SPEAKER_03

Well, good afternoon, everybody.

Today is August 5th, 2024, and the Seattle Council briefing meeting will come to order, and the time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_09

Councilmember Strauss.

SPEAKER_04

Present.

SPEAKER_09

Councilmember Wu.

Present.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Moore.

Present.

Councilmember Morales.

Here.

Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Saka.

SPEAKER_02

Here.

Here.

SPEAKER_09

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight council members are present.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of the July 29th, 2024 meeting will be adopted.

Hearing none, the minutes are adopted.

All right, we don't have any proclamations, presentations, or executive session today, so I'll just go into tomorrow's meeting.

On tomorrow's city council meeting agenda, there are 27 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

The weekly bill payment ordinance, a resolution setting a public hearing on modifying the boundaries of the West Seattle BIA, and a bill related to that modification of boundaries.

A clerk file with the clerk's report on the sufficiency of signatures for putting I-137 on the ballot and a resolution to put that initiative on the ballot, a resolution setting a public hearing on a petition for an alley vacation, 16 appointments and reappointments, including the director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, the chief technology officer who leads the IT department, seven spots on the Seattle Music Commission, and seven spots on Seattle Planning Commission.

a council bill adopting the 2021 Seattle construction codes, an ordinance to clarify bonus allowances in the living building pilot program, an ordinance allowing parks to execute harbor leases with state DNR for mortgages at Leschi, an ordinance related to the stay out of drug area zone, and an ordinance related to loitering and prostitution and creating a state out of areas of prostitution zones.

That's the IRC.

The consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and two resolutions, respectively setting a public hearing on a proposal to modify the boundaries of the West Seattle Business Improvement Area and a public hearing on a petition for an alley vacation.

And then there are four items on the regular agenda clerk file 314533 from the city clerk reporting on the certificate of sufficiency for initiative measure number 137 resolution 32141 requesting that the king county elections place the initiative on the 2024 ballot, November 2024 ballot.

Council Bill 120808, extending interim floodplain regulations so people who need to do so can obtain flood insurance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood insurance program.

Note that there will also be a public hearing on this bill.

And Council Bill 120825, authorizing the mayor to execute an interlocal agreement with the South Correctional Entity or SCORE.

All right, so that's what's up for tomorrow.

And I want to first address the extraordinary tight timeline we're on to transmit I-137 to the county.

Given that we've got two high-interest items on the agenda, not to dish the floodplain legislation, but with the ILA and the initiative on the ballot, the deadline for the county to receive the resolution for that is, for it to be on the November ballot, is tomorrow, August 6th at 4.30.

So I will be limiting public comment to an hour so that we can make sure that we're through that business item so that our staff can do their work to get it over there.

So I just wanted to let that be known so that people are aware that I will be cutting things off to give that sufficient time.

Any questions on all of this?

Okay.

And I will note that Council Member Rivera has joined us.

Okay.

As I said, there are no proclamations or letters for signatures, so we'll move right into our Council Member Round Robin, starting with Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_04

Good morning, colleagues.

We are in Budget Week.

By that, I mean I've already chaired a budget meeting this week, and that was this morning.

We'll get more to that in just a minute.

I want to give us a briefing for the Select Budget Committee happening this Wednesday.

Okay.

It is a regularly scheduled meeting of two hours.

And I've asked everyone to hold an additional hour after the meeting, because when we had these items at the FNC, Finance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee, where there were only five of us, it took us three hours.

And so hopefully everyone's received their briefing.

I think everyone has.

And so always good to ask lots of probing questions.

and understanding that if we all ask all the questions, we'll never get out of committee.

And so please do bring up anything that you definitely need to have on the record, things that you have concerns with or that you're interested in.

We have more at the FNC committee.

There were a couple items that were not budget related and we have a couple new presentations and amendments for this upcoming committee meeting this Wednesday.

And so we're going to do an out and back run.

So we're going to have a presentation about each of the bills, and then we're going to take them up in the reverse order.

And so we will first brief the mid-year supplemental ordinance, Council Bill 120812. We will then do the mid-year grant acceptance, 13, and then we will do the annual wage increase.

This is all briefing, 120811. And then we'll vote on the wage increase.

We'll then vote on the grant acceptance ordinance.

And then we will then vote on the amendments to the supplemental budget.

And then we will vote on the underlying bill likely as amended.

And so we've got a number of amendments from colleagues.

Council Member Rivera has an independent evaluation of the care team.

I have an amendment regarding the Berkman Trail that made it in there.

This was transmitted before we had the levy discussion.

So I'll go into that more tomorrow.

We have a couple amendments from Council Member Morales regarding...

the mental health funding regarding the unified care team and regarding recruitment of women in the workforce for the Seattle Police Department.

We don't need to take time to talk about them all right here and now.

I figure we'll do that in committee tomorrow, but I just wanted to, and we have one from Council Member Nelson.

Sorry, that one was just posted.

And I did not grab it off the printer.

So it's about SPVs recruiting.

SPEAKER_03

It is simply asking for information about what spending has been in 2024 on retention and recruiting.

It's not, doesn't have anything.

It is not a monetary item.

It's just asking for more information.

SPEAKER_04

Wonderful, so we've got a number of amendments for tomorrow, and we will start the meeting off with receiving a briefing from the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast, the Director, Jan Duras, about this morning's meeting that I chaired along with Council President and Council Member Rivera was there, These meetings are open to everyone.

They are the first time that this information becomes public.

And then I also offer, Jan is interested in meeting with you individually if you'd like to dig in.

There's a lot of really interesting information in there.

The top line coming out that you're probably wondering is, is the economic forecast better or worse?

It is neither.

It is about the same.

It's not good.

It's not bad.

There are areas of concern that we need to remain attentive to.

And where we are right now is just in the economics of our, the forecast really is that we usually have a pessimistic view of what could happen if it goes wrong.

Right now, if the pessimistic view is taken up, that definitely means we're going to go into a recession.

So, a year ago, we were at a 60% likely heading into a recession.

Earlier this month, we were down to 20, 20%, 28%.

And now, in the last week, as the stock market has kind of stumbled a little bit, there's no exact evaluation, but we're close to 35 to 40%.

So, we're better than a year ago.

We're worse than last week.

With the Fed meeting again in September, 91% certainty that we will see lower interest rates.

The issue is that we just had a larger unemployment come in last week, which is what set the stock market into some stumbles.

As long as that smooths out, knock on wood, we...

are in line to have a soft landing, which then begins growth.

It's going to come slowly at first.

And so the economic forecast was minus, you know, two million here, plus a million in the next year.

There's some different levy funding, but it's just about constant right now.

And so we still need sales tax to return.

We still need REIT to return.

Jumpstart is still doing well, but its revenue source is the least predictable or the forecasting source because of the stock market and because of how new that tax is.

All of that to say, we'll have this at committee on Wednesday, and then we'll vote on these bills.

And then to cap it off, we will have Central Staff Director Ben Noble give us a budget process preview of what we can expect Leading up to September 24th when we expect to have the budget transmitted in from there.

How will we?

What is the process moving forward?

This does wrap up the select budget series that we kicked off in April and From here, we'll go directly into full budget Outside of that role here at Council I as I said, I'm chaired the economic REVENUE FORECAST COUNCIL THIS MORNING.

I'LL CHAIR THE SEATTLE CITY EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT SERVICES BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION MEETING ON THURSDAY AND JOIN THE SOUND TRANSIT SYSTEM EXPANSION COMMITTEE ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

AS ALWAYS, I HOLD OFFICE HOURS EVERY WEEK IN THE DISTRICT.

I COULD TELL YOU EVERYTHING THAT WE DID IN DISTRICT 6 LAST WEEK, BUT I'VE ALREADY TAKEN UP A LOT OF YOUR TIME.

SO I'LL JUST ASK TO SEE IF THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS.

SEEING NONE, EITHER I NAILED EVERYTHING OR THERE'S A LOT OF QUESTIONS TOMORROW.

or on Wednesday.

With that, I'll pass it over to Council Member Wu.

There we go.

Did I use the cat trap though?

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

I look forward to Wednesday.

So quick review of the week.

Monday met with leadership from Roots Housing to discuss their new housing facility in the U District.

I went to the Freedom School, read aloud at Emerson School.

It was fun to interact with the young adults.

I attended the annual Seattle Builders Reception.

Our own Seattle City Light GM CEO was the keynote speaker.

Council Member Strauss and I attended Ailey Camp's performance at the Moore Theater.

It was such a powerful program, and watching the youth perform was amazing.

I had a ride along with SBD Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon and met North Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator Caitlin Yip.

The weekend ended with many CFIR events.

I grew up going to CFIR events, so this was a lot of fun.

So I attended the Regional Policy Committee.

We discussed King County's visioning process for the Civic Campus.

They had been meeting with interagency partners, community partners, and...

experts about their plans to redevelop their downtown properties, including the jail and courthouse.

As you know, King County is strongly considering moving these facilities as well as some additional office space out of the downtown core and onto property they own in Soto, and they plan to use all these empty buildings once they move and turn into housing.

We also talked about long-term solid waste disposal options.

They're in the midst of a study looking at diverse and climate-friendly options.

We also had our 2023 Best Starts for Kids annual report.

So Best Starts for Kids is a levy fund initiative.

King County voters approved it 2022 to 2027. So basically this levy invested more than 129 million in the community, completed 12 competitive RFPs, partnered with 336 community-based organizations operating 591 programs to reach many children, young people, families, and community members across King County, and the Regional Policy Committee will vote to acknowledge the report at the September meeting.

So last week in committee, we recommended adopting City Light's integrated resource plan progress report and also had another discussion on City Light's strategic plan update.

So I want to thank my committee members for their steadfast commitment to accountability and transparency as they work with City Light on their plan for the next six years, including the rate path.

We're having these difficult but important conversations and our City Light partners, as well as Eric from Central Staff have been fantastic throughout this process, so we thank them.

And if there are no further questions, I will pass this to Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The Parks Utilities Technology Meeting Committee will meet next Wednesday, August 14th, 2 p.m.

We have a very full agenda, not as full as tomorrow, but full.

Final vote on our 2025 strategic business plan with Seattle Public Utilities.

We also have a vote on 2025 to 2027 drainage and waste water rates.

We're also the confirmation of CTO Rob Lloyd.

He's Director of Information Technology.

He's been phenomenal.

If you have a chance to meet him, please do.

Also the Renewal of Lease with the Department of Natural Resources for the Leschi Marina, Marina in Leschi.

And then also last but not least, the appointment of Seattle Center Advisory Commission as well.

Regional committees have this week a King County Flood Control District meeting.

That'll be my second meeting.

And then also first one for Watershed Ecosystem Forum as well.

So that's what I have on my calendar.

And if no one has any questions, I will pass this off to Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_05

No questions.

So thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

This week, no committee meeting.

As you know, though, we will have our SCORE ILA ordinance coming before full council.

If you have any questions on it, please reach out to me.

Thank you.

Also this week, starting today, I have a Fire Station 5 right on the waterfront, which I'll be visiting in two and a half, three hours.

Tomorrow, Southlake Union Community Council in terms of outreach with community.

Wednesday, Washington State Ferries and Veterans Program, meeting with them on Wednesday.

So I'll get some underway time with the Washington State Ferries Wednesday night, Queen Anne Community Council.

Friday, the Obliteride.

I will not be in it myself, but supporting along with my staff team.

And then Friday, Sound Foundation's Northwest Tour.

One last thing for this week that I wanted to highlight, and I probably should have done it last week, is tomorrow, the first Tuesday of August every year, is Night Out here in Seattle.

And you may not know it, but I'm still the block watch captain for my neighborhood.

So I've signed my neighborhood up.

We're legal.

I've asked for fire and police to visit and elected officials.

They'll at least get one.

And so if you happen to be in the area of Queen Anne, you know, stop on by.

But I really recommend this and I'm really supportive of Night Out.

It's actually Night Out for Safety.

It's a SPD crime prevention program.

You know, number one thing is having neighbors come together and to look out for each other.

And then there's a whole list of things I could put my block watch cap on, but I will not take your time right now.

But please check it out and be supportive of that program.

So last week on kind of the guidance, I just want to highlight that it did have a.

A meeting with King County Councilmember Barone, who chairs the Law and Justice Committee.

That was a very good meeting that we had, obviously talking some of the issues, as Councilmember Wu noted, coming out of the regional committee in terms of King County's future plans.

But then other things as it relates to public safety, or in his case, law and justice, in terms of the names of the committees that we're facing together.

And also to highlight that King County and Seattle really need to work together in terms of engaging the state both the executive and the legislative side on public safety issues.

Also last week, had a fantastic tour visit with the Ship Canal Water Quality Project.

It is, as I said then, I will say it now publicly, is an engineering marvel.

It's fantastic.

I also had a meeting with Downtown Greenways, very good, which was quickly followed up by a Scout Troop 7172 Eagle Scout ceremony where we had three new Eagle Scouts.

Recently, I've had a lot of meetings where they're trying to build community, and I think it's fantastic.

Coming out of the jet wash of the pandemic, to, you know, kind of rebuild community.

And the Eagle Scouts were fantastic.

The scouting program is fantastic in terms of helping our youth, you know, move forward and kind of navigate the challenges that they face today.

So that was fantastic.

Really appreciate being invited to that.

And speaking of today, but then also tomorrow, I had an AI briefing at Microsoft.

which was very interesting.

And I really thank the Microsoft team for providing that in-brief on AI, particularly AI in the public sector.

I had in-district office hours, but I didn't have it in a government facility.

I had it at KXP's gathering space.

Fantastic place to have in-district office hours.

So thanks to Ethan and the team at KXP.

I really appreciate that.

And then on Friday, two events I just want to highlight.

One is...

a visit to the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center.

First time I'd been there.

So that was really good and interesting and peace.

And I was able to get some native community art, which was fantastic too, because my office is missing that piece.

And then also had a walkabout with the Fremont Chamber, which has membership on both sides of the Fremont Bridge.

And so we started on Westlake and touring around.

the Fremont Bridge area.

So it was good.

And that is it for us, for me.

And now over to Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_05

If there's no questions.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you for that.

So tomorrow, there are no agenda items from the Housing Human Services Committee.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, August 14th.

We have not yet finalized our agenda.

We are looking at maybe bringing people in from public health and HSD to talk about our substance use treatment programs.

We should be having a presentation from PDA and LEAD, so a number of things sort of in the works, so look forward to that.

Last week, I held a press conference in the Aurora neighborhood and I was joined by Councilmember Bob Kettle and also City Attorney Ann Davidson, a number of business owners and residents.

that we were there or I was there to announce my new public safety legislation relating to commercial sexual exploitation and gun violence.

We had an incredible turnout from the residents who have been really enduring these kind of very scary times relating both to the gun violence and also just kind of the general disorder that's happening there.

So I appreciated Council Member Kettle being there and speaking on behalf.

The legislation made really powerful remarks, as did City Attorney Davidson.

I'm looking forward to continuing this discussion and trying to get some relief for all of the residents living up in our neighborhoods along Aurora.

Additionally, I was able to go to the ride along with HealthONE on Friday and that was very, very interesting.

They do phenomenal work.

I wish I had been able to go sooner.

The inclusion of a social worker to what they are doing is really a game changer.

So really very, very appreciative and impressed with what they're doing and want to continue to be very supportive of that.

And then on a last note, I have family visiting from North Carolina, and so we were able to play tourist.

And there were parts of the city where I thought, I'm going to need to have a discussion with a council member.

And there were other parts where it was just really wonderful.

You know, where there was a lot of geese poo and things like that.

But then also, it was just really a pleasure to show off the city and to see people.

you know, what we've got coming and especially being down in the waterfront and looking at what's the transformations that are happening down there.

So it's always, I think it's helpful to go and get a view from the tourist side.

So anyway, nothing further.

I'll turn it over to Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_03

I have a question about your legislation that you talked about, your press conference and Council Member Kettle, you also had one, of course.

Are those teed up for discussion in committee

SPEAKER_05

August 13th.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_05

I should have mentioned that.

I was focused on the score.

And to echo Council Member Moore's point, the community is deeply affected.

They were out very appreciative of the recognition that somebody's hearing their voices in terms of the challenges that they face, not just with the trafficking point, but also the increased crime that's been spilled out beyond Aurora and the gun violence piece, which is huge.

Um, it's, it's a different situation.

And, um, so I think the residents were, were being heard.

And I think that came across that they were happy that they were being heard that they weren't being forgotten.

And since you did ask about that, yes, soda, um, the stay out of drug area will be on August 13th, um, public safety committee.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

And I would say that the residents of both neighborhoods, downtown in your district and up north in Aurora in your district, they are in favor, which is why we do what we do.

We respond to what we're hearing from our constituents.

And it is clear that more progress needs to be made.

And from my perspective, what we're doing is adding tools to our toolbox to make the city a safer place across the board.

And so I thank you very much for for both of you leading on that and look forward to what will prove to be a rigorous, not necessarily rigorous, but a deep discussion next week.

SPEAKER_05

We will.

And to note on the point that you made, we do respond to what is happening on the ground in our communities.

But this is not a knee-jerk reaction.

Like a reporter asked me on Aurora last week, hey, was this response to like the...

you know, the incident where like three dozen rounds are shot.

I said, no.

We've been working these issues, the committee, my team, we've been working with the city attorney's team, SPD, fire, whatever it longs, or the mayor's office on these issues across the board, public safety.

So we're not responding to some high-profile press event, but we're actually engaging early, working these pieces, doing the coordination, doing the good governance pieces that we need to do in our local government.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

In addition to all the stakeholders, it happens on the back end.

I'm happy to tell anybody what the legislative calendar looks like, but what happens in order to get it to a committee discussion?

It's a lot of work and a lot of time actually sitting down and getting the details right of the legislation.

All right, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01

If I can add, actually, to underscore these points, many of us are here because we are interested and we're interested in dealing with the public safety issues that we're seeing across the city.

And though these particular pieces of legislation, one is focused a lot downtown and one on Aurora, I always say that residents go across the city all the time.

And so one, making a place...

safe or a part of the city safe benefits all our constituents.

And I know I hear from constituents in the D4 as well about their appreciation when we're bringing forward legislation that involves public safety across the city in general.

So I very much appreciate and support these efforts that my colleagues have put forward and look forward to continuing to work together to continue to address this public safety situation, because this is two tools in the toolbox.

Obviously, we need more, but these are important.

Having more tools is better, and so I wanted to lend my voice to that as well.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07

Okay, there is one item from the Land Use Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

And you may, this may sound familiar because we've done this once before, but I'm gonna read through some information just so we're all prepared for tomorrow.

Council Bill 120808 is the seventh extension of the flood plan.

floodplain interim regulations.

So in July 2020, council passed and the mayor signed ordinance 126113, establishing interim floodplain development regulations and updating floodplain maps.

These have been extended six times and are due to expire on August 13th.

So FEMA produced the updated maps and established minimum required standards for the regulations.

The maps include properties along Puget Sound, the Duwamish, and areas that are adjacent to creeks throughout the city.

The floodplain regulations contain building codes and other standards that make homes, businesses, and people safer from flooding and apply to permit applications for construction on properties within these mapped floodplain areas.

So if we don't extend them, then property owners in these areas will not be able to purchase flood insurance policies.

So we, let's see, SDCI has updated and proposed permanent regulations based on input from the port.

On August 1st, SDCI issued a new SEPA decision on the updated proposal and we'll be evaluating comments on that proposal.

They will move forward with proposed permanent regulations through the Land Use Committee.

And those permanent regulations should come before the committee prior to this next round of extension, which would be before February 2025. So that's what's going to be on the full council agenda for tomorrow and...

And with any luck, that will be the last time we have extensions to pass.

The next Land Use Committee is scheduled for this Wednesday, August 7th.

We have 13 items on the agenda, including 11 Planning Commission appointments.

We'll also hear Council Bill 120832. This is the building and energy code update.

So this legislation adopts the 2021 Seattle construction codes, which consists of codes from the International Code Council, the National Fire Protection Association, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officers.

And these codes are adopted by the state.

but the state allows local jurisdictions to amend certain codes and requires local jurisdictions to enforce them.

So for example, Seattle construction codes include building, residential, mechanical, fire, plumbing, energy, electrical, fuel, gas, boiler, and elevator.

And these are all part of how we make sure that our construction is safe for folks.

Every three years, there are changes at the national and state level.

And so our code gets refined to be in compliance with these changes.

So we'll have this legislation in the Land Use Committee several times to make sure that there's a thorough understanding of the bill.

But tomorrow or this week, Wednesday will be the first time.

The other item on the agenda is the Comprehensive Plan Roundtable that we've been holding.

We've had one on housing already in the Land Use Committee.

This week's is going to be around climate issues.

So we have community stakeholders who will be coming to talk about how with a climate lens, how we can still meet our anti-displacement goals and our density goals.

So we'll be joined by Alex Brennan with FutureWise, Jamie Strobel with The Nature Conservancy and Akeksha Chatterjee with Seattle 350. Let's see.

Last week, my office shared with each of you the three amendments that I have.

Council Member Strauss already referred to these.

One is regarding SPD recruitment of women.

One is regarding increasing support for care, the care teams, and one is around increasing the support for the mental student mental health funding that we've been talking about.

I would ask if anybody's interested, I would encourage your support and I'm available if you've got questions or want to talk about any of these amendments before we vote on Wednesday.

There's a lot happening on Wednesday.

I do want to say with regard to the public safety issues, I remain deeply concerned about the SCORE jail interlocal agreement.

I think I expressed a lot of that concern last week, but will be...

learning more throughout the conversation tomorrow, and do look forward to learning more about soda and soap.

I do have a lot of questions about those proposals as well, so I'll reach out to both of you about that.

And then in terms of district updates, last week my team attended the annual Saddlemaster Builders Reception at the Nordic Museum.

Also the Rainier Valley Fashion Festival where free clothing, there was a free clothing exchange in Othello hosted by the Mount Baker Business Alliance and Homesite, which is one of our affordable housing developers in the South End.

This past week, my team attended the Football Fest with Councilmember Saka at Lumen Field, as well as the Emoja Fest.

I also went to the Freedom School this morning to read a Sherman Alexie book to the kids, which they really enjoyed.

And then this week, there's a lot of land use things happening.

Thursday, I'll be attending a public forum and community visioning session for the comp plan at the Rainier Arts Center.

Friday, I'll be hosting in-district office hours at the International District Chinatown Community Center.

And I want to thank park staff for helping us secure space there.

And then finally on Saturday, I would love to invite all of you and especially the young people in your districts to a free youth event that I'm hosting at the King Street Station Plaza in partnership with MOHAI, Bumbershoot, The Residency, Choose 180, OPCD, Arts and more.

We're gonna have city departments and community organizations who serve young people tabling there.

There'll be some live music.

MOHAI is bringing their Legos to allow the young people to build the city that they want to see.

And I think I've said before throughout the year, I'm really interested in trying to figure out how we get more young people involved in the comprehensive planning conversations because they don't get to sit at these tables, they don't get to vote.

But I think it's really important that as we're talking about what land use looks like and what amenities in our neighborhoods look like that we hear directly from young people about what they would like to see.

So that is the point of this event.

And please encourage any young people in your community to come.

My staff did pass out a flyer, I think last week with more information.

So unless there are questions, I'll hand it to Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Last week, I had a chance to go on a ride along with the CARE team.

I have some concerns about what's happening on the ground.

I think some of us have already talked about a little bit of this, but there were a couple things I saw where...

For instance, someone was on 3rd Avenue running on the street right in front of the bus.

There were buses in both directions.

That person could easily have gotten hit at worst, at best.

They're slowing down the bus traffic, so what can we do about that?

Also, someone flagged us down right in front of the old where the Banana Republic used to be because there was a a person who was face down, sleeping on the ground so close to the street that if they had rolled over, they would have been literally on that very heavily trafficked street.

You know, what can we do about that?

And so I'm having ongoing conversations with Chief Smith about how her team could be providing more benefit without stepping, of course, outside the boundaries of their of the agreement.

I also met with Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones.

We talked about the Seattle Public Schools safety challenges in and around the schools.

I know he's working to address these and I was pleased to hear that the district will be taking concrete steps to improve safety.

We will be staying in close touch as SPS is able to share more on that very soon as fall semester is quickly upon us.

I also have invited Superintendent Jones to a future Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, so more on that later.

I also hosted a listening session with some of the awardees of the Equitable Development Initiative, EDI, to hear about their experiences and learn how the city has helped their projects, as well as to better understand how their services help support community in our city.

These projects provide a really important service on the ground, and I really wanted to hear from them their experience with the city, with the departments, and ways that their projects could be furthered along more quickly, or if there were Areas that they saw for improvement with the program I would be sharing some feedback that I learned back with the office of planning and community development toward this end And I was very grateful to have on that conversations with or those that conversation with these stakeholders.

I Also attended last week the University District food banks open house It's in district 4 was my first time visiting with this food bank and it was really great to hear about their amazing work and and all the services that they provide to the residents across the city.

They happen to be in the D4, but they really do service residents across the city as well.

And more importantly, and something I very much appreciate is that they provide a service to residents at Magnuson Park, at Solid Ground and Mercy House.

And I had a conversation with them about how can we get them, they go once a week, They have a van and are we able to partner to see if we can get them a second time a week there to service the family?

So they're very open to the conversation.

Also very neat was that they have a community garden upstairs.

They are doing the garden, but they take volunteers.

They're growing food.

And it was really cool to see on the rooftop of that building.

Which is actually a lehigh property and they have the the level street level use so really great To see that partnership going on there in the district this week I also will be participating in national night out my staff and I will be attending events across district 4 and we're all looking forward to being in and community with our constituents.

Thursday, I will be chairing the library's education and neighborhood committee where we're having a presentation from the Department of Education and Early Learning on the families preschool and promise levy outcomes.

I encourage any of my colleagues who are not standing members of the committee to join us on Thursday to hear from Deal and ask any questions you may have.

And then I'm also touring the United Gospel Missions Women's and Children's Shelter, and I'm looking forward to seeing more about the work that they do in the city.

And lastly, I'll just mention I did join Council Member Kettle at the SOTA Legislation Press Conference last week as well.

And we've all already talked about that, but just the importance of having more tools in our toolbox for dealing with the public safety issues in the city.

Does anyone have any questions?

SPEAKER_08

I have a question.

When you met with the superintendent, did he agree to come talk to committee?

I think we had mentioned that last time.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I did invite him to a LEND committee meeting.

And so we're looking forward to that.

I can't tell you when that will happen, but he was open to it.

So yeah, it was a very good conversation.

It was a long time coming, but they've been dealing with a lot, as you know, but just the importance of, you know, the, The SPS has a relationship with the executive, obviously, but it doesn't take the place with the relationship that we want to have with them because everybody knows the executive is different from the legislative, the legislature.

And so we really want to, I really extended and underscored the importance of the second floor having a relationship with Seattle Public Schools separately.

And of course they work hand in hand with Deal because our levy supports so much in the K through 12 space.

So he is on board.

He understands it.

Like I said, it was a very good conversation and I look forward to the continued conversation moving forward.

And so I hope that he will attend a future meeting, but I very much look forward to the partnership and hearing more about the public safety pieces that they're going to be working on as they're able to share that.

SPEAKER_99

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And we did talk about Aurora and Eagle staff and Cascadia and obviously Ingram and Garfield and yeah, all the places that of emphasis.

Any other questions?

Cool.

I'll turn it over to Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_02

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

So, colleagues, tomorrow morning, bright and early, 9.30 a.m., we're going to have our next Transportation Committee meeting.

There is one item top of mind and top of the agenda.

That is, we're going to consider and possibly vote on an ordinance that gives SDOT permission to use grant money.

Yes, we do need to have legislation for this kind of thing in this case.

So learn a little bit more about that tomorrow.

And again, possibly vote, probably vote.

There was a second item that is essentially a placeholder on the agenda.

We're actually not going to be discussing that, so I'll let you know right now.

The task force legislation, and the reason why is because the executive is not yet in a position to formally transmit the final task force legislation and colleagues, all of you, you may recall during the levy select committee that we had, we had one briefing already on the task force and so, Rather than have another briefing on what potentially could be, I want to table that really important, thoughtful discussion until we're in a position, we actually have substantive legislation before us, and having conversations, partnering with the executive, it sounds like they're close, and so we feel good.

We'll be in a position to have that task force discussion very soon.

So that is tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, ahead of that, my staff and I are getting up very bright and early to visit our SDOT sign shop in Soto.

Gonna meet with workers there and learn more about the really important sight unseen, but not really unseen work, but super important work that many folks in Estat do every day to keep us safe, to keep us on the right direction, on the right path, understanding what the rules are, where to go, when, why, where, and how, that kind of thing.

amongst other things.

So really looking forward to being there and getting a chance to get in front of and learn more about the workers every day that do the work of the people's work of the city.

So that's tomorrow morning before the regular Transportation Committee meeting.

On Wednesday, In addition to the really exciting budget select committee meeting that we have, Chair Strauss, looking forward to that.

But later in the day, we'll be doing a tour.

Me and my staff will be doing a tour of Climate Pledge Arena, doing that with some folks at Climate Pledge, including my good friend Haywan Tshomi, who works for the Kraken.

Really excited about that.

On Thursday, I'll be attending a roll call at the South Precinct alongside Council Member Wu.

I have done various roll call visits before, including multiple times at other roll calls within my district, but this is the first one, my first visit to the South Precinct, which covers a certain portion of my district.

So really excited to do that and visit again.

the men and women of our police force, alongside Councilmember Wu.

I will be hosting office hours again at the Southwest Customer Service Center in West Seattle, as I did last week and the week before, and love getting in front of constituents and learning more about them and their issues, whether it's through a formal office hours setting, whether it's a friendly poke at the grocery store, Friendly ones, the friendly ones.

Anyways, it's really insightful and empowering for me to better understand their issues.

So love talking to constituents.

And then finally, separate, I guess, shout out to Neighborhood Night Out.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle, for raising that.

Really important.

I've always participated every year as just a resident.

and I don't wear the additional hat, unlike yourself, as the chair of your neighborhood council or whatever role, neighborhood block watch captain, excuse me.

So I don't have any additional planning overhead associated.

Fortunately, I just get to show up and bring my fried chicken or casserole or store-bought dessert item or whatever it is that I'm bringing.

and share the fellowship and conversation with my neighbors.

But really looking forward to who are now my constituents.

And so grateful for the opportunity to be able to do that tomorrow.

Encourage everyone to participate as well in their neighborhood night out.

That's how we build community.

That's how we build fellowship.

It's in part, I mean, I think the primary purpose when it was originally, the planners originally drew it up is to help keep people safe and, you know, fulfills any number of boxes, but really important stuff.

So that is all from my perspective.

Welcome any questions, comments, feedback.

If not, I suppose I will pass it on to you, Madam Council President.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much.

Before I get into what's going on in my committee, I just want to note that we have a new face in our room today, making sure that everything runs.

We have got a new deputy city clerk.

Welcome, Philip Wood Smith.

Probably you've met everybody here already, but I just wanted to extend a formal thank you for being here, and also to Megan, who has been serving in the role as an out-of-class employee for months and months and months, and so thank you very much.

All right.

Okay, folks, the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development meeting will meet this Thursday at 2 o'clock, and we've got a bunch of things on the agenda, including a presentation from the Office of Economic Development and the Seattle Music Commission chairs on updating us on what their accomplishments have been this past year and the year before, and then also some of their strategic vision going forward.

And then there will also be in association with that presentation, we'll also have three reappointments and five appointments to the Seattle Music Commission.

And so it's all things Music Commission on Thursday as well.

It's been a long time since they've made an appearance in chambers, and I'm really looking forward to hearing from them.

We'll also have a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120827, establishing a music venue parking permit program loading zone.

This is, in fact, a priority of the Music Commission and has been for years.

Where do musicians park with all their gear and crew when they come and perform in Seattle, given the shortage of parking and some of the security issues that many musicians cite as a deterrent?

And so That will be becoming for our committee this Thursday for a vote in out of the next committee.

And it's generating a lot of buzz elsewhere in other cities too.

And then we'll have a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120831, which would make changes to the boundaries of the West Seattle Junction Business Improvement Area.

And this legislation was previewed, as I said before, by the Office of Economic Development around this table several weeks ago.

So that's upcoming.

All right, that's what the agenda is for the meeting.

Just some brief notes about what happened last week.

Following on the discussion of the audit, one of the auditors, the prime author of that audit on the on the importance of taking a place-based approach to the overlapping issues of overdose and crime in Seattle.

Claudia Gross-Shader introduced me to somebody that she's met in all of her conversations around public safety and gun violence and innovative things that other cities are doing.

Anyway, I got introduced to a city council member from Cincinnati, Anna Albee, and had a really good conversation about what they're doing, what we're doing.

the similarities between our cities on efforts to really do everything we can to have an evidence-based approach to our common problems.

So that was really interesting.

I also, last week, had the opportunity to talk with Rob Thomas, who is lead in the regional office of AEG Showbox, obviously a very important promoter and the energy behind so much of our live music in town.

And we talked about How can we support more live music in Seattle and also especially outdoor music in summer in our very narrow window in Seattle to have great concerts outside?

What can we do better to make that easier?

Lots of other meetings.

I will just simply mention that we all probably participated in one way or another with the events leading up to this past weekend, Seafair.

And when we think of Seafair, I believe, at least before assuming this position, I think of Torchlight Parade, Hydro Planes, Blue Angels, et cetera.

Seafair is so much more than that as an organization.

They serve as the fiscal agent and kind of umbrella organization for so many festivals that happen throughout the year in neighborhoods across the city.

And I attended the 75th Gala on Friday night, which was one of the many events leading up to the excitement outside over the weekend.

But this was Eric Cornings, who is the president and CEOs of Seafair.

It was his last gala.

He is departing Seafair after many long years and strong leadership.

And at this event, they welcomed the new president and CEO, who is Emily Cantrell.

So in case you haven't heard that news, I wanted to break it first in chambers here and say that it's great that they have somebody great who will be taking over and with a lot of energy and experience locally.

All right, that's pretty much what I've got to say.

Attended the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council's August revenue updating meeting.

You encapsulated that and look forward to maybe having more questions when we have it.

I won't have very many more questions.

No, no, no, I won't.

But we got the forecast today.

I mean, the news broke today and there will be a presentation and so...

DIGGING INTO SOME OF THOSE DETAILS LATER, MAYBE, IF PERMITTED.

JUST ONE SECOND.

SPEAKER_04

TO SAY THAT WE'VE SHORTENED ABOUT A $30 BILLION slide deck down to 10, and it's still a little long.

The forecast office does a really good job.

About 10 of those slides of the original presentation were just about the inputs into how they create their forecast.

It's incredibly interesting stuff, and we don't have time for that part in committee.

So if you're interested to know how they got to the forecast, there's an entire presentation on that, and I recommend...

SPEAKER_03

Checking out the award-winning Seattle Channel video that's about to be uploaded.

Anyway, yeah, a lot of people just want to know, is it good news or bad news?

Anyway, so on Thursday, I will be attending the Visit Seattle's Advisory Committee meeting, and they will be presenting, I believe, an update on some of the outreach and research they've been doing on attitudes toward tourism and What do people think about that?

And so that will be a great meeting.

And then finally, on Friday, I'll be meeting with the new incoming CEO.

Well, she's not incoming.

She is here, CEO of KCRHA, Kelly Kinison.

That's it for my report.

Are there any questions, comments?

No?

On any of the above?

All right.

Hearing none, this is concluding today's council briefing.

It is 2.56.

Thank you very much, everybody.

See you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.