There wasn’t a ton of non-budget-related stuff in Council Chambers today, but here’s what did happen.
This morning, the Council got a briefing on a proposed ordinance, sponsored by Council members Herbold and Morales, that would prohibit law enforcement from questioning juveniles without making an attorney available first (with a handful of specific exceptions). The bill is likely to come before the full Council for approval on August 17th. You can watch the presentation from Choose 180 and the thoughtful discussion here.
This afternoon, the Council approved two appointments to the Implementation Board of the newly-formed regional homeless authority: Simha Reddy, and Paula Carvalho. Dr. Reddy is a primary care physician serving homeless individuals. Ms. Carvalho is a program officer at the Raikes Foundation working on youth homelessness.
For a fleeting moment, there was a Transportation and Utilities Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning… then the Budget Committee meeting expanded into that timeslot. According to Council member Pedersen, the meeting would have included briefings on the temporary street permit program for small businesses, as well as a report from SDOT on its work on a proposal for scooter-share in Seattle. There is no new date for the meeting yet.
Council member Strauss announced this morning that his Land Use and Utilities Committee is scheduled to meet on August 12, and will take voted on his “childcare near you” land use bill as well as the pending land use omnibus bill.
Strauss also said that in September they will be taking up the annual changes to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, as codified in a bill introduced today.
Council President Gonzalez noted this morning that later this month the Council will take up the reconfirmation of Dwane Chappelle and Director of the Department of Education and Early Learning.
This afternoon Council President Gonzalez acknowledged that she had received official notification of Mayor Durkan’s veto of the Council’s COVID-19 relief bill, which would have spent $86 million from the city’s emergency and “rainy day” reserve funds on immediate COVID-19 relief programs. Gonzalez said that she is scheduling a meeting of the full Council to consider an override vote; that meeting will likely be scheduled for August 12.
Council member Mosqueda, the sponsor of the bill, said of the veto and pending override, “This is not about a political standoff. It’s about providing immediate relief.”
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