Council Briefing 712024

All right, good afternoon.

Today is July 1st, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is approximately 2.02 p.m.

I am council member Rob Sacca, serving as council president pro tem.

I will note that council members Strauss and council president Nelson are excused from today's briefing.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council President Pro Tem Sacca.

Here.

Seven present.

All right, if there is no objection, the meeting minutes of June 24th, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are hereby adopted.

Uh, No president's report.

There are no also proclamations or letters to sign today.

So we will therefore begin our next discussion of the preview of city council actions.

Council and regional committees, excuse me, and the order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name with the council president pro tem called last.

This week's roll call rotation begins with Councilmember Wu.

Councilmember Wu, please begin and then hand it over to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you.

So this week's committee is canceled.

Happy 4th of July, everyone.

We will have a special committee meeting on July 15th.

But here are some of the things that my office has done this week.

We went and received a tour of the American Polynesian Organization.

I learned about the senior meals and the food pantry program.

They've been operating this for years.

And it's a great program to meet many of our Polynesian friends and family from all throughout Seattle.

I attended Council Member Saka's town hall with the neighbors of Alki Beach.

Thank you to Council Member Saka and his office for putting together a meaningful panel and discussion, I learned a lot.

I also joined council member Hollingsworth office and attended the central district community safety meeting last week.

I also attended the Seattle police department's micro community policing dialogue.

which had a short presentation on the 2023 Seattle Police Safety Survey results that Seattle University did.

They polled residents of Seattle to see what their thoughts are regarding public safety.

It was great to learn about those results.

I also went to New Holly, the site where a 14-year-old person was shot and killed, and to Chinatown over the weekend, where a 34-year-old person was also shot and killed.

Chatted with neighbors and friends and family of the people who were lost, and learned how we could do better for our communities.

On a happier note, I also toured the Paramount Theater, and it was very cool to see a backstage tour, and highly recommend this tour to all of my colleagues here.

We met David Allen, who's the director of Special Projects.

He's been there for 43 years, and we got to see a lot of cool, historic, artifacts that are still being used today.

Also went to the Office of Economic Development's relaunch of their mixer series for the creative economy at the M5 Creative Building on the Seattle Center Campus.

This is formerly PBS building.

They have moved, and so now it's a cool maker space for the creative economy.

Got to meet people with exciting ideas.

They're doing this every single month, so I'll definitely let you know when they do this again next month.

I went to the Champions of Change Celebrity Charity Basketball Event, benefiting underserved communities, where I got to watch Councilmember Hollingsworth's talents on the court.

You all missed out.

It's a fun event.

Please let us know what the next one is.

Saturday, I attended the Asian Counseling Referral Services Walk for Rice, which is their annual fundraiser that supports their food bank, and of course, Happy Pride, celebrating the 50th anniversary.

Saturday, attended the Capitol Hill Pride Festival.

Sunday, I got to walk the prairie route with many of you.

So I enjoyed walking, particularly with Chief Amy Smith and the CARE Department.

It was also cool to see Chief Scoggins from the Fire Department there and colleagues from different departments.

Thank you to the organizers for making this Pride Festival successful.

And if there are no questions or comments, I will hand this over to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Maybe, well, I have a question, but maybe you're handing it off to the right person.

Like, how many did you drop on them at that Champions of Change game, Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Council Member Saka, I used to care about points, but for me, it was more about, could I survive the whole 40 minutes?

And we did that, and that's where, that's the win for me.

Fair enough.

Thank you.

All good.

Great question though.

The Parks Utilities Technology Committee will be next week, July 10th at 2 p.m.

We are still formalizing the agenda, but one of the things that's gonna be on the agenda is a presentation on ball fields from our Seattle Parks.

I know that some council members had questions.

There was an article that came out about our ball fields and the equity use around that and making sure that we just had an update on parks plans.

And so they're gonna give a full presentation to us in that committee.

Anyone's invited if you all, if you wanna come, but it's gonna be great.

Cause it's gonna give an overview of our parks, the fields, particularly how many are used.

I mean the whole presentations.

And I know that we're gonna have a ton of questions regarding that.

And so I tried to incorporate a lot of the stuff that you all, the feedback to parks so they can present that information.

We'll also, last committee, we had the SPU strategic plan.

It's gonna be one of three presentations.

This is really important because it talks about our infrastructure rates as well.

And we also got an update regarding the, you know, Gosh, in Ballard, it's the regional waste, the wastewater quality, sorry, brain fog there.

It's probably from the game on Friday, I'm still tired.

But also that information as well.

So that was great.

be asking for support on council bill 120800. It's a current use permit, happens to be in district two for a P patch program.

And so that passed out of committee and I'm looking forward to everyone's support on that as well.

And if you have any questions, please let me know.

And last but not least, I'll go quick in community, saw the Fame Housing Project, really cool.

They have a bunch of four bedroom units.

It's the first time that I saw a four bedroom unit in Seattle that was all on one floor.

They are doing a phenomenal job.

It's 101 units, phase one.

Phase two will come down the line pretty soon, but this project's gonna be done in September.

And so it was a great project, their affordable housing project.

Also I met with the Holocaust Center.

There's a rise in anti-Semitism in district three.

We have Temple to Hirsch in our district.

So I'm gonna be working with them on just some education and some public awareness for folks as well, which I think is important.

I also went to Seattle U with their president.

Seattle U, if everyone doesn't know, they have just joined the WCC conference.

That is pretty amazing.

That school went from D2 to D1, and they were not in a conference for a long time.

And now they are in a conference that's really big for Seattle for us to be able to have the West Coast Conference teams throughout the country, especially with the Pac-10 not being there anymore.

A lot of those teams are gonna be traveling back and forth, but we'll still have that West Coast Conference connection, which is really great.

Teams traveling to Seattle, tourism, just generating the economy and people coming to visit Seattle, which is really, really important.

I also had a great weekend.

Obviously council member Wu already spilled the beans about my participation champion of change.

The four organizations that I'll give them a shout out that they, Alimentando al Pueblo with Roxanna, who's phenomenal.

I've worked with her for a long time with food insecurity.

So she's great.

Also Odessa Brown, in District 2, it benefited them as well.

Also benefited an organization out of Houston, which is called Freedman's Town, which is a black community right outside the skirts of Houston.

And then also Black Folks in Design, which is a black designer.

So those four organizations benefited from this game and gala.

And shout out to Doug Baldwin, Cliff Averill, and Michael and for the opportunity to play.

And we did lose, but that's okay.

This weekend was pride.

Had a great time.

Probably one of the most amazing times was to see the amount of people that were on Capitol Hill, Volunteer Park.

that were at Cal Anderson, that were on the hill, that were at the Seattle Center, at the parade, which was great.

I got to march with the Kraken, and before that, I went to the West Precinct roll call.

Their pride photo, their pride photo that they do every year and got to meet some of the officers.

And so that was great as well.

And just want to give a shout out for the pride, all the people that, there's a ton of folks that plan, because there's different events all across the city.

I thought the month was phenomenal, 50 year anniversary.

So just want to give everyone a shout out on that.

I thought we really put on a great, performance for our city and just made people feel welcome and loved.

I did want to, I hate Indy on a bad note, but you know, there was a, unfortunately last night there was a shooting in our district.

A young woman died, was shot on the Hill at 1230 AM this morning.

And so, That was the end of the Pride festivities.

So it's unfortunate and we'll be checking in regarding that.

There's no details, but yeah, just wanted to throw that out there.

We had a great Pride and then unfortunately this happened during the festivities.

So sending thoughts and prayers and hopefully do some action to continue to make it safe for folks in Seattle anyways.

Sorry, I hate to end on that note after Pride, but would like to pass it to Council Member Kettle.

Can I just ask, Council Member Hollingsworth, you mentioned your forthcoming putt committee in the parks briefing and discussion on that.

When is that?

What is the date of that?

Yeah, that's going to be next week, Wednesday, July 10th.

So that's a Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Okay.

And we're still finalizing that, but it's a pretty big presentation from parks, which is about their fields.

So all the fields that they operate, the fields next to schools, how many are turf, how many are lit, what's the occupancy rate, how many are used, what's the strategic plan for parks, what types of teams utilize these fields as well, and questions about where are we targeting to improvement as we are For one example, Judkins Park is gonna have a ton of residents come.

Are we prioritizing different areas to make sure that we have adequate enough field space and time?

How's scheduling?

How does that happen?

All these questions will be answered in committee.

Yeah, go ahead, Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

So, first off, coming up this week in Council, we have the vote for the reappointment of the Officer Inspector General, Lisa Judge.

That will be on tomorrow's agenda.

And from a Public Safety Committee perspective, on the 9th of July, we have three items.

We have the street racer legislation, which is something that I think that crosses all districts, and it is now an emergency legislation.

So that's, you know, first thing on the agenda.

Secondly, in terms of, you know, Secondly, we have an accountability partner midyear review.

So, we'll have OIG, OPA, and CPC present to give their midyear review, which is really important.

And also, we're going to have Chief Rahr kind of give her a 30-day update, you know, her first impressions after 30 days on the job.

So, that'll be a great opportunity to, for her to, first impressions and maybe point to some of the areas that she's gonna emphasize on as she moves through her tenure as the interim chief.

So that's on the 9th of July.

And then I just quickly note too on the following meeting, we're building it out, but I will note that as you know from last week's announcement, the care department chief nomination of interim chief Amy Smith will be on the calendar on the 23rd.

of July.

Generally, last week was on the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board meeting.

A lot of that was a, you know, bringing the Transportation Board to the Executive Board, so a lot of things that we've seen already, some of the issues that we're facing on the transportation side.

Big rundown on the deaths and, you know, basically a Vision Zero kind of briefing for the region, you know, the deaths and the injuries that are happening and how they happen more often for different, you know, groups and how, you know, and also urban versus rural.

It was really interesting to see the breakdown.

And, you know, trying to highlight, because we're doing a lot of stuff in terms of, you know, how we build roads and so forth, but, you know, one of the things that came up in the meeting is like, do we need to bring back driver's education?

You know, that's a factor that's not being looked at enough.

And I think it's, at least from my anecdotal evidence, is something that should be looked at.

And of course, I didn't take, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring public safety elements into transportation at the executive board.

So of course I did that, which is important because we have to ensure that our first responders are able to respond through our transportation networks to where they need to be.

Also last week, I participated in the Domestic Violence Prevention Council, which is local.

Director Kim runs it.

I just wanted to highlight for this year, the 24-25 priorities are three, prioritize prevention programs and services for young people exposed to violence.

Two, increase citywide knowledge and capacity for ending gender-based violence.

And three, develop a coordinated safety net and improve systems response.

And they have three objectives with activities under each that go into these areas.

And I think it's great work.

I really, you know, it's important to focus on our young people to break the cycle, because as noted, you know, 10 years from now, they may end up in the criminal justice system or 20 years, they'll end up in a DV, domestic violence situation themselves.

And so breaking that cycle is important.

So that's a great priority to have for the Domestic Violence Prevention Council.

Also, last week, on Tuesday, I met with DPD, Department of Public Defense, hearing their views on a number of topics related to our criminal justice system and, in particular, public defense.

On Wednesday, had a great meeting in Georgetown with my District 1 counterpart at the Industrial Public Safety meeting, which turned into a broader meeting in terms of the industrial zone, workforce housing, training for our young people into the trades, the maritime piece as well, which was huge for that meeting.

So I really appreciate the opportunity to venture out of District 7 to go down to District 1, formerly of District 2, as I was noted this morning in the meeting with Councilmember Morales.

And I think that's something that we could build on.

So I really appreciate the invitation, my Councilmember Saka, Council President Pro Tem Saka.

Thursday, I met with the Nicholsville Tiny Homes Group, which was very interesting to see what they're doing and how they're looking to expand and some of the lessons learned that they've seen over the course of their existence and particularly in the last number of years.

Also on that same day, I went to the DSA mid-annual meeting And that was a fantastic opportunity.

As you all know, the Metropolitan Improvement District, the mid ambassadors, those people are doing fantastic work for our city.

They are doing such a big difference for our downtown.

And when I say downtown, the broader downtown to include, you know, going into District one with Pioneer Square, but in the other areas as well.

And they make a big difference.

And I know this firsthand, because every time I see one, I go up and talk to them.

I get their insights.

I like hearing what their views are on the different issues.

And this happens on a regular basis as I go around the district and I run into them, because they've got great insight.

Because they're on the ground.

They see things.

And so we're looking to, A, to honor them in that meeting.

And we should do so here in the council.

So that's one reason why I wanted to bring it up.

And also, the DSA's got some great information in terms of the public safety challenges that we're facing related to downtown.

Lastly, for last week, I just wanted to highlight, as mentioned, Pride.

I was an attendee at the Seattle Storm Pride Night, and I just wanted to announce that the night was a great one, and it included a victory over the Dallas Wings, so go Storm.

THAT WAS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

AND THEN LASTLY, FOR THIS WEEK, THERE'S A FEW THINGS UP, YOU KNOW, LITTLE THINGS LIKE TRANSPORTATION LEVY, YOU KNOW, SOME THINGS LIKE THAT GOING ON, YOU KNOW.

SO A LOT OF MEETINGS RELATED TO THAT, BUT IN TERMS OF OUTSIDE, I WILL BE TOURING THE GARDENS OF REMEMBRANCE ON WEDNESDAY, AND TO REALLY HIGHLIGHT SOME OF THE, WHATEVER ISSUES MAY EXIST WITH THEM IN TERMS OF, YOU KNOW, IMPROVEMENTS OR, YOU KNOW, CONCERNS THAT THEY MAY HAVE ACROSS THE BOARD.

SO THAT WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY.

Awesome.

And with that, I turn it over to Council Member Moore.

Thank you very much.

So let's see.

On tomorrow's full council agenda, we have six items from the Housing and Human Services Committee.

The committee last week unanimously passed Council Bill 120804, which is the 2023 Housing Levy Administration.

administrative and financial plans and housing funding policies.

And we had very good discussion and some additional amendments and feel very pleased with what we're bringing forth.

So would certainly ask for your support tomorrow.

Additionally, there are five appointments on tomorrow's consent calendar.

And then the next meeting will be Wednesday, July 10th.

We are still working on finalizing that agenda, but we do intend to hear an update from housing providers on the current challenges they are facing with the city's rental regulations and also a presentation from HSD on the city's work on gun violence prevention.

So something, unfortunately, that's very topical.

Let's see, last week I was able to take a tour of the solid ground facilities up at Magnuson Park, which was a beautiful, beautiful site up there.

And they have a permanent supportive housing as well as more affordable housing.

Again, they're providing good services, but they also have the challenges of being a food desert.

Most of the people are doing shopping at the 7-Eleven there, which is hardly a place where people should be getting their daily food.

So looking at ways to really increase food supply at Solid Ground and Magnuson Park.

Again, some of the same challenges that we'll hear at committee from housing providers in terms of needing a better spectrum of services for people in permanent supportive housing, having like high acuity medical needs, high acuity behavioral health needs, mobility challenges.

So again, just trying to make sure that we're providing the services that are tailored to the particular needs of the individuals.

but they are doing amazing work, so it was really a privilege to be able to visit with them.

I also went on the AIDS Memorial Walk at Cal Anderson, and that was lovely to see.

Needs a little bit more attention.

to say the least, but yeah, it was very moving to see the memorial there.

And then also on the note relating to gun violence Sunday, I met with a young woman from Ingram who just recently graduated and she was present for the shootings last year.

And it was really interesting to hear what some of her takeaways were from that experience.

And certainly something I think as we look at the mental health package that will be coming for us to consider just the need for the telehealth, but to make sure that they actually have the tablets so that they can do the telehealth.

and the idea of not necessarily pulling people out of the classroom to attend to counseling, but because that sort of talked about just sort of the embarrassment of being pulled out of classrooms.

So looking at how we can make sure counselors are available maybe before or after school or during lunch break, things like that.

And just basically that we need to do better communication with Seattle Public Schools, be much more engaged in those conversations and that they are not doing a terribly good job of communicating with their students about what protocols are and also what services are available.

And apparently after the shooting at Ingram, they did not even acknowledge what had happened or the trauma in any sort of formal way with the kids.

So just a lot of lessons to be learned.

So I was really grateful to be able to have those conversations with her.

And then let's see, the last thing I have would be relating to the amendments to the levy tomorrow.

And I am bringing forth one that amendment to the resolution that is basically updating the areas in this district five and bringing in a little bit of district four in terms of sidewalk areas that would be asking us not to be considering in going forward.

if no questions i'll turn it over to councilman morales

Thank you.

Good afternoon colleagues.

I'll start with land use.

The next land use committee meeting is this Wednesday at two.

We've only got two agenda items.

One is the office to residential conversion that we've had a public hearing on and had a committee meeting on.

So we will be voting on that.

There are five amendments.

Five amendments, I believe.

I have three that are technical amendments.

Well, two are technical.

One is just adding a recital, whereas asking developers to really ensure that they are also contemplating universal design as their We have a problem in the city with accessibility in our housing.

So just reminding folks that we do have an obligation to meet our ADA requirements.

And then we also will have three appointments to the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

Two are board appointments and one is a council appointment.

So we will have the EDI team here to share information about those appointments.

Let's see, last week I hosted a comprehensive plan roundtable with about three dozen community partners representing different organizations and interests.

I will be having a series of plan conversations in committee this summer.

We all know that the comp plan itself is late, but I don't wanna lose the opportunity to still be talking about this in committee.

So we'll have a series of conversations this summer.

And this was basically just a prep meeting to get ready for that.

And we'll have an opportunity for stakeholders and community members to come to committee and talk about different elements and how the comp plan affects their ability to do their work or how it affects their own neighborhoods.

I also hosted in-district office hours at the Beacon Hill Library.

We had lots of folks coming in to talk about issues in their neighborhood.

My team attended the Rainier Avenue South Traffic Safety Committee meeting hosted by South End residents.

Folks are organizing around additional safety measures on Rainier.

and attended the Full Life Circle Open House.

Full Life Circle provides services and support for seniors and for people with chronic illness or memory loss and disabilities who want to continue to be able to live in their community.

So they provide services to help people get exercise or get to an appointment and really be able to socialize with one another.

really kind of an aging in place entity that is providing an array of support services to seniors.

I did not get to attend the Pride Festival events this weekend.

I think this is the first time in quite some time I haven't gone to Dyke March or to the Trans Pride Parade, but we had some urgent things to take care of at home this weekend.

I will be attending the Storm Game tonight against the Dallas Wings.

So looking forward to that.

Go Storm.

That's all I have, unless there are questions.

Okay, I will pass it to Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

All right, I wanna start by actually addressing Council Member Moore's comments about the student and thank you for speaking with the student at Ingram High School.

I will say, and I know people know I have a couple of students at Ingram.

one who actually just graduated, but both were there the day of the shooting.

I will say communications between SPS and the students can be very much improved.

I do know that post the shooting and the city helped with investments to make or to provide counseling support for students at Ingram.

And SPS also added a couple of security personnel there.

To be honest, that was then, this is now.

There's not been a lot of communication between then and now.

And I'm not actually how helpful that has been.

And post the shooting, there was also a mugging right in the parking lot of a student at Ingram and it did involve a gun.

So, you know, Sadly, this is happening across the city, obviously, and I wanted to address some things that were done early on, but that was then.

And the communications piece is real because the students don't know what's going on.

And if these services are available, they don't all know about it.

And I talk to my kids regularly and it's like, well, we don't know if that's happening anymore.

We don't know if that access to the counselors is still there or not.

So these are all great questions.

And just so you all know, I have reached out and have been reaching out for a while now to SPS, to the superintendent to get a meeting together.

I understand they're quite busy obviously with all that's happening, but we've been going back and forth and I believe I have a meeting scheduled later in July So more to come on that on what I learn about, my questions are specifically, what is SPS working on in terms of safety at and around the schools?

Because we know that the other issue is some students have gotten mugged right outside of their schools.

Just again, across the city, it's happened at Ballard, it's happened at Roosevelt, and obviously all the things that are happening at Garfield, it's obviously Rainier Beach, most of the high schools I think have been touched by violence.

And so this is something I care deeply about, and I'm asking a lot of questions about, and obviously working with Deal as well.

Obviously, not obviously, but everyone knows post, and if you don't know, I'm letting you know now, post the shooting at Ingram.

There were the Department of Education and Early Learning was implementing some mental health supports.

Our next committee meeting, they're gonna, on July 11th, they're gonna come give a presentation on the mental health supports investment, the $4.5 million and where that, what that went to fund and how well that's as well as in general giving an overview on the Seattle health based clinics at some of the schools because we have an investment in the health clinics as well.

So more to come on that.

So thank you for raising that council member Moore.

Last week I attended the Fremont Neighborhood Council meeting.

I always appreciate the opportunity to meet with constituents and I very much appreciate that constituents take time in their evening to share their thoughts and concerns.

There was a lot of discussion about the transportation levy and also the comp plan, including also HB 1110. A really big thank you to the community council for inviting me.

I also met with chief librarian, Tom Fay, who gave me an update on the library's ransomware attack.

Council member, you asked me last week, there was some legal reasons why we couldn't share more, but I will say most of you by now might be aware the Seattle Public Library was victim to this ransomware attack over memorial day weekend of this year since that incident spl has been working with specialists to secure its network restore services and deploy additional safeguards to further harden its systems the last the library has also closely worked with the uh coordinated with the fbi as this attack is criminal in nature They're working with forensic specialists in cooperation with law enforcement to better understand what occurred during the attack and what information may have been compromised.

SPL aims to complete the investigation into the potentially impacted data within the next eight weeks.

It may take longer.

This is not atypical for this kind of attack.

There have been some other cities that have also been library systems that have been subject to this very incident, and it has taken them.

I hear well over a year to get everything completely or to get everything completed.

But SPL has been working very diligently to restore as many services as possible post this incident.

Once the investigation process is complete, it will inform patrons as legally allowable employees and others if their personal information was affected.

This process does take time, as I said, and SPL appreciates everyone's patience as they continue to work with law enforcement agencies.

Since this event, the library has continued to keep open the central library and its branches, provide access to physical materials, and has already restored critical services such as e-material lending.

SPL will provide the foundation needed to restore other public services in the coming weeks, including access to patron accounts, the library's catalog, public Wi-Fi printing, and computers.

I will say generally throughout this event, Chief Librarian Fay has kept in close contact and shared information as he's been able to given the legal parameters.

And I very much appreciate his partnership and that of his amazing staff as they work diligently to restore these services.

More to come.

Last week, I also got to attend the Greater and Greener Closing Reception at Gasworks Park in the district.

It was a beautiful Seattle summer day with blue skies and lots of sailboats on Lake Union.

I was pleased to meet leaders from parks departments across the country.

Of course, our very own Superintendent AP Diaz was there, as well as our former Superintendent Jesus Aguirre, who's now in Austin.

Thank you to Parks and Recreation for inviting me and to the Greater and Greener for hosting the event.

I also, last week, Council Member Moore toured Solid Grounds, Magnuson Park location, so we were there different days, same week.

Solid Ground provides both, as Council Member Moore said earlier, permanent supportive housing and affordable housing, family housing at the park.

I was able to see one of the vacant family townhomes.

It was very lovely.

Solid Ground also operates a small community center there at the site for the families and the folks that live there.

And it also has plans to, they're going to add a childcare center there very shortly.

I was very impressed with the Solid Ground work.

that with the work Solid Ground is doing for the residents in Magnuson.

They also have a garden, a couple community gardens there where they also grow food.

And then speaking of food, I have been, I spoke with Solid Ground and some of the families at Mercy Housing the night that Council Member Hollingsworth and I were there for a teen night.

And we know about the food desert situation there.

They do get service once a week by the university district food bank who comes and brings a van with fresh fruits and vegetables.

And then there's also a onsite food bank once a week there.

But I'm interested in exploring ways that we can improve access to food there at the park because we know we have a lot of now families and individuals living there very much appreciate all the work that Solid Ground is doing there.

And then, of course, along with many of your offices, my staff attended the 50th annual Pride parade yesterday.

It was such a joyous event.

Pride is always so amazing in Seattle, and it's so great that it's been 50 years and many, many, many, many more to come.

And then, as you all know, tomorrow is, yes, the Select Transportation Committee meeting.

I wanna thank Chair Saka and his staff for their collaboration and communication throughout this levy process, proposal process.

I also want to thank central staff, especially Calvin Chow, who've done amazing work to help support us as well.

And I want to thank all the constituents who showed up in chambers to give public comment or who called or who emailed me with feedback about the levy.

I appreciate everyone's engagement on this very important process.

And finally, I want to wish everyone a safe and fun 4th of July.

And I want to give a big shout out to Seattle Fire Department for keeping us safe during this holiday event, because we know while it's fun, safety is paramount.

And we want to make sure that everyone is celebrating in a safe way.

And if things don't go as planned, that we have our trusty Seattle Fire, their department to help us and keep everyone safe.

So that's all I have.

Happy to take any questions.

Just to thank you for bringing public safety into the Council briefing once again.

All roads lead to public safety.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

And colleagues, I...

So top of mind for me, and I know all of you all as well, is the transportation levy.

So tomorrow, really important, impactful full date in this whole journey.

So I've previously referred to this portion tomorrow as the quote-unquote home stretch, or another way of saying that in the baseball analogy context is, you know, we're really at the top of the ninth inning.

or in the football context, this is the fourth and goal.

Basketball, maybe this is the fourth quarter with two minutes left.

We need to pass Councilmember Hollingsworth the ball, because she's gonna score.

But regardless, we're almost there.

We're very close.

And I wanna thank each and every one of you, all, every last one of you for your strong engagement, partnership, wonderful ideas.

I think wherever we land, we're in a great place and couldn't have done that without the tremendous collaboration and support along the way.

Council Member Rivera, appreciate your thanks, recognizing me and your comments a moment ago.

I'll go ahead and pass that through to my staff, Elaine and Layla, who have been working really hard in an office that is fairly short staff right now.

It's coming to an end soon, happy to report.

And this is a heavy lift.

So thank you to Elaine, Layla, Calvin Chow.

We have clerks that have been stepping up and I really appreciate it.

Jody, Amelia, so many others.

There's a lot of people involved.

I'm the chair of the committee, Like, there's a lot of people that make this broader machine run, and it's humming along, and we're almost there, so I want to thank everyone for their support and engagement so far.

And I have my package on the table we're gonna vote on tomorrow.

I strongly believe that it is a broad consensus-based unity package, and there was a lot of sort of give and takes.

The legislative sausage-making process that went into all this, as we know, took many, many days, weeks, and hours invested.

to be honest, a fair amount of weekends and evenings.

And I suppose I am known for sending an occasional 1 a.m.

email, which sort of is what it is.

But we poured over every last detail and technicality of this very large, complex, nuanced package, and we made it better.

And the result, I believe, overall is a very strong Chair's package that reflects our feedback here.

And so again, we are in a position for an anticipated final vote at the committee level tomorrow at the select committee at 9.30 a.m.

And we're gonna vote on that.

And also please note that it will be the proposed Chair's Amendment.

Amendment number one will be version two I made some minor tweaks between what was uploaded to the agenda on Friday and today.

And those should be uploaded.

The latest version should be uploaded.

If they're not already, they will by the end of today.

Minor thing is basically on the, was it sidewalk portion?

I forget.

councilmember moore and i talked about this specifically earlier but um oh on the neighborhood initiated safety the number of projects delivered uh originally contemplated an original investment and you know we we did not go there with that uh so there's a more realistic number and then we use we use the word any uh to modify a specific new sidewalk investment under the sidewalks category.

Those are the minor changes reflected in the chairs package.

Again, you'll see full documentation uploaded by end of date today.

And again, so goals to vote on it tomorrow out of the committee level, or excuse me, the select committee level with the final vote anticipated next Tuesday, July 9th.

And again, appreciate everyone's collaboration.

Thank you in advance for your attendance for these really critical meetings as well.

So that's transportation.

With respect to other kind of items that are kind of top of mind for me, as I shared briefly last week, and as some of you know, my office urgently responded to an important community safety incident last week and within 48 hours, we co-hosted and co-organized with alongside community and brought together all the relevant people in the city, city leaders that are directly accountable on this one set of issues to communities and brought them together.

And I wanna thank Council Member Wu for your attendance to that, to Elk High and Harbor Avenue neighbors there.

But it was a great event.

almost standing room only, 200-plus attendees there.

And we did that because last Saturday morning, there was a tragic murder of 22-year-old Luis Angel Solis Lara, and we lost his life.

And I visited the site.

On that very morning, I spoke with some of our first responders.

I also called one of the two residents who had their home shot up nearby.

One of them, Steve Humphries, excuse me, from Harbor.

And the other person who had their home shot up attended the meeting.

But in any event, I'm gonna share out an email later with some of the follow-up and kind of where we landed, kind of recapping that meeting.

But I won't sort of occupy space here, but...

It was a very productive meeting, and really appreciate everyone's attendance, including you, Councilmember Wu.

And appreciate the mayor's strong engagement and his partnership in addressing these issues, as well.

And, you know, a lot more work to do.

But, you know, it's clear that one of the things that is clear from that conversation, and I know, and I've been advocating for, is like, we need speed enforcement cameras in that specific area of Elki.

And funding is not an issue.

And we'll talk about that more in our newsletter.

But in any event, we need to do better for, we have some good concrete step or a list of concrete specific commitments made.

And so I feel good about that at least.

In any event, so stay tuned for a more detailed email on that.

Moving to a slightly more upbeat topic.

Pride, the Pride Parade.

I also was proud to attend the Pride Parade yesterday.

I marched with Stacey Bass Walden from Elk High Beach Pride, and it was an honor, an absolute honor to be able to do that.

Incredible showing of folks in that specific delegation, and then just the broader community I'm really, really honored to be able to participate in that.

And to your point, Council Member Rivera, many more to come.

And so, moving to the next topic, I'll just note that the 4th of July Kids Parade in West Seattle is coming on the 4th of July in Admiral, of course.

And I'm going to be...

The event organizers asked me to give some introductory remarks.

I don't know why they wanted the quote-unquote king of potholes to give some introductory remarks, but here we are.

In any event, I'm excited to do that, but importantly, be able to participate with my own family.

So folks that are in that community, bring your kids, bring your grandkids, and join me and my family in this beautiful walk in a scenic neighborhood and as we celebrate the country.

and community as well, so exciting stuff.

And that is all I have, colleagues.

I do welcome any comments, questions from you all.

Please be safe out there and avoid the potholes.

Fair enough, fair enough.

Grand Marshall.

No, no, no, no, not one of those parades.

Maybe the Grand Marshall of pulling my own radio flyer, like wagon or whatever, but all good.

And yes, go storm, go storm, love the storm colors.

All right, well, is there any further business before we adjourn today?

Hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

The time is 2.48 PM.

Thank you.