Here’s a quick summary of notable things from today’s City Council meetings.
Several Council members commented this morning on yesterday’s tragic police shooting of Charleena Lyles in North Seattle. Council members Harrell, Bagshaw and Johnson called it a tragedy. Harrell said that he was in touch with the Police Chief. Herbold asked whether grief counseling was being made available to residents of the building, since half of the residents are children. Sawant noted that these were North Precinct police officers, and tried to cast aspersions on the officers because of the city’s attempt to build a large, expensive North Precinct police station and because some North Precinct officers filed a lawsuit to block the police reform effort. Juarez, without mentioning her by name, called out Sawant for trying to divide the community when in her view they should be trying to bring the community together. Later in the day, Johnson and Gonzalez issued a joint statement calling for a “full and fair investigation.”
Harrell said that Wednesday afternoon his Education, Equity and Governance Committee will have a follow-up presentation on the Democracy Vouchers program, specifically discussing the outreach to underrepresented communities.
Herbold and Sawant discussed their proposed income tax ordinance this morning, and this afternoon Herbold formally introduced it into the Council’s legislative process. The bill will get its first formal review in committee Wednesday morning.
Bagshaw noted that tonight at Discovery Park there will be a discussion of the city’s proposal to build low-income housing on the former Fort Lawton site.
This afternoon the Council passed several bills, including:
- a resolution approving the Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan. Bagshaw supported it, but not before voicing her concerns that it seems to be disconnected for SDOT’s work plan and is in danger of becoming one more document sitting on a dusty shelf.
- an ordinance sponsored by Sawant to add voter registration information to the packet of information that landlords are required to distribute to new tenants. Sawant claimed that the “ultra-conservative” Rental Housing Association of Washington opposed the bill; this afternoon the RHAWA pointed to their statement last week that says they don’t oppose it but consider it a missed opportunity since homeowners also have a low registration rate.
- a settlement agreement between the City of Seattle, King County, WSDOT, and the Alliance for Pioneer Square over the plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a multi-lane street that many think would be a barrier to pedestrians.