Transportation & Seattle Public Utilities Committee 9/6/22

meeting of the transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee will come to order now.

The time is 9.31am.

I'm Alex Peterson, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Chair Peterson.

Present.

For present.

Thank you.

And I believe Council Member Strauss will be joining us later.

There's no objection today's proposed agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

A brief chair's report.

Good morning again.

Appreciate everybody being here for the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

On our agenda today we've got 10 items.

First on the agenda we welcome back to our committee Greg spots are Harold's nominee to be the new director of the Seattle Transportation Department, and I'm looking forward to a productive conversation with Mr spots today I'm hoping we'll be able to vote on this confirmation this morning.

And second, we've got a vote on six bills that will convey several slivers of property to SDOT.

Item 8 on the agenda is the annual report from the school safety traffic committee for briefing and discussion.

Our second to last item is an update on the Seattle transportation plan for briefing and discussion.

Finally, item 10 is a briefing and discussion from Seattle Public Utilities on upcoming rates paid for solid waste disposal.

We will bring that item on SPU rates back to committee on September 20th for continued discussion and a likely vote.

Item D on our agenda is public comment.

However, we don't have any public commenters signed up online.

And we also do not have any public commenters in person today.

So I don't then need to read all the instructions for public comment.

So the public comment period is essentially open and closed since we don't have any public commenters in person or online.

And I did have our Seattle Information Technology folks check that out for us.

So let's go ahead and move to item one.

We'll have the clerk read item one into the record.

Agenda item one, appointment 02333, appointment of Greg Spatz, Director of Seattle Department of Transportation for a term to August 1st, 2026 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

A warm welcome back to both Adi Mamri, Mayor Harrell's Executive General Manager, and to SDOT nominee Greg Spatz, who are both here in chambers with us today.

First, some quick history.

As with all recent nominees from the mayor, the City Council has been following the vetting process outlined in Resolution 31868. On July 27th, Mayor Harrell announced Greg Spatz as his nominee to be the new director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, SDOT.

On August 4th, my office circulated the mayor's August 3rd confirmation packet to all council members.

On August 16, we had Mr. Spatz and his nomination packet before our committee for an initial introduction.

We gathered over 30 written questions from council members for the nominee to answer and on August 23rd my office circulated Mr. Spatz's responses to all council members.

We also posted those questions and answers on our legistar website as part of his appointment packet appointment zero 2333. Before we start with questions for Mr. Spatz today, I'll turn it over to Adi Memory and Mr. Spatz for a brief introduction, and then I'll start off with a couple of sample questions to get us warmed up here.

But good morning, Adi Memory.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council Members, and thank you for hosting us today.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Mayor's nominee for Director of SDOT, Greg Spotts.

I've previously conveyed the extensive diverse stakeholder involved vetting process.

That process led to the amazing nominee before you, Greg Spotts.

He's eager, quick to learn, a strong collaborator, brings a wealth of experience, is focused on equity and safety and sustainability.

Further, the Mayor's strong support for Greg is rooted in his ability to implement SDOT's transportation equity framework strategies, especially as it relates to developing our future transportation funding package.

I know you came to hear Greg, so please allow me to turn things over to him for his opening remarks and then take your questions.

Personally, the more time I spent with Greg, the more impressed I am, and I think you'll be too.

So pass it on to Greg.

Thank you, Executive General Manager Emery, for the kind introduction and for your support throughout this process.

I'm very happy to have the opportunity to join the committee today to answer your questions and it's a special privilege to be here in person with you.

Very briefly, I'd like to update the committee on a few developments since my August 16th appearance.

On August 22nd, SDOT launched an online portal enabling Seattleites to ask to participate in my upcoming listening tour.

We've already received more than 40 applications from individuals and groups who want to walk, bike, or ride transit with me in their neighborhoods.

Tomorrow will be my first day on the job as interim director.

Hopefully, tomorrow morning, I'll begin the day walking children to school with Mayor Harrell in West Seattle.

I've had one-on-one, I have some one-on-one introductory meetings scheduled with council members over the next 10 days, and I'm very much looking forward to getting to know each of you and learning about your priorities.

I've done my best to answer your written questions thoroughly and forthrightly, and I look forward to discussing these topics with you today.

Please note that I have not yet started work at SDOT, so my responses are based primarily on publicly available information and represent my perspective as a candidate for the director position.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, to kick things off today, I'll ask just two of the council's written questions for the benefit of the viewing public, and I'll include one additional question as well, and then turn it over to my colleagues if they want to raise up any of the questions we already asked or ask new questions for Mr. Spatz.

The first two questions you already answered, one is about pedestrian safety or vision zero and the others, of course about bridges.

And then I'll have a third question here but wanted you to tell the viewing audience a little bit about your answer on pedestrian safety.

The question we asked was, Just summarizing here, following a national trend, Seattle has seen an unacceptably high number of traffic collisions this year.

How will you advance Seattle's Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities by the year 2030?

Again, that's already online, Mr. Spatz's answer for that, but we'll We'll hear a little bit of that this morning because I know that's so important to everybody in the city.

Regarding bridges, the question we asked in summary is Seattle is a city connected by bridges and the city suffered from the closure of the West Seattle Bridge during the past two years.

How will you apply in Seattle your experience upgrading or building bridges in Los Angeles, California?

The new question today in preparation for today's vote my office reached out to the Los Angeles City Council to hear from a few of your former legislative colleagues there.

We heard a lot of positive remarks about your creative problem solving.

and that you work well with the mayor and council in Los Angeles.

One item that was consistently mentioned is the differing governing structure the two cities have for transportation.

As I understand it, the city of Los Angeles handles transportation planning under its Department of Transportation, whereas that city handles transportation implementation such as maintenance and operations within the Bureau of Street Services under the Board of Public Works where you work.

So Seattle's Department of Transportation, of course, handles both the policy and implementation.

So tell us more about your experience involved in the policy and planning aspects that will enable you to be successful here in the Seattle Department of Transportation.

So if you could address those 3 things the pedestrian safety bridges and then the differing governing structures in La.

Very good.

Thank you so much chair Peterson and thank you for your support during this process as well.

There's many different.

You know stakeholders and projects and programs that has taught encompasses but in you know this period between you know, interviewing with the mayor on July 1st, and now, two issues really have risen to the very top as far as what I've been hearing from stakeholders, both inside and outside of city government, and those are figuring out a way to make progress on reducing traffic-related injuries and deaths, particularly for pedestrians, and that we've been working on for a number of years.

Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles launched the LA Vision Zero program in 2015. A steering committee was part of the executive directive, and I raised my hand and volunteered to be Streets LA's representative on that steering committee.

So I actually helped to develop the Vision Zero program in Los Angeles.

It's true that nationally there's a significant increase in traffic related deaths and serious injuries.

One of the theories is that in the pandemic there's been actually less vehicles on the road and therefore higher vehicle speeds and therefore more risk from collisions.

I really do feel that it's urgently needed to do a top-to-bottom review of Vision Zero in Seattle, looking carefully at the data to try to really bring forth some insights among the many interventions that have been implemented, which ones are saving lives and which ones aren't, and in what situations and what types of configurations of streets are those interventions working or not working.

and also really engaging deeply with the stakeholders, particularly in historically underserved communities.

We know that we have some corridors that are very vehicle-oriented, some north-south corridors here in Seattle.

where there's a concentration of pedestrian injuries and deaths.

So that's going to be an early priority of mine.

And I want to mobilize every one of the thousand people who work at SDOT that what we do in the morning is we start with safety.

And there's no job at SDOT that is not concerned with safety.

So I wanna really make sure that there isn't just the core Vision Zero team, but the entire department is the Vision Zero team.

And I really look forward to jumping into that right away.

I really appreciate Chair Peterson, your bringing me out to visit the University Bridge and spotlighting the issue pertaining to the bridges.

I've reviewed the audit in detail and actually consulted with some subject matter experts on bridge construction and maintenance, including one of my colleagues in public works in L.A.

who used to run the bridge program for Los Angeles.

I'm very supportive of the recommendations in that audit, and I think there's actually more to be done beyond those recommendations.

I'd like to accelerate the completion of what's being required in those recommendations and really make sure that SDOT has the people, the systems, and the technology that's needed to bring a contemporary asset management approach to the bridges, to manage the bridges as a portfolio where we can make strategic investments where most needed to try to prevent the kind of thing from happening like what happened in West Seattle where an asset suddenly has to be taken out of service.

And I'm willing to involve outside subject matter experts if I find that that's needed in order to build the strong systems for that absolutely critical function.

Yesterday in my sort of epic walk and bike and bus riding around the city on my first day, I got to cross two of the bridges on foot.

And it was sobering thinking that I'm going to be in charge of those essential assets.

Regarding transportation policymaking in Los Angeles, one of the things that attracted me to this role in Seattle is that pretty much all of the functions pertaining to what's above ground at street level are contained within SDOT.

And it's very challenging in L.A.

to do holistic, multi-benefit street design because of how siloed and separated these various functions are.

The Department of Public Works has five bureaus, and I've been the number two executive at one of those bureaus.

And then we sort of design, build, and maintain the infrastructure, and then LADOT programs that infrastructure with signs and signals and pavement markings and policies.

And it turns out most of the consequential policies are made with interdepartmental working groups.

So there's a Vision Zero Steering Committee.

I was Streets LA's representative on that committee.

There was a Complete Streets Committee.

I was one of several Streets LA members on that committee.

There's a Sidewalk Repair Committee, and I have been sort of the longest standing person.

The city of LA got sued about our sidewalk condition pertaining to ADA, and there's a real eight-year policy development and implementation effort run by the Steering Committee, and I'm the member I'm the representative from Streets LA that's been there from the very beginning until now on that policy area.

So I do have policymaking and implementation development experience in LA through this interdepartmental setting.

Also, we have some policies that are firmly within Streets LA's purview, and I was very honored to be the executive sponsor of the policy to legalize sidewalk vending.

LA has a very rich street food scene that was illegal for the entire 20th century, and it felt like There's something that was almost impossible to unlock many, many of us worked on it, but I was really proud to be the executive sponsor of the lead department of that effort and we legalized sidewalk vending supporting micro entrepreneurs, mostly people of color.

that was something I'm very proud of.

And also, you know, the Urban Forestry Division of Streets LA reported up to me for the last seven years, and I've brought forth many policies in collaboration with Council on the Board of Public Works to strengthen our protection of healthy mature trees, both street trees.

And in LA, we have six species of native trees that are protected on private property and collaborated with council on the board on many policy initiatives to strengthen our protection of those trees.

So I do feel quite comfortable in that policy space.

And I'm very excited to have all these functions under one roof where we really can take the holistic look at all the different benefits we can have from our infrastructure.

Thank you very much for those thoughtful and thorough answers on safety for everybody, on infrastructure, and on policymaking for transportation.

And I do want to just remind the public that they can go on the City Council's website, they can see the 30-plus questions we asked and all of his responses.

and really appreciate the answers to those questions.

I'll turn it over to my colleagues now to make comments and ask questions.

I do see Council Member Herbold's hand and I think Council Member Morales is eager to ask questions too.

So why don't we go with Council Member Morales first and then we'll get to Council Member Herbold.

Great, thank you.

I have kind of three areas which seem to align with the things you're focusing on anyway, which is great.

First of all, thank you for being here.

Good morning.

Welcome to Seattle.

I did see your thread yesterday.

It looks like you got at least your 10,000 steps in.

So I represent the South End District 2, where last year, 56% of the fatalities on Seattle streets happened in my district.

So it's really important to me that the next director have a deep commitment to Vision Zero.

And I appreciate the answer you just gave to Council Member Peterson.

You mentioned in your written responses that Rainier Avenue is hostile to pedestrians.

I would agree.

But I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what makes it hostile and what you think we can do to change that and other streets that are kind of in the same situation.

Sure.

I mean, I definitely want to spend some more time out on Rainier and with you and with community members.

That's the whole function of the listening tour.

I did do some walking and, you know, There are places where there's a very wide crossing distance to get across.

There's places where there are freeway on-ramps and off-ramps unsignalized, which is a very scary thing to try to cross when people are dying to get on the freeway or zooming off the freeway.

There's absent sidewalks or missing curb ramps.

We have arterials like this in Los Angeles as well.

Particularly in the San Fernando Valley, we built very, very wide arterials with the idea of moving the maximum amount of traffic.

And the thinking today is the streets need to work for the people who are there, not just for people who are passing through there.

And at its worst, some of these corridors like Aurora and Rainier feel like they're really oriented towards people who are just passing through.

to the extent where you can be asking heroic measures by pedestrians and cyclists just to get around.

And I think we have to change that.

We have to make it so that the community has a strong voice in how these corridors are engineered and organized so that it works for people actually who live there.

I listened to one, been immersing myself in like the Seattle podcast scene, and I listened to one program where a woman was saying it's like impossible to walk to her small business down there.

And it's only like a half a mile away from where she lives.

And that's not fair.

That's something we have to fix.

So I really want to spend time out there, you know, with you and with the constituents and surface, you know, interventions that they're asking for to make a difference.

Well, I appreciate that I mean that is one of the things we're trying to figure out right how do we prioritize safety.

And what does that mean for neighborhood accessibility, improving neighborhood accessibility so that people can get to the goods and services that they need without having to get into a car without having to worry about being hit by a car.

So, and I would just say, we've been on recess for two weeks here at city council apparently my staff has been using that time to make a video about sort of the history of Seattle's streets and what it means so I would encourage you to find this video on YouTube it's called what it's like living low vision and Carlos in Seattle.

And it really does illustrate for people how hard it is to get around and how it is not a choice for some people.

And we need to address that.

So two other issues I wanted to cover.

Seattle's experiencing more frequent heat events.

I think we hit 110 earlier this summer.

Last year, last summer, we had lots of people who lost their lives due to the heat dome that we experienced.

And South Seattle has fewer parks.

fewer trees, more pavement.

This means that some of our neighborhoods are up to 14 degrees hotter than, you know, northern parts of the city where there's more green, more abundance.

And it also means that we experience more health impacts for folks who are living in the South End.

The, we included this question in our questions to you but you know the Bureau of transportation statistics reports that 72% of trips in the US are for running errands or recreation.

So that means, what does it mean then that people are really just trying to get around their neighborhoods?

So can you paint a picture for us of what it means to decarbonize transportation in a neighborhood and what that means for people being able to get around more safely and in a healthier, greener way?

Absolutely, yes.

Urban heat and its nexus with active transportation mobility a specialty of mine from my experience in Los Angeles, and I'm a nationally known speaker on that topic.

I've actually spoken about that on webinars with at least five federal agencies in the last few years.

You know, when you look at historically redlined neighborhoods, they're still tree poor today.

They still have infrastructure that is more oriented towards hardscape and cars than other leafier, you know, areas of the city.

And an experience that I had five years ago really informed my thinking about this.

There was a new grant available in California for resilience planning at the neighborhood level.

And we applied for this $200,000 grant.

And I personally selected the location in one of the hottest parts of the city, this neighborhood called Canoga in the West San Fernando Valley.

It's a place, I pulled a bunch of statistics, and we had a transit node there, the Sherman Way Station, where a whole lot of the people around that transit node either are car-light or car-free households.

And we used that money to do a year-long, bilingual, deep community outreach and visioning process.

And every time we said urban heat and cooling, the community came back with mobility.

that I can't get to the excellent express bus service there because it's unshaded, it's too hot.

I can't bike there, I can't walk there, I can't get to my neighborhood serving retail in those three or four months a year where there may be 50 days a year of 95 degree or above heat in this neighborhood.

So the consultant that we hired worked with the community to come up with these fly-through videos of what they wanted, they wanted sort of, multi, kind of multiple lines of trees separating a walking path, a biking path, a narrower roadway, roundabouts instead of big intersections.

And we submitted that for California Active Transportation Program, and we got the largest grant ever given by that program, $30 million grant to implement.

And this was just last year, it was a great honor that the California Transportation Commission wrote that future grant applicants should read our grant application because of the way it brought multiple disciplines together, thinking about climate resilience and mobility together.

So I'm really excited to bring that kind of thinking to Seattle.

And it was resonant for me that the week I came up here for the press conference to be announced as the mayor's nominee, it was the first time ever there's been five consecutive days of 90 degree heat in Seattle.

So it seems to be a good time to be showing up with that expertise.

Thank you.

Chair, I have one more question if I might.

So thank you.

I appreciate that.

And I think, you know, especially as we think about how we move, we'll be hearing about the Seattle Transportation Plan later this afternoon.

We're in the process of our Comprehensive Plan EIS as well.

And so all of these things are coming together in terms of how we are going to change and grow as a city.

Which brings me to 15-minute cities, and something that we've really been talking about a lot in my office.

We, in 2007 or 8, I believe it was, passed a complete streets ordinance.

In 2018, we changed it to a streets illustrated model.

And we're really seen as the leaders in passing, drafting, designing great efforts, great ideas for infrastructure in the city.

But the truth is we aren't that great at implementation.

And when we do implement, it isn't done equitably.

So Green Lake, Wallingford, Ballard, these neighborhoods, like their baseline infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure is great.

You can get around those neighborhoods in a leafy green, cool place very easily.

It's not the case in the South end.

And so I would urge you to come to the South end and compare for yourself what it's like to try to walk around the neighborhood, to ride the bus around, you know, getting, trying to get East West to do anything And I say that because I know that investments that we make in the future need to be equitable as we're looking at the comprehensive plan, as we're looking at the transportation plan.

And that means we need to start where the need is greatest.

So I look forward to working with you on all of these issues.

And I just, I can't pass the mic off without letting you know about some of the happy places in the South end.

You should come down to Kubota Garden, Seward Park, the Beacon Food Forest.

Down in Georgetown, we have the Hat and Boots Park.

And then Danny Wu Garden is right down here in the CID and is a really lovely place to be.

If you were here a little earlier in the summer, you could have joined us for the pig roast.

That's all I have to.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Morales, and thank you for bringing up the needs of the South, and I concur that it's inequitable, and to address that, we have to do more investment there as soon as possible, and we'll be getting the mayor's budget soon, actually, so that'll be good to see how that's invested.

So before I turn it over, Councilor Herbold, I just want to acknowledge Councilor Straus has been here for a long while.

Good morning, Councilor Straus.

Thank you.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you for your patience.

I do have a couple of questions that didn't make it into the questions document and then a third that is related to one that did.

This 1st question.

came from a constituent who reached out after we'd already submitted our questions.

And this constituent of West Seattleite wrote about your appointment, Mr. Scott.

And the question is in regards to the realization that One thing that previous SDOT directors have had backgrounds in, specifically an engineering background, is not a background that you share and just wondering how you might address whether or not there are gaps in your experience, abilities, and how you might work to fill those gaps if those gaps do in fact exist.

Thank you so much for asking that.

And it's interesting, you know I in my second career, I'm a practitioner and transportation who has a public policy masters rather than being a civil engineer.

There's also a lot of urban planners and landscape architects in this profession.

You know, I have extensive experience designing, funding, constructing and maintaining capital projects of all different sizes.

I don't design them myself, but I rely on, you know, all kinds of different professional staff to do that.

But I see myself as someone who shapes those different professionals work in a coherent and meaningful way, kind of like conducting an orchestra, you know.

There's, you know, the string sections and there's the woodwinds and the percussion and they all have to work together.

You know, my first experiences with capital projects I'm going to talk a little bit about how I got involved in this project.

It came because I joined the mayor staff in the spring of 2009 to run his performance management group and we were doing formal performance reviews of key mayoral priorities and I wrote up a dashboard on the traffic signal that the program was likely to not be finished by the end of the mayor's second term.

And so the mayor actually asked me if I would be willing to take over as mayor's lead of that very complex set of projects.

And we were able to recover the schedule and bring that back into being completed on time.

the city of Santa Barbara and the city of Santa Barbara.

And having been successful with that, the mayor asked me to evaluate our portfolio And I evaluated them all with like a red, yellow, and green system as far as rating them.

And the end result, since a lot of them were in the red, we stood up a four-person team to accelerate and troubleshoot that portfolio of projects.

I was the co-chair of that team, and I took on $220 million in transportation and infrastructure projects and got a lot of them moving.

weren't moving.

As a result of that, the mayor created a new role for me as director of transportation project delivery, and I was the mayor's lead on a portfolio of regional megaprojects.

It was actually a $10 billion portfolio.

And in that role, I was working on station areas for light rail and heavy rail, working on, we rebuilt or seismically retrofitted 14 bridges along the I-405 freeway.

And in those roles, I was interacting with many civil engineers and other professionals in a variety of disciplines and utilities and all kinds of folks.

And then at Streets LA, you know, we have a $350 million capital program, projects everywhere from You know, 500,000 to a million all the way up to 30 million like the one I mentioned previously.

In 2021, I was very fortunate to have the chance to oversee our engineering group for about eight months when the previous chief technical officer retired.

So I actually have recent experience directly overseeing.

engineers, landscape architects, and urban designers.

So I'll be bringing all that with me, but I can also tell you I'm not going to be like buried in the individual plans of individual projects.

I don't see myself as like the chief engineer of SDOT.

There are people who do that.

I want to help shape the collection of projects and challenge the staff to fully realize industry best practices and be really creative and forward-looking in the project design.

Fantastic, thank you.

And my 2nd question was intended to sort of tease out your experience with large capital projects.

I think you covered that very well.

So I don't need to go into that further.

Just want to go to my 3rd and last question.

There was some discussion in the questions document that you received about about sidewalks as it relates specifically to pedestrian safety and vision 0. But I want to get a little bit more in the weeds about the repair and restoration of existing sidewalks.

In 2019, the council adopted a resolution, it's resolution 3198, requesting that SDOT develop policy options for maintenance of sidewalks.

And this was a result of community advocacy from a group called Coalition of Advocates working together with Rooted in Rights, and they really focused on how hazardous, uneven sidewalks are for wheelchair users and for vision impaired people.

And after a snowstorm that year left many people unable to access bus stops for an entire week, In response to that resolution in 2020, SDOT completed a report that included policy recommendations for sidewalk repair in Seattle.

It was developed with the Evans School at the UW.

And then October last year, the city auditor released a report on Seattle's sidewalk maintenance and repair program.

That city audit report echoed many of the same recommendations that were included in the 2020 report.

So I'm just interested to know if you've had a chance to review the recommendations for how we might move towards improving the condition.

of our sidewalks and whether or not any of the recommendations have a couple of different approaches.

Recognizing that sidewalk maintenance is the responsibility of the homeowner.

And just wondering whether or not you have any thoughts.

Thank you.

Sure.

I can start and if there was more to that question.

No, that was it.

Okay, great.

Yes, you know, in Los Angeles, we've had many of the same challenges.

I've had a chance to look at many of the sidewalk approaches of different cities and help make policy in Los Angeles.

And I've reviewed some of these documents that you were mentioning here in Seattle.

One thing I am very encouraged about is that Seattle has a sidewalk condition map.

And not every city has that.

And if you don't, I'm a firm believer in asset management principles.

And if you don't know the condition of all your assets, then it's hard to prioritize your investment.

So, you know, I think it's commendable that Seattle already has that condition.

But there are some important choices ahead.

I remember reading sort of a discussion about making permanent concrete repairs versus ramping.

and beveling, and you know, there's some real challenges involved in the ramping and beveling as far as whether that actually really makes the sidewalk ADA or whether those repairs are permanent.

So I'd really like to dig into that issue in depth with the staff and work with this committee on really developing a game plan that has public support, particularly from those members of our community who are mobility impaired.

I often tell my staff in L.A.

that just a few discontinuities, whether it's an uplift or a missing curb ramp or a missing piece of sidewalk, that can mean the difference between someone who's mobility impaired not being able to use our wonderful libraries and parks, not being able to get to the bus stop, not being able to get to their medical appointments.

It's absolutely critical that we're thinking about, you know, our most vulnerable users in terms of making a safe and passable, you know, pedestrian system.

I'm very passionate about this.

I'm an avid walker myself, and I'm looking forward to participating in the week without driving coming up as well.

So I hope to collaborate with you, Council Member, and the whole committee on this very important topic.

Thank you.

Thank you for those questions, Councilmember Herbold.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions?

And again, for the viewing public on the City Council website, the Legistar website, we do have all 30 plus questions and missed responses, answers, as well as his formal appointment packet from Mayor Harrell with his resume.

So there's plenty of information available.

for the viewing public who are concerned about this issue.

So just wanna check to make sure there are no other comments or questions.

May I, Chair?

Oh, yes, Council Member Strauss.

Great to see you, Director, great to see you, Chief.

I've been watching and paying attention from my office, just wanted to come out here, and I know we've already talked about bike lanes, we've already talked about pedestrians.

I didn't know if we talked about trees yet, have we?

A little bit, a little bit in terms of resiliency and his experience with that, but I love to talk about trees.

and, you know, the missing connections.

We've got a good network.

We've got the good bones of a good network.

And there's a fair number of missing connections that I know, you know, make the difference between whether it's being used or not.

I can tell you from a tree perspective, I really look forward to planting more street trees, concrete, just being the thing that reflects the heat and magnifies the heat in such negative ways that we have real great opportunities there.

I've really enjoyed your answers regarding mobility.

regarding making those connections, sidewalks.

We've got so many different ways to create sidewalks and safe places for walking while we've got cars driving around us.

I don't have any questions for you because I already asked them in the written responses that you've provided.

I just wanted to come out and say hello to you in person, say thank you for your great answers and I'm really looking forward to working with you.

Thank you, it's so good to see you in person, and let's go explore your district together and look at some of these places.

We've got some great opportunities.

We've got a lot of places that don't have sidewalks at all, just as the city has continued to expand year after year, and a lot of unincorporated King County is part of my district.

Formerly, we changed that in 45. I'll stop now.

Thank you, Chair.

Appreciate seeing you, Director.

Thank you.

And the mention of districts is important.

You know, we have four other, uh, council members who are not on our committee who will be part of our full city council vote, uh, presumably next Tuesday.

And so they'll probably want to, um, show you around the areas they're concerned about, including our two, um, citywide council members who want to, who were most recently, you know, campaigning for those positions.

So they, they've heard some fresh, um, perspectives on this too.

So, You'll have all nine of us probably wanting you out and about.

So we appreciate your doing that already, even before you start the position.

Well, colleagues, if there are no more comments or questions, I think we are ready to now move the recommendation forward out of this committee.

So I'll go ahead and make that motion.

Council members, I now move that the committee recommend City Council confirm the appointment of Greg Spatz as the director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Appointment 02333. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Any final comments?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to confirm the appointment?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Excellent.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to confirm the appointment will be sent to the September 13th City Council meeting.

Congratulations.

Thanks everybody for being here in person as well.

Mr. Spatz, Addie Memory, and the rest of the SDOT crew and Mayor's Office.

While you're not required to be there on September 13th, you are welcome and we'll make space for you to speak if you like.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, will the clerk please read the short titles of the second through seventh agenda items into the record?

Agenda items two through five.

Council bills 120380, 120382, 120383, and 120403. Ordinances accepting various deeds for street or alley purposes, laying off, opening, widening, extending, and establishing portions of rights of way, placing the real property conveyed by said deeds under the jurisdiction of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Agenda Item 6, Council Bill 120381, an ordinance accepting 21 limited purpose easements for the public sidewalk and alley turnaround purposes, placing the real property conveyed by such easements under the jurisdictions of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Agenda Item 7, Council Bill 120404, an ordinance accepting 25 limited purpose easements for public sidewalk and alley turnaround purposes, placing the real property conveyed by such easements under the jurisdiction of the Seattle Department of Transportation, all for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

So colleagues, these six property conveyances or the six property conveyance bills are they all fulfill legal requirements necessary to record deeds reflecting small property acquisitions at no cost to the city.

The council policy decisions have already been made.

And today's votes are essentially ministerial in nature.

But to confirm all that, we do have Calvin Chow from Council Central staff here with us.

And before we go into the SDOT presentations, Cal, do you have any comments on these conveyances?

No, Councilmember, you've described it exactly.

These are largely tied to development requirements that are part of the permitting process.

And so they, you know, look for slivers of sidewalk and alleyways that sort of need to conform to our general standards as part of redeveloping the property.

So this is ministerial and part of the city's regular business.

Thank you.

Well, with that, I'll hand it over to Estat.

We've got Bill aboard, and we might have somebody else from Estat as well, but Bill, welcome.

Okay, Council Member Peterson, and it is just me this morning.

Our person who regularly presents these bills is out today, so I'm pinch hitting for her.

And let's see, let me get...

Thank you.

There we go.

So, both you and Cal have sort of covered this, but real quickly, these council bills, all six of them authorize SDOT to accept property deeds and easements acquired as conditions on imposed on private development under the Land Use Code.

the in most cases these are wider sidewalks or and maybe in some cases places where sidewalks did not exist before but the right-of-way improvement manual streets illustrated requires develop new development to to create those sidewalks wider sidewalks and this is an opportunity this is an opportunity for not only improved pedestrian accessibility, but also provides the department needs easements over the sidewalk properties and essentially incorporates them into right-of-way.

Because all property acquisitions under the city charter are required to be approved by council, as minor as these may seem, they do require a council bill and ordinance to be passed.

There are six bills, each have about 20 to 25 different transactions that are bundled together.

I think it's a total of 121 transactions between the six bills.

Right here you can see a couple examples or one example of what an improved sidewalk would look like and you'll see some excerpts from Streets Illustrated or the right-of-way improvement manual that show how these easements come about because the sidewalk requirements, depending on the street type and the part of the city, And then just to wind things up, the process itself is the developer dedicates the property pursuant to the land use code.

The property is dedicated, in this case, mostly for sidewalks or widened sidewalks, but in some cases streets or alleys.

the after the development is complete or while the development is winding down, SDOT provides the environmental entitled due diligence review and then records the easements with the county.

And then the last step is for your approval with these council bills.

And I'm happy to try to answer questions, but I've also provided Gretchen's contact information if there are any more technical questions.

Thank you and I appreciate the briefing that your team provided to me last week on this to again know that this is ministerial in nature and these are small slivers that are being handed over to the city at no cost to us.

So I plan to move these out of committee this morning if we can.

Council members, any comments or questions about these six bills?

Okay, well let's go ahead and I'll go ahead and make the motion.

Council members, I now move that the committee recommend passage of these six bills, specifically Council Bills 120380 through 120383 and Council Bill 120403 and Council Bill 120404. Is there a second?

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the six council bills.

Any last minute comments or questions?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the six council bills?

Council Member Herbal?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Council Member Strauss?

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Four in favor, one abstention, none opposed.

Thank you.

Although I think, I don't think that counts as an abstention, but unless they say so.

So I think it's maybe it's, I believe it's just four in favor.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

I have a motion and a second.

Thank you.

So we have with us today members from the School Traffic Safety Committee to present their 2022 annual report.

As people may know, this is a group of 11 members made up of representatives from Seattle Public Schools, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Police Department, King County Metro, and I want to thank the city of Seattle and the city of Seattle for the support they have given us.

I want to really appreciate the Seattle department of transportation helps to provide staff support to the six advisory everybody volunteering their time for this for this important committee and Ashley read from status here with us and them also say hello to some of the the volunteer members I see Mariel and Russell there and others so thank you.

Ashley good morning.

Good morning.

Yes, so I'm actually read and they manage the safe routes to school program at a side and I'm here today with a few members of the school traffic safety committee as they present their 2022 annual report.

So we have Mary Ellen Russell, who is the chair of the committee, Margaret McCauley, and also Noah Guder, who is the newest member of our committee.

So I will pass it over to them.

Thank you.

My name is Margaret McCauley and I'm a parent of three public school students and very pleased to be on this committee and to have this opportunity to update you on our activities.

I just want to mention that there was apparently a lull in the reports of this committee and when we were meeting with the police department one time, they suggested that we get it going again so that you know what we're up to and how we can all work together to make sure that it's a vibrant, fun city for children to walk and roll to school.

So this is our 2022 annual report.

Next slide, please.

Well, the next slide when we get it.

Perfect.

We'll give a little background on what the committee is.

It's been around since 1975. And as mentioned earlier, it's kind of an I don't know if unique, but it's an interesting city board because it has members from a bunch of different organizations.

The public schools, I frequently find people don't know are a state institution.

Obviously the DOT and the police department are cities institutions.

And then Metro is obviously the county institution.

So it's a multiple bureaucracy situation in which worst case everyone can say it's someone else's problem and best case we can all come together and work our angles and fit the pieces of the puzzle together to make it go better.

I'm in one of the five volunteer positions, as mentioned earlier.

And we are lucky to have probably not the most robust, but fairly robust public participation, because these are issues that a lot of people care about.

And once they discover there's a place to go with it, they come.

Next slide.

And so when they come, they come because we have a number of pretty great responsibilities.

We are where to come if you have an issue about school traffic safety.

We are the independent agency, more or less, that gets to use the SDOT data to figure out where crosswalk locations and crossing guard locations are needed, and that's based on the ever changing situation in our city with schools and arterials and speeds.

So that does need to be updated fairly often.

Similarly with bullet three, which is traffic circulation, the city experiences population changes and always need to update the school buildings.

And so we look at when those change.

And we've had a big win last year on making those reviews more about student safety.

And we have some upcoming things in the slide deck about even more improvements, continuous improvement.

Elementary school walk boundaries, making sure that those match the skills and abilities of elementary school students.

Kind of a frustrating perennial is crossing guard recruitment.

We really need help with that.

And then, as mentioned earlier, we connect the different entities.

Next slide.

So what are the top needs now?

So we also got to present to the school board recently, which is great because, as we say, multiple people.

And the things that we're hoping for them is to help us with the crossing guard recruitment and to look at the transportation service standards.

And we'll tell you more about that.

It's really more of a school board thing, though.

For the city, we have some city code adjustments that we'll be talking about that would really help keep things focused on student safety.

So that's there's two different aspects of that.

So two different bullets on that.

And then another perennial is always more sidewalks, because as Mary Ellen once said, We now have kindergartners, particularly in the North and the South end, walking to school in the dark on streets with no sidewalks, which is not the best.

All right, so next slide.

So we have some great wins we want to talk about.

SDOT changed the requirements for both four-way stop signs and crosswalks, making them easier to install around schools.

One of the things that happens a lot is family members come in and they say, we can't seem to get a stop sign in front of the school.

Why?

And now we can!

Woohoo!

So this is really exciting.

And so it's already happening.

Ashley could probably tell us a whole bunch of places that she's able to do it now.

Yay!

Next slide.

have a new police rep on board.

The previous one retired, we were very sad.

But now we have a new one.

And he's Officer Davenport.

This is not actually Officer Davenport, but he is a motorcycle police officer.

And this is another SPD police officer.

So yeah, that's great.

Next slide.

This is another exciting win that we actually don't take any credit for, but we're super excited about because it will help fill in some gaps about free youth transit.

And we are very excited and we also want to sort of continue to appreciate the city for helping the district make these things work with that combined funding position that is about bus passes.

So yay!

Next slide.

This is not a big win.

Thank you SDOT.

We have always had an example at Genesee Hill in West Seattle and We had hoped for a number of years to offer that as an option for other schools because it seems to address a number of issues that families and communities routinely bring to us.

And so I'm happy to talk about the details of it, but, you know, making lemonade out of lemons, the pandemic helped make this happen in a, low stress way for all concerned.

And we expect as people get used to it, we'll see more and more of this happening around schools.

It'll be great.

And I can say that because of the Genesee Hill example, and because Ashley and Estad are good at getting the word out, people across the US are now referencing us for this, which is fun.

Next slide.

Sarah Colling is also on this meeting and she's the direct result of the city understanding the goals here, which is that The city is now funding a position at the district for Safer School, which is super exciting because it provides someone who can be on the inside approving things that need access to student data, which the rest of us, for very good reasons, aren't supposed to be seeing.

So there's a whole bunch of stuff she's already doing.

And she just started April, so no pressure.

It'll get better from here.

This is great.

Next slide.

And now we have some challenges.

Not too many zombies in Seattle, normally, but you know, there are there are some things to cover.

I think with the next slide, Mary Ellen's gonna take over.

Yeah, thank you, Margaret.

And, um, I just want to say, you know, thank you for having us here.

We really appreciate this opportunity to put these issues in front of you.

And I'm just going to touch on these 1st, couple of slides briefly, because these are ones who are really highlighting for this.

Yeah, the.

SPS school board, and we do want you to know that.

We are pushing them as well all the time to try and focus on some of these issues.

So when we push us that, and when we ask for help from city council, please bear in mind that we're, we're bothering everybody about this.

So, you know, high priorities for the school board is to reduce those crossing guard.

Vacancies, they had come down prior to the pandemic.

They've been historically high, about 40%, had come down to about 30%.

But then we lost a lot of crossing guards when they were furloughed.

And many crossing guards are retirees who are more concerned about health issues related to COVID.

So we are hoping to bring this back down.

And part of that is a lot of advertising.

And SDOT has been good enough to already amplify that message on their blog a little bit.

We appreciate that assist.

Next slide, please.

And then the comprehensive update to the transportation service standards.

One thing that SPS for a long time has really only looked at busing as transportation.

They haven't really considered the fact that half the students aren't eligible for busing, half the students get to school another way.

And the city's funding of the Safe Routes to School Coordinator at SPS is a big step in changing that and providing some support for the families who don't have any assistance getting their kids to school.

And we are incredibly appreciative of that.

And now that that is in place, we are asking Seattle Public Schools to take another look at their comprehensive transportation service standards and think about how else they can be responding to the needs of not just kids in buses, although there are improvements to be made there as well, but all students.

Next slide, please.

Now, this is one that we are wanting to highlight for council today.

We have talked about this previously, that one thing that we have observed when we're looking at these circulation plans for schools is that city land use code for school projects is very out of date.

It's not realistic at all.

The number of parking spaces that schools would be required to build are, on some sites, completely impossible.

You pave the entire playground, you make the building smaller, and you still can't get it done.

So what this means is that Seattle Public Schools has to go through departures on nearly every single project.

And there are a handful of repeat offenders.

It's bus loading.

You have to go through departures just to keep your bus loading as is, not even to change it.

The number of parking spaces is astronomical, completely impossible.

And then there are a couple of silly ones like building heights, which seems like it makes sense except that even just to change out the HVAC equipment that's on top of the building, they got to go through a departure process just to upgrade the furnace on a historic landmark building.

This doesn't make sense.

The signage is one that the signs are allowed by departures the same way every time, but according to code, you can't do it.

It's another one that causes them to have to go through departures.

We've had some meetings about this.

I know I've spoken to Council Member Peterson and Council Member Strauss about it more than once.

And we've had meetings with STCI about it.

And everybody agrees, I think, that, you know, STCI told us flatly that they think that this should change, that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

It doesn't add anything.

It's just a question of getting it prioritized.

And the delay process with the departures is the big problem.

Money to construct schools is allocated several years in advance.

And departures can be appealed so every appeal that delays departure even a few months is eating away at how much building you can actually buy because of inflation, because the money doesn't doesn't grow over time you're just waiting to get that construction done and it adds up to about two and a half million dollars every year that just.

and it doesn't add anything to the project.

So we have heard from Councilmember Strauss and Councilmember Peterson's offices that this, you know, that they're coordinating with the mayor and that this is moving this year.

We've also, SPS has heard from, I believe Nathan Torgelson is his name at SDCI, that they are looking at this and we really applaud that.

And we would really encourage making sure, following up on this, to make this the year it really changes so that we can stop just losing this taxpayer money and start getting more schools, more playgrounds, more of everything that we want for our kids without having to spend any more money.

So this seems like if we can just get the political will to get it done, this is a common-sense fix that'll make a huge difference for kids, and we encourage you to please I know there are a million priorities, but please make this a priority for this year.

Next slide.

Thanks.

And then another thing that we've observed during this process of being involved in the early reviews is that SDOT does not always respond to schools as we would hope.

You know, as Margaret pointed out, schools are part of the state government, not part of the city government.

And as a result, we have seen that SDOT doesn't always view them as a partner.

They view them as, you know, any old applicant that's coming in, and we're going to get as much as we can in terms of street improvements.

And what we understand that that, you know, that is Intended to maximize public benefit.

It's it's really often not doing that in schools because we've seen requests for improvements requirements for improvements that are not.

geared towards the safety needs of schools.

And then we've also seen that once the SIP process is done and the permits are hand and construction is started, there's some inconsistency amongst inspectors.

If the person who is the inspector changes out in the middle of the problem for some reason, then suddenly it's like you haven't done all this work across multiple years to get everybody on the same page and agree what needs to be done.

and get it permitted, you start over.

And they say, now I want this, and now I want this.

That was what they said.

This is what I said.

So that's a huge problem.

It causes change orders, cost overruns, and more delays in the middle of construction.

So we're really asking for two things.

We're asking for SDOT to make this no surprises commitment.

that they're going to honor what the previous staff have agreed to in writing on a project.

And we had a really productive meeting at our last School Traffic Safety Committee meeting with members from the group.

We think that this is improving now and we're hoping to be able to to make a better report on this next year.

But then the other thing we would really like to ask is that SDOT should create a policy that directs staff to focus on school traffic safety when reviewing these, not general neighborhood, car throughput, and that weighs the benefits of the dollars.

If we're looking at these dollars that are publicly funded and, you know, are these dollars that we're pulling out of the project to use on street improvements We would like a policy that directs us that to formally consider maximizing the public good, not just the transportation benefits when they're looking at schools projects.

And it seems like there's never enough.

But the truth is that Estoppe builds about 25 blocks of sidewalks a year.

And 2,400 blocks within a quarter miles of schools don't have sidewalks.

So as Margaret touched on, that is a lot of kids walking to school, kids whose families don't necessarily have other options.

And they do it in the rain in December when it's pitch black.

and they need to be able to get to school safely.

And so we just want to remind you as you're heading into budget season, something you know, but something that I think is easy to get lost when you're looking at very many important priorities, that a choice to prioritize sidewalk funding to increase the pedestrian programs funding is also a choice to prioritize student safety.

Next slide, please.

And so this is just a review of what we asked the school board for.

And if you'll go to the next slide.

And summary of what we're asking city council to do.

We're looking to really find more money for the pedestrian programs to fill in gaps in walking routes to schools, update city code to eliminate habitual departures for SPS projects, and let our taxpayer money build more schools instead of going to process.

Then on the school streets, which are a wonderful new program, we would like you to ask SDOT to add effective physical markers for school streets.

This is new, and right now they just have signage.

And so that's something that should be explored going forward is what does this street treatment look like in the future?

And then lastly, direct SDOT to have a policy that focuses requirements for school projects on the needs of those school communities.

Next slide.

And then we, I think all of us just want to say we really appreciate the opportunity to do this work.

Appreciate you taking the time to listen to us.

And we look forward to continuing working to improve traffic safety for kids in the coming year.

Thank you very much for your commitment to safety for school children throughout Seattle and for doing all this hard thinking about what to prioritize and what does a school district need to do and then what does the city government need to do and hearing your call to action for the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection and also the Seattle Department of Transportation.

And so I'm supportive of many of the things you're recommending here.

We will hope to see some of this in the budget that we get from the executive departments and then do some regulatory work through our committees.

Council Members, any comments or questions here?

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair Peterson.

It's really great to see you folks.

Mary Ellen, Margaret, I know that we've met and met together about this.

Noah, great to see you.

And Ashley, thanks for all your work.

I know you were briefly talking about departures.

I know that's not necessarily a city transportation issue.

I can tell you that since our conversation, I've also spoken with members of the mayor's office, and I think that we've got a route ahead for that.

And I just wanted to take this moment to I really appreciated your presentation and I appreciate you reaching out to me personally as well because the information that you provide me allows us to do a better job.

And I think that that's why, you know, in this conversation, I can say the issues about departures, that's something we've already got on our docket and that's because of you.

So this feedback loop of having you come before us and share out and meet with us individually is very helpful.

So I just wanted to pipe in and say, keep up the great work.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

I thought you might have some good news to report on that front, so I'm glad you chimed in.

Thank you.

And then Councilmember Morales and then Councilmember Herbold.

I don't have to turn off anything.

I'm looking for how to unmute myself.

I don't have to do that right now.

Thank you all.

This is really, really important work that you're doing.

I've got two kids in Seattle Public Schools.

So I know how critical it is that we make sure our students can get around safely.

I am just wondering, you mentioned a little bit about the stay healthy streets and the sidewalk issue.

And I know it's very expensive to build repair sidewalks.

And so I'm wondering, one of the things that we've also talked about is, I'm gonna forget the name of it now, home zones.

Is that the right?

Okay, sorry.

So I'm just wondering if you have thought about other treatments that could be done around schools.

I mean, I'm certainly supportive of trying to get as many sidewalks as we can, but I'm wondering if there are other things that you've thought about that could help make it easier and safer for our students to get to school.

Well, so yes, we have, I know Ashley, you've been working on the home zones.

Do you wanna chime in?

I can chime in.

So we do have several active home zone projects around schools right now, for example, around Rainier View and Olympic Hills.

So it's, the home zone program is sort of separate from Safe Routes to School, but they do serve schools and do projects around schools.

So they are, you know, like you said, Council Member Morales, they are working on developing, using a new tool essentially in order to increase the amount of safe space for people to walk in their neighborhoods and to walk to destinations like schools.

They also, at times that does also include sidewalks.

So for example, around Rainier View right now, which is one of our high priority schools, because of the demographics of the schools and also because of the near complete lack of sidewalk infrastructure within their walk zone.

We have several million dollars that we've been able to bring together from Safe Routes to School funding, Home Zone funding, a council budget action that was passed last year for sidewalks in District 2. And so we've been able to bring together funds from a few different sources, and the Home Zone program is doing a really great comprehensive outreach to a group of neighbors that are working together on pedestrian safety in their neighborhood, and then also engaging with the school, school leadership, their PTA, and families.

So they are doing that kind of comprehensive neighborhood-wide look at how do we build a connected network so that people can get to bus stops and schools and other destinations within the neighborhood.

As I said, that's also something that's going on around Olympic Hills as well.

So every year, the home zone program is taking on new projects and new parts of the city, and they definitely prioritize schools when identifying neighborhoods to work with.

And Ashley, do you happen to know how many blocks get home zones every year?

How many neighborhood, how many home zones we do each year?

I mean, you know, we're talking about how it's about 25 new blocks of sidewalks, which is going to be 100 years to get them all done.

So if we did home zones instead, you know, do you know the rate of construction?

I don't know that I could I could find that out.

And it depends on so the the size of the home zone is determined based off of that community process.

So the community kind of comes together and determines, you know, what are the bounds of the home zone?

So it might be bigger or larger, depending on on the neighborhood.

But I could yeah, I could find out how many blocks are included within home zones each year.

Thank you, Ashley, I would love to follow up with you on that, and that was part of the rationale behind putting that council budget council budget action in was knowing that, you know, As Mary Ellen said, it'll take us 300 years to build all the sidewalks.

So what else can we do that can increase safety and stretch our dollars a little bit farther?

So I'm definitely interested in working with all of you to move us in that direction so that our students can get around our neighborhood safely and everybody could get around and access the goods and services that they need a little bit more easily.

Thank you.

And I will also follow up with you and with Councilmember Strauss about the land use issues.

I'm very interested in seeing what we need to do there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you so much.

I also want to echo my colleagues appreciation for the work you're doing.

I'm really also thankful to Chair Peterson for having your briefing before us so soon before the mayor announces his proposed 2023 budget.

So your recommendation will be fresh in our mind as we move into the budget cycle.

I do have one question about the Crossing Walk program.

I understand the large percentage of vacancies, I think it was upwards of 35% vacancies right now, that that is attributable to people who are older and are leaving, doing that work associated With COVID, I'm wondering what has led to an assessment of how to increase recruitment and reduce barriers to becoming a crosswalk attendant?

Yeah, thank you for the question.

So there had part of the problem is that since Seattle Public Schools took over the crossing guard program from the police, I think it's about 15 years ago now.

There had been always a very high vacancy rate and SPS had been kind of afraid to fill all the empty spots because they didn't have dedicated funding.

That was fixed just about a year before the pandemic started when the stop paddle tickets on buses, so tickets to people who don't stop for stop buses, was implemented.

And by state law, that money has to go to traffic safety improvements.

And so that's what's been paying for the crossing guards.

So after that, We made a big push, and we did see improvements, but it's still a difficult position to fill.

It's two hours, two non-consecutive hours a day.

And as we mentioned in the slides, one of the things we're really asking SPS to do is waive the upfront fee for background checks, because for someone on a fixed income who is interested in making $32 a day at a job, a $55 upfront fee is a substantial hurdle.

We are hoping that we can make another big push just to let people know that these jobs are out there, that they are paid, while also eliminating that issue that slows down and discourages people from coming, you know, finishing the process, that between those we can start to see that rate substantially come down this year.

And so are you saying that there's like a fall off between applying for the position and sort of taking that last step?

All right, that's interesting.

The crossing guard manager has told us that is pretty common that people say, oh, you know, actually, I have to wait till my next month's check comes in before I can pay that.

And then a month later, you know, maybe they've moved on or yeah, there's a fall off.

Thank you.

I just want to add.

We're also hoping that having the safe versus school person in place at the district will help because, as you might expect, it's usually someone who lives nearby who's interested and wants to help neighbors and whatnot.

you know, I actually have a full-time job and the three kids and all that stuff.

So as a committee, we haven't been able to develop those PTA and schools without PTA connections to really sort of do that.

The DOT was working with the police department to put up signs on the intersection saying, we need a crossing guard here.

And that was actually remarkably effective.

It was really great.

And so those, those like very specific local interactions are what

build generates interest that's great yeah and that's that's all thanks to to city council to the city of seattle allocating the funding for that position um now that we expect to see a lot of improvements now this is our first year you know full-time year starting at it but we're incredibly happy that she's there and very thankful that city council took that on thank you so much both of you

Thank you, and I know we can, for those able to, we can continue to advertise those positions in our newsletters that we send out to constituents.

It's a nice thing to add in there to encourage people to become crossing guards.

Well, again, thank you all for this report, and there are several follow-up items, so we'll stay in contact with you and appreciate the good work that you're doing for us and for being here today with this report.

Thank you for having us.

All right, bye.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ashley.

Okay, will the clerk please read the full title of the next agenda item into the record?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you investments that we make.

So good morning, Joanna and Jonathan.

Morning.

Thank you for having us.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Yes.

Great.

So I'm here with Joanna Valencia.

Joanna, do you want to introduce yourself first?

Thanks, Jonathan.

Good morning everyone.

I'm Joanna Valencia.

I have the pleasure and opportunity to serve as the co-lead of the Seattle Transportation Plan with Jonathan and I also serve as SDOT's Policy and Planning, Revenue and Capital Development Manager.

Good morning.

Good morning and I'm Jonathan Lewis.

I'm the Transportation Planning Manager at Seattle DOT and co-lead of the Seattle Transportation Plan with Joanna.

So thank you so much for having us.

We were here last on March 15th to give an update.

And so really excited to be back to check in on the progress and let folks know and council members know how, what's coming up for in terms of engagement and the process.

So thank you so much, council chair and committee for having us today.

So we'll join and I will tackle three things.

I'll provide a quick overview of the STP planning process and where we are.

And then Joanna will chat about engagement and what's been going on and what to expect in the next few months, as well as give an update on key milestones over the next 12 months.

So, on the next slide, just a reminder that this transportation plan is our long range plan.

We'll be looking out 20 years to 2044. And this is our blueprint for how we provide safe, efficient, affordable options to connect our city.

And on the next slide, we'll talk a little bit about four key goals for this effort.

So the first is just collectively reimagining our vision for the system.

We'll be working closely with the comprehensive planning team.

We've got multiple points of weekly and biweekly check-ins and engagement with project management and outreach.

And on the technical side, to collaborate with them.

Of course, our comprehensive planning team, as you know, is looking out, is taking a look at our growth strategy for the city, so where we grow.

And we're working closely with them to match our transportation plan and try to keep that in sync.

We're also looking at ST3, the sound transit investments of light rail and better bus service across the city and how we leverage that.

And then other key changes like the impacts of COVID and changes in technology.

Autonomous vehicles will certainly gain traction during this planning horizon and thinking about the impacts and how we manage that.

On the second point here, planning for people and building on the excellent foundation of what we call the modal master plans.

There are four of those, walking, biking, transit, and freight.

how we think about those networks and how they work together to meet our community's needs.

And then on the next slide, I'll talk a little bit about more about the values and how we carry this through the process.

And then finally, you'll hear from John about the engagement.

So here on our values are in that dashed box of equity, safety, mobility, sustainability, livability and excellence.

And we're working to carry those through at each step in the process and constantly checking ourselves and our process and our engagement strategies against those values.

And then our work in the plan against what we're calling our priority goals.

So on the climate action side, we've started to see a downturn in total carbon emissions in the city, but we need to see much more significant progress to achieve the goal established by the city and city council of a carbon-neutral transportation system by 2050. On the equity side, this summer, our colleagues released the Transportation Equity Framework, which they developed with a work group of a similar name.

Excellent work, and we've identified several dozen strategies and tactics out of that work that we're advancing in this process.

And that, of course, includes a more equity-focused engagement strategy that you'll hear from Joanna about.

On the safety side, I heard about school traffic safety, a really important wedge in creating a safe transportation system.

And of course, you know that some of our most vulnerable users of our streets are seeing crashes and serious and fatal crashes headed in the wrong direction.

So how do we work as a city to bend that curve in the opposite direction?

And then on the stewardship side, three key wedges there.

First, around our stewardship of our dollars at SDOT and how we get the best use of those public dollars.

The maintenance side, our streets, bridges, other assets, how we leverage those investments.

And then on the risk management side as well.

In the blue box, you see the key elements of the plan.

When you see the finished product next summer and the draft next spring, You'll see those key pieces there.

I'll just draw attention to the funding and prioritization framework funding strategy.

And in the development of both of those, we're working very closely with our future transportation funding package team.

That's the package that will replace our current levy.

Okay, so I'll pass it off at this point to Joanna to talk about Engagement and process and and the next milestones.

Thanks.

Thanks, Jonathan.

So, in terms of the schedule, just as a reminder to project launched in March 2022, and the planning process for the is expected to last until June 2023, where we envisioned that the mayor will transmit his recommended STP planning documents as Jonathan mentioned with the components that he listed in the previous slide.

Uh, to city council, so our public engagement is envisioned to take place during 3 distinct phases as shown in the slide before you, and we'll allow participants to influence and provide feedback on the technical elements of the plan.

Really?

We've been hyper focused on making sure that we are co creating the with our community.

And so happy to report back that we've just completed our phase 1 of public engagements during this phase.

I had a lot of robust conversation with our community around values and goals and also how we measure progress and what the community priorities are.

We are getting ready to kick off our next phase of that and continuing the conversation that we had with the community in phase 1. in the interest of co-creation, really going back to them and confirming to see if we got it right.

If what we have put together in regards to values and goals reflect what we heard from the community and confirming that with them.

And then additionally too, as part of phase two, really starting to define the future of our transportation system.

And it includes what our menu of actions could look like that is consistent with the values and goals that we heard from the community and exactly how and where those changes should be made.

Phase 3 of the public engagement plan will occur early next year in anticipation of transmitting the plan to council.

And this will include continuing to build on phase 2 and confirming some of those menus of actions, but then also starting to hear feedback on prioritization, what that criteria of items looks like and how we prioritize and how we fund the plan and where to prioritize the dollars.

And again, just hearkening back to our goal is to finish the STP by the summer of 2023.

And we've got a question from Councilmember Morales.

Yeah, I don't know if you want to go through the whole presentation.

Okay.

Yeah, you can go ahead and ask during.

Thank you.

Sure.

Well, thank you, Joanna and Jonathan.

I think I will probably come back to this later, but sort of big picture.

I'm interested in how this process of, you know, vision and goal setting aligns with the timing of our vision and goal setting for the COMP plan.

I know, you know, the departments are working closely together, but as that process determines how our neighborhoods will change and grow.

I'm wondering how SDOT will adapt if those goals don't align with what, given that that is a year, that is planned for completion a year after this one is.

Thank you, Council Member.

That's a great question.

I think on the front end, our schedules are really closely aligned.

It's as you get to the the later months where the comprehensive planning team has more time to wrap things up.

So, on the front end, on the policy framework, which is like the vision, values, goals portions, we'll be able to stay in sync with them.

And then as we get into the recommendations portions and the specifics of responding to the growth strategy, we should have at least a refined direction or some level of clarity on the growth direction.

And we'll be developing transition strategies that help support the direction that we see the city going, as well as potential contingencies if there is some uncertainty there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question, council member.

If there aren't any questions, I'll continue on with the presentation.

So, as I had shared, we're just finishing off our phase one engagement.

And as part of this process, I really wanted to tie into one of our biggest goals of engagement is to ensure that we are uplifting the voices of communities that we have not traditionally heard from before as part of our planning processes.

As part of this, we purposely design and engagement strategy that partners with community based organizations.

So we're working with 7 community based organizations as well as a number of department and neighborhood community liaisons that that focuses on this and.

There's a list there in front of you just to let you know who the community-based organizations we are working with.

But additionally, in regards to our work with community liaisons, they include representatives from our Somali, Filipino, Cham, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Cambodian and house communities.

So really, again, as I mentioned, focused on uplifting voices that we have not traditionally heard from before.

Um, there's a list there of some of the work that we've been doing with our community based organizations, and this is included in language support and also in community events to to outreach to these communities.

And in the next slide, just kind of highlights just some of the activities that we've been up to as part of phase 1 engagement.

We've been excited as an in person events have come back this summer and our team has been out in the community collecting feedback.

We were very excited to engage in live surveying and interactive visiting exercises during a lot of festivals.

And community events additionally, we've had opportunity to meet with a variety of stakeholders, including business interest groups, neighborhood specific organizations, bike, ped and advocacy groups as well as a variety of other advocacy groups around climate action and healthy environments.

Additionally, we've been working closely with transportation equity work group.

Um, especially focused around, um, as Jonathan mentioned, um, implementation of the transportation equity framework that's just been recently completed.

Additionally, we've been working in partnership with a number of agencies, um, both through, um, comp plans into departmental team.

Um, and being able to engage with a variety of different city departments, um, city wide, and then also, um, with agencies like washed out and, um, the port of Seattle in regards to specific outreach to those, um, agencies.

And the next slide, um, want to highlight what we've been hearing so far and who we've been hearing so far from.

We have over 2100 survey participants in also input into what you're seeing there is a graphic of where we've been receiving interactive map comments and.

Um, as you can see there, we've had some success in regards to city wide outreach, but continue to revise in and pivot our engagement strategies as we're continuing to analyze who we're hearing from and the areas that we're hearing from in order to ensure that we are hearing from from everyone.

So, um.

Some of the things I wanted to highlight there in regards to comments emphasize, I'm excited to hear about the conversation earlier about safety and vision 0. and as we're hearing from our communities, nearly all participants involve value, creating a safe, reliable and sustainable transportation system.

Additionally.

Most participants would prefer concentrated investment in non-motorized people-oriented transportation, including walking, bicycling, and transit.

And we heard from a lot of respondents saying, you know, with a focus on putting money towards sidewalks, bike lanes to help people walk, roll, and bike more, and putting money towards transit to make it more convenient and reliable as top priorities from the community.

Additionally, we've heard from participants, again, continuing to emphasize walking, rolling and public transit as alternatives to personal automobile and use in all areas of the cities.

And additionally, in areas of the city that have been historically invested in and lack sidewalks, safe bike facilities and easy access to transit, there's a stated need to have these elements built out to give people options to travel safely and efficiently without needing a car.

As part of some equitable infrastructure concerns that we've we've heard from our community.

And the next slide.

Pardon me, we do have a comment or question from Council Member Herbold.

Yes, thank you.

Really appreciate it.

I appreciate your acknowledgement that the community engagement efforts were, whereas I'm sure they were equally applied.

The results have not borne the same level of engagement in all parts of the city and as the Councilmember representing District 1, I can't help but notice the heat map for District 1, and just wondering, could you talk a little bit more about how you're looking to fill these gaps in engagement, and if there's anything I can do to help?

Thank you.

Yes.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Councilmember Herbold.

So as part of the strategies that we've been looking at, and Yes, district your district definitely as an area that we want to focus on this includes we've done some stakeholder mapping of organizations that are specific to to the areas and we'll be doing some focus outreach to them in order to engage.

We're looking at other future events that we can continue to participate in as we go go into fall.

And Council Member Herbold, in regards to your assistance and other Council Members' assistance, it'd be helpful if there's opportunity for us to help share some of the information through your newsletters that you send out, and then also if there's any in-person events or other sort of hybrid events that we can also tap into to be able to reach out to your constituents.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

We'll be in touch.

Yeah.

And Joanna, when you had When I had gotten a briefing on this, you had noted that that heat map there is for interactive map comments and might not have included other outreach efforts you had done in the other areas of the city.

Yeah, that's correct council members and thanks for the reminder of that.

So the graphic represented is just part of 1 aspect of our phase 1 engagement, which was collecting input into our social pinpoint mapping system.

But in addition to this.

We also had in person engagement in which included survey participation as well as middle of comment cards and we're still digesting that information to get a grasp of where we were able to receive that information as well.

So there'll be some supplementary information that can give us.

Additional info on on where gaps are, but as I mentioned, council member, there's a lot of opportunities and look forward to working with you to ensure voices are are being heard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If there's no other questions, just closing it up here with three more slides.

So in regards to our phase two engagements, which we're hoping to kick off and we'll run for the next four months, again, emphasizing kind of hearing back from going back to our community and continuing the concept of co-creation and confirming goals and vision statements and And the values and making sure that that is being reflected in some of those deliverables and elements of the plan that we are developing.

And then additionally, those menu of actions and strategic directions and understanding trade offs and in order to meet our goals and objectives and running some exercises with our community to.

to understand where the community would like to see some of these big moves and changes, but then also what they would support in regards to getting to some of those goals and objectives.

And then additionally, continuing to build on engagement efforts to reach underrepresented communities, but then also just, as I shared, continuing to analyze our engagement efforts and pivot and refine to ensure that we engage citywide.

In regards to some upcoming milestones that are coming up the next slide here.

Shows what we have on deck for the remaining remainder of the project here.

So, including the launch of our phase 2 here in September during this next fall, reflecting our internal technical analysis with what we're hearing from the community, including looking at the modal network integrations, or the mapping components of the plan and also.

The modernization tasks, or also the menu of actions in order to to update our networks into 2023. We aim to publish the draft plan for public review in April, and which will subsequently also align with a phase 3 launch of of community engagement.

And again, a target of transmittal of the mayor's recommended plan to city council in the summer.

And our last slide here just shows where you can direct folks to.

Again, as I shared, it'd be helpful.

And we'd love to work with you about how to push out phase two through your constituents.

And we have a lot of handouts and flyers and links.

We'd appreciate your help in being able to share with the community.

And I'll stop there and ask for any questions.

Thank you.

Councilmember Morales.

Thank you.

So I do have a question, but I think I first want to go back to a couple things you said, Joanna.

So I think I need to understand the timing better between phase one and phase two.

You know that that map definitely shows that you've at least based on that particular map, you've heard a lot from more well resourced better resourced neighborhoods.

There's, you know, not much.

I guess I'm looking at slide nine, the, the north end the south end West Seattle certainly.

And so I understand and I'm happy to help spread the word that you're looking for more feedback to the survey, but if the intent of phase one is to establish kind of the vision and goals.

And you haven't heard from a large part of the city.

I feel like it's premature to start talking about trade-offs in phase two before you've actually been able to compile the rest of that information and whatever else you might be hearing from these parts of the city that are underrepresented in your survey.

So can you just talk a little bit more about what that process is gonna be to hear from people before you start moving into phase two?

And council member, the other thing that I'll add that probably didn't emphasize as much was that the map that you're showing there is just representative of.

the social pinpoint activity that we completed, which is sort of how we received mapping spatial sort of feedback.

But in addition, I wanted to reference our work with our community based organizations and our community liaisons who were also receiving feedback on and we're putting those summaries together right now.

As part of the phase 1 engagement and what I wanted to point to that is because that is where a lot of our partnerships in our outreach to those specific communities that you, you may be seeing our gaps that's reflected.

In the maps, it is what we're targeting in regards to outreach.

So we have a lot of partnership with community based organizations.

They're in South Seattle as well as the South Park, South Park, Georgetown, Duwamish, and neighborhoods.

And so I have partnership with them in regards to doing focused outreach that we have been doing with those communities that will be inputted as part of the phase 1 feedback.

Just, you know, Not necessarily just spatial inputs, but more information and detail to in survey and our community based organizations have been running some some in language.

Exercises with them in order to be able to receive similar feedback as we've been doing through our social pinpoint on our online mapping activities.

And so again.

The map there doesn't completely reflect that and that's something that we'll continue to work on.

So that's when you hear from us and the next round, we can more clearly kind of.

Refine and show the city wide effort that's been occurring, but there's definitely been a lot of different layers to the phase 1 activities.

That is. also beyond just the mapping exercise that you're seeing reflected.

Well, I appreciate that.

And I appreciate you mentioning the in-language translation too.

That's obviously really important to make sure we're hearing from everybody.

And I also appreciate that you've provided this map to give us a sense of all the work you've done.

And of course, we pounce on it to show where we haven't heard from people.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

I do want to ask, so I appreciate this.

It's helpful to understand where you are in the process.

And this presentation really is mostly about engagement.

It doesn't really share anything about the actual alternatives that have been presented.

So can you maybe first talk a little bit about the alternatives that were included in the SIPA analysis?

And then I have a couple of questions about what I know some folks are asking for to be included as well.

Sure.

I'm gonna hand over the SIPA alternatives discussion to Jonathan.

Thank you Council Member.

We just concluded our SIPA scoping comment period a few weeks ago and are busy processing and going through the comments that we've received.

as well as coordinating closely with the comprehensive planning team, who their comment period, I believe, just closed.

It was extended.

It was a little bit longer comment period than ours.

And we are coordinating on our approach to the alternatives together to make sure that the transition alternatives we're studying are in sync with the comp plan alternatives.

So we are working to issue joint responses to the comments, as well as the alternatives that we'll be analyzing in the SEPA process together in about three or so weeks before we're able to put that out.

But we're working closely with them on that.

So that hasn't been submitted yet?

The comment period closed, but we haven't finalized our responses and the alternatives that we'll be working on.

That's right.

Okay, so, um, the so we are hearing from community members who are really advocating for kind of accelerating the shifts to multimodal options.

Um, and really for being intentional about how we prepare our transportation infrastructure to accommodate what I think people are just sort of referring to as 15 minute city.

Um, So this is why I'm asking, right?

Because I'm really interested in, especially as it aligns with our comprehensive plan and the work that is happening there.

I've been advocating for the kind of neighborhoods where everybody has access to their essential goods and services.

And we heard from the new appointee today about being able to access grocery stores and childcare and medical appointments without having to get in a car.

And so I'm just really interested to know if what we are going to propose includes an idea like that to really make our complete streets work and actually implement the things that we've been talking about lately.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Yes, we, on the land use side, the comprehensive planning team is considering, I believe, because Council very pointedly asked them to, the 15-minute city concept.

I believe they're calling it like a community nodes concept.

And then our alternatives will certainly be looking at what types of actions we need to take to achieve the carbon neutral and Vision Zero targets, which does require a substantial increase in walking and biking and transit trips.

So we'll be looking closely with that and collaborating closely with the ComPlan team on those options.

So thank you.

Thank you, Jeff.

Thank you.

Thanks for those answers, Jonathan and Joanna.

And thanks for this presentation and laying out the timeline going forward.

We'll definitely have you back here at our committee.

We can have you back several times as you're hitting milestones or if you need input for certain milestones.

So we'll definitely ask you to come back, but also let us know when you think the best time to come back is and we can accommodate that.

All right, well, thank you.

If there are no other comments or questions for this team, we'll go ahead and move on to the final item on today's agenda.

Will the clerk please read the full title of the final agenda item into the record?

Agenda item 10, overview of solid waste rates bill for briefing and discussion.

Okay, well, transportation's been taking up, has been the star of the show so far, but we're saving, is it the best for last year, maybe?

We'll have this information item, but it will become, it will be a council bill we'll be voting on as early as September 20th.

So this concerns Seattle Public Utilities solid waste rates for the years 2023 through 2025. The council bill, we've got a draft of that on our agenda and then we'll have a presentation today and then we'll vote on it on September 20th.

I'm pleased that SPU's proposal seems to maintain the utility's high quality services to dispose of Seattle's solid waste with rates that are well below inflation in terms of their adjustments.

So keeping their promises, SPU's proposed rate increases are consistent with the projected rate path from their strategic business plan adopted by the council May 2021. And we're going to talk about one of the key pieces, one of the key lines of business of disposing of solid waste.

So that's trash, recycling, and compost.

We have with us our general manager, CEO, Andrew Lee, welcome, and his team.

And I do want to acknowledge Brian Goodnight from our City Council Central staff who is reviewing these materials thoroughly for online council members and Wanted to open it up, actually, Brian, if you had any introductory remarks for this presentation today.

Thank you, Chair Peterson.

No, I don't have any introductory remarks, so I'm happy to just turn it over to Seattle Public Utilities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Andrew Lee, good morning.

Thank you, Chair Peterson and members of the committee.

Today, we're going to be presenting to you SPU Solid Waste Rates Proposal for the years 2023 through 2025. As you know, SPU has three lines of business, water, drainage and wastewater, and solid waste.

And each of these utilities has its own revenue sources and capital improvement projects, but they share many operations and administrative activities within SPU and also the city.

Like Councilmember Peterson mentioned, the solid waste utility collects and processes recycling, compostables, and residential and commercial garbage.

Rates are typically set on a three-year schedule with one rate proposal for each line of business each year.

And this year, we're going to be proposing solid waste rates.

Previously, solid waste rates were proposed for the years 2020, 2021, and 22. And those were adopted by the council in 2019. This current rate period for this proposal covers the years 2023, 24, and 25. And the new rates would go into effect on April 1st of each year.

At this point, I'm going to hand off the presentation to Carl Stickle, our Finance Division Director, to provide more details on our rate proposal and how it specifically ties back to SPU's strategic business plan that we just got adopted recently.

And so at this point, before proceeding further, I just want to ask, do committee members have any questions that I can answer before we hand off to Carl?

If not, then I will hand it off to Carl.

Thank you.

Great.

Thanks, Andrew.

Hello, I'm Carl Stickle.

I'm with the Finance Division of Seattle Public Utilities.

I'm here to talk about solid waste rates.

As Andrew mentioned, our rates are typically set on a three-year schedule with one rate study per year.

This year, it's solid waste rates turn.

We've updated and forecasted solid waste rates for the next three years, from 2023 to 2025, and I'm gonna walk you through our proposal.

Next slide, please, Spencer.

So I don't want to bury the lead.

I'll preview the proposed rate path.

So you see that, and then I'll touch on our solid waste system.

Just to give you some context, we'll dive into the proposed rates and the impact to customer bills, and then highlight the next steps in the process.

Thank you.

Here's our proposed rate path.

You see two tables here.

The top table is the rate path that you endorsed last year as part of our six year strategic business plan.

The gray shaded boxes are what was adopted in ordinance at the time.

You'll notice in the lower right-hand corner that the combined six-year average rate is 4.2% that you approved.

The good news is the lower table represents our current proposal, which includes our proposed solid waste rates.

And you'll note that the overall combined rate is actually lower than that of what we thought it would be last year as part of the strategic business plan at 4.0%.

I'd like to point out just a couple of things on this table.

Since the strategic business plan was approved last year, there have been two approved rate studies, one for water and one for drainage and wastewater, hence the newly gray shaded areas.

Those adopted rates, which were actually lower than what we'd assumed in the strategic business plan, which helps us in keeping our overall rate lower.

The second thing I wanted to mention was that our current proposal also assumes the increase in King County's wastewater treatment rate, which went up, and that's going to be subject of another piece of legislation that you'll see separately in on I think September 20. we've included our 2023-2024 proposed budget costs within this rate path as well, though of course you'll see the proposed budget later this month when Mayor Harrell formally transmits the budget.

That said, I think the key takeaway here is that the combined overall FPU rate path goes from 4.2% down to 4.0%.

Here's a more Here's a little bit more detail on the solid waste rates themselves.

You'll see that what we had assumed in the strategic business plan on the very top line, which for the six year period was an average of 2.4%.

The rates in bold on the second line are the updated proposed rates for your consideration.

In some cases, the rate is lower, like in 2023. The rate is the same in 2024. And then it ticks up in 2025. You're only adopting rates for 2023 to 2025. The 2026 rate is just our current estimate right now.

And we wanted to put that in there just to show consistently with the six-year strategic business plan.

I think probably the only change worth mentioning here is contract assumptions.

As part of our agreements for solid waste services, our contracts have provisions that can impact rates, particularly in 2025 for fuel, CPI, and labor costs.

All told, the solid waste rate moves from 0.1% from an assumed rate of 2.4 to our adopted rate of 2.5%.

And I'll get to what that means for bills to our customers in just a minute.

But first, I wanted to provide just a brief overview of our solid waste system if just to give you some context for what we do and how we do it.

So this shows a high-level overview of the solid waste, of how solid waste is collected and processed in the city.

The majority of solid waste services are contracted out to a number of companies.

Solid waste is either collected by contractors or you can bring it in yourself to transfer stations or self-haul.

We own and operate the two transfer stations, North and South, and we provide yard waste, organics, recycling, garbage for single and multifamily households, as well as for commercial customers.

To give you the magnitude of the services we provide, we have 168,000 residential garbage cans.

We have 5,300 multifamily and 8,100 commercial large bins.

As you know, waste is processed and disposed of in different ways, depending on the waste stream.

For recycling, our collection contractors, Waste Management and Recology, haul recycling direct to Republic Services Facility, which is at 3rd and Lander.

Yard waste and organics material is delivered to our transfer stations and then transported to processing facilities at Lenz, which is up in Snohomish County in Stanwood, and Cedar Grove, which has facilities in Everett and over in Maple Valley.

Garbage is delivered to transfer stations as well, and then transported by train to a landfill in Oregon.

This is a look at tonnage numbers for SPU solid waste compared to population.

Recycling and organics are more than half of the waste stream at about 54% and rising.

As population increases, the majority of added tonnage is from recycling and organics with just a smaller uptick in garbage.

Overall, waste generation is increasing at a slower rate than population growth in the city.

So that's a good thing.

This is a look at revenues and expenses for solid waste.

For the rate study, the ultimate goal is to set rates at a level that covers expenses and ensures financial stability for the fund.

Residential is the largest share in terms of revenues and includes single and multifamily customers.

Commercial is the next largest.

Transfer stations are a growing part of the revenue stream.

Other revenue includes recycling commodity revenues, this is when we sell recyclables to processors.

For expenses.

Solid waste contracts are by far the largest piece of the pie, consisting of over 50% of total expenditures.

These are the green-hued pie pieces for single-family, multifamily, and commercial.

This includes collections, processing, and disposal costs for those three customers.

At SBU, we also pay utility taxes to both the city and state, as well as debt service for our bonds.

And then the remaining other O&M are the branch expenses that we use to run our solid waste operations.

The Solid Waste Fund is guided by financial policies which are adopted by you, the City Council.

Here are the current financial policies set for the Solid Waste Fund.

Net income, we want to be positive.

Debt service coverage.

This is a measurement of our income available to pay our current debt obligations.

The policy is to have it at or greater than 1.7 times that obligation.

Year-end cash balances.

This is a good measure of the financial stability of the utility.

It helps us make sure we have enough cash on hand to pay for operation of the utility.

We have both an adopted policy as well as an internal policy, both of which seek to help keep a certain number of days of cash available to pay our contract expenses and our operations and cash financing of CIP.

We want to make sure that we are not too leveraged when paying for capital improvement projects.

We currently have healthy cash balances so we can finance our capital program with cash in the foreseeable future.

And we're not anticipating having to go out for any debt.

These are the 2021 actuals.

For 2022, we are currently exceeding all of the financial policies and project to continue to meet or exceed financial policies for the rate study period.

Thanks.

Next slide.

So as we mentioned, here's a snapshot of our rate schedule.

Rates are typically set on a three-year schedule with one rate study per year.

You can see they're staggered.

The dark blue area is what's been adopted in ordinance.

This year, of course, we're doing solid waste rates and the rate period is for 2023 to 2025. That's sort of a medium blue color.

And if adopted, the solid waste rates would go into effect April 1st of 2023. Circling back to the proposed rates, solid waste is coming in at 2.5% for the six year strategic business plan period.

As part of that rate, solid waste collection service will have annual increases and transfer stations are set to have one increase in 2023 for the rate period.

Again, the combined overall SPU rate path will be at 4%.

that lower right hand corner down from the overall strategic business plan assumption of 4.2%.

This next slide shows the impact of the rate change on bills to customers.

These two tables show the typical monthly residential bill for the adopted strategic business plan period, which is the top table, compared to the proposed solid waste rates, which is the bottom table.

You see that solid waste rates stay relatively unchanged between the strategic business plan and the proposed plan, but the combined typical bill is actually lower in the proposed scenario.

The lower differences are the green numbers below there so overall good news for our customers that's the savings, they should be seeing in their bills their overall bills.

You may also be interested in seeing where we stack up against other cities monthly bills.

It's not 100% apples to apples comparison, but it's the closest we could get.

From this comparison, we can see that our solid waste services are around the same level as San Francisco, slightly higher than that of Portland and Tacoma.

On the right hand side, there's a few bullets.

It's probably worth mentioning that Seattle offers the most comprehensive portfolio of services in the region, including collection and transfer and processing and disposal.

We own and operate our own transfer stations, which does require significant capital investment.

And also, as a result of doing all this, we are subject to more regulatory guidelines than other regional jurisdictions, which also bring a cost associated with it.

In terms of next steps, My understanding is this rate proposal will be on the agenda at the next committee hearing on September 20th, where central staff will present their analysis and recommendations.

If it's voted at a committee at that time, it would go to full council on September 27th for discussion and possible vote.

And then, of course, if it adopted, the rates would be effective April 1st of 2023. And I'll turn it over back to Andrew.

Yeah, at this point, I think either Carl or I are happy to answer any questions about this proposal.

Thank you very much.

I'll turn it over to my colleague in a moment, but it was presented in such a professional, neutral way.

I wanted to lift up a couple of things I'm excited about.

As we know, utility rates, utility bills are regressive.

Lower income households pay a greater proportion of their household income for these bills.

So, you know, having rates or rate increases as low as possible is important to hundreds of thousands of of your ratepayers, and so really appreciate Seattle Public Utilities keeping their promise on the rate path that we approved, and that includes managing all the lines of business in a fiscally responsible manner, including solid waste, so thank you for your vigilance in doing that.

The increase in recycling and composting is terrific, considering our population is increasing, so having that proportionally higher As time goes on is terrific and of course your, your amazingly strong debt coverage is important to to keep the agency sustainable in the long term so Councilmember herbal please.

I'm just very interested to know.

whether or not we are engaging the customer review panel in the solid waste rates review.

And then as it relates specifically to the decrease in solid waste rates, you may have covered it and I may have missed it.

I'm sorry.

I'm interested to know what's actually driving those costs down.

And then lastly, one of the slides showed an uptick In 2025, there's a decrease of 2025. That is, I guess, about four times higher than previously predicted.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman.

PB – Harmon Zuckerman.

PB – Harmon Zuckerman.

This most recent rate proposal did not go through the customer review panel for their approval.

Their primary review authority is over our strategic business plan, which they approved, I think, I can't remember if it was last year or the year before.

And so, but the fact that our rate proposal is consistent with the SVP is kind of in line with what they have approved.

Carl, you look like you're about to say something.

Go ahead and feel free to chime in.

Oh, I was gonna try to answer the remaining questions.

So Council Member Herbold, we're really gaining some benefit from, in terms of the overall bills going down in the early years, 23-24.

That is Solid waste rates are generally remaining the same.

They're a little bit lower in 23, staying the same in 24. But for 2025, it is ticking up just a little bit.

And that really has to do with our contracts that we have for our solid waste services.

There's some impacts to our contracts there for fuel and labor costs, CPI.

And so that's what's driving that 0.1% In solid waste rates going up just a little bit, but we are benefiting overall from savings that we're able to accomplish in the water and drainage and wastewater ordinances that were approved last fall.

They're a bit lower than what we had assumed, and we're getting some savings based on those lower rates overall.

So we're seeing rates actually going down in that instance.

Very helpful, Carl.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions?

And this timeline is correct.

We will be planning on voting for this at our September 20th committee meeting.

And in the meantime, we will get a memo from our city council central staff.

Brian, good night.

All right, well, if there are no other comments or questions, I think Council Member Herbold, that's a previous hand.

I'll assume that, yeah, I'll assume that's a previous hand.

Thank you, thank you.

And so, colleagues, if there are no further comments or questions, we'll welcome SPU back at our committee on September 20, and that was the last item on our agenda.

So I'll go ahead and conclude the meeting.

The time is 11.46 a.m.

This concludes the September 6, 2022 meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

We anticipate that our next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 20th.

Thank you and we are adjourned.