Seattle City Council Briefing 51120

will come to order.

The time is 9 30 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Herbold.

Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Lewis.

Present.

Councilmember Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Here.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

I see him.

Thank you.

And Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Seven present.

I'm sorry, how many were present, Jodi?

Okay, thank you.

Um, if if there is no objection, the minutes of May 5th 2020 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, I do not have anything to report today.

So we'll go ahead and just jump on into the presentation on the Co-Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Lead Program.

We have with us today a few presenters, Lisa Dugard, who is the director with the Public Defender Association, We also have Jesse Bennett, Melody Reese, and Leontay Berry.

So Council Member Lewis, did you wanna make introductory remarks on this subject before I hand it over?

Yes, thank you, Madam President, just very briefly.

So over the last couple of weeks, I've had the privilege of working with Lisa Dugard and other folks at the Public Defender Association to talk about COLEAD and the possibility of bringing COLEAD to the city of Seattle and the services they're providing.

And, you know, I'll leave it obviously to them and their presentation to explain what COLEAD is.

But, you know, as we are working through a lot of our challenges of having still having a lot of our neighbors living outside during the COVID-19 crisis and seeing the that we need a lot of different tools in our toolbox to provide outreach in this changing and evolving environment.

Some of the success that I've seen from talking to people at King County and talking to people in other jurisdictions that COLEAD has been able to do in Burien and other parts of King County and providing outreach and getting folks inside and getting people access to wraparound services has been really instrumental to making sure that there's a lot of different tools and services available for everyone to be able to live with dignity during this crisis.

I know that Council Members Herbold and Strauss have been working with the Public Defender Association as well over the last couple of weeks.

You know, I got the idea to try to arrange a presentation during briefing when I helped the BIA directors put together a similar presentation last week, which was great and I was glad to have been a part of that as well.

So I'm really looking forward to seeing it again and hearing from our team here that we have from the PDA and looking at ways that we might be able to partner as a city and take advantage of some of these services.

So with that, I want to turn it over to the presenting panel and hear what folks have to say.

Great, thank you Council Member Lewis for inviting these guests to join us today to talk about this really important issue, particularly in the context of addressing the challenges associated with the COVID-19 public health crisis and addressing the needs of those experiencing homelessness.

We really appreciate your attention to this matter as Chair of the Select Committee on our Homelessness Services and Intervention Programs.

Without further ado, we're going to go ahead and head over to our panelists.

It is 9.35 a.m.

We are scheduled to hear this presentation until 10.05 a.m., so we'll be afforded the full time for this presentation.

So I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to the presenters at this point.

I'll go ahead and share my screen, and I'll handle the slides, and I think Lisa's going to kick us off.

Sorry.

There we go.

Can everybody see that okay?

Looks great.

Okay.

Hey, good morning to the council.

Thanks so much for having us.

Thanks Council Member Lewis for proposing this and Council President Gonzalez for finding a way to hear from us this morning.

I just am going to give an overview of what we're doing and why, and then Jesse and Melody and Leontay, who are doing the work on the ground on a daily basis, will explain the practice of COLEAD and what we're seeing already that is promising.

may recall that we had a delay in finalizing the contract for the standard LEAD program, classic LEAD, if you will.

We did reach an agreement on that contract in early to mid-March, just in time to find that the entire world had shifted around us.

So it's been really important to recall what is the core purpose and function of LEAD and how can we adapt these resources quickly and in a targeted way to still deliver on the function that LEAD is meant to serve under COVID emergency conditions and given the profound changes that have occurred with respect to the entire criminal legal system and law enforcement.

So the purpose of LEAD is to address law violations and problematic behavior that stem from, that are genuine issues and that do present a legitimate expectation from the community of a response and where an enforcement response would be legally authorized.

but where we know that jail and prosecution are generally both ineffective and often counterproductive in actually resolving the problems that drive the problem behavior in the first place.

So in the current landscape, We've seen in classically we do arrest diversion, people who could be subject to arrest and jail booking are instead connected in a warm handoff to community-based care providers who start on a sustained process of case management and support that may last months or years.

And then we also take social contact referrals so that it's not necessary to make an arrest in order to get people help and support.

These days, law enforcement has been dramatically affected by COVID conditions just because it's not safe and it's to proactively engage people up close unless it's necessary.

And the normal responses that police have available to them, including jail booking, are functionally inaccessible for lower-level, not to say unimportant, but lower-level public order type offenses.

There are jail booking criteria region-wide, including at the King County Jail, where the Seattle Police Department would book people.

And the courts are closed.

if at all possible, an alternative response to genuine issues around law violations due to behavioral health conditions and extreme poverty.

So people living unsheltered, people who are using drugs, people who are engaged in the informal economy, the illicit economy, that's never been more important.

And in some ways, if we don't mobilize that, there's no other obvious response.

So that is what we attempted to do with COLEAD, which the CO stands for both COVID and co-responder.

We attempted to figure out a way to use the same values and principles of classic LEAD.

So housing first, harm reduction, field-based engagement, intensive care, and what we know works for people struggling with trauma and related behavioral health issues, but at different points of intercept.

One thing we've done, which we're not, it's important and we're not gonna focus on it very much in this presentation, is support the people who both were in jail and needed to get out in order for the King County jail population to be reduced for COVID transmission reasons.

And because in general, that's a good objective.

People were needing to be released, but courts needed to see some plan for stabilization in the community.

So we were asked to help with that, and we have been.

And also there are people who were released, but because of the very barren landscape out there now with no legal income sources available to many people, normal systems of care that are usually pretty inaccessible to this population, even less accessible.

Jesse will talk more about that.

People were released, but really were struggling, violating conditions of release, but needed not to go back into the jail.

So we're also responding to those situations.

And this is really decarceration and maintaining decarceration.

Nationally, there's a lot of discussion about that.

Locally, we're really putting together a community-based care plan that makes that viable.

The other thing, though, that I just want to name, as you all know from the last 10 years hearing occasionally from me, it's a bad idea to make the best level of care accessible to people only through their contact with the criminal legal system.

You don't want to set it up so people get the highest level of support only after they get charged with a crime.

So we were glad to see in Burien, and we're just talking about Burien because it's where we started this first, so it's a good example of what's possible.

We were glad to see in Burien law enforcement and community leaders and city officials all say, look, there are jail booking limits.

We know that we shouldn't be engaging in just moving people around.

And at the same time, folks were starting to gather and live in the parks in Burien, which have kind of been the no camping areas designated by Burien city officials.

Rather than just moving people along, can you step in and provide alternative support.

So the picture that you see here, Khalid born in Burien, this was several weeks back.

in the parking lot by Burien District Court before the team went out and did initial outreach in the Burien Skate Park and Dottie Harper Park, identifying people who are, many of whom were using drugs and had nowhere else to stay, but who needed help, some of whom were or thought they might be sick with COVID-like symptoms, many of whom just didn't have access to sanitation facilities to prevent that.

and all of whom were absolutely in a precarious position with no access to meaningful income.

So this is the kind of place-based outreach and case management that we have begun to deploy.

And we're thinking that in the next several months, COLEAD is scheduled to work now through July that we would be able to replicate this work in several locations in Seattle where there are serious public order issues, but they're the kind of issues that respond best to care, support, intensive case management, and a lodging situation.

So we're trying to apply housing first in a context where suddenly there's this new resource of hotel rooms that you know, where the hotel industry has been profoundly affected by the economic shutdown.

We'll probably not see a return to normal for many, many months, if not longer than that.

And hotels provide an important platform to more than shelter people, to give people a good place to, you know, find security and a base of engagement for care teams that are going to be working with folks over the next couple of months and where we have already seen really quite, you know, this is, I don't want to minimize, this is not easy work.

and people have challenges, but this context of hotel rooms has allowed the care teams to very effectively engage with people in many cases.

I'll turn it over to Jesse, Leontay, and Melody.

Jesse, you'll have to, there you go.

You're off mute.

I'm pretty tight on time, so I think, We just, do we have like another five or so minutes?

I know we only had 10 total.

We are scheduled to go until 10.05.

Oh, right.

So you got a few more minutes here.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you so much.

So Lisa covered a little bit around the hotels.

So I'll just talk a little bit about the model.

So the model is based on more of a shift shift work and less sort of 9 to 5 hours.

So the initial team of what we call outreach responders slash case managers that were hired up, there were 12, we're up to 15 of them now.

The shifts are 8 a.m.

to 4.30 p.m.

Monday through Friday as well as 1 p.m.

to 9.30 p.m.

And then Saturday and Sunday 10 to 4 30 with somebody on call overnight.

These hours are sort of the most important thing.

One of the most important things of the program, because this allows for us to meet at our office where we have supplies.

It allows staff to kind of look at email and get caught up for the day.

And then it allows for us to go out to the hotels and have actually an onsite presence at each of the hotels.

We have a staff room.

at three of the five hotels that we use, the larger hotels, and we are actually onsite during the day shift and the swing shift and the weekend shifts.

So we're checking in with program participants, we're there in the staff room, we're kind of coming and going, we're talking with hotel staff, and we're there for a chunk of each of those shifts.

Oh, hold on.

So that slide and this slide just talk a little bit more about what Lisa was already talking about, our focus around helping people shelter in place, that initial kind of stabilization.

And then we go into more of an intensive case management mode where whatever the social services system, whatever sort of place it's operating at, we're there to access it.

So initially we had heard food stamps weren't up and running and then they were.

And so we've tracked along that.

So we're making sure people are getting on DSHS benefits and getting access to food.

And for those that are eligible for cash and other entitlements, we're making sure people are on Apple health and that their Medicaid is turned on.

We have a medical provider that goes out with us about four of the five days a week, and she spends two to four hours on shift with the outreach responders going and seeing clients and offering health care support and behavioral health support.

Many of our clients, a small subset, are enrolled in the broader community behavioral health treatment system, but that system has very much gone quite minimal during a time of COVID.

Many providers are only offering very limited clinic-based services in telehealth.

That is not an option that works for many of our program participants.

They really need the services to come to them, so that's been a huge help.

On day two in the program, she was able to work very hard and collaboratively with Neighbor Care to get several folks on Suboxone just within the first couple days of the program.

And Melody and Leontay will talk a little bit more like that.

Lisa already covered, this is just for you to have how CoLEAD is based on LEAD.

And then the next couple slides, I'm actually going to turn over to Melody and Leontay to talk a little bit about one of our participants.

His name is Ricky, and he's agreed to have his photo used.

And this is at one of our hotels, the next couple slides.

So I'm going to have Melody and Leontay just talk a little bit about a day in the life of an outreach responder and a little bit what it's like to be providing services on site at the hotels and other thoughts that they have to add.

So Melody, do you want to take it from here?

Yeah.

Thanks, Jesse.

So, um, uh, hello city council.

Good to see you this morning.

Um, so a day in the life of, um, us as outreach responders, um, looks pretty much, um, you know, it's, it's a good balance of street outreach and, um, motel outreach.

Um, it's a lot of, Being on site as Jesse said to have a presence to set up in the lobby of whatever hotel room to just allow folks to see that we're there if they have troubles or if they want to chat.

We also do check in with all of our participants at each of our hotels daily.

either by call or actually by knocking on their doors, making sure that they, you know, are privy to medical appointments that they have, or court hearings, or things like that.

So it's a lot of just being there for people and helping them through this time.

This client here that you see in the slide, his name is Ricky.

He is a student at Highline College.

and had actually been living in a laundromat for the past four months in Auburn.

And we were able to get him in after an encounter with the Auburn police where he was essentially about to be trespassed.

And we were able to get him into housing or into the temporary housing that we secured in SeaTac.

And here's this next picture again Ricky and some of our outreach responders and another client sort of going through goal setting and talking through, you know, challenges that they're having.

Ricky is a really awesome success story because he's been continuing to go to school through this.

We've hooked him up with several different services and we continue to just be a support system for him and he being able to take a shower and be hygienic has really helped with his, just with his overall demeanor and We're seeing a lot of that from clients that they're so grateful to just be able to have a place to shower, to take a bath where they haven't in a long time because many of our sanitation and other sort of facilities have been closed down.

So being able to just have a hot shower and to have a bed is really stabilizing for a lot of people.

And I do also wanna point out that like, The ability for us to stabilize these folks using this temporary hotel room situation, approximately half of our client load have have personally opted into medicated assisted treatment, which is essentially a way for folks to help wean off of their drug of choice and sort of get back on their feet in terms of health.

So for that many people to be able to say, I'm ready to stop my addiction and I'm ready to ask for medical help is really profound and would not have happened were we not able to just get them a place to sleep.

So I'll leave it at that and let Leontay speak a little bit more.

Thank you.

Hello, city council.

My name is Leontay.

A day in the life with COLEAD, I'm going to have to say from the very first day when we started, we outreached with individuals and they were kind of iffy whether they wanted to be screened by us or not.

Then once we showed them that we're invested and we cared and we continue to come by, come by, come by, then the next week after that, the next week after that, many individuals are showing up, showing up, showing up, asking us, asking us, asking us, asking us.

And, um, there's this one individual.

who we currently have placed that I met.

And when I first engaged with him, he was, he was pretty, he's pretty, he's a pretty self sufficient person.

He didn't, he didn't really care to hear what I was talking about.

He was willing to scream, but I, from my perspective, I felt like he didn't believe what I was telling him.

So he came off as a grumpy kind of guy.

Everyone knows him as a grumpy kind of guy.

And now since he's been placed, He calls me every night, texts me in the morning.

He's, uh, made, made food for me.

I think the big thing with this group of individuals on our staff team is what we bring to the table is compassion and hard work and chose these people that we actually care.

And we're here for them, but as more of like a friend approach, not as an authoritative figure.

Well, it's like, we want them to make the organic change on their own.

And then we're here.

to support them if they want to do that.

We're not forcing them into doing anything.

We're just trying to help them and make sure that they have all the resources that they can get, that we have to offer.

Thank you, Leontay.

So one thing I skipped over is before we did our first parking lot kind of meeting with Burien law enforcement, We did about a week's worth of pretty intensive harm reduction, motivational interviewing, outreach-based case management, and introduction to mental health training.

And I think because of that, and just this beautifully diverse group of staff that we hired, we had already really created a strong, you know, a strong kind of cohort to wrap to put arms around the clients that we are supporting and everything is based on you know tenets of harm reduction that we honor people's agency and self-determination that we treat them with respect and dignity and kindness but we also you know I mentioned the lodging agreement there's also rules to follow this is not You know a free for all or a party time people There are the lodging agreement is a solid three pages and there are a lot of things especially given covid That we're asking clients to do and including where ppe not have visitors to their room Etc.

Um This next slide.

Um, lisa really covered a lot of this.

Um, sorry if you can hear that my neighbor is sighing in his backyard The target population was really that twofold that we want to, we're responding to folks that are stuck in jail and then also a neighborhood level approach in tandem with law enforcement partners.

The next two slides are about budget.

And then I do have another slide around what we're tracking and measurement.

I think I'm going to go to that one first and let Lisa do budget.

We are tracking everything that we would be tracking for classic LEAD for both the city's HSD requirements and the county's BEHRD requirements.

We're right now implementing a case management system that's a little bit more sophisticated than our spreadsheet tracking that we're doing.

But we're tracking all of the demographic information, homelessness information, and criminal legal system involvement information.

And we've It's a bit unique to set up a case management program within the ranks of PDA, which is essentially kind of a law firm that does criminal legal system reform and has several program areas.

So we've had to be quite creative in terms of how we get behavioral health information, and we've adapted a couple different releases of information and have done a lot of coordination with local systems to make sure that we're informed in terms of people's behavioral health history.

And then our medical provider can also look folks up and see their Medicaid and some of their other health care history.

I'll let Lisa talk a little bit about Dr. Catherine Beckett from UW, who's been working with us on a proof of concept effort around classic lead and has pivoted a little bit to sort of oversee, not oversee, but kind of track along and witness, if you will, what we're doing in co-lead.

One of the coolest things about COLE that I really like is every day, Monday through Friday, we have a shift change where the day and the swing meet for an hour and we staff all the clients.

And this is based on a daily team meeting model that comes out of assertive community treatment, which is an intensive mental health model.

And I think that meeting has just created a sense of like community around our clients, a sense of knowledge and understanding in terms of how other people are supporting people.

It allows us to call each other in, if you will, around advocating for clients and what they need.

It also allows us to talk about boundaries and set rules and limits.

And it's been a pretty lovely way to watch the team come together and really put heads down and think about how do we support people from a harm reduction stance?

Where do I use, how can I use motivational interviewing here?

What's a resource I can connect this person to?

So I'm going to go to our budget slide and hand it back over to Lisa.

And then it sounds like we should have a couple minutes for questions.

Yeah, I'll just wrap up here so that there is time for questions.

The budget is laid out here through July.

This is just repurposing existing funding for LEAD that can be used differently to reach the same population.

We were planning to stand up a second lead case management agency anyway, so this is essentially the co-lead team.

There were obviously some additional costs because of working in under COVID conditions, PPE, client basic needs, medical devices, and so on.

The hotel cost is $300,000 for the Seattle focus and offset by a really nice donation from Pearl Jam.

Figuring out how to take this forward if that is desired after July or August is a conversation, a coming conversation.

We, as Jesse mentioned, there's a robust evaluation process underway and we hope to have kind of lessons learned and implications of this work available to city officials in the next six to eight weeks.

where we might be able to work.

We obviously don't have the resources or capacity to work everywhere where this might be a suitable approach, but what we can do is demonstrate that it's possible and what it takes to have this go well.

We're looking to do that in some places of great community impact and great need and have heard the suggestion of Pioneer Square, Second Avenue Extension, and the area by the Navigation Center at 12th and King.

certainly open to working in those areas.

I'm glad to say that the mayor's office is in dialogue with us about where we can be most effective.

That's a partnership that we will be activating this week, trying to reach agreement on where we can best make use of these resources to generate the lessons that can be derived from this style of work.

So I stopped sharing the slideshow just so I can see everybody if there's questions.

Great.

Thank you so much for that presentation.

I really appreciate it.

We have three minutes left, a lot in this slot.

And I saw that Council Member Morales has indicated that she has a question.

So I'm going to hand it over to her to ask her.

her question, but colleagues, I'm going to sort of allow maybe two more questions after this.

If you have a question, now's the time to raise your hand.

So, um, see council member Strauss, anybody else with a question?

Great.

Okay.

It's council member Morales.

The floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you to the team presenting today.

This is seems to me a really humane way to respond to the issues that we've got facing our different neighborhoods in the city.

So I want to thank you for offering this demonstration of how we could be responding to some of the challenges that we have in our community.

And I can tell you that that folks in the Chinatown International Districts are particularly interested in ideas like this.

We've been talking with them about whether we could find some hotel space to move people, and I know several council members are working on the same idea.

So this doesn't look easy.

These sorts of intense case management obviously requires a lot of planning and logistics, but I want to thank you for the work that you're doing.

And I want to ask if you're able to to do this in the next six to eight weeks, if you would be able to come back and do a check in with us so we can learn what worked, what didn't work, and really how we can, you know, try to double down on this kind of a strategy so that we're protecting our neighbors as much as possible.

Absolutely.

Great, that's an awesome, awesome, succinct answer.

Thank you, Lisa.

Council Member Strauss, please.

Yeah, thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Lisa and everyone else who's working on this.

I am hoping to know, and I think that I already know the answer, but would like to just ask here at Council Briefing, when were the Seattle-based hotel rooms booked?

When were your case managers in Seattle brought on?

And could you have been shoes on the ground in Ballard the week of March 27th or March 20th?

Sure, I'll take that.

We reserved a block of hotel rooms in early April, understanding that we could add more.

And we are about to add more.

And we had this case management team stood up and ready to work in a in an area that presented public order issues, a lot of need and community impact, neighborhood impact.

So yes, we could have done work in Ballard at Ballard Commons.

And at the same time, it's clearly true that we can't respond in all possible appropriate places.

We are ready to go in one or more of the high impact locales that combine major community impact, neighborhood impact, and human need.

I wanted to add one thing I forgot earlier and it's so important and I should have had it in the slide but part of what has made this work so well is we have two people.

One is one of our lead project managers that service hotel liaisons.

And so this is a best practice borrowed from permanent supportive housing where.

when you have a treatment program you don't actually have the program liaison with the with the housing provider the property manager you have an in-between person that understands property management under often comes from real estate background and so we use one of our lead project managers and then we also have our co-lead operations manager that helps with this and they do all the liaisoning with the hotel so when the hotel has an issue they call Jesse or Tabitha, Jesse or Tabitha hear their concern, validate it and then they send it over to us, like to Melody as a shift lead and communicate back.

And that really has been the magic, that responsiveness.

And this is not anything we, it's not anything new.

Many housing providers, Many behavioral health providers do this.

They have that intermediary housing kind of, it's like a landlord liaison, if you will, but that has been just critical.

And we've had, you know, 24 seven response to the hotels if they have an issue and it's allowed for us to educate them around harm reduction practices.

It's allowed for us to collaborate and it's just been a really lovely experience.

partnership that we've had with the hotels and supporting our clients.

One of the hotels even gives the clients all welcome kit when they arrive.

It's pretty stunning to watch.

And I think Lisa actually started negotiating some of the hotel stuff even back in March.

This was no easy feat.

She was working around the clock trying to get these hotel relationships set up.

And we're just so lucky that we got in early and were able to navigate some of that.

And thank you, Jesse and Lisa.

During the time of COVID, I have changed my understanding of time.

And I said March when I meant April.

So thank you for answering the correct month name.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

So we're running a little over at this point.

I'm going to hand it over to Councilmember Herbold, who has a quick, some remarks to make, and then we're going to thank our presenters who, of course, are available to us offline, gladly available to us offline to continue this important conversation.

So Councilmember Herbold, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

I just want to really extend my appreciation to the folks at LEAD and specifically Lisa, Jesse, Leontel, and Melody for coming and sharing with us their good work.

Thank you as well for doing as the city has asked all of its contractors to focus reorienting its work towards addressing the needs associated with the COVID-19 crisis.

and I also want to just say that I'm really excited.

These comments may have been made by Council Member Lewis at the beginning.

I came in a little bit late, but I'm really excited that the mayor's office is working in collaboration with you to to do this shift and do the contract negotiations necessary to put it in place.

I got an email last week where the executive states that they positively view COLAID as a potentially useful tool for helping the city's public safety and public health goals.

And they go on to say that they're really excited about what could be learned from this new public safety program.

and hope some lessons can be learned for ongoing impact to improve community safety and better serve higher barrier individuals.

So really in all of the work that you guys are doing on the street and appreciative of your collaboration with HSD and the mayor's office and theirs with you to bring this forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We are really grateful and appreciative for that.

And as we closed out, I just want to acknowledge the wonderful partnership that has been developed rapidly with not only the city attorney's office, but also with Seattle Municipal Court that is leaning heavily on this as a strategy for decarceration and incredibly healthy local conversations and ecosystem.

So we appreciate it and you all.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold, and thank you especially to all of our presenters, not just for being with us today, but for the hard work that you're doing every day to serve folks in the community.

Really appreciate, again, all the work that you all continuously do.

So we're going to go ahead and close out this portion of today's council briefing.

So we'll say goodbye to our presenters, and we'll be talking to you all very soon.

Thank you so much for being with us.

I really appreciate it.

So we're going to go ahead and transition into the preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees.

Again, I will call on council members as established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings.

And this week's roll call rotation begins with council member Strauss, then Herbold, Juarez, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, Sawant, and then I will conclude the agenda discussion.

We also have Asha Venkatraman, Eric McConaghy, Greg Doss from council center staff who are with us today to help address any questions about legislation and potential amendments that appear on today's full council agenda.

So I'm gonna go ahead and begin the process of calling on folks.

So we are scheduled to, to do reports until about 11 a.m., and then we're gonna head into executive session.

So first up is Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll keep my remarks brief.

There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's agenda.

There is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the introduction and referral calendar, which is CB 119790. It approves a subdivision in the Pinehurst neighborhood.

The hearing examiner issued a preliminary approval last year, and it's our role to confirm that the developer has met the applicable conditions.

I plan to bring this legislation to full council next week.

This week, I will be joining the Green Lake-Wallingford Safe Streets meeting.

On Wednesday, I will be participating in a panel with the Ballard District Council, along with Council Member Jeannie Cole-Wells and others.

And as always, I'll be holding district office hours over the phone to speak directly with constituents.

As we heard in the presentation just now, we do have other options when it comes to working with people who are still living outside.

And those options includes ways to bring them into safe, secure places to meet their needs, rather than push them around our communities.

In Ballard, we have made some great progress on Market Street construction.

This is a very delayed project.

And as soon as I came into office, I worked with SDOT to make sure that we were meeting and exceeding the timelines.

And I'm thankful to SDOT for delivering the 54th section and walks out, walks placed section of the project ahead of schedule.

And I want to thank and in constituent communications, I want to thank out the everyone who's reached out to my office.

We've continued to have these constituent meetings full and we have also again retooled our system so that when people reach out to us we're proactively reaching out to them to offer time to meet with me.

I want to also compliment my Phinney Ridge neighbors on Palatine between 70th and 67th who've organized to thank the essential workers for picking up their garbage today with signs.

This type of activity does promote our our connectivity and it's really great to see residents thanking our essential workers.

My office has also continued to provide guidance to small businesses and nonprofits around available support programs and resources.

We've also been assisting the Fremont Arts Council regarding their rent as well as the continued maintenance of the Fremont Troll, and Council Member Peterson, I'll reach out to you about this as well, because the continued maintenance of the Troll in light of anticipated steep drop off in annual revenues for the Fremont Arts Council as due to the cancellation of their solstice parade next month.

And finally, I would like to highlight this is the first year in maybe ever that Ballard will not be having our Syttende Mai parade this coming Sunday.

Syttende Mai is Norwegian Constitution Day, and it has been the largest Constitution Day parade outside of the country of Norway in the world.

This has been a great part of my life, and I'm excited for Syttende Mai and sad to not be able to join with my neighbors.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss for that report.

Any questions or comments on Council Member Strauss's report?

Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and move along.

Council Member Rubel, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

So the Public Safety and Human Services Committee does not have any items on the full council agenda, nor do we have any meetings coming up.

The meeting of May 12th is canceled due to the governor's order.

The main thing I want to share with council today relates to the fact that on Thursday, the city attorney filed the motion to terminate the consent decree, two-year sustainment plan.

There's an important exception to what was filed on Thursday as compared to what earlier deliberations had considered filing.

And that exception is because of what the city attorney heard from the council.

It does not include the concerns raised by Judge Robards in his May 21st, We had had some earlier conversations around concern that the Um, and, um, really pleased that the, the executive in the city attorney, um, agreed to hold those issues until, um, a subsequent filing, uh, out of the, um, shared concern, uh, with, with the council, um, that, uh, we needed to do.

I think that we need to do more work engaging with our community stakeholders around those issues, specific to issues that were raised by the council the passage of the SPOG contract.

And those are issues not only identified by the council, but identified by community stakeholders, including the CPC.

So it's really important to honor the fact that this process was begun by community groups nearly 10 years ago, sent a letter to the Department of Justice.

In response to their letter, the Department of Justice released findings on 2011, and the city and the DOJ entered into a consent decree back in 2012. The gains in lowering use of force and accountability.

And that enhancing accountability also came about because of the actions of the department in particular police officers who worked with all the other branches of the reform effort to implement reform.

terminate the consent decree to your sustainment plan is an exercise in demonstrating that all of the phase one assessments together with the 13 compliance reports completed during phase two have been completed.

And so the city has gone through an exercise of submitting reports and having the court conclude, having the monitor conclude that those reports signify compliance with the requirements.

And so Again, these assessments and the compliance reports comprise more than 1,000 pages, and the monitor has agreed in each of those instances that SPD has achieved and sustained compliance over the last two years.

Those issues cover the incidence of serious force and the reduction of the use of serious force, and whereas serious force has been reduced by 60 percent.

We, in our engagement with the city attorney's office on the filing, thought it was, when I say we, I mean myself and Council President Gonzalez, thought it was really important to underscore the fact that although serious force has been greatly reduced.

There still remains a very concerning disparity, racial disparity among use of force.

The city's own use of force reports document that and identify it as an area for continued and necessary progress.

The reports identify the fact that SPD has been identified by outside groups as a national leader in crisis response training, and that SPD – there is – the filings show that the SPD does not engage in no-suspicion, stop-and-frisk tactics.

And then finally, that SPD and the community police commission have collaborated to design and implement high quality implicit bias training and to study the sources and effects of racial disparity in policing.

A couple other items that the filings and reports that I referenced below, I am identified as the patrol staffing and supervision model to ensure that patrol officers have a consistent and trained supervisor, and that a recognition that OPA, the Office of Professional Accountability, conducts thorough and complete investigations and has adopted several key recommendations from the Monitor and the Department of Justice.

And so again, important to recognize that there is still another piece of work that is going to be necessary for us to engage in.

And that relates specifically to the findings of Judge Robard as it relates to police accountability and significant body of work that we're going to have to do prior to an August filing in that area.

And the other item that I wanted to raise today is the fact that late last week, we found out from Chief Scoggins that they are, after some analysis that was done after the closure of the bridge, that I requested very early on, and I'm sure others did as well in the public, is this concern around the availability of police, I'm sorry, fire resources to address emergencies on the peninsula and the impact of the bridge closure.

And as a result of those inquiries, the police, I'm sorry, the fire chief last week announced that they had received approval from the mayor's office to add an additional ladder, as well as an additional emergency response vehicle to address some of those needs.

I believe that's going to, we can expect those resources to come to the peninsula in June.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold for that report.

Really appreciate your ongoing partnership on the issues related to the consent decree.

And for me, I just wanted to sort of emphasize that, you know, this is not, particularly as it relates to police accountability issues, is not a mission accomplished scenario.

That work is iterative and it's important for us to continue to make sure that we are fully supporting and resourcing our civilian-led accountability system, which includes the Community Police Commission, to make sure that when officers engage in misconduct, that they are held accountable.

And there's a lot more work that we need to do as it relates to the folks who are on the labor relations policy committee to make sure that we have a contract that is going to reflect those priorities to the greatest extent possible.

So this is another step forward in the consent decree process, but certainly should not be taken as a mission accomplished message by anyone, by any means, as it relates to ongoing work and challenges of our accountability system and related discipline issues.

So appreciate that.

And I just want to really thank you as well, Council President, for helping to send that message as well as everybody else on the council.

We've had discussions with the law department about how important we feel it is that we don't send that mission accomplished message while moving forward.

And so I think everybody on the council deserves my thanks for helping to be resolved in that strategy.

Thank you.

Any questions or comments for Council Member Herbold on her report?

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

Next up is Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So I'm going to start with the National Urban Indian Family Coalition.

We have a letter for signature.

Colleagues, last Friday, I circulated a letter of support for the American Indian Alaska Native community to be fully and accurately counted in the 2020 census.

American Indian and Alaska Native peoples are the most undercounted population in the United States.

The National Urban Indian Family Coalition, a Seattle-based nonprofit, is working hard to ensure active participation in the 2020 census.

They launched a national census project to engage urban American Indian, Alaska Native nonprofits in census initiatives through a national PSA, posters, social media materials, and more importantly, funding to 17 cities.

And Seattle is one of those cities that received that funding.

So in Seattle, the National Urban Indian Family Coalition has provided census funding to the Chief Seattle Club, United Indians of All Tribes, HIDUSHA Indian Education Program at Seattle Public School, the National Urban Indian Family Coalition has applied to the National League of Cities Rapid Response Grant Program, which supports census advocacy efforts on a local level.

While their application was approved, yay, The National League of Cities has requested a letter of support for this project at a local level.

So, I ask for your signatures today to show our solid support for the National Urban Indian Family Coalition and the great work they do.

A big shout out to Jeanine Coming Out, member of the Quinault Nation.

She has been an amazing and tireless leader for decades with this organization, which has been very successful and a model for other cities as well.

So, I hope you'll join me in signing this letter of partnership.

So Council President, at this time, do I request a roll call at this juncture for the signatures from my colleagues, or how do we do this?

Ordinarily, on letters, we would do a roll call in the other business section at full council.

So we can go ahead and do that at the bottom of the agenda at full council, if that's OK with you.

That's fine, thank you very much.

I will move into committee.

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

Let me give an update on parks.

The parks weekly report, once we receive the final collection of social distancing program data for last week, I will forward to you guys, to my council colleagues.

I want to provide a friendly reminder that I send these data snapshots to my colleagues every week as an FYI.

Social distancing programming is new, but exists to save lives.

It's important to me that we stay in close communication with parks.

The data is simply, pardon the pun, best ballpark analysis about park usage.

It's not 100% accurate, it's not 100% accurate count, as the numbers are averages.

However, they are helpful for us to visualize trends over time to assess overall compliance.

I want to thank Jesus Aguirre, who has been in constant contact with me, as well as Mr. Nellis from Seattle Center and Marcellus Turner, our librarian on other matters as well.

So we have the reopening of four public golf courses.

Last week, May 5th, all four of the city's municipal golf courses reopened to the public.

That was Jefferson Park, West Seattle, Jackson Park, and Interbay.

Premier Golf is contracted by the city to operate all four courses and open with the necessary safety guidelines set forth by the governor.

I'm also working closely with parks to assess the underutilized acreage of golf courses and how they could be used by non-golfers.

It's important our city find opportunities for created shared use of public space.

I'm also working with our experts and advocates like the Seattle Greenways and 350 Seattle.

Also had discussions with the executive in Seattle Public Schools.

I know up in District 5, Jackson Golf Course is 160 acres.

We'll be looking at that.

We also have the reopening of ADA accessible parking lots.

Last Friday, May 8th, Seattle Parks and Recreation reopened limited accessible ADA parking lots at four major parks, Lincoln, Seward, Green Lake, and Magnuson.

In regards to major parks, Starting on Friday, as you all know, May 8th, major parks will close at eight o'clock instead of 1130 to further deter the barbecues, bonfires, parties, and gatherings that are taking place in the parks.

The parks that will now close at eight instead of 1130 are, and there are, for the public, there are 17 of those, starting with Elkeye Beach, Cal Anderson, Carkeek, Discovery, gas works, Golden Gardens, Green Lake, Caboodle Garden, Lincoln, Magnuson, Seward, Volunteer, Washington Park Arboretum, West Seattle Stadium, Myrtle Edwards, Judkins, and Woodland Parks.

Social distancing ambassadors will be out reminding people of this change.

In regards to SDOT and the Stay Healthy Streets, SDOT updated the public last week that they will close 20 miles of residential streets to allow for safer social distancing for walkers and bikers.

Adjustments to this new policy allow residents, delivery drivers, garbage and recycling workers, and emergency response vehicles to continue to use the streets, but no thorough traffic is allowed.

We know SDOT has begun to replace the temporary signs with official signs which guide drivers to alternative routes.

We continue to be in contact via parks with SDOT on the healthy streets.

In regards to the Yale Public Library, restroom access, I received an activity report on the mayor's new measure to address gaps in restroom access for unsheltered, unhoused community members.

Yale Public Library has reopened five library branches for restroom use only.

No other services are being offered.

Restrooms are open seven days a week from 10 a.m.

to 6 p.m., closed briefly a few times for breaks and to clean.

On April 23rd, Seattle Public Library opened the Ballard, Beacon Hill, and University branches for restroom use.

On April 27th, Seattle Public Library opened the Capitol Hill branch and part of the Central for restroom use.

People who are coming in to use the restrooms are following social distancing guidelines and continue to express their gratitude to staff for providing this service.

In regards to Native communities, this is interesting, body bags.

Last week, the Seattle Indian Health Board, while waiting for more COVID-19 tests and personal protective equipment, received a box of body bags.

Thank you, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Services.

According to the Seattle Indian Health Board, they do not know how or why they received them.

Seattle Indian Health Board is a clinic, not a hospital, so they have no use for them.

This is really unfortunate because there's millions of dollars that has not yet been released into Indian country.

for tribal organizations to combat COVID-19.

As you all know about the disproportionate impacts to communities of color and particularly African American and Native American and Latinx communities.

So we continue to struggle with this virus as everyone else is.

Tribal and urban Indian communities continue to encounter an unacceptable amount of obstacles and bureaucracy in COVID funding.

PPP and other critical resources to serve our people just are not coming in.

So we've been working closely with the directors of the Seattle Indian Health Board and other Native groups and tribes, including Cowlitz, on participating in roundtables with leadership and getting the money in the door for these clinics that not just provide services for Natives, but also spouses and their children.

We will be in close communication with tribal governments and their leadership and our local Native community.

As many of you know, I want to thank this council and our former council May 5th was National Day of Awareness for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

I joined my sisters by wearing a mask with a painted red hand over the mouth.

This is a symbol of Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls grassroots movement which signifies breaking the silence of violence against Native women and people.

It's still going strong and I want to thank all of you who are there and those who are there now who helped pass the legislation and the ordinance and the budget for the funding of that position for the data.

Big thank you and our hands up for meeting country.

Going back to the Urban Indian Health Institute, best practices for COVID-19 data standards.

Again, the Urban Indian Health Institute has created a resource with best practices in collecting native data for local authorities, healthcare organizations, and hospitals can help advocate for native people to be counted.

It also has guidance for local and state entities on how to collect that data correctly.

My office will be emailing this resource to you shortly.

District 5 news.

We are really happy.

The Lakefront Community House opened.

That address is 600 North 130th.

It was opened by Lehigh recently at Bitter Lake.

It now has 35 residents, all of whom were referred by the navigation team.

The Lakefront House was opened to provide a location for unsheltered neighbors at risk of COVID.

We're also monitoring the situation growing on 125th and Lake City Way.

The NAB team has been out there at least six times a week.

Parks have set up extra dumpsters, more honey buckets, getting the honey buckets cleaned, keeping the area clean.

We have two hand washing stations, and public health is now monitoring it for hepatitis A.

We've been in constant contact with the North Precinct, with Captain Sano and Sergeant Diaz and Will Lemke.

Big shout out to Will for helping us work directly to get down there.

And I go down there at least once a day, because it's not very far from my house.

to see where we're at in the tent town and how many of our community members and our neighbors are at risk because they are unsheltered and living there.

So finally, a brief check-in with our two high school principals, Jill Hudson, dear friend of mine, of Nathan Hale, go Nathan Hale, and Martin Flo, principal at Ingram, both amazing educators and community members.

Checking in with them, what's going on in their school and their neighbor and their students.

A special shout-out to Elizabeth Waybright.

She's a friend of ours.

We visited her Latinx group in the past.

Elizabeth, who teaches Spanish at Nathan Hale, has been delivering food to her students during this pandemic.

I want to thank you, Elizabeth.

This is a community at its best, and these extraordinary times and these acts of kindness go a long way.

I had an opportunity last Tuesday to join a senior class at Lakeside School on the history of Seattle.

In this class, students will have a final project to create a time capsule of this time in quarantine for future generations to catch a glimpse of our current situation.

I want to thank James now, the teacher who invited me to participate in the class and the students and their engagement and the great questions that they did ask.

I had an opportunity to meet with Greenways and 350 Seattle.

And as you know, Where they intersect, it's about expanding options for safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation and recreation.

And for 350, we focused on, of course, they are a group fighting climate change.

So this was a continuation of the work we've been doing with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

So in meeting with Clara Cantor at Greenways, and then meeting with Alice Lockhart at 350, We discussed how District 5 residents were responding to the Open Streets Program, how we can use other public space for public use, and the mutual interest in seeing the number of recreational access expand in D5.

On a side note, Alice mentioned to me that local bike shops are selling out of their inventories of commuter bikes as folks take advantage of the good weather and less congestion on the roads.

And finally, like many of you have, I participated in the Department of Neighborhoods webinar I want to thank Andres Matela and Patty Camacho, a great moderator, I might add, for inviting me and giving me an opportunity to share what we're doing citywide, certainly some of the issues statewide and nationally, but also, of course, what is going on in D5 and our priorities and updates.

And that is all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez for that report.

Any questions or comments on Council Member Juarez's report?

Okay, seeing and hearing none, we'll go ahead and move along.

Next up is Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President.

I don't have much to report this week.

There's no items on today's introduction, referral or for full council meeting from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.

I want to thank the council's indulgence in having that presentation today from the Public Defender Association.

It was great to hear.

from the work that they are doing, and I appreciated the opportunity to work with the council president's office in bringing that presentation together this morning.

There's a great deal of interest over the last couple weeks in scaling COLEAD as a program that we can take advantage of here in the city of Seattle, a great deal of interest on the council, a great deal of interest with the mayor's office.

and the various business and neighborhood districts around the city, stakeholders of which have been very excited at the prospect of getting some kind of intervention and partnership, especially where existing partnerships with LEAD already are in effect.

So I look forward to continuing that partnership and it was good to hear from them this morning.

Some of the stuff going on this week, I'll be participating in the Urbanist monthly meeting, albeit virtually, tomorrow at 6 p.m.

to talk about some of the things that we've been doing in COVID that Council Member Juarez talked about in her update, as well as some of the other more long-term projects that we might do to have a more sustainable, environmental, and urbanist city.

I'm gonna have a meeting on Friday along with Council Member Morales with the Small Business Recovery Task Force, hopefully to talk about some of the ways we can leverage future actions in Congress This should be happening over the next couple weeks to try to get some more relief for the city and, of course, the people of the city, not only in terms of supporting our small businesses, but in terms of supporting the renters and other folks who have been hit hard by unemployment and hardship during the COVID-19 crisis.

So I'm looking forward to that.

I'm going to be sitting down with Brian Callahan of the Seattle Channel tomorrow to talk about the city's homelessness response.

and otherwise will be available as always for meetings with constituents in District 7. There are quite a few of those constituent meetings that are scheduled this week, and I am looking forward to those as usual.

Otherwise, I don't have any further updates today, but look forward to another week of Council business.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Any questions or comments on that report?

Okay, seeing and hearing none, we'll go ahead and move along.

Next up is Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Good morning, everybody.

Today, let's see, this afternoon, we'll be voting on Council Bill 119-787, which would protect renters from losing access to housing by prohibiting landlords from considering evictions related to the COVID-19 emergency.

as a way to deny future housing.

This is a pretty straightforward piece of legislation.

It provides protection from housing discrimination stemming from this crisis.

And I do wanna thank the Tenants Union, Got Green, Real Change, and the Housing Justice Project for making this legislation as strong as possible.

And thanks to my other colleagues who we've had lots of conversations with over the last few weeks.

I look forward to passing this legislation this afternoon.

I want to address the decision to suspend the discussion on the revenue legislation.

We know that coronavirus has upended all our lives.

We're seeing record-breaking unemployment and small business closures.

Many of our neighbors have lost their jobs and have no way to pay for basic needs.

Some of them have even lost loved ones to COVID-19.

And given the magnitude of the crisis that our communities are facing, it's hard to imagine how not governing is the appropriate response for our elected officials.

Yet the governor's OPMA proclamation requires that local government only address issues that are quote unquote routine.

It's abundantly clear that there's nothing routine about coronavirus or the need to respond to the crisis.

Yet our council leadership made a choice to enforce the strictest, most conservative legal interpretation of the governor's proclamation without a serious conversation about the risk.

Consequently, the crucial conversation about emergency relief is halted.

And for now, the Select Budget Committee meetings are canceled and the legislation Council Member Sawant and I co-sponsored is delayed until after the governor's OPMA proclamation expires.

I want to say again, as I said before, I wasn't elected to tell my community what we can't do.

I was elected to help lead the city, even through a crisis, and even when it's hard.

And I'm not giving up on the fight to protect our neighbors.

That's why we'll be working to craft new legislation to support the emergency relief measures to address critical housing and food insecurity and other issues that are being faced by our neighbors.

Tens of thousands of our constituents, hundreds of thousands of Seattleites have been left twisting in the wind.

And without immediate financial relief, many of our constituents, if they survive the pandemic, will have no way to financially recover from this crisis.

decision made effectively pulls the rug out from under people who are already on the brink of disaster.

And it's a disaster that none of us could have predicted.

But with emergency relief funds, we can help mitigate.

So I look forward to continuing that conversation, and we expect that there will be a budget hearing scheduled as soon as the governor's proclamation expires.

I wanna address one more thing, which is that last week, legislation that I've been working on to codify the mayor's declaration to shift the navigation team's role to providing outreach rather than sweeping people.

Last week, that legislation made its way onto Como News, despite the fact that I've had no communication with them.

But now that it's there out in the public, we all know we are working on that legislation.

I think I've been pretty clear since long before I became an elected official that I don't think that sweeps are the appropriate way to handle our homelessness crisis.

And last week we saw how necessary it is to actually have policy on the books during this crisis.

So once we're on the other side of this, you can expect to see more legislation from this office that helps protect our homeless neighbors.

That's all I have.

Okay, any questions or comments on that report?

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

Next up is Council Member Mosqueda.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much.

I hope you all had a Good Mother's Day and Happy Mother's Day to your mothers as well.

I hope you had a chance to socially distance and enjoy time with family from afar this weekend.

We saw a lot of people engaging in mini group gatherings and I think that it is a sign that we are all eager to get out and enjoy life as normal, but this is still not the time to get out and enjoy life as normal.

We need to make sure that we're socially distancing and that includes I'm engaging with friends and family from afar, and I know that I called my mom via Zoom when I would have much preferred to go see her.

I do hope people continue to take the governor's orders to socially distance and to be very cautious of the concern that the COVID is going to potentially re-spike if we engage in social activities prior to when it's safe.

I want to also start with the comments about the Select Budget Committee.

As you saw last Thursday, the Select Budget Committee meeting that was scheduled for this week has been canceled.

Following the guidance issued Thursday morning from the council president based on evolving legal advice from the attorney general's office and the city attorney's office.

And this was based on their reading of the governor's orders.

I want to clarify for our colleagues in the public.

I fully support the council president and followed her direction.

That, however, does not mean that I agree with Council Member Herbold's assessment of the legal analysis as was reported in the news.

This is also not Council Member Herbold's assessment.

This is the legal advice that we've been dealt so far.

And that is what I still disagree with.

I did say that I agree that it's important that when we do pass progressive revenue, it doesn't have legal questions hanging over it.

We all benefit from that.

And we also all benefit, of course, from having the public fully engaged in the process.

And that is what the council president's guidance I think really was aimed at.

How do we have a full engagement of the process as allowed by the executive order and not be in violation of it, of OPMA.

But my ongoing concern with the legal advice that we have been dealt is that we don't know when we'll be able to engage in person safely.

To that end, I will be asking follow-up questions to our legal team and beyond about the OPMA policy as it stands as well.

I think common sense would tell us that this crisis is urgent, and the funding emergency demands a response and relief now and in the long term.

The legal advice says otherwise, and that doesn't make sense.

We know that there's a spike in recent days here in the Pacific Northwest as people have begun to reenter the local economy and have closer interactions.

We know that there's going to be a resurgence, as we have seen in other areas of the globe, for example, in Seoul.

We saw that they had to reimpose a shutdown of various nature as people began to engage in life as normal, and they saw increased spikes of COVID.

And we also know that it's important, no matter when we do come back to in-person meetings, that we first protect the staff, city workers, and attendees.

That was the priority in Council President's guidance, and that's why I think it's important for us to implement her recommendations as we seek clarification.

As we seek clarification on the legal guidance, we don't want to be in violation of existing legal guidance, but the need continues to grow.

We've seen the Brookings report just last week record a record number of kids who are going hungry.

We've heard from small businesses who have vendors that they were not able to pay for their March invoices because there were no profits in April, and that's going to continue to spiral.

We've seen the federal cash assistance leave out populations that the city has historically stepped in to provide assistance.

That is why I think it's imperative for us to think outside of the box and we'll be doing so with our state and local partners as we look at what it means to re-engage.

There will continue to be compounding problems over the next 18 months and probably two to three years.

That's what we've heard over the weekend.

When we think about what the quote immediate impact will be, we need to think in two or three year categories, not within two to three months.

So as we think more broadly about this crisis, the questions that I'll continue to ask means whether or not we need to reevaluate the OPMA as a policy matter, or to ask for a reassessment of the legal guidance that we've received at the state and the local level.

This is in an effort to make sure that we're responding not just to the economic crisis, but the ongoing public health crisis that will continue to be in our backyard for the next few years.

The legal analysis is what it is for now.

I wanna reiterate, I'm committed to passing sustainable progressive revenue to respond to the crisis and its lingering effects.

And I look forward to engaging with all of you and all of the public in that process as soon as we are allowed.

My hope and my plan is to reconvene the meetings when we have the opportunity to do so, when we are allowed to do so within the first 10 days of June, assuming we're able to meet in person or if there's a change in a legal advice or OPMA policy.

In the meantime, I continue to look at opportunities to engage with the public, whether that is trying to get alternative options for people to talk about what the crisis is, not to talk about bills because we are going to be within the confines of the legal advice that we've given us, but to talk about the evolving crisis, whether that's from health care providers or economists, renters and small landlords.

I'd love to engage in the public with a better understanding about how communities and families and workers are being affected.

So to this end, I'm looking at to this end, I'm looking at hosting potentially town halls or some other form of public engagement over the next two weeks as we try to shed light on the evolving public health crisis and its impact in Seattle.

So stay tuned for those upcoming events.

And I would love to work with all of you as we think about local and national experts who can shed light on this crisis.

I also want to make sure that folks know that we will continue to keep you updated if there is any policy that does meet the guidance that was outlined in the council president's memo that would be appropriate for committee given the current legal parameters and appreciate the ongoing efforts to amend possible legislation to make sure that it meets that effort as we seek greater legal advice or clarification on policy from the state.

I want to thank the Council President for her guidance.

While it's only two weeks, we know that there's an immense need out there, so we look forward to continuing to engage with all of you as we rethink and redefine what it means to have an immediate crisis that needs to be addressed over the next few years, not necessarily the next few months.

Council colleagues, on today's full council agenda, item number three is Council Bill 119785. This bill would first adopt the final 2020 annual action plan, second, approve its submittal to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, and third, amend Ordinance 12600, which adopted the 2020 budget.

The funds administered through the plan are in addition to the federal grants and CARES Act that are being considered in Council Bill 119783. We had an official public hearing on this last week, and we look forward to hopefully passing the bill today.

Finally, as we had hoped, there would be additional conversations last week related to exactly the presentation that you heard this morning about how we de-densify shelters and get more people into individual rooms.

Unfortunately, colleagues, as of 1030 this morning, We don't have an update for you on the bill that we discussed last week, which is Council Bill 119783. So as of right now, I am prepared to ask this council for your indulgence to potentially walk on legislation to Council Bill 119783 that passed last week, which would accept appropriated federal and state funds related to COVID-19 pandemic crisis response, including CARES Act funding.

As you will remember, when the council passed the legislation last week, we held back $1.4 million of CDBG funds through a substitute that I sponsored.

The legislation that I would potentially walk on today for the introduction and referral calendar, not for vote, but with TSF for a possible vote next week if needed, would appropriate the remaining CDBG funds to shelter dedensification.

And while I am hopeful that the ongoing conversations that began last week will conclude this week and will appropriate general funds from HSD to de-densify shelters and assist with the homeless service providers needs around personnel, staffing, meal delivery, and individual rooms, we know that those conversations have not concluded yet.

So to be very clear, my hope is that the conversations that we have teed up to happen at the administrative level through the CBO's office, HSD, Office of Housing, that those will hopefully conclude this week.

Though if we are able to walk on this legislation for the introduction and referral calendar this week, you will see that we have a title that is broad enough to allow for us to then amend the legislation to free up the $1.4 million for things like rental assistance, as I know is critical myself, Council Member Herbold, and a number of other people that we're really hoping to see progress on this legislation.

The CDC guidance and the public health guidance says that congregate settings are no longer considered safe, especially for those at high risk due to underlying health conditions or their age.

And so I am very hopeful that the executive will continue to give us an update later today on how those conversations are going.

And colleagues, again, my hope is that we can tee up this legislation to the extent that we need it.

either to put 1.4 million into de-densification or to free it up for the rental assistance.

Sophie's choice is there, but we wanted to make sure we had legislation that would be ready to go then next Monday through either of those paths.

Ali Panucci has, I'm sorry, Amy Gore has sent around an email with that draft legislation.

If there are any updates before 2 p.m.' 's full council meeting, we'll make sure to let colleagues know.

This is a placeholder for now and really appreciate your ongoing work as we try to make sure that we support de-densification, operating needs related to staff, PPE, cleaning, and food service.

Council President, thank you so much.

That concludes my long report.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Mosqueda, on the potential I guess it's an amendment that you have to the original council bill a week later.

So I'm a little unclear as to whether you're going to bring that forward this afternoon or not.

My intent would be to bring it forward as a walk-on piece of legislation for the introduction and referral calendar.

Got it.

Okay, so just so folks know for this afternoon, that will require us, I believe, to suspend the rules in order to do that since it wasn't circulated on Friday.

Not an issue, just want to make sure folks are aware that that will be a procedural thing we will have to do should you decide to walk that legislation on and add it to the introduction and referral calendar.

And again, it would just be a addition to the introduction and referral calendar as opposed to a vote on the substantive bill.

That's correct.

Thank you for the reminder.

Yes.

Great, thank you so much.

Any other questions or comments for Council Member Ruscata?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Ruscata's comments related to specifically the de-intensification work necessary for shelters and the city council support for that work and our efforts to Get support from the executive to look at different ways of doing the intensification of shelters reminded me of an item that I wanted to raise in my committee report, and that's specifically.

The fact that on Friday, the Southwest Teen Life Center announced that they would temporarily shelter youth from youth cares, Jackson Street overnight shelter.

The move will provide 24-7 shelter space, supportive services, and more space for social distancing per public health guidance.

The program itself supports youth between the ages of 18 and 24. and youth at the location will be provided access to showers and three meals a day.

This was an action that was announced a couple months ago and it's taken some time to get the arrangements between youth care and the city in place on Friday, I believe five young people moved to this location.

And I think it's really interesting to note that in the efforts to de-intensify the Jackson Street overnight shelter, the youth of the shelter were given a couple of different options to choose from.

And this was the option that they selected at the Southwest Teen Life Center.

But one of the things for me that really underscores the city's efforts to find an approach towards de-intensification is how the city's explanation of how that location is going to have the capacity to hold people really differs from that of youth care.

The city is talking about that location potentially holding up to 30 individuals.

But in its wisdom, the city is deferring to youth care to determine how many young people actually go.

And so they're starting with five.

I think really what needs to happen is that a determination of the capacity of that location really needs to be guided by the use of the site and how much social distancing is is possible in that location so that we are not just replicating dense capacity of new locations.

So really, you know, I'm appreciative of the Human Services Department and Youth Care in moving this forward, but I think this is a really good example of what we are all struggling with in trying to figure out how to do I want to thank the mayor for her efforts in working with HSD and the mayor's office in trying to begin a D intensification and follow really the CDC best practices, guidance around these efforts and actually follow some of the work that we've been watching King County do with success.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any other questions on, I'm sorry, Council Member Herbold for those comments.

Any other questions or comments for Council Member Mosqueda before I move along?

Okay, hearing and seeing none, we'll go ahead and move on to Council Member Peterson.

Good morning, colleagues, and happy day after Mother's Day, especially to our moms on the city council.

There's just one item on today's council agenda, which would normally come from the Transportation and Utilities Committee, and that's a city council appointment to the Community Surveillance Working Group.

The Transportation Utilities Committee also includes oversight of the city government's Information Technology Department, and this is a community advisory group that supports our analysis of new technologies.

At the request of the ACLU of Washington, we will be appointing Jennifer Lee, who is highly qualified, and you can view her resume in the agenda packet.

In District 4, this week my office will be having a virtual meeting with service providers to hear about the needs of food banks and other service providers in our District 4. I recently volunteered with the University District Food Bank to help distribute food to neighbors.

I believe we're all really grateful to all those who work at nonprofits and continue to do the hard work to serve our city's most vulnerable.

As usual, I'll be having virtual office hours this Friday afternoon.

Please sign up on our City Council website.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson, for that report.

Are there any questions or comments?

Okay, seeing or hearing none, we'll go ahead and move along to the next council member, and that is Council Member Sawant.

Please, the floor is yours.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

Good morning, everyone.

There are no items from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee on today's city council agenda.

I am happy to co-sponsor Council Member Morales' legislation on today's city council agenda to protect renters from having their rental background checks damaged by eviction proceedings that were filed against them during the COVID-19 moratorium.

The residents of the Halcyon Mobile Home Park, whom we've fought for and alongside of in the past, have requested that the Seattle City Council extend the temporary zoning restrictions that have protected them from displacement over the last couple of years.

Council members who were around the last few years will remember their moving public testimony and their tremendous solidarity that they received from the community citywide.

Council passed temporary zoning protections on the basis of the to provide time for the executive to do the work that was necessary to make those or other zoning protections permanent.

Unfortunately, the mayor, as we know, has not prioritized protecting the homes of the residents of the Halcyon Mobile Home Park and has made no progress on that zoning work.

So we will need a council bill for that temporary extension.

And I should mention that the residents of This locality are seniors who, if they lost this home, would almost certainly face homelessness, but otherwise housing instability, which would be dangerous at any time, but especially during the pandemic.

Ketel Freeman from Council Central's staff is preparing that legislation from my council office.

Please have your staff contact my office if there are any questions or concerns.

Over the last few days, I've heard from many community members who are angry and outraged at the betrayal by the City Council's democratic establishment to postpone the vote on our legislation to tax Amazon and big business to fund immediate COVID relief alongside a public jobs program through a major expansion of housing and Green New Deal programs that will be required to recover from the COVID emergency.

The idea that we cannot address the impact of the COVID emergency in any meaningful way because we are in the COVID emergency would be bizarrely hilarious if there were not real people's lives and livelihoods on the line and if the idea were not cover for politicians defending the greed of big business and the wealthy.

The argument that our virtual open film broadcast recorded council meetings are not open enough, justifying canceling those meetings in a backroom deal and claiming this is in defense of open public meetings is truly Orwellian.

You cannot make this stuff up.

This argument is being made by council members Herbold and Gonzalez and is being joined by the political establishment.

But to note that these council members, these two council members, were among the politicians two years ago, almost exactly two years ago, who were among the politicians who conspired behind closed doors to repeal our movement's hard-fought Amazon tax that year.

in 2018 in another backroom deal, which was in flagrant violation of the principles of open meetings and were taken to court.

And then they had to settle the case with paying taxpayer money.

It's just stunning.

But ultimately, we have to remember that these are excuses that are cover for actually what is going on, which is loyalty to big business.

And because the movement had momentum and has continues to have momentum, And because there is tremendous community support behind taxing big business, not only in Seattle, but nationwide polls show that this is a very popular idea, especially as the economy heads into recession.

Politicians who want to maintain progressive credentials or a veneer of progressive credentials are having to resort to bureaucratic and legalistic maneuvers.

Ultimately, what is at stake is not only this particular tax on Seattle's big business to fund COVID assistance and to help address housing affordability and climate emergencies and create good jobs through a major expansion of social housing and Green New Deal.

It's not just this program and it's not just this one city.

This is related to what is emerging nationwide and globally.

We are heading into a depression-like recession.

Clearly, somebody will have to pay for this crisis.

The question is, who will pay?

Big business or working people?

The politicians who refuse to tax the wealthy are not taking a neutral position.

They are helping to ensure that the cost of this deep crisis will be paid for by working people.

in the form of profound and prolonged joblessness, destitution and impoverishment, and austerity budgets with slashing already underfunded social programs.

This is a mathematical outcome that is going to happen if we don't tax big business and the wealthy.

So in other words, they are helping to ensure the elite The major shareholders, the millionaires, the multimillionaires, and billionaires were not only shielded from the ravages of this recession, but in fact are profiteering from the crisis.

Already, the Institute for Policy Studies is reporting that as of April 15th, Jeff Bezos' fortune had increased by an estimated $25 billion since January 1st, and between March 18th and April 10th, when over 22 million people lost their jobs.

Over the same three weeks, U.S. billionaire wealth increased by $282 billion and almost 10% gain.

It was only because of determined and organized mass movements, especially the historic general strikes led by socialist leaders in the labor movement in the 1930s, that the federal government under FDR was finally forced to enact the New Deal programs.

That is the kind of mass organizing we will need, and that will not be led by establishment politicians.

It will be led by working people and their organizations themselves.

Our movement is not going to sit back and accept this attempt by the city's democratic establishment who are loyal to big business at this attempt to shut down this conversation.

Community members of the TaxAmazon movement will be rallying this afternoon outside City Hall in a socially distanced car caravan protest.

My office is hosting a TaxAmazon town hall May 20th at 6 p.m.

If any council member wants to stand with working people, you are most welcome to join me and hundreds of community members there.

And I certainly look forward to co-sponsoring the town hall mentioned by Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you.

Any questions or comments for Council Member Salant on her report?

Okay, hearing none, I will go ahead and go on to my report.

The Governance and Education Committee does not have any legislation on today's full council agenda.

And those meetings are canceled until further notice, consistent with the governor's order and proclamations.

I have one item that is on today's full council agenda, that is Council Bill 119788. This is the second and follow-up piece of legislation I have introduced for tenant protections related to the COVID-19 crisis.

This bill will create flexibility for tenants to utilize payment plans with their landlords.

It's pretty straightforward, and for this bill, we have incorporated input from a lot of different stakeholders, including our agency, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection, and as well as stakeholders from Washington CAN, the Housing Justice Project, and the Washington Multifamily Housing Association.

I want to thank all of those folks for being willing to have conversations with my office about how to improve upon this really important legislation that will, again, create a pathway for tenants to create payment plans with their landlords in the aftermath and in the process of recovering from this crisis in order to make sure that housing stability continues and that they don't end up getting evicted for falling behind on their rent.

So we do have Asha on the line who is available to brief us on the bill.

So Asha, are you still there?

I think I saw you.

There you are.

Asha, if you can just give us like a quick, quick summary of the bill and its components.

That would be great, and I know that there is an update in terms of a potential amendment that might no longer be introduced.

Absolutely.

Asha Venkatraman, Council Central staff.

So as Council President mentioned, this bill would create a option to pay back rent on a payment plan.

This bill was reintroduced as a substitute to accommodate a title change, but essentially The bill just allows a landlord to, excuse me, a tenant to use the payment plan either laid out in the bill or if they have an alternate proposal and the landlord agrees to it, can pay back rent on that alternative schedule.

The bill also provides for no late fees, interest, or other charges due to late payment of rent for rental, rent accrued for a year.

after the end of the civil emergency.

And then we added in some provisions around notice, the fact that landlords have notice on an eviction notice about the rights that tenants have.

And it prohibits attorney's fees almost otherwise allowed by state law, but with the intent that attorney's fees wouldn't be awarded to landlord in this situation.

And I just note that this does not conflict with the governor's Rather, the governor's order sets a floor of protections around rental payment plans and late fees, and the city is adding to those protections.

Originally, there was one amendment to this bill proposed by Council Member Herbold to extend the payment plan out to 12 months, but that amendment is no longer being offered.

That's all I have.

Great.

Council Member Herbold, did you want to make any remarks?

No, you're good?

Okay.

Any questions or comments about the bill?

Colleagues for ASHA, who will not be available at full council, just want to make sure that you all know that this is your one shot at Council Central staff.

Okay, great.

Well, thank you, Asha, for making the time to call in this morning.

I really appreciate all of the work that you and Vee Nguyen in my office have done to engage with the executive departments and also with external stakeholders.

I'm really excited about being able to advance this important tenant protection piece of legislation this afternoon and owe you and Vee a lot of gratitude for your hard work in making sure that it's all buttoned up.

So thank you so much, Asha.

Okay, great.

So the only other thing that I will bring up just really quickly is, I know we've been having a lot of conversations about the governor's proclamation 20-28.

Of course, I issued a memorandum last week on Wednesday, providing guidance, not a mandate, not a directive to each of you as council members who have your individual authority as chairs of your committees about the risks associated with moving forward pieces of legislation that may not be responsive to the COVID-19 and the current public health crisis or routine and necessary.

I understand that that memo is concerning to a lot of you.

It's equally concerning to me.

I think that It is difficult to have continuity of government when our hands are so severely tied as a result of Proclamation 20-28.

And for our colleagues, Council Members Sawant and Morales, who apparently think that I take great joy in stopping a conversation about progressive revenue, I want to correct the record on that.

It gives me no joy to give guidance that requires us to comply so strictly with the legal advice that I have seen and with the reading of the proclamation and the guidance that has been issued by the Attorney General's office.

If this council and its chairs of the committees want to assume the risk associated with knowingly and intentionally violating the Open Public Meetings Act, that is within every chair's authority to do.

So when there are comments made about taxpayers' money, being paid to settle lawsuits?

Well, that's exactly what would happen, I believe, if we proceeded with this conversation in such a reckless manner.

I also think that this legislation and any alternative proposals related to revenue generation that will be critical to the recovery of people that we all love and care for deeply, who are constituents in this city, is so important that we cannot move forward a package of legislation that will inevitably result in a myriad and a flood of lawsuits that will almost immediately cancel that legislation out because we did not comply with the Open Public Meetings Act.

Now, to be clear, I didn't write the Open Public Meetings Act.

That is a state statute, okay?

I've been doing advocacy in the background to request that the proclamation be softened slightly to account for the realities of how technology works today.

So there's been a lot of comments about how we're doing public comment via online.

Why isn't that sufficient?

I must be some sort of crazy person because I somehow don't appreciate technology and its utility in these settings.

Trust me, I do.

It's exactly why I advocated to the governor's office and to the Attorney General's Office, the City Attorney's Office, and the Office of Intergovernmental Relations to request that the proclamation be modified to account for the realities of how technology works in modern day.

Unfortunately, the Open Public Meetings Act is very strict.

It requires in-person viewing.

So if a member of the public walks into City Hall, here in Seattle or anywhere in the state, they have an absolute right under the statute that is the Open Public Meetings Act to sit in chambers or anywhere else that is publicly available to watch our proceedings.

That is a fundamental cornerstone to open government, which we are obliged to follow.

If there are people on this council who want to just disregard that, then I guess that is within your continued purview to continue to do.

Again, I am called upon to make tough decisions in this scenario as the lead of the legislative department.

I acknowledge that I will not make everybody happy all the time.

I've implemented this guidance because I want to make sure that the legislation moving forward will be able to be on the strongest ground possible.

And I also frankly am protective of the fact that I don't want the city council to be, and each of you as council members, to be put in a position of increased risk and liability related to any allegations that we have passed this legislation in a way that is inconsistent with the Open Public Meetings Act.

So I appreciate that it is, It is a difficult situation for us to be in is also part of the reason why in my weekly call with the governor's office last week, I advocated once again that when the state legislature comes back, whether it be in a special session or in a regular session, that there'll be a very hard look taken at reforming the Open Public Meetings Act to acknowledge the fact that we will be in a world of social distancing for many, many, many months to come.

And having to exist under Proclamation 2028 really creates a crisis for the continuity of government.

I recognize that, and I'm working with other council presidents, including Council Member Claudia Balducci across the street, to really emphasize on behalf of this council that we need to see some modifications to the Open Public Meetings Act that allow us to promote the public health orders that have been issued, and that allow us to continue to do the important policy work that is not just related to the current public health crisis, but that will also be related to the recovery and to other delivery of services that we need to continue to engage in.

And existing under the strict rules and restrictions of Proclamation 2028 is not going to be easy to do in the long term.

also, colleagues, I just want to make sure that in the memo you saw that I am asking Monica Martinez-Simmons from our clerk's office and finance and administrative services, which does all our facilities work, to begin the process now of thinking about how to physically change City Hall, including our chambers and the dais, to allow us to have in-person public viewing.

My hope is that we will be able to see those physical changes and that we will be able to effectively provide some type of in-person viewing that is safe and consistent with the governor's shelter-in-place order, should it be extended beyond May 31st, and also is consistent with, again, making sure that we have physical distancing for folks to participate if they choose to be here in person.

So again, my goal here is to make sure that Operationally, we are complying with the Open Public Meetings Act.

I share the frustration with many of you about the outcome of not being able to address either this legislation or any other legislation, frankly, that falls outside of the four corners of the proclamation.

But this is our reality so long as Proclamation 2028 exists and so long as this global pandemic persists in the way that it is persisting, our operations will be directly impacted by it.

And I think, and I hope that we can work together collaboratively to try to figure out pathways, productive pathways forward that still allow us to have a conversation about these really important issues while still complying with the Open Public Meetings Act.

I believe that is possible.

Our restrictions are limited to not being able to have public meetings, but there is nothing that prevents us from continuing to have these important conversations about these important policy issues.

And, you know, that's, I'm heartened to hear folks like Council Member Mosqueda who are suggesting doing town halls to continue to have those conversations.

And I think that's really important.

But we are strictly prohibited from being able to organize public meetings with a majority of city council members using committee structures to advance pieces of legislation that fall outside of the four corners of Proclamation 2028. I appreciate the ongoing conversation and again hope that we can do it in a respectful way as opposed to as opposed to engaging in name calling or subscribing or ascribing ill intent and ill motives of of sort of these smoky room backroom deals.

I have no idea where these backrooms are, so I don't know where that allegation is coming from.

I think I've been pretty transparent in sharing with all of you the legal advice that I have received.

I think Council Member Herbold has been very transparent in sharing with you the same legal advice.

I've put all the cards on the table and continue to look forward to have conversations with each of you and with our law department.

and figuring out how we chart a path forward to allow for us to continue to engage in the basic components of governance.

And right now, we have to do that within the construct of Proclamation 2028. So colleagues, I will end up there.

I know we have a executive session coming up where we will have an opportunity to engage with each other on this issue and other issues.

I'm happy to take any additional questions or comment before we go ahead and move into Executive Session.

I do, Council President.

This is Deborah Juarez.

Council Member Juarez, please, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

I'm going to reiterate something that I shared in March and April 6th.

Again, let's not play politics in the midst of this lethal pandemic.

I think we all know why we are elected to City Council.

This is not a time to promote or trying to undercut a movement.

And quite frankly, if we're going to start this nonsense again about us and them, who's more progressive and some kind of crazy contest in the middle of a pandemic where we're trying to figure out how to save people's lives and their economy, the accusations again about something being conspiratorial.

I mean, again, not the time to be divisive or accusatory.

We've seen enough of that.

on just about every level, and it's getting more violent and horrific, and I hope we keep it out of chambers.

I want to thank Council President for keeping in mind and reiterating that the health concern here about us coming in and having the public in chamber, particularly those of us with a compromised immune system, this is a life or death situation.

This isn't about anyone trying to undercut a movement or not understanding our role to all of the City of Seattle residents.

Again, as I shared before, I have some concerns about this legislation.

Yes, I do.

I was here in those seven months when all of that went on.

I do have concerns about passing legislation without public comment.

That's a tax.

This council, former council, only has passed one tax, and that was the sugar beverage tax.

So this is what I want to leave us with.

I'm hoping, for once, we can have a healthy, robust, respectful discussion about a progressive tax, which we all know we need, and how we get that done.

I am not interested, and I am tired of, quite frankly, of this nonsense of people playing politics in the middle of what we're going through.

I'm just tired of it.

So I want to thank Councilmember Herbold, Councilmember Gonzalez, Councilmember Mosqueda, and some of us that were on council, Councilmembers Sawant, you as well, When we went through this back in 2017 and 2018, seven months, I sometimes don't think it was our finest.

In the end, it was repealed.

Let's put our heads and minds and hearts together to do it right.

Talking about paying out lawsuits, pointing fingers that way is unnecessary and quite frankly, immature.

It's just not right.

And I like what council member, council president Gonzalez said, we cannot pass this type of legislation, a tax, if you will.

And no, I can tell you right now, we will be again, sued again, and using taxpayer money for a tax in which we haven't had it fully vetted, had the opportunity for the public to step up and tell us and everybody, I mean, everybody across the board.

Yes, we get 1000 emails about a particular group in a particular movement, and I respect that.

But what I'm having a hard time doing as an elected is if we're going to start down this road again, because that's not going to bring us closer together as the Seattle City Council to do the best we can for our people.

So I'll leave it at that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Any other comments or questions?

Councilmember Solant?

I have some specific questions on what your comments were about your read of what the Attorney General's guidance is.

First of all, just to be clear, the Attorney General's guidance As far as I understand, it's not legally binding.

And I also would be curious to know what your understanding is of the legal basis for the Attorney General's Office asserting that the Open Public Meetings Act requires in-person attendance.

I don't see anything in the OPMA statute that requires in-person attendance.

I see that it says, all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the governing body of a public agency.

But in the last three weeks, this council has conducted meetings that have been attended online by many people.

Dozens of people have contributed live public comment.

All members of the public have been you know, allowed to attend and observe the meeting remotely, sign up for public comment, et cetera.

I would just wonder how, in your view, is that participation falling short of the Open Public Meetings Act?

And if we are falling short, then what is the legal basis, you know, statutory, court decisions, et cetera, for that conclusion?

And I would just ask a question.

Council Member Herbold has stated that she attended a public meeting on the West Seattle bridge situation, attended by 3,200 people, and that, quote, I couldn't tell if anyone shook their heads in disappointment, frowned or nodded, booed or clapped, unquote.

So one question is, is there any standard in the OPMA that requires elected officials to be able to discern the facial expressions of members of the public?

Let's suppose that a meeting of 3,200 people had been held in a city building instead of online.

Certainly in that case, a majority of those wishing to attend would probably have been turned away from attending in person, or lack of space, or at least wouldn't be in the same room where council members could discern facial expressions.

Would that then constitute an Open Public Meetings Act violation?

And if not, why not?

But more importantly, politically, I will say that council members who have engaged in this decision, you care more about the booing or whatever of big business and the wealthy who oppose any tax at any time.

It is not about now, as Council Member Juarez herself admitted.

It's any time you talk about passing a big business tax to fund the needs of ordinary people, they will be opposed to it.

So it seems you're more concerned about that.

Many working people came at that time two years ago, and you saw their facial expressions.

More than that, you heard them speak in anger and outrage, saying, how can you repeal a tax that we have fought for, that our city needs, because it has the nation's most aggressive tax system?

I also don't accept this framing that, oh, this is all out of public health concerns.

If you were concerned about public health, then you would do everything in your power to pass a tax on big business.

But not just that.

take all the measures that are necessary to make sure the burden of this crisis does not land on the poorest people.

By taking this decision, you are the ones playing politics.

And also, I don't appreciate that a movement led by ordinary people who are fighting for their lives is being termed as people who are playing politics.

They are fighting for their lives and for their rights.

And as far as backroom deals, I think President Gonzalez, you should know very well, because you and Council Member Juarez and Council Member Herbold participated in that.

Everybody knows it.

It's been documented.

Thank you.

So I think Council Member Sawant, if you spend just a little bit of time with our city attorney's memo that gives us attorney-client privilege information, I think you'll have your questions answered.

And if you don't, you'll have an opportunity to have those questions answered during the executive session.

I'm not the city attorney's office and would defer to city attorney Pete Holmes and his staff to be able to answer your questions, including case law citations.

I'm not going to engage in that conversation publicly.

But again, if you spend just a little bit of time with that memo, you might have your questions answered.

I have it up here in front of me currently.

But I do think that that is part of the reason why we're having this executive session that's coming up.

And of course, that will be subject to attorney-client privilege.

And I think that that's an important opportunity for all council members to get a robust understanding of the legal basis and the legal support for the guidance that I have issued.

So again, we are bound by Proclamation 20-28, that is a binding one on us, and it did effectively change the standards around the OPMA amidst a public health crisis where we are trying to manage the spread of a deadly infection amongst our population.

So yes, I do care.

about public health, and the assertion by you, Council Member Sawant, that I don't care about public health is offensive.

And the reality is, is that I do care.

And that is exactly why I've asked our facilities folks to work on creating an opportunity for us to reconvene in chambers in a responsible manner that is also compliant with public health orders and CDC recommendations.

And I will continue to center the health of our staff and the general public who wants to engage with us in person in chambers on this issue or any other issue.

I will continue to center their health in my decision making and reject any assertion that I somehow do not care for them because I don't support your perspective of how to move forward on this tax.

So I'm gonna go ahead and call us into executive session because I think that's where we need to head at this point.

So I'm going to go ahead and do that now.

Let's see.

OK.

So as presiding officer I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene an executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

The council's executive sessions are an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open sessions.

I expect that this executive session will last approximately 60 minutes.

So that means that this executive session will last until 1235 PM.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond 1235 PM, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

Yeah.