council 061626 2022647 Meeting — June 16, 2026

afternoon the June 16th meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order. I'm Joy Hollingsworth Council President. It is 2.03 p.m. Will the clerk please call the roll. Council Member Foster.

Council Member Juarez. Council Member Kettle. Here. Council Member Lynn. Council Member Rink. Here. Here. Councilmember Rivera? Present. Councilmember Saka? Here. Councilmember Strauss? Here. Councilmember Foster? Here. Councilmember Foster? Council President Hollingsworth? Present. Seven.

Present. Councilmember Lynn is excused, and Councilmember Juarez is excused until she gets here. If there's no objection, Councilmember Lynn will be excused from today's City Council meeting. Hearing no objection, Councilmember Lynn is excused from today's Council meeting. For the record, Councilmember Warris has joined us for the meeting as well. Colleagues, today the Council will present a proclamation recognizing June 16th to be Connor Dassa Holland Day. First, I will share some comments and then I will open the floor to comments to my colleagues before suspending the rules and we're also going to take a roll call to sign the proclamation as well. So, so before you today is a proclamation for your consideration that would proclaim June 16th as Connor Dossa Hollande in the City of Seattle. Connor was born on May 31st, 2001. He was a proud South with the F, South N, kid who had beautiful blue eyes, blondish hair, a heart-stopping smile, and a heart of gold. Connor brought humor, levativity, joy into every room that he entered. He was kind. He also made people feel very welcomed. He was a son, a brother, a grandson. He was a boyfriend. He was a student athlete. He was a mentor, and he was a friend who embodied leadership and service to others. Connor was a proud graduate of Rainier Beach High School, where he served as class president, football captain, and honor student. He later attended the University of Washington, pursuing his dream of becoming an attorney and using his talents to advocate for justice for his community. One of Connor's peers asked him two questions. I read this in an article. What is your story? What is your future? Connor responded, very simple. Change the world. Our systems are wrong. I'll figure that out later, but it will be one step at a time. That answer tells you everything you need to know about who Connor was. He had faith, and he knew it was a process. Connor's life was tragically cut short on Mother's Day on May 10th in 2020. I had the opportunity to coach Connor when he was in middle school, back in 6th and 7th grade. And back then, Connor was still trying to figure out who he was. He had a little bit of swag. He had a buzz cut so he didn't have that beautiful hair that he had to the side. He was rocking that side swoosh in high school. But he was curious and he asked questions. So you couldn't just tell Connor, rebound and be strong with the ball. He wanted to know why. He wanted to understand how it impacted the team. He wanted to understand the bigger picture. Looking back, that curiosity became one of his greatest strengths. He was always learning. He was always trying to understand systems, people, and how he could contribute where he fit in. And one thing that we knew about Conor was that he loved black women. And I say love black women. And black women love them some Conor too. Little white chocolate didn't hurt nobody, right? We know that was Conor. We gonna be real up here, right? His smile, his haircut, his confidence, his personality, he had the recipe that worked. But what I know for certain is that Connor was a great gift to our community. He was a great gift to Rainer Beach. He was a great gift to Seattle. And I want to share a few words from coaches who knew him through the after-school program that I worked at. Coach Josh Martinez said, Connor was a young man who always radiated positive vibes, always meeting anyone and everyone with sincere, friendly energy and a welcoming smile. He was gracious and kind, and that vitality permeated everyone, every space that he entered. His character made those around him happy, smile, and laugh, and I became a better coach and a better person, having spent time around an upbeat aura that Connor gave everyone. People like Connor are never forgotten. Last but not least, Coach Zach Townsend said, Connor was a young man who lit up a room with a smile, had an infectious personality, and was a leader amongst his peers. Whether it was in after-school programs, tutoring sessions, or on the basketball court, he was always working his hardest to maximize his potential and lead by example. His sense of humor and ability to engage with others in a positive way is what I remember most about Connor. Today, we are honored to be joined by Connor's family, his mother, Alicia, and his father James, his grandmother Miss Linda, his sister Kira, his niece Giselle, sorry, Giselle, his brother Alex is here. I know there's more family members, so I apologize. I know I missed some more and I know that the family will tell us who, but there are friends and loved ones here who continue to carry on his legacy forward. To the Dasa-Halland family, Finally thank you for sharing Connor with all of us. Thank you for turning unimaginable grief into purpose, advocacy, and love for the community. And so today, colleagues, through this proclamation we take one small step in ensuring that his story, his impact, and legacy are never forgotten. So colleagues, I respectfully ask for your support on this proclamation for June 16th as Connor Dassa Holland Day. And I will stop now to see if there's anybody who would like to say any few words before we call the roll for signatures.

You can say how you love black women too, because Connor, no, I'm just fine. Okay. We will now take the roll who would like to sign

on to the proclamation, and then we will suspend

the rolls and present it to the family for a few words.

Council Member Foster? Aye. Council Member Juarez? Aye.

Aye. Thank you. Councilmember Kettle. Aye. Councilmember Rink. Aye. Councilmember Rivera.

Aye. Councilmember Saka. Aye.

Councilmember Strauss. Aye. Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Eight signatures will be affixed.

Awesome. Thank you, colleagues. We will now suspend the rules because now we have proclaimed it to be Conor Dassa Holland Day. So congratulations.

Thank you.

Oh, this is pretty awesome. Speaking to the mic.

When Connor was killed, my biggest worry is that he'd be forgotten, you know, but like this is amazing. Joy, this is dope. We've known Joy a long time, so this is amazing. This makes me feel good. It makes his family feel good. We lost a shining star. I thought for sure one day he'd be up here with you guys. He was amazing. We miss him dearly. It's been six years. His murder is still unsolved. Sad. Seattle, we need to do better. That's pretty much all I have to say. He's had probably six friends since his passing that have been shot and killed in Seattle. There's definitely an epidemic going on with gun violence, and we need to do better. We still live in Rainer Beach. He was shot in Rainer Beach. People ask, how come you guys haven't left? We are Rainer Beach. Connor was Rainer Beach. How can we leave our home?

The support we got from our neighborhood was beyond anything you can imagine.

I mean, those are our people.

So, you know, we're here. We're not going anywhere. But thank you, guys. Thank you, Joy.

I just wanted to come and say thank you, guys.

This is, well, first, thank you to my family and everyone that's here.

We, like my dad said, we've gotten overwhelming support ever since we lost Connor.

We lost him so close to his birthday in the month of May and around our other siblings as well,

that this gives us a day to actually be joyous and happy. If I cry, it's happy tears.

We miss him a lot. And I'm wearing the shirt of our neighborhood.

And it represents part of him because I knew he would have worked in the neighborhood one day doing something.

after he graduated, you know, I thought he was going to be not just recognized by us as someone

great, but recognized by the city, and this gives us that opportunity. So thank you again.

Hi. You're going to stay with me?

Hi.

Okay. My name is Alicia Dassa.

i'm connor's mom you use that microphone whichever one works this one's for the for

the shorter people in the room there we go uh thank you i'll start by saying thank you

i want that yeah um

i do a lot of public speaking and you wouldn't know that right now uh but

I grew up in Seattle.

And Jimmy grew up in Seattle.

We made a conscious decision to raise our kids here.

Sorry, let me pull it together. I remember coming home from road trips or just being gone.

and the smell of the city and the rain.

And when you drive up and see the R on the brewery,

you know you're home.

And I remember when Tully's took over the brewery

and I was horrified.

And I remember thinking, how will I know I'm home?

I never wanted to move from here.

I would always go on trips and be so happy to come back because Seattle's always been home.

When Connor was killed, we had a family meeting to decide if we would stay in the house

because he was killed right in front of our house.

And nobody wanted to leave.

And so six years later, we're still there.

And six years later, it's been about, I would say, at least 12 funerals for kids that have stayed the night at our house,

for kids that played sports with our kids.

And most recently, this last Saturday, Connor's best friend, who was also his birthday twin,

I've run out of things to say. I've run out of shock.

I've run out of tears, which is weird because I'm crying right now.

But as parents who lose their kids, you have to decide every day that you're going to get out of bed.

You have to decide every day that you're still going to be a person

and a parent and a wife and go to work

and do all the things that you have to do to make the rest of your life work. And even though you're making that decision,

Connor's still just right here, like in your peripheral all day.

because you think about it constantly. And it's such a strange thing to have

this idea that you're gonna see your kid graduate from college, see your kid get

married, and have grandkids. And our granddaughter's here today, in case you I missed her. She's in the front row. He never got to be her uncle. And that's hard.

Connor was bright. He stood out.

Seattle is still home, but it's not the home we grew up in.

We have to do better.

We have to do something different.

I don't want to sound like the old person that says our music was better than the new music. But what I will say is, I used to be okay with my kids riding the bus.

Now we pay $13 a day for our daughter to take an Uber to school.

It's two blocks from our house.

Because I can't let her walk.

I just, I can't.

We have amazing family support.

We have amazing community support.

And standing here in front of you today, I know that we have your support as well.

Thank you for making us feel like Connor won't be forgotten.

And also.

So just remember that when all these kids are being killed, the South End matters as

much as the rest of the city.

We are Seattle. We should be celebrated for what we are.

93 languages spoken in 98118, one of the most diverse zip codes in the country. I know that because Connor did a project.

Thank you.

and as we move forward

just remember us when you're voting on things

and thinking about things

because we are still here

and we choose to be here we choose this to be our home

and we just need you to make sure that it stays

the place that we want to come back to

Connor is amazing. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Are there any other speakers that we have from your family at all? No? All right. Thank you for allowing the council to honor Connor and his legacy will never be forgotten. He will always stay on the top of our mind. I also like to recognize we have Amar Murphy-Paines family here as well. We know that James was here, your family was here for their proclamation. Those were two lives taken too short. And also both of them are unsolved as well. And that is something that I know is in the front of people's mind not the back of the mind front of the people's mind a lot so We're just so grateful to be able to honor honor Honor our guy Connor my guy Connor. Okay. I say he's mine my baby. Okay. He was mine with his buzz cut

But our baby Connor, so thank you. Thank you all so much And we are so grateful to be able to celebrate this with with you all so thank you

And so now we're going to move into we transition into our public comment piece if there's no other further comments We're going to move into our public comment period And so we'll open up the hybrid public comment period where anyone can speak to anything within the council's purview And I don't know how many speakers that we have right now

Okay, awesome. So everyone's gonna get two minutes. We have under 20 per council rules if it's 1 to 30 It's under 20 or excuse me under 30 everyone gets two minutes. Will the clerk please read the public comment rules

Speakers will be called in order in which they're registered Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time Speaker's mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Okay, awesome. We'll start with the speakers in person.

If you are online, we'll come to you second. Because right now, I believe we have 10 in person. And one remote. Awesome. First, we have David Haynes. Mr. Haynes.

You know, with all the tragedies, you would think that the council in the city hall would, like, take police reform with priority to, like, shut down the evil low-level drug pushers that escalated a majority of the violence in this country and in this city. But you all have sabotaged the integrity of police reform. And I'm really sorry for your all's loss.

You know, it's revolting to me that we have virtually nothing to improve our community as it continues to implode.

But they have all this built-in-the-budget policies that are left over from Jenny Durkin, who sabotaged police reform, that made it unsafe, with Ed Murray, the pedophile, who made it unsafe,

with Bruce Harrell, who ran interference for all the BIPOC repeat offenders, who are being prioritized for housing and services, while counsel wants to use people's tragedy to virtue single how much you care until it comes to keeping the police chief honest about his lack of efforts

to shut down the evil predatory drug pushers all throughout our community who keep getting exempted from jail because they don't get the proper scrutiny. But yet you all want to keep spending money on running interference for the evil pieces of shit that are undermining the integrity of the community

and the health and happiness of it and ruining the pursuit to happiness on it. But yet, because some black and brown drug pushers think they're so cool that they get a pass from being thrown in jail. And yet, council wants to continue to allow for the abuse of our community. Because if you're all cowardice capitulations to a police chief who's too chicken shit to shut down all the pimps and pushers in Aurora. Instead, you all want a message to them to give them a heads up so they go someplace else and fuck up the rest of the community. You all should all be kicked out because you keep repeating the same racist policies of Bruce Harrell, who fucked up our society royally as the worst city council member who approved legalizing and exempting drug pushers under 3.5 grams. And because of all the low-level drug pushers that have been exempted, there's all this escalation of violence. And you all want to fucking blame, like, the wrong root cause.

You need to shut down the evil adults.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Haynes. Mr. Haynes, thank you for your time. Thank you for your time.

David Haynes, this is your official warning. This is on the record that you were asked to end your comments and you continue to be disruptive in our chambers.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes. We'll now call on the next registered speaker. Mr. Haynes, you are now causing a disruption.

Mr. Haynes, this is your final warning to please exit the chambers. Thank you. We will now move on to our next registered speaker.

Our next speaker is Jeff Rogers and then Clive Hayward.

Jeff Rogers.

Thank you. I'm Jeff.

I've been here once before. I just want to honor you, first of all. You have a very hard job. I'm sorry you have to listen to that.

Connor's mom's still ringing in me, and I want to honor and bless that family. And there is something I am bringing. I'm not really asking for anything or a change. Some of the folks I'm with are working with Joy and some initiatives around homelessness.

I just bring one thing, and that is I'm connected to many in the marketplace through a nonprofit has several thousand business leaders in the city and

if any of you have a constituent in one of your precincts that is in business that would like to get together joy has my contact I'll stay till the end I'll

give you my card because we want to partner with the council and with the city for the changes that they talked about because we're not segmented people like to divide us in all sorts of ways. But we're all part of Seattle. I'm a fifth generation Seattle person. My dad's business was down the street. I was born at Swedish Hospital. So I'm really local. I want to see Seattle thrive. So my simple question or ask would be, if there's someone in your purview that you work with that's in business that wants to meet and

and say, how could we be part of the solution here? I'd be happy to meet with them, talk with them, advance what you're trying to do, and hopefully be a bridge. So, again, thank you for the opportunity. It's good to see many of you. I've been traveling. We're trying to come on a regular basis to be part of the solution. Thank you. Thank you.

Five is next, and then Roberto Tenejito.

Council members, my name is Clive Hayward. I'm a law-abiding Seattle resident, property owner in District 7, and I've performed magic on the waterfront for 11 years with no documented business or public complaints. On Friday, June 12th, all designated protected speech locations were occupied. I set up in a free, safe location that I've used hundreds of times in the past without issue. I had no crowd, I had no obstruction, and no safety issue. Security called Seattle Police Department. After SPD arrived, I said I would move if exclusion was being threatened. Security excluded me anyways. The exclusion notice states the violation is refusal to relocate into a designated expression space. Not obstruction, not a safety issue, not an uncontrolled crowd. The next step is a criminal trespass enforcement against me for exercising free speech in the public space. Please review this before it becomes a criminal arrest case and a civil rights lawsuit.

Thank you, Clive. Next we have Roberto, folLod by Paul, and then Jim Baines.

Hi. I'm a busker. That means that I'm a full-time professional street magician.

That means I make a living performing my magic show for donations in public places, and that includes the waterfront. My show brings people together from all different backgrounds, classes. Whether you're rich, poor, or even homeless, you can watch my show. Seattle has been my home every summer for the past five years. I love my profession and I love Seattle. When a city enforces overly restrictive laws on street performers, it pushes me and other performers out of here.

I understand that there has to be order, but when restrictions go beyond reasonable crowd safety and noise concerns, it kills the culture passionate performers bring to the city.

Pike Place Market embraces street performers. Please consider protecting buskers' rights in the Seattle Center, the waterfront, and all other traditional public forums in the city. No artist should be criminalized for exercising their rights. Thank you. Thank you, Roberto. Next we have Paul, folLod by Jim, and then Kendall.

Hi, I'm Paul Tomlinson. I've been here before, kind of a representative of churches and business.

And I hope you guys are proud of yourself. You saw the write-up on what's happening with football in Seattle, or is it soccer? But you're doing a good job here with that. But I'm changing what I was going to say a little bit based about Connor. I've spent time working down the Rainier Valley walking kids to high school, a white guy walking kids to Rainier High

School just for protection. And it's exciting to know that if we come together in the church, in business and start working together and supporting you and finding out what your questions are. We can make a lot of change here. We see some changes even down there right now,

and tomorrow morning I have a meeting with Urban Impact, which is down in that area, as we try to put, as I spoke last time, about neighborhoods and coming together and working

with situations like the family spoke to, and we can do it. We need to be proud of the

fact that we're doing a good job and what you're doing with football and people. We've got people

in the church welcoming our neighbors coming in from different countries even as we speak today. And I just left a business meeting with Jeff and some others of saying, how can we come together in the business community as well as the church to support what you're doing?

We're not going to agree with everything, and you can't agree with everything, but we can certainly

work together. And you're making really good efforts to change the city where it needs to be. Just as I walked down here, there were two police officers over a man, probably a fentanyl case, just right across the street that they were actually helping him, and they called an aid car, and it was exciting to see how that's working together. There's problems, but they're all solvable, and we hope we can bring some of that together.

Shawi, Shawnee, excuse me, Keith, and then Keandre.

All right. Thank you, Joy. My name is Jim Baines. I'm a member of the American Party of Labor. Today I'm here to speak on the Seattle Social Housing Developer, which on face is a program that clears the way for thousands of Seattleites to escape the exploitative relationship between landlord and renter. This program has been so successful that we saw over 10,000 applicants for the first building of 150 units. This is just a small step towards housing justice that we must not settle for. The proposed amendments today open the charter, upvote on the charter, leave open the possibility that this initiative is undermined by private capital and private interest, though. My concern starts with the amendment to Section 4, where rents must no longer be set based on operations, maintenance, and loan service only, But those factors are now just considerations for how the developer will set rents. What other considerations will there be? Market rate? Rates that are set by landlords and developers looking to extort workers for all they can manage? Instead of these considerations, why don't we tie rents to the income of tenants? Why don't we make housing truly affordable for the working class? Then in section 6, we go from a clear unambiguous text that development must be permanently protected from being sold or transferred to a private entity or public-private partnership. Clear, unambiguous, now adds a monstrosity of legalese and exemptions which read, Except that as to any property or other interest, public developer may mortgage, lease, assigned revenues to creditors, record restrictive covenants, or grant deeds of trust and consent to any transfer of such property by operation of law, by foreclosure, or in lieu of foreclosure, subject to any recorded regulatory or other covenant requirement for use of this property. What does this exactly mean? Will properties that the developer acquire be subject to pre-existing restrictive covenants, restrictive covenants that prevent building grocery stores in the case of pre-existing grocery stores like on the Fred Meyer in Lake City? This is Pete.

Thank you, Jim.

Next, we have Kendall folLod by Sean. Sorry, I didn't. Sean and then Keith and then Keandre.

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Ken. I'm a candidate member with the American Party of Labor. And over the weekend, I noticed, and a lot of other people noticed, the installment of designated protest zones. Some would argue that this is un-American, seeing how the First Amendment protects peaceful protests throughout the United States.

But I would argue that this is the most American thing that Seattle has done in a while, to welcome visitors from around the world with the assurance that protected protests can and will be suppressed, if not in designated zones, is very reflective of the attitude the Trump administration has had about protesting. Additionally, it's reflective of how Seattle has treated its constituents at protests, specifically with how the cops have repeatedly attacked people for using their protected right to protest, to perform, and to speak. And you have emboldened SPD to become judge and jury on these matters. Speaking of the cops, while I was there, there were dozens of cops just sitting around doing absolutely jack shit.

They're wasting money.

Y'all are wasting money to appease Spog while we apparently have too many deficits for social programs? That's absolutely ridiculous. There's no need to embolden cops that aren't going to do anything. They're sitting on their bikes. I mean, if I'm not mistaken, the starting pay for cops is around $100,000. And so I go down there and I count every single cop. 100, 200, 300, millions of dollars standing around doing jack shit.

We don't need more cops on the streets. We don't need to suppress speech. We don't need to suppress protests. We need social reforms. We need social programs like y'all promised. Thank you, Ken. We have Sean, folLod by Keith, and then Keandre.

Good afternoon, Council. My name is Shawnee Davis, founder of Home 1816. Coming here today and even just hearing the story of Connor. I'm an RV Viking, graduated, lived in the neighborhood, and so it's just a blessing to be able to, you know, pray with the family out there. I didn't know them, but it's touching because, like, you know, being here from the church and the ministry, people get weary when they hear about the church,

but the church is there to advocate for what's going on around the area. It's about locking arms with the neighborhood and just being the light in those dark places to see how we can be able to help people that are going through hard times because of violence or even homelessness and being able to create different opportunities so that these things don't happen. Those are the things that we are called for in the church to make sure that Christ has called us to take care of the widows, take care of the homeless, and being able to do that. And so with Home 1816, my company, we do rally for change to partner with different apartment communities,

and create different programs so that we're able to cancel things like isolation that happens in people. You know, there's a lot of isolation that happens, and it brings to loneliness and things of that nature. And so it's just having that accountability to check on people, and that's one thing that we do in Seattle.

And so being here today and seeing about this proclamation that she created, not only for Connor,

but it seems like somebody else that was here that's great because, like, I prayed over the mother about her being able to link arms. She mentioned 12 other people had passed away from the time that her son had passed away and different violence that was happening in her neighborhood. But I know that God, you know, is giving her the strength to be able to link arms with those other families to eradicate change. And so that's, again, what me and my organization do here in the city. We have apartment buildings in South Lake Union area and over in Bellevue and Kirkland and continuing to grow. but then even being the avenue to create different platforms to rally people together in the church to just being there from our outreach and our ministries and being able to move forth in that area. So I just want to bless what you guys are doing, and thank you. That was just a good idea to see today.

Thank you, Shani. Next we have Keith Miller, folLod by Keiondre. Welcome, Keith. Thank you. I'm taller.

I'll try this one.

My name is Keith Miller. and I've run a private family residential interior design firm based in downtown Seattle, and now in Queen Anne for over 30 years. I love Seattle. The diversity in people and commerce nestled in a landscape so striking.

Each of you serving us are doing incredible work caring for our city, and I'm present here today to thank you deeply for your hard work. I'm also a visionary. It is my job to look at surroundings that promote human thriving and bring them into livable, invigorating reality. I am gathering a cohort of thinkers to respond to the difficulties we face as a city, with beauty and stewardship, engaging with the city through management of our landscaped byways that have fallen away from care. I am creating a movement called Grassroots that will promote natural, sustainable beauty to our city's streetscapes, partnering with the city's programs already in place, keeping it free to the city with volunteer movements like my friend Andra Suarez's We Heart Seattle partnership.

I love this city. I'm grateful for what you're doing. I'm looking forward to enjoying a more beautiful Seattle as we grow together. Thanks.

Thank you, Keith. Next, we have Keandre, and then we'll go online. Do we have, we probably have some more in-person speakers. Bennett, are you signed up?

I moved to Seattle around two and a half years ago with nothing but the clothes on my back.

I was excited because Seattle was hailed as left as you could get in the country.

I only wish that Seattle was the socialist paradise conservatives like David Haynes thought it was.

In these two years, I have learned and seen so much.

I've seen the neighborhood in which I live in Chinatown be underserved, where people don't even report to the police because they rarely ever show up.

While all this is happening, people are taking advantage of people with language barriers,

like business owners and citizens who live there as well.

I've seen SPD stop essential resources like the care unit from going out and aiding communities like mine. I've seen SPD brutalize protesters in Capitol Hill last year, and in two days will be the nine years since Charlena Lyles was shot and killed by SPD, to which the city council during that time said never again. In that time, eight people who were in mental health crisis were killed by SPD,

most of which were black. Terry Craver, Danny Rodriguez, Ryan Smith, Derek Hayden, Urban Sheehy, Roberto Pelletio, Jack Pelletio, and Christian Nelson.

I've seen the current mayor pose as if she wants to help the unhoused community by introducing tiny homes, but in the six months of her mayoral, she has swept over 2,000 structures. I've seen the constant hate and threats the trans community receives here in a city that is supposed to be a refuge for them. We need to stop pretending like Seattle does not have a problem with accountability. The city council needs to stop pretending that proclamations and revolutions do anything because they don't save lives and they don't keep people safe. The mayor and the city council have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable citizens and keep SPD accountable, and clearly that has not been done.

We will now go to online speakers.

So first off, we have Rose. Please press star six to unmute yourself.

Then we have Nathan Wall, Jeff, and then Peter.

Hello, my name is Rose. It has been just over a month since the murder of Juniper Blessing, a trans woman who was at UW. In that time, we have seen the murder of many trans people since.

There was seven murders of trans people that happened in April, seven that happened in May, and two black trans women were killed in the South last week. One was a trans woman named Teaches who died in her cell under suspicious circumstances. And nobody will say what happened, but that's how these things work. Another was one of the loveliest trans women described by people who knew in Louisiana. Trans people are being hunted throughout certain parts of our society, and especially more dangerous parts of the country. Mississippi passed a law in May saying that not only do they not recognize gender markers from other states, if you are found with an improper gender marker, they will arrest you and they will report you to ICE. This is happening in our country right now. A similar law without the ICE requirement was passed in Tennessee. We have two weeks until the Idaho trans ban goes into effect in Idaho. We are seeing this happen nationwide. And alongside all of this, there are people setting up cemeteries and names on the doors of Cal Anderson on the pump house as people go missing in our community. There is people disappearing left and right, people being murdered. and there needs to be action by the city to help trans people because right now we feel alone. We feel like nobody is there for us. We feel like we are completely abandoned and things are getting worse. We had the emergency declaration that was proposed by the LGBT Commission and nothing has come of it. We need you all and the mayor to get on board because But this is starting to get really bad, and if we don't, it's going to get worse.

Thank you, Rose. If there's no objection, Council Member Rivera will be excused for the rest of the meeting. Hearing none, Council Member Rivera is excused. Next, we have Nathan Wall, folLod by Jeff. We don't see them, not present. I'll call you all again, Nathan Wall, Jeff, and Peter. No? Okay. Is there any more speakers signed up that are in chambers? We'll double check just to wait. Give us a second before we transition from. Nope. Okay. Awesome. Well, first off, thank you all for coming down and doing public comment. Like all public comment that we get, we really appreciate. Bennett, did you want to sign up before we close it?

I thought I had time to go get water, but everybody else in the office didn't say anything?

No, they're not present. That's why we wait. You didn't sign up. Why do you think you'll have to stay? Because we haven't closed the public comment period.

I'm just talking about data centers, okay? Promise?

Go ahead, Bennett. Oh, God. And then we'll close public comment period.

All right. So I did want to add something to the discussion last week about data centers.

I do think that you reached the correct – is the timer on?

Give us one second. I apologize. We'll do two minutes.

Freeze. I don't have access to the timer now. Sorry. I'll just time myself. Stop at exactly two minutes, I promise.

No, no, no. Give us one second. We're going to keep the timer. You're good. I got you. Give us one second. Okay. You can go ahead and start. When you start, it will go.

All right. Thank you, counsel. So I wanted to add something to the discussion about data centers last week, because, first of all, I do think the short-term moratorium was the correct decision.

But is the one-year moratorium this issue is going to come up again?

So I think there is room for a more nuanced discussion about this. I think that a lot of people's revulsion, frankly, toward AI is based on the fact that most visible aspects of it that we see are the most harmful. There's people using AI to generate hoaxes and deceptive content on the Internet, or people using AI to power bots that just argue with each other online to generate...

expert at this, it has to do with the nature of the problem where old school researchers had to manually come up with new molecule configurations that the success rate was a very low percentage,

but AI can do the work that the humans were doing orders of magnitude faster than they were ever doing before. There are real beneficial uses to AI. Now it's true that a data center can have negative impacts on the people living on the properties around where the data center is built, but I think the correct choice there is to simply make sure we compensate all those people if that happens. If they think that an

eminent domain purchase of their house is not enough money, I mean you can pay them two, three times what eminent domain would have paid for their house. This is a historically unprecedented situation. You could way overpay them for the value of their house and even after factoring in those costs, if you're using the AI for purposes that benefit humanity, we will still come out way ahead even after buying out everybody's house who had to move. So on a lighter note,

I hope you all enjoyed the first ever World Cup game in Seattle, except I know Rob didn't enjoy the game because it was up.

You'll never figure out the punchline, sorry.

All right. Thank you, Bennett. There's a tie. Tie. Oh, tie. Thank you, Bennett. Also, now, officially, if there's no public comments, it is closed now. So thank you, Bennett. Is there somebody online? We do. Okay. My apologies. Okay. We had, they were not present. Now they're present. Okay. Nathan Wall, two minutes. Star six, unmute yourself. Welcome.

Hi. I'm sorry about that. I had great service and then it cut out the second I needed it. That's not the first time this happened. I wasn't going to call in today. I'm in Montana. I don't have great service. but as I was leaving Minneapolis this morning I became aware that ICE and DHS and HSI arrested 15 people for exercising their right to protest during Operation Metro Surge and then when those people went to the courthouse to protest they were met with tear gas and pepper spray. There is no way we can allow these folks to be on our streets in any way shape or form especially when they are working in service of a dying pedophile work criminal president. Nobody lives forever, but what you do does live on, and what you do during this fascist regime will live on. Please do what you can to oppose this, and please show up at Federal Building Fridays every day, 9 a.m. at the Federal Building, every Friday. It's not every day. That wouldn't make sense. Thank you very much. Have a

good day. Thank you, Nathan. Is that all the public commenters? Awesome. It's now officially closed okay we want to thank everyone for coming down in person and then signing up online for your time and your energy always giving us feedback through emails and every which way that we receive public comments so we're really grateful for that and then now we're going to transition into our meeting and if there's no objection the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted hearing no objection the introduction and referral calendar is adopted if there's no objection the agenda will be adopted hearing no objection the agenda is adopted, we're now going to consider the consent calendar. Consent calendar has minutes of June 9, 2026, Council Bill 121-227, payment of the bills, 10 appointments from the Governance and Utilities Committee. Are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar? Seeing none and hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar. Is there a second? Second. Awesome. Thank you. It's been moved and second to adopt the consent calendar will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar

council member foster yes council member juarez aye council member kettle aye council member rink yes council member sacca aye council member strauss all right council president hollingsworth

aye seven in favor none opposed consent calendar is adopted will now uh will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf. Clerk, will you please read item number one into the record?

The report of the Governance and Utilities Committee, General Item 1, Council Bill 121-221, relating to Seattle Public Utilities, authorizing General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Public Utilities to enter into a contract with Waste Management of Washington Incorporation to provide recycling processing services for the City of Seattle. The committee recommends that the bill pass.

As chair of the committee, I'm going to provide the committee report. This is a recycling contract that authorizes Seattle Public Utilities to enter into a contract with waste management to provide recycling processing services for the city. Seattle currently contracts with Republic Services, and that started in 2009. However, the current contract terms are outdated and insufficient. Waste management scored higher on both the technical price in the RFP evaluation. This contract is estimated to be the cost, $6.4 million in 2027. Colleagues, I urge your support. It passed five in favor out of committee, none opposed. Are there any comments before us before we take a vote? Awesome. Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill? Councilmember Foster?

Yes. Thank you. Councilmember Juarez? Aye. Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rink? Yes. Council Member Saka? Aye. Council Member Strauss? Aye. Council President Hollingsworth? Yes. Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, colleagues. The bill passes. The chair will sign up. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Item number two. Will the clerk please read item number two into the record?

Three for the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee. Agenda item two, resolution 32209. A resolution approving the proposed charter amendments recommended by the Board of the Seattle Social Housing Developer. The committee recommends the resolution be adopted.

Councilmember Fosters, Chair of the Committee, you are recognized to give the committee report.

Thank you so much, Council President, and thank you, colleagues. I am so excited to sponsor the resolution adopting changes to the charter, which passed unanimously last week through the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee. This resolution approves changes that were recommended to us by the board of the Seattle Social Housing Developer, and they are designed to help the developer successfully deliver on the promise of permanently affordable housing through social housing in our city. These changes do a few key things, including allowing the social housing developer to allow rental rates to be based on more than just the cost of building operations. This allows for cross-subsidization of buildings or the use of building revenue to support bond payments. This facilitates the ability for the social housing developer to create condominium structures for properties, which is really exciting because that is an important tool so that they can create buildings that are attractive to residents including other potential ground floor uses, which we believe really supports livability at the same time that it supports affordability. And lastly, this allows the social housing developer to use properties for debt collateral if needed, which is an important tool in housing development and management. So, I want to appreciate Jen Lebrecq from Central Staff as well as the interim CEO of the Social Housing Developer, Tiffany McCoy, and the folks from How's Our Neighbors who worked really closely with us on these changes and support them. And we believe this charter change is really critical to the long-term success of the Seattle Social Housing Developer.

So with that colleagues, I ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you Councilmember Foster. Are there any comments on the bill before us? Just want to send a gratitude. Thank you Councilmember Foster. I said in committee for your leadership on this steering this through committee and then getting it here to full council really appreciate that. Okay, we'll go ahead. Will the clerk please call the roll on resolution. It's a resolution. I said bill on the resolution. Thank you

Councilmember Foster. Yes Councilmember Juarez? Aye. Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rink? Yes. Councilmember Saka? Aye. Councilmember Strauss? Aye. Council President Hollingsworth? Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed. Resolution is adopted. The chair will sign up. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Colleagues, there were no items removed from the consent calendar. There's not a resolution for introduction and adoption today, but I do know, Councilmember, we have two other items, other business items. Sorry. So we have Councilmember Rank has a proclamation proclaiming June 26th to be Seattle Trans Pride for signature today. Councilmember Rank, you're recognized to lead the discussion on the proclamation.

Thank you so much, Council President. Colleagues, as stated, I have the incredible honor of bringing forward for your signature a proclamation for Seattle Trans Pride. So last year I was able to present this proclamation to Seattle Trans Pride on behalf of my office. So excited to bring it forward today for full council. Trans Pride Seattle is a truly incredible and beautiful three annual festival celebrating trans life and community. Gender Justice League has been producing this event for years now. This year will actually be the 14th year for this event. So I wanted to take a moment to thank the organizers and volunteers and groups who are supporting initiatives and festivals like this for our two-spirit trans and gender-diverse communities. So, colleagues, I'm asking for your signature today. I will be presenting this proclamation in community next Friday at Volunteer Park. So if you want to hear me read the full proclamation, I invite you to attend Trans Pride Seattle this year. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you, Councilmember Rink. Are there any comments regarding the proclamation before us before I ask the clerk to take the signatures? Okay. Thank you, Council Member Rink, for your leadership on this and also the presentation that you'll do at Volunteer Park as well. Seeing there's no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation?

Council Member Foster? Yes. Council Member Juarez? Aye. Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rink? Yes. Councilmember Saka? Aye. Councilmember Strauss? Aye. Council President Hollingsworth? Yes. Aye. Seven signatures will be affixed. Awesome. Thank you.

Next, Councilmember Rink, that's one hell of a headset you got there. I thought you, like, worked at NASA giving us instructions about the rocket landing. Yeah, is she landing a plane or is she in a tower?

I was thinking more Twitch streamer, Council President, but I'll take NASA. Thank you.

You're giving us the coordinates for the go, no go. Okay. Councilmember Strauss, other business.

Thank you, Council President. I request to be excused from next week's full council meeting. I'm pulling up the date right now because I will be at the Association of Washington Cities Conference as part of our duties for as a board member of AWC on behalf of the City of Seattle. So that is requesting to be excused June 23rd, 2026.

Awesome. Are there any objections for Councilmember Strauss to be excused for his duties at the Associated Washington Cities? Yes, AWC. Hearing no objection, Councilmember Strauss, you are excused. Thank you. Councilmember Rink?

Thank you, Council President. I just had a couple of comments today to put on the public record, since we did have a removal of an item that we were supposed to vote on today, so just wanted to provide some rationale to the public on that. On June 5th, the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee, we unanimously voted to recommend the passage of Resolution 32207, adopting BIA policy updates at the Office of Economic Development. Unfortunately, at the quarterly meeting of the city's BIAs last week after our committee meeting, but before this meeting, there were several member organizations that identified some minor edits they wanted to see. So our office is working in close collaboration with OED and the BIA leadership to make needed edits, and will likely bring those forward as a technical amendment to the legislation at a full council meeting later this month. So I want to assure everyone that the edits requested are essentially to clarify language and do not substantively change the policy nor the city's guidelines for BIA creation or renewals. My team is happy to brief any office that has questions about these changes. So just wanted to get that on the record. Thank you, Council President.

Awesome. Thank you for your leadership on that, Council Member Rink, and for your extra time spending on that piece as well, making sure all parties are addressed and get some of those concerns and changes there. So thank you for that.

Is there any further business to come for the Council before we adjourn? And I got it. It's a traffic controller is who you look like. That's what it is.

Yeah, NASA air traffic controller. Okay. Okay. So just for a heads up, we do have to come back here at 4 o'clock. We cannot start the Parks District meeting early.

So we have to come back at 4 o'clock for our Parks District meeting. So just a heads up to our colleagues, because I know you'll say, can we just do it now? We have to wait until 4. We have reached the end of today's agenda. The next City Council meeting will be June 23rd at 2 p.m. Oh before we adjourn really quick obviously June 19th, which is Friday is Juneteenth that we'll be celebrating which is

Really special obviously to the African American community. There are different celebrations throughout the city I saw there's one at South Park. There's something in the CD. There's something in the south end. There's stuff in Tacoma

They're all over celebrating Juneteenth Which is a celebration of freedom? obviously for our African American community and just encourage everyone to continue to know your history,

know your greatness as history is always being erased in this country, making sure that we know that black history is also American history, just like Asian history, just like everyone's history.

Thank you.

Thank you.