Monthly Archives: May 2018

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A Town Hall for a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, Investing in Human Infrastructure, and Expanding Affordable Housing Options!

Are you a domestic worker or employer, or do you want to know more about potential legislation? As you may have heard, Seattle City Council, in collaboration with domestic workers, is considering legislation to create a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights! Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (Pos. 8, Citywide) has been holding Town Halls across Seattle to hear from workers and employers, and has one more scheduled for online participation NEXT WEEK.

Tune in with your questions next Tuesday, May 22, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The event will be simulcast in English and Spanish, and will help Councilmember Mosqueda and staff craft legislation that meets the safety and well-being needs of workers and employers.
Sign Up for the Online Town Hall

Moving Forward with Progressive Revenue for Affordable Housing

I am pleased that we have advanced a progressive revenue option that will bring in nearly $50M a year to house our neighbors experiencing homelessness and provide critical health services to those living unsheltered on the streets of Seattle. This success has happened thanks to the work and support of community members, Labor, housing advocates, and council colleagues working together toward a successful result.I voted in support of a plan that will have a meaningful impact on addressing our homelessness crisis by building housing and providing health services. We know that alone, however, this investment is not enough.

Our neighbors are quite literally dying on the doorsteps of prosperity. We have a moral obligation to take action to provide a safe place to sleep tonight and to make investments in permanently affordable housing. We know where the bottleneck is. People cannot move into shelter when shelters are at capacity, and people cannot move out of shelter when there is no affordable housing to move into.

This is the beginning of a conversation about the values of our city, one that will extend into this budget season. Quick fixes over sustainable, long-term solutions leave more people unsheltered. We must instead make the tough choices to pass progressive revenue, follow the data to move forward on a path that doesn’t simply hide extreme poverty from sight, and address our homelessness emergency as a public health crisis.

I will continue to work to ensure that we are able to maximize production of affordable units, by not selling public land to the highest bidder but instead building affordable housing on public land, changing zoning restrictions, promoting good living wage job standards as we build, and ensure that no person’s zip code determines their health and housing access.  Everyone who works in Seattle should be able to live in the city they work.  With yesterday’s action and through continued collaboration with community and colleagues, I know we can make strides in that direction. This is a critical step in the right direction.
What’s Next for AADU/DADUs?


A Backyard Cottage in Ballard

You may have heard – the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has been released for the proposed bill that makes adding an accessory dwelling unit to your house less onerous. As part of a larger set of measures that will have a meaningful, positive impact on creating more affordable housing options, while giving homeowners a way to both contribute directly to the need while bringing in some extra income.

Before the City Council can move forward with this piece of the affordability puzzle, the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) process must conclude. Right now, comments are being sought regarding the DEIS, which will ultimately lead to a final EIS, along with a preferred option for Council to consider.

It’s an admittedly complex process, but this is a great chance for YOU to weigh in on what you think the final option should look like. Should we keep the status quo? All of Option 2 or 3? Or some hybrid? Click here to read the report, the summary, and instructions on submitting comment!
Speaking of Affordable Housing…


Plaza Roberto Maestes, a Community Driven Affordable Housing Complex on Beacon Hill

Did you know that it’s Affordable Housing Week? To celebrate, we not only provided funding for permanently affordable homes for those experiencing homelessness, but in the Housing, Health, Energy, & Workers’ Rights Committee, we will be receiving a presentation this week from Enterprise Community Partners identifying publicly owned properties that are prime for affordable homes to be built.

This is a continuation of work we are doing, in collaboration with community and colleagues, to take every step we can to reduce the cost to build affordable homes. Where we can utilize surplus and under-utilized government land to focus affordable housing, we have an opportunity to reduce the cost. By collaborating with community organizations, we can create more partnerships that lead to housing with community amenities – like parks, education, and community centers – incorporated. Much like El Centro de la Raza’s Plaza Roberto Maestes, this type of community-led project leads to excellent outcomes for our neighborhoods.

Tune in via Seattle Channel, or stream online, this Thursday, May 17, at 9:30 a.m. Also, make sure to sign up for agendas so you can keep up with legislation as it moves through the HHEWR committee!

In Solidarity,
Teresa Mosqueda
Seattle City Council Councilmember, Position 8
teresa.mosqueda@seattle.gov
206-684-8806
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Gig workers ~ who will rate the raters?
“If I could afford to go on a vacation sometime, the flexibility would be great — but I’m too far in debt to even think about that.”

— Chris, DoorDash driver, Everett
Dear Friends,

Having a flexible schedule & not having a boss are two of the best things about working in the “gig economy.” But it’s not enough.

Billions of dollars are pouring into this growing industry — and workers simply aren’t seeing enough of it. Gig workers aren’t covered by the minimum wage. They aren’t receiving compensation for all the time and money they spend working. And they aren’t getting clear breakdowns of the work they’re doing and the pay they’re getting for it.
“Though I personally love the flexibility of the work schedule, all those hours are still hours away from my family, trying to provide for them, and if my time and effort are not compensated fairly, then I am away from them for nothing.”

— Marina, Postmates/DoorDash driver, Bothell
Most of these apps have strict five-star “rating systems” for their workers. But no one’s rating the companies on how they treat their workers — until now.

App companies love metrics and formulas, so we’re speaking to them in a language they understand and telling them if they want five stars from us, they need to follow these five policies:

★ PAY FOR ALL OUR WORK: Compensate workers for the entire job, including time/mileage spent getting to the passenger, restaurant, business, or client.
★ $15 AFTER EXPENSES: Guarantee a baseline hourly pay of at least $15/hour after expenses for workers who are “on the clock” (logged into their app and actively accepting jobs) — not just during promotions, but on a regular basis.
★ ITEMIZED BREAKDOWN: Give workers an itemized breakdown of pay, including mileage, tips, time, company fees, and other factors.
★ NO TIP THEFT: Pay all tips and “service fees” fully and directly to workers — do not factor tips into base pay or mislead customers into believing “service fees” are being paid to workers.
★ TIMELY PAY: Compensate workers on a timely, regular basis, at least once every two weeks.

Click here to sign on and stand with gig workers: All gig companies should be five-star companies.
“I need a raise. Since I started driving two years ago, my rent goes up every nine months. Every time I renew it, they add more money to the rent. But Uber and Lyft’s rates stay the same.”

— Peter, Uber/Lyft driver, SeaTac
These are basics all workers need. We shouldn’t have to ask to be paid for all our work or given an honest breakdown of how much we’re making. But gig workers won’t get these basics unless we hold the companies accountable for providing them. Click here to learn more about these demands and stand with Chris, Marina, and Peter for better pay and pay transparency in the gig economy.

Thanks for your support,
Working Washington

P.S. Once you’ve signed your name, check out Chris, Marina, and Peter’sstories to learn more about what’s going on for workers in the gig economy.

workingwa.org
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell Your State Legislators to Rescind Article V Convention Applications


We’re getting uncomfortably close to a potentially disastrous event for our Constitution.  As of December 8, 2017, twenty-eight states have “live” applications to Congress to call an Article V convention to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). That means that if only six more states apply for such a convention, Congress will be forced to call it.

The danger in calling for such a convention is that based on the precedent of the May 14 Constitutional Convention of 1787, an Article V constitutional convention would have the power to make major changes in the Constitution, or even completely rewrite it, including changing the ratification process to make adoption of the revised constitution easier. This danger is referred to as “a runaway convention.”

In the early 1980s, we were even closer to the calling of an Article V convention. Thirty-two of the necessary 34 states had applied to Congress to call a BBA Article V convention. Over the years, from 1988 to 2010, seventeen states rescinded (canceled) their BBA Article V convention applications based on the widespread knowledge that Article V constitutional conventions are considered threats to our rights as secured by the Constitution due to the power of such conventions to become runaway conventions. That meant that for a while only fifteen or sixteen states had “live” applications for a BBA Article V convention.

However, after 30 years had elapsed with no new BBA Article V convention applications approved, the momentum changed back in favor of applying for such conventions in 2013. Since then, some states that had rescinded their applications have reapplied, and some other states that had never applied, have now applied for the first time. However, 2016-2017 saw a resurgence in rescissions of BBA Article V convention applications, including rescissions in Delware (2016), Maryland (2017), Nevada (2017), and New Mexico (2017). Which brings us up to the present situation of twenty-eight states with “live” applications.

This resurgence of the Article V convention movement since 2013, although slowed down by the four recent rescissions, has been based on the energetic creation of new narratives by Article V convention proponents. However, these new narratives are based on numerous false marketing claims. For a rebuttal of these false marketing claims, we highly recommend that you view “Change It or Obey It? Why the Constitution Is the Solution,” a new 89-minute video presentation by constitutionalist Robert Brown by clicking on the graphic.

Once you’ve seen the video, we also recommend that you click the next graphic on the left and read the article, “Save the Constitution by Rescinding Article V Convention Applications,” for further information on the history of the Article V Convention movement, the current status, and the need to rescind all existing Article V convention applications of all types in your state.  A “Model Resolution for a State Legislature to Rescind All Constitutional Convention Applications” is included in the article.

If you live in one of the 28 orange states shown in the BBA,  Article V, on Convention Status Map above, then the need is especially great for you to work with other activists and with your state legislators to get a rescission resolution introduced and passed. Remember that for every one of the 28 states that passes a rescission resolution, the BBA Article V convention movement is one state further away from their goal of 34 states.

If you live in Idaho, Oregon, South Carolina, or Virginia, you are off the hook for needing to rescind your state’s Article V convention applications because you have rescission resolutions that are still in effect and not overriden by later reapplications for a BBA Article V convention.

Please visit, phone, and email your state legislators in support of introducing and passing a rescission resolution. Although we provide a way for easy emailing to your state legislators, we know from long experience that getting a rescission resolution introduced and passed takes a lot more interaction with your legislators than that provided by emails alone.

Click here for the office locations and phone numbers of your state legislators.

Click here  to view our Stop a Constitutional Convention action project page at JBS.org for more educational tools.

resource: john birch society – jbs.org

Yes…them, but don’t get it twisted, and don’t let the trump admin fool you, we need to stay several steps ahead of them …  Our constitution and democracy seem to be in danger …

imo ~ Nativegrl77