AN ORDINANCE relating to civilian and community oversight of the police; adding a new Chapter 3.29 to the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC); recodifying Subchapters VII, VIII, and IX of Chapter 3.28 of the SMC as Subchapters I, II, and III of Chapter 3.29; amending or repealing sections in Chapters 3.28, 4.08, and 14.12 of the SMC; and concerning Ordinance 118482.
The Report of the Gender Equity Safe Communities and New Americans Committee Agenda Item six Council Bill 118969 An Ordinance relating to civilian and community oversight of the police. Adding a new Chapter 3.29 to the Seattle Municipal Code record of filing sub chapters seven, eight and nine of Chapter 3.28 of the Seattle Missile Code as sub chapters one , two and three of Chapter 3.29. Amending or repealing sections and chapters 3.28, 4.08 and 14.12 of the Seattle Municipal Code. And concerning ordinance 118842. The committee recommends the bill pass as amended. Thank you, Councilmember Gonzalez. Thank you. So this is the reason we're all here today primarily. So I'm very excited about the introduction of this bill and our full council action on this. Just before we get started, I wanted to just for the benefit of the public, walk through what we're about to endeavor upon, because it's going to get a little procedurally wonky, really, really fast. So we have about six amendments that we need to go through that have come up since my last committee hearing. I have three of those amendments. Councilmember Burgess has one of those amendments. Councilmember Herbold and Councilmember Johnson are advancing separate amendments as well for a total of six. So we'll walk through all of the amendments first, have a discussion if one is needed, and then we will move for the passage of those amendments before we move for the passage of the full bill as amended. So I'm using the word amended a lot because there's going to be a lot of amendments. And in large part it's because we continued our conversations with the Community Police Commission and have found some additional areas that needed some work, including in many of the areas that you all were here to testify about today. So the first should be go through the amendments first. Councilmember Burgess Okay. So the First Amendment will be my amendment, which is amendment number one. So I will move to amend Council Bill 118969 with Amendment 1/2. Okay, Members, you should all have the stack of amendments at your place. So Amendment one makes technical corrections and removes some unnecessary language. Included in this amendment is a change to CBCs representative at the annual Joint Status Report with the Inspector General. With that change, the CPC co-chairs will participate in the status report rather than the CPC Executive Director, although there's nothing to preclude the CPC Executive Director from also participating in the annual Joint Status Report, and I understand that Councilmember Burgess might have a slight amendment to my amendment. Yes, I do so in this legislation in section. 3.20 9.5 ten, which begins on page nine of Amendment number one. I will draw your attention to the next page, page ten, the paragraph, the first full paragraph at the top of the page, beginning on line three. And I make the following amendment to clarify some of the questions and concerns that we've heard from Labor representatives about the intent of the Council to make certain that it's clear that we recognize our obligations under state statute to engage in good faith, collective bargaining and our intent to do so. So my amendment strikes the parenthetical language that appears on lines four and five. That language reads, including those related to bargaining, the effects of the ordinance on wages, hours, and working conditions of representative police officers. If this amendment passes, the paragraph would then read. For these reasons, the city shall take whatever steps are necessary to fulfill all legal prerequisites within 30 days of mayoral signature of this ordinance, or as soon as practicable thereafter, including negotiating with its police unions to update all effective collective bargaining agreements so that the agreements each conform to and are fully consistent with the provisions and obligations of this ordinance in a manner that allows for the earliest possible implementation to fulfill the purposes of this Chapter 3.29. I move that amendment second. Are there any questions? All in favor of the amendment. Councilmember O'Brien. Yeah, I just. I'm just finding the pages here. So. So the between the dashes is you just eliminating those two parts? Well, you said parenthetical between the correct. Okay, great. On lines four and five. Any other questions? All in favor of the amendment. Vote I. I opposed vote no. That amendment to the amendment is adopted. Councilmember Gonzalez. I don't have anything else to add in terms of the corrections represented in this particular amendment as amended. There's a lot of technical changes in here, including getting rid of abbreviations that are. Referencing nothing. And the only substantive change here is your suggestion in terms of the striking of the language and making the change in terms of the report from the Executive Director to the CPC co-chairs. So if no one has any questions, I'm ready for you to call this to vote. Are there any questions or comments about. The amendment. On amendment number one as amended? Just just a point of order. Yes, Mr. Chair, if I'm not mistaken, we need to actually move the bill before we start adopting amendments. And I don't believe we've done that yet. Well, we don't, because the bill came with a do pass consideration. So it's in front of us. Yes. Appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. Didn't want I want to make sure that we weren't doing something funny. I don't even know what the words Council President Burgess used mean, but it seems beneficial to me. It sounded official. Yes. All right. So we have in front of us amendment number one as amended on favor, vote I, II, oppose vote no. The amendment amendment is unanimously adopted. And I would by comment here alert the city clerk's and Amy that this changes the base legislation for signature. So we'll have to make that correction, hopefully, before we're finished with this work. Amendment number two, which you should all have, relates to the disciplinary process, investigations and appeals for police employees. And it clarifies some of those provisions and makes technical corrections. It adds a requirement that complaints about disciplinary appeals and grievances include the notice to the complainant of any outcomes that result in modification of final findings and disciplinary determinations. When an employee files A or fails to file a timely referral to OPA, it requires that OPA investigate that matter. It specifies that police department tracking of disciplinary determinations must allow the public to access the fairness and consistency of that work, primarily through the OIG and the CPC. It specifies deadlines for the appeal process and it changes the current three year limit of the statute of limitations, in essence, to five years except for criminal behavior. Type three Use of force dishonesty or Concealed Misconduct. It adds language about the Public Safety Civil Service Commission and the three commissioners appointed there, and the process that the Public Safety Civil Service Commission will follow in reviewing appeals of discipline. So I move amendment number two. Second. Are there any questions? All those in favor of amendment number two, vote. I oppose vote no. Amendment number two is unanimously adopted. Amendment number three. Councilmember Gonzalez. Thank you. Amendment number three relates to the budget for the Office of Police Accountability, the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety and the Community Police Commission. We've heard a lot about the budget. Today during public testimony, we've also had a lot of conversations with the Community Police Commission about the process of engaging in our ordinary budget making decisions. And so what I heard from community, both in emails, in public testimony and out of my ongoing conversations with the Community Police Commission is a strong desire to have this City Council strongly signal to community that we are aware of the need to to fully fund all of these or sufficiently fund these entities and to make sure that we take into consideration in the course of making those budget decisions the expanded scope of work that many of the entities will now have under this omnibus police reform package. So what we have done is accepted language that was submitted to us by the Community Police Commission to signal and make that commitment accordingly. And so the language that will be inserted into the base ordinance if approved by this body is reads as follows The city shall provide staff and resources that it deems sufficient to enable OPA, OIG and the CPC to perform all of its responsibilities specified in this Chapter 329. And so that's the language that's before us. And I just want to make very clear to community that what we have done here, instead of making the decisions about the budget for 2018 and a 2000 in 2017, we are going to have a conversation about the sufficiency of financing all of three offices in the context of our full budget, which will kick off in the middle of September. I'm sure we will see many of you there advocating consistent with what we're what you all are advocating for today. I encourage you to do that. I think it's going to be an important part of moving this this bill into implementation. And and and I hope that you all will return and help me understand and help my colleagues understand what the right staffing levels and right resource commitments will be for all three entities. But I assure you that this language for us is a commitment to take the budget conversations very, very seriously, because we recognize how important this body of work is to our community and to the city as a whole. As a whole. And I don't know if our budget chair would like to add. Or are you moving this amendment? I am going to move Amendment three to Council Bill 118969 and. I'll second the amendment. I know the next piece of legislation that will take up here in a few minutes is a modification to the budget to fund the Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety. We're taking that action out of the normal sequence. We would follow on the budget because we are in fact creating a new city office. And so we have to do that outside of the normal budget process in order to hire the inspector general on the staff that is there. But Councilmember Gonzalez's is right. Our commitment when we get into the fall and we prepare the budget for 2018 is to make sure that all three of these entities are funded at the level they need in order to do their work effectively and and efficiently. Are there any other comments or questions about this amendment? Councilmember Herbold. Thank you. I just wanted to add one of. The. Parts of. Legislation that people don't often look at, the CBC and community members did look at this time around, and that's the fiscal note. And with thanks to amici as well as the Budget Office, there's been some additional language added in the fiscal notes for both this legislation and the inspector general legislation to signal the council's seriousness on addressing the budget needs. Associated with this body of work. Thank you. Councilmember O'Brien. Thank you. Also, I will also be supporting this amendment. I want to just echo what others have said and what we heard today from a lot of the community members that came out to testify. Obviously, the success of this reform package going forward, they're going forward is going to be partially dependent upon us making sure that we provide the resources to do the work that so many people have come together to make happen. And I look forward to working with all of you in just a few months when we get into our budget process to ensure that we fund the robust resources needed to make sure that the Community Police Commission and the other components are able to achieve the high level of accountability that that you all have demanded. All those in favor of adopting amendment number three, vote i. I opposed Amendment three as unanimously adopted amendment number four. Councilmember Herbold, thank you. Amendment four to Council Bill 11 8969. Second, thank you. This amendment ensures that the CPC retains the authority in the Seattle Municipal Code granted to the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board. The previous review board has existing ability in city law to review closed case files of EPA complaints. The paper emphasized the critical importance in maintaining this authority back in 2014. Review of these files by O Palm in the past has led to the discovery, for example, that SPD was doing criminal background checks on people who had made complaints and led to that being changed. Just as a little bit of history to the authority of the Civilian Review Board, whether or not we're talking about a part of our C.P.S. to have access to unredacted closed complaint files back between 22 and 25, only redacted files were allowed to be reviewed by by OPR. And that was a very difficult situation for OPR to manage, because when having much of the important information, such as names and details of cases blacked out on complaint files, it was difficult to identify trends and patterns, which was the purpose of reviewing these files in March of 2016. Spark was informed that an ordinance was being proposed by the City Council to change the redacted file and confidentiality rules. And in 2026, the City Council amended the musical code to provide a with that access to these closed complaint files with the duty that they maintain confidentiality. It became effective in 2007, but in September of 26, the Guild requested mediation and the first meeting was held in November of that year during 2007, and at the time of the matter, mediation continued. There was no successor agreement. But then in. Later on, in 2007, the unredacted file policy was implemented and in 2008, the public hearing examiner ruled that the city committed an unfair labor practice. Later in 2009, the perk for those of those of you watching don't know what PERC is. That's the Public Employee Relations Commission dismissed the complaint and overturned the ruling and decided that the right of the Council to grant access to these files. To OPR. Was a management prerogative and did not impact any term or condition of employment that would require the employer to engage in either decision or effects bargaining with the union. I give this history just because this is an effort that the council, together with the mayor, fought to retain this transparency in order to help the civilian review board at that time have an important oversight function, which is the ability to review these closed files without them being redacted in order to identify trends and practices that might need further changes in further reform efforts made to the OPA review process. And this is an important function for the new C.P.S. to retain. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Those in favor of amendment number four, vote I. I opposed vote no. Amendment number four as unanimously adopted. Amendment number five. Councilmember Johnson. Thanks. I'd like to move Amendment five to Council Bill 118969. Second. We're sorry. Thanks for that. Love to get a chance to talk for a quick minute about this. A moment in early conversations that I had with the CBC. One of the things that came up was about legal representation and brought forward this amendment to protect civilian oversight entities, to allow them to have representation in the event that there's a conflict of interest, a lack of technical expertize or capacity reasons that the city attorney's office would decline to represent them. So this amendment effectively allows the CBC to not only seek that outside counsel, but also ask the city attorney to inform them when they've declined representation about the reasoning. Why? I'm happy to answer questions and hope to count on your support. Thank you. Questions or comments? All in favor of amendment number five. Vote I oppose Vote No. Amendment five as unanimously adopted. Amendment number six. Councilmember Gonzales. Okay. We're almost there. Amendment number six is related to the OIG work plan. So we I have made an amendment to the amendment that we made in my committee hearing last week. I have heard very clearly from the Community Police Commission their desire to have more than the ability to make recommendations, but to really figure out how it is. We can incorporate those recommendations into the AG's annual work plan to instill in and encourage a level of accountability as it relates to the Inspector General's annual work plan. So what I have done is I have drafted some language in consultation with the Community Police Commission that would require the Inspector General's annual work plan to identify all work plan recommendations from the Office of Police Accountability and the Community Police Commission within his or her annual work plan. Once those recommendations make their way into the work plan, then the IG will have an obligation to also identify which of those recommendations were accepted, which were declined, and if for any reason recommendations were declined , the IG would have to provide a reason as to why that recommendation was declined. I think the strikes a good balance in terms of providing transparency to what the Inspector General's annual work plan will be focused on, while also giving the CPC and OPA an opportunity to have know clear, clear ability to be able to to add to the Inspector General's work plan while still retaining the Inspector General's authority and power to accept what falls into his or her predetermined sense of prioritization and decline others, while still also giving the public and the council a clear explanation as to why certain things won't be pursued. So I think this this is a recommendation that maintains the integrity of the independence of the IG from undue influence from OPA or CPC or other external forces, while also recognizing that we need to have very deliberate collaboration among all of these entities, including in the area of the workplan. So I want to thank all of my colleagues who helped me think through this one. And I especially want to thank the Community Police Commission for, for, for being receptive to what I hope you agree where reasonable concerns and I think we found a very solid solution to be able to move forward in a way that really does signal to community that we're serious about allowing the Community Police Commission to to utilize the IG in a way that will benefit systemic review and ongoing work in that regard. So I will move for I will move to amend Council Bill 118969 with Amendment six, as I've just described it second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Councilmember O'Brien. Yes. Councilmember Gonzales, I want to thank you for your work on this. This is a discussion item in committee at length. And I really appreciate the expertize you brought to this to craft something that certainly addressed my concerns in a way that was very creative. So thank you for your commitment on that. Thank you. All in favor of Amendment six. Vote I. I opposed Vote No. Amendment six is unanimously adopted. We now have the amended legislation in front of us, and this is an opportunity for questions or comments from other council members. And then Councilmember Gonzales will close our discussion. Councilmember Suarez. Thank you. Before we begin today, I want to thank everybody who came here to provide public comment. It is very important legislation, as you know, the city has been dealing with for years. I want to thank my fellow council members who co-sponsored this ordinance with me, as well as a special thank you to our committee chair, Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, whom for her leadership and her vision and working with her and certainly Councilmember Burgess. As we all know, this critical step towards meaningful police oversight has been long in coming. The work on this has been exceptionally deliberative, thoughtful and hard fought. It is the product of hours and hours of staff work by the mayor's office, council staff, and hours of comment and consideration by the dedicated members of the Community Police Commission. I would like to take a step back for a moment from the details of this very complicated piece of legislation. Long enough to acknowledge while we were here. I would like to acknowledge my friend John T Williams, who died in a crosswalk after being shot by a Seattle police officer. I'd like to recognize the Native American people in our community here today who remember that day. We are here because we need to address this tragedy and others like it that have occurred on our streets. We need to prevent them from re-occurring to ensure public safety, due process and professional policing. We need a system that will provide review and accountability. We also need a system that will garner public trust. One part of building public trust is ensuring that this oversight and review process includes the complete Seattle community and the engagement of all corners of our city. Democracy demands that we ensure a wide and diverse representation of Seattle. Communities throughout our city should not be turned away from the table, but rather be included regardless of where they live, whether it be Aurora, Lake City, Rainier or Delaware Avenue. That's why I spoke out for geographical representation on the Committee on the Community Police Commission. In summary, I am pleased to support a democratic, inclusive and professional oversight of our police services to ensure that our police are accountable to high public standards. And that is why I'll be voting yesterday. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Herbold. Thank you. I, too, would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to Council Chair Lauren Gonzales, her staff, Brianna Thomas, council central staff Amy Sy City Attorney Andrew Milberg has done exemplary work. My own staff nor Aldrich and really many, many warm thanks to the community groups that wrote to the DOJ in the first place, several of whom are represented here today. Please. Accountability is a living, breathing organism, if you will. I, in my time as an aide to Councilmember Lakota for from 1999 on, I would tell people who would call the office with complaints about police accountability to use the system. People who are. Skeptics, you have to use. It. If you don't use it, we won't know how to fix it. And this is an example of using what you all have helped us learn to make improvements to the system. But the ability. For. This to be successful long term, the success of police accountability reform continues to depend on all of us. A couple of items that came up in. A public. Comment that I addressed this morning and there's a handout up front about them are related. They they are. Two separate items, but they both relate to collective bargaining. One relates specifically to the accountability that the public is interested in having over the folks. Who do the. Bargaining representing the interests of the public as it relates specifically to police accountability. Currently, we have a system where prior to the beginning of bargaining and this only exists for for police bargaining. We have a public hearing that is co-hosted by the Council's Labor Relations and Policy Committee and the Public Safety Committee, as well as in the past. It was co-hosted by Obama. This public hearing was held specifically to solicit comments from the public around changes that are necessary prior to going into bargaining. To the. Police accountability system. It's been a practice that after this public hearing occurs that there's a a resolution that the council passes, sort of recognizing the themes and the issues that the public has identified. The. I think an important step forward in having more transparency prior to going into negotiation, while also protecting the important leverage that. Labor. Rightfully has in negotiations by negotiating and in confidentiality would would be a new requirement that after the hearing and prior to the commencement of negotiations in the Council's resolution, that they also make public the city's goals in bargaining with the police labor organizations. So that's one element that I'd be interested in, in bringing forward in a future, future ordinance. The second element, as I said, is also related to to collective bargaining, but it specifically relates to the issue of the technical accountability advisers and making sure that the CPC and the OPA director and the Inspector General have individuals who can act as technical accountability advisors during the bargaining process, while also having a strong expectation that they observe the legal requirements. For. For confidentiality during the the the the time of those bargaining efforts. And so as it relates to the first part of of this this proposal, I understand that many from there's there have been conversations with labor, and labor is supportive of of this element. The second part of this proposal, I think, needs some additional conversations with our with our labor stakeholders. I didn't bring forward the first part of this proposal, even though I felt like there was some good, strong support, both publicly and internally for moving in this direction because it requires a a new A, it would have required a new title change because it amended a part of the code that we weren't currently amending. So I just wanted to share that with the public because there was a lot of test public testimony about both those issues. So thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Johnson. Just briefly want to say thanks to a couple of folks. You know, I didn't walk into this job with a subject area expertize on this topic, and it resulted in me spending a lot of time with some folks that I want to say thank you for spending time with me to help me understand better about the decisions that we're making today. So to Diane Ozaki, to Faye Lopez, to Enrique Gonzales, to Allison Eisinger, to Betsy Graff, and to list Dugard. Thank you for spending so much time and energy educating me on this topic, and thank you for all your really incredible organizing and coalition building around this topic as well. I know how hard it is to do community organizing and coalition building and how hard is to keep that together so that we're here today with a consensus package of amendments and consensus underlying legislation. You deserve a whole lot of credit for two city staff, both Andrew Meyer, Berg, Spencer Williams, particularly Brianna Thomas and amici for spending a lot of time with me as well to help take concepts and turn them into actual words on a piece of paper. That was really great and thank you for all your time and energy. And finally, to my colleague, Councilmember McDaniel. You are the subject matter experts in a whole lot of ways on this topic, not just personally and professionally, but I just want to say thank you for your patience, for your leadership. And the city is a whole lot safer today as a result of all your great work. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Bagshaw. Oh, good. Thanks. Since so many people have already been recognized, I want to hear to and really appreciate Lisa Dugard and Reverend Harriet Walden. Thank you so much for your mid-night emails. I mean, rarely, rarely have I seen the kind of advocacy but advocacy looking for solutions. And I personally want to say thank you to that. My council colleagues, of course, Lorena Gonzalez, you have been recognized, Councilmember Herbold as well. Johnson and Councilmember, our current president, pro tem, Councilmember Burgess. I just am thankful to all of you because what I have seen in this process and seriously in the eight years that I've been on council, I don't think I've seen another piece of legislation where people have worked as hard with the community, respectfully listening to each other and that deep listening. And I also want to recognize today the fact that the police came and our firefighters came and Levinson, you're back there. Thank you for the work that you have done over the years. And I just appreciate that there really is unity around this and that when we do get together and we do listen to each other, we can come up with this kind of solution. And I think the answer is yes, we try this, we really all can get along. So thank you. Councilmember So on. Thank you, President Burgess. My comments right now will also apply to Agenda Item eight, which is about the Observer's Bill of Rights. And I thank two memorable for bringing that forward. I would like to thank the Community Police Commission. For their dedication to police accountability and the dozens, if not hundreds of hours they have put into amending this legislation. When the mayor's office first sent the draft legislative legislation to council, I heard the commissioners and community advocates expressed concern that if it was passed without amendment, it would have been a step backward, not forward, and a net loss of accountability. Since then, however, the Community Police Commission has worked and organized to amend many of those original problems, and it is due to their determination that we have this legislation today a step in the good direction. And I also thank Councilmember Gonzalez for listening to the concerns of the commission. I intend to vote yes on this bill as community activists and organizations like the NAACP welcome this progress. They are correctly urging the council to follow through on the words and this legislation. They are also correctly urging that this legislation be viewed in proportionate light with a sense of gravity and avoid setting up false expectations. For example, the position of the inspector general is described as independent. But independent from whom? According to this bill, the inspector general is independent from the Seattle police chain of command. Yes, but is not independent from the power structure of the Seattle political establishment. If we have some future mayor running for reelection who does not want a police scandal on their record. The question is how independent will the inspector general be in that situation? The reality is in a society with massive wealth and racial inequality, such as the current one, institutions are not independent or neutral. Regardless of claims otherwise, everyone has a social base, different classes and different political forces that they depend upon or are allied with. I do not try to hide the fact that I represent regular working, working class people and those at the receiving end of police violence. I do not pretend to represent big business. I have always advocated that for genuine police accountability. It will not be enough to have someone who claims to be independent. We will need a democratically elected and accountable community oversight that is unapologetically on the side of working people and oppressed communities, and which will doggedly fight for the rights of victims because they are elected by and accountable to communities not appointed by the political establishment . We need to have a separate democratically elected civilian review board, a body that has full powers to hold the police accountable and that can itself be held accountable if it fails to defend our community members impacted by discrimination and excessive force. This legislation takes a step towards that goal, but in truth, a small step. The closest that we have in this legislation to an independent review board is the Community Police Commission, which, while not elected, is currently made up of people with genuine community roots. However, the Commission has no direct power beyond the ability to speak out. It has no structural authority over police rules, policies or power to subpoena officers. I do, however, greatly applaud the current Community Police Commission for retaining and strengthening their ability to call out the police establishment, the political establishment, if it fails to produce genuine accountability. And I pledge my full support to you all in using that power to its full potential. The legislation by itself will not end the excessive use of force and racial profiling by Seattle police. It will not stop the police from targeting regular people who use their cell phones to record police violence, street medics, independent legal observers, journalists and activists like myself at peaceful protests. It will not stop the political establishment from sheltering officers who violate people's basic rights. We live in a country with over 2 million people in prison, disproportionately people of color. No other country, including brutal dictatorships in the past, have imprisoned so many. It is not an accident that many black and brown people and poor and working class people view police officers as an occupying army rather than an institution that serves the community here in Seattle. Donald Trump received only 8% of the vote, but was endorsed by the Seattle Police Officers Guild. Imagine how terrifying it must be for our immigrant, refugee, Latino and black sisters and brothers to know that many of us city police are among that 8%. The same police who have the authority to use violence against our people of color and our working class people. On February 5th, 2017, Seattle King County ACP President Gerald Henderson published an editorial in the Seattle Times that asked several important questions about the fatal shooting of Jay Taylor at the hands of Seattle police. He asked why after Chief Taylor was shot multiple times at point blank range, was he left bleeding on the ground for seven and a half minutes without any officer providing medical attention. Why did Seattle police released to the media information of his past criminal record immediately after they shot him? Does the leadership of Seattle police believe that criminal records authorizes the use of deadly force? Why did the mayor and the police chief tell the media that they thought officers acted appropriately in the days following the shooting before any investigation had been done? So far, no real answers have been forthcoming from elected officials. Chad Taylor and the countless others impacted by police violence are a grim but important reminder that we need to continue building mass movements for racial justice. The Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle and nationwide, the union movement of Seattle and King County and the successful BLOCK the bunker movement have shown that when activists get organized, we can make a real impact. Congratulations to the Community Police Commission for their hard work, for our thanks to central staff and city attorney member of staff members who worked on this legislation and above all, thanks to community activists. And yes, stop the sweeps and no new jail. The city's journey with this issue of police reform and accountability actually goes back many decades. I remember the early 1990s when we appointed our first OPA auditor and we had a citizen's commission that made a series of recommendations on how to include improve policing and the performance of our police officers. And we've repeated that cycle several times since then. This legislation is intended to stop that cycle so that we can actually have the type of constitutional, fair, respectful policing that we want in our city. And I would add effective policing. We actually want our police officers to do their jobs well. And thankfully, most of them do all of the time. And so I want to thank the women and men of the Seattle Police Department for their good work. They often have a very dangerous job and they keep reporting for work every day. And we're grateful for that. I also want to thank Cathy O'Toole, the chief of police. She has set a wonderful example of leadership and she has really led the reform effort inside the police department. And I hope she's here for many years into the future to continue doing that. I want to thank Mayor Murray as well. He came into office when this was all very active and quickly got up to speed and has done a really good job of through his staff members, ushering this forward and getting us to where we are today. Councilmember Bagshaw, I know you made a comment about at least two guards emails coming at midnight, but I've received multiple emails from Amy, say two and three and four in the morning and your boss is here, Amy. And I think she's earned a lot of time in the next few weeks. Earlier today, I spoke with Sam Walker. He is a professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and highly regarded as one of our country's leading criminologist and experts on police accountability and the effectiveness of policing. And here's what Sam Walker said to me. By passing this legislation, Seattle leaps to the head of the class nationally on police reform and accountability. Establishing three entities the Community Police Commission, the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety and the Office of Police Accountability. Establishing these three entities to provide oversight of police practices and policies is a bold and exciting experiment that hasn't been done anywhere else. This is a solid example of community driven police accountability, and I'm optimistic about where Seattle will lead the nation. It will be very important. This is his cautionary word. It'll be very important that these three entities work very closely together, meet early and often, and learn how to honor and respect their unique roles and responsibilities. The people of Seattle deserve this, and so do your police officers. Working for constitutional and effective policing is an aspiration we all share. And I think Sam Walker got it right. Exactly. I also remember when the Department of Justice opened their investigation, and actually the Department of Justice was the first to suggest that we needed a community body that was heavily involved in this work. And I appreciate their contribution and the stimulus that they brought to city government to make sure that we do this work and hopefully get it right. Councilmember Gonzales. I do want to close our comments. It would be my honor. I would like to also start my remarks by saying some very important thank yous before we take the final vote on this incredibly important piece of legislation and a body of work that truly does reflect our next step in moving forward. I'd like to thank all of the council members who volunteered so much of their time to show up in my in my very, very special, special committee hearings. They just happened all the time. So they became special committee hearings instead of just regular ones. I'd like to thank Mayor Ed Murray for his work on getting the legislation primed and ready for city council to consider. I'd also like to thank his legal counsel, Ian Warner, who also played a significant role and in making sure that we received a package of police reform legislation that was ready for us to work on. Of course, our city attorney, Pete Holmes, Assistant City Attorney Andrew Marburg, Seattle Police Chief Cathy O'Toole. And like Councilmember Burgess, I'd also like to thank the officers of the Seattle Police Department who in reality we need them to be on the same page with us. We need them to recognize the importance of constitutional policing. I believe that a vast majority of them do, and I recognize that that the requirements that we impose upon the police department certainly do trickle down to the men and women of the police department who we rely on to implement constitutional policing every day. And that implementation of constitutional policing is not just good for us. It's not just good for the residents of Seattle who don't have a gun and who don't have a badge. It's it's good for public for for the public safety aspects, of course. But it's also incredibly important to keeping our officers safe as well. I'd also like to thank our OPI director, Pierce Murphy, who also provided us with with valuable technical assistance, as well as our former auditor, retired judge and Levinson, who's standing in the back who really gave us on council and the Community Police Commission a ton of technical assistance in making sure that we understood, based on the years of her work and the volumes of reports that she has generated, that we got some of the important aspects on the back end related to discipline, appeals and grievances. Right. And I think we have and there are so many others who contributed to the process of writing and reviewing this legislation. I want to thank all of those folks. But my deepest gratitude goes to Councilmember Tim Burgess, who is the vice chair of my committee, who is the chair of our budget committee, who has really worked tirelessly alongside with me to be able to do this massive overhaul of the base ordinance that we received through his unique lens of having been a police officer for for the city of Seattle at one point in time and lending us his expertize of having chaired the Public Safety Committee, I think at least, at least once, maybe twice. And so I really do appreciate all of the work that you have done to assist us in getting this bill in the right place. And let me tell you, if if senior rate us is a concept, which I think it is, it certainly does not apply to you because you even though this is your last year , this is quite a legacy that you are leaving behind for this for the residents of Seattle. And I want to I want to thank you for your commitment to continuing to work diligently and very hard for for the people of Seattle. I also want to take a moment to thank Amy Sy from Council Central, a staff. Amy, you are a machine. I just don't know how you do it every day. And I am so grateful for all of your help, your sacrifices. You have two small children. I know that you had to make a lot of sacrifices to to help us get this across the finish line. And I will be eternally grateful to you and my offer for a desk inside my office. It still stands. You're welcome. Anytime. Brianna Thomas, of course, from my office, who came to this body of work as a community organizer. And when I told her she was going to take over public safety and police reform, she made a very particular face that if you know, Brianna, you know which face I'm talking about, that you have really risen to the challenge and I have been impressed by your intellect, your commitment to listen and your ability to bring together very divergent beliefs, to get us all to a place where we can feel very good about the legislation that we're about to pass. Of course, I would be remiss if I did not recognize the Community Police Commission, and I know so many of you are in the room, so I'm going to ask that if you are on the CPC or were ever on the CPC, including staff, if you would be willing to stand on your feet so that we can recognize you. I. I know that our work is not done. This is, like I've said before, just a step in the right direction. But I just deeply appreciate all of the work that we've been able to do together with the CPC, including, you know, going to New Orleans and dancing in the streets while also learning about police accountability. And. And and but also having those serious conversations and literally locking ourselves in a room for two Saturdays in a row where we spent a total of 15 hours together to really try to figure out how to make this a big win for community and a big win for the entirety of the city. So I want to thank you for that. There were also, you might have heard in testimony, dozens of original members of the 35 organizations, which is growing, who worked with the ACLU of Washington to advocate that the Department of Justice come to Seattle and help us do what has always seemed within reach, but yet unachievable. And I know a lot of you are in the room today. And so I would ask those of you who are part of the original group six years ago to stand and be recognized for the fact that you did all this work. And I hope Reverend Walden doesn't punish me later for making her stand up a third time. But I'm going to ask that you stand because so much of the work that we have been doing in our community is was really started by you and by so many of the other women moms that that you organized within our community to to be brave and courageous and to stand on the right side of justice and on the right side of history. And in a lot of ways, I feel like today is a culmination of so much of the advocacy work that you have been doing for free. And I know it sometimes can feel like like it's ungrateful work. Like, nobody is going to recognize the work that you're doing. But I want you to know and believe that I.C.U. that we see you and that we so deeply appreciate all of the years, years and decades of service that you have provided to our community. So thank you, Reverend Weldon. It is because of the deep and steadfast commitment of so many in this community. That brings us to this truly historic moment. In so many instances, the fight for 15 secure scheduling, paid sick and safe time, monumental investments in human services, transportation and early education. Seattle continues to show time and time again that we lead. This ordinance is no exception. It is a model of what other communities across the country can expect to see as a result of Department of Justice consent decree processes that are fueled by community support. In Seattle, that community call to action and the DOJ's acceptance of that call is now paving the way to sustainable long term police reform without compromising officer or public safety. I truly believe that this that this will be an accountability system that will have legitimacy among our officers and police reform advocates. That is quite the achievement. But our work is not done. Although this is a significant step forward in our efforts to reform the police department and our accountability systems, this is but one additional step. Over the coming months and years, we will need to see these reforms over the finish line. Many of you know that I approach this work through a unique lens. As a civil rights attorney, I focused my practice on representing people who were subjected to excessive force and bias policing. And yes, I've even sued the Seattle Police Department. That work gave me firsthand knowledge of the complaint and investigation process, and I put that knowledge to work. As we struggled with this legislation. Indeed, it is this very issue that motivated my initial desire to want to serve the people of Seattle as a member city wide. Over the past 16 weeks, I have proudly led the city's work to ensure that this legislation adequately reflects the significant work previously done by the Community Police Commission to assess, analyze and incorporate the needs of community members most adversely affected by policing. That process has included seven committee hearings, two evening public hearings, over 50 meetings with C.P.S. leadership and staff. Multiple meetings with my colleagues, the mayor and the mayor's office. And a trip. And three trips across the country from Los Angeles to New York City to New Orleans to learn about best practices and standards. All of this has informed the work of my committee, and the results show in today's legislation, which has wide consensus within community and beyond. This legislation will set us on the path to take to changing the culture at speed, enhancing public trust in our officers, and always turning a mirror on ourselves to continuously improve rather than waiting for a crisis to reform. That has been my vision all along. This bill represents our collective vision of sweeping reforms designed to advance constitutional policing, which is good for community and good for public safety and good for the safety of officers. Thank you to all of my colleagues for indulging. Special committee hearing after special committee hearing. And I am deeply grateful to all of you in the audience today who weren't in those rooms. But I know you were pushing. I want to thank all of you for advocating for community driven police accountability and reform. Today would not be possible without you. So thank you. Thank you. Will the clerk please call the roll on council? Bill 118969 as amended. Gonzalez. Yes. Herbold, I. Johnson. Suarez. O'Brien. Hi. Sergeant Bagshaw. Burgess. High eight. In favor and unopposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Oh, my gosh. So just a note. We're going to take up a budget bill now related to the same topic and then the Public Safety Bill of rights. If you are going to leave. Would you please take your conversations outside so we can continue our work here? Thank you very much. We'll now move to agenda item seven. Will the clerk please read that in. Agenda Item seven Council Bill 118908 An ordinance amending Ordinance 125207, which adopted the 2017 budget, creating and revising budget control levels, modifying positions and changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels all by a three quarter vote of the city council.