Seattle City Council 12132021

Wonderful.

Thank you, son, so much.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome back.

The December 13th, excuse me, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will now come to order.

It's 2.02 PM.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, president of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Present.

Mosquera?

Present.

Peterson?

Present.

Strauss?

Present.

Herbold?

Here.

Juarez?

Here.

Council President Gonzalez?

Present.

Bate, present.

Thank you so much.

Presentations, there are no presentations today.

So we will move to approval of the minutes.

I'm so sorry, Madam President, to interrupt you.

I forgot to mention this morning that I do actually have a presentation.

And that's because it's related to a proclamation for you, Madam President.

Madam President, surprise!

We do have an item, and with your permission, I'd like to comment on the presentation in front of us today.

And do want to let you know, Madam President, we do have three guests in the audience that would also like to comment on those.

But with your permission, Madam President, I will take an opportunity on behalf of the council to surprise you with today's presentation.

I will not object.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, it is my honor on our behalf and with community behind us to offer today a proclamation honoring the work of Council President M Lorena Gonzalez and Team Lorena.

The council president and the team have done tremendous work and the proclamation in front of us notes their time in office over the last six years and the tremendous work they've done in collaboration with community and their unwavering dedication to making sure that we advance progressive values.

the proclamation in front of us today.

Colleagues, make sure that we note that Council President's service extends beyond Seattle City Council, beyond the city's borders, as noted by her, receiving and winning multiple national and local awards, recognizing her and her team's work for the service to the people of Seattle and the dedication to those who are most vulnerable, also getting national attention through awards and recognition.

The proclamation in front of us recognizes the council president for her first two years as council president, served with her chief of staff, Brianna Thomas, and her incredible team, Cody Ryder, Phineh Nguyen, and Maria Beltran to lead the council in developing rules and processes to protect our city, to protect city workers and the general public.

during the initial days of COVID and have led us steadfast through the last two years under her leadership in this time of COVID, which has been tremendously effective and very much inclusive.

And the proclamation recognizes that these unprecedented challenges have led to policies and procedures that have opened up transparency, have maintained the integrity of the council, and have made sure that our deliberations are public and accessible and equitable in access to committee meetings and engagement.

If I may, Madam President, I'd like to read the last three whereases.

I'm not seeing any objections, so I will continue.

Whereas Lorena Gonzalez and Team Lorena fostered an environment of respect for all residents of the city of Seattle, including small businesses, workers, and visitors.

And whereas Council President Gonzalez and her team worked to promote an affordable, livable, and resilient city through sponsorship of renter protection policies, investments into housing stability, vibrant walkable neighborhoods, and community climate resistance.

And whereas Council President Gonzalez and Team Lorena showed their commitment to workers, immigrants, and refugees, education, and good governance through leadership on policies such as secure scheduling, paid parental leave, a welcoming city, and the Clean Campaigns Act, among many other policies.

And this dedication to justice, equity, and fairness will continue to live on, emboldened in the laws of the Seattle City Council.

Now, therefore, on December 13, 2021, the Seattle City Council proclaims that we honor the service, dedication and impact on Seattleites and families everywhere.

Council President Gonzalez and the staff at Team Lorena.

Thank you for all you've done.

And Madam President, we do have, I'm sure, more comments from colleagues.

I have some quotes as well from the department that I'd be happy to share with you.

And as you can see from the screen, we have some guests in the audience as well.

So, Madam President, I know you probably didn't have this in your script, but I would very much like to move to suspend the rules to allow for the guests to make their comments with your approval, Council President.

Is there any objection to their request to suspend the rules?

This is a little awkward having to preside over this information, but you know.

It's 2021, why not?

Hearing no objection, our guests may proceed.

I'm going to hand it over to you, Council Member Mosqueda, to walk us through that order.

That's wonderful.

Thank you.

And again, very excited we were able to maintain this surprise.

Thank you, colleagues.

And thank you to community.

There was a number of people who wanted to call in today.

We just left it to three folks today and want to welcome Jorge Barron on behalf of NERP.

Thank you to Stefan Moritz from Unite Care Local 8 and Rich Stoltz, leader in the community on immigrant and refugee affairs, previously with One America.

Very happy that you three are with us, and I will turn it over to you to round out our presentation before we hand it over to colleagues, if that's okay, colleagues.

Okay.

Please go ahead.

Rich, I see you off mute if you'd like to go first.

Sure.

It's just a real privilege, Lorena, Council Member Gonzalez, to be able to to join in this effort to honor you and the work you've done.

I've had the opportunity to know you for quite some time and count myself lucky to be a colleague and a friend and admirer.

There's so many folks in the community that have been inspired by your work over the years, before you were on council and while you were in council, and are ready to see what you do next.

I wanted to just take a moment to recognize the legacy you will leave on constitutional policing, on worker rights, and on immigrant rights here in Seattle and across the region.

And it's been a hard last four years with the Trump administration, with COVID.

Case in point, I'm at CMR in White Center getting my booster shot as we speak.

I just wanted to recognize all of the hard work, your commitment, the sacrifices you've made, the experiences of being a woman of color, serving on the Seattle City Council, the trolls, and all the folks who did everything they could to harm and knock us off your vision.

I just wanted to share with you my deep appreciation and the appreciation So many folks that I've worked with over the years of the broader community in all that you've accomplished your commitment and all that you stood for.

So thank you, Lorena.

And it's a it's a real privilege.

Excellent, Stefan.

Well, dear Council President Gonzalez-Lorena, Katie Garrow asked me to represent the Labor Council here this afternoon, and I'm so proud to be able to do that.

I think the impact you've had on the labor community and on workers in our city has been profound.

From the work you've done for hotel workers, which obviously like you know it's very dear to my heart to the fair scheduling and you know.

your work on paid parental leave, both in the city and on the state level, right, all of that has made such a profound impact and, you know, I'm so lucky to be able to work with you along the way.

And I think what has always stood out to me and to all of us is, you know, that you've Taken your lived experiences and translated that into, you know, policy that that really is meaningful on an everyday basis and and, you know, have fought really hard for those policies and, you know, it's gonna last, the effects are gonna last for a long time.

And so, you know, sad to see you go, but also excited for what's next and, you know, don't be a stranger because there's a lot of work to do.

So thank you, Lorena.

And last but not least on our community, our recognition is Jorge Barro.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

And Council President González, I'm just honored to be part of one of the community members who have the opportunity to express our gratitude for your service in the City Council, for your leadership.

And I also want to acknowledge, you know, your team, because I know this is a team effort, what you've been able to accomplish in the last several years.

You know, you've heard, and I think one of the things that I wanted to express is how grateful we've been about the fact that during your term, and of course, during your time in the council, and just, you know, we, we anticipated that from the very beginning, of course, but how you've demonstrated your focus on ensuring that members of the community who are part of marginalized communities have access to services, have equitable access, have the tools they need to protect themselves and their families.

And of course, something that's close to my heart is the Legal Defense Fund that you helped to launch in 2017. That was a one of those big steps forward for our region and how it led to the state eventually launching something similar.

And, you know, Stefan said, you know, one of the things that I hope you take away is the fact that that legacy continues.

Right.

And that would be grateful that the legal defense will continue and now will be expanded because of your work this past year.

And I can't even count the number of families and individuals whose lives have been profoundly changed because of that.

Their lives will be changed forever.

And the work will continue through that partnership.

And of course, that's just one example of many policies that you've helped to initiate.

So on behalf of all those community members who might not get the chance to be able to express your gratitude in this setting, I wanted to be able to share that gratitude.

And as a city resident myself, just to be grateful because I know like all of you on the council, it takes a lot of hard work and you deal with very complicated issues.

But council president, thank you for being a strong leader for our community, and we are deeply grateful for that.

And we wish you the best of success in your next step in the future, which I know will be something wonderful.

So thank you so much.

Well, Council President, I'll just conclude my remarks by saying thank you as well to you for your service.

I want to thank the community panel for their comments.

I know my colleagues probably have some words to say as well.

And the community really summed it up.

I'll just state that Sejal Parikh had a huge hand in crafting this proclamation, so I want to thank her for her dedication to pulling this together and the community partners.

And she worked with IT and the clerks, and we got this all coordinated.

So just a few words from the clerks.

We've got some quotes for you.

The city clerk said that Council President and her team have led with incredible grace, courage, and resilience and inspired the same in each of us.

We're grateful for her overwhelming support of the clerks.

We don't take that support lightly, and we are appreciative of her confidence and trust that she has placed in our team.

From central staff, they say, thank you, Council President, for your leadership during this time.

We've been honored to serve with you, the council member.

Council President is sharp.

She has sharp policy chops and deep commitment to the well-being of staff behind the scenes.

From the Council Communications, they say Council President is a fierce advocate for community, for justice, and has an unshakable moral core that guided her policy and has a wicked sense of humor and unflappable work ethic.

And finally, from HR and Finance, they say Council President demonstrated an exceptional leadership to this historic public health emergency by making deliberative and thoughtful decisions that centered the overall wellness of the staff and their families.

So Madam President, with that, I will conclude my comments.

I'm sure our colleagues have some notes, but I will also note before we end this piece, we do have to put you in the awkward position of also letting folks have a chance to sign, since we weren't able to do that this morning.

I'll be gladly signing on, and I want to thank my colleagues as well for joining us in this huge surprise today.

In the last-ditch surprise, I see that there are now remarks in my script telling me what I need to say next.

So apparently what I'm supposed to say next is, are there any further comments from council members before we request the signatures to be affixed?

Okay, we have Council Member Herbold, Council Member Morales, and then Council Member Juarez.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda and your team for pulling this prize together.

It's really lovely.

I'm really so pleased that we have community partners here with us to celebrate the leadership.

of Council President Gonzalez.

What I always most appreciated about Council President Gonzalez is the strength of her vision for a more just city.

In particular, she's been just a fantastic partner to me on labor standards like secure scheduling, working to get progressive revenue passed and constitutional policing.

I've always appreciated that I know where she's coming from, even when we haven't always agreed.

I think that's really important is having that sort of straightforward leader to work with.

That's been very, very important to me personally.

She's proven herself to be, I think, the best partner to work with on the council.

If you want to advance a policy objective, she's the partner that you want to work with because she'll get it done.

Her vision of leadership is centered in building leadership in other people and in building power not for herself, but building power for community.

Breanna Thomas, Cody Ryder, and Vy Nguyen are tremendous assets to the city of Seattle and its residents in their own right.

But I also believe that their loyalty to Council President Gonzalez is evidence of more than their shared commitment to her policy objectives.

I believe Council President Gonzalez brings out the best in the people with whom she works.

She's brought this quality to her work as council president.

And as the president of the council, she has understood that it's her job to assist her council colleagues to be successful representatives, both in accomplishing their individual policy goals and in helping them best represent their constituents.

As council president, she's understood that effective council leadership must be focused on strong progressive policymaking that continues to lead the nation in addressing the most difficult issues facing people in our city and focusing on protecting the most vulnerable.

As many have said already, these last two years have been incredibly difficult for our city.

But in all of my 24 years working at City Hall, I have never been as proud of the work that the City Council has done than in the last two years when Council President Gonzalez has presided over this council.

Thank you for your inspired and inspirational leadership.

Thank you.

Council Member Morales and then Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Well, I'm not going to lie.

When I first came into office two years ago, I was a little intimidated by Council President Gonzalez.

But then COVID sent us all home and the newbies had about 60 days under our belts.

And so I reached out to Lorena many times in those first few months, really, just to understand procedure, to understand how things worked, you know, get advice, ask for simpler explanations of labor law and negotiation processes.

And you really have been so kind in sharing with me and my staff the things that we needed to know to do this job well and to really be able to move the kinds of things that we thought were very important for our district.

So I want to thank you for your mentorship as I learned the ropes here at council.

and really just wanna appreciate the sounding board that you've been for our office and the grace that you and your staff have shown as we tried to navigate this incredibly difficult last couple of years.

I really appreciate that you've been such a great colleague and I'm proud to call you my friend.

I'm gonna miss you and I wish you a fulfilling journey.

Okay, Council Member Juarez, and then Council Member Strauss, and then Council Member Lewis.

President Gonzalez.

Girl.

First of all, let me say on a personal note, I remember meeting you when you were in law school, you and Faye.

And I watched your career grow.

And I remember when you were elected to the then the Hispanic Bar, and I think you're the one that changed it to the Latino Bar.

Of course you did.

So you know the legislation that you did on the accountability legislation coming in as a new council member and taking that over.

I think one of my highlights of my favorite Lorena stories, besides you probably have the best laugh, is one morning you and I, and I can't remember who else was with us, and we were trying to get in the door, our door swipers weren't working, and we finally got in the door and you screamed out, diversity in the house.

This is why people love this woman.

Thank you for your leadership, for defending me, for being there when we were doing the Dakota Access Pipeline, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women, the Indigenous Advisory Council, all the work you did with our groups, with the Refugee Women's Alliance, could not have done that without you.

And also on a personal note, we already knew you were a leader.

We know you're passionate.

We know you're fierce.

And I think I shared this to you one time, maybe in a card, but I'll say it again.

I've always expected big things out of you, And I know you're going to go out there and you're going to continue to set this world on fire and we would expect nothing less.

So I'm going to raise my hands to you and thank you.

I'm going to try to finish getting through all of this without crying.

Council Member Strauss and then Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you for indulging me on the Diversion Act this morning, where I shared the majority of my thoughts, claiming that I didn't know when to share them.

So I'll just, since I already shared with you what I had to say, I'll just kind of highlight what I think was most important, is that our city is forever different because of your work.

because of you and because of your team.

We're so different now where we were in 2015, and we're different for the better.

And I see that from your leadership, and I see your fingerprints across our city on the important things that have changed.

And just briefly, I know your civic work will continue, and I really do look forward to seeing how you shape our society because you've done a really good job so far.

So keep it up.

Looking forward to working with you more.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Lewis.

uh...

thank you so much uh...

madam president and i take a a lot of pleasure in being able to call you back to one more meeting uh...

i i just want to take a moment to express similar to councilmember morales that four of us showed up almost a majority of this council and and had only really uh...

gosh sixty days sounds like it was longer and what it actually was it was actually sixty days that's that's phenomenal but however many days was not many to sort of get settled in and to learn how to be a city council member and to learn how to you know, settle in and work with eight other colleagues to get something done.

And it's just been really a rewarding experience to get a case study in someone leading in the middle of an unprecedented crisis.

And a crisis that none of your predecessors in recent memory have had to deal with.

Hopefully none of your successors too far into the future will have to deal with.

uh...

but to have uh...

foisted on you a once-in-a-century pandemic as well as an unprecedented uh...

uh...

series of of protests uh...

for a long overdue racial reckoning and really waiting into that space with some policy that has really moved the ball forward a lot of ways i think that this you know no one would disagree that Seattle has been seen as a national best practice in response to the COVID crisis and that's due in no small part to leading with best practices on public health and community engagement and bringing people together and overcoming vaccine hesitancy.

And it was just really good in my first couple of months to be able to see like, OK, this is how someone brings together people who don't agree on a lot of other stuff, but agree that we need to get through this crisis.

And that was a really good foundational moment as I go into this role and as I continue in this role.

And one thing I'm really looking forward to, to echo some of my colleagues, is I'm really looking forward to what you're going to do next in the community and how we will continue to engage with you as a private citizen in advancing this important work.

be it on public health, on the reform of police, on representation for immigrant communities.

And I know that we're gonna have those opportunities and I look forward to being able to continue that work even if you're not on the dais anymore.

So this was a great opportunity to get to know you and I look forward to continuing to build our working relationship on common causes in the future.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Since you took over as our leader, your leadership has never been in doubt.

You're a natural leader.

I always look forward to our calls and conversations because as I think Council Member Herbold said, I always knew it would be straightforward.

You'd be clear on what your priorities are.

And also take time to, you know, for me to learn from you, for you to give me that grace to do so.

And, you know, I look forward to working with you in the future, whatever's next.

And I want to thank you for the amazing team you've assembled.

It's been a pleasure to work with each and every one of them.

And just look forward to what's next and how I can work with you in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, I think that runs us through the roster.

We do have to affix signatures before we do that.

I wasn't planning on making any.

I don't have any prepared remarks, which is always dangerous.

But I do I do just from.

just from the bottom of my heart, really express my gratitude to each of you for your friendship, for your counsel, for your collegiality, and for challenging me.

Each one of you has a personal story with me of challenging me to be better and to do different.

And those are moments of growth and opportunities to be Humble and to continue to build the resilience amongst this entity that I continue to have a lot of faith in the Seattle City Council has led on many issues throughout its history and in the last six years that I've been on the council we've become younger.

more diverse racially and by gender and also by economic status.

And I think that when that happened, we also began to lift up more diverse public policy issues to truly address the needs of those who are most vulnerable in our communities, a need that had been frankly neglected for many generations and decades before all of us arrived to this seat.

Since I've been a council member, not only has the council changed, but I have personally and profoundly changed.

I have fallen in love and gotten married to the love of my life, Cameron Williams, who continues to support me unconditionally in this incredibly taxing and trying job that doesn't allow us to really go to the grocery store without anonymity anymore.

And for his love and his support, and for his counsel and his advice, and for making sure that I always stay centered to who I am and what we want this city and this world to be, I'm eternally grateful.

I also became a mom on the city council, together with Councilmember Mosqueda.

a first for the Seattle City Council to have not just one but two pregnant women on the City Council become first-time moms.

And it has been a true honor to not only lead in the last two years as a woman, as a woman of color, but as a first-time mom and breaking barriers and stereotypes of what it means to have positional power and also lean into your motherhood and show up at a full council Zoom-based meeting and preside over a complex meeting during unprecedented public health crisis and a racial reckoning that we have not experienced in our lifetime, while also breastfeeding and nursing.

And I also suffer profound loss in the last two years.

Many of us have, but for me personally, I not only lost my home due to a fire, but we also lost my mother-in-law, Mary Lou.

in that same fire.

And all of you just showed up and rallied for me and sent us flowers and food and helped us move into our new place and offered trucks and diapers and clothes and just love and affection.

And I am eternally grateful to each of you.

And it's easy to get lost in the policy debates and the fights and the arguments that we have day to day publicly and privately about differences of opinion on a particular bill or an amendment.

But the thing that I will never be conflicted about is how valuable my friendship with each of you is and will continue to be.

And I really look forward to seeing what all of you do on the city council, and I am looking forward to being just an ordinarily engaged citizen in the city of Seattle, if you can believe it.

I don't think many of you can believe that I'll just be ordinarily engaged.

And I don't have any big announcements to make today about what's next, but I am excited about what's next, and I'm looking forward to being able to take a little bit of time to rest, recover, and then really solidify what my next opportunities are.

So much gratitude to each and every single one of you.

I could spend the next half hour, but I won't going through each thing that I've worked with all of you on, but I am really grateful to all the council members, your staff.

Our IT department, our clerk's office, city auditor, office of hearing examiner, all of the folks in the executive branch who I've had an opportunity to work with since 2014. That's tremendously important.

policy issues that lift up our families, working people, children, immigrants, refugees, our native communities, and our LGBTQ plus community.

And I look forward to continuing to see what you all do and to continuing to support your work on the outside.

Thanks for everything you all have done for me professionally and personally.

All right, colleagues.

Now we have to vote.

Signatures will need to be affixed to the proclamation.

So will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation honoring the work of the council president and my most amazing, loyal team of Brianna, Cody, Vee, and others.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Yes.

Strauss.

With humble gratitude, yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez.

Yes.

Eight in favor.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, everybody.

And it's not easy to surprise me.

So well done.

Council Member Strauss even sent me a little distraction flare this morning.

So congratulations on successfully surprising me.

And of course, huge gratitude to every single one of my team members, Maria, Cody, Brianna, Vy.

who have all been stalwarts and amazing public servants in the city.

And they will also all be doing amazing work on behalf of the people of this city moving forward.

So I hope you all will join me in celebrating their achievements to our team as well.

you.

And Council President, the surprise wouldn't have been able to be pulled off without Amelia Sanchez and the clerks office working with Sajal Parikh.

So just wanted to say thanks to her one last time.

Thank you, Amelia.

Thank you, Sajal.

Okay, let's go ahead and move on because we have a rocking agenda because I wouldn't want to go out in a boring fashion.

So let's get going.

The minutes of the city council meeting of December 6, 2021 have been reviewed.

If there's no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

If there's no objection, the introduction referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction referral calendar is adopted.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We're now going to move to public comment period, colleagues.

At this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the council's work program.

And I continue to thank everyone.

for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It does remain our strong intent to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, the city council reserves the right to end or eliminate this public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I'll moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

We had slated today's meeting to be 20 minutes.

However, we have about 30-ish or so speakers.

So if there's no objection, today's public comment will be extended to 30 minutes and we will allow speakers one minute each to speak.

Hearing no objection, today's public comment will be 30 minutes approximately.

Also, colleagues, ordinarily speakers are called upon in the order in which they are registered to provide public comment on the council's website.

The council, however, does have a custom of allowing speakers out of order in certain circumstances, including when there are former or current elected officials signed up to provide public comment.

And today, colleagues, we do have three former elected officials registered to provide public comment.

And as a result, I'd like to ask If there is no objection, I would like to take those three speakers out of order consistent with our past practice.

Asking for any objections, if any.

Okay, not seeing any objections or hearing any objections.

So we will take Jim Street, David Della, and Abel Pacheco, all former Seattle City Council members, first, and then we will return to the order in which speakers registered.

So for the benefit of our IT folks, we're looking to queue up.

The first three speakers will be Jim Street, David Della, and Abel Pacheco.

First, I'm going to go through the rules here, and then we will pull those former elected officials up.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number used for this registration and using the meeting phone number, ID, and passcode that was emailed to them upon confirmation.

This is different than the general meeting list in line call-in information.

Again, once we take the three out of order speakers, I'll call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you've not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website or going to our published agenda where the link is also listed.

Once I call your name, staff will unmute your microphone.

You will hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.

And after you hear that prompt, you need to press star six to begin speaking.

Again, that is star six before you begin speaking.

Please begin by reminding us of your name, the item that you are addressing.

And as a reminder, your public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or the council's work program.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of your one minute.

Once you hear the chime, please begin wrapping up your public comment.

If you don't end your comments at the end of the one minute, your microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comments, please disconnect from the line.

You can finish watching these proceedings on Seattle Channel or one of the listening options listed on the agenda.

I'm now gonna open up the public comment period.

It's about 2.40 p.m., so we'll go into a little bit after three, Again, the first three speakers are Jim Street, David Della, and then Abel Pacheco.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

And Council President Gonzalez, I also want to thank you for your service on the council.

In 1994, when the Growth Management Act passed, the council created a select committee to develop our comprehensive plan.

As council president, I chaired that committee.

We still had a land use committee and other committees which continued their work on specific legislation.

Has the mayor or the council approved Seattle's top action priorities for climate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shortest time possible?

If so, we don't know about it.

Did the city track progress in overall citywide climate action priorities in real time?

Are we on track?

We don't know.

Is there a place where the Green New Deal Oversight Board can be on the agenda to offer its recommendations to the full council?

No.

These are some of the critical roles a select committee could more effectively perform.

Please establish a select committee now to assure the transparency and accountability you and we need to achieve our climate action priorities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Street for calling in.

Next up is former Council Member David Della.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Go ahead, Council Member.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Council Members.

Council Member President Gonzalez, thank you for your service to the city and Godspeed.

For the record, my name is David Della, former city council and resident of Queen Anne District 7. I'm here today to speak in support of Resolution 32033, a joint commitment by the council and mayor to work on developing a phased mandatory unreinforced masonry building seismic retrofit work program.

As someone who has been active in Chinatown International District and Pioneer Square, specifically, I know the urgency and importance of this resolution to address the threat of URMs opposed to public safety, affordable housing, preservation of our communities, culture and history, and social justice for those who live in these buildings.

These are unsafe, underutilized buildings, getting people's safety at risk and loss of opportunity to fully utilize those buildings.

This resolution outlines a good roadmap and approach to address this issue.

I urge you to pass this resolution and to work with the incoming mayor and the administration to quickly develop a plan and put resources to fully implement this before it's too late.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Dela for calling in.

Next up is Council Member, former Council Member Abel Pacheco.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Council Members and Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you for your service as well.

My name is Abel Pacheco and I'm the Government Community Relations Manager at Sound Transit.

I'm here this afternoon to express our support for Agenda Number 9, Council Bill 1222027, which would exempt affordable housing projects that receive street or alley vacation from requirements to pay the fair market value of the street or alley.

Sound Transit has had a strong partnership with the City of Seattle and other jurisdictions in using our surplus software for affordable housing, including significantly reduced and no-cost land transfers, which is similar to what the City is considering here for break-in transportation right away.

We also have property in Seattle that will be used for affordable housing in the future with adjacent alleys that are likely good candidates for an alley vacation and could benefit from this bill.

The city contributing the underlying land value of vacated property towards creating affordable housing would have real impact, both reducing the amount of other subsidy needed to construct affordable housing and by making more cost effective and that's more competitive for affordable housing funding.

Again, thank you, Council President Gonzalez for your service to the city.

And it was a pleasure working with you for the short time that we did, too.

Thank you so much, Council Member Pacheco.

Thanks to all of those three former elected officials for calling in and giving us your public testimony.

We're now going to go back to the regular order of those who pre-registered for public comment.

First up is Howard Gale, then David Haynes, and then Christopher Maycutt.

Howard, welcome.

good afternoon howard gale journalist carolyn bick over the last five months has published eleven investigative pieces in the south seattle emerald uncovering malfeasance corruption and gross violations of transparency in all three of seattle's police accountability agencies some of these findings have been expanded on and supported by investigations done at k u o w radio these articles reveal flawed opa investigations that routinely exonerate abusive officers followed by the oig talent properly audit these investigations orgy director lisa judges allowed the certification of the sport opiate investigations by an oig staff member member of former police officer for twenty three years still certifying cases routinely certified opiate investigations without looking at evidence now we have recently learned from bix investigations account for members for a while haven't sure that we will finish twenty twenty one with police officers escaping accountability for murder and abuse by disregarding and undermining the work of a former OIG investigator who revealed all these abuses.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is David Haynes, followed by Christopher Maycutt and then Robin Briggs.

Thank you, David Haynes, District 7. Human rights are being violated every day in Seattle.

The Human Rights Commission nominees need to focus on the Seattle government creating the most racist government in modern history, purposely discriminating against innocent white homeless people, forsaken, subhuman, mistreated based on their skin color and innocence, while government is prioritizing rights, violating repeat offenders into a rapid rehousing of a motel as if just care.

City Council continues to undermine public safety, running interference for BIPOC criminals committing crimes against humanity, being listed nonviolent misdemeanor based on the dollar amount instead of the reality of the impact that $5 in drugs does to a woman who gets raped and victimized and then blamed while the predator continues to destroy life.

The city council president has been rejected by the people.

Yet on the last day of council, they're still undermining our prosecution's office before even taking office.

And the council member who did it is the same one who convinced Pete Holmes to go along with unconstitutional police reform that exempted drug pushers who destroy people's lives daily from jail as if they're a nonviolent misdemeanor.

Next up is Christopher Maycutt, followed by Robin Briggs, then Jamie Lee.

All righty then.

Chris Maycutt, D6.

I am a small business advocate for the Finney Neighborhood Association, and our organization fully supports renewing your 20-year agreement with the Woodland Park Zoo that's on the agenda today.

I've also lived in this neighborhood and been going to the zoo for over 40 years.

It is an absolute treasure in this neighborhood and in the Seattle community.

are also extremely friendly and forthcoming with small businesses in the neighborhood going out of their way to support all the numerous small businesses in our district.

So please consider renewing this when it comes up.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Robin Briggs followed by Jamie Lee and then Holly Towns.

Robin, you are unmuted.

Just make sure your actual device is also unmuted.

Sometimes that happens.

Okay.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, we can hear you, Robin.

Go ahead.

Great.

Thank you.

My name is Robin Briggs.

I'm a member of People for Climate Action Seattle.

I'm calling today to ask you to create a select committee on climate, as Jim Street argued.

We have met with most of you over the course of the year to explain why we think this is important.

The city's response to climate isn't something that could be handled by any one city department.

It will take all departments working together to make significant progress.

A select committee will have oversight over the whole climate effort and can coordinate it.

It will give the Green New Deal Oversight Committee a place where they can report to the entire council.

And perhaps most importantly, it will give the council a way to establish a climate agenda.

I've met with each of you, and I know that each of you is very concerned about climate, but also consumed with very many other pressing problems.

But climate is like a slow-moving tidal wave that will engulf all of us if we do not take immediate action.

This year alone, our region has experienced a horrifically bad drought, the heat dome, wildfires, and severe flooding.

These problems will intensify if we do not respond quickly.

A select committee on climate

Thank you for calling in Robin.

Next up is Jamie Lee followed by Holly Towns and then Robert Lytle.

Jamie, welcome.

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Jamie Lee with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation Development Authority and I'm here to comment in support of the URM legislation resolution.

We were chartered by the City of Seattle to promote, assist, and encourage the renewal, rehabilitation, preservation, and restoration of structures in the CID.

in a manner that affords our community the opportunity to carry on their activities in the neighborhood.

The Chinatown idea has perhaps the highest concentration of unreinforced masonry buildings, with 44 buildings representing almost 900 units of housing in the historic core.

These buildings house our community, many of which are low-income, non-English-speaking residents, and family-owned small businesses.

This legislation is long overdue.

The reference to preserving culturally significant structures and vulnerability speaks directly to our neighborhood.

URM would negatively impact the CID, which has been our concern since we started this conversation with the city 10 years ago.

The clock is ticking and it's time to move forward towards towards implementation.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for calling in Jamie.

Next up is Holly Towns followed by Robert Lytle and then David Lichter.

Holly, welcome.

Hello, can you hear it?

Go ahead.

Yes, we can.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Oh, hi.

This is Holly Towns.

I'm a mechanical engineer having spent 40 years in building efficiency to reduce the environmental impact of buildings.

And once I retired, I just could not stop advocating for climate action because there has been so little progress in the 40 years.

And young people are so discouraged by the lack of action of our leaders on climate change.

Seattle's not meeting its climate goals.

So I am asking you to do two things today.

Well one you can't do right away but support item 19 which is an amendment to the Energy Code which will further reduce greenhouse gases in buildings and far cheaper to do this during construction.

And two to establish a select committee on climate.

so that climate can be a real priority, and we can bring focus to this important crisis and move forward in concrete ways.

Thank you, and thank you, Gonzales.

Thank you so much, Holly.

Thanks for calling in.

Next up is Robert Lydell, followed by David Lichter, and then Yvette Dynish.

Thank you.

My name is Rob Liddell, and I live and work in Seattle.

I've been a consultant physician volunteer at the Woodland Park Zoo for more than 30 years, beginning when I was a radiology resident at the University of Washington.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of working with the veterinary and keeper teams in the care of over 100 animal patients at the zoo.

Through the many years, I've always admired the thoughtful and high-quality care given to the animals at the zoo.

The animal care staff often work with medical practitioners from the Seattle community.

We are all consistently impressed by the expert and compassionate care provided by the veterinary and keeper teams.

and we therefore are happy to spend our time and efforts to further the cause for that high-quality care.

I've also sent an email to each of the council members, and if you wish, please direct any questions you may have to me via email, and I'll be more than happy to give additional details about my highest regard for the staff and the excellent care provided to the animals at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is David Lichter, followed by Yvette Dinesh and Cynthia Irvin.

David, welcome.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is David Lichter district six.

Thank you for allowing me to speak to you in regards to the council bill one two zero two four seven city council's rush vote today.

Subject city attorney like and Davis into unprecedented city council oversight in the a hundred year history of the city attorney's office.

No previous male attorney has faced this kind of preemption of their power.

Voters elected and Davidson in part, because they were tired of seeing the current revolving door, the judicial system and lousy fair manner of the outgoing city attorney.

and ran on a platform of public safety, accountability, and transparency.

In a recent letter to this body, she even said that she's willing to work with the council on increasing transparency from the city attorney's office and growing diversion programs.

I urge this council to work with the city attorney-elect to better foster a collaborative approach to governance, not overstepping ethical boundaries.

We can either have a local government where the branches constantly butt heads and are ineffective, or work in a collaborative manner that seeks to further share goals and come to compromise this for the benefit of all in this city.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Yvette Dinesh, Cynthia Irvin, and Nicole DeSantels.

Good afternoon, council members.

Yvette Dinesh, District 2. I just wanted to comment and congratulate the council and all the supportive staff across all departments for getting that budget done.

I know it's a laborious process.

And a special shout out to Council Member Deborah Juarez of District 5. I'm also on the Detective Cookie Chess Park Steering Committee.

And she came down, visited the site, and was able to get funding for the last bit of construction so we can go ahead and get the park built.

We really, really, really appreciate that.

So thank you, Council Member Juarez, for helping the Detective Cookie Chess Park become a reality.

We appreciate it.

That's it.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Cynthia Irvin, followed by Nicole Dessautels, and then Arvia Morris.

Cynthia, welcome.

Thank you.

My name is Cynthia Irvin in District 4, speaking in favor of the City Council having a select committee on climate.

I'm a member of People for Climate Action and Green Buildings Now, a climate justice initiative among other organizations.

I know that climate and environmental justice are complex issues, which is why we need a focused committee to do focused problem solving.

Many constituencies will be affected by the big changes we need.

Right now, several committees are trying to address climate, but none is ultimately accountable.

People in our city are already suffering from environmental degradation, which would be enough injustice, but we're also feeling the future from all our young people, and we're running out of time.

Please act with the urgency required.

Please create a select committee on climate during this period of organizing the council.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for calling in.

It looks like Nicole DeSotel's speaker number 12 is no longer present.

If Nicole returns, I'll make sure to give her one minute.

Otherwise, we're gonna move over to Arvia Morris and then C.S.

and then Elizabeth Burton.

Hi, this is Arvia Morris.

I hope you can hear me.

I'm from the 43rd District Environmental Council, sorry, Environmental Caucus.

I'm calling today to ask the city council to establish a select committee on climate change, chaired by the president of the city council.

Cities produce 70% of all climate solutions.

Seattle is not on track to meet its 2030 climate goals.

There is no central plan coordinated through all the city departments to get the city on track to meet its goals.

The Green New Deal advisory board is a great first step.

Ultimately the mayor and the city council are accountable to Seattleites for success in meeting the city's 2030 goals and beyond.

We have seen with COVID when there is a society wide crisis it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most.

We must implement decarbonization programs and emphasis on supporting our most vulnerable citizens.

A select committee on climate change will enable the Green New Deal advisory board citizens and other concerned parties transparency into how programs are coordinated to meet Seattle's goals.

Please set up a select committee.

Thank you.

Next is T.S.

and then it looks like Nicole DeSartels is back.

C.S.

welcome.

Hi.

My comments are on agenda item 23. The 2001 Zoo O&M Agreement signed in Ordinance 120697 states in Section 15.3 that acquisition, sale, or other disposition of zoo animals shall be made in strict accordance with A, all applicable federal, state, or local laws, regulations, and policies, B, the guidelines and policies of the AZA, and C, existing and any adopted acquisition and disposition policies approved by the city.

That text of C have been removed in 12.3 of the new proposed agreement.

Thus, the zoo is explicitly removing power from city council.

Item 15.3C hasn't caused a problem for the zoo's accreditation for the last 20 years, so there's no reason to remove it.

Taxpayer money should not be used to fund the zoo unless city council retains explicit authority to intervene regarding animals in the zoo.

Please, at the bare minimum, return the wording in section 12.3 to match that from the 2001 agreement.

Please do not remove the power of future city councils.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Nicole, followed by Elizabeth Burton, and then Stephanie Miller.

Nicole, welcome.

My name is Nikki Desotels, and I'm speaking in support of the zoo, CB120.164.

I'm a master's student in the Applied Inquiry Program, which is supported by the Woodland Park Zoo.

My program teaches us to engage with communities to identify and solve conservation issues, to empower conservation leadership within individual communities, and to share conservation issues across diverse audiences.

I'm also a volunteer educator for Bats Northwest, which is an advocacy and education group and a partner of Wisdom Park Zoo.

Wisdom Park Zoo is often the first in-person experience with wildlife beyond backyard birds and bunnies.

In-person experiences have been shown to create the first tendrils of empathy as people connect with animals.

This experience can be more powerful and meaningful than any portrayal of wildlife in the media.

and can set a tone for a person's outlook on the world around them.

It can be the first step towards thinking outside yourself and relating to those beyond other human beings.

Empathy is the first step to action, particularly conservation action, and right now it is important to see the earth as more than just yourself.

The zoo gives us that earlier than we can fully comprehend just how important that perspective is.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you for calling in, Nicole.

Next up is Elizabeth Burton, followed by Stephanie Miller, and then Lisa Nitze.

Elizabeth welcome.

Hi thank you.

I'm Elizabeth Burton from District 6. I'm calling to urge you to form a select committee on climate in order to increase the pace coordination and effectiveness of your climate work and to increase understanding support and engagement of city residents.

The current system is failing us.

Seattle's leaders have been promising for over 20 years that our city will lead the nation in fighting climate change.

Each of the last five mayors has promised significant reductions in our carbon emissions.

Neither of these things have come to pass.

Instead our most recent emissions inventory shows that Seattle's greenhouse gas emissions are actually increasing.

Heat domes floods forest fires and climate related losses of Washington shellfish and agricultural crops are just the beginning of the destruction in store for us.

A select committee on climate can elevate this issue and coordinate action to actually meet Seattle's 2030 climate goals.

Provide accountability and transparency to the public and finally provide the climate leaders we need.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Stephanie Miller followed by Lisa Nitze and then BJ Last.

Good afternoon.

This is Stephanie Miller.

And I appreciate all of your time today.

I'm here to comment in favor of Council Bill 120164, the zoo management agreement with the city.

I am a lead keeper at Woodland Park Zoo and also act as one of the shop stewards on grounds being a member of Kingster's Local 117. I've worked at Woodland Park Zoo for 23 years, first being a city employee and then transitioning over to the society when it took over.

This past year, I participated in a successful negotiation of a new three-year contract between Woodland Park Zoological Society and the Joint Council of Unions.

This negotiation was the most thoughtful and well-managed negotiation held in a long time between labor and management at the zoo, with a lot of meaningful dialogue about how to improve communication and create deeper understanding and clarification of roles where we need communication.

Overall, I think that the zoo is moving in a positive way that will increase collaboration for animal care and worker care at the zoo.

And I'm in support of the continued.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Lisa Nitze, followed by BJ Last.

Jacob Shearer is signed up, but showing up is not present.

So we'll go from Jennifer Avenue.

Lisa, go ahead.

Lisa looks like you are on.

There we go.

You are now unmuted.

Go ahead.

OK thank you.

Thanks for addressing the critical issue of unreinforced masonry buildings or URM.

I'm Lisa Nitza with Nitza Stagen and I'm asking you to adopt the proposed URM resolution before you.

As a developer with decades of experience doing historic restoration and adaptation on a number of Seattle's signature historic buildings.

such as the Starbucks Center, Merrill Place, Union Station, and the Cadillac Hotel, we became extremely concerned two to three years ago about the fact that these beautiful structures that represent the character and history of Seattle's neighborhoods were going to be destroyed and disappear in the next major earthquake.

Upon researching further, we realized that they had not been seismically upgraded because there was no city mandate to do so and no supporting program to help building owners navigate the process and fund the work.

We also learned these historic buildings disproportionately hold low-income and BIPOC residents and small businesses and were home to a significant proportion of the city's affordable housing stock and a number of schools.

We put together a group of over 100 stakeholders that developed a plan and

Thanks for calling in today.

Looks like BJ Last is no longer present and neither is Jacob Scheer.

So we're going to hear now from Jennifer Avignon and then Louise Kolzer followed by Madison Swain Bowden.

Jennifer, welcome.

Thank you.

My name is Jennifer.

I work at the Ballard Trader Joe's and I would like to address the question of the hazard pay.

I'd like to ask that we consider extending it for the foreseeable future.

My concern mainly is that our paid time off is extremely limited.

We have people coming into work sick, which means we have people working with compromised immune systems, which means even with a vaccine, we're still very vulnerable to COVID.

Removing hazard pay makes it even more of a financial hardship for people to take time off when they're sick, so we'll see even more people coming into work sick.

Um, and if we're relying entirely on the vaccine, a lot of our other safety measures have been rolled back.

Um, so we're gonna be at a pretty high risk continuing forward, even with the vaccine in place.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Louise, followed by Madison Swain Bowden and then Emmy Koyama.

Go ahead, Louise.

Hi this is Louise Coulter.

I live in District 6. Each year it seems that Seattle faces additional challenges.

As a destination hometown and tech mecca and housing crisis accentuating disparities that we have faced in the past the job of governing is increasingly more challenging.

The challenges we face are complex.

It is easy to neglect the challenge of global warming but it is manifesting as floods, fires, dry summers, and concerns about water supply.

Council committees have their hands full.

Seattle must have a climate plan and the governance structure to implement it.

I support creating a select committee on climate.

I also support Council Member Strouse's proposal to adopt a legislative session model for governing Seattle.

But you can make a select committee happen now.

You can always improve it next year.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Madison Swain-Boden followed by Emi Koyama and then Sunny Rao.

Hi can you hear me.

We can.

Go ahead.

Yes.

Hello my name is Madison.

I'm a resident of District 5 and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

I'm calling today to discuss the changes to hazard pay being introduced in CB120119.

We're still in a pandemic.

We've spent the last year and a half touting these workers as essential and thanking them for their work during the crisis and now we're leaving them out to dry.

There is still a mask mandate in effect.

COVID is still a danger for those in the workplace interacting with the public particularly as variants continue to crop up.

The hazard has not gone away.

So why are we removing hazard pay for these workers?

We just started off this meeting today with a long discussion on how this council, under the leadership of Council President Gonzalez, has worked hard to help those in our community with the greatest need.

Is this what that looks like?

Cutting workers off who have continued to put themselves on the line in order to keep grocery stores open?

I'm urging you to defer ending the hazard pay until the pandemic is actually over and reject this bill.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Emi Koyama, followed by Sunny Rao, and then Manny Calling.

Go ahead, Emi.

Well, thank you.

My name is Emi Koyama from the Coalition for Rights and Safety for People and the Sex Trade.

I'm disappointed how the Council Bill 120247 regarding diversion programs has already been severely weakened.

I'm particularly concerned about the real possibility that mass arrests and prosecution of women and others who are in the sex trade could resume after many years of progress.

That said, the policies promoting diversion and punishment has always been on the shaky ground as they rely on careful and thoughtful prosecutorial discretion, which is not always given or guaranteed.

Now is the time and opportunity to fundamentally rethink diversion as a strategy to work around the harms of criminalizing poverty and actually remove harms by decriminalizing climates of poverty and survival, including repealing the laws against prostitution.

And thank you so much, and thank you especially to President Gonzalez for your service.

Thank you, Emi, for calling in today.

Next up is Sunny Rao, followed by Manny Colling, and then Emily MacArthur.

Go ahead, Sunny.

Thank you.

My name is Sunny Rao.

I live in D6, and I have a PhD from UW, where my research was in molecular biology.

I'm calling about CB120119, the ordinance related to ending hazard pay for grocery store workers.

To be clear, I do not believe that the council should be setting a new date at this time in the middle of the holidays and when the Omicron variant is rising.

In the summer when Delta was rampant, the council rightly made the decision to indefinitely postpone setting a timeline for ending hazard pay.

As we head into Omicron and vaccine effectiveness for this variant is unknown, I would ask that the council indefinitely postpone ending hazard pay again.

Grocery companies are seeing record profits.

Kroger just posting third quarter profits of $6.9 billion, which was an increase over even record 2020 levels.

Workers who are continuing to put their lives on the line to make those profits possible deserve to be compensated for the additional risk they are taking.

Ending hazard pay will disproportionately impact BIPOC workers who are more likely to be grocery workers and less likely to be vaccinated.

I'm going to end by saying we're still in the middle of a global pandemic and the hazard that we are compensating workers for is still present.

Do not end hazard pay.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Manny Colling followed by Emily MacArthur and then Brad Patton.

Go ahead Manny.

Hello I am Manny Colling.

Thank you Council President Gonzalez for your leadership and commitment to the people of Seattle.

I look forward.

to your next adventure.

I am a lifelong Seattleite in District 3 and the Executive Director for Inspire Washington.

We are your cultural advocacy organization.

I am testifying today on behalf of the industry we serve, representing nearly 18,000 businesses statewide and 80,000 employees when we aren't hobbled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspire Washington urges the City Council to approve a management agreement for the Woodland Park Zoo Foundation that provides the foundation with the needed resources and the mandate to carry on their exceptional science-based work, support their leadership and scientific expertise, and recognize the critical role our city plays in the health and stability of all cultural organizations.

The cultural is an ecosystem and the Woodland Park Zoo is a lead player.

When they are supported and their organization is strong the tides ripple throughout our entire ecosystem and other partners both large and small cultural organizations benefit.

Due to the pandemic.

Thank you so much Manny for calling in.

Appreciate it.

Next up is Emily MacArthur followed by Brad Payden and then Linda McCoy.

Welcome Emily.

Go ahead.

Hi my name is Emily MacArthur.

I'm a District 2 resident.

and a member of Socialist Alternative as well as the Democratic Socialists of America.

I'm calling in to oppose any timeline to cancel hazard pay for grocery store workers.

These workers have been and continue to be on the front lines supporting our communities, making sure they were able to feed our families, and struggling through an economically tumultuous period.

Thousands of UOCW workers have been and need to continue receiving hazard pay It would be absolutely hypocritical for the city council, who is, of course, still meeting remotely, right?

That's why we're having this discussion on Zoom, to determine that there's a timeline in which it's acceptable for grocery store workers to be receiving less hazard pay.

Also, on the same day, when there's a piece of legislation being considered to raise already extremely high wages of people who make six figures on the public dime, please do not put a timeline on hazard pay.

Stand with workers.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Brad, then Linda McCoy, and then Jonathan Bischofsky-Cruz.

Brad, go ahead.

Welcome.

Yeah.

Hello.

My name is Brad Patton with Housing Diversity Corp, and I'm here to speak on the URM issue agenda item 28. I'm a real estate developer, affordable housing and preservation advocate.

The issue of mandatory unreinforced masonry retrofits has been one of the least considered equity issues for the city.

Many of these URM structures contain public assembly spaces or irreplaceable affordable housing units, and the vast majority of the people that occupy these structures are unaware of their seismic vulnerability.

Resolution 32033 will lead to legislation that will help ensure that our friends, neighbors, and vulnerable populations don't need to worry about these buildings collapsing around them when the next big earthquake hits.

Again, I wanted to thank the Public Safety and Human Services Committee and Chairperson Herbold for taking up this issue, and I urge the full council to vote to approve the resolution.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Linda McCoy, followed by Jonathan Bischofsky-Cruz, and then Catherine Stanford.

Linda, welcome.

Go ahead.

Hi, this is Linda McCoy.

And I am speaking on item number 20, the land use overlay at Havre Lake, Bitter Lake for the mobile home parks of Bellevue and Halcyon.

And I've been working, uh, with, um, the council for nearly three years now, uh, living, uh, homeowners association at, at health gun, uh, has been working with them.

And, uh, so we support, uh, item number 20, the ordinance up for passage to give us some measure of protection against sale for development.

So we really appreciate the work you've done on this and, um, I support it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for pulling in today.

Next up is Jonathan Bischofsky Cruz, followed by Catherine Stanford.

And I am showing James Boyd as all right.

Hello, Jonathan Bischofsky.

I want to speak on agenda number seven, the hazard pay extension.

I've been working at Trader Joe's for four years now.

I've been in grocery for twice as long.

I'm very glad to see some of my colleagues and people in solidarity on the call to stay.

With COVID continuing to spread, and traveling and gathering continue to become more and more common, me and my co-workers are at much, if not at more risk of COVID as ever.

A few weeks ago, I was notified an employee I had been working with had a confirmed case of COVID.

And I had a choice between missing work unpaid or with infecting myself, who I have a chronic lung condition, or my partner who works with immunocompromised children.

So obviously, I took a day off unpaid, which was only something I am able to do because of the razor thin I've gained from hazard pay.

If that were to disappear, I don't know if I would be able to make rent.

Right now, I'm concerned about buying Christmas presents from my loved ones, but that concern will be much elevated if you do not extend hazard pay for us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Our last speaker that is registered and present is Catherine Stanford.

Welcome, Catherine.

Oh, last but not least.

Good afternoon, Council President Gonzalez and council members.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.

And Council Member Gonzalez, thank you so much.

for your service.

Having been an elected official, I understand the challenges associated with that.

Today I'm representing the building owners and managers of Seattle King County.

We represent firms who either own or manage commercial real estate or provide goods and services to the industry.

We are definitely in support of the resolution declaring the city council's and the mayor's intent to consider strategies to ensure that all unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle are sizably retrofitted On a personal note, I was the director of real estate at Pike Place Market for 15 years, including during the Nisqually earthquake.

I know how important it is to act to protect not only our tenants and residents, but also the public at large.

We offer our support and expertise by continuing to work with SDCI and OEM.

And thanks, Council Member Herbold, for carrying the torch on this.

Thank you so much, Catherine.

Okay, that is the last person I have as both registered and present just looking to our IT department to confirm that there are no other registrants in the waiting room.

There are no further public comment registrants.

Thank you so much, son.

We will go ahead and close out the period of public comment and move on now to other items of business on our agenda.

First up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Payment of bills, Council Bill 120249, an ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims for the week of November 29th, 2021 through December 3rd, 2021 and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you so much.

I move to pass Council Bill 120249. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you so much.

It has been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the payment of the bills?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Item number one, will the clerk please read agenda item one into the record.

Board of the city council, agenda item one, council bill 120242, an ordinance relating to city employment, authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the city of Seattle and certain city unions and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you so much.

I move to pass council bill 120242. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

As sponsor of the bill, I'll address it first, and then I'll open up the floor to any additional comments.

Colleagues, items one, two, and three on the agenda are council bills 120242, 120243, and 120244, which all stem from the work of the Labor Relations Policy Committee and relate to 2022 wages for represented and non-represented city employees.

These three bills are interrelated, and so some of my comments will apply to all three bills rather than each one individually.

Specifically related to Council Bill 120242, this bill would authorize the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the City of Seattle and certain city unions, including the Coalition of City Unions, which modifies certain city employees' terms and conditions of employment.

The memorandum of understanding between the city and the coalition would last from January 1st, 2022 through January 31st, 2022, and would cover approximately 6,028 regularly appointed and temporary city employees represented by the coalition.

The key terms of the memorandum of understanding include a 4% area wage income increase for eligible employees, The establishment of two new paid city holidays, Juneteenth, which is June 19th, and Indigenous Peoples Day, which is the second Monday in October.

And the additional key term of the Memorandum of Understanding also includes an agreement on a collaborative effort to conduct a market wage study to review the city's approach to its compensation philosophy.

City Budget Office estimates that aggregate- You guys feel like any seven-letter- Hold on, Jodi.

That's okay.

Go ahead and mute yourself and I'll continue.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

The City Budget Office estimates that the aggregate cost of wages, including other wage-related items authorized by other legislation, would be about $37 million in 2022. This estimate would cover wage adjustments for about 10,500 employees, including represented employees in the coalition and coalition like unions and most non represented employees.

Central staff affirms that there are sufficient funds to cover the costs of the annual wage increases in planning reserves.

As a matter of practice and the city's financial and labor relations policy, these funds are held in planning reserves so that when the city negotiates union contracts, there are funds available to pay for the changes within the parameters authorized by the Labor Relations Policy Committee, a committee in which five council members sit on in conjunction with representatives of the executive, including the director of the city budget office.

The executive provides notice of the planning reserves in the six-year financial plans included with the proposed budget that the city council deliberates, analyzes, evaluates, and votes on yearly.

Again, all three of these council bills that we are voting on today approve labor relations policies and fiscal impacts related to those policies that were established within the parameters set by the Labor Relations Policy Committee.

And I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this legislation and the next two bills, which we will vote on individually.

Are there any additional comments on Agenda Item 1, Council Bill 120242?

Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120242, Agenda Item 1. Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record.

Agenda item two, council bill 120243, an ordinance relating to city employment providing salary increases for 2022 for certain non-represented city job titles and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you so much.

I move to pass Council Bill 120243. Is there a second?

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

A sponsor of the bill.

I'll address it first and then open the floor to any additional comments.

So colleagues, in addition to the comments I made in agenda item one, I will add it's specifically related to council bill 120243. This bill would authorize, among other terms, an adjusted wage increase of 4% for most non-represented job titles.

This agreement would come into effect January 5th, 2022. The wage increase would apply to about 1,806 non-represented employees.

The amount of the wage increase would be consistent with the AWI in the memorandum of understanding with the coalition of city unions, which we just voted on and passed.

That was Council Bill 120242. Historically, the city has provided the same wage increases, benefits, and other conditions of employment for non-represented employees as for coalition members.

This is a matter of ensuring equity in the workplace, particularly for folks who work in a mixed represented, non-represented environment in their departments and agencies.

With regard to the fiscal impact of this legislation, I will echo the comments that I just made.

Those comments related to the fiscal impact are equally true in the context of this council bill.

So as a result, I would urge my colleagues to support the passage of this council bill.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item two, council bill 120243?

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I appreciate the time to speak to this this morning at Council briefing these three bills, actually, for folks in the public who are interested.

The money was set aside, as I understand from our City Council Central staff, set aside in a line item called Planning Reserves, which is at the bottom of page 687 of our budget.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

Are there any other comments on Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 120243?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120243, Agenda Item 2.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record.

Agenda item three, council bill 120244. and ordinance relating to city employment to be known as the 2022 Pay Zone Ordinance, adjusting the pay zone structures for 2022 for the city's discretionary pay programs and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 120244. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill.

Again, I am the sponsor of this bill, so I'll address it first and then allow others to make comments if any.

Council Bill 120244 would adjust the pay bans for city discretionary pay programs by slightly more than 7%.

Employees in these discretionary pay programs would be eligible for a salary increase within this pay ban subject to the discretion of the appointing authority.

The Seattle Department of Human Resources Director recommends adjustments to these pay bans every one or two years, depending on the particular program.

SDHR's director, excuse me, director did make a recommendation and the recommendation was to adjust the pay bans by 7.016% to reflect a compounded increase of 2.9% plus an additional 4% that has been authorized with council bills 120242 and 120244. The 2022 adopted budget appropriated funds for a 2.9% wage increase for certain non-represented job titles in executive departments.

in part because these job titles were excluded from the 2.9% wage increase in the 2021 adopted budget due to financial constraints stemming from the COVID-19 economic crisis.

Again, I've already spoken to how the city has planned and budgeted for the fiscal impacts of these annual wage adjustments for city employees.

And just like I did with the previous two bills, I recommend that my colleagues support the passage of this legislation.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item three, council bill 120244?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120244, agenda item three.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Whereas.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item four into the record.

Agenda item four of council bill 120184, an ordinance relating to city employment, establishing Juneteenth as a legal holiday for certain city employees and a legal parking holiday, amending other provisions to implement Juneteenth as a legal holiday conform with state law and make technical corrections, and amending sections 4.20.190 and 11.14.277 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I move to pass Council Bill 120184. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you so much.

The bill has been moved and seconded.

I am going to hand it over to Council Member Morales, who is the sponsor of the bill, to address the item.

Thank you, Council President.

The proposed legislation, as Jodi just said, would establish Juneteenth as one of 11 legal holidays for city employees.

It would automatically cover non-represented employees.

and cover represented employees subject to their union's agreement.

It would not apply to uniformed police and fire employees as those employees establish their holidays by collective bargaining.

It would also establish Juneteenth as one of 10 parking holidays.

I grew up in Texas, so the Juneteenth celebration isn't new to me and was made a state holiday in Texas in 1980. And I knew as a kid that this day was really special for our black neighbors.

I know that some believe making this a holiday diminishes the uniqueness of the celebration by offering it to everyone.

But I think it's important that our country acknowledges slavery.

This holiday, as we recognize it as a city, also allows us to acknowledge the legacy of trauma for generations of Black Americans and to demonstrate an understanding of the need to actively pursue an anti-racist society.

So establishing Juneteenth as an official city holiday gives us an opportunity to remark on our progress toward achieving that goal and bring awareness to the work that we still have to do.

Thank you for those comments.

Council Member Morales, really appreciate your leadership in this area.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item four, Council Bill 120184?

I'm not seeing any additional hands raised.

Again, thank you so much, Council Member Morales, for your leadership in this area.

I really appreciate you bringing this forward, both in our budget process and in this trailer bill, and through our Labor Relations Policy Committee work as well.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120184, agenda item four.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item five into the record.

Agenda item five, council bill 120246, an ordinance relating to the city's traffic code conforming the Seattle Municipal Code with changes in state law, amending sections of the Seattle Municipal Code and adding new sections of the Seattle to the Seattle Municipal Code.

Thank you so much.

I move to pass Council Bill 120246. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to pass the council bill.

Colleagues, this is one of those rare and exceptional circumstances in which legislation is listed on our agenda as not having a sponsor identified for the legislation before its introduction.

As a result, as council president presiding over these proceedings, I'll go ahead and address the substance of the bill.

This pro forma council bill would adopt a set of amendments to our traffic code in the Seattle Municipal Code to ensure that it conforms with changes to Washington state law.

This represents an annual exercise undertaken by the city and the council to update our local traffic codes to reflect changes made to the state's traffic code in each legislative session.

State law prohibits local jurisdictions from enacting or enforcing any ordinance in conflict with the provisions of state traffic laws.

And this legislation would ensure the city remains in compliance with applicable traffic laws at the Washington State level.

As a result, I do recommend that my colleagues support the passage of this legislation to ensure that we continue to have a municipal code that is in compliance and aligned with state law.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item five, Council Bill 120246?

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I concur with your remarks, and thank you very much for handling the remarks on this bill.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Okay, colleagues, any other comments?

I'm not hearing any.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120246, agenda item five?

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read item six into the record?

Agenda item six, resolution 32032, a resolution setting forth the city of Seattle's 2022 state legislative agenda.

Thank you.

I move to adopt resolution 32032. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.

A sponsor of the resolution, I'll go ahead and address it first, and then we'll ask if any others have any comments.

Resolution 32032 would adopt the 2022 state legislative agenda for the city of Seattle.

The city, and specifically the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and their contract lobbyists, utilize this legislative agenda to guide their advocacy at the state legislature for policies and budget actions and advance the priorities of the city of Seattle.

and its residents.

The legislative agenda is developed annually with input from city departments, elected officials, the Seattle State Legislative Delegation, regional government agencies, statewide interest groups, and advocates.

Council members were briefed on a proposed legislative agenda during the council briefing on November 29th, and we all had the opportunity to meet individually with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations both before and after that November 29th council briefing to provide any additional input and feedback.

The legislative agenda that is attached to this resolution is the final result of all of that outreach work and of all the input and feedback received.

I want to thank all of you colleagues for engaging in that process, especially since it was compressed with our budget process.

And I also want to thank the members of our Office of Intergovernmental Relations for the good work that they did in putting before us a resolution that includes a legislative agenda that is a consensus document.

I do want to urge my colleagues to support the passage of this resolution.

Are there any additional comments on Agenda Item 6, Resolution 32032?

Council Member Herbold, please.

I just want to call out some of the changes that OIR agreed to make.

Really appreciate their work in doing so.

They included requests that my office facilitated from the Disability Rights Washington specifically related to sidewalk conditions, also included per the council resolution that we passed during budget, advocacy for increasing investments in behavioral health.

The agenda also includes, this is not a new addition, but this is something that's a very high priority and is something that came up last year during the session as well.

The need to allow for non-uniformed officers, including those working for a local city department that is not a police department to perform event management activities and allowing a single flagger to direct traffic.

And then lastly, wanna thank OIR for going the extra mile on a sort of a new issue to the city where we didn't have sort of the language yet and we needed to do a little bit of research on what kind of legislation we needed to pursue.

This is regarding our ability to address the theft of catalytic converters.

OIR and the police department worked together to develop language to address this issue and specifically did the research to determine that there's some preemption language in state law that we'll have to address if we want to be successful here.

So big thanks to Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for the collaborative approach.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold for highlighting those things.

Colleagues, any other additional comments on agenda item six, resolution 32032, or anything you'd like to highlight of particular importance to you?

Okay.

Oh, Council Member Mosqueda, I am seeing that you came off mute.

Would you like to make a comment?

Thank you, Council President.

I just want to thank the team in advance for the work that they're going to do in Olympia in this remote time, even if there is a hybrid action, we know that that's a challenging way to engage.

And I just want to thank members of the state legislature who passed a historically high number of bills last year and meaningful, meaningful impact on housing, childcare, public safety, as you all know, and density.

So I appreciate the work of both our OIR team and our state legislative members, especially the delegation here from Seattle, and look forward to working with everybody in the upcoming year.

Well said, Council Member Muscata.

Thank you so much.

Any other comments on Agenda Item 6, Resolution 32032?

I'm not seeing any hands raised.

So thanks, everyone, for that conversation.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Resolution 32032, Agenda Item 6?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Moskinet?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Whereas.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, nine opposed.

The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item seven into the record.

The report of the Finance and Housing Committee, agenda item seven, council bill 120119, an ordinance relating to employment in Seattle, amending sections 100.025 and Section 5 of Ordinance 126274, to establish a new date for ending hazard pay requirements and automatically repealing the ordinance.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you so much.

Kelsmar Mosqueda, you are the chair of this committee, so I'm going to hand it over to you to provide the committee report.

Thank you very much, Council President and colleagues.

As you'll note on agenda item number seven, there is a substitute version noted on our agenda.

I would like to move Council Bill 120119 by substituting version two, which is linked on today's agenda for version 1A.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded to adopt proposed substitute version two of Council Bill 120119. Would you like to address the substitute?

Thank you, Madam President.

Colleagues, as you'll remember, at the beginning of this year in 2021, one of our first acts as a council was to move and pass the legislation I sponsored to pass emergency legislation to provide hazard pay for grocery workers, requiring grocery stores to pay employees an additional $4 an hour.

to compensate them for the risks to their health and safety, and the health and safety of their families, especially before any vaccines were available.

At the beginning of the pandemic, many industries were able to go remote to reduce hours, to reduce exposure, and more.

But essential workers, especially in grocery stores, who helped to feed families and to keep families safe had no choice but to report to work.

Many of these grocery workers called in to testify about the health and safety risks that they were facing, including facing unmasked customers, extra cleaning and frequency needed to clean surfaces throughout grocery stores.

These stories included examples of customers coughing or arguing about masks and more.

We didn't just hear about this during public comment.

We also had a panel to provide data and study after study to look at opportunities to protect grocery store workers.

One study from Boston found that 20% of grocery store workers tested positive for COVID-19 despite 91% of those employees wearing a face mask.

The positive rate of infection among grocery store workers was five times as likely for those who interacted with customers on the floor of grocery stores than those who did not.

And while hazard pay cannot fix all of those situations, it certainly was one measure that this council wanted to make sure to advance to provide a small boost to workers who are taking these extra risks.

We pride ourselves in Seattle of being leaders on labor standards.

And it wasn't just us who recognize these risks.

At the time of the bill's passage, cities up and down the West Coast had passed or were beginning to announce legislative efforts to require hazard pay for groceries for our workers.

This included in California, Berkeley, Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Oakland, Montevideo, and Los Angeles County.

When Seattle City Council passed it, we were also an impetus for cities in this region and our county to pass hazard pay as well.

This legislation was always temporary before vaccinations could be widely available and before other safety measures could be secured and discussed with employers.

This legislation was not intended to be permanent wage replacement, which of course I support and have been advocating for and will continue to work with members of USCW 21 and other workers who are on the front line to secure higher wages for our workforce, especially in low-wage industries.

In our passage of the hazard pay, we noted our intent was to consider modifying or eliminating the hazard pay requirements after four months of implementation and review current health and safety and economic risk for frontline workers for the COVID emergency.

To help us with these considerations, on June 15th, we had a panel discussion of representatives from grocery workers, the grocery industry, representatives, as well as public health interim director Worsham was present with us in that meeting.

We celebrated the progress that we made since COVID-19 pandemic started.

We had celebrated and acknowledged the work that had gone into making sure that vaccines were more available since the passage of hazard pay.

And we also acknowledged some of the real racial disparities in vaccine rates and the need for ongoing measures, including improved protocols, PPE access, clear mask guidelines, and more.

During the panel, as well as after, we got a good response from grocery store workers that they would continue to work with us on addressing those solutions.

And that includes grocery store employers and employees who were interested in longer term solutions to addressing these disparities.

During the panel, we also heard about partnerships with King County Public Health to host grocery store worker vaccination clinics.

And I had the honor of volunteering at one of those clinics early on in the pandemic when vaccines first became available and grocery store workers had access to those vaccinations.

Based on emerging public health data, we held the final passage of the amendment to repeal the grocery store worker hazard pay requirement from July until now.

Holding it indefinitely is the language that we use for when a bill will not be brought up within a 60-day period.

Although I am bringing this amendment forward today, I want to be clear about a few things.

Number one, we will consider hazard pay again for grocery store workers and other workers if needed on any new public health data that continues to make itself available.

Number two, this hazard pay legislation is not a substitute for long-term pay and benefits for workers.

Those are conversations we will continue to engage in and encourage between the employer and worker and worker representatives.

Number three, this legislation would not have been possible without the direct advocacy of UFCW 21 and grocery store workers calling me and asking for us to do this over the holiday break, which we quickly worked with those workers and all of you on council to pass the hazard pay requirements and work to implement it as soon as possible.

This also wouldn't have been possible without the willingness of grocery store employers to advise us on administrative functions and without the collaboration of Public Health Seattle King County and the mayor's office.

Finally, thanks to the deep engagement that we did with UFCW 21 and the grocers, I am proud that hazard pay has sparked a conversation between them around longer term wins and policy improvements.

These will yield a longer lasting and higher level of investment in worker safety and respect beyond this temporary ordinance.

This will continue to have beneficial impacts for those grocery store workers through the conversations that employers and worker representatives are engaged in.

I will also note that of all the California jurisdictions that I noted, when they passed their hazard pay legislation earlier this year, those California cities only kept their hazard pay in effect for 120 days.

So already in the city of Seattle, we have hazard pay that has lasted twice as long as these California jurisdictions.

A full year will be in effect given that the implementation date of this legislation in front of us will not be in effect until January.

I am proud that Seattle workers have gotten this hazard pay for so much longer than these other cities and jurisdictions.

And I'd like to thank all of you for your swift action and your support to pass this at the beginning of the year.

And I'd like to continue to lift up the work that is going to have lasting impacts from the conversations that you have CW 21 and the grocers are having sparked by the need for additional safety training and investments and workers that all of us can be proud of.

At this point, after talking with public health Seattle King County, we know that the best way to continue to prevent covid, especially preventing Omicron, is to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate and keep those masks on.

I'm proud that Seattle workers have been able to keep this hazard pay for the full year.

This was temporary in nature, and I am thankful that there is going to be a lasting benefit from these conversations beyond just the hazard pay that will result in improved protections and safety going forward.

I want to thank Sage Parikh from my office, who's been working on this legislation for the last year, Karina Bull from central staff, who's always at the ready to help provide additional information and legislative updates and her constant updates with public health as we work to make sure that there was a data-informed discussion as we consider any update to the legislation in front of us.

Thank you, colleagues.

And with that, I would encourage your support today as we look at longer-term benefits that the employers and the workers will continue to work on to protect employees and the public.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any additional comments on the proposed substitute?

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to thank Council Member Mosqueda and UFCW for their commitment to workers and public health and for following through on this, not letting it, it was never meant to be permanent, but we really, I know a lot of people appreciate that there was a commitment to continue to look at indicators, continue to look at trends, and then decide when was an appropriate time.

And do appreciate this being brought forward and voted on today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Any additional comments on a proposed substitute?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the proposed substitute version two of Council Bill 120119. Again, we are voting on the substitute version of the bill before we vote on the bill as amended.

Lewis?

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The motion carries.

The substitute is adopted and the amended bill is now before the council.

Are there any further comments on agenda item seven, council bill 120119 as amended?

Hearing no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of amended Council Bill 120119, agenda item seven.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzales.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign up.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item eight into the record.

Agenda item eight, council bill 120238, an ordinance relating to funding for housing, adopting a substantial amendment to the city of Seattle 2021 annual action plan of the 2018 to 2022 consolidated plan for housing and community development and authorizing its submission to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Mosqueda, you are the sponsor on this one, so I'm gonna hand it over to you to address the item.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Council President, I don't have any additional comments to say on this item.

This is an ordinance that we were happy to have passed in council and recommend unanimous approval.

Thank you so much.

Are there any additional comments on Agenda Item 8, Council Bill 120238?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120238, Agenda Item 8. Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzales.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item nine into the record.

Agenda item nine, Council Bill 120227, an ordinance related to street vacations, amending section 15.62.090 of the Seattle Municipal Code to exempt publicly funded affordable housing projects from compensating the city for vacations.

The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Mosqueda to address this item.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Colleagues, you've heard me talk about street vacations and the importance of us clearing any fees or hurdles needed to make sure that we can build more affordable housing in the city.

Generally, this is now the legislation that helps us move forward this policy commitment into 2022 and beyond.

I want to thank Council Member Peterson, who also had this item up for a briefing and discussion in his committee with an agreement that we would have a briefing discussion and possible vote in mine.

This also follows the conversation that we jointly had as a council related to one parcel earlier this year.

And so I'm proud that we now have this legislation in front of us, removing fees that, quite frankly, go right back to the city of Seattle.

so that we can clear a path for more affordable housing developers to be able to build affordable housing, helps us bring those housing units back on much faster.

And I also know that that also comes with a trade-off.

So thank you, Council Member Peterson, for the work that you've done with Seattle Department of Transportation and SDOT's support of this legislation, ultimately, so that we can help move forward and reduce the fees and thus the barriers to building more affordable housing units.

I also want to thank Pastor Willie Seals, who's been working with Lehigh, for example, on building the TC Spirit, an affordable housing project on church-owned property in the Central District.

And with the calls from Pastor Seals and others, we have been able to now move forward on a policy that helps us realize the goal and the desire to make sure that limited dollars, when we are building affordable housing, go directly into building those housing units.

For example, without the street vacation, the TC Spirit would only be able to create 45 affordable units with the street vacation, we're now going to be able to see around 68 affordable units.

So this has been a great example of how we as a city can work to reduce those barriers and reduce the sort of internal administrative hurdles and fiscal hurdles for community partners as we seek to create more affordable housing.

Again, thanks to central staff, the office of housing for working with us, and Aaron House in my office, along with Sajal Parikh for their work on this legislation.

I think that this is a win-win for everyone as we seek to build more housing as fast as possible.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Appreciate it.

Are there any additional comments on Agenda Item 9, Council Bill 120227?

Hearing no additional comments, will the court please call the roll on the passage of council bill 120227 agenda item nine.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Aye.

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read items 10 and 11 into the record?

Agenda items 10 and 11, appointments 2080 and 2081. The appointments of Estefana Ramirez de Harry and Diana Salazar as members, Domestic Workers Standards Board, for terms to February 28, 2022. The committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Thanks so much.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Mosqueda to walk us through these items.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

I would love, Madam President, just confirming, would you like me to address items 10 and 11, just those two together right now?

Okay.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, I'm very excited that we have the opportunity to move forward with the appointments of Estefana Ramirez de Harry and also Diana Salazar as members of the Domestic Workers Standards Board for interim, excuse me, for the term to go through February 28th, 2022. as the final time it is a hairy is that board appointees she currently resides in white center and attends highland community college she's part of the national domestic workers alliance and has a passion for advocating for workers rights uh...

appointment number eleven which is diana salazar diana salazar is a mayoral appointment to the domestic workers standards board she's been working for home care and nursing home workers uh...

with fca you seven seven five for two years and has built deep relationships with community organizations through her work.

She brings experience as a community organizer and in policy development across various topics and is very committed to racial justice.

I also want to thank the Office of Labor Standards and have the opportunity to thank Jasmine Marwaha, who has been the lead from Office of Labor Standards, who was with us as these appointees were presented.

and I'm very excited to unanimously move for, excuse me, unanimously recommend from our committee the passage of these appointees.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any additional comments on agenda items 10 and 11, appointments 2080 and 2081?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointments 2080 and 2081, agenda items 10 and 11. Lewis?

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor and none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Will the clerk please read item 12 into the record.

Agenda item 12, appointment 2082, The appointment of Edna C. Shim as member of the Burke-Gilman Public Development Authority Governing Council for a term to December 31, 2023. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much.

I want to thank Edna Shim, who is interested here as serving on the Burke-Gilman excuse me, on the Burke-Gilman Public Development Authority.

Edna Shim is a mayoral appointee.

She resides in District 4. She's the Senior Director of the Regional Government Affairs and Community Relations.

at Seattle Children's.

She's advocated to advance public education and is very familiar with City Hall.

She has worked in the legislative assistant role for several years as City Council and appreciate Anishim's interest in this position.

The committee unanimously recommended appointment of Anishim as member of Brookville Public Development Authority.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item 12, appointment 2082?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointment 2082, agenda item 12.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries, and the appointment is confirmed.

Will the clerk please read items 13 through 15 into the record?

Agenda items 13 through 15, appointments 2083 through 2085, the reappointments of Chasten Fulbright and Shalimar M. Gonzalez as members, Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority Governing Council for terms to March 31st, 2023, and the reappointment of Eric Snow as member for a term to March 31st, 2024, the committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'm gonna hand it back over to Council Member Mosqueda to walk us through these three appointments.

Thank you very much, Council President.

For appointment number 14, Shalimar M. Gonzalez is a member of Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority.

Shalimar Gonzalez is the South King County, West Seattle, and New Castle District Executive.

at the YMCA.

She is part of the White Center Community Development Association, Totem Star, and Capitol Hill Housing.

For appointment number 15, this is a reappointment of Eric Snow as member of Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority.

Eric is the president for The Fresh Toast, a new media startup.

He has served in leadership roles for American Heart Association and Coyote Central, and he is a resident of Capitol Hill.

And finally, appointment number 16, as all of you may know and be familiar with, former council member Sally Clark, is seeking an appointment to the Seattle Housing Authority Board for a term to March that will end in March 20th, 2025. Council member Clark is the current director of the University of Washington's Office of Regional and Community Relations, where she works with local government officials around the greater Puget Sound area to support and advocate for UW excellence in academics and service.

Councilmember Clark is a former colleague of ours on Seattle City Council, and she served as the chair of the Housing, Affordability, Human Services, and Economic Resilience Committee.

And Councilmember Clark is an active member of our community, serving as co-chair of Seattle Maritime and Industrial Strategy Advisory Committee, and is a board member of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility and the Seattle Jobs Initiative.

Council President, all three of these appointments have been unanimously recommended for appointment from the Finance and Housing Committee.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any additional comments on Agenda Items 13 through 15, which are Appointments 2083 through 2085?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of Appointments 2083 through 2085?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

Will the clerk please read item 16 into the record.

Agenda item 16, appointment 02086. The appointment of Sally J. Clark as member, Seattle Housing Authority Board for term to March 20th, 2025. The committee recommends the appointment be confirmed.

Okay, Council Member Riskin, I know you already addressed this in your previous one.

You have a lot of appointments today and we have to separate them based on the respective border commission, so feel free to add anything else that you'd like to item 16. And if you don't, that's fine too.

Council President, I'm sorry about that.

I did roll it up in my previous comments, so no additional comments on item number 16. I think what I also did was switch places with Chasten Fulbright, who was engaged in Capital Hill community for over 20 years and who was seeking an appointment to the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority.

So apologies to Chasten and appointment number 13, and congratulations as well to Council Member Sally Clark, who is interested in serving here with us on the Seattle Housing Authority Board.

I apologize for that, but thank you very much for your support for all of these appointees and to our former colleague, Council Member Clark, for her interest in serving on the Seattle Housing Authority Board.

No worries.

There's a lot to track on today.

We are officially, I think, nearing the half point here, so we're almost there.

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointment 2082, agenda item 16. Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

Will the clerk please read item 17 into the record.

Report of the Governance and Education Committee Agenda Item 17, Resolution 32029, a resolution adopting general rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council, superseding Resolution 31920. The committee recommends the resolution be adopted as amended.

Thank you, madam clerk as chair of the committee and sponsor of the resolution.

I'll go ahead and address this item 1st and then we have a handful of amendments to consider during today's afternoon session here.

So really quickly colleagues resolution 31920 would adopt the Seattle City Council general rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council.

which govern both our internal management and the procedures available to the public in order to access our democratic process.

The City Council typically conducts a biannual review of its procedures and rules that guide and facilitate Councilmember duties and meeting deliberations.

This year has represented a much more robust process than usual, as emphasized by the 15 amendments that were proposed and the 14 changes that were included in the base legislation.

So I want to thank you all for your engagement on making sure that we get the council rules set on the right track for the next two years.

There are many good policy changes in this resolution, but perhaps the most notable change to the council rules relates to the council meeting schedule.

I'm very pleased that the committee adopted amendments to the council rules.

that will shift our regular council briefings to Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m.

and change the date of our weekly full city council meeting from Mondays at 2 p.m.

to occur now on Tuesdays at 2 o'clock p.m.

I believe that this change will reduce the sometimes enormous amount of work that is required of council members and particularly staff on Saturdays and Sundays, including staff members in the city clerk's office, in our IT department, and other support staff, including our deputy city clerks.

It is critical for council briefings and city council meetings to occur effectively and efficiently.

As a year-round governing body, and particularly following the last two incredibly challenging years in which we have done our work entirely remotely, we have to acknowledge the limits on our individual and collective capacity and remember that we are in a marathon, not a sprint.

So I'm hopeful that this particular change, along with others in the package, including electronic participation, including voting on resolutions, and other really important amendments on the council rules will help create a more efficient, effective, and sustainable legislative process within this legislative body.

There were a few proposed changes to the council rules that committee decided to take back up the amendments today.

Those are the amendments that we will be considering during this discussion now.

and do wanna make sure that I am facilitating the process for folks to be able to consider these amendments.

So I'm gonna go ahead and ask folks to reserve comments on the rules as a whole until we've considered all the amendments and we will just focus our comments now and our discussion now on various amendments that are going to be Discuss all again consistent with comments and the discussion of the deliberation that we had in the governments and education committee meeting last week on December 8th.

I'm not aware of any new amendments being proposed.

So these are sort of modifications and revisions or enhancements to.

I'm going to go through some of the policy issues or choices that have already been discussed publicly in two committee hearings.

So this is our opportunity to make a final policy decision on some of these proposed amendments related to how the council will do business over the next two years.

So the first amendment is going to be amendment A2.

This is an amendment that I am sponsoring with Councilmember move to amend Resolution 32029 by adopting Amendment 82 that was recently distributed.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment A2 as recently distributed.

Again, as sponsor of the amendment, I'll make sure to address it first, and then I will provide Council Member Peterson an opportunity as my co-sponsor to address the item.

And then we'll go ahead and open it up for public comment from the rest of our colleagues.

The Governance and Education Committee took action on December 8th, as I just mentioned, to adopt an amendment sponsored originally by Council Member Peterson.

Actually, he authored it, and I was the official sponsor, since Council Member Peterson is not a committee member of the Governance and Education Committee.

This amendment, authored by Council Member Peterson, would allow council members to abstain from council votes on resolutions that were referred either to the council directly or to most standing and select committees prior to a council vote.

However, council members would not be allowed to abstain from council votes on resolutions that come to the council with recommendations from the Select Budget Committee.

Based on discussions of various options at the Governance and Education Committee, the amendment before us now, which is Amendment A2, would allow council members to abstain on any resolution that in the in the discretion of the council president does not.

retain materially to the City of Seattle.

As we discussed during the Governance and Education Committee meeting, this amendment would not preclude the placement of a resolution on the introduction and referral calendar, but rather would simply signal to Councilmembers that they may now, that they now have three different ways that they can vote on a resolution at full council.

They can either vote yes, vote no, or abstain.

So that is the effect of the resolution that would be before us.

So again, we are switching from the base resolution that included Council Member Peterson's language that identified that a council member may only abstain from a resolution that was coming from the Select Budget Committee to making it a little bit more broader to say that a council member may abstain from a resolution at full council if the resolution, as determined by the council president, does not materially pertain to the City of Seattle business.

So that is the proposed amendment before us.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the substantive amendment, which is fairly simple, I think, and provides an opportunity to, again, abstain on only those resolutions that the Council President determines are not materially related to the City of Seattle business.

Council Member Peterson, would you like to make any additional comments?

Thank you, Council President.

Just briefly, it was fun working with you and your office on this amendment and appreciate bringing this option forward to just give council members additional flexibility and choice to abstain on these types of resolutions.

And this brings us closer to the Roberts Rules of Order standard and what other Washington cities are doing.

So I appreciate collaborating with you on this.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Pierson.

I appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your office as well.

Any other comments or questions on proposed amendment A2?

Oh, Councilmember Herbold, please.

I'm so sorry to do this, but even though I really like the direction that things were moving in in committee, trying to define the types of resolutions that council members were seeking the opportunity to abstain on.

And I feel more confident in for instance uh...

uh...

the ability to abstain on resolutions that real uh...

relate to international relations like ait that uh...

is language that i don't think there would be any unintended consequences With I am concerned about the unintended consequences of saying of the council taking an action to say that something isn't city business.

And I am.

just recently working sort of through my thinking on that with some assistance from the city law department.

And given the concerns I have about the potential unintended consequences, I am not going to be able to vote in favor of this amendment, though I did really like the direction it was moving in.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Any other comments or questions on Amendment A2?

All right, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment A2 to Resolution 32029?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

No.

Juarez.

Yes.

Council President Gonzales.

Aye.

Seven in favor, one opposed.

Thank you so much.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted, and we now have a amended resolution before the council.

I'm going to hand it over to Council Member Herbold now, who has a motion to make related to Amendment B. Thank you so much.

I would like to move Amendment B to Resolution 31920.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt amendment B as recently distributed.

I'm gonna hand it back over to Council Member Herbold to address her amendments.

Thank you so much.

Glad to have this opportunity to bring forward an amendment that speaks to the consideration of how we will be returning to our civic building in the coming year and doing the public's business.

Thank you again, Council President Gonzalez for supporting and encouraging all council members to participate in this conversation via her committee, and for originally sponsoring the amendment that I authored regarding e-participation.

Also appreciate, of course, the collaboration with Council Member Mosqueda, who is a co-sponsor to this amendment, and her office to refine the e-participation proposal.

And please, we were able to come up with a revised amendment circulated this morning and just the intent of the amendment.

underscores that when we are returning to our civic building, it is important that we take advantage of the lessons that we learned during the pandemic and that robust electronic participation is possible.

Previously, council rules allowed for electronic participation in a very specific, very narrow set of circumstances.

We have been able to do electronic participation throughout the pandemic only because of the governor's executive order related to the pandemic.

So the current proposal states a preference for conducting business in person, but it also allows for electronic participation whenever technically feasible for any reason.

And it asks council members to communicate well with the council president's office and allow staff to plan ahead by providing 48 hours advance notice of electronic participation when they can do so.

I think this threads the needle on broadly allowing for electronic participation while also recognizing the additional burdens on staff for supporting this hybrid meeting model.

Thanks again to Council Member Mosqueda for working with my office to strengthen the amendment which will set the tone I believe for our return to City Hall and I urge the full council's adoption.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Council Member Herbold and I'm going to go ahead and recognize Council Member Mosqueda as one of the co-sponsors of this amendment as well.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to thank Council Member Herbold as well and echo her sentiment.

I appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your team.

Christina Kostovas has been great about working with us to ensure that we have equitable access to electronic participation.

Thanks so much to Sejal Parikh for spearheading those conversations and working with your team.

And thanks to Dan Eder from Central Staff for his work on these amendments.

all of the time that you all took over the last few days to really finalize this language.

I think it's really important to get this right with the COVID-19 pandemic.

We see that there's so many times where public health and equity reasons might cause a council member to not be able to participate in person and really appreciate that this legislation and the amendment in front of us today really helps to make sure that no one's choosing between doing their job and ensuring broader participation.

in the public deliberations of our work and protecting the public's health as well.

So thanks so much for all of the collaboration, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much, Council Members Herbold and Mosqueda for making comments on Amendment B. Are there any additional comments on Amendment B?

I'll just say thanks so much to both of you for working together.

We had a really robust conversation about it during the Governance and Education Committee, and I'm glad that you all had an opportunity to work offline and thread the needle here in a manner that meets both the goals of flexibility, but also safety and an opportunity to allow our technical staff to really have the opportunity to facilitate the needs of council members who may want to or need to continue to meet in a hybrid fashion.

So I appreciate your collective work on that.

Council Member Herbold, anything else?

All right.

I think we're ready.

Let's see here.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of proposed amendment B?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and amendment B is adopted.

I'm gonna hand it over now to Council Member Strauss to make his motion on proposed amendment C.

Thank you, Council President.

I'm offering Amendment C, Version 2 to this resolution, and I would like to move Amendment C, Version 2 as distributed to colleagues earlier today, and I believe is attached to the agenda as well.

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment C, which was recently distributed.

Council Member Strauss, back to you to address your amendment.

Thank you, Council President.

This amendment was redistributed to add increased clarification regarding the amendment.

What I'll say is, top line, these rules are already in place because our council rules refer to Robert's Rules of Order as far as deliberations are concerned.

This is just taking Robert's Rules of Order and putting them in our rules so that we know what we are supposed to be doing.

This amendment would limit the mate by council members to 10 minutes per speech per motion.

The rules resolution already states that council members are limited to two speeches per motion.

That limit does not include questions.

So this 10 minute limit is already stated within Robert's Rules of Order, which apply wherever council rules are silent.

And this amendment would restate that the 10 minute limit on council rules for clarification.

for clarity and emphasis.

In committee, I proposed to limit the same amendment, but to limit debate to five minutes per council member promotion, because I figured if we request the public to address us within two minutes, we can do it in five, but the amendment failed, and so this amendment would set that limit at 10 minutes, as included in Robert's rules.

Version two of the amendment, which was distributed just before this meeting, simply changes the word voice to unanimous consent at the request of the city clerk's office.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Strauss, appreciate it.

Are there any additional comments on this amendment?

Council Member Peterson, please, and then Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to speak for 12 minutes in favor of this resolution.

Just so you all know, I have been timing you.

I really appreciate this amendment.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

All right, look at that, short and sweet.

Okay, any, I'm sorry, Council Member Mosqueda, please go ahead.

I'm still laughing, that was really funny.

Council Member Strauss, thank you very much for your work on this amendment.

I appreciate the clarifications that we've also received from central staff and the clerk's office about the ability to answer questions.

If a question is directed at a council member, that was the time that it takes to answer a direct question as long as it's permitted by the council president.

Does not count towards the full 10 minute to 10 minute allotments.

Also appreciate that there is.

Working done through this amendment, which puts this Robert's Rules recommendation in the affirmative, we will automatically assume that we are going to have these 10 minute allotments versus having the body vote to support it.

I think that will help with a number of items and appreciate that there's some flexibility if the body decides to vote otherwise.

But thank you very much for the work that you've done here and I'm happy to support this amendment in front of us today.

All right, Council Member Strauss, you will have the last word if no one else has anything to say, because I do try to enforce the Robert Rules of Order to the best of my ability.

Colleagues, any other comments before we hear closing remarks from Council Member Strauss?

I'm not seeing any other hands raised.

Council Member Strauss, you have the last word.

Thank you, Council President, noting this is my second time speaking in on this motion, and both Council Member Peterson and Council Member Mosqueda clocked in it just a heckle, a freckle past the hair as far as timing goes.

All right.

Back to you.

That was 17 seconds, Council Member Strauss.

All right.

Hearing no additional comments on Amendment C, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment C to Resolution 32029?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

God, yes.

Council President Gonzales.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

Amendment C is adopted and the amended resolution is before the council.

That is the last, the third and the last amendment that I am aware of related to resolutions 32029. Are there any further comments on agenda item 17, resolution 32029?

Council Member Herbold, please.

I just want to thank you, Council President Gonzalez, for guiding this discussion.

I already mentioned I appreciated the collaborative approach and allowing us all to come to your committee and provide comment and sponsoring amendments on our behalf if we weren't members, but also really appreciated that we did this before the end of this year so that we could have the benefit of your wisdom having been our council president for the last two years.

And I think a lot of the input has been really well-informed by your, another set of your lived experiences, Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Hoveld, appreciate it.

Okay, any other comments?

I'll just close out by saying a big thank you, colleagues, to all of you for all your engagement in the Council Rules revision process.

A lot of work has gone into briefing Council members, analyzing proposals, and preparing various amendments.

And for that work, I especially want to thank the staff members on the Council Rules Working Group.

From the Office of City Clerk, Monica Martinez-Simmons, Elizabeth Eckeson, Jodi Schwinn, Linda Brown, and Emilia Sanchez.

Thank you.

From Central Staff, Esther Handy and Dan Eater.

Thanks to both of you.

From the City Attorney's Office, Brandon Islieb and Gary Smith.

And finally, my very own Deputy Chief of Staff, Cody Ryder, from my office, who played a very significant role in making sure We all stayed on track and were able to get this across the finish line in a way that was truly a consensus document.

So much gratitude to all of them.

We are, as I mentioned before, making a number of proposed changes to the council rules via resolution 32029. As always, this was an iterative process that will require future revision and refinement by the future council.

So many of the things that we are Implementing through these rule changes are new to both the council's culture and the way we do business.

And so it'll be important for the next council president in two years from now to to have a look back process to make sure that there's an opportunity for all of those representative sections of the council rules working group can give the next council the benefit of any learning that was had that would necessitate an additional change to the council rules.

So thanks to everyone for your deep engagement and with that colleagues, We are at the place where I am recommending adoption of this resolution, and I will ask that the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of amended resolution 32029, agenda item 17. Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosquera?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

The resolution is adopted as amended, and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read the short title of item 18 into the record?

The report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee agenda item 18, Council Bill 120215, an ordinance relating to land use review decision procedures amending sections of the Seattle Municipal Code to authorize the director of the Seattle Department of Construction Inspection to administratively waive development standards.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Jodi.

Appreciate it.

I'm going to hand this over to Councilmember Strauss, who is the chair of the committee, so that he can walk us through this item.

Thank you, Council President.

In February of this year, the Washington State Department of Ecology issued an order to King County to take actions to address repeated unauthorized bypasses of untreated wastewater from the West Point Treatment Facility into Puget Sound, otherwise put raw sewage into Puget Sound.

The order requires King County to comply by the end of 2025 and one component of this order requires the county installed battery-based power supply system to prevent bypass events that could be caused by disruptions to the power flow to the facility.

In layperson's term, the facility needs to have a consistent power supply and even just a quick lag that is not a power outage can shut down these systems.

Typically constructing this battery system would require a lengthy city permitting process, including asking the city council to approve conditional use decisions because the park is currently in single family zoning until later today, which will be in neighborhood residential zoning.

All of this introduces significant schedule risks, which could affect the county's compliance with the state order.

And as you recall, the mayor initially discussed declaring an emergency order to allow the county to bypass some of these permitting steps.

After discussions between the mayoral and council central staff, including Keto Freeman and Alec Mucci, This legislation was identified as a better path.

This bill before us would waive the requirement for council conditional use permit and allow SDCI director to waive some development standards for the proposed expansion that is necessary to meet the Department of Ecology corrective order.

All of that said, this legislation would also exempt the project from CEPA requirements and this bill contains safeguards to prevent this provision from being exploited, including maximum size thresholds a requirement for construction management plan and only applying one exemption to projects necessary to comply with the Department of Ecology order.

In committee, we heard from the leadership of the County Wastewater Treatment Division who urged us to pass this legislation before the end of the year, and I concur, urging a yay vote.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

I do see that Council Member Peterson has his hand up, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to thank Council Member Strauss for shepherding this through his committee.

It's really important to Seattle City Lights, Seattle Public Utilities, King County Wastewater.

Also, kudos to our central staff for coming up with a workable and rapid solution so that this issue can be put back into the court of King County Wastewater.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

Any other comments on agenda item 18, Council Bill 120215?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120215, agenda item 18. Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item 19 into the record.

Agenda item 19, council bill 120239, an ordinance relating to Seattle's construction codes, amending sections of the 2018 Seattle Energy Code adopted by ordinance 126279. The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Strauss to walk us through this item.

Thank you, Council President.

And I do believe that Council Member Lewis will be speaking to this.

So I'll just share that at the start of 2021, we adopted the strongest energy code in the nation, which banned the use of gas or electric resistance for space or water heating in multifamily residential buildings and for space heating in commercial buildings.

I'll pass it over to Council Member Lewis and follow up with any further comments if needed.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Lewis, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And just to follow along with Council Member Strauss's remarks, this legislation extends the impact of the legislation we passed last spring by encompassing most commercial construction with a couple of exceptions that are itemized in the bill to be included under the requirements of that.

bill to include electric water heaters in new construction of commercial structures.

As we've discussed extensively over the last two weeks, we expect this legislation to have a positive impact on our efforts to fight climate change, appreciate the efforts of stakeholdering this legislation over the course of the last several months in order to answer a lot of questions that were left outstanding.

from the process in the spring, necessitating a little bit more discussion and appreciate Council Member Strauss making space for this in his coveted committee spots during this month, given the limited amount of work that we are putting through.

I also appreciate the work of Noah Hahn in Council Member Strauss's office and his effective working with Parker Dawson in my office to shepherd this through, as well as the work of SDCI and other external stakeholders who have been working this over the course of the last six months plus.

And with that, I have nothing else to add and look forward to voting on this.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

Are there any additional comments on Agenda Item 19, Council Bill 120239?

Council Member Strauss, please.

Thanks, just wrapping us up, Council President.

This legislation includes several exemptions that did result from compromises made at the Construction Code Advisory Board, including exempting upgrades to existing commercial buildings.

And this type of exemption doesn't exist in other parts of the code.

And I just want to note that as we transition in this type of work to addressing the climate crisis, we must ensure that our workers are also taken care of.

And so this compromise does continue to move us forward, and we still need to do more to meet the needs of our workers who are earning family wages.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss and Council Member Lewis.

That does conclude debate on this item.

So will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120239, agenda item 19. Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Thank you so much.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read the short title of item 20 into the record?

Agenda item 20 Council Bill 120206, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, adding a new chapter 23.70 to the Seattle Municipal Code, amending chapter 23.32 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

At page 14 of the official land use map to establish a mobile home park overlay district, the committee recommends a bill pass as amended.

Thank you so much.

This is also under Council Member Strauss' committee responsibility.

So I'm going to call on Council Member Strauss to address the item.

Thank you, Council President.

This is a moment that I've been long waiting for in large part, in most part, due to Council Member Juarez's leadership.

This legislation would implement long-awaited long-term protections for mobile home parks, also known as manufactured home parks in Seattle.

These protections are a result of a conversation that began over three years ago.

Over those three years, we have adopted a moratorium on the redevelopment of mobile home parks and renewed that moratorium repeatedly to provide time for this long-term protection that we are going to vote on to be crafted, negotiated, and thanks to Council Member Juarez, avoided court.

Three different land use chairs have dealt with this issue since it first arose, and Council Member Juarez has provided steady leadership on behalf of her district, District 5, throughout this entire process.

Previous version of this legislation was appealed to the hearing examiner over the summer and we were able to reach a settlement agreement with the appellant to allow us to move forward today because we avoided court.

And so this legislation would end the temporary moratoriums by establishing a mobile home park overlay district in the land use code.

The overlay district would apply to the two remaining mobile home parks in the city, the Halcyon and Bella Bee, which are located next to each other in the Bitter Lake Urban Village.

The overlay would impose more restrictive development standards to incentivize preservation of the mobile home parks, Specifically, the overlay would limit residential uses to mobile homes unless the property was sold for the development of affordable housing, limit the size of any commercial uses, and establish a height and setback limits that match the current mobile home park use of the site.

The legislation does allow for the possibility of future affordable housing development in the overlay.

If that were to occur, there would be strong protections for existing residents.

Residents would have the right of first offer, would be entitled to relocation assistance and would be able to live in the new affordable housing for rent that is no more than a third of their monthly income.

Finally, the overlay would expire after 30 years on January 1st, 2051. This timeframe creates predictability and stability for residents while still allowing for the site to accommodate more dense housing for future generations.

When I was growing up, my grandparents lived in a manufactured home park.

I first saw that how manufactured home parks can be naturally occurring affordable housing options for many seniors to age in place, and they can also be a source of instability, because residents typically residents while they own their manufactured home do not own the land beneath them.

And for most manufactured homes out there, if they were ever to be moved, they would be destroyed in that process.

And because they don't own the land underneath them, they have the stability and the manufactured home, but instability without owning that land.

And so this legislation ensures that there will be an affordable place to call home for the residents of our last two manufactured home parks.

Again, thank you to Council Member Juarez, and thank you to Council Member Sawant for bringing this issue up initially in 2019. Thank you, Council President, that is the committee report.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Strauss, Council Member Juarez, are there any comments you'd like to make?

Briefly, yes, thank you, Council President.

Since we're saying thank you, we owe a huge thank you to Ketel, who's been working on this since December of 2018. And a huge thank you to our District D5 Director, Dean Alsop, who has been working diligently and visiting and going out to Halcyon and Bellaby.

And of course you all have heard from Linda McCoy.

I hope our friends at Bellaby and Halcyon are listening, because this really means a lot to them.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss and Council Member Juarez.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item 20, Council Bill 120206?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120206, agenda item 20.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read the short title of item 21 into the record.

Agenda item 21, council bill 120214, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, renaming single family zones to neighborhood residential zones.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Strauss, back to you.

Thank you, Council President.

In September, the City Council passed an amendment to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan to change the name of single-family zones to neighborhood residential zones to better reflect the reality of these zones, which already include many backyard cottages, detached houses that are home to multiple families, and legacy duplexes and triplexes that predate our existing zoning laws.

The name change was also a long-standing request of both the Seattle Planning Commission as well as the City Council from the mandatory housing affordability process.

In September, we adopted that comprehensive plan amendment.

The legislation before us today would implement that comprehensive plan amendment by amending the Seattle Municipal Code to effectuate the name change.

Again, there are no changes to zoning within this bill.

We are required to amend the comprehensive plan before we can change the land use code.

So just like in September, the legislation does change the zoning name.

It does not change what is allowed to be constructed in that zone.

It just changes the name to Neighborhood Residential.

I have to call out and shout out the leadership of Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Mosqueda has led on this issue before I came to office, as well as to Erin House for her work and outreach and to Lish Whitson for his amazing work.

On all of these land use policies, Noah Onn, my committee director, has had an integral role, and thank you to Noah.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss, appreciate it.

Colleagues, any additional comments on this council bill agenda item 21, Council Bill 120214. Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Thank you, Chair of Land Use, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you for sponsoring this follow-up legislation to the legislation we co-sponsored this summer, amending the Comprehensive Plan.

I am very excited about this follow-up.

I think that, as you said, this will help us lay the ground to make sure that our language and code, as well as in the Comprehensive Plan, is reflective to the true character of Seattle's neighborhoods as we embark on the much-awaited and deeply engaging Comprehensive Plan major updates that will start with community engagement next year and will hopefully work to address the exclusionary zoning still embedded in our statute.

I really appreciate that the more inclusive, accurate names such as neighborhood residential recognizes these neighborhoods are already home to that diversity that you outlined and helped to make sure that folks know how that diversity adds to our thriving neighborhoods across Seattle and the name single family designation solely does not yield the truly diverse nature of what our neighborhoods are as we seek to have robust discussion with community members going forward.

I want to also thank Erin House and Noah Ahn, who did a tremendous amount of work.

And as I mentioned in your committee last week, I want to extend our appreciation as well to our state legislative champions who have also been embarking on similar efforts at the state level to try to create more inclusive and diverse cities across our state.

And I want to thank our very own representatives, Representative Macri, Representative Fitzgibbon, Representative Chopp, along with community organizations such as the Housing Development Consortium, South Seattle, Chamber of Commerce, and Sierra Club, 350 Seattle, Share the Cities, and AIA Seattle Chapter.

I think this is a really exciting day.

From a purely technical perspective, the term single family has been a misnomer since 1994, when the ADDIE legislation was passed.

So long overdue and greatly appreciated, council members.

Very excited to vote for this.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any additional comments on Council Bill 120214, Agenda Item 21?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 120214, Agenda Item 21?

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Will the clerk please read item 22 into the record.

Agenda item 22, council bill 120235, an ordinance relating to historic preservation, imposing controls upon 802 16th Avenue, and adding it to the table of historical landmarks contained in chapter 25.32 of the Seattle Municipal Code, the committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Strauss, back to you.

Thank you, Council President.

This legislation imposes landmark controls on property located at 802 16th Avenue in the Central District, also known as the Immaculate Conception Convent.

The home was constructed in the neoclassical style by architect Edwin Houghton and includes several exterior stained glass windows.

The house was constructed beginning in 1900 for the family of Thomas Constantine.

then stage manager for the People's Theater.

It was later purchased by a future city council member and later by the Immaculate Conception Church as a convent for nuns.

The house sat empty for much of the 1970s due to redlining.

While vacant, the house became a space where children roller skated and local bands practiced, including hometown hero Garfield Bulldog, Jimi Hendrix.

The home has since been divided into four apartments and is occupied by owner Sue Perry as well as daughter Amy Hagopian.

I'm so sorry, Amy.

I know you are a leader in so many ways.

Say it one more time.

Hagopian.

Agopian, thank you.

Sincere apologies, Dr. Agopian.

The house is being designated under three of six standards for designation, that it is associated with cultural, political, or economic heritage of the community, that it embodies characteristics of an architectural style, and that it is an outstanding work of the designer or builder.

Controls will apply to both the site and house exterior, including its stained glass windows.

Council President, that's the committee report.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strass, appreciate it.

Are there any additional comments on agenda item 22, Council Bill 120235?

Council Member Esqueda, please.

Thank you very much.

And Council Member Strauss, I'm very glad that you mentioned Professor Hagopian as well.

I appreciate the family's interest in this parcel.

And as we talked about in your committee, I think this is a great example of what Professor Hagopian talks about, which is public health and community health, centering on ability for folks to have cultural spaces and places to gather and housing and community spaces all accessible to our community is something I'm really excited about.

Amy noted that in her conversation about how this site has been used over the years.

And I look forward to future opportunities to hear stories like that in the future with the use of this location.

But thought it was a great tie into that focus on community and public health.

And wanted to just thank Professor Amy Hagopian and her family, as well as the folks who made the recommendation and passage possible.

So thank you, Council Member Strauss as the chair of the committee for shepherding this through and looking forward to supporting it.

Thank you so much.

Any additional comments on agenda item 22?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of council bill 120235 agenda item 22. Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Strauss?

Yes.

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Gonzales?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read item 23 into the record?

Report of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee.

Agenda item 23, Council Bill 120164. an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation, authorizing the superintendent of Parks and Recreation to enter into an agreement with the Woodland Park Zoological Society for operation and management of the Woodland Park Zoo.

The committee recommends that bill pass as amended.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.

This is your ordinance.

I'm gonna hand it over to you to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

As the clerk says, this is legislation relating to the Woodland Park Zoo contracts.

So this is legislation that would renew the operations and management agreement between the City of Seattle and the Woodland Park Zoo.

I will highlight, I won't go through all the highlights, I shared some of that this morning.

So, this is the current 20 year contract, which the current 20 year contract remains active until February 22 of this year.

So, both parties and the zoo and the city have negotiated agreement to renew and update the policies related to the public benefits.

Sue operations.

services, and care of the animals.

As I shared this morning, I wanna thank my colleagues on the committee and those of you who came who were not part of the committee, Council Member Strauss, and submitted the 15 amendments by November 30th.

And we got them all done, and I think it's a better deal.

And so with that, the committee recommends, or I recommend that the Seattle City Council pass Council Bill 12064 as amended, Council President.

Thank you so much.

Councilor Juarez, I appreciate it.

Are there any additional comments on Council Bill 120164 agenda item 23?

Councilor Mosqueda, please.

Thank you very much.

I also want to thank Council Member Juarez as chair of the committee for the work that you've done on the various amendments.

I think it was 15 on just one piece of legislation.

And especially extend a thank you to Unite Here Local 8. local eight for bringing the opportunity to include labor peace provision into this agreement and to our attention.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez and two members of the zoo for working with us and for the committee's vote to include the labor harmony amendment into this agreement in front of us.

Excited about that and thank you for your work on it.

Thank you so much.

I want to also appreciate the leadership of my colleagues who represent the neighbors to the zoo, Councilmember Strauss and Councilmember Peterson, and of course, Councilmember Juarez for steering the committee through this really important, complex oversight work on the agreement.

Really, many thanks to the passionate advocates who care so deeply about the zoo and the animals in its care.

This was difficult because So many people care about the zoo and because the state of research and standards of care and community sentiment all can change so rapidly in a 20 year agreement.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to be here.

zoo will pursue for years to come by requiring approval of the long-range plan.

We are building in a touch point where the public will have an opportunity to raise concerns and the council will have an opportunity to exercise reasonable oversight of significant plan changes to the zoo that may impact its operations, animals, or financial health over the course of the agreement.

I know this was a challenging process, but with coordination required between council and central staff and enforced by Councilmember Juarez, I think the outcome was a very good outcome, and I hope the public agrees, and I hope that the zoo agrees.

I really appreciate their collaboration on the effort, and I also want to just give a shout out to Brian Goodnight on Council Central staff who helped us sort through and make sense of a long but important document, as well as the staffing of Christina Kosubas in my office as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Huckel.

Any additional comments?

Council Member Juarez, any closing remarks?

No, my husband was trying to vote, but other than that, no.

Well, tell him he'd have to run against you if he wanted to do that.

Yeah, I already did.

He's still in West Seattleite.