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Good afternoon, everybody.

Today is December 1st, 2025. The Seattle City Council briefing meeting will come to order and the time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Len?

Present.

Council Member Len?

Present.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink?

There we go.

Sorry.

Present.

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Here.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Thank you very much.

So before we get into today's presentations, I want to welcome Councilmember Lin to the first council briefings today.

Welcome.

On behalf of my colleagues in the Legislative Department, congratulations on your election victory and thank you so much for stepping up for public service.

We're looking forward to working with you and if there's anything that my office can do to make your transition to the Ledge Department easier, let me know of course.

All right.

Also, I'll say that we do look forward to your ceremonial taking of the oath tomorrow at our regular City Council meeting.

So you've already been sworn in officially, but we'll be able to do it for the public tomorrow.

Alright, we have two proclamations and one presentation today from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations on our state legislative agenda from our team.

On tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are 34 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

Let's see.

Wow, there sure are a lot.

And we're not just talking about, okay, I'll just go ahead.

Council Bill 2, yeah, 212-232, an ordinance authorizing the collective bargaining agreement with the city and the Seattle Police Management Association.

Council Bill 12133, an ordinance authorizing the collective bargaining agreement with the city and the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Council Bill 121-134, an ordinance which is the weekly payment of the bills.

Council Bill 121-131, an ordinance relating to city employment, commonly referred to as the pay zone ordinance.

There's one appointment to the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board, four appointments to the Seattle Disability Commission, four appointments to the Seattle Women's Commission, two to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, two appointments to the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, two appointments to the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority, one appointment to the Seattle Human Rights Commission, one to the Seattle Public Safety Civil Service Commission, three appointments to the Seattle City Light Review Panel, and nine appointments to the Cultural Space Agency Public Development Authority.

So that's on deck for tomorrow for the referral calendar.

There are no items on tomorrow's consent calendar and there are no pieces of legislation under committee reports.

Ultimately the crux of tomorrow's meeting is Council Member Lynn's ceremonial swearing in and passing passage of the very packed IRC.

So moving on to today's presentations, we've got the Office of Intergovernmental Relations here.

Why don't you come on up and take a seat, introduce yourselves and you can begin your presentation.

Oh, let's see, first we must, if there is no objection, the minutes are approved.

Which date, please?

What, November 22nd?

September 22nd, all right.

If there is no objection, the minutes of September 22nd are approved.

All right, hearing no objection, the minutes are approved.

Now we may proceed.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President Nelson and Council Members, and welcome.

It's wonderful to have you here, Council Member Lynn.

I'm Meena Hashemi, I'm the Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and I'm joined by my colleagues from our state relations team, Sameer Janejo, who is virtual, and Anna Johnson, who you will hear from momentarily.

Thank you for having us.

It is that time again and the legislative session is looming.

The city's state relations team have been hard at work planning for the 2026 session and we're pleased to give an overview of the lay of the land, the legislative timeline and the city's proposed legislative agenda shortly.

I wanna thank you council members for your participation in the legislative agenda setting process and for your engagement with our state relations portfolio and to Karina Bull for her collaboration.

OIR's state relations team builds the city's legislative agenda through a structured, months-long process that gathers and refines policy and budget priorities from departments, council, and the mayor's office.

This process begins by collecting priorities in early summer, then researching and combing through the list for the highest agreed upon priorities and themes, and ends with council's formal adoption of the city legislative agenda.

You'll see those highest agreed upon priorities reflected in the draft agenda that we'll discuss today, which clearly lays out the city's most pressing needs for this session.

The city's priorities for 2026 were carefully crafted to consider the realities of a 60-day short session and continue to build on progress made in 2025 while balancing new policy and funding requests.

I want to assure you that we have taken careful notes of all priorities shared with us and OIR will continue to track city priorities and take position stances in Olympia outside of what is found on the official agenda.

You'll hear more about this shortly, but our team will be on the ground in Olympia this week for House and Senate committee days, and they, along with our contract lobbyists, are engaging legislators and stakeholders now to float priorities and find alignment.

We look forward to keeping you and the public updated throughout session at our regular legislative briefings.

And again, I want to thank you for your participation in the process.

We hope that you will use us as your resource and your boots on the ground in Olympia this session.

And with that, I will turn it over to my colleague, Anna.

Yeah.

Good afternoon, counsel.

Meena did a great job previewing a number of the upcoming items since we last briefed you in the spring.

OIR has been hard at work putting together a two-page ledge agenda, finding sponsors, and working with stakeholders on our shared priorities.

We've also had some November election results.

If you recall last session, there was a number of appointments to the legislature, and all of those members had to run to retain their seats.

And the report out from the November election is all those members that were appointed did retain their seats, as well as we had an appointment in the 5th Legislative District due to the passing of Senator Bill Ramos.

So now the Senate and House majorities are listed here on the slide.

So for the Senate, it's 29 Democrats and 20 Republicans.

And then in the House, it's 58 Democrats and 40 Republicans.

This month, today actually, is pre-filing.

So this means legislators can now officially start submitting their legislation through the city's clerks, department, and we'll start getting to see those in the public website, and hearings will begin in January.

And as Mina mentioned, this week is legislative committee days on Thursday and Friday.

This is the first formal convening of the legislature since they sine died in the spring.

What they typically do during these days is meet with their committees, start previewing some of the hot topics that are going to come up in the next legislative session.

They're workshopping their bills with lobbyists and other colleagues, and they're really just starting to tee up what the conversation's going to look like in session.

I also want to note that this December, Governor Ferguson is going to release his proposed budget.

You may recall last session, as he came in in his transition, he released budget priorities, but not a full, complete budget.

And so we are going to be able to see his first official budget be released in December.

And then, as Mina mentioned, it is a 60-day short session.

This year, they will be amending their two-year budget that they created last year and balancing revenues and spending.

So a little preview on some of the hot topics that we are expecting for next session.

It's definitely the big conversations are related to budget and revenue as well as federal impacts.

So just this month or past month in November, the most recent revenue forecast came out.

And you can see the forecast for the near term as well as the next four years.

Budget writers are expecting about a $7 billion shortfall across the next four years, and this is due to lower than expected revenue, as well as rising caseloads and rising costs across the budget.

We are also anticipating a lot of federal pressure coming into the state, including tariffs on a number of goods and things that are expected to show up in our budgets, as well as pressures from HR1 across Medicaid and SNAP and other safety net programs that the legislators are all and analyzing and also trying to figure out how to tackle in their budgets.

So a little bit about the legislative process and deadlines.

In a 60-day session, things move very fast.

As you can see here, there's a really rapid cadence.

And we're working really hard to make sure our priorities are making it through every one of these deadlines.

So as legislation is introduced, it'll have to start in a policy committee.

And if it has a fiscal note, it'll go to a fiscal committee.

And then it goes to the full chamber in its house of origin.

And then it flip-flops and does the same process in the opposite chamber.

And everything has to be completed by March 12. So that concludes a little bit of the preview, and now we'll go through our Seattle legislative agenda.

Again, this year we have worked to put a two-page agenda together that's available for the public and the legislators that will help us guide our work next session.

So the first section of our priorities is related to federal response.

And within this section, our priorities include prohibiting law enforcement and federal enforcement agencies from wearing face coverings and require that officers be clearly identifiable while performing their duties.

Additionally, we want to add protections and benefits for immigrant workers, including notice to employees of interactions of immigration officials and job and wage stability for detained workers.

We're looking to mitigate losses of federal funding for essential services like food access, housing and shelter, Medicaid and immigrant services.

We're also asking for state support for the Seattle King County Public Health Clinic to ensure access to essential health services for uninsured and immigrant communities and then also maintain funding for asylum and migrant support services.

Moving on to affordability, one of our priorities will be to advance policies including B&O exemptions that expand equitable access to groceries and medicine.

Also maintaining and strengthening state investments and working connections, childcare and ECAP to ensure access to affordable and high quality early learning opportunities.

And then lastly, supporting revenue options that help safeguard access to our essential services.

The next section is housing and homelessness.

Within this section, our priorities are invest in service-intensive shelter capacity for those diverted from the public safety system, support operations, maintenance, services, and stabilization for a range of affordable housing options, including permanent supportive housing and workforce housing, provide funding and additional flexibility for current funding tools to address homelessness, restore full funding for the state's encampment resolution program.

And the next section is public safety.

Within this section, we have champion legislation that fosters a safe environment for everyone by giving local jurisdictions the tools and funding to uphold justice, protect communities, and ensure accountability.

Allow local jurisdictions to restrict firearms in city buildings, parks, and community centers, and require secure storage of firearms in vehicles and residences.

Support policies that encourage diversified 911 response and allow civilian alternative response to appropriate crisis and welfare calls for service.

Address the state patrol's toxicology lab backlog and allow for federally accredited labs to conduct testing of blood samples in presumed DUI cases.

Increase funding to help local governments hire more police officers and reinstate the state's coverage of the 25% local cost to send officers to the Basic Law Enforcement Academy.

Provide funding for organizations and programs that support survivors and victims of crime.

And then lastly, improve the reasonable use of involuntary treatment by increasing system capacity and making Involuntary Treatment Act more effective and useful tool for first responders.

Moving on to the capital budget, we have three priorities within this section, the first being provide funding for shovel-ready improvements at Red Barn Ranch to enable youth programming and regional outdoor learning access, foster a strong green economy by securing funding for a demonstration project at Seattle Center that will help lead to a fully decarbonized eco-district, and then authorize transfer of WSDOT's Montlake Market surplus property to the city for the purpose of affordable homeownership development.

Moving on to transportation, providing sound transit with expanded authority and financing options to maintain their project timelines and deliver the voter-approved light rail extensions, funding city and county efforts to mitigate their Vive I-5 construction project impacts, and providing local governments the authority to remove vehicle obstructions from the streetcar tracks to ensure reliable and efficient public transit operations.

and what to expect during session.

You'll see us regularly deliver council briefings and then also you'll see emails from us with trackers and hearing schedules on a weekly basis.

There will also be many opportunities to engage with the state, including testifying on bills, and also Association of Washington Cities has their city action days.

This is when various city officials, city council members and mayors from across the street go to Olympia for lobby days, and those will be January 21st to 22nd.

And then lastly, OIR state team is always available to meet with you or your staff during session or before session.

and that will conclude our presentation and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much for that information.

I am opening the floor to questions or comments from colleagues.

Councilmember Kettle.

Hello, thank you, Director Shami and the whole team.

Anna Samir and our central staff team as well, Karina.

Thank you everyone for being here.

I've read this and I recognize we have the short session so that creates its own challenges and there's some things that I would like to foot stomp like providing state support.

It mentions public health but mental health that's a state responsibility.

Years ago we were like 46 out of 50. It's been a while since I checked, but we were like 32. We're not even in the top half of the 50 states when it comes to mental health, and we all know the direct links between that and public safety and the challenges we see.

So basically having the state do their job in that area is really important and really need to highlight that.

Then along those lines separately though, like support operations, maintenance services and stabilizations.

One of the things like working the scene is that, yeah, we can build new, but the maintenance of like the housing or the and the service providers, their locations is really important, particularly on the permanent supportive housing.

And we see that on a regular basis.

And we've seen some success stories.

I was just at a Plymouth Housing open house, grand opening for a rehabilitation rehab, if you will, on Marion Street.

And it's really important for those pieces to be done because I think there's a focus on the bright and shiny new and we have to maintain and the current housing stock in that area.

So that's really important.

And the full funding for the encampment resolution program is very important.

So it's like foot stomp, foot stomp.

But in terms of public safety, I would say a few things.

And again, recognized in short session.

On the federal law enforcement piece, this is really a public safety piece.

We've spoken to this already from council and I met with the task force.

I gave my chair comments on this topic and my press statement talking about, and a lot of this is setting the standard and keeping that high standard that we have here in Seattle with SPD in terms of identification.

All these pieces that are kind of located in there, but others too.

There's other elements that are very important.

bring this up across all the state and leading by example is really important.

I mean, there's gonna be legal issues related to trying to prohibit the federal piece, but if we show that we are setting the high standard, we're playing the varsity ball, not JV like we're seeing across the country, I think that's really important long term.

In terms of the public safety elements, I like those that are a little bit more specific.

Toxicality lab is so important to backlog and getting an answer to that to include the allow for federally accredited labs.

That would be number one on my list there.

The second thing, assistance with hiring and bringing on from the cost perspective related to bringing on law enforcement, super important.

The involuntary commit piece, so important.

A lot of people don't like talking about it, but it's something that we, the pendulum swing, we have to find a new place to help us deal with the really distinct challenges that we're facing on our streets.

and so that should be up there.

I recognize this is not really a legislation piece but I'll take the opportunity to highlight but you know when I'm meeting with Chief Scoggins and fire and we're talking about you know I-5 you know Beacon Hill there's a fire if you go down I-5 there's state has hydrants you know they have a system that they're not maintaining and so if we have a fire particularly in the dry summer seasons you know they don't really have water access to that and that's a state responsibility.

WSDOT has that responsibility of maintaining basically their fire, their public safety capacity, support capacity.

By the way, this is not limited to state.

We have the same thing on 15th and Elliott related to the West Queen Anne Greenbelt because of activity in the Greenbelt, particularly in the summertime, fires, propane tanks flying off everywhere.

fire doesn't really have a good access point for water, something that a lot of people don't talk about.

So we have our own city versions of that too that we need to address.

And then after that, the gun violence piece.

I'm going to be meeting with Representative Berry soon.

As you know, she's a champion on this area.

But there's a lot of pieces with gun violence that need to be addressed to include the secure storage.

There's also some juvenile issues with gun violence that we need to address from an Olympia perspective that we should look at.

So those were the more specific ones I would put up, because the first billet is nice, but I don't see them doing much with that.

And then of course I have to end that, and I will continue this as long as I can, that the state really needs to put in a provision in the comprehensive plan legislation that every jurisdiction should be looking at their public safety capacity.

are their fire departments growing fast enough as the city grows to cover, going back to the capacity regarding WSDOT and I-5, building up that capacity to ensure that fire and other emergency first responders have the ability to get to a location.

We could use a combination for Lake Union.

but where's the process to kind of force that thinking in terms of building capacity, fire and rescue, potentially with care coming in as well, in South Lake Union for example.

and a driver for that could be a public safety element in every jurisdiction in the state and their comprehensive plan, much like we do now.

So this is another example.

This allows us to lead by example.

I was talking about SPD earlier in terms of related to federal law enforcement, but this is another area where we can lead by example as a city, showing the state, hey, this is important.

Because at the end of the day, like when we talked about this before, Los Angeles has grown, grown, grown.

When the LA wildfires hit, are they in the position?

Did their capacity grow with the city?

Or was it stuck in 1970s emergency TV show kind of level?

These are the things that I'd just like to highlight, take this opportunity to highlight as I look at your...

So thank you for this.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink.

Ms. Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Director Hashemi, Ana, and Samir for your presentation today and for your work.

I know that short session is a little deceiving sometimes.

It's less time and yet more chaos, so thank you in advance for the hard work you're sure to engage in in a challenging environment.

And my question is a more holistic one.

Thinking about the Association of Washington Cities, I'm wondering what their timeline for developing their legislative agenda currently is and how Our legislative agenda may be informing that legislative agenda.

I know last session we ran a little bit cross with some of the lobbying efforts between what we were up to and what Association of Washington Cities was doing in Olympia.

So any opportunities to square our priorities at this stage would be appreciated.

And I want to recognize Councilmember Rivera and Councilmember Strauss for your service on the AWC board.

Anything you'd want to chime in here on as well.

Thank you.

I can start.

On the AWC legislative agenda, they have one now that I believe is either final or close to final, and I think we, I can certainly send that around.

It's usually quite long, a list of, a ranked list of sort of support high-priority items and then other support items.

We have worked with Kelvin Rivera, especially as she's been on the legislative priorities committee, to make sure none of them are directly opposed to city priorities.

Obviously, as you know, though, during session, new things come up, and so that part of the process is very dynamic, and we kind of engage in conversations with AWC as specific bills come up and specific billing which is evaluated.

Do you have something to add, Councilmember Rivera?

I do, Council President.

First, I do want to thank the OIR team, Director Hashemi and Ana and Samir for all your work, not just right now and during these next 60 days, but leading up to here.

And I want to thank you for meeting with our office in particular to talk about legislative priorities.

And regarding AWC, thank you, Samir, for the update.

I do sit on the legislative committee for AWC.

The legislative priorities were set.

by the committee and approved by the board.

I will say there's nothing in conflict.

There is a distinction.

AWC is statewide.

It's made up of many of the cities across the state.

So there are going to be things on our legislative parties list that don't appear on AWC because we are you know we're the biggest city in the state we have I think more things that we're working on and also because it is a short session AWC legislative and they do a great job the team at AWC they were very focused and they prioritized you know the top the top few handful of things that they were going to focus on in this very short session.

We have more things on our agenda, but we're tracking some more things.

And so the way that agenda is set is all the cities contribute and then we all to discuss and figure out what can we, as a unified group of cities, come together and agree upon in terms of priorities, whereas of course every city has their own legislative priorities because we want to make sure that we're not leaving anything out as we are working through things.

And as you said, Ana, when you started the presentation, There are things that we've been tracking for many years now and so those will consistently appear on our list and those may not appear on the AWC for obvious reasons so I Nevertheless, they're not in conflict.

I don't see anything that we were working on at AWC as in conflict with what we're working on now.

And by way of example, last year, AWC supported this sales tax increase for public safety.

That's something the city as well supported.

And so just to show an example of how we work together to identify the state, wide on AWC priorities versus what we'll have, more specific things that are Seattle-centric, if you will.

And Council Member Rank, happy to talk to you offline if you have specific questions about AWC's legislative agenda.

Hope that helps some.

Fabulous.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera, for your work.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

AWC's legislative agenda is now complete.

There have been times in the past that the city has not been in alignment with positions that AWC has taken.

I would say that there has been a lot of work over the last few years to reduce that from happening and create contingency routes for if and when that does occur.

All of that said, the same thing like we don't all know everything that will be coming up in the legislative session this year and so therefore we make kind of a more broad agenda, so do they.

And what I've also been impressed with is their formation of committees throughout the legislative session to be responsive to changing dynamics.

I will still say, from my opinion, there's some more work to bring us into better alignment, but that's work that we continue to do.

Thank you.

If I may just add a bit to that, thank you Councilmember Rivera and thank you Councilmember Strauss.

I know I did have several conversations with Councilmember Strauss I think leading into the 2025 session and we did work with AWC to make sure that we at the city, we're doing everything we could do to also be really clear with them about what our top priorities are.

And so I wanna thank the council members for making sure to be clear about that in the spaces that you're in.

I can also say Ana and Samir have worked to maintain strong relationships with AWC staff throughout the year.

And so we kept in touch with them this summer as we were developing these legislative priorities as well, so that they won't be a surprise to them either.

But of course, the more that all of you can socialize our priorities with your colleagues on other city councils, that's appreciated as well.

Nothing more on that topic?

I'll just add, Council President, I can't speak to what happened before I joined the Legislative Committee at AWC less than a year ago, but I will say that the committee's done a really good job and all the cities are working together to find points of compromise, even when there are differences.

That's why I say Seattle-centric.

because we are gonna have things that are different from the other cities in the state.

But I have found AWC in general and my colleagues on AWC to be very collaborative and to really hone in on those top priorities that we can all agree on and compromise on.

And of course, some of those are not gonna be the same of Seattle because we are the biggest city and we have a slightly different you know we have different issues and maybe a different approach and so we I'm glad we have our Seattle centric list of priorities that your team is working on thank you and they're not going to be exactly what AWC has because they're just so many cities represented and they they're not all going to agree on what to put on their legislative priorities.

But they do a really great job, at least currently, on how they go about designating those priorities.

And I don't think that they are in conflict with, at least their top priorities are in conflict with what we have going on in my time on the legislative committee for AWC.

Thank you.

Just to put us at ease for what's happening today, despite what might have happened in the past.

Okay, Councilmember Lin.

Thank you so much.

Somewhat of a procedural question here.

So our office is new.

We have not had the same opportunity to kind of contribute, participate in developing the state legislative agenda.

Obviously we have a a new mayor who will be starting soon, a new council member.

Just want to talk through about opportunities to update or amend this.

A couple other comments that there will be new issues that come up during legislative session that we're not aware of.

And I'll just give one example.

One thing that I heard resoundingly was the need for new progressive revenues.

and I didn't see that yet.

We talked briefly the other day about potentially amending this language, but could you talk a little bit about future opportunities to amend or update or what the process might look like, especially with a new mayor coming on board?

Before you take that, I just wanted to note that Council Member Rink was in the exact same position you are right now last year or this year, I suppose.

And so I want you to understand that there is opportunity to amend this legislative agenda right now.

I believe that's where Central Staff Karina was going to mention the due dates of the amendments.

I'm pretty sure, almost 99% sure that we will be voting this out of the December 9th City Council meeting.

So there is some time.

Go ahead please if I missed anything.

Yeah, thank you for that intro.

I'm Karina Bull, Council Central Staff, and I am staffing the state legislative agenda.

And the plan is for the resolution to adopt the agenda and the accompanying exhibit, which is the agenda itself, to be introduced at next week's council meeting.

And then if council approves a suspension of the rules to also vote on the agenda at that same meeting, that would be an opportunity for council to consider and vote on amendments.

And if council members are interested in proposing an amendments, then I'm asking for the language and the placement by tomorrow at noon in order to have time to draft and to run it by the law department.

Do you have a follow-up?

Go ahead.

Yeah, just if you could also just talk about, for example, whether the new mayoral administration will chime in or what the process looks like during legislative session if new issues come up, just how that plays out.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for the question and thank you for engaging in what is a bit chaotic for you in these early days.

So as topics come up during legislative session, we do weigh in on them.

So this will not be exhaustive in the sense that our team can't weigh in on something because it's not on the list.

We do usually, we work with our departments on rapid sort of bill review during session to make sure that we sort of have our subject matter expertise when it comes to the effects before we weigh in.

And on really hot topics, usually we don't weigh in until we've had lots of conversations internally.

with the incoming mayor-elect Wilson.

We will be planning to brief her completely on the legislative agenda prior to session.

I have had some sort of preliminary conversations and her team is tracking the conversation here at council today as well as the proposed agenda that's up for consideration next week.

but much in the way that we will continue to be nimble and flexible as sort of the session dynamics are underway with all of you, we will do the same with the incoming mayor and the incoming council.

Thank you.

Now, I'll add a little bit more to during session.

To paint a picture for you, council member, we often regularly communicate with each council office in the form that makes best sense for the council office.

So it could be meeting with you individually, working with your staff.

And so as things come up really quickly, Having a kind of narrowed list of priorities as you see them arise or you're hearing about them or you hear about it in our council briefing, that kind of rapid communication on a regular cadence is really helpful to inform Samir and I's work on the ground.

So you can set that up however you see fit in the new year.

And that's something that's an open invitation to all council offices.

And we look forward to working out a system with you.

Thank you.

Okay, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

And just for my colleague, Council Member Lynn, last year we participated in Lobby Days.

I participated as part of the AWC, but our other colleague, Council Member Sacco, is there as well.

not with AWC on his own.

I think Councilmember Rink also went, Councilmember Kettle went to lobby days.

So there are a lot of opportunities to engage in Olympia even if it's not listed on the overall legislative agenda that we adopt as a mayor and a council collectively.

We all know all our different districts that have interest even beyond this.

And so I encourage you and just buy notes so you know that that happens and you don't miss an opportunity.

There is a lobby day.

And then you don't have to wait for lobby days.

You obviously can go at any time and engage with the the electeds in Olympia, but the lobby day I found very helpful last year.

And where there were points of compromise, I know I joined a meeting with Councilmember Saka on an issue that we cared, or both our districts cared about.

So just to let you know that also happens, in case you didn't know.

Yeah, of course.

Okay, so I have a couple comments and some questions.

So first I want to say that I am thrilled to see the inclusion of, let's see, it's under public safety, address the state patrol's toxicology lab backlog and allow for federally accredited labs to conduct testing.

of blood samples in presumed DUI cases.

I just read that into the record because that got pretty close last year, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm so glad to see it is that it's reappearing because as we know, it's the failure of the state lab to get results quickly, which is what ties up DUI cases forever and often ends up in them getting dismissed because, you know, there is a term limit let's say or you know a due date when those have to be actually processed or not so thank you very much and I know that Councilmember Kettle is you know you thank you for we probably in many of us probably included that in in our draft so before I continue though that I just reminded myself love the two-pager So I do want to say just to remind people that this is an innovation that appeared last year that started, you know, concise statement of our top priorities and really do appreciate that work.

Eliminating is sometimes harder than adding.

So I do appreciate what goes into this.

All right.

Also a comment of mine is For the good of the order, just to let people know, I will be proposing an amendment that would add language to the legislative agenda indicating support for updating the endangerment with a controlled substance statute to include fentanyl or synthetic opioids.

Right now it just includes amphetamines or, let's see, what is the other?

substances related to methamphetamine.

And there was statements from King County Prosecutor Lisa Mannion and City Attorney Ann Davison last session, I believe, stating support for this, but I believe that it passed the Senate and it died in the House.

I think that the Senate bill was 5071, so the substitute bill and then it didn't go anywhere in the House.

So I am just asking that it be included.

And this is timely because just yesterday the Times ran a story entitled, let's see if I can find it, Deaths of Children in Washington Welfare System Share a Common Pattern.

and the article itself shows a, quote, concerning rise in serious incidents involving children that have been in contact with the Department of Children, Youth and Families in the year prior, with 2025 expected to top the numbers recorded annually in the past decade, so, end quote.

There have already been 45 deaths by the end of September this year, and last year's total was 49, so it's anticipated that we will surpass that.

You might be wondering, what's the common pattern that's hinted at in the title?

And I'll just read, quote, the surge is primarily driven by a sharp rise in near deaths, the fentanyl epidemic and overdoses among infants.

Child welfare experts and department employees point to a number of contributing factors.

Massive decreases in foster care placement statewide and nationally, a change in state law heightening the standard for removing a child from a family, and social workers taking on what they describe as increasingly unmanageable caseloads.

So it seems like the time is now for that update.

And so colleagues, I do have a, I don't know when this will be publicly available, but I've been working on this with central staff.

Okay, if there aren't any questions about that, I'll get to my questions.

So my first question, when you were reading through this and building on what Councilmember Lin said, under affordability, the last bullet point is support revenue options that help safeguard access to essential services.

So this is, I'm assuming, a progressive revenue source.

Are you anticipating that the property tax increase will reappear this year?

I only ask that because this is such a short and concise list that you might be only putting things down that have already happened or that you think there's a good chance of reappearing.

Yeah, and on the revenue piece, I think we kept it broad because, you know, it's still early, so we don't know the entirety of what will be discussed next session.

Revenue is also a topic that goes on until the end of session as they write up and finalize their budgets.

Regarding the property tax, the levy lid lift, that's something that will probably come up again.

Unsure, though, the viability as it got very far last session and died really at the last minute.

So I think it will come up again, but again, the viability is hard to say as it is with many tax proposals in a session like this.

Okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And then Councilmember, this is kind of, this was spurred by something that Councilmember Kettle said.

He said, the first, this is under public safety, the first bullet is nice, but I don't really see that going anywhere.

And I don't really know.

And so the first bullet says, champion legislation that fosters a safer environment for everyone by giving local jurisdictions tools and funding to uphold justice, protect communities, and ensure accountability.

So can you say more about that and why it's and you're welcome to chime in anytime too.

Yeah, I'm happy to give a little bit of context.

It actually is a bullet point that was a carryover from last year.

A lot of council members and departments in the mayor's office had, we had a lot of different ideas for the public safety section and there's also a lot of conversations at the state level and so we weren't able to be completely exhaustive, obviously, in this two-pager.

And so that bullet point is really to set forward our values as we think about other issues that might come up next session.

Some topics that could be included that we didn't get to have on our two-pager could be diversion public defense caseload standards, other elements in the criminal justice system.

Last year, a bill that was really important to us was House Bill 2015. This was a bill that had a law enforcement grant as well as the public safety sales tax that you all took advantage of.

That was something that we didn't foresee going into session, but then it ended up being something that was really important to the city as things went on.

So that sentence is mainly to help signal as we encounter other issues as we navigate session and make sure we have our values that we're leading by.

Okay.

Thank you for that answer.

That reminded me of a whole bunch of things last year.

Do you want to add to that?

No?

Because I thought that this was the collective bargaining care department or something along those lines, but that doesn't have a funding component, I don't think.

Anyway, go ahead.

Thank you for that and I do recognize the point but you know with a short session it's like getting to the point is going to be so important and really rack and stacking those you know those top few pieces to really get any traction so I would just reorder it in a sense of as I said but I didn't mean to denigrate the bullet in of itself, but it does send a message.

But with the short session, being specific is going to be key for us, I believe.

100%.

Thank you.

I don't know how real this is but I might as well just say it right now because it's kind of specific.

I've heard some information that there's maybe thought about craft beer excise tax increase.

I just want to note for the record that Craft Beer is a job creator, a place maker for not just Seattle, but in cities and unincorporated locations and jurisdictions across the state.

So I would just like to say, let's keep our jobs right here in Washington State by making it easier to run a Craft Beer place.

All right, and then finally I have one thing.

Is there, was there any talk about, and I don't, I do not mean to be, this is probably premature, but what about, it's under transportation, but is there anything about licensing agreement for autonomous vehicles?

And I only ask that because I do know that Waymo was doing testing, but I have no idea what the next steps are, and so is that regulated at the state level or does each individual city do its thing or what?

Yeah, regarding autonomous vehicles, there would need to be a state bill allowing commercial deployment.

Right now, testing is something that is allowed, but there's no legal pathway to commercial deployment.

So there have been bills introduced in the past at the state level.

None have passed yet, and there very likely will be one next session as well.

Okay.

And Councilmember Lin, is that a new hand?

Yes, it is.

Okay, go ahead, please.

sorry just another kind of process question so getting back to that public safety that first bullet point which as I read it is very broadly worded and I understand the purpose behind that trying to have flexibility there especially with a two-pager but I guess part of the question I have is it's so broadly worded that it could be interpreted many different ways depending upon the type of legislation and I and I just wonder how you handle that when legislation comes up, because I could see I might have a very different sort of interpretation of what would be supported by that legislation or that language versus somebody else.

And so could you just talk through sort of how you interpret that when specific bills come up?

Yeah, happy to do so.

This actually applies to any legislation that comes down, not just related to public safety.

OIR goes through a multi-pronged analysis approach, I will say.

We initially send all legislation that we think could have any sort of impact on the city or any sort of liability exposure, any topic that we think is relevant to the city to our subject matter experts within departments who help us do that first read of what does this bill do, where does it impact us and who are our subject matter experts on it.

But we're also talking regularly with the mayor's office, regularly with every council member, and so your frequent feedback with us is really helpful so we can have transparency on where everybody is standing on legislation and if we have too much conflict on how we feel about a bill.

We often will monitor it, not take an official position, but we may provide technical feedback if it's something that we will have to implement.

But we don't take a position one way or another because there could be disagreement.

But we take every bill, like, one by one.

We have to analyze where we'll stand as things come down and as the bill changes throughout the process, too, because amendments happen at every step.

and so the bill could be very different from when it's introduced to when you know it's going through a committee and so again having that frequent communication with each of you having our council briefings you know at a regular cadence is really helpful for us to get that feedback as bills hot topics are moving through the process and we don't want to misinterpret where the city writ large is standing on issues.

Thank you so much.

Okay looking to see if there are any other questions or comments.

All right, seeing none, I hope that you are girding yourself for a short but possibly very rocky given the state revenue forecast, et cetera.

And I also want to thank you that not just for the format of the state legislative agenda, but I have seen change over time in your ability to be pretty, this is building on what Council Member Lynn was just saying or asking, your ability to indicate that this is, when you brief every week, what is very important, what is breaking, what maybe you have serious concerns about, or what you are very interested in seeing passing.

And I understand that there is a need for discretion as well, but just as clear as you can be, I think is great, so thank you.

All right, I have nothing else.

Oh, Council Member Rivera, go ahead.

Sorry, Council President.

I wanted to thank OIR for those hosting those Friday calls related to federal action with our staffs.

They've been doing this since last year when I requested it and you so kindly fulfilled my request and made sure all the LA's were included.

I know our staff has found that really helpful.

So I just really wanted to publicly acknowledge that and that that was happening and really thank you for that because like I said earlier, it is really helpful to know It is a moving target happening minute by minute.

Changes are happening and it's really important for us to keep abreast as we're doing our legislative work.

So separate from the state level, but also impacts the state as we're all reacting to what is coming out of Washington, D.C. So thank you again.

That's great that you included that.

Councilmember Lynn, what Councilmember Rivera is referring to is, I believe it's still at 9 o'clock on Fridays.

a weekly call with our DC representative.

And that's an opportunity to learn the latest that's coming down, potential federal policy changes, et cetera.

So it is very helpful, yeah.

Always stay informed and prepared.

All right, thank you so much for all your hard work.

And you're not in my line of sight, Samir, but thank you very much as well.

Okay.

All right, moving on here, Councilmember Hollingsworth has two proclamations for signature today and the first proclamation recognizes December 2nd, 2025 to be John Jeffrey Tucker Day in Seattle.

So Councilmember Hollingsworth, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback from Councilmembers before I ask who would like to sign.

Awesome, thank you council president.

Today I'm bringing forth two proclamations for your consideration and signatures.

These will be presented with family members tomorrow during full council.

I want to thank council president and the clerks for making the presentations happen tomorrow.

It's very meaningful to everyone involved.

The first one is John Jeffrey Tucker Day.

John Jeffrey Tucker is the founder of Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center who passed away March 22, 2025. He was a visionary arts leader who dedicated his life to expanding opportunity, cultural expression, and community pride in Seattle.

He has left a lasting impact on generations and artists and residents.

I believe it's important for this council to join in on honoring his legacy with the proclamation of John Jeffrey Tucker Day tomorrow, which is December the 2nd, 2025. His son, Keith Tucker, has a nonprofit in the Central District right off Cherry called Hip Hop is Green.

which is an organization that uses hydroponics and plants to grow and then also music to draw the young folks in.

So would love everyone to sign on to the proclamation if you so wish.

Thank you, colleagues.

I want to thank you very much for making that connection for me because Hip Hop is Green was one of the sponsors of the Cherry Street Small Business Market Fair.

I can't remember exactly what it was called but it happened over the summer and that's when I first got to know the organization.

Not only were they They had a band that was playing and they also really do take a conscientious view of urban horticulture.

So I really appreciate you making that connection and also recognizing the passing of someone who is so important in our city and in the community.

Are there any other questions, comments, input?

Okay, thank you Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

So seeing there's no further discussion on the proclamation will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing December 2nd as John Jeffrey Tucker Day.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Aye.

Councilmember Rink?

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Yes.

And Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much.

All right, now for our second proclamation.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, second proclamation recognizes December 2nd as Dr. Renee McCoy Day.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, please lead the discussion.

Thank You Council President and I apologize.

I know both these requests came into my office and Council Member Rink's office and even though I kind of took the lead I know we were both very supportive on this so just wanted to highlight that both both of the proclamations Dr. Renee McCoy Proclamation for Dr. Renee McCoy Day Dr. Renee McCoy has celebrated for more than four decades of incredible leadership in public health, HIV, AIDS, and prevention.

She's a community advocate across cities in New York to Seattle.

She grew up actually in Detroit.

As both, she's a public health leader and ordained minister.

She has founded organizations that addresses health disparities, uplift African Americans, I always say gay community, but it's the LGBTQIA communities, and provides safe spaces for those most in need.

She's a scholar, educator, and artist, and her lifelong commitment to serve and empowerment exemplifies the highest ideals of leadership, and colleagues would love your support for us to honor Dr. Renee McCoy Day.

Both of those days will be December 2nd, so they will be one of the most progressive days in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink, would you like to add anything?

Thank you, Council President.

I just want to express my gratitude to Council Member Hollingsworth for taking the lead on putting these together and getting them before Council.

These are really important proclamations and I'll be eager to put my name on them.

Thank you.

Okay, I don't see any other hands raised.

Can you please restate if I missed it, will there be anybody to present the second proclamation tomorrow?

Yes, there will be, Dr. Renee McCoy will be here.

Oh, she will actually be here.

Yes, it will be a surprise for her.

Not anymore.

Sorry.

Sorry, she's not watching the Seattle Channel at 3 o'clock on a Monday.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And I'll save my speechifying then for tomorrow.

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll since I see no further discussion on the proclamation.

Call the roll recognizing December 2nd as Dr. Renee McCoy Day.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

We'll now move on to our next agenda item, which is basically, in shorthand, and the roll call begins with Council Member Juarez.

Yes, it does.

Thank you, Council President.

I thought it was Council Member Hollingsworth.

I was gonna talk to the clerk about that, but I think tomorrow we start a different roll call, right?

Yeah, tomorrow you go first.

No.

That was last week.

That was last week?

I don't know about that.

I'm gonna check that.

I'm having a boomer moment here.

Okay, well, first of all, welcome Council Member Lim.

So from DJD5 to ELD2, congratulations and welcome to Seattle City Council.

We're really a fun group, so get ready for that.

Let's see, last week, I have just a few items, but last week, we had the honor, this city, our great city, of hosting, I think for the first time, the 82nd Annual Convention of the National Congress of American Indians, also known as NCAI.

It was held at the New Convention Center last month.

We had over 2,500 folks that attended the conference, and of course this country has well over 560 tribes.

NCAI was established in 1944. I can actually say my grandfather was on Blackfeet Tribal Council and attended NCAI.

And here we are 81 years later and we're still doing this.

I had the opportunity and the honor to not only sit down with former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, but also a dear friend of ours, Peggy Flanagan, who is the one of the, she was elected out of Minnesota.

So that was great.

And then I also had the opportunity to moderate a NCAI native elected officials panel.

in which all the people, the panelists, are dear friends of mine, Senator Claudia Kaufman, who's Nez Perce, Representative Deb Leckanoff, who's Tlingit, Representative Chris Stearns, who is Navajo, and Mayor of Shoreline, our dear friend Chris Roberts, who is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation.

and as many of you know, well maybe you don't but you'll learn now, we meet three times, four times a year and we will be attending another annual conference that they have in Washington DC which we'll be at in February and also hosting which I've done now in our 23rd year honoring the Honoring Women's Luncheon in which we honor Native American women who have leadership, not only in their own communities, but certainly well outside of Indian Country.

Our discussion on the panel centered about how we got into politics, the value of bringing communities and tribes to government, economic development, economic vitality, how we envision tribal leaders achieving greater representation of political influence to elevate the priorities of Indian Country and the cities and counties and neighborhoods and communities that we live in.

Moving on this week, I think some of you may be attending this tomorrow.

We will be honoring Elizabeth Dahl Henley's numerous accomplishments leading Aurora Commons for 14 years tomorrow evening.

Elizabeth, I knew her when she was Elizabeth Dahl, is a dear friend of mine and have worked with her for well over a decade with Aurora Commons.

And as you know, Aurora Commons supports unhoused neighbors who live along the Aurora corridor, including survivors and those experiencing commercial sexual exploitation.

In 2014, Elizabeth secured the 501 status for the organization, which they hadn't had before.

Under Elizabeth's leadership, the organization has grown exponentially.

With city budget support over the last decade, Aurora Commons has launched a healthcare clinic with UW Harborview, purchased their building to provide stability in their services.

Thank you, last three tribal, I can say tribal councils, last city councils provided that in the budget, and thank you Councilmember Strauss for helping us out on that.

Developed a peer mentorship program for victims and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.

Elizabeth Dahl grew the organization budget, and I know this for a fact from 2015, from $180,000 to $2.1 million to serve the community with dignity and care.

I know many of you attend the Aurora Commons dinner every year.

It's a phenomenal event and I'm sure we will continue to attend even though Elizabeth will not be the ED and we'll move on and we will miss her greatly.

District 5 is deeply grateful as I'm sure the city is for Elizabeth's leadership and all the care that she's brought to our community but more importantly Elizabeth is a dear friend and sister of mine we've gotten so much work done together just sitting down over a cup of coffee and just getting things done no need to have a committee meeting or a press release just doing the work With that, I have on a personal note, if you will let me, Council President, because I know some of you got my memes this weekend.

Am I saying that word right?

Memes?

Memes?

I got it.

Yes, ma'am.

Love it.

I want to share that yesterday, Representative Shirley Chisholm would have been 101 years old.

She was born on November 30th, 1924, and she passed, walked on, on January 1st, 2005. And for those of you youngins that don't know who Shirley Chisholm is, Representative Unbossed and Unbought, In 1968, she was the first black woman elected to Congress.

In 1972, she was the first black candidate for a major party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

She also received, in 2015, after after her passing, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2024, the Congressional Gold Medal from President Biden.

And on a personal note, in 1972, I don't know, I think I was 11 or 12 before I knew how the world really worked, I was watching TV, and I remember her speech, and I honestly thought in my little 19, 12-year-old brain that, yes, that's going to be our next president.

Still could happen.

So with that, on a personal note, why Shirley Chisholm, as many of you know, is a hero of mine.

Besides all her accomplishments and her way, she really was the mother of the Progressive Party.

She really taught us that progressive values are democratic values, and we don't need to draw lines or have labels to know that we all care about the same things.

and with that, Representative Chisholm also shared something with me on a personal note.

She also had MS and she retired in Congress with many, many awards and I had an opportunity to visit some of the places that she started in Texas after she retired.

and she was just an advocate for disabilities and people with MS. And for me, just on a personal note, I don't think you meet a lot of people like that in this world.

And I'm hoping that if anyone watches this channel, that that's what leadership is.

It's shared, it's modeled, it's kind, it's decent.

It is not the sometimes cultivated performance art we see.

It's about real leadership because we care about people.

So with that, thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Inspiring, and I do have a question about the panel that you were on.

Can the public see that anywhere?

Was it recorded?

Yes, it was, and I just want to correct myself.

I forgot for a minute.

Our dear friend, it was Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who is also running for the Senate.

That's just a political issue, but she also is a dear friend in Indian country.

and yes, it was, if you go to the NCAI website, which their agenda's up for February as well, you will see the moderated panel.

And you know, for us in this city, I was so proud that our city hosted over 2,500 people, tribes from all over the country were here, Alaska, California, Oklahoma, Texas, Nevada.

New York, my tribe, Montana, and also to see so many other.

We had lunch with the governor and the AG, and it was wonderful to have other electeds there.

I want to thank Councilmember Hollingsworth and Councilmember Strauss, who attended one of our lectures as well as you, Council President.

and I think when you find that there really isn't any definition or lines between Indian Country and the rest of the world because tribal leadership, shared leadership, we all want the same things and I think one of the things that we walked away with on this conference is the economic vitality, and I think, Council President, thank you for your leadership, because you've been working with me on this for years, as well as Council Member Strauss, is not only weaving, but understanding beyond land acknowledgments, which I think are stupid, really land back, but also weaving tribes into the economic ecosystem and family of this great city, which is theirs.

That's not really Chief Seattle, that's a Plains Indian.

as we like to point out.

So I'm really hopeful.

I know some people are walking around with not a lot of hope, but I feel a lot of hope and joy.

I'm excited about 2026. So yes, I think you can find me on TV.

If you can't, I will send it to you.

How about that?

But it was a great panel.

And as all four of those electeds, I've known all of them my whole life practically.

And it's just wonderful to be around other electeds outside of Indian country, but at a Native American event with other tribal leadership.

And it kind of is nice to be around that.

So thank you.

And thank you for the question.

Are there any other questions?

Seeing none.

Let's see.

Councilmember Kettle, you're next in line.

Thank you Council President and thank you DJ D5 and I also wanted to pass from RK D7 to EL D2 another welcome to the Council.

Our next Public Safety Committee meeting is a week tomorrow starting with the Public Safety Review from the Executive of Chief Public Safety.

One item from the Public Safety Civil Service Commission and then a review of the committees.

Moving forward, mission vision and the strategic framework plan for a safer Seattle, looking to you know, make some tweaks, adjustments, you know, incorporate the lessons learned and my team will be in contact with other committee members' teams on that.

You know, just to kind of review and also set up our work for 2026. This week, today, I've met with Local 8, also IBEW 77, tomorrow in community, South Lake Union Community Council, and then Wednesday Queen Anne Community Council with my team.

Also that day meeting with OIG and the DSA and we have a Regional Water Quality Committee meeting in person.

Our annual in-person RWQC meeting chaired by Chair Claudia Balducci from King County Council.

Thursday, follow-up meeting or visit to Southwest Precinct, which I'm looking forward to, and then also Pike Place Market meeting ahead of a constituent meeting in community in our downtown neighborhood.

And then finally Friday, meeting with DSA, Building and Trades having their event, and also Queen Anne is having its tree lighting ceremony that day.

for next week, the meeting with Sound Transit, also Chief Seattle Club, I mentioned Tuesday with the committee meeting, Wednesday the Aquarium, and also the Duwamish Tribal Services, PSRC Transportation on Thursday, and then also meeting, as I mentioned, alluded to earlier, with our representatives from 36LD, our representative, Julie Reed and Liz Berry, also Cascade Bicycle Club, and the Maritime Blue Team.

So that's what's coming up in community, and also with our external committees, like the PSRC meeting on Thursday, and then this week's RWQC meeting, the Regional Water Quality Committee on Wednesday.

And that's it.

Thank you, Council President, on the assumption there's no questions for me.

You can think of some if you want.

Okay, thank you very much, seeing none.

So go ahead, Councilmember Lin.

Thank you so much, and thank you for the warm welcome, everyone.

Excited to do the ceremonial swearing in tomorrow.

Coming up this week, we will be having a land use committee meeting with some exciting SEPA and FEMA floodplains legislation.

So stay tuned for that one.

But yeah, that's all I have on my calendar that I need to share at this moment.

So thank you all.

Thank you.

What, can you tell me, did you say what time it was?

Is that, that's a morning meeting, correct?

Um, at, on Wednesday it's at two.

Okay.

Yeah.

In the afternoon.

Okay.

Council member Rink.

Thank you council president and welcome council member Lynn to your first council briefing.

I'm so excited that you are joining council and I just recall first meeting you in the appointment process and just being wowed even then about the expertise and spirit that you wanted to bring to council and now seeing that the people of district 2 have spoken and have said loud and clear that they want you here is just so incredible to see.

So I'm excited to be working with you this year and just want to give you the warmest of welcomes.

Taking us to committee, first focusing on Sustainability City Light and Arts and Culture Committee, we will be meeting this Friday, December 5th.

This will be our final meeting of the year.

We will vote on appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board, the City Light Review Panel, Museum Development Authority, and Cultural Space Agency, and we will also have a briefing and discussion on City Light's infrastructure stability and reliability.

So this presentation on City Lights aging infrastructure is important.

I know we all have heard from our constituents or have experienced ourselves profound outages.

And so if you would like to understand what is contributing to the various outages we see periodically across town, I strongly encourage you to come to committee on Friday.

Everyone is welcome.

Taking us also to Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes, the Friday, December 19th Select Committee.

We are canceling it.

We're unable to meet full quorum.

I know it's right before winter recess, so sorry we couldn't make it work.

But we will reconvene in the new year and assess whatever new crisis is coming out of Washington, D.C.

at that time.

I also wanted to highlight that over the holiday, I joined the Stone Soup crew for their first annual Thanksgiving feast at Cal Anderson Park.

The Stone Soup crew was able to serve roughly 200 people, many unhoused trans and queer youth that are living in and around Cal Anderson Park.

and along with a hot meal, we handed out cold weather gear and hygiene kits.

So I wanted to express a thank you to Central Lutheran Church for opening up their kitchen, for the Stone Soup crew to do this work.

And I also wanted to highlight that volunteers with the crew spoke to the urgent need to support the hundreds of trans young people that have made their way to Seattle, not just from our region, but across the country because we are a welcoming city.

and this is reflective of what was also expressed at the LGBTQ Commission just a few weeks ago.

On the 20th, I presented a proclamation on behalf of my office to the LGBTQ Commission to recognize Transgender Day of Remembrance.

It was emotional because too many of our trans neighbors have had their lives end far too early.

So I bring these points up to say the number of homeless trans and queer youth in Cal Anderson Park should be a wake-up call to us.

And volunteer efforts like Stone Soups Cruise and the networks of folks donating safe transportation and a warm place to sleep short-term are just simply not enough, and that was heard loud and clear.

So we need to be focusing in the immediate term on policy and investments that support this rapidly emerging situation.

And to end on a high note, we have three new Link light rail stations opening this weekend in South King County.

Sound Transit is celebrating the grand opening of Kent, Des Moines, Star Lake, and Downtown Federal Way stations this upcoming Saturday, December 6th.

This will add 7.8 miles to the Line 1, another big win for our region in addressing greenhouse gas emissions contributed by single occupancy cars.

So I will be there Saturday morning riding along with many members of our transit geek communities.

And I hope to see many of you there as well.

I know I'm certainly excited that Seattle will be more broadly connected to our neighbors in South King County.

And with that, I'm happy to take any questions or pass it along to Councilmember Rivera, I believe.

I see no questions.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Colleagues, looking backwards, or looking back in time rather, I was honored to attend the Muckleshoot Tribes Luncheon where, you know, this was a part of what we heard our colleague talk about and it was really a humbling experience and I always really appreciate the opportunity to meet with our tribal partners and hear from them.

I forgot, Council Member Rivera, you were there.

I forgot.

No, it's okay.

I was trying to look down the thing.

You were there.

I apologize.

No worries.

We had a hug and said hi.

We had a hug for sure.

So really appreciate joining you and others there.

Also attended the...

Families, Education, Preschool Promise, Levies, Oversight Committee, the last one for the 2018 levy as we close up the 2018 levy.

Colleagues, you may remember that the levy runs on a school year, not a calendar year, so some of the 2018 levy investments go into next year, part of the year.

This now levy renewal that we're really excited passed overwhelmingly, as you know, and the department is working on the implementation plan that they will bring to us in the spring coming up.

They will also be seeding a new levy oversight committee to now do this new renewal levy piece.

That levy oversight committee will be comprised of mayoral appointments as the last one and city council appointments and so a deal will be reaching out.

There will be opportunity for district specific appointments like the transportation levy oversight committee to this new iteration of the FEP levy oversight committee.

So more to come on that as the department is working on that.

but I was really grateful to participate in the last meeting of that pass, the immediate pass levy oversight committee members.

As you all know these are volunteer positions and I always am so grateful that folks lend their expertise and their time to participate on these oversight committees for the levies that we pass at the city.

So in this case the families and education levy but I know we have other levies like the transportation levy and the library's levy which by the way next year is a renewal of the library's levy and there's the levy, excuse me, the library's board, library board that helps oversee the levy funds for that levy.

Also I will say for the families and education preschool promise levy The department is engaging in outreach.

They will start.

Tomorrow starts the first one.

I will be sending out, my office will be sending out a newsletter today that has, I think there are four starting outreach sessions they're being called and so I welcome you to share in your newsletters so that your constituents can attend one of the sessions and hear about the levy work and also, more importantly, give feedback on their thoughts about the current levy and then the upcoming levy renewal proposal.

So more to come on that as well.

Let's see.

This week as well, I had my regular check-in with Captain Davison of the North Precinct to hear about district-specific public safety issues.

I also am meeting with constituents to hear about their needs and their concerns in the district.

This Friday, I will be participating and I welcome your joining me at the City of Seattle's Boards and Commission's Appreciation Reception.

This reception is for all the boards and commissions for the city.

about almost 200 boards and commissions for the city, as you know, and this is their appreciation event.

They always do it around this time of year.

And it's really a great opportunity to meet with the folks that volunteer their time to sit on these boards and commissions and really help the city do the work of making recommendations depending on the board and commission to us and to the mayor and it is really a great it's a great event I went last year and it's just like I said it's a really great opportunity to personally thank folks who volunteer their time and their expertise and their interests on these boards and commissions.

Next week, sorry, I'm looking at my notes here.

Next week, there's lots going on.

Next week, of course, I'll have my Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee on the agenda is Dr. Chappelle's and Director Chappelle's, both Director and Dr. Chappelle's reappointment.

My team sent out, I sent out an email folks to you all maybe last week or the week before, asking for any questions that you might have for Director Dr. Chappelle.

And I know my team followed up with your LA's also.

I know we were in the middle of budget, but we want to make sure that we are moving forward with Director Dr. Chappelle's reappointment confirmation process.

So if you do have questions, please let my office know right away.

Wendy from my office is working on that.

and that way Director Chappelle can have sufficient time to answer your questions in preparation for next week.

And I'm working through the other agenda items currently, so I will share that as soon as I have that.

And I think, like I said earlier, there's lots going on, but I'll stop here in the interest of time and happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you, Council President.

Okay.

Leads us, let's see who can do the alphabet faster.

Councilmember Saka, go ahead, please.

Yes, thank you, Madam Council President.

You also happen to be right next to her because we're arranged alphabetically too.

All right, well, thank you, esteemed colleagues, members of the public.

First and foremost, we'd like to take this opportunity to send a heartfelt welcome to our newest colleague at the end of the dais there, Councilmember Lynn.

Really excited to be able to call you a colleague, anew, so to speak, and be able to work with you here in this body.

We are absolutely lucky to have you and the leadership that you represent and excited to always have another member of the No Tie Club here at City Hall, but also a fellow champion of adding new sidewalks and traffic safety investments throughout our city.

So welcome again.

On the Transportation Committee front, colleagues, our next meeting will be tomorrow, Tuesday, December 2nd at 9.30 a.m.

Full agenda, including appointments, are currently scheduled.

So the agenda's been published, so we're gonna be considering a number of appointments to modal boards as well as a Levy Oversight Committee appointment from District 7. I'm gonna hear a presentation from our Seattle Department of Transportation on the levy delivery plan progress from 2025 and also a brief look ahead for 2026. There will be another briefing and discussion on two proposed pieces of SDOT legislation pertaining to a street vacation, the Block 24 around South Lake Union and then the Westin Sky Bridge, a separate vacation as well.

So tomorrow, as always, everyone is welcome.

I know everyone geeks out about these alley vacations, street vacations, etc.

But we have some really important stuff to talk about tomorrow, including levy delivery plan, progress and next steps.

Moving on, regional fair forum.

So colleagues, I've mentioned a few times in council briefing my participation and involvement on behalf of the city and what's called a regional fair forum.

There was four or so sessions starting in May or June of this year.

I attended most of them.

I had some conflicting comp plan meetings that precluded my attendance in the summer, but I attended the last one, which was in September, right before budget, and so I wanted to just quickly share a report out and some of that work on the Regional Fair Forum, which brought together representatives from all the transit operators, so representatives from Sound Transit and King County Metro and Seattle.

We obviously operate or we own two, the Seattle Monorail and the streetcar as well.

And so this is a ad hoc committee where we convened a 10-year plan to address key components of our transit system, focusing on our fare system.

some of the outputs and deliverables from the work or alignment where we landed.

Together we committed to opting a shared set of regional values governing our transit fare system that include fairness, equity, and social justice, Also, we committed to simplifying our system, making it more accessible for all, and also doing what we can to boost safety for passengers and transit employees.

So those are some of the higher level values we aligned on.

Going forward, a few more specific priorities and commitments where we aligned included those to expand the current OrcaLift eligibility program.

So OrcaLift, as we know, is a reduced fare program for those in need.

Currently, I think there's a 200% federal poverty threshold for eligibility in that program, so goal is to expand eligibility for that, also explore new methods and tools for enrollment and verification, and aligning on a reduced set of fair rates.

These are importantly a non-binding set of goals and commitments because each and every individual transit agency is empowered to make the decisions that they feel is best for their organization.

And so it's more of an advisory or recommendation authority, if you will.

But great work done there.

Finally, I guess with respect to some of our city and regional committee work, to say one final kudos to everyone, colleagues, for your work on passing our budget a couple weeks ago unanimously.

And that was a huge effort, huge feat.

The first time, I guess, in over a decade that we unanimously adopted a budget.

And I understand that Some, many of the media reports were already written the week before, earlier in the week, before we took our final, final, final, final vote on a list of many votes.

But from my perspective, that's almost as newsworthy as the substance of a $8.9 billion budget and some of the bold investments that it has, is that we for once, or once, in over a decade past, they unanimously adopted a budget.

So kudos to you all, kudos to Budget Chair Shrouse and your team for that.

And that was an important milestone.

Let's continue on towards that path going forward.

Finally, I'll note in the community a few quick things.

First and foremost, I want to welcome a small business to Pioneer Square.

It's called Pasty Jollof.

It is a West African cuisine restaurant that just opened up in Pioneer Square.

Pasty Jollof.

Go check it out.

Really great.

Black-owned, small business, but just delicious food.

I had the pleasure of taking my team there last week to check it out firsthand.

And apologies again to my team for introducing them to the spiciest options that they had available there, but rest assured, they have non-spicy options as well.

Pasty Jollof, West African Cuisine in Pioneer Square.

Also want to note, in the interest of time, I'll note one final kind of community event.

This Saturday, December 6, I will be attending the annual tree lighting ceremony in the West Seattle's Alaska Junction.

That's sponsored by the Junction BIA, which is one of the BIAs across our city.

So that's going to be taking place in the Alaska Junction.

Looking forward to participating in that tree lighting ceremony.

And I think the emcee and District 1 resident Brian Callahan of our own Seattle Channel will be on hand as well to emcee the event.

But it should be a fun, family-friendly event.

So bring the dogs, the fur babies, the kids, the whole family, and join me and mine to light the tree.

That is all I have by way of updates, comments.

I welcome any questions from you all.

And if not, we'll pass it on to Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Colleagues, welcome back after Thanksgiving.

Councilmember Lynn, welcome.

Very excited to have you here.

Moving into the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee report, there is no legislation at full council from the Budget Committee.

The Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee will meet this Wednesday, December 3rd at 9.30 a.m.

The final agenda will be posted shortly, and we have four appointments, one to the Indigenous Advisory Council, and three to the Seattle Indian Services Commission.

Colleagues, I typically only have commissioners and appointments come once to the committee.

I do have a standing rule for myself that items are heard twice.

I am going to only have one meeting for these commissioners so that we're not asking them to come back.

We are planning to cancel the December 17th committee meeting because it would refer legislation directly to either the first council meeting of January or to a week that we are on council recess.

And so therefore, I'm asking that we only have one meeting for the appointments of these four commissioners, Eddie Sherman to the Indigenous Advisory Council and Iris Friday, Robert Howard and Michael Reichert to Seattle Indian Services Commission.

We will also have a presentation from Francesca Mernon about the Tribal Governments and Native Communities Update, overviewing the Tribal Nations Summit from this summer.

And so, Council Member Juarez, you are not a standing member of this committee, and I would love for you to attend if your schedule allows.

Oh, fantastic.

And so that's the meeting for this Wednesday at 9.30.

We are planning to cancel Wednesday the 17th.

For Sound Transit, my two external committees, Sound Transit and Association of Washington Cities, colleagues are excited and I'm glad you're sharing the news that the Federal Way Link extension is opening this Saturday, December 6th, adding nearly eight miles.

It sounds like Council Member Rank has the exact mileage to the one line.

We're gonna have a program that starts at 9.30 at Federal Way Station, and the first trains should be rolling at just about 11 a.m., so come on down.

It's a busy day for external committees because Association of Washington Cities is also hosting a new electeds training on this Saturday, and so if you can't get to Bothell, also, I guess, Eddie, Councilmember Lynn, you're the only one on the dais that this applies to, but I'm sure thousands of people are watching us on Seattle Channel right now.

And so that is all.

I go every year as a member of the board and I find that I learn something new every year.

So even if you're not a new council, new elected and you don't want to go to Bothell, you can sign up online and just listen in as the day goes on.

like Bothell.

So back to Sound Transit, we do have these new stations at Kent, Des Moines, Star Lake, Federal Way Downtown.

We unfortunately are not yet to Pierce County.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Snohomish County last year, and I am looking forward to making it across that county line.

In District 6, I've had to pause my office hours during the budget session because the amount of time that I was focused down here with each of you, I am restarting that and we will likely be finding a date where I do my 12-hour marathon of office hours on the weekend sometime this month or early next month.

And so with that, that is my report, colleagues.

Any questions?

Yes, ma'am.

It's a man thing, okay, I like it.

So when is 130th Pinehurst gonna open with the DJD 5 station?

When's that gonna happen?

Later in 2026, so.

When?

Well, if I was allowed to say, I would.

All that to say is we've been waiting with bated breath and we are pining for the Pinehurst station that should have been named the DJ D5 station.

But with that, your name did not meet the qualifications because you're still alive.

I'm still alive.

Okay.

Well, thank you for that.

I'm glad.

I'm grateful.

Colleagues, any other questions?

We named Federal Way station after the city of Federal Way.

Councilmember Rank?

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

And sorry if I stole a little bit of your thunder here.

I'm just really excited and I know I'm representing a lot of people who are really excited to see more light rail stations open and to other cities just opening up all those opportunities.

And so just wanted to express sorry for that.

But I hope maybe if you're interested, we can ride down together.

There's no need to apologize.

There is more work for any of us to do than one person can do.

And that's why it takes a team to do all of this work.

And so, yeah, come on down.

Saturday, it's going to be a great time.

If you've never been to a light rail opening, they activate all of the stations and it's just a very lively experience.

Fantastic.

Seeing no further questions, I'll pass it over to Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

I forgot to mention that Dr. Renee McCoy is married to Dr. Patricia Hunter, who was on the Seattle Police Commission, so, Seattle Community Police Commission.

So anyways, I wanted to throw that out there so they will be their surprise tomorrow, because I know it was a surprise, so, well.

We'll keep it a surprise.

Welcome Council Member Lynn.

I know I'm joining with everyone, but looking forward to working with you and...

all the great work that I know that you will do in representing District 2. It's gonna be phenomenal, so looking forward to that.

Colleagues, the Parks Public Utilities Technology Committee, that will be December the 10th.

We have land acquisition ordinance from SPU.

It's a last minute one, it's pretty big.

I believe it's in District 4 in Laurelhurst in Councilmember Rivera's district.

and that's from SPU.

We also have some appointments as well for the Seattle Center Advisory Commission and I'm looking forward to that.

So we have a pretty generally packed meeting but we will power through it.

So we have some legislation towards the end of the year and then some appointments that we need to get through.

I also, I don't know, I can't remember the last time we did a briefing.

It's been so long, so I was just trying to go through all the stuff, but two things I wanted to highlight.

I definitely wanted to thank from King County Council, Council Member Dombowski, Council Member Musqueda, and Council Executive Zahalai for their investment.

I know that we have the crisis care clinic that's coming to Capitol Hill.

They actually included an additional million dollars to the original a million dollars from Council Member Dembowski, so they added an additional million dollars for Capitol Hill investment to help with some of the Some of the improvements that we wanna put in the area, a lot of the people have requested certain things like we have cleaning, lighting, different types of SEPTED in that area.

And so really, really excited about that investment that that's gonna make to the community and wanted to give our wonderful friends across the street a shout out because that's gonna be huge.

And I'm gonna throw it out there.

I can't wait for the ongoing investment for that.

as well.

Last but not least, I was looking at stuff, definitely wanted to take a page out of Council Member Saka's book on highlighting a small business.

The Otter Bar in Eastlake is a great place to go to, and I went to a drag show.

They had a drag show there.

It was really phenomenal, great people, good food, and want to highlight the businesses in Eastlake because there's a ton of construction going on there in Councilmember Rivera's district mine and it bleeds into Councilmember district and so want us to continue to support a lot of these small businesses in Seattle, especially during the holidays, as a lot of them make a ton of their revenue towards the end of the year.

And I think it's really important that we continue to invest in those as well.

And I also know that there's a ton of construction going on on Capitol Hill.

in front of some businesses and I know they've reached out as well.

So we're trying to mitigate that.

So I know people on Pike Pine, there's a lot going on and we want to help mitigate that because this is one of the busiest times for a lot of those small mom and pop shops and want to make sure that they are positioned in the best way possible to succeed, especially during this, the rest of the year.

So with that colleagues, I don't have anything else.

And I believe council president, you are next.

Thank you very much.

I'll build on some of the things that you spoke of in just a second and maybe have a question for you.

So let's see, like you it's hard to kind of go back so far and find out what I need to talk about, but I do know that first of all I have to provide a correction.

I read the wrong bill number for the SPOG contract and the correct council bill number is 121-133.

So, just note to self on that one.

Okay, there are no governance, accountability and economic development committee items on tomorrow's full council agenda.

On Thursday, we'll have a special GADE committee at, so that's December 4th at 2 o'clock.

and there are two items on the agenda.

First we'll have a briefing and discussion of Council Bill 121130 which would establish new ethics rules for political consultants who contract with the city and specifically the bill establishes registration and disclosure requirements and a one year cooling off period for political consultants and disallows them from simultaneously advising city officials on policy while also working on political campaigns related to those same policies such as a ballot measure, for example.

It's modeled on similar regulations in other cities.

Portland requires political consultants to register and report their activities and San Francisco prohibits consultants from participating in decisions where they have conflicts of interest.

and we have the same sort of thing here in Seattle, but that's for city employees and electeds, but nothing for consultants.

So basically this is a straightforward ethics reform model bill, and it is modeled, as I said, on what's already working in other cities.

And then the second item on our agenda is Council Bill 121131 from Seattle HR, which modifies the executive pay bans according to inflation and standard cost of living adjustments.

This item will be a briefing discussion and possible vote.

And then there will still be a regularly scheduled GADE committee meeting next Thursday, December 11th at two o'clock, but more on that later.

All right, out in the community, along with my family, I attended the Westlake Center tree annual holiday tree lighting ceremony and that was on Friday evening, hosted by the Downtown Seattle Association.

And it was really, So basically you get to go up on this balcony and that was really fun for me because it was great to be able to see a distance of a few blocks and how many people were packed very calmly and joyfully in the plaza.

And so that's kind of a signal of successful revitalization of our downtown core.

So that was good to see.

And it was also great to see Mayor-Elect Wilson there and her daughter, because that signals to me an appreciation of our commercial business district, not just as a revenue generating place, but a place that can be fun for civic gatherings and kind of ground zero of our downtown there.

and it will only continue to be more so once the renovation of the actual Westlake Plaza is finished.

The push is on to get that done for the World Cup and it means that there's, you know, There's some plywood to get around during the holidays, but I urge everyone to go check out downtown, spend your money, and I'll plug also, this is what I was meaning, I just really wanna thank you for emphasizing Council Member Hollingsworth, the importance of supporting our small businesses.

I participated in the Saturday, I think, was it Small Business Saturday?

Any case, every day can be Small Business Day.

and plus it's more fun than just sitting there on your computer and ordering things.

So just want to encourage folks to get out and have a good time as they're thinking about their loved ones this holiday season by shopping local.

All right, two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending Puget Sound Business Journal's Women of Influence Awards and they honored 19 amazing women leaders from our area and I was especially excited and invited by Tammy Canavan, President and CEO of Visit Seattle.

and she sat at her table and I think that we cheered the loudest in the whole room.

But the point is, here's a little bit about Tammy if you don't know her.

She's been a trailblazer in the field of women's leadership, particularly in the hospitality industry.

And as the first female president and CEO of Visit Seattle, she's been instrumental shaping the organization's growth and success.

Tammy's vision and leadership approach have not only transformed Visit Seattle, but have also set a precedent for future leaders in the industry.

Her work continues to inspire and empower women in leadership roles across various sectors.

I also have to say she's damn good for our hospitality sector in the city, and Visit Seattle Reminder is funded by fees that hotels, 11 hotels, I think it's 11, I could be wrong, but downtown hotels impose upon themselves, goes into a big pot, and with that pot of money, Visit Seattle promotes the whole city and what's unique about neighborhoods across our city.

So every district benefits from the work that Visit Seattle does.

All right, that's the plug that I will give there.

And coming up, there are a few holiday parties I'm excited to go to and I'm sure that I'll see many of you and I don't need to go repeat them and list them, opera, construction trades, Tabor 100, et cetera, but maybe I'll see you out and about.

All right, that's all I've got for my report.

Any questions, comments?

All right.

Is there any further business to get to before we adjourn?

Go ahead, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to join my colleagues in welcoming our new colleague, Councilmember Lynn.

Did not mean to, I had so many items on my list, but just you and I have met.

and I'm really excited to work with you as we talked about and I'm really excited that you're here.

So welcome and just happy you're here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I'm looking at my screen to see if I'm not seeing any other hands raised.

So council member Strauss.

Thank you.

I brought this up last week.

I did not, or I guess two weeks ago, and I did not bring a proclamation.

I don't want to share information tomorrow on the fly.

Albert Ward has been working here at the City of Seattle for Finance and Administrative Services in City Hall for, I believe, either 24 or 30 years.

I'll go back and get my facts correct, but I do think that it would be wonderful celebrate him sometime in the next 72 hours as I believe his last day with our city is December 3rd.

And so I don't know how we can do that, but I'm just launching that out into the chambers in case we are able to make a celebration that this is something that is important to me and is premeditated.

We've talked about it a few weeks ago, but we also had Thanksgiving last week.

So with that, I look forward to celebrating Albert Ward.

Thank you.

I'll let you guys talk about how you want to orchestrate that and however you want to include that or not in tomorrow's proclamation presentations.

All right, hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned and it is 3.50.

All right, have a good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you.