Dev Mode. Emulators used.

Seattle City Council 3232020

Publish Date: 3/23/2020
Description: Due to the civil emergency on the coronavirus, councilmembers may be participating electronically. Agenda: Presentations; Payment of Bills; CB 119760: amending Ordinance 126000, which adopted the 2020 Budget - financial assistance to small businesses; Appointments to Community Police Commission, Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees. Advance to a specific part Payment of Bills - 5:04 CB 119760: amending Ordinance 126000, which adopted the 2020 Budget - financial assistance to small businesses - 6:25 Appointments to Community Police Commission, Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees - 29:34
SPEAKER_03

All right, looks like we're live now.

Is that right, Clerk?

That's right.

Thank you so much.

The March 23, 2020 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2 o'clock p.m.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.

Will the Clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

SPEAKER_07

Here.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Here.

Council Member Peterson.

SPEAKER_08

Here.

SPEAKER_07

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_09

Present.

SPEAKER_07

Council President Gonzalez.

SPEAKER_03

Here.

Eighth, present.

Thank you so much, Clerk.

The City of Seattle issued a civil emergency proclamation due to the coronavirus on March 3rd, 2020. Since then, the governor and Seattle King County Public Health Department have issued recommendations on reducing the spread of this virus.

To comply with the recommendations and in the interest of the safety and welfare of the public and our own employees, the Seattle City Council is meeting remotely and participating electronically.

The City Council anticipates continuing this practice through March 31st of 2020. Meeting remotely also does not provide the public an opportunity for in-person public comment, and we truly regret that.

The City Council is continually available by email.

You can all email us at council at seattle.gov.

That's council at seattle.gov.

This meeting is being broadcasted live on Seattle Channel.

You can call the Council Chamber listen line at 206684 8566. This number is also listed on the agenda and this meeting can also be heard in council chambers in person.

Though of course we are discouraging the in-person option again in order to ensure that we are complying strictly with public health officer orders in terms of stopping the spread of this virus.

Council members, the Council rules are silent on electronic participation at regular City Council meetings, and the Council will be conducting remote meetings as late as March 31st, 2020. As I mentioned in Council briefing this morning, that could be extended based on information coming out either later today as a result of Governor Inslee's 5.30 p.m.

address to the full state or other information we obtained from regional health partners.

In addition, public comment is not being provided at meetings where the City Council is meeting remotely.

To allow the Council to conduct business remotely and without public comment, the Council rules will need to be suspended.

So if there is no objection, the Council rules will be suspended to allow Council members to participate electronically at City Council meetings through March 31st, 2020, and to not include public comment at meetings where the Council is participating remotely.

Hearing no objection, the Council rules are suspended and the Council will participate electronically through March 31st, 2020, and public comment will not be on the agendas where the Council is meeting remotely.

Thank you, Councilmembers, for indulging me as I go through those important administrative steps before we get into the meat of our agenda.

Our first section is presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations today.

So I will move on to the approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the special city council meeting of March 5th and city council meeting of March 9th, 2020 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are being signed, and I will ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes.

We will move on now to the adoption of the referral of the calendar.

Excuse me, adoption of the referral calendar.

If there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

We will now move to the approval of the agenda.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Okay, payment of bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

SPEAKER_04

Yes, Council President, just a quick second.

Council Bill 119-759, appropriate amount to be asserted in audit of claims for the week of March 9th, 2020 through March 13th, 2020 and ordering the payment thereof.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I move to pass Council Bill 119-759.

Second.

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

Are there any comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Council Member Herbold?

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Lewis?

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Morales?

Aye.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Aye.

Councilmember Peterson?

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Sawant?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council President Gonzalez?

SPEAKER_03

Aye.

Nine 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?

All right, we'll go ahead and begin with committee reports.

Agenda item one, will the clerk please read agenda item one into the record?

SPEAKER_04

Agenda item one, the report of the City Council, Bill 119760, amending 12600, which adopted the 2020 budget change the appropriations to the Executive Department's Office of Housing, the Executive Department's Office of Economic Development and Budget Control Levels and from various funds in the budget for the purpose of providing financial assistance to small businesses and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I'm going to move to pass Council Bill 119760. Second.

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

This bill is sponsored by Councilmember Morales.

Would you like to address this bill?

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

This is a bill we referenced last week.

This would add another approximately a million dollars to the Office of Economic Development for the purpose of expanding the Small Business Stabilization Fund.

I know there are some who are concerned that this is shifting money from the Low Income Housing Fund in the Office of Housing.

My understanding is that the Office of Housing plans to do two NOFAs and that there will be an additional opportunity for funding for housing in the fall.

And while I completely understand the struggle, and this is probably the first of many that we're going to have to balance how we make adjustments to our plans during this crisis.

You know, it's important that we support small business and certainly shouldn't be pitting them against any housing production that we're going to be doing.

And we know that we have very limited options as a city for how we support small business and community development block grant money is 1 of our very few options.

So I am going to.

we support this bill so that we can expand the support for small businesses through the Business Stabilization Fund.

I do want to say, if I might, as I've said many times already during this crisis, we need to be aware of that we're not robbing Peter to pay Paul during this crisis, and also that as we look to these emergency measures that we're taking, that we aren't creating new systems that might perpetuate inequities in our community.

That said, I do think that it's important that we proceed with this bill.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Are there any comments on the bill?

SPEAKER_02

Council President Gonzalez, this is Council Member Mosqueda.

SPEAKER_03

Please, the floor.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Madam President, and thanks to the prime sponsor for bringing this forward along with the mayor's office for sending it down.

I want to reiterate a few points that were made in conversations with the Office of Housing.

We have been able to confirm that the redirection of the CBDG funds will not hurt any existing housing projects, and we will continue to be vigilant along with our partners in the mayor's office as we move forward to make sure that there is sufficient funding for housing.

but the roughly $1 million in redirection will not affect any of our currently funded projects.

I want to thank the Office of Housing for their opportunity to engage with us and make sure that we plan for affordable housing projects to move forward, that there's not any negative impacts as we think about the emergency that's in front of us, especially as we think about how important it is for folks to have access to housing and affordable housing in the near future when and if this virus continues in the fall and winter, we want to make sure that these housing projects continue and that there's funding allocated this year and next year to moving forward on these important housing projects.

I think that we talked a little bit about it this morning and have talked repeatedly about how the COVID pandemic has made affordable housing production even more critical.

And it really is our only long-term strategy for creating affordable housing and stability.

So as we ramp up our sheltering capacity and we think about immediate assessment facilities that we're going to stand up soon, having equal amount of emphasis on building affordable housing is going to be critical.

So I want to thank the mayor's office and the budget office for helping to explain the budget impacts of this decision.

And I think overall, to echo what Council Member Morales said, we want to make sure that the COVID crisis, when it means loss of revenue coming in the door, that we do protect funding for critical services, including affordable housing, as we think about reallocating funding.

I think this is a good use of these funds and appreciate the effort to get these dollars out the door for our smallest businesses.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Are there any other comments on the bill?

Okay, so I heard two people, Council Member Herbold and Council Member Sawant.

Did I get that right?

Yes.

Okay, Council Member Herbold, I heard your voice first, so I'm going to let you go first, and then I'll call on Council Member Savant.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_06

I really appreciate knowing that this transfer of funds from the Office of Housing will not impact any current funding commitment that OH, the Office of Housing, has made to our affordable housing project.

and appreciate knowing that the Office of Housing estimates at this time that they'll have $57 million to allocate to new housing projects in need of funding.

And I, of course, understand that CDBG funds can uniquely support the Business Assistance Program, as other city and state funds cannot be used to provide this assistance due to constitutional limitations.

We know that COVID-19 will put pressure on many thousands of households who will be out of work, or underemployed and struggling to make ends meet, as well as pressures on the affordable housing providers who have very tight margins to keep people housed.

I did reach out to the Housing Development Consortium this weekend.

They are supportive of this legislation.

But I think we need to assume that housing must be a key component of the city's response to COVID-19.

And I don't want to regret these kinds of transfers away from the Office of Housing.

We know that the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance has made a request of the Governor's Office that should any future shelters in place orders be instituted, that housing production be considered an essential opportunity and be permitted to continue.

In addition to the affordable housing projects that are already planned, it seems very likely that we may have emergency housing related needs where future CDBG funds could be an important fund source.

We've checked in with the city's CDBG administrator.

We know that emergency housing and shelter is an eligible CDBG activity.

It is defined as a public service.

We are limited on how much CDBG dollars we can spend on a public service such as emergency housing or shelter.

We are only permitted to spend 35.92% of our total CDBG grant on public services, and it has been our policy as a city to spend those dollars towards emergency shelter.

So as I understand it, that 36% has already been contracted out for 2020, But our CDBG administrator indicates that Congress may be working on statutory relief to temporarily remove the cap on public services for CDBG.

We will be kept updated on the progress on this.

But what this means is we may have the ability to use more CDBG funds for emergency shelter and emergency housing related needs related to COVID-19.

And so I think this important conversation that we're having now about striking the right balance between all of these competing needs is really critical to the council and the city's ability to be fair and meet those needs.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Councilor Osalan?

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

I have concerns about this bill from the mayor, and I have the concern not only about this bill, but that the concern I'm going to express that it's going to start becoming a pattern from the emergency orders that come forward and that it will be an ongoing issue.

And I have I shared my concerns with Council Member Morales in advance, but I wanted to share them here and then also explain what I intend to do with this bill today in terms of the vote.

Yes, we all agree it funds relief for small businesses, which absolutely support.

In fact, it was my office along with community members that we were able to fight for businesses in the Central District a couple of years ago and win $650,000.

That was unprecedented for really struggling people of color-owned businesses that we were able to win through organizing.

And so there's no question that small businesses are struggling as well as the vast majority of working people who are reeling from this crisis.

However, this bill would pay for small businesses by cutting the low-income housing fund, and I oppose that cut.

I agree with council members who have said it's accurate that it does not come from currently planned projects.

That is true, but it takes away from the next round of projects, the projects of the 2020 that will come under the 2020 Notice of Funding Availability.

My office has checked thoroughly with city council central staff, and they estimate that if this million dollars, if the housing funds are not made whole, this could cost 10 individuals or families affordable homes to live in during this crisis.

That's a concrete loss that could happen if we did not actually take care.

And I don't understand why we have to do that when there's actually a lot of money in this city.

It's just in the hands of the wealthy and big business.

Now, it would be reasonable to ask whether the affordable housing construction was being suspended right now in accordance with social distancing guidelines or shelter in place that is being anticipated.

But we know the notice of funding availability has gone out as planned.

So either it will affect the scheduled affordable housing for this year, or it will not affect this year, but it will affect in an ongoing basis.

But my point is that regardless of whether this million dollars comes from the spring or fall NOFA and regardless of whether or not construction was suspended.

The fundamental problem here that I'm objecting to is the robbing Peter to pay Paul approach that is going to be used by the mayor.

I'm anticipating that more emergency orders of this kind and the council needs to take action.

But I think all of this is being done in order to avoid taking on big business and so we have the perpetuation of this politics of scarcity which I don't accept.

Both struggling small businesses and working families need to be supported and their needs should not be pitted against each other.

The City of Seattle has an emergency fund of $66 million that is reserved explicitly for emergencies like this.

And we should use emergency funds rather than cutting funding for affordable housing.

And council members may argue that the emergency fund will have many other demands on it, which of course is going to be true.

But we know that $66 million can only scratch the surface of what is needed to support our community at this moment.

I mean, we are in a pandemic that is going to result not only in completely preventable loss of life due to the criminal privatized healthcare system, but we're going to have depression-like economic effects with the Fed estimating 30% unemployment rate in the second quarter.

I mean, that is devastating.

So we, you know, that is why Council Member Morales and I have put forward the Amazon tax, but even that is not going to be enough.

The city needs to use the emergency fund for immediate needs.

It needs to immediately approve the Amazon tax to make additional funding available.

And we need to demand that the state also act by closing corporate tax loopholes and passing big business and taxes on the wealthy at the state level.

My office checked with the central staff about possibly amending the bill to change the source of funding to be the emergency fund.

But because that would require a title change, it cannot legally be done in the same bill.

That is why if Council Member Morales or any other Council Member were to make a motion to hold this bill from a vote today, I would support that motion, or I will make that motion if no other Council Member makes it.

I don't, I wouldn't agree if council members are going to say that such a motion holds up emergency relief.

I do not agree with that.

Today, the council could pass an Amazon tax and make relief available.

So I don't accept that, I wouldn't accept that excuse on its face value.

But I will make that motion if nobody else is going to make it.

And if the motion gets a majority vote, then we could easily put forward a replacement bill to use emergency funds.

funding funds.

And if there is agreement, my office is happy to rapidly put this together.

I know there are concerns that have been expressed that the funds need to be community development block grant money in order to legally be used for this purpose.

An emergency fund does not come from CDBG.

We all know that it is easily solved by using CDBG money from any other part of the budget and backfilling it with emergency funds.

And I will use the guidance of the Council President and the City Clerk to make that motion.

But I also wanted to say that if this bill goes ahead today, I unfortunately feel I have to vote no on it for the reasons I have just explained.

We cannot adequately address this extraordinary crisis by simply shifting the damage back and forth between working people and small businesses.

We need a fundamentally different approach.

SPEAKER_03

Excuse me.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, I think your intention to hold the bill would be out of order.

This bill has been moved and seconded and is now in the discussion phase.

If there was an interest in your part to move to hold the bill, I believe that that should have been done consistent with the council rules at the time that we were considering approval of the agenda.

Will the city clerk please clarify that my understanding of the rules of order here.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, Council Member, just give me a quick second so I can get my little cheat sheet out.

But I believe the motion to hold has a higher, it's a higher motion and so therefore it takes over the motion to pass the bill right now.

So motion to hold could be changed and if it went so we can go back to the motion to pass the bill.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

So Council Member Estolano, if you intend to make a motion to hold this bill, now would be the time to do that.

It would require, I think, a second and then a majority of the City Council to pass.

Is that correct, Emilia?

Correct.

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

I'm not sure exactly the words Emilia wants me to use, but I will say I make the motion to hold Council Bill 119760.

SPEAKER_03

And Council Member Salant, are you proposing to hold it for a date certain or to hold it indefinitely?

SPEAKER_00

Obviously, it's not indefinite in my mind, but I don't want to specify a date because I'm not exactly sure whether this will be done in a week or not.

But obviously, needless to say, the intention would be to work on it as soon as possible.

OK, so there, yes.

SPEAKER_04

If you didn't mind, so our council rules provide that to hold something to be held for a certain time as far as a specific date, meeting or hour until when the actual item will be taken back by the council.

SPEAKER_03

So in that case, I go ahead.

No, go ahead, please.

SPEAKER_00

No, I, I, I think I heard Amelia say that I need to attach a date to my motion.

SPEAKER_03

That's what I heard.

SPEAKER_08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

In that case, I will.

make the motion to hold the bill until the city council meeting of March 30th.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, there's been a motion to hold council bill 119760 until the full council meeting on March 30th.

Is there a second?

Okay, hearing no second, the motion fails for a lack of a second.

So we will now.

move on to continue discussion of the previous motion that was made, which was a motion that was moved and seconded to pass Council Bill 119760. I can appreciate the concerns that were expressed by all of the other Council members, including Council Member Savant, and I understand that we want to make sure that as we are considering these emergency funding sources that we are doing so in the full context of making sure that we are not sort of engaging in mission creep, if you will, where we are taking from other priorities to address the needs of the emergency response as it relates to the coronavirus.

Unfortunately, there will be situations, I think, where we will need to make Some intentional transparent decisions that might require reallocation of funds, either in the short term or the long term.

And I think it is prudent for us to have a conversation with the executive and with the guidance of our council central staff and the chair of the finance and housing committee to make sure that we have a clear understanding of where those lines are drawn.

I do wanna address sort of the issue around small businesses and the intersection between that and affordable housing.

Several of us have already spoken to that.

I wanna clarify that It's my understanding that one of the largest nonprofit housing consortiums, the Housing Development Consortium, does support this proposed Small Business Stabilization Fund and the legislation to expand that fund.

They have indicated in an email to Council Member Herbold dated March 23rd at 1.48 p.m.

that their, quote, anti-displacement policy position calls for support of locally owned small businesses with tools that would allow them to thrive in their communities.

We understand the inextricable link between small business livelihood and the ability of residents to pay rent or mortgage payments and remain housed, which is of paramount concern to HDC members.

Now more than ever, we call for compassionate support that keeps us a strong community.

So I think it's important for us to take that into consideration with the understanding that they support the bill, knowing that it's not going to take away from existing projects and really sort of making sure that we understand that this bill is specifically not in contravention to some of the housing interests we have, but is in fact something that is going to continue to promote this council's priority around ongoing future affordable housing opportunities.

We certainly could use more in that regard and look forward to seeing the federal and state resources coming through that allow us to leverage future affordable housing projects through the Office of Housing to make sure that we are meeting the dire housing needs of so many in our city that certainly existed before this crisis.

As I think many of us are nervous about, might be exacerbated as a result of this crisis.

So council members, any other individuals have comments on this?

Otherwise I will allow the crime sponsor to make closing remarks and I will call this to a vote.

Okay, hearing none, Council Member Morales, do you have any other comments to make on the bill before I ask the clerk to call the roll on the passage of the bill?

SPEAKER_01

I'll just say that, well, as we've all said, it's important that we support these small businesses.

You know, this is one of the few, CDBG funding is one of the few sources that we have.

And many of these small businesses that we're supporting with this fund are themselves low-income folks who are dealing with, you know, all the same issues, rental issues, being able to provide for their families.

And so, the assistance that this provides them is going to be really important.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Councilmember Morales.

Okay, I will go ahead and ask the clerk to call the roll on the passage of the bill.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Herbold?

Aye.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Lewis?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

Aye.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Aye.

Councilmember Peterson.

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Sawant.

SPEAKER_00

No.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Strauss.

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, one opposed.

SPEAKER_03

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

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

All right, we're gonna go ahead and move to the next agenda item.

Will the clerk please read agenda item two into the record?

SPEAKER_04

Agenda item two, appointment 1559, appointment of Scott Boclaire's member, Community Police Commission for term to December 31st, 2022.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I move to confirm appointment 1559. Second.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to confirm the appointment.

Council Member Herbold, as the prime sponsor of the appointment, would you like to address it first?

I would.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Mr. Batchelor is being appointed by the Community Police Commission.

Mr. Batchelor is the CPC's appointment for the Seattle Police Management Association.

The CPC's members voted to appoint him.

He has been serving unofficially for some time.

This action would make his appointment official.

There are four CPC positions specifically designated.

One is for the Seattle Police Management Association.

My office checked with the CPC and asked if they were approving with this approach in the absence of committee meetings, and they support this.

Mr. Batchelor has been with SPD since 1989. He is a lieutenant.

He has served in a variety of positions, including as a detective, a watch commander in the south, southwest, and east precincts.

and commander of training.

He is the president of the Seattle Police Management Association.

The CPC has seven appointments.

Four are specifically designated.

One for the Seattle Police Guild, one for the Seattle Management Association, and two to serve public defense and civil rights interests.

SPEAKER_03

Great.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Are there any comments or questions on the appointment?

Okay, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?

Councilmember Herbold?

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Lewis?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

SPEAKER_01

Don't make a mess in the garage.

Oh, sorry, aye.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Aye.

Councilmember Peterson.

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Councilmember Sawant.

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Strauss.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Eight in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

I just before we move on, I want to make sure that we still have Councilmember Strauss on the line with us.

Councilmember Strauss, if you're speaking, you might be muted.

We cannot hear you.

Might have lost him.

So I will go ahead and finalize the vote here.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

Will the clerk please read items three and four together?

SPEAKER_09

Council President.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_09

This is Council Member Strauss.

I got dropped from the call.

If possible, I vote aye on that last appointment.

I was belonging along on the Seattle Channel.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Clerk, is it, I would ask Madam Clerk, is it allowed for the record to reflect Council Member Strauss' vote in the affirmative?

SPEAKER_04

Council Member Gonzalez, in situations like this, we normally request that the vote be reconsidered by reconsidering the appointment.

And therefore, after we've considered that appointment, then we can take the roll call again.

SPEAKER_09

Whatever the council president.

I don't mind either way.

SPEAKER_03

That's fine.

Let's go ahead and I will move to reconsider the confirmation of appointment 1559. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to reconsider the confirmation of appointment 1559. Any further questions or comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment.

Excuse me, on the reconsideration of the confirmation of the appointment.

Purple?

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Aye.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_99

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

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Aye.

Aye.

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Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

Council President Gonzalez, I'm sorry.

At this point, we would just request that we do one more roll call, which would be the vote for the appointment 1559.

SPEAKER_03

Will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of appointment 1559. Council Member Herbold.

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

SPEAKER_05

Oh God, aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council Member Lewis.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the appointment is confirmed.

and it's probably a good opportunity to say how much we all love Robert's Rules of Order.

All right, let's read items three and four into the agenda.

SPEAKER_04

Agenda items three and four.

Appointments 1572 and 1573. Appointment of Wilford Harrison as member of Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees for a term to April 1st, 2023. And appointment of Carmen A. Bendixson as member of Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees for a term to April 1st, 2025.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, I move to confirm appointments 1572 and 1573. Second, OK, it's been moved and seconded to confirm the appointments.

Councilmember Juarez.

I'm going to hand it over to you as a sponsor of these appointments for you to address them and bring us home.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, everybody, for your patience and also allowing our committee to have this extraordinary measure.

Moving forward on these two appointments to the Public Library Board of Trustees, I'll start with Mr. Hairston Wilford.

This is an appointment to the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees to conform Wilford and Hairston's appointment to a term until April 1st, 2023. Mr. Harrison, otherwise known as Tally, is a lifelong Seattle resident and Seattle Public School graduate.

He is the Director of Community Organizing, Advocacy, and Development at Seattle Presbytery.

He enjoys the work of integrating equality and equity and inclusion into performance-based outcomes and community engagement.

He has 17 years of experience with higher education, and his doctoral studies include equity in education and public policy in promoting inclusive learning frameworks.

Talley is a district two constituent.

He has a wealth of experience and a commitment to equity and inclusion, which is vital for the health and integrity of the library system to serve all, and especially our most vulnerable communities.

I have reviewed this application and support his candidacy.

Council President, would you like me to move on to agenda item four?

SPEAKER_03

I would, it would be great if you could address them together.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

This is for Carmen Van Diksten.

Carmen has been a volunteer with the Seattle Public Library and the Friends of the Seattle Public Library since 2007. Carmen's day job is with Washington State Department of Transportation as a senior transportation planner.

Her experiences as a volunteer and former president of the Friends of the Seattle Public Library Board has exposed her to the dynamic and supportive literary art scene in the region.

She's passionate about books and literature and is eager to contribute to the advancement of the Seattle Public Library.

Carmen is a District 3 constituent.

I have reviewed her application and support Carmen's candidacy.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez, for those remarks.

Are there any other comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointments?

Council Member Herbold?

SPEAKER_07

Aye.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council Member Morales.

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

SPEAKER_08

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council Member Sawant.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_07

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Nine in favor, nine opposed.

SPEAKER_03

The motion carries and the appointments are confirmed.

That concludes the substantive business portion of our agenda for today.

Is there any other further business to come before the council?

Hearing none, this concludes our agenda for March 23rd, 2020. Our next meeting will be on Monday, March 30th at 2 p.m., our really scheduled time.

That's all, folks.

We are adjourned.

Thank you so much, and stay safe and healthy out there.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.