Select Budget Committee Session II 9/26/25

Good afternoon.

The September 26th Select Budget Committee will come back to order.

It is 2.30 p.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, Chair of the Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council President Nelson is excused.

Council Member Rivera.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Councilmember Salomon.

Here.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Present.

Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Rink.

Chair Strauss?

Present.

Five present.

Thank you.

We'll announce others as they come in.

Council Member Kettle wanted me to note that it was the veterans, Council Member Hollingsworth and the AmeriCorps guy that were on time.

So thank you for your service to your nation.

They've trained you well, gentlemen, and joy.

With that, we are gonna jump right back into our department presentations.

We've got Seattle Department of Transportations with us.

Director Emery, it is so darn good to see you.

And we are starting about 30 minutes after anticipated, because morning session ran long.

Here we go.

I'm going to turn it over to the both of you to walk us through your presentation.

We have Councilmember Rivera and Rink now with us as well.

And colleagues, I'll ask to hold questions to the end, and then we'll turn it over to Councilmember Saka as chair of the committee, open it up for other questions, just recognizing we control our own destiny.

We can be here till 6 p.m., or we can be here till 4 p.m.

Those are our choices as council members today.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to you, Director Emery.

Wonderful to see you.

If you want to introduce and take us through your presentation.

Thank you, Chair Strauss, and good afternoon, Councilmembers.

Today, I'm joined with my esteemed colleague, Chris Castleman, our Finance Department Deputy Director.

I'm sorry.

Director of Finance.

I call her Castleman.

Chris Budget.

Chris from Finance.

Chris from Finance is her nickname.

In the back, I have Chris Godwin, who is our budget manager, and then Bill LeBoer, our esteemed council liaison.

So thank you for having us, and thank you for this opportunity.

Real quick, I see Director Noble wanting to jump in real briefly.

Apologies.

I apologize.

This is entirely personal and an intended embarrassment of the person behind me.

Chris Godwin, former central staff intern, and now on the finance staff at Eston.

With that, I'm also reminded to thank CBO staff and central staff as well for their partnership.

Thank you for this opportunity to share how Mayor Harrell's proposed 2026 budget supports transportation priorities that benefit our city, its residents, and the economy.

This budget builds on efforts already underway to make Seattle a vibrant, welcoming city.

It supports attracting visitors and businesses to downtown, preparing us for FIFA events, and managing critical transportation infrastructure projects like the Revive I-5 impact to the city streets.

In 2025, we delivered results, including wrapping up key levy to move Seattle projects, like the Alaskan Waste Safety Improvement Project, filling a critical bike network gap, and installing our first-ever freight bus lane in Soto.

And we shifted to more crew-delivered enhancements as we kicked off the new levee, allowing us to tackle a wide variety of projects and adapt quickly to challenges like weather or emerging issues.

For example, already this year we've made a little bit less than 8,000 sidewalk repairs, completed about 90 bridge Excuse me.

Preventative maintenance projects.

We've planted 130 trees and then marked about 1,300 crosswalks.

This summer, we opened 24-7 bus lane along Aurora Avenue, just in time for the FIFA Club to support our E-Line, which has the highest ridership.

This lens also provided benefits during the first phase of Revive I-5 that we supported this summer and will continue to do so in the future in the upcoming 2026 and 2027 closures that we're expecting.

Efforts to add walkable, bikeable, and bus improvements in the North Seattle would mean when the new Pinehurst light rail station opens, the infrastructure people need to get through would be in place.

And we're partnering with the Office of Planning and Community Development to do the same in the southeast Seattle as we prepared for the future Graham Street Station.

Thanks to the voters' approved Seattle transit measure, we were able to provide more than 1.2 million free transit rides for local families in need in 2024, and we'll continue to do that in 2025 as well.

Partnering with WSDOT, King County Metro, and Sound Transit has strengthened our ability to manage major projects like the preservation of Revive I-5 that is impacting the closure.

We're learning valuable lessons that will help guide us how we prepare for the upcoming year in 2026 and 2027. As you'll hear, the 2026 budget includes funding to expand staffing for street use inspections and to address the unpermitted vending, especially during events, evenings and weekends at popular destinations.

It also supports downtown cleanup efforts, graffiti removal, and activation projects, creating public spaces for people to enjoy, connect with friends, and, of course, people watching, which I tend to enjoy to do in those places.

Investments in pedestrian safety at Pike Place Market and expansion of traffic safety camera aligns with our Vision Zero goals of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries.

And importantly, with the passage of 2027 transportation levy, funding is restored to many programs and projects that were previously reduced.

I think you'll find the proposed budget reflective, a very thoughtful strategic approach to investing in Seattle's transportation system today while we build for the future.

I'm going to pass it on to Chris Castleman to walk you through to the budget exercise and addition.

Thank you, Director Emory.

My turn to be nervous.

It's been a while since I've done this.

Last year I was home recovering from knee surgery, so Chris was at the table.

I'm a little rusty.

You'll have to forgive me.

All right.

So thank you, council members, for the opportunity to be here today and to walk you through our proposed budget.

This budget proposal reflects a realignment of SDOT's general fund allocation in support of city efforts to manage this very critical resource, the general fund, across so many important community priorities.

Our 2026 endorsed budget general fund allocation was reduced by 4.4 million, or 8%, across multiple service areas where we will need to work on minimizing impacts to our service delivery.

And so SDOT, as with the rest of the city family, participated and supported the rebalancing efforts for the general fund.

However, the mayor's proposed budget does include new general fund allocations in support of key city priorities, like the downtown activation team and the graffiti abatement program, to name a couple.

This is why the proposed budget appears higher than the endorsed budget for 2026, as you can see on the table in front of you, even with an 8% reduction.

And so just quickly, you can see that our 2026 proposed general fund is higher than 26 endorsed, as is for our other funds.

And you can see that we are making some position addition asks in 2026 over the 2026 endorsed.

There we go.

This budget maintains our commitment to meaningful looking forward investments, good governance, safety, and investing in our communities.

And these are the themes through which we're going to organize key highlights from our proposed budget for you today.

But first, whoops, excuse me.

We want to talk about investing for tomorrow today.

By now, you're familiar with this graphic.

It highlights our thorough, community-driven approach to identifying, funding, and delivering projects and services.

The Seattle Transportation Plan, shaped by over two years of public engagement and adopted by the City Council, sets the vision for the next 20 years for our transportation system in this community.

The voter-approved Seattle Transportation Levy funds the next eight years of this vision, and annual reports will provide clear updates on planned near-term projects and our progress along the way.

We understand that great transit is essential to keeping Seattle moving now and in the future, and that's why the voter-approved Seattle transit measure, which plays a key role in our success, funding service hours beyond traditional commute times as demand spreads and strengthening our partnership with Our sound transit partner agency is so very important.

We fully committed to advancing light rail across the city as quickly as possible in partnership with sound transit and your support has been critical in helping us to staff up and streamline permitting.

And at the heart of all our efforts is our equity framework, ensuring we deliver a transportation system that is safe, fair, and sustainable for everyone.

And with this background in mind, I'm now going to walk you through our key highlights.

Whoop, too fast on the draw.

Starting with good governance, as I mentioned.

And so I'm just gonna take a moment to read these out loud for the benefit of our viewing audience as well.

At SDOT, we take care of what we have, we invest wisely, and we work as one Seattle across departments and initiatives in partnership with you and with our community.

The first highlight I want to share with you is about the Seattle Transportation Levy and the staffing update.

Last year, we held on hiring in the first part of 2024 in light of the city's constrained financial situation and until we knew if the new levy would be approved by voters in the fall.

This year, following the passage of the levy, we started in earnest to backfill existing vacant positions and recruit for the new levy positions approved by council, and we're seeing results.

The Council granted us 72 new levy staff for 2025. About 30% of those are crew positions, and I'm very happy to be able to report that all of those either are or will be filled by the end of the year with respect to the crew positions.

And we are on track overall to have 80% of our 2025 levy positions filled before January.

We're also continuing our hiring process for the remaining 2025 levy positions, plus the 44 additional levy staff that you approved in our 2026 endorsed budget and are therefore in our base moving into 2026. Just over half of those 44 are also crew and in support of the Seattle transportation levy work.

Because we'll have about 60 levy positions still to fill as we enter 2026, along with other important recruitments next year that will attract candidates, and with consideration of the practical reality of hiring timelines and sometimes the need to sequence Certain positions, for example, you might bring on a new team supervisor before you actually populate their team.

We realize that it's not necessary to hold on to a full year's labor budget for those new levy positions.

So we're taking the action to realign the labor budget for the levy in 2026 to better reflect what we anticipate to need in labor costs for next year.

The next good governance highlight I'd like to share is the parking position transfer.

We've aligned with the Department of Finance and Administration Services to consolidate the city's pay station maintenance and operations into SDOT for greater organizational efficiency for the city.

This step acknowledges the steady decrease in coin use to pay for on-street parking.

As you know, users can pay for on-street parking by the Pay By Phone app, which uses a credit card or a debit card.

Or they can use the pay stations on sidewalks.

Pay by phone payment accounts for about 80% of paid parking.

The pay stations, which account for the remaining 20%, do accept debit and credit cards, and they also accept coins.

But of that remaining 20%, only about 2% is actually paid with coins.

So by bringing these positions into SDOT's parking shop and redistributing coin collection, pay station maintenance, and credit card security assurance work among staff, we can improve overall service levels across the inventory of our on-street parking pay stations.

And I do need to make a correction on this slide.

We inadvertently indicated that all three of the positions transferring over from FAS are vacant, when in fact only two of them are.

And so I apologize for that error.

Just chair's prerogative to clarify the record since we're making a clarification here.

You're bringing over three positions.

One is filled.

Yes.

Is that person coming from FAS to SDOT?

Yes, they are.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on.

If the button will help me out here.

There we go.

New street use construction inspection positions.

As you are keenly aware, we're moving into a heightened period of construction activity and major events affecting our transportation system, including those involving our regional transportation partners, WSDOT and their various projects, including the continuation of Revive I-5, and of course, Sound Transit's link light rail system expansion.

Adding street use inspectors makes sure construction sites are well maintained and people can continue to move around them efficiently and safely, whether they are walking, rolling, on transit, or driving.

With our current staffing, we are only able to get to about half of the scheduled inspections within the timeframe they are originally intended to occur, and so adding these three positions starts to close the gap.

I apologize for the delay.

The button is quite sticky.

There we are.

Safety, our second organizing principle and priority.

At Estot, we lead with safety for all travelers in Seattle.

I'd like to start with some improvements at Pike Place Market.

We've had a productive partnership with the Pike Place Market PDA to pilot managing vehicle access to the busy, lively, and narrow space for only authorized drivers.

This pilot has allowed us to gather valuable feedback from businesses, individuals relying on ADA access, and our emergency responders.

As the pilot continues, we are exploring solutions to further enhance safety, including the use of barriers to prevent vehicle ramming while ensuring we address the priority of easy delivery access for vendors and businesses.

This $2 million proposed investment included in the budget is a critical step toward protecting visitors to this iconic Seattle destination.

This funding ensures we can move from studying potential solutions and align implementation with FIFA World Cup preparation, making places that will be visited by a lot of people, residents and visitors alike, like Pike Place Market, Even safer.

Over the remaining months of this year, we'll be conducting a study on different types of barriers, which will provide the insights needed to make informed decisions for 2026. Our collaboration with the Pike Place Market PDA will ensure that the final approach will be thoughtful, inclusive, and tailored to the unique character and needs of this area.

Next is the 12th Avenue retaining wall construction item.

This action addresses the need to repair and preserve a portion of 12th Avenue South on Beacon Hill that was damaged during winter storms in 2021 and 2022 and where we've had a temporary safety measure and soil retention system in place.

This request provides funding for design and the start of construction of a permanent solution.

This is a two-year project and we anticipate identifying additional resources to complete construction in 2027 in the upcoming biennial budget process.

So this item funds the work in 2026 and the project will, just because of its complexity, continue into 2027. And now automated traffic safety cameras.

This year, in partnership with the Seattle Police Department, our focus has been on installing 37 traffic safety cameras at 19 new school sites to enhance safety for students and families.

While vendor capacity has presented challenges to the timeline, we've made good progress.

Cameras are installed at 10 locations and Seattle City Light expects to energize them over the next two weeks.

Cameras will then be operational within one to two days of energization.

The primary delay to this effort is the vendor's engineering capacity, along with new requirements for power supply.

We've also, just earlier today, we're saying among ourselves that we don't think that the vendor has ever received as many requests for cameras at one time as they have now, and so we want to acknowledge that as well.

For the remainder of 2025, the vendor will focus on completing the school zone camera expansion.

In the meantime, staff are finalizing the 10 locations for the first 20 full-time speed cameras.

This includes the five locations we have already committed to installing and five additional locations included in the proposed budget.

These locations will be along high-speed corridors and in areas with a history of serious injuries, including former racing zones, as identified in the High Injury Network.

And we will apply lessons learned from working on the school zones to this phase of our work.

Equity is of course a key factor in our decision making as required by state law and because of course it's the right thing to do.

We're using the city's racial and social equity index to help ensure fair outcomes.

Installation relies on SPD's ability to issue work orders and SDOT finding a solution to the vendor's engineering and technical challenges.

To assist with coordination and help problem solve, the 2026 budget also proposes one full-time employee dedicated to making the program successful and to meet state reporting requirements.

Current expectations are to have SPD issue a work authorization to the vendor for the full-time speed cameras soon after the budget is passed later this fall.

We'll then develop a schedule for installation and activation based on current experience in this work.

We expect the engineering and installation processes could take between 12 to 18 months to complete, and we'll be sure to provide you with updates as we go.

As cameras become operational in 2027, we feel obligated to point out that SPD and the Seattle Municipal Court will require funding allocations to manage their portion of the traffic safety camera program.

Moving on to community investments.

At Estat, we believe streets are for people and contribute to the places we love.

Addressing unpermitted vending.

Due to the pandemic, we significantly reduced vending enforcement around stadiums and nightlife areas like Capitol Hill.

As operations have returned to normal, we've seen a sharp rise in illegal vending and non-compliance, even after outreach and citations.

This is partly because we lack regular enforcement and rarely abate vending equipment.

We believe consistent inspection and abatement actions will improve compliance, but we also recognize that vending in public spaces offers a valuable low barrier path to business ownership and we remain committed to supporting it.

Our goal is to strike the right balance between enforcement and education to help vendors succeed while ensuring compliance and so this proposal adds three staff members and funding to support better Attention to unpermitted vending in areas around the city, particularly near busy sports areas and areas of cultural activity and venues.

Down to...

Pardon me.

I think I might have accidentally...

There we are.

Graffiti prevention and abatement.

I believe you heard earlier from the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department about the five pillars of the One Seattle Graffiti Plan and the collaboration between Seattle Parks, the Office of Arts and Culture, and SDOT under the direction of the Mayor's Office.

SDOT is proud to be a partner in the One Seattle Graffiti team by removing and working to prevent graffiti in the public right of way and on transportation assets.

And this is one of the reasons why our general fund increase occurred in the mayor's proposed budget by adding five FTE to support this important work.

Downtown daily cleaning.

This budget also includes a significant further investment in SDOT's contribution to supporting a clean and safe space for residents, workers, and visitors to enjoy.

Over $4 million of general fund and 16 new positions are proposed for SDOT's downtown activation team and our work to provide daily cleaning, trash mitigation, and alley street and sidewalk cleaning and deodorizing in downtown in Little Saigon, but by expanding that work now into Pioneer Square, the Pike Pine neighborhood, and the Chinatown International District on a consistent basis.

And at this point, I'm now going to turn it back over to Director Emery for our last slide and closing remarks.

Thank you.

We have a big year ahead of us.

Let me try again.

In closing, we have a big year ahead of us with large events and major construction planned.

But Seattle will be open and we'll be welcoming everyone to continue enjoying everything the city has to offer.

We'll use the transportation levy and Seattle transit measure to make safety upgrades, helping our vulnerable users to move comfortably around our city and to continue investing in bus services and transit ambassadors.

Sound Transit expects to open line two, two-line, to begin operational across I-90.

We expect to complete Route 40 upgrades by spring and make a substantial advancement towards completing the Rapid Ride J-Line project by end of this year.

We've seen what can happen with Rapid Ride G, one-year anniversary.

A 60% increase, I'm going to repeat that again, a 60% increase in ridership from when service started in September 2024. Transit continues to be a great way to go.

I always say this.

Before you leave home, make sure you grab your Orca card and your helmet, your bike helmet, so you can bike, scoot, and take transit wherever they're heading, our residents are heading.

I want to emphasize we're in this together.

SDOT and our partners are here to help the traveling public and keep our businesses thriving.

I thank you for your attention and for having us here.

Thank you, Director Emory.

At this time, Director Noble, Director Eater, anything else to share?

I will pass it over to Rob Saka as chair of the committee.

Thank you, SDOT for joining us today.

Thank you, Director Emery, Ms. Castleman, appreciate your presentation of the proposed budget and the analysis that went into this work.

As chair of our transportation committee, I have Greatly appreciated the opportunity to partner with you all, collaborate on the SDOT side with my office in our city, advancing our shared commitment to accountability and You know, making progress on a number of things, including championing some bold investments together.

So some of this work, you know, we know includes the recent voter-approved Keep Seattle Moving levy, the annual levy delivery plans.

Got another one coming up early next year, colleagues, as a friendly reminder.

The Levy Oversight Committee, Transportation Funding Task Force, District Project Fund.

These are examples of strategic Work initiatives and work streams at a high level, program level only.

That doesn't even touch the many individual projects that we've partnered on over the past almost two years now.

So thank you again, Director Emery, for your partnership with me in my office.

And special shout out to all the workers at SDOT, whether the workers on the various engineering or planning teams, permitting, whatever the role, function, responsibility, they all do terrific work.

It's hard work, but it's critically important work.

I would argue some of the most important work that our city does.

And I know there is a lot of rightful concern right now among Seattle residents that of what's going on at the federal level with the current federal administration.

And we're being called upon to step up and act, including backfill some important federal funding to better support human services and better support our immigrant and refugee communities.

And we had an initial overview of that yesterday, and we'll continue to do that.

And there might be opportunity, colleagues, for us to do more of that Support more of that important work given our current times during this budget process now that the ball is officially in our court on the council side.

But I also don't want us to ever forget the importance of transportation infrastructure and how vital it is to our entire city and how everyone, every one of us, relies on it every day It connects people to communities.

It helps stimulate the economy.

We need to keep people moving safely.

We have a core responsibility to do exactly that.

So let us not forget the important work of the department and its individual employees and special shout out to the frontline crews at SDOT, the Pothole Rangers, Chair I saw Councilmember Strauss across the street a few weeks back.

We were walking into City Hall together, and I had just left saying hello and sending my thanks to the Pothole Rangers, Esthouse Pothole Rangers, who were coincidentally parked across the street.

I think the chair might have been a little surprised that I am really, really excited even outside of this dais about the terrific work that our pothole rangers do, but I really mean it.

And they do excellent work.

Let's make sure they're well-funded as part of this process.

Colleagues, as you'll recall, during this time last year when we analyzed the then-proposed budget, it did not account for the passage of the levy.

That made engaging with the budget very challenging.

Luckily this year, we do not face the same challenge, but during last year's budget, this council built on the mayor's proposed budget for SDOT, including by adding investments for non-school speed zone, automated enforcement cameras, neighborhood traffic safety improvements, Investments in traffic or in transit safety, including transit ambassadors, behavioral health teams, transit security services, and the like.

So going forward, many of my questions today will be focused around following up on some of those items.

But my first question here for you all is, in last year's budget, SDOT mentioned challenges meeting needs around maintenance and preservation of assets linked to the previous levy ending and flat or declining revenues.

Today, SDOT has again noted some concerns around declining revenue coupled with increasing costs.

So curious to better understand how is SDOT grappling with economic challenges while maintaining a commitment to deliver on the nuts and bolts basics, everyday basics that our city's residents expect?

Thank you.

Great question.

In partnership with you all, our transportation levy 2024, as you know, is based on infrastructure rehabilitation and heavily funded in that.

Yes, we are seeing a decline in other transportation sources, revenue sources.

But we could continue to advance those preservation through the levee.

We'll continue to advance other spot improvements, our core services that rely on the other sources.

We'll continue to communicate also what the challenges would be, if there are any, as we advance our effort.

But the levee is carrying us forward in doing a lot of our preservation work.

As you know, in our partnership, we did package a very strong preservation levy.

So we're going to continue to advance those work and inform, as we have challenges, if there are the other colour of money that our transportation funding revenue that are declined have any implication to those efforts.

Thank you.

Moving along, I have a quick question about our progress with a specific asset class of our broader infrastructure inventory, so sidewalks.

As you know, last year's voter-approved levy included The biggest, boldest, most transformative investment in the construction of new sidewalks in the city's history and construction of new sidewalks along with sidewalk repair is a very important priority for me in my office and I know many of my colleagues at this dais.

Because everyone, at the end of the day, is a pedestrian at some point in their journeys, in their lives.

So we'd love to just better understand some of the department's initial progress with respect to implementing some of these bold new sidewalk construction investments in this new voter-approved levy, and then how is the proposed budget better positioning the department to continue that progress next year?

Another great question.

Sidewalk, a very important asset, especially for our vulnerable users.

Lessons learned from the Move Seattle Levy, we've incorporated what we call crew deliverable work, so it's front-loaded in our levy, which is really tackling that task that you just talked about, which is building affordable sidewalk.

And we've been in those walks with community.

It's just the most rewarding process to see in real life, you know, walking through those challenges that our residents are facing as they're navigating the right of way.

So compared to our Move Seattle in year one, you'll see a lot of greater progress in terms of implementation because of the pivot to a crew deliverable approach that we've incorporated.

We do have the Transportation Funding Task Force, thank you, for City Council and implementing those things, which also helps us in advancing beyond the 350 blocks of sidewalks that's incorporated into the 2024 transportation levy, what would bring, what the future path would be that would help shape that as well.

We take this element very seriously as it's a critical infrastructure for our vulnerable users.

So I would say we've made great progress, and you'll see it in the Levy Oversight report out in year one compared to the move Seattle lessons learned that we've done just because of the strategy that we've selected.

Sure.

Thank you so much.

On to the topic of transit security.

So transit security remains a top priority for me in my office.

And last year, as I noted earlier, this council made a number of bold investments in this space, in particular, as well as SDOT or requested an SDOT report on implementing transit security improvements in services and policies.

And I think we received the report earlier this month.

Thank you for that.

But just would love to better understand as well, how has the department used these resources allocated to the department specifically for transit security and safety?

And what is the plan and proposal with respect to transit security and safety in the current proposed budget?

So we work in partnership with King County Metro, who actually delivers the service.

They conduct the hiring and implementation of those safety ambassadors and so forth, not just exclusive to King County Metro, but inclusive to Streetcar, which is the only transit operation that the city owns.

We mimic the same strategy.

There is a regional transit safety forum that the county has hosted regionally, so we're implementing those things and paying towards those.

Of course, the SDM is the source in which this is paying for, in addition to the implementation or the added added revenue or budget that you guys have adapted last year.

So it will be an important task as we think about renewal of SDM that it will be incorporated as a standard service moving forward as it's needed to make our riders to be safe.

Thank you.

Very important that people are safe and feel safe while they're riding our transit or driving our transit, operating our transit in the case of Metro or Sound Transit and the like.

And would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the tragic victims that really, I think, help spark a sense of urgency under more politicians, and that is King County operator Shawn Yim, who was tragically murdered last, I believe early December.

We actually added, colleagues as you will recall, we added our bold transit security and safety investments Earlier than that, in October or November.

And since then, I think there's more of a shared understanding that this is truly a priority for all.

So we'll be looking for more opportunities.

And just so you know, colleagues, I'm connected with my counterpart on the transit side in King County Council, so Councilmember Deshaun Quinn.

And I think he does sit on the recently stood up task force for transit security.

It lets me know they're making great progress.

They're expecting a final report on that.

And early next year, we'll probably invite some folks to report that out in our committee.

But I'm sure there's more we can do to better support that during budget this year as well.

All right.

Thank you for that.

A couple questions, I'll just get on the record.

No follow-up, but let's continue the conversation offline.

So excessive noise is an issue facing many communities from neighbors, so from cars, and then from people who are outside our stadiums and arenas, for example.

We have existing code that limits excessive noise, and I believe there's a pending proposal from the City Attorney's Office on some additional legislation to address the amplification piece.

You know, my office has met with the Mariners, Seattle Mariners, meeting soon with the Seahawks as well, stakeholders from a stadium perspective.

But I believe SDOT has a role in enforcing the loud noise.

That's my understanding as well in terms of, at least in the right of way.

And they have the equipment.

They typically accompany SPD.

Regardless, it seems like there's a bit of a coordination challenge between the various departments and, you know, who's on first and who's responsible for what.

So we'd love to follow up offline about that issue in particular.

And next, Just want to talk a little bit about, want to learn more about some of the performance metrics for some of our transit services that we operate.

So we are in a limited budget environment and we need to invest in transit services in a thoughtful manner keeping a careful eye out for redundancy and overlapping services and I note that The current proposal is for 3.4 million to run the streetcars.

We also operate, of course, the Seattle Monorail as well.

So those two agencies, what we own, King County Metro operates those on our behalf.

And then the total city subsidy for 26 is 13.4 million.

So would love to better understand the current ridership performance trends for both of those Lines and specifically the South Lake Union streetcar as well and monorail.

Yeah, curious to better understand performance of that.

Finally, I'll note I appreciate my colleagues, council members, Solomon and Rink, earlier for raising the Lake Washington Boulevard safety projects and plans and the coordination required.

I intentionally bit my tongue because we're out of time and I knew they were coming up.

Another responsible department was coming up next.

But we learned there's a shared responsibility as between parks and SDOT in that work.

I'll just share right now my office has also been meeting with impacted members of the community in my role as chair of the citywide committee that oversees one of the responsible departments.

So I've been meeting with some folks and there is, including the Rainier Valley Greenways, Bike Works and more, and I share a desire that we need to do more to address road and user safety on Lake Washington Boulevard.

And I know there's a pending analysis by the department, well in this case The Seattle Department of Transportation and some shared decision-making and decisions looming, but would like us as a city to better address safety on Lake Washington Boulevard.

More for follow-up.

In any event, that concludes my comments, questions, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sokka.

Council Member Kettle, I see you have your hand.

You are recognized.

Thank you, Chair Strauss, and appreciate Transportation Chair, Committee Chair Saka's rundown, and he remains the undisputed king of potholes.

So, but Director Emery and Ms. Castleman, welcome.

Of course, welcome back, Director Eder and Director Noble.

Going through different pieces, I really appreciate, in your briefing, your discussion about good governance.

It's really important and the Seattle Transportation Plan, I think, is a great example of that.

So much so that I've been highlighting it in my discussions about the need to have a Seattle housing plan.

Hopefully that hasn't caused any challenges within the mayor's team.

But I have talked to Winkler Chin about the rationale behind that.

It's not just a plan, but it's the practices that go into it, the work, the breakdown, the different planning pieces of it.

And I think it's a great model.

And so now I get the chance to say it to you from this position.

So thank you.

Also, thank you for your work in terms of partnering with the Pike Place Market PDA, Ms. Leitenberg.

I think that's really important.

The collaboration and the work that's been going on between SDOT and the PDA at Pike Place Market is a great model in terms of moving forward.

And so I appreciate the work.

And then also looking out for alternatives and possibilities and good ideas about taking advantage of the situation right now.

All the work that you're doing.

It's not just SDOT, too, by the way.

There's utility work and so forth.

To have those pieces integrated and with a comprehensive look and the progress already made is very strong for Pike Place, the street itself, so thank you.

And it's really important to have it done before the FIFA World Cup, so thank you.

Also, the broader pedestrian traffic safety work.

I think this is really important, Where need be to further pedestrian traffic safety is very important, and initiatives to do that are important.

And so is, I'm starting to use the term greater downtown activation team, because clearly we have our downtown as part of our District 7 neighborhood council, but as noted, there's some that goes outside in D7 to in D1, D2, and D3.

You know, capturing other neighborhoods.

And so this work in the Greater Downtown Activation Team really relies on the various departments coming together.

So SDOC participating in that is key, as is within the Unified Care Team, not mentioned, but the Unified Care Team work is so important, particularly because we're trying to, you know, this place-based approach and so forth.

You know, it makes a difference when I'm in the various neighborhoods, you know, having a clean street to go with the efforts that SPD may be doing or care department may be doing or every other department.

It really, really, really helps.

Noted your community investments, the unpermitted vending.

I'm not sure if you're a part of this, but you know, every Thursday is the Queen Anne Farmer's Market.

And what initially started is like one person that was kind of below the radar then popped up into a big unpermitted vending situation.

But when I went by yesterday, there was nothing.

So I'm not sure if it was Estad or somebody else involved or just happened to go away.

I'm assuming some active participation in terms of, you know, cleaning up that.

Because it's really important for the Queen Anne Farmer's Market.

And it's not just Queen Anne Farmer's Market.

It's the other farmers market, too.

They're really working hard to deliver a service for the community.

And if it's being leveraged in a way that's not appropriate, that's not right.

So thank you for your work on that.

And by the way, this also is important, like with Climate Pledge Arena.

I've had discussions with them and their representatives.

There's so much going on.

Just this week, you know, Tuesday night, it was the Jonas Brothers.

Wednesday, it was Linkin Park.

Last night, it was The Who.

I think this weekend, the Kraken.

I mean, there's so much going on, and this unpermitted renting piece is important.

You know, again, that's when it really explodes that it becomes a major problem.

And we just need to be doing things right in that perspective.

Back to transportation more generally.

This kind of goes to the transportation plan, but the various programs, you know, the street program, pedestrian program, but I'm really interested in the bridge program and moving forward and the freight program.

The bridge program, as I've noted, D7's really a peninsula.

If you take the six bridges that go over Inner Bay, Ballard, Fremont, and the Aurora bridges, and then the I-5 bridges, We're really in Peninsula, if you think about it.

And so this is key.

Magnolia Bridge is probably one of the key pieces there.

And part of this, too, in working with my colleague and my fellow Magnolian district rep is the emergency access from the marina in order to get up and to provide that kind of emergency access for responders if that bridge was to come down.

And for those that have stood underneath it, You can imagine that it doesn't take much.

So I think having those pieces move forward in the freight program and ensuring that we can really get movement along our roads, I'm constantly surprised, not surprised, seeing where logistics is done on our streets.

And it just messes up our transportation network, our road transportation network.

And then that's really important for the specific freight programs, like with the port and maritime pieces, the heavy haul networks and the like.

So thank you for your work on that.

And with that relatively short, Chair, I am willing to pass it off, I believe, to my council member to my right.

Thank you.

We should have had you this morning.

Anything you want to share in response to Council Member Kettle?

I just want to say thank you for your partnership, Council Member Kettle.

We've been in Pike Place Market together with PDA and other projects as well, but I really appreciate your partnership and collaboration space that you create for us.

Yes, we'll continue to do so on my team as well.

I really appreciate my team's effort for that.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink.

So you have a hand, and then Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you all for being here today.

Whereas Councilmember Kettle was a little bit short, I'm afraid, Chair, I have a number of questions for today and hoping we can get through them.

Starting off with FIFA preparations and seeing the 3.6 million for FIFA 2026 preparations, How do we ensure that these FIFA-based preparations lead to long-term transit safety outcomes for our communities?

We know there's a lot of community concern about FIFA and our guests using neighborhoods as parking lots rather than seeing meaningful investment back into our neighborhoods.

So could you tell us some of the long-term improvements and accessibility that you mentioned in your slide, not just for visitors but for the people who call these neighborhoods home?

Great.

Thank you.

Very important question.

We're very, very fortunate in Seattle that we have built out infrastructure, especially a stadium, just hugs just in the south end of our downtown with very rich transit services.

Our goal for FIFA is 80% of attendees will be non-vehicle mode.

So we're going to encourage walking, we're going to encourage transit, we're going to encourage scootering and biking and other modes.

And to achieve that goal, we're making sure that our last bit of bike lanes are connected.

We're making sure that our sidewalks don't have any tripping hazards and so forth.

We're making sure that ADA Ramps are accessible.

So all amenities and infrastructure that are going to be supporting our walkability, transit, and so forth will be tweaked, adjusted, and make sure that it's refined.

We're looking at the stadium to the Seattle Center to be the core corridor for moving people.

But we're also going to be taking opportunity of what would a non-game day look like in Seattle.

We are inviting this as a great opportunity to highlight community neighborhoods outside of this Seattle Center and stadium sector.

Again, just really pushing that built environment with our rich transit services that we have and taking advantage of those things and aiming for that 80% non-vehicle initiative travel mode for those that are coming in to visit us.

Thank you for that.

And moving us to the 1.6 million in addressing unpermitted vending in right-of-ways.

Listen, cards on the table.

I love being able to get my mango with and I've had many a midnight veggie dog on pike.

And so I think I'm really curious, what do we mean when we say address unpermitted vending?

What does that interaction look like?

I appreciate the question.

And we see it as, you know, small businesses start up, you know, as this unpermitted vending.

So we approach things with education first, you know, making sure that there's a permit process and how we can streamline those things before we even do citation.

This particular budget is going to help us in addressing off-hours time that we don't have the personnel currently.

We have an eight to five personnel that addresses this thing.

In reality, the surge is happening with events outside of the evening and weekends and so forth, so this will give us the personnel to walk through.

Like I said, we lead with education, with information sharing, because for those that can do it Compliance with the permit.

We want to invite people to do those things if they follow the process.

So before we do abatement of equipment and so forth, we do citation.

If it's a repeated thing, then we would step it up to abatement of the equipment and so forth.

But in all honesty, we want to be Meeting the compliance of required right-of-way regulation and invite people to go through that process, the permitting process.

And if that's not happening and there's complete violation constantly, then the worst would be abrogating their equipment.

Director Emory, I appreciate you leading with an approach of education.

I think when this was announced, the immediate concern that I heard from community members was, of course, we know it can be challenging to get a permit and so concerned about inequities playing out in terms of who gets a permanent, who does not.

And we've also continued to hear from community groups also on how, I mean, Vendors can lead to public space activation, which also results and can create more of a sense of safety, too.

And so finding ways, as you stated, in many cases, these are small businesses wanting to pop up.

We want to find ways to support that.

So I'm hearing from you.

It is the intention of the department to take an education-oriented approach.

That's right.

And just for the purposes of my own clarity, the permits that they'd be getting would be through which department?

Street use.

Street use, got it.

I'll just say that, if I may add, we've been working very hard over several years and continue to do so to make our permitting processes as accessible to everyone who needs to participate and by that I mean make it easy for them to understand what the permitting requirements are, leading people through the process, really taking a very close look at our fee structure and taking into consideration equity as well as legal compliance needs and we really do lead with that value when it comes to permitting both its safety, its regulation, and its community support.

Appreciate that.

Would like to continue the conversation too on just that piece.

And moving us along to 4.1 million for downtown activation team, could we get more information on daily cleaning efforts, in particular how SDOT engages with their partners?

And I'm noting this because Pioneer Square and the CID both have BIAs that are also carrying out some of this work.

How does this body of work in particular overlap with what community is currently doing?

And could you please elaborate on which parts of our city will be receiving new services versus those that may receive the same level of services?

This is complementary to what DAT and Pioneer Square and other organizations are doing.

But we'll get you scheduling how many times that's been cleaned, where, We're governed and guided by the mayor's office, IDT, centralizing the IDT effort, but we'll follow up with sequencing where, area, and frequency of cleaning and what it entails.

It's pressure washing, litter, abatement of graffiti in areas.

So is that satisfying?

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

And moving us along to, I do have questions on graffiti.

I know we had the discussion with Parks also on graffiti, so of course, would love to have a better understanding in terms of SDOT's approach and Director Eater, I am still curious on the matter of where we're seeing all of our graffiti abatement work showing up across the city budget, but how is SDOT looking at ensuring that this investment in graffiti abatement is serving as more than just one-time investment to communities, but rather ongoing, thinking about public space activation and efforts to prevent future graffiti?

So there's an IDT at the mayor's office that encompasses multiple different departments, and ASAT is one of them.

We have assets that we specifically, so signs, any regulatory signs, and then the parking meters and so forth, we have retaining walls and bridges that we abate graffiti.

The joyous thing about this graffiti effort is the murals.

Estat happens to own larger retaining walls, which without a mural, very attractive for graffiti tagging.

So, implementing those murals is a strategy in which the IDT is pushing forward.

It's also beautifying our city and carrying, you know, important messages.

I heard AP Diaz talking about the campus parkway that just, you guys should drive through it.

I don't know, did you drive?

It's beautiful.

It's a very large retaining wall owned by Estat.

It used to be a graffiti attraction for tagging, and now it tells a beautiful story and the artists that put it together.

So that's how we're preventing future tagging.

And of course, like, you know, abating those that are showing up in our...

It was a surge, you know, past pandemic, post-pandemic.

It's been a huge surge.

So we're complying with that and maintaining, guided by the IDT.

Thank you.

Thank you for walking us through that.

And I'm going to keep going through my list here.

Thank you, Chair.

Taking us to 1.4 million for automated safety cameras, could you walk us through just, again, the rationale for an additional FTE?

Does this FTE deal with the ticketing process?

I was under the impression that's primarily done through Seattle Municipal Court.

And how is the department working for, how will our automated safety camera program really strike that balance between transit safety while not bringing on more equity concerns?

So the FTE will do a couple of things.

One, there's a significant reporting that the state legislation is mandating.

So we'll be working on that as also, you know, doing the coordination with—it's a three-legged approach, this automated traffic safety camera.

There's the SPD, Seattle Municipal Court, and SDOT, right?

So it's a partnership.

So that position will be helping coordinate, move things along.

In terms of equity, the state has built in a very significant equity lens, you know, and making sure that community is not inundated with this camera's So to kind of making it data-driven process and approach.

So we're very intensively looking through that process, making sure that we have an equity lens as we are implementing the safety strategy along those neighborhood areas.

Have I answered all the questions?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for walking us through that.

And taking us to the half a million for the joint enforcement team.

So it's my understanding that the State Liquor and Cannabis Board announced back in 2024 that they would no longer participate in our city's joint enforcement team.

So I'm wondering more about our broader strategy with the joint enforcement team and what is the goal of increasing team outings from 18 to 50?

Chris is going to take this one.

Well, I'm going to take it by saying we will have to get back to you, Council Member.

I will tell you that we are adding one position to SDOT.

SDOT, of course, is, as with Graffiti and many other things, we are one partner in a cross-departmental effort of collaboration and coordination to support the mission and purposes of the JET.

But we'll have to get back to you in consultation with the mayor's office and the city budget office and our own SMEs who are not here today about SDOT's participation.

And Council Member, I'm going to use Chair's prerogative for a moment.

The JET team has been housed within Finance and Administrative Services, which is the department that reports to my committee.

And so we had this conversation last week when they were sharing that they were going to be expanding the team.

And I quickly reminded them of the experience that happened on Capitol Hill.

And was like, you got to be kidding me that we're expanding this team at this time.

And there was some very strong reassurances that the state's team is very separate from our city's team, that this is going to be focused mostly on commercial business enforcement.

And not targeting the establishments that were targeted by the state.

And so that was my understanding from talking to subject matter experts, which can be referred to as SMEs.

I will ask that we don't use acronyms in committee.

And so I was reassured because I had a very intense reaction to that news.

And so just sharing in the calmness of committee today that my fears were alleviated.

Thank you for that additional detail, Chair.

I know I don't sit on your committee, so that's really helpful to understand because, of course, the root of that question is, I mean, there's a lot of fear facing our queer communities, so many communities right now, and so had a similar gut reaction to that kind of announcement.

So I think that's important clarification and glad that we can get that information out here today and in committee last week.

So thank you for that.

Looking towards $2 million investment in Pike Place Market bollards.

I love bollards.

I'd love to know where the department is looking next for more bollards.

I think they're tremendously important for pedestrian safety.

So where are the areas that the department is currently tracking might be next in line for bollards?

Occidental is something that we're working with Seattle Parks Foundation and Pioneer Square Alliance to roll out a temporary implementation to support the FIFA, pedestrianizing, continuing to the stadium area.

Right now it happens during game time, but we want to make it permanent.

So I think a phase two right now, we don't have the funding, but like a phase two occidental envisioning of like that continuum of that pedestrianised corridor would be another opportunity that we have.

And with the state legislation of like people spaces and that we are creating We'll be coming here with a legislation that's going to spark up more of spaces that we'll be creating.

And of course, it would be tied with those kind of amenities, safety amenities, as we activate those spaces as well.

So more to come in the future.

Glad to hear it.

Thank you.

And I know for many of our community members, transit safety is front of mind.

So what additional investments, if any, would this budget implement into pedestrian safety specifically?

We have bollards, but what are some of the other investments you'd highlight?

I think making sure, you know, signalized intersection, crossing, accessing, you know, the bus stops, those are amenities that we, in the right of way, that we control outside of the bus.

So, like lighting around shelters, just that pedestrian Experience as they're navigating and coming to those amenities are the things that we'll be highlighting.

And we have a spot improvement in the levy that's built in to help lift this up.

So we'll continue to make those investments through that lens.

Thank you.

And so, taking us to my final two questions, I promised, Chair, how would you say the SDOT budget is addressing our growing need for sidewalks in the city?

And I'm noting this with particular and kind of building on Councilmember Sokka's point, and I know his focus on sidewalks, but I'm noting that the Trump administration withdrew 11 pieces of the Americans with Disabilities Act guidance in April of this year.

And while the guidance that was withdrawn does not directly speak to transportation, inclusive guidance for Braille usage, hotel and lodging and entrances, parking spaces and elevators, are still important parts of our accessibility ecosystem, and many of our advocates and community partners have stressed the need for better sidewalks in tandem that this guidance is being taken away.

And so could you speak to, again, looking at how right now our proposed budget is addressing sidewalk expansion and anything you can speak to with regards to some of the changes in the ADA?

I think I just want to stress, you know, the levee, again, the front-loaded 350 blocks, you know, you guys spoke very highly about sidewalks and you understood the amenity, why it's important for our vulnerable users.

So we're going to continue to implement those elements.

As we look into the future, and thank you for giving us the path forward and the transportation funding task force, how we remedy those things even moving forward.

So there's a future path and then as we invest in the front end of the levy.

In terms of ADA, those are standard things that we built in in our design criteria.

We have the accessible APS push button that really addresses those things.

ADA curb ramps are required.

You can't build anything without those things, not just for our projects, but also developers that are coming in.

So that lens is never going to go away from our standard specification.

That's just a core standard process that we do.

So, yeah, that Seattle will continue to advance those things.

It's important.

It's a safety criteria.

It's mandatory.

That's how we view it.

Thank you for reaffirming that commitment, Director.

I think it's important to hear right now.

And my last question, because I would be remiss if I didn't mention it here, transit reliability.

And between the late eight Rainier bus lanes, Roar Avenue bus lanes, Route 40, Rapid Ride J, we have a lot of great transportation infrastructure that we know is here to serve our communities, but we have challenges with reliability.

So what investments are being made with this budget that will ensure that we're continuing to make progress on addressing these challenges?

I want my legacy to be known as the bus lane, red lane women, honestly.

I believe in transit reliability and I believe in transit mode is what's going to get us out of the growth that we're facing and reliability and just like transit is accessible for all.

For my mom, you know.

who had mobility challenges to little kids.

And it's just a freedom that it brings to our residents, and it's important.

So we take it very seriously.

As you've seen, we've implemented the transit lane on Aurora for 24-7.

I'm super excited about the 4th Avenue, which is the first one that we've combined freight and transit corridor on 4th Avenue.

If you haven't seen it, go out and see it.

It's beautiful.

So reliability to transit is mandatory.

And I know you talked about, you know, Route 8. Route 8, this is where the practitioners come in to do a balancing act.

And I happen to be a modeler, a transportation modeler in my, you know, previous role.

And the challenges of Seattle, limited right-of-way, and the limited East-West connection with Climate Pledge, that's creating events, challenges, and so forth.

If I could paint that little segment on Denny to make that Route 8 to be performing right, I would do it.

I also have to be very careful in terms of balancing outcomes that is not creating burden on other north-south transit routes that are around that area.

We have to make sure that goods are moving.

We have to make sure that small businesses are not impacted.

So we need to be very systematic in terms of implementation.

We have an opportunity with Revive i5 closure to test what distribution would look like in terms of accessing i5 on Denny.

With that, we'll be able to know the elasticity of the system.

Where are people dispersing?

And when they disperse, what is happening?

Ideally, flipping the trip is the magical thing, but it doesn't happen overnight.

You gotta gradually bring it along.

I'm not afraid to put transit lane where it makes sense.

And when we have to take time away and assess and evaluate too, it's also important to take that time.

And with Revive i5 coming our way, with FIFA coming our way, every network is going to be constrained significantly.

So we just have to kind of look at it through that lens and do systematic implementation while we understand the network failure so we don't want to fail it right away.

Thank you for that.

That's what it looks like.

Thank you, Director Emery.

I really appreciate it.

And thank you for indulging me, Chair.

Thank you.

One hour, 15 minutes remaining.

We have Council Member Rivera, then Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Director Emery, for being here at SDOT.

I can vouch for your many years of work trying to move people around the city in your prior role doing the traffic signaling amongst other things at SDOT.

This is a conversation you and I have been engaged in for many years, so I can vouch for the fact that this is of great interest to you.

Making sure that we're moving folks around the city as quickly as possible and also your support for public transit.

We have that in common.

And I also want to uplift your voice in terms of immigrant and migrant communities.

This is something you and I have talked a lot about and something that is really important to both of us.

So we have a great advocate at SDOT in that regard.

So I really want to thank you.

And you and I have had a lot of hard conversations over the years.

And like I told Natalie Walton Anderson yesterday, like, we push each other.

That's how it should be.

And we're all the better for it.

And I have nothing but immense respect for you.

So just want to say all of that.

I will say, as you know, Director Emery, My big challenge in the district continues to be the traffic calming along Sandpoint Way, so I'm gonna put this on the table again.

We really need to do something about this situation.

It's not dissimilar to what my colleague, Councilmember Saka, is experiencing in Alki.

How do we address both for pedestrian safety?

We did have, sadly, a fatality.

A beloved member of Bryant Elementary who passed away got hit by a car on Sandpoint Way.

I have a sense of urgency around this.

What can we do to make that happen faster?

And then along 95th Street, not far away as well, because that's been an issue too.

95th, I share with my colleague, Council Member Juarez, now formerly Council Member Moore.

We've been talking about this since last year.

So wanna state for the record, so constituents know I keep pressing on this issue, which then also creates the amplification of noise.

Council Member Saka and I went to meet with legislators last year as part of Lobby Days to talk about I'm trying to do something about the noise generated by cars and the traffic racing and not the traffic, excuse me, the car racing that we're experiencing both at Magnuson and around Magnuson and Alki.

And then, as you know, the safe routes to schools.

I have a lot of schools in the district.

I'm making sure that we have some of those schools do not really have sidewalks.

They're still needing...

At least there might be sidewalks around the actual building, but if you cross the street, none, and kids have to walk from home to the school.

So it can't just be around the school.

It has to be from their home to their school that there is an available sidewalk for them to walk on.

So the safe routes to school piece is really critical to me.

And because of this traffic calming piece, making sure that we have those Flashing lights, that those work to make people stop and you can see them at night.

That's what the great advantage of that is too.

And so our days are short in the winter here, so we know kids are out and about in the dark.

Trying to cross these streets and traffic's only getting heavier and just faster.

So even without the street racing, this is a real big issue.

But we know the street racing is an issue on Sandpoint Waste.

So let's do something about that now.

Not wait for more fatalities to do something about that.

So we can continue to talk about that and I want to know how in With this budget we can address this.

And I know I had your commitment to do something on Sandpoint Way.

I know there are a lot of issues because of the emergency vehicles that use.

So the whole traffic calming there I know has some challenges.

But I know we can do something, so let's make it happen, please.

And then on the street vending side, I will say that I understand that I've worked with Estat for a long time.

And so I know a lot about the work, the great work they're doing over there.

So I know on the street vending side, I can confirm that Estat really leads with that education piece for years now.

This has been an issue not just on the sidewalk, but on the street right away.

Even the food trucks, you know, making sure that they're all permitted.

And I know that SDOT has always led with an education piece and making it easy.

and not difficult for folks to get a permit, you know, whether it's helping with the fees involved or just making the ability to get those faster and providing that technical assistance.

So I know you do that.

So when I know you do something, I want to uplift that up.

And then for other pieces I know we struggle with, I'm going to point those out, right?

So I'm equal.

That way.

So thank you for doing that because it is really important.

It's important for our small businesses to know not just the ones on the right of way, just in general across the city how to best let's help set them up for success is what I'm trying to say.

And I look forward to, I'm gonna, in the interest of time, cut it off there, but I look forward to talking more about the Safe Routes to School as well as the urgent piece about the traffic calming along Sandpoint Way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Director Emory, anything you'd like to share?

I do.

I look forward to partnering with you, Council Member Rivera, for your kind words, too.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Wonderful.

Coming in straight from District 3, our one and only Council Member Joy Homsworth.

Thank you, Council Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Director Emory, for the record, can you remind us how long you've been a traffic engineer 30 years.

We are very blessed to have you in this position as a traffic engineer and being in this spot, particularly because you're a traffic engineer, number one, and number two, and they're not in any order, I'm just naming them, but also your connection with the community.

And understanding that there's people that don't have transparent access to City Hall, that don't have transparent access to public comment, that don't have access to certain pieces.

And so you go out into community and listen to folks to gather information about what they want to see in their neighborhood.

And that is the approach that I think is very, very welcome in Seattle from people.

Because oftentimes they can't get down to public comment.

They can't send emails.

They know what's happening in their neighborhood when they get something posted on their sign or they see the construction out their window.

So I just wanted to put that out there because I think that's really important that we are sitting here with a director that has 30 years of experience as a traffic engineer running a department and then has a really deep connection to community.

I think that's just a beautiful thing.

The second thing I wanted to highlight just for information, because I did see the street vending allocation, and I thank Council Member Rink for bringing some of the issues up.

I just wanted to also make sure that we highlight that the SDOT has always led with education.

That has been a big component to making sure that people just understand the laws and regulations.

So we're keeping people safe.

So I really appreciate that.

And I think we've always led with accommodation too, as well, trying to navigate, making sure that we're supporting our small businesses who might have a brick and mortar.

And then also the people that are just trying to make ends meet on the corner, trying to sell like Council Member Ring said that hot dog, you know, in the middle of the night and activating those spaces as well.

And so I think it's, We should highlight some of the things.

We have an oil dispense for trash that's on pike pine for some of those vendors that cook with oil that they can dispense it so it won't because there were complaints about people dumping oil straight into the sidewalk or down the drain so there was an oil dispensing, not machines, but We've also advocated our office and we got SPU to do two times a day, Saturday and Sunday, for trash mitigation and pickup for the extra trash that's on Capitol Hill because some of that trash was left for those vendors.

And small businesses would have had to take that on.

And so that was something as well.

So that's two times a day on Saturday and Sunday, thanks to SBU.

We also had issues with blocking of sidewalks, ADA, and safety things.

And so I know there had been talks about us figuring out, hey, are there special locations where we can make sure that people have access on the sidewalk?

It's ADA compliant.

And then we also make sure that those vendors are safe as well.

Also working with Councilmember Skata's office for our handwashing station as well.

And then also our Board of Health and our Health Department so people can get their permits so they know how to handle food properly.

So we're making sure we're keeping people safe.

No one's getting sick.

And I think that's really, really important to highlight as well.

And then also some of the, we know there's some vendor turf going on where vendors have certain specific areas that may have their turf.

And so we've had to mitigate a lot of those safety issues as well with, you know, certain activity happening and wanting to make sure that maybe there's a designation for vendors to go as well.

And so these are all in that holistic approach that when I see that investment, it is trying to make sure that we are continuing the culture that we have of small businesses, of people coming here, you know, making ends meet for their family, but also having some type of structure as well so it can be long-term successful for people with safety, with health standards, with regulation so we can make sure and education to make sure that it can be sustainable.

And I think that is really important to highlight as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Director Emory, anything you'd like to share?

I just want to thank her for her kind words.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

And I really enjoy co-creating with community.

I think I'm an engineer that likes to go out to see things in real life versus plan.

So engaging with community is super important to us, to me as well.

So thank you for recognizing that.

Wonderful.

I see Council Member Solomon, you've got your hand.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'm just going to get right into it because we've heard a lot about traffic concerns and other neighborhoods, but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about D2.

Primarily worked with neighbors in the south part of Rainer Avenue, basically between Rainer Beach and the city limits, about the traffic issues that they've had with cars driving into their garages or into their living rooms, into their bedrooms, causing lots of vehicle damage.

And I know I've spoken with, can't remember the gentleman's name.

Vinu?

Yes.

about what he's been doing and working with the community.

I know what the PD has been doing in terms of traffic enforcement, but in terms of long-term solutions to slow traffic down on that to prevent these vehicles from winding up in people's living rooms, what's the budgetary plan for that?

So Rainier is part of our high injury network.

And so there's a lot of Vision Zero investment that's going in there, both on the south end and on the north end of it.

So there's a phase two of transit lane that's extending on the north end.

And then south end, there's a lot of improvements that are related to Vision Zero safety.

And we're happy to come in and brief you if Venu hasn't done so.

Crossing is important.

Access.

And we're hearing a lot of sidewalk, even just minor sidewalk repairs, accessibility and so forth are things that we're engaging with the community and resolving those things.

But there's a significant amount of Vision Zero investment along D2, along Rainier specifically, that corridor.

I don't know.

I can't rattle on exactly what those are right now, but I'm happy to come in and brief you extensively on each investment.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

One of the things that I was looking at is there is no traffic control between Rainier and 57th.

All the way down until you get towards, you know, clutch cannabis.

So I'm thinking, at the very minimum, if we could put some kind of traffic control right there, that bend at where Pizzeria Pochinella is, right across from the playfield, and where, you know, the road goes up Cornell, that could help.

And I know that there's been discussion of preventing or at least limiting the ability to use the center lane to pass as opposed to using the center lane to turn.

So I'm very interested in that.

I'm also interested in any kind of measures that would be implemented between basically Rainier and Seward to Rainier and Henderson.

Because you have the apartments there, you have a daycare there.

And it's very difficult for parents to get across the street to pick their kids up, drop their kids off.

So even the idea of raised sidewalks or something right there around, I want to say 54th, 53rd, to, again, make it easier or make it safer for people to cross the street there.

I did want to acknowledge that the 12th Avenue, 3900 block of 12th Avenue.

Yes, I've had conversations with those folks even when I was on the Beacon Hill Council.

You know, basically, there's street falling off the cliff.

So I'm glad to see that's being addressed, and I wanted to acknowledge that.

I also wanted to...

Also got a lot of issues around...

You mentioned the north part of Rainier, and I think Rainier and Dearborn is one of those areas that you're looking at doing some improvements as well?

That's right.

That sector from I-90 interchange to Dearborn.

Okay, great, thank you.

Sidewalks, yeah.

Got a lot of neighborhoods in D2 that don't have sidewalks, making people go into the street where they conflict with Vehicular traffic.

So I'm glad to see that's going to be addressed.

Final thing I just wanted to bring up was we talked about bollards.

And what I think I put on my crime prevention through environmental design hat, I think of how many businesses have had vehicles driven through them for burglaries, basically.

Bollards would help with that.

Planter boxes would help with that as well.

My question is twofold.

One, would those businesses need to get a variance to have a planter box on the sidewalk, on the right of way?

The same thing with bollards.

So again, do they need a variance waiver permission or whatever?

Second thing is, is there funding Is there a pot of money available to help those businesses offset the cost of installation of bollards or planter boxes?

Because properly installed bollard ain't cheap.

It's a very interesting concept.

I think we should add it in our toolbox to Division Zero.

We've not thought about it.

We look at cross-section of right-of-way, reducing lanes and so forth, reducing speed.

But that's a brilliant idea.

So let's put it in our toolbox.

I don't have the right questions right now.

We want to make sure that the sidewalk has ADA accessible width and so forth.

So I think we should explore it.

It's not a strategy that we thought about in terms of I would appreciate an opportunity to meet with you offline, just to talk about some of the things

I'm seeing in the district and that people are asking me about.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any other questions?

Otherwise I can start ticking through mine.

Seeing none at this point, I'm just going to echo when I saw Councilmember Saka coming from that parking lot, I said to myself, Councilmember Saka usually takes the bus.

Why is he coming from that parking lot?

And I looked a little further and there were the pothole rangers.

And I will, for the record to reflect, that was the largest smile I've ever seen on that man's face.

True joy, you know.

And I wanna echo what Council Member Kettle said, that you and SDOT have set the model on how to create plans.

I'm really serious.

I was completely skeptical of the idea of merging all of the multimodal plans.

I was very skeptical that this would work.

And you did it.

You did it very well.

You did it so well that we're now starting to make other departments do it.

And I will also mention the caveat that it still doesn't solve for which mode gets priority on any given street and, You know, it does share, here are all of the different modes that have to be taken into account on any given street.

So just, that was one of a couple references where I'm gonna share where I had a perspective and then you proved me wrong.

This was one of them and you did such a good, the department as a whole did such a good job that you're now setting the example for other departments Who may not be as excited as you were to merge all of your plans.

Another example was when the department proposed paid parking around Ballard Commons Park.

I said, absolutely horrible idea.

Horrible idea.

And I was wrong.

It has opened up the park in a very nice way.

It's created a higher turnover that's important.

Despite it being in a residential area where folks who may be able to afford their rent but can't afford their parking spot in their building, it's very close to them and there's a need there.

That was another example of where I was wrong.

I shared this meeting with folks from the SDOT team in my office, but I don't want it to just be a meeting behind closed doors.

I'm out here showing on the record that I can have an incorrect perception.

There's some other places where we won't get into that.

Just a theme of our budget session here over the last You know, yesterday and today has been...

I'm sorry, I can't tell if I'm getting feedback or if there's just somebody speaking really loudly in the hall.

I do hear something from...

Sir?

Madam?

Sir?

We can hear you.

If you could let them know that we can hear them, that would be very helpful.

I really enjoyed having the married couple come in here for their wedding photos yesterday.

This one, a little less so.

Anyhow, a theme of our budget has been we make two-year, six-year plans, and we have to be flexible to adjust them.

In this session right now, we are in the second year of a two-year plan, our endorsed budget, and we're making changes.

The same thing goes for our supplemental budgets.

We make a plan at the beginning of the year, and we have to change along the way.

The transportation levy that we passed last year was one of the largest levees ever.

I think just period, end of that sentence.

And a lesson that we learned from the MOVE Seattle levy was that we can't wait.

Like we have to get going right away.

And so I've got a couple questions.

I'm just gonna put them all out there and then let you come back to them.

Number one, how is the first year going?

Have we staffed up appropriately?

Are we hitting the ground running or rolling or moving, however you want to say that?

And then I'll also share one of the challenges that I've already experienced this year, which is when residents have brought issues to my attention that need to be solved, I bring them to the department and the department's response is, it's not funded in the levy.

The question here is how do we move forward together, understanding that if these residents had brought me these issues a year and a half ago, I would have just put them in the levy, but they didn't.

And that's not incumbent upon them.

They didn't know that that was their timeline.

And they brought it to me and it's still a real issue.

And so how do we move forward together, understanding the levy is our North Star?

And even a year later, important priorities have been identified that the levy didn't necessarily identify.

How do we make both work and how's that first year going?

The first year, as I stated earlier, Learning from the Move Seattle and just pivoting to say will be crew delivered, projects are going to come in.

PS&E packaging takes a little bit more longer when you're like a big contractual thing and takes planning.

We've done a great job of onboarding people and orienting.

We had significant vacancies, so we've hired 220 folks, whether it's backfilling vacancy in combination with new levy FTEs.

So onboarding the levy oversight and getting them all oriented and navigating that space has been very successful.

I'm very proud of that.

So the crew, they're out there doing their thing.

So whether it's in starting a design and finishing it up or Even finishing some, you'll be very happy at the end of the report to see.

And I just want you to know, usually in a levy, first year, it's the planning, onboarding.

And so even seeing finalized project this year is a huge success, just that little pivot that we did.

So I feel like it's going really well, and it will ramp up, and you've just adapted the STP three-year plan, which not just is it going to be a guiding principle for us on how we, you know, the levy packaging, but it's also the other programs that course services.

It also helps us.

It's a tool in which it helps us to have expenditure or implementation plan that's three-year look.

So this is giving us a great opportunity to break down silos within our department to figure out what sort of resources and reliance we can build.

So efficiency is top tier for me.

So we're bringing in an efficiency, we're rethinking our budget structure to figure out how we structure it to make sure that reporting and And also giving our employee the tool that they need as their leading programs and so forth to scope budget schedule, right?

So how do we empower them to have access to this information so they're informed and are proactive in leading their programs?

I'm a big proponent of that, you know, giving all the tools to the The amazing employees that we have that just work really hard day after day.

And so the other thing is transparency.

So if you're disappointed and things are being phrased to say, it's not in the levy, we have to be able to communicate to you why.

And the prioritization, you know, what does the data tell you, like, you know, how does it run throughout the city in terms of like, you know, priority and why it wasn't included and how can we implement it if we have the funding to implement in other services if it's not part of the levy.

So I would like to reset our relationship with you and we got to do better if you're not getting those information.

So that's the place where I want to take it next in figuring out why aren't you getting the thorough information to help you decide or even understand how a particular thing is not funded and how it falls within the city-wide prioritization.

Thank you, because what you just hit on has been something that has been percolating for a number of years.

I mean, I think it was three years ago that I sponsored the statement of legislative intent asking the department to provide us as district council, and even before anyone else who's sitting on this dais right now, Council Member Juarez was here.

But even before any of these council members were here, I passed a statement of legislative intent asking, how does the department want district council members to share things that we're hearing in the district and be responsive?

And then with this council that is currently seated during the levy, we passed the council district fund, right?

And I understand that the department took a year to create that framework I share this because these sentiments that I'm sharing with you today are not new.

They're not because of your leadership or any particular staff member of the department.

But this has been a challenge over a number of years, and it's something that I've been trying to help You, I think you've been trying to help me.

I think that we are all circling around a barrel of how do we remain committed to our levy deliverables and remain flexible to address the changing dynamics and the changing needs of Seattleites because I see that You're able to implement Vision Zero in a much faster and more effective way today than you were even, and when I say you, I mean the department, than the department was able to under the last mayor.

And that's been something that has been really welcomed by so many.

I had somebody even just this week asking for speed bumps on a main arterial.

It's because they don't feel safe crossing the street at a marked crosswalk that's mid-block, right?

And I don't think they would have made that request five years ago.

Granted, they wanted the rapid flashing beacons, When I shared with them the backlog, then they were, well, can I just have the speed bumps?

And I said, well, send it into 684 Road and we'll go from there, right?

Like, I've figured out my own ways of doing it.

But just want to, I don't necessarily need to go through the line-by-line examples, but just I'm putting it on the record that this has been a challenge for a number of years.

I'd like to find some resolution with it.

Yeah, I look forward to working with you.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Another tough question, but probably not directly in your purview.

This is me just trying to figure this out.

Seattle transportation benefit dollars.

Who manages these funds?

Is it Metro?

Is it SDOT?

I keep asking both departments, and every time I ask, each department says it's the other one.

We manage it.

We manage it.

Yes.

They deliver services for us on our behalf.

The questions I have are not appropriate for the record, so I will follow up with you after this meeting because I will just share it's been a pretty big challenge.

I mean, we've got so many dollars that I think many Seattleites would like to have Metro deliver that service.

And each year we're found with excess STBD dollars that, in my opinion, we can't get Metro to spend.

So I'll come back to you on that one.

Sticking in that lane, pun intended, I'm a huge fan of the Trailhead direct service.

Is that part of Seattle Transportation Benefit District or is that simply Metro?

Do we fund it fully?

Partially.

Partially.

Chris says partially.

That's Bill.

Former council staff bill aboard here.

Here's Chris.

Chris is back.

Were you the gentleman making the loud phone call in the back hallway?

No.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Apologies for that reference.

So Bill and Chris have just saved the day.

Yeah.

I bring up the Trailhead direct service because it is easier to get by bus to Mount Sai than it is to Golden Gardens.

I just want to clap.

Council Member Rivera is shocked and dismayed.

I mean, it's crazy.

It kind of is crazy.

Anyways, I'll take it down a notch just to say...

The closest buses are either two miles away on flat or a half a mile away with 300 feet incline, with dark, unlit stairs at night, to the point that I've seen people walking up the narrow road of Golden Gardens at night.

I'd love to work with you to find a way that we can get the Trailhead direct service to Golden Gardens just in the summer.

I mean, we don't even have to do it all year.

I plant that with you right now because when I realized that it was easier for me to get by bus to Mount Si from Ballard than it was to get to Golden Gardens, it kind of took my breath away there for a minute.

Any just initial thoughts?

Because I know this is the first time I've shared- It just tells me we need to do more flipping the trip in the city.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Shared streets, I'm just going to put it on the record that I'm interested in passing that legislation later this year.

But I want to come back to unpermitted vending enforcement.

Hearing the earlier conversation really helped answer some of my initial questions.

I'm gonna use the, I believe that their taco truck that shows up on 105th and Aurora.

That is the most positive activation I have seen on that street corner in years.

The music's great, the food's good, it brings people for a positive reason into that parking lot.

You're not a true city if you don't have street food.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That was me.

Council Member Warriors, I know it's your district.

Can I talk about it though?

I said so with a fried bread stamp.

I'm going to let that go.

Sorry.

I'll be quiet.

I got a mute.

Sorry.

All I'm saying is you're not a real city if you don't have street food, right?

And so there is like a level of excitement there.

So what I'm hearing from you though about this additional enforcement is that in particular you've streamlined this permitting.

I want to double check that I'm understanding this correctly.

Are these inspectors the entry point into the permit process and helping these businesses come on above board rather than what I think many people assumed, which is that these would be punitive, fine-oriented enforcement.

Am I understanding the situation?

The education piece is to walk them through what the process is and the permitting and so forth.

And I just want to say, Estat learns from our interaction.

So this is an evolution, right?

So whatever we're hearing and encountering, we have to make sure that we're taking those lessons learned and adapting it to our permitting process.

If it is an opportunity where we can even partner with OED, I love how you said it is an opportunity in some cases.

It's a hindrance elsewhere, but like how do you decipher those things and how do you lift up that opportunity while you're addressing the impact that this could bring to other spaces, right?

So I think seeing it through that lens and lifting up those opportunity, we should learn more from those, the taco, is it the meat that rounds and cut?

Yeah.

There's one on 45th Avenue too, an I-5 junction, and you see people coming into this abandoned parking lot.

Thank you for lifting that up, honestly.

Those are opportunities that I think of to say, how do we harness this?

And what are the items that we need to do?

What is the challenge for this vendor to get the appropriate permit?

What are the obstacles?

So let's learn more from those outreach we do and let's turn it into an opportunity and compliance and following our rules.

Fantastic.

You brought up freight and bus lanes, the first one being implemented in Soto.

One of the most important projects of the Route 40 was that it would be a freight and bus only lane.

It's my understanding that that's changed.

It's a phase two, so we're not leading with it, but it's going to come.

And I understand that there's a meeting next Monday in Fremont about it, so maybe I'll check in with you right after this committee meeting about that meeting.

Okay.

Because I'd like my team to attend if that is happening.

I'll be stuck here on the dais with another eight hours of budget meeting.

I've got...

A couple more.

Speed enforcement cameras, I know it's been discussed.

Wanted to just ask the direct schedule question of what is the timeline for getting these cameras up and running?

And then you may or may not know these other parts, which is, are the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Municipal Court properly resourced to be able to process these new tickets?

If you don't know that answer, I'll ask them.

But I just want to know, we have been pining for a year.

We've been waiting with bated breath.

How can we help?

What's the schedule?

I share the disappointment with you as well.

You know, it's a third party A contract that's managed by SPD.

So they put in all the devices and so forth and manage those things.

As Chris mentioned in her presentation, this is the highest number of implementation that we've given them, which is 37 cameras at 19 locations.

And we're seeing the challenges that they're facing in terms of implementation, like installing.

They bring in their own contractor to install those.

Cameras, polls, and other things.

Everything on the city side, whether it's permitting, getting power, STL has been, Don has been an amazing partner in making sure it's a priority.

We're even stepping in to do tree trimming and so forth for them just to kind of help, you know, assess.

And any move that we're doing, we're not seeing that trajectory of fast delivery on their end.

And there was a personnel change that they have done in the middle of the year, which kind of gave it a hiccup.

So I'm gonna sit with the chief on Monday to strategize on what we do, the third party thing.

And also for those corridors that we're facing, and Council Member Rivera talked about Sandpoint, the racing that's going on.

Is there, while we're waiting for the cameras to install, Is it targeted enforcement?

With SPD sitting there and so forth, it seems to make a difference in some cases.

So I'm going to start that conversation with the chief and see what can we do to those corridors.

Yes, the cameras are the permanent long-term outcome, but we're seeing, in all honesty, I'm going to tell you, we're seeing ginormous delay from this vendor.

It's looking like 12 to 18 months.

So I'm even going to bring that up to say, okay, are there creative way in helping this third party?

Can we force them to have multiple crews to install in multiple places?

What is the hindrance and the challenges that they're facing?

So we'll deep dive into those elements and I'll be able to report to you all.

I know it's of interest to you all and there are challenging corridors that our residents are touching point to you all.

So we'll expedite those and we'll walk through it together.

I just want to highlight one of the values that you bring to the table, which you shared earlier, which is transparency.

You just demonstrated that in action in this conversation.

I just can't thank you enough because a lot of people would just punt the question and say, can I talk to you later about it?

What's really impressive for me about the department's data on cameras is that nine out of 10 people never get a second ticket.

That means if we put in these speeding cameras, we don't necessarily need to put in speed humps.

Would I rather have a speed hump than somebody get hit?

100% every single day.

No question, you don't have to ask me twice.

Would I rather have a camera than a speed hump?

Yes, 100% every day.

And so I don't want us to get wrapped around an axle of just trying to solve for people and stop people from getting injured and having the right tool in the toolbox.

So thank you for that really transparent answer.

Last question is about Bollard.

Well, make them mention that the residents on Stroud Avenue over there by Green Lake have submitted a petition.

I shared it with you, but I'm just letting them know on the record that I've shared it with you as well.

Last question.

Yeah, go ahead.

We've connected with them too.

Fantastic.

So we're going to go visit them and, yeah, walk through.

Great.

When you do that walkthrough, I'd love for my team to join too.

Great.

Okay.

Last question is about those pedestrian safety bollards.

We've, again, heard great interest across the city from farmers markets to everyday events.

Seattle Center represented that the ones at Pike Place and the Seattle Center are going to be retractable or set in place rather than the movable, where you can move the bollards from place to place with the two wheels that are attached to them.

a strategic decision as to why we're making that choice and or can we expand this so that we're able to purchase You know, bollards that stop cars from driving into pedestrian areas that can either be...

I guess the question here is for farmers markets, I'll just be specific.

For farmers markets, does it make sense for the city to purchase barriers that can be moved around the city?

You know, because I think of like FIFA World Cup, that's a one-time experience that then those...

Barriers can be repurposed for our farmers market, or should we be going out for each of these farmers markets and getting them their own traffic bollards?

And that's something you can follow up with me about.

I just, as these conversations have continued over the last two days, that's where my mind has gone.

I've seen a portable barrier that the waterfront uses, so it's amazing.

So I see a vision which farmers market could be served through that, but I think it's an ongoing discussion we should have and figure out how we protect pedestrians in those events.

Great, great.

Well, I'm excited to continue the conversation.

Thank you for your leadership.

It's an absolute pleasure to get to work with you.

And thank you to every single one of the employees, the people that make SDOT run.

You know, when you talk about your crew delivered rather than these third-party vendors, it's all the difference.

Our crew delivered projects are some of the best done projects in our city.

And getting to run into your crews, I ran into your crew working on a Sunday in August on one of the hottest days of the year, making sure that people had The corners where they could, I'm blanking on the word because it's at 4.30 on a Friday, but the curb cuts, they were out working on one of the 90 degree Sundays to make sure that people are able to navigate their neighborhood with greater ease.

And so to any SDOT employee out there, especially the crews, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And thank you all for your entire team.

Thank you.

And thank you for recognizing the crew.

I always say the best asset a leader can have is their employee.

I serve them and I always tell them I'm here to clear barriers and I tell my executives we're here to clear barriers for our team and we're very blessed to have the most amazing staff, amazing crew that just work very, very hard to your testament.

Thank you so much for having us here.

And your partnership means a lot to me.

You bring a great voice and you're connected to the residents in a very intimate way, which allows us to kind of even hear more through your lens and so forth.

So I really enjoy working with all of you, co-creating, solving issues.

So thank you.

Thank you for your partnership and thank you for having us here.

And with 30 minutes left, we've got Councilmember Salomon.

Councilmember Warriors, do you want to share any thoughts?

And then we'll close with Councilmember Saka.

Councilmember Salomon, over to you.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Chair.

I did want to just bring up one thing very quickly.

One issue that kept coming into my inbox was about trees on Beacon between McClellan and Spokane and the fear that a lot of those trees were going to be removed because the route system had really disrupted the sidewalks to the point where it was presenting mobility challenges for anyone who wasn't abled, right?

And what I have seen on Beacon is you found a way to preserve the tree and grade the sidewalks to allow for people with limited mobility or mobility challenges to actually get around.

I've also seen the commitment from the department that any tree that would be So I just wanted to call that out and acknowledge it because I live right there.

I've walked those sidewalks.

I've tripped on those sidewalks.

And now what I'm seeing is sidewalks that are much more navigable for folks who do have mobility challenges.

And I wanted to call that out and thank you for that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Salomon.

Councilmember Juarez, anything to share?

I'm calling you.

You're not raising your hand, so I'm just calling in.

Seeing none.

Council Member Saka, if you want to close us out for the day.

Thank you, Chair.

You noted a moment ago there's about 30 minutes left.

Colleagues, rest assured, this will only take about 25 of those minutes.

No, I recognize I'm the only thing standing in between all of us and the weekend, but I just want to say a couple of quick thoughts and self-reflections.

First off, I think it's a good investment for us in the Department to address unpermitted vending.

Focusing on education.

And first off, let me just make abundantly clear, I love, love, love our micro-entrepreneurs in our city, including those who sell street food, for example.

One of my first experiences with vendors in our city was when I was 21, going to the local bar scene in the district that I now represent, Pioneer Square, and seeing the hot dog vendors out there and getting the Seattle dog.

And for me, it's extra cream cheese and extra Onions as well, just because sometimes I'm told I'm a little extra.

But always authentic, colleagues, always authentic.

But I love these micro entrepreneurs for the reasons mentioned.

I think everyone has a good experience with them.

That said, I've also spoken to small businesses, for example, in Elk Eye, in my own district in Elk Eye, that They're concerned in part because they have to get any number of permits and licenses and regulations to be compliant through the city, like the whole alphabet soup of regulatory agencies.

Also, in some cases, paying to their local chamber to get additional supports and networking opportunities, et cetera.

And someone goes right outside their small business with no permits or licenses and kind of undercuts their business.

So there's a city aspect, which is the unpermitted vending and the public right-of-way, which is this.

The province of this initiative here, which I think is a good idea.

And then there's things we have less direct control and say over about like King County Public Health.

There's a public health license required for certain foods.

And so in any event, I think this does strike the right balance, especially if we do truly focus on the education to addressing all concerns and the need and helping people get compliant.

That's the goal.

Help people be compliant.

And that's the commitment I heard today, and so I'm excited about that.

Double click on some of the kudos and praise that have been levied towards you, Director Emery, especially that by Council Member Hollingsworth earlier.

The fact that you have 30 years of experience as a traffic engineer and your just robust community experience on top of that.

You're a tremendous asset to the department.

The entire city of Seattle as well.

And you've been a great thought partner.

We are tremendously lucky to have you in this role.

You've met with me.

You're always responsive to me and my office.

You've met with me and community multiple times, joining me, for example, on missing sidewalk walking tours in Delridge and Highland Park, South Park.

Some communities, members, individuals pulled me aside afterwards and said, hey, we've never had an SDOC director come walk our neighborhood with us, let alone SDOC director and their council member, both at the same time.

And so I think that speaks volumes to you and your leadership and your impact.

Also some of your efforts And addressing the unsafe conditions on 4th Avenue, for example, for bikes and that stretch effort that you and the department were able to quickly undertake.

I think you have a very unique, savvy understanding of our district-based representation model, which is very, very important.

And we're only about 10 years into this model, but I just think you have a very advanced understanding of the nuances involved.

The department is, insert your department, whatever 40 city departments or agencies you're talking about, they're always gonna just approach things, especially the department's heads, from a citywide perspective.

Makes sense, right?

But we as individual council members, specifically those that represent council districts, we approach things through our district lens as well.

And so I think you've done a great job of striking the best balance and working with me and my district colleagues.

Clearly more work to do.

We illuminated through some of the conversation today, for example, that there's more work to do on that.

In all, we're lucky to have you, Director Emery.

Thank you for all you do.

I, like Councilmember Rivera, aspire to levy praise and have uncomfortable conversations as we do sometimes, especially in private.

But I'll just share, I do also have some concerns about the slower than anticipated rollout and deployment of those traffic safety cameras.

And I totally understand there's third party dependencies with the vendors and contractors and things like that, and there's also some Some things that we can control less of with like SPD and courts and this.

So I understand the dependencies challenge.

But I also think there might be an opportunity for us to streamline a little bit and do more specifically with these non-school speed zone cameras.

And so me and my office, we've already had some initial productive conversations about that.

We'll be following up again offline.

But I am concerned because we wrote a big check last year for the school traffic speed zone cameras in the mayor's budget.

We added on top of that for the non-school speed zone cameras, big check.

We can't spend, Most of that money.

And that has real impacts on traffic safety in those impacted areas that we anticipated deploying these resources to.

It has also non-trivial impacts to our revenue budget as well, given that those do generate revenue.

And which in part of that, it leads to another downstream safety issue because 30% of the money goes to the department.

Some of that could go towards safety.

So I just do have some concerns about the latency and the slower than anticipated rollout.

I want to have a realistic, ambitious, but also ambitious timeline and write the appropriate check.

In any event, we'll continue the conversation there.

All this is to say, thank you again, SDOT, for presenting your budget today, and thank you again, Director Emory, for your partnership.

I also want to take a moment of personal privilege to say thank you to my wife, Alicia, for taking on some additional unanticipated Logistics with kiddo activities today, this afternoon, Friday afternoon, I would have ordinarily excused myself or taken at least part of it remotely given The timing, but I recognize she has her own very busy, demanding job.

But as chair of the committee overseeing this one committee presentation from the department, I'm grateful for my wife's contributions to our family.

A neighbor called her First Lady of District One one time, and Flodo, and I call her that sometimes.

She hates when I call that, but I call her that in love.

Flodo, Alicia, thank you for all you do.

And thank you, colleagues.

Appreciate the conversation today.

I'll shut up.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

And thank you to your wife for picking up the kids when you were supposed to.

I'll pass it over to Director Noble and Director Emery if you've got any last words.

I just want to pull something out that you said when we asked you what does success look like in the first year of a levy.

You reminded us in that all other levies, the first year's planning and in this levy, you've already cut the ribbon on projects.

That's huge.

So I'll pass it over to you for last statements and then we'll go into just closing committee for the week.

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for your partnership again.

Councilman Warsaka, it's a pleasure to work with you in the committee and advancing all important transportation investments and strategies and so forth.

For those of you, like, I've partnered with you, Councilman Chair Strauss, in terms of Missing Link, it's been delightful.

I see the value of partnering with council members as we navigate the neighborhood and the districts that you live in and bring in residents' voices.

And showing up together plays a big role.

It's a huge statement.

So thank you.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for advancing all those legislations that mean a lot to all of us as we advance this amazing work.

Thank you.

And thank you, Council Member Sokka.

We had 30 minutes and thank you for only taking 29 of them.

With that, I'm gonna give the floor over to Director Ben Noble in just a second to remind us all Monday, September 29th, we start at 9.30 a.m.

sharp, Public Safety Day, We have Seattle Police Department, Care Department, Seattle Fire Department, and then in the afternoon, the Human Services Department.

On Tuesday, we have Office of Housing, Seattle Center, Office of Economic Development, followed by Office of Arts and Culture and SDCI.

So we're going to hit the ground running Monday morning.

I hope you all have a great weekend, but Director Noble, last words.

I just had a general process sort of reminder, just to let you know that the questions you posed the last couple days did not get answered from here, Budget Office and we have been tracking where we're going to confirm them, and then we will post them to the Q&A and get you those answers.

I also wanted to remind you, a number of you have indicated that you intend to have some questions posted to the Q&A.

I just wanted to, again, remind you to coordinate with your staff so that they can coordinate with central staff.

We don't just post those as we post them.

We send a proactive email to the key folks on the executive side.

They know that they've arrived, and then we have the three-day clock that starts.

And that clock is the best efforts clock.

There are some times that it takes longer, sometimes it takes shorter, if you will.

But in any case, just working through central staff so we keep that process moving smoothly, and we get all these questions answered as quickly as possible.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Seeing as we have no further business to come before the committee, well, I guess I'm supposed to double check, is there any further business to come before the committee?

Seeing none, we'll meet again on Monday morning at 9.30 a.m.

sharp.

Thank you for attending this week's meetings, and I'll see you next week.

We are adjourned.