Parks, Public Utilities & Technology Committee 9/10/2025

Good afternoon, everyone.

The September 2025 meeting of the Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee will come to order, also known as PPUT Committee.

It is 2.01 p.m.

I am Joy Hollingsworth, and I'm the chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Council Member Strauss.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Here.

Chair, there are three members present.

Awesome, please let the record reflect that Council President Nelson is excused and also Council Member Rivera is excused until she gets here.

We have another packed agenda before committee breaks for our city council budget deliberations, including legislation coming back for a vote from our last committee meeting.

So we're gonna go ahead and get started.

We'll now consider the agenda and I'm moving to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Thank you, it's been moved in second.

And if there's no objection, the agenda will be amended to consider item three as the first item on today's agenda.

No, this is, I apologize.

Okay, my apologies.

I'm sorry.

Let's back up here.

I was reading a different piece of the script.

My apologies.

So the agenda has been adopted.

Thank you, colleagues.

We're now gonna move to public comment.

We'll now consider the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should be related to items on today's agenda or be written within the purview of the committee.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up?

We have none in person and one online.

Awesome.

Okay.

We have one online.

Each speaker will get two minutes.

The public, I'm gonna go ahead and read the information for the public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Speakers will be called in the order of which they registered on the council's website and sign up sheet available here in council chambers.

Starting with the in-person speakers first.

We don't have any in-person speakers, so we're going to jump to just straight online.

If you have not registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period on the council's website.

The link is listed on today's agenda or by signing up on the sign-up sheet.

When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

Speakers will hear a chime within 10 seconds and are left of the allotted time.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time period, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person.

The public comment period is now open and we're gonna begin with our first speaker.

And clerk, will you please call the first speaker that is online.

Please remember to press star six to unmute yourself.

Our remote speaker is David Haynes.

David Haynes, I wanted to address the utilities.

We need to discipline the greed of Waste Management's Wall Street non-working shareholder middlemen for making more than the workers do who do all the work, taking their disgruntled attitude out on community at large, abusing neighborhoods overwhelmed by the never-ending banging and clanging of dumpster pickups.

that continue to artificially inflate the cost while never making an effort to be considerate, respectful, and properly positioned when they pick up their trash that has a noise-abated wall wrapped around their shimmy-shaking, an earthquake taking atmospheric pressure, jolting you awake too early in the morning, startling you in the evening and bothering you sometimes six days a week, road-raising their loud whirring turbo diesel engines Needing a better coordinated logistical and logical pickup at reasonable times, like all at once within an hour of each other instead of sporadic, making you mental working from home.

Why is council increasing fees when waste management made $726 million in three months of the second quarter, April 1st to June 30th at 25, and $2.72 billion in the last 12 months?

The council wants to, it looks like, increase the fees to help them increase their revenue stream that increased 19%.

Like, if they want to make more money, they have to make more of a concerted effort to logistically pick up the trash without imposing such a negative impact.

And you all need to realize that the multi-use buildings have a negative impact on residents who are justified to go higher than six stories to get a reprieve within livable amenity spaces when they do come up to pick the trash.

When you have, like, commercial picking up at 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 7 a.m., and then they come back the next day for residence, then they come back again for commercial, it's too much.

And you all have allowed for restrictions and sabotages on the comprehensive plan to address that and the fact that we need pedestrian-centric, resident-friendly neighborhood infrastructure, not car-centric roadway services to abuse it.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Are there any other public comment speakers?

Awesome.

Okay.

If there's no additional speakers, we'll now proceed with the items of business.

The public comment period is closed.

Clerk, will you please read agenda items number one through six into the agenda?

Agenda items 1 through 6, appointments 3218, 3298 through 3302, the appointments and reappointments of Mark Gerriter, Sally Bagshaw, Michael George, Adrian Musanaghi, Eric Pettigrew, and Matt Rowe as members of the Seattle Center Advisory Commission for a term to September 28, 2027, and 2028 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Awesome.

That sounds like an all-star lineup.

Thank you.

I'd like to acknowledge, and I believe we have online Deputy Director Winston from the Seattle Center on Zoom.

Thank you, Director, for being here to speak to the commission and appointees.

Deputy Director, please welcome and please introduce yourself for the record and you may begin.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

For the record, Demostris Winston, Deputy Director at Seattle Center.

I appreciate you, Chair Hollingsworth and Councilmembers, for giving us the opportunity to talk about the reappointment of six of our Commission members today.

And I'll start by saying that our Advisory Commission is comprised of some very talented, very dynamic, and very well positioned and actively engaged Commissioners, including the folks that we'll introduce today.

Some of these folks you probably know from around town and others You'll meet soon.

And so it's an honor to retain and to recruit highly qualified individuals whose experience and commitment really strengthening our role as an arts and cultural organization and hub within the city.

And so we have three reappointments and we have three new appointments.

And so our first appointment is Mark Dieter.

Mark has served as the chair of the commission since 2022, providing strong leadership and Insight and a lot of passion for arts and culture in the community.

Mark's also a philanthropic services director for a wealth management firm.

And so we also, Sally Backshaw, many of you probably know Sally.

She was appointed last year to fill a vacant term.

And so this will allow us to continue utilizing her valuable contributions.

Sally has massive knowledge of all things Seattle.

And she's an attorney and a former council member.

Next on the reappointment is Michael George, who's beginning his third term.

His first term started in 2020. And he's the VP of a real estate firm doing many complicated projects around town and is dedicated to making downtown more livable.

And so those are our three reappointments.

Also excited to welcome and appoint three new commissioners.

Adrian Massanegui is a strategic product executive who has a passion for civic engagement and community connections.

Eric Pettigrew, who is a highly accomplished leader and distinguished public figure that served in the legislature leadership positions for a number of years, who has volunteered for many boards receiving awards from different organizations, including the United King County, United Way, and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

And last on our appointments is Matt Rowe, who's a visionary architect, an urban planner who has four years of experience working in the greater Seattle and Vancouver, BC area, having worked with a lot of mixed-use projects, transit-oriented projects and commercial and multi-housing projects.

And so together, these commissioners help guide and advance The mission of Seattle Center, which is to be a civic and cultural hub for the community.

And so in closing, and I'll just say that I deeply appreciate their willingness to serve and support the council in the work that Seattle does or Seattle Center does.

And I'd like to have these appointments confirmed.

Thank you, Deputy Director.

And I believe Council Member Strauss had his hand up.

Oh, no.

I just didn't recognize that part of your background from Seattle Center.

Yeah, I didn't know.

These are Zoom meetings.

I thought it was the King Dome at first.

I did too.

Bring back the King Dome.

Yeah, it's the Tacoma Dome.

I live in Tacoma, but yeah.

I should have thought about that, but I had no clue that it was going to pop up before Zoom.

No worries.

We love you.

We love you, Debbie.

In a professionally appropriate way.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

That was a great laugh.

Thank you, Deputy Director Winston.

I definitely wanted to thank the six volunteers that are, you know, three volunteers that are being reappointed.

Mark, I'm going to butcher his name and I apologize.

Dieter.

Dieter, thank you.

A former council member, Sally Bagshaw, that brings a A ton of experience and wealth.

And then Michael George as well.

And I wanted to especially like to commend the new three commissioners that are here.

Adrian Masugi, leadership in various nonprofits and startups organization is what I heard Deputy And then I also heard about Matt Rowe's advocacy in transit and land use, which I think is gonna be incredibly helpful.

And then the illustrious representative, Pettigrew, and for all their work and expertise that they've brought from the great, some people will say it's the best legislative district in Seattle, which is the 37th district, former representative in our city, for our state.

Thank you all to the appointees for your time and expertise.

I don't know if any of the appointees are on, but we wanna thank them for their policy matters that affect the Seattle Center.

And your insights and leaderships play a critical role in shaping a vibrant and inclusive space that reflects and serves the entire Seattle community.

With that being said, I'll pause here to see if any other council member has any other comments regarding our appointees.

And if, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

I just wanted to note the Seattle Center and how important it is to our city, but also to the local neighborhood.

And we've had a lot of interaction with Queen Anne, Uptown, South Lake Union, and a lot of the names that we see on this list are names that have been part of that and also been part of the work that we've been doing.

with the District 7 Neighborhood Council.

Names like Michael George, Sally Bagshaw, Matt Rowe and the like.

And so this group, as a group, well represents the need and I think will stand up quite well, very well, for Seattle Center to be an advisory and to serve in that role.

So I just thank you and thank all those that accepted the The possibility, the chance to volunteer, because as we all know, it's a lot of work, and so I just want to thank them ahead of time.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

And with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and move that the committee recommends the confirmation of appointees 3218, 3298 through 3302. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and second.

To confirm these appointees, will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendations?

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

There are three in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointees will be sent Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 for the City Council meeting.

Clerk, will you please read?

Chair, I'm sorry, I'm having a little technical difficulty.

I just wanted to say that is a dream team of a group of people to be on a commission together.

I mean, everyone from Michael George to Eric Pettigrew to Matt Rowey, Sally Bagshaw, it's the team that I would want to be on.

So just wanted to share that.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

And will the clerk please read the next agenda items into the record?

Agenda items seven through nine, appointments 3295 through 3297, the appointments Jane Stonesifer, Kevin Werner, Dia Zhang, as members of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commission for a term of three years from council confirmation for briefing, discussion and possible vote.

Presenting today is Superintendent A.P. Diaz.

No worries.

And I want to thank Director Winston, who's still on, for their participation in talking about the Seattle Center Commission.

And we are honored to have Superintendent Diaz here to talk about these appointments whenever you're ready.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Owensworth.

And here comes Ms. Stonecipher.

Good morning.

Council members, or good afternoon.

It's a pleasure to come before you today to seek your approval.

of appointment of our newest Tacoma Parks Department, I mean Seattle.

Seattle Parks and Recreation Commissioners.

We have three appointments before you today.

I'm joined and honored to be with Jane Stonecipher.

We're also asking for appointment of Kevin Warner and Daya Zhang.

Jane Stonecipher is a longtime advocate for Seattle's parks and open spaces.

She's been a business and community leader in the Seattle and Puget Sound area for over 30 years.

In 2011, she became Vice President of the Business Development and Finance at Woodland Park Zoo.

And under her leadership, the zoo expanded its operations and partnerships, including a major collaboration with the Seattle Public Library.

Since 2017, Jane has served the Washington Park Arboretum Foundation first as Executive Director and since 2024 as Director Emerita.

She played a key role in successful financial negotiations related to the SR520 bridge replacement project and the recent agreement renewal for the Seattle Japanese Garden.

We have firsthand knowledge of Jane's insight, instincts, and unwavering dedication to helping our public parkland thrive, and she's been a wonderful partner and has welcomed me to the Washington Arboretum foundation board, as well as getting to know that entire system.

So I'm really excited that she has decided to step up in service here.

Kevin recently retired after 28 years of service with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he focused broadly on climate resilience, He holds advanced degrees in atmospheric science, public administration, and political science, and has dedicated his adult life to public service.

He has served on several local boards, most recently the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee.

Throughout his career, he has worked to promote climate and environmental justice through applied science and equity-centered policy.

He's a native Seattleite and has lived in a number of neighborhoods across the city, including Leschi, Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, the U District, and Wedgwood, giving him a well-rounded perspective on how climate and economic inequities impact Seattle's diverse communities, And I'm excited for his partnership to support our thriving environment pillar.

And lastly, David Zhang, a licensed architect with over a decade of experience in capital project management, Daya.

Daya is excited to contribute her professional expertise as well as her expertise as a new parent to the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners.

Since moving to Seattle six years ago, Daya has found the city's parks and recreational spaces to be essential to her daily life here in Seattle.

She's an avid jogger and hiker and regularly enjoys Seward Park, King Hay Park, and the Amy Yee Tennis Center.

These spaces have become integral to her family's routine and have deepened her appreciation for the park system's vital role in supporting health, joy, and mobility across communities.

Dia brings a strong passion for building healthy, thriving, and inclusive communities and looks forward to advancing that vision as a member of the BPRC.

We are thrilled to nominate Jane, Kevin, and Daya, and are looking forward to the knowledge, expertise, and experience each of these candidates will bring to the Seattle Parks Board of Recreation Commissioners.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you again, Superintendent Diaz.

And I know we have in person, and I don't want to butcher your name, last name, Miss Jane...

Stonecipher.

Stonecipher.

Would you like to say anything at all?

I'm very excited about the opportunity to take on a new role with the Parks Department.

I think it's a super exciting time ahead as we think about the waterfront coming onto its own, the 520 project, restoring new parkland to the system, but most importantly, the over 400 neighborhood parks that contribute so much to the fabric and the life of our city.

So happy to take on this new role.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Awesome, and thank you and to our appointees for your time and input on the board.

I was particularly impressed and I read everyone's resume and information about the financial environment or perspective of all three new appointees that they bring to the table and many years of engagement with the local community, which I think is really important.

And I often say that parks are our first exposure to local government besides a pothole, okay, parks are.

So the guidance that Parks gets to have from this board is going to help ensure that our recreation programs remain accessible and enriching everyone from youth all the way to our, I'll call them our very seasoned folks in life as well.

And so I'll pause here to see if any of my colleagues have any comments.

And I know we're having technical issues, so I'll just look down the line from Councilmember Strauss.

Just because we have a packed agenda, I just want to say thank you for your service to the Woodland Park Zoo.

I'm sure we'll have more opportunities to connect later, but that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you.

I just wanted to take this opportunity, and Superintendent Diaz has heard this before, but I want to, A, thank you for your service, you know, volunteering and the like, and as you noted about the parks currently, but also the parks of the future, to include Portal Park.

We need to maintain the momentum, so looking out how we can expand, how can we bring some green space to Belltown, for example, and I think this is an opportunity to do so, and I really appreciate your opportunity, your volunteerism here, and of course, I never lose an opportunity to make plugs on the various parks within the district, but a park that is also for the For the city, too, because it's part of the market, the Mohai, all these east-west connections.

And, okay, chair said this looked over, and I don't need to promote Portal Park anymore.

Of course, the first thing is we're going to have to get a proper name for it, too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

I'm going to now move that the committee recommend the confirmation of appointees, appointments, excuse me, 3218 and 3295 through 3297. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and second.

And to confirm the appointees, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries in the committee recommendation to confirm the appointees will be sent to Tuesday, September 16th City Council meeting.

Thank you both for being here.

Appreciate y'all.

Will the clerk please read item number 10 into the agenda?

Agenda Item 10, Council Bill 121051, an ordinance relating to the solid waste system of Seattle Public Utilities, revising rates and charges for solid waste services, revising credits to low-income customers for solid waste services, adding solid waste service categories and amending sections of the Seattle Municipal Code for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Awesome.

And thank you to SPU for being here.

The heavyweight fight begins.

I'm just playing.

Thank you.

I know this is the second time discussing this item and I understand there won't be a new presentation, but please introduce yourself.

And I know that we have Brian Goodnight from Central Staff, who's gonna give us a recap and overview as well of the item for the public record.

My name is Andrew Lee, General Manager, CEO for Seattle Public Utilities.

And I'm Carl Stickel with SBU Finance.

Sally Holzman, Solid Waste Contracts Manager.

And Brian Goodnight, Council Central South.

Awesome.

Please jump in.

Go ahead, Brian.

Great.

Thank you, Chair.

So as you said at the last meeting, which was on August 13th for the committee, received a presentation on this topic about proposed solid waste rates for 2026 through 2028. Additionally, attached to today's agenda and distributed prior to the meeting is a central staff memo, and that provides some background information on the solid waste system in general and the rate-setting process.

Compares the proposed rates to those adopted by the council last fall when it gave approval to SPU's 2025 through 2030 strategic business plan.

Describe some highlights from the rate study and then provide some examples of how customer bills would be impacted by the proposed increases.

So as a reminder, the proposed solid waste rates for 2026, 27, and 28 are all one-tenth of one percentage point higher than the rates included in the strategic business plan for those years.

However, when considered in tandem with revised forecasts for 2029 and 2030, which are the last two years of the business plan, the overall six-year average stays the same as the business plan at 3.1%.

The variations generally between the business plan and the proposed rates are the results of SPU staff performing a detailed rate study.

This is what they do for every rate setting cycle.

So they determine the revenue requirement for the time period, update the demand forecast, incorporate any new services or initiatives, and then ensure that the financial policies for the solid waste fund are met.

If the viewing public is interested or the council members, the rate study itself is attached to the summary and fiscal note as attachment A in the legislative record.

And then the one thing that I wanted to highlight from the proposed legislation, which was also covered at the last committee meeting, is the proposed inclusion of a new special item pickup service to be rolled out over the next two years.

So in April 2026, SPU intends to offer customers the ability to, once per year, dispose of a special items box for electronics and small appliances and one battery bag.

And then beginning in April of 2027, customers would be able to put out one large electronic item, and that's things like televisions, computers, speakers, and then one large, one bulky item, which is like large furniture or appliances per year.

SPU currently offers an on-call special items pickup service, but usage is low, and customers must request the service either online or by phone, and then schedule the pickup, and then you pay a fee for each type of item that gets picked up.

So the goals for the new structure of incorporating the cost into the general rates and allowing usage of these services during the year are to improve awareness that the services are offered, and SPU can pick up those items.

to divert items from the landfill and to help with enforcement of the existing e-waste and battery disposal bans.

And then lastly, these new services do come with costs, specifically about $4.8 million per year after the full suite of services is launched In terms of impacts on the rates, if the new service was not included, so right now the proposal 2027 and 28 have 3.5% proposed increases.

Those would be reduced down to 2.9% and 2.8% respectively.

So as you can see, we have SPU staff here and myself to answer any questions, and that concludes my remarks.

Awesome.

I don't know if any, Director Lee, if you had anything to add before we ask questions.

No, I don't actually.

Okay, awesome.

I see a bunch of questions.

So thank you for that presentation and also just a recap and the memos that you've been providing us to.

Brian, you all have done a phenomenal job.

Councilmember Rivera followed by Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, General Manager Lee and everyone for being here and including our central staff.

The proposed increase for that special pickup project is going to increase the overall fees by 50% was my calculation.

Is that correct?

For the bills, yeah, it would go from...

$2 is what the proposal bill for a single family residence example down to $1.

So that would be a 50%.

So this is an overall increase.

It's sort of a cost-sharing almost in that everyone would pay this rate so that everyone could have this service.

But right now you can use the service.

You have to call in or do it online, and then you pay if you're utilizing the service.

So this is more like almost like a cost-sharing so everyone can have it.

The unfortunate part of this service is that then it increases everybody's rate by 50%.

And at a time where folks, and we keep hearing from folks that all our rates are increasing on everything from utilities to property taxes, it's just becoming more and more expensive for folks In this city, and I'm sensitive to the fact that we keep getting told, you know, our rates keep increasing, utility rates keep increasing, property rates keep increasing.

So it was possible to do the rate increases.

We have to do rate increases from time to time.

I understand that.

But then there's like the must, we have to do this versus this would be nice to do, but is this the right timing because everything has seems to It would be getting more and more expensive for folks.

And we're hearing across the board how they're spent.

It's just the livability piece and the affordability piece is really challenging for folks right now.

And I'm concerned about, though I am an environmentally conscious individual very actively, not just as a say I'm going to do it.

I practice it in my everyday life.

I am sensitive to the fact that this is going to be a 50% more increase to folks.

So, Chair, I am concerned about this particular rate increase, including this special program, because it will have that 50% more.

Everyone's going to pay 50% more to have this special program that we currently administer and that people can pay if they have those items.

And I understand the awareness And we can still do the awareness without passing on the extra 50 percent increase.

Why don't I speak?

Director Lee.

Councilmember Rivera, appreciate your concern.

And I'll start off at the high level.

I think we've spent a lot of time making sure that the rates increases that we're proposing are as minimal as they can be.

We've strived to try to maintain rates that are at or below inflation where we can.

And fortunately, the solid waste utility is one of the utilities where we have the most ability to do that.

And so, as a whole, again, we've tried to prioritize keeping the rates low.

It is a policy-level decision, and that's why we're, I think, seeking the guidance.

We've made a recommendation, obviously, to include these services.

The drivers behind including them, I think what we hear from our customers and from our mayor's office administration as well is that convenience is king.

when it comes to disposal of either furniture, large bulky items, or electronics, e-waste.

And the ability to put it outside at your home and have somebody take it away and not have any barrier is a huge, it frees people up to do that.

And the hope is that, especially with batteries and more electronics, we see those things getting thrown into the trash, and that leads to things like fires in our transfer stations, and those are health and safety risks So our hope is that this will actually facilitate more things getting into the right places when it comes especially to some of those hazardous materials.

On the bulky items in particular, what we've seen is an increase, especially in our legally dumped goods.

And so we see those, you see the free couches on the side of the streets, which have to get unfortunately picked up by our staff.

And those numbers, especially since COVID, increased substantially.

And our taxpayers, unfortunately, are having to pay the burden on that.

And so one of the advantages of this is our hope is that it will discourage that by giving people an easy access to be able to pay for that and just put it out on their front door and have it removed already.

So those are some of the reasons why we've kind of recommended, again, this policy decision.

But it is a policy decision whether or not to do this.

So are you saying that if someone has a couch, they could just put it in front of the yard and you guys will pick it up?

Or do they have to actively still do something about that?

They still have to call in and schedule the pickup.

But in this case, that bulky item will get picked up for free.

It'll be included in their rate that they're paying.

But right now, they still have to call.

They just pay for that item.

That's correct.

So there's no...

I mean, they still have to actively make the call and schedule the pickup and do all that.

The other question I have is around outreach.

The outreach that you did broadly to rate payers to say, did you do a survey?

Like, would you rather pay a little more but have this service to everyone?

Or do you, you know, like sometimes when we do this kind of thing, we do the outreach and we ask and we get some information by which we can make these decisions.

Was that done?

And if so, what were the outcomes?

Who did you reach out to?

Kind of broadly across the city, how many people and things of that nature?

Great peers, obviously.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm going to defer to Sally if you're aware of any, yeah.

Well, we have done outreach throughout the program asking customers how they are appreciated.

Do they appreciate the service and do they participate in the service?

And many want to participate in the service.

But the outreach, a specific survey was not done.

But when we talk to customers about the service, they oftentimes don't know about it.

Or they may be choosing a different, like, junk service because those are promoted heavier and they're paying more for the service.

So what we want to do is offer up So we have a benefit to the customer through additional outreach that is less expensive than a potential junk hauler or an illegal dumping on the side of the street.

So a specific survey we did not do, but we do communicate with the customers regularly about the service and they like it.

It's just we want to promote it more and we want to give them an incentive to do it so they don't have alternatives that are not as good as this service.

Understood, thank you.

And do you know, can you tell me about that, who you spoke with, how many people, how you did that outreach?

Oh, no, this is through our current service.

With our current service, we get feedback from each of the service after the customer finishes the service.

So we get feedback on how did it go, Was it cost effective?

So it's anecdotal as not necessarily a qualitative, it's more, sorry, it's not quantitative, it's more qualitative.

Oh, sorry.

So it was just to the people who have called in and used the service, not rate payers across the board?

That's right.

And so was there any communication about this increase to rate payers across the board?

You mean the proposed embedded service?

Because this is going to increase by 50% their bills.

So did you get input from folks across the board, ratepayers, on what they thought about that?

Are they willing to do that?

We did not get a specific survey about the proposed service.

What we have done is talk to those customers, receive their feedback, and we want to be proactive and ambitious about improving upon the service we provide to these customers because the alternatives are not Very good across the board for the majority of customers.

They have to have a car to get to the transfer station.

They would have to call a different kind of service where they would pay more or they would leave it on the street.

So we're trying to get in front of this service.

We do know that regionally we are competitive.

with the bulky item service.

So we know that it's a service that other regions, other municipalities offer, and they offer similar embedded items or free items.

So we know that we are not as competitive as our neighboring municipalities.

Thank you.

But I think that the question I was asking is broadly not to the people that use the service, but to ratepayers across the board.

You didn't do a communication about this.

Yeah, no, I think that's accurate.

We did not ask them the specific question, would you be willing to pay for this additional service by this much?

Yeah.

Or that you're going to be changing rates and it will include this.

That's correct, right.

Any thoughts around that?

No feedback opportunity if they wanted to.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

I see Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Pleasure to see all of you.

Can you, just off of memory, because we don't have the presentation in front of me, with these rate changes, it's below inflation, is that correct?

Yes.

And these rates change every two years per the strategic plan, or every six years?

Every three years.

Every three years, and there's three different cycles.

There's drainage wastewater, there's water, and then there's solid waste, and those all cycle on one year.

Offset cycles.

Is that correct?

That's right.

And for the most part, it is consistently every single time under inflation or about there.

Is that correct?

That's right.

And so we are now taking up this next opportunity where you've been able to keep rates below inflation and we are setting up another suite of services into what Seattle customers can receive from their solid waste.

Is that correct?

All right.

Thank you.

Chair, I've got a message for all Seattleites, if I may.

Absolutely.

If Goodwill doesn't want your couch, no one does either.

No one else does either.

So again, if Goodwill does not want your couch, no one else does either.

Don't leave it on the corner.

And especially after a rainy night, absolutely no one wants it.

Please don't leave it on the corner.

I appreciate the ability to do the bulky item once a year free of charge because I think a lot of people are putting their couches on the corner.

Maybe wishful thinking that other folks want their ripped up couch.

Not likely, but it's definitely off their hands, right?

I still own a truck simply so that I can go to the dump.

The tip fee is 30 bucks, which is the same cost as two extra rounds of trash at my home pickup.

And I know that not everyone has the ability to store a truck, to keep a truck, to have a truck, to like a truck, right?

And so I appreciate the ability to do so.

You shared with me or with the committee just a moment ago The dangers of having batteries and electronics in the trash with potential for fire, etc.

Are we being penalized with the landfills?

Is there another cost added in if we were not to do this?

Said another way, we are at this point creating this suite of options for people to be able to drop off a bag of batteries once a year.

Is there a cost to us for not doing that?

Absolutely.

You know, I want to say once every month or once every other month, our fire crews have to come out to our facilities to address a fire.

And these things, you're probably familiar, the lithium-ion batteries, they sustain themselves.

They're kind of their own source of oxygen or sort of combustible fuel.

And so they're extremely difficult, and we have to wait till they get put out.

And so that's a burden on our emergency management staff, both their time as well as their resources.

So it is, It is a general fund burden, actually, to have these continuing to come into our facilities.

Because you're having to use general fund and not ratepayer funds.

That's correct, yeah.

And not to mention, our transfer stations typically shut down, in some cases, for as many as four hours or longer.

And so there is a stop to the service, and that also has its own associated impacts.

And just to dig into this a little bit more, for your other lines of service, drainage wastewater, I guess it's really just your water source.

That's where customers are outside of the City of Seattle.

For drainage wastewater and solid waste, all of your customers are within the City of Seattle.

Is that correct?

For the most part.

We do have some customers that are maybe on the borders or the fringes, but it's mostly in the city limits.

And these are the individuals that are paying taxes that fund our general fund.

That's correct.

And so no matter what, if we do this, it's going to be a cost to rate payers.

And if we don't do this, it will be a different cost to rate payers.

Is that a generally correct understanding?

Thank you for running down.

And just to put a finer point on it, if I can recall correctly, it would be an average of $1 additional per month for multifamily, average of $2 per month more for a homeowner, and about $20 a month more for a business.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay.

In the most professionally responsible way, love you all incredibly, but we are also colleagues joined by Sally Hulsman.

Sally is a queen amongst queens, one of the folks, the unsung heroes of our city.

You are who I call when I've got problems.

And the worst kind of problems.

I can't thank you enough for being so responsive and so solution-oriented with every single time we email or call.

It's incredible.

I wish we had more people like you.

We have a lot of folks out there that are, you know.

That work like you, but there are so few that drive solutions like you do.

And I just can't miss the opportunity to thank you in public and on the record.

Colleagues, I shared with SPU, thank you for coming and having that long briefing with me.

It was very helpful.

I shared with them the intersection of, we've been having issues with businesses being able to have their solid waste picked up in In many parts of Seattle, the residents that I do casework with are primarily in District 6. We need to keep working it out.

Bob came and Jeff.

Is Jeff here?

Jeff, there's Jeff.

Thank you for your email, Jeff Fowler.

Very helpful.

What I am noticing is that there are two issues that small businesses are experiencing.

One, it's not knowing.

It's the communication of what the protocols are.

And so they are being charged extra times, and if they don't challenge those charges, then they are charged extra money for a basic service.

The restaurant owner that I spoke with this morning quoted across Washington State, smallest restaurants, owner-operated restaurants, have about a 1.5% profit margin.

And so when we add $240 to a bill over the course of a year where each of their dumpsters are costing about $320, I believe per month, that's a lot of money.

I understand that we have to update the rates and update the rates in these ways.

My ask here is that we fix this problem of businesses being charged for things that are outside of their control.

And so Chair, because I've had extensive discussions with the utility about this and understanding that we're up against budget, I believe that it would be prudent today to vote this out of committee so that we don't leave it within your committee's jurisdiction and then wait until some of these questions are finalized and resolved about communication and protocols before final passage, if that's all right.

Absolutely.

I'm comfortable with that.

And thank you, Council Member Strauss.

I do see Council Member Rivera, so I'll go ahead and call on you, Council Member Rivera.

No, absolutely.

Council Member Rivera.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I want to say that the services won't be free of charge because, again, the rates are going up 50 percent in order to cover this particular service.

And while you're paying now general fund to manage for what you're trying to So I would love to see the rate not increase by 50% more just to accommodate the service and just be able to provide this service to anyone who needs to use it.

But I'm also mindful again about what we hear on a daily basis from constituents about the Their costs increasing.

And so to me, everything in life is about a compromise and an ability to respond back to taxpayers.

And so I would vote for the rate increase without that 50% to cover this program because Everyone is getting saddled with so many increases and we're just hearing folks have there is a livability affordability piece and everyone pays into this.

And I want to say right now I super appreciate the utility discount program.

Of course, there are many people that don't qualify but are living on fixed income.

I have a number.

And General Manager Lee, I so appreciate you because you understand where I'm coming from.

We've had this conversation a lot.

Folks in my district who are retired and living on fixed income and every increase to every little everything that we do has an impact and so to me I would have preferred and especially this year when cost seems to have gone up more for everything including food and you know groceries etc that maybe we could have done a Let's increase the rate.

Maybe this program is something it's more of a nice to have than more must have.

And maybe we could do that the next go round, given everything that's happening right now.

So for those reasons, I'm not going to vote for this rate increase with this in it.

But without, I would have.

I just I'm concerned about was it necessary to increase it by that 50 percent at a time when people are struggling?

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

No problem.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

And as Brian mentioned, I just wanted to know in his memo, and you all have said it, I think you did, Councilmember Rivera, that the rate increases are driven by gradual increase in demands to pre-pandemic levels, a new special item pickup service that has been included, and some inflation as well.

In addition, our utility discount program will still apply to the 50% We'll still apply the 50% discount for those who qualify.

I also like to know and think the executive has released a report that was in April and correct me if I'm wrong with their findings on how we can increase this enrollment and I'm gonna be Making sure that I keep an eye out on that because as you've heard from all of us here on the dais today that we are obviously concerned about affordability.

I am comfortable with voting on this today and I do understand your And I really appreciate you elevating that today as well.

But I know that we have to get this moving out of committee and I know that we're gonna address some of the concerns that council member Strauss had and some questions and then also continue the conversation with council member Rivera as well.

So I'm going to...

So, the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121051. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved in second to recommend the passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments from my colleagues at all?

Seeing none, clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

No.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Three in favor, one opposed.

Motion carries, and the committee recommendation will be sent to Tuesday, September 16th City Council meeting.

Chair, if we could...

No, it's not going to be sent to the September...

It's the following meeting.

Council Member Strauss.

My request would be to hold the bill until we resolve these questions.

Understood.

Thank you.

And that will be my request as well for us to do that.

So thank you.

So it's not gonna be sent to the 16th.

We'll hold it until we address those concerns.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Council Member Rivera.

Yes.

Can you please, what are the concerns we're going to resolve?

Council Member Strauss, you mean the ones I've brought up or something you've brought up?

Sorry.

In the comments that I just provided regarding the briefing that I received, the concerns that I discussed were the small businesses being charged by waste management for things that are outside of their control, SPU, not necessarily having the protocols and communication tools dialed into the level.

I'm essentially just trying to get myself out of this job where I'm the case manager for these folks in my district that I connect with you.

Every customer should know what the protocols are through the communication channels that we have established.

And so the question of Chair Hollingsworth, I just want to clarity around is it the hope to get what the resolution will be to address those small businesses concerns?

Yes.

Yes, thank you.

This is Sally Holzman again, and I thank you, Council Member Strauss, for bringing this to our attention.

We do not want customers to be charged for services that are not rendered, so we will be actively working with the customer.

We're working with the Business Improvement Association in Ballard as well as the other business improvement associations in the city and WM as well as Recology to make sure that our communications are clear to the customer that they know that they have the following areas both within operations and customer service to address their concerns and that we are their support tool as well.

The specifics for you to approve or to just provide greater communications to the customers about the ways that we charge and how they can communicate those charges so that we're addressing the concerns.

But thank you so much for raising that issue and bringing it to our attention.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Sally.

And I know that the BIA and the University District and some of those small businesses are having issues as well.

Yes.

A little bit.

Different than you're describing, but nevertheless, some service challenges that I would love to find resolution for as well.

So thank you.

Yes, we appreciate that as well.

We want all the BIAs to be as successful so that they can spend their money on doing marketing and not cleaning up of solid waste.

And then, Chair, just for the record, I want to be very clear that I voted no for the reasons I stated in terms of these rate increases in this program.

It's not that I don't support the program and I want to be really clear about that.

It's that I'm concerned about the increase in the cost.

It just becomes burdensome for some of our retirees and that is, you know, that's real.

And so I want to be able to support the program.

Like I said, it'd be great if we didn't have to pass on the additional to the rate payer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

No worries.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

And just for the record, this will not be sent to the Tuesday, September 16th.

We will hold it until we get our issues resolved with SPU and the rest of some of the council members.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

Will the clerk please read item number 11 into the agenda?

Agenda Item 11, Council Bill 121050, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities, authorizing the General Manager, Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Public Utilities to execute the first amended and restated contract between the City of Seattle and its long-term full and partial requirements contract holders for the supply of water, authorizing the withdrawal of funds from the Water Fund Revenue Stabilization Subfund for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Awesome.

Thank you and welcome back.

This is the second meeting on this council bill.

So in lieu of a presentation, please introduce yourself and before our central staff recap an overview and then we'll jump to Brian Goodnight.

Thank you.

Again, Andrew Lee, General Manager for Seattle Public Utilities.

Alex Chen, Drinking Water Director for SPU.

And Brian Goodnight, council central staff.

Just go ahead and jump in.

Thank you.

So similar to the last item, SPU staff, Alex did provide a thorough presentation of this bill at the last committee meeting.

In summary, Council Bill 121050 would authorize the general manager of SPU to enter into a revised agreement with 16 cities and water districts for the provision of wholesale water to those other entities.

The agreements for the current contract were first signed in 2002, but typical of long-term contracts, it does contain provisions to reevaluate the terms every so often, in this case beginning about five years ago.

So earlier this year, SPU concluded its negotiations with the other 16 parties on amendments to the current wholesale water agreement.

Two of the most significant provisions in the revised contract are a rolling automatic 10-year extension, which allows the city's wholesale customers to plan long-term and is helpful for city bond ratings.

And then second, stranded cost protection for the city and other wholesale customers.

And essentially, that requires entities that wish to leave the system or reduce their purchase by over 5% to pay some costs back to the remaining members.

The other significant action that's authorized by the council bill is the return of $27 million of overpayments to wholesale water customers that have accumulated since 2018. This is funding that was kept in a separate sub-fund of the water fund, and so it won't impact the health of the broader water fund or any of the other city funds.

To authorize the spending, however, the bill would amend SPU's expenditure authority in the 2025 budget and would impose a proviso on those funds, just ensuring that they may only be used for reimbursing the cities and water districts, the wholesale water customers.

And lastly, because of this budget change, when and if the bill gets to full council, it does require a three-quarters majority of the council to pass.

And that concludes my remarks.

Awesome.

Thank you, Mr. Goodnight.

And I will pause here to see if any of my colleagues have any questions.

This is our second presentation for this council bill.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

I appreciate, Alex, you coming and spending so much time with me, taking all of my questions.

And, Chair, I won't go back and forth, re-asking all of the questions that I asked both Alex and Brian.

are in my office just to say, I believe that this is a good bill, it's a fair bill, and it is technically accurate.

I'm happy to vote on it today, even though you know what I would say if I wasn't on TV right now.

Thank you, Alex.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

I too want to, and I was neglectful earlier in not thanking the entire SPU team.

They briefed me earlier today on all these bills that we're taking votes on today.

and answered all my questions and I very much appreciate that and all the hard work at the staff at SPU.

General Manager Lee, you know how much I appreciate your work and that of your entire team.

So I did want to note that and I feel comfortable voting on this.

I too had my questions answered.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you for that, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, SPU.

We spent time together, and you all have given me briefings on this, so you answered all my questions in those meetings.

So as Councilmember Strauss said, I will not go back and forth, so I really appreciate the briefing.

With that, I am gonna go ahead and make a motion that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121050. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved in second to recommend Council Bill 121050. Are there any final comments?

Seeing none and hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll for, will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

Motion carries, and the committee recommendation will be sent to Tuesday, September 6th.

This one will be sent to Tuesday, September 16th, City Council meeting.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

I know you all are still here at the table because we have more.

Oh, wait.

But wait, there is more.

Will the clerk please read?

We get more SPU stuff.

We get bills, bills, bills, bills, bills.

Destiny's Child.

Bills, bills, bills.

Will the clerk please read agenda item number 12 into the record?

Agenda item 12, Council Bill 121037. An ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities updating side sewer regulations to conform to current standards, clarifying existing requirements, allow side sewer fees to be created by Director's Rule, and update definitions.

For briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Awesome, and thank you and welcome back.

We remember the meeting you all were here before, and we had a lot of legislation.

So welcome back.

You can go ahead and jump.

Please introduce yourself.

You can jump.

Director Lee, you don't have to do it again, unless you want to, because you're going to be here forever.

But go ahead, introduce yourself, and then, Brian, good night.

You can jump right in.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm Kevin Burrell.

I'm a senior policy advisor with SPU.

And thank you, chair, council members.

So this is the last of the SPU items for today's agenda that was heard at the previous committee agenda in August.

So this bill would update the side sewer regulations in the Seattle Municipal Code to clarify requirements and to align with decisions made by the council in the 2025 adopted budget.

There is a memo attached to the agenda that provides some background information on the side sewer permitting program kind of generally and also summarizes the bill.

But in brief, in last year's budget, council approved staffing changes to transfer administration of the side sewer permitting program from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, or SDCI, over to SPU.

The side sewer permitting program administers permitting for new developments as well as the repair or replacement of existing side sewers.

SDCI has overseen the program since 2003 via an agreement with SPU, and SPU would like to take over that work.

to promote consistent interpretation, application, and enforcement of the side sewer code.

So the council bill before you, 121037, would amend various subsections of chapter 2116 of the code to recognize the transfer of authority and to replace any references to the director of SDCI with references to the director of SPU.

The bill would also remove the schedule of permit fees from the code and refer instead to an SPU director's rule SPU at this time is not proposing to adjust any of the fees, but would like to consolidate them with other SPU fees in the director's rule, and then that will ease administration of the fee schedule in the future.

And that concludes my summary.

Awesome.

Thank you, Mr. Goodnight.

Colleagues, I don't know if you have any questions.

I would like to, if SPU, if you have anything to add, I know you're here at the table to answer questions or anything.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Colleagues, do you have anything?

Council Member Strauss.

Sorry for being that guy today, Chair.

Kevin, thank you for putting up with my really bad jokes and my trick question from the last committee.

As I said last committee, this is a smart decision.

This is government efficient.

We are creating government efficiency with this change, and it's something that I support.

Thank you, Brian, for all of your feedback as well.

Good job.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Anyone else, Council Member Rivera or Council Member Kettle?

No, thank you, Chair.

Okay, I'm comfortable in voting on this today.

Thank you for being here and then putting together this legislation.

I don't want to...

Piggyback off Councilmember Strauss, but he doesn't mind.

But just double down on what he said.

Smart piece of legislation, and it makes sense.

So I'm going to move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 1210373. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second to recommend the passage of the bill.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries in the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to the Tuesday, September 16th meeting, 2025 council meeting.

Thank you all so much.

Appreciate you, Kevin.

And Director Lee knows that's his spot today.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read agenda item number 13 into the record?

Agenda Item 13, Council Bill 121069, an ordinance relating to the Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the acquisition of certain real property rights by negotiation or eminent domain condemnation of 10 separate permanent easements for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

And I know that this is a new agenda item, so this is the first time we heard it, but I also, and we're kind of late, you know, right before budget season, but I also knew that you all explained that this was an urgent piece of legislation that was much needed.

So please go ahead and introduce yourself and just jump right into the presentation.

Thank you.

For having us today, Sierra Galowski, SPU Drainage and Wastewater.

Jonathan Brown, SPU Project Manager.

Jerry Caruso, SPU Real Property Manager.

And I will lead off on this, and I think we'll have to bring up the presentation, and we might need help with that as we're doing that.

This next piece of legislation is regarding obtaining property rights to enable SPU to perform critical repairs to a nearly 100-year-old pipe that is collapsing and conveys Fauntleroy Creek in West Seattle.

We have been working for several years now on planning, permitting, and design to replace this culvert.

And what changed and made this so urgent was that we had been performing monthly video monitoring of the culvert, which again is near Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal, and recently noted that it had significantly degraded since our last monthly inspection.

That triggered us to expedite the legislation that is before you.

This legislation would authorize SPU to acquire property rights to replace the failing culverts.

Specifically, it would allow us to acquire, by negotiation or condemnation, 10 permanent and 18 temporary construction easements.

The actual compensation to property owners will be subject to fair market value determination.

With me here today is Sierra Golowski, who works in our green infrastructure and drainage program, Jonathan Brown, the project manager for the project, and Jerry Caruso, our real property manager.

I do want to give a quick pause, though, before we jump in.

Throughout the city, we have an extremely complex network of creeks and pipe culverts.

Some are publicly owned and are on city-owned property.

Some are privately owned on private property, and some are publicly owned But on easements, on private property.

So it's all just a myriad of mixtures.

When the piped parts of this system are nearing failure and are publicly owned, it is our responsibility to replacement.

And if we don't, we risk incredible damage to the public or to private property if we fail to do so.

These projects, unfortunately, have incredible impacts.

They are typically very, very close, because we're a dense, built-out city.

They are close to private property.

They're intrusive.

They have construction impacts.

And we are in all situations committed to managing, mitigating, minimizing those impacts where we can.

And that is true of this project.

But again, where we need rights and property rights to perform this, it is our duty to do so.

And that's what we are committed to doing.

So with that, I will pass it on to Sierra and Jonathan and Jerry to do the presentation.

Thank you.

So this legislation is about one of two high-risk culverts on Fauntleroy Creek, which is in the southwestern most portion of the city, District 1. We're looking at the California Avenue Southwest culvert and the 45th Avenue Southwest culvert.

We will be replacing both of these failing culverts with fish passable culverts as required by state and federal fish passage requirements, since there are coho salmon present in this creek.

Bless you.

To give you more context about the watershed, Fauntleroy Creek starts up in Fauntleroy Park, and it passes through these two culverts before entering into the Puget Sound.

Now this legislation focuses on the culvert that is circled here in red, but I wanted for your awareness to share a quick overview of the California Avenue Culvert Emergency Repair Project, which is circled in blue.

The California Avenue culvert is in such poor condition that we are initiating an emergency project to line this pipe later this month.

This will buy us time because we're still in the early design phase for the permanent culvert replacement project, which we're hoping to start construction on in 2028. The purpose of this legislation is to support the full replacement of the 45th Avenue Southwest culvert, which is also in terrible condition.

The existing culvert is a two-foot diameter pipe.

I've included a couple of snapshots here from CCTV inspections that our SPU crews make every month.

We started in May doing monthly inspections of this pipe, and we've I've seen from December to May of this year a drastic change, a drastic worsening of the condition of this pipe.

And these are just a few of the snapshots I could have shared with you.

On the right, you'll see where the top of the pipe is starting to collapse.

And on the left, you'll see where soil and groundwater are entering through defects in the pipe.

That means the soil is no longer on the outside of the pipe where it should be to hold up the road, the steep slope going down to the creek.

Both the poor condition of this pipe, this culvert, and the undercapacity of it create a high risk of blockages.

Failure of this culvert could destabilize the ravine.

It could impact 45th Avenue Southwest.

It could impact other infrastructure and or private property.

We are right now in the final design phase of the project.

As of August 2025, this is our current project schedule.

We're looking to advertise for bids in February 2026, start construction in September of 2026, and complete construction by May of 2028. I did want to note that community outreach has been ongoing since 2019. That includes public meetings, tabling events, attending community events, and also attending events that are organized by local community organizations.

As I noted, the culvert is at high risk of failure, but because we are so close to advertising for bid, We're not proposing to move this project forward as an emergency repair like the California Avenue culvert project at this time.

I did want to note that any delay in our schedule will make it more likely that we will need to proceed with an emergency response to this culvert.

At this time, we're planning to continue to monitor the culvert closely, but because of that worsening condition, we want to mitigate any schedule risks to get into construction as soon as possible.

In addition to this being a failing culvert, there are actually a lot of benefits to this project.

The existing culvert is a fish barrier, which means it blocks access to upstream spawning habitat for coho salmon.

We'll be replacing the existing failing two-foot diameter pipe with a 14-foot wide culvert per state and federal requirements, fish passage requirements, which stem from tribal treaty rights.

By installing this new culvert, we will restore access to upstream spawning habitat, but we will also be making significant creek and riparian habitat improvements.

That means upland, too, in the ravine.

As you can see in the rendering here, the current deciduous forest is actually in poor condition.

It's infested with invasive species, and we will be planting back a conifer forest, which will regain ecological services such as resistance to invasive species, Biodiversity, air quality, and of course, fish life.

This project also supports the local Salmon in the Schools program, which releases salmon into Fauntleroy Creek every spring upstream of the culvert.

And other benefits of the project include providing safer working conditions for our SPU crews, providing climate resilient infrastructure, and greatly reducing the risk of culvert blockages and flooding.

This is an aerial view of the project.

You can see in blue the existing two-foot diameter failing culvert, and in bold black is the new 14-foot culvert per state and federal sizing requirements.

For comparison, on the left you can see what a two-foot pipe would look like.

The fish and the entire creek are conveyed through that today, and we will be replacing it with something that looks similar to up above, where the stream is able to meander through much more naturally.

From this aerial image, you can also see that the adjacent buildings are actually quite close to the proposed culvert footprint, which brings me back to today's legislation about the acquisition of This map shows the temporary easements in cyan blue and the permanent easements in green, some of which are needed for the culvert itself and some of which are for contractor staging and parking.

Red box for a closer view of the easements adjacent to the culvert.

So in this zoomed in view, you'll still see the permanent easements in green and the temporary easements in blue and the new culvert in dark black.

Some of the permanent easements are for the permanent retaining wall that SPU will own and maintain that will help stabilize the steep slope down to the creek.

Other permanent easements around the culvert itself are necessary for Stairs to provide safe access for SPU crews to access both ends of the culvert.

The temporary easements, the 18 temporary easements, are 24 months in duration.

The project team has provided notices to and maintained ongoing communications with property owners since 2024 about these easements.

And SPU is currently getting appraisals for fair market value compensation for the permanent easements, temporary easements, and tree removals on private parcels.

So the reason for this legislation is because to install the new culvert, we are looking to acquire these 10 permanent and 18 temporary easements through negotiations.

However, if we are unable to negotiate successfully with the property owners, We are preparing for condemnation and appeal, which would delay the start of construction for the full cohort.

For our schedule, I've already walked us through that, and so I'm not going to go too much more into detail with this.

But I did want to note that we appreciate the opportunity to bring this easement ordinance before Council in September, because this saves us three months on our overall project schedule.

So this is the end of my presentation today, but I did want to note I have Jonathan and Jerry here, and we're all happy to answer whatever questions you may have.

Jonathan and Jerry, did you all want to add anything before we jump to central staff at all?

Okay, awesome.

Mr. Goodnight?

Thank you, Chair.

I don't have any substantive comments.

I've been in the briefings with them, and the materials all do what they say they do.

Thanks.

Awesome.

And before I ask my questions, I just wanted to pause here.

Well, I'll just ask my question first.

What has the engagement been with the property owners and the outreach?

Well, I've had some direct conversations with the property owner for the Alpine Chalet apartment building, Mr. John Downing.

We're engaged in a conversation right now.

My understanding was he was going to come to council here and present his position, and I've had two conversations with him.

Is he here?

Oh, that's Mr. Downing.

I've had two conversations with Mr. Downing, and we've discussed this project.

He does, you know, presented some objections to it, and I've discussed with him that we have not prepared an offering package to him.

We have not, because we are not, we do not have that information ready.

We're still Assembling our appraisals and our final descriptions on all the property rights.

Awesome.

And Mr. Downey, I know that you're here and you signed up for public comment.

And I'm going to go ahead and if you would like to say, I don't want to throw anyone off, but I'd love to hear from you, sir.

Chair.

Yes.

Point of information.

I think we have to reopen public comment.

Oh, thank you.

Or invite them to the table.

Do you want to take a quick pause to figure it out?

Please.

We're going to be at ease real quick for council so I can double check and make sure that I'm not out of order.

Thank you.

Before we go to you, we have to see about our, how we do, oh, Amelia's here, thank you.

It's all procedure, I apologize.

Awesome, so we're just gonna be at ease, thank you.

I like to throw wrenches into certain things.

I just have to find out.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it.

I see council member, before we figure this out, we'll go to more questions from our council members before we get to you.

It's Mr. Downey?

Awesome.

Council member Kettle?

Oh, we have to be at ease.

We're at ease.

Oh, sorry.

Thank you.

If we're at ease we should be standing with our hands behind our back like this.

Second.

All right, go ahead.

Council members, hi.

Hi.

Emilia Sanchez, Office of the City Clerk.

Official notice was provided to property owners that this public comment opportunity would occur today.

If I'm mistaken, the gentleman did receive the notice.

It's just that he was not here during public comment.

If you wanted to provide the opportunity for him to comment because this notice was provided, you could move to suspend the rules to allow the public comment to occur after you've already closed the public comment.

Awesome.

Okay.

Are there any objections to me suspending the rules to allow public comment for Mr. Downey?

Nope.

All right.

I'm going to go ahead and suspend the rules to allow Mr. Downey to go ahead to give public comment.

We're giving everyone two minutes.

Mr. Downey, that's what we've had before, so I don't want to...

Give me one second, Mr. Downey.

We're going to get the timer going for you.

Thank you for your patience.

And the timer will begin once you start.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me talk.

Another fellow and I own this building.

Like everyone, we believe in FISH, and this is a good project.

We think it should go forward.

We want to support it.

They are taking our parking lot, which will have no parking for the tenants.

There is virtually no street parking close.

And the things I've been discussing with Mr. Caruso is that it isn't just a parking lot that has value.

It's the business operations of the apartment building.

This is going to have equipment and vibration and noise.

And tenants are not going to want to live there with that.

So there has to be some kind of just compensation for the loss of income from the building.

We have a mortgage we have to pay.

And looking at it from a tenant standpoint, they're not going to want to live somewhere with all this equipment and everything right in front of their doors.

This apartment building doesn't have interior halls.

This is an outside walkway building.

In addition to that, the land is very unstable.

We've had to repair the sidewalk multiple times.

We just recently, within the last year, had to repair the metal structure that has the walkway on it and the stairs.

It fell away from the building because the land was so unstable that we had to prop it up and put in huge concrete foundations under the pillars.

So this is a combination of getting just compensation for this project We want it to go forward.

We want to be positive about it.

We don't want to get into a lawsuit.

But we've got to have just .

That's it.

You still have time.

You still have 10 seconds.

We just want just compensation.

That's the whole question.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Downey.

And for the record, let me close public comment.

We extended it.

Thank you, Mr. Downey, for those comments.

We're gonna go ahead and close public comment now.

Thank you, colleagues, for allowing that.

I want to call on Council Member Kettle, and then I know that other council members have more questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you everyone for attending from SPU.

Of course, Mr. Goodnight from Central Staff and those who are attending from community and the departments.

And my question is, and this kind of goes actually to some comments made last night, Regarding the fact that we do now have a fully inset district system here on the council.

So I recognize this comes to this committee, but in terms of outreach, have you outreached to Councilmember Saka and his team?

Okay.

And separately, And I don't know West Seattle, but for my district, any relevant neighborhood community councils and the like.

So it's not just been knocking on individual residencies or business.

It's been to those groups as well, in addition to our district representative for District 1.

Yes, that is correct.

Jonathan can speak more to it because he's been giving those presentations and working closely with those local organizations.

Yeah, so we've had the opportunity to meet several times with the Fauntleroy Community Association, the Fauntleroy Watershed Council, as well as holding public events at the Hall at Fauntleroy.

And we've attended other community events like Fauntleroy Fall Fest and Fauntleroy Food Fest and had tabling events up near the project site as well.

Is there a Fulteneye or West Seattle chamber that you've met with?

No.

I'm not sure if there is one, but obviously from that perspective, it's important too.

I was just curious, Chair, in terms of the outreach And just to ensure that all that has been done.

I figured as much, but sometimes you just go around knocking on doors of residencies or residents or businesses.

But these other groups, and we have a rich collection in District 7, and I know there's some in District 1 for 2. I just wanted to ensure that those have been reached out to as well.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Sierra and Jonathan, for meeting with me earlier and taking me through this project, this really important project, which I know you have to do.

It's a must-do because, and then the more you delay, I appreciate the proactivity because if you delay, it has, right now it's not an emergency today project, but if it falls down, caves in, then it will be a, we have to do it today.

So I appreciate that you're being proactive so that you can do the outreach and you can explore the mitigation efforts for as you're doing this project.

And I had questions about what are you doing on the mitigation side, you know, noise and other things.

And so I appreciate that you are exploring how to best manage for all the things that have popped up because you have time now to explore those.

Appreciate all the outreach that you've been done.

I had similar questions about outreach to Council Member Saka.

And I appreciate that there's still opportunity to do further outreach because you can do that.

Like I said, you're being proactive.

So I just wanted to underscore those really key points that this is something that SPU has to do.

Because it is deteriorated, so it must be replaced.

I appreciate that it's being replaced in this thoughtful way with salmon recovery in mind, because I sit on Waira 8. I was just with General Manager Lee at Beersheba Park earlier this week, looking at the waterfront there and the recovery efforts there.

I talked about this colleague at council briefings earlier in the week, but they did an excellent job.

And I also want to say a shout-out to Martha Newman from SPU, who supports me on that council, and also Ashley Towns, who's the community partner who is stewarding that, and also the Serve Ethiopia group, Serve Ethiopians Washington.

who are stewards of that land.

They go out there, they do maintenance work, and they really are a great partner in that effort too.

And salmon have returned.

And so part of this effort I know is that as well.

There will be, and the reason why it's being done in this fashion, and this is an opportunity to do it in a way where we're gonna restore habitat Hopefully have salmon come back in there and then also talk to the property owners and the neighbors to make sure that we are being as disruptive as I mean the least disruptive disruption as possible and to mitigate for those disruptions as best we can given the project so I really appreciate All the work that has been done and then the communication with us about that because that's important as we talk to our constituents.

So I really, I'm appreciative and I'm looking forward to seeing Once this is completed and then thank you for working with folks like the gentleman who came here today.

I know you're in conversations with him about mitigation efforts and just other folks in the neighborhood and other property owners who are also, you know, we know people are going to be impacted and we want to mitigate those impacts.

I appreciate you having those conversations.

I appreciate you being here.

And we all have to work together to make these projects that we have to do the best possible projects and with the least amount of disruption as possible to our constituents.

So thank you and thank you, Chair.

Awesome, thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

And just for the record, just to help us understand that, let's say we pass this legislation today, it authorizes you to not start, but enter into conversations and offers with property owners, Mr. Downey, and other folks in the area to start this process.

Yes, that's correct.

Upon getting authorization, we will reach out directly with formal packages and offerings and initiate those direct conversations and negotiations.

But yes, we will seek to obtain those property rights based on appraised value and fair market value.

And conversations with the property owners and the people that are here, Mr. Downey and so forth, understood.

Yes.

Okay, and I'm looking to my left and right.

I know we've been having technology issues, so sometimes people's hand go up and whatnot because of our internet stabilization.

Just want to check Councilmember Strauss.

Just say that I'll support this legislation today, understanding that this is the beginning of the negotiations and a continuation of the conversation, and we have to protect these salmon and meet state and federal requirements.

Thank you.

Understood.

Thank you.

The beginning of the conversation is the way to put it, so thank you for that.

Councilmember Strauss.

Okay.

Also, a special thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Downey, for coming and articulating what you did about your property and also just...

So basically just being honest and straightforward about the impact that this will have to the residents and you, and looking forward to hearing the follow-up with SPU and you as well to make sure that we do this right.

And you've heard from the gentleman himself, he wants this to go forward, but just wants to make sure that they are covered.

In so many words.

I didn't articulate that as well as you did, but covered is a good word for everything that you said.

All right.

Awesome.

With that, I'm going to go ahead and move that we, excuse me, that the committee recommends Council Bill 121069. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved in second to recommend the passage of the bill.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Before we take the roll, my apologies.

Council Member Rivera had her hand up.

Council Member Rivera.

Sorry, Chair.

I thought we were going to do discussion in between.

I apologize.

Council Member Rivera.

No, it's okay.

I just have two quick points that I probably should have made earlier, which is just assuming that you're going to keep working with Council Member Saka to add to Council Member Kettle's point any additional groups or folks that should be You know, outreach should be done, too.

And then also want to bring up our tribal partners who care very much about salmon recovery and making sure that they're part of the conversations as well.

So I'm seeing head nods.

So thank you, Chair.

Sorry about that.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

And will the clerk please now call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the bill?

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries and the committee recommendation to pass the bill will be sent to Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 City Council meeting.

Thank you all for your tireless work on this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read the last agenda item into the record?

Agenda item 14, resolution 32175, a resolution relating to Seattle Public Utilities amending resolutions 31800 and 31825, updating the ongoing customer review panel to provide additional opportunities for young adult engagement and clarify panel eligibility for optional stipends as SPU implements the six-year strategic business plan and conducts future plan updates.

For briefing, discussion and possible vote.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And I know we're putting up our agenda item.

And we've just had our two main players saying, Director Lee and Brian Goodnight.

We've just switched the players in the middle every single time.

It's a typical NBA team.

You have your two really good players.

Bookends.

Okay, perfect.

And we can go ahead and jump right in.

Mr. Chan, and go ahead and introduce yourself for the record, and you can go in.

Justin Chan, Business Planning and Policy Advisor with SPU.

I will quickly introduce this item.

This last item should be brief.

It is a resolution that would expand SPU's customer review panel from 11 to 13 members, creating two dedicated seats for young adults.

Age is 18 to 29. It also would clarify that all panel members are eligible for stipends.

As we discussed at the committee's August meeting, the customer review panel plays a really important role in providing oversight and guidance on SPU's six-year strategic business plan and our utility rates.

The panel helps us stay connected to the needs and concerns of our customers, ensuring community voices are well represented in our decision making.

I love the fact that we're adding youth to this board.

It builds on a very strong tradition of representation.

Young adults bring fresh perspectives on issues like climate resilience, affordability, and equity, and I firmly believe their voices will help strengthen our work today and prepare Seattle for the future.

On the issue of the formalizing stipends, we're also just trying to remove barriers to participation, ensuring that service on the panel is accessible to people from all backgrounds and incomes.

And we believe that these changes will make our CRP stronger, more represented, and better positioned to guide SPU in the years ahead.

With that, I will pass it off to Justin Chan, who will walk through the details of the resolution, and then we're happy to answer any questions you may have.

Yeah, good afternoon, counsel.

Again, Justin Chan with SPU.

So, quick overview.

So, the customer review panel was formed in 2013, became a permanent body in 2018. It's an 11-member panel with each member serving three-year term and then with one opportunity to be reappointed.

It's comprised of individuals from our public, non-profit, private and public sector.

The proposed changes would be moving the CRP from 11 to 13, so two additional seats, with those two seats focused on our young adults, ages 18 to 29. And they would have three-year terms and then one opportunity to be reappointed.

And they would have the same obligations and requirements as regular members.

Regarding stipends, it's to just mostly formalize the process, so we wanna make sure that we have more accessibility, inclusion, more ability for members of all our communities across Seattle to be able to participate on CRP.

So we went through and researched across all our boards and commissions about best practices, and we aligned with those best practices.

And so as a result, we offer a stipend to CRP members, customer review panel members.

So members have an option to accept, reject, or donate their stipend.

And if they already receive compensation from their employer, they're not The amount is $1,300 annually per member, and then $2,000 for the chair and vice chair, and it's absorbed within SPU's existing operating budget.

And as our GM CEO Andrew Lee already spoke about, great benefits.

We really see us being able to garner greater ideas, innovation, connect with issues around equity and climate change, and be able to build future leaders in our community.

And with respect to stipends, be able to reduce barriers, increase participation from different communities, and really honor the commitments of those members.

Okay, next steps.

Consideration and vote, full counsel.

We'll do some outreach and recruitment and then get some appointments.

Thanks.

Awesome, and no, Mr. Goodnight, anything?

No comments, thank you.

Okay, awesome.

No, I appreciate this.

The one thing that sticks out to me, obviously the stipends for people that are on the committee and then also the youth seats, I think is so important I feel like they're always underrepresented in our city and really appreciate them getting involved in this program.

So thank you for that.

I will pause here to see if my colleagues have anything.

I'm seeing no.

This is probably the most easiest thing that we are.

Oh, Council Member Rivera.

I'm just always excited to include young people into the conversation.

So really appreciate your leadership here and making sure that our young voices are represented on this board.

So thank you on this customer review panel.

I think it's really critical and I am full support.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Really appreciate that.

And our love for youth is shared always.

I'm going to move that the committee recommend adopting Resolution 32175. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second to recommend the adoption of this resolution.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the bill?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

Thank you.

The motion carries in the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 to the city council meeting.

Thank you everyone to our committee colleagues and for all your work.

With that, we'd have no other Items on the agenda for today.

I will say just a really quick point of personal privilege.

Lately, I know it's been heightened that there's been just a lot of political violence in our country and people getting shot and killed, whether you're on the right side, left side, middle, whatever it is.

And I think yesterday, you know, we've had public commenters come and threaten people's lives here at City Council.

And that has to stop.

It has to stop in our city, in our country, in the way we act towards each other, in the way that we incite violence and just negative energy towards people.

Because it is not healthy for our society.

It's not healthy for our children.

It is not healthy for each other, for us to continue in this manner as human beings.

And we have to learn how to survive and agree to disagree and have healthy conversations with each other.

And it is incredibly important.

I can't begin to tell you how many times we have been threatened with acts of violence as city council members for just doing our jobs.

And it's hard.

It is very hard and it's difficult.

And I apologize, I'm getting emotional because we always get threatened, simple from walking home, jumping on the bus, meeting with people, the emails we get, the violence that we get from people.

It is not okay.

And so I am just, I'm gonna continue to pray for our country.

I'm gonna continue to pray for our city that we just tone it down and we have conversations with people and we can control our emotions and we can really just get back to humanity and having simple conversations with each other.

So that is my comment, Councilmember Rivera.

I just want to thank you for raising this and you've said this many times in the couple years I've had the honor to serve with you on this council and I could not agree with you more.

We have to get back to civility.

We can agree to disagree.

And I've said this many times, we all have shared values in this city.

I feel really lucky to live in a city where we have shared values.

I don't take that for granted.

That is not every city in America.

We sometimes disagree about how to get where we want to go, but that's different from the shared values.

But to your point, Council Member Hollingsworth, even if you don't share values, we have to be civil.

Violence is never okay no matter what.

And so I really thank you for raising this and you have my full support on this.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Political violence has no place in our city.

Neither does hate any of that stuff.

All right.

Thank you all for a great meeting.

And our next committee meeting is not scheduled till after council budget deliberations, which is Wednesday.

December 10th at 2 p.m.

Hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 3.43 p.m.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.