♪♪
-Hello. I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
What's the latest on a plan to recruit
and retain more police officers in Seattle?
What do you need to know about a spike in monkeypox
cases in our area?
And who's behind the new proposal
for a Seattle Film Commission?
Citywide Councilmember Sara Nelson
joins me to answer these questions
and the ones you're sending in, too, next on "Council Edition".
-We're operating quarter to quarter
with a net loss of officers and we've got to do something,
and this is precisely the first step we need to take.
-All that and more, coming up next
on "City Inside/Out -- Council Edition."
♪♪
And here she is joining us,
your citywide Position 9 Councilmember, Sara Nelson.
Councilmember Nelson, thank you very much for joining us.
I wanted to jump right into police recruitment with you.
Police recruitment and retention, talk about this.
You recently heard a report about this
in the Public Safety Committee.
So the SPD has had 109 separations,
as they're called -- officers leaving the department --
in the first six months of this year,
about double what they expected. They've hired 30 officers,
also much lower than what they were projecting.
What do those numbers say to you?
What are you doing to respond to that?
-Well, it says we've got a public safety crisis
on our hands. And this is exactly the outcome
that was intended by my resolution
for a staffing incentive program in SPD,
which passed Council in May of this year.
And that resolution called for the development
of a staffing incentive program
to accelerate the hiring of new officers,
and it stated council's intent to lift the restriction
that Council imposed last year
on the use of unspent salary funds.
And this is precisely the outcome
that we were looking for.
So I have to say that, yes, it's extremely worrisome
that we're operating quarter to quarter
with a net loss of officers, and we've got to do something.
And this is precisely the first step we need to take.
-Got it. Thank you for breaking that down.
I wanted to bring up some other points of view on this,
because Councilmember Mosqueda in that meeting abstained
on voting on the police hiring incentive plan
because of a few concerns. During the meeting,
she mentioned that she has talked with human services
providers who hear from police often about this issue.
Here's a clip of what she said in the meeting.
-From the officers' own mouths,
what they said is that what they need
is not additional money, but a place to bring people.
A PR firm for SPD won't help that.
A hiring incentive approach won't help that.
-We also got an e-mail in from Jimmy on this topic,
who wrote this --
"Can you be better at listening to...marginalized groups
who are disproportionately negatively impacted by police,
who then see police getting bonuses?"
And I should point out here -- majority of council members
supported this legislation in committee,
but there are still some concerns.
That's why I wanted to bring this up.
I just wanted to ask, Councilmember Nelson,
how do you respond to these issues --
the need for more human services,
not hiring bonuses, perhaps,
and this basic overall message this might send to people
who do feel marginalized by police?
-Well, I agree with that writer.
And because I am listening to people in communities
most impacted by crime.
And in one of the first committee meetings
of the Public Safety Committee,
I read a letter that we had recently received
from Mothers for Police Accountability,
and they've been long active in this issue.
And they called for city council to hire more police officers
quickly and stated our charter responsibility for doing so.
So well, Councilmember Mosqueda might be talking to people
in social services and some officers,
I'm talking to people who live day to day with an unsafe city.
And so I think that's where my responsibility lies.
-Got it. And in terms of what happens
next with police alternatives -- I know there's a lot of talk
about that in the public safety committee, too --
to trying to ramp some of those up,
as well as trying to help get the police numbers up.
Some thoughts about that, where that issue needs to go?
-I recognize that officers are responding to calls
they're not equipped to deal with.
And I think -- I don't think
there's any disagreement with that.
And prior to coming on council, I know that there was
a request to develop alternative responses
and I'm fine with that. However, I don't think that
we need -- that we should rush into anything.
We need to make sure that that response will work,
and meanwhile, make sure that the -- that there are --
that we've got an adequately staffed police department
to respond to real crime.
I'm not talking about people in crisis.
I'm talking about people that are committing crimes,
that are hurting our residents and businesses.
-And just briefly on the hiring bonuses --
I know that's been a concern. Sometimes they work,
sometimes they haven't worked as well.
What makes you think this time around,
this type of hiring bonus program
is going to work for the SPD?
-Well, I think that we can put that one and a half page memo
to rest [chuckles] because this is,
after all, the executive that is proposing this.
And there isn't any proof that incentives don't work.
In fact, every other city in our region
has some form of staffing incentive program.
And so we have to compete with those jurisdictions
for a limited pool of officers.
-I'm going to switch gears and touch on a vote
the council had recently to end the $4 per hour hazard pay boost
for grocery workers.
This was a measure put in place during the pandemic
to help those workers.
They're very much on the front line.
But the council has now decided
to end it a year and a half later.
I'm trying to figure out what message
Seattlites draw from that. We are still in a state
of emergency when it comes to COVID.
Workers are potentially still at risk.
Why did you vote to support this?
-Well, I think the council did the right thing, obviously,
and you asked what voters should --
what message do they take away?
And that is that we have got to adapt
to evolving conditions with this pandemic.
And so I voted in January to repeal hazard pay
because that was imposed at a time
when we did not have a vaccine
and when the Delta variant, with much higher mortality rates
associated with it, was circulating.
We now have a vaccine and we have frontline workers
who are as vulnerable as grocery workers
to catching COVID.
And I believe that council needs to make sure
that the laws that it passes
are as universally applicable as possible,
and that only affected grocery workers.
Times have changed, and we have to balance the benefits
to workers against the needs of our constituents,
who could be paying higher food prices,
who could be looking at perhaps the independent grocery store
in their neighborhood going into business,
because that was a steep increase in their costs
that they had to pay. So on balance,
that is what I felt in January. It's what I feel now.
And I do believe that we are going to be living
with this pandemic, with COVID for a long time.
-Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for breaking that down.
I do think there's a larger issue, though,
about the measures that have been passed
during the height of the COVID pandemic
and and the ones that might not stay in place.
Recently, the council voted to keep this 15% cap
on driver delivery fees that businesses pay --
in effect, DoorDash, things of this nature.
This measure was passed out of your city life committee,
and I'm just trying to ask, what impact do you think
it's going to have, keeping this cap in place?
Is this a sign that the COVID state of emergency
is going to end sometime soon? Some thoughts about this.
-Well, Councilmember Peterson and Strauss,
the co-sponsors of the bill,
were afraid that the civil emergency would end,
the 15% cap would end,
and small businesses -- my constituents and the customers
would then be facing a sharp increase in the costs
that they pay to be on these delivery apps.
And so I think that the immediate benefits
are going to be to these restaurants
that have been hardest hit of all sectors,
I would say, with the pandemic.
And we want to make sure that they stay open,
and they're still dealing with lost revenue from COVID.
And so this is designed to help them.
-I wanted to stick with the pandemic topic,
if we could, here. And we're dealing
with an epidemic, if you will, with monkeypox.
It's been declared a national emergency.
You've got cases doubling in our state every week,
with most of those cases happening in Seattle
and King County. Health officials
briefed the council about this very recently.
What do you want people in Seattle to know about monkeypox?
-I want him to know I'm listening to them.
In fact, I would --
I received several e-mails from constituents,
very convincing, that Seattle and King County
needed to do more and more aggressively,
which is why I brought it up at briefings.
First time anybody had publicly spoken about it.
So what I want them to know is that I am paying attention
and I will be pushing for the members
that are on on that board, the public health board,
to be fighting for proactive steps
to educate the public and make vaccines available.
I applaud the pop up clinic that occurred last weekend.
That's exactly what we need to be doing.
Other cities are doing more. And so I want to make sure
that we're doing absolutely as much as we possibly can
and that Seattle is advocating for its constituents.
-Absolutely. Thank you for breaking down that piece.
I wanted your thoughts about some proposals
coming down for Mayor Harrell --
one to make $2 million available to businesses via grants
so they can make improvements to existing
or new commercial spaces here.
Then you've got another issue here --
Seattle Restored aiming to activate
vacant commercial storefronts in downtown and across the city.
I'm trying to figure out what impact do you think
these programs might have on thinking
about your economic development committee here?
And will they be enough to revitalize businesses downtown,
for example? A lot of people simply aren't
coming back to work downtown -- in person, that it's.
-Well, there's a lot to unpack there,
but what I have to say is,
that I am thrilled with these proposals.
And you said what impact will they have?
I'll tell you what impact they won't have --
a small business who is forced to leave a location
because their lease is up or that needs to expand
or just fix things in their existing business --
place of business --
would ordinarily not have access to these funds.
It's extremely difficult to finance tenant improvement --
tenant improvement because banks don't like making loans
for things that they can't seize back, frankly.
So that program fills a gap in resources
that small businesses can use.
And it's an anti-displacement tool.
It'll help businesses stay in neighborhood
and keep that wealth and those jobs in community.
Same with Seattle Restored.
This is -- Basically, we're taking a resource that --
well, it can be seen as a negative,
an empty storefront,
and turning it into a resource for artists
or small businesses to move into,
and it adds life to the street.
And, you know, that's exactly the kind of creativity
that we need to be doing over and over again.
So I am all in for those.
And you're right, as chair of Economic Development,
these are the kinds of programs that I am seeking,
supporting, and helping to develop.
-Okay. Thank you for breaking those pieces down.
And I wanted to make sure I pointed out --
you met with business leaders all around the city --
business leaders from all around the city --
a couple of months ago to talk about
a victims' compensation fund --
basically, broken windows dollars,
if you want to call it that, for businesses
impacted during the pandemic.
I know this was approved in last year's budget
and I'm sure some businesses are telling you
"We've been needing this help for a long while.
Where's the money here?"
I'm trying to figure out when this victims' compensation fund
might be in place.
What needs to be taken care of here?
-Let me be clear. We're talking about two different things.
-Okay.
-I convened a roundtable discussion
with small business owners
and representatives from neighborhood business
districts to talk about the impacts of crime.
And several recommendations were put forward,
one of which was help repairing damaged storefronts.
And so that is a high priority for them,
and that is in progress. Stay tuned.
-Okay. -And so we have to do something
to directly help small businesses
that have been the victims of crime.
Now, when it comes to the victim compensation fund,
I believe that's what it's called --
that was an initiative last year.
It's a very small amount of money.
It's about $100,000. Any money helps,
but there are still -- there are a lot of businesses
that have incurred thousands of dollars.
And so I agree with the spirit,
and whatever we can do to help businesses
who have been victims of theft, damage, etcetera,
that's great. I just want to be clear
that there are two different things.
-Thank you. Thank you for breaking those pieces down.
I know there's a lot of businesses
that have that question,
and I clearly had that question, too.
So I appreciate that.
We've had a couple of e-mails come in,
Councilmember Nelson, for you, for the show,
including a land use question from Eric.
I want to throw this one at you. He writes this...
Eric, as always, thank you for the e-mails.
Interesting question. Councilmember Nelson,
you serve on the Land Use Committee.
Any thoughts on this one?
-Well, I have been -- I've been talking about improving
the MFTE program so that more --
so that more developers participate
because we're not going to be able to subsidize
our way out of our housing affordability crisis.
We need to have private developers
make units available
that are affordable within buildings.
I did not know that there was a gaming of the system
that that e-mail indicates.
I would suggest -- I don't know what advice
I would give that person, but in general,
MFTE is one of our tools to build affordable housing
and make it available at no cost to the city.
We are not building these units.
It is a tax, you know -- it's a tax break for the developer,
and the benefits are that we have more affordable housing.
-Got it. Thank you for breaking that down
and engaging the question. I always get a lot
of interesting ones on the show here.
We also got in one from Ethan about a streetlight issue
in his neighborhood in West Seattle.
It's apparently been going on for a few years.
I'm going to forge that message to you, Councilmember Nelson,
and hopefully you can help out one of our viewers there.
Ethan, thank you very much for writing.
But I did want to talk about a broader City Light issue
with you, if I could.
Again, a part of the committee you oversee here,
there's a rate increase on the way for next year,
which happens yearly with City Light.
It's pretty normal here. But the numbers I'm seeing --
an average increase of 4.5% for all City Light customers --
it will be a little bit higher for residential customers.
It's a jump of about five bucks per month,
maybe a little bit less than that.
But this is a bigger percentage increase
than in terms of what we saw in 2022.
I just want to try to get the background here.
What's going on with this and what's pushing those rates up?
-Well, what's pushing those rates up, first and foremost,
is that we did not raise rates in 2021
because of the pandemic.
And so city council approves new rates every two years.
And so we were overdue for a reconsideration of our rates.
And in the meantime, what has happened
is that it's become more expensive to generate
and deliver electricity to our customers
because of high inflation,
which is -- I think it's about two-thirds higher
than what was projected earlier
when the last rates were in place,
and keeps changing, keeps going up.
And so... -That impacts copper wiring
and all these other kind of costs.
Is that kind of part of it?
-Yeah, it impacts all of our costs.
Materials -- metals have increased in cost by 70 to 80%.
So we've got all of these external pressures,
plus the fact that we've got a lag in raising rates.
Look, nobody likes a rate hike, a rate raise,
but every two years, this is what happens.
And City Light does a good job of trying to absorb these costs
and not pass them on to the rate payers.
City Light is a public utility. It has lower rates
than the vast majority of other utilities,
and they do a good job of trying to deliver
the same level of service
and protect our ratepayers against increases
that are just really difficult to bear.
-Thanks, Councilmember Nelson. I want to switch gears a bit
and bring in a special guest at this point
to join Councilmember Nelson to talk about a plan
for a Seattle Film Commission, and that would be Kate Becker
from the King County Executive's Office.
Kate, thank you very much for joining us here.
But Councilmember Nelson, I wanted to talk about this
because you've been discussing this idea of a film commission
for quite some time. I want to start with you
and ask what this film commission is all about.
Why are you pushing legislation for this?
-Well, the short answer is I'm pushing legislation for this
because this is what our film stakeholders want
and have been calling for for years.
So just to back up,
Seattle has been a vibrant, creative city.
We've lost our edge when it comes to film-making
in specific, and a Film Commission is a way
to bring industry professionals
to the table to help the city design policies, programs,
initiatives that will not just support the film industry,
but also attract film production from across the country
and hit our goals, which are workforce development,
economic development, equity,
and a whole host of other things.
So the bottom line, some people say,
"Well, why a film commission?"
And I have to say that, you know,
we talk about growing our creative economy.
Well, the best way to do that is to focus on film,
because film is the most commercially viable art form
employing artists
from the greatest number of creative disciplines,
and it'll help us target our policies
that end up helping people who work
in a number of different creative industries.
But the bottom line is a film commission
will help us be smart about how we grow
the film industry here in Seattle.
And it's about time.
And I am simply putting forward
what the community has wanted for a long time.
And I'm sure that Kate can speak to that.
-Oh, yeah. No. And you've got to stop
the Seattle scenes being shot in Vancouver.
That's a big part of the issue here.
But I wanted to make sure I asked you this question, Kate.
The county has been doing a lot of work with this.
It started up its creative economy initiative
a couple of years ago, has made a major investment
to build a film production studio in Harbor Island.
And also, very importantly, the state's kicking
in some extra money into this effort.
Can you help us out with the larger picture
of the county and state,
how they're going to work together with the city on this?
-Absolutely. So Executive Constantine
has long known the needs of the film industry,
a been a champion for the film industry,
and has known that we needed
a production facility.
Simultaneously, when the pandemic hit,
we had a whole lot of film industry professionals
out of work, and so the opportunity came together
to really put to better and higher use
a 117,000-square-foot warehouse on Harbor Island
and convert it into two soundstages
and a production facility.
The region has needed this for a long time.
In order to compete in the film industry,
you must have a place to make film, and we haven't had that.
The last soundstage of any scale that we have had in this region
was the Northern Exposure Stage,
which broke down when they left town in 1996.
And we have not had a big soundstage here since that time.
-Wow. And I just -- in touching on what the state's doing here,
this increasing of the business and occupation tax credit limit
as I understand it,
for the motion picture competitiveness program,
moving that from 3 1/2 million to 15 million.
I think that state piece is going to be big here, too.
-It's going to be huge. It's a perfect time for the city
to be moving forward
on a new initiative with a film commission
and really centering film in the city,
and then the county having our work well underway,
and the state having this new incentive.
The opportunity is grand for our state right now.
-Got it. Councilmember Nelson, back to you on this.
And I wanted to center in on a point
you were making earlier about the number of workers
who might be getting involved with this.
I thought it was very interesting in the presentation
to see an estimated 250,000 workers
in creative industries in our region.
It's a very important part of the economy and a big one, too.
But this question around growing this industry sounds great,
but how do you do it in an equitable way
and make sure people who might have been excluded
from these kinds of opportunities in the past
get in on the game?
-Well, thank you very much for bringing this up,
because this is a fundamental rationale for this commission.
And there will -- there is a position on the commission
for someone who represents underrepresented communities.
Look, film is a sector that has living wage jobs,
many of them union jobs, that don't require
a college degree to get into.
And so if we build -- if we grow the film industry,
more people can take advantage of opportunities
to develop their careers in the industry
or into other sectors.
So we need to make sure that, as I said in the beginning
the whole -- this is about workforce development
and creating opportunities to build wealth and livelihoods.
And so I believe that -- And in fact, many of the people
that were on the film task force
that preceded this effort did represent people
from a diversity of communities.
And this is precisely why they said
that a film commission was important --
so that their needs
and the needs of low-income people could be advanced,
and that we strengthen the community enough
so that there are opportunities for everyone.
-Got it. Thank you for that. Kate,
I wanted to get your sense of the urgency behind this,
because I was reading a piece in Crosscut
a couple of days ago that talked about the recent arts
and culture report from the Puget Sound Regional Council.
And that report had a survey
that showed a third of the people --
people, I should say, working in the creative economy,
especially younger ones,
are considering leaving that sector of the economy.
And I'm not trying to throw cold water
on your efforts at all here, but I'm trying to figure it out.
Do you think the work you're doing can help turn that tide?
-We need to keep our talent here in this region.
They are the folks who not only tell our stories,
they also -- the film industry also works
with all our corporations --
our businesses creates the advertising content,
the commercial content.
We need to keep these folks here.
So, yes, that report, which I was interviewed for,
is indeed a troubling report. We can't have our creatives
and our talent leaving this region.
We've already lost a lot of the film industry.
We're hoping we can woo them back now
because who doesn't want to live here, right?
So we're hoping we can bring them back here,
but we can't afford to lose any more.
And we all need to work together collectively
to make sure that we are keeping the talent in this region.
-Got it. Thank you very much for that
to wrap up here, Councilmember Nelson,
just a quick look at the timeline ahead.
What sort of costs and logistics are involved
with setting the Film Commission up?
When do you think the council might be able
to take a vote on this?
-Cost and logistics.
The person staffing the film commission
will be the person who knows film in Seattle.
And so we do have the staffing that is --
that will be working on the commission.
So that is not an added cost.
-Okay. -And we've got to act fast
because everything is aligning right now
with the state's incentives, with this studio
that will provide a space for film production.
And so the next steps for Committee on Film Commission
are that at the -- in our next meeting on September 14th,
we will have a discussion of the formally introduced legislation,
hopefully voted out of committee that day
and it'll go to full council on September 20th.
And then early next year we go -- first of all,
we go into budget, right?
So that takes care of the rest of the year.
But early next year we're going to impanel
the commission quickly.
I am hoping for the first couple of months,
so that we can have these industry experts
giving us advice and helping us design programs
as soon as possible.
-Wow. Looking forward to hear more about that.
Councilmember Nelson, also Kate Becker
from the King County Executives Office,
thank you for joining me on this.
That's all the time we have for now on "Council Edition."
We will see you next time.
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