missing title

Good afternoon.

The January 27th, 2026 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.02 p.m.

I am Joy Hollingsworth, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lynn.

Council Member Rink.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Juarez.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Here.

And please call Councilmember Lynn as well.

Again.

Councilmember Lynn.

Here.

Thank you.

Eight present.

Awesome.

And let the record reflect.

Please excuse Councilmember Rink.

Please call Councilmember Rink for the roll call as well.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Nine present.

Awesome, thank you.

There are no presentations today and colleagues at this time we're gonna open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda and the introduction and referral calendar.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up today?

in person and two remote.

Awesome.

So everyone's going to get two minutes and we're going to start with the in-person speakers first.

Clerk, will you go ahead and read the instructions?

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Awesome, so we will call the names in three.

Thank you everyone for being here, looking forward to hearing the public comment today.

We'll start with in-person, we'll do all the in-person speakers first, and then we will switch to online as well.

So we have Charlotte, Charlotte Felipe, we have Steven as well, and if I butcher last name, I apologize, and then we have Rose as well.

So we have Charlotte, Steven, and Rose, followed by, Aurora, Olive, and Alex.

Thank you, Madam President, members of the council.

My name is Charlotte Philippe and I sit on the board of the 43rd District Democrats.

We've shared with you today an open letter we adopted over the weekend condemning the murders of Renee Good and Alex Preddy, expressing solidarity with our siblings in Minnesota and urging our elected officials and public leaders to speak out, stand up and deliver concrete actions to prevent that from happening here in our city.

that includes supporting a general strike in solidarity with Minneapolis, shutting down the ALPRs, speaking out unequivocally about these violations, and using your power both at this dais and with intergovernmental partners to enact legislation that makes all of us safer.

Both the Public Safety Committee and the Select Committee on Federal Administration should meet as soon as possible to address this and set out clear, concrete next steps.

When the Seattleites of the future ask you what you did in the face of authoritarianism, what will you say?

What did you do with your power?

Were you on the right side of history?

Beyond that, when you walk before whichever creator God you believe in and they ask you, did you love your neighbor as yourself or did you stand idly by the blood of your neighbor?

We urge you to act with the urgency this brutality demands.

Speaking now in my personal capacity, I want to direct my comments to Councilmember Kettle and the Public Safety Committee.

This morning, the County Prosecutor's Office delivered a presentation about sex trafficking in the city, which included graphic images of women bloodied and brutalized, including unredacted pictures of their faces and identifiable tattoos, exploiting and dehumanizing these human beings, and now preserving their likenesses in perpetuity on Legistar and in the public record for all to see and exposing them to potential retribution.

It was in my opinion, an egregious violation against them.

And I am particularly disgusted that neither council member Kettle or any other members of the committee stepped in and shut the presentation down.

I demand answers and accountability today.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Charlotte.

Next we have Steven followed by Rose.

Good afternoon, council members, and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

My name's Steven Kovac.

I'm a business representative with the IBW Local 77. I represent nearly 1,300 city workers and more than 700 at Seattle City Light.

My members have been devastated by the news of mayors replacing the CEO of Seattle City Light, Don Lindell.

Don has earned the respect of our members, their willingness to talk with them directly, and a clear understanding of the work they do and what's required to keep that work going safely and reliably.

Dawn is the first CEO in roughly 45 years who has truly changed the culture at Seattle City Light.

She has moved swiftly to address poor behavior and just as quickly to identify both the current and future needs of the City of Seattle in the rapidly changing energy market.

She's the first CEO who has consistently listened to employees who've been sounding the alarm for years about aging infrastructure, lack of capacity, and the urgent need for new substations.

Without the kind of leadership Dawn has provided, Seattle will be at risk of future blackouts and brownouts.

Her approach to leadership has won over the vast majority of the employees at Seattle City Light.

There are some detractors.

A small number of employees are upset that she expects regular attendance and accountability.

Other departments have criticized her for delays in providing power to new, low-income housing construction.

But in at least one highly publicized case, when our workers arrived to install the meters, the contractor had not even completed the meter room.

You can't install meters into thin air.

They tend to fall on the ground and break.

These are the voices opposing Dawn Lindell.

In contrast, nearly 98% of City Light employees appreciate the work she has done, and on their behalf, I ask that the council push the mayor to retain Dawn Lindell.

Thank you, Steven.

Next we have Rose, followed by Ora, Olive, and Alex.

Hi, Rose.

Hello.

This last week, we saw the unconscionable murder of Alex Peretti.

This is something that has riled up the people in Seattle and in the United States in a way I have not seen since the summer of 2020. People realize that the idea of nonviolent protest still is getting us killed, but still, I am still seeing people in Seattle stand up anyway, I am saying your average wine moms, your old ladies that are all showing up and willing to put their bodies on the line to make sure that other people are safe.

I have in my pocket over there, a bunch of whistles that people are passing out all throughout the city and are coordinating in order to make sure our community members are safe because they realize what's on the line.

The thing that the people do not understand is why does the city council also not recognize this?

We had 80 people show up at a town hall last night, hoping to speak with Mayor Wilson about ICE.

And every single one of them was like, why aren't our city officials talking and doing anything about what should be happening?

We've had lots of nice words talking about how people care about the loss of life.

But if there's no action, it doesn't matter to these communities.

We are having people that have escaped here to Seattle because they know that this is the one place that in 2020, people stood up against authority.

and whether or not you like that chop happen, there's discriments on that for sure.

People have taken that as an inspiration that people will fight back no matter what.

And if the city council refuses to do so, people are going to have to take things into their own hands.

We don't need to have the blood of martyrs and fascists mulling together in the streets of Seattle and pouring into the sound because the city council refuses to do things.

But if people know that no one's standing for them and they're gonna get shot for being nonviolent, then they might start shooting back.

This is what the reality of it is of being in Seattle.

We are not going to stand by idly and let our neighbors being taken.

It is on you to make this better for all of us.

Do something.

You all can, you have the power and we expect it of you.

Thank you, Rose.

Next we have...

Did I say your name right?

Ora.

Ora, thank you.

Followed by Olive and then Alex, welcome.

Hi, my name's Ora.

I'm here with the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

I'm here to urge you to walk back the surveillance ordinances.

Not only are they a threat to our privacy from government surveillance, these systems are dangerously insecure, and the problems aren't just limited to flock cameras.

The systems behind Axon automated license plate readers had a breach back in 2016. Genetech Security Center had an administrative break that happened in 2025 last year.

and many of these issues are so simple that an ordinary person and not just a skilled hacker could figure these out and access live and recorded video feeds and sensitive location data in less than five minutes.

The Real-Time Crime Center centralizes this data into a single view creating a single point of failure.

This means residents' movements, routines, and associations are just one breach away from exposure.

Bad actors can use this information to stalk, kidnap, murder, or otherwise prey upon innocent people and even children.

These systems exponentially increase the potential for harm to the people of Seattle, and the data is being exploited by federal law enforcement, ICE, and DHS agents nationwide to track potential targets and plan movements.

Even if the current policies limit data sharing and cooperation, the systems are incredibly insecure and easy for anyone to gain access to.

and many of these companies are quite literally live streaming our movements to the modern-day Gestapo and these contracts directly contradict Seattle's commitment to being a welcoming city and a sanctuary city with an obligation to keep civilians safe at all costs.

We're asking Mayor Wilson to cancel contracts now, and we are asking you as city councilors to take concrete steps toward ending this oppressive surveillance system legislatively.

Seattle should not expand and should seek to scale back surveillance that is both insecure and harmful.

I urge you to take this action to end this surveillance system.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ara.

Next we have...

Next we have Olive followed by Alex Moore and then Jonathan.

Welcome, Olive.

Either mic works, no worries at all.

Hello, my name is Olive.

Council members, the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is here to face you again.

Last time we were here, we demanded that you get the surveillance cameras taken down and that you take steps to kick ice out of our city.

Your words may seem like you are in solidarity with the people of Seattle, but your actions show us otherwise.

Only two of you vote against the surveillance in Soto Central District in Capitol Hill.

What we have seen in other cities is those same CCTV cameras being used by federal agencies such as ICE to target individuals who are undocumented and their other targets they deem worthy.

This same scenario will happen here in our city if you don't walk back the surveillance ordinances.

If you really care about all the people in Seattle, you will listen and act on our demands to end the surveillance and to stop enabling federal cops.

We want services, not surveillance.

ICE out of Seattle and end the surveillance now.

Thank you, Olive.

Next we have Alex followed by Jonathan.

Hello Alex.

Hi, hi council.

My name is Alex Moore.

I'm also here to urge you to walk back through surveillance ordinances.

I just want to start with telling you how my day has been so far.

I was at work.

I got no work done.

I had two calls with friends who were crying because their family members are being affected by the Gestapo arresting and disappearing their families.

I also was spending time making sure that I have secure contact information for my neighbors and my friends living in Capitol Hill, and I do not any longer feel safe in my neighborhood.

While we're asking Mayor Wilson to cancel contracts now, we are asking you as city councilors to take concrete steps toward ending this oppressive surveillance system legislatively.

Seattle should not expand and should seek to scale back surveillance that is both insecure and harmful.

I urge you to take action to end the surveillance system and to explicitly forbid access for the purpose of immigration enforcement.

To do this, I ask you to put a general resolution on the agenda next week in which the city commits to end the surveillance system and vote to pass it.

Until you take action on this issue, we all will be back at every meeting with more people.

We promise you that we will not stop until action is taken towards ending this oppressive surveillance.

We want to collaborate, but until you show your commitment, we will be here to show you ours.

Thank you for your time, and please don't let us down.

We are the people who you serve.

And again, we're gonna be back, so I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys a little better.

And yeah, shout out to all these people.

You guys are amazing.

Thank you, Alex.

Next we have Jonathan, followed by Kisa and then Del.

Welcome, Jonathan.

All right.

My name is Jonathan Tolello.

I'm the brand share of the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression.

And yeah, some context is that we have recently launched an ICE out of Seattle campaign.

And as such, I'm here to say that we need you all to walk back the surveillance cameras.

This data is exploited by federal law enforcement such as ICE and DHS agents.

And all these security systems directly contradict Seattle's commitment to being a welcoming city.

and Seattle is supposedly a sanctuary city and it should have an obligation to keep its civilians safe at all costs.

And as well as an organization that fights against police terror, we already know how SPD and ICE are collaborating to terrorize communities.

Like when SPD murdered Christian Nelson, we saw that two days later ICE hit the same area to kidnap people.

Shame.

While we are as well asking Mayor Wilson to cancel contracts, we are likewise asking you all to take concrete steps towards ending this oppressive surveillance systems as well.

And in this way, what we're asking is that you put a resolution on the agenda next week in which the city commits to end the surveillance systems and vote to pass it.

and as well, until you all take action on this issue, like I said, we have a campaign, we are going to come back each time we're organized, we're going to have more allies and we will not stop until we win and our demands is for us to have the surveillance cameras ended and as well, we want services, not surveillance, because this money that is being used to fund these cameras is directly coming out of the pockets of people when it should be using to fund them and take care of their general safety needs, not reinforce safety concerns about ICE and SPD.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Next we have Kisa, followed by Dell, and then Bennett.

Hello, I just want to thank you guys for allowing me to speak today.

My name is Kisa Vili.

I'm a lifelong resident of Seattle.

I've grown up in Seattle Public Schools and have cared about the Seattle community my entire life.

I want to urge you guys to stand up for our migrant communities and I also want to extend that.

to not just the migrant communities, but also to all the communities of color within Seattle.

We're not seeing an attack just on migrants, but we're seeing an attack on anybody that can be racially profiled or identified as a migrant.

And so this attack by ICE and attack by SPD is not just affecting people that have come to find sanctuary in Seattle, but also just anybody that has lived their entire life.

And so I just want to emphasize that this attack and this current movement against people that can be profiled as migrants is affecting an entirely large body of Seattle citizens.

And when I say citizens, I extend that to anybody of any legal status.

I mean people that are social citizens of Seattle.

I want to echo everything of everyone that has said before me.

I want to urge you guys to end the surveillance ordinances.

I think that that is a tangible step that you guys can take.

I understand that a lot of people come here and a lot of people are protesting for kind of larger societal change of wanting you guys to stand up against ICE, but in this case, that can be tangibly...

to work towards through the ending of those ordinances.

I also would like to see you guys as a legislative body to take steps to protect our migrant neighbors, people that are too scared to leave their houses to go to work because of fear of deportation, to support them through protecting our transit, protecting our services like hospitals, making sure that ICE and this

Thank you, Kisa.

Next we have Dell, followed by Bennett, followed by Carolyn, Ms. Malone.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dell Johnson.

I'm an engineer that has worked at three different utilities, currently at Seattle City Light, 27-year resident of the city of Seattle and a member of ProTech 17. I am deeply concerned about the termination of Dawn Lindell.

I'm here to ask that you intervene on behalf of City Light employees and customers and work to get her reinstated to her job.

In just the last 10 years, Seattle City Light has had six general managers.

That level of turnover is not normal.

and is not healthy.

It is destabilizing for employees, prevents any long-term planning, and ultimately, our customers pay the price.

Every other utility head in Puget Sound region has had their CEO in place for six to eight years.

This should not be a political job.

Donna Lindell brought stability at a time when City Light really needed it.

She led us through the process to create a 10-year strategic plan to address the real long-standing problems at the utility.

She led the utility through these incidents, even though these incidents happened before she was in the job.

Instead of blaming others or avoiding responsibility, she faced the issues head-on and led us through a cultural change, starting from the ground up.

City Light has huge challenges ahead.

Aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance, including neighborhoods with direct buried underground cable, there's years behind this useful life.

We're seeing outages even on calm days.

with no wind or storms.

These are not political problems.

These are real infrastructure issues that won't be solved overnight, and they cannot be solved when leadership is constantly changing.

Every time a general manager has removed, progress stalls, projects are delayed, morale drops, and our customers pay the price, Darn has stepped up and made commitments to customers, employees that these issues would be fixed, that we would get help, and that City Light would be put on a stable path forward, removing her, undermines that work, and sends a message that long-term solutions don't matter.

For the first time in a long time, people believe that change is possible.

City Light customers will pay the price of the stability at the top.

We're saying Darnedale is the right thing to do for City Light, for employees, and for the peoples of Seattle who will help state provide for power every day.

Thank you, Dale.

Next we have Bennett, followed by Carolyn, Ms. Malone, excuse me, and then Bradley.

Welcome Bennett.

Good afternoon.

So, Council President Hollingsworth, I absolutely believe that you are very sincere in wanting to be accessible to people who have questions and things they want to say.

I'm brainstorming and trying to think of a way to make that manageable and scalable going forward to give people a way to bring stuff to your attention.

I've been looking at the rules for City Council public comment Section 11, subsection C and D, there are rules like you have to stick to the time limit, you can't address the audience, you can't use it to campaign for public office, but there is no rule that says you cannot stop speaking and give a council member time to answer a question.

The clock keeps running, so you have to give them part of your time, but there is no rule that says you cannot do that.

So in the interest of facilitating discussion on this and other issues, let's try something.

Joy, how are you doing?

I'm fine, thank you Bennett.

You're fine?

Okay.

How are you?

I'm fine as well.

So what about something that Ms. Philippe, the first public commenter, brought up about the issue of presentations that contain identifiable information such as visible faces or tattoos of people who have been victims of trauma.

Would you be open to at least trying to get buy-in on an informal rule right now and maybe a formal rule for presenters going forward that if you have presentations that depict people who are victims of trauma, who would not want to be identified, and if it doesn't particularly advance the point of their presentation, can you ask them to blur out faces and blur out identifiable tattoos of people who are visible in the presenter's materials?

Do you think that would be something you'd be open to?

So, thank you, Bennett.

I'm cool with just saying hello back and forth, but can take this offline to talk about those issues.

or else everyone is going to have a conversation with us during public comment.

I mean, that's the thing, but as long as it sticks to the two-minute limit, it doesn't disrupt the proceedings.

Understood.

You can still do that.

Thank you, Bennett.

I appreciate you educating us on being very creative about the go-around rules as well.

Thank you so much.

Ms. Malone followed by Bradley and then followed by Mr. Gale.

and on February 18th, I will be hauled back into eviction court at my advanced age because of rogue racist Seattle cops in my housing that I protest against and the manager.

I should not, year after year, 22, 2022, 2023, 2024 have to deal with going into court to defend my right to remain in my secure house and people are working overtime to keep others in house and police on behalf of the manager or in collusion with the manager are trying to evict me from my house and using an unlawful detainer concoction.

And what they do is simply return my money order each month and claim I'm in unlawful detainment.

So I maintain the money orders, go to court, wrote to court and present my case.

This should not be happening because Seattle police have no right to occupy space in senior housing.

We are not criminals.

They are.

They created a hostile, volatile environment, whereas the remote control taken away from seniors, ping pong table, taken away the library and computers, Seattle police use threats of eviction trying to control me, keep me in line.

And the more they threaten me, I push back.

So I implore, all of you council members and agency official heads and investigators to come in and see the disarray of my housing that I've been compelled to live in because I protest legitimately against police.

Thank you, Ms. Malone.

Next we have Bradley, followed by Howard Gale, followed by Gabriel Jones.

Welcome Bradley.

Good afternoon, City Council.

My name is Bradley Dosh.

I live in Capitol Hill.

I am also here to request the withdrawal of their surveillance systems here in Seattle that ISU is using to terrorize our neighborhoods.

It honestly feels like we're asking for the bare minimum are we asking for too much?

We've all seen the violence in Minnesota.

We see it live streamed to our phones every single day.

I know you see it as well.

We're not aware of it.

On Sunday, just here in Shoreline, not too far away from here, on Aurora, another man was abducted by ICE.

This is an area that's also heavily surveilled.

And I want to make the point that these ICE engines are not acting in a vacuum.

They're not acting alone.

We enable them.

We provide technology resources for them.

And all we're asking is that as a city, we can stop enabling them, stop giving them these resources.

They don't have any skills on their own.

They rely heavily on surveillance systems overall.

And I think Seattle can do its part in taking these down.

People are out rallying every day at the federal building.

I've been there.

People are angry.

And this seems like a very actionable step.

For the man that was abducted on Sunday, there's a GoFundMe.

There's already over $20,000 donated.

We are all taking care of each other.

We're taking care of our neighbors.

We're asking for you in power to do the same.

This is just another upward transfer of wealth from us, the people, upward to those with power and with money.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Bradley.

Next we have Mr. Howard Gill, Gabriel Jones, and Mish.

Good afternoon, Howard Gale, 36th District Democrats.

So yesterday at a news conference, State Attorney General Nick Brown said, quote, state and local law enforcement do not have to simply watch or look away if the law is being violated.

If they see somebody being assaulted unlawfully or attacked unlawfully or otherwise having their legal rights violated, we do not expect state and local officers to simply watch or do nothing.

This is precisely what we put in front of you for the last few months from the 36 District Democrats, asking that Seattle Police actively and affirmatively protect people's Fourth Amendment rights.

I do not understand why this is not being acted on.

This is extremely urgent for the obvious reasons, but in addition, We have seen, and I've actually emailed and talked to some of you about this, we've seen repeated incidents in the last few months of Seattle police acting inappropriately in these instances.

And this is before ICE has gotten here.

So in Columbia City, we saw a man with a gun strapped to his waist, hassling and trying to gin up right-wing sentiment on Somali daycares in South Seattle.

when the police, about a dozen police showed up, and when they came there, they basically let the guy go, even though there was a credible report from a community member that he actually did brandish a gun, that he actually did display the gun.

In September, when people in West Seattle expressed concern about the same right-wing YouTuber being an ICE official, they simply laughed about it.

So again, this is important, protecting our Fourth Amendment rights, and let me just say, As a Jew who lost family members in the Holocaust, today is International Day of Commemoration for victims of the Holocaust.

I'm going to go over a little bit, but two things I have to say about that.

Obviously, what's happening this last year is not a Holocaust or a genocide, but it absolutely is the precursor.

It's an example of the dehumanization that happens that leads up to a Holocaust and a genocide.

And the second thing I want to say is...

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Next we have Gabriel, Mish, Julie, and A-H-I-E-S.

I don't know if I can say, I apologize.

Gabriel, welcome.

Howdy folks, my name is Gabriel Diaz.

Sorry, I'm still getting used to using my married name now, which is kind of cool.

And I'm here to speak today about Cal Anderson protests and SPD again.

Now, since a group of us went to council last week, a few council members reached out to the people who were assaulted that day, and one or two more agreed to meet when I reached out to them.

However, absent from those conversations and people who reached out are many of the people who voted to approve this BOG contract when many spoke about how this contract did not hold police accountable.

I want you to think about how people would feel with that, being beaten, tackled, dehumanized, and then seeing those officers get massive raises across the board.

The people from that day want to hear what you plan to do to hold these officers and SPD accountable.

The people want to hear how you plan to keep us safe from ICE and SPD.

I will repeat the demands of the victims of that day to fire officers Matthew Didier and Larry Longley and that further investigations are done as OPA has done very little to hold officers accountable as most complaints were dismissed and the ones that were accepted were of the lowest possible thing.

I along with the other victims of that day will be reaching out to each and every council member again to see where they stand and if they will fight for queer Seattleites.

We want to hear back from you and have these conversations to stand up for Seattleites who just want to live their lives.

I got another 40 seconds here so I'm also going to say that we need to fight back against ICE.

I am hearing right now I'm going to leave this council to go up to Aurora because we're hearing of raids in Aurora where one of my good friends who is Korean American went to hide in a gym because she feels scared to be out there and get stopped.

This is the reality for so many Seattleites who are just walking down the street and all of a sudden they are fearful of their safety.

They're fearful of being detained or shot.

I will not stop standing up and I'm asking you guys to fight with us.

Either fight with us or fight against us, but either way, we are not done until ICE is abolished.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gabriel.

Congratulations on your marriage as well.

Next, we have Mish, Julie, and then Ahils.

I can't pronounce that name.

I apologize.

Hi, Mish.

Hi.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Mish Vergara.

I am chairperson of Malaya Movement Seattle, which is a member organization of the Tango Migrante Movement and Defend Migrants Alliance.

And I'm also a community member of the Beacon Hill neighborhood in South Seattle.

I want to talk about witnessing the terror and fear that ICE has really caused so many communities in Seattle, including South Seattle.

I want to talk about how ICE kidnapped a beloved Beacon Hill neighbor, Jose, separating him from his family and his food truck business.

I have witnessed how ICE has forced entire migrant families to self-deport, including a mother named Darlene and her young children.

and exactly one week ago from today, I and around a dozen other neighbors rushed to Cleveland High School because they went into shutdown because the threat of ICE in the neighborhood was so big that they needed to take measures to protect their students, them and six other Seattle Public Schools.

we really should be invoking that spirit of the Seattle Public Schools, of the teachers and the students and the families who take a stand and take action to protect their migrant communities.

We need to end the $1 million funding that is enabling the surveillance measures that continue to perpetuate ICE's fascist attacks and human rights violations.

We need to redirect these funds from the policing to go into actual services that our communities need, like housing, like jobs, like education, services that our migrant communities desperately need.

I really urge the city of Seattle to decisively keep ICE out of our city, to take a stand and end all collaborations with SPD that enable these fascist attacks, and to invest in services and not surveillance, and then finally to work with grassroots migrant organizations to really serve our communities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mish.

Next we have Julie, followed by Agiles.

Hi, Julie, welcome.

Hi, I'm here to speak about the dismissal of Don Lindell.

I am a resident and rate payer since 1977, a city employee for over 30 years.

13 of those in the middle was with City Light.

And I just wanna talk about the hiring process for Don.

It was a very transparent public process.

It was extensive.

It involved the public, obviously, the commissions that work with City Light, employees and unions.

The city finally gets a CEO who understands the utility infrastructure and business and is not just some utility bean counter, who deals with a decades-long harassment issue that everyone's been kicking down the road, and she gets fired and replaced with a political appointee.

This is going to cost city ratepayers lots of money.

and it's done before the World Cup, which is crazy.

And they have billions of dollars in capital projects they're planning and working on right now involving underground power lines replacements, new substations that are needed for power stability.

It's incredibly irresponsible if we let this stand.

It will be one of the biggest mistakes of this administration.

And please work to retain Don Lindell.

Power is not a political plaything.

Thank you, Julie.

Next, A-H-I-E-S.

A-H-I-E-S.

No, okay.

Is it Aries?

A-R, Aries.

Sorry, I thought that was an H.

My bad.

Thank you, Aries, for that correction.

I'm sorry.

Thank you and welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you council members.

I just wanna like implore you to like see it from our point of view.

We're people.

It doesn't matter what skin color, what race, what anything is.

We're people just like you.

So we're asking you and we're imploring you to help us.

That's your job.

And you might not see it the same way we do, but like, You might, sorry, you might be seeing like, well, I mean, that's happening in Minnesota, not here, not yet.

So we're asking in advance to help us to stop this from happening in our city.

Sorry.

You're okay.

I think that's all.

I just...

What's happening isn't right, and I'm pretty sure you guys know that too.

And if you do, it's just love your neighbor as yourself.

We're all human.

We need to do something.

We need ICE out now.

We need protection for our community.

We need our surveillance back.

We need to make sure that It's just creepy, it's weird.

Like we said, if we don't get what happened, if we don't get it now, we're gonna continue to come back.

We're gonna continue to plead with you.

It might not be a demand.

We're asking you now to help us because it will become a demand.

It will grow.

We're asking you now to help us.

we'll continue to come back and we'll continue to say the same things until you guys listen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Aries.

Next we have Nathan Wall followed by, and thank you for whoever wrote this to help me enunciate your name, Aura Lee.

Aura Lee, and then we have Mr. Zimmerman and then Ms. Dynish.

I'm Mr. Wall.

All right, thank you.

I can imagine that for some of you it's been hard to go to work this month, because I know it's been that way for me.

It's hard to live your life and close your eyes and see these pictures and these videos run through your head.

I know that I'm not the only one here.

it's horrible what happened in Minneapolis and this is Minnesota is a great state this is not what what they deserve so we stand with Minnesota we stand with Maine we stand with Oregon we stand with Chicago and LA and DC I agree with the people that asked City Council to reconsider the CCTV bill I think we I think that we should pause this program until such time as we are not under such a direct threat, and then we should reopen it for another discussion.

because I think that we are risking something by continuing to let this stay in place while all of this is going on across the country.

So I just ask, you know, please just reconsider it.

I'd also like to ask some more of you to show up to these protests.

I've seen some of you there and I really appreciate it.

Some people might not appreciate you being there.

I'm not one of them.

I appreciate anyone that's willing to show up.

I will work with anybody that is interested in stopping this fascist takeover of our country.

With my last 25 seconds, I will say to all the Trump supporters that are watching right now, they're probably not watching right now, if any Trump supporter is watching right now and you voted for this and this feels wrong, it's important that you speak up and say something.

It's never too late to say that you're sorry and that you were wrong.

but if this bothers you, it is important that you speak up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nathan.

Aura Lee, followed by Mr. Zimmerman and Ms. Dynish.

Welcome.

Good afternoon chair and members.

My name is Arlie Rose.

I live on First Hill.

I'm Pacific Northwest native, Ottawa, and I work for the Puyallup tribe as I got my education and I was raising my daughter.

I have a connection to this land.

I was here this last year and I'm here again today to raise serious concerns about ongoing harassment.

potential misuse of authority that I've experienced since 2021, and I believe it may involve a King County Sheriff's Department employee, which I would disclose in a private setting.

These incidents have included what I would say is classified weapon systems, resulting in intense physical pain burn marks, multiple hospitalizations, permanent disability, and significant shortened lifespan.

This has severely impacted my ability to care for my 15-year-old autistic son, Marcus.

I have no criminal record, no history of problematic behavior, and no apparent reason for such targeting, except perhaps my family's historical ties to the Manhattan Project, though, through my grandparents, which may have long-term scrutiny.

But today it's here at the UW with the Radio Chemistry Fellows.

and they get to handle the next gen of weapons and surveillance tech.

It's not history anymore.

It's homework for everybody in Seattle.

If unchecked power lands in violent hands, none of us are safe.

I have filed a formal complaint.

I'm requesting a thorough investigation by the Sheriff's Internal Investigations Unit, OLIO, to these allegations of misconduct, potential abuse of surveillance and advanced technologies and violations of my civil rights.

This is a matter of urgent public safety accountability and protection against government overreach.

Issues that echo a long-standing abuse is highlighted by Jim Jordan in the committee's section 702. 10,000 have queried to the database.

10,000 can query.

10,000!

When Jim Jordan found this out...

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next, we have Mr. Zimmerman, followed by Yvette Dynish, and then we will switch to our online.

Thank you.

Very appreciate it.

Where is my face?

Oh, good, super.

Yeah, my name, Alex Zimmerman, and I come today because I didn't speak about something, but as I spoke in Seattle for 30 years, Nobody listen to me.

Kill people is no good.

It's not matter who doing this.

ICE, Gestapo, KGB, policemen, or consul.

And I give you classic example.

ICE kill only one person, one, maybe two.

In America, 330 million people.

Every year, for last 20 plus year, Homeless people dying in Seattle.

500 dying per year.

500 dying per year.

I'm talking about this a dozen times.

Did this freaking idiot go for demonstration?

I never hear about this.

Why they don't go for demonstration?

Why they care about somebody?

One or two, maybe.

It's happened.

It's a business.

But here, every year, 500...

Homeless, dying.

Who kills these people?

You kill these people.

You are Nazi.

You are Bardito.

You killer.

And mayor, for 20 years, we have a dozen mayor or half dozen mayor.

There's something doing for this.

This is very simple.

I told you many times, fixed homelessness, 15,000 people who dying in the street, 500, very simple, no one consul doing this, no all you doing this is go for 30 years, no one mayor doing this, a new mayor what has come, she's a pure freaking idiot.

they socialists, they communists, so why communists?

A Nazi can kill people for free?

Can you answer me for this very simple question?

Why this happen?

Who's killer?

You, a Nazi pig.

Viva Trump, viva new American revolution, stand up, slave and happy cow.

Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman.

Next we have Miss Yvette Dynish, welcome.

I'm telling you.

Good afternoon, council members.

I was late because I was at the King County Council meeting.

And that was interesting in that they had a proclamation regarding an organization that works to prevent our sex workers on Aurora Avenue.

And it occurred to me that one way for financial self-sufficiency is a well-paying job.

And one of the ways to get there is through on-the-job paid training, which is how I came up to the ranks with a telephone company from being a telephone operator.

That tells you how old I am.

to be a PBX installer, to being a network engineer when the internet was in its infancy.

All that was paid on the job training.

So I encourage the council to fund and come up with programs that will provide such training.

And council member Strauss, I wanted to meet with you on ideas on how to come up with a workshop or program method to teach people how to manage their, what income they do have, so they don't end up unhoused or on the street.

And I appreciate it.

We can talk later.

So that's all I have for today.

And thank you for your service.

Oh, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Yvette.

Next, we'll...

We'll go remote and then we'll come back to do our in-person speakers.

We have the rest of in-person.

So we have three online.

We have Dahlia Perez, followed by David Haynes and Alberto Alvarez.

Please press.

And a reminder.

Yes, thank you.

The reminder to please press star six after you've heard the message that you have been unmuted.

and go ahead, Dahlia Perez.

Hi, thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Dahlia Perez.

I'm a scholar and educator at the University of Washington.

I'm the daughter of immigrant and refugee parents who met here in Seattle, and I stand with all the previous speakers today who called for the abolishment of ICE and protection of Seattle as a sanctuary city.

I reside on 35th Avenue Southwest in the High Point neighborhood of West Seattle in Rob Saka's jurisdiction and I'm here today to speak about urgent safety concerns in our neighborhood.

I've sent many emails along with a collective of neighbors about the intensely high speeds that people drive on on 35th Avenue Southwest through the High Point neighborhood which is a densely populated neighborhood with many children and families.

It's a four-lane street and despite speed meters, no one respects the speed limit.

We understand that over a decade ago there was a child that was hit and killed at this intersection, which was the cause for a light at our four-way intersection.

But we see people daily drive through the red light and barreling at super high speeds.

So as a parent of two Seattle school kids, one of them a first grader who walks across the street with dozens of families to Fairmount Park Elementary School every day.

I'm very concerned of the reckless driving and speeds that people drive along this road and I hope that we get a response from our many emails that we have sent to SDOT and Rob Saka's office calling for an immediate installation of a safety plan and a road diet for 35th Ave Southwest through the High Point neighborhood, and we hope that you work with us to protect our community.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Dalia.

Next, we have David Haynes, followed by Alberto Alvarez.

Star six, David.

You're still on mute.

Just go ahead and press start.

There you go.

Hi, thank you.

David Haynes.

We have different years for voting council members into office.

The council acts like they are just starting up, getting ready to begin again.

While Bruce Harrell's leftover policies exacerbated public safety and homelessness are still baked into the 26 budget.

Yet the city council doesn't have anything of substance on their calendar and their committees have nothing about approving laws still needed from years ago.

It's just more talking about horrible things that are ongoing while virtue signaling distractions from their infractions with a bleeding heart, filling in the blanks, vicariously living in the Nazi past, conjuring up a tragedy of a long time ago when people didn't speak up about atrocities, so their offspring and others now act like they're finally speaking up in violent ways.

And yet it turns out there's a lot of evil customs violating criminals that make it unsafe for innocent citizens and migrants.

who are being scaremongered by the wrong people in charge, button-pushing voting blocks of racists, perverts, and hate, and scornless experiences.

If the city and the county were willing to turn over the actual criminal customs-violating murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug-pushing cartel participants, then maybe ICE would move on.

But you all are going to try and protect the evil criminals and release them from jail and let them go on the run in the sanctuary city while wanting to copycat the same bad policies of Minnesota, triggering agitators and protesters to get violent.

That justifies more subpoenas if you want to get in the national news.

If you want to be in the resistance with your ignorant insistence, maybe you all should be jailed, and the police chief should go to jail along with the governor and the attorney general, getting ratings, button pushing the oppressed.

The Council would rather act like the federal government is the biggest threat, as if they're Nazis playing with fire, like we're living vicariously through the Nazi journey of times, where nobody spoke up.

You know, George Soros has a lot to do with why this country is being misled, and same with the media.

Shame on you people for button-pushing these empty locks.

Thank you, David.

Next we have Alberto Alvarez and then we'll bounce back into the public comment for in person.

Just star six, Alberto.

Thank you.

As a member of the Hispanic community, I want to raise the alarm and point out Marita Rivera on city council is not our speaker, nor is she defending those affected by the federal terror campaign.

Rivera has cherry-picked immigrant voices that coincide with her actions and decisions to surveil people across the city.

For over a year and countless meetings with Hamdi Mohammed of the Office of Immigrants and Refugee Affairs, Rivera has proposed no action plan not a single piece of legislation no move whatsoever to defend black or brown people whether citizens or immigrants at best she is dragging her feet on recommendations or worse ignoring actions this council can take at the local level stop wasting time If Rivera is too stupid or lazy to do anything about what's going on, we need new people to work with OIRA that can initiate an action plan.

Freedom is unstoppable when we work together.

Thank you all and have a good day.

Thank you Alberto, and we'll go back into our in-person.

We have one last person, Kevin Telles?

The two L's are silenced, my bad.

Kevin Telles, I said it right?

Welcome.

Thank you for coming.

Alright, my time is going.

I'd like to give a shout out to God, Jesus Christ, for bringing me here today, giving me the breath of life and the strength to come here and walk here.

The only reason why I found out about this meeting was because I saw it on social media, a media outlet.

and it was at the very last second at like one o'clock, hopped in the shower, I got further, got here quick, you know?

And I want that to serve as an example for our police force too, you know?

When we see a problem, we gotta take action, we have to find a solution, and then we have to execute it.

Something that I've been saying on my social media posts is saying like, oh, these media outlets don't represent what the city of Seattle is about.

And when I look at the councils, I see diversity.

If we go to the federal government to Congress, you're not going to find this.

These people are using propaganda media outlets to push this narrative that all brown people are criminals and they're gonna keep doing this propaganda over and over again and so my goal is to be a representative of Washington, go to Washington D.C.

on Washington's behalf and to push for actual change because I understand that change happens at the federal level, not the state level has its responsibilities of course and if it were up to me, I would tell the police, hey, we need to collaborate better with the military because the corruption comes from the inside.

When I told the police about the corruption coming from the inside, they too laughed at me and they looked at me like I was crazy, like I was a joke.

And quite frankly, I find that disrespectful because this is Duwamish land and Chief South had a goal to bring all of us together in the holy name.

God, I'm trying to bring my people together.

Thank y'all for listening.

I'll see y'all later.

God bless.

God bless.

Thank you, Kevin Teyes.

I just want to just double check and scan the room.

Are there any more people that want to speak today that have not spoken already?

Okay, so we have, yes, I'm sorry, come on up.

Just sign up there and then you can go ahead and speak.

Hello, City Council.

My name is Keandre Lucas, and I'm originally from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

I live here in Seattle now.

I'm allying here with Sharper because back home, in my small town of 20,000 people, my police department is working with ICE.

A parent was kidnapped who had a child that went to my high school.

A local restaurant that was a pillar in the community has shut down because the owner could not risk his employee of getting kidnapped.

I'm here to ask you today to do everything you can to stop the inevitable boots on the ground when ICE invades, and please cancel the audience of the surveillance.

Please don't end up like New Hampshire.

Please don't end up like my city.

We cannot have ICE terrorizing the communities that we've built.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Just scanning the room one more time.

Is there any more people that have not spoken that wanted to register to speak?

Okay, awesome.

So we have, oh, and you're gonna write your name on there so we have a record.

Thank you so much.

We have reached the end of list of registered speakers.

The public comment period is now closed.

I wanna thank you all for your comments today, taking off work, jumping, looking, finding something on social media, jumping out the shower and coming straight down here.

Anything that you did to get down here, just wanna thank you all for coming.

and now we're gonna move on to our council business and if there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

We're now gonna consider the proposed consent calendar Items of the consent calendar include the minutes of January 20, 2026 and council bill 121-156 payment of the bills.

Are there any other count items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved in second to adopt the consent calendar.

will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?

Council member Lynn?

Yes.

Council member Rink?

Yes.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council member Sacca?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Aye.

Council member Foster?

Yes.

Council member Juarez?

Aye.

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

9 in favor, none opposed.

The consent calendar items are adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation of the consent calendar on my behalf?

There are no committee reports for presentation today.

There have been no items removed from the consent calendar.

There's also not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

is there any further business to come before the council?

And I believe Council Member Rivera has a PSRC Growth Management Policy Board letter in support of Governor Ferguson's budget proposal for Washington State Ferries.

Council Member Rivera, you are recognized to tell us about the letter.

Thank you, Council President Hollingsworth.

Colleagues, as you may know, as Council President said, I'm a member of the Puget Sound Regional Council Growth Management Committee.

The PSRC has asked me to bring a letter for your consideration.

PSRC is asking local elected officials to consider signing on to a letter in support of Governor Ferguson's bond proposal to allocate $1.1 billion to the purchase and maintenance of three new hybrid electric ferries.

My office sent an email with details to your offices last week and shared a copy of the letter.

As you know, colleagues, ferries are critical to our region's transportation needs.

These particular three ferries are replacing ferries that need replacing because of natural wear and tear and end of life, and since they need to be replaced.

It's important that we are being mindful of climate change, obviously, and this is why the hybrid ferry proposal.

In this last legislative session, I'll also add that there is funding for another three ferries that are being phased out to replace them with hybrids.

So this is the direction the state has been trying to go in, ever mindful of climate change.

because this is an online letter, colleagues, there is a specific process to sign on, so let me tell you what that is.

After our discussion, the roll will be called for those council members who would like their signatures affixed to it.

The deputy city clerks will contact the council members' offices confirming their council member has agreed to have their signatures affixed to the letter.

The designated council member staff will add their council member's name to the online letter that my team will send after this meeting.

The link will send the link after this meeting.

and then the deputy chief clerks will file the letter with council members' signatures.

Colleagues, happy to answer any questions.

Open this up for discussion and I'll try my best to answer your questions.

Colleagues, anything up for discussion about the letter?

Council member Kettle.

I appreciate the letter and Council Member Rivera bringing it up, but it's long-standing practice.

I don't do sign-on letters, although I'm happy to do my own letter, which I will sign and send to Governor Ferguson, but I don't want to get caught up in sign-on letters and saying yes and no to different people, so that's my practice.

I just want to explain why you'll not hear me say yes in terms of signing on.

Thank you councilman.

Will you sign on to a letter saying I'm your favorite council member?

Okay.

There's no need to sign that letter, everybody knows.

Are there any other comments regarding the PSRC growth management policy letter in support of Governor Ferguson's budget proposal before we call signatures?

or before we take the roll to call the signature.

No.

Okay.

Seeing if there's no further discussion of the letter, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the letter?

Council member Lynn.

Yes.

Council member Rink.

Yes.

Council member Rivera.

Aye.

Council member Saka.

Aye.

Council member Strauss.

Aye.

Council member Foster.

Yes.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

No.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Eight signatures will be affixed.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

So eight signatures will be affixed to the letter.

Thank you.

Are there any more other items?

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

As stated many times, we do listen to public comment and also comments coming from a lot of different directions.

And I just wanted to say, as chair of the Public Safety Committee, we have many public safety challenges in our city and county and region.

And we're tackling these head on.

And my approach is to do it with our strategic framework plan being very pragmatic and hit it.

as it needs to be hit in terms of accomplishing the goals of creating a safe base in our city.

I do want, though, to say that, you know, and that includes commercial sex exploitation and sex trafficking.

We need to tackle it because it's still a problem.

As noted today, you know, we have right on our streets the second longest in the entire country what we have on Aurora.

and so we do need to tackle these problems, like we have to tackle other problems facing our city.

But at the same time, I do recognize that these can be difficult and there's different factors going into this.

And so I wanted to recognize the public commenters who spoke to this issue, because it is really important.

I also want to recognize my colleague, Councilmember Rink, and say yes, you know, the ethics of certain decisions are also important.

I did engage the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and for different reasons in terms of that we've went forward on a very important topic where we do need to make, we have to make changes.

We have to accomplish creating a safe base for these children usually that are on our streets and to include Aurora.

But the ethical piece is something to be considered too and so We need to tackle the problem, but I do apologize that our concern regarding the ethical piece of that.

And I've asked my team to work with the clerks, because I'm not sure what's possible in terms of masking to the point, still get the message across, still get the ugliness in what's happening to our people on our streets, but at the same time, mass to the ability so that we can help protect it.

And I'm not sure what's possible related to the clerk's parliamentary procedure, but I just wanted to note this and note the comments coming.

My goal in this is to tackle the problem and do so.

But I do recognize the points and I do appreciate both here on the dais and now public comment, the concerns, because it's very valid, very important, and something that should be addressed.

And so I just wanted to make that statement.

Thank you, council president.

No worries.

Thank you, council member Kettle.

Are there any other items to come before the council with colleagues?

Okay.

So we have reached the end of the agenda.

The next city council meeting is going to be February 3rd at 2 PM.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you.