Council Briefing 7/21/25

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is July 21st, 2025. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.01 p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Rink?

Present.

Council member Rivera?

Present.

Council member Salko?

Here.

Council member Solomon?

Here.

Council member Strauss?

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Seven present.

If there's no objection, the minutes of July 14th, 2025 will be adopted.

Seeing none, the minutes are adopted.

Okay.

On tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are 32 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

Yes, it's that time of year.

The weekly bill payment ordinance, Council Bill 121039, an ordinance relating to residential property transactions requiring certain disclosures to owners before presenting an offer to purchase a residential property.

Six reappointments and appointments to the Seattle Housing Authority Board.

13 reappointments and appointments to the Seattle Renters Commission.

One appointment to the Community Roots Housing PDA Governing Council.

One appointment to the Seattle Disability Commission.

One appointment to the Seattle Social Housing PDA Governing Council.

Two reappointments to the Landmarks Preservation Board.

Council Bill 121036, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to execute for and on behalf of the City of Seattle a concession agreement granting the Kite Cafe LLC the right to exclusive use and occupancy of the Golden Gardens Bathhouse.

for the purpose of providing food and concessions for park patrons.

Council Bill 121038, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to enter into a five-year contract Five-year agreement with options to extend with lost evenings to operate and provide management of the Green Lake Pitch and Putt at Green Lake Park and then Council Bill 121040, an ordinance relating to new vehicle types and curb allowances for e-cargo bicycle delivery.

All right.

The consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and ten items.

Seven appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

Three reappointments to the Green New Deal.

That was seven appointments and three reappointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

And there's one piece of legislation from committees, which is Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture Committee, Council Bill 121025, an ordinance relating to the City Light Department authorizing the general manager and chief executive officer of City Light to execute an interlocal agreement with the Kalispell Tribe of Indians.

And then, finally, we will have the District 5 finalist interviews.

As you know, the candidate forum is scheduled for 5.30 tonight at North Seattle Community College and hosted by Unified Outreach.

The forum is open to the public and will be broadcast by the Seattle Channel online and over the air.

And then tomorrow at our regular council meeting, it'll begin one hour earlier than normal at 1 p.m.

And this extra time will allow us to publicly interview the finalists prior to our normal council business.

We have one item on the agenda for a vote and then we'll have our interviews.

And the process will be the same as it has been in the past.

Each finalist will have three minutes for a brief opening statement and introduction.

Then each council member will have up to 10 minutes to ask the finalist questions.

And how you choose to utilize your 10 minutes is completely up to you.

And you don't need to use the full amount of time.

The clerk will put a timer on the screen to help all council members manage their time.

And of course, then you're also welcome to meet with finalists privately between now and next Monday.

And then finally, we'll have our vote to appoint one of the finalists to the District 5 seat a week from today on Monday, July 28th at a special council meeting at 9.30 a.m.

Council briefing will proceed as usual on that day at 2 p.m.

That is unless no candidate is selected to fill the vacancy in the morning meeting at which point all regularly scheduled business will be replaced by a special council meeting until someone is selected.

Are there any questions about the remainder of the vacancy process or what we're doing today and tomorrow or I mean tomorrow at the council meeting?

Okay.

Seeing none, there are no proclamations for signature today, so we'll begin our round robin.

And this week's order starts with Councilmember Rank.

Thank you, Council President, and hello, colleagues.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Amazing weather.

Kicking us off, I want to thank everyone who participated in the Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes meeting on Friday.

We heard an overview of the Trump regime's big betrayal bill from OIR, while also hearing from a panel of human and social service providers, including the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, the Seattle Human Services Coalition, and the University District Food Bank.

I think it's clear to anyone who attended the meeting that these cuts that are happening are quite bad.

They're devastating.

And we as local leaders need to step up to find ways to address these cuts while partnering with our partners at the county and state level as we tackle these challenges coming our way.

And so for folks who are unable to join, I encourage you to go back and take a look at the presentations.

They provide some really granular level information as to what these cuts will mean specifically for us in Seattle.

And moving on to the D5 appointment, I know that the 46th LD held a town hall and garnered some feedback from District 5 residents and sent some of those findings over to all of us and would encourage folks to take a look to see what some residents of D5 have said in terms of what they're looking for in an appointee.

I'm taking some time this week to meet one-on-one with some of our D5 candidates to learn a little bit more And also talk about good working relationships here on Council.

And I'll also be at the forum tonight at North Seattle College.

And I hope to see folks there who are able to tune in.

And I'll be very brief today and just close out with hot rat summer.

And I want to thank Councilmember Hollingsworth for joining me and Callie Henderson.

to restore the Saint Rat, also known as the Hot Rat Summer mosaic in Cal Anderson Park.

I don't want to speak for you, Councilmember Hollingsworth, but I think it's safe to say we both really love that art piece.

And it was really fantastic to be joined by community members and some folks, some young people from the Washington bus as well, who swung by to be a part of the restoration effort.

I know we talked about this last week during briefing, and I mentioned this might sound a little bit silly in some ways, but these are the little things that kind of make Seattle, Seattle.

And I want to specifically mention one person who was a big part of the restoration effort, a new West Seattle resident, Councilmember Saka, Moved here about a month ago.

Her name is Bug and she was already there taking the lead and taking some of the paint off.

And it was really informative to hear from her as a new resident to Seattle, just how much she loves this city already and has already been a part of community building efforts, like bringing in this art piece back online.

So with that, I'll close out with Happy hot rat summer.

Let the people have rat.

Thank you.

And I will turn it to Councilmember Rivera.

One second, I'll make a note that Councilmember Hollingsworth has joined us.

Go ahead, please.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

All right, last week I attended the Seattle Police Department's Real-Time Crime Center Celebration Event.

Launched on May 20th, as you know, the center allows crime analysts to view video and data streams to provide real-time analysis to officers.

It has already supported hundreds of investigations.

It's been a good tool and, of course, want to mention that privacy concerns are most definitely taken into account because we want to make sure we are preserving folks' privacy across the city as these tools are being utilized.

Also attended last week the Safer Seattle Forum that Chief Barnes has been having these forums across the city.

He had one in the D4 last Tuesday.

It was very well attended and there were a lot of city departments there represented.

A couple of pieces of good news, which you've probably heard, but I'll just say for the viewing public, is the progress made in hiring officers.

Chief Barnes indicated that SPD has hired or will have hired 100 officers this year, as compared...

I'm sorry, over.

Already.

Oh, already this year.

Yep.

And last year, we had about 10 officers hired at this time last year.

So that is a huge increase.

And of course, as you all know, this is the first year we're not losing officers as we're hiring them to retirements and things of that nature.

That's obviously a significant improvement.

I know a lot of us here worked really hard to rebuild our relationship with SPD and to ensure we have enough officers who reflect Seattle's values to get us back to fully staffed.

D5 vacancy, we all got to hear obviously from the D5 candidates for the D5 vacancy.

It was really interesting and valuable to hear and I really appreciate everyone who took the time to come down here and talk to us about what they were looking for and also to the candidates for throwing their names in the hat.

I really admire and I'm very just always so appreciative that people will want to take these roles on.

They're not easy roles and they're very important roles and we want to make sure obviously that the D5 is well represented with the interests of their collective constituency there.

So looking forward to having someone selected and partnering with us on the council.

Last week, I also met with some students who participate in the UW's Greek system who've raised concerns about public safety around the Greek Row and blocks adjacent to Greek Row.

As you all know, colleagues, the University District is an incredibly dense area of our city and includes a lot of student housing.

Um, including Panhellenic housing and that is not on, that is not actually on campus.

Um, so SPD provides support to, to our students as well as part of being residents, um, in the U district.

Uh, and I really want to hear their concerns.

We partner with UW Police.

Care team is now in the UW Police Headquarter building, and they're all providing support to students, and I'm engaged with the students to see what else we can do to make sure that we are addressing the public safety needs there.

And for instance, very sadly, one of the students that I met with lived in that house that burned down on July 4th because there were fireworks being thrown at that house that created a fire.

I want to thank the fire department for all their efforts in containing that fire to that house.

But now that student is displaced because they can't be in the house.

Continuing to partner with the students there is really important to me.

This week, Magnuson Park, I was really pleased to hear that things were calm over the weekend at Magnuson Park.

Last weekend, the prior weekend, we had a lot of noise disturbances into the wee hours.

And when I say wee hours, I'm talking 3, 3.30, 4 a.m.

So I reached out to SPD and to Parks to find out how we could address that for this coming weekend.

The issue is people have been accessing the Parks Boat Launch area after hours, and they drag away barriers, and they're getting around the locked gates.

I reached out to parks, and they were able to put some boulders in place, and then SPD also added some additional night patrols beyond the activation that is currently in place at Magnuson and many other parks across the city, and that proved to be successful.

I really want to thank all the folks, because it takes a village, all the folks that came together to address this.

So from Seattle, the Seattle PD, I want to thank Lieutenant Haynes, who was pinch hitting for Captain Davison this weekend, and his officers.

I want to thank AP Diaz with Parks and also John Jega, who's the Parks Rangers, who heads up the Park Rangers there.

And I want to thank Andy Schiffer and Soma and Daisy.

So many folks, and I wish I could name them all, but so many folks who really care about keeping the park safe, who are suiting the park and making sure that the noise levels are down so we're not disturbing the residents that live at the park and those residents that live around the park.

So this is a big deal, and I really want to thank folks for Just their quick efforts in addressing that for this coming weekend, leading to no noise disturbances this weekend.

So can't underscore enough the One Seattle approach to making these things, to addressing these things across the districts.

On Wednesday of this week, I'm going to be visiting Hilltop Children's Center, a preschool provider on Queen Anne, Councilmember Kettle.

I'll be in your district as part of my duties as chair of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee.

I met the head of the center during the FEP levy process, and she invited me to visit, so I'll be there.

Councilmember Kettle, if you're around, would love to see you, but I understand your schedule is probably quite busy as well, but just know I'll be in your district.

We have our LEND Committee this week, Thursday.

We will have presentations from the Department of Neighborhoods, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, as well as a number of appointments to the Landmarks Preservation Board and the Pike Place Market Historical Commission.

Don will update us on their Public Safety Coordinator Program.

OIRA is going to be updating us on their work in response to the impacts of the federal immigration policy locally.

They're doing incredible work and I want to make sure that we hear from them.

Colleagues, you're always, and I encourage you and welcome you to attend the meeting even if you do not sit on the LEND Committee.

Thursday, I'm having my monthly meeting with Captain Davison.

I do want to say about the B&O tax, I've heard from a couple of large research centers in my district and from across the city who will be impacted by the proposed B&O tax.

You heard me say last week I didn't realize that some nonprofits also are going to be subject to the impacts of this B&O tax.

These research centers are also going to be losing grants from the federal government.

So these are the very folks that will also be impacted by the federal cuts, and it leaves me to wonder what kind of research and outreach was done planning this piece of legislation.

I'm also hearing from small businesses that two million is too small a figure.

For instance, a business like De Laurentiis, I was at the market today actually because the PDA sits under the committee that I chair and I heard You know, places like De Laurentiis, I consider De Laurentiis to be a small business.

There is one De Laurentiis.

It's at the market.

And they're going to be impacted by this B&O tax.

They have employees.

They provide health care to the employees with premiums going up.

They're subject to those increases in costs as well.

So we talked about this last week when there was a presentation on the B&O, but just Sometimes we think of B&O as taxing big business, but a lot of small businesses and what I call medium-sized businesses will also be subject to this.

And I just feel like we're just now getting to more of this information on the impacts that this will have across the board.

And I really wished we had more time as I'm learning more about this particular tax so we know exactly who's going to be impacted and how we can help.

with those impacts, if we can, on those businesses that, like I said, they seem to me to be what I consider small businesses, but they will be subject to this tax in ways that is going to have big impacts.

I want to say I'm grateful to Attorney General Nick Brown, who's joined a lawsuit to get our education funding from the feds.

I wholeheartedly support that, and we need to be suing to get other funding from the feds as well.

And of course, as we are going into budget this fall, very short in short order here, We need to be talking about backfilling.

It seems to me this tax is also addressing backfilling our own deficit rather than just the federal deficit because our own deficit is $253 million.

The B&O tax is only raising $90.

So what are we doing in terms of budget reform and looking at programs and whether or not those programs are actually leading to positive outcomes?

And one example which I had a conversation with FAS today was Priority Hire.

It's a program I support and that's having great outcomes.

So let's make sure we're supporting programs like that that are having the positive outcomes and really looking at other programs and seeing If changes need to be made.

So I'll leave it at that for budget.

And then the last thing I want to say next week, I will be visiting Seattle Colleges and be visiting with Chancellor Rosie Raimondo-Cherionsep, or as we call her, So I look forward to attending the Seafarer reception on Wednesday and the gala on Friday and next week.

So unless anyone has any questions, I will pass it on.

Are there any questions?

All right.

All right.

Councilmember Saka.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Council President and afternoon colleagues on the Transportation Committee front.

I want to thank all members who joined us at our Transportation Committee meeting last one last week where, among other things, we discussed two very important topics.

First and foremost, the District Project Fund, which is a council initiative, started off as a mayoral initiative.

Now it is a city initiative, but heard some great feedback from you all, got some good updates from our staff experts.

on the legislative side and then SDOT.

So more to come on this, colleagues.

My office is also currently working on a resolution and corresponding proviso lift to effectuate this program and to really bring it to life.

So stay tuned.

We also heard a presentation on the Seattle Department of Transportation's Pothole Repair Program.

And appreciate SDOT for bringing out the time to share their insights and expertise on how we currently do business and that's important in delivering the everyday basics and this important essential government function of pothole repair.

And our next Transportation Committee meeting is going to be on Tuesday, August 5th.

All are welcome, as always, and we are still finalizing the agenda on that one.

On the regional or external committee front, tomorrow we will have our second meeting of the new Transportation Levy Oversight Committee.

And we've had a lot of terrific engagement in our first meeting from the various members.

Upcoming meeting tomorrow, we'll continue to focus on Levy Oversight Committee member education.

So we're continuing on in our onboarding journey to get folks up to speed with the complex levy.

And so folks are in our best position to carry out their solemn oversight function as levy oversight committee members.

So tomorrow's conversation meeting will include discussions on the levy delivery plan, which we all approved as council earlier this year, as you'll recall, and various aspects of financial management and a panel of of returning prior levy oversight committee members.

That's going to be a good discussion.

My office looks forward to it.

On the PSRC front this Thursday, I will be attending the next regularly scheduled Pew Sound Regional Council Executive Committee meeting, and I will be joining that one while I currently plan to join in person.

So looking forward to that.

That is it on the substantive committee from my perspective, but I do just want to highlight and give a shout out and congratulations really to the West Seattle Little League softball 10U team.

The girls softball team from West Seattle Little League made history.

And their second place finish at the state tournament out of all the district's champions from all the 13 districts across the state in Little League.

They ended up as the first runner-up, finishing second in the tournament.

In the process, they became the highest-placing A girls' softball team from a little league from West Seattle in state ever.

They won astounding four games in the tournament.

And they're also the first ever West Seattle girls team, like I mentioned, to win four games.

And a very highly competitive state tournament, where the best of the best bring it every day.

The girls went 7-0 in both their district and state tournament games.

The team also pitched three no-hitters and one perfect game, outscoring their opponents 85 runs to four runs before falling, unfortunately, in the final 2-1 in the state championship final.

Still a sore subject for the team because it was double elimination format for everyone until the final game where it was single elimination.

So the team actually beat the team and ended up winning the night before and then for all the marbles.

Came up just short, but they still made everyone in West Seattle proud, everyone in the District 1 proud.

I think actually across the city, because there were watch parties.

Watch the girls' game on Game Changer, which is an app where people can watch youth sports, who want to geek out on youth sports, check out Game Changer.

But there were watch parties.

Watch their championship game all across our terrific city, from West Wings and West Seattle to Ruff and Tumble and Ballard.

Ruff and Tumble, colleagues, as Councilmember Strauss will tell you, they're famous for streaming exclusively women's sports events and games.

So honored that Ruff and Tumble and Ballard I owe some love to girls from Seattle doing their thing.

But in any event, they made their contributions to the sport, reflected great credit upon themselves, great credit upon Little League and community recreational baseball or sports in general, and all of West Seattle.

So really, really proud of their efforts.

The pleasure of announcing the The boys' TENS team, baseball, they're actually hosting the statewide tournament at Torres Playfield in West Seattle.

And so that tournament kicked off yesterday and I had the pleasure of announcing the boys' tournament or first opening game of West Seattle yesterday at 3 p.m.

And so in any event.

That is all I have from my perspective.

I welcome any questions or comments from my colleagues.

And if not, I'm happy to pass it on to whoever's next on today's list.

Okay, I don't see any questions.

Go ahead, Council Member Solomon.

All right, thank you very much, Madam President.

I don't have any sports things to update anybody on, so I'll just skip that.

In terms of external committees, there are no updates.

Moving on to Housing and Human Services Committee, which will be the meeting this Wednesday at 9.30.

There are 22 appointments to various commissions that we will be bringing up.

We will also have a briefing and discussion on legislation related to predatory homebuyers.

The Land Use Committee will have a special meeting on Wednesday, July 30th at 2 p.m.

At that point, there will be a public hearing on simplifying the subdivision process, public hearing on the roots-to-roofs legislation.

There are no votes expected, and we have room for more things that need to be discussed.

For our land use committee.

In terms of activities this past week, I did have a chance to meet with several members of the...

Several folks who are interested in the D5 appointment.

We'll hopefully have a chance to meet with the remaining potential interested parties this week.

We did attend a rising up celebration for An apartment building, Trace 4001. It's a project that's being built by Mr. Stegen.

Amazon had invested several million dollars into that project.

It will be rent-restricted for 99 years, so definitely getting affordable family housing into D2 right next to the Othello light rail station area.

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to be with Councilmember Strauss for a, what was it, council edition for the Seattle Channel.

Also had meetings with First Tee regarding the Lawn Bowling Club at the Bill Wright Golf Complex at Jefferson Park.

Met with an organization, Fathers and Sons Together, about a project they want to do, Resource and Opportunity Center they are looking to bring into the Rainier Beach community.

We did have staff attend the Tenantown Seafair Parade last night.

I actually had a meeting just earlier today with friends of Little Saigon and Skipta regarding their Little Saigon Landmark project.

Let's see.

Also coming up, oh, and I also had meetings last week with a group of small landlords about some of the challenges that they're facing.

As well as the Housing Development Consortium.

So more meetings to come regarding, you know, renters, Renters Commission, housing developers, housing providers, small landlords, just looking at the whole ecosystem of affordable housing or rental housing in the city of Seattle.

I'm planning on doing some office hours Friday at Jefferson Community Center.

And the last thing I will mention is Hot Rat Summer actually made NPR last week.

And they also mentioned that a council member, at least one, was involved with doing the restoration of the Hot Rat Summer Mural.

So you made national news.

With that, I have nothing further unless there's any questions or a statement.

We did it, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

I have to say even my son saw something online about that and said, whoa, you meant that.

We all could use a good news story, right?

Yes.

Thank you, Councilmember Solomon.

Okay, Councilmember Strauss.

With that, with that.

Thank you, colleagues.

I'm gonna go over the Select Budget Committee for next week.

Our Select Budget Committee met last week, and we don't have any legislation for full council this week.

Our meeting will be next week, July 30th at 9.30 a.m.

As a reminder, it'll be a very busy meeting.

where we will take votes on the Seattle Shield initiative, the mid-year supplemental budget package, the carry forward legislation, the World Cup appropriations, and the HCMS loan for Workday.

The first update to our Timekeeping system in 30 years.

But don't worry, no technological changes have happened since 1994 that can help us.

It's a challenge, right, to make such a big update for the first time in 30 years.

Regarding the...

So just as kind of, you know, looking back to where we've come from, The Seattle Shield initiative was briefed, not last meeting, but the meeting before.

On all of the topics that we just discussed was discussion in last week's committee.

That's why I let people talk for basically as long as they wanted to until we got closer to the end where we had to get towards business.

And next week are the votes on amendments and the underlying bills.

So first we had briefing, then we had discussion, and next week will be votes.

Just want to bring that up.

And so if you do need extra information or briefings on any of these topics, please make sure to reach out to Seattle Central staff this week.

Or to the department in question, during next week's meeting, it is our intention to get into voting on amendments and the underlying legislation as quickly as possible to get through the entire set of legislation, that entire agenda.

We do have Land Use Committee next week, and so we don't have the ability to extend beyond, and so I'm not going to limit folks on making statements or asking questions, understanding that we've already had two opportunities on the Seattle Shield.

This will be our second opportunity, and this last committee was intended to be for discussion, which is why it went three and a half hours.

Speaking of amendments, the amendment deadline for both the Seattle Shield initiative and mid-year supplemental, as well as carry forward, is tomorrow at noon.

This is concepts.

It doesn't have to be finalized.

So if you do have something that you are thinking about, please be sure to get your amendments in by noon tomorrow, as we plan to post final amendments publicly with the agenda materials at the latest next Monday.

And so just working back from next Monday, Have to have quality control.

Have to have lawyers look at it.

Have to have central staff draft it.

Have to have you look over their draft to make sure that it was right in the first place, right?

So just understanding we're in a tight timeline here.

Moving on to my external committees, Council Member Solomon, my apologies, I will have to miss the Land Use Committee next week.

After we leave Select Budget Committee, I will be attending to my duties on Association of Washington City's Executive Committee, where we will be having a day-long, they're having a day-long meeting.

I'll be able to join as soon as Select Budget is over, and they know and we've been able to work through some of those details.

As well as the Sound Transit Board of Directors are meeting this week.

We are taking action on a number of what I would call routine business items.

There's the 457B Deferred Compensation Plan.

Interestingly enough, we are now executing our law enforcement services agreement with the City of Linwood because again, we have contracts with King County for their policing service with Link Light Rail.

Linwood represents us breaking into Snohomish County, so that means we have another county sheriff's office to get these agreements in place with.

I will be excited when we break into Pierce County as well, and we'll have to do this again with Pierce County.

But for this week, it's just with Snohomish County.

We also have land transfer with the WSDOT garage at Mount Lake Terrace, and Councilmember Saka, I briefed you on these materials.

I briefed everyone else last week about Sound Transit purchasing some additional properties in West Seattle, and I was not satisfied with Sound Transit's response to me How they were to be maintained and cared for in the interim period.

And so I'm hoping that they'll have a better answer for me this week.

As well as I think the biggest thing that happened last week or the week before was the Federal Way Link Extension will open for revenue service prior to the two-line cross-lake connection.

We are entering into that final period for getting across Lake Washington where certain tests are being done that will give us better specificity for both when Federal Way will open as well as getting across the lake.

And of course, the Little Debbie Station, Pinehurst Station up there on 130th Street should be looking to get opened next year in 2026. In District 6, as always, I held office hours last week, have them again this week, looking forward to it.

It was wonderful to have the powwow at the Daybreak Star Center.

United Indians of All Tribes are the host every year.

It is a seafarer event.

And I was able to touch base with our executive director there and understand about the renovation project that is happening.

One of the first times since the 1970s or 80s when the building was built that energy efficient aspects are being put into the building.

But there is a cost overrun.

I'm trying to work it out with King County to see if we can't fix something here.

But giving you that heads up, it was a great powwow.

Looking forward to next year as well.

And of course, as Councilmember Saka mentioned, Rough and tumble is an amazing place to watch sports in Ballard.

Hopefully his love for rough and tumble will continue once he learns that the owners are also part owners of Salmon Bay FC.

But in better news, Ballard FC progressed through the playoffs.

The first playoffs, just by way of background, two years ago they were national champions.

Out of all 122 teams nationwide, they were the best.

Last year they lost their first playoff game and were booted.

So this year to get through the first playoff game was a success.

We were confronted with Snohomish FC, which was the only team we did not beat this year, and we were able to pull off a 2-1 victory last night, which brings hosting more games this Friday and then this Sunday, and the following week will be the national championship that hopefully we'll be at.

So again, as Councilmember Salomon mentioned, we participated in Council Edition last week.

Thanks to Brian Callanan for such a great conversation.

With that, that is my report, colleagues.

If there are questions, happy to take them, or I am happy to pass it on to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Go ahead, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Just a second, please.

Councilmember Kellell has a question.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Council President.

Just going to say, I'm clearly looking forward to working with you on any challenges with Daybreak Star and the challenges.

that are there and make that commitment.

Secondly, I guess three things.

Secondly, coming back from a lacrosse camp drop-off, I'm looking at the Cross Lake light rail and And scratching my head over the delay and where we are, which then leads me to ask, will we be able to ride it when it's over 80 degrees?

The Ballard Bridge did have to close momentarily last weekend.

As you may or may not have seen, they were watering the bridge to keep it To keep it cool, the light rail, we are on light rail, not heavy rail.

That is a technical difference.

And so it does become difficult.

Interesting thing about crossing Lake Washington, Sound Transit is doing two things that have never been done before.

One is harder than the other.

The first is it's crossing a floating bridge.

There's nowhere in this world is rail on a floating bridge.

The second thing that they are endeavoring to do in this next year is to put light rail through a Native American reservation.

I will say that the second is more difficult because it is a government-to-government process.

We cannot eminent domain their land in the same way that we can here in the city of Seattle.

But your question there, getting across Lake Washington, if anyone's interested in going out on a tour, I'd be happy to try and arrange this.

I was able to go out for a tour on I-90.

Essentially, it is a piece of infrastructure that can move any direction and keep the rails straight.

And so the bridge across I-90 moves with the wind, it moves with the waves, and all the while you have to keep these rails straight.

And so the piece of equipment that is designed out there is one in the world.

There's only one Seattle in the world, and that's why we're one Seattle.

There's only one of these floating bridge light rail systems in the world.

And yes, it connects to Seattle.

Sorry, I don't know if that was your question.

That was the long answer that you didn't ask for.

Good answer.

Go ahead, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Strauss, I know you sit on the Sound Transit Board, so I just wanted to flag for you that this weekend, I-5 was closed, as you know, north, and the light rail was jam-packed.

I took the light rail.

I hope the feedback you'll be able to provide Sound Transit is when things like I-5, their closures, folks are relying on light rail, and so it'd be really great if they ran more trains more frequently because having, you know, it was like a 12 to 15 minute in between trains, which means they were Totally packed people, couldn't get on, had to wait for the next train, which waiting to 12 to 15 minutes is a lot, particularly if you're getting to work, et cetera.

So during episodes where we're doing things like closures, it would be great if they ran more trains to accommodate for folks that have to take the light rail, particularly if they're doing it for taking light rail to work, which many of our residents do.

So thanks for sharing that feedback.

That's really great feedback.

And when Councilmember Saka had WSDOT at his committee, I was politely upset at the lack of forewarning that they were giving folks.

And one answer that they provided in particular was, we're not telling people until the last minute because they won't pay attention.

And I find that to be false.

And I don't think that that's a good answer.

And, sorry, I'm getting there, right?

I don't find that to be acceptable.

Beyond that, they are doing no mitigation on the third most used north-south corridor, which is 15th Avenue, west and northwest.

They said that the SDOT's response was that they are going to monitor it, but if it's the third most used north-south corridor, how do you think it's gonna go?

I've seen this movie before.

Back to light rail.

So we are constrained with where the operations and maintenance facilities are.

So when Sound Transit built line two, which goes out to Redmond, We had the choice of putting an operations and maintenance facility in Linwood or on the east side.

And the choice was made to put it on the east side.

And so until we can get across the bridge, we are stuck using our one OMF base.

And Sound Transit did a lot of work And I really give them kudos because they got caught with a really challenging situation, which was to get to Linwood, they needed more trains and they needed more frequency.

And that's why you'll oftentimes see trains stacked at Northgate on the side.

They are actually stashing trains in different pockets along the rail.

because we don't have access to our second OMF base.

This is no excuse.

This is no reason.

Yes, I would love them to run more trains because I was on the train that was hitting UW graduation and the No Kings protest.

And for anyone watching, the trick, if you are stuck in that situation, is to take the train one stop in the opposite direction and beat the crowd and come back.

But all of that said, I will take your feedback straight to the top.

Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate that.

And if we can't run trains more frequently, then what can we do for folks?

Because folks need to get around.

And I was riding with a bunch of folks that were going to the game, which is great.

People should take the light rail to the game.

I've done so in the past.

And I was just going downtown for fun, because I love going downtown.

But, you know, there were folks there trying to get to work.

So I just want to make sure that we have options for folks.

It's really critical.

And I feel like we need to be thinking beyond the obstacles and not that I'm not saying that's what you were saying, but just we need to be able to get beyond this and find alternatives for folks.

Yeah.

I mean, to that point, this is going to happen again in about a month.

That's right, for a lot longer.

And again, when WSDOT is planning these things, it may be that we need to bring back the route, I believe it was 41, that express route that went from Northgate to downtown and back that made no stops and it was just express.

Maybe it's something like that that we need to bring back.

Shuttle.

Right?

And I will also express my transit frustrations today.

Colleagues, I think you've heard my frustration that I have to drive to catch a bus now.

And that has changed since I've been on council.

I used to be able to just walk to the bus.

And today, the bus just never came.

There were no service advisories put on.

On the website, nothing.

So luckily, I had my car because I had to drive to transit.

And so then I picked up a couple people along the way.

They never found out who I was, which I really enjoyed because then I got to have a normal conversation with normal people.

But it came out that this bus has disappeared on people two or three times in both directions over the last week.

I was really excited to be able to take transit to work, catch light rail up to the D5 Forum tonight, and then catch transit on the way home.

But instead, I was forced to drive because Metro couldn't provide reliable service.

And that's just that they're reliable, right?

Because I took the bus to Wallingford from Ravenna on Saturday, no problems, even with all the traffic and the closures.

But it's just inconsistent.

And so people can't rely on that.

And again, the workpiece is really important because people have to get to work, like you were trying to get to this morning.

So anyway, all right.

And with that, you were, thankfully, thanks to your questions, you reminded me to let everyone know I will be at the DeFi Forum tonight at North Seattle College.

Thanks.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, now it's over to you.

Get him, coach.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

I do want to say before I jump into my thing, I do appreciate to hear Councilmember Saka and also Councilmember Kettle talk about how excited they are to participate with their daughters in their activities, True Girl Dads.

Councilmember Solomon, no knock on you.

I know you're an older dad, but it's also good to hear the fathers talk about their young girls and how important that is.

So I just wanted to throw that out there.

I'd never not hear enough about how you all are engaging with your daughters.

Okay, so Parks Utilities Technology Meeting will be 7.23 at 2 p.m., so that's this Wednesday, on the committee.

The upcoming agenda, we have solid waste that we'll be talking about with SPU.

We also have Seattle Parks and Rec concession bill that is the pitch and putt in Green Lake and also the cafe over in Golden Gardens.

And I know there's some council members that have some amendments to some of those.

So looking forward to working through the committee with that information as well.

The Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan, August 4th at 9.30 a.m., we're going to be having central staff is going to go over amendments to the Comprehensive Plan in House Bill 1110. I want to thank you all for your engagement with central staff as they're developing a lot of the concepts and what people have been hearing from community and so forth.

So looking forward to working on that.

I'll be sending out some more information on some more dates as well to your offices.

So please make sure you look out for that.

And then September 12th, we're going to be doing a public hearing for the Comprehensive Plan and the amendments in House Bill 1110. So we're still working out the details to that.

We look forward to people staying engaged.

We'll be sending out a newsletter this week with dates and information.

So hopefully people will see that and we'll throw some stuff on our social media as well so we can make sure we get the word out.

And I know that you all will be adding it into newsletters as well, getting the information out there.

So thank you.

Other than that, one thing, thank you, Councilmember Rank.

It was really nice.

to join you and the community to help with restoring Hot Rad Summer.

I do want to acknowledge the community members for so long that have created that piece of artwork and then also the ones that have taken care of that.

There was a young woman there, and I can't pronounce her name, but it's a Beautiful mushroom name is what I was told.

So, but who has helped engaged in that process to take care of the artwork in the building.

And we're going to be working on, I know Councilmember Reid and I are going to be working on some stuff with our executive on creating that space to continue to be an art And it is.

It's a masterpiece.

It's glass that was made into this beautiful form mosaic.

Someone intentionality of creating a rat that's hot.

It's hot rat summer.

And so we want to continue that type of artwork all over Seattle, especially in District 3. So you all have heard me enough talk about that.

Second thing, D5 Vacancy, looking forward tonight to hearing the candidates and also meeting with the candidates as well this week to hear more from them, just have a little bit more in-depth conversation, but looking forward to hearing the community feedback and then also, you know, what D5 would like and the candidates that they are including in their evaluation.

Also, last but not least, on last Friday, I had the opportunity to join the mayor's office with our Department of Human Services in the free summer meal program that was at Pratt Park.

I believe a lot of council members have elevated it.

I know you have, Councilmember Saka, on your social media.

But the free meal programs are going to be across the city, how important it is to bridge the gap during the summer.

But the most interesting thing, because I know that free summer meals has been around for a bit, and the program has continued to expand, and there's different organizations and people that do meals.

This is the federal government.

So the meals are 0 to 18, serve 0 to 18. And as early as 9 a.m.

to the latest 4 p.m.

But you have to look at the schedule because different parks have different hours.

But one of the things I thought was really interesting and shout out to our parks department, our school kids, our high school kids that are volunteers and also organizations that have volunteered as well, because AmeriCorps was a big part of some of their volunteers that used to come and help a part of that service.

And we didn't have that this year.

And so that was 25 spots that our Seattle Parks Department, our Human Services Department, and all groups had to collectively figure out how to navigate that.

And they did it.

And grateful for that on the fly so we can continue serving these meals to the community, it activates the parks, the kids have somewhere fun to go to, and they get a nutritious meal, which is important for them as well.

Anyways, I just wanted to highlight that about how little things might impact.

We hear about cuts, we hear about different things that are going on on the federal level, and you're trying to figure out, okay, how do they impact us locally?

And just having conversations with people, you start to understand locally how a lot of that stuff trickles down, and it adds up.

So I just wanted to highlight that because it does impact, but I do want to thank Human Services and Seattle Parks Department And a lot of the community groups and all the volunteers that are our school kids in high school that are volunteering to help serve these kids and our internship program as well with the summer jobs.

Everybody's working collectively together and that's the Seattle that we know and we grew up with and that we want to live in and continue to support.

So with that being said, I think I'm supposed to pass it off to Councilmember Kettle.

Yep, I don't see any questions.

Go ahead, Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

And since it's the theme today, I'm going to start off with the hot rat summer.

Out of curiosity, a test for my colleagues.

Every time I hear hot rats, I'm thinking of mid-rats, and the challenge is, what does mid-rats mean for my colleagues?

Secondly, I just wanted to note, in my District, a constituent noted, enjoy the giant talking rat more than I want to admit.

So my question is, will the giant talking rat make an appearance tomorrow or some other point?

We'll see.

It's just a challenge.

So anyways, bonus points will go to the first colleague that understands mid-rats as opposed to hot rats.

Separately, I just want to say thank you for the support with the graffiti and the chronic nuisance properties bills.

Very important to get them over the line.

I appreciate the amendments.

I appreciate the engagement from all of you to build on the engagement that was done beforehand as they were coming up.

Speaking of Public Safety Committee, our next committee meeting is tomorrow.

It's going to be King County Day.

We have the King County Prosecutor Ms. Mannion joining us and then we'll follow that with King County Superior Court with the presiding Judge Shaw and the third piece will be King County Jail Health.

So tomorrow will be King County Day at the Public Safety Committee and the piece here is For 2025, one of the pieces, three main areas, one is to work amendments, revise them, new ones, legislation, bills.

We've done a lot of that this year already.

The second one is furthering a functional criminal justice system, and what people don't realize is that King County has a very important role in our criminal justice system and what we're trying to do here in Seattle related to public safety, so that was important.

Then the third piece was community safety, which is a new area for public safety, kind of engaging on the human services side, but it's really important because it's like another form of alternative response.

So tomorrow is kind of going into that functional criminal justice system kind of concept.

And it's briefing and discussion.

Obviously there's no, it's just an informational kind of process and engagement.

And I just had a meeting with My colleague, my counterpart, King County Council Member Jorge Barón, who has the equivalent committee on the King County Council, to talk through these issues that we have.

And there's a lot.

And part of this is doing things smarter and de-conflicting in terms of federal response and the like.

And so this is kind of an extension of the work that King County Council Member Jorge Barón and I have been doing.

So that is public safety committee meeting tomorrow and public safety a little bit more broadly.

This week, after this meeting, I forget exactly what time it starts, but the KCRHA, King County Regional Homeless Authority meeting, and I will not be attending the D5 event today because, although I would have been up in D5 The Councilmember Hollingsworth's point related to a basketball practice, but instead I'm going to be at the D7 creating a safer Seattle community forum with Chief Barnes, Chief Scoggins.

There's going to be a number of people at the Queen Anne Community Center for the D7 version of the creating a safer Seattle community forum.

Mention tomorrow public safety Wednesday.

You know, I'll be at the Birds Connect Seattle ribbon cutting for all the birders out there.

Very important.

So they have a new location.

And then in terms of external, Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board on Thursday, which I think Councilmember Saka already mentioned.

On Friday, I'm going to be on travel.

And then I'm coming back Wednesday.

I will be remote Monday, Tuesday from Western New York.

And so I'll be back on Wednesday, hopefully in time to make the mayor's Seafair reception.

Very important to highlight.

Seafair is a very important Seattle tradition, which is great.

Along the lines of what Councilmember Rivera has said earlier, last week, I had a meeting or visit with the North Precinct.

It wasn't a roll call.

I actually met and talked to lieutenants, lieutenants, lieutenants for a while.

And then I walked through, talked to the officers on a number of different topics, which is really informative.

And it was kind of like a feedback loop too, in terms of, you know, out of this council overall, we had 24 legislative actions total, 20 bills, some confirmations and the resolution.

But it was interesting to hear the feedback of the bills that we passed last year, whether it's related to staffing, but also like the Real-Time Crime Center and CCTV one, which is really important for the North Precinct.

And some of the other bills that we passed.

So it was really interesting to hear, not just from the lieutenants, but from the sergeants and the officers themselves, on how it's impacting their ability to do their job and to do it in a Seattle constitutional policing route that you had mentioned.

And I also wanted to thank Council President and Councilman Rivera, who are joining me at the Realtime Crime Center.

Essentially ribbon cutting.

Continue that theme.

It was really important to do so.

And it's going to be a really important piece.

And it's going to be informing some of the things that we're going to do over the next month or so.

So with that, if there's any questions or no questions, Councilmember Rink, you know what RID RATS is?

I don't.

You enjoyed the giant talking rat?

I'm just anticipating your question.

My question is actually not about that.

And thank you.

I'm really encouraged to hear that we're having that tomorrow's public safety meeting will be King County Day.

I think our partnership with the county is so critical.

And I was wondering if you could expand a little bit on you mentioned that there will be a presentation on King County jail health.

Do you know at this time what kind of broad topics might be covered in that?

A lot of it is, you know, some of exactly what King County Jail Health does and what they don't do.

So basically it's going to be informational, you know, in terms of, you know, and we in the county have done, we've taken great steps forward in terms of, you know, we have the King County Jail KCJ agreement.

A lot of things are in place.

I should note, Harborview is also a King County entity, so there's a lot of little pieces that play to this, and there's a lot of discussion about different things.

So I think it's important to bring the main players forward and give the presentation and say, okay, this is the baseline facts, and then some engagement with that.

And it's also important, too, because as Council President is talking about with the 0.1% public safety, And I think that's a very important point regarding treatment options and the like, public safety, touching into human services, is some questions maybe prompting a question for Council President.

Maybe it's just like, hey, what is the treatment that they receive while in King County Jail, and how can we do the warm handoff, the transfer, so that there's not an interruption in that care?

Things go sideways when we have interruptions in care.

So prompt of a question, so everybody can see that.

So that's kind of like the base piece, Council Member Rink.

Thank you for that.

That sounds like it's going to be a great presentation.

I might join or at least tune in just to get that information.

And understanding that tomorrow...

Always welcome.

Thank you.

It's appreciated.

And understanding that tomorrow is King County Day.

I am just building on that point about jail health.

I am hoping we can have a continued discussion and understanding of what may be happening with our score contract.

Some of the last reporting I had gotten on that highlighted some concerning trends, and so I'm hopeful that we can circle up and just continue that discussion.

It's something that just came to mind, but excited to hear that for tomorrow's presentation.

Can always talk to that issue, of course, with you.

Thank you, Councilor.

Although it's very separate from, I mean, there's linkages and indirect linkages, but it's going to be very separate from tomorrow's briefing.

Thank you.

But everybody's welcome to attend, colleagues.

Actually, everybody, Here, who's not on my committee.

Just happened to be one, two, three, four.

And Councilmember Kettle, Mid Rats is not a Frank Zappa album.

Is that correct?

It is not a Frank Zappa.

I got closer.

And it's nothing to do with a Bruce Springsteen, Jungle Land song either, which is another thing that Rats tends to bring to mind.

Council President.

Sorry to interrupt, folks.

Okay, so the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee meets this week on Thursday at 2, and we'll have a discussion and possible vote on Resolution 32174, which is my progressive public safety initiative.

Reminder, this calls for up to 25% of any potential public safety sales tax revenue to be directed to treatment and recovery programs, and note that Of course, this is a resolution, so it does not have the force of law, but it also does not call for the sales tax increase.

Rather, it calls for directing a portion of its revenue in the event that Mayor Harrell opts to implement the public safety sales tax of 0.1% as authorized by the state legislature.

And this resolution is the product of months of stakeholdering with DESC, Evergreen Treatment Services, and Purpose Dignity Action, the organization that brings us lead and co-lead.

And so this is a coalition driven by the recognition that we really do need to put treatment at the I think it should be at the center of the city's agenda, but we need to look at what we're offering for addiction treatment and also other services that impact or that have to do with people that are involved with substance use disorder.

What are we providing and where are the gaps?

And so this is a coalition that came together to address that.

I think it's also fiscally responsible just because substance use disorder is inextricably linked to public safety and chronic homelessness challenges that we are dealing with as well.

So we are a city that likes to follow our values, be compassionate and generous in our support, and also look at root causes of our public policy problems.

And so this is definitely a big root cause.

Speaking of the PDA, I want to take a brief moment to share something that Lisa Dugard, Executive Director, said at our last committee, so the committee discussion of this resolution, which I think is also particularly important in regards to the topics that we were discussing on Friday at the Federal Policy meeting, select committee meeting.

And I shared it during that meeting as well, but I think it warrants repeating.

Lisa said that, quote, we as a city can insulate individuals and our community from the impact of the Medicaid work requirements by timely and effectively filing verification that people are unable to work.

And I said that a couple of times during the meeting just because I think that's really key that we think about when we're looking at the catastrophic federal cut that we're likely to experience.

As touched on in your meeting, Councilmember, but also it's frustrating because we know it's coming and the dollar amounts are unclear, but there are some things that we can do to help prepare for that, and I think that shoring up ways of helping people So I just mention that again because we don't have to sit around and wait for these cuts.

How can we mobilize services and strategies to get ahead of the impending catastrophe?

Anyway, there's a way, so that's just, the bridge in between those two things is because Lisa said that in the context of the people that are going to lose Medicaid are also going to lose access to substance use disorder treatment, but it applies across the board.

Also in my committee meeting this Thursday, we'll have a second discussion and possible vote on the updated council rules, of which there are 15 changes.

And again, we do this every two years.

They were presented to us last week, and these were put forward by central staff and the city clerks primarily, but there has been way in by law as well.

Anyway, it's around our council operations.

And so since this affects the whole council in our operations, then I am once again inviting those who aren't on this committee to join us on Thursday afternoon if you're interested in participating in that discussion.

All right, this morning I had a tour of Common Area Maintenance.

This is an arts project in Belltown and they are really interested in taking advantage of some property next door to their space to provide for arts and also So I took a tour of their space and let's see, I will also be attending the D5 candidate forum tonight, either in person, hopefully in person, if not via our Emmy award winning Seattle channel.

I have a previous engagement that might make me late to that forum.

Okay, also tonight, oh, on Friday, I will be attending the Waterfront Seattle Pier 58 opening celebration and ribbon cutting.

And there will be a community event from four to 8 p.m.

this coming Friday to celebrate the return and revitalization of this part of our Waterfront Park.

So that should be really exciting as well.

All right, that's it for me.

Questions?

Go ahead.

You can go first.

You can go first and then I'll go.

Well, I just wanted to thank you, Council President, for bringing the resolution on treatment.

It's so critical, and I will say that I had a conversation with a small business owner in the district this weekend who had someone enter their restaurant in the middle of dinner service who was experiencing some mental health breakdown, and they were unable to get assistance with that person.

And then that same person proceeded to smoke crack in their bathroom and they had to usher out their patrons through the back door, et cetera.

So treatment is really critical for these folks.

And I really appreciate, I was also same weekend talking with some doctor friends who treat folks that land up in the emergency room.

because they've OD'd or for other reasons, but associated with their addiction and or mental health issues.

And just the importance of these, it just underscores the importance of putting money toward treatment so folks can be successful in managing their Addiction and also mental health issues in the long term.

It's just a better way to help these folks than the constant landing in the emergency room is really making sure that they have access to treatment.

So that they can be successful.

And I think that that is part of the point of your resolution.

And I think this is really a critical piece.

So I want to thank you for that.

And just to underscore, there are a lot of folks in need in this city of treatment, either because of addiction or mental health.

And we just need to make sure that we're providing more access to that treatment.

Yes, thank you for that.

So I have a comment and then I have a question.

Providing access to that, and it's also really important that we do an inventory of what are all the services that we contract doing and where are the gaps.

And so that is part of this exercise of of staking a claim on some potential revenue that might be forthcoming, is that it's really important to have the discussion of what are we funding right now and where are the gaps?

And I found out that one of the gaps was inpatient or residential, well, rehab.

And so that is why I put that in place.

Pilot program forward, but there very well could be other things that we should be doing or could be doing, etc. and really inventorying what we are providing also with the county and then where are the gaps and what's the most efficient and humane way to fill those gaps.

When you said that help was called, do you mean 911 was called and then

9-1-1 was called.

It's unclear to me because of course now 9-1-1 is separate from SPD.

It's unclear to me what the restaurant owner communicated to the 9-1-1 call center and what, of course, like, does this get...

And I am reaching out to the call center.

I'm trying to better understand how they prioritize calls as 1, 2, and 3, for instance, because...

There was a potentially, I mean, Someone needed to be there to assist this person, and no one was available, but I don't know what got communicated to the 911 call center.

I don't know who got dispatched or didn't, and I don't know whether it was that someone tried to dispatch SPD, but, of course, we're still understaffed no matter how much better we're doing on hiring, and we don't have all those officers yet.

And I know that SPD's done a great job at responding in our district.

So I'm trying to figure out what happened in that situation and how things are getting prioritized so that we can provide that response.

to businesses, particularly in the middle of dinner service, for instance, right?

So I'm trying to figure that piece out, what happened there.

And I have to also say, 911 Call Center and SPD have both been very, and fired for that matter, great partners.

When I do call to ask questions, they're able to tell me what happened.

So that we can better do it next time if we can, because of course, if we don't have enough officers to respond, it's tricky because there's so many things going on in the city.

So we just need to figure that piece out.

But all this to say that person needed treatment.

Right, right?

At the end of the day, this is, you know, these folks need treatment and they need access to treatment and, of course, the mental health treatment equally important to the substance abuse treatment and sometimes one leads to the other, etc.

So those are Many times intertwined.

So you're right.

We need to inventory.

What are we providing?

Where are there gaps?

Because at the end of the day, I much prefer to make the investment to help someone Recover, then I would want to make the investments for the constant trips to the emergency room, for instance, right?

Or law enforcement.

Most definitely.

Right.

Yeah.

So anyway.

Well, you're making my point that I make over and over again for me, which is that I am the economic development chair, and this sounds like social service.

However, it is really true that oftentimes these situations arise or are brought to my attention by small business.

I remember right after I got elected, I was really hoping to be economic development chair because I'm a small business owner, and that would be interesting to see how I can support small businesses You know, emerging from the pandemic, access to capital, all these other things.

But it turns out that access to capital, I mean, what those small businesses wanted to talk about and wanted the city to solve was public safety issues over and over and over again.

And it's clear that That substance use disorder is fundamentally involved in our public safety issues.

I mean, I didn't mean to be so focused on public safety, but it ended up, that's what people want.

And we can't have any recovery without public safety.

And so therefore it's front and center all the time.

And we have to be partners with sensitive to and, um, Helpful to our small businesses who create the jobs and drive innovation, et cetera, et cetera, because they are the ones that often are on the front line of seeing the human suffering that is in our streets.

That's right.

And these businesses are operating on small margins, so they have certain issues.

If folks don't come back to the restaurant because this happened, that is not good.

We don't want our businesses to close because of some of these public safety issues, which was further...

This was just this weekend.

Last week, as you know, I had the public safety walk with small businesses in Roosevelt.

And the Roosevelt neighborhood who also had issues with folks walking on off the street.

So anyway, this was just all to say how important treatment is and that I appreciate your constant focus on the treatment piece because we do need to help folks with treatment.

Right.

Thank you.

And I will say treatment is a short word for a lot of things.

And I am not prescribing, we are not prescribing one form of treatment or another.

I go with the very, very broad definition of recovery, which is basically helping people get their lives back together again and form relationships.

And as a mom, what I always think, this is someone's child.

This is someone's maybe parent.

This is someone's sibling.

So we really want to be in the business of helping people get better.

And it could very well be your own.

That's right.

Yes.

All right.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

One comment on your report.

I do have a number of amendments for council rules, but I also have a conflict with Sound Transit Board of Directors at the same time as your committee.

The last time I brought forward amendments in committee where I was not present, things got sideways and miscommunications occurred pretty rapidly, so I'm just evaluating whether or not I'll be able to attend both meetings or not and how to proceed forward because I just want to make sure that I'm there to speak to the merits, intent, and the root of the amendments that I'll be bringing forward.

But really the reason that I raised my hand was talking about light rail.

I forgot the punchline of when line two opens up from that operation and maintenance facility on the east side.

From Linwood to downtown will have double the amount of service that we have today because the two line will be running from Redmond all the way to Linwood.

So once, and it was supposed to be open already.

So the problem that you experienced this weekend, we were already supposed to have double the amount of service.

And that's why they're hiding the cars along the tracks so that we're able to keep that service level up.

Just the punchline of we will have double the amount of service I didn't mention earlier.

Thank you.

And I am really, and Council Member Kettle, I am very much looking forward to your discussion tomorrow because there are ways that the jail can facilitate people getting out and being taken care of if they do happen to suffer from a substance use disorder.

So that'll be a fun discussion as well.

All right, that's all I've got unless there are other questions or comments about...

Anything I said?

Okay.

If there is no further business, this meeting is adjourned, and it is 321. I see many of you tonight.