Select Budget Committee Session I 10/30/25

Good morning, we are just waiting for the last person to walk in the door.

We have five?

Wonderful.

Good morning.

The October 30th, 2025 Select Budget Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Those who are not present are excused.

Council Member Solomon.

Here.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Rink.

Council Member Rivera, Council Member Sacca.

Here.

And Chair Strauss.

Present.

Five present.

Thank you, and this morning we do have public comment, but on today's agenda, we'll do the agenda first.

On today's agenda, we will hear the remaining proposals from the Human Services Department beginning at HSD 63A1, continuing with the Community Assisted Response and Engagement Department, Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Police Department, and Office of Inspector General for Public Safety.

We also have Councilmember Rivera and Rink present with us now.

Before we begin if we are about to have public comment this public comment period was added because not all amendments or proposals from council members were able to be published by the first public comment period this week.

And so we will have a public hearing next Thursday.

And clerk, can you let me know how many folks we have signed up and how many are remote?

Correct.

We have 19 in person and six remote.

And let me just check.

With a raise of hands, of those 19, who is part of one of the groups that I spoke with?

Okay, a considerable number of people.

Wonderful.

And how many do we have remote?

We have six.

Well, five.

Five.

Wonderful.

So the way we're going to work this morning is a group of individuals will have two minutes.

Groups of three or more will have five minutes.

And this will allow us to complete everyone speaking within the hour.

This is one of the only public comment periods that I'm going to be strict about the hour.

That's why I wanted to chat with the folks that have come here to figure out the best way to use our time together.

So with that, I'm going to call Let me first read the rules of public comment The public comment period will be monitored in the following manner.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

We will begin with the in-person speakers and then move to remote speakers.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' microphones will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to speak.

Public comment period is now open.

I would suggest using these two microphones, although all three are available.

We're going to start with the in-person folks first for the two groups.

The first person in your group to be called, just come on up and then we'll tick them off as we go.

So Greg Woodfill, Nuban Anan, Stanley S, Jonathan Betts.

That's the order in which we are moving.

Good morning, Greg.

Good to see you.

When you start, we'll start the timer.

All right, good morning Chair Strauss and Council Members.

I'm Greg Woodfield, President of ATU Local 587 representing 4,800 transit workers.

We move your city.

Our union fully supports and asks you all to vote for Council Member Saka's legislation to establish a transit safety slash security officer and program.

This will back up your public commitments to support the Regional Transit Safety Task Force that our union demanded after Brother Sean Yim's brutal murder while serving the citizens of Seattle and the University District.

Seattle won't thrive and meet its full potential without safe, reliable public transportation.

Seattle's huge investments in public transit are placed at risk if people don't feel safe to ride or operate it.

Seattle and each city in King County shares joint responsibility with the county for its citizens' safety on and around public transit.

Our union is watching and will be there to publicly praise and show support whenever that responsibility is being met and won't hesitate to call it out whenever it's being shirked.

Thank you.

Thank you, Greg.

Up next is Nuba and then Stanley.

It's Nuba.

I know it's a difficult name.

Okay.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Nuba Hanan, and I work at the Somali Family Safety Task Force, a community-based organization that supports immigrants and refugees across King County.

I'm here to share my strong support for Amendment HSD-062A, which provides $1 million in ongoing funding for survivors of gender-based violence.

At the Somali Family Safety Task Force, we empower survivors, many of whom are immigrant and refugee women, through culturally responsive advocacy, safety planning, and access to essential resources that help them rebuild their lives with dignity and safety.

Every day we see how limited resources and language barriers make it harder for survivors to get the help they need.

Gender-based violence is not an isolated issue.

It fuels housing instability, mental health struggles, and family trauma across our communities.

By supporting HSD062A, you are strengthening a safety net for some of the most vulnerable members of our city and affirming that every survivor deserves safety, healing and hope.

So this is from my organization and personally me, I would like to add one thing.

I would request everyone to request the council members to keep in mind that currently we are really struggling with employment.

Graduates are graduating but sitting without job and employment.

I don't know how to solve this, but I would request you all to keep this in mind so that we don't have to wait for like six to seven months to get a good job or to get a job.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nuba.

Up next is Stanley.

And if you want to let me know before we start your time, everyone in your group so that I can check them off here.

Wonderful.

So we've got five minutes and you can use it however you like.

Oh, good morning, honorable council members.

My name is Tara Tamari Bucci.

I live and work as an artist here in Seattle and serve on the board of the Sadako Renewal Project.

We're working in response to the theft of the bronze statue of the 11-year-old Hiroshima bomb victim, Sadako Sasaki.

Arts does not have the budget or capacity to replace the public art, and so since the theft, our group has volunteered and selected an artist through a rigorous jury process.

We need to raise the necessary funds to design, fabricate, and install the work $500,000 budget.

That number includes a $100,000 maintenance fund for arts, as the new artwork will be ascended back into the city art collection.

I express my deepest appreciation for Councilmember Rivera's proposal of a budget action for the $200,000 Arts and Culture Fund and humbly request that all Councilmembers support and pass the action.

For three decades, the Peace Park provided a rather deep level of engagement for a public art project as community members would fold and hang origami cranes on the statue and reflect on world peace, nuclear disarmament, and memorialization of atomic bomb victims.

The sawing off of the statue at her ankles and leaving her remaining feet sent shockwaves of injustice through our community and remains an international public relations issue for our city.

The theft and ongoing effort to replace the statue is a national story in Japan as well as in the U.S. and it is time to show the world the values that our city holds dear.

This project has broad public support from neighborhood communities, the Japanese American and peace activist communities throughout the United States as well as schools and community groups in Japan.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Stanley Shikuma.

I am a member also of the Sadako Renewal Project and also a board member of Seattle chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League on the Leadership Council at Tsuda for Solidarity.

I also work with the Nisei Veterans Committee.

I'm a community activist.

I want to express appreciation to Councilmember Rivera for proposing this expenditure for the Sadako statue.

I would like to point out that, as Tara mentioned, this has broad support.

not just one community, not just one neighborhood.

It's peace activists from throughout Puget Sound.

It's Japanese Americans from Seattle, Puyallup, Tacoma, all over.

We've gotten donations since the theft of the statue from around the country, as well as Japan, a high school student in Hiroshima, did a high school fundraising project and raised over $1,000.

This has representation of so many values that Seattle holds dear.

It represents peace, it represents children, it represents hope, it represents a spiritual awakening that we need in this country, especially at this time.

and we're not here to, I want to say, we're not here to beg for funds.

We're here to offer an opportunity to the city of Seattle and to this council to make a statement about children, about peace, about the spiritual life that we all want to see in this city or not.

And I ask you to support it.

Well, thank you guys.

You said pretty much what I wanted to say.

My name is Jonathan Betzal, member of University Friends Meeting, one of the founders of our meeting, also founded the Peace Park because of his own long history in standing together with Japanese Americans as they suffered discrimination throughout the 1940s.

We are trying to uphold that spirit today by folding our own paper cranes and hanging them on the statue.

People from around the country are sending paper cranes to that statue all the time.

The post office doesn't know where to take them, so they bring them to us at Quaker meeting across the street, and then it's our job to string them up and hang them on the statue.

In 2010, I have photos from a ceremony where we did that.

This was from a special ed class in Connecticut who folded all these cranes.

I then emailed the photos to them, and they wrote back saying how thrilled the kids were.

So, no doubt about it, this is an international symbol of peace, and we have the opportunity to keep it going.

Thank you.

Thank you.

With that, we'll now move on to Drew Johnston, followed by Don Blakeney, and then Sally Bagshaw.

And I realize, as I read the name, I did not follow the proper protocol calling you first, but we've got a large, you've got a large group.

So with that, Drew, good morning.

Thank you, Chair Strauss and members of the committee.

My name is Drew Johnston.

I'm here on behalf of Lumen Field.

We are part of a diverse stakeholder group that is very supportive of Councilmember Sacco's budget amendment in support of the unpermitted vending issue that we've seen a just really sharp rise in around our event districts and neighborhood businesses.

We believe this amendment is thoughtfully crafted in a way to help with enforcement, but also pathways to approval.

And I think what we're really seeing is just a real rise in our area.

Whenever there's a lot of folks gathered, it's organized.

We're seeing it across the West Coast, and Seattle could really benefit from the ability to do more, to have more outings, to really focus on this issue.

It's creating conflicts with businesses that are nearby, especially on Occidental.

It's kind of a health issue as well for folks.

And then it's also just a concern with kind of accessibility when they're kind of clogging up all these areas where so many people are gathered.

So we appreciate the amendment, appreciate the folks who have joined in that support, and on behalf of our coalition want to support that, especially needed as we work for FIFA World Cup and to bring more visitors to this great city and then appreciate also Councilmember Saka's work on the noise ordinance that would really help to really improve our ability to do livability and kind of safety with these large massive gatherings that we kind of have whenever we gather together as a city.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Drew.

Up next is Don Blakeney and then Sally Bagshaw and friends.

Good morning, council members.

Terrence Grouse, thank you for having us this morning.

I'm here to represent the University District Partnership, a non-profit business improvement area in Seattle's U District.

We're probably the fastest growing neighborhood in Seattle.

We represent about 36,000 people.

And for years, our neighborhood has been a place where homeless have come to kind of situate themselves in Seattle, and we've seen some of the most challenging issues around behavioral health and people suffering from mental health and addiction issues on the streets of our neighborhood.

To work with this, as these conditions got worse during the pandemic, we ended up investing with the city in some homeless outreach that was dedicated to the neighborhood, where our outreach workers could make meaningful relationships with people suffering from these issues who are also having a major impact in our neighborhood.

and a case plan with them with networks of social services that were able to get them the help they needed and to reduce the impact that's in the neighborhood.

We've made some really great progress.

We were able to get about 140 people into shelter over the last four years, about 60 people into housing, and it's brought a much calmer aspect to the neighborhood, but our work is not done.

We still have a lot of work to do and I'm really excited that there's a proposal in the budget.

Thank you to Council Member Rivera and to you, Chair Skrouse, about advancing this idea of a dedicated outreach worker that could come and kind of continue this work going forward.

Also dedicated behavioral health medication distribution.

That's going to be something that's really important to us.

Anyway, we had a meeting downstairs at City Hall here earlier this week, Chair Strauss, you were there, where 100 people came to listen to what we're doing and the impact that we're having, and so I think there's an incredible interest in this right now, and it's the acute pain that our neighborhoods are seeing with this challenging issue, so thanks for the investment.

I also want to give a quick plug.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka, for your work on the the unpermitted vending, it's affecting the U District as well.

And I also wanna give a shout out to Council Member Rivera's care investment.

Thank you for that too.

Thank you, Don.

And now we will have Sally Bagshaw and the Friends of South Lake Union Park come.

Council Member, before I get started, do you think we could negotiate to one minute a piece?

We've got nine or 10 of us here.

If folks wanted to do one minute apiece instead of as a group, we could do that because it's less than the two minutes that were prescribed to everyone else.

Okay, that's great.

Thank you.

And council members, so good to see you.

I'm Sally Bagshaw.

Council member Kettle and Chair Strauss, thank you for your co-sponsorship on the Southlake Union.

So I want to tell you a little bit of background because so many others here will talk about the impact.

South Lake Union Park was actually one of our newer parks in Seattle, although it was designed initially by the Olmsteads in like early whatever, 1903. followed up by a group that was looking at these bands of green.

And then, thanks to Seattle Parks Foundation, we were able to bring together $20 million of philanthropy and open this park in 2010. Since that time, we have really seen a downturn in maintenance.

I know Seattle Parks has been doing what it can, but we need a lot more.

and the folks that are going to follow me, Julie Holland from South Lake Union Community Council, the Northwest Heritage Maritime Center, that's Joe Schickick, Anthony Long from MOHI, Alicia Barnes, I'll let the rest of them introduce themselves.

Council Member Juarez, good to see you.

Thank you so much and we really appreciate what the council is doing.

Thank you.

And so if we are going to have everyone speak, I'd like you all to line up.

I'm going to call you in the order in which you are registered.

So we're going to tick through this as quickly as possible.

We have Julie Holland, Gary Johnson, Tom Graff, Joe Shikic, Josh Anderson, Paige C, Anthony Long, Alicia Barnes, Steve Walker, Z. Batchelor?

Bobby Nichol.

With that, good morning, Julie.

Around here, you have to have the mic very close.

Mick Jagger is what we say.

Wonderful.

Good morning, Julie.

Okay.

I am Julie Holland, the South Lake Union Community Council regarding the requested one million to revitalize Lake Union Park, a decision critical to its future.

Not supporting the budget request compromises two years of work by the SLU Parks Task Force in collaboration with parks to secure core capital improvement funding for the three SLU parks, which was approved by City Council just this year.

Also, it compromises these investments already funded and those to be funded by future private sector giving.

Why?

because making a significant capital improvement in a park with deteriorating grounds in terrible shape without a remediation plan is an irresponsible decision.

And because the city's commitment to revitalize the deteriorating park will serve to trigger additional private funding.

Please support this request.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie.

Up next is Gary.

Gary, welcome.

Good morning, council members.

My name's Gary Johnson.

I'm the board president of a nonprofit called Market to Mohai.

We've created a walking trail between the Pike Place Market and Mohai and Lake Union Park.

I'm speaking today to urge council to support the requested budget allocation to make repairs and improvements to Lake Union Park.

Market of Mohai has installed sign blades along our trail that have images and narratives about the area's history and sidewalk tiles that offer quotes from notable people from Seattle and around the world.

We're excited about our future and Lake Union Park is an important part of it.

For example, we're working to bring the large historic pink elephant car wash sign, which Mohai owns, out into Lake Union Park.

but we agree with our Lake Union Park Coalition partners that fixing the fundamental issues that the park is suffering from must come first.

When the park was developed with $20 million in private sector funding, the city promised to maintain it at a high level.

That has not happened.

It really needs intervention now.

Please submit this request.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tom Graff is next.

Tom, did you want to...

Do you want to provide public comment this morning?

Okay, Gary Johnson, Joe Shikich.

Shikich, Joe Shikich, good morning.

I'm Joe Shikich for Northwest Seaport.

Northwest Seaport owns the museum ships that are at the historic wharf, the Arthur Foss, which is the oldest tugboat in the world, and the lightship Swiftsure, which is 1904 vessel, also the oldest in the world.

We're speaking in favor of this $1 billion proposal.

The park desperately needs it.

We've had the pleasure in the last year of touring Councilmembers Hollingsworth and Kettle on our ships.

We'd love to tour the rest of you so that you can see how this park really does need this additional budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

Josh Anderson.

Good morning.

I'm Josh Anderson, Executive Director at the Center for Wood and Boats.

The Center for Wood and Boats also manages the Lake Union Working Group, which is made up of a lot of the members of nonprofits here.

On behalf of Seattle Parks, I'm also a member of the South Lake Union Community Council and the Friends of Lake Union Park.

I'm here to strongly support the $1 million allocation for renovations to Lake Union Park.

This park is a vital community asset, serves residents, families, and visitors every single day.

As someone who works in the waterfront, I see firsthand how heavily this park is used and how much these improvements are needed.

Lake Union Park connects the community to the water and provides essential public space in a rapidly growing neighborhood.

The Center for Boats relies on this park's infrastructure to serve thousands of people each year with maritime education and recreational programs.

Investing in Lake Union Park is investing in public access to our water in the community gathering spaces and the health of South Lake Union, so I urge you to approve this funding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next is page C.

Hi, my name's Paige Crutcher.

I am with Friends of Lake Union Park.

I'm a Lansky Park architect.

I got involved in this project during COVID.

As I was walking through the park, it was extremely degraded.

I really come from the wellbeing of adolescents and young people who are struggling with depression and anxiety and I see these spaces as the ones that invite us out to interact and to get off the screens and that park has really fallen through the cracks and we've worked numerous years to support parks physically and encouraging.

And it's probably been six or seven years now where we have been politely supporting them.

And I think it's time that with FIFA coming to ride that wave to bring this park back and let it shine.

Thank you.

Do you have Anthony Long next?

And then we'll come to you, Alicia.

Anthony, good morning.

Good morning, Councilmembers.

My name is Anthony Long, and I am representing the members and trustees of the Museum of History and Industry to thank you for your support for the rehabilitation of Lake Union Park.

Mohai and many of our park partners and neighbors look forward to welcoming tens of thousands of visitors to Lake Union Park next year, particularly in conjunction with the World Cup and the very special events being planned to celebrate the nation's 250th birthday.

Your support for the park's safety and improvement will ensure a welcoming green space for all park-based institutions and their thousands of visitors during this important time.

And will ensure that Lake Union Park remains a vibrant and beautiful front yard for one of the region's most diverse and fastest growing neighborhoods for years to come.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alicia, welcome.

Good morning.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Alicia Barnes.

I'm the executive director for the steamship Virginia Five.

We are one of the historic ships in Lake Union Park.

And as that is the home for three national historic landmarks, we want to make sure that visitors to the park feel safe and welcome and like they have the facilities that they deserve while they're there.

So we really strongly support this allocation of funds and hope that you will as well.

And please come visit the ships.

Thanks for keeping the last of our mosquito fleet operating in our waterways.

Up next, I have Steve Walker.

My name's Steve Walker.

I have the Seattle Fireboat Duwamish, and I just want to thank you guys for considering and giving us the money.

Thank you.

Thank you, Steve.

Next, I have Xander Batchelor.

Okay.

Yep, come on up.

We had done groups of three or more.

Can I give you each two minutes?

Yes.

Wonderful.

So, Tom, welcome.

Thank you, Councilman Strauss and all of you.

I am Tom Graff, Chair of Belltown United.

I live and work in Belltown.

It is the densest neighborhood in Seattle, and we have no green space.

When it was zoned for residential in 1985, they thought about making a regrade commons and it was modeled after the parks in Portland.

What we got instead was the regrade dog park.

It is not green and it is not acceptable enough open space for our neighborhood.

We have an opportunity at Portal Park to actually give us open space and the diagonal from First and Battery to Western and Blanchard is amazing and the largest piece there is Portal Park and parks need some additional funding to design and scope a park here.

Councilman Kennel has put this in the budget for next year and I beg you to allow this to move forward so we can at last have some green space.

Thank you, Tom.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Xander Batchelder.

I'm the president of the Belltown Community Council.

And I'd like to echo many of Tom's comments and add that during this summer, we all celebrated the waterfront's revival.

And this parcel is the last piece, puzzle piece, of that revival.

And we've literally, literally been waiting two decades for this to happen.

So it'd be very nice, very nice if I could report back to the neighborhood that the city is making progress on this matter.

And I know this body holds the concept of equity in high regard.

We do not have the green space equity in Belltown that we should.

And that's particularly frustrating as we pay business taxes, we pay real estate taxes, and we don't see a corresponding investment of the city in our neighborhood that we have made in the city.

So this is a chance to bring this all in line.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

We do have a third person on remote.

I don't know if you can let her speak now or not.

We are about to move into the online public comment, so we will move right there now.

If you are in chambers and would like to speak and have not yet signed up, you can do so now.

I got you, Bobby.

So if you...

If you have not signed up, we're gonna do the online and then we'll come back to anyone else who's signed up.

But Bobby, you are last on the in-person list right now, so come on up and then we'll move into online public comment.

Chair, good morning council members.

There is so much that I could co-sign today.

The better path to food permitting that my friend Drew Johnston mentioned at Lumen Field, in addition to the noise ordinance.

Don Blakeney's work championing better homelessness response in a place-based way.

But I am excited to be here today to talk specifically about further investments in the CARE team.

In particular, council member Rivera, your proposed funding for 911 call takers and the broader expansion of the CARE program.

We at Visit Seattle get a lot of questions, as you may imagine, about safety from visitors, including group planners who are actively deciding whether or not to bring millions of dollars in local economic impact to Seattle.

And we love telling them that Seattle has a rare third public safety department who responds to calls for which armed officers are not required.

We can only continue to do that, though, if the care department is better empowered to come quickly and connect the folks experiencing crises to long-term help.

The funding you're considering today will help bring visitors and residents alike to Seattle.

It will help bring people back to Seattle, but most importantly, it will show that we as a city prioritize caring for our own in a way that best addresses their needs.

To the point of my friends behind me, budgets are a moral document.

I want to thank Chief Amy Barden publicly for her tireless advocacy on behalf of this response system and fighting the status quo, the folks who worked really hard over the last many years on reaching a tentative agreement, and all of you city council members and your staffers for your hard work on this massive monster budget, to use a Halloween pun.

Please continue to invest in care now and in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bobby.

And now we will move to the online public comment.

I'm gonna read everybody's name.

Once we're done with the online public comment, we'll come back to the remaining folks in chambers.

Perfect, so we'll get you at the end of the online public comment.

Thank you.

In the order in which we have online, we have David Haynes, BJ Last, Morgan Littlefield, Holly Decker, Jamie Yazzie, that's you.

Fantastic.

Don Cameron and Chalaya Jackson.

I am certain that my Ballard reading did not teach me well enough to read your name correctly.

With that, David Haynes, I see you're already off mute.

Take it away.

South Liquors of the World and Seattle unite and fight the Wall Street grocery stores that are ripping people off.

Why is it that the City Council won't use money to help farmers markets set up permanently instead of making them set up in the morning and then leave in the afternoon one day a week and acting like you're keeping it safer with bollards.

And why is it that you're giving money to the food banks without requiring them to extend their hours?

Because they purposely, it seems, kept it extremely desperate for people and it seems to be like a chaotic experience where they're trying to button push people driving by, seeing how desperate it is, hoping they can get some more donations and it's a concern that you all think that youth gun violence prevention extends all the way up to 27 year olds like they don't know any better.

That's a real concern and you know the clinic for six million dollars in the Rainier Beach are they actually going to have a doctor there or is it going to be another one of those skims on health care where you show up they check your heart rate, they ask you a few questions and then they give you a referral to go elsewhere to actually find a doctor.

It's a legitimate question because a lot of times people are getting rich off healthcare by overcharging the square footage of the real estate and that's revolting.

And you know the bus that goes through University District to Ballard, the number 44 that used to go all the way to Golden Gardens?

why does council have to spend a half a million dollars for a pilot project when in fact all you gotta do is require one of the six buses that back up at the 7-Eleven across from the Chittenden Lock and just have them go out to Golden Gardens like they used to.

It doesn't make any sense.

We have an abusive bus union and those bus drivers need to speak up when there's problems at the bus stops.

They allow things to get out of control and act like it's not their business.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Up next is B.J.

Last, followed by Morgan Littlefield.

B.J., welcome.

I see you're off mute whenever you're ready.

Good morning.

My name is B.J.

Last.

I'm a Ballard homeowner.

So I noticed the council's amendments for the Human Services Department add up to $21.7 million of additional funding.

So really good news on that, that all of those items, council can choose to fund them by taking money from suites or the money that SPD is asking for, for positions that it already has funding for.

In fact, this week's budget of $34 million means Council can decide to choose to fund all of its HSD amendments, plus the $10 million that Council Member Solomon put in for rental assistance for non-profit housing providers and still have money left over on that one.

So that's a decision council can absolutely make and really should to go and fund those programs to actually reduce violence and keep people safe.

Also, we know SNAP benefits are about to expire and that's really going to impact a whole, whole lot of people in Seattle.

The city could actually make the decision to fund SNAP benefits for people in Seattle, for everyone in Seattle currently receiving SNAP for a little over six months if they held SPD's budget to what it was back in 2019. If you just reversed the growth since 2019, you'd be able to fund SNAP for over half the year for the people in Seattle currently receiving SNAP.

And that may sound like a, you know, extreme or radical proposal, but in 2019, SPD had more officers, handled more correct call types because it was before care, and actually had additional responsibilities because 911 dispatch was also in there.

So it seems very reasonable to expect that SPD with now fewer officers and a smaller workload to get by with the exact same budget that it had years ago.

I saw we had 17 seconds left.

Did he just drop?

Okay.

BJ, apologies.

It seems that you dropped from the call.

Please do email us, council at seattle.gov, as well as we have a public hearing next Thursday.

With that, our next speaker on the list is Morgan Littlefield, followed by Holly Decker, Jamie Yazzie, is here, but Chalaya, you have not called in yet.

Morgan, I see you're off mute.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Council members, thank you for your time this morning.

I'm Morgan Littlefield, Director of City and Community Partnerships for Climate Plenty Arena and the Seattle Kraken.

I'm responsible for ensuring we are good neighbors to Seattle Center and the surrounding uptown residents and businesses.

I'm here to express our organization's strong support for Councilmember Rob Saka's budget amendment, MO-003SA, which requests the Mayor's Office to lead a comprehensive policy review on the City's approach to licensing and enforcement of unpermitted food and merchandise spending.

Seattle's vibrant event districts and neighborhood business areas have experienced a sharp rise in unlicensed spending activity over the past few years.

This activity creates health, safety and accessibility concerns while placing local compliant small businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

This review is especially timely as Seattle prepares to welcome the world for 2026 FIFA World Cup and Climate Pledge Arena continues to host millions of guests from across the region.

Coordinated action will help ensure our city remains safe and welcoming while ensuring success for local businesses, many still recovering from the pandemic.

I also wish to express our support for Councilmember Sokka's related amendment, MO002SA, calling for a study on citywide noise enforcement.

We are asking for a solution to those individuals who use amplified sound devices at unreasonable and unsafe noise levels, particularly as guests enter and leave venues.

This can create an unpleasant and potentially unsafe experience for guests, employees, and our neighbors in the immediate vicinity.

Thank you for your attention and for your continued commitment to collaborative practical solutions that serve all of Seattle communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next is Holly Decker, followed by Dawn Cameron and then Chalaya.

You'll still need to call in Morgan.

Talk to Morgan.

Holly, I see you're here.

Star six to unmute.

There you are.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning, Council.

My name's Holly Decker, and I've been leading the Belltown United Portal Park Committee since 2020. I'm here today on behalf of the committee to express support for SPR 0108-1.

Belltown United's work on the Portal Park site began in 2017, well before the Battery Street Penalty Commission in 2019. We've made great progress partnering with our neighbors, Seattle Park Foundation, this council, and city agencies like SDOT, DON, and PARC.

In 2022, council leadership made possible the Portal Porch, a concrete mini park overlooking the Portal Park site.

Since its opening in 2023, the porch has become a gathering place welcoming sunset admirers, clubbers on a break, moviegoers, friends, over 300 salsa dancers at our free community dance events.

Our partnership with the city also made possible the planting of over 3 million wildflowers for the third year in a row, which was just reseeded last Sunday.

These successes clearly demonstrate the need to open green space and community connection in our dense neighborhoods, and our work to open the Portal Park is nowhere close to done.

Your continued support remains essential to fully realize the community's vision and build on this incredible momentum.

I want to specifically thank the sponsor of this item, our District 7 Councilmember Bob Kettle, for his vision and active involvement in our communities.

Council's support for the SPR budget continues to build on the strong foundation that you've helped us create.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next, we have Dawn Cameron and then Shalia.

I see you are now called in.

Thank you.

Good morning, Dawn.

Star six to unmute.

Dawn, star six to unmute.

Looks like Dawn dropped.

Don, you're back.

Star six to unmute.

Why don't we leave Don there and we'll bring up Chalaya.

Chalaya, you're already off mute.

Don, now we're...

Don, thank you.

There we are.

Don, take it away.

Good morning.

Two minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

My name is Don Cameron.

I'm with Seattle CARES Mentoring Movement and we're a mentoring program that works with at risk and court-involved kids in Seattle and King County.

We support Councilman Nelson bill number 65 that provides services for families and kids in our community.

I don't think there's ever been a time in my lifetime that I've seen how our programs can be more impactful, particularly with most of the families that we work with are receiving SNAP dollars.

I've been getting phone calls around the clock in terms of providing support.

So one of the things that we've done this year, just recently, is we have a program called Partnership for Hope.

We're bringing 36 pallets of food to our community.

We're focusing on schools and apartment complex We've been working with the Lake Washington Apartment Complex for the last two years in partnership with Church Home and the 4C Coalition.

We've fed thousands of families over the last two years and now for the first time we're going to bring that food delivery to one of the local schools, Mercer Middle School, the new school over in southeast Seattle.

We're really excited about this.

The food delivery is going to take place on December the 8th starting in the morning at 8 o'clock We're running three shifts.

We're looking for volunteers.

This is a program that, I mean, you know, it's one of those things that we had no idea where we envisioned that the SNAP program would be running out.

But what we do know is sometimes when you prepare for things and you try and do the right thing in our communities, opportunity just comes.

And this is an opportunity that we are welcoming and we're excited about.

In addition to that, we're going to do that food delivery on a quarterly basis, and we're excited about it, and we're also going to be doing mentoring, working with families.

Sorry to take so much time on that one project, but I thought it was important to us.

Thank you, Don.

Chalea, I see you're already here and my apologies for not being able to read very well this morning and pronounce the words that I see before me, but if you'd like to introduce yourself.

Oh, you came off mute, went back on mute, star six.

Try one more time.

There you are.

Welcome.

Can you hear me now?

We can.

Good morning to you.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Shalaya Jackson.

I run the CB Panther Youth Football Organization in the Seattle Central District.

Calling to say I want to thank, please support CP Nelson's initiative of the budget to provide operations for the CB Panther families out here for us.

The funding will help us for purchasing equipment, paying for fees for the families, my players out there, the cheerleading squads, and save families that can't feed their families too.

The funding will help us build community out there and help us provide outreach for the kids and make sure that they have somewhere to go to.

And this funding will mean a lot to us if we have the funding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

and we have completed online public comment.

We're gonna return to the in-person.

So we're gonna have Christian and then Jamie, you'll have last word this morning.

Christian, good morning.

Thank you for everything your crew did this year.

You made lifelong memories for so many people in Seattle.

Thank you for saying that.

We wish the season could have gone on.

Hang on, real quick.

We're not, is the microphone?

and if you get Mick Jagger, I mean really.

Is this any better?

It is, it is.

Thank you Chair Strelson, good morning council members.

It's great to be here and I was, we were excited about the way in which the Mariners season rallied the community.

But I am here today to add, on behalf of the Seattle Mariners, to add our voice to the chorus of those that you've already heard from in support of the Council's attention to the two, I think, very pressing issues involving unpermitted food vendors and the use of amplified sound devices in the public right of way.

We are particularly grateful to Councilmember Saka for proposing MO002 SA and MO003 SA.

We believe that both of these issues merit substantial study and the pursuit of solutions.

When dealing with the issue of unpermitted food vendors, we believe this presents a significant health and safety risk to the community.

We are aware that the public facilities, which are jewels in the crown of the City of Seattle, face this issue in an increasingly pressing and urgent way, but we are not alone.

This issue affects other neighborhoods, small businesses and business districts in ways that merit your attention.

We believe that the unpermitted food vending issue presents significant public health risks both with respect to food safety but also the unregulated use of cooking devices and flammable gases and we just want to make sure people are safe and that we also ensure that permitted businesses have the opportunity to operate.

With respect to the use of amplified sound devices in the public right of way, we are acutely aware of the health risks that the sound created by these devices threatens and that risk is posed to both guests who are trapped in confined spaces as well as all of our employees who are assigned to work in this space.

We appreciate you paying this attention and we would ask you to support both.

Thank you.

It is definitely something to be said when the amplified noise outside the stadium is louder than the crowd cheering for Suarez's Grand Slam.

That's Grand Salami.

My oh my, Jamie, you've got last word this morning.

My oh my, Grand Salami time.

Hang on real quick.

I'm here today to represent Chief Seattle Club and to speak in support of our budget request, HSD042A1.

an investment in our ability to heal our community.

Our mission is to provide sacred space to nurture, affirm, and strengthen the spirit of urban Native people.

This is not just a statement.

It's a daily practice rooted in our cultural care, community connection, and Indigenous resilience.

We are making historic progress in housing our relatives, and with continued allyship and partnership from the City of Seattle, we can expand and strengthen our culturally responsive behavioral health work.

Your support allows us to meet urgent needs while honoring the tradition and spirit of our people.

Thank you for standing with us.

And I wanna personally thank Council Member Juarez on behalf of Chief Seattle Club.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What a wonderful way to end public comment for the morning.

Colleagues, it does conclude our public comment period, seeing as we have no more public comment registrants remotely or physically present.

I'll just thank you all for your grace as we just...

Today's public comment period was the exception to the rule in the sense that I have very strict guidelines that we like to follow and sometimes we need to be flexible.

We were able to complete the public comment in less than the hour that was prescribed for this morning and we'll move on to our first items on the agenda.

And so We will, I believe we did move the agenda, no?

Let's start from the top.

On today's agenda are the remaining proposals from the Human Services Department, HSD 63A1, Community Assisted Response and Engagement, Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Police Department, and Office of Inspector General for Public Safety.

Colleagues, today we have 35 remaining amendments We are 43% of the way through Human Services Department.

Reminder, the last two amendments took about 15 minutes.

And so these are, I just say that because we were able to get through a lot yesterday.

However, there's still a lot more to go today.

We will be here until we complete today's agenda.

We have five amendments from CARE, four from Seattle Fire Department, 11 from the Police Department, and one from OIG.

So that's where we sit right now.

And before we move into, right back to where we were, which is HSD 63, Council Member Rivera, do you have a point of order?

I do have a point of order, Chair, thank you.

Well, first of all- And what is your point?

My point is I need some, well first I wanted to give a note of gratitude to you, but then also I have a question about this particular process.

Please.

Alright, well first thank you for including public comment today and an additional opportunity for folks to come tell us how they feel about the particular amendments.

that we've been reviewing these last three days.

I've also been reflecting on the last couple of days of review of these amendments and I appreciate you bringing the very important transparency to this process by doing this.

I'm also hoping to get briefly some clarity on the criteria you'll be using for selecting these amendments in the chair's package and whether the co-sponsorships that you have been accepting from the dais these last and then today will be a factor in your decision making.

I just, it will be helpful for me to have some clarity on when we're adding additional sponsorships, what does that mean?

And whether that would be, are going to get considered as part of your decision making.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera, I'm happy to follow up with you in more detail offline.

All that to say is this added step used to be a step that we used previous to the last two years.

This is an opportunity for colleagues to be able to say more than two people are interested in an idea.

And so co-sponsorships, it's a little bit like a weighted metric.

If somebody signs on to everything, then It's clear that they've signed on to everything.

If they've only signed on to one or two things, that means that that's very, there's a little bit of a difference there.

And so with that, we will be in a similar process to last year, creating the chairs package in a way that seeks to be able to uplift everyone on the council and come together as a team.

as we did with the budget last year and that's part of why it's important for everyone to be able to see what everyone else is proposing.

This was a request made by council members after last year's budget and I think it's been an improvement.

I understand your amendments much better this year than I did last year.

Thank you, Chair.

I just also, the clarity is important as part of this transparency that I know that you're trying to do, and also it helps to know ahead of time when we are giving co-sponsor, I mean, because the truth is, as you know, there are a lot of amendments, and just to say on their merits, I would support every single one, and I would co-sponsor every single one if I knew we had the money to do so, but with about $85 million worth of asks and less than $30 million that we're able to allocate, it becomes really challenging.

And so just because I didn't add my co-sponsorship to something doesn't mean I don't wholeheartedly support it and would want to add it to the final package.

And that's why I was trying to get some clarity around whether or not these additional co-sponsorships are going to have an impact on that because I do very much appreciate that you asked us to do two co-sponsorships for anything we were bringing because I know that that was your way of making sure that things had support and that that was also that there would be district-wide representation or city-wide district representation as part of this budget.

So really appreciate having the extra clarity, Chair.

And again, colleagues, Given that we're having the conversation about the co-sponsorships, I want to be very clear that please do not take my lack of co-sponsoring something you've put in as my not supporting you.

Again, I wish I could co-sponsor every single last thing that is in here because I do believe in every last thing that has been included in the budget and we have the difficult.

And Chair, you, I appreciate that you have the very difficult decision of picking and choosing which amendments make it into.

the chairs package.

I do not take that lightly.

I know that's going to be hard work over the weekend.

And really didn't want to leave this process without saying, colleagues, I support each and every one of you and all the ads that you've made.

because it bears mentioning and we have some, it's a really difficult task.

So again, thank you chair for the work that you've done.

Definitely still have the question about how the co-sponsorships will weigh in, but happy to continue to have that conversation.

Want to make sure that we have representation across the city in this budget, which I know that you share as well.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Very well said.

There were so many amendments yesterday that I am fully supportive of that I did not add my name to.

Last year we didn't have that ability and I heard very clearly that folks wanted to add their name.

So it's an iterative process.

I am always here to take feedback so that we can make it better for next year.

With that, we're gonna move right back in, and Amelia, if you could read all of the items into the record so we can just get on the tracks and roll.

Agenda items two through six, Human Services Department, Community Assisted Response and Engagement, Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Police Department, and Office of Inspector General for Public Safety, all for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

four, one, two, three, four, five very, five departments that could take a long time to talk about one amendment each.

We have 35 amendments ahead of us.

And with that, Director Noble, I'll let you take it away and introduce whomever is gonna speak on HSD 63.

That's me.

That's you, okay.

I didn't even know, so there you go.

Good morning Chair Stiles, members of the committee.

Tommaso Johnson, Council Central staff, once again.

HSD 63 would increase appropriations to the Human Services Department by $250,000 one time for supportive community building and mental health services, such as community sewing programs for refugee and immigrant women.

Council has identified Somali Family Safety Task Force for this funding.

Prime sponsor is Councilmember Solorman, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Hollingsworth and Rink.

Thank you.

Councilmember Salomon has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As was mentioned, this is a one-time funding of $250,000 to the Smalley Family Safety Task Force for the Diversified Sewing Program, which initially started in 2013. And it addresses a critical need in our city's mental health network, providing space for recovery from trauma through traditional textile arts while preserving cultural heritage and building community resilience.

It's important to call out this service because it will particularly benefit the mental health network of our refugees and immigrant communities, many of whom have witnessed or experienced conflict themselves.

This addition will provide our community with culturally appropriate services that empower our refugee community with classical skills, connections with meaningful relationships, and a space to develop mental health coping strategies.

If approved, the CBA would allow Somalia Family Safety Task Force to expand this program from serving around 30 community members one day a week to serving over 300 community members four to five days a week.

These dollars will also cover the costs needed to employ bilingual educators, enable therapeutic program coordination, and provide for the childcare services to allow the participation of mothers and families with young children.

And I'd like to thank my co-sponsors on this, Council Members Hollingworth and Council Members Rink for their support of this program.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Solomon.

Colleagues, discussion?

Questions?

Comments?

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 63, please raise your hand at this time.

Co-sponsoring HSD 63, we have Council Member Saka.

Council Member Saka.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 64.

HSD 64 would increase proposed appropriations to the Human Services Department by $1.2 million one time for supportive services for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation or domestic violence.

This is also sponsored by Councilmember Solomon and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Saka and Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

Councilmember Solomon is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

The need for these services has widely been recognized by my colleagues and I specifically want to call out not only is this funding a standard for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation but also survivors of domestic violence.

And regardless of location, we know that sex trade harms women and girls throughout our city, including the black and trans girls raised in D2.

And as the city attempts to address ongoing needs in this area, we face the possibility of a surge of human trafficking activity and gender-based violence during next year's World Cup games.

With that context in mind, this one-time boost of funding is purposely designed to provide the executive with maximum flexibility to meet the city's needs in 2026. I will further say that when we look at who's in that space and who's doing the work, we also have to think about who is actually showing up.

Who are boots on the ground?

I want to see us continue to support those folks who are doing work, boots on the ground, showing up for those survivors of domestic violence and sexual exploitation.

And I do want to thank Council Member Sokka and Hollingsworth for their co-sponsorship and I'm asking for my colleagues to further co-sponsor this budget ask.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Solomon.

Colleagues, questions?

Discussion?

If you would like to co-sponsor HSD 64, please raise your hand at this time.

Have Council Member Kettle joining HSD 64.

Council Member Kettle.

Moving on to HSD 65.

HSD 65 would increase appropriations to the Human Services Department by $250,000 one time for family-based youth violence prevention and mentoring Council has identified the organization Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement for this funding.

This is sponsored by the Council President, co-sponsored by Council Members Saka and Solomon.

Thank you.

Council President Nelson, you are recognized as sponsor of the amendment.

Thank you very much, everyone.

And I do want to first express my deep appreciation for council members Zaka and Solomon for being co-sponsors.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Seattle Cares is a Seattle Cares mentoring is unique among a lot of other sort of youth organizations and anti-violence organizations in that it works with the whole family.

It doesn't just help kids who are at risk, but it also takes a holistic approach to working with the family members and close friends who are in direct contact with the youth in question.

And so this is a critical differentiation, as I mentioned, and it's based on national best practices to reduce youth violence by ensuring that youth have their basic needs met, first and foremost.

And then the mentors work with the kids themselves and also other to to boost self-esteem, track their schoolwork, their progress in class, and also create a sense of belonging for the youth and the families within their larger communities.

And what you heard this morning was the director, Don Cameron, talk about Project Hope which is extremely timely as people are about to lose SNAP benefits and they are proactively distributing food through the, I think they said Mercer Middle School and there's one other school, I can't remember what it was from the public comment, but this is extremely timely work and it just shows how they take a holistic approach to the issue of youth wellness, violence prevention and community building.

So happy to provide more information.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

Colleagues, discussion?

Comments?

Questions?

Colleagues?

Council President, do you have additional comments?

Yes, I'm sorry.

This is listed as an ad.

However, as my staff will be talking to your staff chair, this could be a proviso.

I see this being funded most logically within the community safety initiative dollars.

So when it comes to, is this additional funding or is this a reusing of funds that up for discussion?

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 65, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Juarez, Rivera, Hollingsworth.

Council Members Juarez, Rivera, and Hollingsworth.

All co-sponsoring HSD 65. We will move on to HSD 66.

HST 66 would increase proposed appropriations in the Human Services Department budget by $43,000 for youth football programming.

Council has identified the organization Central Area Parents and Coaches Association, also known as the CD Panthers football program, for these funds.

This is sponsored by Council President Nelson, co-sponsored by Council Members Solomon and Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

Council President Nelson has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you.

Also, thank you very much for my co-sponsors.

I so appreciate this.

It is Saka Ann Hollingsworth.

Thank you very much.

This was my bad, frankly.

Last year, I had intended to cover the budget of the CD Panthers for 2025 and 2026, and I learned just recently that that wasn't the case.

So this is to continue that precious assistance for the CD Panthers that you all generously provided for last year.

The CD Panthers, of course, is an institution in the Central District.

It's not just a football and cheer squad.

It is violence prevention embodied.

And I've been going to CD Panthers games since 2021. This is the way that we meet so many of our policy goals for community building, gun violence prevention, youth violence prevention and also just the stabilization of some of our most vulnerable families.

So you heard the president of the CD Panthers talk about what this money was able to be used for this past year, saving families an average of $500 per player that they'd ordinarily have to pay for equipment and the various fees.

And it also saves the team time that they'd ordinarily spend on fundraising.

to really do the real work of not just coaching in football and cheering, but building community and teaching the important, the essential life skills that these kids have to be successful in life and also stay out of trouble.

So I'm hoping that you will support extending this funding for another year.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Colleagues, questions?

comments, Councilmember Sacco.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to thank Council President Nelson for putting this forward as a proud father of three young kids, all of which are involved in various activities, programs, and yes, youth sports, and also as someone who represents a district across the council or across the city that anecdotally, to the best of my knowledge at least, has the second highest number of under 18 youth Anecdotally, at least, we'll know more once we get the snapshots data back for the slide we requested on that with more precision.

But there are certainly a lot of youth in my district, so I know firsthand the power that various youth activities, programs, including sports, can provide.

You're absolutely right.

They do empower communities.

They do help build communities.

one of multiple violence prevention, gun violence prevention programs, and one way of many that we go upstream and address some of the root causes and give people opportunity.

So in a moment, I'm gonna be raising my hand to co-sponsor this, but just wanna thank you for putting this forward.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

Council Member Nelson.

Yes.

I apologize, Councilmember Salomon.

I misspoke.

I was reading the wrong line.

And I just want to to thank you very much for coast sponsoring as well.

And there is some good news I would like to share that the I I mentioned yesterday when we're talking about finally turfing Judkins Playfield, there will be two bids.

that are coming forward.

The process now is a little bit farther down the line than we thought.

And hopefully this week we'll receive a couple bids on how much that will cost.

Two contractors have been identified for possibly doing this work.

So, you know, every...

Things take time, but things happen.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And with no further ado, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 66, I see Council Member Waters' hand and I have council president, this is your amendment.

Sorry, so council member Kettle, Rivera, Juarez as co-sponsors to HSD 66.

Council members Kettle, Rivera and Juarez.

Council Member Saka, did you want to co-sponsor?

Oh, sorry.

All right, team.

We have 32 amendments remaining to get through today.

We will be here till six if we're not all on point.

With that, if you would like to raise your hand to co-sponsor HSD 66, please do so at this time.

I have you, Council Member Juarez.

The same one again.

I have Council Members Rivera, Kettle, Saka, co-sponsoring HSD 66.

Councilmembers Juarez, Kettle, Rivera, and Saka.

Wonderful.

Moving on to HSD-68.

Thank you, colleagues.

HSD-68 would impose a proviso on $195,000 in the Human Services Department to fund 1 Strategic Advisor 1 to continue to develop a North Seattle safety hub prioritizing at-risk youth, connecting them to community groups and supportive services.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Hollingsworth and Juarez.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera, as sponsor of the amendment, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, this is basically a reinstatement of a position that we added last year into the budget for the biennium into 26, and it is proposed for a cut.

now in 26, and this would reinstate it.

You all heard me say last year, and I appreciated your support last year in including this, in that the North Precinct has the highest rate of youth gun violence in the city, and because of this alarming statistic, last year I added, with the support of Council Member Moore, who was at the time in D5, we added funding to the budget for a full-time position to create this north end safety hub with a focus on youth safety.

The position was going to be building relationships across diverse stakeholders in the north and including with community-based organizations that service youth to connect at-risk youth to community groups and services.

The position was posted and they hired someone midway through the year in a temporary basis, perhaps because they knew that this was going to get proposed to be cut.

but it was always meant to be a full-time position to do the work.

This is, as you all know, a lot of outreach work that takes time to build relationships with all those community-based organizations on the north end that service youth that aren't already doing this type of work.

You all know there's a community safety hub on the south end.

It's worked really great.

We very much support that and we wanna do something similar on the north end to help these kids who need the extra support.

So that is what this ad is.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, question, discussion?

I'll ask the question that I had yesterday that we prepared for today.

There was also a proposal to add additional staff to Department of Neighborhoods as community outreach folks.

And I asked yesterday to discuss today, what is the difference, similarity?

Are all four of these positions building off of each other?

Are they duplicative?

Can you help me understand the similarities and differences between these amendments?

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of insight into the work that Don is doing.

From my understanding of speaking with HSD, I think this is a distinct body of work and that, as Councilmember Rivera mentioned, the reduction in 195 in the mayor's proposed budget was part of a deficit reduction exercise, but that this position, this role in HSD would be a value add that would be distinct from Don, is my understanding from HSD.

Okay.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Yes, Chair.

I'm going to call you last as the sponsor of the amendment.

Further discussion, questions?

Seeing none more.

Councilmember Rivera, you've got last word and then we'll call for co-sponsors.

Thank you, Chair.

Appreciate that and appreciate you, Tomaso.

I should have said earlier for introducing this and to my co-sponsors for the support, Councilmember Juarez and Councilmember Hollingsworth.

I'll say this is not work that Don has the expertise to do.

This is really work that HSD has been doing, as I said.

There is a South Safety Hub.

It's proven really successful.

And we want to make sure that the kids on the North End also have that type of support.

And it is something that HSD is in a better position since they already manage the investment on the South End Safety Hub.

So it is very distinct from outreach positions in Don.

This isn't just outreach.

This is if kids are at risk and they are identified.

It's a warm handoff to the community-based organization and it's very hands-on with the kids, very much based on violence and violence prevention and intervention.

So it is not duplicative of the Don outreach positions.

This is not the type of work that Don does.

and we don't want them to be doing this type of work because it is very specific type of work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 68, please raise your hand at this time.

I have additional sponsors of Saka and Nelson.

Council Member Saka and Nelson.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 69.

HSD 69 would increase appropriations to the Human Services Department budget by $25,000 one time for a youth gun violence summit to be planned in partnership with the Council and the Crime and Community Harm Reduction Division of the Seattle Police Department.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Hollingsworth and Kettle.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera, sponsor the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you chair, thank you council members Kettle and Hollingsworth for co-sponsoring.

Colleagues you all know youth violence has unfortunately touched my own family and many of our families here and certainly all the families in your districts that you represent and to even obviously are citywide representatives on the council.

This is in many conversations that I've been having across the city, both in conversations with constituents and the work that HSD is doing and then our new executive director of the Crime and Community Harm Reduction Division, Lee Hunt, who both HSD and Dr. Hunt were presenting here when HSD was doing their presentation before, their budget presentation in chambers.

Born out of these conversations, this would be an opportunity to bring some experts that are working in the youth violence prevention arena.

We have great folks that are working in this arena in town, so this is not to say we don't have that in town.

This is more meant to bring additional learnings to the city and to us as we are looking at ways to address youth gun violence in the city.

The summit would build off recommendations of the city auditor's report and the work that the Crime and Community Harm Reduction Division is doing.

We need to learn what has worked in other cities and use that knowledge to improve our efforts here in Seattle.

And a couple of the organizations that I have in mind in speaking with some experts are the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College, and the University of Maryland's Violence Reduction Center.

To me, it's always more important to get more information and more learnings and every so often refresh and get additional information and bring local leaders together with national experts to continue to have this conversation because the situation is not getting better in Seattle.

We're managing for it, of course, and we have great organizations in town that are helping us do that.

but we are not making a huge dent into this issue.

And it is an issue that unfortunately our city is grappling with.

So this is just a convening.

It's a very small ad that would bring conveners here, be able to do that here, perhaps in Bertha Knightlandis.

But it is, I think, an important convening.

As I said when I started last year, this is something that's been top of mind and sometimes it takes time to talk to folks as I wanted to before I made a recommendation on let's have this convening and this conversation and bring everyone together and make sure we're not missing something and that we couldn't be doing something more.

So that's what this is and hopefully you all will be supportive of having such a convening so that we can learn more.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, discussion?

Questions?

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 69, please raise your hand at this time.

And so, one, two, three, four, six.

Council Member Juarez, would you like to add your name to this?

Thank you.

We have Council Member Sokka, Strauss, Nelson, and Rink.

Council Member Sokka, Strauss, Nelson, and Rink.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 71. All right.

HSD 71A would increase HSD appropriations by 1.4 million general fund for runaway and youth homelessness programs.

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority would administer a competitive application process for the funds.

It is sponsored by council members Rink, Hollingsworth, and Sullivan.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rinke is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, this amendment is meant to address the current and prospective federal and state cuts and stabilization needs for runaway and homeless youth programs around Seattle.

And this includes impacted providers such as YMCA, New Horizons, Youth Care, and Roots Young Adult Shelter.

Once again, we're seeing the actions of the Trump regime destabilizing our local systems.

Earlier this year, organizations including Youth Care and specifically their program ISIS House, which provides services for LGBTQ and immigrant youth, were unable to receive the runaway homeless youth funding that's usually administered and provided by HUD.

More changes and cuts are anticipated by providers in 2026. In addition, during the state legislative session, youth homelessness services were cut, leaving gaps for organizations as operating costs continue to rise.

We know one of the number one predictors of chronic adult homelessness is experiencing homelessness during childhood and young adulthood.

So without intervention, we are leaving hundreds of young adults in an even more precarious position.

Now, my office has been working on this amendment in coordination with King County Councilmember Jorge Barón, who has also introduced an amendment in the county budget so both local governments can fully maximize our dollars towards this program.

So really want to uplift the partnership that's happening here with city and county to address this.

The funding would be granted to organizations through an RFP that would be administered by KCRHA.

And I'd like to close by thanking Councilmembers Hollingsworth and Solomon for your co-sponsorship on these emerging needs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 71, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Juarez adding her name to HSD 71.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 72.

HSD 72A would increase appropriations in HSD by 2 million of general fund to assist people living in vehicles enter shelter and impose a proviso limiting use of funding solely for storage of recreational vehicles and safe lots and assisting vehicle residents transitioning into shelter or housing.

The funding would be administered by HSD and it is sponsored by council members Strauss, Kettle and Saka.

And just to be clear, the proviso would limit uses for RV storage or recreational vehicle safe lots or assisting vehicle residents transitioning into shelter or housing.

Thank you, Jennifer.

As sponsor of the amendment, I'll address it.

I don't think I can say it much better than just the facts that Jennifer presented.

What we know, colleagues, is that for folks who are living in their vehicles, transitioning into shelter is a bit more difficult, oftentimes because it's the last possession that they own.

And not all shelters are the right fit for everyone.

and so giving up the last piece of property you own in exchange for a shelter bed that might not work out is not a choice that people make without some additional security support or resources and so this funding would be associated with that and that's why we're talking about whether it's storage of storing RVs as the person enters a shelter or the safe lot where RVs are kept on the same lot as the tiny home or tiny homes or pallet shelters that are on the lot.

This is also to help assist folks moving from their vehicles and into shelters or homes.

Colleagues, if there's further discussion or questions or comments, and if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 72, please raise your hand at this time.

I've got council members Solomon and Hollingsworth adding their names to HSD 72.

Council members Solomon and Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

HSD 73 please.

HSD 73SA would request that HSD prioritize the use of 7.8 million to sustain existing homelessness services and permanent supportive housing projects before funding new shelter beds, given significant uncertainty about federal funding for homelessness.

The 2026 proposed budget had added 7.8 million to create 155 new shelter beds.

in 2026, and so this proposed amendment would instead prioritize use of funds of the same funds to sustain existing shelter beds.

It is sponsored by Council Members Kettle, Juarez, and Rink.

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you, Ms. LeBreck, for that summary, and also thank you to Councilmembers Rankin and Juarez for your co-sponsorship of this amendment.

I don't see it in the write-up, but the key word that you would use, Ms. LeBrecq, was uncertainty.

And that was actually what I wrote down.

And that's what we're facing right now, particularly with the federal administration.

and with respect to federal funding, it's uncertain.

Now, there's some opportunities that may exist.

I've had conversations with many people, to include PDA's, Lisa Dugard, on some of the opportunities that may be there, but likelihood is we may not be getting what we need.

And so this goes to the idea of flexibility.

We have to build in some flexibility to ensure that we can be ready to flex if we get into a situation.

And so this slide is really, you know, it's in a sense a contingency plan possible, likely event that we do not have the funding that we're expecting in this area.

And to give the flexibility to move from building new to ensuring that we can sustain those that are currently in need.

To have that happen today would be unconscionable when we have the ability to flex on that with the idea of using those funds from the future.

And I know that long-term this is not something that we really want to do, but we're in uncertain times.

and we have to basically be at the ready.

And that's what this amendment is all about, being at the ready.

So colleagues, I ask for your support of this amendment and to you, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, any questions?

Okay, I do have a question, Jen.

And that is, so...

do we have shelter that is, I just wanna understand what Council Member Kettle just said and how I'm hearing it, but we have existing shelter that is at risk, shelter beds, and so we wanna make sure we're part, don't lose that before we try to add more.

And wouldn't we do that anyway?

I'm not really sure how it works with HSD.

and the, oh, I'm sorry, is this KCRHA or HSD?

It's HSD, it's money that's appropriated to HSD that KCRHA administers.

So I'll answer in a couple different ways.

One is that the most uncertainty right now is around federal continuum of care funding that comes from HUD.

Frankly, most of that funding right now goes to permanent supportive housing projects.

However, all indications are that in the HUD's NOFA, there are notice of funding opportunity that will come out.

I think the idea is as soon as the government reopens, that will be coming out, that they're gonna open up, they're gonna have new eligibility rules and that funding for permanent supportive housing will be limited to 30%.

Right now, 85% of our COC funds go to permanent supportive housing projects.

So there's gonna need to be a lot of shifting.

Like think of the homelessness services system as a system.

There's gonna need to be, the system itself will be challenged and there might need to be a lot of shifting of funds.

For example, between shelter and PSH in order to help projects meet COC rules.

So I think that is there specific federal funding for shelter that's challenged right now?

I'd say the bigger risk is on the permanent supportive housing side, but because the whole thing functions like a system, cuts to permanent supportive housing will challenge the system and there might need to be local support for both shelter and PSH projects.

And you'll notice, I should say also that in this particular slide that it calls to sustain funding first for both shelter and permanent supportive housing projects because of what's happening on the COC level.

Thank you.

Thank you for that, Jen.

All right, colleagues seeing no other questions.

Oh, Councilmember Nelson, did you have a question?

Yes.

One of my questions is, do we know how much of the 28 million to, you know, I can't remember the term of art for that money, but the money to shore up our existing providers, do we know the percentage that will be going to permanent supportive housing in that number?

In the 28 million, I believe you're referring to the amount of COC funding that goes to brick and mortar projects in the city of Seattle.

Is that right?

The one that HSD asked for.

Let me think.

There's a reserve in the proposed budget for $9 million as a contingency reserve for changes in federal funding.

Not sure if I'm familiar with the $28 million.

I'm referring to the $28 million that we talked about a couple times at the table.

Anyway, I just want to make sure that So do you wanna speak to that?

I see those as two separate issues.

So OH is, I think you're talking about the Office of Housing, the $28 million for the operating stabilization fund.

That is to support affordable housing providers with their operating stabilization costs.

I would actually guess that much of that funding will go to non-permanent supportive housing providers, sort of your more traditional affordable housing providers who don't get those services contracts already.

So I don't see a lot of overlap here.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson.

Colleagues, further discussion or questions on HSD 73?

Seeing no further questions, if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 73, please raise your hand at this time.

We have Councilmembers Rivera, Solomon, and Hollingsworth adding their name to HSD 73.

Councilmembers Rivera, Solomon, and Hollingsworth.

Thank you, and moving on to HSD 74.

HSD 74 would request that the Human Services Department provide more information on the proposed Community Solutions Initiative pilot to reduce unsheltered homelessness in downtown.

It is sponsored by Council Members Rink, Hollingsworth, and Kettle.

Thank you, Council Member Rink to sponsor the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, in the mayor's proposed budget, there is a proposed one-time $4.5 million investment into this pilot program, and I raised some questions about this proposal during our issue identification session.

While we need to take a multi-pronged approach to addressing homelessness across our city, in the spirit of good governance, I do have a few specific questions about program design, so this slide seeks to answer some of the following questions before a contract is put into place.

looking at how outcomes will be measured including housing stability six and 12 months after rental subsidies end, how the program will identify participants who are a good fit for short-term rental subsidies and who can demonstrate the capacity to remain stably housed once short-term rental subsidies end, how we're incorporating lessons learned from Partnership for Zero, and then how we will develop a ramp-down plan for the end of one-time funding so people enrolled in the program do not return to unsheltered homelessness.

and I'll close by thanking Council Members Hollingsworth and Kettle for their support on this amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

Seeing no further questions or discussion, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 74, please raise your hand at this time.

I see Council Member Solomon.

Council Member Solomon.

Thank you.

Moving on to HSD 75.

HSD 75A would increase proposed appropriations to HSD by 7.6 million.

Of that, 6.7 million is general fund and 890,000 are other fund sources.

for a total wage equity increase of 5%, which is a 3% increase beyond what is in the 2026 proposed budget.

Or put another way, the 2026 proposed budget contains a 2% wage equity increase, and this amendment would change that to a 5% wage equity increase, so it pays for the 3% difference.

It is sponsored by council members Rink, Solomon, and Saka.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rink is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you.

Colleagues, so this amendment would increase the Human Services Department by $7.6 million to provide the full 5% wage equity across all service provider contracts.

So while the mayor's budget advances wage equity for human services providers, this is a step in the right direction, but it does not fully meet the need of what is owed to human services providers who remain underpaid and working with those who are highest need in our community.

We know that we're in the throes of an affordability crisis, and human services workers are quite literally at the front line of that crisis, and yet too many of our human services workers are at the brink as well.

According to our wage equity study that also went into a market analysis, they found that non-profit human services workers in Washington earn 37 percent less than similar workers in for-profit non-care industries.

The median annual earnings for all full-time human services workers in the state was about 33,000 in 2019 compared to the median 54,000 for full-time workers in non-care industries.

and I'll care to remind everybody, our 100% area median income here in Seattle for a household of one is $110,000 annually.

So we're talking about paying human services workers at wages that qualify them for the programs that they serve in.

And to draw some important context for this conversation, the last city workers' union contract included a 5% annual wage increase retroactively applied for 2023 and a 4.5% annual wage increase for 2024 totaling a two-year 9.7% adjustment.

And in the retroactive union contract with Seattle Police Officers Guild, the contract increased by roughly 24% in employee compensation across the three years of the agreement.

This body has approved wage increases like this because of a fundamental recognition that livable wages means a thriving workforce, higher productivity, lower turnover, and overall a healthier community.

So I hope we can find a way to turn a 3% increase into a 5% increase to support these critical workers in our community.

and while I can recognize this is one of my more aspirational amendments, I think it is critical that we keep this conversation alive and find the best ways that we can support our human and social services providers and continue to move the needle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very well said.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

I'll just echo what Council Member Rink stated is that it is important and critical that we keep this discussion going.

Colleagues, with that, if you would like to co-sponsor HSD 75, please raise your hand at this time.

Seeing no further co-sponsors, we will move on to HSD 76.

HSD 76 SA would request that the Human Services Department assess the King County Regional Homelessness Authority's administrative shortfall.

Identify if there is a need for additional funds and the amount necessary.

and incorporate additional funds for KCRHA administration, if necessary, into the 2026 Mid-Year Supplemental Budget Proposal.

It is sponsored by Councilmembers Kettle, Rink, and Nelson.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle, the sponsor of the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Again, thank you, Ms. LeBruck.

It's sad to say, but the King County Regional Homeless Authority has been problematic since day one.

It's had such a massive false start.

We made great changes last year at this time, changing it, reforming it.

But as you looking to it, as we did last year, and I continue to do because this is one of those seams, you know, on the human services side but does have impacts on public safety, you start to realize there's even more problems with the structure.

You know, I'm aghast that we've created a structure where the city and the county have to kind of give them money, but late, and then they have to take a loan, and last year they essentially had to pay a million dollars of interest to King County.

Who designed that?

It's unbelievable.

We should be looking to set up organizations for success, not failure.

And that's what's been happening with KCRHA from day one, and this budget amendment is to look to basically fix the administrative mess, for the lack of a better word, that we have with KCRHA.

I do believe that KCRHA is moving in the right direction with the reforms that we did last year.

I do believe that they can do so under the leadership of Dr. Kinnison.

I do believe in the regional approach The best way to create a proper regional approach is to show the other jurisdictions in King County that we have a functional, credible regional homeless authority.

And part of that is ensuring that it's set up for success by the city and the county.

And so colleagues, this is really important.

I ask for your support as we look to address what is really a key area, permanent supportive housing.

This kind of goes to the SHIP, the Seattle Housing Investment Plan amendment that we had to understand better and see the interactions with affordable housing and social housing.

But we're gonna be in a very difficult spot if the King County Regional Homeless Authority, the KCRHA, continues to be set up for failure and not set up for success.

So again, colleagues, I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Further discussion?

Council, President Nelson.

Today, the governing board members of KCRHA received an email from Director Dr. Kelly Kinison, first line saying, after careful consideration, I've made the decision to part ways with Simon Foster, Edmund Witter, and Tim Thomas, and James Rouse.

They are the Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

General Counsel, Chief Research and Data Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, respectively.

So this is not at all a comment or a, I'm not saying that this is not a necessary budget action sponsored by Councilmember Kettle.

I'm just letting people know that there are efforts underway right now to bring the organization more in line with the resources that they have and to fill a budget gap.

I think it is about $2 million, but I just wanted to let people know that this work is beginning to be made.

That's it.

Thank you, Council President.

Further discussion?

Council Member Juarez.

I want to thank Council Member Kettle for his comments, but when we created the King County Regional Housing Authority in 2019, then with Council President Harrell, who's now our Mayor, we did envision a different plan, but this was the structure and how the vote shook out to create it, the structure that we see today.

Council President is correct, in the last week, we've been meeting with King County with the mayor's office as well on restructuring.

The board has been very clear with Dr. Kitteson, the cuts that need to be made unfortunately.

and one of the issues is the King County Regional Housing Authority is shifting away from actual direct services into basically being the warehouse for contracts and away from advocacy.

I have some personal opinions about that, but that doesn't really matter right now.

That's in the past, we're looking forward.

but I do want to say this because I'm hoping folks are listening beyond the City of Seattle because the City of Seattle has the most services and money because we have the most people here but it makes sense because we are the biggest city.

There are 39 cities in King County.

and quite frankly one of the issues that we have is we have outlying cities that either do not want to participate or contribute to the homeless issue and continue to believe it's a Seattle problem and have passed quite frankly ordinances that hurt the King County regional housing against, you know, folks that are unhoused.

And so if you are a opening city that wants to provide these services, you know, at some point these are all cities within themselves that have their own sensibilities.

And if they feel differently, we can't make them also we can do is to continue to provide services and hopefully change the hearts and minds that not everyone who is unsheltered, unhoused is a criminal.

A lot of us are just one, two paychecks away from, and Seattle is a very expensive city to live in, but in any event, we find ourselves being the most welcoming city.

I'll say that.

I'm sure I'm gonna hear about it later from other cities.

but some of us who sat on there and have been involved since 2019, I can say we are moving forward.

There's a lot of change happening right now and I want to thank Council President for highlighting the information that we received yesterday and the board meeting and executive session we had two days ago.

So we are on track to change things and I think in the next month, I think we can come back and report that we've made some systemic changes and I hope those outlying cities out there recognize this is an issue about humanity and if they can open their hearts and minds to understand that everyone that's unhoused and unsheltered isn't in Seattle.

They come from Burien and Kirkland and Issaquah and Kent, you name it.

And so if they could join us, that would be nice.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Just noting something you said, a lot of Americans are only two paychecks away from being homeless, and for a lot of federal workers, some of them are facing their first or second paycheck that they're not receiving this week.

It's devastating.

Council Member Rink I see you have a hand and actually before you go on one thing I appreciate about you Council Member Warren is you are always consistent since we first started talking about KCRHA in 2017 you've called it the housing authority every single time even and I think it was an acronym issue back then so I do appreciate that even though you called it the housing authority we all know that you're talking about the homelessness authority Every single time.

You learned it the first time in 2017 and it's been that way ever since.

Since we're doing that, can I just say one thing?

Just so we're all clear here.

I did not want it to be the King County Regional Homelessness.

Homeless authority.

I wanted it to be a PDA.

I wanted it to be an institution where we could issue debt, assume debt, and get a buy-in.

Me and the mayor at the time, he's the mayor now, but me and council president at the time did not have the votes for that structure.

So I'm just going to leave it at that.

That's great.

I'm going to keep calling it what I want.

Compromise doesn't always work out.

Councilmember Wink, I see you've got a hand.

Sitting expert on the dais.

Thank you Chair, that's generous and I want to thank Council Member Juarez particularly for her comments just really calling attention to the harmful kind of legislation that we've seen passed within this county and particularly the kind of impacts that that has on really meeting the needs of our unhoused neighbors and I also wanted to uplift that I know we have a real spirit and desire to ensure that this is a regional entity and I'd like to remind the body and any of the listening public that While we want more cities to be a part of KCRHA, we do have a number of suburban jurisdictions that have contributed funding to the entity and merged their contracts into a regional response.

So I wanted to take a moment to celebrate and remind everyone that the cities of Bothell, Shoreline, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park and Woodinville have bought into a regional solution and have moved their contracts under KCRHA and that had a couple years.

That happened a couple years ago.

And we'd like to have a true regional solution and have other cities around the region truly buy in.

And that's why this slide in particular is really important.

KCRHA has taken up some restructuring in the past couple of days.

to try and right-size the agency and their staffing model.

I'm hopeful that the information we gleaned from this slide about administration needs will really help in figuring out how we can set up the agency truly for success.

So particularly interested to see what the kind of findings that comes out of this slide as KCRHA works with HSD to identify this information.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Rink.

Council Member Nelson, I believe this is your second Okay, I'm gonna ask that we take a time and then we're gonna keep moving through because we still have 65% of amendments today.

Council President Nelson, floor is yours.

Yeah, I just want to make sure that everybody realizes that KCRHA acts as basically a contract administrative organization.

The real work is being done by the providers that the City of Seattle is paying for.

Our contribution goes into paying those contracts for the actual providers who are providing the transitional housing, etc.

But the actual agency has about 89 FTEs and I have been asking for more information about what exactly the the work is being done by the employees of the agency versus the providers that are providing housing for people who are unhoused right now.

So I haven't read the fine writing on the actual SLI request, and so I will have to do that.

But I do think it's important that we all understand the division of labor here.

And so when we characterize a shortfall as a shortfall, we need to make sure who is actually doing what work.

So hopefully this sly request will provide that information.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Kettle, last word, and then we'll call for co-sponsors.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

I just want to say thank you very much for the comments from my co-sponsors, Council President Nelson, Council Member Rink, but also Council Member Juarez providing some of the history pieces there that's really important, and it shows that It's kind of a bit of the could-have-beens, like you said.

And so we're at the point now where we do need to ensure that it is set up for success.

And I thank you, Council President Nelson, for that point.

For example, my team last year worked through this process to get two non-congregate shelters, and we're working right now with Lehigh to get those both in.

One's gonna be at Lake City, the second one is still TBD for different reasons, but that kind of shows Council President's point.

But bottom line is about getting the job done, and I think we need to, again, assure that they're set up for success and to work with the county to ensure that the county is covered to Councilor Juarez's point when we talk about some of these other jurisdictions, not including those highlighted by Council Member Ring.

Thank you.

So with that, Chair, I'm done because I know we're on the timeline.

Yeah.

Councilmember Rivera, is it all right to ask offline?

I gave Councilmember Kettle last word just now.

Okay.

I really was just trying to get to whether or not

One question, please.

Sorry, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair.

I mean, this is an important topic, so obviously there's a lot of questions around it.

I'm just, Council Member Jen or Council Member Kettle, this lie, this administrative shortfall and the plan, it's not, what I'm hearing you say, it's not necessarily about how to find more funding, it's just sort of in general how to figure out part of this is the administrative setup of the organization.

Am I understanding that correctly from the conversation that just transpired?

Jennifer?

I do.

KSR-HAs, they had identified an administrative gap of about $4.6 million, and they've already taken, really starting this week, as you've heard mentioned, a series of steps to reduce that gap, which has been to eliminate vacant positions and then to lay off some staff mostly some on their senior leadership team and then some in more administrative support positions.

So I think at this point they have closed the gap and there's a couple remaining issues.

One is just what does that mean for them in terms of are they able to perform their work?

Are there things that now that they can't do to be responsive to the city of Seattle or King County or other jurisdictions and so part of this lie is to evaluate that, right?

What is the impact and are there unmet needs given the adjustments that they've made?

I think as Council Member Kettle also mentioned, KCRHA has a cost reimbursable model.

They pay providers and then they invoice and get paid.

It means they run in the negative and they have to take out an Interfund loan from King County.

That's about a million dollars a year out of a $13 million admin budget.

So one of the ways to sort of increase dollars available for admin is to address that interest issue, and that is another thing that this slide is asking to look at.

Thank you.

Sorry, Chair, so I imagine though with all of that it will look overall at the administrative structure, because you'll have to do that in order to figure it out, right?

Jennifer, and then we're going to move on.

I think those details are to be determined.

This slide does not specify.

Thank you.

If you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 76, please raise your hand at this time.

I have council member Solomon, Hollingsworth, Saka adding their names to HSD 76. I'm gonna pause again.

Everyone ready?

I have council members Solomon, Hollingsworth, Saka, and Rivera co-sponsoring HSD 76. Council member Solomon, Saka, Hollingsworth, and Rivera.

Thank you.

We're gonna move on to HSD 78. And again, colleagues, we took a large chunk of today's agenda out yesterday, but just on today's amendments, we still have 65% of our amendments remaining for today.

Over to you.

All right.

HSD-78A would increase Human Services Department's appropriations by $350,000 for statements to help low-income individuals who are exiting inpatient residential treatment programs be able to live in privately run recovery housing.

And the goal would be to provide a housing environment so that individuals can continue their recovery in a supportive environment.

It is sponsored by Council Members Nelson, Rivera, and Kettle.

Thank you.

Council President Nelson, you are recognized.

Thank you everyone, and first I want to thank Council Members Kettle and Rivera for co-sponsoring this budget action.

I'll just be quite blunt and say that the lack of more than a scant handful, and I mean that quite literally, a scant handful of recovery-based housing units, otherwise known as sober housing units, is quite it's shocking actually because we are now finally investing more in the expansion of treatment services all different kinds of options but without some place for those people to go and live once they have completed or once their treatment is ongoing a safe environment where they're not living next door to someone who is using or selling drugs is just um it's it's a big problem in our whole response to the opioid epidemic and so this budget action builds upon the um uh the really great uh sort of new um work that we're doing in our new attention to to recovery and treatment it builds upon our first of its kind pilot project program for inpatient treatment and so many of the other investments that we're making this year.

So I just want to say that the mechanics of this, again, boilerplate language does not necessarily have to be new funding.

This could be existing funding that is already being proposed to be used with the sales tax or the public safety sales tax increase.

It falls in line with those investments.

It doesn't really matter to me.

What matters is that we get these units online.

And I have received information from Lisa Dugard of PDA explaining the cost structure.

Right now, there's about $320,000 worth of stipends that are in circulation that the PDA used to have to be able to provide to people for sober housing.

and the problem is, the real problem is that there is very little government support for this kind of housing.

Federal funding comes from HUD and very little of it is dedicated to recovery-based housing at all.

So it exists across King County, but its cost is almost never subsidized by government entities for those that need this financial assistance.

And so this budget proposal would expand our first of its kind pilot project and also strengthen and complement all the other treatment investments that we're making.

So let me see, in 2024, 1.5 million was awarded statewide for housing vouchers, specifically for people living in Level 1 Oxford House, that's the sober house that a lot of treatment centers send people to, and Level 2 Recovery Residences.

While an important step in the right direction, providers attest that demand far outpaces supply.

There is, colleagues, an actual organization called recoveryhousing.org.

You can look at it online.

It lists all the options that are accredited for being options for people to move into.

However, there is no money to support people going there.

And so this is really a critical piece of putting treatment and recovery at the center of the city's agenda.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion?

Seeing no further discussion, if you'd like to co-sponsor HSD 78, please raise your hand now.

Seeing no further co-sponsors, we'll move on to Ledge 1, which...

It's not a mistake.

I know it wasn't a mistake.

I was going to say something to the degree of out of order, but in order.

Jennifer, over to you.

All right, so Ledge 1, this is Ledge 001A.

It is here because it is very much related to HSD and also the Office of Housing.

This would increase legislative department appropriations by $80,000, a general fund for a consultant to create a framework for project-specific neighborhood engagement and mitigation plans, both for permanent supportive housing projects and human services programs where services are provided on-site at a physical location.

It is sponsored by Council Members Kettle, Juarez, and Nelson.

And I'll stop there.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

As sponsor of the amendment, you are recognized.

Yeah, I have sponsors Kettle, Rivera, Juarez.

And Councilmember Kettle, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

And again, thank you, Ms. LeBrecq.

You know, my team has been working with Ms. LeBrecq in the housing and human services world quite a bit recently, which really goes to the same idea of, you know, where the interactions of public safety and human services and housing.

Colleagues, this is, as I mentioned at the press conference for the SPOG temporary tentative agreement, and I talked about neighbors and neighborhoods and we need to be looking at this.

I've visited many housing and human service providers throughout the district and actually throughout the city and they recognize the challenges that we have on the ground in our neighborhoods and with their and where they're located.

And the concerns, though, also with respect to agreements with the neighborhoods.

I've been listening to these providers and I recognize some of the concerns that they had, particularly as someone who's served in those kind of community organizations and knows many that do.

I understand that part.

The main thing here is not about names of programs and the like, but it's about fostering communication and then collaboration between the various providers, Housing and Human Services, and those neighborhoods.

Because yes, we need to focus on our neighbors, again with compassion, but then have the wisdom to look out for our neighborhoods.

And this SLI is really looking to do that.

And in some ways it's kind of like a committee meeting kind of a process to really, bring up the issue, tackle the issue, and gain a comprehensive way ahead.

And this would be also, by the way, since we were just talking about KCRHA, in terms of engaging with them as well to better set them up for success in this area.

And that's basically the theme that resonates all the time as well.

How can we set up the situation for success, for the organizations that are participating, but also for the neighborhoods?

And so with that, colleagues, I ask for your support.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Yes.

Councilmember Warriors.

Thank you.

I want to thank Councilmember Kettle.

He did approach me about this, and so we had a long talk, and I always like, because he talks more in military terms than me, but I think what we're talking about, what our discussions were, Mr. Kettle, and with Councilmember Rivera, is this is more building on good neighbor agreements.

And in the past, what we've done is sat with the community, put together a checklist.

Is there gonna be security?

Is there gonna be lighting?

Is there gonna be a social worker?

And if we had a list of 10, if we could meet eight of those needs, the neighborhood was happy to some degree.

And I think what we're trying to do is beef this up so when we do have welcoming neighborhoods, that we have more than a checklist, something that's actually negotiated that people can be compliant with, that they can rely on, that's some degree enforceable, basically codifying what we agreed to do and work with welcoming neighborhoods so we can have more welcoming neighborhoods who understand that the city and all these other groups are going to not just work with the neighborhood, but work with the siding, the issues that central staff has listed, all the groups in here, the type of housing, whether it's permanent supportive, tiny house village, sanctioned encampment, because that's been missing, and it's been missing for at least 10 years.

And so I was happy to do this, and whether it's an $80,000 contract or a 50, it does have to get done.

Some way or another it has to get done, because we've never really sat down and said, we've kind of had kind of a feel-good, Gentlemen's, I hate using that term, gentlemen's handshake, we'll try to do the best we can, but we've never really held some of the providers accountable for some of the things that they promised the neighborhoods that sometimes they didn't come through with.

And sometimes as simple as lighting.

Is there a social worker there?

All of these things that we say we're going to do, we need someone to Be the caretaker and say this is how you get organized folks.

This is the person we're going to pay to do that This is we kind of want a template that we use where we have a consistency across the city For all of the type of housing that we provide for our unhoused neighbors.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I See Councilman Rivera and then Nelson

Thank you chair and thank you Jen for that great explanation and then thank you councilmembers Kettle and Juarez this is a conversation we've been having for a long time this was not just this budget this is we've been having councilmember Kettle and I have been talking about this since we got here and then since councilmember Juarez you came back and this is really to set everybody up for success and it's a positive thing, it's not meant to be less than that.

And I think that I appreciate that OH does work with the providers on the front end of a project to require providers to do a certain amount of outreach.

and this is just saying, let's keep it going.

Let's make sure it's not just a beginning thing but throughout because it's going to set up that housing development and the residents that are living in it and the neighbors, the welcoming neighbors up for success if we are continuing that relationship.

It's really a relationship building and I've always said this, I grew up in an apartment building and we all took care of each other in our building because we knew each other and all the parents knew each other then the kids knew each other and that made for a better relationship even in an apartment building.

So I think this is really saying the same thing.

The folks that live there need to be in relationship and community along with the folks that live near them and across the street from them so that we are creating welcoming neighborhoods in general.

And we're giving opportunities for people to be welcoming because we're not just talking to them at the beginning but throughout.

So if there's an issue that surfaces, we then have the ability to handle it.

And I will say that you know, we've had some issues in the district and the issues we're having in the district are being faced both by the residents of the housing developments as well as the neighbors across the street.

So everyone's dealing with the same thing, but people aren't necessarily talking with each other and supporting each other.

And so let's make sure that we are continuing establishing the relationship, continuing it, so that folks have support when issues arise.

So thank you, Councilmember Kettle and Councilmember Juarez for your partnership on this.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

Thanks.

So Council Member Rivera won the arm wrestle to be the third co-sponsor, but I am also very supportive of this budget item.

And building on what Council Member Juarez said, we do have to put some teeth into what has been up to now kind of a check the box exercise of making sure that there's a good neighbor agreement.

We have to have some way of enforcing or or really what we're really talking about is making sure that permanent supportive housing is more than just housing first or just housing first in name only.

There do have to be supports in these facilities to make sure that the residents are getting the care they need.

so that some of the problems within these facilities don't spill out into the neighborhood.

We have a responsibility to do that.

We're citing these all over the city and we need to make sure that it's good for the neighborhoods and not bad for the neighborhoods.

So that's really what we're talking about.

And I'll remind people, last year, Councilmember Moore tried to tie funding to the enforcement of good neighborhood agreements.

And that got so much blowback, she basically pulled back that part.

But there's something in between just making sure in name only there's a good neighbor agreement and then disrupting a funding model for an organization if they're really not able to enforce a good neighborhood agreement.

So this is a step in the right direction.

Hopefully we'll be able to go even farther than this to make sure that the people inside and outside these facilities are cared for.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Final comment, and I'm not coming back to another final comment after this.

Councilmember Kettle, your final word, and then we're going to call for co-sponsors.

I just want to say thank you for all the comments from all my colleagues, and it was noted by Councilmember Boers, yes, good neighbor agreement was the word that was creating some...

some challenges, some reactions from our provider friends, and so I said, give me a name.

I'm not wedded to this, give me a name.

And so we created this name, and as a big fan of KXP, I was really looking to find an X word, but I didn't think neighborhood engagement for Xanadu plan would be the best, and so I decided not to go that route.

So NEXP didn't quite make it, but Neighborhood Engagement and Mitigation Plan.

So thank you, and I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Colleagues, if you'd like to co-sponsor Ledge 1A1, please raise your hand at this time.

Pencils down.

Co-sponsoring Ledge 1A is Council Member Salomon, Saka, Hollingsworth and Nelson.

Council Member Salomon, Saka, Hollingsworth and Nelson.

Thank you.

We will now move on to the next item.

We are moving into the Community Assisted and Response and Engagement Department.

Colleagues, we have 60% of the amendments remaining for today, and that was again from the abbreviated agenda since we got through a lot yesterday.

We will be breaking at 12.30, so we have 51 minutes at this time.

Looks like I'm going over to Mr. Tommaso Johnson.

Mr. Johnson, welcome.

Take it away with CARE 1.

CARE 1 would increase appropriations in the Community Assisted Response and Engagement or CARE department by $200,000 for software technology acquisition and ongoing subscriptions aimed to improve data visibility and coordination between CARE and other public safety entities in the city.

The CBA is sponsored by Councilmember Kettle, co-sponsored by Strauss and Rank.

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Chair, in the interest of time, I'm gonna say three things.

It's really important to have a functional criminal justice system, as I always say, but we also need to have a functional public safety system.

And with that, I'm looking with this amendment to set up care for success.

And I ask for your support.

Sorry, that was a fourth.

No, that's fine.

I'm actually gonna dig into this a little bit more.

What are the software upgrades and why are they needed at this time?

Yeah, so in speaking with the care department leadership, they were clear that this is a very high priority of theirs.

It didn't make it into the mayor's proposal, so this would provide an ongoing software package that would basically provide greater data visibility between care, increase the integration and visibility with other systems such as SFDs, HealthOne, and it would allow them to both have better visibility for dispatch, ongoing data collection and information to be responsive to council data requests in an ongoing way, but also to improve the information that's available to dispatchers as well as care responders about individuals' interactions with other parts of the public safety or response ecosystem is my understanding.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion, further questions?

Seeing no further discussion or questions, if you would like to co-sponsor Care 1A, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Salomon co-sponsoring Care 1A.

Council Member Salomon.

Thank you.

Care 2.

Care 2 would impose a proviso on $579,000 in the care department for 911 call taker staffing to prioritize non-emergency calls with the intention to decrease non-emergency wait line times.

Just to note, funding in this amount, $579,000, for four full-time equivalent employees in care, was appropriated by Council in 2025 for this purpose, the purpose being to decrease the wait time on the non-emergency line, and this proviso is intended to effectuate the intent of the 2025 add.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera, co-sponsored by Councilmember Kettle, and Council President.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera is the sponsor of the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you very much, Chair.

I think Tommaso did an excellent job.

Thank you, Tommaso, of explaining.

We had four dedicated non-emergency line call takers that we put in that I brought last year, and you all supported.

Very much appreciate that.

because since I got here I had been hearing from constituents that the 911 non-emergency line had consistently had long wait times.

we put in the four dedicated positions because CARE has had difficulty hiring 911 emergency call takers.

Those positions were used to the dedicated non-emergency line positions have had to be used for the emergency line and that is understandable.

I'm putting those making sure that those four non-emergency dedicated folks that we put in last year are continuing to this year, into this 2026 budget cycle.

So that is what this is.

Again, understanding they're prioritizing the non-emergency.

These four dedicated will prioritize the non-emergency line.

Obviously, if the emergency line needs call takers, they're going to have to borrow from those four and that is understandable.

But just ensuring that we have capacity to answer the non-emergency line because in many instances you know that folks don't need to be taking up the emergency line and reporting something, the non-emergency line will be more helpful.

And true also of now CARE's ability to sole dispatch, I wonder if some of those non-emergency calls will be related to something that the that the care responders can address if it's a neighbor needing assistance or an unhoused neighbor, I mean needing assistance in the neighborhoods.

So I think this might also be helpful for that, I would think.

So anyway, that's what this is and I appreciate the 911 call takers.

Shout out to the call takers.

It is a really difficult job.

I went down there when I first got here to sit with them as they take calls and then they get rolled over to dispatch and the dispatchers as well.

Shout out to everyone at the 911 call center.

because they're doing the hard work of responding to our constituents and we want to make sure that the call times both for the emergency and the non-emergency line are abbreviated so that folks are getting the assistance that they need.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, discussion?

Questions?

Comments?

If you'd like to co-sponsor CARE 2, please raise your hand at this time.

Councilmember Juarez, Sokka, Solomon, Hollingsworth.

Councilmembers Juarez, Sokka, Solomon and Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

Physical hands do work as well.

So if you're having trouble finding the mouse, just raise your hand.

Thank you.

Care three, please.

Care 3 would decrease appropriations in the Human Services Department by $14.5 million general fund, $2 million jumpstart PET, allocated to support lead, co-lead, and Third Avenue Project contracts, and would increase appropriations by the same amount in the Care Department to transfer contract administration of those contracts from HSD to care.

As was noted in some earlier conversations around the budget, There was an arrangement put in place towards the beginning of this year, 2025, whereby the mayor's office, public safety team, and care department leadership have had operational oversight, if you will, of these contracts, and the financial and administrative contract function has been retained in HSD.

to transfer the entirety of contract oversight and associated dollars from HSD into care.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Kettle, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Solomon and Juarez.

And one other note that I would just make here before we move on is that subsequent to the publishing of this CBA In the agenda, we received updated technical information from HSD, so there's a correction to the dollar amounts.

There was just some dollars in other parts of the mayor's proposed budget for these contracts, so that is going to be updated.

We were also made aware, subsequent to publishing of this CBA, that the mayor's office has a position that should this move forward, they're prepared to transfer an FTE for oversight of these contracts from HSD into care as well.

I know that had been a question when this has come up, prior so we are developing an alternate version B of this should this move forward to be used in consideration for the chairs balancing package and onward that would have those two changes, the FTE swap as well as the technical correction on the dollar amounts.

This is revenue neutral since it just involves interdepartmental transfer of a position as well as the funding associated with these contracts.

Thank you, Tommaso.

The importance of this step in the budget, daylighting these changes so that these types of errors can be caught early rather than in the hectic and frantic days that will come later this next month since we're not in November yet.

Council Member Kettle, a sponsor of the amendment, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson, for that summary.

Colleagues, this is about the seam, as I've been talking about, between public safety and public health and human services.

But it's public safety heavy, and specifically related to alternative response.

You know, I think the best thing to say is, like you, I'm out and about often.

And I was on Third Avenue one day, saw some officers, said hello to them, checked in with them.

They were on 3rd Avenue and then I went down Blanchard and then I was in the alley for a bit.

Yes, I do visit the alleys of my district and see the challenges that exist there.

And I ran into someone from the CRT and he noted how the mental health professional budget asset we did last year was so great for the CRT, the crisis response team, and made a difference as related to the mental health professional.

Again, another part of the scene.

And then I went towards second and then I had a meeting with neighborhood care, we deliver care, and the PDA, the LEAD program.

that kind of shows this is where the program is.

You know, on the ground it's care with, we deliver care with me there on the streets of Belltown.

So this is a budget piece to basically recognize that alignment, recognize the mission sets and who has responsibilities for it.

It's about, again, good governance, it's about alignment, and thank you, Mr. Johnson.

Yes, I was expecting, you know, the piece about the FTE is important to highlight.

And so this piece will be covered with that FT shift, with that expertise, with that FTE.

I hate to say it that way in a third person about a person, but that person will be, you know, taking care, pardon the pun if you will, of this budget piece as it relates to the carrying out of the contracts and the like.

So colleagues, again, for good governance, for alignment and helping with the seam, I ask for your support.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion questions?

If you'd like to co-sponsor CARE 3, please raise your hand at this time.

I have Council Member Rink adding her name to CARE 3.

Council Member Rink.

Moving on to CARE 4.

CARE 4 is a statement of legislative intent that would request that the CARE department report on its training practices and protocols for the CARE crisis community responder teams to date.

The report shall include information detailing how the training has been performed to date, how training will change with the advent of sole source dispatch, and what evidence-based approaches are being used regarding crisis response, de-escalation, outreach, and referrals.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera, co-sponsored by Councilmember Kettle and the Council President.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Tommaso, for that great description.

So basically, colleagues, this is a sly requesting information.

We all agree that on an alternative crisis response across the city and in general, full stop.

We created the CARE, or Mayor Harrell created with the support of Council, and the continued support of council care department to be that alternative crisis response, third public safety arm.

This is just requesting information about the type of training that our care responders receive.

and what are the best practices used as the care responders are responding.

We've heard a lot of anecdotal and I appreciate Director Barton coming to talk about some of the anecdotal pieces to that training, but we've never received and I certainly haven't seen what is their training, what are the best practices that they use when they provide the training.

I know there are other similar efforts across the country and so it is important for us to get that information because quite frankly when I talk with constituents I want to be able to say this is your third safety department, this is why it is important, alternative crisis response is very important.

Every constituent that I have spoken with they agree and they support an alternative response and they don't necessarily know what that is and what these folks actually do and what type of training goes into it.

This is not just something that's haphazard, this is actually a very formal and formalized approach and I want to be able to have that information so I can accurately describe to constituents what this approach is and what these folks actually do, particularly now that they will have the ability to do sole dispatch, which we all very much want, especially as we're talking about the expansion of this department.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, questions?

Yes.

Councilmember Morris.

Thank you, and thank you, Councilmember Rivera and Councilmember Kellan Nelson for bringing this forward in our meeting with Chief Barden.

The piece on the training is very important, but also I'd like to know how are they going to recruit.

If we are going to do true community policing, then we are going to want true community crisis response folks out there as well.

particularly, hopefully, people that live in those neighborhoods, understand those communities, know who all the care providers are.

That's so, so critical.

So with that, I want to thank Council Member Ferrer for bringing this forward and I'm going to be very interested in the recruitment piece.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, further questions?

Discussion?

If you'd like to co-sponsor CARE 4, please raise your hand at this time.

Thank you.

We have Councilmember Juarez, Solomon, Saca, co-sponsoring CARE 4.

Councilmembers Juarez, Saca, and Solomon.

Thank you.

CARE 5.

CARE 5 is another statement of legislative intent.

This slide would request the CARE Department provide a report describing the following three topics.

Number one is the status of the creation of a publicly accessible online dashboard, which was originally requested by Council in 2024. providing information on the community crisis responder teams.

Secondly, it would request information describing the specific benefits that the CARES CCR response provided.

And finally, information regarding the details of CARES service integration with other partner agencies.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Rivera, co-sponsored by Councilmember Kettle, and Council President Nelson.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Tommaso, for also your great description of this next slide.

We did put this, this is another one of those, we put it in last year, we have not received it this year that this dashboard has not been completed so it is requesting that and also information particularly again we're going to sole dispatch so getting the information about how things are going will be critical I did want to note and I appreciate that the care team has been sending me their monthly snapshots on the types or the number of calls they've answered and also some limited information about types of calls, but there's no outcomes necessarily.

Where do those people go when they make that contact and they make that referral, what is happening to these folks?

So a public-facing dashboard is really important, I believe, in order to, you know, we all need to show our work.

This is a version of that and just knowing, you know, to me it shows the value that these folks are providing.

They're great folks that are working at CARE.

I've met some of the folks that work there, social workers and They do really great work and we want to make sure that we have the information and also as we are making budget decisions in the future, what is needed, this is more information.

This type of dashboard helps to know what do we need to do either differently or more of.

So that's what this slide is hoping to get to.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, questions, discussion?

Seeing no further questions or discussion, if you'd like to co-sponsor this CARE 5, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Juarez, Hollingsworth, Solomon.

Council members Juarez, Hollingsworth and Salomon.

Thank you.

We're going to now move into the next department.

We have Seattle Fire Department, four amendments from the Seattle Fire Department with 45% of our agenda today remaining.

We have crossed that 50% threshold.

However, 45 is still almost half.

With that, Seattle Fire Department 30.

SFD-30 would increase appropriations to the Seattle Fire Department by a $572,000 general fund and two FTE for expansion of the mobile integrated health program Health One activity by one unit.

This funding would support necessary staff operations and vehicle costs for this expansion in SFD.

Staff costs and SFD would be a combination of the additional two FTE firefighter administrative positions and the use of overtime to transfer existing firefighters to the mobile integrated health program until new hires proposed elsewhere in the budget come online.

The CBA would also increase appropriations in the Human Services Department by $153,000 and one FTE for an additional case manager position in HSC that is part of this HealthONE team.

One thing, other thing I would note about this is the cost of the expansion entirely is not known and may not be limited to the amount of this CBA.

The Fire Department has indicated that because they will be using overtime costs to expand this unit, at least in the near term, it's possible that the actual cost of the overtime could exceed the amount budgeted in this CBA, which is a total, once again, of $725,000.

This is sponsored by Council Member Strauss, co-sponsored by Council Members Kettle and Rink.

Thank you.

And as sponsor of the amendment, I'll speak to it briefly here.

HealthONE, as mentioned, is designed to respond to individuals immediately in their moment of need, help them navigate the situation, whether they need medical, mental health, shelter, or other social services, including housing.

HealthONE is one of our first responders that to provide services to everyday Seattleites who need it most.

It is staffed by firefighters and a case manager.

I will say that it has been amazing to watch HealthONE grow over the last, since 2018, 2019, when we were finally able to get the pilot project out.

It's an amazing program, and thank you to everyone who works on HealthONE.

With that, colleagues, I'd love to earn your support.

Questions?

Comments?

Discussion?

If you'd like to co-sponsor SFD 30A, please raise your hand at this time.

Gotcha.

I've got council members, Juarez, Saka, Solomon, Hollingsworth, Rivera, Nelson.

That makes nine.

All council members.

Unanimous.

Looks like it's going in the chairs package.

With that, I will say that If everyone say I mean this is one of those things of if everyone on the dais says that that's a good idea That means that there's unanimous support for something with that SFD 101

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Greg Doss, Council Central Staff, here for a couple fire CBAs.

This particular CBA, SFD-101, would increase appropriations in the Seattle Fire Department by $2.3 million, add 10 firefighters for the staffing of one 24-7 aid car.

Thank you.

Council President Nelson, as sponsor of the amendment, you are recognized.

Thank you, everybody.

And I appreciate my co-sponsors, Councilmember Saka and Rivera.

So here's the deal.

We have three CBAs that are all in support of the fire department.

Ultimately, what they all do is decrease the is lower the response times for those with medical emergencies especially those on our streets and so basically these and this frees up resources to respond to other kinds of emergency calls and right sizes that response so that medical emergencies can can get the care that they need.

We do not want 15-ton fire engines going to medical emergencies.

That is the spirit behind the CBA.

Whether or not it is 24-7 or half that in the following CBA, to me, I am I'm fairly ambivalent because I don't know, I'm not the expert on staffing of vehicles in the fire department.

I leave that to the people that know better.

I wanted to make sure that this was in under our consideration because ultimately we need to spend our resources wisely and dispatching an engine when it could, when the situation calls for an aid car.

uh doesn't make sense i will say that um and i really support councilmember rink you know putting forward an alternative and i'll be happy with it or whatever the body comes forward with um and i also want to express support for health one so you know we do have a finite amount of money and i do want to make sure that health one does get uh the support too because that was one of the original um requests from local 27 and we know that that works So that's my argument for all of the options on the table.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discuss- and actually before we go into further discussion, I will ask us to read SFD 102 and have Council Member Rink provide that description.

We'll then take discussion on both and then I'll call for co-sponsors individually.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SFD-102 would increase appropriation authority in the Seattle Fire Department by $1.4 million and add five FTE firefighters for the addition of a 12-hour peak time aid car.

It's sponsored by Council Members Ring, Council Member Saka and Council Member Nelson.

And if I might just really quick offer that central staff did solicit the 12 hour car and the 24 hour car option.

It is the case that SFD has expressed interest in just basically more aid car staffing.

And so having both these options on the table is allowing central staff to do an analysis, work with the fire department and figure out how to meet their medical needs.

Thank you.

Council member Rink, a sponsor of SFD 102, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Well, colleagues, this is the alternative that Council President Nelson just brought up, bringing this item for discussion as one of our policy considerations that was presented and provides an alternative to the previously introduced 24-7 aid car.

Thank you, Council President Nelson, as well as Council Member Saka for co-sponsoring this CBA.

As Greg just noted, we've identified that the 12-hour aid car cost is $1.4 million in comparison to the $2.3 million for the 24-7 aid car.

This will allow SFD to have an additional aid car and staffing to ensure that peak deployment hours do not require a deployment of engine and ladders as it is less efficient and more costly to deploy an engine in place of an aid car.

So as our city continues to grow aid cars will allow the most efficient use of our resources when answering basic life support medical calls.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now we will open discussion on both amendments, and then at the end of discussion, I will call for co-sponsors on the amendments individually.

With that, I have Council Member Rivera with her hand.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to say that I very much support all of these three pieces, health one, and then either the full 24-7-8 car or the 12. And this is an instance when I myself wanted to be a prime sponsor for HealthOne and then we all beat each other to the punch and then everyone's trying to figure out who's co-sponsoring and then by the time it all shakes out, sometimes it's not you but you're glad you and your colleagues did it anyway and so that's why I lent my support to the Health One and I will be lending support to both of these options because at the end of the day, again, we all know we're limited by amount of money we have to spend and so whatever we can do, whether it's 24-7 or half of that, we do need more support and I very much support our fire department for all the work that they do in responding to medical emergencies, including their fire portfolio as a whole.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion on these two amendments?

Questions?

If you would like to co-sponsor SFD 101 sponsored by Councilmember Nelson for 24-7 aid car, please raise your hand now.

Got Councilmembers Juarez, Hollingsworth, Solomon.

Councilmembers Juarez, Hollingsworth, and Solomon.

Thank you.

All hands are down.

If you would like to co-sponsor 12-hour Peek by council member Rink, SFD 102. Please raise your hand now.

And I've got council member Solomon, Rivera, Kettle, Hollingsworth.

Council members, Solomon, Kettle, Rivera and Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

And we'll now move on to SFD 103. Hang tight.

Karina Bull, Council Central Staff.

Good afternoon, committee members.

Good afternoon.

SFD 103S is a statement of legislative intent.

It would request the Seattle Fire Department in consultation with the Seattle Department of Human Resources, union partners, and other relevant entities to report on strategies for strengthening the city's response to firefighter injury claims with the objective of weaving together a plan to return injured employees to work sooner, improving employee health outcomes and achieving cost savings.

This item is sponsored by Council Member Rink and is co-sponsored by Council Members Strauss and Kettle.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you.

Colleagues, this slide requests that the Fire Department, Human Resources, and our union partners report on strategies and work together to strengthen our injury claim and workers' compensation system, which may include Ready Rebound.

My office has spoken with Union President Kenny Stewart from IIF Local 27, and I think we all have a common goal of bringing firefighters back to work while ensuring that their injuries are treated properly.

So this slide will result in collaboration and consideration of program enhancements with a benefit to all city operations and especially our constituents who will continue to receive SFD services.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, discussion?

Comments?

Questions?

If you would like to co-sponsor SFD 103, please raise your hand at this time.

We have Juarez Sacca, Solomon Hollingsworth, Rivera Nelson.

That's everyone.

I think that's everybody.

Unanimous.

Moving on to the next department.

It is 12.09 a.m.

p.m.

It is 12.09 p.m.

on our third day in a row with a city council meeting this week.

We're gonna move into the Seattle Police Department now.

and we will break at 12.30, so 21 minutes.

We'll start with, we have 34% of our amendments remaining for the day, so on this pace we'll be here until about four or five.

Moving on to SPD 101A1.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SPD 101A1 would increase appropriations to the Seattle Police Department by $2.1 million for the salary and benefits of 18 parking enforcement positions that have been long-term vacancies in the department and are losing their salary funding due to a vacancy cut.

It would also impose a proviso such that the funding for these PEOs would not be spent until a future ordinance authorizes spending and the prerequisite for that ordinance would be that the PEOs have been hired and added to staff and are producing revenue.

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Greg, for your help with this and for your help in crafting this, actually.

And colleagues, let me start by saying this amendment is meant to be budget neutral.

These folks get paid by the revenue that we collect from the tickets that they write.

We do need, and I've heard from constituents about illegally parked vehicles and things of that nature.

Though the city has had difficulty staffing these positions, I believe that they are very necessary and critical.

To Greg's point, this will all depend on the ability to be able to hire these positions and collect the revenue so that this can be a budget neutral add.

But I do believe they are important and I would love to hear if this gets support and I hope it does from the department on recruiting efforts for trying to get more PEOs because I've heard from a number of you throughout the last year about the difficulties with needing parking enforcement and the capacity not being there.

So I think this is another issue is if we've had, if the department's had difficulty recruiting folks to do this job, why and hopefully that can get addressed.

In the meantime, I think that we should continue to keep these ads in their budget, particularly because it is a budget neutral ad and we need the work done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Council President Nelson.

So one thing I'm not clear on is if it says increase SPD and then blah, blah, blah, blah, salaries.

So is there one precondition, Greg, you didn't mention is any kind of salary negotiation.

Is that on the LRPC's docket?

Is that coming up anytime soon?

Or is this simply get more people in there and pay them?

I'm going to turn this over to Greg Doss.

Doss?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sorry, Council President.

I think that this action is more about the latter.

It is more of a budget correction, if you will.

The salary for these folks has been reduced via the vacancy reduction.

This would simply add it back.

It adds it back at its current rate.

The question of bargaining with PEOs and salary is one that is handled as part of the collective bargaining process.

The LRPC is aware and I believe that's going on right now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

If you would like to co-sponsor SPD-101, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Juarez.

And Council President Nelson adding their name to SPD-101.

Council Members Juarez and Nelson.

Moving on to SPD-102.

SPD-102 would provide a 1.1 million general fund in SPD for civilian outreach positions.

It's the case that there are approximately eight outreach positions now, and several of them are general fund funded.

Many of them are vacant.

Under the CBA, the salaries for those positions would be provisoed, such that they can only be spent on those positions and can't be reallocated elsewhere in the department.

It's sponsored by Councilmember Salomon, Councilmember Sacca, and Councilmember Rink.

Thank you.

Councilmember Salomon has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

This proviso is a realization of what I have seen occur in the police department in the past, where your civilian outreach positions, your community crime prevention coordinators, other positions were cut or abrogated in favor of other department priorities.

I reflect back to a time when there were 15 crime prevention coordinators working citywide, five assigned to the North Precinct.

Four were dedicated to working with the residential community.

One was dedicated to working with the business community.

and I say that not to look back at what was, but to look forward as to where we need to go.

Years ago, I was looking at how can we build up our community engagement efforts.

When you are looking at the disbandment of the community police teams and while those bodies went away, the work did not.

That work was actually picked up by the crime prevention coordinators.

rather than focusing on doing block watch and supporting community groups, your crime prevention coordinators are doing more community engagement, more connecting communities with resources, more interagency coordination.

more place-based crime prevention efforts.

FUDEP is an example of a crime prevention initiative that was taken on by the crime prevention coordinator.

So it's much more than just organizing block watches.

It really is about connecting with community.

And when we have an organization whose core values, the primary core value says crime prevention, .

I want to make sure that we put our dollars towards that.

Which is why we're looking at making sure that these positions that are funded, that they have allocations that are not we don't cannibalize those positions so that we can have that community engagement, we can have that connector between our city and our community.

Looking at one of the positions that was created, the Asian Community of Leonislau position, that was created after the Waame Massacre in 1983. And that position continued to be staffed until Lynn Tok retired last year.

That position's currently vacant.

I would offer that the need for that liaison for that community has not gone away.

Just the body has.

I want to restore that body.

There are two other positions, or one other position rather, that was funded in 2021 that has never been filled.

There's definitely a need to fill that body.

to have that person do community engagement.

And we'll talk about the next budget proposal as comes forward next.

But all this to say that I've seen this play out before where the allocation for civilian positions to do that community engagement, to do that community capacity building, have been cut, yet that need has not gone away.

And I want to make sure that when we say that crime prevention is an important piece of our work as a city, that we actually put some dollars behind that.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Salman.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

Oh, also, and thank you for my co-sponsors.

You know, sorry to mention that, Councilmember Saka and Councilmember Ring.

Thank you.

At this time, I'll call for additional co-sponsors to SPD 102. Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Hollingsworth and Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmembers Juarez, Hollingsworth and Rivera.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

11 minutes left if you need a little bit of snack.

They're in the green room.

SPD 103.

SPD 103 would increase appropriations in the Seattle Police Department by 237,000 and add two FTE crime prevention coordinators.

to increase outreach to businesses, specifically in the North and West precincts.

I would also add a proviso that restricts that funding so that it may only be spent on the addition of two new crime prevention coordinators.

Finally, I would mention that the $237,000 number for salary is adjusted for the hiring dates of these individuals.

They wouldn't be hired instantly.

It probably wouldn't come online until March or April, so that's why the number may seem low.

It's brought to you by Councilmember Solomon, Councilmember Saka, and Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you.

Councilmember Salomon is sponsoring the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, as I mentioned before, I don't want to focus on looking backward.

I want to focus on moving forward.

However, I can't ignore the fact that, again, at one time there were 15 crime prevention coordinators working citywide, three of whom were focused on working with the business community, one in the north end, one in the west precinct, and one in the east precinct.

with the existing cadre of coordinators They do have, many of them in the various precincts do have the capacity to work both with the residential community and the business community, with two exceptions.

One being the North Precinct, over 40% of our land mass and population.

You have two buddies up there right now trying to do all that work.

No one focuses specifically on working with the business community.

I'm thinking Lake City, I'm thinking Aurora, I'm thinking Ballard.

thinking U District, Northgate.

If we had a body that was dedicated to working with those business communities, I think we could have some better outcomes in terms of supporting our businesses, especially our small mom-and-pop businesses that are struggling with break-ins, vandalism, graffiti, all manner of issues.

The second one is, at one time, we did have a crime prevention coordinator that was focused solely on working with the downtown businesses.

That was a critical piece, a critical position.

And I've had conversations with Downtown Seattle Association.

They would love to see that position back.

I would love to give them that position back.

When I look at the work that the crime prevention coordinator is doing in the West Precinct, again, focused mainly on problem solving, on and place-based crime prevention things.

there really isn't the capacity to have that focus working with our downtown business core.

Bringing that position back to work with our downtown business core, having that liaison that our business community can interact with, I think would pay dividends far into the future, which is why I'm advocating that we do increase the crime prevention staffing to provide for those two bodies, primarily to work with our business communities.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Salmon.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Further discussion?

Thank you, and I have to, I'll take Chair's privilege in thanking Caitlin Yepp from the precinct.

Sorry for not thanking everyone.

Councilmember Salmon.

Councilmember Salmon and Kettle for their co-sponsorship of this, so.

Wonderful.

If you'd like to co-sponsor SPD-103, please raise your hand at this time.

Councilmember Juarez, Nelson.

Council Member Suarez and Nelson.

Thank you.

We're going to move on to SPD 104.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SPD 104 would increase appropriations in the Seattle Police Department by 137,000 general fund and add one FTE to serve as a central district liaison for the department.

It would also impose a proviso such that those funds could only be spent for a central district liaison.

It is sponsored by Council Member Nelson, co-sponsored by Council Member Hollingworth and Kettle.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson, Council President Nelson has sponsored the amendment.

You are recognized.

Thank you very much and thank you, Councilmembers Hollingsworth and Kettle for co-sponsoring.

All right, so while technically an increase, this CBA is budget neutral because SPD currently uses a temporary position to employ a a central district liaison and this budget action would make that temporary position permanent.

The temporary position is set to expire on, let's see, in December 2025 this year and so this would make it ongoing.

I will note that SPD already has a permanent liaison to the CID.

So this brings it up to parity with that position.

The services that are provided by this position include offering technical and policy expertise on issues involving and encompassing the Central District and African American communities.

It helps SPD reimagine public safety through community engagement and designs and creates new crime impact programs and training.

and then three, it supports the before the badge program with staffing assistance and also recommendations and opportunities for community engagement and also improvement of that particular program.

Here's what it comes down to in English.

We all talk about community policing, we all talk about relational policing, and this is that.

And so I think that, well, I'm asking for your support to make this a permanent position so it doesn't seem as though it's sort of contingent on something.

So this would simply make it permanent, and again, it's already paid for.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, any further discussion?

Chair.

Chair.

Sorry.

Mr. Das.

Thank you.

Just for further clarification, it is the case that this CBA would add the $137,000.

It is true that Council President makes a point that there was a CD liaison on staff and will be on staff until the end of this year.

That person was in a temporary pocket with funding that has been cut in the proposed budget.

Therefore, this would add funding $137,000 to continue the position.

Thank you.

Council President, any further discussion from you?

No.

Colleagues, any further discussion, questions?

If you would like to co-sponsor SPD 104, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Solomon adding his name to SPD 104.

Council Member Solomon.

Thank you.

SPD 105.

SPD 105 would add 385,002 mental health professionals to increase crisis response in the Seattle Police Department.

It would add a total of one unit with two people to staff that unit as well as other units in the department and ensure that there was one crisis response unit at each precinct fully staffed at all times.

This CBA is sponsored by Council Member Rink.

co-sponsored by Councilmember Salomon and Councilmember Kittle.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rink, as sponsor of the amendment, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, as the city continues to grow and expand, getting additional mental health professionals is one of the cornerstones for an effective public safety environment.

So this CBA will allow us to take that holistic approach, especially with folks who are directly experiencing behavioral health issues and allows our city to direct folks away from the traditional legal system towards more appropriate resources.

and we wanna make sure that our city also has the effective capacity to carry out extreme risk protection orders, otherwise known as red flag laws, to ensure that individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others from having access to firearms.

And the CRT is the team that has that expertise to carry that out.

SPD currently deploys one CRT in each of its north, west, and east precincts.

The south and southwest precincts actually share a CRT unit.

SPD has noted that regular vacation leave and sick leave use can occasionally leave insufficient mental health provider staffing to fully deploy all CRTs.

So this expansion of the crisis response team would allow every precinct in the city to have a dedicated team further expanding our capacity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

If you would like to co-sponsor SPD 105, please raise your hand at this time.

Council Member Saka adding his name to SPD 105.

Council Member Saka.

Thank you.

SPD 106. We'll hold there.

I see it's 1228. We have 20% of today's agenda remaining.

So we still have a good amount of work to do.

And while they're all remaining to be SPD, we have seven amendments remaining.

None of these are short topics, so we will come back to order at 1.30 sharp and complete the rest of the day.

With that, colleagues, if there's no objection, Select Budget Committee will be in recess until 1.30 p.m.

Thank you.