2023. The council briefing meeting will come to order.
The time is 2 p.m.
Council President Juarez and council member more Tammy Morales are excused from today's meeting.
I am Sarah Nelson, Council President Pro Tem.
Will the clerk please call the role?
Council member Council Member Strauss.
Present.
Council Member Herbold.
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Pro Tem, Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
Present.
Six present.
Thank you very much.
Approval of the- And I do see, I'm sorry, I do see Council Member Herbold, so seven present.
Perfect, thank you.
All right, if there's no objection, the minutes of April 3rd, 2023 will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.
All right, President's Report.
On today's agenda, we will again welcome OIR Director Gail Tarleton and staff to provide a state legislative update.
OIR is providing a series of weekly presentations until the end of the legislative session, which is at the end of April.
Following the state legislative update, we have two proclamations to sign today.
For the first, Council Member Mosqueda will speak to a proclamation for signature honoring the work of Sejal Parikh.
And then Council Member Herbold has brought a proclamation recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
You all should have received a copy of each of those proclamations last week for your review.
Following the proclamations, we'll then have individual reports by each council member.
So on tomorrow's agenda, we have no executive sessions today.
On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes and the payment of bills.
We'll take one vote on all items on the consent calendar unless any council member wishes to remove an item for consideration separately.
And if so, that item will be taken up at the end of the agenda.
There is one item under committee reports on the agenda tomorrow.
The appointment of Derek D. Wheeler-Smith as Director of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.
This appointment was recommended by the Neighborhoods Education and Civil Rights and Culture Committee, and the chair of that committee, Council Member Morales, is excused from tomorrow's meeting, so Council Member Lewis will speak to the committee's recommendation that the City Council confirm that appointment.
Information on all of these items on tomorrow's agenda is available online.
Okay, with that, we welcome OIR Director Gail Tarleton and staff to provide a state legislative update.
Welcome, OIR.
Take it away.
Thank you so much, Council President Pro Tem Nelson and all the members of the City Council.
Well, we are in the final stretch of the legislative session, which is scheduled to end on time, April 23. And so now is the time that is known as budget season.
And all of you are familiar with that here in the city, at the state legislature.
It's the House and the Senate have both introduced both of their budgets and know the governor's budget that was introduced last year.
Now the committees are reviewing all of the proposals for the various operating capital and transportation budgets and and negotiating to figure out a single budget.
So today we're going to focus on budgets, which is something that has tremendous impact, not only on the city, but our region and state for a lot of key investment areas.
And Samir Janejo, our state relations director, will begin the presentation today.
And Anna Johnson will sum up, or maybe they'll finish in a tag team.
as our state legislative liaison.
So Samir, I'll hand it over to you.
And I want to thank Samir and Anna, with all of you council members.
They have been literally working long, long weeks and weekends to keep up with what is happening in the legislature.
And we're hoping it has a positive impact for the city.
So Samir.
Great.
Good afternoon, everybody.
My name is Samir Jonejo, State Relations Director for the City of Seattle for OIR.
And so as mentioned, this is budget season is happening right now.
Many budgets were released in the last two weeks.
Currently, there are two more days of fiscal committees.
And so the final cutoff for fiscal committees will be tomorrow, and then after that, it will be exclusively floor action, minus some budget and revenue bills.
So today's briefing will be the highlights of the various budget proposals that have come out, operating capital and transportation.
If you have any questions about bills, which are still very fluid, they are on your council bulletin, and I'm also happy to take any questions at the end of the briefing about any legislation that you are curious about.
So I'll first go over the Senate proposed budgets.
The Senate operating budget on when it comes to housing spent a total of $580 million on housing programs.
And this includes 120 million for transitioning those living in encampments, state right-of-ways for housing.
And also it includes $111 million to maintain or increase emergency housing and shelter capacity.
It also includes $93 million for grants to support operations and maintenance costs for permanent supportive housing.
In addition, there's a $32 million for grants to local governments to maintain their programs that were impacted by the loss of document recording fees.
On public safety issues, the Senate operating budget included funding for the resentencing implementations of State v. Blake.
That was $11 million provided for assisting municipal courts and prosecutors and defense councils in resentencing impacted by the Blake decision.
And also 51 million to the administrative office of the courts to operate a centralized statewide legal financial obligations refund bureau.
There's also funding for basic law enforcement training.
The Senate Operating Budget funds 23 classes in both 2024 and 2025, with at least three of them in Spokane each year, and four additional training classes each year in two regional locations.
There's also quite a lot of funding on healthcare and behavioral health, 23 million for behavioral health crisis outreach and diversion.
There's also implementation of the state of the Blake bill 5536. So that includes $55 million for substance use programs and 15 for grants to therapeutic courts.
There's also funding to cities to reimburse the cost of alternative response team program.
That's $4 million.
There's also funding for Department of Commerce to develop model ordinance for cities to utilize for citing community-based behavioral health facilities.
On the workforce end of the stage, there's $84 million to increase behavioral health provider rates by 7%.
And then also, there's $15 million to protect access to reproductive health care and to support clinics who are experiencing an influx of out-of-state patients.
and also $20 million for a program to support immigrants who lack health care insurance.
There's also a funding in all of these budgets for climate and environment coming from the climate commitment account revenues in the Senate operating budget.
There's 218 million per carbon sequestration on farm greenhouse gas reductions, repairing restoration, coastal hazard assistance, flooding reductions.
There's also money, $145 million for utility assistance for low-income families, reducing the carbon footprint of state owned facilities and access to energy audits.
There's also money, $75 million, to help people increase their utility efficiencies through free assessments and grant programs to make weatherization upgrades and install electric heat pumps.
There's also $126 million to help transition heavy-duty trucks to clean energy, also increase air quality monitoring, methane capture, and also support workers who are affected by climate change.
Lastly, there's also $96 million for large-scale solar projects, On education, there's the Senate operating included $360 million in new spending to support special education services, and also 106 to help expand early childhood education and assistance programs.
Lastly, the state shared revenues, the Senate operating fully funds all shared revenues at anticipated levels.
Moving to the capital budget Senate proposed capital budget.
It funds $400 million for the public works assistance account, and also funds 50 million for state broadband office as a federal grant match for the broadband equity access and deployment state grants programs.
On housing, the Senate capital budget also funds $400 million to the Housing Trust Fund, $67 million for the Housing Finance Commission's Land Acquisition Program, and also $50 million grants to match private investments for transit-oriented development.
As mentioned earlier, this Senate capital budget also includes Climate Equipment Act money.
It includes $319 million raised by those auctions to make investments in environmental protection, clean energy transition, and protecting communities who are disproportionately affected by pollution.
The last Senate budget is the Senate Transportation Budget.
It funded $1 billion for Fish Passage.
It also funded $287 million for the Transportation Improvement Board, which includes things like the Complete Streets Grants and also $9 million in preservation funding for cities.
There's also $72 million for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Grants, $44 million for Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board, which includes implementation of a Truck Parking Action Plan.
is also funding $70 million for Safe Routes to Schools grant, and $11 million for clean alternative fuel vehicle charging and refueling infrastructure.
And the Senate Transportation Budget also included a $7 million e-bike rebate program, which includes $2 million for e-bike lending, library and ownership program competitive grants.
There's also a study for the Joint Transportation Commission to convene a study of a statewide retail delivery fee on orders of taxable retail items delivered by motor vehicles within the state.
And lastly, a $2 million for grants to local jurisdictions to implement network-wide traffic conflict screening programs using video analytics.
All right, and I'm going to go over the proposed house budgets, starting with the house operating budget.
In terms of housing, they proposed $174 million for emergency housing and rental assistance, $150 for covenant homeownership program.
This is House Bill 1474, if it passes.
150 million to transition those living in encampments to safer housing and 120 of that 150 million is to be used for those living on state rights of way 130 million for the hand program.
$52 million for homeless service contracts, $52 million for grants to support operations and maintenance costs for permanent supportive housing, and $44 million for grants to local government to maintain programs impacted by the loss of the document reporting fees.
The house operating budget also made room for the governor's bond referendum.
This is a $4 billion housing bond authority, but this is also included in a House bill.
This is House Bill 1149, and this must be moved through the legislature and then to the voters if included in the final budget.
In terms of public safety, similar to the Senate, the House included $11.5 million for resentencing implementation for state fee break, and also similar to the Senate, they included $51.4 million for the Administrative Office of the Courts for the LFO Refund Bureau.
The House operating budget includes funds for 23 basic law enforcement training classes for both 2024 and 2025 with at least three classes in Spokane, but it also includes six additional training classes in three regional locations.
For behavioral health and health care, there is $98 million for behavioral health crisis outreach and diversion programs and $4 million for grants to cities to reimburse the cost of alternative response team programs.
The house operating includes a $344 million increase for behavioral health providers.
This is a 15% rate increase for those providers.
They also include $68 million for increased rates for healthcare workers, which is targeting the primary care and pediatricians.
They also include $156 million for patient transitions out of acute care hospitals, $99 million for health care for undocumented adults, and $17 million to fund reproductive health care services and security measures.
In terms of education, the House operating budget includes $179 million to increase funding for supports for special education students, $85 million to expand free school meals, $82 million to expand early childhood education and assistance program slots and also increase rates.
In terms of climate and environment, the House operating budget spent $316 million in the Climate Commitment Act investments, $45 million for forest health and wildfire protection, and $25 million for biodiversity protection.
The House capital budget includes $400 million for the Public Works Assistance Account, $150 million for broadband, and also makes additional investments in affordable housing construction and other housing needs.
And that includes $400 million for the Housing Trust Fund, $50 million for grants to match private investment for transit-oriented development, which is similar to the Senate proposed budget, 75 million for connecting housing to infrastructure or chip grants to local government.
40 million for the Housing Finance Commission land acquisition program.
198 million for electric heat pumps for low income households and small businesses.
The House capital budget funds $60 million for the Clean Energy Fund, $40 million for projects that are in the hard to decarbonize sectors, and $20 million for solar and energy efficiency grants to public buildings.
The house transportation budget includes $1 billion for state and local fish culverts and $728 million for the Washington state ferries to decarbonize.
This is funding for three vessels to be converted to hybrid electric and the funding of construction to start five new hybrid electric vessels.
The house transportation budget also includes $150 million for zero emission commercial vehicle infrastructure and incentive program.
48 million for zero emission school buses, shore power, drayage pilots, public transit, electrification, hydrogen refueling, and other EV infrastructure.
Of the Transit Investments Board funding, there is $33.7 million for the Complete Streets Grant Program.
There is also $70.9 million for safe routes to school grants, $72.2 million for pedestrian and bicycle safety programs and grants.
And finally, there is $250,000 from the city's share of the fuel tax revenue for the Joint Transportation Committee to convene a study of a statewide retail delivery fee.
That is the highlights of all of the six proposed budgets.
It's not exhaustive and we sent you the AWC matrix that includes a lot more that we didn't cover today.
But I also did want to highlight a few of our city specific budget requests and where they're landing in each of the House and Senate budgets.
So one thing that the city was really supportive of this year is including money for capital funds to redevelop Memorial Stadium.
This is a local community project in the 36th Legislative District.
The governor's budget included $4 million heading into session, and we also saw that the Senate proposed budget included $4 million as well.
Additionally, the city is really supportive of early learning capitals fund for the UW Rainier Valley Early Learning Campus.
This is an early learning campus that's co-located transit oriented development, childhood and education space that's going to be cited at the same place as an affordable housing project through the city of Seattle.
We saw that they were funded that at $6 million in the Senate capital budget and 2 million in the house capital budget.
Finally, another big request of ours is a recycling producer responsibility study.
This proviso is to conduct a recycling rates study and a community engagement process.
The Senate included 500,000 for this and the House included 400,000.
And finally, we just wanted to update you on another development in terms of revenue for our budgets.
On March 24th, the Washington State Supreme Court decision upheld that the capital gains tax that was passed in the legislature in 2021 was constitutional and a valid excise tax.
So this decision helped budget writers move forward because the revenue forecast and the Senate budgets both assumed the capital gains tax was constitutional and they incorporated incorporated those revenues into the budget.
The Department of Revenue is beginning the implementation of the tax in February, or they began the implementation of the tax in February, and the tax deadline is April 18th for the capital gains.
And that is the end of our briefing today, and we're happy to take any questions.
Thank you, OIR staff and Director Tarleton.
I see that Council Member Herbold, you have your hand up.
Go ahead.
Thank you so much.
I have a question about the for public safety related bills that didn't make the cut off, I see that for.
One of the bills, House Bill 5477, there is another bill that make the cutoff, Senate Bill 1177, addressing recommendations related to murdered and missing indigenous women.
But for the other three bills, could you just briefly remind us one's drug testing equipment, the other one's law enforcement application pool, and the third is law enforcement employment eligibility.
Are there other bills that make it through the cutoff that we're seeking to accomplish similar goals?
Yeah, I'll try to answer this question as best I can and then I'll probably follow up with some more information.
For House Bill 1006, this is the Drug Testing Equipment Bill, we'll likely see incorporated in Senate Bill 5536, the Drug Possession Bill, similar provisions around drug testing equipment and the decriminalization of those drug testing equipment.
So I imagine that is part of the reason why that one did not move forward.
As far as House Bill 1387, which is regarding a law enforcement application pool, I believe this one landed in a place where it included mostly a study, so perhaps that's something that could show up in the budget, but it was a bill that was working on recruitment and retention for law enforcement officers.
And then House Bill 1530, this is expanding eligibility for the law enforcement application, law enforcement eligibility.
This was also a workforce bill, and I'm not quite sure what ended up happening with this, and I'm not sure if it'll be incorporated in other bills, but I can check on that and get back to you.
Thank you so much.
And then one last question in the public safety realm.
I know that we did not flag this in our legislative agenda.
And so I apologize for not doing what I should have done to make sure that we're tracking this more carefully.
But the catalytic converter bill is did that make it through?
I believe it's still alive because it is in the fiscal committee.
And I'll, I'll check back after the cutoff tomorrow evening and check in and see if it's still moving along.
Very good.
Thank you so much.
Is there anybody else?
Well, seeing no other comments, I just have some good news, which is that let's see.
I believe it was just a second.
I'm looking for this Senate bill.
5199 providing tax relief for newspaper publishers in prime sponsored by Senator mullet passed out of the Senate last week 47 to one and I understand the bill will now be referred to the House Finance Committee.
Is that correct?
That's right.
Okay, well, please be sure to keep me apprised of dates.
Council Member Strauss.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.
Just again, thank you to the OIR team for your weekly briefings offline.
I know I don't ask a lot of questions here during council briefing, and that is because you spend the time needed ahead of my work, especially with AWC.
So I just wanted to share my appreciation.
Thank you all.
All right.
If that is all that we've got, thank you very much, OIR staff.
I'll let you go fight the good fight.
And thank you so much, Council President Pro Tem.
And thank you all.
And there will be a lot happening this week.
So we'll look forward to giving you information as it comes up.
And please don't hesitate to call any one of us and we'll do what we can to keep up with the rate of change in Olympia.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye.
All right, Council Member Mosqueda has a proclamation recognizing April 6, 2023 to be Sejal Parikh Day in the City of Seattle for signature.
Council Member Mosqueda, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I request signatures to be affixed to it.
Go ahead.
Thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
Colleagues, I'm excited to bring to you a proclamation to honor the work of our Chief of Staff in my office, Sejal Parikh, and it is also with mixed emotions, but really a lot of excitement.
And deep appreciation for her, her next steps and all she's been able to accomplish while working with all of us in the city of Seattle and serving in our office as chief of staff folks.
I mentioned a week and a half ago that we were going to bring to you a proclamation to honor her work.
As you know, Sejal has been with my office since 2018 when we first were elected and has come in and not only have we been able to shake things up, push progressive policy ideas, but we have done so largely thanks to Sejal's incredible tenacity and effort to bring people together to ensure that diverse opinions were always at the table.
And in doing so, really care deeply about stakeholder engagement and policy details.
Because of this commitment, we have been able to make history.
Seattle continues to be on the map and Sejal is really a cornerstone behind all of our collective efforts on a council to be able to pass some of these historic policies and to know that it was done so with deep stakeholder engagement and care and attention to the policy details.
I think we can collectively thank Sejal for her work with the city.
It has been an honor and a privilege personally to be able to work alongside Sejal.
I don't know if folks know, she both has a JD and an engineering degree.
So I used to call her engineer attorney, Sejal Parikh.
But really the experience that you've all have had with working with her to see her talents firsthand, her strategic mind, the way in which she works with folks and her moral compass to ensure that we're constantly pushing a policy agenda that improves the lives and livelihoods for our most vulnerable.
It's been an incredible benefit to not only our office, but the entire city, our residents, our small businesses, and the community at large.
I wanted to, before Council President turning it over to you to ask for some signatures, just call attention to some of these important wins.
If I might take a little bit longer here.
Thank you so much.
So I'm probably at the embarrassment of Sejal, who I hope is watching and able to celebrate all of these wins with us.
I'm going to start in 2018, and I'm just going to rattle some things off.
2018, she was the mastermind behind helping to craft and finalize the legislation behind banning subminimum wage, behind the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, our first city in the entire nation to pass wage and safety protections, for domestic workers.
In 2019, led the effort that is now historic and constantly pointed to by our human service providers to ensure that there was a cost of living adjustment for human service providers and ensure greater wage stabilization, led on the passage of hotel worker protections, including maximum workload retaliation protection safety in the workplace and health care guaranteed access to health care.
She helped us craft and finalize the policy on paid leave after the loss of a child which our own city policies did not have during the time of bereavement and I'm really, really thankful for that incredible work, along with spearheading items in the budget in 2019 when I was on parental leave to leave for our office and has continued to do so over the last three years that I've been budget chair, pushing transparency accountability.
improving the ways in which we monitor revenue sources to ensure that they are staying true to what the voters have voted for or what the council has codified in statute.
In 2020, she was immediately out the door with our team, helping to pull together the Jump Start Progressive payroll tax coalition of labor community, transit, Green New Deal, and small business owners, led on long-term economic recovery details with central staff to get those coronavirus local relief funds and American Rescue Plan funds out the door.
And then we amended legislation, which SAGEL had a hand in crafting, to expand paid sick leave for workers who needed access to the safe leave component if their place of care for their kiddo or their elderly parent was closing down to unsafe health conditions.
We expanded paid sick leave to ensure those gig economy drivers had temporary protections, which we all just celebrated last week, putting into statute.
In 2021, hazard pay, childcare payments and support, small business grants, human service provider pay, yet again, adding $5.3 million in one-time funding for that cost of living increase in the budget, and cash assistance for workers.
This is something that we are so proud of in our office.
CIGIL really let on $25 million to help directly get funding into the hands of workers and in 2022 helped to finalize the work on our cannabis equity workforce development that it continues to evolve along with restoring the human service provider pay in the budget and prevented austerity.
This in addition to the news that was celebrated across the nation for Guaranteed paid sick and safely for gig workers and the ongoing work that she will continue to leave as a legacy on the revenue stabilization task force.
I know our city is in a healthier, safer, more equitable place with greater accountability and greater transparency provisions built into our budgeting process.
Thanks to her work.
So, on behalf of our entire team.
in our office and really I think on behalf of City Hall, we want to thank you Sejal.
In order to do so, colleagues, I hope that you will join us and the Mayor's Office in signing this proclamation to honor April 6th, Sejal's last day in office as Sejal Parikh Day and we look forward to celebrating everything that I just noted in addition to sending her off with well wishes this Thursday.
Thank you, Madam President Pro Tem.
Thank you very much.
Are there any of my colleagues or colleagues that would like to speak to this proclamation?
Add any words.
Well, I would like to take the opportunity then to add that on behalf of my staff, I thank you for being such a proactive and responsive communicator with on behalf of Council Member Mosqueda's office.
And a note from Jeremy, our chief of staff, is you've always been quick to respond to our questions and were a huge help as we collectively navigated our first budget on council.
Your professionalism and friendly demeanor will be missed.
So thank you very much.
With that, would you, if Council Member Mesquita, do you have any closing words?
No, I would just thank you for those kind comments and your team.
Also, I appreciated the hurrahs that Council Member Strauss shared in committee last week, along with Council President Juarez, who sung Satchel's praise as well, as we discussed her departure last week.
But thank you all for joining me and celebrating, not just this individual, but all she's been able to do on behalf of the city.
Thank you very much.
Seeing no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation recognizing April 6th, 2023 to be Sejal Parikh Day in the city of Seattle.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Aye.
Council Member Sawant.
Yes.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes, and yay Sejal.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
Aye.
Seven signatures will be affixed.
Thank you very much.
We'll now move on to Council Member Herbold's proclamation.
Council Member Herbold has a proclamation recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month for signature.
Council Member Herbold, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I request signatures to be affixed to it.
Go ahead.
Thank you so much, Madam Pro Tem.
This afternoon, I'm asking for signatures on a proclamation declaring April to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Seattle.
This proclamation was drafted jointly by the Seattle Women's Commission and the Human Services Department, and the mayor is concurring.
My office circulated the proclamation to all council offices last Monday.
And the theme for this year's Sexual Assault Awareness Month is Drawing Connections, Prevention Demands Equity.
And the proclamation calls on all individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions to change ourselves and the system by us to build racial equity and respect.
Tomorrow, HSD, Human Services Department Interim Director Kanye Kim will join us at our full council meeting for an in-person presentation of the proclamation to Seattle Women's Commission members.
And if any of my colleagues have comments or questions, I'd love to hear them.
I am not seeing anyone speak up, so thank you very much.
Council Member Herbold will now call the roll, please.
Clerk.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Aye.
Council Member Sawant.
Yes.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Lewis.
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
Aye.
Seven signatures will be affixed.
All right.
Seven signatures will be affixed to the proclamation recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
That came before in my script, but I neglected to say it.
Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.
And we'll now move on to our next agenda item, which will be a discussion on the preview of City Council actions, Council and regional committees, and the order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for City Council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name and with the Council President or pro tem called last.
This week's roll call rotation begins with Council Member Mosqueda, followed by Peterson, Sawant, Straus, Herbold, Lewis, and then Nelson.
Council Member Mosqueda, please begin and then hand it on over to Council Member Peterson.
Thanks.
Thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
Colleagues, as a reminder, the Finance and Housing Committee meetings are going to be suspended as we continue to deliberate and discuss the housing levy, which will be in a select levy committee that you all have an opportunity to join twice a month for the next three months.
With a few extra meetings here and there, this is our chance to really make sure that the council has the chance to dive into the details of the proposed housing levy and our finance and housing committee meetings will be suspended with the exception of 1 meeting.
Our next finance and housing committee meeting will be on May 17th at 930 am.
where we will have a preview and a discussion of the revenue forecast in its complete view.
Folks might remember that the forecast council received a partial overview of the revenue forecast, the items that the economic and revenue forecast office specifically look at were shared, but we are going to soon be receiving information from the city budgets office, where CBO will be filling in the remainder of the details on which revenue streams have seen increase possible decrease and central staff will provide us with an overview of what that means for the health of our city financial situation.
for the course of 2023 and our endorsed 2024 budget.
Again, mark your calendars if you're interested in that budget information on May 17th.
In the meantime, we will begin discussing the housing levy.
Thanks so much to the mayor's team who has been working with housing advocates, community, labor stakeholders, and better understanding the ways in which we need to scale up our investments in affordable housing across our city.
We have now been able to celebrate the transmittal of the proposed housing levy to council, and this week officially begins our process where we will begin diving into the why, the what, and the how of the housing levy.
On Wednesday this week, April 5th at 930 AM, we will kick off the select committee on housing and we have two items on our agenda.
This includes the current and future housing needs and workforce stabilization needs for briefing and discussion.
We will have also a 2016 housing levy programs and production report.
Remembering that we are over producing, we are over, let's see, what's the right word?
We are, Following through at a higher level than anticipated on our 2016 housing levy, as we want to make sure that folks in the community know that we have been efficient and effective at using those dollars, and we want to show them how that 2016 levy has been put to good use.
We have an ambitious schedule for the housing levy to be considered in Seattle City Council chambers.
We will have our conversations run April, May, and June, and we anticipate adoption of legislation that would place the housing levy on the ballot for voters this November in 2023. I really want to encourage everyone to attend the scheduled meetings.
You should have a invite in your calendar already.
Thank you to Fede de Cuevas, who is staffing this select housing committee.
Meeting and we will begin right on time at 930 each morning.
We also have a handful of.
Public hearing opportunities in addition to our select housing levy deliberations, but we will endeavor to ensure that there's public comment at the beginning of each of those meetings.
You also received an overview for me in last week's.
Email exchanges about what to anticipate as part of this process for the select housing committee.
If you have any questions, please be sure to reach out to me or Aaron house, who is policy director on our staff and happens to also be lead on everything housing.
So it's a perfect opportunity for us to.
get you connected to all the information you need.
As part of the Select Housing Committee's work, we will review the current and future housing needs, consider the executive's proposal, including the size and scope of the levy, and we will deliberate and make final decisions on whether or not we change anything, and we will then send that levy off to the voters for their consideration.
I also wanted to remind folks that this is going to be an opportunity for us to hear from members of the community.
We will hear from central staff as well as our city team, our city family from the office of housing as well.
But all of the presenters will continue to remain remote to try to reduce the number of people in the physical space in the room.
And you will have the opportunity for a hybrid participation.
Whatever you choose to do is welcome for me.
I will be there in chambers with my mask on.
And of course, if you're able to come, fantastic.
Would just encourage us to all continue to follow the public health.
recommendations around masking and safe social distancing.
I just want to proactively thank all of you for the work you're doing.
I know that this comes in addition to all of your existing committee work.
None of that work goes on hold like it does for the Select Budget Committee.
So thank you for participating in the Select Housing Levy Committee.
And thanks again to the mayor's office, central staff, my team, Aaron House, and the work that has been done with the broad coalition of labor and business and housing folks who have been able to put together this initial proposal for our deliberations and consideration.
It's an exciting moment in Seattle's history to be able to respond to the most pressing crisis in our city, in our region, and across the West Coast and across the country with a levy that Seattle initially led on in 2016 and continues to have an opportunity to do so here.
Madam President, I just have two more items for the group's consideration here.
Sorry, that was a little lengthy about the housing levy, but important details given that there's a distinction between my committee and the select committee.
Thank you.
OK, so folks, just one more one more proclamation coming your way.
I wanted to flag for you that later this week we will be circulating a proclamation for your consideration.
This has been requested on behalf of many of the folks in the Cambodian community.
They have asked that the city of Seattle recognize April 17 as Cambodian Genocide Day of Remembrance.
April 17 is the 48th anniversary to the date at the genocide that occurred in Cambodia, which resulted in approximately 2 million people, which is nearly a quarter of the entire Cambodian population losing their lives.
In Seattle and throughout King County, we are home to the third largest population of Cambodian-Americans in the United States.
And I want to thank Sam Smith-Mell, who many of you probably have worked with in the past, who is a Cambodian-American community leader and the director of Partners in Change, a BIPOC-led coalition that serves across the state in trying to ensure that more BIPOC issues are being raised.
He has reached out to our office in partnership with the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington, KUMAR Language Arts Academy, the KUMAR Anti-Desperation Advocacy Group, the Equity and Education Partners in Change, and The Buddhist Society, as well as being Raja, who have asked that we put this in front of you for your consideration again we will circulate this for your consideration to consider April 17. Cambodian Genocide Day of Remembrance, and a proclamation would then be offered to the community mid-April.
Lastly, I know many people probably will be speaking about this, and I just wanted to add my name to the list of community members who are heartbroken and outraged to hear of the death of Elijah Lewis, a longtime community activist, described as a pillar of the Black community.
At only the age of 23, he was gunned down, and his work with Africatown Community Land Trust, widely acknowledged for the incredible work that he's done to be able to bring community organizations together.
Folks have described him as a loving and loyal friend, son, brother, and uncle.
And as his family mourns, I know that the city of Seattle In addition to mourning the tragedy of his life being taken far too early, we again and I commit to making sure that we remove guns from our community that has led to this tragic loss for his family and for our entire community.
Sending our condolences and commitment to action to the family of Elijah Lewis.
Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you very much and If there are no questions or comments, I know that the order is to be passed to Council Member Peterson, but I've just been asked if Council Member Herbold can go first because she has to leave a bit early.
Council Member Peterson, is that all right with you?
Yeah, sure.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
I have a RPC at three o'clock.
So thank you so much.
I will do what I can to make it quick.
There are items on the full council agenda tomorrow include two appointments approved by the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on the consent calendar.
One is a council reappointment to the Community Police Commission and the other is a council appointment to the public safety civil service commission.
The Public Safety and Human Services Committee does not meet this week.
The next meeting will be on April 11th.
As Council Member Mosqueda mentioned, this weekend we learned of another heartbreaking and completely senseless story of gun violence when a child was wounded in Capitol Hill and a cherished community member, Elijah Lewis, was murdered.
I thank Chief Diaz, the Seattle Police Department, and all of the other first responders involved in their quick response.
I thank the community member who reportedly also assisted.
Elijah is recognized by his community as a protector, and he certainly was a protector in his last moments of life in protecting his young nephew from gunfire.
I know we will all continue to work to call on our state lawmakers to push forward on common sense gun safety regulations to protect Seattle residents and the rest of the state.
And also as we invest in gun violence prevention efforts across the city and King County, I know many of us have been involved in testifying in favor of two of the bills that our good OIR colleagues have been working on that are looking like they are going to make it across the finish line this year.
In later news, this weekend, Station 37 hosted hundreds of families at the Seattle Fire Department's Fire Safety Fair, including story time from Chief Scoggins, fire safety education, and a tour of facilities, including Ladder 13, a resource as saved by the City Council in the last adopted budget.
Also CSCC, the Community Safety Communication Center, will be at the 9-1-1 Washington State recruitment event on Saturday, April 15th in Tacoma.
All of our public safety departments are working really hard on recruitment and staffing up their departments and reports.
to the Council via myself as the Public Safety Chair.
I'm really proud that the CSCC is doing such great work in recruitment and staffing, and their hiring plans have been able to drastically reduce the wait call times as residents seek emergency services.
Moving on to public health, last week multiple care facilities in our region announced they will continue requiring mask wearing in patient care in public areas.
This is a voluntary agreement signed by major local health care systems.
Their statement reads in part, the decision is timely as the region continues to face a burden within the health care system and the risk for severe disease associated with infection among vulnerable populations is ongoing.
And our own public health Seattle King County issued a statement in support of this continued that voluntary max masking requirement.
At the March meeting of the Board of Health, we heard testimony from many, many medically fragile and immunocompromised residents advocating for the continued masking.
So I'm really grateful for the leadership of our public healthcare advisors in ensuring that in the words of Dr. Jacobson, no one should get a preventable infection because they need to seek healthcare.
On the HSD front, the Human Services Department is reminding us that anyone who's still working to get their taxes completed by April 18th, there is free tax help available for folks earning less than $80,000 last year, and the Seattle Public Libraries are offering this tax help.
For regional committees, this afternoon I will be attending the regional policy committee as an alternate and voting on legislation that would submit a ballot opposition to renew the county's veterans, seniors, and human services levy for the voters for their approval.
In order to participate in the regional policy committee, I will not be able to attend this afternoon's FERC district board meeting.
And then lastly, just highlighting a few events.
Last week, I had an opportunity to attend the SOTO Business Improvement Area Clean and Safe Meeting to discuss public safety concerns in the SOTO area with the BIA rate payers there, including residents of the Sunny Arms Artist Co-op.
this week.
Already this morning, Council Member Lewis and I met with gig workers who shared with us their stories and personal experiences around unfair platform deactivations.
Our offices are continuing our work with essential staff, gig worker stakeholders, and the Office of Labor Standards to build regulations ensuring more responsive and equitable working conditions.
And then later this week, I'll be meeting with community members who have organized themselves like many of our legislative districts apparently have into a 34th District Environmental Policy Caucus.
We're meeting on Tuesday evening to hear their concerns with the city's progress on the building emissions performance standards legislation.
That's all for me, thank you.
I'll take any questions or comments.
And not seeing any, pass on to Council Member Peterson.
Thank you.
Actually, I do believe that there has been another request to have Council Member Sawant speak next because she also has to leave early.
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you for your grace, Council Member Peterson.
Go ahead, Council Member Sawant.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone.
There are no items on tomorrow's city council agenda from the sustainability and renters rights committee.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee is this Friday, April 7th at 930 a.m.
That committee will discuss and vote on the legislation to cap late fees for renters at $10 a month.
which my office is bringing forward alongside renters rights activists, union members, the Stay Healthy Coalition and Socialist Alternative.
As I have noted before, renters do not get paid late fees when their landlords delay fixing broken appliances, heating or mold infestations, yet renters have to pay rent on time regardless of whether their landlord completed repairs.
The late fees bill was discussed at the last two meetings of the committee and is now ready for a vote.
As was discussed at the last committee meeting, there's an amendment clarifying language about notice fees being prohibited that required a title change.
So that amended version is on to tomorrow's introduction and referral calendar.
But I wanted to be clear, it is the same bill substantively and nothing new.
I urge councilmembers to stand against any amendment that would water down the bill or make it less effective as a protection for renters.
And if councilmembers do intend to propose an amendment, please let my office know right away so we can include that on the agenda and so that it's not a surprise to members of the public, specifically to the majority renters in our city.
We will be putting out the agenda on Wednesday, so we would need any amendments by then.
And I also wanted to join in expressing condolences at the really tragic passing away of Elijah Lewis in the Central District, who was a community activist in the Central District.
condolences to their family and friends and all the fellow activists in the Africatown community.
And also just wanted to give my apologies for the Parks Committee that is coming up because I also have to attend the Regional Policy Committee alongside Council Member Herbold.
Thank you.
And I pass it to Council Member Peterson unless there are any questions or comments.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Swat.
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
Good afternoon, colleagues.
There are no items from the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee on the full council agenda tomorrow afternoon.
Our next meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will be tomorrow, Tuesday, April 4 at 9.30 a.m.
We have four items on our committee.
That's four items for you on 4.4.
Specifically, these four pieces of legislation, there are three from Seattle Public Utilities, one from SDOT.
We hope to vote all four of them out of committee tomorrow.
Council Bill 120539 from Seattle Public Utilities will improve our city's climate resiliency by authorizing the acquisition of a small piece of land in the area that often floods in Northeast Seattle.
Council 120538 will authorize Seattle Public Utilities to enter into an interlocal agreement to resolve a dispute with King County over how to allocate the work and money from the residuals.
That's what's left over from recycling.
I'm relieved that we'll be able to dispose of that matter without any trash talk between the two local governments.
Then we will hear for the third time Resolution 32082, which will adopt updated plans from Seattle Public Utilities to reduce solid waste.
I want to thank Councilmember Herbold for working to make SPU's legislation more specific and accountable with her friendly amendment that we will vote on tomorrow.
The fourth item is Council Bill 120528, which will authorize our Seattle Department of Transportation to acquire a tiny sliver of strategically located property to facilitate the Route 44 bus transit corridor.
Regarding regional committees last week, I attended the King County Flood Control District Advisory Committee where we received an update on their 2023 budget.
That concludes my report.
Any questions before we hand it over to Councilmember Strauss?
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Peterson you had some good puns there from the land use committee there are no items from the land use committee on tomorrow's full agenda we do have a land use committee, this week it is a special meeting on Friday, April 7 from 2pm to 4pm.
I apologize for having a committee on.
A Friday afternoon, it was the only time we could find we are again only hearing the tree legislation in this meeting.
Specifically, we're going to do a deep dive into the tiers of tree categorizations, the replacement and in lieu fees, the budget allocations needed to.
this work and the central staff analysis.
Please remember that amendments are due to central staff by next Tuesday, April 11th, so that central staff has time to review with law before bringing them back to our committee.
This is really intended to give us additional time up front to highlight what are the big issues before the committee regarding the street protection ordinance.
This April 11th amendment deadline provides us the opportunity to make sure that all of the amendments are in concert with each other and then also provides us the opportunity to ensure that there are no other cleanup fixes or technical amendments.
Clearly amendments will be are allowed all the way to the last date.
This April 11th deadline is a request to move up the big policy conversations sooner and up front.
We also have a committee meeting on Friday, April 21st.
We have a public hearing on Monday, April 24th.
We have our regularly scheduled land use committee meeting on April 26th.
These meetings will all solely focus on the tree protection ordinance before us, before we move on to other topics.
Thank you, colleagues.
That is my report.
Colleagues, do you have any questions about the land use committee?
We really only have one tree.
One bill before us.
Seeing none, Councilmember Herbold has already gone.
So then Councilmember Lewis, you're up next.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Strauss.
Hello, colleagues.
Immediately following Council briefing today, we are going to go into a meeting of the Metropolitan Parks District Board.
This will occur at the same time, unfortunately, as the Regional Policy Committee meeting, where the consideration of a recommendation on renewal of the Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services levy will be heard.
Council Member Sawant, as she indicated in her report, sits on that committee and will, of course, be excused from the Metropolitan Park District Board meeting.
And I want to thank Council Member Herbold, as she indicated in her remarks, for attending the Regional Policy Committee as my alternate so that I may chair the previously long-scheduled Parks District Board meeting.
and Council Member Herbold will of course be excused from that board meeting as well.
So don't change the dial to transition to the Metropolitan Park District and a little bit of foreshadowing for what we will be gaveling into after briefing.
Members of the viewing public will be able to watch that meeting of the Metropolitan Park District Board right after this council briefing on Seattle Channel.
We will consider two resolutions and have two presentations from parks.
The first resolution will be a technical change correcting the meeting date for a later meeting of the Metropolitan Park District.
The second resolution amends the bylaws of the Seattle Park District to modify the rules regarding voting on Park District resolutions, so that they are more consistent with the rules that govern Seattle City Council votes, generally.
Then the parks department will give us a report on the proposed performance measurements for the second cycle of the levy.
This was a requested component in the resolutions that we passed relating to the Metropolitan Park District last fall to have the parks department come back and present performance metrics We will have a briefing on hiring, training and activities.
Tomorrow, by Mayor Harrell to serve as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights.
Mr. Wheeler-Smith's recommendation was unanimously approved by the Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights, and Culture Committee, chaired by Council Member Morales.
Councilmember Morales will be absent from Council tomorrow afternoon and asked that I move the nomination and I am happy to do so.
So expect me to essentially provide the committee report on that nomination and look forward to confirming the nominee, Derek Wheeler-Smith.
On Wednesday, the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee will meet to consider the appointment of A.P.
Diaz, Mayor Harrell's nominee, to serve as superintendent of the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Thank you to colleagues who have submitted questions and have received written responses from the nominee.
We look forward to further vetting the nomination and considering the nomination of A.P.
Diaz this coming Wednesday.
Clean City numbers for March 20th to 24th.
Between March 20th and 24th, the Clean City Initiative recovered 199 needles at 65 different locations, along with 229,000 pounds of garbage.
And that's the, the update from the clean city initiative, Seattle Public Libraries, short story dispensers which supply on demand printed short stories at two locations will now be featured throughout the library system.
Seattle Public Library wanted different regions and communities to be able to experience what these dispensers have to offer.
And since the installation of these dispensers in 2020, over 15,000 stories have been printed and enjoyed by patrons.
Starting March 29th, the dispenser formerly housed at the Station Coffee Shop will now be at the Fremont branch until the end of May.
And with that, colleagues, I do not have anything else to report on and we'll hand it, I believe, at this point to Council President Pro Tem Nelson.
That sure does roll off the tongue, doesn't it?
Thank you very much.
So report from the Economic Development, Technology and City Light Committee.
Last week Council unanimously passed three resolutions to kickstart the process of reauthorizing the metro pollutant Improvement District, which is a business improvement area in downtown Seattle managed by the downtown Seattle Association.
And two of those resolutions set a public hearing on April 12, the first of two committee meetings that will spend considering this, the ordinance reauthorizing the mid.
So, we had to move quickly because these resolutions came.
fairly quickly and sort of late in the game.
And I just have to extend a thank you to our clerk staff because they had to get them in the mail and sent to all rate payers because they set that public hearing date.
So thank you very much for getting that in the mail.
And that will be on the 12th, just a heads up.
To anybody who wants to listen into that also on the agenda for that next meeting is I'm really excited about this, we will be considering appointments to the Seattle Film Commission.
So that's a that's a head.
That's a look down the road tomorrow.
There is 1 item from the economic development.
Technology and City Light Committee, which is Clerk File 314520. It's on the consent agenda.
It's requested by the Office of the Inspector General and would modify OIG's surveillance usage review schedule for eight SPD surveillance technologies that Council approved use of in 2021. So just some background, the Seattle Municipal Code provides that OIG should conduct a surveillance usage review, or SUR, of SPD's use of those technologies annually.
And unfortunately, working through the first cycle of reviews took longer than expected.
And so OIG, due to staffing constraints, hasn't been able to meet its initial deadlines.
However, in the last year, OIG has hired two FTEs dedicated solely to this work and has worked closely with consultants and is currently drafting and engaging with stakeholders.
So this file modifies the reporting schedules for the respective 2021 and 2022 SURs on three of the eight technologies.
And for the other five technologies, it allows OIG to combine the 2021 and 2022 SURs.
So the bottom line is that OIG would be required to complete all 2021 and 2022 SURs for all of the SPD technologies by September 2023. So that is on the consent agenda tomorrow.
Just wanted to give a heads up.
And because we are short of time, I am going to skip all the meetings and the the events that I attended last week and simply say that if there is no other business before us right now, this will conclude the the council briefing for April 3rd, 2023. And just reminder, we move right into a metropolitan parks district meeting seeing no other business.
It is 306 PM and this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you very much.
Everybody.