So much sun.
Good morning, everyone.
The July 26th 2021 Council briefing meeting will now come to order.
The time is 9.32 a.m.
before the clerk calls the roll.
Just a reminder that Councilmember Morales is excused from both Council briefing and full Council today.
I also just heard from this morning heard from Councilmember Mosqueda's office.
She is unfortunately under the weather and will not be able to join us.
either this morning during council briefing or this afternoon at full council.
So I hope that she feels better soon.
With that being said, will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Herbold?
Here.
Council Member Juarez?
Here.
Council Member Lewis?
Present.
Council Member Peterson?
Here.
Council Member Sawant?
Present.
Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council President Gonzalez.
Here.
Seven, present.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
We'll move to approval of the minutes.
If there's no objection, the minutes of July 19th, 2021 will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.
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Thank you Then we will hear from Council Member Juarez, Lewis, Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.
So with that being said, I'm going to hand it over to Council Member Herbold, and Council Member Herbold, feel free to order it in any way that you'd like.
If you'd like to give Council Member Mosqueda's report first, you may, or if you'd like to end with that report, I will leave it to your discretion.
Good morning, everybody.
And that is Steve Hooper, who currently serves as the president of Ethan Stoll Restaurants.
He has extensive experience as an employer of domestic workers.
And Marie-Gabrielle Rosenberg, who migrated from Haiti in the late 80s.
She's a former licensed x-ray technician, and she's working as a nanny and nursing assistant in the Seattle area.
There are also two reappointments to the Domestic Workers Standards Board, Sylvia Gonzalez and Elizabeth Hunter Keller.
And then also listed on today's agenda is Council Bill 120119, which is the Hazard Pay for Grocery Employees Ordinance, which passed out of committee on July 9th, but based on new recommendations from Dr. Jeff Duchin last Friday.
We will be looking to hold the legislation this afternoon and delaying the vote on that.
councilmembers.
Councilmember Mosqueda asks that I remind folks that all councilmembers are welcome to attend the next finance and housing committee meeting that will be on August 3rd at 930 where the midyear supplemental budget is on the agenda for discussion and possible vote.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
I'm going to move the amendment.
Moving on to my committee agenda.
Just starting off with a clerk file that is on the full council agenda sponsored by myself and Councilmember Peterson.
It will ensure that facial recognition technology is considered surveillance technology and therefore subject to the rigors of the city's surveillance ordinance.
I think I mentioned this last week that during a recent OPA investigation, the director concluded that an officer's use of facial recognition technology was not in violation of the city's surveillance ordinance.
I disagreed with this analysis and believe through discussions with council central staff and conversations with the city law department that The facial recognition technology is fully within the jurisdiction and purview of the surveillance ordinance, meaning that the use of the technology is currently prohibited unless reviewed and approved, as described in the surveillance ordinance.
But in order to, moving forward, eliminate any future confusion whether facial recognition technology is covered by the surveillance ordinance, Councilmember Peterson and I brought forward this clerk file to settle the question.
Just a little bit more background on this.
When the use of the surveillance or the facial recognition technology was brought to the public's attention, at that time, Chief Diaz, this was back in November of 2020, Chief Diaz wrote that the department did not use Clearview AI, which is the facial recognition technology, and had no intention of using Clearview AI.
He wrote, as chief, I'm committed to upholding the tenants of the surveillance ordinance and the civil liberties of our residents.
Clearview AI's business product is at odd with those two central priorities.
Further, on my request at the time, the department sent out department-wide communication reminding everyone in SPD about the policy, making clear that one cannot use personal technology as a means to bypass the city's policies.
Chief at a later date publicly indicated that it was a gray area, saying that it is not his position that the surveillance ordinance is presently codified covers the use of facial recognition software.
So again, the clerk before the city council on Monday will ensure that in the future, the surveillance ordinance does indeed cover the use of facial technologies and will be subject to the review process outlined within the ordinance.
We have a couple of other items related to my upcoming committee.
Just want to let folks know that Public Safety and Human Services Committee is meeting tomorrow at 930 a.m.
On the agenda are the following items.
The Office of the Inspector General's Sentinel Event Phase 1 Report.
We'll receive an RSJI presentation from the Seattle Fire Department.
the voting on the Office of Emergency Management's all hazard mitigation plan.
Director Mayer previously presented on a draft version of the plan in my committee.
So the plan is to vote the resolution out of committee tomorrow.
And then finally, executive staff will present their summary findings on the executive order on re-imagining policing and community safety.
This is the work of the interdepartmental team that came together after the mayor's office enacted this executive order last year and long-awaited work for looking at what policing activities can be done by other non-police employees and looking at other items that the council has identified through the budget process and through some statements of legislative intent.
want to just talk a little bit about public safety issues in general.
On Sunday, sadly, we know that there were shootings that left four people dead and six injured, beginning in the very early hours of Sunday and going until late Sunday evening for the shootings took place again during the early morning hours.
Two arrests have been made.
Detectives are investigating all of the incidents and they ask anyone with information to contact the Violent Crimes tip line, and that's 206-233-5000.
I just want to lift up Chief Diaz's statement yesterday that people armed with guns are preying on our communities and every shooting victim is one too many.
Families are losing loved ones and their trauma is real.
However, lessening the devastation that is happening on our streets and our homes is not something that FPD can do alone.
We need everyone to encourage their family and their friends to put down their weapons and find ways other than violence to resolve their issues.
This is something we all need to do together.
And I know we all join CFDs in asking everyone to encourage everyone that we know to leave their weapons at home and look to find other ways to resolve conflict.
These shootings required SPD to utilize all available officers from First and Third Watch.
In addition to the crisis response group, to respond to these four separate incidents and other priority one calls that were coming in at the same time.
It comes as we have seen significant increases in violence nationally here in Seattle and in the region.
Nationally, homicides rose 30 percent and gun assaults rose 8 percent in large cities in 2020. And we all know that black and brown Americans are disproportionately harmed by the direct and indirect consequences of gun violence.
I'm encouraged that Seattle is joining the regional approach to addressing gun violence.
And last week, the mayor's office announced an intent to support a $2 million investment in King County's regional Peacekeepers Collective, matching a similar investment by the county.
I'm looking at front-loading some of that investment in the 2021 budget and considering an amendment to the supplemental budget that is currently before the council.
appropriate a portion of the intended $2 million investment, but a look at a portion of that investment going out the door this year.
addresses violence using a public health approach, and it's working to provide rigorous intervention for those directly involved, secondary prevention for younger siblings, and follow-up care and support for family restoration and healing.
is shown that folks who are involved in gun violence as victims are more likely to be victims, again, of gun violence or perpetrators of gun violence.
So these types of programs have been shown to reduce violence as much as 60 percent, and they leverage trusted messengers who work directly with individuals most likely to commit gun violence.
County Collective was one of 15 jurisdictions chosen to participate in the Biden Administration's Community Violence Intervention Program last month, and I believe it's the only county in the nation and will receive some technical assistance in peer-to-peer learning to scale up the program.
I also want to lift up two other important public safety developments.
Last week the human services department announced the long-awaited $10.4 million awarded to community-led organizations that are building safety in our neighborhoods from the ground up.
These are funds that the council voted three times to appropriate.
we're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
de-escalation support in response to shots fired, re-entry services, case management, community awareness about disproportionality in criminal legal services, family support to prevent youth from entering the criminal legal system, and supports to address family and gender-based violence.
We'll be hearing more about these investments at my Public Safety and Human Services Committee on August 10th.
And then finally, I just want to mention that On Friday, the mayor announced a new specialized triage response model.
It's a data-informed innovation providing a qualified response to folks who require assistance but do not represent a threat.
The analysis on the city's 911 calls that we will learn more about on Tuesday morning in my committee show that a proposed triage one system could respond to about 8,000 calls a year.
The more calls that we take out of the 911 response system, the better response times will improve for police officers to respond to 911 calls that only they can take.
Again, the mayor enacted an executive order last year.
past similar statements of legislative intent, look at, again, what types of calls can be diverted away from armed police officers so that police officers can do a more effective and efficient job of responding to the calls that only they can take.
That one proposal is one small element expected out of that much broader analysis that is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday.
On a public health update, as I think we've all heard, COVID-19 transmission is increasing, largely due to an increase in our activities and the spread of more contagious Delta variant.
Masking in high-risk indoor public settings helps protect everyone, including those who currently aren't able to be protected by the vaccine, such as children under 12 and those who are immune suppressed.
Last week, Public Health Edelman County issued a recommendation that regardless of vaccination status, everyone still wear masks while indoors in public spaces, such as grocery stores, retail and theaters.
Masks are still required in indoor public spaces for those who are not vaccinated.
want to mention that I will be having office hours on Friday between 2 and 6 p.m.
My office hours are at times still virtual.
And major events last week, I want to mention on Wednesday I participated in the Seattle Department of Transportation's virtual public forum on the West Seattle bridge repair and related issues and participated in the Q&A from District 1 residents.
And then Thursday, I attended the first meeting of the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal Executive Advisory Group, looking at the process and the discussion moving forward around the replacement of the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock.
And that's all I have for today.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold for those reports.
Are there any comments or questions on that report?
Hearing and seeing none, we will continue down the line here.
Next up is Councilmember Juarez, and then we will hear from Councilmember Lewis.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Can everybody hear me?
We can.
Okay, good.
I'm sorry.
My volume on my speaker thing has been going out, so good.
I'm glad you can hear me.
So happy Monday, everybody.
Let's see.
There is one item of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.
The legislation is Council Bill 120126. It's related to the Walt Hundley Playground located in District 1. It's listed as agenda item number 1. The bill was introduced on July 19th and processed to full council without a committee, meeting to ensure parks can meet deadlines.
The bill would authorize the exchange of property owned by the city at Walt Hunley Playfield for property owned by Seattle Public Schools.
So basically, we're doing another land swap between Seattle Park and Recs and Seattle Public Schools.
I think this is the third one we've done this year.
If you have any technical questions, please reach out to our staff or to Tracy Ratcliffe.
And I will speak more to this council president at two.
The next meeting of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee is Tuesday, August 3rd.
I have five brief issues to speak to this morning.
I will be brief.
First, an update from the Parks Department.
Between July 14th and July 20th, the Parks Department shower program served 275 users at six community centers.
The Parks Department was awarded seven of nine grants.
for park improvements and development from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.
These grants total about $3.2 million, which we're happy to receive.
The grants include a strong emphasis on projects and equity zones used by underserved and BIPOC communities.
Big thank you to Jesus Adale on that.
I think every year or every other year we apply for that, and I think we've done quite well.
Next, Seattle Parks participated in Puget Sound Energy's performance-based commercial strategic energy management program.
Through the grant program, Parks identifies energy savings opportunities to earn performance-based financial incentives.
Parks received about $15,000 financial incentive for their work.
Their goal is to reduce energy savings 10% to 15% over the next three years.
Next, indoor tennis lessons will begin in August at the Amy Lee Tennis Center.
Outdoor tennis instruction started on July 1st.
Just a quick overview of the Clean City Initiative.
I'm just going to share what we are at cumulatively for the year.
The parks arm of the Clean City Initiative has cleaned up roughly 2.5 million pounds of trash and about 62,000 needles throughout the whole city.
And as you know, we have been, we've been reporting on this since the, we had the money in the budget for the Clean City Initiative.
And then also when we got the extra money, I think from the, I can't remember what was that last round of funding, the ARPA, I think it was ARPA where we got the last round of funding for that, to keep this program on track and to keep our parks clean, the hand washing stations, the garbage pickup, the needle pickup, and all the other, and also the restrooms and community centers on the outside and also on the park grounds.
Regarding Native communities, good news.
The Indigenous Advisory Council liaison job posting is finally officially available online at Seattle.gov jobs.
As you know, council passed in their budget last year not only the passage of the Indigenous Advisory Council, but the liaison job, which the person will be placed at Department of Neighborhoods.
It's finally going to be online, and we're excited about the applicants.
We hope we are posting in every Native American community as well and nationally.
And this liaison staffer will support the Indigenous Advisory Council work plan.
If you're interested in serving on the Indigenous Advisory Council, appointment applications will be available in the fall and the winter of 2021. As you know, I think we're the second city next to Portland to have an Indigenous Advisory Council and a staff person located within government.
So we can, whoever has this job after me, or whoever does this, can continue to serve Native communities in Native American organizations and maintain our government-to-government relationships with our Salish tribal neighbors.
Also, we are working on the final draft of the ordinance that will actually create the Indigenous Advisory Council.
We'll share the job application with your office this morning, so you may help spread the word.
So that's good news.
Lastly, also Sound Transit.
As you know, as I shared with you last week, Sound Transit had announced that the financial projections have improved, and again, we went down from originally $7.9 billion affordability gap to now 6.5.
So I attended the Sound Transit board meeting last Thursday.
Board member Claudia Balducci and board chair Kent Kiel presented a compromise proposal for the realignment, which will be voted on at the August 5th board meeting.
It is affectionately called the Hybrid Substitute Resolution.
I'm very happy about this.
I think it's a good example when Good government comes together and we actually had really good meetings about what this hybrid would look like.
And it's a combination of both chairman kills resolution and board member.
And I think it's a wonderful place to be for our city and particularly for sound transit and those who voted for sound transit 3. so their projects will come online as we promised to the voters.
Our office has more details in the PowerPoints if you're interested in learning more.
Please feel free to contact Nageen Kamkar.
She's our main policy person on the Sound Transit matters.
In other Sound Transit news, the Chinatown International District Public Development Authority met with Sound Transit staff last week.
They are asking for an extended timeline to review the draft EIS to allow for a full vetting of issues affecting Chinatown International District.
I understand that Council Member Morales attended the meeting, as well as our Chief of Staff, Brenda Swift.
Let's see upcoming this week, I think I got a lot of stuff upcoming, but I am excited to share that the office of waterfront has invited my office on a tour to assess the new progress currently taking place.
We've also invited council member Lewis to join us on this tour as, you know, the waterfront.
revitalization project has been going on since November, 2011, the recent passage of the lid, a lot of stuff that are opening and we're doing the inviting everyone back to downtown.
So this should be a great tour.
And we are more than happy.
Um, if any of my colleagues want to come with us, well, actually, I don't know, I would make it a quorum.
So we'd have to do it separately.
So if you're interested in going on a tour and you want yours truly as a tour guide, love to take you.
And I'll even take you out to lunch at Ivers.
That's it.
Great, thank you so much.
Thanks for sweetening the deal with the lunch at Ivers.
I appreciate that.
Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report before we continue down the line?
All right, hearing none, I think next up is Council Member Lewis.
Yes, Council Member Lewis is next, and then we will go from Council Member Peterson.
Good morning, Council Member Lewis.
Good morning, Madam President.
That was a good transition there at the tail end of Council Member Juarez's presentation, and I am looking forward to that waterfront tour, more so now than ever, knowing that an Ivers lunch is in the cards.
Oh, I don't know about that, Council Member Lewis.
You like nectar, remember that?
Clam nectar, yeah, I certainly do.
You have just outed me as someone who likes drinking clam nectar, but highly recommended to the general public.
Okay, moving forward to matters of business.
Committee meeting this week.
Well, first, there are no items on introduction referral from my office, nor is there anything on the agenda this afternoon from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.
We do have a committee meeting coming up on Wednesday of this week.
which will be a fairly impactful and consequential meeting, given the ongoing work of this council, to follow up on our funded investments amounting to about 1,600 emergency shelter spaces that the council has funded to get an update on the status and the implementation of those shelter assets.
I want to thank Jeff Sims for putting it together.
I'm in the Human Services Department, as well as the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
Mark Jones will be attending the committee meeting as well to discuss our ongoing progress on standing up those additional shelter services.
given that we are in a state of emergency on homelessness that becomes more apparent every day.
We will also be considering the fund for, or the fund to be created to accept private contributions from community partners who want to assist in the standing up of additional shelter and homelessness resources.
The bill that we had a previous hearing on in the June meeting of the committee And I look forward to that discussion this coming Wednesday.
Welcome Back Weeks.
This past weekend, I had the great privilege of attending the two District 7 Welcome Back Week events, first in Pioneer Square on Saturday, where I was able to, for the first time, hear a live performance from the Black Tones.
a great local Seattle band, was able to see quite a few friends and family turn out for the event, a really good event to show the benefit of having a vacated a permanent vacated street like Occidental Park and the attendant environs there to have these kinds of street festivals and reclaim that right-of-way space for things like these Welcome Back Week gatherings.
It was great to see hundreds of community members gather for the entertainment and just to celebrate a return to the vibrancy of the Pioneer Square neighborhood.
really enjoyed being able to go down there myself.
On Sunday, I went down to the Westlake Welcome Back event.
I want to give a shout out to the Labor's International Union members who had set up a trick-or-treat in July station to represent our friends and partners in organized labor.
really, really good to take that opportunity to catch up with our friends and the laborers and talk about the progress on so many of our community assets like Climate Pledge Arena and other projects that throughout the pandemic, our brothers and sisters in Leuna have continued to chip away at and keep on schedule.
It was really good to run into again, quite a few of our neighbors, not just in the downtown core, but from all over the city coming into downtown to really celebrate the reopening of downtown and to foreshadow a return to work in the near future.
And it was really good to see that community building activity be so well received and so well attended.
I ran into our former arts director, Randy Engstrom, at the Pioneer Square event, so shout out to Randy, it was really good running into you.
Randy shared a really interesting observation with me, and we'll have to check this with central staff, but Randy said, for $5 million, we could do one of these festivals in four neighborhoods per week for six straight months.
I'm not necessarily advocating that we fund a program like this at that level for 2022. We'll have to see how everything comes together in the fall budget.
But it was really interesting to see the placemaking that can come from having these Welcome Back Week events, from having outdoor live music performances, Paired with additional activations, the amount of patronage that the local businesses were getting just the amount of.
community togetherness that was being generated by having this opportunity for people to gather and connect in a civic space.
And of course having the opportunity to employ creatives, artists and musicians who throughout the pandemic have not had a lot of opportunity to engage in their trade that makes Seattle such a great place to live in.
It does seem like a model that we could build on, that we could scale, and it could be part of the public economic development.
strategy that the city pursues coming out of the pandemic.
I look forward to talking to council member Morales about ways to scale up these great initiatives that her office has been instrumental in promoting.
And did just want to give that shout out to Randy Engstrom.
You know, his legacy is still strong with us here at the city.
And I relayed that the council does miss him dearly.
So it was good to run into him.
Closing out on kind of my shout outs on live performances, I did also have the opportunity yesterday evening to attend my first live dramatic performance.
that I have had the privilege of attending since 2019, with the Seattle Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare in the Park performance of the Comedy of Errors at Seattle Center at the Mural Amphitheater.
Again, very, very well-attended event.
Clearly, there's a lot of pent-up community demand to get back out there and engage with our arts community.
It was a really well-done production.
Tip of the hat to the players in putting together a solid performance of a great play.
Some guy or gal thousands of years ago decided mistaken identity was funny, and they were definitely correct.
And really appreciated being able to take in Comedy of Errors as my first live performance since starting to come out of COVID and putting all of that on hold for over a year.
Magnolia Farmer's Market.
I did have the opportunity to go and do in-person office hours at the Magnolia Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.
great opportunity to connect with a lot of neighbors in person to talk about some of the issues facing the city.
Homelessness, of course, was front of mind for most folks, and it was good to be able to discuss some of the council investments and strategies around homelessness and ways to collaborate on that going forward.
Another issue that continues to come to the forefront and one that my office cares very dearly about and wants to continue developing, is a lot of pent-up community demand for traffic-calming investors.
This is something where throughout the pandemic, obviously a lot of traffic-calming investments have largely been on hold, given a lot of the pressures that we were facing, budgetary and otherwise.
And as we start coming out of COVID, I do want us to see as a council and as a Seattle Department of Transportation, ways we can prioritize meeting the community demand for additional traffic circles, traffic diverters, stop signs, speed bumps, speed tables out in our neighborhoods that desperately need some of these investments to reach our city goals around Vision Zero.
I look forward to continuing to have those conversations with Councilmember Peterson and others.
And with our leaders at SDOT as we go forward this year and into the 2022 budget discussions in the fall.
Definitely hear you loud and clear in Magnolia and beyond.
I do want to take a moment to of shootings that our city has seen over the last couple of days.
I really appreciate Chair Herbold's remarks during her report.
I want to acknowledge and recognize that two of the neighborhoods this weekend who saw gun violence and experienced gun violence were in District 7, including the Belltown and Pioneer Square neighborhoods.
We all need to stand united as a community in confronting this challenge, not just locally, but nationally.
These shootings come on the heels of a week nationally that saw 900 shootings across the country, as Chair Herbold mentioned.
We have received news that in the Belltown neighborhood, the police have detained two suspects who are currently being held in the King County Jail, who are suspected of being involved in that shooting.
I appreciate the diligence of the Seattle Police Department in identifying and apprehending those suspects, and certainly they should be held accountable.
I think that we need to continue on with our efforts in collaboration with our federal partners to really make sure that we are developing and building the types of community-based programs that we know are necessary to prevent gun violence from happening in the first place.
Police investigations and police involvement are necessary and essential to hold people accountable when they do violate the social contract and commit gun violence.
But we know that those police actions do not in and of themselves prevent gun violence.
We know that the action that prevents gun violence, that we've seen time and time again through the great work of our community partners like Dominic Davis, that mentorship, that community building, that mutual understanding, and the work that Community Passages is doing, really Community Passageways is doing, has a profound impact in enhancing our togetherness, in making sure that through mentorship that we can come together and rise above the divisions in our community that lead to gun violence.
And I just want to give a shout out to Mayor Durkan and to Councilmember Herbold in the really big programmatic increases in a number of public safety programs over the past couple weeks that as they get stood up are going to make a very discernible difference.
in the community building activities that we know can prevent these shootings from occurring in the first place.
I want to certainly elevate Councilmember Herbold's statements today that we should be front-loading those investments and looking at ways to build on them in the supplemental budget and then, of course, in the 2022 budget.
You know, this is a new day with a lot of new federal resources and a lot of new public health understandings around gun violence that we can take advantage of as a community.
And I look forward to continuing those conversations, given that District 7 and all the districts of the city are currently experiencing an epidemic of gun violence in our community.
And Madam President, with that, I do not have any additional things to report on.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Lewis, for that report.
Colleagues, are there any comments or questions on Councilmember Lewis's report?
All right, hearing none, we'll keep going down the line here.
Next up is Councilmember Peterson, and then after Councilmember Peterson, we will hear from Councilmember Stilwant.
Good morning, Councilmember Peterson.
Thank you, Council President.
Good morning, colleagues.
Our City's Transportation and Utilities Committee has 11 items on this afternoon's full City Council agenda.
We have five appointments to the Seattle City Light Customer Review Panel.
All the candidates are qualified and all were approved unanimously by our committee.
We have also five appointments to the customer review panel for Seattle Public Utilities.
Again, all the candidates qualified and approved unanimously by our committee.
Thankfully, the experienced members of both review panels stayed on long enough to complete their review and endorsement of the multiyear strategic plans of both citywide utilities.
which means these new appointments will have the opportunity to focus on future issues for both utility enterprises have budgets each of a $1 billion.
So these customer review panels are vital to supplement our oversight role.
Our committee also previously recommended Council Bill 120115 as amended, which will allow our Seattle Department of Transportation to increase on-street parking rates in the uptown neighborhood, only thanks to an amendment from Councilor Herbold, only for the large events at Seattle Center, such as professional sports at the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena.
While our committee unanimously adopted the bill on July 7, we decided to have this legislation arrive at today's city council meeting, a full three council meetings later, just in case the public wanted more time to comment.
While there were some media reports, I don't think we received much additional feedback on those rates, which we will vote on today.
As Councilmember Herbold mentioned, we are co-sponsoring Clerk File 314479, which would officially designate facial recognition technology as surveillance technology to ensure it goes through the thorough review and approval process as prescribed by our surveillance ordinance.
We had this posted on the introduction referral calendar last week.
Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for your leadership and collaboration on this.
Our Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning.
And so our next committee meeting will be Wednesday, August 4. Regarding events impacting District 4, this past weekend, we finally reopened the Fairview Avenue Bridge.
The Fairview Avenue Bridge is a vital north-south arterial connecting East Lake and several other neighborhoods.
in the north to thousands of jobs provided by Seattle-based employers in our downtown core.
Rebuilding the bridge cost approximately $50 million, some of which was covered by the Move Seattle property tax levy approved by voters in 2015. This was the last major bridge constructed primarily of wood.
The timber pilings on the western half of the bridge, which precariously held up the roadway, were decaying and vulnerable to earthquakes.
A Fairview Bridge earned among the worst condition rankings from our city auditor, along with the University Bridge, Magnolia Bridge, and Second Avenue and South Extension Bridge.
Thanks to SDOT for completing the work and hosting the reopening celebration.
I was able to connect with many constituents who I had not seen in person since the pandemic.
The city had closed the Fairview Bridge 22 months ago in September 2019 to begin construction, and many constituents from Eastlake, Wallingford, Roosevelt, U District, and beyond were very glad to see this bridge finally reopen.
I'm hopeful the completion of this project will enable SDOT to kickstart larger efforts to repair and maintain our aging bridges throughout Seattle.
In a city shaped by waterways and ravines, obviously we rely on our bridges to connect us, to support all modes of travel.
This bridge has bike lanes and also a special walkway by the water.
And so it's also vital for keeping our economy moving.
After the emergency closure of the West Seattle Bridge, followed by the audit on the rest of Seattle's aging bridges, I'm counting on Mayor Durkin's budget proposal to hear that wake-up call and put forward additional funding for Seattle's bridges.
And that concludes my report.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.
Council Member Herbold, I do see that you have your hand raised, so please go ahead.
Thank you.
I believe Council Member Peterson may have credited me with an amendment that Council Member Morales was the lead on, on the parking legislation.
Just wanted to make that clear for the record.
If I heard that correctly, it was Council Member Morales, I believe, who offered the amendment.
Yes, I definitely meant to say Council Member Morales sponsored the amendment on the uptown parking, which was very helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you for the clarification.
Appreciate it.
Okay.
Any other questions or comments on that report?
All right.
I'm not seeing any other hands raised, so thank you so much Council Member Peterson.
We'll go ahead and continue down the line here next up with Council Member Szilagyi followed by Council Member Strauss.
Good morning.
Thank you and good morning.
There are four items on today's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.
They are the four appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board that the committee voted to recommend confirmation of at our last meeting on July 15th.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee on Tuesday, July 27th has been canceled and will be rescheduled for mid-September.
This will be, I should note, in addition to not instead of the other September committee that has already been scheduled on the books for September 23rd.
I wanted to thank council members Peterson and Lewis for your offices responding with your availability in September.
And we will send out the final date as soon as the rest of the committee, council members Morales and Juarez's offices have also responded.
A hugely important legislation from my office that is awaiting introduction and referral is the legislation to provide relocation assistance to renters who have been displaced by outrageous rent increases, effectively being economically evicted.
This is a very important bill for renters.
As I've said before, my office has been reviewing data from the Puget Sound Regional Council's transportation survey.
which shows that in many Seattle neighborhoods, 35% or more of all moves have been recorded as because of displacement factors like rent increases.
Renters who are displaced when their landlord evicts them in order to redevelop the property are eligible for relocation assistance in Seattle.
But as of now, renters who are displaced by rent increases, which is a far more common phenomenon, get no compensation to help with the costs and the disruption to their lives when they're forced to move because their rents went up.
My office has worked on this legislation for several years.
We have discussed it with the department of construction inspections, the city attorney's office, the city council central staff, and we've incorporated all the very useful edits that we have received from all of those bodies.
We've sent a bill for review to the city attorney's office on May 5th, which was two months and three weeks ago, and they've signed off for introduction indicating that it has been sufficiently reviewed.
On July 13, two weeks ago, at which point it was officially transmitted for introduction.
The city attorney's office did indicate that they would like more time to review it because they have been understaffed and overloaded with responsibilities.
Although the legal review necessary for the city attorney's office to sign off on the legislation has been done.
We will bring this crucial renters rights bill to a vote at the special committee meeting in September.
I want to be clear that this bill is is in no way being rushed if anything it has been delayed, the committee members and members of the public have had access to the text of the legislation.
for a few weeks now.
We have also had excellent overview presentation from Arsha Venkatraman from central staff and the committee.
Committee members have also already had an opportunity to ask questions about the legislation, both to Arsha and to my staff at the last committee meeting.
And I really appreciate committee members asking questions and engaging in it at the July 15 meeting and thank Arsha for giving extremely helpful responses to those questions and the clarifications that she provided.
I urge committee members to also, if you have any further questions, to please bring them to my office or to ASHA before the mid-September meeting.
Last Friday, the Seattle Times published another op-ed from Windermere Real Estate, the big property management company opposing renters' rights legislation.
This is now the second op-ed from the same Windermere representative the Seattle Times has published in as many months in opposition to renters' rights legislation from my office, showing yet again the clear big business and corporate landlord bias of the Seattle Times editorial board.
The absurd argument that this representative from the Windermere Real Estate Corporation makes is that renter's rights progress will cause landlords to sell their properties and that will make less housing available, which is ludicrous, because even if landlords do sell their property, the housing is not gone.
It is just owned by another landlord.
And if a house is purchased by a working person to own their own home, rather than to have to rent from a landlord, that is not a bad thing, obviously.
In fact, the city of Seattle invests in home ownership opportunities for working people and some of our most marginalized communities.
These are just excuses to help corporate property management companies like Wintermere make as much profit as possible off the back of working class renters, disproportionately people of color who are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet.
My office has requested the opportunity to publish an op-ed in response to these two op-eds.
I won't be surprised at all if the Seattle Times refuses because of their bias, even if we are only requesting one response in response to the two op-eds.
But nonetheless, I look forward to hearing back from the Seattle Times.
Later today, my office will be sending all council offices the New Hope Preparations Resolution, which we intend to introduce and have voted on next Monday, August 2nd.
I urge council members to review the bill when you receive it and let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
As I explained last week, this resolution is something my office has worked on with Reverend Jeffrey, who is the senior pastor of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, pastors of other black churches, and the United Black Clergy.
and the Church Council of Greater Seattle.
All of these faith leaders have come together to put forward this proposal for affordable housing in the Central District, as has the Low-Income Housing Institute, which is also working with the members of the clergy and many Central District community members who have contributed to having this resolution come to life.
By approving this resolution, the City Council will acknowledge the city's past practices of racist displacement, such as redlining, urban renewal, and wheel and seed, and urge all city departments to look for opportunities to make such reparations in the form of affordable housing to bring back those who were displaced, urge the Office of Housing to fund the New Home Family Housing Project, which will create 90 affordable homes in the Central District, so that families with historic roots in the neighborhood can stay or return, commit to expand city funding for affordable housing projects made available in 2021, and affirm support for increasing progressive taxes, progressive revenues through taxes on big business and the rich to develop more quality affordable social housing.
I thank the New Hope Church community, my office staff members, and many others for helping to organize and for speaking at the rally we held together this past Saturday in support of the resolution, in support of the affordable housing by the New Hope Church, and in support of expanding funding for such community projects so that they are not forced to compete with one another.
Because all affordable housing that can be built is needed right now, given the affordability crisis.
And it is the obligation of elected officials to expand the progressive revenues available for such projects.
Special thanks to former King County Council Member Larry Gossett and to Summer Stinson, the new Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, both of whom came out to speak at the rally on Saturday.
And I mentioned the op-ed that Reverend Jeffrey published in the Seattle Times on July 16th at last week's briefing.
I am pleased to see that the legislation from my office to ban police training with the military or police forces of any nation state that violates international human rights, basic human rights, is on today's introduction referral calendar.
I urge the Public Safety Committee and Chair Herbold to let members of the public know when it will be scheduled for a vote.
And I just wanted to let everyone know that Ted Verdone from my office has reached out to Council Member Herbold's office and has followed up with an email with inquiries about this.
I wanted to congratulate the more than 100 community members who wrote to the city council in the last week to support this legislation from my office and from the many activists who have contributed to this legislation.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Sawant.
Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report?
Council Member Hurdle, your hand is raised, but I'm not sure if that was from the previous report.
Okay.
Just double checking.
I apologize.
Thank you for checking.
Yeah, no, not a problem.
Don't want to skip over you if you actually had a crush comment now.
Okay, I'm not seeing any other hands raised, so we will keep going down the line here.
Let me pull up my list real quickly.
Next up is Council Member Strauss, and then I will report after that.
Council Member Strauss, please.
Good morning, Council President.
Good morning, colleagues.
There is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee today on today's full council agenda, Council Bill 120127, which will approve and confirm the plat of the, quote, the Pines at Northgate, unquote, subdivision.
We also have one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the introduction and referral calendar today, which is Resolution 32010, which sets the docket of the comprehensive plan amendments to be considered next year in 2022. The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is this coming Wednesday, July 28th, starting at 9.30 a.m., and we have four items on the agenda.
A vote on the 2021-22 comprehensive plan docketing resolution, a public hearing on the comprehensive plan amendment to adjust the name of single-family zoning to neighborhood residential, and a briefing on council bill 120121 which will enact interim street level use regulations for the downtown core.
Lastly we'll have a public hearing and vote on council bill 120108 amending the yessir terrace tree protection plan to allow for increased tree canopy and the development of the last few vacant lots at Yesler Terrace.
For any and all of these bills, colleagues, if you have amendments, please do make sure to share them.
Allow confidentiality to be shared with me ahead of our committee meeting.
Thank you.
Last week in my office, I was able to meet with FAS Director Calvin Goings and Director Ben Noble of the Budget Office.
Wednesday, I attended the Regional Transportation Committee to understand more about the service restoration that is going to be happening next year and please do know many of the bus lines that were reduced due to COVID will be coming back online this coming October about the same time that the light rail stations will be opening.
Last Thursday, I also attended the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board meeting, and I met with the Fremont Chamber to understand their concerns regarding Route 40 revisions through Fremont in particular.
I was really excited to have the opportunity to do a formal meeting with Finney Neighborhood Association to officially celebrate the transfer of ownership of the Greenwood Senior Center to to the Finney Neighborhood Association, Christy Beckley and Marty Choate.
Marty, I am going to mess up your last name, so I'm going to save you.
Joseph will be sending out the video because I don't want to mess up Marty's last name.
Marty was really a crucial stakeholder that was brought onto the Board of Directors of Finney Neighborhood Association about 10 years ago to see this transfer through.
So congratulations, Marty.
Your work is now completed, officially transferring the Greenwood Senior Center to Finney Neighborhood Association.
Just as an overview, The Finney Neighborhood Association is going to be doing a needs assessment, and there's going to be ways for neighbors to participate to better understand what services should be provided at the Greenwood Senior Center.
They have been completely online and food drop-offs rather than in-person during COVID, and they are transitioning back to being in-person just because I was not aware of the extent of the services that they provide.
Just a quick overview.
They provide health care and Medicare counseling and services.
They provide a daily lunch service.
They have assistance for people to better understand how to use technology.
There are so many support groups.
I'm not going to go through them all.
And counseling for people, providing support to older adults, memory loss, Parkinson's, living alone.
They also have incredible events.
from films to music to coffee for social interaction.
And their classes are beginning to transfer back in person.
So if you are interested in what is going on at Greenwood Senior Center, look at their website, reach out to them.
They are reopening their doors.
And it's just so exciting to see this officially transferred to the Finney Neighborhood Association.
Again, congratulations, Christy.
Congratulations, Marty.
Then on Friday, I was able to meet with the Seattle Roller Derby Brats about using community centers and finding them a permanent home.
What was really exciting about this to hear from players and parents about how Seattle Derby Brats teaches strength, empowerment, and physical fitness.
One player, Scowl, shared with me how they have become more flexible, how they've learned to help others, and how they have become stronger from participation in skating over the last 10 years.
Another story was shared about overcoming insecurity and anxiety to understand their own power, and that it's okay to knock your friends to the ground in a practiced and safe way.
So thank you, Skowl and Pee Wee and all the parents for meeting with me.
Finally, in 2015, Galaxy Girls, one of the teams, claimed their first national title by winning the female division.
championship and in 2016 and 17 they successfully defended these titles to become a three-time national champion.
They're still ranked number five in the country.
So congratulations Galaxy Girls and thank you PeeWee and Scout and all the parents.
It was great to meet with you.
And also regarding skating, I had the opportunity to join Skate Like a Girl for a watch party of the skateboarding finals in the Olympics.
Yes, skateboarding is an Olympic sport.
Skate Like a Girl has the vision to empower skaters, especially young women and or trans people to grow into strong, confident leaders who promote and implement social equity.
Skate Like a Girl values experiential learning and civic participation by providing opportunities to be involved in the skateboarding community.
It was great to watch the Olympics with this group of young folk.
There were raffles, trivia, and skate sessions using locally made skate features by Seattle Skate Features, which is a local team-led company making skateboarding accessible by bringing quality skate ramps to your home at affordable prices.
Luca and Massimo, some local teens here, found skate features at the beginning of COVID-19 quarantine when they saw more need for obstacles at home while parks were closed.
It was great to see everyone skating, doing tricks off of these skate features.
And yes, I can confirm, I can still ollie a shortboard.
This coming week tonight, my staff will attend the Fremont Neighborhood Council and today the Green Lake Chamber of Council meeting.
Tomorrow I'll be receiving a briefing from SDOT on the Route 40 project, which I just discussed to ensure transit doesn't get stuck in traffic and we're able to meet community concerns.
This week, I'll also be meeting with Chief Diaz to discuss reducing gun violence, the recent drowning at Green Lake, Harbor Patrol, and public safety in the industrial areas.
And on Thursday, I will be attending an event in the University District to better understand and celebrate sidewalk cafes and street cafes.
Here in District 6, we have been focused on West Green Lake Way North and preparing for the Ballard Avenue design charrette.
Regarding West Green Lake Way North, again, I believe we should be installing a two-way protected bike lane on the lakeside of the road and reopen the street to two-way car traffic using the plastic bollards already on the street.
My proposal can't occur overnight with simple re-striping of the lanes since no curb changes need to be made.
I'm proposing we install this protected bike lane and reopen the two-way traffic today, not months from now.
Last week I was also able to meet with neighbors from Finney Ridge, West Green Lake, two from Ballard, all about West Green Lake Way North, and I was able to join a few neighbors to walk around the lake to discuss everything from homelessness to West Green Lake Way North through the recent repaving project.
And finally, here in the office, we have been preparing for the design charrette of Ballard Avenue.
We're working with Ballardites, city staff, and people from across the city to accomplish two outcomes, making the street cafe permanent on Ballard Avenue with long-term capital plan and a short-term implementation plan, as well as the second outcome, informing SDOT's work to create citywide standards for sidewalk and street cafe permits.
SDOT's report to us is due on December 15th for us.
for enough time to create permanent permits for street cafes ahead of next May.
As always, I look forward to talking to D6 residents during office hours and in the neighborhood.
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, colleagues.
That is my report.
Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.
Any comments or questions on that report?
All right.
Hearing none, I will conclude with my report.
Very, very brief there are no items from my governance and education committee on either the introduction referral calendar or the city council agenda this afternoon.
The next regularly scheduled meeting for the governance and education committee committee meeting is scheduled for September 14th, 2021 at 2 o'clock PM.
As a reminder, we will not have a regular meeting during the month of August due to our pre scheduled summer recess.
Lastly, I wanted to take a quick moment just to highlight and lift up the work that United We Dream is leading nationally this week to call on Congress and President Joe Biden to use budget reconciliation to create a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in our country.
You all heard me mention this last week about the devastating ruling coming out of Texas that effectively makes new DACA applications unlawful moving forward.
So now the immigrant community across the country, including right here in Seattle, is organizing to ensure families and individuals impacted by that ruling out of Texas have a way to move forward.
So I hope you all will join me and other members within the immigrant refugee community in their call to action to urge Congress and President Biden to act swiftly to create a pathway to citizenship.
That is all I have to report.
Anything else for the good of the order?
I'm not seeing any other hands raised.
Colleagues, as a reminder, we will convene at two o'clock and we will not be joined by Council Member Mosqueda or Council Member Morales, both of whom will be excused for this afternoon.
That is it.
We are adjourned.
Thank you so much.
See you soon.