NOTE to Signer: On May 28, 2024, at the Seattle City Council meeting that met to vote on this inequitable amendment. Despite the opposition 70+ in-person comments, 100+ phone comments, and nearly 2,000 emails from us, the council voted to postpone the vote instead eliminating the entire amendment (CM Morales, CM Hollingsworth, and CM Strauss voted with community to eliminate the amendment). CM Rivera, CM Saka, CM Moore, CM Kettle, CM Woo, and CM Nelson chose to vote against the community. Not a single comment was in support of the CM Rivera amendment. Don't forget how they Vote when their names show up on Ballots in the future.
UPDATED LETTER:
CM Rivera, CM Saka, CM Moore, CM Kettle, CM Woo, and CM Nelson, We stand firmly against the proposition to freeze $25 MM, place a proviso (stipulations on the money), and hold hostage the EDI funds. You say it's not harming current projects - it absolutely will. That funding would support additional capacity and technical support, and it will harm future projects to build needed affordable housing and cultural spaces.
Why is it that BIPOC communities are the first to get cut when the city wants to straighten out its budget? What funds in your own districts have you cut? Don't starve our communities to save this city, support our communities so we be part of the solution to save this city.
Your vote, if it's to support the defunding of our communities, will go down in history and never be forgotten.
Between now and next vote on this amendment, thousands of Seattlites will become aware and mobilize against this heinous proposition.
Vote NO on the CM Rivera Amendment. If it's transparency you want for EDI funds, then come talk to us in the community, don't steal our funding.
The Community
WE: Community Organizations, Community members, and Families are urging Seattle City Council to VOTE NO on Council Member Rivera's late-night sneak amendment (of CB 120774) to eliminate $50 Million Dollars from our Black, Brown, and Indigenous Communities. Freezing $25 million now and likely eliminating the EDI budget in the future.
This amendment is seeking to cut EDI (Equitable Development Initiative) funding indefinitely! EDI Funding is one of the only sources of funding in Seattle for land acquisition for BIPOC groups, and has been a crucial tool in the fight against racism, economic injustice, gentrification, and displacement in our City.
CM Rivera's amendment is catastrophic to so many of the venerable community groups who are recipients of the Equitable Development Initiative funding.
This is disastrous policy making, that is short-sighted, and puts our most marginalized communities on the economic chopping block -- when not too long ago the city increased the Police budget by the Millions!
The EDI program supports community building that addresses the racism and economic injustice that fuels decades of displacement and cultural gentrification. The EDI Initiative is solution-oriented and allows community builders to acquire and develop true affordable housing, set innovative cultural place making, and encourage entrepreneurship.
If CM Rivera's amendment passes, the City Council is targeting community-based organizations that voters love and care about for no reason.
The City of Seattle and our communities need EDI. We are in a budget doom cycle of austerity thinking. The Council must vote to sustain the funding for EDI. Please reject this short-sighted amendment. It will hurt thousands of community members and makes a mockery of the notion of One Seattle.
It should be noted, CM Rivera introduced her amendment after the bill's deadline of Tuesday, May 21st, bring forth the amendment on a Friday before a long weekend. This practice carries scents of circumventing the democratic process for all to share their thoughts. It feels sneaky in its approach, and is not good governance.
Please stand by our communities and reject CM Rivera's amendment to CB 120774.
In community.