Seattle City Council Briefing 4/14/2025

Good afternoon, today is April 14th, 2025. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

I am Alexis Mercedes Rink, serving as council president pro tem today.

The time is 2.04 p.m.

Council President Nelson, council member Rivera, and council member Strauss are excused from this meeting.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Saka?

Here.

Council member Solomon?

Here.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council member Kettle?

Here.

And pro tem rank.

Present.

Five present.

Wonderful.

If there is no objection, the minutes of April 7th, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for being here today.

I wanted to begin today by acknowledging the investigative report that came out last week about City Light drinking on the job to the point of passing out.

forcing colleagues to watch inappropriate material and rampant sexual harassment and assault to a limited number of female employees is absolutely unacceptable.

And I wanted to start out briefing with that today, given that I know how unsettling this news in and want to assure that council will be taking the appropriate steps to be providing the oversight to City Light and really carving the path forward, making sure we're doing that work and we'll be taking that up within committee.

I'll also be noting that in my further remarks a little bit more on the select committee on federal administration and policy changes and moving us into some other pieces related to updates during my remarks later today.

But I also wanna kick us off today by noting that In an almost topical manner, we have a proclamation coming before us from Councilmember Moore.

Councilmember Moore has brought forward a proclamation for signatures recognizing April 2025 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Seattle.

Councilmember Moore is excused from briefing today, so I will be moving the request for signatures forward on her behalf, and I will be reading her comments into the record.

This proclamation recognizes April 2025 to be the Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Seattle.

This year is the 24th observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and this year's theme, Together We Act, United We Change, calls us to understand the impact of sexual violence and take actionable steps towards prevention.

Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted, and black, indigenous, and other people of color, people living in poverty, The housed and under housed LGBTQ plus people, elders, people with disabilities, and others who have been historically oppressed are disproportionately affected by sexual violence in significant and complex ways.

It is crucial to address the growing prevalence of harassment, exploitation, and assault and ensure that resources and protections are available for those affected by such violence.

It is important that we as a city hold ourselves accountable to promote the safety and well-being of everyone by strengthening policies to respond to sexual abuse, assault, and harassment.

In addition to today's proclamation, April 30th, 2025 is Denim Day, an annual International Day of Awareness, encouraging individuals to wear denim on Wednesday, April 30th, 2025, to raise awareness about the harmful attitudes and misconceptions surrounding sexual assault and victim blaming that started as a protest of a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court, which overturned a rape conviction because the victim wore tight jeans.

implying that she had consented to the sexual activity.

So colleagues, I encourage you to wear denim on April 30th for International Denim Day and to add your signature for the proclamation that April 2025 be Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Thank you.

And those are the remarks from Council Member Moore for today.

Are there any questions or a matter of discussion for my colleagues?

All right.

Seeing that there is no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation, recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month?

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

And Pro Temerink?

Aye.

Five signatures will be affixed.

Wonderful.

Thank you all.

And moving us to our round robin discussion, we will begin our discussion on the preview of city council actions and council regional committees.

The order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name with the council president called last.

This week's roll call begins actually with council member Rivera, but council member Rivera being absent today, we will be beginning with council member Saka.

All right, thank you, Madam Council President Pro Tem.

And as chair of the Transportation Committee, proud to share that our next Transportation Committee meeting will be tomorrow morning, Tuesday, April 15th at 9.30 a.m.

Colleagues, we've been on a roadshow, so to speak, with respect to speed, automated enforcement cameras, and the implementing legislation.

So we had, recall, you'll recall we had a briefing and discussion on automated enforcement camera technologies during our last Transportation Committee meeting.

So this is the next iteration because we do have formal, transmitted, and proposed automated traffic safety camera legislation that does a number of things and is required for us to expand any new cameras, automated enforcement cameras in our city, So we're talking non-school speed zones, et cetera.

We have to comport with the requirements and then explicitly incorporate by reference the requirements of state law changes that were made in Olympia last year in 2024 in order to expand and roll out any automated enforcement camera And so this legislation that we're in briefing and discussion item, that's agenda item one, we're gonna be discussing that legislation tomorrow.

Also colleagues, you'll recall that during the budget, Last fall in 2024, we expanded and authorized and provided a specific line item in appropriations for funding of automated enforcement cameras that were not in school zones.

And we also expanded and authorized the expansion of school zone in 39 new school zones, I think to be exact.

So we're gonna be discussing a proviso lift that would authorize the executive to spend that money that has already been appropriated, so that's tomorrow.

And then third and finally on the agenda tomorrow, colleagues, we're gonna be getting a briefing and discussion on an alley vacation.

near Town Hall in Councilmember Kettle's district.

He tends to get a lot of the alleyway vacation and permitting requests, and so yes, another one in districts, the wonderful District 7. As always, everyone is welcome to attend.

So another fantastic transportation committee meeting, continuing our road show to launching and considering camera enforcement legislation in our city.

In the district, last week was proud to visit the Refugee and Immigrant Family Center, which is a bilingual preschool in Delridge.

Also proud to visit their sister site, just further north in Delridge, the Southwest Early Learning Bilingual Preschool.

They share resources, personnel, and any number of things.

And so good to stay connected with these These important communities there in Delridge, they shared some of their concerns about the recent spate of gun violence, among other things.

The SWELL, Southwest Early Learning site in particular, regularly use a number of parks and playgrounds that were where some of the nearby thousand plus, or excuse me, hundred plus gunshots were.

in West Seattle a couple of weeks ago.

So safety concerns were top of mind.

And also we discussed how the city can be more proactive in notifying schools of certain SPS events and near and associated gun violence, lockdown situations.

So it was good to connect with them.

And also last week, toured the Salvation Army's Soto shelter facility, which houses nearly 300 residents, accepts residents where they're at, very low barrier entry type of housing program.

Last year, they permanently housed 32% of their residents.

So it was good to visit that shelter facility and learn more about the impact of what they do firsthand.

And I guess finally I'll note in the community was really honored and excited to attend a Tie One On event to help mentor young men of color.

And it was a great event that I had the privilege of joining last week, but even before I was a council member, I went a handful of times, one or two times before I even took office, you know, five, 10 years ago.

And so I wanna thank council member Solomon for inviting me to this great event.

There I saw, Council President, I also saw Council Member Rank, thank you for joining and appreciate your partnership on uplifting and amplifying the voice in the work of those impacted communities in particular.

Let's see, what else?

Also last week did office hours as we'll do again this week.

So all kinds of exciting things going on and really appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with community and constituents.

And that is all I have on the way of, by way of updates.

One more thing, excuse me.

I had a great check-in conversation with our parks department, Superintendent Diaz, and one of my priorities for my office, and I know the executive as well, is to reopen Camp Long.

Colleagues, as we know, was damaged in a fire last winter, I believe, December.

Don't quote me.

That Camp Long and that facility and that site in particular is a huge community priority.

It is shared and loved and treasured by many people across West Seattle and across my entire district and across the entire city indeed have gone there.

And so we need to, rebuild and restore that facility as quickly as possible.

A key step towards that is I understand the parks applied as recently as last week for King County Parks Capital and Open Space Grant for much needed funding for this restoration that needs to be done at Camp Long amongst other things between insurance and city responsibilities.

We need to get creative here in this budget situation in particular about how we're gonna properly and quickly reopen and restore that facility.

But that is the next step.

And so they apply for this King County Parks Capital and Open Space Grants.

They, the Parks Department, So I strongly support that application.

I know a number of our colleagues happen to sit on the King County Regional Policy Committee with oversight responsibility for, among other things, this program.

Council Member and today, Council President Pro Tem Rink, Council President Nelson, and Council Member Moore sit on that committee.

So at least with respect to the two, citywide colleagues that we have that represent and sit on that committee.

I'll be having more focused conversations with you on a one-on-one offline basis to figure out how we can make sure we can sponsor that package and provide at the appropriate level sponsorship and elected level sponsorship at the city level to get those across the line and while we work on other creative funding opportunities.

So in any event, that is all I have.

I welcome any comments or questions.

And if none, I will pass the baton to whoever is the next on the list today.

Any questions?

Nope.

All right.

And next we will hear from Council Member Solomon.

Thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem.

First of all, I want to thank you for presenting our land use committee bills at Council last week, at last week's meeting, so thank you very much.

Happy to see some of the things on the agenda getting checked off.

We did have a special meeting of the land use committee on April 2nd and we do have an upcoming meeting on the 17th so Thursday, where we'll be taking up five appointments to the Seattle Design Commission.

We'll be discussing ADU state compliance updates.

We'll be doing a public hearing on that.

And then we'll be looking at bill to code permit extensions.

And the past couple of weeks, well, this past week, I was actually in Puerto Rico for my daughter's wedding.

I highly recommend visiting Puerto Rico, by the way.

A lot of fun.

But prior to that and since then, we did have a chance to meet with constituents in the Mount Baker Community Club on Monday, the 31st.

Also met with Cascade Bicycle Club on Tuesday, the 1st.

Met with Crime Stoppers on Wednesday, the 2nd.

Attended the Kamayan night at the Filipino Community of Seattle on Wednesday, the 2nd.

On Thursday, the 3rd, we attended the Regional Policy Council or Regional Policy Committee meeting, and later that night attended the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund Community Impact event.

On Saturday, the 5th, rather, staff attended the opening of Cheryl Chow Park in South Seattle, Rainier Valley.

And along with Council Members Saka, Council President Nelson, and Council Member Rink attended the Breakfast Group's Time Went On event at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel.

Again, very motivational event as a Breakfast Group member.

I've helped a lot of young people tie their ties.

It's always a good motivational event to see these young people and inspire them, provide them with introductions to potential careers going forward.

So always enjoyed being part of that group and really uplifting our young people.

This morning, I had a conversation with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition about what can be done to further enhance public safety in the Rainier Beach community, and definitely see some partnerships going forward with that.

Coming this week ahead, I have meetings scheduled with with We Heart Seattle, with the Washington State Crime Prevention Association Board of Directors, the Complete Communities Coalition, the Community Police Commission, Nicholsville, We'll be also visiting Uplift Northwest's Belltown office.

We'll be doing office hours in the Rainier Beach community on Friday afternoon.

And on Saturday, we'll be attending with Council President Pro Tem Rink, meeting in the International District with the CID Equitable Development Initiative and with some members of the community.

So that is what I have coming up for this week.

I'll take any questions, and if not, I will advance it over to Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council Member Solomon.

Appreciate it.

So the next parks, utilities, technology meeting will be Wednesday, April 23rd.

That's going to be at 2 p.m.

Last meeting, and this is going to come on the docket tomorrow, is Council pass for and favor, none oppose the Lower Duwamish Valley cleanup, which is incredibly important, which authorizes Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities, to be able to start the process for cleaning of the Lower Duwamish.

We want to make sure that we keep our industrial lands as healthy as they can be and everyone involved in that.

We also have a comprehensive plan meeting, our Select Committee of Land Use.

That's going to be at 2 p.m.

on Wednesday.

This coming Wednesday, the 16th, we're going to have, everyone should have received a, we'll be getting a memo from central staff regarding some of the next steps.

As people have might heard, all six appeals were dismissed.

And so now we're trying to figure out how we push forward with our timeline.

and upcoming legislation and then some of the deadlines that we have that's going on with the comprehensive plan, the land use, the mapping, the zoning, the House Bill 1110, all of the components of the comprehensive plan.

So we are figuring out dates and schedule and we'll be working with central staff, we'll be working with our executive and also we'll be working with our council president to make sure that we have the timeline and we're moving fast and speedy and ahead, and also making sure that we're not missing any steps as well.

So please stay tuned on that.

Also want to highlight, um, uh, this week also have the board of health meeting, um, that's on April 17th.

Um, that's also with council member Nelson and council member kettle.

Um, so looking forward to that meeting, we in district three continue to be concerned, um, with, the fentanyl use that we see in different places in front of areas in district three that are of concern that we hear every day from constituents from small business owners and people that live work and play in these areas as well and so we're trying to do our best to figure out different steps to help mitigate some of these issues obviously they're complex you'll hear people always say they're complex and no one really has the magic pill But what I do know is that we need to get people inside and off the streets as fast as possible through shelters, through tiny homes, through other different ways in which we can create housing and then also rapid response for people to get treatment.

And so that's going to be important that we lean on our Board of Health, our King County department for health solutions as they continue to provide and make sure that the public know some of the resources.

This week in our newsletter, we're going to be providing people with different resources that they did not know existed.

And because it took us a long time to figure out how to navigate certain government, who does what.

For example, if it's a metro trash plan, trash can that needs cleaning that is actually not our office because that's not seattle public utilities that is king county metro so it's our king county council so they're just different um pieces of government where you know certain things belong in places and we have different constituents that would like that information so looking forward to putting that out there for uh people to to notice um a lot of highlights in the community but the one thing that i'll probably highlight is had the chance to speak to the students at City University, City University soft spot because my mother got her master's degree from City University during weekend nights, weekend and nights.

And she still had two kids that she was raising and also had a full time job.

So it offers an opportunity for people to have that flexibility and met the students there and was able to talk about how government crosses over with small businesses and the responsibility that government has to make sure that our small businesses are sustainable and accessible and also safe and um people because the lifeline in seattle are small businesses from start to finish and a lot of the families that were in uh at that attend seattle university a lot of students are first generation college students and they also are a large part immigrant population.

And they all started having small businesses to create that root and that foundation for generational wealth.

So that's why it's incredibly important.

And with that, I think I'm passing to council member Kettle.

Thank you, council president pro tem Rink.

No questions.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

For my update, I'll start off with the Public Safety Committee.

We will not have a meeting next week on the 22nd.

It will be instead on the 29th, the following week.

and where we'll be having our accountability partners there.

Very important to support our accountability partners, the CPC, Community Police Commission, the OIG, Office of Inspector General, and the OPA, Office of Police Accountability.

Separately, coming out of committee, voted on was our after-hours establishments bill, which will come to full council tomorrow for a vote.

Okay, separately, in general for this week, today, already met with the Honorary Council of Ukraine.

Very important in terms of showing support in that kind of city, to the people-people perspective, to the city, to ensure that they know America's support is not limited to what they read regarding federal actions.

So I really appreciate the Honorary Council coming to City Hall today.

Tomorrow, I have an emergency hubs meeting, which is emergency preparedness related at the Queen Anne Library at 5 o'clock.

And this builds on our District 7 Neighborhood Council of last Friday, which was focused on emergency preparedness.

And again, the hubs are really important when a major event happens to have community be able to stand up because the various pieces of city government are police, fire and others, OEM and others, they'll be doing what their mission sets are, but it's going to be much bigger than that.

So it really relies on individuals and neighborhoods and the like to stand up.

And this really helps in terms of the emergency hubs, gaining that neighborhood lens on the crisis to decision makers here at the city.

Also this week, we'll be meeting with the North Seattle Industrial Association on Thursday.

That day, we'll also have a meeting.

I'll be hosting a meeting with SPD and the alarm community.

As you know, last year, there was a decision related to alarms and responses.

We've been fostering, this came out of public comment, fostering dialogue between SPD and the alarm community because there is some...

pieces that can be taken to alleviate the challenges faced because of the change in policy.

And then finally on Thursday, too, we'll be meeting with the Condo Connect community here in District 7. Really important community to engage with.

And on Friday, we'll be meeting with the Queen Anne Block Watch Network.

And then also American Waterways.

American Waterways is the group that basically represents the tugboat, the towboats, and the barge community, the maritime community here in Seattle.

Next week, this week is spring break, next week is Easter break, and I will be out next week.

So nothing in terms of my participation next week, but there are different meetings that my colleagues will also be covering, like the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Committee on Thursday, and the like.

I just wanted to note too, last weekend, I did not mention this last weekend, last Monday, but this past weekend I participated in the Seattle Tashkent Sister City Association at Shoreline Community College.

Very important, basically celebrating Nauru's, but it was a chance for the Uzbek and the Central Asian community, and really the broader because of Nauru is the Persian and others to come together.

So really thankful for the Shoreline Community College, who was represented by Dr. Khan, their president, at the event.

And it's just a great opportunity to meet with them and speak to them.

And it was interesting because the common language in Central Asia is Russian.

So it was a Russian-English event.

So I have to say it was ,, and the food was .

But it offered the opportunity to speak and to welcome them as a community.

And a lot of them are first generation Americans, or their kids are first generation Americans.

Maybe the younger kids were second generation.

But it kind of highlights the role that immigration plays in our country, past and present.

and the importance of having an elected official say that their community is also important and also valued as part of the American dream and the American fabric and not just kids who are first generation out of immigrants from England.

So I thought that was really important and I really appreciate the opportunity to attend.

I also wanted to also say separately, my staff participated in an event at Trolley Hill Park and McLean Park, pretty much the East Queen Anne Greenbelt, with the Seattle Urban Nature Guide Program.

And it's really important, all the work that's done for these parks, and particularly the challenging pieces related to green belts to ensure that they're clean and safe.

And I just want to thank groups like Friends of McLean Park and others and the Seattle Urban Nature Guide Program for the work that they do and to have my staff join them.

That was happening when I was at the Seattle Tashkent Sister City Association event.

And that is it.

I just also wanted to note today the WNBA draft is going to be happening, and our Seattle Storm are going to be second on the docket.

And I think this is a good opportunity for us to brush up on our French in case a certain person is drafted.

joining Gabby Williams as another French speaker.

I'm not going to say anything, but that's where indications are going in terms of today's WNBA drafts.

So, bonne chance, Seattle Storm.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Any questions for Council Member Kettle?

All right, seeing none, before I begin my remarks, I did get some remarks from Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Strauss asked me to relay that he will be having a presentation on the April economic revenue forecast in the Finance, Native, Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee this week.

That's 9.30 a.m.

on Wednesday.

Councilmember Strauss asked me to reiterate, all councilmembers are welcome to attend and ask questions.

And with that in mind, I will move into my remarks.

And I'm going to deviate a little bit from standard course and just keep my remarks limited to my committee work and other legislative matters.

And for any of the listening public, if you're interested in plugging into outreach activities our office is up to, please subscribe to our newsletter or follow our social media, which now includes Blue Sky.

The City Light Sustainability Arts and Culture Committee will be meeting this Friday to vote on the Renewable Plus legislation and approving easements.

We were unable to vote on these time-sensitive pieces of legislation last time due to quorum, so a reminder to my colleagues, it is critical we vote on these this upcoming Friday.

And again, the Renewable Plus legislation, incredibly exciting body of legislation for our work in energy policy, so.

encourage your participation this Friday so we can make sure it advances in a timely matter.

And to circle back to how I began our presentation, I want to again reiterate the findings of the investigation through the City Light investigation were made public last week.

And I know I joined many people in feeling unsettled and upset about the findings of that investigation.

And it is not lost upon me that we've just put forward a proclamation about April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

And these findings in the investigation highlight a number of issues within the culture at City Light that we need to remedy immediately.

We will hear more about the report and what the organization is doing to address these egregious findings during future Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture Committee meetings, but know that young women considering working at City Light, we see you and we will demand change.

Moving on next to our Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes, we will focus on the topic of transportation at our May 16th meeting.

I'm really looking forward to teaming up with Council Member Saka on this topic and excited to release who will be our panelists coming up shortly.

Additionally, I wanted to note that my office is still working diligently on the welcoming city resolution briefed and discussed during our last select committee on federal administration and policy changes earlier this month.

Edits to that draft are due to my office on Friday, which has been communicated to all council offices, but please don't hesitate to reach out to me or my team with any questions before that deadline.

And finally, ahead of the vote on the nightlife legislation later this week, I wanted to flag that I will be bringing forward an amendment to include reporting requirements from financial and administrative services so we can ensure that we are measuring implementation and able to derive how this new legislation is having an impact.

And that concludes my remarks for today.

Any questions that folks may have for me?

Amazing.

If we can put the brief in briefing, that would be lovely so we can all get back to our work.

With that, is there any further business before we adjourn for today?

Hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

It is 2.36 p.m.

Thank you.