Seattle City Council Briefing 8/9/2021

I'm Alex Peterson, serving today as Council President Pro Tem.

Council President Gonzalez has been excused from today's meetings, and Council Member Strauss is excused from the council briefing.

The August 9, 2021, council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 9.35 AM.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council President Pro Tem Peterson.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you.

If approval of the minutes, if there's no objection, the minutes of August 2nd, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Good morning, colleagues.

As we know from our city council rules, each month a different council member serves as a backup in the rare case when our president is not able to chair the meetings.

Today is one of those rare cases.

The council has excused our council president, Lorena Gonzalez, for both this morning's council briefing and for this afternoon's city council meeting.

As the designated pro tem for the month of August, I'll chair both meetings.

So thank you in advance for your grace as I work through the parliamentary procedure of both meetings.

This is a good time to commend not only the staff of our council president for the great work they do in preparing for these meetings and crafting the weekly agendas, but also our city clerk team for crafting suggested scripts that we can lean on to guide the parliamentary procedure of these meetings.

I'll save my report as Transportation Utilities Chair for my turn when we preview today's City Council actions.

We do have a special presentation today, item three on the agenda.

Let's go to that, which is a presentation from our Seattle Public Library about Seattle Reads program for 2021. This year, they're featuring a book of fiction entitled The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett.

As many of you know, the Seattle Reads program, it's a citywide book club, book group, where people are encouraged to read and discuss the same book as a way of building connections across communities.

So let's turn it over to our Interim Chief Librarian, Tom Fay, and Literature and Humanities Program Manager, Stesha Brandon, to learn more about this year's literary choice and associated programming.

Good morning, Tom Fay.

Good morning.

Thank you, President Pro Tem Peterson.

Good morning, Councilmembers.

I am Tom Fay, Interim Chief Librarian of the Seattle Public Library, and we'll briefly discuss our Seattle Reads book this year.

This year marks our 23rd year for Seattle Reads, and as mentioned, the title is The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett.

It's been a huge favorite at the library, and we're excited that we'll be able to present the author in a digital event in October of this year.

And at this time, I'll turn it over to Stesha Brandon, the Literature and Humanities Program Manager at the library, who will share a little bit more about the book and the program.

Thanks so much, Tom.

And hi, everybody.

So nice to see you all.

As was mentioned, I'm the Literature and Humanities Program Manager at the library.

And among many of our author-related programs, I have the pleasure of overseeing Seattle Reads.

And as you may remember, the idea of having a citywide book club originated at the library In 1998, and in fact has become so popular that it spread across the country and across the world so the program is one of the key reasons that Seattle is designated the UNESCO city of literature and it's it's really a.

a highlight or a keystone program for the library.

So I'm so pleased to be able to talk with you about this year's selection, The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett.

As Tom mentioned, she'll be doing a digital program for the library in October.

She'll be actually doing two programs, October 5th and 6th, and I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a minute.

But first, I'd love to tell you a little bit about the book just to whet your appetites.

We've arranged for all of you to get copies of The Vanishing Half.

There we go.

And copies of the discussion guide as well.

So you can participate in the book group if you like.

And we selected this book after considering many other titles.

I think we probably read at least 20, maybe 25 titles last year when we were looking, but the Vanishing Half was simply the best book that I read in 2020. It's a multi-generational novel that explores identity and considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions and desires.

And the story is about two sisters who grow up in an African-American town that prizes light-skinned people.

When they are 16, they run away to New Orleans and it's there that one of the sisters passes over and begins to live as a white woman.

We read about their separate paths as they grow up, marry, have families, and we're asked to consider why someone would abandon everything and everyone that they love and the repercussions of that decision.

As you can imagine, there are tons of juicy themes for discussion.

The big one is around identity and how that's determined.

We explore that topic not only through the primary story of the sisters, but through other characters as well.

For example, an actress who gets her big break and a trans man who's in the process of a medical transition.

We also examine intergenerational impacts of anti-Blackness, internalized colorism and shadism, code switching, and the social and cultural politics of the Jim Crow South.

The book has just been hugely successful and very popular as Tom mentioned.

It debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list and has garnered a ton of awards, including being long listed for the Carnegie Medal and the National Book Award and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Additionally, HBO has acquired the rights to adapt the book for TV, and it will be produced by poet Aziza Barnes, playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who has written, I think, his most famous play is The Slave Play, which was on Broadway just before COVID, and then Insecure's Issa Rae is also on board to produce.

So I'll tell you a tiny bit about the programming that we have planned.

As you can imagine, due to the nature of planning a program of this scale during a pandemic and with the author's preference, we determined that digital programming was the best way forward.

So we'll be doing two digital programs with BRIT.

One is a private event for prioritized audiences presented with our community partners, who I'll tell you about in a minute.

And the other program will be a public event that's open to everybody.

And for both programs, Britt will be interviewed by Jasmine Scott, who's the program director at Langston.

We'll be doing a few additional auxiliary programs as well.

We're partnering with our friends over at the African American Writers Alliance to create work inspired by the Vanishing Half, and they'll be doing a poetry showcase on October 10th.

And then we're working with our friends at Wanawari to put together a book group and storytelling evening in partnership with local event producers, the Griot Party.

And so we're working, as I mentioned, with Langston and Wanawari, the African American Writers Alliance.

We're also working with the Northwest African American Museum.

And additionally, I consulted with Stephanie Johnson-Toliver over at the Black Heritage Society as we began our community listening around this program.

And as some of you who are familiar with the program know, as we've done in the past several years, this year we're setting aside about 25% of our uncataloged copies for prioritized audiences.

So these books will be distributed through our partners, community centers, and to specific book groups.

And just for those that might not know, uncatalog copies means that people can get copies of the book from the library or from a community partner and they don't need a library card to do that.

They can literally just walk in and pick up the book.

And so there's, we're trying to limit any barriers to access so folks that want to participate can.

And you may remember too that every year we find a different way to collaborate with local artists or arts organizations.

And I'm super excited.

This year, the commission will be by Lisa Myers-Bullmash.

Lisa is a visual artist who uses collage, assemblage, sculpture, and altered books.

And she describes her work as, I quote, exploring issues of identity, trust, and imperfect memories in the contradictory narratives in American society that marginalize the most vulnerable.

We'll debut the finished artwork in October, and Lisa will give a digital artist talk this fall to discuss her process and how the themes in the book inform this piece.

And I was actually letting the library board know last week when I spoke with Lisa, she was just over the moon to be approached, and she said it was her dream project.

She's a big fan of the library as much as we're fans of hers, and so I'm really looking forward to seeing what she pulls together for us.

We're very excited to bring such an in-demand author as part of Seattle Reads this year, and that it gives us an opportunity to renew partnerships that we've had in the past with some wonderful community organizations.

And I'm just super excited.

It's always a little weird doing programming during the pandemic, but I'm excited that this will give folks an opportunity to chat about important questions and important themes in a difficult year.

So that concludes my prepared remarks.

I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has a question.

So just let me know.

Thank you very much for not only talking about the book that you've chosen, which sounds spectacular.

I know some people have read it and really recommend it, but also the programming and the amazing connections you've made and lifting up those groups in the community that will be able to extend the art and the themes of the book.

Council members, any questions for our librarians?

And one of the things some of us might be able to do is to further promote this in our e-newsletters.

I have one coming out next week, so I'll put something in there about it.

So thank you very much.

Council Member Morales.

I just want to thank you all.

This is exciting.

I'm looking forward to reading the book.

I'm in the process of rereading Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, which talks about some really similar themes in the South African apartheid context.

maybe part of your discussion or our discussion can be a little comparison, but I'm looking forward to it.

And I really appreciate as Councilman Peterson said, the connections that you're drawing with programming around the city and the ability for the whole community to get involved in this.

So thanks very much.

Thank you.

Thanks to all of you.

Thank you.

Council members, we can go on to our last item and fourth item on the agenda for council briefing, which is a preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committees.

I will call on council members as established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings.

So this week we are starting with council member Lewis and then followed by council members Morales, Mosqueda, Sawant, Herbold, Juarez.

Councilmember Strauss is excused from council briefing, and then I'll give Council President Gonzales' report and then mine.

So, Councilmember Lewis, good morning.

Good morning, President Pro Tem Peterson and colleagues.

I have a fairly brief report today.

I want to start off at the top.

I'm going to start by just letting everybody know that on a fairly quick turnaround today, being the.

With today being the nine.

We will be having a special select committee meeting of the homelessness strategies and investments committee on August 11th.

I did state a briefing last week, which is this coming.

Thursday.

Sorry, I just need to make sure if that's the in the morning or the afternoon, just really briefly Wednesday and in the afternoon, replacing council member mosquito's formerly scheduled finance committee meeting that has been canceled for that time period.

So just as a little bit of background, last Monday, I announced that I was hopefully going to have updates at briefing this morning on two things.

So that special meeting of the select committee, which I can confirm will be the afternoon of the 11th to discuss provider capacity issues and how we might work as a council to develop divider capacity sufficient to meet the scale of the council's shelter ambitions.

As we mentioned in the select committee last month, the council has funded for 2021 alone, 2,250 shelter placements, 250 more than other less ambitious plans that are being floated in the community.

So I think it's important to make sure that we talk about all the potential bottlenecks associated with standing up that shelter.

One that frequently emerges is provider capacity and the ability to sufficiently staff the shelter options once they are stood up.

We will be joined on Wednesday with representatives from DESC, Catholic Community Services, Low Income Housing Institute, and we are still working to produce other providers to be part of that table.

We'll potentially have some additional updates either in written form or from the Human Services Department.

I appreciate the flexibility of the Council and clerks office and the whole department in due to the scheduling challenges of us being on recess soon.

It was hard to do a meeting later in the month to obtain the necessary quorum.

But I do think that given the intense interest and urgency of the subject matter, a meeting on that quick timeline is appropriate and warranted.

So I look forward to having that meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

The other thing that I promised an update on for briefing today, I'm happy to report some preliminary feedback on one of the items from the committee last month, which was the dispute regarding the funding of the American Recovery Act villages that the council appropriated resource to and that the mayor signed into effect in the spring of this year to create three additional tiny house villages beyond the three that the council funded in the 2021 budget process last November.

There was some dispute as to whether those villages were considered fully funded for 2021. I have confirmed last week in meeting with officials from the mayor's office and the human services department that there is a commitment from the executive side to move forward with at least the pre-development and an RFQ for those villages, acknowledging that they will likely not be operational in 2021, but to complete the early pre-development phase, which, as we have learned this year, can be a considerable amount of the process in setting up these assets.

To be clear, mayoral officials committed to releasing RFQs for those three villages, so requests for proposals.

to begin the provider selection process in terms of who will operate or be selected to operate those villages, to engage in a site selection process, to identify three additional sites above and beyond the three that we've already been discussing as a council and a city, to commence any state environmental protection work that may need to be done based on those sites that are selected.

And to commence community engagement processes around those sites to make sure that we are doing our due diligence and building community around the sites for those tiny houses as we have done as a city.

That is plenty of work for the final quarter of this year on those sites.

And I do think as chair of the committee that that is a reasonable expectation to at least start there and see where we can build together as a council and executive leadership team on realizing our goals to stand up those three additional villages.

I do not have any deadlines or timelines yet, for example, on the submission of the RFQs, which would be the first step.

Hopefully, we'll have a little bit more guidance on where that is by Wednesday when we convene the select committee.

Otherwise, I'm happy to use briefing as the opportunity to discuss those timelines as they become more filled in.

Finally, I will be at the Magnolia Farmers Market this coming Saturday from 10 a.m.

until at least noon, perhaps a little bit afternoon, in order to have in-person drop-in appointments with constituents in the Magnolia neighborhood.

Otherwise, Mr. President Pro Tem, I do not have any additional updates this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Councilmembers, any questions or comments?

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Thank you very much, President Pro Tem.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Lewis, as chair of the Select Committee on Homeless Services.

I appreciate you scheduling another meeting, and I look forward to attending that on Wednesday to continue the pretty surprising and shocking conversation about the various priorities that the council had invested in not being advanced.

I'm glad that there's been an interim update on at least moving forward on the three tiny house villages that not only council had approved, but that had utilized $2 million of state funding.

recognizing that the multiple levels of government are trying to respond to the crisis that COVID has presented and worsened.

And I know that there was a lot of concern as well from our state partners, our state legislative members about those $2 million not being acted upon.

So appreciate the follow through on that.

I still have some questions about the timing to see if we could still try to get something operational.

before the end of the year.

I think there's a lot of concern from some of the providers that you've been working closely with that I've been hearing from as well about not having more village shelter beds stood up before winter really hit.

So it's the extent that we can keep pushing to do what council and the mayor had signed into law, what council had prioritized in terms of additional funding.

and to make sure that we are standing up those options for tiny house villages along with the hotel shelters that you all and you specifically Councilmember Lewis has shared with the committee have prioritized.

I'm going to be interested more in some of that timeline questions so I appreciate the update there.

I did wonder if you had any update as well about the safe lots and the opportunity to partner with the county, for example, to broaden the scope and number of people that we could serve there.

I know that when we were looking into safe lots as an alternative for safer places for people to have RVs.

We had heard that there could be various staffing models that could allow for even more RVs to be located in various locations.

And if we partnered with King County, we could have a multiplier effect of how many people we could serve.

And I sent a letter, as you know, to the mayor's office with concerns about various places around the city.

But specifically, this is a request that has come from I'm wondering if you have any updates on those two fronts and also look forward to your

Of course.

You can just call me Alex.

Oh, gosh.

That's the first time you've ever told me to call you Alex.

Just as an editorial aside, whenever you call me, I always go, hey, Alex.

And you're like, Council Member Lewis.

And you can call me Andrew, actually, just to throw that back.

Thank you.

So thank you, President Pro Tem Alex.

To respond to Council Member Mesquita's questions, I will say, Council Member, I did not inquire last week about the safe lot question.

I will try to run that down for us in advance of the committee meeting on Wednesday and apologize.

The meeting we had was very specifically about tiny house villages and the budget implications going forward.

So I guess to answer your questions regarding that first, we came to an agreement that the villages, those three villages are fully funded for 2021, but they're not, we haven't identified carry forward operating appropriations for 2022 yet.

But if the council made that clear that we were going to do that, that that might help the budget office get through the issues they need to work through in order to dependably recommend funding those operations fully.

You know, I do I do just want to candidly say, based on our process for the first three villages, it seems like a pretty reasonable timeline.

If we were to spend the rest of 2021 to get through.

the RFQ, provider selection, site selection, SIPA, community engagement, and then just be ready to go fully funded for operations for those three villages starting January 1st.

That seems like it could be doable.

I would note that we did fully fund those initial three villages to begin operations beginning on January 1st.

I mean, knowing that that probably wasn't gonna be a goal that was going to be accomplished.

And we could do that again with these three villages.

But the difference would be here.

Those three American Recovery Act villages would be built.

So it probably would be possible just to start the operations right on January 1st, because you just have to occupy an already built village.

So I think that the compromise could be, you know, we build them in 2021. to be ready to be occupied immediately in 2022. So just to wrap that one off, it sounds like there's a way that we could accomplish that where logistically, that's probably what we would be looking at anyway.

To pivot back to the safe lots, you know, I, I continue to see a lot of really unique opportunities from people in the community that are eager to respond to RFQs with some innovative ideas on how to implement the goal of some kind of safe lot program or some kind of program catering to neighbors experiencing homelessness living in RVs.

I think that that should be our central ask as a council to just try to get the RFQ out instead of Shopping around and looking for the perfect thing before we submit the RFQ.

It just seems like there's a lot of pent up community creativity that could be represented in responses to those RFQs.

But I'll try to get an answer on that before the committee on Wednesday that I can either report in writing from the department or someone from the department can deliver in person.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Next up, we've got Council Member Morales.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

Council Member Lewis, thank you.

I look forward to hearing more about the RV safe lots opportunities and also just to that meeting so that we can get some updates on how these things are being implemented.

There are no items from the Community Economic Development Committee on this afternoon's agenda.

Our next meeting is this Thursday, August 12th at 2pm.

I'm really excited because we will be appointing the first council to our new Cultural Space Agency.

So I'm looking forward to hearing from those appointees and to having hearing a little bit more about the conversation of how we hold space for community development, community driven development, particularly as it relates to our cultural sector.

We'll also have appointments from the Human Rights Commission, the Women's Commission, and the Music Commission, because that's how we roll in my committee.

We have a lot of appointments to make for our various commissions that are serving the community.

On this afternoon's full council agenda, we will have two resolutions, resolution 32013 and 32014. This is to begin the process for the 15th Avenue BIA in Capitol Hill.

Resolution 32013 initiates, sorry, in the U District.

The resolution initiates consideration of the BIA and Resolution 32014 states the city's intent to establish the BIA and sets a date and location for a public hearing.

On August 16th, the council will introduce a council bill would create the 15th Avenue BIA and levy the special assessment to fund activities.

The public hearing is set for Wednesday, September 8th at 2 p.m., where the BIA proponents and OED will present proposal.

The committee will continue discussion and possibly vote at the September 21st Community Economic Development Committee and send it to full council for consideration on September 27th.

So assuming passage by the council, the new 15th Avenue BIA will begin collecting assessments on January 1st, 2022. There's been a lot of back and forth.

We were hoping to do this process earlier in the summer.

and really hoping to complete the process before we begin the budget cycle.

So I apologize, colleagues, for a little bit of late notice, but we are trying to get this moving and trying to get this process completed before we really dive into the budget cycle.

Department updates, I'm sure you will all be very happy to know that in preparation for implementing the participatory budget process, the Office of Civil Rights has created the Community Investments Division.

This is a new department division to support the development, implementation, and management of the participatory budget process.

The division seeks to make systemic impacts through community partnership and innovative city investments that will ultimately lead to institutional transformation in the way that the city budgets and invests in black, indigenous, and people of color and the communities that they reside in.

So, if you haven't already been to the Office of Civil Rights webpage, city webpage, you should go there and check out.

They do have their participatory budgeting page there.

It includes timelines and background information, as well as kind of a status update on where we are in implementing the process.

So the division will develop requests for proposal, contract with organizations, manage the contract deliverables, oversee the evaluation of the process, and will make recommendations to the mayor and the city council.

on improving the process itself.

So I'm really excited about this.

I know we've had a lot of long conversations.

I will say up front that my goal, my hope is that as a city, we begin to do participatory budgeting as a matter of course.

You know, we have done it.

in the past with your voice, your choice.

I'm hoping that we begin to move toward having this as a normal part of our budgeting process.

So for the next year, we will see how this works.

But my hope is that this moves from a one-time, you know, sort of one-off process to a real, more of a pilot.

so that we can work out the kinks over the next year or two, and then really start to ramp up the way we do this so that we can really have the kind of transformational change in our institutions that are going to be required for us to have the kind of outcomes we seek in our communities.

So the Office of Civil Rights has posted for three new positions to begin staffing this division, and I'm really looking forward to bringing those folks on.

They are a community investment manager, a strategic advisor, and then an administrative position as well.

This week, I'll be meeting with the Office of Economic Development to get briefed on the status of the business stabilization grants that were authorized under the Seattle Rescue Plan.

And to really try to understand how allocation across neighborhoods is being implemented.

My understanding is that that process has not yet begun, so I'm feeling a little uncomfortable with the fact that implementation of that rescue money has not started.

look forward to meeting with the folks at OED later this week, and we'll follow up with colleagues afterward.

Last week, my staff and I met with SDOT to discuss safety along Martin Luther King Way.

We wanted to talk about road safety for people who walk and bike and roll.

The safety of folks along the corridor has not been up to the standard that it should be all over District 2. But especially lately along the link corridor in the Rainier Valley.

And this is a huge concern for me.

We've had seven fatalities in the last couple of years.

And so we know that this really has to become a priority.

So I'm really pleased with the conversation that we had with SDOT.

My office shared several design recommendations that Safe Streets advocates have been talking to us about, constituents who really just walk and roll to access the light rail stations.

And we'll continue to work with SDOT to try to expedite some safety concerns and safety mitigation across the corridor.

This week, I'll be meeting with Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff to discuss those same concerns.

and to see how together we can make safety improvements in the corridor that really should have been baked into the light rail line in the first place.

So we'll continue that conversation and see how quickly we can get those investments made.

Also last week, my staff joined with SDOT, with the East African Community Services, and Super Pedestrian to distribute 100 free bikes to BIPOC youth.

I want to thank everyone who was involved in this opportunity.

It's really important that we make sure that our young people have access to different modal transportation modes.

And this is a really important way for them to be able to get around the community.

Additionally, as fires are raging around us, investing in safe, green methods of transportation, especially in communities of color, is really key to reducing the impacts of human-caused climate changes.

And that includes events like this and expanding infrastructure accessible to all ages and all abilities.

Normally this week I would be hosting office hours at the Columbia City Farmers Market, but I've had to reschedule this month's and next month's farmers market meetings with constituents to accommodate some other council meetings that we have.

So we'll now be at the market on September 15th, on October 13th, and on November 6th.

Constituents can schedule a meeting via my council website, and they can also continue to schedule a virtual meeting on Thursdays via my council website as well.

That is all I have this morning, colleagues.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And Council Member Morales, we did get some information from Sound Transit and ASDOT on those crossings.

I'll forward it to your office if we haven't already, just so you can cross-reference it with what you were told in the briefing or will be told by Sound Transit in your next briefing.

That's great, thank you.

Sure.

Colleagues, any comments or questions for Council Member Morales?

Okay, we'll go on to Council Member Mosqueda in the morning.

Good morning, Council President Pro Tem.

Good morning, colleagues.

We have four items from the Finance and Housing Committee on today's full Council agenda.

I'll summarize those very briefly.

This includes Council Bill 120131. This is regarding the Equitable Communities Initiative Task Force Ordinance that Council authorized.

This legislation was passed out of the We have a budget for the fall budget last year which authorized $30 million to go to the equitable communities initiative task force that the mayor's office was managing to specifically respond to BIPOC investments.

The legislation that we're talking about this afternoon passed out of committee with two amendments.

This allows for us to release those $30 million and make sure One of the amendments established that the city acknowledges the effects of past racism and is purposely setting forth efforts to address the disproportionate effect on BIPOC communities.

And the second amendment recognizes that the city must live within the legal constraints as it moves forward with this investment.

So what this means is we have to unfortunately continue to make sure that we're in alignment with initiative 200. and that we are following the required legal path to make sure that we're getting dollars directly into communities affected by these lingering effects of racism and disinvestments into communities.

And we also want to make sure that we have an ability to track how these investments are going.

So we have put those into the legislation as well.

I did hear from some members of the task force who appreciated the bill moving out and look forward to hearing more about and how those investments are going as we continue to track these investments with community members as well.

The second bill is Council Bill 120150. This is the Seattle Rescue Plan 2. This is our second of three acts this year that aim to get federal dollars directly out into community as soon as possible to respond to the ongoing crises that COVID has presented and made worse in our communities in terms of exacerbating income inequality and housing instability.

These investments in the Seattle Rescue Plan, two, account to about $50 million, and this includes $28.7 million for rental assistance, $7.7 million for senior service investments, and $13.5 million for specific projects that were predetermined from federal partners in transportation services.

and as well, it also includes a specific grant that we are just acting as a pass-through for, so the city doesn't have any authority to necessarily make any amendments to this or to redirect the funds in any other way.

This is $2.1 million that go to McCall Hall through the Small Business Assistance Shutter Venues Grant from the federal government.

Again, on the transportation and the McCall Hall investments, the city's really acting as a pass-through on priorities that were already established.

The third bill is council bill 120147. This is the inner fund loan legislation.

This is an inner fund loan that the city's funding authority, let me just look up the acronym here real quick, the body that represents DEMPAC, which looks at debt management and makes sure that we have policy The DemPAC authorized for the City Council to move forward with this legislation that allows for the city to have an inner fund loan of about $205 million that will come from multiple city funds to the general fund as bridge financing for the city to repay next year.

This is bridge funding of over $200 million to basically recognize that jump starts investments begin being paid into city coffers In 2022, in quarterly installments, we have already made some significant investments, assuming that funding would be coming for both 2020 and 2021, and in this upcoming budget, we'll be assuming that for 2022 as well.

We know that those funds are coming.

We've created the Jump Start Seattle-specific funds so we can continue to track those dollars.

So the funds that we're talking about with this inter-fund loan will be repaid from the Jump Start fund, but in order to make sure that we're all staying in the black and everything The city budget office through the finance and administrative services department has asked for us to create this inter fund loan so we can make sure all those funds are available in real time.

we have a budget for next year.

we have a budget for next year.

it expires at the end of next year and we anticipate that we will be able to do that midyear or in the fall of next year.

this is a good budgeting practice that has been jointly crafted by CBO, FAS and the legislative department.

And the last item on our agenda for this afternoon is the hazard pay legislation, which is related to grocery worker hazard pay.

And I want to announce this morning that we are delaying that.

We are delaying that vote until September.

I'm going to be moving this afternoon to delay the grocery worker hazard pay amendment that we had crafted earlier this year, which would be a legislation that would have lifted the hazard pay requirement of the legislation and kept intact other components like safety precautions.

We're going to be removing that to the September 13th meeting at the earliest as we really only have one more week of full council in front of us before the I think it's important for us to recognize that there is a potential to have the September meeting moved to September 13. workers and employers informed of our conversation as we made a commitment to have this legislation in front of us and be reviewed four months after it was enacted.

The legislation that we originally passed was not intended to be hazard pay in perpetuity, but it was instead an effort to make sure that especially our lowest wage grocery workers were able to receive hazard pay as they continue to face health and safety concerns on the front lines and grocery stores.

And given the latest CDC guidance that has been shared as of last week, we now know that fully vaccinated individuals can absolutely transmit COVID-19 if they are not properly wearing a mask.

And the highly contagious Delta variant makes up over 90% of the cases that we are currently seeing in our country.

We are going to continue to review the best public health information as we continue to look at this legislation and want to continue to make sure that we're protecting not only frontline grocery workers, but the members of the public that they also interact with.

This is a important piece of legislation that we passed here in the city.

It is also similar legislation that was passed up and down the West Coast and then across our regional city partners as well.

And I think that it is important that we continue to look at the best practices from public health as we make any decisions about changing the latest guidance.

So with this notice, I wanna inform you all colleagues that I will be motioning to remove that item from today's agenda.

Our next Finance and Housing Committee meeting will be held on August 17th at 9.30 a.m.

As a preview, we're gonna have a packed agenda, and again, we plan to go in at least until 1 p.m.

I will make sure to adjourn by 1 p.m.

We'll have the reappointments from the Community Roots Housing Board, a briefing on the revenue forecast, a possible vote on the mid-year supplemental legislation.

I want to thank all of you for submitting your amendments by Wednesday last week so that central staff had at least a week to prepare those, because we want to share those amendments with you early, and that we will be seeking to make sure that council members and members of the public have a chance to see those amendments by Thursday at the latest this week so that we have extra time to review those.

We'll have a possible vote on the Mid-Year Grant Acceptance Legislation that corresponds with that Mid-Year Supplemental.

And we'll have a briefing discussion and possible vote on the MFTE Annual Report Extension Legislation.

We'll end with having an FAS report on the Race and Social Justice Initiative presentation from their department.

As a reminder, folks are welcome to attend the meeting for discussing many of these budget-related items.

Please let Freddy de Cuevas in my office know if you plan to attend so we can make sure that you have all of the Zoom information and any of the latest materials, which will all be published as well.

I also want to remind folks that in September, when we come back from recess, due to the holiday schedule and a need to reschedule our meeting later in September, our meetings will be on September 10th and September 17th.

Those are both Fridays, Friday starting at 9.30 a.m.

Again, Friday, September 10th and Friday, September 17th at 9.30 a.m.

And if you haven't received a hold for that on your calendar, we'll make sure to send that around soon.

In other updates regarding the budget process, there is a memo that central staff is working on currently that will summarize the upcoming fall budget process.

We'll make sure to get that to your offices either later this week or early next week so that you can have all of the holds on your calendar, know exactly when we're gonna have all of the public hearings, briefings from CBO, a chance for you to also mark on your calendar the evening public testimony options that we will be giving to the public as well.

We will start with 30 minutes of public comment.

Each meeting will start with 30 minutes of public comment as well for anybody who is not able to call in in the evenings.

Then we will get into our robust budget discussions as we had last year.

We also want to make sure that you have a chance to see when those amendments will be due and that we are moving to I think a more streamlined process for both reviewing amendments and having those green sheets and white sheets and using the process to actually come up with amendment timelines so that folks can see those amendments posted in real time.

we're going to continue to work to make sure that we are, as a council, making sure that the funding is available for the various priorities from the legislative branch and when those get signed into law by the are restricted with the budget process for just being a calendar year.

We don't do multiple year budgets.

We don't have a biennial budget in the true sense.

We only really have a calendar year.

So every year we come up with priorities that are really restricted to the next 12 months of funding.

And we want to make sure that the priorities that are discussed in fall budgets are not held back because of some new or that there be sudden requirement that there be affirmations for future years, because we cannot commit future councils.

So we'll go through that as a reminder for folks as well when we begin those budget discussions.

In terms of events from last week, I had this opportunity to present at the National League of Cities Leveraging ARPA Funds for Infants and Toddlers Forum that was held across the nation.

We had a chance to share with members of NLC what we were doing at the local level to really invest in prenatal to three investments and how we made sure that we put funding forward for our childcare providers and creating more childcare centers.

We really had a chance to highlight that $8 million that council prioritized for $3 million going for appreciation allotments for child care providers and $5 million going into creating the capital funding necessary for establishing new centers.

It was a great chance for us to highlight the collaboration that we've had, especially with child care providers and members of SEAU 925. small businesses and nonprofits who operate child care services to support infants, toddlers and their families by focusing not only on what we need to create new centers, but how we can really invest in those child care providers and address high turnover rates, given that many of these workers are women, people of color, immigrants, and many are working in very low wage jobs.

So as we think about how we can address turnover, really investing in that sector, and creating long-term career options is one specific thing that we lifted up at this forum.

We have done a lot in the last year and a half specific to infants and toddlers and childcare overall, and we look forward to continuing to stabilize childcare for both providers and the employers so that we can create more options for working families across the city, and we can create good living wage jobs in that sector.

I also wanted to say a quick note of solidarity for members of Teamsters Local 174. concrete companies and one cement companies that they work at and they have voted to go on strike.

This affects companies like Cadman, Calport, Lay, Cement, Salmon Bay and Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel and Stoneway Concrete.

I appreciate the members of Teamsters 174 for all of the work that they do.

We know that that's not an easy vote to take and look forward to continuing to hear how I think it is important for us as a public entity who works with members of 174 and the importance of making sure that workers' voices are heard, especially at sand and gravel and among members of 174 and members of the building trade.

So hoping for a resolution that meets the needs of workers in our city and appreciate all that you do and the courageous vote that you took.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Alex.

Council Member Mosqueda, you reminded me with your comments just at the end about the Teamsters voting to strike.

I similarly want to share my solidarity and support for their decision and their action.

It reminded me that last week I had the great privilege of attending a picket and a rally for our brothers and sisters in SEIU 1199, health workers, nurses, who are currently engaged in contract negotiations with Harborview Medical Center, seeking an equitable and just contract.

a contract that centers the safety not only of our frontline health workers who are heroes during this time of COVID, but also the health and safety and protection of patients who are suffering from crippling understaffing and inequitable treatment of our health workers.

I just wanted to recognize that labor action as well.

Your statement reminded me it was very powerful to go to that rally, see so many community leaders standing in solidarity with the folks who've been on the front line of our COVID response and have made us a national best practice for responding to COVID.

And I just wanted to lift up their work, lift up their voice and share my very, very strong support that they achieve an equitable and just contract, which they more than deserve based on their commitment to our community.

So thank you for the opportunity just to jump in and make sure I acknowledge that.

Thank you.

Next we've got Council Member Sawant.

Good morning.

Good morning, thank you, President Troton-Peterson.

I also wanted to extend the solidarity from my office and from my organization, Socialist Alternative, to Teamsters 174 Sand and Gravel Drivers, and also to Carpenters Local 30, who, along with the Sand and Gravel Drivers and many other building trades are negotiating their contracts this summer, and Local 30 members have courageously been standing up for their own rights and have now at this point, I believe, voted down two or three tentative agreements and have held two rallies, the most recent one being late last week where they have had other trades workers also there in solidarity with them and speaking up for decent workplace conditions and for fair pay.

So I hope that they are able to continue pushing for their needs and I hope that they are aware that our office is totally in solidarity with them.

There are no items on today's city council agenda from the sustainability and renters rights committee.

There's one item on today's introduction and referral calendar and city council agenda from my office and that is the resolution supporting compensation for the new hope missionary Baptist church in the central district and others displaced.

from the central area by the city's racist policies of urban renewal in the 1960s.

Most immediately, the resolution urges the Office of Housing to fund the New Hope Family Housing Project, which is an affordable housing project focused on combating that displacement.

The resolution also states that the council intends to pass a budget amendment this fall to give the Office of Housing the authority to grant 2022 affordable housing funds this year support increasing progressive taxes on the rich and big business to find more affordable housing and also, you know, it starts with apologizing for the.

destructive effects of the displacement from the urban renewal programs and urges all city departments to find opportunities to make reparations for that injustice.

And my office remains committed alongside the Central District community, the Church Council of Greater Seattle, the United Black Clergy, and other faith leaders like Reverend Ying who have stood with Reverend Jeffrey and the community members in the Central District to make sure that we follow up the resolution that will be voted on today with of the people's budget campaign to make sure that the efforts are funded.

I'll reserve the rest of my comments about this resolution for when it comes up for a vote this afternoon.

The sustainability and renters rights committee does not have a regularly scheduled meeting time in August because the committee regularly meets on the fourth week of each month, which this month will fall during council recess.

Additionally, the regular time for the meeting in September comes after all committees have Um, And, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, schedule was able to fit for all committee members for one committee to be held a little bit earlier than the 21st, but that didn't work out.

So I really appreciate the committee members indulging this schedule and being available for both the meetings so we are able to conduct the work of the committee in a timely fashion before we head into the budget.

I really appreciate you all working with us to find times that work for your schedules.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swann.

Council Members, any questions or comments for Council Member Swann's report?

Okay, now we'll go on to Council Member Herbold.

So let's see here.

As far as on the full council agenda today, I do have an amendment to the council bill 120131. This is the legislation that appropriates funding recommended by the equitable communities initiative task force.

This amendment is It follows up on a discussion during the last finance and housing committee meeting where I inquired into the administrative costs to implement the task force recommendations.

about 6.5% depending on whether or not the program to be funded is an existing program or a new program.

And the administrative costs are intended by the executive to be funded out of the $30 million.

I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the $30 million allocated here.

So the balance of the $30 million will be available to fund the recommended investments of the task force.

So the amendment that I have is just simply a recital that memorializes this for the interested public that this is the intent of the mayor as proposed and the council as adopted.

So, like I said, the amendment is included in today's council agenda for your advanced review, and I appreciate your support.

I have no other items on the full council agenda, none from the Public Safety and Human Services I do have a committee meeting this week.

So tomorrow at 930, we have a public safety and human services committee.

There are three items on that committee agenda.

The first is the discussion and vote on a bill to transfer the parking enforcement unit out of the Seattle Police Department.

The second is a briefing from the human services department on the process and outcomes of the community safety capacity building RFP funded with $12 million provided by the city council in part from last summer's budget adjustment.

and then increased with the funding in the 2021 budget when the 2020 funding was vetoed by the mayor and then also not allocated in 2020. I only mentioned that background because we have been so eager to get these community safety investments out the door, and I'm excited to learn more about the outcomes from those investments proposed by and supported by the city council.

And then lastly, we'll be hearing a report from central staff on the Seattle Police Department's quarterly finance in staffing.

This will include a presentation on SPD's budget proposal That's not the budget proposal for 2022, but this is the budget proposal that they have made recently during our deliberations on the second quarter supplemental.

The briefing includes a discussion of several public safety investments that I and other council members are proposing to fund in the second quarter supplemental, and those discussions are happening in Council Member Mosqueda's Finance and Housing Committee.

We've had a couple of discussions that have touched upon it.

We hope to go more deep into the SPD finances, their staffing situation, and as well.

Some questions that folks have specifically about the SPD recommendations and then hopefully we can use what we learn in committee.

to further our deliberations again in Council Member Mosqueda's Finance and Housing Committee and the eventual voting on our second quarter supplemental.

I want to just let Council Members know that even if you're not a member of my committee, you are welcome to attend.

If you could just let me know, that would be great.

I've already invited Council Member Mosqueda and confirmed her attendance.

Again, as always, if anybody else would like to attend, that would be welcomed by me.

Just a couple updates from the departments in my committee from HSD.

I want to let folks know that the Seattle Youth Employment Program will be holding its annual summer capstone event on August 19th from 930 to noon at the Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater.

Food and entertainment will be provided, and it will feature special guest speakers, activities, games, and an opportunity to meet and network with all of the Seattle Youth Employment Program participants, their internship site supervisors, and program staff in an event to congratulate everybody for their participation in the Seattle Youth Employment Program this summer.

Secondly, HSD staff this week will be meeting with applicants to the Asian and Pacific Islander Resiliency RFP, specifically meeting with those who did not receive funding in order to provide feedback to their application that they can use that.

that feedback in future applications.

This is part of HSD's ongoing commitment to building relationships and making their RFP processes more accessible to the community.

Moving over to Seattle Police Department issues, of course, we've all learned that late last week, Chief Diaz fired the two officers present during the attack on the D.C.

Capitol on January 6th.

I just want to make a point of thanking Chief Diaz for this decision and stating that I strongly believe it was the right thing to do.

The recommendations of the OPA to terminate the two officers for lack of professionalism and violations of law and policy were sound recommendations and a very necessary step for public confidence in police accountability and justice.

Seattle police officers made up the largest known contingent of police attending the January 6th rally more than any other municipality across the country.

Many of our constituents question whether or not they can trust officers who attended the Stop the Steal to avoid, to uphold the mission and principles of Seattle Police Department's Code of Ethics.

I believe whether or not they were directly involved in the insurrection or if they attended with the intent to passively support the unlawful insurrection and violent assault of our nation's capital, neither act is an example of protected free speech, nor should our support of free speech shield accountability for these acts.

I just want to say a few words around a recent complaint that the Department of Ethics and Elections, the Director of Seattle HR Investigations Unit, and myself received last week about the Office of the Inspector General.

This was a complaint from an employee that has resigned.

And the complaints focus on what the employee claims is a failure to provide independent oversight of OPA and what the employee claims is a pattern of concealing the truth and avoiding public disclosure requirements.

Highlighting the role for the Office of the Inspector General as defined by the 2017 Accountability Ordinance.

That law states that the City of Seattle Office of Inspector General was established to help ensure the fairness and integrity of the police system as a whole.

and its delivery of law enforcement services by providing civilian auditing of the management practices and policies of the Seattle Police Department and Office of Police Accountability, and overseeing ongoing fidelity to organizational reforms implemented pursuant to the goals of the 2012 Federal Consent Decree.

The main roles of the Office of the Inspector General is to make sure that the OPA classifies complaints appropriately, ensure that the level of investigation is done correctly.

Once OPA completes an investigation, the Office of the Inspector General examines what was done and certifies whether each investigation is objective, thorough, and timely.

There has been some recent press as well on some of those certification letters from the OIG that has determined that the OPA investigations did not meet the OIG's bar in this area.

If an allegation of misconduct involves OPA, and presents a conflict of interest for OPA, OIG can step in and handle the classification and investigation if necessary.

And then finally, the Office of the Inspector General reviews OPA for systematic concerns, just as the Office of the Inspector General would for any other part of SPD.

So with understanding of what the role is of OIG, I intend to consult with Ethics and Elections and Seattle HR to determine whether I can share the letter with you, should you be interested in receiving a complaint.

I will also inquire with the scope of whether the scope of the complaints themselves are within the authority of the regulatory bodies to consider, and if they are not within the scope of the regulatory bodies to consider, whether or not there's another approach that should be under consideration to review the concerns raised.

Other activities coming up this week, as far as regional committee updates, just want to share that on Thursday I'll be chairing the Watershed Resource Inventory Area 9 meeting.

I'm really excited to say that funding for a new Duwamish steward position will be discussed in this meeting.

I've been promoting the creation of this position for a couple of years now.

And it's only thanks to the advocacy of community stakeholders, specifically the Green River Coalition and the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, that it looks like this funding will be moving forward.

Other events coming up this week include a West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meeting on Thursday.

And then also just want to note that there will be a status conference on the consent decree scheduled for 1.30 tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Colleagues, any questions or comments for Council Member Herbold?

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Anything you want to let us know?

Yes, thanks, Alex.

So first of all, good morning, or as Council Member Morales would say, greetings.

So the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee had a meeting last Tuesday on August 3rd, and our next meeting is Friday, September 10th at two.

So for today, there are three items from our committee on this afternoon's agenda.

There's a bill to finalize a tunnel permit by the Climate Pledge Arena, There are two bills from the Parks Department authorizing the purchase of property next to the Duwamish Waterway Park and in the North Rainier Hub Urban Village.

And also on this afternoon's council agenda is Council Bill 120145, which I'm sponsoring, thank you, Council Member Herbold, with Council Member Herbold.

The bill named the Pedestrian Pike Bright Bridge across Interstate 5 after the Honorable U.S. Representative and Civil Rights Leader and Icon, Mr. John Lewis.

In regards to park, I'll have more to share that to council president, council pro tem guy.

Okay, parks between July 28th and July 3rd, the parks department shower program served 307 users at 6 community centers.

The parks department recently opened the inner loop at Green Lake Park to two-way foot traffic, but it's still closed for bicycles.

And during the week of July 26, the Clean City crew members picked up 63,000 pounds of trash from 27 encampments.

They also removed about 1,000, over 1,000 needles from these encampments and parks, and not just just encampments and parks, but everywhere.

And then crew members deep cleaned the Jose Rizal Park and Lincoln Park.

So that's where we're at with our Clean City Crew initiative, folks.

From the Seattle Public Library, the Seattle Public Library's Fremont branch reopened to the public on August 4th.

And the Seattle Public Library recently published its annual impact report, the report which highlights the library's performance in 2020. includes key library statistics and a month-by-month timeline of the library's COVID response.

If you're interested, you can read the report in its entirety on the library's website.

As far as Native communities, we've been reporting on the deaths or the burials of Native American children, not only in Canada, but in the United States.

And after all this disturbing news of mass graves, I'm sponsoring a resolution that would support Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland's call to action to utilize federal resources to address the lasting harm on indigenous families.

Our office worked with, collaborated with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition to draft the language in the resolution.

Big shout out to Nageen for working with tribal communities and tribal leadership.

We lean heavily on the expertise and appreciate the partnership of this national group that has been around for a while.

Big thank you to Deborah Parker, former council member for the Tulalip tribes and current Boarding School Healing Coalition Policy Advisor, Auntie Julie, who is Lummi, Patsy Whitefoot, Yakima, and of course, Abigail Elkohawk at the Seattle Indian Health Board.

I ask that you all get a chance to review the resolution this week for full council consideration on August 16th.

As you know, big news at Sound Transit, on August 5th, the Sound Transit Board unanimously agreed to open the 130th Street infill station in 2025 and the Graham Street station in 2031. Mayor Durkin and I submitted amendments and spoke in favor of this to ensure that both North and South Seattle can enjoy and take light rail across this region.

So we're very Very happy that that happened.

And I got a couple of people I want to thank, but I want to get through some of the basic facts before I get to the big fat thank you part.

The goal of the meeting was to determine a strategy for reconciling the $6.5 billion affordability gap.

Sound Transit Board Chair Keele and Board Member Claudia Balducci worked together to create an approach that would reduce costs and minimize delays.

I am very happy to report that we passed the hybrid resolution.

And I was very proud to serve on this board and actually work hard and work with my colleagues and get things done.

As you know, I'm pretty practical and hands on.

So for me, that was a very big day.

Again, the good news for Seattle, the infill stations are two infill stations.

The one at Graham Street will open in 2031. 130th will be open in 2025. Both infill stations will be in tier one, which is very important because there are four tiers.

So if we're in tier one, We know that we will move along according to schedule, according to Sound Transit 3 and what we had hoped for to see in light rail to reach these communities.

Thank you to everyone who called into public comment.

And I want to give a big thank you to the Graham Street Community Action Team.

The Graham Street Community Action Team is a coalition of seven multicultural and multi-faith community-based organizations serving the Graham Street neighborhood in the Rainier Valley.

They have been working together for years with the South Communities Organizing for Race and Regional Equity, also known as SouthCORE, in supporting Graham Street Station inclusion into Sound Transit 3. We had gotten wonderful letters and advocacy of support from the Grand Street Community Action Team from South Core.

And I believe Puget Sound SAGE was the coordinating team for all of them.

And I can't tell you how important that was when the mayor and I were advocating for not just for 130, but for Grand Street on the principles of not only ridership, but equity.

And so for me to finally see, to come to fruition, all the words we talk about centering BIPOC, actually seeing something happen.

So I'm actually pretty excited about that.

Let's see if I have anything else for you guys.

No, I think that's it.

Hold on here.

Five, four, six.

Nope, that's it.

That's all I got.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Colleagues, any comments or questions for Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Morales, please.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez, I just wanna thank you.

I know y'all have been working really hard.

This has been very contentious and it feels like the goalpost has been moving a lot over the last year or so.

You're right, the South Core and Graham Street Cat have been working really hard for many years to make sure that this station stays, remains included in part of the plan.

And as I've been talking so much lately about the safety along the light rail corridor, I think this is one huge step towards improving the safety for folks.

And my hope is that as that station goes in, the safety requirements will be included in there too.

So I just want to say thank you again.

I know it's been a slog and really appreciate you working on behalf of the community.

Well, it was a slog I was happy to do, because I wasn't real excited about being on Sound Transit, I'll just say that.

But I'm really going to look to you, Council Member Morales, because the Graham Street Station, like we're doing with the John Lewis Bridge, I'm hoping that we have an opportunity from this city and not just the South End, but everywhere, that we honor those people that have made our country great.

And so I look forward to hearing from you and community and everybody else that we heard when we put it out there about the John Lewis Bridge.

that it isn't just the Graham street station.

Thank you.

Thank you and Council Member Herbold.

Thanks, and I know Council Member Juarez hates it when we go on and on.

I do hate it when y'all go on and on because I want to thank you.

I really appreciate your leadership and representation of the entire city on the Sound Transit Board.

And on behalf of West Seattle, really appreciate that the cheering under the current action is not what I saw in earlier proposals, which proposed completion in 2035 or only building to the Delridge Station in 2035 and not seeking to get to Alaska until 2038. And those were, from my perspective, not reasonable solutions to the funding issues, and again, really, really appreciate that you're keeping your eye on the ball for all of Seattle's communities.

Well, just so we can go on with the love fest, Councilmember Herbert, weren't you on the elected leaders board and you did that, Councilmember Gonzalez and Councilmember Harrell, correct?

That's right.

Yeah, and so you guys did a lot of the groundwork.

So, you know, thank you.

Thank everybody.

I'm done Council Pro Tem President Peterson.

Thank you so much.

I will briefly provide the report from Council President Gonzalez who's excused today and then conclude with my report.

Council President Gonzalez has no items on today's introduction and referral calendar and nothing on today's city council agenda.

And just a reminder that the August 10th Governance and Education Committee meeting is canceled.

I'll quickly go to my report here.

Our city's transportation utilities committee has nine pieces of legislation on today's full city council agenda.

I believe they're items nine through 17. All nine items, I'll just sum them up very quickly here.

All nine items were unanimously approved by our committee.

and rather than go through them all, this morning, I encourage colleagues who still have any questions about these to just review the city council central staff memos, contact central staff or my office before this afternoon's meeting, but there was nothing controversial at that meeting.

The most exciting item was the John Lewis Bridge item, which Council Member Juarez will speak to more this afternoon, I'm sure.

There is an item of importance that was not from my committee, but I'm a co-sponsor on Council Bill 120151. In the spirit of engaging the homelessness crisis with the urgency it deserves, Council Member Lewis and I walked on to last week's introduction referral calendar, that Council Bill 120151, which is item one on today's city council agenda.

This expedited bill would authorize the city to enter into a lease with Sound Transit for use of their site for a tiny home village in the University District.

I'd like to thank central staff, especially Jeff Sims for quickly finalizing this legislation so we did not have to wait any longer.

And thank you, Council Member Lewis, for enabling us to go straight to the council rather than through a committee on this.

The council already authorized the funds for this tiny home village during our budget approvals last November.

The non-profit low-income housing institute, known as Lehigh, and their volunteers have completed building these tiny homes for the university district, which I was able to visit in their factory recently.

So the last step is approval on this lease so we can get people off the streets into their own space and onto a positive future.

The site is approximately 18,000 square feet and can fit approximately 35, 36 tiny home structures.

The lease will be for approximately two and a half years.

After hosting the tiny home village, the construction of new permanent affordable housing will occur on the site in our university district.

To further expedite this project, I've asked Sound Transit to sign the lease today, contingent upon our adoption.

They have agreed to do that.

I want to really thank them.

This is the first time they're hosting a tiny home village on their property.

I've also asked the mayor to sign the legislation within the next 24 hours, and her office has agreed to that.

And finally, our Financial and Administrative Services Director is standing by ready to sign the lease on behalf of our city government.

So I know the nonprofit Lehigh is eager to get started on this site.

So let's finally get this done and get more people who are experiencing homelessness get them inside.

And ideally, this lease could be used as a template for future partnerships, not only in Seattle, but also throughout the region to accelerate our response to homelessness.

In D4, District 4, this past Tuesday, I attended 10 national night out events in my district in Northeast Seattle.

And while these annual events were canceled last year due to the COVID pandemic, they bounced back strong with hundreds of blocks signing up across Seattle.

Many thanks to the neighbors who organized these block parties.

Our police department is very short staff.

They were not able to visit most of the locations as they normally do, but the block parties I attended showed a lot of support for our police officers and the difficult jobs they have.

Speaking of which, I was up at three in the morning this past weekend to attend a couple of police roll calls for officers starting the first watch, which is the nine-hour shift from 3 a.m.

to 12 noon.

Officers were generous with their feedback, and I believe it would be in the city's best interest to continue to boost officer wellness to address extremely low morale.

Officer wellness was promoted by Officer Lexi Harris before she was killed on I-5 recently.

A supporting officer wellness will show we care about these city employees and want them to stay.

I believe we cannot afford to lose more highly trained officers and detectives beyond the record breaking attrition the department has already experienced, which makes it difficult to cover the entire city as required by our city charter and has caused response times to increase for priority one calls.

I'm hopeful we will consider not only the proposal the Durkin administration sent to City Council on July 29 to provide hiring incentives for new officers, but also think of strategies for retaining the highly trained professional city employees we already have.

To the officers listening, I encourage you to stay with Seattle.

Thank you.

Oh, Council Member Lewis, please.

Thank you for just giving me a moment to come in and talk about the tiny house lease.

I'll have more comments this afternoon, but one thing I did want to just flag now, because it seems appropriate given your remarks about the possibility of using this lease, which was negotiated over the course of several months with a considerable amount of feedback on both sides to start this first ever partnership between Sound Transit and the city to host a tiny house village.

I do just want to note, you know, for the public and for the record here, Sound Transit has provided three additional perspective sites that could accommodate tiny house villages that are not currently being used for one of the three initial sites that are currently under pre-development, including the one in Roosevelt, the expansion of the interbay village, and then one up in the North Seattle neighborhood.

So I do think there is plenty of scope at least for the precedent that this lease could have to inform.

one or two or even three additional villages on the three Sound Transit sites that have been provided, and that Sound Transit has indicated they would be more than willing to host a village on.

I also just state this to underscore that there may be some issues with hosting additional tiny house villages.

Availability of sites is not one.

My office has accumulated a list of dozens of appropriate sites.

that we could pick knowing that we don't have to pick all of them.

And that even if just a couple are suitable.

So I did just wanna say to your point, Council Member Peterson, I do think you could at least be a precedent for moving more swiftly on one, two or three of those additional sound transit sites.

And we should be looking into that as a council on the city.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

And lastly, Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning.

So our next committee meeting will be August 18th.

And that concludes my report.

So Council Members, we can now adjourn the council briefing and we will see you all this afternoon.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.