Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee 11/22/21

to the November 22nd, 2021 set of meetings for today.

This is the Select Budget Committee meeting.

The time is 1023 a.m.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the Select Budget Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Sawant?

Present.

Strauss?

Present.

Gonzales?

Here.

Herbold?

Here.

Juarez?

Here.

Lewis?

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Peterson.

Here.

Schermosqueda.

Present.

Nye present.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

Thank you for the full attendance at today's final meeting of the Select Budget Committee meeting.

We do have the opportunity today to consider about 10 technical adjustments that central staff has identified for us for our final vote and consideration.

Those are all included in today's agenda as well.

I am aware of two suggested changes to the agenda that are being proposed by Councilmember Swann.

So, Councilmember Swann, I'm going to go ahead and move the agenda to move it in front of us to see if there is an interest in amending the agenda.

Colleagues, at this point, the agenda is published.

All of the items that are on the proposed agenda We do know that there is a proposed amendment to the agenda, so in order to get that in front of us, I'm going to move that the agenda be in front of us.

I move to adopt today's agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

The agenda is now in front of us.

Councilmember Sawant, you are recognized to move the suggested amendment.

Thank you.

I move that the proposed agenda be amended to add CBAS.504D002-2022, and that it be placed as item two on the agenda for consideration before the consent package.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Swann has moved the item.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend today's agenda by adding CBAS.504D002-2022.

002-2022.

Council Member Swank, you are recognized to address this amendment to the agenda very briefly.

Thank you.

This budget amendment is substantively the same as what was agenda item 159 on last Thursday's budget committee meeting agenda, which I was unable to move or speak to when I was out sick.

This amendment on behalf of the people's budget and the solidarity budget would increase the funding for affordable housing to $635 million in 2022. and the funding for the Green New Deal building decarbonization by $85 million per year.

If this budget amendment passes, it will fully fund the recommendations for housing and the Green New Deal in the People's Budget and the Solidarity Budget and will fund the housing and Green New Deal needs of working people towards the scale of the crisis.

This budget amendment is self-balancing, raising the funds by increasing the rate of the payroll expense tax on large corporations.

The budget amendment also includes LTGO bond authorization to fund affordable housing and funds the yearly Green New Deal work and the LTGO debt service payments with the increase in the payroll expense tax.

Because it increases the size of this year's LTGO bond, it is technically an amendment to the council budget action that passed This year's LTGO bond legislation, however, because that increase in the LTGO bond authorization is fully funded with the increase in the tax rate, the real substance of this amendment is that it increases the payroll expense tax to fund the housing And last but not least, I will say that all council members have talked about the need for new progressive revenues.

But I think ultimately it's a question of actually doing it.

We know we have this new big business tax at our disposal.

I think it is our moral and political responsibility to expand it as much as possible in order to bring the affordable housing and Green New Deal funding to the scale of the crisis that the scale that it's called for, and also keeping in mind that those some of those very same corporations have actually profited more during the pandemic when ordinary people have actually lost out.

And I think this also is relevant to the extensive discussion that we're seeing on crime and community safety.

We know statistics show that public safety is best served by making sure that we have adequate funding for affordable housing and other allied social services.

Thank you.

I hope council members will support this.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Sawant has moved to amend the agenda.

Are there any additional comments or are there any questions?

Okay.

I'm not hearing any additional comments and questions.

Council Member Swann, thank you for your suggestion here on Friday, excuse me, on Thursday last week, I did have a chance to move item 159 for you.

We did not have the opportunity to hear any other council members express interest in hearing 159. So at this point, colleagues, given where we're at in the agenda for today and the upcoming deliberations that will take place to finalize this, I'm hoping that we can continue with our budget as it is intact.

And there is also, as requested by the Solidarity Budget Coalition, the request to have a task force to come up with the additional progressive revenue, very supportive of working to add additional progressive revenue.

But at this juncture in the budget, I would encourage us to keep the agenda intact for today.

Okay, Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll on the amendment to the agenda?

Yes.

Strauss?

No.

Gonzales?

No.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

No.

Lewis?

No.

Morales?

No.

Peterson?

No.

Mosqueda?

No. two in favor, seven opposed.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Swann, the amendment does not advance and the agenda is intact here.

Are there any additional comments or questions on the agenda as presented?

Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the adoption of the agenda?

Swann?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Yes.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda.

Aye.

nine in favor none opposed thank you very much madam clerk the agenda is adopted uh we are now going to go move straight into public comment we have committed to offering 20 minutes of public comment here today i will also offer that if there's any additional public comment that is not yet heard by the time we conclude our public comment we're happy to go back today colleagues i believe we will be able to get through everyone however There are 10 people signed up to provide public testimony, so we are going to go ahead and move on into public testimony here today.

We will go ahead and give folks two minutes, actually two minutes, given that we have 20 minutes of public comments slated for this, and we will endeavor to get through everyone on my list.

Just confirming with the clerks before I start to read this list, I am looking at the right list, am I?

IT team, don't want to cut anybody else off here.

Okay, without any concerns being raised by IT, we will go ahead and move on into the first three speakers on the list.

Tracy Williams, Nathan Elsie Brown, and Ala Hassan.

Those are the first three.

It is Tracy Williams who is up first, but Tracy, it says you are listed as not present, so please do dial in if you'd like to speak.

Nathan Elsie Brown, you are next, followed by Ala Hassan.

Good morning, Nathan.

Oh, excuse me.

Apologies, Nathan.

I didn't read my full script for starting off public comment.

I will do that for the record right now.

At this time, we're going to open remote public comment period.

Colleagues, we want to make sure that we continue to hear from everyone.

If you didn't have a chance to sign up for public comment or would like to conclude your comments, if you get caught off, you can send those to council at seattle.gov.

Folks will be given two minutes to speak.

I will call on three speakers at a time.

You will hear a note that says you have been unmuted once it's your turn to speak.

That is also your indication that you need to hit star six.

Hit star six on your own phone to begin speaking.

That unmutes your line.

Please start by stating your name and the item in which you are calling to address.

Speakers will hear a 10-second chime at the end of their allotted time, and once you hear that chime, that's your indication to wrap up.

Please do wrap up your comments so that you can have your full thought concluded before the end of your allotted time, and your microphone will be muted after two minutes.

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

If you plan to continue to follow this meeting, which we hope you do, please go to Seattle Channel to follow us live or the other listen-in options on today's published agenda.

The public comment period is now open.

Again, we will start with the first three speakers on the list.

Tracy Williams, still not present.

Nathan Elsie Brown, you are up.

You can go ahead and hit star six to unmute yourself and you are ready to go.

Nathan, it looks like you need to hit star six.

There we go.

Can you hear me?

Now I can.

Thanks so much.

Sure.

My name is Nathan Ellis Brown, and I live in Seattle.

I would like to thank the Seattle City Council for including necessary funds for tiny house villages.

In Seattle, we are seeing more homelessness than ever.

The pandemic has made an incredibly challenging situation even more difficult for our most impacted neighbors.

With harsh winter weather already upon us, we need housing options as fast as possible.

For these reasons, I've been working with my community to establish a tiny house village.

Tiny homes provide an insulated space with a locking door to provide warmth and safety to those who need it most at a faster rate.

The villages have staff and caseworkers to help residents on their path back to permanent housing.

Thank you for your leadership in supporting our community, and please continue to support tiny house villages.

I cede the rest of my time.

Thanks for calling in today.

The next person is Ala Hassan and then David Hines.

Good morning, Ala.

Star six two.

Unmute yourself, please.

Good morning Council Member.

Can you hear me.

It's a little quiet.

If you could speak up just a little bit more we can though.

Hello.

That's better.

Let's restart your time.

There we go.

Thank you.

I wanted to thank.

Sorry let me start off.

My name.

Welcome to Housing Institute.

I want to take the time today to thank Council Member Um, for your support for the tiny help those programs, uh, as Nathan had mentioned earlier, we have seen homeless support in our community, especially because of the pandemic.

And it's a great intervention and trying to bridge the gap between encampments and permanent supportive housing.

And so I want to thank your leadership and supporting our community and tiny house villages.

I'll yield for the rest of my time.

Thank you.

Good morning, David.

David, you're going to be followed by Sharon Koshlaw.

Good morning, Council.

Thank you.

It's obvious that the priorities of the City Council budget have refused to truly deal with public safety and the homeless crisis.

both of which are correlated to the suffering and unnecessary victimization of the community at large.

With all the forsaken discriminated against homeless people subjected to the predatory customs violating criminals, conducting crimes against humanity and being listed non-violent misdemeanor, exempted from jail by the city council.

Shame on the city council for using this budget to redirect millions of needed dollars to solve a crisis of society implosion while squandering millions more dollars throwing away environmental structures every time criminals use taxpayer-financed infrastructure to sell drugs.

Instead of throwing criminals in jail, city council instructs government to throw away park benches and potted plants and break up one bus stop into three as if making it safer from criminals conducting uncivil war on innocent community with immunity.

To this day, city council and mayor proved to be the biggest threat to civilized society by sabotaging police, redirecting money away from real public safety, and the homeless crisis to simply buy off protesters, intimidating council, and the mayor, capitulating to the devil's advocates at our expense.

yet you're using our budget to finance a re-election apparatus while never solving the public safety and homeless crisis and the need to invest your corrupt political donors who own all the homeless contracts filled with skin color discrimination agendas and low quality subhuman mistreatment disservice.

There is enough money to shelter every homeless person This winter, the City Council only prioritized criminal repeat offenders from Leeds to be moved into a motel while innocent, upstanding, trustworthy homeless citizens are being forsaken, that are not committing the crimes against humanity, that are purposely not being helped with unqualified...

Thank you very much, David.

Sharon Koshla, you are up next.

It says you are not present, so we're going to move to Howard Gale.

Howard, good morning.

Good morning.

Howard Gale.

speaking on the continuing funding of a failed police accountability system.

Over the last three months, we have learned from five investigations published in the South Seattle Emerald and an investigation by KOW that the director of the Office of Police Accountability, Andrew Meyerberg, whose entire career has been spent defending the police and who is engaged in professional misconduct as a city attorney, has committed gross malfeasance in investigating police abuse and clearly violated state laws regarding accessing and releasing the medical information of a protester who was nearly killed by police in 2020. The OPA director has judged nearly 90% of last year's police abuse cases against demonstrators to be without merit and has found every single SBB killing that he investigated to be quote lawful and proper unquote.

We have learned that the director of the Office of Inspector General, Lisa Judge, has allowed the routine certification of these flawed OPA investigations by a person with a 23-year career as a police officer without looking at evidence and sometimes without even reviewing the investigations.

We just recently found out from the South Seattle Emerald that that individual who's been reviewing investigations is still doing it.

We have learned that the director of the OIG has encouraged its investigators to ignore OPA investigatory failures and has worked diligently to undercut the Public Records Act by mandating that employees not put complaints or concerns in writing.

In fact, into this system, you now want to put more money for public disclosure, even though OIG is fighting against public disclosure.

Into this failed system, you now plan to put $10.8 million.

This is an epic failure of oversight.

We must invest these monies in a system that provides full civilian community control over police.

over their misconduct investigations and over discipline, as so many cities have done post-George Floyd.

Go to seattlestop.org to find out how.

That's seattlestop.org.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Hilary Dameron.

Good morning, Hilary.

Good morning.

My name's Hilary Dameron, and I'm calling on behalf of the Garfield Superblock Coalition.

Please add the appropriation for community capacity building for Garfield Superblock to help the coalition continue its outreach to the community and hire necessary staff.

We have the momentum to see this project to the end.

Help the Garfield Superblock Coalition take this important step to restoring this beloved park and honoring the history of the Central District.

Thank you for your support and Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that, and thanks for all of your work.

Colleagues, the last two speakers that we have on our list are listed as not present, and that includes Ruby Romero and Darnell Hibbler.

Ruby Romero, Darnell Hibbler, you are listed as not present.

And as noted earlier, Tracy Williams and Sharon Koshla are also listed.

That's not present.

Make sure with our IT team, very briefly, that we double check that there's not any unknown numbers in the waiting room in the lobby.

If there's any unknown numbers, you're welcome to unmute them, just in case someone dialed in with a different number.

There are no further public comment, registrants, or unidentified callers.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that, son.

Thank you.

Members of the public, thanks so much for your public testimony over the last eight weeks plus today.

We know that there probably will be more this afternoon in full council as well.

That does conclude our last select budget committee meeting public comment and that will move us into items on today's agenda.

Madam clerk, could you please read item one into the record?

2021 for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, after eight weeks of deliberation and really tough work on behalf of all of your offices, members of the community, and engagement with central staff, we are ready to vote on the final 2022 balancing package.

This, as we all know, is a particularly grueling budget cycle.

In the middle of divisive political climate, in the middle of contention on how we can make sure that we're investing in working families, in our infrastructure, in our kiddos and our seniors conversations that have been replicated at the national level as well as the local level.

We are all looking for ways to make sure that our community knows that we are investing in solutions for a more equitable Seattle, a more just society, and a healthy economy.

I really appreciate how every office has continued to bring forward amendments that really focus on common ground and items that we know our community needs.

First, affordable housing and homeless services to make sure that we're investing in all of those who live here and ensure everyone has access to healthy housing and public spaces.

Number two, we've invested in connecting communities and thriving economies to recover more equitably and investing in our city so that it is a place that continues to attract people to want to come here to work, to start their businesses, to come visit our city, and to make sure that families can stay and live in Seattle.

in an affordable way.

And finally, we've invested in health and safety.

Early on in this conversation, we talked about how important it was to have a budget that reflected health and hygiene services.

I believe that we have continued to do that through this budget with the support that you put forward to making sure that we're investing in public safety and community I know that there is a need to continue to do much more.

that hard work with you to make sure that there's progressive revenue, that we have a dedication to good, sound financial policies.

And that is why, as well, I am proud of the work that we've not only done for affordable housing and homelessness, in our economic development and economic resilience investments, and in our clean and healthy and safe communities, but the work that you all have done to stabilize the reserves.

We have a healthy reserve balance.

We have a lot of funding coming out of this conversation over the last eight weeks.

We've actually added funding to the reserves, and I think that that's a prudent thing to do as we seek to all try to recover from COVID and the impacts of the pandemic, but prepare for the potential of its ongoing impact on communities, on our economy, and our most vulnerable.

So today, colleagues, we will consider 10 technical amendments.

and we will complete the necessary legislative changes to ensure that we can vote on the 2022 budget.

My hope is that we can move this out of committee and take final action today at our 2 p.m.

meeting.

Please note that several of the changes are necessary to adopt the balancing package.

If there is any concern or delay in final action on the budget today, There would not be the ability to make those adjustments before the end of the day, and thus we would have to look at a different timeline.

There are 10 technical amendments for the committee's consideration that, unless an item is pulled from the group, will be voted on in a consent package.

The committee voted to approve previous versions of these amendments at the committee meeting on November 18th.

So these technical amendments would help to adjust for some of the items that central staff has identified by rescinding certain actions and past revised versions described in table one from the memo that was circulated from central staff yesterday and recirculated this morning.

The committee voted to approve these amendments at the committee meeting on November 18th again.

So these are technical in nature and that they would be adjusting for concerns and technicalities that central staff have identified.

So the process today is going to be to put the consent package in front of us that includes these 10 amendments.

We will have Allie Panucci from central staff who's with us again.

Thank you, Allie.

for being here and all of your work over the weekend.

Central staff will describe each of the technical amendments included in the consent package.

If at the end of that description any council member wishes to remove an item, just as we've done before, council members are welcome to note that.

It does not require a second and does not require a vote to remove an item.

We will then consider any item that is removed from the consent package as a standalone item after we consider adoption of the consent package.

So with that, to get the consent package in front of us so that we can then hear from central staff and go through each one of those, I'm going to go ahead and move it so it's in front of us and that way we can have a discussion.

Colleagues, I move to approve the consent package as listed in today's materials.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

It's been moved and seconded.

to approve the consent package.

Allie Panucci from central staff is with us and is going to do an overview of each of those items in the consent package.

Allie, I think you have done such great work with us over the last eight weeks and year-round, frankly, but very thankful for all of your work.

I will turn it over to you, and I would suggest if council members do have questions about any one item, we can take those as you walk through the items.

Does that sound okay?

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

That works for me.

Okay.

Well, good morning, Chair Mosqueda.

Good morning, council members.

For the record, I'm Ali Panucci, I'm your council central staff.

As Chair Mosqueda described, there are 10 technical amendments included in the consent group today that I will briefly describe.

I'm mostly going to focus on what changed as these items have been discussed.

at least once, if not two or three times, in committee already this budget season.

And then if there are more detailed questions, my colleagues are also on the line who can help.

Help fill in and I just take a moment to thank all of their work over the weekend and over the last eight weeks.

I'm happy that this is the last step in the in the committee process for the for the budget and we just, you know, 10 technical amendments out of the 205 that were considered in committee last week.

So I'm looking forward to working through these today.

So the first technical amendment is ARTS 3B2.

This council budget action previously added a million dollars of coronavirus local fiscal recovery funds to support organizations who did not qualify for grant funding through the federal shuttered venue operations grants.

In consultation with our colleagues in the city budget office, it was determined that this isn't a great fit for direct use of the Clifford funds.

And so this amendment swaps that for uses general fund instead of Clifford funds.

And then there's a complimentary change to FG001, that's number three on this list, that increases the amount of Clifford funds that are used for revenue replacement.

And again, CLFR is Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.

I will continue to use the acronym just so I don't stumble over that, those words moving forward.

That's the first, so that's the first item.

Okay.

Then, and I'm just going to keep rolling unless I see a hand, if that works for you, Chair Mosqueda.

Great.

The second item, CBO 501B2, this would rescind the previous version.

It makes a technical change to add the debt service transactions that are necessary for our capital improvement program, and then recommends amending and passing as amended Council Bill 120221. The third item, FG001D4.

One, this is what we have referred to throughout the process as the omnibus amendment.

There are a number of actions included in the original amendment.

The changes that are before you today include making some technical corrections to the attachments and to the transactions, doing some increases to the amount of Clifford funds that are being used for revenue replacement, and then I also sent out an updated version of the attachment to this agenda this morning that adds a table that was referred to as appendix four that I had left out of the version that was posted to the agenda this morning.

This includes a list of items that are supported by the general fund that is provided through the Clipper revenue replacement.

So that is for the record keeping.

And I just want to thank my colleagues again in the city budget office for helping me get that list put together.

FG06B2.

This, it was, this item is the, excuse me, is the council budget action that would increase the transfer to the Revenue Stabilization Fund.

We determined in committee last week that the description had not been updated to reflect that $400,000 increase.

So this version just accurately describes the transactions that are happening in this budget amendment.

The fifth item, I think it's item six on the agenda.

FG901A2 would cut $2 million of Clipper funds from Finance General FEMA Reserve and reduces the proposed increase to the Seattle Police Department's budget by $400,000.

So this CBA does a number of things.

It restores funding for the sweetened beverage tax.

It ensures that there is funding available to expand the CSO program.

in 2022, assuming a staggered hiring starting in quarter two, and it also provides $400,000 of general fund to support other council priorities.

Over the weekend, we had a balancing error, and this amendment allowed the package to still balance without reducing any spending on councilmember priorities.

The next item, deal 900A2, is the CBA that would cut $4.4 million of Clipper funds from the Department of Education and Early Learning and adds $4.4 million of Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy or also known as the FEPP Levy funds to deal for enhancements to the Seattle Promise Program.

The original version had included a proviso that until such time as the Levy Oversight Committee could provide a recommendation on use of the FEPP underspend On November 18th, the Oversight Committee met and reviewed the use of this $4.4 million of underspend to fund these enhancements to the Seattle Promise Program and voted to recommend that use.

Therefore, the proviso is no longer necessary.

So this action allows the Council to lift the proviso prior to adopting the budget.

HSD 54 C2 would amend and adopt as amended resolution 32026 that is encouraging King County to increase funding for mental and behavioral health system.

The changes in this version that rescind the previous action would correct drafting errors and clarify language within the CBA and better reflects sort of updated information in the partnership with the county that council members have been engaged in.

Item, the next item eight or item nine on the agenda, S.505A2 would authorize the Department of Finance and Administrative Services to issue up to 103 million of 2022 limited tax general obligation bonds.

This change, the change in this version from the previous version that was passed by the committee last week, corrects the CBA to accurately reflect the use of refunds for debt service and adds an attachment.

S.901A3 rescinds the previous action.

It continues to utilize 2.4 million of REIT to replace $2.4 million of general fund in the Seattle Department of Transportation's budget.

This makes general fund resources available for other budget priorities.

This version adds clarifying language to fully describe all of the sort of transfers of REIT dollars to support expenditures that were previously supported by TMC-backed general fund, as well as the commercial parking tax.

So there's more description in the narrative of this version of the amendment.

And the final item in the package of technical amendments, S.902A2, similar to S.505, It continues the same action that was previously considered, making a one-time adjustment to replace $3.6 million of commercial parking tax proceeds in the transportation fund with $3.6 million of REIT resources in SDOT's budget.

And the change in this CBA accurately reflects the use of REIT for debt service and adds that attachment.

So at a really fast clip, those are the 10 technical amendments that are necessary to balance the council's budget.

Well, thank you again, Allie, and thanks to your team that was working since Thursday night.

We passed our revised package.

Excuse me, we voted on amendments on Thursday at 7 p.m.

That conversation was done and central staff has been working around the clock since then to make sure to adjust for any technical amendments necessary.

And we appreciate the final comb through just to see if there was any errors that were present that we needed to correct for.

So thank you, thank you, thank you for this.

Are there any questions on any of these 10 items?

Okay, hearing no questions, colleagues, I will ask you at this point, are there any one of these items that any council member would like to remove from the consent package before we consider this item as a whole?

Hearing none.

Double checking.

Hearing none.

Okay.

Colleagues, thank you very much.

Ali, would there be anything else that you would like to add to the summary of these 10 items?

No, thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Okay.

Thank you very much to central staff for walking us through this list of items.

This first voting group is now in front of us as a consent package.

It's been moved and seconded to consider the consent package that is included here in table one.

Madam Clerk, at this point, I would ask you to please call the roll for adoption of consent package number one in this first voting group.

Sawant?

Yes.

Straus?

Yes.

Gonzales.

Aye.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much colleagues.

The motion carries and consent package number one is approved.

Okay, colleagues, there are two more items on our agenda for today.

The two remaining budget items are amendments that require full recommendations from the committee.

These actions are necessary prior to the full council taking final action on the 2022 adopted budget.

I believe this is all included as part of the same agenda item, so no need to read any additional items into the record, but I will turn it back over to Ali, who has summarized these items in the memo as items number 11 and 12 in the central staff memo.

So I will turn it back over to central staff to walk us through these two items.

Before I do that, I believe I should go ahead and move the first item so that is in front of us.

Does that sound appropriate?

Okay.

I'm seeing nods from our central staff, so I will go ahead and do that.

Colleagues, the first item that we will talk about is listed in the memo as number 11. I believe it's number 12 on the agenda.

This is the council budget action file, clerk file, I'm going to go ahead and move this item for consideration.

I move approval of A001-2022.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

It's been moved and seconded to approve Ledge 002A001.

I will go ahead and turn it over to Allie to walk us through the base of this proposal, and then if there's any amendments, we will consider those then.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

So Ledge 2A1-2022 is the council budget action that files the clerk file.

Between now and 2 p.m., central staff will be working to populate the clerk file that will include all of the budget amendments that the committee has voted on over the last week or so, the voting record, as well as details on the general fund balance.

And so this clerk file is the sort of record where all of those actions are recorded officially.

And the next item that adopts the council budget ordinance would, references this clerk file as the, again, as the record of the council's changes to the mayor's proposed 2022 budget.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, are there any questions on the summary of this item?

Council Member Sawant, you are recognized.

I believe you have an amendment to this item.

Yes, I do.

And now is the right time to do that.

Yes, I don't see any additional hands asking questions about the base summary there.

So Council Member Sawant, you are recognized.

You can offer a motion for consideration to amend this item.

Thank you.

I move to amend Ledge 002A001 by rescinding SDCI 009B001.

Just to explain, this is the Landlord Stakeholder Group related statement of legislative intent.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Sawant has moved to amend this item.

Is there a second?

Is there a second?

Okay, going three times.

Is there a second?

Council members want for failure to receive a second.

The motion fails.

Colleagues, we now have the item in front of us.

Again, Councilmembers have had the chance to hear from Allie Panucci from central staff.

Are there any additional comments or questions on the item?

That is Ledge 002A001-2022.

Any additional comments or questions before considering final vote?

Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on adoption of Ledge 002A01-2022?

2-0-2-2.

Swant.

Yes.

Strauss.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Aye.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Schermoskereff.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion carries and Ledge 002A-001 is approved.

Okay, one more item on this list.

Allie, we are gonna turn it over to you after I do a similar motion to get this item in front of us.

Colleagues, this is item...

This is a budget action that amends Council Bill 120211, the budget adoption ordinance, and we want to make sure that we are including any updates and modifications necessary and as identified by central staff before final consideration.

So I'm going to move this item so that we can have a second and then have the discussion from central staff and we will consider any comments, questions, or amendments at that point.

I move approval of CBO 509-A-001.

Is there a second?

Thank you, Vice Chair.

It's been moved and seconded to approve CBO 509-A-001.

I will turn it over to Ali Panucci to walk us through this item and consider any questions or comments.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I'm happy to describe the last amendment before the committee today.

This amendment really reflects the eight weeks of work that the committee has undertaken.

There are about 30 individual pieces of budget legislation, but this council budget action amends and recommends passage of the budget adoption bill.

So this is one of about, again, 30 bills that the full council will take up this is the final action on this afternoon, but this is the main one that adopts the budget, and that is before the committee today.

Are there any questions on this item?

Any comments?

Any amendments that I might not be aware of?

Council Member Swamp, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I have supported the amendments to the budget that make the progressive changes to fund important community programs, affordable housing, and other needs of working people and community members.

However, like in previous years, the budget as a whole fails to seriously address the perennial housing and climate crises faced by Seattle.

and especially Seattle's working people along with the rest of the world.

I will reserve most of my comments on this for the final vote on this budget legislation this afternoon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swann.

Appreciate it.

Council Member, any additional comments or questions?

Please go ahead, Vice Chair.

Thank you.

I too will be reserving the majority of my comments for full council, but I did just want to take this opportunity to thank Council Central staff for all of their work, all of our legislative aides, community stakeholders, and my colleagues on the council, but most of all to you, Madam Chair, for the able effort and success in bringing us to this stage and, you know, again, considering The difficulties in this particular budget cycle, as well as some of the contentiousness around the efforts that the council is trying to address immediate needs.

and also building up our reserves.

I really appreciate the fact that you have been laser focused on those two issues, ensuring that dollars do not sit unused, as well as making sure that we get ourselves in a better financial position as we continue to move out of the pandemic.

So I'm very, very grateful to your leadership and your work, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Vice Chair, and thank you for your support on those efforts as well to protect those reserves and to make sure that we're investing in the human infrastructure, the shadow pandemic that we heard you talk about so eloquently.

Thank you for all your work.

Colleagues, I am not seeing any additional hands.

I'm sure that more people have more to say this afternoon.

So let me just add to some of the thank yous very briefly to make sure that we do appropriately take the time to thank folks who have made this budget possible.

We are going to after today's final vote, assuming that it passes, we will go ahead and send that off to the full council for final vote and consideration this afternoon.

Before we do that, I want to thank you for all of the conversations that we've had over the last eight weeks.

It's been a particularly challenging budget season as we saw a downturn in the economic revenue forecast.

We had heard encouragement and sort of pressure to go ahead and dip into those proposed reserves this year and last year.

We didn't do that last year, and I think it was prudent for us to have saved and invested in the emergency reserves.

And I really appreciate the steadfast work that you all have done to really try to prioritize the revenue investments for this upcoming 2022 calendar year to make sure that our investments are going to be meaningful, they will be impactful, they will really focus on those who've been hardest hit by COVID and to serve our most vulnerable community members.

You have invested in making sure that our financial policies are sound, and that we have ensured that there's flexibility if we encounter another emergency with the work that you've done to protect those reserves.

I'm proud that we've maintained and even slightly increased those reserves, that we've freed up tens of millions of dollars in one-time investments to make sure that priorities are going into direct COVID relief and creating a more equitable city here as we face increase income inequality and housing instability.

This is absolutely the right time for us to be making sure that we're investing in the human infrastructure and infrastructure capital infrastructure that helps build a more healthy house and resilient Seattle.

I'm very proud of the work that we have done on this budget.

I think it speaks volumes to the work that you have done to bring forward progressive values and investments that you've heard from from community members through the hours of conversation that you've had with constituents about how we can respond to the crises facing our city and your work is absolutely reflected throughout this budget.

I hope that there are elements throughout this budget that you are able to lift up and communicate to your constituents and this is a document that you can be really proud of.

I want to thank you all for this work that you've done and really to If you could join me in thanking central staff.

Thank you very much to Esther Handy, our director, Dan Eater, deputy director, Ali Panucci, who's led us through this process here with the budget deliberations over the last eight weeks as lead on budget.

And yay, I'm seeing, I'm seeing applauses.

Patty Worgen, Asha Vikantraman, Brian Goodnight, Calvin Chow, Eric McConaughey, Greg Doss, Karina Bull, Amy Gore, Ann Gorman, Jeff Sims, Cato Freeman, Lisa Kay, Liz Schwitzen, Tom Mikesell, Tracy Radsmith, Yolanda Ho, and everybody who has been working with their office, you know, day and night on this budget.

Thanks for all the work that you've put into making these Council budget actions balanced and sound good policy.

We look forward to working with with the next administration in 2022 on implementation as we all know that is key to making sure that these key investments and priority policies really have a meaningful impact in community.

I want to thank our clerks, our city clerks.

Thank you so much to Amelia Sanchez, Jodi Schwinn, Linda Barron, Elizabeth Atkinson, and our chief clerk, Monica Simmons, for all of their work.

Our team at the IT department, Ian Smith, Sanjeev Depisoy, you all have heard their voices on Seattle Channel letting us know it's time to go and confirming that we are hearing from everybody in public comment.

So thanks to all of them for making the IT systems work.

Our communications team is led by Dana Robinson-Slot and has an incredible team of Joseph Pija and I also want to thank Stephanie for her work prior to leaving as well.

The communications team has helped to communicate out to the general public all of the good work you all are doing on council and to really help make sure that our budget process has been transparent, the tools and tips they have provided in terms of online.

information and sharing information out, especially on social media and with members of the press has been greatly appreciated.

And to my team.

Thank you very much.

have helped to make this budget possible without their work.

I would not be able to do any of my work.

So thank you very much to my team and all of the time that you have taken to work with each of the council members, members of the community, and the executive departments as well.

Lastly, we wouldn't be able to communicate this out to the members of the general public without the Seattle Channel.

So thank you, as Council Member Strauss, I believe, says always, to the award-winning Seattle Channel.

And to all of your team, council colleagues, your legislative offices, your staff members, your budget leads, your chief of staff, your everybody who has been working within your offices, we know that there's been a tremendous amount of work on all of the record numbers of amendments this year because of the record numbers of needs.

So thank you very much for all you do.

Council President, I am going to adjourn this meeting with a thank you to you.

Thank you for your stewardship over the last two years.

I appreciate all that you do and your team has done.

And with that, Madam President, we will be seeking to take a vote on this and then get this puppy over to you.

If there's no additional comments or questions.

Hearing no additional comments and questions, Madam Clerk, I wanna make sure, excuse me, Allie Panucci and Madam Clerk, I wanna make sure that you have all of the votes that you need in order to get this over to full council.

So is there any additional motion or vote that we need to take before sending this over?

I'm looking at my script here and I'm not seeing any final action.

So if you need any additional motion or vote from us today.

Just on the final budget adoption ordinance, and then I think we are ready for full council.

Could you tell me that number?

I may have missed it, but I think you still need to call the vote on CBO 509A1.

OK.

Let's do that.

Yeah.

Let's do that.

Madam Clerk, it has been moved and seconded.

There was no additional comments or questions.

And that will conclude my comments.

So if there's no additional comments or questions, could you please call the roll on approval of CBO 509A001?

Blount?

No.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzales.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Peterson.

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda.

Aye.

Eight in favor, one opposed.

That is it.

Now the motion carries.

CBO 509A001 is approved.

Madam President, we're handing it off to you this afternoon.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

If there's no further questions or comments, Today's meeting will be adjourned.

We'll see you at 2 p.m.

Thank you for all of your work, everyone.