitution.

You need to listen to indigenous survivors and not white people claiming to represent indigenous people.

Thank you.

Okay, looks like Jackie Levitt is no longer with us, so we're going to move over to Jazz Kavaj.

Hello, my name is Jazz Kavaj.

I work in porn as a sex worker.

I wanted to speak on why Seattle should remove their drug and prostitution loitering laws.

I find it to be an unethical invitation for the police to arrest citizens of their choosing, which is to say this is a racist law.

It is also shaped to arrest vulnerable populations such as prostitutes and homeless.

Just because some might find their presence uncomfortable does not give the police the right to harass citizens.

Police keep proving themselves to be a threat to citizens.

This law just proves the government wishes the police to harass and harm its own citizens, which is why I wish this law removed and the SPD to be defunded.

With that, we should also decriminalize prostitution and drug possession, as it is only set up as a cycle through failure by creating a more difficult environment to find help.

I yield my time.

Thank you.

Looks like Jackie is back with us.

So Jackie Levitt is next.

Hi, City Council.

Thank you so much for your time.

This is Jackie Levitt, and I'm calling or I'm asking that you vote yes on legislation to repeal drug and prostitution loitering and ask that you advocate for safety in public spaces that accommodate all of us citizens, especially those who are most vulnerable and marginalized.

Instead, we can focus on moving away from the cost of incarceration that includes mental and social costs due to the violence and re-traumatization by approaching citizens with weapons, lack of police training to work with the public and caging.

Instead, provide opportunities for those who are facing housing and food insecurities.

Please further decriminalize prostitution so we can not only keep people safe, but broaden our chances for community members to move out of any oppressive situations that they may find themselves in.

Please do not allow parts of our community to be thrown away.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Tapatasi Vena, followed by Isis Honan.

Hi, Council.

My name is Tiffa Viner.

I'm a trans woman of color, a sex worker, and community engagement manager at Ethiopia Seattle.

We submitted a policy brief on repressive policing and the occupational health and safety of sex workers in our community.

We recommend banning confiscation of condoms, needle syringes, and other personal protective equipment.

We also recommend outlawing any form of exertion of sex workers by law enforcement.

We ask you to eliminate soap and and voter policies.

These laws are based on banishment of marginalized populations as a form of social control and serve to expand a violent carceral system.

Furthermore, we ask for the full decriminalization of sex work.

We urge the city to defund diversion of sex worker programs and reinvest in organizations that support lives of sex workers and fight against human trafficking.

Organizations like Green Light Project, Utopia Seattle, POC Swap, and Coalition for Safety Rights.

for rights and safety.

In closing, I thank you for your continued efforts to keeping our community safe, and we ask that you support and pass the bill today.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Isis Honan, followed by Kira Franz.

Tal Afar, Isis Honan with UTOPIA Seattle here, fighting for sex worker rights in King and Pierce County.

I am an Indigenous sex worker for over 10 years and a resident of District 3. We advocate for the passage of both bills.

We want to ensure that BIPOC trans people are elevated in this conversation and to push City Council to outlaw soap and soda laws, defund anti-sex worker diversion programs, and reinvest in organizations like Utopia Seattle, Washington Black Trans Task Force, Transwomen of Color Solidarity Network, and Project Greenlight.

We're folder crim of sex worker in our fight for body sovereignty and agency.

It's worked in New Zealand in keeping our community safe.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Kira Franz followed by Bennett Rahn.

Thank you.

My name is Kira Franz.

I'm a resident of District 3. I'm asking the council to pass 119-807 and 119-808.

I've lived in Seattle for 30 years.

I've lived here so long that I worked in the public defender's office as an intern just as these laws were starting to be enforced and I can say from that experience that they were discriminatory from the very beginning as black body after brown body after black body came in on probation violations based on these laws and were sent back to jail and further disempowered.

I've never understood why a progressive society would criminalize what primarily women did voluntarily with their own bodies anyway.

As a white-skinned person, I see this as yet another form of control of black and brown bodies that is morally indefensible.

I'd ask you to defund and demilitarize the SPD.

Prosecution and drug crimes are not crimes against people or property.

As such, they are subject to a harm reduction model.

Those models are not open to the abuses that have happened with the SPD's biting at the very first unit that should.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Bennett, followed by Perry Countryman.

Hello, City Council.

My name is Bennett Rahn.

I live in District 4 on unceded Indigenous homeland of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples.

I'd like to speak out in support of removing the crimes of drug trafficking and prostitution loitering.

I see this as a continuation of our city's effort to reduce harmful and violent policing in our city.

Sex work should not be a crime and certainly should not be policed by armed militants.

Sex workers are often people of color, particularly black and indigenous, and trans or gender nonconforming folks.

Policing related to drug client crimes also impacts these populations much more severely than their white counterparts.

In a time when we the people are crying out for justice for our black and particularly trans black relatives, this repealment would speak volumes towards how we do indeed care about their lives and not just their deaths after the fact.

I'd like to comment generally that while this council has made some progress around the effort to defund and militarize the police, we are in no way done.

I hope to continue to hear the council work towards a more equitable city and a more just world.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Perry Countryman followed by Julia Zaglin.

Hello, my name is Terry Kinchman.

I'm a resident of District No. 4. I'm calling in support of CB19808 and 807. Please, these resolutions absolutely need to be passed.

By criminalizing an area of employment, you're making it more dangerous for the people who are working there.

We are no longer passed.

We are long passed.

Thinking about it, we penalize sex work in a whole way.

This method of action only gives legal sex work more power over their employees.

It's time we recognize that work is work and not a condolence.

I yield back.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Julia Zaglin followed by Rebecca Fondon.

My name is Julia Zaglin.

I'm a resident of District 6. I would like to speak on the the Green Light Project and the fact that in March they began producing hand sanitizer for their community.

And I would like you to know that it is really important for you to be funding organizations that actually respond to community needs as they change.

And the fact that you haven't met with the Green Light Project sufficiently or encouraged utopia project or any other organizations to input isn't evident and you are going to be having these really long lines of people attempting to express themselves until you start incorporating them and these community members into your legislation more thoroughly so that we are more updated collectively.

Thank you.

I yield back.

Okay next up is Rebecca Fondon and Rebecca will be followed by Elizabeth Slabaugh.

Hello my name's Rebecca Fondon and I currently sit on the Human Rights Commission for the City of Seattle on the Human Trafficking Task Force and I'm a survivor of human and sexual trafficking.

We are thinking of throwing away a law because we're using it improperly and inequitably.

I'm against the removal of the loitering charge.

It is not the law that does not work.

It's the application of the law.

This law, if repealed, would also decriminalize buyers and traffickers.

This would reduce the laws that buyers and traffickers currently could be charged for.

We have criminalized the women and the people who are being prostituted through the loitering law.

People need to pull over buyers and traffickers for loitering and not prostituted people.

Police have been criminalizing the wrong people with this law.

If we rid this law, it's like getting through an experiment with one control group.

Women have been arrested for loitering and prosecuted, but they have never gone to the buyers and the traffickers for loitering, who are driving around, loitering to buy and sell human beings in our city.

In order to properly use the application of...

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Elizabeth Slabell.

Hi Melissa Slabaugh I'm in favor of repealing the two anti-loiter laws today.

I'm also in favor of decriminalizing sex work and I want to thank everyone for sharing their stories and perspectives today.

I live in District 4. I feel that this is a small adjustment in the direction toward protecting communities of color from the subjective and often oppressive interpretation and power over who belongs and who doesn't.

Who's a criminal and who isn't.

Who's vulnerable to police exploitation and who isn't.

Seattle police have a history of exploiting and harassing those within so-called vice industries for their benefit and these repeals remove the police from the tempting exploitation of these situations.

This is one great step toward being able to defund the police by cutting the unnecessary laws that target our Black and marginalized community.

Please pass these repeals and keep moving forward to defund the police by 50 percent and reallocate to Black communities and please release the protesters.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much for calling in.

That's the last person I have that is signed up and show is and is showing up present on my I'll just sort of look to our technology department and get confirmation that there aren't any other additional matches available for public comment.

And someone from our IT team confirmed that for me.

That's it for everyone.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

For those folks who may have preregistered but weren't called on, part of the work their IT department does as they are looking who to admit into our meetings is making sure that we can match up your phone number that you're using to call in with the number that you registered with.

And so that's important for you to use the same number that you preregistered with.

To call in on so that we can make the match and call on you and and and allow you unmute your microphone so.

Thank you so much for everybody who called in to give public testimony.

We took about 45 minutes worth of public comment.

Really appreciate everybody taking the time to call in on the important legislative issues on our agenda.

So with that being said, we're going to go ahead and begin items of business on our agenda.

First up is payment of the bills, and I'd ask that the clerk please read that item into the bill.

Excuse me, the record.

Council Bill 119809 appropriating money to pay for art reclaims for the week of June 8th, 2020 through June 12th, 2020 and authoring the same as thereof.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I will move to pass Council Bill 119809. Is there a second?

Second.

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

Are there any comments?

Okay.

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

So want.

Aye.

Strauss.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it, and I'd ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Okay, folks, moving along to item one.

I would ask that the clerk please read agenda item one into the record.

Agenda item one, Council Bill 1198202, relating to the Office of Housing and the Department of Finance and Administrative Services.

Authorizing the acceptance of a transfer of real property near the Mount Baker Light Rail Station from the University of Washington for the purpose of development of affordable housing and other potential educational, research, and clinical uses by the university, including an early learning facility and for general municipal purposes.

Placing the property under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Housing, authorizing the Department of Finance and Administrative Services to take custodial management of the property, including leasing, collection of rents, payments of expenses, and other property management duties, and ratify and confirm rates purchased by RAC.

Thank you so much.

I will move to pass Council Bill 119802. Is there a second?

Second.

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

Council Member Mosqueda, you are the sponsor of this bill, so you are recognized in order to address this item.

Thank you, Council President.

Council colleagues, this legislation authorizes the city to accept at no cost the transfer of property at the University of Washington laundry site near the Mount Baker light rail station from the University of Washington for the purposes of developing affordable housing along with other potential amenities, including educational services, research services, clinical uses, including such things as an early learning facility as outlined in the state's capital budget.

We heard from Council Central staff last week and the Office of Housing in addition to FAS about the transfer at our Council briefing.

And as we discussed in last week's meeting, this is a really exciting opportunity for transit-oriented affordable housing co-located with early learning facilities and other important community amenities such as services and opportunities for partnership with labor and community.

I know that many of our colleagues have already expressed interest in seeing this property support the community vision, especially from black and brown led community organizers and organizations, the vision for creating a more walkable, livable, environment for creating more opportunities for community services, amenities in this building space that directly impact the local community and are built in alignment with what the community is asking for.

And that we integrate the building and the vision into the broader neighborhood plan.

And that means things like community home ownership opportunities.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited to be here.

That'll be an exciting opportunity.

As we heard from the Office of Housing, community engagement will commence this year to develop the RFP for the site, and we express a strong interest in having the Office of Housing come back to Council with the draft RFP before it's issued, which Director Alvarado from the Office of Housing expressed that she'd be happy to do so.

and our office will be working with all of you and the Office of Housing to schedule that time.

The legislation introduced is routine legislation that allows us to accept the property and comply with the state requirements for the transfer to take place prior to June 30th.

And with that context, I'll hand it back over to you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Are there any other comments or questions from colleagues?

I know we've had an opportunity to discuss this bill a few times already, both in council briefing and in full council.

So are there any other questions or comments on the bill?

Okay, thank you all so much.

Really exciting opportunity here and looking forward to voting in favor of this bill once the roll is called.

So at this point I will have the clerk call the roll.

Yes, Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much.

Just very briefly before the roll is called, I want to say thank you to our council colleagues for engaging in this process relatively quickly and also to Emily Alvarado, the Director of Office of Housing, her team for moving swiftly.

A quick thank you to Representative Chopp for pushing the transfer to utilize this land for affordable housing, and to the university for engaging with us.

I think it's a loss of good living wage union jobs, but I think if we're able to use this property to create more good living wage union jobs and housing and other additional amenities into the future, it truly does serve that vision that we've all talked about, about using public land for the best public purpose.

and prioritizing public services so that we don't create a situation where more people are displaced or that we lose an opportunity to create public amenities on public space.

So thanks to Office of Housing and FAS for their work to make this happen.

And quickly, thank you to Erin House for her fast work from my office to get all the details together and to do some stakeholdering and final touches to the legislation.

I appreciate her work on this.

Thank you so much.

Okay, if there are no other comments on the bill, we'll go ahead and move to a roll call.

I would ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

DeWant.

Aye.

Strauss.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Aye.

President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

And I would ask that the clerk please affix my signatures to the legislation on my behalf.

Okay, item two, I would ask that the clerk please read agenda item two into the record.

Agenda item two, Council Bill 119807, relating to the city's criminal code.

Removing the crime of drug traffic ordering and associated references in the sale of Mr. Code, amending section 10.09.010 of the sale of Mr. Code, and repealing section 12A.20.050 of the sale of Mr. Code.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

I will move to pass Council Bill 119807. Is there a second?

Thank you so much.

It has been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Councilmember Lewis, you are the prime sponsor of the bill, so you are recognized in order to address this item.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'm going to speak.

My remarks will be broad enough to cover both ordinances, so that's including 119-808.

Council Member Lewis, would you like for both bills to be read into the record and then we can vote on them separately so that folks can comment on both bills as a package?

I'm going to leave the bulk of the comments on 119808 to Councilmember Peterson who is a co-sponsor on that measure and has some remarks that he wants to give.

I guess I would rather just go ahead procedurally and do them separately on the prearranged.

But my comments will be broad enough to speak to both of them and I'll let Councilmember Peterson speak more in depth on 119808. So in repealing these ordinances, this is something that's been on my to-do list since taking office in January as a former prosecutor in the city attorney's office.

I believe in our social contract and being a community that is guided by a system of law.

But I've always felt that these particular statutes criminalize conduct that is so innocuous and speculative that it makes a mockery of that entire system of justice and keeping them on the books just continues to perpetuate that mockery.

I can cite as a basis for removing these laws that the city attorney, Pete Holmes, has a standing policy to not charge these.

or these particular crimes, or I could cite our own reentry report, which emphatically a couple of years ago in 2018 recommended the repeal of these manifestly unjust ordinances.

But in truth, you know, I think the real reason for repeal goes back even further, and it goes back deeper, and it speaks to the fact that many people in our community, particularly communities of color, have been urging repeal of these ordinances for years.

And indeed, it is not accurate for us to call these ordinances outdated.

As I mentioned in briefing this morning, I firmly believe that.

I think to do so implies that these ordinances had their purpose and had their day and new realities that made them irrelevant.

And, you know, fax machines are outdated.

Like, these laws were never appropriate.

They were wrong when they were enacted, and they are wrong now.

And I want to thank the many community organizations, many of whom who spoke up today, who have been organizing on both these ordinances and have long been educating the public on the need for these repeals.

You know, we heard from Decriminalize Seattle Coalition, Sex Worker Outreach Project.

a green light project, and many more.

And this is an important step, these repeals.

And I'm proud to prime sponsor both of these repeals.

And I look forward to helping to right these historic wrongs and be an ally of the work the community has done on these.

I want to thank Camilla Brown in my office, who helped put these together, and Ashdown Central staff for their hard work on getting this legislation, this timely legislation together and queuing it up now.

and I urge passage of both of these bills.

And I'll, when we do a 11-9-808, I know Council Member Peterson has remarks on speaking to 11-9-808 that I, as the prime sponsor, would defer them to speak for me on.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

Are there any other comments on the bill?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you.

I just want to quote from a section in the October 2018 reentry report that is, I found particularly moving.

In producing and delivering the report, many individuals and organizations provided support and expertise.

And the report authors provide an acknowledgment that, again, I'd like to share.

The acknowledgment is we also recognize those who have been supporting folks returning from incarceration and organizing for institutional change for a very long time.

We know that much of that work has been done without compensation or acknowledgement, yet done with love and an unyielding commitment to family and community strength.

We thank you for that work and hope these recommendations support you.

We also acknowledge that the individuals most impacted by the recommendations in this report are unable to join us at the city's tables as they are still incarcerated.

We did this work in your honor.

And before I close my comments, I also want to just highlight that another one of the reentry report's recommendations was the expansion of the current pre-filed diversion program.

and in the last few weeks, we've received a set of recommendations from the city attorney's office as it relates specifically to the council's prior interest.

We, during the budget process, passed a statement of legislative intent asking for these recommendations from the city attorney, and they're looking at a model of of a program that will serve 25 and older and would base the program model on the successes of the young adult program that we all know is Choose 180. They identify the need for funding for a racial equity toolkit in designing the expansion model.

I'm going to take this opportunity to let us know that the cost to complete the racial equity toolkit would be about $25,000 of one-time money.

I want to mention this and take this opportunity so my colleagues on the Council know of my the RET process, the Racial Equity Toolkit process to develop an adult program, and look forward to hopefully talking about the resources that the city attorney needs to do this RET in our June rebalancing package.

Thank you.

Okay, colleagues, thank you so much.

Any other comments on this first bill?

Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Council President, I want to thank the co-sponsors of this legislation, and I know that Councilmember Lewis and Councilmember Peterson are speaking.

I want to thank Councilmember Morales as well.

I believe that you're a co-sponsor of the legislation in front of us, too, and thank you all for bringing this forward and really lifting up the voices that we've heard from today's public comment And so many of the folks that we had worked with last last year's budget to provide additional dollars to sex workers as folks are trying to both have self-determination and responded.

upcoming issues that they see on a daily basis and knowing that they're in the best driver's seat to make those decisions.

So really excited about the work that you've done.

And to give a huge thank you to the reentry work group who produced these policy recommendations.

This is a really great step forward in undoing the racist policies that go all the way back to the war on drugs.

And I'm excited that we as a council are taking these steps, especially during this, this movement that is demanding action, the Black Lives Matter movement demanding accountability and action, and I look forward to voting enthusiastically yes on this bill.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any other comments on this first bill?

Okay, looks like there are no additional comments on this particular bill, so I will go ahead and ask the clerk to please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Drouse.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Skidda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

I'd ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Okay, folks, moving along, I would ask that the clerk please read agenda item three into the record.

Agenda item three, Council Bill 119808, relating to the city's criminal code.

Thank you so much.

I will move to pass council bill 119808. Is there a second?

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

Council Member Peterson, I understand you're going to take the first go at speaking about this bill.

And then I understand Council Member Morales would like to make some remarks after you also as a co-sponsor of the bill.

So Council Member Peterson, you are recognized in order to address this item, please.

Thank you, Council President.

So first, I want to thank everybody who took the time to email us, to email our offices and to call us and to call in today for public comment to support Council Bill 119808 to repeal the prostitution loitering law.

The brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, which followed countless other wrong acts and centuries of racism, have refocused our nation's attention on the need to prevent disproportionate impacts of our law enforcement system on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, and repealing problematic laws on our books, such as these loitering laws, that's a small but important step that this city council can take.

Council Bill 119808, if adopted today, will repeal Seattle's prostitution loitering law, which is currently Section 12A.10.010 of our Seattle Municipal Code.

I believe it's vital that we support the recommendation of the Seattle Reentry Work Group to repeal this law, to eliminate another potential source of disproportionate harm or jeopardy to communities of color from our policing and carceral system.

Thank you to Councilmembers Lewis and Morales for co-sponsoring this, and thank you to the City Attorney and also Councilmember Herbold for her work on this issue.

I want to thank Cara on my staff and also Asha on our City Council Central staff for their work and engagement on this legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you Council Member Peterson for those remarks.

Council Member Morales, please.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

I do want to thank Council Member Lewis for bringing forth this legislation.

We know that loitering laws have a deep and harmful racist history.

So these bills do offer an important first step.

As many of our callers mentioned today, we do have a lot more work to do to protect our neighbors who are sex workers.

Um, and I just want to say, uh, as many of our, uh, public commenters did as well, I look forward to working with, um, sharing the cells with the green light project, um, and the decriminalized Seattle coalition to understand the best way to move forward with decriminalizing sex work.

so that they feel safe calling the police, so they can access healthcare and banking.

We know that we also, this is a complex issue, so we need to make sure we're protecting sex workers by not conflating consensual sex work with those who are being trafficked.

And we need to enforce and prosecute traffickers so that we can end that exploitation that's happening.

This is just the beginning, and we've been in communication with with Cherie for a while and look forward to continuing a conversation to make sure that we continue this work and the steps that Jackie Vaughn outlined when she called in as well.

So thank you to Council Member Lewis and for your co-sponsorship as well, Council Member Peterson, and we will continue to move this work forward.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Lewis, would you like to make some remarks about this bill as well?

Yes, thank you, Madam President.

Just very briefly, I think Councilmember Peterson and Councilmember Morales did an excellent job of summarizing the critical nature of this repeal.

The only thing that I would say, just sort of looking beyond this repeal to kind of the future of the task that's in front of us, I had the great privilege of being able to to see a very moving presentation by the folks who do organizing at the Aurora Commons at the 36th District Democrats earlier this year when there were still in-person meetings of that organization where a number of people with lived experience been sex workers or working with sex workers in the Aurora corridor presented about the challenges that community is facing and really the lack of comprehensive city services to help folks get the resources they need through the programming of Aurora Commons to finally get out of the cycle that they're in.

to be able to do that.

So, you know, these repeals are a really good start, but it does underscore the need for investment and standing up of tiny house villages, of permanent supportive housing, of wraparound services, of a lot of the ancillary resources that are critical for folks who are trying to break the cycle of being substance addiction and sex work in the city.

And I look forward to working with everybody here to try to make those commitments.

I think it's certainly part of our conversation around defunding and rightsizing of services in our conversation about the police department.

And I look forward to continuing to work with all of the organizations that we've talked about here today and the great impactful work Aurora Commons is doing in this area.

So thank you.

Thank you Councilmember Lewis for those words and for that work.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Councilmember Mosqueda and then Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Council President, and thanks again to the co-sponsors of this legislation.

I would be remiss if I didn't also take a quick moment to recognize and thank Sheree Lascelles for their long-standing work with the People of Color Sex Worker Outreach Project and the Green Light Project.

I was really honored that my office, led by Aretha Basu, worked with the folks there to include POCSWAP in last last year's budget cycle to get funding for the critical harm reduction work that they do, and really, really proud of this council.

Excited to take this vote again today.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Okay, we're going to head over now to Councilmember Strauss, please.

Thank you, council president.

Thank you to the bill sponsors.

This is a good piece of legislation.

As council member Lewis stated earlier, this is not updated because there was never a date that this was necessarily appropriate.

It reminds me of using traffic stops to find, to investigate other crimes that are not related to that traffic stop.

So just want to briefly say thank you to the council members for bringing this forward, the sponsors and community for making this happen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any other comments on the bill?

Seen and hearing none, I would ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Sawant.

Aye.

Strauss.

Aye.

Herbold.

Aye.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

President Gonzales.

Aye.

Nine in favor.

None opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

And I'd ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Okay, folks, we have reached other business on our agenda.

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

Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Just a quick update.

At Council briefing this morning, I described the process for Wednesday's Budget Committee meetings.

I noted that there's two sessions, as we have per usual Wednesdays, a 10 a.m.

and a 2 p.m.

Unfortunately, the technology is not going to work for one URL to sign up, so we will still have an 8 a.m.

sign-up opportunity and a noon sign-up opportunity for both of those hearings.

We will be asking folks to just speak at one or the other.

So instead of having folks sign up just at the 8 a.m.

timeframe, you do have a chance as well to sign up at noon, beginning at noon for our 2 p.m.

hearing.

And we encourage as many people as possible to get into the window, again, one-minute time slots because there's going to be a lot of people signed up.

But I did want to correct the record.

A 10 a.m.

sign-up starts at 8 a.m.

and a 2 p.m.

public testimony starts at noon.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda for that clarification.

And just to remind folks, the ordinary rules around remote public comment do apply to those pre-registration sheets.

I think that the interest of Budget Chair Mosqueda is to make sure that there aren't two bites at the apple, as they say, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, largely because we want to hear from as many different people as we can.

So we will be following a duplicate protocol here.

And if folks have signed up both at 8 o'clock at the 8 o'clock hour and at the 10 o'clock hour, please be aware that you will only be allowed to provide public testimony once on Wednesday and not twice.

And so our legislative IT department will work with the chair to make sure that those duplicates are called out appropriately.

Have I stated that intent correctly, Chair Mosqueda?

That's correct.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely, just want to make sure that it's crystal clear for those folks who are looking to sign up and pre-register for public comment on Wednesday.

Thank you.

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

Okay, hearing none, colleagues, this concludes the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next city council meeting is Monday, June 29th, 2020 at 2 p.m.

It will be another remote meeting.

That is it for today.

We are adjourned, and I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

Thank you.