Council Briefing 4152024

We're going to get started here.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is April 15th, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is two o'clock.

I'm Sarah Nelson.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saca.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Nine present.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, the minutes of April 8th, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are adopted.

All right, we don't have any presentations today, but we do have an executive session at the close of the briefing, and we have one proclamation.

For tomorrow, at tomorrow's council meeting, we'll have six items on the introduction and referral calendar, including the bill payment ordinance, a bill relating to recruitment and retention of Seattle Police Department officers, a resolution adopting the Seattle Parks and Recreation's 2024 development plan, a resolution approving Seattle City Lights adoption of a biennial energy conservation target for 2024-2025, and two bills allowing UW, University of Washington, to maintain sky bridges over 12th Avenue Northeast and an adjacent alley.

The consent agenda will include the weekly bill payment ordinance and five appointments to the Burt Gilman Place Public Development Authority Governing Council, one to the LGBTQ Commission, four to the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council, and nine to the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

And then the stand-alone bills on the agenda are Council Bill 120752, a grant acceptance ordinance, Council Bills 120753 and 754, accepting the surveillance impact reports for the Seattle Police Department's use of Callio and the hostage negotiation throw phone, and Resolution 32133, approving the proposed budget framework for the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission.

So that's what we've got on deck.

Now we'll turn to Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss has a proclamation recognizing April 20th, 2024 to be Lois Morgenson Day.

Council Member Strauss, please lead the discussion and I'll ask and we'll get additional feedback before I request signatures.

GO AHEAD, PLEASE.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

AND JUST TO MAKE THIS EXTRA FUN, I WILL BE CIRCULATING THE SAME PROCLAMATION WITH LOIS MORGANSON EVE BECAUSE THIS YEAR WE MADE A MISTAKE AND PLANNED LOIS'S BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR THE DAY BEFORE HER BIRTHDAY.

Lois is a 100-year-old Ballardite who is more fit than most of us.

I'll just say a couple things from this proclamation.

This is something that we do every year.

The second part of this is I'm going to ask for actual signatures from you because we'd like to have this framed for Lois.

Lois...

was a Rosie the Riveter in World War II.

She worked for Seattle Public Schools in the administration office, and she served as the lodge secretary for Ballard Elks Lodge 827 for 25 years.

This year was supposed to be her final year, and we've made her secretary for life.

My favorite line from here is, Lois is loved by all because she is kind and takes no crap.

she can never be tricked is strict when needed and is more knowledgeable than all of us combined so colleagues i hope that you join me in celebrating lois turning 100 years old thank you thank you very much i will open it up to any colleagues feedback all right thank you very much seeing none thank you for bringing this forward okay moving along the um We still need to do a roll call.

We haven't called the roll.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

I'm sorry.

Let's call the roll.

All right.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

All right, and happy birthday.

Okay, moving along, and I apologize for that.

We will now go into the portion of our agenda where we report on committees and things that are happening this week and last week.

And this week's roll call begins with, I believe, it is Council Member Wu.

That's what it says right here.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Starting at the end.

Okay, well, so last week I had a tour of True Hope Tiny Village, which is located in Yesler.

So True Hope is unique in that they shelter families and children and have 24-7 staffing and case management.

Behavioral therapists are also available on site.

I also learned more about our city budget process last week and about our city archives.

And so researching archives is a publicly accessible process.

Anyone can submit a request to search archives, and our team does a great job to preserve historical content.

So I want to thank our Seattle Municipal Archives team, particularly Jeannie and Anne, for their assistance with our recent research.

We spent an afternoon there, and they had pulled 11 boxes of legislation that we were looking at from many years ago, and it was just a great experience.

Last week, I also went on an SBD ride-along in the North Precinct.

Previously, I went to a ride-along in the West Precinct.

This is my second ride-along and learned a lot, vastly different issues compared to West Precinct, but saw that the common denominators are the same.

Our police need more resources, staff, and our in-house neighbors need a variety of supports beyond law enforcement.

I also want to thank Council Member Saka for inviting me to join the 34th LD meeting last week.

It was wonderful meeting the community and getting to know everyone's concerns.

And also during our annual Kitty Hall event, my very own chief of staff adopted a kitty.

Kitty Hall is hosted by the Seattle Animal Shelter.

Their team, staff, and volunteers help thousands of animals find their forever home and bring our communities together.

So thank you to the Seattle Animal Shelter for this work.

I also want to draw attention to the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

They announced the grantees of the two funds they manage.

They awarded 17 community-led projects from the Environmental Justice Fund and over 270...

in the Duwamish River Opportunity Fund, which is awarded to eight projects specific to the health and quality of life of Duwamish Valley residents.

And so we learned about this grant in our April 5th committee.

So I'd like to congratulate the grantees and the OSC staff and Director Justin Farrell for all their work.

I encourage my colleagues to celebrate the grant recipients and investments throughout Seattle.

And you can learn more about it on the Office of Sustainability and Environment's website.

They're all listed there.

amazing to see all the work that's being done.

So many of the grant recipients also serve on various city boards and commissions, including the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

We will go to full vote on the nine referred board appointees tomorrow.

So this week in committee, we will celebrate Earth Day.

We're going to have our Office of Sustainability and Environment talk about the state of our trees, and also to talk about the Building Emissions Performance Standards, BEPS for short, which is an important climate action for Seattle that aims to reduce building emissions.

And so that's this Friday at 9.30 a.m., and I hope you'll join me.

And I will pass this to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Councilmember Wu.

Last week in our Parks Utilities Technology Committee, we got an update about the Ship Canal Quality Water Project timeline, some cost overages, and, you know, finding out the end detail.

I know we're kind of towards the final stretch in that.

We also received the surveillance impact reports, and coming to full council will be the call yo and hostage throw phone information as well.

And then on April 24th will be our next meeting at 2 p.m.

We're figuring out our agenda right now.

So that's being formalized.

This week we have a regional transportation committee.

I will be joining that with council member Saka.

And then we also have our board of health, which be joining council president Nelson and council member Kettle.

Last week, so that's regional, those are both committees, so last week I had the honor and privilege of joining the mayor and Bird Bar's executive director, Dr. Griffin, to announce the One Seattle Cleanup Day, which is May 18th.

We did that at Bird Bar.

It was really nice to be at Bird Bar.

As they have, we were in their food bank, and we reminded about food insecurity in our city.

Food costs have gone up 25% in inflation.

And understanding they service about 800 people a week within...

the central area of Seattle and South as well.

So they do a phenomenal job.

But May 18th is the, people can go up online and sign up for a project throughout the city to be able to participate and give service.

I also attended, we had 30 student athletes, Seattle Police Department and the foundation and Seattle Parks and Rec.

We had 30 student athletes participate in a basketball combine with 18, 19-year-olds, so some college freshmen, and then also some high school seniors as well who wanted to be seen by some college coaches from the area.

So that was fun.

That was at Bitter Lake up north.

Also attended the opening of Be'er Sheva Park in Rainier Beach.

Shout out to Councilmember Morales, our parks department.

I know Councilmember Wu was there as well, but I know that Councilmember Morales worked hard on finding funding for this park.

And I know for the community, particularly in Rainier Beach, where my parents live, there is a...

Rainier Beach High School is brand new, is being built.

And for kids to be able to see the investment in their community at Rainier Beach, and then also to have a beautiful park.

We used to always have a joke, where is the beach at Rainier Beach?

And now you can be able to see the beach at Rainier Beach.

They cleared all the blackberry bushes, and it's a beautiful, beautiful view at Beersheba Park.

So...

Thank you for all the people that worked on that project.

I know it means a lot to the community as well.

And also attended a 100-day event, 100-day event, 100 days on the job event with the realtors in Seattle.

I attended that with Councilmember Kettle.

Our realtors really work hard in Seattle to make sure that They are providing proper information to people who want to come and live here.

And they have a really good, keen information about what's going on in our neighborhoods and the families that are moving here.

And just really enjoyed that event with Councilmember Kettle.

And with that, I will pass the mic.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

I really appreciate it.

Yes, busy weeks.

Last week with our Public Safety Committee, very good meeting featuring Office of Emergency Management and plus OIG, the Office of Inspector General.

For OEM, great organization that is pulling in more than it costs.

With its grant feature with FEMA, it pulls in for our city way more than its budget.

In fact, three of their billets are covered as well, and so they're FTEs.

And so it's an organization that we also need to support and build on, and it's important for emergency preparedness, which is one of the three main missionaries for the committee.

On the OIG, we looked at the use of force report they recently released, It's very important in terms of the use of force over the years and what the trends are, and good news in the sense of the level three, not seeing anything particularly of those people who are in crisis.

It's a very important meeting, and thank you to both OEM and OIG for participating.

Met with the Council General of India.

Really important to engage with our diplomatic community.

I say that as a former naval diplomat, but to do so is really important.

We have to encourage and participate and as we can from the legislative perspective with our diplomatic community here in Seattle.

In terms of outreach, We had an event in South Lake Union at the sanctuary at Denny Park.

Really appreciate the hosting of that.

Thank you very much.

With the Seattle Metro Chamber and the South Lake Union Chamber.

Separately had a meeting with Parks on D7, particularly with Queen Anne, Interbay, and Magnolia.

Focus on youth sports primarily.

And as mentioned by Councilmember Hollingsworth, the Realtor Group as well.

In terms of regional, as I move through the week, I participated in the Puget Sound Regional Council's Transportation Committee.

Very important.

And one thing that I highlighted at the end of that, and I'll say it again here, is the importance of being prepared for FIFA 26, the World Cup in 26. It's going to be such a big event for much longer than people realize.

and it's going to take more than just the City of Seattle.

So the PRC, the Puget Sound Regional Council and its Transportation Committee will have a role in this.

Finally, I mentioned I visited Salmon Bay Village.

That was very enlightening, and this is a group where RVs come in and tiny homes, and it's been very successful up to date.

It's still new, but encouraging thus far, and looking to take in the lessons learned from the Salmon Bay Village group that's run by Lehigh, by the way.

Credit to them.

And last week also, Councilmember Wu, my office is also participating in Kitty Hall.

And since I am Bob Kettle, I'll channel Bob Barker for a second and say definitely promote pet adoption and spray and neuter your pets, even if I'm allergic to cat dander.

So...

But moving to this week, this morning had the great opportunity with Councilmember Morales to visit with South Precinct, so important to do so.

And later today, I'll have the Queen Anne Scouts.

Also, you know, meeting and working with the Queen Anne Community Council and the Magnolia Community Council.

But on the regional side, Regional Transit Committee on Wednesday, and then, as mentioned, the Board of Health, King County Board of Health on Thursday.

And one last piece for this coming week, I just wanted to highlight.

I'm going to be at the Sacred Heart Food Bank on Friday morning.

It's a small operation, but a very important one.

I just want to bring some attention to Sacred Heart and the work that they do for our community in D7.

Thank you.

And over to Council Member Moore.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Kettle.

So let's see, last week I had the pleasure of attending the Eid al-Fitr prayer service to mark the end of Ramadan.

And it was really quite a privilege to be able to be there and to see the diversity and wealth of the community that we have here.

And also to note that District 5 does host the Idris Mosque, which is the oldest mosque west of the Mississippi and also is a very integral part of the District 5 and the broader Seattle community.

I also had the privilege of attending the opening of the Sacred Medicine House, which is located on Lake City Way through Chief Sealth.

It has opened 120 units of permanent supportive housing for our indigenous neighbors and community.

Mayor Harrell was there.

And again, it was important for us to recognize the amount of commitment the City of Seattle has made to both those projects and to continuing to house all of our unhoused neighbors.

Speaking of that, myself and one of my legislative assistants were able to attend the Hope Factory, which is where the tiny house villages are actually built, and had a tour, and it was very inspiring to see.

There were many community volunteers there.

Actually, we got to see the raising of a roof, which was very exciting.

We got to, in each of the houses, Before they put the insulation in, people are allowed to write a note, and so we were able to write notes, so just to create a good sense of welcome and vibe, I guess, for lack of a better word.

Anyway, also really brought home the fact that this is a very successful program, that they are able to build as many houses as we need, that this is something that the City of Seattle really needs to be very, very focused on, and they are willing and eager to continue to partner with us to make this a reality and to move people off of streets into the first level of of stability, which is an important piece to being able to then move into permanent supportive housing or whatever the next transition may be.

So just to reiterate, that is something that's very important to me as chair, the Housing and Human Services Committee, to which I will then move on that we did meet last Wednesday and we recommended six appointments that are now on the city council agenda.

The next meeting will be on April 24th and on that agenda we will have the MFTE extension legislation from the Office of Housing.

This will be listed on agenda for briefing discussion and possible vote.

I recognize that this is dense legislation and it could require two committee meetings to review before we vote.

However, the Office of Housing is eager to get this legislation, to move it forward and have it passed so that the current properties that are participating in the MFT program for 2024 are able to have that extension approved and have that knowledge going forward and have that stability.

So, in order to accommodate that, they are offering to meet with each council member to answer any particular questions.

I'm hoping that that one-on-one will be enough that people will feel comfortable voting at committee next week.

However, if you still are not comfortable at that point, we can extend it for one additional week.

But we can address that issue at the time.

Anyway, thank you very much.

I appreciate the opportunity to update you.

And I will pass it on to Councilmember Morales.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Let's see, the Land Use Committee will meet this Wednesday at two o'clock.

We've got three agenda items.

First up will be, well, technically maybe 28 agenda items.

The first 26 are design review board commission appointments for a mayor and council.

We will have a very short presentation from the design review from OPCD and STCI, just so you understand what this board does.

And then we'll have the appointments themselves.

We will have the Georgetown rezone briefing.

This is legislation on boutique contract rezone in one part of Georgetown to allow for more housing.

So we will have a briefing on the legislation and then we will have a public hearing.

We will not be voting on the legislation until the subsequent land use committee meeting in May.

So just for everyone's awareness, we'll have a chance to think about it, talk about it, hear about it, and then we'll vote at the next committee meeting.

And then the third piece, the third agenda item for committee is the connected communities legislation that we've been talking about since February in my committee.

I heard from community members and from my committee colleagues some concerns.

So we did make some significant changes to the legislation based on that feedback.

And I will be bringing a substitute bill that is listed as Amendment 1. And then Vice Chair Strauss has some additional amendments that he will be offering.

So we will be voting on this bill this week with the hope that it gets to full council for next week.

Okay, moving on, we had several meetings.

Last week, my staff met with several departments, including SDCI, SPD, SDOT, OLS, and OPCD, mostly to discuss additional comp plan issues engagement, and particularly in District 2. Just as a reminder, one more time, well, I'll be saying this at least until May 6th, for the viewing public, if you're interested in commenting on the comprehensive plan, then the best thing for you to do is please come to committee and comment, but in order for your comment to be included in the review for the purposes of potentially changing the draft EIS, you have to submit your comments either at OneSeattleCompPlan at seattle.gov, sending it directly to that email address, or you could go to the OneSeattle engagement website and make your comments directly into the document that's online.

So if you want your comments included as part of the review for potential changes to the draft EIS, Don't send them to council members.

Send your comments directly to OPCD.

And once again, you have until May 6th to submit those comments.

Okay, finally, in terms of district updates, as Councilmember Hollingsworth mentioned, this weekend was the grand reopening of Be'er Sheva Park.

Shout out to the Parks Foundation, to Rainier Beach Link to Lake Organizing Group, and to the community itself for organizing.

In 2020, my office secured $250,000 to sort of jumpstart this project, which had been in the planning phase for a long time, but hadn't been resourced.

So that initial funding helped to leverage $2.5 million from the Parks Foundation and many other organizations.

So I've been really excited to be part of this work, honored to serve as judge for the annual Rainier Beach Barbecue that is held there.

Let me tell you, folks in Rainier Beach know how to make some barbecue.

And the great thing about this project is that it's not just picnic tables and covered shelter, although folks are very excited about that, It's also been part of the Mapes Creek restoration.

There is public art there, including a large mural and a 21-foot sculpture, as well as more open access to the beach itself, which has been restored over the last few years.

So I'm really happy to see that open.

I want to give a special thanks to Sally, George, Rocky, Shannon, Jenny, all the folks who have been leading the charge at Link to Lake for their strong leadership.

I also want to congratulate the Station Coffee Shop.

Luis and Leona Rodriguez opened their second location at 3000 South Alaska.

They've completed all their permits and they've received their certificate of occupancy.

If you haven't been up to Beacon Hill to check out the Station Coffee Shop, it's right by the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station.

You should absolutely stop in and get a Mexican mocha.

And just really excited that their new second shop is going to now be at the Columbia City Light Rail Station, which is exciting for folks to take that train.

This morning, I joined Councilmember Kettle at our South Precinct roll call.

We had some really important discussions about accountability, about officer wellness.

So I wanna thank Councilmember for inviting me and really appreciate the opportunity to do that.

Tomorrow I'll be at the Duwamish Longhouse and then we'll be meeting with the Seattle Housing Authority.

Wednesday, I'll be at HTC's annual celebration and then my office will be at the Yesler Terrace Community Council meeting.

And finally, on Friday, I'll be hosting my in-district office hours at Yesler Terrace and attending the grand unveiling of the Muslim Housing Service's new offices down on Rainier and helping celebrate their 25th year of operation serving homeless and low-income families in Seattle.

That's all I have.

If there are no questions, I'll pass it to Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Well, colleagues, as you know, last week, there were some media articles about staffing and closures at the Seattle Public Library System.

As many of you know, in 2019, voters passed a library levy, which funds 30% of SPL's budget.

About 60% of SPL's budget actually comes from the city's general fund.

And the remaining about 10% comes from a combination of foundation gifts and real estate excise taxes.

Since 23, this levy has helped the library hire 160 new staff, enabling it to increase its open hours as per the levy language.

In general, as part of its ongoing operating budget, SPL has a goal of no more than 4% vacancy rate per year.

And as you also may know, colleagues, departments typically carry vacancy rates due to folks retiring and other staff separations.

For SPL, the last time, however, they met their goal was 2018. And since then, they have had vacancy rates of between 7% and 12%, depending on the year.

The current 9% vacancy rate then experienced as of the first quarter of 2024 is not out of line with the vacancy rates they've seen over the last five years.

In addition, and very importantly, the library has been given an exemption from the hiring freeze in order to hire temporary staff to address their staffing needs.

I'm meeting with Chief Librarian Tom Fay tomorrow to learn more.

But as some of you may recall from their overview at the library's Education and Neighborhood Committee, which I chair, the library did inform us they're facing additional staffing challenges at some of its branches due to the ongoing public safety issues.

And as they recently stated related to their recent adjustments to the library hours, it has increased its minimum, the library has increased its minimum staffing levels at many locations to ensure the right number and mix of staff are present to safely operate facilities and provide full services.

I want to make it clear, colleagues, that the Seattle Public Library is a critical and beloved service to our city and to each of your districts.

It's important that we all work together to address SPL's needs and the city's general budget deficit.

And I welcome any questions about this, and I'll also send some of this similar information to you all, because I know you all have been getting questions from your constituencies, have I?

And so I want to make sure that people are armed with the correct information, because I know there were various articles last week, and not all the articles had the appropriate information, and so we reached out to libraries to get the appropriate and accurate information to report back to you all.

Separately, last week I held a meeting with the directors from some of Seattle's business improvement areas.

I heard about their current challenges, which we've heard about a lot in these last few months that we've been here.

These include break-ins and robberies.

as well as the impacts of having fewer folks in the downtown area, including employees from the public and private sector, and the importance of really having that foot traffic in order to deal with Council Member Kettle, the public safety issues that we're seeing downtown.

Also this week, I'll be attending the Seattle Fire Department's awards ceremony right here in Pioneer Square.

And on Thursday, I'll be holding district office hours at Magnuson Park.

Council Member Morales, I'll be joining you at the Housing Consortium's luncheon as well.

And if there are no questions, I will pass it over to my colleague, Council Member Saka.

All right.

Well, thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Colleagues, tomorrow at our Transportation Committee meeting, we will consider amendments to the Seattle Transportation Plan and resolution.

My hope is that we will pass an amended piece of legislation for consideration at full council.

So we're on track there.

Colleagues, I want to thank each and every one of you all for the strong collaboration.

Obviously, during the substantive committee meetings that we've had, but also kind of behind the scenes as well.

And appreciate your feedback and input to make this thing that we've...

Vote on tomorrow better.

It's been terrific and very, very collaborative.

We will also tomorrow, at our committee meeting tomorrow, we'll also hear a presentation on SDOT's State of the Bridges, or excuse me, State of the Roads, and their overall asset management approach, not just for roads, but kind of all up.

Lots of assets within SDOT, as we know.

We'll also hear a great presentation on Vision Zero, I would like to note that my office is currently analyzing the mayor's draft levy proposal that is currently out for public comment.

I am looking forward to seeing the mayor's final proposal likely in early May sometime.

But members of the public, please do continue to submit your feedback.

There's a number of channels that you can do that on the engagement hub.

at moveseattle.infocommunity.org.

There's a number of ways you can provide feedback.

You'll need to do that by April 26th.

And then you can also submit feedback as part of the mayor's proposal, draft proposal that has been released via email at moveseattleatseattle.gov.

So coming up, approaching the deadline for submitting feedback on shaping the initial contours of the mayor's proposal.

So please do continue to weigh in.

Make sure your voice is heard.

And so last week also had the Levy to Move Seattle Oversight Committee meeting.

Last week on the 9th, we met, we heard a presentation from SDOT on the current draft levy that was proposed by the mayor's office.

A lot of great engagement and substantive questions from the committee there.

It's great to listen in.

And last week, I did not, kind of in breaking with our custom and with my office and tradition, is we introduced a very lightweight, I guess, newsletter.

And it was intentionally so because later this week, we're going to launch our 100-day report.

And also, so I wanted to take this opportunity to kind of verbally report out a few things that might have been included in that if we had done something a little more robust.

One is just a little nitty gritty announcement, but matters a lot to the people of West Seattle and District 1 and people who travel in and out of the districts, primarily on freight.

But the lower bridge will be closed for repair and maintenance work April 20th through 29th.

The formal name of that is Spokane Street.

Swing bridge.

We just call it the lower bridge.

And so please note that.

Also want to comment on something I heard from one of our colleagues, Council Member Moore.

And I read this originally in your terrific newsletter last week about the Eid al-Fitri ceremony that you attended last week, or the prayer service, rather, in your district at the mosque marking the end of Ramadan.

As someone, I appreciate that work.

And I also want to say a special shout out to our Muslim American community in Seattle.

I am a Christian.

I was raised Christian.

But my late grandfather held the honorific title of Alaji.

He was Muslim.

And Alaji is the name given upon men, bestowed upon men.

It's an honorific title upon men who have made the holy pilgrimage to travel to Mecca.

And so, although I am a proud Christian, I also honor and recognize and appreciate this very holy time for our local Muslim community here in Seattle.

So thank you, Council Member Moore, for your leadership on that.

And then finally, look, I know Kitty Hall was here, and like you, Council Member Kettle, I have somewhat of a...

a dander sensitivity or allergens, a pet dander.

And cats in particular seem to, I'm more sensitive to cats for some reason.

So I'm looking forward to maybe us having a dog, a puppy hall event at some point as well.

I love cats, but I really love dogs.

So in any event, that is all from my perspective.

Colleagues, I welcome any questions or comments from any of you all.

If not, I will pass the- I do have to note appreciation for the Kitty Hall.

I was sorry to miss it, but bring on the furry small baby mammals of whatever sort.

Anyway, yeah.

Council Member Strauss?

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

As a proud owner of a dog adopted from the Seattle Animal Shelter, I can tell you it's a great experience.

And there's a lot of needs that the animal shelter has because they're in the same building that they've been in since I believe 1970, 75. But I won't go into that part of my budget conversation.

I'll turn back to committee.

But welcome, colleagues.

Great to see you again.

Thank you, Council President Nelson, for sending out the Select Budget Committee memo to all council members.

I believe it was last week or the week before.

Again, functionally, FNC and Select Committee operate the same way except for voting.

And that's because everyone's always invited to attend.

So everyone's always invited to attend.

When we have a select committee, you're required to attend.

In select committees, that's where we'll also have voting occur on the major pieces of budget-affiliated legislation that come through during the year, such as the exceptions, carry forward, or supplemental budget.

And sorry, colleagues, we found an error in the proclamation, and so we're getting a new final page drafted up and we'll send it down the dais just as soon as we can.

If we receive that updated proclamation language after committee, I'll block the floor and make sure Megan gets a copy.

Sign in the right place.

Sign in the right place.

Use your own name.

Yes, exactly.

And the error was on it from my fault.

So my apologies.

Thank you, Council Member Morales for catching it.

Back to committee here.

So Here we are.

We're at a turning point this week.

So the first quarter of this year, I asked for your grace of time because I know that everyone on this dais has had a lot of burning questions since January 2nd and before.

And so the first quarter of this year, we've taken the time to do proper analysis and preparation for a full year of budget work.

Typically, budget work really only happens from fall, from September to Thanksgiving.

This year with the work that we've already been doing, and really starting right now in a public fashion, this is a complete change from how we've done it in the past.

And so I appreciate the grace and I know central staff who we rely on for our fiscal analysis because central staff are the only staff in the city that report to the city council directly.

We rely on central staff for their analysis of this information.

So here we are, end of quarter one, end of planning and analysis.

We're entering quarter two and three for the review and the examination of our city's budget in a way that has not been done at least for a decade, if ever.

Then in quarter four, we will have our regularly scheduled budget season where no one is allowed to have committee meetings.

We don't take up any legislation other than budget related materials.

And so our first select budget committee will be this Wednesday, April 17th.

The Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts and the Central Budget Office will be presenting an April forecast recap.

This is a truncated version of the forecast presented last week in the forecast council on Monday, April 8th.

After that, we will have Ali Panucci and Tom Mikesell of our council central staff beginning the first of a series of presentations on the state of our budget, the process, planning, and decision points.

We'll have key takeaways, what is within our purview, and what is not within our purview.

For instance, there are some things that only the executive can do, and there are some things that only council can do.

If you have not yet met with Allie and Central staff for a pre-briefing, please do so with expediency.

I will be asking, on the record, to show a raise of hands of who has received the briefing.

I do this to make light of a serious thing, which is that, again, if every one of us spoke for 10 minutes during committee, that's 190 minutes of 120-minute conversation.

committee.

If we have public comment, that easily hits us already at 120 minutes of a 120-minute committee meeting.

And so that's why I ask, I'll do better about speaking less, but I also, if...

Thank you, Bump.

And at the same time, this is an excellent opportunity for you to put items that are important to you on the record.

But if there's conversation that you need to have, please do so in the briefing ahead of time.

This week, we will be focusing on the history and current status of the projected budget deficit.

the budget review and examination from 2019 to today and begin talking about departmental analysis.

We'll have time to talk about key takeaways of the budget and our process, as well as upcoming budget decisions so that you know what you need to know before you need to know it.

Again, this level of fiscal analysis of the city budget has not happened in at least a decade, if ever.

This detailed review is essential for each of us to be successful as we look over, review, and make our budget decisions this fall.

Each member of our central staff is essential and crucial to our joint success during this.

Our next committee meeting is May 1st.

This is an FNC committee.

We will be briefed on several bills that will be voted on the following select committee.

So again, briefing in FNC on May 1st, voted on May 15th in select.

And we'll continue our budget review and examination through the FNC committee.

We will have select budget committee once a month in April, May, June, and August.

We do have time held in July if needed.

And friendly reminder, we will have select budget committee every single week come September.

So, basically we have time held every month from now until December.

Just as we, for clarity there.

Last thing here, we do need to move the June 19th FNC Committee meeting because of the Juneteenth holiday.

It is now scheduled for 9.30 a.m.

Monday, June 17th.

In external committees, as I already mentioned, I chaired the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council meeting last Monday.

Many other things, but I'm already over my 10 minutes, Council President, so I'm going to...

No, keep going.

It's quite all right.

Colleagues, any questions?

Should we make sure we receive that briefing from Ali and Ben before that select committee?

Yes, please, sir.

Just want confirmation there.

Sir, yes, sir.

Okay, okay.

I just have to say that I did receive the briefing and was incredibly impressed to have this rigorous analytical tool going into this budget that central staff created this year.

So just kudos to them for putting in the work and time.

Thank you, Council.

I mean, that's really well said because I know for me, my first year of budget, the only reason I had understanding is because I had been staff in the budget chair's office the year before.

Still, in many ways, it took me a full year of doing the work before I could understand it.

With the examination and review that central staff has set up, this is incredible.

It's an incredible amount of information.

And so just thank you to everyone who's done that work.

Colleagues, I believe it is over to...

Council President.

Yep.

My one time I don't get to pass to Council Member Wu.

All right, folks.

So there's nothing on the agenda from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee tomorrow.

We did meet last week, April 11th, on Thursday, and we recommended confirmation of five mayoral reappointments to the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

and passage of the Seattle Department of Human Resources first quarter 2024 employment ordinance.

Those votes were unanimous, unanimous of three, and will be before full council on April 23rd.

And we also had our first discussion of a draft SPD recruitment and retention ordinance co-sponsored by council member and public safety chair Kettle.

So just briefly, this budget neutral legislation would make three low-hanging fixes to the way that the mayor's 2022 Seattle Police Department recruitment and retention plan has been implemented with the objective of strengthening our recruitment strategies and improving our hiring processes.

We are in alignment with the mayor's office so far on this.

And before just going into what those three are, I just want to say here's the situation as it stands now.

SPD's hiring processes is significantly longer than neighboring jurisdictions.

We're the biggest city in the state, obviously, but the other jurisdictions have shorter hiring processes, and there are many steps along the way that could be improved, and you've heard that there have already been improvements made so far by the executive.

Nevertheless, it is quite long and we want to make sure that we have a good shot at getting the highly qualified recruits working for us instead of our competitors.

Anyway, Seattle is the only jurisdiction in the region to use a particular test and other jurisdictions use a separate one and this is only problematic because the other cities When applicants apply, and many of them apply to more than one jurisdiction at a time, they have to take another test.

And so that is another thing that's going on.

The way that the mayor's recruitment and retention plan was staffed had three positions within the Seattle Department of Human Resources, even though Seattle Police Department has its own human resources division.

And if you remember the first meeting where we got the rundown, there are 20 departments in the city that have their own HR unit divisions.

And so it could be in Seattle Police Department instead of HR, and that could be beneficial because that way the innovations that this this group is tasked with coming up with to improve our outreach to recruits, could be vetted by folks in SPD's relational policing division and the community policing experts.

Subject matter experts in SPD would be able to have their eyes on them.

Seattle HR, which is really busy, wouldn't have to be focused on this body of work.

And those are some advantages to moving them all over to the Seattle Police Department.

Two have already been moved.

Also, at the same time, what's going on now, in the beginning when this plan was rolled out, the mayor's office was really focused on the rollout of the ad campaign and which audiences should be targeted.

And so they didn't have a lot of bandwidth to...

to vet or go over a lot of these other innovations that were coming out of this team.

One thing that this legislation does is create an SPD recruitment and retention program, a formal program, where the third position is moved over into a program so that there is accountability.

One person is responsible for ensuring that there is complete and detailed reporting that goes out and that there's follow-up on some of these strategies that we've already spoken of.

That's one of the things that this piece of legislation does.

It also would add an FTE to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission because another disadvantage that we've got going on is that many jurisdictions are able to have immediate personalized contact with applicants within 48 hours.

This is best practices and then also be able to provide support from a recruiter throughout the process.

This would provide for more help within the commission so that we can have a better candidate experience so that people who are applying to SPD actually feel like they're welcomed and valued, et cetera.

So those are the primary changes in addition to the This legislation encourages the commission to consider the use of a testing service that is used by all other jurisdictions.

So here's what I've said before.

We have to do everything we possibly can.

everything we possibly can to hire more officers more quickly, and that is consistent with the Public Safety Chair's strategic framework for public safety, first pillar, I believe.

And so this is the beginning of a little bit of work in that department.

And we have to do all of this without undermining in any way our commitment to accountability and our trajectory to fulfill our requirements under the consent decree.

So it's not an either or, it's not streamlining hiring or accountability, it's both.

And I believe that this will enable us to hire really high quality officers in within a very limited labor pool right now.

And that is that is ultimately the thing that we're that we're up against.

So that's coming up.

This is going to be on the agenda at our next committee on April 25th.

So any questions you can feel free to ask me or Greg Doss, central staff or and Gorman in the meantime.

And then, so, that was the meeting last week.

Coming up this week is a very heavy and policy-rich external committee meeting week.

We've got the King County Regional Homelessness Authority meeting and the King County Board of Health meetings, both on Thursday, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and there are some very significant items on both of those agendas, which I look forward to reporting on the following week.

at next Monday's Blue Sky.

And on Friday this week, I will be joining a meeting of the Visit Seattle Advisory Committee.

So that is my, those are some things that I'd like to highlight for this week.

And I'll open it up for any questions from my colleagues.

Okay, seeing none, if there's no further business, we'll move into the executive session.

Hearing no further business, we'll now move into an executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will convene into an executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending, potential, or actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure...