Seattle City Council Briefing 12/13/21

Thank you so much, son.

Really appreciate it.

Good morning, everyone.

The December 13th, 2021 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 9 31 a.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis present.

What Alice?

Let's get that present.

Peterson.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

But it's here and council president Gonzalez present 8 present.

Thank you so much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of December 6th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, nothing too significant to report, folks.

This is my last council briefing with the city council.

So I'm excited to be here with all of you this morning.

We do have a rather full agenda this afternoon with approximately 45 items to discuss, including some substantive labor bills and transparency bills that I'm sure many of us will discuss during our reports, which will be during agenda item four.

But for now, we will move over to agenda item three, which is our federal legislative update briefing and discussion.

We are joined this morning by Sierra Hallett-Brown of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and Leslie Polner, our federal lobbyist from Holland and Knight.

So I'm going to hand it over to Sierra and Leslie for introductions and their presentation.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Great.

Thank you, Council President Gonzales, and congratulations on your final council meeting briefing.

So, Sierra Hallett-Brown, good to be back with all of you.

I'm the Director of Federal Affairs for our Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and I'll kick it over to Leslie for an introduction.

Great, Leslie Polnar, Holland and Knight, and echoing Sierra's congratulations to you, President Gonzales.

Thanks so much.

Sierra, you want to kick us off?

Yeah.

So I'm going to please jump in with any questions.

And I know Council President Gonzalez, you had a question.

We'll address that during the presentation.

But just wanted to thank you all for having us this morning.

Leslie Polner, our lobbyist, is here.

She's going to be discussing the infrastructure package that has recently passed Congress, some of the key programs that could be impactful or beneficial to the city.

and then getting into the Build Back Better package and reconciliation and just seeing how that might be impactful and what things we're expecting out of that, knowing that it's still being debated in Congress.

So I'm going to start the presentation, do a quick intro, and then Leslie is going to jump in and take over.

So let me share my screen really quick here.

Okay, are we good?

It is working.

So, like I said, we'll just do a quick introduction here.

Leslie, do you want to get it going?

Yeah, sure thing.

Thanks, Sierra.

And I'll, you know, we'll try to stay pretty high level today, but happy to do any follow-up conversations if there are particular questions or people want to go deeper.

As well as Sierra, later on this afternoon, we'll be sending around a more detailed presentation and breakdown of the bill.

These are really the highlights for the purpose of this presentation.

but we have a much more detailed synopsis as well.

Let's just start with infrastructure.

And, you know, very exciting.

President signed it into law on November 15th.

And as many of you know, that bill is really comprised of several different pieces of legislation that had been kind of worked on over previous years, including the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, as well as the Digital Equity Act, which as many of you know, was really championed by Senator Murray and was her baby.

So, you know, $1.2 trillion in total spending over five years, including $550 billion in new spending.

So very, very historic investments.

Let me just say a couple things in the outset, because as you all know, I work with a number of communities across the country, and I just want to level set on this, which is, you know, the question that I've gotten a number of times is, how much money is my city getting?

And I want to just say it from the outset that this bill is quite different from what we've seen in, for example, coronavirus legislation, the American Rescue Plan Act or the CARES Act.

This is not going to provide significant direct funding to the city.

Rather, there's really several different pots of money, and some of it is going to flow by formula to the state and then through to Puget Sound Regional Council.

Others, the other big charge is going to be through competitive grant opportunities.

And I'm going to let Sierra talk at the end, but really, you know, the work that we are currently doing is with city departments to get everyone ready and in position to be, to take advantage of this funding, as well as working with federal agencies to help shape their notice of funding opportunities that they are expected to release early next year.

So Sierra, next slide.

So there's significant, you know, historic levels of investment across the board, roads and bridges, energy infrastructure, ports, transportation, safety, flooding, and climate resiliency and water infrastructure.

Next slide.

And so just a quick, you know, timeline here around implementation overview.

So they actually are going to backdate the implementation date to October 1st.

And so right now what you're seeing across agencies is that they are they are really trying to get ready and get organized.

I mean, for some, for the Department of Transportation, for example, I mean, it is literally, you know, almost quadrupling the level of funding that they've had in the past.

And so even for some agencies, they're seeing tenfold increases in the amount of funding that they're going to get.

So a lot of this is really kind of getting their thoughts and their ideas organized because there's a lot of new programs that they need to set up here.

One thing that is complicating this, as many of you've seen, The Congress had to pass a continuing resolution into February to keep the government funded.

Some, not all, but some of the funding for the infrastructure bill is tied up in that measure as well.

And so that is adding a little bit of a layer of complexity as DOT, for example, gets ready to unveil these programs.

So just putting that out there, that that is something that's unfortunate.

They're trying to work through.

it may delay a little bit some of the programs and their ability to release them.

Next slide.

So just, you know, to give you some high level highlights here of programs that are of interest, these are largely going to be competitive grant programs that the city, I think, is going to be well positioned to compete for.

And that includes RAISE grants, which of course, as many of you know, we've just successfully received $20 million for the East Marginal Way Corridor Improvement Project.

thanks to Senator Cantwell, Senator Murray, and our entire delegation for all of their work.

RAISE has been a great program for the city of Seattle.

There'll be $7.5 billion over five years available for that program.

There's the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program.

This is essentially Vision Zero implementation dollars.

To date, there really has not been funding around Vision Zero to actually implement it.

There's only been planning dollars So this is also fairly historic.

There's also a new smart grant program.

Many of you may remember that President Obama in his final years started the smart city challenge.

This is good.

And that that funding went to one city in the country.

This is now funding to try to implement, you know, in intelligent transportation systems, connected vehicles, you know, and to improve transportation efficiency and safety using technology.

Next slide.

There is also a new competitive grant program, as well as formula funding for bridges.

There's a new railroad crossing elimination competitive program.

There's a new active transportation infrastructure program that's like for trails, for bike, ped, paths.

There's also, thanks to Senator Cantwell and her leadership, a new culvert removal replacement and restoration program.

as well, which I know is of great interest to Seattle Public Utilities.

Next slide.

And then there's, you know, quite a bit in the environment and resiliency lens.

There's a new healthy streets program for grants to deploy full pavements and to increase the urban tree canopy cover.

There is significant funding for EV charging, both formula funding that will go to the state as well as competitive grant funding.

There is, you know, one of the One of the direct funding sources that will be coming to the city is the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funding.

And that is funding by formula, very flexible.

It was a program that was created in 2009 during ARA.

And so that has come back next year as well.

Next slide.

And then there's funding to protect the electric grid.

that run resilience grant program, upgrading electric grid reliability, and a smart grid investment matching grant program.

And of course, Seattle City Light has been all over this, putting themselves in position to get some of these dollars as well.

Next slide.

One of the biggest tranches of funding is around water and clean water.

And so there is the state, you know, significant increases for the state revolving loan fund.

There is a new Clean Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Grant Program.

And then there's a new Wastewater Efficiency Grant Pilot Program as well.

Next slide.

And then the infrastructure bill does include funding for cyber.

There's a brand new state and local cybersecurity grant program.

And then also there is funding for the currently existing BRIC program which the Seattle's Emergency Operations Office has been very focused on as well.

Next slide.

And then there is funding for broadband.

The biggest portion of funding for broadband goes through the state by formula and the legislation actually sets out parameters that the state needs to follow as they are creating their funding plans and their priorities.

Once they've sort of checked the boxes in terms of like, demonstrated that they've already served unserved communities.

It then gives the state more flexibility.

But then there is a new competitive grant program, again, modeled after Senator Murray's legislation, the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, $250 million a year for grants to local governments and nonprofits to increase digital equity.

Next slide.

So moving on for a moment to reconciliation.

So obviously the House passed built back better.

Congresswoman Jayapal obviously had a real leadership role there.

It's now moved on to the Senate.

This week, the Senate parliamentarian is giving the bill what's known as the birdbath, where she's going through to make sure that the bill comports with all of the reconciliation procedures.

We expect that there'll be changes made to the bill as a result of the birdbath.

Leader Schumer has said that he really wants to have a vote before Christmas.

Obviously, you're seeing in the news with Senator Manchin, you know, having concerns about inflation, having concerns about some of the pieces in the bill, like paid leave.

And so we expect negotiations to be ongoing.

There's a chance that we'll see kind of the same dance that we saw in the House, where Leader Schumer will go put the bill on the floor in an effort to kind of force Senator Manchin to actually say what he wants.

because as you have seen in the press, he's a tough negotiating partner and it's hard to nail him down.

But I think most people anticipate that final action will take place in early Q1 next year.

And that once the Senate takes action, the bill will go to the House.

The House at that point really won't be able to make changes unless they wanna delay the process even further.

And so final passage would be expected there and then onto the president's desk.

I will say this, most people who are watching this process still think that some version of Build Back Better will get approved early next year.

Next slide.

So just, you know, quick overview of this bill.

I mean, huge pots of money for a number of pieces that were not touched in infrastructure.

Things like $400 billion for universal pre-K, and affordable childcare.

That money is predominantly going to the state for distribution, funding for housing to the tune of $150 billion.

Pots of money there that would go directly to the city include $3 billion for CDBG, funding for home.

There's also funding around college affordability, although they were not able to do President Biden's free community college plan.

They are trying to increase Pell Grants.

and other means to make college more affordable.

And then funding as well around healthcare.

Next slide, please.

So again, some of these programs, there's a range of transportation, climate and equity programs that are being included here.

You are hearing now that Senator Sinema and Senator Manchin are starting to get concerned about certain parts of the of these programs in particular because they perceive it to be double-dibbing.

You may remember that President Biden had made a pledge that he would not fund things that had been funded in infrastructure again in reconciliation.

And so, for example, we are hearing today that Senator Sinema has concerns about the Affordable Housing Access Program because she perceives that to be really a transportation program rather than a housing program.

Lots of work is going to be done to push back on this, but, you know, putting that out there because these are some of the issues that they're trying to deal with.

Next slide.

And then, you know, housing, finally getting it to do in this bill.

And so very exciting, huge investments in housing choice vouchers, which is of course really important to the city.

And then I mentioned previously funding for home, funding for CDBG, funding for a new program that would provide grants to local governments to look at their zoning.

and to try to think constructively about how to increase, how to change zoning laws to increase housing.

Excellent.

And then, you know, completely left out of infrastructure also was public safety.

And so there's additional funding here for firefighter grants, for next gen 911 systems, as well as for FEMA, some community violence prevention grants, and some community violence and trauma intervention grant programs.

This is largely around, you know, mental health and alternative response to, for communities.

Next slide.

So I'm gonna let, turn this over to Sierra to talk a little bit about what is happening internal in the city to get ready for all of this.

But, you know, I think primarily the guidance that we've been giving to folks is to get ready now, to remember, of course, this is multi-year funding.

So you don't need to apply for everything this year.

That said, we are in a unique political environment.

It is very dynamic.

Obviously, at the moment, it is a friendlier environment to Seattle than the previous administration.

We don't know what will happen in 2024. So I think it's really important to be aggressive, particularly in these early years.

The other piece, of course, is just how important coordination is gonna be in the region, whether that's with King County, with other cities, really so that not everybody is going for the same pot of money all at once.

But Sierra, do you want to talk a little bit about your process?

Yeah, just briefly.

Thank you, Leslie, for that context and that information.

So just briefly, I'm working with a smaller subset of our departments.

I do chair a IDT climate and resiliency group that has been talking about some of these programs and issues pretty consistently.

But we have taken a smaller subset of departments that includes our utilities, Office of Emergency Management, OSC, IT and really having them hone in on what key programs and projects they might want to put forward to access some of this funding.

And as Leslie did a great job highlighting, it is really an unprecedented amount of funding that is going to be available.

Also, as she highlighted, it's not going to be come directly to the city.

So if those partnerships and the coordination with county with the state is going to be crucial and just making sure that the priorities of the city are represented, you know, region wide statewide.

So working with our delegation on just kind of this whole process as well, keeping them in the loop.

But what we're doing is initially having our departments do a suite of projects and programs, and then what outstanding questions they might have.

Just, you know, do they have the capacity and staffing to apply for some of these?

You know, where is it in the list of prioritization?

And then we'll have a larger citywide conversation on prioritization in working with our partners.

So as Leslie pointed out, you know, just many layers to this, you know, not only identifying what our priorities are, but how we're coordinating that with our partners and then how we're coordinating that within the timing of this legislation and the current political climate.

So we do anticipate a great amount of funding coming to our area.

you know, where the city of Seattle plugs in and is able to access, that's still to be determined, but really working hard and getting those initial layers and ground on the ground kind of conversations happening right now.

So we've made contact with our regional and state partners, but more to come on that.

And anything I'm leaving out, Leslie, that you can pick up?

No, I think I think that's great.

So we'll be in touch with more of a concrete plan.

We're hoping to, with the new mayoral administration as well, have someone in place in the mayor's office to help with the coordination of this effort as well.

So we can do it citywide.

But we do anticipate and hope to come back to you all.

walk through some of the plan and the programming.

And I know that Council President Gonzalez, you had already had a question on one of the programs that was available, one of the funding mechanisms that was available.

Anticipate a lot of those questions coming up and making sure that the right city departments are engaged and that we're working with our partners to apply for some of those funds.

And again, we'll be circulating a more detailed presentation later on this afternoon and happy to follow up with you or any of your staff.

as questions arise.

I guess I'd reiterate, too, in our conversations with our partners, you know, everyone is really at the starting gate here.

I don't think anyone is necessarily too far ahead and ready to go on this.

I think that these questions are still getting formulated.

The process is still being formulated in a lot of places.

So the city is well positioned right now, I believe, in the work that we're doing, in the preparation we're doing.

And then our lobbying team at Holland and Knight has done a great job giving us some prep materials and helping guide through this process.

I think that they also anticipate and hope that city leaders and department leaders, even council or the mayor, is getting in early with some of the agencies and departments to talk through some of the language and help formulate some of these programs as well.

So that's a part of our plan.

So any questions on that process?

No, no, I understand that things are still in the in the works.

Just substantively, can we go back to slide 16?

Yes.

There you go.

On the public safety investments, are these also going to get to municipalities like the city of Seattle via the state?

Because I see that in cybersecurity it says grants for states slash locals.

So just trying to get a better sense of how cities are, or how funding and grant making to cities is being planned for or envisioned by the federal government at this point.

President Gonzales, just to clarify, specifically on cyber or on public safety generally?

Generally.

So a lot of this is going to be in the, are going to be competitive grant opportunities that the city would be eligible to apply for, particularly in the cyber realm, as well as the community violence prevention and community violence and trauma intervention grants.

Those are all anticipated to be competitive.

OK, so then so if I understand your answer correctly in this in this bucket, cities like the city of Seattle could apply for grants directly to the federal government, so we know pass through exactly.

And then on the sort of just general engagement of cities and regional partners, how is OIR planning to engage the city council moving forward in defining those processes and identifying ways for council members to express their priorities and interests on behalf of their constituents?

Absolutely.

I think we're still formulating that, but initially we're doing, like I said, the scope of just information gathering and identification of projects and programs department-wide.

We're going to summarize that and put it together in some briefing documents that I hope to share with Council for some feedback.

I do encourage if there are programs or specific things that you all have identified to really bring that to our attention.

I hope to schedule future briefings with you all that we can walk through some of it.

But I think that it will primarily happen offline where we are sharing some of the prioritization lists and having some feedback and back and forth on those.

But I'm definitely open to feedback or any sort of input you all have that if you have an input in the process as well.

Yeah, I do.

I do want to encourage OIR to engage the council early on as early as as possible as the as the appropriation arm of the council.

We also have legal responsibility and authority to approve grants as well.

So to the extent that departments are Signaling interest in applying for grants and including in the public safety area, it would be in the best interest of the agency and and the city as a whole.

To socialize those potential grant opportunities or grant applications with the.

chair responsible for the committee oversight of that department and also with whomever is going to be the next budget chair.

And so I would really suggest coordinating that process, that council input process with the next council president and the next budget chair, again, in In the past, we have run into situations where it has been largely led by the executive and counsel has been briefed only after the ink has dried and then and then we've been in a situation where we didn't agree with a particular grant and because it indicated a policy direction and.

And I think to the extent that those issues can be negotiated through early on, not for purposes of adding additional red tape, but for creating opportunities of consensus and cooperation, then I think that that would be in the best interest of the people of the city and hopefully lend to a better, more productive, efficient process overall once we get to the end of this.

I appreciate that input.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any comments or questions?

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you, and thank you, Council President Gonzalez, for focusing on those really important process issues.

I really concur with your observations about how we can, through that early engagement, strive for a more effective and efficient process.

with the branches of government more aligned.

So really appreciate your saying so.

Just a couple questions about the content of some of the programs here.

The bridge grant program, I remember something coming up in the discussion around bridge bonding actions that Councilmember Peterson sponsored successfully, and this question of whether or not projects need to be shovel-ready or at a particular threshold to be eligible for the competitive bidding process.

Can you speak to that, or if not now, get back to us?

Is it so that projects need to be at a certain threshold of design to be considered eligible for the competitive grant process?

And if so, over how many years will applications for grants be available?

If you can help us learn more about that, that would be, I think, really helpful to us in our planning moving forward.

And then another question I have relates to slide 15. around the funds set aside for housing choice vouchers.

Is any of that funding geared towards, or is any of the funding under the key housing provisions on slide 15, is any of it geared towards addressing homelessness, I should say, aside from the funds for housing choice vouchers?

And is it possible to get some more information about the $3 billion to establish the Community Restoration and Reinvestment Fund at HUD?

And just a little bit more information about what the fund will do.

Thank you.

Great.

Let me start on the bridge funding.

And we can take a quick look at exactly where the level of project readiness as specified in the legislation.

But let me just say as a general theme in terms of the conversations that we've had so far with DOT, I think people are very much learning the lesson of ARA and this idea of shovel-ready, that that was possibly not the best metric for evaluating projects.

The term that we keep hearing, for better or worse, is, is the project shovel-worthy?

And so, you know, Because I think when you're looking at ShovelReady, not that there's anything wrong with filling potholes, that's important too, but if you're trying to make these longer term investments, ShovelReady isn't the greatest criteria.

And so I do think that there's a real effort on DOT's part to think about how do you get these long term important investments in.

But in terms of the exact specificity in the legislation, I can get back.

Sarah and I can circle back with you on that.

That funding is a combination of formula funding and competitive grants over five years.

On homelessness, I can certainly circle back with more on the Community Restoration and Reinvestment Fund.

This was something that actually President Biden had campaigned on.

And so it was a program that's sort of trying to think about doing some place-based investment, but let us get to you with some of the specifics on that.

And then in terms of homelessness, as you noted, obviously the housing choice voucher is really important there.

You know, some of the investments in public housing are also anticipated to increase supply that will also help on homelessness as well.

Thank you so much.

And then just one last question.

I just noticed I forgot to ask.

On the transit funding that's listed on slide three, is that attributed, like, is it a pass-through based on a federal formula, or is it also competitive?

So the transit funding is largely through the Capital Investment Grant Program, which is, as you know, a competitive program.

They've increased the the threshold for small starts, I believe from 300 million to 400 million, but that is really funding for the capital investment grant projects, which is great news given that we have RapidRideJ and Roosevelt RapidRideJ in the pipeline.

So it should be beneficial to us as well.

Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

Thank you so much Council Member Herbold for those questions.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions for Leslie and Sierra?

Okay, last opportunity.

All right.

No one has raised their hands.

So, Sierra.

I was wondering where you were.

I almost closed it out.

You are right on the nose to know that I love to weigh in on these conversations, but I really just want to say thank you as well to Leslie and Sierra and your entire teams.

We want to thank our congressional delegation who we know have been tremendous and has been reaching out quite a bit.

Representative Jadpaul, who you noted, along with Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray, their entire teams have been really great about helping to keep us informed.

But my biggest question for you all is how can we help as well in these final throws in the last week, even if it ends up in quarter one?

And then really importantly, as we found out with implementation, how can we have more of a role in the federal implementation work, especially when it comes to things like the infrastructure bill that's already passed the work that we hope to do with Build Back Better.

Is there thoughts you have about strategy for getting involved in implementation at the federal level?

It's a great question.

So, you know, really part of the process that Sierra is doing with with the departments right now in terms of understanding priority projects, understanding then how we would want the notice of funding opportunities that the departments, the federal agencies will be releasing and So what we want to do as much as possible is influence those notices of funding opportunity before they're released.

And so once we have our project priority list, which, you know, I know Sears working with departments and we'll work with you on, we want to get in front of federal agencies to tell them what we're thinking about and to help, you know, Seattle is really seen as, you know, an expert on so many different issues ranging, right, you name it, climate to affordable housing.

We want to share that expertise at the federal level so that they are able to develop programs that actually benefit us.

And part of that is sharing our projects early and meeting with them so that we have a better understanding of what they were thinking about as well.

But doing all that really in quarter one of next year.

Yeah, and I would just add, I appreciate all of these conversations.

I think that with this unprecedented amount of funding and new funding opportunities that are coming out, I think this gives us a really good opportunity to reset a little bit with council as far as OIR and just kind of set the pace and some meeting schedules and different things to really keep everybody in the loop and have some regular communication beyond, you know, our sporadic briefings.

You know, we're always, of course, available through email and, you know, phone, but wanting to get in front of you all a little more regularly and stay more in step and engaged in this process.

So, you know, one thing that was brought up was potentially we could do some regular budget committee briefings.

as we move through this process.

But again, happy to hear your guys' ideas and any other input you have.

But definitely want to make some scheduled appearances and coordinations as much as possible.

Council President, if I could just follow up.

Thanks so much.

Thanks so much for the updates.

And being involved in these NOFAs early would be very helpful.

I think a lot of us have uh...

you know national ties whether it's for the national league of cities or local progress but how do we have a lot of interest in staying involved in these discussions early and uh...

just given the implementation of for example, and some of our early COVID relief efforts and to see some of those dollars come to our city and want to be involved in sort of the parameters that come with dollars, even if it's not directly passed through the City of Seattle, that will be really helpful.

So please let us know.

And the Finance Committee does meet throughout the year.

The Select Budget Committee doesn't, but perhaps for 2022, the Finance Committee would be a good vehicle for that.

But, you know, proactively reach out to us, too, and let us know if there's meetings you want us to jump into.

We'll be happy to be there.

Perfect.

Thank you so much, Consumers Data.

That process point is really important, and it is, and Cierra, I appreciate you offering the opportunity to sort of reset how we engage in the federal work.

Most of us haven't necessarily had to do that because the last administration was so hostile that there wasn't productive opportunities for us to engage.

But I think now that there is a real palpable difference and unique opportunities for individual council members to advocate on behalf of their districts during Councilman Mosqueda's instance citywide.

And so I think I think having an opportunity to model how we engage at the federal level more similarly to how we engage at the state level during our legislative session could yield a lot of good.

Good results pre pre coven and right before I became Council President, I had had conversations with oh, I are about the potential of organizing federal lobbying days for the Seattle City Council.

Unfortunately, coven happened and.

We had to shelf those plans and engaged more actively at the state level.

But I do think and hope that the council will consider instituting, similar to what we do at the state legislative level, an opportunity for us to more formally and in a more focused fashion engage with our federal partners to advocate on behalf of our constituents.

So we'll leave that as a suggestion for OIR and leadership on the council to consider in the future years here.

Because I do think there's a lot of positive opportunities to engage with this administration that didn't exist before.

OK, colleagues, any other comments or questions?

All right, I don't see any other hands raised.

Thanks, Leslie.

Thanks, Sierra, so much for spending so much time with us this morning and for the initial PowerPoint presentation.

Look forward to getting the deeper dive briefing from all of you.

And I am sure that you'll be hearing individually from the members of the council.

And good luck to both of you on all of the important work that lays ahead.

You as well.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues, we're going to go ahead and move to the next item of business on the agenda.

I did want to note for the record that I did receive a note kind of late from customer wants office that she will unfortunately not be able to join us this morning.

I apologize for not catching that at the top of the agenda, but she is excused from today's council briefing.

So let's go ahead and move to agenda item four, which is a preview of today's city council actions, council and regional committee meetings.

As a reminder, the roll call rotation order will begin with Council Member Lewis, then we will head over to Council Member Morales, and then Mosqueda, Peterson, Straus, Herbold, Juarez, and then I will conclude this portion of the agenda discussion.

So Council Member Lewis, good morning.

Good morning, Madam President.

I appreciate being here for our final meeting of 2021. I have a couple of things that are on the agenda this afternoon, so I'll run through those really quickly.

Easy one first.

Council Bill 120239, coming out of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, Co-sponsored by Councilmember Strauss and myself, this is an amendment to Seattle's construction codes, filling a gap that was left from legislation this spring, expanding the inclusion of electric water heaters in new commercial construction, something that has I appreciate the extensive process this month that Councilmember Strauss dedicated to this in committee including a full briefing as well as a subsequent committee hearing last week for final passage and We did include a date certain for when this will go into effect, which will be April 1st of 2022. Really appreciate working with Councilmember Strauss and his office on this and appreciate the significant contribution that this legislation will make.

toward reducing CO2 emissions and one of the biggest point sources, which is large commercial buildings.

So thank you, Council Member Strauss, for your collaboration on this and look forward to final passage this afternoon.

I do also have Council Bill 120247 co-sponsored along with Council President Gonzalez.

This fairly innocuous good government bill provides certain notice and transparency requirements in the Seattle Municipal Code on the reporting of simple baseline data to assist the Seattle City Attorney's Office and the Seattle City Council in long-term strategic planning on how to address referrals to the city attorney's office and our criminal legal system here in the city of Seattle.

I'm very proud to bring this legislation forward.

I know that there was an editorial in the Seattle Times over the weekend, presumably an editorial relating to earlier ideas that had been raised around the possibility of an ordinance that would have created certain mandates in the Seattle City Code requiring the city attorney's office to engage in certain diversion practices.

Our office, in close collaboration with the civil division of the city attorney's office, correctly determined that such an ordinance would have violated the charter and also unduly tied the hands of the city attorney's office in their full discretion and prosecutorial duties to manage the full litigation of the city.

As somebody who used to work in the Seattle City Attorney's Office, I have immense respect for that foundational charter obligation and duty of the City Attorney's Office, as does this council, as does Council President Gonzalez, which is why instead we have brought an ordinance that will simply create a baseline of data and certain common sense notice requirements so that the Seattle City Council can effectively maintain our charter obligation, of oversight and stewarding the resources of the city through the budget process, which are things assigned to us under our charter obligations.

The Seattle Times editorial this weekend seemed to imply that somehow providing basic data to the public was an undue burden on the city attorney's office.

That might be the case if it was an unfunded mandate, But as we've discussed extensively, the Seattle City Council, in our latest budget process, did dedicate four additional full FTEs.

One of those positions is a data analyst, a position that the current city attorney did not have access to, as it had not yet been created.

City attorney-elect Davison will preside over the largest budget this council has ever given to a city attorney, $38.5 million, including new resources to facilitate the collection, aggregation, and dissemination of data.

I have a hard time believing that the editorial board of a paper record would oppose making more data available to the public.

So I'm going to charitably assume that the editorial board must have been thinking of a bill that was ultimately not introduced.

I look forward to continuing those discussions if that is the case.

If not, I do think that we do have to have a serious conversation about whether a newspaper believes the public have a right to know what their government is doing.

I would imagine they do.

But again, I'll reserve that for future conversations.

I do want to touch on a couple of the other things that came up in the hearing last week, concerns that I think were valid areas for policy discussion from Councilmember Peterson regarding whether using the SMC is an appropriate method of establishing notice and data collection requirements.

As everyone is aware, the Seattle City Council does have various different mechanisms at our disposal in order to collect information and data from certain executive departments.

Indeed, using the SMC is not always our primary way of doing this, but we do do it on a pretty frequent basis.

Probably the best example for the city attorney's office is SMC 5.24.020, which, as we are all well aware, requires advance notice of settlements in civil cases when they're above a certain amount of money in a executive session of this council.

It's something that we engage in quite frequently.

Obviously, we are not in a position in those executive sessions to request that the city attorney's office or to order that the city attorney's office do something different to resolve those cases.

As in this legislation, the city attorney's office retains the full discretion and supervision over legislation.

But it is important that the body that controls the budget for the city receive advanced notice of settlements that can have a potential impact on the overall financial position of the city.

Similarly, we are establishing notice and data collection requirements here that are in that same vein.

and it's appropriate to do that through the SMC as a vehicle.

There are other reporting requirements on executive agencies throughout the Municipal Code, and this is by no way an expansive collection of SMCs of various executive departments, but we do request reporting requirements of executive departments under SMCs 4.27.100, 4.29.100, 23.76.070 SMC 11.16.220 SMC 21.53.025 SMC 14.12.380 SMC 5.73.130 SMC 20.60.206.

I could go on and on and on.

I won't.

That would be a horrible use of the briefing.

But the point standing that we have plenty of codified reporting requirements.

I do want to cite my appreciation for the support of City Attorney-Elect Davidson for this legislation in a questionnaire to the ACLU that she submitted as a candidate.

in September of 2021. In this ACLU questionnaire, question three reads, will you commit to tracking and reporting quarterly on a public facing website, demographics regarding race, ethnicity, disabilities, age, and other protected class demographics for decisions made by the office, including charging decisions, bail recommendations, diversion program placements, negotiated guilty plea charges, and sentencing recommendations categorized by guilty pleas and conviction after trial.

To this, candidate Davison indicated yes in the box next to that request.

Question four in the questionnaire then reads, will you commit to tracking and reporting quarterly on a public-facing website, aggregated numbers of referrals by Seattle Police Department precinct, categorized by offense and capable of cross-referencing to the demographic data, Again, City Attorney Candidate Davison indicated yes in response to that question.

I don't know what has changed between September and December, but I look forward to continuing to have discussions about how we can facilitate getting that data and information.

This bill seems to accomplish that, especially when paired with the new resources this council has given to the city attorney's office in order to send this data to us.

With those considerations, I do hope that we can pass this legislation this afternoon.

I've not been made aware of substantive changes other members want to make, though I will continue throughout this morning and this afternoon to accept proposals to do so and look forward to hearing from stakeholders both internal and external to that effect.

Otherwise, I look forward to considering that legislation and hopefully passing it this afternoon.

I do hope that the collection of data can be done in a way where we are not unduly politicizing transparency in city government.

And otherwise, I don't have anything else to say on this legislation.

This week, I do have one thing I want to share that I'm really looking forward to.

On Thursday, I'm going to be attending a holiday celebration at the Tiny House Village in Inner Bay, which was recently expanded as part of a collaboration between the City of Seattle and the Port of Seattle.

I'm going to be joined there by Commissioner, Port of Seattle Commissioner Stephanie Bowman, who worked extensively with me to double the size of this village that's existed for several years at this location.

It was abutting a very large Port of Seattle-owned property, and Commissioner Bowman was incredibly helpful and energetic in making that space available so that the city could expand this tiny house village and accept a couple dozen additional referrals.

Indeed, Council Member Strauss, the ability to move folks from the Ballard Commons was intimately related to this expansion.

And I do appreciate Council Member Strauss in your remarks last week, acknowledging that, that this District 7 camp or village expansion was helpful in making sure that District 6 residents experiencing homelessness had a safe and secure place that they could live.

And this is just an example of the kind of collaborations we can have across the city as we invest and protect and expand our tiny house system.

So I just wanted to highlight that I look forward to that holiday celebration, celebrating this new and expanded tiny house village, and really showing how these interagency collaborations, be it between the city of Seattle and Sound Transit, as in Councilmember Peterson's district, or between the City of Seattle and the Port of Seattle in Interbay, can really lead to moving forward on this issue that by far is the biggest issue facing the city, which is the crisis of homelessness.

So with that, Madam President, I don't have any additional comments.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

Appreciate that report.

And I was also going to make comments on that city attorney ordinance, otherwise known as a good governance transparency bill.

But you have literally covered all of the things I was going to say.

So happy to be able to co-sponsor that bill with you and have had an opportunity to work with you closely on this important transparency and accountability bill.

Look forward to continuing to support it in full council this afternoon.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions for Council Member Lewis based on his report?

Scanning the room here, I see no hands raised, so we'll continue to go down the line.

Next up is Council Member Morales, and then after Council Member Morales will be Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning, Council Member Morales.

Morning colleagues.

The Community Economic Development Committee met last Friday, and we do have several items on this afternoon's agenda from that committee meeting, including 10 commission appointments and reappointments that were approved to move to this afternoon's meeting.

And we also approved Council Bill 120241, relating to protections against discrimination for immigrants and refugees.

I also have Council Bill 120184 establishing Juneteenth as a holiday for city employees.

So all of those things will be on, excuse me, on this afternoon's calendar.

I just have two things that I wanted to address.

Last week I met with several of our city council counterparts in our sister city of Nantes.

They are dealing with many of the same issues we have in Seattle.

Displacement, homelessness, lack of green space.

And since it is a former industrial city, lots of brownfields as well.

So I had the opportunity to learn about their equivalent of our comprehensive plan, which includes plans for mobility, housing, energy and climate, as well as employment.

I was also able to meet with several of their deputy mayors.

If I'm understanding it right, each council member is also a deputy mayor of an issue to discuss the principles guiding their plans to become a 15-minute city, their new community land trust to build more social housing and more opportunities for homeownership.

They have a new program called the Five Bridges Program, which is sort of a one-stop shop that offers day and night shelter for people experiencing homelessness.

They also offer transitional studio apartments with wraparound services, as well as community gathering space, treatment rooms.

There's an amazing rooftop garden that they're getting started and job opportunities.

And it really is a sort of, journey.

It is intended to be a journey.

So the five points reflect the five things that are needed in order to help somebody move out of homelessness.

And it's a new project.

They're still finishing the development of it, but it looks like it's going to be a really beautiful, a beautiful space for people to be.

I also had a very interesting meeting with the Department of Equality to hear their plans for addressing gender discrimination throughout the city.

And they're beginning with departments.

I was especially interested to hear in their interdepartmental city planning work in their efforts to design a non-sexist city.

So I will be following up with some of the staff in that.

in that department, because it was really interesting to hear the things that they're doing.

I do want to thank Stacey Jellick, our International Affairs Director, and Christine Renard, who is our French contact with the Knott Sister City Association, for coordinating a really amazing program.

We met all day long, we had lots of different tours, and it was a really rich program.

I also want to thank Cecile Le Bourdon, who served as my interpreter and offered amazing support for this great non-French speaker in helping me navigate around the city.

And finally, I want to thank the staff from Nantes Metropole, which is sort of their county level entity.

the City of Nantes and the City Council Members and Deputy Mayors.

And I want to thank the staff from the various agencies that met with me as well, including Citadel, which is a women's domestic violence shelter.

Atlantique Habitation, which is the new community land trust I mentioned.

I met with the Biclu Bicycle Rental Program.

which offers subscriptions where you can rent on a monthly or even a yearly basis, rent an electric bike.

I'm glad to hear from our Intergovernmental Relations Department that there is a $5 billion investment for Vision Zero in the infrastructure bill.

I'm hoping we can get access to some of that.

And finally, I had a short tour of the Nantes Art Museum, which is very eager to share an exchange with the Seattle Art Museum.

So I'll be following up and trying to connect them.

So all in all, a really productive, very intense week, but I was thrilled to be able to do that and look forward to bringing some of those ideas to the city.

This week, my office will be meeting with Youth Care to hear about their work and to talk with their new interim director, Colleen Echo Hawk, who we all know from her previous gig.

And I'm excited to hear about the work that she's doing there and some of the direction that they're going to head.

I'll also be meeting with Mount Baker residents for our biweekly meeting to discuss public safety in the area.

And I'll be having office hours on Thursday morning.

Finally, the last thing I wanted to do was address the issue of Little Saigon.

I know that there's been a lot of news lately, particularly about the 12th and Jackson intersection and just about the neighborhood in general.

My staff and I did visit there with business owners before I left.

We met with business owners, with neighborhood organizations, two crime prevention coordinators, And after our visit, we did talk with SPU and asked them to add the area to their emphasis cleanup routes.

There is a lot of trash on the streets in that intersection in particular, and also connected the neighbors with LEED and the business owners with LEED so that they have a point of contact if street outreach is something that they think is needed there.

We also worked with City Light to repair three lights that were out at the intersection and asked them to continue working on lighting improvement, particularly under I-5 and the King Street area.

And then at the suggestion of the Crime Prevention Coordinators, we also reached out to SDOT and to SPD to talk about vending permitting to try to activate the space and get more of the kind of businesses that we want to see in the area and less of the kind of business that might be existing there.

Of course, these are short-term solutions.

If we're going to ensure that the community is safe and the community feels safe, We need our police department to investigate the apparent drug trafficking and open air markets that are happening there.

And we need to support our street outreach workers in doing their part to provide referrals to the services needed by the folks who are living on the streets.

My office will continue to be engaged with the neighborhood.

I know that King County Council Member Zahalai also met with them because some of the issues raised were around the bus stops and King County Metro's responsibility for trash pickup and really just for providing some kind of security when there's a lot of congregation happening in the area.

So I will be following up with him as well and we will continue to stay engaged.

That is all I have this morning.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Thanks again, Council Member Morales, for that report.

Really appreciate it.

Okay, next up is Council Member Mosqueda and then after Council Member Mosqueda will be Council Member Peterson.

Good morning, colleagues.

Last week we had our last Finance and Housing Committee meeting of the year.

It was a packed agenda.

We were able to vote out of committee the following items that will be on today's full council agenda for a final vote.

This includes the appointment of Sally Clark to the Seattle Housing Authority, appointments of Estefana Ramirez, Diana Salazar to the Domestic Workers Standards Board, those two folks.

And the appointment of Edna Shim to the Burke-Gilman PDA.

The reappointments of Tristan Fulbright, Salimar Gonzalez, and Eric Snow as members of the Community Roots Housing PDA.

We also passed out the amended 2021 annual action plan related to office of housing planning for housing in OH.

And we also passed the amended street vacation legislation, which is CB 120227. All of these items passed out of the finance and housing committee unanimously and I encourage folks to vote yes today.

In other updates, last week, I, along with the Council President and members of DEEL, including Director Chappelle and community partners who provide child care throughout our city, had the opportunity to announce the Child Care Recognition Payments.

These are payments that are going to over 3,500 child care workers in the city who have been providing child care to families in this moment of COVID over the last two years, providing care to over 20,000 kids in Seattle.

This is a really exciting award, and as I noted during the press conference, we have received national recognition from Brookings Institute for the deployment of these dollars to child care workers directly.

They noted it was an innovative use of the federal dollars, And I'm very proud of the work that we've been able to do to make sure that nearly $3 million that was originally associated.

There is some money that's included for administrative costs, but the dollars that go directly to our workers really are for our low paid child care workers.

who are predominantly women, women of color, and a large number of folks who are immigrants and refugees.

So as we look to get these dollars out the door, I'm very, very thankful for their work.

And I think that these appreciation payments or recognition payments help to work towards greater generational gender and racial equity as we create a more economic resilient local economy.

Thanks so much to the council president and members of DEEL for all of the work that they did to pass this legislation.

I was proud to have been a sponsor of the childcare allotments and to know that these allotments are going out in this moment before the end of the year makes me incredibly proud.

So thanks for all that you've done to support that.

And lastly, I had the opportunity this weekend to visit members of Teamsters 174 on the strike line.

Folks might know that Teamsters 174 throughout our region, starting in late November and early December, have gone on strike to strike the unfair labor practices that they are experiencing from a number of employers who work in the concrete industry.

These concrete workers are fighting for better wages and benefits and want to resolve their contracts ASAP.

This is a group of over 330 Teamster members who transport sand and gravel and transport concrete.

for six different construction companies, and they remain on strike.

You heard me mention last week that some of these employers have contracts with the city of Seattle, and I am hopeful that our city is honoring this strike.

The members of the Teamsters 174 were joined by national representatives from the AFL-CIO, including Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond, who joined Teamsters, and the Washington State Labor Council's President Larry Brown and Secretary Treasurer April Sims, members of the King County Labor Council, including President Dustin Lambrough and the newly appointed executive secretary, which is Katie Garrow, and congratulations again to Katie.

These workers have been on the strike line 24-7, and I went to visit them the day after the torrential rain and tremendous wind that hit our region on Friday night.

For example, in the location I went to, Teamsters who are on the night shift were just literally holding down the tent over their belongings because the wind was picking up and throwing around their tents so ferociously.

That's what they're doing in these weeks before the holidays to make sure that their work is respected and that they get paid and a decent contract.

So I want to thank the members of Teamsters 174. This unfair labor practice strike is a result of the employer's failure to bargain in good faith for a new contract, and this is after months of dramatically undercutting the construction and trade contracts.

Teamsters 174 reported that lead management negotiators submitted their last, best, and final offer with only pennies over their funds.

the previous offer, showing that it was not made in good faith.

And as The Stand reported last week, this led to Teamsters resoundingly rejecting these unfair labor practices and deciding to go on strike to demand that employers negotiate in good faith.

Teamsters 174 announced last Tuesday that they had reached a tenant agreement with one of the employers.

This was with Haas Brothers.

This is the only construction employer who had not finalized their agreement with the union, but the tenant agreement, which affects 75 construction Haas Brothers drivers, was considered last week.

This TA does not affect 340 workers still on strike.

at the following employers, Gary Marino Construction, Cadman, Cal Portland, Stoneway Concrete, Lea Cement, and Salmon Bay and Sand Gravel.

So we send a message of solidarity to those Teamster 174 members who are still out there day and night.

And if you have a chance to stop by at their dozens of locations, please do.

And I know that it will be well received.

You can find the locations of the strikes on thestand.org.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

I do see that Council Member Strauss has his hand raised, so I will go ahead and hand it over to him.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for raising up the 174 strike line.

I was also able to bring out a truckload of wood for them because they do have burn barrels at their location.

So if anyone's listening, wants to come out and bring out some wood, I know it helps keep folks warm during these cold days.

Thank you, Council Member.

Thank you so much.

Are there any other comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we'll keep going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Peterson, and then after Council Member Peterson, we'll have Council Member Strauss.

Good morning, Council Member Peterson.

and Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

On this afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are no items directly from our Transportation and Utilities Committee.

We already adopted those items at the December 6th Council meeting.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.

So our next committee meeting is this Wednesday, December 15th at 9.30 a.m.

That'll be our final committee meeting of the year.

And we have just a handful of items on the agenda, which is already published online.

Regarding resolution 32029, I will update our city council rules and parliamentary procedures.

The governance committee indicated its interest in allowing the option at full council of abstentions on some types of resolutions.

Abstentions are consistent with Robert's Rules of Order and are allowed in other cities in Washington State and central staff have been workshopping a revised version for our consideration.

I'm pleased to co-sponsor a revised amendment with the Council President that will be circulated momentarily, I believe.

I wanted to highlight a couple of proposed wage increase bills on our agenda today.

Council bills 120242, 120243, and 120244, I believe, or 344. Reiterate, in my opinion, the ongoing challenge City Hall has in aligning the timing of quantifying our growing personnel costs, which comprise the bulk of city government operating expenses, with our fall budget review process.

So we had already approved our fall budget, and now we're being asked to approve over $30 million in higher costs for existing personnel.

Apparently, these funds were set aside in a reserves account, but not clearly visible in the proposed budget.

Inflation is increasing rapidly with the increasing cost of goods and services impacting all 700,000 residents in Seattle, especially the most vulnerable in our high-cost city who have low or no income.

So I agree an increase, cost of living increase for the 12,000 city government employees to try and keep pace with inflation would be ideal whenever our city budget can afford it.

I want to thank central staff for further quantifying the cost of this proposed legislation.

Apparently it's closer to $37 million versus the $32 million as originally estimated by the executive's fiscal note.

This includes $13 million.

a $13 million increase for non-represented city government employees.

So this 4% wage increase is coming directly on the heels of a 2.9% cost of living increase from last year.

So my issue is not with the merits of these bills for the hardworking city government employees, but rather what sometimes happens is disjointed timing of this funding request from the executive coming after we've already approved the city budget.

Just a few weeks ago, we were told there was no more money for many needs we have, such as the Regional Homelessness Authority had requests for high-acuity shelter beds.

So I'm hoping that as we move forward, we can have this information ideally around the same time and make all these decisions in a holistic manner so we can figure out how we're investing in our priorities together.

I really want to thank the Council President for her separate legislation setting up the Independent Office of Revenue Forecasting.

That's going to be very important to get an independent view of revenues because that's a key piece of information we use in making our decisions on expenses.

And I'm hoping the Harrell administration is able to do more for the Regional Homelessness Authority as part of the mid-year supplemental budget in 2022. This past week, my staff attended the Magnuson Park Advisory Committee monthly meeting, which is comprised of community leaders, nonprofits, and city employees who care deeply about Magnuson Park as a regional asset and home to 850 low-income residents.

And that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

Are there any comments or questions on that report?

Council Member Esqueda, please.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Council Member Peterson, I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch the beginning of your concerns there, but I will let you know that the cost of living adjustments are something that is contemplated already in the budget.

This is a line item that is sent down from the mayor's office anticipating what the cost of living increase will be based on AWI.

and it is something that has been considered in the budget in front of us.

Council President, I apologize.

I didn't have the chance to check in on this item.

I didn't know this was an area of concern.

Otherwise, I would have asked for central staff to be on the line, but Council Member Peterson, I am happy to try to make sure that we circulate to the floor, because my understanding is that this is something that's already been contemplated, fully balanced in our budget for 2022, and as general practice, is already part of the transparent conversations that we've had over the past few years, very much in alignment with the transparency requirements that we have put on other items in the budget.

So happy to have that information circulated to the floor as well, just to alleviate any concerns there.

Thank you, Council President.

Yeah, of course, I am the sponsor of the bill referenced by you.

Councilmember Peterson, as mentioned by Councilmember Mosqueda, our budgets every year do plan and include and incorporate for projections related to our Labor relations obligations, and I think that the inference that we didn't plan for it or weren't aware of it.

Perhaps overlooks the labor relations policy committee process that does require heavy coordination between 5 members of the city council.

And representatives of the executive, including the city budget office director, who is a member of the labor relations policy committee to really coordinate closely the fiscal impacts as anticipated, based on the back and forth nature of labor negotiations.

Those labor negotiations oftentimes go throughout the year, are hard to coordinate with our budget process.

Labor contracts aren't tied specifically to city council budget appropriation processes.

They are much more of a give and take flow throughout the year.

And as those contracts are approved based on our good faith engagement as high road employers and the management side, On those labor relations, we consider those collective bargaining agreements as they come out of that very thorough sometimes.

extraordinarily long negotiation processes, but in every event we do work very closely with the city budget office to ensure that there will not be a shortfall, that there will not be a deficit, and that in fact there are enough dollars within the budgets that we have approved consistently every year that will cover the costs of those collective bargaining agreements.

So If there is a concern that this has resulted in a deficit, that is certainly news to me.

And we'll be following up with the budget chair and with our council central staff to get assurances that that is not the case.

Thanks so much.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions on Council Member Peterson's report?

All right, let's go ahead and move on down the line here.

Next up, I believe, is Councilmember Strauss, and then after Councilmember Strauss is Councilmember Herbold.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Starting off here in District 6 last week, the Ballard Commons Park was closed after months of intensified outreach and engagement efforts to get residents of the park inside.

Since the summer, I've worked to bring together a coalition of evergreen treatment services reach, Ballard Alliance, the mayor's office, city departments, and service providers to coordinate a robust response that ensured the three essential pieces of a successful encampment removal that took two and a half months rather than two and a half days.

These successful elements are the relationships between outreach workers and people living in the park, the time to get people inside, and the resources that match these people's needs.

In August, we created a census of everyone living in the park.

In September, we created a needs assessment to match people with the shelter that was right for them.

And in October, we began moving people inside and continued moving people inside in November and December.

This is how we can remove an encampment without pushing people down the street or somewhere else in the neighborhood.

I want to take a special note to thank our city frontline workers and to James from REACH who put themselves in difficult situations and who made this success possible.

The park will be closed for six months to a year for remediation and installation of the children's playground proposed in 2019 that City Council funded this year, something that was put on pause by the pandemic and an opportunity for us to build back better here in Ballard.

As well, I want to congratulate St. Luke's Church, which is across the street from the Ballard Commons Park.

St. Luke's Church received $9.7 million from the Office of Housing to build family affordable housing.

that will be paired with market rate housing, a new sanctuary, and they will continue to feed the hungry through the Edible Hope Kitchen and at a new yet to be determined location.

And so this is the midpoint of a four-year plan I began working on when I came to office and will be completed in about two years from now.

So again, I wanna thank all of the city partners, REACH, Ballard Alliance, Mayor's Office, Human Services Department, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and all the frontline workers that made this possible.

I will say that my office has already begun working to bring a similar outcome to Woodland Park and Green Lake, and the success will be dependent on, again, the three critical things, the relationships, the time, and the shelter available, and the partnerships that I know we already have.

I'll be clear right here, is not the answer to this the throughput of shelter success.

We for the first benchmark thanks to the le Budget Chair Mosqueda to fund $200 million a year of affordable housing.

This is a benchmark set in 2017, but this is the first time we've met it.

And we do need to bring the adequate shelter online so that we can meet the crisis before us.

But just building new shelter won't solve the problem.

We do need to have a high throughput and more high acuity shelter.

Colleagues, I know you already know all of this.

I'm just summarizing what has occurred this last week because of the investment City Council has made.

I do continue to hold operational coordination meetings with the community leaders, governmental entities and non-governmental entities to make meaningful impacts to address homelessness in specific places in District 6. These meetings will continue through the transfer of contracts to the Regional Homelessness Authority starting this next month.

In other news, in District 6, my staff joined the Finney Ridge Community Council.

Thanks to the SDOT team for engaging with local neighborhood hoods on Green Lake Outer Loop Project.

Staff also attended the King County Behavioral Health Legislative Forum, and I was excited to join the launch of the newest soccer team in Seattle.

Ballard FC.

Ballard FC is a part of the USL2, the region's first neighborhood-based semi-professional team.

Ballard FC was started by two Ballard High School grads, Sam Zizette and Chris Kamer, and the former Seattle Sounder, Lamar Nagel.

Their season begins summer of 2019. 22 and we'll play at Interbay Stadium.

And back in my day when I played Ballard youth soccer, Interbay was a mud pit.

So I'm glad that we've got a much nicer pitch out there today.

Tryouts do start in March of 22. And we're just very excited.

I got my season tickets.

I hope to see other folks out there.

This is gonna bring the fan experience that we used to have with the Seattle Sounders before they graduated to being such professional soccer players.

I'm excited to have an opportunity where fans can interact with the players and be part of the game.

Other news in District 6, I altered office hours last week because I joined neighbors in a Green Lake walk to look at intersections and the need to adjust changes that need to be made.

I did meet with two residents from Finney regarding pedestrian safety at their intersection, and I attended a meeting with the Whittier Heights Community Council in person, and then attended, that was on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, I attended the Ballard District Council via Zoom, Regional Homelessness Authority CEO Mark Jones presented.

This coming week, my staff will be meeting with the Finney Neighborhood Association as part of our regular meetings.

I do want to take a moment.

This wasn't in District 6, but last week, firefighter Matt Ronte died Wednesday morning preparing for his shift on Engine 25. I want to take this moment to recognize his life.

He always showed up early to run in the neighborhood he served.

And it was his engine who responded to the call to attempt to save his life.

I want to take this moment to share my condolences to his blood family, to his firefighting family, and to the International Association of Firefighters 27. Station 25 has had an especially demanding two years and to respond to one of your own is While part of your duty, it's beyond what we want to ask of our firefighters.

Words are too blunt a tool to express my sorrow and gratitude to the Station 25 and the Seattle Fire Department family.

My only hope is that those who knew Matt will continue to be inspired by him and run the extra mile in his honor, knowing it is what he would do too.

So again, my condolences to the Seattle Fire Department family.

This week in Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, last week we held the final meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

There is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's Introduction and Referral Calendar, Resolution 32035, which recognizes the community effort that led to the Crown Hill Community Action Plan, which was finalized on Friday after years of work beginning in 2018. There are six items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's full agenda.

Resolution 32035, the Crown Hill Community Action Plan Resolution.

Council Bill 120215, which allows for certain development standards to be waived for the West Point Treatment Facility.

Council Bill 120239, which amends the Energy Code to extend water heating requirements to new commercial buildings.

Council Bill 120206, which establishes a mobile home park overlay District to provide long-term protections for manufactured homes, home parks.

Council Bill 120214, which enacts a comprehensive plan amendment we adopted in September by amending the Seattle Municipal Code to change the name single-family to neighborhood residential.

Again, no changes to the zoning, just to the name.

And finally, Council Bill 120235, which imposes landmark controls on 80216th Avenue in the Central District.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, that is my report.

And Council President, actually, one last thing.

I want to thank you, Council President, for your service.

I don't know if this is the right time or if full council is.

Since I'm already talking, I'm going to take this moment.

When I look back to where our city was in 2015, how we operated and who we were, it's clear that we are so different now from 2015 and for the better.

I see you in this change.

I see your work in this change and our city is forever different because of you, your work and your team.

You broke the glass ceiling of being the first Latino elected to this body and forever changed who sees themselves in serving on this body.

I know your civic work will continue, and I really look forward to seeing how you shape our society next.

It's been an amazing pleasure to get to work with you.

And again, I see your change throughout the city, and it's made our city a better place.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Very, very kind and generous of you.

I appreciate it.

Folks, any comments or questions for Council Member Strauss?

Alright, well thanks again for your report and your summary of the bills that you have on this afternoon's agenda exemplify exactly how busy we will be this afternoon.

So thanks so much for that summary.

Really appreciate it.

Okay, colleagues.

Next up is Councilmember Herbold and then Councilmember Juarez.

And then I will conclude this portion of our discussion for this morning.

Good morning, Councilmember Herbold.

Good morning.

So we have some items on the full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee agenda today at 2. There's been a significant and thorough discussion around one of those items already, so I don't need to address that item.

The bill sponsored by yourself, Madam President, and Council Member Lewis.

Council Bill 12-02-47.

In addition to that bill, there are two other pieces of legislation.

One bill is Council Bill 12-02-48, creating a compensation program for the position of fire chief.

The other item on the full council agenda today from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee is Resolution 32033, which provides guidance to city departments in their development of a phased mandatory retrofit program for unreinforced masonry buildings.

The CPC coming up this week includes a final Safety and Human Services Committee meeting on Tuesday at 9.30 tomorrow.

Items on the agenda tomorrow include two reappointments to the CPC, three appointments to the Pacific Hospital PDA, one of which of those two appointments is a reappointment.

And then, um, it's about 120245, a permit and services cleanup bill for the Seattle Fire Code.

of updates.

One from the Human Services Department, the utility discount program as of December 5th, 2021. The total number of households enrolled into the utility discount program through the COVID-19 online self-certification form is 18,433 households.

That includes 8,550 new households and recertified 8,099 households from January to November of 2021. The discount households save an average of $1,200 a year on their City Light and Seattle Public Utility Bills.

If you are interested in applying, you should go to seattle.gov forward slash human services and click on apply for utility discounts.

Really happy to see the efforts of the Human Services Department along with the utilities in increasing number of households that that are receiving the benefit.

We have for many, many years known that the number of eligible households greatly exceeds the number of households that are actually receiving the benefit.

So really appreciate that work.

Last week held office hours on Friday, had lots of good conversations with constituents.

Also last week, I participated in the King County Behavioral Health Legislative Forum.

Also represented the city council on the quarterly meeting of LEAD Policy Coordinating Group.

And a little bit about the status of the 2022 funding that council has allocated for the LEAD program and I just want to make a couple of comments.

First of all, I just want to make a couple of comments on what the expectations will be for the modest lunch uh staff appreciation lunch uh that wouldn't normally be um news to share but i did want to um make note that the place that we attended was um in councilman morale's district in little saigon uh uh chi minh tofu uh was really inspired by their community service um that they do regularly uh at the at their location every sunday they um sponsor and host prepare a meal for people experiencing homelessness in their neighborhood, serve about 150 meals every Sunday and just really given the challenges that that community is facing right now, really appreciate and again, just found really inspiring their approach to dealing with those challenges is one of mutual aid and generosity and opening up their home to the folks in the community in need.

I want to flag that for the upcoming week I will be preparing the Domestic Violence Advisory Council meeting that I think is on Tuesday, the Domestic Violence Prevention Council, I should say.

And then also on Wednesday, I'm going to be participating in a Rewire Policy Conference in Olympia around issues related to the 2022 state legislative a session coming up and specifically continuing the conversation around policy reforms in the next session specifically around community safety.

And really looking forward to participating in that, representing the council there with our colleagues in the state legislature.

around here and see what else I need to mention.

I think that's all I've got today.

It is.

Great.

And I'll hold my remarks of appreciation for two o'clock.

Thanks so much, Council Member Herbold.

Okay, colleagues, any comments or questions for Council Member Herbold on her report?

I don't see any hands raised, so we'll keep going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Juarez, and then after Council Member Juarez, I will give my comments.

Council Member Juarez, good morning.

Thank you, Council President and colleagues.

I will be brief.

I have four issues to speak to regarding this afternoon.

There are three items of the Public Asset and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

The first is Council Bill 120164, which authorizes the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to enter into an agreement with the Woodland Park Zoological Society for the operation and management of the Woodland Park Zoo.

This bill went through the December 7th Public Asset and Native Communities Committee meeting and concluded with several amendments that I will present this afternoon.

Again, thank you colleagues on the committee.

We met on September 10th and you all met the deadline on the amendments and we passed it out of committee on the 7th.

I believe we had something like 15 amendments.

So thank you.

The second item is resolution 32034 regarding the Recreation and Conservation Office's grant application process with the Parks Department.

And as you know, it's a perennial matter that we take up in parks to make sure that we can get this money from the state.

and third item is council bill 120188 which will create finally the indigenous advisory council who will advise the mayor the city council the legislative departments on policies of importance to the city tribes and native folks and we've as you know we've been working on this for almost two years and as council member Strauss mentioned i am co-sponsoring council bill 120206 to protect the last two mobile home parks in the city of Seattle from redevelopment.

And I will speak more to this item this afternoon.

In regards to parks, let's see.

Playgrounds, many elements of the Lake Ridge playground renovation are complete and open.

Lake Ridge Playground is located southeast Seattle, features a play area with slide swings and climbing opportunities, tennis and pickleball courts, and a playhouse for toddlers.

The playfield and comfort station will open in spring 2022, and a community celebration is being planned for the summer of 2022. Seattle Public Libraries.

As you know, and I shared last week again, system-wide, the library is almost back to operating at pre-pandemic levels.

Six branches plus the central library did not expand hours this week due to staffing The Seattle Public Library continues to hire to fill positions.

So there's employment opportunity there.

In the Central Library, the Seattle room is now available by reservation only.

The library continues to follow public health guidelines and masking is required in the meeting rooms.

Finally, Seattle Public Library is a now fully vaccinated workforce.

The library's HR team did a great work and partnered closely with our employees to ensure that all were vaccinated by the December 3rd deadline.

And in Native communities, I'm happy to share that the Seattle Kraken celebrated Indigenous Peoples Night during the game on December 6th against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

This is one of the five programs called Hockey is for Everyone, H-I-F-T Games, where the team is working with local artists to create warm-up jerseys and a lot of merchandise to benefit the Kraken and the Climate Pridge Pledge Arenas Foundation, One Roof Foundation, which is the non-profit spinoff.

Fox Spears designed the jerseys for Indigenous Peoples Night.

He's a Kurok tribal member and the design was inspired by traditional Kurok basketry and patterns.

The Kraken will partner with more local artists to bring four additional HIFE nights.

Again, that's Hockey is for Everyone nights.

February 24th will be Black History Month night, March 19th will be Women of Hockey night, April 9th is Pride night, and April 20th is Green Night.

Not sure what they're gonna do on Green Night, that'll be interesting.

Anyway, that concludes my report, and I will save my comments for this afternoon, but Council President, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, but I have always had tremendous respect for you.

And as Council Member Strauss said, you have definitely changed this city, and you have definitely changed this council, and your leadership is certainly appreciated, thank you.

Thanks so much, Council Member Juarez, really appreciate it.

Okay, colleagues, are there any questions for Council Member Juarez and her report on items related to her committee?

Okay, I'll go ahead and go down my Notes here for my final council briefing meeting.

I have nothing on this afternoon's introduction referral calendar, but I do have several bills on this afternoon city council agenda that I am sponsoring.

One of them was the good governance ordinance related to increase transparency and accountability at the city attorney's office, which is a follow-up bill related to our budget actions from just a few weeks ago.

That bill was already addressed by Council Member Lewis, so I will rely on his comments.

Thanks so much to Council Member Lewis for his thorough brief and summary during this council briefing.

I have several pieces of legislation on today's City Council agendas I just mentioned.

Items 1, 2, and 3 on the agenda are Council Bills 120242, 120243, and 120244, which all stem from the Labor Relations Policy Committee and relate to 2022 wages for represented and non-represented city employees.

Council Bill 120242 would authorize the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the City of Seattle and certain city unions, including the Coalition of City Unions, related to a 2022 adjusted wage increase of 4% for eligible representative workers.

Council Bill 120243 would authorize an adjusted wage increase of 4% for most non-represented job titles.

Council Bill 120244 would adjust the pay bands of discretionary pay job titles to reflect a 4% increase, which would make wage increases possible for employees in those positions.

All of these council bills were vetted and discussed and approved and subjected to our Labor Relations Ordinance and policies, again, through the Labor Relations Policy Committee.

You will know on today's agenda that there are staff memos associated with each of these bills.

They're very thorough.

I want to thank Karina Bull on our central staff for compiling those staff memos on each of these bills.

And again, if you have any questions about those bills, I urge you to reach out to Karina Bull on council central staff immediately.

To get any information you need in advance of our 2 o'clock p.m.

meeting.

Karina will not be available at our 2 o'clock meeting, so if you have any lingering questions, please make every effort to have those questions answered before 2 o'clock p.m.

My office is also available to answer any questions you may have or address any concerns that you may have.

My staff will also recirculate each of those memos so that you have them for ease of reference with the additional context we discussed during Council Member Peterson's report.

Item six is resolution 32032. This resolution would adopt the 2022 state legislative agenda for the city of Seattle.

Council members were briefed on the proposed legislative agenda during the council briefing on November 29th and have had the opportunity to provide additional input and feedback to the Office of Intergovernmental Relations both before and after that public briefing that occurred on November 29th.

I'm not aware of any amendments related to Resolution 32032 related to the city's legislative agenda.

However, if there are any remaining concerns, please make sure to talk to my office about those concerns so that we are prepared for this afternoon's full council meeting.

Item 17 is Resolution 32029. This resolution would adopt changes to the council's general rules and procedures.

This resolution was discussed for almost four hours during the Governance and Education Committee meeting on December 8th and was initially briefed on December 1st.

All council members were invited to participate in both the December 1st and December 8th meeting.

In addition, all council members were offered an opportunity to have a one-on-one briefing with the staff work group that included the city clerk's office, Esther Handy from Council Central staff and a representative from my office as well.

A number of amendments were adopted during the December 8th meeting and there will be a small number of additional amendments proposed this afternoon.

There is one amendment referenced by Council Member Peterson that I will be bringing forward in co-sponsorship with Council Member Peterson that was circulated moments ago.

This amendment is Amendment A2.

Again, it was circulated at 10.58 a.m.

this morning.

Please check your inboxes for that.

This amendment would modify an amendment by Councilmember Peterson that was adopted during the December 8th committee meeting and is incorporated into the base resolution.

This amendment would modify the option included in the base resolution, so related to abstention on resolutions.

If adopted, Amendment A2 would modify the base resolution to create an option for council members to abstain from voting on certain resolutions at city council meetings.

We are referring to this amendment, I suppose, as the council president discretion amendment, which would require that the council president make a determination that a resolution is not materially related to city business, therefore allowing a council member to exercise the option to abstain from a resolution listed on the introduction referral calendar and slated for action by the full council at a city council meeting.

Again, the resolution, the amendment and this portion of the rules does not prevent a resolution that may not be materially related.

to city council business to appear before the council.

It simply allows a council member to have the discretion to abstain if he, she or they wish to do so.

Okay, that are all of my bills for the City Council agenda.

So I'll just move really quickly to report of the Governance and Education Committee.

Last Wednesday, December 8th, was my final Governance and Education Committee meeting.

And as a result, this committee will now be retired pending a restructure of committees by the future Council President.

and the Future Council.

I do have one item related to my role as the current Council President that I'd like to report out on.

The Economic and Revenue Forecasting Council continues its process to hire the Director of the new Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasting.

The Forecasting Council held an interview of a finalist on November 30th and will conduct another interview for a second finalist tomorrow, Tuesday, December 14th.

For forecasting council, which includes a representative to representatives from the city council, a designee from the mayor's office and and an individual from finance department.

does remain on track to select a finalist and extend an offer to that candidate before the end of this year.

I do continue to believe, and I think the forecasting council continues to believe, that it's important that we complete this process as soon as possible so the new director can begin to stand up the new office and begin hiring their staff at the start of the new year and be in a position to be ready to engage with the city's upcoming 2023 budget process and any related supplemental budgets that come before the council throughout the year.

So good news there is we are on track and looks like we will have a finalist to extend an offer to before the end of the year.

I have no regional committees remaining this week, nor did I have any I could attend last week due to several special city council committee meetings and my obligation to attend those.

I do want to note colleagues that a special meeting of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Governing Committee was scheduled for January 13th.

At 1130 am this governing committee meeting was scheduled to formally approve and adopt.

The regional homelessness authorities 2022 budget.

I, of course, will no longer be a council member or a governing committee member in January.

And so I want to make sure that you colleagues are tracking this meeting.

and that we have representation from the City Council in addition to Council Member Lewis, should he remain as a member of the committee.

My understanding is that Council Member Herbold and Council Member Mosqueda are alternates until the new Council President and Council pass its resolution establishing regional committee membership.

So didn't want us to lose track of that upcoming important meeting, which is on January 13th at 1130. Lastly, last week, I joined deal and customer mosquito and child care providers for press conference to announce a child care worker bonus awards.

The event was a very joyous occasion about the recognition over the essential services that our child care providers have been providing for families throughout the pandemic.

And I was honored to join and highlight.

what we can achieve when we work very closely together to address the needs of child care providers who continue to work in a market that does not recognize through appropriate financial compensation the work that they do to support our families and was proud to be able to participate in that joyous occasion.

Okay, that is the end of my report.

Are there any comments or questions?

I do see that Council Member Herbold has her hand raised.

Please.

Thank you.

I just wanted to comment as it relates to the resolution establishing council rules.

You highlighted an amendment.

I wanted to also, because this amendment I think is just now being circulated, take this opportunity to to highlight it for council colleagues.

It was discussed in committee, so it's not new.

It's just we needed to figure out sort of what the language was going to be to accomplish the goals and appreciate the work with Councilmember Mosqueda on the language.

in the amendment itself.

Um, again, this is, um, an amendment related to the updated council rules.

Um, really again, appreciate the opportunity to work on such an important question.

Um, the question of how we will be, how we will return to conducting the public business after the governor's emergency order is lifted and we return to City Hall.

My goal is that we return to having public meetings in our civic buildings when we are able, and that we also allow e-participation for any council member who requires it for any reason, provided that IT and the clerk's office are able to accommodate such a request.

I look forward to discussing the amendment with you all this evening.

Any questions, please do call, contact my office.

Christina is the person staffing it in my office.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Councilmember Herbold, and I do note that that was circulated at 1114 AM, so that's the timestamp you should be looking for in your inbox.

Of course.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions on my report, including the resolution on Council rules?

All right.

Hearing nothing else.

OK, colleagues, that does conclude the items of business on this morning's agenda.

I want to thank you for your time and your thorough reports.

And I look forward to seeing you at 2 o'clock PM.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.