Seattle City Council Public Assets & Homelessness Committee 51723

We are recording.

Thank you, son.

The Seattle City Council's Public Assets and Homelessness Committee will come to order.

It is May 17th, 2023 and 2 p.m.

I'm Andrew Lewis, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold.

Council President Juarez.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Chair Lewis.

Present.

Chair, there are three members present.

I'm present as well, thank you, sorry.

Thank you, Council Member Rubel.

Yes, and Council President Juarez is excused from the meeting for the record.

approval of the agenda.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Public comment.

The clerk will moderate the public comment period.

We will assign two minutes per speaker.

And if the clerk will start with online commenters and then we'll do in chambers.

Council Member, there is one online commenter present.

Is that commenter ready?

Yes, Betsy Duman.

If you would please unmute yourself.

Hi.

Yes, I'm ready.

So my name is Betsy Duman, and I'm addressing agenda item 13. This is my first time making a public comment, so my comment is too bold.

One, I'm curious as to why there was a $20 million Delta in the projected library fund than the actual in 2022. There is no clear indicator as to where that money was spent or why in the library presentation provided.

Secondly, as this committee is dealing with homelessness, there doesn't seem to be any agenda items covering the egregious problems we have in this city.

Outside of my apartment, there are five RVs and about 20 people.

And I spent time talking to them.

They're wonderful people, but they told me that there are no services or support for them to have a dedicated place to park, which is why they're forced to park on the streets.

There's no electricity or waste management at their disposal because of this.

They're forced to dump everything on the sidewalks and streets, making sidewalks impassable for pedestrians and wheelchair users.

There are no crosswalks to safely navigate the street, and you can't stay around the RVs to judge traffic at any rate, making walking past them incredibly difficult and life-risking.

I don't think this is the fault of these individuals, but rather a city that has killed them at every turn and only seeks to make the rich richer, when in reality we're all closer to being homeless than to being the next Jeff Bezos.

And while I feel this problem intimately on a daily basis when I risk my life walking my dog, this is certainly not a unique problem in my area, as you can see in the events all across the city.

I don't think the answer lies in policing and bogus fines that people will never be able to pay, but in real systemic reform by these councils and commissioners.

So I would like to see in the future a real legislature to address these systemic issues that we are having.

And we'll now proceed to the in-chambers speakers.

Council member there are four people here to speak from in chambers.

First is looks as though their name is smooth.

She would walk up to the podium.

Sorry, I believe that you're the first of you wish to walk up.

Thank you.

OK, first thing I want to say is praise God.

That's the first thing I want to say.

Open mic.

Nope.

Ain't no.

Jeff, can you just bring it closer to your mouth?

Oh, OK.

Well, like I said, first thing I want to say is, praise God.

Second thing I want to know, I want to say is that, look, I know not everybody in politics is not corrupt, but there's a lot of corruption going on.

That's the second thing I want to say.

So I want you to know, we the people is not ignorant or stupid about this corruption in this country because we can look at our condition.

So the second thing I want to say is, look, we can be leaders.

We're from Seattle or Washington state.

We don't have to follow everybody in this country.

We got all this technology around here.

It's so much knowledge that we can learn with this technology around.

I don't know why we have to follow every state or every city in this country.

We can be leaders and do better.

put our money together.

There's a lot of rich people around here, got a lot of money, man.

I don't know why they don't put their money together and finish the wall.

They complaining about the immigrants coming across the border.

Well, put your money together.

I'm trying to put a GoFundMe together and put, we the people.

We don't need the president all the time to lead us to do the right thing.

That's all I want.

And the other thing too, There's some technology and listen to me.

There's a real technology out there.

Listen to me.

This is something brand new.

They got some technology out here.

upgrades a handgun, makes a handgun from an automatic, I mean, from a single shot to an automatic gun.

I don't know if you've seen it on the internet, but it's on the internet.

That's another thing.

I didn't come up here just to complain.

I came up here to come up with you some ideas, some positive ideas.

And that's one thing I want you and the mayor and everybody to

Thank you.

Your time is expired.

Check out about that technology on the handguns.

That's something that's serious.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Enjoy life.

Enjoy life.

Next on our list is Alex Zimmerman.

Yeah, open.

Open time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sieg heil, my Dürer Krug.

Adem, Nazi, Gestapo, fascist pig from animal farm.

My name Alex Zimmerman.

I want to speak about something that is very unique.

You're the only in this city who fooled with 750,000 degenerate, idiot, and happy cow.

This gap in agenda number three.

Waterfront.

Waterfront mafia.

It's very interesting.

Seven year ago, 55% vote for tunnel, $6 billion, long way.

Right now, this tunnel, $250 million in debt every year.

But 55 freaking idiot percentage in Seattle, very happy.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, what's happened now?

Council, King Country Council, make decision.

So, people from King County supposed to be fill this $250 million.

In Seattle Council, very quiet.

They cannot go against Waterfront Mafia.

They take Viaduct out, so price for condo jumped two, three times.

$200 million now.

Everybody happy who live in front.

And this mafia, this crook, you know what it means, corrupt to the bones, cannot go against Waterfront Mafia because these people have money they can control.

everything.

So right now I speak to everybody who not pure freaking idiot.

Maybe they have this in Seattle.

Stop, support Democrat mafia who suck blood and money from us.

And waterfront mafia is a very critical and very classic example what has happened when 750,000 idiot acting like a happy cow.

Stand up America.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Dakota Donley.

Hello, Council.

My name is Dakota Joseph Donley.

I am one of three founders of an organization known as Second Chance Outreach Solutions.

For the last 12 years, I have studied the homelessness crisis in Seattle and in Spokane, Washington.

And I can say with certainty that my website says I could solve it with 90% accuracy.

I'm pleased to announce today I can solve it with 100% accuracy.

That is a big claim, which is why I am stating today that I have made the decision within the last few weeks that if you are sick and tired of watching people homeless struggle, let me show you what I can do.

I am pleased to announce today that I will be filing for candidacy at a seat at city council.

If you are interested in my website, I have a few business cards with me today.

If you would like to know what I can do, please check out the website.

Thank you.

That's exactly what this is you're doing.

Fuck this motherfucker.

Chair, our final speaker is Guillermo, and forgive the pronunciation of your last name, Magoyan.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Guillermo Memo-Mogollon and I'm with Teamsters Local 117. Today I'm testifying in support of a labor harmony agreement at the Waterfront Park.

Funding for this project currently sits at 295 million of public funding, more than any other source of funding for this project.

These are public dollars and it is righteous for the workers who will be making the park work.

to have access to labor harmony.

No worker should have to deal with union busting in their workplace.

We need a commitment from their employer to stay neutral and allow the workers to freely decide to organize their union without having to deal with harassment and retaliation from their employer.

Therefore, my ask today is that the Seattle City Council pause on moving forward with management agreement until Friends of the Waterfront enters a labor harmony agreement with MLK Labor.

Thank you.

Council Member, there are no more people signed up for public comment.

Thank you so much, Parker, and thank you to everybody who came.

Pardon me, there is one more online public commenter.

Oh, okay, my apologies.

The person is recognized for two minutes.

Could they introduce themselves?

It'll be Lindsey Grad whenever you are ready.

Great.

Hi, good afternoon, council members.

For the record, Lindsey Grad with SEIU Healthcare 1189 Northwest.

Thank you for circling back and apologies for missing when my name was first called.

Happy to go right after memo from Teamsters 117 with very similar comments.

Our union represents workers who do really critical outreach and provide direct services to the people in our city who are experiencing chronic unsheltered homelessness.

We want to just make sure that as the city invests in such an important project on our waterfront, that any contractors there are held to the same standards as other public facilities, which includes important critical labor harmony agreements and the support from city government for pro-union collaborative relationships between employers and their workers.

I'm really happy to hear that there have been ongoing collaborative dialogues between our MLK CLC, Central Labor Council, and the Friends of the Waterfront, and just asking council members and the city government to just hold the Friends of the Waterfront accountable to signing that labor harmony agreement and protecting the workers who are going to be working at the waterfront.

Thank you for your time.

Council Member, we are now done with public comment.

Thank you so much, Parker.

Okay, folks, let's move on to the agenda.

Mr. Clerk, will you please read item 1 into the agenda?

Appointment 02562, the reappointment of Wilford Hairston as a member of the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees for a term to April 1, 2028.

Thank you so much.

Our presenters are in person today, so I will invite them to please make their way up to the committee table and then introduce themselves for the record.

Okay, go ahead and introduce yourselves, please.

Starting, actually, Tom, why don't we start with you as the agency lead.

Yes, thank you, Chair Lewis.

Today I have with me, I am actually Tom Fay, Chief Librarian for Seattle Public Library.

And with me, I have Carmen Bendixson, who is the chair of the board, excuse me, president of the board of the Seattle Public Library.

And also with me is Tali Hairston, who is our vice president of the board of trustees.

And so as Tom said, I'm Carmen Bendixson.

I'm the current president of the board of trustees.

And I am Wilford Tali Hairston.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, and really looking forward to dig into your application here for reappointment.

So why don't we start by having the leadership of the library introduce the nominee, and then I'm sure myself and committee members will have questions before.

Yes, I will gladly do so.

Tally was appointed to the library board by Mayor Jenny Durkan in March 2020. and reappointed by Mayor Harrell, excuse me, hopefully will be reappointed today.

He currently serves as Director of Organizing, Advocacy and Development for the Seattle Presbytery and is a Principal Lead of Equitable Development, LLC.

He has his education in community research and development firm, has been very active.

Hairston has 17 years in higher education and diversity, equity and inclusion administration as the special assistant to the president and director of Seattle Pacific University's Community and International Learning Program.

He participates in education research on physics and equity learning as a National Science Foundation awardee.

As well, he specializes in community education, engagement and outreach and public policy research.

As you can see from just a few of these things, and I have more and more here on the bio, Tali brings a lot of both the strategic thinking that we need at this time.

His work in foresight, futures, in a variety of these realms, and of course his work in equity and community is of great value to the library as we move forward in doubling down on that work as we look at our strategic planning process over the next few months towards the end of the year.

Thank you very much.

Do you have anything to add to Tom's remarks?

I just wanted to add that Tali and I actually joined the library board around the same time, March 2020, we were appointed around the same time.

And we didn't actually meet in person until maybe a year ago.

So I just wanted to express my appreciation for Tali's leadership on the board and collaboration, whether that's actually in person or virtually.

And as Tom said, his strategic thinking and ability to ask questions when Um, maybe the other, you know, maybe the rest of the board is, um, maybe not thinking in the same way or maybe doesn't have the experience to raise the questions, um, has been really valuable, so.

Great, excellent.

We, we totally understand at the Seattle City Council the, um, uh, uh, the awkwardness of being in a collective body during COVID, uh, um, and, you know, there's some reminders of that period all around us, um, even though we now know that These didn't really do anything, but in any event.

And actually, it may be just an editorial for facilities.

Can we get rid of these things at this point?

Because they, you know, yeah, anyway.

I don't like feeling cubicled away from my colleagues.

But anyway, thank you so much.

And Tali, do you have anything to say to introduce yourself here, your plans for if you're reappointed and your coming priorities for the board?

Sure, I'm long-winded, so I wrote some stuff down.

As a native Seattleite who rode his bike through the streets of Rainier Valley playing freely until the streetlights came on, who always carried a book in his backpack, and who thought librarians were the smartest people ever, I'm excited for the opportunity to continue to serve the Seattle Public Library in this way.

In the last few years, I've had the chance to learn the issues and challenges facing the Seattle Public Library and libraries across the country.

And what a unique time we live in, specific to the role libraries play in our democracy.

From book banning, to the use of the facilities, to the type of leadership needed to guide us into the future, to the future realities we must begin planning for today.

These are just a few of the macro level issues situating the work of library leadership, and I have some experience to contribute to, I believe.

But I think my personal why is not simply because of the challenges and opportunities facing the library in a democratic society, often divided along political and cultural lines.

My personal why is to serve the city and its citizens in this way continues to be that I deeply believe in an access for all, literacy, education, and community, and libraries historically into antiquity have served free societies this way, the impact of which contributes to a more informed citizenry in ways formal education structures have struggled to do equitably and free of social disparities.

My desire is to continue to shape these fundamental notions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'll start off with the questions and then hand it over to colleagues, but I really appreciate in your remarks alluding to the work that there's been coverage recently in the library of being one of the early partners to introduce.

We have been able to bring books, band, and other jurisdictions into those jurisdictions through our digital collections and access to our services.

It's always good to see a city program and initiative praised by Danny Westneat.

What do you think, in your continued service on the board, what's next to advance those kinds of principles around access to information, democracy, and human rights that that initiative epitomizes and that the library's culture wants to perpetuate?

What's next?

Well, I think the first step was when we hired Tom.

I think he's a key leader for that work that you just named.

the insight related to foresight work and what that means to do that kind of work where we are planning for the future is something the Board of Trustees is serious about.

And I think we have to continue to be serious, largely because the macro level issues that we're facing in our society are not easily resolved by black and white answers.

We need to nuance, innovate, be adaptive and creative.

And I hope to contribute to that kind of tone within the board of trustees.

That's great.

And, you know, I would just mention on the record, one of our more important boards and commissions, although all boards and commissions are important, and I say that as a former Seattle Human Rights Commission board member, but as you alluded to in your response, the library board has the sole appointment power over the chief librarian, unique among our boards and commissions, so uniquely important and powerful.

board and it's really great to have a nominee of your caliber in front of us for reappointment.

So thank you so much for your willingness to continue to serve and for coming here today to chat with us.

I'm going to open it up to committee members if there's any additional questions for the nominee.

Seeing no additional questions, I'm going to go ahead and move the reappointment of William Hairston as member of the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees for a term to April 1st, 2028. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation of the confirmation?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council President Juarez?

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Chair Lewis?

Yes.

Chair, there are four in favor, none opposed.

meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Parker.

The confirmation or the recommendation for confirmation will go to the full council at our next full meeting.

You do not need to personally attend that meeting but you are more than welcome to if you want to.

And I would anticipate based on the unanimous decision and conversation today that that will be a successful Thank you.

Okay.

Clerk, will you please read items 2 through 11 into the record?

Items two through 11, appointments 20563 through 20568. The appointments of Eric Berlinberg and Stacey Hutchison as members Seattle City or Seattle Center Advisory Commission or SCAC for terms to September 28th, 2023. The appointments for Laura May DeCharlotte or Collette Matthew Meade, and Kamala Saxton as members of SCAC for terms to September 28, 2024, and appointments and reappointments for Joy R. Sigaki, Mark F. Detterer, Michael George, Koichi Kobayashi, and Jaina Lehman as members of SCAC for terms to September 28, 2028.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Well, here we go.

Quite a full table.

This might be as full of this table as been since pre-COVID, actually.

We might be making history here with this agenda item.

So, Marshall, why don't we go ahead and start with an introduction from you and then work around the table.

That sounds great.

Thank you, Chair Lewis and committee members.

I'm glad we could make a little history together and filling the committee table again.

And thank you for having us.

It's a really exciting day for Seattle Center to be able to bring forward to you six new commissioners to help us fill out what is a really essential role for our organization and for our staff, which is the leadership that the Seattle Center Advisory Commission provides to our community.

Fundamentally, just to start with the role of the It is there to advise the director and the staff on all matters associated with the management, operations, performance of Seattle Center, as well as to represent the people of Seattle and ensuring that Seattle Center is doing its job well.

It plays a fundamental role in meeting with us regularly to review the operations, management, key projects, and strategic vision for the organization.

So for the last few years we've been without a full commission and I can't tell you how important and exciting it is to us to be able to fill the commission today.

Our new commission members, I'll just start with Eric Berlenberg and we'll go around alphabetically if that's all right.

Eric Berlenberg is a nine year Seattle resident who has extensive experience serving on community and commerce related boards.

Eric serves currently as the head of program management and the chief of staff to the Vice President of Amazon Prime Air Division, which is developing drones for package delivery to customers.

Outside of his role at Amazon, Eric is founder of the largest internal employee networking group in the company called Connect at Amazon, which builds social and professional networks across 74 Amazon offices globally, and is comprised of about 130,000 Amazon employee members.

As leaders of the organization, Eric built experience leading a large event planning, management, and advocacy organization by developing, guiding, and influencing leaders across the company.

Prior to this, Eric served as the Chief Operating Officer of Manhattan Creative Group, an Emmy Award winning entertainment management firm focused on live entertainment in regional theme parks across the US, a live concert series, and small budget commercials.

Outside of work, Eric has served on several boards and committees to continue to build Seattle as an equitable and inclusive community.

Eric has served on the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Seattle City Club Board of Directors, the Seattle Symphony, the South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce, and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Network Board of Directors.

Great, thank you so much.

So yeah, why don't we organize this this way?

We typically don't confirm this many commissioners again at once.

So I think that we should go commissioner by commissioner, allow opportunities for questions from committee members, and then confirm the entire slate at the end.

So now that we've queued up, Eric, if you want to share a few words with the committee.

Yeah, I was trying to see who's Eric there.

Okay.

If you want to share a few words with the committee at this time, that'd be great.

And then we'll have some questions.

Sure.

Sounds good.

Thanks for having me.

Very excited to be here and hopefully serve the Seattle area.

I moved to Seattle about a little over nine years ago.

I actually was a resident right next to the Seattle Center for the first two years that I lived here.

So I think I intimately am aware of the complex operations, at least from a member of the neighborhood and active participants in events and programs that occur at the Seattle Center.

Super excited to see how this can be an amazing public space for the entire community and make sure we continue to provide equitable programming for Seattle residents and happy to be here.

Excellent.

So it's just sort of maybe a standing question and to prepare the rest of the nominees.

I can't think of a more exciting time to be part of the Seattle Center Advisory Commission in recent memory, except for maybe its inception as the campus for the World's Fair with the looming, you know, the World Cup and the Memorial Stadium project that we have going forward and lots of other opportunities for partnership.

In terms of the placemaking that we continue to do at the Seattle Center, what is your priority here for the next term in maximizing public impact, maximizing the equity and access to those kinds of facilities, and how do you intend to advance those priorities?

I think this is a great question, really relevant for where we're at, and call it whatever phase of COVID or post-COVID that we're in, and a topic that I talk about regularly, both in my work at Amazon and trying to activate the Amazon employee population, as well as in my work as a board member of the South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce and how we activate and re-engage the South Lake Union neighborhood.

I think my philosophy on it, Council Member, is And trying to be intentional about getting people into spaces and I think if we get people in spaces or provide space for them to be there.

I think that there is an inflection point that occurs at some point where people feel like that's a thing that they want to keep doing and keep coming back and keep participating in, which then I think it becomes habitual and sort of becomes this like welcoming environments for everyone.

I think this tricky spots, and even seeing today, we have a bunch of folks on the phone, some folks in person.

There's never gonna be a perfect answer for it, but I do think that leaning into providing as many opportunities to bring people together will help create that culture of folks feeling like they can be in public spaces more regularly again.

Thank you.

Are there any additional questions for Eric before we move on to the other nominees?

I don't see any additional questions.

So at the conclusion of talking to the other nominees, I will happily move your confirmation.

So thank you for being here with us.

So Marshall, I'll hand it back over to you if you want to queue up Stacey Hutchinson's introduction.

Great.

OK.

And Stacey is with us virtually today.

There she is.

Stacey, thank you for being here.

Stacey joined Audible.com in 2022 as Director of Content Policy, where she currently drives groundbreaking moderation and policy strategy and engagement for the world's largest catalog of audio entertainment.

Previously, she developed new policies for the metaverse at Meta, led policy creation for misinformation elections, kids, and other issues for Amazon's Alexa devices, and spent years leading government interagency cooperation and foreign policy at the Department of State.

A Seattle resident since 2018, Stacey is passionate about building ethical, inclusive policies and coalitions that amplify diverse voices and support thriving empowered communities.

She aims to bring this expertise and energy to counsel on policy matters that might impact Seattle Center.

Stacey.

Yeah, sorry.

It's a little on the screen.

I'm not sure.

I guess it's my turn to speak.

Thank you so much for that introduction.

And thank you all for having me here.

Like it has been said, I've been a resident of Seattle since 2018, which I know doesn't feel quite that long.

But of course, with the pandemic, some of that time did just feel like it was stretching out for a while.

I'm really excited to find new ways to be giving back to the community.

I've done some community work within Seattle.

I was volunteering for an organization called Hugo House up until the pandemic.

Like I said, really passionate about finding ways to engage with the Seattle Center organization to just make it a resource for everyone in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So Stacey, we can clearly see and hear you, so that's great.

You're coming in loud and clear, not always the case with our folks visiting from Zoom.

Similar to the question I asked Eric, what do you think some of the opportunities are to expand equity of access to the programming and facilities that make up the Seattle Center, and what can we do to continue to strive to make it an inclusive place?

Yeah, I see this a lot in my current work right now at Audible, which is an organization that really is focused on elevating and lifting up diverse voices.

1 area I'd really love to explore as I get more involved in this organization are can we find more in diverse touch points to engage directly with community members?

I think 1 great way to leverage the community as a resource to.

Um, think about access, think about equity, think about inclusion and some of the organizations or events that the Seattle center is used for is to hear directly from the community.

It's 1 area that I would be really interested in exploring to see if we can, you know, like I said, leverage that to make sure that voices are being heard from residents of Seattle.

Yeah, I appreciate that answer.

One of my high school teachers at the center school in the Seattle Center campus, Andrew Bell, would always talk about how the center is a unique place because there are no walls around the Seattle Center.

It's an open campus.

And now, to a certain extent, some of those buildings you know, do kind of act to block in the space.

So I'm very excited with Memorial Stadium that, in short order, that obstacle is going to, you know, further integrate the campus.

But I appreciate your response on those questions and look forward to moving you with the slate of appointments in a few minutes here.

So thank you so much.

Marshall, will you introduce the next nominee?

Sure.

And if it's all right with the committee, I'll just move alphabetically through the list.

Oh, sure.

Next, Laura Mae Shillette.

We're glad to have you here.

A lifelong resident of Seattle, Laura Mae grew up in Capitol Hill attending neighborhood schools.

Stevens Elementary, Meany Middle School, and Holy Names Academy.

Shillette was active in the community as a scholar athlete, a volunteer, and a team leader with the Filipino Youth Activities Drill Team.

She attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for her undergraduate degree and received her MBA from Seattle University.

Laura May's career has been filled with amazing opportunities with notable organizations, such as CFAIR and the NBA's Development League.

During her tenure with the NBA, she was on the team that launched its minor league, the NBA Development League, now known as the G League, and served as director of sales and marketing before being named the team president and GM of the NBA D League's Bakersfield Jam.

With Seafair, Laura May served as the director of sponsorship and promotions, securing title sponsorships, multi-year deals to fund Seattle's beloved summertime festival.

In addition to CFAIR and the NBA, Laramay has served in senior HR leadership positions with Blue Tiger Coffee, Blue Sea Sushi, and Alenos.

Currently, she is the head of people and culture on the executive team at Atomo Coffee, a Seattle-based startup.

Welcome, Laramay.

Thank you.

Did I get to say hi?

Yes, please.

Well, I am excited to serve in this commission.

I see myself as a Seattle Center OG, remembering the fun forest as a kid, playing soccer at Memorial Stadium, attending some kind of Seattle high school leadership thing on Seattle Center grounds.

serving as an intern for the ABL Seattle Reign at Mercer Arena.

Again, countless of summers being on drill team with the Filipino Youth Activities Drill Team.

Left for a while, but came back, worked for the Seafair.

And so for me, this is somewhat of a homecoming.

And to serve on this commission is, you know, hopefully I'll be able to make that connection for other kids as well.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for the fun forest.

Shout out.

Marshall, if you can bring Flight to Mars back, we will make you the permanent, without reappointment, director of Seattle Center.

Given your background, what are some of the opportunities for public-private partnership and how we develop the Seattle Center?

Yeah, there's always been an ongoing push and pull about the level and amount of privatization that we want to see integrated into campus, but we've also had some great partnerships that have enhanced the campus.

Due to public private partnership and given your background, how do you assess and weigh those trade offs.

I mean for me it's always a win win right so what are the trade offs, and also, how will it serve all the parties involved.

You know if a private partnership can serve the public entities as well.

You know I look at that as a win win.

Additionally, you know, with the Seattle Center being a public space.

You know, how do we get involved the communities that serve not just the private entities, but also all the other neighborhoods?

And, you know, not just the like Queen Anne, but how do we get all of the city back involved back to the Seattle Center?

Because there's so many options, you know.

I think part of that public private partnership, you know if it can connect, how it can serve the community.

If there's an authentic relationship of why that private entity is even on campus.

You know, I think if that messaging can be fully vetted out and fully, you know, be comprehensive of why it's even there.

I think there's that authenticity that people can or the public can buy into.

It's kind of like sponsorship.

If it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense.

It has to make sense for the public for it.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much.

I'm glad that we're going to have you on the team to help those kinds of proposals.

So we're going to go through the last couple nominees, Laura Mae, but then I'm happy to move your appointment.

So thank you so much for being here.

All right.

Thank you both.

We'll move on now to Matthew Mead.

Matthew has been in Washington since Governor Locke brought his father here in the 90s.

Growing up in Sammamish, his family spent every weekend in Seattle for church, for haircuts, and for countless hours playing basketball at Green Lake.

A UW alum, Matt moved to Seattle in the early 2000s and has stayed since residing in East Lake for the last decade.

Professionally, Matt is a director of social media strategy at Known Modern Marketing, joining the company three years ago after years at Microsoft, Starbucks, and within the nightlife marketing space.

At Known, he worked for years with the iconic Rockefeller Center to execute a multi-year rebranding campaign bridging social media brand strategy, paid media, and data to engage a new generation of New Yorkers.

His work grew from their social media presence, grew their social media presence by over 250,000 followers.

Additionally, Matt is considered a key thought partner within the company being tapped to work on high profile clients, such as Netflix, TikTok, and many others.

And his growing portfolio led him to being named Business Insider's Rising Star of Madison Avenue in 2021. Matt brings a local point of view, 20 years of Seattle specific hospitality experience, and a love of Seattle to the table.

Thank you, Matthew.

Feel free.

Yeah, Matthew, go ahead.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just want to say hi to everyone.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited about this opportunity.

It came to me in a very roundabout way, but once I found out what the commission was doing and the purpose that it served, I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of.

Great.

Well, it's great to have you here.

So do you prefer Matt or Matthew?

Either is fine.

Great.

So I'll keep it formal.

Matthew for the purposes of today.

So what are some of the big things in this next coming term that you're most excited about, given all the different opportunities of what's happening on the campus?

What is the next big thing for Seattle Center going to be?

Um, yeah, that's a fun question.

I think one of my favorite things is just the energy that is returning to the city in a post COVID world.

I think that the opportunity frankly to just get outside and be a part of the different aspects of Seattle that makes it great is super important and exciting, exciting thing to look forward to.

Personally, coming from an events background, I love the idea of being able to target different groups and opening up that space for, you know, whatever it may be a music festival.

local Americana in a way, right?

It's something that we've all experienced.

I personally experienced kind of growing up in that space or, you know, rolling with, you know, 20, 30 friends from the UW campus over to Seattle Center and hanging out by the fountain during a summer and just doing unofficial things as well.

And just knowing that that space is open to the community.

I think there's a tremendous opportunity, especially coming out of COVID, to reintroduce Seattle to Seattle, right?

And bringing people back onto that campus and showing them that there's a a new spirit and energy that can just amplify Seattle farther.

Yeah.

No, I absolutely agree that there is sort of a renewed, um, you know, reinvigoration of the city out there and Seattle center.

I mean, gosh, especially with, I mean, all the activity around the crack and playoffs and everything else, Seattle center has really been, um, you know, a great post COVID example of our revitalization.

So, uh, and glad you're going to continue to be a part of that or, uh, and stepping up to serve in this capacity.

So, um, uh, looking forward to moving your appointment, uh, at the end of this agenda item.

Marshall.

All right.

Thank you both.

Next we have Kamala Saxton.

Kamala is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the hospitality education and nonprofit management sectors.

She is the co-founder of Seattle's food truck turned restaurant, Marination, a fast casual restaurant group with brick and mortar locations in Columbia City, West Seattle, South Lake Union, and T-Mobile Park, as well as a corporate catering unit.

Kamala has been the investor in several hospitality businesses and a startup baby food business.

She is also really excited about seeing Beyonce in concert this September and is a huge Prince fan.

I'm also very excited about seeing Beyonce in September.

Kamala currently serves on the Board of Directors for UPower and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and lives in Seward Park.

Thank you, Kamala.

I'll see you at Beyonce.

I'm excited to join this group.

While I don't live in the neighborhood of the Seattle Center, I look forward to Seattle Center acting as a neighborly hub for all communities of Seattle.

I think it's a time where It is, it's a perfect time to reintroduce Seattle Center to Seattle.

And I look forward to being a part of that committee, this committee that does so.

Great, so you've got a lot of, from your day job and our scenario work, locations all over the city for some of the companies you've been involved in.

Transportation connectiveness between Seattle Center and the rest of the city has been an issue we've been dealing with, especially with Climate Pledge, getting a whole bunch of new people on campus.

I think that the Monorail, Marshall can correct me, moves something like a quarter of the people that go to Kraken Games.

a huge yeah we have about two million a year right now or close to which is really significant uh but we we've got a lot of activity coming to the neighborhood the sound transit with um uh with other um activations around memorial stadium and what have you so mobility to get people to seattle center is going to continue to be a priority what are some things that we can work on here as a council, a commission, and leadership at Seattle Center to continue to move people in and off of the campus, especially during construction mitigation.

That's a $10 million question, isn't it?

Well, I think John Tranz has a several billion dollar question from my memory, but go ahead.

I think it's really twofold.

I think it's transportation and safety.

I'm not going to take public transportation right now because I don't feel safe.

That's just, so you can't, I don't think you can talk about one without the other.

And as far as public transportation, it is an ongoing, it's not an easy issue.

If it was, we wouldn't, this wouldn't be at the forefront of everyone's conversation in the city is transportation and public safety.

I feel confident in the group of leadership that is addressing this issue, but it's not gonna be solved overnight.

It just won't.

But I think we'd be remiss without, without talking bringing public safety into the conversation surrounding public transportation.

Yeah, absolutely.

Safety on public transit is one of the biggest things that we need to focus on right now.

Surrounding.

Yeah.

Not just on it, but the surrounding areas.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I appreciate that and appreciate that you'll be here to help us work on that and look forward to moving your nomination.

Marshall.

Awesome, thank you.

Next, we have Joy Shigaki.

Joy is a fourth-generation Seattleite.

Joy recently returned to Seattle to serve as president and CEO of Friends of Waterfront Seattle and to help deliver on the promise of this historic moment for the city with a new world-class civic waterfront.

Previously, she worked for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, leading the $98 million campaign for the Presidio Tunnel Tops, a new urban national parkland in San Francisco.

Before moving to the Bay Area, Joy held several senior fundraising positions, including Director of Development for the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund, and the Coro New York Leadership Center.

Earlier in her career in Seattle, she managed the capital campaign to create a permanent home for the Wing Loop Museum in Seattle's Chinatown International District.

All of her work has been centered in community for meaningful impact.

And as someone who's had the opportunity to work with Joy on the waterfront, she's been a great addition to our partnerships on the waterfront.

Turn it over to you, Joy.

Well, obviously, professionally, I'm very excited about the work with Seattle Center and this real expansion of the strength that the organization will bring to this new 20-acre park.

And really bringing forward the assets that this organization has had for many, many years is an incredible place of growing up.

I appreciate the nod to the fun forest.

And of course, you can't mention the bubble later.

It was a big part of that.

But a place where we centered community.

And I think this notion of how arts, culture, and entertainment are a big part of our renewal of downtown and how we really center and think a little bit more about how to bring a fresh view.

And I really appreciate that notion of a reintroduction of the Seattle Center as this amazing asset in the middle of our city.

So I'm thrilled to be part of this group and would be honored to be part of the commission.

Yeah, thank you so much.

I'm trying to think of how to structure my questions so that I'm asking you as a commissioner and not as the Friends of the Waterfront person.

Um, but, uh, you know, we, we are increasingly going to be integrating the waterfront into the Seattle center and that's a future agenda item.

We're going to be, we're going to be getting to later today, um, to talk about that a little bit more.

Um, but why don't you do from your, from your sort of dual perspective here, uh, of like the waterfront and the Seattle center campus generally, um, how, uh, how do you see that integration going?

Cause you know, I'll just say this, uh, I've talked to community members who are skeptical of, this reorganization that puts the waterfront under Seattle Center instead of, say, parks, the parks department.

I mean, I think it makes sense for reasons that we're going to discuss to put it under the Seattle Center.

But, you know, what do you say to critics who think this is an odd pairing of assets?

Yeah, there was a very thoughtful process of making the decision.

And obviously, then there was a financial commitment to make sure we could deliver on that.

And Friends was part of that sort of private investment to be matched by the Metropolitan Park Districts to make sure we have the resources to make sure the Seattle Center would be successful.

I think, again, it's a reminder about the strength of the team on the center campus for this to work.

I think that's part of standing behind the assets of what's really effective within city government and being able to really highlight that there's a strength in maintenance operations and public safety that exists in the city of Seattle that I think a lot of people take for granted.

You can go to an event on Seattle Center.

Whether it be the body Seattle soon or big events and not take for granted that you don't have any problems on that campus and that's something that to take that for granted says a lot about what has been built over the years through talent through leadership and through just incredible hiring and talent.

on that amongst the staff to make that the case.

So I would say that that's a first place to start is revisit and re-elevate what makes Seattle Center such an effective department within the city government and thus their ability to be able to deliver on that at Waterfront Park.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, we look forward to continuing that work in all of your capacities with you in partnership.

So thank you for being here and looking forward to putting your nomination forward.

Okay, so in addition to the six new appointments, we also have four reappointments of existing commissioners.

So I'm going to shift over to that now.

I'm going to start with two commissioners who are not able to be present today, and then I'm going to shift to our commissioners who are here, if that's all right.

First off is Mark Dieterer, and Mark Dieterer is our current chair of the commission.

Mark Dieterer is the Director of Philanthropy Services at Hohheimer Wealth Management.

A Seattle native, Mark Dieter is continuing a family legacy of civic duty established by his grandfather, an early Seattle business leader and passionate community advocate, who was one of the chairs on the committee that brought the 1962 World's Fair to the city.

In addition to his role at Hohheimer Wealth Management, Mr. Dieter serves on the Board of Philanthropy Northwest, Virginia Mason Hospital Board of Governors, and is a commissioner for the Seattle Center.

a member of the Central Washington University Business School Advisory Board, and is the past board chair of CFARE, Seattle's premier summer festival.

Great.

All right.

Second, I'll introduce Koichi Kobayashi.

Mr. Kobayashi is an urban designer and landscape architect with over 40 years of experience, currently based in Seattle.

In his prior practice, he spent over five years in China working with a range of firms that I won't list all of them on a range of urban design and landscape design projects.

He's also completed similar positions in other parts of the Mideast and Asia.

Throughout his career, Mr. Kobayashi has been involved in project management, participation in staff management, coordination of key projects and deadlines, proposal writing, contract management, et cetera, for a range of national and international clients.

He has managed design on a number of notable projects across the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, and Japan.

His past employment has covered a diverse field of planning and landscape architecture, Newtown, mixed-use development, education, public service, and other commissions.

That's Mr. Kobayashi.

And next, I'm gonna turn to Michael George.

Mr. George leads a wide range of complex commercial real estate projects consulting at Kidder Matthews.

He has specialized expertise in transit-oriented development, transportation projects, public and private sector land acquisition and disposition, and affordable housing.

Mr. George lives downtown with his wife and two young children.

Outside of work, he has actively dedicated himself to making Seattle a place where people of all ages and incomes can live full lives.

His most recent civic involvement includes serving on the Seattle Public Schools Capacity Task Force, the Facilities Master Plan Task Force, Downtown Greenways, chairing the Downtown Seattle Association's Downtown Schools Committee and serving on the Urban Land Institute's Tacoma, excuse me, Tacoma Dome Technical Advisory Panel.

Michael also co-founded Parents for a Better Downtown Seattle, a nonprofit dedicated to making downtown a better neighborhood for children.

And on a personal note, that's how we got to know each other, through his advocacy to not only work on downtown schools, but also to create a great waterfront park that included a playground for children.

Michael.

Thank you.

I am very excited to hopefully be serving on the Seattle Center Commission again.

I am very dedicated to making downtown in general a place for people to live their entire lives, all stages of their lives, all incomes.

And for a lot of people that live downtown, we don't have backyards and the Seattle Center really functions as our backyard.

It's the biggest piece of grass there really is downtown.

It's got the best playground for now.

And it really is one of the biggest open spaces you can go and not have to pay for a ticket to get into.

So I'm passionate about keeping Seattle Center dedicated to that mission and very excited to be part of this amazing group here.

Yeah, thank you so much and thank you for your willingness to continue to serve.

I think my question for you relates to the integration of the school district on this campus and the potential for partnerships as we continue to look at ways You know, I mean, the school district is going through a lot right now, but ways that I know you and I both passionately agree on to enhance the offerings for school facilities at all levels of public education in the city center for growing families in the middle of Seattle, and that's going to inherently I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the city's role in this.

through that significant parking lot, what kind of partnerships might be there for those shared ambitions as we continue to sort of chase the white whale of education facilities downtown?

First of all, thank you for that question.

I think it's a critical one.

And without going too deep, as a lot of people here understand, there was a memorandum of understanding and there were two sites.

One is the portal site in Belltown, which is separate, but actually kind of related to this project, because as the Seattle Center and the waterfront become a single organization, or at least work together more formally, that will be a site that will be impacted by both those organizations.

Memorial Stadium, which I think is going to be a great project, however it unfolds, was the other site.

And as far as I understand, a school is no longer in those plans.

Having said that, I do think that Seattle Center really offers one of the best places in the entire downtown area for a school because of the fact that it has a lot of open space and just a lot of amazing cultural activities that could be integrated into a curriculum.

And of course there is the center school.

So I think ultimately, whether it goes into Memorial Stadium or not, continuing to make sure that we're focused on looking for another location on campus for a public school in addition to the center school would be a priority of mine.

And the only other thing I'll say about that is yes, enrollment ebbs and flows, but one of the biggest challenges that people face when they have kids downtown is wanting to stay here but having to leave because it doesn't have some of the just obvious amenities you need for any neighborhood and that includes a school.

So thank you for the question.

I really appreciate it and it will be a focus of mine as I continue to serve if I'm so lucky as to be reappointed.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much for those remarks.

I mean, just to digress a little bit on it too, I mean, having gone through going to a school on the Seattle Center campus, the partnerships you alluded to really are an important consideration because you don't need necessarily your own like assembly space integrated into the facility.

You can use, you can have a partnership with the rep or the NMON or McCaw Hall or whatever, right?

Like you don't necessarily need to have your own kind of arts and cultural spaces, you can just borrow or program with ones that exist already on the campus.

And then of course when Memorial Stadium is completed, there's opportunities for greater integration of that space for like competitive outdoor stuff.

So, you know, I mean, I guess I would also just encourage I mean this is just impromptu but, you know, and as we continue to work with Marshall, to the extent that there is space that can be converted for class instruction, even if it's a light you know that mean the center school my graduating class was 50, maybe.

not big, but you know, it can make a difference to have like a K through eight or an elementary thing that might be able to be integrated into some space on or around the campus in sort of a similar partnership.

But I'm happy to continue to have those discussions.

Cause you know, I mean, first off I have a six month old daughter and you know, would like to be able to stay in the center of the city selfishly for that purpose.

But you know, I really take to heart everything Michael was saying about wanting to build a downtown where people can can raise a family, retire in place and like all the other things that we associate with other neighborhoods that the downtown neighborhood currently is not built for.

So thank you for that and look forward to moving your appointment.

I'll just say quickly on that I'm glad you flagged that and I'm glad you all had that conversation.

This is kind of a high watermark right now in terms of our relationship with SPS and Seattle Center, you know, because of the partnership we've been able to forge with Memorial Stadium.

We're really exploring these ideas right now, how can we be put more ideas and offerings on the table to them in terms of how they support students, as well as student athletics at the stadium.

So those are actually really relevant ideas for us.

We love the Center School.

It's a hugely positive part of the life of the Armory Building.

And if there's creative ways to grow it, that's actually something we've been broaching a little bit with them.

Great.

Well, I'm happy to move on to, I think, our final nominee.

Last but not least.

Yeah.

Thanks, everyone, for hanging in there.

Jenna Lehman, thank you so much for your service to date.

Ms. Lehman is the Assistant Director of the Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the University of Washington.

She is passionate about equity in education and works to make sure underrepresented students have access to programs they have been excluded from in the past.

As a lifelong Seattle resident, she is excited about the city's growth and expansion.

Ms. Lehman lives in Ballard with her husband and two boys.

She was first appointed to the advisory commission in August 2018 to finish out a three-year term.

Her knowledge of Seattle and her leadership skills have added a lot during her tenure serving on the commission.

Thank you, Jana.

Yeah, thank you.

I'm just to say to I was sort of, you know, brought on to the commission in 2018 because I was a public school teacher elementary in Seattle Public Schools and then moved on to the University of Washington now associate director, and the center school the passion of mine.

I love this idea of a K-8, and that's sort of what we were discussing back in 2018 and 2019, and then the pandemic happened and we went remote.

And a large part of my role through the pandemic was bringing quality education and access to students and online learning.

And I'm happy we've moved away from that since, but I look forward to meeting again in person in the commission and having these conversations.

And we, you know, prior to the pandemic worked on Memorial Stadium and getting Seattle to really be excited about that and do something about it.

So I'm looking forward to continuing.

Yeah, well, so it sounds like a lot of the stuff you've previously worked on is coming to fruition now.

So what's the next big project?

What should we be doing on the center campus?

On center and general or the center school would be, I think that that's the work that I feel sort of stopped because of the pandemic.

Like expanding the programmatic offerings.

Exactly.

Like making it a K through 12 or something.

Yes, now having moved to UW.

So the Robinson Center is an early entrance program.

So highly capable gifted students, you know, I guess that Doogie Houser would be on.

but not quite, but sort of, 14 year olds going to college.

But that has inspired in me, what are we doing for the students that aren't the 15 that are able to go to that?

So are we bringing highly capable learning?

Are we to everybody?

And so thinking about that at the center school and access to that.

Yeah, excellent.

Great.

Well, I look forward to continuing that work with everybody here, who is being put forward.

I'm going to open it up to my colleagues, briefly here to see if there's any questions for any of the present nominees.

and I don't see anyone wanting to add, oh, Council Member Morales, no, no, Council Member Morales just saying no.

Okay, great.

Okay, good.

Well, that probably bodes well for a committee vote here.

So I'm gonna go ahead and move to recommend the confirmation of the appointments that were previously read into the record by the clerk represented as items two through 11 on our agenda.

Second.

Is there a second?

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the recommendation of the confirmations?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council President Juarez?

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Yes.

Chair Lewis?

Yes.

Chair, there are four in favor, none opposed.

Excellent.

So these appointments are now going to proceed to our next full council meeting.

You do not need to attend if you do not want to.

You are, of course, more than welcome to if you would like to.

And I look forward to, again, voting to approve these appointments at the full council.

So thank you all for being here and thank you for your service and appreciate the opportunity to work in partnership with all of you.

Okay, well, I guess Marshall stay right where he is for the next agenda item.

Will the clerk please read agenda item 12 into the record?

Item 12, presentation of waterfront operations management agreement.

We'll pause a moment to allow the panels to switch.

Okay, and Marshall, do you want to kick this off as well?

We also have Council Central staff here.

Council Central staff can introduce themselves.

But why don't we start with Marshall?

Yeah, go ahead.

Sure.

I realize I think I forgot to introduce myself last time.

Marshall Foster, Interim Director at Seattle Center.

And if it's all right, I'm just going to have us walk down the walk down the road here.

Eldon Tam, Chief Operating Officer for Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

I'm delighted to be here today.

Joy Shigaki, President and CEO of Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

Tiffany Malacke, Interim Operations Manager, Seattle Center.

Great.

All right.

I'm still Eric McConaghy, I'm the Council of Central Staff.

You're still here, huh?

I'm still here, yep.

Yeah, great.

Okay, well, why don't we go ahead and jump into it.

I understand you guys have a presentation.

And I think I have a Does this look familiar?

Is this what we're going to be looking at?

Okay, great, because it's awkward to, you know, be.

All right, go ahead.

Take it away, please.

Chair Lewis, I just, I needed to note before we started that we have a couple of changes to what was posted on the agenda in terms of our presentation.

Oh, okay.

Go ahead, please.

So we have slides three through seven.

We added as slides for joy at friends of our friends to be able to talk about programming.

And we added a bullet to highlight where we're at with labor harmony on slide 16.

Okay, I think we have some people in the gallery who are keen for slide 16, but go ahead, please.

So, and I'll give Tiffany a second to pull up the slides.

Parker's gonna do that, great.

Just while that's happening, a very quick introduction.

Council members, today's discussion is basically an informational briefing on the long-term management agreement we are proposing for the city to enter into with Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

As you may remember, back in 2019, the before days, we laid out via ordinance a really critical set of policy in terms of how we would operate the new waterfront.

And as part of that ordinance, we established the concept of having a partnership between the city and Friends of Waterfront Seattle, under which Friends would do the programming of the waterfront and the city would provide operations, support, maintenance, and the like.

Since that ordinance in 2019 they have been operating peer 62 through a license agreement with us and joy is going to describe a little bit of their, their experience at peer 62 we've been very happy with their ability to bring the entire community together in that space.

And now what we're bringing forward is a five-year management agreement to expand that partnership as we finish the park to its entirety, which again was the original vision that we had of how this would play out.

And again, I'll just say there's no legislation in front of you today, but this is an informational briefing.

We intend to have a formal consideration of it on June 7th, I believe.

And with that, I will turn it over.

I'm gonna turn it over first to Joy, right?

Great, thank you, Marshall.

Thanks, Chairman Lewis and members of the committee for your past and ongoing support of Friends and really our work together on Waterfront Park and this partnership with the city.

We are very pleased to be moving forward our management agreement for this next six years, which includes leading towards opening of Waterfront Park in 2025 and beyond.

So today I'm going to share a little bit about our programmatic approach and impact, what is in line and in store for 2023 programming, and what lays ahead once the park opens.

And I'll be sharing more on our community engagement efforts.

So the current slide that's here is really just a reminder about our partnership and the work of Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

We are the nonprofit partner responsible for funding, stewarding, activating, and programming Waterfront Park in perpetuity.

And we accomplished this mission by collaborating and really at the center of partnership with individuals and communities, businesses, institutional partners, all working together towards a renewed place of connection on Seattle's central shoreline.

Next slide.

So one of our core promises is to activate and program this new space, as Marshall mentioned, and to make it meaningful and relevant to all the communities who live here.

The city opened Pier 62 in the fall of 2020, a really not the best time in terms of being in the midst of the pandemic.

But since then, we've been piloting free programs ever since, bringing arts, culture, education, and recreation to the waterfront and really to communities in a meaningful way.

Next slide.

We are placemaking.

We're building a new urban downtown space.

The old mantra of build it, they will come to me is not a relevant mantra because it's really about how do you create and center values that are really about creating belonging, equity, and inclusion in a new public space and ensuring that all communities feel that sense of welcome, joy, and safety.

And so we as an organization are very anchored to listening, to centering, and working in partnership with community to co-create joyful, relevant, dynamic, site-specific experiences and events at the waterfront that create this real sense of connection to place and to space on Coast Salish land.

Next slide, please.

So our staff seeks this out by fostering authentic relationships with community partners, and this is really our community-centered approach.

It's about really rooting and listening and respecting and being accountable to the histories and stories of this place.

We really prioritize BIPOC communities as our local partners in this work.

Next slide, please.

But collaboration takes time, and we really believe that it's really worth taking the time, being intentional, and putting in the resources with our community partners in this work.

And we believe that for our support as an organization, for partners, should be transparent and equitable.

And that includes in budgets, artist fees, and production parameters.

Actually, I don't know.

Next slide.

Let's see.

But by the numbers, this is actually a high level.

So since the opening of the pier, we've had over 735,000 visitors.

Since opening, over 355,000 in-person, I'm sorry, 355 programs in-person and over 125 attendees to date.

In January, as an example for Lunar New Year, we had over 2,500 people who came in the middle of a winter January day.

And on a rainy day in February, a fire pits and s'mores at over 900 people.

So again, that placemaking is working and people are feeling really connected.

And we know this will be a busy summer if the winter was any indication.

So what you'll see on this slide was just a reflection of our last summer programming.

We saw nearly 82,000 people for in-person programs that were taking place on Pier 62. and over 125,000 people who came to experience the pier.

There are 163 total events and activations.

On average, 1,500 average attendees, 177 artists and performers, 55 organizational program partners with friends, and 80% of our artists, performers, and program partners were Black, Indigenous, and people of color, which is a really important point for us to be able to continue to create that sense of belonging of this new space.

Given the number so far, we expect them to triple in 2023, which is quite an astounding thing.

Next slide.

So what you'll see here on this slide is just an example of our extraordinary summer programming that's been developed by our staff and by program partners.

We'll begin spotlight on the pier this Thursday, so please come down if you can.

Really beginning with music and dance.

One of our new programs over Memorial Day weekend will be a Massive Monkeys Day for breakdancing, and I believe this will be part of the breakdancing qualifiers for the Olympics, if I'm not mistaken, which is very exciting.

I didn't even realize that it was in the Olympics.

So new information to me.

In June, you'll see we have a Juneteenth program on the pier, an IndigiQueer event for Pride.

In July, we'll be kicking off our pier sounds or concerts.

In August, you'll see we have a special 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

The Waba Korean Festival is coming back.

Beats and Eats with KEXP and Roller Skating will also be part of the lineup.

And at September, we'll be having our block party and We Are Water events.

And we'll close the season with Salmon Homecoming in late September.

But this is just a slice of the programming.

So we encourage you to please come on to the Friends website.

Invite those in your circles, friends and family to please come down.

There's many, many things afoot.

Next slide.

And as we lead up to grand opening season in 2025 of Waterfront Park, the Waterfront Park will become the experience, kind of as the reminder.

We're doing pretty extraordinary things in this city by making investments, by creating that sense of belonging and joy and safety currently in Waterfront Park.

So beyond opening, we'll be looking at ways to really have an open call process for the community to be giving input into the decisions that we're making around our events.

We'll be seeing a lot more spotlight on the Waterfront series, really having a lot of different ways to engage different audiences of all backgrounds and ages to experience music and visual performances, and really pop-up platforms for local artists and cultural communities to introduce dance, art, and cultures to new groups coming through the Waterfront.

And that way, it'll encourage a lot of spontaneity.

You'll see more temporary art installations along the waterfront.

And of course, we'll be hosting annual and one-time regional and global moments, Pride Parade as an example, and then World Cup in 2026. We'll be having ongoing Indigenous programming, including IndigiQueer, the IndigiQueer Festival, and Salmon Homecoming, as I've mentioned before.

Next slide.

And the last piece I just want to mention is community engagement is really at the center of our work as well.

The goal is to spread awareness about and participation in our city's future of Waterfront Park.

And our team has been working very hard to make those connections between communities and this new urban civic space.

Our anecdotal work is really about how do we collect feedback from members of the community with our team.

There are a number of opportunities for interviews with program and vendor feedback via surveys and conversations again with our staff.

Our team also works to have focus groups via committees, tours, and group presentations.

And that's been a really, really, again, important part for kind of critical feedback loops.

One of the, well, two of the committees that we've been moving forward on is our Community Connections Committee, which is led by BIPOC leaders from across the region and really allowed for feedback about the park experience back to the organization and a real, important way to be able to provide connections and input and feedback to that group.

And we also have a pulling together committee, which is an all indigenous leaders committee who can provide feedback about what it means to have lived experience as an indigenous people on the sacred land of the Coast Salish people.

And the last area that has continually been a really important part of input for us in terms of how to increase and improve the experience for people coming to Waterfront Park and Pier 62, our team hosts a welcome table and engages with the community to collect data on visitors to inform programming and outreach efforts.

We do targeted outreach also at events and community events throughout the city.

So part of it is how do we go to community to be able to share more about the exciting things happening on the waterfront where people may not be as connected.

And then gathering those surveys have been a really important part of getting guest experiences around safety, comfort and programs.

And last year, 80% of guests really reported about their real high level of satisfaction.

on the waterfront, which is really important to us and really understanding the experiences.

So that's a snapshot of our work to date.

And again, we're really excited to be the continual partner in this effort and really bringing forward the equity and inclusion of this new extraordinary public space for our city.

And just very much appreciate the support.

All right, I think now I'm gonna turn it over to Tiffany, our operations manager to walk you through the management agreement.

All right, thanks, Marshall.

Thank you, Joy.

So I'm just going to really quickly walk you through some of our legislative history for operations and management that has gotten us to this point.

So many of you over the years have been involved, and we thank you for all your continued support as we continue to complete portions of the waterfront and move forward to the next really exciting phase of what Waterfront Park means for the city of Seattle.

So there has been over a decade of legislative history that has built us up to this place.

2017 was really the moment where we decided that Friends would be our long-term partner in this private-public partnership and would help us deliver on this kind of high-quality park experience.

Next slide.

We had our biggest legislative piece was in 2019 and we had a pretty big package that came together in combination with the lid formation.

That package actually did some really critical things that have set the stage for what operations looks like in the future.

It created the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

which was mayor and council appointed committee members that have been working on developing the performance standard that city council had really made as a foundational piece of their work.

It authorized the pilot agreement that you just heard Joy talk about for our operations on Pier 62, and it really set the stage and the framework for what we wanted a long-term agreement to look like, giving us the opportunity to use a pilot agreement to really see where we needed to make adjustments for the future.

This, this ordinance also really set us up for we were committing as a city to a high quality park user experience with maintenance programming and public safety.

We also agreed to make a park boulevard for the waterfront.

We came back in 2021 and we did do that.

We designated portions of the right-of-way as a park boulevard so that we could have one department that is actually operating the park.

And then in 2023, early 2023, in January, after very thoughtful considerations and discussions, we have We have delegated the authority from the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department to Seattle Center for operations and management of Waterfront Park.

Next slide.

So this just shows the outline of actual Waterfront Park and public spaces.

Everything in pink up here is going to be under the management of Seattle Center and Friends of Waterfront.

This continues to open in phases between now and the beginning of 2025. As we continue to open up portions of the waterfront from construction completion, we have phased in the operations model with friends in this next agreement we're bringing for consideration.

Can I step in for just a moment on this map and ask a question?

I appreciate that the park is highlighted with the pink overlay.

In between portions of the park, we have the new Alaskan Way that has been an article of public discourse as an example.

Ziza Lalich has recently opened and there's been sort of this realization of kind of the role Alaska Way is going to play in sort of bifurcating the one pink area from the other pink area, as is represented well, I think, on this graphic.

My question When we had Office of the Waterfront presenters here a few months ago in the Transportation Committee, we discussed where the jurisdictions begin and end for what is WSDOT, what is Seattle.

And my recollection is that that's at Yesler.

Everything north of Yesler turns into Seattle right away.

South of it is the state.

I wonder, and we don't need to get into it too much here, but the map just made me wanna impromptu wanna have a little bit of a discussion of this.

I know decisions were made through the legislative history.

We just went through about the configuration of this and we're not here to relitigate that right now.

the potential opportunities for activation and improvements to the Alaska way portion that's in the city's portion that can further emphasize traffic calming, pedestrianization and making it a a people-friendly public space, I think is something that is going to be a council area of interest going forward.

And I'd just be curious if at this point, since we are talking about activation and the way people use the space, any initial concepts or ideas about how we might better utilize that Seattle portion that cuts off in the middle of this map near Coleman Dock to better integrate it to the open spaces we are building.

If there's any thoughts from the panel.

Marshall.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember.

It's a great question, and it has been a topic recently, understandably, with the opening of the new surface street.

I think the first thing I'd say fundamentally is what you have for the majority of the project.

I believe that we have about 17 blocks total, and everything except for the southern portion is a four-lane street.

If you look at just about every urban street in Seattle, you know, especially some that are considered very, very appealing and pedestrian friendly like First Avenue.

That's not a excessive width.

The design of the project includes a continuous cycle track entire length.

It includes raised crosswalks, which you will not find consistently applied at a level anywhere else in the city of what we're doing on the waterfront, and a level of landscaping and enhancement to make that pedestrian environment safe and accessible.

I think there's just a certain level of what are the facts of the matter here that's important to put on the table, first and foremost.

We're proud of the way the overall the street was able to be designed to integrate that.

In terms of WSDOT and the history there, yes, everything essentially south of the major Coleman Dock egress is State Route 519, which gives WSDOT authority over the street geometry and the channelization.

And so, yes, there, it was very important to WSDOT that there be dedicated queuing lanes for traffic to stack along Alaskan Way northbound to serve the dock.

And then also, and so that is incorporated on the southern portion, which widened the street by two lanes.

And then also, this is important for the city, we chose in partnership with King County to provide dedicated full-time transit lanes in and out from Columbia South to SR 99 to make sure that we could continue to run what is, I believe, still the highest volume rapid ride bus rapid transit system in the city right now in terms of folks coming from West Seattle in and out of the city.

In terms of opportunities to, you know, improve in the future, I would say the number one thing is that as part of our environmental process on waterfront we agreed with the Pioneer Square community when light rail opens to West Seattle.

we will narrow the road by two lanes on the southern section.

So at that point, King County will no longer be operating the rapid ride and we will essentially reclaim those lanes and reduce the width of the street and turn that into landscaping, promenade, green space to serve the community.

So we're very committed to that.

That was actually an idea we brought forward with Pioneer Square to help improve their comfort with the design.

And we're excited when we get to a point that we can actually do that.

Yeah, mostly I just wanted to raise this today just as a reminder to the public that it's not like some of these design choices can't continue to be worked on, improved, modified into the future in ways that we're currently even envisioning, as you just put on the record.

So I think it's important to remind ourselves of that, that it's not written in concrete, isn't written in stone.

So anyway, sorry I interrupted your presentation.

Please go ahead.

Okay, next slide.

So our main foundations, which you heard Joy talk about a little bit here, and Marshall, what is our partnership with Friends of Waterfront Seattle for a joint delivery of operations and maintenance.

The goal is to have free public programming and events activations year round, which Friends is doing an amazing job with.

We have a dedicated city maintenance team.

which is coming to fruition now.

We are actually hiring up our team to start operations on July 1 that will be solely dedicated to the waterfront.

And then we have joint responsibilities to public safety and outreach services.

We have this really amazing four-tiered system that has both friends and the city with responsibilities for our public safety and outreach.

And then our oversight committee, which has been working really hard on that performance standard, and they will do ongoing evaluations of park performance with their annual reporting to mayor and council.

Next slide.

Okay, so the fun stuff is our next agreement.

Now that we're done with the pilot agreement, we're continuing to open up more of the park and looking into the future.

We are looking at this next agreement to be about five and a half years.

It's gonna expire year end 2028. And we are doing that to align with the Seattle Park District funding cycle, as well as our interdepartmental agreement between the Parks Department and Seattle Center on operations.

Originally, we had looked at a longer term agreement and really looked at how this made sense with our financial planning and this new delegation of operations to Seattle Center to make sure that this is the right model and is working well.

So it gives us an opportunity.

It also gives us two years of park operations once the park is complete to really make any changes and adjustments that we feel we might need to make for the next agreement.

We took our performance standard.

All of the metrics were outlined in that 2019 O&M ordinance that Council was very interested in seeing included in our park operations.

We did a study nationwide of Pierre National Parks and how they operated.

We broke our our oversight committee into subcommittees over the last two years and developed a standard that we then took and integrated into our commitments with our joint commitments between Friends and Seattle Center, which we put into the terms of the agreement.

With that commitment for public safety came the funding for the public safety team from Seattle Center and Friends funding commitment to that as well.

Essentially, we're giving Friends a park use permit for waterfront park and public spaces.

They will be solely responsible for all the partnerships and programming and activation in the park.

Any regulatory permitting that needs to happen will happen through Friends.

They need coordination and help with the city that will come through the Seattle Center team.

And throughout the years, the city has made several agreements, tribal commitments, and WSDOT commitments, some of our key partners, the market, aquarium, the Lions for Pioneer Square.

And within this agreement, we also have friends that are committing to the operations and management commitments we've made there.

One thing that's a little bit new in this agreement is lessons learned from the last couple years and talking with the Parks Department, Seattle Center, friends, we really looked at how we could do rentals and commercial rentals in the park.

We didn't really specify that very clearly in the license agreement and it was really isolated to one location.

So we broke The park into a couple rental zones, very, very focused on very limited rental abilities or packages that friends would be managing, as well as a fee schedule for any kind of commercial organizations that want to come in and do private rentals.

We do want to give Friends the ability to do that, which is a little different than the fee schedule structured in the Parks Department.

So when we think about how we had tied Friends to the Parks Department fee schedule, we were doing this with a little bit more intentionality to know that all the funds that Friends makes goes back to park operations.

partner and stakeholder coordination was really, really important to council.

And so we have embedded that through the entire agreement, both in all of those performance standard metrics.

And Friends has a very, very big commitment to all of our partners and stakeholders through different mechanisms that are outlined within the agreement of how they're going to continue to work with them to be good neighbors and good partners.

You heard joy talk a lot about public benefit.

They're doing an amazing job with how they are doing their outreach and engagement to bring in communities across the city into the park.

And we've seen that in a way that like I don't even think we could have imagined like Marshall and I went down to an event we're like you couldn't have even imagined it.

It was the most amazing thing to see just everybody.

There were thousands of people at our first opening event and it was better than we could have just even pictured it being and that's really a testament to the work that Friends is doing with their outreach and engagement.

And then I'm going to go reporting accountability first because then I'll come back to labor harmony as there were a few comments on that.

I want to make sure we fully touch base on that.

But the reporting and accountability is with the oversight committee, we will have our annual reports.

that they will be taking the performance standard data as well as just the there's actually a reporting commitment requirement for both the department and friends to give to the oversight committee to then report on mayor and council of how operations is going.

And so now I'll come back to Labor Harmony.

We have a commitment to Labor Harmony in this agreement.

We counseled very clearly in our 2019 ordinance outlined Labor Harmony being a part of the agreement, which we also had as part of our agreement with Friends in the license agreement.

Any city funds that Friends uses, labor harmony protocols are applied to that.

In this current agreement, we do not have any city funds that is being given to Friends to do any of the programming and activation.

We did have a switch from how our public safety model was going to be implemented where that was the bigger point, the bigger part where we had some money going between the two that we are making sure labor harmony agreements and protocols were in place.

Friends is now giving over $5 million in this agreement to the city to hire city represented staff for those positions.

And so there is no actual money for the city going to Friends.

in this agreement.

And I'm going to let Marshall and Eldon talk a little bit about conversations we have been having with MLK Labor in partnership of making sure that we've heard what their concerns are and want to make sure that we're being good partners in how we're developing this.

Yeah, so thank you, Tiffany.

I will say continuing discussions with MLK Labor have been developing as this management agreement has made the circles through a few conversations that began with MLK Labor.

We received a formal draft from MLK Labor on May 5th.

And we spent some time reviewing that we had a meeting earlier this week with Katie Garrow executive director of MLK labor and members of our membership team.

I believe and I can say from friends, we thought it was a very productive positive meeting.

I believe MLK labor felt that as well.

And we've agreed to meet again next week.

We both had assignments to consult with our legal counsel.

And I know the leadership at MLK Labor had to meet with their constituent unions to discuss what we had spoken to there.

So I think the conversations are going well.

I think it's a very positive relationship at this moment.

And I do believe we're going to reach an agreement prior to the next formal action by the council on this.

I'll just add one note to that.

Thank you, Eldon.

I really appreciate the partnership that Friends has brought to the table, MLK Labor, and other partners.

Just to Emphasize what Tiffany said the the ordinance and the agreement in there as that's been transmitted to Council reflects what the 2019 Direction was in terms of how to treat labor harmony as this conversation advances and there's some resolution I think we anticipate there could be an amendment to what's before you to reflect that and that's really we're looking friends in their leadership and partnership with MLK labor on that.

Great, well, I am happy to be a resource to the extent that I can be useful in that to find an agreeable accommodation.

Labor harmony is obviously a big priority for the city council.

I think I safely speak for my colleagues on that.

And this progress sounds encouraging and we will definitely stay in touch on this and appreciate your attention to it because it's, again, definitely a priority of the council to make sure we have labor harmony in these arrangements.

I think we can continue with the presentation.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I really quickly just wanted to highlight the public benefits as that is such an pivotal part of our partnership with Friends and really looking at that free programming and activation that they have been doing at Pier 62 and how that's going to be able to spread across the entire 20-acre park in the future and what that could look like.

Hats off to Friends because programming and activation, events, attendance, the diversity of it, the engagement has just been just more than we ever could have thought when we dreamed of this.

And they've really just kind of taken those very intentional steps and making sure that they are bringing community to all of these conversations and bringing that to the waterfront, which is just so important.

And so I really, really hats off to them because they're doing phenomenal job with that work.

And I'm excited to see what the summer brings because, I mean, you talk about 900, over 900 people for just a fire pit and s'mores with REI is like incredible.

I can't, I can't even imagine what summer is going to be.

And I do, you know, any money that is raised in this park through ticket through ticket events, rentals, concessions, all of that money goes straight back to the park.

So Friends does not retain any of that money for their own operations.

It all goes to actually fund all of the public benefits in the park.

And we talked about the engagement and outreach.

So let's go next slide.

So our next steps with this agreement is we will have legislation in front of you to be considered in June, on June 7th.

We have a July 1 transition from Seattle Parks and Recreation to Seattle Center formally for operations and management while we're hiring up that dedicated team right now to step in and take over on July 1. And they will take over that role, Seattle Center, as the key partner with Friends.

Great, thank you so much.

Are there any questions from committee members?

I kind of asked my questions as we went along.

Council Member Herbold.

Thanks so much.

A couple questions here.

The grant exceptions bill that the council adopted back in January included almost 12 positions for security officers.

Just wondering whether or not those positions have been hired.

And also, whether or not public safety and outreach performance metrics are included in the proposed accountability reporting.

I'm so excited to say we have hired 12 of our 15 positions at this point.

They started last week and are training up on all the things that they need to do to be ready to hit the ground on July 1st.

So just a couple more of those positions, but we've got everything in place and really excited to see that team training with our Seattle Center team right now.

And then, yes, the public safety component of the performance standard is very comprehensive.

And the oversight committee will be reviewing different data points from both friends in the city.

And it was built off of what city council asked they wanted to see in 2019. And so those are included in the performance standard as well as additional reporting commitments that we have put for annual reporting on top of that.

Great.

Thank you.

That's good to hear.

Really appreciate your previous comprehensive explanation for what the enforcement approach is using this four-tiered system that implements a graduated response to incidents.

tiers being social services, tier one, tier two, park ambassadors, tier three, basic rules enforcement, and tier four, criminal enforcement.

I'm just hoping that the reporting includes some detail on the numbers for each of those tiers and just would love to learn more about how we're measuring success here.

I appreciate it.

say on that council member because I can't resist if there's one thing that Tiffany loves is measuring how we're doing and you got to see a little bit of the data that we collect at Seattle Center.

We're very excited to also be putting in place I think a really strong and we hope very transparent performance system so we can measure, we can show how we are doing, we can show what type of incidents we're having to deal with and we've just been fortunate in this effort that Seattle Center has really leaned in to embrace this new role and to have Tiffany's leadership and how to actually put it all together and quantify it and measure it as we go.

Great.

Well, I don't see any additional questions.

So the timeline that's been queued up at the end of the presentation is to be looking at this again in June, it looks like.

So appreciate the check in and appreciate the update on the negotiations on the labor harmony agreement.

And I guess we'll see this panel back here in June to consider the legislation to move forward and add one more achievement to that list that we broke down on one of the earlier slides to move this project forward.

So thank you so much to the panel and look forward to seeing you again sometime soon.

Oh, sorry, Council Member Mosqueda.

Sorry about that.

I was slow on the draw for hands to ask some questions.

Thanks so much to the panel for all you do.

I really appreciate as well the visuals that were presented.

I think if folks haven't been down for an opportunity to gather on the waterfront, especially for concerts, it's a great reminder of what that visual is like and the opportunity to bring people together in these times as we are all seeking greater social interaction and community cohesion.

After many years of isolation and remote gatherings, I think it's a really good show of how we can invest in the health of our economy, small business supports and the health of our community by creating these gathering opportunities.

So just think that that visual is really exciting.

I'm also happy that we've talked a little bit about how we can continue to.

Integrate improvements as necessary based on user experience once the connected bike lane is finalized once the pedestrian walkway is fully constructed and experienced.

I think constantly working to make sure that pedestrian and cyclists have the right of way and are protected using the waterfront is going to be really important.

I know there's a lot of concerns right now with the existing construction.

Trust me, that is my commute route as well.

And I get it.

It is a little terrifying being on a bike and merging in and out of traffic because you definitely don't want to merge in and out of pedestrians.

And especially if you're using a jump bike, you are not allowed to.

Don't go on those sidewalks, because we want our residents and tourists to be safe as well.

But we want cyclists and pedestrians to be safe ultimately with the final construction.

So bollards, bollards, bollards, protected bike lanes and ways that we can continue to improve the experience out there as we finalize construction is something I'm interested in chatting more about.

And that, again, is good for the health of our community.

I did want to talk about 1 more thing related to health, right?

We invest in good living wage jobs as a way to make sure that population health and community health is improved.

That is why we fight for labor protections and good pay.

Can you talk a little bit more about the type of work, the jobs, the programming that we anticipate will take front on the waterfront?

And I'm asking about this because it's a way for us to show the city's economic stimulus into good jobs in partnership with Friends of the Waterfront, as well as our city family.

Can you remind us how much city funding we have put into the Waterfront projects, both from the lip and from the city directly, recognizing the Office of the Waterfront is administering these funds.

It's important for the broader community to know that the city of Seattle is also investing in the health and well-being of this project coming to fruition.

but in the jobs that are being created too.

Maybe I'll touch briefly on the construction part, and then, Friends, if you want to talk about the programming piece, $756 million is the total budget for the Waterfront Seattle program.

That includes city, state, local improvement district, philanthropic funds.

Friends is here today talking about operations, but they're also raising directly $110 million for the park construction, and $90 million on top of that to help endow those operations.

Everything within that has followed, you know, all of our city public works standards in terms of high labor, high road labor agreements, CWA, WIMBY participation, all those good things are just kind of how we do business on the waterfront.

So that's just kind of a very high level on the construction side.

And I'll turn it over to you guys at Friends.

Thanks, Marshall.

In terms of Friends and our workforce, we have approximately 35 FTEs that help us deliver all of the great programming, community engagement, and the private philanthropy work that we do to support on top of the city efforts.

And then in terms of how we approach ensuring our workforce can live in the city and can be a vital part of the community, we do benchmark all of our, we're very transparent to all of our Salaries are posted on our job postings and we benchmark ourselves to be well above the median for each job classification.

So we benchmark that against other Seattle area wages for similar positions and make sure we are paying well above the median to make sure we can attract quality candidates and that our workforce can live in the area where they work.

Excellent, thank you so much for that.

I appreciate it.

I mean, I think the combination that we are hearing here is more than a billion dollars.

In this mega project, we're investing 700 million from the lid, 300 million from the city directly to make sure that we are investing in the health and well-being of this project coming to fruition, but also in the work.

So whether it's a nonprofit or an extension of our city work, this is a collective effort to make sure that we have good living wage jobs as we also build out Good and safe opportunities for everybody to enjoy our water from no matter where you live in the city.

Because it's a asset for all and no matter if you live in the city or not, and I also just wanted to emphasize the chair's points as well.

I'm thankful that there's ongoing conversations around labor harmony.

We know that in the language regarding labor harmony.

As we seek to find agreement within the labor partners and community partners, this is also about how we ensure that there's good standards for how public dollars are used as we try to make sure people keep their jobs through any transition.

That allows for us to have good delivery of services to our community, again, residents and tourists alike.

Very thankful that the conversation is continuing.

And I look forward to working with all of you as we receive the next iteration of the agreement to ensure that that labor harmony concept is formalized.

Obviously, the intent of labor harmony and any labor-related agreements is to show others that we are and continue to strive to be those high road employers and set a standard for how we invest in our community, in our workforce, and ensure continuity as well.

Because ultimately, that improves delivery of services.

Appreciate the ongoing work around labor harmony, and we'll, of course, be interested in the outcome of those discussions.

Great, well, I don't see any additional questions, so why don't we go ahead and close out this agenda item?

I wanna thank our panel, really looking forward to June on these next steps, so thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, will the clerk please read item 13 into the record?

Item 13, presentation, Seattle Public Library's levy report.

Excellent.

And we are joined here again by our library folks.

Great.

So, Tom, why don't you, once you get settled there, introduce your panel?

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

With me today, I have, once again, Board President Carmen Bendixson.

and we have our levy administrator, Jan Osiewicz.

I am Tom Fay, I'm the chief librarian for the Seattle Public Library, and I'll ask my colleagues to introduce themselves as well for the record.

I'm Jan Osiewicz, the library levy administrator.

And I'm Carmen Vendickson, the president of the board of trustees for the Seattle Public Library.

And with the chair's permission, Carmen has a statement from the board, and then I'll move into the presentation.

Perfect, please.

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

Thank you, members of the committee.

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about the library's levy progress for 2022, and thanks for the ongoing support of the library levy and for recognizing that the library is a relevant and vital service.

As you know, the library offers lifelong educational and recreational resources.

Our community uses library buildings to gather, learn, listen, teach, and celebrate.

As 98% of our patrons told us in a recent survey, 98%, the library is essential to the health and vitality of our community.

And so it's well worth the money the community invests in it.

As you may remember, the 2019 library levy was passed by 76% of Seattle voters, resulting in more open hours, stronger collections, improved technology.

and maintenance of our 27 facilities.

The board trustees are grateful for strong support from the public and from elected officials.

As you know, the board is made up of five citizen trustees appointed by the mayor and confirmed by city council.

By law, we have fiduciary responsibility for the library.

So I want to stress our strong commitment to this careful stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

The board is committed to ensuring the responsible use of levy funds to support services the public uses and values.

While COVID-19 presented many challenges, the library has gone above and beyond to meet the promises of the levy, while also responding to changing community needs.

And the library has continued transparent accountable reporting of levy funded activities.

The board also receives regular updates on levy initiatives and in depth quarterly reports documenting spending and implementation of levy priorities.

Thanks to Jan and the rest of the staff.

The library also produces an annual levy report to the city council, the mayor, and the public, which is approved by the library board and why we're here today.

So members of the public can view these reports at spl.org on the website.

So I'll now turn it over to Tom and Jan to present the library's formal report.

Thanks for all you do in support of the library.

Great.

And I believe we have this queued up.

Jan's going to bring this up now.

So one moment, please.

Next slide, please.

There we go.

Well, thank you all again for this time today.

As you may know, and as Carmen indicated, we had a large support from the community in this effort in 2019. It's a $219 million levy, and it was approved with a 76 approval percentage.

This seven-year levy renewed our 2012 levy and also added a few additional promises and expanded services.

The levy revenues collected through property tax, as you all know, can only grow at 1% a year.

And the levy structured to have more money in the early years to cover the assumed 4% annual inflation issues.

And in this effort that was kind of unique was our future of the library planning that we also included in this levy.

As we looked at the key levy investment areas, those centered around access, so to library, any of our library services and programs when people need them.

That makes up about 40% of the levy.

Robust collections, as we've talked about before here, and our most recent Books Unbanned initiative.

Robust collections of materials, both physical and digital.

And then digital equity, which is really upgrading our technology and online services.

and expanded children's programming for ages zero to five.

And then, of course, we have 27 facilities, as Carmen mentioned, and some of the funds also go to the long-term and daily maintenance needs to preserve these facilities.

As we look at hours and access, really, we wanted to reduce barriers to library services and expand open hours.

As you all know, 2022 would not see COVID leave us.

We maintained our open hours at all 27 locations at nearly 2019 service levels and restarted in-person programming.

And then one of the fortunate pieces of all of this extra timing was we were able to do some surveying of our public of what they would want to see in those expanded hours.

We had done this pre-pandemic, but feeling that after coming out of the pandemic, it was critical to ask the public again, where they saw the need in their communities and their neighborhood libraries.

So in 2023, we have been able to expand those hours and I'll touch on that in a bit.

As we look at the hours, as I mentioned, we were able to keep about 97% of our 2019 baseline.

However, we had to reduce those hours a bit due to various surges in COVID.

We also had some staffing shortages as we were still trying to staff back up from previous budget reductions that we'd experienced during COVID.

But at the end of the day, we were able to meet our nearly meet our 2019 average hours.

And of course, as everyone knows here, we also had just to add to a fun year, we had extreme heat and we also of course had our annual snowstorm or seemingly annual snowstorms that plague us from time to time.

When we look at additional hours and access, we have been able to add 90 hours per week.

And we started that in March and April of this year, which is a 7% increase over 2019 levels.

Most branches now are open seven days a week.

And what we heard from our surveys was that everyone wanted more hours on the weekend.

And we were able to accommodate that both on Saturdays and Sundays, and we swapped Friday closures for a Monday closure in those cases of the branches that are still six days a week.

And that was all through public input.

We also had several things that we were able to start before the pandemic hit us.

The key component of the levy was the removal of late fees.

That did start in January 1, 2020. And just so everyone knows, when we look at our equity work, this was a huge lift.

We know in the levy, it took a lot of explanation.

for folks, but it actually restored 18,000 accounts for people that might've been kids or teens or even adults who had issues over time.

And it had brought them back into the library and back into our services and especially our reading and information services.

The good news is everyone was concerned about return rates getting worse.

Actually, the return rates are fine.

Nothing moved.

People are bringing the material back and everyone is able to now participate without that barrier of fines.

We were also able to bring in our social services team.

We restructured a bit.

Previously, we had used contracted services.

We brought that in-house, brought our social workers on board.

We also restructured the library's entire social service approach, which has the two social workers, but also has a social services librarian.

who then can actually work with all of our librarians in all the neighborhood branches and central to make sure that they have the best referrals necessary for folks in need.

We also were able to bring on two additional security officers, which we have also needed as we've experienced some of the other fallouts of the pandemic around safety and security in our locations.

And we're happy to have these two additional officers.

And, of course, we continue, as my staff knows, to turn over every rock looking for funding.

We have geared up for our efforts in state funding, federal funding as well.

And, of course, you know the work of our great foundation who contributes a great amount of funding every single year to the Seattle Public Library.

Books and materials, of course, are a big portion of the levy, and we added 110,000 copies to the digital collections in 2022, and this is a 12.5% increase over 2021. We had over 151,000 patrons download more than 4.7 million digital books.

That's e-books and e-audiobooks, which is an 8% increase over 2021. Now, the one thing I will point out that is challenging with this, e-books are great.

However, they do cost three to five times more.

That includes audible or excuse me, e-audio as well.

And when we look at this, this shift to e-books, because now between 50 and 60% of our circulation is e-books, continues to erode our buying power on our collections.

So those collection budgets have not moved that much over the years, although we've been able to augment with levy and the generosity of our donors.

But at the end of the day, the additional impact of more and more digital is eroding our buying power, which means that it also compromises potentially the depth and breadth of the collection.

And as we talk about depth and breadth of the collection, we added 203,000 physical items.

from all sources.

We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Peak Picks.

If you haven't had a chance to use that particular service, you can walk into any library, you'll see whatever the, some of the best sellers that are out there.

You can just go pick it up off the shelf.

Don't have to worry about a hold queue.

It's one of those fun discovery things when you walk into the library.

And we added 867 titles to our collection as a result of diversity audits.

And this is a really important point.

As many may have seen in the Times and a couple of articles on our books on Band, I have said that I want to have the most diverse, lift up as many voices and perspectives as we can.

We should not be limiting those.

And this is one of our efforts to have an ongoing audit of our collection to find out what are we missing, what voices, who's not at the table and represented in our collection.

And we're very proud of that work and it will continue.

And of course, technology and online services has been another big part of the levy.

We've upgraded a number of our public computers.

We've had 35,000 people use those in 2022, 300,000 times.

One of the, I think, most interesting and best features that we added is these stations that are called ScanEZ.

It really allows everyone to make free scans and copies.

They can send faxes.

But the really interesting piece, it allows them to translate any scanned text to 100 different languages.

And as we look at our language plan, the city has their language plan and we have our language plan based off of that as well as specific library needs.

This is 1 of the tools that we're able to provide patrons and citizens in Seattle that allows more access.

not only to our material potentially, but also material that they may be receiving from the city that might be in English that does not, and they do not understand fully.

This machine will allow them to translate that and provide them at least some context as to what they're receiving.

We've also loaned out one of the favorite programs, 1,270 hotspots in the community, including 465 of those which are for long-term access as we look at partners who need these hotspots for some of their clients.

Some cases we've worked with tiny home villages to also wire up the entire village.

to make sure everyone has access and we use the hotspots to do that.

So there's been a lot of different ways that we've been able to do that.

And then children's programming.

As you know, coming out of the pandemic, that was one of the toughest ones to move to as everyone still had concerns, especially through last year about youth who are unable to be vaccinated.

even as early as the first quarter of last year, and there was a long lead time on that.

But we're happy to say that we're now moving back into that, both adult and children's.

But then the play and learn sessions, which is the key portion here that was added to the levy, those have been able to come back as well.

We have not been able to expand as fully as we wanted to, and we're still working on that.

Many of our partners struggled mightily.

during the pandemic, and some of them did not make it as organizations, so that also is an impact in their communities and has also made it a little more challenging trying to get our plan learned working as well as we would like.

and the other big component in this is maintenance of all these buildings.

We have several seismic improvements that we're looking to make.

The Green Lake Branch was readied for its earthquake retrofit and climate upgrades and accessibility improvements.

It did begin construction this, excuse me, in Q1 of 2023. In 2022, we were also able to begin university's design phase.

So the university branch will likely be starting sometime next year and also will unfortunately be closed during the construction as it does require that almost everything inside the building be ripped out as we make sure that the building can withstand a significant earthquake.

We've made a lot of other ADA improvements.

The largest one is that the Douglas Truth Branch And that provided a ramp on both ends of the entrance to allow greater access to the building instead of having to park in one end of the building and move all the way around to the other end of the building to find a ramp.

Now folks can park, find a ramp near the parking or even out from the bus and get more readily in the library.

We were also able to reinstall the historic Soul Pole sculpture.

That sculpture has stood for 50 years.

We just celebrated its 50th anniversary in April and it was in desperate need of repair.

It was really a great project to work on with the entire community and really appreciated how everyone came out in celebration.

It was one of the best events I've been to since the pandemic, really to see the public engage fully and enjoy not only the sculpture, but also the space and the sense of community and coming together to discuss it.

All right, and then of course, we look at our spending actuals and this lays out where we're at.

As we look at our spending, hours and access were about 81, we were 81% spent in 2022. Books and materials, 96%, technology and online services, 91. Children's programming, only 52% for all the reasons that I mentioned.

And then maintenance, we were at 82% as well.

Levy administration, 58%, holding strong on our administrative overhead.

And then of course, our operating expenses was at 85%.

major maintenance and technology and capital improvement was only at 14%.

We did have to delay a few projects and move some money into 2023, just due to the cost of construction and also in some cases, the inability on the supply side to be able to get equipment, et cetera, that we might need.

And with that, I'll give you a little bit of a video that will also give you a preview of what we're going into.

And I'd like to point out that council members and their staff should have access to the full report for 2022. We also have that available at spl.org for those who might want to take a look at the fuller report.

And with that, I'd like to thank Jan for her work.

It is a huge effort to put these reports together and herding cats across the entire library system and all divisions.

to get these reports available on an annual basis.

And so with that, we are happy to take any questions you might have.

I really appreciate it, Tom.

This is a great presentation.

I love having the Seattle Public Library in my committee.

I love spending time talking about the programming and the initiatives that you are doing.

and this was a great opportunity and a great way to end the meeting.

Council Member Mosqueda has a question.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say how amazing your team is at social media.

I don't know, Mr. Chair, if you can take the screen back to slide five.

I think it is.

But for the panelists, your social media is so fun to watch and I just feel like it's so inclusive.

I think it promotes diversity and inclusion of all genders and identities.

So I just want to say thank you for that, especially as Various identities are under attack.

I think making sure that people know that they're welcome in these public facilities is really important.

And I love the language that you also use around promoting.

The books that other places are banning, I've seen that on your social media and love that you have listed that up here and just so proud of that.

I think it might have been slide 5 apologies.

Great, thank you.

I wanted to add a little bit of context for this slide, separate discussion about the revenue needs and the increase in cost.

This actually dovetails nicely with the discussion that we had in the Finance and Housing Committee meeting this morning, and an ongoing conversation that we're having at the Revenue Stabilization Task Force.

It's no secret, we've talked about it publicly as we've Been planning for the upcoming 2023 2024 biennial budget evaluation as we consider the supplemental and this fall as we look at our 2nd year of this biennial approach planning for 2024. our council has been well versed in the 6 year.

financial health of the city, thanks to central staff's work with our office and lifting up that fiscal plan, that six-year fiscal plan to make sure that we have a better understanding of what the needs are versus where the revenue is.

I wanted to just focus on this as a tangent to that conversation that we had this morning in the Finance and Housing Committee.

Because a lot of people are asking, why is there increase in cost?

I think that relative to where we were in 2020, And 2021 somewhat in 2022, we are seeing an increase in costs because we held programming back.

We were stagnant in our hiring.

We did not scale up to full scale because of the crisis of the pandemic.

We had positions that were vacant and we closed programs and services and a good reminder to our public of how.

Unfortunately, we all felt that is through the libraries, the libraries were closed in large part.

And you can, you can remind us what those dates were and the facts that you presented in your presentation are important.

We're still not.

At full scale for all of our programming that you want to be, but we are working hard to get there.

And as we do, so you're hiring more people.

The city's investing in more resources.

in more resources and people and programming.

And it's just a very good reminder of the hardship that we all experienced during COVID was compounded by not being able to do things that we all enjoy, like going to the library or community centers or other programming, especially for afterschool programming that the library helps provide.

So I just wanted to go back to the slide and put that into context for the conversation we were having At council this morning about why we see an increase in projected costs relative to the 1st, few years of the pandemic, we held stagnant in a way to try to scale back.

And so we can protect the health of workers in our community.

And now we're desperately trying to get back to.

to meet the community's need.

And we're going to continue to work with you to make that happen.

But this is a good example of where you can remember what it was like to have these facilities close.

And so many folks are so thrilled when their libraries are now open at the hours that they used to be.

But this does require resources, right?

It requires investments.

And this is one good example of why we want to be able to meet that increased need in the future.

and to not hold our city at the investment levels that it was at in 2020, 2021, and even 2022. So thanks for sharing the slide and really, really look forward to being a partner with you as we scale back.

Thank you, Councilmember.

As I always say, you know, libraries are books, buildings, and bodies, and that's our staff.

Those are the folks who are doing the one-on-one interactions and really focusing on the human component of our work, which is the vast majority of it.

Yes, we're known for those books and all of those tangibles.

But so much more of our work, as you know, is that person to person interaction.

And it that's always my my worry when we do have to reduce.

that some way we might have to reduce something that actually impacts that.

People rely on us.

I think the pandemic showed that in every aspect.

That's why we were trying to be some of the first ones back with curbside services and things like that just to get material available, especially for those who had no access or internet access.

And as we've come out of the pandemic, we also recognize that the city has changed in some ways.

Some for the better and in some cases a little more challenging.

And so that's also required us to staff differently for both patron and staff safety and security as we invite everyone in.

With that, we invite everything that's happening in the city in as well.

And we know that challenge and our staff is incredibly good at navigating that on a daily basis.

But thank you for the kind remarks and I'll make sure our social media team knows.

a young team, but they do some great work.

Tom, thank you so much.

Far be it from me to shush a conversation about libraries, but we are at the end of the time I was anticipating to have here, and I know some council members have other obligations they need to get to this evening.

So I really appreciate this.

This was a great presentation, and I look forward to continuing to be in touch on the programs and mission of the Seattle Public Library.

So thank you so much.

Thank you all.

Sorry to do it one more time, Mr. Chair.

Just a request before you close out.

Yes, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Thank you.

For our library team, just to follow up as we wrap up, given the time, could you let us know how it's going with hiring and retaining the, I think they were called like community engagement personnel, right?

The people who were there to provide social services, especially for youth that we invested two years ago.

I would love to know more about how it's going with getting the cooling centers implemented that we had authorized and the trajectory to making sure that we follow through on that, given the heat that we're experiencing right now.

And as you noted, if there's anything else that you think that we could be doing in partnership with King County and the Board of Health specific to behavioral health and substance abuse addiction issues, I would love just to have a follow up on that at some point.

And we appreciate you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much.

Well, given that it is 4.20 and no further business to come before the council, we are adjourned.

Thank you.