Seattle City Council 1/21/2025

Good afternoon, everyone.

The January 21st, 2025 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.02.

I'm Sarah Nelson, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Here.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Moore?

Present.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you very much, and happy birthday, Council Member Sacca.

There are no presentations today, so we'll move right into the hybrid public comment period.

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

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have nine in person and four remote.

Okay.

We'll give everyone two minutes, and in keeping with the tradition and courtesy that I have admittedly forgotten a couple times, I understand that there is a council member here who has signed up for public speaking, and generally we have offered elected officials the first opportunity to speak.

So we'll start with that elected, former elected, and proceed with the next four in-person commenters and alternate.

Thank you.

Following our first speaker, the speakers will be called in the order in which they're registered.

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

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

And we're ready to go.

Hi, my name is Tanya Wu, and I'm here today on behalf of several business owners and of Little Saigon in the Chinatown International District.

And many of the business owners have told me they are fearful to speak out.

They are afraid because they're afraid of being targeted.

Let me tell you what the state of Little Saigon is like.

We've experienced multiple stabbings, shootings.

If you walk by there, you'll see many people standing outside in various needs of resources.

There is a lot of illegal sales of goods as well as drugs.

And so we are calling this year the year where we get that whole area revitalized and to allow for these businesses to thrive.

And so these business owners are afraid.

They're afraid of speaking up.

They're afraid of being targeted.

They go outside and are seen every single day amongst the community and they They really need the city to help provide resources to make this a thriving area.

And so we have put together a petition.

This past week, we had over 500 people sign the petition.

And we are asking for a couple of things.

The first thing we're asking for is a community meeting with the mayor the future D2 appointee, county council member, the county executive, and the governor to walk the neighborhood and see what it's like to be there.

We're asking for a task force that brings together the business owners, residents, community leaders, DSC, the United Indian Health Board, and representatives from all forms of the government to provide feedback, especially we want a hand in being able to direct the direction of the neighborhood after the navigation center leaves in March.

We want to be able to have continued police presence, social workers, and cleanups after the transition of Navigating Center in March.

And we also want to see the implementation of city council budget items from last year that have designated about $1.5 million in that area.

We would like the mayor to release that funding.

And we want a partnership rebuilding the Little Saigon community for the future of the residents and the people who work there.

We really need this to be the year.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alex Zimmerman.

Following Alex Zimmerman will be Bennett Halston.

Thank you.

My dirty damn Nazi Gestapo fascist cockroaches, you know, bandita and killer.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I'm president of Stand Up America.

I support Trump for 10 years in my election.

Make America Great Again, member, yeah.

I want to speak about something absolutely critical, and I'm talking about this for many years, except 18 trespasses for 1,500 days.

What does you give me for the last 25 years?

20 years.

We have right now executive order from Trump yesterday about freedom of speech.

Situation absolutely idiotic because we have freedom of speech in Constitution for 250 years.

So how is this possible?

You know what this mean?

So right now every free speech, what is you will be cut and you're doing this in every day.

You know what this mean?

supposed to be controlled by FBI.

It's exactly what this order talking about.

And when you don't stop and say, I will go to the FBI, no question.

I'm sick and tired from trespasses that they have around and prosecute me five times.

Yeah, Trump only four.

I'm so sorry.

So I demand that you open Bertha Room in City Hall one day per week for real freedom of speech without controlling you.

You are Nazi pig, a Gestapo, a mob who controlling us for 25 years right now.

Stop totally doing this.

Open Bertha Room one day per week for everybody without your control for trimming it so we can go in doing something what is supposed to be by definition.

What is common sense for America for 250 years?

You don't do this because you're Nazi.

It's exactly who you are.

Viva Trump.

Viva new American revolution in people who stand up in clean, dirty government totally.

Bye-bye.

Following Bennett will be Yvette Denish.

Afternoon.

Hey, I didn't know that Alex Zimmerman did Elon Musk impressions.

Anyway, so I told you all guys before about how my arrest report back in February.

Captain Steve Strand wrote, I went to each individual processor and asked if their intention was to be arrested.

They each shouted over me as I calmly explained that if they explained, they risked being arrested for criminal trespass.

He also said, I then looked at the King County Jail booking photos of the sex sex sex.

I had direct contact with each, including attempting a conversation and warning about the impending arrest.

As I've said here before, none of that is true.

He made that up.

I was wearing GoPro the whole time, and he never came and talked to us.

each one of us individually.

So I'd filed a complaint with the Office of Police Accountability about that report.

The OPA got back to me, and they said, the body-worn video does not show the named employee address each protester individually.

However, the named employee was speaking on the microphone and coordinated with other officers to communicate these orders.

OPA requests the named employee's chain of command advise them of the importance of accurate reporting.

However, no discipline is recommended.

So they seem to be saying it doesn't really matter in this case because the outcome probably would have been the same anyway.

I think that's true.

I think the outcome probably would have been the same.

But for the record, I think that if an officer is caught making an intentionally false statement, and I do think that this was intentionally false, this is not the kind of thing you falsely misremember going and talking to each person individually.

That's the kind of thing you make up if you want to sound like you dotted each I and crossed each T.

just to say that you were being thorough, but you didn't actually do it.

And I think if you get caught in a case like that, there should be more or less automatically at least a minimum reprimand instead of just nothing.

Because otherwise you get into arguing over, well, did it actually change the outcome or didn't it?

And I think even a low-stakes situation like this is relevant to things like the blast ball debate, because a lot of that will come down to whether the police said something happened or not.

And, you know, these days there's only gonna be a body-worn cam and probably about 10,000 cell phone videos of it.

But just in case, sometimes it comes down to what the police say happened.

And I think the moral of this story is just because the police say something happened doesn't mean it did.

Just because OPA say the police didn't make something up doesn't mean that they didn't.

Thank you.

The following event will be Sumar.

Good afternoon and happy birthday again.

Today I'd like to speak on the, the city of Seattle just recently announced the Youth Civic Engagement Pilot Program.

I think that's a great idea.

And I also think it's a great program in order to bring attention to the future voter program that's in Washington state, which allows 16 to 17-year-olds pre-register to vote.

Excuse me.

So by the time they're 18, they're good to go.

I think that's a great idea.

Whoever came up with that idea, bravo.

And I also bring attention.

Last week, I spoke about Simona Burnison and how her organization spends well the money she's given.

Last week, she returned from taking eight youth to Africa on a two-week trip.

And she's doing this again.

And I also sent you guys an email about all that she's doing this year in 2025 as an FYI.

And I also wanted to give her kudos because just last week, she got this from...

the President of the United States.

Dear Simona Burleson, on behalf of the President of the United States and the entire nation, I am delighted to congratulate you on being selected and approved as a recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service.

Thousands of nominations are made for this, and only five got up this year, and she was one of the five.

And the president goes on to say, this award reflects the highest level of appreciation for your service.

It says not only as recognition of your past achievements, but also as an inspiration for others to follow your extraordinary example.

So I'm just thrilled over the moon, and she's been very, very, very humble about it.

And lastly, I want to thank Tanya Wu.

Where is she?

for your continued civic engagement with the community, and also to advocate for funding to keep 12th and Jackson clean.

Thank you very much.

After Sumar, we will then go to remote public commenters.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sue Marr, and I have an office in Little Saigon.

The City of Seattle opened the Navigation Center on July 12, 2017, and from that day on, we've had issues in Little Saigon.

It was a crime magnet.

It attracted every kind of crime you can think of, especially drug sales and use.

We've had constant gunshots, assaults with deadly weapons, dead bodies, aggressive behavior, illegal markets.

Little Saigon has been under siege for seven years.

It's gotten worse and worse with every year, and we're weary.

The community is weary of the constant battle to survive after multiple years of neglect by the city.

From 2017 to 2023, Little Saigon was faced with the ugly realities of life-threatening danger from constant crime in illegal homeless camps and unsanitary conditions.

During these years, the city provided very little law enforcement to Little Saigon.

Business owners were left to their own to deal with unlawful trespass, illegal acts, human waste and excessive garbage, and other conditions that impacted and created danger to the people that work and live and own businesses in this area.

2024, Mayor Harrell provided more law enforcement and city resources for street cleaning, and that really made a difference, but it's still not enough.

We still have problems.

2025, I would say that we need to continue the efforts that Mayor Harrell started this year at the same level, if not more, to keep little Saigon alive.

City of Seattle owes this committee more than just the promise of help.

It's time for the city to work together with Little Saigon directly to fix the many problems it created by the long-term disregard for Little Saigon.

To restore Little Saigon, the community needs strong leadership and dedicated government support and resources and funding.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to remote speakers and a reminder to our remote speakers to please press star six after you have heard the message that you have been unmuted.

Our first remote speaker is David Della and David will be followed by Alberto Alvarez.

Go ahead, David.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is David Della, lifelong resident of Seattle.

Currently living in District 7, Queen Anne.

And I'm calling in today at the request of former Councilmember Tanya Wu and other community members who are there to speak about Charleston Jackson and Little Saigon.

And I just want to say that, you know, I've been involved, my family's been involved in CID Little Saigon for many years.

Our family had a barbershop run by my uncle down there.

And I've been working on a lot of issues around housing and social services in the 1970s.

And lately I've been involved as a consultant working on development and safety issues.

And I can tell you that, you know, the safety issues that council member, former council member Penny Wu and Sumar and others are talking about is very real.

And despite the fact that the council thanks very much for the $1.5 million for safety measures in your budget that includes Chinatown International District and Little Saigon and efforts of the mayor and the departments to clean them up, the situation has gotten worse.

And for those of you who walk around that district, and I walk around here a lot, it's really a shame to see people on the street doing what they're doing, particularly on 12th and Jackson and 12th Avenue.

And this is unacceptable.

And I just want to lastly say that the community through the petition and a press conference that was held last week that I was at are ready to take action, but they need the city to also take action and show that they're working in partnership with the community to hear their voices and concerns, and to delay the concerns about being unsafe.

So I encourage the council to move swiftly on actions and funding to help that community.

Thank you.

Thank you, our next speaker is- Hold on one moment.

David Della, in your introduction of yourself and your past work, you did not mention that you are also a former city council member, so I just want to say thank you for your service and your longstanding support of the neighborhood.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Jody, sorry.

That's all right, thank you.

Our next speaker is Alberto Alvarez, followed by Joe Kunzler.

Go ahead, Alberto.

So there is sympathy to be had for Little Saigon, but it is also part of District 2, which is severely affected by what I'm about to say.

Four or five or six hours of commute time every week is imposed on 400,000 Seattle workers, effectively paying a workers' tax that subsidizes commercial real estate in the city.

Axios reports Seattle area leads nation in economic growth Over 6% in GDP growth through years 22 through 23. Business groups, wealthy landlords, and corporate lobbying have cannibalized the spending power that local economies, just like Little Saigon, depend on.

Living wages to workers is money spent back into our communities, just like Little Saigon.

affordable housing means a spending force that is a quick or that is a walk or a quick bus ride away to areas just like little saigon seattle is a top five global economic powerhouse we outpace all u.s regions the business groups are not hurting wealthy landlords are not hurting empower the workers protect renters serve those voters of district 2. build affordable housing, and uphold living wages.

Thank you, and have a good day.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Joe Kunzler, followed by David Haynes.

Go ahead, Joe.

Thank you.

Joe Kunzler here.

I'm going to be very careful as I say this, but I understand we have a small scandal going on with a city council member.

I think the real scandal should be about the fact that the city council rules are not being enforced by the current council president against Alex Zimmerman and his continued bigotry, hatred, anti-Semitism, and contempt for our democracy.

I find the continued appeasement of Alex Zimmerman to be a menace and a cancer on our society.

And so what if a city council member had a personal relationship with an editor of a strange newspaper compared to that?

I really don't care.

I care about what you do for our community and keep our community safe.

And part of keeping our community safe is not just backing the blue and supporting law enforcement.

It's also by enforcing the rules of your own chamber.

And when you appease Alex Zimmerman, you become part of the problem.

So I'm going to leave you to that.

Thank you for your public service and all my best to all of you.

And one last thing.

We need to name a bus lane, the Heidi Wills bus lane.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Our last remote speaker is David Haynes.

Go ahead, David.

Thank you, David Haynes.

Remember when the deputy police chief was at the council and he said, it doesn't matter if you throw a blast ball underhand or overhand when you're trying to reach the back of the crowd.

That's a telltale sign.

The Seattle police department, the wrong people in charge and the wrong policies, and they're going to find themselves in court again with an even bigger lawsuit and another violation of constitutional police reform.

Was he suggesting throwing it at the head and letting it explode?

in the eyes like he's a tough guy?

Has that boy of a deputy police chief been with the Seattle Police Department since before the 2012 police reform that sued the cops for being violent?

Maybe he's another one of those that needs to be fired.

If so, we still need to purge the misinterpretation of what constitutes proper police reform because his testimony at council is proof there is optimized violence and cowardice inside the police leadership.

They would rather look for an excuse to abuse innocent protesters than blame bad actors while still never doing anything effective to police and contend with all the criminals who refuse to vacate the downtown corridor with all their drug-pushing open drug markets.

Secondly, how much debt and trade deficit does the Seattle Port Authority cause when they raise King County property taxes of over $80 million a year to welfare-subsidized infrastructure for offshore industrialists covering their debt and paying the bonds while allowing foreign corporations to control our sovereign territory and get watered down inspections and free offloads for China shipping and discounted cruise line terminals that abuse our resources before they shove off to launder billions of dollars that get taken out of our financial system while they overcharge on deregulated casinos and things that are not included on the cruise.

The Port of Seattle conspired to sabotage the new basketball arena Chris Hansen wanted to build, and the port is presently conspiring to the non-housing.

Maybe we need a federal injunction on the port authorities to put an end to the treasonous abuse of local community and the global trade deficit we financed at our own demise.

Thank you, that was our last remote speaker.

We'll now go back to the in-person public comment and we'll start with Patty Fong followed by Gary Lee and Randy Wu-ing.

Patty?

Good afternoon, I'm Patty Fong.

I was asked to address the council on 12th and Jackson, a moniker that has come to unfavorably brand Little Saigon and the Chinatown International District.

We must change that unfair and unfortunate perception.

The city and the county must close the DESC navigation center immediately.

A school and businesses have endured the consequences of this drug dealing shelter long enough.

The city and county targeted CID knowing its poverty and its political powerlessness.

This is shameful, but we are pushing back.

No other Seattle neighborhood would have been singled out as we have been.

The CID is descending into urban decay and blight.

Support us as we seek to rebrand and revitalize the Chinatown International District, Seattle's only living historic immigrant community.

Support our community's economic development away from being Seattle's poorest neighborhood to Seattle's economically thriving immigrant community.

Declare a moratorium on the disproportionate siting of governmental and private low-income services and projects that are targeting the CID.

Support and invest in the future of our youth, especially the investment in youth civic leadership that will grow our future political influence.

Invest in our small business community.

Go big.

The Chinatown International District will determine its vision and future with the commitment of the city of Seattle as a full-fledged partner.

Thank you for your attention.

I'm Gary Lee from Chinatown, and I'm also a retired city planner for 30 years.

And I'm here to echo what I've heard about Little Saigon and 12th Street today, but I'm also here to talk about the conference of plan.

What I have before you is a copy of the existing 2035 comprehensive plan policy DTHSP5, which says, seek to avoid over-concentration of human service facilities in any one area of downtown and encourage the location of needed facilities in areas lacking such facilities.

I'm asking you to look this up for yourself.

I sent each of you an email of a petition that I'm circulating that also addresses this as well.

That's why I brought this so you can remember when you see my email that this is the policy.

This is an existing policy that is a really good policy.

And I think this policy needs to be kept, retained, and expanded to the new urban centers and the new regional centers in the comprehensive plan, as well as coming up with the zoning regulations to address those over-concentrations.

So the over-concentrations that you see that I believe that are evident are not good for economic development or the vitality of the areas that these places are located.

These are needed facilities, but they do need to be spread around.

And they need to be included in the comprehensive plan.

The Mayor's One Seattle plan proposes to eliminate that.

I'm asking you to retain it and expand it.

Look it up.

I sent you guys an email, each one of you.

And it looks like this.

So that'll remind you.

Thank you.

Our last in-person speaker is Randy.

Thank you, counsel for letting me speak.

I'm bringing you guys attention about what happened this past weekend.

In the Chinatown International District, particularly in Japantown.

There was graffiti on art, or actually a memorial for the Japanese-American that was interned.

And one of those memorials, pictures was actually defaced.

It was actually my friend's grandma.

And that is unacceptable.

And because all this graffiti that happens around the area, there's no accountability.

We need to have back accountability for that.

You know, it's almost like somewhat disgracing the Holocaust morale.

It's that hardening to the community.

And that shouldn't happen.

And in the light, I want to speak on past speakers about Little Saigon.

The area needs help.

It's losing economic vitality.

Without any kind of businesses there surviving, there will be no Little Saigon.

And without Little Saigon, there's a domino effect around the community, including Chinatown, Japantown, and surrounding areas.

But thank you guys for listening.

All right, thank you very much.

We have reached the end of our list of registered speakers.

Thank you very much for coming out and bringing attention to what's going on down there.

And I just want for myself to note that I appreciate the community coming out and engaged in the process of continual education and encouragement that we do better.

All right, the public comment period is now closed.

Thank you very much for your comments today.

All right, if there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Seeing none, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So we'll now consider the proposed consent calendar and the items on the consent calendar are the minutes of January 14th, 2025, and Council Bill 120935, which is the payment of bills.

Are there any items council members would like to remove from the consent calendar?

All right.

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It is moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar.

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

Council member Saka?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

All right, the consent calendar items are adopted.

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

All right, folks, we have one item today.

Will the clerk please read the title of item one into the record?

The report of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, agenda item one, Council Bill 120925, relating to city employment, commonly referred to as the Fourth Quarter 2024 Employment Ordinance.

The committee recommends the bill pass.

Thank you.

As chair of the committee, I'll provide a bit of a background in the committee report.

So this is the Human Resources Fourth Quarter Employment Ordinance, and it proposes changes to civil service classifications, job titles, and rates of pay, for example, compensation schedules, et cetera.

And the council authorizes certain city personnel actions through quarterly employment ordinances, and that used to go to full council, but now it goes to the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee.

And this fourth quarter employment ordinance would authorize specifically the director of the city's human resource department to exempt four positions from civil service, return 11 positions to civil service, revise two job titles, establish 13 job titles and corresponding rates of pay, and adjust rates of pay for two job titles.

And we first discussed this bill in committee on December 12th and then again on January 9th before voting it out of committee unanimously that day.

So are there any questions or comments?

Go ahead.

Thank you, council president.

Just noting you had mentioned a second ago that this ordinance used to come directly to full council.

I also remember a time that SDHR in council briefing, I think last week or the week before you'd mentioned this bill has budget implications.

And that is why in previous iterations of our committee schedule, SDHR had reported to the finance committee.

So I just wanted to add additional context since you shared what it was most recently before this year.

So more history with Dan.

Thanks everyone.

Have a great day.

Got it.

Thank you.

Yes.

So my memory goes back two years and that's the way it was when I took office and I'm glad for that education.

All right.

Are there any questions or comments on the legislation?

Okay, we had a good discussion in committee and I appreciate everybody's attention.

That was very good to talk about transparency and accountability, et cetera.

So seeing that there aren't any other questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Council member Saka?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Yes.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council member Kettle?

Aye.

Council member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

Okay, the bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

There were no items from the consent calendar that were removed and there's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today.

Is there any further business to come before the council?

All right, if there's no objection, okay, I'm sorry.

Council Member Rivera.

Oh yes, sorry, Council President, I need to request an excuse for my absence on the January 27th Council meeting.

28th, sorry, 28th.

Thank you, Amelia.

All right, if there is no objection, Council Member Rivera will be excused from the January 28th City Council meeting.

Hearing no objection, Council Member Rivera is excused from the January 28th City Council meeting.

Now, is there any further business?

All right.

Well then, hearing no further business, we've reached the end of today's agenda.

Just some public information.

The City Council will hold a special meeting on Thursday, January 23rd, where we will hear presentations from City Council District 2 finalists, and the Council will have the opportunity to ask questions of the finalists.

And as a reminder, tonight is the public forum at Columbia City Theater starting at 5.30 p.m.

Our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is on January 28th.

All right.

Seeing and hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

It is 2.34.

Thank you, everyone.