Tag Archives: city council

City Council approves move of parking enforcement officers to SDOT, new rules for crowd control weapons for SPD

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The Seattle City Council tied bows Monday on the legislative process for changes to Seattle Police that will remove parking enforcement from the department and create a new framework for what crowd control weapons the force can use.

Monday’s full council votes included approval of the plan to move the around 100 parking enforcement employees in the city from SPD command to the Seattle Department of Transportation. The vote finalizes debate of whether the enforcement officers should be part of SDOT or a new Community Safety and Communications Center. In May, the council approved a plan to move around 140 emergency dispatch employees to the new center.

The city’s 2021 budget brought a cut of about a fifth of Seattle’s more than $400 million annual outlay in police spending along with changes to reduce the size and power of the department by moving 911 and traffic enforcement operations outside of the Seattle Police Department and spending more money on social, community, and BIPOC services and programs. Continue reading →

Public hearing Tuesday night on how to spend Seattle’s $239M boost from the American Rescue Plan Act

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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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Now you just need a garage for your pandemic cider bar: New bill would make it easier to run ‘home-based’ businesses in Seattle

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Yonder Cider (Image: City of Seattle)

Don’t mess with a Seattle neighborhood cider bar. While solutions for the city’s biggest problems around equity, police violence, and homelessness have been elusive, the Seattle City Council is quickly nailing down the red tape that allowed complaints to take down a much loved neighborhood business in Greenwood.

A new “Bringing Business Home” bill introduced Monday would give more flexibility in city codes for small businesses run out of apartments, homes, and garages while Seattle remains under its COVID-19 emergency:

Councilmember Dan Strauss (District 6 – Northwest Seattle), Chair of the City’s Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, together with Council President M. Lorena Gonzalez (Pos. 9 – Citywide), introduced C.B. 120001 on Monday, titled “Bringing Business Home, a Small Business Flexibility Bill,” in an effort to provide additional support and a means towards economic recovery for small businesses adversely affected by current land use codes during the pandemic. After hearing from a small business impacted by the current rules, Strauss drafted, and González co-sponsored, legislation to adopt interim regulations to allow businesses greater flexibility to operate out of garages and residences.

“The proposed changes recognize that while the current COVID-19 economic recession has forced small, independent businesses to find creative solutions to survive, City regulations have not kept up,” the announcement reads. “This legislation allows small businesses to bring their businesses home, reducing one of their largest expenses, rent.” Continue reading →

Seattle City Council adds more COVID-19 renter protections as ‘Amazon Tax’ for relief and affordable housing remains stalled

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Seattle has added two new protections for renters facing the economic challenges of the COVID-19 crisis but City Hall wasn’t celebrating Monday as the Seattle City Council approved a bill that gives tenants who fall behind on rent during the crisis the right to catch up on an installment plan.

The second yes vote on a bill co-sponsored by council member Kshama Sawant approved a new rule prohibiting landlords from turning down a tenant because they were evicted for failure to pay rent during the crisis. Sawant marked the victory but also had a lot to say about her stymied “Amazon Tax.” Continue reading →

Seattle City Council changes: new committees, new rules, new schedules — UPDATE

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The Seattle City Council’s 2020 power shift includes a new leader, and new committee assignments — including new responsibilities for District 3 representative Kshama Sawant. It also includes a new rule set that could put a kink or two in some of Sawant’s favored legislative strategies while also reducing the number of times many of the body’s committees will meet.

The changes are set to be ratified in votes of the full council Monday afternoon.

First, citywide representative Lorena Gonzalez is set to take up the president’s role leading the council giving her control over the body’s agendas and some extra pull in City Hall.

But, more importantly, she’ll be leading a council set to move at a much different rhythm than in the past. Continue reading →

‘New buildings should support and enhance places as they grow’ — Seattle to set new guidelines for Capitol Hill development

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The Seattle City Council is poised to approve a new set of guidelines that will shape what Capitol Hill looks like in years to come.

The Capitol Hill Neighborhood Design Guidelines are essentially recommendations to developers of what neighborhood residents would like to see in new buildings. The neighborhood-specific guidelines were adopted in 2005. The update began in 2017, and was undertaken by city staff in conjunction with a 14-member working group of residents and representatives of various groups around the hill.

A draft was printed in May 2018. But the update was shifted to the back burner as the city wrestled with adopting the Mandatory Affordable Housing program. A new draft was released in January of this year.

Monday afternoon, the full council is prepared to approved the update. Continue reading →

Taking on ‘Bezos’ bullying,’ Sawant’s March on Amazon will start on Capitol Hill — UPDATE

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Sawant below the Amazon Spheres at a rally last week

The next major free speech event at Cal Anderson Park? It will target Seattle’s largest publicly traded company and one of the largest employers of Capitol Hill residents in the city. UPDATE: A representative tells CHS the rally is now slated to take place at Seattle Central.

District 3 representative Kshama Sawant — go ahead and get your cut and paste CHS anti-Socialist Alternative comments ready, haters — and the Affordable Housing Alliance are organizing a Saturday, May 12th March on Amazon:

March on Amazon

Continue reading →

Here’s how Seattle’s proposed tax on businesses to pay for homelessness services would work

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With reporting by SCC Insight

The Seattle City Council’s proposed legislation to impose a new tax on businesses to help pay for homelessness services has finally seen the light of day and will begin its path through the council chambers with a committee meeting this week.

The proposal from the council’s Lorena Gonzalez and Lisa Herbold aims to raise at least $75 million annually to address the twin crises of affordable housing for the city’s most vulnerable people, and the increasing number of people living unsheltered. It comes in two parts: an ordinance that enacts the tax, and a resolution that lays out the spending plan. Continue reading →

Seven candidates file for Seattle City Council Position 8 race

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No incumbent and Seattle’s new Democracy Voucher program has drawn seven candidates to the race for the at-large City Council Position 8 so far.

In November, Jon Grant, former director of the Tenants Union, announced his bid for the seat left open by longtime council member Tim Burgess’s impending retirement. Since then notable others have decided to vie for the job. Among them are Mac McGregor, a gender, diversity, and sex educator, activist, speaker, and coach, Teresa Mosqueda, political director for the Washington State Labor Council, and Sheley Secrest, local NAACP vice president.

10660100_10204351737221066_5828433409770086078_nMac McGregor
McGregor served on the Seattle LGBTQ Commission from 2011 to 2016. As The Gender Sensei, McGregor offers classes on self-defense, martial arts, and Tai-chi wellness. He is also a professional life coach, personal trainer, motivational speaker, and educates and trains groups on diversity and sensitivity, according to his website.

The Beacon Hill resident moved to Seattle from the Bible Belt in 2008.

“Even though there’re so many things we do right in Seattle, and we’re a progressive city in so many ways, we can do better,” McGregor told CHS. Continue reading →

Cap on move-in fees wins committee approval at City Council

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screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-7-23-54-amA bill that could significantly limit the upfront costs of moving into many apartments in Seattle was voted out of a City Council committee Tuesday.

Under the measure from District 3 representative Kshama Sawant, landlords could only charge tenants the first full month’s rent upon move-in and would need to allow tenants to pay the security deposit, non-refundable move-in fees, and last month’s rent in installments. According to an example provided by Sawant, a tenant moving into an $1,800 a month unit today could pay $5,600 to sign the lease. Under her proposal, the same tenant would only have to pay $2,400 to move-in as other upfront costs would be spread out over six months.

The Energy and Environment committee passed the bill on to the full council, which is expected to vote on the measure in October.

Continue reading →