Good morning.
The September 17th, 2025 Finance Native Communities Tribal Governments Committee will come to order at 9.30 a.m.
I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.
Council President Nelson is excused.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Kettle.
Here.
Council Member Sacca.
Vice Chair Rivera.
Here.
Chair Strauss.
Here.
Currently we have three present, two excused.
Wonderful.
We have three items on the agenda today, an ordinance relating to the city's efforts to expedite the delivery of Sound Transit 3 program permits and add additional oversight.
We'll create exempt and non-exempt positions and ratify and confirm certain prior acts.
The second item is a central staff six-year Review of the city of Seattle's budget.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing none, the agenda is adopted and Council Member Sacca is present.
Just before we get into open public comment, We'll say that we had the second-ever Tribal Nations Summit yesterday.
It was full of energy.
There was good follow-up on the previous action items, and there were new commitments made.
It was maybe the second time since Councilmember Donnie Stevenson of Muckleshoot Tribe shared with me it was probably the second time since treaties were signed that so many different tribal elected tribal leaders and the government met here in Seattle and it was a powerful day.
Thank you Council Member Juarez for getting that started and continuing it.
We will open the public comment period now.
I am not seeing any public commenters online.
Do we have any in person?
No.
Okay.
And IT, can you confirm that there are no remote public commenters?
Confirmed there are no remote public comment registrants.
Thank you, Mr. G. Seeing as we have no one signed up for public comment, we will move on to the first item of business.
Will the clerk please read the short title into the record?
Item 1, Council Bill 121068, an ordinance amending Ordinance 127156, which adopted the 2025 budget, including the 2025-2030 Capital Improvement Program, CIP, changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels and from various funds in the budget to support the city's efforts to expeditiously deliver the Sound Transit III program permit review and other oversight.
Creating exempt and non-exempt positions and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts all by vote of three quarters of the City Council.
This item is for briefing, discussion and possible vote.
Presenters include Angela Brady, Director Kyle Butler of the Office of Waterfront Civic Projects and Sound Transit.
Wonderful.
This is the second time that we've had this item in committee and we're excited to move it forward.
Do you have a short presentation that you'd like to provide to bring us back up to speed?
We have a short presentation, so I think we just were introduced, so we probably don't need to do that for ourselves.
Thank you so much, council members, for having us here today.
I'm going to hand this off to Kyle to cover exactly what was in the legislation, and then we'll go from there.
Thanks.
So a recap from two weeks ago.
This legislation would authorize an additional 50 pockets across six departments, and it would move budget from the Finance General ST3 Reserve, $2.3 million of that, into operations budget for the Office of the Waterfront, Civic Projects, and Sound Transit, and also Additional assumptions, estimates of reimbursement funding from Sound Transit.
The intent here is twofold.
We would have 8.5 positions being added to hire right away with city funding that would support our strategic city interests as we negotiate with Sound Transit.
And then the second part would be 41.5 positions, most of those being in the utilities, 25 of them in the utilities.
to do field work and other engineering work, design review, plan review, and that would be through partnership agreements with Sound Transit.
So we would not hire those positions until we have those agreements in place.
Having the pockets approved ahead of time will facilitate those negotiations, help those go smoothly as we look toward an increase in West Seattle permits and plan review coming our way in early 2026. We'll start getting them late this year, and it really ramps up early next year.
Next slide.
Here are the specifics on the dollar amounts for the sources and the uses, so the revenue sources and the expenditures.
Moving that funding that council had set aside in finance general, 2.3 million of that, and then the remainder here being through reimbursables from potential utility work if we want to do any betterments for any water lines or sewer lines, and then also sound transit permits and partnerships being another 2.3 million assumed here.
And in the 26 budget, we also have companion adjustments that you'll see when that comes down to council.
Oh, the other thing to highlight too, we'll have some funding with this to start with consultant work as we ramp up.
That can help fill the gap as we go through the hiring process.
Okay, and our last substantive slide here, just wanted to provide a couple updates.
Since our time in front of you on the 3rd, we have continued progressing our negotiations with Sound Transit on those funding agreements.
Just to emphasize again, 41.5 FTE of these positions would be restricted.
We would not start recruitment until we have funding agreements in place.
We are negotiating both funding agreements for a lot of the pre-permitting work that we do, so that early design work, as well as the first phase of permitting, which that includes some of the field work in SOTO and some of that utility work that Kyle mentioned.
Along with that is developing an updated permit submittal timeline and looking for ways for Sound Transit to demonstrate commitment to that timeline so that we can In addition, at the meeting on the 3rd, there was a lot of interest in the ongoing conversations happening at the Sound Transit Board about their affordability issues for their capital program in particular.
And so since that committee meeting on the 3rd, the Sound Transit's Enterprise Initiative has had a couple additional conversations.
Notably at the Executive Committee and at System Expansion Committee last week.
Their continuing discussion of cost-saving strategies and financial new revenue tools, that conversation has started to include some scope reductions as well as construction efficiencies and project phasing over time.
There have not been any board actions regarding these, but that conversation has continued.
We are partnering with Sound Transit and are eager to be at the table to look under the hood and understand these new cost estimates that have come out.
And the consultant resources and some of the initial staff that we will be able to advance if this legislation moves forward will really help us be staffed up to have those conversations.
I also want to acknowledge that a number of council members at the meeting on the 3rd expressed a lot of interest in learning more about the Enterprise Initiative, and we'd be happy to help coordinate whatever appropriate briefings with Sound Transit that we can bring to this body.
Oh, I thought there was one last slide.
There we go.
Next steps, of course, committee discussion, hopefully committee vote today.
We are continuing to negotiate those reimbursement agreements, hoping to have those in place in October and November, and then put us in a position to start recruitment for these positions in late 2025. There might be a gap between when the work starts and those positions are in place, and that's where those consultant resources will really help support the team.
This timeline does coincide with what we expect to still be the permit timeline for West Seattle Link Extension, and it aims to prevent any delays in that review of that permit activity.
Any additional questions or comments?
I'll just turn it over to Calvin Chow of Seattle City Council Central Staff.
Do you have anything to add?
Thank you.
No, I think it's just important to realize that we are in the sound transit is in a The Enterprise Initiative is going to be a very tough discussion for them, for the Sound Transit Board to make, and that this staffing is necessary to help us be prepared and to provide sort of a city of Seattle information independent from Sound Transit to help our board members engage and our elected officials follow what's going on with them.
It also is make sure that we are able to respond if the projects move on the accelerated schedule, then we can be able to respond to that as well.
So it's a bit of belt and suspenders for both ways.
And just to repeat back to the presenters and then I'll open it to colleagues for questions.
This legislation allows us to create pockets in which you can hire for but will not hire for until we know for sure that a bow wake of permits are coming down the line.
Is that correct?
For 41 and a half positions.
For the eight and a half, we will have the authority to get started right now or as soon as the legislation passes, which we desperately need.
As Cal said, there's our meetings ongoing that we're setting up directly with Sound Transit to have conversations around their enterprise initiative.
We need to understand that better so that we can help form some recommendations for the city moving forward.
And those eight positions are because we are already receiving applications.
Is that correct?
We are already receiving cost-saving strategies and information that needs to be processed, and we do have several permit applications that are underway that we're working on with Sound Transit right now.
Thank you.
Colleagues, do you have questions?
Council Member Kettle.
Thank you, Chair Strauss.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you to Directors Brady and Maxana for coming and Mr. Butler and, of course, our own Mr. Chow.
You know, this is about due diligence and good governance, so I appreciate the work in terms of, you know, setting ourselves up for success.
The only thing I want to say is a little bit more, as they say, on the 30,000-foot level, and I say this as somebody who serves on the Puget Sound Regional Council.
And we're getting some pressures related to our comprehensive plan, which puts transportation dollars at stake if we don't get it done.
And it's a reminder that regional governments on one hand are saying, we need to have a regional center in Ballard.
Then we have regional governments, aka ST3, who's doing the transportation piece.
And then there's these questions.
So to be blunt, for government at the higher level to say, hey, you need to densify, and we're gonna put a regional center, not a neighborhood center, we're gonna put a regional center in Ballard that has all the connections through my district.
But we put that at risk by not having the transportation link, because land use and transportation have to be in sync.
And we're at risk of not being in sync.
So I hope the ST3 folks also understand what's going on with the comprehensive plan.
Puget Sound Regional Council, all of the above, need to understand that.
Because if they're not in sync, as usual, it's the city council.
It's the city that's facing the people.
The county, the regional, the state, everybody.
We're at point.
And we're the ones who have to work through these challenges, on-the-ground challenges.
And so we can't have higher, as we say, having the discord between land use and transportation.
And so if we're pressing forward, and we will, on a regional center for Ballard, then the better light extension from SD3 needs to be there.
Pretty simple.
I couldn't have said it better myself, Council Member Kettle.
Thank you, Chair.
I realize that's a comment, not a question, but I think I get my point across.
And I think it does bring up the important fact that, colleagues, we will need to begin our advocacy quarter four of this year, quarter one of next year.
Any of those harder conversations are going to happen quarter two of next year because Sound Transit is first looking at cost savings before taking harder discussions.
And I will also say that this legislation, these staff pockets here to review and expedite permits are part of what will make the Seattle portions more affordable because we're saving money by saving time.
We're cutting red tape so that we can build this needed infrastructure faster.
Colleagues, are there any other questions on the underlying bill?
I know Council Member Rivera, you have an amendment, but just wanted to touch on the underlying bill first.
Seeing no additional comments.
Council Member Rivera, I understand you have an amendment to the bill.
Would you like to move it at this time?
Do you want to move the underlying bill first?
I don't think we moved the underlying bill.
That's correct.
We just read it into the record.
I move Council Bill 121068. Is there a second?
Second.
The bill has been moved and seconded.
This is a good demonstration of you don't have to move the bill to have the discussion.
With that, over to you, Council Member Rivera.
Thank you, Chair Strauss.
Chair Strauss, I'd like to move to amend Council Bill 121068 as presented in Amendment 1.
Second.
The Amendment 1 has been moved and seconded.
Cal, I see you've already got this amendment on the screen.
I'll say, Cal, if you could Describe the amendment and then we'll turn it over to you, Council Member Rivera.
Council Members, the amendment is on the screen.
It would clarify that the positions that are authorized by this legislation would be sunsited when the sound transfer projects are completed.
It adds a new section that puts that requirement on the positions identified.
Thank you.
Council Member Rivera.
Thank you, Chair.
The amendment I'm offering, it goes toward good governance and making sure that we are very clear.
My interest is to make sure that when we hire staff for this, they're clear as to how long these positions, the job will be.
I think it's really important to be really transparent and clear with staff because I'd hate to bring someone on that thinks this is a job they can have forever.
When the intent, and I confirm this with the mayor's office, was to have these positions work on this project.
Now we know this project could take 8, 10, 12 years and that's a long time.
At the same time, I don't want to be in a situation where that time the project gets completed and those folks think they have a continual job because they're being hired for this project specifically.
So I don't want to be in that situation.
It doesn't feel good.
I think last year, colleagues, you saw in the budget there were some SDCI positions that we had to sunset.
And it puts a lot of strain on folks.
And so I think the more transparent that you can be when you're hiring people and you're clear to them what their job is, the better they can prepare.
And I think it would be unfair.
To let folks know when we're hiring them that this can be a forever job, if you will.
And so really, it's just to clarify that these are, it's almost like a project manager, which I've done term limited in my past.
And I appreciated knowing that that had an end date so I could prepare.
So like I said, these are long term, which is great.
But at the same time, we want to make sure that as HR processes go to hire these folks, That folks are being told this information because not to do so I think is not transparent and not fair to the employees.
So happy to answer any questions and hope that we're able to get included in the legislation.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Colleagues, questions?
Council Member Saka.
Thank you, Chair.
Just want to thank Councilmember Rivera for bringing this forward today.
I think it's a matter of good governance, but more importantly, it's a matter of clarifying the intent as expressed in multiple occasions by the executive.
That's the executive's original proposal.
These are not intended to be long-term, durable, potentially indefinite positions.
Instead, they're intended to be finite, and at a specific time and in terms of the project completion.
And I appreciate, Council Member Rivera, that you, as someone who operationalized certain hiring initiatives and had to have uncomfortable conversations with colleagues whose positions might be sunsetted, I appreciate your firsthand direct familiarity with this.
So excited to be able to support it today to bring us, to offer more clarity and bring us more in line with the executive's intent and spirit of this proposed legislation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
I'll just ask, and how will this be identified?
Will this be on the job description as we post it or will it be communicated when you're having conversations with applicants?
Yeah, I think we can work through with HR exactly how we should include this language in our job descriptions, potentially.
Thank you, because it is a term-limited position and it's a little bit different because it could be a decade.
Very long term.
I know in government many people choose their position and stay there for their career despite society having a different relationship with You know, it used to be you'd work for a single company your whole life.
That's not the case in today's society.
It is the case for many people who work for government.
So 10 years, it is important, you know, some people will transfer through, but it is also important that they know it from the outset.
Thank you.
Any other comments before Council Member Rivera?
Any last final words?
Yes.
You know, I'll also say that working with HR, you know, governments are big agencies and sometimes The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
So HR are our great partners and they don't always know because they are not necessarily in the departments what the intent is.
And so when they support departments in hiring, they don't know, they're not always clear about these things.
So it also helps HR know what the intent is.
So when they are helping support applicants that they know, What this is and HR are great partners and I know they can help you figure out how to best do this.
But I just know that my, you know, like I said earlier, I just want to make sure folks are clear because this is important to people to know if at the end of this project, they're not going to have a job anymore.
That's important to know.
So thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Will the clerk please call the roll on Amendment 1 to Council Bill 121068.
Councilmember Kettle.
Aye.
Councilmember Sacca.
Aye.
Vice Chair Rivera.
Aye.
Chair Strauss.
Aye.
That is four in favor, zero opposed.
Thank you.
The motion is approved, or the amendment is adopted to Council Bill 121068. Are there any final comments on the bill?
Seeing none, if the clerk could call the roll on the bill as amended.
Councilmember Kettle.
Aye.
Councilmember Sacca.
Aye.
Vice Chair Rivera.
Aye.
Chair Strauss.
Aye.
Four in favor, zero opposed.
Thank you.
The motion passes and the committee recommends that the City Council, Council Bill 121068 passes as amended and will be sent to the Tuesday, September 23rd City Council meeting.
Thank you all for coming and all of your hard work to deliver light rail faster and have additional accountability for the work that's done here in our city.
Greatly appreciated it.
With that, we will move on to our second item of business.
Will the clerk please read item two into the record?
Six year review of the city Seattle budget.
This item is for briefing discussion.
Presenters will include Ben Noble, Director of Council Central Staff.
Thank you.
As Director Noble is coming up to the committee table, I'll give general comments on the item before us.
This is an informational item and it is The intention here is to attach it to the record so that we can reference it throughout the entire budget process.
We are about to start next Tuesday.
We had hoped that we could have gone over this in June of this year like we did last year, and we're happy to have it today.
So with that, also Council Central staff, as you all know, is busy working on many different topics that need to be concluded before next Tuesday.
And so today's presentation is just an overview of how this works.
We're not going to get into the details.
This is going to be a document I will be using throughout the rest of the budget process.
And I think the most, the biggest benefit here is every year, this is part of the budget reform that we put in place last year and will continue.
In the past, our budgets have only been looked at year over year incrementally.
This document that central staff created last year for the first time and this year for the second time helps us have an extended view of department budgets.
With that, we've got Director Noble and Calvin Chau of Seattle City Council Central Staff.
Over to you.
Thank you, Chair Strauss.
So, yeah, as you've described, this document, hard copy here, really builds on the work that was done last year, which was to take a five-year look back at the budget, to really get a sense of how the city's expenditures had evolved over that five-year period, and to give really a historical view, if you will, of the city's budget and expenditures.
Why don't you go ahead, flip slide.
The way we did this was to go down to the department level and to look at the funding that was provided for each department and also down to the BSL level.
I'll talk some more about that as we go.
The five-year look back was not entirely coincidence and not just a round number, if you will.
The city converted to a new financial system in the 2018-2019 period.
And doing comparisons for before that are actually challenging because the records are very different, and departments also had opportunities to reorganize some of their budget summary levels.
And again, I'll talk about that in just a moment.
So 2019 really made sense as a base year, and that gave us a nice five-year window to last year.
As I mentioned yesterday, there was a brief discussion of this.
You might have thought that it made sense to take a rolling five-year window and to shift it to a 2020 base and do a 2025 to 2020 comparison.
The challenge there is that 2020 was the first year of the pandemic, and the city's finances were just very different for that year and really into 21 and even into 22. So as we go forward, we'll have to make a decision about when to move up the base year, but I think it's probably going to be two or three more years before that makes sense.
So again, we'll continue to have a nice historic view.
Again, the idea here is, as the Chair has described, a lot of focus on whence the budget arrives is on a comparison to the previous year and maybe to the year before that, but not a broader perspective.
And in thinking about the sustainability of the budget in particular and kind of longer-term trends, this longer view is helpful.
So what we've done essentially is to update that.
I would note that it's a 2025 adopted budget, and as you will hear from CBO Director Eder when he presents the mayor's budget coming up, the executive has very purposely underspent the 2025 budget as part of trying to come to terms with the lower revenue forecast.
So we've done it against the appropriations that were you approved.
Actual expenditures are ultimately likely to be somewhat lower.
So, with that introduction, our analysis has focused on essentially three pots of money, if you will, the general fund, the jumpstart fund, because the relationship to the general fund and jumpstart has become so critical in understanding the sustainability of kind of the general government expenditures.
And then we've looped in all other funds into a third broad category.
And as you'll see, I'll give you an example of what the Report looks like that often is a combination of grants, of earned revenues from fees or from fines and the like.
And to say more broadly too, if you really want to dive in deeper and yet deeper into budgets, that's information that we can provide as well and you can spend some time.
We had to strike a balance here between giving you an overview and digging in too deep.
So the document starts with kind of an overall citywide view, just to give you a sense of how the total budget has changed over the five, now six years.
Then we shift to go department by department.
I would note, as you read it, you'll encounter a couple of sections that are not what you generally think of as departments.
So there's a thing called Finance General, which in some sense is a clearinghouse or a checking account that we use to The city uses to allocate money that isn't directly expended through a department or that will be transferred to a department once a project is ready to move, but there's no director of finance general, if you will.
And then, I love putting these ones in, P-Pen and F-Pen are shorthand for the police pension and the fire pension.
Those are separate funds.
The city actually manages pension obligations for folks who were hired before 1977, so these are long-term And we are continuing to provide their benefits directly.
Since that time, the city and the state have shifted to a state-funded system or, excuse me, a state-run system that the city helps fund.
But again, those aren't separate departments, but you'll see we have information about those as well.
Then for each department, we look and compare expenditures at what's called the budget summary level.
So departments, their finances and often their organization is divided into divisions or into categories, and the legal expenditures in those are related.
There's a description of them, and that's the budget summary level.
Within the budget summary levels, there are potentially different funding sources, again, and the way we've looked at those are the general fund, Jumpstart, and other, and this is better to see with an example, which we'll get to.
Again, as I mentioned, we've kept 2019 as the base.
Next slide.
Yeah, so here's an example, and probably the best way to view this is in terms of an example, and picked here an example that is a very simple department, and I picked the legislative department because it's one that perhaps you all know.
The Ledge Department just has two BCLs, or BSLs rather, leadership and administration, and then the rest of the department.
And you can see, you can compare those at a total level, and then also each of the BCLs, the 2019, the 2035. You can see the six-year change in dollar terms, and then also in percentage terms.
In this case, this chart is not very interesting, so the chart is designed to potentially provide some additional detail over the table.
The additional detail would be what sources of money support each of those BSLs.
In this case, the legislative department is entirely supported by the general fund, so you end up with a very simple chart.
I'm going to show you a more complicated one, but I just want to get you a sense of how these work, and they sort of make more sense in some situations and less in others.
We also, just before I get to talk about the complicated one, there's an additional chart, excuse me, additional table and information about staffing levels as well.
I didn't bother to put that on the slides, but as you get into the report, you'll see that.
For a more complicated department, the relationship between the table and the chart is in some ways more interesting.
So this is a HSD, so the Human Services Department.
You can see they have, I'm going to lose count here, seven or eight BSLs.
And here in this chart, excuse me, in this table, you can track how much spending has changed in each of those BSLs, both in dollar terms and then in percentage terms, going ahead.
What this chart, and it's somewhat complicated itself, what it does, it takes each of those BSLs and records the total amount, so the height of each of these columns is the total amount of spending, but it then shows you what sources of money are supporting that spending.
So if you will, what colors of money are being spent in the HSD department.
And you can see there's a combination of general fund, jumpstart, and you can see specifically where jumpstart is allocated in particular to homelessness category in 2025 and also into supporting safe communities again in 2025. And then you can also see other sources, which, again, for HSD are often grants.
And in particular, if you look at healthy aging, that's a category that's related to our role in the AAA, the federal funding for aging residents, so a lot of federal money in that pocket.
So it can give you a sense of how that chart works for a more complicated department.
That's really the show.
We have comparable information for every department, again, giving you a six-year comparison.
And my expectation is that, you know, if you look in a department budget over the next couple weeks and you want to get a bigger historical view, you can grab this and just take a look and get some sense about what has driven changes over time.
You may find some more detailed information in last year's report as well, so you may want to look at both, and that'll be helpful as well.
It takes a fair amount of effort to put this together, so we went with a slightly more streamlined approach this time so that we could do this in a more sustainable way going forward.
But I think there is really good information there in terms of a bigger picture view, if you will.
And again, staff are always available if you want to dig in further.
It's, again, a trade-off between how much to present and how much to hold back at some level.
And happy to answer questions.
Thank you.
Cal, anything that you'd like to add?
Sorry.
Calvin, anything?
No, just, you know, whenever we start to look at long-term terms, just a reminder that inflation is a factor, so that's something to consider when you're comparing the numbers.
Maybe we start adding a line that says the inflation change between point A and point B.
To this point, you'll see that expenditures have changed by 30 percent or more over five or six years.
But with inflation running at 3 to 4 percent, that explains more than half of that unto itself, as an example.
So thank you for that.
Right.
And I want to thank all central staff analysts.
I see almost everyone's name in here.
And also a special shout out to Tracy and to Patty for combining all of this into a really readable format.
I've only begun to dig in, and it's already highlighted a couple things that I want to dig into deeper.
So with that, colleagues, questions right now?
If you have department-specific questions, I'll just ask that you meet with the central staff analyst to the side.
Councilmember Rivera.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Director Noble and Cal for being here.
Director Noble, thank you to your entire team for putting this together.
I found the five year last year helpful and so this is very helpful to me and I appreciate that as the budget process is very fast and furious short window and having this kind of a tool is really helpful.
I will advocate moving forward because I did note there was less information here.
I would advocate if possible in the future to include the same type of information because it's hard to toggle between two.
when you're also reading the whole budget.
So I would advocate for that.
But I really appreciate having this at hand because it is a tool that I used last year.
And I know also that in the midst of all the work that we do around here, I want to acknowledge that all of these things that central staff prepare to help us in our work Does not go unnoticed.
And I want to acknowledge it adds a layer of work.
But I also think it goes toward good governance.
And so I very much appreciate your team.
And they are working together to put this together as a tool for us during this budget process.
So thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Colleagues, any other comments or questions at this time?
I'm seeing none.
Job well done.
Thank you for this.
It's a document that will also attach to the budget in Legistar.
With that, if there's no further business, this does conclude the Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 Finance and Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee meeting.
The committee will not meet again until December as we suspend normal committee meetings during the budget season.
I will also last a moment of appreciation and gratitude to Francesca Murnon, our Tribal Relations Director, for doing such a great job yesterday with the Tribal Nations Summit.
Any other further business to come before we adjourn?
Councilmember Rivera.
Thank you, Chair.
I too want to add just a note about the Tribal Nation Summit yesterday.
It was really a great, I got to participate on the roundtable and listen.
And I really appreciate all the Tribal Nation partners that came to speak with us and share their priorities.
It's really important for us to hear.
And so I really appreciate that we had the opportunity to do that this year and I want to thank everyone who had A hand in putting that together.
There were a lot of folks and throughout the city, of course, Francesca.
I want to thank Council Member Juarez and also just the mayor and all the department heads that were there.
I mean, it just goes to the level of everyone is really committed and wanting to be good partners.
So really appreciated that that was important.
And I look forward to next year's.
I know that OED Director talked about a Tribal Nations Economic Summit for next year, and so I look forward to that.
So thank you, Chair.
Wonderful.
Council Member Kettle.
Thank you, Chair Strauss.
I just wanted to say thank you to all involved, and to include yourself.
It's very important.
Unfortunately, I was just there for the beginning, so I saw the opening, the prayers, and the songs, and then at midday, floated through as well.
I had to ensure that we had quorum for transportation committee, so we did have these kind of challenges.
But I do recognize the importance of the Tribal Nations Summit.
It would be, and I recognize looking forward doing it again, but to get readouts, you know, debriefs of the roundtables that Council Member Rivera's talking about, I think that would be valuable to have some type of thing in the future.
Obviously with comprehensive plan and budget, maybe not right now, but just to kind of put an emphasis on what came out of the summit and just to kind of give it That extra visibility and understanding.
So anyways, Chair, thank you.
Wonderful.
We will have them back to present out on how they're doing in each of their Commitment areas.
One thing that I found to be a challenge between the last Tribal Summit and this is that we all know in departments, if someone is asking you from a different department who's not your director, it might have less urgency than a request that's coming from your director.
And so this is something where I will likely ask each of you to help I urge departments to meet the commitments if there's not additional, if something's slowing down.
Everyone did a good job, and we can always do more.
Council Member Sockeye, I see you've got your hand.
Thank you, Chair.
I too wanted to lend my support to the Tribal Summit yesterday and express my gratitude and appreciation for all those who attended, our tribal partners across the region, and you as well, Chair.
for your leadership and getting that going, continuing that effort.
Also, Councilmember Juarez, her return to council couldn't have come at a more timely and opportune and ultimately beneficial for the City of Seattle in terms of helping to lead This in serving as a powerful voice for this tribal summit.
So sadly, I was unable to join for most of it because I was obviously chairing my transportation committee meeting.
That was pre-planned.
But I was able to pop by after we confirmed there were no quorum issues.
Immediately after my transportation committee, Councilmember Kettle popped down and I learned that I have to wait till he leaves.
And so anyways, went down and was able to To connect with a lot of our partners and tribes within our own government here as well.
And so impressive, so moved.
I also want to plus one the request of kind of a documented recap of that summit.
One, for folks who might not have been able to participate or attend the whole thing, but more importantly, to allow us to better track and monitor progress against specific commitments that were made.
If we don't memorialize those in writing and literally PM those on the executive department side, it'll be just more empty words and more empty promises.
In any event, so plus one on that and happy to continue to support that effort in any way I can.
Also, maybe one of the next ones, let's consider a transportation dimension to a forthcoming travel summit because our transportation infrastructure connects us all and we all rely on it.
So in any event, kudos to everyone involved and thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Socker.
Council Member Rivera, is that a new hand?
It is a new hand, Chair.
I really wanted to lend my voice of gratitude to you as well for your efforts for the summit.
And equally importantly is for making time on this committee to always have our tribal partners come and present, you know, have a point of communication with us in that continued partnership.
And you have all last year and this year Made space for that here, and I appreciate that.
So thank you for that.
Thank you.
I did very little.
I showed up.
I listened.
I wrote down the commitments, and all of that preparation really does go, the gratitude goes to Francesca and also John Hoyt and the whole Pyramid team.
So thank you all.
With that, any further business before the committee?
Hearing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.
Thank you.