Speaker 4: Agenda item nine Resolution 32037. A resolution relating to committee structure, membership, meeting times and duties of the Standing Committees of the City of the Seattle City Council for 2022 and 2023 and superseding Resolution 31947 introduced today, January 4th. Thank you, Madam Clerk. A move to adopt resolution 32036337. Is there a second strike? Thank you. As sponsor of this resolution, I will address it first again, per section four of Article four of the Seattle City Charter, outlining the powers and duties of Seattle City Council. The Council has the authority to create and use committees of its members to facilitate its legislative functions. Resolution 32037 before you today would establish nine standing committees, including membership in meeting times for a two year period covering the years 2022 to 2023. My office again sent you each a copy of this resolution for your consideration yesterday, Monday, January 3rd. With your support, this resolution will supersede resolution 31947, which established standing committees in the previous biennium. An affirmative action will make this resolution effective today, January 4th, 2022. Are there any comments on the resolution? Caspar Herbal. It's just play.
Speaker 2: Really want to say the opportunity I had to work with you on this on this resolution and appreciate.
Speaker 4: The.
Speaker 2: Feedback.
Speaker 4: That you so graciously.
Speaker 2: Received and insight. That's very kind of you. And just I appreciate having gone through.
Speaker 4: A similar exercise.
Speaker 2: The.
Speaker 4: Balancing effort that is necessary to develop a.
Speaker 2: Resolution like this. It's a lot of work to spread around and a lot of interest on behalf of all of our.
Speaker 4: Colleagues.
Speaker 2: To do the work. And I think this resolution is a great expression of of of of how one assigns.
Speaker 4: Work to individuals based on their passions.
Speaker 2: Interests and capabilities. And thank you, Madam President, for.
Speaker 4: Doing so, so well. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Herbold. Councilmember So what? I saw your hand up. Are you done?
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, support.
Speaker 0: Are you able to hear me? Thank you. I'm voting yes on this resolution establishing the city council committees for the next two years. Like in the previous two years, this resolution assigns my office to chair the Sustainability and Renter's Rights Committee. In the past, my office, alongside working people, union members and community members, have used the mandate of the committee to support grassroots activists fighting for renters rights and for Green New Deal programs. We have passed a series of protections against eviction, including the school year eviction ban, which is the nation's only second and nation's strongest school year eviction ban, which protects both schoolchildren and public school workers. We also passed the winter eviction ban. We close the loopholes in the just cause eviction protections. We passed relocation assistance for economic evictions, which is a very strong law that is going to take into effect on July 1st of this year. And we passed another important renters rights law, which is the six months notice for rent increases. I have personally and my staff and other community members who fought for these laws have all had the personal experience of getting feedback from renters that these laws have made a real, concrete difference in their lives. Just like the $15 an hour minimum wage index reached out to the committee and made appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board. And as I mentioned, billed at that time as on movement to tax big business to fund green New Deal infrastructure, work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. This resolution also states the intentions to establish a select committee to address climate issues, which are currently considered by the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee. I do not have any objection to setting up a given committee, but I want to be clear for the record and for to share with working people who are looking for a real green New Deal. On behalf of Seattle. And for Seattle to be carbon zero in a realistic way because we know climate catastrophe is knocking at our doors. I want to be clear that it is not the arrangement of community committee bureaucracies that is going to have a meaningful impact for Seattle on climate change. The question, as always, remains one of political will. The real question is whether the climate justice movement that needs to be led by ordinary people, union members and community members, has the strength to push elected officials into standing up to big business polluters who account for the overwhelming majority, statistically speaking of greenhouse gas emissions. We know that these changes cannot be made just by appealing to a section of the middle and upper middle class to make lifestyle transformations. We know that globally the climate catastrophe can be averted only if we have mass movements that are strong enough to take the might of the fossil fuel lobby, the big banks that underwrite the fossil fuel pipelines and take on big business and the wealthy and our local in our local areas like Seattle, in order to push for increased progressive taxation to fund public transportation, we know transportation issues are one of the main reasons for carbon emissions. I apologize. We have heard lobby and he is working. So the question is, can our movement push the council and the mayor to increase the Amazon tax to fund the green infrastructure that you asked if a select committee on climate change. I will be happy that as the chair of the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, in the same way that the Finance Committee chairs the Budget Committee each year, my office is currently finalizing the rent control addition to our bills to support the demands of the Stop the money pipeline from insurance companies that back fossil fuel infrastructure. I hope to discuss those bills at our upcoming committee meeting on January 21st. I know that I mentioned the Stop the Money pipeline movement and the legislation that we are working on. On previous city council briefings, so councilmembers were on the council last year will of course be familiar with that. And the same applies to the rent control legislation and I am happy to talk to any council member or their staff about these legislation. Please ask me your questions. Please let me know what your parties are. I intend for the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee to continue to bolster the organizing efforts of climate change activists and tenant organizers. And as I said, if a select committee on the climate is formed, I'm happy to chair that to assure that it is dedicated to supporting the organizing effort of Green New Deal activists and organizers. Thank you.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Councilmember Sawant, I have a few comments if there are anyone else. Okay, Mosquito.
Speaker 3: You very much council president becomes president. Thanks for all of your work along with our Councilmember Herbold. Thanks for your work as well. You noted some of the conversations Robin having back and forth. I appreciate that this must have been a lot of juggling. So thank you for your team and and your officers that have made this possible along with Central Staff Council President. I did note on the bottom of page four and apologies that I didn't call this to your attention earlier. I'm just scouring right now the resolution. I believe that when we had the chance to speak the Office of Labor Standards and labor related items, we're going to be under governance, as in the governance of both the city and the governing for labor standards. Okay, Councilperson, if that's the case, I have a verbal amendment that I'd be happy to make to move lines 16 through 22 on page four to page five after line 18, if that's okay with you, council president. If that's seen as a friendly amendment, I'm happy to make the motion.
Speaker 4: Yes. Go ahead, Councilmember Mosquito. Go ahead and make the verbal amendment.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks. And then maybe I'll speak to my love of labor and the why on this.
Speaker 4: Yeah. We should add that you and I did have a chance to talk about this. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Thank you very much. Council President. Colleagues, I'd like to make a verbal amendment to move lines 16 through 22 listed on page four of the first attachment. In the email that Council President Morriss sent us to the end.
Speaker 4: To.
Speaker 3: Page five and have those items be listed in the same order following line 18.
Speaker 4: Councilmember Mosquito just made a verbal amendment and everyone get that. And I'm going to be looking for a second stick. We got Councilmember Herbert his second bit of go ahead. So we now have that on the table for discussion.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilmember. Council President, whereas thank you very much for the conversations that we've had. As folks know, I come from the labor movement as someone who worked at the Washington State Labor Council, the AFL-CIO, for almost eight years before coming to the Seattle City Council. And I'm really proud of the work that we've done on labor standards. I do believe that, you know, in fact, this last election was a mandate to do more, to do more of the strong labor protections that we've done in this city and that we've done not just in my term on council, but in the previous councils . You know, sick leave, minimum wage, wage theft protections, hotel workers, domestic workers, etc.. And so I am recognizing, though, that we have with the workload between finance, budget and housing, a tremendous amount of workload. I'm proud to be on the committee that's being proposed by Councilmember Juarez as the council president to chair governance, native communities and tribal government. And I appreciate that I can continue to work on these labor issues as a member of the Labor Committee that will have oversight over class and labor standards as it is being proposed here, to have those items be placed under governance, native communities and tribal governments, with Chair Juarez as council president overseeing it. And I will look forward to being on the committee and working on those labor issues with you. But due to our workload, appreciate the opportunity to work with the Council President to move those items over.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Councilor Mosquito. We had an amendment. We had a second on it. We had discussion. So right now we're going to vote on the amendment and we'll move in your line resolution. Is that correct, Madam Clerk? Yes, it is. Thank you. Okay. So you want to call the roll on the amendment?
Speaker 1: They're both. Yes. Lewis.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 1: Morales. Yes. I, Nelson. I.
Speaker 5: Peterson I.
Speaker 1: Want.
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: Strauss Yes. Council president as I. Nine in favor. Nine opposed.
Speaker 4: Great. The amendment passes. And so now we will move to pass the amended resolution. Ah, as amended. Correct, Madam Clerk. Yes, that's correct. Okay, so let's go ahead and do the roll. HERBOLD Yes.
Speaker 5: LEWIS Yes.
Speaker 1: Morales Yes. Was correct. I. Nelson, I. Peterson I so want. Yes. Strauss. Yes. Council president. Whereas I nine in favor and unopposed.
Speaker 4: So the motion carries in the amended resolution is adopted and will the chair will sign it. And the clerk, will you please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Before we close out, I have a few comments to make about this resolution. The last one I want to just thank Councilmember Herbold. And for those of you who have been paying attention to this, there's been 32 times in my life when I said to myself, how hard can it be? And that was one time when I decided to go to law school, and another time was I decided to have kids. And it came down to be careful what you wish for. And then the third time is how hard can it be to be council president? And thank you, Casper Herbold, for working with me collaboratively to work with nine council members and nine committees. And we got it done. And again, I know you guys keep hearing this, but I really want to thank Kessler Herbold. I mean, we we sat down and we collaborated and we became effective. And she's right. We talked about our colleagues. We talked about their strengths, their successes, and why we want our colleagues to be successful, particularly also for those district representatives, why we want your district to be successful, because we all know at the end of the day that whatever is good for our committee and our district is good for the city. And, you know, when you have this kind of collaborative process, it builds confidence. It gives people room to be more innovative. It also gives room for people to, you know, to make mistakes, but know that they have colleagues that are team members that are there for them. One thing I like to share with people, if you've ever watched the documentary The Last Dance, you can't have five. Michael Jordan's on the court. At some point, you got to throw the ball and you got to believe your your teammates are going to catch it. And even if they don't, that's okay because you're going to be there to help them. And I don't see these committees as much as I see them as teams, nine teams ready to go out into this great city and do good things and that we all understand what our strengths are, what our subject matter expertize is of how we can help each other. And again, Councilor Herbold has been my unofficial vice president, and I'm guessing she'll continue that role. So with that, I don't think there's anything else I needed to add. All right. So let me finish with the agenda. Other business. Is there any other business to come before the council? Not seeing any colleagues. This does conclude the items of business on today's agenda. Our next scheduled city council meeting is on Tuesday, January 11th, at 2:00. I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon. We are adjourned.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you.
A RESOLUTION relating to committee structure, membership, meeting times, and duties of the standing committees of the Seattle City Council for 2022 and 2023; and superseding Resolution 31947.