Seattle City Council Briefing 5/8/23

Today is Monday, May 8th.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.07.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council President Juarez.

Juarez.

Present.

Seven.

Present.

Thank you.

If there's objection, agenda item three, the signing of the letters and proclamations will be moved to be taken up after agenda item four.

We're basically just going to switch them.

So we will do the preview of the City Council actions first.

and then we will do the proclamations after that.

So with that, hearing no objection, agenda item three is moved to be heard after agenda item four.

Let's go to approval of the minutes.

There's no objection.

The minutes of April 24th will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

The president's report on today's agenda, we will hold proclamations until later in the agenda, as I shared and begin by hearing individual reports from council members.

We will start with council member Lewis today, following our individual reports.

We will then consider 2 proclamations, 1 by Councilmember Herbold and 1 by Councilmember Mosqueda.

Councilmember Herbold will be speaking to a proclamation recognizing mental health awareness month.

and Council Member Herbold's office distributed this proclamation to everybody last week for your review.

Also, after that proclamation, Council Member Mosqueda will be speaking to a proclamation regarding Affordable Housing Week.

And again, you received those last week as well.

So note after today's meeting, we have two short executive sessions.

Each is expected to take about 15 minutes, so we shouldn't go over a half an hour, but we'll see.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes, payment of the bills, as well as 12 appointments.

And these include two to the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Board, otherwise known as FEPP, two to the Women's Commission, three to the LGBTQ Commission, and four to the Community Involvement Commission, and one to the International Special Review District Board.

Again, as usual, we will take one vote on all items of the consent calendar, unless, of course, a council member wants to remove that particular item for discussion later on in the agenda.

Tomorrow, there will be eight items under committee reports on the agenda tomorrow.

The first two are Council Bill 120554 and Council Bill 120555, relating to historic preservation of two landmarks, the Fairfax and the UW Faculty Club buildings, and Council Member Morales will speak to these.

The third is Council Bill 120548 authorizing the acquisition of the back end building on the waterfront.

And the fourth is to Council Bill 120559 relating to current taxation of properties located at 4200 Baker Avenue Northwest and 2317 South Norman Street.

Both bills were recommended for passage by the Public Assets and Homeless Committee and Council Member Lewis will be speaking to those two bills.

Item five is Council Bill 120549, relating to the city's criminal code, amending the crime of obstructing a public official to include obstructing firefighters.

Council Member Herbold will be speaking to that item.

Item six, seven, and eight are recommended by the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

They include Council Bill 120543, which would permit a pipeline system, Council Bill 120544, which would permit a utility tunnel to the Quest Corporation, and Clerk File 314517 regarding an alley, I'm sorry, regarding an alley vacation.

Information on all these items on tomorrow's agenda, as usual, is available online.

Before we get started with today's agenda, I would like to remind you again of our spring schedule for council briefings.

For the months of May and June, instead of having a weekly council briefing, we will have a council briefing meeting every other Monday or twice a month.

In May, we will have council briefing on May 8th and May 22nd.

In June, council briefings will be June 5th and June 26th.

Please use this revised calendar to plan accordingly for proclamations or letters you would like to have signed by the entire body or for any comments you would like to make.

Weekly full council meetings will continue to be every Tuesday, of course.

If there is an item that is extremely time sensitive and you would like to include it on the council agenda, please coordinate with our office and the clerks and we will coordinate with clerks.

This week, we will not have a state legislative update.

The final update by OIR on our state legislative agenda will be presented at council briefing on Monday, May 22nd.

So instead of going to the signing of letters and proclamations, we're going to come back to that.

We're going to go right to the preview of city council actions and council regional committees.

And this week we are going to start with council member Lewis, then council member Nelson, Peterson, Strauss, Herbold, Mosqueda, and then me.

So with that, I'm going to hand it over to council member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Council President.

I will be brief and just give a report on our committee business last week and an overview of the committee to meet a week from Wednesday.

First, as Council President previewed in her remarks, there will be two items on the full council agenda tomorrow from the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee.

The first relates to the acquisition of the building known as the Bakun Building on the Seattle waterfront.

from the Washington State Department of Transportation and authorizing its acceptance in order to enter into an agreement with the Muckleshoot Tribe for this to be a cultural and learning center for the community here owned by the Muckleshoot Tribe.

This is an agreement that's been long in the works between the Office of the Waterfront and the Office of the Seattle Center and the Muckleshoot and the City Council.

It was great to be joined in chambers by the chairman and vice chairman of the Muckleshoot tribe to participate in the hearing.

And it did unanimously pass through committee with four votes in favor.

So I'm looking forward to confirming that and moving that transportation building into being a cultural space on our Seattle waterfront.

We will also hear Council Bill 120559. This is an ordinance that's relating to current use taxation for a parcel that's located at 4200 Baker Avenue Northwest and 2317 South Norman Street under the King County Public Benefit Rating System.

We've moved a couple of these properties through my committee over the course of the last year and a half.

The general Summary being that these are properties situated based on their use to qualify for a special property tax exemption under the King County Public Benefit rating system.

The presentation was sufficient to win a unanimous confirmation from the council committee and the committee does recommend a passage of the ordinance at full council tomorrow.

A preview for the May 17 meeting of the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee.

We are going to hear a Seattle Public Library levy report from Chief Librarian Tom Fay that is going to just give us an update on where we are in the Seattle Public Library levy, especially as we come out of the COVID footing.

that the library has been operating under for much of the last couple of years.

So really looking forward to getting that update from Chief Librarian Fay and his team.

We are also going to have a reappointment consideration for Tali Harrison to the Seattle Public Library Board, and we will oversee 10 appointments to the Seattle Center Advisory Committee.

So looking forward to really getting that body stacked up again to do the important work at the Seattle center.

We're also going to hear a Seattle center and also the waterfront presentation on the waterfront operations agreement, we are not anticipating.

Um, to my currently my expectation, although I'll provide an updated next week's briefing is that we aren't going to be taking action on these items but we will be getting an initial presentation from some actions that were foreshadowed a couple of months ago, when we were queuing up.

Some of these agreements of transferring responsibilities and personnel between the Seattle Center and the office of the waterfront so that should be a really good discussion about how that space is going to be programmed, and how these next phases of the waterfront are going to be coming together.

And then finally, we are going to make a recommendation on an appointment to the giving Council.

and that'll be a packed agenda.

Hopefully it won't go too long on May 17th, but everybody be prepared to dig into those items of business.

And unless there's any questions or comments, I'm gonna go ahead and leave it at that, Council President, and not seeing any, oh yes, Council President Juarez.

Just briefly, Council Member Lewis, thank you for getting this in committee and getting the votes.

The only thing that I was going to bring up in the passage of the, I can't remember which bill it was, but the waterfront one, I think you brought it up as well.

I took a double take at it, another look at it, that we had had that MOU in place with Muckleshoot since 2014, I think.

So thank you for getting this over the finish line, at least out of committee.

Thank you for that.

Yes, thank you so much.

It's really great to finally be moving forward on this and getting that building into some good hands.

So any other comments or questions?

Seeing none, I will pass it forward to Council Member Morales.

She's not here.

That's okay.

It goes to Council Member Nelson.

There we go.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

There's nothing on tomorrow's agenda from the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee, but we'll be meeting this Wednesday, and we only have one item on the agenda.

It's a discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 120556, transferring funds into City Light's rate stabilization account to prevent a rate surcharge on City Light's rate payers.

And we had a presentation and an initial discussion at our last committee meeting on April 26th, so this will be the second one.

That's it.

It'll be a short one finally.

All right, so some select happenings in the past couple weeks.

You might have heard that on Thursday, May 4th, City Attorney Davison released legislation to make the use of illegal drugs in public spaces a simple misdemeanor, and Council Member Peterson and I joined her at a press event here at City Hall to announce that, and I'm looking forward to a timely and robust discussion.

Here's something that I, how many of you knew that there is a recovery school in Seattle?

Well, I did not.

Taman and I went to visit the students and faculty at the Interagency Academy Recovery School on Queen Anne last week.

And it's the only school for high school students in recovery in the city of Seattle.

And I have to thank Eric Mansfield, who's a teacher there for the invitation.

It's part of Seattle Public Schools and serves as a place for high school students to continue their education in a sober environment while they're still in active recovery or right after they got out of a residential treatment program for drug and or alcohol addiction.

And right now it has 35 students and many of them had completed residential treatment at the sundown Recovery Ranch in Yakima, which is the only recovery facility in Washington, I'm told, that accepts youth.

So many of them went there.

Lakeside Milam used to and doesn't any longer.

Anyway, so I learned a lot of things, and I can't go into it.

It was a really moving meeting.

One of the things that I did learn was that many of these students And they come from all socioeconomic backgrounds, primarily locally, but not necessarily.

I learned that many of them had gone, they went into treatment because they'd gone through detox many times.

And, you know, and I believe the options for detox for youth are very limited as well.

Anyway, they went into detox many times and then got right back out and back into their regular schools, into their their peer groups and started using again.

And this led me to the realization when we talked about this, that there must be a much stronger focus on SUD at middle schools and high schools, way beyond just talking about the dangers of drugs and addiction, et cetera, because it's already happening, addiction is, and tackling those issues early is a great way to avoid, well, ruining their lives or dying young in the future.

And a lot of them wanted to serve as a resource to kids at other schools.

And that's what I brought up when I had a meeting with DEEL director Dwayne Chappell later that day.

And that was a pre-scheduled meeting to talk about the mental health for students pilot project.

But I did mention that and he thought it was a good idea.

More to come.

Anyway, that was part of last week.

My chief of staff and I attended the Seattle Film Commission's first event in partnership with OED to kick off CIFF month in Seattle with the commission and about 50 plus filmmakers and other people in the industry.

Special thanks to St. John's on Capitol Hill for hosting that.

And the fun continues later this week as I'll be attending the Seattle International Film Festival's opening night gala at the Paramount Theater.

And when you work on film issues, I got to say there are some perks, let me tell you.

I attended the Seattle Fire Department Fallen Firefighter Memorial on Friday and was joined by the mayor.

And also, I'm sure that Council Member Herbold will talk about this.

But let me just say that she did give a very moving speech.

And Chief Scoggins was there as well, in addition to a large contingent of the department and grieving families.

Also, just folks that really support the fire department.

My staff, this all happened while team in of my staff was at a conference in Reno with government communications folks from all over the country, learning how to be more effective using social media.

And so I look forward to maybe.

trying out some of those tricks.

And then finally, last but not least, in fact, it's the most important thing.

I have to thank Council President Juarez and OIR for putting on the Tribal Nations Summit last week.

I was able to attend parts of it.

I learned a tremendous amount.

I'm waiting for the whole thing to be on Seattle Channel because I want to see what I missed.

But that was a heavy lift.

And seeing the leaders of so many sovereign nations in one room willing to give of their time to talk to us, I really appreciated that.

Okay, let's see, I rushed back to City Hall today from the Jewish Family Service Community of Caring Luncheon, which was today, of course, and I didn't have time to get to the rest of my talking points.

So the one thing I wanna mention that's coming up this week is Thursday is the King County's 2023 Conference on Substance Use Disorder presented by King County Council.

King County Public Health, King County DSHS, and the King County Recovery Coalition.

And this is an all-day conference held at Bellevue Community College.

And I will be participating on a panel with King County Council Member Reagan Dunn, State Representative Lauren Davis, and King County Director of Community and Human Services Leo Flohr for a local elected officials fireside chat on substance use and recovery.

And I thank the organizers for including me.

That's it.

I'll now pass it to Councilman Peterson.

I have a quick question.

Two things.

OK.

Councilor Nelson, first of all, thank you for attending.

I'll add more later.

The whole I think the whole event is online right now.

So if you go to our North Star and subscribe, it's all there with pictures.

And I believe we sent out Friday to all of our colleagues the over 100 pictures that were taken at the event.

So it is online now and the pictures you should have gone.

I got the pictures and I didn't know that all the segments, I only saw the opening remarks, but I look forward to watching all everything.

Okay, good.

Good to see you in the North Star.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council President.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

There are three items from our Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee on the full council agenda tomorrow afternoon, all of which were approved unanimously by our committee.

Council Bill 120543 would renew a pipeline term permit enabling Seaport Midstream Partners, LLC, to maintain and operate an existing pipeline system in, under, along, and across Southwest Florida Street Between 13th Avenue Southwest and 16th Avenue Southwest on Harbor Island Council 120544 would renew a utility tunnel term permit for quest corporation across Seneca Street, east of third Avenue, which is in District seven.

A clerk file 314517 would, due to construction delays, extend the conditional approval of a subterranean alley vacation within the so-called Block 89 in District 7. And that was requested originally as part of clerk file 313894 back in 2015. Again, all three items approved unanimously by our committee.

If you have any questions about those items, go ahead and consult with our city council central staffer, Lish Whitson.

Our next meeting of the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 16, at 930 AM.

That committee agenda for next Tuesday is still being finalized, though we should finally have Council Bill 120557 regarding SDOT's Hazard Mitigation Program, specifically authorizing the SDOT director to accept various easements along Rainier Avenue South in District 2 to help prevent erosion.

Last week, I attended the Regional Water Quality Control Committee, where we had briefings on wastewater treatment rates, the capital budget for King County's Wastewater Treatment Division, and federal funding opportunities for wastewater infrastructure.

As you know, wastewater treatment expenses comprise approximately half of each household's bill from Seattle Public Utilities.

Even though the city has no power to set those rates, they're passed through by King County.

So what we do is try to convey at these RWQC meetings our strong desire to manage costs and keep the utility rates low because utility bills are regressive.

Fortunately, King County is keeping its original promise to increase its wastewater rate by only 5.75% in 2024. Rather than a higher percentage, they temporarily contemplated In district for this past weekend I joined leaders of the East Lake neighborhood to celebrate the opening of the East how steps Plaza.

This community led project fulfills the vision of connecting the pedestrian pathways from Capitol Hill.

East Howell Street under I-5 down the hill through the East Lake neighborhood to our Lake Union waterfront near 1910 Fairview Avenue East.

This is a timely community connection because redistricting is moving East Lake from District 4 into District 3 for next year's council members.

This project was a long collaboration between the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, which provided some initial grant funding, the Seattle Department of Transportation, which through the Transportation Committee provided various approvals, also the private sector owners of the adjacent properties, and of course, the East Lake Community Council.

City Council honored the community's call to action to make this small but celebrated project happen through Council Bill 120281 adopted in April 2022 and Resolution 31988 adopted in March 2021. I thank my colleagues for that.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we move to Council Member Strauss?

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Council President, again, echoing Councilmember Nelson's words, the Tribal Summit last week was incredibly powerful and healing.

It was amazing to be there with you.

Thank you for all of that, for organizing that amazing opportunity.

From the Land Use Committee, items on full council, there are no items from the Land Use Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

Other updates from the Land Use Committee, I will tell you, we did it.

We passed the tree protection ordinance out of committee.

There were 50 amendments.

It took us six hours.

This is why amendments at full council are not welcome.

I did just we had 50 amendments that took us six hours.

There may be a substitute bill that has technical cleanups that I am requesting that no substantive changes are made.

We are going to now The tree protection ordinance will come to full council on May 23rd.

We have published in newspapers of record that there will be a public comment opportunity at full council that day.

And we are very excited to have this.

For some, there was a public commenter last week that has been working on this since 1999 with Jan Drag, Councilman Jan Drago.

So I just, I know for some, they didn't get everything that they wanted on both ends of the spectrum.

And this is an important piece of legislation that does protect, preserve and expand our tree canopy while making space for the housing that we desperately need.

While we just got finished with a very intense policy matter, we are immediately transitioning into another large policy, which is the maritime and industrial zoning changes.

Colleagues, I sent you an email on Friday.

I will resend it right now with all of the information that I'm about to tell you.

There are All council members will be welcome to attend the Land Use Committee while we are taking up the maritime and industrial zoning changes.

And all council members are welcome to submit amendments during the committee process.

Again, I am not welcoming amendments at full council.

And this notice serves as an invitation to join us at the Land Use Committee.

Again I emailed you on Friday.

I will resend this email in just a moment.

It contains a briefing from OPCD.

It contains the schedule as well as links that I will get to right now.

This policy was transmitted to us on April 12th of 2023 and I've raised this policy issue here at council briefing a number of times.

The first deadline is next week.

We have set the deadline for submitting amendments to council central staff by next week, May 17th, 2023 sent into my, it is Norwegian constitution day.

It has no connection.

This is important because, uh, I don't need to have you have your complete, your amendment completely flushed out.

It does not need to be finalized.

You do need to have your idea into council central staff by May 17th.

That is next week.

The entire schedule for reviewing and passing this policy is attached to the email I sent, and I will review it at the end of my remarks now.

I'm requesting that you and your staff meet with Jim Holmes and Jeff Wetland from OPCD to receive a formal briefing of this material as soon as possible.

This is a request I've made before, and it is important for me that you have this one-on-one briefing before land use committee action.

This is because this policy is dense enough that you will need this individualized time to discuss the policy details.

And I can assure you, I can tell you right now, that the time we have reserved in committee will not be enough for every council member to ask every question they may have.

This is just simply an issue of functional capacity.

There are a lot of details and a committee meeting to provide answers to every question would last all day and take multiple days, which is why I'm asking you to please have an individual meeting.

Another resource that is helpful is in the email and on the OPCD website.

OPCD has created an interactive map that allows you to zoom into parcel level information about these zoning changes.

The package that is coming to the Land Use Committee will include five bills.

There is an update to the comprehensive plan.

There is a bill removing industrial commercial zoning from SMC Chapter 23.50.

There is a bill adding three new industrial zones and creating a new SMC Chapter 23.50A and amendments to the city zoning map and a bill amending the noise ordinance.

There is a lot of cleanup in this zoning change.

So it will make our zoning code much more accessible.

Overall, this is an employment bill.

What we have found in the industrial and maritime zones is that uses such as box stores or self storage are taking up space that has traditionally been reserved for family wage jobs and other types of employment.

I'm really excited to have this policy come to our committee.

It's been in the works for over five years.

I joined the facilitated work group in 2020, and it had already been going on.

There has been a long process to get us to where we are today.

There were internal groups that were happening between 2015 and 2019. In 2019, there was a facilitated group with Brian Scott Consulting facilitating stakeholders who typically disagree.

At the end of that process that Brian Scott facilitated, we had 85% agreement on the compromise before us.

Now, 85% agreement from stakeholders who typically disagree at every turn is a huge success.

Since that time, OPCD has worked to issue an EIS, which has led us to the bill before us today.

You can find full information regarding this proposal on the OPCD website.

Again, I've attached OPCD's presentations to explain the policy changes and maps of the changes to the email.

And I really I really ask you to look at the interactive map on the OPCD website because it it has been very helpful for me to understand all of the changes because you can zoom into the individual parcels and zoom out to the city at large.

If you have any questions at any time please reach out to my land use clerk Naomi Lewis or reach out to Jim Holmes or Jeffrey Wetland at OPCD.

Now Before I end my remarks I'm going to verbally explain the the committee calendar.

We have this coming Wednesday May 10th at 2 p.m.

OPCD will provide a briefing in committee.

On Monday May 15th next Monday at 2 p.m.

Central staff and the Planning Commission will present their information regarding these changes.

The following Wednesday next Wednesday May 17th amendments are due to central staff.

The following Monday, May 22nd, amendments will be published so that the public has time to review them.

On Wednesday, May 24th at 2 p.m., we will have a public hearing in my committee.

This has been published in the records of, uh, in the journals of record and is the official public hearing on this material.

On Wednesday, June 7th, we will vote on amendments and on the bill as amended.

This will bring us to Tuesday, June 13th, where we will vote on this bill out of full council.

We have reserved June 14th for overflow within committee, which would lead us to a June 20th final passage.

The issue that I'm going to bring up for you right now is that the Land Use Committee is completely full.

I have continued to receive requests to have policies in the Land Use Committee.

We will do our best to make time for those issues to be attended to in the Land Use Committee.

And that is only possible if we stay on this schedule for the maritime and industrial zone changes.

To stay on track, it does require that council members, you meet with OPCD individually so that your specific questions do not have to be answered at the committee meeting.

Because again, if everyone asks every one of their questions, we'll never get out of committee.

With that colleagues, that is my report.

Are there any questions?

I know it was a light subject matter.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you very much.

I did get my briefing.

So thank you.

But usually we also get insight from central staff.

So are they also giving briefings to council members in advance?

I know that we tell them our idea for possible amendments, but are they available this week?

Is that Ketel and Yolanda who is- Yeah, please let me follow up to make sure that I have the right staff.

I'm still a little bit in, my mind is still, in the trees, but we'll get you the correct staffers.

I believe it is Kiel and Lish.

Thanks.

Yep.

Lish, okay.

Yeah.

Council Member Herbold, are you just getting ready?

Also, thank you, Council Member Herbold, for providing an amendment to the tree ordinance.

Really appreciated that.

Seeing no further questions, Council Member Herbold, take it away.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Uh, so tomorrow on the full council agenda, there is 1 bill from the public safety and human services committee.

That's council bill 120549, which amends the definition of public officer when defining the crime of obstructing a public officer.

It does so to include firefighters and fire department personnel.

along the already covered city employees in the municipal code, including building inspectors, the fire marshal, and police officers.

The bill is co-sponsored by Councilmember Lewis, and there are three friendly amendments from Councilmember Mosqueda that we should expect to see tomorrow.

One, to ensure that individuals can't be charged for obstructing their own medical care.

The second, requesting that Police and fire revisit policies to reinforce expectations that police consult with fire before coming on site or engaging with people at a fire or emergency response scene.

And the third addresses RSGI analysis and other reporting requirements.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee is meeting tomorrow morning on the agenda.

We will hear an appointment to the Community Police Commission and our ongoing effort to get that commission fully, fully full, fully full.

Secondly, we'll be hearing an ordinance that would release a budget proviso, that's proviso HSD-021A-02B.

002, or safe, healthy, empowered, G-Clinic.

We're also going to be hearing a briefing from the Human Services Department and Purpose Dignity Action, otherwise known as PDA, on their lead and co-lead contract update.

And then lastly, we'll be hearing a presentation on a draft of the App-Based Workers Deactivation Rights Ordinance.

Again, this is a pre-introduction draft presentation and discussion.

the bill has not yet been introduced.

A couple items in the public safety arena update.

This Wednesday, the fire department will be conducting live fire training exercises at vacant homes in Capitol Hill.

This allows for new and veteran firefighters to face real life scenarios in a controlled setting.

This means that roads around 1000 East Republican Street will be closed and residents will see smoke during these controlled burns.

Folks are welcome to watch the live fire trainings, which will be from around 7 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

with the live fire evolutions beginning at 9 a.m.

You can find more information on the fire department's website.

Also, the Office of Emergency Management will have another disaster preparedness training online on Thursday, May 18th.

The training will go over how to develop a disaster plan, a disaster supply kit, and how to organize with your neighbors to become better prepared.

You can sign up on OEM's website.

I just want to touch very lightly on the legislation mentioned earlier by Council Member Nelson.

Not going to get into a policy discussion, but just being aligned with the Council President's request that we don't conduct committee discussions and briefings.

So I'm just going to real lightly touch on some of the process issues.

Just to clarify the statement that I released earlier, is not intended to suggest any opposition to hearing the bill.

The statement is intended to say that I believe that the bill needs to be heard either after the state legislature acts or if we know that it is not acting.

We do know that the governor is intending to call a special session on May 16th.

And the bill needs to be considered within the context of what comes out of that session or doesn't come out of that session.

Office of Intergovernmental Relations has noted that any bill passed by the state legislature could need to be adopted locally.

And I don't want the council to be considering separate bills on a bunch of different occasions.

on the same broad topic or having to amend a recently adopted bill.

So for that reason, I really think it's most appropriate to consider the bill in the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, along with any other proposals that could result from the special session of the state legislature.

Moving on to the public health realm, May is Public Health Awareness Month.

I'll be requesting your signatures on a proclamation in just a moment.

I want to take the opportunity to remind the interested public about 988, a free hotline for anyone experiencing mental health distress.

or concerned about someone else who is.

People use this line to talk about a lot of things, substance abuse, economic worries, relationships, sexual identity, illness, getting over abuse, depression, mental and physical illness, and loneliness.

Responders are trained crisis call specialists who have stopped over 90% of suicide attempts or ideation among callers, you can call or text 988 or chat 988 lifeline.org support is available 24 seven as far as events and meetings coming up.

On the regional committee front on Thursday will be the WIRA 9 Watershed Ecosystem Forum.

I represent the city of Seattle for the number 9 watershed as co-chair of the forum.

And events coming up this week, I'll get to in just a second.

I just want to mention a couple of things I did last week that I didn't have a chance to mention in a previous briefing.

Over the weekend on Saturday, I had the opportunity to present on a panel.

at the Justice40 tour in South Park.

I spoke about the city's equity and environment agenda, but Justice40 is something I'm just learning about.

It's really exciting.

It's an effort made possible by billions of dollars allocated to the EPA and an executive order by President Biden that requires 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments To flow to disadvantage communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.

And so the South Park community is working with justice 40 and the EPA to to identify itself as an and environmental justice community who should be a recipient with.

Local government's support of some of these funds, as mentioned earlier by council member Nelson last Friday, I was very honored to speak at the annual fallen firefighter Memorial in Occidental Park.

This is an annual event in my.

My.

opportunity and my role in commemorating the sacrifices that firefighters make throughout the years is a solemn responsibility I take each year and just want to say how much I know we all really value the fact that these public servants run into the line of fire to save others, not only are harmed in the line of duty, but also suffer health illnesses associated with doing this work, higher incidences of cancer and heart disease.

And I want to just say their names.

Matt Runty and Michelle Williams are the two firefighters that we lost in the last year and added their names to the memorial this year.

Coming up this week on Thursday, I'm hoping to stop by the 2023 King County Conference on Substance Use Disorders.

Excited to hear Council Member Nelson's participation in the fireside chat panel and check out some of the other offerings of the conference.

I will separately from that conference be touring the People's Harm Reduction Alliance on Wednesday.

They received a grant award from Public Health using city dollars.

that the city put aside to increase overdose production services and drug user health medical services on site and in the community.

They're one of three organizations receiving a portion of this $1.5 million that the city council made available.

They'll be coming to public health becoming to present on the city funded funded program at the May 23rd Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

So we'll learn more at that meeting about the funding provided and how it has been used to address the needs of folks who are substance use have substance use challenges and specifically focused on overdose prevention.

That is all I have for today.

Does anybody have any questions or comments?

Council member Nelson, I have a question about the event you just mentioned on Wednesday.

What time and where is that?

Is that a it's not an event?

It's just I have I have there are 3 organizations that received the funding that I'd mentioned and I've just been doing site visits.

And so I, I've already done the 2 site visits and this was just 11 more that I had left over to get.

So, it's not a, it's not an event.

It's just a personal visit.

Got it.

And just wanted to know what you were talking about the process for the bill that I mentioned.

There is maybe, I guess, some disagreement about the process.

King County Prosecutor Lisa Mannion sent us a statement that said, even if our state legislature successfully adopts a statewide fix, local ordinances will still be necessary to give appropriate jurisdiction to municipal prosecutors.

Yeah, there's no disagreement.

I agree with that.

But we need to know what the state does in order to contemplate what the city should do.

I totally wholeheartedly, that is the county prosecutor's statement is the reason why I'm taking this position.

Because even if the state legislature acts, the city may need to act.

But we need to know how the state legislature is acting.

But it also implies that if they don't act, we might need to do things too.

So that's true, but we need to know what the context is that we're operating under.

Yeah, I mean, if Council Member Herbold, I think you still have the floor.

Council Member Lewis.

Right.

No, I mean, to that remark, too.

I mean, I haven't talked to Prosecutor Mannion, but I did get the communication.

I do also agree with her conclusion, but it invites certain factors like the legislature might like preempt other policy in this area.

So the action before us might be adoption of an RCW into the SMC, for example.

The legislature might, I mean, to Council Member Herbold's point.

So it might make some of our actions, were we to move with a bill before the session or some of the actions other jurisdictions have taken might end up getting, in essence, preempted and wiped away by whatever the legislature does.

For those reasons, I think Prosecutor Mannion's comments are totally on point.

We just don't exactly know exactly what the nature of what the legislature is going to do.

They could propose some fix that sets a floor and then let cities hang all additional things on top of it, right, or it might be so prescriptive that the only action in front of us is just to take action on basically just word for word incorporating an RCW into our SMC.

So totally relevant considerations, but we just don't know the nature of what they're, or they could fail to do anything.

I mean, right, like, so we don't know.

So let's not turn this into a committee meeting.

I think it's enough to be said, thank you, Council Member Herbold, that you and I a discussion.

So it will be in your committee.

When we start teeing things up.

We answered Council Member Nelson's concern that it was not going to get into committee again.

I know, in all the years that I've worked for you, you've never been one not to put it in your committee to have full fledged discussion.

And we will do that.

And we will continue to do that and continue to update our colleagues.

All right.

Um, you know, Councilmember Skater is having hard.

I'm sorry.

Is everyone done there?

Oh, she's okay.

She's back.

I guess we're loose.

You still got your hand up.

You okay?

Oh, hand went down.

All right.

Would you like me to hand it over to Councilmember skater?

Well, there's someone behind her.

I don't know who that is, but Councilmember skater.

Hello.

I'm handing it off to you.

Thank you so much.

That was tech support in our house.

Council President, I think I might take you up on the offer to go first if you don't mind after all, and I'll try to get back on the internet instead of a hot spot here.

Okay.

Do you want me to go?

If that's okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

Then we'll come back to you on the proclamation.

Okay?

Okay.

So I am going to go ahead and do my report while Council Member Mosqueda gets gets caught up online.

There are no items from the Governance Native Communities and Tribal Governance Committee on tomorrow's council agenda.

The next Governance Native Communities and Tribal Governance Committee will be Monday.

It's a special meeting, May 15th at 9.30.

I hope you will join us.

This will be a very special meeting to discuss and possibly vote on a resolution regarding Memorial Stadium.

Let me give you some background and we will be sending out some more information.

This special meeting on the governance and Native communities, which will be, as I said, Monday, May 15th at 930. This committee meeting will be an opportunity to be briefed, discuss a possible vote on a process, which is the resolution for the Memorial Stadium redevelopment project.

The work related to redeveloping Memorial Stadium goes back almost 30 years.

However, at least since I got here, since 2016, we've made a lot of movement since 2016, including a number of recent agreements between the city and the school district in Seattle, Seattle Public Schools, Seattle School District.

In 2017, we did a partnership agreement.

In 2021, we did a letter of intent.

In 2022, we did a memorandum of agreement.

And finally, As you know, we passed and we should have that noted here.

I apologize when we passed the legislation last February on the legislation, the levy that was passed for the school district to also put in money into Memorial Stadium.

And I apologize.

That should have been in my list here.

And we'll have all that information in the next day for you.

And finally, we put out a request for proposal, an RFP that was issued a little over a month ago on March 20th.

So the deadline to responding to the RFP with proposals for the project was May 2nd.

And as it's been reported publicly, two proposals were submitted.

Representatives from the legislative branch have been working with the mayor's office in the school district.

And that includes our buddy in central staff, Brian.

Good night.

Sorry, Brian, I did that.

So the goal of the resolution is to kind of lay out where we're going to get to get to the end.

And the goal is to select a winning proposal by Monday, May 22nd.

I should note that elected officials are not on the evaluation team.

And I should note that central staff, Brian, has been working on this as well as Sarah Mays in my office as well.

This committee meeting will also be an opportunity to learn more about the Memorial Stadium redevelopment project more broadly, including some background, the funding the levy, what we put in the budget, big thank you to Councilmember Lewis for holding on to that funding during budget.

Later this week, Brian, good night on central staff will be sending out some additional background information on the resolution that will be discussed in committee.

And we'll also be resending because we sent this before a link to what you all have is what is a electronic notebook.

that contains lots of materials related to the redevelopment project.

Those of you that were here for the climate pledge, you actually had big paper notebooks, and that just got crazy.

So now, thank you, Brian.

Great idea.

And also to Esther, to have electronic notebook, and you can go right there.

You can look at the letter of intent, the MOA, the RFP, and all the other documents that are there.

So if you have information, or if you have any other questions, you can contact Brian.

about the resolution prior to Monday's committee meeting.

Hold on a minute here.

I dropped something.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

So with that, and there's going to be more to come, but I would really encourage you to go look at your electronic notebook.

I'm just glad that the levy passed.

We kept the money in the budget Councilmember Lewis kept the money in the budget.

Now we can finally go forward after almost 30 years of redeveloping Memorial Stadium for the sale public school and sale public school district, and the people on the board.

We have, I think we have two members from sale public school district that are on the board with the mayor's office on the legislative branch as well, and central staff.

So everybody will be heard and hopefully we will have a beautiful brand new Memorial Stadium in which the Seattle School District can still schedule all the school events which have priority over everything else and also provide a revenue stream, a much needed revenue stream for Seattle Public Schools.

Okay, the Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee regular meeting on Thursday, May 18th will be canceled.

So let me move into Native communities.

Last week, as you all know, we participated in the first inaugural Tribal Nations Summit.

This was the first time in over 150 years that the City of Seattle has welcomed leadership from 11, 12 federally recognized Indian nations located in our region to discuss shared principles for our Native community members.

Thanks to the leadership of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, we are pleased to be joined by the leadership from at least 18 city departments, including Chief of Police Diaz, Fire Chief, Mr. I should say Mr. Fire Chief Harold Scoggins.

We had the directors from OPCD, HSD, OSC, SDOT, and I could go on with the alphabet soup, but just about everybody was there and it was very exciting.

We also had a I'm going to forget her name and I feel bad.

The King County prosecutor who's been working with sailing and help their board Abigail Alcohol on missing murder indigenous people.

So that was actually very refreshing to see King County Prosecutor's Office and working with our group in the city of attorneys, the city attorney as well.

So we welcome to our city table leadership from Muckleshoot, Suquamish, Yakima, Swinomish, Squaxin Island, Suquamish, Nisqually, Puyallup and Cowlitz, as well as members from the city's Indigenous Advisory Council.

We discussed issues regarding homelessness.

They narrowed it down to three issues, homelessness and housing, natural and cultural resources and public safety.

So this time they just focused it on three issues that we could get done.

I really want to give a big thank you to Council Member Strauss and Council Member Nelson for attending the summit and also for Council Member Strauss being a good sport where I put him a little bit on the spot to talk about indigenous-led organizations and to meet with and talk to Michael Tooley from United Indians regarding Labatea and the group home in his district.

So that got rave reviews, and so thank you, Council Member Strauss.

The summit resulted in a list of commitments to federally recognized tribes in our region to promote government-to-government consultation, active communication and training, and there was also a commitment to additional gatherings, which we will hopefully make this a yearly event.

I will be sharing copies of the commitments made.

I think you should have got the photos and the video from the Seattle channel because they were there.

I'd also like to thank Councillor Mosqueda for stepping up and sharing the council meeting for me so our staff could intend the summit for the entire day.

So thank you Councillor Mosqueda.

Finally, a big thank you to Office of Intergovernmental Relations, Director Tim Raynon, should be recognized for organizing this historic gathering, as well as Director Tarlington, and a huge thank you to, and Sierra Howlett-Brown as well, and of course, Francesca Murnin from Department of Neighborhoods.

It was a wonderful event, a lot of information came out of it, but more importantly, we actually are gonna get some of this stuff done.

So moving on, I was pleased to announce last week, and welcome back to our office, Leila Geysar.

She was an intern in our office, if you remember, but now she's back.

We had hired her when she was a senior at Seattle U, and then she went to go work for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, and now she's back in our office as our D5 District Director.

And please welcome Leila back, and she'd like the world to know that she is also a Taurus.

Last Monday, we met with AP Diaz, superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation regarding the next steps following the fire at the Lake City Community Center.

So we are being shifting over a lot of those social, the programs, the feeding program to a church nearby.

We're still working with community about where we can cite some of those other programs.

And we're going to push forward on that new community center with affordable housing on top, which we have been working on for four years.

If you guys remember that.

So finally, it's going to happen.

Thank you.

We also met with King County and D.S.C. regarding permanent supportive housing.

That is the house on Clement Place, which is on Aurora.

On Wednesday, Leila attended the monthly North Precinct Advisory Council meeting with a topic of prostitution's impact on the business owners of Aurora was discussed.

It's not the first time, but probably won't be the last time.

On Thursday, our staff met with the city's Human Services Department, HSD, regarding constituent concerns about encampments that are now growing along Hubbard Homestead Park.

Last time we checked, there was a couple of tents.

And my understanding from going up there myself is I think we're up to 16 or 17, which is something we all deal with in our district.

So that's nothing new.

And hopefully and working with HSD in the mayor's office, we'll we'll we'll handle that the best that we can.

On Thursday, we attended the Sound Transit Rider Experience and Operations Committee and received a report on the testing of a new passenger information management system for between Stadium, which is in Tacoma, and Angel Lake stations.

Just so you know, I graduated from Stadium High School.

So let me move on.

So big day Friday.

Friday, May 5th was a day dedicated to missing murdered and indigenous people.

And as, you know, we were 1 of the 1st city councils, not only to pass an ordinance, but to fund a position to work with indigenous led organizations.

And I'm very proud of the city and the city council for not only passing the resolution, but also funding the positions and an ordinance.

Seattle's own Urban Indian Health Institute provided more data on the missing murdered indigenous person and the information that we will be working with the King County Prosecutor's Office, City Attorney's Office and SPD.

Last week was actually a big deal.

President Joe Biden issued a proclamation first time recognizing the impact of missing murdered indigenous people has had on native families throughout our nation.

So I'm a little, take a little point of pride here to say this started as a conversation back in 2016 and we've come a long way.

I'd almost say we were progressive.

So I'll leave it at that.

This week, I will be attending the South Transit North King sub area briefing with Sound Transit CEO, Julie Tim.

And with that, I think I'm done.

And so before I hand it off to Council Member Mosqueda, I need to know if you guys got any questions.

Everyone's good?

Great.

Okay, Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Council President, and apologies for the technology glitch on my end.

I appreciate all that you shared, and I want to thank all of you for your participation in the housing committee discussions that we've had so far.

Housing committee focused on the 2023 housing levy.

We have now had 3 full meetings.

We are having 3 full months.

So the next meeting that we will have on the housing levy will be May 31st at 930. am.

We'll have the opportunity to hear from.

Folks who are interested in providing any additional public comments.

At the beginning of the meeting, and then we will have a discussion about any possible amendments.

Also, importantly, you all get the chance now in the next 2 weeks here to be meeting with central staff.

If you do have any amendments that you'd like to see, we would, of course, love to include any amendments that are friendly amendments.

Pre introduction as we seek to try to streamline our conversation about the upcoming.

Uh, 2023, uh, housing levy, the.

Possibility for us to include amendments will really be determined by how many of these are in line with the existing policy.

How many are in line with what the chairs proposals are as well and to try to make sure that we are incorporating as much as possible into the Pre introduction legislation is my goal.

So thank you for working with central staff.

Feel free to reach out to us in my office, me and Aaron house.

If you'd like to have more conversation about any possible amendments that you're introducing on May 31st, we'll have the chance to consider that.

Combined introductory legislation, along with any additional amendments council members would like to see.

So this is really the time between now and next week to work on those amendments.

We'll then have another meeting on June 7th, where we will have a final vote on any additional amendments, and we will get that puppy out so that everybody has the chance to vote on it in full council in mid-June is our goal.

If we need to, we will have also reserved some additional time on your calendar, but so far, so good.

You all have been very excellent with working with central staff.

They have expressed deep appreciation for sharing concepts and ideas already, so we are well underway to being sure that we meet our timeline.

That next housing levy committee meeting, the select housing levy committee meeting will be on May 31st at 930 in the morning.

And again, there's a public hearing that afternoon at 4.30 PM.

We're working with the communications team to put together infographics so you can send them out to your social media, put them in your newsletter, encourage people to call and join in on the public comment on the 31st as well.

But our next finance and housing committee meeting will be held in the meantime, we will meet next week on May 17th at 930 in the morning and colleagues while this is the finance and housing committee, you are all invited to attend just like we do quarterly with our revenue forecast discussions.

We will include the office of the city budget, the office of economic and revenue forecast and importantly, our own central staff analysts who are focused on budget.

This includes Tom, Mike, so Ali and Esther handy who provide us with an overview of their analysis of the various revenue streams and importantly, the general fund fiscal plan, the review of the 6 year outlook.

We will also consider the carry forward legislation and exceptions bill for voting members of our committee.

We will have those 2 items on the agenda as well.

I wanted to follow up with the good chair of public safety and human services.

Thanks to council member herbal.

Well, for a few things, thanks for the comments that I was able to hear before the Internet went out on me about your commitment to making sure that we look at the robust discussion that the state legislature is about to have everybody wanting to make sure that there's a Blake fix.

but really being deferential to the process that the state legislators are just about to embark upon before we have a piecemeal approach jurisdiction by jurisdiction that tries to solve a problem that the state legislature is poised to fix.

I appreciate that you have suggested that we do not do anything until that comprehensive conversation and analysis and hopefully a legislation can come forward from our state partners.

We know that that's the goal and I look forward to having state solution on this as well with what the good chair has said.

In addition to that, what Council Member Herbold, I believe, has shared with you is the proposal to move forward on the obstruction bill, knowing that the interest is there to have that conversation tomorrow and that that is still on the docket.

I do have three amendments for possible consideration.

I believe they've been previewed for you, but I will just summarize them again very quickly.

We did send those out today so that you had ample opportunity to read through those amendments, and I want to thank central staff Both Greg and Anne, also, and Lauren from central staff are working with our team to try to find some additional ways to hear some of the concerns that are coming up, both from firefighters and from members of the community to make sure that there is less unintended consequences or confusion around the ordinance.

So Amendment A will add an element to specify that no one should be charged or convicted for obstructing their own medical care It's something that we believe should already be understood, but to make sure that we're responding to the concerns about, you know, whether or not somebody is kind of being served and if they're acting erratically or flinging their arms, we don't want there to be any misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

from SPD that that is somehow interrupting a firefighter's ability to provide care or obstructing a firefighter's duty.

So to ensure that this is very clear, it would request SPD to add to the policy manual instructions to not arrest anyone for obstructing their own medical care.

And we've gotten confirmation that SPD will update their manual accordingly.

Appreciate that.

Amendment B requests both Seattle Fire and Seattle Police to create a joint policy whereby SPD will remain off site and on standby status until and unless Seattle Fire Department specifically request their assistance due to any obstruction and only then will SPD then come on site and SPD will then have the directive to consult with the fire personnel before engaging on the site to make sure that fire is able to really provide context to what type of assistance is needed to ensure that they are being of assistance in the emergency response scene instead of assuming what level of assistance is needed.

In consultation with SFD and IFF 27. I believe that this is really in line with some of their other goals as well to ensure that fire is truly treated differently or seen differently by those who are needing health and medical attention and want to make sure that we are doing what we can to lift up what is more or less a informal and existing practice to make sure that fire should be consulted at as anybody else arrives on the scene.

And then in terms of Amendment C, this was also included in the email I sent around.

This is an amendment that we may bring forward to request SPD and SFD to complete this racial equity toolkit analysis, ideally within the 30 days before the implementation of the bill goes into effect.

And while I didn't hear the good chair's comments, I believe that this is in alignment with what her goals are as well to ensure that that RSJI analysis does happen to determine if there are any unintended consequences here and ensure that we are looking at any personnel who may, any individuals who may be experiencing the impact of this legislation.

We also want to make sure that we're looking at those who have behavioral health crisis or mental health crises that they're going through, that we're accounting for those as well in the report back.

So two concepts folded into Amendment C. Uh, and then with that, I just wanted to say to folks, thanks so much for all of the work that you've done on housing the session.

I did have the chance to join state legislative members today in celebrating a whole host of legislative priorities that were signed.

into statute and really want to thank specifically all of the lobbying efforts that have gone on for years to try to push for a more robust housing approach.

Every year we send legislators down to Olympia and we ask them to be bold and to think outside of the box and to help us create a new floor, a new foundation, and help us with what the National League of Cities has called for, which is a floor preemption to allow for local jurisdictions to have an even playing field and build upon those floors, tie in additional density and housing requirements into our comprehensive plans, but really unify and harmonize our approach to all being on the same page to solving this housing crisis.

This legislative session, our state senators and our House representatives delivered I am thrilled that the governor just signed into law House Bill 1110 1071 1293 1337 Senate Bill 5045 5197. 5258, 5290, 5702, and also signed into statute the Home Ownership Covenant Bill, set 1474. These are incredible efforts to make strides on affordable housing.

For example, House Bill 1110 is the missing middle housing sponsored by Representative Bateman that legalizes middle housing options in residential areas traditionally dedicated to only single family detached housing throughout the state.

Huge, huge step forward and a lot of compromises and middle ground found to make sure that this was a bipartisan effort across our state that would really be meaningful.

And House Bill 1474 that I mentioned last, this is a home ownership covenant bill.

The first in the nation bill that will support home ownership for those who've been harmed by generations of systemic racist and discriminatory policies and practices, both with zoning and lending.

And in Washington state, this was passed with the leadership of representative Jamila Taylor.

So congratulations to all of the representatives and senators who helped make this year the Housing Justice Legislative Session year.

And it is perfectly timed for Affordable Housing Week, which will lead us to our proclamation here in a moment.

And there's a number of events throughout the week.

We will post about those and hope folks can get out and join the call for additional housing across our city, our region, our state.

And on Wednesday and Friday, I will be attending the Affordable Housing Week events hosted by the Housing Development Consortium.

And this includes with Deputy Mayor Washington and Office of Housing Director Michael Winkler-Chin, we're going to talk with folks in community about what housing needs are needed.

And that includes for workers and residents and small businesses.

And it'll give us a chance to make sure that the housing levy conversations are on everyone's radar and that we constantly are talking about not just the units, but the homes, the communities, the families that are served by the housing levy, which will be a complement to all of the celebration that we just had this week for the legislative win.

So that's it, Madam Chair, Madam President.

I will turn it over to you if there's no questions.

I think that's it.

All right.

OK, so we're going to go on to the proclamations and Councilmember Herbold has a proclamation recognizing May as Mental Health Awareness Month.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate the opportunity to share the proclamation with Council last week.

I circulated this proclamation declaring May to be mental health awareness month in Seattle.

This proclamation was drafted in consultation with the National Alliance of Mental Health.

I'm sorry, the National Alliance of Mental Illness of Washington, otherwise known as NAMI Washington.

National Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed in the United States since 1949 to fight stigma, provide support, educate the public, and advocate for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.

Expanding access to mental health care has long been a priority of mine, and the need for it is continuing to grow.

You've heard me talk about this need repeatedly throughout the pandemic.

We will be joined tomorrow by a representative from NAMI to share remarks on the importance of finding support and help for everyone experiencing a mental health concern.

Thank you so much for your consideration.

presentation.

Council Member Herbold, so tomorrow we will have, we'll do the presentation then on the record.

Okay, great.

We'll do the presentation.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

We'll get those names ahead of time as well.

Perfect.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Are there any questions or any further discussion for Council Member Herbold regarding the proclamation recognizing May as Mental Health Awareness Month for Signature?

Okay, I do not see any.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation?

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

And Council President Morales.

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much.

With that, we are going to move on to Council Member Mosqueda's proclamation, which I actually have right in front of you for Affordable Housing Week.

Councilor Mosqueda.

Oops, excuse me.

Thank you, Council President.

I teed this up a little bit.

This week is Affordable Housing Week, and every year we do a proclamation honoring Affordable Housing Week.

We have worked closely with the community members who are celebrating this week, including the Housing Development Consortium.

of Seattle-King County.

This proclamation is a powerful statement.

So thank you again, colleagues, for considering this statement yet again this year to recognize that everyone deserves access to a home, that everyone deserves access to a home to be healthy, and that that home should be affordable.

And when we create affordable, accessible, safe, healthy housing, it improves our social determinants of health.

This proclamation highlights the need for affordable housing throughout Seattle and King County, and it also complements the work that the Department of Commerce projects are investing in to ensure that by the year 2044, we meet our goals of having over 200,000 net new housing units for households at or below 80% of the median area median income.

It also notes that the effect of COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on low and moderate income households, and specifically our BIPOC communities as well, which have faced even greater financial restraints.

The proclamation emphasizes the benefits of affordable housing for all members of a community, including residents and businesses and employers.

This is good for the health of our population and the health of our local economy.

This proclamation calls for action.

for action from the City of Seattle to recommit to ensuring that all members of the community have access to that safe, healthy, and affordable home.

It highlights the critical role that affordable housing plays in creating equitable and healthy communities and emphasizes the need for continued efforts to address this important issue, not just this week, but every week of the year until we address this biggest crisis pressing on our region and, frankly, our nation.

Please join me and Mayor Harreld in signing the Affordable Housing Week proclamation.

And thanks to Erin House for coordinating with the Housing Development Consortium folks as our housing lead and chief of staff, the housing director, Patience Malava and representatives from the affordable housing community, Madam Madam President.

They'll be with us virtually tomorrow to receive this.

So we'll get you those names in advance.

Right.

Is there any further discussion regarding Councilmember Mosqueda's proclamation, recognizing May 7th to May 13th as Affordable Housing Week?

I don't think anyone's going to object to that.

So with that, no further discussion.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation?

Councilmember Lewis?

Yes.

Councilmember Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

And Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Great.

We'll do the presentation tomorrow.

Thank you.

So that concludes our regular council business, and it looks like we're going to go into executive session here.

So let me read the correct language to bring us into executive session.

If there's no further business, we will move into our two executive sessions hearing no further business.

We will now move into executive sessions as presiding officer.

I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will convene in executive session.

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

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

A legal monitor, of course, is always present from the city attorney's office to make sure that we do not discuss questions of policy.

because those are for open session.

We have two of them and each should take 15 minutes.

Madam Clerk, I understand that we are looking at about 35 minutes for both and you would advise us on the time.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond that.

you