Seattle City Council Briefing 5/22/23

Good afternoon.

Today is May 22nd, 2023. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2 o'clock p.m.

I'm Lisa Herbold, President Pro Tem of the Seattle City Council.

Council Members Juarez, Swant, and Lewis are excused from today's meeting.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Mosqueda?

Present.

Council Member Nelson?

Councilmember Peterson?

Present.

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Morales?

Here.

Council President Pro Tem Herbold?

Here.

Five present.

Thank you.

Moving on to the first item on the agenda, approval of the minutes.

If there is no objection, the minutes of May 8th, 2023 will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, the minutes of May 8th, 2023 are adopted.

Moving on to item two, the President's Report, President Pro Tem's Report.

On today's agenda, we will be welcoming the Office of Intergovernmental Relations Director, Gail Tarlington and staff to provide a legislative update.

OIR provided us with a series of weekly presentations during the legislative session, which concluded on April 23rd.

Today's presentation, will be a final wrap up on the outcomes of the 2023 legislative session, particularly as it pertains to the Seattle legislative agenda.

Following the state legislative update, we'll have four separate proclamations to sign today.

Council Member Strauss is offering a proclamation regarding Gun Violence Awareness Month.

Council Member Morales is offering three proclamations.

The first on Eritrean Independence Day, the second on Pride and the 3rd regarding Pride Asia.

You should have all received copies of all 4 proclamations last week for your review and a new version of the gun violence awareness month proclamation earlier today.

Following the signing of proclamations, we will then have individual reports for each council member.

We will start with council member Mosqueda today.

followed by council members Nelson, Peterson, Strauss, Morales, and closing out with myself.

Please note that at the end of our meeting, we will also have one 30-minute executive session today.

Just a quick run through tomorrow's full council agenda.

The consent calendar will include the minutes, the payment of bills, as well as 21 appointments.

11 of the appointments are recommended by the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, including one appointment to the Library Board and 10 appointments to the Seattle Center Advisory Commission.

The consent calendar will also include 10 appointments recommended by the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee, including one to the Freight Advisory Board, four to the Levy to Move Seattle Oversight Committee, four to the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board and one to the Seattle School Traffic Committee.

We'll take a vote on all items on the consent calendar unless a council member requests that an item be moved for consideration separately.

If so, that item is going to be taken up at the end of the agenda.

There are 11 items under committee reports on the agenda tomorrow after we're done with the consent calendar.

The first is Council Bill 120578, which is the second quarter employment ordinance.

This was referred directly to full council.

Council Member Peterson will speak to this as vice chair of the Governance Committee tomorrow.

And Karina Bull is the central staff analysis who worked on the bill, and she is available to anyone who has questions prior to tomorrow's vote.

Items two and three are Council Bill 120534, and Council Bill 120535 regarding tree protection.

Council Member Strauss is the sponsor and will be speaking to those items tomorrow.

These bills were recommended by the Land Use Committee.

Items 4 and 5 are Council Bill 120572 and 120573, amending the 2022 and 2023 budgets.

They are recommended by the Finance and Housing Committee, Council Member Mosqueda will be speaking to them tomorrow.

Items 6, 7, 8, and 9 are Council Bills 1205-63, 1205-64, 1205-65, and 1205-66.

They are all related to historic preservation and are specific to Madison Middle School, Magnolia Elementary School, Daniel Bagley Elementary School, and West Seattle High School.

All were recommended by the Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights, and Culture Committee, and Council Member Morales will be speaking to them tomorrow.

Items 10 and 11, which are Council Bills 120557 and 120574, each concern Seattle Public Utilities.

The first is specific to a catchment wall easement, and the second is specific to a property sale to the City of Shoreline.

Both were recommended by the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee and Council Member Peterson will be speaking to them tomorrow.

Information on all of the items on tomorrow's full council agenda is available online.

Please note that the Monday, March, May 29th, council briefing will be canceled because of Memorial Day.

And the next council briefing will be at 2 PM on Monday, June 5th.

Moving on to item 3 on our agenda, the state legislative session update.

Again, we welcome Office of Intergovernmental Relations Director Gail Tarleton and her staff to provide a state legislative wrap up.

Director Tarleton, at this point, I turn it over to you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Herbold and all of the council members present.

We really want to thank you for the last five months of your being engaged and patient and giving our team an opportunity to help the people of Seattle get a feel for the lay of the land in Olympia as a legislative session that began on January 9th, January 8, and officially ended on April 23 with one special session on May 16 last week, one day to complete the work of our state legislature.

A lot happened that is really great for our city and for our region and for our state and as always, not everything happens in one legislative session and there's always time to go back next year.

But in the meantime, we're going to have a chance to have Samir Junejo, our state relations director, and Ana Johnson, our state legislative liaison, tell you about all of the things that were accomplished in our policy work and the operating capital and transportation budgets.

And thank you again for your participation and your engagement.

hand it over to Ana who's going to kick off the final wrap up to the Seattle City Council of the 2023 State Legislative Session.

Turning it over to you, Ana.

Thank you, Ana.

And while you're getting set there, I want to just recognize that Council Member Nelson is with us for the record.

Thank you so much.

So today, we'll be giving you a wrap-up presentation of the legislative session, as Gail mentioned.

We're going to start with the topics of climate and environment.

We're going to go through some bills that likely you had heard throughout the session and highlight some of the top ones in each category.

We're not able to go into every bill that has passed this year, but really wanted to focus on ones that make most impact for the city and were top priorities for the legislature this year.

So starting with Senate Bill 5144, this bill created an extended producer responsibility for batteries program.

This bill is a really exciting landmark piece of legislation.

It's actually the most comprehensive battery stewardship legislation in the country.

This was a huge priority for Seattle Public Utilities and the city at large.

So we're really excited to see that get signed into law.

The next bill was House Bill 1181. This should sound familiar to you all.

This is a bill that adds a climate and resiliency element to comprehensive planning and requires cities to plan growth alongside climate targets and goals.

The legislature in recent years has set a goal to have 100% clean energy by 2020 2045. In order to do so there is some major in energy siting and transmission work that needs to occur.

So the next two bills on the list here on the slide are related to reaching our energy climate goals by 2045 and this is House Bill 1216. This one is around citing of new clean energy products or projects and Senate Bill 5165 is around the transmission efforts to prepare for the clean energy.

In addition to these bills, this year was a huge year for funding in the climate space.

This year we had the first auction for the Climate Commitment Act.

This occurred back in February and the revenues from the cap and trade auction were about 300 million more than expected.

So this allowed the legislature to have a huge amount of money to fund different programs, resiliency, environmental protection, and they spent about $2 billion in the Climate Commitment Act accounts.

And we're really excited about a number of grant programs that were beefed up or established, including providing low-income residents energy assistance, as well as helping retrofit public buildings or provide energy audits for those buildings.

So that's going to make a really big difference for our city.

Good afternoon everyone.

Next I want to talk about a couple bills in the general government area.

The first is a Attorney General request bill which prevents both water and electric utilities from shutting off those services during extreme heat weather events.

This is a big party of the Attorney General but also many legislators.

And another bill, which is a bill you've all likely heard about, is Senate Bill 1582, sponsored by Senator Cooter, which abolishes advisory votes.

This was a bill that has been introduced a number of years, and this year they did manage to pass it.

Next, let's see.

There you go.

Healthcare and Behavioral Health.

So, in light of the Don C. Jackson decision in the U.S.

Supreme Court this year was primed to be a big year for abortion protection and reproductive health care legislation.

As you can see, there are four bills that passed on abortion care this year from consumer health data to data privacy to protecting the providers and also protecting patients who are coming to Washington from out of state to receive reproductive care but also gender affirming care, and then a bill related to preventing cost sharing for abortion.

And then on the budget side of things, the legislature also appropriated $23 million to support community clinics providing abortions as a way to help them in terms of the influx of patients were coming from out of state.

Similarly, this was a big year for behavioral health, two bills that we've mentioned in the past, 1134, implementing the 988 system, and also 5120, which establishes crisis relief centers, passed as well.

And they were accompanied by a huge investment in behavioral health, $600 million, which will fund things like new treatment facilities, assertive community treatment teams, also known as PAC teams, crisis relief centers, SUD peer support, and recovery navigator programs.

Lastly, the legislature and the budget funded $53 million to create a Medicaid lookalike program for provide health care coverage for low income undocumented adults.

This year was also primed to be the year of housing, and I think a number of bills passed that showed that it was, in fact, the year of housing.

I would say the most high-profile bill was HB1110 for middle housing, which we've talked about multiple times to you, and so you're all likely very familiar with that bill, but that bill will require the city to upsell in many areas, and I would say is the most high-profile of the housing bills that passed this session.

But a number of other bills also passed related on housing, 1042 which relates to the use of existing buildings to be converted to residential purposes.

12 HP 1293 is a bill a design review bill which will require the city to change many of the design review standards.

and Senate Bill 5412, which makes it easier to build residential housing in the city by providing infill development, a SEPA exemption.

And then I'll say another high profile bill is House Bill 1474, which is a covenant home ownership program.

This bill will provide financial assistance from down payment assistance and closing cost assistance to first time home buyers who were impacted by racially restrictive covenants.

And House Bill 1074 was likely probably the most high profile landlord-tenant bill.

This addresses tenant deposits when landlords will withhold tenant deposits for damaged claims.

On the budget side of things, housing also received quite a bit of money, $120 million to house individuals living in state rights away in Kansas, similar to the investment that was made in the last annual budget on this topic.

There's also of interest to the city will be the $200,000 in startup costs for the Seattle social housing developer, which was created by initiative 135. $111 million to support emergency housing and shelter capacity.

And then also $62 million to support operations and maintenance for permanent supportive housing.

On labor and commerce side of things, there was a few bills passed related to cannabis.

I'd say the one that I think I want to highlight is Senate Bill 5080, which expands and improves the social equity in cannabis program that the legislature created a couple of years ago.

As part of this bill, it will create 50 new retail licenses, up to 100 new processor licenses, and 10 producer licenses for cannabis.

And then two labor bills, 5236, hospital staffing standards, and also 5217 relating to regulating ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders.

Both of these bills introduced in years past and this year were able to get across the finish line.

All right, turning over to public safety, this is a big year for the public safety arena, specifically in terms of gun violence prevention, this was a big priority for the city and we are really excited to see three pretty landmark pieces of legislation make it all the way through the process and get signed into law.

You've heard about these bills throughout the session and just to remind you all the three that passed, we had the ban of assault weapons, the background and waiting period before purchase of firearm bill, as well as a accountability bill for the firearm industry that the Attorney General will enforce.

In addition to those three bills, the legislature allocated about $9 million for the Office of Firearm Safety and Gun Violence Prevention, and some of that funding goes to grant programs, to local programs that are working to address gun violence.

Additionally, in the public safety arena really contract controversial bill and hot topic this year was vehicular pursuits Senate Bill 5352 was ultimately the bill that was made it through the process and was signed into law.

This bill lowers the threshold for police to pursue a suspect from probable cause down to reasonable suspicion for very specific crimes.

And in this bill, it also requires pursuing officers to have completed certain training requirements.

So that would be an impact for the Seattle Police Department.

Additionally, the budget allocated money for three new training facilities.

So this is an extension of the Criminal Justice Training Commission into three new regional centers.

They're going to be located in Pasco, Skagit County, and Clark County.

This will help with workforce throughout the state and it opens up capacity in the Burien Training Center, which is closest to Seattle.

In addition to this, these three new campuses, the legislature also increased classes in the Burien and Spokane facilities by allocating about $3.4 million for additional classes.

Moving on to some of the kind of criminal legal reform bills, one that we hadn't spoken about a ton in our briefings is Senate Bill 5087. This bill was titled the Defects and Omissions Bill.

For a little bit of background, the Washington State Constitution requires the Supreme Court to go through our revised code and look for defects and omissions and then report that to the legislature.

This bill was comprehensive and would kind of basically clean up our code and included in that bill is permanently officially striking the death penalty from our code.

And so this bill was signed into law this year.

Additionally, House Bill 12, or sorry, 1324, this was the juvenile points bill.

We talked about this bill a little bit on our last council briefing.

This bill ended up prospectively excluding certain juvenile points from offender scoring as adults.

And this bill was a high profile racial justice issue and originally included retroactivity, which would have required some resentencing, but ultimately the retroactivity was taken out in the Senate and was attempted to be put back in but never officially did.

So it's perspective moving forward and we are happy to see that make it through.

Senate Bill 5440 relates to the Trueblood case.

If some of you may recall, back in 2015, there was a lawsuit against the state, Trueblood v. DSHS, basically because there was excessive wait times for folks that required competency evaluation and treatment in our state hospitals.

And this bill is attempting to reduce those wait times and improve that process throughout the state.

It's a pretty dense and complex bill that we don't have time to really go into everything about in today's briefing.

But there is implications for non felony cases, which would impact the city.

And so we're happy to talk to any council members that are interested in that bill outside of the briefing.

Next is Senate Bill 5536. This bill is the bill that is creating a permanent fix related to the Supreme Court case State v. Blake.

Last council briefing, we were at the tail end of session, and there was not a resolution on what the final bill was going to be.

Ultimately, at the end of session, there was different approaches being taken by the House and the Senate.

And when that is the case, often bills are sent to a conference committee.

The conference committee came to a compromise and brought that bill to the House floor on the final day of the regular session.

Unfortunately, that bill ended up failing on the floor and so regular session ended without a permanent fix to our drug possession statute.

In that bill, the folks that were against it, the Democratic opponents of that bill were really concerned about the penalty that was imposed at that point.

It was up to 365 days or $5,000 fine for those who were found in possession of drugs.

So the bill ended up not passing and left a big question mark for the legislature and the state.

Since the, there was no permanent fix at the end of session, there was risk for patchwork of laws across jurisdictions and also because there was no bill that made it to the finish line, a lot of the funding that was associated with that bill was not included in the budget.

So because of this, Governor Inslee ended up calling a special session to address the topic last Tuesday.

The folks in the meantime were coming to a compromise.

It included a lot of the leadership of every chamber and the kind of point people on this issue.

We're working really hard to come to a compromise to bring to the special session last Tuesday.

Ultimately, they did reach a bipartisan compromise and the bill passed in one day and then was also signed into law thereafter.

The compromise is what's included here on the slides.

And to go over it, go over some of the kind of go over the summary of the bill.

It creates a knowing possession of counterfeit or controlled substances, crime as well as a crime for public use in a public place at a gross misdemeanor level, punishable up to 180 days in jail and or a $1,000 fine.

If the defendant has at least two prior convictions after July 1st, 2023, the potential confinement increases to 364 days in jail.

The bill also creates a pretrial diversion opportunity, but there is requirement for the prosecutor to consent to that diversion.

Included in the bill is also a decriminalization of drug paraphernalia like testing equipment, as well as $63 million of funding to go to lead recovery navigator programs and health engagement hub pilot opioid treatment and a lot more.

The next category is social programs and education.

A bill that we talked a lot about during session was the free school meals bill.

This bill ultimately was scaled back, so it didn't affect universal free school meals, but it did allocate that free school meals would be provided for students from kindergarten to fourth grade in districts where there's at least 30% of students that are eligible for free school meals.

It's estimated that in this implementation of this bill, about half of students in Washington will ultimately be provided free school meals.

Another topic this session that was pretty high profile and it's not necessarily a local government typical topic is funding for special education.

So I kind of wanted to just give you a quick update on where that landed.

House Bill 1436 was ultimately the bill that made it through all the way.

This bill adds 400 million in new state budget to support special ed programming over the next two years.

It also increases the cap on funding that districts can receive per student.

And it's estimated that a billion dollars will start to go to special education over the next four years.

And then $91 million was also allocated for ECAP, which is the low income early learning child care program that the state administers.

And it's estimated that by 2027, all families that will qualify are going to be eligible to have an ECAP slot.

All right, and moving on to the capital budget as Samir mentioned earlier this was a huge year for housing was actually estimated that about a billion dollars went to housing and homelessness across the different budgets, but specifically in the capital budget there was a $400 million allocation to the housing trust fund, this is the biggest amount the state has invested in housing trust fund in its history.

Some of the programs within the housing trust fund were 100 million for permanent supportive housing 40 million for affordable homeownership 60 million for the trip program which would help utility hookups to affordable housing projects and city of Seattle often will receive those grants from that program.

And then $50 million for grants to support transit-oriented development.

This is a grant program that is matching some private investment and state investment to help with transit-oriented development.

There are a number of projects located in Seattle that received capital money, but I'm just going to highlight a couple of them.

$4 million was included for Memorial Stadium.

This was one of our main asks to legislators.

$4 million was included in the governor's budget, and we did receive our $4 million in the final one as well.

Next is six million to actually to the University of Washington to provide capital funding for the Rainier Valley Early Learning Campus.

We were advocating for this funding because of the affordable housing project that's ultimately gonna be co-located at this location, but it's also going to provide educational pathways for early learning as well as childcare spots at the light rail facility down in Rainier Valley.

And then one community-based project that we wanted to mention and highlight was the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom.

They received $16.2 million in capital funding.

They have a facility in Rainier Valley, and their organization is really focused on health justice and culturally appropriate health care.

And we were really happy to see them receive such a large amount of capital funds this year.

And then finally, I wanted to highlight that the legislature fully funded the Model Toxics Control Act, that's MOTCA, and included on that list is $5 million to clean up the lower Duwamish waterway.

Next I'll talk about the transportation budget.

This is the following up last year's move ahead, a 16 year transportation package.

A big focus of this year was sequencing of the transportation projects that were included in the package last year.

One of the projects that was included in last year's 16 year move ahead package was $5 million in funding for ADA improvements to the Seattle monorail.

We requested that this project be provided in the next biennium 2023 to 2025. And that was that did happen.

So sale model will receive $5 million in the upcoming year.

Another focus of this budget was utilizing the CCA revenues that Ana mentioned earlier.

So on the transportation side, they appropriated $120 million for electrification of medium and heavy duty vehicles, of which local governments can apply for those funds.

They also specifically appropriated $6 million to the Northwest Seaport Alliance for a trade truck electrification pilot program.

Next, the budget created for the first time an e-bike incentive program, which will offer point of sale rebates to individuals purchasing e-bikes, and also creates an e-bike lending program for folks who would like to take one just temporarily.

On Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program, they appropriated $72 million for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program and grants.

And on the policy side of things, Senate Bill 5583, sponsored by Senator Liaz, is a bill related to traffic safety.

This bill requires a driver's education course before the age of 25 before issuance of a driver's license.

And then, you know, these are bills that did not pass.

There's a short list of the bills that did not pass.

Obviously, many more did not pass, but these are some of the bills that we had talked about earlier during our presentations that we just wanted to kind of highlight to let you know that they did not pass this year, but we do expect most, if not all of them, to come back in future legislative sessions.

So just wanted to highlight the ones, many of the ones that we talked about, you know, did not pass.

And now open to any questions.

looking to see any virtual raised hands.

Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

I wonder if you could go back to the transportation and talk just for a second about the bike and ped grants, what that might allow us to do, and the bike share, which is something that I know we've talked about in our transportation committee meetings here about the ability in some countries to actually support the ability of people to rent bikes on kind of a subscription basis.

So rather than an hour here an hour there, you could actually rent a bike for a month or for six months.

So can you talk a little bit about what that bike share funding is intended to support?

Yeah, on the bike share, I think, as I understand it, two million of that seven million will go to this e-bike lending program and the parameters of that program will get to be decided.

I think the budget language itself was pretty broad.

Washington State DOT in the coming months will be creating the parameters of both the rebate and but also the the lending program.

So I think there's a lot of details yet to come about how that will work and also a lot of opportunity to engage in how it should work.

I think as well, I think folks in the city have been looking at that and trying to figure out how we can engage and help ensure that these new programs actually help the folks who need it the most.

And then on the pedestrian safety grant program, that's something that we've trying to get some more information from FDOT about what grants, which one of these we can actually qualify for.

And so I don't have a lot of information on that yet for you, but we will be tracking that with FDOT to see how much of that we would be eligible for and how much of that would actually would be able to help us in our pedestrian safety programs.

Thank you.

Well, I'm just going to start talking.

My apologies, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Director Tarleton, Anna, Samir, I just want to compliment you and all the people that you've worked with in Olympia this session.

You've been able to provide us really detailed updates here at Council Briefing.

You've provided me real time information on legislation as it moves through Olympia.

When I worked down there, we always had a joke that we call them weekdays.

Not because it was Monday through Friday, rather, because you got a week's worth of work done in a single day.

And I know for legislators down there.

They want answers to their questions in minutes, not hours.

Your team did a fantastic job of being able to connect with me in real time and give me the information that I needed to be an effective representative of the city of Seattle at the Association of Washington City's board and on their legislative policy committee.

This is not easy work.

This work takes you away from your family.

This work makes you work really odd hours and long hours, and it requires you to have deep and meaningful relationships with the legislators you work with.

which can be challenging when there are disagreements and when there are different policy positions.

And I know in Olympia, Seattle is seen as a big, you know, people in Olympia don't like Seattle, let me put it just bluntly.

And so you have a tough job and you did just such excellent work keeping me up to date with the information that I needed.

and being able to move the city's policy priorities forward.

So I don't have a question only because I've asked you thousands of questions over the last couple of months.

And I just want to compliment you and hope that you get to take a little bit of a break now that we're in the interim.

Council Member, thank you very much for that.

And for all of you who were able to respond to questions really quickly, like sometimes with only a minute or an hour of advance notice to get to the legislators and get to the staff in Olympia, you know how valuable it is to have those relationships with your staff.

And Samir and Ana, Both were in those jobs before they came to the city and so they have a special appreciation of how much the staff can help influence the final outcome of any piece of policy.

And I, I also just really want to highlight there are some of your committees that in your council work that.

Any one of these pieces of legislation that passed would have constituted signature legislation in a legislative session.

Three gun violence prevention bills that have been worked on for years, literally, all passed in one session.

That wasn't sort of a casual event.

and your committees passed land use policies across this state that are gonna have consequences and impact for decades to come.

Similar to the Growth Management Act that was passed in the early 1990s, and we're still all living and working and playing with and trying to adapt in a climate crisis world that we're in.

So I know all of you have an appreciation for how much got done in 105 plus one days.

And I'm really grateful that all of the staff in this city were so responsive to Samir and Anna.

They literally could not have done this work for the city without the employees in this city.

Thank you so much.

Before we close out, oh, Council Member Muscaia?

Thanks so much.

You know, similar comments for me.

I just wanted to say thanks to the team and director Charlton for your leadership as well.

We got a chance to talk pretty frequently during committee or during session and thanks for coming to our briefings here.

But we spent a lot of time talking about housing policies, for example, on our end, but it doesn't even give us the chance to talk about some of the other pieces that were passed or might not.

be in the full portfolio that you all send to us.

So thank you for the work that you do, keeping us informed and making sure that we're always at the ready to weigh in if necessary, but really just to provide feedback and impact analysis as well.

So thanks for your hard work, and as Director Tarleton noted, it does feel like this session was the session that we broke through on a bottleneck on many issues, including affordable housing and the funding necessary to help other jurisdictions be able to stand that up.

But thank you as well for some of the smaller pieces.

We were able to get House Bill 1326 through, which waives utility hookup fees for building affordable housing, something that we've been talking to Representative Chopp for a very long time about.

And thank you as well for all of the work that our state legislators have done on things that improve the health of our community, major, major investments in health.

including like dental hygienists, a bill that I used to work out when I was at the Children's Alliance.

And so finally having some of those policies move, I think is a great example of what Director Charlton noted, which is many of the legislative sessions in the past were building towards this moment and obviously much more to do.

But thanks for your work, especially with a new team for being ready to hit the ground so quickly, but also with such experience and skill that you brought to this conversation in Olympia on behalf of the residents of Seattle.

So really appreciate you and I hope everybody gets some good rest here soon.

Thank you.

Seems like rest for you guys is the theme of the day.

I hope it's true.

Just to close out, just wanted to remind us all to reflect on what our priorities were for the 2023 legislative session.

A safe city, one that ensures that all residents can live safely and securely.

A vibrant city, one that supports innovation, education, economic opportunity, and a healthy environment.

An affordable city, one where housing and services remain affordable and accessible to everyone.

And an interconnected city, one supported by a cohesive and multi-modal transportation network.

And for the viewing public, At the turn of the year, the council and the mayor's office and all the executive departments, together with OIR, worked to develop a state legislative agenda.

Without OIR's leadership, we can't promote the legislative priorities of the mayor and the city council.

Their work and their expertise is so essential to our being able to put forward State legislation that supports and promotes the policies and goals of the city of Seattle, though, oh, I are is a part of the mayor's executive department, they do a fantastic job as you've heard from my colleagues.

of serving council members as well.

And I just really appreciate all of you from the bottom of my heart.

You've not only been so fantastic about making sure that we have information that we need to provide direction in developing the state legislative agenda, but you do so much to make sure that we're prepared when it comes our turn to go before the state legislature and lobby for these important priorities.

So thank you for a really what looks to be a transformational legislative session.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Herbold, and thank you again to everybody.

I really have to thank Samir and Ana for incredible heavy lifting in a dense pack session.

But our city and our people in this city are going to be having the benefit of a much safer and more livable community for years to come because of what happened in this session.

Thank you for your time and we'll look forward to getting together with you maybe sometime in November or December before the next legislative session begins.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to item four on our agenda, the signing of letters and proclamations.

As mentioned earlier, we have several proclamations, but we're going to start with Council Member Strauss.

for the signature on the proclamation proclaiming June 2nd to be Gun Violence Awareness Day.

I'll have some remarks on the proclamation, but of course, we'll hand it off to the primary sponsor, Council Member Strauss, to kick off the discussion and for any additional feedback on the content of the proclamation for our request that signatures be affixed.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem, and I believe that this is a joint proclamation from the both of us, colleagues.

Council Member Herbold and I are co-sponsoring a proclamation declaring Friday, June 2nd to be Gun Violence Awareness Day.

We would love for your signatures.

Since the start of 2023, the United States has averaged more than one mass shooting per day.

Today, 141 days into 2023, we have suffered more than 233 mass shootings.

and 21 mass killings.

And those were the numbers when I wrote these notes on Friday.

I hope that I didn't need to update them over the weekend.

This is a call to action more than more because gun violence prevention isn't just addressing mass shootings like in Mukilteo, Uvalde, Nashville, Louisville, and Allen, Texas.

This is a daily epidemic impacting every corner of our community in our country.

It must be solved.

Gun violence is preventable.

Seattle is not immune from the national trends like the rest of the country gun violence in Seattle reached an 11 year high in 2022 and SPD has taken a record number of guns off of the street this year.

It is beyond our time that our nation.

Take.

action to address gun violence as the public health epidemic it is.

When I say gun violence, I mean create, when I say addressing gun violence, I mean create common sense laws that protect communities across the nation from these preventable gun deaths.

As we just heard from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, Washington State Legislature successfully passed a package of responsible gun legislation from banning assault weapon sales to implementing a training and 10-day waiting period requirement and to hold the firearm industry accountable.

And we can't stop here, because I know that gun violence on our streets here in our community is felt every day and felt for a lifetime by those who are impacted.

That's what I mean when I say gun violence is not just mass shootings, it is oftentimes the daily shootings on our street.

And I want to thank all of the community-based organizations, whom I'm not going to name right now because I know I will miss one and then I'll get in trouble, because we have so many people in our community working to address gun violence every day.

And they don't wait for politicians or lawmakers to pass laws.

They take action to save lives and to work upstream in our communities, people to people, to make the change that our city needs.

Last year, after one of the two of the mass shootings, I heard Americans ask, where is our country's backbone?

Where is our nation's backbone?

Last year on Gun Violence Prevention Day, I was very clear that America's backbone is at 23rd and Jackson.

It's right here in the city of Seattle because of these community-based organizations that are working person to person within community to address gun violence within our communities.

And they're not waiting for us to pass laws.

And I'm grateful for the action of the Washington State Legislature, and there's more to do.

Thank you colleagues for supporting this proclamation to call our community further into action.

And Councilmember Herbold, I'm not sure if you've got comments, but I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

I mean, sorry, Councilmember, just thank you again to all the community-based organizations here in our city.

You're the ones doing the hard work and we couldn't do this work without you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

Oh, absolutely.

I want to thank you for bringing this forward and for your openness to allow me to co-sponsor this really important proclamation.

Weekend before last, a man was tragically shot and killed near Whale Tail Park on Alki.

This was a very chaotic evening, disturbing for many in the community.

West Seattle has also had other recent deaths over the last few weeks, one in Highland Park.

and one on the property of the Chief Sealth High School campus.

These are scenes that play out in too many communities around our city and in too many homes as well.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children ages one through 19, according to the CDC.

It's just, it's mind boggling to me, this fact.

Every Town for Gun Safety's research shows that firearm suicide among young people increased 146% in the last decade.

And the CDC data shows that 82% of youth who died by firearm suicide used a gun owned by a family member.

One of the most important things we can do is ensure that guns are securely stored in homes and talk to family and friends about gun storage.

Anyone can find resources, including discounts on storage devices and lock boxes at kingcounty.gov forward slash guns.

We are also taking action on gun violence that plays out publicly.

And I want to elevate the life saving work of our community violence interrupters that this council has done a lot to support.

The Seattle Community Safety Initiative operates safety hubs in West Seattle, Southeast Seattle, and the Central District under the leadership of Community Passageways.

The initiative receives critical incident response notifications from law enforcement partners, and this activates a critical incident response, and they deploy credible messengers as violence interrupters to de-escalate tension and connect to youth in need of services.

We funded these services that are geographically focused with $4 million annually since 2021. And then last year, we added $300,000 for this year to expand the very successful Harborview-based gun violence prevention program in order to serve adults age 25 to 40, who data suggests are driving the increase in gun violence.

And then finally, last week, I and Councilmember Morales, Councilmember Mosqueda joined the King County Board of Health members to approve a resolution Also recognizing June 2, they're calling it the Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Day as part of National Gun Violence Awareness Day and specifically recognizing the really important work of Public Health Seattle King County and all of our regional partners.

Thank you again for the opportunity to co-sponsor this proclamation.

Giving you an opportunity, Council Member Strauss, if you have any additional words.

Otherwise, we'll call for the signatures.

Yeah, I just wanted to say, you know, when we talk about gun violence prevention, it's not about, it's understanding that it doesn't stop crime.

It doesn't stop domestic violence.

It doesn't stop arguments between friends.

It doesn't stop, you know, arguments late in the evening between people.

What it does stop when we remove guns from these situations, it stops an impulse from becoming a life altering moment.

That's really what I want to focus on.

And I just really want to thank Davida Briscoe from the mayor's office for all of her work on this.

Davida has done an amazing job to bring greater awareness and action to preventing gun violence.

And again, when we're able to remove guns from these situations, we can stop that impulse from being a life altering moment.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Absolutely.

With that, seeing no further discussion on this proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation proclaiming June 2nd to be Gun Violence Awareness Day.

And the clerk, please call the roll on the signatures.

Would you like your signature affixed to the proclamation, Council Member Muscata?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

And Council President Pro Tem Herbold.

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Councilman Morales has three proclamations for signature today, a proclamation proclaiming may 27 2023 to the retreat and Independence Day, a proclamation proclaiming June, 23, to be LGBTQ month, and a proclamation Sunday, May 28, to be Pride Asia Day.

Council Member Morales, please leave the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I request signatures to be affixed.

Great.

If it's okay I will start with Pride Asia Day.

Okay.

Colleagues this year I'm honored to partner again with Alexa Manila of Pride Asia, with the mayor's office and the Seattle LGBTQ Commission to proclaim this Sunday, May 28 as Pride Asia Day.

Pride Asia elevates the importance of LGBTQ plus equity, harm reduction, public health, and the importance of serving immigrant and refugee neighbors.

This year's theme from Pride Asia is Stop Asian Hate.

During the last budget cycle, our office led on restoring funding to the Department of Neighborhoods for ongoing community support to fund public safety and anti-Asian hate.

Our office will remain vigilant in advocating for community-led safety and for solutions in the CID, and we look forward to presenting this year's Pride Asia Proclamation alongside community at Hinkate Park.

and so I hope to have your support and signatures in declaring this Sunday, May 28th as Pride Asia Day.

Council President Pro Tem, do you want to do one at a time or should I just follow?

Yes, please.

Thank you.

Okay.

Just checking to make sure there is no additional further comments or questions.

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation.

proclaiming May 28, 2023 to be Pride Asia Day.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council President Pro Tem Herbold.

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, next we will go to pride month.

Last year at the pride flag raising.

I provided remarks of hope that were grounded in the.

troubling reality of the leaked Roe v. Wade decision at that time.

The assault on bodily autonomy, LGBTQ rights, and gender-affirming care by right-wing conservatives across the country has grown significantly since then.

In 2023, over 549 anti-trans-related bills were introduced across 49 states.

These attacks come from horrific roots in our country to control marginalized communities autonomy and freedom.

As we recognize the catalyst of the LGBTQ movement that was led by queer trans women of color.

We must continue to fight to ensure that Seattle and Washington State are safe are safe havens.

for those who are attacked by devastating policies across the country, and we must work tirelessly to ensure that we repair the harm done in our own backyard.

I'm proud that our state legislature passed several bills this session to provide gender-affirming care and protections.

Equally, I do want to thank Council Member Herbold for co-leading with our office last year to strengthen city protections for those that interfere with access to gender-affirming care.

The work continues as we celebrate Pride Month, and I want to invite my colleagues and and our staff members to join the mayor and the LGBTQ Commission and myself for the flag raising ceremony on Thursday, June 1, that's going to start at 930am and ask you to join with this proclamation.

Just pausing to see if there are any comments or questions.

Not seeing any, good to get that flag raising up on our calendars.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation proclaiming June 2023 to be LGBTQ month.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council President Pro Tem Herbold.

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

And finally, it is also a great honor for me to present this proclamation commemorating Eritrea's Independence Day.

The Eritrean community in our city is known for their rich customs and traditions, for their unwavering spirit of resilience and determination.

Through their struggles and triumph since their independence, they've made significant strides in education, healthcare and economic development.

And as we celebrate this momentous occasion, we're reminded of the importance of freedom and independence.

This struggle is not just a physical one but also a mental and spiritual one for the people of Eritrea.

It's a struggle for dignity, for equality, and for self-determination.

So this proclamation is to formally recognize and celebrate Eritrean Independence Day and honor the Eritrean community in our city and particularly in District 2. I do want to thank our Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs as well as the Mayor's Office and the Eritrean Association of Greater Seattle for co-creating this proclamation with me.

May 27th, this Saturday, I will present the proclamation to the community at their Independence Day celebration at Seward Park.

Right.

Great.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Pausing to see if there are any comments or questions.

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which Council Members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation proclaiming May 27th, 2023 to be Eritrean Independence Day.

Thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council President Pro Tem Herbold.

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Item number five is a preview of city council actions, council and regional committees.

We will hear presentations from council members established by the rotated roll call for City Council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name with the Council President called last.

This week's roll call rotation begins with Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Mosqueda, you have the floor.

When you're done, please hand it to Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam President Pro Tem.

Colleagues, thanks again for all of the work that you did, whether you're a Housing and Finance Committee member or not.

We did have a chance to hear from the office of economic and revenue forecast last week on the April revenue forecast and wanted to make sure that for folks who are not part of the housing and finance committee meeting, you do know that we have the chance to do a robust presentation, a full hour's worth of information shared from central staff to walk us through their analysis of the six-year financial health of the city.

I wanted to flag for all of our committee members and the full council that there is no action necessary on those items that were reported out in our committee last week.

But it is a preview of some of the conversations that we will be having in the supplemental budget discussions, which really begin in July and really tease us up for a more accurate and fuller picture in the August forecast.

I do encourage folks to take a read through the central staff's presentation, their analysis of the revenue forecast, not just the tracks, or not just the revenue tracks that the office of economic and revenue forecast council reports on quarterly, but also some of the revenue that the city budgets office reports on.

Very helpful presentation from Tom Mikesell, Ali Panucci, and our director Esther Handy, and want to thank them for the analysis that they've really dug in and begun doing in a more transparent way over the last three years.

We've been working with central staff on a number of things since having got into this position.

One of the things that we've been working with central staff on is how to get the information, eek out the information from the city budget's office in a way that allows for central staff to do an analysis on the six-year financial outlook for the city.

So that is relatively new in terms of how we share that And 3 months old in terms of how we report out on the revenue forecast for the city in terms of doing it jointly and sorry, learning the information jointly, both the executive and the legislative branch hearing the information from the revenue forecast in real time in a quarterly fashion.

We will not have a finance and housing committee meeting again until early July.

We will be discussing the revenue situation and the 2023 and 2024 budget which we have already balanced.

But we will need to adjust for any supplemental news that we received in the summer and again take on the analysis of the endorsed 2024 budget.

So this is our real attempt to move towards biannual budgeting.

The 2024 budget is already balanced but we need to adjust for any revenue changes as we head into the fall.

More fun work to come on budgeting and revenue in July and and again leading into the fall budget process, which really will kick up in October and November in earnest.

In the meantime, we've put the Finance and Housing Committee meeting on hold to have the housing levy discussion.

And one more thing about the Housing and Finance Committee.

For folks who are on the Finance Committee, I believe you received a direct email from us.

I think we copied the full City Council, but you should also have received correspondence from community partners as well who were writing in with their concerns and their interest in staying true to our We are still in the process of revising the budget agreement, the compromise that we agreed to with how higher than anticipated jumpstart revenues would be used to support the general fund.

That conversation is still very much alive and we will be revisiting that when we take this issue up in July again and my hope is that we continue to have a fuller picture with the August forecast coming and we'll continue to stay optimistic about our conversations and engagement with the mayor's office around this issue as well.

that I would direct you to in addition to the central staff memo that was circulated last Wednesday.

Our next housing levy committee meeting will be on May 31st.

That's next Wednesday.

We will have a 930 a.m.

Start time which allows for us to hear from members of the public as per usual.

But we will have an afternoon session fully dedicated to hearing from members of the community.

So if you would like to provide public comment, I strongly encourage folks to either dial in remotely or to come in person if you prefer.

Please do practice social distancing and mask up.

We will have the doors open to increase ventilation in the room, but we are still actively engaged in wanting to follow public health best practices as it relates not only to COVID, but all communicable diseases.

Please do bring a mask if you are coming in person.

but there will be an opportunity to hear from folks at 4.30 next Wednesday afternoon and very excited about some of the community activity to generate a lot of interest and excitement about these final weeks of our housing levy deliberations that day as well.

So colleagues, please do attend the 9.30 a.m.

housing levy select committee meeting and again, please join us for the public hearing that begins at 4.30 that evening.

I anticipate that it'll be about 2 hours, so we won't go too late into your evening, but please do dial in or come in person if you're able to.

Let's see that will allow for us to have a housing.

Love you discussion on the 31st about the introduced.

Housing levy proposals, so we are taking every opportunity we can to work with the legislative branch and where there are amendments that are also friendly and I think align with the goals of what was transmitted from the executive in the housing levy.

We're going to include as many of those amendments as possible with a Pre introduction package.

We will have the introduced legislation discussed in.

the housing levy committee meeting next Wednesday, along with any additional amendments that council colleagues would still like to see put forward for the purposes of discussion.

You should have already flagged for central staff those amendments, but if you haven't already, you can feel free to check in with them to see if their timing allows for them to draft something prior to our Wednesday meeting, with the goal of having as many amendments as possible included in the introduced proposal that we will be discussing on Wednesday next week.

We will then have another meeting on June 7th, is that right?

The 1st, Wednesday in June.

That will allow for us to have a final vote on any amendments with the goal of getting it out of our housing select committee meeting on that 1st, Wednesday and freeing up your 3rd, Wednesday of the month so that you can do other things.

That is the anticipated schedule for the housing levy committee and it's been going.

really smoothly so far.

If you have any feedback for me, please do let me know, but we really appreciate the ongoing conversations that you've all had with central staff and directly with our office, as well as your active engagement in the housing levy discussions.

See you next Wednesday at 930. As the Council President Pro Tem noted, tomorrow on full Council, I do have three items up for your consideration in full Council.

This includes the 2020 exceptions bill which is Council Bill 120572. This request approves approval for the 2022 budget increases and is intending to resolve In some instances where department have perhaps overspent their revised 2020 budget allocations, we have tried to tamper down or tamp down the use of exceptions ordinance by making sure people stay within the budget that's been allowed.

But sometimes there are incidences that are not foreseen and we do allow for an exceptions bill, but great work from central staff as well as.

the partnership with the city budget's office in trying to limit the use of the exceptions ordinance in this year and last year.

Really appreciate that partnership.

We also have the 2022 carry forward bill.

This is council bill 120573 which requests approval for a 2023 budget increase from some of the city funds as described in the central staff memo.

These carry forward dollars are used to increase allowed spending for intended activities that are designated already within our budget, but not completed in the 2022 calendar year due to issues that could not have been reasonably foreseen at the time of making the budget.

So we allow for the carry forward for specific budgeted items to ensure that those dollars can continue to be used for their budgeted purpose in this calendar year.

Hoping for your approval of that and thanks to our finance and housing committee meeting attendees for unanimously voting those 2 items out and just a quick preview.

I love attending events with the raid foundation and Seattle housing authority and partnership with.

Um, F. C. Sanders FC, we are very excited about another opening of a community field that allows for free play.

Whether it's soccer or just green space for people to be able to utilize as we create denser housing and more housing options across our city.

One of the things that we know is that we need to complement that with green space so that any individual can go out and play, regardless of whether or not you're on a structured team.

We know it's important for.

Individuals, I was going to say kiddos, but people of all ages have access to green space and open play fields.

And that is what Seattle Housing Authority, the Ray Foundation and Sounders FC have been able to accomplish together.

And we will be celebrating the grand opening of the Seattle Housing Authority's new Holly free field and community green space on Wednesday.

I think that's it for me, Council President.

I'll turn it back over to Council Member Nelson, I believe, is next, if there's no questions.

Okay, thanks so much.

Okay, just getting to the top of my page.

Hello, everybody.

So, the next meeting of the economic development technology and city light committee is this coming Wednesday and there are 2 items on the agenda.

It's going to be a fairly short meeting.

Everyone.

The first is Council Bill 120576 which is a distribution easement ordinance and the second is Council Bill 120577, which is a platted easement ordinance.

So here's the background.

For the distribution easement ordinance, City Light requires that the owner of a new or altered electrical service property provide the City of Seattle with a utility easement whenever City Light facilities, such as wires, must pass over, under, or through private property, or when service equipment, such as poles or vaults, must be located either on or under the property being served.

So, the, and the, let's see for distribute for platted easement ordinance requires that the applications for short plats lot boundary adjustments and unit lots subdivisions be reviewed by other city departments and each lot created in.

in such property divisions needs to have adequate access for all utilities, including electrical service.

The access for such utilities is provided by the means of utility easements in the final approval of short plats, lot boundary adjustments, etc.

Then, and those are all recorded by King county.

So, under city charters, council has to pass an ordinance, allowing the city to acquire these easements.

But instead of doing them 1 by 1, because there are a lot of them city light bundles them over a couple of years and into 1 ordinance.

The distribution ordinance will accept 136 easements that have been received and recorded since the previous distribution easement acceptance ordinance was adopted in 2020 and the platted ordinance accepts 851 easements for overhead and underground electrical rights in King County since 2020. And I'm going into this detail because these are fairly non-controversial council bills and I'm hoping to pass them out of committee in one meeting.

There is no cost to the city if we pass these ordinances, but if we don't, City Light won't be able to provide electrical service for customers living there, meaning that City Light will lose revenue it would have collected from those contracts and those customers.

So that's all we've got for this coming Wednesday.

So let's look backwards here.

Last Tuesday, May 16th, the state legislature convened in special session and passed second in gross second substitute Senate Bill five five three six, making possession and public use of controlled substances such as fentanyl and methamphetamine a gross misdemeanor.

And to remind the viewing public on April 27th, city attorney Davison, council member Peterson and I released legislation to make the public use of illegal drugs a simple misdemeanor.

In council briefings on May 8th, my colleagues expressed some concern about acting on our legislation before the state legislature met in special session because they wanted to avoid a piecemeal approach jurisdiction by jurisdiction that tries to solve a problem that state legislature is poised to fix.

So after Governor Inslee signed the state's bill, City Attorney Davison, Council Member Peterson and I put out a release announcing that we updated our original bill to align with state law.

And that new legislation will go before full council, I believe, on June 6th.

So to highlight other happenings in the past couple of weeks, on May 11th, I joined King County Council Member Reagan Dunn, State Representative Lauren Davis, and King County Department of Community and Human Services Leo Flohr for the annual King County Conference on Substance Use Disorders.

And the turnout was really impressive.

I wasn't really quite prepared for that.

The recovery community was very well represented in an audience of over 500 people.

And in our fireside chat, I discussed what I've said numerous times publicly, which is that removing barriers and creating access to recovery-based treatment options really must be a central focus of our efforts to address substance use disorder and the fentanyl crisis in Seattle and across the region.

On May 11th, I attended opening night of the 49th Seattle International Film Festival, where we were treated to Korean-Canadian playwright, Celine Song's directorial debut, Past Lives, as the opening night film.

And right before that, CIF executive director, Tom Mara, you probably, everybody knows this news, made the announcement that CIF had acquired Cinerama, and that was met with a roar of applause, standing ovation, etc.

And I just have to say that that is one more star in in a harmonic convergence of events, including the new state incentives, the Harbor Island Studios, the Film Commission, and now the reopening of a beloved icon.

And that will that's not just great for film lovers.

It's also a huge boost to downtown.

And that will reopen this coming fall.

And yes, there will be chocolate popcorn.

So let's see.

I also attended last week the Port of Seattle's annual Maritime Day Breakfast, and we heard remarks from Commissioner Cho and former Commissioner Stephanie Bowman, who's now Washington State's Maritime Director at the Department of Commerce.

And Mayor Harrell also spoke, and I have to thank the Port of Seattle for that invitation.

I was interviewed by Brian Callanan of Seattle inside out on the award winning Seattle channel for the next edition of Seattle inside out and I was joined by DSA President john schools and we discussed downtown recovery among other things, and I urge that people check that out when it airs this week.

And while I was there at that, my excuse me, I just skipped something.

It's been a busy week.

Last Thursday, I joined mid ambassadors, the mayor and council member Lewis and members of the downtown community for the mid reauthorization bill signing.

And just so people remember the the legislation to reauthorize the Metropolitan Improvement District passed out of the Economic Development, Technology and City Light Committee.

on April 26th and was passed by full council on May 2nd.

And while I was doing that, my chief of staff, Jeremy Moen, joined Joseph Ellenbas and Dorian Correo from Seattle Police Department for a question and answer session with the GSBA.

And they heard from small business owners who are asking for outside the box thinking on public safety while recognizing that work has to be done to recruit and hire more officers.

So my office is really involved in working with the Music Commission and also nightlife businesses on Capitol Hill, but elsewhere in the city on ongoing efforts in that department.

Last Thursday, I went to MoPOP to meet and greet, to a meet and greet with the new executive, the new CEO, Michelle Smith, who is, who comes to MoPOP from Woodland Park Zoo.

And we learned a lot about new educational initiatives and also got to hang out with Seattle Opera Director, Christina Shepelman and Chris Novoselic, whose partnerships helped make MoPOP the second most popular museum in the country.

Moving on, I just want to note that there was a very moving and Memorial for Rachel Marshall of Rachel's ginger beer last Friday at Benaroya Hall.

Just wanted to note.

that her passing is felt by so many people throughout the city.

There was a framed proclamation from Mayor Harrell, and I just wanted to let folks know that donations can form.

If people wanted to make donations, they can go to Seattle Bridges, and I'm happy to provide more information about that organization if you wish to know more about that.

That's all I've got.

The meeting that I would note coming up this week is that the all-stars being right around the corner is something on many people's minds.

I'll be meeting with Rob Leslie and Beth Knox of the Sports Commission to talk about how the city can best prepare for that event, which will draw a lot of people to downtown.

Unless there are any further questions, I will pass the baton to Council Member Peterson.

All right, seeing none, take it away.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

There are 12 items from our Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee on the full council agenda tomorrow afternoon, all of which were approved unanimously by our committee.

10 of those items are appointments to the various Transportation Advisory Boards, and they are on the consent calendar.

The two standalone items for a separate vote by the full council tomorrow afternoon are a bill from SDOT and a bill from SPU, Seattle Public Utilities.

Council Bill 120557 is for SDOT's hazard mitigation program.

The bill authorizes the SDOT director to accept various easements along Rainier Avenue South in District 2 related to a completed project that is helping to prevent dangerous hillside erosion onto the roadway.

Council Bill 120574 would enable Seattle Public Utilities to sell to the city of Shoreline, just two small slivers of property already located in the city of Shoreline.

There were no public commenters for the public hearing at our committee.

Again, both items were approved unanimously by our committee.

If you have any questions, please go ahead and consult with our city council central staff.

Our next committee meeting is on June 6th at 930 in the morning.

That's Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

As Councilmember, as President Pro Tem Herbold mentioned Council 120578 the second quarter employment ordinance will be voted on tomorrow.

On behalf of Council President Flores who serves also as chair of our governance committee I'll speak briefly to Council 120578. As we know, the Council authorizes certain City of Seattle personnel actions through quarterly employment ordinances.

In the second quarter 2023 employment ordinance, Council would authorize the Seattle Department of Human Resources Director to change three exempt positions to civil service status and change eight civil service positions to exempt status.

I think I said that right change three exempt positions of civil service and change eight civil service to exempt this employment ordinance would also remove the positions of administrative staff assistant and management systems analysts from SPD.

For any questions please contact our central staff analyst Karina bull before the full city council meeting.

Our district for participated in the one Seattle Day of Service this past Saturday they spent the afternoon interacting with thousands of people at the district street fair booth organized by the district advocates community nonprofit attendees were able to vote on how they want City Hall to prioritize.

various potential projects in or around the U-District, such as a new pedestrian-friendly Green Street on Northeast 42nd Street, as well as the eagerly awaited improvements to make Northeast 45th Street I-5 Overpass a safer connection between U-District and Wallingford.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we move to the next council member?

Thank you.

You want to pass it off to Councilmember Morales?

Councilmember Morales, I didn't, I forgot who the next, thank you.

Councilmember Morales, please.

Hello.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Thank you very much.

Okay, I'm sorry I called away by myself.

I'm sorry I think I messed everything up because I was trying to assist Councilmember Peterson.

And I failed I think it's actually Councilmember Strauss, who speaks masks.

I'm so sorry, that would make more sense.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Councilmember Morales, I'll pass it off to you.

I've got a lot to say, so you might have 10 minutes.

Hopefully I won't hit my limit.

Councilmember Nelson, great news about Cinerama, yeah?

I know we're supposed to just focus on our committee work and council briefings.

That news was so exciting to me.

Fun fact, I used to work there, and yes, I ate more chocolate popcorn than I should have, and my pillows smelled like it, so I can't wait to get back and have some more chocolate popcorn.

From the Land Use Committee, we have a lot going on in the Land Use Committee.

Tomorrow at full council, we will have Council Bills 120534 and Council Bill 120535. This is the Tree Protection Bill and the Tree Protection Budget Appropriations Bill.

Just as a brief history on these bills, these bills were introduced on March 21st.

I invited colleagues to committee and to submit amendments ahead of the deadline.

We had a total of six briefings, plus one public hearing for a total of seven meetings.

There was one item that had to be addressed legally within a certain time frame.

Other than that, These meetings were dedicated to the tree protections bill.

Usually, in committee, we have two meetings on a bill.

And within those meetings, there are many different topics.

So this was categorically different, having a total of seven meetings essentially dedicated to the tree protection bill.

The Urban Forestry Commission asked for more time, and we did extend that timeline.

We passed the tree protections bill out of committee on May 4. earlier this month after a six hour long committee meeting where we had over 50 amendments to discuss.

This is a budget level amount of work and central staff really rallied to come and perform quickly and we presented everything just as if we were in the budget cycle because there was that much information.

This is why amendments at full council are not welcome.

It will open up a six hour conversation of back and forth that needs to happen in committee.

This bill has been before the public for two months, exactly 62 days of today and 63 days by tomorrow.

The effective date for this bill is 60 days.

So from full passage, it will not take effect for 60 days, which is double the typical timeline.

We also extended the typical timeline of bill moves from committee to full council, which could have been five days and increased it to 19 days, almost four times the regular schedule.

I have heard from community members a request to delay the vote, and I do not believe that delaying the passage of this bill is prudent at this time.

There are several reasons.

The threat of increased cutting ahead of new regulations is a present and current threat.

Delaying this bill could and will lead to more trees being cut down without the protections that we need and without those protections that we have discussed, which includes replacement in lieu fees and greater preservation for trees that are between 30 and 24 diameter standard height, because we have increased.

We've increased the number of trees that fit within that protection.

With a 60-day implementation timeline, so that's 60 days from tomorrow before the bill becomes implemented, we have the time needed to analyze the bill as has been discussed and has been requested.

This time, if serious flaws exist, we have the time to introduce and pass cleanup legislation.

More importantly, Creating public policy is an iterative process, meaning we can draft cleanup bills in the future.

I think one of the issues that we are faced with at this time is people feel like this is the only shot we have to protect trees because for some people, this has been going on for 20 years.

There's a public commenter that routinely cites having worked with council member Drago in 1999 on tree protection.

tree protections.

And so I just want to reassure the community that if there are changes that need to be made, we have the opportunity to do so.

These are not just words.

We regularly pass cleanup bills.

Last year, we passed the arborist registration legislation.

And this year, we followed up with cleanup legislation based on feedback from high road arborists who were confronting the implementation challenges and found issues that were unintended We thought benign, but and when they went to implement the law, we found that we needed to clean up some of this legislation.

This was accomplished before the items that were fixed had unintentionally caused harm.

We have the ability to mirror this process if issues with the tree protection bill become problematic.

If we delay the bill's final passage, we will not enact the important tree protections I have been waiting to pass for half of a decade and others have been waiting to pass for two decades.

Having a budget-level amendment conversation will not be productive at full council and sending it back to committee at this time will create more harm than benefit by people cutting down trees without the tree protections in place that preserve trees, without the replacement requirements that we are ready to put in place, and without the in-move fees that can and will expand our tree canopy to areas of our city that have under canopy that don't have enough tree canopy.

Again we have the opportunity to pass cleanup legislation moving forward and it is important to pass the tree protections bill tomorrow.

I'm going to pause here colleagues for questions just on the tree protections bill because I have two other items to speak about.

So colleagues are there questions on the tree protections bill that will come before full council tomorrow?

I am seeing no questions from colleagues regarding the tree protections bill tomorrow.

I'm hoping that that means that we will have a clean process tomorrow.

Moving on to maritime and industrial land strategies.

Oh, Council Member Herbold.

You're on mute.

I didn't.

speak before when you ask your questions.

I didn't have a question, but I am looking at the bill as it relates specifically to areas that are designated as environmental justice areas and that also already have what has been defined as low tree canopy under 25%.

And I do just want to daylight, I have concerns about those particular areas.

Um, the areas that have been designated as, uh.

Environmental justice areas and again, that already have a tree canopy that's under 25%.

So I'm just flagging my concern.

I don't have questions.

Thank you.

Is it a concern that we have not designated enough resources to it or.

I guess, can you highlight what your concern is?

The concern is, um, using the, uh, the.

New standard of 85% hardcover for those areas, as opposed to the, the old approach.

Of protecting those areas.

I absolutely hear you.

And if they are environmental areas that are under canopy, they will be the first to receive additional canopy through this bill.

And so I hear your concern there for private property trees.

I will also highlight and tomorrow I'll give a more comprehensive overview of all of the protections.

I will just highlight again outside of development in those areas.

we have reduced the number of trees that can be removed from nine trees in three years to two trees in three years.

As the urban canopy report this year stated, the highest amount of tree loss is occurring on residential lots outside of development.

Absolutely hear your concern there.

And look, colleagues, happy to work with you to make sure that if this bill has errors, that we follow up with a cleanup bill.

That's totally on the table.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Going once, going twice.

We're going to move on to maritime and industrial.

The amendment deadline for maritime and industrial land strategy and zoning was last Wednesday.

Again, I invited all council members to bring amendments forward.

All council members are welcome to attend our land use committee meetings.

The full list of amendments are attached to this week's agenda for the public to review.

There are a total of 15 proposed amendments.

The language that you see in this list is not the final language.

The table provides an idea of what each amendment is and which council member is proposing each amendment.

We will work with Lish Whitson of Council Central staff to refine these amendments.

I will note for the general public, I included a full list of what I was considering.

I may pull back some of these amendments.

I wanted to meet my own deadline.

This Wednesday is the public hearing regarding the Maritime and Industrial Land Strategy.

Since there are five bills with this legislation, public commenters should speak to all five bills.

There will not be a presentation at the public hearing.

The final scheduled committee meeting for Maritime and Industrial Land Strategies will be on June 8th at 9.30 a.m.

This meeting will we will vote on amendments as proposed and we will extend into the afternoon if needed, just as we did with the tree protection bill.

We have reserved June 14th for a land use committee meeting in case we need additional time.

Again, amendments at full council will not be welcome.

If there's an amendment that you want to have included, and it is not on the list, please do let me and Naomi Lewis, my land use clerk, know ASAP today, please, and definitely before Wednesday.

I cannot guarantee we can accommodate it, and I'd rather know sooner than later.

I'm going to move into the next land use committee meeting, and then I'm going to pause at the end of this to ask questions about maritime industrial land strategies.

The next land use committee is the regularly scheduled land use committee this Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 2pm.

We have six items on the agenda.

It is two packages.

So we have the Maritime Industrial Package, which contains five bills for public hearing.

And then we will receive a briefing on Council Bill 120582, the Equitable Development Zoning for briefing and discussion.

We are going to combine the five public hearings regarding each of the bills in the Maritime Industrial Land Strategies into one public hearing.

Commenters should speak to all five bills since these bills are interrelated.

I will ask that each speaker speak specifically each speaker to specifically state which bills they are addressing for the record and I recommend speaking to all five.

Amendments were do as I said to Council central staff last Wednesday the potential amendments are attached to the agenda to give the public, an opportunity to provide comment at the public hearing regarding these amendments.

After the maritime industrial public hearing, we will receive a briefing on a separate policy.

That next briefing will be the briefing discussion on the equitable development zoning, which will change use permits for public institutions from conditional use to an outright permitted use.

The public hearing for equitable development zoning will be in later June.

I'm going to pause there and see if there are questions regarding the maritime and industrial strategies.

Council Member Hurdle.

Thank you.

Just looking at the spreadsheet that you referenced, It looks like approximately half of the amendments listed indicate that they weren't studied in the FEIS.

What is the significance of that as it relates to the process?

So we will be taking that up with Council Central staff.

One of the reasons that we wanted to highlight the amendments this early in the process is to answer questions just like yours, working with the law department, Council Central staff and OPCD.

So if you would like to have a separate briefing with them, please, I welcome it and I will be as well.

This is the importance of having these amendments flagged early.

And I appreciate everyone meeting my request.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Colleagues, any other questions on maritime and industrial strategies?

Seeing none, I believe that is the conclusion of the Land Use Committee report.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you, colleagues.

I will now pass it to Council Member Morales.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Strauss.

Okay, as I said earlier, my committee that neighborhoods Education, Arts and Civil Rights Committee is canceled.

This Friday due to the holiday weekend.

The next scheduled meeting is for June 9. Tomorrow we will be having the first meeting of the new social housing developer board.

Council will provide official call and notice of that meeting at tomorrow's full council meeting.

This will be the first meeting where board members will elect their own leadership.

They'll review the charter and consider a proposal to hire a consultant for administrative and support.

The full agenda for this meeting has been posted on my council blog, and the meeting will be here at city hall and room 370 at 530. We already went through my proclamations.

Last week, my team and I attended the Yesler Terrace Community Council meeting.

And we also held office hours, in-district office hours at Yesler Terrace at a community room there.

So I want to thank the Seattle Housing Authority for hosting and all the residents of the neighborhood who showed up.

It was great to have conversations directly with folks there.

My office also attended a neighborhood safety meeting with organizations in the CID.

We were joined by the PDA to discuss some capacity issues with lead and reach in the neighborhood.

There is a special interest in having folks who will be on the ground during off hours.

So there was a lot of conversation about needing more kind of eyes on the street between 6 and 9 a.m.

when businesses are opening and then later in the evening at, you know, 5 to 9 when workers are leaving.

So REACH has just secured their contract last week for the CID outreach worker that we funded, that our office funded in the budget last year.

So that process is beginning and I believe that person is in is supposed to be on by June 1st.

So that's great.

Good news.

We'll be working with them and with other service providers in the neighborhood to streamline the process to best serve community members there.

We also attended a workshop with s dot and sound transit to discuss some issues in the fellow neighborhood and Rainier Beach neighborhoods, including some street repairs to MLK and Henderson, I've mentioned this intersection Henderson, especially before.

There are several schools on that street and so there are some traffic calming improvements that are about to be made, as well as crosswalk improvements that are coming to Othello later this summer.

We also got some updates on preparations that are underway for the Graham Street infill station that is set to open in 2031. I was honored to attend the Evergreen Treatment Services 50 year anniversary.

We all know that Evergreen has been providing clinical treatment, frontline outreach and other services to address some of the behavioral health crises that we have in our region and continue to face under the Blake legislation.

On Saturday, I joined Deputy Mayor Wong, 37th Legislative District Representative Chapala Street, and our State Senator Saldana, Rebecca Saldana at El Centro de la Raza this past Saturday for the One Seattle Day of Service.

I want to thank Comcast.

We had almost 300 volunteers show up.

I think this is one of the largest sites that we had in the city.

So really want to appreciate everybody who turned out.

And there were several projects just there around El Centro, around the campus, the Plaza Roberto Maestas, window washing, landscaping, all kinds of things going on.

And it was just great to see folks really giving back to El Centro, who has for over 50 years now been providing so much support and assistance to community members.

On Sunday, I attended an event for Adefua and the African Cultural Arts Center.

Adefua is a community arts organization focused on preserving cultural heritage of descendants of Africa in this country.

For 38 years, they've provided classes in West African folklore, in dancing and drumming.

They also provide rite of passage workshops for girls of color, young girls of color.

And they are seeking to expand their property, which they've operated in the Brighton neighborhood of the Rainier Valley for 38 years.

So they own a home and they're looking to expand to add office space and classroom space and to add an outdoor stage for their performances.

So it was exciting to hear about that work.

And then finally, this morning, I was honored to speak at the city's Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander celebration hosted by our Department of Neighborhoods and the city's AAPI caucus to celebrate the importance of arts and culture in the community and to stand in solidarity with our neighbors in the CID.

Colleagues, that is all I have, unless there are questions.

I'm not seeing any, so I believe I'm passing it to our Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Council Member Morales.

So there are no items from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on tomorrow's full Council agenda.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee does meet tomorrow morning at 930 a.m.

On the agenda, we have a Community Police Commission appointment, Adrienne Levitt, for a term of confirmation to December 2023. We're going to be receiving from Public Health Seattle King County and a panel of community-based overdose prevention program grantees.

a briefing on overdose trends and approaches, harm reduction approaches to address those trends.

We also will be having an overview of proposed Council Bill 120580 regarding app-based workers' deactivations rights and having a discussion around issue identification.

And finally, we'll be receiving from the Seattle Police Department and Council Central staff, an overview on quarterly staffing, performance metrics, and their finances report, including the work on the Council-funded recruitment plan.

A few issue-based updates on the public safety front.

Last week, I met with each Chief Diaz, Southwest Precinct Captain Rivera, Director Betz of the Office of Police Accountability, and the leadership of the Community Police Commission and Fire Chief Scoggins.

On the SPD front, just a quick public safety announcement.

Passing on to you in the viewing public from SPD, just a reminder that moving into summer and people heading to beaches and lakes, that the Harbor Patrol unit is ready for the summer increase in calls for marine related law enforcement and rescue and assistance.

Seattle has a host of beautiful places to enjoy the sun on the water, but let's just always remember that it's so important to have a responsible and sober boat operator.

Please enjoy the Pacific Northwest beautiful long afternoons, but do so responsibly by staying sober and aware of other boaters, paddle boarders, and swimmers.

From the fire department, just an announcement that there will be a fire day on the 134th anniversary of the Great Seattle Fire at Mohai at South Lake Union on Saturday, June 17th.

This event will include tours of a lot of truck and fire engine, fire safety activities, games, crafts, and giveaways.

And then from the Office of Emergency Management, the Seattle Emergency Hubs will be hosting a disaster preparedness training on June 11th at 10 different community hub locations.

You can go to seattleemergencyhubs.org to learn more.

Community Emergency Hubs are locations where neighbors and community members are likely to gather to share information and resources among themselves after a significant disaster.

On the public health front, beginning June 1st, many King County residents enrolled in Apple Health will be at risk of losing their health insurance because the federal government is ending the COVID emergency orders.

And with that comes approximately 100,000 people in King County that may be at risk of losing their Apple health benefits.

If you are one of those people, there's still time for you to take action by May 31st.

On June 1st, the state will begin removing people from Medicaid who no longer qualify, something that they had been prohibited from doing during the pandemic.

And so now for the first time in three years, people must confirm their eligibility for Apple health.

or enroll in alternative coverage to maintain access for their physical and behavioral health healthcare.

If you have questions about this, you can contact public health navigators at 1-800-756-5437.

On the regional committee update last week, I had the opportunity to provide public comment on to the executive board meeting of the King County Flood Control District, chaired by Council Member Dunn.

And my public comment was in support of funding to address river topping flooding in South Park.

Thank you to Council Member Peterson and Mayor Harrell for jointly signing a letter to the executive board of the Flood Control District as well.

Last Thursday, I attended the King County Board of Health meeting.

We received a briefing on the county's regional gun prevention work, of which the city is a key partner.

And just flagging that we're hoping to be getting an update on the regional community safety and well-being draft recommendations that were distributed to members towards the end of last year.

We understand that there is, that this, what was a draft plan last December is now a final plan.

And they are working to identify gaps in programming that may help curb gun violence, really guided by the recommendations in the work plan.

And let's see, I already mentioned the National Gun Violence Awareness Day proclamation in public health.

That's it on the regional committees front.

Other non-regional committee engagement last Monday, along with other council members I know that were there, attended the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Luncheon.

On Saturday, I, again, like many of you, participated in Mayor Harrell's Day of Service.

I gave my service at Highland Park Elementary doing yard work and replanting flowers for the young people in coordination with launch the early child care education program at Highland Park and other other elementaries throughout the city.

Coming up this week, just want to flag a request from constituents in District 1 who asked that we help them get the word out In the spirit of the pride proclamations that Council Member Mosqueda spoke to earlier, there are residents in the Morgan Junction in West Seattle who are sponsoring a pride block party that they are calling West Seattle Pride Night Out for a fun and casual block party celebrating love, acceptance, community, and inclusivity on June 22nd from 5 to 9 p.m.

The goal being to continue building community and celebrating diversity and inclusivity within this particular neighborhood and to inspire other streets and neighborhoods to participate and make these more well-known and established neighborhood events in addition to our big events that happen in Capitol Hill.

Also on Wednesday, I'll be receiving a tour and doing a helpline listening shift.

at Crisis Connections, which operates both a 988 and operates the One Call program, a dedicated hotline that connects first responders to behavioral health experts that this council has championed funding for.

And then Thursday, I will be at attendance at the regional Together We Can End Gun Violence conference.

I think that's all I have.

Next item, the last item we have on the agenda, I'll just pause for a second, make sure there are no questions about my report.

Not seeing any.

Want to note that item six on our agenda is an executive session on pending potential or actual litigation.

And we'll take a pause To move into executive session.

Okay, please hold.