We are so pleased to host District Board's Budget Town Hall and grateful to have Mayor Durkan and Councilmember Pacheco here and thankful that they are considering our community feedback and their budget considerations.
I think it's really appropriate that we're having this discussion in the auditorium.
which was built in the 1920s.
There's been a hundred years of civil discourse in this room.
So I look forward to keeping the conversation going today as we plan for next year's future.
And I also can't think of a better morning to be having this discussion with Seattle's longest-standing farmers market.
We've got Jennifer in the back.
Going on outside, we had a UDP BIA community cleanup this morning and we have our summer's last park pop up being drizzled on a little bit happening outside with some of Seattle's finest artisans and performers.
So if you were looking for Marimba, it's not in here.
The U Heights vision is to be a place for all, and we're one of the few places in the city, except for maybe libraries, where so many diverse constituencies convene to learn, to grow, to go to school, to play, and to perform.
And it's an important part of our role to bring together our community for these important conversations that we're going to have today.
And it's so important that all of us participate in these processes.
So thank you so much for being here.
And these town halls are important dialogue to ensure that all our voices are heard.
So again, I want to thank our elected officials and city staff for being here today to give us that opportunity.
And now I have the pleasure of introducing Councilmember Pacheco, who really just dove right in to District 4 and got to know his constituents right away and get up to speed on our community needs.
He's partnered with U Heights on several projects.
And for those of you that had trouble getting up the stairs, he was very instrumental in getting us some recent funding for an elevator.
So without further ado, I'd like to introduce Councilmember Pacheco.
Well, thank you everyone for spending your Saturday morning with us, or Saturday afternoon with us.
I want to make sure that I go through the quick round of thank yous.
I want to thank Maureen.
Maureen, thank you for just providing us a space this afternoon and the inclusiveness of the University Heights Center, just because it's been a tremendous asset for the district.
And it's a center and a space that I know so many families and individuals throughout the district use for so many reasons.
That's why I was really excited and happy to champion the needs of the University Heights Center within the city.
I think the mayor and her team as well.
In this experience, I'm now five months into this eight-month public service assignment.
And so I really want to try to emphasize the need for collaboration throughout our city.
I've tried to take that approach in trying to where I can find those opportunities.
And so this is really what has been one such opportunity to really try to open up City Hall in that process for constituents so that we're all aware of just the choices that we make and the process by which we go through.
And so using this opportunity to highlight that process.
And then I really want to just walk through part of the program and kind of what we're going to be talking about today.
So I will speak really briefly about my internal budget process.
The mayor will speak about her thoughts and her vision for the budget as she's getting prepared to release her budget.
I don't want to spoil any surprises.
So she can outline her vision.
And then Ben Noble and Christian from central staff can outline the processes by which the executive branch and the city council go through in outlining how we're going to go through that in the next three months.
As I said, I've been going through this now month five of an eight-month public service assignment, and I came by way of first being a candidate, and I see a candidate here as well, and knocking on doors, and I had knocked on 2,000 doors And what I heard consistently across the district was a need and a desire to be heard.
And so we've opened up a district office here inside the University Heights Center to hear constituents as well as to take in your concerns and your priorities as I get ready through both, as I've gone through both the supplemental and get ready to go through the city annual budget process.
And so my staff and my team who have been here with me throughout most Fridays in the last four months have really been keeping track of what those constituent concerns are and how do we best reflect those values in our decision-making process as an office.
And so what I heard was, and I'm going to give on some broad three themes, just the need for housing in our city.
And so prioritizing the methods by which we collect money for affordable housing, but also the how do we house those who are currently experiencing homelessness.
Secondly, transportation.
We're a district that's very, very, very privileged by having three district, sorry, three, we'll have three light rail stations opening up in our district.
Making it as easy as possible to walk and bike to the light rail station is something that has been a priority and a focus in terms of where those resources are allocated as a city.
And then lastly, thinking about our issues around public safety, thinking about those issues around our infrastructure, our broader needs as infrastructure as a city.
And so we've been really keeping track of that as an office and really trying to identify those so that we're champions for them in this budget process, but can also transition those priorities over to the next district council member when this assignment is over.
So that said, I wanna be able to transition and give the mayor some time in a few minutes to outline her vision as well as her priorities.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to stand up just because I've been sitting a lot today.
First, thank you for being here.
And I really want to thank the council member and central staff for taking the time.
Since I've been mayor, one of the things I've really tried to do is get out of City Hall, into the neighborhoods, into communities, and have a whole series of forums and open houses.
So we bring City Hall to you.
We have Department of Neighborhoods here.
We have our Assistant Chief Adrian Diaz from Seattle Police Department, as well as the head of our North Precinct, Eric Sano, Captain Eric Sano.
You'll see a lot of different people here from the city.
We know that, how many people in this room actually grew up in Seattle?
That's more than most rooms I get in.
One of my favorite things I did during the campaign is I said to people, I said, OK, raise your hand if you are just tired of Seattle growing.
You just want to take a pause, no more growth for a while.
Of course, almost every hand went up.
And then I said, keep your hand up if you were born here.
Almost every hand went down because Seattle has always been that place that has grown but what we have seen is growth that is unprecedented.
We have seen our city grow so quickly and so rapidly and change so fast and some of that growth has been great.
I tell you I have the opportunity to work with mayors from all over the country and they envy the level of employment we have and the diversity of our economy.
There was one week where I was able to announce just literally thousands of jobs.
But with that opportunity has come enormous challenges.
The first one is that prosperity has not been shared.
It's not been shared.
Most of those jobs, high-paying jobs, are part of what we call the new economy, a new economy that has not been inclusive, that is quickly leaving too many people behind.
But with those influx of people also has come, as you know, it's just too expensive to live in Seattle anymore.
People can barely afford to stay in their houses if they have them because property taxes and other costs are going up.
And people who don't have homes, they can't afford to buy a home here.
They can't afford to rent.
It's more and more expensive.
And we've seen as we've taken up all of our housing that our homeless problem has increased.
And people experiencing homelessness has increased throughout our region and the whole West Coast.
So we know we've got this challenge to make Seattle more affordable.
We have to do it not just at every level of government but we have to find ways to pull everybody in the community in to help in that.
This summer we've been announcing we call it our summer of housing.
We have been really focused on trying to find how much investments and unprecedented investments and tools we can use to create more affordable housing.
And not just deeply affordable housing for people who are some of our poorest and most disadvantaged, but for middle class housing.
Because we know that our teachers, our firefighters, our nurses, they can't afford to live in Seattle anymore.
So we've worked with Olympia to try to find some tools we didn't have before.
For example, we got the law changed.
Many people didn't know it, but you, if you live in Seattle and are a taxpayer, you own City Light.
It's an amazing thing to own your own utility that owns a dam, owns property, has a whole sales power on the market.
But it's property because of old laws.
Though we owned it, we could not use it for other public benefits.
We would have to pay for the value of that property.
We passed a law saying, let's put public land to work for the public.
And so this week, I was able to announce two parcels of City Light property that were going to be used for affordable ownership opportunities in Seattle.
Infini-Ridge and other places, high-opportunity neighborhoods where people have been locked out.
So we know we want to put our land to work to provide more housing opportunities.
We announced the sale of a big piece of property in downtown Seattle, and we're going to be able to unlock so many opportunities through the sale of that.
First, that site itself will have affordable housing on it.
The developers will pay for a new community center that we can use into perpetuity forever.
That's easy for me to say.
And then we're also going to be able to have investments to improve transportation.
We know we need to do more.
We've been generous.
We passed a tax on ourselves to improve transportation.
But if you drive or walk or bike or roll in Seattle, You know that we've fallen too far behind.
And if we want to meet our goals of being a city in the future that is a thriving, diverse city open to everybody in Seattle, then we've got to do a bunch of things.
Number one, we've got to make Seattle more affordable.
We have to do it at every level we can.
In a government, that means figuring out ways that we have more ways to give seniors and people who are experiencing homelessness and even people who are poor breaks on their utility bills, breaks on other government services.
We created a portal so everyone knew what was available to them.
Create more housing.
Create as much housing as we can in every part of the city.
improve transportation, but we have to make sure that as we're improving our transportation, we're moving to green transportation.
If you look in the city of Seattle right now, the largest two contributors to our greenhouse gases is our transportation system, primarily cars.
And second is our buildings, our inefficient buildings.
So we're taking new investments to make sure that we make our buildings more and more efficient and more green and have a program to do that.
We're also trying to move people out of single occupancy vehicles and make it easier for people to bike and walk and roll.
And when we have those light rail stations here to move people out of cars onto transit and onto light rail.
We want to have more bus lanes.
We know how frustrating it is for people to be on buses and have them sit.
We need more bus lanes.
And we need everyone in this room, if you've ever ridden a bus or you ride a bus regular, this year we need you in Olympia, because we need bus lane enforcement.
I don't know how many people saw the thing of the woman herself who stood in the bus lane and was making cars get out.
Her name's Erin.
Let's hear it for Erin, right?
But why do we need Aaron to do that?
You know, if we could put down motorcycle cops, but then they stop the traffic, too.
It is 2019, almost 2020. We can use camera enforcement, but we need Olympia's authority.
I want to get that for us.
So we want to increase the amount that we have of transit.
We want the transit capacity to be there.
We want to make it.
a connected bike plan so people can ride their bikes throughout Seattle, and we want to make it better for pedestrians.
We have fallen behind on our Vision Zero goals.
We need to do better as a city.
So our budget, you're going to hear about the process, wants to reflect those values that we have in Seattle.
Number one, basic city services.
We saw how important those were last year when we had our big snowstorms.
We need to be able to deliver basic city services to every person in Seattle.
The second thing we have to do after that is we have to align our budget with our values.
We have to make sure that we have public safety, but public safety is not just hiring more police officers and paying them like we should, which we have to do.
It also means we invest in those programs that are preventing criminal conduct, providing opportunity or diverting people from the criminal justice system.
And when people do commit crimes, we need to have interventions that are more holistic than just incarceration.
We need a spectrum of programs to deal with that situation.
I see people here from LEAD today.
It's one of the programs that we know that if we utilize it correctly, we can actually intervene in people's lives much more cheaply than incarceration, provide longer term successes.
So we need public safety, but that doesn't just mean police officers.
It means investing in community and opportunity.
We also are gonna push forward, this will be the first year that we're fully implementing our Seattle Promise program and our preschool program, thanks to people who voted for the levy.
So in our budget, we'll be supporting that program and you'll see the things.
We're going to have up to 24 more preschool programs based on our levy this year, this fall.
1,000 kids served ready to go to school.
And for the first time, every senior in the Seattle Public Schools is eligible for two years free college.
Two years free college.
And not just college, but navigators and counselors to help get them ready and grab them when they land.
And then we're going to raise money to support those other services.
So if a kid needs transportation or books or childcare, that we'll have those wraparound support services.
And then our Office of Economic Development, our Department of Neighborhoods and others are going to work together to make sure that every kid coming out also has a chance at the great jobs we have here.
So starting in high school, getting them ready, and when they're in those two years of college is getting them internships and jobs.
We did a pilot this summer where we took 30 students from the Seattle Promise Program and got them placed in everything from labor union apprenticeship programs to Amazon to Expedia.
With jobs and experience, we want to unlock the potential of Seattle for Seattle.
And we know that we are at a very critical time.
Our country is in a dark, dark place.
Our city has to lead the way on so many things.
Our budget, you'll hear about the process and how it's going to line out.
But really, as Councilman Pacheco told me, our budget is a values document.
And I will tell you, it has been a pleasure to work with him.
You would never know that he's a short timer.
He has district hours.
He's one of the only ones asking for one of these forums.
So I can ask questions, he can ask questions.
But the other thing is, every single time I meet with him and I meet with council members every month, he has a list of things he needs for this district.
And that's based on what he's hearing from you.
So thank you for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Hi, my name is Ben Noble.
I'm the city's budget director.
I should take just a few minutes to give you a little background on the budget, but move quickly to your questions.
So the city has roughly a $6 billion budget.
That's a really big number.
A good deal of it is actually the city's financial commitment to its utilities.
So I'm not sure everybody thinks about it or realizes it, but Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities are key city functions that are part of the city government and they each are over a billion dollars a year.
So of that six billion, nearly half is actually the utilities.
The part of the budget that it offers the most flexible funding and over which there are in some ways the most, the deepest discussions is the general fund.
The general fund is almost a billion and a half, about 1.4 billion.
Again, a really big number.
That's the part of the city government that's funded by your taxes as opposed to like your utility fees.
So things like the property tax, sales tax, there's taxes on utilities, and then also our business tax.
And together, that's about, as I said, about a billion and a half.
On the expenditure side of that, again, this is the flexible part of the budget, fully half of that is dedicated to public safety, to the police department, to the fire department, and to a much smaller extent, the court system in the city as well.
So again, of that flexible money, about half is for public safety.
The other key components of the budget, and both Councilmember Pacheco and the mayor have mentioned them, are the voter-approved levies.
So over the past, I've worked for the city for 19 years, and over that time period, voter-approved levies have become an ever more important part of our funding.
And that has to do with a law that got passed some time ago, one of the IMIN initiatives, that restricted how much property tax could grow simply by a vote of the city council.
It now requires for significant growth in property taxes, you have to have a vote of the people.
So we now, over time, in response to that, we've established the housing levy and it has grown, the families education and preschool levy, just most recently the library levy that was approved that provides dedicated funding for those specific services.
And in the budget process, those monies are restricted for those purposes, but part of what we determine is what particular programs and types of services does that funding get directed to.
In terms of process, I do the budget all year long.
We're on a calendar year budget, so run January to December.
And we start up actually building the next year's budget right away.
When we come back from the holidays, beginning of January, we immediately start a dialogue with the departments about their potential needs for the following year.
And we gather that information and share it with the mayor.
And at the same time, the mayor is out, as she described, all the time, hearing from you about your needs and concerns.
And I can assure you, she passes those on to me as part of this process, as it should be.
And so, and then the other key component to our process, because again, we're hearing the needs and the requests, the other key component is identifying what resources are available.
And the general fund, again, which is where much of the attention is focused, is heavily dependent on the local economy.
So sales tax and our business tax, which are half of that general fund, rise and fall with the economy.
Over the past decade, as we are now into 10 years of growth, we've seen that increase.
What's happened in the past few years is that that rate of increase has slowed.
But as the mayor has described, many people would be jealous of the level of economic growth we have.
It's caused significant complications and put increasing demands on city services as well.
But it's a quality problem to have if you're a budget director because we are at least in a growth period.
And again, I've worked for the city for a long time.
I've seen the downsides as well.
In that kind of a budget scenario, we're often talking to the departments about, okay, how can you reduce expenditures?
and then end up in a dialogue with communities about what that's gonna look like and what that's gonna mean.
So we continue our process and we're balancing our proposed budget against this revenue forecast.
And we update that revenue forecast twice a year.
We're just now getting the results of that final update.
And we will, the mayor will be sending her proposed budget to the city council towards the end of this month.
September 23rd to be precise, at which point the process shifts to the city council.
And with that very nice transition, I will hand it to Kirsten Aristad to describe to you the council's process.
Thank you, Ben.
Hi, I'm Kirsten Aristad and I work for the city council as its director and I lead a team of approximately 18 nonpartisan analysts who work with all nine council members while also looking out for the interest of the council as a whole.
I would like to just talk about the council's primary role with regard to this budget.
One is that the council sets the city's overall policy direction, okay, the overall.
That doesn't mean that the mayor does not have lots of proposals and she sends, she's very busy and she has sent many, many pieces of legislation for the council to consider.
But the other thing that the council does is also holds the power of the purse, meaning that not one dime can be spent until the council appropriates the money.
So once the mayor proposes the budget, it comes to council, as Ben mentioned, on September 23rd, and we begin the process of evaluating that budget proposal and also through a variety of communications with the executive, the mayor, the departments, with the community, with others, they begin, the council members begin to evaluate and analyze the proposals or the budget relative to its overarching policies with regard to the city.
So we often get lots of questions about the budget process in terms of the calendar years, what's adopted, what's endorsed, I'm confused, even years, odd years, and so I just wanna clarify that for you all today.
In the even number years, excuse me, the city adopts, I mean, works on a budget that spans two years, so in even number years.
The first year is the year that is adopted, meaning that that is the budget that has the legal appropriations that authorizes the city departments to spend the money.
The second year budget is an endorsed budget, which is kind of a placeholder.
It helps the city, the departments and others kind of plan for not just one year, but future years.
So that's really helpful.
And that second budget is not legally enforceable, but it's extremely helpful to have.
because as the mayor has done, she will take that endorsed budget, use it sort of as a base along with Ben and his CBO team and begin looking at her priorities, the department's priorities, the city's priorities and make amendments to that endorsed budget.
Once that budget, the amended endorsed budget comes to city council, the city council will do exactly the same thing.
But what we do separately is hold conversations very publicly, so in committee meetings, at the budget committee meetings, at full council, and in public hearings.
I think that what's important to note is that there are lots of competing interests and the mayor, you know, has to take the first stab and that's a really hard heavy lift.
And when the council comes they too have it.
But the heavy lift here is that we've got nine individuals who all have different priorities.
So the budget chair Sally Bagshaw council member Sally Bagshaw and I will work closely with council members and with the public in determining what the city's priorities are.
But where the public comes in, the residents of Seattle, is through a number of avenues.
One is to talk with your district council member, Council Member Pacheco.
You can also talk to the at-large council members, Council Member Lorena Gonzalez and Council Member Teresa Mosqueda.
you can attend the budget committee meetings.
And usually at the beginning of those committee meetings, we hold a public comment period of 10 to 20 minutes depending on the volume of the attendees.
And just know, you know, it's helpful to know that we usually give between one and two minutes.
So if you could prepare your comments in advance so that we can hear all that you have to say.
Another opportunity for the public to participate in the council's budget process is the public hearings that we hold in October, early in October, which is helpful to council members as they work with departments.
Departments will come in and give presentations, answer questions.
We will shoot written questions and they will shoot written answers back.
So that's really helpful at the beginning of the month of October.
Then towards the end of October, we hold another one right before we start diving into the issues that have been raised either by my nonpartisan analysts on central staff, by the public, by council members, by their staffs, even by the executive, you know, the mayor and others.
So I think that I will close by just saying The process, while it is very open and transparent, and we try to be as flexible as possible, because our process is very short-lived, I think less than three months, as opposed to Ben's 12-month process, to get to your council members, to talk to the people, the decision-makers early on in the process is really, really beneficial.
Okay?
My name is Andres Mantilla.
I am the director of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
What's gonna happen here is you online submitted some questions and then today you submitted some questions as well.
A lot of them are related and so I've kind of gone through them in the best attempt to capture your feedback and I will be asking the questions of the panel and then we'll just keep going until we're able to.
Okay, so the first question has to do, with the issues of displacement, specifically residential and commercial displacement as growth continues to happen, especially in the U district and on the ave.
And so what plans or what can both the mayor and the city budget office do to address those effects?
So can I just take a first bet?
So This has been, I know, a very ongoing discussion for the city.
And so I want to kind of explain a little bit of my thought process.
Last year, well, the city first has a program called MHA.
And MHA, to try to give a high-level overview, in order for a developer to have higher or more density in a building or provide more height, they either build affordable housing on site or give money to the city for affordable housing.
Last year, the city collected about $13.6 million for MHA, if I'm not mistaken, approximately.
And one of the things that I try to think about is when the decisions that as our city grows, how do we build that fund for us to be able to leverage for other opportunities to build affordable housing?
And it's something that I've taken in consideration in terms of the votes that I've taken in the time that I've been on the council.
And I know that in this district, the regards to the up zone of the ave, it's a decision that I will not be making, but I know that the next district four council member will be inheriting that decision as well as the mayor's office.
And so I just wanna be able to provide that overview of what the funding for MHA goes to.
and why I've made decisions in the past as well as what I would hope that next district council member makes and considers in the future.
Thank you.
A couple of things on that.
So I think we've touched on a couple of things.
I'll try to keep it focused on the you, but generally we know right now there's a tension between the need for more housing and more affordable commercial space and need and desire to keep things the same.
And we know that as we up zone, it requires us to replace old structures often because we just don't have that much open space left in areas.
We have to grow as a city.
We are landlocked, so we know we have to go up.
But that doesn't mean we end the discussion about displacement.
I've done a number of things since I've been mayor, working with the city council.
One, I have an executive order that says that when we build affordable housing, we are going to give those people from the community and the neighborhood first shot at that affordable housing.
Because we've seen with gentrification that people have been pushed out so rapidly from Seattle, particularly in South Seattle and our communities of color.
But it's happening everywhere as our city starts to grow and we start to rezone.
We know we'll see in university district that people may be displaced before we can have the replacement affordable housing.
So we have to balance that.
The second thing we have to do is really look at affordable commercial space.
Small businesses, artists, non-profits, they're getting pushed out of the city too.
And we don't want a city without that kind of dynamism.
So we have to be really conscious of it.
I know at the Ave right now, we're continuing the process on the environmental review.
There's going to be a lot of continuing discussions on how we do that up zone and whether we do the up zone and where it is.
I think we've got a lot of conversations that still have to occur.
Because as everyone knows, that area was carved out of the original up zone.
And I know there's lots of passions and probably ideas right in this room on that.
The one thing I know we can't do, we can't keep status quo.
You know, I spent my freshman year at UW.
I swear some of those same buildings were there when my parents went to the University of Washington.
And some of them we want to keep and we want to figure out how do we build around it in a way that keeps that area what it is.
But realizing, too, we've got to build this city for the future.
And it's going to look different than the city today, but it's got to be driven by the values that we share.
making sure Seattle's affordable, making sure that it's unique, keeping green space, keeping trees, having wide pedestrian concourses so people can walk safely, places for people to bike, and with the light rail coming, having that ease and proximity, making sure we have good transit-oriented development with affordable housing nearby.
OK.
Next question is having to do with Magnuson Park and specifically some of the buildings that need restoration there.
The question is about how do we continue to build up Magnuson Park including a space where it's outdoors for all especially those that are catering to the disabled community.
Mayor, I know you've been working on this for a while, and I know there were some recent developments as well with regards to some of the affordable housing, but some of your longstanding vision within Magnuson Park.
Do you want to touch on this first?
So I think one of the things that makes Seattle special is we have some amazing parks.
I mean, just really spectacular in all parts of the city.
In Magnuson, we were so fortunate to have that property turned over to the city.
And any time you walk through Magnuson, you can see almost everything.
You see people with their dogs.
You see rugby.
You see cricket.
You see sailboats.
You see it.
But we have to make sure that that is unlocked for everybody.
So it means that we continue to preserve that space so that there's affordable uses, so that we continue to have people like Cascade Bicycles can still be there and make sure that there's a sales standpoint.
But also making sure that the community that is disabled and differently abled have access, because our parks are so special.
So we have to double down.
The other thing we have to do is make sure that we continue to have the right housing there.
I went to the opening of Mercy Housing two weeks ago now.
It was remarkable.
I had been able to go through those buildings when they were just ramshackle, fill of asbestos, things falling apart.
And they now are amazing.
homes, two and three bedroom homes for families, there's a preschool, there's child care, and it's right at one of the best parks in all of Seattle.
So I think we have to continue to remember that those parks really belong to everybody and we've got to find ways to unlock that access for everybody.
So I'm wary of grabbing the microphone, but I just want to say what I have seen over the now decade plus is somewhat unusual about the way we've taken on the redevelopment, if you will, of Magnuson Park.
And to me, it is a story of one successful partnership after another, some of them with nonprofits and some of them candidly with for-profit entities as well.
So there's a tennis center.
There is a soccer facility.
There is Sales Sandpoint.
And the most recent proposal for Outdoors for All would be another example of that.
And we've really needed that partnership because we got a tremendous asset when the park came into the city's ownership.
But again, from our budget perspective, we also took on a tremendous liability.
Those historic buildings are difficult and expensive to fix back up.
And again, it's one good partnership after another has really turned that into a tremendous regional facility.
So it's a really, for me, a great success story.
If I can just really quickly add one, recent success that we had in the supplemental budget, we worked with the University Food Bank to get a mobile food bank because we know we have a food desert in Magnuson Park as well, so that the families that are, low-income families that are there that are struggling are able to access healthy resources and work in partnership with the E-District Food Bank.
And so that was another opportunity, I think, when we describe partnership, of really bringing resources together for the families that are in Magnuson Park as well.
I know my predecessor, Rob Johnson, had also worked to make some improvements at Magnuson Park as well, and so I want to give him a bit of recognition and credit.
And so we know it's a process, but we know that we're collaboratively trying to work together to do more to improve the outcomes for families there.
Great.
The next question is about climate change and specifically addressing climate change policy in the budget and doing that by creating new green jobs as it relates to this new economy.
Mary, do you want to go first on this one or?
You go first.
Okay, I'll go first on this one.
Well, we recently passed the Green New Deal and one of the things that I'm very mindful of is that the world that we're going to inherit, and I always say this to folks, I don't only just have a responsibility to each of you, but I have a responsibility to your kids and your grandkids.
And we on the council and through numerous committee assignments, I'm consistently told about what Vision 2050 is going to be like.
And I'm always challenged with what is that world of tomorrow going to look like?
I've made numerous statements to both my colleagues and folks throughout City Hall of We're probably one of the, not just one of the wealthiest cities, one of the most educated cities in the country.
And I think that gives us the opportunity to really think about how we reshape our city in so many ways.
And in reshaping our city in so many ways, how do we create good jobs and move our economy to become a more green and just economy?
And so I say that because I think about those opportunities.
I'm mindful of that.
I reflect on that deeply in my thought process.
And I know we have a couple of bills that are coming up before the council in the next couple of weeks that might provide that opportunity.
And so it's something that I'm going to be looking at in terms of the language itself so that we're more specific and intentional about how we do that.
And again, the next council is going to have to continue that work.
And so my hope is that I can at least pass the baton and pass it better so that they carry that responsibility to each of you, but also to your kids and your grandkids.
I would concur with that.
One of the reasons I ended up running for mayor is leading up to the 2016 presidential campaign, we had a family gathering and I grew up, I was one of eight kids and our family gatherings can get a little bit boisterous.
And we were all at the table debating politics.
And my oldest son was there who was going to vote in his first presidential election.
And we were having a very heated debate among other topics.
One brother supporting Trump, one brother supporting Bernie.
I was supporting Hillary.
And I turned to my son and I said, well, what do you think?
And he looked at me and he said, you know, mom, things are so messed up.
I'm not sure they're going to get better until your generation dies.
He wasn't being funny.
It was the first words I thought of when this president was elected.
I thought, we're not done yet, but we have to be super intentional.
One of the things we have to be super intentional about is climate change.
It does not get the attention it deserves.
And it is one of those things that is barreling down on our planet and every generation that follows.
And so we know that our country has walked away from its obligations, which leaves it to states and cities.
I'm really proud of Governor Inslee of making sure that that issue was introduced into the presidential debate on the Democratic side.
But we on the locals, there's lots we can do here locally.
I see folks here for the Seattle for Green New Deal.
Thank you.
Keep pushing.
Keep pushing.
There's, you know, we've got to do little and we got to do big because we can't do enough.
So we've got to be very intentional through every department.
How do we really tackle this crisis today?
And how do we from small decisions like pea patches and rain barrels, which are really important, to keeping trees, to big things like how do we move our transportation infrastructure from one that is based on carbon and single occupancy vehicles to one that isn't and getting people out of those cars.
to making sure our buildings are more efficient, but as they get more efficient, we're making sure that we take that spare electricity and use it to replace carbon as quickly as we can.
So our budget will reflect a whole range of things on that, including, I know it's controversial in this district for some people, getting everybody to convert from home heating oil.
It's, you know, and we're going to put a tax on it, but we're going to use that tax to actually finance for people the transition if they can't afford it.
Because we know that that home heating oil into the future is one of the things that we've got to get off.
But we've got to do it in a way that respects that people who've been in their homes a long time, who perhaps are on a fixed income, can't afford to do it.
So use that money to actually finance that change.
So we're going to be looking at a whole range of things, big and small, to move that forward.
The next question has to do with transportation alternatives and how do we continue to fund excellent transportation alternatives for people who bike, walk, and use transit?
So I'm a council member that doesn't have a car and so I'm very mindful of my mobility options throughout the city.
And making it more accessible and thinking about how we get more folks out of a car and How does that, what does that mean in terms of us as a city and what projects and how we fund those projects?
I think it's one of the reasons that I'm a big proponent of scooters is because we know we can collect revenue and use the revenue to build more additional bike, scooter parking corrals.
We can use the revenue to try to fund more additional micromobility options for folks, low income families and such.
And so I think that's an opportunity for us as a city to look into.
But also thinking about those resources that we have right now through the Move Seattle levy, as well as next year when we have the renewal of the Transit Benefit District.
And so thinking about those options and how we look forward to the next council to hopefully continue that work and the legacy, so.
Great.
We're going to move over to the North Precinct and questions around public safety.
Questions around what's next for the North Precinct?
Is it necessarily a one-to-one replacement or can it be additional buildings?
Talking about the amount of land that SPD has to cover out of the North Precinct.
This decision both preceded me and will continue after me, so I want to make sure that I give some time to folks who might have a little bit more say in that process?
I think that the process is that we're still collecting information and receiving feedback from the community.
And there's a lot of controversy around this issue.
And for the council as a whole, the nine council members, there are lots of different positions on this issue.
And I think that we're doing our due diligence in order to collect the data and make a decision.
I will say we need a new building.
I mean, we need, if not multiple.
We are, the police in the North Precinct are busting at the seams.
You know, I was in that building when I was first appointed as a citizen observer of the Seattle Firearms Review Board in the early to mid 90s.
And they had a conference room and they had, you know, a whole range of things.
Well, those things are all gone now because they're all being utilized for rooms for the police.
We also know because of how our city is growing, it just takes too long to get east-west.
And we want to make sure that our response times keep up with what we need in a growing city.
So it's under discussion.
We will have a proposal.
And we're still in the process of getting input from all the parts of the community to make sure that we right size it and get it right this time.
and have enough engagement so that it doesn't become just a point of controversy, but becomes a point of people saying, this is what Seattle's about, future.
And this is what the city of the future needs to know, because as we've grown, we've got to be able to have those public safety response times.
If I can just really quickly add, one thing we have done, and we did this in the last couple of months, was to provide the expansion for the current facility in the interim.
And so you'll be seeing over the next year the expansion of the current North Precinct facility and some renovations made so that we can add additional officers to the current North Precinct facility while the next council and the mayor work out those details so that, to the mayor's point, we can have improved response times as well as the adequate facility that the Seattle Police Department needs.
With the new regional approach to homelessness, what does that mean for funding for homeless shelters, specifically in the U District, and specifically to programs like REACH and the ULU?
So I will take a quick first bite at this.
One thing that my office has been engaged in was trying to work with the nonprofit partners that are underneath the church on 43rd and the Ave, as well as trying to figure out how we can We've been fortunate to find a new facility for the Roots Homeless Shelter and some of the services that are there today.
And we're working with those nonprofit partners to make sure that they have what they need to transition from that facility as that property goes for sale next year.
The second thing is I know in working with UDP, they are currently doing, some work in terms of assessing what displacement is happening with our nonprofit partners in the U District.
It's work that I will be able to try to support in the best of my ability in the next three months.
But I know it's work that will continue on with the next district council member.
And so I want to make sure that in the interim period that I have this public service assignment, that we're able to do everything that we can as a city to support those nonprofit organizations, because I know they're so vital to both the young people who are experiencing homelessness, as well as the community here at large in terms of District 4.
I agree with all of what he said, and I'll add, people asked, part of that was about the new regional governance.
One reason this is going to be so important to Seattle and to the region is, Right now, we have a very bifurcated and fractured delivery of homeless emergency response in this region.
The city of Seattle provides most of the dollars that go to our shelter system and our emergency crisis response, while the county provides most of the dollars that go for behavioral health responses, both addiction services and mental health.
Many times, we have multiple case managers for the same person or in and out of the shelter.
We don't really have not been able to have a holistic response.
If we have one place where everyone's under one roof dealing with people holistically, I think we will see both a more efficient and a more humane response.
And so the deal for this is we will still have the same way of deliberation the city side with the city council and the mayor creating a budget.
But the new regional system is its own legal entity.
The funding will come from the city of Seattle, but that legal entity will have to form its budget and its response.
and then have an up or down vote and there'll be elected leaders from the city and the county on the oversight to make sure that budget does reflect the values and needs of the area.
But what we'll try to do is protect the governance of it, the actual decisions on what we need to do from just some of those political winds that sometimes blow through each of the political seasons when we're forming the budget.
So that's the goal.
The next question is about healthy food access.
As both federal dollars have become less for healthy food programs, how will the budget continue to support things like Fresh Bucks and farmers markets?
So I'll say something really briefly.
You know, when I was running for office, I had an opportunity to be in the car with my mom.
This is when we had the old district food bank.
She had said to me one time as we were driving, she pointed towards the food bank and she said, mijo, I don't know where this road takes you.
She's like, but don't you ever forget that that's where it started.
And I'm very much mindful of how my family grew up on food banks and how dependent we were, which is why I was an advocate and really a strong supporter of trying to make sure that we had the mobile food bank for the families in Madison Park.
We know that this has been an issue of, I would say, you know, broader conversation in the city.
But it's something that I think all of us at City Hall are very much mindful of.
just how do we best provide the resources that our families need, but we know as we kind of go in through the budget that these are going to be difficult decisions and difficult decisions that quite frankly, you know, I will be personally mindful of those lived experiences that I had to try to do what I can to make sure the families who are struggling the most have what they need to make sure that they don't go hungry.
Because I can tell you, going to bed hungry is not a good feeling.
But I'm mindful of champions and advocates who have done so much work on behalf of families like mine.
And so it's something that I'm mindful of as I will go through that budget making process myself.
So I don't.
Just to echo what he said, we've got to keep up the programs and find ways to expand them when we can.
And I mean, the data's clear, and if you're a mom, you would say, duh.
But access to healthy foods is a life outcome determiner.
We know it makes a difference, not just for children, but for young adults and seniors.
So we have to, you know, if you see the Fresh Buck program and expansions of farmer markets, it's not just healthy foods.
You walk out here today, again, if you haven't already been there, Everybody has a happier look on their face because they have access to that kind of community and food.
So I think we really have to intentionally increase that.
The sweetened beverage tax has given us new opportunities, as we know, and while there was lots of debate, no one has a debate about what we need to do with that money.
I think the biggest debate is gonna be is, is the tax too low?
Because remember, it was predicated on trying to get people not to have the sugary drinks, but now it's creating so many revenues for the positive things, there's gonna be a real debate for people on, should we keep that tax high and just funnel the money back into the communities?
I think that's where we are, but we have to make sure those communities that have the least access to healthy foods have more access.
We just have to do it.
Great.
It looks like we have one more question here and then our time will be up.
I'm going to shift back to pedestrian safety for our last question.
Especially as the light rail is coming in and new connections and sidewalks and pedestrian walkways and crosswalks are needed.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Sure.
Again, this is because of the light rail expansion and the light rail opening.
It's been a personal priority as well as what I've heard throughout the district of making it easier to, as I said earlier, to walk, bike, and as the mayor says, roll to the light rail.
And so in priorities that I have outlined and heard from constituents, in the master spreadsheet that my team has been keeping a good track of, amazing, not good, an amazing track of, It's something that I will be looking to champion as well as looking to prioritize as we go through the budget process.
And I know that SDOT has, we have many needs throughout our city, more needs than probably we can fill.
But we're gonna make sure that we can keep a focus on those priorities that are within this district that make it easier to walk, bike, and roll to the light rail so that many families, individuals can get there as safely as possible.
I just want to add one thing.
I agree with everything you said.
The other thing we have to always remember is we have to, as we do that, also make sure that it's accessible for with people with different abilities.
We have, we're, we fell way behind on that in our city, both just in terms of ramps, but also making sure sidewalks were clear.
There was easy ways for pedestrians, but also for people with wheelchairs or people who are differently abled.
And so as we plan these sites and we have the ability to build, rebuild every part of Seattle, let's really do it so that it's accessible for everyone.
I had someone visiting recently and they said, you know, Seattle's a pretty cool town.
Too bad you're tearing it all down.
And there's a little bit of truth in that.
You know, we're rebuilding everything, but as we rebuild, let's make sure we build the city we want.
I want to just thank everybody and just quickly remind everybody that we actually have participatory budgeting happening right now.
You get to vote on how $2 million will be spent specifically on different projects in District 4. And you have until September 30th to do it.
You can just go over to the table where Laura Jenkins is showing you where to vote.
But you can vote up to three projects.
And you have to.
Not three votes.
Not three votes.
Three projects on one ballot sheet.
But remember, you have to sign it or else we can't count it.
Okay.
So thank you so much.
If I can just really quickly wrap us up.
So I really want to spend a minute to recognize my team and the mayor's team for putting this together.
But one individual in particular she has not only been.
a friend, a work colleague, and like a sister to all of us in the office, Jerry Morris, who has served.
Her last day, her dedication to this district, her last day was yesterday.
And she's here today, and this was her final event to put together.
But she has not only served me, but my predecessor, Councilmember Johnson, And her impact and her work can be felt all through at this district, not just in the event today, but in the elevator that will be coming in here in the University Heights Center, the mobile food bank that I spoke about that we were able to get through the supplemental budget.
So many of the community programs that are here in this district, Jerry Morris has been behind a lot of that, and I want to make sure that she gets the recognition she deserves because, you know, so many days are in public service are early mornings, long nights, and it's the work that people don't see, and I think I just really want to express my gratitude for your friendship and everything that you've meant to the office, Jerry.
And to all of you, part of the reason we did this was because the values that I, as I said, you know, I feel like my story has been wrapped in this district, and I didn't realize until I had to get outside of this district to go to City Hall.
But from Wedgwood to Wallingford, Ravenna, UW, that was my bubble for the last, I'm coming up on my nine-year anniversary.
And the values that I will take forward through this budget process are the values that have given, me the opportunity from so many of you and Jerry as well and the support of my team and so I really wanted to open up that budget process so that all of you are able to see what that process is like and also understand that the nuances, the decisions that we have to make at City Hall.
And so thank you all for being here.
Thank you all for spending your afternoon.
Please take time to get a refresher, meet with your department neighborhoods, some of the city folks, SPD, budget staff, as well as my team in District 4 so that your voice is heard through the process.
And again, thank you for being here.
Thank you, Mayor Durkin, for being here as well.
The mayor's time is very precious, so thank you.
And thank you Andres and budget staff as well for helping us be here.