Seattle City Council Briefing 3/15/2021

Good morning, everyone.

The March 15th, 2021 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 931 AM.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Present.

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant?

Straus?

Present.

Herbold?

Here.

Juarez?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Bate, present.

Thank you so much.

If there is no objection, the minutes of March 8th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's Report.

I'm going to dispense with the President's Report today, and we're going to get straight to the state legislative session update.

We do have members of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations with us this morning, as we usually do.

So I'm going to hand it over to Director Lily Wilson-Kodega for introductions, and then I'm going to hand it over to them to walk us through the presentation.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President.

Lily Wilson-Kodega, Office of Intergovernmental Relations, passing it to Robin.

Robyn Koski, Deputy Director, Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Ben Majewski, State Relations Director, Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Alice Smith, Government Affairs Program Director, OAR.

And as the Council President mentioned previously, we are A little more than halfway done with the 2021 legislative session.

I'm going to say, even though my state team might laugh at me, that we are nearing the final month of the 2021 legislative session, having now passed several major milestones, including the House of Origin Policy Committee cutoff, the Fiscal Transportation Committee cutoffs, and the House of Origin floor cutoff last week.

And what that means is we will now transition from legislators being on the floor for long days and nights through the weekend, working through floor action, and transition now into committee work again.

So we may be reaching out to your offices to help with some of the city's higher profile legislative priorities, such as the Worker Protection Act, capital gains, and Representative Macri's just-caused-eviction bill, as those become scheduled for hearings and executive sessions in their respective committees in the opposite chamber.

having passed their house of origin.

Robin is going to review the police reform portfolio, of course, in its entirety during her report.

But I did want to take some time at the outset here to thank Councilmember Herbold for her leadership in her role as the Public Safety Chair.

For speaking in support of Senate Bill 5051, the decertification bill and the provisions that we seek to amend onto that bill that would strengthen our police arbitration process to make that work more effectively.

And given this is one of the highest priorities for council as a whole, just our thank you for your incredible work with our labor partners and the stakeholder community on this bill.

We are very grateful to you.

And we'll keep you updated as we near the executive session on Thursday, March 18th.

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Quinn Majewski, our state relations director for an overview.

Thank you so much.

Just really quickly before we get started, I wanted to acknowledge for the record that we have been joined by Council Member Sawant and good morning to her and welcome.

Go ahead, Quinn.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Starting off with budget and revenue, two brief updates for you in this space.

The first is that on Wednesday the 17th this week, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will be coming out with the updated revenue forecast for the state.

As I've mentioned previously, that's likely to show some continued improvement in the state's overall budget situation.

uh...

to the tune of several hundred millions of dollars uh...

and so that that the official amounts uh...

on wednesday that is uh...

going to be sort of the the final piece in the puzzle for budget leaders who are working on putting together that the house and senate budgets uh...

and so we are likely to see those uh...

coming through shortly thereafter there's been some discussion that they may come a little bit later uh...

in anticipation of Federal dollars flowing through but that that hasn't sort of been officially confirmed.

So Expect to see the the budgets coming out likely Next week or potentially the following week, but we're likely to see those coming quite soon.

And then the other update is that starting in about 20 minutes, 25 minutes, the House will be hearing the capital gains tax legislation that the Senate passed earlier in session.

So looking forward to that continuing to move.

I will pause there for any questions on budget and revenue.

Colleagues, any questions or comments on this section?

I don't see any hands raised either through the Zoom feature or otherwise, so let's continue.

In education, great news for the Fair Starts for Kids Act.

That's the omnibus child care bill.

Both the House and Senate versions are still moving.

The House version passed 5838 last week, and the Senate version is scheduled for a public hearing on March 18th.

Senate Bill 5321, expanding the college-bound program, passed the Senate 3118. And Senate Bill 54, or 53, sorry, 5401 passed the Senate last week and is scheduled for a public hearing in the House.

One bill that did not make the cutoff last week is Senate Bill 5340. That was the bill that expanded eligibility for school board director qualifications.

Did not make it out of the Senate in time.

Those are the big updates in education.

So I'll pause for questions.

Thank you, Hannah.

Any questions or comments on the education section?

I just want to say thanks to to you all for helping us support the Fair Start for Kids, the Washington State bill, such an important, important bill for us here in Seattle, of course, but for the entire state, and I'm really excited to see its continued movement through the process.

So please do let me know if there's anything else that I can do to be supportive of Representative Sen or any of the other senators or representatives who are championing this bill on behalf of our families.

Thank you so much, Council President.

I just want to recognize Hannah Smith has been pouring herself into that proposal and has done amazing work.

We're so grateful for her leadership on that, particularly working with Representative Senn.

So thank you both.

Great.

Let's thank you, Hannah, for all your work on that.

I really appreciate it.

Let's go on to transportation.

Apologies, Council President.

We actually have environment up next, but quick updates in this space.

One bill that unfortunately didn't make it past the House of Origin cutoff is House Bill 1075. This was the legislation that would regulate emissions from on-demand vehicles such as TNCs.

Unfortunately, just a product of not having, especially in a virtual session, not having enough time to run all of the bills that they wanted off of the floor.

So we will continue to work this bill next session, but for the session it is not moving forward.

Other bills that are moving forward in the environmental space, House Bill 1099, which is the bill that would incorporate climate action and resiliency into the Growth Management Act and comprehensive planning.

That has a hearing coming up tomorrow in the Housing and Local Government Committee in the Senate at 8 a.m., so very exciting.

We'll be obviously in support there.

And then Senate Bill 5126, this is the Climate Commitment Act.

That has a hearing coming up this afternoon in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

That bill, just as a reminder, because of its significant financial impacts, is considered necessary to implement the budget.

And so even though it is not passed the Senate yet, it's still in committee, it is still alive and will continue to be so for the duration of session.

With that, I will pause for any questions on environment.

Colleagues, any questions or comments on this section?

Scanning the Zoom room here real quickly.

Doesn't look like anyone has any questions, so we can continue.

All right, moving on to general government.

A few updates in this space.

There were a couple hearings last week, and so several bills you'll see noted are scheduled for votes, executive sessions.

This week, the one update that I wanted to highlight here is House Bill 1173, the public lands, state lands development authorities.

This is the Armory PDA bill that I know is of interest to several of you in your offices.

That has a hearing tomorrow in the Senate Business Financial Services and Trade Committee at 8 a.m.

I'll pause there for any questions on general government.

Any questions colleagues?

I am not seeing any hands raised so we can continue.

All right and Hannah will take over on health care.

Thanks, Gwen.

House Bill 1477, which is the national 988 system, continues to move forward.

While it didn't make it out of the House in time, it has been deemed necessary to implement the budget.

So it continues to move forward, and there's discussions still happening about the scope of the bill.

Senate Bill 5068, the postpartum Medicaid, received executive action on Thursday and has been referred to appropriations.

The opioid reversal medication 5195 passed the Senate 45-2 and is scheduled for a public hearing later this week in health care and wellness.

And Senate Bill 5399, which creates a commission for universal health care, passed the Senate as well, and has been scheduled for a public hearing this week as well.

Pause for any health care questions.

Any questions, colleagues?

I am not seeing any, so we can continue.

Good morning.

There are quite a few updates in the housing area as we move over to the other house having public hearings.

House Bill 1070 that I know some of you are interested in that would allow King County to acquire buildings through the Health Through Housing Sales Tax is scheduled for an executive session tomorrow in the Senate Housing and Local Government Committee.

So that bill is moving along nicely.

House Bill 1108, which is on foreclosure assistance, is also scheduled for executive session tomorrow in the Senate Business and Financial Services and Trade Committee tomorrow.

And then I wanted to talk to you a little bit about House Bill 1220, which we actually have not highlighted in a briefing prior to today.

This is an act relating to supporting emergency shelters and housing through local planning and development regulations.

It would do some updating to the Growth Management Act to make sure that planning for and accommodating affordable housing is included and is not just encouraged.

It requires jurisdictions to address racially disparate impacts and displacement in the housing element of the comprehensive plan.

And then finally, it would require cities to allow.

permanent supportive housing, emergency shelter, emergency housing or other emergency housing in multifamily, commercial or mixed use zones anywhere where short term rentals are allowed.

That bill has a hearing on Thursday in the Senate Housing Committee.

And so we will continue to provide you updates on that bill.

House Bill 1236, the Just Cause Eviction Bill that includes the fix to the Seattle loophole so that just cause eviction would apply to end of fixed term leases as well as month-to-month leases is scheduled for executive action this week.

House Bill 1277, that document recording fees bill that would generate over $100 million statewide through an additional $100 document recording fee is actually scheduled for a hearing this morning in House Appropriations.

That bill did not pass before cutoff, but it's been marked necessary to implement the budget.

So it is okay and still continuing in the process.

Senate Bill 5160 that provides an off-ramp for the eviction moratorium and includes details on payment plans and a right to counsel subject to appropriations has a public hearing in the House Committee on Housing, Human Services, and Veterans on Thursday.

And then finally, to close out the housing front, I just wanted to let you know that Senate Bill 5428, which would have exempted temporary shelter or traditional encampments from permit actions, unfortunately did not make it past house of origin cutoff.

And I'll pause there before I go on to police reform to take any housing questions.

Thanks so much, Robin.

I do see that Council Member Sawant has your hand raised.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

The bill, House Bill 1236 that you just mentioned, and I know you had discussed this, Last Monday, when you came to provide the briefing on Jessica's eviction, this bill would, if passed, close the end of Lee's loophole, which we've been wanting to end, which would be good.

But to my understanding, it also opens up other loopholes that could potentially be even more damaging.

And I know last week you mentioned something about how there were unfortunate amendments, I think, when you presented last week.

Anyway, just if you could clarify that this time.

And then particularly there are loopholes allowing evictions for what's called waste or nuisance and allowing evictions for, again, quote unquote, legitimate business reason, both loopholes are very loosely defined.

So if you have more information on what that will do, and also how will this affect Seattle's just cause eviction ordinance?

In other words, will Seattle be forced to accept these loopholes?

What will this do to Seattle's other eviction protections like

I think the best thing for me to do will be to sort of analyze the amendments and then talk with some of the housing advocates who are following the bill very closely.

I do understand that there's a possibility the bill could be further amended as it moves follow up and get back to you and your staff to let you know.

And, you know, I do think that we would probably be required to pass some local legislation to implement some of the provisions of the bill, but I'm actually not sure.

I'll certainly check in with the city attorney's office for them to do a comparison of how they feel the bill would impact our existing just cause eviction law in the shape that it's in right now and get all that information to you.

Thank you.

That would be great.

Obviously, part of my concern is what happens to Seattle's law and protecting Seattle's renters.

But it's not a parochial interest either.

I want renters throughout Washington state to be to be offered the best possible protections, especially in this situation where we know the statistics are so dire.

Twelve million Americans nationwide carrying an average renter debt of nearly $6,000.

So times are hard for a lot of the renters.

And so overall, I would be concerned extremely about these loopholes.

So I'd really appreciate your follow up on this.

And then just to say, I mean, I'm not an attorney, but it seems like these loopholes are big enough that renters in Seattle, for example, will become less, not more protected against evictions if this the city and also would appreciate it if, you know, you can do this offline, but anything OIR can do to advocate for an amendment to stop the preemption in addition to the work you've already said you would be initiating with the city attorney's office.

Thank you.

Certainly, council member.

And yes, we may be enlisting your some help as this bill moves forward.

So appreciate everyone's advocacy on this issue.

Okay, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Madam President.

So I want to dig in a little bit, Robin, to 5428, which did not make it past the House of Origin.

In my conversations with the Human Services Department, this is a big impediment to us moving quickly and decisively on standing up more tiny house villages in particular, where there's concern that they'll get bogged down in predatory delay, unless we have some of these options.

So I have two questions.

My first question is, I've heard from some folks down in Olympia, there's a possibility of amending some of these provisions in some other legislation where it would fit within the title that are still alive, some other bills that are still alive.

So I'd like to know the status of that.

The second thing I'd be curious about is whether we could pursue some kind of emergency order from the governor.

I under governor's authority and that's kind of a heady th But you know, I don't thin in the city, you know, cov really deeper than the mas And I just keep getting told by folks in the executive branch that this is a big bottleneck.

So I really want us to be doing everything as a city family to bust down that bottleneck if it means this is the path to more tiny house villages.

So it seems like there's still two paths potentially available, an emergency order from the governor and or amending some of these provisions into other legislation.

So I'd like to know where those things stand.

So as far as amending the provisions on to another piece of legislation, I think that's something that we will continue to explore.

Working with Senator Wynn, who was kind enough to sponsor this bill for us over the last three years.

I will say that, you know, The provisions of the bill are somewhat controversial.

And so there was quite a conversation about the bill.

And we, of course, will try to do everything we can.

I have, at your direction, Council Member Lewis, checked in with the governor's office about this.

And I'm really not sure what the willingness is to issue an emergency order.

I mean, I think that the first order of business would be to try and see if we can't get the bill passed through another means this session.

I'm happy to continue talking with you and with the governor's office on what other options might be.

great i appreciate that they had just i think we should just really i mean i know that we are continue to explore i'm all of our options i know that the bill fifty four twenty eight got pooled you know from rules and uh...

we've been working it really hard so it did it certainly wasn't you know for lack of trying that we didn't get it uh...

yet through the cutoff but since there's still some options here, I just think, you know, and if any of our legislative friends are listening or people down in the Olympia world are listening, this is one of the bottlenecks for the thing that is often being reported in the local news as one of the biggest problems in the city of Seattle.

So, you know, for folks down there that want to give a lift to resolving this in a regional and collaborative way.

This is something we can come together on.

So I appreciate, Robin, your diligence here, and let's keep working all these different angles.

So thank you.

And also Council Member Lewis, your advocacy was very much appreciated.

And I know you had a number of conversations with lawmakers down in Olympia, which I think were very helpful to keeping the bill moving forward.

And we will continue to enlist your support and that of your colleagues.

So thank you very much for that.

Thank you.

Okay, any other questions on the housing section?

I don't see any other hands raised, so let's continue.

On to police reform.

So first, I guess I'll just talk about a couple of bills that didn't make it past cutoff.

Skipping around a little bit, Hannah, sorry to drive you have to make you scroll and scroll.

But House Bill 1202, the Qualified Immunity Bill, and then House Bill 1203, which would have provided for a requirement statewide for civilian oversight of police departments, did not make it past the policy cutoff.

But moving on to things that did move ahead, there are still quite astounding number of police reform proposals in play at the moment.

House Bill 1054, Representative Johnson's tactics bill that bans chokeholds, no knock warrants, limits the use of tear gas, firing on a vehicle, and the use of military equipment, is scheduled for executive session in the Senate Law and Justice Committee on Thursday, March 18th.

House Bill 1089 that provides for law enforcement audits and would allow the state auditor to audit use of deadly force incidents and criminal justice training and allow the Criminal Justice Training Commission to audit law enforcement.

Basically, police departments had executive action taken on Thursday in the Senate Law and Justice Committee and has now moved on to the Ways and Means Committee.

The governor's request legislation that would establish statewide centralized investigations, House Bill 1267, is having a hearing today in the Senate Law and Justice Committee and is quickly scheduled for executive action on Thursday.

House Bill 5051, which is Senator Peterson's oversight and accountability of peace officers, had a hearing in the House Public Safety Committee on Thursday at 1.30 and is moving on to executive session this Thursday.

This is the bill that we are working to try to amend to include provisions that would provide uniformity, accountability, streamlining, and transparency in the police discipline process.

We're currently working with stakeholders and legislators to determine if it will be possible to move that amendment forward.

Mayor Durkin, Mayor Woodards from Tacoma, and Councilmember Herbold, as well as City Attorney Pete Holmes all testified in support of that bill last Thursday.

Just want to again thank Councilmember Herbold for her leadership here and her testimony last week.

Then moving on to Senate Bill 5066, the duty to intervene bill that had a hearing in public safety on last Friday and is scheduled for executive session in House Public Safety on Thursday.

And then finally, House Bill 5259 that would require data collection on a number of different law enforcement issues has a hearing in the House Public Safety Committee tomorrow.

quite a few bills still moving in at play here in the very important area of police reform.

And I'll pause for questions.

Any comments or questions on this section?

Okay, I'm not seeing any hands, so I think we can continue.

Okay, one quick update in the public safety area.

Senate Bill 5038, which prohibits open carry at the state capitol and at public demonstrations, has a hearing in the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee tomorrow and is scheduled for executive action on Friday.

And that wraps up my sections for today.

Great.

All right, I don't see any hands raised.

I think we can keep going.

Updates in safety net and civil rights.

House Bill 1072 received an executive action last week and has moved to rules.

That's the bill that would remove prohibition of the use of civil legal aid funds.

House Bill 1073, that's the paid family leave scheduled for executive action on March 17th.

1297, the Working Families Tax Credit passed the House 94 to 2 on March 9th and is scheduled for public hearing tomorrow in Human Services and Executive Action later this week.

And finally, Senate Bill 5214, which is the big TANF bill, is scheduled for public hearing on March 18th.

So a lot of our public or a lot of our safety net priorities continue to move forward.

I'll pause for questions.

I'm not seeing any hands raised, Hannah, so I think we can continue.

Great, I'll pass it on to Quinn for transportation.

All right, rounding things out in transportation, just two short updates here.

First, as I previewed last week, House Bill 1304, the Great Separated Transit Bill from Seattle Subway, did not move forward before House of Origin cut off.

We got an advance notice of this from the prime sponsor, Representative Hackney, who looks forward to working with us over interim.

more work to be done before that bill can advance.

And then in better news, more exciting news, House Bill 1301, which would provide sound transit with the authority necessary to adopt more progressive fare enforcement policies.

That bill previously passed out of the House by a pretty overwhelming margin and is now scheduled for a public hearing tomorrow in Senate Transportation.

I will pause for any questions on transportation.

I don't see any hands raised, Quinn, so I think we can end it there.

All right.

That concludes our presentation.

All right.

Folks, any other comments or questions for OIR before we shift gears?

I am not seeing any more questions.

So thanks again, folks, for being with us this morning.

Really appreciate all of your time with us and in Olympia, virtual Olympia, helping us advocate for our priorities.

So we will be in touch and see you all again next week.

All right, colleagues, we're gonna move into our fourth agenda item, which is a preview of today's City Council Actions, Council, and Regional Committees.

Again, as a reminder, the order for today's rotation will begin with Council Member Lewis, and then we will shift to Council Member Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbold, Juarez, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

So I'm gonna hand it over to Council Member Lewis, and then Council Member Morales will follow.

Good morning.

Thank you, Madam President.

So jumping first into committee reports, there are no items from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments on this afternoon's agenda.

I will announce this morning that on Wednesday, March 24, the committee meeting for the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments will be Council meeting in April with a detailed status update on the expected scaling up of the shelter surge policies that this Council received a briefing on in the February committee meeting.

In keeping with the timelines that we heard from the executive during that presentation, the shelter surge assets, namely the two hotels, the Kings Inn and the Executive Pacific, are expected to be online any day now in this month of March.

And from the reports I've heard from the human services department are still on track to meet those deadlines.

So there wouldn't really be much of an update for the council.

And there is indeed no legislation pending before the committee.

For the April meeting, I expect a very productive and detailed presentation from the Human Services Department based on the forthcoming standing up and opening of those shelter options.

So everyone can go ahead and take the day off there on Wednesday, March 24th, at least as far as that committee obligation.

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

So this week, along with Council President Gonzalez, I will be attending a special governing board meeting of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for assiduous homelessness authority watchers.

You will be aware that last week or two weeks ago, the implementation board did meet in a public meeting After a executive session where they discussed putting forward a new candidate for the regional CEO, the implementation board reconvened in public session and announced they would be recommending the appointment of Mark Jones for that position.

The governing board meets this Thursday, March 18th.

And I look forward to strongly supporting Mark for that position and moving forward on this critical undertaking.

Mark was an interviewed finalist for this position when we took this matter up earlier this winter, leading to the selection of a candidate who ultimately did not accept the position.

I can attest that I was very impressed by Mark's interview and I look forward to duly considering him this week and moving forward on this critical undertaking.

Board of Health, the Board of Health meeting the afternoon of March 18th this week.

I'll be attending there with the other members of this council who serve on that body and look forward to continuing to do that much more topical work as we are still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and look forward to getting started on the work plan that we approved at our previous meeting.

And hopefully I'll have more to say about that next week.

Finally, this afternoon, I'll be walking on legislation to appropriate $12 million in spending authority for additional non-congregate shelter investments for people experiencing homelessness, investments that it is the intent to be eligible for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

For the last few weeks, there has been a public debate over the extent to which Seattle can rely on partnership with FEMA to stand up emergency shelter resources directly related to the COVID emergency.

Through direct conversation with FEMA, facilitated by Council President Gonzalez last week, conversations that included staff from the city council and the mayor's office, we have answers to these questions.

And I thank Council President Gonzalez for her leadership on convening that conversation.

FEMA reimbursement can be sought for non-congregate shelter established to house our homeless neighbors who are 65 or older and or have comorbidities and conditions rendering them more vulnerable to COVID.

These conditions include heart disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, kidney disease, smoking, dementia, among other conditions.

We know with certainty, hundreds of our homeless neighbors live on the streets with these public health challenges.

Quite possibly, that number is in the thousands.

With these new resources, we can work collaboratively to make sure Seattleites so situated have an opportunity to live with dignity and security in a non-congregate setting and not in a doorway, a tent encampment, or a vehicle.

While 100% of eligible costs can be reimbursed by FEMA, we know some costs will ultimately fall outside the scope and not be reimbursable or not be reimbursable at that level.

FEMA representatives described to Council Central staff reimbursable expenses generally being those necessary for the operation of the building itself.

For example, staffing the front desk of a shelter, security, distribution of basic hygiene and food supplies, and the rates for the hotel rooms themselves.

By contrast, services best defined as being targeted towards a person are generally not eligible.

For example, caseworkers, addiction and mental health treatment, and rapid rehousing services.

Not, well, sorry, but just because all the costs associated with a shelter for people over 65 and or with comorbidities and preexisting conditions cannot be reimbursed, even if all of them can't be reimbursed, that does not mean we should not go forward as a council and mayor to implement a plan since we know the majority of those costs will ultimately meet criteria for reimbursement.

This proposal being walked on today has incorporated feedback that this council has received from service providers, the mayor's office, the city budget office, and indeed from FEMA itself.

It offers us a path forward to expand the city's response to the biggest crisis facing us, indeed a crisis that looms as large as COVID itself.

The crisis of thousands of our neighbors experiencing homelessness on our streets.

a crisis that predated COVID, a crisis made far worse by COVID, and a crisis that will reign with us after COVID unless we take bold action.

I want to thank Council President Gonzalez for convening the meeting with FEMA last week to answer those questions fundamental to the crafting of this proposal.

I want to thank Council Member Mosqueda for co-sponsoring this legislation and agreeing to hear it fairly quickly in her committee where it will be heard tomorrow.

I want to thank Mayor Durkin and her team for working collaboratively with us last week based on the feedback from FEMA to craft this proposal in a collaborative way to move forward and boldly confront this crisis as a council and a mayor together.

Together, we can make progress on this critical crisis of homelessness and make sure those who are most vulnerable are given shelter.

Thank you, Madam President.

I don't have any additional updates this morning.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Okay, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Council Member Lewis, definitely want to thank you for...

your partnership on this issue and your leadership on crafting this really important piece of legislation.

I'm looking forward to being supportive of it.

And of course, appreciate your office, keeping our office apprised of the procedural steps that were necessary to make sure that we were able to be in a position to put this legislation on the introduction referral calendar for today for discussion this week.

look forward to continuing to work together on this issue and to being supportive.

Okay, colleagues, any other questions for Council Member Lewis or comments?

Okay, so really quickly, colleagues, Council Member Morales, with your permission, I would like to see if you're okay with having Council Member Juarez go next.

She has a commitment she needs to get to this morning and has asked if she could jump the queue.

So if that's okay with you, I'd like that.

in the gun.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm laughing because I was I was like, running around wasn't prepared.

Thank you so much, Council President and Council Member Morales.

I actually need to get up to the Seattle Indian Health Board.

We're gonna work in with the Special Education Department and we're doing vaccines for all the teachers and staff.

So this is something we've been working on with the CEO, Esther Lucero, and the superintendent, Denise Juno.

So it's like a big deal.

So I was trying to get through this stuff so I can get dressed, well, more dressed, and then drive down there.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay.

There is one item of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

We will consider Resolution 31997, which schedules an appeal to the Hearing Examiners Waterfront Lib report on the April 6th committee meeting.

I will speak more to this item this afternoon.

In regards to parks, let's start with the Clean City Initiative from March 1st to the 7th.

The Clean City crews picked up 78,000 Pounds of trash and over 3,000 needles.

They picked up 43 encampments.

They picked all of this up at 43 encampments throughout the city and emphasized deep cleaning at Kinnear Park and Ravenna Park.

Park use observational report.

The highest park users were observed, again, as Volunteer Park, Green Lake, Golden Garden, Seward Park, and Discovery Parks.

Food distribution.

through distribution at Rainier Beach Community Center, Food Lifeline distributed emergency food to over 1,400 individuals and families.

In regards to the Japanese garden, which I also spoke to last week, the Japanese garden opened on Saturday, March 6th, with 320 people in attendance on opening day on March 7th.

On Sunday, March 7th, the Shinto blessing of the garden for 2021 was streamed online.

In regards to childcare, the parks department served well over 300 children at 17 sites.

The South Lake Union Community Center, the online open house will launch this week and will remain open until March 31st.

The open house is an opportunity for the community to learn more about this project, meet the design team and provide feedback on the design concepts.

The center will be a private public partnership operated by the parks department but located on the ground floor of a private development project.

More information can be found on the Parks Department website.

The vaccination rollout, childcare workers now eligible to receive the vaccine, as we all know.

Park staff have been reaching out and supporting our childcare providers in this effort.

In regards to Native communities, again, update on Representative Deb Haaland.

The confirmation process for Representative Deb Haaland for the interior was delayed by a procedure hurdle by GOP Senators Senator Haynes from Montana and Senator Loomis from Wyoming.

Despite the delay, Representative Holland's final confirmation vote is scheduled for today.

Mayor Durkin and I signed a letter of support to the leaders of the Senate Energy Committee, as well as our two senators stating our full support for this historic moment.

Very emotional, if you will, issue coming up for me on March 22nd, is our Chief Andy Proclamation.

Chief Andy de Los Angeles of the Snoqualmie Tribe, who I have known since I was a child, was my baseball coach, passed away earlier this year.

He leaves behind a huge legacy for members of the Snoqualmie Tribe, Seattle residents, and Indian country, not only in Washington State, but nationally.

I worked with Andy, I've known him my whole life.

And I was proud to represent him and other tribes in their recognition process when they are formally recognized by the federal government.

In his honor, I've invited members of his family to next week's city council meeting, which is March 22nd, to accept a proclamation for Chief Andy de Los Angeles.

I had an opportunity to talk to the chair, which is Andy's brother, Robert.

I want to thank the council president's office for helping to schedule this important occasion.

My office will circulate the proclamation this week for signatures.

It's not often that we get to honor tribal leaders such as Andy D. Los Angeles and Uncle Bernie White Bear and Joe Dela Cruz and Uncle Bernie Frank.

These are the people that shape Indian country and federal Indian law and jurisprudence and policies.

And we did it with civil disobedience and we did it with respect and we did it with dignity, always knowing that we led with empathy, but we were pragmatic about how we move forward to make change happen, not only for native people and not only for the environment, but I think for the good of the whole and certainly this country.

Last week, this is actually pretty exciting.

We did a tour of the NHL Training Center in D5.

And it's actually huge.

I was just blown away how big it is.

The facility will have three world-class hockey rinks, a new park, a restaurant, two restaurants, a bar, a new clinic space that they deal with Virginia Mason, a weight room, a gift shop, office spaces.

And we heard loud and clear from the NHL representatives that this facility is for the community.

So many community programming that's going on and the people that have been hired to make that happen.

We expect on average 2,000 visitors a day and about 800,000 people a year contributing to the economic activity exploding at the new NHL Training Center.

So not only is it at the training center and the team and other games that the facility will be used, we also are keeping another site open hopefully when we get our NBA team.

And it was just exciting to see it all coming together.

We also have two other new hotels online.

One has already been built.

And we were joined by former council member Rob Johnson, who now works for OVG NHL and senior vice president of the NHL Training Center, Todd Humphrey.

Big shout out to Tom.

We've been working closely with him on the construction, the community outreach, just all the things that are going to happen and also all the issues related to transportation.

I attended the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board meeting where we received updates on the Washington State Transportation Commission's final report of the Road Usage Charge Pilot Program.

The Regional Transportation Plan's financial strategy includes a suite of potential strategies for new revenues in the future.

And we also requested, I did not know they did this, but I learned this and we're gonna get a copy of it.

The Regional Council did a sidewalk inventory.

for the county, for four counties.

So hopefully we'll get a copy of that soon.

And with that, that's it.

And thank you so much for letting me go first.

I appreciate that.

Absolutely, not a problem.

Colleagues, any questions or comments on Council Member Juarez's report?

All right, hearing none, we're going to go ahead and hear from Council Member Morales.

Good morning.

Morning.

Council Member Juarez, thank you for giving me a few minutes.

my neighbor, so it gave me a few minutes to deal with that.

Happy Monday, everybody.

Let's see, there are no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

The next meeting is tomorrow at 2 p.m.

We'll hear from the Office of Economic Development Interim Director Pamela Banks about the mayor's plan for an equitable economic recovery.

My hope is that we'll also hear a little bit about the interim director's plans and priorities for OED's work program this year and look forward to that conversation.

This week I'll also be attending the Key County Board of Health meeting on Thursday.

Last week, my office met with representative of the Beacon Hill Council and El Centro de la Raza to discuss the continuing problem of aircraft emissions that are affecting neighborhoods in Beacon Hill and neighbors in Beacon Hill and Georgetown.

The community is requesting our assistance and support in requesting amendments to the King County Strategic Climate Action Plan.

I think I've mentioned this before.

The request is to include amendments that would add aircraft emissions to the Climate Action Plan greenhouse gas target reductions, as well as including Beacon Hill in the resilient communities section of the plan and other impacted communities that aren't necessarily right near the airport.

So we will be coming to you throughout the next week or so to have a deeper conversation and share more information with all of you.

I met with Michael Suarez, who is the new director of Southeast Effective Development.

And we discussed the importance of focusing on economic development and wealth creation, especially for commercial tenants in our neighborhoods.

And to focus on opening up opportunities for immigrant and refugee owned small businesses.

This is an area that I worked with in a past life and I'm really eager to make sure that we are creating more opportunity for immigrant and refugee owned small business owners, small businesses.

We met with Pace, AI Pace, to get a capital project update on their development that is happening in the north lot of the Pac-Med building.

Some of you may know they're an exciting 25,000 square foot facility will be built there on the north parking lot in Beacon Hill.

It's part of a larger development that will include affordable housing and an early childhood center.

But this portion of the project is for a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly for the Asian Pacific Islander community in King County.

And they are in the process of continuing their capital campaign and looking forward to continuing to work with them on that project.

Last week, as I mentioned, I convened a meeting between several city departments and our neighbors in Mount Baker to have a direct discussion about issues affecting the neighborhood.

I do want to thank representatives from the Office of Housing, OPCD, SPU, SPD, and Department of Neighborhoods.

All of those departments sent folks to participate in the discussion, and I want to give a big thanks to the neighbors who helped organize it.

At that meeting, neighbors requested assistance related to the laundry development.

They're interested in helping get.

Connect on house neighbors with services as well as.

activating the open space.

They had requests about...

I really appreciate the city department staff being there because our neighbors were able to leave the meeting with commitments from city departments to address several of these issues.

So if other neighbors feel like this kind of meeting would be helpful, please reach out to my office.

I'm happy to help organize one.

Last week during office hours I heard from neighbors who are trying to get sidewalks on their street that were promised prior to the pandemic.

This is an ongoing theme in District 2 as I know up north the same as we have areas of the city that were added without sidewalks.

There are large segments of the street that really need

Okay, we are having, I think Council Member Morales is having some connectivity issues.

And she is frozen on my screen.

So I'm assuming she is frozen on everyone else's screen as well.

We will give her an opportunity to reconnect.

Oh, there you are.

There you are.

Sorry, we lost you.

Am I here?

It's a little, you're a little- Okay, I will try to wrap it up here.

You're a little jumbled up, Council Member Morales, so maybe if I turn your camera off, that might help your connectivity.

Sorry, not ideal, but we do want to get the rest of your report.

Go for it.

Still not hearing you.

I lose you.

All right.

Can you come back to me and I'll wrap it up in a minute?

Sure, sure.

We'll come back to you in just a moment.

Council Member Mosqueda, you are next in the queue, so we'll go ahead and hand it over to you.

I see that you're in a place that probably has pretty stable internet, so go for it.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

Good morning, everyone.

Sorry about that, Councilmember Morales.

I appreciate the technical difficulties, and I will try to get through my report quick.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

Good morning.

There are no items from the Finance and Housing Committee on today's full council agenda.

On the introduction and referral calendar, there are a few bills that I want to draw to your attention.

Council Bill 120018 is the rental assistance bill.

Colleagues, this is the much anticipated rental assistance bill that we were looking for transmission from the mayor's office for quite a while now.

You may remember that the congressional partners did pass rental assistance support for cities and our residents back in December.

We've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of this draft legislation for our consideration, because as you all know, the eviction moratorium is slated to end at the end of this month, pending any future action by the state.

We want to make sure that we are very much prepared to provide as much rental assistance as possible to augment the existing rental assistance we provided, but also to prevent any sort of cliff for many of our residents who are without jobs and are in economically unstable situations.

So it was really important to get that legislation transmitted.

I just want to note, central staff is working around the clock to review this.

You all may have had a chance to look at it already.

If you haven't, please do take a look.

Again, Council Bill 120018. The rental assistance bill will be in my committee tomorrow, but I just want to preference that it is important for us to have ample amount of time to review this to make sure that it meets Council's priorities and that if there is need for any amendments, you let our office or central staff know as soon as possible because it was not ideal, the timing of the transmission Thursday afternoon, but we did want to make sure to put it on the agenda for tomorrow and appreciate its inclusion on the introduction and referral calendar on time last week.

Resolution 31999 is also a resolution that is on the introduction and referral calendar that is in reference to the draft resolution we discussed last week.

We talked about the priorities for city council in terms of maximizing the use of future federal funding that has just been authorized by Congress and signed by the president to provide COVID relief both in the near term for recovery and in the long term as we think about a more resilient economy.

The draft resolution we discussed last week is now on the introduction referral calendar, including much of the feedback we received not just from committee members, but the request was for the entire council to provide feedback to central staff so we could try and incorporate that feedback prior to introduction.

I want to thank all council members.

You all really did reach out and work with central staff.

And because of that, we have been able to include, I think, a pretty robust draft resolution for your consideration.

We will be discussing it in committee tomorrow.

Council President, I appreciate your encouragement to make sure that we have ample public discussion about the bill so it is on the introduction referral calendar and it will be on our calendar for tomorrow's discussion in finance and housing if there is any additional amendments please do let my office and central staff know as soon as possible we would like to consider those amendments tomorrow and then to bring this to full council for Monday next week.

So those two items on the introduction referral calendar.

In terms of our Finance and Housing Committee meeting tomorrow, as I mentioned, we are meeting March 16th, Tuesday at 9 30 a.m.

There is a tentative agenda published, but I want to confirm with all of you that a revised agenda is going to be published very soon.

Thank you very much to Federica Cuevas in my office and also the clerk's office for their work to make sure that the items are reflected on the agenda before tomorrow's meeting.

Number one, we will have an update on the American Recovery Act plan, the ARAP, from central staff.

This is the most recent round of federal assistance from Congress that provides $1.9 trillion for COVID relief.

We will have resolution 31999 that I just mentioned.

This will be our opportunity to discuss and take a possible vote on the resolution regarding our broad spending categories and priorities conceptually as a council.

This is important for us as we think about providing direction and clear guidance on council priorities related to these federal dollars.

And it is both an opportunity for us to think about near-term relief and long-term relief.

to complement the existing conversations we've had.

We will then have an opportunity to hear the bills that Council Member Lewis just mentioned in his report this morning related to non-congregate shelter options and providing clear direction that this city wants to take every opportunity to shelter those who are unsheltered currently in our streets, both as a public health measure for those who are living outside and for our population's health overall, because it's both bad for our physical health and the mental health and psyche of the city when we continue to see So many people living outside and we know that there is proven strategies to shelter and house folks in non-congregate options as we are seeing many other cities move forward with.

If we can get FEMA reimbursement, fantastic, but this is the right thing to do.

Greatly appreciate Council Member Lewis's lead sponsorship on that.

I'm happy to be a co-sponsor on this and I greatly appreciate the Council President's push for additional information and look forward to supporting the $12 million in appropriation authority to move forward with non-congregate shelter options.

And I will also note the importance of moving quickly.

So please do take a look at the draft legislation that Council Member Lewis has discussed and will be included in our committee tomorrow.

Finally, we will have the Rental Assistance Bill that I just mentioned.

This is Council Bill 120018 again.

Colleagues, I do want to make sure that you have a chance to take a look at that bill.

It is on the introduction and referral calendar.

Again, I think it's important for us to act to provide additional rental assistance where possible.

Central staff is in the throes of going through the bill right now, so we will absolutely have a briefing discussion.

If it is possible that central staff and our council colleagues are recommending moving forward tomorrow, we will have it listed as possible vote as well, given the urgency of this.

But I do want to make sure everyone has a chance to take a look at the legislation and consider whether or not it's meeting our priorities as we think about making sure that folks have the assistance that they need to stay stably housed.

In addition to this last Monday, I sent a letter to Governor Inslee and his team and respectfully encourage them to consider the extension of the eviction moratorium.

given that the eviction moratorium continues to, I think, provides great stability to many folks out there.

This coupled with rental assistance will mean that especially small landlords have access to the resources they need as they are looking to pay their own mortgage and make sure that their multifamily structures are well kept.

So it's a both and approach, an eviction moratorium and additional rental assistance.

Those are the four items on our agenda.

Again, thanks to Amelia and Farideh for working to republish the revised agenda to make sure all of those items are transparent and included for the viewing public and our council colleagues.

I also want to thank OIRA and our colleagues, both at the National League of Cities and Local Progress, who have sent our council and cities across this country updates on the American Recovery Act plan.

This is a tremendous piece of legislation that's in front of us that will offer the city of Seattle roughly around $239 million in aid.

Again, while it will be divided into two tranches to get out to our residents, our small businesses, and investments for economic resilience, this is historic legislation that our congressional partners have passed that responds to the crisis and this moment with the resources to meet the need.

Bernie Sanders, Senator Bernie Sanders said last week, this is the most significant legislation for working people that has been passed in decades.

What this legislation does is it addresses the crisis that this country has ignored for far too long.

We have one of the highest rates of child poverty in any major country on earth.

And this legislation will expand child tax credits, lower child poverty in America by up to 50%.

This legislation says that in the richest country in the history of the world, people should not go hungry.

This legislation helps so that when there is an end to the moratorium on evictions, people will get the assistance that they need to stay in their homes.

Whether it's a rental unit or you're owning your own home, this provides assistance.

And finally, this legislation more than doubles the funding for community health centers.

That's just among the many things that this legislation does, and I think is a testament to the incredible progressivity and impact that this legislation will have from our congressional partners.

Specifically, as we will talk about in our committee tomorrow, Overall, the American Recovery Act plan provides $1,400 in stimulus checks, including for dependents, 300 weekly checks for unemployment insurance through September, between $3,000 and $3,600 extra cash stipends per child, FEMA reimbursement up to $7,000 for COVID federal costs, and the first $10,200 in the 2020 unemployment income will not be federally taxed.

More affordable ACDA health coverage on exchange in terms of premium assistance, free COBRA premiums through September, financial assistance for independent restaurants and bars, housing assistance, more than $25 billion for rental assistance and $10 billion for mortgage assistance, funding for non-congregate shelters, as Council Member Lewis described this morning, and more than $6 billion for food security-related programs.

We'll talk more tomorrow, but those are just some high levels.

Also want to let you know we will be sending around an updated calendar.

Last week, I attempted to provide a brief overview of how the resolution will be followed with actual spending ordinance.

And I think what I'd like to do, given that central staff is currently going through the legislation, we're having conversations with the executive as well.

Given the two tranches of the potential funding, what I'd like to do for the full council is provide a calendar in writing once we have a better sense of when those meetings will be discussed.

So you can see all of that in writing and we will talk about it at our Monday meetings as well.

It is important that we think about building back from basically the middle of May to make sure that some of the relief programs that are currently in place don't hit a cliff and so colleagues if you can just keep in mind that our goal will be to try to have these conversations at least related to the first tranche of funding at least completed before the middle of May so that gives us a little bit of wiggle room before June date hits.

I just wanted to give you that as an offer to provide greater clarity around the timeline that we are going to be discussing in the next few weeks and you will be able to see something in writing in partnership with central staff and the ongoing conversations with CBO.

Wanted to let you know that that calendar and updates will be sent to you very soon and will be available for you to see in writing and we can also discuss at the briefings.

In terms of updates, last week I had the chance to visit Uncle Frank, Iragon, and a number of friends and colleagues in the API community at the Beacon Hill Methodist Church, where we handed out meals to seniors.

I want to give special thanks to the American Polynesian Organization and the Filipino Volunteers serving meals to Filipino and Polynesian elders.

also members of the residents of the Chinatown International District who attended the meal delivery system.

They provide hot meals and boxes of food, frozen food as well for those who are coming through the meal delivery program.

And they also go out.

There's about 30 or so elders who receive meals in their homes in addition to the boxed food that comes from um, the program so that t to leave their homes are also able to get the foo incredible operation and honor to join them to se the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, APALA, the Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing, LILO, folks from Got Green, Gabriela Seattle, API Chaya, International Drop-In Center, Pacific Islander Community Association, Filipinos Civic Employees of Seattle, and the Filipino American Educators of Washington.

Appreciate all of their work and I am looking forward to continuing to go and help and box some of those items that they gave to elders very soon as well.

This week, tomorrow, I will be taking part in a panel at the Latino Advocacy Week.

This is a national program, which is a week-long effort that helps the Latino-Latina community advocate for themselves, their community, and talks about the importance of civic engagement and hopefully more people running for office as well.

This is hosted by the Hispanic Access Foundation.

nationally.

In terms of department updates, from the Office of Labor Standards, they are finalizing their driver resolution center request for proposal documents, including final review by FAS, and are awaiting additional direction.

The policy analysts met with a number of Domestic Worker Standards Board members to provide support as they draft their next set of recommendations due to council and the mayor at the end of the month.

And regarding the grocery employee hazard pay ordinance, There is a new questions and answer document and fact sheet that's been translated into a number of different languages that's available on the OLS website and has been shared via social media.

If you have the ability to help get this out, please do.

And they also have a employee hazard pay recorded webinar that you can also share with employers and employees across the city.

Finally, at FAS, just want to say a huge amount of appreciation to the incredible network of departments who have provided direct services at the vaccination site launch, including FAS.

Over the last six weeks, around 60 FAS employees have worked with teams across the city.

to convert about a 200,000 square foot space into a mass vaccination site.

At full capacity, it will be able to provide up to 150,000 vaccines a week, making it one of the largest civilian-led vaccination sites in the entire country.

FAS led in ordering, tracking, and managing and setting up the various items that the site needed, including refrigeration storage, vests, lanyards for volunteers, tables and chairs, and managed to do all of this in a very expeditious way and keep us updated on council, which I greatly appreciate.

as they set up the facility.

All of us, I believe many council members have sent out information to the general public about how to sign up to receive your vaccinations and also how to volunteer.

If you'd like to find more information, please go to my blog for the Teresa Tuesday updates that we sent last week and you will be able to find more.

I will stop there, Madam President, and just let you all know that the team at FAS has provided incredible support, which I want to continue to share around with folks regarding increased call volume, the work that they've done with payroll expense, rulemaking, and providing updates to employers, getting ready for a shelter surge program, and making sure that there was $1.75 million in priority hire investments that got out the door in partnership with the Port of Seattle and Sound Transit.

So just huge thank you for all the work that they continue to do.

in addition to helping to make sure folks get vaccinated.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much, Council Member Musqueda.

Any comments or questions on that report before we head back to Council Member Morales?

Okay, hearing none.

Thank you so much, Council Member Musqueda, for that report.

Really appreciate it and looking forward to committee.

Okay, next is we're gonna head back to Council Member Morales and give her an opportunity to complete her report.

Thank you, Council President.

Apologies, everyone.

I just had two more things, and I will try to be quick here.

Almost a year ago, I brought a resolution to this Council that urged state and federal leaders to cancel mortgage and rent debt for the countless neighbors who had lost a job, had seen their hours diminish, or otherwise been negatively affected by the pandemic.

I think at that time, we really had no idea how something so radical would be so necessary.

And yet this year passed, a year later, we're still waiting for that action.

So as the pandemic has stretched on, so have the worries for many tenants that once this moratorium is over and the civil emergency is behind us, they will be facing a mountain of debt and life without a home.

This past year, my staff has been researching several policies to combat the coming wave of evictions.

We've looked at how other cities and countries are addressing this issue.

We've also been working with tenant advocates and attorneys and organizers to find any kind of solution to this problem.

Last year as a council, we passed eviction forgiveness legislation.

We worked with other offices on measures to address this.

And those were important steps in the right direction.

But the reality is that this system that we're working within just isn't favorable to tenants, nor is it favorable to expanding their rights.

So we have to keep pushing and thinking creatively about how to address this.

That's why in this year, 2021, it will continue to be a priority for my office to strengthen tenant protections and keep people housed.

So I wanna let folks know that our office, that we've been working with central staff on drafting new policies, address debt-related evictions, and to provide tenants the opportunity to kind of hash things out with their landlords before an eviction is even in the cards.

So in the coming weeks, I'll be speaking about these policies in greater detail, but what I can say right now is that these are just two things that'll be necessary to save our neighbors from eviction.

And they'll also be the first of several policies that we are working on this year.

I'm committed now, as I was a year ago, to working with the tenants in our city, push more progressive policies to help keep people housed.

And I look forward to support from colleagues when we have these pieces of legislation ready.

And then finally, I've mentioned a couple times before that as we start to think about what an equitable economic recovery looks like, we really need to rethink the role of downtowns.

And I think especially in the context of the conversation we'll be having this afternoon, I want to draw your attention to an article this morning by Josh Feit in Publicola.

where he says that the past year has really energized business districts outside the city center and alerted us to a new Seattle model.

The post-pandemic focus for making Seattle vital again should be in harnessing new neighborhood energy, not necessarily sending it back downtown.

And he goes on to say, quote, from corner markets to garage bars, the city needs to make more room for small businesses in traditionally residential neighborhoods.

My Miller Park mini grocery has changed from a sleepy curiosity to a vital hub in the pandemic.

Art space also needs to be included in this equation.

Small bookstores, performance spaces, artist studios are needed throughout the city, not just in central city neighborhoods like Capitol Hill and Pioneer Square.

The Seattle Office of Arts and Culture's new Cultural Space PDA, set up to help secure affordable space for arts groups, particularly BIPOC arts organizations, is one of the most innovative and pioneering projects Seattle has put into play in years, and it's vital to these city building efforts.

So colleagues, as we continue to have this conversation about what an equitable recovery looks like, I do think it's important that we rethink how we support micro businesses, especially in our neighborhood districts, because that's where our neighbors are, where we live, and really vibrant commercial districts need to include these micro businesses, not just BIPOC, but my particular interest is in supporting black and brown owned businesses and businesses owned by immigrants and refugees.

But across the city, I think every neighborhood could benefit from having more vibrant commercial space in them.

And I look forward to a conversation with all of you this year about how we can make that happen.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, colleagues, for indulging me in the second round.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

I appreciate you being able to complete your report.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report?

All right.

I'm not hearing any, so I'm going to go ahead and head down the line.

Next up is Council Member Peterson, and then after Council Member Peterson will be Council Member Salon.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Our Transportation Utilities Committee has no items on today's full City Council agenda.

Later this morning, Council Member Herbold and I would like the Council to approve a letter of support for our city's request for federal funding for the West Seattle Bridge.

I'll get to that letter at the end of my remarks.

That's the same letter I circulated via email.

Our next meeting of the Transportation Utilities Committee is this Wednesday, March 17, at 9.30 a.m.

While we have only seven items on the agenda, several are substantive.

A Council Bill 12015 will reaffirm electricity rates for Seattle City Light, and I'm pleased that City Light has managed to take various actions that would amazingly result in no net increase to customer bills this year.

Each customer's bill is comprised of various rates passed through power rates, surcharges, and through a combination of actions, we can continue to prevent an increase in bills this year.

In addition, Seattle City Light will be keeping their promise for the next year, 2022, by sticking with the original rate path agreed to back in 2018 and possibly achieving a smaller increase.

I appreciate both Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities for focusing on affordability.

In conjunction with approving a grant acceptance from Puget Sound Regional Council for the West Seattle Bridge, Council Bill 12017, our committee will receive a brief update on the restoration work and other efforts around the West Seattle Bridge.

This will be similar to the presentation received last week by the Community Task Force on the West Seattle Bridge.

The committee is also hearing for the second time the three ordinances that comprise the so-called group two existing technologies that we must examine thanks to the city's 2017 and 2018 surveillance ordinance.

As you may recall, we received an overview of the surveillance technology impact report approval process back on January 20th.

Then the three ordinances for the 10 of the 26 existing technologies We're introduced February 22nd on the introduction referral calendar.

We heard from all relevant departments and central staff at our committee two weeks ago on March.

This Wednesday, March 17, we can vote on all three bills, though I realize some council members may want to discuss further a couple of the existing SPD technologies.

So while we can definitely vote on the City Light and Fire Department technologies, committee members may want to have a third committee meeting on SPD technologies on April 7th.

Just a reminder that we also have the Group 3 and Group 4 surveillance impact reports coming soon.

So hopefully this Group 2 will get everyone acclimated to what's involved in reviewing and approving these existing technologies after they have undergone thorough review by our Information Technology Department and Surveillance Working Group.

The good news from an accountability perspective is that it's not over after council's approval of these ordinances, because then our city auditor and office of inspector general will continue to review the technologies after we approve the surveillance impact reports.

Amendments were due last week to central staff, but I know some people will need some more time.

If you have outstanding questions, please contact Lisa Kay on central staff or Caravaggio on my staff today.

District 4 this past Friday, like every Friday, I had virtual office hours.

I'd like to thank the grassroots organization, People for Climate Action, which includes constituents from throughout District 4. I appreciated their well informed discussion about what the city can do to combat climate change, even in the light of President Biden rejoining the Paris Accord.

While we renewed the Transportation Benefit District to continue boosting transit, passed the climate note requirement to review all legislation through a climate lens, and adopted new building and energy codes, there's more we can do to address climate change.

These efforts are currently spread out over several city departments.

I have another round of office hours this coming Friday afternoon, which I have every week, and my monthly e-newsletter will go out at the end of next week.

Back to the letter of support for the West Seattle Bridge.

This is a letter that we circulated Friday afternoon and recirculated it this morning.

This support letter is for a specific type of grant from the United States Department of Transportation called INFRA.

INFRA stands for Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, and SDOT is applying for approximately $20 million.

On Friday afternoon, I circulated this.

It was reviewed by central staff, specifically our transportation expert, Calvin Chow.

For the benefit of the public, I'll read just the first paragraph to set the context, and then I'll turn it over to the council president.

The city of Seattle is proud to present the West Seattle Bridge Project for consideration for an Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant.

The sudden and unexpected closure of the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge is a locally declared civil emergency, and restoring this bridge, the busiest local street within our city, far exceeds local revenues and typical grant programs.

Restoring the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge to full capacity is critical to the Seattle region's ability to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

I will turn it over to Council President to ask if there are any questions.

Council Member Herbold may want to comment on this, too, so we can eventually request a roll call vote for signatures to be affixed to the letter.

Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Just really quickly on that, I do want to give Council Member Herbold an opportunity to make any comments before I call for questions and then the roll call.

Councilmember Herbold, would you like to add anything?

Thank you so much.

I just want to thank both SDOT, the mayor's office, and Councilmember Peterson for working on this letter and including some of the texts and additions that my office had requested.

This is really timely.

Folks may be aware that SDOT has reached 30 percent designs what they consider to be their baseline for cost estimates, scope, and schedule.

As Council Member Peterson noted, they will be presenting in the Transportation Utilities Committee on Wednesday.

They have big news, released the request for proposals for the bridge repairs and responses from the potential contractors are due on April 12th.

with a pre-proposal meeting scheduled for March 22nd.

The target for awarding the contract is mid-late May with a contractor on board in June.

So this letter is timely and important in our efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

Okay, colleagues, any questions before I ask the clerk to call the roll on this letter?

I'm not seeing any questions.

So will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter supporting the West Seattle Bridges grant application as described?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Yes.

Nine in favor.

Thank you so much, colleagues for that.

I'm sure Council Member Herbold and Peterson also appreciate it as well.

Any other comments or questions on Council Member Peterson's report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go to, oh,

Thank you very much, Madam President.

Councilmember Peterson, thank you for the update.

I am looking forward to hearing more from central staff about the rate design change for, I'm sorry, the rates proposed from Seattle City Light.

What I spent the majority of 2018 working on after many years of I think stakeholders really clamoring for a more equitable distribution of rates.

And so I'm excited to hear that there's not a rate increase proposed this year or potentially next year.

I just want to make sure that I get the chance to review the central staff memo as well.

It would be helpful and I understand that the memo is not available and it would be helpful to hear more about how the changes that we made in 2018 are now factoring into 2021 rates because sometimes you don't often get to see immediately the changes of legislation that you put into place.

If there is a connection to the policies that we advanced in 2018, that would be very helpful to see highlighted in the memo from central staff if possible, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for that question.

Yes, the central staff memo will provide more detail.

The As you recall, in 2018, every couple years, we approve a rate path based on a revised strategic plan.

And thank you for your leadership on that when you were chair of the committee.

And basically what's happening is, City Light amazingly was able to keep utility bills level for this year due to COVID, even though there was an increase expected for 2021, just as part of the rate path that was agreed upon.

In 2022, the rate path what was agreed upon in 2018 for the 2022 rate path was a 3.9% increase in 2022. And so they are going to keep that promise or even come in below that.

And the central staff member will explain the financial gymnastics they're doing to try to make that happen.

Thank you.

Great, thank you so much.

Any other questions or comments on Council Member Peterson's report?

All right, hearing none, we're going to move down the line.

Next up is Council Member Sawant.

Good morning.

Thank you, and good morning to everyone.

There is one item on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, the right-to-council legislation from my office.

I've been describing the right-to-council legislation for several weeks now, and my office has reached out to several offices to find out if council members have questions.

And as many know, my office and renters rights activists, including renter rights organizations and labor unions and union members have been fighting for the right to counsel for renters facing evictions in Seattle for the past several years.

And I'm very pleased to see the legislation come to a vote to the city council today.

We won pilot funding for the first eviction defense attorney to our people's budget movement three years ago and have increased that funding each year.

since then to support more renters, including during the people's budget movement last fall when we won $605,000 for eviction defense.

This year, we discussed the first draft of the right to counsel legislation in the committee in January, and then the revised draft two weeks ago.

It was passed three to one at the last committee with council members Lewis and Morales and myself voting yes, and council member Peterson voting no.

Asha Venkatraman from the city council central staff has developed a memo explaining the legislation that was presented at the last committee two weeks ago and since then has answered follow-up questions from council members, particularly about the financial costs of renters not having council and eviction code and the financial costs of loopholes like means testing.

Obviously, the most important reason for this legislation are not the financial costs for the city, but instead the human cost to people facing eviction.

However, it is useful to know that funding the right to counsel, particularly with no loopholes like means testing, actually saves the city money.

According to the losing home report from the Seattle Women's Commission and the King County Bar Association, nearly nine out of 10 people evicted become homeless as a result.

And the cost of providing homeless services are orders of magnitude greater than funding eviction defense to prevent homelessness in the first place.

This is particularly crucial given how out of hand the homelessness crisis has become, which everybody can see.

Asha's figures are calculated based on what data she had at her disposal.

So of course, she has let council members know that that's the reality of the limitations of the estimates that we can come up with.

But I would say just from the numbers that we have at our disposal and from the results from Right to Council that we have seen from multiple cities, If the reality is anything close to the estimates we have, anything in that ballpark, then the right to counsel will save city money.

That much is very clear.

And that conclusion, as I said before, aligns very much with the results from New York and San Francisco and multiple other cities that have already passed right to counsel legislation.

Again, my motivation for this legislation has been the human impact of evictions, and that is what the discussions have mostly highlighted, but we have also had a very thorough overview of the numbers and very thorough answers to the questions about financial impact on the city from this legislation.

Last week my office received two proposed amendments to the legislation of Council Member Herbold that I consider to be friendly and consistent with the intent of the bill.

But of course I will make sure I leave it to Council Member Herbold to explain that.

Also on today's City Council agenda is a resolution from my office urging the Mayor and the Governor to extend the moratorium on evictions in Seattle and Washington State as a whole.

I want to be crystal clear, we will need the right to counsel to defend people when the eviction moratorium ends, but right to counsel is not an excuse to end eviction moratorium, particularly now when the COVID health emergency and the recession that it has parked continues unabated.

The current moratorium is scheduled to expire in 16 days if it is not extended.

Imagine the stress facing thousands of Seattle renters who do not know whether they will have housing in a couple of weeks, whether they will need to couch surf, move in with extended family, or actually face homelessness.

We do have laws on the books giving renters a defense against eviction, a payment plan, and services like that, but there will still be thousands dragged into eviction court before they can take advantage of those defenses.

Like the right to counsel, these protections are essential, and we should keep them in place, but they're also not an excuse for failing to extend the eviction moratorium at such an unprecedented period that we are in right now.

People should not have to be evicted and go to eviction court to use rental assistance.

If there will be significant rental assistance available, absolutely it is our duty to get that out as much as possible.

Remove the renter debt backlog before allowing a deluge of evictions.

I thank the 47 labor, community, immigrant rights, indigenous rights, and homeless advocacy organizations who sent a joint letter to Mayor Durkin urging her to extend the moratorium to the end of this year.

I also thank LGBTQ allyship, which is a nonprofit organization serving LGBTQ community needs who also have urged the City Council to advocate for the mayor and the governor in extending the eviction moratorium to the end of this year.

As the letter from the 47 organizations says, we need to, quote, prevent a massive wave of eviction filings, causing many tenants to self-evict because they are afraid, don't understand their rights, or don't want to fight in court, end quote.

This is very important to note.

both for the resolution to extend the eviction moratorium to the end of this year, and also for the right-to-counsel legislation, why it's important and why there should not be loopholes in the legislation.

Because, in fact, the data don't even capture the tenants who end up leaving when they receive an eviction notice because they are understandably and justly afraid of having to go to the courts, are daunted by the labyrinthine process that confronts them, and they end up leaving because they don't want to face that situation in the first place.

To quote further from the letter, quote, small businesses and nonprofits are struggling too.

It will be quite a while before restaurants are allowed to operate at full capacity and many small retail and service businesses have had to close temporarily.

The eviction moratorium provides security for businesses and nonprofits to work out deals with their landlords to get through the pandemic.

This is not the time to take that security away.

Extending the city's eviction moratorium to the end of this year will give tenants time and stability, enabling more renters and small businesses to get caught up on rent and allowing rental assistance programs time to work." Evictions are disproportionately used against people of color. and they are disproportionately used against women. Black women face the highest risk of eviction, even when there is not a pandemic. Now, in the midst of the COVID recession, resuming evictions will be an unprecedented disaster. And a new University of Washington study that was released last year from data in 2019 found that tenants with legal representation were twice as likely to keep their housing, but only 10% of tenants facing eviction had a lawyer compared to 90% of landlords. And the study also found more evidence of how it affects women and people of color disproportionately. So I think both the resolution extending the eviction moratorium to the end of this year, and the right to counsel legislation guaranteeing legal aid for all renters facing eviction, without any loopholes, without any obstacles, is also, they're both important. The Associated Press quoted a senior World Health Organization official that it is premature and unrealistic, these are quoted words, premature and unrealistic to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of this year. We need to be clear that while vaccinations are becoming more available, and that is absolutely very, very welcome, and a relief for a lot of people and our community that is not the same as the emergency being over in any real terms. So I hope the council will support both these bills that are coming up for vote today. The next meeting of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee is scheduled at the regular time, Tuesday, March 23rd at 2 p.m. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Sawant.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Council Member Herbold, please.

I just want to take this opportunity to sunlight the amendment that Council Member Sawant mentioned, and thank you for your support, Council Member Sawant.

agree these are intended as friendly amendments.

The first amendment specifies that an attorney organization with which the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections contracts should have experience providing legal representation.

This amendment was suggested by a long-term, long-time advocate of tenants' rights with deep experience in advocating for and supporting tenants.

In their experience, they recognize that there are many legal aid organizations that provide advice about notices and what the notices themselves mean or only represent tenants in very narrow situations.

So though this bill is not a funding mechanism itself, it's important that the council include our intention in this bill that future funding for the policy should be made available to those who are willing to represent tenants in a courtroom.

The second amendment requires the organization with whom the city eventually contracts with to provide reporting on numbers of cases for representation that occurs outside of the initial appearance or show cause hearing.

The vast number of these cases never go beyond a show cause hearing.

In King County in 2018, only 11 of nearly 9,000 eviction cases went to trial.

But with recent statewide and local law reform to the eviction process, larger numbers of cases may be going to trial.

So this information would be added to other information reported as required by a contract.

And it could, in the future, inform the council about whether or not future legislative changes may need to be made to address issues brought about by an increase in the need for representation beyond the show-cause hearing and into trials.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

Any comments or questions, colleagues?

Okay, hearing none, we'll go ahead and move down the line and hear now from Council Member Strauss.

Good morning.

Sorry, struggling for my mute button there.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

I will try to keep this short.

This is a longer report this morning than usual.

I know I usually keep them short.

So there are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar.

There are five items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's full council agenda.

Council Bill 120001, bringing business home, a small business flexibility bill, is on today's agenda which will make it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to operate out of their home for the next year.

Last week I reported that Brandi Kruse had mentioned that she supported this bill.

I went back and watched my interview with Brandi.

In fact, she did not say that.

She merely stated it was uncontroversial.

I guess since then she may have jinxed it there.

Anyways, moving forward, this bill supports entrepreneurs to turn dreams into realities, provide innovative incubation to refill the currently vacant storefronts.

We know that some of the most successful businesses in the world and important innovative designs we use daily were born out of garages.

And we know that the land use code should not be a barrier to a vibrant neighborhood in a successful economy, understanding that there are a multitude of different licensures and regulatory bodies around small businesses, around home occupancy businesses, and the land use code is just the bottom layer of multiple different layers of regulation and licensure.

Colleagues, I just wanted to take this moment to ask to see if there are any questions about this afternoon's bill while we have a moment.

Colleagues, any questions or comments?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Not a question, but wondering from the Council President's perspective and the sponsor of the legislation, if this might be an appropriate time to surface my amendment.

Absolutely, please.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Again, this is considered, from my perspective, to be a friendly amendment.

And I believe one of the sponsors of the legislation so far, hopefully the other, has already indicated his expectation that this is also a friendly amendment.

So this amendment requires that a home occupation not have a drive-in business component.

and that home occupations related to automotive sales and service not cause a substantial increase in on-street parking or vehicle traffic.

Thank you.

Sorry, that was a two-part amendment.

Council Member Herbold, could you brief the second part again?

Thank you.

The second part of the amendment, well, they're both related to vehicles.

The first relates to stating that a home occupation is not reliant on vehicles, so does not have a drive-in business component.

And the second relates to to basically automotive sales and vehicle service, and stating that if there is a home occupation related to an automotive sales or service, because those uses are not prohibited, if there is a home occupation related to sales and service, that those sales and services should not cause an increase in on-street parking or vehicle traffic.

So again, this is specifically to car sales and car services, but because the bill itself does not say that home occupations cannot include car sales and car services, but that if they should, if they do, that they should not involve a substantial increase in parking or traffic.

So Council Member Herbold, this is just sort of the, you know, for those folks who are, for example, running a mechanic shop out of their garage in their neighborhood, your amendment is designed to narrowly focus on that kind of home business as it relates to potential impacts on on-street parking and traffic?

Thank you Councilmember Herbold.

I want to just make sure that I circle back with Noah in my office.

He's been briefing me along the way, but one thing that just came to mind as you were reporting out is I do know that there are already home occupancy businesses that use their garage for things like motorcycle repair and so I just want to make sure that we are not excluding all because again the land use code does we we already allow for home occupancy businesses this is providing some flexibility for some areas I want to make sure that we don't constrict how home occupancy businesses are able to be permitted as of today so but hearing that if it is already a car related business that it does not increase parking and traffic.

I think that that, yes, I see where you're going and I appreciate it.

So, well, I'll make sure to circle back with Noah and then circle back with you before full council this afternoon.

Thank you.

Colleagues, not seeing any other questions for this afternoon.

I just want to, again, thank Council President Gonzalez and Council Member Mosqueda, and your teams, VWIN in particular, for working on this legislation since January and being attentive to these small business concerns since last December.

Thank you, colleagues.

Other items from Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's agenda.

There are four appointments to the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council.

In my work on council from last week, I joined the Green Lake Community Council to talk about homelessness, bringing business home, the Green Lake Repaving Project, the new Green Lake Community Center, and more.

At the same time, my staff attended the Ballard District Council on Wednesday.

Last week, I met with Seattle King County Public Health, following up on the strengthening of protections for our natural gas lines.

I was able to meet with Sound Transit to discuss the Ballard-Interbay Regional Transportation Corridor and the alignment adjustments that are coming to Ballard.

Spoke to the Alliance for Pioneer Square to discuss the land use COVID relief package, which bringing business home was originally part of a package.

The package was not moving fast enough, so we split bringing business home out as a separate entity.

Happy to report more on that as it develops.

I was able to meet with Visit Seattle to discuss recovery as we move out of COVID-19, and they are reporting that they already have 30 groups reserved to use space in the convention center for mid-2022.

which is exciting to know that we'll be able to bring so many visitors back into town.

I was able to meet with the Ballard Alliance discussing street cafes and the activation of the Ballard Blossom Building on Market Street.

And I also met with a member of People for Climate Action, and they are calling on the City Council to form a select committee on climate crisis.

And this is something that I think that would be a good idea.

Council President, happy to speak with you offline about this.

Currently, there are a number of different committees that touch on different aspects of the climate crisis, whether it's SDCI with buildings.

We just made that large update in the land use code.

We have transportation.

parks, utilities, as well as some sustainability specific work.

So happy to talk to you.

A recent report showed that we are falling behind as a city in meeting our emissions reductions goals.

And it's always great to have one centralized place to catalog all of the important work that needs to be accomplished to address climate crisis.

This coming week, I will be attending the Regional Transit Committee as part of my work with Seattle and King County.

I'll be meeting with Judge Gregory, the presiding judge of the Seattle Municipal Court, and I'll be meeting with Chief Diaz and Budget Director Noble as part of my regularly scheduled check-ins with department directors and chiefs, as well as I'll be meeting with the Association of Washington City's Board of Directors.

As always, I hold office hours on Thursday from 2 to 7 p.m., both during and after the 9 to 5 working hours.

Here in District 6, last week, during my regularly scheduled district meetings, I met with neighbors from Loyal Heights, Ballard, East Ballard, the Wallingford, Tangletown area, North Finney Ridge, Green Lake, and we discussed addressing homelessness and mental health.

I met with the leadership from Ballard Little League in addressing use of play fields, discussed Clean Cities Initiative and ways to volunteer to be part of the solution.

I discussed how we are able to address homelessness with the surge investment executive Constantine's health for housing and what needs to be done to solve for the remaining number of people left out on the street.

I was able actually to meet with another Ballard Little League coach to discuss how we lead with solving for homelessness, to use our park space as designed.

Since I met with so many folks from Ballard Little League last week, just want to Say my little league team was Broomfield's Marine Exhaust, and I got to meet with the coaches from Limbach Lumber and Ray's Boathouse.

I buy my lumber from Limbach, and Ray's is a great place to watch the Monday night paddle races that happen out on Salmon Bay that run from May to September.

So I want to thank everyone.

and all of the District 6 neighbors for giving me some of your time last week.

I look forward to speaking with neighbors on Thursday, March 18th from 2 to 7 p.m.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions for Council Member Strauss?

Hearing none, we're going to go down the line now and hear from Councilmember Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you so much.

So just starting off with items on the full Council agenda this afternoon at 2 o'clock.

I have a few from last week's public safety and human services committee meeting.

First, we have Council Bill 120011, and this legislation approves the $12 million community safety capacity building spending plan and amends Council Bill 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget.

It does so by lifting a proviso that the council placed on this funding.

And the proviso specifically asked that the Human Services Department come back to council and propose a spending plan that we would then approve as a prerequisite to HSD awarding the funds for the community safety and capacity building grants.

These funds are a key investment in the council's work to reimagine community safety.

Part of $16 million total that the council appropriated in 2021 to have HSD, the Human Services Department, scale up.

community-led organizations, including technical support and capacity building to increase public safety.

Folks may remember the first investment of the $16 million was $4 million to the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

So looking forward to moving forward with these investments.

The Human Services Department on March 1st initiated an RFP to ask community safety organizations to apply for these funds, and they are making technical assistance available to get folks ready to submit their applications.

In addition, on the full council agenda, we have five appointments to the Community Police Commission.

Three of those appointments are initiated by the City Council, two by the Community Police Commission itself, and one is a mayoral reappointment.

And then lastly, we will have a confirmation vote for the new community police commission permanent executive director, Brandy Grant.

Ms. Grant has been acting as interim director since last year after being a community police commissioner.

And just as a little bit of background, in the 2017 historic police accountability legislation, the structure is that the CPC appoints the director and the council confirms.

So this is not an executive department driven appointment.

The CPC is responsible for doing recruitment, designing the hiring process, and ultimately recommending to council a director.

Other items coming up this week from the Human Services Department related to Council Bill 120011. As I mentioned, HSD has posted their RFP for proposals.

These are one-time funds.

for the contract period of July 1st, 2021 through December 31st, 2022. HSD is anticipating that they may end up funding up to 40 proposals with the council provided funding.

Priority will be given to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and immigrant and refugee-led groups as they are most impacted by racism, systems of oppression, harm from violence, and the criminal justice system.

As I mentioned, free technical assistance is available.

On the public health side of the committee responsibility this week, I had the pleasure of visiting the city run vaccination site at Lumen field event center on its opening day.

That day, the city vaccinated 2160 people.

The when vaccine supply improves, this site will be able to operate daily and vaccinate up to 150,000 people every week.

This is a massive undertaking in collaboration among multiple city departments under the leadership of FAS, including Seattle IT, the Seattle Fire Department, the Police Department, and the Office of Emergency Management.

And the external partners include Swedish and First and Goal.

I left on Saturday afternoon filled with hope and optimism and gratitude.

to the many partners and volunteers who are making this possible.

So anybody who's eligible to receive vaccine can join a notification list for available appointments.

And the city's community vaccination sites in West Seattle and Rainier Beach also, you can do so either by going to seattle.gov forward slash vaccine, or calling the customer service bureau at 206-684-7000.

24 89. Just um giving the numbers from the Seattle Fire Department.

Um the number of vaccination um tests administered at their four sites is now nearly 670,000 people or I'm sorry 670,000 tests.

because sometimes people are tested on multiple occasions throughout the year of COVID-19.

But those 670,000 tests have been administered through June 5th up to March 12th.

And then the vaccination teams have administered so far 19,035 vaccines through March 12th.

I want to say a few words about events last night.

Over the weekend, or rather I should say Saturday night, over the weekend, members of our community came together to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Breonna Taylor.

A reminder that Breonna Taylor and her family have not received justice and resolution for the taking of her life.

The council is united in our commitment to protect and support all those who exercise their constitutional right to peacefully protest.

Police also reported destruction of commercial property and arrested 13 people who allegedly were engaged in that destruction and causing harm to officers.

As I have mentioned before, it will continue to do so.

I ask all those who demonstrate to do so peacefully and without resorting to violence and destruction.

there.

Um, events last week, I mentioned both the lumen field vaccination site and the West Seattle Community Bridge Task Force meeting.

Um, and I think, um, like that's all of my report today.

Thank you.

Sorry for the delay.

OK, so any questions or comments on that report?

Hearing no comments or questions on that report, I'll go ahead and conclude this portion of the agenda by giving my report.

The Governance and Education Committee has two items for action on this afternoon's full council agenda, but nothing on the introduction and referral calendar.

So last week, my governance and education committee had an opportunity to meet.

We had two nominees to be considered and appointed to the Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

We'll be voting on both of those appointments later today at full council.

We also received a briefing from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs on the successes that they have had in 2020 in responding to emerging needs of the immigrant and refugee community.

They also briefed us on their work on standing up the city's immigrant disaster relief fund and their work on language access to ensure immigrant and refugee communities are not left behind in terms of being able to receive important public health information during the pandemic.

And then lastly, in committee, we received a detailed briefing from the Department of Education and Early Learning on the city's prenatal to three Work program, as well as updates on the city's child care access program.

I'm really excited to report that we're going to have a lot more to consider in the child care access space, particularly for.

0 to 3 year olds as a deal continues to work on responding to.

the statement of legislative intent and the funding that I provided to the department to address broadly and holistically child care needs and identify strategies for the city to consider in supporting child care access and affordability.

This week, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Governing Committee will meet on Thursday, as mentioned by Council Member Lewis.

We will meet at 10 o'clock in the morning.

As he also mentioned, the Implementation Board has unanimously recommended the appointment of Mark Jones.

I'm looking forward to being able to support that nomination and take yet another important step in the implementation and standing up of the Regional Homelessness Authority.

Colleagues, also last Thursday, I had an opportunity to be joined by central staff, the Office of Emergency Management, and the City Budget Office in a meeting with FEMA administrators to get clear feedback regarding the city's ability to seek reimbursement for non-congregate shelter services, which are particularly necessary during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

It was an extremely helpful and productive meeting, And I'm grateful to the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and Leslie Polner for setting up this meeting at my request, and to the staff at FEMA for being available to answer the city's questions.

I wanted to provide a high-level summary of our meeting from last week, but I also want to make sure that all of you have an open invitation to contact either me, Cody Reiter in my office, or Jeff Sims and Allie Panucci from Central Staff if you would like a more detailed summary of the meeting that we had with FEMA.

So in advance of the meeting, Jeff and Allie prepared a list of questions that incorporated the input and concerns of both council members and executive staff.

FEMA administrators were able to address these questions during the meeting, and they provided the needed clarity on ambiguities the city has perceived in the various guidance policies and FAQs put out by FEMA over the last 12 months.

As an example of the type of questions that were addressed, FEMA staff clarified that the availability of other federal funding streams for particular services such as CARES Act dollars would not disqualify, would not disqualify the city from seeking FEMA reimbursement for those services.

This response from FEMA directly dampened concerns raised by the executive, which had previously communicated the belief that the availability of other federal resources could be a roadblock and potential disqualifier in our efforts to seek FEMA reimbursement for non-congregate shelter services.

This and other answers provided in that meeting seemingly removed many of the ambiguities and roadblocks which were previously represented by the executive and communicated to the council as justification for not pursuing the non-congregate sheltering strategies that the council and the public have been advocating for.

While it is true that there are certain parameters and criteria which non-congregate shelter services need to meet in order to be eligible for FEMA reimbursement, The bottom line is that while there can be no absolute guarantee, we can nonetheless be very confident that non congregate shelter is indeed FEMA reimbursable with within specific parameters.

At this point, I continue to believe that there is no justification for foregoing the opportunity to provide essential shelter services and temporarily assume the costs of helping those most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, because we know there is a real opportunity to seek 100% FEMA reimbursement for eligible costs to help support this essential response to COVID-19.

That's in part why I'm looking forward to the introduction and consideration of the legislation that Council Member Lewis shared with us this morning and spoke to in his report.

I am grateful for the opportunity to help support that legislation by initiating this meeting with FEMA and getting answers to the council's and the city's questions.

Many of us on the council have been pushing for solutions to this particular issue for months, for months now.

And I'm hopeful this meeting has helped close the gap between the council and the mayor's office by gaining a shared interpretation and understanding of FEMA's policies.

So I am now extraordinarily excited that we can move forward in a collaborative way to help address the dual crises of homelessness and COVID-19 in our community and look forward to the conversation that we'll be having in Council Member Musqueda's committee.

to again effectuate the council's desired strategy around temporarily assuming these costs while also keeping the door wide open for FEMA reimbursement.

Lastly, last week I had an opportunity to meet with members and leaders of the Duwamish tribe at their long house.

We spent some time together talking about the future of the city and shared how we are all collectively looking forward to having positive things to celebrate in 2021. They also shared some of the exciting work they're doing on advocating for the tribe.

And I'm just extremely grateful for the opportunity to have been able to be their guest last week and look forward to ongoing conversations with them about their priorities and how they would like to continue to engage with the city of Seattle.

Lastly, just wanted to report that I'm excited to be able to join Councilmember Mosqueda at the Latino elected official advocacy week, which has been hosted by Hispanic Foundation and Local Progress.

I'm excited to be able to provide kickoff comments at that particular event virtually.

Also, we'll have an opportunity to have a regular check-in with Superintendent Denise Juneau on Wednesday.

Looking forward to connecting with her on issues related to the Seattle Public Schools system.

And also we'll have an opportunity to meet with Director Pamela Banks from the Office of Economic Development later this week to discuss the city's ongoing efforts around revitalization and economic recovery.

And on Friday, I'm looking forward to participating in a Women in Politics panel, Women as Drivers of Social and Economic Change event that I am excited to be participating in as part of Women's History Month.

And then lastly, on Friday, we'll have my regular Friday check-in with members of the governor's executive team.

and look forward to continuing to speak with the governor's staff about our city priorities, many of which are around rental assistance, funding, economic impacts in our city, and making sure that we are creating pathways to address the eviction moratorium issues that we continue to have a conversation about here in the city council.

That is the end of my report and I'm happy to take any questions or hear any comments.

Alright, hearing none, it is 1135 AM, so this does bring us to our end of our agenda.

We have no further items of business for agenda, so we are adjourned and I will see you all at 2 o'clock.