AN ORDINANCE providing the Office of City Auditor independent audit authority, including access to employer records, after a case is closed by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR) in order to evaluate SOCR’s enforcement efforts of Chapters 14.16, 14.17, 14.19, and 14.20 of the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC); amending Sections 3.40.040, 14.16.060, and 14.20.050 of the SMC; and creating a new Section 14.19.065 of the SMC.
confirming certain prior acts all by a three quarter vote of the City Council. The committee recommends the bill passes amended. Agenda Item eight Council Bill 118420 related to business licenses. Amending Sections 5.30.030 and .060. 5.32.150. 5.40.060 and .080 and .0855.45110. 5.55030040220 and 230 of the Seattle Municipal Code. And adding a new section 5.55.238 to the Seattle Municipal Code. The committee recommends a bill pass and agenda item nine Resolution 31595 concerning the creation of enforcement priorities for city departments regarding non-state licensed marijuana establishments. The committee recommends the resolution be adopted as amended. Thank you, Councilmember Licata. We will be dealing with each of these bills separately. So the first bill we will be voting on and I'll be describing is the Council Bill 11 8419 and this is a bill that will amend the ordinance 12 4648 which is adopted in a 2015 budget. The purpose of this bill is to recognize that initiative 692, which created the Medical Use of Marijuana Act we've introduced and U.S.A. created a situation that has presented some challenges for us here in Seattle. It was followed by Initiative 502, and that was driven partly by a desire to end criminalization of marijuana production, processing and distribution. Whereas the initiative preceding that 682 was regarding trying to guarantee access to medical marijuana for people who needed that treatment. So what we have now in Seattle is we have 14 recreational marijuana retail stores, and they have been opened as of June 2nd, 2015 of this month. On the other hand, regarding the medical marijuana dispensaries, we have 99 that were operating without licenses issued by the Liquor Cannabis Board in the city of Seattle currently. Of those, 54 retailers were without state licenses and establish operations in the city since January 1st of 2013. And that's an important date because 2013 is the cutoff date. So what we have now before us is regulations that basically say that marijuana business licenses are limited to those persons who have been issued a license by the Washington State Liquor Cannabis Board to produce, process, distribute or transport marijuana or medical products. The those persons operating medical marijuana businesses before January 1st, 2013, may continue to operate until July 1st, 2016, as long as they meet certain conditions which are outlined in another piece of legislation, the resolution. The bill here identifies a number of conditions that relate to the license. To the license. The license will be $1,000. And then the same for those businesses located in Seattle. It's $500 for those located outside the city. The legislation was written up in conjunction with several city staff myself, the mayor's office, as well as individuals involved in both the recreational and marijuana industry now. We naming those individuals after we go through all three bills. So open for questions on this particular bill. Questions or comments? I would just say. Councilmember Lakota, thank you for your good stewardship of this legislation through the process. I know it's been very complicated, but I think we've arrived at a good place. Thank you. Please call the role on the passage of the Bill. McCarter by O'Brien Okamoto. I Rasmussen I so want. I. Back to my garden. I Harrell. I am president Burgess nine and favorite and opposed the. Bill passes and the chair will sign it. Item number eight. This is Council Bill 11 8420. This legislation allows our affairs or financial administrative services to have guidelines for regulating the marijuana businesses. It. This creates a situation where we define a number of terms and also allow some guidance to those in the marijuana business. So allows for determining when. The FAA will have to basically contact those businesses. This is an ordinance and the resolution which will follow. It goes into the actual priorities for enforcement, which will eventually be followed by either further other legislation or directors rules. Thank you. Questions or comments? Please call the role on the passage of the bill. McCarter I. O'Brien I. Okamoto. I. Rasmussen, I so want. I. Facture I got. I. Harrill I am president Burgess high nine in favorite and opposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Item nine the resolution. This is a resolution. It's numbered 3159 five. And this creates a enforcement priorities for city departments regarding non state licensed marijuana establishments and in creating the enforcement. The City Council mayor requested the Finance Administrative Services and the Department of Planning Development, Seattle Police Department and the City Attorney's Office work cooperatively to identify and develop enforcement procedures against non state licensed marijuana businesses according to the following levels of priority. I'm not going to go through this in detail, but I will give you an idea of some of the elements that fall into these three tiers. The highest priority this means the highest priority for basically enforcement will be those individuals or entities that are providing marijuana products to those under the age of 21. Also, any enterprise that is providing delivery services for recreational marijuana. And the third element is those who are under law enforcement investigation for criminal violations. And another is operating a business license issued by the city of Seattle after January 1st of 25th, 2013. The second highest priority is violation of building construction, land use, fire, other city codes. And the third, which is the third highest but actually the lowest priority for enforcement, are those basically involved with not having a state license after January 1st, 2013. But there is an exception clause, which I won't go into, but it has to do with ownership, prior ownership of a portion of that business and then also those that have not undergone quality assurance testing. This is a critical element to make sure that individuals who are acquiring marijuana products are assured of having a safe product. And then the last well, one of the last is a medical marijuana establishment located within 500 feet of another state license or non-licensed marijuana establishment. Again, this was worked out with May the stakeholders. Questions or comments. I'd point out that this resolution provides enforcement guidance, but in the event the city attorney or the police department feel that it's necessary to take actions to preserve public safety, there's nothing that prohibits that from from occurring. All in favor of adopting Resolution 31595 vote. I oppose vote no. The resolution is unanimously adopted in the chair will sign it. Councilmember McCotter, did you want to share some closing comments? I did. Thank you. As Council President Burgess pointed out, there have been a lot of individuals paying a lot of time through this. I want to thank Mayor Murray in particular for having worked with the city council. We held a number of, I would say, workshops with many representatives of the industry and the large industry and growing . So we didn't get everybody at the table, but there were a number of people there particular. I want to note, David Mendoza, the mayor of staff, has been very, very helpful as well as Kato Freeman for our central staff who have really been doing a lot of the footwork and actually the brain work of figuring out how to mix all of these various items. Then I also want to identify a number of people in the industry who've been engaged, not simply representing their own clients interests, but also their own personal interests, but also understanding the larger picture and understanding that Seattle is at the forefront and we need to do it in the right way . And that would be Philip, Dottie, John, David, Ryan Day, Alex Cooley, Tim Hatley, Sandeep Kaushik for all their involvement and support. And and then of course, the many recreational medical advocates for their work and support as well. And I want for my staff as well. They've we've had several different staff members working on this, but these are Herbold and new owners who have also been working quite a bit on this. And thanks also to the city attorney, Pete Holmes and his staff. You've been involved in this issue from way back at the beginning before the state even acted. So thank you. How embarrassing. I didn't mention here. I covered for you. Thank you. Item ten, please read item ten. Agenda item ten. Council Bill 118428. Providing the Office of City Auditor Independent Audit Authority, including access to employer records after a case is closed by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. In order to evaluate Seattle Office of Civil Rights Enforcement efforts of Chapter 14.16, 14.17, 14.19 and .20 of the Seattle Municipal Code amending sections 3.40.040, 14.1 6.060 and 14.20 .050 of the Seattle Municipal Code and creating a new section 14.1 9.065 of the Seattle Invisible Code. The committee recommends a bill pass. Thank you, Councilmember Lakota. This ordinance implements a recommendation of the Office of City Auditor to provide them with authority to audit employer compliance with the city's four labor standard laws. To evaluate the enforcement efforts of the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Labor Standards. So again, this is a check on our own parts of the city government and all departments and offices. It is not designed to basically present a situation of double jeopardy for businesses and the for labor standard laws that they will be looking at to determine whether the city has been adequately enforcing them of the paid sick and safe leave. Minimum wage. Job Assistance and administrative wage theft. Glad to answer any questions. Questions or comments. Councilmember Okamoto I just have a question about extending this authority over and private employee records and privacy issues. How that's handled. They will make a request and the expectation is that they will be accepted if they are not allowed access. At this point, we haven't determined how they respond. It may be that there are enough cases to look at that we'll just move on. We will be noting what types of objections are raised, how often it occurs, and that may allow us then to bring it back to here to make additional policy decisions on how to pursue those. Please call the role on the passage of the bill. Look, Carter, I O'Brien. Hi, Okamoto. I Rasmussen. I so want. I. Back show Gordon. I Harrill. I am President Burgess nine and favorite and opposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. The Report of the Parks, Seattle Center, Libraries and Gender Pay Equity Committee. Please read Item 11.