♪♪
-Hello. I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
The city of Seattle's new contract
with its largest police union
paves the way for more 911 alternative responses.
But critics say it comes up short
on stronger accountability measures.
And a new economic forecast has provided signs
of optimism for the city budget.
But threats of federal cutbacks are still looming large.
I'm talking with City Council members Joy Hollingsworth
and Bob Kettle about these issues,
and the questions viewers like you are sending in, too.
It's all next on "City Inside Out Council Edition".
-We have enough revenue to do what we need to do.
That's just the reality.
And we're going to have to really do some deep dive
in understanding what our spending is.
-Our military is for our nation.
It's not here for political, performative, partisan means.
It's not here for a red state, red county America.
As I tell people, it's here for red, white, and blue America.
-All that and more.
Coming up next on "City Inside Out Council Edition".
♪♪
And here they are from City Council district three,
from the Central District out to Lake Washington.
It's council member, Joy Hollingsworth.
-Good to see you. -Likewise. Thank you.
-We also have with us from district seven
in the brown trunks in the corner there
from downtown out to southeast Magnolia.
Council member Bob Kettle, thank you for being here, too.
-Thank you. Great to be again.
-All right, Councilmember Kettle, let me start with you.
You're the public safety committee chair on the council,
and I want to start with a public safety question.
So the city just signed a new contract
with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
This is the union that makes up most
of the rank and file for the SPD.
The new contract will allow CARE,
the community assisted response and engagement teams,
Seattle's 911 alternative to go up by themselves in some cases,
not a dual dispatch with police.
The city wanted to achieve that,
but I've also seen a few reports showing the contract
did not get all the police accountability measures
the city was hoping for.
What are your big takeaways from this new contract
with the Police Officers Union?
-Three takeaways. One is SPD staffing.
I come back to our strategic framework plan.
We have to build up our police force
and this is going to be great.
It's going to be bringing on the next generation
of sworn officers.
Two is the alternative response point CARE department
really unleashing that and really building that forward.
And that's really important
because we have to have that -- that non-situation
where police criminalization
but to deal with people where they are.
-Yeah, people down in a doorway or something like that.
-All those pieces in between.
So then we don't have those instances.
And then the third piece is the accountability point
that you talked about.
And that's really big.
There's more than you think.
And one of the big ones is frontline investigations for me
because we -- that will allow our junior, like the sergeants
to learn how to be leaders.
And that's going to make for better lieutenants,
captains, assistant chiefs, deputy chiefs,
and maybe even a chief in the future.
And tied to that is OPA, the Office of Police Accountability.
There's three pieces that go to OPA
that -- that are to the benefit of accountability.
-But maybe some
of the disciplinary disciplinary actions,
I think there might have been some issues there.
-Well, the one thing that subpoenas
-was not included in this. -Yeah, right.
-That's a big one, but it's not included.
And there's others that are going to go to
what we call interest in arbitration.
-Yes.
-But as Chief of Staff Myerberg said yesterday,
we stuck to our guns.
We didn't fold, but we said,
"Okay, go to arbitration," because we're at an impasse.
One of the things you have to understand
labor relations rules for labor relations rules.
-And we can't just override. -Go around them. Yeah. Okay.
Thank you very much for that.
Councilmember Hollingsworth,
I wanted to make sure I pointed this out.
This new contract includes a big raise for Seattle police,
about a 13% jump from last year.
They're already the highest paid officers in the state.
The added dollars have been helping bring
in some new recruits to fill up staffing shortages and the SPD,
as you talked about.
But I thought you made an interesting point
a few weeks ago at a meeting talking
with Chief Sean Barnes about this.
To paraphrase,
you were asking the chief
how increased staffing will lead to better response times,
greater visibility of officers there.
Can you help me connect the dots?
Are you confident this new contract will help deliver
on some of these issues that you're raising about the SPD?
-I am, and that's the goal.
We know that when we have more officers
that can respond to certain things,
we can have lower response times.
We can also have better customer service.
You know, to be able to respond to things.
And so that's really the goal.
But I also really want to focus on the outcomes.
And so, you know,
during this process understanding like,
hey, if this -- if we are providing these pieces
in a contract, what are going to be the outcomes?
What are what are the commitments
from our Seattle Police Department to the community
that's going to make sure people are feeling the impacts
of public safety investments.
-You're asking for more transparency from SPD.
Is that the way?
-Yeah. You know, just accountability.
You know, we asked for accountability for nonprofits.
You ask accountability from city departments
and from SPD as well.
And that's not that you don't support them.
You just want to make sure
that we are having the right outcomes for our investments.
-All right. Thank you very much for that.
I did want to make sure
that I pointed out over the last couple of weeks,
the council has been learning a lot more
about what the city is paying for police officers,
for parks, for transportation improvements, and so much more.
You're in the middle of the budget process here.
Councilmember Hollingsworth,
the council recently reviewed a new economic forecast
that showed revenue coming into the city
may be about 12-to-14 million dollars
more than what was expected.
I have a quick sound bite here from Councilmember Strauss
reacted to this, the budget chair.
Here's how he described the situation.
-This year has been full of twists and turns,
and while today's news is positive, I share my cautious.
I share caution
because we don't know what we will need to attend to
in the next 6 months, and the next 12 months.
-Councilmember Strauss was talking about a muted,
positive approach here,
and I believe he's talking about the possibility
in the future of maybe some federal funding cuts
coming down the line.
What is your interpretation of what's going on?
What's your approach to the budget this year?
-Yeah, you're always cautiously -- cautiously optimistic.
And just because you have it
doesn't mean you should spend it.
And, you know,
understanding what's happening at the federal level.
Are we going to have to make investments from those cuts,
do some backfills.
You know, we have priorities on a lot of infrastructure
in our district from different parks,
different community organizations.
You know, we also have some -- want to see some investments
on Capitol Hill in the Central District
and -- and different and Eastlake.
All these different approaches.
And so we took what we heard from all neighborhoods
in our district to figure out,
hey, what are some of the priorities that you had?
And making sure that we were aligned with understanding,
like, hey, we want to make sure that these investments are
infrastructure based for all the community
to have access to them.
-Got it.
Are you concerned about those numbers
or the possibility of big federal funding cuts.
I just want to get real about that.
-Yeah. Look, you're always concerned
about money and revenue
and what that looks like, and making sure that we're not,
you know, pulling the lever on too many taxes
and we are spending people's money well.
The one thing that I will always make sure
that we are doing is getting the outcomes
and the measurable impact, so people feel like, hey,
we're spending this money on certain things.
Do I see that every day? Do I see our parks clean?
Do I see those roads in the potholes fill?
Is a city department responding to me?
Like a world-class city,
we should have world-class responses.
-Got it.
Councilmember Kettle, give us the big picture look.
How would you describe the budget situation
the city is in right now?
-It's difficult, you know, and I was listening to that answer.
I was thinking about expectation management.
And I was kind of first thinking about with the contract like,
hey, we're doing these things,
but it doesn't mean we're going to instantaneous changes.
This takes like a year plus for that to go into effect.
And it's expectation management with the budget.
We have to be on guard related to the federal government.
Like, I have an amendment to give the ability
to flex from going into the future,
but to give backfill if something happens
with the federal government on the human services side,
and we have to build these things in,
and it's a difficult fiscal environment, too.
And 2027 is going to be around the corner as well.
So we have to be saying,
"Hey, expectation management." This is not a growth period.
We're holding steady and we're trying to give that flexibility
that's needed given the uncertain federal environment.
-Thank you very much for that.
Let's go a little bit further into the budget.
And, Councilmember Kettle, I'll stick with you.
As you know, the council recently approved a measure
that would allow the city to collect an additional
0.1% sales tax to be used for public safety purposes.
The state legislature authorized cities and counties
to do this earlier on this year.
That's going to bump up Seattle sales tax to one of the highest,
if not the highest, in the country.
One online commenter had this to say about it.
I wanted to make sure we talked about this.
Tell us about the sales tax bump,
why you think Seattle needs it,
and where you think the revenue from it should go.
-I'm glad I gave my answer before that question
in terms of expectation management,
because it's about being real and being upfront.
And as it relates to this 0.1% public safety sales tax,
for me it's about alternative response.
It's the CARE pieces,
but it's also about addressing the seams.
a big piece that I've been pushing for like
the last half year,
is the seam between public safety and public health
and public safety and human services.
That's why we have lead as part
of this public safety sales tax piece.
You know, that -- that link, that law enforcement,
enforcement-assisted diversion.
We have to ensure that that is working.
We have to have a functional criminal justice system.
We have to have a functional public safety system.
If these little pieces aren't working,
then that messes everything up.
And we need to be addressing those kinds of points.
And that's what this tax allows us to do.
-Thank you.
So you think most of the dollars should be going into CARE,
that alternative response there then?
-Well, there's a mix.
I say alternative response, by the way,
because you heard in the report there's the fire piece.
-That's right, that's right.
-And you know, by the way,
we have mental health professionals and police CSOs.
So I think it's important to talk about
alternative response and CARE is central to that.
But we have to be mindful of these other parts.
And I think we're going to be in good position for that.
In addition to help address the seam between public safety
and these other areas.
-Got it. Thanks a lot for that.
Councilmember Hollingsworth, back to you.
So in between the sales tax hike and an expectation
that voters will approve a change
to the business and occupation tax structure
to bring in more money,
it looks like there's enough revenue
to stabilize the budget this year,
but the budget office is already saying
you're going to have a $140 million shortfall in 2027.
Another online commenter put it this way.
I just wanted to look at the years ahead
because it seems like there is a structural budget problem
when it comes to city spending
that your process this year is not going to solve.
How do you look at that?
-Yeah, it -- So a couple -- a couple of things.
We have enough revenue to do what we need to do.
That's just the reality.
And we're going to have to really do some deep dive
in understanding what our spending is.
We're constantly doing that now.
But I know people are getting very fatigued on,
hey, is there going to be another downfall?
Are there going to be more taxes or is there, you know,
I always say progressive revenue should equate
to progressive outcomes.
And so that's you know, we're going to have to again,
really get real and serious about, hey,
what are we spending on and making sure that,
again, those have the impact.
But I do want to say this about the sales,
-the public safety tax. -The 0.1%, yeah.
-The one thing I really do like about this
is that we have not addressed the public health
that is on our streets,
and with this tax that does that.
To be able -- you have lead,
you have diversion, you have treatment.
A lot of the activity on our streets,
the fentanyl, the drug crisis, the -- the people
that are having complete breakdowns right in front of us,
that is going to -- this tax is going to help with that.
So it's not just,
oh, you know,
we have this contract coming from our police officers
and we're paying more folks.
We have another multi-pronged approach.
And that's why I like Councilmember Kettle
when he's always talking about public safety and public health,
how they're intertwined.
Because we have seen that everywhere in our city.
-Yeah. You can't separate the two, I think in a lot of ways.
-You cannot.
-Councilmember Kettle,
can you talk about the structural budget issue?
You touched on it a second ago.
It looks like it could be a similar issue
for the council coming down the line here.
And those difficult decisions about the cuts,
are they not being made,
or how would you describe what's going on?
-Yes, we do need the structural reform.
And part of this is looking at the revenue pieces,
like we've made changes to the PET,
the payroll expense tax to give that flexibility.
That kind of goes to what we're talking about.
And, on the other hand,
I asked last year with Councilmember Moore
about having a Seattle housing investment plan.
and OH, Office of Housing gave us a great plan
and they showed like strategy
in terms of how they're spending money,
which includes MHA, mandatory housing affordability,
MFTE, multi-family tax exemption,
The housing levy, like how they're using it
for different things.
And I'm asking for this year, by the way,
for them to include the money that we put in
with the King County Regional Homeless Authority, KCRHA,
and then have an understanding
what's happening on social housing,
because we have to have that big picture and understand.
And to Councilmember Hollingsworth's point,
and then make those trade-offs, make those smart decisions,
and have a strategy to do it.
So if we do this, these pieces, I think we can be in the place
to be smart on revenue, but also be smart on our spending.
-Okay. That's going to be an interesting discussion
down the line. I know that.
And I would also say there's not a ton of room
in this budget to call for anything extra.
But I also know council members are always working
on amendments to add programs to their districts,
or possibly things they're working on in committee.
Councilmember Kettle,
could you talk about maybe two or three things
that you're pushing for in this budget
that might not make the big headlines?
-You know, to your point,
they're all much smaller dollar amounts primarily.
-But there are no small programs. I know that.
-But we have to look out and ensure
that programs are moving along and don't get stalled.
So I've been working with Councilmember Hollingsworth
on getting Belltown a park, portal park
where the old viaduct came through.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
-And so we're talking
like less than a half million, 100-to-350K.
You know, it depends on how it comes about.
-You'll get out there with a shovel yourself.
-I'll get out there with a shovel.
But we need the survey work,
the study work to be done to be smart in terms
of how we design, the design work.
And, but we need to keep these things going.
So, there's a small ad. That kind of goes to the scale.
And -- And then the other thing too is,
and kind of going to Councilmember Hollingsworth's
point about, you know, the accountability is
that there's going to be some provisos in there
on the public safety side that I put in.
And this goes to -- I've done it before on
on salary savings, salary pieces.
But there's overtime and there's these other pieces as well
that we have to be looking at,
and ensuring that we are spending the money right.
And we're getting the outcomes that we that we're looking for.
-Okay. Looking forward to seeing those too.
Councilmember Hollingsworth, maybe some projects
you're working on to fit into this year's budget.
What do you got?
-Yeah, you know, you always have pie-in-the-sky stuff,
but, you know, some of the priorities we have are
some field opportunities for upgrades and improvements
for our little leagues to a lot of --
My goals, our North Star this year is for our kids.
Obviously, we have the family education's levy,
but alongside with like recreation and sports
understanding that is a huge deal
for kids to be able to have access to.
So, you know, we have that.
We also have some, um, studies
that we want to do to find out,
like, hey, how can we bring public and private partnership
into potentially some of these investments?
We have some safety, uh,
things that we want to do in terms of transportation as well,
around schools and safe routes to --
safe routes to school and crosswalks.
So there's a little mix. I always call it a gumbo.
We have a have gumbo
of a little bit of everything from our district.
-Okay. I'm looking forward to seeing those --
those amendments too. Thank you very much for that.
I want to stick with you, Councilmember Hollingsworth,
to talk about the comprehensive plan.
Take a deep breath.
You've been working a lot on this.
This is the road map, of course, for urban growth in the city.
You chaired the committee that worked on this very long
and challenging process. I know it's not over yet.
There's still some work to do here,
but I want your big-picture takeaways from this.
What did you accomplish?
What are the biggest changes
you think we're going to see in terms
of traditional, single-family neighborhoods,
now known as neighborhood residential areas?
What's going to be different?
-Yeah, I was really excited because one,
we all could work well as a council
and we all had a lot of the same priorities
in -- in terms of housing and growth.
Understanding that every neighborhood had to be unlocked.
You know, you had House Bill 1110,
which unlocked every lot in the city
to be able to have four-to-six units.
Our comprehensive plan,
that's more that 30,000-foot overview of the growth
and what that looked like.
And so some of the things that we're happy that passed,
we had some stuff regarding a social housing provider
that Councilmember Kettle sponsored.
We had some bonuses around schools
to try to make sure that we're having family housing.
We had some ADA requirements go in there.
-We had tree protections. -Yeah.
-There was a little bit of everything,
and I thought it was very thoughtful the way
people presented their amendments.
But this is only phase one, Brian, like so,
and that will come to the end of council in December.
And then phase two, which is the zoning height and the Fars.
And you know how tall things are going to go
that will come next year. And it's a working document.
Some people are always saying like, hey, is this the final?
Do you all just lock it in a key and, you know, throw it away?
No, we still have more, more work to do
and I'm excited about that.
-Yeah. What do you see?
I mean, what what comes out of a process like that?
You mentioned maybe 4-to-6 units because of House Bill 1110.
Is there anything else beyond that?
-Yeah. So also to it, the council,
we made it easier for people to incentivize them
to have different types of housing.
When you talk to people around the city,
they're like, "Hey, we have a lot of these townhouses.
And we had stacked flats. Can we have cottages?"
People we heard want to live, be able to age in place.
Can I put an ADU in my backyard?
Can it be easier to do that, right?
Those things, I think were really, really specific.
Growth around transit corridors,
those things that, you know, you asked like,
"Hey, how -- how fast are we going to see those?"
You know, as fast as we can with the economy,
with the building, with the taxes.
You know, there are so many different pieces
that come in that permitting process.
Mayor, passed down some legislation
to kind of streamline that and get that better.
So we look to be building, hopefully building
housing really soon here.
-Okay. Thank you for that.
Councilmember Kettle,
I just wanted to talk about the plan here
and how it's working into the housing production targets
that have been set up by King County.
I'm looking at some of the numbers
their experts are talking about.
We need about 112,000 new housing units
in the next 25 years in Seattle.
The majority of it needs to be affordable
somewhere in this 70%-to-80% range of area median income.
Do you feel like this comp plan is going to get us there?
-I think so.
And partly it's the math,
because we designed for a higher number with the expectation
that the utilization rate of this
is usually 40-something percent.
So we kind of designed to the higher amount.
And that allows for that number to be achieved.
And I think a really important point is creating
that variety of housing
to really build a better housing market,
to allow people to move up as a young person,
maybe with a condo and, you know,
one of those skinny townhomes maybe,
to then a, you know, a more-bedroom home.
But then as you get older to downsize,
we need to have that mix to allow for that flexibility
in the housing market.
And I think we did a good job
with Chair Hollingsworth regarding that committee.
She did a great job of of herding all the cats.
It's not an easy process, by the way.
-There's still some herding to do, too.
-Yes. By the way, yes.
We haven't taken -- a lot of people think that it's done
because the select committee voted and we're all of us,
but we actually have to do it as a council.
So we got one more to do.
-Okay, I guess I wanted to touch on that point, though.
This whole idea that you got to get developers on board,
it's got to pencil out for them.
Do you think -- Do you think
this plan is able to achieve that?
Because if you don't have those folks on board,
that's a real challenge.
You're not getting that housing built that you need to.
-Yes. You have to take in account,
you know, we can't bury our head in the sand.
I talk to developers all the time.
-I talk across the whole range. -Sure.
-And it's interesting when little pieces come up like, oh,
this impacts that, you know. And we just did the MFTE.
-Right. I was going to mention that. Yeah.
-And I talked to a developer who's not in that world,
he's in a different area of development.
And I said to him, because I'm always asking questions.
"So what do you think about MFTE?" He goes--
-This is multifamily tax exemption. Keep going.
-Yes. Why?
"Well, all my friends in there are really complaining about it,
-but they're doing it." -Okay.
-So it sounds good, that we're in a good place.
-Okay.
-And so but we had to adjust it for the future too.
And I think we have to make these,
these choices to ensure that we're in the right place.
-Yeah. Can you touch on this MFT issue?
MFTE issue, because again,
we're talking about -- there's a lot of units around Seattle,
as I understand it, that are these one-bedroom studios.
But for the multifamily, you know,
the larger units,
it doesn't sound like there are as many of them
out there as there need to be.
But then developers, it's -- it's a little tougher
for them to build that rather than those studios.
So help me with that balance and what the council did about that.
-Yeah, absolutely.
And just real quick, I wanted to touch on,
it's not only about developers.
And -- And Council Member Kettle is right.
We also unlocked like just a regular,
just an everyday person who wants to age in place
to be able to convert their house, duplex, triplex.
We had amendments for people to put ADUs in their backyard.
Like things that are going to make it easier for folks,
which I think is going to help to the housing market.
Just the diversity of it.
Um, the MFTE program, you know,
we voted on a slight variation of it
to get more developers to participate in that.
Um, as it stood, you know,
how it was implemented years ago is that that was implemented
for the market when, you know, when it came on.
And so you have to adjust for that, right?
People want to see more two and three bedrooms.
People want, you know,
to be able a little flexibility on the rent piece
and what that looks like.
You've heard a lot of folks also talk about how the program,
you know, it's really hard to get involved in,
and you have to fill out a lot of paperwork.
So, you know, we think we found -- it was hard,
but we think we found a good approach to kind of just like,
you know, say, "Hey, can we get more developers involved?"
It's some of the things that they asked for,
but make sure that we're not jeopardizing
on our values for that program.
-Got it.
Councilmember Hollingsworth, I want to stick with you,
because there's kind of a complex planning issue
about grocery stores that you've raised concerns about.
Two major grocery stores have moved out of your district
during your time in office.
And Seattle just saw another store move out
of district five in North Seattle
in the last couple of weeks here,
the mayor has put out an executive order calling for
multiple city agencies to identify areas
that might be at risk of becoming food deserts,
as they're called. They don't have a grocery store.
What's this order from the mayor going to do?
What can the city really do about this
in terms of what's next with grocery closures?
This is a big deal.
-Yeah. So let me set the table. No pun intended really quick.
-Here we go.
-So before pandemic,
groceries averaged, a pound was like around 235.
Now we're looking over 3, 310, 320 for a pound of groceries.
-I see. Okay.
-And -- And that's how, you know, you're able to see like,
hey, how is the grocery fluctuating?
It's gone up 10, 20, 30%.
Every single year, groceries have gone up.
We all feel it at the grocery stores.
Grocery stores have a 2% margin for them operating.
That's at a big-scale grocery.
If you're a smaller grocery,
you cannot take these losses like that.
So when we see closures from big organizations, big companies,
that's an issue, right?
That is -- That is and a lot of their costs
that are going to it could be security.
It could be, um, you know,
just like permitting as well, or taxes.
Like, it costs a lot to do business in Seattle.
And so what this is going to do is identify Fred Meyer
to figure out a new person, new company to go in there.
Also, we have some stuff with a comprehensive plan that,
you know, identifies corner stores as well.
There's different grocery models that we want to do.
Not every neighborhood needs a full-scale grocery store.
Maybe it's in that 5,000 square-foot range.
Just the basics. Milk, bread, eggs, meat.
So I really support this executive order.
-I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with that one too.
Councilmember Kettle,
another letter from the mailbag here regarding urban growth.
Eric wanted to ask this.
Eric, thank you for the question.
There was an article recently about this in "Post Alley".
Some thoughts about redeveloping terminal 46.
I know downtown revitalization is very important to you.
-It is.
But you also know my view on Stadium Maker's Bill.
And so he can go back to the Seattle Channel
and look up all those, because I was very strong on that,
because we have to ensure--
-That's Port Land we're talking about.
-Yes. And it's the industrial.
I'm on the Puget Sound Regional Council.
We're talking about these things
and it's really important for our future.
We have to ensure that we have a viable port 100 years from now.
You don't recreate deep water ports like we have.
We have to protect this.
You know, guys going to Alaska comes and goes.
Timber comes and goes, airplanes. Now, it's tech.
But we have to ensure that we are flexible
and ensure that the the industrial areas of SODO,
but also the bend,
the Ballard and Interbay area is also taken care of.
So I'll push back on that.
So I appreciate the comment because there's other areas
and this comp plan is really addressing
his question in that respect.
Now to get into the details with Pier 30, Pier 46,
one of the things that needs to be unlocked
is understanding what the Coast Guard is doing.
-Okay. -That is key.
And because they're the 800-pound gorilla here,
and they have not come out with their decision.
And that's going to have an impact
with the Coast Guard Base, 46 involved.
And so what people are seeing is that the process is
kind of stalled because the Coast Guard,
the federal government, has not made a decision.
-Speaking of federal government,
I want to wrap up with this topic, if I could.
I want to talk about the possibility
of National Guard troops being deployed in Seattle.
So many headlines about this.
There was a panel of judges recently
from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
that made a ruling saying President Trump can send troops
into Portland, Oregon,
to achieve Trump's goals of suppressing protests
and helping with domestic immigration enforcement.
I know you've spoken out about this.
The mayor has signed an executive order about this.
What are your concerns right now?
What can Seattle do about this?
-Do what we're doing, running the city well,
taking care of our public safety challenges.
I reject that that we should go en banc in the Ninth Circuit,
and then they can look at it
because we're being gaslit by the President.
We're being gaslit by the President,
and we're taking care of business.
And it's wrong.
And we see it in other areas, too.
But it's wrong.
And here's the thing, too, Brian,
that nobody's really talking about.
And I'm pretty animated about this as a veteran.
Our military is for our nation.
It's not here for political, performative, partisan means.
It's not here for a red state, red county, America.
As I tell people, it's here for red, white and blue America.
And we cannot have our National Guard go.
I'm being taken back to Baghdad when I was in Iraq,
when I see a Blackhawk having people rappelled
down in Chicago,
when I see uniformed soldiers on the ground here in D.C.
and these other areas, it is wrong.
It is wrong in all these cases, and it's pejorative.
He's basically looking to set up a situation
where he can get his agenda passed.
This has nothing to do with what's on the ground here.
We talk about FIFA World Cup, whatever.
We just had the American League Championship Series here.
No problems. We have we have NFL games here.
And you know we just had Club World Cup.
We're being gaslit, Brian. We're being gaslit.
And on National Guard, again, the military is for our nation.
It's not for these political,
partisan and performative reasons.
-Thank you for that.
Councilmember Hollingsworth,
I know your district has been in the middle
of some really challenging protests this year.
I'm thinking about the controversial rally
from Mayday USA up at Cal Anderson Park
a few months ago.
What do you think is going to happen to Seattle
if the National Guard comes in? I'm not trying to scare people.
I'm trying to get real.
-Yeah, get real because we've seen the lawsuit that,
you know, for Portland, right?
And -- And in California, here's, and this is what --
this is why I really double down
on what Councilmember Kettle said.
We have to control what we can control,
make sure the city is run well.
People are getting fed, get to jobs on time,
making sure potholes are getting filled.
Just the basics' piece to not give the incentive for anything
for the federal government to come in.
There's news coming out of the other Washington,
as I call it all the time, right?
It's left, right, up, down, whatever.
We have to stay focused.
We have a mayor that is a -- that is a lawyer.
We have a great attorney general.
We have a governor who's a lawyer.
Like, we have a lot of the legal pieces in place right now.
The best thing we can do is just make sure
that we're prepared with funding
a lot of the immigrant right groups,
make sure that we have our community is, well, resources,
and -- and they're safe.
-All right. Thank you very much.
That's Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth.
That's Councilmember Bob Kettle. Thanks a lot for joining us.
We will see you next time on
"City Inside Out Council Edition."
♪♪