AN ORDINANCE relating to the City’s criminal code; amending Sections 6.36.020, 12A.06.120, 12A.06.180, 12A.06.195, 12A.14.080, 12A.16.030, 12A.20.100, 12A.24.010, 12A.24.150, 18.12.255, and 18.12.257 of the Seattle Municipal Code and adding Sections 12A.10.150, 12A.10.220, and 12A.24.105 to the Seattle Municipal Code to conform the Seattle Municipal Code with changes in state law and make technical corrections.
The report of the Public Safety, Civil Rights and Technology Committee Agenda Item nine Council Bill 118576 relating to the city's criminal code amending Section 6.36.020 12 8.06.1 to oh 12 8.06.10.195. 12.1 4.080 12 8.16.030 12 8.20.100 12 8.24.010.150. 18.1 2.255 and 18.1 2.257 of the Seattle Municipal Code and adding sections 12.10 .150220 and 12 8.24.105 to the Seattle Municipal Code to conform the Seattle Municipal Code with changes in state law and make technical corrections, the committee recommends the bill pass. Thank you, Councilmember Herold. Thank you very much. So every year in Olympia, I should say after Olympia, pass a state law, as the city then changes both its criminal code and civil or traffic code to conform with those changes and make sure we are consistent. So this bill and the next bill are our annual attempts at doing that. This is on the criminal side and basically our municipal scheme of laws now will now be consistent with what was passed in 2015. More specifically, it creates the crimes of allowing the unauthorized practice of massage, violating a vulnerable adult protection order, violating in order to surrender a firearm, disclosing intimate images of a person without consent, furtively carrying a pistol, allowing a building to be used for the discharge of a firearm at a person and using selling or possessing powdered alcohol. It also adds a $15 fine to the penalty for violating a domestic violence protection order. And it changes the classification of a first offense escape, first offense escape, and expands the infraction of consuming marijuana to include marijuana concentrates. So those laws were changed this year, and these are the corresponding changes to our city's criminal code. The full council is recommended to pass these changes. Thank you. Questions or comments? Councilmember Gonzales. I'm still learning the rules here. I think I'm supposed to stand up. Councilmember Harrell, when we met in committee to discuss this particular. Ordinance, I. Think there was a concern that was expressed or at least questions that were expressed with regard to the particular amendment around 12, a point to 0.1 hundred in terms of opening or consuming marijuana products in. Public, and in particular concern around how that interplays. With. With enforcement and disparate enforcement in particular. And how in implementation around what a. Marijuana concentrate actually is and how that's going to be identified. And I thought there were questions raised about about that particular issue, and we were supposed to get more information about it. I'm not sure where. We. Left off. In terms of next steps with regard to. That particular piece of. This council bill. Sure. So one of the parts of the discussion at the committee table were how would our police department actually know how to enforce the new laws, this particular legislation? Quite candidly, we can't change the language of it because it's strictly adopts the same language that was adopted on the state level. So I think the follow up action is to make sure that once this law was passed, that the city attorney's office, possibility of coordination from the executive and the council sort of communicates to the police department and the police department communicates to us and the public how we are to enforce this, to make sure that the law , for example, on marijuana, that it's one of our least prioritized offenses, that the policies were in place to make sure that we look at disparate impacts. All of those are sure to comply. So the long winded way of saying is that the letter of the law is not change. We're simply adopting the letter in the letter of the state law in our municipal code. But the follow work between our Seattle Police Department and our city attorney is certainly still needed and I trust will be done. I don't think anything has happened between last week and today, but that's the kind of follow up work that we should have in our work, our action plan next year. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Please call the roll on the passage of the bill. Back shot by Gordon Gonzalez. I Harrell. I. Look to I Rasmussen. I. And President Burgess seven in favor nine opposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Please read item ten through the first semicolon. Agenda Item ten Council Bill 118577 relating to the city's traffic code.