Seattle City Council Briefing 7/11/22

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

The July 11th 2022 Council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2 p.m.

I'm Dan Strauss serving as Council President Pro Tem.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council member so why present Council President pro temp Strauss present six present.

Thank you.

If there is no objection the minutes of June 27 2022 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection the minutes are adopted.

Moving on to item two of our agenda, the President's Report.

I'll start off with just a happy birthday wish and congratulations to Yaya, who is the caretaker of the second floor here on City Hall.

It is his birthday today.

Just want to say happy birthday, Yaya.

I hope all is well with you and you're enjoying the sun today.

On today's agenda, we will have a letter for signature presented by Councilmember Mosqueda.

We will also hear a report from each Councilmember and conclude with one 20-minute executive session by the City Attorney's Office.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes and payment of the bills, as well as one appointment recommended by the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee.

We will take one vote on all items on the consent calendar, unless any council member requests that an item be removed for consideration separately and if so that item will be taken up at the end of the agenda.

Following the consent calendar we will be considering four items court file 314495 report from the city clerk on certificate of sufficiency for initiative.

134. There will be no action on that item tomorrow.

Please do mark your calendars for a special council meeting this Thursday, July 14th at 2 p.m.

to consider this matter.

In the meantime, Lish Whitson on Council Central staff is available to provide a briefing to each office this week on I-134.

Please do contact Lish to set up that briefing.

Item two, which will be on tomorrow's agenda, Council Bill 120363 is an update to the city's criminal code to ensure it is consistent with state law.

This is time-sensitive legislation.

And with the consent of the chair of our Public Safety Committee, this was not referred to committee and rather will be considered at full council tomorrow.

Council Member Herbold, thank you for sponsoring this bill.

In the meantime, please do contact Asha Vigantraman or Director Esther Handy on central staff with any questions about Council Bill 120363. Items three and four, we will be voting on two items considered and recommended unanimously by the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

These include a bill authorizing the acceptance of grants and updating the CIP, as well as consideration of the resolution regarding Sound Transit's West Seattle Ballard Link Light rail extension project.

Information on all of these items is available on the online agenda.

Moving on to item number three, signing of letters and proclamations.

Council Member Mosqueda has a letter in support for homegrown workers for signature.

Council Member Mosqueda, I'll turn it over to you to please lead the discussion on the letter for any additional feedback before I request signatures to be affixed.

Thank you very much, Council President Strauss, Pro Tem Strauss.

Colleagues, last week, our office sent around a letter for your consideration.

Given our council rules, we're not allowed to just circulate general letters like this on the floor and need to do so in public session.

There is an opportunity for us to send a letter to support the workers at Homegrown In June, workers from homegrown sandwich cafes and homegrown wholesale production and distribution facilities delivered a majority petition calling on homegrown to agree to a fair and quick process to decide whether to form a union without threat or intimidation.

Homegrown has still not agreed to such a process.

Homegrown workers who work in five locations in our city have told their stories of struggling to make ends meet in Seattle.

where the cost of living has continued to rise.

A union would bring workers respect on the job and wages and benefits that they could negotiate to help make their jobs more sustainable.

As we've stated in our resolution related to Starbucks worker organizing, we understand that a union representation has important benefits for workers, particularly for workers of color, including better pay, benefits, working conditions, and job security.

While the benefits of unionizing are important, perhaps equally as important, is having a fair and efficient process by which workers can decide if they want to unionize without the many types of interference and intimidation that many employers are.

currently deploying and have deployed in the past to try to dissuade workers from organizing.

This letter really focuses on the process.

We are urging management to meet with workers who delivered the petition and urge management to agree to card check neutrality, a process that allows for greater respect in the decision making of workers and the decision of the majority of workers to choose to form a union free of interference.

I, again, want to thank our team, Central Parikh, for sending the letter around to folks who had the opportunity to look at it since last week.

And it's a simple letter.

If you don't want to sign on, that is not a problem.

This is not a policy discussion, but really want to make sure that if you do want to sign on, that we provided this open public forum to do so.

So with that, I'm happy to Mr. Mr. President, turn it back over to you for the process of calling roll.

Thank you, Council member.

Colleagues, are there any questions at this time?

Well, seeing no questions, I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll.

Seeing as there's no further discussion on the matter, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the letter in support of homegrown workers?

Council member Herbold?

Yes.

Council member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Nay.

Council Member Peterson.

No, thank you.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council President Pro Tem Strauss.

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed.

Thank you.

Thank you colleagues for that Okay.

Thank you for that conversation and we will now move on to the next agenda item.

Which is item four preview of city council actions, council, and regional committees.

We will move in the roll call order.

Council member Herbold followed by Lewis Morales, Mosqueda, Nelson Peterson.

So one, and then myself, council president pro tem Strauss.

and the order of discussion established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name with the Council President Pro Tem last.

This week's roll call rotation begins with Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Herbold, whenever you're ready, take it away.

And as usual, just pass it off to the next council member.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

President Pro Tem Strauss.

appreciate you leading us today.

So let's see, no items from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee from me today on tomorrow's full council agenda, but as Council President Strauss mentioned, is an item that I am sponsoring.

It did not go through committee because it is, as was explained, a time-sensitive item.

This is Council Bill 120363, we were getting this meeting started, we received a memo explaining the nature of the bill and the time-sensitive nature of it as well from Asha Venkataraman, and that should be in everybody's inboxes.

Very briefly, this legislation has received a request, changes made to state law made by the state legislature.

There are three key aspects to the bill.

It updates the municipal code to reference the new state law provisions.

that were in a different part of state law previously and now under a new part of state law.

And the substance of the state statute remains primarily the same in that instance with a couple of exceptions.

The reference to one part of the state law details under what circumstances and how the city attorney can prosecute the misdemeanor under question.

And again, this is related to domestic violence and extreme risk protection orders.

It does not give the city any new authority in this section.

It also references the allowance in state law to prosecute what was previously covered and is now expiring in the old state law, but a city never adopted the state law by reference before.

So by adopting this, it would give the city attorney's office authority to prosecute as a gross demeanor two things.

When somebody commits a specific firearm violation, or if somebody files an extreme risk protection order when it was false or filed with the intent to harass.

So again, this is a really focused on making sure that city law is consistent with state law in places where it has been before, and in areas where we haven't made it consistent with state law, we are newly doing so.

And again, the memo in brain boxes should provide some further clarity.

And if you have additional questions, feel free to reach out to me or Asha before tomorrow.

We do have a Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting tomorrow, tomorrow morning at 9.30.

On the agenda, we have four items.

The first item is legislation regarding investigations of the chief of police.

The intent is to vote the bill out of committee after considering a substitute version that staff has prepared to make some very minor textual edits and corrections as described by the central staff memo.

This will be our fourth committee meeting discussing this bill.

We're going to be hearing from the Seattle Police Department, their race and social justice initiative report, as we work through scheduling the reports of all of the departments in my committee jurisdiction.

We're also going to be hearing from the Youth Leadership Prevention and Change, which is otherwise referred to as LINC program.

They're going to be talking to us about the work that they've been doing to do violence prevention efforts, both in Seattle and through the region.

And then related but separate, because it's a focus on gun violence, not just violence prevention generally, we'll be hearing a report on the county regional approach to gun violence reduction and that will be brought to us by public health.

I just want to lift the fact that this is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

We all have been working really hard to bring attention to the shadow pandemic, the crisis in mental health that is affecting all of us, brought on by two years of isolation, grief, and anxiety caused by COVID.

Last year, Governor Inslee declared a state of emergency due to the mental and behavioral health of Washington's kids.

And last December, the nation's Surgeon General followed suit, again, focused on the state of emergency, the mental and behavioral health of our young people.

We are feeling this crisis in every community and many, many homes where people are struggling.

I want to just lift up that July is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

Bebe was a pioneering mental health advocate recognized by Congress for her work to improve public health awareness and access in minority communities.

And here in Seattle, Department of Human Resources is providing a list of tools and webinars to support BIPOC employees' mental well-being.

community.

They note that the mental health challenges we face public servants are all the real.

Particularly for our bar communities who face additional stigma and obstacles to accessing care.

For city employees who are watching.

You can find these for providing these resources and putting a spotlight on bipoc mental health.

A couple of additional updates.

The public safety update for folks today is less of an update and more just a recognition that it was nearly 2 years ago in August 2020 when the council requested that SPD undertake a 911 call response analysis.

In October 2020, the former mayor issued an executive order to, quote, identify areas of SPD response that could be transitioned to civilian and community-based response.

And then last year, the police department commissioned a report from the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to analyze 911 call types.

report that came out last year identified 174 call types as candidates for alternate responses and that at a briefing in my committee a year ago this month, the executive noted that they agreed that up to 12% of calls for service can be responded to SPD could be responded to without SPD involvement, and I quote, in the near term, that was a year ago, and that was 28 of the 174 call types.

SPD agreed that their call types could potentially be appropriate for alternate response on a longer horizon.

last budget cycle, we passed a statement of legislative intent.

We requested quarterly updates on the progress of the continuing work.

My committee has held two meetings this year to assess the progress developing alternatives.

And my colleagues have repeatedly requested, in addition to this large project, to do a risk assessment analysis on all the call types that we have requested that be a parallel discussion and timeline for piloting more quickly, more urgently, an alternate response to receive dispatch 911 calls specifically for person down and wellness checks.

Approximately 8,000 calls a year that could be diverted away from a uniformed officer response.

And I'm just flagging this.

we have not yet received a favorable response for this request that we do a small pilot with these 2 types I think it's important for folks in the public to know that we have been asking for a pilot for this smaller cohort of calls and we have not yet received a favorable response to that request.

I just want to flag some events that occurred last week, some events that are coming up this week.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the Civic Engagement and Affordable Housing Education event hosted by the Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Collective and the People's Academy for Community Engagement.

have a great opportunity to give a tour of City Hall on Saturday afternoon and council chambers to the cohort and the little civic one oh one.

This is a group of a lot next community members who have been meeting over the past 5 months to learn about civic engagement and homeownership.

Coming up this community safety communications center director Lombard present on the new 911 dispatch triage procedures.

And this will allow the community to have a better understanding of how calls are prioritized and the progress on some of the issues around alternate response that I flagged earlier.

And I'll also be participating on Wednesday morning in the elected officials forum on housing levy renewal and affordable housing priorities organized by the housing development consortium.

That's all I've got to say.

Anybody have any questions or comments?

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

I just want to jump in to add my voice as one of the colleagues who has similarly been pushing on the alternative response policy area for the last several years and appreciate you giving time at this briefing to this issue.

Just to underscore, I do think it is important to continue to press on this and to continue to press on the risk assessment.

The most common feedback and criticism I hear from members of the community or from members of the executive branch, primarily the previous administration executive branch and not the current one, has been concerns over whether it is safe or not to dispatch alternative providers to different situations.

The only thing I would say is that would be illuminated if we had a swift and clear and efficient risk assessment conducted and completed in a timely fashion.

I only raised this that emphatically and that clearly, because it seems most other major cities have figured out how to do this assessment and analysis in a way that is timely and responsive to the public safety situation those cities are facing.

The Denver STAR program has dramatically increased their alternative response over the last two years.

Albuquerque, New Mexico has gone from completely creating from the ground up.

STAR in Denver was created previous to the pandemic and approved as a pilot and before the urban situation on public safety that a lot of cities, including ours, are experiencing.

Albuquerque was, like our city, flat-footed from the major public safety emergency that we're facing around a reassessment of urban policing and invented a program out of full cloth to respond to those similar kind of calls on the same timeline that we've been doing it.

And they've moved way faster than we have as a city.

I only raise that to say that I don't know what is unique or special about our city that we cannot do this basic work, but would like to continue as we had accomplished conversation two weeks ago with our executive partners to figure out how to put forward a very precise, efficient, and disciplined timeline to deliver on this critical body of work and to not treat it like it is something that is unprecedented or obscure or difficult to do.

It is, in fact, an emerging national best practice.

And other cities have gone through a similar process in the last couple of years.

And maybe we can learn from how they were able to parse out how to do this work in a safe, efficient, and equitable manner.

Because from my understanding, they say these continue to operate and do those programs with very little impact on the workers and first responders doing the work, except insofar as it has made it easier for first responders to do the work, given that there are more of them and that they are more appropriately assigned to work than only they can do.

So thank you again for flagging that issue.

And I hope that we will continue to have these conversations in your committee and with our executive partners.

Thank you so much for adding your voice.

And I do appreciate the distinction between the efforts with the previous executive and the new mayor's office.

But I do wanna flag that it was on May 12th before our last status update that I last requested that we receive a parallel discussion and timeline for allowing dispatch calls for persons down and wellness checks with the intention that we would hear about that in the last meeting on the 28th.

This was not, this requested sort of discussion around how to pilot something was not included in the briefing.

for the 28th despite my request that it be included on May 12th.

And so, again, I'm just flagging that with the new administration, there at least at this point seems to be hesitation on flagging, on creating a pilot for this cohort.

And so I do, I'm still optimistic and I really appreciate everybody's passion for moving this forward.

I do think that In addition to when we were talking about this two years ago, it was really focused on the fact that we wanted an alternate response because we recognize that harm could be done when armed officers are sent to folks.

who may be in a mental health crisis.

We have an additional reason for urgency right now, which is related to the great reduction in staffing at the police department and the need for them to really be focused on responding to the calls that only they can respond to, and these are already calls that aren't getting a response.

So the idea that there would be a lot of risk associated to creating an alternate response to the types of calls that aren't getting a response at all is a little bit of a head-scratcher to me.

Council Member Lewis.

I would just add as one more point to this conversation, and I know that we'll have follow-up conversations in your committee on this, We do still have all of that money sitting as underspend that was put aside for triage one.

So there are resources there to develop and deploy a pilot to do this work.

I am certainly open to reprogramming and working with that triage one money.

Central staff gave us some preliminary numbers that we could probably do a one vehicle pilot for something like a third of the triage one investment.

So there are ways and probably less for this year, given that there's half of that money is underspent at this point.

We're not running the triage one for the entire year like it was budgeted for.

So I do just want to add, not only is this something we should do, but there is some money sitting in the budget that this council approved that we could reprogram for this purpose.

And maybe if this is something we We want to spur a little bit more action on in collaboration with the executive.

Maybe we should proactively reprogram the triage one money to design and set up a process, our executive partners could take advantage of to do such a pilot.

And colleagues, I'm going to ask that we take this conversation to committee since it's, we're getting a little bit deeper than Council briefing usually asked for.

So Councilmember Herbold, I'll pass it back to you and if nothing else.

And you know what, I'm just going to pass it on over to Councilmember Lewis because he's next.

Wonderful.

There you go.

Here we are.

Thank you.

Take it away, Councilmember Lewis.

Well, I want to start by giving my statement about how we're going to reprogram the money in triage one.

No, I'm just kidding.

Okay.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Strauss.

Thank you, Council Member Kerbal.

Okay, a lot of stuff that is going on this week.

There is an item on today's introduction, or sorry, on Tuesdays, a full council meeting from the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, and it is an appointment to the Library Board.

The appointment was unanimously recommended out of committee and I look forward to saying more about the nominee and our unanimous report for her appointment to that position tomorrow afternoon.

I do have a bill that is on this afternoon or this week's introduction and referral calendar and that is Council Bill 120369. This is an ordinance related to rank choice voting and request that a special election be held concurrent with the November 8, 2022 general election, placing on the ballot a measure for Seattle voters to consider that would institute rank choice voting for primary elections for the city of Seattle's elected offices.

I'm bringing forward this ordinance to ensure that Seattle voters are able to have a full and robust discussion of alternative voting methods in this coming election.

Another method, approval voting, is going to be on the ballot.

I think we can safely say that it'll be on the ballot in the fall, given our deliberations on the approved signatures that have been submitted by that campaign.

There's a longstanding and popular effort in Washington State to switch to a ranked choice voting system.

And by taking action that places both of these measures on the ballot concurrently, the City Council gives the voters the opportunity to better understand and compare these alternative voting systems and determine which, if either, is the right choice for the City of Seattle.

I want to specifically thank Lish Whitson on Council Central staff for helping to craft this legislation and work with a robust group of stakeholders, including King County Elections, on technical feedback and answering logistical questions.

I want to thank Jody Schwinn and the deputy city clerk's office for helping us through the logistics on how to get this appropriately introduced.

And Brendel Swift and the council president's office who's been very accommodating and gone above and beyond in making sure that this can be brought forward for consideration of council colleagues as part of this process and in such a rapid timeframe.

in order to make sure that we get everybody to the November ballot and don't delay this to a special ballot sometime in the winter.

And I look forward to having some additional conversations on this.

My understanding is Council President's Office is going to refer the bill for a discussion in Council President's Committee this coming Thursday.

And we will definitely keep Council colleagues informed on that process going forward and strongly encourage folks to reach out to Lish Witson with logistical questions on the process.

The Metropolitan Park District is going to be having a public hearing this Thursday evening at 530 p.m.

Members of the public can attend in person or online.

This will be held in council chambers, signing up at the usual public comment link.

We strongly encourage members of the public to reach out.

It is my hope that we will be holding two additional Metropolitan Park District public hearings, either in council chambers or out in the community somewhere over the course of the summer.

My office will be in touch with council offices on the potential logistics of how that might work to make sure that we are getting a broad and representative amount of feedback on our deliberations as the Metropolitan Park District on the cycle two investments.

Looking forward to kicking that off this Thursday at 5.30 for the first public hearing, strongly encourage all interested parties in weighing in on those investments to tune in and let us know your priorities.

Similarly, I will be holding three opportunities in District 7 to meet with District 7 residents and stakeholders regarding the Metropolitan Park District renewal conversations and cycle 2 investments.

I invite folks to join me in Belltown at Block 41, on August 8th, Monday, August 8th, from 5.30 to 7.30, and that's at 115 Bell Street.

I will be holding a similar event at Magnolia Community Center on August 11th from 5.30 to 7.30, and at the Queen and Community Center on July 28th from 5 to 6.45 p.m.

And I'm going to be emailing those three opportunities out to my listserv so no need to, for the general public to memorize those, those opportunities to come to those gatherings just now, but really look forward to hearing from district seven residents on what their priorities are for the Metropolitan Park District strongly encourage you to come out for these.

events to talk in person and to share your thoughts with myself and representatives from the Parks Department.

So looking forward to those and feel free to reach out to my office with any questions.

We will be in my email to my mailing list be providing a link to RSVP to participate in those events.

Clean Cities Initiative.

This For this last period of the last two weeks, the Clean City Initiative recovered and discarded 902 needles, did 46 cleanups at various locations, and collected 33,520 pounds of garbage.

A huge shout out to the Clean City Initiative, as always, and looking forward to continuing to get these updates and these impressive metrics on the work that they are doing.

Peer 62 event.

So this weekend, I had a really great time going to a public event at Peer 62. The Waterfront Park is a beautiful place.

People always think of the Waterfront Park as something that's a work in progress.

We all have to remember that Peer 62 is finished and activated and being programmed, and there are great community events there.

There was a temporary a soccer pitch set up for children to play soccer with each other.

There was a giant chess set that people were actively using.

Obviously a concert activation that was programmed throughout the afternoon from 4 to 8 p.m.

as well as an active beer garden at the end of the pier.

So it was a really great time to get out there and see The great work that the parks department and the Office of the waterfront and friends of the Seattle waterfront have done to activate that space and really encourage people to take full advantage of the great asset that is our growing waterfront park that includes pure 62. With that, colleagues, I do not have any other things to share for briefing this afternoon.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

Seeing no questions, I will hand it over to Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis, good afternoon, colleagues.

Let's see.

We will start with committee update.

The Neighborhood Education Arts and Civil Rights Committee met last Friday.

We passed out of committee three landmark designations for three different Seattle Public Schools, two appointments to the Community Involvement Commission, and we also passed out of committee Council Bill 120335 which changes the definition of service animals to bring us into compliance with federal and state law.

All of those will be before council on July 19th.

Last week, excuse me, I was thrilled to take a virtual tour of two different exhibits at the King Street station.

I'm sure you all know that arts at King Street station is a dynamic space for arts and culture in the heart of the city, dedicated to increasing opportunities for communities of color, generate and present their work.

The two exhibits I saw were Hanako O'Leary with an exhibit called Izanami and Yomi, and Molly Vaughn with an exhibit called Her Body and After Boucher.

Both of these explore themes of feminine power, transgender, transformation, fertility, and self-determination.

They were really incredible exhibits.

And unfortunately they have both closed now so I would encourage you if you see these exhibits out in other parts of the community to attend.

We can also share photos of the exhibit from the Office of Arts and Culture.

So I want to thank Director Royal Alley Barnes and the staff down at King Street Station for helping us make that happen.

I had intended to be there in person with my team, but due to COVID we had to make that a virtual tour so I appreciate them changing up the plan at the last minute.

Last week we met with deal, discuss some possible amendments for the family's education preschool and promise levy that the mayor will be transmitting soon.

We also discussed what to do with the $9.6 million levy underspend from 2020 and 2021. The Levy Oversight Committee voted to support the 2022 council budget amendments with some of that money and DEEL is proposing use of the balance to the executives so we will be bringing that recommendation to the Levy Oversight Committee for a vote sometime before the budget is transmitted.

Excuse me.

Last week, we also met with OPCD to get briefed on maritime and industrial lands.

And as we begin discussion of proposed alternatives for the broader comprehensive plan, I think it's important to take a moment.

I just want to reiterate my strong belief that we really have to stop focusing simply on units of production of housing and really start thinking about our comprehensive planning process in terms of how we build healthy neighborhoods.

This is not to diminish in any way the urgency with which we need to build more housing that is affordable for working families.

And that means three or even four bedroom apartments that can accommodate families with children and multi-generational families.

Just this weekend, Bloomberg reported that Seattle is in the top 50 cities in the world with the highest cost of living.

So we know that our need for housing is undeniable.

And that housing must be created in neighborhoods that ensure people have all the things they need to thrive within reach of their homes, including playgrounds parks and green space grocery stores childcare and healthcare schools, access to goods and services and good paying jobs.

These things must be within reach of those housing units so that together they can create healthy neighborhoods for people, not merely hundreds of units of isolated housing without access to essential services.

So as we're embarking on the discussion about comprehensive planning in the city.

I would like to encourage my colleagues to share how your districts could benefit from better amenities within reach of your neighborhoods so that we really think holistically and comprehensively about our comprehensive plan.

I'm excited about the work ahead of us in the next couple of years and I will say particularly as I'm looking at some of the alternatives being proposed in SOTO, in terms of adding housing there.

I want to make sure that folks who will be living there are surrounded by the amenities and services that they need.

So I'm looking forward to those discussions and looking forward to talking with all of you about that as well.

District updates.

Last week, we met with Congressman Smith and County Council Member McDermott and Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell to discuss the neighborhood safety plan proposal that's been developed by neighbors in Little Saigon.

Our office has been working closely with friends of Little Saigon and community stakeholders to really build out some community safety options, including a partnership with Department of Neighborhoods on the revival of the CID resource guide, which would be distributed to residents and business owners in the neighborhood.

We also held our monthly meeting with Mount Baker to continue those conversations with residents and businesses and make sure that they're supported in maintaining neighborhood safety there as well.

And then my staff also was present at the first meeting of SDOT's Lake Washington Boulevard Task Force with a broad range of community stakeholders as that visiting process starts.

My office secured the funding for this task force in the last budget cycle and so we're really excited to see that process get started.

Part of the point of this process was to address concerns that we heard from community members that black and brown community members and neighbors were not part of those conversations.

And so we are really trying to make sure, and I appreciate SDOT making sure that this additional work really is about focusing on, focusing outreach on our black and brown neighbors.

This week I've invited Councilmember Peterson, as Chair of the Transportation Committee, and SDOT Interim Director Simpson to join me on a mobility tour of District 2. We'll be visiting 4th and Holgate.

where a high number of people walking and biking have been killed by motorists.

We'll also be visiting our partners at Lighthouse for the Blind to talk with one of their orientation and mobility specialists about the dangers present on Rainier Avenue South for people who are blind, deaf, blind, and low vision.

And we'll also meet at Rainier and Hill, which is the part of Rainier right just a couple blocks away from Lighthouse for the Blind.

But I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about related to the whole corridor.

And then finally, we'll be stopping at Rainier and Henderson, where we've received dozens, hundreds of constituent concerns regarding traffic safety there, including dozens of letters from students at Rainier Beach High School.

And I think colleagues will recall, I mentioned the last time we took a walk-in tour down there, witnessing somebody driving up on the sidewalk within literal feet of a toddler who was out of a stroller near the intersection.

So lots of issues that need to be addressed there.

And I really want to thank Council Member Peterson and his team for agreeing to come down and walk with us and look forward to that conversation.

On Thursday I'll be kicking off the fourth installation of my Seattle within reach series.

We're going on another tour of D two.

This one centered on community economic development and wealth building in partnership with the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and OED.

We'll be touring Baja Bistro in Beacon Hill.

We'll be touring the project site for the Somali Community Cultural and Innovation Hub, as well as Creamy Cone Cafe, which is a Black-owned ice cream shop in Rainier Beach.

I'm following up my comments from our June 13 briefing I do want to update the public and Council colleagues about the work I mentioned that my office is doing on social housing.

We're currently actively working with central staff to craft legislation that would provide long lasting ongoing funding for social housing in Seattle.

We have identified multiple untapped funding sources that could fund acquisition, construction, and administration of high quality, permanently affordable, publicly owned social housing.

And I will keep updating everyone as things progress.

And then our office has been working alongside service providers from REACH to ensure that our unhoused neighbors in the South End are getting connected to shelter and other services as quickly as possible.

This month, we are seeing a sharp increase in the number of encampment removals across the South End, including this week at the VA.

So my staff has been working really hard and I want to thank Evelyn Chow in particular to get resources to these folks with Congressman Smith's office and with our Reach Outreach coordinators.

And then lastly, this Saturday, I will be at Interim CDA's 46th Annual Pig Roast.

If you're interested in joining, you can come on Friday to help turn the spit.

Or if you just want to come eat, that happens on Saturday afternoon at the Danny Wu Garden.

So I hope to see all of you there.

And that is all I have today, colleagues.

Are there any questions or comments?

I don't see any, so I will hand it off to Council Member Mosqueda.

I will look forward to hearing more about the multiple sources of untapped resources because that will be a good conversation to have later.

Especially as it relates to housing.

So the next Finance and Housing Committee meeting is scheduled for July 20th at 930 a.m.

We will have the following items on the agenda.

The Sustainable Procurement Resolution.

I believe Councilmember Lewis has brought this resolution forward to us and We will have time in our committee to hear that legislation and to discuss it further.

We'll have the Finance and Administrative Services Columbia City Snippet Property Disposition.

And importantly, we'll have the Mid-Year Supplemental Budget and Grant Acceptance Ordinance.

Colleagues, early next week, you will be able to receive and review a full council from Tom Mikesel on central staff who was poring over the supplemental budget after working with CBO and central staff on some technical adjustments to the legislation before its introduction.

So you should be able to have that central staff memo for review early next week in anticipation of our conversation on the 20th.

We are planning to have a briefing discussion and possible vote on the supplemental budget and grant acceptance ordinance next week.

We will also continue to stay in touch with any of you and the mayor's offices if there's any additional legislation coming our way for next Wednesday's legislation or topics for discussion, and we'll update our agenda later this week.

There are currently no items on the full Council agenda for tomorrow's full, excuse me, on the full Council agenda from the Finance and Housing Committee.

I do want to highlight something that is on the introduction referral calendar.

I'm really excited about a resolution that we are bringing forward.

This is, I know, an area of interest that is probably shared by the Land Use Chair, Council Member and Council President Pro Tem Straus.

we are excited about this.

We are bringing forward a resolution.

This is to make sure that we're using the comprehensive plan as an update to the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, excuse me, to update the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee discussion for Wednesday.

This resolution follows up on House Bill 1099, which would have required jurisdictions across the state to incorporate climate change as part of their comprehensive plan to ensure cities and counties are planning for climate resilient communities while reducing contributions to the climate crisis.

House Bill 1099 had a broad base of support last legislative session, but unfortunately, the bill died at the last minute in this year's legislative session.

So this left a huge gap in our statewide climate response, just as cities and counties are kicking off their comprehensive planning processes.

And I would say, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court's continued attack on the ability for us to address climate change This type of legislation, these types of policies that are embedded in House Bill 1099 are really important tools for continuing to address the adverse impact that climate change has already had, especially on communities, communities of color, frontline and fenceline communities.

We see this manifesting in extreme heat, wildfires, flood, and air quality that's impacting communities across our region, again, with disproportionate impacts on BIPOC and lower-income communities and workers.

These climate impacts exacerbate inequities that are already driving our housing and displacement crisis, and we need to bring an intersectional lens to create communities that are resilient to climate change.

The resolution outlines areas that the city intends to address in the upcoming comprehensive plan, including greenhouse gas emission reductions, climate resiliency and adaptation and environmental justice.

This resolution is intended to show leadership locally and solidify the city's commitment to making sure that climate is integrated to address climate change in our comprehensive plan.

We are working with the state to address climate change.

Addressing climate is integrated throughout the comprehensive plan as we push for action in the legislature to create a statewide requirement so that all cities and counties across the state are doing their part.

We are joining a list of local jurisdictions, including King County, Pierce County, We are pleased to have the mayor's concurrence on this potential resolution and really appreciate the partnership with the Office of Planning and Community Development and the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

And I will also add the law department in our latest conversations with them about making sure that we can continue to push forward the concepts in Representative Doerr's legislation as the prime sponsor of House Bill 1099. I really want to thank again Councilmember Strauss as a co-sponsor of this legislation, our chair of land use for working jointly with our office, his team, and Aaron House on my team.

I think the larger point here and the most exciting point as we think about heading into the comprehensive plan is that it cannot be understated that the comp plan is our strongest climate plan at the city.

This is the single most important thing that we can do locally to address climate change, to create more affordable housing, including units of all kinds across our city and especially near transit.

That's why zoning is a key part of our climate response.

It helps us enable more people to live in the city that they work and reduce resilience on car, reduce reliance on car travel.

This is also our roadmap to create that 10 to 15 minute city where communities can literally live within a 10 to 15 minute bus ride, bike ride, or walking to things that they need, like childcare, grocery stores, schools, parks, places of employment, and recreation, like community centers.

So again, King County recently adopted their climate planning framework in their comprehensive plan, scoping with the city's comprehensive plan with the county's policies, which is a requirement under the growth management act.

Thanks again to our partners at climate advocacy for bringing this idea to us.

For example, from folks at future wise, we want to thank the community for their work with us, their I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

We've done a number of stakeholder outreach discussions about consumer protection in conjunction with the mayor's office regarding cannabis social equity legislation.

Finance and administrative services is awaiting a legislative package before drafting communication to stakeholders on the broader concepts that will be forthcoming.

Thanks again to the mayor's office for their joint work with us on trying to continue to make En-ROADS to create a social equity approach to the cannabis industry and to the team at FAS and OLS.

And I would also add Office of Economic Development for their years of work in this area, really doing outreach specifically through FAS, years of outreach and engagement with community most affected by the previous harms caused by the war on drugs and folks thinking about how we can apply a social equity approach in this realm here and again Councilmember Herbold has been working on this for a long time as well so looking forward to hearing how those discussions continue to evolve into possible legislation.

There is a Green New Deal presentation that FAS is purchasing and contracting a lead Juliana Tesfu presented to the Office of Sustainability and the Environment through the Green New Deal Oversight Committee on OSE and FAS's joint work and funding efforts.

So if you'd like to see that, I think that that is a great update on some of the Green New Deal work that FAS is engaged in.

And lastly, I just wanted to, Mr. Chair, Mr. President, pull a reminder from the stand.

If folks haven't signed up for the stand, it is the Washington State Labor Council's daily update on news roundup.

And as the stand noted in their news roundups late last week, really telling article from the New York Times on COVID and a warning to folks who think that we're out of the woodwork here, out of the dark times here.

We are not.

The New York Times reports the most transmissible variant yet of coronavirus is threatening a fresh wave of infections in the United States, even among those who've recovered from the virus fairly recently and those who are vaccinated.

Subvariants of Omicron known as BA-5, is now dominant, according to federal estimates released Tuesday, along with BA-4, another sub-variant that's fueling an outbreak of cases and hospitalizations.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports in Washington, the counties of the highest risk include Clallam, Graves, Pacific, Lewis, Thurston, Pierce, Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Walla Walla, Columbia, Asotan, Ferry, and Spokane.

There's an increased risk from six counties as of June 23rd.

So please continue to respect frontline workers by wearing your mask indoors.

Please continue to continue to protect the health of those who are either under vaccinated like kiddos under five or unable to get vaccinations like those who have compromised immune systems by wearing your masks indoors and continuing to engage in social distancing and to get vaccinated.

So, colleagues, again, Councilmember Herbold, I hope I did not repeat too much of what you already shared today on your weekly update about COVID, but just a continued warning about the upcoming variant on VA5.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, President.

Thank you, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Do you want to pass it on to who is next?

I can pull up the list here.

I believe Council Member Nelson is next.

Council Member Nelson.

Hello, everyone.

Here I am in the chambers.

Let's see.

So there are no items on the agenda from the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee.

We do have our next meeting on Wednesday and that's at 9.30 and there are two items on the agenda.

The first is a discussion of draft legislation from Council Member Peterson regarding the cap on the fee that that goes to the delivery network companies.

I'm sorry, I actually thought that Council Member Peterson would come before me and do all of this explaining.

So in essence, I have invited Council Member Peterson to run this legislation through our committee because it does have everything to do with small business.

stop talking about that and just mention the second item on our agenda is a is a second discussion and possible vote on resolution 32056 adopting city lights 2023 to 2028 strategic plan update and endorsing the associated six year rate path.

So that's it for Wednesday.

And speaking of my committee, I'm very excited to announce that our office has hired a new policy director and committee clerk, Stephen Ellis.

He joins my office after five state legislative sessions staffing the Washington Senate Democratic Caucus, first as a communications specialist and then as policy counsel staffing the capital budget.

the Business, Financial Services, and Trade Committee, and the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committees.

He also has experience as an analyst, editor, and spokesperson for the Vienna, Austria-based International Press Institute, the world's oldest global press freedom organization, including three years as director of advocacy and communications.

He practiced law in Michigan after serving as a legal clerk in the Office of Executive Counsel to the governor and as driver and staffer to then Attorney General Jennifer Granholm.

And fun fact, Stephen is also a musician and was a charter member of the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic playing the bassoon.

So stop on by, say hello if you'd like.

All right, committee report from last week.

On June 28th, Jeremy from my office attended GSBA's first in-person networking event of the year at Brooks Running Shoes building in Fremont.

He was able to connect with many small businesses, including the owner of Honest Biscuit and many others, and I look forward to connecting with GSBA's membership soon.

I wasn't able to attend that because of another commitment.

On June 29th, I met with Marcos Juanles, the executive director of the Seattle Metropolitan Latino Chamber of Commerce, and he strongly expressed, and I agree, the need to get all stakeholders to the table on issues critical to business that impacts our Latino community.

So that was good to have a face-to-face with him.

And later that day, my staff and I attended a Storm game and got some FaceTime with park owner Jeanine Gilder.

And it was a real nail-biter game, I'll just say that much.

It was against number one team, the Las Vegas Aces, and great to see Sue Bird beat them in our final season.

And also it was my first event as a fan or as a participant in the Climate Pledge Arena.

And so that was great to have that experience after learning so much about the sustainability features from our tour a couple of weeks ago.

All right, on June 30th, I joined Council Member Strauss and Mayor Harrell and City Light staff on an all day Seattle City Lights Gadget Tribe Tour.

to meet and learn from elected leaders of the Swinomish tribe and the upper Skagit Indian tribe.

So first, some background.

So Seattle City Light is in the process of relicensing the Skagit River hydroelectric project, and the project is a series of three dams, Gorge, Diablo, and Ross, that provide 20% of City Light's power.

And it's licensed under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC.

The current license expires in 2025, and renewing the license also means reviewing the environmental, cultural, safety, and other impacts of the continued operation of the project.

So between 2020 and 2023, we'll collaborate with the impacted tribes and local partners to develop an application for the new license that will last for the next.

30 to 50 years, the license will include requirements around protecting the environment and culture of the watershed.

So that's the context.

And the tour included a tour of the Smokehouse Estuary Restoration Project sponsored by the Swinomish Tribe and funded in part by Seattle City Lights Habitat Restoration Program.

funded by Council last year, I believe.

After the tour, we had lunch at the tribe's Swinomish Casino, where elders talked about the importance of the river and its resources, including salmon, to the tribe's cultural, spiritual, and economic well-being.

And then the second part of the day, we headed up to the Skagit Casino and Resort, owned by the upper Skagit Indian tribe, a sovereign nation with treaty rights in the Skagit River watershed.

So basically, and we spoke of many of the same issues.

And for me, this was a relationship building trip.

We didn't get into the specifics of any negotiations.

It was just good to meet the humans with whom City Light staff have been working, but also whose lives have been impacted for generations and generations.

I've got a lot to learn about these negotiations going forward and about the past, but what's most important is establishing relationships.

But for me, that all comes from respect.

So that was a memorable and eye-opening experience for me too.

to meet people.

And I invite my colleagues and departmental staff to stop by my office because Scott Schuyler, the policy lead of the upper Skagit Indian tribe sent me an amazing and rare book, which has a wealth of information about the history of settlement there and artifacts and geology and archeology, et cetera.

So if you want to learn more, come to my office.

All right, so I just have to thank City Light staff, though, for arranging this whole meeting.

It was very eye-opening for me and also to the people who spent their time teaching us.

So on the 4th of July, I attended the Seafair Celebration at Gasworks Park.

And not only was I mesmerized by the beautiful fireworks display, but also by Tess Altaveros from the Seattle Opera, who sang the National Anthem.

That was my first time getting to be in a pretty good section for the 4th of July display at Gasworks.

On July 7 I met with leadership of the Pike Place Market to discuss recovery from the pandemic.

They really are the market Pike Place Market is a is a is a portrait of resiliency because it stayed open the whole during the whole pandemic, and that was You know, that was a lifeline for downtown residents and also anybody working downtown during the pandemic, and for the small businesses and farmers that make a living selling at the Pike Place Market.

So it was interesting to understand some of the issues that the Pike Place Market is facing right now and going forward.

So they also have done a lot to bring the market outside.

I don't know if you've been down there for a while but there are lots of outside places to eat and drink and enjoy the market.

So lots of street areas.

Anyway.

This week I'll be meeting with representatives from the Vancouver, speaking of downtowns, Vancouver Downtown Association to follow up on a tour that Jeremy went on during the Association of Washington Cities conference.

It's important for me to make relationships with folks working on economic development from other cities and learn a thing or two.

Vancouver has completely revitalized their downtown over the past few years, in large part due to a program where small businesses can dedicate their B&O taxes to the VDA, the Vancouver Downtown Association, who has reinvested those funds into the business and downtown community.

So I'm excited to learn more about that.

and report back.

And then finally, later this week, my staff will serve as an alternate to the Central Puget Sound Economic Development District Board meeting.

That's it for me today.

Are there any questions?

All right.

I know that the Los Angeles aces might be seated number one for now but how many world championships, have they won.

None.

And we've got.

Am I right?

I have no idea.

All I know is that the Seattle Storm is the most winning team in Seattle, with four championships going on five.

Looking forward to this year.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now I'll pass it along to Council Member Peterson, who can unmangle what I was saying about his draft legislation.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson, thank you President Pro Tem Strauss.

Good afternoon colleagues on tomorrow afternoon's full city council agenda, there are two items from our committee on transportation Seattle Public Utilities.

These items were recommended unanimously by our committee.

Council Bill 120358 will authorize the director of the Seattle Department of Transportation to accept specified grants totaling 3.7 million and to execute related agreements on behalf of the city.

While it technically amends the adopted budget, it remains consistent with it.

It simply adds these grants to existing appropriations for SDOT's capital projects.

The second item from our committee on tomorrow afternoon's full council agendas resolution 32055. This is the joint resolution with the mayor on Seattle's recommendations guidance suggestions regarding sound transits West Seattle Ballard link extension routes and stations.

On July 5 at our committee, we amended the resolution and the committee passed unanimously.

I'd like to thank the executive, especially Sarah Maxana, Marshall Foster and the mayor's office for their collaboration on this resolution.

Ultimately, all the decisions will be made by the 18-member Sound Transit Board that represents King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.

The system, well, the City of Seattle will continue as the most populous and most supportive linchpin for the entire transit system.

Time is money and Seattle will be asked to expedite construction approvals to make sure the entire system expansion and its massive benefits for the region happen as quickly as possible.

I'm hopeful that the thoughtful preferences on routes and stations expressed by the Seattle resolution will be helpful to Sound Transit in achieving our mutual goal of quickly expanding light rail within our city and across our region.

Our next committee on transportation in Seattle Public Utilities is scheduled for next Tuesday, July 19 at 9.30 a.m.

We tentatively schedule the following items.

Our committee will receive an update from Seattle Public Utilities on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project that will ultimately improve our environment with a nearly three mile underground system to store polluted stormwater until it can be treated.

I will have an update from our Seattle Department of Transportation on the Safe Starts program, which extended permits for restaurants and stores to use sidewalks and curb space during the economic downturn of the pandemic.

We'll consider Council Bill 120364 from SDOT.

That would add a new section of the traffic code establishing the authority to designate parking for truck tractors in the public right-of-way.

There are specific locations in South Seattle.

The fiscal note says the city is committed to helping mitigate the impacts of drainage truck overnight parking in the public right-of-way in Georgetown, South Park, Soto, and other Seattle neighborhoods near port facilities.

That's Council Bill 120364, which will be next Tuesday.

Our committee will also consider a petition from real estate developers asking the city of Seattle to vacate an alley two blocks east of the Space Needle.

This is specifically the alley currently bounded by Thomas Street and John Street and by Sixth Avenue North and Taylor Avenue North.

So that's a request coming to our committee through SDOT.

As mentioned earlier, the legislation customer Nelson was graciously letting come to her committee as to discuss in draft form for now.

Councilmember Strauss and I are co sponsoring that legislation to make permanent the 15% cap on fees that delivery corporations charged to Seattle restaurants.

That cap on delivery fees has demonstrated its importance to local restaurants as part of a civil emergency order for the past couple of years, but it will end as soon as the mayor and civil emergency unless we take action.

So the draft legislation we discussed at the economic development technology and city like committee this Wednesday morning at 930am.

Again, thank you to Chair Nelson for making room on her committee agenda.

The earliest the committee could vote on the council would be July 27th.

So this Wednesday is just a discussion of the draft bill.

Really want to thank Karina Bull on central staff for all her hard work on this, city attorney's office and Gabby Lackson on my staff.

If you have questions, contact Karina Bull or my staff or team Strauss for that bill.

A couple of highlights from district four this past week.

During our budget deliberations in November, 2021, we added a modest investment for a nonprofit to serve underserved populations after school, and then expand during the summer months at Magnuson Park, where 850 low-income neighbors reside, including 350 children.

So last week, my staff and I visited the program called Kids and Paper, and we were there with the mayor's office so we could see it in action.

And our city parks department manages the contract with kids and paper and is reporting positive results so far.

Dozens of children from various backgrounds playing games, exercising, having fun together.

This summer, 88% of the 60 children enrolled in the program, that's six zero children enrolled in the program reside in the low income housing within Magnuson Park.

The program is currently limited by how many staff they need to provide an appropriate ratio supervising the kids.

So I'm hopeful the Harrell administration will choose to continue the program and the budget proposal the executive branch submits to the city council in September.

Lastly, the annual Wedgwood Arts Festival is back in its full glory this month.

I had fun attending the community event with one of my children.

We arrived with the goal of buying a piece of art, but departed with other goodies from local artists, including handmade jewelry, clothing, and a candle that smells like winter holiday spices.

To see what you might have missed and to get early on your next summer's calendar, you can visit their website, Wedgwoodfestival.com.

And that concludes my remarks.

Any questions before I turn it over to Council Member Szilard?

Thank you.

Council Member Szilard?

Hi.

Good afternoon, thank you, Councilor Peterson.

Good afternoon, everyone.

There are no items on tomorrow's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Winter Strides Committee.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee will be this Friday, July 15th at 9.30 a.m.

At that meeting, we intend to consider and hopefully vote on the appointment of Jessen Farrell to be the Director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

She has been acting as interim director, as you all know.

My office sent her questions last week, and we have heard that she will send us answers in time to attach them to the agenda item before the committee for the public to be able to look at them.

And at Friday's committee meeting, we will also expect to vote on the confirmation of five reappointment, the Green New Deal Oversight Board, because all five are reappointments.

They are not expected to, the individuals are not expected to attend the committee meeting.

And I assume that it will be a quick agenda item.

That's it for my report.

Do council members have any questions before, I don't see anything, so I turn it over to you, Council President Pro Tem Strauss.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Swann.

Thank you colleagues, it is a pleasure to be with you since my last update here in District 6. I was able to meet with Sound Transit staff so thank you Cahill, Emily and Lita for the amount of time you spent with me, because I continue to meet with the Ballard Alliance North Seattle Industrial Association to discuss Sound Transit alignments, and the importance of locating the Ballard station no further east than 15th Avenue.

I attended a number of walking tours of Ballard along with along the proposed alignment routes to show sound transit board members the impacts.

and actually, more importantly, the effects of the alignment we'll have on pedestrian access, safety, and ridership.

In the Transportation Committee, we voted on the Sound Transit Resolution, and I advocated for the needs of Ballard and the surrounding neighborhoods with regards to station placement of the Ballard Station.

I'll continue to do so at the Sound Transit Board because they are making decisions this month regarding station alignment and placement.

I do appreciate Chair Peterson and the Transportation Committee members for their support.

of my amendment to re-examine Ballard tunnel alignments that would more directly serve the center of the Ballard hub urban village.

Because if the ultimate goal of mass transit is to accommodate more riders and connect people to where they want to go, we do need to identify the additional opportunities to better serve the anticipated ridership instead of moving the station even further away from the heart of Ballard.

And we absolutely have to prevent requiring people to cross 15th Avenue Northwest at street level.

This is the third The third busiest North-South corridor in Seattle after Interstate 5 and State Route 99. We have to make sure that our city is meeting our Vision Zero goals.

And to do so, if the station is going to be east of 15th, we do need to have a station entrance west of 15th.

Sound Transit, as I said, the board is scheduled to make decisions this month.

So a lot of my time over the last two weeks has been spent talking to community members, staff of board members, board members themselves, and the staff of Sound Transit.

In addition to this, I continue to host my regular operational meetings with members of the committee and move forward action plans at a number of different locations in the district, Leary Triangle, also a work group to address homelessness in the Ballard Industrial Area, work group to implement the 22nd Avenue plan in downtown Ballard, the Ballard case conferencing meeting with Public Safety Director Andrew Meyerberg.

Each of these meetings are operational in nature.

We don't come to discuss theories and policies.

We come to discuss who has accomplished what since our last meeting.

And for the case conferencing meetings, this includes the Public Defenders Association, Evergreen treatment services reach Seattle Attorney's Office Seattle Police Department the mayor's office in my team, and when all of us are together looking at a case of an individual and how their.

impacting the community or what their needs are, we are able to better serve them and produce results felt results for our community so as this work continues I look forward to it being felt more widely.

We did have to reschedule office hours, due to our work on sound transit and meeting with board members this week.

We've had a special Seattle City Council meeting scheduled overlapping my office hours and it's being held to address initiative 134. This meeting was scheduled over my office hours and we will again have to reschedule my meetings.

My team and I are looking at expanding office hours this month so that we are able to account for all of these rescheduling requirements.

This coming week in District 6, On Wednesday, I'll be attending the Green Lake Community Council to discuss the Green Lake Community Center, Small Craft Center, Dockside Affordable Housing Apartments Opening, and the latest on the Green Lake Outer Loop Project.

On Thursday, I'll be bringing together recreational boating and marine industry stakeholders to discuss community concerns on the waterway safety and inform our waterway safety survey that I sponsored in last year's budget.

I'll be co-hosting a district six homelessness response workshop with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and community members to evaluate the Regional Homelessness Authority service system landscape initial findings and to work to highlight the gaps and uplift the assets that our district already has.

I'm looking forward to Ballard Seafood Fest this coming weekend back in person for the first time since the pandemic.

Come on down to Ballard if you want to have some of the salmon that I'll be helping.

I don't know that I'll be cooking, but I'll definitely be schlepping the boxes of salmon.

So come on out.

It's also an honor to be an official judge of the lutefisk contest to make sure it really has that nice traditional lye taste.

And we are looking for a few volunteers for to help out behind the salmon cook.

So if you want to join in the fun, email my District 6 District Director Amy Inbusk.

Amy.

You can find her on my website.

We'd love to have you volunteer.

As well, this coming week, the Metropolitan Parks District is hosting a public hearing on Thursday.

This is your opportunity to have your voice heard regarding Green Lake Community Center and any and all projects in District 6 or citywide.

You can sign up to give public comment at the Seattle City Council's website, even though the Metropolitan Parks District is a separate entity.

Feel free to go to www.seattle.gov forward slash council forward slash committees forward slash public dash comment.

The form will be available two hours before the start of the public hearing.

Here in around City Hall since my last update, I spent, we spent time congratulating Monica Simmons on her retirement as.

our city clerk.

She has been an amazing asset and resource.

It was fun to hear all the stories, especially how she helped some of our former colleagues transition from paper notebooks into the digital world.

Monica, you are already missed and congratulations on your retirement.

I also was able to meet with the Muckleshoot Tribal Council to hear their thoughts on how the tribe and the city can work together to strengthen relationships.

As Council Member Nelson noted, I traveled with her and Mayor Harrell to the Skagit with Seattle City Light to represent the City of Seattle in government-to-government relations with leaderships from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe.

It was by far an amazing experience to get to build relationships with these incredible individuals who have been representing their communities for so long and in such a good way.

I know that the Skagit Power Relicensing Project is a tough conversation, and I'm glad and lucky to be able to be having it with these individuals.

Thank you to the senators and council members who greeted it and welcomed us.

I've also joined Council President Juarez at Seattle Channel's Council Edition.

Go check it out if you want to see more from us.

I was able to meet with the hearing examiner, Ryan Vansell, regarding the hearing examiner 2021 annual report.

You know, before the pandemic, they were overburdened with the amount of cases they had to consider compared to the amount of staff due to some of the externalities of the pandemic.

they have been able to get their caseload righted, which is good to hear.

And they are now.

possibly even considering taking on some of their contract work with other cities that they stopped in 2019 because of caseloads.

Since my last update, I also had my regular meetings with SDOC Director Simpson, Seattle City Light CEO Smith, and SDCI Director Nathan Torgelson for our regular check-in meetings.

This coming week in City Hall and around the city, I'm co-sponsoring legislation with Council Member Peterson to make the 15% cap on fees that delivery companies charge to Seattle restaurants.

I want to thank Councilmember Peterson for letting me join in in this important work.

There is currently a 15% cap on delivery fees delivery companies can charge, and this cap is connected to the COVID state of emergency.

As we continue transitioning out of the deep pandemic, this is a protection I believe we need to keep.

And so I'm looking forward to this legislation being briefed in Council Member Nelson's Economic Development Committee this Wednesday, and I look forward to seeing this through full passage.

Wednesday morning, I'll also be a panelist alongside with Council Member Mosqueda and Herbal at the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle King County's Seattle elected officials forum on the housing levy renewal and affordable housing priorities, and I'll be meeting with about food bank and other members of the Seattle Human Services Coalition to hear their thoughts on the 2023 budget priorities, as well as attending the PSRC transportation policy board regarding critical critical urban freight corridors PSRC's 2025 to 26 Federal Highway Administration Funds.

And lastly, I'll be touring the Cedar River Watershed with Seattle Public Utilities later this week.

From the Land Use Committee, there are no items from the Land Use Committee on this week's full council agenda.

There are two items for land use related items on this week's introduction and referral calendar.

Resolution 32058 related to addressing climate crisis in the comprehensive plan and the appointment of Garcia Garcia to the Equitable Development Advisory Board.

This next meeting of the Land Use Committee will be this Wednesday, July 13. There are six items on the agenda.

An appointment to the Planning Commission, a reappointment to the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board, a briefing on the Comprehensive Plan Update Scoping, briefing and discussion and possible vote on Resolution 32059, co-sponsored by Councilmember Mosqueda and myself, stating the council's intent to address climate crisis as part of the comprehensive plan update, and a discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 120313, allowing the addition of some residential development to be considered a minor amendment to a major institution master plan.

This has been heard twice in committee and briefed many times.

Lastly, we'll be receiving the quarterly tree report from Seattle Department of Construction Inspections.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

Are there any questions?

Seeing none, there is no further business before city council for council briefing.

We will now move into executive session.

If there's no further business.

Hearing no further business, we will now move into executive session is presiding officer I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session.

The purpose of executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

I expect the time of the executive session, I'm gonna set it for 4 p.m., so for 34 minutes.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

At the conclusion of this executive session, council briefing meeting will automatically be adjourned.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is scheduled for July 18th, 2022 at 2 p.m.

Thank you, colleagues.

you