Parks, Public Utilities & Technology Committee 5/28/2025

It is 2.03 p.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, chair of the committee.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

I will call the roll.

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Rivera?

Present.

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Chair Hollingsworth, I am here.

There are five present.

On the agenda today, we are looking at potentially passing five ordinance, including three ordinance packages from SPU.

We're starting with Memorial Stadium, and the committee will decide on the executing various interlocal agreements on...

for Memorial Stadium, which we're really excited about.

We also will consider Seattle's IT formal cable franchise renewal proceedings with Astound.

The resolution we vote on today will pertain to the implementation process.

authorization and implementation process.

And lastly, SPU is back for a decision on a three ordinance package of the legislation to increase system development charges, also known as utility connection fees, and their intent to use the additional revenue to cost sharing in utility projects with some developments require to build.

We're going to address any outstanding questions before we vote.

on the ordinance, including the two amendments as well.

So we do have two amendments to that ordinance.

We are gonna now consider the agenda, and if there's no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

Now we're gonna have public comment, and then I'll share my comments.

Chair's comments for after public comment.

We're gonna have public comment, so we're gonna open up the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or be within the purview of the committee.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have?

Currently we have three in person and two remote.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Everyone's going to get two minutes and the public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

I'm going to read the instruction.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered on the council's website and the signup sheet available here in council chambers starting with in-person speakers first.

If you have not registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment period on the council's website.

The link is listed in today's agenda, or you can sign up on, or you can do it on the signup sheet.

When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

Speakers will hear a chime with 10 seconds are left with the allotted time.

So remember that chime is not the end of your time.

You still have 10 seconds.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call the next person so we make sure that everyone has the same allotted time.

The first speakers for in-person public comment will be, I'll have our clerk call those folks and we will get started.

Thank you.

First speaker for in-person public comment is Alex Zimmerman followed by Alan Newstead.

Mr. Zimmerman, just a reminder, we are not doing the Z Kyle and Nazi sign

Yeah, I make requests to clerk, you know, what is mean about what is you talking.

So right now they're supposed to be giving the answer why it's going on and who's liar.

Yeah, I only want to understand who's liar.

I just can't, we consider the Nazi sign a hate speech and we're not going to sit for that.

I have everything right now, complain a week ago.

So we're looking what the clerk will be answering.

Can we start the timer?

Don't worry.

We'll answer.

We'll look at what's happened.

Okay.

Stop the timer, Mr. Zimmerman.

That is hate speech, and we're not going to tolerate that.

So can you continue your comments?

I don't understand why you mean hate speech.

U.S.

Supreme Court for many years talk.

You can do in everything.

What is I doing?

Where is the problem?

And I give this to you before.

So why you interrupt me?

In talking about Jew in Seattle, Jew don't have Seattle, Jew have only Judas.

I seek from this.

So I want to speak about this, because it's very important, because I want to speak about school.

You spend a million and million dollars for stadium, for make happy people who fun, is this fun, but as you fix this stadium, will become corporation who sold ticket.

So children have a problem to us.

You spend a million, million for stadium.

And I talk about this many years ago.

Fun, football fun, one, fix the stadium, open a bank account, put money in doing this.

Why you take money from children?

You are a real Nazi pig.

That's exactly who you are.

And number two is about Comcast.

It's absolutely idiotic situation.

They charge...

For people like me, 40 bucks per month for internet only.

I disable low-income men, and I cannot do nothing, and I talk about Comcast around all consul, you know what it's been, 100 times.

They supposed to be doing, you so dirty, you're not stupid, you care only about your present here, this is what I mean.

When you make decision about 10 bucks and corporation will be paid additional money, everybody will be happy.

You don't want doing this, it's very simple.

By definition, you are a real bandita, you understand?

A Nazi pig, a mafia, that's exactly who you are.

You not care about this.

Viva Trump, viva new American Revolution, stand up, idiota.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Next speaker is Alan Newstedt, followed by Will Ludrum.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time today.

I'm joining, I've emailed several on this committee already, raising awareness of what we think is a pretty simple issue of lack of tarps for our baseball and softball fields across the city.

talking amongst communities of parents and leagues, the softball leagues, the baseball leagues, high school, the league across the board.

We're a city that rains.

We all know this.

No one's asking for the council to deal with the rain.

But when it rains, unfortunately, our fields, except for the ones that have been invested in heavily with advanced tarps, are out for a day, two days.

We get one rainstorm.

A whole Saturday is canceled.

I'm not looking for some magical handout.

I think there's ample money within the park's budget and the various investments that have been made.

We're looking just to raise awareness to say there's a missing link here between rebuilding a new stadium or rebuilding a field.

Those are great investments for the city.

But let's look at the practical little solutions.

Oh, I'm not out of time yet, am I?

Let's look at practical little solutions.

If we can procure some tarps, raise some attention from the Parks Department.

Frankly speaking, not looking for the Parks Department to administer at all.

You have volunteer parents, you have volunteer leagues.

The community is well engaged to work with the parks on this issue.

Come up with creative solutions, enable volunteers.

At the end of the day, all we would want is for our kids to have access to those fields, play their games, not have to stack up with double headers and multiple other pieces or lose games, all because we're sort of being penny wise, proud and foolish.

So I recognize this committee ultimately has a responsibility to the Parks Department.

I appreciate you raising the issue with them, and hopefully they'll be engaged with us to come up with solutions.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

William Ludlam.

Council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Will Ludlam, and I currently serve on the Seattle Center Advisory Commission.

On behalf of the commission, I want to start by thanking you all for your continued support and engagement in the evolution and success of Seattle Center as a cultural and civic heart of our community.

from the successful redevelopment of Climate Pledge Arena to ongoing programs with our resident organizations like KEXP, the Rep, the Ballet, the successful Folklife Festival that we had this last weekend.

Your continued support for our important community gathering place is greatly appreciated.

Today, I'm here to express the Advisory Commission's strong support for advancing the Memorial Stadium Redevelopment Agreement.

This project is transformational.

It's an investment that is not only in a new stadium, but for a new stadium for the Seattle Public Schools in our community, but in the very heart of Seattle Center.

It unlocks acres of new green and open space, improves walkability, reconnects the campus from the east to the west, linking McCaw Hall, the Armory, and the International Fountain to the campus edge on Fifth Avenue, helping to fulfill our Century 21 strategic master plan.

It allows for better integration of events, public life, and cultural experiences across the site.

We believe this will be a catalyst for more vibrant and inclusive programming, including families, students, and visitors alike.

The shared vision between the city, the school district, and our philanthropic partners ensures public access and the legacies are honored.

With your support, we can move forward with a stadium that reflects our values and serves our youth in the entire city for generations to come.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

We will now move to the remote public comment.

Once your name is called, please press star six to unmute.

First up is Colleen Kinzilove.

Hi, my name is Colleen Kinzilove.

I am calling to speak in support of relocating the follow-up event for the May 24th prayer rally in Cal Anderson to Magnuson Park.

The mayor's office, the Seattle Police Officers Guild, and local faith leaders have spoken against the circumstances of the previous event, and I and many others in the LGBTQ community think that a different context would reduce the risk of violence, arrest, and burden on the Seattle Police Department.

That's all, thank you.

Thank you, Colleen.

Last speaker is David Haynes, please press star six.

All right, David Haynes, why didn't the mayor and the council, especially District Seven, ask the Kraken to help finance the Memorial Stadium?

I thought they were supposed to be more of a benefit for Lower Queen Inn to be redeveloped proper instead of the same slums with a different neon sign that really didn't benefit the community as much as it was supposed to.

And, you know, I think they get like $100 million in tax-free money or tax discounts or something.

That doesn't seem right.

We don't need to revisit that.

That said, I'm starting to think that there's some real district leaders who don't have the best interests of community, but they got self-healing interests.

And I want to know where is the law that puts an end to the LBGQT community's masturbation and nakedness that wants to take their private personal lust and dump it onto the whole of community publicly displaying themselves bothering children and adults.

Where is that, huh?

I don't see any rush for that.

I see a capitulation to the same mean-spirited evil voting block.

Yet council has introduced a significant amount of amendments to water down the integrity of the ethics.

Because of self-dealing conflicts with landlord-tenant relations and family and personal investments.

So is council going to do anything about the rust in the park and take away the restrictions to prove that there isn't conflicts?

Or are you all just going to capitulate to your power mongering careers and not do the best for the community because you have selfish interests?

It's like we could go down the list of everybody who's listening to this and find out how many have a conflict and a watering down of the ethics that are undermining the integrity that justifies having a Department of Justice investigate the city of Seattle and all of their employees, whether they're the staff who are misleading when it comes to spending priorities and not being so detailed.

or the council and the mayor who have serious conflict that justify revolt because you're backstabbing the working class and you're perverting children's minds and bodies and you don't have the best interest of community.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

If there's no additional speakers who signed up online or in person, and I'm assuming there's none clerk, awesome.

We're gonna now proceed to our items of business.

And will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Council Bill 120982, an ordinance relating to the redevelopment and operation of Seattle Public Schools Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center, authorizing the mayor to execute an interlocal agreement with the Seattle School District, or SPS, for the joint redevelopment of Memorial Stadium and associated improvements benefiting the Seattle Center campus and a development agreement with Memorial Stadium redevelopment, MSR, providing for joint funding and design and construction of the new Memorial Stadium, authorizing the Seattle Center director and city budget director to negotiate for the mayor's signature, a five-year operating and maintenance agreement with MSR and SPS, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts for briefing and discussion and possible vote.

Awesome, well, thank you to our guests.

We're looking forward to the presentation today.

And I know this has been a long process and there's still more to go, but looking forward to this process that we have with council.

So please introduce yourself for the record and can jump right in.

Good afternoon, council members and Chair Hollingsworth, Marshall Foster.

I'm the director of Seattle Center.

David Kozman, Planning and Capital Development Director, Seattle Center.

Mari Harita, Seattle Crack and Winner Foundation, Memorial Stadium Redevelopment.

Fred Podesta, Chief Operations Officer, Seattle Public Schools.

Tim Burgess, Deputy Mayor.

Brian, good night.

Council Central Staff.

Awesome.

Thank you all for being here.

And you can just jump right in.

Great, thank you all so much.

Today what we're gonna do is provide you a few updates following our briefing two weeks ago, and thank you again for your time on the 14th.

And I'll let David Kunzelman do that, and then we're gonna have our principals from the three major partners all provide you with some comments on the partnership and the next steps to come.

All right.

Thank you, Marshall.

Just sharing a few things that have happened in the two weeks since we saw you last.

In addition to activity here at the city, the school district has also been busy.

You're going to hear from Fred Podesta, but on the 14th of May, same as our committee meeting, they also introduced the project and agreements to the school board.

Also wanted to highlight a couple things that are happening on the permit side.

So we, of course, are far along in the design and happily in the permit process as well.

We were excited to receive on May 5th our DNS, Determination of Non-Significance, from SDCI.

which that was shared and posted along with the agenda materials.

And then also just as excited to share that we received no appeals.

So we are at the end of the appeal period and have not received any of those.

On the landmarks side of things, we have taken the memorial wall through that process.

And we just recently were in front of the landmarks preservation board.

and we're excited to receive a unanimous granting of the certificate of approval.

So we're well on our way with the design that we discussed with you regarding the wall two weeks ago.

What we really wanted to do today was not go back through everything that we shared before, but really just give you that recap, but also let you hear from our partners.

So as we talked about, we have a very unique public-private partnership.

We're very excited about all of our partners and couldn't have asked for a better team to bring this together.

So we're going to start with Fred Podesta and let you hear directly from each of them.

Thank you, David.

Thank you, council members, for your time.

I want to thank the city team and the One Roof team for the great partnership that we've enjoyed so far.

As David mentioned, our district team introduced a potential partnership to the school board on May 14th.

They were very enthusiastic.

We reminded the school board that in many ways this is an extension of a partnership we've had for many, many years.

The land that the stadium resides on was conveyed to the district for $1 in 1946. The stadium was built with proviso on the deed that we always use the facility for student athletics if it stays in district ownership.

Memorial Stadium has been a site for scholastic athletics and community events in all that time.

We're grateful to redevelop it with the city again as a partner, kind of formalizing an arrangement that we've had for decades, and the introduction of One Roof as a private partner.

to help facilitate and professionalize that community use of the facility.

Memorial Stadium is well-loved by Seattle Public Schools and gets used by lots of students, but there is capacity that goes unused for community use, but that's not really the school district's business, so we're grateful to have partners in the city and in One Roof to help make Memorial Stadium a student asset and a community asset.

I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has, but again, the district is all in, and the board should finalize its deliberation by June 4th.

Maureen?

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to present today and for the many ways that each of you has helped us get to this very exciting moment.

Youth, hold high your torch of truth, justice, and tolerance, lest their sacrifice be forgotten are the words inscribed on the memorial wall outside the stadium above the names of the 762 students who gave their lives in defense of our country and our democracy nearly 80 years ago.

Words that most people can't see anymore because of the grime and dirt accumulated over nearly 80 years, but words that are perhaps more relevant now than ever.

The stadium for decades served our students and community well, but for the last 30 years has not only become outdated, but in dire need of replacement.

It is unwelcoming and unsafe for players and spectators alike, and it is a blight on the campus and the surrounding neighborhood.

And now finally, after decades of trying to solve this problem, we have a solution, thanks to the leadership of the Seattle Public Schools and the city, coming together with a vision and a plan.

And we at the Kraken and Wenruh Foundation are honored to be selected as the third partner to this cross-sector public benefit collaboration.

With only four seasons behind us, From the very start, the Kraken and One Roof have been committed to helping where we can and to creating a community where everyone, and in particular our youth, can thrive and find joy and opportunity.

We know how important Memorial Stadium has been to nearly eight decades of students, and we want to ensure it continues to play that same important role for the next generation and generations.

We have donated millions of dollars of in-kind support, made a $5 million lead gift, and raised an additional $25 million from companies, individuals, and foundations who share our love for the stadium and the city.

The new Memorial Stadium will be a symbol of unity and community, and a shining example of what we can achieve when we work together with a shared North Star.

Thank you again, and my colleagues and I are happy to take questions.

Mayor Burgess.

Yeah, thank you very much.

It's exciting for me to be here because we have been talking about this topic for 20-some years, if not longer.

And in late 2017, I had the privilege on behalf of the city to sign a letter of intent with the school district to start this process formally.

And the school board president at the time, Leslie Harris, played a key role in reaching that agreement.

And today, we're close to all of these efforts coming to fruition.

As you know, this is truly a public-private partnership.

The school district contributing $66.5 million, the city contributing $40 million, the one-roof stadium partnership and local philanthropists, as Mari just mentioned, contributing $30 million.

We are going to create a new state of the art community stadium to serve Seattle students and all of our community.

The city's investments in this arrangement are well protected because the one roof stadium partnership has agreed to carry all of the risks associated with a project of this nature and then to operate the completed stadium as a not for profit facility.

Unlike today, the new stadium will be fully integrated with Seattle Center.

We're gaining more public space and the new maintenance and storage facilities for the center, allowing the center to stop the off-campus lease that they have for those facilities, saving about a half a million dollars a year.

After you act on this legislation and the school board finishes their consideration in just the next two weeks, we will celebrate the wonderful groundbreaking for this new stadium on June 26. And you will all get an invitation to join the mayor at that event.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you all.

I just wanna hit on a couple of the points that were just made in terms of next steps.

We're sharing with you, as was mentioned, if we are to full council next week, if we're lucky enough to be there, we will be followed by the school board.

And school board also has a possible vote on their docket, and that is their regularly scheduled June 4th meeting.

And then the happy note that Deputy Mayor Burgess shared, we are working on an agenda of events during the day for June 26th.

The groundbreaking that was shared coming together nicely, 10 a.m.

in the morning, but also leading to a much larger open house and celebration.

And at this point, we're really thinking about the opportunity for the public to come back and see the stadium one more time.

We've heard lots of wonderful stories, lots of memories.

And so we have heard from a number of people who are looking for an opportunity to come and share those with their families.

So that's really the intent of that event.

We'll certainly be there to share information on the design as it sits now and what to expect during construction, but that should be an important day for all of us.

We will be following that immediately.

July 1st, we're anticipating our notice to proceed to begin the various elements that get us ready for demolition.

starting right in mid 25, which should have us at the finish line of construction by certainly by the end of 2027 with our goal to be done mid 27 and be ready for the.

And with that, we'll bring it to questions.

Awesome.

Thank you all so much.

We'll pause here to see if there are any questions.

I know that a lot of my council member colleagues had briefings and also we had you all come to committee for the last, came to committee the last committee.

That's not the proper English, but sounds good.

Council member Kettle, I see your hand is raised.

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

And I just wanted to take opportunity to first say that the 26th is already on my schedule, so it's been blocked off.

Don't tell the PSRC.

There's always a conflict with us, but this is so important.

And for me, it's been something, as you know, that I've been engaged on since January of 2022. So I just wanted to take the opportunity from that experience when I went to the site as a veteran, as part of the VFW Post 3063. Thank you to the school district, because the site at that point was in dire need of a lot of work to include cleaning up.

And Pat McCarthy and the team really took care of the trash and all those kinds of aspects of the challenge.

So I really appreciate that.

And I've said this before, but I want to take the advantage of doing it here on the dais.

Also, the Seattle side, the government side, you know, with Deputy Mayor Burgess and then Mr. Foster, Director Foster, you know, from the Mayor's Office and Seattle Center working together fixing the issues of this antiquated site.

And so I really appreciate that.

And it's really interesting now to be engaging with you from this perspective.

And then finally, I just wanted to give a really big shout out, particularly because I always listen to public comment and clearly the public comment today did not realize, didn't understand what One Roof Foundation is and what an incredible effort it's been to bring together the philanthropic community, the Kraken and the arena, but then the broader community coming together in support of this and rounding out and pushing over the top the ability to have an even better end result.

And so I just wanted to say thank you directly.

Please pass it to all those that you're working with.

Because it's incredible, and it's really nice to see such a partnership, you know, first with the city and the school district, but then also this public-private piece together.

So thank you very much.

And since Mr. Goodnight's at the end, I also want to say thank you for his great central staff briefing memo, backgrounder.

But since I've been engaged on this along the way, it's really a fantastic place to be right now.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle, and I apologize.

Brian, good night.

Would you like to say anything?

Give us any updates.

I apologize.

Thank you, Chair.

No additional comments.

Happy to respond to any questions, but thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Last time we were here, I provided a few remarks of how many hands it has taken to get us to where we are today.

I'll share it again today.

Many thanks to everyone at this table, everyone who wasn't able to attend committee.

It's really taken an amazing partnership across governmental jurisdictions.

It's really amazing, Fred and Deputy Mayor, the fact that The two of you have been working on this for I don't even know how long, really.

I mean, you said 20 years, but you signed that MOU when you were mayor.

I mean, the number of councils, the number of council members, the number of people that have their fingerprints on this work to get it across the finish line is truly amazing.

I'm very excited.

You know, there is that sentimental, well, we have so many memories in this building.

And I can say that it's time to also have a new place to have those memories.

I was lucky enough to be a Ballard youth soccer player walking across at halftime when the Sounders played there, listening to Tribe Called Quest and so many other musicians at Bumbershoot, getting to even this last year watch Ballard FC play there.

the memories will never fade.

And I think after walking down the very steep stairs that don't have hand railings this last year, it was a good reminder that it might be time to upgrade.

So I just wanted to share these thanks to you and to everyone else who's had their fingerprints on it.

And then also with Council Member Kettle, I was able, this last Monday, we celebrated Memorial Day and I was with some members of the local Ballard Eagles and VFW.

And they were sharing the story of Councilmember Kettle going down to the memorial wall and saying, this isn't good enough.

And so, Councilmember Kettle, even before you were a Councilmember, you've got your fingerprints here.

It's just, this is a good story.

I'm excited for the future.

Thank you for all your work.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

I'll pause for any other comments and then...

reflect on my own and then we'll jump to a vote.

So obviously, thank you, I know my colleagues, so I'm gonna chime in with the thanks, the Seattle Center, DM Burgess, the previous council members as well, Mayor's Office, the One Roof Foundation, you have been phenomenal partners in the Kraken and then also Seattle Public Schools as well.

Just thank you all for your partnership.

I think I'd share this with some folks, I got my first start at Memorial Stadium when I was an intern for Seattle Public Schools under the great Al Hairston, who's the athletic director for Seattle Public Schools.

And I did my internship there for a year.

And part of my internship was escorting the football teams into the stadium.

And I had a walkie-talkie that was glued to my hip.

And so I know that stadium inside and out.

I know where all the leaks are, all the dead bodies are.

I'm just playing.

Everything is.

And so it's really, the only question I have, are we gonna blow it up like we did the kingdom?

No, we're not, okay.

Well, that would have been kind of cool.

All right.

Well, thank you.

But thank you all for just obviously your partnership.

We know that this is the first of many and we still have a long way to go because we have to build the thing.

So this is only the admin piece.

So I'm gonna move that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120982. Is there a second?

Second.

There is a second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend the passage of council bill.

Uh, one two zero nine eight two.

Will the clerk please call the roll for the path.

Oh, council member.

No, I apologize before we go to a, I did not see your hand.

Council president Nelson.

Um, thank you.

And I'm sorry to ruin the flow.

I just want to note that this visual on this slide really does show, uh, the potential that is a, that's a major, asset in our city that has been, I said last time that I doubt that a lot of I think that probably a lot of people don't even know there is a stadium right there next to the Seattle Center, but this really does show a treasure or an asset that people, that we are fortunate to have and it's the redevelopment that will bring it to light and allow for much more uses.

And at some point I'd love to know, will the improvements allow for its use to be more often or for different things I don't have to talk about it right now, but I'm just really looking at this and excited about the potential that is being uncovered and let loose here.

So thank you very much for all of you working together.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council President.

And clerk, will you please call the roll on the committee recommendation of Council Bill 120982.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

There are five in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation will be sent to the Tuesday, January 3rd, 2025 City Council meeting and you'll also give Chris Daniels something positive to report on.

on his channel.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Now will the clerk read item agenda number two into the record?

Agenda item two, resolution 32171, commence astound cable franchise renewal for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Presenting as John Morrison winners from Seattle IT.

Awesome.

And so do...

Thank you, so we have Astown coming, or not Astown, sorry.

We have our IT coming, I apologize.

Please introduce yourself for the record, and we can jump right in.

Yes.

Thank you, Council Chair, Committee Chair Hollingsworth, and the members of the committee.

I'm John Morrison-Winters.

I'm the Digital Equity Program and Broadband Manager for Seattle IT, and I also manage the Office of Cable Communications.

So let me just get the slides up here one moment.

No worries at all.

Thank you so much.

I know we have a little bit of a transition and we will wait as we get that jumped up.

Thank you for being here, John.

We appreciate the work you do.

Go right ahead.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, so I'm here today really to answer any questions and just to offer a kind of abbreviated version of the presentation that I gave last time.

So this is really the main slide that sort of outlines the purpose of the resolution.

and what it does.

So this resolution will commence the city's cable franchise renewal process with astound.

And just for the abbreviated version, the cable franchising is governed by federal law.

So it's the Cable Act and the Telecommunications Act that really outline the requirements that the city has as the local franchise authority and the requirements that the cable providers have as well.

So we do have cable franchising, which is what allows our cable providers and operators to be in our right of way.

And in exchange, they pay franchise fees.

And the franchise also expresses the other priorities of the city.

For example, our cable customer bill of rights, and it provides funding for PEG, which is the public educational and governmental television, specifically Seattle Channel.

In City of Seattle, we typically renew franchises every 10 years, and this resolution really kicks off that process.

Federal law does not specify how a franchise renewal must be kicked off or commenced, but historically, the city has done this through council resolution, and that really just clarifies our intent to continue and move forward with the process and ensures that we're meeting our obligations under federal law as the franchise authority.

Franchise renewal typically takes about three years and Astound has sent us a letter indicating their desire to renew the franchise.

And federal law does say that we have six months from the time that they send the letter to commencing the proceedings.

So that letter was received back on December 12th, 2024. And so we're within our timeframe here.

And on the slide, there's the schedule with the vote planned for today, so that's why I'm back here.

Again, happy to answer any questions.

I know there was one question last time in terms of the role of counsel, so just to clarify, this, again, really is just commencing the proceedings, and I will look forward to coming back.

probably in about two and a half years for Astound, but much sooner.

We're also in the middle of our franchise renewal with Comcast, and so looking forward to coming back much sooner, probably later this year for that process.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Awesome.

Thank you, John.

Really appreciate that.

Brian, good night.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

I don't think I have any additional comments.

John did a nice job.

I was going to mention the six-month timeline.

So the council action is timely, as this would be the kind of formal kickstart of the process.

But yeah, more to come.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, I will pause here to see if you have any questions.

I know that I got mine.

answered through IT, so I really appreciate the engagement with our office and everything on this resolution.

I'm not looking, seeing if anyone has any questions.

Left, right?

Okay, awesome.

So I'm gonna move that the committee recommend adopting Resolution 32171. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second to recommend the adoption of the resolution.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council member Rivera?

Aye.

Council member Strauss?

Yes.

Council president Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

The vote carries and the committee recommendation will be sent to Tuesday, January 3rd, 2025 city council meeting.

Thank you so much, John, for your time and all the work that you all are doing.

with our information technology department and Mr. Goodnight, thank you for all the work that you've done on this project as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Powering right through, the last three items will be heard together, which will be, Clerk, will you please read the agenda items three through five into the record first?

Council Bill 120966 through 120968, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities revising, consolidating, and enacting provisions related to system development charges for water, sewer, and drainage infrastructure, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the general manager CEO of Seattle Public Utilities to develop Municipal Assessment Reimbursement Area Authority in ordinance amending Ordinance 127156, which adopted the 2025 budget, including the 2025 to 2030 Capital Improvement Program for briefing, discussion, possible vote, presenting as Brian Goodnight, Council Central Staff.

Awesome, thank you, Brian, for being here.

Introduce yourself for the record, and you can jump right in, too.

Thank you, Chair.

Brian Goodnight, Council Central staff, occupying my third seat at the table today.

So as you said, this is the third discussion of the System Development Charge, or SDC, legislative package.

The committee first started presentation at its April 23rd meeting.

And then at the May 14th meeting, SPU followed up with some examples of how the proposal could impact development and the city's network of water, sewer, and drainage infrastructure.

So just briefly, the first bill, Council Bill 120966, would revise and increase the water SDC, would establish new SDCs for the drainage and wastewater lines of business, and would consolidate the relevant provisions into a new subtitle of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The second bill, 120967, relates to latecomer agreements and authorizes SPU to create municipal assessment reimbursement areas.

Those agreements and the reimbursement areas would allow SPU to participate financially in mainline extension projects and then recoup some or all of that investment from benefiting parcels in the future.

And then the third bill, 120968, would amend the 2025 adopted budget to add six new positions at a total of $950,000 in appropriation authority to SPU's water fund and their drainage and wastewater fund.

According to SPU, the staff are needed to manage the engineering, the contractual, and the latecomer agreements, or sorry, the administrative aspects of the program and the latecomer agreements.

And ultimately, the positions would be funded by anticipated SDC revenue.

And then on the screen, Chair, if you'd like, I could go through the two amendments that are

Yeah, absolutely, and I apologize, I did not read the instructions, so thank you for that.

So we first heard from Brian Goodnight and his overview on the bill.

I'm gonna have to move the underlining bill for discussion first, then both amendments will be moved before amendment discussions.

And then we can reopen that for discussions to the committee on the recommendation of these bills.

I know that was a lot, so I'm gonna go ahead and move Council Bill 120966. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, second.

And I'm gonna move to amend Council Bill 120966 as presented on Amendment 1 on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved in second to amend the bill as presented on amendment one.

And so, Mr. Goodnight, amendment one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This one will be brief.

This is a strictly technical amendment to make a correction just to correct a drafting error that was included in the introduced bill.

So as you can see on the screen, it just strikes out the words system development and two commas.

This section, the reference to system development was actually moved to a different section, so it's no longer needed in the title.

And that is it.

Colleagues, this is a technical amendment that I'm sponsoring that our essential staff and our, worked with Seattle Public Utilities to get this corrected.

It's a simple technical one.

And so I'm going to, are there any other comments regarding this amendment?

Left and right?

No.

So if there's no comments, I'm going to have the clerk please call the roll on amendment number one to Council Bill 120966.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Awesome, thank you.

The amendment passes, and so that has amended Council Bill 120966. Council Member Rivera, would you like to make a motion for your amendment number two?

I would, Chair, thank you.

I move to amend Council Bill 120966 as presented on the recently distributed Amendment 2, version 1. Second.

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

You're good.

Mr. Goodnight.

Great.

Thank you.

So, Amendment 2 would expand access to an optional deferral process for the SDC for the system development charges.

In short, as the bill is currently drafted, it would allow for an economically disadvantaged homeowner who occupies a residence to defer the payment of any SDCs until the property is sold or transferred.

The deferral ability is allowed by state law for certain groups, including low-income persons.

So in its current form, the relevant section points to a different section of Seattle Municipal Code, and that defines economically disadvantaged as 200% of the federal poverty level.

And just for reference, in this current year in 2025, 200% of the federal poverty level for a family of two would be a little more than $42,000.

For a family of four, it'd be about $64,000.

So this amendment would expand eligibility to include households at or below 80% of the area median income.

So that's for the Seattle metropolitan statistical area.

In 2025, 80% of AMI is about $97,000 for a family of two.

So about $55,000 more than the federal poverty level standard and about 121,000 for a family of four.

The amendment would also make some changes to allow participation for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, and for any dwelling units on property zoned as neighborhood residential.

Awesome.

Councilmember Rivera, would you like to address your amendment?

Yes, thank you, Chair.

First, I want to start by thanking General Manager Andrew Lee and his staff, and also our central staffer, Brian Goodnight, for all their help and assistance with this bill.

Colleagues, at the end of the day, and you may recall me saying that, What I'm trying to address with this bill is we've got some property owners who are retired and living on fixed income who are being saddled with a lot of property taxes and who in some cases have opted to build an adu-dadu in order to live in, and then they may rent their main house in order to be able to afford to stay on that property.

And so this was a way to address a deferment of the costs for those homeowners We generally and often use 80% of area median income for a lot of the subsidies that we use at the city.

So this is in keeping with what we often use as the AMI for a subsidy.

General Manager Lee and I had many conversations about this, and we explored many different ways of helping this retired fixed income population.

This is the best bill that we could come up with, and so I offer it for your consideration and hopefully your support, again, to try to help our retired folks that are having trouble staying in their homes and might opt to build an adu-dadu in order to be able to stay on their property.

Happy to answer any questions.

Awesome, and just want to thank Councilmember Rivera for your due diligence and focus on affordability and making a stronger ordinance on this.

I know that that was incredibly important to you when we talked, and so really appreciate your work on this.

Are there other comments regarding this amendment?

Seeing none.

Awesome.

All right.

So it's been moved in second to amend the bill as presented on amendment two.

And if there's no further comments on the amendment.

Actually, can I say one more thing?

I neglected to give you gratitude for delaying this vote one more meeting in order to allow general manager Lee and I to explore this further.

And so instead of having two meetings, which we generally have before a vote, you allowed a third.

So I really want to thank you for that and recognize how important it is for our retirees in the city, across the city, to try to have an option to help them out.

So thank you very much for affordability.

Awesome.

It was important that we were all in alignment, and I know we were, and I think we got to that place, so really grateful for that.

Thank you.

Awesome.

So if there's no further comments, I'm going to go ahead and call the roll on adoption amendment number two.

We're going to change it up today.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed, and the motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

So colleagues, Any additional questions or comments before moving to vote on the committee recommendation to pass the three ordinances?

When we are ready to vote, I'm gonna move each bill separately and I will pause here for any comments anyone wants to make.

Awesome.

Council President Nelson.

I have to say it did take me a while to come around to this legislation because it did seem as though the city was externalizing costs to projects that weren't directly benefiting from the system upgrades.

But I really do have to say that having worked through my questions with staff and really reading through the documents closely, I have to say that we have, we have a housing and affordability crisis here.

And so what I'm looking at this, the angle through which I'm looking at this legislation is anything that does unlock the possibility to build more housing on lots that would have ordinarily been off, just basically out of question for developers because of the expenses of the infrastructure of costs that would be associated with bringing it online.

To me, that is the prime benefit of this legislation.

So I just have to thank you very much to our central staff for helping me understand the benefits and also to SBU for making this come forward and you work in it and giving us extra time.

Thanks.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

I concur with Council President Nelson.

I struggled with this legislation only because for the folks that are building now, this will be a higher cost until we can build up the fund in order to tap that fund for development, and that is always a hard decision, which is why I was exploring a way to help those homeowners that might be saddled with the upfront costs as much as we could.

I will say that this has come up before, and other administrations, and we seem to be, because it is a hard decision, we are kicking, we've kicked the can down the road a number of times, and the reality is our infrastructure is struggling, and so this is a way to be able to expand that infrastructure We do need more housing across the city.

And so we often have to make really hard decisions for the greater good.

and for the expansion of housing across the city.

So it is not a decision that I am making lightly, which is why, like I said earlier, I was looking for ways to make this affordable for the folks on the front end as much as we could given the legalities around all of this.

And I really appreciate the chairs willingness to give us the opportunity to engage with the department and our central staff to try to do the best we could with this particular legislation, knowing that, you know, under the leadership of Director Lee, he also made some changes to this legislation that had come prior in order to make it a better better piece of legislation, quite frankly.

So thank you, Chair, and thank you for letting me say that.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Rivera.

And also wanna thank SPU.

I know you all are in the audience.

Thank you for all your work as well during this process.

So I'm gonna move that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120966 as amended.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

It's been moved in second to recommend passage of the bill.

Clerk, will you please call the roll on the recommendation that the bill passes as amended.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor.

Motion carries.

Recommendation of the bill as amended will be sent to the June 3rd, 2025 City Council meeting.

I also move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120967. Is there a second?

Second.

Awesome.

There's second.

It's been moved and second and recommend passage of the bill.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor.

Thank you.

The motion carries the recommendation that the bill as amended will be sent to the June 3rd, 2025 City Council meeting.

I'm going to also move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120968. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded, seconded, I said that right, seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the bill?

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor.

Motion carries the recommendation of the bill as amended will be sent to the June 3rd, 2025 city council meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Goodnight.

Thank you, SPU for all your help and due diligence and looking forward to sending that to full council for a vote.

Thank you, everyone.

Before I end, and we are at a record time of 58 minutes for our meeting, I know this is the Parks Utility Technology Committee, and I made comments yesterday at the full council meeting regarding a statement I made about the events that happened this past weekend at Cal Anderson Park.

I want to reiterate my stance.

that hate has no place in Seattle, and we will always, and I know that our office will, and we have responsibilities as elected officials to protect the freedom of speech that is in our Constitution, and that's what we have to uphold.

I also know that we have to protect community from hate speech.

And unfortunately, when I hear things that are said in a rally that gays are dark, that LGBTQ community are evil, and that gays are vile, and information that comes out from folks, and we use religion to weaponize a certain agenda, that is unfortunate.

When you try to express your dominance over another individual or another being based on race, gender, ethnicity, who you choose to love, anything of that nature, and you think you are higher than them, that you are more dominant than them, or that you are greater than them, or they're going to go to hell and you're going to go to heaven based on those comparisons, just you as a person doing that judgment, that is considered hate speech.

And so it's my duty as the council member to protect community folks, especially our gay community, from speech of that nature, especially in a historic...

So I just wanted to put that for the record because I know that in the religious communities and church communities, you know, hasn't had always had a great relationship with gay community.

But because I know I am a person of great faith and have been born and raised in the church, I know that those two can coexist.

Just wanted to say that for the record, especially the events that happened at Cal Anderson Park.

And for people to know that as your representative, I am going to make sure that that never happens again in our district and our city of Seattle to make sure that people are safe.

And we're also protecting the first amendment right as well.

So.

Anyways, didn't want to end on that type of note, but gay pride is next month and we're going to have a blast in Seattle for June, loud and proud.

And that's going to be our moment for us to make sure that we show people that we lead with love in our city.

So thank you everyone.

And with that, we have, oh, I'm sorry.

Councilmember Strauss.

I don't mean to overstep, but I think council president has her hand raised.

Council president Nelson.

Oh, I guess I didn't lower it.

Sorry, old hand.

Thank you, everyone.

And with that, we have no other items on the agenda.

If there's no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

This concludes our May 25th meeting of Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee, and our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 11th, and that's at 2 p.m.

Hearing no further business, it's 3.02 p.m.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.