AN ORDINANCE relating to the transfer of City property located at 500 30th Avenue South, Seattle, Washington; authorizing the conveyance of the property to the Central Area Senior Center, a Washington non-profit corporation, consistent with the intent of Resolution 31856 and to provide for the continued delivery of social services; making findings of fact about the consideration for the transfer; superseding Resolution 31837 for the purposes of this ordinance; and authorizing the Director of Finance and Administrative Services or designee to execute and deliver documents necessary to carry out the conveyance of such property on the terms and conditions of this ordinance.
Countable. 119906 relating to the transfer of city property located at 530th Avenue, South Seattle, Washington. Authorizing the conveyance of the property to Central Area Senior Center of Washington nonprofit corporation, consistent with the intent of Resolution 31856m to provide for the continued delivery of social services. Making findings of facts of the consideration for the transfer superseding resolution 31837. For the purposes of this ordinance of upgrading the Director of Finance, Administrative Services or designee to execute and deliver documents necessary to carry out the convenience of such property on the terms and conditions of this ordinance. That was a mouthful. Thank you, Amelia, for reading that title into the record. I will move to pass Council Bill 119906. Is there a second back up? Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill. Councilmember said you are the sponsor of this bill as well and are recognized in order to address this item. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam President. This ordinance, well, the short title is that it would authorize the transfer to the Central Area Senior Center, the property at 530th Avenue for the continued delivery of social services. So this is the senior center folks who have been for a long time advocating to have the ability to have the reins and be able to continue to invest in the community and provide the critical services that they offer. So a very diverse group of seniors, mostly in the black community, and really excited again about this piece of legislation. Council members will recall that last month we passed legislation transferring the birth of our place property to the organization. This transfer follows up on that as mutual offsetting benefits sites that have been occupied by community organizations for decades. And the city has been in the process of transferring to community organizations since the Nichols administration in late 2018. The council then passed a resolution asking the executive to ensure that the transfer of the properties that have a mutual and offsetting benefits lease to the organizations currently residing in those facilities be accomplished no later than March of 2019. And as we talked about last week, here we are October 2020. It's been a long process to get here, but we are here and we are celebrating. Over the last couple of years, the central area senior center has been in negotiations with an interdepartmental team and the mayor's office on this transfer. And we know that this process has not exactly went straight forward and the goalposts seem to have been moved at various points along the way. But we're excited to be able to join with them in applauding this effort today, applaud the organization for hanging in there and their continue to push to make sure that this transfer actually happens. The Central Area Senior Center has been providing vital services in the community for over 50 years, and their mission is to celebrate and serve all seniors, especially those of African-American and African immigrant backgrounds that live in King County. Last Monday, we heard about all of the great work of the organization and how this transfer one will ensure that they're able to continue this work into the future and this transfer of one able the senior center to modernize the building to accommodate for even more programs, redesign the interior, update the systems and parking, and reflect the rich, historical and cultural significant heritage associated with the central mission as associated with the center's mission, founding and vision. So we're excited about this legislation today. And congratulations again. Thank you. Council members get it? Are there any additional comments? Council members want, please. Thank you. President Gonzalez and I join Councilmember Mosquito in congratulating the community members who have for a decade, for over a decade, advocated for the central area senior center property to be transferred to the community organizations to be retained fully for public use. They have struggled through years of city hall inertia and opposition to make this happen. Just to add a few points about what the seniors did to achieve the success. On April 23rd, 2019, a nearly 100 seniors rallied at City Hall alongside Africa Town Community Land Trust and many other community members that were there supporting them. At a rally in City Hall, in the lobby and alongside my office, and many of them were enthusiastically chanting, no more delays in reference to Mayor Dawkins, stop continued stalling. And I wanted to also once again thank Diane Ferguson and others for their leadership of this community effort. Right after the rally, the day the seniors attended the Council Committee meeting, chaired by my office to hear our resolution calling on the mayor to move forward with the property transfers. And after that, the seniors along with. Staff from my office deliver dozens of letters directly to the mayor's office, calling for the transfer of the central and board place to community control so that the services can be run permanently for public benefit, run by the community and to everyone, regardless of income. Then in the week following, more than 250 other community members who also wrote letters to the mayor calling for the transparent preservation of the centers, it would it may seem like this property transfer would not make a material difference between a property owned by the city of Seattle, rented at no cost to the Central Area Senior Center, which has been the case in the past, and transferring ownership to the Seattle area Central Area Senior Center. However, it does make one important difference. This property transfer protects the central from the possibility of valuable land under their feet being sold out from under their feet whenever the political establishment might want to raise funds that way, rather than looking for raising progressive revenues. And this is very important, especially given the prime location that the central is located at. Anybody who has visited the central area senior center will know exactly what I'm talking about. It is an incredible location with unbelievable views. And no doubt many corporate developers have had their eye on it and must not forget that the Mercer Mega BLOCK sale at the end of 2019 was accepted by community organizations. Only because the block and generate I'm sorry, the money it generated was promised to go to affordable housing and to stop displacement, a promise that unfortunately the mayor has once again let down the community on in our proposed budget. The Central provides an incalculable service to the seniors in the Central District, which is my neighborhood, and I'm delighted to vote in favor of this legislation, transferring the senior center permanently to the community thinking. Thank you, Councilmember Solondz. Any other comments on the bill? Councilmember Herbold, please. Thank you so much. And thank you both to Councilmember Mascara and so on for sharing the. Not not not necessarily going all the way back on the history on this, but at least the recent history. I really appreciate reading into the record elements from the resolution that the Council passed in 2018. I worked with Councilmember O'Brien on that resolution, as I know many of us on the council did, and that was a resolution that we took action on because of the community frustration on on the lack of progress on the disposition of these properties over the years. I do have a question. I don't know if council member Muscat or you might know, given your role as chair of the committee or if the District Council member might know. But I'm wondering what the status of the Greenwood Senior Center that is one of the three properties that we lifted in the 2018 resolution as as properties that had gone through many iterations under many mayors. And those three properties of, I think, seven or eight different are mutually offsetting benefit. These properties had been identified as sort of ready to go, had been been reviewed extensively about whether or not they would be appropriate to to use as land to develop housing instead. And just just wondering what the status is on on that one, because it is the last one of the three that we identified in the 2018 resolution as priorities. Eagles council member Herbold for those comments and for the question related to their goal is at the Greenwood Community Center. Oak Greenwood Senior Center, a Greenwood Senior Center. Thank you so much. So I'm just going to open it up here for either the district representative or the good chair of our housing committee who might have some additional information on that related issue. So, Councilman Mosquito, do you have anything or does the district representative have anything on this? I am happy to defer to the district representative and also we'll be looking into it on our hands as well. And always, of course, the Greenwood area kind of depends on what side of Greenwood you're on is it determines your district rep . But I think Councilmember Strauss is off mute, so perhaps he has some information or insight on this particular issue. I believe that is in District six. That would be right in my district. And I know having spoken with Miller on, we had resolved any outstanding questions at this time, although not having this on the docket for today, I did not prepare my notes and unfortunately, I did not get a response from him in these last 30 seconds. So I believe that the issue is resolved. Councilmember Herbold, we will follow up if that is not the case. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. That's great. Thank you so much. Of course, we are always looking for opportunities to identify additional, you know, additional projects where we can replicate some of this good work. And so look forward to getting an update from council central staff when they have the capacity to do so. And certainly from Councilmember Strauss, if he learned some information from consultation with the staff, really appreciate the question. Any other comments on this bill? K hearing? None. Will the clerk please call the role on the passage of the Bill Herbold. Yes. Juarez. Yes. Lewis. Yes. Morales. Yes. Macheda. Yes. Petersen. Yes. Sir. What? Yes. Strauss. Yes. President Gonzalez. Yes. Nine in favor. None opposed. Thank you, Madam Clerk. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Well, the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation. Okay. Items three through 21. Will the clerk please read items three through 21 into the record?