CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 Budget; changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels, and from various funds in the Budget; and lifting a proviso; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.
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WHEREAS, on December 11, 2017, the City Council passed Resolution 31786, which called for the issuance of a combined Request for Proposals (RFP) for the disposition of 800 Mercer Street and 620 Avenue North to address neighborhood interests, creating opportunities to take advantage of South Lake Union as a “neighborhood of opportunity”; and
WHEREAS, on September 16, 2019, the City Council passed Ordinance 125916 to authorize the sale of these properties; and
WHEREAS, the 2020 Adopted Budget used a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these properties to establish a Strategic Investment Fund to provide investment in areas that are at high risk of displacement or in areas of low access to opportunity that present unique opportunities for transformational equitable development, and placed a proviso directing the Executive to submit a proposed spending plan for this fund; and
WHEREAS, the 2021 Adopted Budget re-established the Strategic Investment fund and placed a proviso directing the Executive to submit a proposed spending plan for this fund in Council Budget Action FG-002-B-002; and
WHEREAS, a committee of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community leaders and equitable development experts convened in 2019 to propose funding criteria for the Strategic Investment Fund to fund the acquisition of land and real estate in order to respond to immediate displacement pressures, grow community wealth and relationships, co-locate multiple community benefits, and fill gaps in community development; and
WHEREAS, the Community Advisory Group was reconvened in 2021 to confirm the purpose of the fund and to design an RFP and collective decision-making process to allocate funds; and
WHEREAS, the Office of Planning and Community Development published the RFP in early June 2021, with materials translated in seven languages, and conducted three information sessions with over 80 participants and over 30 individual conversations with prospective applicants; and
WHEREAS, 100 proposals were submitted by community-based organizations, small businesses, cultural organizations, and tenants facing displacement across the City, representing over $300 million in funding requests; and
WHEREAS, the Community Advisory Group has made its final recommendations forming the proposed spending plan and it is now time to lift the proviso on the funds and to appropriate them to the relevant departments to carry out the work recommended by the Advisory Group; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF SEATTLE AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. The restrictions imposed by the following budget proviso, which limits spending on the following item, are removed because the conditions set forth in the proviso have been satisfied and they are no longer restrictions for any purpose, including those set forth in subsection 1(b) of Ordinance 126237:
|
Item |
Department |
2021 CBA |
Proviso |
Budget Summary Level |
|
1.1 |
Finance General |
FG-002-B-002 |
“None of the money appropriated in the 2021 budget for the Finance General Reserve Strategic Investment Fund may be spent until authorized by future ordinance. Council anticipates that such authority will not be granted until the Executive submits a proposed spending plan for this Fund.” |
General Purpose (00100-BO-FG-2QD00) |
Section 2. In order to pay for necessary costs and expenses incurred or to be incurred, but for which insufficient appropriations were made due to causes that could not reasonably have been foreseen at the time of making the 2021 Budget, appropriations for the following items in the 2021 Adopted Budget are modified as follows:
|
Item |
Department |
Fund |
Budget Summary Level |
Amount |
|
2.1 |
Finance General |
General Fund (00100) |
General Purpose (00100-BO-FG-2QD00) |
($30,000,000) |
|
2.2 |
Executive (Office of Planning and Community Development) |
General Fund (00100) |
Equitable Development Initiative (00100-BO-PC-X2P40) |
$24,325,680 |
|
2.3 |
Executive (Office of Arts and Culture) |
General Fund (00100) |
Cultural Space (00100-BO-AR-VA170) |
$5,674,320 |
|
Total |
|
|
|
$0 |
Section 3. The City Council finds that ongoing disparities within Seattle related to housing and generational wealth, health and environmental justice, education, and small businesses are contrary to the welfare of the people of Seattle. The City Council therefore finds and declares that it is a fundamental governmental function of The City of Seattle to remedy those disparities as allowed by state and federal law.
Section 4. It is the City Council’s intent that funds appropriated in Section 2 of this ordinance will be implemented through contracts and programs that are aligned with the recommendations of the Community Advisory Group to the extent consistent with applicable legal limitations.
Section 5. This ordinance shall take effect and be in force 30 days after its approval by the Mayor, but if not approved and returned by the Mayor within ten days after presentation, it shall take effect as provided by Seattle Municipal Code Section 1.04.020.
Passed by 3/4 of the members of the City Council the ________ day of _________________________, 2021, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its passage this _____ day of _________________________, 2021.
____________________________________
President ____________ of the City Council
Approved / returned unsigned / vetoed this ________ day of _________________, 2021.
____________________________________
Jenny A. Durkan, Mayor
Filed by me this ________ day of _________________________, 2021.
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Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk
(Seal)