Council Briefing 6/16/25

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is June 16th, 2025. The Seattle City Council briefing meeting will come to order and the time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Sokka.

Here.

Councilmember Solomon.

Councilmember Strauss.

Yes.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

And Council President Nelson.

Present.

Five present.

Thank you.

Councilmember Moore and Councilmember Solomon are excused today.

If there's no objection, the minutes of June 9th, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted and Councilmember Kettle is now joining us.

We have one proclamation, one presentation and no executive session today.

On tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are 15 items on the IRC, the introduction and referral calendar, the weekly bill payment ordinance, eight appointments to the sweetened beverage tax community advisory board, The appointment of Dan Eater as the Director of the City Budget Office.

Three appointments to the Seattle Planning Commission.

Council Bill 121005, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, updating and clarifying requirements for solid waste storage, staging areas and access for residential, commercial and industrial development.

Council Bill 121006, an ordinance relating to chronic nuisance properties allowing under certain circumstances and off property nuisance activity to count toward determining that a property is a chronic nuisance.

All right, so that's the IRC.

The consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and three items.

Appointment 0 3 1 6 8, which is the appointment of Ed King as a member of the Seattle Arts Commission.

Appointment 0 3 1 6 9 appointment of Kate Nagle, um, Carol Luso as a member of Seattle Arts Commission and appointment 0 3 1 7 0 reappointment of Vanessa Villa Lobos as member Seattle Arts Commission.

And then finally, there are seven pieces of legislation from committees.

Council bill 121001, which is an ordinance relating to city employment authorizing the execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Seattle and the international association of machinists and aerospace workers district lodge 160. Um, the select committee on families, education, preschool, and promise levy, which I don't need to read this really long title because we were just there last week.

You know what I'm talking about.

The Housing and Human Services Committee, Council Bill 121000, an ordinance relating to prohibiting algorithmic rent fixing and adding a new chapter to the SMC.

in Parks and Public Utilities and Technology Committee, Council Bill 120997, an ordinance relating to current use taxation approving an application for current use taxation of property located at 9666 51st Avenue South.

In the Public Safety Committee, there is Council Bill 120996, an ordinance relating to emergency medical services authorizing execution pursuant to the Interlocal Cooperation Act of an agreement with King County regarding the imposition and allocation of property tax revenue generated by a six-year voter approved King County-wide tax levy for emergency medical services.

and council bill 120994 in ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation authorizing approval of uses and accepting the 2025 updated surveillance impact report and 2025 executive overview of the seattle police department's use of tracking devices and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts And then in the Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture Committee, Council Bill 120986, an ordinance relating to the City Light Department authorizing the execution of an indefeasible right of use fiber sharing agreement with the Zipley Fiber Pacific LLC, effective for a period of up to two 15-year terms.

So we've got a busy agenda there.

Uh, let's see in that now we will go on to the signing of letters and proclamations.

Council member Solomon has a proclamation recognizing June 19th, 2025 as a celebration of Juneteenth.

However, council member Solomon, um, is not with us today.

Um, so I believe that it is council member Saka that will be speaking to this proclamation on his behalf.

And you are recognized to speak.

All right, thank you, Madam Council President and colleagues.

First off, I wanna thank Council Member Solomon for bringing this forward.

This is very important.

And I think important now more than ever given the moment we're at in time with the erosion of civil rights and liberties at the national level.

And on a more positive note that we have not one, not two, but three for the first time ever, council members who are black and African descent, serving on the council in addition to our second black mayor.

So I urge you to join me in supporting this proclamation, recognizing and celebrating Juneteenth.

We have a very, very important occasion that originally started in Galveston, Texas, that many Seattleites have come to honor and celebrate as well.

And it's clearly a national holiday and a city holiday, state holiday.

But this proclamation, again, acknowledges the significance and importance of Juneteenth to our region and our city.

And I urge you to support this proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

And this will be presented tomorrow.

Is that correct?

That is absolutely correct.

I will say.

most of my comments until then.

Um, however, if, um, the council member is listening or can watch the tape later, I appreciate you bringing this forward.

Council member Solomon.

Is there any other comment?

Okay.

Good to go.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Um, let's, uh, seeing that there is no further discussion with the clerk, please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation celebrating Juneteenth.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much.

I did want to go back to, let's see.

I've got a note here.

Did I miss something?

Skipped item three.

Oh, sorry.

We do have a presentation from our city clerks and from our internal council.

So I apologize for jumping the gun there.

You're just sitting there patiently.

We do have a...

a presentation on how we're going to go forward with our vacancy filling process.

So I apologize for jumping ahead and I will ask you please to introduce yourselves and then we can just go ahead right into the presentation.

Sounds great.

Thank you.

My name is Shireen Dedman.

I am the Seattle city clerk.

And I'm Lauren Henry, your legislative legal counsel.

And Lauren's going to kick things off.

Sure thing.

While we're getting the PowerPoint that we attached to the agenda shared for each of you to see, yes, we are here because a vacancy was initiated when Councilmember Kathy Moore of District 5 announced that she would resign her position.

Her last day is July 7th of this year, creating a vacancy that opens beginning July 8th.

What we wanted to do is to lay out in a little more detail than I think we did last time, the charter requirements for how to conduct a vacancy appointment process and then our own Seattle Municipal Code, which lays out the procedure for special meetings and consideration of vacancy applicants.

So we'll go into that, and then I'll turn it over to Shireen to discuss specifically how events will unfold just prior to and then through our 20-day vacancy period.

So kicking things off, Public information will be available at the council vacancy web page, just as it was the last few times that we have conducted a vacancy process.

So members of the public will be able to find latest and greatest dates when there are applicants to see their application materials and go through them and learn how they can participate in events such as a community forum.

I'll start first with, under our Seattle City Charter, who qualifies for City Council Office?

There are two different charter provisions.

The first is Article 19, Section 2, and then Article 4, Section 2, and both relate to who is eligible to serve in elective office.

and those who are appointed to office must bear the same qualifications as if they were elected into the position.

So as you can see in the slide, we have six criteria that must be present in order for someone to fill this District 5 vacancy when it opens on July the 8th.

First, that the individual must be a citizen of the United States.

Second, they must be a qualified elector of the state of Washington.

Third, a registered voter of the city of Seattle.

Fourth, able to read and write the English language.

And fifth, a registered voter and a citizen of the city of Seattle from at least 120 days prior to filing a declaration of candidacy.

And sixth, a resident of the district represented, so in this case, District 5, for at least 120 days prior to filing the declaration of candidacy.

I just want to step in here to clarify that we do partner with King County elections in order to determine this residency.

So it is very important that people check to make sure that they are active registered voters.

If you are an inactive registered voter, it very much implies that you may no longer live in the city of Seattle.

So part of that verification is we use active registration to confirm that you are a resident currently.

of the city of seattle and then there is another charter provision oh sorry councilmember strauss yep councilmember strauss may i sorry i can't figure zoom out in this in real life world that we live in i'm gonna just ask some basic questions i'm pretty sure i know the answer to them but just to play this out a little bit more When you say active registered voter, can you share a little bit more about that?

Does that mean if somebody is registered to vote and they just haven't for four years for some unknown reason, what do you mean by actively registered voter?

So with King County elections, you can be registered, but you're active or you are inactive.

So active does mean that nothing in their system has withdrawn, like shown you as inactive, Sorry, I don't want to speak on behalf of King County elections, but in my experience as a registrar, reasons why you would become an inactive registered voter would be that the office has received mail that implied that you moved.

And so you've been inactivated because they no longer know that you are registered at that address or you may no longer live in Seattle.

Voting, a lack of voting is the reason for a voter to be inactivated.

So that's not a reason, but it is very crucial that if you are considering running for or, you know, submitting an application that you just have that checked because some people are unaware that they have become inactivated as registered voters.

But without speaking on behalf of King County elections.

This was just my plug for all voters, active or inactive, to check to see what their registration level is at the county.

Other question here.

The statement that a person must be a resident 120 days before their candidacy, or in this case, submitting an application.

Is that the same...

but are we swapping those two phrases in for each other?

That's right.

120 days from the time in which you submitted your application.

So if a council member had given 140 days notice that they were going to vacate a position, somebody could move into that area, secure their address, and then that resignation date though isn't going to change out in the future.

In the case that's before us today, essentially somebody will be submitting an application on, I'm guessing you're going to get into the calendar, but like July 10th-ish, approximately.

They, at that time, have to have been a registered and active voter.

So they have to be a resident and active registered voter 120 days before the submission of their application.

Is that correct?

That's right.

So as we sit here today, because we're looking forward to a vacancy that we will complete the application process for next month, the individual would have to be a resident and active registered voter today within D5.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Okay, moving forward to how the Seattle City Charter requirements build out the process by which we fill a vacancy.

The vacancy process may feel expedited and that apparently was intentional on the part of the Seattle City Charter drafters and voters.

Article 19, Section 6 requires that the City Council, within 20 days, proceed to select by ballot a person to fill a vacancy.

So our vacancy begins day one on July 8th, which means that by July 28th, under the charter, we will have done a ballot to select the person to fill the vacancy.

The selection is effective only upon the affirmative vote of a majority of all the members of the council, so not those that happen to be present for one meeting or another, a majority of all members.

So a successful candidate will receive a minimum of five votes in order to be appointed.

And then if the vacancy isn't filled within 20 days after it becomes vacant, the same city charter provision, Article 19, Section 6, requires the city council to meet and ballot at least once every day, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.

Now our own Seattle Municipal Code builds out the procedure from there.

You can see that the Seattle City Charter left the process by which a vacancy was filled largely silent beyond that we are to ballot within 20 days.

of that vacancy.

And so the city council by ordinance 125479 created the Seattle city council vacancy procedure that we have followed the last few times that we have done this and will for D5.

That process was created in 2017. It requires that the council accept applications from anyone qualified to become a council member and publish the applications procedures within five business days of a seat becoming vacant.

And likewise, publish application procedures for community entities to either participate in our public forum development process or even host it within five business days of the seat becoming vacant.

And then after the deadline for applications, the city council is mandated to publish all submissions that meet our application standards.

I'll speak a little bit to the idea of a public forum that's also required under SMC 3.93010.

The code requires that the council develop a public forum for interviewing applicants.

The council is to consult with community entities if they make any submissions and are selected.

And those community entities are authorized to inform three crucial components of a public forum.

Those are the forum structure, the questions that will be asked to candidates, and the accessibility considerations of the forum.

And then after the public forum, the council must meet to consider the applications and hold at least one meeting in which applications have been made public and received public comment regarding the vacancy.

At that meeting, the candidates who participated in the forum may address the council.

And then critically, only applicants who have both participated in the public forum and addressed the council may be eligible to be appointed.

So if someone has submitted an application but does not attend and participate in the public forum or their opportunity to address the council and be interviewed, they are therefore ineligible to be appointed.

I'll turn it over to our city clerk to discuss the details of this particular vacancy.

Thank you.

And so being that we were given ample notice, applications will begin to be received starting Wednesday, July 2nd at 8 AM.

Applications will be accepted via email to councilvacancy at seattle.gov for the previous two vacancies.

The deadline to submit applications is before 5 PM Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, July 9th, 2025. And the reason why it's stated as such is that if we receive the application with a timestamp of 5 PM, it is not considered timely.

Applications must include the completed versions of a cover letter, a resume, and the financial interest statement form that will be available on the website.

Moving on to the public forum and community entities.

Community entities that wish to participate in developing or hosting the public forum may submit a letter of interest beginning July 2nd, 2025 at 8 a.m.

It's gonna use the same process as the applications from candidates for the vacant position.

So you would submit it to the council vacancy email address and the deadline to submit is before 5 PM Pacific standard time on July 9th, 2025. We will have a separate form for community entities that want to share their general feedback about the public forum.

Again, starting on July 2nd at 8 a.m., going to July 9th before 5 p.m., if they wanna provide their recommendations for the forum structure, the questions that they would like to see posed to the candidates, or any accessibility considerations.

Any interested entities who have questions about it, because maybe they're interested, but they're not sure what it entails, please feel free to reach out to me.

And then moving on to the meetings that council can anticipate.

and you'll see a little more detail in the following slide, but there are two special meeting dates blocked off following the forum.

And there's the July 22nd where the public comment can be accepted and there will be applicant interviews.

Just a brief reminder of what that process looked like.

Each candidate was given some time to speak, to address council, and then council members were given time to ask questions in whichever way they deemed appropriate to the candidates.

And that will be July 22nd.

And then on July 28th, which is the conclusion of the 20-day charter appointment process, that will be your discussion and your vote.

So as a reminder, successful candidates will need five votes to get the majority.

And going into the proposed calendar of events, without going into too many details, Well, I guess I can kind of list it.

We do have the vacancy was announced.

We have the process initiates on the 8th, the day after the vacancy is official, or shall we say Council Member Moore's resignation is complete.

The applications will open on July 2nd.

They will close on the 9th.

We in the office of the city clerk are charged with processing the applications and redacting personal information to make them appropriate to be published and provided to council members.

So we are hoping to complete that process within two days.

Keep in mind that as we partner with King County elections, we do have to rely on them to provide the information of who qualifies.

So there is a delay for that.

So after that, council members will be provided with the applications and then you have a couple of days to be able to review them.

And then there's an executive session on the 15th of July to sort of discuss the process.

Did you have a question?

Please wait till we're completely done with the process.

Yes, okay, sorry.

And then we have the special meeting.

There will be a meeting on the 17th of Tuesday, right?

There's a council meeting where we get to name the finalist and then the community forum is anticipated to be on the 21st with the special meeting as discussed previously to receive public comment, to interview the applicants and then the 28th to name the appointed Council member.

So with that information, are there any questions?

So we, um, I would note that, uh, this is round three.

So I am feeling that we're fairly well prepared for this process.

Um, and, uh, just to, um, one thing that you said, I don't want, um, the, the, you said that the process begins on the eighth.

It actually, the, Uh, the opening for applications begins prior to that because we're allowed to, uh, to open up the, um, application process up to five days in advance of day one of the 20 day countdown.

Yes.

Thank you for clarifying.

I should say the, uh, 20 day calendar is what starts on the eighth.

Um, but yes, the process will begin on the, well, It's technically beginning for us now, right?

Right.

Yeah.

But it will begin for the public on the second.

And I have not checked the website today.

When will all of this information be on our website?

We are working on it.

So our wonderful comms team is who creates that copy.

And I know I just received an email to look over it.

So it'll be soon.

Got it.

Councilmember Rink.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you for the presentation.

I know this will be my second appointment process now, so hopefully we don't be froze at this.

A couple of quick questions.

First of all, does the city charter in any way allow us or prevent us from using rank choice voting as a body?

Uh, no, it's silent to that fact.

It only requires a ballot, which we've interpreted to just mean a vote of each council member registering their vote in order to determine if we do have a simple majority to have an appointment.

Okay.

Interesting.

Something interesting for us to explore as a body.

And as a point of curiosity is, would this be the first time that Seattle city council has had two appointees serving on council concurrently?

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

Would this be the first time that Seattle City Council has had two appointees serving on the body concurrently?

Oh, you know, we'll have to get back to you.

Our wonderful archives team is great at finding that information out.

Fabulous.

We'd love to find out from them.

Certainly, we know these are unprecedented times, just trying to figure out how unprecedented.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Okay, are there any further questions?

All right, thank you very much for this information and just we'll keep the public posted when the information is more available and when they can download the financial interest forms.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay, right now we'll begin our next discussion, which is the preview of city council actions and also council and regional committee reports.

In the roll call order today, we have council member Rivera starting first.

So you're welcome to begin.

yeah thank you council president good afternoon colleagues uh last week i attended community meetings where constituents wanted to hear about public safety and also the comprehensive plan related to the comprehensive plan constituents reiterated their support for trees as part of the development and as i have said we can have both both are needed we need more housing and we need more tree canopy as we address our climate goals so Looking forward to continuing the conversation about comprehensive plan and how we can support both.

Also last week on Thursday, as you know, during the full select FEP committee meeting of the whole, committee voted on 12 amendments and unanimously passed to recommend placing this next levy proposal on November's ballot for voter approval.

Tomorrow, I'm excited for the final vote.

As you know, even though the select FEPP committee included all nine of us, under council rules, we need to vote again at our regular full council committee.

I hope that tomorrow is a pro forma vote.

Having just had robust conversation about all the amendments, and passing this out of committee.

This levy is for kids and about kids and in support of kids colleagues.

Let's get this done tomorrow and get this on the ballot.

On Friday, I stood in solidarity with the governor, the mayor, council president and other elected leaders to ask for peaceful protests.

It was so nice to see this weekend people raising their voices against the federal government's overreach and doing such in a unified, peaceful manner.

It was really powerful colleagues and meaningful to see so many people, 70,000 in Seattle, making their voices heard.

It's so critical at this time.

Tomorrow I will be having a quarterly meeting with the community council leaders in my district.

We have about a dozen community councils in the D4, and this is a great way to hear about issues, concerns, and questions from across the district in one meeting.

It also allows community leaders to speak with one another about shared interests or questions, which is helpful to everyone.

So I look forward to meeting with the community council leadership tomorrow.

Next week on Monday, I have a visit to the CARE location and the D4, which is located at the University of Washington's Police Department offices.

I'm very interested in hearing what the care team has been doing in the U District and District 4 as a whole.

I'm looking forward to hearing what they have been doing since the expansion to the neighborhoods, this newer piece, how they're partnering with the North Precinct, the local BIA, residents and businesses.

And then Tuesday through Friday, colleagues, I will be at the Association of Washington City's annual meeting in Kennewick, Washington.

Kennewick, excuse me, Washington.

I look forward to reporting back on what takes place at those meetings.

I am so honored to be a member of AWC representing Seattle.

And colleagues, unless you have any questions, I'll turn it over to my colleague, Councilmember Saka.

Go ahead, please.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

And I guess first and foremost, happy belated Father's Day to all the fathers and father figures out there in the great city of Seattle.

On the Substantive Transportation Committee front.

Colleagues, tomorrow we have an exciting and important meeting that will be our very next Transportation Committee meeting tomorrow morning, 9.30 a.m., where we'll be discussing two important topics.

First and foremost, the ST3 Transitway Agreement proposal.

This is a council bill and a companion resolution regarding ST3 Transitway Agreement, an important step in the beginning of from a city perspective, the light rail expansion into West Seattle.

So I look forward to hearing from the ST3 and city team and Sound Transit on this important matter.

And as we know, this follows, this is on the heels of some related or some companion legislation that went through the Land Use Committee just very recently as well to authorize and enable Sound Transit to perform its work.

and build upon and finally bring to life this important transit investment for our region.

Second important topic we're gonna be discussing is gonna have a Revive I-5 presentation, Revive I-5.

It's beginning this coming weekend in June 20th to be exact with significant disruptions to the Ship Canal Bridge.

We will be hearing from both WSDOT and SDOT regarding these disruptions, the current plan and mitigation efforts all up.

and it'll be a good opportunity to ask about the project more broadly.

So look forward to hearing about that.

So that is the Transportation Committee with respect to some of the regional committees this week.

that I sit on.

So tomorrow evening will be the very first meeting of the levy oversight committee for this new voter approved levy that passed last November.

So tomorrow we're having our very first meeting.

And this is a critically important oversight body for the transportation levy and includes representatives from including the City budget director, myself as chair of the transportation committee appointees from the mayor's office and seven council members, as well as the various modal advisory board representatives and a youth member from get engaged program.

So very first meeting of this new levy, which is already underway is tomorrow.

Excited to join that.

And.

In terms of other regional committees that I sit on, I'm also excited that I get to attend my very first regional transit committee, the King County Regional Transit Committee of this calendar year on Wednesday.

I happen to sit on that with my distinguished colleague, Councilmember Hollingsworth, but I think we've each had a number of city internal committee obligations, primarily relating to the comp plan that precluded our involvement and participation throughout the calendar year two to eight.

So on Wednesday is when I'll be able to join that.

that committee and look forward to, for the first time in a few months, first time this calendar year, and looking forward to that.

Among other topics teed up on the agenda, we're gonna hear a briefing from folks at the local organizing committee for FIFA World Cup and Metro on the planning efforts for transit related to World Cup for next year.

So important conversations coming up.

And that is my committee work.

Check my social media or my newsletters for any kind of community updates that we're doing.

But that is all.

I welcome any comments or questions.

Hearing, seeing none, I will pass it on to whoever is next.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

Coming from the Finance Native Communities Tribal Governments Committee, as well as the Select Budget Committee, we will be having a Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee this Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

The agenda will be eight appointments to the sweetened beverage tax community advisory board.

We will also have three items on the agenda scheduled for briefing and discussion, not for votes.

We will have first the appointment of Dan Eater as permanent director of the city budget office.

Thank you for sending in your written questions last week.

They've already been sent to interim director.

For this agenda item, we plan to briefly introduce the appointment.

If you have a quick question or two, That's fine to get it on the record.

We are saving the time for a deeper discussion and question and answer during our committee meeting on July 2nd, where we will have at that point received the written responses to our written questions.

The second item on the, or third item on the agenda is the Tribal Governments and Native Communities Update.

We'll be joined by Francesca Murnon, who has been promoted to the Tribal Relations Director at Office of Intergovernmental Relations to discuss the city's ongoing work, what is going on now, and what will be done in this year.

We will also be joined by Lydia Faletali, Talia, sorry about that, who is organizing the city's Indigenous Advisory Council as we are working to fill the position that was recently vacated by Francesca Murnon.

We have an informational item for briefing, which is the Seattle Social Housing Developer Loan.

We will be having the first of two meetings regarding this legislation.

As we know, voters approved Initiative 137 last year, creating a revenue source for the Seattle Social Housing Developer.

The developer won't be able to start collecting money until next year.

To ensure they're able to hit the ground running next year, the mayor's office, the social housing developer, and ourselves have been working on a bridge loan.

This loan will be paid back in full once they begin collecting revenue from the new tax.

The reason that this is an informational item is because the final agreement is being transmitted this week.

I asked to hold the legislation until that agreement was finalized, which it is now finalized.

To ensure we do not create unnecessary delay, we're using this moment as part of our two meetings rule as an informational item so that we don't create unnecessary delay by waiting another two weeks.

So we will be discussing the legislation and we plan to vote on this legislation on the July 2nd meeting.

Tomorrow or on Wednesday will be our first time in committee.

At full council, FNC Committee does not have any legislation at full council tomorrow.

Regarding the Every Child Ready initiative, I want to sincerely thank my colleagues and Council Member Rivera for your steadfast work there, as well as colleagues for supporting my Amendment 6 to fully fund the Environmental Education Program.

We have received a ton of thank yous from community members via email, and I just wanted to pass that on to you.

I also wanna repeat my thanks to central staff and especially Jasmine for your incredible work with me and spending so many hours answering my questions.

Regarding the algorithmic rent price fixing ordinance scheduled for a vote tomorrow, I do plan on bringing an amendment forward.

It's a straightforward and does not affect the implementation.

Colleagues, I know that this seems to be on an expedited track faster than most.

I might have another amendment.

I typically would prefer to bring amendments to committee and I would typically prefer to have amendments done before 24 hours before the meeting, but here we are.

So I just want to share with you, this is an exception to my standard and I ask for grace.

Um, the, the amendment that I have prepared and have sent out today, it requests that the Seattle department of construction inspection communicate with landlords about the change in law.

Then it requests SDCI to return to city council to discuss what, to discuss that outreach and report on options for SDCI to help educate and enforce legislation better moving forward.

That's full council external committees, and then I swear I'm done.

This Friday I'll be touring, or as part of Sound Transit, I'll be touring the Tacoma Dome Link Extension.

With other board members, this extension will add nearly 10 miles of mostly elevated light rail tracks between Federal Way and Tacoma.

While we have discussed how the floating bridge connection over Lake Washington has been a first in the world, putting light rail across a floating bridge, Tacoma Dome is the first light rail project to go through a Native American reservation.

And so this also has big feats ahead of us.

I wanna thank, Des and everyone at Sound Transit for all your hard work.

Last Thursday, the System Expansion Committee did vote this recommendation out of the System Expansion Committee for a full Sound Transit Board consideration next week.

Association of Washington Cities, Council Member Rivera, I'll be at the AWC Annual Conference and in-person board meetings in Kennewick next week.

And as far as Seattle City Employee Retirement Services, the update here is that they are close to finishing the move, their offices move because their current space is no longer working for a multitude of reasons.

All of the effort, I had a lot of efforts to try to bring them into Seattle Municipal Tower.

Unfortunately, there was not a good fit for them.

In this process, my North Star has been that this move to be easy and accessible to city employees and retirees and that we're able to get a good deal.

I believe that both of these things are being met and I look forward to them moving as quickly as possible.

In District 6, along with what seems to be about half the city, I attended the No Kings protest this weekend walking from Cal Anderson Park to Seattle Center.

I saw a lot of D6ers out there.

I saw a lot of folks from across the city.

And I just, again, thank everyone for participating in such a positive way and really showing the world who Seattle is and can be.

Last week I had office hours and this coming week I'm swapping out office hours for a town hall.

So I'll be having a town hall this Wednesday from 530 to 730 at the Magnolia Library, Magnolia Branch Library.

Colleagues, if there are no further questions or no questions, I will pass it on to Council Member Hollingsworth, but just check in the Zoom room.

Any questions?

Seeing none, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

You said my favorite word, grace.

Everyone needs a little grace.

Brings the humanity in our society.

So thank you.

Parks Utilities Technology meeting will be Wednesday, June 25th, 2 p.m.

We have a couple of things on the agenda.

One of the things in continuation from last meeting is the agreement with parks and our golf course contract.

We're still finalizing the agenda, but colleagues, I'll be moving that for us to vote on that piece of legislation.

So I'll be going around checking to make sure everyone is on board.

Second, we have our public hearing, which is the comprehensive plan in House Bill 1110. That's gonna be June 23rd, that's Monday.

Quick reminder, all those details have been posted virtual.

It's gonna start at 9.30 a.m.

and we'll start our in-person at 3 p.m.

and we'll be here as long as it takes so we can make sure that we are hearing.

everyone who would like to give input.

So we'll be, that information is posted and we'll be blasting it out to make sure that people can be able to get, have two different options, the virtual part and then the in-person part.

And we split it up like that so we can have more access and then also council members So we can also be attentive, connected, listening, and making sure that we are showing up as our best selves during this process.

And it's logistically, we're navigating certain things and we're trying new things.

So hopefully just send us your feedback regarding how that process has been working or improvements that we can make.

Next, the Metropolitan Seattle Park District meeting will be Tuesday, June 24th.

This is a reminder.

We have, these are once a quarter.

We did not have one in quarter one of this year, but this is our first meeting of quarter two, and that is June 24th.

And that is at, off the top of my head, I apologize, believe at 4 p.m., colleagues.

So that we all sit on that committee and thank you all for navigating that with us as well.

Thank you, council member Saka for bringing up our duties for the regional transportation committee as well.

That's a committee that we proudly sit on together and looking forward to always doing that work.

The comprehensive plan has taken up a lot of that time for us, but looking forward to your leadership on that.

And I know that you represent our city well on there.

So thank you.

Also, and I don't have much as other council members said, we have social media, we have newsletters for in community, but one thing I wanted to highlight, there's actually two things.

The first thing, thanking all the council members for your support and the previous council members on the Garfield super block and the budget chair Strauss for including that in your package.

It was a really phenomenal time to see the ceremonial and then all the different branches of government there who had a stake in it from King County to our state leadership to our federal leadership as well and the city to be able to transform this park in the Central District to ensure that our kids, which is right, It's right connected to Garfield High School and also the center ground of Nova and Washington.

Middle school kids go there and Meany School.

I mean, all these different schools use this park.

And so to be able to have that opportunity and to see the collective governments all work together just gave me a little hope.

And it was just nice to have something to celebrate.

So that was cool.

The second thing I wanted to highlight, and I know that we've gotten a ton of, oh, Thank you.

I put this out on social media.

Thank you to all the phenomenal patriots this weekend who exercise their First Amendment rights to show that our democracy is alive and well in our country and also that we are the living and breathing word of the Constitution.

And so that was really great to see all of our phenomenal patriots out there this weekend at Cal Anderson showing what America can be and should be and will be.

Last but not least, we've gotten a ton of emails, and I've been voicing my concern about this for the last year and a half, but we have a grocery store closing in our district.

Unfortunately, Whole Foods, is closing, it's the second grocery store colleagues that we've lost in the last year in my district.

And I've screamed this to the top of my lungs and I'll continue to scream it, that we have to start treating grocery stores in our city of Seattle at a different level standard.

They are food access points.

They are points where people receive their medication.

pick up prescriptions where they are able to go get fresh food and produce and be able to have food access.

And so while I'm incredibly disappointed by us losing a store in our district, I also wanna make sure that we continue to protect the other ones that we have in our district.

And the two grocery stores on Broadway are struggling tremendously.

And I've heard that for the last year and a half.

I've tried everything that I can, and I will continue to figure out and push on different departments and King County leadership and everyone in our city to figure out how we protect these food access points, because I cannot lose another grocery store in my district because this offers people a lifeline to food and to access and to health and to grocery stores.

So I'll continue to push on that, but the two grocery stores in our district that are on Broadway, people know who they are.

People can go there right now and see what is struggling right now in those districts and what we are pushing on these grocery stores to handle what we as a city are failing to deliver on, which is safety and also ensuring that people that are on fentanyl or have some type of mental health, they're struggling with mental health in a crisis that we have working solutions for folks because right now these grocery stores are, they're struggling.

SO I DON'T WANT TO BE ON MY SOAPBOX, BUT I HAD TO SAY THAT BECAUSE WE ARE NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT'S GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN OUR DISTRICT AND THE TYPE OF SOLUTIONS THAT ARE NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW.

OKAY.

SO WITH THAT, I WILL PASS IT OFF TO COUNCILMEMBER KETTLE.

THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER HOLLINGSWORTH.

I WASN'T GOING TO START WITH Picking up where you left off, I just wanted to note this is a very important topic and it's not equitable in the sense that we do have our challenges in downtown in D7, but just off the top of my head on the northern part of District 7, where I reside, I can easily get, and some of this is walkable, some of this is with very short drive, two Safeways, two Trader Joe's, two QFCs, two Met Markets.

There's a PSC.

Some of these are just over the border into D6.

PSC, one's coming back for downtown, but downtown still struggles.

So within a quick note, I have a lot of options, personally, and the people who live in this area of District 7, the northern part, and it just highlights the contrast, and it just emphasizes the point that you're making, and I think that's something that we should be considering and be mindful of, particularly, too, because the pharmacy piece, It's very important, particularly when we're losing Bartels, and there's reasons for that, but then Rite Aid, this hurts our communities.

And particularly for those that are elderly and the like, it becomes a big problem.

So I just wanted to second that point, because this has come up before, and the contrast, I guess I wanted to raise the contrast more than anything else, and I think it's important for us to highlight that point, because it just makes the loss seem, you know, just magnifies the impact and what you're speaking to.

Now transition, as I always do, starting off with the public safety, our next public safety committee meeting will be next week, a week tomorrow.

We'll have Chief of Police confirmation second meeting and vote out of committee.

Thank you for all those who passed questions for Chief Barnes and also for the responses.

and then the conversations and the follow-ups that we can have next week.

And I look forward to having, as I look down the dais, my vice chief to be there for next week's meeting.

We did answer, ask a lot of questions in your absence, so I think we had it well covered, but we look forward to your participation next week.

Also coming up on the committee agenda, two topics, one graffiti, one bill coming up.

And this is the beginning of a lot of work on graffiti because this is pillar four of the strategic framework plan.

And we really, this is an area that we've not done a lot of work but do need to do so.

And then also the chronic nuisance property ordinance.

And this kind of ties in with the, The approach of the committee in 2025 of addressing ordinances that need to be fixed, amended, all the above.

We've done this already with less lethal weapons, crowd management.

Separately, we've done it with the chief of police investigations ordinance and we'll continue to do so.

And the other two pieces being a functioning criminal justice system and then also community safety for the committee for 2025. This week and next week, relatively quiet with outside activities and meetings and the like.

This week started off, of course, with the KCRHA board meeting this morning.

Tomorrow, and I want to start with a thank you to the Seattle Mariners and the Irish Heritage Club for allowing me to be able to throw out the first pitch tomorrow night.

It is Irish night, and the tie-in here is, you know, our sister city, Galway.

So because of Irish night, the Irish Heritage Club, thank you, and the Mariners, asked me to throw out the first pitch.

And so it won't be any Irish hurling.

I will endeavor to represent well the council.

Meeting with the Chief of Seattle Club on Wednesday, Mr. Belgarde, And then we did have a King County Board of Health meeting, but that's Juneteenth.

For next week, first meeting that I've attended, Police Pension Board.

And then on Thursday, it's a big day for Memorial Stadium.

There's gonna be a groundbreaking in the morning.

for the Memorial Stadium project and followed later with a lights out open house and preview of the new Memorial Stadium.

And we also have on that day the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board.

So generally relatively light compared to outside committee boards and the like, but that's a quick look.

So thank you council member for everyone.

Any questions?

Are you nervous about throwing the first pitch?

That's...

A week ago, I did injure my arm, my elbow, trying to get the air conditioning sorted in my...

Operation lowering expectations?

You know, getting my air conditioning up and running in my house.

Don't expect much.

Keep it simple.

Yes, all of the above.

Normally, I would pass to...

Council Member Rink.

Council Member Rink.

Thanks, Councilmember Kettle, and best of luck.

Colleagues, this upcoming Friday, June 20, the Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes will actually convene jointly with King County Council for an update on how the Trump administration's policies are impacting our regional economy.

We will be meeting in King County Council chambers with a hybrid option as well.

It will be a fun change of pace to be in a different location, I think.

And I want to thank King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci and her staff for all the coordination work done with our office to make this meeting happen.

It is critical we as a region are prepared and coordinated for the uncharted months and years ahead.

And speaking of regional matters, last week the Regional Policy Committee met where we discussed the EMS levy, but also received a briefing on regional organics management.

This briefing came at my request given some of the source separation issues that have come up in violations of Seattle Municipal Code related to local vendors.

This is a regional issue, and I look forward to working with King County as well as our neighboring 38 cities on this matter.

And on Saturday, I gave the graduation commencement speech for the University of Washington's Community Environment and Planning Program.

I was so honored to be invited and to be able to speak to our future colleagues in urban planning and city leadership and left truly inspired by their desire to make our cities places where everyone can thrive.

Maybe some of those graduates will help the city get through our next comp plan update.

I know some of those graduates are actually currently interning at SDOT.

So these are our future colleagues, folks, which is just really exciting.

And in this tumultuous time, it's important that we find spaces for joy and to take time to celebrate.

So congratulations, class of 2025, and go Dawgs.

And on Saturday morning, I joined the over 70,000, I believe the most recent estimate is 70,000 people, our neighbors at the Seattle No Kings demonstration in Cal Anderson to protest against the aggressive attempts of the federal government overreach that we have seen since January.

And at this time, it's projected by Axios that over 1,900 protests were held in 1,800 cities and towns across all 50 states, commonwealths, and territories with an estimated 5 million people in attendance globally, which is really incredible.

I know there were some global demonstrations as well.

Pardon me.

While it is heartening to see so many community members come together peacefully against intentionally cruel mass deportation efforts, I wanted to call attention to incident just across the city line in Tukwila on both Saturday and Sunday.

An ICE special response team in Tukwila PD used lethal weapons including tear gas, flashbangs, and pepper balls on a crowd of about 150 people standing in solidarity with asylum seekers who were called to a surprise intensive supervision appearance.

These surprise DHS messages appeared on Friday telling asylum seekers to show up to the Homeland Security Building in Tukwila between 8 a.m.

and 4 p.m.

on Saturday or Sunday.

Typically, these hearings are conducted in the work week, and according to many immigration attorneys, this is highly unusual protocol.

All of the people summoned were documented asylum seekers, and while reports differ at this time, it seems as though at least two people were detained and sent to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

One of those individuals, a father who had been detained just a day before Father's Day, which is particularly heartbreaking.

And this comes after an intense week of protests going on and ongoing demonstrations here at our own Seattle Federal Building here in downtown.

Additionally, I want to acknowledge the political violence and the assassination that happened over the weekend in Minnesota.

Former Democratic Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark, were assassinated in front of their home, while Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also gunned down in their home in the early hours of Saturday morning by the same gunman who had a list of other targets, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walts, U.S. Senator Tina Smith, and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

It should also be noted that the assassin was impersonating a uniformed police officer, including having a marked vehicle.

Given that once again ICE and DHS agents covered their faces while operating in Tukwila throughout the weekend, this once again brings the questions I asked to Seattle Police Interim Chief Barnes.

How do we know which officers are legitimate and which are extrajudicial vigilantes taking advantage of this incredibly fraught time in American politics?

The assassin was apprehended by law enforcement early this Saturday, and my heart goes out to the people of Minnesota.

And I wish Senator Hoffman and Yvette a speedy recovery.

And to close out, colleagues, as a member of this body, I will continue to ask hard questions and do whatever I can to make Seattle a safer place for everyone.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rink, you likely said it, but I didn't catch it.

Did you mention the topics that we'll be covering on Friday's meeting?

Can you remind me?

No, I did not say it.

Thank you for covering that element.

Or if you just let me know when, you can tell me offline.

No, happy to speak to that matter.

We are broadly covering impacts to the regional economy, so we'll have panelists including revenue and forecasting offices from King County, as well as our own revenue forecasting office.

We'll have folks representing tourism and labor and economy, so partners from the port, MLK Labor, Building Trades Council.

And so I know our agenda will be going out shortly, including that full list if it's not already up.

But those are some of the topics that we're covering.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

I think I'm, it's my turn now.

Okay.

So there's nothing from the governance, accountability and economic development committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

And our next meeting is on Thursday, June 26th at 2 PM and more details are forthcoming, but we'll be focusing on the importance of brick and mortar retail downtown, uh, with a round table discussion at that meeting.

At our last meeting last week, we did pass Council Bill 120992 out of committee, which is an ordinance granting Downtown Seattle Association permission to install, maintain, and operate interactive media kiosks in public spaces located in the Metropolitan Improvement District.

And so that is not on tomorrow's agenda.

That will be a week from tomorrow.

So just that, and I do believe that passed out of committee.

I think it was four zero.

I can't remember the vote, but it was strong and it's coming up on the full council, but not tomorrow.

So let's see, I'll just join the chorus of my colleagues and say that I also attended the March gathering protest at Cal Anderson Park, the No Kings protest, and I was as well proud of our city for coming together to show up and also speak out and march peacefully altogether, 70,000 plus people.

And so I just have to say it can be done and we'll do it again.

And it's always great to remind ourselves that that many people can come together and have no incidents.

And I do have to praise the event organizers for a very well organized event.

All right.

Let's see.

Tonight I'll be attending the Know Your Rights Forum hosted by the Labor Standards Advisory Commission and the Domestic Workers Standards Board where workers and business owners and employers of all sorts will come together to discuss their experience navigating local, state and federal labor standards.

And it's conversations like this that are essential to ensure that employers do right by their workers and that we as a city help them follow the rules.

On Thursday, I'll be joining the Seattle City employees fourth annual Juneteenth celebration at Seward Park.

And the theme this year is still standing as one recognizing the strength and resilience of our black community here in this city and across the country.

And then let's see, finally on Friday, I'll be attending an equitable development initiative walking tour with race and social justice, race and social equity task force in the central district, Little Saigon in Chinatown International District.

And then one final note is that due to the almost all day public hearing, we're canceling the council briefing on Monday, June 23rd.

And that notice has gone out.

So anyway, are there any questions about what I just said?

comments.

Okay, I, if there is no further business to come before the council going once, twice, this meeting is adjourned, and it is 305pm.

Thank you, everyone.