A RESOLUTION reaffirming The City of Seattle’s support of unbanked money transfer operators and the immigrant communities they serve.
Agenda Item three. Resolution 31955. Reaffirming the city's support to fencing money, transfer operators and immigrant communities. Baser. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I move to adopt resolution 31955. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded to adopt the resolution. Councilmember Morales, you are the prime sponsor of the resolution, so you are recognized in order to address it. Thank you. President Gonzalez, I just want to give a little bit of background as the folks who called in this afternoon mentioned over the last several years that money transfer organizations have found it increasingly difficult to operate safely because of what's called de-risking. That's a process where banks go through terminating their relationship with certain account holders because who they've deemed to be high risk. And this is particularly affecting our Somali neighbors. It's a process that started after 911. And so there is certain amount of discrimination that is assumed to be happening as well. We know that the accounts of Somali American money transfer organizations have been closed. It's having devastating impacts on our Somali neighbors. And it's been going on for a long time. And it is still continuing to be an issue. Banks have applied derisking in a discriminatory manner, denying small and immigrant owned remittance companies bank accounts while continuing to serve larger operators. So this resolution calls on the Washington state legislature, specifically the Senate Financial Institutions, Economic Development and Trade Committee, and the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee to study the legislative options that could better support financial inclusion of these entities so that they can continue to operate and serve the community. I've discussed this with our Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, who are clear that this is one of the city's legislative priorities already and are working with committee chairs. And I urge your support of the resolution for financial inclusion for our Somali neighbors. Thank you so much, Councilmember Morales. Any other comments on the resolution? Councilmember Herbold and then Councilmember Sala. Again, just want to thank Councilman Morales for taking the lead on this issue and glad to hear confirmation from you, Councilmember Morales, that our has identified this as a priority for the next legislative session. When proponents contacted me back in May about this issue, I immediately contacted Air and requested that they include this issue in the state's legislative agenda and work with the proponents on this. So I'm glad to get confirmation that that is that is in the works. Appreciate it. Council members want. Thank you. I am happy to support this resolution to be in solidarity with the infrastructure to allow our community members in the Seattle area to support their families with money transfers. And of course, I was also extremely supportive of the resolution in 2015 that the city council at that time advised in support of this money transfer infrastructure , because we know how much of a backbone it is for your financial. Sustenance of the communities in many of the countries in the neocolonial world, the banking industry and the laws that regulate them are dominated by the big banks that are not only more interested in their profits than in meeting the financial needs of our communities, but are among the exploiters. The explicit exploiters of the same communities of should be being held. The big banks invest in fossil fuel industry and yet the state government will not allow Seattle to bank with a credit union instead. And that's why it's important that in alliance with the native indigenous, urban native community and the environmental activist community, that we have made strides towards that and we need to keep making progress in order to have public banking in the city of Seattle. Big banks sell adjustable rate mortgages and then ruthlessly foreclose on people's homes. Big banks and other rapacious financial institutions have carried out years of subprime and predatory lending. Approximately 90% of subprime mortgages issued in 2006 were adjustable rate mortgages, and nearly 10 million homeowners lost their homes. The foreclosure sales in the U.S. between 2006 and 2014. I mean, this is the larger context that looms over ordinary people, but especially communities of color. In fact, among those who were foreclosed in the wake of the Great Recession in 2728, it was predominantly black households and Latino households that were impacted by the sale of adjustable rate mortgages, predatory lending, and then coming upon that foreclosures. Big banks are not interested in helping the East African community in the Seattle area in any way send money to help support their families and the smaller services that are willing to do this work. Because it is needed, even if it may not be very profitable, are not given the authority and protections that are given to the big banks. My staff member Jonathan Rosenblum has met with Rob Lehmann, say to discuss this and I'm very happy to support this resolution, as I said, to work with the community moving forward, especially on the state level, to assist money transfer operators who serve immigrant communities. And I just also publicly wanted to thank Jonathan Rosenblum for suggesting or maybe being among those who suggested to the community that they work on the state level instead. And clearly, we are hoping that it will have a real impact and to help the community. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Swann, for those remarks as well. Any other comments on the resolution, colleagues? Keep seeing that. I will make sure that Councilman Morales gets the last word. I also wanted to just echo my thanks, Ginsberg. Morales, for your work and advocacy in this space. It is an issue that is very dear to my heart. It is part of the reason we have an organization called One America Today that is sort of the largest immigrant rights organization in the state. It is a multicultural, multigenerational, multiracial organization that is really championed so many amazing policy reforms throughout the state and here in Seattle and certainly in this area of unbanked issues as it relates to immigrant populations, you know, they they've continued to advocate for a systemic, sustainable change. And as somebody who comes from an immigrant family who still has family abroad, I personally understand the importance of being able to have an opportunity to issue remittances. And when you are limited to doing that via banks based on it, racist policies, frankly, that are and have been implemented and enforced by our financial institutions in America, it really makes it difficult for for immigrants living in this country who are already enduring so much in terms of family separation and in having the burden of of of continuing to provide for families in their home countries. It is so important for us to continue to take a really strong policy position about how important it is for us to solve for these really significant policy issues which have to be tackled by the state. So I appreciate your ongoing advocacy and sponsorship of this resolution. I'm looking forward to supporting it. That being said, I will hand it over to you to have the last word and then we'll call the role in the passage of the resolution. Terrific. Well, thank you. Thank you to Councilmember Somewhat and Gonzalez. I do just want to give a final thanks to the community who brought this to us. Council member Council President Gonzalez already mentioned one America. So I want to thank Rich Stultz there, the Somali Health Board, Somali family safety task force here, Washington, Seattle Rideshare Drivers Association living well Kent access to our community and the Abu Bakr Islamic Center of Washington. We're all really instrumental in helping bring this to council and are also working, as I said, in Olympia and meeting with state legislators and the appropriate committee chairs to make sure that we are doing what we can at the state level. And then we were also in communication with Congressman Heck, who's on the Financial Services Committee in D.C. because a lot of these banking regulations, the changes that we need, need to happen as a congressional level at the federal level as well. So I want to thank everyone for your support. And we are ready to vote. Thank you, Councilman Morales. With that being said, I would ask the clerk, please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution. Suarez i. Lewis. I. Morales. I. Let's get. I. Peterson I. The one. I. Strauss All. Right. Herbold Hi. President Gonzalez. Hi. Nine in favor. Not opposed. Thank you, Madam Clerk. The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it and ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation. Okay. Agenda item five Will the clerk please read agenda item five into the record? Council President Gonzalez I for an item for wimps. I apologize for that. I realized it after I said it. Will the clerk please read the agenda item or into the record? Not a problem. Agenda item four Resolution 31 950 relating to the Department of Parks and Recreation, authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to act as the authorized representative of the agent on behalf of the city. Seattle and legally five the City of Seattle with respect to certain projects for which the city seeks wrapped funding assistance managed