I want to address the decision to suspend discussion on the revenue legislation.
Thread 👇🏽
Conversation
The coronavirus has upended all of our lives. We’re seeing record-breaking unemployment and small business closures. Many of our neighbors have lost their jobs with no way to pay for their basic needs. Some have lost loved ones to Covid-19.
1
4
11
Meanwhile our homeless neighbors are at greater risk of exposure to coronavirus. And while the CDC has declared that people living in tents should not be displaced from their encampment so as to prevent community spread, our city continues to push people into the margins.
2
1
16
The public health emergency is now also a full blown economic emergency. Given the many crises our communities are facing, it’s hard to imagine how not governing is an appropriate response for elected officials.
1
21
Yet the Governor’s OPMA proclamation requires local government only address issues that are “routine”. It is abundantly clear that there’s nothing routine about the coronavirus or the need to respond to this crisis.
1
3
24
Our council leadership made a choice to enforce the strictest, most conservative legal interpretation of the Governor’s proclamation without a serious conversation about the risk. Consequently the crucial conversation about emergency relief is halted.
1
5
22
For now, the Select Budget Committee meetings are cancelled and the legislation CM Sawant and I co-sponsored is delayed until after the Governor’s OPMA Proclamation expires. This decision effectively pulls the rug out from under people who were already on the brink of disaster...
1
5
22
A disaster with emergency relief funds, we could’ve helped mitigate. Instead, thousands of Seattleites are left twisting in the wind. Without immediate financial relief, many of our constituents – if they survive this pandemic – will have no way to financially recover from this.
2
4
31
That’s why we'll be working to craft new legislation to use federal Coronavirus Relief Funds to support emergency relief to address the critical housing and food insecurity faced by our neighbors.
It’s also why we fully expect budget discussions to resume in June.
1
4
30
I wasn’t elected to tell my community what we can’t do. I was elected to help lead this city – even through a crisis and even when it’s hard. I’m not giving up on the fight to protect our neighbors.
4
4
63
