Seattle City Council Briefing 7/20/2020

Good morning, everyone.

The July 20th, 2020 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 934 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Here.

Peterson?

Here.

Strauss?

Present.

Here.

Juarez.

Here.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

A present.

Thank you so much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of July 13th, 2020 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, just really quickly this morning, there will be a memo.

Actually, it already came out at 9.01 AM.

meeting.

We have a memo to schedule additional meetings of the select budget committee.

This memo and the meeting times it creates do not depart in any way from the recent schedules that budget chair has provided to you and your offices and those dates that she previously discussed last week.

This memo simply allows for these meetings to be listed as regular rather than special for the benefit of us and the public as they work to meet our legislative and parliamentary deadlines.

I also want to mention that we are testing out a new approach to public comment this afternoon at the city council meeting.

You may hear me say a lot of times during the introductory remarks that we're always looking at new ways to improve the remote public comment period.

So this will be one of the things that we hope will help to improve and streamline public comment period.

It is a public comment period that is designated for remote public comment during full city Council.

On this afternoon's agenda you may have noticed it lists two separate public comment periods.

The first comment period is for the public to address items that might appear on the introduction and referral calendar or on the Council's 2020 work The first public comment period will be exclusively for general comment for items that are not slated for final consideration on today's Council agenda.

The second public comment period will be exclusively for comments on items that are slated for final action on the agenda.

This is the first time we are dividing the public comment period in this fashion at these I would like to make sure that we are taking final action while making room for comments about legislation and policies that are or may be discussed by the council at future meetings.

This could include, for example, comments regarding public safety, police reform, any other issues related to city business that again may not be directly tied with a specific piece of to allow people who are calling in on specific bills the opportunity to not wait, have to wait as long to give their public testimony about bills subject to final action while the general comment will sort of still fulfill the need for folks who are interested in giving us So members of the public can still sign up for either public comment period during the usual registration period beginning at 12 p.m.

today, and I'll discuss the modified protocols for public comment in more detail at the beginning of this afternoon's city council meeting.

As usual, we are piloting this approach, and if it doesn't work quite as planned, we will continue to modify it or or go back to the way that we were doing it before.

So appreciate y'all's patience as we sort of test out this new way of doing remote public comment.

I'm happy to hear any of your feedback in terms of how you think this afternoon goes after we pilot it, and always happy to hear from members of the public about its ease of use, et cetera.

So I'm happy to answer any questions about that president's report.

Otherwise, feel free to talk to me offline.

Okay, looks like there's no comments on that.

So we're going to go ahead and get into agenda item three, which is a preview of today's city council actions council and regional committees.

We will go through the week's roll call rotation.

This week, that roll call rotation begins with Councilmember Luis, then we'll hope for Morales, Councilmember Mosqueda, Peterson, Straus, Herbold, and Juarez.

And Councilmember Sawant did notify my office this morning that unfortunately she will not be able to join us for council briefing this morning, but she does intend it to.

to be at full council this afternoon at 2 o'clock.

So it will just be eight reports today.

So without further ado, let's go ahead and get started.

First up is Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President.

Not a whole lot to report here at the beginning of the week.

There are no items on today's introduction referral calendar or on this afternoon's agenda from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

I do have a piece of legislation that I personally am sponsoring, the ordinance suspending personal guarantee clauses and commercial leases, CB 119829. This is an important ordinance to provide certainty and get rid of a source of great stress for a lot of our small business owners.

the city right now who are facing potential action against the personal guarantee holders on their leases, and in some cases being them themselves, of possibly losing their homes or their savings for being in arrears on commercial rent.

You know, it is my personal position that I wish that the landlords taking advantage of those situations would follow the example of a lot of their peers.

I think there are some folks out there who seek payment plans or some alternative method of getting an arrangement rather than seeking to invoke these personal guarantees, but unfortunately, there are some folks out there who are not doing that, and so I think this legislation is called for.

It models similar approaches that are happening in California and New York to get to the crux of the same problem, and that will be on the agenda today.

I think it would be helpful to have one of the amendments being provided by me, myself, which is certainly a friendly amendment, to provide the relief permanently for business owners and nonprofits who have subsequently dissolved or gone out of business during COVID.

amendment.

The first amendment would extend the effect of the emergency order.

We have passed emergency legislation six months after the expiration of the mayor's emergency order.

Similar to some of the other emergency legislation we have passed where there is a buffer period between the end of the emergency order and the expiration of the legislation.

Additionally, last week, I had the great privilege of attending the King County regional homelessness authority with Council President Gonzalez where we dove into the I think we have a lot of work ahead of us.

We have a lot of work to do.

Heavy and important work.

Arguably the most important work of the governance committee of that body.

Which is the scrutiny and approval of members of the the implementation board, so it is going forward.

It was great to hear from everybody, from our colleagues from the east side, from our colleagues with experience, from our colleagues at King County.

that we are going to be in a position to have a truly exceptional the co-assembling of the human services departments of King County and Seattle.

and hopefully build on that foundation to make lasting and large-scale regional progress on the crisis of homelessness that, you know, I think we tend to forget being under, you know, four states of emergency, that our original state of emergency this year was our massive crisis of so many of our neighbors living unsheltered.

And we took a big step last week in approving the implementation board.

The next step is going to be approving a CEO for the authority in the coming months, and look forward to that work, and it is good to see that the regional effort is moving along, albeit slower due to COVID, but it is moving along.

I had the great privilege of appearing at the Uptown Alliance meeting here in my home neighborhood of Uptown last week.

And it is good, I will just generally say, to see more and more of our neighborhood councils beginning to transition again to try to have more online meetings, to have those online meetings have broader and more comprehensive I know that there is going to be a meeting coming up of the I appreciate the opportunity to talk to the groups at the magnolia community Council last month who is stepping up their virtual meetings as well.

I want to say that I very much appreciate the opportunity to go and talk to those groups about what we are doing here at the Council.

I also appreciate seeing that continuity is returning to our civic discourse here in the city and that we are that we continue to avail ourselves of those bodies' ability to convey what we are doing to their memberships and to maintain that communication in the neighborhoods of the city.

And with that, Madam President, I don't have any further updates.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis, for that report.

Are there any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, we'll go ahead and move through the roll call.

Next up is Council Member Morales.

Good morning, everyone.

There is nothing on the agenda from the Community Economic Development Committee.

I don't have a long report.

I want to let folks know that I will be co-hosting a community conversation in town hall this Thursday with the South Seattle Emeralds.

So I'm looking forward to that conversation.

It'll be Thursday evening at 630. We'll be discussing the budget rebalance and the process in general.

And it'll be an opportunity for me to hear from community members about their priorities.

So if folks are interested in participating, please email our office to RSVP for the event.

We participated in a Board of Health meeting last week as a member of the Board of Health participated last week along with council member council members Lewis and Mosqueda.

Um, and it's really important to remind folks that we are not meeting our daily target, uh, for new cases of COVID-19 and coronavirus in King County.

We are, uh, we have three times more cases than we are shooting for.

Um, so it's still really important for people to remember all of the basics, wash your hands, wear a mask, stay six feet away, from people.

It's summertime.

It's beautiful.

The weather's going to be really warm this week.

So I know folks are going to be out at parks and enjoying the weather.

I'm still seeing a lot of people out not wearing masks.

So we want to encourage people to wear their masks and to take the necessary precautions to prevent additional community spread.

It's especially important for young people.

We know that we are seeing more and more cases for people in their 20s.

So if you have young adults in your lives, please remind them that they are also at risk for infection, both for themselves and for spreading it among their family members.

Um, I've got teenagers, they want to be out playing basketball and riding bikes.

Um, and it's important to remind them to do that wearing masks, especially among all the other kids in the neighborhoods.

Um, cause I don't want to bring that home to their parents or their grandparents or their elderly neighbors.

Um, so just want to remind people to be careful and, um, that is all I have for this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales for that report.

Any questions or comments?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, we'll go ahead and move over now to Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much.

There are no items on today's introduction and referral calendar from the Finance and Housing Committee.

We do have some items today on the full council, though.

It's a really exciting day.

We have item number one, which is Council Bill 119812, which provides relief to those who've been affected by COVID, our small businesses, our immigrant and refugee community, our families and neighbors, seniors and individuals who are most vulnerable in the community.

Now have the opportunity for tremendous relief.

Thanks to all of you for all of your work to pass the COVID relief bill.

And number two on the agenda is resolution 31957, which provides the spending plan details that correspond with the Seattle Jumpstart progressive revenue proposal.

Thank you again for the long conversation that we had on Wednesday and for all of your amendments.

everything from improvements to how we get dollars out the door for our smallest businesses and making it more accessible, making sure that we're creating a robust amount of funding for immigrant and refugee families and the clarification we offer there to mirror how much of the additional relief that has gone to residents across the country is being allocated out.

We provide a clarification that the intent is to really focused building affordable housing, specifically for communities that have been affected by redlining and racist covenants and lending policies.

And with your support, we have increased the language around labor protections and environmental justice protections, which go hand in hand in the spend bill to truly create a blue-green proposal as we think about a more resilient economy in the long run.

Most importantly, this resolution and spending plan bill related to COVID provide hope and opportunity and I think offer our residents a deep breath as they recognize that much of the federal support that they were hoping on is relying on is either running out or the hope that they would have for additional support during COVID would come is really not coming fast enough from the feds.

So it's critical for us to get this spend plan both out the door and into law and the COVID relief bill signed and allocated out.

We also have Council Bill 119812, which authorizes spending from the city's two reserve funds in 2020 to provide support for people and businesses impacted by COVID.

This is, I mean, sorry, I already mentioned that bill.

I will also just note that this specific bill is related to the emergency that is, and if there was ever an emergency, it is right now in the time of a public health crisis and an economic crisis.

So very excited to work with all of you on that.

This week we will have two select budget committee meetings, one on Wednesday, July 22nd at 2 p.m.

where we will have a discussion on the amendments that were submitted on Friday for the rebalancing package that are not related to SPD related issues.

Those will come next week on the following Wednesday.

There will also be a hearing at Thursday at 10 a.m.

where we will continue the discussion and any possible votes and amendments on the 2020 rebalancing package if we're ready for that.

I want to note that we will have public comment at both committee meetings.

Comment time, sign up time for this public comment on Wednesday begins at 12 noon, and on Thursday, public comment will begin, sign up will begin at 8 a.m.

for 10 a.m.

public comment.

This is an opportunity for folks to comment on anything that the Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee is considering, and we would welcome folks to come and publicly comment just as we have at every meeting.

We will make sure that we have ample time for public comment no matter what.

I also want to note, you know, thanks to everybody for your ongoing work as we think about how we respond to the crisis that is institutionalized racism and everything that we are trying to do at the City Council to respond to the call from community.

Last week, Councilmember Herbold and I talked a little bit about the journalist who was arrested And this week, I also wanna emphasize my support for local TV journalists, local radio and news outlets.

That's in addition to national news and independent journalists.

It is critically important for these news outlets to be able to do their job.

And I think it's important for us to follow through.

I'll be working with Council Member Herbold as we think about following through on making sure that journalists, media reporters have the protections that they need in order to do their job.

It's really important that we have the ability to be out there, to feel safe, and to report on a daily basis the critical issues that are happening in our streets.

And I just wanted to note that, and I'll be following up after we get through council budget process on those actions.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, let's hear now from Council Member Peterson.

Good morning, colleagues.

So I want to, because we don't have the actual committee, I want to go into details here at Council Briefing so you're all aware of this.

As you all know, we're fortunate to own and operate our own utility enterprises with Seattle City Light delivering electricity to everyone, and Seattle Public Utilities not only handling trash, recycling, yard waste, and sewage, but also protecting and delivering clean water.

So when you turn on your lights, that's Seattle City Light.

Turn on your tap, that's Seattle Public Utilities.

Most cities do not own their own utilities.

And this ownership comes with additional responsibilities and legislation.

Council Bill 119828 would authorize our Seattle Public Utilities General Manager, Mami Hara, to purchase four industrial parcels.

to create an important hub for water infrastructure maintenance materials.

SBU calls it the South Spoils Yard, and spoils are the dirt and debris after completing vital utility repair or installation work.

The parcels are in an industrial area near Airport Way South and South Spokane Street, just southeast of the I-5 Spokane Street interchange.

The spoils yard would provide a place for SPU crews to store equipment and material needed to install, maintain, and repair water infrastructure in South Seattle.

Pipeline ruptures and other emergencies are disruptive and potentially damaging to public street right of way and sidewalks.

Backfill materials to restore the street openings must be available to crews at any hour.

This property acquisition would replace a yard at South Meade Street and First Avenue South, which SPU has been leasing for over 14 years.

There's also a similar hub in North Seattle, as noted in the central staff memo.

Utility has spent a good part of that time looking for suitable property to buy this industrial zone land close to SPU's operations control center in Soto.

The location of the parcels to be acquired minimizes operational impacts to the public like dust, noise, odor, and large vehicle movements.

The South Spoils Yard is an SPU's 2016 to 2021 strategic business plan and funding for this acquisition is already in the 2020 adopted budget.

There's some urgency to secure approval of this legislation because we have purchase and sale agreements for the properties that expire at the end of the month.

And the purchases are from willing sellers please contact me or central staff or Brian Goodnight before today's council meeting if you have any questions.

Last item for me, just to let you know, Seattle Transportation Benefit District, this past Friday, our select committee on the Seattle Transportation Benefit District funding unanimously passed out of committee Council Bill 119833 to renew funding for that important transit measure.

We voted on all seven of the published amendments.

A theme of the amendments was to emphasize transit service over road work.

Another key amendment shortened the length of the renewal from six years to four years.

There was a lengthy and cordial debate on the pros and cons of the six years versus four years.

I think it showed how our city council can work together on tough decisions with mutual respect.

A final amendment that would have impacted the amount of the tax was walked on at the committee and discussed at length but was withdrawn at that time.

Our full city council will vote on this important transit measure next Monday, July 27. The deadline is August 4 to put that on the November ballot for voters to consider.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson for that report.

Any comments or questions on Councilmember Peterson's report?

Okay, hearing none, Councilmember Peterson, I just want to thank you for the work that you've been doing on both the transportation and utility side, but also on shepherding us through the select committee process for STBD, obviously a very important issue for Seattleites across the city, and I just want to thank you for your ongoing the final package will be on the 27th so thank you so much for your work on that.

There are, regarding Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, there are six items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the introduction and referral calendar today.

There are three appointments to the Seattle Planning Commission.

There are resolutions 31958 and 31959, which approve memorandums of understanding with Seattle Pacific University and Seattle Central College, respectively, to stand up citizen advisory committees for the preparation of the new major institution master plans.

I intend to bring these resolutions to full council next week rather than through committee as is the typical process.

As well, Council Bill 119835 is the annual land use omnibus bill, which makes technical corrections and clarifications to the land use code.

There will be a public hearing on this legislation on Wednesday in committee.

There's one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

It is Council Bill 119832. This is a FEMA-required piece of legislation that updates the city's floodplain maps and establishes interim regulations for development floodplains.

This is time-sensitive legislation, which is why we need to bring it to full council and pass it out today.

There's also a meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee this Wednesday, starting at 9.30 AM.

There are three items on the agenda, which is a public hearing and briefing on the child care near you legislation, a public hearing and briefing on the land use omnibus bill just stated, and a quarterly update from SDCI and OSC on their work to update our tree protections.

Again, July 22nd is one of the most important days in our city, and it is also the closest day that the passing comment will be to earth.

I just want to call out and celebrate July 22nd for our colleagues.

As well, for Jump Start Seattle, this afternoon I'll be bringing two amendments to the Jump Start Seattle COVID Relief Spending Plan.

The first would increase eligibility for small businesses with up to 25 FTEs, as I discussed last week.

This was a request from members of the restaurant community where businesses tend to be labor-intensive but are especially impacted by the COVID crisis.

This amendment would also add language to ensure consideration is given to geographic distribution of the grants and mandating that businesses that have already received previous round of funding are not eligible for another grant.

My second amendment would increase the stabilization fund for small businesses to buy $4.7 million, recognizing the concerns I heard last week in committee.

This amendment seeks to move a small amount of the funding from the revenue stabilization fund to small business support with the understanding that the stabilization funds would be replenished in 2021. I bring forward to the $4.7 million increase because that would bring the small business and child care support funding of the spending plan to 25% of the total 2020 spending.

Regarding the budget, my office has submitted budget amendments regarding to the non-SPD items for this week.

A proviso on OPC's budget to ensure the $15,000 for ADU material translation and interpretation.

A proviso on HSD's basic shelter funding to ensure that enhanced shelter capacity is increased.

A proviso on HSD's funding to open new shelter in King County Detention Center to ensure that those funds are spent in a timely manner, and if not, there is We are looking for a way to move people off of our streets.

Good morning, District 6. Friendly reminder to wash your hands as COVID cases are spiking.

We will be having our District 6 Town Hall tomorrow at 5 p.m.

via Zoom.

Again, it's Tuesday the 21st from 5 to 6 30. You can sign up on my website.

We are still accepting questions and you can submit your questions through the RSVP link on the website.

We will be having many voices joining us.

All of our are residents of District 6, which we will be having a community conversation on race in District 6, hosted by Demarcus Wigfill, who is an organizer for Justice for Black Lives.

And we will also be having a report out and receive questions from our community councils, the Ballard Community Council, Fremont Community Council, Longford Community Council, Green Lake Community Council, and the Finney Community Council.

Another update about cafe streets and sidewalk cafes.

I was really impressed to see Ballard Avenue taking advantage of the parking spot in front of their businesses that they can use as part of the sidewalk cafe permits.

And this is a great improvement as we wait for the full cafe street proposal to be rolled out.

We do see other cities implementing cafe streets, Edmonds, Leavenworth, and others.

And I'm hoping to see our cafe streets open soon.

During my regularly scheduled District 6 resident meetings this week, I spoke to residents about Jump Start Seattle, SPD, homelessness, cafe streets, and activating public places.

My office does continue to assist small businesses.

We helped an ice cream shop for the last three months, providing them the information that they need to remain in place as their landlord is trying to move them out of their space.

We provided them resource referral and connected them with pro bono legal assistance.

And last week in District 6, on Sunday, there was another rally in Ballard about defunding the SPD, and I spoke with folks there.

I spent time with Damian and Roman, who are students at Salmon Bay K-8, who were counting the honks and waves as I was there, and they stopped counting at 208 responses, although the responses were still continuing.

On Tuesday, I met with the Ballard Alliance regarding public safety and policing, small business support, and homelessness in the area.

On Wednesday, I joined part of the 36th District Democrats to talk about the work we are doing at council and answer a few questions.

And again, I look forward to our town hall tomorrow and speaking with residents in our regularly scheduled D6 resident meetings that happen every week.

Thank you, Council President, that is my report.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss for that report.

Any questions or comments?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, we'll go ahead and move over to Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you.

I'm not, am I frozen?

I'm not hearing anybody.

No, we can hear you.

Oh, fantastic.

Thank you so much.

So, a couple things not related to committee.

Councilmember Lewis mentioned his legislation that's coming on to the full council agenda today, the personal liability and commercial leases legislation.

As mentioned, I have an amendment related to this particular bill.

Central staff circulated this amendment.

Yesterday, the intent of the amendment is to extend protection for six months after the end of the state of emergency for small businesses and nonprofits that are subject to in-person operation limitations under the the governor's COVID proclamations.

The intent is to recognize that small businesses and nonprofits need an additional period of time after the state of emergency is lifted to regain their financial footing, and this amendment gives them a modest grace period to do so.

And this is actually in alignment with legislation that the council passed in April, sponsored by myself and Councilmember Morales, to give an extra six months beyond the state of emergency for small commercial tenants and their landlords to work out a payment plan for any owing rent or fees.

Just as a reminder, commercial tenants and their, and for commercial tenants and for their landlords, that the city's ordinance does require the negotiation and creation of to be able to negotiate a reasonable payment plan.

Small businesses and non-profit tenants who are experiencing difficulty working with their landlords can access free legal support through www.communities-rise.org.

They have a special lease toolkit and more resources.

As it relates to items coming up in Budget Committee, I mentioned last week that I would be sponsoring, along with Councilmember Morales, an amendment to remove the Seattle Police Department from the gatekeeping function as it relates to referrals to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program, otherwise known as LEAD.

I just want to share with Councilmembers, news of Chief Best's email to the Mayor's office in support of this effort.

I really appreciate the Chief taking this step to make clear the Police Department's interest in support of this change.

And in her email, Chief Best said, I'm interested in reconsidering the requirement that police okay every referral to lead and co-lead services.

These services are needed throughout our community, and it doesn't seem sensible to require us to approve it before the people get the help that they need.

In any event, due to staffing pressures and COVID-19 health constraints, we aren't likely to be able to prioritize this for the indefinite future.

But beyond that, this is the type of work most people in Seattle think the police don't need to take the lead on.

I'd appreciate seeing this change.

As far as the status on the on the proviso, the law department is reviewing the final language and I look forward to sharing it with all of you soon.

As it relates to items that are also within purview of our budget discussions and my chairship of the committee with oversight on human services, we've discussed in the past the ways that COVID-19 uniquely impacts seniors.

In addition to the health threats, which we're all aware of, the safety measures required are keeping seniors unusually isolated, which is a quieter but just as concerning health threat.

The Human Services Department has reacted by developing new programs and partnerships to combat senior isolation, some of which I've mentioned in the past, and as it relates to the 2020 budget I'm going to be bringing some amendments to help HSD address senior isolation for the remainder of the year.

These are items that I would have Basically, the clock ran out on time to enable me to do that.

So instead, I will be bringing these concepts forward.

One idea is to work to allow HSD to explore opportunities to develop or support volunteer recruitment and deployment.

so that funds can be used to develop partnerships with housing providers, senior centers, utilizing technology tools and convening stakeholders to develop a holistic plan for senior centers to be deployed in 2021. issues that has been brought to my attention is there is no sort of unified approach for reopening senior centers that is guided by both public health best practices and, again, the unique needs of seniors suffering quietly in social isolation.

And so rather than having one senior center do things one way and another another way, I'm proposing that HSD convene senior centers and come up with a set of best practices for reopening.

Another concept is to support a project that has begun as, I think, a pilot project, but that there may be funding expiring for it, and this is funding for drive-up Wi-Fi hotspots at 30 sites at senior centers and senior housing buildings using this model that was previously deployed through Seattle Public Libraries.

And then lastly is a program to expand a pilot called Stay Connected with four Seattle-based senior centers.

West Seattle Senior Center, the Pike Market Senior Center, the Greenwood and North Seattle Senior Centers, and GenPride sponsored the pilot.

The current pilot is sponsored by University School of Medicine.

and it involves phone and video conferencing sessions with clients to help resolve urgent problems for access to stress, anxiety, loneliness, and depression, and to provide resources including self-management tools for stress and anxiety.

Funds may be used to expand Stay Connected either by adding an additional site or serving more seniors through the current sites or by expanding the months of service in 2020. And so again, just in closing, I'm appreciative of all of our efforts to focus on particular areas of need for the jumpstart spending plan for 2020, but I am I'm excited to be here.

I'm also excited to be here because I'm feeling like there is a gap for services for seniors, and I'm looking forward to trying to work with my colleagues on the Council to close this gap in the budget discussions.

I want to also highlight some of the work that the fire administered at the Soto Aurora sites.

These are the sites that the Seattle Fire Department manages and performs testing at.

Through July 18th, I should say June 5th through July 18th, nearly 60,000 tests were done.

The Fire Department continues to increase the number of tests performed per day from around 1,000 a day in mid-June to over 2,000 a day in early July.

At Seattle's citywide free testing locations, at these two spots, Soto and Aurora, we've seen a positive test result overall of about 2.4% of results through July 9th.

And just want to notify the public that protest or participation in a large gathering is one of the reasons that someone can check for their visit to get tested.

Since June, there have been hundreds of people who have been tested specifically for the reason of participating in a protest or a large gathering.

The data shows that only 0.4% of those individuals have tested positive for COVID-10.

And I want to not only thank the fire department for this work that they're doing, but I also want to thank folks for coming forward to get tested and to please encourage others to get tested if they feel they may have been exposed or are showing symptoms.

As it relates to public health, I think Councilmember Morales covered this a little bit in her capacity as a member of King County Public Health.

The Public Health Department has reported the daily average number of cases has more than doubled in just the last two weeks from an average of 40 daily cases in mid-June to 87 daily cases the week of June 21st.

Most of the increases among younger people, over half of the new cases are among people aged 20 to 39. Approximately 40% of those are Seattle residents.

The last four days, the number of new cases reported by King County Public Health for the county are over 800 and an average of 200 or so new cases per day with 174 of those being in Seattle.

Testing capacity in King County has increased.

If you're worried you may have symptoms of COVID or were exposed to COVID, you can seek testing right away in addition to the locations that I mentioned.

Just so folks know, testing is free in Washington State if you don't already know.

If you don't have a doctor, you can call the King County COVID-19 call center.

for assistance.

They're open from 8 to 7. And the number is 206-477-3977.

And if you need an interpreter, you can say the name of your language at the beginning of the call.

It's really helpful and to know that we have these resources out there.

But what's most important is that we keep up our vigilance when the weather is beautiful.

I know we want to all be out enjoying it.

businesses are reopening with restrictions and we want to support them.

And it really buoys my heart that when I go out, almost everybody I see are wearing masks.

That is a demonstration of your care and concern for the people in our city.

And just wrapping up on the public safety police department elements of my committee, I want to just share with my council colleagues how concerned I am about what's been happening in Portland, our neighbors to the south, where, as we all know, the president sent federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S.

Customs and Border Protection.

This has, no surprise, inflamed the situation there.

These individuals have limited, if any, training in crowd control.

Protesters have been reported being detained by federal officers in unmarked vans.

Portland's mayor and senators in Oregon have sharply condemned this.

Mayor Wheeler said their presence here is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism.

They don't even know who's pulling them into the vans.

people aren't identifying themselves, and this appears to be completely unconstitutional.

The mayor has demanded their removal.

Senator Wyden referenced DHS Secretary Chad Wolf.

Now, Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with the right-wing media.

And Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced she'll take the feds to court, alleging that law enforcement officers working for several national agencies arrested local demonstrators without any probable cause.

This politicization of policing agencies is absolutely unacceptable.

I want to thank the council for taking a proactive approach in passing Councilmember Lewis's resolution denying the federal government admission to the city of Seattle, but I also want to be clear that a resolution is unlikely to prevent the president from acting rashly, and now is the time that we as elected leaders need to stand together and rebuff these attacks.

Yesterday, I received a message from Chief Best about the aftermath of the peaceful protests here in Seattle.

And she writes, a peaceful demonstration was held this morning around 10.30 a.m.

in Westlake Park.

As you know, the Seattle Police Department facilitates dozens of peaceful protests throughout the year without any arrests.

But at some point this afternoon, at no cause of our own, the protest turned violent, with some 300 people participating in the demonstration.

There was at least one arson, excessive property damage to private businesses, as well as damage to government buildings, including the Seattle Police Department, East and West Precincts, SPD headquarters, the Seattle Municipal Courthouse, and the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse building.

At one point, the protesters went to the West Precinct and confronted officers outside.

The protesters lit mortar-type fireworks and then threw them at officers from a very close range.

The protesters' assaults on officers resulted in at least 12 officers being injured, at least one officer being treated at the hospital after fragmentation from the explosion hit his neck and throat area.

In addition to the fireworks, protesters threw rocks and bottles at officers.

And in order to stop the assaults, officers deployed blast balls and pepper spray.

We did not use tear gas or any other less lethal munitions.

I will update you as the situation warrants and allows my focus remains protecting the safety of our community while allowing those who are peacefully protesting to exercise their constitutional rights.

again, this is a message from the Chief of Police, Chief Carmen Best, and her summary of yesterday's events.

I have not confirmed that the activities were anything less than as they are presented here from Chief Best, but I do recognize that there are often various perspectives that we always need to listen to.

I'm mentioning this after mentioning what's going on in Portland, just to say that whereas I would never ever suggest that the public curtail the use of their constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful protest as a prophylactic, against the unlawful occupation of Seattle by a federal police force.

But the result of yesterday's demonstrations, as reported by Chief Best, did bring to mind my concern that the Trump administration could use it as an excuse to do the same to Seattle.

And so I plead with the public to please continue your demonstrations.

We need your voices to propel necessary change in policing I'm not going to be able to answer all of your questions, but I plead with you to please do so peacefully.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold for that report.

Are there any questions or comments?

Hearing none, we will go ahead and move over now to Councilmember Juarez.

Please.

There are no items from the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

Moving to parks, this morning, my office, again, as we do every week, will email you the weekly Parks COVID programmatic update, just a brief overview of a few things that are important.

Over the next few weeks, contractors under the direction of the Seattle Park and Rec Facilities Division will be installing new fans, inductors, to reduce heat buildup.

All three buildings are being used as shelters and are integral to the essential function, the MEF, in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Let's see.

Sorry about that.

I dropped the phone.

Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to traffic through Labor Day.

Seattle Parks and Rec is partnering with SDOT to close Lake Washington Boulevard to vehicular traffic from Mt. Baker Beach to Seaward Park beginning in late July and extending through Labor Day.

The roadway will be open for people to walk, run, and bike.

Vehicles can use the street for local access.

The boulevard was closed.

If you remember from June 25 to the 30th is part of the pilot project in a healthy streets program.

There are still many stay healthy streets programs dispersed throughout the city.

And it looks like that's going to be a continuation for Lake Washington.

The shelter program, from July 9th through the 14th, Seattle Parks and Rec sheltered on average between 45 and 47 people at the Garfield Community Center, and between 44 and 47 people at the Miller Community Center.

The youth shelter at Southwest Teen Life Center Community supported an average of 14 to 15 youth.

The indoor shower program, from July 8th to the 14th, Seattle Parks and Rec served well over 500 users, I think 544 users, with a total of well over 7,000 users overall.

In regards to the summer child care program, child care sites at Garfield Teen Life Center and Hiawatha Community Center are temporarily closed for public health guidance due to an AHRQ employees who tested positive for COVID-19.

Hiawatha and Meadowbrook are almost full at this capacity, and we have cleared wait lists for many sites.

That is children being signed up for the summer child care program for essential workers.

Up in District 5, the navigation team, our D5 District Director, Dean Alsop, along with members of Human Services Department, HSD, and the navigation team visited the Albert Davis Park last week.

Concern from community members about the park there, and we called our office for help, and we reached out to them, and we worked with the NAV team to go out to the site to clean up the site, and the Parks Department responded swiftly.

We also had the navigation team listen and respond to the immediate needs of the people in the park experiencing homelessness.

Getting back up to Northgate, this has been in the making since 2014, 15, and 16, Finally, the Northgate to the North Seattle pedestrian bike bridge.

From July 20th to August 7th, crews will be installing the first set of bridge spans on First Avenue Northeast.

This is quite exciting.

This, as you know, will connect Northgate Mall to North Seattle College and open up the east-west passage for people from both ends can safely cross 10 lanes of highway.

That would be I-5.

The work hours are from 10 a.m.

to 7 p.m., and this work is going to require a lot of trucks, transporting equipment, and we'll have a lot of activity up there, but hopefully when we're all done, we'll have a new bridge, and we will be open to looking at bridge names.

One of the names that we're discussing is I'm hoping that maybe we can, in recognizing Representative John Lewis that we lost Saturday, As you all know his record, an icon in the Civil Rights March in 1965. It would be nice to see if we could honor someone like Representative John Lewis and perhaps name our bridge after such a man that presented leadership, compassion, and humanity.

If those of you who don't remember who or know who Representative John Lewis is, go back and read about that bloody Sunday in March of 1965. has been a hero of mine.

So moving on with that, last week we had a Sound Transit meeting, and I'm happy to report, which is great, Sound Transit hired a tribal liaison.

She's been on the job about nine or ten months, and we've spoken, but this is a more formal introduction with the CEO of Sound Transit, Mr. Rogoff.

The tribal liaison director is Desiree Hayes.

She hails from Quinault.

She's worked at Colville and Muckleshoot.

She'll be in charge of government to government relations for the agency, which is key.

She does all the work to reach out through Pierce County, King County, and Snohomish County with more than a dozen tribes on transportation issues.

She has so much experience in the transportation area.

She's been working in this area for 20 years, including her connections in Washington, D.C. And so I really am excited that Sound Transit hired a tribal liaison and look forward to working with Desiree Hayes.

The Youth Achievement Center.

Our office has been working closely with King County Council Member Girmay Zahilay on the proposed Youth Achievement Center.

We initially met back in May to learn about the fundamentals.

It is a youth jail diversion program that will match people to resources, new skills, and transitional housing.

We got a wonderful packet with the specs and outlining what it would look like, what the cost.

The center would need to acquire two sound transit properties near the Columbia Light Rail Station.

As you know, I'm a member of the Sound Transit Board, so he's been working with my office for the last few months to provide progress of the proposed development options.

We will need a vote from Sound Transit hopefully by the end of the year to transfer the property.

And we've been working closely with HSD and King County and Sound Transit.

It's gonna be an interesting path because we have some federal regulations that may stand in the way, but I'm thinking that we can work around them so we can move this property forward.

This is a great idea and we have a lot of community support.

I wanna thank Council Member Morales She's been part of this conversation as well.

So the week ahead, apart from our continued budget discussions, I have a Sound Transit Board Directors Meeting scheduled on Thursday.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez, for that report.

Any questions or comments?

Really quickly, Councilmember Juarez, I wanted to ask just a question about, and I think Councilmember around parks and crowding in particular, is there anything that we could do as your colleagues to support parks efforts to remind people about protocols at our parks, particularly as it relates to crowding during this period of time?

I did see that they were putting some messages out on social media, but wanted to just sort of highlight, have you highlight for us if there's an opportunity to do something more proactively as it relates to helping to get the parks department message out about park usage during this period of time and warmth in particular.

Thank you.

Yeah, and it's been interesting.

We put out a very detailed weekly, what we call it, the North Star Gazette.

And we've been working with Parks on their website and particularly the superintendent.

And as Council Member Morales suggested, and as you know as well, Council President, from both of us being on the Board of Health before, it's just so difficult trying to emphasize over and over about the distancing.

Meadowbrook and I was at the park down by my house and there's not any social distancing.

There's some not everyone is wearing masks.

I think that Park says when I've had discussions with the superintendent about putting up signs.

I think one thing that would be helpful is if we can do more public announcements and I don't know if you can do that.

certainly do that on the radio, but as far as getting out the word, I think we've done about everything we can and then some.

I think closing down the streets so that we have healthy streets and people have somewhere to walk if they can't get to a park.

We checked out, I think, and not to pick on any particular neighborhood, but about a week ago, Golden Gardens, and it was packed.

You can't park, but people parked all up along the street and walked down.

And I understand people's need to get out, obviously, And so I guess what maybe that's something we can all maybe talk offline a bit about what we can do more as a council because right now.

Parks is doing everything is all their resources are dedicated to the COVID response in the shelters and the community centers.

We've had the same conversations with the library.

All of their staff is either furloughed or elderly and could be susceptible to the virus, so they're short-staffed in opening up the libraries or restrooms.

So all hands have been on deck to mainly meet essential functions, providing respite, providing bathrooms, showers, childcare.

I suppose there's, I guess besides us every Monday, reminding people over and over, you know, it's just, this isn't, wear a mask, distance, try to go at times that are earlier where there aren't a lot of people.

And that's probably where we're at right now.

I apologize, I can't be more positive or offer more.

And as you know, I think our cases in King County went up five or 600 more people in King County alone.

And so we haven't seen the worst of this virus yet.

And I guess it's just as Council Member Morales was saying and you were saying is we just continue to wash our hands, social distance, and wear our masks.

And someone who's immune compromised, as Council Member Mosqueda said, or was it Herbold?

I can't remember.

One of them said it.

It was great.

I say it all the time.

When I see people wearing a mask, I silently say a prayer and say thank you, because I know they care about my health, and I care about their health.

And wearing the mask shouldn't be a political statement.

It's just a statement about humanity and life, and that we care about what happens in our city county in our country.

But if you want, President Gonzalez, I can follow up with the superintendent and see what resources we have in the budget to maybe do more public safety announcements or PSAs.

If that's helpful, I'm certainly willing to do that.

Thank you for that additional information.

And, you know, anything we can do to support that, that would be great.

I also think, you know, taking a closer look and perhaps a more aggressive look at how to open up more of our thoroughfares to allow for people to recreate and exercise in a safe way would also be really, really helpful.

But you're right.

I mean, I think It seems like we're here on Mondays reminding people to please do this.

I know I'm using all my social media outlets to remind folks about the CDC and our Seattle King County Public Health recommendations.

And there's only so much of that we can say.

And wondering if there's any opportunity for us to continue to innovate about how we use our public realm and our public spaces, I would certainly welcome an opportunity to be supportive of that work.

President Gonzales, if I could just add one thing.

Sure.

Just quickly, you know we've been doing the ambassador program, and I think we have had up to 60, 70 volunteers.

These are just community people that put on the vest, are not employees, are out there in the park that gently come up to people, It would really be nice if people who are listening would help volunteer for the ambassador programs because the employees can't do it all.

And again, last time I checked, we were around 60-ish ambassador employees who put on the vest.

They go to parks and streetways and just remind people.

And it's just a nice way to say, you know, please keep distance.

Please, you know, don't climb on this equipment.

This bench is closed.

So that is one way is if people are interested.

I know that the superintendent and their staff would welcome more ambassadors in our parks to help remind people about masks and social distancing.

So thank you.

That's great.

Council Member Strauss, you raised your hand.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

I was trying to jump in and didn't want to interrupt.

I have to agree with you, Council Member Juarez, about Golden Gardens Park.

It has been a very full park.

We have heard from a number of different neighbors about their desire to use public rights of way as recreational spaces, like both you and Council President have said.

I think that is a great point.

I think that is a great point.

My office will circle up with your office to discuss what kind of opportunities we have to allow more people to have space in our already existing public rights away in that area because you are correct, Councilmember Juarez, Golden Gardens was a very full park.

Okay, hearing and seeing none, I will round out this morning's presentations.

I don't have much to add other than to say that my office, along with One America and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and many other community-based organizations have been working together over the past couple of weeks to organize an action that will take place this Saturday, July 25th, 2020. from 1 p.m.

to 5 p.m.

at the Tukwila Village Community Development Association.

It is a solidarity rally of immigrants and refugees for Black lives.

The organizing efforts are led by Shukri Allao, and I want to thank Shukri for those I just want to thank all of the organizers and the participants that I anticipate showing up for their ongoing support of lifting up an opportunity to continue to support that particular event and it will be centered on immigrant and refugee communities coming together to stand in solidarity with Black lives.

So happy to get you all any information if you're willing, if you're interested in sharing that on your social media outlets or your newsletters, but really excited about an opportunity to support their organizing efforts.

That's all I have.

Any other questions or comments for the good of the order here?

Okay, colleagues, seeing none, this concludes our agenda for this morning.

We will convene this afternoon at full council at 2 o'clock p.m.

We have a short agenda of only five items, plus the payment of the bills, so I expect that our committee meeting will go very smoothly this afternoon, and hopefully we'll be able to get it done under two hours so that we can all try to enjoy a little bit of the sunshine.

So I appreciate all of your efforts and your ongoing work and look forward to seeing you this afternoon.

We are adjourned.