Seattle City Council Briefing 822021

So much sun.

Appreciate it.

Good morning, everyone.

The August 2 2021 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 931 am.

Before the clerk calls the roll, I just wanted to let members of the viewing public and you colleagues know that I did receive a note from Council Member Sawant's office, letting me know that she is unfortunately not gonna be able to join us for council briefing this morning, but she does intend to be with us this afternoon at two o'clock p.m.

So with that being said, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Thank you.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Eight present.

Thank you so much.

If there is no objection, the minutes of July 26, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, just really quickly, colleagues, I wanted to give you all an update on public health protocols in city facilities and operations at City Hall.

The public reopening of City Hall that was scheduled for today, August 2nd, has been delayed indefinitely to an undetermined date in the future.

This is as a result of the increasing COVID-19 infection rates due to the highly contagious Delta variant.

And as a result, that has caused the city to take a necessary pause on the phased reopening of city facilities, including City Hall.

In addition, the mayor's office did issue a revised guidance over the weekend regarding masks and face coverings at city facilities, including City Hall.

As a reminder, all employees and guests are now required to wear face coverings when inside City Hall and other facilities, regardless of your vaccination status.

So please keep an eye out for and review those relevant emails for yourself and the safety of your staff and members around city facilities still.

and we will make sure to put out some additional information that is specific to the Legislative Department to make sure that our policies and procedures are consistent with what the executive is providing for.

So as a reminder again, everyone please do everything you can to get fully vaccinated so that we aren't in a position to have to take pauses on on plans for reopening and in order to keep us all in our community safe.

So that being said, we'll go ahead and dig into the preview of today's City Council Actions, Council and Regional Committees.

We'll begin our next discussion on that section with the following order.

Council Member Juarez will go first, followed by Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, Strauss, Herbold, and then I'll conclude this agenda discussion.

Again, as a reminder, Council Member Sawant is unfortunately not going to be able to be with us this morning, so she will not be here to personally deliver her report.

So without further ado, I'm going to hand it over to Council Member Juarez.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Okay.

Good morning, colleagues.

I have four short items to speak to this morning.

I will be brief.

There are no items of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

The next committee meeting is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 3rd at two o'clock.

There will be four items on that agenda.

First, a presentation by Seattle Kraken CEO, Todd Lewicki, who will share a construction update of the Climate Pledge Arena.

Second, a bill by SDOT for a Thomas Street tunnel permit.

And finally, the committee will consider, let's see, two bills from the Parks Department authorizing the purchase of property and the Duwamish Waterway Park and the North Rainier Hub Urban Village.

The last committee meeting scheduled before our budget process is Friday, September 10th at two.

I will be sending all of you, each of you, the weekly parks report to your emails.

This week we received an update from the Seattle Public Library.

Library is recruiting youth ages 60 and older for its student assistant program, which provides jobs for students to gain paid work experience and a public library, starting pay is $16.69 per hour.

More information can be found at the library's website.

As I've shared for you for the last month or so, Sound Transit on August 5th, I will participate in a special board of directors meeting where board members will take a final vote on the realignment to address the $6.5 billion affordability gap Mayor Durkin and I have been working hard with City and Sound Transit staff to model and test scenarios that will reflect the will of the voters, that is the target model.

We have proposed multiple amendments specifically for the Graham Street infill station and the 130th Street infill station.

Upcoming this week, I'm happy to share.

I will attend the Transportation Utilities Committee meeting to speak to the John Lewis Memorial Bridge proposal that I'm sponsoring.

I'll be joined by my friend and your friend, King County Council Member Larry Gossett and North Seattle College President, Dr. Shamene Crawford.

Normally I don't share things like this, but this Friday I will be on the morning show with Omari Salisbury, Larry Gossett, Council Member Larry Gossett and Dr. Shamene Crawford at the Paramount.

I understand that they're doing their recording this whole week.

from the Paramount Theater.

So one of the things that we will be discussing is hopefully the John Lewis Memorial Bridge.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Juarez.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and hear now from Councilmember Lewis.

Good morning.

Thank you, Madam President.

So this morning, I do have an item that I will be co-sponsoring with Councilmember Peterson to be walked on to introduction referral.

I'll leave the balance of it to be discussed by Councilmember Peterson, but it is legislation to expedite the lease approval for the tiny house village in the University District, Rosie's Village.

which Council Member Peterson has been a great leader in really bird-dogging the construction of that project and getting it through.

So I look forward to co-sponsoring that legislation and supporting this council's priority to get that village up and running, that village which was funded under CBA.

I will be supporting Councilmember the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments regarding Council Bill 120109, creating the It Takes a Village Fund to accept private donations for homelessness strategies, shelter, and services, and look forward to final passage of that legislation so that we can begin the work of engaging in some promising partnerships to expand and scale sheltering and housing We have a lot of options for our neighbors experiencing homelessness across the city.

Just to report a little bit on our very long, but I believe very productive select committee on homelessness strategies and investments last Wednesday.

There were two big council funding priorities that are going to require a little bit of follow-up with the executive department.

One of which the fully funding of the 25 safe lot slots that the council funded through the American Recovery Act.

then making sure that that money can be bid out to allow community members to proffer strategies to provide a safe and hygienic place for people to safely park their vehicles, for folks who are living in their vehicles.

And then of course, the three additional tiny house villages that the council fully funded, I wanna emphasize fully funded.

I will say that there has been follow-up on both of these priorities to the human services department and the city budget office.

It does appear that folks are I would like to convene for briefing a week from today to share where we are on potentially solving some of the ambiguities or misconceptions around the Council's budget priorities or how the Council I think I can safely speak for the full Council that we consider both of those investments to be fully funded and things that should be implemented with the utmost urgency and speed.

I look forward to ironing out those details and moving forward to the next step to make sure that those several hundred units of additional shelter for people experiencing homelessness can be fully realized this year as was intended by the council and was intended by Mayor Durkin when she signed the budget.

Moving on, we do have another item on this afternoon's agenda that is related to a homelessness policy in the city.

Council members will have seen last week that we received word from the city clerk that Charter Amendment 29 has received sufficient signatures in order to be considered for placement on the November ballot.

This is a pro forma process and I will speak more to this process this afternoon in my capacity as the chair of the select committee on homelessness strategies and investments.

I recommend in anticipation of considering I will speak more to that process when it comes up on the agenda later today.

I would like, before we move on from homelessness policy, and this is something I'll have to discuss with Council President's office, but I would like to have a August select committee on homelessness meeting before we depart for recess to talk about, well, one, to do a little bit of follow-up on some of the things hanging out there from last Wednesday that it would be nice to get on-the-record clarifications from, given the urgency of some of those investments.

but also to have a panel on provider capacity and necessary policies to scale provider capacity, given that we are going to need to create a housing and shelter system that can scale to the size of the community demand.

It is something that has frequently come up as a bottleneck, has been provider capacity and the ability of providers to take on the work that we urgently need to be able to do as a community.

Having a hearing before recess and before we gear up the fall budget process I think would be helpful to scope that conversation to make sure that we are putting in the investments necessary.

to really meet that community demand.

So that is something I will be talking to Council President about to see if we might be able to carve out space and time to do that, given that it's already August 2nd, it's gonna be a busy August.

So hopefully it can be accommodated given the importance of the issue.

In the community this week, I will be attending a rally in Pickett on August 4th with our brothers and sisters in SEIU 1199, nurses and other healthcare professionals at Harborview who are fighting very, very hard for an equitable and just contract.

Really looking forward to going and meeting more about some of the hurdles that that the union is facing and how we as public leaders can support their efforts.

And that will be on August 4th.

And I look forward to seeing everybody out there at a good labor picket.

I am going to be attending a rededication of the Upgarden pea patch on Thursday, August 5th.

The Upgarden, of course, being on top of the Mercer Street Garage.

in the Uptown neighborhood.

I'm really looking forward to, for lack of a better word, christening some of the infrastructure improvements that the Upgarden has made over the course of the pandemic and really looking forward to being able to support that ceremony and give a little bit of community attention to the work that has been done to really carve out a good sense of place and build up that community even further over the course of the last several very difficult months.

With that, Madam President, I don't have any additional updates and we'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis for that.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Councilmember Lewis, I'll just let you know that my office is happy to have a conversation with you about the scheduling request that you have flagged during council briefing today.

I'm sure that they've already been in communication because our staff is so on it.

So we look forward to having a conversation about that and making sure that that works out for the availability of the whole body.

And then with regard to Charter Amendment 29, thank you so much for acknowledging that I forwarded to all council members, I believe it was Saturday morning communication from our city attorney's office.

I also forwarded some information from the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

So again, as you prepare for two o'clock p.m., I would strongly urge you all to review both of those pieces of communication that I shared with the full council in advance of today.

Next up is Council Member Morales, and then after Council Member Morales will be Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning.

Good morning, colleagues.

I have no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

Our next committee will be next Thursday, August 12th.

That has been rescheduled from our typical third Tuesday.

So we will not be having a meeting August 17th.

Instead, it'll be August 12th at 2 p.m.

I don't have a whole lot this morning.

I will say that last week my office celebrated the work of only in Seattle partners down in the Columbia City neighborhood.

You all know the Office of Economic Development has the only in Seattle initiative that supports neighborhood business districts, and especially during the pandemic.

The business district organizations like the Rainier Avenue Business Coalition, which is supported by Only in Seattle, those business neighborhood business groups were really quick in pulling together and delivering PPE supplies to local businesses, helping coordinate restaurant meals for families who were in need, and really played an important role in sort of serving as a liaison between the funding and resources that we had at the city and those local businesses.

We wanted to celebrate them and the Only in Seattle partners and community liaisons over the last year and a half reached over 2,300 businesses, served over 1,000 businesses in at least 10 different languages, and over 60% of those businesses that were served were owned by people of color.

So I really want to commend the Office of Economic Development.

I know that staff was crazy busy for the last year and a half.

We all were, but that team really pulled together and really made a substantial and acute impact on our local businesses.

So I want to thank them for that work.

Um, now that the federal eviction moratorium has expired, I want to remind folks here in Seattle that we still have a moratorium in place until September 30th and that there is rental assistance available.

King County Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Program has $145 million in funding from the federal Corona Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

So for folks who need that assistance, there is a portal online.

You can apply at the King County website and check the Department of Community and Human Services department page.

Or you can just call that team and the number for that assistance is 206-263-3481.

And also want to remind folks that there are eviction protections in place that we passed last year and earlier this year that set in place payment plans for up to six months following the end of the Seattle eviction moratorium.

It bans landlords from discriminating against future tenants for eviction records that are stemming from proceedings that happened during the civil emergency.

And we also pass protections that provide a defense to eviction if you're financially unable to pay for rent during the civil emergency.

So it is scary to think what may be happening across the country now that that federal moratorium has expired.

But we do have some protections in place here in Seattle.

So I want to remind folks of that and remind you to take advantage of both the protections and the rental assistance that's out there.

And then finally, I want to thank the dozens of bars and restaurants that have decided to require vaccines for their customers.

When we have millions of people who are still unvaccinated, including children who are under 12 and immunocompromised people who are still at risk, And when the Delta variant is increasing the risk for each of us to contract COVID, it only makes sense that each of our community members, including our business neighbors, take every measure possible to protect workers, to protect children, and just to protect every other neighborhood, every other neighbor in our city.

So I just want to thank those 60 or so establishments who are leading on this effort and hope to see more of that as we as we try to mitigate and stem the increased exposure that we're all experiencing because of the Delta variant.

So that is all I have this morning, colleagues.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Council Member Mosqueda, and then after Council Member Mosqueda will be Council Member Peterson.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

First, I want to start with a thank you to the Council President for the news about the different policy that we are implementing starting today so that folks at City Hall, including members of the public, were not exposed in error to our due to the previous mask rules, so I appreciate the proactive work of the Council President to help protect employees at City Hall and also members of the public.

Requiring a mask absolutely felt like the right thing when I popped in last week and appreciate that that announcement has been made, especially for the folks who work there.

I know that we all are eager to get back to having the opportunity to see people in person, but I think it is important to think about how we can make sure that we are protecting people's health as we begin to think of new and creative ways to gather hopefully outside.

It feels like that was the right decision.

Thank you very much for your proactive work on that.

both the federal government and the state government.

We have ongoing city level funds and an ongoing moratorium on eviction as was noted through the end of September.

And wanna make sure that folks know that this is not only an extension of the eviction moratorium, but a continuation of rental assistance dollars as well, which we will continue to expand upon in our meeting tomorrow in the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

So please note that if you're hearing this also as a small landlord, Those rental assistance dollars go directly to you as small landlords.

We want to make sure that people have financial stability, both as renters and as small landlords.

And three pots of money that we have funded and will continue to fund with tomorrow's legislation go directly to the Office of Housing, United Way, and then to the community partners who are working specifically within low-income and BIPOC communities to have a one-on-one conversations about how to best support those who need rental assistance, utility assistance, and internet assistance.

So more of that to come tomorrow.

So thank you for those announcements.

Colleagues, our next finance and housing meeting will be on August 3rd at 9.30 a.m.

That's tomorrow.

We do have a packed agenda.

And as always, I have tried to make sure that we get you out before 1 p.m.

But I do want to flag that this is a long agenda.

So please do hold additional time on your calendar.

And a reminder that council members are welcome to attend the Finance and Housing Committee meeting, especially as we are discussing the supplemental budget, the mid-year supplemental budget, and the Seattle Rescue Plan 2 bill, which is up on our agenda for tomorrow as well.

We've asked that you let our team know in advance if you plan to attend, at least one day in advance.

So please do let Farideh Cuevas know today if you plan to attend tomorrow's meeting so we can make sure to send you all the Zoom information and any materials as well.

We will also be making sure to republish the agenda with any additional presentations that may be available later today.

But all of the items that we worked very quickly on Friday to make sure were published on the agenda are linked there for you and the viewing public's ability to read those.

The first item on tomorrow's agenda is the Domestic Workers Standards Board response letters on Friday.

In addition to publishing this on the agenda, I distributed the letter around to council colleagues so you could see our response to the Domestic Workers Standards Board recommendations.

Again, there was 10 recommendations that the Standards Board sent to us.

This is in response to the legislation that we passed.

two years ago, maybe three years ago now, in 2018 and requested that they submit ongoing recommendations for how to continually improve policy and funding strategies.

And then we built in there a need to respond to those recommendations within 120 days.

We are doing everything that we can to respond to those recommendations before recess to really hopefully get the ball rolling on any items that will affect this fall's budget and to tee up possible legislation for later this year, after budget, or early next year.

So do take a look at that letter for folks who are members of the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

We will have the opportunity to pause and offer you the chance to sign on to that letter.

I will continue to go through the agenda.

But thank you in advance, colleagues, for taking a look at that letter and a huge amount of appreciation for Office of Labor Standards and the Domestic Worker Standards Board, along with the Portable Benefits Coalition, who have been working on this process over the last year plus.

And we are excited to finally have the first opportunity to respond to those recommendations.

The second item on our agenda for today.

Sorry, Council Member Mosqueda, I do have in my script today that there's an opportunity for the full council to sign on.

Is that something you still want to do?

Absolutely, if that works for you.

And again, if folks need a little bit more time to look, I can always call the roll for those present tomorrow during finance and housing as well, if folks prefer.

Yeah.

Is there any objection to, why don't I just sort of see if there's any objections.

Are there any objections or requests for additional time on the letter from council members?

I will say I have not had a chance to finish reading it.

All right, so why don't we, I'm seeing a couple of heads nodding about wanting to have just a little bit more time, because it is a very substantive letter.

So I think maybe what we will do is, if it's okay with you, Council Member Esqueda, maybe have an opportunity during your Finance and Housing Committee to have folks sign on.

Alternatively, we can also bring the letter back on next Monday if it would be preferable to have all council members have an opportunity to consider adding their signature.

Thank you, Council President.

That sounds absolutely reasonable.

And again, colleagues, since you're all invited to come to any portion of this, if you want to pop in, it'll be the first item on the agenda.

If you want to pop in and note your interests, if you're not usual with Mercer Finance and Housing, you're welcome to do that as well.

And thank you for your due diligence and reading through that letter.

It does have two attachments that aim to summarize the letter.

So if you're looking at what the difference is between those two attachments, one is a longer summary, one is a shorter summary, and the first four or five pages are the actual letter itself.

And I want to thank, as we're talking about, Lori Meher from my office, who's really taken the lead on this Domestic Worker Standards Board item, with Karina Bull from Central Staff.

So if you have questions, please reach out to either of them.

The next items on our agenda for tomorrow include the equitable communities initiative ordinance.

Again, this is the task force that was looking at BIPOC investments with the $30 million that council allocated last budget.

This is an item that is for briefing discussion and possible vote tomorrow.

They did come and present to our committee last committee meeting.

The third item is the Seattle Rescue Plan 2. Remember, we said we were going to have three acts this year, just specific to COVID relief.

This is the second act, Seattle Rescue Plan 2. This is up for briefing, discussion, and a possible vote.

We had materials shared with us at the last meeting, and this is our chance to focus on some pretty narrow investments from trailer bills from the federal government, most notably transportation, senior assistance, and do take a look at the presentation that's listed online as well.

because it includes that rental assistance dollars that I noted, equally divided between Office of Housing, United Way, and our community partners.

So excited to work with you on that.

And then lastly, in terms of possible vote, we have the Interfund Loan, which was discussed at our last meeting.

This is up for briefing discussion and possible vote.

The Interfund Loan is our mid-year Interfund loan opportunity to make sure that we are aligning funding where necessary.

We will take this up for possible vote.

The next two items, though, will not be up for possible vote.

This is the mid-year grant acceptance for briefing and discussion and the mid-year supplemental vote.

Colleagues, we did have a lot of interest in folks participating in possible amendments for the mid-year supplemental.

Given the interest in having some pretty large questions addressed during tomorrow's meeting, what I've done is I've gone ahead and extended the opportunity for you to have those questions answered, identify any issues that you're interested in potentially amending using tomorrow's meeting as our chance almost for issue identification.

I'm going to push out the timeline for amendments as well to make that noon next Wednesday so that we will give you an extra week to consider possible amendments.

And excuse me, noon on the Wednesday following, that will give us the chance to consider any possible amendments.

And then I want to share those with the colleagues earlier so that you have the chance to review those prior to our August 17th meeting.

At the August 17th meeting, we will then take up The supplemental make your supplemental and the grant acceptance ordinance and we will have a briefing discussion and possible vote on those items on the 17th.

So again, that gives you an extra week.

to consider amendments prior to our meeting, but do note tomorrow is an opportunity to ask those questions, think through various issues, use it as issue identification, and then the Wednesday this week will be your chance to consider any additional amendments and work with central staff well in advance so we all have a chance to review those.

And thank you for your interest in this conversation and being so engaged in the Mid-Year Supplemental.

And lastly, we'll have a MFTE extension annual report discussion.

This is a chance for Office of Housing and Tracy Raskrath to brief us on the annual report and possible future legislation.

As a reminder as well, we do have two committee meetings in September.

This will be after our council briefing, but I wanted to note for folks that we are moving the September 21st meeting to the Friday prior.

It will be Friday, September 17th at 9.30 AM.

If you don't already have that as a hold on your calendar, we will make sure to send that out so that folks have it well in advance.

But moving September 21st to September 17. Okay, wrap it up.

Some things that I wanted to highlight for you.

I really want to congratulate members of Protech 17 who have successfully voted for benefit changes to their 2022 contract.

You may know or you may remember that before COVID, I had the chance to talk to several city employees who shared their stories about infertility issues, the lack of support for health coverage when it came to seeking fertility coverage, which we know can be very expensive.

Many of the city employees talked about how this not only affected their physical health, but their mental health, and wanting to see support from the contract to make sure that these critical health services were covered.

I'm thankful that Sean Van Eyck from Protect 17 was able to coordinate those meetings with us before COVID, and that they have been continuing to negotiate fertility coverage as part of their health plans.

And this last week, we did get notice that the city employees were overjoyed to announce that their committee voted to move infertility benefits from Tier 2 to Tier 3 and raise the lifetime cap from $10,000 to $12,000.

A Tier 3 means that employees will finally have coverage for in vitro, GIFT, ZIFT, and other treatments.

Thank you again to members of ProTech for continuing to raise this issue as an equity and a parity issue for all types of genders and wanting to make sure that everybody has access to comprehensive health coverage.

So congratulations.

On Friday, I also attended with Council President and Council Member Zajalai and Council Member Updikrove and a number of other folks the Reunited with Pride event hosted by Somos Seattle to celebrate our Latina, Latino, LGBTQ advocacy organization and the entire Latinx community.

Congratulations, everyone, on an incredible turnout.

And then just two things I'd like to flag from FAS and Board of Health.

There is a program, if you haven't heard of ANU, it's amazing, ANU Diversity Summit, which is FAS's labor equity associate management opportunity for the folks to engage from FAS.

And they presented an acceptable worksite training in Tacoma Convention Center on July 22nd with many folks from construction and training programs and partners around the state.

They were able to talk about how we need to have construction sites that prevent bullying, prevent hazing and any related behaviors that make people uncomfortable or unsafe, particularly any hazing or intimidation based on race, immigration status, religious affiliation and gender.

and sexual orientation.

So very excited about the new summit and the participation from FAS there.

And lastly, from Board of Health, I continue to serve as the vice chair for our councilors on the Board of Health Committee, and I wanted to raise that COVID-19, as you all know, has been on the rise in King County since June 29th, when King County's indoor mask directive ended.

At that time, public health was reporting an average of 61 new cases daily.

Since then, our average daily cases have swelled to 141 cases daily.

That's 130% increase in just over three weeks.

Over the last seven days, 45 people were admitted to the hospital in King County due to COVID, and that's a 32% increase from the previous week.

These outbreaks, like others that we have seen across the nation, are due to folks who are unvaccinated, mostly being admitted for contracting COVID.

And those who are fully vaccinated are often asymptomatic.

So really encouraging folks to continue to take up the directive, even though it's not a mandate to continue to mask when you are in indoor, poorly ventilated spaces.

We're proud of King County's vaccination rates.

We know we are not among the areas that the CDC is referring to as areas of high contracting, but we can do everything we can to continue to be a national leader here and appreciate all of the Board of Health and Public Health's work to make sure we get the information out about the need to continue to get folks who are not vaccinated, vaccinated and have those deep conversations.

Appreciate the targeted efforts through the mobile clinics as well.

to really reach into communities that are needing additional vaccinations.

And we are here at the ready to continue to support you in any way we can for our partners in public health.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Council Member Skid, I was going to just say thanks for giving us a little bit more time to digest all of the information relevant to the mid-year supplemental budget.

I know that we were on a path towards both considering amendments and voting amendments and the amended mid-year supplemental budget out this week and I just think there's just been so much information coming out that personally I would appreciate having a little bit more time to digest that, consider it, and and take a more thoughtful approach.

So I appreciate the extra time on that.

And I just wanted to confirm that you said that the Finance and Housing Committee will be moving to September 17th at 9.30 in the morning?

That's correct, Madam Chair.

Okay, great, perfect.

I wanted to make sure that I noted that on my calendar.

Thanks so much.

Okay, I don't see any other comments or questions, so we'll go ahead and keep going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Peterson, and then after Council Member Peterson will be Council Member Strauss.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Our City's Transportation and Utilities Committee has no items on this afternoon's full City Council agenda.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning, and so our next committee meeting is this Wednesday, August 4. Our committee has a full agenda of 10 items with nine of those items ideally voted out of committee if possible.

I'm looking forward to the first item on the committee agenda, which is Councilmember Juarez's proposal to name the Northgate Pedestrian Bridge after National Civil Rights leader John Lewis.

We have three pieces of legislation related to the already approved construction of additional medical facilities for Swedish first hill in 2016 Swedish received from the city conditional approval for an alley vacation a tunnel and a skybridge.

To facilitate the development of a new medical office and support service building pursuant to Swedish's 2005 major institution master plan, construction of the building has been delayed.

Swedish requested that approval on the vacation skybridge and tunnel be extended.

The legislation in front of the committee would extend the terms of approval or grant final approval as follows.

There's clerk file 314477, which is about the alley vacation, extending that approval.

Council Bill 120133 would grant approval of a term permit for a pedestrian tunnel under Minor Avenue.

Again, these were all approved in 2016. Council Bill 120134 would extend the council's approval of a sky bridge over Minor Avenue between Columbia Street and Cherry Street.

The central staff memo provides ample detail and rationale for this legislation.

It's already linked to our online agenda for the committee.

Then we've got Council Bills 120137 and 120136 confirming that Amazon met the conditions of street vacations already approved for the so-called Block 20 and Block 21. Block 20 is bounded by 7th Avenue, Blanchard Street, 8th Avenue, and Lenora Street.

21 is bounded by Bell Street, 7th Avenue, Blanchard Street, and 8th Avenue.

As colleagues may recall, street vacations are done in two steps.

The most important step is granting the conditional approval with the public benefit conditions listed up front.

The second, more ministerial action, is to confirm that the completion of what was agreed to under the first step after the construction is completed.

These two pieces of legislation constitute the second and final step.

Again, there's a central staff memo already posted online for your review prior to Wednesday morning's committee.

Then we've got clerk file 314451, which is the petition of Seattle City Light to vacate a portion of Diagonal Avenue South.

I know it seems like we're hearing about Niagara-Nissau at every meeting.

That's because it leads to the exciting bike ped trail, and there's public benefit trade-offs going on here.

We had a public hearing on this last time, so we're simply voting on this now, this clerk file.

Then we've got Council Bill 120135, which would grant final approval for a structured term permit.

to build, operate, and maintain private utility tunnels under city streets for a district energy system in South Lake Union, Council District 7. The tunnels would collect waste heat from Seattle Public Utilities' wastewater system and deliver it to buildings on three blocks planned and under development.

Council Bill 120146 will include a public hearing and possible vote to accept ownership of several more parcels of land to protect our watersheds along the Tolt and Skagit rivers.

If public comment during that public hearing is minimal for accepting these parcels to protect the watersheds, I expect to ask committee members to consider voting on the council bill that same day, because we expect a full agenda on August 18th as well.

And then we're going into the budget season.

The 10th item is the annual independent audit of Seattle Public Utilities, specifically the individual audits of the various funds, water, drainage, and wastewater, and solid waste.

And just so you're not waiting with bated breath on the results, I will reveal them now after a dramatic pause.

It is good news.

All the audits are clean.

meaning that the independent auditor issued an unmodified opinion for each of the separate funds and found no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies.

As you may recall, we enjoyed similar positive results recently for Seattle City Light in their audit.

This fiscal responsibility from both our city-owned utilities has a positive impact on hundreds of thousands of people in Seattle.

Clean audits help to earn high marks from the bond rating agencies, which result in lower interest rates on debt for capital projects, for these infrastructure-heavy operations.

This, in turn, generates cost savings that can be passed on to ratepayers.

As we know, utility rates are aggressive, with lower-income households paying a higher portion of their household income for their utility bills.

So this is another example of fiscal responsibility can actually help our most vulnerable residents.

Speaking of utility rates, the Bonneville Power Administration announced, as hoped for, a reduction in the rate it passes through to Seattle City Light.

Our city-owned electric utility City Light receives about a third of its power from BPA and had been advocating for a reduction in BPA rates, which we can pass on to ratepayers.

City Light had already brought down their average annual rate increases from 4.5% to 3.5%.

But the year 2022 had a plan increase of 3.9% as part of that 3.5% average.

So the reduction from EPA will enable City Light to reduce that to well below 3.9%, even below 3.5% average for 2022. Thank you, Councilmember Lewis for his remarks earlier.

During our committee on homelessness strategies and investments last week, many of us expressed our eagerness to stand up Tiny Home Villages as part of our emergency response to homelessness.

With professional case management, we know Tiny Home Villages are one of the non-congregate interventions that can help those experiencing homelessness get back on their feet and transition to permanent housing.

I'm pleased to report we had a breakthrough last week in lease negotiations between the city and Sound Transit of what will be Sound Transit's first tiny home village location, but the lease is with the city.

I'd like to thank Sound Transit for their willingness to make this property available to us.

This is not part of their regular mission, so they're really going above and beyond here at Sound Transit.

Colleagues, in the spirit of engaging the homelessness crisis with the urgency it deserves, Council Member Lewis and I would like to walk on it today's introduction referral calendar, a council bill, which would authorize the city to enter into this lease with sound transit for use of the site or the tiny home village in the University District.

The actual vote on the council bill would happen next week.

So today we would be updating just the IRC.

The proposed bill was circulated Friday afternoon around 530, just a little bit after the deadline to appear on the IRC without this special vote today.

I'd like to thank central staff, especially Jeff Sims and Alec Pannucci for quickly finalizing this legislation so we did not have to wait another week.

The council already authorized the funds for this tiny home village during our budget approval last November.

The nonprofit, Low Income Housing Institute, and their volunteers have nearly completed building these tiny homes for the university district, which I was able to visit in their factory recently.

So the last step is approval of this lease so we can get more people off the streets and into their own space and on to a positive future.

The site's approximately 18,000 square feet and can fit approximately 36 tiny home structures.

The lease would be approximately two and a half years.

After hosting the tiny home village, the construction of new permanent affordable housing will occur on this site in the University District.

So again, we're just asking you to update the IRC with this council to vote on next week.

Looking forward, last comment, looking forward to the national night out events tomorrow, Tuesday, August 3rd.

These annual events were canceled last year due to the COVID pandemic.

These are the annual block parties to encourage everyone to get to know their neighbors.

I'm planning to visit several National Night Out events throughout District 4, and not just the locations that will be serving ice cream.

To learn more about National Night Out, you can visit the website, Seattle.gov forward slash police forward slash crime hyphen prevention forward slash night hyphen out.

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

I appreciate that report.

Any comments or questions?

I was emulating your dramatic pause strategy.

No takers.

So we'll go ahead and keep going down the line here.

Councilmember Strauss is next.

And then after Councilmember Strauss will be Councilmember Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson for your jokes.

I was laughing.

I appreciate both of you so much.

Going on to what is on today.

There is one item from the land use and neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction referral calendar Council Bill 120149 which would adjust the maximum size of certain uses in IG2 which is industrial zones.

We also have two items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's full agenda.

Council Bill 120108 which amends the Yesler Terrace Master Plan to allow for the removal of two trees to facilitate the development of a healthcare and lodging facility next to Harborview Medical Center, so a long-term hotel for people staying with family members in the hospital, and imposes strong tree replacement requirements.

I brought an amendment as well as Council Member Peterson brought an amendment to change the replacement value of a one-to-one to a three-to-one and ensure that those replacement trees are planted very nearby.

We also have resolution 32010, which is the annual resolution setting the docket for the comprehensive plan amendments to be considered in 2022. Our next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is next Wednesday, August 11th, and we plan to have three items on the agenda, a briefing and possible vote on the update to the Urban Forestry Management Plan, a briefing on legislation to enable innovative construction types in Belltown, and a public hearing and possible vote on Council Bill 120121, which would allow flexibility for downtown storefront uses.

Councilmember Mosqueda, thank you for your update on the supplemental budget tomorrow.

I may have difficulty attending the supplemental budget discussions as we are having our Ballard Avenue design charrette to repurpose public space.

I do, I will be making an attempt to join because I plan to propose one amendment to the supplemental budget.

That amendment would add $1.25 million to close the funding gap at the Green Lake Boathouse project.

The funds would come from unallocated REIT revenues, which have come in at higher than previously forecasted.

This is an important project in my district and for water access for all Seattleites.

This funding will be that final bit to close the project funding gap and move it forward.

I will have more details to share in committee tomorrow.

I will flag colleagues.

I'm working to ascertain from Parks Department and Director Noble if funding is indeed available from the Parks Department or from in future budgets.

I don't believe that it is the city's duty to finish the finalizing this funding gap, as I think that we might have partners from the federal government, etc.

But we are so close in this project is permit ready shovel ready, we need to go.

And so I may be pulling back the amendment if I can have certainty that we'll have other funding sources.

Overviewing of my last week I was able to attend a joint meeting with the Green Lake and Finney Community Council's regarding West Green Lake way north which I'll speak to in a minute.

Staff attended the Fremont Community Council on Monday.

Last Tuesday I received a route 40 briefing from Seattle Department of transportation, where I was able to relay opportunities and drawbacks that I've heard in the community.

They walked me through the proposed route and I brought up the concerns raised by the community.

They've reached a 30% design phase on the project and I look forward to working with SDOT on updating any changes as they move through the process to getting closer to full design.

Councilmember Lewis, thank you for the select committee on homelessness last week.

The thing that caught my attention is that we provided the funding for many shelter resources at the end of last budget.

So by Thanksgiving of last year, Thanksgiving of 2020, Many people in our community knew that the funding was on the table and ready to be used to stand up many shelter resources in our community yet half of our shelters have yet to be opened.

And we know that this is another example of.

our ability here on council we can fund programs but they only work if the mayor's office is able to use those dollars and distribute those dollars and so what i said on the record i was clear on the record that it is now august of the following year and we needed these shelter resources last january thank you for bringing that up council member lewis and thank you for the work that you've been doing Last week I also met with Seattle Police Chief Diaz to discuss gun violence, Harbor Patrol, and a recent drowning at Green Lake.

I was also able to meet with local business owners to discuss emerging needs in the brewery district, understanding that the Liquor Control Board permits and regulations are creating roadblocks to using our right-of-ways for public gatherings in that area.

Also on Thursday, I was able to meet with the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation in District 6. We have Libetaya Youth Home, Youth House, and they are going to be bringing forward a feasibility study that I hope to have funded in this upcoming budget to add elder housing to their youth home in Crown Hill.

This project is probably about two years out and is a really exciting opportunity for intergenerational education, support, and living together.

I'm excited to bring this forward.

And then the last event of last week, last Thursday evening, I was able to meet with some folks on University Way, Council Member Peterson, I was in your district, to talk Thai food and street cafes.

I can tell you U District is giving Ballard a run for the money.

They have closed down parts of their lane.

They've even moved buses off of University Way.

And while Council Member Peterson, this is not a competition, I can say that you all are doing very well.

So I'm very excited to see what becomes of it and I know that right now there is a plan to revert University Way back to its previous design when Sound Transit Station opens in October.

I hope that we can find a way forward because it was Having the ave as a pedestrian street would just be an amazing thing.

I'll leave that for other for another time.

This coming week we're going to be focusing on West Green Lake way north, and the Ballard Avenue design charrette here in our office.

So, moving on to my next section here in district six tomorrow I'm excited to host the Ballard Avenue design charrette.

We'll be gathering as a community to look at how streets work now and how we can collaborate on a total redesign of the street.

We'll focus on the cafe streets or safe starts permit component, and look at how to how this can inform the implementation of the pathway to permanency, and that permanent version.

version of this program.

As a reminder, SDOT is scheduled to come back to us with a proposal December 15th of this year for making these permits permanent.

Something that I just share with you is that Ballard Avenue is a very unique street and that it is cut off at 15th Avenue Northwest and cut off at Market Street Northwest.

So the thoroughfare is pretty limited.

It's also in a historic district.

So the pedestrianization of that space is pretty easy.

The reason that the University Way, the ave is giving us a run for the money is because it is a thoroughfare.

There's bus traffic, there's car traffic in both directions.

And so while it's easy for us on Ballard Avenue to pedestrianize the space and demonstrate and inform how the rest of the city can do it.

It's really places like University Way that are going to be able to inform our decisions on how we transform what has been a thoroughfare for cars and buses to a pedestrianized space.

Again, this is all my Councilmember Strauss's conjecture about how University Way should be.

I have not spoken to the council representative from district four so just understand that this conversation that you're hearing right now is all in play.

So, just being playful and excited for street cafes citywide.

Last week, we also, regarding West Green Lake Way North, colleagues, you have been hearing me for months discussing West Green Lake Way North.

Last week, we did receive the news that the closed section of West Green Lake Way North will be reopened this fall with a two-way walking and bike path and two-way traffic.

On Wednesday, during my meeting with Green Lake and Finney neighborhood groups, we were able to discuss this update.

As many know, late last year, I began advocating to have SDOT and Parks Department make this change to have a two-way protected bike lane on the lakeside of the street on the outer loop.

My proposal, as we know, can occur overnight with simple restriping of the lanes.

And SDOT agreed that early design shows we have enough street width to accommodate both the two-way walking and bike path and the two-way vehicular traffic at reduced speeds.

This is an important part about reduced speeds so that we can make that a more human-scale space.

Lastly, I just want to say that SDOT did also over the weekend celebrate the completion of the Green Lake paving project, which was the other half of Green Lake.

I had hoped to attend this event.

Unfortunately, I was unable to.

And this is a really exciting step forward.

We now have about half of Green Lake with protected bike lanes on the outer loop.

of the park.

And while there are places where adjustments to the already created construction do need to be made to make this more intuitive infrastructure, I know that SDOT is willing to do that work with us and to hear our concerns.

Overall, we need to complete the protected bike lanes around the entire outer loop of Green Lake.

Because while many of the signs on the inner loop have disappeared, it is still true that bikes are not supposed to be on the inner loop of Green Lake.

And we need to have a safe and connected place to ride and roll around the entire outer loop of the lake.

And lastly, like Councilmember Peterson, I am looking forward to talking and meeting with neighbors at local night out events tomorrow evening across District 6. Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Strauss.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Councilmember Herbold, and then I will conclude this portion of the agenda.

Councilmember Herbold, good morning.

I think we may have lost Councilmember Herbold now that I'm noticing.

Oh, she appears to be on her cell phone.

Councilmember Herbold.

There we go.

How about now?

We gotcha.

We gotcha.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I've been having many technical difficulties this morning.

Appreciate your bearing with me.

I will make it short because of the technical difficulties.

Just letting folks know that there are no items on the full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee agenda today on full council.

We do not have a Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting this week.

There is an item on the introduction referral calendar.

This is a bill transferring the parking enforcement officers out of the Seattle Police Department.

Folks will recall that we have to act on the bill to ensure that PEO units get paid in September.

The bill came up previously in June where we extended the proviso to allow for this additional time for discussion with the the associated departments and and work units.

I intend on hearing the bill in my committee on August 10th with the intention to vote and send it to full council on August 16th.

We've heard a lot over the last week about the change in public health status.

We've discussed the fact that public health is recommending that everyone masks up indoors in public spaces regardless of vaccination status.

This is due to the increase in COVID cases and hospitalizations from the early transmissional Delta variant.

Public health is also recommending that folks get tested for COVID if anybody has actual COVID symptoms regardless of your vaccination status or whether or not you've been in contact with somebody who has had COVID.

Free testing, you can sign up for it at kingcounty.gov forward slash COVID and click on COVID testing.

Otherwise, you can call 206-477-3977.

I want to also just give a quick recognition to the Human Services Department and send our congratulations and appreciation to HSD.

They received two awards at the Virtual National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Conference.

The Community Living Connections Collaborative Funding Proposals received an Innovation Award for agencies that determine how they collectively deliver services.

Unlike a traditional funding process where a panel makes funding recommendations, collaborative funding means agencies work together to decide funding allocations and service expectations.

Over seven months participating agencies met with a racial equity consultant as they identified funding and service delivery levels for each network provider agency.

The collaborative funding process has resulted in over $3.7 million in 19 provider contracts that began in January of last year.

Age Friendly Live won an Achievement Award.

Age Friendly Live manages two online programs, civic coffee hours and close to home and other events designed to reduce social isolation and increase opportunities for civic participation among older people.

HSD also won the top innovation award and a monetary prize.

Just really appreciating all of the award winning and the recognition for the work of the Human Services Department in these challenging times.

Want to thank Councilmember Peterson and Councilmember Strauss for noting that Night Out takes place tomorrow evening in District 1. The West Seattle Junction Association will be hosting a Night Out event from 6 to 9 and that will that event will include live music.

Information is available at their website at the westseattlejunction.org.

And I trust that that will be a Night Out event that will feature ice cream.

Let's see what other items of interest.

I think that's all I have to report on today, just trying to keep it short.

And we'll hand it back over to you, Council President.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

And are there any questions or comments on that report?

I'm not seeing any.

I also have a very short report this morning.

So let me go through that really quickly.

I have nothing on this afternoon's introduction and referral calendar or this afternoon City Council agenda from the Governance and Education Committee.

And nothing else substantive to report from the Governance and Education Committee except a reminder that the that the committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 10th has been canceled.

And then just again, consistent with what Council Member Mosqueda mentioned on Friday evening, I attended the Reunited with Pride event with leaders of SOMO Seattle and members of the Latinx LGBTQ plus community along with Council Member Mosqueda.

King County Council Members Girmay Zahilay and Dave Upthegrove.

It was a really great time.

I really enjoyed bringing my daughter Nadia to that event and really appreciate an opportunity to just celebrate and be in community with the LGBTQ+.

family who has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19 in the last 17 months.

So it was my pleasure to be able to be with them and look forward to continuing to work with some else and other members of the LGBTQ plus community as we continue to address many of the lingering issues related to COVID-19 pandemic and otherwise.

I don't have anything else to report.

Is there anything else for the good of the order?

I'm not seeing any hands raised, so colleagues, that does conclude items of agenda for this morning's council briefing meeting.

So I will see you all at 2 o'clock p.m.

this afternoon.

We are adjourned.

Bye.

you