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Good afternoon.

Today is January 12th, 2026. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Lynn.

Here.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Salka.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Foster.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Present.

Seven present.

Anne, could you take that roll call?

Can you repeat Councilmember Foster's on roll call one more time?

Yes, Councilmember Foster?

Here.

Okay.

Eight present.

And let the record reflect.

Councilmember Juarez is excused until she arrives.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

This is our first...

It's not our first meeting of the year, but it's our first council briefing of the year, and it's so great to see you all here today.

So if there's no objections, the minutes of the December 15, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing none, the minutes are adopted.

President's report on the president's, we have no presentations or proclamations for signatures today, but we will go over the process for proclamations and letters shortly.

We do not have any executive session scheduled as well.

On tomorrow's city council agenda, we do have one piece of legislation from the land use committee relating to the floodplain 10th extension.

and that information, you all, I believe you all are starting to get that information about the floodplain.

It's something that we passed out of committee, of land use committee.

And so wanna talk about the signing of letters and proclamations, Nothing has changed, but I know that we do have some new staff and new council members, so just wanted to make sure that there's no letters or proclamations, but I want to remind everyone that if you receive a letter or proclamation from outside the city, from the executive or anyone else, that it's important to ask if anyone else has received it and whether the sender wants collective action by committee or full council.

Getting a signature from full council body can only happen in a meeting session, whether it's this open session or the council meetings as well.

We're going to use council briefing to take up letters or proclamations that you may have received individually or offer the opportunity for people to raise topics.

and then we can decide in an open session whether we want to join onto the letter or the proclamation with our signature.

Our office is going to be sending out a comprehensive guideline for proclamations and letters, including internal deadlines, and you will get that by the end of the day.

It's the same as last year, but I just want to make sure that we're elevating that to you all.

And if you have any questions, please talk to the Deputy Clerk or the Legislative Legal Counsel if you have further questions about policy or information as well.

Preview of City Council Actions in Regional Committees.

We're gonna begin our next discussion of the preview of City Council Actions in Council Regional Committees.

The order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for City Council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name with the Council President called.

I know last year we did it through roll call and sometimes we're popcorning it around.

We'll do roll call today, but I think it'd be easier oftentimes just to go to our left if anyone has any disagreements with that.

Awesome.

So I will start with my left today, if that's okay.

We're in Seattle, so I can go to the left, right?

No, I'm just playing.

But today, if anyone has any objections with that, is that okay that we go in that order like that just to make it easier?

Awesome, okay, so we are going, now this also, you're gonna give updates about your committee.

If there are any updates, also please take this time to discuss anything that has happened.

I know a lot of people put out statements last week regarding some of the federal stuff that's going on.

Please take this time if you wish to discuss those as well.

individually, so I will go ahead and pass off to Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

Back to the way of doing business at Council Briefing of the olden times, where we would literally just go around this table, and so whoever sat where Councilmember Kettle is would usually go first, and so it was always interesting to see who would choose to go to sit over there or sit over here.

But I kind of like this.

We're just going to kind of pass it off to each other.

Just in brief, the actions that we saw from federal agents over this last week is completely un-American, in my opinion.

I don't need to spend much more time right now.

I know that there's continuing work that we are doing to make sure that our municipality is strong and working for Seattleites, no matter what is happening in the rest of our country.

We've made a lot of budget investments last year.

We're going to see those things implemented this year.

There are things that are within our control, and I know that we are doing the best of our abilities.

But for those things that we can't control, I will just say it was un-American, in my opinion.

back to here.

So the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee, we meet on the 1st and 3rd, Tuesdays at 9.30.

Our next committee meeting is next Tuesday, January 20th.

This is the day after Martin Luther King Jr.

Day, and it is right before Association of Washington City's Board of Directors meeting that starts at noon.

So we will have a very efficient meeting, which is why I want to start talking about the one piece of legislation that we have today since we don't have council briefing next week.

The background is that last year...

Well, let me just start at the end and then we'll go back to the beginning.

The Seattle Social Housing program authority needs to have a memorandum of understanding with the City of Seattle as the City of Seattle is the entity that collects the tax revenue and the Social Housing Authority is the one implementing this revenue or taking this revenue.

So just a little bit of background.

This is an agreement that was formalized between the City of Seattle and the social housing developer.

This is something that I was tracking throughout the mayoral transition as the finance director reports to my committee.

This is in addition to and different than the loan that we passed last year.

And so as we as the city will collect the tax revenue, we have to have a legal document that says how we will pass it through.

Just as a reminder, Prop 1A was passed by voters last February, and so that means that tax collection started on January 1st of this year.

And so, sorry.

Collection was occurring, and now we are able to expend those dollars.

And so, no, that's correct.

The first collections of the tax revenue begin this month.

And so this money is collected by the City of Seattle, and then the agreement sets out how and when the money will be transferred to the social housing developer.

Last year, we passed a loan, a $2 million loan that I sponsored to get the Seattle social housing developer up and running.

That bridge loan helped them hit the ground running so that they were able to take on this new funding this year and the legislation we'll discuss in my committee next month allows for the tax revenue as it is collected to be disposed of to social housing developer.

The reason that this is timely, so to get to this agreement, lawyers from the city and lawyers from the authority all sat down together and came up with this agreement, which is why there is not an opportunity to amend this agreement unless we want to send it back to the beginning, which I strongly discourage because right now we are in a very tight window, and this is why I started working on this last November and December, because we saw this very tight window approaching, which is that we will have the first opportunity, all of the receipts are collected by February 25th, and then are scheduled to start paying out from the tax revenue.

So if we do not have this bill not only passed but then actuated within 30 days, then we are late and can create a lot of unnecessary challenges.

So that is why I am requesting that we are not taking amendments without speaking to the lawyers.

And this is a rare opportunity where we will only have this bill in my committee once.

Usually I have a briefing and then a vote, but because of the timeliness that we need to take action, we're just going to take a vote and send it to full council for the following week.

There is time pressure and Those are those notes.

So I'm going to pause right there and see if there's any questions on that before I go into my other stuff.

Not seeing any other questions.

Jennifer Labreck on Council Central staff is the one working on this.

Please just let me know.

My goal here is to get this thing done and done quickly to build the housing that we need.

My committee does not have any legislation coming for Council tomorrow.

Speaking about my external committees, Sound Transit System Expansion Committee met last week, authorizing the Chief Executive Officer to modify the contract for the South Graham Street and South Boeing Access Road infill stations.

We also added what we hope to be the last amount of money to get across Lake Washington with a public announcement that we're going to get across that lake in Q2 of next year.

So I've heard May 30th is a safe date and I'm hoping that it might be a little sooner.

We are in pre-revenue service across the lake right now, which is a really important milestone to hit before we can start running trains in full revenue service.

We also have the Pinehurst, the DJ D5 Deborah Juarez station opening in quarter three next year on 130th Street.

As well as the Sound Transit Board of Directors will be meeting next Thursday, January 22nd.

For Association of Washington Cities, where Councilmember Rivera and I are both board chairs, we will be at a board meeting and City Action Days next week.

I realized as I was talking to Council Member Foster this weekend that we haven't done the same push that we did last year to get Council Members down to City Action Days.

It's happening a little bit sooner than it did last year.

If any of you are able to make it, even for a day or half a day next week, last year, City of Seattle had the best and highest participation in Association of Washington City's Action Days in over a decade.

And so let's keep it up.

come on down for half a day, quarter of a day, full day.

It's a really great opportunity to get to meet other electeds in other cities because no matter how big or small our city is, we all share a lot of the same problems, as well as it's our opportunity to lobby our legislators and remind them that the city of Seattle is paying for services that are a state responsibility.

With that, With that, back to District 6. I usually try to keep this section really brief because I could talk about District 6 all darn day.

On that, on Saturday, I attended the Magnolia Community Center Grand Opening.

This project has been a long time coming.

with planning starting in 2017, and the project took longer than expected, and functionally it was because halfway through the project, everyone made a good sound decision to replace the basketball floor.

It was at that time the oldest basketball floor in our entire inventory, and if it had not been done at that time, it wouldn't have been done until the next building renovation in probably 20 plus years.

And so it took longer, but I will tell you, go check it out.

That's a great basketball floor.

I also just want to acknowledge that Magnolia is a peninsula and It has had zero city buildings that are open to the public since the Visitor Center at Discovery Park flooded.

And so this is now, we have a city building open as a third place in Magnolia.

while at the same time that visitor's center in Discovery Park, the flood that took out the electrical system is more extensive than anticipated initially, and so that project is also gonna take longer than expected.

So glad to have the community center back open.

As well, I will begin hosting my office hours again on a weekly basis this Wednesday, January 14th, as well as I'll be hosting a town hall later this month.

I'm excited to be back in the district with everyone on a real regular basis.

Colleagues, that is my report.

Any questions at this time?

Seeing none, I'll pass it over to Councilmember Foster.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

So I will start off to say happy to be here, and thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

My committee meeting for next week for Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights is canceled.

However, our office will be working collaboratively with Councilmember Strauss on the interlocal agreement for social housing and we look forward to doing so.

I'm really excited to make sure that this important piece of legislation moves forward and I appreciate you taking it up in your committee and working collaboratively with my office to get that done.

I also will stay on the Councilmember Strauss train for a moment here and say I joined Councilmember Strauss this weekend at the Magnolia Community Center Grand Reopening and what an absolute pleasure it was to see so many families with really young children there for the grand opening, getting out there, or the ribbon cutting, rather, getting out there, scuffing up the floor.

We got to see a girls' basketball game.

I don't know if it was a game or practice, actually, but it was really fantastic, and our parks and our community centers play such an important role for families, and it was really clear and very on display there, so I want to send my appreciation to the staff at the Parks Department who worked on that and really commend them for a job well done and for leading what so many people said was a very inclusive process.

And also exciting is to see they've got lots of new windows on that building that's gonna help make it a climate safe space for people in the summer and make that community center really enjoyable.

So that was fantastic.

On a more somber note, the other thing I did over the weekend was attend yesterday's vigil and rally in Cal Anderson with community members and leaders who were gathering in response to the ICE shooting and the several ICE shootings that took place over the last week.

I want to appreciate the folks who organized that and put that event on, and also say, as our office has continued to say, this kind of, as you said, it's an un-American activity, targeting our neighbors, removing people, and really creating an environment of fear.

and really creating an environment that undermines public safety for our residents and continues to put so many people on edge and prevent people from fully participating in civic life.

We've heard from folks who are not going to food banks or doctor's appointments or other kinds of critical care and community relationship that they have every right to be participating in.

I want to commend the council and commend Council Member Rink for the statement of legislative intent that you put forward and I'm sure you'll speak about that for passing that and I look forward to working with colleagues here on additional legislation to make sure that we are keeping people as safe as possible once we get the report back from SPD on that statement of legislative intent.

And that's what I have for my update.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, colleagues.

And first off, let me take a moment to remark and comment and say I love seeing it.

We are joined at the table, as Council President alluded to in her opening remarks, new composition, new year, new us.

So I want to extend my sincere Congratulations again, but more importantly, welcome to our two newest colleagues, Council Members Foster and Lynn here.

Really excited to have you at this table on an informal basis as we go through our regular council briefing business.

So love seeing you and welcome.

on the transportation committee front.

Colleagues, as we know, we now have a newly restructured, reconfigured set of committees, not just transportation, but our new transportation, the official formal name is, I think, Transportation Office of Waterfront in Seattle Center.

That is the official name.

We'll figure out some fun unofficial names for it down the road, That is the official formal name.

When I see these changes, I think, and what that means for our work in the committee, I think about a couple of things.

But first and foremost, as we go through this process, as we went through this process of reconfiguring, restructuring our committees, let me acknowledge our newest personnel changes.

So I want to welcome Councilmember Rink as our new vice chair of the committee, and then also our two newest colleagues as members of the committee as well.

Again, Councilmembers Foster and Lynn.

When I think about the new committee, which now, in addition to SDOT, also includes our Office of the Waterfront and Seattle Center.

And I think about how all those things kind of tie together and what kind of clear and consistent, coherent story those mean from a policy perspective in our day-to-day work.

I think about a couple things.

First and foremost, I think about safety.

and more specifically, not just safety as in public safety or community safety initiatives more broadly.

I'm thinking more specifically about road safety, traffic safety.

So safety is very top of mind for me as committee chair.

Next thing I think about, of course, is transportation.

This is principally the newest iteration of our transportation committee, so I think about transportation.

I also think about to tie in and pick up the mission of our waterfront and some of the ongoing maintenance and operational responsibilities for Seattle Center.

I think about engineering projects and because of the Seattle Center, the Waterfront's role, prominent role in ensuring we have a very successful, vibrant, safe, and welcoming World Cups later this year, I think about sports and experiences, sports and experiences.

So together those things, I think at a high level, those constructs are going to be, I anticipate, the crux of the committee's work the coming years, and the basis for us to continue to do great work in the committee, because, recall colleagues, the very first things that I said, safety first.

And because of that, which is a good segue into our committee agenda, which is still being finalized, but I'll tell you, spoiler alert, what it is, because we have our very first meeting coming up of the year on Thursday, Thursday morning, because Safety First, our very first agenda item, I've invited the Seattle Department of Transportation to come in and report out on the current state of our safety initiatives across the city, traffic safety initiatives.

I more specifically asked them to discuss three things.

First and foremost, come in and report out more broadly, more from a holistic perspective on the overall state of our traffic safety efforts.

The second thing I've asked them to do is come and talk about our current progress against our very ambitious Vision Zero goals, which you all know, of course, is our initiative to ultimately achieve zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 2030. So let's talk about progress against our goals.

And the third and final thing, probably the most important thing, is to talk about some of the impediments to success What are some of the barriers, systemic barriers or challenges that we face as a city, as a region, because it's not just the city responsibility, but what are some of the systemic challenges and impediments to success?

Against that backdrop, and for the reasons I mentioned earlier, that is gonna be agenda item one, intentionally so.

And then we have some other important carryover items from our, I believe, December, what used to be called our transportation committee meeting, which include, I think, a sky bridge permit, maybe a vacation in there as well, but basically the carryover items from our very last formally called Transportation Committee.

So an important first committee we have ahead, and that's coming again on Thursday.

Really looking forward to that.

On the regional committee front, I've already had a number of regional committees in this very short, less than a week since we passed and authorized our new committee structure, internal and external, but I'll just focus for a moment on our levy oversight committee.

We most recently met last Tuesday.

Great meeting as a committee.

The committee is currently focused on formation and governance, and more specifically, it is finalizing its bylaws, how it's going to operate, and I anticipate that will carry over into next month's meeting as well.

So more exciting developments to come.

That is what I have from an internal city committee perspective and then also a regional committee perspective as well.

I should also note on from a community front.

We all do a lot of things all the time, so what I'm about to say isn't intended to be an exhaustive list by any means of some of the things we've been up to or, you know, in the hopper for in-district focus.

But all I have to say, last Friday night was a big event for District 1, a series of events in District 1, and I want to extend my gratitude to Council President Hollingsworth for joining me at one of those and Council Member Lynn for joining me at the other.

Prep Sports, so...

was honored to present a proclamation together with Council President to honor Regina, who unexpectedly passed away.

But Regina was a Chief Self International High School legend.

Her jersey number 34, I think, was retired by the school a couple years ago.

UW basketball star.

just a local legend, just so active in our community in so many ways.

Mother, cousin, daughter, but Regina Rogers Wright unexpectedly passed away recently, so I was honored to honor her lasting legacy with the team and with the community, and more importantly, her family at that event.

Thank you again, Council President.

It meant a lot to my constituents and especially meant a lot to the family, so thank you for joining me.

Council Member Lynn, thank you as well for joining me.

Later, we went to an event where we watched, and the district representatives for Rainier Beach High School and West Seattle High School came together to watch another high school event.

It was a standing room only.

I had a blast.

My sons had a blast.

Community was everywhere.

There was a lot of...

The number one ranked recruit in the country had like 20 points in reverse windmill dunks alone.

But it was a fun celebration and community coming together, and it was great to have council members coming together as well.

And the final thing I'll say is, look, see my social media or newsletter.

I don't want to...

hijacked this meeting, but what happened last week in Minneapolis and in Portland shortly after was shootings and killings and, at least in the case of one of them, I think murder by ICE to community showing up to peacefully protest.

It's outrageous.

It shocks the conscience.

and what we're seeing is historic.

Make no mistake, it's unprecedented.

I also think it happens to be unlawful and unconstitutional, but we are seeing a weaponization and a deployment of...

and a militarization, including military deployments, in our blue cities, in our communities across this country, and as we know, people are concerned, people are scared, people are traumatized and terrified of what's coming next.

It is doing more to contravene and undermine public safety than anything that the federal government can do, and we need to do better.

And that's all I'll say for now here.

But in any event, I just want to end on that somber note.

And that is all I have.

Thank you.

Well, I'm going to start on the somber note, because I know it's front of mind for so many of us at this table and so many in community right now.

You know, I would say I want to remark on the horrifying events of last week, but which ones?

and who knows what will have happened by the time we get out of this meeting.

And I check my phone to see the news.

I think that's the reality that we're facing right now.

And we've talked about this as a body for months now, that the flurry of activity is part of the strategy to keep us dizzy and confused and paralyzed.

And I think that is just a very much felt sentiment right now.

And it's, again, not lost on me that within an hour of Councilmember Foster and I putting out our statement last week, we came to learn about the shooting that happened in Portland.

And it's also not lost on me that every single one of us at this table stood in these chambers, and when we swore in, we swore to uphold the Constitution.

So it's an affront to all of us, what we are seeing on the national level.

And so I can't say I have the perfect words today to describe my dismay, my disgust, my anger about what's happening, but I do know that actions speak louder than words.

I'm gonna remain focused on action.

I know over the past year we've worked diligently as a body and I know we will work this year as a body to take up action to protect our residents.

And so I'll be putting out a newsletter today just for any of the public listening in kind of a recap of what we were up to last year from our work in federal committee to the Welcoming City Resolution, the new funding going through OIRA that will expand services to our immigrant neighbors and as was mentioned earlier, we have this statement of legislative intent that thank you colleagues for supporting in the budget process and I've begun discussion with Public Safety Chair Kettle on opportunities to ensure that we can have that statement of legislative intent from SPD heard in committee so we can have that dialogue.

I do want to highlight one piece related to the state level in terms of action that I hope we can all be monitoring in this state legislative session.

The session began today.

So my office is tracking two pieces of legislation.

The first is Senate Bill 5855. which would prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing masks and other face coverings while interacting with the public unless the ICE agent is undercover or using protective safety gear.

And then also monitoring Senate Bill 5906 which would reinforce existing federal and state privacy laws while restricting how immigration enforcement can operate in schools, hospitals, childcare facilities, colleges, and election offices.

Both bills are being heard in the legislature actually this week.

And so we'll be closely monitoring those.

And I know as we have new colleagues on this council, we have a new city attorney, a new mayor.

We're really looking forward to working alongside them and crafting solutions to deal with these tremendously unprecedented times.

But I know we're going to be focused on action.

And again, colleagues, really looking forward to working with you this year to do our part to keep our residents safe.

By way of some committee updates, we'll be sending out a notice later today, but we will not be holding our meeting of the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee meeting this week.

We are in the process of developing our annual work plan and working with the Wilson administration in shaping the agenda for the year, especially with new leadership coming into the departments.

I will be serving on the KCRAJ governing committee by way of regional committees for this year, and we're continuing to monitor the COC situation.

Thank you all for your engagement on this issue.

We know that the continuum of care funding is tremendously important for keeping folks housed, and so we'll continue to provide updates on that.

Lastly, I'll close with just a couple of community events.

I attended the vigil at the waterfront.

I know there were a number of community events over the past week.

I attended the vigil at the waterfront that was focused, really, we know there's a rallying cry around and the killing of Renee Goode.

But there was also a recognition at that event and a broader vigil for all of the folks who have died in ICE custody or at the hands of DHS officers.

And I think it's important to recognize that there have been a number of deaths and folks who have been unfortunately brutalized and harmed in custody throughout this federal regime.

And lastly, I'll close by saying this week, my team will be visiting with the Somali Community Services of Seattle.

And we're really looking forward to that visit and standing in solidarity with our Somali neighbors, given the rhetoric that that community has been facing.

So with that, that closes my updates.

Oh, I need to do this so I don't get in trouble with my team.

Council President, could I would like to request excusal from the Monday, January 26 council briefing for the record?

Are there any objections?

Seeing none, you are excused.

Thank you, Council President.

And those are all my updates.

Happy to answer any questions.

Hello, colleagues.

This sounds especially loud to me today, Sue.

Well, first of all, thank you, Council President Hollingsworth, for bringing up and giving us an opportunity to discuss and really allow us to show unity, what I believe to be a united front, around the disgusting and unconscionable, cruel actions by ICE, the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, and the shootings in Portland and of course the arrests here in Seattle.

This is not the United States we deserve.

To have bands of masked armed zealots snatching people off the street is deeply wrong and shameful.

I, for one, want to really determine what is legally possible for Seattle and the state to prevent these actions and to keep all our residents safe from these barbaric practices.

I believe also these actions to be unconstitutional and illegal, as our colleague Councilmember Saka brought up.

I am reaching out to the Mayor's Office and also to the State Attorney General's Office to see what next steps can be in terms of what are we going to do here.

You know, I think we're all united in our outrage, to say the least, and also I know that there are legal things that we're able to do and not do.

unfortunately and trying to prevent these ICE actions here in Seattle and so I want to educate myself and really reach out and see what can we do legally because I do think these actions are unconstitutional and I think You know, if we are going to think about suing the federal government, we've issued other, not issued, but we've brought the state attorney general and our past city attorney actually as well, brought actions against the federal administration.

Is that something we can do related to these ICE actions here in Seattle?

I want to know.

So I will be reaching out and hoping to work with all of you once we determine what is actually actionable.

Because the last thing I wanna do is, say how we feel and we should in supporting our constituents and we want to make sure we're really clear on what we're able to do and not give our residents in Seattle, you know, just false hope on what we're able to do.

We want to make sure that we actually bring forward something that we are able to act upon and really enforce, rather than just say, we don't want ICE here, because we all know we don't want ICE here, but I want to know, is there a way that we can prevent ICE's current actions from coming here in Seattle and doing the same as they did in Minneapolis and in Portland, for instance?

So anyway, more to come as I learn more.

Also want to give another heartfelt congratulations to our new Council President Hollingsworth and a warm welcome to our new colleague, Council Member Foster and a re-welcome to Council Member Rink.

I'm really excited to working with you all moving forward.

Colleagues also, I wanted to say that I am very saddened and really dismayed to hear about the Anti-Semitic Act and Hate Act in Mississippi at the synagogue there, Beth Israel, which destroyed two Torahs.

That is a really big deal to destroy a Torah, let alone two.

This is hard for me, as you know.

My family is Jewish.

We practice at Beth Am here in Seattle.

This is not okay.

And I am so dismayed about the anti-Semitism that we're seeing across the country.

So I wanted to mention Beth Israel in Mississippi and holding them in my thoughts.

On a different note, I had the opportunity over my personal vacation to visit the sister city that is assigned to me, which is Beersheba in Israel, and got to meet with a city council member in Beersheba.

It was a really meaningful experience.

I also got to sit in and attend a climate conference that they were having.

which was really a meaningful experience for me to hear about how climate is impacting their community.

Beersheba is in the south of Israel, so close to the desert.

Climate is really impacting their ability to grow food.

and actually an award was given to a scientist who's also a farmer who was working on mitigating for the destruction of crops due to climate change.

and some things that he was able to implement has been able to reduce the destruction of crops from 50% to 5%, so that was a big deal.

So all this to say, you know, climate is something that the whole world obviously is experiencing.

It's really interesting to hear how other countries are dealing with climate change and I think there's a lot that we can be doing here in the United States, in particular Seattle and Washington State, so I look forward to learning more on what Washington State is doing, and I will say that I'm a little dismayed in Washington State.

I feel like we are, our hearts are in the right place, and from an implementation standpoint, we can be doing a lot more.

and I feel like when we talk about budget cuts, I feel like the climate efforts are the things that tend to go first and that is of concern to me because if we don't take action now, this is, as you all know, going to have significant long-term impacts.

So, you know, as a mother, I want to leave the planet in a better place for for my kids and all our kids collectively.

And so this is something that I've been really thinking about more recently and something that I'm gonna be looking into in terms of what can we do here in Seattle and in Washington State to really support and put our money where our mouth is in terms of these climate impacts.

So anyway, just wanted to say I had the opportunity to do that.

And, you know, we don't always have an opportunity to visit our sister cities.

Obviously, we don't have funding for that.

I feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to go on a personal note.

And while I was there, it really was important to me to take, since I was gonna be there, this opportunity to visit our sister city.

So that was really meaningful to me, as I said earlier.

In terms of committee work, I have meetings set up with, I'm sorry, in terms of the committee work, we have our first Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee meeting this Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

We're going to be having a Seattle Public Libraries come and present an overview of the libraries.

We had an overview a couple years ago I can't believe it's been a couple years since I've been here, but this is gonna be a refresh since we're gonna be looking at a levy renewal this year.

And so I welcome anyone to participate to come if you wanna hear just an overview of the libraries in preparation for the work that's to come.

Subsequent meetings, I'm going to make sure to have specific presentations about the actual levy and the the programs at the levy funds and digging into data and outcomes.

As you all know, I'm very focused on in preparation for that levy renewal.

So we'll start with the overview, which will be this Wednesday.

I just want to say I also in welcoming new folks I know we have a new mayor and I'm really looking forward to meeting with folks in her administration I've met with some folks already I feel really lucky to have worked in the past with some of the folks that she's brought on board and so that is very, on a personal note, exciting for me and look forward to working with her administration on our shared priorities.

I know they care about a lot of things that we also, that are our priorities for us, not the least of which are the ICE actions that we're seeing.

So I know there's a lot of opportunities for working together and I am looking forward to that.

So with that, oh, the last thing I'll say is, as Council Member Strauss pointed out, we're gonna be attending the Association of Washington Cities Board Meeting and City Action Days.

I will say, I know it is hard to take the time to go all the way to Olympia and meet with legislators, but we don't have to wait for just, or do that just on City Action Days.

You can pick up the phone, have Teams calls with legislators in Olympia, and also, you can participate throughout this session.

As you all know, they take a lot of public comment online and that is available to us as well.

So I wanted to remind us that we could do that as well, because I know it's hard to get down there.

So just wanted to give that as another option as well.

So with that, unless anyone has any questions, I want to turn it over to my colleague, Council Member Lynn.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, everybody.

Just want to follow on to a few of the things you were talking about.

I want to give my words of sympathy to the Jewish community, particularly in Mississippi, but across the country, that because we know these attacks and this hate is not isolated, and I was reading about some of the history of that synagogue and I think there had been attacks back in the 60s, same synagogue, and attacks in the rabbi's house because a rabbi was standing up against segregation, standing up for civil rights.

and I just I think it's you know we see this hatred and division and I think it is you know incumbent upon us to do everything we can and yes that includes actions and resources it also includes words and us showing up in different communities because words do matter we see the the the power of the hateful rhetoric coming from the feds.

And we have to do everything we can to push back against that with more positive messages, with welcoming messages.

And I'm very thankful to be surrounded by colleagues who I know have the same values around supporting our diverse communities, our immigrant communities.

And so thank you all.

I know we've said things in different ways, but I know that our values are the same around that.

Yeah, in terms of being out in community, I was meeting with educators on Friday night, and they were talking about the devastating impact, and there was a KUOW story about a family, South Seattle family, who quote-unquote self-deported, and I'm not sure what better language to use because I think that language is a little bit misleading because it implies some sort of voluntariness to it, and it's not really voluntary because it's under coercion.

People are having to choose between their safety, their family's safety, getting You know, we know that at the detention center, people are not getting basic healthcare, and so they're having to choose between their health and standing up for their rights, and that's not really a choice.

But it wasn't just that family.

There are many public school families that are being impacted by this.

Kids are afraid to go to school.

Kids are facing harassment at school, and there's certainly a call from educators to get more support and better guidance from the district.

And I believe we have a role to play there as well to collaborate with the district to support our families and our educators.

Similarly, attended a Beacon Hill Community Council meeting, and again, I mean, there's a lot of topics, but certainly ICE was a friend of mine.

There was a long-term community member who ran a food truck on Beacon Hill for over a decade and was deeply loved and was picked up by ICE and is struggling to get the support that he needs.

And...

I was very heartened to see on Sunday community members in Columbia City standing with signs, and I do think it sends a message to our immigrant communities that we stand with them, and I think that's important for them to feel that.

support and we've heard calls.

I heard calls from a couple weeks ago at a meeting with Somali community leaders that they wanted to see us out in community.

They wanted us to be outspoken supporting them.

So I just want to reiterate that and certainly would love to collaborate with each and every one of you, whether it's in District 2 or anywhere in the city, to be out there supporting our immigrant and other neighbors who are protesting in defense of our community.

In terms of committees, we will have a land use committee next week.

There will likely be the SEPA exemption legislation that's gone to committee before, but that will be likely coming back on the regularly scheduled Wednesday.

have not attended any regional committees yet, but look forward to reporting about those next time.

And thank you for the invite over to West Seattle for the basketball game.

I do think it's important to be out in the community in these positive ways as well.

I do think sports, and I've heard you speak about this a lot, about the power of sports to bring our community together, to cross cultural barriers.

And so love to be out there to see the excitement, to see the community to come together in a safe, positive environment.

And so anything we can do to foster more of those, including things like late night basketball in our park centers and so on.

So thank you and that's all I have for today.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin.

First, I want to say congrats to Council President Hollingsworth.

Congratulations to you, but also to Councilmembers Rink, Lin, and Foster on your election victories, and also to Mayor Wilson and City Attorney Evans.

But even more important, I want to wish congratulations.

No.

I want to welcome Councilmember Rivera and Lynn to the Public Safety Committee, which will be kicking off this term of the Council tomorrow.

We are the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.

and we're going to start off with a Burke Consulting Report on emergency management.

It's a very important topic and I think it's a good one to start off with.

I've engaged with the Mayor's Office, with the Director of Operations.

It's a little bit of a two-step process with the report and then later Quarter two most likely, but later in the year, you know, working with the mayor's team and OEM in terms of like next steps and, you know, identifying and then moving forward.

Also, We have an update to the strategic framework plan for Safer Seattle, which I have in my hands.

Two pillars have been added.

It's been some adjustments from those six pillars.

But I will note, in terms of engaging on public safety over the last two years, you start working the issues, and as you dig deeper, you start learning new things.

and identifying areas to work, which led to the two new pillars.

One is addressing the scene between public safety and public health and housing and human services.

So I look forward to working with my colleagues who chair those committees.

Very important.

We've already been working this partly with the LEAD program in terms of with the care department and so forth.

Also important, gun violence reduction and prevention and community safety, another area of overlap in the scene that we're working.

And then also working up generally the plan, for this year for the committee.

Already started with Councilmember Juarez.

We're gonna have, in the next meeting, King County Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Mannion join us related to sex trafficking and those pieces.

So working with Councilmember Juarez Juarez on that, a very important topic.

And also, because I did put this out on social media, on Instagram and Facebook and elsewhere.

Thank you, Council President.

She liked and shared.

The public drug use and possession.

We're going to tackle that topic along with alternative response.

And when I say alternative response, by the way, I know CARE gets the attention and we do a lot but I think it's important to say alternative response because there are those elements within SPD but also those elements within FIRE and I think we need to keep the big picture particularly because as they relate to each other and there's specific areas of where this happens so the committee is going to address that plus other in the quarter one plus other things like community safety so that is a public safety committee again kicking off the this term of the Council tomorrow morning.

For me, personally, in terms of meetings and outside groups and others, I met today with Youth Care, now led by Marty Hartman and then Karen Walters.

It was a really good meeting.

And also, separately, a separate meeting, Pacific Environment.

related to basically our maritime environment and the environmental issues that reside within.

Councilmember Rivera, I'll have a call with our new superintendent of schools on tomorrow, very important.

And then on Wednesday, Seattle Municipal Court presiding judge Crawford Willis.

And then we have a turnover at Seattle Center.

in district, and I serve on the committee too, with outgoing Director Foster, Interim Director Winston, and also, for those that don't know, former Councilmember Johnson is now with Seattle Center Foundation.

Very important.

And then I met with City Attorney Evans last week, be meeting with her team also on Wednesday.

And then Thursday, OPCD related to downtown regional center plans that OPCD is working.

Next week, different issues like meetings on issues like violence reduction programs, health through housing initiative, and then also the Port of Seattle.

Separate from that, really quickly, I just wanted to note I've taken myself out of the signing of letters world, but I do support social housing.

You know, seeing with the bridge loan last year, but also with the amendments in the Com Plan and our letter to OIR.

So I will be doing a companion piece to show my support generally to social housing.

As I've said many times, I do support social housing.

I do have some concerns about governance, and I would have preferred a different alternative funding measure.

but it's really important.

This is one reason why we had the amendment on our ship, the Seattle Housing Investment Plan, to not just look at OH and affordable housing but also look at permanent supportive housing on one end and also social housing and see how that impacts, you know, the strategies and way ahead that OH does.

So looking forward to that.

Also want to note, as my district also uncovers, parts of Magnolia.

Very excited for the Magnolia Community Center.

And up next, the Queen Anne Community Center, which is also now the very oldest community center in the city.

So we'll be working with parks on that.

But yeah, this is an example where partnership work in the issues related to Magnolia.

They get two council members, not just one.

I don't think that's replicated anywhere else, right?

Councilmember Strauss?

The other area of our city is in the south, and I might even get this wrong, being from North Seattle, the south central district around Judkins Park.

There is another area where the folks who redrew the lines and gerrymandered our districts in inappropriate ways created a lack of consistency, as is also seen here in the downtown area.

but we have to wait till the next census.

We're not going to do any mid-centrous modifications, Texas.

Thank you.

Three, back to more serious, I just want to echo Councilmember Rivera's remarks related to Beth Israel Congregation Temple in Jackson, Mississippi.

They've just arrested the person responsible for this, turned in by his father, and for very good reason.

and it was the site that was bombed in 1967 by the Ku Klux Klan.

Very important to state our support, which is something a meeting with, which is something I've been doing here in Seattle with greater Seattle organizations.

The last thing, just to close, I wanted to say federal law enforcement and National Guard.

I will be speaking to this as part of my chair comments tomorrow morning.

I'll quickly note on National Guard, the Supreme Court decision doesn't necessarily settle this because it was related to regular forces, which the administration was saying was various federal law enforcement, but that came out to really mean armed forces.

So, okay, National Guard is not available, but I wouldn't hesitate to think that the Trump administration could see and could plan on active duty armed forces instead.

And I think we should be keeping our mind on that and thinking about that, because some people, I believe, just said, oh, Supreme Court decision, okay, we're done with that.

No, we're not.

I had my statement on what happened in Minneapolis, and it goes to some of the pieces that I have been speaking to, to include from last year.

and again, I will speak to this tomorrow in committee, But building on that, yes, working with my colleague from our select committee, you know, to work and follow up on the sly related to these pieces, which I'm already kind of working already and will continue to work moving forward.

And I just wanted to close because I think this is good to read and to be reminded of too.

And I was just reviewing my notes from the 12th of August last year that You know, if the federal government really wants to help us, particularly in the area of public safety, they should intercept the flow of guns and drugs into our city, primarily along I-5 but also I-90.

They should support the recruitment and hiring sworn officers like our Washington State program that was signed by Governor Ferguson, supporting our firefighters and their staffing and equipment needs that are so important in disasters across state lines.

We saw that when we've helped out in California like the LA wildfires, which in turn really support emergency preparedness by ensuring FEMA is well supported and not hollowed out as it's been doing over the past year, and be a partner in creating alternative response capabilities to support public safety, particularly as it connects to public health.

The federal government really wants to help, and I recognize our president and the administration that sadly is not really working these pieces because they have their own agenda, this is how they can.

And I think we should be beating the drum on these pieces because what's important is for the citizens of our city, our county, our state, and our country to understand these elements and these arguments and then show that what is happening with this administration is simply wrong.

and I'm encouraged because I do have exposure to the MAGA world and the reaction by some was surprisingly strong in terms of what happened in Minneapolis.

So that gives me hope in the sense of those that are right of center who may be MAGA supporters are reconsidering based on what happened in Minneapolis.

And so with all that said, thank you, Council President, and over to you.

Awesome.

Thank you, colleagues, for those updates.

I'll jump into mine super quick.

Governance, Utilities, I almost said Technology Committee, but it's the Governance and Utilities Committee will be on February 12th at 9.30, the second Thursdays of every month.

We don't have any upcoming legislation or current agenda items, but we will be going over those.

We had last week the Regional Water Quality Committee, and we set the agenda and work plan.

I do want to take this time just to send a really big thank you to Chair Balducci, who has been shepherding this work, and it's just phenomenal.

And with the way she runs the meetings, makes it palatable, it can be super wonky talking about water.

I did not know that, water quality.

So she has just made the work fun and engaging and easy for us to understand.

The other thing in the community, and want to just send my sincerest gratitude to Council Member Sokka, that was really meaningful on Friday for Regina.

We call her Gigi, Regina Rogers, and she died at the age of 35 of a heart attack and had a young son.

phenomenal basketball player.

I had the opportunity to host her when she came to Arizona to try to get her to come to U of A.

She did not choose us.

She went to UCLA and then transferred over to University of Washington, but it just meant a lot to her family and her friends, and she was a really towering spirit and just full of life.

So thank you for that invite, and to join you was a true honor.

The second thing I wanted to highlight just really quick, thank you colleagues for all your statements.

I agree a thousand percent.

I did not put out a statement last week.

There was a lot, there was everything that you all said, I would have said.

And so retweeted it, reposted it, you know, really elevated on those platforms and just really appreciate the intentionality behind the comments.

that were made by you all and all the motions.

They were very different, but we all spoke the same as a council.

And I just wanted to also say and just humanize this moment that we all saw the unfortunate shooting of Renee Nicole Goode.

She was a mother of three and she had a six-year-old kid who lost their dad two years ago and now is an orphan.

And that was the one thing that really stuck out to me.

But also, how heartbreaking this is, and I know that there's an investigation, and I'm hoping that this investigation will determine and seek justice for her life.

This is life beyond the statements.

Now I want to see the follow-up in the investigation and what happens next after that.

and understanding that no one is above the law, even people that enforce that as well.

And I know that the people that served in our military armed forces, you all fought for that constitution and know how you will always uphold that and the values that you talk about.

Beyond the statements, first off, I want people to know their rights.

In our newsletter, we have a thing called The Other Washington, which this week and on social media, for people who's not signed up to my newsletter, they will get information regarding their rights.

I know council has taken a number of budget actions.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss, for your leadership on that and council members for sponsoring bills and shepherding that through.

to fund our Office of Immigrant and Refugees Affairs.

And Director Hamdi Muhammad has been phenomenal, boots on the ground, connecting with communities, making sure people have resources.

She's just been a trooper and taking on a lot during this tumultuous time as we are navigating these waters.

And just wanted to give her a shout out and just deep appreciation for the work that she does for this office.

And I think that shows a lot that we're one, of a few cities, I think it's like 20, don't quote me on that, that have an office of immigrant and refugee affairs, that has that, has that resources where people can go to.

So I look forward to working with all executive levels, our mayor's office, and our city attorney to show the legal levers that we have on that.

Also, last but not least, I had the opportunity to join some of the members at Garfield High School this weekend on Saturday called Reclaiming the Village.

And it's important to know that there's been a ton of gun violence, especially in the Central District and also in the South End and Councilmember Lin's district.

and so reclaiming the village with Dr. Hart, the principal at Garfield, knock on wood, there was not one school shooting last year that happened.

But it does not go unnoticed that those were happening often my first year in office.

And so that conversation, those are gonna be hard to have and just trying to figure out resources to that community.

And I know you all support a lot of the gun violence prevention work.

for kids and making sure our youth are resourced.

So thank you all.

That is all that I have for this.

Councilmember Rivera, you are recognized.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to say that I just saw that Minnesota and Illinois sued the Trump administration over these ICE deployments.

The state and city officials in Minnesota and Illinois filed federal lawsuits against the Trump administration on Monday, claiming that the mass deportation of immigration agents to the Minneapolis and Chicago regions violated the U.S.

Constitution and infringed on states' rights.

So this is what I'm talking about, and this is the kind of action that I want to see, and I want us as well to be engaged in.

So thank you, Council President, for letting me give this update.

I think it was important in the context of what we all discussed, and this is what I think we're all united in.

Absolutely.

Thank you for that.

I really appreciate that.

Councilmember Rivera as well.

And it's good to hear that people are being held accountable.

That is key.

I will continue to say praise will confuse the enemy.

So you got to continue to say positive.

We got to send you to show up.

for our communities, make sure that they know that they're supported.

I really appreciate all the peaceful protests that have happened around this city in showing that we are unified as a city and we can hold government accountable and that they can express their First Amendment rights.

Last but not least, I wanted to throw out, so you all have a new gym at Magnolia.

and you said old floor, the best gym in the country that was best to play at, but you all tore it down in Oregon, was the old Mack Court.

It had a little bit of give and it had the best rims in the country, best shooting nights, and I had hops because that floor gave a give and you could jump really, really high.

I just wanted to throw that out there and then you tore that down and built the new one and that floor's really, really hard now and I don't know what Oregon is doing.

Council President, I couldn't agree more.

I had the benefit of being waitlisted by the University of Washington, so I went to a more supreme school to the south of us.

And, you know, our family is divided.

Our family is divided in our house, but what you've just spoken to Council President Hollingsworth was the old basketball stadium at University of Oregon, simply the best.

It was a place of many...

I think Ralph Nader gave one of his first speeches there, but they don't make courts like that.

And I will tell you, I was on the volunteer cleanup crew that went through that first night at the larger stadium, and I will tell you, no one ordered more volunteers.

So the same number of volunteers that cleaned up that old stadium, cleaned up the new one, and it took us four times as long.

Wow.

Well, thank you for that.

I just wanted to highlight, you talked about old gym floors.

And Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

I just want to quickly acknowledge and express my gratitude to Councilmember Rivera.

for bringing up the Beth Israel site in Jackson, Mississippi.

Look, truth is there's so much going on right now in our own city, obviously the country, and we are all, I think, focused, laser focused on addressing the city's problems, but we don't operate within a vacuum.

and all things that go on elsewhere impact what we do here in our problem-solving approach here in the City of Seattle.

So all this to say, I really do appreciate you bringing that, raising that issue, and importantly, sharing your personal perspective and experiences as a directly impacted person.

And I stand with you and our broader Jewish community and, you know, willing to continue to partner in any way I can and be supportive.

and I know it's personal to you, but also I think you represent Wedgwood as well, right?

When I lived in Wedgwood during undergrad at the University of Washington, I learned at the time that it was Seattle's single largest Jewish community.

I don't know if that's still the case, but all I have to say is I know it's an issue not only for you personally, but because of the communities that you represent.

We all represent people who practice the Jewish faith, and I know right now our Muslim neighbors and our neighbors from Africa, especially East Africa right now, are in the brunt of the federal government's actions, but that doesn't mean other communities, including our Jewish community, aren't suffering as well.

So thank you for raising that.

On a lighter note, I wanted to acknowledge and say welcome to Councilmembers Lynn and Foster only because This is the first time I think you've joined us at this table, and you are brand new here.

That doesn't mean I also don't, and also welcome our new mayor, and our new city attorney, and you're welcome back, of course, Councilmember Rink.

I am very, very, very, very delighted to say and see, and I'm remiss now, that the head of the table, Council President Hollingsworth, your very first council briefing.

I'll say, as a resident of the City of Seattle, someone who happens to be black, I am very personally proud to see you here, our first black woman in this role, first queer person in this role.

You are a history maker and a change maker and want to We recognize some of the new, different composition, but want to recognize you and what this means, not only for you, but our city as well.

So looking forward to continuing to work together.

I'll shut up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

I don't think I'm the first queer, but I'm just the first black female.

I can't take for the gays.

But thank you.

I will say this really quickly.

Thank you for bringing that up and Councilmember Rivera.

What happens in other cities impacts Seattle.

When a Jewish community is targeted, the first thing I hear is from Temple to Hirsch and Rabbi Wiener sending me a message.

Or our Somali community that happens in Minnesota impacts us here as well.

Or ICE agents in certain areas, it impacts us here as well.

So people always ask, well, what does this have to do with Seattle?

It has a lot of to do with Seattle because people are impacted here as well.

So thank you for bringing that up and highlighting that.

And if there's no further, yes.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

I also want to recognize Councilmember Lin, because I think I have the majority of synagogues, temples in the city, but Councilmember Lin has a number, as you have one as well, Council President.

And, you know, I want to thank you for raising that, because the Jewish population in this country, including in Seattle, is feeling very targeted.

There is a lot of anti-Semitism.

It's always been there, there's a resurgence of it, and we need to show our support, bottom line.

There is no room for anti-Semitism in this country, period.

And we all suffer that.

Yes, my family's Jewish, my children suffer that, I will tell you, suffer that as Jewish Americans, but we all suffer that as a community.

So we do not need to recognize, I appreciate you recognizing that.

I will tell you that Jewish folks in this city are feeling targeted, as are Jewish folks across the country, with reason, because of these things that are happening, such as the arson in Mississippi.

So that's not okay.

And we need to talk about these things and we need to show support for Jewish community in our city, including all our immigrant communities as well here in the city.

So thank you for colleagues for acknowledging.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Are there any other agenda items?

Councilmember Rank?

I simply wanted to chime in on this point.

Colleagues, I just heard the news before I came out here about what happened in Jackson, Mississippi, and I found myself completely stunned.

I know some of you know, but perhaps not all of you, that I'm Jewish.

Proudly so.

My grandma was the first woman in her temple to read from the Torah.

We're very proud of that.

That was a big part of my upbringing, and it means a lot to me personally to hear the support from you all for the Jewish community.

and I know it'll mean a lot to our residents, but I am finding myself in feeling particularly stunned by this news.

I'm glad that some updates have come about this particular case, but now is a really important time for us to use our voices and signal that we are going to be a welcoming city and inclusive city and stand against this.

So thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin and everyone who shared your remarks in support of the Jewish community.

Awesome.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

I've sat on council during pretty tough times, at which point council members would go around the room and all say the same thing.

And so oftentimes you will find me not speaking, even though I am feeling and working and acting.

So as somebody that was born and raised Jewish in the city of Seattle, I just want to thank you all for your words.

anti-Semitism, Islamophobia anywhere in our city and in our nation and in our world is simply unacceptable.

And just the history, Councilmember Kettle, that you shared with this particular place, it's still happening and it's not acceptable.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Are there any other comments for today?

awesome well thank you well this meeting it's 318 and this meeting is adjourned thank you so much