Thank you for being here this morning.
I'm pretty excited with what seems to be the interest level on this new cast of characters here.
Over the last week, our administration has been meeting with the incoming council members to help them prepare to take office and hit the ground running.
That becomes critically important.
I think quite candidly that they've earned these positions of leadership and our administration, which consists of our department heads, our employees, our unions, the community activists that are part of sort of our DNA, if you will, that these council member elects have earned the right to lead the city and we are excited to be partners with them.
They're meeting with our deputy mayors, our staff, our department directors.
Our commitment to transparency becomes critically important.
Having of course served in that position, I remember how critical it was to have access to people, access to data.
I've worked with administrations as a council member when it was less than ideal, and I understand that often because we have an agenda, we have an idea and a vision, and sometimes it could be misaligned with people in a different department, whether that be the legislative department or the municipal court or even the city attorney's office.
When I took office, one of the things that our administration committed to is to try to erode those factions, those artificial barriers to the success of the city.
I personally watched the council member elects campaign and I was very proud as a Seattleite to see how they led with integrity, commitment, passion.
Things are exciting.
You're going to hear from these incoming members in a moment.
But what they've been doing since the campaign, quite candidly, is getting ready.
They've heard me say that we don't take victory laps.
You know, take a couple of jogs now and then that's OK.
They did win and they won because they worked hard.
And I expect their work effort to shine through, through policies, through budget analysis, through advocacy and Quite candidly, many of them, in fact, all of them talk strongly about public safety, their commitment to the issues residents care about, housing and homelessness, a focus on the basics like constituent response and listening, fixing potholes, accessible transit, clean and welcoming parks.
Sort of the basic components of this city that they talked about passionately.
Too often I think people want to put politicians in a binary box of progressive or moderate when in reality this group is less concerned about the hardline ideologies and more committed to just simply getting stuff done.
I've heard them campaign on that and that's why I think this is so exciting.
What really excites me about this group is the diversity of life and professional experience they have.
I'll name just a few.
We have This is supposed to be sort of funny, but I don't know how this is going to roll out.
I didn't, I didn't practice this part by the way.
So we have two veterans.
We have two UW alumni, alumni go dogs, but we also have five Husky supporters.
I wrote that in there, uh, two from city service.
We have three lawyers.
We have four with parents or kids in public schools.
We have two that are dog owners.
No cat owners in here?
We love cats too.
We have two who parents worked as welders.
We have two whose parents worked in educators as educators.
We have two that are small business owners to join Councilmember Nelson as a small business owner.
The diversity of life experience, they're well educated, well versed in philosophy, I don't know about this stuff.
But in all seriousness, Their life experiences, which I think is so critically important to these jobs, I think we've heard their stories, and they were passionate stories about what they've overcome, the impediments to progress, impediments to their self-optimization that got them to this point.
That becomes critically important of this work we're going to do.
Now, very recently I spoke about some of the outgoing council members to some of those who attended a going away party.
And again, I want to thank my cabinet members who are here, members of our administration, that contrary to what some would say, we did some marvelous work together.
And that's why I'm so thankful for their work.
We sent 344 bills down to this council in the last couple of years.
All of them, all of them passed.
None of them failed.
I see central staff members here.
I want to thank you for your policy work that you did and found.
In fact, council members want only voted against 22 of those 344. So that's work right there of the council sponsored 57 bills.
I only vetoed one.
We worked together collaboratively on trying to get things across the finish line.
We sent Council 22 department director nominations and they confirmed all of them.
Very recently, the outgoing council passed very recently some phenomenal legislation in our building emissions performance standards, affectionately known as BEPS.
We worked on and passed a firefighter contract, our downtown activation plan and associated legislation.
Um, they recently, uh, pat, uh, pat confirmed our two very important department directors, Jennifer child, go good.
And that's, uh, of arts and culture and department of neighborhoods, the housing levy they worked on that passed the same time.
These leaders were passed 970 million toward, uh, one of the crisis of the hour, our housing issues, the industrial lands policy, the tree ordinance, the outgoing council.
We did some phenomenal work together.
And so I want to dispel of this narrative that things were so, so bad in City Hall, because that includes all of us together.
Things were so bad we couldn't get anything done.
We got a lot done.
which then leads and sort of begs the question, what can we do now with people who decided to leave and people who come in?
And that's why we're here today.
We have some excitement and some energy on the kinds of things we want to do together.
And I trust that they will lead with integrity, with passion, with intelligence.
They are proven already.
And so it's my honor to do.
We're going to go in the order of the districts.
It was not random.
One, three, four, five, and seven.
So we're gonna start off with Councilmember Leck, Rob Sacca, and then from Councilmember Leck, Sacca, we'll go to District Three, Councilmember Leck, Joy Hollingsworth, all the way down to four, five, and seven, okay?
So with that, Councilmember Leck, Rob Sacca, you have the microphone, my friend.
All right.
Well, uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, uh, for your leadership and organizing and hosting this, uh, this conference.
I'm excited and honored to be with you all today.
Thank you to my fellow council members elect, um, and members of the media, Rob Saka.
I have the honor and pleasure.
I'm one of the veterans by the way, air force veteran, uh, go air force.
Um, but I, I am one of the veterans that the mayor alluded to earlier along with my my fellow council member elect, Bob, who will be up here in a moment.
But I'm also part of many communities.
I'm someone who has overcome the foster care system.
I'm someone who is a father of three.
I'm someone who lives in Delridge.
I wear many hats in my life today, personally and professionally.
But the thing that brings me the most joy, honor, and I recognize my privilege in this, is being a servant of the residents, the people of District One, and the people across this city as well.
And I am really, really looking forward to serving everyone.
We have a very unique once in a generation opportunity right now to usher in a new culture in Seattle City Hall.
One, and by the way, as I understand it, this hasn't happened in a long time.
In modern history, actually, we haven't had this many new council members.
And so we have a once in a generation opportunity to help usher in a new culture at Seattle City Hall.
One that's based on collaboration, transparency, getting things done, mutual trust and respect, being disagreeable or disagreeing without being disagreeable.
And I couldn't be more energized and excited to help bring about the change that I think everyone wants to see, certainly the residents of District 1. And so again, I couldn't be more thrilled to help usher in this new generation of leadership at Seattle City Hall, one that is based in service and collaboration and respect and transparency.
And hat tip and shout out to the amazing staff, dedicated staff, central staff at Seattle City Hall.
I've been honored to, to help, like I've been empowered to get up to speed on a number of really important topics.
During my election night speech or conversation that I had with Tracy Records from the West Seattle blog, we talked a little bit about, I made an offhand colorful remark, one of my first orders of business is figuring out where the bathrooms are at City Hall.
Good news to report, we've mastered that.
But,
Importantly, we've also learned how to comply with our open public records obligations and other really important nitty-gritty things that help bring about a more functional, responsive government.
So I'll shut up.
Joy, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
I'm at the age where I got to have something in front of me to make sure that I don't forget what's going on.
I definitely want to thank Mayor Harrell for his leadership.
His administration has been completely accessible and transparent during this process to getting us up to speed about what's going on in our city.
And I think that really sets the tone and shows the commitment to collaboration.
I know someone has a bet how many times we're going to say collaboration up on here.
I also want to thank the council members that are transitioning, Council Member President Juarez, Council Member Mosqueda, Council Member Lewis, Council Member Peterson, Council Member Sawant, Council Member Herbold for their service to our city as well.
They have been accessible as well to let us know some of the stuff that's coming down the pipeline and some of the groundwork.
Also to our soon to be Colleagues who are on the second floor, Councilmember Nelson, Councilmember Strauss, and Councilmember Morales, who have been accessible as well, who have talked about this teamwork, collaboration.
There goes another dollar in someone's pocket.
But for everyone to be working together, they have talked about that.
And I'm really excited about that.
I love stats.
The election was certified November 28th.
This is day 17 of that process.
And I give myself grace a little bit to understand that that's a short period of time.
And by the time you are sworn in on January 2nd, that's 35 days.
And so what we've been doing, what I've been doing is meeting with people.
We've had a couple of safety meetings in our district connecting with business owners, connecting with community nonprofit groups, meeting with elected officials, meeting with the mayor's office, the mayor, all all these things in such a short period of time.
And I just wanted to throw that out there because I think that's really important.
We know that this process will take time.
We know that everyone wants a sense of urgency, but we also understand that it's a it's a process and we The one thing, the beautiful thing that I love about all of my five soon to be colleagues is that, you know, when we were running and you heard this on the campaign campaign trail a lot was we just did not want the job title.
We actually want to do the job.
And, you know, city council is a destination for us to be able to do the job, serve our constituents.
And I'm looking forward to working with them, working with the mayor's office and you all as well to keep pushing our city forward.
So thank you all for being here today.
Thank you.
and I'd like to pass it off to my soon-to-be colleague, Maritza Rivera.
Thank you, Julie.
I want to thank the mayor for his leadership and for including me today.
And I want to thank city staff and members of the media for being here.
I just want to say that I'm truly humbled by having been elected by our district residents to fill this seat.
I really am here to do the work and not the title.
And I'm really looking forward to working with our council member elects here as well as the current council members.
and the mayor to get the city back on track to its vibrant state that most of us remember when we moved here or grew up here.
And so really that is my main message is really I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves along with my colleagues and the mayor and working together collaboratively there's another dollar in someone's pocket to really do the hard work of the city I love this city I've been here 22 years I'm raising two daughters here and I'm just looking forward to getting the city back to the vibrant state so that our kids are really thriving here as well as all of us thank you
Well, good morning, everyone.
I'm Councilmember-elect Kathy Moore from District 5, and I wanted to thank Mayor Harrell for arranging this opportunity for us to come before you and say a few brief remarks before we are officially convened on January 2nd, and also thank you to the media for your interest in seeing what we've been up to.
So along those lines, what I've been up to since the election was I took a little break, but not much, and I've been really working on trying to assemble a great team.
because we have a lot of work to be done in the city and in District 5 and it's important that it's not just me but my team and that we are working in partnership together and with everybody throughout the city with central staff, with the executive departments, staff and leadership as well as the mayor's office, the city attorney's office and the community leaders in our community.
And so I've been working to put together a strong team because we do need to address the issues of public safety, of homelessness, affordable housing and climate change.
And in District five, particularly important to everyone in this sort of the Holy Grail is getting a sidewalk in every single neighborhood.
So I will be working on that, hopefully in collaboration with my other council member, Alex.
Other than that, I'm really just looking forward to the opportunity to begin the work.
I spent a lot of time talking about the work, and so I'm anxious to begin the work.
I'm anxious to work in collaboration with Mayor Harold's administration, with the new council leadership, and with all of my soon-to-be council colleagues.
So thank you for your time, and happy holidays to all of you.
Good morning, everyone.
As the District 7 Councilmember-elect, I'm used to going last, but I'm good with that, and I'll keep it short, relatively.
First, I want to say thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your support and bringing this all together.
Also, thank you to the Executive Department folks we've been meeting with, and also the Legislative Department.
A lot of meetings this week, getting to learn, As Rob noted, the nuts and bolts of governing and making sure we're on the right side of all the laws and procedures that we need to be in.
I also want to say thanks to my fellow council members, starting with Rob, Joy, Maritza, and Kathy.
I only say those in order, too, because that's what we're used to on the campaign trail.
Everything is done in order.
Poor Rob always had to go first.
But you know what?
As you know, Rob, you can do that.
So that's good.
I also like to thank the current members that are going to be with us, Councilmember Nelson, who's been a great support, but also Councilmember Dan Strauss, who obviously I shared Magnolia with District 6, so it's really important to connect with Dan on the issues that relate to District 6 and 7. And even before the election, I had a call with Councilmember Morales on issues, and definitely we're setting up an opportunity to have a great amount of collaboration amongst not just the cohort of us coming in, but the whole new council.
And that point that somebody referenced about those councilmembers leaving, I really want to thank Council President Deborah Juarez.
She is fantastic.
I love her, some great conversations with her, some great mentoring from her, some great insight from her.
And the same thing with Councilmember Alex Peterson.
And I also wanted to say thanks to those who are leaving because one thing I've learned being a candidate is that this is a daunting experience.
And it's a daunting experience to walk into in terms of being a council member as well.
So for those that are leaving, thank you for your service to include Council Member Andrew Lewis, who I'll be meeting next week with.
I was very appreciative of his his call to me and his offer to meet to ensure that District 7 is covered.
And so that's very important to me and I'm very happy with that and thankful for that.
And then moving forward, in terms of leadership, you know, leadership, as some have heard many times on the campaign trail, with a North Star.
And I recognize, Mr. Mayor, that he's used that term often, but as a Navy guy, I'm going to claim, you know, some privilege with the term North Star as well.
Really important to leadership with accountability and transparency.
We got to work that leadership with good governance.
And with that means, you know, positive, engaged leadership.
And this is where programs like One Seattle are so important.
We have to have that positive, engaged leadership as we move forward and and listen and reach out.
And most important, listen to all stakeholders to get all the different pieces of it so we can get it right the first time out of the council.
And that's so important.
then ultimately it's you know it's about leading with compassion but then also wisdom and having balance uh balance is like my new favorite word and i'm looking uh forward to uh you know leading with that balance with my cohort mates and but also the other members of the council as we move forward uh with the legislative department team and then the executive as well so thank you very much i really appreciate it and i really appreciate seeing a lot of faces that i know uh from the from the press community during the course of the campaign That in itself was a great learning experience as well.
So for those that are here from the press, thank you.
And I really appreciate the opportunities during the campaign to be interviewed live on the street or in a coffee shop or wherever it may be.
So thank you.
Someone should tell council member-elect kettle that sucking up to the press never works trying it for decades now in all seriousness I do want to give a shout out to the current council members Nelson Morales and Strauss my friends, our friends, and so this is an opportunity to celebrate the new folks coming in and to celebrate the work that they've done together in the past and sort of moving forward now.
So I wanted to make sure that they are recognized properly in my words.
We'll take a few questions, a few easy questions hopefully, but we'll go from there.
Jim, I may need a little help, so when I call on folks, do you mind calling please?
So you guys have talked a lot about getting stuff done.
So what's the first thing, since you campaigned as the public safety, public safety, public safety candidate, what's the first thing public safety-wise you plan to get done?
Yeah, so public safety is really important to me.
It's a great question, and public safety has always been my number one priority.
And so I look forward to working collaboratively with my fellow council members, this mayor's office to help bring about the public safety or the change you wanna see in public safety.
We need to hire more officers.
The current incentive structure hasn't worked.
We need to figure out a path to make sure we have appropriate staffing levels.
We need to...
It stood up today.
I saw Amy Lee in this room, the head of our new care team, but we need to figure out a way to quickly grow and scale that to make sure we have a comprehensive, holistic approach to public safety.
One that recognizes the importance, critical importance, probably now more than ever, of policing and enforcement, but also police reform and officer accountability.
and alternatives or civilian-led responses, this care team, if you will.
So we have a lot of important work to do ahead, and it's a shared responsibility, but a shared opportunity to really advance this work.
And so I'm looking forward to doing just that.
And talking to stakeholders involved, including small business owners.
I've been doing a fair amount of that, to be honest, in the past few weeks throughout the whole campaign.
But I wanna thank the mayor for opening up his office and being very transparent and making his office, particularly on the public safety front, open, available, and accessible, because that's gonna be important to continue on a going forward basis.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, we'll go to Josh, Erica, and Chris.
Mr. Mayor, with the new council in place, what are your top policy goals for the coming year?
And are there things you think you can get done now that you did not get done in your first few years?
Yeah, that's an easy question.
My policy goals is we proposed a budget that just got passed that I think we think centers our values.
We have new ideas for public safety, as an example, and I think that the public needs to understand why we're trying to do this when we're looking at either acoustic gunfire locating systems or CCTV cameras, for example, that our need for privacy is heightened in this world.
but our need to protect all communities is heightened.
So we want to make sure we're piloting these kinds of things.
A lot of people in the city continue to confuse public safety and health situations.
When they walk downtown and they'll see people that are, in my mind, in my perspective, unhealthy, others may see them as a threat.
So we're going to do a lot of close work working with our Board of Health, an organization that's been around since 1951, on how we can aggressively treat people.
and make the distinction between someone that just needs help, they just need treatment.
I think you saw in our budget we proposed money for new facilities and new outreach services to make sure that we are diverting people from the criminal system.
So I think that one of our highest priorities is to make sure that on the health side of things that this council has new energy with respect to optimizing how we treat people.
Now, we're not typically in that space.
We're not the health department.
We have police and fire.
That doesn't mean that we're not fully committed to make sure people get health treatment.
So I'm expecting this council to fully engage on these issues with the existing council members.
The last piece I would say is we just passed the housing levies I talked about.
Our housing crisis, our homelessness strategies on sheltering people continue.
And I expect this council to help me work not just with the funds that we have through the levy and through our, we have our housing director here, very pleased to see that she's here, but also working with the state and some of the encampments around the state to get people treated and to get people housed.
So I'm hoping that I have new energy with this council to help me engage with the state.
We had a meeting with the state legislators two days ago and a few of the council members elect were able to attend that and we specifically talked about encampments and housing policies and how we can partner with the state.
We talked about progressive revenue strategies.
And so I expect to see some some new collaboration with other jurisdictions, county and state coming from this particular group.
And I'm excited to be a part of that.
Erica.
Do I need to direct to one particular person, or can we just do whoever wants to come up?
So the city is facing a rather major deficit next year.
A lot of candidates said that we don't have a budget problem, we have a spending problem, and the council sort of punted on capital gains.
I don't know who wants to take this, maybe Maritza, since I remember you saying this on the trail.
Are you open to new taxation now that you've maybe learned a little bit more about the budget situation at the city?
Thank you for the question, Erica.
You know, I did see on the campaign trail that I would be open to exploring new revenue.
But in addition to that, I said we really do need to look at the current budget and make sure that the things that we're investing in are having the outcomes that we intended when we made those investments.
So I really look forward to working with the current council and the mayor to look and the budget office to look at, our current budget and ensuring that some of the things that the mayor just talked about in terms of helping people, are we really helping people with the programs that we're currently implementing?
Because that's of paramount importance.
I mean, something that I know talking for to voters on the campaign trail is that they want people to get help.
And so I want to make sure that the programs that we are implementing at the city are really having the impact that we intended and are truly helping people.
And if they're not, then let's look at a different program that will have that outcome.
Because at the end of the day, we need to make sure that everybody in the city is healthy and, you know, participating in the city in this vibrant way.
And we really want to take care of people.
Did anyone else want to tackle that?
I don't want to deprive anyone of an opportunity.
We're good?
Okay.
Chris, Brian, Connor.
And I'll come back to you, too, as well.
And I think that'll be everything.
I just want to go back to your answer on public safety, because you did say off the top that these were all candidates that ran on a platform of improving public safety.
You also said you were able to work with the previous council.
So now that you have allies on this council on this particular issue, does that change your agenda going forward next year in terms of improving public safety?
No.
Next question.
No, I'm just kidding.
And your purple is not distracting me, it's just getting me excited.
I recognize it.
I heard you played for the Huskies.
Well, I'm pretty excited in a few weeks about what we may see here down in New Orleans.
I say no cryptically only to say that our agenda on public safety has been clear since the decade of work that I've been doing that our charter responsibility is to keep people safe.
Sometimes I look at safety as a circle like this and health as a safety as a sort of a concentric circle too because in addition to being safe, I want them to be healthy, to feel safe, to feel healthy, to feel good about themselves.
We've been doing this work for a long time, and under our administration, we have to translate that into policy.
And so when we did the work with the current council on how we approach the fentanyl issue, I think that was the smart way to do it, to have a baseline level of data.
Yesterday I issued an executive order on how we will use data.
to see who was hurting out there for help, to not be afraid to make lawful constitutional arrests when people are threatening others.
And I think this council understands that.
Our approach will not change.
Our agenda will not change.
But I'm always in search of new ideas.
And I try to read as much as I can on criminology.
We have backgrounds here.
And that's why I pulled out their different backgrounds.
They have life experiences.
They've probably read books that I haven't read.
They have relationships that I do not have.
They're going to bring new ideas on public safety.
new tools.
And so I always tell critics of public safety, and by the way, our crime rates are going down if you look at what's really happening because of our policy work.
I have council member, council member, what is it?
Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess standing over here that is just showing outstanding leadership with new ideas, new creativity, working with police and fire, and with Chief Smith here in our care department.
So our agenda will not change, but I do think we're gonna have some new ideas and some new passion for this coming with this council member, and I look forward to that.
These council members, I look forward to that.
Brian?
Yeah, I was gonna ask, we talked about public safety as a public safety chair.
been determined?
Do we know about the different committees?
What's the scoop there?
So they agreed they're going to start, they're all going to be public safety chairs, as I understand it.
So I don't wait for the meeting.
You know, we're not, I'm not privy to know about council positions and council chairs and committee assignments.
I've been through it several times and my guess would be that they're having ongoing discussions and things aren't baked out yet.
So I can't speak intelligently about that.
And, you know, I've always made this clear in terms of committees and committee assignments, particularly when I was involved in trying to help decide that.
Anyone could pass any legislation from any committee.
anyone votes on any committee.
So I always thought that the, whether you are a chair, vice chair or member was some sometimes artificial because particularly when I was council president, I made sure that if someone wanted to push an agenda on a different committee, then work with that chair.
And I think that it's incumbent upon that chair to sort of share the glory, share the love, share the excitement about the new policy.
That's a good chair of any committee.
You're a member of a team when you are on a part of nine.
I think what makes an ineffective council when you're trying to have nine people outdoing each other, always blaming the other person.
And I know that from personal experience.
So with respect to committee chairs, to me, I'm sure they'll all figure that out.
with the three ongoing council members.
They have a decision.
They're going to have a vacant seat, of course.
I'm sure one of you had a question about that.
They'll figure that out.
I have all the confidence in the world they'll figure it out and have some good committee assignments.
Honor, and then two questions after that and we'll be done.
This question is open to any council member elect who wants to answer it.
But despite you guys being brand new in January, you will almost immediately be tasked with selecting another new council member.
What are some of the qualities and experience you're going to be looking for in that person that will be added to the council for Teresa Muscata's seat?
That's my first tough question and not even officially in office yet.
I guess what I would say is that we actually as a group need to come together and have that in open session.
Wait, I've got to worry about the OPMA here in my training coming in.
We are going to need to have discussions about what the criteria is and what are the characteristics, experience, um and sort of philosophy that we're looking for and we have not even begun that process yet so that is something all of us are thinking about individually but certainly it's it's going to be something that the council will need to decide and then we will be making through the council president i assume making that list of criteria available to the public
I think Kathy wanted to say, finding someone just like me.
That would be amazing.
I second that.
Anybody else want to talk on that one?
Okay.
Matt and then Joanne.
Mayor, this question is for you and a quick follow-up after that.
Last week when you met with the governor at the homeless camp, you talked, so there's roughly 20 plus camps on state right-of-ways.
Twenty-eight.
The governor and his supplemental budget is just allowing just 10 more, 10 million more to clean up all the camps in the state.
Can you characterize your relationship with the state?
Are you happy with their cleanups and the progress of their cleanups on state right-of-ways given that 10 million going for the whole state may not be enough even to cover the 28 that are in the city of Seattle?
Thanks for the question.
So I'm not happy with the city, the county, the state, all of our progress in this respect.
I think the public wants more.
I'm very happy with the collaboration I'm getting from the state, the conversations we're having, both the governor's office and the state legislators.
That this, within recent years, this is, These are new areas of concern.
And so maybe 15 years ago, they weren't equipped to deal with the types of policies we have in place.
So I'm very happy with where we're heading on this.
We argue with data.
So at the press conference, when I shared that there were 28 encampments, I shared the number of responses from our fire department, the number of responses from the police department.
That was not met with any resistance by anybody.
And so I think we have a great opportunity in front of us.
They understand that.
And so I am happy with the way the relationships are developing.
I am a mayor that works with a sense of urgency.
If anyone works around me, they know that I jokingly say I'm in the fourth quarter of my life.
I got to get things done quickly.
I'm not parlaying this into something else.
And so I'm never, I'm not a content mayor.
So we have a lot of work to do.
They're going to help me get it across the finish line.
We met with Gerald Tarleton, our Office of Intergovernmental Relations Director.
Their team works with us with the state.
We look forward to their leadership.
We're going to get a lot of work done.
And again, we're going to lead with data.
You don't have to blame when you just lead with data.
Here it is, everybody.
Here's the problems.
Here's the outcomes we're trying to drive.
You could like it or not like it.
The data speaks for itself.
So we're going to work aggressively to shelter people and treat people and make sure that right-of-ways are accessible.
And real quickly, have you rethought about a football bet with the mayor of Boston?
so that that's always sort of jinxing i don't like doing the proverbial salmon stuff and all that other stuff i just uh i like being underdogs um we are just not in the national respect we deserve i think we all can agree on that so that i think it was four point underdog something like that yeah we'll take that right now so we i don't think i'm gonna do the bet i may i do know the mayor of austin um I'm not saying that I'm looking toward Houston after this, but the weather in Houston this time of year, I've been told, is pretty mild.
You don't look beyond.
This is exciting for the city, though.
We couldn't be prouder than our local university putting us on the map.
So I don't know about the bets yet.
We'll figure that out.
MR. Chair Young?
Another citywide city council member, do you know how many people are competing for their position?
And as a mayor, do you have any particulars for that position?
Yeah, any particulars for the position?
Oh, people.
Oh, gotcha.
Yeah.
So I do this.
I've been doing this.
If there are any of you interested for that selection, raise your hand.
And I don't even know if the application process, I don't even know.
So to answer your question, I don't have any particulars.
Now, in transparency, we like to lead with transparency.
I've probably had, oh, on last count, maybe four or five people contact me just to say they want to know what it's like to be a council member.
None of them have said, I'm going for it or anything like that.
And I'm always willing to make myself available.
I'm always willing to make myself available to the council members that are just like Joy Hollingsworth here that we're trying to trying to find.
So I anticipate it's going to be a robust discussion.
I think what has happened is, I'm going to be candid with you, this is, I can always tell when my director of comm is looking at me saying, keep your answers short, Harold.
These are tough jobs.
These are very tough jobs.
Your integrity gets attacked.
Your character gets attacked.
And all you're trying to do is help the people in Seattle.
And even with that, the opportunities are phenomenal to really to be able to effectuate the change that perhaps you only envisioned you can do at another point in your life.
I'm hopeful that people answer the call to public service.
It'll be a robust discussion.
It'll be their decision, not mine.
But I don't have anyone in mind.
I've read some blogs that I'm sitting on some resume somewhere.
That's just not true.
That I hope good, qualified people come out and apply.
They make a good decision.
I trust that they will with the colleagues, the other three colleagues, and we continue this journey together.
So unless any of you are sandbagging me, you have someone you have in mind, I haven't heard of any.
But I do read.
Eric, I do read.
Would I?
I read the rumors.
I read the rumors.
I read the rumors.
We good?
Hey, everyone, let's have a great holiday season.
Oh, I want to make one last point, though.
You know, a lot of people don't know, Joy and I grew up in the same church together, and her grandmother was someone that was one of my mentors.
She used a word that I want sort of to care for, and the word was grace.
We are going to make some mistakes along the way.
I say mistakes is just another way of learning.
But you said that she asked for a little grace.
Now, you don't come in saying, oh, I can't wait to make some mistakes.
You're going to learn.
You're going to listen to community feedback.
You're going to listen to differing opinions.
And that's how we get better.
I've said that throughout the last couple of years.
I said, hey, we will work very, very hard for you, city of Seattle.
We will read everything.
And we'll talk to people.
We will be mentored ourselves.
We will mentor others.
But we're not perfect.
The folks standing up here, myself included, we're not perfect.
efforts will be perfect our intent will be perfect our energy will be perfect but we do ask for grace and that's how we're going to be together as a strong city recognizing that we can disagree but we don't have to be disagreeable as councilmember lake saka said so together we're going to be build one seattle and we're all in this together so thank you very much and have a great holiday