AN ORDINANCE relating to emergency communications; amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 Budget; transferring positions from the Seattle Police Department to the Community Safety and Communications Center; and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
The Report of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee. Agenda Item three Council Bill 120065 An ordinance relating to Emergency Communications amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget. Transferring positions from the Seattle Police Department to the Community Safety and Communication Center and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts. The committee recommends the bill passed with a divided report with councilmembers Herbold and Lewis in favor. Councilmember Gonzalez opposed and councilmembers Morales and Sewell abstaining. Thank you so much. As chair of committee, I will address this item. This legislation itself moves both the PEOC and the 901 dispatch out of the police department and into the new Safety and Communications Center. As mentioned this morning, I am bringing an amendment to this bill which was posted with the agenda. And so what I will do first is I will move to amend Council Bill City Council Bill 12 0065 as presented on Amendment one of the agenda. And after I have a second, I will describe that amendment. Thank you. At this time. I'm calling for a second. There's a second. Thank you so much. So the amendment itself alters the bill as introduced and as heard in committee. Again, the bill, as heard in committee, moves both the post and the 911 dispatch out of the Seattle Police Department and moves both into the new community safety and communications venue. This amendment will ensure that we are only moving the 911 dispatch out of the police department and into the Community Safety and Communication Center. And we are maintaining the peals in speedy until a later date. I believe we're looking at bringing this up again sometime before September. And so with that can I will move Amendment one and if I could get a second to Amendment 1/2. Thank you so much. It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on Amendment One. Are there any comments or questions about this action? I am. Okay, Councilman Mosqueda. Oh, thank you, Madam President. Madam President, pro tem, I appreciate you doing this. And I just wanted to note the importance of you taking these steps today and look forward to the future conversations. But I think that this is a smart move for now, and I know there will be more conversations out, but I just wanted to thank you for the approach that you're taking with this topic in today's discussion and look forward to continuing to engage with you and various members of our city family and members of the public, as well as we all remain committed to that, to the goals that we talked about last year. And those details working out those details is really going to matter in the next few months here. So thanks for all of your work here and look forward to engaging in the next steps. Thank you so much. Any other comments on the amendment? Councilman Morales. Yes. Thank you. I do want to thank you as well for this approach. I am hoping to have additional conversations with folks. I think, you know, last week Councilmember Lewis indicated some real discomfort with trying to walk a line between or really get between two different unions in the city. And our I think it's really important that we have a clear understanding from the different perspectives of our city employees. You know, why they think one is preferred over the other. I have not been able to have those conversations yet. And so I appreciate the opportunity to move forward with the 911 call response and to get my questions answered. A little more time to get my questions answered about the the parking enforcement side of this equation. So thank you for pulling that piece out. Absolutely. Councilmember Lewis. Thank you. Madam President, pro tem, I made my comments this morning during a briefing, but I think for for the record, for the afternoon meeting, I should just briefly mention as well, similar to the sentiment Councilmember Morales expressed, that I think it is always hard for us as a as a progressive, pro-labor council when two members of our broader Labor family have different views on a policy, although I would say a common interest. Right. I mean, there's unanimity that this we want to move this work function out of speed. There is some dispute on exactly where we're going to send them. And I do think that this would benefit from some additional time where we can use our relationships and in our appreciation of service for both Protec and for the parking enforcement bill. To better understand a way to resolve this and equitably and in a way that doesn't divide the labor movement. So I do appreciate this approach. And and I think that this time between now and the fall will be productive and resolving this in a good way. So thank you so much. Thank you. Councilmember Lewis, I want to just take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for the efforts of those to engage with this council, both back in in September through November and sort of the development of of their worker led mission for how they can play a role in reimagining public safety in in the city. And as and as well their their continued engagement even today as we consider this legislation and look forward to ongoing conversations moving forward to see if we can reach some agreement on on these really important policy issues. With that not seeing any further questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment One. So on. Yes. Strauss. Yes. LEWIS Yes. Morales As was Sarah Peterson. Yes. Council president, pro tem. Honorable. Yes. Seven in favor and unopposed. Thank you so much. The motion carries, the amendment is adopted and the amendment amended bill is now before the council. Are there any further questions or comments? Councilmember want. Thank you, President Pro-Tem Herbold. I will be voting yes on this bill, but I just wanted to make some comments about where I feel the things are. This bill moves the positions from the Seattle Police Department's employment roles to the employment roles of the new Community Safety and Communication Center. In the past, Seattle's political establishment have pretended that this is the demand of the Justice for George Floyd movement and conflating completed it with the real demand to defund the police. In reality, and this is overwhelmingly an accounting mechanism. As I said, I'm I support this, but I think we have to be accurate in characterizing what it is with parking enforcement. There is zero change in the function performed by the city staff who are engaged in it with the 911 911 call center. Some community members hope that this is the first step to creating a community safety structure where police are not always dispatched when there's situations like mental health emergencies. However, that continues to be an aspiration for the future, and this bill that the council is voting on today only changes the accounting lines. So as I said, I will continue to support this bill, but I do not agree with the attempts, ongoing attention conflated with defunding the police. In fact, there is a danger actually when it is described as something akin to the demands that the Black Lives Matter movement brought forward last year. The right wing pretends that police do not have the money to fight crime when in reality these accounting being changes. Although nothing about the number of police officers in Seattle and the amount of policing in Seattle, the only changes in the name of the department signing the paychecks for these some departments. I'm concerned that the mayor may try to increase the police budget for 2022, claiming that she is only returning it to its normal level when in reality that would be a massive expansion of the police budget because these accounting breaks have moved major expenses of formerly move them off the SBT box. I will vote yes on this legislation, but I urge Black Lives Matter activists to remain vigilant to stop the political establishment from misrepresenting what is done by these accounting transfers. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Swan. I'm not quite sure if Councilmember Lewis, you have your hand up again. Yes, Madam President. Pro tem. I did just want to come in and say, while I appreciate Councilmember Swan's characterization, that, you know, that this is going to change how these employees are paid, there are more significant structural changes that come with the transfer that we're doing under this provision. I mean, the 911 dispatchers will now be under civilian command and control in a new department that has an interim director in the new communications civilian department. I do want to take advantage of this opportunity to maybe just foreshadow Madam President pro tem, the work that our offices have been doing in collaboration with providers, with the Defender Association and with other jurisdictions and cities through the the Sprint team process that you discussed during your comments at council briefing this morning that those conversations have new life breathed into them in terms of the realm of possibilities by this transfer of the dispatchers being under civilian command and control and no longer being under the control of a sworn police captain, which was the previous arrangement that we are ending with this vote today. So I just want to indicate that while it is the case that a lot of it is a technical and accounting and administrative change, there are some real considerable changes in terms of who the dispatch is accountable to and what the incentives of that bureaucracy are and what the policy remedies can be on the future of how we do dispatch by the change we are making today. That does represent a very structural shift in our ability to re calibrate and re hook up our dispatch apparatus to things that are not police response systems. And we are taking that first step today and look forward to continuing that work over the course of this year. Thank you so much, Councilmember Lewis. Any other comments on the bill or. We request the. I'm calling it the roll. I'm not seeing any requests for comment or questions. So with that, with a part, please call the role on the passage of the amended bill. Sergeant. Yes. Strauss. Yes. Lewis. Yes. Morales. S mosquera. I. PETERSON Yes. Council president, pro tem HERBOLD. Yes. Seven in favor, nine opposed. Thank you so much. The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Thank you so much. Item number 13, we've moved up from the amended agenda so that we can hear item number 13 directly following the related item that we just voted on . Item number three. Clerk Will you please read the item 13 into the record?