A RESOLUTION adopting General Rules and Procedures of the Seattle City Council; superseding Resolution 31920.
Report of the Governance and Education Committee Agenda Item 17 Resolution 32029a Resolution Adopting General Rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council superseding Resolution 31920. The committee recommends the resolution be adopted as amended. Thank you, Madam Clerk. As Chair of the committee and sponsor of the resolution, I'll go ahead and address this item first and then we have a handful of amendments to consider during today's afternoon session here. So really quickly, colleagues, Resolution 31920 would adopt the Seattle City Council general rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council, which govern both our internal management and the procedures available to the public in order to access our democratic process. The City Council typically conducts a bi annual review of its procedures and rules that guide and facilitate councilmember duties and meeting deliberations. This year has represented a much more robust process than usual, as emphasized by the 15 amendments that were proposed and the 14 changes that were included in the base legislation. So I want to thank you all for your engagement on making sure that we get the council rules set on the right track for the next two years . There are many good policy changes in this resolution, but perhaps the most notable change to the council rules relates to the council meeting schedule. I'm very pleased that the committee adopted amendments to the council rules that will shift our regular council briefings to Mondays at 2:00 PM and change the date of our weekly full City Council meeting from Mondays at 2 p.m. to occur now on Tuesdays at 2:00 pm. I believe that this change will reduce the sometimes enormous amount of work that is required of council members and particularly staff on Saturdays and Sundays, including staff members in the city clerk's office and our I.T. department and other support staff, including our deputy city clerks . It is critical for council briefings and city council meetings to occur effectively and efficiently as a year round governing body, and particularly following the last two incredibly challenging years in which we have done our work entirely remotely. We have to acknowledge the limits on our individual and collective capacity and remember that we are in a marathon, not a sprint. So I'm hopeful that this particular change, along with others in the package, including electronic participation, including voting on resolutions and and other really important amendments on the Council, will help create a more efficient, effective and sustainable legislative process within this this legislative body. There were a few proposed changes to the council rules. That committee decided to take back up the amendments today. Those are the amendments that we will be considering during this discussion now and do want to make sure that I am facilitating the process for folks to be able to consider these amendments. So I'm going to go ahead and ask folks to reserve comments on the rules as a whole until we've considered all the amendments. And we will just focus our comments now and our discussion now on on various amendments that are going to be discussed all, again, consistent with comments and the discussion and the deliberation that we had in the Governance and Education Committee meeting last week on December 8th. I'm not aware of any new amendments being proposed. So these are sort of modifications and revisions or enhancements to policy issues or choices that have already been discussed publicly and in in two committee hearings. So this is our opportunity to make a final policy decision on some of these proposed amendments related to how we how the council will do business over the next two years. So the First Amendment is going to be Amendment eight two. This is an amendment that I am sponsoring with Councilmember Peterson. So I'm going to move to amend Resolution 32029 by adopting Amendment eight to that was recently distributed. Is there a second? Second? It's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment two as recently distributed again as sponsor of the amendment. I'll make sure to address it first and then I will provide council. In an opportunity as my co-sponsor, to address the item. And then. And then we'll go ahead and open it up for public comment from the rest of our colleagues. The Governance and Education Committee took action on December 8th, as I just mentioned, to adopt an amendment sponsored originally by Councilmember Peterson. I was actually he authored it and I was your official sponsor. Since Casmir Peterson was not a committee member, is not a committee member of the Governance Education Committee. This amendment, authored by Councilmember Peterson, would allow council members to abstain from council votes on resolutions that were referred either to the council directly or to most standing and select committees prior to the council vote. However, council members would not be allowed to abstain from council votes on resolutions that come to the Council with recommendations from the Select Budget Committee based on discussions of various options at the Governance and Education Committee. The amendment before us now, which is Amendment 82, would allow council members to abstain on any resolution that in the in the discretion of the Council President does not retain materially to the city of Seattle. As we discussed during the Governance and Education Committee meeting. This amendment in committee, this amendment would not preclude the placement of a resolution of a resolution on the introduction and referral calendar, but rather would simply signal to Council members that they may now that they now have three different ways that they can vote on a resolution at full council. They can either vote yes, vote no, or abstain. So that that is the effect of the resolution that would be before us. So again, we are switching from the base resolution that included Councilmember Peterson's language that identified that a councilmember may only abstain from a resolution that was coming from the Select Budget Committee to making it a little bit more broader. To say that a council member may abstain from a resolution at full council if the resolution, as determined by the Council President, does not materially pertain to the city to the city of Seattle business. So that is the proposed amendment before us. I'm happy to answer any questions about the substantive amendment, which is fairly simple, I think, and provides an opportunity to to again abstain on only those resolutions that the council president determines are not materially related to the City of Seattle business. Councilmember Peterson, would you like to make any additional comments? Thank you. Council President. Just just briefly, it was fun working with you in your office on this amendment and appreciate bringing this option forward to just give council members additional flexibility and choice to abstain on these types of resolutions. And this brings us closer to Robert's Rules Order Standard and what other Washington citizens are doing. So I appreciate collaborating with us. Thank you so much, Councilman Pearson. I appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your office as well. Any other comments or questions on a proposed amendment? A two. Oh. Can't remember her. Please. I'm so sorry to do this, but I. Even though I really like the direction that things were moving in, in committee, trying to define the types of resolutions that council members were seeking the opportunity to abstain on. And I feel more confident in, for instance, the ability to abstain on resolutions that really relate to international relations, like I that is language that I don't think there would be any unintended consequences with. I am concerned about the unintended consequences of saying of the Council taking an action to say that something isn't city business. And I am just recently working sort of through my thinking on on that with some assistance from the city the city light apartment. And given the concerns I have about the potential unintended consequences. I am not going to be able to vote in favor of this amendment, though I did really like the direction it was moving in. Thank you. Councilmember Herbold, any other comments or questions on amendment aid to. Right. Hearing none. Will the court please call the rule on the adoption of Amendment a22 Resolution 32029. Lewis. Yes. Morales. Yes. Musgrave I. Petersen I. Strauss Yes. Herbold No. Whereas yes. Council President Gonzalez I. Seven in favor. One opposed. Thank you so much. The motion carries, the amendment is adopted and we now have a amended resolution before the council. I'm going to hand it over to Councilmember Herbold now, who has a motion to make related to Amendment The. Thank you so much. I would move of Amendment B in resolution 31920. Okay. Thank you so much. It's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment B as recently distributed. I want to hand it back over to Councilmember Rebel to address her amendments. Thank you so much. Glad to have this opportunity to bring forward an amendment that speaks to the consideration of how we will be returning to our civic building in the coming year and doing the public's business. Thank you again, Council President Gonzales, for supporting and encouraging all council members to participate in this conversation. The Committee and for originally sponsoring the amendment that I authored regarding E participation. Also appreciate, of course, the collaboration with Councilmember Mesquita, who is a co-sponsor to this amendment and her office to retain to refine the E participation proposal. And please, we were able to come up with a revised amendment circulated this morning. And just the the intent of the of the amendment underscores that when we are returning to our civic building, it is important that we take advantage of some of the lessons that we learned during the pandemic and that robust electronic participation is possible . Previously, council rules allowed for electronic participation in a very specific, very narrow set of circumstances. We have been able to do electronic participation throughout the pandemic only because of the governor's executive order related to the pandemic. So the current proposal states a preference for conducting business in person, but it also allows for electronic participation whenever technically feasible for any reason. And it asks council members to communicate well with the Council President's office and allow staff to plan ahead by providing 48 hours advance notice of electronic participation when they can do so. I think this threads the needle on broadly allowing for electronic participation, while also recognizing the additional burdens on staff for supporting this hybrid meeting model. Thanks to Customer Mosqueda for working with my office to strengthen the amendment, which will set the tone, I believe, for our return to City Hall, and I urge the full council's adoption. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold. And I'm going to go ahead and recognize Councilman Christina as one of the co-sponsors of this amendment as well. Thank you, council president. I want to thank Councilmember Herb as well and echoed her sentiment. Appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your team. Christina has been great about working with us to ensure that we have equitable access to electronic participation. Thanks so much to Social Perri for spearheading those conversations and working with your team. And thanks to Dan Peter from central staff for his work on these amendments and all of the time that you all took over the last few days to really finalize this language, I think it's really important to get this right. With the COVID 19 pandemic, we see that there's so many times where public health and equity reasons might cause a councilmember to not be able to participate in person and really appreciate that this legislation and the amendment in front of us today really helps to make sure that no one is choosing between doing their job and ensuring broader participation in the public deliberations of our work and protecting the public's health as well. So thanks so much for all of the cooperation, customer support. It's so much councilmembers Herbold and Mosqueda for making comments on Amendment eight. Are there any additional comments on Amendment B? I'll just say thanks so much to both of you for working together. We had a really robust conversation about it during the Governance and Education Committee, and I'm glad that you all had an opportunity to work offline and thread the needle here in a manner that meets both the goals of flexibility, but also safety, and an opportunity to allow. Our. Technical staff to to really have the opportunity to facilitate the needs of council members who may want to or need to continue to meet in a hybrid fashion. Appreciate your your collective work on that, because remember anything else? All right. I think we're ready. Let's see here. Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of proposed Amendment B? LEWIS Yes. MORALES That's. Was it a i. Peterson I. Strauss Yes. Herbold Yes. Whereas I council President Gonzales I eight in favor and unopposed. The motion carries an amendment be is adopted. I'm going to hand it over now to Councilmember Strauss to make his motion on proposed amendment c. I think he council president I'm offering amendment C version two to this resolution. And I would like to move Amendment C, version two as distributed to colleagues earlier today and I believe is attached to the agenda as well. Okay. Thank you so much. Just maneuvered and seconded to adopt Amendment C, which was recently distributed as Strauss. Back to you to address your amendment. Thank you. Council President. This amendment was redistributed to add increased clarification regarding the amendment. What I'll say is top line. These rules are already in place because our council rules refer to Robert's Rules of Order as far as deliberations are concerned. This is just taking Robert's rules of order and putting them in our rules so that we know what we are supposed to be doing. This amendment was limited to me by council members to 10 minutes per speech promotion. The rules resolution already states that council members are limited to two speeches promotion. That limit does not include questions. So this ten minute limit is already stated within Robert's Rules of Order, which apply wherever council rules are silent. And this amendment would restate that the ten minute limit on council moves for clarity, for clarity and emphasis in committee are proposed to limit the same amendment, but to limit the debate to 5 minutes per council member promotion. Because I figured if we request the public to address us within 2 minutes, we can do it in five. But the amendment failed and so this amendment would set that limit at 10 minutes, as including Robert's Rules version two of the amendment, which was distributed just before this meeting, simply changes the word voice to unanimous consent at the request of the city clerk's office. Thank you, Councilperson. Thanks so much, Councilmember Strauss. Appreciate it. Are there any additional comments on this amendment? Cosmo Peterson, please. And then Councilman Mosquito. Thank you. Council president. I'd like to speak for 12 minutes in favor. As you all. Know, I have been timing you. I really appreciate this amendment. Thank you, Councilmember Strauss. All right. What about short and sweet? Okay. Any good? I'm sorry. Councilman Moscato, please go ahead. I'm still laughing. That was really funny. Councilman Strauss, thank you very much for your work on this amendment. Appreciate the clarifications that we've also received from central staff and the clerk's office about the ability to answer questions. If I have questions directed at a council member or those, the time that it takes to answer a direct question as amended by the Council President does not count towards the full ten minute to ten minute allotments. Also appreciate that there is work being done through this amendment which puts this Roberts rules recommendation in the affirmative. We will automatically assume that we're going to have these ten minute allotments versus having the body vote to support it. I think that will help with a number of items, and I appreciate that there's some flexibility if the body decides to vote otherwise. But thank you very much for the work that you've done here. And I'm happy to support this amendment in front of us today. All right. Because more stress. You will have the last word if no one else has anything to say, because I do try to enforce the Robert runs for order to the best of my ability. Colleagues, any other comments before we hear closing remarks from Councilmember Strauss? I'm not seeing any other hands raised. Councilmember strauss, you have the last word. I thank you. Council president noting this is my second time speaking in on this motion and both Councilmember Peterson and Councilmember Mosqueda clocked in at just a heckle, a freckle, past the hair as far as timing goes. All right. Back to you. Those 17, 17 seconds, Councilmember Strauss. All right. I'm hearing no additional comments on Amendment C. Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment C two Resolution 32029. Lewis. Yes. Morales. Let's get up. Hi, Petersen. Strauss Yes. Herbold. Yes. Whereas. Oh, yes. Council President Gonzalez. I paid in favor and opposed. The motion carries. Amendment C is adopted and the amended resolution is before the council. That is the last, the third and the last amendment that I am aware of related to resolution 32029. Are there any further comments on Agenda Item 17, Resolution 32029? Councilmember please just want to thank you, Council President Gonzalez, for guiding this discussion. At already mentioned, I appreciated the collaborative approach and allowing us all to come to your committee and provide comment and sponsoring amendments on our behalf if we weren't members. But I also really appreciated that we did this before the end of this year so that we could have the benefit of your wisdom, having been our Council President for the last last two years. And I think a lot of a lot of the input has been really well. Informed by. Your another set of your lived experiences. President Gonzalez Well, thank you. Thank you, Councilmember of all. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other comments? I'll just close out by saying a big thank you, colleagues, to all of you for all your engagement in the council's revision process. A lot of work has gone into briefing council members, analyzing proposals and preparing various amendments. And for that work, I especially want to thank the staff members on the Council Roles Working Group from the Office of City Clerk Monica martinez Simmons, Elizabeth Atkinson, Jody Schwinn, Linda Brown and Amelia Sanchez. Thank you. From central staff Esther Handy and Dan Heater. Thanks to both of you. When the city attorney's office, Brandon is leaving Gary Smith and finally, my very own deputy chief of staff writer from my office, who played a very significant role in making sure we all stayed on track and and were able to get this across the finish line in a way that was truly a consensus document. So much gratitude to all of them. We are, as I mentioned before, making a number of proposed changes to the Council rules via Resolution 32029. As always, this was an iterative process that will require feature, revision and refinement by the future council. So many of the things that we are implementing through these rule changes are new to both the Council's culture and the way we do business. And so it will be important for the next council president in two years from now to to have a look back process to make sure that there is an opportunity for all of those representative sections of the council rules. Working Group can give the next council the benefit of any any learning that was had that would necessitate an additional change to the Council. So thanks to everyone for your deep engagement. And with that, colleagues, we are at the place where I am recommending adoption of this resolution and I will ask that the clerk please call the role on the adoption of amended Resolution 32029 Agenda Item 17. Lewis. Yes. Morales. This was set up by Peterson I. Strauss. Yes. Verbal. Yes. Or as I counsel President Gonzales, I aid in favor and unopposed. The motion carries. The resolution is adopted as amended, and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? The Court Please read the short title of Item 18 into the record. The Report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee Agenda Item 18 Council Bill 120215. An ordinance relating to Land Use Review Decision Procedures amending sections of the Seattle Missile Code. Authorized Director of the Seattle Department of Construction Inspection to administratively waive development standards.