Select Budget Committee Public Hearing Session I 11/14/25

Good morning.

The November 14th, 2025 Select Budget Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Hollisworth is excused for the moment.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Councilmember Solomon.

Here.

Chair Strauss.

Present.

Six present.

Thank you.

As colleagues come in, we will announce their arrival, albeit sometimes we do so late.

We are going to move into the hybrid public comment period first, and then we will move into adopting the agenda so that we prioritize the folks that have come here and to allow us to do our business once we've heard from you.

And so we currently have, I have 20 here.

Can you confirm whoever's signing up or how many people do we have here?

This will be 21 total in person and we have 29 remote.

Wonderful.

So that does mean that we are under the 60 person mark, which means that everyone will receive one minute.

If we are over 60 people signed up, we would drop down to 45 seconds or 30 seconds depending on how many people are signed up.

So that'll put us at having public comment.

for about the next hour.

I'll call groups of 10 people in a row and if you can just line up and we're gonna tick through this quickly, jazz hands so that we can make sure to continue hearing the person speaking and rotate into the next person quickly.

So moving into the hybrid public comment period, public comments should relate to items on today's agenda and within the purview of the select committee.

We've added the hour public comment to the beginning of today's meeting for this section of the budget, so this does cover today and Monday's meeting that we will be having.

Currently we have, as stated, 29 people signed up remotely and 21 in person.

That means that we'll start with the in-person public commenters and then move into the hybrid public comment.

So for those who have called in, you can guess we will start speaking with you in about 25 minutes.

Public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered and we'll begin with the in-person speakers first.

When you hear a chime, that means 10 seconds are remaining.

If you would like to give up the rest of your time to hear the next person.

It never hurts.

You don't have to use the full minute, but if you are exceeding the full minute, we will turn off the microphone.

So when you hear that chime, you've got a couple seconds left.

The public comment period is now open.

We'll begin with the first speakers on the list.

And so I'm gonna read the first 10 names.

We have Don Blakeney, John Scholes, Marcus Johnson, Stan S., Jonathan Betzal, Linda A, Sia M, Avery G, Noah Williams, and John Grant.

And with that, I see that we have the timer up and take it away.

Good morning.

Great.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Don Blakeney.

I'm the executive director of the U District Partnership.

Happy to be here this morning.

For the past three years, we have been working closely with the young house population in the university district and through The great work of REACH and LEAD and other programs, we've been able to house over 60 people and shelter another 150. The key to the success of this work has been our ability to make meaningful and personal connections and build plans together with clients and help them navigate into housing and- Don, I'm sorry, we're gonna pause and we're gonna start over.

I'm going to give you your time right back.

We've just had a fair amount of commotion on the dais.

So I want to make sure that everyone has the ability to give you their full and focused attention.

Sure.

Good morning.

And for the record, we are now joined by Councilmember Salomon, Rink, Hollingsworth, Kettle, Strauss, Rivera, Saka, Council President Nelson and Council Member Juarez, we have a full quorum now.

It is still only 9.34.

We're almost on time.

And once we take this moment of pause, we'll restart your time.

I heard traffic was rough out there too.

All right.

Good morning.

I will get started.

Good morning, council members.

Good to see everybody.

As I was just explaining, I'm with the U District Partnership Executive Director, and we've been working on the issue of homelessness for the past, well, actually longer than I've been with the organization, but I've been doing it with them for four and a half years, and part of that work has been building relationships with people who are experiencing homelessness on the streets and building personal relationships in the neighborhood and making great progress with those connections.

There's some money in the budget this time around, and I want to thank Council members Rivera and Strauss for putting money into so that we can continue that person-based outreach.

It's really been effective at helping us get people into housing and into shelter.

On the other side of the coin, there's also the pipeline of housing itself and that pipeline's really important for us when we do build those relationships that people have a place to go.

And I know there's some conversation in the budget right now about $11 million for shelter space and what happens if the HUD money dries up and trying to figure out how to and want to make sure that we don't take away that as an option because if we take away the shelter and the pipeline that we have in that $11 million, it could really undermine our ability to do that work.

So thanks for considering that.

Thank you, Don.

Up next is John Scholes followed by Marcus Johnson, Stan S. If folks want to line up so that we can already be ticking through, that would be helpful.

Good morning, John.

Good morning, council members.

John Scholes, President and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association.

Thanks for the opportunity to offer comment.

I want to urge your support of the proposed $11 million in the mayor's budget to support additional shelter in our city that's desperately needed.

And I want to also recognize the difficult situation you're facing and that a number of housing providers in our city are facing and are community as a whole with potential federal cuts.

But I would urge you not to rob Peter to pay Paul.

We should do both of these things.

Both are absolutely needed and surely within the largest general fund budget that will be adopted in the history of this city, there are other places to look to support a contingency fund to protect our existing housing providers and their ability to keep people housed than to raid additional shelter dollars that are desperately needed.

I urge you to get creative and look at other options to to both fund a contingency to guard against federal cuts and to help more people off the street by creating emergency shelter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Marcus Johnson, good morning.

Hello.

My name is Marcus Johnson.

I'm the Director of Clean and Safe Operations at the U District Partnership.

I'd just like to come and say thank you to Councilmember Rivera for our sponsorship of Budget Action OED 004B, which will provide cleaning funds for the U District, Ballard, and Capitol Hill.

We have a five-member clean team in the U District.

and we maintain over three and a half square miles.

So we're very small, but we accomplish a lot.

In the last year, we've cleaned up 3,000 bags of trash, cleaned up over 7,000 graffiti tags, hundreds of biohazards, hundreds of hours of pressure washing.

We maintain 75 flower baskets.

We maintain dozens of outdoor dining tables.

And right now, we're cleaning up to 2,000 pounds of leaves a day.

So this money would help increase our capacity to do other things like additional litter routes.

We'll be able to do more things like pressure washing.

And it will also allow us to increase our capacity to clean, maintain, and activate our public spaces.

So thank you, council members, for your investing in the vitality of our communities.

This money will go a long ways to increase our capacity for the clean team.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marcus.

Stan Shikuma, followed by Jonathan.

Good morning, Stan.

Good morning, and thank you for allowing us to speak here.

My name is Stan Shikuma.

I am one of the board members of the Sadako Renewal Project.

As you may remember, the Sadako statue was stolen rather viciously a year ago, and we wanna thank Council Member Rivera for seeking to provide funding to replace it.

This is...

is representative of so many different communities within the city of Seattle, the Japanese American community, the peace community, children.

It's just a spiritual monument as well as a piece of art. and to have it gone, I think, diminishes the city itself.

This is an opportunity for the city to make a statement about what our spiritual values are.

Do we value children?

Do we value peace?

And I urge you to support it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Stan.

Good morning, Jonathan, followed by Linda and then Saya.

Good morning.

My name is Jonathan Betzal.

I'm here with the Quakers, the University Friends Meeting, and also the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which has its regional headquarters also in Seattle.

We are here to thank the Council for appropriating this money to bring Sadako back.

I was just out at the site on Sunday, took a couple of pictures to show that people are still sending paper cranes there.

I'd like to yield the rest of my time to my friends Linda and Saya.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Good morning, Linda.

Good morning, thank you to Councilwoman Rivera and the City Council for listening to our request.

And I have here a strand of folded cranes that was folded by many hands, children, elders, community members, and these represents a collective statement of peace and hope and healing and prosperity for generations to come.

And we do ask you as a council to stand on the right side of history and support the request for the Sadako Renewal Project and represent the city in the values that we all treasure.

And we do value the treasure of our children for generations to come.

and hope and peace is something that we all need, individually, collectively, and together we can do this.

So thank you.

And a gesture of goodwill, we present this to Maritza Rivera and the council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next is Sia, followed by Avery, Noah, and then John.

Good morning, my name is Saya Moriasu and I'm with the Sadako Renewal Project.

And I'm the artist that they've hired to make the piece.

And really creating a space for people to come and gather as well as replacing the statue.

And I know to children, the statue means so much.

that people have been telling me amazing stories about growing up and visiting her over time and the comfort she gave them.

And my story is my father was a child in the suburbs of Hiroshima when the bomb hit.

So I'm only here because of that bomb, because he wouldn't have left Japan if that hadn't happened.

And that's the story for so many children in Seattle that come here as adults or as children.

And I want that sculpture to be for them as well.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

and here's some ginkgo leaves.

Ginkgo leaves are part of the sculpture and also to represent memory and time immemorial and the space that we create for peace.

Thank you, Saya.

I'm Avery and I'm here to ask you to make getting around Seattle safer and easier.

There's two SLIs being proposed by Council Member Hollingsworth, thank you.

One for studying safety and crossing improvements at Belmont and Roy on Capitol Hill.

It's an arterial intersection on Capitol Hill where SDOP previously stated it's safe due to how confusing it is.

The injury data there disagrees and there's...

The injury data disagrees and there's also an SLI to reduce and calm, cut through traffic in a nearby part of Capitol Hill.

We've had 59 crashes in the last five years and 13 injuries according to SPD data in that area where both the SLIs are about and I'm reading the wrong part of my notes.

The legislation would study and hopefully result in addressing that part and the safety issue there.

Thank you for your time and thank you for your legislation.

Thank you, Avery.

Up next is Noah, followed by John, and then after John Grant is Marta Cadene, Daniel Nye, Brian Bariella, Brian B, Sandy S, David G, Fay Lopez, Joey Lopez, Hallie Willis, Carlos O, George M. With that, good morning, Noah.

Hey, good morning council members.

My name's Noah Williams, I'm here from the Transit Riders Union and I'm here in support of four SLIs to study a few different important issues.

The first being the Better Best Lanes campaign that is self-explanatory, traffic sucks, we should be paying bus drivers to move people quickly as they want to, not sit in traffic, especially on Seattle's highest ridership routes.

The second is for a environmental impact SLI, for SDOT to study things that are not just traffic, vehicle emissions, tire preservance flowing into the water and killing fish, things of that importance.

Traffic is not the only thing we should be studying and you can't improve what you can't measure.

and third is the evaluation of replacing parking in the city's right of way with trees in some places.

I know we have a lot of folks that really want more greenery and green cover and there are places where that may make sense.

And finally, Seattle Transit measure renewal options for capital projects such as the RapidRide R-Line and other essential projects in our city's backlog.

Thank you.

Thank you, Noah.

Good morning, John.

Good morning, Council Members.

My name is John Grant.

I'm the Chief Strategy Officer with the Low Income Housing Institute.

I'm here to testify today in support of Council President's proposal, Nelson's proposal for $6 million for tenant-based rent assistance, but I really want to focus today on the $7.8 million for a non-congregate shelter.

It is so essential that we address these dramatic cuts to COC funding for permanent supportive housing.

We recognize the need and support the efforts to do that.

I would say that there are some homeless advocates here that will testify in support of the amendments to backfill that with these shelter dollars.

We don't share that belief.

I would call this a disagreement among friends.

We think there's other approaches.

We encourage you to give yourself flexibility.

Don't make the money proviso strictly to be backfilled.

Make it optional.

Give yourselves the flexibility because we don't know what the state legislature is going to do.

We don't know what King County is going to do.

and what funding may be available down the road.

So please amend the language so that it's not strictly proviso-ed to backfill that budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

Marta, good morning.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Marta Quirana and I'm with the Low Income Housing Institute.

And I'm testifying in support of Council President Nelson's proposal to allow up to $6 million in the Office of Housing budget to be allocated for tenant-based rent assistance.

We think this is a reasonable compromise and gives OH flexibility to determine how best to fulfill this request.

This would increase the 11.4 million for tenant-based rent assistance to 17.4 million and these funds are desperately needed.

Given that over 300 million dollars have been allocated for capital dollars in OH's budget, we think it's reasonable to request that we will that will stabilize up to 3,000 at-risk tenants across many affordable housing buildings.

Please support this request.

We need to take steps to both build more affordable buildings and our existing stock of affordable housing where we saw 1,300 affordable units sold off in the last year alone.

Please vote yes for Council President's budget amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marta.

Good morning, Dan Nye, followed by Brian Bee and then Sandy Shetler.

Good morning, council folks.

Dan Nye, thank you, Councilman Rank, Saka, Councilperson Hollingsworth for supporting our amendment.

I'm here to say hi to you again and thank you for your support.

I had two things to tell you about.

I sent you all emails this morning because last Saturday, we got together over 30 Seattle citizens to plant over 400 plants, native species, on the edge of Schmitz Park where we cleared the black quarries and the ivy.

And we are going forward with a beautiful project I think you'll all be happy of.

We had representation from our indigenous folks there.

And yesterday, I was down at the Seattle Alki Monument to celebrate the 174th anniversary of the settlement of Seattle at Alki.

And we're working hard, and we'll continue to work with your support to reconnect the string and bring the salmon back like it used to be when Thank you for your continued support.

Thanks.

Thank you, Dan.

Up next is Brian B.

followed by Sandy Shetler and then David Glogger.

Good morning, councilpeople.

Thank you so much for seeing us today.

I just want to give you an update of where we are and what's next for us.

We are currently meeting with the Admiral Association for presentation.

We just met with the Alki Community Council and we have a meeting with them.

We've also been invited to do a three-panel kiosk at the Southwest Historical Society to present our project and to talk about the history of the Alki and the indigenous people.

I sort of want to give you an update.

Our 501 is very active.

We have over 300 active members now.

At our last event, we had over 32 people help us plant plants.

Next Saturday, we're planting over 60 trees, so that's in the works.

If anybody would like to join us, please do so.

Thanks again for seeing us today.

I just wanted to give you an update.

Thank you.

Up next is Sandy Shetler, followed by David Glogger and then Faye Lopez.

Hi, I'm Sandy Shetler with Tree Action Seattle, and I'm speaking in support of the revised budget action submitted by Councilmember Rivera to add 100,000 to Councilmember Saka's urban forestry consolidation sly.

Seattle's trees save hundreds of millions of dollars every year by lessening demand on our built infrastructure, and even more by providing critical human mental and physical health benefits.

Yet, despite how much we need them, we're losing trees at an alarming rate, while we also spend ever-increasing amounts on a patchwork of urban forestry programs across nine different siloed departments.

Funding the Urban Forestry Consolidation Study is the equivalent of hiring a financial planner when you're drowning in debt.

You think you can't afford to, but actually you can't afford not to.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, David.

And my apologies, Faye.

I see you, Faye Lopez-Gayette.

But with you, David, good morning.

Good morning, counsel.

My name is Dave Gloger.

I live in District 5. And for a moment, I'd like to imagine you were that CEO of a large corporation, and you found out that you had nine different divisions doing things differently in each one.

The first thing you would do is form a study to look at that and see how you could be more efficient and take best practices from each of those and consolidate those practices.

So with that in mind, I ask you to support Councilmember Saka's SLI to study our urban forestry divisions and support Councilmember Rivera's to fund it.

You can't make improvements in your processes if you don't put a little money.

It's a small amount of money, and I ask you to support this.

We can make our trees more important and save money in the process.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Faye, and my apologies for not being able to read well.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Faye Lopez-Getke, co-executive director of Purpose Dignity Action.

We're here to ask that the provisal pulling $11.8 million in funding for new high support shelter capacity be revised.

We absolutely concur that the City and King County should develop a contingency plan in the event that our region receives little or no HUD continuum of care funding in 2026. However, it is also untenable that we would not add high support shelter capacity it's essential that there be a credible, effective ongoing response to the challenges our neighborhoods face when people with complex needs are forced to live their lives in public spaces.

Bringing the community solutions model to Pioneer Square and the lead up to FIFA events in spring 2026 is exactly the kind of person-centered care response that many have called for as FIFA approaches.

We support Councilmember Kettle's proposed amendment and any other approach that would restore the small amount of added shelter capacity that had been proposed for this coming year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Fay.

And I see our clerk is taking a well-deserved moment, so I'm gonna just give you a time and I'll I'll wave at you with 10 seconds left.

So it means like you go for 10 minutes, right?

No, that's okay.

Thank you.

Good morning, Joey.

Good morning.

My name is Joey Lopez.

I'm an executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.

I live in District 3, work in District 4, and worship in District 7. Members of our budget round table have been here for nearly every select budget committee meeting.

witnessing to the call of faith communities and people of faith from every district in Seattle that budgets are a moral document and speak to the values of our city through public investment.

My faith tells me over and over to welcome the stranger and to attend to those in needs.

As my colleagues have said over the past weeks, this budget has some glimmers of community care and it is still filled with contradictions.

We strongly ask that you limit the number of provisos and the proposed budget amendments that would limit the flexibility of the city's departments to respond to the needs of our city, especially as needs emerge in the face of federal cuts.

Specifically, I ask that you not move forward with the $29.9 million proviso for the unified care team.

We are glad to see these steps the proposals are making to investments in our communities.

As we continue to deliberate, we hope you will continue to make bold choices.

Thank you, Joy, and we have the clerk with us, whether they're here in person or not.

With that, we have Hallie Willis followed by Carlos Ortiz, George M, Harper Nally, Tim Brown, and then if you want to sign up, you've got the opportunity here.

Good morning, Hallie.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Hallie Willis.

I'm the policy manager at the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness, and I live in District 5. The Continuum of Care NOFO dropped last night and it places, as we feared, a 30% limit on housing funding and makes other changes that make it so 60% of our entire grant could be at risk.

We're expecting an update with more information later today.

It's extremely concerning that this year up to 60% of our $67 million grant could be up for grabs.

That's $40 million.

It has always been our position that we need to sustain the housing that we have before we start anything new across the budget.

Thank you to Councilmember Rink and Strauss for your leadership on this issue.

It is imperative that we sustain all and protect all of the funds that we have available for this purpose.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next is Carlos Ortiz followed by George M. Carlos.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council.

Hello, my name is Carlos Ortiz.

I'm speaking today as a Nicholsville participant.

The proposed budget feels disconnected from what people living outdoors actually needs.

The recent election was a mandate.

Seattle and King County voters elected progressive leaders at every level because they wanted a humane housing first response to homelessness.

Please honor that.

When you reduce the funding for shelters, hygiene or outreach, I know you are just balancing numbers, but you're also making it harder for people like me to survive.

I just want this council to be aware that the State House, State Healthy Coalition, who are essential partners in preventing eviction and protecting tenants, please be in line with that.

You can't put a band-aid on this and then just expect the problem to go away.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carlos.

Up next is George.

Following George will be Harper and then Tim.

And then we'll move online.

So if you are a call-in registrant, we are about to change over to you.

Morning, George.

Good morning.

It's actually George Hacker, not George M. Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm bad at reading.

Good morning, though, and good job to Marcini's rank for kicking butt on her election.

But like he said, everybody voted for progressive, so that shows that they want housing, safety, dignity for everyone, including those of us without homes.

This budget threatens the very services that keep us alive.

Cuts to shelter and outreach will push more people into danger.

Putting the welfare of our homeless friends and neighbors into the hands of a business lobbying group with no experience puts people's lives at risk.

Reject the proposal for the DSA to contract with the city on this issue.

I also want to have strong support for Be Seattle and Stay House, Stay Healthy Coalition because they prevent homelessness at the front end.

Please pass a budget in line with the public's demand for compassion and action.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, George.

Up next is Harper, Tim, and then whomever else has signed up on this sheet.

And then we will move into online public comment.

I'm just gonna read their names real quick.

We have Kate Rubin, Nafaso Samatar, you are not present, you need to call in now.

Nafaso, my apologies.

June Blue Spruce, Steve Zemke, Lauren Fay, Lydia Felty, Amarentha Torres, Erin Tulloch, Linda Mitchell, you are the first 10 virtual speakers.

With that, good morning, Harper.

Hello, I'm Harper Nally.

I'm here from Transit Riders Union.

There are about 300,000 transit boardings each day within the city limits of Seattle, and about two-thirds of those are on buses.

While that is an impressive number, it could be higher, much higher.

For some context, within the San Francisco city limits, Muni moves about half a million people with the same population.

Yesterday, in his concession speech, Mayor Harrell spoke about the importance of the city's commitment to addressing climate change.

Buses are the backbone and the skeleton of our transit system, the backbone of our fight against climate change, our fight for equity, and our fight for safe streets.

And it is time to recognize that.

It is time to make them the obvious transportation choice.

It is time to make them fast, frequent, and reliable.

Our buses waste countless dollars sitting still in traffic, and it is finally time to address that.

We must finally commit to putting transit where it should be, first.

Thank you, Harper.

Up next is Tim, and then we'll take whomever has signed up on this last sheet.

Tim Brown?

Good morning, Tim.

Good morning.

Good morning, council.

My name's Timothy.

I'm here today speaking on behalf of the Nickelsville community as well as for myself.

The recent election shows that our citizens want compassionate leadership, but the majority elects on the progressive side.

Voters proved that they want stronger housing policy with actual rental protections along with actions towards finding solutions on curbing the homeless crisis.

When I look at the current budget plan, I did not see too much in support of this.

And by slashing services, it deepens the wounds scarring our city.

With this, I'm calling that Be Seattle and the Stay House, Stay Healthy Coalition receive funding because these programs save lives.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tim.

and thank you all for coming up as we're switching out these sign-in sheets.

So we have four more and we've had four more sign up for virtual public comment.

If we continue to see folks sign up, if you are called after 10.30, we may reduce the time to 45 seconds as an awareness.

With that, I've got David Lieberman, Indra B, Randy F, Deetra S, and then we'll move into online Kate Rubin, Nafiso, you're still not present, June Blue Spruce, Steve Zemke, Lauren Fay.

With that, David, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is David Lieberman.

I work in non-profit housing real estate development.

I live in District 3. In my work, I see every day how much our economy depends on small businesses, access to opportunity, and public places that invite people in.

Seattle's strongest economic movements have come from building shared civic assets like Pike Place Market, which built a small business ecosystem.

Our libraries, Light Rail, and now the Waterfront Park each have sparked new investment and community life.

The Seattle International Public Market is the next step in that tradition.

It turns an overlooked part of the Delbridge neighborhood into a functioning economic location, food access programs, small business stalls, teaching kitchen, workforce training, community space, and local jobs that'll keep dollars circulating in that neighborhood and in Seattle.

This is practical economic development with long-term impact for our city.

Please support Councilmember Saka's funding for the Seattle International Public Market and our Delridge Farmers Market to help strengthen Seattle's future economy.

Thank you.

Up next is Indra, followed by Randy.

Indra, good morning.

Good morning, Councilmembers.

My name is Indra Budiman.

I live in District 2 and work in District 1 as a Delridge Farmers Market Manager for African Community Housing Development.

I'm here again to urge the Council to support Councilmember Saka's investment in the Delridge Farmers Market and the Seattle International Public Market Project.

The Delaware Farmer's Market is not a typical farmer's market.

We center vendors from diverse backgrounds and provide a crucial launchpad for them to start and scale their businesses.

We charge no vendor fees, offer a produce buyback program, and provide in-house technical support at our office, all designed to remove barriers and create real opportunity.

Every day, I work alongside farmers and small business owners whose livelihoods depend on programs like ours for stable income and place to build community.

Our contracts allow farmers to plan their growing seasons with confidence, knowing that the food that they grow will reach the people who need it the most.

Over just the past two seasons, our produce buyback program has moved more than 75,000 pounds of fresh culture-driven produce directly from farmer's fields into the hands of thousands of food insecure Seattle residents.

Thank you.

Thank you, Indra.

Up next is Randy followed by Deetra and then we'll move to virtual public comment.

Good morning, happy Black History Month everyone.

My name is Randy Ford and I represent the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas and the Central District.

Thank you so much Strauss, Hollingsworth, Rink and Solomon.

The Central District historically has been a redlined black neighborhood and to this day it is unrecognizable.

I'm speaking for the small businesses that continue to be erased throughout the year.

The funding, the lack of funding and support is...

is abominable.

And I'm hoping that you consider really putting the black people first, the ones who carry the culture, the ones who carry the history, the ones who carry the flavor in everything that we do.

A lot of businesses and nonprofits like myself are responsible for hosting majority free programming and getting little in return.

So I really hope that you really invest deeply in the black businesses, in the Central District, and especially in the black arts.

We're seeing a lot of local artists move away because they cannot see themselves here.

We're seeing transplants take 10 years to find a black person that they can connect with.

Please do better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Randy.

Up next is Deetra.

Deetra S.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Deetra Seeger and I'm representing the Eastlake community.

I'm a resident of Eastlake and have been for 12 years and I'm here to advocate for the Eastlake businesses that are, and asking you to support Council Member Hollingsworth's CBA, the number 013-A.

We're beginning year two of an infrastructure transportation project that has negatively impacted the ability of local businesses to attract customers coming from outside our neighborhood, as well as local foot traffic.

If you have not driven down East Lake Avenue in the last year, please do so.

There will be many more transportation projects, and this is an example of what we need to be aware of.

The disruption of the entire length of East Lake Avenue, the core of our retail business for two to three years is disruptive and threatening the livelihoods of many.

By supporting this bill, we can keep businesses open, maintaining jobs and revitalizing the community.

Thank you, Deetra.

We're gonna move into online public comment and if anyone else shows up in person, we can have you sign up and we'll come back to you after virtual public comment, which will last about 30 minutes.

We're gonna do a time check at 10.30 to see if we need to reduce time to 45 seconds.

So if you are speaking and you want to And you're done with your statements, just to end your time, and that lets us get everyone in.

With that, I'm gonna read the next 10 names.

Nafiso, you are still not present.

Now is the time to call in.

If Nafiso does not call in by the time we get to them, this is the order.

Kate Rubin, June Blue Spruce, Steve Zemke, Lauren Faye, Lydia Felty, Amarintha Torres, Erin Tulloch, Linda Mitchell, Alice Lockhart, Jeff Briggs, Daryl Bivens, Genevieve Konjinsky, Tierra Bonds, Amy Lee Dierenthal, Alida Hernandez, Darcy Henderson, Colleen McAleer, Julia Paleski, Rhonda Faison, BJ Last, Angela Griffin, Joe Gruber, Marissa Perez, Lisa Howard, Vedrana Dorukovic.

Amen.

For those who are not present, David Haynes, Chloe Gale, David Crowder, Laurel Harkley, Sarah Dickmeyer is present, Fenica Zhang, Violet Lavatai, Carlo Alcantara is the list.

By the end of this budget session, I may have everyone's pronunciation correct.

My apologies if I don't.

Kate Rubin, you're up next.

Welcome.

I see you're already off mute.

Good morning.

Yes, my name is Kate Rubin.

I'm the co-executive director of Be Seattle and a renter living in District 2. I'm testifying today to thank council members Rink, Solomon, Vaca, and Juarez for their amendments that will restore funding to tenant services back to 2024 levels and budget chair Strauss for including these amendments in the balancing package.

The most cost-effective way to address homelessness is to prevent it.

Last year's nearly 40% cut to tenant services severely reduced access to eviction prevention legal support, renters' rights education, and tenant counseling for thousands of renters.

Evictions are at record highs, and more people are experiencing homelessness now than ever before.

Restoring this funding is the bare minimum to prevent further collapse of services.

In the future, I urge the Council to significantly invest in the services that help to maintain housing stability in order to meet the moment.

I also support allocating up to $6 million for affordable housing rental assistance.

It's another important tool to keep renters housed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kate.

Nafiso Samatar, you are not present.

When you call in, we will come back to you.

June Blue Spruce, followed by Steve Zempke.

June, I see you're already off mute.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Hello, I'm June Blue Spruce and I live in District 2. I urge you to vote yes on Council Member Rivera's Amendment OSE This would provide an additional $100,000 in OSC's budget for staff support for the report required by Council Member SACA's SLI MO0015A2, which I also support.

This report is essential to preserve and grow Seattle's urban forests.

Preserve and grow Seattle's urban forests.

Consolidating urban forestry oversight, regulation and protection in one department makes sense administratively, economically and environmentally.

The current fragmented system causes inefficiency, duplication of efforts, lack of accountability and public confusion.

We have multiple complaint lines, multiple departments with tree crews driving all over the city and too much developer influence over tree related decisions.

This harms our tree canopy and the health of our neighborhoods.

We can do better.

Vote yes on OSCE 004A.

Thank you.

Thank you, June.

Up next is Steve followed by Lauren Fay.

Lydia Felty is after Lauren.

Good morning, Steve.

Star six to unmute.

Mr. Zemke.

If Steve is star six to unmute, Steve.

We're gonna leave Steve promoted.

If we could also move on to Lauren Fay.

After Lauren is Lydia, followed by Amarintha.

Lauren, I see you're here.

Star six, take it away.

Good morning.

Good morning, Budget Chair, Strauss, and members of the committee.

My name is Lauren Say, and I'm here today speaking for DESC, the Downtown Emergency Service Center, in strong support of critical budget items related to federal funding cuts.

For months we've heard that 67 million in federal funding could be at risk in our community and last night our fears were realized when the application we need to complete as a community to renew this funding was released.

As feared the application includes new components that will significantly limit if not decimate our ability to receive the resources we need to keep thousands of people housed.

For this reason it is critical that you all support Mayor Harrell's proposed $9.3 million reserve for federal funding Council Member Strauss' proposed amendment to add 1.06 million to the reserve for federal cuts and especially Council Member Rink's proposed proviso which would prioritize 11.8 million to sustain COC funded programs.

Now is the time to act and we are so grateful for the leadership of Council Member Rink on this issue and so many others at City Hall who've been taking this issue and treating it with- Thank you, Lauren.

Up next, let's try Steve Zemke.

Steve Zemke, star six.

We'll come back to Steve in just a moment.

Lydia, you're here, followed by Amarintha and then Erin.

Welcome, Lydia.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Lydia Felty.

I'm a D3 renter and interim co-chair of the Seattle Renters Commission, and I'm here on behalf of the Renters Commission to share our support for the $4 million proposed for rental assistance for renters in affordable housing, as well as the $50,000 in funding for the Renters Commission that's included in the balancing package.

As you know, it is far more humane and cost-effective to keep people in their homes rather than wait until they have already lost housing.

And we thank Councilmembers Rink, Solomon, Saca, and Juarez for their amendments that will restore funding for tenant services and Councilmember Strauss for including those in the balancing package.

We also urge you to fully reinstate tenant services funding by adding $500,000 beyond what was included in the balancing package.

Tenant services have proven incredibly effective.

They help families stay housed, support landlords, and reduce pressure on emergency systems.

Fully funding both rental assistance and tenant services is an urgent step toward a just, stable, and thriving Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lydia.

We'll try Steve Zemke one more time.

Steve Zemke, star six.

Star six.

Steve.

Come back to Steve.

Amarintha Torres followed by Erin Tillich, Linda Mitchell.

Morning, Amarintha.

I see you're already off mute.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Amarantia Torres.

I'm the co-executive director of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

I'm speaking to share support for HSD Amendments 061 through 064, which support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and commercial sexual exploitation.

These amendments will help provide critical local funding, and I especially want to thank Council Member Rink, Council Member Kettle, and Council Member Solomon for your leadership on these amendments.

Additionally, many domestic violence housing programs throughout the city receive continuum of care funding.

As others have spoken to, we're really worried about the impact of losing these funds.

It's critical to do everything we can to sustain housing we currently have.

Protecting the COC proviso and supporting additions to the reserve are good places to start.

Finally, in solidarity with partners who support youth survivors, immigrant and BIPOC survivors, and queer and trans survivors, we also support HSC 048, HSC 050, OIRA 001, SBCI 006, and as we near the end of the budget process, just wanna say I really appreciated getting- Thank you, Amarintha.

If you have any further comments, please feel free to send them in to the secret email council at seattle.gov.

Steve Zemke, star six.

Seeing Steve not coming off mute.

I'm gonna come back to Steve once we get back to the people who are not present.

Erin, you know star six.

Good morning.

I see you're already off mute.

Good morning Chair Strauss, President Nelson, and members of the Seattle City Council.

My name is Aaron Telleck, Legislative Aid for Washington Build Back Black Alliance, representing TABOR 100, a key institution for Black, minority, and women-owned small businesses in Seattle and King County.

Thank you for including critical technical assistance funding for small and minority businesses in a cherished balancing package.

TABOR 100 is not just a building, it's a lifeline.

Over 240 minority-owned firms are facing real pressures, shifting federal certification rules, rising costs, and the disparities outlined in the City Disparities Study.

These firms are essential to Seattle's economy and need support to compete.

Tabor 100's Workforce and Technical Assistance Hub delivers that support through procurement coaching, legal and financial assistance, and stabilization services that keep businesses open in hiring.

This provides economic stabilization and community wealth building, especially as Seattle prepares for FIFA World Cup and major infrastructure investments.

On behalf of WBBA and Table 100, thank you for your support and demonstrating that equity is not just a value, but a budget priority.

Thank you, Aaron.

Up next is Linda, followed by Alice, and then Jeff Briggs.

Linda, welcome.

I see you're here.

Star six to unmute.

Good morning, Council Members.

I'm Linda Mitchell.

I'm testifying today on behalf of Mary's Place.

We strongly support Council Member Rivera's budget action to reinstate $167,000 in deal funding for the Allen Family Center that's operated by Mary's Place and to thank you all for considering this critical restoration.

The Allen Family Center is a lifeline for families that are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in South Seattle.

The deal funding supports childcare navigation, play and learn groups, and family programming.

These aren't extras, they're foundational.

When a parent experiencing homelessness can get help navigating childcare applications and subsidy forms, families gain critical bandwidth to focus on employment and housing searches.

We're grateful to Council Member Rivera for acting quickly to address this gap, and I urge you all to support this re-enstatement.

These families are counting on us.

Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you, Linda.

Up next is Alice Lockhart followed by Jeff Briggs and then Darrell Bivens.

Alice, good morning.

Good morning, council.

I'm Alice Lockhart and we're in a moment right here where people are not safe.

I urge you across all of these amendments to just strongly indicate and index on the amendments and even add amendments to keep people safe, keep people fed, keep roofs over people's heads.

These include both amendments to restore reductions to tenant services, saying it includes, of course, funding to help cover the terrible detriment in federal funds and the extreme adverse effects of that.

Let's keep people fed.

Let's keep roofs over people's heads.

and one possible suggested amendment that I do not see in terms of safety is could y'all defund the surveillance cameras whose data is doubtless available to this?

Thank you, Alice.

Up next is Jeff Briggs followed by Derald Bivens and then Genevieve Konjiski.

Jeff.

Hi, can you hear me okay?

Yes, good morning.

Great.

My name is Jeff Briggs.

I live in D4.

I'm commenting today in support of Councilmember Sockes' amendment commissioning a report on Seattle's urban tree canopy along with Councilmember Rivera's amendment to provide funding for that.

It is past time for this council to rededicate itself to ensuring a vibrant tree canopy across the city, especially as we densify.

This needs to include less affluent areas as well as wealthy ones and must extend in the neighborhoods and not be limited to parks and other city-owned properties.

This council, the mayor's office, and OPCD need to stop looking at existing mature trees as a hindrance to providing much needed housing, but instead as a priceless amenity, an integral part of our growing city.

This report represents a valuable first step in that effort.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jeff.

Up next is Daryl Bivins followed by Genevieve and then Tierra Bonds.

Daryl, I see you've been promoted and you're already off mute.

Welcome.

Awesome.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Daryl Divens, and I am a program coordinator for Cable 100 to directly assist the fulfillment of the FDS program.

I want to take the time to thank the chair, balance, and package of city council members for the ongoing support of Cable 100, the amendments increase, FDS general funding, support WMD, stabilization, and technical assistance, This month we help build upon the team providing the technical assistance services that support businesses that they seek opportunities for protecting businesses in the City of Seattle.

These services have included one-on-one business development and paid preparation consultation, paid specific workshops and seminars centered around active city projects on open-gov procurement along with vital resources to help connect both the city and small businesses through strong networking and lasting connections.

Thank you again for your continued support of small business and the continued investment in our city.

That is my time.

Thank you, Daryl.

Up next is Genevieve and then Tiara followed by Amy Lee.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can Genevieve.

Hi, I'm Genevieve Konijewski.

I live in District 3 and work at the Free Center Service Team Eid.

I'm here to oppose Sarah Nelson's amendment, HSD 057A1 and Rob Saka's amendment, MO005A1.

I have years of first-hand experience distributing safer smoking supplies, and I know that without these resources, our neighbors will be forced to make life-ending choices.

It's proven time and time again that providing safe supplies does not enable more people to use, but instead encourages them to make healthy choices.

Distribution sites are the safe spaces where people who use drugs can exist without the flagrant judgment and trauma passed by most members of the city.

The epidemic of addiction in Seattle is a symptom of insufficient housing, employment, and social services.

This is also why Councilmember Saka's amendment to inflate the care team budget is not a solution, but instead a force of continued oppression.

Police do not help people.

Instead, they face the continued trauma of losing their belongings and communities.

As a civil witness and supporter of individuals being swept, I have seen this firsthand, and I know there's no question that this money would be better suited for housing, social services, or healthcare.

Thank you, Genevieve.

Up next is Tiara, followed by Amy Lee, and then Alita.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Tierra Bonds and I'm a small business owner here in Seattle.

I'm here to speak in strong support of funding the TABOR 100 Small Business Technical Assistance Program.

I speak from two perspectives, a business owner who has directly benefited from receiving technical assistance, as well as a business owner who currently provides technical assistance to other businesses.

Receiving this assistance from TABOR has allowed me to secure almost half a million dollars in government grant funding allowing us to provide wealth building financial education to underserved businesses in Seattle.

Which brings me to my second perspective.

We know that many black owned BIPOC and immigrant owned firms face historic hurdles.

Technical assistance is the critical gap that transforms potential into prosperity.

When we fund this program, we're not issuing a handout.

We're making an investment in community wealth creation and this investment directly increases the economic resilience.

I urge you to prioritize and sustain the funding for the TABOR 100 Small Business Technical Assistance Program.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tierra.

Up next is Amy Lee, followed by Alita and then Darcy.

Amy Lee, good morning.

Star six to unmute, Amy.

There you are.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council Members.

I'm Amy Lee Derenthal, the Executive Director at the Center for Active Living, formerly the Senior Center of West Seattle, and I'm also a member of the SHSC Budget Task Force.

And I'm here to voice support for all the investments that are included in the budget package, the $250,000 for Senior Center, $250,000 for Senior Meals, all the investments for gender-based violence, restoring tenant services, and increasing federal reserve, et cetera.

I want to do a special thank you to Councilmember Saka for increasing funding for the senior centers and Councilmember Holly's work for $250,000 for senior meals.

Older adults are the fastest growing unhoused population in Seattle.

Senior centers provide meals, case management, housing navigation, and social connection.

Proven strategies to prevent homelessness.

I encourage you to keep those investments in the budget.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Amy Lee.

Up next is Alita, followed by Darcy and then Colleen McClure.

Alita, good morning.

I see you're off mute, Alita.

My name is...

We can barely hear you.

Alita?

Good morning, my name is...

Yes, can you guys hear me?

A little bit better, but still just barely.

So I'm gonna...

You wanna do a mic check?

Yes, I'm so sorry.

My name is Aleda Hernandez.

We can hear you great.

Take it away.

My name is Aleda Hernandez.

My name is Aleda Hernandez.

I'm the Director of Project Management at TABOR 100. I am here today to speak in support of funding for Small Business Technical Assistance Program and Capacity Building Resources in our region.

Across Seattle and King County, our small businesses, particularly Black-owned, BIPOC-owned, immigrant-owned, women-owned, and family-owned firms continue to face historic barriers to accessing capital contracts and stable operating support.

These businesses are the backbone of our local economy.

They hire locally, reinvest in their neighborhoods, and keep wealth circulating inside our communities rather than extracting it out.

when they thrive, our economy is more diverse, more resilient, and more reflective of the city we say we are.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Alita.

Up next is Darcy, followed by Colleen McClure and then Julia Pileski.

Darcy, star six.

Darcy Henderson, star six to unmute.

We're gonna pull.

I see you're here.

Good morning, Darcy.

Good morning, Darcy.

We can't hear.

Is your phone on mute?

There you go.

My apologies.

Not a problem.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair.

Good morning to you, the chair and the council members.

My name is Darcy Henderson.

I'm the owner of Altra's Commercial Cleaning and a proud member of Tabor 100. I want to be very clear.

I am one of the 240 firms directly impacted by the new US.DBE and ACDBE rules.

that came out of the Trump administration.

I am currently on a project where my certification status can determine whether I stay on the job.

These rules remove race and gender-based presumptions and require small businesses like mine to prove disadvantage with detailed narratives and financial documentation.

That creates a heavy administrative burden for firms with limited staff capacity like mine and the risk of decertification is really real.

This is why I'm asking you to support the amendment adding $250,000 for FAS for TABOR 100's WIMBY Technical Assistance Program.

I am also asking you to approve the $250,000 increase through OED for the Liberty Project.

I participated in the Liberty Project.

I received finance and accounting support, marketing assistance.

These services are vital

Thank you, Darcy.

Feel free to send in your comments to us at council.cl.gov.

Up next is Colleen McAleer, followed by Julia Pileski, and then Rhonda Faison.

Colleen, I see you're off mute.

Good morning.

Yes, good morning, City Council, and thank you for hearing us.

Lower Hearst Community Club I'm representing today.

We support some amendments that help folks citywide, more 911 non-emergency call center staff to support crime victims and save officer time, We support all the food delivery systems and access to fresh food, HSB 51, 53, 54, and 002A1 and OSC 0035. And we also support OSC 004A1 consolidation study of the city's tree canopy for reporting on its policies to measure how it's actually achieving its 30% tree canopy goals.

However, we also oppose any increase in new property taxes.

Our city and state has already taxed businesses and its residents to the max, and these higher property taxes are choking out affordability in Seattle for the renters whose landlords have to pay higher rents and property owners.

New revenue sources from the levy should be used first, and we ask that efficiencies also be using AI in the city.

Thank you, Colleen.

Feel free to email us as well.

Julia and then Rhonda Faison and BJ Lass is on deck.

Julia, you're already off mute.

Good morning to you.

Hi, good morning, council members.

My name is Julia Pileski and I'm calling to voice my support of council member Hollingsworth's proposed amendment S.035SA1 for safety improvements at the Belmont Avenue East and Roy Street intersection.

I live just a few buildings down from this intersection and can say firsthand just how dangerous it is, not just for pedestrians and cyclists, but also for drivers.

Over the past five years of living here, I've experienced cars speeding through this intersection, have almost been hit by cars as a pedestrian in the intersection, and from my window I can hear the screeching of cars driving quickly around the corner, honking horns, swerving to avoid an accident.

The flow of traffic is just not clearly marked here, and this needs to be upgraded to a four-way stop and marked crosswalks need to be put in place.

Allocating SDOT resources to improve the safety of this intersection would be a huge improvement to the quality of life for this neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie.

Julia, my apologies.

Rhonda, BJ and then Angela Griffin.

Rhonda, you're off mute.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Rhonda Faison.

I am the founder and owner of Rojo Juice, located at Pike Place Market.

I am calling in support of the technical assistance program with TAPER 100 and Liberty Project.

I would like to say that as a small business owner and not coming from a family that went to college and has a background in business, it was really nice to have TAPER 100 as a resource in my small business.

My business is located in Pike Place Market, but Pike Place Market historically hasn't been that helpful, especially towards minorities.

and it was just really refreshing to have Table 100 come along with me and help me along my journey, opening up my small business.

I'd also like to make a point that my property manager at Pike Place Market had made a comment about how well Table 100 operates their business and I think that should just seek volumes because Table 100 has been around for so long and so has Pike Place.

Thank you, Rhonda.

Well said, and B.J.

Last, you're up next, followed by Angela Griffin and then Joe Gruber.

Angela, you're already off mute as well.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Dr. Angela Griffin.

Hi, my name is Dr. Angela Griffin.

I'm the CEO of Burr Bar Place, and I'm here to ask the support of Council Member Hollyworth's amendment, STL-001A, This amendment invests $100,000 to partner with trusted community organizations to expand recruitment into Seattle City Lights Apprenticeship Program.

For Seattle's black community who have faced decades of displacement, justification and exclusion from high wage career pathways, this is not just a workforce strategy, it's an equity strategy.

In Seattle, black residents now make up less than seven percent of the population.

Rising housing costs have pushed many black workers out of the Central District in South Seattle, and forcing them to commute into the city.

At the same time, participation in electrical and skilled trade apprenticeships remaining disproportionately low.

We ask for the support to expand apprenticeship programs with Seattle City Lights and organizations like that.

Thank you, Angela.

That was Rhonda, thank you Rhonda.

Up next is BJ, I see Angela's saying that it's already spoken on the sheet though.

Correct.

Angela, I took that out of order.

My apologies everyone, there's a lot moving on and sometimes the list gets confusing.

BJ, I see you're already off mute.

Gold Star, take it away.

BJ Lass, Good morning.

My name is BJ Lass, I'm a Ballard homeowner.

I'm calling in opposition to the amendment that would provide those $30 million and require it to be spent on suites, aka the unified care team.

This is money that could actually be going to services to help people actually get inside and to increase the amount of shelter capacity that exists, not to just simply displacing people, shuffling them around the city, further destabilizing them by causing them to lose lots of their possessions and just that are incredibly harmful and also that literally kill people.

We keep seeing record numbers of people dying while living outdoors.

The suites are a big part of that.

Also, I find it incredibly telling that council members that have repeatedly been claiming that there is a massive staffing crisis on SPD want to go and provide force SPD to spend $2.2 million to stand around at suites.

For comparison, 2.2 million dollars is the equivalent of 12 cops.

So that's more cops that are currently investigating sexual assault.

It really shows where council's priorities are that you want us to force.

Thank you, BJ.

As always, feel free to email us at council at seattle.gov.

Back in the correct order.

Joe Gruber is off mute.

Marissa Perez followed by Lisa Howard.

Joe, good morning.

Morning, council members.

My name is Joe Gruber and I'm director of the University District Food Bank.

Thank you for supporting the recommendations of the Seattle Human Services Coalition, including the increased investments for seniors, senior meals, and gender-based violence prevention.

Thank you for preserving the mayor's proposed increased investments in food security, including the $3 million for food banks and $1 million for meal providers.

Thank you for supporting the Sadako Renewal Project.

It was a neighborhood treasurer whose absence is missed.

Thank you for your increased investment in expanded outreach for unhoused individuals in the U District and Ballard.

20% of our food bank customers are unhoused and we see the positive impact of this work already, so support its expansion.

And finally, I want to offer strong support for Councilmember Rivera's amendment to increase food access services at Madison Park.

While we offer a weekly pantry there and provide home delivery services, we know through resident focus groups and annual customer surveys that more food access is needed to improve food security.

This investment is critical to that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

Up next is Marissa Perez, followed by Lisa Howard and then Vedrana D. You are on deck.

Marissa, good morning.

I see you're already off mute.

Good morning, Chair Strauss.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Marissa Perez, Director of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

I'm also a renter in District 1. I want to thank you all for the increased investments in human services across many sectors and urge you to protect the Federal Reserve Funds.

and other investments in wage equity, housing, and human services.

As you have heard, the COC notice of funding came out yesterday, and there are definitely others who can speak more eloquently about that, but it will put our homelessness and housing providers at extreme risk of not only cutting services, cutting shelter space, cutting staff, but many of them may face closing altogether.

We support HFD082A1 and FG101B1 protecting and increasing the Federal Reserve to ensure that no agency has to face closing.

Now is the time to strengthen our human services and prioritize investments in existing services.

Thank you for your support for the basic needs of our community and we look forward to continuing to work with you.

Thank you, Marissa.

Up next is Lisa Howard followed by Vedrana D, David Haynes, then Chloe Gale.

Good morning, Lisa, and I see you're already off mute.

Good morning, council members.

Hi, my name is Lisa Howard and I'm the executive director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

Over the last year, our neighborhood has worked tirelessly to ensure alignment in the neighborhood that is responsive to our community needs, including creating a safe environment for all.

We know that there are many people doing great work here and we know that there are major gaps.

Now is not the time to pull back.

We're at a critical point and people are in need.

We encourage you to include the $11.8 million for high support non-congregate shelter as it is a critical piece of one of our largest needs in our city and our neighborhood.

We appreciate the work being done to salvage planned shelter.

Please support Councilmember Kettle's amendment to restore funding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next is Vedrana Dee, then David Haines, then Chloe Gale.

Good morning, Vedrana.

There you are.

Good morning.

Okay.

Yeah, sorry.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Vedrana Dorakovich.

I'm the community engagement officer at Sam Generations.

And I'm also here today as part of the Seattle Human Services Coalition and the Coalition for Equitable Aging.

I urge you to support all SHSC budget priorities in this year's budget, but I do want to highlight amendments HSD 47A1 and 54A1, which support senior centers and senior meal programs.

I do want to also take this opportunity to thank Councilmember Saka for championing the ask for additional investments in senior centers and Councilmember Hollingsworth for supporting senior meals.

Older adults are the fastest growing population in Seattle and in King County, and many are being hit hardest by cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP.

These amendments represent essential investments that help seniors remain connected, nourished, and supported, especially those who rely on these programs as their primary source of community and livelihood.

So thank you for your time and for prioritizing a budget that honors the dignity of the people we serve.

Thank you.

And up next, we have David Haynes, followed by Chloe Gale, David Crowder, you are not present, so please call in now.

We then have Laurel Harkley, Sarah Dickmeyer, Finneka Zang, Carlo Alcantara, Violet Levati.

So at this point, we have been in public hearing, public comment period for 61 minutes after we had to restart.

we have one, two, three, four, five, six, potentially seven people remaining.

I'm gonna leave it at one minute right now, but if we get another influx, we're gonna drop down to 45 seconds.

So with that, good morning, Mr. Haynes.

Good morning.

How much money in this budget is specifically earmarked for black people and nonprofits who play the race card, giving themselves six-figure salaries, constantly blaming white people for everything?

We have a society that's still imploding before our eyes.

with up to 60 overdoses a week because of the ignorant policies that have come out of City Hall that sabotage the integrity of public safety, police reform, the homeless crisis and the housing crisis.

Yet the landlords who self-deal on council and backstab the working class with shady conflicts of interest would rather play the race card and buy off certain skin colors to make sure that they don't get protested.

And it's become the epitome of what's wrong with Seattle.

where everybody is judging skin color, yet they refuse to judge the content of a criminal character who they've exempted from jail and prioritized for housing and services first before innocent White House citizens because you all have allowed for an ignorant, evil, mean-spirited, racist bully of a mayor to conduct a race war within this budget.

And that is overpriced and lining the pockets of corrupt, unqualified nonprofits and people who hide behind the idea

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Up next is Chloe Gale, followed by Laurel Harkley, Sarah Dickmeyer, Finneka Zang, Carlo Alcantara.

Carlo, you got promoted to the top.

Here you are.

Welcome.

And then we'll get back into the line of Chloe, Laurel, Sarah, Finneka.

Good morning, Carlo.

Good morning.

Thank you.

My name's Carlo.

I'm asking as a resident of D5, that you reconsider funding allocated to SDOT to crack down on unpermitted food vending.

Last Friday at 1045, I witnessed both the taco stands on 105th and Aurora and also one on North Gateway being shut down by SPD.

Council member Rank raised this concern about how simply shutting these down is gonna be a detriment to our community.

And then SDOT assured us they would be taking an educational approach to these.

So I'm asking how this approach of sending SPD to shut these down qualifies as education.

I also want to highlight you, Councilmember Strauss, you said it best that this has been the most positive activation of space that Aurora has seen in a long time, and it would be wrong to simply shut them down.

I wanted to address the issues raised by Councilmembers Kettle and Saka as well about unpermitted vending, undercutting, and harming farmers' markets and small businesses, and I ask how these being shut down on Aurora harm those businesses.

So please reconsider this.

Thank you, Carla, and I can tell you that we have been looking into it.

Up next is Chloe Gale followed by Laurel Sara Finneke.

Chloe, good morning.

Good morning, City Council members.

My name is Chloe Gale.

I work at Evergreen Treatment Services, and I'm an advocacy and policy DP there now, but I also represent the REACH program, which is the largest street outreach team in Seattle, partnering with the city.

also providing behavioral health and treatment that comes to the street and a continuum that goes into homelessness and housing support.

I'm here because just to amplify this moment that we have an unprecedented terrifying moment in our homeless and housing services system given the HUD COC funding conditions.

Hallie Wills did a really nice job describing that we are at risk of $40 million in cuts for our key housing providers.

I wanna encourage you, I appreciate the council's extreme efforts to try to create a contingency plan for this devastation.

I also wanna make every effort to identify funding outside of the homeless and housing continuum.

So look forward to trying to support a path.

Thank you, Chloe.

And please do feel free to send us an email as well.

We have Laurel, then Sarah, and then Finneka.

Hi.

I'm calling in because while our city, county, and state overindulges Black ethnonationalists, the Jewish community gets no advocacy or support from social or racial justice organizations.

Quite the opposite.

We are silenced in part because so much of it is forwarded by Black supremists and Islamists who are dishonestly called racial justice activists.

Black residents openly celebrate our murder and are allowed positions of power.

They celebrated the second anniversary of the massacre on October 7th.

They celebrated this in Cal Anderson openly, holding banners celebrating our murder and rape, and not one of you condemned it, unlike the anti-trans folks.

Amanda Seals was sponsored by the Office of Arts and Culture.

If this is okay, that's great, then let's see somebody like Laura Loomer or Pamela Deller, who are very similar, be sponsored.

They say they're anti-racist, but it's clearly, it's just black supremacy.

And I know that's harsh, but it's true.

And we need- Thank you, Laurel.

Feel free to email us at council at seattle.gov.

It goes to each council member directly.

Sarah Dickmeyer followed by Fenneke Zeng and then Steve Zemke is the final person signed up.

David Crowder and Violet Levati are not present.

Call in now.

Sarah, you are here, star six to unmute.

Sarah.

Good morning, Sarah.

Good morning, members.

My name is Sarah Dickmeyer, external affairs manager at Plymouth Housing, speaking in support of contingency reserves for federal COC cuts to permanent housing assistance.

Thousands of Seattle residents rely on these programs to stay housed, many with disabilities, everyday managing complex health conditions on very low incomes and a very expensive fee.

Yesterday, we saw the officially announced changes that .

And make no mistake, these cuts would directly result in returns to homelessness for people who are housed today.

We strongly support Councilmember Rink's proviso to prioritize 11 million to sustain current programs, along with the mayor and budget chair's proposed reserves, to the thousands of Seattle residents currently living in permanent housing who have left homelessness behind them, represents Seattle's commitment keeping people in their homes, regardless of income, ability, and income.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Up next is Finneka Zhang.

But before we begin, currently elected officials have the right to jump the queue if you'd like to make public comment.

Not seeing any at this time.

Finneka Zhang, I see you're already off mute.

Welcome.

Good morning, Council Members.

My name is Tika Jiang, and I'm the Policy Specialist at Solid Ground.

As you've heard from other commenters today, the cuts to HUD continuum care funds that we've been cautioning about and asking for contingency planning are unfortunately now no longer contingency.

Yesterday, the NOFO just dropped, and it does indeed include the harmful cuts and limitations we were fearing.

So our region will now be hamstrung to keep existing permanent housing that currently is housing folks.

So we just want to urge the Council and thank the Council for doing the legwork on this, including amendments that help plan for this.

Mayor Harrell's proposed $9.3 million reserves, Council Member Strauss amendments to add $1 million to this reserve, and Council Member Rink's proviso to prioritize $11 million towards sustaining CRC programs.

And we just want to flag that we've also been working with King County on this issue.

And we want to lend our gratitude and support for the amendments that fully restore tenant services funding.

This is surely a time to make sure renters have support to keep housing.

So thank you all so much for your work on this budget.

There's a lot of investments here to be proud of.

Thank you.

Steve Zemke, we're going to give you one last call here.

Star six to unmute.

Star six to unmute.

Steve.

Steve.

Steve Zemke.

If anyone's taking tallies, you can put him down for supporting trees.

With that, we are going to close the public comment.

And Mr. Mayor, before you continue on, we're gonna close public comment now.

I'm gonna read the remarks I was gonna say later on, but since you're here, I'd like to address you and your team directly, which is to say thank you to you and your team for your incredible service to the city.

I remember four years ago when you were sworn in with a mask on, Our city looks so different than it does today.

Today we're able to look and argue about the margins because we're not arguing about the biggest challenges before us.

Our city is a healthier and safer city because of the work leadership from you and your entire team It's been an honor to get to work with you over these last two budgets.

They've been the least contentious budgets that I've seen in many years.

And that's because of your strong work and your commitment to the people of the city.

And thank you for instituting the understanding, philosophy and perspective that we are all together in this as one Seattle.

Ms. Barbara, I'll see you later.

If you don't know, Ms. Barbara is one of the most important people in City Hall and you have changed the way that people are greeted and welcomed into our city to receive the basic civic services that all Seattleites deserve.

Ms. Barbara, you have inspired me in ways that you'll probably never know.

Thank you.

With that, we are gonna move on to our regularly scheduled business in the Select Budget Committee today.

We are going to adopt the agenda first, and then I'm going to take a brief at ease process because we have had the unfortunate experience of many, many walk-on amendments again this morning.

Walk-on amendments are the most challenging.

They are intended to be used as a release valve for us to make corrections.

However, I do appreciate everyone getting them into this time so that we can pause.

make sure that we have today's script correct and then we'll continue on.

I'm sorry, I don't, the audio.

It's okay.

So we're also having some technical difficulties.

So I am going to put us at ease right now and then we'll come back and adopt the agenda.

If folks have walk-on amendments, my ask is to make them known now so that we can get the procedure for the rest of the day and the rest of Monday correct.

It's only a problem if more things pop up as we continue.

Council President Nelson, do you have something to say?

We're just going to go into ease before we adopt the agenda.

Okay, then never mind.

Thank you.

With that, we will be at ease for the next...

I'm going to give this until I call us back, which is about to be six minutes.

You cannot move, though.

No moving.

We're at ease.

That's what Amelia says.

Are we ready?

Yes.

It makes it a little easier.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you, colleagues.

We're gonna come back to order.

Clerk, do we need to call the roll coming out of ease?

And my apologies for not explaining ease as well as I could have.

We do have to maintain quorum in chambers while we are at ease.

We took that moment to address some walk-on amendments.

in our scripting.

So this is the one time in this process that I will support suspending the rules to do walk-on amendments because we are now all together.

And so I will support right now the suspension of the rules for walk-on amendments once we adopt the agenda.

and I will say I will not support suspending the rules to walk on amendments again unless they're extenuating circumstances that require such.

And so we're giving this one moment of grace and then we will continue on.

Before that, I do move to adopt the agenda and the agenda today includes the introduction and overview of our work today, as well as the ordinance supporting the budget, capital improvements, and all of the city budget, because I don't need to read all of these items into the record.

So with that, I move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

The agenda is now adopted before the Select Budget Committee.

I've got a couple hands raised, so we're going to have some questions about the order today.

If they are questions that will be answered in Director Noble's presentation, then I'm gonna hold them.

I'm also going to state that today I'm going to be more firm about how we use Robert's Rules of Order.

So you will be asking me the question and then I will be directing it either to central staff or to our other colleagues.

Again, this is just a process so that we are able to move through what could be complicated procedure.

With that, I see Council Member Kettle, do you have a point of order?

No, Chair Strauss, I had my hand up so I could move to amend the agenda by adding HSD-082-081 and placing it on the corresponding voting group, which I believe is Group C. I see that that is why there's that next box and I moved the agenda, is there a second?

And so it has been moved to, and let me check with the clerk here.

Do I need to suspend the rules at this time or in just a minute?

Councilmember Kettle's amendment was distributed by 5 p.m.

So it met the council rules.

So the rules do not need to be suspended for Councilmember Kettle's amendment.

Thank you.

We took an ease so that this was smooth and it didn't work for me.

So I'm going to restart.

So move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.

The agenda is now before the select committee.

Councilmember Kettle, you have an amendment to the agenda.

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss.

I move to amend the agenda by adding HSD-082-A-1 and placing it on the corresponding voting group, which I believe is voting group C.

Thank you.

That has been added.

Is there another hand, Council President Nelson?

I move to amend the agenda by adding CBA, I have three, Law 002A, S.051A, and OED019A1.

Thank you.

And does that include your, you just distributed, we have to suspend the rules for that.

Is that correct?

Did you want to consider them individually, or do you want to consider them all in one row?

These all will be separate votes.

Yes.

Yes.

So Councilmember Kettle's motion is currently pending.

Once we vote on Councilmember Kettle's amendment.

Oh, no.

We can vote on this whole thing as a package.

You want to move them all as a package?

Yeah.

Okay.

It's fewer votes, correct?

Okay.

Well, if you want to move them all as a package, then as Chair, you have a prerogative.

You can just move to amend to add all of these items, and then we can get a second and have debate.

Okay.

But Councilmember Kettle, yeah, go ahead.

Wonderful.

So Council President, you've got Law 2 and S.51, is that correct?

Yes, those were distributed yesterday.

And to add your third walk-on amendment for OED, we need to suspend the rules, is that correct?

19A.

Is that correct, Clerk?

We would have to suspend the rules.

Do we need to do that at this time?

Once we get to a C.

Okay, so we are going to vote on these being added to the agenda right now because they were, as per council rules, distributed before 5 p.m.

We will then vote on another amendment that was not distributed by 5 p.m.

and so this is why this confusion colleagues of walk-on amendments is why I am saying let's do it now and we will not do this again, please.

With that, we are voting to add HSD 82B Law 2A S.51A to the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

Do we need to take a roll call vote, clerk?

Yes, please.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

And now, Council President, would you like to move to suspend the rules?

I move to suspend the rules to amend the agenda with an item that was not distributed prior to the 5 p.m.

deadline yesterday.

And I will support the suspension of the rules now and not again unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Will the clerk, do we need a second?

If there's no objection.

Is there any objection to suspending the rules?

Seeing no objection, the rules are suspended.

Council President, you are recognized.

I move to amend the agenda by adding OED 19A1 and by placing it in the corresponding voting group.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

And Council Member Rivera confirming you do not want to add this final one?

Correct, Chair.

so then we only have one amendment that has not been distributed by 5 p.m.

requiring the rules to be suspended.

Last check.

Any more walk-on amendments?

Love you all.

Thank you very much.

Will the clerk please call the roll on adding OED 19A to the agenda?

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Chair Nelson?

Aye.

I'm sorry, Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Thank you.

Chair Strauss?

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Deputy Clerk Schwinn.

Colleagues, Deputy Clerk Schwinn is the one who is monitoring if our audio is making it to the Seattle channel.

So even though we may hear each other in chambers, she may not be hearing us on the audio feed.

So if she calls your name again, that just means that you gotta Mick Jagger and get close to the microphone.

We have the agenda amended at this time.

Clerk, do I need to call the roll on the agenda as amended?

Is there any objection to the agenda as amended?

Seeing no objection to the agenda as amended, it is adopted.

With that, we are going to move on to our first item of business that is gonna outline, as always, general overview.

So we will move into today's voting procedure.

If we are able to get to voting on or being briefed on the council bills that we will vote on on Monday, we will receive that briefing today.

And if there's not time, please check the PowerPoint presentation that has been distributed and attached to the agenda.

You'll have an opportunity to pull items from the consent package.

Director Noble and Calvin Chow will walk you through that.

So again, the votes, today is about voting.

Monday we will vote on some of the budget and some of the budget bills.

It's also a spillover if we don't get through today.

From there, we will not meet.

The time next week is really reserved for council central staff to make sure that we've got the budget correct.

We'll vote it out of committee next Thursday and a final vote next Friday.

All things going well.

So with that, we will take lunch at 1230, 60 minute lunch.

So we've got that in about an hour and a half from now.

And let's see how much we can get through.

So with that, if the clerk could read the first item into the record.

Agenda item one, introduction and overview for briefing and discussion.

Fantastic.

Director Noble, Calvin Chow, take it away.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

So go here to start and let me share a screen, sorry.

I'd like to give you essentially a run of show for today, also for Monday coming, and then a preview of the remainder of next week as well.

And then we will dive in for a day of voting.

So today, principal topic of the day is actually the budget ordinance itself.

and amendments to it.

So the Council budget actions are amendments to that ordinance.

I'm going to come back and talk about Group A and Group B and Group C in just a couple slides here.

But that's the focus of today.

But as the Chair just noted, in addition, if we have time, our intent is to preview the remaining budget legislation.

So the budget adoption ordinance is one piece of budget legislation.

There are multiple, multiple others.

but the intent would be to walk you through what those are with no intent to vote today, but rather to vote on the non-budget ordinances, all the other ones, on Monday.

So that's the idea.

Today we'll focus on amending the budget ordinance.

On Monday, focus on passing the other pieces of budget legislation and if there are any amendments to those dealing with them.

So that's Friday and Monday.

Then next week, the latter part of next week, on Thursday, would be a final meeting of this committee to take a last vote on the budget adoption ordinance, inclusive of all the amendments that you will be acting on today.

The time between now and then will give us, staff, a chance to make sure we've got it all in order.

There are today, I think, more than 170 items, so we appreciate that it does complicated coordination activity.

Again, not expecting any surprises, but that's the intent.

And then Friday, this body will meet actually in its current form for the last time to adopt that ordinance as the full council.

So that's what's planned for today, Monday, and the rest of next week.

Let me dive a little further into what's planned for today.

Sorry, I have a thing on my screen that really makes it hard for me to see.

So we're going to start by walking through a revised balancing package.

As we get to that, I'll talk more about what's in there.

They're both sort of cleanups, individual items where members have made some small changes.

There is some new proposed spending from some specific sources, and I will call those out.

And then there are a number of new slides as well.

So we'll go through that as we did the last time we went through the balancing package changes.

We're going to highlight things that are new and not touch on every item, but we'll be happy to answer questions about any and all items.

And again, most of this we're going to do with a summary table or spreadsheet, but we in fact have individual CBAs, I can pull them up, put them on the screen, and as you vote on some individual items, we will be doing exactly that.

So we'll go through Group A. That is essentially a consent agenda.

It is the balancing package, and it will be proposed as a consent agenda.

As a consent agenda, any individual item can be pulled by request, and we know there are several items that will be pulled, and there may be some that we don't know about.

That'll be your prerogative.

We'll then go to Group B, which would be potential substitutions for things that were pulled from Group A. So again essentially changes to the balancing package or proposed changes to the balancing package And then there are a set of items group C which are called out for separate vote They are either self balancing themselves or are potentially a proviso or a slide They won't affect the financial balance of the budget so they can be taken up as standalone items So that's the order that we intend and there will be a number of parliamentary pieces moving in throughout and we'll be looking to Amelia for, at least I would be looking to Amelia for help on those depending on where we get.

So other things being equal, I'll be ready to start on the balancing package.

Looks like the chair has some other comments as well.

I just want to pause to check to see if anyone's got questions because now is, this slide demonstrates all of the procedural work that we're going to go through today.

and so if there are questions now to help navigate the rest of the day, I'm taking the training phrase, it's better to go slow and smooth to go fast and strong.

With that, seeing no further questions, back to you, Director Noble.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Again, so what I intend to do here is to walk through items that have changed in the balancing package.

I shouldn't be asking a procedural question this morning, but I'm assuming I'll go through all of it.

We are changing into the next item.

And so actually, Clerk, if you'd like to read all of the items into the record, that way we can- Only item two.

You only want item two?

Can you please read item two into the record?

Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 121116, adopting a budget including capital improvement program and position modifications for the City of Seattle for 2026 and creating position exempts from civil service all by two thirds vote of the City Council for briefing discussion of possible amendments.

Thank you.

I move to recommend passage of Council Bill 121116. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 121116. Committee will now take this up.

And back to you, Director Noble, for continuing the presentation.

Thank you, Chair Strauss, and this is a little bit awkward to ask a question of you, but I think your colleagues may be interested in it as well.

Is the intent to go all the way through this and then request which items to be pulled or to, as we reach items that might want to be pulled, highlight them?

If you could go through your presentation, everyone has the opportunity to see what's here.

You can note the things that have changed since our last meeting.

At the conclusion of that, we will move into folks having the ability to pull items from the record.

Colleagues, a reminder, the consent package is so that we don't have to vote on every item.

So if there's something in the package that you would like to speak to, you do not need to pull it.

If you do want to pull it, it just means that we'll have more procedural time and we'll make that note at the end of this section of the presentation.

So Ben, you don't need to read every item, just the ones in gray.

Colleagues, you can see them before us.

Thank you, Chair.

So again, items of grade are ones that have changed somewhat since you've last seen the balancing package.

I mentioned that there's some new spending, and when I get to the third item, I'm going to give you an overview of that.

I'm just going to take these in order, though, otherwise.

So the first change is to ARTS 1. It's 1B1 now.

The total dollar amount of this CBA is unchanged at $100,000.

It now directs $25,000 to creative spaces and low-income artists supporting Capitol Hill and $75,000 for the activation of Cal Anderson Park.

Any questions on that?

I'm gonna keep moving.

Just keep moving unless we see a hand.

Thank you.

Arts 7D1, again, is a modification of one that was previous.

The one in the original balancing package had $500,000 for the fabrication and installation of the statue.

additional information is indicated that 400,000 will be sufficient.

I will get later to a new item that uses the 100,000 that is not otherwise here to fund another CBA.

So moving down, Nothing changed in the care department.

In CBO, there are a couple items.

The first one is the money, if you will.

So I wanted to describe how we have come to this new balancing package and addressed some of the additional funding interests that were expressed by council members.

As you considered the original balancing package and, again, other interests, we were working with council members to identify potential funding sources for these additional interests and discovered that, to use the vernacular, a lot of people were pointing to the same places and that had the potential for there to be a number of competing amendments.

So what we have done is to separate out identifying sources of funding and then through the Chair's help pointing a specific set of new CBAs to that funding.

So this CBA frees up an additional $1,050,000, so $1050,000, general government expenditures, and I will highlight the items that are then funded from that additional money.

The money comes from essentially two places.

One is a cut to OED.

In the mayor's budget, there was a proposal for $500,000 to pay for a business climate assessment.

Again, multiple of you identified that as a lower priority compared to other things that you were interested in, so that is cut here.

In addition, through our own work, discovered that there was some additional fund balance available in SDOT.

This same CBA transfers that SDOT resource into the general fund.

Currently, the total amount of general fund support going to SDOT is beyond and above the minimum required.

per the terms of the levy.

So we can make this transfer without violating that.

So bottom line, this CBA frees up $1,050,000.

And again, I will highlight where that money is directed as we move through the remainder of the revised balancing package.

The other item here is a new SLI.

It's a request to CBO.

It's a request to CBO as a coordinating, centralized coordinating entity rather than as their budget function.

And the request is that emergency response data for the, I believe it's 61 permanent supportive housing sites in the city be collected and collated among and between fire, police, and care, and that CBO then provide a report about the number of emergency responses, 911 or otherwise, to those 61 sites.

That's that slide.

Again, without questions, moving forward.

Deal 3A1 is a proviso of $167,000 to ensure that there is sufficient funding for childcare navigation in support of unhoused children.

There was a potential cut that we learned about after the initial balancing package.

This would provide the resources in deal to ensure that the funding continues.

This funding is currently directed towards Mary's Place.

Department of Neighborhoods, no changes.

Finance Administrative Services, one new ad.

This is one of the places that additional million-plus dollars was directed.

So this is to increase FAS's budget by $250,000 to support women in minority-owned businesses who are facing new challenges given changes in the federal rules that qualify one for that status.

You've heard testimony today from a number of folks associated with Tabor in support of this item, which I'm not not meant as advocacy but rather to connect what you're adhering to what the CBA is.

Moving forward, finance general.

So another significant item here is 101B.

This is one that I believe I'm going to preview and spoil the plot to be pulled because there are potential competing proposals around this money.

But this would take a million dollars, a million and sixty thousand The million dollars is a share of, would be a cut to the sale, the Stabilized Activation and Invest Locally Fund that had been proposed for OED.

The remaining $60,000 was the last bit of fund balance that we had identified in the general fund.

And it would direct this into a federal response reserve.

We'd put it in finance general, which is again, if you recall, sort of a financial parking lot.

This is in recognition of the ongoing challenges associated with changes in federal policy I think both in terms of funding shortfalls but also in response to potential additional spending that the city might desire in response to mitigate other aspects of the current federal actions.

This would be in addition and separate to the nine plus million reserve that is in HSD, which again I think you'll hear some more about today, that is focused on housing and homelessness.

So that's the idea.

So essentially a million dollars of sale to a federal reserve.

Item 902 is, this is just a technical piece.

Again, with the revenue forecast change, we took available Jumpstart resources and moved them to Finance General.

We'd also transferred some other resource and discovered it would be better to spend that directly.

Purely a technical item here.

Nothing to worry about, if you will.

No changes on this part of human services.

A new proviso, HSD 60A1, this would provide 2.85 million of general fund dollars in HSD for substance use, disorder treatment and recovery services.

It specifically prioritizes some and individual modalities around recovery and treatment.

We conferred with the executive and the proposal is consistent with what had generally been planned, so again, Nothing more there.

Again, nothing else in human services except, again, one that, again, will be a topic of some discussion this morning, I suspect.

So it's a proviso of $11.8 million of HSD's funding to mitigate potential federal funding impacts.

When we get to this item, I'm going to I suggest that we bring General Breck to the table for you to hear some more about the details and what is known with regard to changes in federal funding that were announced earlier today and about which you heard some public testimony today.

I think you hearing it specifically from staff could be a useful context for this discussion.

Nothing in the Hearing Examiner, nothing in ITD.

This item provides $80,000 to hire a consultant to convene providers and framework around a neighborhood engagement and mitigation plans.

The wording here has been modified to reference the 911 emergency response data that is in the slide that I just previously described.

So it calls out the fact that this consultant should take a look at that data and talk about how it might be used as part of developing such a framework.

So just a wording change there to be consistent with the overall set of actions that Council's proposing for the budget.

The Office of the Mayor, a slide requesting that the Mayor provide quarterly reports regarding activities and performance of the Unified Care Team, the UCT.

This is essentially a renewal of a slide that has been done in the past to ensure that there is ongoing reporting about what the Unified Care Team is doing.

There is also later a proviso related to UCT as well.

So Office of Economic Development, a number of new items here, in particular around, well not exclusively, but several of them around the SAIL, the Stabilize, Activate and Invest Locally Fund.

So this first item would, that item had been proposed at $4 million.

If you recall that there is an item that would direct a million of that to a Federal Reserve.

This would provide a 1.5 of the funding to be used in Lake City for the activities described, which are designed to be cross-departmental to support, again, to stabilize, activate and invest in that neighborhood.

OED 4B1 does not change the total funding amount here, it's $300,000, but now adds University District and clarifies that it's essentially $100,000 each for Ballard, U District, and Capitol Hill for cleaning.

OED 7A3 is another new item.

It is one of the items funded from that million dollars I described previously having been identified and freed up.

Actually, I take that back.

I've jumped ahead.

This one is a proviso and it's a proviso on OED for North Delridge.

that change here is to focus specifically on North Delridge with this proviso.

OED 13...

Sorry, Director Noble, I'll just interrupt there.

I believe the original amendment was contained in the package and Council Member Saka's new amendments are for individual votes.

So do I need to pull this one?

Not on this item.

This item was consistent It's gone through a couple changes, but it is now, it's a proviso that is focused specifically on North Delvidge rather than North Delvidge and another neighborhood, but otherwise is unchanged.

I'll likely be pulling this.

I believe that my original proviso is what needs to be in the package.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll just note that now.

13A1 is a proviso for OED for $200,000 to support small business in Eastlake.

115A1 is a proviso of $1.5 million in OED for services in Little Saigon and Chinatown ID.

This includes a share of the sale money as well as in addition to some other OED funding sources.

16A1 increases OED by $50,000 and uses and does that by transferring money from ITD, from the IT department.

That is general fund money within IT and it's to support technology fund for permitting an account, excuse me, that's where the cut is, it's to support workforce development to $50,000.

OED 18 SA1 is a slide requesting that DON and OED assess neighborhood ambassadors and the public safety coordinator programs and make recommendations for their continued investments and the best way to do that and to support neighborhood ambassadors.

Nothing new in OEM.

Office of Housing, a new slide that would request that OH prioritize recovering housing projects in its 2026 notice of a funding availability process.

That's what it does.

OIG, nothing.

Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, two new slides.

One, requesting a report on the Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

The commission was established to have 15 members.

It grew out of an advisory board.

There's currently only one appointed member.

I think the goal here is to revive the commission and get a report on how that could be done.

The second item is a slide that looks forward to 2027 and requests a report in advance in August of next year of how OIRA plans to spend the $4 million but a separate action, actually identified here as 1B1.

Council's making that funding ongoing.

There's a specific proposal for how that money will be spent in 26, but the desire is for Council to have what the plan will be for 27 and to have that plan delivered in August.

in advance of the budget, so you have an opportunity to consider it and potentially make changes or contemplate those in advance of receiving the budget.

So those are the two for OIRA, both slides.

Nothing new, Office of Labor Standards.

OPCD, one new item to increase OPCD by $100,000 for Rainier Beach Community Health Clinic.

This is another share of that million dollars I described sometime back as having been freed up.

OSE 4A1, this would increase by $100,000, OSE's budget, to support a report on the city's approach to regulating trees.

So again, this is $100,000 that was freed up in the arts-related CBA for the peace statue.

And again, you've heard testimony about this item this morning.

City Light, this is a proviso for $100,000 for City Light to support outreach and apprenticeships, to outreach to recruit minorities and others to City Light's apprenticeship programs.

Sorry.

Department of Construction and Inspections, one new item.

It is a complement to SDCI 1B1, the first item on this page, but the new one is 6A1.

It would further increase SDCI's budget, in this case by $400,000, to restore reductions to tenant service contracts.

So the total restoration would be $900,000, the $500,000 in the first item and the $400,000 here.

This is again one of the items funded by the additional funding that we identified and discussed previously.

SDHR, no changes.

SDOT, no changes on this page, but a number of new items here.

First new item, SDOT 15A1, is a proviso on 1.4 million in SDOT for safety improvements on Sandpoint Way.

So this is a proviso on the Vision Zero project in SDOT.

I just kept going.

28B1 is the next.

28B1 is a technical correction, just directly appropriating from a fund instead of doing double appropriations.

29A1 is a proviso on $600,000 for traffic safety on Rainier on Cornell in District 2. SDOT 30A1 is a proviso on $80,000 to deal with speed humps and cushions on Waters Avenue between 64th Avenue South and Thayer Street.

SDOT 32SA1 is a SLI calling for a report on the costs for SDOT to take over the full maintenance responsibility for all trees in the right of way.

S.33 SA1 is a slide requesting that the executive identify transit capital improvement options in consideration of the Seattle transit measure renewal.

S.34 SA1 is a slide requesting a comprehensive plan for providing micromobility corrals.

And S.35 SA1 is a slide requesting an evaluation of safety improvements for Belmont, Roy, Harvard, and Olive.

That's all of the SDAR ones.

Thank you, Cal.

Nothing new for the Seattle Fire Department and the Seattle Police Department.

One new item.

This is a proviso of 1.1 million of general fund to ensure the funding can't be used for any other purpose than to support, I believe it's a total of seven civilian positions, six crime coordinators, and one outreach individuals doing outreach to Chinatown International District.

So again, just a proviso.

On Seattle Parks and Recreation, one new item on this page, 16A1.

This is $250,000 of new funding for late-night team programs at the High Point Community Center.

This is another of those items funded from the million dollars of newly available resource.

nothing new for Seattle Public Utilities, and that is the revised balancing package.

Thank you, Director Noble, Calvin Chow.

Colleagues, are there any questions on any of these items?

Do you want to do a questions check?

So with that, I will now ask members if they would like to remove an item from the consent package.

Again, you do not need to remove an item to speak to it.

So after we remove items, then I will ask everyone if they want to speak to something that's within the package.

This request to remove an item from the consent package does not require a second or a reason why the request is made.

We over-indexed to put more things into the package to reduce the number of individual votes that we needed to take and so there's no offense taken if anything's taken out.

With that, but before I make this request, I am going to ask Director Noble again, coming back to the Delridge-Georgetown amendment, my understanding, and there's been a lot of moving pieces this week, so my understanding was the amendment that we had contained in the balancing package was for both Georgetown and Delridge.

And we have a misunderstanding then, because the version that I understood to put in the package was focusing on delvige.

There is a second proposal for a proviso that would be a standalone item that would impose a proviso that would address the need in Georgetown, at least in part.

So then I'll ask a follow-up question, is to revert to the original balancing package proposal of having Georgetown and Delridge under one proviso, would that create a fair amount of work to do amendments and to rewrite and to change where we are at this point?

At this point it would, and I believe that, yeah, That's all I need to know.

I think they're better for technical corrections if we turn out to have this rolling.

So Councilmember Saka, I was very proud to provide 25 amendments in my original chair's package on your behalf for you and District 1 as well.

This was a change that I had thought we had a miscommunication.

I thought this was gonna be up for an individual vote.

So as not to create more process for today, we're gonna leave it in.

So council member Saka, you have already achieved increasing the funding for district one, and we are excited for that.

So with that, we will move forward.

I am not going to pull OED whatever it was and we'll move on.

So if other colleagues have items that they would like to pull or ask questions, let's actually do questions one more time.

No questions.

If there's an item you would like to pull, please raise your hand at this time.

I have council member Rivera and Saka.

Sorry, Chair.

Trying to make sure my mic is working over here.

I would like to pull Arts009B1 and also CARE003B1.

And Clerk, would you like to read those back?

Or whoever's documenting?

009B1 and CARE 003B1.

I see Council Member Sokka has his hand.

You've got a question.

Point of order from Council Member Juarez.

What is your point?

I just wanted to say when we pull things, can we say what number they are in the packet besides the actual instead of the, you know, HSD 0402, can we also say it's number 41?

Because it's all listed.

It's easier to just hear the number.

Will we come back?

Okay.

We'll come back to that, just to make sure everyone's on the same page.

Council Member Saka, you...

are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move to amend Council Bill 12116 to remove FG-101-B-1 from the Chair's consent package, which states increase FG by 1.06 million GF one time for a federal response reserve, decrease OED by 1 million GF one time for a stabilize, activate, and invest locally sale fund.

Thank you.

Sorry.

This is item FG 101B1.

It is item 38 in the packet.

And as we move to these, I will put them individually on the screen.

Okay.

And confirming we do not need to remove Council Member Kettle or the Council Member Rink and Kettle amendments because they've already been amended in the agenda.

Is that correct?

Yeah, no.

It does need to be removed from the consent package if Council Member Kettle would like to move his amendment.

and I would like to move to the amended agenda by removing HSD-082-A-1, which is in honor of my colleague's request,

We'll do a briefing in just a minute.

There's so many HSD ones, but group A 73, and then replacing it with my walk-on.

This is item HSD082A1, item 73 in the packet.

Wonderful.

Colleagues, are there any other items that would like to be removed?

Council President Nelson.

I would like to remove SDCI 6A1 SDCI 6A1 is item 126 in the packet

Colleagues, are there any other amendments that you would like to pull from the package?

Going once.

Going twice.

And we are moving on.

So we will now brief these items.

Well, actually, let me ask a procedural question here with the clerk.

Should we pass the consent agenda and then come to these for individual votes?

Correct, with the exceptions of those that have been removed.

And I believe central staff is going to be showing the ones that were removed.

So when you move the consent package, you'll be able to see which ones will not be included in that.

Wonderful, and I see that the script is being filled in here, but I can't move forward until it is.

So we're gonna take just a moment so that I can read these out in their proper order.

And then Council Member Juarez will come back and brief through each of these.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, 100%.

Items ART-9B1, CARE-3B1, HSD-82A1, and SDCI-6A1 have been removed and will be addressed separately.

FG-101.

Yep, cool.

FG-101.

B1.

B1.

have been removed.

Are there any others?

Great.

So I move to adopt the consent calendar excluding items ART 9 , CARE 3 , HSD 82 , FG 101 , SDCI 6 .

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to adopt the consent calendar, excluding the items I've just moved.

And before I call the roll, I'll ask now if colleagues would like to address any items in the consent agenda.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to take the moment to thank Council Member Rivera for her addition in support of Mary's Place.

I was recently, I think for a lot of people who come here for public comment, you may or may not know that all of us pretty much here on the dais are going out and about in community, going to locations.

And I recently went to the Mary's Place location on Third Avenue, which is about to open.

And the work that they do there is fantastic and the support that they needed and the information they gave to include some of the challenges they face, which is somewhat being addressed by Councilmember Rivera's amendment.

So I just wanted to take the opportunity to really give a shout out and highlight the great work that Mary's Place is doing and the team that's behind that.

And plus those that made that building available too, I should add that as well.

So thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, any other comments on the consent items within the consent calendar?

You'll have many more opportunities to speak to the whole budget later.

Going once, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to really take the opportunity to thank all who came to chambers and all our partners who came, this budget process moves quickly and sometimes that means that, and we are all responding in real time.

So appreciate community members coming to flag something that was not included or that was included but needed to be revised.

I really value our relationship with our constituents and with our community partners.

and just colleagues I value my relationship with all of you so thank you for the support at various times during this process and then thank you chair for including the additional amendments that we all worked on in the last week as part of the chairs package.

These are things that are really important to our constituents and also our community members and really appreciate the partnership with all of you to make these things a reality.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Colleagues, if there are no further questions, the consent to calendar has been moved and seconded.

I will now ask the clerk to call the roll on the consent calendar, excluding ARC 9, CARE 3, FG 101, HSD 82, and SDCI 6.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Sacca.

Aye.

Council Member Sacca.

Aye.

Aye.

Council Member Salomon.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

Aye.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The consent calendar excluding ART 9, CARE 3, FG 101, HSD 82, SDCI 6 are adopted and will be incorporated into the bill.

We will move through these in alpha numerical order.

FG 101 is gonna be a longer conversation.

And central staff, please be ready to step up to the committee table if colleagues have questions.

With that, we will start with Art 9B1.

Does this need to be moved and seconded, et cetera?

Council Member Rivera, let's see.

Council Member Rank has sponsored the amendment.

I will allow you to move this amendment.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

I move to amend Council Bill 121116 as presented on Arts-009B1.

Second.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded and thirded to hear Arts-9B1.

Central Staff Director Noble, if you could give us just a brief overview and then we'll open it up for questions and conversation.

Yes, I can.

So this item deals with the potential dedication, or not if you will, of admissions tax revenues to arts funding, and in particular to the potential for arts funding of city activities within the city as opposed to outside agencies.

So as part of the 25 and 26 budgets, $2 million of those admissions tax revenues have been dedicated to city-specific things.

Half a million of that is directed towards the Festall program at Seattle Center, and that is a relatively long-standing practice, that $500,000 several years.

The 1.5 million referenced here is new to the biennium for 25 and 26, and there is, I think, some question as to whether the commitment of that 1.5 million in 25 and 26 was intended to be ongoing, that is to say we would beyond 26 use this ad tax money within the city arts activities, if you will, or whether that was intended to be limited to the biennium and then to be revisited as a question of what that funding source should be for 27 and beyond.

So this action attempts to clarify that the intent was that for 25 and 26 that 1.5 million be used, but that that wasn't an ongoing commitment.

of those ad tax dollars.

I will say that as we encountered this in 27, it will be a challenge to find an alternative funding source, just given the city's overall financial situation.

But the idea is that you would be able to take up anew the question of whether you wanted to dedicate those revenues on an ongoing basis or whether you just wanted to do it for the biennium.

So this would make it just the biennium.

Thank you, Director Noble.

Colleagues, questions, comments, discussion?

Councilmember Rink, I'll let you go first and then Councilmember Rivera, I see your hand is next.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, last year this body successfully ensured that the admissions tax remained wholly within the Office of Arts and Culture and working with the executive devised a compromise that would allow for a portion of the revenue to fund select programs in the Parks Department and at the Seattle Center for the 2025-2026 biannual budget.

The intention was for this to be a one-time redirection but my understanding and my office's understanding is that somewhere in the process a button wasn't pushed and as a result we find ourselves in year two of this biennial budget with that temporary redirection inadvertently made permanent due to a technical error.

To be clear, this amendment will not change any dollars going to parks or the center in the 2026 budget.

No money is being moved.

This is essentially just our body making sure that that button gets pushed so we don't inadvertently permanently divert ad tax without a public legislative process directly engaging with the ordinance.

And my understanding is that what was included in the chair's package allows for the funding to be continued for a festal, but the remainder of the funding here is maintained an amount but switched to one time.

I think this issue warrants a policy discussion next year and a policy decision can be made then.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Rink.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you Chair, thank you Ben for running through that amendment and thank you Councilmember Rank for bringing this forward and I just want to say, as Chair noted earlier, our wanting to pull these and have a conversation about them and even the things we may not vote for, not intended in any way to disrespect a colleague, I always say we have shared values and sometimes we disagree about how to get there.

so let me explain why I wanted to pull this one in particular.

I actually have been around for a few years.

Festall was not actually originally an ongoing commitment.

It was a one-time commitment multiple times and then eventually it was clear that we wanted to make sure we had funding to fund that really important community festival and so we made that an ongoing commitment from the ad tax.

So similarly, I'm concerned about these things that are being funded, arts and parks, the downtown buskers, the Park's Teen Performing Arts, the Folk Life Festival, and Winterfest, all of which have been longstanding events out of the Seattle Center.

And I'm concerned that without an ongoing commitment, these things might not have the funding, as been explained earlier, to continue.

And I feel like it's gonna be like FISTAL, where we will continue to have to make it perhaps one time until then we decide to make it ongoing.

And so for those reasons, I'm gonna vote no because I would like to keep these things ongoing.

I'm afraid they're not gonna be funded otherwise.

And these are all really important community events that community has come to rely on.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

Council President Nelson.

I just have a question.

This is sounding quite familiar.

So is this a replication of basically the same idea that we discussed last year?

Thank you, Council President.

Director Noble, would you like to explain the differences between this and last year?

And then Council President, I'll call on you again if you have further questions.

So this was done last year and it is again in this year's budget, that is to say 1.5, well a total of 2 million, but beyond Festahl, 1.5 million of arts, of ad tax revenue dedicated to arts activities within the city as an alternative to general fund support.

So it was done in 25, it is done in 26. The question is, ultimately, should that be assumed for 27 or should it be an open question again in 27 as to whether or not tax should be used for city activities or limited to support outside agencies.

So it's been done, but the question is, does it want to be a commitment ongoing to direct money to city stuff or to open up the possibility that it be used for outside organizations in 27 and beyond?

Thank you.

Anything further, Jasmine?

Council President, further questions?

So a vote for, in favour of, or I mean a vote against would then maintain funding for internal city operations?

The implication would be that yes, that that 1.5 million is meant to be an ongoing commitment of arts, of admissions tax revenues for city staff.

So yes, a no vote is to support this being an ongoing commitment of those dollars for city activities.

Thank you.

Council President, any further questions?

And I apologize for my point of orders because I want to keep things simple.

So basically a yes vote means keep it in the chair's package and a no vote means take it out.

I mean, take it out basically.

Yes, that is to say it was included in the chair's package with the intent that it be, the chair supports this item and supports the idea that the council would revisit the question in 2027 as to whether or not ad tax monies should be used for city activities.

Right, but as we go forward on the things that were pulled, if we're voting yes, we're saying keep it in, and if we're voting no, we're saying no.

Got it.

Effectively yes.

Is that another way?

If you vote yes, it will stay in this budget, not the chair's package, just the budget generally.

We're past the chair's package now.

Now it's just, is it in the budget or is it not in the budget?

Council Member Juarez, well said and well requested.

Council Member Rivera, I know that you've already asked a question.

I've seen Council Member Juarez now.

Council President Nelson, anything further?

No, my question was answered.

Fantastic.

Council Member Rivera.

Yes.

Fantastic.

Thank you, Chair.

Ben, I just, these are city funded, but again, to be clear, These things that I listed, Arts and Parks, Downtown Buskers, the Parks Team, Performing Arts, the Seattle Center Folklife Festival, and the Seattle Center Winterfest are long-standing community events at this center.

So I don't want to make it seem as though this is something we're just doing that we're doing community doesn't care about.

These are things that we have dedicated one funding, well, we, not one funding, we dedicated funding to N25 and N26 because otherwise this funding would not be available.

And so the question is do you want, we want to be, we want to continue this funding so we're not in this situation like we were with Festahl where every year we're making a decision about whether to continue it or to cut it.

So I just, I want to be really clear about that because otherwise it sounds like it's not Not for us.

These are community events that community have come to rely on.

I think that's an entirely fair characterization.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

I just, given the discussion about parks and Seattle Center and the like, I just wanted to reiterate, which I believe is to be true, but I can always get confirmed by the individuals at the table.

Thank you, Director Noble, Mr. Chow, and Ms. Marahara for being here, that this remains in arts, and arts continues its oversight of the administration admin, the ad tax moving forward.

Yes.

Director Noble.

Thank you.

I just want to say thank you.

I just want to confirm that.

Thank you.

Colleagues, further discussion on this?

Further discussion?

Councilmember Rivera Moore?

Yes, but just to clarify, it's Days in Arts, but Arts isn't giving it to at these festivals unless we will it so.

I just want to be really clear.

Director Noble.

Thank you, Chair.

The current budget, the money goes to arts and then is distributed in these dollar amounts to parks and center.

one time for 2026. What I'm saying is if, may I, sorry, trying to keep Robert's rules.

This is saying it's one time, but it's not ongoing.

So then ongoing, we'd have to make a decision about it again.

And so colleagues, what I'm saying is I am concerned about the ability to continue these events that I just described ongoing.

So rather than do every year like we used to with the stall, where every year we have to dictate whether it's going to continue or not.

Continuing it as an ongoing is important.

That's what I'm trying to get to with this.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rivera, I'm going to wrap discussion up on this, so I'll make a comment, pass it to the sponsor, and then we'll take a vote.

Just to say that I agree with you, Councilmember Rivera, about the need to address this and have ongoing spending, and I also believe that we need to have a little bit longer of a policy conversation.

This conversation that we're having right here at the table is a microcosm of all of the things that we need to talk about, and budget is not the time to take up policy.

Budget is the time to pass the funding levels.

with that and so I'm going to be supporting this amendment with the understanding that I would like to see us funding these programs in an ongoing way and that the reason I'm supporting this amendment is so we have the time to craft the necessary policy to do so.

With that, Council Member Rink, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

And my closing remarks kind of echo that sentiment.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I put forward this CBA because it is my position that we should not be sneaking in permanent diversions of ad tax revenue to any program without a public process and in close collaboration with the executive.

This CBA just ensures that we can have the conversation that my colleague from District 4 wants to have.

This amendment does not change funding to anyone in this budget for this year.

The executive decided to move these programs off the general fund onto add tax, so we aren't undoing this with this CBA.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you and thank you Council Member Waters again for clarifying.

I had even marked these items with the wrong color on my own quick sheet.

So with that, if you would like this item in the budget, please vote yes.

If you do not, you can vote no.

Council President, discussion has ended on this topic.

Do you have a point of order?

It's not a point of order.

The sponsor just said something that I had a question about.

Discussion has ended at this.

Is it going to change the difference between how you vote?

Nope.

Just go forward.

Thank you.

With that, will the clerk please call the roll on Arts 9B.

Vote yes for it in, vote no for it out.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Juarez.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Abstain.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

No.

Council Member Sacca.

Abstain.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

Yes.

Six in favor, one opposed, two abstentions.

Thank you.

Arts 9B has been added to Council Bill 121116. Great, I got that correct.

We're gonna move on to CARE 3B.

Council Member Kettle sponsor the amendment.

Would you like to move this amendment?

Yes, Chair, I move Item CARE 003B1.

Second.

CARE 3B1 has been moved and seconded.

Director Noble, if you'd like to provide brief remarks and then I'll turn it over to Council Member Kettle as sponsor of the amendment and then we'll have discussion.

This item proposes to shift funding and oversight of the LEED contracts from HSD to CARE, a total of $23 million, and it would also move a single position, a senior planner, to assist in the oversight of those contracts.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle has sponsored the amendment.

Would you like to address this proposal?

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss.

as for some reason my Zoom keeps coming in and out.

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss.

I just wanted to note this amendment was but forward because We are moving forward in this city in terms of alternative response.

It is very important to do so.

And I say alternative response because there's many pieces to this.

Within the Seattle Police Department, you have MHP, CSO, and POET.

There's a lot of acronyms there, but mental health professionals.

We have the support officers, the police officers, the engagement team.

and fire we have health one and of course we have care and care stood up and care is moving forward and of course anything new there's going to be adjustments and changes.

In fact we will have a SPOG tenant agreement coming up which will in addition add to the changes that are ongoing in this space and we need to continue to do so.

But also key is really working and this is something that's come up through the Public Safety Committee and it's been becoming a main focus of the Public Safety Committee and that is the scene between public safety and human services.

In order to be successful in public safety we also need to be successful in these entities that link whether it's public health, housing, and in this case human services.

And there's also the idea that is again a theme of the Public Safety Committee in terms of a functional criminal justice system, but we also need a functional public safety system.

And we need the organizations that are on the ground working generally these public safety pieces to have the oversight of the Public Safety Department that is on the street with them doing the work.

and this goes for lead, co-lead and we deliver care, WDC.

I recognize there's a lot of acronyms out there but this is about gaining alignment.

This is about moving forward with alternative response and I purposely say alternative response as opposed to just focusing on care because we do need to keep the big picture here in chambers in the council as we look to move forward because there's going to be different pieces that come up that we need to adjust to.

But with the goal, the North Star being alternative responses and we have that capability to address those public safety challenges that we see on our street that can be addressed in a way that doesn't involve the criminal system necessarily or SPD specifically.

and in order to do that, we need to get this alignment.

This is the genesis and this is what's been bubbling up through the Public Safety Committee and it will be a focus in 2026 for public safety.

And so for those reasons, colleagues, I ask you to support this amendment for our budget.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, further discussion?

Questions?

Comments?

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, I ask to have this CBA pulled so that we can have an individual vote.

I will say that again, as I said earlier, I respect my colleague, Councilmember Kettles, bringing this forward.

Sometimes we pull things because we don't feel comfortable voting for them and it's okay if they move forward obviously we are a body of nine but we need to make sure that we are voting in a way that we feel is what we think is best.

In this instance I feel like the care department is in your department.

I'm concerned about its ability to manage all of these contracts given They are now moving to this sole source dispatch piece with their responders.

They are, not even a year ago, they doubled their responders, their care responders, and now next year they're going to be doubling those in addition to adding quite a bit of positions, call taker positions.

That is a lot for a department to have to manage that increase.

and because of that I don't think that this doesn't warrant the discussion in the future to transfer these contracts to care but I think right now I am concerned about their capacity to do so given the work that they have to do that we're giving them to do in terms of doubling all those care responders, adding the 911 capacity, going to sole source dispatch.

It's a lot.

So because of that, I'm going to be voting no.

As I said earlier, it's okay.

If others don't agree, I have a concern about it.

So I want to be able to vote for this separately.

And I do appreciate, again, my colleague bringing this forward and it doesn't mean that in the future I don't think this is a good place to have these contracts live, but at the moment I don't think it's the best at this time.

So thank you.

Thank you.

We have Council President Nelson, Council Member Juarez in queue and then we'll take a vote.

Council President Nelson.

I have to say that I honestly don't know where the best place is for these contracts.

What I do, I mean, HSD has so many providers and contracts, et cetera, and I don't know if we can ensure better outcomes by transferring the location.

it seems as though moving the contracts over to CARE is motivated in part because there is a public safety element to the work that LEAD does as well as CARE and so that does make sense to me.

I just want to recall that we've been talking about for years that there must be better coordination between the city and the PDA when it comes to understanding what happens to with the individuals when they are within the care of the LEAD program and what happens in between belonging to that program and then perhaps graduating from it.

I have spoken at length with Director Dugard and I believe that she would agree that The PDA has a way of tracking what happens to the individuals that are in the LEAD program.

However, the city does not communicate with their database.

And so there is perpetually a gulf of understanding and knowledge about what is happening to these individuals, whether or not LEAD is actually helping people move on from once or repeatedly committing these small, the low-level illegal acts.

And so I just want to say that I will probably go ahead and support this amendment.

I just want to remind everybody that this is a job for the city to continue doing.

and it's our fault that we haven't figured out a way how to create that database bridge or that connection so that we know that the millions and millions and millions of dollars that we're spending on these programs is actually having the intended outcome.

Thank you, Council President.

No questions, so I'm not gonna call on anyone else.

So I will say Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to start that I will be supporting this and I'll tell you why I think just Council, the Budget Chair and I were here in 2020 and thereafter.

And I have been through four chiefs, Chief O'Toole, Chief Best, Chief Diaz, and now Chief Barnes.

and of course we've been working with Chief Amy Barden as well, who we hired and brought on.

And I've served three times on the Labor Committee behind the scenes with SPD and Seattle Fire Department in developing policy as well as being part of the conversation, the consent decree and the legislation that we implemented to respond to a lot of the police issues that came up in the consent decree.

So with that, the reason why this is so important to me after eight or nine years is that this is exactly what the people demanded.

They demanded a community-based, organic response to social injustice and looking at upstream alternatives from not just us policy but as a community and what our police force should look like.

Is it perfect?

No.

Is it a step?

Absolutely.

And as someone who can actually stand in witness since 2015, we're in the right direction.

and this is what we need to do.

Now, I've said this before and I know I'll probably hear from everybody who's going to complain, but as a woman of color and growing up in a community that was over-policed and targeted, to have something like this with someone in a place like Chief Amy Barden, who we're working with across the city, including Lake City, Aurora and other areas, I'm very proud of this program and I want to see it succeed.

And for that reason, I will be supporting it.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

before we come back to you.

So I'm not gonna add any other comments, but for those of you playing budget bingo, Council Member Juarez and I have been here for the same number of chiefs, but different chiefs.

Which ones are they?

Colleagues, are there any other questions or comments or discussion on this topic?

Council Member Rivera, I see your hand for a second time.

We're running out of time.

So that's why you will have the last word and then I'll give it back to the sponsor and then we're gonna move forward.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to make it very clear because I think this conversation took a little bit different turn here.

I want to state for the record, I believe in alternative response.

This has nothing to do with believing in alternative response or not.

This is a mechanical issue about where these contracts live.

Do they stay in the human services department or they transfer over to the care department?

I too want to see the care department succeed and sometimes we give departments things and they have a difficult time managing the extra.

I'll say it like that.

And so because I do want to see it succeed, I want to make sure that they're doing the doubling of the care responders and the additional 911 call takers and the sole dispatch piece that we've all been wanting the department and the responders to do.

I want that to succeed.

And so I am concerned about giving them more like the management of these contracts.

In no way am I trying to undermine alternative response.

I agree and I too was here.

I was in the mayor's office.

I was not on council but I was here and I was here through all the chiefs that you also colleagues were here for and during all of the events of 2020, I too was here.

So I do agree with you on the alternative response.

This is what people wanted and I want to see CARES succeed.

And because of that, I may have my own, I definitely have my own take on how to best help them succeed.

So we are all aligned and that is simply the issue here.

Nobody, this is not about taking contracts away or the program away.

This is all our own take on how we think the department will best succeed under the circumstances because there are growing pains involved.

So I just really wanted to state that for the record, that's important.

I felt like somehow the conversation took a different little turn.

That is not what I meant.

And I want people to be very clear that I support alternative response.

I want to have CARES succeed.

That is, that is, it's an important, and we all talked about that.

We've all talked about that, the importance of having alternative care responders will often have a better outcome than having a police officer who's not trained to handle a mental health crisis situation or a drug addiction situation with our unhoused neighbors on the street.

I care deeply, we all care deeply.

It's the mechanics of how best this can work.

So again, thank you Councilmember Kettle for bringing this forward.

Again, I would probably in the future support transferring of these contracts, but right now in this moment of time, I am concerned.

I've seen departments take—I've seen councils and mayors giving departments more than maybe they can handle, and that's a concern that I have.

want it to be really clear.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am going to recognize Councilmember Juarez for any last final remarks and then we're done, done.

Thank you.

I just want to take a personal note here to my dear sister in district four, Councilmember Rivera.

I know she was in the mayor's office because I watched her get $30 million out the door to these communities.

Councilman Rivera, I know that your heart is right here.

I get that and I understand what you're doing.

I always appreciate because you always do the homework.

You always have your highlighter out and you're always tapping stuff and you're always coming to me and I appreciate that.

And this is what I love about this council.

Well, actually every council, we can all agree to disagree and I understand that your heart and mind is in this place to make sure that this succeeds.

So thank you, Councilman Rivera.

Thank you, Councilmember Wares.

Councilmember Kel, take us home.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

I just wanted to say, well, thank you, actually.

Thank Councilmember Rivera for doing this because it's allowed us to speak to the topic.

And to close, I also wanted to speak, well, first, 110% understand where you are on alternative response.

And to your point about with the capacity and so forth.

I think it's really important for people to know this is the importance of the committee system.

We are engaged.

The Public Safety Committee is engaged with our strategic framework plan and the like.

And as working over the last two years, you pull the onions, you work the different pieces.

This goes to the scene point that I've been speaking to over the last six months plus.

And this engagement really shows those areas where we need to make the tweaks, where we need to make these adjustments.

I would like to also say I am deeply, my team is deeply engaged with the executive and the judiciary branch too, but particularly with the executive branch, with the mayor's office, with the departments.

And I have not spoken to the mayor since the last couple days.

I intend to.

Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry that I've not texted or called yet.

But I do want to take this opportunity because I think it's important for the people of Seattle to know.

When we're working these public safety pieces, Mayor Harrell, leadership, allowed me to do better in this job because I had the access to his team on the mayor's staff.

I had the access to departments and the various people involved.

And that collaboration led to better results.

That collaboration led to furthering what we're trying to do on public safety as a team.

And those results are quite clear.

And I say that and I just wanted to publicly thank Mayor Harold for that because it's important and it's really important moving forward too.

and that will come up.

On the point about the practical pieces that Council Member Rivera, yes, we're engaged.

I know the person, I won't say the name, NHHD who has the expertise that's working these pieces.

That same person, that expertise will still be the same in CARE and that oversight that we'll do as a committee will still be there and we will continue to ensure that.

And to the point raised about data pieces and all that, that also goes to CARE 001A2.

because these are the things that are popping up as we do our work, and we're going to continue to work them in a collaborative way.

And my intention, my hope is to continue to do that moving forward after January 1st.

And that said, colleagues, again, I ask for your support for this amendment, and I appreciate the opportunity again to speak to CARE, and more importantly, to alternative response, because we need to keep that bigger picture of alternative response as we work this field.

Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

If you would like to move lead, co-lead, and WDC contracting to CARE, vote yes.

If you wanted to stay at HSD, vote no.

Will the clerk please call the roll on CARE 3B1?

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

No.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Solomon.

Aye.

Chair Strauss.

Aye.

Eight in favor, one opposed.

Thank you.

CARE 3B1 has been added to Council Bill 121116. I see that it is 1220. Colleagues, I was hoping we would be through Section B of our agenda by now.

With that, we are gonna continue moving forward.

I believe the next alphanumerical is FG.

Does this, Let me ask this procedural question at this time.

Is FG 101 supposed to be part of Section B, or do we take it up now?

Take it up now, but I was gonna use the opportunity to preview how it could be, what the intent is of potential substitutions.

This slide is actually.

Thank you, so I will move FG 101. and then all of the other considerations contained within this proposal.

Thank you and that's what the slide now on the screen is intended to do.

So, again, FG 101 takes $1 million of the sale fund and $60,000 of the remaining, the last bit of remaining general fund balance to put it into a federal response reserve.

Again, this would be in addition to the $9 million being held as essentially a continuum of care reserve.

That's the proposal that's in the balancing package.

As an alternative, Councilmember Saka is proposing a number of alternative uses of that money.

They are shown here.

I'm going to just briefly describe them, and I'm happy to say more as desired.

Not coincidentally, the list here adds to that 1.06 million.

And I'll describe some more about, depending on your interest in any or all of these items, how you might vote.

So let me just describe them though quickly.

$250,000 for repairs and renovations.

This is for the Highland Park Improvement Club, if I got that right.

Thank you Council Member Saka for the head nod.

So this would be in addition to $400,000 of funding that is provided in the balancing package.

Next item is $35,000.

to support strategic planning for the Center for Active Living, which is senior-focused, so this would be activities in West Seattle for seniors.

The third item is $125,000 for the West Seattle Food Bank.

The...

Yep.

The reference here to decreasing HSDs is in error.

These would all be funded from sale.

So yes, actually, multiple of these have references to funding sources, and the idea actually here is that they could all be funded as an alternative to sale, so I apologize for some of that.

So $50,000 for the renovations for Cultivate South Park, $100,000 for additional $100,000 for North Delridge, so this is in addition to the money that's proviso'd in the balancing package, and $500,000 additional for the African public market.

There's a million dollars in the proposed balancing package.

These six items would all be funded as an alternative to this Federal Reserve.

So in terms of voting now, if you have an interest in any one or all of these items, the thing to do would be to vote no on this FG item.

That would then leave resources available again to fund some or all.

I can't speak officially for the chair.

I think the implication here is if you were to vote no and then support some but not all of these items, that the remaining resources could then be directed to that Federal Reserve.

So again, if you're interested in any or all of these items to be funded as an alternative, the thing to do is to vote no on FG.

That then opens up the possibility of considering any or all of these items as we move forward.

Thank you, Director Noble.

As sponsor of this amendment, FG 101B1, I'll speak to its merits in just a second.

And I wanna thank Council Member Saka for raising these items.

Council Member Saka, you are an ardent advocate for your district and our city.

I mean, it's impressive.

It's really good.

If I had all the money in the world, I would have funded all these things.

I mean, really.

And so I can't speak to why not do any of these things because you've identified really important projects that are city's residents, D1 residents, all will enjoy by having a better city.

That's why I was proud to include those 25 items in the chair's balancing package.

That's why I was excited to increase that by $250,000 plus whatever this extra Delridge money that we had the miscommunication on earlier today.

That's why I have been so excited to be able to support you in those ways because you're an ardent advocate.

Colleagues, where we are on the time check, it's 1225. We're gonna continue moving forward.

These amendments represent six of the 13 amendments Council Member Sokka you're bringing today.

So again, I'm very excited to have supported your 25 items in the balancing package, the additional and the revised balancing package.

And if I could, I would support all these today.

However, we have a serious issue before us on the horizon, and that is the unknown caused by the federal government.

I'll remind us that a year ago when the chair's balancing package was released was when the results of the federal election were provided and we did not have the foresight at that time to put money in reserve for federal response.

We've seen in just these last few months on October 1st the federal government went into its longest shutdown ever.

November 1st, the SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time ever.

We as a city committed to spending $1 million a week.

That would have been $4 million by Thanksgiving and $8 million by Christmas.

We've already seen SDOT have to repay a $4 million grant that they received.

And then what we heard today in public comment and what we'll come to in another amendment here is that we have a potential funding gap in our permanent support of housing.

Colleagues, I get so frustrated by the city of Seattle having to take up the work of the federal and the state government on a daily basis.

When you look back to the 1980s with the housing money, people weren't homeless, they were housed.

And when you take money out of housing, they become homeless.

when people who have mental illness and there were problems with the mental institutions in the 1970s and those needed to be addressed, but that does not mean removing the funding for addressing mental illness and 40 years later we see it playing out on our street.

What we're hearing last night is there's another gutting of our housing.

and the housing that is specifically designed to keep people who are chronically homeless or have intense needs that need to be addressed.

And that's how we keep them off our streets, is by keeping them inside.

These things that I've just described have only been since October 1st.

It is still November 14th.

we don't know what future issues we are going to have to address over the next year.

What I do know is that we will have more issues to address, whether it is the continuum of care funding being at whatever level or whichever manufactured problem and crisis by the federal government comes our way.

at a minimum, we need another $1.06 million.

We probably need a lot more.

And that's why I believe that we need to keep this money, even though it was dedicated to the sale program, which is going to be effective.

This is why I believe we need to take this money and put it in the Federal Reserve.

So with that colleagues, that's my opening.

I will be shorter next time, but that's all I have to say on that item.

Are there questions, comments, discussion?

questions, comments, discussion.

Councilmember Sokka.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair, and appreciate your comments and acknowledgement of my sort of advocacy on behalf of my district and the broader city as well.

And I hope you understand that I am advocating so hard on behalf of my constituents in District 1 and the broader city, in part because I'm inspired by you and your leadership and your stalwart advocacy on behalf of your own districts.

and the rest of the city.

And I'm learning from every last one of you colleagues.

And I think in that regard, it's been a race to the top in this whole budget process, in our sort of legislative sausage-making process more broadly.

So thank you, Mr. Chair, extending some gratitude right back at you.

And I do appreciate, and I agree generally with the essence of every single thing you just said.

I'm tired of the city having to step up and backfill and solve all the federal government's problems and sometimes the state and you're like, no!

It's nonsense.

Manufactured problems.

We should not be in a position to even have to do this.

I appreciate the underlying intent as someone who is, in general, a fan of good governance and a fan of being prepared for the next thing, looking around corners, anticipating potential future needs and risk.

It's my job, by the way, as a lawyer in my day job.

That's literally the essence of my job, boiled down.

So I appreciate the one-time decision to place $1.06 million into a federal response reserved.

Again, that's totally understandable.

Putting it as a sort of a rainy day safeguard, rainy day fund.

Colleagues, I would submit to you today, look outside.

The dumpster fire that is the Trump administration is here.

The storm is here.

People are literally going hungry on these streets.

Kids are starving.

Check the headlines.

There's receipts.

People terrified, scared to death to open up newspaper articles to see what the next crisis or emergency is.

But we know with the federal cuts to SNAP and vital food programs and the protracted shutdown by the Republican Congress, another manufactured crisis, and the Trump administration's cruel, inhumane response, there are urgent, dire needs in our communities right now.

So on the one hand, I appreciate the rainy day concept and wait and see, and there's too many people going hungry as is.

And so what this would do is unlock some additional funds we could talk about later, opportunities, to support seniors in West Seattle to help them do the senior center.

I think you heard Amy Lee comment on this, one of the items earlier today.

It would help them specifically do place-based services and expand outside of their sort of brick and mortar center location in the West Seattle Junction.

Meet people where they're at.

Meet people where they're at and where they're at with their own needs.

It will also allow us, West Seattle is, I think it is, the single largest neighborhood in Seattle by geography and population.

That's just a fact.

It sort of is what it is.

And I'm proud of the investments, and thank you, Chair, for your generosity for money for food banks and senior activities, so this would be on top of that.

But there is a critical need right now for additional services and support, specifically for the West Seattle Food Bank, to allow them to do more, to further amplify the impact of the tax dollar that we're already, hopefully, gonna contribute to them on top of other investments.

South Park, cultivate South Park.

We heard them come testify and self-advocate for themselves last week during a public hearing.

They are prepared, and they want to, open a food distribution place right here, or not right here, literally, but in the heart of the South Park community, and among other things, provide direct meal access and free food to members of the community.

These are emergent needs that are here right now.

So I appreciate the intent underlying the response and preparedness, but there are real life needs right here, right now.

And then I'll also address quickly some of the other items that are brick and mortar.

So there's a few of the items that are emerging community needs that relate to programs, expansion of programs and services.

And then there's a separate sort of bucket for two projects that reflect kind of brick and mortar investments.

and food access and food security underlie all those projects as well.

And although it's not us being able as a community to realize the benefit of those specific projects and investments would be longer term, I acknowledge that.

It would also help us as a community be more resilient to future Trump attacks and unknowns from this federal administration.

and it also allows communities to be more self-empowered from an economic development standpoint.

In any event, again, all that is to say, I would generally agree with The intent here, I just think that there are some really compelling, urgent needs right now on the ground.

When I was leaving last night, I ran into a colleague.

I think I ended up leaving the office around 8, 9 or 10 or something, I don't know.

But I ran into a colleague late night.

I was actually working on some stuff for South Park, including part of this investment that I was talking to.

This person happens to live in South Park.

and I want to be able to look all of my constituents in the eye and say that I fought for them.

And that includes everyone outside of the District 1 as well.

So, colleagues, for those reasons, I ask for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Sokka, Councilmember Rink, followed by Council President Nelson.

Thank you, Chair.

And I want to thank you, Councilmember Saka, for your advocacy and your passion for your district.

It's encouraging to hear.

And I want to thank you, Chair, also for your leadership in putting together the CBA.

I will be supporting the CBA.

That puts $1 million into Federal Reserve.

And I wanted to take a moment to speak in my capacity as Chair of the Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes just to provide a refresher on all the topics that we've covered in committee this year.

We've brought in local experts and leaders in the spaces of LGBTQIA, reproductive healthcare access, housing and homelessness services, gender-based violence, labor protections, emergency management, energy policy, senior services.

We've talked about tourism and impacts of the tariffs on our maritime port activity.

Every single one of these areas has been deeply impacted by the actions of this federal regime, and there are a number of other areas that we've yet to explore.

There are so many things that have been thrown into uncertainty at this time, and that is why it is important that we have the ability to, the flexibility to urgently respond to issues as they come up, such as the news that came out just last night now that the NOFO has been released.

So I will be supporting the CBA that puts $1 million into our Federal Reserve so we can be responsive as our changing federal funding picture changes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Nelson, Council Member Rivera.

And on this item, I'm gonna ask everyone to only speak once.

As the sponsor of the amendment, I will be recognized right before we end, but everyone gets one crack today.

Council President Nelson.

I will just say that, harkening back to the comments that I've been making during this budget process, putting it into reserves, spending it on individual items are not the only two possibilities.

There is also the possibility of just not spending the money.

I have expressed my concern about the sustainability of the proposed budget and the chair's package in the past, so I just want to say that these are not our only choices right before us right now.

However, I do need to express my concern about putting money into a pot that is undefined.

I don't feel that it's good government just to park money into a reserve account, because there's already in the mayor's budget $9 million, I believe, emergencies in the Human Services Department, if I'm not mistaken.

And so I got the nod from our director.

In any case, it's just not good governance, I don't believe, to be putting money in for reserves when we don't know how that is going to be used in the future.

We have a responsibility to spend the resources that we have using the best knowledge that we have right now.