Tuesday night will bring a public hearing with the Seattle City Council as it sorts out how best to put $239 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to work helping the city emerge from the COVID-19 crisis.
Finance and Housing Committee
Tuesday, May 4, 2021 — 5:30 PM
Special Meeting – Public Hearing
Remote Meeting. Call 253-215-8782; Meeting ID: 586 416 9164; or Seattle Channel online.
The Finance and Housing Committee will conduct a remote public hearing to solicit public comment on the allocation of the expected federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The hearing begins at 5:30 p.m. and will continue until all those remotely present to provide public comment have participated. Those wishing to provide public comment must sign up online at
http://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/public-comment. Individual comments will be limited to two minutes or less. If you are unable to attend the remote meeting, please submit written comments to Councilmember Mosqueda at
[email protected].
CHS reported here on a March resolution from the council listing out a long roster of priorities for the federal aid including nine priorities:
• Vaccines and testing
• Food assistance
• Homelessness and housing services (including rental assistance)
• Immigrant and refugee support
• Child care
• Small businesses, worker assistance, and workforce recovery
• Community wellbeing
• Transportation
• Revenue replacement and financial resilience
The council says the resolution was based on principles first shaped during its efforts to shape the 2020 COVID-relief bill and the JumpStart Seattle spending plan, “centering the need to begin pivoting the City’s efforts from acute emergency relief to long-term economic and community recovery as well as the potential to leverage other local, state, and federal programs and partners.”
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I’m sure the funding will be forwarded to the loudest and/or most aggrieved group.
That’s basically how democracy works, like it or not.
Food assistance and transportation seem like the common sense priorities here. Followed by child care. People can’t starve or not get to their jobs.
Then again, it’s the city council. Common sense isn’t in abundance.