(Cheering and applause)
[Jaime Housen] Mayor's here at Kraken Iceplex
to share a proclamation that today is officially Kraken Day.
[Debora Juarez] Lake City, Beacon Hill, MLK and Rainier Valley.
(Cheering)
[Bruce Harrell] So a proclamation gives us the opportunity
to preserve something through our city clerk system, that's an archive document,
and we can look back and talk about the measurements within the proclamation.
[Debora Juarez ] Our mayor, Mayor Harrell.
(Applause)
[Bruce Harrell] We all have to look at the Kraken organization, and people
are evaluating them on their win or loss record,
which to me , they've won. They put in money into our community,
small businesses, BIPOC community workers and contractors.
They said they would do these things and now they did it.
Now, therefore, the Mayor and the full
Seattle City Council honor the fans of Seattle's new NHL franchise,
the Seattle Kraken, and proclaim Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022,
to be Seattle Kraken Day.
(Cheers)
That's why we do this proclamations are not symbolic,
they're actually substantive in nature with some symbolism.
So I enjoy doing that and I think it's the right thing to do.
[Reporter] $8 million geared toward small business, can you tell us just a little bit more about it?
[Bruce Harrell] Sure, so there's two things ...
[Jaime Housen] Part of the mayor's job is to take questions from the press,
and you never know when they might show up and what questions they'll have.
[Bruce Harrell] Trust the ice, trust the ice.
I don't know what that means. (laughter) Thanks for coming by.
[Speaker] We're going to get you on the ice next time. [Bruce Harrell] Well,
I feel a little confidence now.
I saw my competition went to council members.
I think I can take 'em.
[Speaker] Exactly we get a little game going, it could be really fun. Thank you.
[Jaime Housen] From here, the
mayor is going to stop by the hospital to see a friend's wife,
to just show his support and make sure she's doing OK.
[Bruce Harrell] Where are you?
So we're down here at the main.. in the main entrance.
I got a call very late last night at 11:15pm to be here.
Being born and raised here I get these calls all the time and I try
to do what I can to let people know in a time of need that I'm there for them.
It's part of the job that no one talks about,
but it's critical for us to help each other
get through tough times.
[Stephanie Morales] Just having the mayor here helps
draw in the attention of, you know, news channels and things like that.
[Bruce Harrell] The new capital access program is an investment an $8 million,
plus $3 million in recovery dollars, of $5 million and Equitable Communities
Task Force dollars that business could start applying for now.
[Stephanie Morales] To know that there's possible resources out there for me is amazing.
[Bruce Harrell] I had a quote here that was prepared for me and I want to do it justice.
"Rather than help small
businesses tread water, we need them to be thriving.
More than a life raft, we need to help them get ...
we need to help get them a speedboat to success."
And I wasn't clever enough to write that.
I wasn't even clever enough to read it perfectly.
But I'll tell you that that's what this is about.
Yes, I do think the mayor is approachable.
I feel like he's very down to earth, understands
for as a small business owner, what it's like.
[Bruce Harrell] Every opportunity I can let people know
what I'm going to do as leader, my energy, right?
That I quite frankly learned as a young athlete, this tenacity
to get things done.
[Jaime Housen] As much as possible,
the mayor tries to get out in community, but you can't escape meetings.
There are times where he's
booked back to back to back in Teams meetings and Zoom meetings.
[Bruce Harrell] If you have questions on that, just see me off channel
because I know you need to talk with us what's that's going to look like?
[Jaime Housen] This will be his third meeting.
So right now, he's meeting with his executive team to hear
what initiatives we're working on, what decisions he needs to make.
(Laughter)
[Jaime Housen] I would say, the mayor has really set the tone
for this office. In an office that laughs together.
I think that's really an important part.
There's a sense of humor that underlies everything that the mayor does,
and that I think we all try to do too, is to do this work with some joy.
[Bruce Harrell] We have to hold one another up
and we do that through love and through joy, through laughter.
And so when I see people having a positive workplace,
particularly here on the seventh floor, it does my heart wonder.
We should love what we do because we're trying to help people.
[Jaime Housen] There's no such thing as a typical day in the mayor's office.
After this, the Mayor is headed to the Kraken game to celebrate Kraken Day
and put an exclamation point on it.
[Announcer] Time to release the Kraken!!
[Bruce Harrell] So the Kraken lesson is,
say what you're going to do, do what you said you're going to do.
Measure it and make a better Seattle.
[Speaker] So you're going to be right over there.
You're going to be on stage left. [Bruce Harrell] People want it like this.
Like this, like this.
This Kraken organization wasn't built like this, right?
It took a vision.
It took skills.
It took investments, took hard work.
And that's what we're willing to do.
So that's what this day represents.
[Announcer] We are honored to have Seattle Mayor Harrell
here tonight to share the proclamation.
[Bruce Harrell] We've been in office only for eight weeks, but, you know,
quite frankly, this is a seven day a week job for me and I don't run away from it.
That's what's needed.