Select Budget Committee Public Hearing Session I 10-7-25

Good afternoon.

The October 7th, 2025 Select Budget Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 1 0 1 p.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Hollingsworth.

Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Councilmember Sacca.

Here.

Councilmember Solomon.

Present.

Chair Strauss.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you, and all council members who are not present are excused.

We are moving into our public hearing day.

We are starting things a little bit differently than we've done in the past, learning good lessons from how council member Joy Hollingsworth chaired the comprehensive plan committee public hearings.

And so this morning, or I guess this afternoon, we are starting here at 1 p.m.

We will have virtual public comment and starting at 5 p.m.

we will have in-person public comment.

And so I will read the, I don't have the rules.

So Jody, you'll have to help me out with reading the rules for public comment and then we'll call the people in the order in which they are signed up.

Sure, for public comment, speakers will be called in the order they are registered.

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

Speakers' mics will be muted if you jot in your comment within that time.

And a reminder to the remote speakers to please press star six after you've heard the message that you have been unmuted.

And let's get going.

I'm gonna start the timer and I'll unmute the speakers.

Are you calling the speakers today?

Yep, I will call the speakers in which they are registered.

So just to also share with you all, you cannot do both virtual public comment and in-person public comment.

So if you have called in and you are planning to come this afternoon, just don't, you can hang up now and come this afternoon, or if you'd like to provide public comment virtually this earlier afternoon, you don't have to come this evening, I should say.

So with that, I will call out the first 10 speakers and let you know who is and is not present.

We have Lydia Felty, Sandy Shetler, Mike Stewart, Chloe Gale, Christopher Lee Keenan, you are not present at this time, Laurel Redden, Julius Caesar Robinson.

We have a group, Matthew, Leonard, Clayton, Elijah, and then Julia Buck.

So that's the first 10. I see all are present except for Julia Buck, and we will give three minutes to the group when we get to them.

So up first.

one minute per person today.

So using the guidance that we received from, or using the example that we experienced with Council Member Hollingsworth, we had one minute for public comment, and then we are also doing groups this year.

So if there are three or more, you can sign up as a group to get three minutes.

With that, we will call the first registered speaker, which is Lydia Felty, followed by Sandy Shetler.

Lydia.

I'm a co-chair of the Seattle renters commission and a renter in district 3. Seattle is a majority renter city as I think you all know and renters must be prioritized in this budget particularly in this time of great economic uncertainty and where Seattle is seeing an increase in residents and particularly in renters.

We, the Renters Commission, ask that you amend the budget to include the following.

The first is a protection of dedicated affordable housing revenue, including and especially JumpStart funds.

JumpStart was explicitly created to invest in affordable housing and equitable development, and we're seeing it used as a slush fund for the general budget in the number of hundreds of millions.

We urge Council to stop rating JumpStart and to identify sustainable and progressive revenue.

We also ask that you fully fund rental assistance and tenant services.

Last year we wrote to request an increase in funding for both of those and said massive cuts to both.

And both are critical to supporting renters and preventing eviction.

We also ask that you reinstate the $50,000 allocated for assessment.

Thank you so much.

And if you have additional comments that you'd like to send in, please do so.

And up next is Sandy Shetler followed by Mike Stewart and then Chloe Gale.

Sandy.

Thank you Councilmember Strauss.

This is Sandy Shetler with Tree Action Seattle.

We set aside funds to start the process of unifying Seattle's nine urban forestry departments.

Almost every large U.S. city like D.C., New York, San Francisco, and Portland has one agency managing its trees.

In contrast, Seattle has nine tree departments.

Some of them even prune the exact same trees at different times.

This is not a formula for success and our canopy is shrinking.

Unifying urban forestry eliminates silos, is more efficient, and creates synergies of scale.

We also strongly support the mayor's conservation easement pilot.

Many property owners are already doing this.

They're protecting growth on lot edges while reserving space for new housing.

Let's leverage private property trees for public benefit.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sandy.

Up next is Mike Stewart followed by Chloe Gale and then Christopher Lee Keenan.

I think we've got Mike here.

Hang on, Chloe.

Let's see if this other phone number three ending in three zero.

There's Mike now.

Mike, if you wanna star six to unmute.

Hang on, we're having some technical issues.

Let's go to Chloe and then back to Mike.

Sounds good.

Chloe, we're gonna go with you and then we'll circle back to Mike.

Chloe, I see you now.

Star six.

Take it away.

Welcome, Chloe Gale.

Hello, my name is Chloe Gale.

I'm representing Evergreen Treatment Services and the Clinic and the REACH program.

Evergreen includes the largest street outreach team in Seattle, the lead intensive case management program, and the largest treatment program for opioid use in Seattle.

First, I want to thank you for your continued support of our essential homeless and housing workforce through the 2% wage equity adjustment and your core commitment to retaining all current housing and shelter programs.

Our team is on the street every day, and we know firsthand that we must keep doors open on our current shelter and housing programs to ensure people have safe places to go.

We also want to continue the programs that help our neighborhoods access solutions.

These include our neighborhood-focused outreach providers, as Mike is going to mention, from the Ballard BIA, and our enhanced care teams, such as LEAD, to customize individual plans for specific people struggling in our communities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chloe.

Up next, we have Christopher Lee Keenan and Mike.

It looks like you need to call back in and then we'll put you right to the top whenever you call in.

Christopher, you're up next.

I see you're here.

Star six to unmute.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Hi, my name is Christopher Keenan.

Thank you.

I live in Capitol Hill, and I'm a volunteer and a board member of Community Lunch on Capitol Hill, and I'm here today to encourage you to support additional funding for community meal programs in Seattle.

A group of us from the Meals Partnership Coalition met last Wednesday with Councilmember Hollingsworth.

She wasn't just supportive, she was inspiring.

She meant it when she asked, how can I help you?

We didn't ask for the moon.

That would be breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week in cafeterias across the city.

Ridiculous, right?

No, we just want to keep our little programs running while the federal government cancels on a whim, programs Congress has authorized for decades.

We're living in the twilight zone.

Last week, one of our guests thanked me for the meal, saying how much she enjoyed an apple the night before that she had saved from the afternoon's lunch.

She thanked me for an apple.

Every day she takes the bus to get to us, and I know when she doesn't show up, it's a rare day.

Oddly, we're a family, the volunteers, the staff, and the guests, and I'm asking you to help keep the family together.

Thanks.

Thank you, Christopher.

Up next is Laurel Redden, followed by Julius Caesar Robinson, and then our group of Matthew Leonard Clayton, and one more.

I see you're here, Laurel, and you're off mute.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

My name is Laurel Redden.

I'm with the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, and I'm speaking to the mayor's budget proposal.

I'm here to ask council members to help us ensure continuance of services for victims of sexual assault and other gender-based violence.

We're grateful to see a modest 2% increase in the mayor's budget for gender-based violence and for human services wage equity.

However, that still leaves a tremendous gap.

Without additional funding from the city, we risk telling survivors they must wait for services that they need today.

We risk silencing immigrant survivors who need language access to fully tell their story.

We risk wraparound support to help survivors access food, housing, transportation, medical, and other needs they need to remain in their cases.

A perfect storm of federal state funding cuts, federal and municipal contract payment delays, and stagnant funding from all levels of government over time have left our nonprofit and others in our network extremely unstable.

We ask that the city of Seattle do all in part so that the financial storm does not soothe the way.

Thank you, Laurel.

And feel free to send in additional comments and thank you for the work you do.

Up next, I'm not seeing Julius, but I am seeing Matthew, Leonard, Clayton, and Elijah.

So why don't we do the group?

So this will be for three minutes.

Sure, yeah, we'll bring Julius up now.

Julius, I see you're with us.

Star six to unmute and take it away.

Welcome.

Hello, my name is Julius.

My name is Julius Caesar Robinson and I am the community coordinator and education coordinator for partner in employment and I'm asking that you guys maintain full funding for the Office of Labor Standards, who we've been working with for the last four years.

I train mostly East African and Middle Eastern immigrants and refugees on their labor rights, and the Seattle ordinances that I trained them in have been essential in helping us gain major settlements for workers in this area, like the recent multi-million dollar settlement you may have heard of.

Cutting funding will reduce our ability to continue educating our workers and employers in Seattle and put our most vulnerable workers at risk of harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

We urge you to protect full funding for OLS so that we can keep moving the needle toward a just economic system for all of us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julius.

Up next we have the group of Matthew, Leonard, Clayton, and Elijah.

Star six to unmute, who's ever phone is the one that you're using, and we will give you three minutes.

And Matthew, there you are, you're off mute.

Welcome, how are you?

Thank you, good.

Good afternoon, my name is Matthew Black.

I'm a co-lead staff member.

I just wanted to share my perspective as someone who is in the field doing this work every day.

CoLead has been just a really great piece of work at and I've been able to work with participants that at a lot of times wouldn't even accept a shelter referral move into long-term sustainable permanent housing we don't really put them into boxes here we're able to work with our participants to let them set their own goals and build up the support that they need in order to hold on to that housing and I can't to tell you enough how important I believe it is that this program continues and grows.

So, thank you.

Here's the next speaker.

Good afternoon.

My name is Leonard Mitchell, and I am a co-lead participant.

I want to share about what this program has meant to me.

Joining co-lead has transformed my life drastically.

I was struggling to manage everyday tasks, but co-lead provided the support I needed to navigate legal issues and obtain essential documents like my ID.

This assistance has been crucial in my journey towards stability.

I received my ORCA card for public transportation, which has allowed me to access necessary services and connect with my community.

The small but significant change has made it easier for me to move forward in my recovery journey.

Having a safe place to call home has been life-changing.

It allows me to rest, eat, shower, and do laundry basic needs that I didn't have before, but are essential to my recovery and well-being.

Thank you.

Hello.

My name is Clayton Nome, and I'm a co-lead participant.

CoB has helped me with safe housing and because of that, I'm going to be able to sign up for school and it's just a safe place.

Good afternoon.

My name is Elijah and I'm a CoB participant.

I want to share about what the program has meant for me.

It's meant for me a lot of things.

One of the things has been for me to become an active person in my community again.

and take care of my priorities as far as priorities and also be able to get back into schooling and get a great start on my future.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for being an effective example of group public comment.

I do see Mike Stewart has signed back up, but has he called in?

There we are.

Mike, you're up at the top.

Following Mike is Julia Buck, Cat Howell, Steve Zemke, Abby Brockway, Hallie Willis, Julie Holland, Alice Lockhart.

And we'll come back to that.

Mike, I see you're off mute.

Take it away at your convenience.

Good afternoon, Chair Strauss and members of the Select Budget Committee.

My name is Mike Stewart.

I'm Executive Director of the Ballard Alliance, a neighborhood improvement organization that represents hundreds of businesses and thousands of residents in Ballard.

I'm here today to support continued funding for LEAD as well as funding for neighborhood-focused outreach services.

Over the last several years, I've had the opportunity to partner with LEAD and support the creation of the Seattle Neighborhood Impact Framework, also known as case conferencing.

This framework uses a neighborhood-based structure to provide a targeted response to people living unhoused who are experiencing behavioral and mental health challenges and are also flagged as being incredibly impactful to the community and associated with public disorder issues.

This program is proving successful in large part through our partnership with LEAD, but it is also effective because it is firmly rooted in geographically-focused neighborhood-based outreach.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And following Mike is Julia Buck, Kat Howell, and Steve Zemke.

Julia, I see you're off mute.

Take it away at your convenience.

Welcome.

Hello.

My name is Julia Buck and I'm a resident of District 6. I'm a homeowner and I'm following up on the Council's claim that they were going to do a big audit when they were running in 2023. I know how the $20 million in non-fillable positions that was allocated to the Seattle Police Department's budget was spent in 2025. I've noticed that Mayor Harrell's budget is $50 million in new spending And of that, $34.5 million of that spending is in SPD.

So I would like to understand where that $28 million went.

I'd also like to mention the amazing success of breaking the organized retail theft ring in Cattle Hill.

$281 worth of merchandise across three people.

Those criminals were almost getting over the same hourly rate as an SPD officer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julia.

And up next is Kat Howell followed by Steve Zemke and then Abby Rockaway.

Kat, I see you're here and off mute.

Take it away at your convenience.

Welcome.

Kat, you might be muted on your phone.

So we see you're off mute on Zoom.

Here we go.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Welcome.

Great.

All right.

My name is Kat Howell.

I'm one of the co-executive directors at Literacy Source, an adult education school located in Lake City.

We had over 1,000 adult learners in our programs across Seattle in the last academic year.

We're speaking to the mayor's proposed budget and especially the focus on providing increased investment for immigrant and refugee affairs.

As an example, these funds would support programs like Ready to Work, an English digital skills and workplace readiness program that Literacy Source teaches in three sites in North, South and West Seattle.

Last year, 166 adult learners participated in this program, building their skills to get or maintain living wage employment.

It also supports programs like the New Citizenship Program and other legal services for immigrants and refugees.

Vital work always, but particularly in the current political environment.

Please invest in our immigrant and refugee community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Up next is Steve Zemke followed by Abby Brockway and then Hallie Willis.

Steve, I see you're already off mute.

Professional.

Take it away, Steve.

Yeah, this is Steve.

Yeah, Steve.

speaking for Friends of Seattle and TREPAC.

I urge the Council to support two funding issues which were due to COVID shortfalls.

One was that in the canopy stand include a canopy volume, not just canopy area.

Natural capital assessed proved in 20-bit light loss funding due to shortfalls.

Also support the $100,000 programs to preserve exceptional trees and tree groves and be considered one to consolidate urban forestry management.

Urge that this also include looking at the Department of Climate and Environment with an urban forestry division management in trees in the right of way as San Francisco, Philadelphia, Vancouver.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Up next is Abby Brockway, followed by Hallie Willis and Julie Holland.

Abby, welcome.

Star six to unmute.

We'll give it just a second.

There you are, Abby, welcome.

Sorry about that.

My name is Abby Brockway, district six.

Hi, Dan Strauss, my council person.

I urge you to include the following Sunday to move trees out of SDCI.

The mayor asked for Nathan Torgelson's resignation because the permit process at SDI is too slow.

But the real problem is deeper.

SDCI handles trees.

It makes absolutely no sense to have the department that deals with developers and construction also be in charge of protecting our trees.

This is a huge conflict of interest, and we've seen the results.

Developers work with SDCI all the time and become friendly with SDCI staff, which is the definition of the fox guarding the henhouse.

When the new tree laws passed, an SDCI employee told me they were completely overwhelmed and surprised by the extra responsibility.

SDCI's job is to permit issues, not manage canopy goals.

This added work slows down the entire department.

If we want to build housing

Thank you, Abby, and feel free to send in any additional comments.

Up next is Hallie Willis followed by Julie Holland and then Alice Lockhart.

Hallie, I see you're already off mute.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Hallie Willis.

I'm the policy manager at the Coalition on Homelessness and a member of SHSC.

Everyone should have access to housing that meets their needs.

but right now we're at risk of losing up to $67 million in federal HUD continuum of care funds that are keeping thousands of people housed and safe across Seattle and King County.

The great majority of our COC funds are spent on housing to move people out of homelessness.

But as was reported in Politico, the federal government is poised to slash that housing funding by limiting it to only 30% of the grant.

That would be a huge cut.

On top of that, we're bracing for the loss of emergency housing vouchers, which will put even more people at risk of becoming homeless again.

We're calling on you and your colleagues at the county to prioritize keeping people housed before spending on new or expanded programs across the budget.

Please sustain all housing and shelter and expand the mayor's proposed reserve for federal cuts to ensure that nobody loses their home.

Thank you.

Thank you, Hallie.

Up next is Julie Holland, followed by Alice Lockhart, David Glogger, Jennifer Godfrey, Henry Tanaka, Ref Linmark, Richard Eliasson, and David Haynes.

David, you're the only one not present.

Julie, I see you're off mute.

Welcome.

Yes, hello, and thank you.

I am Julie Holland, representing the South Lake Union Community Council regarding the requested budget item of $1 million to rehabilitate Lake Union Park.

For the past 18 months, we have been focused on developing the strategic plan for the capital investments in the three SLU parks due to ELCLIP funding that was recently approved.

We were finally able to pivot to the implementation phase.

To our great dismay, what surfaced was the deteriorating condition of this Olmstead-designed urban park with its remarkable features.

a park that was selected to play a role in the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

It became clear that the poor condition of the park would compromise any future investment.

Damaged lawns, unhealthy goose waste, deteriorating boardwalks, defaced furniture, struggling trees.

The requested one million will revitalize Lake Union Park in time for the World Cup, serve as a catalyst for additional private sector giving that ensures Lake Union Park will be restored and remain a vibrant, treasured urban escape.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie.

I see Alice Lockhart was off mute just a second ago.

You can come back off mute, Alice.

There you are.

So we'll have Alice, David, Jennifer, Henry, Ref.

Alice, take it away at your convenience.

Hi, my name is Alice Lockhart and I'm just made by the four budget items for FIFA World Cup.

This is a fixed $3.3 million corporate subsidy that Seattle voters cannot and should not have to afford using bill FIFA.

The mayor asked for Escots to spend more than $3.5 million on FIFA.

This is more than twice the budget, the proposed budget's new spending on Seattle transit.

Could we just have more bus and bike lanes instead for some of the really important things other speakers have been asking for?

I urge Council to remove each item from the budget and comb the budget for other corporate subsidies, particularly the 2026 endorsed budget flow of funds to downtown activation.

Moreover, please restore the two-minute public comment.

One minute is for substantive issues.

This is just not enough.

Thank you Alice and yes we are continuing to monitor if one minute feels too short or if one minute is feeling all right and so we will continue to make revisions as this is an iterative process where we are and just as I'm taking a moment to soapbox over here we had the conversation of whether to cut public comment sign up off in the evening or to have one minute and for this one we've decided to leave public comment sign up open until we're done and use one minute.

So we'll continue this.

And Alice, I appreciate hearing that feedback.

David, you're up next followed by Jennifer and then Henry.

David, I see you're already off mute.

Take it away.

Welcome.

Thank you, council members.

My name is Dave Gloger and I'm a resident of District 5. And during council meetings and in some of the candidate debates this fall, we've heard council members express their support for the 30% tree pan canopy goal.

But we need to back that up with some money.

And so I ask you to provide funding to combine all the forestry departments in the city, all nine of them into one.

And don't think of this as an expense.

Think of it as a chance to save money in the long run.

Because these departments are repeating and doing the same jobs, and we can make it much more efficient.

And when I'm not advocating for the trees, I am a tutor at the Lake City Library, helping with the homework help program.

The last spring, the federal government cut off funding to provide snacks for the students.

So I'm asking you to be a stopgap for that and make sure that students have the snacks at these programs so they're not all.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

And up next is Jennifer Godfrey.

And Jennifer, I see you're already off mute.

Take it away.

Yes, thank you.

So I'm asking Council to save baby orcas by aligning with NOAA's Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Plan contaminants recommendations and reduce polluted runoff to minimize impacts on all endangered species by protecting Tier 1 and 2 trees, most ecologically beneficial, bioremediators.

They reduce surface water temperatures, which salmon need, and contaminants.

Bigger trees are like bigger straws.

We need canopy volume.

in the canopy cover assessment and please fund HB 1110 implementation where the canopy comp plan misses the mark to build actual affordable housing to reduce impervious surfaces without reducing density of housing.

And thanks to the mayor for the tree protection easements, I would ask council to please pass this and also consider a DNR for Seattle for trees.

It's too much conflict of interest doing both construction and natural resources.

and I'm also a fan of supporting the gender-based violence support.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jennifer.

Up next is Henry Tanaka.

I see you're here and off mute, take it away.

Before you jump in, Henry though, David Haynes, you're the only person not present and you've got three people ahead of you.

So if you wanna call in, now's the time.

And Henry, welcome, take it away at your convenience.

Good afternoon.

My name is Henry Tanaka.

I'm a case manager at the Low Income Housing Institute.

I'm a renter in District 3, Central Seattle.

As a former homeless youth of the Pacific Northwest, I'm advocating for the approval of $21 million in tenant-based rental assistance.

In my 10 years working in social services, I've seen those receiving housing still burdened with the inability to pay their subsidized rents due to unaddressed illnesses, be they mental or physical.

Affordable housing is not a turnkey experience.

We can't expect individuals to ever leave a state mind centered in fear of self-care beyond base for survival if the threat of homelessness is consistently blanketed on their living experience.

I believe the approval of $21 million in the tenant-based rental assistance for non-profit housing providers will not only pay rents for the most vulnerable of us that need it, but more importantly, it will give us time as case managers and therapists, program directors and the like to work with our clients and try their app and move forward in elevating quality of life.

Thank you.

Thank you, Henry.

Up next is Ref Lindmark.

Ref, star six to unmute and take it away at your convenience.

I see you're here, Ref. and you're off mute.

Ref, welcome.

Welcome.

How are you today?

Yeah, thank you.

Great, thanks Dan.

Thank you for all the members of the council.

I'd like to do a couple of things.

I'd like to, you know, I'm a volunteer and a leader of a program at Blessed Sacrament Church in the U District where we serve a Sunday dinner and we serve between 600 and 700 meals every Sunday.

Our program is also an active participant in the Meal Partnership Coalition And as such, we're here to thank the council for their support in the past, thank the mayor for putting extra meal funds in the budget, and thank Hollingsworth and Strauss and Renick for being champions.

And as you know, we serve people throughout the city, not just in the U District.

Our program is on Sunday.

The number of people we have, we know they come from afar, and that's great.

Our costs have clearly gone up.

Even though we're an all-volunteer program, to run the program for food, for security, it's all gone up.

So we continue to appreciate your support and look forward to more of it.

Thank you very much.

Take care.

Thanks, Ref.

Ref, up next is Richard Eliasson.

And Richard, I see you're off mute.

So please, at your convenience, take it away.

After this, David Haynes, you will be called on.

So with that, Richard.

Yes, thank you.

Hi, I am Richard Ellison.

I'm a resident of District 4 and a retired Seattle Community College adjunct professor.

I urge the city to consolidate its urban forestry management under one single department.

Seattle's tree management is currently fragmented across nine different departments, competing objectives and conflicts create significant problems in maintaining and protecting trees.

I also urge the support of the Mayor's Urban Conservation Easement Pilot Program, to protect especially large community and healthy trees and tree groves, providing incentives for property tax reductions and protecting tree groves hopefully.

I also urge DATTLE to explore SDOT to being responsible for management of all street trees in the right of way.

Many of the street trees are on, they're adjacent to private property with the city developing so much of its private property and trees being lost on private property.

we're spending more and more on street trees, and there's a real need to try to coordinate and protect these street trees, and it would be good to see if a pilot program, if we could look at seeing how Seattle's SDOT could maybe take over all of the maintenance, or at least the majority of the maintenance.

Thank you, Richard, and feel free to send in any additional comments to our council website, council at seattle.gov.

David Haynes, you're not present at this time, and I'll take this moment to go back to reading some of the instructions for today.

My apologies for not being more clear at the top.

Today's public hearing will be broken into the two sections.

Anyone can sign up from before our virtual public comment until 3 p.m.

for virtual public comment.

The sign up for virtual public comment is still open and will remain open until 2.30 or till 3 p.m.

My apologies.

At 3 p.m.

the online registration will close.

We will take a recess from 4 o'clock to 5 o'clock and then begin with the in-person public comment.

Sign up for in-person public comment starts at 4.30 and we will continue the public hearing until everyone who has signed up has had a chance to speak.

So that means that if you come at 945 and there's still somebody speaking, you can sign up to speak.

If there are still remote public commenters who have not been heard from the first session at 5 p.m., we will begin that section and alternate between remote and in-person public commenters starting at 5. I don't believe that will be happening because we have exhausted our virtual public comment list.

However, public comment is, the sign-up is still open.

so my recommendation is at this time is that we will recess until 2 p.m.

and if there's nobody who has signed up since then we will be in recess until 2.30 p.m.

and if there's not anyone who signed up, we will be in recess until 3 p.m.

at which point I will come back out on the dais no matter what to just say we are gonna be in recess until five.

So for those following on Seattle Channel, we will be back here at the dais at every half of an hour until 3 p.m.

so folks can sign up online between now and 3 p.m., and we will take the virtual public comment at the half an hour of every, at the bottom and the top of every clock, unless you're using a digital clock that doesn't have hands.

With that, are there any questions or comments from the colleagues?

I'm seeing none, and so if there's no objection, we will be in recess until 2 p.m.

Apoid using all capitals'

you you you Music Plays you can see.

This is the first step of the step of the step of the step

Do I need to open the meeting again?

Okay.

I think we do.

Because we've got, we have Councilmember Rink, Sokka, Solomon, Hollingsworth, Strauss, Kettle.

That's six.

And so we will, Seattle Channel, we're ready to go.

I believe Seattle Channel is back online if you wanna.

I don't see it on the TV.

Oh, thank you.

I was looking at the screen.

I see the Chamber Zoom control and we are back this October 7th, 2025 Select Budget Committee meeting.

We'll come back to order very briefly if the clerk can call the roll.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Council Member Solomon.

Here.

Chair Strauss.

Present.

Six present.

Thank you.

Thank you colleagues for coming back in at 2 p.m.

David Haynes our only public commenter currently signed up is not present.

He did call me on my office phone and I spoke to him so that's why I wanted to bring us back open at 2 p.m.

either way just to see if he had called in.

IT can you confirm is Mr. Haynes remotely present at this time?

Not present.

Thank you.

Well, colleagues, sorry for the false start here.

I am gonna have us go into recess until 3 p.m.

Public comment period does, the public comment registration ends at 3 p.m.

So at that time we will have a good understanding of how much time we will be spending in the public hearing ahead of our in-person public hearing that starts at 5 o'clock, starts at 5 o'clock with the registration opening at 4.30.

So with that, I'm still not seeing David Haynes present.

Clerk, can you confirm he's not joined?

I do not see him present.

Okay, we will come back open.

So at this time, unless there's any objection, this select budget committee for October 7th will be in recess until 3 p.m.

Hearing no objection, we are in recess.

Thank you.

I'm going to put it on the top of my head Music Plays .

I can't believe it.

I can't believe it .

you I'll see you next time.

I'm going to put it in there.

that's correct uh doing just a camera check mic check colleagues if you are a council member and are present either turn on your camera or do a mic check check check I see Rob doing something with his camera.

There it is.

I'm hearing you count of four.

Present.

I don't count it.

Makes four of us.

We're just waiting on one more.

You got your three veterans.

Oh, and we have it.

Yeah, I didn't do any service, but I played basketball and we had to be on time for practice.

You know, we had a saying that if you're five minutes early, you're ten minutes late.

Seattle Channel, we are ready to roll.

I see we are live.

The October 7th, 2025 Select Budget Committee meeting will come back to order.

2.59 in the chamber, so I'm gonna wait until we're at 3 p.m.

proper, and then the clerk will call the roll.

I will.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Council Member Rink.

Council Member Rivera.

Council member Saka.

Here.

Council member Solomon.

Here.

Chair Strauss.

Present.

Five present.

Thank you colleagues.

We have two people signed up, David Haynes and Cesar Garcia.

However, neither are present at this time.

I see Cesar has just called in.

So we will promote Cesar and- He's promoted.

And we see you there Cesar.

Today's public comment periods are one minute per person, and if one minute is not long enough, you can send your comments into council at seattle.gov.

I see you are unmuted, and we have the timer ready to go, although I'm not sure it's shared, but I think it'll be fine.

Thank you, thank you.

Thanks for hanging on Cesar.

There we go.

So just for the record, council member- Rivera.

Juarez and Nelson are excused and we have council member Kettle, Saka, Hollingsworth, Solomon, Rink, Rivera and myself.

Did I miss anyone?

Anyhow.

Cesar, I see you're off mute.

We've got the timer up.

Whenever you get started, we'll start the clock.

It's great to have you here today.

Welcome.

Thank you Councilmember Strauss and this is Cesar Garcia.

I am one of the two co-founders and co-directors of Lake City Collective.

We are a community-based organization in District 5. We are just calling in to to advocate for priorities that we submitted to all of you today.

And I will not say more than that, only that we hope that all of you can support those priorities.

We are an organization which touches every district.

and also, of course, are asking for resources for all the other, you know, for community members.

So I hope you will support our initiatives.

I'm sorry, our proposed priorities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Cesar.

And with that, colleagues, we have moved through all of the virtual public comment registrants.

and so we will at this time be in recess until the 5 p.m.

public hearing in person starts and I don't see anyone else remote that has signed up online and public comment registration for the virtual section ended at 3 p.m.

So if you would like to still provide public comment, you can either write an email to council at seattle.gov, which goes to all of us, or you can sign up for public comment as early as 4.30 here in person at City Hall.

We will run public comment until we have finished hearing from everyone that signs up.

And so if you sign up at 10.45 and there's one more person speaking, we'll take your public comment.

And so we will be here as late as it takes.

But until then, we will be at recess until, I'm gonna say five o'clock on the dot.

So if there's no objection, the October 7th, 2025 Select Budget Committee meeting will be in recess until 5 p.m.

We are in