COVID-19 crisis reinforces need for universal broadband access and adoption to address inequities Reinvigorating efforts to pursue universal access to the internet, the City Council approved today the “Internet for All” resolution introduced by Council President M. Lorena Gonzalez (Position 9, Citywide), Councilmember Alex Pedersen (District 4), and Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5). The COVID-19 […]

Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle), Chair of the Council’s Public Assets and Native Communities Committee, issued the following statement in response to the community and Council’s ongoing conversations around defunding the Seattle Police Department by 50 percent: “We have this moment to harness real change, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild our police department. […]

Mayor, Chief herald UIHI Report findings as ‘stark’, ‘staggering’ SEATTLE – Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle), Chair of the Council’s Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee, convened today’s briefing on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls (MMIWG) report today, which pointed to the ‘obvious and urgent need’ to close […]

Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle), Chair of the Select Committee on the Library Levy, passed the library levy out of committee yesterday with her Council colleagues in a 7-0 vote. The library levy will go before the Full Council on Monday, April 22 during its regularly-scheduled meeting. “Since 1890, the Seattle Public Library […]

Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle), Chair of the Civic Development, Public Assets and Native Communities Committee, and the Seattle City Council approved by a 8-0 vote a package of legislation establishing the Waterfront Local Improvement District (LID). The package of legislation included an ordinance establishing the formation of the Waterfront LID, an operations […]

Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle) and Council President Bruce Harrell (District 2 South Seattle), Co-Chairs of the Select Committee on Civic Arenas, issued the following statements after the NHL Board of Governors approved an expansion in Seattle, which will bring a hockey team in 2021. The team will play in the soon-to-be renovated […]

ArenaCo. arrangement ‘unprecedented’, uses no public funding   The Seattle City Council approved final transactions documents by a vote of 8-0 to fully renovate the Arena at Seattle Center and formally approve Oak View Group’s (OVG) plan to privately finance. Taken together, the two ordinances – CB 119344 which revises use of the admissions tax; […]

Following more than five months of deliberation, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance related to taxation, intended to help address homelessness.  The amended proposal establishes an annual tax of $275 per full time employee on the City’s largest businesses, those with revenues of more than $20 million  (about 3% of all businesses). The measure […]

Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle), Chair of the Council’s Civic Assets, Public Development and Native Communities Committee, and her Seattle City Council colleagues proclaim May 5 as the Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native American Women and Girls in the City of Seattle. The council recognized the National Day of Awareness […]

‘Morally appalling, deliberately misleading’   Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5, North Seattle), Chair of the Council’s Civic Assets, Public Development and Native Communities Committee, issued the following statement after a story published by Politico April 22 said the Trump administration contends tribes are a “…race rather than separate governments,” and exempting them from Medicaid work […]