AN ORDINANCE adopting a budget, including a capital improvement program and position modifications, for The City of Seattle for 2018; and creating positions exempt from civil service; all by a 2/3 vote of the City Council.
The bill passed and show sign it. Please read agenda items 35 and 36. Agenda Item 35 Constable 119116 Adopting a budget including a capital improvement program and position modifications for the City of Seattle for 2018. Agenda Item 36. Excuse me. The committee recommends that bill passes amended and item 36 clerk filed 314 384 City Council changes to the 2018 proposed budget and the 2018 three 2023 proposed capital improvement program. The committee recommends that the file be approved and placed on file. Any comments courtesy of Herbold? We read 36 into the agenda as well. Yes. I just want to take a few minutes just to do a quick overview. The council passed a number of items that ensured essential services already in place would not be rolled back. These include, but are certainly not limited to support for an emergency shelter serving over 230 survivors of domestic and sexual assault, existing permanent supportive housing services, transitional housing for homeless foster youth, sustained support for a homeless child care program, support for homeless youth employment programs and resources to continue funding the Zero Youth Detention Project. These are the actions, some of the actions, not all of them, but some of the actions that this council took. Simply to maintain existing services. But maintaining services is not enough. And we know that because of the crisis that we've identified, that we can see at our places of business or in our neighborhoods. In addition to the 4600 people in shelter and transitional housing programs, there are another 30 nearly 3900 people living unsheltered in our community. To begin to try to address some of those those those issues. We have identified funding in other key areas, but other things that we did beyond funding human services needs are include several items identified as priorities by by council members. Councilmember Gonzalez identified as a priority funding for public safety coordinator and pedestrian improvements identified by the South Park Public Safety Task Force. Councilmember Harrell identified as a priority funding for the Georgetown South Park Trail. Councilmember Johnson identified funding for positions to increase staffing at Magnuson Park. Councilmember Suarez included a priority funding for planning at Hubbard Homestead Park. Councilmember Johnson also prioritized in his budget, championing the creation of funding for a safe consumption site. Councilmember Bagshaw fought for funding for a new Homeless Youth Opportunity Center. Council President Harrell also added funding for priority hire. I worked to expand the ready to work. Program in southwest Seattle. Councilmember Juarez also fought for expansion of the lead program to North Precinct, as well as to begin taking referrals from the south and southwest precincts and southeast precincts. Councilmember Gonzalez led the fight for funding to support police accountability measures, including staffing for the Community Police Commission and positions of the Office of Police Accountability. Councilmember Swan put her stake in the ground for funding for tenant outreach and support statement services, as well as funding for additional authorized encampments. Councilmember Harris tally secured funding for additional HST staffing support, increased workload in addressing the homelessness crisis. Councilmember O'Brien got funding for a comprehensive Community Youth Diversion program. I also worked to support legacy business funding as well as including in that budget action funding for entrepreneurs who are women and people of color. And Councilmember Harris tally also worked to significantly increase participatory budgeting to allow the members of the public to identify their priorities for support for neighborhood parks and streets. Councilmember Bagshaw led the way to get additional funding for nursing support for public health needs, as well as nursing support for unsheltered homeless people. Councilmember O'Brien also worked to get funding to encourage employers to increase transit use among their employees. And Councilmember Gonzales also gets my thanks for leading the way to get additional funding for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, including mobile advocacy services and sexual assault protection order legal representatives. I want to thank my colleagues for their time, attention and patience throughout the process. I'm grateful for their bold actions and the rigorous debate in which my colleagues engaged in for the energy the public demonstrated throughout the process. Working together, we've created a budget that reflects our values. I want to also say it was a pleasure working with council central staff over Red Vines and Donuts, and over many long hours around the conference room table, central staff worked tirelessly in their analysis, as well as guiding me in the process, helping me develop options, agendas, speaking points and together with council clerk staff, provided important procedural guidance as well. Many people worked above and beyond the call of duty, and I don't want to get in trouble for singling out some over other, some over others. But hopefully all will agree that Eric Son deserves special consideration and recognition as the council's staff budget lead. In closing, I was honored to have an opportunity to be in the room where it all happens. I'm told that's a Hamilton reference. Thank you. Thank you. Kathryn Herbold, colleagues, I see Castro and Brian to my left. I want to say thank you to Councilmember Herbold. Two months ago, this was probably not on your agenda because we didn't know that there would be a vacancy in the chairing the Budget Committee. And for me, this was one of the most intense and chaotic budget clerks, not the right word. Let's just go with really intense budget process that I've been through in my budget processes here on the council. And I can't imagine anyone doing a better job, especially given the circumstances than you do. Councilmember Herbold, thanks to you, your staff and of course, all the central staff folks who were running around scrambling to make sure that we were able to get our job done right today. I also really want to thank there are folks in the audience today and all the people who turned out at any of the public hearings or public meetings who held various rallies throughout the process or contacted us via email, phone or mail. The public engagement in this process is always critical, and this year was especially critical. I'm really proud of a lot of the items that are in this budget. There are some things that I worked on that didn't advance at the moment, but I feel optimistic that then we'll discuss this in a few moments at upcoming resolution, that there's an opportunity for us to move forward and find some new resources in the coming months to again, considerably do an amazing job. Thank you very much. Well said, Councilmember. I've got my left hand back to my right councilman here. Sally. Yes, thank you. Committee chair Herbold. I just also I don't I don't have eight years of experience with the budget. This is my first budget in this capacity. But it was apparent to me, having followed from the other side, what the budget process that you added a level of. Transparency in every step of what ended up being a very complex budget process. And for that, I appreciate that is to me one of the paramount parts of democracy working well. And the budget is one of the most critical moments in the council's annual cycle of the choices made. So very much appreciate that, you know, whether we agreed or not on everything as a council, I think the public knew where each of us stood. And that had to do with the leadership that you had of making it transparent and accessible. So thank you for that. Well said, Councilmember Johnson. Thank you. This is the part for speeches, I take it. So I'm just going to take a minute and say thanks, Councilmember Herbold, to you for working so collaboratively with me throughout this process. I'm really proud of a lot of the work that we did in this budget. The work on expansion of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program, which I'm sure Councilmember Suarez will talk about in a minute, as well as some of the work that she and I did on access to those living inside food deserts, which is common in both of our districts. I'm also really proud of some of the transportation work that we did this year on pedestrian izing to block section of our city, connecting the University of Washington to the future light rail campus. Funding for small but important things like waiting pools and green stormwater infrastructure. A small but important remodel of community center. A magnificent park in the appropriate staff necessary to make that facility work well. But I think the biggest and boldest thing that I'm proud that we led on this year was around the creation of a safe consumption site. And that $1.3 million is a. So the $1.3 million is without a doubt going to be controversial. We're seeing cities all throughout the region take up resolutions in opposition to these kinds of concepts. And I want to highlight one of the reasons why I have been such a champion. I got an email earlier in the week from a constituent named Rose, and I asked her for her permission to read parts of the sermon and to permit my indulgence. Council President I want to read to you all why she believes it's so important that we set up safe consumption sites in the city. Rose is a first year medical student at the University of Washington and says all of the available public health and medical data says that safe consumption spaces reduce public drug use, reduce drug paraphernalia in public spaces, and not increase drug use in the surrounding communities. Having a space to go and interact with non-judgmental health care workers and access services has been shown to improve rates of seeking and completing detoxification programs by as much as 30%. Rose's Brothers in Recovery and Clean from Drug Use Disorder for four years. He and his partner, also cleaning and recovery, are expecting their families first grandchild in this Christmas. And Rose says even when he was using drugs and his brain chemistry and body wouldn't let him walk away from using, he was still my brother and I still loved him very much. People suffering from drug use disorders are valued and loved by their families and friends, and they matter to society as a whole. And I'm going to follow the trend of you. Council President Harrell. That is an important line that I feel compelled to repeated twice. People suffering from drug use disorders are valued and loved by their families and friends, and they matter to society as a whole. The country is watching Seattle as we endeavor to join the rest of the developed world in responding to drug use disorders with empathy and scientifically sound evidence based approaches. Properly funding safe consumption sites is critical to establishing their credibility and proving Seattle as a city ready to take on the challenges of the future. I'm really proud of the work I did with you, my friends out in communities, particularly Patricia, Allison and Lisa, and really grateful to my colleagues for support for such an important step in preventing future lives from being lost in our city. Well said. Any other words from any of my steam colleagues can spam back shock. Thank you. Councilmember Herbold, you have already been recognized by my colleagues. I want to add my thanks to you. I know that you had to dove in this at an opportunity time. That wasn't opportune necessarily, but you did a splendid job. I appreciate that. I also want to recognize people in the audience. And Alison Eisinger is holding the wall up over there. But I remember eight years ago, my first budget. One of the first things we talked about was how are we going to really improve conditions for people who find themselves without a place, without a home? And about the best we could do that year was to open the red doors. And that seems so controversial. I look back on that and think it was just such a scratch on the surface, but it was an important one. So I want to acknowledge the fact that you are here and you and all of the colleagues that have been working with us and in this council for all of these years, you're really making a difference. And I do want to acknowledge the hard work that you're doing. But if I can just take a moment and. Acknowledge my other. Colleagues as well. Council President here, all you're advocating and increasing. For reconnecting. Families, continuing our efforts to address the challenges of unreinforced masonry, both in international district Pioneer Square and elsewhere. It's going to make more opportunities for people who right now don't have places to live. And again, I know that it's something that is challenging, but finding that money, finding the resources, making it work is going to make our whole city better. Councilmember Gonzales, I get you. Just make me smile. And the stalwart work that you have done around police accountability, really supporting domestic abuse survivors, the criminal justice reform you've done, and then just over the weekend, gathering resources again for our CRC, our Court Resource Center. Thank you for doing that. Good, good work. Councilmember O'Brien. Obviously, the work that you've done around there championing this work around homelessness, we're going to hear more about that. We are going to see more. One of the things that I so appreciate is like, seriously, two years ago when the emergency was declared, we all expected more work to get done. Progress has been made. And I want to acknowledge all home and our Human Services Department, but now we are treating this emergency like an emergency. I'm very respectful to you for that good work. And Councilmember Johnson, you did mention the fighting for the working families, expanding summer parkways, the waiting pools for our kids. And especially what we're. Doing around neighborhood greenways and making those connections. So your three daughters in my granddaughter can ride their bikes safely to school and have a way around. So I just appreciate the work you've done. Councilmember Suarez It's always D5 and I just want to acknowledge what you've done on expanding lead as well to the north precinct, vigorously supporting for your food banks and bringing a voice to the seniors in North Seattle. Thank you for that good work. Councilmember So what you and I don't always agree on everything, but I think we agree on a lot more than we don't. And I want to protect and thank you for protecting our unsheltered communities and for helping me expand the number of encampments citywide. Councilmember Harris Talley I. Appreciate the fresh, fresh. Perspective that you have brought, and I appreciate how fast and how deep you got into this budget process. And kudos to. You and to your staff. I know you have any members of your staff who are out here, and it's been a real pleasure working with you, and I look forward to working with you in the next few months going forward. And. And thank you too, to Allison McClain and Alberta Black and Brian to my staff and to all of our central staff members. I know we haven't named you all by name, but Eric, you're here. There are a number and I'm sure people who are listening and I just the dedication, the countless hours, the donuts and red vines that Lisa mentioned. We'll get back to eating apples and health food next week. So just following up and finalizing this, my priorities coming in here were around increasing our housing options. Housing First works. It's a best practice. We're going to be able to increase those numbers significantly. I want to thank my colleagues for the work you've done in supporting me around the Firearms Surrender program so that we can protect protect survivors in our community. It's been several years, but we've made big progress there, working with the city attorney and our municipal court as well . And a special thanks and shout out to my friends in D7. We have done a lot. Market to Mohawk has money that we didn't expect before, like Tebay is connecting. The work we've been doing in Seattle sent Seattle Center and finally to our new friends in the Seattle School District. We signed our council president signed an MRU today and we're going to see a lot more of these partnerships and getting our kids educated and getting those kids who are currently finding themselves in a bad situation to get the housing that they need. So many thanks to all of you. Excellent. Very good. All right, so we are ready to pass a budget councilmember. So what? Thank you, President Harrell. Sisters and brothers. This agenda item and the next agenda item which is tied to it, are the approval of the city budget as a whole. Just like in previous years and consistent with the principles of the people's budget movement, I intend to vote no on the budget as a whole. The previous votes that we have taken throughout the budget process have amended the Mayor's proposed budget in many important ways that I support and in many cases have personally fought for. And in a moment, I want to speak to those victories. But despite these amendments, the budget as a whole remains overwhelmingly the same. Business as usual, a budget that has failed to meet the needs of regular people in Seattle year after year. Every year since I took office in 2014, we have built a people's budget movement to fight for progressive changes to Seattle's business as usual budget. And every year our movement has won important victories that make a real material difference in the lives of regular people. Many of you were with us the very first time in the people's budget, Renee, for the first time in Seattle's history with one city sanctioned encampment. And that same year, we exposed to public light the regular annual practice of corporate council members going to the chamber retreat rather than meeting with community members for the budget. Last year to the people's budget movement. We took the BLOCK, the Bunker campaign, and then we made the Build 1000 homes campaign through which we won $29 million for affordable housing. And I've never been more inspired than this year by the courageous and tireless efforts of activists and the attempt to inject some humanity into the system. I want to take a moment to thank all the individual activists and organizations who have sacrificed so much time and energy to build a movement, to stop the sweeps , to pass the progressive business tax. In other words, the end to fight for adequate funding for housing and homeless services and the demands of renters and regular people. Your efforts have truly shown what it means to be an activist and an organizer. The mass movements of the sixties and seventies that ended the Vietnam War past Roe v Wade and the Civil Rights Act were made up of activists like you. And we are in the process of a historic process of building an activist leader around the nation, not just in Seattle that we have not seen in decades. And I am so proud to be part of that process. And I hope you are, too. You came to Council Chambers dozens of times. You joined us on November 1st and second for an all night peaceful, civil disobedience demonstration consisting of public comment rallies, teach ins, camping outside and inside city hall. And a powerful day in the next morning. That effort of November 1st and second was a political turning point because it put the Seattle's political establishment on notice. It made very clear that regular people do not support sweeps, that it's not a fringe demand to say, stop the sweeps. And it's not a fringe demand. To say that big business should be taxed. We do not support protecting the profits of big business while neglecting affordable housing and homeless services. Regular people in Seattle are horrified by the way the city establishment treats ordinary people, especially the poor. It is council members who are the ones that are standing in the way of stopping the sweeps. It is council members who are standing in the way of the progressive business tax. Because of our movement's efforts. Now, they have had to scramble to make promises to try and rescue their reputations. This is important for the movement to claim as its own victory. So thank you to all the individual activists, the homeless community from the Housing for All Coalition and the many organizations within it from the Neighborhood Action Councils. Real Change The Transit Riders Union Sherill and Nichols Will Nichols about residents socialist alternative stop the sweeps and see camp out activist from the People's Party Democratic Socialists of America, the 43rd, 32nd, 34th and 36 legislative districts of the Democratic Party Tenants Union progressive unions like BFC 1488 who have all played critical role in building this movement . And I am sure I have left some organizations out, but obviously, needless to say, it applies to all of them. Because of these organizations and activists, we have one real material victories that will have a meaningful impact on the lives of ordinary people. We have won funding this year for renters rights resources in organizing millions more in funding on housing and homeless services. Then Mayor Burgess proposed funding for a feasibility study to allow Seattle to take concrete steps to finally create a public bank funding to. Funding to expand, lead and other alternatives to incarceration funding to expand services for survivors of sexual and domestic violence and many important things. But most strikingly, we have built a phenomenal movement to stop the sweeps and past the homes attacks, and we have put the establishment on notice. I strongly agree with Travis Thompson's comments during public testimony that we are far from done here. We will be back. We will be demanding that councilmembers keep their promises. However, just like in other years, those victories are dwarfed at this moment by the overwhelming majority of the budget that continues the same business as usual that has so tragically failed to meet the needs of regular people in Seattle year after year. This year's budget, like last year's, fails to make a serious dent in the crisis of homelessness. This year's budget, like last year's, fails to address the housing affordability crisis. This budget, like in the past, invests hundreds of millions into an approach to public safety that prioritizes locking people up rather than investing in our communities to prevent crime in the first place. And this budget, like in the past, fundamentally depends on taxing the poor and working class people rather than super rich and big business. And just like in previous years, this budget fails to exercise its ability to curtail the inhumane and ineffective sweeps of homeless people. Unlike in previous years, this year, council members actually had the opportunity to vote to tax big business. I mean, technically, they have had the opportunity year after year. But this time they heard loud and clear from Seattle that Seattle wants them to do this. And they still failed to do so. I will be speaking more about the specifics of the progressive business tax when we discuss the alleged resolution later in the full council agenda . But for now, I think it is important to state. There is so much wealth in Seattle that the homeless emergency is totally unnecessary and unacceptable. It doesn't have to be like this. And. The majority of the council. I am sorry you have not treated an emergency like an emergency, because if you had, you would have stopped the sweeps and passed the homes tax. Compare the few hundred affordable homes Seattle bills each year to the House building program conducted around the world under the Marshall Plan. For example, in Britain after World War Two, they built public housing at a rate that relative to their population would be the same as Seattle, building 15,000 affordable homes every year. They did that because it was in the best interests of big business and the political establishment at that time. Compare that to the few hundred affordable homes Seattle is building each year. This is what I mean when I say that this is a business as usual budget, that Seattle could do something big, something really big. And we cannot let the politicians and City Hall pat their backs by tinkering around the edges of the problem. 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. Said, and I quote, If our nation can spend $35 billion a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam and $20 billion to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on there to feed right here on Earth. His words. His words from 1967 are, if anything, more meaningful today because there is more wealth in society today. This is a city where a single billionaire is financing his own spaceships, while thousands of people have been driven into homelessness, have overflowed their shelters, and are living on the streets in these brutal winter months. We do not have a people's budget today, but we are building. That movement that can win won in the future. And I'm honored to be with you as part of that movement. I want to thank all of the central staff who were here late every night. And I know that because my staff member was with you late every night and you never left. And I'm so thankful for all the work you did to allow us allow our movement to get to every small victory that we could. And their efforts cannot possibly be overstated. I'm extremely thankful to Ted Walden in my office and Adams in Koski. Ted worked tirelessly on the budget process. Adam worked tirelessly as part of the Housing for All coalition. But I also wanted to thank Rebecca Lieberman, James Parker and Jonathan Rosenblum from my office. We all pulled together and made sure that we gave this budget process our all. Let's have a break in the holidays, but let us come back rejuvenated to to continue the fight. And one thing that's coming up that I wanted to mention is on December 5th, the Rental Housing Association, which is a big landlord lobby association, will be having a big convention on December 5th at the convention center. They're going to have workshops that will teach landlords how to evict tenants, how to make sure that they oppress tenants even further. So Washington Community Action Network and other organizations and my office are coming together to organize a protest action. So please make sure you sign up on the Facebook even let's housing for all together. Be there on December 5th. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. There are no further comments. Thank you, Councilman Swann, for the comments. I think we're ready to vote. Okay. Please call the roll on the passage of council bill 119116 Johnson. Suarez O'Brien. So. No. Berkshire. Gonzalez I. HARRIS Tally. Herbold Hi. President Arroyo high eight in favor. One opposed bill passed and there was silence. And with respect to the plaque file will be those in favor of approving and filing clerk file 314384. Please vote i. I those opposed vote no. The motion carries and file is approved and placed on file. Okay. So we're going to move to 37 and 38. Please read those items into the record.