Council Briefing 7292024

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

Today is July 29th, 2024, and the council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll and council member Morales is excused from today's briefing.

Council member Saka.

Here.

Council member Strauss.

Present.

Council member Wu.

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council member Kettle.

Here.

Council member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight council members are present.

Thank you very much.

So first of all, I believe we have some guests in chambers today.

So Council Member, we would do like to acknowledge our guests.

Yes, thank you.

We're very honored to have council members from Taiwan visiting us today and are in chambers.

Council member Wu from Taichung and also joined with her assistants, Wang Jianqou-Qin and also director of office, Alan Lai and also council member Wei Zhangqian as well.

And so thank you so much for being here.

Hello.

Welcome.

Thank you very much and welcome to Seattle.

So, if there is no objection, colleagues, I move to amend today's agenda to add a very brief presentation on what's going on with Initiative 137, the social housing initiative for discussion after the approval of the minutes.

Okay, hearing no objection, the agenda is amended to add a presentation on Initiative 137, and Jen Lebrecht will be joining us at the table.

Okay, so before I get into the meat of today's meeting and discuss what's on the agenda tomorrow, I want to note the passing of a civic treasure, former Mayor Charlie Royer.

He died at 84 last Friday.

He was the longest serving mayor of Seattle's history, serving three terms from 1978 to 1990. And that was right when Seattle was just on the brink of becoming a big, a major West Coast city.

People talk about, you know, the transition between being a town and being a city and I came to Seattle in 1990, and I just remembered that it was a time of deep transition.

So under his watch, Seattle instituted a network of neighborhood health clinics, doubled down on affordable housing, established the mayor's Lesbian Gay Task Force, and extended city benefits to domestic partnerships.

And that's, you know, depending on whatever obituary you read, that is just the short list.

And if you Google the name Charlie Royer, you'll come up with summaries of many of his accomplishments as a mayor.

But his legacy of public service extended far beyond his tenure at City Hall.

And you pretty much can't walk downtown without passing something that his legacy has touched.

So I... I posted a photo of the stadia because he was the former chairperson and member of the Ballpark Public Facilities District, and that's just one thing that lives on.

And in fact, I received the news of his passing when I was on my way to the party at the Pier 62, which is fitting because he did serve as the co-chair of the Friends of Waterfront Committee, and that's the organization that put on that event.

I just want to say that I can't do him justice right now, and I'm sure that we all have personal stories of encounters of him.

He was just a really warm and funny and compassionate person and very generous of his time and his mentorship of young upstarts, be they policymakers or movers and shakers in the business community.

It's just...

it is a moment of loss for the city.

And I just wanted to recognize that.

And at some point, I'll be talking with the mayor's office and perhaps the family about a tribute that's fitting to his legacy.

I just wanted to note now that this is a sad moment, at least for me in the city.

And if you're open to it, I'd just like to pause for a moment of silence before we go on.

Okay, thank you everybody.

So if there is no objection, the minutes of July 22nd, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

I will make room, I will just talk about what's on the agenda tomorrow and then we will open it up for the presentation.

On tomorrow's City Council agenda, there will be a number of items on the introduction and referral calendar, which is forthcoming today, and they include the weekly bill payment ordinance, Council Bill 120827, which would improve parking access and loading for touring musicians and their crews at live music venues.

Council Bill 120822, an ordinance relating to land use regulations and removing restrictions on congregate residences.

Council Bill 120823, a land use omnibus bill.

Council Bill 120824, an ordinance allowing SDCI to grant waivers and modifications from design review.

Council Bill 120825, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an interlocal agreement with the South Correctional Entity to provide additional jail services, an appointment to the International Special Review District Board, Council Bill 120826 to accept transportation grants and possibly other items.

So there are still things that are being added up to now.

The consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and an appointment to the public library board of trustees.

And then there are five items from committees, clerk file 314489 and council bill 120818, both related to a subdivision of a parcel on 13th Avenue to allow the building of two townhome projects Appointment 02918, appointing Amy Smith as Chief of the Care Department.

Council 120810, allowing Seattle Public Utilities to seek to modify the 2013 consent decree with the State Department of Ecology and the Federal EPA regarding sewer overflows and a resolution authorizing Parks and Recreation to submit grant applications to the State Recreation and Conservation Office.

So you can see that we are, we're pretty busy these days in advance of our recess and budget season.

All right, so I will ask central staff analyst, Jen Labreck to approach the table and provide an overview of the status of and council responsibilities regarding initiative 137. And you were all provided with a, a couple pages of a presentation prior to the meeting and this will be available on the agenda subsequently.

So.

All right, give me a moment to share the screen.

I also have extra copies of the presentation if anyone needs it.

Thank you.

Again, I'm Jen LeBreck, I'm a central staff analyst.

Oh, let me pass that down to council member Rubius.

And as council president mentioned, I'm here today to do a very short briefing on I-137 or initiative 137 regarding funding for the social housing initiative.

I'm sorry, regarding funding for the social housing public development authority.

All right, so on February 13th, proposed initiative I-137 was filed with the Office of the City Clerk.

The petitioners then went and collected signatures in order to be able to place the initiative on the ballot.

On July 26, which was on Friday, King County Elections provided a certificate of sufficiency, verifying that there are sufficient signatures to place I-137 on the ballot.

And that's actually why I'm here today is that, as we'll talk about in a couple of minutes, that essentially starts a clock under which both the city clerk and then city council have a limited time to act.

So a quick review of what I-137 is.

I-137 would impose a tax on payroll expenses for employers who are doing business in Seattle.

The new tax would apply a 5% rate on compensation above $1 million a year paid to Seattle-based employees.

At least 95% of the tax revenue would be allocated to Seattle Social Housing Public Development Authority, Social Housing PDA for short, which was created under Initiative I-135, Initiative 135, which was passed last year.

The purpose of the Social Housing PDA under I-135 is to develop, own, and maintain publicly financed mixed income social housing developments.

Brief note, up to 5% of the tax revenue can also be used to administer the tax.

So as I just mentioned, on Friday, King County Elections notified the city that there are sufficient signatures to place the initiative on the ballot.

Now that the city clerk has received that notification, they have 20 days to file the certificate of sufficiency with city council, which is done by introducing and referring a clerk file to city council.

Once the clerk file is introduced and referred, council then has 45 days to act on the initiative.

And council has three choices regarding the initiative.

They can enact the measure in which case it is sent to the voters directly.

I'm sorry, they can enact the measure in which case it is adopted directly.

They can send the matter directly to voters.

or they can send the measure to voters and place an alternative on the ballot.

And when council develops an alternative, both the measure, the original measure and the alternative are sent to voters for consideration.

Okay, so under the timeline that I've just described here, that would result in an absolute deadline of early October.

So if you add 20 days plus 45 days, that's an absolute deadline under the city charter of early October.

Although in practice, council may want to act on this initiative before budget is transmitted on September 24th.

Under this scenario, I-137 would go on the February 2025 ballot.

If council wants to act in time for I-137 to be placed on the November 5th general election ballot, then action would be needed by August 6th at 4.30 p.m.

There is still sufficient time.

Well, let me say, if council has interest in exploring an alternative, there is not sufficient time to prepare, refer, and vote on the ordinance needed to place the measure on the November ballot.

If council is not interested in an alternative, then there would be sufficient time.

And I will stop there.

Do my colleagues have any questions?

Yeah.

Council Member Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Quick question on this.

5%, up to 5% of that revenue would be allocated for administrative fees.

We'd just be curious to better understand, what are some examples of that, of administrative fees that it would be intended to cover?

Is that, like, so I'm thinking high-level overhead would, potentially office leasing space for employees to operate?

Would that cover salaries?

What kind of administrative fees would that cover?

Those would be fees that the city incurs or costs that the city incurs to administer the tax.

It's the Office of City Finance that would administer the tax.

So they might need to add staff, for example, to administer the tax or build out some of their software platforms in order to be able to administer.

Those are the types of examples.

Got it.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu.

Did they present any other financial information other than, do we know of any development plans or any other, I guess, performance or data other than this 5% tax revenue?

You mean in terms of, for example, the amount of funding that the tax would generate?

And what it's being used for in terms of development fees?

Yeah, the proponents have estimated that it could generate about $50 million a year.

They do on their website just have estimated revenue over a 10-year period of time.

It's about $50 million a year growing slowly over that period of time.

but they haven't presented any financial plans or development documents or timeline or anything?

You know, for me, that's not the level of analysis I would do for this initiative.

I can just say that they have estimated about $50 million.

You know, we've talked with the forecast office, and they've said, looking at the methodology they use, that is generally reasonable methodology but conservative.

But this is also a...

volatile revenue source that also has sometimes hard to predict consequences on the behaviors of business.

And so it's just very difficult to project the kind of revenue associated with this kind of fund source.

Do you have any questions?

So what is the, so could you give a snapshot of what council has done with initiatives and also what council has done with alternatives when it comes to committee or full council assignment?

Mm-hmm.

Having looked at some past examples, it does seem that generally initiatives go straight to full council for consideration.

I think that is largely due just to timing considerations.

Once the city clerk files that clerk file, city council has 45 days to act.

And so that just because of some timing considerations and calendaring in the past, initiatives have gone straight to full council for consideration.

And vote.

And what about alternatives?

That was the second part of my question.

And is your question, have alternatives also gone to full council?

They just, does the whole thing go to full council?

Does it get parsed out to?

The only alternative example that I'm aware is the one about ranked choice voting.

And I believe that that one went to full council for consideration and did not go to committee.

Right, and I remember being annoyed at that, that we made a decision about our system of voting in one.

To be clear, I think it could go to committee.

I think that just hasn't been how it has been handled in the past.

Got it.

Councilmember?

So I just wanted to say that I am personally interested in council exploring an alternative that would ensure the dollars were spent on lower income households because I note this is 80 to 120 percent AMI and there's actually under the PDA charter, no requirement that there be a set percentage at 80%.

So in fact, the model looks at having more at 120 in order to subsidize the small number at 80%.

So looking at an alternative that would where money would be spent on lower income households like 50 to 60% AMI basically workforce.

And also assure that the organization responsible for these dollars has more experience and or accountability.

Where I get a little, where it becomes a little bit difficult is I'm not sure what sort of proposed alternative could meet the required same subject requirement that's outlined in the city charter.

So I am hesitant to support a rush in this case if there's no viable alternative that we can place on the ballot, but I also don't want to hold up the process, so delaying this from general to a special ballot if it turns out there are no strong alternatives to place on the ballot.

So we're a bit in a bind on the same subject piece, I think, just wanting to bring that issue to colleagues' attention.

Well, thank you for those comments.

I have said to central staff and my colleagues that we're doing things by the book.

We're not going to rush or delay or anything.

I'm very concerned about doing things procedurally correct.

So we will plot the course.

So are there any other questions?

Nope.

Thank you very, very much for the summary.

I appreciate it.

Okay, we have gone through what's on the agenda for tomorrow, and there are no proclamations or letters for signatures, so we'll move right into the preview of council actions.

And today's roll call begins with Councilmember Saka.

All right, thank you, Madam Council President, and thank you for acknowledging the passing of Mayor Royer and his lasting legacy of service and innovation in the city of Seattle, he will be sorely missed.

Also, on a lighter note, shout out, thank you to our council colleagues from Taiwan, I heard.

Is there a specific jurisdiction or city in Taiwan that they're from?

Taipei?

Okay.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, welcome.

Really excited to have you.

So with respect to committee updates and news, colleagues, we're back to the regular business, the good old-fashioned nitty-gritty business of the Transportation Committee.

So next week, we will have our next regularly scheduled Transportation Committee on Tuesday morning, and there is a...

two-item agenda there.

One of them is we're going to discuss an ability for SDOT to accept grants and awards, a more custom routine type of item, but a really important one as well.

And then also further to some of my comments last week, we are going to discuss tentatively finalizing shortly, but the SDOT Transportation Task Force, as we kind of started to tee off the process and discuss in the transportation levy during those conversations.

So if that passes, we will be ready to go.

So preparing any number of contingency plans and improving our own state of readiness here at the council level.

And so next week's agenda puts us in a great position to do exactly that.

So in the community, really excited.

This past Saturday held a presser event with the mayor, the King County Metro, to announce the launch of MetroFlex.

And again, honored to join King County Metro, SDOT, the mayor, for expanding a really important service for Delridge, where I live, and South Park, to historically under-resourced neighborhoods.

Historically, not anymore.

But look, as I mentioned at this event, It connects to historically underrepresented neighborhoods and helping folks get from Delritch to South Park and vice versa.

But we all benefit when everyone's able to have easy access to transit.

And we're able to connect to each other and our communities in various ways.

And this is one exciting way we did that.

So shout out to the Duwamish community.

Waterway Park, where we held this cool presser in South Park.

Shout out to Cultivate South Park and Youth Leader from Cultivate, Ruby Montez de Oca.

Great, great presser, great event, and I'm excited about this new service.

What is great, you might ask, about this new service?

Well, Youth Ride, it's sort of like an on-demand Uber or Lyft that connects people to...

Like that connects people from vulnerable groups and communities like this one to transit during during, you know, various hours.

But under this program, youth ride free to get to transit stops or locations within the specific area.

And there's boundary limitations as well.

but it's all on demand, that's why you use it on a phone.

And free training will be offered in various languages provided by Metro and who are doing a great job with their community engagement and outreach.

And this is a great example of a specific transit investment and program that was made only made possible in this case um thanks to the generosity and goodwill of seattle voters in 2020 who passed the seattle transit measure which was approved by voters again back in 2020 and so this is a cool innovative program that was launched specifically and made pursuant thanks to the generosity of uh seattle voters so Exciting new system and service, and everyone check it out.

On Friday in Pioneer Square in my district, we learned sadly that a 30-year-old was attending one of the exciting arts events in tandem with the big Seattle Art Fair that we know is going on.

It appears, unfortunately, there was a dispute between partygoers and a very tragic set of circumstances.

Someone tragically lost their life and another incident of gun violence.

So my condolences to the victim's family.

And I guess I'm heartened to learn that the alleged perpetrator, alleged shooter in this case, did the right thing and turned themselves in.

But, you know, yet another tragic example of gun violence rearing its ugly head.

And so, yeah, that happened in Pioneer Square on Friday night, Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, on Friday, excited to report that our office helped to elevate a very urgent complaint from Pioneer Square, small businesses that, more specifically, they learned that Water would be shut off for a water leak by SPU during the day yesterday, but thanks to our small businesses in Pioneer Square elevating this concern to me in my office and the hard work of Layla and others in my office And those at SPU were able to resolve and postpone this work until, you know, a more appropriate, suitable, acceptable time for the small businesses and the residents of Pioneer Square.

So thank you to SPU and everyone and the small businesses involved and Layla and everyone in my office.

Finally...

I'll note I mentioned some internal committee-related agenda topics and items.

I will note last week, my esteemed colleague, Councilmember Kettle and I, we both sit on the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board.

We also sit on the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board.

But at our Executive Board meeting, I'm sorry if you're...

I'm still in your thunder.

I guess this week I'm going before you, so our thunder.

But during that executive board meeting, the executive board took action and authorized and specifically approved over $700 million in federal and state funds to fund transportation projects across California.

the four-county area that comprises the Puget Sound Regional Council.

So King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap.

So a really exciting way to deliver investments and honored to be able to support that in SDOT and the city of Seattle, whether through SDOT or through the Port of...

Port of Seattle investments and Sound Transit got some funds for that.

Like the city of Seattle wins and everyone wins, you know, from a transportation perspective as a result of those investments that we authorize.

So that is all from my perspective.

I welcome any comments, questions from you all colleagues.

And if not, we'll pass it on to our colleague, Council Member Rivera.

But I see there's a question.

It's not a question.

I just wanted to thank you very much for stepping in and helping out over the weekend with the issue with the small businesses.

I mean, some people think that all we do is, you know, we do pass laws, but a big part of our job is constituent services.

And quite often, problems arise over the weekend.

So thank you very much for being available, stepping up, and mitigating whatever damage could have happened.

So thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Sorry.

Wonderful update.

Other side of me.

But I have to say, I have many friends in West Seattle.

One of them, though, watches you ride the bus on a regular basis, hasn't said anything, but just likes the fact that you walk your talk.

And over in District 6, also, I helped out with a City Light issue, unplanned outage in an area that has experienced, I think this is their third outage in the last year and a half, which says that there's something more to the story.

So I'll be following up with City Light about that.

But I am chairing the Budget Committee, so back to budget.

We had our Finance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee a few weeks ago where we did the pre-briefing to the items we will vote on next week.

Next week, yes.

If five of us could take three hours of committee time, think about what could happen if nine of us were at the committee.

So we already took the record for longest committee.

So that's my way of saying please take the pre-briefing with central staff, with the CBO.

If anyone's not responding to your inquiries, please let me know.

I absolutely want you to have the space and time to say the things on the record in committee that you need to say at committee.

And if we all...

speak for a very long time.

We will be there for a very long time.

That said, I am still asking for everyone to reserve the hour after the scheduled committee.

So that's from 1130 to 1230. Please reserve 1130 to 1230 for committee overrun.

should it happen again, because we do want as much time to be able to talk about the issues.

I don't want to cut anyone off.

I don't want to cut anyone short.

I just know that time is the most valuable commodity that any of us have in our lives.

And so just as a way of overview, we will have a briefing that we have not received before to start it off, which is The Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast, Director Yonduras, will provide us the economic revenue forecast, which comes out next Monday.

So I don't even know what it is today.

So we will be having our economic forecast meeting on Monday.

In Select Budget Committee on Wednesday, we will have a shortened, more condensed version.

So there's usually about 12 slides that go to his presentation.

I will be asking for about three slides.

So again, if you'd like to dig into the fact that the industrial maritime sectors are what is booing our economy currently, please meet with Jan ahead of the committee.

So we will first have that briefing from the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast.

We will then have votes on three bills.

One is the annual wage increase adjustment ordinance that ties into the contracts that we've passed earlier this year.

The second is the mid-year supplemental budget ordinance.

I call this a mid-year supplemental package because all budgets require multiple pieces of ordinances.

Council Bill 120812 is the supplemental budget ordinance, most likely what you would want to amend.

We then have the last bill, Council Bill 120813, which is the mid-year grant acceptance ordinance.

We did have a well-announced deadline for amendments by last Thursday at noon.

I have been told that there are amendments.

However, I don't think folks released confidentiality, so I don't know the content of the amendments.

With save for one, which their office came to my office, thank you.

That's what I will say.

And if you do have amendments, please release confidentiality.

just so that we can start planning for them.

And then the last item that we will have is a briefing by Central Staff Director Ben Noble.

who will lay out the process, where do we go from here?

What is the process going to look like for September, October, and November?

We did change the council budget calendar this year so that in the past, we've had to vote on the budget the week of Thanksgiving, which means that we come in Monday and Tuesday, the week of Thanksgiving.

For folks who celebrate Thanksgiving in another state, this means that you can't go out of state.

We have moved that up a week so that if you would like to visit your family out of state, you have that ability to.

However, if anything goes wrong in budget calendar this year, We will be using that Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.

So that's the high level update.

I will say that if we get to a point where we are running this committee very long, I will ask Ben to just meet with you individually so that we can save our communal time together.

That's the budget update.

in District 6 and beyond.

I visited the Hearthstone Retirement Community in Green Lake this morning, answered some good questions and answers.

My grandma's twin sister used to live there, and the residents remembered her, which was a moment of great joy for me.

I host office hours this week like I do every week.

Nothing is different there, and thank you, Council President, for holding that moment of silence for Mayor Charlie Royer, the longest-serving mayor in the city's history.

If that, colleagues, any questions?

Seeing none, I will pass it to Councilmember Wu.

Thank you.

Highlights from this last week include meeting with Lime to discuss the growing fleet of bikes and scooters in Seattle, received a briefing from King County on the Civic Campus Initiative that will be before King County Regional Policy Committee later this year.

I also met with Conseco Counseling Referral Service to discuss ways to support their gender-based violence program.

I also toured with Lake Union Dry Dog Company and learned more about our city's maritime legacy and the challenges this industry is facing with housing affordability.

We also toured Aurora Commons to learn more about their expansion and about their work serving the health and medical needs of our unhoused neighbors and also with our sex trade workers along North Aurora Avenue.

I joined a central district community in a public safety meeting.

I also attended the Seattle Arts Fair.

I went to Pista St. Ion this weekend, as well as Jam Fest and the Torchlight Parade, and had a lot of fun attending the Hoi Mai ribbon cutting.

Hoi Mai is a new park between Jackson and King Street.

near adjacent to the Little Saigon streetcar stop.

Hoi Mai is named of yellow flower that blooms in early spring.

It symbolizes rebirth and a sense of renewal.

And if you remember, this park is very close to 12th and Jackson.

And so very excited to see reactivation happening in the Little Saigon neighborhood.

So for committee this Friday, we have one mayoral appointee for the International Special Review District Board.

We will hear from Seattle City Light on their integrated resource plan and strategic plan for discussion and a possible vote.

And committee members, please let me know if you'll be unable to attend this Friday's meeting as well as next committee meeting will be on August 16th.

So if you are out of town, please let me know so we will be able to ensure a quorum.

And if there are no comments or questions, I will pass this to Council Member Hollingsworth.

No questions?

Awesome.

I wanted to pause there.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Really happy to be here on a beautiful Monday with liquid sunshine.

I've been waiting for the rain.

The Parks Utilities Technology meeting will be next Wednesday, August 8th.

Last meeting, we had presentations from SPU where they talked about rates.

I reached out to central staff who will be providing a memo to colleagues just to talk about a little bit of the history and how we got here and where we are moving forward.

So really thankful to central staff.

Council President talked about some of the bills that are coming to committee or to our full council tomorrow regarding Council Bill 120810, which is modifying the consent decree from 2013 with SPU.

And then also a resolution for 32140, which are the parks our Seattle Parks Department will go submit to Washington State Recreation Office.

We had a chance to review some of those in committee and saw some of the projects that are on the docket and really excited about some of the investments that are going to be made in our city from parks.

And they also know some of our, also some of our values that we want to continue to see moving forward with, you know, parity with our softball fields and other things in our city.

And so they know that as well.

So it's not just the projects that are pushing forward with, those are capital projects.

They also have, you know, their eye on other stuff that we want to make sure that they're pushing forward.

Regionally, King County Flood District Advisory Committee.

It's my first meeting this week.

So really excited to sit on that and hear about our flood district advisory and some of the challenges that we're facing.

So I'll be on that this week.

And last but not least, I won't go a list of everything that I did last week, but want to give space to folks there was a woman who was tragically killed on Capitol Hill on July 4th.

It was a trans black woman.

Her name was Kenji Spurgeon.

And one of the, one of the things when I asked people, like, why did they move to Seattle, especially, you know, different communities and, you know, people move to Seattle, Seattle for safety and opportunity.

Those two things, a lot of people come from the South because they feel like Seattle is going to be safety and opportunity.

And so Just wanted to recognize that and say her name because a lot of times when we lose black trans lives, they go unnoticed and not reported and just wanted to be able to provide that voice and say her name.

So anyways, without further ado, I will pass it off to Council Member Kettle.

Thank you.

Council Member Hollingsworth, appreciate that.

For this week coming up, we will have a public safety committee meeting on Wednesday at 1400. And I've said this before, but I'm more than happy to turn every public safety committee into a select committee.

Public Safety Committee, so everyone's welcome to attend.

I know some can't, but you are welcomed.

And the topic this week will be SCORE ILA, the interlocal agreement related to the SCORE jail or the South Correctional Entity.

And again, that will be on Wednesday at 2 o'clock.

Regarding community this week, for me, tonight I have downtown Greenways get to discuss the issues of concern there.

And importantly, I'll be at Scout Troop 72 in Queen Anne.

We have three new Eagle Scouts coming into the community tonight at Troop 72's ceremony.

And I will brag on my own staff really quick because there's cringing right now, but I've got two Eagle Scouts on my staff, and so I'm really proud of that.

Wow.

Yeah, I do.

And they're embarrassed right now.

And so, and for this, for tomorrow, I have a ship canal tour of things of interest for our committee on the public utility side.

And midweek, I've got a couple AI briefings, which will be interesting.

Thursday, I'm doing in-district hours at KXP's gathering space, as one does when you're an amplifier yourself.

So I'm really looking forward to that opportunity at KXP, which I love, particularly the morning show with John Richards, if anybody's wondering.

And then Friday, Duwamish Longhouse Cultural Center.

And I should also note a Fremont walk.

I haven't had a chance to talk to my colleague across the water in District 6, but it kind of relates to the border area there and the area of Fremont Bridge in that area.

And I should also note this week coming up that it is, I was going to leave this to end, but I'm going to hit it right now, Fleet Week.

We have Parade of Ships tomorrow, and then the ships appear 46. Ship tours will be, I believe, Friday through Monday.

You can sign up.

You can find us all online, by the way.

And a great opportunity to go upon either a Coast Guard cutter or one of the naval vessels.

I believe there's going to be an Arleigh Burke destroyer.

And so it's a great opportunity to do that.

Everything is found online under Seafair 75, so I really encourage that.

And, of course, with Seafair, to keep my Navy thing going, sorry, we have the Blue Angels showing up.

They'll have a practice run on Thursday, and then they'll be flying this weekend.

And if you haven't been in a jet, Navy jet, pulling Gs and being upside down, well, you just haven't lived life yet.

So a little shout-out.

And a catapult trap on a carrier, too.

That's cat trapped.

It's another thing that you really want to do in addition to flying upside down and pulling Gs.

But anyways, that's an aside.

Last week, my colleague here rightfully stole my thunder regarding the PSRC Executive Board meeting.

I think it's a great meeting, great opportunity for us to represent in person this past week.

Last week, in terms of community events, I really wanted to highlight a number of things.

One is the reopening of Harbor Steps.

Absolutely beautiful.

Great ceremony to do that.

And I also want to do the tie-in to the SAM.

The SAM was part of it.

In addition to recognizing the team from Harbor Steps that did such great work, but also the SAM.

And that's a direct tie-in with the Harbor Steps.

And it's also a chance to once again say, hey, We need to look out for our arts and culture community to ensure that they're strong in our city because they in turn help other businesses and community groups thrive.

Also last week on Wednesday, I met with the DSA mid-team leadership.

The mid-ambassadors, the entire mid-team is fantastic.

Shout out to them and to the DSA overall for what they're doing on the mid.

They're making things happen on our streets And I really appreciate their work in terms of the litter picks, the cleanups, but also their ambassador work.

They do a lot of work in terms of engaging with people who may have a lost look on their face, but across the board, they're doing fantastic.

Also, I did a downtown street ministry walk, which just happened to be in Belltown, which is an area of concern from a public safety perspective that we're working in district and also with the committee.

That was fantastic.

And speaking of community, I also on Friday met with...

Queen Anne Presbyterian Church regarding their work regarding senior gathering.

You know, one of the things that I noted there is that with the pandemic, a lot of, you know, these community kind of events kind of went sideways and they're trying to find their footing right now and trying to get back and then move forward.

And that's what they're doing in support of the senior community.

And that leads to my last item, speaking of community.

If you haven't been to the Inner Bay Pea Patch on 15th, you need to do so.

Saturday, they held a celebration for their 50th anniversary.

And speaking about community, there's a group of people that have come together, and they support both the Ballard Food Bank and also Mary's Place.

So a shout-out to the Inner Bay Pea Patch community for representing.

And that's it.

And again, Fleet Week this week.

questions?

Yes, may I?

Councilmember, just since you're veering into District 6, I'll veer into District 7 a little bit.

Ballard Pea Patch's annual celebration is this coming Saturday.

I wanted to just talk about KEXP briefly.

While I've never been stuck in a cat trap or pulled five Gs upside down.

Only three and a half for me.

Three and a half, fair enough.

I have really enjoyed KEXP throughout my entire life.

And on Friday, Kevin Cole's last drive time yes aired you're right it's a remix not a retirement i can tell you one time i was out at lincoln park walking to see the troll statue that's out there and i saw kevin cole run by and i will tell you i stopped everyone in our group and i said look at kevin cole and all of the crazy cool and amazing things that he's done for our community just wanted to take this moment to recognize him because he has brought so much knowledge, inspiration, and community building to our city through music.

So, Kevin, if you're listening, we love you.

110%.

And I do have affinity for the morning show, but the drive time show is fantastic.

And I caught it.

And he's got such a beautiful mix of music too.

And of course, I always stop and listen when he talks about his time in Minneapolis and his association with Prince.

Yes, a treasure for our community, our city.

And now off to Council Member Moore.

Gosh, okay.

I don't really have anything to add to all of that.

Thank you so much.

Transitioning.

Housing and Human Services next committee meeting will be August 14th.

We're still working on the agenda.

So hopefully next council briefing will be able to give you a better idea of what will be coming forth.

For regional committees, last week I attended the King County Regional Homelessness Authority convening event, which had the mayor, Adele Constantine, and mayors from a number of the suburban cities, and other people from the chamber and...

the Ballmer Group, so philanthropy to basically talk about what's the vision for going forward with KCRHA and just a regional approach.

It was a good meeting.

I got there at the end because I was at the very informative Public Safety Committee meeting.

Thank you, Chair Kettle.

Thank you, Council Member Moore.

That was really a very interesting committee meeting.

But everybody seemed relatively, there were no firm commitments made, let's just say that, but people were, I think, left feeling positive about being able to work together.

This week, I will also be with Councilmember Wu attending the Regional Policy Committee where we'll discuss in more detail the future for the King County Civic Center, and that's going to, if it goes forward, profoundly change our downtown and our SOTO area.

So I would strongly encourage people to look at what they're proposing.

It's pretty interesting and there's lots of possibilities there.

In district, I will have district hours this Saturday, which perfectly dovetails with the fact that we have Lake City Days as part of our Seafair event, which is really a wonderful event.

Lots of great food and amazing drill bands in our parade.

So I would highly recommend people coming to Lake City to participate in the festivities.

And if there are no other questions, I'll turn it over to Council Member Rivera.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

And thank you, Council President, for taking a minute to remember Mayor Royer, or Charlie, as he was known to many of us, because that's just who he was.

And I will say, personally, very much appreciated his mentorship and friendship over the years.

And so this is a really big loss for the city and for me personally.

So Thank you for taking that minute.

And I'm so glad that we were able to highlight him today.

So thank you, Council President.

This last week, I had some conversations with both Chief Rahr as well as North Precinct Captain Agard.

as well as Superintendent AP Diaz about how to address some ongoing issues we're having at Magnuson Park related to after-hours partying and noise, as well as crime.

SPD and Parks have been very responsive and are working actively to find a solution, and I'm continuing in conversations with both SPD and Parks to figure out a solution there.

The Department of Early Learning and Education has received their initial report from the consultant regarding outcomes and data on the current families education preschool promise levy K through 12 investments.

Deal will be presenting these to the library's education and neighborhood committee Which I chair on August 8th as the city considers possible renewal of the FEP levy next year This data will be important important and informing how the city moves forward I invite you all to participate and come to the meeting if you're able to and are interested and I'm not sure if any of you were at the party on the pier on Friday, but it was a gorgeous night.

The pier is part of the redevelopment of Waterfront, and it is looking terrific.

It's such an asset to our downtown area with its new connection to Pike Place Market, and I am just so super excited that that is coming along marvelously and soon will be completed.

So with the aquarium there and its attachment, like I said, Pike Place Market.

It really is a stunning addition to, you know, a renewal of our waterfront to the city.

This week, I met this morning with representatives from the LGBTQIA community commission, rather, who talked to me about housing policies and other issues impacting the community.

The commissions in general are important asset to the city as they advise us on the needs of the communities we serve.

I really appreciated the time with the commission this morning.

It was very informative and I look forward to the continued conversations.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with several organizations who've been awarded EDI grants to learn more about their projects.

I'll hear from five organizations, all who have very different projects from each other and who operate across the city.

Some have shared that their awardees, that the awardees used to convene together on a regular basis.

It hasn't happened in a while, so I'm looking forward to this particular subset small convening.

I believe there's such benefit from organizations coming together to share their experiences and possibly learning from each other on how to support each other as their projects move forward.

From my part, I want to better understand how they feel the department and the city can best support the projects that have already been awarded, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm also meeting this week with Superintendent Brent Jones.

I've not had an opportunity yet to meet with him since I took office, and I look forward to learning more from the superintendent about what Seattle Public Schools' plans are to keep our children safe while they come back to campuses in the fall.

Certainly, this is an important responsibility that is shared between the city, the state and schools.

But as chair of the committee that oversees the Department of Education and Early Learning, which has a significant relationship with Seattle Public Schools, I wanted to hear more from Superintendent Jones directly about how we can work together to keep our kids safe.

So more to come on that conversation.

I am scheduled this week also to take a ride along with the care team and Chief Amy Smith.

I want to learn more about how they operate on the ground and what kinds of calls they respond to.

I'm looking forward to seeing firsthand how the team operates from dispatch to providing services.

I'm also attending an open house at the U District Food Bank.

Though I have not yet been to that particular food bank, I'm proud to say my daughter has volunteered there.

They do a great job with volunteers, and it's a great way for students to fulfill their service hours.

I'm particularly looking forward to visiting and learning more about their operations, what they see and hear from clients, and how we can best support them.

And I will say that particularly want to have a conversation with them about I know they provide some support to the families living at Magnuson Park where I've said in the past, there's a food desert there and I'm interested in how, what additional supports we'd be able to provide those families.

So looking forward to the conversation with the food bank and they are such a great resource and a great partner in the district.

I'm so happy they're there located right next to the Seattle Public Library at the university.

a branch and very much, like I said, look forward to being there with them and thanking them for their work and learning more.

So unless anyone has any questions, I will turn it over to council president.

Well, I do have a question or comment about what you said meeting with the, with superintendent Brent Jones.

I, I am, I'd be interested in a follow-up just offline with you because as I'm out and about I have school age kids.

My youngest is 18 going off to college, but I know parents with kids still in high school and at the public schools.

And I do get asked that question a lot.

So, you know, we've heard what the mayor's initiative is regarding mental health and some other things, but I haven't heard much about what the school district is doing.

And over the summer is a perfect time to get a plan.

So, or because people are, asking me and wondering what might be different next fall.

Agreed, Council President.

I have two kids, one of which is also going to college in the fall, but I have one now who's an incoming, what do they call it now, rising, I'm dating myself.

Now it's not called incoming, it's called rising, a rising junior, and I get a lot of parents in the district, we have almost 22 schools in the district, so I get asked a lot.

They're not all public schools, but nevertheless, I get asked a lot about public safety in the schools and what Seattle Public Schools is doing, and I actually find it hard to answer.

I know what the mayor has proposed and what we're all supporting in partnership with the mayor, but I don't know what Seattle Public Schools is doing.

Obviously, there's a lot of education that I wind up doing about the fact that Seattle Public Schools is a separate entity from the city of Seattle.

We do not oversee them.

We have a longstanding partnership with the district, as everyone knows, but we won't necessarily know what they're working on until we have these kinds of conversations.

And then obviously they're overseen by the state.

And I'm not clear as to, and the state also is responsible for mental health in the state.

So both education and mental health, and we've said it at this body before, The state is in charge of both of those issues, and so I want to, and there's an intersection here, and I want to learn more about what the state's efforts are on this regard, which I hope to hear from Superintendent Jones, in addition to the work that he's doing with the principals at all of the schools, particularly the high schools that are the most impacted currently on the public safety issue, because that's where we've seen the most gun violence, and as well as his partnership with the PTSAs, the parent-teacher student associations at those schools.

And I should have said also, I mean, we don't use these opportunities.

If we were to do the laundry list of every meeting we've had, we would all be here a long time every week.

But I will say I have met with some parents at Garfield High School who were interested in talking to me because they've met with the ptsa there and everyone is just trying to wrap their heads around and figuring out how to best keep kids safe in the schools and by the way this isn't like you like to say council member kettle by the way This isn't just a Seattle issue.

This is something that we're seeing across the country.

So if you read other papers from across the country, you will see other school districts grappling as well with this particular issue.

So all of that to say, yes, I am happy to follow up with each of you individually, whoever's interested on information that I hear from Seattle Public Schools as we're looking to September, which is right around the corner, it's hard to believe.

and what the plans are for keeping kids safe and engaged this upcoming school year.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Can I say thank you as well for this engagement?

Many times when I was in community, it often struck me that the city and the school district had to exchange ambassadors in order to have a relationship, and we need to get away from that.

So having a a direct and you know, as with your committee and with Dr. Jones, it just seems the right thing to do because having to exchange ambassadors is not the way to have a relationship between the city of Seattle and our Seattle school district.

And it doesn't inspire confidence for our families and with our families, which are our constituents as well as the students.

So I do hope this will be the first of many conversations with the superintendent as we move forward, because this isn't something that's gonna get solved overnight along with all our other public safety issues.

And we definitely are going to either sink or swim together on this one.

And I am looking forward to swimming and getting some things in place to really help students.

So in partnership.

Thank you for that.

Can I ask you a question?

So are you going to be bringing out, is the superintendent willing to come to committee to talk about these things?

That's exactly what I was going to ask.

That will be a question I will be asking him and an invitation I will offer.

Okay, that would be really helpful.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Like I said, it's the first meeting.

I've been trying to meet with him for a while.

Obviously, he's had some issues at the end of the school year with the shooting at Garfield and many other incidents that we've seen because we don't always talk about the incidents that happen that don't involve a tragedy that way.

There have been other muggings and things of that nature that I don't think are always reported or reported on as robustly.

So I know there's a lot that Seattle Public Schools is dealing with.

But yes, I will, like I said, I hope this will be the first of many conversations and not just the or a conversation.

And I will extend an invitation for him to come to committee so that we can all find out about the efforts that the school will be undertaking, Seattle Public Schools.

Because, for instance, Council Member Moore, I know you care deeply about Robert Eagle's staff and Cascadia, which are right off of Aurora and all the issues that are happening on North Aurora are impacting the kids there.

not the least of which are some of the students are getting proposition up on Aurora.

And so, I mean, there are a lot of issues and we do need to work together.

I mean, I also am interested to hear from him on his relationship, the school board, because the school board does oversee Seattle Public Schools and what support are they offering him as he is leading this effort?

I do not have the answer to that and I intend to get to the bottom of that.

So that's another entity that I have reached out to the president of the school board, Liza Rankin, and I hope to meet with her soon.

I did sit on a panel with her last week on education issues and we discussed meetings.

So I hope that meeting will be put in place soon as well.

And I intend to have all of these conversations and keep you posted.

So thank you for that.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

And I believe that what used to be called the family and ed levy is going to be renewed in your committee next year.

Next year, hopefully so.

Yes, that's the goal.

Close relationship with the school district.

Okay, so on to me, if there aren't any other questions for Council Member Rivera.

Okay, the next meeting of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee will be on Thursday, August 8th at 2 p.m.

That's a week from this Thursday, so I won't go into everything that's on the agenda, but I'll just highlight two items, which in the first would be a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120827, establishing the Musician Venue Parking Permit Program.

I've mentioned this before, but basically this is a priority that the Music Commission has been working on for many, many years, or not many, many years, but it's been a priority of theirs to get the city to somehow help out with the fact that when musicians come to a venue, where do they park?

And it's hard, our parking spots are time limited, people don't want tickets, they don't want their cars broken into, or They don't want to park too far away because they're carrying heavy stuff.

So anyway, this is an ongoing priority that I asked SDOT to focus on.

And so we'll be having a briefing and discussion on that program because it does need council authorization.

So that's coming up and then we'll have two meetings about that.

And then we'll also have a briefing and discussion on a bill.

And I say that because I do not have the council bill number.

Like I said earlier, there are several bills that I didn't recite on the IRC just because it was still in formation when I walked in here because there's a lot going on.

Anyway, this bill would make changes to the boundaries of the West Seattle Junction business improvement area.

And you'll recall this because we had OED provide a presentation to us about some of the incoming BIA changes and pieces of legislation that will support that.

So that will have our first briefing and discussion about that legislation.

I would like to note that the committee will also have a special meeting on Monday, August 12th at 9.30 in the morning.

I'm sure that we're all trying to grab time on the calendar to have extra meetings because we're coming to the end of the period that we can have a lot of action before recess and budget.

So just note that that is incoming.

All right, so last week I had my first formal sit-down with Interim Chief Rahr, and she was accompanied by SPD COO Brian Maxey.

I will say that Interim Chief Rahr has been very accessible outside of formal meetings, too, probably.

I know very well that she's been meeting and responding to phone calls, cold calls from people just out in the world that are interested in talking public safety.

But in any case, we had a brief debrief on the conversation that was at the Public Safety Committee meeting the week before.

She was very energized, and I'm happy to say that she has She sees the urgency and she shares my sense of urgency on recruitment and retention, but primarily recruitment.

It's one thing to say, yeah, we've got three times as many applications having renewed the SPOG contract, but it's getting those applicants through the pipeline and out onto the streets, which is most important in making sure they're not picked off by neighboring jurisdictions or that we shepherd them through the process efficiently.

is key to actually improving public safety.

So we talked about that and then many other things that have been in the public realm for conversation around public safety.

Next, last Thursday evening I also, I gave introductory remarks at Mixer, and that is the second of six planned events that's organized by OED.

Here's the brochure for this past event.

The first one was at Seattle Center, this one was in the Central District at Midtown Plaza.

There will be another in Pioneer Square, White Center, Hillman City, Capitol Hill.

I invite you to attend these.

They're super fun.

The mission of these events is to, it's a workshop series launched in partnership with the Seattle Office of Economic Development to support the creative economy sector.

And this particular event was in Midtown Plaza, I said, and that is surrounded by Resoul, Art Noir, Jerk Shack, Marjorie, Neighbor Lady, and so it's surrounded by small businesses, and it was just really great to see the owners and patrons and also...

creatives coming out and celebrating the Central District, the businesses that were surrounding this area.

And it was very well produced and a whole lot of fun.

And I really hope that, well, the theme was wellness.

And I really hope that there aren't a lot of clips out there of me trying to participate in the dance workshop.

But in any case, I was joined by James Miles from OED and Jasmine Scott of Art Noir.

So thank you very much to the Office of Economic Development for hosting this critical conversation and all the sponsors.

that I just named, and many, many, many others.

Okay, Friday evening, I too attended the Friends of the Waterfront's party at the Pier event.

It was at Pier 62. I remember back in the day, I believe it was there, seeing Earth, Wind, and Fire, and Ben Harper, I believe, also.

But anyway, great event.

And there was an art exhibit featuring a limited number of student pieces from the Gage Academy of Art.

I really thank everyone at the Waterfront Center Friends of the Waterfront for the invitation and the really well-done event, and it's exciting.

And I have to also say, when you go to the Waterfront, everybody talks about, next year, next year, it's open.

It is alive and well right now.

I mean, there are parts that are still cordoned off by orange plastic tape.

You can see...

this transformation happening before your eyes and beautiful stuff going on and being built.

And it was really interesting or heartwarming for me to see the new little beach that's there full of people picnicking, fishing, et cetera.

I mean, it's...

It's a beach right downtown, and so that is a tremendous asset.

I was thinking about my crab pots.

Anyway.

Yeah, go ahead.

I think that you just hit on one of the biggest pieces of the transformation down there, which is that it all used to be a beach.

Mm-hmm.

And then it's transformed.

And with the viaduct, it created a less than ideal space.

And Charlie Roy, Mayor Royer was a big part of this change as well.

And the fact that we can go down and have a natural experience in the 17th largest city in the nation is saying a really big thing.

Well put.

Go on.

Mayor Arroyo was definitely a big, big proponent of the waterfront, and he worked on this after he was no longer mayor here at the city.

His civic engagement just over the years until...

More recently, he just was involved and engaged in everything, but particularly the waterfront.

And I have to say the waterfront's a great example of a private-public partnership, right?

And it also involves the Seattle Center because the connection up to the Seattle Center all the way into Pioneer Square.

And I know it's taken a very long time to see this transformation.

And full disclosure, my spouse is on the board of the Friends of the Waterfront.

And so he has worked with the various partners, both, like I said, on public at the City of Seattle and private to make this happen.

And also it's really amazing to see the work that they've done with native community to make sure that that is a big piece of this for the reasons, Councilmember, that you stated, Councilmember Strauss.

So it's really fantastic to see.

And the reason why I'm saying I can't wait till it's finished is just because it has been reopened in pieces.

And when it's finally done, its connection between the waterfront up to Pike Place Market, all the way up to the Seattle Center, it is going to be transformational.

And I know something that people will come to Seattle to see.

And so it really has been, when we set our minds to a public-private partnership, we accomplish amazing things.

Indeed.

And I will note two things.

Number one, Charlie and his wife live right there.

I mean, in condos in that part of town, just...

very close to the area that we're talking about.

And so lived and breathed the transformation and helped make it happen.

And you mentioned both of you did the tribal governments and also what the waterfront was like before and is now.

And I'll note that there were a lot of monkey mucks that spoke on Friday night.

And the first was a horseman of the Suquamish tribe.

So that was a fitting tribute.

Okay, moving on, let's see.

I'll be meeting with Rob Thomas of AEG Showbox to discuss this parking zone.

You might not think this is a very big deal, but I'll tell you, people, towns across the country are talking about this, so just you wait.

Rob Thomas, the singer?

Rob Thomas, AEG Showbox, says my notes.

All right.

I'm not going to give anything away.

All right.

And then tomorrow night, I'll provide opening remarks at the Seattle Film Commission Town Hall, which is hosted at the brand new M5 Creative Building on, yeah, on the right.

So you might want to check that out.

I'll be participating in the Seafarer Gala as well, the 75th.

So perhaps I'll see you there.

That's all I've got, everybody.

Any questions or comments?

Well, if there's no further business, I recommend that we adjourn.

It is 3.14, and seeing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you very much, everybody.