A few quick notes from this morning’s Council Briefing.
Council member Sawant gave a preview of her Energy and Environment Committee meeting tomorrow afternoon. Seattle City Light CEO Larry Weis will give a Director’s Report, including a discussion of the recent outages. Sawant praised SCL’s staff for their quick response.
Sawant also noted that there will be a discussion of warrantless surveillance cameras on Seattle City Light’s utility poles — many instigated (and installed) by federal agencies. Last week a judge ordered the City of Seattle not to release information on the feds’ cameras in response to Public Document Requests. At tomorrow’s hearing, the ACLU will testify on how the city might prevent the federal government from installing the cameras.
Council members Juarez and Bagshaw reported on last week’s meeting of the King County Board of Health (on which they both serve), where the Board voted unanimously to support the recommendations of the heroin/opioid task force. They also approved sending a letter to the State Legislature in opposition to Senate Bill 5223, which bans “safe consumption” sites and withholds a broad set of state funding for cities that try to provide them.
Bagshaw noted that at Wednesday’s Human Services and Public Health Committee meeting, there will be a full briefing on the Pathways Home implementation plan.
Baghsaw also circulated a letter for the Council members to sign to support the call from the Governor and state Attorney General to abolish the death penalty.